"I'm not familiar with 'Pioneer 10'," Saryn remarked, his fingers expertly twisting the ends of her hair into what felt like a braid.

"I've never heard of it either," she admitted. She smoothed the front of her short dress a little nervously, telling herself not to glance at the clock for the hundredth time. "But I'm not really up on the space program."

"It's quarter of," Saryn told her, reaching over her shoulder for her hairbrush. "There is plenty of time."

She smiled a little, forcing her hands to stay still. "I know. Sorry."

"You need not apologize." Her ran the brush through her still-loose hair, and she felt a gentle, unintrusive pressure on her mind at the same time. She might not have even noticed it if she hadn't been half-expecting it.

"You don't have to do that," she told him, but she felt herself relaxing anyway. "I'll be fine once I'm actually in front of the microphone."

"I know." He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, studying her hair critically.

Apparently satisfied, he let her go, and she picked up her small hand mirror curiously. The hair around her face had been pulled back into a braid, hanging down her back while the rest of her hair was still loose. The pink scrunchy he had taken from her earlier held the braid in place.

She smiled again, tilting the mirror to catch his eye as he watched her study her reflection. "And why doesn't Mirine's hair look this good?" she inquired.

His reflection smiled back at her. "She doesn't feel it's appropriate to her current line of work," he informed her.

She had to concede that, and as she set the mirror down, he reached out to touch her necklace. "As much as I like seeing you wear this," he said softly, "it doesn't match your dress."

She let out a breath of amusement, letting him slide the gold chain out from under her hair. "No," she agreed, watching him place the ruby around his neck with his ring. "And it's not really appropriate to my current line of work."

He smiled at that, but he tapped her wrist communicator reprovingly. "You wear that one for a reason. Don't take it off."

"Yes, Mother," she teased.

"I'll go see if Adelle is still on schedule," he said, not deigning to reply. "Would you like anything?"

She shook her head, then changed her mind. "Some water?"

He kissed her quickly. "Done," he promised. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

As the door closed behind him, she put one foot on the corner chair and tugged absently at her sandal. She had heard this space used to be a locker room, once upon a time, but now it was just one of the smaller game rooms off the main restaurant area. Or a backstage prep room, depending on what function the Surf Spot was filling on a given night.

She heard the door open again, and she smiled to herself. "Back so soon?" she asked, turning to see what had cut his trip short.

Instead of Saryn, or even Adelle, a girl in black jeans and a pink "Worldbeat" t-shirt stood in the doorway. She was utterly unfamiliar, though she looked about the right age to be haunting the halls of Angel Grove High.

"Hi," Cassie said, giving her a curious smile. "Lost? The other two game rooms are open, if you're looking for someone."

"Just you, Pink Ranger," the girl replied. There was no hint of expression on her face.

Cassie's eyes widened. "Excuse me? I think you must have me confused with someone else… I'm not--"

"I know who you are." Without seeming to move, the girl was beside her, and Cassie gasped as fingers pressed harsh lightning against her forehead.

She tried to throw her attacker off, but the energy flash in her eyes and mind was crippling. Her strength deserted her even as the pressure inside her head exploded, fire overwhelming every thought and stamping her senses into oblivion. The last thing she was aware of was her own voice screaming silently for Saryn.

***

"Water, please," he said, smiling at the student working the counter.

"Coming right up," Shana answered. "Haven't I seen you around before?" she added over her shoulder, as she slid a tumbler underneath the water tap.

"Last weekend," he supplied. "At the tournament."

"Oh, that's right." She dropped a twisty straw into the glass and passed it over the counter to him. "You were there with--"

Something slammed into his mind, probing tendrils that struck his empathic shield and sizzled angrily as they sought a way around the obstruction. He shoved back without thinking, stunned at the intrusion and even more shocked when he felt Cassie cry out. In the seconds it took to realize that he wasn't the one under attack, he was already shoving past someone in the doorway and racing down the hall.

Cassie's door was open, and a dark figure sprang away from her as he burst through. He spared only a single, penetrating glance for the other girl's retreating form before kneeling down beside Cassie. She started to stir even as he put his hand behind her head, and she pushed him away weakly. *Go after her,* he heard her whisper.

"I'm not leaving you," he muttered, aware that they weren't the only ones in the room. He heard Adelle exclaim as she pushed past Shana to join him at Cassie's side, and Cassie struggled to sit up.

"No, really," she managed, though whether in answer to Adelle's concern or his protest, he wasn't entirely sure. "I'm fine. Saryn…" She turned pleading dark eyes on him, and he sighed inwardly.

"Make sure she's all right," he told Adelle, getting to his feet.

"What do you mean, 'make sure she's all right'!" Adelle sounded miffed and worried all at once, which was no mean feat. "Of course I'll make sure she's all right! What happened here? Who was that girl?"

"How did you--" Shana began, still hovering in the doorway.

"Shana," Adelle interrupted. "Come in here and lend a hand. Cassie, are you hurt? You want us to call an ambulance?"

He lowered his defenses just far enough that he could tell "right" should be the correct direction, and he heard Cassie's communicator beep from somewhere behind him. He shook his head, ignoring Shana's curious look as he hurried down the hall toward the rear exit. Her teammates really did have the worst sense of timing.

He pushed the back door open and stepped onto in the cool air, slapping his own communicator as he scanned the lawn behind the Surf Spot. "This is Saryn," he said tersely. "Don't signal Cassie again."

"Saryn?" TJ's voice replied. "What's going on?"

A flicker of pink caught his eye, sliding out of the shadows to disappear around the corner, and he started after it. "Cassie was attacked. Adelle's with her. I'll tell you when I know anything."

He turned his communicator off, extending his senses as far as he dared around the edge of the building. When he found nothing, he swung around the corner and headed for the street, cursing the other girl's head start. It was all too easy to lose someone in the crowds by the front door, especially when he didn't have a particularly clear picture to begin with.

Then he froze, feeling someone's entire focus shift toward him. Behind it was the same trace of malicious intent that had led him out the back of the Surf Spot, and his gaze settled on a blue vehicle that had paused by the sidewalk. It started to pull away, but not before he caught a glimpse of the girl in the passenger seat.

She had blonde hair and wore a solid pink t-shirt, but she was staring directly at him. She waved slowly as the vehicle's momentum carried her out of his sight, and there was nothing friendly in the gesture. Her eyes held the same sharpness that had tested his shields earlier, and he had the feeling that she was still watching him even after she'd faded from his sight.

He turned around and headed back into the Surf Spot, more worried than ever as the implications started to set in. A shapeshifter, capable of mental attack, who had just gone after one of the Power Rangers' alter egos. This did not bode well for Earth's record stretch of peace.

"I'm not sure you should sing," TJ was saying as he slipped back into Cassie's room.

"Well, I am," Cassie replied with some asperity. "I told you, I'm fine."

"If she says she's all right, then she's all right," Adelle informed them. Most of the team seemed to have crammed into the little room, and she didn't look overly thrilled about it. "Now, out, all of you." She pointed toward the door to emphasize her command, and Cassie's gaze caught his.

He shook his head wordlessly, taking a step back to allow the other Rangers to file out. "Andros," he said quietly. The Red Ranger stepped around the doorway, pausing in the hall beside him. "Shapeshifter. She drove off with someone I couldn't catch a glimpse of."

"What did she do to Cassie?" Andros asked, just as quietly.

"I wish I knew," Saryn muttered. "She hit her mind with some kind of pulse, strong enough that I felt it too, and Cassie blacked out."

Andros was silent for a moment, nodding to Carlos and TJ as they gathered closer to listen. "She left with someone," he repeated after a moment, as Ashley joined them. "There's more than one of them, then."

"Perhaps," Saryn agreed. "Or perhaps she only impersonated someone the driver knew."

Andros looked at him for a moment. "You're sure it was the same person?"

"Yes," he said firmly, glancing over his shoulder. "Did you find anything earlier?"

"The probe?" Andros didn't look happy. "It was destroyed, possibly as a distraction for us."

Saryn gave him a sharp look. "Related?"

"Maybe."

"What are you all whispering about out here?" Adelle demanded, hands on her hips as she glared at them from the doorway. "Cassie's going to be fine. Now, get out of here and enjoy the show like everyone else."

"We were just leaving, Adelle," Ashley said sweetly, taking Andros' arm. Adelle's expression left no doubt that she was unconvinced, but she turned and disappeared back into the room without another word.

"Ash and I will stay for dinner," Andros murmured, his glance including all of them. "Teej, you and Carlos had better get going--but be careful. This can't be as random as Adelle thinks it is."

"You think?" Carlos muttered under his breath, exchanging glances with TJ.

Saryn went back inside as they drifted away, ignoring Adelle's exasperated look. "Are you all right?" he asked, touching Cassie's hair automatically. "Let me braid this again."

"Much as I hate to admit it," Adelle added, apparently deciding to ignore him, "TJ might be right." She peered at Cassie. "You sure you're up to singing, now?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Cassie said, smiling first at him and then at Adelle. "I'm fine, really; she just knocked me down."

"Never seen that girl before," Adelle declared, frowning. "Never want to again, either, except maybe to give her a good talking to."

"Me neither," Cassie murmured, putting a hand to her forehead.

Adelle studied her for a moment, then put her hands together briskly. "Well, if you're sure you're up to it, I'll go and make sure everything's ready. Oh, and I'll have Shana bring that water back for you, all right?"

"Thank you," Cassie said, smiling again, and Adelle hesitated only a moment longer before disappearing once more.

Cassie sighed, and his gaze flickered worriedly as he unbraided her hair. "Cassie?" he asked, careful to keep his tone casual.

"I'm okay," she said. She shivered a little, and he let go of her hair as dropped his hands to her shoulders. He rubbed her arms gently, and she shivered again. He moved around to face her, and she stood up and put her arms around his neck without a word.

He hugged her tightly, knowing it was comfort, not questions, that she needed right now. "It won't happen again," he whispered. "I'm not leaving your side all evening, whether you sing or not."

"I want to sing," she murmured. "But thank you."

"Then I'll be there," he told her. "After I braid your hair again," he added, as she finally loosened her embrace a little.

She giggled, and it made him feel better to hear it. "Obviously the most important thing on the agenda," she teased. "How did I ever get by without you?"

"It's a mystery to me," he replied, motioning for her to turn around.

***

"A shapeshifter?" Ashley asked, careful to keep her voice down. "How likely is that, really?"

Andros shrugged, staring down at his menu moodily. "It's not unheard of. It could have come in on the courier, using the probe as a distraction so we wouldn't detect its teleportation…"

"That doesn't make any sense and you know it," she hissed, pushing his menu down on the table in an effort to get him to look at her. "We never would have detected a single teleportation unless we were looking right at it."

Andros shrugged again, glancing across the room toward the counter. "Maybe it wanted to hide its ship on the surface somewhere. That would explain why we couldn't find it anywhere in orbit. DECA could easily have picked up a ship entering the atmosphere."

"Or maybe we couldn't find it in orbit because it isn't here," Ashley insisted, following his gaze for a moment. Someone wearing a Surf Spot apron was headed in their direction, and she sighed impatiently.

The student waiter caught her eye and smiled, nodding to both of them as he parked himself at their table. "Hi, I'm Chip, and I'll be your waiter tonight," he informed them, his tone almost comically cheerful. "Ready to order?"

She gave her menu a token glance, then shot an apologetic smile at Chip. "Would you mind giving us a few more minutes?"

"Not at all," he replied easily. "Three minutes it is; take your time." With a little wave, he headed for the next table.

Ashley stared after him, slightly bemused, and she wondered briefly if he was for real. Then she gave her head a shake and turned back to Andros, who was now playing with his fork.

"Look, Andros," she said, lowering her voice again. "As horrible as it sounds, maybe it wasn't a monster that went after Cassie. Maybe it was just some kid, not a shapeshifter at all. You know how paranoid Saryn is, and it's not like he sees that well in the dark anyway."

"Doesn't matter," Andros answered, pressing the tines of his fork into his napkin. The fork left four small indents in the cloth when he lifted it up again. "He says a shapeshifter attacked Cassie, so we have to assume that's true until we have reason to think otherwise. A concrete reason," he added, catching her eye for the first time.

She frowned a little, studying him. "Andros, do you know something about this?"

He set his fork down and leaned back in his chair, looking toward the counter again. "I don't know any more than you do."

"So why are you acting so strangely?" she pressed. "You haven't fidgeted this much since I asked you to the prom."

The corner of his mouth quirked at that, but he still didn't look at her. "I'm not acting strangely. You're the second person to tell me that today."

"Well, maybe there's a reason," she told him, slightly exasperated. "You're not even looking at me."

He caught her eye at that, but all he said was, "Here comes Chip again. Do you know what you want?"

"Chip," she murmured, glancing down at her own menu as he managed to distract her momentarily. "That can't seriously be his real name."

"TJ once said that about Zhane, too," Andros reminded her, and she had to smile.

"That's because TJ wasn't here the year we had exchange students from the Middle East. You know, I didn't realize how not hungry I was until I started looking at this menu."

"It was your idea to do dinner," he told her, pretending to look over the top of her menu.

She laughed at his expression, tapping him on the nose with the edge of the menu. "Not because I was hungry, silly. Just because I wanted to spend time with you."

His smile faded a little, and for a moment he looked troubled. "Ash… there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

*Aha!* she thought, but she didn't say it aloud. "Oh?" she asked neutrally. "What's that?"

"Two minutes and 58 seconds," Chip announced, grabbing one of the chairs from a nearby table so he could sit down with them. "Was that enough time, or would you like a little more?"

She glanced over at Andros, not sure whether to grin or roll her eyes "I'm ready," she said, and he gestured for her to go first. The look on his face was distant enough that she ended up watching him while she gave Chip her order, but he didn't seem to notice.

"And you, sir," Chip said, his pen poised with a flourish as he turned toward Andros.

Andros didn't answer, and she cleared her throat. "Andros?"

He blinked, glancing at her and then at Chip. "Sorry," he said, sitting forward in his chair again and scanning the menu. If he hadn't had the same thing a hundred times before, she would have sworn he had just picked it at random. He didn't seem to be concentrating on much of anything this evening.

Chip jumped to his feet, twirling the chair he had been sitting in back to its former position with the ease of someone who had practiced the maneuver before. "Your order is already on its way," he promised, wiggling his eyebrows at them. "Twelve minutes and 23 seconds--time me."

And he was gone, leaving Ashley to stare after him in amusement. "He can't be serious."

"Ash," Andros began, tapping the handle of his fork with his finger.

She glanced up at the clock, making a mental note of the time. "Yeah?"

He didn't answer for a moment. Just as she was beginning to notice the silence, though, he said, "I'm thinking about going back to KO-35."

She looked at him in surprise. "Next week, you mean? Instead of Eltare? I thought you were already going back and forth between Eltare and KO-35."

"We are." Andros picked up his spoon and held it in both hands, turning it over several times before looking back up at her. "But that's not what I meant."

She started to frown inquiringly--and then the meaning of his earnest hazel stare sank in. It took every ounce of effort she had to force her words out with some semblance of calm. "What--what *do* you mean, then?"

He tapped the spoon against his palm, and she put her hands in her lap to keep herself from reaching over and grabbing the silverware from him. "Zhane called this morning," he said quietly. "There's an agri shipment that's been slated for Kerovan delivery for four days now, and it hasn't gone anywhere. There's just no one to divert to deliver it; everyone doing Border runs is straight out as it is."

She swallowed, doing her best to keep her tone level. "And if you went back--with the Megaship? Could you deliver it yourselves?"

"That and all the other supplies that are backing up," Andros agreed, looking up at her again. "It's the Rangers' job to represent their planet, Ash. That means defending it in the face of evil and taking care of it in evil's wake."

"I know," she murmured, looking down at her hands. "I know that."

He didn't say anything else for a few moments, and she couldn't tell him what she was thinking. If he took the Megaship… what reason would he have to come back to Earth?

"It's not like Earth would be defenseless," he said at last. His voice was a little tentative, as though he wasn't sure exactly what her reaction was going to be yet. "The Mega Vs are newer and faster than the Megaship is, and their combined firepower is--"

"I know," she repeated, louder, deliberately cutting him off. "I *know* that, Andros; you don't have to convince me." She took a deep breath, bracing herself. "You're right--you should take the Megaship and go."

It was harder to say than she'd anticipated. Much harder. She felt tears stinging her eyes, and she hated them before they even fell, knowing they would only make Andros feel worse. He was only doing what he thought was right; it wasn't his fault…

The applause was so incongruous that for a moment it didn't even register, but distantly she realized that Cassie had stepped out on the Surf Spot's makeshift stage. Andros scooted around the table to be closer to her and she looked away, not wanting him to see how hard she was trying not to cry. "You're leaving forever, aren't you," she whispered.

"What?" Andros murmured, as the applause faded and Cassie began to sing.

*You're leaving forever.*

"No!" Andros whispered, sounding frustrated. "That's what I thought Zhane meant, too, but it's not! We just need to get KO-35 back on its feet, to make the colony self-sufficient again, and it would be easier if I wasn't…"

"If you weren't commuting," she murmured, trying to take a breath without sniffling. She couldn’t believe she was falling apart like this.

She should have seen it coming, after all. He had been coming back later and later the last few weeks, and if she hadn't been so wrapped up in her own life she might have thought to wonder how hard the constant traveling and time changes were for him. Zhane had stopped returning more than a month ago, and she should have known that Andros wished he could do the same.

"I *want* to go back and forth," Andros insisted softly. "Honestly I do, Ash. It's just--it's not… well, it doesn't *help* anything, not when we need the Megaship on the Border anyway.

"It's not forever," he repeated, touching her cheek. "I promise. It's just until KO-35 is a little better off."

"Yeah," she said, taking another careful breath. "I know." The more he said, the more she hated this plan. Who decided when KO-35 was "better off"? When was a colony considered self-sufficient? It could be years before something like that happened…

But hadn't she been accepted to college? Wasn't that a "years" kind of commitment? What right did she have to think that Andros wouldn't want to do something equally worthwhile with his time?

*More worthwhile,* she admitted, giving in and rubbing her eyes. "Andros," she said softly. "Can we go outside and talk for a few minutes?"

"Sure," he said, glancing over his shoulder before getting to his feet. He pushed his chair back in and gestured for her to lead the way.

She paused by the door to the foyer, shooting a quick look at the stage. Cassie caught her eye briefly, proving that she was more aware of what was going on than Ashley had expected. Saryn was lurking by the corner of the stage, looking strangely unobtrusive in the midst of the Saturday night Surf Spot patrons, but he seemed to be paying very little attention to anyone who wasn't within a twenty-foot radius of Cassie.

Andros put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned toward the fire exit. The alarm had been broken for weeks, and she'd overheard Adelle complaining about students starting to use it as a second door. She supposed that meant it might actually get fixed one of these days, but in the meantime, Ashley had no compunction about contributing.

She pushed the door open, and Andros followed her out into the night. The dark side of the foyer was just barely out of line of sight from the street, but it was, by definition, for emergency use only. She had no doubt that they could carry on a relatively private conversation here.

"Andros," she began, a little awkwardly. She gave her eyes another token swipe and lifted her chin, determined not to let him go without at least trying to figure things out. "We haven't really talked about… the future. I feel like--"

The sense of isolation afforded by their location vanished half a second before someone clapped a hand over her mouth from behind. Her eyes widened, but she didn't even manage to draw a breath before some force pressed hard against her forehead and the whole world collapsed in on itself. There was a whirlwind roar of thoughts and memories and feeling that rushed from her in an unfathomable tide, leaving nothing but oblivion in its wake.

***

"If we're going to let them rip us off for a movie ticket we might as well see the whole thing," TJ complained.

Tessa only laughed. "This from the person who refused to stay and watch the credits last time!"

"Credits and previews are *not* the same thing," TJ informed her.

"No, the credits were actually relevant to the movie we saw," she agreed. "The only point of the previews is to convince you to buy another overpriced movie ticket in two weeks."

He considered that for a moment, then shrugged. "All right, I'll give you that. But we're still paying to see them."

"Don't worry," she promised, pulling him around the corner of the building. "We're not going to miss the previews. I just want to get away from the streetlights so we can see this."

"What?" he asked, following her gaze automatically.

"That," she answered quietly.

He smiled at her reverent tone, but he had to admit that the "Evening Star" was striking on the horizon, hanging just below the crescent moon. "Wow," he said aloud. "That's awesome."

"It looks like the moon is going fishing," Tessa said dreamily, tilting her head to one side.

He couldn't quite smother a chuckle. "Is that an official astronomical observation?"

"No, but it's true," she retorted, elbowing him gently. "If you really want to know, the moon is three days old and Venus is 57% illuminated. Happy?"

He laughed again. "Okay, okay. Fishing it is. So what kind of bait do you use to catch a planet?"

He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't turn fast enough to get a good look at the shadow before it was on top of them. He tried to bring his arms up, but the dark figure was faster and both his strength and his consciousness seemed to be flooding out of him before he could even grasp what was happening.

Distantly, he heard Tessa shouting something into her communicator. The dizzying rush of image, sound, and static turned sapphire blue, a deluge of light that drowned out all rational comprehension.

The first thing he became clearly aware of was the fact that Tessa was speaking to someone.

*DECA,* he realized a moment later. That had to be DECA's voice; he didn't know anyone else so consistently calm. Or so vengeful… She had shut down the artificial gravity in his room last week for a third time, and all because he had made some offhand comment about orbital debris around Earth.

"TJ?" Tessa was asking. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

She had asked him that last weekend at the paintball tournament too. He was relatively sure that Andros wasn't allowed to use the Battlelizer punch against a fellow Ranger, although to this day the Red Ranger maintained that he had done no such thing.

"TJ." DECA even sounded concerned; that was a first. "Are you aware of events around you?"

He laughed, putting his elbows behind him and pushing himself up. Or he tried. It was considerably harder than he had expected, and only as he managed it did he realize that he had been lying on one of the patient beds. "Yeah," he said, frowning a little. "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Are you okay?" Tessa repeated, putting her hands on her hips in a nervous gesture that he'd seen her use a hundred times before.

He rolled his shoulders, surprised to feel every muscle in his upper body complain. Tessa must have seen him wince, for she glanced up at DECA's camera. Trying to ignore that, he offered, "You know when people say they feel like they've been hit by a truck? I think I'm starting to sympathize."

Actually, he reflected, his sister really had been hit by a truck once. A pickup truck, speeding in a school zone, but still. And he thought she had felt a bit better than he did right now…

"Hey," he said, as a relevant thought finally occurred to him. "What happened, anyway?"

Tessa looked at DECA's camera again. Andros was always doing that too; it was incredibly irritating. At least Zhane didn't seem to be in the habit. Of course, that might be because he didn't look at anyone for very long, computer or not.

"What happened?" Carlos demanded, and TJ frowned. He hadn't even noticed the other's arrival. And why was Carlos wearing his soccer jacket? He could quite clearly remember the last game of the season--they'd had some great lemonade.

Tessa had said something, but he'd missed it. That was annoying. He was fairly certain he'd wanted to know the answer to Carlos' question, whatever it had been. He put a hand to his head, trying to press away the sudden pain.

"TJ?" DECA asked, and Tessa put her hand over his instinctively.

"Are you all right?" she asked anxiously. "What's wrong?"

He couldn't help groaning. "Man, I have a killer headache. I feel like there's a swarm of bees inside my head."

"You are experiencing a form of involuntary engram amplification," DECA informed him. "It's not an uncommon side effect of telepathic intrusion."

"Is there an English version of whatever you just said?" Carlos wanted to know.

TJ pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to listen over the pounding in his head.

"An unusually high percentage of the neurons in TJ's brain are firing simultaneously," DECA replied. "The synaptic constellations that compose his memory are being repeatedly triggered by an external source, presumably as a result of the attack that Tessa successfully interrupted."

"DECA," Carlos said with a sigh. "That was remarkably unhelpful."

"As interesting as this is, I'd be ten times more eager to listen to it if I had some aspirin," TJ put in. "You know, little colored pills with brand names on them? As long as they're not gelcaps; I really hate those."

Tessa gave him an odd look, but Carlos just pointed over at the far wall. "Tessa, could you do the honors? The color-coded cough syrup's probably in the synthetron already."

"And has been for the past minute and 33 seconds," DECA agreed.

"Okay, so, memories," Carlos repeated, looking pained. "They have something to do with the attack?"

"Apparently." DECA's camera light flickered once. "It has happened among some telepathic species that a criminal element may attempt to duplicate or 'steal' memories. The results are occasionally similar to what is happening to TJ: the victim's long-term memory is artificially stimulated, causing environmental cues to trigger an unusual number of associations in the brain."

"So that's why he's acting like he has attention deficit disorder?"

"Excuse me," TJ said indignantly. "I'm not deaf."

"Here you go," Tessa interjected, offering him some sort of blue liquid.

He frowned. "What's that?"

Carlos sighed again. "Is there anything we can *do*?"

"His brain chemistry will return to normal on its own, given time," DECA answered. "What concerns me more is his connection to the Astro Power."

"For your headache, remember?" Tessa prompted softly.

He took it reluctantly, forcibly reminded of how much the Power did for them. He hadn't needed a medicinal dose since he'd become a Ranger, and he hadn't appreciated it until now.

"I don't suppose you've checked Cassie's connection to the Power," Carlos was saying. His tone was troubled, and TJ tried to recall the earlier part of the conversation. "It's a little too much of a coincidence that they were both attacked on the same night."

There was a brief pause, one that TJ was sure she used for dramatic emphasis as much as anything. For a computer with unheard of processing ability, instant access to all scanning equipment, and the self-awareness to make independent decisions… Jeff had asked if she was sentient the first time he met her. The question had seemed to amuse her.

He blinked when he realized DECA was speaking again. Whatever serum she had given him must have started to take effect, because the pain was fading again and he managed to focus long enough to figure out what they were talking about. "What does that mean, 'appreciably lessened'?" he demanded. "You can't just steal someone's Power the way you can copy their memories."

"I'm not suggesting an explanation," DECA told him, with some asperity. "I'm only telling you what I'm detecting. Your connection to the Power is noticeably weakened, at least in your resting state, and Cassie's seems to be as well."

"Seems to be," Carlos repeated, his tone making the statement a question.

"It's difficult to determine from a distance, with Saryn in such close proximity to her. I cannot always isolate their Power signatures from each other."

"That weird sharing thing they do," Carlos muttered. "All right, so someone's going around attacking Rangers; possibly stealing memories and somehow draining their Power. Am I the only one who sees something to be worried about here?"

TJ lifted his head, catching Tessa's eye.

"Someone, you mean?" Tessa asked, glancing over at Carlos.

He looked up at the camera mounted on the wall. "DECA, have you heard from Andros and Ashley?"

"Not since they left the Megaship almost an hour ago," DECA replied. "I am attempting to contact them now."

The moment seemed to stretch out, and TJ tried desperately to keep his mind from wandering. Andros and Ashley had stayed at the Surf Spot with Cassie and Saryn; they were surrounded by people. There was no way this mysterious attacker could reach them without being noticed.

"Can you locate their Power signatures?" Carlos asked at last. "If they're at the Surf Spot, maybe they just can't get away."

"Their Power signatures are too weak to provide an accurate fix," DECA answered, a moment later. "They do seem to be in the vicinity of the Surf Spot, but I cannot pinpoint their location any closer than that."

Carlos let out a frustrated breath. "Damn! I'm going down there to find them; you guys wait here. I'll send DECA our coordinates from the surface."

He was reaching for his morpher before it hit TJ what an extraordinarily bad idea that was. "Carlos, wait. You can't go; you're the only one it hasn't gotten. You could be walking right into a trap."

"And they could be dying!" Carlos shot back.

"I'll go." Tessa squared her shoulders when they both turned to look at her. "Whatever went after TJ didn't even look at me, so you guys are obviously the target. If I go down there it probably won't pay any attention to me."

"Maybe not if it's distracted by its 'target'," TJ argued. "But if you interrupt--"

She cut him off. "I'm not stupid, TJ. I'm just going to find them; I'm not going to fight anyone. If Andros and Ashley aren't absolutely, one hundred percent alone, I'll call you right away."

"Good," Carlos put in. "Let's get going, then. And be *careful*."

"I will," she promised. She gave TJ a reassuring smile before she touched the side of her communicator and vanished into a stream of white sparkles.

"I hate this," TJ muttered. "We should be the ones going down there, not her."

"Her assumption was a logical one," DECA offered.

"And if these attacks seemed even remotely logical, maybe that would make me feel better," Carlos said dryly. "Thanks anyway."

"Speaking of logic, what about Cassie?" TJ frowned. "Why is my memory screwed up and not hers?"

Carlos gave him an appraising look. "And speaking of memory, are you feeling better? That was an almost relevant question."

"You could just say, 'I have no idea,' and leave it at that," TJ informed him.

Carlos smiled a little. "Yeah. But that wouldn't have been any fun. Seriously, are you feeling better? You sound better."

"That reminds me of the time--" He grinned at Carlos' expression. "Just kidding. Yeah, I'm doing all right; thanks."

His communicator chimed, and he lifted his wrist quickly. "Tessa?"

"I went around the back way to get to the front door," she said, her voice sounding farther away than usual. "Ashley and Andros are both outside the fire exit by the foyer, on the side facing away from the street. Neither of them are conscious."

She wasn't speaking into her communicator, TJ realized. At least not directly; the signal often sounded like that when someone was keeping their hand at their side to try and remain inconspicuous in a crowd. It was--

He shook his head irritably. He hoped DECA had meant sooner rather than later when she said that his brain would sort itself out on its own.

"Are you alone?" Carlos was asking. "Can you teleport from where you are?"

"Yes," Tessa answered immediately. "But we'd better do it quickly; I'm not sure who might walk by out here."

"DECA?" Carlos asked.

"I'm receiving the coordinates now," DECA answered. "Teleporting."

No sooner had the word been spoken than three sparkling showers of light appeared in the Medical bay. Tessa was only crouched down, hunched worriedly over the unmoving forms of their teammates. Andros and Ashley were unresponsive, lying sprawled on the deck in what was probably the same position in which they'd fallen.

TJ struggled to his feet, trying to ignore his own discomfort as he stared down at them. "This isn't good," he muttered, in what he knew was a severe understatement. "Not good at all."