[970801] [Preview] Mind-bent Beverly becomes EarthAstro to eventually corner the Astroranger team in the eighth dimension of Saturn. Here, Cyborg Saw continues its plan to take the solar sphere while leaving the territorial sand monsters to add to what the Astrorangers must contend with in Episode 33, "Chaos on Saturn!!" [Title Theme] 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! Beverly Tenmei. EarthAstro! and... Commander Leto, a.k.a., Dr. Aaron Hanson. Featuring... Detective Frank Mahoney and Detective Kathy Sanchez. with... Captain Tony Fleishman. ACT I: Last week, a trap was set for the young Japanese police officer, Beverly Tenmei so that she would encounter Cyborg Najire... Beverly somersaulted over and karate chopped the back of a black soldier's neck causing it to flip over onto its back. She turned around and saw Cyborg Najire. "I should have known! Ginara is probably behind this; she seems to be very fond of having you mindless robots come after me." Beverly ran after the robot but it held up its hands. Its palms featured a twisting kaleidoscope of light. Beverly was stopped instantly when light glowing ray of light reached her eyes. "What is this?? What are you doing?!" Najire's eyes started glowing as the cyborg fed her thoughts. Meanwhile on the hellish environment in the eight dimension of Saturn... A humanoid creature with a razor-bladed disc mounted on its back, circular saws on its shoulders and arms with a yellow construction hat shaped head scanned the region. Cyborg Saw was looking for an area to plant an explosive charge. Saw, wearing a toolbelt that held a power-drill on the right, removed two red sticks from the belt. The cyborg was about to snap the sticks to engage the fuse but suddenly a rumbling shook the ground and it looked up and around. Another step caused the ground to shake again when there was a powerful roar. Cyborg Saw identified the source of it. There was a bear-like creature made of pure sand that moved like a ghost towards itself; the sand in the ground solidified itself coming out of camouflage mode. ... Beverly stood on her toes, put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. Dave felt almost no joy as guilt poured into his mind. Dave pulled away and sighed painfully. Beverly looked him with concern. "What's the matter?" "Beverly, I can't..." Dave said. He whispered, "I can't do this to Amy," but Beverly talked over him. "You're an honorable man but you can't deny that you loved me before." Dave gave in to her seduction, peaking his arousal grew--his mind agonized over what he was doing but he has always wanted Beverly and kissed her actively. A fiendish grin came over Beverly's face while, behind Dave's back, her hand held a black micro chip. She pushed into the small of his back. "AH!!" he shouted when instantly falling into her arms. "What was that??" Beverly stood on her knees and began to unbuckle Dave's belt. "Oh, it isn't permanent, but when Amy sees the evidence of what I am about to do--it will be rather long lasting." ... Amy dropped Dave's leg and put her hand under the blanket. Her fingers instantly ran into a cold moisture and she removed her hand. Amy sniffed her fingers... She was stunned while slowly moving her hands away from her face; her lips fell open from shock while her eyes opened wide with horror. "No," she whispered. The combination of Beverly's memory and the sophisticated programming Cyborg Najire had installed within her mind had only begun to terrorize the Astroranger battle team... The other two brought up their right fists as the diamond and zircon GeneGem rings started glowing. "Ready!" they announced. "AstroCharge!" Will shouted. Within a flash of light, the green, white and pink Astrorangers appeared on the corner in front of the back of the minivan. EarthAstro's brainwashing gave her the skill to out-fight three Astrorangers. "Celestial Weapon!" EarthAstro called out holding her yellow daggers, "Lightning Daggers!" Crossing them at the guards, the yellow crystals in the base of the blades met and a ray of sunlight shined through them. The beam of yellow light pierced the ground and caused a powerful blast of light and sparks to explode knocking all three Astrorangers into the air. Able to escape, Australis, Messuta and even Lotia were able to fight off Cyborg Saw but the battle was unsuccessful as the sand creatures that came after Saw were now targeting the Astrorangers. "I don't understand!" JupiterAstro said in surprise. "Why are they attacking us?" MercuryAstro looked around anxiously. "I don't know, but we better do something before they do who knows what to us." Episode 33: "Chaos on Saturn!!" At least one half dozen of these ghost-like sand creatures slid forth at a high rate of velocity and the three Astrorangers stood ready. JupiterAstro held up his Moleculatom Weapon and looked to the others on each side. "Splitting up will be our best option right now." "How do you know?" MercuryAstro asked. JupiterAstro shook his head. "I don't, but there will at least be only two of them to one of us." "Spread out!" VenusAstro shouted. The three of them scattered in different directions and the creatures instantly changed direction to follow. MercuryAstro was being chased by two of them and eventually jumped into the air. In the yellow sky, MercuryAstro somersaulted over shouting, "Celestial Weapon!" Landing on the ground, he face the two. "PowerStaff!" The white Astroranger swung his staff through the head of one beast and the sphere tip passed straight through; meanwhile, the sand creature's face restored itself, shocking MercuryAstro. "Huh?!" MercuryAstro exclaimed. "That's wrong!" He jabbed into another and it came out of its back but the entity was not injured. MercuryAstro pulled back. "GUYS! Weapons are useless, what are we gonna do??" The two sand creatures came in and both held down his shoulders, and knee punched him in the stomach. Then they beat him down and smothered him. The pink Astroranger performed many backward-handsprings to avoid the two chasing her when she jumped into the air. In the sky, she somersaulted ahead. "Libra Scale Tackle!" VenusAstro shouted while flipping over with her legs apart. Wrapping her ankles around the neck of one of the creatures, VenusAstro swung backwards. Instead of standing on her hands to pull it over her head and toss it through the air, the sand creature absorbed the pink Astroranger when she swung back. "MMMMMMMM!!!" she screamed--the sand buffered the sound she was making while trying to free herself. VenusAstro managed to pry a hand out of the creatures chest while her head surfaced from its belly. "Help me!! Gulgh!" she shouted while the second sand beast merged with the first that had swallowed VenusAstro inside of itself. JupiterAstro roundhoused and side-kicked with punches and chops but his fists and feet kept flying through the sand creature's body. Meanwhile, it punched JupiterAstro across the helmet. In the sky, the green Astroranger flew backwards and finally landed on some boulders lodged in the ground. "OOF!" he shouted as his body cascaded along the jagged rocks. JupiterAstro slid over the edge of the cliff above one of the lakes of fire. He hung onto the rocks while looking down. "Oh this is the worst yet," JupiterAstro shouted. "Gotta hang in there for the others!" He pushed back and then pushed his feet against the side of the cliff. JupiterAstro flipped over the edge of the cliff and landed on the ground again. "Now, if I could just get one of these guys to either end up in the pit or in the crater!" The three remaining sand beasts came after JupiterAstro and he pulled out his weapon. "Moleculatom Weapon," he said in aiming it. "Fire!" A beam of yellow followed by an electric blue beam streamed through the guts of one sand creature. The second sand beast was also fired upon as well as the third. There was no effect at all. JupiterAstro put away his weapon. "Time for manual force!" He ran after the monster and punched his fist through the sand creature's face where it got stuck. "Oh NO!" MercuryAstro was being buried by the sand creatures and strained to keep his head above the blob of quicksand like texture. "Hermes Winged Ankles!" the white Astroranger shouted. Like a rocket ship, MercuryAstro was pulled through the sand creature as it shape-shifted back into its humanoid shape to watch him fly away. Landing on the ground, he aimed his PowerStaff. "I'm tired of you guys! Celestial Weapon!" he shouted. "PowerStaff Electrocution!" A sand creature stepped ahead of its partner but a bolt of lightning coursed through its body as it burst into a tower of sand. On the ground, the sand recollected itself and, like magic, became, now, two creatures. MercuryAstro now had three sand beasts moving in for the kill. Meanwhile, strange "skin" like texture of the sand creatures began to solidify around VenusAstro as she began to run out of air. Her struggles forced her to consume what little she had within the bubble. Suddenly, rays of white light beamed out of the two sand monsters jointed together as a sudden burst of sparks exploded. The ground had the sand they were made of rain down on itself as VenusAstro fell to her hands and knees desperately gasping for air. JupiterAstro turned his head around with his arms being sucked in by the other creature and saw VenusAstro trying to stand up again. "That sounded like a Moleculatom weapon overloading!" The green Astroranger stumbled over by a crater and used his trapped arm to drop the creature into the black hole. "Hey! Hang on, I'm comin'!" he shouted while running away. VenusAstro saw the sand re-collect itself and, like clay, remold itself back into the ghostly figures the creature once was. "Australis, there is no stopping these things." She watched JupiterAstro just come to her side. "I had to damn near blow myself up trying to get out of there but they wont die." MercuryAstro joined them. "I say we get the hell out of here while we still can!" "Agreed," JupiterAstro replied. "To the AstroShuttles!" The other two nodded as they ran away. More sand monsters appeared as they vacated the area. Within the shadows of the Earth's moon's dark side, the SpaceBase remained in synchronized orbit with the lunar body. Onboard Astroranger headquarters, Nashiran walked through the sliding doors into the primary chamber where Leto watched the main screen showing a graphical chart of radio signals. "Hey guys, I came as soon as I could; I got held up by..." Australis walked past him on his way to a console on the right side of the chamber. "Never mind, Nash; just take a look at this video Messuta is about to play for you on the SolarShuttle terminal." Nashiran walked over to his station where Messuta finished typing. On screen, overhead shots of EarthAstro attacking the other Astrorangers played back and Nashiran was deeply disturbed. "What the hell is this? Is this some kind of a Nazitan trick?" Messuta looked at Nashiran. "We think they have somehow brainwashed Beverly into doing their bidding. The computer is currently scanning for cyborg controller signals to verify this." "This is exactly what I was telling Sheratan about," Nashiran started; Lotia looked at him attentively wondering what he was talking about. "Having a human on our battle team would be the weak link to the task force." Lotia's eyes were red with fury. "Hasn't it ever occurred to you that maybe it was Sheratan's blindness that allowed this to happen? It's obvious that she was there. If he had've noticed, Sheratan could have..." "If's and should's aren't going to solve our problems, guys," Australis said. "The bottom line here is that we've got a situation to deal with and worrying about what we could've done to prevent this right now is wasting time and energy." Commander Leto stepped forth. "He's right. We've never had a human being work _with_ us before; in all the history of the Uton Government. Some things will go wrong and everybody will learn to accept that. The best we can do is try to learn from mistakes. I'm sure there is a very good reason Sheratan was unable to stop her." "So what are we gonna do in the meantime?" Nashiran asked. "The Nazitans have got their own little Astroranger on a leash that they can turn loose on us anytime they choose." "Right now, we've got bigger problems than even that," Messuta said. "There's a cyborg in Saturn's eighth dimension getting the Solar Sphere but we can't stop it because there are these--things made of sand that cannot be beat." "If they're really made out of sand, we could turn fire on them and they'd become glass that, once shattered, cannot be reunited, unlike sand," Nashiran said. "Thank goodness Sheratan is here on base. This way, when he gets back to reality, he can use his FireSword to help us get past those sand creatures." Two strong bells had sounded and the main screen switched switched from its display of graphics and typed out non-roman text characters. Messuta's eyes squinted while reading. "No no no no--that isn't right..." Concerned, Lotia looked at him. "What? What's going on?" Messuta ran over to the RescueShuttle terminal and converted it to AirShuttle mode. "You will not believe this, but AirShuttle is beginning its departure sequence!" Australis gasped, "What?" "Lock the hangar door!" Commander Leto ordered. Messuta began typing frantically. "I, I can't. AirShuttle has already dropped anchor; the doors will not close when that happens." "Manually reverse traction spokes," Australis recommended. "The sprockets on the doors will force them to come down." Messuta continued to type. "I can't, Australis, override is impossible when an AstroShuttle's engine is engaged. It protects the space station in case a shuttle's engine is failing and needs to be ejected from the bay immediately." "Hey everybody," Lotia said while pointing to the main screen. "Look..." On screen, the yellow jet-fighter styled AstroShuttle manuevered itself into position as its afterburners took it out of sight. "What's its heading?" Leto asked. "110 degrees starboard," Messuta read. "Saturn." "How could this have happened?!" Lotia asked. Australis sighed with anger. "Apparently, she must have used her GeneGem to get by the security systems and board the AirShuttle manually." "No sense in wasting time trying to figure it out now," Nashiran said. "You and Messuta need to find whatever is controlling Beverly's mind and stop it." "What are you gonna do?" Australis asked. Nashiran walked closer to the main viewer and then turned around to look at them all. "Lotia and I are gonna AstroCharge and stop her from whatever it is she plans on doing on Saturn." Australis frowned. "And what if she fights back?" "Hey, Australis--you know the score," Nashiran said. "You ready, Lotia?" She nodded and brought up her pink Genesis Gemstone. "Good," he said also raising his right fist. Both rings glowing brilliantly, Nashiran called out, "AstroCharge!" With in a flash of light, they were gone. Suddenly, four-beeps began to sound from a console on the right side of the chamber and Messuta answered it with various commands he typed. "Australis, I found something." Australis came up behind him. "What does it look like?" Messuta looked confused. "It's some sort of a cyborg that's Downtown L.A. by by the Library tower but that's what I'm getting from the usual source controlling that cyborg. There's another transmission emanating from _it_ that I picked up when scanning the last known location of Beverly." "It's not much but it's something," Australis replied. "Commander Leto, we're going to follow this lead and find out whether or not this is the source of why Beverly is acting so peculiar. I just hope it is mind control." "Good luck, Australis," Commander Leto. "And I hope you are both right." Australis nodded. "ChangeForm!" Both of them also brought up their Genesis Gem stoned rings and shouted, "AstroCharge!" The sun's faint heat was magnified by the strange reflective atmosphere creating the yellow sky color--it was beginning to turn blue as sunset started. On the gray gravel covered ground, the construction worker that was assimilated into Cyborg Saw broke a red stick in the middle causing it to sizzle. He threw it down a crater's opening and ran behind a rock formation created by the lake of below near by. Seconds later, the ground erupted into a fiery explosion. The cyborg stood up and appeared satisfied over what it had done while looking for the solar sphere. Unfortunately there was an unknown side-effect; an earthquake shook Saw off his feet; suddenly, cracks formed in the ground. These crevasses with smoke escaping from underground began to leak fire water. Cyborg Saw looked around defensively as he was soon trapped by a new lake of fire forming. Fortunately, Saw spotted the purple solar sphere floating upon one of the currents forming. The cyborg drew its tape measure as the plastic began to tie up the sphere. Cyborg Saw pulled back and the sphere was instantly in his grasp. Seeing an escape route, the cyborg left the area. ACT II: The Nazitan Outpost--Underground Pluto; inside of Pleadia's workshop, one of the many chambers here, Igan ran inside in a panic. Pleadia looked at him peculiarly. "What is the matter with you?" "Bad news, Pleadia," Igan started to report. "I was on Earth and found two Astrorangers and they located Cyborg Najire." "Hahahaha!" Pleadia laughed. "That's bad news? It's good news! Najire will drive these two insane with its enhanced battle technique." "``Enhanced Battle Technique''?" "You'll see." Surrounded by the tall skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles--the Pasadena Freeway found JupiterAstro driving his green HydroCycle southbound towards the city followed by MercuryAstro, driving his white HydroCycle. He pushed a key on his dashboard terminal. "This is MercuryAstro onboard white HydroCycle contacting SolarShuttle, do you read me, SaturnAstro--over?" "Loud and clear, Messuta," he replied over his radio. "What is your status?" "The cyborg is on our scanners and we will be ready to engage it shortly, Nashiran," MercuryAstro reported. "Have you located the solar sphere?" SaturnAstro nodded while looking at his console. "Yes, but the bad news is that Lotia reports it's moving so I think its been found by something and is being moved until it can be taken off the planet." "What about AirShuttle?" MercuryAstro had replied via his radio. "She's still outside of firing range. I don't want to risk losing shuttles in a potential conflict," MercuryAstro heard him say over his dashboard's radio. "We'll wait until we get on Saturn so we can get the solar sphere first and then deal with EarthAstro." "Agreed, Nashiran," MercuryAstro replied. "MercuryAstro out." "Acknowledged; SolarShuttle out." The two motorcycles disappeared into an off-ramp that took them to a surface street. Right then and there, Cyborg Najire appeared on top of a short building. MercuryAstro immediately noticed and pointed. "There it is, Australis!" JupiterAstro looked back at MercuryAstro. "Take it easy, Messuta--there's no good reason a cyborg that's done what it has would just show up right out in the open unless it wanted us to fight it. We better watch our step." "Right," MercuryAstro replied. "Let's move!" Both of them drove off. On top of the building, the green and white Astrorangers looked around while walking towards the center of the roof. "We could really use Sheratan," MercuryAstro was just saying when suddenly two sparks exploded on his right. Both of them hit the ground and when the smoke cleared, Cyborg Najire was walking forth very confidently. "I wish he were here too!" JupiterAstro stood up. "Celestial Weapons!" MercuryAstro was again armed with his PowerStaff and JupiterAstro had his Thunderbow. The white Astroranger charged in first. Cyborg Najire used its arms to knock away the shaft of his weapon and kicked MercuryAstro back. He turned around and whacked Najire in the stomach. Cyborg Najire took the hit and pushed up the staff again and side kicked MercuryAstro down. JupiterAstro fired two arrows from his Thunderbow and Cyborg Najire's sharp eye-hand coordination enabled him to catch both arrows! "Oh crap!!" JupiterAstro shouted. Najire discarded the arrows and put up its hands to show the palm. Again the kaleidoscope of light began twisting bands of rays that warped the scenery of the high-rise buildings around them. "Now what's going??" MercuryAstro asked. "I'm gonna be sick!" "It's like I'm falling and being catapulted into the sky all at the same time!!" JupiterAstro replied. Like a fun-house mirror, everything was growing and shrinking out of proportion at a rapid rate. The buildings jiggling around them as if they were made out of jello. Eventually, the two of them dropped onto a smoke covered floor surrounded by a hall of mirrors and black walls. "Good grief, Australis--where the hell are we??" JupiterAstro shrugged. "I couldn't tell you if somebody told me!" Flying out from overhead came Cyborg Najire just shooting out lights from every part of its body as sparks downed the Astrorangers again. "This is getting way too weird," MercuryAstro said. "How do we find him?" JupiterAstro drew his Moleculatom Weapon "Just shoot to kill!" Both of them fired electricity up but Najire disappeared as quickly as he had came. "Yeah, that figures," JupiterAstro said while nodding. "Follow me." MercuryAstro held up his weapons he and JupiterAstro cautiously wondered the hall of mirrors. Turning a corner, JupiterAstro was about to fire but didn't as he saw nothing. He signalled to MercuryAstro that it's safe to proceed. Passing another corner, they slowly walked towards the other end of that hall. Suddenly, appearing around the corner was Cyborg Najire floating in. Passing both Astrorangers, sparks burst when it punched them both down. Saturn was finally beginning to come down a few degrees in temperature by the time VenusAstro had arrived. Her boots protected her from the steaming gravel that colored the ground gray but her concern was only on locating EarthAstro--Beverly, the one that betrayed her. Steam came from pits within the craters keeping the cooling air warm. "SaturnAstro will not survive the might of Cyborg Saw, pink Astroranger." She turned her head and saw EarthAstro standing there, then walking forth. "Beverly, listen to me--I don't want to fight you," VenusAstro said putting up her hands. "Hahaha, don't make me laugh, VenusAstro," the yellow Astroranger replied. "We both know it would make your day to see me pay for what I did with your lover." How could the power of a cyborg be so sophisticated? VenusAstro thought--if this IS HER speaking, she knew she would forever lose trust in man. "Anyway, it's all over for all for you all," EarthAstro told her. "While he's being torn apart by the power of Cyborg Saw, now in possession of the _third_ Solar Sphere, my master, Cyborg Najire will smash your other two friends. "You still can't make me fight you!" VenusAstro replied. "Unlike the evil holding your soul, my honor tells me to never kill unless I have to." "Oh really," she asked. "Not even for this?" EarthAstro's white glove held up Sheratan's shimmering ruby Genesis Gemstone ring. VenusAstro gasped. EarthAstro nodded and put it away. "Fight me for it or surrender." VenusAstro took the Moleculatom Blaster out of her belt's holster and dropped it on the ground and then looked at the yellow skirted Astroranger again. "No." "Suit yourself." EarthAstro assumed her battle pose and then charged ahead. VenusAstro stood ready for her. VenusAstro ducked EarthAstro's flying roundhouse-kick and did a low spin-kick that EarthAstro cartwheeled over. The yellow Astroranger high spin-kicked back and VenusAstro tumbled under her foot. EarthAstro walked in and front kicked ahead. The pink Astroranger fell down. "I'm doing this for Sheratan!" she shouted pushing off her hands and onto her feet. EarthAstro had inside-roundhouse kicked towards VenusAstro who back flipped out of the way. The yellow Astroranger punched ahead and she kicked her fist up. Her other fist did knock VenusAstro back into the ground. Elsewhere--SaturnAstro ran up the side of the side of a slope where he'd chased Cyborg Saw up to a cliff. "Dead end, cyborg. Now, you're gonna give that thing to me." Cyborg Saw removed the power-drill from its toolbelt and started drilling the surface of the sphere. "No, don't do that!!" he ordered. Suddenly, bright beams of light shot out of the purple glowing orb. Cyborg Saw connected its core energy supply to the output of the sphere's surface with its hands. SaturnAstro stood back to watch as Cyborg Saw's entire body became a radiant tube of light that grew in size. Just then, it became Titan-Saw! 50-meter tall cybernetic creature with the solar sphere attached to its forehead. "Oh crap!" SaturnAstro said when there was a strong roaring from behind. "Now what? HOLY..." The sand creatures had returned to terminate whatever looked like the Astrorangers that had escaped them before. "Woah! What are those!" Titan-Saw looked over and saw the monsters working their way towards SaturnAstro. It lifted up its foot and stomped straight down on them--dust had come up from the instant destruction of the sand creatures. SaturnAstro rolled out of the way. "We need Sheratan..." At the Nazitan outpost underground pluto--Adol the Great stood up in rage from what he saw in his crystal ball. "What did that cyborg just do with that solar sphere!?!" Tortan sneered. "Sounds to me like Pleadia screwed up again." In the world of illusions provided by Cyborg Najire, MercuryAstro stopped JupiterAstro for a second. "Wait a minute, Aus--mirrors reflect light and since our Moleculatom Blasters conduct electricity over a photon beam, it will eventually ricochet off every wall in this hall." JupiterAstro looked at all the mirrors. "You're right; all of them are pointed in such an angle so as the entire chamber will be hit. Go for it." MercuryAstro pointed his weapon straight ahead and opened fire. Both of them dropped low. The electric blue bolt of light followed by the yellow photon beam bounced off one mirror. And then another, and another. As the comet of light shot off of every mirror in the hall, all of a sudden, something went THOOM as smoke rose from whatever got shot. "Over there!" JupiterAstro pointed as he ran down the halls. Cyborg Najire came stumbling in the fog on the floor in front of the black background. The green Astroranger shouted, "Destroy these damned mirrors, Messuta!" "Celestial Weapon--PowerStaff!" the white Astroranger shouted as he swung around his white weapon. Mirror after mirror was cracked by the metal sphere tip of MercuryAstro's staff. Eventually, both Astrorangers came to the center of the smokey room and stopped. "Now just how did we lose the cyborg??" JupiterAstro asked. "Just keep your eyes, peeled--he can't hide with no mirrors to fake us out." Suddenly, Najire was spotted by JupiterAstro and he pointed his weapon at the cyborg before an electric blue beam of light rammed its armor, causing the robot to fall. "Direct hit!" he cheered. Suddenly, the world began to quake. "I think we've weakened him," MercuryAstro said. "Since Beverly is so far away now, he wont be able to maintain his mental link with her!" "Good," JupiterAstro replied. "Take him out." "With pleasure..." The crescent, circle and cross symbol of Mercury painted themselves onto the backdrop of outer space while the planet Mercury itself faded into view. The white Astroranger rose up holding his staff and held it up. "Celestial Weapon!" MercuryAstro twirled his Power Staff in his hands and then lifted it to the sky as clouds gathered and formed lightning. The PowerStaff became brilliant with electricity as he aimed it for his target. "Power Staff Electro-Charge!" MercuryAstro shouted as he thrust the weapon ahead of himself as the electricity jumped off the tip of his long weapon. Cyborg Najire was electrocuted by the lightning dancing all over its body until its burnt body fell forth. He and JupiterAstro looked on when seconds later, rays of light shot out of its body precluding its violent explosion into fire. Suddenly, everything began to quake again and roll out of shape. "Hang on, Messuta--we're on our way back to reality again!" JupiterAstro said. "When we return, we have to get Sheratan and go back to Saturn." Meanwhile in the eighth dimension of Saturn, EarthAstro held onto VenusAstro's shoulders and knee-kicked her in the ribs and then elbow stomped her back. The pink Astroranger hit the ground and EarthAstro took the liberty of kicking her across the helmet causing her to roll over a few times. The yellow Astroranger stepped closer and watched VenusAstro struggle to get up again. "I'm not surprised you can't fight worth a damn; anyone with true ambition would have probably taken Sheratan like I did." VenusAstro's will was weakening from her injuries and Beverly's brainwashing finally tampering with her judgement. "I know what you're doing and it wont be that easy, Beverly," she said breathing deeply. "Maybe not, but winning him back was--after all, he loved me first." Like a knife through the heart, Lotia's chest burned with powerful rage. Without the ability to rationalized, VenusAstro came screaming and running after her. She had crashed into EarthAstro's body like a train and they had skidded out for an enormous distance until they hit the base of a crater. VenusAstro's hands were wrapped around EarthAstro's neck as she held her wrists, trying pull her up again. Suddenly, VenusAstro looked over beside EarthAstro's yellow helmet and noticed the Moleculatom Dagger she'd left behind and took it. Still sitting on the yellow Astroranger, VenusAstro had the dagger upside down in her hands and held it up high, ready to plunge down. The mask of EarthAstro's helmet was seen in negative light as time froze... Beverly's consciousness was thrust back into control of her mind and regained her own will again. ``Oh my God, what have I done??'' she thought. Flashbacks of her seduction of Sheratan and her fight with the Astrorangers on Earth repeated themselves at blipping speeds. And realizing all of what she did, Beverly was terrified but she then realized what was about to happen just in time. VenusAstro drove the dagger to her heart. "No!!!" EarthAstro screamed; she used her hands to hold VenusAstro's wrists up but it was too late; sitting there upon EarthAstro, VenusAstro pushed down with the intent to kill her. "Lotia, no... Stop--please! Please--don't do this!!" EarthAstro said. Was this Beverly for sure? Or is this just another mind game the brainwashing of that cyborg has given her to use on me? she thought. VenusAstro gave up struggling anyway because she could not live with herself after killing her older half-sister. EarthAstro could feel the pink Astroranger no longer pushing against her hands. VenusAstro rolled onto her behind while breathing deeply as the yellow Astroranger leaned up also breathing heavily from being very close to hero own death. Suddenly, the pink Astroranger started to cry and EarthAstro leaned over to hug her tightly--hanging onto her for a while. CombatShuttle, CommandShuttle and TurboShuttle soared through outer space while heading for Saturn; onboard the green CommandShuttle, Sheratan stood behind JupiterAstro. "I'm glad Messuta got that cyborg; Beverly really..." "I know, I'm just glad you're with us; I've forgotten how hard it is to be the leader," JupiterAstro interrupted. "I can only hope everything hasn't totally fallen apart on Saturn." "How do you mean?" Sheratan asked him. "Are you worried about Lotia and Bev?" "Yeah that and SaturnAstro went in to deal with Cyborg Saw but goodness only knows what those sand monsters could've done to him." Sheratan looked at the green Astroranger in disbelief. "SAND monsters?" JupiterAstro shook his head. "It's been a long day." "LOTIA!!!" SaturnAstro shouted while running after her and EarthAstro standing there. Even the sand creatures were retreating. "Nashiran, what's going on??" EarthAstro asked. "Ohhhh!" SaturnAstro tried to say while breathing deeply. "Finally gonna..." VenusAstro waved her hands at him to stop. "Just tell me what's going on." "A titan-cyborg is back there and insane; I don't even think the Nazitans had planned on what it's done," SaturnAstro answered. "What did it do?" VenusAstro asked him. Suddenly the ground quaked, rocking EarthAstro a little bit. She looked over and pointed. "That..." The 150-foot Titan-Saw had waved its chainsaw around while approaching the Astrorangers. "To the AstroShuttles, come on!" The three of them started running away. TurboShuttle began to make the first approach the surface of Saturn when, from MercuryAstro's point of view, Saw was standing as tall as a titan. "Damn, Australis, do you see that??" JupiterAstro nodded. "Yeah, I do. I can only pray that Beverly is back to normal so Sheratan here can get his ring back." SaturnAstro led the female Astrorangers towards the SolarShuttle, AirShuttle and RescueShuttle landed near one of the many lakes of fire when VenusAstro stopped everybody from running. "Wait a minute, Beverly--we need to wait for Sheratan so we can give him the ring." "Lotia, don't be stupid!" SaturnAstro said. "Even if we knew he were coming, that titan cyborg will snuff us out like he did those sand monsters back there if we stand around here waiting for him to show up!" Suddenly--overhead, Sheratan somersaulted out of sight. Landing near by, he ran up to the trio standing by the AstroShuttles. "Never mind," Nashiran said as he moved away. EarthAstro gave Sheratan back his ruby ring. "I'm... Sorry, I..." EarthAstro said while he put it on. Sheratan shook his head. "We'll talk later." VenusAstro nodded. "For now, let's take care of business... Astro--CHARGE!" Sheratan shouted. Titan-Saw watched as all six AstroShuttles flew towards it. MarsAstro sat in the CombatShuttle cockpit looking at all of the blinking indicators inside while watching the video display. "All right, team, time for AstroRobo!" Simultaneously, all six Astrorangers pulled back the black lever in their cockpits. The shuttles, red CombatShuttle and pink RescueShuttle formed feet and legs and landed on the ground. The green CommandShuttle's nose folded down under the space craft while the afterburners hooked onto the sides of the craft forming shoulders; it turned upside down and attached to the nose of the two legs on the ground. Meanwhile, different tubes bring each Astroranger in their seat to the primary cockpit. The rockets--white TurboShuttle and black SolarShuttle, flew into the shoulders on the CommandShuttle and extended into arms. Fists came from the afterburners of the rockets. AirShuttle flew in and stopped to hover over AstroMan; arcs of electricity controlled the jet craft so that it perfectly landed on the shoulders of the robot AstroMan. In the cockpit of Airshuttle--doors opened behind EarthAstro as her seat on tracks rolled backwards out of the cockpit. The nose of the yellow jet craft came down onto the chest of AstroMan showing a new face on the, now, 175-foot tall robot: AstroRobo! Inside of the cockpit, EarthAstro's seat came down from the ceiling against the rear-wall where she was suspended above the five Astrorangers on the three levels below. "AstroRobo Online!" they all said. With its fists knuckles together, AstroRobo brought fists out. Titan-Saw's chainsaw was knocked aside by AstroRobo's fist and sparks broke out of its chest when the mighty robot slugged Saw's armor. After the smoke cleared, Titan-Saw turned on the chainsaw and swung down. Sparks leaped out of AstroRobo's armor after the cut and in the cockpit, all six Astrorangers were jolted in their seats when sparks erupted in front of them all. MarsAstro put his hands back on the console. "VisorRay!" AstroRobo pulled its fists away from its face as its two eyes fired thin beams of yellow ahead. Titan-Saw's body burst of multiple sparks. "Yeah!" everybody cheered. EarthAstro pointed. "Here he comes again!" JupiterAstro keyed in a three-digit number on his panel. "I got it." Titan-Saw chopped down and then across AstroRobo's armor as sparks blew from both strikes. Saw turned around and cut straight into its abdomen. AstroRobo used both raised forearms to block and jam the chain on the saw. AstroRobo took its right arm away and knocked the chainsaw out of Titan-Saw's hands. In the sky it flew away; eventually, the chainsaw sunk inside of a crater. SaturnAstro looked over to MercuryAstro. "We've got get the Solar Sphere out of that cyborg in order to destroy it. I'm reading it as the power source for its size." "I've got an idea," JupiterAstro said. "MercuryAstro, get ready to get that thing in the cargo bay when I've got the purple sphere, all right?" "Ready when you are!" MercuryAstro said. "Keep us steady, Sheratan." MarsAstro struggled. "I'm tryin'!" Titan-Saw had its hammer from its tool-belt and swung into AstroRobo; it punched the iron head away and back-handedly jabbed Saw's chest. Sparks dropped out of the blow. AstroRobo stepped in and jabbed Titan-Saw with its left fist and then again with its right. Titan-Saw tumbled over and drew power-drill. AstroRobo's armor sparked from red laser light shooting it. The gigantic robot took the shot and walked in anyway while Titan-Saw shot the huge robot again. AstroRobo reached in and pushed its fingers through Titan-Saw's forehead. It pulled its fist back out again, taking with it the Saturn solar sphere. Sparks dripped from Titan-Saw's head as it stumbled about losing power. "We've got the Solar Sphere," VenusAstro reported. "And that lake with fire for water is right behind him." MarsAstro nodded. "Time to finally put an end to this madness, right now." On the cliff, AstroRobo punched the giant Titan-Saw in the chest causing more sparks to explode from the blow and fell backwards over the side. In Saw's last moments of consciousness, it drew its tape measure and ejected the tape which wrapped itself around AstroRobo's arm, pulling the robot down. "It's gonna pull us into the fire with it!!" EarthAstro said. SaturnAstro dialed another number. "No it wont." AstroRobo's fist retracted into the forearm and the rocket booster had ignited, thus burning through the tape measure. Titan-Saw was cut loose and free-fell to the bottom. AstroRobo stood up and watched it descend into the raging river of fire. Titan-Saw burst into a fiery explosion when its already dead body hit bottom. AstroRobo stood tall against the light of the strange atmosphere in the alternate dimension of the planet Saturn. In the secluded backyard of the Terranians' household in the Hollywood hills, Dave sharpened his skills by practicing his moves; Amy stood in front of the backdoor on the house watching him in his gray sweatpants and red tank top. She took a barefoot step into the grass Tom had taken cared to walk towards Dave. He didn't notice Amy coming until she stood directly in front of him. "Oh... Hi," Dave said. "Kinda snuck up on me." Amy looked down quickly pondering a diplomatic, but direct way of speaking. Returning to looking at him, she spoke softly. "Dave, I want to talk about what happened yesterday. I know, now, that Beverly was under the influence, but... Dave, I've got ask you something." "Sure, anything..." "I hope I don't offend you, but I've been through so much and I don't think I'll ever get over it if I don't ask," Amy began, "but... Did you volunteer to make love to Beverly?" Dave sighed and turned around; he knew he wasn't responsible for that but the shame was overwhelming. Dave had given in to the advances Beverly had started. Amy put her hand on his shoulder. "Dave, I know it happened..." Dave nodded. "I know--it's... It's just that, out of all the times I'd always wanted to be intimate with Beverly, I never wanted it to be like that," Dave turned to face her. "I just wish that I hadn't have denied what I had sensed from her mind." "How come you didn't sense it earlier?" Amy asked. "Couldn't you feel..." "I was a little distracted," he interrupted. Dave sighed. "I feel so bad about this but... She or we... I mean--I kissed..." Amy's eyebrows and forehead joined to form a sour expression. She saw what Dave's mind, playing back his memories. "Ron says that Cyborg Najire's commands to her brain allowed her mind to provide all the human characteristics to basic suggestions provided by the programming," Amy repeated. "Even though I can understand the principle of that, it's still hard to believe that all of what she did was just a program." Dave sighed. "It's going to be hard to deal with this for a while, Amy." "Dave, there's something else that I need to know," Amy said to him. "It's probably more important than my last question." Dave nodded. "Okay." "Do you love her?" Dave paused. "Amy, I... It's gonna take some time for me to get over my feelings for her, but, I don't love people who don't seem like they could love me back. We did get a chance to talk about it." Dave took a deep breath. "The way I see it, Amy--she didn't make love to me and I didn't make love to her... The Nazitans used a weakness of human beings against me. But I didn't want to do it." Amy sighed. "Yes, biologically, it felt good but I couldn't enjoy it," Dave said. Amy continued to look at him as he spoke. "The only person I want to share that with is you, Amy. And I wish that you could have been my first but... As far as I'm concerned, when our time comes, it will be my first." "Thank you, Dave..." she said moving closer to him. Dave also came closer as they had both hugged. "I love you," Dave whispered. Amy closed her eyes and sighed. "I love you too, Dave." TO BE CONTINUED Next week on Galaxy Task Force Astroranger. . . The Jupiter Solar Sphere is the next target of the Nazitan's as Pleadia sends Cyborg Centaur to scout the planet in Episode 34: "His Final Destiny!! Australis is Lost!". [624] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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. 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