Kali paused as she entered the loft, rolling her swords between her hands. "Uh, I thought training was at three?" she asked, glancing at Casey. He too was standing on the edge of the basketball court watching Theo, RJ, and Lily train with one another.

"It was," said Casey.

"But RJ changed it to two," said Theo, ducking a kick from Lily. "What are you guys waiting for? An invitation. Get in here."

Kali furrowed her brow. "But, why would RJ change the time when Casey is the leader?" she asked.

"The restaurant was quiet," said Lily. "We got a head start."

"I get that. But, RJ, you're not the leader of the team," said Kali, pointing at Casey. "He is. Shouldn't it be his choice when training starts?"

RJ paused in his sparring. "I didn't mean to step on any toes," he said, holding out his hands. "Sorry, Case. Kali's right, you're the leader. What do you propose we do?"

Casey hesitated. He glanced at Kali, and she nodded, urging him to take the lead. "Uh, well, I thought maybe we could do some weapons training," he said.

"Sounds great. Let's see if you can all -" Kali broke off as Theo interrupted.

"We already did weapons training," Theo said. "We started with it, which you would've known if you had been here at two."

"No one told us training had been changed," said Kali, "and like I said. It's not RJ's place to over step a Red Ranger's position. You of all people should understand a hierarchy, Theo!"

Theo shrank back, but his glare was fierce.

"Well, um…" Casey floundered. He hadn't come up for a second part of training and was just planning on going with the flow; but now RJ had interrupted that flow with an agenda of his own.

"How about some one-on-one sparring?" RJ suggested. "Obviously, three of us will have to team up. But it'll be a good exercise for working as a team and dealing with shifting alliances."

Kali glanced at Casey. "Do you want to do that?" she asked.

Casey shrugged. "Sure. Why not?" he asked.

"Great!" RJ grinned.

~X~

Theo struggled as Kali held him in a headlock. Normally, he was able to get out of whatever hold his team mates had him in, but Kali was a lot stronger and a lot more experienced that Casey or Lily.

"Hold on, Theo!" RJ called, rushing at the pair. He raised a hand to strike Kali, but she raised her left arm, still holding Theo with her right, and blocked the Wolf Master.

Kali pressed the palm of her hand into RJ's chest and blasted him backwards with a shield.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Theo said, struggling from Kali's grasp at last and rounding on her. "We're supposed to be doing close contact training. Not magic."

Kali shrugged. "You should've been more specific when you said we were sparring with one another," she said. "Magic is a part of my technique. Besides, sometimes I have no control over it, at least that one was controlled. RJ could've got real hurt otherwise."

"You'd have liked that, wouldn't you"? Theo accused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kali snarled, her eyes narrowing as her fists clenched tightly.

The others stopped what they were doing and hurried over. Lily pushed against Theo's shoulders, shoving him back and away from Kali, while Casey stood between them. He met Kali's gaze and held up his hands.

"He doesn't mean anything," said Casey, trying to calm the situation.

"Then why did he say it?" Kali snapped. "Come on, Theo, don't chicken out now. Tell me what you meant."

Theo shrugged Lily off. "You're acting all high and mighty, you have done since you arrived here. Just because you're the Hellhound doesn't mean you know better than the rest of us, and to be quite frank, it doesn't make you better than us, either," he said.

"When have I ever thought or acted like I was better?" Kali growled.

Theo pointed to the opposite side of the court and raised his voice to a higher octave, trying to mimic Kali's. "RJ, you're not team leader, you have no right changing a command that Casey gives us," he said.

"One, I don't sound like that, and 2, I didn't say that," said Kali. "But, the implication is right. RJ isn't the Red Ranger; he doesn't give orders. He follows them."

"Like you always follow orders," Theo scoffed.

"I'm a veteran and a guardian," Kali argued. "I'm not overtaking Casey's position by changing his training times."

"You literally order us around in battle. You guys take him, I got these clowns. Or, even, you guys take the Shadow Guards, I got Dai Shi. That's giving orders when you aren't Red Ranger."

"And Casey was will within is right to tell me to stand down!" Kali said. "He did. What I give are suggestions, Theo, not orders. If Casey told me to stand down, I would, but, fact of the matter is, regardless of being a Red Ranger or even a Master, in RJ's case, I outrank every single one of you here by being the Hellhound. If anything, you all fall under my command."

Theo scoffed. "Yeah, right," he said.

RJ cleared his throat.

Theo, Casey, and Lily turned to him their eyes wide.

"Seriously?" Theo asked, stunned.

"She's the first and last Defence of the Mystic Realm," said RJ. "So, yeah, technically, she does outrank even a Pai Zhuq master."

Kali smirked at Theo. "Just be lucky I don't pull rank all the time," she said.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Lily sighed in relief as the alarm blared from the monitors. For once in her life, she was glad that the Rinshi was attacking, it gave her and the others an excuse to put this argument behind them.

"Looks like it's time for some on the job training," said RJ.

~X~

Two Rinshi soldiers marched shoulder-to-shoulder through the streets of downtown Ocean Bluff. Their laughter as civilians ran, terrified from them, filled the air, and only stopped as they spotted the multi-coloured annoyances that they had been warned about, running towards them.

"Wow, these are the guys we're dealing with?" Casey asked.

"Be careful," said Kali, stopping short of the two. "I can sense powerful dark magic coming from them. They may be too hard for us to handle alone. Can I offer a suggestion?" she turned to Casey, purposely turning her whole body so that she could face him, and Theo.

Casey nodded.

"We take our shifting alliance training and put it into practice," said Kali. "Casey, you me and Lily take one soldier. Theo and RJ take the other."

Casey nodded. "Alright. Let's do it!" he said. "Come on, guys!"

Lily nodded and followed Casey and Kali forward, leaving Theo and RJ behind.

As predicted, the guards were strong and no matter how many attacks - with or without weapons - they threw at them nothing worked.

Casey groaned as he was pulled over the guard's shoulder and thrown into Kali and Lily, both of whom were already on the ground. "Sorry, sorry," he apologised, rolling off of them as quickly as he landed.

"You weren't kidding when you said they were strong," said Lily. She whimpered as Theo collided with her, followed closely by RJ.

"Now what do we do?" Theo asked. He glanced at Kali, normally around this time she would jump up and hit the Rinshi with a Darkness Wave, only, she didn't move. She just shrugged.

"Oh, so now you want me to take the lead?" Kali asked. "Well, guess what, Theo, after you're little outburst at the loft, I don't feel like giving orders. Casey, you're team leader, what do we do now?"

Even with a visor, Kali could feel Theo's hard glare on the side of her head. She ignored him. She knew she was being petty, but right at this moment she didn't give a damn. Let the Jaguar learn his lesson, even if he had to get hurt in the process. He'd learn.

"Case, what should we do?" Lily asked.

"Uh, we should.. Um…" Casey stammered. It was almost like he had frozen in hesitation. Unsure of how to lead his own team anymore. Between RJ overstepping his place, and Theo accusing Kali of overstepping, he wasn't sure where he stood anymore within the ranks.

"What?" Theo prompted.

"We should what?" asked Lily, desperately.

"We should…"

RJ pushed himself up. "Let's attack in sync," he said. "Theo, go left. Lily, go right. Casey, from the front. Kali, you get behind them, and I'll do an aerial attack. Go!"

While Theo, Lily, and RJ launched themselves into battle, Casey threw out his hand and called for them to wait. He wasn't entirely sure that this plan was fool proof, and he didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt.

Disappearing in a flicker of magic, Kali reappeared behind the guards and took a running leap. She summoned her swords, raised them above her head and slashed down as she landed, striking the tips of her swords into the ground.

There was a loud roar as the ground shook then split in two, right down the middle of the street. Theo and Lily dodged to their respective sides, while RJ fired his wolf beam from his morpher. The beam hit both the soldiers in the chest, causing them to explode.

"Casey, look out!" Lily yelled.

Kali gasped and tugged her swords from the ground, sealing the gap inches away from Casey. "Are you okay?" she asked, jogging over to him. She pulled him back to his feet and then glanced behind her - the soldiers were gone, her team was safe, and RJ, much to her annoyance, was celebrating.

Had he not realised that Casey was in immediate danger? Or didn't he seem to care? She banished the second thought from her mind, RJ cared a great deal for his cubs, and wouldn't see any of them hurt, so maybe he hadn't realised how much danger Casey had been in.

~X~

Casey huffed as he retrieved the basketball from the edge of the court and returned to the centre. He squared his shoulders, parted his feet so that they were in line with his shoulders and then threw the ball at the net.

Another miss.

"Come on!" Casey growled. His head hung low and went to retrieve the ball for a second time.

Leaning against the hand rail at the top of the stairs, Kali cocked an eye as Casey lined up the shot for a third time. She couldn't deny his resilience or determination to the cause, but no matter how much concentration he put into it the ball just wouldn't go into the net.

"I don't get it!" Casey whined. "Why won't you go in?"

"It's because you're focus is off," said Kali, making herself known. She couldn't help but smile as Casey jumped. "You can stare at the net all day and keep throwing the ball, it's not going to go in if you aren't focused on your task." She held her hand out for the ball.

Casey passed it over, his jaw dropping as, without looking, Kali tossed the ball over her head and dunked it in the basket. "How did you -?" he trailed.

"I'm focusing on the ball and the basket," said Kali. "Nothing else."

"So am I," Casey protested. "Ball," he retrieved the black and orange sphere from the court, "basket - damn it!"

The ball had missed again.

Bouncing the ball up into her hands, Kali tossed it at the basket again. Two points to the Hellhound.

Casey huffed in annoyance. "You weren't here when we first arrived in Ocean Bluff," he said. "You joined the team a day later, so you don't know everything I had to go through leading up to that moment."

"I remember RJ was teaching you moves by getting you to wash his yoga mat and fix his chair," said Kali.

"Yeah. Buffalord's power was fixed in his centre of gravity, I had to get low to stop him."

Kali smiled. "You handled that magnificently," she said. "I'm failing to see your point."

"I was just a cub then," said Casey. "I hadn't been at Pai Zhuq more than a week and already I was being chosen as a guardian. I hadn't even mastered handing out towels."

Kali furrowed her brow. "How do you master giving out towels?" she asked.

Casey shrugged. He wasn't sure why it was important, but it was. "Anyway, when I came here I was the Omega of the pack given the powers of an Alpha. I wasn't ready, and RJ had to help me gain confidence in myself because I knew the others didn't have confidence in me. Lily, maybe, but Theo, definitely not."

"Theo is a control freak that doesn't have confidence in anyone but himself," said Kali.

"But I worked hard," Casey added, driving the conversation onwards. "RJ helped me become Team Leader, and now he's a Ranger and is taking over, I feel like a cub again."

He threw the ball and missed for a fifth time.

"What you need to remember, Case, is that the Tiger leads this team not the Wolf, and not the Hellhound."

"Sometimes I feel you would be a better fit," said Casey. "You've been a Ranger twice before, and you're a guardian. You've seen and done things I can only imagine."

Kali shook her head. "Let me let you in on a little secret - there is no I in team, and in order for one to be a leader, one must also know how to be a follower. Remember the story of how Xander and I had a falling out in the Cimmerian forest?"

Casey nodded.

"That's because he got so high on his horse that he forgot that he was part of a team," said Kali. "He led us into trouble because he was too proud to ask for help. You know, I will never admit this to Theo, and if you mention it, I will kill you."

Casey gulped.

"But Theo was right this morning, I do tend to take over, but I also know when to stand down," said Kali. "I can be both a follower and a leader, Casey, and RJ is the same. The question is, can you?"

Casey hesitated. He wanted to say yes, but he had got so used to leading the team, he wasn't sure anymore.

~X~

"How is he?" RJ asked Kali as the two crossed paths in and out of the kitchen.

"He feels like a cub again," said Kali, honestly. "He works his tail off to be where he is today, and now you've come in and taken over. So, I'll tell you what I told him - the Tiger leads this team, not the wolf, and not the Hellhound. No matter how much experience you and I have, we have to remember that this is Casey's team."

RJ sighed. "I guess I did get a little over excited," he admitted.

"Maybe you should tell him that?"

RJ glanced upstairs then hesitated. He desperately wanted Casey to know that he wasn't taking over as leader, but he also couldn't bear to face the tiger cub, and possibly make things worse.

"Are you two going to stand there all day?" Rylie asked, interrupting the silent conundrum. "Like, I don't care if you do, but we have hungry customers."

RJ and Kali jumped and stepped aside - Kali into the parlour and RJ into the kitchen.

"Whatever you decide to do," said Kali, leaning through the kitchen window. "Do it before Dai Shi sends more of the soldiers into the city. We need this team at full strength if we hope to destroy them."

RJ nodded and Kali withdrew her head. She picked up a slice of abandoned pizza from the front counter and bit into it as she approached the door, almost crashing into Fran as she returned from serving outside.

"Oh, are you leaving?" Fran asked, holding the door.

"I'll be back later," said Kali. "Why, is everything okay?"

Fran nodded. "Yeah. I just got a new idea for a pizza topping, I'm gonna go run it past RJ now," she said, excitedly. "Ooh, there is one thing I need but I don't have time to get it. Could you -?"

"What is it?"

"Pizza dough. We need it for the evening rush."

Kali pretended to salute. "I accept the responsibility of this mission, ma'am," she said.

Fran giggled.

Kali smiled, winked, and headed outside. She approached her bike, kicked her leg over the side and, while in the middle of pulling on her gloves and helmet, glanced up at the loft windows above the parlour. Casey stood, looking out. He looked sombre, and Kali sighed as she met his gaze.

Then Casey turned, as if something had caught his attention back in the loft. He was then gone.

Oh, Casey, Kali thought.

~X~

While she had been out shopping, Kali had received a distress call from Lily asking for help. Using her magic, she had sent both the dough and her bike back to JKP, and then teleported to where she believed the others would be. Her abilities to teleport had grown a lot in two years, and while before she needed to have seen the place she was heading too, now she could do it by locking onto dark magic.

She arrived, just as a third guard appeared alongside the two that were already kicking Lily and Theo around. "Hey!" she yelled, racing forward and jumping over the two cubs, two guards, and swinging her foot around, planting it directly into the stomach of the third guard.

Both Kali and the Rinshi blew backwards. With Kali pushing herself backward, off the Guard's chest and flipping over in mid-air. She landed and slid her sunglasses onto her face - "Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!" she called, morphin' with a surge of power.

The guard raised its staff above its head and slashed downwards. Kali raised her arm, her sword appearing in her hand and blocking the downward strike. She hissed at the vibration that ricocheted up the blade but absorbed the energy behind it as it reached her palm.

"How does this feel!" Kali said, thrusting her hand out and pressing the palm flat against the guards' chest. It exploded backwards, a blackened print blooming to life on its armour from where Kali's hand had touched him.

As the guard disappeared beneath a pile of rubble, Kali turned to look for her teammates. They weren't fairing all that well, but before she could assist them, the guard she believed she had destroyed returned, blasting pieces of debris into the air.

Kali raised her shield in an attempt to block herself from the raining stones, but it did very little as several boulders followed and, in a state of panic, Kali's shield shattered.

Leaping forward, the guard swung his spear around and struck Kali in the side. He lifted her off of her feet and threw her backward, causing her to demorph as she hit the ground. Seconds later, Theo and Lily joined her.

"We're not doing so well," Lily coughed, clutching her stomach.

"What do we do?" Theo asked

"Kali?"

Kali winced as he pushed herself into a sitting position. "Where's Casey and RJ?" she asked.

"RJ said they would catch up," said Theo.

"Now is not the time for a little one-on-one bonding," said Kali, reaching for her morpher. Before she could activate the connection, though, the sound of fast approaching footsteps caught her attention and she turned to find the two Rangers in question approaching from the East.

Now standing completely over the fallen Rangers, the three guards raised their staffs, swords, and spears into the air. "You are defeated!" they all echoed.

"No!" Kali said, raising her arm, but before she could call on her shield Casey run directly in front of her, caught a destroyed satellite dish that RJ had tossed him and deflected the blast back.

The guards howled as they were thrown into the air.

Still injured, but glad to see their leader, Kali, Theo, and Lily struggled to their feet.

"Thanks, Case," said Theo, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

Kali looked from RJ to Casey as the Wolf Master joined them. "I take it from that little display that you two worked out your differences?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," said Casey, smiling.

RJ returned it.

"Great. So, maybe now we can destroy these three without putting each other in danger," Kali suggested.

RJ and Casey shared a look and then nodded. The four stood, shoulder-to-shoulder, each one reaching for the respective morphers.

"Ready?!"

"Ready!"

"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!"

"With the Strength of the Tiger, Jungle Fury Red Ranger!"

"With the Stealth of the Jaguar, Jungle Fury Blue Ranger!"

"With the Speed of the Cheetah, Jungle Fury Yellow Ranger!"

"With the Fury of the Hellhound, Jungle Fury Black Ranger!"

"With the Courage of the Wolf, Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger!"

"Spirits of the Jungle! Power Rangers, Jungle Fury!"

As the others broke off into pairs, Kali rushed at the guard she had been fighting before. She ducked under the swing of his spear, and rolled back to one knee, raising one of her swords above her head as the guard turned swiftly and struck down with his spear.

Kali pushed up, as hard as she could, forcing all of her power and strength into it and managed to shove the guard backward, at least long enough to stand and cross her hand mid-way across her chest, her fingers curling around the master's claw.

"Jungle Master Mode!" Kali called. She felt a surge of power as she morphed to the next level, adorning the symbol of her chimera spirit instead of the Hellhound. She took a running leap, activated the jets on either side of her stomach and hovered over the Guard. The jets deactivated and she dropped, dragging her master's claw down the centre of his chest.

The guard staggered back into the other two, each one regaining its footing and squaring off against the Rangers as they gathered together, one last time.

"Let's finish this," said Casey. "RJ, we'll fire the Claw Canon, and you boost it with your wolf beam."

RJ thought for a split second and then nodded. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed.

Casey turned to the others. "Ready?" he asked.

They each nodded in sync.

"Claw Cannon!" they called.

Theo and Lily fell to one knee before Casey, the Cannon resting on their shoulders, as Kali took her position to the right of Casey, her arm reaching over his shoulder and hovering above the top of the cannon.

"Claw Cannon charged!"

"Powered by Animal Spirits!"

"Wolf Beam, charged!"

Casey pushed forward on the Cannon handle and a ball of hot energy burst out of the tip. It spiraled towards the guards, soon joined by a purple ball of equally hot wolf energy. The two beams swarmed around one another, before colliding with the three guards, ripping them to shreds.

~X~

At the end of the evening shift, once the café had been closed, the Rangers gathered in the parlour as Fran presented them with her newest pizza idea.

"Anyone know what it is?" Lily asked.

Kali shook her head. "Whatever it is, it's gotta be better than bananas, right?" she asked.

"Hey, Thrilla Gorilla is our top product," said Rylie. "Don't knock it until you try it."

"I have tried it. I got food poisoning."

Rylie rolled her eyes.

"Besides, you're as bad as Chip with your weird toppings," said Kali. "I thought chocolate covered marshmallows was a weird topping, but banana?"

"You eat Pineapple on pizza, don't you?" RJ asked. "And you use tomato as a base, that's two fruits already. Why not Banana?"

"There are some fruit that don't mix well with savory dishes," said Kali, shaking her head. "Banana is one of them. You can't convince me it's nice."

"Your loss," said RJ, falling back into his seat.

The kitchen door opened, and Fran walked out, backwards, carrying two trays in her hands. "Who's ready to taste my newest idea?" she asked, turning around and walking over to their table. "My secret ingredients are - Chocolate…"

Kali groaned and flopped back in her seat. "Please don't say Marshmallow," she said.

"No, why would you put - never mind," said Fran, shaking her head. "The second ingredient is anchovies." She set a plate of anchovies down on the table with a pot of melted chocolate between them.

The team shared disgusted looks.

"I'm not eating that," said Lily, shaking her head.

Theo considered the plate and then pulled back, shaking his head. "No," he said.

"Oh, come on, please," Fran begged. "How about we all just try one?"

The team considered one another again.

"Deal," said Casey, leaning forward. "Let's check it out." He lifted an anchovy up by its tail, swirled it around in the chocolate, and lifted it to his lips.

Theo smirked and leaned forward, too. "If you can eat one, guess I can, too," he said. He also swirled an anchovy around in the chocolate.

Lily turned to Kali.

Kali huffed and reached for a fish. "Fine. If I can stomach chocolate covered marshmallows and banana's, I don't see how anchovies are going to be any different," she said, swirling a third fish around in the chocolate.

Lily picked up a fourth fish.

"I like a healthy sense of adventure," said RJ. "I'm going to try two."

"Rylie?" Fran asked, her lower lip sticking out as her eyes grew wide.

Rylie groaned and reached for the second to last fish.

"On the count of three," said Casey. "One… Two… Three…"

As the countdown ended, the team each chewed and swallowed the mixture.

"Well…?" Fran asked, expectantly.

Lurching forward, Kali snatched a napkin from the side of the table and spat out the fish in her mouth. She was all for trying new things, but this was a thing that didn't deserve to see the light of day.

"That bad, huh?" Fran asked as, one-by-one, the others coughed up their own anchovies.

Lily nodded.

"Hey, wait a minute," said Casey, reaching for the last fish. He dunked it in the melted chocolate and grinned up at Fran. "We all agreed that we would have at least one."

Fran's eyes widened and she backed away from the table. "Oh no, no, no…" she shrieked, before turning tail and sprinting out of the room.

The others followed her, leaving RJ, Rylie, and Kali around the table.

"What's the matter with you?" Kali asked as RJ stared, mournfully at the empty plate. "Don't tell me you want more?"

RJ shrugged. "They were delicious," he said. "I wonder if there's any left in the fridge?"

Rylie scrunched up her nose. "I love you," she said. "But you're disgusting."

"Is that you're way of saying you don't want any?" RJ asked, raising from his seat.

"Yes!" Kali and Rylie replied.

RJ stared at them both, shrugged, and headed for the kitchen. "Fine. More for me," he called, disappearing through the door.

Rylie met Kali's gaze.

"Hey, don't look at me," said Kali, holding up her hands. "He's your boyfriend."