disclaimer: I don't own the power rangers. Also I don't own Zeri, Saryn and Aura, I read their names on Starhawk's website and thought they were cute.
timeline: Nine years after 'Better Late Than Never'.
summary: Something has it's eyes set on ranger children. Every ranger is scared of losing his or her family, especially Andros.
the-power-of-love;
Jeanka; Glad you like it and for your question, thanks for asking, I'll put it in my fic somewhere.
Protecting The Next Generation
Chapter 6
"Be good while were gone, alright?" Ashley asked her children.
They all nodded.
"Let us know when something's wrong, alright?" Andros asked his sister.
"Are you sure?" Karone replied. "You are in a meeting."
"If you can handle it yourselves you don't have to let us know. Andros thinks more along the lines of you being attacked." Zhane answered. "And if they don't like it, it's their problem."
Karone gave him a weak smile and he pulled her into a hug, before saying goodbye to his children. Not far from them TJ said goodbye to his family.
"Well, be back as soon as possible." He promised.
Emma nodded.
"Incoming transmissions." Deca cut in.
"Don't you mean transmission?" Wyatt asked.
"No, I meant what I said."
"Establish links." Andros ordered.
The main screen split up in two images, one showed Saryn and the other showed Carlos. They looked surprised to see each other.
"Saryn?" Carlos asked surprised.
"Carlos." Saryn greeted. "I hope I didn't interrupt your conversation."
"Actually, you both contacted us at the same time." Ashley smiled.
The two seemed to realise there were more people following the conversation.
"Oh, sorry. Hi guys." Carlos grinned.
"Carlos, Saryn." Andros nodded. "Can we help you with something?"
"Actually, yes." Saryn replied. "Cassie and I will both be attending the meeting, but there's nobody to watch over Ty'lee and Julynn."
"And you don't trust Ty'lee to watch Julynn." Ashley laughed.
"Correct." Saryn smiled.
"Well, Emma and I will stay on the Megaship, so it's no problem if you sent them over and I'm sure Armin, Paige and Zeri will help keep an eye on the other children." Karone offered.
Armin, Paige and Zeri nodded violently.
"Thank you." Saryn replied. "We'll bring them over right away."
"Hey, do you think two more children would be a problem." Carlos quickly cut in.
"Bring them over, Carlos." Emma laughed.
Carlos smiled gratefully and he and Saryn cut the connection. A few seconds later five teleportation beams lit up on the bridge and revealed Saryn, Cassie holding Julynn, Ty'lee, Carlos holding Neenah and Aura holding Amadahy.
The moment Ty'lee spotted Wyatt and Nathan he left his parents site. Julynn and Neenah noticed Brian, Amy and Chris and started to try and escape their parents' hold. Carlos quickly put down his daughter and Cassie followed his example.
"Thanks again for having them." Aura smiled.
"It's really no problem." Karone answered. "We've got three kids and Deca to help us keep an eye on them."
"You don't mind we turn the Megaship into a day care, do you Deca?" Ashley asked.
"Not at all." Deca replied. "This way I get a change to see my grandchildren."
The rangers laughed. It was common knowledge Deca saw the Astro rangers as her children and the rangers saw Deca as a second mother to them.
"We really need to go or we'll be late." Andros sighed. "We'll catch up when we get back."
They reluctantly said goodbye and let Deca teleport them to the planet below.
When the teleportation lights cleared, they found themselves outside the ranger dome where the meeting was held, for no other building was big enough for all the rangers who were attending. Ashley's hand quickly found Andros' and Andros gave it a reassuring squeeze.
'Don't worry, Ash. I'll be here with you.' He mentally told her.
She turned her head to catch his eye and gave him a grateful look. Andros gave her hand another squeeze, before he started to lead the way to the dome.
They were just about to enter when a cry stopped them.
"TJ? Carlos?"
Everybody quickly turned around to see a boy in blue make his way to them, he appeared to be only a few years younger than they were. The rangers hadn't seen him in a long time, but did recognize him.
"Justin!" The four ex-Turbo rangers exclaimed.
"Oh, hey Ash, Cassie. I didn't see you."
"It's okay." Ashley assured him. "Going to the meeting too?"
"Yeah."
"What brings you to it?" Carlos wanted to know.
"Man, we haven't seen each other way too long. I've got a two month old son. He's staying with my dad until I get back."
"What about his mother?" Cassie asked.
"She died not long after he was born." Justin replied sadly.
"Sorry, man." TJ said and put a hand on his shoulder. "So what's his name?"
Justin's smile returned at the thought of his son.
"Daniel, Danny for short."
"Did you learn how to name children from TJ or something?" Carlos joked.
"No, why?" Justin asked surprised.
"Oh, come on, Justin, you do remember the names of his children, don't you? Or have we been out of touch for too long?" Ashley grinned.
"Of course I remember, Amy Rose and Christopher."
"Amy and Chris for short." Cassie grinned.
"Oh, be honest, guys. Andros and Ashley are the only once who gave their children such names that you can't shorten them, because it would sound really stupid." Zhane cut in.
Everybody had to laugh at that.
"Zhane, I think you're forgetting that you can shorten Brian to Bri, without making it sound stupid." Ashley countered.
"That's only one out of four." Zhane retorted.
"So?" Andros defended.
"Are you guys going in, or are you scared?" Someone joked.
Everybody quickly turned their attention to the group standing behind Justin.
"Very funny, Tommy." Carlos grinned.
"I thought so too." Tommy smiled.
Ashley scanned the rest of the group. She spotted, Kat, Tanya, Adam, Leo, Mike, Maya, Kendrix, Kai, Damon and from what she had gathered from Andros' Serpenterra adventure she thought to see Jason Lee Scott, Carter Grayson, Wesley Collins, Eric Myers and Cole Evans too, but she had no idea who the others were.
"Who's your company?" TJ asked. "I mean, some of them I recognize from our encounter with Serpenterra and some of them I already knew, but that's all."
Jason laughed and started pointing out his old team.
"Zackary Taylor, original black, Trini Kwan, original yellow, Rock DeSantos, second red ranger and blue Zeo ranger and that's Aisha, second yellow ranger."
The black boy in black laughed when he saw the other rangers' faces.
"And he's Jason Lee Scott, for the people who didn't know and you can just call me Zack."
Ashley smiled. She had guessed one of the red rangers right. Another boy in red spoke, introducing him and his friends.
"I'm Carter Crayson, that's Chad Lee, blue Lightspeed ranger, Joel Rawlings, green Lightspeed ranger, Kelsey Winslow, yellow Lightspeed ranger, Ryan Mitchell, titanium ranger and my wife Dana Mitchell, pink Lightspeed ranger."
"Wesley Collins." Another boy said. "And that's Lucas, blue timeforce ranger, Katie, yellow timeforce ranger, Trip, green timeforce ranger, my wife Jen, pink timeforce ranger and Eric Myers, quantum ranger."
"Cole Evans, that's Taylor Earhardt, yellow Wildforce ranger, Alyssa Enrile, pink Wildforce ranger, Max Cooper, blue Wildforce ranger and Danny Delgado, black Wildforce ranger."
"I'm Conner McKnight." One of the youngest four of the group spoke up. "Kira Ford, yellow ranger, Ethan James, blue ranger and Trent Fernandez, white ranger. Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Conner." His friends hissed, but Andros just smiled and stepped forward, letting go of Ashley's hand.
"I'm Andros the red Astro ranger and these are my friends, Cassie, pink Astro ranger, Saryn, the Phantom ranger, Carlos, black Astro ranger, Aura, red ranger from Aquintar, Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson..."
"HEY!" TJ exclaimed.
"Blue Astro ranger." Andros continued as if he didn't hear it. "Zhane, silver Astro ranger, Ashley, yellow Astro ranger and Justin Steward, blue Turbo ranger."
Conner smiled and childishly stuck out his tongue to his friends.
"Hey, you only named Justin's and Theodore's last name." The boy named Rocky observed.
"It's TJ." TJ grumbled and his friends sniggered.
"That's because he, Zhane and Saryn don't have last names and Carlos, Cassie and I don't use them anymore." Ashley answered, while she stepped up next to Andros.
"Why not?" Zack asked.
"The only planet last names are used is Earth, since I live on Aquintar I thought it would look stupid if I continued to use my last name." Carlos answered.
"I married Saryn, so I lost my last name." Cassie grinned.
"And I lost my last name when I married Andros." Ashley smiled.
"Hey, where's Karone?" Maya asked.
"She staid on the Megaship with Emma to watch the brats." Zhane answered.
"Emma?" Leo asked.
"Brats?" Kai asked at the same time.
"Emma's my wife." TJ replied. "And with brats he means the children of the Astro rangers."
"How many were there again?" Tommy asked. "If I remember correctly there were eight and two on the way when we fought Serpenterra."
"Twelve." Carlos grinned.
The other rangers looked at him.
"Twelve?" Conner exclaimed.
"Hey, don't look at us." Zhane protested. "We all stuck with two adorable children, it's Andros and Ashley who had to show of with four."
"Four?" Rocky gasped. "One is more than enough for me."
The others laughed.
"What Zhane is forgetting to tell you is that two are twins and his two children give way more trouble than the four of us." Andros grinned.
"Details." Zhane muttered, causing everybody to laugh again.
"Well, that certainly lifted the spirits, but we really need to go in now." Saryn said.
Everybody turned serious again and Ashley's hand slipped back into Andros'. The Astro rangers and co turned back to the door and stepped inside. This was it.
A/N: Hope you liked it. Please review.