Summary: Coins as sources of power, summoning the energy of the dinosaurs... getting mixed and matched.
Author's Note: Where did I put that Clemens quote...? Ah, here it is... In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."
Disclaimer: "Kamen Rider", "Kamen Rider OOO", "Mighty Morphing Power Rangers" and the 'Power Rangers' franchise are the properties of their respective owners and are used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.
-o0O0o-
"Flipping Coins"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
-o0O0o-
The good news was that it wasn't one of Rita Repulsa's monsters. The bad news was that it was still a monster wreaking havoc in downtown Angel Grove. The bad news was that people were still being injured and property being damaged because of a monster. The bad news was that it meant that there were more than just Rita Repulsa and her monsters out there to attack cities and citizens.
The good news was that the Power Rangers were there; a team of teenagers with attitude chosen to protect the planet Earth - even if they never seemed to leave their hometown to do so. That was them in general. They were also there more specifically, arriving in five beams of light, each color-coded to one of them, to fight the monster that was attacking.
One of them, a young woman of Asian descent wearing yellow, almost did a double-take, "Is that what I think it is?"
A young man with sandy hair and light complexion adjusted his glasses, "Affirmative; it appears to be a member of the family Mustelidae possessing two tails and wearing a personal floatation device."
An African-American youth sighed, "Man, where do they come up with some of these things?"
Another Caucasian teen, though darker haired and more athletic-built than his fellow, shrugged, "Does it matter? Sooner or later, they have to run out of ideas."
The last of the five flipped long brown hair back over her shoulder, "Um, Jason, I think you may be underestimating them. After all, look how long Hollywood's been coming up with bad ideas; you think Rita could do any less?"
"Or start reusing old ideas, for that matter," the African-American teen added. "Never underestimate someone deciding to remake a franchise, man.
"We can debate Rita's creativity later, guys," the Asian-American girl interrupted. "Right now, let's stay focused on dealing with the monster we've already got in front of us."
"Trini's right," the dark-haired male declared, "Let's do it, guys."
"Right," four other voices chorused as one; an act that strangely enough had never needed them to practice it, having always come instinctively to them since the beginning.
"It's Morphing Time!"
Reaching behind their backs in an action that was just as synchronised and just as instinctive, all five teens summoned belt-buckle-like devices and thrust them forward with both hands. Before they could say anything, however, things began to get 'interesting'. Almost from out of nowhere, a figure in black armor divided into thirds by red, yellow and green detailing lept the guardrail that seperated a higher promenade area from the ground where the Rangers were, landing on his feet and running towards them in one smooth motion. Ignoring the monster at first, they instead focused their attention on the Rangers, taking all five by surprise when they snatched three of the Power Coins right out of the Rangers' morphers as they ran by them. With no Coins, all three of the victims of the theft were left to look at their morphers in surprise, unable to continue their attempt to transform from their civilian identities.
Coming to a sudden stop, the newcomer spoke in English, but with a strong Japanese accent, "Sorry, but I need to use these real quick, thanks!"
It was then that the Rangers noticed that the tri-color newcomer had a buckle-like device of his own, one with three slots in it for coins - two devices if someone counted the one at his hip that looked like a second part to the buckle device. With a practiced ease that said he'd done this before, the stranger slotted two of the coins into the outside slots simultaneously, followed by the third into the middle before twisting the buckle device so that it was at an angle. Pulling the second device off of his hip, he ran it along the first, causing it to make a different tone as it passed over each coin. Chains of coins seemed to surround him in all directions, three giant-sized ones hovering in front as a voice was heard from the buckle device.
"PteraCeraSaurus - Pteradactyl, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus - PteraCeraSaurus!"
As the names of the dinosaurs were spoken, the three coins merged into one and flew backwards into the newcomer's chest, pulling the coin-chains into his body with them and making a wave of light pass across him. After the light had faded, he was standing there in a different suit of armor, distinctive for the crest and horn-like appendages on the helmet and the vestigal wings that formed a pair of psuedo-capes on the back, while in his hand he held an axe whose head was decorated with the head of a tyrannosaurus. The odd thing was that although he had morphed - was it morphed? None of the onlookers were certain - using the Power Coins of the Pink Ranger, Blue Ranger and Red Ranger, the armored form that the stranger had ended up in was none of the above colors; instead, it was a rich purple color over its base black.
"Is this... the power of Super Sentai?" The stranger - did they call them PteraCeraSaurus? - muttered as they looked down at themselves.
The two remaining Rangers still possessing their Power Coins, the African-American and Asian-American teens, exchanged a look with each other. With their Morphers still extended from their interrupted attempt, they twisted them, hitting the release buttons on the sides to activate them in the process as they called out the confirmation...
"Mastodon!"
"Sabertooth Tiger!"
The Morphers opened and colored lightning shot out of the devices, arcing into the ground nearby and blasting chunks of dirt and rocks into the air. Almost immediately, more lighting began shooting out from the Morphers still held in their hands, striking them and sending waves of colored energy across their bodies, leaving them clad in a skin-tight battle suits of black for him and yellow for her, both with white details, along with boots and gloves in an inverted color scheme to the rest of the suits. The Morphers themselves vanished from their hands and appeared as buckles to the white belts of their suits. Transformation complete, the Black and Yellow Rangers adjusted their stance, ready to charge in to beat both the monster and the newcomer and get their friends' Power Coins back.
"Hold up guys," the unmorphed Red Ranger stopped them before they could act. "Let's see what this guy's planning first."
-o0o-
In less than ten minutes, the newcomer had beat the monster terrorising Angel Grove, but the fight wasn't as finished as they and the Rangers believed. In a palace on the Earth's moon, the space witch known as Rita Repulsa - ancient and sworn enemy of the Rangers' mentor Zordon - had watched the battle take place.
"I don't know who that thing belongs to, but anyone attacking the Rangers is good enough for me," Rita Repulsa declared. "Sorry, Rangers, but I'm not letting the fun end just yet! Magic Wand, make that monster grow!"
-o0o-
Before the Rangers could confront the stranger, a black staff with a black ring on the top, accented with gold trim and a red orb offset into the ring came flying down from the air to stick upright in the ground only feet away from the fallen monster. Cracking in the ground moved outwards from Rita's wand towards the monster, energy rising from them until they reached it and it aborbed the energy. All six present watched as the energy revived the monster and enlarged it to skyscraping heights.
"Okay, that's a little bigger than I'm used to," the armored stranger remarked.
"Not us," the Black Ranger informed them. "One thing, though..."
The stranger looked and him and cocked their head.
Black pointed with his thumb at where their unmorphed teammates were standing, "Mind giving them their coins back?"
"Oh. Yeah. Right, that might help you guys, yeah," the embarassment came through clearly in the stranger's voice.
Hitting a release on his buckle, the stranger held a hand under it and caught the Power Coins as they dropped out, the Rangers watching as it returned him to his previous yellow-red-green colored form. He obviously had good aim as he tossed each Coin at its respective owner so that they could catch them and replaced them in their Morphers without him missing any of the three.
"Thanks... uh, we didn't get your name..." Black remarked, leaving the opening for an answer clear.
The stranger struck a pose that reminded the Rangers of part of a martial arts kata, "Kamen Rider... OOO!"
The young man with glasses frowned, "'Ooze'?"
OOO broke from their pose and hung their head slightly, "No, OOO, like the letter, but times three."
"Oh."
"Exactly!"
"We can meet and greet later, right now we need to stop that monster before it does any more damage," Yellow reminded everyone.
The brunette girl nodded, "It's Morphing Time! Pteradactyl!"
"Triceratops!" The glasses-weared called out.
The young man wearing red was the last to speak, "Tyrannosaurus!"
Like their teammates before them, the three went through a transformation that turned them from seemingly normal teenagers with attitudes into the Power Rangers.
The Red Ranger looked to the sky and raised his hand, "We need Megazord power, now!"
With bestial cries, five giant robots in the forms of prehistoric animals thundered out of the wilderness and down the streets into Angel Grove. By this point, it had become so commonplace that most people were more concerned about the traffic problems and impending destruction of property than they were anything else.
OOO looked at the Zords as the Power Rangers rose into the air to take control of them, "Now I know why so many of the newer Riders are getting mecha of their own..."
Further away, the Black Ranger teleported into the Mastodon Zord and took their seat, taking a deep breath as they readied themselves and...
-o0o-
Zack Taylor woke up with a start, shaking his head to try and straighten it up.
"Man, if I forget everything else, I need to stay out of Twinkie-eating contests with guys that are 'just passing through', need to remember that..."