Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except those people and places you did not see before this story or its sequel.

Author's Note: Okay, I'm getting annoyed. I love all three of you who keep reviewing, you know who you are. But the rest of you just read and don't review. I am getting very sad. I'm not saying that I will change my update schedule, but I just may forget to prepare for my vacation this weekend and not update for a few days after Sunday. On that note, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

When It Rains…

Chapter 6 – Friends

Phantom slowly crept through the forests of Keja Prime. This was the twelfth planet he had searched for the legendary warrior, and the twelfth that had yielded no clues from the looks of it. He was now coming up on a rather large energy source, but other planets had had similar energy readings and those had all ended up being factories that Dark Specter was having built for who knew what. According to the suit's sensors the energy source should be less than a hundred feet that—

A very large weight suddenly dropped on Phantom's shoulders, causing him to fall face-first into the dirt. Phantom sighed and waited for his attacker to speak, deciding this was preferable to trying to interrogate someone in the middle of the forest less than a hundred feet from the factory or whatever.

"Never seen a Quatron like you before," a female voice said confidently.

Confident, Phantom could overtake confident easily.

"What are you?" the voice asked and Airek could feel the person lean forward to speak into his ear, as if that helped, everything was filtered through the helmet.

In answer Phantom rolled, throwing the woman off his back and into a nearby tree. He continued rolling to his feet and grabbed her by the throat, holding her against the tree and cutting off any escape.

"I am the Phantom Ranger of Eltaire and I do not take kindly to being mocked by Dark Specter's minions."

"What?" the woman choked. "But—"

Airek saw his mistake immediately and let her go. He now allowed himself to look at her. She was dark skinned with long, dark hair. She looked almost human, except for the three raised neon green stripes coming off of the corners of her eyes and the matching fingernails. She was dressed in a camouflage tank top and shorts and no shoes of any sort. Airek was momentarily stunned by the similarities between her clothing and that of Earth.

"But," she panted, getting her breath back, "I thought you were one of Dark Specter's minions."

"No, I am here to—"

"You still don't trust that I'm not working for him, do you?"

"It doesn't matter if I don't," Phantom said truthfully. "I have already told you my name and that is enough for Dark Specter to know why I'm here: to rescue Zordon of Eltaire."

"Your name is Phantom Ranger?" the woman asked incredulously.

"Phantom Ranger is my title. It has become my name in recent years."

"Whatever. So you're here to look for your friend?"

"No, I am here to look for a hero to my people. We were not exactly on friendly terms when last we spoke. He did not agree with a decision I made many years ago."

"Was it a big decision?"

"Yes, very big. It saved my life."

"And he disapproved?"

"My life could have been saved much more—safely."

"Ah. Why do you think your 'hero' is here?"

"Zordon has a great deal of power. Dark Specter has been building these plants so that anyone who has come looking for him will be thrown off the trail."

"Oh. So, let's get looking." The woman began walking in the direction of the plant.

"Wait," Phantom called firmly.

"Yes?"

"You have yet to tell me your name or mission here."

"Oh, right," she said sadly. "My name is Ch'heeka. When Dark Specter came to this galaxy a few months ago he decimated my planet, scattered my people throughout the galaxy and basically made a nuisance of himself. I'm here to take him down."

Phantom sighed. "Carry on." Apparently, falling in love with a pink ranger meant never getting away from interesting characters ever again.


"You love Italian, almost as much as Chinese," Andros said gently across the table.

"I know," Ashley sighed, "but I'm worried about Carlos. His note just said that things from before were catching up to him and he needed to get away. I assume before means the other versions, but it's still scary. T.J. and Justin are fine, they've had no ill aftereffects in weeks and Carlos never had any before now."

"Justin's better than fine actually," Andros said thoughtfully, "he remembers enough about the Machine Empire's technology that he's building some amazing things himself. T.J. could be better though."

"Yeah," Ashley said, "he could use a girlfriend…. But Carlos was getting somewhere with Leslie, that's what his friends say anyway."

"Have you talked with Leslie?"

"No, I probably should. I'll do it tomorrow." Ashley stared out the window for a minute before her eyes went wide. She slowly turned back to Andros, a sheepish expression on her face. "This isn't what we should be talking about on our first date."

"Why not?" Andros asked and Ashley couldn't be sure whether or not he was serious.

"It's shop talk, we should be getting away from work, getting to know each other."

"Oh, I think I know you pretty well."

"Really? And what gives you that idea?"

"How did I know you liked Italian almost as much as Chinese?"

"I- I don't know," Ashley said sincerely.

"You told me."

"When?" Ashley demanded, she would have remembered having such a pointless conversation with the pre-wish Andros and knew she hadn't said anything to him since.

"In a dream." Ashley's eyes brightened as she listened to Andros remind her. "I was trying to keep you asleep, but your body really wanted to get up, so I asked you what you had eaten for dinner the night before. You told me that you had had Italian, which was not your favorite, but it was a close second. I was going to ask what your favorite was when your alarm went off and you woke up."

"That's so sweet," Ashley said after a moment.


"Nothing," Phantom said sadly.

"Nothing for me either," Ch'heeka said from several systems away.

The two had decided to split up, each taking their own ship to separate systems to search for Zordon. Ch'heeka had agreed that taking a prize like Zordon from Dark Specter was a pretty big blow and was at least a beginning to her ultimate goal of destroying the intergalactic despot. Phantom had, as Ch'heeka expected, gone to the first few planets the alien checked on her own and looked there himself without her knowledge. Ch'heeka had done the same to Phantom's, which he assumed she would.

"Has your girlfriend found anything?" the Cerxusian asked offhandedly.

"No, but I wish she would. I don't like her being there."

"She can handle herself," Ch'heeka said.

"How do you know? you've never met her."

"Well, shortly before I met you I stopped in Sarris' Pub and met the new barmaid. She bodily threw out a Tarklian. Plus, she'd have to be able to handle herself, to be involved with you."

"Very funny. Do you know where you're going next?"

"Yes, I just hope there's something there this time."

"Me too," Phantom replied, ending the transmission and heading off to his own assignment.


"Carlos," Dulcea said, not seeming at all surprised that the Black Ranger had ridden his glider down from the sky and dismounted in front of her.

"Dulcea, I need your help," Carlos said, taking off his helmet.

"I had wondered where you would go. Come, sit," she gestured to a log before the fire. "You must be tired from your journey. Did you come all the way from Earth on that?"

"Yes. You knew I would be coming."

"I knew you would need help, there is a difference." Dulcea handed Carlos a plate of food before sitting down across from him. "Perhaps we should discuss this in the morning, the story may be hard for you to understand, fatigued as you are."

"No," Carlos said firmly, "I want to know as much as possible now."

"All right. Then I must begin long ago, before anyone even knew what a Power Ranger was…."


"And then there wasn't even any attack. I almost wished there was one to relieve the monotony of that stupid ambassador's life."

"It could not have been that bad," Karone said. Ecliptor harrumphed in the corner, almost as if he sympathized with the Infinity Ranger.

"Oh," Jeff said, "it was that bad. Every day it was the same thing: call me, talk to me for hours about the dumbest things, and then have the audacity to invite me to dinner, as if I'd want to. And now he's probably off telling everyone how he's got a Ranger in his pocket. I hate politics."

"They are not that bad," Karone said.

"Yes they are," Zhane said. At Karone's hard look he explained, "You grew up with them, you're used to it, we have to learn now how to deal. It's harder."

"It is," Ecliptor agreed.

"Oh fine," Karone fumed. "But I can admit that the ambassador was probably horrible."

"Thank yo-" Jeff was cut off by the raising of an alarm.

"Apparently," Zhane said brightly, "you picked the right day to visit Centaur B. The raiders are attacking again."

"Let's go," Jeff said. The two Rangers morphed while Karone and Ecliptor simply waited.

When they got outside they saw a group of twenty or so raiders a few hundred yards off. Both groups charged.

Ecliptor managed to take out quite a few of them in one on one combat, white Zhane blasted from a distance before joining the battle. Karone was amazing, using a spear to help her fight she knocked out several men simply by planting the weapon in the ground and spinning around it. Jeff seemed to be doing rather well fighting hand to hand until:

"Infinity Ranger," one of the attackers said.

Another next to him agreed and soon all of the attackers around Jeff were refusing to attack. It was not long before every attacker, regardless of who they were fighting, knew that the Infinity Ranger was there and gave up. The raiders disappeared as one in a flash of neon green.

"That was weird," Karone said.


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