Chapter Two
Karone had the four of them training. Carlos had finally accepted just a few hours ago, and become part of the team. Their last run through with Ciarán had been their first with him fighting on his own. She knew he would soon become a pain in the rear end, so she wanted to be ready and sure that this new team could handle it.
She noticed one thing: though Carlos had accepted the morpher, he was having trouble following her lead. She didn't know if it was because she was a girl or because she'd hit him, but every now and then, she would lead an attack on the simulation they were fighting and he would fail to follow through.
After the simulation was over, she took off her helmet. "Carlos, what was that out there?"
"Your moves were weak. I was going for holes that I saw in the enemy's technique," Carlos said, taking off his helmet and putting it under his arm.
"Carlos, that's not the reason, is it? Your moves were often stupidly placed and threw off my calculations. I may be a girl, but face it: I have lived in space alone for the last two years and before that, I had been trained for this since the day I was born. So, please do not judge me incompetent, considering Ashley told me that you guys were chosen for the power about a year ago."
Carlos looked at her and felt a little stupid. "I'm sorry, I guess I need to work on it a bit. I am just so used to following TJ."
"Yes, you need to work on it. Next time that could be real, and when it is real, there aren't resets because of a mistake." Karone said, glaring daggers at him. She could tell he still had little respect for her.
A few hours later, Ashley found Karone on the command deck, with a mug in her hand. She was looking through some charts or something. Ashley felt something that was almost like this girl was a little sister to her. They had become good friends in the last week and Ashley almost felt like she had known Karone her whole life. Karone had revealed that all her life she had never had an older sister. Through her training, she looked up to her brother or her mother but now she had been alone for two years, with only the ship's computer to keep her company.
"Don't you ever go home, Karone? Doesn't your family miss you?" Ashley asked, making her presence known. As she knew, she would Karone rolled up the charts and looked at her.
"No, I don't. There is nothing for me there anymore. Not until this war is over. Two years ago, the war reached a peak and it sent everyone from KO-35 fleeing for their lives. Except for a few, they all live in refugee camps. I could search for my mother and father, but do you know how many camps are out there?" Karone explained.
"You said you need supplies? We could go to Earth to get them. NASADA most likely has what you need. And while they are getting the supplies, you can hang out with us on Earth for a bit… Everyone needs to get out every now and then." Ashley smiled.
Karone picked up her mug and took a drink. As she sat down with the chart she was holding, she said, "I will think about it. We do need the parts and my normal space station is too far away."
"Okay. Hey, by the way, what is it that your drinking? I don't think I have seen anything with that color that wasn't artificial or just colored flavored sugar added to water." Ashley pointed at her mug.
"Well, it's natural, if that's what you are asking. At least, it would be if it wasn't from the synthatron. It's fearr pritil toradh sa cruinne." (The galaxy's best fruit punch.) Karone smiled. "Or in English, it's a form of fruit punch, made from the best fruits found all over the galaxy. It was really popular on KO-35; everyone drank it. Want to try some?"
She handed the mug to Ashley, who carefully took a sip. Ashley started coughing. "Yuck, I guess it is an acquired taste or maybe my taste buds are just too closed to the taste of a fruit punch made from fruit I have never even tasted before."
Karone laughed, "Maybe… I'm a little hesitant about this thing TJ is always bragging about called soda. Is it any good? He said if we went to Earth, I would have to try it."
"Yes it's good. Just be careful, some of them are so loaded with a substance called caffeine that if you aren't careful you could end up not sleeping for a week," Ashley laughed.
"What is caffeine?" Karone asked, screwing up her face as she said it.
"Oh, it's a stimulant that some people call a drug, which is highly addicting and gives you bursts of energy. People live on it to get them through the day." Ashley explained.
"People think a twenty-four hour day is long, they should try to live through a twenty-eight hour day without the stimulants. We've been doing it for the last one hundred and fifty years without stimulants; they're viewed as primitive and were removed from all normal drinks. If you have a high demand job, you can request a small supply to get you through a long night, but it is strictly monitored," Karone said.
"Really?" Ashley asked, shocked, "No stimulants, that's interesting. I couldn't imagine going all the time without my morning pick up, although it has been interesting this last week. I'm surprised I am still standing."
Karone laughed. "You should probably go to bed, then, because we will have a long day tomorrow. I'll be down myself very shortly. I just have to run a few scans to make sure Ciarán Bevan is nowhere near the ship."
Ashley nodded and walked out of the room. When Karone was sure she was gone, she pulled something out of her shirt. "Okay, Andros… Let's see if that dream I have been having is accurate. I hope the data on this disk reads right." She pulled a mini disk out of her locket.
Placing the disk in the player, she waited for a minute as it loaded and revealed two children playing. There were two boys playing: one was wearing a red jumpsuit and the other was wearing a grey and black outfit with silver highlights. She remembered that jumpsuit and not just from the dreams; he had been wearing it that morning when he came by to give her a get well card. She would have been out playing with them that day if it wasn't that she had come down with that high fever a couple of days before.
The two boys were playing with a ball while practicing their telekinesis. All was fine and well until the ball spun out of control. The boy in red, who just happened to be her brother Andros, ran to get it. It was going to be his turn to push the ball if it hadn't spun away. When he got back, he looked around the spot where they had been playing. "Zhane? Zhane where are you? I don't find this funny; you know I don't like Hide and Seek anymore."
He stood there calling his friend for a few minutes before running off to go get someone to help him.
As the video ended, Karone leaned back in her chair and sighed. Her dream memory and the information from the data disk were one and the same. Why did she have such a knowing lately of that fateful day? It hurt her so much to know that she was promised to him. Her parents had decided, when she was very young, that she and Zhane were perfect together and they had been right because she felt something between them. She knew they were more than friends even at the young age of four. She thought Carlos was handsome but he would never understand that she had already given her heart away and that her love was reserved for someone thought dead.
Sighing, she pulled the disk out of the drive and stood up. It was high time she got to bed. She had to be rested in case Ciarán threw another curve ball their way, as TJ liked to say. Whatever a curve ball was…. On her way to her room, she drained the mug and threw it into a recycler so DECA could reuse it.
What Karone didn't know was that the darkness was lurking right outside of sensor range and that Ciarán Bevan already knew of her plan to take the Megaship to Earth.
"So, the White Ranger is going to Earth, is she? Well, this will be perfect even if she did give morphers to some of the leftovers from Divatox's attack? If they fell at Divatox's hands, do they think they can stay afloat when they see my powers? Divatox thinks she is such a powerful pirate but little does she know she is weak. She just barely managed to destroy the Rangers' power, not to mention she was unable to take the planet," Ciarán announced in his cocky, evil voice.
"Sire, a ship is docking with us," said Ecliptor, his servant and personal trainer. "It reads as being one of Divatox's."
Looking annoyed, Ciarán turned around from where he was, staring at the view screen. "What does that pirate want with me?"
"Apparently not much. They dropped something and just left," Ecliptor said, reading the reports.
Ciarán turned and looked at two Quantrons, who were guarding a door. "Bring whatever they dropped here to me." He paused briefly. "That is, unless she dared a bomb. If that's the case, have it destroyed and pursue. Actually, regardless of what they dropped, send a squad of velocifighters; I want to see her run." He smirked as he watched his very own foot soldiers walk out. It was good to be in charge, finally, although he would miss stealing his warlords' ships for some fun.
It was not long before two Quantrons came in, pushing an all too familiar bumbling creature with them. He rolling his eyes as the foot soldiers pushed him onto the floor at his feet. "Uhh, hey buddy, you never answered me when I asked for a turkey sandwich on rye with extra peanut butter."
"What are you doing here?" Ciarán scowled at him.
"Anything you please, I am just a humble servant of Dark Specter." He bowed. "I just don't do windows."
"Quantrons! Throw him out the hatch immediately," Ciarán ordered.
"Wait, Auntie D told me that Dark Specter transferred me to your ship," the white, egg-headed mutant said.
"Really? Well, if that is true, then Quantrons take him to the dungeon for some of our team's initiation training with Scrudly."
The Quantrons nodded and started to pull him out.
As soon as they had him removed from the room, he spoke again. "Divatox told him Dark Specter sent him here huh? Then why do I smell a rat? Get Divatox on screen, I need to clear some things up."
Ecliptor nodded and pressed a few buttons on the console. Divatox's face appeared. "What do you want, brat? If you want to talk to me then call off your velocifighters. I won't talk if I am dodging training lasers from your foot soldiers."
"First, don't call me a brat and second, you will talk even if my Quantrons have you targeted. I like them out there that way. If you say anything stupid, I can toast you like this." He snapped his fingers. "Now, you will tell me why you just dropped that annoying worm of a henchman you used to have. Did you get tired of having him always messing up your plans? So you decided to drop him with me because you are mad that Dark Specter put me on the job. Well, guess what, tough cookie. I am not letting him mess my plans so, thanks to you, Scrudly has a new play toy and you can just stuff it and head back to your little hole and never show yourself again." He then cut communications and ordered the fighters to chase her out of his space.
Ciarán turned around as his Quantrons walked back in. "Is our new friend having fun?"
The soldiers nodded and took their place by the door.
"Good, now set a course to follow behind the Rangers' vessel, but stay out of their sensor range!"
Ciarán smirked and walked out of the room down the hall to his room. He pulled the chain that he wore out from under the lightweight armor that he wore on board and broke it.