[971228]
                                                                      [Preview]
It all depends on Australis to rescue the Galaxy Task Force from the bowels of
Cyborg Cannibal.  However, Titan-Tortan leads an army of Armaton Soldiers into
the city of angels to conquer the national guard and systematically abduct the
human race for assimilation.  Assimilation to prevent the Nazitan species from
dying. And now, Australis faces Titan-Tortan alone tonight in episode 6, "Epic
Destruction"


Artist Bros. Enterprises presents . . .


                        GALAXY TASK FORCE ASTRO RANGER
                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Starring...

         Sheratan Kasei, a.k.a., Dave Marcello.  MarsAstro!

         Australis Mokusei, a.k.a., Will Richards.  JupiterAstro!

         Nashiran Dosei, a.k.a., Tom Nevison.  SaturnAstro!

         Messuta Suisei, a.k.a., Ron Michaeli.  MercuryAstro!

         Lotia Kinsei, a.k.a., Amy Leven.  VenusAstro!

  and... Commander Leto, a.k.a., Dr. Aaron Hanson.

  Featuring...

         Detective Frank Mahoney and Detective Kathy Sanchez.



Last time on Astroranger

    Will walked in holding a large serving plater with steaming pocket
  sandwiches on it saying, "Hey guys, I hope you like this; I made it
  myself!"  Amy watched as he sat down the platter of food and put one or
  two on everybody's plate.  Tom took a bite and started chewing but then
  his mouth hung open.
    "Good, huh?" Will told them.

      Outside, people ran out of the large brown doors of the library, down
    the steps while sparks exploded from the shots fired by the Armatons.

    "Okay, Aaron--we're on our way," Ron replied before pushing the talk
  button to hang up.  "Dave, it's time to go; those black soldiers we
  fought before hit a library around here."
    "But wait a minute, we haven't even finished breakfast yet," Will replied.

      On the ground, VenusAstro was helplessly dragged through the ground
  while she futilely used her arms and hands to slow herself down.  Cannibal
  continued sucking her towards itself.  "Australis, help me!"
    JupiterAstro wasn't sure what to do as he watched the pink
  Astroranger's body from the waist up sink inside of Cannibal's powerful jaw.
    "No!!" JupiterAstro shouted.

  "What's wrong, Will?" asked Aaron.
    "The alien soldiers attacked a library and when me and the others went
  in to stop them, a lion-like beast kicked our butts and..."
    "And?" Aaron urged.
     Will looked away and shrugged.  "The team...  It swallowed them whole."

       Inside of Cyborg Cannibal's stomach cavity, MarsAstro shook his head
  and exhaled.  "It's getting really hot in here."
    "It's hard to breath too," VenusAstro gasped, "what's keeping Australis?"
    SaturnAstro shrugged. "Maybe something going on outside is in his way.
  All I know is that I hope we can outlast this stomach acid."

    "The Nazitans were trying to get rid of us so that Tortan and his
  soldiers could blow away the military!" Will realized.  "Aaron, I've got
  to go out there and try and hold them back.  Their main objective seems
  to be abducting humans for some reason."
    Aaron looked at him and said, "William, you're a very powerful warrior
  and I believe in you but the others need your help."
    "I know," Will replied, "but nobody but me can stop Tortan."

                                   Episode 6:
                               "Epic Destruction"                             


  ACT I:

     Tortan marching into the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado
Street with his troop of Armaton soldiers stopped traffic and caused people to
turn their heads to see what all the honking was about.  Tortan waved his arm,
signaling the Armatons.  "Scatter and destroy!"  The Armatons acknowledged his
command and split up.
  "This should get the attention of their pitiful military."  Tortan drew his
samurai sword and lashed a telephone poll carrying electrical cables as it fell
over and tore from it's adjoining electricity lines causing sparks to explode
from the tops.  Citizens ran screaming as several live wires came down and
sparked off a fire in the bushes.  Tortan ran his gloved hand along the length
of his sword's blade causing it to glow red as he pointed it at parked cars as
they exploded one after one.
  Overhead media and police helicopters flew in as on the ground several police
cars rolled in at high speed followed by fire engines and ambulances.  News
vans poured in from another street as they all congregated on the corner of
Temple and Main.
  The units screeched to a halt as several police officers got out and drew
their guns.  One yelled through a bullhorn, "This is the police.  Give yourself
up.  We have you surrounded."
  Tortan laughed again.  "I am impressed.  One minute show of force and the
humans are already in a panic.  Such waste of energy.  So easy to gain their
attention."
  Officer Jason Parks put down his bullhorn and sighed.  "I really hate
Sundays."  He turned his head and signalled to the officers behind their open
car doors.  "Fire at will!"
  Knelt behind police car doors, the policemen and women held their arms
through the rolled down windows while shooting directly on target.
  The bullets bounced off the Armatons metallic bodies as sparks flew from
their chests on impact.  Meanwhile, other Armatons stopped marching picked up
their sword-bladed rifles and returned fire.
  Jason ducked under his car door's window as sparks exploded out of his car.
Meanwhile, other officers were leaping away from their cars as the laser
bullets slammed one by one into them, blowing off the roof-top strobe lights,
shattering the windshield.
  "That should keep them busy," Tortan said.  Several news crew that were set
up watched live pictures of the battle scene.  Off-camera, a field-reporter
narrates the events on screen.
  "It's a frightening scene; the heart of Downtown has literally become the
battlefield from out of a sci-fi movie.  Miraculously, no lives have been lost,
fortunately.  However, the damage that has been done to this area is off the
scale.  How do things look from the chopper?"
  In the sky where the news helicopter hovered above, an overhead view of the
intersection below featured smoke rising from small fires on and around cars.
  "I'm not sure what to make of it, but the swat team was called and the
National Guard is on the way.  I've just received word that so far at least a
dozen ambulances have returned to Wilshire and the rest to Alvarado full of
injuries to bring to those hospitals.  There are maybe countless more on the
way from Boyle Hights to deal with the rest on the scene.  I would imagine
those are mainly cuts and bruises from falling and flying debris."
  "Yes I think we should remind spectators that they are urged _not_ to go into
the area at all since it's a very violent situation that is getting out of
hand," said a woman from the studio.
  "That is right."
  Military vehicles begin approaching as armed soldiers jump off of them and
run after the Armatons.
  "Let's go people!  Move! Move! Move!"  The soldiers ran by as police were
carried away by paramedics into the ambulances.
  "Open fire!" the commanding officer ordered.  And after the remaining troops
ran into position, they propped up their high-powered rifles and started rapid
fire shots.
  As Tortan walked through the onslaught of bullets, sparks falling from his
armored body, having no effect.
  "You are witnessing an and your civilization!  Nothing you can ever do will
stop us!" Tortan said as he drew his sword again.  An orange flare illuminated
the blade after he ran his hand along the length of the sword before he pointed
it straight ahead.  The guardsmen jumped out of the way when fire exploded from
the ground.
  Tortan swung his sword back the other way, sending another orange flare of
light across the the street.  The sparks exploding blew a soldier up off his
feet and sent him flying backwards into the bushes.
  "I have all day to do this!"

     Pluto--the gray, ice covered planet remained in the slow distant and orbit
only to receive a fraction of the sun's heat and light.  Beneath the surface, a
massive bunker housed the Nazitan outpost installed by their battleship.
Within the primary chamber, torches were mounted upon the brown, stone walls of
the oval room.  The ceiling was a dark, crystal dome and, on one end of the
chamber, a stage that supported a large iron clad throne.  Toward the steps was
a gray crystal ball that was held up by a clay-like pedestal.
  "The green Astroranger alone cannot withstand the might of Tortan once he is
energized into a Titan," Adol soliloquized.  "He will be force fed to Pleadia's
abominable monster Cannibal."  He stood up from his thrown and stepped away.
  From out of the shadows, Adol walked in beneath a single light from above as
he approached the glowing crystal ball on its stone pedestal.  It gleamed in
the light before a skeletal shadow was cast over the gas-filled sphere by the
boney hand of Adol the Great.  When he waved his black, pin-wheeled wand, Adol
to speak.  "Tortan: by the power of Lord Vahorra, magnify your size one hundred
fold!  Augment your strength one thousand fold!  Grow, my warrior," Adol
commanded; the wheel on his wand began to spin on its own as fog blew like the
wind.  "Grow tall and become...  Titan-Tortan!!"  The pinwheel on his wand spun
even harder, showering his crystal ball with purple bits of light.  The energy
passed through the smooth, transparent surface of the sphere and bombard Tortan
pictured on that crystal ball.
     Standing on the grass within MacArthur park--the samurai style armored
Nazitan flexed his arms as the intense stream of energy showered his body.
  Tortan's arms started vibrating from the muscles within rapidly expanding on
both the left and then the right side.  His legs were also quickly gaining more
and more width from increasing in length and growing more muscles.
  Bent over, Titan-Tortan uncrossed its arms while standing up, lifting its
enormous head over a hundred meters into the sky.  "YES!!" he roared out, "now
witness my ultimate power!" Tortan felt on top of the world with his ego having
expanded along with his bodily size.  However, his arrogance was justified as
the fighter jet's the Marines had supplied were stared down by Tortan's
gigantic eyes.

  On the ground, a commander in uniform wearing sunglasses while smoking a
cigar let it fall out of his mouth when he saw Titan-Tortan.  "Oh my God," he
moaned.  It sounded like thunder to the army soldiers near the tanks and
paramedics loading their overcrowded ambulances everytime the giant took a step
while his groaning echoed out like an outdoor concert.
  "There is no escape for you will fall to the Nazitans!" Tortan's voice
bellowed.  The sound was uncomprehensable by the rescue personnel, police,
military men and civilians but there was a strong sense of doom within his tone
as Tortan spoke.
  "Soon, all that you are worth will become one with our species and all that
we cannot use will die," Tortan said, "Armatons--destroy their defenses!!"
  "Open fire!" one of the police officers said.  Armatons charged with their
rifle-swords drawn.  Three police cars with doors open had officer behind them
firing from their guns.  The Armatons had sparks fly from their metallic bodies
as they open fire.  Bullets of light slammed the ground causing sparks to
erupt everywhere.
  A police officer had rolled over and over from the blast knocking her down.
And, pursuing her were Armaton soldiers running towards her.  She took the club
from her belt and stood up
  "Tenmei, watch it!" Lt. Gleason said.
  One of the Armatons beat down with its sword-bladed rifle and just before it
split her chest open, the iron-cored club of Officer Tenmei barely stopped the
rifle.  After pushing back, Tenmei kicked it in the abs and roundhoused it
across the head before running away.
  Two Armatons rapidly fired bolts of light from their rifles and towers of
sparks blew her down.  However, when Tenmei rolled to a stop, she got up on one
knee and put her hands on her service weapon.  She popped the button on her
black belt's holster, Tenmei expertly drew her pistol, cocked the gun and began
firing away.
  While standing on her knee, she kept shooting as shells were projected out of
of the officer's weapon.
  Armatons kept marching towards her even though they had to stop everytime a
bullet sparked off their titanium bodies.
  She stood up while putting her gun away.  "I don't believe this!!"  Even to
her surprise, Tenmei's attention was stolen by the quaking caused by footsteps
taken by Titan-Tortan.  When she looked up, Tortan was driving his sword into
the ground.
  "Oh shoot," she gasped, "everybody run--now!!"  All of the unformed personnel
in MacArthur Park ran away and jumped when the blade of Titan-Tortan's samurai
sword chopped down.
  Tenmei was rolling through the grass again and when she stopped, looked
really angry.  "This has got to stop!"  She heard a low flying vessel passing
overhead at a great velocity generating a lot of noise and looked up.  "Great,
now what?"
  Flying between the skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles was the CommandShuttle
and aboard the green AstroShuttle was JupiterAstro in the cubical cockpit.  As
he flipped switches on the roof and pushed backlit buttons on his console,
touch-tone sounds confirming.  "Let's get rid of those damn drones."
  As CommandShuttle flew through the sky, missiles were fired two by two from
the wing-mounted silos.
  Two by two, Armatons were blown sky high by blazing explosions of fire
erupting into the air like a fountain.  The same explosion had an Armaton's
body flying over the bushes while two other soldiers were blown backwards off
their feet and into more bushes.
  Aboard the CommandShuttle, JupiterAstro nodded affirmatively.  "That's much
better; ThunderCannons..."  On his console, he used the targeting system to
reposition his weapons before arming them.  "Fire!"
  Titan-Tortan watched the green AstroShuttle fly by in the blink of an eye as
it swung into a U-turn.  Two thin tubes on the ends of CommandShuttle's wings
were sending bright green arcs of lightning out that hit the grass in the park.
  Armatons were already running away from the lightning striking the ground but
had been blown into jumping away by a wall of sparks blowing them upwards; the
same explosion causing another group of androids to get blasted into flipping
over and away.
  More arcs of lightning were cracking down on the invaders whom were blown
into back flipping by several towers of sparks.  Some Armatons completely
shattered when the billions of gigawatts came through their bodies.
  Titan-Tortan looked at the flaming remains of the destroyed automatons below
and clenched his fist.  "You will not be as easily replaced as my soldiers,
green Astroranger."  He stuck out his left arm and, as his wrist began to glow
yellow, arcs of similar electricity leaped off his fingers.
  As the green CommandShuttle had flown into the lightning storm, the
transparent, egg-shaped graviton shields flashed with an electric-blue color.
Within the cockpit, JupiterAstro was rocked by an explosion of sparks that
snapped his head back.  "Woah!  Can't let that happen again."
  An orange flare illuminated the blade after Titan-Tortan ran his hand along
the length of his sword before he pointed it straight ahead. The CommandShuttle
banked off to the side.
  "JupiterAstro, this is the SpaceBase," Commander Leto said over his
teleradio.
  The green Astroranger looked up.  "Australis--go ahead Commander Leto."
  "The cyborg you described is taking advantage of your absence by making a
mess a few blocks away from you," Leto said.  Aboard the SpaceBase, he looked
at JupiterAstro on the CommandShuttle terminal's screen.  "I'm terribly sorry,
Australis, but you've got to deal with it...  _Now_."
  JupiterAstro nodded affirmatively.  "Yes, sir."  As soon as his image
disappeared, he changed course.
  As CommandShuttle was flying away, Tortan-Titan let out a chuckle and
pointed.  "Running away?  And I thought you guys were tough."
  JupiterAstro pointed while looking ahead.  "Don't make us prove it; I'll be
back to kick your butt so hard, you'll have to get my foot out of your mouth."
  "Hahaha!  A desperate threat!" Titan-Tortan replied.

     Tustin USMC Helicopter Airstation--a uniformed man in a control station
was on a black telephone.  "Do I think they're going to help?  No, sir, but do
you have a better way to shoot down a 10 story tall...  I would if I could, you
son of a bitch, but those bombers would take us DAYS to get here and L.A. just
wont be here in a couple of days unless I send these choppers out there!"
  Somebody else wearing a headset turned around in his seat and interrupted.
"Sir, the pilots are ready for your command."
  "Tell them to go ahead, we don't have anything to loose one way or another."
  The communications officer nodded.  "The marines confirm jets flying into Los
Angeles, sir."
  "Good; we need all the fire power we can get to back up the national guard."

     Meanwhile at MacArthur Park, Titan-Tortan looked behind himself to find
three fighter jets flying towards him.
  "Ah, the mighty Earth military forces have arrived to challenge me,"
Titan-Tortan said.  "I'm flattered."  One jet fired machine guns while another
fired a rocket missile.  Titan-Tortan used his massive sword to destroy the
missile as sparks exploded from his chest.  From below--tanks roll through the
grass and opened fire.  Loud bangs came from the explosive blasts shooting out
of their cannons.  Sparks dropped from Titan-Tortan's heavily armored body.
  "Sword of Procyon, I command you," Tortan said, "electrify!  ThunderCrack
Attack!!"  The dark jewel within the golden carved guard at the base of the
samurai sword began to glow as the sunlight shined over the stone.  Holding the
Procyon Sword's hilt, Titan-Tortan pointed the gem to the ground below; and,
after the ray of white light struck the ground, a huge blast of fire exploded.
  The tanks were hollowed out by the flames while another beam hit the ground
elsewhere, erupting into a blast of fire that launched various people into the
sky.
  "The futility of your struggle will be ceased," Titan-Tortan said in his deep
voice.  He turned his sword around so the guard's purple jewel inside faced the
ground.  It began to shine again as a beam of white light hit the ground and
another fiery explosion hit the ground blowing men into the air.
  Officer Tenmei recognized one of the LAPD Lieutenants after they dropped into
the grass.  She jumped up shouting, "Stevens!!"
  From the ground, Titan-Tortan could be seen fighting with Apache Helicopters.
He destroyed one with a swing of his samurai sword while punching another
straight into its nose.
  The two flaming helicopters crashed into the ground with their ejecting
pilots landing thereafter.
  Two remaining helicopters hovered and fired missiles at Titan-Tortan and they
sparked off his armor.  He stepped ahead when the smoke cleared and sliced
through the choppers anyway.  The attack helicopters lifted up into the sky and
flew away.
  Meanwhile, more jet fighters flew by and dropped bombs on Titan-Tortan.  A
massive explosion of sparks flashed brilliantly; however, when the smoke
cleared, at eye-level, Titan-Tortan could be seen walking through without a
sign of injury.
  "We're in big trouble, we need reinforcement badly," Radioed one of the
chopper pilots.
  "I copy that," another pilot replied.  "We're gone, over and out."  The
choppers and planes left.
  "Yes!  Retreat!  Leave your world for me!" Titan-Tortan said.  "This is all
so easy!  Hahaha!"  The officer below looked up at Titan-Tortan in all his
might, Tenmei wished she could do something.


 ACT II:

     Ambulances weaved in out of busy traffic downtown while its siren screamed
to alert drivers and pedestrians.  Meanwhile, Cyborg Cannibal, the wild and
crazy lion-like beast with a jaw like a steel trap, was drooling hungry too.
Its big, black head turned to look as its greedy eyes identified one of
ambulances heading away.  From its point of view--everything was black except
for the green outline of the vehicle and the red outline of bodies.  There were
lots onboard including one that was outlined in blue--near death. Its ugly face
wiggled from side to side happily while running after it.
  The thing jumped on cars' hoods and roofs running after the targeted
ambulance stuck in traffic.  People in the cars looked up in fear when they
heard the metal dent in when the cyborg's foot jumped on it.
  Inside of the ambulance, paramedics were treating a heavily bandaged woman
on the bed while the burn victim moaned.
  "Jim, step on it; why aren't we moving?!" the Canadian intern asked the
driver who merely shrugged.
  Meanwhile, the patient was howling, "You gotta gimmie more of that stuff; you
gotta give me somethin' for the pain...  Come on, please.."
  The other medic looked up and saw one of the monitors in the truck.  "Jesus
H. Christ, her blood pressure is..."  Suddenly the two rear windows had a big
paw-like fist smash the glass in and unlock the door.
  The intern's eyes were wide open with fear when he jumped.  "WOAH!"
  "Ah shoot!"
  The two doors were practically ripped off their hinges by Cyborg Cannibal as
it stepped off the street and climbed inside.
     Meanwhile, inside of the cyborg's stomach--the red, black, green and pink
Astrorangers are holding onto the muscles inside of its bodily cavity while its
digestive fluids came up to their ankles.  The humidity and temperature caused
steam to form like a sauna bath.
  "We can't take much more of this, Sheratan," SaturnAstro gasped, "how are we
going to get out of here?"
  "I hope Australis is working on that," MarsAstro answered while holding
VenusAstro in front of himself.

    At the intersection of 3rd Street and Alvarado, the ambulance with bent out
backdoors had Cyborg Cannibal inside opening its mouth wide open.  Suddenly, a
paramedic was instantly entangled in its noodles.
  In the sky outside, a green arrow shot by and in the truck, the cyborg's neck
had sparks exploding from its back side.
  The noodles slithered off of the medic's body and shot back inside of
Cannibal's mouth.  And, while it stood in the back of the ambulance, it turned
around looking angry at JupiterAstro.
  While he stood on top of a bench holding his ThunderBow, the green
Astroranger shouted.  "Ambulance driver, accelerate now!!"
  No sooner than said, a black shoe jammed the gas pedal into the floor and the
tires smoked while squealing against the pavement.  The big van drove away but
the reverse thrust forced the cyborg out of the ambulance.
  While Cannibal was standing up, it looked up and saw JupiterAstro running
after itself with his fists up.
     Cyborg Cannibal stood up with his battle knife and pitch fork as the
green Astroranger kept the cyborg in view while charging ahead.
  In the street, JupiterAstro leaped up into a flying roundhouse and
after his leg spun over Cannibal's head, he came back.
  Cyborg Cannibal came out of a duck and got kicked across the face.
JupiterAstro turned around and spin-kicked him again and then punched
Cannibal across the face again.
  Cannibal's head was knocked over by a second punch and stood back
before JupiterAstro could continue.
     Cyborg Cannibal sliced down with its knife but its fist was
stopped by the green Astroranger's grip.
  JupiterAstro rammed his fist into Cannibal's abs while holding its
fist and pushed his elbow into the cyborg's face.
     The beast was knocked back while inside of its stomach--the Astrorangers
fell back.  MarsAstro shook his head and stood up.  "What the heck was that?"
  "Somebody punched this thing's stomach," SaturnAstro answered, "I think that
Australis got the message."
  "Yeah, but what about when he blows this thing up," MarsAstro asked.  "We're
not likely to survive that if we fell from him beating up the cyborg.  Messuta,
you gotta tell him to hold off."
  The white Astroranger looked at him and asked, "WHY?"
  "He'll have to figure out a way to get us out of here before getting rid of
this cyborg."
     Meanwhile in the intersection outside--JupiterAstro turned around
and spin-kicked Cyborg Cannibal's pitch fork but its battle knife
sparked off his green uniform.
  ``Australis!  We're still in here, you've got to try and get us out
before you get rid of the cyborg!'' MercuryAstro's voice said to his
mind.  JupiterAstro looked off to the side to think for a moment but he
had to stop to look into the air.
     Falling out of the sky, Cyborg Cannibal came down with its weapons
aimed.  JupiterAstro was blown backwards by a blast of sparks when they
collided with him.
  On the vast lawn of a schoolyard, the green Astroranger fell through
the fence and rolled over multiple times.  Meanwhile, Cannibal landed
on his feet and looked at JupiterAstro stand up.
  The cyborg started walking very quickly towards him while the green
Astroranger looked over and noticed an uneaten hamburger left on a
bench near the basketball court.
  Looking back at the cyborg, JupiterAstro shouted, "No more!  I surrender!"
Cannibal stopped and looked down from side to side, confused.

     "He surrenders??" Adol the Great said while observing his gray crystal
globe.  "Ginara!"  Standing on the stone paved floor beneath the stairs
supporting his stage was the ninja-clad warrior.
  "I'm here, sire.  What is your request?"
  The old man in robes stood up and pointed his black wand at her. "Go to Earth
and test the green Astroranger's claim. If he is surrendering, we will make him
our slave."  Ginara nodded her lightly armored head.

     While JupiterAstro stood in the basketball court looking at Cyborg
Cannibal, confused and unable to decide with how to respond, arcs of light
stemmed from the nearby grass into the sky.  The green Astroranger turned to
look at them.  "What's this?"  Out of the many flashes of light stepped Ginara
and JupiterAstro jerked in surprise.  "Who are you?"
  "My comrades call me Ginara but you may call me your master.  I have been
made aware you've surrendered to this devine beast that has devoured your
powerless Astrorangers."
  He took a step forward and pointed at her.  "What do you care?"
  "I don't but my superiors wish to use you for our purposes," Ginara answered.
  JupiterAstro crossed his arms.  "I don't know who sent you, Ginara, but, I've
only surrendered to this creature right here," he concluded, pointing at Cyborg
Cannibal.
  Ginara looked at Cannibal and used her hand to point to it while looking at
the green Astroranger.  "This is nothing but a remote controlled cybernetic
creature!"  Pointing at him, she continued, "It answers to us and soon, you
will too."
  ``Great, just what I wanted to know,'' JupiterAstro thought as she'd fallen
for his word trap immediately--a technique he has some expertise with.  "So who
will be my masters then?"
  "The Nazitans will take advantage of your technology to further advance our
own," Ginara answered while walking towards him.  "And once we conquer this
planet's defenses, its people will be dramatically transformed into hybrids of
our species."  She stopped to point at JupiterAstro again.  "Including you."
  JupiterAstro sighed and clenched his fist.  "Let's get this over with."  And,
with a slight of hand, the green Astroranger's other gloved hand was already
picking up the cheeseburger on the bench and walked towards her.
  Ginara stifled an arrogant laugh while nodding with satisfaction and walked
towards JupiterAstro.  Cyborg Cannibal's nostrils were flaring up from smelling
the odor of dead flesh.
  JupiterAstro faked tripping over the abandoned basketball, falling over onto
Ginara; behind her back, he slapped a meat patty into a panel of her silver
armor.  Ginara was pushing the green Astroranger off of herself.  "You clumsy
oaf!"  Cannibal's eyes widened before its nostrils began to flare wildly.
  Cyborg Cannibal cocked its head backwards and ejected its special swallowing
noodles into the sky.
  "See ya--wouldn't wanna be ya," JupiterAstro cartwheeled out of the way.
  Ginara watched him move away.  "Huh?"  She then turned around, finding her
slender body instantly wrapped up in Cyborg Cannibal's noodles.  "Hey!!  What's
this!?"
  The green Astroranger stood up and looked her black, wet-leather suit with
metal armor attached to her arms, legs waist and shoulders get entangled by the
sticky noodles.  "Let's see how she handles this..."
  "Fool!!  You're not supposed to eat _me_!" Ginara shouted. "RAAGH!"  She tore
the noodles apart by pulling her arms through them. Cyborg Cannibal jerked back
in surprise.
  "She's serious business," JupiterAstro mumbled, "that's for sure."
  Ginara shook her finger at Cyborg Cannibal while walking towards it.  "I'm
going to talk to Pleadia about his faulty cyborgs but for now, you're history!"
  "Uh oh, she's going to blow it up!" JupiterAstro realized; he turned his head
and looked to the sky shouting, "Galaxy Task Force Command: Shuttle Fleet--Take
Off!"
  In the zero-gravity take-off bay at the bottom of the SpaceBase, the force
field maintaining air-pressure inside of the take-off bay was activated.  The
doors began to open, showing Earth in outer space, as indicated by the warning
signal.  The afterburners flared with rocket propulsion prior to moving the two
shuttles, two rockets and one space shift out of the shuttle bay.
    In outer space, the five AstroShuttles had left the take-off bay as the
SpaceBase became invisible again.  The fleet began to travel towards the planet
Earth at maximum velocity.
  "Third Planetary Home World Procyon," Ginara called out, "empower me now!"
Dark clouds rolled rapidly through the sky; arcs of lightning struck the ground
producing sparks as other bolts of light linked to her aura. "Tiara Gem Spark!"
Ginara's eyes glowed before her tiara's purple gem began to glow yellow.  It
shined in the sunlight just returning to view before bursting forth in a
streaming ray of heat and electricity.
  "All aboard!" the green Astroranger called out as he crossed his arms.  The
ventral hulls of the red shuttle, green ship, black rock, white rock and pink
shuttle had a ring iris out, sending down sparkling beams of light.
  The yellow ray of light shooting from Ginara's tiara pushed through Cyborg
Cannibal's chest and after sparks exploded from its body, the ray blasted out
its back in the same way.
  Standing in the green sparkling ray from CommandShuttle, JupiterAstro fizzled
into bits of green light before leaving the park.  Cannibal was in the process
of exploding while four rays of white, black, red and pink curved out of its
body before bursting into flames.
  Within the CombatShuttle's cockpit indicated by the Mars insignia, MarsAstro
had materialized before sitting in his seat.  The chair lowered onto the floor
and rolled forth while the console slid towards him.  "CombatShuttle manned."
  Inside of CommandShuttle's cockpit, JupiterAstro nodded and assumed control
of his console.  "All right!!!  IT WORKED!  Whoo-hoo!!" the green Astroranger
shouted out while looking at MarsAstro in an inset window apart from the
display of the city ahead.
  Aboard SolarShuttle, SaturnAstro looked from side to side and asked, "Is
everybody okay?"
  Onboard RescueShuttle, the pink Astroranger nodded with relief.  "Nashiran, I
never appreciated these shuttles' air conditioning systems until today."
  In the park, Ginara was clenching her fist.  "They wont get away with this."
She looked to the sky shouting, "Tortan!!"
  As her voice echoed out, one could see Titan-Tortan standing over flaming
tanks, jets and helicopters in MacArthur Park while Armaton Soldiers took away
the unconscious, burned police officers. Shattered windows of their police cars
obstructed their path past the fire engines and ambulances.
  "Tear them apart!" Ginara commanded.
  Titan-Tortan grumbled.  "As you wish, my mate!"  Holding his sword side ways,
he swung outwards, sending an orange flare of light straight ahead.
  The red Astroranger shouted, "Scatter!" before the fleet split away from each
other.
  "Tortan's about to learn not to bite off more than he can chew," JupiterAstro
said.
  The CommandShuttle started flying between the skyscrapers while firing two
missiles from its wing-mounted silos.  RescueShuttle flew over Titan-Tortan and
as the missiles were flying into his armor, the pink cargo-ship dropped a bomb.
Titan-Tortan assumed he could take it when bright sparks flashed from his
golden armor but the explosion was very powerful.
  "Time for a taste of his own medicine," MarsAstro said, "Napalm Cannon!"
  The black and white rockets zoomed by overhead between the high-rise
buildings followed by the red CombatShuttle.
  A tube extended from the aft ventral port of the spacecraft sprayed fire and
Titan-Tortan was faced with a constant stream of fire.  Suddenly surrounded by
sparks exploding from the ground, he was knocked away.
  In MacArthur Park, the heavy giant dropped onto his side, causing the Earth
to shake and dust to rise.
  "That must've been hard to swallow," VenusAstro said.
  MercuryAstro put his hand over his mouthplate and chuckled. "Yeah.  Now let's
send this creep back to where ever he came from."
  The green Astroranger looked to his top right while holding the controls.
"Sheratan, this one isn't going down without some fists.  You know what to do."
  MarsAstro sat within the cockpit of his red AstroShuttle, CombatShuttle.
"I know exactly what we have to do.  Prepare for fleet docking sequence."  He
placed his white, gloved hand on a large, black lever beside his console before
shouting, "AstroMan Unite!"
  Simultaneously, all five Astroranger's fists pulled back a large black lever.
  As the Red and Pink shuttles landed on the ground, dust came up as feet came
from the cargo bays and the wings had become shins.
  In the blue sky, the green CommandShuttle nose folded under the ventral hull
while its afterburners slid onto the sides to become robot shoulders.
  The green starship connected to the noses of the red and pink legs, forming
the torso and shoulders.
  The black and white rockets hooked up into the shoulders and gained joints in
the middle of both vehicles to form elbows.  And, from the afterburners of the
rocket ships--big, black fists of iron extended into place.
  Meanwhile, tubes running throughout the interior of the massive robot allowed
chairs on tracks to roll each Astroranger to the main cockpit.
  AstroMan's head ascended from between its shoulders and, through its red
visor above a metal nose and lips, one could see the Astroranger battle team
rising into place.  On the bottom level, JupiterAstro and SaturnAstro occupied
the control bank there while the top bank was manned by VenusAstro and
MercuryAstro.  The cockpit was brightly illuminated by tube lighting within the
ceiling.  MarsAstro manned the middle and center station by placing his hands
on the controls.  "AstroMan robot transformation complete."
  Seeing all of the gigantic robot, its fists' knuckles were held together and,
while AstroMan's red visor gleamed in the sunlight, the towering robot brought
its fists apart.  Behind AstroMan was a field of stars in outer space showing
the five planets:  Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars.

  Standing between the memorable skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles were the
two giants--AstroMan and Titan-Tortan. He held up his samurai sword and pointed
it at AstroMan.  "So, we finally meet.  My reputation will be enhanced by this
opportunity to dismember your impressive contraption."
  Inside of the cockpit, JupiterAstro pointed straight ahead and said, "I can't
understand a word you're saying but I know your thoughts, Tortan.  And, if you
think we're going to let you destroy the billions of years put into making this
solar system, you've got another thing coming."
  "Yeah," MarsAstro added, "weapons and shields to full power and shift into
manual control.  It's time to take care of some business."
  Wind blew the metals pinned to Titan-Tortan's chest at his elevation while
taking a step forward.  "On guard, Astroranger!"  And with that, he swung his
sword aggressively at them and started to march towards them.
  AstroMan shifted its fists and took steps towards the giant warrior.
     First, Titan-Tortan quickly lashed the robot with a swing of his
samurai sword.  Sparks exploded from its armor, shaking AstroMan up a
little.
  Tortan struck back much higher but AstroMan's huge black fist pounded
the blade back.
     AstroMan walked in and jammed its fist into Tortan's chest.
Sparks blew his shoulders back but the titan regained his stance.
  Titan-Tortan lashed the multicolored tower left and right before
AstroMan quickly rebounded with a hard hitting reversed-punch to the
chest.
     Titan-Tortan fell out of the sky before hitting the ground to
tumble over.  AstroMan's visor-shielded eyes were still watching him.
Within AstroMan's cockpit--the Astrorangers looked confident while MercuryAstro
nodded his head.  "So far, so good."
  "Let's hope we can keep it up," MarsAstro replied.
     Titan-Tortan got right back up and held his sword in place.
  MarsAstro jerked up out of his seat.  "I don't believe he just did that!"
     In the sky, Titan-Tortan was ascending before stretching out and falling
with both of his feet ahead of himself.
  Those two feet pounded AstroMan's chest before sparks exploded out of its
armor.
Aboard the cockpit--an explosion erupting into a fountain of sparks rocked the
battle team before a cloud of white smoke came up in front of the Astrorangers.
MarsAstro turned to the right to look at SaturnAstro below as he said, "Shield
strength down by 10%"
  Titan-Tortan swung his sword back into place.  "If you can't take the heat,
get out of the kitchen."
  The red Astroranger settled back into his seat. "We can take it.  And now,
we're gonna take you out.  And I don't mean on a date."
     AstroMan's fist batted off Titan-Tortan sword before his sliced
down.  AstroMan stepped out of the way so after Tortan ran in, he
turned around and shin-kicked the robot in the side.
  Onboard the cockpit--the Astroranger task force were jostled in their seats
while still holding on.
  "Stick a fork in it, Astroranger--you're done," Tortan said.
  Inside of the cockpit--MarsAstro held onto the levers in his console.
"AstroMan: activate SunSabre!"
    AstroMan drew a bladeless hilt from its left hip and waved it to its right.
A beam of light shot out of the hilt which formed the silver, shining blade of
the single-sided sword.
  The red Astroranger signalled to everybody.  "Everybody ready to slice the
meat?"  JupiterAstro nodded.
  "SunSabre SuperNova!" the task force commanded.
     AstroMan held the sword's guard before its face as the visor sent a slow,
wide beam of light into the base of the SunSabre's blade.  This caused a yellow
beam to flow to the very tip of the sword.
  While standing in front of a field of stars in space, AstroMan swung the
sword around in a 360-degree circle with its blade of light forming an image of
the zodiac.  And, as the giant, multi-colored warrior Robot held the SunSabre
high, AstroMan cut straight down through the center of the circle.
  "Sorry I can't stay to play, but I will be back another day," Titan-Tortan
said before disappearing into a puff of purple smoke.  Merely moments after
vanishing, the yellow streak of light sliced diagonally through the air where
he used to be.
  JupiterAstro clenched his fist.  "Damn it!  Just missed him."
  "We'll get him next time, Australis," VenusAstro replied.  "They wont stay
away forever."
  Standing in front of the towering high-rise buildings in downtown Los Angeles
was the tall, heavily armored, multi-color robot AstroMan holding the SunSabre;
its golden-trimmed sword shimmering in the afternoon sunlight.

     That cloudy night in the Hollywood Hills above the city lights was the two
story house in Los Feliz a block south of the main boulevard.  Will's van had
been parked outside of the garage in the drive way since everyone was home, as
indicated by the living room lights shining through the left front window.
  Inside of the dining room between the kitchen and the living room, the guys
sat at the dining table before Amy approached with the remainder of the food.
  "I hope you do enjoy this, it took me a while to prepare it," Amy said while
preparing separate plates of spaghetti and meatballs with bread. "It's a famous
pasta recipe from Italy that Americans started eating quite a long time ago."
  "Cool how diverse the styles are on this world," Ron remarked.  "Where'd you
get it from?"
  "I was in the room you share with Will using your computer to get the recipe
off the internet," Amy said before sitting down.  "It uses no artificial or
inorganic ingredients.  Try it."  Tom and Ron exchanged looks before digging in
with their forks.   Dave already had a full fork before taking a bite.
  After Will chewed and swallowed his bite, he nodded.  "This is pretty good.
Are you sure nothing's wrong with it?  I got pretty spooked when you told me
about what you found out when I took you shopping."
  "It's fine.  Just 'cause it's good for you, doesn't mean it has to taste bad.
Just try a little harder next time."
  "A lot harder," Tom grinned.  "This is pretty good."
  "Well," Dave said, "it sure is going to be an interesting day tomorrow. There
is no doubt that we made front page, headline news around the world."
  "Oh yeah," Will replied. "AstroMan fighting Tortan downtown is not only gonna
make history but really put the fear into the hearts of people all over the
place.  Crime is probably unfortunately going to skyrocket 'cause the crooks
think hey don't have anything to loose by being sentenced to death or shot by
the cops."
  "I wonder how the government is going to handle it?" Amy asked.  "Not just
this one but the one's around the world?  They've been covering up stuff for
years but they can't cover this up."
  Ron frowned.  "They're probably going to track down whoever's responsible and
do like the FBI did in Waco, Texas. At least, until they realize that everybody
responsible can't be found on Earth."

                                                           TO BE CONTINUED    

In next week's episode of Galaxy Task Force Astroranger. . .

Tom finds out Dave damaged his truck while using it without his permission on
the day of a job interview and loses his temper.  Meanwhile, Cyborg Sonic is on
the highways testing out a mind controlling signal it plans to broadcast to the
world in episode 7, "High Speed Brainwashing"                                 

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"Galaxy Task Force Astroranger" is a trademark of Artist Bros. Enterprises. The
above text is protected under laws of the  United States  and other  countries.
Unauthorized duplication,  distribution  or  exhibition  may  result  in  civil
liability and criminal prosecution. Copyright (c)1997 Artist Bros. Enterprises,
Artist Bros. Music and Dairenn Lombard.  All Rights Reserved.  Country Of First
Publication: United States of America.  Artist Brothers and Dairenn Lombard are
the author of the preceding text.  The characters and events depicted  in  this
story are fictional.  Any  similarity to  actual  persons,  living or dead,  is
purely coincidental and unintentional.  This copyright notice does  not  extend
to infringe upon the  existing  copyrights for `Super-Sentai' titles maintained
by  Toei Company LTD., Toei Agency, Toei International, Asahi-TV, Marvel Comics
and Ishimori Productions.                                               [TV-PG]
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