Ranger Tales
Chapter 11: Astronema Strikes
This story is set in an alternate universe where the Alien Rangers arc never happened, although the Alien Rangers do exist. Carri Hillard and all things relating to Carri, including Jessica McClintock, belong to KJ with many thanks. Azazel belongs to Eric Kripke. Gol belongs to me. I used Phaedos as the source of the Ninjetti Powers, but Ninjor exists and is the acknowledged creator of Ninjetti. Also, this story has nothing to do with my previous two. The episodes in which Billy went to Aquitar did not happen in this fic. In this fic, Tommy and Kim have not broken up. From here and on, it develops into a completely original story. The names of the blue, pink, yellow, and black Astro Rangers belong to me, though they are minor characters and will only be seen here, I still created the people's names for Andros's former team.
Also, let me know what you think, I appreciate the feedback. As always, thank you for reading.
It had been two months since the Zeo team had left for outerspace to begin their search for Zordon. They were supposed to leave right after recruiting the new Turbo Rangers, but as luck would have it a new villain was on the scene causing trouble. Divatox had been trying to summon a demon called Maligore, and although she succeeded the two Ranger teams had killed him in the end. The Zeo's knew the urgency of finding Zordon, but at the same time they wanted to see how the new team would function. Satisfied with them, they used a space shuttle that Billy and Zordon had prepared long ago for them should they ever need it.
Since then they had been to various planets searching for clues. But after a week of searching they were no closer to finding their mentor than when they started. Tommy was an excellent leader, but he knew nothing of space and the intergalactic policies. One planet they had visited they had heard Zordon speak of on more than one occasion, Aquitar. Delphine, the leader of the planets Rangers, agreed to aid them in their search. Zordon was an old friend of hers and she owed him a great debt.
Next they made the journey to their very own Gold Ranger's planet, Triforia. Luckily Trey had been there at the time and agreed to get an old friend of his, someone he called phantom, to help out in the search. Tommy had wanted to ask who "phantom" was, but Trey had vanished before he could, and a few minutes later Pyramidus was seen flying over head.
They also stopped on a couple more planets they ahd found in Zordon's files; Inquiris and Liaria. While on Inquiris they met an old friend of Zordon's, Dimitria, she had been less than helpful. Every question they asked her she answered with one of her own. It didn't take long for them to get annoyed with her and her Alpha, Alpha Six. While on Liaria they ran into Lerigot, the wizard they had saved from Divatox on Murathias. He didn't know anything of Zordon's whereabouts either, he was however, able to inform about a rumor he heard. Dark Specter was supposedly draining Zordon's energy, giving a maximum of two years left to live. The Rangers were more determined to find him now more than ever. In actuality two years seemed like a long time, but in retrospect it wasn't.
They eventually wound up on Phaedos, paying Dulcea a little more than social call. She assured them that she had no clue as to where he may be. Disappointed, the Rangers took off for space once more. In two months they had been to five planets. What surprised was that Billy searched through all of Zordon's records, and not once did he find any mention of Dark Specter. It was like someone had either never uploaded any information about him to the files, which did not sound like Alpha, or someone had wiped the file clean, even from the hard drive.
Tommy sighed, this journey wasn't turning out as expected. They had one month left before they needed to return to Earth for school. Staring out the window he found himself missing his home. Though he couldn't imagine why, he had the love of his life right here with him. That was all he needed as far as he was concerned, consciouly anyway. His subconscious may want something more, he wasn't sure. He lay his head against the window and felt sleep take him over.
Jason saw as Tommy looked out the window and became immersed in his thoughts. He cold only assume he was thinking of home. Jason was, he missed Emily so much. Out here in space he hadn't been able to contact her in any way, the shuttle didn't have any sort of long range communications and they were way out of range from Earth for their communicators to be of any use to contact the Turbo's. His thoughts briefly strayed from Emily as he wondered how the Turbo's were holding up. They had only seen them on one mission, and they were still novice's. Jason hadn't felt right leaving the Earth in their hands, but he also knew they had to find Zordon. He looked out of his own window, and that's when he saw it. The outline of another ship, one that looked as though it was going to collide with them. Strangely though, the fron of it began to open up, and a few minutes later he felt their tiny shuttle jostle. "What the hell?"
"We appear to be caught in a tractor beam." Billy explained. He was trying his best to see if he could break free from it, and was having very little luck. Actually, he was having no luck with it, and that bothered him. He didn't even want to imagine who that ship belonged to.
"Hang on!" Tommy ordered as the ship was inevitably being pulled in. the initial shock had caused him to bang his head on the window, effectively waking him from his peaceful nap. Slowly they felt their ship come to a halt. They watched as the doors to the other ship closed, trapping them inside.
"Anyone up for an adventure?" Carri asked with a mischievious grin on her face. She would admit to herself that this had her more than a little freaked, but she was going to do her best not to show that to the team.
Kim shrugged her shoulders. "May as well, we're here." Tommy nodded and together the five Rangers, plus Billy, made their way out into the strange ship.
The Red Astro Ranger had also been scouring the galaxy looking for clues, and he remained just as clueless as the Zeo's. Though he wasn't aware that there were any other Ranger teams looking. he ahd kept the information he learned not only at the meeting, but by intercepting transmissions as well, to himself. He felt responsible, as he had not been able to protect his team in their last fight against Astronema. She had killed four of them, more like tortured really, and critically injured the fifth. He shook his head, hoping to shake the painful memory from his head.
It had been about a year ago, Dark Specter's forces had been relentlessly attacking his home world. He and his best friend, the Silver Astro Ranger, had been chosen as Rangers along with four other teens from his town. Together they fought battle after battle defending their colony. They always proved to be successful, and they let it get to their heads. That was when Dark Specter sent Astronema and her forces down.
Sanj, the Blue Astro Ranger, had been the first to launch his attack. He didn't bother to wait on the others to arrive, he felt as though he could easily handle a girl by himself. He was quickly proven wrong though as Astronema began tossing him around like he was nothing more than a sheet of paper. Once she had caused him to demorph he placed her Wrath Staff at his neck and fired. The others arrived on the scene just as she killed their friend.
In a blind rage Kal, the Black Astro, attacked while the others battled Astronema's Quantrons. He fared slightly better, blocking a few of her blows with his Lunar Lance while getting in a few himself. Still, he slipped up and Astronema didn't hesitate to take the kill. She jumped back from him, unhooked her chakram from he side and tossed it at him, getting him to concentrate on it while she sent a bolt of energy at him, knocking him into the nearest building. The bulding fell upon him as he demorphed, crushing him. Astronema smiled evilly, that was two down.
Rube and Lia, the Yellow and Pink Astro's, attacked her at the same time and were quickly finished off one at a time. She killed Rube in much the same way she Kal, tossing him into a building and laughing as it crumbled down on her. Lia was a different story, she fired her pistol shot Astronema in the back, angering the Princess of Evil. She slowly made her way over to Lia, blocking her shots with her staff before getting close enough to rip her morpher off and throw it away. She wasted no time in kicking the unmorphed Ranger to the ground and stomping on throat as hard as she could, crushing her wind pipe and delivering the final blow with her staff.
While all this was going on Andros and Zhane were busy trying to finish off the Quantrons, and having very little luck. Every time they finished one off two more took its place. It was becoming very frustrating, and sadly Andros hadn't been able to keep an eye on his team. As far as he knew they were battling Astronema still, he hoped they were faring better than he was at the moment. That was when he saw the Princess of Evil walking over toward him, twirling her hair with a sour smile on her face. She was quite pleased with what she had accomplished, now she just had to finish these two off and she'd be rid of the thorns in her side. However, as she was preparing to kill the Red Ranger his silver friend jumped in the way, absorbing the blast.
Astronema smiled, it didn't matter. One dead Ranger was one dead Ranger. She felt confident that the Red Astro would be too torn up about his dead comrades to pay attention to the battle at hand. In a tiny ball of light she was gone, leaving her minons to do the rest of her dirty work. However Andros quickly grabbed Zhane, still feeling a pulse, and had himself along with the bodies of his fallen comrades, teleported back to their Command Center. He buried his friends, placed Zhane in cryofreeze, and replaced the other four morhers. Vowing that he would never allow them to be used again.
He shook his head again, shaking the memory of that day away. He pushed the ship forward, hoping to reach his next destination quicker. As he flew he spotted a tiny gray and blue shuttle before him, he was too big to turn and miss them, and they showed no signs of speeding up and moving, so to avoid any damage done to his ship he activated the tractor beam and began pulling them in.
Tommy lead his team through the strange ship, none of them knew quite what to make of it. They had never seen anything like it. Rocky was the first to point out the automatic food maker. That's what he called it and Tommy corrected him, reading the label "synthetron". Rocky shrugged and put in for a slice for of pizza before continuing. None of them had any idea that they were being watched by the ships computer, just as the Red Astro had no idea that they were roaming his ship.
Kim looked around at the ship in amazement, she'd never seen anything like it. Four years ago she never would have thought she'd be in space, let alone on a technologically advanced ship. It was incredible. She couldn't help but momentarily wish she'd grown up wherever this ship was built, but that thought was quickly squashed as she thought about how she wouldn't be a Power Ranger and wouldn't have met Tommy then.
Eventually the Zeo's made it to the bridge, and to their amazement a Red Ranger was piloting the ship all by himself. Tommy, being the leader and fellow Red, cautiously walked up to him and asked "Do you need any help?" Stunned the Red Astro jumped, immediately turning and attakcing the intruder.
He hadn't expected them to leave their tiny shuttle, he thought they'd be too afraid to. Guess he was proven wrong. He was getting ready for to attack again when he heard the call "Zeo Ranger V, Red!" He looked on in amazement as the Red Zeo Ranger stood before, battle ready. He'd heard the rumors that the Zeo crystal had been freed, but he didn't believe them. Bu if this was indeed Zeo Ranger V, then that could only mean one thing. This was one of Zordon's hand picked Rangers. Surprising the Red Zeo, he lowered his guard and held his hand out. He may be an intruder, but he is still a hand picked successor of Zordon's.
Tommy turned to look back at his team, sighing as Jason shrugged his shoulders. He turned back to the strange Red Ranger, first he attacks him and now he offers him a hand shake? Weird. he reached out and took the Rangers hand, shaking it. "I'm Tommy." He said, hoping to get this Ranger to power down and tell him who he was. "Power down."
The Red Astro listened to the Zeo Ranger. Tommy... He'd heard the name somewhere before, but he couldn't place where. Hesitent at first, he powered down as well. "I'm Andros."
Tommy nodded his head, at what he wasn't sure. "So Andros, where are you from?" The more he knew about this guy the better.
"KO-35. Have you heard of it?"
Tommy shook his head. "I'm from Earth, we don't know too much about other planets. The only ones we know about are the ones we've visited recently. Since you are a Ranger, I am to assume that you know Zordon is missing?" He watched as Andros nodded his head. "Then you know we coud use your help."
Andros regarded the man before him carefully, yes he was a Ranger, even more so he was picked by Zordon himself, but that didn't mean he should trust him. After all, he had seen a lot of allies become easily swayed to the side of evil. "I've been searching for him ever since I failed to rescue him at-" He was cut off as the ship started to rock. "DECA, what's going on?"
"Astronema is attacking the ship." The ships computer resonded simply.
Andros nodded "Return fire." DECA acknowledged his command and began firing on the Dark Fortress. "I'm sorry but we'll have to finish another time." Andros turned back to his controls and began trying to get them out of there.
"Main power thrusters damaged, Andros, you must land immediately." DECA rang through.
Andros didn't like this one bit, sure he had extra help in the form of the Zeo's, but he was still wary about trusting them. And besides, they had never faced Astronema, they'd have no idea what they were going up against. He sighed as he mulled it over. The Astro Powers may be able to handle her, assuming they weren't as full of themselves as his last team had been. But he swore never to use those again. "DECA, land the ship." He called out as he ran off, his mind made up.
Jason watched as the Red Ranger took off, he wondered what he was going off to do. He couldn't repair the damage from inside, not that he was aware of anyway. He looked over at Tommy and raised an eyebrow, the Red Zeo shrugged in response. He had no idea what Andros was planning either.
Soon they heard the hurried footsteps returning. Andros was running back with something in his hands. Quickly he ran up to each of the Zeo Rangers and handed them all new morphers, except for Tommy. Andros felt couldn't help but feel a little bad about not having a morpher for him or the other human with them, but he quickly shook the thoughts away. "Follow me, these Powers will help you battle Astronema easier. Let's Rocket!" After the five Rangers entered the 3-3-5-ENTER code they stood morphed as the Astro team.
"It's morphin' time! Zeo Ranger V, Red!"
Carri looked over the new outfit, she liked it. She could definitely feel a stronger connection to the Power now than she could with her Zeo Powers. She looked over at Rocky, amused that he was still blue. But then again most of them stayed the same, she was yellow, Rocky was blue, and Kim pink. The only one who changed was Jason, he was now the Black Astro Ranger. "Let's do this!" she yelled excitedly, the others nodded and together the six Rangers took off for the hatch.
They ran out onto the planet and were immediately greeted by Astronema and her goons. One was black with green lines everywhere, Ecliptor, and the other was a yellowish orange demon looking guy with chains on his pants, Darkonda. "More Rangers?" Astronema asked, growling. She had just killed five Rangers a year ago, and now here were five more. Yet not one of them was silver, she must have destroyed his morpher. "You're just like cockroaches, but no matter. I'll still squash you!" After givng the order to attack, both Darkonda and Ecliptor charge forward, and army of Quantrons following suite.
"We'll see about that!" Tommy assured her. He wasn't going down easily, just ask Rita, Zedd or Mondo. He summoned his weapon and began attacking Ecliptor. Muc to his surprise he was more skilled than Goldar had ever been. Tommy found himself actually trying to fight to stay on top, not that it was a bad thing, it just meant this fight was going to last longer than he initially thought. He stole a glance to see how the others were faring. Rocky and Jason were battling Darkonda, and having as trouble with him as Tommy was with Ecliptor. Carri and Kim were destroying the Quantrons with ease. They were tougher than the Putties, Tenga's, and Cogs but they were still beating them back just they had all the others. Andros was going up against Astronema herself, and not faring too well at all.
Andros used his spiral saber and sent a few blasts toward Astronema, who easily countered them with her own. She ran towards him, jabbing her staff in the ground and jumping up to do a double kick, sending him flying. She smirked, not much had changed in a year. She could still kick Astro ass. She jumped back as he swung his spiral saber at her. She did have to admit, he had improved in such a short time. It didn't matter though. She would still win.
Rocky brought his astro axe down on Darkonda, who blocked it with his sword and grabbed him by his wrist, swinging him into Jason's attack. The black and blue Rangers fell to the ground, and Darkonda raised his sword for a final blow. Before he could bring it down though he was shot from behind. He turned to see who had shot at him, and saw the yellow Ranger waving at him sweetly. "Sorry, I thought that was your face." Carri said as she jumped over to join in on the attack until the boys found their feet. Once they were up and fighting again she made her way over to help Andros take on Astronema as Kim made her way to Tommy.
Ecliptor was beginning to lose his patience with this new red Ranger. As the battle progressed it became apparent that the Ranger was toying with him. It infuriated him, but he knew he had to maintain a level head in order to come out on top. But still, he had never been challenged like this. He swung his sword at the red Zeo, having it met with his weaker sword. Tommy took his other sword, his power sword, and struck Ecliptor with it, letting a burst of energy out on contact which sent the villain stumbling backwards. Before he could get his bearing straight he was attacked from the side. Turning to face his new attacker he saw the pink Astro Ranger standing there, satellite stunner aimed at him.
Kim glared at her enemy, she had taken him by surprise, she doubted he would let his guard down again. That thought quickly changed as Tommy got the drop on him, throwing him to the ground. Frustrated more than he ahd ever been Ecliptor left the battlefield.
Astronema saw her lackey leave, she would have to punish him for that later. Right now she had to focus, there were two Rangers standing before her. She wa about to attack when the other red Ranger appeared, ready to fight. "Another time Rangers." She growled as she left, followed shortly by Darkonda.
After the battle Andros began repairing the damage to his ship. As he did he allowed Billy to study the ships equipment. He trusted these Rangers. For some reason he trusted them, he couldn't quite place it. He found himself thinking of trying to create two new Astro morphers, one for a green Ranger and one for a white Ranger. As he continued to get lost in his thoughts while working he found himself finishing faster than he thought. After a double check he felt satisfied and headed back for the bridge.
"The repairs are all finished." He said as he walked up behind the others. "Where you guys headed next?" He looked from Tommy to Jason.
"Back home, to Earth. We have another team we need to check in with." Tommy replied, they really needed to be getting ready for school. That started in three weeks, but he wasn't sure how Andros would take that.
"We've also got lives we need to get back to on Earth, people don't know we're the Rangers, and if we're gone too much longer then they may start to suspect something." Carri added, saying exactly what Tommy had been trying not to. She shrugged her shoulders as she caught sight of the glare he was giving her. She wasn't going to lie to him, he was a fellow Ranger with the same mission.
"Oh. Okay." Andros wasn't able to hide the disappointment in his voice, he had actually begun to look forward to hanging out with a new team. He sighed "DECA, set a course. For Earth." The ships computer acknowledged the command and in a few seconds they were headed home.
Astronema was a little more than upset. She had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Astro Rangers, a team she killed just a year ago. Where the red Astro had found a new team she wasn't sure. She just knew she had to kill them. Again. She found this interesting, they were heading for Earth of all places. "Ecliptor," she said as he approached her "plot a course for Earth. Make sure we get there before the Astro's."
"Yes Astronema." Ecliptor said with a bow. Why they would be headed for Earth he didn't know, but he did as he was told and pushed the Dark Fortress as far as it would go.
Soon she would make them regret disgracing her in battle. Yes, she would leave their little planet nothing more than a barren wasteland. The thought made her smile, Zordon's Rangers wouldn't stand a chance against her. They had no idea she was coming.
A few days later down on Earth the Turbo team was enjoying the day, the girls were out on the beach while the guys were out playing Basketball. T.J. ran between the blue and green Rangers and jumped, dunking the ball. "Haha, point for me." He said smugly.
"Yeah, we'll see how long you stay in the lead." Justin said as picked the ball up and began dribbling.
"You think you're gonna win? Think again!" Carlos said as he stole the ball and maneuvered to take his shot. With a swish the ball passed through the net. "Two pooints! Ha!" T.J. was about to say how that was just a lucky shot when their communicators chirped. "Of course." Carlos enjoyed being a Ranger, the past two months had been a blast. He just didn't realized it meant constant interruptions. "Go ahead."
"Ay yi yi! Rangers we need your help at the Power Chamber immediately!" Alpha cried, he was firghtened and for good reason. Velocifighters were attacking the Power Chamber. It reminded him of Mondo's initial attack, and he didn't care for it. Astronema was attacking the Power Chamber, determined to put an end to Earth's Rangers.
"On our way." T.J. responded.
The Turbo Rangers teleported into the Power Chamber and were quickly informed of the situation. Though as soon they landed they gathered they were being atatcked as some of the inner walls were crumbling. Astronema was working hard to destroy the source of their power, and that was not good. After a few tries Alpha managed to get the viewing globe operational again after it had been knocked out of commission. T.J. and the others stared at what they saw, a few simple Velocifighters, and a small army of Quantrons, Pirahnatrons, and Tenga's. They found it hard to believe that that small army was causing this huge ruckous.
T.J. knew that as his teams leader he had to make a decision. It was either stay in here and hope they don't break through, or go out and stop them before they get the chance to. Looking over at his team they all nodded. He was going to lead them into battle. Quickly the Turbo Rangers morphed and ran out the doors. They were quickly greeted by the Quantrons, Pirahnatrons, and Tenga's. T.J. quickly began taking on the Quantrons, tossing one into another, and trying his best to destroy them before they destroyed him.
The small army they saw on the screen had been nothing more than a ploy. As soon as they exited their base the army grew at least four times as big as what it had been. Z-Putties and a group og monsters had also been thrown into the mix. Ashley ducked a punch from on the putties, quickly learning to hit the "Z" on its chest to dismantle it. As she congratulated herself on that a pirahnatron came up from behind her and Cassie quickly shot it down, nodding at her friend to say "you're welcome."
Carlos was having to help Justin out, the little guy was having a difficult time. Despite how much the Powers made him grow, his natural body was still that of a twelve year old boy, and it couldn't handle all the action at once. Justin fired at one of the Tenga's, only for it to jump up and fly towards him. He tried to move out of the way but it grabbed him with its talons and flew high above the others. "Justin!" Carlos called, reaching out for his friend even though he knew it was pointless. The tenga smirked and let the blue Ranger fall, hoping the fall would kill him.
Justin watched as the ground grew closer, he told himself that this was not good. To his surprise though he was caught, he opened his eyes and looked up at T.J. His leader, his friend, had seen him falling after hearing Carlos shout his name. He did his best to race over and catch his teammate. He almost didn't make it as a Z-Puttie got in his way. The five Turbo's regrouped, forming a circle to keep their enemies from striking their backs. This battle seemed hopeless. They'd been at it for well over an hour and had yet to put any real dents in the army.
As they lashed out at the nearest enemies they didn't even notice the tiny ball of light that appeared near them and materialized into a woman. She was quickly joined by two more balls of light and two gold flashes of light. She used her staff to send the army away for the moment, allowing herself to be seen. The Turbo's looked confused for a moment before turning their attention to the woman and the four creatures around her, two on either side. One was black with green lines, another was yellowish orange with chains on his pants, they were on her left. The other two were a golden armored monkey, and a walking skeleton on her right. "How cute." She said sourly, cutting the Rangers a glare.
"Who are you?" T.J. demanded. This woman was neither Rita nor Divatox, he'd never seen her before. She was dressed in tight black leather, thick soled, high heel boots, a gray armor across her torso, and long black hair with silver beads in it. He recognized Goldar and Rito by her side, but not the other two.
"You're death." She said happily as she sighed. These Rangers looked to be even less challenging than the Astros had been a year ago. But still, killing Rangers was killing Rangers. And it would cause the new Astro's emotional pain, and that pleased her. For now it would anyway. Eventually she wanted to torture them nice and slow.
"Yeah like we haven't heard that one before." Ashley said as she rolled her eyes behind helmet. Cassie glared at the new woman and nodded in agreement with Ashley. They assumed she was the one responsible for the attack, after all Zedd and Rita hadn't claimed to have done it.
Astronema glared at the Rangers. Their mere presence was beginning to annoy her. It was time to end this, she thrust her staff in the ground, causing the four monsters around her to grow. She fired one shot off at the Rangers before heading back to her ship. "That's not good." Ashley pointed out.
"We need TurboZord power now!" T.J. called out. A few seconds later the five TurboZord came rushing forward. The Rangers wasted no time in bringing the MegaZord together for the battle.
"Andros we are approaching Earth." DECA announced plainly.
"Alright, thank you DECA." Andros replied, turning to the others he asked "Shall we go?"
Carri and Kim looked at him with confused expressions on their faces. "Shouldn't we...land the ship first?" Kim asked.
Andros looked at her, amused. Then he realized he had yet to tell them about the Galaxy Gliders. "Oh! That's right, I forgot to tell you. Come with me." He motioned for the others to follow him. They all looked to Tommy and Jason, and the two shrugged and lead them out after Andros. When they stopped they were standing infront of five tubes, each with a different color lighting them.
They watched as Andros walked over to a hatch and pulled out a red surf board. "Here," he said said as he prepared his galaxy glider, "is where we leave the ship. Now you don't have to be morphed to use these, when flying through space unmorphed they act just like a teleportation sequence." He explained.
"Great." Carri said in a confused, yet excited voice. "But what are they?" she asked.
Andros looked at her curiously, surely they ahd galaxy gliders. They had to. Everyone did. "Their galaxy gliders. You must have heard about them." He said matter-of-factly. He watched as they all shook their heads no. He sighed, looks like he had to go into an explanation of how they worked.
Before he could say anything Kim piped up. "They look like surf boards though."
"Surf boards?" Andros questioned, he'd never heard of those. Earth was going to prove to be very strange indeed. Much different than KO-35.
"Yeah," Carri said, explaining for Kim. "Surf boards, people of Earth use them to ride on water for fun. You stand on it and ride the waves."
Andros mused, that certainly sounded like galaxy gliders, only for water. He'd have to try that someday. "Alright. Well, to use the galaxy gliders you accelerate by leaning forward, and you decelerate by leaning back. The basic movements, such as turning are done with you feet. Now, I only have six galaxy gliders, so someone will have to share." As the others decided who would share he prepared the blue, black, pink, yellow, and silver galaxy gliders. After the decision was made that Rocky and Carri would share the yellow one they were off to Earth.
The Turbo's had lost to their enemies, both of their MegaZords had been destroyed. One in an attempt to take out the four, though that did nothing. And the other was just beat to death. For the moment they had retreated back into the Power Chamber, hoping that the shields would hold until their enemies left. What provoked this attack they didn't know, well, they had a few guesses. It could be their continued defeat of the forces of evil. That was their first guess, as well as top on their list.
Carlos and Justin collapsed on the floor, they all found themselves wishing the Zeo's were there. Maybe they could help. They were the experienced Rangers after all, not them. After a few minutes of discussing what to do next, as their communications systems had been shorted out, the rumblings stopped. Everything was peaceful, too peaceful for their liking. Why would they suddenly stop attacking? T.J. swallowed the lump in his throat. Something bad was about to happen, he could feel it.
Up in the Dark Fortress Astronema watched as her men and Zedd's men successfully destroyed the Rangers Zords. Those were out of the way now and she was glad. Zords could be such a nuisance. She then smiled as they went about retreating into their little Power Chamber and her men began atacking it. However, their shields were proving to be too strong for them, even with the Velocifighters helping. Then it hit her, she didn't know why she hadn't thought of it sooner. "Ecliptor, Darkonda return to the ship immediately."
"But-" Darkonda started to protest, he didn't want to just leave. He was having so much fun. However he would abide by her wishes, for now.
Ecliptor cut him off by reminding him "We serve Astronema. We must do as she tells us. Unless of course you want to play with Scrudley." The thought of her pet sent chills down even his spine. Why she kept that infernal creature around he didn't know. He found himself often wishing she'd get rid of it.
As soon as they returned to the ship Darkonda demanded to know why they had been pulled from the battle. Astronema explained that she had a plan. She ordered Ecliptor to reroute a majority of the ships power to the laser cannon, and he quickly did as he was told. It dawned on Darkonda what her plan was then. He was proud, Dark Specter had been right to have him kidnap her as a child. Too bad she had to die in order for Darkonda himself to claim Dark Specter's throne, he'd miss having someone as deliciously evil as she, but he'd get over it. In fact, he already was. "Astronema, allow me to fire the laser. Please, I'd be honored." His actual plan was to have it backfire, destroying everyone in the ship. What did he care? He had nine lives granted to him by Dark Specter, granted two of them were already used up thanks to Ecliptor. If he died here he'd just come back again.
"No. I'll be the one to fire it. Try it and you'll find yourself on the wrong end of that laser. Got it?" She said as sheshot him an icy glare. There were no traces of warmth anywhere in her glare, she whole heartedly meant what she'd just said. Astronema didn't care one way or the other if Darkonda used up his nine lives, he was merely a pawn to her.
"Yes, my queen..." he grumbled as he skulked away. A few minutes later Ecliptor returned.
"Power is rerouted to the main laser Astronema." He reported, still not entirely sure of what his daughter figure intended to do.
"Good." She said simply as she slowly walked over to the control panel. She carefully lined the cannon up with the Power Chamber. "And..." she drew out the word in her sweetest voice possible "fire!" She pulled the trigger and watched as the beam entered Earth's atmosphere, not losing any of its punch as it did so. She smiled to herself, victory was hers.
The Zeo's and Andros and Billy watched as something headed into Earth's atmosphere. It was bright, and long. "What's that?" Jason asked, although in the pit of his stomach he knew the answer. That was someone trying to destroy something on Earth, but the only on Earth that an alien would want to destroy would be... "Guys, we've got to hurry to the Power Chamber!" He leaned forwardas far as he could and sped off away from the others, Tommy hot on his tail. The others suddenly realized what he meant and did the same.
"So you're saying we should just give up?" Justin asked in disbelief, he couldn't believe what T.J. was suggesting, that they hand over their morphers to Astronema. It was absurd. He wouldn't, he couldn't, do it.
"No. Not at all. We don't hand her our real morphers, we have you and Alpha create fake ones, exact duplicates only without the morphing feature. We hand those over, maybe she'll back off for a little while." He didn't believe it would work, but they were out of options. None of them were in any condition to fight.
"That won't be an option!" Ashley yelled as she looked over at the viewing screen. The others turned to ask her why when they saw the giant beam heading for them, it was too close for them to teleport safely. If they tried they'd likely get hit directly and disentegrate or something.
"Everyone, get ready! Take cover!" T.J. shouted, he didn't know what good it do. Stay or go, take cover or stand around he was sure they were going to die. He told himself that at least he was going out as a Power Ranger, trying to save his planet and his team. His team. It was his job to save them, he didn't have long to act though as the Power Chamber began shaking violently, in a desperate move he jumped to protect his team just as a bright white light encompassed them all.