Eternal Sentai

Guardranger

Episode 10: Abduction of Airguard! Enter: Gammaraude!

By David Anderson and Derek Pryor

Things were finally beginning to settle down in the magnificent fortress that hovered just above Earth's atmosphere, looking down on the island nation that the planet's inhabitants called Japan. The home of their enemies since time immemorial, the Eternal Sentai Guardranger.

The blue-skinned subjects of the Empire were still talking about how fearsome the Guardrangers had proven to be. They had even bested Sharaki, Garganstah's invincible champion! Did Garganstah stand any chance at all against such enemies? The people in the workplaces and forums aboard the Death Gar were buzzing with worry, especially a disgruntled young subject named Lurian as he walked the halls back to work after his break, knowing he'd be working late into the night maintaining delicate machinery even if none of the Barons came to them with a request for an Animated Warrior that day.

Yes, all of Garganstah seemed to be on edge about this. But none more so than its ruler, the one determined to make Earth his again at any cost for the benefit and security of his people, Emperor Brannoch.

Brannoch drummed his fingers on the arm of his steel throne. Sharaki's attempt to get rid of the Guardrangers had failed in spectacular fashion, destroyed at the hands of Daichijin, a giant metallic warrior the like of which he had never seen before. Still, Rodim had only been intended as a scout in the first place. From now on, he would send real warriors to do this job.

Brannoch wondered who, though, as none of his Barons had come forward with plans of their own yet. Probably still busy settling into their new quarters and facilities. But the Guardrangers were probably still inexperienced with the new abilities they'd demonstrated when they fought Rodim the second time. Brannoch couldn't relent or they'd surely become even more formidable. And that was the last thing he needed…

The Emperor of Garganstah effortlessly tuned out the material world and delved into the power surging inside him waiting to be called upon. He summoned that power, then flung it ethereally across the expanse of the Death Gar. In a laboratory on the other side of the fortress, a reaction was produced. A screen hummed to life in the wall, and Gammaraude, Garganstah's technological miracle-worker, looked up from her work to see the face of her Emperor on it.

"Sire, to what do I owe the pleasure?" she said in the diplomatic voice she'd been honing for years.

Brannoch was unfazed by Gammaraude's tone of voice, but answered her question. "Report to me at once, Gammaraude. I have a task for you, and I don't care to give you the particulars through the indignity of a screen on your wall."

Meanwhile, far below, a scenario of a completely different nature was playing out. Miaka and Noremi were strolling leisurely along a crowded street. School was over for the day, and homework assignments for the night were surprisingly light. But Miaka wasn't complaining. She'd been hoping she could spend a little time mending fences with her friend before going home, what with all the dodging and dancing around questions she'd had to do about what she spent her spare time doing that she couldn't tell Noremi about.

Noremi, for her part, looked to be willing to forgive and forget as she plied Miaka with the latest rumors about who said what about who and which of their friends had a crush on the new captain of the school baseball team. In fact she was acting like Miaka hadn't been acting weirdly at all.

Trying to play it nonchalant, and seeing if Noremi was just being polite, Miaka said, "Boy, seems like I've really been out of touch lately. I haven't heard about any of this."

"Not really. Actually, I only heard about it yesterday," Noremi replied, sounding as casual as could be. She wondered if Miaka could tell she was trying to be friendly and forgiving, trying to ignore the secrets Miaka was keeping from her. But it wasn't easy. And she could tell that whatever this secret was, it was something big, which only made it worse.

Fortunately for them both, Noremi was suddenly distracted by something she spotted in a store window.

Noremi stood with her eyes screwed to the window of a small store called Marap's, an accessory place with a reputation for inexpensive, but beautiful merchandise Miaka had heard her friends mention two or three times. It was a lot less spectacular than she'd been led to believe. But still, there was something in the window display that had sure gotten Noremi's attention. Miaka had to peer around her to see what it was.

Noremi's eyes were glued to a large music/jewelry box, with an ornately shaped and beautifully painted glass angel holding a crescent moon out in front of her standing proudly in the center of the box. It looked gorgeous, Miaka had to admit, but couldn't be too exquisite if it was being sold at a place like Marap's. Still, Noremi looked entranced.

"Kawaii! I wonder what that costs," Noremi said without taking her eyes off of it.

"Why don't we go in and find out? I don't know about you, but I'd love to have something like that."

Noremi sighed in response. And she didn't even have to say what she was about to.

"Because I'm broke. I spent the last of my allowance for the week when we went to the movies. I didn't really think I'd run into something I couldn't live without."

"Oh come on... This is supposed to be one of the cheapest stores in town. Everyone we know has at least something from this store decorating their bedroom. Are you really that hard up for money right now?"

Noremi fished a 100-yen coin out of her pocket, and looked at Miaka disconsolately. Somehow, Miaka thought, even Marap's merchandise probably wasn't that cheap. But it wasn't like Miaka was any richer. A good chunk of her money for the moment had disappeared last weekend when they got together with their little clique to go to the aforementioned movie. All Miaka had left was the monthly fee she paid her vocal coach with. So no luck there.

In spite of her current "lack thereof" in the money situation, Miaka felt this overwhelming urge to find some way to buy this little treasure for Noremi. Her friend who was still her friend despite Miaka's being unable to open up about her biggest achievement in life.

She sighed inwardly. A perfect opportunity to reaffirm her friendship with Noremi, and she wasn't blessed with the finances to seize it. Her head spun with ideas about getting the music box as a present for Noremi, none of them very practicable or befitting of a part-time superhero like herself. There had to be a way to get this, to smooth things over with Noremi. But how, when she had next to no money and wouldn't have any until the end of the week? A little treasure like that wasn't destined to stay un-purchased for long.

"Oh well…you can't have everything," Noremi said, her tone carrying a note of finality to the whole shebang. She stepped away from the window.

Miaka's felt about two inches tall. What kind of friend was she, that she kept secrets from her best friend and could provide nothing to make amends? A protective one and one with no income, that's what kind.

Guilty much?

Noremi and she had been friends for ages. It meant something big to her to maintain that friendship. And as much as she might have wanted to, Miaka couldn't do it by telling Noremi what really kept her busy outside of school these days. That was the whose purpose of having a secret identity-- to keep friends and loved ones from being turned into human bull's-eyes, and she certainly didn't want Noremi targeted by Garganstah because she happened to know who one of the Guardrangers was. So what could she do?

The two girls walked on, exchanging gossip in a gloomier tone than before.

A confident figure strode unhindered through the halls of the Death Gar toward Emperor Brannoch's throne room. A waterfall of dark blood-red hair fell down her back, and she garbed herself in a somewhat-elaborate, if form-fitting, suit of dark blue armor of her own make and design, her high heels sounding imperious clicks down the hallway. The civilians she passed stopped and started at this beauty who walked through their midst. She exuded power, brilliance and charisma, for she was Gammaraude, one of the mighty Barons who led the forces of Garganstah.

Her passage was quick; everyone she met in the halls could tell she had been called on some important mission and stayed out of her way. When she reached the throne room two hefty guards pushed open the giant doors to allow her entrance. The room was empty except for Brannoch, sitting on his steel throne at the far end. Whatever he wanted to say to her was clearly meant only for her ears, as he had sent the regular assemblage of courtiers and guards away.

"As you requested, Emperor, I have come. What task would you have of me?" she said in her mellifluous voice, cutting right to the point. She of all people in Garganstah was aware Brannoch didn't favor wasting time when there was work to be done.

"I am requesting the creation of one of your mechanical Animated Warriors. We have been long gone from Earth, and I've grown ignorant in the kinds of natural wealth it possesses. I'd like to learn again, and begin to take a little recompense for what the humans did."

"Of course, sire. Is that all?"

"Hardly," Brannoch said, and for a moment seemed the inhuman tyrant the peoples of the worlds Garganstah had conquered thought he was. "You'll need to incorporate combat capabilities into it, as well. Activity on our part is sure to attract the Guardrangers' attention. And when they show up, I want them swatted like the infernal gnats they are."

"Majesty, forgive my boldness, but…are they truly that quick to respond to a threat made against them?" Gammaraude asked. She had heard the same stories about the Guardrangers that all of Garganstah had, but she was a woman of science, of personal observation and confirmed conclusions. Not of believing in wild folktales and ancient legends.

"More so than you truly understand, my dear. They came almost at once when Sharaki attacked, both times. It's exactly as I've said, Gammaraude, over and over during our trips through space. The Guardrangers are the most dangerous foes we could possibly face. The fact that they're still fighting us after four thousand years should prove that. And now with the additional power of that damnable warrior of theirs--this…'Great Earth God', Daichijin they've gained, the task before us will be considerably greater than before."

"I understand, Sire. I'll see to the creation of an Animated Warrior at once." Brannoch nodded at this, and wove a hand to dismiss her from his presence.

Gammaraude made a quick and efficient journey from Brannoch's throne room to the laboratory several floors down where facilities were set up to create life, one of the many incredible powers at Garganstah's command.

Unlike her fellow Barons, Gammaraude liked this place. A smile played across her lovely blue face as she took in the gigantic humming machinery and the lab technicians running around attending to various tasks. A few scurried over to her like the sycophantic lackeys they were when they noticed that the Baroness had come in.

"Greetings, Baroness. Do you require an Animated Warrior of us?"

"Of course, you lout. Why else would I be here?" she snapped, and Lurian winced as he watched his co-worker reel back in fright. This, on the other hand, was what she didn't like about coming here to cook up a new Animated Warrior of subtle qualities and devastating power. That the cowering simps working here felt they had to ask the Barons what they wanted this time whenever they came down to create a soldier to stage an attack with. She really should've been used to it by now, but somehow every time it managed to be a fresh horror.

She carefully considered the qualities she wanted in this Animated Warrior as the technicians fired up the machines. It would have to be able to collect things with considerable speed and store them all away. It would need a micro-dimensional storage space, a pocket dimension that could reduce the size and mass of whatever was placed inside, but that was no problem. Garganstah had long ago mastered such trivial things as fabricating dimensions. Gammaraude thought of an antiquated cleaning device as a means of collection, and figured that in as well. Some armor and other basic weaponry, and her creation was ready to be animated. The details were fed into a master computer, and the astonishing process began.

Above her head, a metallic containment module slowly moved into place over a slab of metal one of the technicians wheeled into place on a gurney. One of the technicians entered a host of complex computations into a nearby keyboard, and a glowing, baseball-sized pod rose from a compartment in the floor, rising into the containment module in a field of anti-gravity. Dark-green and plant-like in its appearance, it was, quite literally the heart of a planet, containing the necessary essence that imparted it life. This one, however was one from a minor, uninhabited world, and therefore it was expendable in the long run. The Genesis Seeds of the greatest potency were stored elsewhere and at the Royal Family's disposal. The techs continued working, feeding the data and physical schematics into the computers that guided the animation process into the Genesis Seed.

The seed began to hum and throb as colorful bits of computerized information traveled from the machines into it. Then suddenly arcing bolts of green power lanced out from the seed and into the metal below, melting it at once. But the metal began to rise as if with a life of its own, which it if fact then possessed, and began to take shape.

Humanoid, it was, but that was where the similarity to the people of Garganstah ended. Then, horrifyingly, the shape solidified, and stepped forward, its metal skin now fully detailed and glittering ominously. It was an imposing robot, with angry-looking amber eyes and a bodily construction that made him look like a cross between a weight lifter and a tank. Small but dangerous and extremely potent-looking cannons bristled on his shoulders and wrists. On his back was a hefty backpack. Gammaraude smiled as she inspected her creation.

"All right, Stasher, time for your first field test…"

The mechanical monster gnashed his pointed metal teeth together in enthusiastic reply.

A short while later, a field of smoldering blue light appeared in the middle of a Tokyo park, and from that field, Gammaraude and her monster materialized. People turned to look at them in surprise, and as soon as they realized what they were seeing, they began to flee in all directions. Such was a conditioned response after all of the monsters and menaces that had made Tokyo their target over the years.

Gammaraude surveyed her surroundings, ignoring the panicked civilians, beneath her notice. If they were so weak that the mere sight of the likes of her and Stasher frightened them so much, they deserved to be conquered by Garganstah. But she wasn't here on a mission of subjugation.

As a woman tripped and fell during her flight from these strange interlopers, a jewel-studded necklace her husband had given her as an anniversary gift was jarred loose and fell to the ground. Considering life a more precious gift, she didn't stop to retrieve it as she ran. But Stasher spotted it, and immediately went to work.

His right fist opened up, like a flower, revealing a tube running up through his arm. It began to whir with a powerful suction, and in the blink of an eye the necklace was sucked inside of Stasher. But then something caught his mechanical eye, and he sauntered across the street to a jewelry store, smashed in the window with his vacuum-arm, then proceeded to suck up every bauble in the store, not to mention nearly a panicked clerk who was fumbling to escape through the back door.

Good…the collection system seems to be working well, Gammaraude said to herself as Stasher's hand folded back to normal and he stepped away from the window. Not that she doubted her masterpiece in the least, of course. But the thought of foes actually capable of putting up a fight thrilled her to the core after all of Garganstah's easy victories, and she wondered how Stasher might be able to do against the Guardrangers when and if they lived up to Brannoch's warnings by showing up.

Only one way to find out. She and Stasher headed into the streets of downtown Tokyo to stir up some mischief.

The uncomfortable silence between Miaka and Noremi was so tangible, it felt like a solid force against them both. They'd run out of things to make idle conversation about ages ago, and Noremi was thinking it was about time she went home and tried to forget that Miaka wasn't telling her something important. But just then, a wave of panicked civilians running as fast their legs could carry them from Gammaraude came into sight down the street.

Miaka instinctively grabbed her hefty friend and quickly pulled her out of the way of the mob. She leaned out and tried to see what the mob was running from, but this time Noremi pulled her back out of the way, into the limited safety of a narrow alley.

"Miaka! Have you lost your mind?! Quick, get out of the way before you get trampled!" Noremi ordered, as if scolding a younger sibling.

It was exactly the same feeling she had whenever the two of them hung out. Miaka always seemed so innocent to Noremi, exactly like a young sibling, unversed in the ways of the world, but determined to fix that. The strange and exotic had always been Miaka's favorite things, and something that could put that many people to flight was bound to be something you didn't see every day. But it was also bound to be dangerous.

Miaka just looked at her friend. Miaka knew Noremi had been put out by her refusing to talk about being a Guardranger, whether she acted like it or not. It was about the only secret Miaka had ever kept from her, and the only thing Miaka had kept to herself with such insistence. Miaka knew her friend well enough to know that this was something Noremi did not believe friends did to each other. And yet there was an unmistakable patience and protectiveness behind Noremi's words and bearing. Maybe she was disappointed in Miaka for not being told her secret, but she was still worried about her friend.

"Gomen…I just…wanted to see what the big emergency was. If we should be running away too…" Miaka stammered, trying to collect herself and not give anything away.

"Well, if it spooked a crowd that big, I'm thinking 'yes'. Come on, let's get out of here," Noremi said as calmly as she could with a mad rush of frightened people literally at their backs, then grabbed Miaka by the wrist and started to run down a side street. As she was towed along, Miaka pried her thoughts away from how grateful she was for her friend being so cool about this, and sent out a message along a special bond that allowed her, her teammates, and the wizard who advised them to communicate over long distances. If Garganstah was around, she had to be aware.

Bes…I almost got stampeded by a mob of scared people. They seemed like they were running away from something. Is Garganstah around?

After a moment, a reply came. Yes, Airguard. I have alerted the others. Help is on the way.

Good. I'll be along as soon as I can, Bes.

As soon as she could, indeed. She wasn't going to be much help against whatever Garganstah had cooked up with Noremi dragging her to safety like a good friend would…

Major sigh.

Gammaraude sat back and watched with amusement as her monster caused utter chaos in the streets. He sucked up anything that sparkled, and fired his shoulder cannons at anything that didn't. Entire buildings exploded under his onslaught.

She began to wonder where the Guardrangers were taking so long. Brannoch would have had her believe that they'd be right on her heels the minute she started causing a disturbance, but even the police hadn't showed up to try to stop her yet. Which was strange, to put it mildly. After beating Sharaki, why would the protectors of the people just disappear, and not reappear when she came out to play?

Stasher aimed and fired another merciless barrage from his shoulder-cannons, toppling another building. Gammaraude watched it fall with a startling nonchalance, but then called out to the monster, "Calm down, Stasher! No sense in mowing down good potential subjects that way." Stasher grunted and went back to destroying property on a much more limited scale.

The collection was going surprisingly quickly, Gammaraude thought, letting her mind wander amidst the explosions and screams of terror. There were entire stores full of jewels and baubles and all sorts of sparkly things that came out of the ground and were used to artificially enhance the beauty of the wearer. Were humans--the women in particular--really suffering from such low esteem in their own looks that they needed to adorn themselves with rocks and gold to feel pretty? What other reason could there be for so many of their acquisitions coming right off of people's necks and fingers, from people just walking down the street? On Garganstah such baubles a symbol of office. On this planet people walked into stores and bought them. Such a strange, strange world it had become while they were gone.

All of a sudden a device on her wrist began to bleep urgently. Stasher heard it and stopped what he was doing. Gammaraude looked around slowly, silently. The device's warning could mean only one thing. It was something she'd whipped up to be an early warning system when signatures of elemental energy manifested in the vicinity.

Like when the Guardrangers activated their powers.

She could almost hear the world creak on its axis, everything was so quiet as she listened for the slightest clue f where her adversaries might be. Then, without warning, two brightly-colored figures, red and blue, flew out of the shadows and, swords flashing, struck Stasher as they sped past. At the same time, another two figures, yellow and green, launched themselves out of nowhere at Gammaraude. Two sword strokes connected before she even realized what was happening. But though they struck sparks against her uniform, she was unharmed, thanks to the durable material she'd made it from. If they had thought to remove her as a threat so quickly, well, they were going to receive a nasty surprise.

The colorful assailants landed and gathered together. Each wore a helmet crafted in the image of a mighty beast on it, and on the front of each one's costume was a triangular symbol depicting a different natural element; a roaring flame, a cascading tidal wave, a pillar of stone, and a towering tree. And each was toting a short, shining sword. Yes, these were the Guardrangers. Strange, though. One seemed to be missing…

"So…at last the scourge of Garganstah finally deign to show themselves ," Gammaraude said simply. "I was started to grow bored with the wait."

"Gomenesai." the one in yellow--Earthguard, Gammaraude remembered this one was called--replied dryly. "but you'll find that we aren't in the habit of making things convenient for the people who want to take over this planet."

Gammaraude snorted. "Something we have in common. Stasher! Deal with this!" she hissed. The metal monster nodded in acknowledgement and stepped forward. Then all at once the storage pack on his back opened up and out jumped a group of Silicons. Like lambs to the slaughter, they surged toward the Rangers with Stasher right behind them.

"Here they come, guys," Fireguard warned. "Naoko, you and Tochiro take the big guy! We'll handle these clowns!"

"Done," Earthguard confirmed, while Forestguard gave a thumbs-up as the metal soldiers rushed toward the four of them.

The Rangers readied themselves. With the coming of the true Garganstah empire, even the Silicons were no joke anymore. But as the first of them came within striking range, they were ready. Fire and Waterguard's Eternablade's flashed through the air and dug into the torsos of the first two foot soldiers. Then the pair of the warriors kicked the still-flailing Silicons off their weapons and slashed the next two to the ground.

Forest and Earthguard were heaving themselves right into the battle as well. The Gorilla Vine cut the distance between them in the blink of an eye and smacked into Stasher's chest with a resounding impact. The robot fired a blast from a cannon on his shoulder that knocked Forestguard twenty feet down the sidewalk, but Earthguard was already leaping toward him, Grizzly Claws outstretched. Before he could react, she had ripped them across his right side. A metallic cry of pain cut the air.

Yes, the battle was joined. But as Gammaraude watched from the sidelines, she wondered where the last Ranger was. She had only detected the four surges of power, and that made her a little uneasy. Where was the fifth Guardranger while her teammates were here duking it out with the forces of Garganstah?

Gammaraude touched her fingers to the keypad built into her right arm guard. She entered in a few keystrokes and the signature analyzer that had warned her of the Guardranger's coming switched modes and began scanning for the last of their number on a more concentrated scale. Removing herself from the melee, Gammaraude slipped away in search of the remaining Ranger. If she couldn't come to the fight with her friends, maybe she'd be up for a little one-on-one.

Miaka struggled, trying to break Noremi's iron grip on her wrist. Garganstah was on the attack, she had to go help the rest of the team fight. But it wasn't as if she could tell Noremi that.

"Noremi, I think we're far enough out of the way now, you can stop dragging me!"

"Oh, no…I'm not going to feel safe until we've got a dozen or more armed cops surrounding us," Noremi replied firmly. Of course, that did nothing to reassure Miaka. Who knew how the fight was going? She didn't, that's who, but Miaka had an idea…

"Okay, okay, but would you stop holding so tight? Before my arm comes out at the socket!"

Noremi loosened her grip on Miaka's arm a little, but that was all Miaka needed. Quick as a wink she had slipped her slender wrist through Noremi's grasp and was darting back the other way. " Gomen, Noremi! Maybe I'll be able to explain all this eventually!"

"MIAKA!!!" Noremi recovered quickly, though, and chased after Miaka. She couldn't imagine what was going through her friend's head, but wasn't about to let her just charge straight into the lion's den by letting her go back and see what was happening. She ran after Miaka, moving surprisingly fast for a girl of her heft.

Miaka darted through the streets and alleys, sure Noremi was right behind her and not feeling safe to change until she had given her friend the slip. As she paused to catch her breath, the unmistakable sounds of battle reached her ears. She must have been close. Seeing there was no one around now, Miaka raised her Guard Brace, and immediately felt a power beginning to rise within her.

"AIR…FOCUS!" she shouted, and a cyclone whipped up from beneath her. Airguard's glistening white uniform began to weave itself around her body as her powers erupted, and within instants, Miaka Kanzuki was replaced by Airguard. She started toward the sounds of battle, but suddenly something bolted out of the shadows and hit her squarely in the back.

Airguard quickly pulled herself up, and there stood Gammaraude, an expression of supreme confidence on her face and half the length of her right arm covered in blue-black metal that terminated into a giant hammer-like extension on her hand.

"Well, there you are. I was wondering where you were hiding, little girl," she said.

"Yeah, I know…if you'd known I was coming, you would've baked a cake or whatever," Airguard quipped, drawing her Eternablade. "It's not like I planned on being late..."

"I suppose not. But fortunately, it's worked to my advantage, regardless," Gammaraude smirked, tapping another host of keystrokes into her gauntlet keypad on her gauntlet. The metal of the hammer liquefied and shifted like flowing mercury before being replaced by a triple-pronged rod with pulsing strobes of blue electricity dancing along the ends.

Airguard quickly sized up this new Garganstah warrior, then remarked, "You know, you new Gargs sure don't talk like Armag."

Gammaraude's face screwed up in disgust. "Gods and minions…don't mention that ingrate and our empire in the same breath. He was a witless fool who became a Baron because his father was an old friend of Emperor Brannoch's. Unlike that wretch, the rest of us actually earned our appointments." So saying, Gammaraude charged, aiming the energy rod at Airguard's midsection.

Another Baron! Airguard tried to fend off the incoming strike with her sword, but Gammaraude wasn't just smart, she was quick, too, and jabbed the rod into Airguard's unguarded side.

The electricity poured into Airguard's body, registering pain in every nerve. Even though her protective uniform took the brunt of the assault, Airguard barely managed to stagger back, trying to pull herself together before Gammaraude attacked again. But Gammaraude knew many things, like the wisdom of pressing an advantage in battle, and gave Airguard no chance to recover.

Airguard feebly dodged another jab from Gammaraude's shock-rod. Gammaraude smiled a triumphant smile. These Guardrangers might have beaten Sharaki, but it appeared that separately, they could hardly even defend themselves. This would be an easy victory.

Airguard, meanwhile, could tell she wasn't up against some slouch, but as the pain from her memorable shock faded, she began to feel that maybe, if she was careful, she might have a chance at evening the odds. The Baroness seemed pretty confident since she only had one Ranger to fight. Maybe Airguard could use that…

The thought of salvation if she could pull off a ploy gave Airguard strength, and she deftly dodged the next strike, then with a leap and mid-air swerve that would have made the Olympic judges proud, soared over Gammaraude's head and landed behind her. Gammaraude went in once more with her electron rod, but Airguard dodged aside at the last second and sheared off the ends of it with her Eternablade.

"A minor setback," Gammaraude said, still the picture of confidence, and hit another button. The metal liquefied and shifted again and took on the form of a short blade with a dull green glint of some weird liquid on it. Airguard had no idea what was, but she wasn't about to risk getting scratched by it simply to find out. And as Gammaraude lunged, most of Airguard's energy went into swerving and ducking out of her way.

As they dueled, Airguard landed a few blows of her own, but her Eternablade skidded uselessly off the Baroness's uniform. To take out her opponent, however, was not her goal. As she weaved away from Gammaraude's blows, Airguard was steering them toward where she heard sounds of fighting. It wasn't exactly an elegant plan, but she figured that if she could get to the battle, she would be with her teammates and stand a batter chance of making it home alive.

Gammaraude, on the other hand, was thinking about how this Ranger kept dancing around, as if afraid of the slightest blow connecting, and it made her more confident than ever. If all she could do was dodge, she wasn't going to be much of a threat--and sooner or later she would jump the wrong way.

That's what she thought anyway. At that moment Gammaraude stabbed her gauntlet at Airguard and clipped the young heroine's arm, but Airguard had gotten a better idea than dodging and feinting, and flung herself away from Gammaraude, then jumped into the air and vaulted off the wall of a building. Summoning up her ability to control the air itself, she began to soar off. Toward the sounds of battle…

But Gammaraude wasn't surprised for long. A press of her belt buckle and she lifted off the ground and flew after Airguard. "You can't think it's that simple, little girl! If you start a fight with me, expect to finish it!"

"Who says I'm not doing just that?" Airguard called back as she weaved through buildings, hoping she wasn't giving her true aim away. Gammaraude raised her right arm, metal flowing like water again, forming a nasty-looking gun with a extremely hefty gatling gun muzzle on the end and tried to aim the shot that would take her prey down once and for all, but Airguard was paying attention and zipped and weaved erratically to throw her off. In less than a minute they had cleared the buildings and below them was harsh melee was taking place. The Guardrangers were beating back Gammaraude's metal flunkies, and Airguard descended to join them, landing next to Forestguard.

"Hey! Took you long enough to get here," he chided good-naturedly. He was actually pretty glad to see her, since they'd all been too busy to contact her and see if she was all right.

"I know. I really have to stop hanging out with the wrong people," Airguard replied, pointing to Gammaraude, who was at that moment descending to join the battle as well.

She laughed. A long, haughty laugh that stopped the fighting completely as they all turned to look at her. "So the mighty heroine runs from her enemy to the safety of her friends. Heroism at its finest---HAH!"

"At least she's got friends," Forestguard retorted, fixing her with a steely gaze behind his visor.

Gammaraude laughed again. "You're hardly in any position to judge. I'm just reporting what I see. What makes you so sure you know anything about me, hero?"

"We know enough! You tried to take over the planet and it created us in response to stop you!"

"Spoken like the self-righteous hypocrites you are!" Gammaraude raged. "Conquest was the only means you left to us! Humanity feared and persecuted us from the beginning because of our gifts, our power! You wouldn't accept us so we fought back. And what did we gain for our efforts? We were driven into space for four millennia! Earth is our home as much as any other species who lives here!"

"Even if that's true, which I'm seriously doubting, it's doesn't justify what you're doing!"

"Shut up!" Gammaraude shouted. She'd come to get these idiots out of the Empire's way, not to talk ethics. Stasher realized his mistress considered the conversation closed, and lunged at the nearest Ranger--Forestguard. He was taken completely by surprise, but one of his teammates wasn't, and two words saved his life.

"BOREAN BURST!" Airguard gathered and fired her familiar sphere of concentrated air straight at Stasher. It exploded against his metal torso and sent him stumbling back. The Silicons brandished their weapons, and the fight began again. Silicons surrounded Forest and Airguard and they braced themselves back to back, weapons in hand. The metal soldiers closed in, isolating the two of them from their teammates, and swords began flashing violently through the air.

Fending off attack after attack, Forestguard managed to spare a bit of attention for his comrade leaning against his back. "Arigato, Airguard..."

"My pleasure, but I think we'll be saving each other's lives a lot before we get done with the Gargs," Airguard replied while fending off Silicons of her own. "You have to stay on the ball while you're doing this."

"And you'd know, wouldn't you? Trust me…I'm not gonna forget after that."

Stasher had recovered by now and was battling the other three Rangers. Waterguard jumped and thrust his trident at Stasher while Earthguard attacked from behind with her claws, but Stasher's upper body began to spin while he held his arms out and batted them away. Fireguard ducked under this attack and jabbed his Dragon Steel into Stasher's leg. The robot howled and tried to kick him, but Fireguard was too fast and rolled out of the way.

Fireguard dashed to the side of the street gathered his energy. The Dragon Steel began to burn with vermilion power, and he brought it up, calling out, "DRAGON HELLBURST--" But Stasher suddenly aimed his vacuum tube at Fireguard and sucked in with all his might. Fireguard, flaming sword poised to strike, was yanked off-balance and pulled toward the monster! Fireguard struggled but the pull was much too strong and he couldn't aim a blow to stop Stasher and resist being pulled closer at the same time.

"DRAGON HELLRISER!" Fireguard shouted desperately and suddenly began to spiral toward Stasher encased in a tornado of flame. Now Stasher was surprised, and bowled off his feet when Fireguard smashed into him. He quickly got up, but the other Rangers were ready for him.

"ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" Before Stasher could even think of launching a new attack, he was seized up in a whirlpool that erupted from the end of Waterguard's trident before being shot like a cannonball out of the watery vortex and into the side of a building.

Earthguard was next. "PETRA…" Her claws released white fog at Stasher and immediately a shell of stone spread over his body. "CROSS SLASH!" Earthguard brought her arms down in an "X" motion, and the red image burned itself into the stone shell and exploded, sending stone shrapnel flying on all sides.

"Great job, guys!" Fireguard said, but it was premature. From out of the smoke emerged Stasher, damaged but still kicking. The Rangers braced themselves as he retaliated.

Gammaraude watched the battle from above, taking everything in, as was her wont. These Guardrangers did indeed seem to be dogged foes as three of them were knocked down by Stasher but got right back up and hacked at him with their archaic weapons. She turned toward the other two, locked in battle with a rapidly dwindling number of Silicons.

he two f them complemented each other well. Forestguard lunged and stabbed a Silicon on in the gut, while Airguard bounded off his back and with an acrobatic flip sliced the head off the Silicon behind the one her teammate had just taken out. Forestguard punched one in the face with his Shock Knuckles and then Airguard ducked in and hacked it off at the waist with a quicksilver fluidity that would've been the envy of all the stuntmen in Hollywood.

Gammaraude tapped a button on her belt and descended toward the two Rangers. Science and its methodical and detached ways had put her where she was, but Gammaraude could tell when a good time to involve herself in a fight was. With her Silicons almost completely wiped out, now was such a time.

She wasted no words on the Guardrangers. That was the course fools took. Instead she pressed a button on her gauntlet and a small gun-like module rose up, which she aimed at the two of them.

"What kind of--" Airguard began, but Gammaraude didn't let her finish. A tap of a button discharged an impulse of bruise-purple energy from the module that lanced out and engulfed Airguard, then lifted her off the ground. Airguard struggled, only to have Gammaraude increase the power and the force of the beam multiplied tenfold and chucked her through the air like a stone.

Forestguard poised himself to attack, but Gammaraude magnified the width of the beam and sucked him into its field in seconds. She hoisted him thirty feet straight up and off the ground, but before she could entertain the idea of throwing him anywhere, Forestguard drew his arms back quickly, a flare of green igniting in his palms.

"AURA OAK BUSTER!" Forestguard thrust his arms out as a spiraling blast of emerald green, accompanied by a flurry of glowing leaves lanced toward Gammaraude. Snarling, she threw her right forearm out in front of her, a transparent screen of invisible force splintering and diffusing the blast, but the impact was still solid enough to force her to release her hold on Forestguard in the process. He went into a crouch as he landed, and when he stood up again Airguard, a little bruised but a lot wiser, was by his side.

"Wish I'd thought of that."

"You will next time," Forestguard replied like the loving big brother she'd never had.

Forestguard certainly seemed to be adapting to this well, even if he didn't necessarily agree with solving problems with force. For a second she wondered if being enlisted in Guardranger was changing her at all, or if all the attention she had invested in those who were now her fellow heroes had her on autopilot whenever she donned the helmet and the suit. But only a second, because a pair of silver modules materialized on Gammaraude's wrist, locking on either side of the gravity ray she'd previously used and was aiming it at them. The two attacked her together.

The others continued to battle Stasher, until he suddenly reared up and decked all three with a swipe of his hefty metal fist. But they were up again in an instant, and as one flipped over Stasher's head and sent three simultaneous kicks that knocked the metal behemoth into the air to skid to a halt at his mistress's feet.

"Give it up, lady!" Waterguard shouted as he and the two others closed in on Gammaraude. "We've got you beat!"

"Not in this lifetime, Ranger," Gammaraude replied icily, and suddenly Stasher's arm lashed out and grabbed Airguard by the ankle. Before she could do anything to defend herself, Airguard was engulfed in a violent impulse of purple light from Gammaraude's weapon. She cried out, power arcing all over her body, and crumpled lifelessly to the ground. Gammaraude stepped forward to finish the job, but Forestguard jumped in her way.

"You're not hurting her while I'm here," Forestguard said, brandishing his Gorilla Vine protectively. Behind him, Airguard's head was swimming. She couldn't move and hardly think thanks to that shot Gammaraude had just leveled her with, but she could, with an effort, make out that Forestguard was hovering over while the Garganstah monster released his grip on her ankle and moved to back up his mistress against this puny challenger.

"What do you think you're--" Airguard gasped, but Forestguard cut her off.

"Save your strength, we can handle this."

"We'll see," Gammaraude retorted. "Don't think that was the last of my arsenal. I've got plenty where that came from!" She whistled, and Stasher roared like a wild animal and reared up to attack Forestguard. The Ranger in green braced himself, and his teammates charged to his aid. Stasher dove at Forestguard's neck with his vicious fangs, but the warrior in green caught his mechanical foe by the shoulders and forced him back with a strength and fury that was unlike him, away from Airguard. Gammaraude made a move toward Airguard, reaching into a pocket to pull out who knew what kind of new deadly weapon, but Fireguard quickly motioned to the others and flipped nimbly to surround her.

"Hey, where you goin' in such a rush, beautiful? Leavin' the party before it gets started?" Waterguard said, pretending to sound hurt. Typical Jason behavior, Airguard thought.

"Clearly Sharaki's the only one of you who has any sort of chivalry about him," Earthguard added. Serious and righteous as usual.

And then there was Fireguard, who said simply, "You fight one of us, you fight all of us." He'd become as serious and righteous as Earthguard in the couple of weeks that they'd been a team, and now was leading the others in defending their fallen ally.

Gammaraude growled at them all, and suddenly whipped out a pair of black egg-shaped objects she chucked at the three Rangers. The black eggs hit the ground and exploded, but the Rangers jumped in the way of the blast without a moment's hesitation. Some distance away Airguard could hear Forestguard and the monster mixing it up. The battle picked up again a moment later with Gammaraude producing a pair of whips of blazing energy from who knew where to use against the Guardrangers.

They were all heroes, Airguard thought, but more than that, they were first-rate friends. Airguard didn't know anyone else she was sure would jump on top of a bomb to protect her. But looking back on that day would cause her to really appreciate her friends, for at that moment she felt someone dragging her away from the battle.

Making a heroic effort, Airguard managed to squeeze a pair of words out of her mouth. "Who's there?"

"Just a concerned citizen," said a very familiar voice. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of the line of fire."

Airguard couldn't turn to look at her erstwhile rescuer, but she didn't need to. It was Noremi, probably expecting to find Miaka at the battle and instead finding a helpless Guardranger. If she only knew.

"You haven't happened to see a girl about my age run past here, have you? I think she came this way, but I didn't see her."

Airguard tried to say that no she hadn't, but all that came out was a sound that said it hurt to try to talk. Noremi continued to drag her off the battlefield in silence.

Suddenly a cry of pain cut the air as Stasher blasted Forestguard and literally sent him flying. The other three Rangers turned to see what was happening and for a moment hesitated, wondering whether to press the attack on Gammaraude or help their teammate. She was quicker on the trigger, though, and fired a brutal barrage of quantum rounds at them from her gatling gun, igniting a wave of sparks as the ammo connected and knocked the three of them down, then darted away.

"Stasher, finish off the one in green!" Gammaraude called. Stasher stomped toward Forestguard, who was burned and battered on the ground, to comply, but something caught his electronic eye. Noremi froze as Stasher's gaze locked onto her, and his hand opened up to reveal the vacuum tube in his arm. "What are you doing?!" Gammaraude shouted, but Stasher was doing exactly what she'd designed him to do.

The suction began, tugging at the stones set in Noremi's earrings. They were just glass, but they glimmered like jewels and so Stasher was just doing his job by collecting them. Noremi held on tighter to Airguard, trying to pull her away despite the force trying to relieve her of her baubles, but Stasher's power was too strong and the two of them were just pulled in closer.

"Airguard!" Forestguard cried as he watched in horror, but as he tried to get up and stop the monster, his body seized up in pain and he collapsed. Stasher kicked him aside and redoubled his efforts, pulling Noremi and Airguard in even more quickly and forcefully.

"Get away…save yourself…hayaku!" Airguard gasped, barely audible to Noremi over the rushing air. Noremi might have too, if a strange feeling hadn't come over them both at that instant. The suction was still there, but it seemed to be getting even stronger. But there was also another sensation, as if they were being stretched from the top and bottom and squeezed around the middle all at the same time, which was more or less exactly what was happening to them. Before the Guardrangers' and Gammaraude's eyes, Noremi and Airguard began to extend and become thinner, looking like reflections in carnival mirrors, and they spiraled off the ground, through the air, and into Stasher's vacuum tube, which closed behind them.

"AIRGUARD!" four voices shouted at once. Fire, Water, and Earthguard forgot all about Gammaraude and their own injuries and hurled themselves at Stasher, but their angry charge made them easy targets and one burst from his shoulder cannons cut down all three Rangers.

Gammaraude moved forward to finish the job her creation had started, her whips crackling. But all at once a menacing visage appeared in the sky above. All of the combatants recognized it. It was Brannoch.

"Gammaraude, return. I would discuss the results of your hunt." With that, the face vanished.

"Looks like you've earned a reprieve, Guardrangers," Gammaraude scoffed, disappointed that she had been called back with them at her mercy. "Next time, though…" And with that, she and Stasher turned into balls of light and flitted off into the heavens, leaving the Guardrangers battered and defeated in the street.

Noremi groaned. She felt like she'd just been through a tornado, and it was only with a supreme effort of will that she opened her eyes, even though the sound and sensation of rushing air were gone.

The room she was in was dark, but big. Dim blue light filtered in from somewhere far above them, catching on the stones of countless rings, necklaces, earrings, broaches, tennis bracelets and other baubles piled up to her shins. She stepped forward to investigate, and tripped over something and fell on her face. Airguard was still at her feet.

"Oh, gomen! Daijoubu?"

Airguard could only groan in reply. On the upside, whatever kind of shock Gammaraude had given her system, it seemed to be wearing off. Her vision was starting to clear and her nerves were settling back down.

"Hang on, I'll get you off the floor." Noremi took Airguard by the wrists, pulled her upright, and braced her back against the wall, sitting on a cushion of jewelry that could probably put them both through college. "We must be inside that robot," Noremi said, looking around. She didn't really expect a reply from Airguard, and didn't get one.

Noremi waded through the jewelry, forgetting about herself and the fact that she and this heroine were trapped in the belly of a monster she had seen take down the other four Guardrangers. Where was Miaka? Closer than she thought, of course, but for all she knew Miaka was still out there somewhere, looking for who knew what, or worse. Maybe the robot she was inside of now and that blue woman had found Miaka first, and--

Noremi sighed in exasperation and fright. Her horoscope had said she'd have a bad day this week, but she had never thought it would involve being captured by super villains. What was going to happen to her and Airguard? Were they going to be taken to some hidden base, presented as prizes to whoever the leader was of these evildoers, then executed? Were they going to toil for the rest of their lives in some kind of hellish factory or mine as slaves? Or did they have some other kind of hideous torture in mind that never been conceived on Earth? She looked over at the motionless Airguard, and considered a last possibility, the most frightening of all.

What if they were just going to be left in there, inside the monster?

Airguard sighed inwardly. After all, it was all she could do to breathe without screaming in pain. Noremi looked overwhelmed, and who could blame her? She was only trying to be a good friend and to help someone in need, and now both of them were trapped. For a second, she thought she would, if she could, tell Noremi who she was, why she had slipped away toward the battle. But she knew she couldn't. Secret identities were for the hero's protection as much as for the protection of the hero's friends and family.

Airguard gasped in pain and her body contorted against the wall as the pain wracking her body intensified for a second. Noremi hurried over toward her (as quickly as someone could in a room with a foot and a half of jewelry cluttered all over the floor), but Airguard managed to stay upright on her own. It almost seemed like it was happening to remind her that being trapped in here with a friend who didn't know they were friends wasn't her only problem. What if the others got trapped too? Would they be able to get out? Was there any way for she and Noremi to escape as it was?

Airguard achingly flexed her fingers. Feeling was returning, but slowly. Even if they could escape, it wouldn't happen while she was still paralyzed. So for the moment, she just leaned back to rest. Noremi did the same, fearing that day would be her last…

Gammaraude thought it a very strange day. Not only had Brannoch called her off when she was on the verge of killing his hated enemies once and for all, but he had had her go to her lab and said he would meet her there. While she waited Gammaraude ran a routine diagnostic check on Stasher but despite the whacks the Guardrangers had given him, there was nothing but superficial damage.

"Maybe they're not the threat the Emperor believes after all…" Gammaraude said to herself.

"The ignorance of youth, Gammaraude. You'd do well to visit the historical archives when you have the opportunity," a voice behind her said suddenly. "You have no idea what they're capable of, or what they've become capable of since."

Gammaraude whirled around, knowing exactly what she'd see when she did. Sure enough, Brannoch was framed in the doorway. "Emperor! To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Gammaraude asked, bowing as deferentially as a person could.

"Rise," Brannoch responded evenly. "I observed your battle when I could spare a minute. You were doing very well."

"If I may ask, sire, since I was doing so well, why did you call me back when I could've finished them off? Wasn't that part of what you sent me to do?"

If Brannoch had been some petty and vindictive tyrant, Gammaraude would surely have been atomized on the spot for asking a question like that. But he wasn't, and replied, "My dear Gammaraude…perhaps if you live as long as I have, you'll learn patience. Yes, of course I want them destroyed. I want our planet back and they're the only thing on it that prevent us from taking it. But they can't simply die some simple, ignominious death, and it's my fault for not saying this before you left. It must be…an exquisite death. And I want to watch it happen. Which is why I called you back."

"Sire, you obviously could--" Gammaraude began, but Brannoch silenced her.

"Gammaraude, we have spent thousands of years wandering the stars thanks to them. We have been forced to devastate other planets to get the energy to sustain ourselves. Do you think eradicating the ones responsible for all that in any old way will pay us back?" Brannoch said, feeling every inch of his considerable age.

"No sire, I think not. Everyone in the Empire knows about us being forced off Earth. And by who. We were just protecting ourselves after relations with humanity failed."

"Yes, exactly. It's their fault we've had to build our power for so long, do you see why I want Garganstah to see them ground into dust? I want a grand, crushing victory over our oldest enemies to commemorate our triumphant return to Earth. Now, show me what your warrior has collected."

"At once, sire." Gammaraude whistled and a Silicon wheeled a monitor over to besides Stasher. She took a cable from the monitor and hooked it into her warrior's shoulder. At once an image of the inside of Stasher's storage space appeared on the monitor, piled with baubles and with two human figures leaned against the wall.

Brannoch shook his head. "Gods and minions…I knew humanity was a superficial lot, but this is disturbing…" His attention was only on the mounds of wealth for a moment, though. His good eye focused on Stasher's captives, and yes, he could plainly see that one was indeed a Guardranger. This would be perfect for what he sought. "Yes, this will work perfectly. Gammaraude, you may keep all the materials you've collected and see what kind of properties you can unearth from them. But keep your captives inside your warrior."

The prospect of being the one to fight and defeat the legendary Guardrangers was appealing to Gammaraude very much as Brannoch spoke to her. She had been raised as a scholar, to use her mind to solve her problems and those of the Empire. But many were the times she had been called upon to lend her skills to her warriors in battle itself, and for all her intellectual ways, she had been excited when thirst for action took her for the first time. A chance to smite enemies with as much notoriety as the Guardrangers in front of the entire Empire excited her.

"Yes sire. The Guardrangers will know what to expect if they raise a hand against my warrior. I'll l return once I've modified Stasher a bit to facilitate that," Gammaraude said, already feeling the exhilaration of battle coming on.

"Excellent. I will be looking forward to it. But for now--" An obnoxious buzz cut him off. With a grimace Brannoch tapped his wrist.

"Emperor Brannoch, the engineering supervisors are wondering where you are," a voice came from his gauntlet.

"They can wonder a little longer. I'm still giving the Baroness her orders," Brannoch replied sharply and cut the link. "I really need to be more forceful with them…" Brannoch muttered to himself.

"It's all right, sire. I know what to do now," Gammaraude said. Already Silicons were bringing tools for her to get to work on her warrior.

"Then I'm leaving it in your hands, Baroness. Deliver the Guardrangers to me today." And with a dramatic flourish of his cloak, Brannoch turned and left Gammaraude's laboratory.

"Ow!"

"Hold still."

"OWWW!"

"Would you HOLD STILL?!"

"Hey Naoko, you never said you were a nurse."

"Jason, if you want to help, kindly cut out the comedy and tell Tochiro to stop squirming!"

The Guardrangers were gathered back in the Earth Sanctum, recovering for the next battle. Especially Tochiro, who was up against the wall, shirtless, while Naoko did her best to patch up his injuries, while Jason and Ryuji sat at the meeting table, trying to come up with a plan of action to save their teammate. Unfortunately, when they had no idea what their enemy had planned, it was hard to come up with something to counter it.

Tochiro winced as antiseptic was rubbed into his wounds. That monster had hit him pretty hard for him to be hurt back in civilian form too. But that wasn't what he was really thinking about. What was Garganstah going to do to Airguard? Was she even still alive after being sucked inside that robot?

There was something special about Miaka. She was so full of life and so dedicated to what they did. Since Tochiro had decided he was with the team for better or worse, there was a lot he could learn from her example. But there was something else.

He couldn't really describe it. It wasn't romantic or anything like that--Tochiro's morals about women simply didn't include fifteen-year-old girls--but ever since meeting her he had always felt an urge to make sure she was alright and live up to his promises to her. Even more so since she had helped save him from temptation during their trials in their last adventure. Why? He didn't really know, but it was for that reason that he was worrying about what was going to happen to her than about his own stinging wounds.

"Finally," Naoko said as she taped a gauze pad over Tochiro's biggest burn. " I wish you'd gone off into your own little world when I started patching you up."

"Naoko, will you stop already? We need to come up with a plan to get Miaka back," Ryuji said, wracking his brains to think of a way to get Garganstah's attention.

"I don't know how much good it'd do until they decide to show themselves. It's not like we can go on a rampage to draw them out, is it?"

"Hey, leave the jokes to me, okay?" Jason cut in.

"Who said I was joking?" Naoko returned coolly.

"Great, now she's started getting on my case," Jason mumbled, settling back into his chair. Naoko shot over to where he was sitting to tell him what she thought of that, and he proceeded to reply what he thought about her thinking that.

Ryuji tuned the two of them out. He knew neither of them really meant it. It wasn't the stuff he and Naoko used to sling at each other all the time. But Ryuji could tell something was up with Tochiro. He hadn't said a word besides some form of "ow" since they'd left the site of the battle.

"Hey, Tochiro, something on your mind?" Ryuji asked as Naoko and Jason continued to bicker.

Tochiro started, as if someone making an effort to talk to him was something that had never happened before. "Yeah. I'm worried about Miaka."

"Yeah, me too, but we just started to get our act together. What would she think if we got all worked up and lost our team spirit over her getting captured?"

Tochiro sighed, "That's true, I guess I can see why you're in charge. But what about them?" he asked, jerking his thumb toward Jason and Naoko's vocal sparring session. "If we let them get away with that what's to keep them from fighting each other the next time we have a battle?"

"That? Hey, that's nothing. Just harmless brother-sister bantering."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I have a sister."

"Oh…oh, I see," Tochiro looked away.

"Nani? I say something wrong?" Ryuji asked.

"No, but, I…don't."

"You don't what?"

"I don't have any siblings. I don't know what it's like."

"Ah. Well, take my word for it, it's harmless. Anyways, let's try to stay calm and count on Miaka to be okay until we get a chance to help. I doubt I know as much about super sentai as her, but I know things are never hopeless in our business if we don't stop trying."

"Did Kingranger tell you that?" Tochiro asked, unable to hide a smirk. Good, he was finally starting to lighten up. That was more like the Tochiro who had signed on for this team.

Ryuji grinned at him. "Nah, but I bet he knows it too." Behind them Jason and Naoko had gotten tired of exchanging mild one-liners and had been listening to their teammates' conversation.

Naoko learned back into one of the chairs. "Maybe we should try to unwind a bit so we won't be so on edge when Garganstah comes back looking for another round."

"Heh. You're finally seeing things my way. There is a God." Jason smirked victoriously.

"Honestly, Ryuji, how do you put up with him?" Naoko said to her leader.

"If I ever figure It out, I'll let you know." Ryuji replied casually.

"Dude!" Jason sounded offended.

Ryuji chuckled. "Just kidding, Jase. I thought you were the easy-going one."

Now that Ryuji had joined in, Tochiro observed that the bantering did indeed seem harmless. But his thoughts were still focused on Miaka. Something occurred to Tochiro just then, something he'd noticed just before Airguard and that other girl had been sucked into the robot. That purposeful look in his eyes as he had spotted her and targeted her, the way the rushing air had tugged at her dazzling earrings…

"Guys," he said suddenly, "I have a hunch."

Miaka…

Nani?

Miaka, can you hear me?

Anata wa?

Miaka, come back to us!

Blurry images began to appear before Airguard's eyes, then slowly focused. She was still in the expansive room that was that robot monster's storage space, with all the jewels from before gone, and Noremi sitting nearby.

"How…how long…" Airguard said instinctively, surprising herself with how easily words came out now. She could nearly get up and move now. But not quite.

"You've been asleep for about half an hour. Are you all right?"

"I thought someone was calling me…It sounded like Forestguard…"

"Forestguard?"

"Yes. I'm Airguard, the one who wears green is Forestguard."

"Oh, okay."

Airguard tried to get up, as the stinging sensation all over her body had faded, but found she still couldn't move. She tried to reach out to the other Rangers with her mind, but something seemed to be blocking out her calls. Maybe because she was still paralyzed, maybe because her power had shrunk along with her body. Didn't really matter, though. She couldn't reach the others.

Airguard turned and saw that Noremi was quivering against the wall, looking scared out of her wits. But it made Airguard forget her own problems for a second. Before all this started she'd been trying to find a way to mend fences with her best friend, who was now a prisoner with her. Even if Noremi couldn't be allowed to know who she really was, Airguard felt like she had to do something to salvage the day. Maybe take both their minds off their troubles…

"Excuse me for asking this…but why were you in the middle of that whole mess?"

"Nani? Oh, like I said, I was looking for a friend."

"What's their name?"

"Miaka. Kanzuki Miaka."

"Ah. Are you two close?"

"Very. But she's been acting so strange lately. Ever since you guys showed up, actually. She's always been really interested in sentai groups."

"Really? Well…it's nice to be appreciated."

"But is it safe? She ran away from me when she heard that fight you guys were in going on, and I haven't seen her since. I'm worried she wanted to see you guys up close and got hurt or something. You didn't see any teenage girls get attacked back there, did you?"

"Not a one. If she was there she must have kept out of sight. You must really be worried, though."

Noremi sighed, but sounded a lot less on-edge after having talked about it. "Terribly. She's been like a little sister to me for a long time. But she's so curious and impulsive, and it worries me sometimes. Whenever something out of the ordinary happens she wants to know all about it and then she's off like a shot. One of these days, she's going to go and investigate something strange and get herself into a lot of trouble."

Like right now…Airguard thought about Noremi had said of her alter ego. Did she really want to know all about it when something strange happened? Yes, she supposed that was true. She had had an attraction to the unusual, at that. It explained the fascination she'd always had with superheroes, and how she was so into being one herself. And there were plenty of other examples that had nothing to do with superheroes, like how she had picked up singing as a hobby. Deep down, she felt her fascination with the unusual was just because she liked a change of routine, a dose of the stranger and exciting. Didn't everyone, deep down, want to go on an adventure and be a hero? Well, she did.

"Well, it seems to me like Miaka just wants a little excitement. Don't we all?"

"A little, yes. But I'm not much for the kind of excitement where death and bodily harm go hand in hand. And it worries me that it seems like Miaka is. I can't help worrying. She's my friend."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that the next time you see each other," Airguard said, just as a spasm of pain shot through her body.

"Daijoubu?" Noremi called, already knowing the answer.

"I'm fine…I'm starting to get all my faculties back again. In a little while I should be back to normal." Or as normal as she could possibly get anymore. She felt a tingling in her mind, as if the other Rangers were trying to contact her. Airguard tried to focus and make out what was being said…

Miaka? Are you there? the strange, disembodied voice she had heard before suddenly said.

Who's there? Who am I talking to?, she replied with her own inner voice.

Miaka, daijoubu? I can barely hear you on this end. We're gonna try to sneak-attack the monster and try to save you when it comes back.

Wait a minute--end? What end? Who is this?! Airguard asked. The voice was getting fainter.

I'm losing you, Miaka. Just be ready, and count on us! And the voice faded, leaving her trapped and wondering about what she had just heard.

In Tokyo, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, setting the sky ablaze in pink and orange. People were either at home for the night or hurrying there. Among them, in an upscale part of town, was Tochiro Tsuchida.

Tochiro clutched at his head. He'd just been in contact with Airguard, but it had been quite a strain on the bond between the Guardrangers' souls to make contact. But he wanted her to be aware and ready when the Guardrangers sprung their trap.

Tochiro reached out to the others, mercifully experiencing none of the interference he had trying to contact Airguard. Any of you guys see anything?

No, unfortunately. Everything's calm for the moment. Naoko replied.

Tochiro, are you absolutely sure you saw what you did? Ryuji asked, although there was none of the doubt in his teammate he had possessed not long ago.

Yeah, I'm positive. The monster definitely spotted her earrings and then tried to suck them up. And a bunch of jewelry stores around where we fought them got broke into and looted, I checked. Besides, isn't it just the natural thing? If you were evil and had a gigantic vacuum, wouldn't you use it to suck up the all the expensive stuff you could find? Tochiro replied.

Makes sense to me, Jason chimed in. That's the kind of thing bad guys always used to do in the comics.

Honestly, Jason, sometimes you can be so…simple… Naoko said with obvious exasperation. Tochiro dropped out of the connection. He had other things on his mind than Naoko and Jason fighting over remarks he made about comic books. Truth be told, he was nervous about what they were about to do.

Yes, he had committed himself to the Guardrangers' battle now, but that didn't mean he and the others wouldn't sometimes feel awkward or overwhelmed about the things they faced. And though he was sticking with the Guardrangers come what may, Tochiro felt like he was still getting his feet wet, compared to the others. And so he was more than a little nervous when Ryuji had unequivocally accepted his theory about what the monster had been after and put Tochiro in charge of what he (Tochiro) suggested they do to catch it.

"A good leader should be able to accept help from others, right? That's what a team's all about," Ryuji had said, dismissing Tochiro's protestations that he wasn't ready to lead any of their operations. After all, he had never paid much attention to superheroes; he'd always taken for granted that they'd be around to solve any monster attack or grandiose world domination problems. Tochiro had never really been into following the antics of people in bizarre costumes in comics or on TV, and he had certainly never expected to become one himself. And now he thought it was perfectly justified that he felt in over his head being in charge of a plan that involved an entire group of them.

Tochiro had to admit, though, that the plan was a relatively simple one. At his suggestion they were all staking out jewelry stories in different parts of the city, with Bes using his powers to survey Tokyo as well to help them pinpoint the location of the Garganstah warriors when they showed up. During this Tochiro was periodically checking in with everyone else to see if the others had spotted their targets. After that, they would ride the wind tunnels to the Gargs' location, surround them from hiding, then attack, hopefully rescuing their teammate in the process.

A dozen worries appeared in Tochiro's mind, but he forced them out. It would work, it had to. He wasn't going to be the Guardrangers' weak link anymore. Miaka was in trouble and they were going to save her, simple as that. He knew they could do it, and they--especially him--were going to.

Suddenly Tochiro heard a strange sound he was at a loss to describe, but then one he recognized all too clearly; the sound of a window being smashed in and cries of panic from the people in the street. He spun around and saw Gammaraude and Stasher standing next to the smashed-in window of a jewelry store, with Stasher's arm thrust inside and sucking up everything that glittered.

They're here, guys. Right next to me. Let's move, Tochiro sent into the bond between the Rangers, then slipped into the shadows of a nearby alley to keep an eye on his enemies until the others came. Gammaraude had come only with her monster, but he knew they could still expect a serious fight. Not to mention he noticed Gammaraude was now wearing a hefty metal backpack she hadn't been before. Probably loaded with all kinds of weapons they could only imagine at.

Soon the store was picked clean and Gammaraude and Stasher moved on, looking around them as if they expected their foes to suddenly pop out of hiding and attack any moment, which they probably did. Tochiro followed surreptitiously behind buildings and in side-streets, keeping an eye on their prey until the others arrived. Gammaraude pressed a button on her wrist com and two armor sections on her arms opened, and twin skeletal rods of metal extended down to her wrists. The rods swiftly began to shift and unfold, and although obviously not conceived by human minds, what they were was unmistakable: they were guns. Gammaraude looked as if she couldn't wait for someone to show up and try stop her so she could try them out.

Well, that time was soon to come. Two minutes later Tochiro could hear the voices of his friends inside of his mind.

I see Gammaraude and the monster. I'm ready, Naoko said.

Same here, they're up from me. Ready when you guys are, Ryuji said next.

Ditto. Let's get this party started, Jason added. Tochiro concentrated and could sense where he and the others were. They formed a perfect box around Gammaraude and Stasher, and on Tochiro's mental command, all of them raised their Guardbraces to henshin.

But suddenly Gammaraude's wrist-device began to sound with an early warning alarm. She looked at it, then quickly fired her guns, twice. The spheres of bright orange energy that were launched suddenly veered off from the direction they'd been fired, and streaked straight toward where each Guardranger was in the process of transforming! Four explosions and four cries of pain rewarded Gammaraude's attack.

The four Guardrangers stumbled into view, their uniforms smoking, but all in one piece. Stasher sounded like he was laughing at them. Gammaraude didn't waste any time mincing words with the Rangers, though. She aimed and fired again. Forestguard and Earthguard charged out of the way of her shots just in time, only to have to avoid them again as they came back toward the two Rangers. Gammaraude watched in amusement.

Waterguard and Fireguard summoned their weapons and attacked Stasher together. Trident and sword raised and fell against Stasher's metallic skin, and to Airguard and Noremi it felt like there was an earthquake going on. But Stasher wasn't even marked by the blows, and sent both heroes tumbling with a pair of blows from his metal fists.

"Don't hit too hard, heroes," Gammaraude said, swinging her attention to them. A flap in Stasher's chest swung open revealing a large screen, and on it the Rangers could see Airguard and Noremi trapped inside. "What do you think will happen to your friend and the young lady inside if you hurt my monster?" Gammaraude asked, a triumphant twang to her voice. The two Rangers didn't have a chance to think of what they'd do, though, as Stasher charged at them, firing his cannons, and it was all they could do to get out of his way.

Gammaraude was not idle, tapping another button on her backpack and lifting into the air, the better to pick off the two Guardrangers facing her down. She fired her seekers once again with glee, and again Forest and Earthguard hopped and leaped out of the way of the relentless balls of energy. Forestguard ducked under the energy ball that was after him, then leaped it when it came back to haunt him again, but when it returned, Forestguard suddenly pulled his Eternablade out and smacked the energy ball. It hissed and imploded. Behind his helmet Forestguard couldn't help smiling.

Earthguard tried a similar strategy, but instead of destroying the seeker, she took a stance like a baseball player as the burning sphere streaked toward her, then struck it with her Eternablade at full force and knocked it straight toward Gammaraude. The Baroness gasped and tapped a button on her belt, floating upwards out of the way just in time, then angrily pulled a flat piece of what looked like plastic out of her backpack and heaved it at the two Rangers. It exploded in mid-air, producing a rain of white powder on the Rangers, burning them wherever the particles of powder landed. The two of them collapsed.

The fight with Stasher wasn't going so well. Fire and Waterguard struck repeated blows with hand, foot and special weapon, but they couldn't put much power behind them for the sake of Airguard's continued well-being. Stasher had no such inhibitions, and with an evil glint in his photo cellular eyes, opened up the vacuum tube in his arm and aimed it at the street beneath their feet.

Inside Stasher, Noremi and Airguard felt the rush of air that meant their bizarre jailer was about to suck something up. Noremi huddled against the wall, readying herself to be pelted with jewelry. But it didn't happen. Instead, a chunk of asphalt as big as her dropped into the room. Then another sucking maelstrom of howling air followed, but in the other direction. It was more fierce than usual, pulling Airguard and Noremi from their resting places, but the chunk of asphalt flew out of the room and the air stopped. Outside, Fireguard and Waterguard saw why, as Stasher's storage hatch flipped open and the block of asphalt that Stasher had just sucked up shot out and knocked them both over. Painfully.

"Smarter than he looks. Bummer, man…" Waterguard observed through a miasma of agony. Fireguard said nothing, but had to agree. Stasher's vacuum probably hadn't been intended as a weapon, what with all the strength and guns built into him. But he was using it as one now, sucking up another person-sized piece of asphalt even as they watched.

"At least we've got one advantage if that's how he wants to do this. He can't aim too well with those things flying out of his back." And just as the words left his mouth, there was an ominous whirring sound, and Stasher's head did a one-eighty, glaring at them maliciously. "Damn!" Again the hatch opened and again a huge hunk of asphalt mowed them over.

Airguard twitched a little. Her body was still tingling a bit with pain, but something distracted her. She heard four voices crying out in pain. Coming from somewhere nearby. It didn't take a genius to determine the source.

"I can hear them…Kami-sama, they're in so much pain…"

"Nani? Who?" Noremi asked.

"My friends…the other Guardrangers, they're trying to save us, but…they're in so much pain…" She idly wondered why she could hear them. The bond between them was closed, even if she could reach them through it. Perhaps that bond between them was stronger than they thought, though…

And perhaps it was, because a second later when a burst of pain wracked her body, the rest of the Rangers felt an extra edge to their own agony for a second, then it passed. However, Airguard could sense through the anguish of the four a determination, to secure their friend's safety at the risk of their own. Oh yes, if that day was teaching her anything…

Stasher sent another mass of road matter at Fire and Waterguard, but this time Fireguard was ready. "Dragon Steel!" he growled as his weapon appeared in a plume of flame. He swung the blade in a wide arc and sliced the asphalt apart before it could hit them. Stasher hissed mechanically and launched another one, but Waterguard struck this time with the Orca Brand, and shattered it into harmless bits. Stasher fired once again but the two flipped out of the way.

"ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" Waterguard yelled, watery force blasting out of the Orca Brand and sweeping Stasher off his metal feet, but it didn't really hurt him. But the wasn't the true purpose of the attack anyway. With his enemy down, Fireguard concentrated his energy and used a new attack to keep Stasher where he was.

"HELLION IMPACT!" Flaming power traveled from his body into the Dragon Steel, which he plunged into the ground. The shockwave of burning energy streaked toward Stasher and then exploded out of the ground in a ring of fire. Stasher growled angrily and tried to charge them through the flames, but it was hot enough to burn even him, and he stepped back with a yelp.

Gammaraude pulled another weapon, one that looked like a bazooka with two barrels, and fired it at the two Rangers engaging her. The blast would've shattered a tank but the Rangers were learning the value of a good defense quickly and were dodging and ducking for cover as far away as they could as soon as Gammaraude's finger pulled the trigger. And having safely evaded the blast, they flung themselves into the air attacked Gammaraude from both sides with their signature weapons.

Gammaraude smirked to herself, marveling at these fools who thought their archaic weapons were any match for her equipment. One press of a button surrounded her with an dark blue force field, and though it's difficult to alter one's direction while in mid-air, the two incoming Rangers didn't even try.

In Gammaraude Forestguard only saw an obstacle to his helping the others get Airguard to safety. All the worries and insecurities he'd been feeling about being up to this job melted away as he focused on that. He was going to get past this enemy and help Airguard--teammate, friend, surrogate little sister, he didn't know--that was all.

Earthguard didn't hesitate either, and they crashed into Gammaraude's force wall, sending arcs of energy into them, but pressed their attack as quickly as they could and forced their arms through. It was too close to use the Gorilla Vine as a whip so Forestguard just banged it hard against Gammaraude's backpack while Earthguard dug her Grizzly Claws into the other side. They must have hit something important, because at once the protective field vanished and Gammaraude's anti-gravity gave out. She landed gracefully on her feet, but the Guardrangers had landed as well and barged her down, smashing her backpack and ran, over to where Fireguard was making sure Stasher stayed corralled. Stasher hissed and stomped from one side of the fiery enclosure to the other, but couldn't penetrate the walls for fear of being melted down to nothing. Just as the green and yellow Rangers joined their comrades, however, that malign intelligence that had done a number on the street was now coming up with a way out of his flaming prison. It may have been able to keep him confined, but could the same be said for his guns…?

Fireguard was concentrating on keeping the Hellion Impact's effect going, and didn't notice as Stasher's guns drew a bead on him and fired. Sure enough, the fiery wall keeping Stasher in one place was no obstacle to his shots and they slammed mercilessly into the leader of the Guardrangers where he stood. With his focus broken the circle of fire receded into nothingness. Stasher rushed aimed his guns to finish the job, knocking Waterguard out of his way with a flick of his mighty wrist. Fireguard had spent a lot of energy in the ring of fire, but he bravely lifted the Dragon Steel to defend himself from the monster.

Stasher fired and the blasts tore chunks out of the ground around Fireguard and nicked him several times. Waterguard leaped to his friend's defense and tried to attack Stasher from behind, but quick as a blink Stasher sucked up a huge piece of ground and fired it out his back to down Waterguard. Fireguard mustered his energy and hurled himself forward with the Dragon Steel aimed at Stasher's chest. He was as concerned for his youngest teammate's safety as any of the Rangers, but he was a bit worried next time Stasher might not be polite enough to miss. As he and his blade flew toward his robotic adversary, two other figures appeared, swinging swords of their own at Stasher. It was Forest and Earthguard.

"Glad to see you guys could make it!" The Rangers' weapons sliced into Stasher, not seeming to do any damage, but they weren't done yet. Forestguard began to conduct his elemental energy through his Eternablade into Stasher's body before he could retaliate, desperately hoping to incapacitate him and save Airguard. Fire and Earthguard quickly followed suit and within instants three Rangers' worth of primordial power was flooding into Stasher's system. He gave a mechanized gasp of pain and tried to shove them away, but the Rangers just pushed even harder. Waterguard leaped up and jammed his Orca Brand into Stasher's back and joined with pumping his power into their enemy.

"Couldn't wait for me, guys? I'm hurt."
"Oh, please…NOT NOW!" Earthguard shouted. Waterguard growled, but complied.

"Idiots! Did you forget your friend is inside him?!" Gammaraude called to them. "Do you think what you're doing is going to be healthy for her??"

"Nothing's going to happen to her while we're around. We look after our own," Forestguard called back with a confidence that surprised everyone.

Airguard looked around. She could hear Stasher shrieking in outrage. Her friends were probably doing well now. Better than she thought, because suddenly a pool of white light began to emanate from the roof of the chamber. It came from a small hole of light that began to expand, until it took up the whole ceiling. She and Noremi shielded their eyes, but continued to watch, hoping this might yield a way out. And it looked like it might, because from the other side of the white vortex four giant masked faces looked back at them. The other Rangers!

"Hey, guys, I can see Airguard!"

"Me too! Keep it up!" Forestguard cried as he peered into the white light pouring out of Stasher's neck that showed them their erstwhile companion and her fellow prisoner. The Rangers shot more power into him, and Forestguard was about to reach in and pluck out the monster's captives. But he was so focused on Stasher, he didn't notice the figure approaching from behind. And he had no time to react even as Fireguard called a warning and a red bolt of energy cut Forestguard down. Behind him Gammaraude stood holding a smoking rifle.

"Your level of incompetence is staggering. What kind of idiot turns their back on an enemy in battle?" Without Forestguard contributing his power, the white vortex was beginning to shrink. Airguard grabbed Noremi around the waist and tried to fly through before it closed, but her powers had been diminished along with her size and she felt like a slug crawling to the far side of a tennis court as the vortex contracted even more.

Stasher suddenly rallied all of his strength and let out a thunderous roar, spinning in place and knocking the Rangers down with his fists. The vortex that had formed around his neck sealed itself and he stumbled away from the Rangers with sparks flying off his body every few seconds.

"Maybe you don't know," Forestguard said, only a hint of agonizing pain in his voice, "but the good guys play by different rules than the bad guys. We care if our friends are in trouble. Saving innocent people's lives is our first concern."

"Bah!" Gammaraude spat. "You have the gall to think that we are the villains, after you ran us off this planet thousands of years ago? You mortals are all alike. Whatever you can't understand, you destroy!" Another burst of sparks from Stasher punctuated the remark.

"I'm the first to admit I don't know much about all this good versus evil stuff, but I never heard of any good guy types who stole anything they wanted and tried to kill or destroy anything they felt like."

"Oh, truly? Didn't you--didn't all of humankind fear Garganstah because we possessed the power you lack?" Gammaraude fired her rifle into the Guardrangers' midst as they readied to attack her, blowing them all into the air. "Didn't humanity lay waste our kind and our kingdom on Earth because they thought we fraternized with evil spirits with our science? And the five you helped them! You helped them hunt us down and drive us into space because we were so far beyond you. We were not the guilty ones in this, Guardranger! YOU were!!!"

Forestguard, oblivious to his teammates' groans of pain, was silent. What Gammaraude said might be true, he'd never remember his previous life. But in his simplistic view of the world, Forestguard couldn't see bullies and thieves as being the rightful rulers of the world. Two wrongs don't make a right, after all. With an effort he peeled himself off the ground. "If that's really the case, then why don't you at least try to talk peace with humanity? And you could start by letting our teammate and that other girl you've got trapped in there go!"

Before Gammaraude could say anything, a huge flurry of sparks flew off Stasher's body and he gave a groan that sounded like an engine trying to start. "I don't have to prove anything to you, Guardranger, but I have other matters to attend to presently. We will meet again, in the very near future…" And with that, she and Stasher vanished.

Forestguard sighed and helped his teammates up. "That didn't work, did it?"

"Doesn't look like it right now, but it never would've occurred to me to appeal to her conscience. That was a nice ploy."

"That wasn't a ploy. I was just going with the flow, and that seemed like the thing to do. But the plan didn't work, so we're back to square one…"

"I'm not so sure," Earthguard interjected. "Remember what happened just as we were about to henshin?"

"That gizmo she was carrying went off like an alarm…"

"Sounds like we'd better get back and figure out how this affects our plans."

"Yo, guys…about what Gammaraude was saying before…you think she was telling the truth? About us hunting down the Gargs in our past lives?" Waterguard asked, leaning on Fireguard for support.

"I don't know, man…" Fireguard looked off into a distance no one else could see.

"I don't know…"

Gammaraude and Stasher reappeared in Gammaraude's private laboratory in the Death Gar. Stasher was still shooting off sparks, and looked to be getting weaker each time. That injection of primordial energy from the Guardrangers had done a number on him. She laid her warrior on an observation table, popped open his chest plate and then deactivated him before things got any worse. She snapped her fingers and at once a group of Silicons began swarming around and laying out tools on a gurney. As they did, a screen in the wall flicked itself on. On it was Brannoch's face.

"I trust, Gammaraude, that you have a good reason for coming back here without claiming victory? The Guardrangers were badly weakened in that battle, why did you retreat?"

"Sire, I engaged the Guardrangers, but Stasher's been damaged, I don't know how badly. I'm going to run diagnostics and make repairs as quickly as I can."
"See that you do. We can't let this opportunity slip through our fingers." And the screen clicked off. Gammaraude knew that the damage to Stasher wasn't the only reason she'd retreated. What kind of spectacular victory for all the Empire to watch would it be if they were arguing morals with her during it? And in regards to that, was Garganstah supposed to put being chased from their own planet and spending millennia plundering energy from planets to stay alive behind them just like that? Maybe two wrongs didn't make a right, but there was no way the war-like people who controlled the planet now would be willing to kiss and make up about it and give Garganstah a piece of the planet.

Silicons brought over tools for Gammaraude to use and popped off sections of Stasher's armor so she could see what was wrong with him. A bunch of wires and circuit boards around where the Guardrangers had injected their power into him were scorched and the power regulator was a blackened wreck, so she removed them and sent two Silicons off to her spare parts warehouse to find what she needed to replace them.

This left Gammaraude with nothing to do but wait for them to come back, and think about what she'd do next time. One thing she was sure about: the next time would be the last time. The yearning for battle overtook her, and to get ready for her repair work Gammaraude got up and walked the diameter of her lab. There was a shelf full of nutritional supplements she was developing since there was so little space that could be set aside from crop-raising. Next, a rack of weapons of weapons that could effectively stun, paralyze or trap any known creature. Next to that was a solution she was developing to help the elderly strengthen weakening bones. All products of her intellect and her desire to help the people of Garganstah go on living.

On her other side, though, was the skull of a twelve-foot-long alligator-like beast she'd killed in one shot from one of her many weapons. She passed a rack of chemicals used to formulate the Titan Powder, an invention which she conceived and created. Diagrams of heavily-armed Animated Warriors that had served her and the Empire in the past were on her other side. For a moment, Gammaraude felt like two different people. But only for a moment. The doors of the lab slid open and the pair of Silicons she had sent to get spare parts walked in holding coils of wire, circuit boards and a new power regulator. It was time to get back to work.

It was taking a little while for the meeting to get started in the Earth Sanctum. The Rangers were pretty banged up after two battles in as many hours and no time to take a break. Jason and Naoko were bickering about her bedside manner, and Ryuji just sighed as he tried to work up the energy to tell them to knock it off. Tochiro was just watching the proceedings and trying to forget his pain.

"If you'd just be serious for five seconds--"

"If you'd just chill out for five seconds--"

"Miaka's in danger, doesn't that matter to you?"

"Of course it does, for crying out loud! But getting ourselves totally keyed up about it isn't gonna help!"

As he watched this play out, Tochiro began to think maybe Ryuji had been right about Jason and Naoko's fighting. It wasn't exactly good-natured ribbing, but it was nothing like the venomous scream sessions Naoko and Ryuji had put them all through before he committed himself to the team. Maybe it was like between brother and sister. Which made him wonder about Airguard, the way he really felt about her, the way she felt about him, how they would save her…

"Guys, ENOUGH! My ears are ringing! Would you mind saving it for Garganstah? Who knows when they'll come back to get us?" Ryuji said.

"Which is what we should probably concentrate on right now," Beservor added. "Garganstah may return at any time to finish us off and Airguard is still in considerable peril."

"What we need to do is work through everything we saw in that fight and figure out a game plan, so we've got an idea of what to do next time," Tochiro offered. He sounded calm, but eager to get back to business and make a contribution.

"You okay, man?" Jason asked. "Nobody would think a mission where you were calling the shots just blew up in your face."

"Hey, none of you guys wants me to be the wishy-washy Guardranger who lost us the fight against Sharaki anymore, do you?" he replied and cast a glance around the table at his comrades, and met Ryuji's eyes for a moment, as if he suspected his leader hadn't completely forgiven him for that loss yet. But Tochiro felt no indignity. Rather, he felt the urge to prove himself to Ryuji and the others. "I don't want to be that Ranger either. I'm trying to roll with the punches and chip in on this team."

"That's great, Tochiro. So chip in, tell us what you noticed about the fight," Ryuji prompted.

"Well, for one thing, I noticed how she had a gizmo that sounded an alarm just as we changed to attack her. I think it must be tuned to our elemental powers somehow."

"Yeah, kinda like some early warning system or something, right?" Jason put in.

Ryuji nodded. "Yeah, makes sense. What do you think we should do to keep her from turning the tables on us with it next time, Tochiro?"

"I think what we need to do is launch a surprise attack, and then henshin, instead of the other way around," Tochiro replied, slowly but confidently.

"What about when we all put the smackdown on Stasher and we could see Airguard inside him?" Jason piped up.

"Yeah. Bes, were you watching the fight? Any idea what that was?" Ryuji said asked.

"I always do," Beservor replied. "And yes, I think I do know what happened. The mechanoid has the ability to suck vast quantities of jewels and other objects into itself, does he not? Even objects of considerable mass can be reduced in size to fit into its tube, such as Airguard and her friend. I sensed some kind of irregular space inside him that must contains the shrunken objects, keeping them at their diminished size, and you must have pierced it when you conducted all of your energy into his body."

Tochiro leaped up as he heard this. "Then that means we can do it again and get Miaka out, right?"

"Yes. The space inside him is powerful, but by its very nature, it is also delicate and unstable. But if all of you subject it to your energy it should collapse and everything he's carrying should be restored to normal size," Beservor said matter-of-factly, and there was something in his ethereal voice that said he was proud to be able to do something to help.

"But we already shot our energy into him and it just closed back up," Jason put in.

"I said all of you," was Beservor's reply.

The ground shook beneath Airguard's feet and a loud whirring sound suddenly came from all around her. "Nani? Now what?"

"Oh, boy…The robot must be switching back on," Noremi replied, remembering when everything had gone dark and silent about half an hour ago.

"Great, he's probably going out to fight my friends again." And a moment later when she felt herself and the room around her softened into energy, then hardened into matter again a moment later, she could tell they had just teleported from the Garganstah hideout to Japan.

"What are we going to do?" Noremi asked fearfully. But she already knew the answer; there was nothing they could do. By herself Airguard lacked the power to escape from the robot's stomach or bypass the hand covering the vacuum tube, and there was certainly nothing plain old Noremi could do that would help. But help was closer than they thought.

Miaka, can you hear us? Tochiro's voice came wafting into her mind, slowly, pleasantly. Airguard could feel him and four other minds connecting to him and boosting his strength to allow him to make contact.

Yes, I can hear you. What's going on now?

We just detected the monster hitting Tokyo again, and Bes thinks he knows how we can get you and your friend out. But we need you to help us or it won't work.

Her spirits flew. What do I need to do?

Remember that white hole you could see us through last time? When you see that, use your Hawk Soul Sniper and fire it into there. That should break you out.

I'll do that! Arigato, Tochiro! There was a way out, and her friends had a plan to take advantage of it. Maybe this day could be salvaged after all.

"I'm guessing you're in a better mood now?" Noremi asked hopefully from Airguard's suddenly exuberant comportment.

"I'm just…glad for my friends, and all the things they do for me when I get in trouble," Airguard replied in a whisper.

"Isn't that just part of the deal with you hero teams?"

Airguard looked at Noremi for a long moment, remembered what she had risked her neck to do before for a stranger, and said, "Not at all…not at all."

Stasher was on the warpath now. He passed a couple having a romantic walk through a city park, and sucked them both up after spying the engagement ring on the woman's finger. The light of a streetlamp caught on the screen of an executive's PDA and he was caught too. And Gammaraude watched from a safe distance as her creation sucked up anything he saw that glinted, and the person carrying it as well. The Guardrangers' power must have surely been almost spent after that stunt they pulled in the last battle, and yet she knew they wouldn't stand idly by while their people were threatened. Inside Stasher more and more people appeared in his storage space, prisoners, but Airguard paid little attention. She waited for the sign that her friends were waiting for her to act.

A squad of police soon arrived and opened fire on Stasher, but Gammaraude had increased the power of his vacuum tube and he just sucked up the entire unit, patrol cars and all. What a pathetic planet.

Suddenly something caught Stasher's eye down the street. A dark figure walked across the street, clutching something that glinted red. Immediately Stasher went into action and tried to suck up the luckless carrier of the unknown glinting prize, but the figure was far enough away to resist the pull and ran off down the street. Gammaraude simply shouted, "Catch him! Quickly!" and Stasher did. His giant metal feet smashed potholes into the asphalt as he chased down the strange figure with Gammaraude floating easily behind him. This seemed a little suspicious to her, but the Guardrangers couldn't pull anything on her she wouldn't be ready for with her early warning device.

Everything's going according to plan, guys; I'm leading him toward you now, the figure said into the bond that connected his mind to his comrades'.

Okay, we'll be ready, another voice replied.

"Yo, Ryu…You know I got nothin' against Tochiro. Hell, he's a great guy. But why have you been giving him so much responsibility to handle, bro?" one of the carrier's comrades asked another after they had closed the link.

"You heard what the Taskmaster said too, Jase. We've all got the conviction, but we still have to learn. He's got to learn to get used to all the weirdness and dangers this job has. Tochiro knows even less about being a superhero than you do, man, and he's spent his whole life in a country infested with them."

Jason nodded. "Can't argue with you there."

The figure ran down street after street, turning corner after corner as Stasher alternated between trying to blast him off his feet and suck him in, but the figure was too quick and had too much of a head start. But the distance was shortening, and Stasher kept up the pursuit.

I'm almost there, guys! Are you all ready?

We're ready. Let's just hope we're faster than Gammaraude's gizmo.

The figure darted into an alley sandwiched between two large buildings, only to find his escape blocked a brick wall in one direction, and a hulking alien robot in the other. Stasher's eyes locked onto the red glint in the figure's hand again, and his arm opened up to pull it and its owner in while Gammaraude watched from behind.

Silently, three other shadowy figures jumped off the two buildings around the alley, plummeting toward the ground with trepidation, but not daring to say the two words that would protect them until they had almost hit the ground. The figure in the alley spotted their descent, and readied himself. Suddenly, a voice rang in his head, Now! and he shouted out, "FOREST…FOCUS!" Gammaraude's warning device had begun to sound, but it was too late as the three Guardrangers fell out of the sky and kicked her away from her monster.

"All right, guys…NOW!" Fireguard said, and at once his teammates moved to carry out the plan of attack they had devised before coming.

"PETRA CROSS SLASH!" Earthguard called and at once a white haze flew over Stasher's frame, covering him a film of rock. She launched herself at Stasher and slashing her Grizzly Claws into the lethal X-formation that branded itself into the stone prison and then erupted into a chaotic explosion of stone shrapnel.

Waterguard was next. "ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" he shouted, and a whirlpool of rushing blue power spiraled from the end of his Orca Brand toward Gammaraude, seized her up and blasted her down the street.

"That won't stop these two for long! C'mon, guys!" Fireguard called, and at once his teammates obeyed. Each drew their Eternablades and filled them with their respective elemental energy, and stabbed them simultaneously into Stasher's body. There was a hissing sound, an electronic shriek of pain from Stasher, and finally a deafening sound like a balloon popping as a pinprick of white light formed on Stasher's torso at the point of contact between it and their weapons. The pinprick began to grow, and through it they could see a tiny room full of people and miscellaneous objects. And in the middle of it all, looking back at them, was Airguard.

"Yatta!" she cheered. "HAWKWING!" In a flash her bow was in her hand. In another she nocked an arrow and filled it with her power.

"HAWK SOUL SNIPER!" she shouted, then let it fly into the heart of the hole to the outside. The energized arrow, taking on the form a some spectral bird of prey struck home. There was a blinding burst of white and an explosion that knocked everyone off their feet. When it cleared, everyone and everything Stasher had sucked up was scattered haphazardly around the street, and the robot himself sported a gaping hole in his torso. Stasher's damaged insides chugged a few times, gave a feeble wheeze, and he collapsed.

The Guardrangers watched him warily, but a moment later the light in his eyes died out. His threat was ended. "Miina…daijoubu?" Fireguard called to the collection of people they had just freed.

"I've had worse days," Airguard replied, rising out of the clutter. Beside her was Noremi, looking a little bruised but otherwise unharmed.

"Well, I haven't," she grumped. "How in Kami's name do you people stand this kind of thing?"

"Maybe it's just part of the equation," Forestguard replied, his words smooth as a milkshake as always. He slipped the tie pin his uncle had given him into a pocket, finally glad to have gotten some use out of the thing.

"That isn't the only thing," snarled an angry voice behind them. The Rangers whirled around, and there hovered Gammaraude, looking extremely peeved. In one hand she held what looked a lot like a grenade, and it bleeped threateningly at them. She cocked her arm back and hurled it at the Rangers. Forestguard launched the Gorilla Vine, which whipped through the air, grabbed the grenade and flung it into the air away from the civilians where it exploded without doing any harm, but Gammaraude had accomplished her goal.

While the Rangers were worried about her explosive, she'd produced a silver orb the size of a base ball from her belt. Pressing the black button on top of it produced an almost deafening high-pitched sound as it powered up.

"One of my more recent inventions, Rangers! The Titan Orb!" Gammaraude called. She aimed the orb at Stasher's remains and a lightning-like flare of blue energy stabbed out of it and into Stasher's ruined remains. The energy flare went to work at once, its rejuvenating powers driving energy into his lifeless system and rapidly repairing the gaping hole in his chest and the burned spots on his limbs. But it didn't stop there, it stopped when the energy has turned Stasher into a hulking colossus, looking down at the people all over the street like so many ants.

"Oh, boy, looks like it's that time…Guys!" Fireguard said. As one, the Guardrangers called out, "GUARD BEASTS, AWAKEN!" At once the great creatures of the elements roused from their slumber to answer the call. Hellscar flew free from a burning fissure in the earth. Tidalstorm erupted from the depths of the ocean. Terraclaw charged forth from her cave. Treebasher thundered through the forest where he made his home, and Windshear swooped down from the clouds. Within moments the Guard Beasts had arrived, and pulse of light issued forth from them that pulled the Guardrangers aboard.

Stasher fired his blasters into the Guard Beasts' midst, and though shaken they scattered in time to avoid the brunt of it.

Airguard, we all know you had a rough day, but would you care to do the honors?

Rough day? Boy, that's putting it mildly... but I'd be honored. "IMMORTAL FUSION!!"

The Guard Beasts moved together in formation in response to the call. Hellscar raced skyward, a column of rainbow-hued light igniting around him. The great dragon's limbs folded upward and in, fire dancing along his armored body. Treebasher followed suit, glowing silver and emerald metal shifting and forming the legs. Tidalstorm and Terraclaw, blazing bright blue and yellow respectively connected as the arms; Windshear, wrapped in a corona of white light took up position at the back, forming the secondary wingspan. Hellscar's head lowered into his chest area revealing the great mecha's head and helmet. Finally, the black dome materialized over Hellscar's head on the chest, the triangular Guardranger symbol appearing in the each of the five sections the dome was segmented into. The elemental energies embraced each other and the gestalt spoke: "WE ARE THE UNITY! WE ARE... DAICHIJIN!"

Stasher growled and began to circle his foe of equal proportions, and Daichijin did likewise. Suddenly Stasher aimed and fired his shoulder cannons, rocking Daichijin back on his heels amidst a haze of explosions.

"CRYING HAWK!" Airguard shouted, and Daichijin responded by locking Windshear's body onto his wrist and firing a sonic beam that smacked into Stasher and knocked him back. But the robot recovered quickly, turned his back to Daichijin and opened his vacuum tube while Gammaraude watched with satisfaction. Without warning he sucked up a building, then opened his backpack and launched the building at Daichijin!

"GAIATIC CUTTER!" Fireguard called, and at once Daichijin's silver sword appeared in his hand. A great sweeping cut sliced the incoming building in two, but Daichijin looked up just to see another coming his way. Daichijin's weapon flashed through the air again and the enormous projectile was cut harmlessly apart before it could strike the giant warrior. But Stasher hadn't let up, and yet another building came flying at him. There was no time to do anything about this one before it plowed into Daichijin and knocked him off his feet. Sparks erupted all over his body, and the Guardrangers cried out as their giant warrior tumbled to the ground. Stasher closed in for the kill.

"We can't keep fighting in close-quarters like this! We just don't have enough reaction time to defend ourselves from those kinds of attacks!" Earthguard shouted.

"I think you're right," Fireguard replied as they struggled to get Daichijin back up. Stasher was about to fire his cannons at them again, but a few vicious swipes of the Gaiatic Cutter stopped him just in time and forced him away. Immediately, Stasher turned his back and sucked another building and a few cars into his body. "Airguard, take us up!"

"Right!" At a mental command from Airguard, Daichijin's wings extended and he lifted off the ground. He flew backwards and gained altitude, and when the building and other debris shot out of Stasher's back at him like before, a Crying Hawk blast obliterated it before it was anywhere near Daichijin.

"Aw, geez! Collateral damage's piling up something awful, guys! I think we better wrap this up!"

"No kidding!" Fireguard replied. "EARTH RA--" he began, but suddenly Stasher aimed his vacuum tube at Daichijin's airborne form, which started to wobble and lose altitude as he was sucked closer to the monster! "Kisama! I can't line up a shot! Try to get us steady!" The Guardrangers complied, directing Daichijin to put more power into resisting Stasher's pull. Daichijin began moving against the powerful suction, and Fireguard almost had a straight shot at Stasher, but Stasher suddenly cut off the suction and Daichijin, with all the energy he'd been putting into resisting suddenly meeting no resistance, spun wildly out of control before crashing into the ground.

"He's pounding the daylights out of us! How much more of this can we take?" Airguard yelled anxiously. Daichijin was indeed heading toward a sorry state from all the damage they'd taken, and Stasher fired his cannons at them again, doing even more.

Forestguard looked over at Airguard, panicked and worried as Daichijin shook around them. She'd been through a lot today, he knew, and she looked like she'd about had enough. All of them, in fact. It had been a busy night. But an awareness suddenly came over him, triggered by the desire to help. "Guys, let's get Daichijin back up. I know what to do." The Rangers nodded in affirmation and directed Daichijin to get to his feet, which he did with effort, and Stasher took aim for the finishing blow. But the Rangers were ready.

Forestguard gathered himself, then called out. "CONGO DYNAMIC!"

"Say WHAT?!" Waterguard shouted, but Daichijin was already responding. Treebasher's bellow could be heard as Daichijin's arms began pumping like pistons, accumulating incredible energy. Stasher fired his shoulder guns, but Daichijin swung an energized fist at the blast and splintered it into nothing. He was about to vacuum up another building to fire at Daichijin, but the giant warrior didn't give him the chance. Daichijin's fists continued pumping as he closed in on Stasher, landing thunderous blow after thunderous blow, shockwaves of force echoing in all directions. Stasher staggered back, and Daichijin reared back his fist, gathering all of the energy into it, and slammed it into Stasher, blowing a baseball field-sized hole right through the thing. The monster howled in electronic agony before tumbling to the ground and exploding into a thousand flaming pieces.

Gammaraude fumed in outrage and Noremi cheered. Daichijin shifted his gaze to her, and Gammaraude tapped a button on a bracelet and vanished in pulse of blue light before he came after her next. A moment later she was back in the Death Gar, safe and sound…until Brannoch found out.

A period of rest, a morning news saturated with reports on the battles from the previous day, and for the time being, life began anew for the people of Tokyo. Miaka left the house for school eagerly, tucking a hastily-wrapped box under her arm. It was under her desk, by her feet through class, and the only thought that went through her head all morning was what she would say when she delivered it. Time passed so slowly the clock seemed to be mocking her, but finally class broke for lunch. Miaka slid into a chair next to Noremi.

"Hi…" she said slowly.

"Where were you???" Noremi asked, though with considerably more concern and less annoyance than Miaka was expecting.

"Not where you think, I bet," Miaka replied. She gently set the gift she'd brought to school in front of her friend. "This is for you. Open it." Noremi did, pulling off the Christmas wrapping paper Miaka had found in the back of the closet. Recognition appeared in Noremi's eyes as she looked at the blue box she had just revealed, and she gasped in pleased delight when she flipped the top open and a glass angel holding a crescent moon popped up and began to play a sweet little tune.

"You got it! But how--"

"I went to borrow some money from another friend. I figured with all the secrets I've been keeping from you lately, it was the least I could do to make up."

"The least you could do would be to tell me what's going on," Noremi replied softly.

"I can't. Gomen, Noremi-chan. Believe me, if it were that easy, I would've done it long before this. But I want you to know our friendship still matters to me. Very much."

Noremi smiled and shut the box. "It matters to me, too." And all the worry and frustration went away.

Tochiro's train trip to a park inspection was fairly routine, and his mind wasn't really on it. His wallet was a little leaner this morning than it had been the night before, but it had been to help a friend in trouble, so he hadn't complained.

This Guardranger stuff seemed like it was getting bigger and asking more of them all the time. And having always taken superheroes for granted, the one who hated to complicate things, he was the one who felt it the most. And things were probably only going to get heavier as Garganstah continued to antagonize them. Who knew when the next time that happened would be, and what threat it would entail?

He looked around at a woman with her two children next to him, a middle-aged businessman barking into a cell phone next to her, and a young woman and her aged mother sitting together even further down. Yesterday it had just been Miaka and her friend he had motivated himself to save. But in truth every single person in this city was depending on every member of a team like his to do their job when a monster showed up and started making trouble, not just two teenage girls.

The thought was a little overwhelming as he looked out the window at all the people on the streets from somewhere to somewhere, in cars, on bikes, on foot. Each a life that was in his hands whenever he called on the power of the world to change him into Forestguard. Then he forced the thought out of his mind. Being brave and sticking with this to honor his promise to Miaka was one thing, but thinking of all those people…would there come a time when being responsible for all of them didn't scare him? Tochiro didn't know. But he suspected that before all was said and done, he'd have to face up to the fact that he wasn't just helping his friends.

But there was thing that brought him some measure of comfort as the train continued on:

At least he didn't have to worry about doing it alone.