The red ranger and XI were on the bridge of the Spectrum ii, searching for anything related Zordon. Jason sighed as he eliminated another region of the galaxy and began to search in a different area. While it was a large galaxy, Jason would have expected one of Zordon's allies to show up somewhere. Power rangers weren't that prevalent in every region. He was watching the screen when he heard the floor creaking. He immediately turned the screen off and spun around. He was relieved to see that it was just Trini. He was then embarrassed when he realised she was only wearing a yellow and white nightshirt that only went down as far as her knees. "Trini", he mumbled while trying to avert his gaze, "you startled me".

Trini smiled, "I heard a noise so I went to investigate. Then I saw the light on and thought you were in trouble".

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you", he apologised.

The yellow ranger looked over her team leader and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. She then saw that his bed hadn't been slept in, "Jason have you been up all night?"

Jason looked at the clock and saw it read 5am, "Yeah I guess I have, must've lost track of time".

The pair looked at each other but before they could continue the computer beeped. Jason immediately called up the search programs but he was confused. There were no search results listed. "What is it?" Trini asked as she peered over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure", he replied, "the computer's found something but it's not directly connected to the Zordon program". He pushed a few buttons and a message appeared on screen, "Incoming encrypted message, that's weird".

"I'll alert Xi", Trini said and Jason merely grunted in response. The red ranger was confused, who could send a message like this?

A few hours later Xi wasn't any closer to cracking the encryption on the file. For the first hour everyone gathered around the computer and waited in anticipation but as time passed the others began to drift away. Jason though decided to head back down Onyx.

He teleported down and began walking around. He didn't know how long he had been walking but soon Jason found himself in a rocky patch of scrubland. Maybe it was time to go back.

"Well well, what do we have here", he heard a voice call from behind him. His blood immediately ran cold as he turned around to face his mortal enemy, "Out for an early morning stroll", she teased.

"Astronema", he growled, "come to do what your minions have failed to do".

"Perhaps", she began and held her blade, "maybe I just wanted to say hello".

"Well now you've done that, you can leave", Jason spat.

"So much anger red ranger", she smiled, "what did I ever do to you", Astronema added with a mocking tone.

By now Jason was barely controlling his anger, "You know exactly what you did, you destroyed KO-35", he said.

"Maybe they deserved it", Astronema shot back with a vicious tone. She swung her sword which Jason narrowly avoided. Quickly morphing he summoned his Omega Sword and charged at the Princess of Evil. Astronema managed to block a couple of swings before jamming the end of her staff into the ribs of the red ranger. Jason cried out in pain and dropped down to one knee, much to the delight of Astronema.

Underneath his helmet, Jason ground his teeth before going on the attack again. This time he mixed in a few kicks to try and throw Astronema off guard but whatever he tried, she seemed to have an answer for it. The Princess of Evil used her staff to sweep out Jason's legs and he crashed to the ground with a bump, dropping his Sword in the process.

Astronema laughed and brought her sword into an attacking position. Almost on instinct Jason summoned his Sword back into his hand. From his prone position slashed the weapon across the unprotected legs of Astronema. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at her legs. Jason rolled away and gasped when he saw red blood on Astronema's gloved hands. The Omega Sword had cut through her suit and her legs were bleeding badly, "You're human?" he managed to splutter.

"Of course I'm human", Astronema roared, "what else would I be?"

The red rangers didn't know how to respond. He always assumed that the public face of Astronema was just a human disguise. He never once thought that she was actually a human, "Then why to you fight for Dark Specter?" he asked.

Astronema struggled back to her feet and retrieved her staff, "Revenge", she growled, "a team of rangers killed my family and I will stop at nothing until all rangers had been wiped out in the galaxy".

"But that can't be right", Jason replied, "Power Rangers would never kill other humans, you must be mistaken".

"You're calling me a liar?" Astronema pointed at the red ranger a powerful blast of purple and black energy was shot at Jason. Somehow the red ranger was able to dodge as Ecliptor charged in. The pair battled for supremacy, forcing all of their energy into their respective attacks.

Suddenly four shadows appeared overhead, signalling the arrival of the other rangers. Jason kicked Ecliptor back and threw his sword up as Zack jumped down combining their weapons already in hand. Kimberly and Trini jumped down behind him and the black ranger fired the weapon.

Astronema knew that she was beaten. She had just enough time to throw up a magical shield before the energy wave slammed into it. She was saved from the worst of the blast but the shockwave still knocked her off her feet. Immediately leaping to her feet, she stared across at the four rangers defiantly before she and Ecliptor teleported away.

Jason breathed a sigh of relief before sinking to his knees, "Thanks", he gasped.

"What the hell Jason", Zack began, "I thought you weren't going to run off without us again?"

The red ranger shook his head, "I didn't run off, I was investigating and Astronema got the jump on me". The black ranger sensed the honesty in his words and immediately backed down.

"I should have told you I was going planetside, I'm sorry", Jason apologised. "Look can we head back, I've got some things I want to share with you". The others nodded and teleported back to the Spectrum ii.

An hour later,

"I've decrypted the message". Xi said

"You have?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, have you ever heard of SPD?" Xi asked. The red and yellow shook their heads, "SPD stands for Space Patrol Delta, they're kinda the space police, and have being like the Blue Senturions serving them. The message we received was from them".

Jason looked in confusion, "Why would this SPD company contact us?"

"Dunno it didn't say", he replied, "but it said the Supreme Commander wants to meet you in its global headquarters on Sentai 6 in a week's time".

The two rangers were still surprised that SPD would contact them directly. Perhaps a more important question was why would SPD send them a message? They were the space police and they must surely be allies of Zordon.