The moment Rocky heard the beep from his wrist, he froze in place. It was getting to be morning, and they had been searching the park, just in case. As he brought the communicator to his wrist, Tommy and Jason both came jogging up.

"Did you find something?" he asked before Zordon could even get a word out.

"Indeed," came Zordon's voice through the communicator, and Jason and Tommy both shared a look of relief. And, just in case, they both put a hand on Rocky's shoulders. Whether he'd pass out or freak or whatever, they just wanted to be prepared. "Billy and Alpha have traced Adam's location to the waterfront warehouses. Meet Tanya and Katherine there; Billy has given them a device to help track Adam's position in real time. And Rangers, be careful. Prince Gasket has deployed a number of forces to the location."

"We're on our way," Rocky said.

Tommy stepped to the front of the group, bringing his Zeonizers together in front of him. "It's morphin' time!"

Just as Zordon had said, Kat and Tanya were waiting for them when they arrived at the warehouses. They, too, were already morphed, and as they gathered, Tommy was already giving instructions.

"Don't fight unless you have to," he said. "We need to get Adam out before anything else, so let's focus on finding him."

Rocky, for one, was all too happy to go along with that plan, and so were the others. Nodding, they all started quietly towards the warehouse, following the tracker Tanya held in her gloved hands.

They didn't really need to have had the tracker, though. They got within a few dozen yards of the signal, and found a group of cogs disappearing into a run-down old warehouse. The thing looked about one huff or puff away from having its house blown down, but that wasn't what they were paying attention to.

"There's something weird going on with this tracker," Tanya announced as they crouched behind a stack of crates in front of the warehouse.

"What is it?" Jason asked, peering over her shoulder at the handheld screen.

Instead of Tanya, Kat was the one answering. "The dot...it's still moving. But we've stopped!" she whispered.

Sure enough, she was right. Slowly, steadily, the dot was moving closer to their position, and the distance counter was getting lower and lower. "Do you think they're moving him?" Tanya asked.

Tommy shook his head. "It's moving too slow for that. But look, it's coming around the back side of the warehouse. We should be able to see here in a-"

"No way..." Jason whispered. He was peering around the side of the crates, and though his helmet obscured where his eyes were really focusing, Rocky followed his gaze.

His response was a lot less subdued. "Adam!" he exclaimed. After at least having the sense to look around to make sure the coast was clear, he bolted before any of the others could say anything. Of course, they weren't far behind him.

Adam was just passing the corner of the warehouse when Rocky started towards him. Moving a lot slower than he would've liked because of his leg and his splitting headache, he was having to devote all his focus to putting one foot in front of the other. It was only when he heard his name, and the familiar voice that shouted it, that he looked up.

He could've collapsed right then out of relief. A wall of colors, barely visible in the night, were coming towards him, headed by a figure in blue. They were moving a lot faster than he was, and reached him before he made it halfway to the boxes they'd just appeared from behind.

The moment he got close enough to put his arms around Adam, that's exactly what he did. He put his arms around his narrow shoulders and pulled him into a hug, reveling in the feel of having him again. It was only when he heard Adam suck in a harsh breath through his teeth that he forced himself to release him.

That was right about when the others reached them. "Adam, we're so glad you're okay," Kat said, and she was. She'd been so worried about her younger friend, especially after he'd saved her and Tanya.

In return, she got one of Adam's winning grins. The Korean opened his mouth to say something, but Jason beat him to it.

"We should get out of here," he said.

"Yeah," Tommy said. "We'll need to teleport back to the Command Center. We should take cover behind those crates over there first, though; we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

As they started to walk, though, Rocky noticed something was wrong. Adam was limping, and heavily, but that grin was still on his face.

"Adam…?" he started anxiously, reaching out a hand to steady his boyfriend.

"I told them," Adam said, and he was looking straight at Rocky. "I knew you'd come." And just like that, with his next step, Adam dropped like a rock.

Thankfully, Rocky managed to catch him in time, hooking an arm behind his shoulders and turning him over to find that Adam was apparently out cold. Panic lanced through his veins as he started to notice things he'd missed earlier: the cuts all over Adam's body, the coppery-brown stains on his otherwise green t-shirt, and the rapidly-swelling gash over his right eye.

"Rocky, we need to go," Jason said quickly. He was worried, too, but this wasn't the place to deal with it. Rocky seemed to understand that, too, and hooking an arm under Adam's knees, he lifted his smaller boyfriend up into a bridal carry. He was so light…Rocky was able to sprint over behind the boxes, where the others were waiting to teleport. Multi-colored light flashed, and the Rangers disappeared.

The moment they arrived in the Command Center, Rocky was moving. He made a bee-line straight for the medical table, and as gently as he could, he lowered his still-unconscious boyfriend onto it while Tommy told Alpha and Billy they were needed.

"Help me get his t-shirt off," Rocky called to Jason, and the other teen hurried over to the other side of the table. Rocky helped lift Adam's torso up while Jason pulled the t-shirt up over his head. The moment it was up, Jason winced sympathetically; Rocky wasn't far behind. There were scrapes all over Adam's back, some deeper than others, bruises littered his torso. The most color was concentrated around his chest, mostly on his right side, and Rocky was immediately worried that something might be broken. Still, the worst were the three parallel cuts that stretched from his left shoulder all the way down to the bottom of the bruise mass on his right ribs; the way the edges were angry and red and dark, it looked almost like he'd been burned.

Right as Rocky was lowering Adam back to the green surface of the medical table, Billy slid in beside Jason by the bedside monitors. "You need to attach the electrodes so we can start getting his vitals," Billy said, and Jason nodded, fishing the bundle of wires and sticky nodes out from one of the table's refrigerated drawers. Tommy came over to help, and the three teens set to work while Kat and Tanya helped Alpha by the control panel.

He was cold. He didn't know why, but he was cold, and every few seconds, a new jolt of iciness would spark from a new spot on his chest. Each jolt was accompanied by a pressure, which would sometimes – when the pressure was in a particularly sensitive spot – send pain shooting through the area. And people were talking. They were all around him, and he could feel tendrils of something, like wires, stretching across his skin.

Wires. Machines. The machines had him. He thought he'd escaped, but they'd captured him again!

Tommy, Rocky, and Jason were almost done attaching the electrodes, but suddenly, a gasp sounded and made them all freeze. In an instant, Adam was sitting up, reaching for the wires they'd so painstakingly placed.

Instinctively, Rocky reached across to his un-injured shoulder while Jason and Tommy each grabbed a hand to hold in place. "Hey, hey, easy," Tommy said soothingly. The electrodes they'd already attached were sending signals to the monitors at the table, and his heartbeat had skyrocketed.

It wasn't until Rocky spoke that Adam seemed to snap out of it. "Shh, Ads, it's okay," he told him as Adam tugged uselessly at his captive arms. "We've got you, now. You're safe." After a few blinks, Adam relaxed a little. His heart was still pounding, but he wasn't struggling anymore. "There you go, bro. Just lay back and take it easy, okay?"

It was the tenderness in his voice more than anything that had Adam nodding slowly, and the younger teen allowed Rocky to ease him back onto the medical table. He suddenly realized why he was so cold; he was in the Command Center, lying there shirtless and in the most unsubstantial shorts he owned.

But that…didn't make sense. Last thing he remembered, he was walking barefoot through the waterfront. He'd just escaped, and…and…God, his head hurt. He couldn't think straight. "Rocky," he started, "where…how?"

In any other situation, Rocky would've thought the dazed look on Adam's face was adorable. As it was, though, he just felt more sympathetic as he brushed his hands through Adam's sweat-dampened, dirt-dusted hair. "You got all impatient on us and broke yourself out. We found you, and brought you here." As he spoke, he made sure to avoid the knot and the gash running alongside Adam's temple just over his eye, and was relieved to see the gesture seemed to relax Adam a little.

Or, at least, it did, until Jason picked up where he'd left off with the diodes. There were only three left, but when he placed the first, Adam jumped like he'd been shot.

"Sorry, man, did I hurt you?" Jason asked. With the number of bruises all over him, it was hard to avoid putting the electrodes on top of them.

Adam shook his head, but promptly decided that didn't do good things for his head. Swallowing, he said instead, "Cold," and decided that was a satisfactory answer. Cold or not, though, he sat still while Jason finished sticking on the last two.

"All right, Billy, he's all hooked up," Tommy said.

Raising a curious eyebrow – not the one that was split and bruised – Adam started to try to sit up. "All hooked up?" he asked, doing his best to push himself up onto his elbows. It would've been a success, but Rocky and Jason had other ideas. They each grabbed an elbow and pulled them out to his sides, using them to lower him back down to the medical table.

"Just lie still for a bit, okay?" Rocky told him. "You need to let Alpha have a look at you."

He knew that. Really, even despite the fog that continued to cling stubbornly to his mind, he knew that he probably needed to be looked after for a while. He didn't want it, though. He didn't want to be the center of attention, he didn't want to be "all hooked up" and he most certainly didn't want to be poked and prodded while Alpha patched him up. No, he wanted to go home with Rocky and sleep for a decade and pretend this had never happened.

"I know, babe, but you're in pretty bad shape right now," Rocky said gently, brushing some stray strands of hair out of Adam's face. "Just let Alpha take care of you, and then I'll take you home and you can sleep as long as you want."

Oh. He'd said all that out loud.

"Yeah, you did," Jason told him.

And he'd done it again.

"Afraid so," Billy said from somewhere near his feet.

Adam tried and failed to keep back a pout. It wasn't his fault his brain-to-mouth filter was off; he was just so tired. "My head hurts," he muttered, reaching up to feel the side of his head.

To his dismay, though, his hand was intercepted. "Believe me when I say you don't want to be touching that," Rocky told him. "That's a heck of a goose egg."

Adam chuckled despite himself. "I believe you," he said. "Main Drain, he—" he paused to yawn, "—he hit me after I laughed at Gasket. It was worth it, though." He yawned again, and suddenly decided that wasn't right. He shouldn't be getting so tired... "Rocky?" he asked, and found even in the short time that had passed, his tongue seemed to have grown heavier. "Tired…why?"

Only, it wasn't Rocky that answered. "It's the stasis generator," Billy explained to him, but he sounded far away. "It's a lot like falling asleep."

At that, Adam frowned. "Don't wanna pass out again," he said, trying hard to keep from slurring. He'd passed out twice already, and two times was plenty, thanks.

Rocky smiled sympathetically. "Think of it like taking a nap, then," he suggested.

That didn't sound so bad, actually. He was so tired, and come to think of it, it'd be nice not to be awake while Alpha was doing his thing.

Not that he got a chance to explain all that, because before he could even open his mouth again, the world went black.