Amber Beach never really slept.

Even after the boardwalk rides shut down and the tourists drifted back to their hotels, the ocean kept moving — steady, restless, eternal. Waves struck the cliffs below the Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum in rhythmic crashes, like a heartbeat under the town.

Inside the museum, the lights were low.

Fossils cast long shadows across the polished floors. The towering T-Rex skeleton stood frozen mid-roar, ancient and unyielding.

And beneath it — far below the exhibits and gift shop — alarms flickered quietly across the command center.

The teleportation platform flared red.

The team rematerialized in a rush of light, armor dissolving into civilian clothes as the fight finally ended.

Chase tugged off his glove with a sigh. “Next time we fight a monster made of literal scrap metal, I vote we don’t let it throw cars.”

“It was adapting to our attack patterns,” Riley replied, brushing dust from his jacket.

Koda laughed loudly. “It was strong! Good challenge!”

Shelby shook her head, smiling despite the exhaustion. “We almost got flattened.”

They were talking over each other — decompressing, letting the adrenaline bleed off — until Kendall’s monitors beeped again.

But Tyler wasn’t listening.

Tyler Navarro stood near the main console, hands braced against the metal surface, staring at the energy readings like they might rearrange themselves into answers.

“Tyler?” Shelby asked gently.

He didn’t look up right away.

“That monster,” he said finally. “It wasn’t just attacking the city.”

Riley stepped closer. “You noticed it too.”

Tyler nodded. His voice wasn’t loud — it never was when something mattered. “It was scanning. The cliffs. The rock layers.”

Kendall turned from her workstation. “You think it was searching for an Energem.”

“I know Sledge,” Tyler answered.

The name alone shifted the mood in the room — Sledge wasn’t just another villain to him. He was the reason his father vanished.

Tyler straightened slowly, jaw tightening.

“For years,” he continued, “my dad chased stories about powerful stones buried in rock. Everyone thought he was crazy. But he wasn’t.” His eyes flicked toward the fossil wall — toward the past. “If there’s another Energem out there… Sledge won’t stop until he gets it.”

A heavy silence followed.

Koda crossed his arms. “Then we stop him.”

“Together,” Shelby added firmly.

Tyler finally looked at them.

That familiar spark was there — the one that made the T-Rex Energem choose him in the first place. Not strategy. Not perfection.

Heart.

“I spent a long time thinking my dad left because I wasn’t enough,” he admitted, quieter now. “But he was protecting something bigger. And now it’s my turn.”

Chase tilted his head slightly. “You don’t have to prove anything, mate.”

Tyler’s mouth twitched into a small grin. “I know.”

He didn’t sound entirely convinced — but he meant it.

An alert suddenly blared across Kendall’s screen.

“Energy surge detected,” she announced. “Offshore cave system. It’s consistent with Energem radiation.”

Tyler didn’t hesitate.

He stepped toward the platform, confidence settling over him like armor before the suit even formed. The uncertainty was still there — it always would be — but it didn’t control him anymore.

He turned back to his team.

“Hey,” he said, lighter now, that familiar Navarro optimism breaking through. “Field trip?”

Shelby rolled her eyes fondly. Riley sighed in mock resignation. Koda grinned wide. Chase shook his head.

“Only you would call fighting aliens a field trip,” Riley muttered.

Tyler’s smile widened.

“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s our field trip.”

The platform ignited.

Red light flooded the base as the T-Rex emblem flared bright and unshakable.

Above them, the ocean roared against the cliffs, ancient and powerful — like the dinosaurs Tyler had grown up believing in.

Whatever Sledge was searching for, whatever secrets were buried beneath Amber Beach, Tyler would face it head-on.

Not because he was fearless.

But because he chose to be.

And when the Red Ranger chooses something—

He charges.