Set between Space 12 and Space 13. This is my first Kyuranger fic, and I absolutely love the character that is Stinger. I was actually a bit late to the table with this fandom, having just started watching episodes a few weeks ago. As of the date of posting, I am only up to Space 21, but I plan on rectifying that once I actually get the time to do so. That being said, I am aware of many spoilers from future eps, but oh, well.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kyuranger or any of its characters.

WORD COUNT: 4,535

"Spada… why have you…?"

"What were you thinking?!"

"What is a kid doing on base?"

Spada blinked for a second before remembering that their communicators had been jammed, so of course those who had stayed on the Orion would be confused as to why he was now entering the bridge with a nervous child, roughly five years of age, clinging to his left hand. "I have a good reason," he assured them.

"He is wearing Stinger's clothing," Naaga observed neutrally, making a simple statement of fact that nonetheless carried yet another question that Spada would have to answer.

Although, to be fair, all those questions actually had the same answer:

"This child… is Stinger."

There was a long bout of silence that lasted maybe a second. Then:

"EHHHHHHH?!"

The little boy jumped, startled by the loud shouts, and partially hid himself behind Spada, his barbed, orange tail swishing anxiously.

Earlier:

There were five of them on this mission, as usual. Today, the Kyulette had selected Lucky (no surprise there), Stinger, Garu, Hammie, and Spada. They were doing reconnaissance in a region of Earth that had some sort of jamming field around it, making it impossible for those on the Orion to do any surveillance, or – once the ground team entered – communicate with their comrades inside. The ground team had virtually no information to go on because of this, and would be unable to call for reinforcements, so they had to be extra careful.

Eventually, they found a sort of shelter housing a large number of people, mostly children. And by 'mostly', that meant that there was literally only one adult to be seen: a middle-aged woman running from child to crying child, trying to comfort and care for them with the aid of a small handful of teenagers.

When the Kyurangers entered, it took all of five seconds for the nearest child to notice them, and to start shouting: "Look! Grownups!"

That got everyone's attention, and the woman looked like she was about to drop in sheer relief.

It took a bit longer than it probably should have, but the woman – Mary – and some of the teens were finally able to explain it between the interruptions from all the children. The local Daikaan was turning adults into children, because he enjoyed scaring children and wanted more victims. And just the fact that most of the parents were now little kids and too scared to help take care of their own children was enough to scare the actual kids, not to mention the fact that their memories had regressed as well – so not only could the parents-turned-children not protect their own sons and daughters, they were insisting that they didn't have any, in the first place.

The Kyurangers were disgusted by the Daikaan's actions, naturally, and set about helping the frightened children. All of them were hungry; they didn't have enough food to go around. Spada immediately jumped on that, of course, already planning a list of ingredients he would need to fetch from base in order to feed them all. Lucky and Hammie were soon distracting a whole crowd with some sort of singing/acting/comedy act that they seemed to be making up as they went along. Garu had a small crowd of his own, the ones that weren't so intimidated by his alien appearance, and was telling them stories that had been told to children on his home planet. And Stinger was helping Mary in the 'infirmary', which was really just a group of makeshift cots set in a corner separate from the others. A couple of the children were sick with fever, and one had fallen and hit her head earlier in the day. He didn't talk much as he helped check temperatures, change the cooling washcloths on their foreheads, and feed them some of their meager rations, but Spada, when he looked over, noticed that the team loner was very gentle with them.

Then the Daikaan burst his way into their shelter, laughing and ready to decide which children he would be tormenting today. The Kyuragers weren't about to let that happen, of course, and transformed to fight him and his minions.

The fight had actually been going in their favour, until the Daikaan had aimed his de-aging blast at Mary, and SasoriOrange had leapt into its path to protect her – she was the only adult these kids had left, after all.

There was a flash of bright, white light, and when it cleared, there was a small, scared child huddled on the ground, loosely wrapped up in Stinger's clothes.

"We managed to force the Daikaan to retreat," Spada finished his explanation, "But he'll probably be back sooner rather than later, so the others stayed down there to protect the shelter. They may need more help if he does. I just came here to pick up some food – they really need it – and to bring Stinger here."

"Wouldn't it be better if he stayed with the other children?" Balance questioned.

Little Stinger clutched Spada's hand even more tightly, and the chef winced. They had originally made that call, but… "Some of the kids started picking on him. He was the only one there with a tail, and a few of them didn't like that. So when he heard that I was leaving, he begged me to let him come along."

Kotarō peered at the child shyly peeking out from behind Spada and smiled at him. "It's okay. You're safe here."

Stinger looked up to Spada, who crouched down to his level. "He's right. No one will hurt you here. Now, I'm going to gather some food to cook for the other children, and then I'll be heading back out there. But you'll be alright staying here, I promise."

The kid didn't quite look like he believed it, but Kotarō came up to him, still smiling. "Don't worry, we'll take care of you. Right, everyone?"

The others all nodded, except for Champ, who – though it was hard to tell with his metal face – looked rather uncomfortable with it all. He would have expected Stinger to be a total brat as a kid, not this quiet, meek little thing.

Stinger shyly came out from behind Spada, looking anxiously from face to face. Ultimately, he seemed to decide that he was most comfortable with Kotarō – another kid, even if he was twice his age – and let go of Spada's hand to walk over to him.

"Buona! I'll be in the kitchen for the next ten minutes if you need me. Kotarō, why don't you get him something to wear? They didn't have any extra clothes for him down there."

Kotarō nodded. "He can borrow some of mine. They'll still be big on him, but not nearly as bad as these." He gestured at Stinger's clothes, and he was absolutely right. The jacket hung almost to his knees, the shirt went past them, and the legs of his pants had been rolled up a dozen times. The scarf had been wound around his neck an extra time or two, and from the way his left hand was clutching at his shirt, it looked like he was holding the waistband of the pants underneath it to keep them from falling down. Oh, and although they couldn't see what he was wearing on his feet, Spada had Stinger's boots tucked under one arm, along with his Seiza Blaster.

The youngest Kyuranger (well, second-youngest, for now) took Stinger's hand and led him off the bridge – going slowly, since it was hard for the child to walk properly in oversized leather pants.

When they go back to the bridge, only Raptor remained. "Everyone else went down to help protect the shelter," she explained, "We're going to rotate shifts, having eight down there and two more up here with Stinger at all times." She bent down to address Stinger, who was now wearing one of Kotarō's t-shirts and a pair of his jeans (the latter had to be held up by a makeshift belt, and the legs still had to be rolled up, as well, but at least he didn't need to hold them in place by hand anymore). "I just want to give you a quick check-up to make sure the Daikaan didn't hurt you, and Spada left something for us to eat, so then we can have dinner. Alright?"

Stinger nodded shyly, muttered a quiet "Okay", and let them lead him to the infirmary. He was more amazed by all the technology than scared, remaining relatively still as Raptor ran some scans on him.

"He's mostly healthy," she reported, "except maybe a little dehydrated, but we can fix that up quickly." And honestly, she expected that; Stinger came from a desert planet, where every drop of clean water was precious and to be saved for when it was desperately needed, so even after leaving his homeworld, he was still in the habit of not drinking quite as much as he actually needed.

As such, Little Stinger was a bit reluctant to accept the tall glass of juice that was offered to him. That, and because fruit-bearing plants were also sparse on this planet, and most of them weren't very well-hydrated, so at that age, he never would have encountered juice unless someone brought some from off-planet. But his eyes widened in delight when he was finally convinced to take a drink of the bright yellow liquid.

By the time they were satisfied that he'd eaten enough, it was getting late, and Stinger was getting tired. After a brief minute of debate, they decided to put him in Kotarō's room; the other boy was used to sharing a bed with his little brother, so he insisted that he didn't mind.

Although he may have been a bit peeved about having to go to bed earlier than usual.

Champ was annoyed. He didn't get why the Commander had sent him back to the Orion on the next shift to babysit Stinger. It was no secret that, teammates or not, he didn't like the guy. So why should he get stuck taking care of the brat?

Hammie was far more enthusiastic. She'd been giggling nonstop, not just at how embarrassed Stinger would be after the whole situation was resolved (Champ could admit the tiniest bit of satisfaction from that), but at how cute she found Little Stinger to be.

Before taking her leave, Raptor told them that Stinger was asleep in Kotarō's room, and that Kotarō might not go back down to Earth just yet. Champ could understand why, once he saw it with his own eyes. Hammie had dragged him over to Kotarō's room to check up on them, and the two were greeted with the sight of both children in bed, the tiny version of Stinger sucking his thumb and clinging onto Kotarō's arm in his sleep. Kotarō himself was still wide awake, and he waved before motioning for them to be quiet.

Hammie let out a soft noise that probably would have been a squeal if it had been significantly louder. Champ nodded at Kotarō and, since the little Stinger was clearly just fine, walked off. As long as he was here, he might as well get in a few workout hours.

An hour later, however, he heard a child's scream coming from the living quarters. He dropped his dumbbell and hurried to the source of the sound.

When he got there, Hammie and Kotarō were trying to comfort the clearly distraught child in between them. He was sobbing violently into Hammie's jacket. "He's hurting them," he cried between gasps, "Why is he hurting them?"

Hammie ran her hand up and down his back to try and soothe him. "Shh… Shh, you're safe here. No one is hurting anyone."

Little Stinger calmed down a little. "I don't understand," he whimpered, "Aniki…"

Kotarō looked sad. "Before all this, Stinger told me he had a brother. He said Jark Matter killed him."

Hammie gasped. "And he witnessed it? So young?" Her arms tightened around the crying child.

Champ felt an unwelcome stab of sympathy for Stinger. Okay, so he didn't like the adult version one bit, but no child should have to suffer something like that!

"No!" Stinger protested, pushing himself away from Hammie and looking at Kotarō with wide, wet eyes. "Aniki isn't dead! I just saw him today! Where is he?! I want Aniki!"

His pleas grew louder and more frantic by the second, until he was back to sobbing incoherently. The other three looked at each other in confusion. How could Stinger be dreaming of his brother's death if he couldn't remember it happening? Champ supposed that it was possible that Stinger's brother had died later, and that this dream was just all in the kid's head. Or Stinger could just be in denial, unable to process the tragedy. But what if… what if he really was dreaming about something that had happened later in his life? What was going on?

"I guess it's possible that the Daikaan's de-aging attack can't affect subconscious memory," Balance guessed when he showed up for his shift (they decided to send only one replacement this time, since Kotarō would be staying on the Orion all night).

"Subconscious memory?" Hammie asked.

"Yeah. Stinger can try to remember being an adult all he wants, but…" He looked over the results of Raptor's scans. "Biology's not really my thing, but if this report is right, the part of Stinger's brain that controls conscious memory is being suppressed, or something, and the part that controls subconscious memory isn't being affected. So he could still access those memories when he's dreaming."

"I kind of wish he couldn't. It took me and Kotarō half an hour to get Stinger calmed down and back to sleep after that nightmare. I think… I think he saw his big brother being killed."

Balance winced. "Ooh, that would freak anyone out, at any age. I'll keep an ear out for him, don't worry."

"Thanks. Hopefully he won't have two nightmares in the same night, though."

Kotarō and Balance went down to Earth after breakfast, and Lucky and Garu were sent up in their place. This younger version of Stinger took to the 'luckiest man in universe' far better his older self, laughing out loud at the stories Lucky was telling him. Garu quietly joked to Spada (who had just come up to make breakfast) that maybe it would be better for Stinger to stay a child – he was getting on with the others so much more easily! But it was really only a joke; Garu knew that Stinger, for all that he held himself far apart from them, was one of their best fighters, and they needed him back to normal as soon as possible.

Hammie had warned Garu and Lucky about Stinger's nightmare that night, and when they arrived, Balance had reported that he'd had two more after she and Champ left, though those two were easier in terms of calming him down. He'd also passed on his theory that Stinger was dreaming of something he had experienced when he was older than five, that his subconscious was forcing him to relive his worst memories – including the death of his brother (which, from what the kid had been saying after waking up, had been horribly violent and had happened right in front of Stinger).

Garu had done his research after they had first encountered Stinger – or rather, had looked over Balance's shoulder while Balance did his research. His planet had been invaded by Jark Matter, with few possible survivors, if there were any at all. Garu had felt sympathetic, being the last of his own planet and race, and any guilt over that sympathy had been erased once Stinger's true allegiance as a Rebellion spy had been revealed. But Stinger was really hard to talk to, so it wasn't like they had bonded over it, or anything.

Little Stinger, on the other hand, liked to talk. In the last hour alone, Garu had learned all about how Stinger's brother could make Stinger's favourite meals and how he was doing with his spear training. He was just… so unlike his older self in so many ways.

A tug on his jacket interrupted his musings. He glanced down and saw Stinger staring up at him. "Excuse me, Garu-san, can I have that?"

Garu followed the child's pointing finger to a bowl of fruit sitting on the table, too far from the ledge for Stinger to reach himself. "Yeah, sure. Which one would you like?"

"The red one, please."

And that was another difference: Garu didn't think he'd ever heard Stinger say 'please'. He decided not to comment, however, and simply passed him the apple.

"When am I going home?" Stinger stared up at him with wide, pleading eyes. "Please, I've been really good. You're all really nice, but I want to go home! I want my Aniki!"

Garu's heart damn near broke at that, and he and Lucky exchanged a worried look. Lucky took a deep breath and sat down. "Stinger, there's something we need to explain to you. Do you remember the bad guy who was attacking the shelter with all those other children yesterday?"

Stinger nodded, looking sad and confused.

"Well, he was a Daikaan from Jark Matter, and he has the power to turn adults into children. We were trying to protect the shelter from him when he used his powers on you."

The confusion visibly grew. "Why would he do that? I'm already a kid."

"But you weren't yesterday." Lucky's tone was gentle. "You were an adult, and you were fighting along with us, but the Daikaan made you forget."

Stinger shook his head. "What?! No, I'm not! I would know!"

Lucky also shook his head and, using a data pad left lying on the table, pulled up a picture on the hologram display. It was a picture of the team taken during Balance's birthday party. Stinger hadn't stuck around for very long after the party started, but this picture had been taken before he'd left, and while he was sitting and quietly eating the piece of cake that someone had shoved into his hands. "See that guy? That's you. The Daikaan tried to turn Mary, the woman at the shelter, into a child, and you protected her. You're a member of this team, and one of our friends."

This didn't seem to comfort Stinger at all. "I… I don't remember any of that. Please, I just want to go home."

They had swapped babysitters before the Daikaan came back out of hiding, so Naaga and the Commander were on the Orion with Stinger when the battle started. The coward was trying to shoot the others and turn them into children, as well, but Balance noticed that his weapon was powered by a crystal on his shoulder, and Hammie turned invisible, snuck around behind him, and destroyed it. They also managed to locate the source of the signal jamming and break that, so those on the Orion were able to view what was happening.

Naaga quickly brought Stinger to his room and started rifling through the drawers.

"What's going on?" Stinger asked worriedly.

"The others are going to defeat the Daikaan any minute now," he told him, selecting a shirt and a pair of sweatpants, "Do you remember what we told you about what he's done?"

Stinger nodded. "Yes. He turned adults into children. But I don't remember being an adult."

"I know. But once the Daikaan is done for, you will remember again, and you will turn back into an adult. Which means that while Kotarō's clothes are too big for you now, they will then become too small. So you need to change into clothes that will fit." He held out the shirt and pants to him. "Do you need any help?"

That got a stubborn pout out of the little Stinger, which sort of reminded Naaga of the adult Stinger – the stubbornness, not the pout. "No. I can dress myself!" He grabbed the clothes from Naaga's hands, and insisted that he turn around while he changed. When Stinger gave Naaga permission to turn back around, he was once again swimming in a shirt that was far too big for him and holding his pants up by the waistband (his feet were lost somewhere within the legs). "Now what?"

"Now we wait until the Daikaan is defeated."

He brought Stinger back to the bridge (carrying him once he realised that the child was having difficulty walking in those clothes), where the Commander was watching the battle.

Stinger's eyes were wide as he watched the live footage. "I'm going to be able to do that?" he asked.

"That's right!" the Commander declared cheerfully, "It's cool, isn't it?"

Stinger only nodded without saying anything or taking his eyes off the action. Naaga noted that his expression was similar to the one worn by Kotarō and his younger brother when they'd first met the Kyurangers.

The Daikaan was clearly better suited to terrorising children, because he was doing very poorly against the Kyurangers. Only minutes later, he was defeated on the ground, and his Kyodainrō enlarged him right away. If Stinger's eyes had been wide before, they nearly popped out of his head when the Kyurangers formed Kyurenoh to battle him, and he actually jumped up and down in excitement.

Then the Daikaan was defeated for good, and Stinger was immediately enveloped in a bright, white light that had Naaga and the Commander looking away. When it faded, the adult Stinger was standing there, looking very confused. "What- How did I get here? How…?" Then he paled. "That bastard shot me… Oh, no…"

The Commander laughed. "You remember the past day, then?"

Stinger's response was to flush red and beat a hasty retreat from the bridge.

Stinger shivered as he ran back to his room. Having grown up in a desert, he'd never been comfortable with the comparatively cooler temperatures aboard the Orion, and kept his own quarters as warm as possible. But more importantly, he was more than a little disturbed at what he remembered of the past twelve hours or so.

It was so disconcerting, to remember being so… helpless, more helpless than he'd been in years. And that shook him down to the core, even more so than the ribbing he knew he'd get from his teammates over this whole incident. It was because he was so weak as a child that his brother had been so obsessed with getting stronger, and Stinger just knew that that obsession was what had led to him joining Jark Matter.

A knock on his bedroom door startled him. He was sitting with his back against the door, still wearing the t-shirt and sweatpants Naaga had given him (he would have to thank him for that consideration later).

"Stinger?" It was Kotarō's voice on the other side. "Are you in there?"

Stinger slowly got to his feet and opened the door. Kotarō was on the other side, grinning when he saw him. "You're back to normal!" He rocketed forward and slammed into Stinger, hugging him tightly around the waist.

Stinger couldn't help the wry grin. "Yes, I am."

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

Kotarō pulled back, grinning. "Everyone loved you as a little kid. I think Hammie took pictures."

That brought a groan to the surface. "They're never going to let me live this down, are they?"

"I don't think so, no. But I liked being your big brother for a while." His smile faded. "But… last night. Was that… Was that about your brother?"

Oh. That. Stinger remembered having the usual dreams of the night that his life as he knew it ended. He only had a vague memory of waking up to Kotarō and Hammie comforting him. Mostly, he remembered the fear and confusion that came with having the same nightmare as before but without knowing the context. "What… What did I say? That part is kind of a blur."

Kotarō was quiet for a couple seconds. "You were saying something about someone hurting people, and then you called out for your brother. That was about when he died, wasn't it?"

It wasn't; it was about when Scorpio had killed everyone else. But Kotarō couldn't know that, not if that was all that he heard. But it was better if they thought what they did. At least for now. "Yes."

Kotarō hugged him again. "I'm sorry."

Stinger reached down and rested his hand on the kid's head like he usually did. "I'm fine. Really, I am."

"Okay. Everyone's waiting for you on the bridge. And more might come looking for you if you don't come out soon."

Stinger groaned again. "Dammit." He sighed. He knew that Kotarō was right, that one of the others would soon come looking for him. "Fine. Just give me a minute to get changed, alright?"

"Alright! Don't take too long, though!"

As much as he'd like to avoid it, Stinger knew that facing the rest of the team after this whole humiliating incident was inevitable. So he changed back into his usual clothes without dragging it out too long and then trudged out to the bridge to meet his fate.

Sure enough, most of them were sporting shit-eating grins when they looked up upon his entrance, grins that had him tempted to turn right back around. "Feeling okay there, little guy?" Balance asked him mockingly.

Stinger scowled, trudging down the stairs to join them around the main table. "I'm fine." Although if the mechanical lifeform kept pushing, he was going to find himself stung in very short order.

"Naaga and the Commander said you remember everything that happened?" Spada questioned, a smile on his own face.

"…Yes. If you're going to laugh at me, just get it over with."

He was expecting a loud burst of laughter from everyone present, but Hammie shook her head. "We kind of already got that out of our systems. And it's not like you did anything overly embarrassing today." She smirked. "You were just so cute!" She then had the audacity to actually reach out and try and pinch his cheek; he slapped her hand away.

"Shut up," he grumbled.

THE END

Yeah, I kinda love the big brother/little brother bond between Stinger and Kotarō. It's so sweet.

The woman taking care of the children has an English name because Jark Matter obviously didn't just conquer Japan and leave the rest of Earth alone, so obviously the Kyurangers would have to deal with them in other parts of the world.

I have two other Stinger-centric fics in the works; both of them are far more serious, as one deals with the aftermath of Space 20/21, and the other just covers the whole Stinger-Scorpio situation in general.