Ashley went home first, unsurprised to find the house empty since the day was still young. Her father wouldn't return till the evening. She dumped her bag upstairs and decided to go waste the afternoon somewhere quiet. Not The Surf Spot, that would be too noisy, and she might run into the others there. Running with the pack like usual didn't appeal to her right now. Instead, she cruised her own neighborhood, walking deep in thought along the smooth streets. When she tired of that she went to the mall, but oddly enough bought nothing. She felt ugly, and couldn't find satisfaction with the way clothes looked. No sense aggravating that feeling by trying things on. Boredom set in around late afternoon. It persisted for the rest of the day until she decided to give up and go home. When her father arrived she would just explain she was off for a few days, and then convince him to take her to the movies. That would be an appropriate distraction. She sulked out of the mall just as the sun was setting.

The walk home was a short one--no need to endure a chatty cab driver on the way. She tugged her sweater a bit tighter around her shoulders, and strolled down the palm lined avenue feeing sorry for herself. If her senses detected movement in the hedge, her subconscious quickly dismissed it. She was completely unprepared when an iron hand grabbed her arm and another clamped over her mouth. She didn't have time to scream...

Her attacker dragged her behind the bushes, and a sense of panic came and went leaving adrenaline behind. Ashley smashed her foot down to crush the hoodlum's toe, but he snatched it out of the way in time. In reply, he shook her forcefully and hissed 'Shhhh!' in her ear. The voice was familiar. She looked down and saw a silver communicator on her captor's wrist.

Zhane let go, and turned her around to face him. He was dressed all dark, and his eyes were wary.

'Not a word..' he mouthed. She nodded dumbly, bewildered by the situation. Still holding her arm, he pulled her deeper into the foliage and then pointed through the hedge towards the next lawn. It was Ashley's own lawn, with its little stone walkway bordered by thick ferns. One could barely make out, in this light, a figure crouched in the foliage.

Ashley turned to Zhane and mouthed 'Who?'

Zhane looked grim. 'Andros,' he replied.

They played a waiting game for the next forty five minutes. Not a word was spoken, so Ashley learned no more about what was happening. Zhane had begged with a glance for her to simply trust him. So they sat in the bushes feeling chilled and foolish, watching the tiny movements Andros made. He too wore all black, including a hooded sweatshirt so they could not see his face. But every so often he lifted an arm to scratch his cheek, and they saw the flash of red on his wrist. Every time a car or pedestrian came along, Andros froze, and all but vanished in the dark. But Zhane seemed unconcerned, so Ashley got the idea that Andros was waiting for her. Little did he know she wasn't going to show up.

The cool of night soon set in. Ashley was pondering getting Zhane to put his arm around her, when a car approached from the direction of downtown. It pulled into the driveway, flashing its headlights in Zhane and Ashley's eyes, blinding them quite thoroughly. A sudden surge of fear washed through Ashley's mind when she realized it was her father and he was in danger, but before she could break cover Zhane's hands fell on her shoulders. He would not let her go till they were sure Mr. Hammond needed help.

Thankfully, Ashley's dad made it safely inside the house without so much as a twitch from Andros. Their sight returning, Ashley and Zhane were astonished to see him stand up, peel back his hood to show his face again, and make his way to the street where he simply walked away. They watched him for a good long time till he was out of sight. Then there was a flash of red as he teleported into the sky.

Zhane sat back with a whump and rubbed his eyes. "Am I glad that's over."

All of Ashley's questions flooded back. "Can we go someplace and talk?"

"Good idea."

They stood, stretched their aching bodies, and started walking.

A clean little Waffle House was where they sought refuge, in a booth far from the door with their backs to the wall. Zhane nursed a hot coffee while he told Ashley what he knew. The story was frightening.

"So this Impostor, this doppleganger, has been on the ship for over a week now, impersonating Andros down to the last detail. As near as I can tell, he's trying to get close to Karone, maybe to punish her for the crimes of Astronema. Its probably someone she hurt while she was still evil."

"How do you know all this?" Ashley asked.

"Karone and I have been piecing it together. He's done enough strange stuff over the past week to get us suspicious, and this is the theory that seemed most likely."

Ashley hugged her steaming mocha. "A doppleganger."

Zhane nodded. She seemed to lose touch with him for a moment, and he watched a progression of emotions cross her face.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah fine," she sighed. "It's just...this past week..."

"I know," he said, touching her hand. "He put you through hell. I would have tried to stop it if I didn't think I'd scare him off and blow his cover."

"I understand, you probably did the right thing." She shared with him the smile of relief she was feeling. He was warmed by it.

"Anyway," he went on, "I'm still not sure what's happened to our Andros, but I think I know when the switch was made."

He took her back in time eight days, to their last trip to the beach. It was one of Karone's first forays into Earth society. They had come from Adelle's after teaching her about cheeseburgers, and were regrouping at the pier with their swimsuits on. Andros was the last to join them, emerging from the cabana rubbing his stomach. The first thing he said was how he could sure use some lunch.

"Of course," said Ashley. "He must have been replaced when he went into the cabana where we couldn't see him."

"And the Impostor was too busy preparing the switch to have noticed we had eaten already. He came out thinking Andros should be getting hungry soon."

"Which tells us for sure that the Impostor is using a body of his own, and he hasn't just taken over Andros's."

"Yep. But we still have to find out where he put the real Andros. And we've got our work cut out for us."

"Yeah..." Ashley sighed, jamming her chin in her hand. "You looked everywhere for the others?"

"Everywhere. He must have gotten to them before he came for you, but if we get to him we should be able to find them easily enough. He's had plenty of opportunity to kill us this week, I don't think he'll harm them in any big way."

"Karone too?"

"No, she's hiding. Somewhere I hope Andros...er, the Impostor, won't find her."

"Don't tell me where, just in case, you know, he gets me."

Zhane nodded.

"So what now?"

"Retake the Megaship. It'll take us weeks to find the others without DECA's scanning equipment."

Ashley licked her lips and frowned. "This won't be easy. The gig is pretty much up at this point, we can't keep pretending anymore."

Zhane dismissed her worries confidently. "If my idea works, we'll have someone very powerful on our side."

She frowned deeper. "Like who?"

Before he could explain, the waitress interrupted them with a cheery, "Would anyone like some more coffee?"

Ashley looked at Zhane. He shook his head, then jerked it towards the door.

"No thanks, we'd better get going," Ashley replied. The waitress flashed her smile and chirped "Have a nice evening."

As Zhane and Ashley left the restaurant, the Yellow Ranger muttered, "It's gonna be a long one."