Life on the Spectrum ii had soon settled into a pattern for the rangers. A week of Earth time had passed.

There was one piece of good news, Zordon had seemingly given up his pursuit of the Omega rangers. They knew that Zordon wouldn't give up that easily so she must be in the process of planning something big. As it had been a week since their departure, The Omega rangers used of the long range communicator to call Earth. The four of them huddled around the monitor. "Hey Billy", Zack began, "how are things back on Earth".

"Pretty good", the Blue Mighty Morphin ranger yawned, "although did you have to call at 1am".

"Sorry I guess we lost track of the time on Earth", Trini replied, "so tell us everything that's happened since we left".

"Not much really, we're waiting for something to happen", Billy began. "Immediately after you left, a group of Putties met the new green ranger, made of a pretty impressive light show", he smiled. "The other rangers quickly arrived to back him up."

"I still dont like this new green ranger", Jason said

"Zordon is organising the Earth's defences. He's called together a Council of War".

"Well thats interesting", Kimberly said.

"Tommy is leading and they've called together all the allies and former rangers".

"That's a little weird", Trini frowned.

"Well you did betray Zordon", Billy said " It only makes sense for him to throw everything he has at you to stop you".

"He's obsessed with wanting to strip us of our powers." Jason said

Billy nodded and then yawned, "Sorry to cut this short but I need to sleep. Love you guys", the others waved goodbye and turned off the communicator.

"Are you guys alright?" Xi asked.

"Yeah, I mean I'm sad to leave Earth behind but I know we'll be back there someday", Kimberly sighed. Zack nodded, the trio had been in her place not long before. Some time away from the planet might do her some good right now.

"So what's the plan now Captain Marvellous", Zack laughed.

"Firstly don't call me that again", Jason began, "we need to put some feelers out". Xi brought up list of planets on the viewing screen, "There are a few planets that Zordon was strongly affiliated to. For obvious reasons we can eliminate Earth so that leaves these".

"We should probanly avoid KO-35, Eltar, Aquitar and Triforia", Trini replied, "Aquitar has a ranger team that could oppose us for starters".

"And Eltar is his home planet", Zack added, "that would be the first place we would not go".

"I've also eliminated Triforia", Xi said, "I've just received word from Prince Trey and they've not detected any Alliance activity in their sector for months".

"So we're back to square one", Kimberly threw her hands up in the air.

"Not necessarily", Jason smirked, "when you want to avoid Zordon who do you ask first?" The others looked at the red ranger blankly, "The people most likely to be against hi ".

"Great so shall we rock up to the Moon Palace, ring the doorbell and ask Rita or Zedd how to defeat Zordon?" Zack replied sarcastically.

"You're thinking too literally", Xi replied and brought up an image of a planet. From space it looked a little bit like Mars, rocky red terrain with large mountain ranges, "I give you the planet Onyx", Xi continued, "KO-35 liked to call it the black market planet. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Onyx". Xi paused as the rangers had started laughing, "I don't see this as a joke", he snapped.

"We're not laughing at the planet", Kimberly sniggered, "it's an Earth thing, we'll explain later"

"Obi Wan", Trini spluttered, drawing more laughter from the others.

"Alright", Xi said hesitantly, "as I was saying, there's bound to be someone on Onyx who knows something about Zordon".

Zack raised a hand, "Aren't they loyal to the Alliance on this planet?"

"The only people they're loyal to is themselves", Xi replied, "if we can push the right buttons, we should be able to get some information out of them".

Onyx

A few hours later the rangers landed the Spectrum ii on the planet's surface. To ensure complete discretion, they were a fair distance away from civilisation, so they had to complete the rest of the journey by the Hover tank on board. The main settlement on Onyx looked like the movie set for an old western. There were wooden houses and even a vintage style saloon, complete with swinging doors. In keeping with the old west feel, the only stone based building was the jail.

The rangers snuck into a deserted alley and demorphed. Jason was dressed in a long red velvet cloak that could be pulled out over his head. The others were dressed in tan coloured pants with a hooded sand coloured top. "Does anyone else feel like a Tusken Raider?" Kimberly asked the others, itching her side.

"Well you're short enough to be an Ewok so I think that's more fitting", Zack joked.

"Guys can we cut out the movie reference please", Jason groaned. He was sure that someone muttered, "Yes Master", but he couldn't be sure. "I'll go into the bar and make some enquires", he continued, "if there's any trouble, don't be afraid to start shooting". They nodded and took up their positions around the town.

Pushing the doors to the saloon, Jason stepped inside and paused. Silence descended as everyone stared at the red ranger but after a few seconds they continued with what they had been doing. Deciding to observe everyone for a few minutes, Jason took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender slid a glass full of a green, smoking liquid down the bar. Jason raised it up to his mouth and pretended to take a sip. He wanted to give off the illusion of someone just wanting to enjoy a quiet drink but without actually getting drunk.

"What do you mean my credits aren't any good", he heard a voice call out from a nearby card table. Turning his head slightly he saw a large orange and black bodied creature. His face was bright red with black patches and he had two rows of small spikes on the top of his head. He knew that face anywhere, it was Darkonda. "You see this datacard", Darkonda waved a luminous green piece of plastic in the air, "this was taken from Zordon of Eltar's personal collection. Don't tell me that's not worth something".

"Zordon", Jason muttered under his breath. Deciding to investigate further, he left his seat at the bar and walked up to the table, "I'll vouch for my esteemed colleague", he said.

"Push off scrawny", Darkonda spat, "I don't need your help".

"I think you do", Jason replied smoothly, "in fact I'll even help meet some of your debts". He reached into his robe and pulled out a bag of silver coins. Throwing them on the table a few spilled out, drawing the attention of the others gathered, "Pure silver all the way from Earth and I have plenty more where they came from". The dealer ran his hands through the bag and nodded, causing Jason to smirk. He had probably just paid off several thousand credits worth of debt with five dollars make up of nickels, dimes and quarters.

"Earth you say", Darkonda's said with interest, "what were you doing on that remote outpost?"

"Same thing you do Darkonda", the red ranger replied, "whatever I need to".

Darkonda muttered something but Jason couldn't understand what he said, "Heard there's more then one Power Ranger team, how did you get your scrawny ass out of there?"

"You ask a lot of questions Darkonda", Jason stated. He reached down to the table and touched the datacard, "Does this really belong to Zordon?"

"Keep your greasy hands off that", Darkonda snatched it away, "prised it out of that overinflated windbag's tube myself".

Jason wanted to press him for further information but he knew that he needed to tread carefully, "Interesting, I heard that he had allies in the Dagobah system".

Darkonda chuckled and lent closer to him, "Wouldn't you like to know, red ranger". Jason's blood froze, how did Darkonda discover his identity so quickly? "A small piece of advice, next time you reach down for something try and avoid flashing your morpher". Jason cursed himself for making such a basic mistake, "I've got people outside who will take care of your friends if you make any sudden moves. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to collect the bounty available for taking you down". Darkonda paused to let that sink in, "Tell you what I'm a reasonable guy so why don't you back away and we'll pretend that this conversation never happened".

The red ranger nodded slowly and took a step backwards. Suddenly he heard the sound of blaster fire from outside, "I think my friends can take care of themselves", he stated and kicked over the card table, causing drinks, coins and cards to fly everywhere. One of the other patrons at the table was less than impressed with this and tried to hit Jason with his chair. The red ranger ducked and the blow intended for him hit the back of someone else. Before he knew it, there was a full scale bar room brawl happening.

Using the distraction to his advantage, Jason punched Darkonda in the face, sending the bounty hunter sprawling to the floor. He placed a foot on Darkonda's chest, to his surprise Darkonda laughed, "What is it with people laughing at me today", he yelled,

"You think only Zordon allies got that signal about you", Darkonda replied.

For the second time in as many minutes, the red ranger froze in shock, "What do you know?"

"Let me go and I'll tell you", Darkonda smirked. Before Jasom could get any further information out of the bounty hunter, he was showered by broken glass and was knocked to the floor by a flying body. He pushed the person off and saw that it was a morphed Zack.

"Sorry about that man", Zack said, "someone knows we're here". The sight of a ranger caused the patrons of the saloon to scramble for the exits. Zack grabbed hold of Jason and dragged him through the broken window that he had just crashed through, much to the protests of the red ranger.

Darkonda pulled himself off the floor and laughed to himself, however, he soon stopped when he noticed that his datacard was missing. The red ranger must've taken it during the confusion, he thought. He vowed revenge on the red ranger and know the perfect way to do it. He pulled out a small communicator from his body and made a call, "Good day Astronema, my name is Darkonda. I'm a loyal servant of Dark Specter and I wish to offer my services to you".

Spectrum ii

Xi sat in the captain's chair and stared vacantly at nothing in particular. Jason sighed in frustration. With a little more luck he would've gotten exactly what he wanted out of Darkonda. "I knew we'd find you two in here", Zack called out from the entrance to the bridge. Jason didn't turn around but something told him that Trini was with him. "I just wanted to apologise for spoiling your interrogation".

"No apology needed man", Jason replied without turning around, "there was no guarantee Darkonda would've told me the truth anyway", he added with a dejected tone.

There was silence for a few moments before Zack added, "Well Kimberly is making something to eat, she promises that it's going to be something special".

"I'll be along in a bit", Jason stated. There was no response but he heard footsteps approaching him. He had been right, Trini was with the black ranger. She perched on a console opposite the red ranger and looked at him for a few moments.

"We're going to get through this", she stated, "you said it yourself that Darkonda can't be trusted. He could've been lying just to get you to drop your guard".

"I know Trini", he sighed, "but it's still frustrating".

Trini smiled, it was the first time he had used the nickname everyone else used, "Xi is working on decoding the datacard so perhaps they'll be something to help us on there". She smiled and grabbed Jason by the hand, "Now Kim's making her famous spaghetti Bolognese, you don't want to miss that".

Reluctantly Jason hauled himself to his feet and followed the yellow ranger towards the galley. They had been so close to getting some useful information about Zordon, hopefully the datacard contained something helpful. If it didn't they had made a dangerous enemy in the form of Darkonda for absolutely nothing.