[980406]
                                                                      [Preview]
Dave comes to face the facts about Beverly when she invites Amy to socialize at
the mall with her and her friend Sasha.  Meanwhile, Pleadia's latest creations,
Cyborg Vampire and Cyborg Sniper begin their reign of terror upon Los Angeles
in Episode #20, "Vampire Attack"


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!

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

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

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

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

  Featuring...

         Detective Frank Mahoney and Detective Kathy Sanchez.



  ACT I:

     The cloudless blue sky featured the warm sun that mid to late morning in
Los Feliz; a suburb in the Hollywood hills where stood the two-story Terranian
homestead--a house with a garage behind a drive way leading to the sidewalk
where stood a traditional mailbox, complete with a red flag.  Because Ron's
motorcycle and Amy's bicycle were parked beside Will's green minivan in the
garage, Tom's pick-up truck had to park on the driveway outside while Dave's
red convertible had to sit on the curb.  Making a right turn on the south
corner in front of the house was a 1996 yellow Suzuki Swift.  Its red brake
lights were illuminated before parking behind Dave's Mitsubishi in front of the
front gate.
  Holding the cordless telephone, Ron's finger pulled back the curtain on the
front window to see who was parking outside of their house.  "I'm glad you had
a good time too, Lucy.  By the way, you really gotta show me how you did that
thing with your mouth."
  Amy stopped walking into the living room from the downstairs bathroom was as
she'd heard what he'd said on the phone.
  Ron turned around and saw her and said, "Yeah that.  Anyway, I gotta go,
Luce.  Thanks for calling, by the way; I'll talk to you again soon."
  ``It was good hearing from you again, Ron,'' Lucy replied, ``you make these
last days in L.A. worth living.''
  "My pleasure," Ron told her.  "G'bye."
  ``Bye, Ron.''  He pushed the talk button on his cordless and started starring
off into space.
  Amy looked at him--half grinning, half concerned.  "Ron?"
  "Oh.  Need something?"
  "Well, I need to make a phone call," Amy replied.  The door bell rang and she
started walking towards the front door.  "I'm working at home for Fiddlers
Costumes & Designs now to design costumes that they'll sell to small movie
studios."
  "Hey, that's pretty cool--now when we need you in action, you can leave
without it being suspicious," Ron replied.
  "Yeah, and I also get flexible hours," Amy added while pulling the curtains
on the door window apart.  Outside, Beverly Tenmei--of the Los Angeles Police
Department's K-9 division, stood on the steps looking around their front
porch.  What is she doing here? Amy thought to herself.  Unlocking the top
lock and lock on the door knob, Amy turned it and pulled the door open.
  "Hey, Amy," Beverly cheerfully greeted.  "Is Dave home?"
  "Yeah, sure--he's out back, in the yard," Amy answered with trouble forming
whole sentences.
  Beverly smiled and waited.  "Can I come in?"
  "Oh.  Oh!  Yeah, sure--come right in," Amy said, standing back.
  In a red tank top and gray sweat pants, Dave chugged on a bottle of Gatorade
and asked, "who is it, Amy?"  When he emerged out of the kitchen, he saw
Beverly standing in a denim cutoffs, a yellow half-top and sandals.  "Oh, Hi."
  "Hi, Dave," she coyly replied.


                                  Episode 20:
                                "Vampire Attack"                              

     "We must avenge our leader," the voice of Tortan spoke out, echoing
against the cavern walls of their underground bunker.  Within the Nazitan
outpost beneath the surface of Pluto.  The samurai-armored warrior turned
around and faced Pleadia and Igan standing within his dark chamber with
different types of Ginara's weapons mounted on the stone walls.  "There must be
a more aggressive approached to controlling these simple human beings on Earth.
Cyborg Tousoy did it well but not well enough."
  "Any more aggressive and the Astroranger task force will smoke the cyborg
before it gets started," Pleadia explained.  "Grand scale..."
  "We don't need a grand scale approach to take over, Pleadia!"  Tortan paced
while thinking.  "Have it attack one being at a time quickly and moving at
random to another location.  The battle team will not be able to track down
your cyborg."
  Igan nodded.  "It could operate just like a fictional character we found in
the memories of some of the brains that Cyborg Hebosha took.  Someone called
Dracula spent his time biting his victims after placing them into a deep trance
to make them his slave."
  "I could design a vampire-like cyborg easily out of some of the humans that
have been taken by Cyborg Fogger when all of those people were trapped inside
of itself," Pleadia replied.  "But what happens when we finally get all of
these people?"
  "Use them against the Astrorangers in case they interfere with Cyborg
Vampire," Tortan answered.  "Otherwise, they will become our willing volunteers
to be assimilated into our species."

     While Beverly Tenmei's yellow Suzuki Swift stayed parked outside of the
house in the residential area, Dave stood in the living room facing a coy
Beverly.  Pleasantly surprised, Dave smiled and asked, "What brings you here?"
  "Well, tonight, my friend and I were going to the mall and then later to the
fireworks show at Griffith Park tonight since today is the 4th of July,"
Beverly explained.  "Now I figured that, since it's Saturday and I have the day
off like you and Amy here, that I'd invite you to both come along with me
and my friend."
  Dave's not gonna like that, Ron silently thought.
  "Really?" Amy said.
  Beverly nodded.  "I really appreciate you preparing dinner for us when Dave
invited me so I thought I'd return the favor.  Where ever we go, it'll be my
treat.  What do you say?  You all work hard and we all deserve a vacation so
it'll be fun!"
  It'll be a chance to find out what Dave's getting himself into, Amy thought.
"Well, it's too nice of a breezy day to waste inside doing the dishes and
watching reruns of Migilligan's Isle.  Who's your friend?"
  "Sasha Castillo--she's driving since my car's too tiny to fit us all into,"
she started to chuckle.
  You can say that again, Dave thought to himself.  "Well, as much as I'd like
to join you, I do have other plans."
  Amy looked at him with surprise.  "You mean you don't wanna come?"
  "Oh no, I do!  It's just that I've got this thing I gotta take care of--it's
real important," Dave said; hoping the ambiguity of his message would lead Amy
to think it's Astroranger business.
  "Well, okay," Amy said.  "You're not disappointed--are you, Beverly?"
  Beverly shrugged and nodded.  "Sure.  It'll be a 'girl's day out' sort of
thing."  Amy nodded and smiled.

     As the small distant planet Pluto remained in the silent vacuum of space,
Pleadia was occupied at his workstation within a laboratory designed similarly
to the main cavern.  Stone walls with the chamber lit by torches mounted upon
the walls only advanced equipment stood in this dim, brown tinted area.  The
main workstation was a unique console with trackballs in the terminal and a
circular pad on its top surface featuring a green grid for projecting
holographic images.  Connected to 1/4" jacks were headsets for their eyes for
up-close viewing.  On the walls were many charts and diagrams featuring the
design and lay out of Armaton Soldiers, Cyborg Warriors, Human Beings, Nazitans
and other blueprints near view screens, communication panels and finally an
iron door that protected a chest.  This freezer-like container would house his
collection of cybernetic creatures reduced to egg form to be hatch on their
trip to Earth at ten times the speed of light.  The form of an egg was chosen
because, for Nazitan technology, only something so small as an egg can be
transported so fast.
  On the wall 90 degrees from this chest was a circular hatch where the eggs
would be shot into space and encased in a special auto-propulsion force field
so that it may safely enter Earth's atmosphere while the transit time enables
the remote-controlled cybernetic creature to hatch.  In front of it sat Pleadia
himself who cautiously paged down through green, non-roman text on a black
display upon his terminal.
  "Cyborg Vampire's formulation has been complete and is ready for hatch and
launch sequence," Pleadia reported.
  On one of the displays on his terminal, Adol faced him through his crystal
ball.  "Proceed," he answered.
  Pleadia nodded.  "Acknowledged.  End Transmission."  The screen instantly
returned to text mode.  Meanwhile, he approached the cybo-egg chest and opened
the door releasing a fog from the deep cold used to maintain the freshness of
each creature placed in this suspended animation.  Inside of the white,
back-lit cabinet was a rack holding large, spotted green eggs.  He removed one
and walked over to the hatch built into the wall and opened the door.
  Pleadia placed the egg on a circular rack to hold it, closed the door and
locked the latch.  Returning to his workstation, Pleadia pressed various
buttons on the control board as a the window on the hatch door glows green.
  In outer space, a dot of a bright yellow light flashed on the surface of
Pluto when suddenly, a meteorite-like sphere was propelled out of the planet's
orbit.

    Driving westbound on the Santa Monica Freeway, Dave's red Mitsubishi passed
under a sign saying: La Cienega Blvd -- Next Exit. The wind blew through Dave's
black hair as he drove his car with the top down towards the Beverly Center.
What was I thinking to turn Beverly down? Dave asked himself.  I might not
get to do anything I'd like to do but spending time with her makes all of
the crap I deal with everyday worth it.
  After that thought, his convertible sped down the freeway along with the
traffic of every other vehicle on the highway.

     The Hard Rock Cafe at the glittery intersection of Beverly Boulevard and
San Vicente landmarked the Beverly Center's history Los Angeles location. The
convenient internal parking facilities included four levels of space for cars
to park with the mall's trademark escalators on the La Cienega and Beverly
Boulevard sides close by.  At the center of the Beverly Center were three fast,
full-view windowed elevators that quickly transported visitors from the lots
below into the mall itself.
  There, at the center of the mall was a large brown, wood-like sculpture made
up of punctuation marks that stood in the center court.  Next to the elevators,
Black, leather seats were arranged in two circles beside steps leading up into
the outer area of the mall.  There, one could board a cascade of indoor
escalators that took people between the three areas.
  Wandering about, Amy, Beverly and a young, slender hispanic woman in a white
t-shirt and blue stirrup-pants stood on a second-level escalator going up. Amy,
keeping cool in a white body suit and pink stretch pants, looked around and
smiled while Beverly and the hispanic lady, Sasha Castillo traded ideas of
plans.  "Oh, Beverly--you'll be proud of me.  I'm half-way through that kana
chart you gave me and I can say a few words," Sasha said, "konnichiwa,
Tenmei-san; hajimemashite.  Ogenki desu ka?"
  "Genki desu," Beverly said smiling.  "O-namae wa?"
  "Sasha to moushimasu.  Eigo ga wakarimasuka?"
  "Hai!  Very good!" Beverly praised, "But it isn't ha-gee-me-ma-shite (like
light).  It's ha-gee-me-ma-sh'teh."  All three girls walked off the escalator
along the first floor.
  "Arigatou," Sasha said.
  "Dou itashimashite," Beverly said.  "It seems like you've learned more just
by spending time with me than while were staying in Japan at the Sawanoya
Ryokan all those years ago."
  Sasha grinned.  "I guess I've got more motivation."  Amy was curiously thrown
by that remark but ignored it as she looked around wondering what to do next.
  "So...   What do we do here at the mall?"
  "Um, whatever it is, we're doing it now!" Beverly said while chuckling.  Amy
smiled.
  "Pretty much we just window shop," Sasha said as they stepped off the moving
stair case.
  "Guess you're right, Ms. Castillo," Amy replied.
  She smiled.  "Please, call me Sasha."
  "Yeah, likewise--no need to call my officer while I'm off-duty," Beverly said
while grinning.  "So, would you like to get an ice cream, yogurt something?"
  "Yeah, I'll probably have a yogurt," Amy said.  "Would it be over by that
food court over there?"
  "Yeah," Sasha said as they walked towards an eating area delimited by a sign
reading The Kitchen.
  Meanwhile, one of two orange elevator doors opened and Dave walked out,
passing two escalators that brought patrons up and down from the floor he was
on only.  After he turned right, passing Optical Options--an eyeglass store,
Dave continued to walk away from Bloomingdale's, passing seven open-floor views
of the level beneith himself.  Dave casually looked down onto the second floor
and then ahead again.  Dave decided he wouldn't call Amy's cell phone, even if
it were to tell her he weren't coming (even though he was there) because he
didn't want to alert Beverly at all.
  "That'll be $5.85," the college girl working at a juice bar said after giving
Sasha and Beverly an ice cream cone and Amy a frozen yogurt.  She began to dig
through her purse for cash to pay for her cup.
  "Oh no, I've got it," Sasha said laying a hand on Amy's wrist.  She looked at
it and then at Beverly who pulled a five dollar bill from out of her pants
pocket.
  "Well, I've got it," Beverly said grinning.  "I've got pockets."
  "Thank you and have a nice day," the clerk said.  The three of them walked
away and sat down at a bench eating their ice cream.
  "Hey, Amy, you wanna see the fireworks tonight?" Sasha asked her.  "We could
probably still get into a show in Hollywood somewhere."
  Amy smiled and thought about it.  "Well, sure."
  "Yeah, it'll be rather fun watching the color and hearing the live band
play," Beverly said.  Amy nodded and smiled.
  "You seem rather quiet--something on your mind?" Sasha asked.
  "Um, no not really," Amy said in telling a half-lie.  She had minor foundless
opions on the nature of human life from reading about it in text books.
However, now that Amy lives here, she grew more uncertain about her prior point
of view.
  Meanwhile, on the third level, Dave walked towards the elevators with the
open wall holding a CD by No Doubt and chuckled to himself.  ``Boy, Tom
is going to hate this stuff!'' he thought while reading the title "Tragic
Kingdom".  He pushed the button on the elevator and waited for the car to
arrive.
  In the center court, somewhat facing the transparent rear of the elevators,
Amy put down her cup of melting yogurt and stood up.  "I'll be right back."
  "Okay, we'll be here," Beverly said.  Amy walked towards the restrooms while
Sasha looked towards Beverly smiling.
  Dave's elevator door opened and he stepped inside as the doors closed behind
himself.  He turned around to look out the glass while the elevator went down.
His eyes eventually found Beverly and Sasha on the bench and smiled curiously
wondering where Amy was.  Dave then saw Beverly and Sasha move closer together.
Sasha cupped Beverly's chin in her palm and kissed her for a lengthy period of
time.  Dave knew that sinking feeling he felt wasn't just from the elevator.

    In the sky, a golden sphere with a comet-like tail was burning as if it
were its own sun except it had a shape that was extremely visible due to its
proximity.  In the atmosphere, it was the cybo-egg piercing through the
protective Ozone layer of our Earth, cruising at the speed of sound.  And near
power transmission lines, the ground exploded into smoke after the comet-like
ball of light smashed into the open field.
  As the smoke cleared, a black-dressed robot with human body parts sewn
together held a black cape across its face and body before drawing it away.
  Cyborg Vampire's green-faced zombie with slicked back hair, bulging
blood-shot eyes and fangs became visible as it looked back and forth from side
to side.

     At the Beverly center, the center court was empty despite two people.  And
while they were there, Beverly pulled her finger through Sasha's thick black
shoulder-length hair when she looked over and saw Amy walking down the three
stairs into the center court.  She gestured towards Sasha and she looked behind
herself to find Amy smiling and waving as she'd returned.  Beverly ate from the
cone then chuckling.  "You know, I prefer the flavor you had."
   "Wanna switch?" Sasha asked.  Beverly shook her head no as she'd meant
something else. Amy sat down next to them and continued to eat from her yogurt.
  "So, when are we going to the fireworks show?"
  "At dusk," Sasha said.  "They'll start the show around a half an hour after
then."  Amy nodded and smiled.
  Meanwhile, Dave was already in his car in the parking lot starting the
ignition to drive out of the mall.  He put his arm behind the seat belt and
after the white reverse lights in the back of his convertible came on, he
backed out of the parking lot.  And after driving out of his space, he soon
accelerated out of the lot.
  At the same time--two black doors with a green sign on the left door reading:
Emergency EXIT Service Corridor - Authorized Personel only.  Behind the doors,
Cyborg Vampire had entered the mall, passing the back lit TRAFFIC sign.
  People arriving from the Beverly Boulevard escelator started screaming, which
got its attention.  Vampire then ran up the escelator inside where there'd be
more people.  People ran screaming when they eventually saw the ridiculously
ugly creature before running from the Macy's department store.
  Inside of the mall, Amy, Beverly and Sasha stood in front of a camera at a
small photo shop set up beside the entrance.  The man operating the camera
checked his equipment and the lighting while the girl held themselves in place.
  ``How long do I have to smile like this?'' Amy heard Beverly's mind ask
herself.
  "Okay...  Now hold it," the photographer said as he was about to take the
picture.  The three girls huddled together and smiled for the camera when
suddenly a boney hand with long nails and veins running threw it grabbed the
photographer's shoulder and turned him around.
  "Hey, listen, Buddy--I'm trying to take a picture if you don't mind," the
photographer said while turning around.  His eyes bulged at the sight of the
drooling fanged beast.  "My God!" he said as he jumped back and ran.  Sasha
screamed while panicking.
  Beverly grabbed Sasha's wrist and ran.  "Come on, let's go!"  Amy fought her
inclination to fight and backed off while running with them.
  As the people scattered, mall security stopped standing around and noticed
what was going on.  "Hey, what's this?" a black guard asked.
  "It always gets stupid on 4th of July," another security guard replied.  He
picked up his radio and said, "3rd floor, this is Carlos--we got a situation
down here."
  Cyborg Vampire ran around chasing after people and while they were running as
well, they looked behind themselves as its long arm groped after them.
  A woman in heels tripped when she hit a raised portion of the floor and fell.
Turning around, she looked skyward fearfully and found Cyborg Vampire already
in midair, pouncing on her.
  Soon enough, she was already unconscious on the floor with two bloody holes
in her neck and Vampire standing over her with a bloody mouth.
  Beverly found the WB Studio Store for them all to hide behind and Amy turned
around to get a better look.  Amy knew she could easily beat this cyborg up but
couldn't risk drawing unnecessary attention to herself from Sasha and
especially Beverly, the policewoman.
  Beverly groaned that she didn't have her service weapon.  "I'd try to get him
if I were on duty," Beverly said.  "We can't stay here forever, he's going
through people like they're nothing!" 
  "Check out what he's doing, Beverly!!" Sasha said as she pointed.  People
were laying on the floor unconscious from neck bite wounds draining blood onto
the tile. "We've got to get out of her."
  "Yeah, Sasha--but how?" Amy asked.
  Beverly looked at the Bloomingdale's in the distance.  It was over ten stores
before they'd reach the escalator outside.  "We've got to make a break for it."
  Meanwhile outdoors, police cars drove into the parking lot on La Cienega;
running up the escalators from out of the parking levels, officers ran past
people and up into the mall, keeping a grip on their service pistols.
  At least a hundred men and women were bitten as Vampire stormed the first
level.  On the same floor, Beverly, Amy and Sasha were running towards the
Bloomingdale's to sharply run to the left and reach the outdoor escalator down.
  Above, Cyborg Vampire somersaulted overhead and out of sight.  Suddenly, it
had landed in front of them near the Johnson & Murphy as the women stopped
running immediately.
  "Oh boy!" Amy said.  "There's no other way out of here, Beverly!"  Vampire
removed its wand.  Like magic, it changed its form into a whip and cracked it
around Sasha's arm.  She screamed from the snap against her flesh.
  Beverly kept Sasha back by holding on to her.  "Stop!  Stop it, damn you!"
In one mighty tug, the cyborg pulled Sasha out of Beverly's grip causing her to
stumble backwards into Amy causing both to fall onto the floor.  Sasha was
pulled around into Vampire's arms with her back to its chest.
  Beverly watched her pull her head from side to side to fight Cyborg Vampire
but finally, its fangs had extended themselves and Vampire inserted them into
Sasha's neck.  Beverly's eyes widened as a tear came down her cheek.  Sasha's
blood came out of the bite as she fell unconscious.  Beverly got up and tried
to stop the vampire cyborg but for her own safety, Amy held her back.
  Beverly didn't care about her own safety as she screamed out, "Sasha!!"

 ACT II:

     At the Beverly Center--officers entered the on the first floor from the
Beverly Boulevard escalator and started walking around the bitten bodies.  They
surveyed the injuries though their guns were still drawn.  The officers
searched cautiously for the beast they were all informed off on their police
car radios.  One officer removed the radio from their belt.  "This is Unit
C-472 requesting several paramedic units at the Beverly Center--Over?"
  "10-4 Unit C-472, Over," dispatch radioed back.
  The officer leaned down to examine one of the bodies.  "I'd say there are at
least over a hundred bodies here--still alive.  Over."
  "Acknowledged; paramedics responding.  Six units en route to your current
position, unit C-472; over."
  The officer stood up again and joined the others "10-4 dispatch, Unit C-472
out."  On the third level, Vampire leaped over the guard railing of an open
floor.  Cyborg Vampire landed on the second level, stood up and turned around
facing other the officers.  They were obviously amazed by the incredible
dexterity of any humanoid that could jump almost 20 feet straight down and
cocked their guns.
  "Freeze, police!" an officer said.  Vampire ignored him when he continued to
run away.  The policemen opened fire and shots sparked off of its robust metal
armor, surrounding walls and shattered windows of store shops.
  One of the officers knew they had it and gritted his teeth angrily.  "Man!"
  Meanwhile, on the first floor, Beverly knelt beside Sasha bleeding onto the
floor while she continued to cry.  "Sasha, wake up!!" she said pushing her body
to make her come to.  "Come on, damn it!  Don't die!  Please..."  She attempted
CPR--again.   "Beverly, there's another cyborg in here, we have to go before
they get us too!!" Amy said looking around worried for her own life.
  "I wont leave her, Amy--I wont leave without Sasha!" Beverly said to Amy with
her eyes moist.
  Amy turned around when she heard the paramedics approaching from their radios
blaring through the halls of the mall.  "We wont have to."
    On La Cienega Boulevard outdoors, paramedics wheeled bite victim after bite
victim into the some half-dozen ambulances within view while more were on the
way. Beverly carried Sasha towards them as Amy ran up ahead and stopped the
paramedic from driving away.  "Open up the door, we have one more!"  The driver
nodded as he jumped out again and took the body from Beverly's hands.  She
watched as he brought Sasha inside and closed the doors.  Amy rejoined Beverly
who watched the vehicle drive away.  "Beverly, I'm so sorry."
  "Where did it come from?  Why did it do this!?" Beverly said. "Damn it, Why?"
Amy could not answer her and felt she shouldn't.  She'd felt that this was rare
and something that Beverly had hardly ever felt.  Vulnerability.

     The Nazitan outpost--an underground bunker within Pluto in outer
space--monitored these events.  Namely, Adol the Great, sitting in his
iron-clad throne observing his fog-filled glass ball on the pedestal before
himself.  "Good work, Tortan."  Pleadia groaned.
  "But it needs back up."
  Oh good, Pleadia thought--Adol will make Tortan clean up after his own messes
for once.
  "Pleadia," Adol said, "beam down another cyborg that will wait for the
Astrorangers to appear so that it gets to them before they get to Cyborg
Vampire."
  Sighing, Pleadia asked, "What do you have in mind, Adol my liege?"
  "An assassinator."
  "I've got Cyborg Sniper waiting in cold storage built from some of the people
Cyborg Fogger took from Earth," Pleadia replied.  "But I'll need more time
before its program is finished.  Otherwise, I can't..."
  "How many times have I told you that I don't want to hear the words I can't?"
Adol interrupted.  "Just do it, Pleadia."
  "Yes, sir."

     Later that afternoon at the Cedar-Sinai Hospital close by--Beverly sat in
an almond fold up chair beside Sasha lying in her hospital bed.  She was
attached to an I.V. while a device was mounted under her nose, still
unconscious.  Beverly kept breathing in deeply while using tissue to keep her
face relatively dry.  "I never thought what we had might end so soon.  We just
started and...  Ever ince I knew who I really was, I didn't think I'd ever find
someone.  And when I did, when I found you--it has to end like this!?  I guess
the old saying's right.  You really don't know what you have until it's gone.
I don't want to lose you like this.  Hang in there for me."  Beverly gripped
Sasha's limp hand. "Not very much time passed since we first met but in that
time I've grown to love you very much, Sasha.  "And I owe so much for showing
me what love is."  She sighed and stood up.  Soon enough, she left the room
after staying their for over two hours.  However, after she left, Beverly was
unaware that Sasha's hand had moved.
  Further along her hand, though, her fingers were long and boney--with sharp
pointed nails.  Her eyes lids opened in flash showing glowing cat-like eyes.
Sasha sat up and ripped off her attachments and discarded her blanket as she
stood up.  Growling, she walked towards the door of her room in her hospital
gown and sniffed the air.
  In the lobby of the hospital, the main entrance experienced high traffic from
all the visitors wanting to see their friends and family bitten by Vampire.
  A blonde woman with a pony-tail in a blue leotard and butterfly print bike
pants stood at the desk yelling at the attendant there.  "I don't wanna hear
that!  I've been waiting in this damn hospital for over an _hour_ now.  I
wanna see my brother!"
  "I'm sorry, I don't know what else I can tell you, Miss Litton."
  "That's it," she said.  "I'm tired of this bull; I didn't drive twenty miles
across the city, from the gym, just to sit here all day."  The girl from the
gym walked passed the desk into the hospital.
  The attendant got unnerved and yelled at her.  "You can't go back there!"
  "Oh yeah?" she turned around and replied.  "Watch me."  And after walking
backwards she turned around and began to march straight for the elevator.  The
attendant at the desk picked up the phone and looked at her suspiciously.
  The floor numbers above the elevator doors were illuminated one by one until
they came to the 8th floor.  The bell softly chimed before the doors opened
with Litton walking off the elevator in her tennis shoes.  As doors passed by
her sides, she looked from side to side, searching her brother's hospital room.
  Sasha was standing inside of her room with the door ajar, keeping an eye on
the hallway--awaiting the next person to walk by.  In the hallway, Litton
walked by and the door flew open.
  Litton looked to the side and suddenly found Sasha's hand around her mouth
and arm around her neck before getting pulled inside of that hospital room and
out of sight.  Just then, a blunt sound was heard by nobody and a body fell to
the floor.
  Shortly there after, Litton was laying face down on the floor in just her
pair of underpants with a neck bite wound bleeding.  Meanwhile Sasha was
putting her arm inside of Litton's leotard and discarded the hospital gown to
the bed.  Sasha wiped her blood-stained lip and moved out of the door wearing
Litton's clothes after gaining energy from the bite.

     "Uh huh?" Will said at the Terranian's house in the windy Hollywood hills.
In the den, Tom sat before his electric piano next to Ron, standing beside him.
  Will nodded.  "Where's Beverly then?  . . .  If her friend was affected by
this cyborg than she'd better come get her; Beverly's probably already
suspicious about where she is anyway so we'll take it from here.  Are you sure?
I can drive her  . . .  All right but be extremely careful  . . .  Okay, bye."
  "What happened?" Tom asked.
  "A cyborg raided the mall where Amy, Dave's friend Beverly and her friend
were at.  Dave was supposed to be there but he never showed up."
  Ron nodded.  "Yeah, he's supposedly on his way back here."  No sooner than
said, Dave walked into the den upset.
  Tom stood up and watched Dave walk in.  "Speak of the devil."
  "Don't mind me, I'm on my way up to my room," Dave moped.
  "Not so fast," Ron said.  "A cyborg attacked the mall where Amy and Beverly
went and now Beverly's at the hospital with her friend who got attacked by that
cyborg."
  "What??" Dave asked.  "But I was just there!  When did this happen?"
  "You went to the mall?" Ron asked.
  "Yeah, even though I knew better and should've went with that feeling," Dave
commented.  He sighed and put the book down.  "Aw man; this is terrible.  Where
is Amy anyway?"
  "On her way to the SpaceBase but she's coming back to pick up Beverly," Will
answered.  "We think that whatever that cyborg did to Beverly's friend could be
dangerous. So we want to get Beverly away from her friend as fast as possible."
  Dave looked at everyone.  "Is there any particular reason why I shouldn't be
down there yesterday?"
  "You and the rest of us have to go running all over the city looking for the
son of a bitch that did this," Tom answered.  "And we better get going.  Night
is just two hours away."

     The Astroranger SpaceBase, an opal, globe shaped satellite, stayed within
synchronous orbit with the dark-side of the Earth's moon.  Inside, the top
floor marked Deck A on the floor featured a wall showing an active matrix color
monitor with five work stations on the left and right with the whole chamber
illuminated by the entire ceiling.  At the front door, the panels slid apart
before Lotia walked inside.  "Commander Leto, I'm so glad you came so quickly."
  "You sounded troubled, Kinsei," he replied.  "What is the matter?"
  Lotia caught her breath.  "Something wild and crazy attacked a mall in
Glendale and it attacked Sheratan's friend's friend."
  Leto looked confused.  "Say again?"
  She shook her head.  "Never mind.  Where are the others?"
  "I just contacted them because of your message and they're getting ready to
get so you that you ca pick up Beverly," Leto answered.  "Are you sure it's a
cyborg?"
  Lotia nodded.  "Positive--my GeneGem was flashing like it was the end of the
world.  We've got to track it down and figure out what it's doing before it
gets to any more people.  It's biting people and I don't know what the
after-effects are yet."
  "We better find out fast.  This is the most bold attempt at populous control
or abduction we've seen so far so we better act fast," Commander Leto replied.

     At Pan Pacific Park, Will's green Toyota minivan made a turn to drive up
to a curb where it suddenly stopped, jerking the van back.  When the engine was
turned off, the doors slid open and Dave jumped out followed by Ron.  Tom was
already walking into the park which was taped off by police tape.  Will looked
around and groaned.  "We're too late."
  "Where is everybody??" Dave said.  "It's Saturday and a Holiday in the middle
of the day and nobody is at a park?"
  Tom shook his head.  "We are too late."
  "This is the place that Aaron Hanson's message sent to my computer said the
cyborg was at," Ron said.  "It was on your computer too, Will."
  Will nodded.  "I think it already left along with the paramedics that wheeled
everyone away."
  "Oh great," Dave said.  "So how are we gonna track this thing?"
  Tom looked around and suddenly noticed a strange looking object beside a
tree with a fuse burning.  "What the?  EVERYBODY JUMP!!!"
  Will turned around and looked at it immediately.  "What?"  Ron and Dave were
already running away as fast as they possibly could.
  In the park, it seemed as if the four of them were running away in slow
motion because they couldn't get away fast enough.  Before anyone knew it, a
magnificent fire ball was blasting dozens of feet into the sky as the four of
them ran.  They jumped into the air to escape the flames rushing towards them
upon tumbling over onto the ground.
  Their bodies hit the grass and rolled over and over constantly as flaming
shrapnel hit the grass, setting it on fire as well.  Will looked up and around
before checking his friends.  "Is everyone okay?"
  "We're alive," Tom answered.
  Dave looked up angrily.  "Who put a bomb there!?  WHY was a bomb put there?!"
  "I don't know but who ever set it knew we were comin'!!" Ron replied.
  Tom looked up and pointed.  "Yeah--like HIM!"  Standing at the far end of the
park was a humanoid robot in a dark overcoat.
  Cyborg Sniper wore a machine gun of a unique type on the arm of its
silver-metallic body.  It's head was a silver-metallic skull with red laser
lights for eyes.  This retro-gangster robot pulled up its rifle and stuck in a
round of ammunition into its machine gun.
  "I sure hope THAT'S not what got to Amy, Beverly and her friend!" Dave said.
  Sniper lowered its machine gun into place and while standing there, it
unleashed rapid rays of yellow light shooting out of its laser machine gun.
  "Aaagh!!!" the four of them shouted as sparks exploded out of the ground like
fountains, blasting them off their feet.  After hitting the ground, Ron tried
to collect himself while Tom looked at Dave.
  "This thing is as deadly as they come!"
  Dave looked back at him and replied, "Well when I'm this pissed, I get
deadlier.  So let's get busy!"
  Will stood up with the others who simultaneously brought up their fists.
"ChangeForm!" Dave shouted.  Shoving their fists forward, each GeneGem flashed
brilliantly when they all yelled, "AstroCharge!!!"
  The view of them became negative in color before reverting to normal.  In the
process, their bodies became glowing silhouettes of red, green, purple and
white before transforming into the red, green, black and white Astrorangers.
  "Galaxy Task Force," MarsAstro cued.  With the sky above them, the four took
their battle pose upon simultaneously shouting, "Astroranger!"
  "Armatons," it's entirely robotic voice spoke.  Out of midair appeared the
black automatons with skull-like heads as well before dropping onto their feet.
  "Let's go!"  The four of them clenched their fists and charged ahead.
MercuryAstro performed a walk over past a few of them before pounding them
back.  Spin kicks from SaturnAstro knocked Armatons down while MarsAstro's high
powered punches blocked and slammed soldiers as well.

     The early evening sun was reflecting from the windows on the tall hospital
and on the inside, Beverly tapped her toe inside of the sandal she wore while
waiting for the elevator.  After pulling a pocket book out of her denim shorts,
she checked to see if she had enough change for bus fare; since Sasha drove
them to the mall and Beverly had to catch the bus to the hospital.  Beverly
sighed and stopped searching.  I can't leave her, Beverly thought.  Folding her
pocket book, she pushed it inside of her pocket and pushed the up arrow beside
the elevator doors.  I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise, she'd figured.  The
doors chimed and after someone rolled a man off the elevator in a wheelchair,
Beverly stepped inside and pushed the 8 button on the inside before the doors
closed again.
  The bell chimed again before those elevator doors re-opened; Beverly started
to stroll down the sterile looking hallway.
  Eventually, she came upon Sasha's room and opened the door.  Beverly found
the pale body of Miss Litton on the floor of her room and sharply gasped.  "Oh
my God," she whispered.  Backing out in shock, Beverly started to panic.
  In the hallway, Sasha was already standing there, looking a little more
inhuman as Beverly kept taking steps backwards.  She eventually bumped into
Sasha's body and gasped again while jumping in shock.
  "Oh, I'm so sorry, I," Beverly stopped talking immediately when she looked
into Sasha's cold and dark-ringed eyes.
  "Oh no," her voice quivered.  "Sasha?"
  "Give yourself," Sasha cooed.  "It's bliss..."
  Terror struck Beverly's eyes as she backed into a wall with her hands firmly
pressed against it.  "No...  Sasha--what's happened to you?"  Sasha was not
listening as she took steps forward.  While walking backwards along the wall,
Beverly kept her distance as Sasha came closer and closer.
  "You can't resist my stare, Beverly," Sasha whispered.  Beverly was breathing
hard and starting to perspire while her heart pounded heavily.  She lost her  
footing and fell onto her bottom.
  "You know you cannot escape me," Sasha insisted.  "Give yourself."
  While pushing herself back along the floor using her hands, Beverly arched
her knees to gain some leverage.  "Sasha, what are you doing?  What's wrong
with you?"  Sasha wasn't listening as she continued to walk towards her.
  "Stay back!"  Suddenly, Sasha pinned Beverly's shoulders to the
floor and pushed her entire body down.  Face to face--Beverly could smell her
breath but it wasn't bad nor good but intoxicating.  Beverly's nervousness
forced her to breath it in deeply despite feeling its effects almost
immediately.  Beverly wanted to lie perfectly still but Sasha was frightening
her too much to let that happen.
  "Why can't you hear me?" Beverly said to her.  "Don't do this, please."

                                                           TO BE CONTINUED    


Next week on Galaxy Task Force Astroranger. . .

Cyborg Sniper forces the Astrorangers to retreat while Amy rescues Beverly from
Sasha, forced to fight her outside of the hospital.  VenusAstro realizes the
truth and so does Dave but can either of them handle it?  Will they ever find
Cyborg Vampire and stop it before it reduces the entire city to blood-thirsty
zombies?  The Astrorangers will learn this in episode 20, "Awakening"

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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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