Ch 1

"Andros, look out behind you!" the Silver Ranger called out just as a large group of quantrons gathered behind the Red Ranger.

Andros quickly spun around, ready to strike at them with his Spiral Saber. Recently, fighting quantrons had become part of the two rangers' daily routine but they had never had so many fight them at once –not since Dark Specter's invasion of KO-35 three months earlier. Their home planet had been completely abandoned since then and the rangers wondered why Dark Specter chose to attack it now. There was nothing left to gain from KO-35, save the victory of conquering the planet itself.

As Andros knocked down the first two footsoldiers that came at him, he heard Zhane's voice among the robotic buzzing of the quantrons.

"There's too many of them," Zhane said as he blasted a group of quantrons with his Super Silverizer.

"We've got to head back to the ship."

"Right," Andros agreed as a quantron swung his weapon at him, just barely missing his head. He ducked but another quantron struck at his back, knocking him to the ground. He reached down for his Astro Blaster but found its holster empty, looking up in time to see a quantron wave it teasingly in front of his face. Andros attempted to make a grab for it, but was struck from behind by another quantron. The group that had begun to swell behind the Red Ranger was suddenly on top of him, pinning him down on the planet's hard surface with their metal bodies.

Zhane ran toward them, activating the release of his Super Silverizer's blade, but was held off by a group of quantrons that appeared behind him at that moment. Zhane kicked one away, knocking it into the few quantrons that were behind it. As they struggled back to their feet, the Silver Ranger struck them with his Super Silverizer, sending them back down. When they stood up again, they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the Silver Ranger standing alone in defeat staring at his best friend's fallen Spiral Saber.

Andros continued to struggle against the collective weight of the quantrons. He was finally pulled to his feet, finding himself face-to-face with Dark Specter.

"Welcome, Red Ranger," the large monster growled smugly. "So nice of you to drop in."

Andros looked around, realizing suddenly that he was on Dark Specter's ship. All over the walls and floor of the bridge there were spatters of blood, likely a mixture of his and the other Astrorangers'. Although it had been at least a month since he had been on the ship, the blood still seemed fresh from where he stood. He turned back to Dark Specter, distracting himself from the memories that immediately began to overwhelm him.

"Whatever your plan is this time, you won't get away with it," Andros shouted, still struggling against the quantrons that gripped his arms and shoulders. He had never had trouble freeing his arms from quantrons before. They were certainly much stronger than usual.

"My plan is already well in motion, Red Ranger, as you will see once you make the decision to join me," Dark Specter replied.

"Join you?" Andros scoffed. "You've got a better chance of becoming a ranger than getting one to join you."

Dark Specter laughed. "I had a feeling that you'd see it that way… Tell me, Red Ranger, have you ever heard of the planet Omni-8? There are some creatures there that would greatly appreciate another human play-thing for an eternity or two… So the decision is yours. Join me or become a servant to the Cromians of Omni-8."

"I won't join you," Andros growled.

"So be it," Dark Specter growled back, enveloping the Red Ranger in a bright light. When the light disappeared, Andros found himself standing before a large group of tall overly muscular brown scaly creatures with large, elongated ivory skulls. One of the creatures stepped forward just as two others grabbed the ranger's arms.

"We've been expecting you, Red Ranger," it said in a deep gruff voice, stepping closer to him and boring his glowing yellow eyes into the ranger.

Andros tried to free himself from the Cromians that held him, hoping that they weren't as strong as they looked. But they held tightly onto his arms and for a moment Andros feared that they would rip them from his body. But once the Cromian in front of him was less than a foot away from him, they loosened their grip on him.

"You'd do well to demorph, Red Ranger," it said. "You cannot fight us all and win."

All? Andros looked around at what seemed like hundreds of Cromians surrounding him on all sides, staring at him with angry eyes. There was definitely no chance of escape now. At least, there was no chance of escaping alive anyway.

"So allow us the pleasure of seeing the pathetic creature that would devote itself to trying to win the senseless battle of good versus evil." The Cromian stepped closer to him still, ready to grab at him at the first instance of insurgence.

"And why should I?" Andros asked defiantly.

"Because I also want the pleasure of seeing the pain in your eyes when I do this," it snarled back, placing one of its large hands around Andros' throat and sending a surge of electricity through the ranger's body.

Andros groaned in pain as he clawed against the creature's hold on him, the steady stream of volts traveling down his spine. Just as he began to feel his skin heating beneath his suit, he involuntarily demorphed.

"You can expect your pain to increase regularly if this is the behavior we are to expect from you." The Cromian released Andros from his grip and allowed him to fall to the ground.

Andros looked around as he heard a rumble of voices surrounding him. The dimly lit cave suddenly brightened and the voices grew louder. They appeared to be in a coliseum, with what now seemed like one thousand Cromians shouting and staring at the now helpless and demorphed Red Ranger.

"He looks like any other human to me," a Cromian's voice shouted. "Let me keep him! Twenty sansas for him!"

"I'll give you fifty sansas for him," another called out.

"He's not worth that much. We don't even know what he can do yet! Ten sansas!"

The voices of the protesting Cromians echoed throughout the stadium. Andros looked around angrily as they continued to yell out higher and lower prices. The noise was only subdued by a loud guttural shriek that pierced through the crowd.

"The Red Ranger goes with me," a deeper voice growled and a much larger Cromian stepped forward. "No charge."

Andros looked up fearlessly at the red-skulled monster and stood up. "And just when I'd hoped you guys couldn't get any uglier," he spat.

The Cromian growled angrily and stood even closer to Andros. "I won't make the mistake of underestimating you, Red Ranger. I know very well what you're capable of," it said, clutching at Andros' gray uniform jacket with one massive hand while snatching the morpher from his wrist and crushing it with the other. "I see, however, that your mouth will be a problem for you. We'll have to find a way to correct that…"

-0-0-0-0-0-

(On the Astro Megaship)

"DECA, scan the next sector," Zhane ordered the artificial intelligence unit.

"Scanning sector R-zero-zero-one-dash-three," DECA announced. "Estimated scan time, twenty-five minutes."

"We don't have that kind of time," Zhane said, trying not to shout. "If Dark Specter has Andros, he's probably half-way across the universe by now."

"Current estimated scan time, twenty-four minutes and forty seconds," DECA announced, seemingly unfazed by the Silver Ranger's increasing frustration.

Zhane slammed his fists down onto the console in front of him and let out a long breath. "DECA, can't you do multiple searches at one time?" he asked impatiently.

"Multiple long range scans take several hours to complete," DECA informed. "Current estimated scan time, twenty-three minutes and fifty-five seconds."

Zhane sat down at his control station with a sigh, looking over at the empty center seat that should have seated his best friend. "Isn't there anything that I can do?" he asked, suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of uselessness that seemed now to course through his veins as he covered his face with his hands.

"You should be able to manually scan individual sectors outside of the range that I am currently scanning. It should not interfere with the current scan time," DECA said.

Zhane quickly composed himself, wiping away the tears that had begun to sting his eyes. But he only seemed to cause irritation that allowed more tears to form and fall down his face. He yelled out in frustration as he continued to scrub his eyes with the back of his hand, softly muttering a sequence of curse words that even DECA had not heard of. When the tears finally stopped and his vision returned, he pressed a few buttons and sighed again.

"DECA, which sectors are you scanning?" he asked again.

"R-zero-zero-one-dash-three," DECA replied, still unable to respond to Zhane's various spurts of emotion.

"Okay. Then I'll start scanning R-one-zero-zero-dash-zero." Zhane pressed the buttons in front of him, staring down helplessly at the tiny screen before him, impatiently tapping his fingers on the console.

"Zhane, it is important not to panic in these situations," DECA answered. "Your increasingly unstable emotional level could result in your own capture. You must focus on Andros' safe return and trust that he will be found alive."

"Dark Specter killed the other four rangers, DECA," Zhane said, pushing away the distant screams that he had heard from Dark Specter's ship not so long ago. "I doubt that he would hesitate to kill Andros."

"There is a fifty-four percent probability that Andros will be found virtually unharmed," DECA stated.

Zhane looked up at the small black camera's red light and rolled his eyes. "Virtually? And how exactly did you come up with that?"

"If Dark Specter has Andros, he will most likely use Andros to get to you," DECA explained. "Therefore, Andros' death would leave Dark Specter at a disadvantage, having no direct means to draw you out. On the other hand, if Andros is killed, your anger would most likely lead you to wanting revenge against Dark Specter, thereby drawing you out still. And given your current emotional state, you would likely be killed by Dark Specter -"

"Is this your way of trying to cheer me up?" Zhane asked irately, resting his head in his arms on the console in front of him.

He knew that he should not have gotten angry with DECA. She was only responding the way that she was programmed to. But Zhane couldn't remember the last time he had felt so helpless. He knew that DECA was right, that Andros was probably still alive for now. Even though Dark Specter had become unnecessarily ruthless in the past year or so, he had passed on several opportunities to destroy the Red Ranger.

But it was important not to panic, as DECA had rightly pointed out. He had to think positively now and have faith that he would be reunited with his best friend. But if he was destined to have as much luck as he and Andros had trying to find his sister Karone, he wasn't sure how long that hope would last.

No, Zhane thought, thinking of what Andros had repeated whenever Zhane's impatient nature forced him to ask why he bothered searching for his sister after so many years, I'll never stop searching.

More than ever, he decided, it was time to take a lesson from Andros. It was way too early to give up. He would have to fight until Andros was by his side again. He was sure that his impatience would never fade, but he would search until he found his friend.

Zhane lifted his head from his arms and looked up sadly at DECA's steady red light. "How long until the scan is complete again?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Go on, Red Ranger," Andros heard his Cromian master growl, just barely audible over the other monsters that filled the coliseum. They shouted and jumped as they impatiently waited for the Red Ranger to make a move.

Andros stood by his master, afraid to move as he looked across the coliseum and sized up his opponent carefully. He had seen this monster coming a mile away and he knew that this fight would be different than any other fight he had ever been in. First of all, he didn't have any rangers waiting in the shadows to bail him out this time. Secondly, his opponent was almost three times his size in both height and girth. That would not have been an issue had it not been for the first problem, and he knew that he would be fighting alone.

Just as he allowed his nerves to get the better of him, he felt something sharp pierce his arm. Andros looked over at the Cromian who slowly pulled a prehistoric-looking syringe out of his arm. Yes, this fight would be very different. As a screeching alarm sounded, the monsters in the coliseum cheered loudly and the lights dimmed. Andros blinked furiously as the lights continued to grow dimmer, trying to adjust his eyes to whatever remained of the light. But his eyes continued to open to darkness as he began to scrub his eyes with his arm. Whatever was in that syringe had blinded him.

The alarm finally ended and he stood still when he felt the charging footsteps of his opponent coming toward him. He was able to dodge him with a simple sidestep but the small victory was short-lived as the wild swipes of a sword cut the air. Andros blindly backed away, clumsily stepping backward until his back hit a wall and he fell forward onto the ground. He quickly got to his feet, hearing the rushing footsteps again. He listened for the sound of the sword, waiting for his opponent to strike before he moved.

Finally, he felt the sword coming toward him, another sloppy swipe coming from the right, and he spun quickly to the left. The weapon hit the wall that he clung to a few inches from his head and he was immediately aware of the dull sound that emanated from the sword when it connected. Andros knew the sound well –metal hitting metal. Only the far right wall was completely metal while the surrounding walls were solid rock. But just barely knowing where he was did not help much.

Andros made his way back to the center of the coliseum where he was sure that he had noticed a shield earlier. But the sword swiped at his feet, sending him down again. Andros gritted his teeth and rolled to one side, avoiding the vicious blade and reaching for the shield that he knew would be close by. He grabbed it and held it up above him as he heard the sword come at him from above. The sword crashed violently through the shield, shattering it into what felt like a million pieces. He should have known that the shield would be a waste. He fights an opponent with a weapon while unarmed himself. Why would the only protection available be useful to the fighter that the Cromians wanted destroyed?

Andros rolled back to where he had been, trying to ignore the tiny pieces of metal that were sticking him all over his arms and face as well as the blood that he felt dripping down his them. He scrambled to his feet and made his way to the other side of the coliseum, feeling for the nearest wall. As he ran, he realized that he had never fought this badly before and he would die unless he let all of his training come back to him. It had only been hours since he had last fought a monster. Why was his mind failing him now? He rubbed his eyes again, knowing that he would have a much better advantage if he could get even the smallest glimpse at this monster.

Around him, the Cromians' shouts grew louder, the monsters voicing their rage at the brief inactivity of the fighters. Andros stayed close to the wall again, waiting for the sounds of the sword again. Within seconds, he felt the charging footsteps and heard the sword. It was coming from the same direction as before. He took a chance, ducking under the sword and grabbing it from his opponent, shoving it forcefully into the stone wall. Surprisingly, it cut through and held tightly. He would have settled for breaking the sword, but this was just as good.

He heard his opponent growl, fighting hand-to-hand with him for what felt like an eternity. Andros had never fought anyone at such a high skill level before and was surprised that he got in the few kicks that he did. But it was not enough bloodshed for the Cromians who began to throw things at the fighters in anger, shouting for one of them to finish the fight. Andros took control of the fight and moved back toward the sword in the wall, wondering if he could actually use it without his sight. Swinging it wildly did not work for the monster, so he would have to think of another strategy.

But he put out his hand for the sword anyway, pulling it back out of the wall when he felt the charging steps coming toward him. It was stuck tightly and Andros' head connected with the stone wall before he could tighten his grip on the sword. He avoided a second collision with the wall and allowed his opponent's fist to hit the wall, hoping that it would disable the fighter long enough for him to grab the sword. Maybe if Andros could just make it known that he had the sword, he would not have to use it. Make the enemy afraid to lose and disable the enemy without killing him were the first two lessons he learned as a ranger. If only he could just pull the stupid thing out of the wall.

Andros yanked at the sword, listening for movement behind him. Finally, he felt it loosen a bit and he pulled at it, rocking it back and forth within the crack that the sword's blade had created in the wall. With one last effort, he pulled the sword from the wall and brought it forward. Instantly, he felt the sword grow heavier and he lowered it, feeling the weight slide to the tip of the sword. The Cromians cheered wildly and another alarm sounded. Andros' eyesight slowly returned to him and he focused on the light that the sword shined into his eyes. His eyes widened as he watched the body of his opponent slide off the end of the sword and he dropped the weapon, shaking his head in disbelief as he backed away.

He had been right. This fight had been very different. It was a fight to the death and he fought it alone using a weapon that he had held in his hands for less than a minute. His eyes focused on the mountain of muscles that waited on the other side of the coliseum, the Cromian that he had seen coming, the Cromian that he had expected to destroy him. Then he looked down at his true opponent, the one that the Cromians had deduced he would never willingly fight. He had destroyed monsters in the past but this was different… because this monster was not a monster.

This was a human.