Author's Note: It only just occurred to me that there are no people of colour on this team. I had not considered that, and it is in no way deliberate, however I feel I owe an apology for my blindness in this matter. I am sorry, and I promise to do better in future.

Quasar Quest, Part 2

Rage, grief and despair battled for control as Leo stared at the ground where his brother had fallen - gone, now, without a trace. He only faintly heard the monster's maniacal laughter, as he slowly raised his brother's Quasar Saber.

The monster sneered in derision. "Oh, does baby brother want a piece of me too?" It was taunting him, visibly amused. "Well, what are you waiting for? A written invitation?"

Mike's Quasar Saber started to glow in Leo's hands, the same rich green it had for its chosen owner. The glow spread quickly, until the entire blade was glowing green, bright enough it was hard to look directly at it. He could see Kendrix, Andros and Ashley standing beside him, their blades glowing pink, red and yellow - and, when he turned his head, he could see a stranger standing a few paces further back, holding a blue-glowing Saber.

The monster was staring in stunned disbelief. "What? The Quasar Sabers are more powerful than I thought..."

Leo looked at the others with renewed determination, and nodded. Acting on instinct, and seeing the others copying his movement, he held the Quasar Saber up to the sky - and flinched as lightning struck the blade. It blew through him, blinding him for a moment. He barely had time to wonder at the fact that it was completely painless when his vision cleared, and he realised he was completely unharmed as well. More than that, in fact, he felt stronger than ever - and as he looked down at himself he saw he was clad in the same green as the blade had glowed. The Quasar Saber, he was slowly realising, had turned him into a Power Ranger.

The monster was momentarily frozen, and Leo used the brief chance to take in the new revelation. The Ranger suits were like none he'd seen before, with white chests emblazoned with a bold black zig-zag design, and white gloves and boots bearing a matching pattern. Whatever the strange swords were, their power was something entirely new. As the others beside him drew the same conclusion as he had - Andros and Ashley briefly celebrating with obvious joy in red and yellow - the monster had recovered from his shock. "Silly costumes won't help against my power."

Leo raised his brother's Quasar Saber once again, this time into a fighting stance. "Why don't we just find out about that?" He saw the others doing the same. "All right guys, this one's for Mike."

The monster gestured with his sword."Stingwingers, destroy them!"

The Stingwingers charged, as did the new Power Rangers, and with their enhanced speed, strength and agility, the mutated insects were much less of a threat. There were more of them by the second, though - dozens and dozens of the creatures were running from the forest at the monster's call and flying down from above on buzzing wings, and the Rangers quickly found themselves separated.

Leo could see Kendrix, now in pink, dispatching four Stingwingers in as many seconds. There was no time to admire her handiwork, as he found himself charged by Furio while the Stingwingers swarmed the others. That was fine as far as he was concerned; he wanted to fight the monster alone. And with the increased strength he could feel flowing into him, he might just have a chance of winning.

The monster swiped at him, but it was a simple matter now to flip over the attack. The monster was too fast, though, blocking Leo's Saber-thrust and kicking him backwards. Leo recovered quickly, swinging the Saber again, but the monster ducked under the attack and swiped his legs out from under him.

Leo had expected that to be the end of the fight, but he managed to turn the fall into a spin and land on his feet. There was no time to marvel at his newfound agility - he jumped high before the monster could react, stabbing down at him from above. This attack landed home, and Leo sprang off a nearby tree, launching himself back at the monster to follow up with a second strike. The monster was stronger and faster, and Leo's attack was met with a punch in the stomach - and he was sent sprawling painfully to the ground.

Leo forced himself back to his feet, quickly recovering from the punch. "Have you had enough?"

"I've had enough all right. Enough of you!" The monster raised his left hand, sparking with red and yellow lightning, and blasted Leo back through the forest. As Leo struggled to rise, clutching his chest in pain, the monster advanced on him angrily. "You have no idea who you're messing with. I am Furio, and I do not lose."

Instinct spoke to Leo, words whispering in his mind as the Quasar Saber's blade glowed bright green. "Quasar Saber, energise!" Swirling tendrils of the same green energy swooped around him as he slowly swung it in a wide circle. He grasped the Saber in both hands, holding it ready to strike as tendrils spiralled into the blade until the entire length was glowing brighter than ever before.

The monster - Furio - ran to attack, and Leo swung the Saber. It blew through his defence with ease and hit him hard in the chest. The blinding explosion blew Leo backwards; he barely managed to turn his stumbling landing into what he hoped looked like a steady pose worthy of a Power Ranger as he saw Furio fall, defeated.

"Oh no!" Kendrix's shout drew their attention, and they followed her pointing finger to see the rapidly approaching stone circle. Without Furio holding it back, it was fast catching up to them again. "It's here already!"

Leo turned back to face Furio as the monster struggled to rise. Thoughts of Mike filled his mind, and he raised his brother's Quasar Saber ready to fight. "You guys go. I'll hold off the Stingwingers."

A flash of pain entered Andros's voice as he realised Leo's true motivation. "I know what it's like to lose a sibling. But you can't help him now, we have to go."

"I can hold them off!"

Andros shook his head, blocking Leo's path. "We need you, alive. Throwing your life away here won't help." He grabbed the Green Ranger's arm as the stone almost brushed their feet, pulling him after the others. "Come on! We'll get another chance to fight him, I promise."

Leo let himself be pulled reluctantly, and the two ran after the others to the clearing where the Galaxy Gliders were still waiting.

Andros froze momentarily when he saw the five Galaxy Gliders. There was only one person who could have piloted the blue, and he spun to face the Blue Ranger as he put the pieces together. "You! How did you-"

"Andros!" Ashley's shout interrupted his question and he jumped onto the red Galaxy Glider, pulling Leo behind him as the stone wave caught up to them. They took off with only moments to spare, Furio's angry shout echoing behind them as the forest below turned to stone, leaving only the monster and the Stingwingers still alive in its wake.

Alpha was practically vibrating with excitement as they entered the Megaship's control room. "Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi, I can't believe it! You're Power Rangers again!"

Andros smiled in reply. "DECA, time to go." He took the controls as the engines fired, steering the Megaship back towards the wormhole it had fallen through.

Alpha's excitement was suddenly replaced with panic. "Oh no!" He turned from the screen he had been inspecting. "The portal's closing!" he announced, his words leaving horror in their wake.

Andros barely hesitated. "Hang onto something," he told the others with quiet confidence, speeding the Astro Megaship towards the shrinking opening. "We can make it." With him at the controls, the ship did indeed make it through the closing wormhole, shaking enough to make them stumble but with minimal damage as it arrived back where it had come from, near the planet Earth.

"What are these Quasar Sabers anyway?" Leo held his up as he wondered aloud. "The natives seemed pretty surprised to see us pulling them out."

It was DECA who replied. "Legend says the five Quasar Sabers were buried in the stone on the planet Mirinoi three thousand years ago; apparently, only those destined can draw them out. Many warriors travelled to Mirinoi to try this, without success."

Silence followed as they absorbed that news. Leo frowned at the computer's words. "So we were... what, chosen?"

"Chosen for what?" Andros started to pace. "Why now? If the legend's true, what happened to mean the Power Rangers are needed now?"

The question was met by silence as the group exchanged shrugs - and slowly turned to look at the Blue Ranger, the only one not to remove their helmet. Andros's eyes narrowed, reminded of his realisation on the planet's surface. "Take it off. I know who you are."

Kendrix and Leo looked between the expressionless Blue Ranger as she obeyed the order with visible reluctance, and Zhane, Andros and Ashley, who were staring at her aghast. It was Kendrix who spoke, after several awkward seconds. "What's wrong, you guys?"

The awkward silence stretched out for a few more seconds before Ashley replied, not taking her eyes off the Blue Ranger for an instant. "Kendrix, that's Psycho Yellow."

"The Psycho Rangers were created only to destroy us, and they nearly succeeded," Andros explained briefly. "She says she turned good in Zordon's energy wave."

Karone had stayed quiet until now, but the former Princess of Evil stepped forward, putting a gentle hand on her brother's arm. "Andros..."

Leo frowned at the Red Ranger's explanation. "I thought the energy wave turned everything good, or to dust?" Already knowing the answer, he pushed forward. "Anyway, if DECA's right about that legend, doesn't that mean she's destined to get these powers? I saw her pull the Saber out, she can't be evil."

"Andros," Karone repeated, unable to look at the Blue Ranger. "You know he's right."

Andros and Ashley exchanged unhappy looks, both reliving the past and neither quite able to move on from it.

The awkward silence was broken by Kendrix. "So... what's your name?"

"Besides Psycho Yellow?" She shrugged slightly, unable to meet anyone's eyes and especially trying to avoid looking at Karone. "I was never given one."

Kendrix looked at the veteran Rangers in disbelief. "Seriously? It's been how long, and we're still calling her Psycho Yellow?" She glanced back at the uncomfortable Blue Ranger. "It doesn't exactly fit any more, and we can't just say 'Oi you' forever either."

Being treated in any way other than open mistrust was a new experience, and not one she was entirely sure how to deal with. Hesitantly she asked, "Do you have any ideas, then?"

Kendrix was thoughtful for a minute. "Well, given what you've been through, what about Hope?" She was met with a confused shrug by the Blue Ranger, an awkward cough by Karone, and stony silence by everyone else. She decided to ignore them for now. "Well, I think it fits."

Andros turned to her with the obvious question. "Why did you follow us to Mirinoi?"

She shrugged slightly. "I couldn't help it."

"You couldn't help it," Ashley repeated sceptically.

"I couldn't!" She was suddenly defensive, remembering exactly how much trouble she might be in. "I don't know how to explain it, I just... had to get down there."

Andros shook his head. "DECA, why didn't you stop her?"

"I did try to discourage her, but you didn't order the doors locked."

Andros sighed, clearly wishing he had done exactly that.

Hesitantly, the newly-named Hope indicated towards Leo. "Anyway, wasn't I apparently destined to do this?"

The response did not go over well with Ashley. "You weren't destined for anything!"

Before the anger could continue to rise, Kendrix physically put herself between them. "Hey, I saw on the news what the energy wave did to the evil monsters." She deliberately looked towards Karone by way of example, and waited for the atmosphere in the room to grow unbearably awkward before pressing her point. "And last I heard, even Rita Repulsa herself was starting to teach people how to use sorcery for good. People are trusting her, why not Hope here?"

The argument was hard to deny, and as yet another awkward silence stretched on Leo looked at his brother's Quasar Saber with regret. He was never supposed to get the powers in the first place, and here he was, a stowaway and now an imposter in Mike's place. To make matters worse, it seemed he was now part of the most dysfunctional team in the galaxy. "This is for you, Mike," he muttered, seriously starting to doubt the team he had found himself on. How would Mike have reacted? It was hard to believe his brother was really gone.

Leo took a moment to take a proper look at the team; the day had been so busy he had barely had a chance to pause since leaving Earth. He looked first at Andros, a famous face he now knew well after the Space Rangers had revealed themselves to the world. Was it really only months ago? He idly found himself wondering whether the Red Ranger's blonde-streaked hair was natural or bleached; there was certainly no sign of roots growing through. He thought for a moment, before shaking his head slightly and giving up on the question. Andros was not from Earth; who could guess what the genetics of the KO-35 natives were like?

Ashley, standing beside Andros, was as recognisable as he was. The Yellow Space Ranger, now back in yellow, standing beside her boyfriend with a general air of understandable anger. He only knew a small amount of what had happened with the Psycho Rangers, really only what had made it to the news, but he remembered hearing that she had at one point been kidnapped by her counterpart. What had happened was really not his business, and it was certainly not his place to ask. Looking past what he knew about Ashley, though, Leo found himself struck by how much she looked like a normal nineteen-year-old about to enter college - not fighting as a Power Ranger yet again.

The third point of the awkward triangle stood at the other side of the bridge, as far away from Andros and Ashley as she could get. It was almost hard to believe that she had been one of the vicious monsters he had seen taking down the Power Rangers on the news, and yet she had not denied her past when questioned. He noticed that while she avoided meeting anyone's eyes, she did not look at Ashley at all. Giving her a closer look, Leo realised that she looked only a few years older than Ashley did, and perfectly human - although apparently that was now exactly what she was. The thing that most struck him, though, was how lost she looked; while the former Space Rangers looked perfectly at home in the new Ranger suits, she looked uncomfortable and totally out of place.

Leo's eyes moved to Kendrix, who was already busy looking at a console readout in fascination. She looked perfectly at home in the Pink Ranger suit, with blonde hair pulled back into a smart ponytail and a friendly smile that had never once faltered. If he had not seen her fighting, he might have underestimated her. He found himself wondering how many monsters would make that mistake.

He caught sight of himself in a reflection on a console, and had to stop and wonder at how much had happened today. Far from the stowaway he had been this morning, he had somehow found himself as the Green Power Ranger. He brushed his hair back out of his eyes, and for a moment almost saw Mike's reflection staring back at him from the console. Thinking about his brother, who should have been the one wearing the green suit, was too painful, and Leo looked away quickly.

There were two others on the bridge, and of course Leo recognised them both instantly. Zhane, the former Silver Space Ranger, was standing close by Andros. He exuded an easy confidence, and even having just met him, Leo was sure that Zhane was somebody hard to dislike. For a moment, he wondered about Zhane's hair, which was so light it was almost as silver as the jacket he wore, but remembered that, like Andros, he was not from Earth and put the thought from his mind.

The last person on the bridge was Karone, Andros's sister. Leo knew from the news that she had been Astronema, the villainous leader of the invasion a few months ago, but somehow had been turned to good by that strange wave. She stood quietly to one side, looking as though she had a lot on her mind. He looked at her; as Astronema she had worn black and silver leathers, and a dazzling array of coloured hair, but as Karone she wore a purple-themed version of the uniform the former Space Rangers wore, her hair a perfectly natural shoulder-length brown.

Finally, the silence came to an end as Andros changed the subject from the argument he had lost, and turned to Leo and Kendrix. "Who are you two anyway?"

Kendrix was the first to reply. "Kendrix Morgan. I'm one of Terra Venture's science officers."

Leo hesitated over how to reply, but soon decided honesty was unlikely to hurt now. "Well... I was a stowaway. Long story short, I wound up 'borrowing' a guard uniform. ... Then I found myself dragged along to a training exercise on the Moon."

Kendrix picked up the story from there. "Some kind of wormhole opened up, and a woman from Mirinoi fell through with Stingwingers chasing her. After we fought them off, she ran back through it with Leo, Mike and I."

"I saw her get turned to stone with everything else back there," Leo said quietly.

"We'll find a way to help them, one day," Kendrix promised with a clearly forced smile.

Leo nodded, trying to believe it, and turned back to Andros. "You know what happened after that."

Andros frowned thoughtfully. "It sounds like you ran through something like the wormhole we flew through. It just opened in front of the Astro Megaship before we could avoid it."

"Do you know what caused them?"

Andros shook his head. "DECA?"

"It is impossible to say at this point," the computer replied.

"Someone wanted us to be Power Rangers," Ashley said. "Specifically us five, but who?"

Andros gave the new Blue Ranger a sharp look. "And why?"

The new Rangers' clueless speculation was interrupted as, on the viewscreen, they saw the Terra Venture's thrusters fire for the first time. Slowly at first, the giant colony started to move on the first steps of its new journey to find a new world. The Astro Megaship, piloted by DECA, headed back into the docking bay as the colony started to pick up speed.

Quite some distance away from the colony's grand adventure lay the Scorpion Stinger. It was here that Furio had returned to after he left Mirinoi, and now he stood on the bridge. Behind him, on a stone throne, sat the warlord Scorpius, a huge, hideous beast of an insect. At first glance, perhaps, Scorpius might look so large as to be effectively useless, but Furio had seen those six powerful legs in action more than once, tearing apart some hapless minion that had disappointed him.

"Furio!" Scorpius's voice was a low growl, and always seemed to bear a threatening note. "What is our status?"

Furio turned to face him. "We have passed through the portal, Scorpius," he reported.

He could see his face reflected in the insect's large black eyes as he replied, a note of anger in his voice. "Then you had best begin your duty. Get me the Quasar Sabers, and destroy those who've taken them from me."

Furio gave a quick bow. "It will be done." He turned to leave, knowing not to upset his master by waiting around when he had been given a clear order.

Behind him, he heard a quiet response from Scorpius. He got the feeling he was meant to hear warlord's muttered threat, "It had better."