Chapter 1: mind mixer

"Last one to the park is a rotten egg!" TJ shouted to his teammates as they rushed to the bridge to teleport to Angel Grove Park to enjoy their day off. Carlos and Cassie followed the blue ranger immediately, with Karone and Zhane a minute later.

"Do we have to?" whined Andros good-naturedly to his girlfriend Ashley. "Come on, it's going to be fun. Besides, we haven't had a day off in forever." She chirped as she grabbed his arm and pulled him to their gliding tubes. He didn't mind really, but he had been looking forward to spending some time with Ashley alone. But he could never turn her down, especially when she turned her bright, sunny smile on him.

"Have a good day Rangers." Alpha said cheerfully, as the remaining four rangers disappeared into streams of colored light.

"Is the mind mixer ready yet?" Dark Spectre bellowed at his feeble villains as they feverishly worked to complete their task.

"Yes master. You just push this button and it will release a chemical that will prey on the minds of everyone in Angel Grove." Mr. Jekyl replied.

"Even the power rangers?" Dark Spectre inquired with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Yes, even the power rangers." Mr. Jeykl confirmed to his master's delight.

"Finally the destruction of the power rangers and Angel Grove is at hand. And once they are destroyed there will be nobody to stop me from destroying the rest of the universe." Dark Spectre declared triumphantly.

"Where is that stupid Frisbee?" Zhane muttered as he searched in the woods for the flying disc. He and Ashley went chasing after the Frisbee when TJ's throw sailed was past them.

"Ah, two little lost rangers." Came the taunting voice from behind them. Ashley turned and came face to face with a tall, intimidating and new monster. Without a second thought, the monster picked her up tossing her like a rag doll across the lawn.

"Ash?" Zhane wondered why she was being so quiet. Giving up on the Frisbee, he turned around. "Oh crap." He groaned when he too came face to face with Master Mind. While the two of them faced off (unmorphed) with Master Mind, the other rangers were busy fighting off quantrons.

"So much for a day off." Carlos complained as he tossed another quantron away with ease.

"What else would you expect?" TJ retorted, leaping into the air to kick away two quantrons. Cassie and Karone easily outsmarted a group of quantrons as Andros assisted Carlos.

Ashley groaned as she forced herself to look up at the monster that was destroying her and Zhane. Before she could morph she was hit again by a blast and this one left her unmoving. Zhane never had a chance as he landed with a painful thud before darkness overcame him as well.

"That was too easy." Master Mind declared arrogantly, walking away from the two fallen rangers to find some more prey.

"Whoa!" Andros yelled in surprise when a large shadow loomed over him. He immediately took his sword and attacked. Cassie and Karone quickly jumped to his aid, leaving Carlos and TJ to finish up the quantrons.

They were surprised when it left as abruptly as it came. Its task was complete; to distract the rangers while the potion was released.

"What the hell was that?" Carlos demanded, out of breath after running to evade Dark Spectre's new monster.

"I think the question is what the hell is that?" TJ replied, pointing up to the sky. Dark clouds raced across the sky.

"Is everybody okay?" Andros asked worried as the group reformed, once they were out of danger. Cassie took a head count mentally. 'One, two, three, four, five...' Andros reached the same conclusion at the same time.

"Where are Ashley and Zhane?" He inquired, a bit panicked. The others realized that the silver and yellow rangers were missing, started looking around.

Karone tried to remember the last time she had seen them, but the battle was one big blur. All she remembered was that new crazy dangerous monster.

"Alpha! Can you give us the locations of Ashley and Zhane?" Carlos commanded over his communicator.

"Ai, Ai, Ai! There are at the southwest section of the park." The robot responded frantically. The remaining rangers hurried off to find their teammates, hoping they were all right.

Zhane was already forcing himself off the ground when he realized he was alone. He glanced to his left hoping Ashley was still where he had last seen her. "Ash!" he called out and began moving to find her when there was no response.

A soft groan alerted Zhane's attention and he found her curled up in a defensive stature. "Come on, we're getting out of here." He said, gently pulling her to her feet. She held unto the silver ranger, shaken up by the sudden attack. He was unnerved as well. By that time the others had reached them.

"Ashley, Zhane. Thank gods you're alright!" Andros said relieved as they came upon their two friends.

"What happened?" Carlos asked, taking in their battered appearance.

"Just a run in with one of Dark Spectre's new monsters." Zhane explained as he released the yellow ranger to her boyfriend's waiting arms.

"We never got to morph." Ashley added in slowly. Andros turned his attention to his girlfriend. Tears were streaming down her face as shock set in. "Shh, it's ok Ash." He soothed her as he gazed over her for any obvious signs of injury or pain.

He could only imagine what they had gone through. "Seven to teleport." He declared grimly as they returned to the mega ship to figure out what happened.

Meanwhile, Dark Spectre was celebrating the success of his evil plan. "Soon all of Angel Grove and the power rangers will be so self-centered, they won't know or care that I'm about to destroy the universe."

"What is it Alpha?" Zhane demanded as they appeared on the bridge. Before Alpha could respond though, Karone and Andros dragged Zhane and Ashley to the medical bay. The scanners concluded that there was no serious damage other than some bruises and the fact that they would be incredibly sore.

"What's going on Alpha?" Zhane repeated. The robot was acting stranger than normal.

"Do you have any information about this new monster?" Andros wanted to know.

"Master Mind was a distraction." Alpha informed them. "From what?" Cassie inquired cautiously.

"Dark Spectre has poisoned the world with his mind mixer." Came the grim reply from the ship's computer.

"Is it serious?" TJ demanded. "I'm afraid so TJ. Unfortunately we do not know the full extent of his poison and what it will do to those who have been affected." Deca replied regretfully.

What had started out as a good day, an uneventful day of playing in the park had now turned solemn. "Have we been affected?" Karone questioned fearfully as she stared up at the camera.

"I'll have to run a few tests to be sure." Deca answered honestly. The seven teens returned to the medical bay. Five of the rangers were found to be poisoned. Ashley and Zhane were the only ones who remained unscathed.

"But why weren't we affected Alpha?" Ashley wondered in confusion. Silence filled the air as the shock of the situation began to settle in. Zhane sitting in a corner comforting Karone finally answered. "We were unconscious." The silver ranger guessed.

"How could we not have noticed?" Andros exclaimed in frustration. Ashley put her arm around him to calm him down and guided him to his chair. Without thinking, he pulled the yellow ranger down to sit on his lap as they continued the discussion.

"Even if you had, there was nothing you could have done Andros." Deca informed the red ranger.

"What do you mean? Did you know something Deca?" He demanded, looking straight into the camera and waited for her response.

"Yes Andros, I knew it was there." The computer admitted.

"How do we get rid of this poison?" TJ questioned logically.

"The only way to destroy the mind mixer is to find its location and destroy it." Deca said in her usual calm manner.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Carlos declared urgently. "Let's find this thing and destroy it!" Just then the power went out and the mega ship plunged into darkness.

The power returned a minute later but with no response from Deca. "Deca?" Ashley called out tentatively.

"Cassie. TJ. Set the computer to manual override. We'll have to bypass Deca to get the ship functional." Zhane took charge. The pink and blue rangers managed to get the systems back online, but Deca refused to cooperate.

"Now what?" Carlos inquired, looking around to his teammates for answers.

"We better rest. I have a feeling its going to be a long, hard battle on our hands with the mind mixer." Andros announced grimly.

"Well I'm exhausted, I'm going to take a nap." Ashley decided, trying to hide her yawn behind her hand.

"Me too." Zhane agreed, his body sore from the beating he took that morning. His humor hadn't been bruised though; looking at Andros he added, "How about we nap together?" he suggested throwing his arm around Ashley.

"Shut up Zhane!" Ashley and Andros said in unison, with Ashley pushing him away. Their gentle banter broke the tension in the room. Ashley laughed while Andros gave his best friend his famous stare before chasing after him. Zhane escaped to his room while Andros returned to the bridge for Ashley.

"Are you okay?" He asked concerned, taking in her tired appearance. "Yeah, just a little sore." She replied, trying to reassure him. "Okay." He relented believing her. Before she went into her room he pulled her close. "I love you Ash." He whispered as he held her tight. He didn't know why but he felt an urge to tell her that. "I love you too." She repeated, loving hear him say those words to her.

"Wake me up if you find out anything." She made him promise. "Right." He agreed and gave her a quick kiss before letting her get her nap. Ashley fell asleep with no thoughts of the danger that lay ahead.

The other five rangers settled in on the bridge to do some research on the new monster that was Master Mind and Dark Spectre's project, the mind mixer.

'What am I doing here?' Cassie wondered to herself. 'I should be with Saryn, the man I love, not risking my life for this lousy planet. I'm over this.' She thought bitterly. 'They won't notice if I leave.' She decided as she left her station and took off for Elisia.

"Where's Cassie?" TJ asked Carlos suddenly noticing the pink ranger's absence.

"How would I know?" Carlos asked angrily. "Chill man. I was just asking a question." TJ replied, a bit startled at Carlos's reaction. He ran a scanner looking for Cassie's morpher. A beep behind him shocked him as he saw her pink morpher lying by her station. "She's gone." He realized in astonishment.

'This sucks. I should be chasing down soccer balls, not a missing power ranger, or stupid monsters. Not the way I planned my senior year.' Carlos thought regretfully. Carlos noticed that Cassie was gone. "If she can leave so can I." He remarked forcefully, peeling off his morpher and giving it to TJ.

"Don't call me, I'll call you." He spat out distastefully as he teleported back to earth.

"What's going on?" TJ asked the two remaining rangers in absolute bewilderment.

"Nothing." Andros argued in their defense. "They did what I should have done long ago. I've got better things to do than baby-sit a bunch of wanna be power rangers." He decided suddenly. "Come on Karone. Let's go back to our own planet." Andros grabbed his sister and just like that the two were gone.

TJ looked around at the empty bridge. He didn't feel like fighting if no one else was going to. Shrugging, he threw off his own morpher and went back to earth to get on with his life.

The alarm rang out through the nearly empty mega ship, shocking the two sleeping rangers out of their slumber.

Ashley almost rolled out of bed at the sudden intrusion of her sleep. She was still tired from the morning's battle, but adrenaline rushed through her as she went to see what was going on. She ran into Zhane in the hallway who was wiping sleep from his eyes. The two raced to the bridge to get the report from Alpha.

"Quantrons in the park." The robot announced as the scene played on the monitors. Ashley and Zhane rushed by and headed for the gliding tubes without realizing that they were all alone.

"Where is everybody?" Zhane demanded irritated as two arrived at the park. They didn't have time to dwell on that thought as quantrons began advancing on the two rangers.

They managed to defeat all the quantrons but the effort had been exhausting. Dark Spectre wasn't done though, sending Master Mind to destroy the remaining rangers.

"Ah my two favorite rangers." Master Mind taunted as he blasted them with his laser.

"Aahh!" Zhane and Ashley groaned in unison as they hit the ground hard. They forced themselves off the ground and charged the monster. "Star Slinger!" The yellow ranger shouted as Zhane drew his saber sword. The two were clearly outmatched and quickly tired.

"We're done." Ashley lamented as she and Zhane tried to evade blasts from Master Mind.

"Not yet." He declared fiercely. "Delta Megazord!" He shouted desperately. A few blasts sent Master Mind into retreat, much to their surprise. "I'll be back for you two." He threatened as he disappeared.

Ashley and Zhane were too tired to be relieved as they teleported back to the mega ship. The first thing they noticed was the utter stillness of the ship. "Where's everybody?" Zhane repeated his question from before. The absence of their teammates was frightening and curious.

"Ashley, Zhane!" Alpha exclaimed, glad they were back. "The rest of the rangers took off while you were asleep. I'm afraid the poison has already begun to affect their brains." Alpha stated sadly. "The mind mixer has also shut down Deca and other computer systems in Angel Grove."

Ashley and Zhane stood motionless in complete shock. The others were gone. "Are you okay?" he questioned looking at the two fatigued rangers.

"We will be as soon as we get to the medical bay." Zhane admitted as he inventoried his and Ashley's condition. Nothing seemed broken, but everything was hurting. Neither would turn down some healing from the regenerator. Especially since they seemed to be down five rangers.

"We're never going to be able to stop the mind mixer and stop all the monsters Dark Spectre keeps sending." Ashley warned as they lay recovering on the patient beds.

"You're right." Alpha agreed as he ran the bone scanner over Ashley as a precaution that Zhane had insisted on. "I've called in some backups." He informed them.