I DO NOT own Power Rangers or Super Sentai
Aaaaand we're back! This Chapter, a new story arc begins, one I've been looking forward to! Have fun!
POWER RANGERS SAMURAI STRIKE
Chapter 7: A Bug in the System
Shiba manor, night...
Night was always a quiet time at the manor. The Rangers always trained hard all day, so they always needed plenty of rest for the next day's dawn training. So they always made sure to sleep soundly, and the manor was silent and dark at night.
However, on this particular night, one of the rooms was lit up, not by the ceiling light, but from the light emanating from at least a dozen computer monitors covering one wall. Most of them were displaying complex lines of code, but the biggest one, in the center, showed a map of the world, with a targeting reticule slowing moving back and forth across it.
In a corner of the room, inside a glass case, was what looked like a miniature assembly line, with many tiny robotic limbs welding and wiring, building something that was not yet recognizable. On a table next to it and plastered on all the wall space not taken up by screens were complex blueprints for some kind of device, its use impossible to figure out from the confusing diagrams.
And in the opposite corner, lying on a bed strewn with takeaway sushi boxes, snoring loudly, was Graydon. For this was his room.
Suddenly, the reticule on the map stopped moving, and the screen zoomed in on its location. All the other screens changed to show what looked like a rotating wireframe image of one of the elemental disks the Rangers used on their swords. A loud beeping started coming from a speaker connecter to the computers.
Graydon was startled awake; sending boxes flying, he darted over to the computers and started typing away on one of the five keyboards. The beeping stopped as he typed. Now grinning, he hit the enter key and the words TARGET LOCATED appeared across the top of the map screen, along with the co-ordinates of the location selected.
Graydon quickly tapped at one of the other keyboards, and one of the smaller screens changed, showing the words Contact Morpher: Strike Red. A few seconds later, Tyson's sleepy voice came from the speaker. "Jeez, Graydon, what time is it?" it said angrily.
Graydon quickly looked at his watch. "About 2 am," he replied, excitement very evident in his voice.
Tyson grumbled incoherently for a bit, then said "This had better be worth it..."
"Tyson," Graydon said, pausing for dramatic effect, "I've found one!"
Morning, several days later...
Chad, May, Ryan and Karen were gathered in the main room, all stunned rigid by Graydon's announcement.
"A day off from training?" Chad said, disbelief and joy in his voice. "Are you serious?"
"Sure," Graydon replied, calmly eating his breakfast (takeaway sushi again), ignoring the stunned looks on the others faces. "You guys have been training really hard lately, and I think you deserve a break." He then grinned. "Plus, Tyson isn't back from his training trip yet, so take advantage of my mercy while you can."
"Awesome!" Chad cheered, punching his fist in the air. "I'm going to the arcade! Those machines won't know what hit them!"
"I think I'll go clothes shopping," May said. "Spring's coming up, and I'm way behind on the latest fashions."
"Wait a minute, you two!" Ryan interrupted before they could run off. "I think we should do something together. You know, spend some time with each other."
"But we already spend every day together, in training!" May protested.
"True, but we've never had the chance to just relax," Ryan countered. "The chance to actually talk and get to know each other."
Chad and May looked at each other, then sighed. As Chad muttered something about his thumbs getting twitchy from video game withdrawal, Ryan turned to Karen, who had remained silent so far. "What do you want to do, Karen?" he asked her.
"Well..." Karen thought, tapping her chin. "There's WildFunLand, that amusement park in Tovern City. I've never been to one before, so I was thinking of going there, but I didn't want to go alone."
"Perfect!" Ryan said, clapping his hands together. "We can go there!"
"Hey, don't just decide that by yourself!" Chad argued, as the door leading to the entrance hall opened.
The Rangers turned around as Tyson entered, a rucksack slung over his back, and his usual serious expression on his face.
"Tyson, you're back!" Chad said, a bit of the excitement gone from his voice; would Tyson cancel the day off?
"Graydon's giving us the day off, and we're going to WildFunLand!" Karen said happily, ignoring Chad's panicked hand signals to be quiet.
"I see," Tyson replied, completely disinterested, walking past them to the door that led to the stairs.
"Don't... don't you want to come with us?" Karen asked hesitantly, surprised with Tyson's coldness.
Tyson stopped at the open door, and turned to look at them. "No, I'm busy," he said shortly. "You go without me." Saying so, he went upstairs, closing the door behind him.
"I just don't understand his sometimes," May sighed.
"Guess he's not coming then," Ryan said. "Graydon, you coming?"
Graydon grimaced, packing away his breakfast things. "Sorry, but I've got some stuff to do as well." he replied sadly. "You guys make sure to have fun for me, okay?"
"You got it!" Chad said to him, giving a thumbs up, May sniggering quietly at his enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, upstairs in his room, Tyson put down his rucksack and reached inside. He withdrew an slim, ornate box, clearing ancient in origin, with the symbol of the Shiba clan on the lid.
Tyson removed the lid and revealed the contents; inside lay what seemed to be a Ranger elemental disk, very similar to his own. This disk, however, was orange, not red, and had strange symbols on it that looked like claws, or maybe horns.
Tyson held it up to the light, a determined expression on his face, tinged with apprehension. "At last," he said quietly to himself. "The first Ronin Spirit has been recovered..."
Later that day, at WildFunLand...
"This place is great!' Karen said excitedly, munching on a stick of cotton candy, as she and the others wandered around, looking at the various rides and stalls. "It's a pity Tyson couldn't come though..."
"I'm glad he didn't," Chad replied, eying some of the shooting games, his fingers twitching, deciding whether it was worth it. "His grim demeanor would have made this a whole less fun."
May glared at him, then turned back to Karen. "He said he was busy, so there's not much we can do," she said.
"He's always busy!" Chad replied, tearing his eyes away from the game. "He's obsessed with his training! Have you ever had a single normal conversation with him?"
"He is our leader, Chad," Ryan interrupted. "He's just determined to be a strong one, that's all."
"Being a strong leader isn't all about fighting ability," Chad countered. "I bet he's doing some kind of crazy training as we speak."
Meanwhile, back at Shiba manor...
Tyson, dressed in his kendo robes, drew his Ranger katana from his morpher, and clipped the strange orange disk to the hilt. He then span it, and flames circled up the blade and flowed into the air, far more than from a normal disk.
Tyson swung the sword around his head, fire spiraling about him, then brought it slashing down. The blade and the orange disk began to glow bright with elemental energy.
But something was wrong; the katana was shaking in Tyson's grasp, and his face was screwed up in concentration, sweat pouring from his forehead.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash and he was flung backwards, the sword spinning from his hands to fall on the ground.
Hikoma, who was watching nearby, picked up the katana, the orange disk still clipped to the hilt. "That's not enough, I'm afraid, Lord Tyson." he said sadly. "To use this Ronin Disk, you would require double the elemental energy you currently possess. With your level of training, you will take a long time to reach that."
Tyson climbed to his feet, bruised slightly from the fall. "Well then, I'll just have to train even harder," he replied angrily. "I must master the powers of this disk. The Ayakashi that Doukoku is sending are getting tougher. We'll need all the power we can get."
Hikoma frowned as Tyson took the katana from him. "This is why you didn't go with the others to the amusement park? To stay here and train?" he asked. "I admire your dedication, my lord." He then smiled slyly. "But I think that you really did want to go with them, didn't you?"
Tyson started, and shot a quick, awkward look at Hikoma. "N-no," he stammered, "of course not..."
Hikoma grinned at him. "But when you were much younger, you loved to go to WildFunLand," he continued, amused by Tyson's obvious embarrassment. "Every day, you asked 'Can we go again today, Hikoma? Can we?'"
"Did I?" Tyson replied, his face red, reluctant to continue this conversation.
Hikoma laughed at him. "Yes indeed," he said happily. "But the big, fast rides always scared you. You would only ever go on the merry-go-round or the Ferris wheel." He laughed again. "The one time you were brave enough to go in the haunted house, you wet your pants!"
Tyson span to look at him, a look of shock and complete embarrassment on his face. "I-I never did any such thing!" he spluttered, as Hikoma continued to laugh.
"Ah, it sure brings back good memories," the old man finished, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Stop with the embarrassing stories already," Tyson replied, annoyed, by Hikoma thought he saw a flicker of a smile on his face. Then it went back to its usual serious expression. "It's time to continue training."
Back at WildFunLand...
The other Rangers were sitting a a table near a cafe, happily eating lunch, when a bright flash of light caught their eye, and people started screaming.
"This doesn't look good," Ryan commented, he and the others looking towards the disturbance, when they heard a deep, sinister, hissing voice.
"Useless," it said, "everything is useless." And then, from the crowd of running people emerged a creature that could only be another Ayakashi.
This one did not look too dangerous; it was bright green and blob-like, with long, fluffy, red objects hanging from it. In fact it looked quite amusing.
Until, that is, it pulled out a giant mini-gun and started shooting away at everything in sight.
"So much for a day off..." Chad muttered, as they jumped to their feet and ran towards the Ayakashi, pulling out their morphers as they went.
The Ayakashi, whose name incidentally was Yanasudare, continued to shoot away, all the while hissing "Useless, useless, useless!" He turned his gun on a group of fleeing people and fired, only for the bullets to be deflected when Ryan and Chad, both already morphed, jumped in the way, their katanas moving fast enough to stop the bullets' progress.
"Rangers," the monster snarled, as May and Karen, also morphed, arrived, hurrying the civilians out of harm's way. "Anything you do is also useless."
"We'll see about that!" Chad yelled, and, running at the Ayakashi, swung his blade.
Yanasudare made no attempt to dodge, and it looked like the katana would hit, and it did – but it passed right through the monster's body as if it wasn't even there.
"Wha-?" Chad cried, his blade meeting no resistance, and his momentum sending him flying. Yanasudare swung his gun barrel into Chad's chest, slamming him back towards the others.
"Chad, are you okay?" May asked him as he picked himself up.
"Yeah, I'm fine I guess," Chad replied. "But I don't know why my blade had no effect..."
"Let us try!" Ryan said, and he, May and Karen charged at the monster and swung their blades. Once again, the blades went right through, do no damage at all.
The Ayakashi grinned evilly. "You're all useless!" He hissed, swinging his gun around and fired away, the bullets slamming into them. The Ranger suits protected them from most of the damage, but they were knocked over.
"Blast it, it didn't work!" Ryan said, pounding his fist into the ground.
"Let's try it from all four sides!" Chad suggested. They ran at the monster, and Chad and Ryan flipped over his head. The Ayakashi now surrounded, they swung away – with the same results.
Yanasudare, unharmed, sneered at them. "You idiots just don't get it, do you? Your attacks are useless!" He smashed them away with a swing of his gun, then blasted them again with a spray of bullets. "You useless idiots should just disappear already!"
The Rangers collapsed on the ground, bruised and battered by the constant hits of the bullets. "And now, to finish you!" the monster cackled, pointing his gun at them.
"That's my line!" a voice yelled, and the Ayakashi turned to see a morphed Tyson leaping at him, sword held high. He swung down with the blade, but, of course, the sword did nothing, leaving a very confused Red Ranger lying at the feet of the monster.
"Not even Tyson can damage him?" Karen wondered aloud as she and the others picked themselves up.
Tyson stood, planning to swing again, but found his view blocked by the end of Yanasudare's mini-gun. "Useless," the monster hissed, and pulled the trigger.
It was only a perfectly-timed back-flip that saved Tyson's life. His head fell back and his legs came up, knocking the gun away and sending the Ayakashi stumbling backwards.
The other Rangers ran forward to where Tyson stood. "You okay, Tyson?" Ryan asked, but Tyson did not reply, pulling his elemental disk from his belt buckle.
"Use your Elemental Blade, everyone at the same time" he said to the others. "That should do it."
"Right!" the others answered, spinning the disks on their katanas.
"Five-Sword Elemental Blade, Maximum Power!" they yelled in unison, charging at the monster. "Prismatic Strike!"
All five katanas, each powered with their Ranger's element, slammed into the Ayakashi at once, and finally they seemed to hit him. Yanasudare looked unharmed at first, but then his stomach began to spark and smoke.
The monster snarled in anger, and the damage seemed to go away, the sparking and smoking stopping. "Even that level of attack is useless against me!" he sneered, leveling his gun at them and blasting away, Tyson only just managing to summon his Fire Buster Sword in time to protect them. "None of your attacks will work on me! They're all useless!"
Shielded behind Tyson's massive sword, the other Rangers heard him say to himself, "Well, in that case..." His free hand twitched, seeming hesitant about something, then reached into his belt buckle to pull out the strange orange disk. Of course, none of the other Rangers had seen this disk before, and watched curiously as Tyson moved to connect the disk onto a flat, circular section of the buster sword, not far from the hilt.
But before he connected it, he stopped, and the others could his his heavy breathing. He seemed to be trying to build himself up to something, as if not sure what he was about to do would work.
Then the bullets suddenly stopped. The Rangers looked out from behind the giant sword to see that the Ayakashi's body was drying out. "Curse you, Rangers," he hissed at him. "You made me use up all the water in my body! What an utterly useless characteristic of mine!"
He began to back away, towards the crevice from where he entered. "I'll be back, Rangers," he snarled. "And next time, I'll take your useless lives!" He then squeezed between the tiny gap between two stalls and vanished.
May, Chad, Ryan and Karen collapsed to their knees, relieved that the monster had gone. Tyson, however, remained standing, staring at the orange disk in his hand, his expression unreadable behind his visor.
Later, back at Shiba manor...
Chad slammed his fist into a wall, he and the other Rangers, as well as Graydon and Hikoma, in the main room. "What are we going to do?" he said angrily. "That Ayakashi will undoubtedly be back, and we have no way to beat him!"
"I don't understand, our attacks had no effect on him whatsoever," May agreed. "Even the Elemental Blades didn't stop him."
"We're lucky he ran out of water," Ryan commented, gulping. "If he hadn't, we would have been goners."
Karen said nothing, but she was clearly badly shaken by the ordeal, sitting with he back to the wall, arms wrapped round her knees, hiding her face.
"You shouldn't think like that," Hikoma said to them. "Fear is the greatest enemy there is. If you lose confidence in yourselves, even and easy opponent can beat you."
"Yeah, but that guy was seriously tough," Chad retorted. "Even with confidence in ourselves, we simply don't have the power to beat him."
"You do have the power," Graydon said suddenly, and everyone turned to looked at him, Karen raising her head for the first time. He nodded at Tyson. "Tyson, I think it's time you told them."
Tyson hesitated, then nodded. "The Elemental Blades did do some damage," he explained. "But their was not enough elemental energy in the blow to completely finish him. So all we need is more energy." Saying so, he pulled the orange disk from his pocket and showed it to them.
"That's that disk you had earlier, wasn't it?" Ryan said, staring at it.
"Yes," Tyson replied. "This is a Ronin Spirit Disk."
"Ronin?" Karen asked. "What does that mean?"
"'Ronin' is a Japanese phrase for a samurai without a master to serve," Graydon explained. "A Ronin Spirit is essentially a wild animal spirit that is yet to be tamed."
"You see," Tyson continued, "in the battle with Lord Doukoku 3000 years ago, our ancestors didn't just use the Origami Spirits in your talismans, they also used numerous other animal spirits to fight alongside them. They sealed them inside elemental disks to control them. The Ronin Spirits power greatly enhanced their user's elemental energy."
"When the battle with Lord Doukoku finished, the Ronin Spirits were released back into nature, but the Shiba family kept their disks, in case they were ever needed again," Graydon added. "Since then, the spirits have returned to their wild states, and are therefore difficult to find and control. I only managed to find this one by hacking into the Google Earth satellites, and Tyson managed to seal it back into its disk."
"What kind of animal spirit is it?" May asked curiously.
"It is the Kabuto, or Beetle Spirit," Tyson replied.
"You mean it's a bug?" May said, recoiling. "I hate bugs..."
"So if it's in its disk, you can control it right?" Chad asked. "Then why didn't you use it in the fight?"
Tyson shook his head sadly. "I used an ancient spell handed down through the Shiba family to seal the Spirit back inside its disk, but it does not yet recognize me as its master. Once I do master it, the vast increase in elemental energy will allow us to defeat the Ayakashi."
"That's great!" May began happily, but Hikoma held up a hand to silence her.
"There is a problem, though," he said. "Lord Tyson does not yet possess sufficient elemental energy to fully control and master the Kabuto Ronin Spirit. I estimate that he will need to double his current energy level."
"Double?" Chad cried. "Is that even possible?"
"With intense training, yes," Tyson replied. "I must train even harder than I already am."
"But we don't have much time," Ryan argued. "That Ayakashi's healing up right now. It'll be back tomorrow, I'm sure. You'll never be able to double your energy by then!"
Tyson glared at him. "I have no choice," he snapped. "This is the only way to defeat that Ayakashi. Beside," he added, as he turned to leave the room, "if my ancestors could do it, so can I."
Karen watched him leave the room, concern showing on her face. "I sure hope he knows what he's getting himself into."
"C'mon, this is Tyson we're talking about here," Graydon reassured her, opening yet another box of takeaway sushi as he spoke. "He'll be able to do it, trust me."
"I'm just worried about him," Karen replied. "Back in the battle, he seemed... hesitant. Unsure of himself..."
Outside the room, Tyson's calm expression disappeared, to be replaced by one of worry. "I will do it! I can do it!" he said quietly, determined, then a little worm of doubt escaped. "...can I?"
Meanwhile, in the Gedoushu dimension...
Yanasudare sighed as he sat on the deck of the Rokumon, Shitari pouring water from the Sanzu River onto his skin. "How's that?" the squid-headed warlock asked him. "All wet again?"
The Ayakashi nodded, then sighed again. "This is useless," he muttered, "absolutely useless."
"Now now, don't say that," Shitari replied. "We can't live without the water in the River. It's inconvenient, but..."
"Ignore him," Tayu said to him, playing her shamisen as she spoke. "Everything is 'useless' to him, probably even his own life, am I right?"
"Maybe," Yanasudare replied, "But not as useless as yours."
An ugly sound came from the shamisen as Tayu missed a note, her hand twitching in anger. "What did you say?" she hissed, her voice dripping with hatred. She and the Ayakashi stood, as if about to fight, but at that moment, Lord Doukoku stepped out onto the deck.
"Will you two cut it out?" he roared at them. He then glared at Tayu. "You really don't get along with Ayakashi, do you?" he said to her. Tayu made a noise of contempt and stalked off.
"Yanasudare," Doukoku then said, turning to the monster, "your big mouth is the useless thing here." His expression then turned to one of absolute hatred. "Eliminate those Rangers. I'm counting on you."
That night, back at the Shiba manor...
Being designed in Japanese style, the manor had a large shrine built out the back, which, during ceremonies held there, was lit by many flaming torches. It was usually dark at night, but tonight every torch in the shrine was lit, and several other small fires had been lit in the courtyard out the front of it.
Hikoma, at first unsure of what was going on, had gone to investigate, but as he looked, he saw Tyson, still hard at his training.
Wielding his massive Buster Sword, he had clipped the Kabuto Disk to the circular connector on the blade. As he focused, he shouted and span the disk, which channeled fire down the blade. He focused harder, and Hikoma started to see elemental energy being drained from the fires around him, the fires flickering and going low as the blade drew in more energy.
But it was not enough. The disk sparked, and a shock wave blasted forth, knocking Tyson off his feet, casing him to land hard on the ground, the sword landing nearby.
"Not enough," Hikoma heard Tyson mutter as he picked himself up, his face badly bruised from the fall. "It's still not enough energy to master him." He limped over to the sword, picked it up and trying again, drawing even more energy from the nearby fires.
The flames grew along the blade and spiraled around it, but it was still not enough. Tyson was sent flying once more, crashing into the ground.
Hikoma made a move, as if he was going to run over to Tyson, to check if he was alright, but Tyson managed to climb to his feet, and Hikoma stopped himself.
Doubling your elemental energy is possible, he thought as Tyson picked up the sword yet again, but is something that must be done yourself. No-one can help you increase it, you are the only one who can do it. Tyson is smart, using the Buster Sword to pull in energy from fires, supplementing his own energy, and slowly increasing his own energy reserves. But will it be enough to double his energy level overnight?
Hikoma watched as Tyson was once more blasted off his feet. If he can't, the Rangers will be in serious trouble. But he will fight anyway, to protect his friends until the very end. Hikoma then smiled proudly. Even if he is defeated, he will go down fighting, like a true Power Ranger!
Tyson picked himself up once more, spitting dirt out of his mouth. "I need more energy," he growled. "I will not give up! I will master the Kabuto Disk!"
The next morning...
"Useless, useless, this whole world is useless!" Yanasudare roared as he stormed through Tovern City, blasting away with his gun. He watched as people ran screaming. "And crying for help is also useless, no-one can stop me!"
"That's far enough, Ayakashi!" Ryan yelled as he, Karen, Chad and May arrived on the scene.
"Rangers!" the monster sneered. "As I promised last time, today I will take your useless lives!"
"Don't count on it!" Chad yelled, and together they whipped out their morphers and drew their kanji symbols in the air.
"SAMURAI STRIKE! BLADES UNITE!" they yelled, and with a rainbow flash and an inexplicable explosion, they morphed into the Strike Rangers.
"Let's go!" Ryan shouted, and the four of they charged at the Ayakashi.
Meanwhile, back at the Shiba manor...
Hikoma had returned to the shrine to fetch Tyson, and was shocked to find him lying on the ground, unconscious and badly bruised and battered.
"Lord Tyson!" he yelled, running over to him. With these injuries, he should not fight, he thought to himself. But then he saw something that made his heart leap; Tyson's hand still gripped the handle of the massive Buster Sword. The blade had not rejected him this time. Could he have finally mastered it...?
Hikoma used what healing spells he knew to fix some of the less serious bruises and cuts, and then shook Tyson awake. "My lord, the Ayakashi has returned! The Rangers need your help!"
Tyson opened his eyes slowly to stare at Hikoma. "Okay," he said quietly, and he picked himself up, supporting himself with the sword. "Time to fight him once more."
"My lord, are you sure you are well enough to fight?" Hikoma asked him.
Tyson smiled at him, the effect ruined slightly by him staggering a bit. "I'm fine, really," he replied. "Once I morph I'll be fine." H then began walking towards the house. "Well, I'm going."
Back at Tovern City...
Ryan was blasted out of the air as, Water Bow ready, he leaped at the Ayakashi. He crashed to the ground near where the others were struggling to their feet. Yanasudare ran forward and shoved the barrel of his gun in Ryan's face. "This time, you'll die for sure!" he hissed with glee.
But before he could pull the trigger, Tyson's talisman in its lion form flew in and smashed the gun away, sending the monster flying. The Rangers turned to see Tyson, bruised but standing, his morpher in hand. "You're the one who'll die, Ayakashi!" he yelled.
"I was wondering where you had got to," Yanasudare replied. "I thought you had run away. So, you have returned just to die? How useless..."
Tyson ignored him, and drew his kanji shape in the air. "SAMURAI STRIKE! BLADES UNITE!" he yelled, and morphed into the Red Ranger.
He drew his katana, and spun the black disk on it. "Bushido Super Weapon! Fire Buster Sword!" he yelled, and his massive blade came forth.
Yanasudare grinned evilly. "Your fighting is useless, but I accept. I will fight you!"
They both stood still, Yanasudare with his gun at the ready, Tyson with his sword resting on his shoulder. The other Rangers watched with baited breath, waiting to see what happened.
After a few silent moments, the Ayakashi lowered his gun. "Well?" he asked impatiently. "Aren't you going to attack?"
Tyson sighed, then reached into his belt buckle for the Kabuto Disk, but hesitated.
"Something's wrong," May said. "He's still too unsure..."
"Hey!" the monster shouted angrily. "I thought you said you were going to try to kill me!"
"Tyson, hurry up already!" Chad yelled at him.
"I've had enough of this!" Yanasudare finally roared, leveling his gun at the Rangers.
At that moment, Tyson seemed to make up his mind. Nodding, he seized the disk in his belt and slapped it onto the circular connector. Focusing, he yelled with rage, and masses of flames spiraled up the blade. He swung the blade twice round his head, then swung it down in front of him. The blade and disk began to glow with an orange light, and Tyson focused all the harder, focusing all his power to make it work. And, finally, it did!
The handle flipped downwards, and another handle sprouted from the side of the blade, so Tyson now held it like some kind of massive, oddly-shape gun. The top edge of the sword folded open to reveal a slot running the length of the blade, into which something was evidently supposed to go.
"Ronin Disk Activated!" Tyson yelled. "Fire Buster Sword, Kabuto Bazooka Mode!"
The other Rangers stared in awe. "A Bazooka?" May said. "That's..."
"Totally awesome!" Chad interrupted.
"I was going to say 'ridiculous'," May muttered.
"Everyone!" Tyson yelled at them. "Give me your elemental disks!" He inserted his own into the slot on the blade, and the others quickly followed suit.
"What the hell is that thing?" Yanasudare said, confused.
"Kabuto Five-Disk Elemental Blast!" Tyson shouted, and pulled the trigger. The disks fired forth, combining into a giant sphere of shining light.
"Ha! You attack is useless-" was all the Ayakashi was able to utter before the blast slammed into him, ripping straight through him. "No!" he yelled as he began to spark all over. "That's not possible!" And then, finally, he exploded.
"Yes, we got him!" Chad cheered. "First life beaten!"
As Tyson lowered his blade, looking at the Kabuto Disk, Yanasudare's gigantic second life erupted. "You useless fools!" he roared. "I'll destroy you all!"
As one the Rangers pulled out their talismans "Origami, Come Forth! Zord Mode!" they yelled, and the Zords expanded out, the Rangers teleporting inside.
The Zords, at Tyson's command, then flew together, connecting up. "Formation Complete! StrikeBlade Megazord!" he shouted.
The Megazord drew its massive sword, and swung it at the Ayakashi. But the blade went straight through, not damaging at all.
"You fools!" Yanasudare sneered, pointing his gun in the Megazord's face. "Even in my second life, katanas are useless against me!" He blasted away, sending the Megazord staggering back.
"This is bad!" Chad said. "The only weapon the Megazord has is its katana!"
"Don't worry," Tyson said, pulling out the orange disk once more. "This is where the true power of the Kabuto Ronin Disk comes into play!"
He withdrew his sword from the control panel and teleported outside, onto the Megazord's shoulder. He then clipped the Kabuto Disk to the hilt of his katana, and spun it. Flames shot up the blade, circling up into the air around him.
"Kabuto Ronin Spirit, Come Forth!" he yelled. "Zord Mode!"
And from the flames the Kabuto Zord burst forth; a giant orange rhinoceros beetle, with massive horns that opened and closed like pincers.
"That's incredible!" Chad said to the others.
"The Kabuto Spirit became another Zord!" Karen cried excitedly.
Tyson teleported inside the new Zord, and inserted his katana in the control panel. "Kabuto Zord, move out!" he shouted, and the Kabuto stormed towards the monster. Yanasudare tried to shoot it, but the beetle's hard armor held against the bullets. Its horns grabbed onto the Ayakashi's legs, and, with a twist of its head, sent the monster crashing to the ground.
"And now, the real battle begins!" Tyson said, spinning the Kabuto disk. "Kabuto Zord! Initiate Megazord Armament Form!"
The Kabuto Zord flew into the air, and its legs detached from its body, connecting to the Megazord's arms like armor. The head and body, however, landed on the Megazord's head, covering it, then the lower horn split in half, revealing the Megazord's face, making it look like a massive ornate samurai helmet.
"Armament Complete!" Tyson shouted, teleporting back the the main control room. "KabutoStrike Megazord!"
"What is this?" Yanasudare yelled, staring at the new Megazord. "Some useless new upgrade? I hate it!" He fired away with his gun at the Megazord.
"You're not the only one with a gun now, Ayakashi!" Tyson yelled back. "Kabuto Laser, Fire!"
Beams of light blasted forth from the Megazord's helmet, vaporizing the bullets in mid-air and smashing the gun from the Ayakashi's hand.
"And now, to finish you!" Tyson said, spinning the Ronin Disk once more. The Kabuto's lower horn closed again, and its head began to spin around, faster and faster.
"Kabuto Finishing Strike!" the Rangers yelled. "Ultimate Revolving Cannon!"
The quickly spinning cannon pulled in energy from all around it, glowed with a brilliant orange light, and blasted forth a massive energy ball that smashed into Yanasudare.
"No!" the Ayakashi yelled and he sparked and smoked. "I'm... so... USELESS!" And saying so, he collapsed and exploded, finally defeated.
"Samurai Strike, mission complete!" the Rangers cheered. Tyson unclipped the Kabuto Disk from his katana and stared at it, and even through his visor, you could tell he was smiling.
Shortly after, back at the Shiba manor...
"You did it, Tyson, you did it!" Hikoma said happily as the Rangers returned. "You master the Kabuto Spirit!"
Tyson raised his eyebrow at him, "What, no 'Lord' on my name?" he asked in mock seriousness.
A look of horror shot across Hikoma's face, and he quickly bowed low on one knee. "I am terribly sorry, my Lord Tyson!" he said. "Please forgive me for my mistake!"
Tyson smiled, and then, for the first time anyone could remember, actually laughed. "Oh, get up, Hikoma, I was only kidding."
"Seriously, though, well done you guys," Graydon congratulated them. "That was really impressive." He then turned to Tyson. "I've started scanning to locate the other Ronin Spirits. No luck so far, but if you let me scan the Kabuto Disk, I should be able to use the data to make the search easier."
"Sure, no problem," Tyson replied, handing him the orange disk. Graydon took it, and hurried upstairs.
"So, Tyson," Karen then said to Tyson. "Since our day off was interrupted yesterday, do you want to come to WildFunLand with us?"
"No thanks," Tyson replied, and for the first time they noticed that he looked extremely tired. "I would like to go, but I badly need to catch up on some sleep."
"I guess you were up all night training," May said reasonably. Tyson smiled, then slowly climbed upstairs as well.
"So!" Chad said to the others. 'Anyone want to hit the arcade with me?"
"I thought we were going back to WildFunLand?" Karen replied.
"We went there yesterday!" Chad argued. "I want to go to the arcade today!"
"I need to do some shopping, so I can't go either," May added. "Sorry."
Karen turned desperately to Ryan who smiled. "I'll go with you. Hikoma, do you want to come?"
Hikoma looked rather startled at being asked, then smiled. "Of course, Lord Ikenami, I would be pleased to accompany you and Lady Hanaori to the amusement park." He then smiled. "But if either of you wet your pants in the haunted house, I've leaving you there!"
END CHAPTER SEVEN... but wait, there's more!
Graydon, up in his room, sat back in his chair as the digital camera finished scanning the Kabuto disk. "Alpha, have you got any usable data off this thing?" he said, apparently to no-one.
A screen flicked on, showing the image of a red, shiny robot, with a flat, disk-like head with lights along the rim for eyes, and a lightning bolt shape on his chest. Alpha was an AI that Graydon had programmed himself, designed to look and sound like Alpha 5, Zordon's trusty assistant from the original Power Ranger days – though fortunately without all the annoying "Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai!" nonsense.
"I have received some data, Graydon," the AI replied. "Using it, I have refined my search for the remaining Ronin Spirits, so I can now look for their energy signature as well."
"Good," Graydon said. "Does the data help with the other projects?"
Alpha nodded. "The data received allows me limited access to the Morphing Grid," the robot said. "With sufficient tweaking, your experimental teleporter should be up and running in a few days – but it will only work for those with morphers, I'm afraid."
Graydon sighed. "Okay, that's good," he replied, "but what about my other project?"
Alpha hesitated, then shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid there is simply not enough data in this disk to allow your other project to fully function yet," he said dejectedly. "If we recover the others, though, it may just work."
"Okay then," Graydon decided. "devote all your run-time to finding those other Ronin Spirits. We'll need them, for battle, and my other project."
"Yes, sir!" Alpha saluted, and his screen changed to show the map of the Earth with the scanning reticule moving back and forth once again.
Graydon sighed again and rubbed his forehead with his fingers, and then glanced at the glass box in the corner on the room, in which the device the machines were building was slowly taking form...
NOW END CHAPTER SEVEN
Ooh, plot development! Spooky! Will the Rangers find the remaining Ronin Spirits? What is this other project Graydon is working on? Look forward to next chapter to find out!
I've been watch Mighty Mophin' again recently, and felt nostalgic (and plus I needed a name for Graydon's AI) so I decided to bring Alpha back! Woo!
As always, I appreciate any reviews. Haven't got any for last chapter yet, so I'm not sure if anyone likes it! :) Also, any questions about Samurai Strike you want answered (and I bet there will be a few thanks to this new development!) feel free to ask them, I'll answer them at the beginning of next chapter!
Until next time, may the Power protect you!