"Not again!" Nurikabe falls and detonates, crackling with white-hot sparks. As a Sentai Ranger, I am fully aware of what's coming next.

His body reforms from white specks of energy, tens of times bigger than before. This would an issue for someone without three sets of giant ninjitsu robots.

"Muteki Shogun, awaken!" All five of us spiral high into the air on waves of ninpo. My form molds and shapes like wet clay until I am but the chestpiece of Red Saruder. The other four of my comrades shift into their God Generals: Logan, Kark, Gammer, Kumard. I can see Ninjaman concentrating on the ground below. He is quite literally steaming with rage.

"How dare you attack the city!?" He is steaming so hard, I can feel it right through the giant armor of Saruder. He is turning my mecha into a sauna. He is incredibly pissed.

"Anger Explosion Technique, Samuraiman!" His head flips in on itself, revealing an extra head with a kabuto helmet and a chestpiece garbed in red and gold against his blue colors.

Nurikabe screeches like a bat and charges, flailing its arms. He's obviously not thinking straight because Ninjaman pushes him aside with one light flick of his weapon, causing him to fall to the ground with an almost theatrical ease.

"Nurikabe. How many times are we gonna do this? You lost once." I say from Muteki Shogun's mouth. He pushes himself off the street and stands.

"Kakuranger, you do not know the forces I have joined with." Nurikabe begins to glow and it seems as if the whole city is shaking. When the light dissipates, he is plated in gold and platinum. He has two crossbow turrets like from castle walls, cocked and pointed straight at us. He smiles and charges us.

"Brace for impact!" The Muteki Shogun's arms pull in a blocking stance around the chest and face. Nurikabe barrels into us like an overloaded 747 and starts clawing at the eyes of our mecha.

I send out a psychic call for Tsubasamaru. I only hope it can get here fast enough.

"Hey, we weren't done dancing." Ninjaman peels him off of us and pushes him aside. Nurikabe pounces onto him and they are wrestling like starving wolves. Ninjaman flips himself on top and whales on Nurikabe's malformed mouth with his armored gloves.

Just then, the turrets decide to fire right into Ninjaman's face. He recoils, clutching his face. Nurikabe's fighting dirty now, so we decide to jump onto this wild melee because if turret fire is a-okay then two-on-one odds aren't barred anymore either.

"Shogun Blossom Blast!" A storm of hail-like cherry blossoms fire like cannonballs from the Muteki Shogun's chest. Most hit him in the face, a few cutting up his turrets. The turrets then turn to us and decide to fire back.

The arrows catch us in the lower abdomen, but we stay right on top of Nurikabe.

Tsubasamaru flies in just then and turns in circles like a buzzard right above us. He lets out a war-screech and dives for the crossbows on Nurikabe's shoulders. After a few well placed talon slashes, the crossbows fall to the street as bits of jagged wood and frayed string.

"Cho Ninja Gattai! Super Muteki Shogun!" Logan and Kark detach quickly from the Shogun's shoulders and Tsubasamaru's wings fold into the gaps, its wing tips revealing gun barrel-esque ends. The arm robos reattach and we jump back.

"Shogun Full Discharge!" The air around us rumbles as the lasers implanted in our shoulders charge. A volley of red streaks ignite the sky and cover every inch of Nurikabe. He explodes and screams.

We walk over to Ninjaman, still clutching his smoking face. It looks like those turrets did a number on him. I pull his hands away and say a silent prayer in thanks that I can't vomit in this form.

"What the hell happened?!" Bits of jagged and broken bone are sticking out of his kabuto helmet. I wasn't even aware he could bleed, much less bleed out waterfalls like the top of his head.

Muteki Shogun punches his red chestpiece and flips it back around to his normal head, which appears to be unscathed. He begins to shrink to normal size and we also revert to human stature.

As soon as our feet touch the street, we run for Ninjaman.

"Are you alright?" Please, don't make me lose him. I've lost so much already, not him too.

"I...I think so. I won't be accessing Samuraiman anytime soon, but I'll live." I sigh and say a mental prayer that he's alright.

Just then, a big rock bounces off the back of my helmet. "Get out of here. You Sentai have done enough damage to Osaka. Don't ruin this city too."

I knew this would happen: angry and grieving civilians. I turn around to face the crowd of scowling people behind us.

"We're just doing our job, people. Nurikabe was a threat and we handled it without any damages."

"Like your successors "took care" of Osaka?!" An old woman walks to the front of the crowd.

"The Ninningers were not the ones to blame for that. A monster took command of their mecha and wrecked Osaka for exactly this reason: Making the public turn on us."

"And why should we believe your word on that?"

"Well, that's very simple. In our world, that is a very simple danger of a Sentai's line of work. Dealing with a monster's supernatural abilities defines what we do. The Ninninger got caught unaware by a power that others of us have faced before. Hate that creature, not us."

The whole crowd looks down and ponders this for a moment.

"That is very true. Well said." the old lady says before the crowd disperses.

I turn back to my friends and sigh.

Seikai laughs and claps his hands together. "Well, fearless leader, it seems we have some work to do again, huh?"

I nod. "It seems so, Seikai. Our first objective is to find out who is unleashing the Yokai and giving them power boosts."

"I think I can help with that…" I hear a crackle of energy as a chunk of the horizon fades out, revealing a portal of blank, churning oblivion.