Chapter 7 – Angry Again
April 30 1998 - Stewart Residence
It was early in the morning and all the occupants of the Stewart household were asleep, except for one. In his room Andros was wake awake and he had been for several hours. After moving in with the other rangers, Andros had been given Doug Stewart's old room. Charlotte and Justin had kept their old rooms, leaving Cassie and Ashley to share the final bedroom. The other boys had drawn the short straw and were sleeping downstairs in the front room.
The red ranger had brought a lot of equipment with him from the Megaship, under the pretence for searching for Zordon. The computers were doing that but at the same time they were also running a separate search for Andros' sister. He sighed as he eliminated another region of the galaxy and began to search in a different area. Several times over the last fifteen years, Andros had considered the possibility that Karone was dead. But something in the back of mind was telling him that she was alive. Perhaps it was a telepathic bond that all Karovians shared with their family, or maybe it was just a twin thing.
While it was a large galaxy, Andros would have expected his sister to show up somewhere. Humans weren't that prevalent in every region and the mysterious appearance of a young human girl would have raised some red flags somewhere. It was this strong belief and determination that kept him going during these long hours of searching.
He was watching the surveillance footage from that fateful day again when suddenly he heard the floorboards outside his door creaking. He immediately turned the screen off and grabbed his Astro Blaster from the bedside table. Keeping it behind his back he approached the door and pulled it open. He was relieved to see that it was just Ashley standing outside. He was then embarrassed when he realised she was only wearing a yellow and white nightshirt that only went down as far as her knees. "Ashley", he mumbled while trying to avert his gaze, "you startled me".
Ashley smiled, "Yeah I can see", she replied noting the Blaster in his hand. She couldn't help but notice that his cheeks were flushed and thought how cute he looked. She realised that they had been standing in silence for a while so she regained her senses and continued, "I heard a noise so I went to investigate. Then I saw your light on and thought you were in trouble".
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you", he apologised.
The yellow ranger looked over her team leader and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. She then saw that his bed hadn't been slept in, "Andros have you been up all night?"
Andros looked at the clock and saw it read 5am, "Yeah I guess I have, must've lost track of time".
Ashley's eye narrowed, there was something bugging her. The others had noticed the odd patterns in his behaviour, sleeping for just a few hours a day and the reluctance to share anything about his life before he met the others. "Look Andros I don't want this to sound rude but we're worried about you", Ashley began. "We promised that we wouldn't keep any secrets from you and we've kept our end of the bargain".
The red ranger looked at Ashley dangerously, "Are you accusing me of keeping secrets?"
"Not accusing", Ashley replied, "but you're hiding something and if it's detrimental to the team then I think we should know".
"Do you", Andros began and sat down on his desk chair, "if you must know I've been working to try and find Zordon". It wasn't a total lie but it wasn't the whole story, "Perhaps everyone else should be doing the same thing instead of goofing off all the time".
"How dare you", Ashley shouted, "you know for a fact that we would if we had the same equipment that you did". She breathed deeply to try and regain her composure, "you may not have wanted to join up with us but you should at least work on treating us as your equals".
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Andros shot back.
"You know exactly what I mean", Ashley replied, "I can't speak for everyone but I certainly feel that you don't treat me as a team member. You rarely include us in these searches that you conduct and you're reluctant to join us during our training sessions. Until you do that don't you dare accuse us of slacking off spaceman".
The pair looked at each other murderously but before the argument could continue the computer beeped. Andros immediately called up the search programs but he was confused. There were no search results listed. "What is it?" Ashley asked as she peered over his shoulder.
"I'm not sure", he replied, "the computer's found something but it's not directly connected to my Zordon location program". He pushed a few buttons and a message appeared on screen, "Incoming encrypted message, that's weird".
"Isn't DECA set up to receive email", Ashley tried to joke but Andros didn't get the reference. Instead he tried entering a password but this was rejected. He tried a few more times but the computer kept telling him that he wasn't authorised to view the message. "I'll wake Justin and Charlie, perhaps they can do something", Ashley said and Andros merely grunted in response. The red ranger was confused, who could send a message like this?
A few hours later neither Andros nor the Stewart siblings were closer to cracking the encryption on the file. For the first hour everyone gathered around the computer and waited in anticipation but as time passed the others began to drift away. Andros though decided to remain and watched as Charlotte and Justin worked. While it was clear that the former blue Turbo ranger was good with computers, her younger brother was marginally better. Inevitably this led to some arguments between the siblings.
Andros looked at the pair enviously, he hadn't got the chance to argue with his sister like Stewart's were doing right now. Despite their bickering it was obvious that they cared for each other though. Andros hoped that wherever Karone was, she at least knew that he hadn't forgotten about her and he was searching to try and find her. He watched Charlotte and Justin argue a little while longer but eventually he couldn't take it anymore, it was making him far too envious.
He walked downstairs and found that the house was empty. He went into the kitchen and saw the others playing a game that they called basketball. They claimed that it was part of their training regime but to him it just looked like they were running around after a ball. Deciding that a walk would clear his head, he grabbed a jacket from the peg and left through the front door.
He walked away from the house and thought about the things Ashley had said earlier. He had given them the morphers and uniforms so of course they were part of the team. Then again perhaps he was still keeping them at arm's length. He mocked their game of basketball and its benefits to their team work but he had never tried it either.
He didn't know how long he had been walking but soon Andros found himself in a rocky patch of scrubland. Maybe it was time to go back and this time he would tell them everything, starting with the story of his sister's disappearance. He sighed as he thought about Karone again and he wished that she was with him right now.
"Well well, what do we have here", he heard a voice call from behind him. His blood immediately ran cold as he turned around to face his mortal enemy, "Out for an early morning stroll", she teased.
"Astronema", he growled, "come to do what your minions have failed to do".
"Perhaps", she began and tapped her staff on the ground a couple of times, "maybe I just wanted to say hello".
"Well now you've done that, you can leave", Andros spat.
"So much anger red ranger", she smiled, "what did I ever do to you", Astronema added with a mocking tone.
By now Andros was barely controlling his anger, "You know exactly what you did, you destroyed my home planet, killed hundreds of thousands of Karovians", he swallowed before continuing, "including my parents".
"Maybe they deserved it", Astronema shot back with a vicious tone. She fired a blast from her staff which Andros narrowly avoided. Quickly morphing he summoned his Spiral Saber and charged at the Princess of Evil. Astronema managed to block a couple of swings before jamming the end of her staff into the ribs of the red ranger. Andros cried out in pain and dropped down to one knee, much to the delight of Astronema.
Underneath his helmet, Andros ground his teeth before going on the attack again. This time he mixed in a few kicks to try and throw Astronema off guard but whatever he tried, she seemed to have an answer for it. The Princess of Evil used her staff to sweep out Andros' legs and he crashed to the ground with a bump, dropping his saber in the process.
Astronema laughed and brought her staff up into an attacking position. Almost on instinct Andros used his telekinetic abilities and summoned his saber back into his hand. From his prone position slashed the weapon across the unprotected legs of Astronema. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at her legs. Andros rolled away and gasped when he saw red blood on Astronema's gloved hands. The Spiral Saber had cut through her suit and her legs were bleeding badly, "You're human?" he managed to splutter.
"Of course I'm human", Astronema roared, "what else would I be?"
The red rangers didn't know how to respond. He always assumed that the public face of Astronema was just a human disguise. He never once thought that she was actually a human, "Then why to you fight for Dark Specter?" he asked.
Astronema struggled back to her feet and retrieved her staff, "Revenge", she growled, "a team of rangers killed my family and I will stop at nothing until all rangers had been wiped out in the galaxy".
"But that can't be right", Andros replied, "Power Rangers would never kill other humans, you must be mistaken".
"You're calling me a liar?" Astronema pointed her staff at the red ranger, "you'll be the first one of your team to die". She fired a powerful blast of purple and black energy at Andros. Somehow the red ranger was able to connect his blaster to the Spiral Saber to put it into Booster Mode. A wave of red energy met Astronema's in the middle of the wasteland. The pair battled for supremacy, forcing all of their energy into their respective attacks.
After a few moments, Astronema's energy wave was slowly edging its way toward the red ranger. Andros was putting everything he had into his attack but he was slowly running out of energy. Suddenly four shadows appeared overhead, signalling the arrival of the other rangers. Carlos jumped down with the Quadro Blaster already in hand. Cassie, TJ and Ashley jumped down behind him and the black ranger fired the weapon.
The energy blast from the Quadra Blaster tipped the balance in Andros' favour and Astronema knew that she was beaten. She had just enough time to throw up a magical shield before the energy wave slammed into it. She was saved from the worst of the blast but the shockwave still knocked her off her feet. Immediately leaping to her feet, she stared across at the five rangers defiantly before teleporting away.
Andros breathed a sigh of relief before sinking to his knees, "Thanks", he gasped.
"What the hell Andros", Carlos began, "I thought you weren't going to run off without us again?"
The red ranger shook his head, "I didn't run off, I was walking and Astronema got the jump on me". The black ranger sensed the honesty in his words and immediately backed down.
"I should have told you I was going out, I'm sorry", Andros apologised. "Look can we head back, I've got some things I want to share with you". The others nodded and jumped on their Galaxy Gliders and flew back to the Stewart's house.
An hour later, Andros had finished explaining to everyone about Karone and the search he was conducting for her in secret. The others were initially annoyed that he hadn't told them from the start but they soon moved past it and offered to help Andros in his search in any way they could. In return they got Andros to agree to play a game of basketball with them. They were heading out to the garden when Ashley pulled Andros aside, "Hey I just wanted to apologise for this morning", she began, "I didn't mean to sound like a bitch".
Andros nodded, "Apology accepted", he replied, "I should apologise too, what I said was completely out of line".
"We make a right pair don't we", Ashley smiled and extended her hand, "friend's again?" Andros nodded and shook her hand. As he did so he took a good look into her eyes, he had never noticed what a deep shade of brown they were before. He liked the way they seemed to sparkle when she smiled, like they were doing right now. Their touch and gaze lingered for a while and they were gradually inching closer to each other.
The moment though was ruined by a pounding coming from the stairs as Charlotte and Justin sprinted down. Andros and Ashley immediately dropped each other's hand like they had been electrocuted. "Sorry did we interrupt something?" Charlotte asked with a smile.
The yellow ranger regained her composure and brushed her hair behind her ear, "No just two friends reaching an understanding", she replied.
"Right", Charlotte drawled, "anyway we've decrypted the message".
"You have?" Andros asked.
"Yeah, have you ever heard of a company called INET?" Justin asked. The red and yellow shook their heads, "Man how could you not have heard of INET".
"Because we're not all nerds like you butthead", Charlotte smiled.
"Hey cut that out douchebag", Justin shot back.
"Guys can you get to the point", Ashley cried out in frustration.
Justin nodded sheepishly, "Sorry", he said but nudged his sister for good measure, "anyway INET stands for International Engineering and Technology. They're kinda like Microsoft but they only deal in commercial and defence computing rather than personal computing. The message we received was from them".
Andros looked at the youngster in confusion, "Why would this INET company contact us?"
"Dunno it didn't say", he replied, "but it said the CEO wants to meet you in its global headquarters in Tokyo in a week's time".
The two rangers were still surprised that a global corporation would contact them directly. Perhaps a more important question for Andros was how could INET send him a message? There weren't many people in the galaxy who could send a direct message to DECA. The red ranger smelt a trap but at least they would have a week to decide whether to spring it or not.
A/N – Oh Andros, you don't even realise that your wish came true...
