Ch 3
Andros opened his eyes to a familiar heaviness on his chest.
He glanced down and smiled when he found Arcadia's hair fanned across his chest and under his chin, her arm lightly wrapped around him. He smoothed her hair down a little as he moved it to relieve the itchiness around his neck. She moaned softly when he moved, falling silent again when he kissed the top of her head.
He noticed immediately that she had a different smell than before. It was usually a smell of Ipshin, her favorite flower. Now, she carried an unfamiliar scent, sweeter than any flower he had ever known. He would have gladly stayed in bed, inhaling her scent until he was forced to begin working, but he slowly sat up and gently placed her head on the pillow beside him before standing from the bed.
He looked down at the crumpled mess of clothes that they had left lying in the middle of the floor and grabbed them all up, tossing her uniform onto her desk before slipping on his own. He stretched a little, catching sight of the red shirt that lay under Arcadia's uniform jacket. He sighed and looked down at himself, shaking his head as he pulled Arcadia's yellow shirt over his head and tossed it aside. As he reached for his own shirt, he heard a giggle from behind him.
"Yellow just isn't your color, Andros," Arcadia said with a smile, giggling again when Andros tossed a piece of lint from his pants pocket at her. "Is that all you've got?"
"You'd have let me leave your room dressed like that, wouldn't you?" he asked, putting on his jacket.
"Maybe not," she replied with a laugh unlike her own and Andros looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Cade, we can't keep sleeping in each others' rooms," Andros said. "It's hard enough leaving without getting caught and then dealing with the others' whispering about us behind our backs."
"Oh, Andros," Arcadia began, sitting on the edge of the bed. "It's all harmless. You know that. They just like to see you agitated."
"But it's kind of embarrassing," Andros said with a sigh. "They just seem to know a little too much about us and I don't see how it is that you don't care."
"They're our friends," Arcadia said, standing from the bed and walking over to him. "And I don't care what they think they know about us."
She draped her arms around his neck and softly kissed his lips, pulling back from it only when he returned the kiss. She still smelled different, Andros' mind kept telling him as he was released from her embrace. She even sounded different as she sighed and pulled back from him. He finally looked at her again and gasped as his eyes met with those of another.
"You," he said almost accusingly as Ashley smiled innocently back at him as he took a step back from her.
***
Andros opened his eyes as the sound of DECA's alarm blared into his room. He jumped up from his bed quickly, scrambling to get dressed as the alarm continued to shriek. Finally, he was presentable enough to run up the emergency ladder to the bridge. When he arrived, the others were already waiting for him.
"What's wrong?" Andros asked.
"Astronema," Zhane said, pressing several buttons at the rear station. "She's following the ship."
"What else is new?" Andros said with a sigh.
"Well, she's firing on us," Zhane said just as the ship violently jolted forward. "And we're surrounded by velocifighters."
"Why?"
"Because she's evil," Zhane replied impatiently. "You want to help us out a little?"
"Sorry," Andros muttered, taking a seat beside him and glancing behind him at the others who hurried to the other stations. "Do these guys know how to use everything?"
"They know enough," Zhane answered, standing next to Cassie who took a seat at his station. "Stand by, everyone."
Andros glanced to his right as a familiar scent caught his attention. It was the same as in his dream and was stronger once Ashley sat down beside him. So it was her.
"Standing by," Zhane said as the ship jolted forward again. "Awaiting your orders, Andros."
"Right," Andros said, focusing on the screen in front of him. "Shields?"
"At ninety percent," Ashley said, scanning her console briefly. "Slight damage to the thrusters."
"Mega Lasers?"
"Armed," Cassie said.
"Can you get a lock on any of them?"
"They're moving too fast," Carlos said. "None of them are staying in range long enough to lock in."
"Aim the lasers upward and turn off the engines on my command," Andros said firmly, jerking forward in his seat as the Megaship was hit again.
"But then the shields won't be activated," Zhane said. "We really need those right now."
"If we don't take these things down, we lose the ship and our lives," Andros replied, locking eyes with him. "If you have another plan, I'm listening. But I have a plan right now that will ensure that we take down at least half of them."
Zhane silently looked around at the others, seeing the same concerns reflected on their faces. "Then, show me," he said to his friend.
With a look of gratitude, Andros turned back to his console. "Engines off on my command," he said before turning to Ashley. "Where are they?"
"They're circling us," Ashley said, looking down at her screen. "A few are flying over our heads. None below us."
"Engines off… now," Andros said as they were fired upon once more.
T.J. turned off the engines one by one and the ship slowly began to freefall downward.
"Entering the gravitational pull of the planet Halsan-125 in sixty seconds," Carlos reported.
"Come on," Andros muttered to himself. "Be predictable… be predictable…"
"Forty seconds," Carlos said.
"Aim the lasers manually," Andros commanded, turning to Cassie who quickly grabbed at the joystick on her console. "Angle at ninety-eight degrees."
"Thirty seconds," Carlos informed nervously.
"Turn engines on," Andros ordered, pressing a button on his console just as the engines whirred back on and the ship stopped its descent.
"We've exited Halsan-125's gravitational pull," Carlos said. "Still not able to lock onto the velocifighters. But they're now within range."
"Fire!" Andros commanded.
He watched on his own screen as the ship's lasers began firing in a complete circle, hitting a majority of the velocifighters within its range. His sigh was one of relief as the others celebrated a little.
"How many are left?" Andros asked.
"Seven of the fifteen sent are left," Ashley replied. "But they're retreating to the ship behind us."
"The Dark Fortress," Zhane said. "Can't imagine what that was all about."
As if on cue, the main viewing screen flashed and Astronema's image appeared. "New rangers?" she said with a smirk as she pushed her bright blue hair behind her shoulders. "That explains how you survived my attack."
"What do you want, Astronema?" Andros asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
"You have recently come into possession of something that I want," she answered. "And you will hand it over sooner or later."
"And what is it that you think we have?" Zhane said.
"I do hate it when you play games," Astronema said, motioning to someone beyond the screen and smiling when the Astro Megaship was hit with another blast.
"Shields?" Andros asked, glancing over at Ashley's console.
"At seventy percent and dropping," Ashley replied.
"Sounds like you might not be able to handle too many hits to your ship right now," Astronema said. "So, I'll say it again… Hand over the Ka'ana Veo shards."
"We don't know anything about any shards," Zhane said.
Astronema only smiled again as two blasts from the Dark Fortress hit the Astro Megaship again. "I can do this all day," she said. "You can either hand them over to me or I can shoot your ship to the ground and have it searched later. Either way, I will get those shards."
"Overall energy levels?" Andros asked as the screen went blank and another powerful blast hit the ship.
"Sixty-eight percent," T.J. answered. "And forty percent of it is in the engines."
"Divert all power to the engines and thrusters," Andros said. "Activate the Astro Thrusters and turn the ship around."
"Astro Thrusters online," Cassie said. "They're activated but running at eight-three percent efficiency due to damage."
"That's more than enough to get us out of here," Andros said. "Set a course for the Uni-2 galaxy."
"Course set," T.J. confirmed, placing his hands on the control joysticks beside him and pulling them back. "Hyper Rush 2 initiated."
The bridge was silent as they scanned the surrounding areas for the Dark Fortress and any remaining velocifighters. When they were certain that they had not been followed, they slowed their speed, sure that the ship's power would fade to nothing if it remained at Hyper Rush velocity.
"Great job, you guys," Zhane said after a while. "I knew that you'd catch on to everything pretty quick. What'd you think, Andros?"
"They were fine," he mumbled after letting out a long sigh, though the others did not seem bothered by it and were likely happy that he commented at all. "Ka'ana Veo shards… I wonder if that's what you were sent to find on Kor'es."
"It would explain why she'd think that we had them," Cassie said.
"Do you think that she knew to look for them on Kor'es?" Ashley asked.
"I doubt it," Zhane said. "I'm more curious to know how she found out about it in the first place."
"Me too," Andros agreed. "If the shards are the ancient things that we're looking for, why is Astronema after it now? It was there yesterday and months before that. And now she comes to us thinking that we have them for some reason. Why?"
"Should we research it?" Carlos asked with a shrug.
"No," Andros replied. "The ship's repairs come first. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to get things back to normal. Unfortunately, we don't have enough supplies to fix everything here."
"Do you think that there'd be any supplies for the ship on Earth?" Ashley asked. "According to the star chart, Earth is the closest inhabited planet to this galaxy."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Zhane said. "Andros?"
"Set a course for Earth," he ordered DECA reluctantly, getting from his seat and leaving the bridge. "I'm going to start on some of the repairs that I know we have supplies for."
"Did you need any help?" T.J. asked.
"No," Andros answered. "Run system checks before we get to Earth and make sure that we have information to compare it to when we're done fixing everything."
"No problem," T.J. said as Andros disappeared behind the Megalift doors.
"Is he gone?" Zhane asked looking over T.J.'s shoulder.
"He's gone," Cassie replied.
"Good," he said, hurrying to the panel on the wall and closing the bridge doors. He walked to the center station console and opened a compartment under it, pulling out a small box. "In the event that we get separated on Earth, you might want to have these."
Zhane opened the box, revealing four communicators and morphers.
"This is your way onto the ship if Andros and I aren't with you for whatever reason," Zhane explained. "DECA isn't to allow anyone without an Astromorpher onto the ship as long as we're not here and unfortunately that includes you guys. I personally trust you guys enough to leave you alone on the Megaship and it seems annoying to keep all the supplies with us until we all decide to teleport together. So now when you get things for the ship you can teleport them directly to the ship."
"You don't think he hates us enough for being here?" Carlos asked, though he put the communicator and morpher onto his wrist. "You want us to lie to him too."
"I don't think he hates you at all," Zhane said. "The attack today has assured me that Andros and I will be involved in your search on Kor'es, so you may as well be prepared to fight alongside us. We can use the Simudeck for training and…"
"And keep it a secret until we know that he won't kill you for this?" Ashley suggested.
"He was impressed by what he saw in you guys today," Zhane said. "And so was I. It won't take long for him to warm up to the idea of new Astrorangers. But until then, as long as we don't need you to fight, we can keep it between us for a little while."
"How long is 'a little while'?" Cassie asked.
"A week or so maybe," Zhane said. "But I'll tell him before then if I have to."
"And the lying?" Carlos asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Only by omission," Zhane said. "If he doesn't mention it, neither do you. I'd rather not keep it from him at all, but based on his reactions to you just being here… it's not exaggerating to say that he might try to kill me. But I think that he'll be happy about the decision itself, even if he isn't happy that I made it without him."
***
Six hours later, the Astro Megaship hovered within Earth's orbit and the rangers stood in the workbay, looking down at the mess of supplies that they had gathered and set onto the floor. NASADA had been generous in allowing the rangers to buy any equipment or tools on their account, with the promise that they would continue to protect the Earth of course. Only Zhane and Andros had morphed prior to speaking with NASADA, with Zhane looking nervously at the others when Andros called out 'let's rocket' and the others had reacted briefly. It was only when Zhane had reminded them that they should wait in the corridor outside the bridge that they remembered that Andros did not know about the morphers.
They had decided to split up the list of supplies and hurried around Angel Grove, looking for the seventy-eight materials of various uses and materials in every hardware store within the area. By the time they all met again, they were all too tired and hungry to start working right away. It was only Andros that needed convincing to go to the Penny Palace café for a bite to eat.
But they finally pulled him away from the Megaship and led him through the turmoil of people. As they walked, he seemed not to be very impressed with Earth, constantly comparing everything relatively new to him with something he had seen on KO-35. By the time they had all sat down at a table and ordered him a hamburger, which he could not help pointing out that was similar in appearance to a totim sandwich on KO-35, everyone was too hungry to force further conversation with him.
As Andros forced down the delicious and oiled thing that was called a hamburger, he let his mind wander to the sights around him. He knew that he was pushing the limits with the others, but he intended to torture them as long as he could. After all, they were keeping secrets from him and he could think of no better torture for a group of people than mental. Had they really thought that he would not see the morphers hanging out of their sleeves and pockets? Was he not supposed to recognize the communicators that he had repaired time after time for one reason or another?
But it was more painful for him to talk so much about home, if he could even call it that anymore. He had not seen KO-35 in several years and it hurt to remember anything good about it. Anything good was surely something that he experienced with Arcadia and she was gone now. Andros immediately shook himself out of his thoughts, knowing that now was not the time to focus on such sadness. He allowed his eyes to scan the café, listening briefly to the arguing couple a few tables away and the misbehaving children that did not seem far enough away. Finally, his eyes rested on a group of four people whispering to one another and passing around what appeared to be photographs.
"Did you know other rangers on Earth?" Andros asked, turning back to the others.
"Yes," Ashley answered, glancing around the room. "Why do you ask?"
"Were they rangers?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the four people at the next table.
"How'd you know that?" Ashley asked.
"I know a ranger when I see one," Andros said, taking some joy in seeing her guilty expression.
"Tommy?" T.J. called out.
The man raised his head upon hearing his name and smiled when he was able to match the voice with a face.
"T.J., how've you been?" Tommy asked, clasping hands with him briefly.
"Great," T.J. answered. "We just thought that we'd try this new place out while showing a couple of new friends around."
Andros looked up at T.J. upon hearing the word 'friends,' wondering if he was just being polite.
"Andros, Zhane, this is Tommy," T.J. said. "And that's Adam, Aisha, and Rocky."
The three quiet people exchanged smiles and or friendly waves with one another, pushing back the photos that they had been examining prior to the interruption.
"Tommy…" Andros was muttering to himself quietly. "Tommy… "
"Oliver," Zhane nearly shouted, exchanging a glance with Andros. "Tommy Oliver."
"You're Tommy Oliver," Andros said almost in awe.
"You know me?" Tommy asked.
"Know you?" Andros said. "We know almost everything about you. You're one of the few Earth rangers that have become intergalactic legends."
"Um… wow," Tommy said, blushing a little. "I don't think that I've done anything worth telling about though."
"If the stories that we've heard are true, then you're all legends as far as we're concerned," Zhane replied.
"Intergalactic legends?" Adam asked. "How do people know who we are?"
"Zordon used to brag about his Earth rangers all the time," Andros said. "He always sent transmissions about your progress as heroes to Eltar. Many of the things that he learned during your time as rangers were documented and used to train us."
"Like what?" Rocky asked.
"That the emotions that come from teenagers are always in their purest forms," Andros replied. "And those emotions, good or bad, can be a powerful weapon. Although, I'm sure that he probably knew that on his own."
The rangers all smiled at the memory of Zordon as the former rangers did the same. They wondered how much they should reveal about Zordon's kidnapping, unsure that it was worth worrying them about.
"You know, it's funny that we should run into you," Aisha said, handing Andros and Zhane the photos on the table. "You two have probably seen quite a few things in your lives, traveling to different planets and everything, right?"
"Sure," Andros answered with a shrug as he looked down at the pictures.
"Well, I was scuba-diving in an underwater cave recently," Tommy explained with a sigh. "And I was able to capture something that I saw there on film. I could take a guess as to what they are, but I couldn't be sure. I didn't want to move them, but I hated to leave them if they might be something dangerous."
Zhane and Andros looked at the photos carefully, holding several of them close to their faces as they attempted to make out a word on the five items pictured. They appeared to be dark bands with a flat metal buckle with a triangular emblem on the front in different colors.
"They look like morphers," Zhane said, handing the pictures back.
"They say 'Veo' on them," Andros added, handing the photos in his hands back as well. He turned to Zhane sharply. "Didn't Astronema mention some Veo shards?"
"The Ka'ana Veo shards," Zhane nodded. "This is too strange to be a coincidence. Dimitria sends you guys after some ancient thing that will give you your powers back on Kor'es and then we get attacked because Astronema thinks that we have something ancient that we've never heard of before. Now we come here and you have pictures of morphers that we've never heard of. Three groups of rangers drawn to the same source of power –Veo."
"So they are morphers?" Rocky asked. "Then, I'll see you guys later."
"Roc –" Tommy began.
"I agreed to come here to your meeting about these things you saw," Rocky interrupted. "But I told you from the beginning that I wasn't going to be a part of this again."
"A part of what?" a voice asked from beside him.
"Hey, Kim," Rocky muttered as he made his way to the door. "Bye, guys."
"Bye, Rocky," Kim said, locking eyes with Tommy. "What was that about?"
"Nothing," Tommy said quickly, receiving a knowing look from Kim. "It's nothing."
"Are you lying to me?" Kim asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Because if you are –"
"It wasn't 'nothing'," Tommy confessed with a sigh. "But I didn't want to tell you until I was sure."
Kim looked from the table of old friends to the table of familiar faces and glared at Tommy. "You're doing ranger stuff again, aren't you?" she asked.
"I wasn't sure that it was ranger stuff," Tommy said.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sure that you just got our friends together to talk about high school," Kim said sarcastically. "See you at home."
"Kim, wait," Tommy said, holding her back gently by her sleeve and turning her to him. "I wasn't going to make any major decisions without you… I really just wanted to be sure, Kim. I'm sorry that I didn't include you as soon as I found them. But you're included now and I won't agree to anything without your say so… if there's anything to agree to."
"Okay," Kim said, finding it too difficult to pout as long as he was looking into her eyes. "But no more secrets."
"I promise," Tommy said with a smile, leaning forward to kiss her.
The others looked away as the couple locked lips for only a moment. Ashley watched them dreamily, hoping that she would someday know a love as deep as theirs seemed to be. But her thoughts were immediately interrupted by a loud sigh from Andros. She doubted that he realized just how loud he had been. Even when the others looked at him, he had seemed to not notice.
"If there's nothing else," he began, standing from his seat. "We should get back to the ship. We have a lot of work to do."
Zhane watched as Andros walked out of the door, finally standing from his own seat with a sigh. "He's right. We have a day's work ahead of us and it's already nearly over. If we don't start now, we'll be too tired to do anything later," he said with a nod, motioning for the others to do the same before taking off his communicator and placing it on the table. "If we find out anything else about the Veo power, we'll let you know."
"And we'll do the same," Tommy replied. "Thanks."
Tommy sat back down at his table, offering Kim the seat beside him and taking her hand with a smile. She readily accepted it, gently grasping his fingers in her hand as she greeted Adam and Aisha.
"Hey, Tommy?" Kim asked, glancing back at the door.
"Yeah?" he replied, looking over the photos once again.
"Did they mention something about getting to a… ship?"
