"What's going on?" Zhane demanded, his voice loud enough to be heard over the shriek of the alert. "Where's Cassie?"

"I knew I shouldn't have left them alone together," Kerone muttered.

"What?" Zhane leaned closer.

"Nothing," she said loudly. "I have no idea what's going on."

"That's the intruder alert," Cetaci said, obviously overhearing as she pushed between them to do something to the console. "Where are Phantom and Cassie?"

Zhane threw his hands up in the air. "That's what I want to know!"

*Andros,* Kerone thought. *There's some sort of intruder alert going off in the Ranger dome, and we can't find the Phantom. Or Cassie--did they teleport back to the Megaship?*

There was a brief pause before the answer came back. *DECA says they aren't here. We'll be right down.*

Kerone tried not to smirk as she surveyed the crowded room. The arrival of the rest of the Astro team would do little to improve matters, but she didn't tell Andros that.

She also didn't tell Cetaci, who looked distinctly irritated when four colored flashes of light overwhelmed auxiliary control. Ashley immediately clapped her hands over her ears, and Carlos looked annoyed. "What's going on here?"

"Aura!" Karen shouted happily, as the crimson sparkles released both her and Andros. She threw herself into the Red Aquitian Ranger's arms, and Cetaci glared--first at them, and then at Andros, who was watching them with amusement.

"*She* is not a Ranger," Cetaci declared, as though it wasn't obvious. "Why did you bring her?"

Andros shrugged. "We couldn't just leave her on the Megaship. And since you never let Aura have any time off, we figured we'd better come to her." Aura winked at him over Karen's shoulder, and he grinned back.

"Would someone turn that stupid alarm off?" Ashley demanded, turning to Carlos in appeal.

Carlos glanced around the room. "TJ," he said, interrupting the Blue Ranger's whispered conversation with Cestria. "Turn the alarm off."

TJ didn't even look up.

"TJ!" Carlos repeated, and without a word, Cestria touched something on the control panel beside her.

The alarm cut off, and in the ensuing silence her words were perfectly clear. "I guess it's just something about Blue Rangers…"

Zhane whistled, and TJ glared at him. "Mind your own business!"

Seeing Andros put his arms around Aura and Karen, his sister couldn't help but feel left out. Zhane must have felt the same way, for he caught Cetaci's arm and asked, "Isn't there some way to page Cassie and Phantom? This is supposed to be the most technologically advanced place on the planet, after all."

Cetaci yanked her arm away. "We were trying to have a drill, before you and your *friends* arrived."

"I'll do it," Delphinius offered, probably just to annoy her.

"Better?" Carlos asked, turning to Ashley with a smile. He ignored the rest of the room, as though he had silenced the alarm all by himself.

"Much," she agreed, leaning against him and closing her eyes. He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, while Delphinius's voice echoed over the allcall speakers throughout the dome.

***

The sound of the intruder alert had stopped some time ago, but sounds of arguing could be heard coming from auxiliary control as soon as the lift doors opened. Cassie and Saryn exchanged glances, stepping out slowly and heading down the hall.

"The Aquitian powers are stronger than the Astro ones!" someone was yelling, and it took Cassie a minute to recognize Billy's voice. She had never heard it raised in anger before.

"Oh, yeah?" TJ's voice shot back. "Why don't we step outside for a few minutes!"

Wide-eyed, she glanced over at Saryn again. He looked as startled as she felt, and they hesitated outside the doors to the secondary control room. Beneath the Blue Rangers' argument, Aura's complaint was barely audible: "Why does everyone think I like Carlos? Just because I work with him--"

"It's okay," Andros said quickly. "We were just wondering…"

"Yeah, you know we trust you," Karen's voice added, and as Cassie peered around the door she saw the girl give Aura a comforting hug.

"Cassie!" Zhane's shout cut through the noise in the control room as he bounded over to her, picking her up and whirling her around in the air. "I'm so glad you're all right!"

Shocked, she had no reply at first. She tried to get a look around the rest of the room, but it kept spinning even after Zhane set her down. She sought out Saryn with her eyes, and could only stare in disbelief as she found Kerone kissing him passionately.

This hadn't been in the script. Or if it had been, no one had told her about it. But this place was known for last minute changes, and she tried desperately to play along. "What's going *on* here? Is this some kind of spell?"

"What are you talking about?" Zhane asked, pulling her close and leaning down to kiss her.

That was the last straw. "Cut!" Cassie yelled, shoving Zhane away from her. "Someone tell me what's going on!"

A dark-haired girl looked up from the other side of the room. "'Cut'? Since when do you call 'cut'?"

"Since when does he try to kiss me?" Cassie demanded, glaring at Zhane. "And you said Kerone wasn't going to be interested in Saryn!"

"Cassie, chill," Billy said, leaning companionably against TJ's chair.

"Chill?" she repeated suspiciously, glancing around the room. Ashley was grinning at her as she stepped away from Carlos and put an arm around her boyfriend, and Aura sat down calmly in a chair beside them. Karen winked at Carlos from across the room, and Cassie, steeling herself, looked back toward the door.

Kerone was standing idly at Saryn's side, twirling a strand of hair through her fingers. Zhane was watching her, a dreamy look in his eye as he seemed completely oblivious to the rest of the room.

Saryn caught her gaze, a bewildered look on his face. "I was not informed of this change in the script," he said at last.

On the other side of the room, the dark-haired girl raised her eyebrow. "I suppose you don't know what day today is, either."

Cassie frowned, only then noticing Starhawk's odd clothes. "What do you mean? It's October…" She trailed off.

"October 31^st," TJ supplied, a grin in his voice.

"Happy Halloween!" Ashley exclaimed happily, clearly unable to contain herself any longer.

"Halloween?" Saryn asked, looking to her for an explanation.

Cassie sighed, not sure whether to roll her eyes or laugh. "On the last day of October, people dress up as someone else. They go around asking for candy, and--"

"And playing pranks," Carlos interrupted. "Which you would have known about, if you had come to the meeting."

"This…" Saryn looked warily around the control room, as though he expected it to revert to its former state of chaos at any second. "This was a joke?"

"We were going to prank the 'First Star' readers," TJ explained. "Ashley was supposed to tell you."

Ashley clapped a hand over her mouth, her wide-eyed expression sheepish. Andros laughed at her, pulling her hand away and combing her hair gently back from her face. "I think someone forgot."

"I meant to tell you," she protested. "But you guys were nowhere to be found last night, and then the rest of us were at the mall all evening…"

"No, it's my fault," Starhawk interrupted. "I should have reminded everyone this morning. Sorry to scare you."

Cassie took a deep breath, shaking her head a little to make sure she was awake. "So this is your prank, huh?"

Starhawk shrugged. "Not really. It was Adri's idea."

"I should have known," Cassie muttered. "I want to talk to her."

***

A girl bundled in winter clothes appeared without ceremony in the middle of the room. She blinked, looking around in puzzlement before the setting registered.

"Cold day?" Carlos asked.

"Would you stop with the pranks!" Cassie exclaimed, ignoring her fellow Ranger. "I almost had a heart attack when Kerone kissed Saryn!"

"Oh, so you didn't care about the rest of us," TJ teased.

Adri rolled her eyes. "I should have known you'd blame me for this," she told Starhawk.

"It was your fault," Starhawk reminded her. "'A fake installment of First Star,' you said. 'Carlos and Ashley would be too mean,' you said; 'you'd have to get Andros and Aura and Karen together in revenge.'"

Adri sighed theatrically. "You always make it sound like I wrote it or something! It's not my fault you take these things seriously."

"Oh, four words. Singing twister of death."

"Also not my fault," Adri retorted.

"Excuse me, are we going to finish this scene or not?" TJ demanded.

"Without the kissing," Cassie interjected.

"Did you write this scene?" Starhawk demanded. "I think not."

"You think not is right," Cassie agreed. "Zhane is *not* kissing me."

Kerone shrugged. "I don't mind."

"You'd make a cute couple," Ashley put in, earning herself a dark glare from Saryn. "In theory," she added hastily.

"So would you and Carlos," Cassie informed her.

"Now wait a minute," Andros began.

"See what you've started?" Starhawk said with a sigh. "They were fine until Cassie and Saryn got involved."

"Most things are," Adri remarked, watching Cestria try to prevent the brewing argument with a few calm words. "Those two are a bad influence."

"You'd know," Starhawk said, giving her a pointed look.

"Takes one to know one?" Adri suggested innocently. "Nice costume, by the way."

"Yours too. Not that I've ever seen the movie… but aren't you supposed to have a video camera?"

Billy objected to something his girlfriend said, and was promptly drawn into the debate over the relative "cuteness" of couples. Cetaci and Delphinius were by now the only ones not involved, and it was strange to see Saryn arguing just as heatedly as the rest of them.

"I didn't exactly have time to pick it up before you dragged me here. I don't know how Heather can see where she's going with that thing," Adri said. "And aren't you supposed to have a cloak?"

"It was wear a cloak and freeze, or wear a sweater. Rinoa obviously didn't live in New England."

"We have opposite problems," Adri said with a grin. "I've had the air conditioning on all day."

"I *am* straight!" Karen exclaimed indignantly. "You're confusing me with Lindsay!"

"What happened to Lindsay, anyway?" Adri asked.

Starhawk shrugged. "I haven't seen her in weeks."

"I'm just teasing you," Carlos said with a grin.

"Hey, no making fun of anyone's acting," Ashley interrupted. She paused, and Carlos looked appropriately chagrinned--until she added, "Because yours is terrible, and you know it."

"Hey!"

Starhawk rolled her eyes. "This scene is never going to get done."

"That might be a good thing," Adri said with a smirk.

"May I remind you that this was--"

"Not my idea," Adri finished for her.