"I don't get it," Marvelous said around a mouthful of half-chewed grapes. "Why would that little guy throw a party where all he does is sing about his real name?"
Gai sighed. Today's attempt at giving his teammates a taste of Earth culture in the form of a stage musical on DVD called Rumpelstiltskin: A Legend of Love and Gold wasn't going half as well as he would have liked. Everyone kept interrupting to ask a zillion questions or give their own commentary, but Marvelous especially couldn't seem to sit still for more than two minutes at a time and their newest crew member of 4 months couldn't stop laughing at the whole thing.
"It's a fairy tale. Magic doesn't have to make sense."
"That's a lame answer," Luka piped up from her place on the arm of the couch. "And what's he want with a baby, anyway?"
"That's not the point."
"Shut up." The interruption came from Joe, who'd taken up a seat on his exercise bench and had been intermittently doing sit-ups through the entire first act. "I can't hear if you guys keep yammering."
"Fine, fine. Long as this thing's over before dinner."
The quiet that followed, like so many quiet moments in the past few weeks, was uneasy. Gai couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but there had definitely been a slow and uncomfortable change in the air aboard the Galleon. It was mostly along on days like this when they didn't have much to do if they let the silence go on too long, the words that punctuated them became tense and snappish. Marvelous was the worst offender, and lately, things had gotten so bad that on some days all he and Joe would say to each other was some variation on 'shut up'. The change was more subtle with Ahim she'd simply gotten quieter, and her solitary tea times went on far longer than usual. Luka was either nowhere to be found or constantly in someone's face making a ruckus. And Don...
Well. He was putting up with it as best he could, but there was a little worry-wrinkle taking up residence between his eyebrows. Whatever was going on, it was taking a toll on him too. More than once Gai had wanted to ask if he was okay, or if maybe he could do something to cheer him up, but... but the problem was, every time he let himself think about it, the thoughts started to spin themselves into daydreams.
Horrifying daydreams.
So he kept his thoughts to himself, even if it made him feel sort of guilty for no good reason.
He nearly jumped when one of newest members laughs reached his ears once again. The second they saw the stage play they couldn't stop laughing at how "awful" it is.
"Stop laughing it's not a comedy!"
"But it's so bad it's so funny! The singing, the acting, and the god-awful dancing! It's just as bad as yours when I caught you last week in the bathroom!" They laughed out loud causing him to blush in embarrassment.
Thankfully, before either Joe or Marvelous could tell either of them to shut up or Don could come over to check him for a fever, his Cellular started ringing. Probably his little sister calling to check in with him, as she did at least once a month. It didn't spare him from Luka's foot catching him in the small of his back and nearly sending him sprawling as he got up, but at least it gave him a way out of the fidgety silence.
Out of politeness, he waited until he'd jogged into the galley to answer. "Hello?"
"Ah, hello. Is this Ikari Gai, of the Gokaigers?"
The voice was a man's, and not a familiar one. Gai stood up very straight, even though the stranger had no way of seeing him.
"Yes, it is."
"Good." The stranger sounded relieved. "I'm sorry if I startled you, but as a fellow sentai I was hoping you could help."
"A fellow sentai?" His eyes widened. "Who is this?"
"I don't think we've met. I am the Prince of the Yamato Tribe, Geki, of the Zyurangers."
Gai very nearly dropped the Cellular. A former Red the first one whose name Gai had learned as a little kid, no less was calling him! Any thought of the weird tension in the other room evaporated.
"Oh! Geki-san! It's such an honour..."
"I appreciate it, but I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat." Geki sounded apologetic just like a proper prince, some part of Gai's brain put in, and he had to clamp his mouth shut tight to keep from squeaking. "One of my team has gone missing, and so far we haven't been able to find him on our own."
The excited squeak soured in Gai's throat. "Missing?"
"Yes. You met him, I think. Goushi, our Warrior of Knowledge."
"Thank you for coming all this way. I realize it was probably inconvenient."
"We can't go back to space until the Galleon's fully repaired anyway, it's no big deal." Joe nearly added, Plus now they're not all sitting around arguing about the rules of some dumb fairy tale. "Besides, we kind of owe you for loaning us your Grand Power."
Geki smiled. Like most former Reds, age had been kind to him: the guy had to be pushing fifty, but he still moved with a casual grace and confidence that suggested he was still in fighting shape. "I suppose it was a loan, wasn't it? But your team made excellent use of it."
"We do what we can." Marvelous flashed him a cocky grin, the kind of broad and lopsided smile that infuriated Joe for no good reason. "So. Gai says one of your crew disappeared around here?"
"Yes. Two days ago." Geki's own smile faded, leaving his eyes before his mouth softened and straightened. "Recently, Goushi told me he'd been hearing the neighborhood children talk about a 'test of courage' in these woods and here he gestured beyond the edge of the playground where they'd agreed to hold their meeting, towards the trees that bordered it and something about it reminded him of a run-in we had with our great enemy, Witch Bandora. When he didn't come home for dinner that night, well..."
"Geki-san says it's not like Goushi-san to stay away so long," Gai put in, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet. "And if he found an old trap or something of Bandora's, he needs all the help he can get! She was really sneaky, and..."
Luka promptly shut him up with an elbow to the gut.
"And when I went to look for him..." Geki held out one of his hands, palm up, to reveal a small round medal with a weird elephant-like creature on it. A mammoth, Joe guessed it had been a while since he'd sat down and paid any kind of attention to Gai's sentai scrapbooks.
Doc, who'd been kind of quiet all day, finally picked this moment to contribute to the conversation.
"Isn't that his Dino Medal?"
"Yes. He can't transform without it, and he'd never just put it down and walk away."
"All right, then." Marvelous folded his arms across his chest. "So it's serious. You know where this courage spot is?"
Geki nodded. "About ten minutes' walk from here."
"Great. Then let's get going!"
Doc made a little noise of dismay and fidgeted, eyeing the tree line. "I don't have a great feeling about this, you guys."
"Captain's orders. Or do you wanna get keelhauled for conduct unbecoming?" The grin that flashed across Marvelous' face for a moment was downright nasty. Predictably, Gai sprang into action.
"Hey! Comrades don't do keelhauling!"
"Pirates do, though."
"You're not keelhauling Don-san!"
"Gai, it's fine." Doc's face had gone bright red. "Don't make a big deal out of it."
It took Joe real, concentrated effort not to roll his eyes. Over the past couple of months, it had become more and more obvious that Gai was carrying a serious torch for Doc. Or at least, obvious to everybody but those two, who just kept blushing and mumbling their way through missions and holidays alike. In the last month alone it had gotten bad enough that he and Luka now had a bet going over how long it would take before somebody fessed up to something.
(Not that he hadn't noticed something was up with Luka and Ahim, too. They were just a lot quieter about it. Joe wasn't sure if they'd fought over something or trying to avoid a fight, but either way, it wasn't nearly as obnoxious as Gai's constant mooning.)
"Get a move on, Doc." Joe thumped him on the shoulder, and he cringed, as per usual. "We've got plenty of daylight left, anyway."
"Wait a minute," Geki started stopping them all in their tracks. He turned back around to the Gokaigers and thought he saw someone hiding behind Marvelous. Did they know this person? Weren't there only 6 Gokaigers, not 7? Why would they recruit another Gokaiger even though they already defeated the Zangyack empire? "Who are you sorry?" He asked the seventh person hiding behind Marvelous. The person stepped out from behind him and Geki saw that it was an adult female with natural beige skin, sky blue eyes and light brown hair that was tied into a ponytail with some strange hair bobble shaped like a pink six-pointed sparkle surrounded by five small white sparkles. The outfit she was wearing looked oddly like Marvelous's but the colours on the vest and jacket were flipped.
"Hi, I don't think we met before I'm Twil... Rose Sparkle as you can tell I'm new to the team."
It was a cool late spring afternoon, the kind where the sky threatened rain but the air was still and soft. Small white flowers shone in between the roots of the trees they passed, brilliant against the grass. Joe found himself unexpectedly reminded of the home planet he'd left long ago, with its extended rainy seasons and the week of grey calm after the yearly monsoon. Somehow the memory wasn't painful it was simply there, a thought to be examined and turned over and tucked away for later.
Joe had been putting a lot of thoughts away for later, recently. About the way, the silences aboard the Galleon had changed, about what might be ahead of them now that they'd defeated the Emperor.
Ahim's voice cut through his reverie made it easier to shove everything aside in favour of the mission. He was good at that. The only thing he wasn't good at was not listening in to Roses conversion with Geki to make sure he didn't try and do anything to her. He knew that Geki won't do that because he didn't look like that type of person but he couldn't help it ever since Rose joined them he felt the need to protect her not in a lover way but in a more sibling way. Besides even if he wanted to be her lover he couldn't someone else already took that role the second she joined.
"Gai-san, may I ask what a test of courage is?" Ahim asked him curiously.
"Oh, it's a thing Earth kids do. You and your friends go to a place where there are supposed to be ghosts or evil spirits, or just a place that's really dark and creepy at night. And if you come back with some kind of token proving you were there, it means you've proven how brave you are!"
"How fascinating!" Though he couldn't see her from his place at the head of their little group, Joe was sure she must be clasping her hands in delight. "Perhaps we ought to try it. It sounds most thrilling."
"We're pirates," Marvelous cut in, in his casual, drawling way. "We got plenty of guts to go around. Don't see why we'd need to prove that too."
"That's not the point..."
Gai was cut off mid-squawk by a sudden crash somewhere ahead of them. Almost in unison, their forward march came to a halt, everyone falling silent.
Something massive and dark was moving between the trees in the distance, something whose silhouette suggested a long neck and a vast bulk of muscle. Now that they were all quiet, eight people holding their breath at once, it was easy to make out the distant sounds of snuffling and grunting, the swish of enormous paws moving through the grass.
Geki charged.
Joe swore under his breath, breaking into a run to keep up with him. The others followed in a clatter of hastily drawn weaponry. Somewhere ahead of them, the dark shape lumbered away, clearly spooked by the sound of a crazy middle-aged Red and a bunch of pirates hurrying after it. It wasn't graceful, but it was big enough to cover more ground at a faster clip than the rest of the group.
And then, a split second before they stumbled into a clearing, it was simply gone.
Geki nearly skidded to a halt; Doc almost fell on his face, and the girls knocked into each other.
"What the Hell was that?" Marvelous demanded, brandishing his sword and pistol like that would bring the creature back for a proper fight.
"Yeah, good question Marvey-Chan what the fuck was that?!" Rose repeated shouting in fear. She took out a small brown leather book from seemingly nowhere and flipped through the pages frantically as if she was looking for something. "Um, guys! That thing whatever it was isn't showing up anywhere in the earths library!" She shouted out worried.
"Maybe this place really is haunted." Doc's voice was edging dangerously close to a whine.
"Whatever it was, it'll be back," Geki said. "We've got to find Goushi before it does."
Questions rose in Joe's throat and popped like so many bubbles against the backs of his teeth, dispelled by a more immediate concern. Because the clearing in which they now stood was littered with broken statues and low, flat, carved slabs of stone.
They were in an abandoned graveyard.
Joe couldn't suppress the chill that crawled down the back of his neck. No wonder kids challenged each other to hang out here it was creepy, and the trees around them had swallowed the ambient sounds of the city. Even the bird calls were scarcer and quieter. He could tell that Rose was very close to yelling out something along the lines of. "Fuck this shit I'm out!"
A flash of movement caught Joe's attention: Marvelous striding across to the far end of the clearing, sword slung carelessly over his shoulder. "Damn it." With an exasperated growl, he slapped at the lumpy, overgrown statue closest to him...
...and flinched, dropping both his weapons with a startled sound.
"Marvelous!" Joe moved without thinking. There was a brilliant spot of red blooming in the palm of Marvelous' outstretched hand a red that was more than simply blood, Joe realized abruptly. As it expanded, it glowed and crackled, the air around them thrumming with a sound that he felt more than heard, vibrating through the long bones in his body. That sound gathered, growing louder, looming, a long hum that invaded his brain and towered over his thoughts...
Until it crashed in a single, deep, clear note, one that hit Joe like a fist in the centre of his chest and sent darkness flooding into his brain.
"Dragon's Embrace!" "Buddy no wait!
