Episode 206 - Saga II - Reuniting the Planets
Chapter 6: The Birthday Yellows
adapted from the PRIS episode "Invasion of the Bodyswitcher" by Brian Friedlander (jadeitesan@crystal-tokyo.com)
Disclaimer: The original "Invasion of the Bodyswitcher" story, the Power Rangers, the Zords, and related items are all owned by Saban. The Sailor Soldier and related items belong to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, and Toei. About the only thing that belongs to me are the adapted story and Midnight the feline cat.
Now on with the story...
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Ami: Well, things are finally starting to get moving.
Cassie: The Astro Megazord was badly damaged, but in place of that, we have the Mega Voyager to handle Astronema's schemes!
TJ: And we've managed to recover three Sailor Soldiers to boot!
Rei: Which leaves us with seven more to find! But I have the strange sense that we're being watched by several mysterious people. Anyone of them could be a danger to our cause.
Minako: Lighten up, Rei. ::hums the Digimon Adventure theme song, Butterfly::
Rei: Well, there went the fourth wall... Well, today is Ashley's birthday. And boy, does she get big suprise.
Stay tuned to find out!
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Angel Grove Par, by the lake, afternoon. . .
All the gather Sailor Soldiers and Space Rangers are gathered around a picnic table laden with wrapped boxes, snacks, drinks, and a large cake.
"Oh, you guys," says Ashley, "You shouldn't have."
"Come on," replies Rei. "you only have one birthday a year. And you have quite a lot of friends here to help you celebrate."
"And don't forget your un-birthdays too!" Minako smiles while everybody else sweatdrops.
Rei gets a disgruntled look on her face. "Alright, who let Minako get her hands on Alice in Wonderland?" She sees the nervous look on TJ's face. "I thought we all agreed Minako and fairy tales don't mix after she attempted to reenact our Snow White play and alsmost fed me a real poisoned apple."
"Calm down, Rei-chan," says Ami. "Today is Ashley's birthday, it should be a happy event.
"Speaking of being happy, has anyone seen Andros?" asks Ashley.
"He said he'd be along shortly." Cassie grabs some pretzels. "He just needed to finish up something on the Megaship. He said not to wait for him."
"So then," says Minako, "Let's give Ashley our gifts."
Everybody proceded in an orderly fashion. Rei gave Ashley a temple prietess robe. Ashley received a pair of star-and-moon earrings from Minako and an Algebra book from Ami.
"Gee, Ami, thanks," Ashley smiles weakly, "I know I'll get good use from it."
She got a yellow sweater from Cassie and a blue notebook from TJ. But Carlos's gift was the weirdest, as it was a red fire extinguisher.
"Trying to tell me something?" asks Cassie slyly.
"Carlos, of all the things, a fire extinguisher?" inquires Cassie.
Carlos looks at them. "Why not? It's a practical gift."
"And just how many fires am I going to have to put out?"
"Well, er, um..."
Rei interjects. "Ashley, there's another gift. But it's not from any of us. There was addressed to me at the Shinto Temple in Angel Grove. I must say, it has me worried. It has Usagi Tsukino and a school in New York as its return address. But when I called the school, they said there was no record of a Usagi Tsukino there. In fact, their only two Japanese exchange students had just recently graduated. So I opened the box to see what was inside."
"Rei!" exclaims Ami. "You shouldn't have! What if it had been a bomb or something worst? We're not what we use to be."
"Ami, Ami, you forget my training. I didn't sense any evil intentions from the box. Anyways, here's what was inside." She hands Ashley a small ringbox.
Ashley opens it and takes out a piece of jewel, a gold pendant. "Wow, it's very pretty."
"There was a note with it," says Rei. "Here, I'll read it."
Dear Ashley and to whom it may also concern,
Before I begin, the requester asked that I make it clear to you that this is not a trap. I understand that you are in trying times where a gift such as this can easily be mistrusted. The person told me that your friend Rei Hino would be able to clarify for you that this item holds not threat.
I was, am, and will be a friend of your ally, Tsukino Usagi, who I understand is not with you at this time. I feel for you. The requester told me you were having some boyfriend troubles at this time in your life. So I was asked to send to you one of the medallions from my old high school. The legend says that if you place the picture of the one you love inside this medallion and keep it on you at all times, you two will fall in love."
Signed, KM and MY.
"So what's your verdict, Rei?" asks Ashley.
"Well, I feel nothing evil from it, but we'd best let Ami analyze it later onboard the megaship, and even after, be very cautious."
"Heeeeeeeey, minnna!" exclaims Minako hyperly. "It's time for cake!!" She tries to get her hand on the cutting knife, but Ami and Rei hold her arms apart to keep her from getting it. Everybody sweatdrops. Instead, Cassie takes up the knife and cuts the cake and passes a slice to Ashley, then starts to give the next piece to Carlos.
At this moment, Andros walks up. "Hi, everybody." Ashley takes the piece intended for Carlos and gives it to Andros.
"Hey, that was my piece," complains Carlos.
"Hush, I'll cut you the next piece," says Cassie.
Andros looks at Ashley. "Can I talk to you privately for a moment?"
Ashley gets up. "Of course."
They walk away from the table until there is a bit of a distance between them.
"Well, what did you want, Andros?"
Andros looks slightly nervous now. "Well, you see, on KO-35, we don't celebrate birthdays."
"Don't worry about it," explains Ashley, "I didn't expect for you to get into our Earthling rituals."
Andros looks dejected at this. "Then I guess you wouldn't be interested in this then." In his hand is a small blue bag. He opens and pulls out a necklace with a gold arrow-shaped jewel attached. He lifts it up to Ashley's head and puts it on.
"Oh, Andros..." Ashley looks as if she's about to cry.
"That's a special rare jewel from KO-35. A male would give it to the female as a sign of attraction..." Andros blushes.
"Oh, Andros," Ashley repeats as she gives him a big hug, tears rolling down her face.
Cassie and Minako, over at the picnic table, notice and smile.
"Ashley... I know we've only known each other for several months, but... well, er..." Andros seems to be losing his cool. "Ashley, on KO-35, we don't make this big a deal out of it, but would you... marry me?"
"My god, Andros... this is all so sudden, I don't know what to say. I'm still in high sch..."
Andros wipes her tears off with his right sleeve and puts his left index finger to her lips to silence her. "You don't have to say anything now. Just think about it, please."
"I will." She kisses him on the cheek. "I think we should rejoin the others before rumors start to fly." _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Dark Fortress bridge. . .
"Those blasted Power Rangers have been getting lucky lately," curses Astronema. "We need some way to upset their team chemistry. They're getting too close to Zordon. And Dark Specter is getting too close to my back."
"I believe I can help you," says a voice. Out from one of the shadows comes a new monster. "I am the Bodyswitcher. I can change anyone into any form."
"Oh, you can, can you?" says Astronema. "Prove it."
Bodyswitcher flashes several times, each time turning into an old monster that the Rangers had defeated.
"Very nice, but can you do others?"
"Of course. I just need to see the person you want to turn into." Bodyswitcher turns toward Elgar and makes him look like Ecliptor. Ecliptor growls. The process is reversed.
"Very, very nice." Astronema turns to a control console and presses a button. Up on the viewscreen appears an image of the Yellow Ranger, Ashley. "I want you to change *me* so that I look like her."
"That can be done very easily." Bodyswitcher waves his hands in front of Astronema. Astronema changes into a duplicate of Ashley.
"Perfect. Ecliptor!"
Ecliptor looks at her, finding it hard to believe that this lovely young lady is his Astronema. "Yes, my highness?"
"Gather the Quantrons and follow me to Earth. It's time to do some replacing."
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Angel Grove Park, an hour after Ashley's birthday party. . .
Ashley, Cassie, and Minako are walking on one of the many nature paths the park has to offer. Cassie and Minako are ahead of Ashley.
"You mean it?! He really asked you?" Cassie can't believe what Ashley is telling her.
"Yeah. He popped the question to me. But I don't know what I should do. I do care for him, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the commitment that marrying an outer space human would mean."
"Go for it, girl," Minako cheers on, looking back at Ashley. "Andros is so dreamy. If I didn't know you had an attraction to him, I'd try to go after him myself."
Ashley glares at Minako.
"Hey, I said 'if'. As I once said to Makoto, I know better than to go after a best friend's boyfriend." Minako faces forward again. "Sometimes, I wonder, are we alone here on Earth? I don't mean as in Humans and aliens. I mean as in allies, people to watch our back in times of trouble. We know there are the Beetleborgs, but you heard that weird Flabber guy. 'No Crustaceans, no Beetleborgs.' How drab.
Ashley and Cassie are listening to Minako, wondering if she has a point. Off to the side, Astronema as Ashley, Ecliptor and the Quantrons materialize behind a bush, ready to spring and grab Ashley.
Minako continues on. "You guys weren't there when we Sailors met Ninjor but he mentioned other powers hidden on Earth. For instance, he said something about a man named Gennai and a group of Chosen Children. Who were they, were they reincarnated here in the present, do they realize who they are, will we ever meet them?
Minako and Cassie are a bit ahead of Ashley. The Quantrons jump out and grab Ashley, one making sure to cover her mouth. They pull her back behind the bushes.
What are they like? And when I was last back in Japan, I heard rumors of children who had the power to use magical cards to summon the elemental powers of the planet. Don't you wonder if it's all true and if we'll ever met them? Cassie? Ashley?" She looks behind to see Cassie right behind her and the disguised Astronema rushing to catch up. "Well do you?"
Astronema looks at her strangely. "Do what?"
"Weren't you listeni..." Minako suddenly smiles. "I see you're still thinking about Andros's proposal."
"Uh yeah, his proposal..."
* * * * * *
Far behind them, Ashley struggles free from her Quantron captors, but before she can get very far, Ecliptor seems to float in front of her. The Quantrons reattach their grip on Ashley.
Ashley attempts to yell, but Ecliptor slaps her. "Shut up, girl, if you want to continue living. Dark Specter wants you alive for now, but he won't really care if you die if it ensures he can conquer the universe.
Ashley bites the finger covering her mouth and makes a commotion.
* * * * * *
Minako gives her advice to who she believes is Ashley. "Really, girlfriend, tell him that you're interested, but think you should wait til after high school is over. It's only another year off. Then you two can have all the time you want. If he truly does love you, he won't mind. It's like Usagi and Mamoru..." Minako trail off, tears forming in her eyes.
Cassie puts her arm around Minako, trying to comfort her, tears forming in her own eyes. "Don't worry, Minako. I'm sure they're okay wherever they are. They're out there somewhere..."
Suddenly they hear something behind them. As they turn to look, Astronema fumes.
*Damn that Ecliptor. Can't do the simplest things right. He's as bad as Sailor Nemesis and Elgar.* She snaps her fingers, summoning another group of Quantrons to distract her 'friends'.
"Looks like Astronema wants to give you a present too, Ashley," remarks Cassie.
"Um, yeah."
The Quantrons surround the girls, waving their battle blades. Cassie does a flip, grabbing a Quantron's head with her legs and twisting the Quantron to the ground. Minako ducks and jumps between a Quantron's legs, bringing her left leg up into the Quantron's crotch. Cassie and Minako each take a couple of Quantrons and begin to batter them to the ground. Astronema gives a few light kicks and punches to the Quantrons surrounding her, pretending to fight. Suddenly, one of the Quantrons gives her a hard punch, knocking her to the ground. Astronema, furious, jumps up and gives the offending Quantron a power-packed punch, throwing it hard into a nearby tree.
Looking down at where the Quantron hit her, she saw the real Yellow Ranger's Astro Morpher. *Still didn't have to hit me so hard, blasted machine.*
The other Quantrons disappear, leaving behind a bewildered Cassie and Minako.
"What was that all about?" Minako asks Cassie. "Perhaps it's time to report back to the Megaship."
"Come on, Ashley," says Cassie. "After we're done on the Megaship, we'll go get something for dinner."
Astronema looks at Cassie strangely as they teleport away.
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Back on board the Megaship. . .
After a bit of wandering around, Astronema finally found Ashley's quarters and changed into the Megaship uniform. Now she was trying to find the Engine room.
"Where the heck is that engine room?" Astronema wonders outloud.
"The engine room is on Deck Six," Deca answers the spoken question. Unappreciatively, Astronema saps DECA.
"You didn't need to do that, Astronema," replies another voice.
Astronema turns around to face one of the other occupants of the Megaship. "Oh, it's you. It was necessary. Too many chances to get caught. As it is, the Rangers will blame it on the Megaship's damage. And what about you? You were sent back to keep the Rangers from recovering and to cause more damage. But yet, I have seen no results."
"I have to work slowly. I am still trying to gain the red one's trust. Now, I must be off before someone begins to suspect."
The person walks around the corner. Astronema turns around resumes trying to find her way to the Engine room. As she slowly goes along the hall. She runs into Cassie and Ami.
"Ashley, just the person we were looking for," says Ami. "We're sorry to have to make you work on your birthday, but Cas and I need your help straightening up one of the cargo bays."
*I have no time for this foolish nonsense.* "Of course, I'll help. I don't mind." As Cassie and Ami walk off, Astronema
pulls out her Wraith Staff and fries the two of them with a couple of bolts. "See, I didn't mind helping at all." She
smiles as she walks off.
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The Megaship's gym...
As Astronema walks in, she sees Carlos working out on a gravity weight system with Rei acting as his spotter.
"Hey birthday girl," calls Rei. "Want to talk about earlier? It looked like you were really letting the tears loose."
"Earlier? Tears?" asks Astronema in confusion. She looks between Carlos and Rei.
"Oh, I see, you don't want to hurt Mr. Tender Heart's feelings here." Rei looks down at Carlos.
"Why should it hurt my feelings? I'm happy for the both of them," Carlos says, but Rei sees beyond the mask. Carlos was a quite hurt. "Hey, Ash, would you mind increasing the weights on this thing? Rei refuses to do it."
"You're going to get yourself hurt, Carlos, and I don't want to see you hurt."
Carlos looks at Rei, astonished. "You don't?"
"Of course not. Then we would have to go through the process of finding a new Black Ranger."
Carlos sweatdrops. "Nice to see you care, Rei."
"You're welcome."
"So, Ash, will you increase the weights? I can handle it."
"Of course, Carlos." Astronema fiddles with the console and increases the weight more than the Black Ranger had wanted.
"Ashley! What are you doing?!" Rei rushes to the control console to fix whatever Ashley had done when she feels something heavy hit her head, knocking her out.
Carlos grunts as the weights become more than he can stand. "Ash...ley... what are... you doing?"
"Oh, I'm about to have a little fun, Black Ranger." Astronema laughs.
Carlos looks up and notices the Wraith Staff in Astronema's hands. "You're... not Ash... ley,... are you?"
Astronema in Ashley's body just laughs evilly.
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A dark dimension. . .
The real Ashley is tied to a dark, twisted tree while the Bodyswitcher guards her, babbling on and on about his ability to change his form.
"And so once, I told Piedmon, "You guys may be able to evolve, but I can change myself to look like anything.'" To demonstrate, Bodyswitcher changers to look to look like a twisted nightmare version of a clown, next a catlike monster, then a orange dinosaur with a brown bone helmet. "Isn't that a grand power?"
Ashley gets an idea. "I bet you couldn't change my appearance!"
"Of course I could."
Ashley reaches deeper. "I bet you *CAN'T* make me look like Astronema!! I doubledare that you can't!"
"Oh, so you doubledare me, hmmm? Fine, I'll show you that I can do it!" He waves his hand over Ashley's body and she changes to look like Astronema.
At this moment, Elgar decides to come in and check on them. He notices Ashley as Astronema up on the tree. Elgar may be dumb, but his powers of observation are keen. "Hey, what's Astronema doing up there?!"
"That isn't As..." Bodyswitcher attempts to say, but is cut off by Ashley.
"Elgar, you doofus, get me down here this moment, or I'll make you wish you were back with the ogreish creature you call 'Auntie Divatox'."
"Of course, lord Astronema." Elgar goes over to untie Ashley.
"But I'm trying to tell you..."
"Our queen said she wants down, and so I'm letting her down."
Bodyswitcher sighs. "You doofus. That's the prisoner, not Astronema."
Elgar has already finished untying Ashley. "So what are you saying?"
"That you really are as stupid as everybody says!"
"You're calling me stupid? Who's the one who tied Queen Astronema up?"
"I'm telling you, that's not Astrone..."
Ashley makes a quick departure throught the portal that allowed Elgar entrance before her two captors can realize she's
gone.
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Back on the Megaship. . .
Astronema is *STILL* searching for the engine room, frying every DECA camera she finds along her way. Along her way, she bumps into Alpha, carrying a small wrapped box, and Artemis.
"Oh, Ashley, here you are. I'm been looking everywhere for you. Artemis and I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I even managed to make a present for you?"
*What is this, the blasted Yellow Brick Road, complete with Yellow Brick Walls?* "A present? For me?"
"Of course. You're a special person to us all, Ashley." He gives Astronema the present.
Astronema opens the box and finds a ceramic yellow bird music box. "It's.... sweet, Beta." Tears well up in her eyes.
"Er, Ashley, the name's Alpha," reminds Artemis. "You feeling alright?"
"Oh don't worry about it, Artemis. She's still probably in shock from earlier today." Alpha nods his head in an attempt to facsmilate a smile. "I heard the big news from Cassie and Minako."
"Big news?" asks Astronema, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Okay, so maybe it's not big news for you, but it sure was big news for us. We're so happy for the two of you. Anyway, we have to be off. I had something I wanted to show Artemis in the Simudeck."
As Alpha and Artemis walk off, Astronema glares after them. *What is happening to me? Why was I crying like that?* She looks at the music box in her hand. Closing her fist, she smashes it and dumps it into the nearest recycler. "Foolish robot. I look to the day I can tear the wires out of him..."
*Is that what you really want?* asks a voice in her head.
"Who is that?" she calls out. "I haven't heard from you for at least three years and now all of a sudden, you're back?!"
*You're walking down the wrong path, Karone.*
"I am not Karone. I am Astronema, queen of the universe!" Suddenly she remembers where she is and looks around to see if
anyone heard her, which no one had. Alpha and Artemis heard a faint bit of the outburst, but then an airduct had started
up. They entered the Simudeck where Artemis ordered a movie screen and two chairs set up. Alpha shut off the comsystem to
so they wouldn't be disturbed and locks the door.
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The Bridge of the Megaship. . .
Andros, TJ, Minako, Luna and Diana were working at the Maintenance console on the side of the Bridge. Something strange was happening on board the Megaship.
"I thought Ami had finished fixing all the cameras on Deck 6," said TJ.
"That's what she told me. She even had that marked off on her repairs checklist." Andros thinks for a minute. Then he presses a button on the console. "Cassie, Ashley, Carlos, Rei, Ami, Alpha, Artemis. If any of you can hear me, please respond." They give it a few minutes, but no one replies.
"That's strange, no one's responding," says TJ.
"As I was telling Cassie and Ashley earlier today, this is one of those times I wish we had more allies like the Beetleborgs or those Chosen Children that Ninjor had told us about. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Luna?" asks Minako.
"Yes, but we don't know anything. With the Lunar Castle under Zedd and Rita's control, I can't access our Silver Millenium's database to do anymore research, less I give them a way to hack into the Megaship's computer."
"But back to our current problem," states TJ, "Andros, you and Minako stay here on the bridge, and I'll go with Luna and Diana to check out the problem."
"Okay, Teej, but please be careful," says Andros. "I wouldn't want to be short one Best Man or Blue Ranger right now."
TJ smiles. "You can count me." He takes a spare Astro Blaster from the equipment locker as he and the cats leave the
bridge.
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Megadeck 6. . .
As TJ and the cats walk around, they swear they can hear something above them in the ceiling. Diana is the first one to notice the busted camera-eye.
TJ examines it. "This doesn't look good. It seems to have been laser-fried."
"Maybe we should check in some of the rooms around here," suggests Diana.
"Well, it couldn't hurt to check," agrees TJ. "You two check that room over there and I'll check this one." He opens the next door he comes to, which is the Gym room. He looks inside to see Rei and Carlos tied up.
"What the..." he exclaims. "What happened here?"
TJ wonders over to untie the two. Rei starts to try to say something, but her voice is blocked by the gag.
"Shhh, stop struggling," says TJ, "I'll have you untied in a moment."
"Perhaps you should listen to your Soldier friend," says a voice as TJ feels something smack the back of his head.
Astronema stands behind him, Wraith Staff in her right hand and a net containing an unconscious Luna and Diana in her
right. She ties up TJ, then procedes to drag Cassie and Ami into the room and do the same to them. After she is done, she
leaves and heads toward the Bridge, forgetting her prior attempt to find the Engine room.
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Back on the Bridge. . .
"Damn," mutters Andros. "TJ has been gone too long with making contact. Minako, something serious is going down on my Megaship."
"There's not much we can do, unless you want to risk losing me as well."
Astronema chooses this moment to enter the bridge.
"Ashley!" exclaims Andros as he rushes over to her. "Where have you been? Why didn't you answer on the comsystem?"
"Well, er," Astronema thinks for a moment. "I was trying to contact you too. Some of Sailor Mercury's repairs to ship's systems must have come undone."
Minako looks at Astronema suspiciously. *Since when has Ashley been given to calling us by our Sailor names when we can't even morphed?* "Ami-chan isn't usually so careless when she does something. The only time I've known her to be careless was when she faced her Exam School rival, Mercurious, and that can be blamed on love..."
"Well, I don't know how else to explain it."
"I'd better go and check on TJ. He hasn't reported back yet," says Andros.
*Damn. I need to take care of these two fast.* Astronema hits a button on the console near to her. "Look, Sting King is back and attacking on Earth."
"I detect no monsters on Earth," announces DECA.
"You've also been under a lot of repair," says Minako. "Perhaps we should go check it out, Andros."
"But the others..." starts Andros.
"They'll be okay," says Astronema. "They're on the Megaship. Besides, I'm sure the others will be back shortly to take over the bridge. But we don't have the time to wait if there really is a monster down there."
"Alright, let's go." Andros leads the way to the Jumptubes on Megadeck 2. They walk up to the tubes and jump
through.
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Back on Earth. . .
The three of them land, all morphed, although Astronema does so a little less gracefully. In fact, she lands straight on her butt. Astronema quickly picks herself up. Red Ranger and Sailor V are standing side by side in front of her. She removes the Astro Blaster from its sheath, splits it into its two components and aims them at the two do-gooders.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be any monsters here," comments Red Ranger.
"Are you sure read that screen carefully, Ashley?" asks Sailor V.
"Yeah, I'm sure" Astronema lies. *Now prepare to meet the piper...*
"Wait!" yells someone. Red Ranger and Sailor look to see that it's Ashley disguised as Astronema. The two heroes take up defensive positions. "Please, you have to believe me, that Yellow Ranger isn't who you think she is! It's really Astronema in disguise!"
"Don't listen to her. She's Astronema!" yells Astronema. "She'd say anything for you to let your guard down so she can
blast you." Astronema leaps at Ashley, powering up the "Blade Arm" attack. Ashley puts her guantleted arms in front of her
to block the attack.
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Back on the Megaship. . .
*Those idiots, the whole lot of them. I can't believe they let themselves be duped.* Midnight wandered through the airducts to get inside the locked Simudeck. *Only so much a small cat like I can do with no proof. Just need to try and convince Artemis that all is not right in the Megaship.*
Midnight pounces on the air grate, causing it and him to come crashing down in the Simudeck. He groans. "And here I thought cats always landed on their feet..."
Artemis looks up at the sound of Midnight's crash. "Midnight, what the heck is going on?"
"Do you want the short version or the long version?"
"How about we have the short version," says Alpha, "So I can get to killing you quicker?"
"Yeeegah!" screams Artemis as a laser from Alpha's finger singes his tail.
"Shimatta!" curses Midnight. "Someone must have reprogrammed Alpha."
"What do we do now?!" Artemis futilely ducks under a chair, but is shot out by Alpha.
Something flashes in Midnight's mind. "What a strange time to be remember a partial memory.... Might as well try. Midnight shinkai! ... Damn, what is saying that suppose to do?! Why can't I remember all the way?"
"Worry about it later. Just do something!"
"There won't be a later for you, my precious kitties." As Alpha turns towards Midnight, Artemis sees something strange glimmer on Alpha's back.
"Midnight, there's an unnatural object on Alpha's back, well, at least unnatural to Alpha."
"Gee, Mr. Einstein, just what am I suppose to do?" Midnight runs, ducks, and jumps out of the path of Alpha's laser. "Is this laser a natural thing for Alpha?" Midnight sighs. "Never mind." He jumps and locks his jaw onto the foreign object. He begins twist and jostle, until with a loud pop, the device dislodges and Alpha slows down.
"Ayi yi yi, what happened? The last thing I remember is giving Ashley her birthday present."
"Alpha," says Artemis, "You had this contraption stuck on your back and it made you shoot us. But thanks to my brilliant mind, we saved you."
"Brilliant mind, hah," mutters Midnight. "Alpha, something happened to Ashley and she captured everybody but Andros and Minako. Then she lured the other two down to Earth."
"Come on then," says Alpha as he unlocks the door. "We'll go release them."
"You know," says Artemis as they leave. "It would have been easier for you to release them, then come after me."
"What?! And ruin my teeth on those terrible ropes?"
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Let's see if the idiots can figure it out. . .
"Andros, please listen to me, I really am Ashley!" exclaims the Astronema-disguised Ashley. "I had Astronema's monster change me so it'd be easier for me to escape if Elgar came..."
"We all know that Elgar is stupid, Astronema. No need to remind of us that fact," taunts Astronema. She attempts to push her "Blade Attack" into Ashley.
Ashley lets her body go slack and she falls to the ground, out of the path of the "Blade Arm" attack. Astronema struggles to regain her balance.
*There's one last trump card for me to play.* thinks Ashley. "Yellow Ranger, if you're the real Ashley, just what did Andros give you for your birthday?"
"Well, er, um...."
"And you can't answer because you don't know! But I do know. He gave me a rare KO-35 engagement jewel!"
Andros looks between Yellow Ranger and the Astronema-disguised Ashley, confused. Minako doesn't, for once.
"I knew something was up when you called Ami Sailor Mercury. The real Ashley never calls Ami by her Sailor name when she's in the civilian form."
"I guess I don't have to be subtle anymore then." Astronema raises the Astro Blaster at Andros and fires. Andros ducks out of the way, then returns fire with his own Blaster, hitting Astronema square on. She demorphs and reverts to looking like Astronema again, the Astro Morpher falling off her wrist. Andros scrambles to retrieve the morpher while Astronema pounces onto her lookalike.
At this point, the other Rangers, recently freed by Alpha and the cats, arrive on the scene. But so do Ecliptor and Bodyswitcher.
"Oh great," says TJ, "There are two Astronemas. How will we figure out which one is the real one?"
Andros gets an idea. He holds up the Astro Morpher and yells, "Let's Rocket!" Ashley performs the transformation movements flawlessly while Astronema can do nothing.
"There we go," says Andros as he tosses Ashley her morpher.
Astronema storms off. "Bodyswitcher, finish them off. Ecliptor, come, we're leaving. And someone, FIRE THE SATELLASER!"
Ashley morphs as Bodyswitcher grows.
"We need Mega Voyager power!" yells Yellow Ranger.
On the moon, bay doors open as the Mega Vehicles launch. As they approach the Earth, they automatically form the Mega Voyager and land. The Rangers jump into the cockpit. "Mega Voyager, online!"
Bodyswitcher throws a sickle at the Megazord. The Mega Voyager pulls the Astro Megazord Saber out of hammerspace and blocks the sickle. They hack and slash at each other for a few minutes.
"Let's finish this guy off, my love," says Ashley.
"You do the honors," says Andros.
"Voyager Spartan!" yells Ashley as the Mega Voyager fires the V-3 missle at Bodyswitcher, destroying him.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back on the Dark Fortress. . .
"Darn, another plan foiled by those annoying Power Rangers," says Astronema.
"Dark Specter isn't going to be happy about this," remarks Ecliptor.
"That Bodyswitcher was useless."
"Hey, you!" says Elgar as he grabs Astronema's wrist. "I won't let the imposter get away this time!"
Astronema sighs. "Why me...?" She zaps Elgar's hand. "If you ever touch me again, I will zap more than your hand, you pitiful excuse for a villain."
"That's the real Astronema, you imbecile," declares Ecliptor.
Elgar leans conspiratorily to a Quantron. "Personally, I prefer the other Astronema," he whispers.
"I heard that!" Astronema zaps his rear end until it's on fire.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once again, back to the Megaship. . .
The Rangers and Soldiers stand in the workbay. All the Rangers but Ashley have their helmets off.
"I'm afraid," says Ashley. "What if I'm stucking look like Astronema for the rest of my life?"
"Don't worry," comforts Andros, "I'll still love you no matter how you look."
"You'll be the same Ashley on the inside, and that's all that matters," encourages Rei.
"Okay, here I go." Ashley reaches to the clasps on the sides of her helmet and undoes them. She lifts the back part of her helmet and golden auburn locks of hair fall down. The helmet is completely removed and Ashley's face is normal again.
"Yeah," cheers Cassie and Minako.
"We're happy for you, Ashley," says Ami.
"You're just as beautiful as before," says Artemis with a blush on his face. Luna slaps him on the back of his head.
"Oh, Andros.... Where is he?" Ashley wanted to hug and thank him for everything, but he was nowhere around.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Engine Room on Megadeck 6 (yeah, the one Astronema couldn't find). . .
Andros approaches one of the far walls, where an out-of-sight keypad is sitting. None of the Rangers had found out about this yet. He enters a short code and a portion of the wall separates, making a doorway. Andros enters the room, which is dark and only contains a human-sized frozen tube.
Andros kneels by the tube. "Well, old friend, I did it. I finally found the person who truly makes me happy. But she seems to have doubts, and I can't blame her. We're in the middle of a war with an oppressive enemy and unknown posssible allies or foes all around us, and here I am, asking her to marry me. Am I making a mistake?"
No response is heard, nor does Andros expect one.
Unbeknownst to him, Midnight is stand in the doorway, quietly listening.
The end ::For now...::
Next Time: The Power Teens take the Astro Megaship out on its maiden test flight. Along the way, they pick up signals from a Sailor Soldier and stop to investigate. But as they search for one of their missing friends, they end up in a fight with the natives of the planet they're on and the Megaship's environmental systems malfunction. Will the Rangers prevail and see their friend home? And what is the mystery of the frozen tube? Find out next time!
Sailor Says:
Rei: Today, we learned that you can't always tell a book by its cover.
Minako: Yeah, who knew that Andros would propose to Ashley?!
Rei: Minako, I was talking about Ashley and Astronema.
Minako: Oh yeah, I knew that. ::psycho-chipmunk laughter::
Cassie: Ami-chan, Minako-chan's scaring me.
Ami: ::pats Cassie:: Don't worry, she scares us all.
Luna: We're getting off track here. Rei, please continue.
Rei: Thanks, Luna. As I was saying, Astronema looked like Ashley and Ashley looked like Astronema. And we took
them at face value rather than listening to their words or watching their actions, and it almost got us into hot water.
Luna: And moral?
Minako: That boiled koi is always better than fried koi!
Everybody: ::massive sweatdrop::
Ashley: Minako, you could compete against Elgar for "Galaxy's Most Airheaded Person"...
Minako: Thank you!
Everybody: ::massive sweatdrop::
Bloopers: Ashley drops Carlos' corner of the cake on the ground; Cassie runs around like a maniac while battling
Quantrons; Carlos sticks his tongue out for all the world to see.