On Terra Venture, Kai was giving Mary some much needed cooking lessons...........

"Did you put the oven temperature to 350 and set the timer for 30 minutes?" Kai asked her as he picked up a bunch of plates and started walking towards the sink.

Mary bumped her hand on her forehead, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I decided to put the temperture on 500 so that the cookies would be done when Jessica and Krista get back from the park." she said as she sat down on the couch.

He dropped the dishes and they crashed on the floor, "Y--- You-- You did what???"

"I said, I decided to put the temperture on 500 so that--" she paused and sniffed the air, "Hey, do you smell something weird?"

"Oh no!!" Kai screamed as he looked at the oven opening.

Mary got up and ran over to the smoking oven, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

Kai opened the the oven door and smoke poured out of it. He quickly got the cookie sheet out and put it on the counter top.

"Well --- You know --- I mean --- It's not...... that burnt. I mean -- it's still edible...... I guess." Kai said trying to cheer her up.

Mary just sighed and shook her head.

Suddenly the door opened and Jessica and Krista came in.

"Hey guys! What's --" Krista started then looked at the cookies on the counter, "Oh, dear."

"I kinda --" Mary started and picked up a burnt cookie, "burned your surprise. Sorry."

"That's okay! I mean, not everyone can learn how to cook on their first try. Just give it some time." Jessica said sympatheticaly and patted her on the shoulder.

"This is my 8th try." she replied and sighed depressingly.

All of a sudden, a beeping sound went off.

Mary looked down at her pager, "Sorry guys, gotta go. I promised Kate I'd meet her at the mall at 2 o'clock."

"Ok, see ya later. Remember, you've got another lesson tomorrow same time." Kai reminded.

"You betcha! Bye guys!" Mary said as she left the room.

__________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile on Furio's shuttle Rito, Furio, and Ecliptor are having a meeting............

Furio slams his fist down on the table, "We MUST get the book of data and the rest of the data stones!"

"It's going to be hard though. The Data Rangers are powerful, and they have the Galaxy Rangers on their side." Ecliptor reasoned.

"But, the Data Rangers really aren't power rangers at all! They're a bunch of teenagers that happened to be at the right place at the right time." Rito argued.

"Rangers or none, they are powerful. And they won't give up the stones and the book of data without a fight." said Furio.

"So, we need to have them bring the stones and book to use." Rito said simply, putting his feet on the table.

Furio looked at him disgusted, "And just how would we do that?"

"Take something....... or someone that they value, and they'll do anything to get it back." Rito said smiling.

Furio nodded and gave out a menacing laugh, "Ha ha ha...... I'm loving this idea. We kidnap one of the Data Rangers, and ransom them for the rest of the data stones and the book of data!"

"Which one should we choose?" Ecliptor asked.

"Well, which Data Ranger is everyone friends with. You know, the one person that everyone's close to." Furio asked as he got all the Data Rangers Profiles.

"There is no one person that they're all close to. They're all friends. It's quite disgusting really." Rito said and looked carefully through the profiles.

Furio went over to a moniter and turned it on, "Let's take the one that is alone right now."

Ecliptor rubbed his hands together, "So, who is the lucky Data Ranger?"

Furio pointed to the screen and laughed, "This one."

Rito and Furio stared at the moniter and started laughing menacingly.

_____________________________________________________________________

Mary looked both ways, and then started across the street.

*Great, I'm going to be late. I wonder if there's a short-cut?* she thought to herself.

She looked around and saw a dark alley to the left.

"Wow! That leads straight to the mall! Guess this is my lucky day!" she whispered to herself and started walking down the dark alley.

It was dark and damp. Exactly the kind of place she didn't want to be. She walked slowly, deeper and deeper into the alley.

"Ok calm down it's not like something is just gonna come out and --" she started but felt a hand on her shoulder.

"AHHH!!!!!" she screamed and jerked around to see the startled face of Mesh.

"Whoa! Calm down it's just me!" Mesh assured her.

"Oh gosh, NEVER sneek up on me like that again! EVER!" she told him and laughed.

"Oh, did I scare you?" he asked in a deep voice and his eyes flashed red.

"Whoa..... Um.... Something is like, REALLY wrong with your eyes. I could have sworn they just flashed red. Oh you know what? I bet you have that virus that's going around! It makes your eyes all red and itchy and it's REALLY annoying. All you have to do is go to the optometrist and he'll give you a special eye solution and --" she went on.

"Can it Data Girl!" he said angrily and his eyes were burning red now.

"Excuse me?" she asked defensively and started walking backwards, "Mesh?"

"Wrong Data Girl!" he said and with a flash of light, Furio appeared.

"Furio! I should have known it was you!" Mary said and prepared to fight, "What do you want?"

"Simple my dear. You." he said and lept forward, knocking her to the ground.

He picked her up and put her hands behind her back, "You're coming with me Data Blue! And there's nothing you can do about it! HA HA HA!"

Then, with a bright flash of light, they both disappeared.

________________________________________________________________________

Kate ran onto the Astro-Megaship, where everyone was at.

"Guys! Have you seen Mary? She was supposed to meet me at the mall 4 hours ago but she never showed up!" Kate explained fastly.

That got everyone's attention and they looked over to Kate.

Krista looked up from her magazine, "What do you mean?! She left here like, 5 hours ago to meet you there!"

Kate, breathless from the run from the mall said, "She never showed up."

Everyone walked over to Kate.

"Has anyone talked to her since she left for the mall?" asked Jessica.

Everyone replied no.

"That's not like Mary. She would have told someone if she changed her plans. I don't like the sound of this." Mesh said.

"You don't think Furio had something to do with this --- do you?" asked Krista.

Their talk was interupted by Deca's voice, "Incoming transmission."

"Put it on the main viewing screen." Leo said and they all went to the center of the room.

On the viewing screen, a picture of Furio came up. In the background you could see Rito and Ecliptor tying something -- or someone up, but they couldn't make out the person.

"What do you want Furio?" Kendrix asked angrily.

"What do I want? That's simple. I want the Data Stones and the Book of Data." Furio replied simply.

Jessica scoffed, "Yeah right. Like we're just going to hand them to you on a silver platter."

Furio chuckled, "You will be regreting your hostility in a few moments rangers."

"No we won't." Krista shook her head and crossed her arms.

"Indeed you will Data Red, Indeed you will. For I have something I know you'll want back. But you won't get it back, until I have the Data Stones and the Book of Data in my possession." Furio said.

All the rangers exchanged glances, wondering what he meant by that.

"Sum this little chat up Furio. We have more important things to worry about! We don't have time for your foolish games!" Mesh told him angrily.

Furio sighed, then started walking backwards, "I want the Data Stones in my possession by tomorrow night. Or you can say good bye to --" Furio said and shoved Ecliptor and Rito out of the way, revealing Mary tied up and gagged, "Data Blue."

The transmission was cut off and the screen went blank.

All the rangers turned and looked at each other.

"What are we gonna do guys?" asked Kate.

Everyone just shrugged sadly, not knowing what to say.