Ch 21

"What is wrong with you guys?" Sadi asked in frustration, looking around the Simudeck at the other rangers in disgust. "None of these Craterites should still be standing! You guys are fighting on a level 10 training course –Astrorangers are supposed to fight on a level 16 by the end of their first six months. How long have you guys been rangers?"

Ashley glared at Sadi briefly, knocking down the Craterites in front of her with a single side kick, running over to T.J. to help him dispatch of the six Craterites that surrounded him.

"Stop simulation," Sadi called out just as Ashley reached him. "Ashley, what are you doing?"

"There's this thing called teamwork –" Ashley began, placing her hands on her hips.

"T.J. is a big boy," Sadi interrupted with a sigh. "In fact, he used to be a leader. Why would you assume that he needed your help?"

"Teamwork has always been an important attribute of the Power Rangers," T.J. replied.

"Which is why you're all as weak as you are," Sadi said. "Working as a team is great and everything, but how can you expect to tap into your powers as long as you guys baby each other all the time?"

Carlos let out a breath before walking up to Sadi a little, stopping just a few feet in front of her. "We've been doing this for months now and as you can see, we're still alive. That means that we're doing something right, doesn't it? Why can't you just let us fight our own way?"

Sadi folded her arms and rolled her eyes, taking a few steps toward him. "If Andros has ever seen you fight, he knows how to counter all your moves by now… I know I do –all of you… You guys can be better than what you're showing me and I won't go any easier on you until you show me that you can be better."

Carlos shook his head a little and sighed again as T.J. tossed him and everyone else a towel before using his own to wipe the sweat from his face.

"I'm not doing this to be mean," Sadi began, watching as the others avoided her eyes while exchanging glances with each other. "But when I had my morpher, I was ten times faster than you Ashley… And T.J., you tap into one of your highest speeds when you do a spinning Astro Axe attack. Did you know that you can stay at that speed for at least ten minutes after you use that move?"

T.J. shook his head as he continued to wipe away the sweat from his face. "Zhane told me that staying at that speed for too long could weaken me physically and drain my morpher."

"That's why I said that you can do it for ten minutes," Sadi replied. "No one said for you to go overboard with it… And Cassie, your Satellite Stunner can be used for so many other things. Forget locating monsters at close range and the attack of energy rings. Did you know that at least three rings can leave your weapon at one time?"

"Yeah, so?" Cassie said.

"So, did you also know that your morpher can open each of those rings and wrap them around your enemies and that you can send those rings in three different directions?"

Cassie shook her head as the concept entered her thoughts. "No, I guess I didn't," she replied softly.

"And I'll bet that you didn't know that your Lunar Lance can extend and retract during attacks, right?" Sadi asked Carlos who shook his head. "In booster mode, your Lunar Lance's extension determines the power behind its blast."

Ashley looked up as Sadi's eyes finally landed on her, a chill running down her spine as the anger welled up within her.

"And Ashley," Sadi began. "The energy that shoots out from your Star Slinger can grow to the size of boulders if you learn how to concentrate."

"Well, it's hard to concentrate on anything when you have us practicing six hours a day after school," Ashley muttered.

"If you guys were any good at what you did, I might go easier on you," Sadi replied, folding her arms.

Ashley shook her head with a sigh and walked past Sadi toward the doorway.

"I didn't say you guys were finished," Sadi called after her.

"We're finished," Carlos said firmly, following Ashley away from the Simudeck with the others in tow.

"You guys can be better than you are," Sadi said from behind them. "I'm not as accepting of sloppy fighting as Zhane and Andros were."

"We're done for the day, Sadi," T.J. replied as the rangers boarded the Megalift. "We'll work on those moves you talked about tomorrow. But right now, we're kind of exhausted."

"Fine, then," Sadi said, walking toward them slowly. "But if the rangers before you could do all those things I told you about and still died, what do you think your future looks like?"

"We said that we'll work on it tomorrow," Cassie said. "But sleep is a must right now."

"Yeah, for your schooling tomorrow," Sadi said rolling her eyes. "I don't know why you guys don't –"

Sadi looked up at DECA's red light as a loud alarm sounded. "I don't miss that sound," she said, shaking her head before turning back to the rangers. "But it looks like you'll get more training in after all," she added.

-0-0-0-0-

As usual, Angel Grove was in a frenzy as the rangers arrived on the scene. Darkonda was waiting impatiently for them, firing his laser eyes at anything that moved around him. Surprisingly, he aimed just above heads or in front of feet, trying to scare the panicking humans more than anything else.

By the time the rangers reached him, Darkonda had distracted himself enough for the rangers to launch a sneak attack. They quickly withdrew their weapons as they came upon him, attaching their weapons to their lasers in booster mode, hoping that it would work just enough to weaken him. They were way too tired to fight Darkonda for an extended amount of time and they had failed to cause him much physical damage during the last times they had fought him.

They finally fired, their blasts landing on him as he sensed the rangers and turned to face them. The barrage of energy resulted in a stumble forward, but not a fall and the rangers silently cursed, knowing that more effort was less than possible with their energy levels at an all-time low.

"Give it up, rangers," Darkonda said as he regained his footing and the rangers took defensive stances in front of him. "I can't be destroyed that easily."

Out of nowhere, a large group of quantrons appeared in front of Darkonda, charging at the rangers. Darkonda grumbled a little, more disappointed by the fact that Astronema seemed adamant that he would not fight the rangers as long as the Red and Silver Rangers would not be joining the fight.

Not surprisingly, the rangers found themselves more than at the mercy of the quantrons after a few minutes. No thanks to Sadi's daily regimen of training and torture, they were too tired even to keep up with the second-rate minions. Darkonda's laughter at their struggle only served as a distraction as the rangers fell to the mediocre might of the quantrons.

Once the rangers had enough or maybe once Darkonda and the quantrons tired of the rangers, the rangers stood to find themselves no longer surrounded by Darkonda or the quantrons with a small bag on the ground in their place.

T.J. slowly walked over to the bag, ignoring the pain in his side as he bent over to pick it up.

"Another present for Andros?" Carlos inquired, clutching his stomach in pain.

"It wouldn't surprise me," T.J. answered with a nod. "Let's get back to the ship."

The rangers stood side-by-side, pressing the buttons on their morpher to teleport them back to the ship. But even that energy seemed to be drained now and they were able to see the ship as they approached it.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"You failed to capture him again?" Sadi asked, rolling her eyes. "This is why you all need to practice."

"It was your training sessions that did it," Ashley said, wishing that she could have had at least a good five minutes to herself before being immediately berated by Sadi from the Megalift to the bridge.

"Yeah," Carlos said. "You can't expect us to fight after seven hours of school and three hours of training."

"I never had a problem doing it and I trained up to twelve hours a day," Sadi said with a shrug, eyeing the small bag in T.J.'s hand. "What's that?"

T.J. looked down at his hand and turned the bag upside down over a console. Out of it gently rolled a silver ring, a rectangular piece of blue metal, and a rock.

The rangers glanced at one another before finally looking to Sadi who stood staring at the objects with a frown. Her eyes were glazed over as she moved toward the objects and carefully picked each item up and studied them one by one.

"What are they?" T.J. finally asked.

"Did that monster say that these were meant for Andros?" Sadi asked instead.

"Not exactly," Ashley answered. "Why?"

"I only recognize two of these things," Sadi replied with a sigh. "The blue, um, I think you call them dog-tags on Earth, belonged to Fuso, the Blue Astroranger."

"How can you be sure?" Carlos asked. "Something like that could have been replicated… you know, to play with Andros' mind."

"Not this," Sadi said, shaking her head. "Fuso's name isn't on it, but he etched 'SILU' into it, the Karovan word for 'honor'. Besides, how many dog-tags do you find that are made of blue palladium?"

Sadi picked up the green glittering rock and turned it over in her hands, not quite satisfied with her initial look at it. "I'm not one hundred percent on this, but I think that this was Jishai's, the Black Astroranger."

"It's a rock," Cassie said. "How can you distinguish between Jishai's rock and any other?"

"It's not just any rock," Sadi explained. "Jishai's rock was priceless, worth quite a bit in the Universal Trade. It's all that's left of one of the oldest hypergiant stars in the Karova star system. That star was made up of priceless material and when it collapsed, Jishai found a piece of it stuck in one of the Astro Megaship's thrusters."

"So, you don't recognize the ring at all?" Ashley asked.

"No," Sadi said, placing the rock down and picking the ring up, staring into the bright red solitary gem in its center. "But I'll bet that Andros would… It's too bad that we can't ask him."

"We could've if you had let him keep his communicator," Ashley said.

"Not an option," Sadi said with a smile. "And you still just can't accept that he's not coming back… But if I were you, I'd start imagining a world without the Red Astroranger because he won't be back for a while."

Ashley frowned, but decided it best not to stare Sadi down. She had gotten away with it a few times now, but it was only a matter of time before Sadi decided to take her morpher away from her again. So, she nodded instead and followed the others from the bridge silently.

"Oh, and Cassie," Sadi began as she followed the rangers toward the Megalift. "It's your turn to stay on the bridge tonight."

"I did it last night," Cassie protested, trying not to whine.

"Well, you won't have to do it anymore this week if you can stay awake this time," Sadi said. "DECA's scanners are set to search for Zordon and we need manual scans of the area at short-range to make sure that we aren't being followed."

Cassie let out a breath as she watched the others disappear behind the Megalift's doors before walking back to the bridge and sitting down at a console.

She might have stayed awake last night if Sadi had not insisted that they train on the Simudeck for an extra two hours that day, she could not help thinking as she began a manual scan of the immediate area. And she was sure that tonight would be no different as she rested her head in her hands, just barely able to keep her eyes open using her own free will.

Cassie stared down at the small screen, almost tuning out the soft intermittent beeps that came from the console as it identified a small round object floating close to the ship.

"DECA, what is that?" she asked as an image of the thin disc appeared on the main viewing screen.

"Unidentified object not determined to be an immediate threat," DECA informed.

"Can you teleport it onto the ship?" Cassie asked, wondering if she could be so cruel as to call the others back to see it.

"Teleporting now," DECA replied.

Cassie watched as the object disappeared from the viewing screen and reappeared in front of her. She remained sitting in her chair, cautiously approaching the small silver disk-shaped technology that whirred and beeped in quick, low tones. She finally got up the courage to touch it, prodding it quickly a few times to test its temperature and its reaction to her touch. When it failed to do anything especially exciting, she picked it up and began to examine it, finding only a large red button on its underside that stood out from the miniscule buttons and switches that surrounded it. She took in a deep breath before lightly pressing the red button.

"You pressed the red button," a familiar voice said softly before the object floated from her hands and a screen emanated from it. Cassie smiled as the image on the screen cleared and the Phantom Ranger appeared on it. "You should never press the red button," he said.

"I wouldn't be me if I didn't take a chance on the red button every once in a while," Cassie replied, unable to hide her smile as she smoothed her hair down as subtly as possible. "So… you spying on us or something?"

"Not exactly," he answered hesitantly. "I don't have access to the ship, but I have learned something in the time that I've been monitoring your whereabouts."

"Still sounds like spying to me," Cassie said teasingly.

"I suppose that it is," he admitted. "I'm monitoring the ship because Sadi can't be trusted. The fact that she was able to gain access to the ship at all is a little suspicious. But I can't seem to figure out how she did it."

"If Andros and Zhane did something to make her lose her morpher, then why is it suspicious that she used that excuse to get it back?"

"Because it didn't work two years ago," he replied. "The A.D.A. Galactic Force already had enough evidence to put Andros away for a long time and they didn't."

"What did he do?" Cassie asked.

"Andros put someone in the hospital for a while… but I'm sorry to admit that I don't blame him for what he did at all."

"I'm a bit surprised to hear you say that," Cassie said softly. "You've never supported that side of justice before."

"I usually don't condone any type of violence against humans, but after Andros told me what was said… and what was done," he began, his voice shaking a bit. "I could only be glad that I wasn't there with them."

"So what is it that you think Sadi did?" Cassie asked, changing the subject. "Do you think that we're in any immediate danger?"

"Well, she must have a reason beyond revenge to take charge of the Astro Megaship without taking her morpher back," Phantom Ranger said. "And now all of a sudden, I'm guarding a sword that has gone unguarded for the past one hundred fifty years. It seems a bit strange, doesn't it?"

"Well, of course it does," she said. "But if you don't have access to the inside, what is it you're hoping to find out?"

"Well, I'd like to know why the Dark Fortress has been tailing you since Sadi took over," he said. "And I'm also curious as to why Astronema has been uncharacteristically quiet this week."

"I wish," Cassie said. "Darkonda just attacked us today and left more mementos for Andros. He works for Astronema, right?"

"Yes," Phantom Ranger said. "And that's strange too… maybe stranger than anything else."

"You've fought against Darkonda?"

"A few times in the past," he answered. "It was a great training experience but it nearly killed me… Please be careful when fighting against Darkonda."

"We don't have much of a choice," Cassie said with a sigh. "So what should we do about Astronema?"

"Nothing yet," Phantom Ranger said. "But I can't help but wonder why I could detect her when DECA is scanning long range areas and you're scanning short-range…"

"Sadi messed with DECA's programming," Cassie said, catching up. "You think Sadi and Astronema are working together?"

"That's my belief," he said with a nod. "The theory so far is that she wants to trick you into going to Kurakk for the weapon in the prophecy. Has she mentioned it yet?"

"She has," Cassie said. "And she's trying to convince us that Andros –"

"Killed someone?" Phantom Ranger finished. "I'm looking into that too. But don't worry about Sadi too much, Cassie. I'll have Andros and Zhane back on the ship by next week… if that turns out to be the safe thing to do."

"What are you going to do?"

"Research," he answered. "Until then, go along with Sadi's orders for a while. I promise to contact you soon."

"Phantom Ranger?" Cassie asked, just as he reached forward to disconnect them.

"Yes, Cassie?"

Cassie hesitated, blushing a bit as the question that had been burning her lips since the first moment that he spoke her name repeated itself over and over in her head.

"Well… it's just that…how long do you want me to keep calling you Phantom Ranger?" she asked uncomfortably. "I mean, we've known each other for at least a year…"

"You wish to know my face," he concluded almost sadly.

"I wish to know your name," she corrected him. "But a face to go with it would be nice too."

Phantom Ranger let out a sigh, reaching over to disconnect them. "I'm called Esson," he said softly. "But showing my face will have to wait until I've completed my research and I can see you."

The screen instantly blacked out and Cassie sat in her seat, holding the disk-like object in her hands with a content smile on her face.

"Esson," she sighed happily, setting it on the floor by her feet until she could finally leave the bridge in another two hours and take it with her to her room. She wondered how pathetic it would be if she were to give the screen a goodnight kiss and decided against it, lest DECA record her actions and be persuaded to tell the others.

But her smile never faded as she finally left the bridge and walked slowly down the corridor to her bedroom.

"Esson," she said softly to herself before her eyes closed and she allowed her mind to drift off to the only place that she and the Phantom Ranger were always alone and happy together.