( 12.00 a.m. )

Karone sat on the terrace of the Surf Spot and sipped at her milkshake.

She really loved the sweet taste of Adelle's vanilla shakes, but she couldn't enjoy this time. She had a shake everyday. And this day was to special to enjoy something usual.

The Kerovan woman nervously played with her straw - until someone abruptly put his hands over her eyes.

"Hello, Beautiful!" a male voice said. "Who am I?"

"Hmmm..." Karone murmured. "Who calls me "Beautiful"? Bob? Chris? Jake?"

"That doesn't sound good to me..." the gentle voice playfully replied.

"Wrong guess?" Karone teased. "Well... Did I forget someone? No... But - oh, yes! Zhane!"

"You're lucky!" the young man grinned, when he removed his hands from the eyes of his girl-friend.

"Hi, Zhane!" Karone giggled, hugging him tightly.

"Nice to see you!" the young man smiled. "But I'm afraid we already have to leave. It will take some time to reach KO-35, so the ship should take off soon. Otherwise, we won't be able to celebrate that day on KO-35."

"Then we better hurry." Karone commented.

So the young couple left the Surf Spot and went into a lonely alley. A few moments later, two bright streams of light streaked across the sky and headed into space.

A young man in a black leather suit looked down at the city from the roof of a high rise.

An evil laugh escaped from his lips, as he watched the humans, who made preparations to welcome the 21st century. They hurried from one shop to shop, loaded with bulging bags. Some people fought for the good bargains, others rummaged through countless stores, searching for special supplies.

"Yes, you worms..." the male grinned. "Enjoy the last hours of peace and freedom. You will serve me, before the millennium turns, humans. I promise, you will!"

With these words he started to speak into the mike of a handy machine.

"Devil Cruiser, come in! Operation: 2000 begins!"

The two lightbeams landed aboard the Megaship and revealed Zhane and Karone. The other Rangers were already there, waiting for their friends.

"Hey, lovebirds." T.J. grinned. "Ready to go?"

"Try to hold us up! Karone replied " D.E.C.A., set course on KO-35."

"Understood." the female voice of D.E.C.A. announced. "All systems ready. We are heading towards KO-35, Kerova System."

The heavy engines started to rustle quietly, when the ship turned around and rocketed away.

All the Rangers, except for Zhane and Karone, sat at the control panels. But the young was not needed at the moment.

"Hey, Beautiful," Zhane whispered into Karone's ear. "Can we go to my room?"

"With pleasure." the young woman answered. "C'mon."

( 1.00 p.m. )

The citizens of Angel Grove still prepared themselves to celebrate that special evening.

But Liz and Wayne, two close friends of the Rangers, had already finished their preparations. So the teens didn't have to hurry from shop to shop.

They quietly walked along the beach, which was completely deserted now.

Liz was tall and slim. On bright days, her brown hair, which went down to her waist, sparkled in the sun.

Wayne was an Afro-American, who had moved to Angel Grove two months ago. He was muscular and had short black hair.

It was obvious that both of them had a crush of each. They would definitely make a great couple, but none of them had taken the first step yet. Both of them had a ready tongue, but they were a little shy to each other.

"So... will you go to a party this evening?" Wayne shyly asked.

"Well... I haven't planned anything yet..." Liz murmured with a sidelong glance on the young man. "I thought we could go somewhere together - if you want to!"

"Yes, of course!" Wayne quickly replied. "That's fine, Liz. I heard that Bob is throwing a party tonight. Would... ya like to go there?"

"Gladly." the young woman answered, giving him a big smile.

In the meantime, Karone and Zhane had retired from the bridge.

Zhane sat on his bed. His girl-friend laid next to him, with her head cradled in his lap. Zhane gently stroked her hair, while they talked.

"Are you excited, Beautiful?" Zhane inquired. "I mean, that's the first time you celebrate New Year's Eve, or did you celebrate such events under the command of Dark Specter?"

"Of course not!" she responded. "That living rock would have gone bezerk! His fighters were only allowed to celebrate historic destructions and the dead of good warriors. Man, I never realized how disgusting that is! So I'm in fact excited. This is so cool..."

At this point, Zhane nodded and started to crawl her back.

"Hmmmm... That's good." Karone giggled. "Keep this up."

"I will." Zhane promised.

The other Rangers were still on the bridge, although D.E.C.A. was in control now.

The teens just sat on their seats and had a talk. They spoke about their rocky past, especially the fateful "Countdown to Destruction" and also about plans and ideas for the New Year.

Everything seemed to be quiet and peaceful in space. But a discovery of D.E.C.A. quickly shattered the illusion...

"Attention!" the computer stated. "An unknown space ship is coming towards us. It's heavily armed."

"Show it to us, D.E.C.A." Andros pleaded.

The Rangers gasped in shock and surprise, when a picture of the ship appeared on the viewing screen.

It was formed like the Astro Megaship. But that unknown space cruiser was about 10 ten times bigger! Two huge canons were mounted on the bow, while another one was located on the upper side. Besides the ship was colored in black and silver.

"Oh... my... god..." Ashley whispered.

"Please, Andros, tell me, that's a friend..." Carlos pleaded.

"Sorry..." the Kerovan man slowly responded. "I have never seen that ship before."

Just then, Cassie noticed something.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Look! There's something printed on the right side of the ship..."

"You're right." T.J. murmured, trying to read the white words. "Dew.... Devil... Devil Cruiser!"

"Devil Cruiser?" T.J. repeated. "That sounds bad to me, guys."

At this moment, the mysterious ship opened the fire, as if it wanted to confirm T.J.'s words. A mighty energyblast hit the Megaship's upperside and hurled it backwards!

The heavy shake threw Zhane and Karone off of the bunk bed.

The young woman just fell to the ground, but Zhane bumped his head against the wall and slid to the floor slowly. Karone dizzily stood up and stumbled over to her boy-friend.

"Zh-zhane..." she whispered and kneeled down beside him. "Zhane, can hear me? Please, Zhane! Speak to me!"

But Zhane did not move. He just laid there with a pale face. Karone quickly hit a button on her communicator to contact the others.

"Andros!" she shouted. "What's up? Why did the ship rumble?"

"We're under attack!" her brother replied. "Karone, are you two alright?

"No..." the young woman answered. "Zhane had an accident. I'll take him to the Medical Bay now."

"Okay." Andros murmured. "Please stay there, Karone. We'll try to deal with the attack."

Karone wanted to reply, but at this moment, the ship was hit again and the connection to Andros broke down.

"D.E.C.A., damage-report!" Andros commanded.

"The bow was been heavily damaged, along with the shuttle inside." the female voice announced. "So there is no way to deploy the MegaZord Power."

"Oh, great." Ashley moaned.

"D.E.C.A., adjust the canons and open the fire." Andros desperately ordered.

After a few seconds the computer replied.

"Attention! The canons have no effect on the Devil Cruiser. The Shielding is too strong to break through."

BOOM! Another extensive blast hit the Megaship.

"Okay, guys!" Andros yelled. "We have to get away from here, and that's gonna be a rocky trip. So - Let's rocket!"

At this moment, two heavy missiles shot from the bottom of the Devil Cruiser and raced towards the Astro Megaship in high speed!

"Take cover!" Andros screamed.

But it already was too late. The missiles crashed into the bridge and exploded in bursts of fire!

All the lights instantly flashed off and lethal bolts dashed through the room. One of the control panels exploded, which caused Alpha to crash into a wall. Another explosion crushed the ceiling's hull and pulled numerous cables off.

These events roughly interrupted the morphing process and hurled the teens around!

After some moments the entire ship went into a spin and drifted into deep space, while the Devil Cruiser continued its journey...

( 2.00 p.m. )

The mysterious man was still standing atop a skyscraper in Angel Grove.

"What the heck is taking so long?" he quietly scolded.

But just then, the handy communicator bleeped. The strange man hit one of the glowing buttons and listened to a dark voice.

"We are ready, Evilor." it said. "The Devil Cruiser is in position now. We are waiting for your orders, my lord."

"Good." the black-haired Evilor simply replied. "I'll meet you on the bridge in about 1 minute."

With these words, Evilor vanished in a black mist.

A few moments later, Evilor reappeared on the bridge of the Devil Cruiser.

He landed on a round platform, which hovered several feet above the ground. Below that platform, there were numerous control desks, as well as scary robots, who worked on these panels.

Besides one of the walls was covered by an extensive window, which enabled Evilor to look down at the city.

"Controllers!" Evilor shouted. "Adjust the lasers on the demolition quarter near Angel Grove."

"Adjusted." one of the robots replied after some seconds.

"Open the fire." Evilor grinned.

"Fire - opened." a controller-robot said.

The old demolition quarter had been attacked by Rita's forces some years ago and waited for its demolition now. Nobody lived there or visited that area, but it wasn't far away from Angel Grove.

So everybody saw the heavy explosion, which arised, when a blue enerygbeam rocketed into that quarter from the sky!

The people stared at the chaos in shock, surprise and amazement. The explosion went up to the sky like a gigant fungus, destroying every single thing in the quarter in the process. The flames of the explosion vanished in the sky after some moments, followed by a cloud of smoke.

But the smoke also vanished soonly...

The people were totally shocked, as they looked at the location of the old quarter. It was gone. Only a deep crater was left now!

"M-mom..." a small child whispered frightened. "Wha-what happened?"

"I don't know..." she whispered back.

At this moment, a big projection of Evilor's head appeared above the city.

He looked at the citizens with his threatening, dark red eyes and an evil grin tug at his lips, when he discovered their fear.

"Citizens of Angel Grove." the man started. "I am Evilor, Lord of Destruction. Your city is under my control now."

"Yeah, of course!" a brave person laughed. "Go home, you idiot!"

"Shut up!" Evilor ordered. "Another single word, and this city will be send up in flames, just like that lonely demolition quarter! I can kill all of you within a few seconds! You should better keep that in your mind, slaves... Any comments?"

Nobody moved.

"Good." Evilor giggled under his breath. "My troops will arrive soon. >From now on, you are under their command. If anyone tries to play the hero, he or she will pay. And now go home and prepare to meet my soldiers. Happy New Year, Angel Grove!"

With those words the projection vanished from the sky.

"What... can we do now?" someone loudly asked.

"You heard the jerk," someone else slowly said. "We all saw, how he blew the demolition quarter up. We can't fight him."

"You're right." a young woman whimpered. "Our only hope are the POWER RANGERS!"

And... next time in PR 2000: Angel Grove is conquered by Evilor's troops and five of the Rangers are powerless and beaten! But someone has to fight Evilor!

All that and much more in the next episode!