A live feed of Loch terrifying families and surfers on the beach appears on the screens of the command centre. Umbrella’s are crushed. Surfboards broken. Anemobots tear apart buoys and the flags placed for safe swimming. Not that anyone would be swimming after this. 

“It seems like Loch isn’t willing to cut his losses.” Scott sounds pissed, didn’t we just escape? What is there to worry about anymore?

“After this many losses can you blame him for throwing a tantrum?” Angie laughs.

“I can blame him for choosing today of all days.” He clenches his fist and I offer him my hand to squeeze instead. Filia is more forward it seems. I should keep this.

Ziggy, Summer, Scott, even Leo seem concerned about today and I feel like I shouldn’t be relieved that it was ruined. Questions are written on Angelica’s face about what was happening and what today was meant to be. I’m not going to answer them. There are more pressing matters to deal with and I don’t want this girl knowing more about how I used to be.

“I am sorry that I cannot let you rest yet, rangers.” Fighting is better rest than school is. I was already scared but now I’ll have to explain why I skipped as well. 

“So how do we stop him?” There is no doubt that we can do it but are there tricks? Things I need to know. All that time unconscious or panicking means I don’t remember much of Loch before today.

“Loch is a scientist. Not a fighter. You will probably need to prepare in case he tries something underhanded.” 

“Maybe we could try something underhanded of our own.” Summer smiles mischievously. Not a face I’ve seen outside of her teasing me. There was something sadistic about it. “Will you be sticking around, Angelica?”

“I don’t see why not? I already came all this way.”

“That makes planning a little easier. Filia, you're the ranger expert, what do you know about her?” People remember that?

“She’s good at close range combat from what I remember. A kick boxing style. She worked really well with her Red.”

“You flatter me.”

“Scott was more interested in you two I think. I was a bigger fan of Pink.”

“I did make you act as my gold for a bit.”

“And then I stopped because she became a girl…” It was so stupid. Why did it bother me? It shouldn’t have. It would be natural for a boy not to want to play as a girl.

Stupid.

It’s all so stupid. I can’t even look at her. Wasn’t this like saying I didn’t think she was cool anymore because her gender changed. I was so immature back then. 

“You kids would have been like twelve then oh my goodness. I didn’t even know I had fans!” Embarrassed for nothing I guess.

“So, we’re going to need Angelica–” Summer plans.

“Please, call me Angie.”

“Angie for some kind of surprise attack… It’s really just how to execute it.”

“COME OUT AND FACE ME. YOU MULTICOLOURED PAINS IN MY SIDE!” The monitor shrieks. 

“He’s no Dysphorus in terms of menace.” Angie mutters.

Planning continues for the next five minutes. It’s easier to plan when you don’t have your friends' lives hanging in the balance, and you can talk to other people, and you’re not a wreck of emotions. It helps that Loch’s current plan boils down to having a tantrum at the beach. The families have cleared out by now, his Anemobots are running out of things to do. It’s a surprise he hasn’t gone back to the drawing board.

All the while Scott holds my hand and for once my heart is fine. We’re working with the others, making plans for how to sort this out and I’m still able to contribute. Maybe it’s because of earlier. Him holding my face was far more intimate, and we’ve kissed now. So of course I’m not going to freak out. 

And then I look at his stupid chiselled jaw and the goofy smile he is somehow managing while we plan an attack and that goes out the window. I must look stupid. He must look stupid. He’s smiling. We’re planning an attack and he’s smiling because we are holding hands.

“So my only job is pummeling him?” Angie smiles. It’s the kind of smile that would maybe make me feel bad for Loch.

“It’s going to be difficult. We can come up with something else.” Summer responds. “It’s just we have the combining weapon so it might be easier.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about me. I have had six years to think about what I’d do to him.”

“Wasn’t it Dysphorus who was responsible back then?” I ask.

“We already beat Dysphorus, and I am not forgiving any of them for Gender Vendor.”

“Isn’t that one of the only kinda good things they did?” Leo interrupts. This body is the result of that attack. If they hadn’t used it. I wouldn’t have gotten this body. She wouldn’t have gotten her body. 

“Yeah, and they did it to hurt people. Not just us rangers, but the entire city. Compared to running through the streets, trashing abandoned buildings, or stealing crystals and supplies,” She twirls her hair between her fingers. Has she really been thinking about this for six years? Of all the monsters she fought, this is the one that caused a vendetta? “Gender Vendor overwhelmed the hospitals for a few days, people who weren’t ready were forced out of the closet, a lot of them didn’t know why they changed.” 

But it still ended up working out didn’t it? She looks like any other woman her age. Pretty, confident, strong. Things that I’m not. That happened because she transformed. Stella, Clay, her, they’d all been in our position, dealt with a much more terrifying enemy than we have and came out fine. She doesn’t look old. If I had to guess, she was in her early twenties, we could have been in highschool at the same time. Her team might have been younger than us when they started and still they seem so much more grown up. Six years and they have their lives together.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but Loch is screaming.” Kepler says.

His ranting has become background noise while we plotted. He isn’t very intimidating when he’s already beaten. The screaming, the whining, his tantrum on a beach alone was the kind of thing that belongs in a Saturday morning cartoon.

“So?”

“He’s threatening to bomb the city, and our sensors are detecting movement from their ship.”

Astrus turns the feed up so we can hear more easily. He’s got an oversized remote that he hammers with his giant slimy fingers. His eyes were wider than they’d been when he thought he won. He can’t be serious. He stomps on it smashing it into pieces.

“--phorus and I had held off on destroying your precious city in hopes we could use your infrastructure and labour, but now you leave me no choice! Face me in battle or this entire city will go up in flames!”

Why is he so desperate? Today is only his fourth monster. Fins said that attacking like this would be pointless? What changed? How do we stop it? 

“Okay kids. Back me up when you're ready. Sort out if this changes the plan or not.” She teleports away in a twinkling gold pillar. To fight. Alone. She’s experienced. More experienced than the rest of us so she has to be fine. 

“So much for teaching you all crisis management later…” Astrus mutters. What kind of reassurance is that? “Kepler, what can you tell us about their ship? Does it have bombs to drop?”

“It’s difficult to get a read on anything. The ship is covered in plants and algae and I can’t even tell what’s powering it. I don’t know if we can risk ignoring him.”

Gold effortlessly dodges and weaves between Anemobot strikes on the big screen while Loch taunts her from behind the crowd. It doesn’t seem like she can get rid of them fast enough to get close to him. Each time she deals with one another takes its place. Is he trying to wear her down? She only just got there. 

“Do you believe I am bluffing Astrus? Is that why you sent this relic after me instead of your new team?” 

“Who are you calling a relic?” 

Angie clears the area around her with a roundhouse kick, jumps through the air with a somersault and lands in front of the twisted aquatic serpent. The monster's eyes widen as she hits him in the face. 

“I have ordered the Anemobots to drain our ship's remaining fuel into a canister that will be dropped unless your new team arrives in the next two minutes.”

“That would kill you too,” Angie says, punching him in the face again.

“I’m already dead.” He spits in her face as Anemobots try to pry her off him. “At least I’ll have a chance to win this way. Two minutes.”

Astrus frowns and everyone else follows suit. What are we meant to do? Scott taps his communicator and Gold’s wrist beeps, she taps it and swings at Loch again.

“And what’s to stop you from just dropping the bomb anyway?” Scott yells into his communicator.

“Nothing Little Red, but you will be buying time for Astrus and his pet to come up with a plan. Is that not enough?” The monster teases. 

“Then the plan hasn’t changed. We engage him together.” Scott says to us. 

If we are together it will be fine. I’ll make it fine. I nod. The others follow. 

“Good luck rangers.”

“Ay yi yi.” Kepler says, reaching for the control panel and we are all beamed to confront our nemesis.

A climactic battle like this is something that should be lit with overcast skies. Rain, and crashing waves in the distance. Not a gorgeous spring day with the sun beaming down on us. Angie’s suit glistens in the sun as she is thrown towards us by a group of anemobots. The sun reflects off of Loch’s slimy body. 

“Nice of you to join us,” he hisses. It’s a far cry from the smug satisfaction that he had when he was winning. 

“You won’t get away with this Loch.” Scott points at him. The crowd of anemobots look at him. “For the sake of everyone in Stingray Cove. You will be defeated.” 

Even while spouting lines straight out of an action movie he’s cool. I don’t know how he stays calm in this situation but it does at least keep me standing. This guy wants to date me? Me??? And if we lose this that won’t happen. So we have to win, 

“How’d you know we escaped?” I ask, drawing my bow.

“Alarms went off as soon as you teleported out. Whoever tampered with the security systems wanted me to know when you’d left.” 

“So why call us out here? Why not just wait till next time?” Summer pulls her pistols out and blasts a bot with each one.

“A plan gone wrong is easier to explain to the troops.” Loch took a kick to the face. 

“Gone wrong?” Ziggy draws their dragon shield and bashes it into a bot. “What do you mean gone wrong? We’re here aren’t we?”

“They did what you asked Loch!” Angie kicked the lizard in the legs and he fell to his knees. “What do you get out of this?” 

“Satisfaction.”

She punches him in the head and he laughs. A low hum reverberates from over the ocean.

“I’ll hold him steady, kids. Just get your weapons ready.” Angie has his face pressed against the sand. Why does she need our help?

“Can’t you just punch him?” I slot my pistols into the slots on Summer’s bow and punch an anemobot that tries to jump her.l

“Or we could take him hostage.” Leo suggests. “He might have information.”

“If you do that he might supersize himself in the middle of the base. Ask me how I know.” Angie digs her knee into Loch’s back to prevent him from laughing. 

“That was a good one,” he wheezes. The humming gets louder. “You may want to stop your weapon assembly, by the way.”

“And why should they do that?”

“The ship has been programmed to drop its payload on the city if my vital signs fail. Just something I whipped up after a certain someone threatened me.”

“What kind of plan is this?” I shout. “So what are we meant to do?”

“I will admit it’s not my best work.”

“Then why not wait?” Ziggy asks. “Are you stupid?

“How about you rangers reboard the ship and I’ll explain?”

“Oh he’s lost it. That explains a lot.” Angelica pulls her knee off him and jumps back. “I need Roo power, now!” The ground shakes as her golden mech rises from the ocean, covered in moss and algae, it drowns out the low thrum from the ocean and looks out over the ocean. She leaps into the air, and her voice crackles through the speakers in our helmets. “Their ship is on it’s way.

“We aren’t just going to hand the planet over to you!” I’d dodged his trap, been lured in, escaped and he wants me to just go to him now? I’m sick of being captured. I’m not going to let it happen. I pull my bow string back. The others have taken their weapons off, but this would be enough to hurt him. “Turn it off now.”

“Can’t, Pinkie. If I can, so can he.”

“Who can?”

“I believe he’s talking about me.” A husky voice says, a light flashes behind the wounded serpentine leader and he’s ripped from the sand by a large clawed hand. Fins protrude from the woman's forearms and her biceps rival even Scott’s. She’s definitely taller than him. The remnants of a labcoat did very little to cover up her chest and abs. A pointed head, razor sharp teeth, and short pixie cut hair sat on top of her broad swimmer shoulders. More human than she’d once been but still obviously alien.

 “It’s good to see you had something up your sleeve, pup.” Fins says with a toothy grin.