Author's Note: This is something I started the other day as a spur of the moment idea. I've been talking with a friend of mine about a future season of Power Rangers known in Japan as Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. For those of you that don't know, Super Sentai is the source material for Power Rangers. Its a season that's centered around space pirates that can use the powers of previous Rangers. That's pretty much the gist of it, and comes two seasons after Samurai so its a way's off. And I thought it'd be fun to try and do my own rendition of a possible season. And since Gokaiger's entire premise is really the legacy of Super Sentai itself, it goes without saying that an adaptation of Gokaiger would hinge on the entire Power Rangers legacy, so I thought I'd take a shot at it. Let me know what you think.
Power Rangers: Galactic Storm
Chapter 1
The Death of the World is Upon Us
Five years from now Earth has been devastated, the planet is now a wasteland devoid of life. Escaping the planet humanity has taken refuge in the stars after the Venjix Virus resurrected itself and decimated what was left of Earth's life system. Now a young scientist studies the past to find out what went wrong, and how Venjix was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. A self described and self-taught scholar on the history of the Power Rangers. He reasons that the Rangers are and have always been Earth's first, last and greatest line of defense against the evils of the universe. Now residing on a space ship of his own design, while a small batch of humans live on a space station orbiting Jupiter. The young professor seeks unlocking the secrets of the Morphing Grid, the Rangers source of power. He learned that when Venjix was defeated and his physical form destroyed he downloaded his essence into the Red Ranger's morpher, and waited to reconstitute himself while the RPM project was shut down and the Rangers retired.
In time Venjix was able to slowly corrupt the RPM section of the Morphing Grid and reformatted it to suit his own needs. A year after his defeat the Earth started to heal and the Power Rangers returned to their civilian lives, and started to decommission the domed city of Corinth. 14 months to the day of his defeat Venjix was reborn in the Series Red armor, his very first target was his creator Dr. K. Once she was dispatched Venjix replicated himself into the other 6 Ranger armor and razed the city with the Rangers powerless to stop him. With Corinth destroyed, Venjix spread his essence again taking over every form of communication and technology available and within a month had depleted the planet's life cycle killing animals and humans alike. With the Earth slowly dying mankind scrambled to get as many as they could off world and save what was left. Still Venjix was persistent and targeted the launch sites hoping to doom humanity once and for all. The last surviving generations of Power Rangers fought valiantly to hold off Venjix's troops, as their part of the Morphing Grid hadn't been completely tarnished by the virus. In all only a few hundred souls were able to leave orbit with one ship being shot down and burning up in the atmosphere. Their first place of refuge was the moon, the closest heavenly body within reach. Due to his sphere of influence they knew it wasn't long before Venjix mobilized his troops and led an assault on the moon the likeliest source of attack being the defunct satellites that circled the planet.
Finding temporary shelter in Rita and Lord Zedd's long abandoned castle the humans plotted their next fallback area, where they could set up a permanent home. In truth mankind had never been further than the moon, even Mars the closest planet was still considered a pipedream long before Venjix took over. Remembering that they had sent unmanned probes to Jupiter and Saturn, the scientists determined that would be the safest place to set up a new colony in the form of a space station. Several of them balked at the impossibility, as there was nothing to build the space station out of without compromising themselves. The professor who was no older than 6 mentioned to them that the Power Rangers once had a secret base near Jupiter that housed one of the many incarnations of Zords. The scientists dismissed the boy's claims as wildly childish, but the boy was adamant telling them it was the truth. The boy's father a mechanic grabbed his shoulder and sided with his son mentioning that it was the only chance they had of escaping Venjix's reach.
The scientists as well as the survivors however didn't believe him, but the father showing great faith in his son stood by him and dared anyone else to come up with a better suggestion. The room grew deathly quiet as the lead scientist glared at the father and begrudgingly offered a vote for whether they could continue on to Jupiter. Tension reigned and the room remained silent as the father boldly spoke out yet again reminding them of the dilapidated state of the castle and how Venjix could attack them at any moment. The survivors though unsure of themselves voted for Jupiter to the lead scientist's chagrin. Since leaving the Earth no one personally had officially been recognized a leader for the colony, with the closest coming down to the scientists themselves. With that leap of faith, the boy's father set himself on the path for leadership, with the scientist holding him personally responsible if the little boy was wrong. The father accepted this and the consequences that may pursue him. In a few months time the vessel would reach their haven while the boy combed through his old coloring and activity books for 'proof' of its existence and learned that the Astro Rangers' 'base' was the seventh moon known as Ganymede. Setting down on the moon, the boy spotted the large metal door in a ridge surprising all including his father. The castaway journeyed to it on foot and found the boy's theory to be true, and opened it finding the Mega Voyager holding bay within.
The base itself was devoid of the machines that populated the boy's coloring book, but served as irrefutable proof that he was right and that they now had a chance to start fresh. In time the scientists and refugees were able to retrofit the hangar into habitable living quarters. Years passed and the boy grew as the new outpost expanded and became more elaborate, in time the scientists constructed a satellite to track Venjix's progress. Back on Earth however the planet was completely devastated, all life ceased to exist and Venjix and his machine empire reigned supreme. Those that were captured were unwilling transformed into cyborgs as before since their biological systems could no longer support the air they breathed turning them into mindless drones loyal to him alone. But even that wasn't enough for Venjix and decreed that he wouldn't rest until he had destroyed or weaponized every last human in existence. To this end Venjix housed its pure data stream form within the Red RPM Ranger suit until his final mechanical form was complete. The AI reveled in the irony of turning the face of hope, as the harbinger of death. A multitude of cables ran into the suit's back, arms, legs and helmet feeding him information, granting him omnificence as the Red Ranger's face was streamed to the last remain humans methods of communication reminding them of their impending demise.
Every now and again Venjix would join his soldiers in the field to capture another horde of humans. But every now and again a new Ranger team would rise up to challenge him. In truth there hadn't been any new Rangers since the fall of Corinth, and the intelligence regarding them was spotty at best, now confronted by a team calling themselves Samurai Rangers. They were six of them; the same number most teams consisted of and wore the typical colors of Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink and Gold. And like the countless teams before were determined to stop him kidnapping this small batch of refugees.
"End of the line Venjix." The Red Ranger said authoritatively.
"Ha ha. Yeah! Or this will be a golden opportunity to have your butts handed to you!" the Gold Ranger said jokingly pointing at them standing next to the Red Ranger.
"Antonio knock it off! We don't have time for this." Jayden said gently scolding his teammate and looking back at him.
"I, uh…*ahem* Course…" the Gold Ranger shrank and folded his arms.
"You Rangers are pathetic there hasn't been a team yet that could defeat me in battle." Venjix said stepping forward.
"Except for that time they dropped a building on you." Jayden replied in serious tone.
"Enough! You humans mean nothing to me, accept your fate and die." Venjix said as a luminescent green data feed scrolled down his visor.
"That's not going to happen!" Jayden said drawing his sword, as did his teammates.
"Attack!" Venjix ordered his troops as they swarmed past him. While the Rangers rushed into battle slashing their way through Grinders.
"Rangers lets make this quick the sooner we take out Venjix the better. Everyone go to Mega Mode." Jayden ordered.
"What?" said Mike.
"Huh?" said Kevin.
"Why?" asked Emily.
"Just do it. Get to a clearing and combine your symbol power to defeat them." Jayden ordered.
"Right!" the team yelled and took to the air.
The Rangers flipped landing on twin cliffs overlooking the battlefield. Kevin, Mike, Emily and Mia activated their Samuraizers and threw their swords in the air before kneeling down and drawing the symbol as they called out their zords.
"Dragon Folding Zord!" yelled Kevin.
"Bear Folding Zord!" said Mike.
"Ape Folding Zord!" cried Emily.
"Turtle Folding Zord!" said Mia.
"Mega Mode Power!" they yelled together as the leaves converted them to their armored appearance. The team then combined their symbol power creating a large glowing version of the combined symbols beneath the Grinders feet as Jayden and Venjix looked on and were destroyed in a flash of light. Venjix growled staring daggers back at the Red Ranger as he went for his.
"Now its my turn." he said throwing his saber in the air and repeating the process. Drawing his symbol over his own zord.
"Lion Folding Zord! Mega Mode Power!" he yelled converting to his armored form and upgraded again to his white armor using the Black Box.
"You think mere armor will stop me? Fools!" Venjix yelled as the rest of the team joined their leader with the Spin Swords now in individual weapon mode.
The wheels on the sides of Venjix's helmet spun and sparked with scarlet streaks of lightning as he powered up, activating the rubber wheel shaped braces on his gloves and boots with the lightning flowing out of his body.
"Let me show you what real power is like!" Venjix growled as the lightning grew more rampant and brought his other copies to the battlefield.
"R.P.M. Get In Gear!" he said mocking the former team's morphing call as the other six Rangers appeared beside him each one showing the same data stream on their visors in their respective colors. The Samurai Rangers jumped back upon seeing their ghostly predecessors stand before them.
"I'm not another one of your campy villains Rangers." Venjix said threateningly.
The Rangers remained firm as Mia let out an unexpected battle cry while the Red Ranger stepped forward grasping his blade.
"And who said we were fooling around? Antonio!" Jayden yelled.
"You got it!" The Gold Ranger said putting a special code into his Samurai Morpher duplicating the Shogun powers among his teammates as all five Rangers went directly to Shogun Mode while the Folding Zords materialized and stared down at Venjix's forces menacingly.
"How do you like us now?" Jayden asked in a low voice with his sword hovering above his shoulder.
"Impressive, but it'll take a lot more than that to defeat me!" Venjix proclaimed.
"Then let's put that to the test shall we?" Jayden answered as the RPM Rangers summoned their weapons and opened fire on the team as the Samurai Rangers jumped with explosions propelling them towards their enemies.
Jayden was the first to attack dropping in on Venjix with a vertical slash, Venjix crossed his saber blocking the attack as Jayden punched him in the chest with a pulse of energy throwing them back. While the Blue RPM Ranger fired at the descending Kevin who slashed his side with his Spin Sword with a streak of blue, while RPM Yellow used its Zip Shooter on Emily. The weapon struck her chest but had no effect as Emily dropped in with her powering up her saber and slashed her counterpart across the chest and sent her tumbling to the ground. Mike threw his spear at his doppelganger with an explosion by its foot as the RPM Green Ranger jumped and swung his axe as Mike's chest. But the Shogun Ranger dodged it and planted his foot into the doppelganger's chest planting him in a small crater. A whirlwind of pink energy flew around Mia's saber and struck the Black Ranger horizontally over his chest before he could attack Mike while Antonio took on the Gold and Silver Rangers himself. The two Rangers crossed their cloud hatchets blocking his Barracuda Blade as the twin Rangers punched him simultaneously in his armored chest knocking him back.
The Gold and Silver Rangers fired the rocket boosters on their daggers and flew at him taking Antonio down as sparks flew from his chest. Kevin continued to battle his doppelganger using its laser cannon against Shogun Blue and rolled out of danger as the Blue Ranger opened fire on him, unfortunately for Kevin the armor was cumbersome and didn't allow much mobility and had trouble getting up, finding himself staring down the barrel of his opponent's gun down on one knee. The Blue Ranger stood up as the copy fired hitting his chest, and quickly learned that while it lacked versatility it more than made up for defensively. Kevin stood unharmed and was amazed as the lasers bounced off his chest producing little more than sparks. The doppelganger looked back at his blaster confused and fired a full powered blast that sent Kevin skidding backwards. That last one stun dropping him down just slightly to his knee, but was still in one piece as he got up and started walking forward as the copy frantically shot him to no effect as sparks flew off his armor. While Kevin converted his Spin Sword into his Hydro Bow, the copy fired another full powered blast at him as Kevin dodged it and shot his Hydro Bow back at the copy.
Meanwhile the Gold and Silver RPM Rangers were trouncing Antonio who by virtue of having a seventh Ranger offset the battle considerably, up till now Mia had been dealing with the Black Ranger due to color displacement and only now did she notice Antonio's plight. Dispatching the copy with a pink power slash, Mia unleashed a gale force wind on the Gold and Silver Rangers canceling out the latter's fire and ice attack that was about to hit Antonio and sent them flying. Antonio dropped to one knee exhausted thanking his teammate. Across the battlefield Emily continued fighting her doppelganger that shot at her with its Zip Shooter and sidearm. The small yellow weapon whirled around striking Emily at intervals but was doing very little damage against her as was the laser blasts that bounced effortlessly off her armor. Emily powered up her Spin Sword and unleashed an energy wave at her opponent but the Yellow Ranger countered blocking them with a series of kicks as they exploded off to the side.
Emily backtracked caught off guard, but caught herself refusing to go back another step. The Yellow Samurai Ranger narrowed her eyes and struck the ground with her energized sword catching her copy's leg within a crevice and sealed it in place, until the copy broke free and tackled Emily pinning her on her back.
"Emily!" Mike yelled and looked up in time to see the Green RPM Ranger leap into the air slashing him across the chest with an energy strike from his Turbo Axe.
The Green Ranger groaned as sparks flew and staggered back. The RPM double landed as Mike took out his spear and raced forward locking weapons, staring each other down. Mike freed his spear, stabbing and kicking the double's stomach knocking it back a bit before swinging his weapon crossways and taking out the Green RPM Ranger with a trail of sparks from its midsection.
"Hang on!" he yelled running over and throwing the RPM Ranger off to Emily and helped her up.
"Are you all right?" he asked and was shot in the back before she could respond.
"Mike!" she yelled as he went down on his knees revealing his copy behind him. Emily flew into a rage hurling her Earth Slicer at the Green impostor hitting its shoulder as the weapon flew back to Emily's hand and converted back to saber mode.
A spiraling tunnel of energy funneled through her blade as she powered up, while the RPM Ranger did the same swinging his Turbo Axe diagonally while Emily swung her saber crossways, the energy blades intercepted and held each other off briefly before searing through each other and struck their corresponding opponents. A fiery explosion erupted from Emily's right shoulder and chest knocking her back while her own energy blade did the same damage on the emerald impostor sending both of them to the ground. Mike still on his hands and knees looked up at his injured teammate and panicked.
"Emily!" he yelled as he scrambled towards her.
"Emily are you all right?" he asked as white smoke wafted off her armor, as she lay unresponsive.
Emily demorphed a few seconds later as Mike's helmet disappeared a worried expression as he touched her face and tried to wake her.
"Em, Em c'mon don't do this to me. Emily!" he yelled gently rubbing her features praying she was alive. But there was no response, Mike choked and hung his head and raised it again as a look of intense anger broke through. The Green Samurai Ranger grit his teeth as his blood boiled and looked to the being responsible.
"Venjix!" he yelled and took off.
Across the battlefield Venjix was wearing down Jayden with dual sabers crossed at his midsection as forks of crimson lightning short circuited Jayden's Shogun form taking him out of his Battlyzed state. The AI claimed victory grabbing his Samuraizer and infected it tainting his Ranger form as Jayden cried out in pain as his helmet vanished, and Venjix crushed his Samuraizer. A helmetless Mike soared through the air with his spear and stabbed him in the back. The AI roared in pain as Mike pierced his shoulderblade as red and green electricity flowed out of the puncture hole while Mike grit his teeth.
The Green Ranger yelled vaulting the sinister Ranger overhead and landed behind him staggering backwards as Mike speared his torso as more scarlet and emerald lightning poured out. Mike pulled his spear from the villain's gut and swung his lance crossways and sent him spiraling to the ground. The AI clinched its stomach looking up at him with his spear leveled at Venjix's visor. The Ranger growled and pierced his faceplate causing Venjix's form to dissipate into data and fled. The Ranger remained as he was breathlessly gripping the shaft staring at the space Venjix once occupied. Jayden grabbed his shoulder signaling the battle was over as Mike turned back at him.
"Mike! Jayden!" Mia yelled calling their attention as she and Kevin stood over Emily.
The rest of the team demorphed upon reaching her, Mike dropped to his knees and cradled her body.
"Emily." He said lifting up her head slightly. The Yellow Ranger's eyes were open and wore a peaceful expression as she smiled back at him.
"Hey Mike." She answered softly.
"Don't worry we're going to get you out of here." He told her, but Emily smiled, closed her eyes and shook her head gently at him.
"Somebody get a doctor!" he yelled angrily over his shoulder at the refugees as they looked on.
"Mike…its all right." she said softly touching his face.
"I'm going to be with my family now. Mike I love…." She said weakly. The Green Ranger gripped her hand, grasping the neck of her training gi.
"Emily…don't do this to me." he said on the verge of tears.
"It's okay Mike…I'll always be here…watching over you. I love you Mike." She said softly the life quickly fading from her. Mike steeled his nerves as he looked back at her holding his emotions at bay as best he could.
"I love you too, I just…wish I said it sooner." He replied gently.
Emily closed her eyes and giggled as he pressed his forehead against hers and held her close. With the last of her strength Emily touched his cheek once more offered him their first, last kiss. Their lips softly touched, for Emily it was the most wonderful moment of her life. Her hand slowly slipped and she fell under. The tears finally came as he broke the kiss and hung his head cradling her body. Behind him Kevin and Antonio cried, as Mia sobbed quietly in Jayden's chest as the Red Ranger looked on.
At Venjix's fortress the AI reconstituted himself inside his tower while his underling, a female cyborg tended to his damaged suit. The week following Emily's death, Mike became cold and aggressive. He wouldn't talk to the other Rangers and even when he did the results were less than pleasant snapping at Mia trying to cheer him up and getting physical with Kevin and Jayden when they responded shoving Kevin and punching Jayden in the face. The Red Ranger finally had enough and tackled him punching him back before Mike threw another punch at him. The Red Ranger caught his fist in time as Mike struggled against him.
"We're not you enemy!" Jayden yelled. Mike grit and hissed through his teeth as his fist quaked in Jayden's palm.
"Look I know your angry, but fighting us or Venjix wont bring Emily back." he said trying to talk sense into him. The Green Ranger continued to struggle, and breathed a heavy sigh before Jayden helped him up.
"So then what are we supposed to do?" he asked without apologizing. Jayden sighed and looked out at the horizon to the left of him.
"I don't know. We're down two Rangers now, Emily's gone and my Samuraizer is destroyed. We may very well be the last team on Earth. We have to be smart if we're going to bring some semblance of balance and order back to the world. And every moment we waste is another second closer to humanity's demise. We have to work together or else Emily's death will have been for nothing. Now are you with us or against us?" Jayden asked looking back at him.
Mike looked at him seriously and held out his hand.
"I'm with you." he replied as he and Jayden shook hands.
"So what's the plan now?" he asked in a low voice.
On Ganymede the human outpost on Jupiter's moon, the boy now 26 years of age was in the final stages developing his first morpher. The device in question resembled a flip phone with a large stylized skull and crossed swords forming the top half the phone. While the bottom half was red with a white numerical keypad and featured the helmets of various Ranger teams displayed alongside the numerical designation. Above the keypad were a gold rectangle and circle, and a round black port with a narrow slot. Sitting in a small plastic bin was a collection of 4" high Power Rangers figurines from his childhood that he had recently converted into keys. After years of studying the Morphing Grid and Power Rangers history, the man decided to incorporate any and all Ranger powers into his arsenal. Since Venjix had plundered the Earth and robbed the Morphing Grid of its RPM powers the man decided to make a statement by pirating the rest of the matrix so he couldn't corrupt it any further. He had the suits, weapons and even a zord in the form of a crimson pirate vessel, now all he needed was a team.
Author's Note: All right well that's pretty much it for now. What do you guys think? Apparently I've been out of practice writing Power Rangers for a while as I struggled to remember some of the terms and names of weapons used in RPM. As you can tell I clearly do not have a team of characters in place nor do I even have a team name figured out. Admittedly I just kind of wing it when I'm writing. Anyway I think this turned out really well, basically used the cliffhanger at the end of RPM as a springboard for this story. And since I'm used to writing canon characters...I might need some help coming up with an original team. XD. And maybe help me figure out a name for this series as well. Usually I dont have a problem with naming but..seriously I'm drawing a blank. XD Also do you think this 'season' should carry on the pirate premise i.e. civilian dress like it's Sentai predecessor? Let me know what you think, and I'll take them into consideration.
Please Review,
The Green Gallant.