Note: This next chapter is a brand-new chapter written specifically for the GPX Reboot and maybe the original Part 1.
Power Rangers GPX, episode 10: Sound Brawl
:-:-:-: We're the best chance for humanity, Pow-wer Rang-gers G-P-X, let's go! :-:-:-:
None of them knew that Sean liked The Offspring. But there he was, singing "Why Don't You Get a Job" and dancing around like Mick Jagger at the company karaoke party. It just took one Asahi beer for him to loosen up and step up to the mic. Of course, he was off-key, but that didn't take away from the fact that he was having a good time.
Of course the middle finger directed at Daisuke (when he wasn't looking) when singing the title gave away the reason for this event. Sure, Sean may be off-key, but the message was not lost on Kevin and Maria (even if the song is about gold diggers of both sexes).
But then again, given the explicit and blatant nepotism mentioned in the previous episode…
"I suspect he is singing about me," Daisuke said while taking a sip of sake.
"Nepo-tiz, Nepo-tizm, Nepo-tiii-iiism! Naaa, na that's how you got your job!" Sean sang.
"That suspicion has been confirmed," said Daisuke. He could not fire him, though. The Ranger contract prevents that from happening outside of work. And because this is outside of work, as evidenced by the White Sox jersey Sean was wearing.
"I think it's funny," said Hitomi.
"Nepo-tiz, Nepo-tizm, Nepo-tiii-iiism! Naaa, na that's how you got your job!"
"I think I like this song," said Kevin. Maria, clad in a Brazil soccer jersey, chuckled and bobbed her head to the Caribbean beat.
"I like how he can get away with it," said Maria.
"Gooot it from your faaamily, I'll aaalllways say! Naaa, na, that's how you got your job!" Sean finished up. "Thank you, thankyaverymuch!" he said when he finished the song and jumped off the stage.
"I can write songs, do you want a full version of that?" asked Kevin.
"Gladly!" said Sean.
A co-worker walked up to Sean and patted him on the shoulder and whispered, "Arigatou," before walking off. Sean shrugged it off. But Kevin had an idea.
"At least we can get away with biting the hand tonight," he said. He checked his iPhone and said, "Let's get out of here, I don't want to sing again."
"And I do!" Maria shouted, pushing him out of the way. She ran up to the karaoke machine and began looking for a song. "No, no, no, NO, no—ah! Shakira! Me gusta!"
"Oh, I HATE Shakira!" Sean muttered. "Why the hell did they have to use her song for the World Cup, anyway?"
"Shut up," said Kevin.
"O'Donneru-san!" a co-worker said in heavily-accented, but understandable and grammatically-correct English, "Can you sing?"
"No, but I play the flute," Kevin replied. "Can you?"
"No," he replied, "That is why I am not up there."
"I don't blame you," Kevin replied.
Maria though, she looked like she was having a good time. Her singing ability might simply be considered "average", if anything. Still, Sean couldn't look away from her. Until she winked at him, that is. Then he looked away at a Yakult Swallows game that was on one of the TVs. Kevin barely noticed what had happened. He was too busy talking with some co-workers. "Thanks a lot," Sean muttered while watching the game.
When Maria was done, she jumped off the stage. Hitomi ran up to her and raised her hand. Maria high-fived the rich girl enthusiastically. "I still got it!" she said, licking her finger and touching her hip while making a sizzling sound.
"You're better than I am," said Hitomi.
"Oh, chica, don't say that! I'm sure if you try, you might sound better than you think."
"YOSHI!" Hitomi said, making a bicep-polishing gesture that made Maria a little uncomfortable, "I'm going to do it!" Without even saying anything to Maria, she ran past her and up onto the stage. Maria shrugged and went back to the bar to sit with Sean and Kevin.
"I think I like her a little more," she said. "I wish she was my sister."
"I already said that," said Sean.
"How are the Swallows doing?" asked Maria.
"Down 2-1 in the bottom of the 7th," said Sean, "And their pitcher needs get off the fucking mound. It's amazing he's been able to keep it this close."
"Ay dios mio, that was a horrible throw," Maria said after the pitcher threw juuuuuuust a bit outside. "Get him out!"
"He throws worse than a soccer player," said Sean.
Maria snorted, as did Kevin. "What?" Sean asked.
"Is that what they're saying now?" asked Kevin.
"What? You can't say 'you throw like a girl' or 'you can't throw like a wuss' because the former is bullshit and the latter is slightly homophobic," said Sean, "Besides, have you seen soccer players try to throw?"
"That's the least favorite part of moving to Brazil for me," said Maria, "No baseball at all."
"And, when you go to Sox games like I do, you hear far more creative taunts, especially better than at that piss stain in Wrigleyville."
Again, Maria snickered while Kevin shook his head. "Piss stain? That's a baseball shrine in your country!" said Maria, "That dump in Valencia? That's a piss stain!"
"That piss stain in Wrigleyville actually smells of piss!" said Sean.
"Fluminense's stadium also smells of piss!" Maria shouted.
Sean paused and made a confused face before saying, "… Flamengo and Fluminense play in the same stadium."
Maria paused. Kevin could barely hold the snickering in. "It smells of piss when Fluminense plays there!" Maria snapped.
"Maria, you were supposed to be listening to my song!" Hitomi moaned over the loudspeaker. Sean, Kevin and Maria looked back at the stage to see Hitomi fuming.
"Oops," said Maria, "I'm so sorry, chica! I'll be right there!" She left the bar to go up on stage and sing a duet with Hitomi.
"What was that?" asked Kevin, "Were you two trying to one-up each other?"
"I have no idea," said Sean.
"I'll tell you what, that was the strangest sexual tension I have ever seen," said Kevin.
"It was not!" Sean replied. Kevin just laughed and went back to his drink.
"I was kidding," he said. Not. "By the way, how did you know those two teams play in the same stadium?"
"Wikipedia."
Kevin scoffed and rubbed his face while Sean turned his attention back to the baseball game on the screen. He felt Kevin's hand tap him on the shoulder and he looked behind to watch Maria and Hitomi singing a Shakira song. "Why couldn't they use the K'Naan song for the World Cup?" Sean asked no one in particular.
"OI! O'CALLAHAN!" Maria shouted, "Te gusta?"
"No me gusta Shakira!" Sean replied.
"Tu hablas español?" she asked. He held up his fingers like he was pinching the air, prompting her to laugh. "Not much, huh?"
"I'm a little rusty," he replied.
"You need to learn," said Maria.
"Not here," said Daisuke. Sean turned around whilst chugging his beer and giving him a suspicious look. "We have to leave, by the way."
"Oh come on, I wanted to watch the soccer game!" Sean whined.
"The games are too early in the morning for you to watch," said Daisuke, "And you have work tomorrow."
"You're no fun," Sean moaned. He felt Daisuke tug on his collar, which made him grab Daisuke's hand. "Don't fucking touch me like that, or I'll rip that hand off, Rich Boy."
"Then how about this? Can we please leave?" asked Daisuke.
"Not until I'm done," Sean replied. To do that, he chugged the rest of his beer. He stumbled when he got out of the chair, almost hitting his head on the floor. But those Ranger instincts kicked in to prevent him from doing so. "I'm good," he said with a burp.
The Rangers left the party early and got a ride back to their townhouse.
:-:-:-: PRGPX :-:-:-:
Sean and Maria had come to work the next day with minor hangovers. As a result, Daisuke gave them more work than should have been allowed.
Sean groaned while downing another ibuprofen tablet at around 12 noon and working on a blog about some shitty product the company was selling in Scotland. He'd never been to Scotland before, and even he knew there was a big difference between that and Ireland. This sucks!
Across from him, however, Maria looked like she had a bigger headache than he did. She could barely keep her eyes on the computer screen and kept looking down while sighing. "You okay?" he asked, his (admittedly) youthfully handsome face showing signs of concern.
"No," she said, "And I didn't even have that much to drink last night."
Sean reached into his backpack and pulled out his ibuprofen bottle. "Here, take one," he said.
"Gracias," she said as she took a pill.
"De nada."
"I hope Kevin doesn't have it as bad as we do," said Sean.
In fact, Kevin did not have it as bad as those two, but that's because he did not have as much to drink last night as Sean and Maria. The work, on the other hand, was giving him a headache. Mr. Miyazawa, the siblings' uncle—their father was in Kyoto—had a lot of phone calls he needed him to make and writing some e-mails, too.
He needed some tea and badly.
And with Daisuke lurking behind him, he felt even more pressure. Some tea would be nice right about now!
Daisuke leaned into the e-mail Kevin was drafting with a scowl. "What is that?" he asked.
"An e-mail," said Kevin.
"That does not look like my uncle's writing style," said Daisuke.
"Your uncle has thanked me," said Kevin, "I know my way with words."
"Daisuke!" His uncle walked out of his office. His uncle looked every bit the respectable businessman he is, with bits of gray hair that made it look like salt and pepper. "I happen to like Kevin's work. And I would appreciate it if you not harass him."
"When did I become the villain?" Daisuke asked himself as he walked away.
"And that e-mail is…"
"For the Middle East branch that you asked me to write," said Kevin.
"Oh yes, that one," said Daisuke's uncle. "Keep up the good work."
"Thank you, Mr. Miyazawa!" Kevin replied.
"Hitomi?" Mr. Miayazawa turned to Hitomi and handed her a sheet of paper, "Could you take this down to Mr. O'Callahan and Ms. Aparicio?"
"What is it?" asked Hitomi.
"An assignment," said Mr. Miayzawa.
"Right away, Uncle," she replied. "Come along, O'Donnell." Kevin nodded and followed her.
They arrived at the office to find the workers looking at something that happened to be where Sean and Maria was sitting. And Sean had been unleashing a tirade at somebody. He was going on about how punk was not a fashion statement, but a state of mind and, "Oops."
"Why were you swearing?" asked Hitomi.
"Sorry, boss," he said.
"I'll let it slide," she said. "We have an assignment for you."
"What do you need us to do?" asked Maria.
"We need some blogs around our new products in the Middle East and Europe," said Hitomi, "I hope you two can whip something up."
"Will do," said Sean. Fuck you, Rich Boy, he mouthed.
Hitomi and Kevin left, leaving the two to themselves. Maria pulled out her cell phone and typed something on it, then passed it to Sean. Sean expected it to be work-related. To his surprised, the text read, "WHAT DO YOU THINK THE NEXT MONSTER WILL BE LIKE?"
He rolled his eyes and typed in a response to her. "KNOWING POWER RANGERS, PROBABLY MUSIC-THEMED," his message wrote.
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
As if Sean was some reality warper (he's not) Elbeth had a thought while he was working. One of his lieutenants walked into his office and saluted. "What do you need, sir?"
"Do any cyborgs have audio abilities?" Elbeth asked. "Can they use sound as a weapon?"
"Yes, General Elbeth," said the lieutenant.
"Good," said Elbeth, "Contact Headquarters and request one of them."
"Yes, sir!"
:-:-:-: PRGPX :-:-:-:
It was such a relief to get out of those stuffy work clothes. Sean felt much more comfortable and relaxed not to be in a white-collared shirt and khakis, but a red T-shit and cargo shorts. Mei, the robot, was making dinner—an idea that, knowing Futurama, was a bad idea—downstairs. Well, not exactly making dinner, more like starting dinner and then letting Hitomi finish. Out of all the Rangers, she was the one who had any cooking ability.
He left his door open but sat at his laptop and turned on his music. There was a new band he'd discovered, The Cherry Coke$, and they were like a Japanese Flogging Molly. Despite how certain people deride "Cultural Appropriation" (for all the wrong reasons), Sean liked the idea that a Japanese band integrated Celtic and Irish instruments and musical style into their music. He couldn't understand the lyrics, but loved the music.
It should also be noted that, judging by the sticker of a fist smashing a swastika, he hates white supremacists.
In the other room, however, Daisuke was meditating and unfortunately, Sean's loud, fast-paced punk was distracting. He had one too many days where this happened and he snapped. "OI! BAKA!" he shouted, storming over to Sean's room and forcing his way in. "TURN THAT DOWN!"
Sean was so surprised he fell out of his chair. It took him a second to process what was going on before he turned the music up just to spite Daisuke. He added an akanbe—basically that anime gesture where someone pulls down their lower eyelid and sticks out their tongue—combined with a middle finger on the other hand to stick it to Daisuke.
Daisuke added something about Sean being a "typical middle-class lout" and walked away. However, Sean couldn't help but feel that… it kinda hurt.
Still, he got back up and decided to take his laptop downstairs.
Kevin had returned from a run through the Todai campus and Maria was sitting on the couch, watching a Brazilian TV show. Mei, of course, was working on dinner while Hitomi watched.
Sean sat down next to Maria and it only took a second before he remembered he couldn't understand Portuguese. "So, um… what's going on here?" he asked.
"Antonio is telling Isabella that they cannot be together because they're in rival gangs," said Maria, "And she's telling him that's bullshit because they support the same club."
"… That's kind of weird."
"This show is weird," said Maria, "But it's good for a laugh."
"Just like Power Rangers," Sean laughed, earning a chuckle from her.
"We've had an entire episode and we still haven't discussed my musical tastes," Kevin muttered. "I like good music!"
"You refused to do the karaoke," Sean remarked.
"That's the worst reason I've ever heard," said Kevin.
"What does he like?" Maria asked.
"Eh, U2, Clancy Brothers, Thin Lizzy… and stuff you'll hear in Dublin on a Friday night," Sean replied.
"Why did you have to answer for me?" Kevin asked.
"I just did," Sean replied.
The conversation was interrupted, and ended, when their little alert system went off. The image screen rose in the countertop and the video of a woman, wearing an Italian flag on her shoulder, spoke. "There is a surge of energy by the Tokyo Dome," she said in an Italian accent. "Nothing has appeared yet, but it resembles teleportation energy."
"We're one our way!" said Sean, "Alright people, allons-Y!"
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
It took about five minutes for the morphed Rangers to arrive at Tokyo Dome City where a horde of Suitroops was running amok. The Rangers, who'd eschewed the GP Cruiser, ran up to the marauding Suitroops but did not attack. Instead, the Suitroops noticed them and started the fight first.
The Suitroops rushed up to Sean. He stood ready and once they were close enough, he kicked the lead one. They surrounded him, but he kicked them all aside. One rushed in. He ducked and tossed it aside. Another one tried to run in from the same direction. He kicked it. He wound up his fist and punched another one that dented its faceplate. Another tried to throw its arms around his body. He ducked forward, letting the enemy fly into the Suitroops in front of him like they were bowling pins.
Kevin waited for the Suitroops to reach him when he got down to business. He lunged and tackled the first Suitroop that came to him, then threw it to the ground. He stood back up and kicked the next Suitroop and elbowed the one that followed it. He grabbed the collars of two Suitroops and smashed them together. He threw a punch that was blocked, but he followed that up with another punch to the one that blocked him and decapitated that Suitroop with his fist.
Daisuke just slowly advanced on the Suitroops while pointing the Mountain Staff at them. Once they reached him, he went to work, twirling and trusting the staff's blade at them. He whacked the head of one of them with the butt end of his staff, then swung the blade and too it out. He ran and leaped over a few more. When he landed, he spun the staff above his head and sliced them open. One attacked him with its staff. He blocked, then pushed it off and thrust the staff into it.
Maria rolled on the ground and pushed herself up, whereupon she spun on her hands, kicking at the Suitroops until she jumped up, flipped and landed outside the fray. She ran up, punched and kicked at the Suitroops, dancing like a samba, tango and flamenco star, taking them all down with speed, fury and precision. She spun and ducked under a Suitroop's attack and kicked the Suitroop into a crowd of them. Another Suitroop ran up to her. She blocked and countered before tossing it away.
Hitomi cartwheeled through the mass of Suitroops, letting them shoot each other. She stopped, spun and kicked a Suitroop before ducking as an energy staff blast flew right past her head. One of the Suitroops tried to stab her. She grabbed the staff, pulled it down and punched the Suitroop in the visor. She got back up, still holding onto the staff. She reverse-roundhouse kicked the same Suitroop, sending its head flying off, and finished that up by kicking another Suitroop.
Now Sean was freed from the stupid Suitroops and made a bee line for the monster. "LET'S GO, FUCKER!" he shouted. The monster, if it could be called that, was a robot with two large speakers attached to its shoulders. Sean SHOULD have figured that this was not a good idea, but found out the hard way when the robot began blasting a horrible sound from those speakers.
The sound, blasted at an incredibly high pitch AND volume, was painful on the Rangers' ears, forcing them to cover their ears. Then the noise stopped. The monster collided with Sean first, sending him flying into the crowd of his teammates. The monster kept going, smacking them aside without so much as breaking a sweat (can toku monsters even break a sweat?).
The monster turned around. The Rangers got back up. Daisuke rushed the monster at full speed and head-on. The monster blared its music at Daisuke. The Green Ranger fell to the ground, frantically covering his ears. The blow to his chest and head knocked him to the ground.
The monster reached down and grabbed Daisuke by the collar. He tossed him afar, where he crashed into the doors of the Dome.
But it also left him open for Sean to rabbit-punch him.
The monster growled at Sean's dirty punch. It reached up, grabbed Sean and slammed him into the pavement. Kevin pounced on the monster, lifted him up and threw him to the ground, but the monster landed on both feet. That meant it could counter with his own throw.
The monster turned to Sean lying prone on the ground. It was just about to attack when Maria stepped between the two. The monster could not react in time to Maria's hard punch to his jaw. Sean watched with a slight smile. "She's good," he said. He got up and ran around the monster. As the monster tried to knock her down, he kicked it hard in the side to knock it away. When Maria was visible, he gave her a thumb's up. She smiled too, and responded with one of her own.
But the monster wasn't done. He seemed to remember his ability after possibly forgetting about it and let loose another pulse of noise that cause severe pain in the Rangers' ears. When they were down, he took off.
"DAMMIT!" Sean pounded the pavement.
"Another failure," said Daisuke.
"SHUT UP, RICH BOY!"
"Will the both of you cut it out?" Maria asked. "You sound like a pair of fighting band mem—"
"That's it!" Sean interrupted.
"That's what?" Sean asked.
"I have an idea," he said.
"I'm listening," she said while impressed.
:-:-:-: PRGPX :-:-:-:
The monster continued to wreak havoc across the district. Glass broke, plaster crumbled and steel bent. People ran from all of this carnage and destruction. The monster was almost drunk on its own power as it cackled all while making a mess of things. The Rangers were nowhere to be found so why the fuck should he care?
Well, at the same time, the Rangers had gotten the Grand Prix Cruiser and some big speakers. Rented the speakers from an electronics store that had not yet been touched by the monster's destruction. Hitomi and Daisuke had de-morphed to get this done.
"Are you sure this will work?" Maria asked, lowering her head down from the roof of the H2 at Sean in the driver's seat. She pulled up before Sean could answer back, but he climbed out of the SUV and held onto the roof.
"I never guaranteed it!" he replied. "I'm making this up as I go along!"
"I thought you were the strategist!" she replied.
"Again, I never said that!"
"Will you two cease this meaningless lover's quarrel!?" Kevin hissed while he pulled some wires out.
"We're not lovers!" they both shouted in unison.
"What?" Hitomi asked.
"Nothing, just teasing them," said Kevin. "Right, so you know the rest of the plan, right?"
"Yeah," said Sean. "Someone needs to lure the monster over to us. And then—"
"We will not have to worry about that," Daisuke said as he pointed at another street to the monster coming their way.
"SHIT!" Sean hissed. He got back in the driver's seat and fumbled with his iPhone to hook it up. Once it was hooked up, he realized just how big a music library he had when he couldn't find anything to use.
"HURRY UP!" Kevin shouted. However, he muttered something and jumped down. He grabbed the iPhone from Sean, removed his glove and pressed the shuffle function on it.
The sound of soft, melodic acoustic guitars started playing out of the speakers. The other Rangers looked around, first at each other, then at Sean, who shrugged. Daisuke shook his head and facepalmed, muttering something about how he was going to die because the Red Ranger was an idiot. Even the monster was confused, until he realized he had the Rangers right where he wanted them, so he charged right at them.
They got ready to defend when the music changed, replacing the acoustic guitars with loud electric guitars that changed to a heavy, thrash metal riff. The opening of the Metallica classic "Battery". As Sean headbanged to the music, the monster screamed and put his hands up to his ears as if either in pain, hatred of the music, or a bit of both.
"HOWDOYA LIKE THAT!?" Sean cackled. "FUCK YA! NOW GET 'IM!"
Hitomi leaped on top of the Cruiser, jumped through the air and tackled the monster to the ground. Maria followed seconds later, taking her Haz Daggers and stabbing the monster's speakers. Sparks erupted from the speakers, but Maria got out of the way in time to not suffer any damage. The monster angrily shoved the female Rangers off of him, got back up and seethed at the damage they had caused.
"Do you have any idea what you have DONE!?" he shouted. "I WENT THROUGH MONTHS OF MODIFICATIONS TO HAVE THOSE SPEAKERS INSTALLED!"
"TOO BAD!" Sean called. "Let's GET 'IM!"
The Rangers leaped off of the Cruiser to attack. Daisuke went first, kicking the monster's head, then danced out of the way to knee his side. Kevin followed up by kicking the monster's chest. The monster backhanded a counter. Kevin avoided it. He kicked the monster again. Maria and Hitomi leaped off of Kevin and Daisuke's shoulders, swinging their GP Swords at the monster, then kicking him at the same time. Sean was last, as he ran up, punched the monster with furious speed, then wound up his leg and reverse roundhouse kicked the monster away.
The crowd that had gathered cheered as the monster barrel rolled off to the side. The Rangers grabbed their blaster and shot him with two volleys.
"TIME TO END THIS!" Sean declared. "NITRO CANNON!"
The cannon materialized in the Rangers' hands. "READY! AIM!" The cannon locked on to the monster.
"FIRE!"
Sean pulled the trigger. The monster couldn't do anything against the blast of energy that struck him. He collapsed and exploded. The crowd cheered even louder.
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
Ragnar turned the screen off before looking up at Elbeth. Despite the obvious implications of the Commander's glare, he didn't so much as blink. In fact, he was still rather confident. "I wonder how you can be so confident, Elbeth," said Ragnar.
"A simple minor setback," said Elbeth. "I have begun to plant the seeds of doubt in the Green Ranger's mind."
"Did you?" Ragnar asked, "Or are you lying to—forget it. I apologize for getting impatient with you. However, I would rather see a mercenary who does not lose their cool at the sound of human music."
"Understood, Commander," said Elbeth.
:-:-:-: PRGPX :-:-:-:
Flamenco music played from Maria's iPod speakers while she played with her 3DS as she sat on her bed. Hitomi was at the eMac, drawing something with her computer drawing pad. Her music played from her eMac. The combined J-Pop and Flamenco sounded… interesting. And it made Maria bob her head.
"Has anyone tried this crossover?" she asked.
"I don't know," Hitomi said without looking up from her drawing pad.
"This needs to happen," said Maria. "Latin and Japanese music sound like they'd be well-fit."
Hitomi was about to speak when Sean and Daisuke approached, with their conversation getting pretty loud. "… Still better than that old-person's nostalgia crap you listen to!" Sean teased.
"It is called 'enka'," said Daisuke. "And it has more musical merit than your trash."
"It's Metallica!" Sean replied.
"Will you two shut up and respect each other's' taste!?" Maria snapped.
"Is that was this episode was about?" Sean asked. "Oh, right, I forgot about that. Eh, whatever."
"Sometimes, I wonder why I have to take orders from an idiot like you," Daisuke muttered.
"I'm not an idiot!" Sean replied. "I got into the University of Wisconsin—"
"That does not matter," said Daisuke.
"Why don't you shut up, Rich Boy?" Maria replied, much to Sean's surprise. "The music thing was his idea! Even if it was poorly-planned and he got lucky, it was a good idea."
"Why thank you!" Sean replied. Daisuke huffed, puffed and left. After watching him pass, Sean stole an admiring glance at Maria before leaving. She too got an admiring glance at him.
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
End chapter