Power Rangers In Space by Heather Ray (surface ebook reader TXT) 📖

"Now open the door."

Astronema chuckled as the door opened before her, giving her total access to the famed Megaship. However, she gasped with surprise as the door parted, and a fully morphed Yellow Ranger blocked her path, her arms crossed.

"I was right," she said, walking into the Simudeck, "You were playing us for fools!"

Astronema snarled. "And all this time, you were the only thing standing in my way..."

With that, Astronema bent her arm at the elbow, the back of her palm just reaching her chin. She then extended her arm, a wave of purple energy streaking the path her hand moved, and flying at the Yellow Ranger full force. Ashley cartwheeled out of the way, and replied to the attack with her Star Slinger. She fired four consecutive beams of light at her opponent. The first three all missed their intended targets, but the forth made contact, striking Astronema on the left cheek and cutting through her supple skin like a knife. Astronema shrieked with rage and fell onto her back. Ashley confidently stood above her, holding her Star Slinger ready to fire.

"You breathe, I fire," Ashley threatened. Astronema remained still, her brown eyes tinted with a purple glow. However, a particularly powerful hit to the Megaship caused both women to roll along the Simudeck floor. Quickly, Astronema lifted herself into the air, protecting her from the shaking of the ship, and watched as Ashley tried to get back on her feet.

"No you don't, little ranger!" she yelled, holding both hands at the Yellow Ranger. Vines of purple energy entangled the Yellow Ranger, forcing her to drop to the ground. As she struggled against Astronema's magic, the young sorceress walked towards the entrance, which was still open.

"You'll pay for this with your life," Astronema muttered, touching the blood that streaked down her cheek. "DECA," she said in Andros' voice, "turn on the most dangerous training program on file, and turn off safeties. Computer Lockout, priority one."

^Lockout confirmed,^

DECA said, as fading image of KO 35 vanished completely. The scene slowly became a jungle, with vicious animal sounds echoing in the area. Astronema laughed deeply, and glanced at the Yellow Ranger, who was still struggling against her bonds.

"Good luck," she called, stepping out of the chamber. The door closed behind her, and sealed.

"Only Andros can undo a priority one lockout," Astronema said to herself, walking down the corridor, "and by the time he finds out what's happened to his precious Yellow Ranger, she'll have more holes in her than the moon!"

Astronema continued to laugh as she moved through the corridors.

Finally, she arrived at a computer terminal. Astronema's laughter died down a little, and she held both her hands on the terminal.

"And they thought I needed my scepter to use my powers?" she chuckled, purple sparks of energy flowing from her body into the computer, "Ha!"

As the energy flashed throughout the system, it traveled through the interworking connections at light speed. Soon, the lights flashed on and off, and the engines came to a halt.

So long as I focus my dark powers through the ship, all its systems will be stalled. Ecliptor had better arrive soon with reinforcements, so we can level this ship, and everyone on it!!

On the bridge, the lights suddenly cut off.

"What happened?!" Cassie shrieked, turning around in her seat.

"All systems are non-responsive!" Carlos yelled, madly pressing buttons, "Nothing's happening!"

Andros' eyes widened, and he watched the dark screen that previously showed the three remaining Velocifighters. "Without power," he said quietly, "the shields--"

To punctuate his statement, the ship rocked even harder than before, throwing all the rangers from their seats, and causing control panels to spark with fury.

"Could the Velocifighters' lasers have cut off the power?" TJ asked, shakily rising to his feet.

"I doubt it," Cassie muttered, tossing back her black hair, "It must have happened from the inside --"

"Astronema!" Andros shouted, "She was in the Simudeck. DECA!"

But DECA wouldn't respond, and the ship once again shook madly.

"TJ! Carlos!" Andros ordered, "Go check out the Simudeck, and see if she's still in there!"

"You got it," TJ said, grabbing a flashlight from beneath his control panel. Carlos did the same, and the two rangers hurried to the gate. Meanwhile, Andros and Cassie both managed to sit back in their seats, and buckle themselves in.

"Without interior power, we can't contact any of the ship's communications relays," Andros said, lifting his wrist communicator, "But we should be able to reach Ashley. Ashley? Come in. Do you read me?"

Andros frowned when he received no answer. He then changed the frequency of his communicator. "TJ?"

^I read you, Andros,^

the Blue Ranger responded.

"Ashley's not answering her communicator, and with the systems down, I can't figure out where on the ship she is."

^We'll keep an eye out for her, but without internal power, its hard maneuvering through the ship! We have to pry open all the electronic doors.^

"Keep moving," Andros said solemnly, "We don't know how much time we have left."

Inside the darkened Simudeck, Ashley heard her communicator sound. However, she couldn't respond, for she was still trapped within the purple vines of energy Astronema had entangled her in. She tried to pry her arms free, but it was no use. She couldn't reach her communicator, which meant she was completely cut off from her friends.

"DECA!" she called into the darkness, "DECA! Can you hear me?"

Suddenly, the lights turned on again in the Simudeck, leaving Ashley in the dark tiled room she was familiar with.

"DECA, can you hear me now?" she asked.

^Affirmative,^

DECA answered, ^Now starting training program level Sigma.^

"No!" Ashley shouted, "DECA, discontinue program!"

^Program lockout,^

DECA sounded tonelessly, as the tiled room once again transformed in appearance. Ashley gasped as she found herself in the jungle she had seen moments before all the power cut off, with the threatening voices of dozens of animals all around. Ashley felt herself quake with fear when she saw the bushes nearby teem with motion. Suddenly, a large wolven creature leapt out of the bush, bearing claws over a foot in length. Ashley struggled to push herself away as the creature slowly approached.

I've got to get free,

she thought, forcing herself on her back. When the creature leapt at her again, she pushed her legs out, holding the creature back. However, it roared angrily, and slashed at Ashley nonetheless. The razor claws managed to break through the energy chains that restrained her, but they also penetrated Ashley's armor, leaving three six inch long cuts along her upper left arm. Ashley struggled to get up, and grasped her wound painfully. She was shocked to see how easily its claws sliced through her armor.

"Push past the pain," she ordered herself, taking a fighting position. The creature leapt at her again, its claws at the ready and saliva dripping from its fangs. Ashley managed to sidestep the monster, delivering a mighty spinning kick to the monster's back as it sailed past her. The added force of Ashley's attack, compounded with the monster's own momentum, caused it to fly uncontrollably into a tree. It crashed through the tree, causing the top portion to fall in Ashley's direction. Ashley quickly caught the falling tree at the base, and pushed it the other way, crashing onto the monster and pinning it to the ground. Ashley gasped with relief, and began looking around the jungle for something to bandage her wound with. But she soon noticed another bush moving slightly.

"I hate Vermillian Wolverines," she muttered, once again taking a defensive stance, "They always travel in packs!"

Not far from the Simudeck, Astronema regrouped with Elgar, Ecliptor, and Darkonda at the station where she had disrupted the ship's systems. As soon as Ecliptor saw Astronema, he kneeled before his mistress. Elgar mimicked his motions, but Darkonda merely nodded slightly.

"You will show the Dark Princess some respect!" Ecliptor growled. Darkonda rolled his eyes, and bowed more deeply.

"Pleasantries don't matter at this point," Astronema said, "I only took the shields down long enough for a skeleton crew to come aboard. Now we have to disable the shields for good, so we can teleport some Quantrons over to help us scour the ship."

"We don't really need them," Elgar mentioned, "After all, there's only five Rangers to worry about."

"Four, actually," Astromena chuckled, glancing at the Simudeck gate down the hall, "The Yellow Ranger is out of our way for good."

"Then we need to find the four remaining Rangers, and secure the bridge and engineering," Darkonda said, "From either station, we can deactivate the shields and whatever other systems we want for an extended period of time."

"Excellent," Astronema said, "Darkonda, you find the bridge, and Ecliptor, you find engineering. Elgar, you find the brig, and make sure that little robot Alpha is out of commission. I'll search the ship for any more Rangers."

"Yes, Astronema," Ecliptor said, rising to his feet. He then reached out, and handed his mistress her scepter. "I thought you might like to have it."

Astronema grinned, accepting her scepter. Her eyes began to glow brightly as she strode through the hallway. Ecliptor, Darkonda, and Elgar went their own ways, making their way through the damaged vessel.