Disclaimer: Hello again, people! Saban owns Power Rangers in Space, the Astro Megaship, and all. I, however, own the characters (Luna, Harlan, Tobias, Dina, Cassie, and Marco as well as the Crocatrons, Spectrafighters, etc.)
Author's Note: I'm just gonna ask this: PLEASE tell me what you think. I like to know what people think of my writing! Thank you!

Trial and Error
by Trelliah



Luna opened her eyes. She was lying on her back in a strange bed. It took a few seconds for her to remember yesterday's events. The main thing was that she'd found out a very important thing. She had family. Dina, her aunt, Karone, and her uncle, Zhane. They'd managed to convince her into staying for the night.

She could hear soft thunder and the rain outside the window. It'd been a long time since she'd heard either.

The bedroom door opened and the hallway light shone in from the doorway. Luna rolled her head to one side and saw her aunt standing there.

"Luna? Sweetheart? Did I wake you up?" she asked, walking in and sitting on the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry if I did."

"No need to apologize, Aunt Karone. I woke up on my own." Luna replied sitting up some.

"Oh. Okay. I was just checking on you." Karone smiled.

"Is anyone else up?" Luna wondered, glancing at the glowing-red numbers of the alarm clock which sat on the bed-side dresser. It was 5:45 A.M.

"Dina's still asleep. She'd sleep until noon if you gave her the chance. Your uncle's downstairs already. He doesn't have to be at work until seven."

"I see."

"Would you like to come downstairs and have breakfast?" Karone asked as she stood up.

"I suppose so. I don't really have anything else to do." Lunandria said, sitting up and stretching. She took a bathrobe Karone had offered her and followed her aunt downstairs.


High above Earth, the Astro Megaship hovered, ever-ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

Harlan Taylor -- the only one of the crew members that was actually awake enough to remotely consider teleporting aboard -- was preparing to get some breakfast.

"What a week...." he muttered as he pressed a few buttons on the console of the Synthetron. He then waited patiently waited a moment and removed a nice steamy slice of pepperoni, black olive, and sausage pizza.

Hmmmm....this might go better with anchovies. he thought as he finished his first slice.

Anchovies. One thing Harlan loved on his pizza. Also one thing the sythetron couldn't make.

Pop! Snap! Popopopopop!

Not without blowing a circuit board, anyway.

"Aaaaah!" Harlan yelped as smoke began to pour from the door when he yanked it open.

"Oh man! Luna's going to KILL me!" he groaned as he waved the smoke away, then began to clean up the reeking mess of melted cheese, pepperoni, olives, sausage, and fish of indistinct species.

"Harlan?!" Tobias' voice came from the door. Harlan whipped around to see his teammate staring at him.

"What in the world happened?" the Blue Ranger asked.

"The synthetron went thermal, that's what." Harlan answered. "Help me clean this up before Luna gets here."

"Sure thing." Tobias went and got a trashcan and the two teens removed the plate of burned, melted, reeking pizza as well as strings of burned cheese off of the inside of the synthetron.

"Ohh...sheesh, what-whatis this?" Tobias raised an eyebrow as he dropped the plate in the trashcan.

"It was supposed to be a slice of pizza with anchovies, black olives, pepperoni, and sausage." the Silver Ranger replied.

"Looks and smells like a health hazard to me."

"Ha ha ha."

"Hey, Harlan?" Tobias asked after a few moments.

"Yeah?"

"Luna did come back to the ship last night, didn't she?"

"I haven't run into her yet and if she was here, I'm sure she's smell the remains of that totally ruined masterpiece and come up to check it out."

"That's true." Tobias agreed.

"Why do you ask, anyway?"

"Just curious."

"Oh."

The two finally finished cleaning the synthetron. The only thing left to do was to destroy the evidence.

"DECA?" Harlan asked. "Can you teleport this to the Angel Grove Waste Management's disposal center?"

DECA didn't respond, but the bag vanished in a flash of blue-grey light.

"Thank you, DECA." Tobias called. Still no answer.

"Hmm. Maybe she's cranky." he commented.

"Maybe she picked it up from Luna." Harlan added.

"Maybe she wouldn't be so cranky if you'd not insult her long enough for her to get used to us." Tobias shot back.

"You like her, don't you?" Harlan grinned. Tobias flushed.

"Um...I...uh....I..."

"Have you concidered asking her out?"

"I don't want to rush things." Tobias said. "She's been on her own for a long time. Besides, why would she find any remote intrest in me?"

"And I thought martial arts training was supposed to build confidence in one's self." Harlan muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Tobias asked.

"Nothing." Harlan said innocently. "Nothing at all."



"Luna? Are you alright?"

"Hmm?" Luna blinked. Zhane was watching her curiously.

"You seem kind of distracted. Did you get enough sleep?" he asked.

"Yes." Luna nodded. "I was just thinking about something."

"I see."

Just then, Dina staggered into the room.

"Good morning, Dina." Luna said. Her cousin only made a slight grunt in reply.

"How do you do it?" she asked after a moment. Luna blinked.

"How do I do what?"

"How do you get up so early? That's probably why you're always so cranky. No person in their right mind should be up this early."

Luna decided to let the remark pass. "Want some toast?" she asked.

"Sure."

Luna handed Dina a slice of toast. The Yellow Ranger buttered it, then added some grape jelly and set to eating.

"I was going to go back to the Megaship and do some chores after breakfast....maybe see if I could get Marco, Tobias, Cassie, and Harlan to do some too." Luna said, watching Dina. Her blonde-haired cousin didn't really seem like she was awake.

"What kind of chores?"

"Cleaning, checking system functions...making sure the ship's in good enough working order to fend off Vortrexis' fighters."

"Why?"

At this point, Luna basically figured Dina was starting to fall asleep again.

"Dina, are you even awake?" she asked.

"You're asking me this at five-something in the morning. On a Saturday. I'm only here for the food." Dina replied, finishing her toast and shuffling off. Zhane noticed Luna's concerned look and smiled.

"Don't worry. She does this every weekend." he assured her. "Once she's awake enough, she'll run off to the mall and take a look at the shops."

"The mall?" Dina perked up and turned all attention to her father. "Can I take Luna with me to go shopping? Please? She doesn't have any Earth clothes that I didn't loan to her and if she's going to start school, doesn't she need a decent wardrobe?"

"Well..." Zhane watched Luna out of the corner of his eye. The simple mention of power-shopping for three hours seemed to have triggered a mixed reaction of horror and surprise in the face of his niece.

"Pleeeeeeeease?" Dina wheedled. Lunandria sighed.

"I'll go with you. I'll go." she said. "After all, I should probably take advantage and seize the day." Dina's eyes lit up.

"Galactic! Of course, you'll need maybe a dress or two for school picture days. Accessories will be good, too, because of all that hair you have. There's BOUND to be some cool dresses on sale at Serena's..." the Yellow Ranger went on and on as she headed back up the stairs.

"Uncle Zhane? She, um, will forget that I agreed to this, right? As in, when she wakes up again, she won't remember anything about this?" Luna asked hopefully. Maybe the 'seize the day' approach wasn't the best...

"Sorry, sweetie. If it involves the mall, it's plastered in her mind until next weekend." Zhane answered with an appologetic smile.

"Oh, grozit...." Luna muttered.



"So, IF I was going to ask Luna out, how would I do it? I mean, how do you ask a girl like her out?" Tobias asked as he sipped a soda. He and Harlan had left the Megaship to go to the mall. Harlan wanted to go girl-watching and Tobias was too confused on asking Luna out.

"Try a love letter." Harlan suggested.

"Love letter to whom?" Marco asked as he sat down next to the two, a plate with a pepperoni pizza in hand. He was dressed in a black windbreaker, a white shirt, and black jeans. Tobias mumbled something about it actually being edible compared to Harlan's result of the disaster in the Jump Bay earlier.

"Luna." Harlan answered, giving his teammate a bit of a friendly shove.

"Luna? As in, Lunandria? Lunandria who has no last name we know of?" Marco gasped in mock-horror.

"Yes, Marco." Tobias sighed.

"And the sender would be..." the Black Ranger trailed off as he took a bite of his pizza and ended up pulling a large string of cheese.

"Me."

At that point Marco almost choked on the string of cheese. Harlan gave him a whack on the back to keep him from killing himself.

"EVERYONE is having pizza-troubles today."

"At least he could eat his." Tobias smirked. Harlan stuck his toungue out.

"Did I miss something?" Marco wondered.

"Only about the ugliest cooking disaster in unrecorded history." Tobias said.

"Sadly, he is right. Although it's not MY fault the..." Harlan lowered his voice slightly. "It's not my fault the synthetron blew up."

"You blew up the Synthetron?" Marco blinked, then added, "What's that?"

"That's the machine that makes whatever kind of food you want." the Silver Ranger explained. "I tried to make a slice of pizza and it totally went ballistic."

"Well, it figures. I mean, remember what happened in that cooking class you took in junior high with Mrs. Faske? You couldn't make a pitcher of Kool-Aid with the right instructions."

"I can cook!" Harlan hissed. Marco and Tobias were laughing.

"Yeah, right. You couldn't cook with someone else doing the cooking for you!" Marco retorted.

"Shut. Up."

"So, where were we before I almost aced myself on a piece of pizza?" Marco asked. Tobias immediately averted his eyes.

Marco snapped his fingers. "You were thinking of writing Lunie-Loo a love letter."

"I was not. That was Harlan's idea. Besides, the whole crush could be just a fluke."

"Well, if it's not, writing the letter is a better choice than walking up to her and telling her you like her. She'd go Buffy on you."

"What?" Tobias and Harlan stared at Marco.

"Whaaaaaaat?" Marco asked. "Didn't you ever watch that with your parents? Sarah Michelle Gellar was hot when she was around our age."

"I never saw that show once." Tobias said, raising an eyebrow.

"Never? You never saw Buffy, The Vampire Slayer ? Ever? You poor deprived child."

"Marco, you actually enjoyed watching TV with your parents? At least tell me that you were two." Tobias stated, taking another sip of his soda.

"I was ten."

"You scare me." Harlan shuddered.

"Hey, watching Buffy can't possibly be as traumatic as eating your cooking, Harlan." Marco retorted.

"For the last time. SHUT. UP."



"I cannot believe I am doing this." Lunandria muttered for the fifteenth time. Dina, along with Cassie, had been dragging her around the mall for three hours, power-shopping for clothes. So far, they had collected eight scrunchies of assorted colors and styles, four cloth rubber bands, four sweaters, a few twinsets of assorted styles, about five pairs of jeans, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of small red hoop earrings.

That was just for Luna, of course. Cassie had bought a pair of black overalls and a pink three-quarter shirt to go with it. Dina had actually restrained herself to only a new sweater...so far.

"Hey, you said you were gonna seize the day, right? So seize it." Dina answered.

"Well what do you know?" she added, looking down over the rail of the second story of the mall.

"What is it?" Cassie asked as she and Luna joined Dina.

"It's the rest of our team." Dina pointed downwards towards the Food Court. There, not far from the group of tables that extended towards the Tilt Arcade sat none other than Tobias, Harlan, and Marco.

"Hmm." Luna said distractedly. She watched the three laugh and joke about something. A warm feeling touched her some. She'd been adjusting to them rather nicely over the past two and a half days.

Maybe having them around would be good for her....

"Hey Tobias! Marco!" Dina shouted loudly to be heard over the crowded mall's din. Startled, Luna jumped about four feet in the air.

"Aaah! Grozit!"

Of course, there's always room for improvement.



High above the Earth, a ship hovered. It was not the Astro Megaship though. It was very very different. This ship, called the Dracowrath, was shaped like a very large, but rather flat, dragon. Like, perhaps it had been run over by a car. The wings were extended outwards in sections, like a fan. The neck was actually rather stout. The short "front legs" were tucked up under the "head" or the main control center of the ship and outwards just a little bit. The rear "legs" were much larger and were designed as the main thruster shafts. The tail was to be as a main engine pylon.

Inside, in a throne-room of sorts just behind the Bridge, the Dracowrath's owner sat patiently.

"Dingodile..." he called, his tone of voice sickeningly sweet.

"Yes, Vortrexis?" Dingodile stuck his head in the door.

"Come here, dear nephew." Vortrexis smiled, revealing his pointy teeth. Dingodile entered the room.

"Would you like to explain why four teenage human weaklings fought you off the other night?" the warlord asked casually.

"It wasn't my fault. It was the Red Ranger's. How was I to know they were going to show up?" Dingodile whimpered, flattening his pointy little ears to the back of his head.

"You weren't, you fool." Vortrexis said flatly. "Anything can happen in a battle against a Power Ranger. For all you know, she could have annihilated you on sight. So, next time, use a little more caution, you idiot, and make sure the odds will REMAIN in your favor."

By this time, the reptile-like villain was screaming. Dingodile, on the other hand, was cowering before his uncle.

"I-I-I promise it won't happen ag-g-gain!" he wailed.

"Good. The absolute LAST thing I need is to have your mother after me for letting you be such a dolt. Why she cares for a bumbling fool like you is beyond me. Now leave."

Dingodile ran out of the room, leaving Vortrexis to himself. The Crocatrons were elsewhere, flying the ship, fixing Spectrafighters, anything but being in the same room as their warlord.

Understandable, seeing as their leader sometimes liked to use them for blaster target practice when angry.

"Now, about that Red Ranger...." Vortrexis muttered, his eyes narrowed slightly. His rounded nose wrinkled at the thought of her.

Hard to believe she's still around after all this time.he thought to himself. He had destroyed entire armies and conquered whole planets, but the once-lone Red Space Ranger had always survived to fight him another day. No matter what the challenge he had posed to her, she had accepted and fought hard against him, never once giving in, no matter how ugly the fight got. Even though she had sometimes been forced to retreat, she hadn't dissapeared for long.

"Um....Vortrexis?" Dingodile hesitantly stuck his crocodilian (yet tan-colored) head back around the door frame.

"What is it?" Vortrexis grumbled, turning back to his nephew. Dingodile cringed nervously, revealing his razor-sharp crocodilian teeth.

"I, uh, the, um, the sensors are detecting the presence of the Red Ranger down on Earth..." he said, drumming his fingers on the doorframe lightly.

"Really?" Vortrexis moved into the Bridge, trailing Dingodile behind him. "Funny. I thought she hated that planet."

Dingodile opened his mouth to say something, then shut it quickly. Vortrexis gave him a casual glance.

"I'm surprised you haven't jumped at the opportunity to go down there and fight her again." he commented.

"I would, of course....um...but..but..she's not alone."

"What do you mean? Are you afraid that some little brat's going to call upon her civilian friends to come and turn you into a suitcase?!" Vortrexis roared, grabbing Dingodile by the throat and lifting him up.

"No...I mean...the sensors have....also detected five...five OTHER Rangers on Earth!" Dingodile explained, gasping for air. That made Vortrexis pause a moment. He tossed his nephew to the side like a wad of paper at a trashcan.

"She's recreated the team, hm?" he asked no one, thoughtfully stroking his chin, or what you could call his chin. He turned on his heel and walked away.

"Where are you going? Down to destroy them?" Dingodile asked, crawling to his feet.

"Hardly." Vortrexis replied as he dissapeared.



"So, Lunie-Loo. Mind telling us why you let Dina drag you around the mall with Cassie for three hours?" Marco asked. "I thought you hated us."

"I don't hate you...and don't call me 'Lunie-Loo.'" Luna replied. "I came because I needed to get some new clothes."

"For what, may I ask? You don't have anyone to tell you to go to school." Cassie said as she returned from Cozzoli's Pizza with five slices of pepperoni.

"Um...." Luna moved her gaze to the floor. Tobias raised an eyebrow.

"Is there something that shoud be mentioned, but hasn't been mentioned yet?" he queried.

"Luna's my cousin. She's coming to school with us next week." Dina blurted. Luna gave her a sharp "accidental" kick in the ankle.

"Ow."

"What?" the other four yelped in unison.

"You're kidding, right?" Harlan asked.

"No." Luna said, still staring at the table in front of her.

"So it's Dina-Roo and Lunie-Loo. Now that is strange." Marco said.

"Don't call me that." the Red and Yellow Rangers said automatically.

"So. You're Dina's cousin. Did she guilt-trip you into shopping?" Harlan asked.

"I promised her very early this morning that I'd go with her." Lunandria said, inspecting her pizza.

"She thought I wouldn't remember it." Dina smirked.

"I think I've learned my lesson..." Luna said. The others laughed. Luna managed to make a small smile and a soft chuckle.



"My liege, the Red Ranger has reappeared on Earth. I sent my Crocatrons and Dingodile to attack her."

So I noticed, Vortrexis. What else occured?

"She was joined by five other teenagers like herself. Scanners show that they have recently become Rangers as well."

Why did you not destroy the meddlers before she had a chance to make them Rangers?

"That was Dingodile's fault. He ran away when he has my Crocatrons at his disposal. He could have overwhelmed them easily, but the fool retreated."

Has he been disciplined?

"Of course."

Then put it out of mind. Our original plans must be altered, now that the remaining five Power Rangers are here. Do a bit of digging and find their weaknesses.

"That will take time, my liege."

You are my most capable servant, Vortrexis. You have destroyed many a world and many a warrior. You have access to everything you need to annihilate the Power Rangers. Do not fail me.

"As you wish."



"So, now what do we do? Wait for Vortrexis to make his move?" Cassie asked. Luna nodded.

"It's all we can do. In the meantime, we can head back to the ship and get to work on our other duties." she said, shrugging.

The five new Rangers giggled with a bit of excitement. Luna just smiled to herself. The six tossed out their garbage and headed off towards the Food Court exit. Once outside,they rounded the corner near the loading dock and teleported back to the Megaship.

"So, what kind of duties do Rangers do while waiting for their enemies to strike?" Harlan asked. Luna walked over to a closet and pulled out a janitorial bucket.

"Cleaning." she answered.

"Huh?!" the five gave each other surprised looks.

"The Astro Megaship must be kept clean in order to have a good workspace. Another duty is checking the system functions." Luna explained. With a smirk, she handed Tobias a broom and dustpan and added, "I mentioned it earlier this morning, Cousin Dina."

"THAT I don't remember." Dina answered.

"Of course not. It's called selective memory, my dear cousin."

"I'll get to checking those systems." Harlan said, turning to walk away.

"Ah-ah-ah! Not so fast." Luna caught him by the shoulder, turned him around, and gave him a broom as well. "It's a big ship. You all can start by cleaning. Besides, you don't know how to check the system correctly."

"Maybe you could teach us, then." Marco said.

"Later. When you've been on the ship a little while longer." Luna nodded slightly and handed a broom and dustpan to him as well as Cassie, Dina, and Harlan.

"I'm going to make sure the HyperRush converters are working correctly. Alpha, give them a few pointers." the Red Ranger dissapeared down the hall, her long striped hair swaying left and right.

"Dina, your cousin is truly strange, you know that?" Marco asked.

"Hush. There are six decks. It's pretty even work. I'll take MegaDeck Six." Tobias called, walking off.

"Figures." Harlan muttered.



Tobias borrowed the trash can out of his quarters and took the Megalift down to MegaDeck Six. He swept the floor and was actually somewhat surprised to find how much itty bitty pieces of dirt, soot, and all collect on the floor of a space ship.

He hummed to himself as he swept, carefully making sure he didn't leave anything behind.

Meanwhile, Luna was busy in the Engine Room, inspecting the power connections from the catwalk. She heard a strange sound aside from the usual hum of the engines and noted the Blue Ranger sweeping, his back to her.

She finished her work and climbed down the ladder. By this time, he was right in front of the door.

"What are you humming?" she asked, curiously. Tobias jerked his head towards her.

"Oh, hi...it's nothing really. I-I wasn't bothering you, was I?"

"No, no. It's okay. I'm just rather used to the sound of the engines and Alpha's occasional humming. Sounds strange to hear it from someone else."

"Must be..." Tobias said. "How...how long have you been on this ship?"

"About six years." Luna answered.

"That's a long time. It must be a challenge to get used to having other humans on the ship, hmm?"

"It'd be a challenge getting used to Marco or Harlan alone."

Tobias smiled at the Red Ranger's attempt at a joke. Her mouth tugged at one side in a crooked little smile.

<The synthetron has suffered a massive malfunction. Fire control methods could be advised.> DECA announced.

"One guess says the 'malfunction' is named Harlan." Tobias muttered. The two moved themselves rather quickly to the Megalift and rode it up to MegaDeck Two. There was a bit of smoke coming out of the Jump Bay.

As it turned out, Marco had caused this synthetron problem. He'd been attempting to make, of all things, an apple. The synthetron had made applesauce instead and splattered it everywhere. Hot, steaming bits of apple were all over the floor and Marco's face and uniform as well.

"Sheesh, Marco. Next time you want applesauce, I sure hope you pick a better way to get it." Dina muttered as she helped him clean up.

"Good idea, Dina." Luna said. The two Rangers turned to see the Red and Blue Rangers standing in the doorway

"Oh, great. Luna, listen, it was an accident! I didn't mean to blow the rotten thing up!" Marco pleaded.

"Fine." she answered as tolerantly as she could. "Just get it cleaned up and I'll fix it."

"Will do, Lunie-Loo." Marco did little salute. Luna shot him an icy look as if to warn him that her tolerance only went so far.

"I mean, yes ma'am, Lunandria." he corrected himself meekly. Luna nodded and left to go find her toolbox.

"'Yes ma'am'?" Tobias raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up, Tobias." Marco snorted.



Half an hour later, the synthetron was fixed. Or, the problem that had caused unwanted applesauce was fixed.

"There. It's fixed. Whatever you did before, don't do it again." Luna said as she shut the door of the synthetron and put her tools back in the box.

"No problem." Marco muttered.

"Hey Luna? You got a minute?" Tobias asked as he followed Luna into the hallway.

"If someone doesn't break, destroy, or annihilate something in the next five seconds, yes." she answered, casting an unreadable look back at Marco. Tobias chuckled.

"I was wondering...could you show me some of the systems on the Megaship?" he asked.

"I suppose so." she nodded slightly with a small smile. Tobias returned it gratefully. The two headed to the Bridge.

"Most of the systems, like life support and air filtration, are controlled and monitored by DECA." Luna explained. "However, she can be overridden, which is good in case she ever has a malfunction that alters her primary directives."

<Which is next to impossible.> DECA added with what seemed to be a hint of indignance in her voice.

Tobias chuckled at the onboard computer's attitude. Luna found herself smiling a crooked little smile. Apparently feeling insulted, DECA said nothing more than what she had to.

The Red Ranger sighed. Sometimes, if she put her troubles in the back of her mind, she could feel close to happy. Her pain and anger were always right behind the corner, though, weighing her down with the depressing side of reality.

It'll go away, someday. When I find out the truth. she thought.



"What are we on?" Cassie asked.

"I believe it was...D. We just started, remember." Harlan answered. The two had decided to tag-team their levels. They had come up with random topics as the swept. Somehow, they had gotten on the subject of the insult alphabet.

"Right. My bad. Doofus."

"'Doofus?' Where the heck did you come up with a jurassic-period insult like that?" Harlan grinned.

"Let's see you do any better."

"Okay....'E'...hmmmm...ignoramous? No, that's an 'I'."

"Hard, ain't it?" Cassie smirked.

"Shush...I'm thinking....escargo!" the Silver Ranger declared.

"That's French. It means 'snail'."

"So what?"

"How do you know French anyway?" the Pink Ranger's eyebrow raised slightly. "I thought you spent that class catching up on your dreams of Drella Quazinella."

"Hey, I don't sleep through ALL my classes. Besides, my mom served it last night. Talk about NASTY. I say that's a FINE insult."

"Fool."

"Was that your insult or were you just calling me that?" Harlan paused. Cassie blinked.

"Um...I'm not sure." she admitted. The two stood there thinking for a moment.

"How about both?" Harlan suggested.

"Fine by me. Your turn." Cassie agreed as they continued sweeping.

"Okay....'G'...dang it! I get the hard ones all the time! How come I let you go first?!"

"Because you did. Forget 'G'. We'll come back to it. Hard-head."

"Cassie, you have got to make up your mind. You say your insult, but you aim it at me. I'm getting a headache, ignorant girl."

"You're calling the kettle black, jackanape."

"Ken doll."

Cassie paused. "Hey! That's pretty dang good!"

"Isn't it?" Harlan grinned. "Say it to a guy, you're bound to get a good reaction!"

"Yeah, especially since those dolls weren't anatomically correct."

"Neither was Bimbo or Blah-girl or whatever her name was."

"Barbie. Her name was Barbie." Cassie corrected.

"How would you know?" Harlan asked, raising an eyebrow. Cassie flushed.

"My mom bought me a few before the line ended. I was a little kid. Besides, my fondest memories of those dolls are of dying their hair strange colors, putting them in festive clothes, and using them for Christmas ornaments. My aunt always called me a little heathen for it." Cassie made a sly grin.

"I think your momma dropped you on your pretty little head when you were little." Harlan shook his head.

"Shut up, boy." Cassie swatted him.

"What are we on?"



Luna sighed as she walked off the Bridge and towards her quarters. Today had been rather unusual, seeing as she survived a trip to the mall AND a Synthetron malfunction that was a pain in the butt to clean up.

Too bad the Synthetron couldn't have been in a better mood. she thought. At least it's fixed...

<Luna? The Synthetron has become a fire hazard once again.> DECA announced.

"So much for fixed." she muttered as she changed direction and headed back to the Jump Bay. Cassie was making a desperate attempt to clean up the third sad mix of cheese, pepperoni, and olives.

"Uuuuuuuugh!" the Pink Ranger groaned as she struggled to clean up the sorry mess of pizza. Luna grabbed a paper towel and began helping her teammates.

"Doesn't this thing EVER work right?" Cassie asked.

"Yes, when people don't break it!" Luna huffed. Cassie took a step back.

"Sorry." the Red Ranger sighed, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I'm just kind of tired of having to fix this stupid thing every half an hour."

"I know how that is." Cassie nodded. "It's usually my job to do the dishes at home. Of course, when we have family over, my cousins find it the best source of entertainment to make gross combinations of mashed potatoes and ketchup and all just to make me mad."

"Maybe I could show you how to repair it." Luna found herself smiling a little bit. Cassie cocked her head."

"That'd be great....by the way, if you'd just smile a bit more, you'd seem a lot less intimidating and cold. No offense, of course."

"I'll keep that in mind. Unless I feel like being intimidating." The girls giggled. Just then, Marco walked in.

"Hey Cassie, Lunie-Loo." he said, nodding. Luna smiled pleasantly.

"Hi Marco." she said, her voice a sweet flowing melody. Marco's gaze shot towards Cassie, then Luna, then Cassie and Luna again. Without another word, he turned around, took a few calm steps, and ran away.

The girls exchanged looks.

"Oh well...." Cassie grinned. "At least you tried to be nice."

"I did?" Luna made an evil smirk. The two fell into a fit of uncontrollable giggles as they turned to repair the still-malfunctioning synthetron.

Okay. So my method of 'seize the day' wasn't perfect. Wasn't a complete failure, either...Luna thought to herself. Oh well. There's always another day to seize.

The End...For Now...



Author's Note: After months of work, I finally have completed this fic. Thank you soooo much for reading it. Please, please, please E-Mail Me!! and tell me what you think. By the way, I have, like, no deal with Mattel or anyone involved with Mattel. I just thought that those...dolls make good grounds for insults...*hums "Barbie Girl" by Aqua* Now where was I? Oh yeah! The Insult Alphabet had many contributions to it, most from my own family. Thanks ya'll!