Chapter Seven
The alarm went off on the Astro Megaship, startling Karone and Andros, the only two on command at that time. Karone looked at the readout, and sighed. It was Ciarán with troops headed by an ugly monster. "DECA, contact the others, have them meet us in town at the battle."
DECA responded, "Ashley is already on site."
"Let's go, Andros." Karone grabbed his arm as they ran to the jump tubes.
Ciarán was standing watch as Ashley fought with his monster. He smiled when he saw the Red and White Rangers appear. For a few seconds he thought about Karone as he watched her fight; it struck him how she let her beauty show through her battle style. She was effective, but her kicks and her punches were all elegant. He caught himself and jumped into the battle separating the Red Ranger from the Yellow and White Rangers. It was his task to welcome the Red Ranger home and so he would.
"Long time no see, Red Ranger. You know you are going to pay for destroying my homeworld. I have always had my mind set on vengeance," he declared as they battled.
It didn't last long, as it turned out that the monster was extremely weak. The six Rangers returned to the ship for a debriefing before going back to their activities of the day.
Carlos looked at everyone else. "That was a brief battle, you'd think after two weeks vacation he would have a better battle plan."
TJ looked around. "He must still be working on something big and was bored so he was looking for a fun time to occupy that evil mind of his."
Ciarán returned to the Dark Fortress and didn't even bother getting out of his armor before marching into the throne room. "Ecliptor, that monster was pathetic! How did he ever pass any of our tests?" He screamed at all present.
Elgar peaked his head around a corner. "Uhh, Ciarán—I mean, sire, Ecliptor isn't here. He went to collect more warriors for you."
Ciarán decided that he was as irritated as he could be at that moment. "Quantrons, take him to play with Scrudly."
"No! What did I do to you?" Elgar screamed as he was dragged away.
Ciarán grinned and turned to go put his armor away when a figure in a cloak appeared before him.
"It's good to see you feeling better, my Prince. Ecliptor reported you have been feeling under the weather. I was coming through the region and decided to stop and see what could be done to assist in your conquering this pathetic world." The cloaked creature grinned through his hood, "You don't remember me, do you? Allow me to reintroduce myself, then: I am Darkonda, a humble servant of Dark Specter."
"I don't need any help, you fool, just stay out of my way." Ciarán stormed past him and went to his armory to have his armor removed.
Later he was in his quarters sitting at his desk plotting out new battle plans when Ecliptor returned. "Sire, I have returned with some very fine warriors if I do say so myself."
"Very well, Ecliptor," he grumbled as he looked at the battle plans. He looked up as Ecliptor turned to leave. "What do you know about Darkonda?"
"My prince, you would do well to stay away from him; he is as dangerous as poison. He won't rest till he takes you down as well. If he is here now, get rid of him.
"I worked with him before and he calls himself a loyal servant but he rests to destroy everything…" Ecliptor stopped as Ciarán put up his hand.
"Enough, Ecliptor. I get the picture. Leave me while I make my decision." The servant left the quarters and Ciarán pulled out a picture of him and Karone. Placing it in front of him, he stared at it. After a minute of thought he concentrated on the brown hair of Shawn, effectively changing his hair color.
He sat there for a few minutes trying to debate whether he should go to the park and see if he could find her, to say goodbye one last time. That would be a stupid idea, though, because the Red Ranger would be with her more likely than not.
His eyes focused on the necklace that she was wearing. It seemed familiar to him, somehow. It was an oval with an intricate design on it, and though he had never seen it before, he knew that Kerovian children wore a locket from the time they were a few months old.
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a locket. He had had it for as long as he could remember. It was the one thing he had with him when he had been found laying in the ruined village as a young boy. He had never really cared about it and the chain which he had broken had long since been too small and mended with a leather strap to fit on his neck. Though he supposed he could get a new chain for it. He felt drawn to the old thing now, though.
He held it in his hand, looking at it. The locket was a rectangular shape and much different from Karone's or Andros's. Theirs were golden; his was silver and unmarked, except for some scratches that had accumulated over the years. One of Dark Specters wizards had told him as a young boy that it was likely a family heirloom. He only wished he could see what was inside but the sides were fused shut from years of abuse.
Standing up, he changed his hair to an auburn red and changed his clothes to something different that wouldn't immediately betray him to the Rangers. He went to leave his quarters when he was caught.
"What do we have here?" Ciarán stiffened; it was Darkonda. He thought he had told the creature to get lost.
The alarm was now raised and Ecliptor rounded the corner to the corridor "Sire, where are you going?"
"Enough, Ecliptor, I have been sick. I am just going for some air; earlier when I was out it, helped me feel even better so I thought I would go out again for a little while." He then paused. "Why am I answering to you two buffoons? I told you to get lost, Darkonda, and as far as I know I have not answered back to you. And Ecliptor, you should know better than to question my decisions. I know what I am doing, I wouldn't have been named the head of this fleet if I didn't."
Darkonda didn't move a muscle.
"You don't question Ciarán Bevan!" He turned and beckoned for a pair of quantrons. "Discard of him in an airlock! NOW!" he ordered and the foot soldiers grabbed Darkonda's arms and removed him from sight.
Ecliptor remained by his side a bit longer. "If I may, sire?" He knelt before his master.
"Go on, Ecliptor, but make it short. I am in a splendid mood for thrashing some Rangers right now."
"Sire, you need to be more careful. I have been your servant since you were a boy and have faithfully watched over you. Now that you have this slimeball watching you, you should be more careful. It won't be long until he is watching your every move. If you need something just ask, I will get it for you." Ecliptor stopped as Ciarán held out his hand.
"Just prepare a monster for me. I will worry about my task later… Oh, and get Elgar down to play with Scrudly, I want to watch, though I am afraid my pet is tiring of my toy—maybe this Darkonda would make a good replacement?"
"I will on both accounts. The army will be ready in fifteen minutes, will you be accompanying them?"
"No, I want you to lead this one. Make it hard for the Rangers. Just don't hurt the white one; she is mine," Ciarán commanded, waving his arm in front of him changing into his light armor. His hair went back to its lime green with red stripes.
Back on the Megaship, Cassie and Carlos had returned for the night while Ashley and TJ were away for the night; Ashley with her family at their home and TJ at an all night bonfire with his. Karone was with Cassie and Carlos playing basketball in the Simudeck while Andros was in his room again. At first Karone was going to let him be. She knew that she had put him in a hard place by telling him that Seira was gone.
However, it was her and Cassie against Carlos, who was bragging that he could beat them but he was down by seven points.
"Carlos, would you let Andros join your side if I could get him to play?" Karone asked.
"Yeah, I guess, what is he doing anyway?" Carlos asked. "Your brother is a very interesting person. You kept saying how he is such the leader that you're not, but yet since he returned all he's done is yell at me or lock himself in his room."
"He has his reasons, but his homecoming hasn't been as great as I wanted it to be. I mean, I was breaking family traditions outright and then I had to break him some unfortunate news that I found out about a month ago. He also likes to read all the reports that have been published, it's part of how he tells a lot about a person." Karone bounced the ball over to Cassie.
"You mean all the reports I wrote, he is reading?" Carlos paled a little bit.
"No, not all, just the public ones that pertain to the monster attacks." Karone said, "Anyway, I am going to go get him, he needs to get out and socialize some." She stepped out of the simulation and headed to his room.
"You can make reports private? I just thought they were logged by topic," Carlos said, turning to Cassie.
"You mean you didn't know? You're in for trouble. Karone showed us when we first came onboard, but that's when you were being stubborn. I guess I forgot," Cassie giggled.
At Andros's room, Karone knocked and the door opened.
"Karone, what do you want? I'm busy trying to sort through this mess of reports from the last two years."
"I know, Andros, and you are not going to learn anything about our four new teammates that way. You need to socialize with them to get to know them. Speaking of socializing, we are playing a game in the Simudeck right now that would give you the perfect opportunity." Karone grabbed his arm.
"Karone, I really would rather to get this done. The systems are a mess with the reports; they are everywhere. While you may be smarter with electronics, you know absolutely nothing about filing." Andros pulled his arm away.
"So, the reports are a mess and that's more important than getting to know your team? They don't think the way Kerovians do; they love to have fun and can make a game out of anything, even cleaning the engines." Karone pleaded, "Just this once for me, brother? It's not healthy to lock yourself up in here, anyway."
Andros sighed and stood up, following Karone from the room. "Fine, but only for a little while. I have some other work to do."
The two of them reached the Simudeck and Cassie tossed the ball at Andros. "You're on Carlos' team and you have the ball."
Andros caught it, frowning as he looked at it. "What is the game we are playing?"
Carlos took the ball from him. "We're—" The alarms cut off his words. "What is it this time? He's making up for lost time?"
The four of them ran to the launch bay and teleported to the battle. Karone contacted Ashley and TJ on the way and they were going to try and meet them.
The monster they found themselves fighting was harder than what they had faced earlier; it was more on the level of what they had been used to fighting, but with the added help from Andros they found that it was too easy to defeat. Within an hour they were back onboard the ship. The debriefing was going to wait till morning because Ashley had pretended to go take a shower to get out of her house.
Ciarán was mad. He had wanted a Ranger thrashing, but they had gotten stronger. Why did they have to get stronger every time he upped the level? He couldn't help but gaze at how elegant Karone had seemed out there. Even if the monster went easy on her she fought beautifully, and harder than the monster fought her.
What was he thinking? She had just caused him to lose another battle! She was fighting against him, but he still loved her—what had he gotten into? He felt dirty but liked the feeling. Slowly he brought a hand to his chest where he had hidden her picture under his armor, keeping her close to his heart.
He then turned to some quantrons. "Why must you always fail me? Everyday you fail me in assisting the monsters I choose to defeat the Rangers." Ciarán shot some electricity at them, making them jump to attention.
Ecliptor came back in. "Sire, if you hadn't ordered them to go easy on the White Ranger, we might have had more of a chance."
"My order stands. If we destroy the Rangers, I want her alive. I believe that if we destroy the Rangers, I can offer the White Ranger an ultimatum to join me by my side. I want only her in life and I want her unharmed; my queen shall have no scars from battles she fought against me," Ciarán said, raising a hand to silence Ecliptor before retreating to his quarters.
Once in his quarters, he loosened his armor and threw himself upon his bed pulling out the picture he kissed it and placed it under his pillow.