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Meeting a former enemy turned friend who had all but disappeared, right on the edge of the universe, isn’t even up there on Cassie’s list of strange things, at this point. It’s a mere coincidence in a world where coincidences that don’t end in consecutive explosions are hardly worth even mentioning.
It’s a nice planet, too. Reminds her of Earth…
“Hey,” Karone says. Cassie blinks.
“Hi.”
Karone’s hand tightens on the purple and black staff in her hands.
“If you’re here for the distress signal, we already handled it.”
“Oh,” Cassie replies. Wait… “We?”
Karone gestures to where four teens, maybe young adults (the oldest couldn’t be more than 25) are talking happily, though the one in a silver jacket keeps looking to their left as if expecting a partner there.
“Virgil, Axe, Lia, and Noxo,” Karone introduces. “You know some of them.”
She…
Virgil and Axe. Blue and Red, right?
Well, Cassie hadn’t hesitated to forgive them after Kendrix had. Or at least, not as much as some had (Kendrix’s team, Andros, and Carlos in particular… but it is what it is).
“Oh,” is all Cassie says out loud. Karone shrugs.
“SPD sent out one of their prototype Morphers and an officer to check on the issue,” she says. “It was a wormhole.”
“Where—”
“Lia and Noxo’s home dimension,” Karone explains. “We’re based there.”
“Ah,” Cassie says, because she truly doesn’t know how to respond. “Are they a good team?”
Karone nods.
“All ten of them,” she says. “The youngest is about the same age as Justin. Teal Star Ranger.”
Cassie coughs on the water which had just been put in front of her.
“ Ten ?”
Karone smiles, soft and almost embarrassed.
“Eleven, counting me.”
She holds up her staff.
Cassie blinks.
“…Eleven?”
Karone shrug, and her smile becomes that “I used to be one wrong move away from ruling the universe” smile that Cassie loves more than she should.
“It means being able to divide and conquer without being easy pickings for the enemy,” Karone explains. Leaning back, she sighs. “I’m worried about the others, though. After what happened with Green, Yellow, and Taro…”
“Bad?” Cassie asks. Karone downs the obviously alcoholic drink in front of her in one gulp.
“Very,” she admits. She turns to Cassie. “And how are you?”
Cassie laughs.
“Better off than you, it seems,” she says. “Checking a faded energy spike has been the most interesting thing all month.”
Karone cocks her head.
“Didn’t you Earth Rangers make a deal with SPD?” She asks. “They already sent someone out here with a prototype Morpher.”
Cassie shrugs.
“Most people see me more as Astro Pink than Turbo,” she says. “Cassie Two’s treated more as Turbo, and she isn’t even from Earth.”
“How is Earth, by the way?” Karone asks. “And… and KO-35 and Mirinoi, if you know.”
Cassie blinks.
“You haven’t checked?” She asks. Karone shakes her head, turning back to the younger Rangers.
“There’s a threat as big as Dark Spectre and myself back there,” she says. “And the wormhole only reopens for a short time, later today.”
Oh.
“They’re good,” Cassie offers. “The Earth hasn’t been attacked in a few months. The Mirinoi just finished negotiating the location of their third city. As for us and the Lost Galaxy team, Leo and Mike were called on a quest by Magna Defender’s Ghost for some reason, Kai got promoted, and Kendrix and Maya finally got engaged. Damon is the same as ever but from wat I know nothing is wrong. Andros, Ashley, and Carlos adopted a daughter and everyone spoils her. Zhane found a girlfriend while on a solo mission that we actually like. TJ’s still running Public Relations on Earth.”
Karone smiles, listening to the entire spiel before responding. If it interests her, she says nothing until all information has been given. Cassie has a feeling it’s a skill developed as Dark Spectre’s top General, listening to reports but interrupting useless information. That sounds like Astronema.
And Cassie, at the very least, had never seen reason to distance to two halves of the now-Purple.
“I’m glad that everyone is doing well,” Karone says. “But… what about you?”
Cassie shrugs.
“Nothing important,” she says. “By the way, how did you get back into the business?”
Karone shrugs.
“I got a call from some old friends,” she says. “One of them was supposed to be Violet, but she went into Power Overload, and, between that and what happened with Yellow, she had to give the powers to someone. Guess I’m there when someone’s hurt by my creations, my… my kids, right?”
Cassie… doesn’t know what to say. Karone isn’t actually wrong, if she’s read between the lines and matched Yellow to, well, Psycho Yellow.
“I’m sorry,” she offers. “What…”
“Yellow's powers were supposed to go to my predecessor’s partner,” Karone explains. “Both are fine, now, but neither can be Rangers again.”
“That’s… that’s good,” Cassie says. From the table where Karone’s new team is sitting, that they’re both still facing from the bar counter, the sole probably-feminine-gendered one (Lia, right? Probably, though Cassie knows better than to assume an Earth girl name is gendered as such on all worlds) let’s out a cry of outrage and grabs for the boy she can now more recognize as the former Psycho Red.
Karone taps a bracelet on her wrist that Cassie had noticed in passing, previously.
Come to think of it, the others seem to match except that Karone’s is black instead of silver.
“Sunny days ,” Karone curses in a language Cassie is familiar with but can’t quite place. A curse she learned as Astronema, she bets. “We should go.”
Cassie blinks.
“Already?”
Karone smirks.
“What?” She asks. “You miss me?”
And before Cassie can think better of it, she says “Yes.”
Karone freezes.
“Oh.”
…Okay, that might have been a mistake. She needs to backtrack.
“I understand why you left,” she says. “And now… you’re obviously their Mentor, and a Ranger again. I—”
“You can come with us.”
“…What?”
Karone grips the short staff obviously serving as her current weapon.
“We could use the help,” she says. Turning back to her team, she adds “I’ll give you a moment to think, though.”
Cassie… takes those moments to think.
She really had missed the fellow Pink (now-Purple). And Karone had been vague but she was obviously in the middle of a pretty large mess.
But she has responsibilities.
But…
Her most core responsibilities is to help people. And she really has missed Karone.
She meets the Star Rangers at the door, and Axe and Virgil freeze. Cassie can’t help but laugh.
“Don’t worry,” she says, locking eyes with Karone. “I’m here to help.”