Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Ninja Steel.

The new Ninja Ops was a blast. Not literally, of course, but the Rangers all loved it. Mick and RedBot enjoyed having a space to work in again where they could be close to the team. While the Romero workshop was a great place to work, the Rangers didn't often hang out there. After training, they liked to head back into the city so that they were all a little bit closer to home. In the paint room, they had always been worried about someone accidentally walking in. While they had taken precautions with secret entrances, it just took someone being a little too nosey.

Preston also liked the isolation. He could practice real magic without raising any eyebrows and having to answer difficult questions. Not to mention, the Ninja Ops wasn't just a base, but a shelter. If a trick went a little awry, he didn't have to worry about destroying the base.

Calvin liked the video games. He and Brody would often come to Ninja Ops just to play together. Levi would watch, sometimes he would participate, but most often, he would sit on the couch and use the downtime to start writing songs. When he had told his fans that he would be leaving on an indefinite hiatus, he had promised to return with a lot of new material. While there was already plenty that he had done for a second album, and maybe even a third, Levi liked writing whenever inspiration hit.

Hayley liked that she had a place to hang out with her friends, but also somewhere she could get her homework done. Her father had recently found an apartment so she, Kelly and he could move into it. As a result, there was a lot of packing and he was busy ensuring that the moving day would flow smoothly. Hayley helped where she could, but her grades had already taken quite the hit recently due to all the distractions with losing her mother, Kelly's wheelchair and Sarah's injuries. She wanted to spend more time on homework than packing.

In one of the backrooms, Sarah was unpacking a bag. While for most of the Rangers, Ninja Ops was just a base, Sarah had treated it like home. After her mother's death, she hated being in her house. She hated the reminder that both her parents were gone. She hated coming home and not seeing her mother, going to bed without saying goodnight, leaving for school without one of her breakfasts… her house felt so empty.

Shane was still working on finding an apartment. He wanted to stay in Sarah's school district, so she could finish her senior year and stay close to her friends, but he also wanted to be close enough to Blue Bay Harbour so he wouldn't have a crazy commute. While Cam had assured him he could take more time off if he needed it, Shane felt he was ready to go back to work. It would give him something to do during the day to keep his mind off his sister. While they had long since moved away from each other, Shane had always been close with Jenny. He would always miss her, but going back to his regular job, and his regular life, he knew he would naturally start to think of her less, since that was a part of his life that was separate from her. It would be the break he needed from the grief to continue functioning.

If he was honest, he didn't like that Sarah had decided to live away from home. She did come back, often for dinner, to check in with him, and he would head to Ninja Ops at least every other day to make sure she and the Rangers were doing well. Jenny had trusted him to look after Sarah and he didn't think he could do that from afar. However, he knew why Sarah had made the decision and he did trust her. She was seventeen and far smarter than he was at her age. She would be okay on her own. Though he called himself a father, he knew he wasn't her father. Her parents were gone. He was just her guardian. As long as she kept him in the loop for big, life changing decisions, and came to him when she needed advice, guidance, or just for comfort, he knew it would be alright.

Kelly was in Ninja Ops with Sarah, helping to decorate the room. There were two beds in this room, two in the second room, and one in the third, with a charging station for RedBot. The Rangers didn't plan on staying the night often enough to need beds, but their predecessors had assured them that after a late fight, or after a good ass-kicking, it would feel better to rest up in Ninja Ops in a good bed, then make the journey back home.

"When Shane moves, though, you'll go with him, right?" Kelly asked as she tried to make sense of the living arrangements. She had been kicked out of her home once, and even though it had never been the ideal place to live, it had been a nightmare to be forced to leave.

"I'll have a room with him," Sarah nodded. "But… I don't know. It won't be too long before senior year is over. Hopefully we'll have stopped Oedius by then. You and I will probably hang out most of the time over the summer and then…"

"College," Kelly said. "Have you applied anywhere?"

"A few places," Sarah nodded. "Some have given me early acceptance…"

"Right," Kelly chuckled. "Because you're so smart."

"You're smart too, Kel," Sarah said. "Have you applied?"

"A few places. Mostly around here, though. You've probably applied to the big universities around the country…"

"More local," Sarah shook her head. She sat down on the bed. Kelly looked to her with a frown.

"I thought you wanted to be an engineer."

"Summer Cove College has a pretty good engineering program."

"Not as good as MIT."

"No, but… it'll give me what I want. And I can stay close to here. Close to the guys… to you."

"Nahuh," Kelly crossed her arms over her chest. "We are not going to be that couple who make big life decisions around each other when we're still just kids."

"You want long distance?"

"Only because we're also not going to be that couple who let distance ruin their relationship," Kelly told her. "I'm confident we can make it. I can go visit, you can come back home. There's skype and who knows what you'll come up with to keep in touch."

"You really do think highly of me, don't you?" Sarah chuckled. Kelly pointed to her chair.

"Hey, this thing hovers now thanks to you. Look, I'm not saying you have to go to MIT or whatever, but… don't stay here just for me. You had dreams long before we met and I want you to live them. We'll be okay."

"How about we figure that out when the times comes?" Sarah suggested and pulled Kelly in closer. "Maybe you and I can…"

She was interrupted as the alarm went off. She and Kelly both sighed just as Calvin came into the room, covering his eyes.

"Whatever you two have been up to in here is going to have to wait. It's not Oedius, but it's something ugly."

"Sounds like Oedius," Kelly chuckled to Sarah.

"Are you two ready?" Calvin asked and lowered his hand from his face to be serious. "You can sit this one out if…"

"I haven't been training for nothing," Kelly shook her head. "This thing flies, my Ranger suit is adapted to my new abilities. I want to test them out."

"Sarah?" Calvin turned to her.

"I feel fine."

"No more knocking noggins," Calvin warned her. "You threaten us with one more brain injury, and I'll shut that muscle down myself."

"Organ," Sarah corrected him. "Technically speaking, the brain is an organ, but it can be trained to improve like a muscle so…"

"Yeah, you're fine for duty," Calvin said and waved them on. "Come on!"