Eternal Sentai
Guardranger
Episode 11:Sun, Surf, and Sea Monster
By David Anderson and Derek Pryor
Right from the minute I woke up, I could tell something was gonna happen. I suppose that should've warned me right there that trouble was brewing, but I was still pretty inexperienced about that kind of thing. And after our last few battles, I felt like there was nothing Garganstah could serve up that we couldn't handle.
By the way, name's Jason Marger. But then you guys probably already know about me.
I was one of the last to show up as Sports Silver was opening that morning. It still felt kind of funny, going to work in a sporting goods store when I probably had more than enough money in the bank to buy the place, but with things being what they were I didn't feel like I should have a job that might call me away.
As we started turning on the lights and opening the cash registers for the day, a hot wind whipped in through the front doors, bushing up against my shirt. All at once I felt like I wasn't in the store about to start work for the day. I felt like I was back on the beach, surrounded by screaming fans and about to give them the greatest show I possibly could out on the waves. It only lasted a second, but it made me think of what I'd much rather be doing than ringing up sports equipment and whatnot all day. But maybe if Garganstah was quiet for a few days…
"Yo, newbie! Get your butt in gear, kid! Start stacking the jars in that box over there," one of the senior staffers whose name I couldn't remember called at me, snapping me out of my daydream. If he only knew who it was he'd been yelling at…
Of course I was there to make a living, not get into fights with people. So I down to it, slicing open the box and starting to unpack it. But of course, what turned out to be in the box just made me think about what I'd be doing if I didn't have to be there. Jars of wax. For surfboards. A brand I usually used, at that. I wasn't surprised. I'd been told about this a couple of days beforehand and what to tell customers who seemed interested, but it was getting harder to keep my mind on work. I just imagined the feel of the sea spray against my skin and in my hair, the smell of salt water, and the weight of my board under my arm…
But that was if I made it to the weekend. For now the clacking of the jars to each other was the closest thing to companionship I had as I racked the jars and turned them so the labels faced forward. And yeah…it was about as exciting as it sounds.
As in, not at all.
Major sigh.
But then the doors slid open and two tall, skinny guys walked into the store. Both had on sneakers, jams, and tank tops--standard surfer gear-- but the guy on the left had on a worn-out leather jacket--probably more to look "cool" than on account of the weather--on over a faded Hawaiian shirt, and can I tell you I can't think of a greater sin than not taking care of your leather jacket? But they were heading straight for me, and I was pretty sure they had other things on their minds than jacket maintenance.
"Hey, man, you know anything about surfboards?" the one in the jacket asked me with bravado. He walked up to me with this totally obvious swagger in his stride and one of those superior smiles on his face that even a fool can see through .
"A little bit, what can I do for you dudes?" I really wasn't supposed to call the customers "dudes," but that was just my modus operandi, and I didn't think these guys would complain.
What can I say? I gotta be me.
"We're going out to the coast with some friends--major wave riders, but we're running low on wax and cash. Can you recommend something?" the other one, who seemed to be in charge, replied, making an obvious effort to sound as on-control as he possibly could.
They were rookies, I knew it right off. They were trying to look cool and together, but were probably on their way to their first surf outing ever. Every surfer worth his salt would know about something as basic as a good kind of board wax, and they were probably only there to get wax in the first place on the advice of a more experienced friend. But I had been like that too when I was still a newbie, so I just played along.
"Well guys, I get good results from the kind Golden Sky makes, which is what I'm shelving here. It's cheaper than most of the stuff out there, and your purchase gets marked down 10% if you buy at least five."
"Why the discount?" the lead rookie asked.
"Well, this store didn't start selling surfing equipment until just a couple of weeks ago. Not many good places to go boarding in the heart of Tokyo, y'know?" I replied. "But the owner thought maybe people on their way to the ocean might stop off for supplies before leaving, so he's trying to give the store a good rep with the discount."
"Awesome," the other rookie, said, digging out a wallet as tattered as his jacket. His friend grabbed an armload of jars straight from the box at my feet. "Thanks a lot, man," he grinned at me.
"Hey, ain't I seen you somewhere before?" the first rookie asked, regarding me strangely.
"I don't think so, but I get that a lot," I replied. They shrugged, but thanked me again for the help and made their way to the check-out lines.
At least they'll probably have a good time at the ocean today, I thought as I got back to work. Was I jealous? I dunno. I mean, I was in Sports Silver stocking shelves of my own decision, after all. But it was summer in Japan at last, the season to enjoy the sea. And I think that I, of all people, have a special reason to enjoy the sea.
Another pair of customers entered, and the hot summer wind roared up for a second and then vanished as the doors closed behind them. It would still be there when I clocked out, but for now, there was nothing but a bunch of empty shelves and my thoughts of the beach to keep me company.
Lucky me.
Brannoch strode slowly through the hydroponics gardens of the Death Gar. Several of the garden technicians followed behind, nervously awaiting his assessment of what their work produced.
"The vegetables look healthy," Brannoch remarked passively.
"Yes, sire, absolutely," one of the workers in parade behind him remarked at once. "We take our jobs here very seriously." Then he said something else that took his fellow garden workers aback. "But sire, when are we going to be able to descend to Earth and plant our harvests there?"
Brannoch sighed. "Soon, I wish I could say. But until the Guardrangers are out of our way I will not endanger our people by trying to settle on Earth. I expect a report from Sharaki on a new attack plan soon."
Brannoch fumed inwardly. Just thinking about the Guardrangers made his covered eye ache beneath the crimson metal that covered it. He hadn't forgotten how that happened. And how could he forget how those colorful demons of nature haunted his dreams? He would see them dead before he would send his people to the now backward planet that was once their home.
Brannoch plucked a tomato out of a planting box and bit into it. He savored silently it for a moment, then took another bite. With a gulp he finished it.
"Sire? Is everything all right?" one of the workers asked nervously.
"With your work, absolutely. The quality of your produce is magnificent. I can't wait to see what you can create once you're not confined to indoor gardens any longer. But I have other things to attend to now. See you next week, gentlemen, and keep feeding our people." The doors at the end of the gardens slid open and Brannoch walked through them and into the halls beyond.
The duties of an Emperor were many. At times he was glad for all the other things that he was responsible for, so he had something to get the Guardrangers out of his mind. Especially now that his forces were battling them once again. What was next on his inspection tour? The power plants, his list said, though just looking up and down the brightly-lit halls told him there was no need for that. Why not the Animatium refinery instead? They'd probably still need some Animated Warriors and Silicons to keep the peace even after the Guardrangers were out of the way. Which hopefully wouldn't be long...
Brannoch snapped his fingers and an instant later was outside the refinery. He tapped the door and it opened, a multitude of hissing vats greeting him as he stepped inside. They were processing the special mixture of metals that created Animatium, that precious alloy that could be brought to life in any form they chose. And what a boon that was to Garganstah. How many brave soldiers had died to sustain their Empire before Animatium had been developed? And the creatures that it gave rise to were far more powerful than any subject of Garganstah willing to wield a sword in his Emperor's name.
After a moment a foreman realized they had a visitor, and rose to greet him. "Emperor Brannoch, we didn't expect you this early," he said, bowing deferentially.
"I can tell the power plant's still working so your inspection was moved up. How is production coming, Sarth?" Brannoch said, cutting right to the point.
"Stockpiles are nearly full, sire." Sarth replied. "A slab was sent to the workshop this morning by Baron Sharaki's order, though."
"So he's gotten to work already, good. How are you for the ore ingredients to make more Animatium?"
"Between Animatium that's already been processed into slabs and raw materials to make more, we could create a hundred Animated Warriors."
"What about Silicons?"
"Ten thousand according to yesterday's figures. And materials enough to make nearly three times that number yet."
"Excellent. Get to work on that, gentlemen, we may need them soon." Brannoch was about to leave the chamber housing the refinery when a messenger suddenly materialized before him, using one of the spatial transplanter devices they'd been given by Gammaraude after moving into the Death Gar.
"Emperor Brannoch, Baron Sharaki has returned from Earth and is waiting to report his progress to you," he said.
He's back early, Brannoch thought. "Very well, I will hear his report." With a snap of his fingers Brannoch vanished and reappeared in his throne room. Sharaki was already kneeling before the twin thrones.
"I'm glad to see you're so prompt," Brannoch said and walked past Sharaki to seat himself on his throne.
"Thank you, sire," Sharaki replied, glad to get another shot at the Guardrangers so soon.
"Think nothing of it. Now speak. An Emperor's time is precious."
"Well, sire, as per my plan one of my men has been stationed off the coast of Japan."
"I said an Emperor's time is precious, Sharaki. I already know that you sent one of your soldiers to Earth. Tell me what I don't know," Brannoch said, not angry or impatient, but merely eager to hear this and carry on with his scheduled duties for the day.
"Yes, sire. He will attack and occupy the area, and once we have established a foothold there we can send another warrior to occupy another area further inland until we reach the nation's capital. After that we can attack in force and dominate the entire country of Japan. Then we can repeat the process for the other nations of the Earth, starting at the fringes and moving inward."
Brannoch drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne in silence for a minute. "It sounds like a time-consuming process."
"It does indeed, sire, but you have said yourself how formidable the Guardrangers are, especially with the new powers they've developed. It would be better to gradually build our influence than to hastily rush in and run a greater risk of defeat. They do indeed seem a greater menace than most races we have battled."
"Spoken like a true soldier. But the Guardrangers would be sure to hear of an invader attacking the coast of their country."
"I've already dispatched Silicons to aid him. But Drallion is much stronger than Rodim was. And he's perfectly suited to battle in the environment where he's been stationed."
"Very well, Sharaki. Proceed, but I want to take over the coast and move inland as soon as possible."
"It shall be done."
"Excellent. Now be gone and see to it."
"Thank you, sire," Sharaki replied with a bow before rising and leaving the room. His loss to the Guardrangers had been the first time he had tasted defeat in a very long time. But in a way, he was glad the foes he was facing on the last planet in Garganstah's string of conquests were not the pushovers they had battled on so many other worlds. Glorious conquest would be a thing of the past for Garganstah once Earth had fallen.
Once more, Sharaki thought about what that would mean for the Barons of Garganstah, the holders of power who commanded the Empire's warriors. There would be no more enemies to fight, aside from the odd uprising. And fighting was all he knew...
"Good morning, Sharaki. How goes your attack plan?" said Gammaraude, suddenly appearing beside him as if from nowhere.
"Very well, it so happens," Sharaki replied guardedly, since he could tell there was a mocking tone in her voice.
"I hope so, for your sake. You got off pretty easy for letting down the Emperor."
"You fared no better than I, dear woman," Sharaki retorted.
Gammaraude chuckled. "Ah, but it's not my useful life that will be over when someone does defeat them. The Empire's going to need someone to reacquaint it with the properties of Earth's resources and see about raising Gargan. You're only good for leading an army, for solving problems with that famous sword of yours. Won't it be ironic if you do bring back the Guardrangers' heads? You'll have put yourself out of a job. A soldier without a war. All dressed up and no one to destroy."
"At least I'll have gone out gloriously fighting foes worthy of my mettle." Sharaki replied coolly. "I so hope you enjoy those lonely nights in the laboratory, Gammaraude."
Gammaraude just grimaced, but Sharaki could tell he had gotten to her. Gammaraude was a brilliant woman who was excellent at what she did and was justifiably proud of all the things her hard work had brought her. And like Sharaki, her work was her life. But unlike Sharaki, there were things she craved beyond her scientific accomplishments.
"It's your life, Sharaki. Keep on living in your archaic ways if that's what fulfills you. But better you end up defeating the Guardrangers than that heathen, Vandread," she said a moment later.
"Amen to that," Sharaki replied. And the two Barons parted ways.
The day was warm and pleasant on Japan's south coast (Ed. note: come back and specify where). Children splashed happily in the water while their parents kept a watchful eye on them, and teenagers on summer holiday were playing volleyball and Frisbee up and down the sand. A few were waxing up surfboards while their girlfriends looked on. It was a good day to enjoy the sea.
Beneath the water was someone who was enjoying the sea as well, but not for nearly the same reasons. He looked up at the people cavorting along the beach and the ones that had ventured into the water. Mindless chattel. They would be no obstacle to him at all. But it was time for him to shake the cage a little, and he surveyed the innocent beachgoers more closely. Most of them were packed too closely together for him to do what he needed to do at this phase in the plan, but near the end of the beach was a small child, probably no more than three, who had wandered away from his parents. Perfect for what he had in mind.
With an effortless grace and inhuman speed the unseen assailant knifed through the deep water to the shallows where the child was wading. He chose his moment carefully, when the child looked away, and made his move. Four long, tentacle-like arms shot out of the water and seized the child, then pulled him beneath the water. The child barely had time to let out a cry of surprise before vanishing into the salty depths with a splash. Even as the boy's parents turned to see what the trouble might be, his abductor was speeding away with captive in tow.
This would do for now, to scare the humans into worrying that a stranger was among them. A stranger who intended no good for them. His captive's parents were already beginning to panic and run up and down the beach in search of their missing offspring, with others joining them to find out what was going on. Step one had gone off without a hitch. Sharaki would be pleased, the intruder thought as he made his way to rendezvous.
The day's work went a lot faster than I thought it would, and it wasn't long before I forgot all about the weird feeling I'd had when I woke up. A bunch of other people--some surfers, some not--came up to me asking for recommendations on sports equipment and beach toys to take with them on vacation. Helping out so many other on their way to enjoy the ocean did my heart good, so by the time the sky turned red I was almost enjoying myself.
That didn't mean I missed the guys for the night shift coming in to take over, the hot wind of the day blowing through the doors as they entered only slightly chilled by the early night. I punched out and jogged out into the streets. Streetlights were just coming to life, and people were still thick in the streets, but there really wasn't any reason for them not to be. The menace the Guardrangers and me would have to take on was striking far from the heart of Tokyo.
But none of us knew anything about that then. And all I knew was that I was finally off work, and felt like taking it easy. It was too late in the day to see if Bes would let me swing by the coast to cut up the waves a little, so I thought instead I'd stop in and see how my best buddy was getting along as I disappeared into the mess of people covering the sidewalks.
Finally I reached a train station and jumped onto the line that would stop near the Golden Bushel. As I did, I started to wonder about Ryuji.
We'd met when he'd been visiting his aunt and uncle in Hawaii and I'd been there for a surfing contest. I mean, what else? We hit it off, then went out and got blitzed together that night. Yeah, that doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would lead to a lasting friendship, I guess, but you'd be surprised. We spent a lot of time together over the next few days I was there competing, and he turned out to be my biggest cheerleader (except for the girls, of course) and we got pretty tight during all that. After he went home and I stayed on the surfing circuit we stayed in touch. Imagine how surprised I was when I found out that not only was I a Guardranger, so was he.
But Ryuji seemed different after a while. He had used to be so easygoing and willing to have a good time, except when he had to work. But that had started to change…and by the time we had gotten Daichijin and started fighting Garganstah for real Ryuji hardly cracked a smile at all. I was worried; the only thing I could blame for the change was being a Guardranger, but why didn't it effect me that way? I mean…what was being Fireguard doing to my best friend?
I looked around and saw there were twenty-some other people in the car I took, each looking like they had their own demon sitting on their shoulders. I could only wonder what some of them might be, but none looked interested in hearing about mine, so I just sat in silence while I waited for the ride to end.
A young woman sitting next to me ended a conversation I didn't follow on her cell phone and then returned it to her purse. She looked over at me for a second, a little icily, then turned away. I wondered what was on her mind (ed. Look into synonyms of "wonder"). For a second I thought maybe she was a spy for Garganstah, but calmed myself down. That was ridiculous. They didn't know who we were.
The woman turned toward me again, looked at me a little more intently, and just as I was getting nervous she asked, "Aren't you somebody famous?"
"Well, I dunno if I'd say famous," I responded, feeling even stupider for thinking maybe she was a spy. While I wasn't going to turn my back on my duty, I silently refused to let being a Guardranger change me too. "I've been in a couple surfing contests."
"My brother's really into that kind of thing. He and one of his friends are going out to the ocean for a few days to be with a bunch of other surfing fanatics," she said.
"Oh yeah? Does one of them wear a ratty leather jacket?" I asked.
"Yeah! Even in weather like this!" she said. "Isn't that crazy? Wait a minute, how would you know?"
"I think I sold them surfing equipment this morning. I work at a sporting goods store a couple blocks from the station we just left. Name's Jason Marger."
The woman looked at me. "I think I've heard him say that name, but it's been a while. He and his buddy talked a lot more about somebody named…Eiji Mizumi. Some really big guy in their circle, I guess."
"Eiji Mizumi?!" I said, louder than I must have thought, because most of the people in the car started to stare sternly at us, but nobody told me to shut up. "Eiji Mizumi's a legend! He's ridden higher waves than anyone all over the world! He had a technique nobody could match!"
"Could?" she asked inquisitively.
"Well, nobody's seen him for about five years. But since I got my first board I wanted to be like him," I said. "I still do."
She looked at me thoughtfully. "Well, there's nothing wrong with that. But I think you'd be better off being like yourself."
She caught me by surprise. "What?" I asked.
She smiled mysteriously, but then the train began to glide to a halt and the doors opened. She picked up her purse and was off the train and vanishing into the crowd before I could even think of going after her.
Y'know…to this day, I still don't know who the heck she was.
A couple stops later I got off. I was in the heart of the Ueno section of Tokyo, and though people were thinning out with the vanishing sun, Tokyo never really slept. And so I had to push and shove a little to get through the crush of people getting off the train at that stop too.
Nothing worth getting excited over happened during the trip from the station to the Golden Bushel, but it was still pretty well before closing time when I got to the little restaurant, so I was sure I could still find Ryuji with him and jaw a little before I went home. Maybe now that he was settling into his role, he'd be acting a little more mellow, I thought.
Nobody stopped me as I walked behind the counter and into the back. But they never do, anyways. The crew over there knows I'm tight with Ryuji and they're a friendly bunch of guys. But the tables were full in the dining room, and so I wasn't surprised to see Ryuji decked out in cap and apron helping take the load off the other chefs in the kitchen.
"I hope you washed your hands before you came back here," he said, glancing up at me I as came in.
"Aw, come on, man! Is that how you say hi to your best friend now? Where's the love, man?"
Ryuji sighed. He sounded dead tired, too. "Gomen, Jase. I'm just burned out. Had a lot more customers than usual today. All week, in fact."
I'll admit I had kinda expected him to be a lot more harsh than that, since he had been changing so much. Maybe being Fireguard wasn't being as hard on him as I thought.
"Well, that's good, right?" I asked. "I know you've wanted to get a bigger crowd in here for a while now."
"Yeah, of course it is, Jase. It's just that it's been coming at me faster than I thought it would. A LOT faster." Ryuji wiped his forehead. "It's wearing me out."
"Hey, I can relate, man. Hell, I've been doing honest work for the first time in a long time," I said, trying to lighten the mood. I got a mild chuckle out of him for that, but that was it.
Hey, it was better than nothing.
But then something hit the both of us, like an itch at the back of the brain. A familiar voice rumbled gently through our heads.
Rangers, assemble at the Earth Sanctum at once. I fear Garganstah has returned.
"Oh, brother…" Ryu sighed softly in annoyance and waved to one of the other chefs. "Keitaro, I need to go. Could you let this sit for about two minutes, then stir it a little and take it over to the table five?"
"No problem, Ryuji," the young chef replied. Then Ryuji and me left the Golden Bushel in silence.
Neither of us said a word on the way to the Earth Sanctum. Ryuji seemed like he was a million miles away as we took a train to Tokyo Tower, since we didn't think we could get into a wind tunnel unnoticed, and I guess I couldn't blame him. He did have a more demanding position on the team than me, and had to work harder than me even in his real life. And even though I had recently rejoined the work force, I admit I had nothing on him.
"Ryu, man, I--"
"Later, okay, Jase? We're on call." At least he was still calling me "Jase." He only stopped doing that when he was really ticked. But I could imagine how he felt. The restaurant was packed when we left, and there were probably gonna be grumpy customers who didn't get served fast enough because he wasn't there lending a hand.
We approached the base of the tower, and without even having to let Bes know we were there, a glowing gateway that only we could see appeared, and we walked through it, unnoticed by the people passing by.
Ryuji and me reappeared at the top of a familiar staircase, and as we did the lights came on. That meant we were the first to get there. As we went down, I thought about what being Fireguard was doing to Ryuji. He used to be so mellow except about running his restaurant, what had happened? Actually, I knew the answer to that, but the question then was why wasn't it affecting me the way it was him? Was being in charge that much of a difference?
We walked into the main room, and Bes immediately said, "Good evening, Guardrangers. Thank you for responding so quickly. I hope the others will soon arrive."
"I can't wait," I muttered, but I don't think he heard, and I was glad he didn't. I didn't have it in me to get into an argument I couldn't win.
Ryuji took a seat at the table and I took the one across from him. He got right down to business. "What did you call us for?"
"I'd prefer to wait until the others arrive. There are things I can show you here I could not over our mental link, and I hate to repeat myself besides, as you know."
"I didn't know that, actually, but if you say so," Ryu replied. I couldn't read anything about what he was thinking or feeling from how he said it.
Bes made a flustered sound, then said, "Indeed." It made me wonder for a second what he had done to pass the time for four thousand years while he was waiting for us to come back.
We didn't have to wait long for the others to show up. A couple minutes later we heard two people coming down the stairs, and Tochiro and Miaka came into the room.
"Ohayo, miina, what's going on?" Miaka said as she and Tochiro sat down.
"We're just waiting for the last part of this party to get here before Bes gives us the lowdown," I said, "He hates repeating himself, you know."
"Emph. Indeed," the old magician said. Miaka giggled quietly.
"Hey Jase, something bothering you?" Tochiro suddenly asked me.
Tochiro's one of the nicest guys the world's ever seen. Seriously, I've never met a more calm, peaceful, and totally laid-back guy than him. But what none of us will ever forget about him is the way he can "read" living things. Whether it's a person, or a wild animal, or a plant. I'm still not sure if it's got something to do with his Guardranger powers, or if it's just a gift he has. But anyway, I wasn't surprised he could tell I was kind of down in the mouth even though I didn't think I was showing it.
"Nothing, man. I'm fine," I said, and he accepted and it and started chatting with Miaka even though he didn't seem to believe me. I wasn't surprised that he didn't, though. He probably could've said exactly what was bothering me if I asked him.
Ryuji didn't say anything while Miaka and Tochiro made small talk. He just stared into space while he waited. He was usually so talkative, even after agreeing to be our leader.
"Ryu, you okay?" I asked, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Yeah," he yawned, "Crowds at the Bushel kicked my butt all day, and now we're gonna have to go run out and save the world tonight."
"Maybe you need to mellow out a little, bro," I offered, trying not to sound pushy.
"Maybe I do," he sighed, looking me in the face with an expression I couldn't identify. And that bothered me from a friend I was trying to keep from becoming someone I didn't know or understand.
A little later there was the sound of footsteps in the stairway and finally Naoko entered, hair and jacket still mussed from being blown to the center of Tokyo along one of our wind tunnels. "Gomenesai. They kept me late at the Institute."
"Don't worry about it," Ryuji said, "But now that everybody's here, let's get this meeting started, okay?"
The colored wisps of light that usually bounced around inside of Bes's crystal ball faded away and it started to glow white, then a beam shot out of it and into a screen in the wall. Gradually a landscape appeared, a beach teeming with people. "Today a young boy vanished here, at a beach on the south coast of the island. I registered an inhuman life form in the vicinity at the time, but then it vanished."
"So why do you think it's Garganstah?" Ryuji asked. "One kid seems awfully small considering they're after the whole world."
"I agree, but I detected a faint resonance of Genesis energy, the kind found in all of Garganstah's monstrous soldiers, in the area. I've been probing that area for hours looking for any other sign of whoever is responsible, but I couldn't find anything distinct, so I called you to discuss a plan."
"If Garganstah is up to something there, we should probably have someone stake out the area for a while," Naoko immediately suggested.
"That's a good idea," Miaka added, "When they come back we can catch 'em with their pants down!"
"That is a good idea," Ryuji said, "But who's gonna go? I'm up for it."
"Not me, gomen," Tochiro replied, "I'll come if you find anything, but I've been getting way behind with my work lately thanks to having to fight Garganstah so much."
"I'm in the same boat, I'm afraid," Naoko added, "I've got an avalanche of papers covering my desk at the Institute that I haven't even touched."
"I can come!" Miaka chimed in, energetic and enthusiastic as always, but suddenly her face fell, "…as soon as I catch up on my voice lessons…drat."
"I can probably get out of work for a day or two," I said.
"Then I guess it's just us two, man," Ryuji responded, with a comradely smile on his face I hadn't seen in ages.
"Yep, looks like it," I replied, feeling like things were back to normal between us.
"Meet me here in the morning and then we'll go stake the place out."
"Good luck, you two," Miaka said.
Yeah, I thought, good luck to us…
Sharaki stood on the shore of a small island his sword embedded blade-first in the sand. The sun had vanished beyond the horizon more than an hour ago, and the moonlight on the water was the only thing around to hold his attention. Drallion must have decided to go for a few extra victims.
A heavy wave of cloud cover suddenly covered the moon. He heard a splash as the surface of the water was broken down the beach, and a dark figure emerged. Its feed made squelching sounds as they approached Sharaki across the stretch of wet sand, and while a human would have been terrified were this to happen to them, Sharaki knew exactly what was coming toward him.
"How has it gone, Drallion?" he asked.
"Excellent, sir," the figure replied. The cloud moved away and as the dim light returned one could make out what he was, and it wasn't anything pleasant.
Drallion was a seven-foot-tall alien being, with a human body, arms and legs, but the similarities ended there. He had a huge bulbous head with a tiny, beady eye set into either side of it. Between them, where a human's mouth would be, was a razor-sharp beak instead. His red skin was thick and rubbery, and six long tentacles dangled to the ground from around his neck.
"I abducted some children today, as per your instructions. The absence of my victims was noticed, but I am sure that I was not," Drallion went on.
"And what has become of them?"
"They are back in the nest I've made, undergoing the transformation. The results will be interesting to see," Drallion said, punctuating his remark with a sadistic chuckle.
"Indeed…," Sharaki replied, but there was a thick note of disgust to his tone. The very idea of using children as cat's-paws in this scenario sickened him. And Drallion was taking far too much pleasure in it. "Tomorrow, I want you to escalate things a bit. Capture some adults, but don't let yourself be seen yet. The time for that will come soon enough."
"Of course, sir," Drallion replied. "Shall I return to the Death Gar for the night, then?"
"If you think your…process can do without the supervision."
"Of course it can. By tomorrow night we'll be able to launch a siege if you see fit."
And with that the two of them shimmered, then turned into spheres of light and vanished away into the night sky.
Next morning, Ryuji was up about an hour before I was, getting his restaurant ready to go on without him for a few days. I'd gotten my Range Rover out of the storage garage I'd put it in the last time I'd been in Japan. I wasn't really sure if we'd need it on the beach, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have some four-wheel-drive horsepower just in case. I still had two of my best boards strapped on the luggage rack and a couple of wetsuits.
"Jase, no! No way!"
"Why not?" I asked him as he put his duffle bag in the right-hand seat.
"For one thing, we'd never fit your board inside of a wind tunnel! And why are you putting all your surfing gear in here anyway? We're on call."
"Because, dude, if there's a monster attack up there we'll know it. Why can't we try to unwind a little bit while we're out at the beach?" I answered.
"Jase, this is Guard buisness. Not a field trip."
"Oh come on, man! I need to make sure I don't get rusty, and I can give you some lessons while we're out there."
Ryuji looked at me like I was nuts. "Oh, no…forget it. Once was enough."
"C'mon, bro…even I wiped out a lot when I was still learning. Everyone does out before they get the hang of it," I said.
"Wipes out, yeah. Gets knocked out by his own board when he comes up for air, no," Ryuji came back. I had to laugh at the faint shade of red coming into his face. "Jase, c'mon…we can't take all this stuff to the stakeout."
"Okay, you don't have to carry anything. I'll handle it."
"Dude, we're here on business," he said, the serious look that I came to detest coming into his face. "We can't afford to get caught off-guard with some Garganstah stooge-monster running all over the place."
I sighed, trying not to look too irritated. "Ryu, there's no law saying we can't relax a little while we're keeping an eye out. Y'know, all work, no play, yadda, yadda, yadda."
Ryuji rolled his eyes. "Again with this, Jase?" he asked me.
"Yeah, again with this until it finally sinks in," I came back flatly. "Ryu…I know I've said this about a hundred times in the past few weeks, but I can't keep my mouth shut about it until something changes," I took a breath. "Being Fireguard…it's changing you, man."
Suddenly something caught my eye. I saw a kid playing in the water suddenly disappear with a tiny splash. It seemed like nobody else had noticed, but I could just make out a big black shape underneath the water not far away…
I leaned a different way, steering my board toward that shape. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ryu get up and start to run down the beach the way I was going. He must've noticed something was up, but at the time I didn't think of that, I was zeroing in on the shape in the water. Now it was time to think like a hero.
I dove off my board and into the water, where I saw what the shape was. A big, orange octopus-like monster was hovering there. I'll spare you guys the details, but let me just tell you-- this thing put the "UG" in ugly…I mean, yeesh…
He had something shaped like the kid I had just seen under his arm, but it was covered in some kind of black oily stuff. But that didn't hold my attention long. I brought up my wrist, and somehow even though I was underwater, the words came out loud and clear.
"WATER…FOCUS!" The power started to sweep me up again, but it felt stronger than ever, probably because I was in my element as I called it up. The monster turned to look just as my uniform finished weaving itself and my helmet materialized, and by then I'd given a command to the water and it had started propelling me straight at him. Before he knew what hit him I'd grabbed him by a pair of tentacles dangling off his head, then with another command to the water I gave him a swing, and a whirlpool whipped up with myself in the center and Octo-Boy caught in the current as he went around and around helplessly. Finally I let go, dispersed the whirlpool and smashed him into the shore.
The thing seemed dazed so I focused my attention to the poor kid still clenched under his arm. His eyes were still wide open, and his mouth contorted in the scream he must've been giving when the monster caught him. But he was still covered in that black gunk, and I knew I had to move fast.
"ORCA BRAND!" I shouted, my words again somehow carrying through the water, and in a swirl of blue light my weapon was in hand. The monster had recovered and was swimming at me, and boy did he look mad. But that didn't stop me. "ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" The trademark whirlpool attack blasted out of my blaster rod, a heck of a lot stronger than normal--hell, the backlash must've shoved me back fifteen feet as it blasted toward Drallion, kicking up a blizzard of water bubbles. I had to wonder if the people on the beach could tell what was going on, but a second later I had something else to worry about. My blast smashed into Drallion, but he didn't get blown away or lose his grip on the kid under his arm like I was expecting. Instead, the tentacles around his neck started spinning around, faster and faster, whipping another whirlpool of his own that hit mine and started to overpower it. I tried to juice up my attack, but Drallion's just kept coming.
Now, I'm not really comfortable admitting what came next, but I like to think I've always been an honest guy. So though it hurts my pride, I'll tell you what happened next. His attack blew me out of the water. Literally. After that whirlpool hit me, the next thing I knew I must have been forty feet in the air and coming down fast on the beach.
People saw me coming and ran away screaming from where I was gonna land. I saw Ryu off to the side, raising his bracelet. He caught sight of me flying over his head (how could he not?), and took off in the direction I was heading. Even though he was my best friend, I didn't blame him for not trying to catch me or anything…I mean, with the speed I was building up anybody I landed on would probably be smashed into dog food. And I was a Guardranger, I'd be okay. I hoped.
I heard a loud whumph as I hit land, and a huge cloud of sand kicked up around me. Pain shot through me and a few sparks lit up, but it didn't feel like anything too serious. When the sandstorm died down around me, Ryu was crouching next to me in the crater I'd made, his hands bracing my shoulders. "You okay, dude?" he asked.
"Ugh…yeah. That's the first time I've ever wiped out without my board, though. You better suit up and get ready to rumble if you want us to stay upright and conscious," I replied.
"FIRE…FOCUS!" Ryu shouted, and his bracelet flared. I could feel the heat energy he was channeling as his uniform appeared around him, then Hellscar's profile for a split-second as it super-imposed over Ryu's head, forming his helmet. The screams of terror were fading into the distance. The people had probably learned by then that whenever a sentai hero's around trouble's brewing. But then I heard a huge splash, like something big had just come out of the water. And I was right, because a second later the monster appeared over the edge of the crater I'd just made and spat some kind of black goo at us from the tentacles on his neck. I grabbed the Orca Brand and dove one way out of the whole and Fireguard went the other. I heard the goo hissing as it hit the bottom of the pit.
I hit the sand in a forward roll and got to my feet, just in time to see Fireguard swing into his fighting stance and started to circle Drallion. I gripped the Orca Brand and started going the other way. Drallion, because that was his name, looked at me, then Fireguard, then back to me, coming at him from opposite directions. But he didn't look scared. Instead he set the kid down, and suddenly the tentacles around his neck swung up and sprayed that black stuff at Fireguard. He was fast and jumped over the monster's head and out of the way, but then Drallion turned and sprayed it at me.
Common sense probably would've told me to jump out of the way, or duck under it and attack or something like that. But I didn't think along those lines. Maybe I wanted to prove myself to my friend, maybe I was just thinking that the best defense was a good offense. I was cupped my hands and shouted, "ABSOLUTE ZERO!"
A ball of white energy formed in my hands and I fired it at the inky stuff coming toward me. The two hit each other and the freezing energy of my attack spread over the ink and crystallized it. Then I jumped at the monster, aiming the Orca Brand at where I hope his heart would be as I came down. But Drallion was faster than he looked and two tentacles shot out, one smacking me away from him and the other pulling my battlerod out of my hands.
"DRAGON STEEL!" I heard Fireguard yell, as he swung his sword at Drallion's back. As I hit the ground, though, I could see Drallion's tentacles whip out behind him, snake around Fireguard's arm and then fling him into the air. He landed near me a second later.
"This is pathetic!" Drallion said, "I wasn't expecting to fight you so soon, but I was expecting to fight more than two of you when I did! Your friends too scared to fight Garganstah anymore?" He moved forward to attack again, but suddenly there was a flash of green light in the sky and a ball of light came shooting down. It started to change as it got near the ground, growing arms and legs, and the next thing we knew it had changed into Sharaki.
"Drallion, you aquatic imbecile, what do you think you're doing?!" he demanded, "You weren't supposed to call attention to yourself!"
"These two found me! What was I supposed to do?" Drallion complained.
Sharaki looked us over as we got up, then he mumbled, "I prefer this sort of conquest anyway." He pointed his sword at us, "Guardrangers, prepare to defend yourselves!" Then he and Drallion started to close in.
Aw, geez…any ideas, man? I thought to Fireguard.
Yep. Hit 'em hard and fast, was all he said in reply. So we did.
"DRAGON HELLBURST SLASH!" Fireguard yelled, charging up his sword. He swung it at Sharaki and a giant pillar of flame jumped from the blade straight at Sharaki. I swear I heard him gasp before he lifted his sword to block it, and even though the flame hit the blade and forced him back a couple feet, he didn't go down. But as the flame disappeared and he got ready to attack again, Fireguard was already in his face, swinging the Dragon Steel like a maniac. Sharaki blocked and parried with his sword again and again, but it looked like everything he could do to stop Fireguard from landing a swing.
So that left me to fight Drallion. I was okay with that, I had a couple things to pay that guy back for anyway. So I summoned up my strength, then called out, "TITAN WAVE!" A tidal wave formed out of nowhere and I rode the crest of it toward Drallion.
I was thinking I had him, but I probably don't have to say I was wrong. He ran straight at the wave, caught me by my ankle and yanked me into my own tidal wave. The wave pushed us back into the ocean, and before I could blink Drallion was already on the attack. He grabbed both of my arms with his tentacles and then hammered his beak against my head over and over. The colors of the world started to run together, and my ears rang like you wouldn't believe as he did.
But a second later my head started to clear. I looked up to see why Drallion had stopped trying to smash in the side of my head, just in time to see the Orca Brand swing toward my chest. I reached out and grabbed the shaft the best I could with two huge tentacles wrapped around my arms, while Drallion used two more to try stab me with my own weapon. Maybe he thought being back in his element would give him the advantage, but the ocean was my element even more than it was his…
I let go of the Orca Brand with one hand. The teeth on the end jerked an inch closer to my chest with that much less resistance, but I wouldn't have to worry about that in a second if my idea worked.
"ICE BLADE AVALANCHE!" I shouted, and my free hand started to glow white. Drallion realized what I was doing and tried to stick me with my own trident before I could, but I was too fast, even underwater, and chopped my hand against his side. From where I hit him, ice crystals started to spread. I thought I heard him scream in whatever his native language was as the ice spread over his torso, then over his arms, legs, and tentacles. The ones holding my arms started to weaken as they began to frost, and I don't have to tell you I took the chance I had to yank my arms loose. Then I grabbed the Orca Brand back from Drallion and jabbed it into his frozen gut. He shivered out some kind of feeble cry, but I didn't listen. By then he was covered in ice, and I was sure he'd shatter if I wailed on his butt hard enough.
I hate being wrong.
Instead he gave an angry yell, and suddenly threw this tentacles wide, shattering the ice around him! He glared at me with those tiny red eyes, and I could tell I still had a fight on my hands. I spare a quick thought for my best friend and hoped Fireguard was doing okay.
I didn't know it at the time, but he was. He was as serious as serious in a fight as he was about being a hero. He and Sharaki dueled back and forth over the beach, swords clanging and sparks flying.
"Still the worthy opponent, I see," Sharaki said, only slightly out of breath as he blocked Fireguard's swing and tried to land his own.
"I'm just giving this job the respect it deserves," Fireguard retorted. He made a risky move, suddenly raising the Dragon Steel above his head to bring it down with all his strength on Sharaki's chest, and yelled angrily as he brought his blade down. Sharaki, a warrior of countless battles, saw what he intended to do and lifted his own massive sword to parry Fireguard's attack. But the Ranger was the quicker of the two, and altered his swing suddenly and slashed Sharaki viciously across his abdomen.
"How--" Sharaki gasped in disbelief, but Fireguard didn't answer. The force that made him a master warrior had taken over, and he had given himself over to it completely. How else was he supposed to fight warriors as strong as Sharaki otherwise, he thought. He slashed again, and again, forcing Sharaki back half a step. He brought back the Dragon Steel to attack again, but suddenly Sharaki's hand snapped out and caught the blade in mid-air.
"Good, Guardranger, but not good enough," he said, and smashed his sword into Fireguard, sending him rolling down the beach. That was probably when I felt a little tingle in my head as he sent out a call for help. But I could feel something else from him too, a kind of "damn-if-I'm-not-gonna-try-to-solve-this-problem-all-by-myself" while he we sending the call.
"You're not bad either, but you're not taking over while we're here to mess up the works."
"Ever the optimist, eh?" Sharaki replied, leveling his sword at Fireguard's chest, who did the same. They circled, standing nearly fifty feet apart, then suddenly Fireguard charged, yelling like a demon and swinging the Dragon Steel above his head. Sharaki looked like he couldn't believe his eyes, I'm told, and started charging up for a special attack. Lightning glowed and crackled on his sword, but Fireguard didn't stop. He just kept coming.
"""STRATOS! THUNDER STREAM!"" Sharaki yelled, like when they'd fought before. But Fireguard suddenly leaned forward, shoved the Dragon Steel into the sand and used it to vault himself off the ground. Sharaki's attack sizzled by underneath, tearing a huge trench in the sand, but Fireguard wasn't worried about that. He only thought about defeating his enemy.
"DRAGON HELLRISER!" he shouted, his momentum and focus sending him into his flying spiral attack right at Sharaki. Fireguard's fists bashed into Sharaki again and again, knocking him back repeatedly, and with a final spiraling uppercut Fireguard knocked Sharaki into the air. He landed on his back with a boom down the beach as Fireguard's attack ended.
Sharaki got up on shaky legs, wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth. The guy actually laughed at it, though. The big lug was enjoying himself!
Huh. Go figure.
"Magnificent! I haven't had to work this hard in decades! You Guardrangers are certainly living up to your legend."
He wouldn't have thought so from the way I was going, though. Drallion was flailing at me with his tentacles as I tried to stick him with my trident, but every time I would get close a tentacle would knock it away. I realized I was getting nowhere and swam out into deeper water. Drallion followed me closely, but I had an idea that I hoped would give me the edge.
I dove close to the sea bed and suddenly whipped around. Drallion slowed down as he came closer, probably expecting me to attack, but I didn't. Not directly. "ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" I yelled. I thought I heard Drallion laugh, since he probably thought I was idiot for using an attack that hadn't worked. But I didn't point the Orca Brand at him, but at the bottom of the ocean instead.
The whirlpool formed quickly whipped up a cloud of wet sand and sea weed that was torn out of the sea bed. I guided it toward Drallion as quickly as I could, and he gasped in surprise as the cloud swallowed him up. I ceased the whirlpool and swam at him quickly, then hucked the Orca Brand at where I'd seen him last. I just hoped I could take him out quick like that.
I thought I heard him shriek in pain, but suddenly three tentacles shot out of the dust and grabbed my arms and one of my legs. Drallion came out, bleeding black goop from his gut but not looking hurt that badly. "You…worthless…scum!" he roared, and with his free tentacles released that black inky stuff at me. As soon as that stuff hit my suit, it burned like acid. I screamed, and he laughed. Then he threw me right out of the water.
I felt like he'd gotten a steel drum band to wail all over me again as I went flying and crashed onto the beach with bone-jarring impact. All I could tell was pain and sparks blasting up and down my back for a few minutes, or what I thought was a few minutes, anyway. That was definitely not my day. And it didn't get much better, because when I could feel something other than pain, I saw Fireguard standing over me while Sharaki and Drallion closed in on us.
"Okay, boys…which of you wants to die first?" Fireguard said bravely, and then cut the air a few times with the Dragon Steel to show he meant business.
"HAH! What are you going to do, fall on us after you keel over?" Drallion snorted, "Your friend there's on his last legs as it is."
"Don't count me out so fast, Sludge Breath," I said, trying to get up, but I don't think I exactly had 'em shaking in their boots as took almost a minute to pull myself up.
Sharaki stepped back and lowered his sword. "This is hardly sporting combat. The blue one can't even stay upright, much less put up a decent fight."
Needless to say, my ego couldn't tolerate a line like that. "Come over here and say that to my face, dude!" Then I felt the black stuff still on my suit, and it was REALLY to burn even more now that we were out of the water. I yelped in pain and went down on my side again.
"Take it easy, buddy. I've got this," Fireguard said, then started charging up. Drallion rushed him, but the monster was too late. "DRAGON HELLBURST SLASH!" He swung his katana and the trademark fire blast roared out of it. Drallion jumped back and there was an explosion of sand as Fireguard's attack hit the ground where he'd been standing, and as it cleared I could see Drallion hadn't gotten away totally unhurt. His legs were black and smoking, and he had a totally pissed-off look in his eyes.
"I'll floss my teeth with your spinal cord for that, you wretch!" Drallion raged. Fireguard dug in his boots and raised his weapon, but didn't look like he could fend off a monster that big by himself. But as Drallion came charging at us, a row of explosions suddenly sprang up in front of him. "What in--"
"Miina!" Airguard shouted, bow in hand, as she and the others came running down the beach with their weapons out.
"Let me at them! I'll--" Drallion started to say, but Sharaki stopped him.
"No, the plan's failed. Besides, their allies are fresh and we aren't. We'll get them soon enough, though."
Drallion growled, but didn't talk back. Drallion grabbed the kid, then they glowed and began to lose their shape for a second, and turned into balls of light and flew away.
"Are you two all right?" Earthguard asked.
"I am, I dunno about Jase, though. You gonna live, man?" Fireguard asked as he propped me up a little, his arm around my shoulders.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just got scorched in a few places."
"Better get that black stuff cleaned off you, bud." As he said that, he didn't sound anything like the hard-assed leader of the Guardrangers, but like the concerned best friend I thought was lost forever.
I tried to sound strong, but my chest was killing me--like I'd swallowed a bucket of nails and broken glass. But seeing Ryu worrying about me made it easier to take. "I'll be okay, man, really. Just give me a second to get my breath."
"No Jason, let us deal with this You've done more than enough for now." I would've been happy to argue the point with her if I didn't know she was right. As Forest and Airguard went to get some water to wash Drallion's spit off me, Fireguard dipped his fingertip into a patch of it. He sucked in a sharp breath, then yanked it out. To have Bes check it out later, I knew. I began to wonder all over again what being Fireguard was doing to my friend…
A couple minutes later we all stood on the beach, back in normal form. I ached a little still, but I didn't have any trouble getting up and walking around.
"Jase, you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, dude. Isn't it obvious?"
"I hope so, I've got a feeling it'll take all we've got to take that thing down."
"You've got a feeling?" I asked, trying to make some light of the situation. I thought I saw Ryu smirk for a second, but it disappeared when Naoko raised an eyebrow at me.
"I'm gonna take this black goop the monster was shooting back to the Earth Sanctum to see if Bes can tell what it is. I guess we might as well go back, that thing's probably not coming back here now that we caught him. But everybody be ready to come running if he comes back."
"Gomen. I'm just sorry we couldn't stop them before they got away," Tochiro said apologetically. Funny how he hadn't changed much since becoming a Guardranger. Ryu bucked him up, though.
"Don't worry about it. We just need to be more alert to catch them again when they come back."
"Exactly, Tochiro," Miaka added. She hadn't changed much either. Tochiro cracked a smile as she said that, and I felt myself frowning. But I forgot about that as I heard Ryu calling.
"Hey Jase, we're heading back now."
"Go ahead, man. I'm gonna to stick around for a little while. Clear out the cobwebs, y'know?"
Ryu gave me a long look, but finally he said, "Okay, dude. We'll be waiting for you back home." Then the four of them walked off toward the nearest wind tunnel back to Tokyo. Me, I started walking down the deserted beach by myself.
God, what a day. I started brooding as the sand shifted under my footsteps, the top half of my wetsuit down around my stomach. But I think you got the idea of what was on my mind around then already. But as I walked along, I soon realized I wasn't alone on the beach after all. I saw an older guy wearing trunks walking toward me from the far end of the sand. I wondered what he was doing, if he had somehow missed everyone else on the beach running away when an octopus from outer space attacked.
I recognized him a second later. Oh, man…no way…It was Eiji Mizumi! I jogged over to him. He cringed for a second, but then seemed to recognize me too.
"Jason Marger?" he asked as I got close enough to hear him. I nodded dumbly like I'd gotten beaned in the forehead with a cartoon hammer.
"Aren't you Eiji Mizumi? How do you know who I am?"
"I still keep an eye on the competition, even if I don't compete so much anymore. Anyway, what are you doing here? You like to practice when the beach is quiet too?"
"Huh? Uh, not really. I'm not even sure where my board is. I fell off it when the monster attacked."
He cocked his head at me, "Monster?"
I blinked. "You didn't notice?"
"I just got here a minute ago. I was wondering where everyone was, though," he said, sounding like I'd just asked for directions or something.
"The monster scared 'em all off. But hey, where've you been hiding, man? Surfers all over the world've been wondering why you dropped off the radar," I said, forgetting all about the monster and the Guardrangers and the stuff about Ryuji being changed by it all. I mean, dude…I was talking to Eiji Mizumi, what else was there to think about?
"Well, Jason," he said, like we'd known each other for years, "why don't you tell me all about this monster that was just here?" He started walking away from me, toward an isolated corner of the beach where a battered surfboard lay on the ground. "Oh, and get your board. I want to see what they're making surfers like these days."
A minute later after I zipped myself back into my wetsuit and found my board, I was back out cutting the ways like Drallion had never been there. And even though I suppose I should've been getting used to weird stuff by then, I amazed to see Eiji paddle out on his board and then lean into the waves with a grace even I couldn't have imagined by myself. insert surfing montage here
I stood and crouched, leaned left and right to keep my balance. Eiji did the same, but with a lot more poise and experience. He was, to live up to a stereotype, awesome, dude.
"I love it like this!" I heard him say, "It's no fun surfing in front of a million staring people all the time!"
"That a problem for you?" I called as I zoomed by behind him.
"Sometimes," he said back, "Isn't it one for you?"
"I dunno," I replied while I was weaving around next to him, "I haven't had time to do this much lately. New responsibilities."
"You sure don't ride that board like somebody who's outta practice."
"I still get time to practice, sorta," I said, thinking about the times when I used Titan Wave on the monsters I took on. That was sort of like surfing, and usually it worked. Thinking about how it hadn't brought back all the insecurities that had gone away when I'd started talking to Eiji.
"You all right?" Eiji called over the waves. I'd let myself drift away. "You're looking pretty distracted, Jason!"
"Jase is fine," I called back, regaining my composure and leaning back close enough to talk. Most people wouldn't think you could do both at once, but you just gotta have the skill. :)
"All right, Jase. Something I say distract you?"
"Kind of, but I don't really want to talk about it right now." I was feeling kind of sore at Ryuji as I said that. I mean, what the hell was he doing changing into a totally different person and leaving me hanging? I'd never had a friend as good as him, and we were both Guardrangers, too. Didn't the past count for anything in the kind of person he was?
"Keeping troubles bottled up is bad for the soul," Eiji said, surprising me so much I nearly fell off my board.
"What??"
Eiji didn't answer me right away. We were getting close to the beach and he jumped off his board and walked with it out of the water. I joined him, wondering if I'd said the wrong thing to somebody else.
"Jase, you're probably gonna think I'm crazy, but just listen to what I say to you, okay?"
"Okay," I said, wondering what I had gotten into.
"You remember what happened right before I quit pro surfing?"
"Yeah, you had a big argument with some girl right before the Golden Sun Bonanza and wiped out in the middle of that, man. I was wondering for years what happened to you."
"Do you have any idea why I had that fight, then dropped out of sight?"
"Hey, me and half the surfers in the world been wondering that for four years."
"Because I couldn't think about my game anymore. I can tell the same thing's up with you. You ride that board like a pro, but your mind isn't on the waves."
I was about to grab him by the arm and demand to know what he was talking, how he knew something was bothering me, but then I remembered I had a best friend who'd gotten advice from the first superhero ever.
"You're carrying something heavy, Jase. And I think if you tell me about it, maybe I can help."
"I wouldn't mind some help...life's gotten pretty confusing..."
"Race you to that island," Eiji said, jumping back into the water and paddling toward a little island about half a mile away. Again I forgot about my problems with a challenge like that to occupy my mind. I dove in paddled into deeper water, then stood up and surfed toward the island behind Eiji.
Beneath the tranquil ocean but further up the coast, Drallion lurked. The plan was to go ahead, they'd just have to move up the date of commencement now that the Guardrangers onto them.
Drallion swam to the bottom of the ocean, into the undersea cave where he'd made his home for the last several days. It was dark, too dark for any surface creature to see inside of, but to a creature whose eyes were used to the stygian depths of oceans it was like coming home. Drallion could make out the figures of beachgoers he'd been carrying off, stuck against the walls with some kind of unearthly glop and their skin discolored by his ink. As he swam by slowly, inspecting each one in turn, some strained against their bonds, but the ink had sucked up too much of their strength.
"I'd like to see the Guardrangers stand up to me next time," he rumbled with a macabre pride. Throwing his tentacles wide, the genesis energy enhancing his own powers flew from their tips and into the nearly lifeless bodies surrounding him. Their feeble movements began stronger, faster as they writhed about trying to break free. But it was no longer in an effort to escape.
They opened their mouths to scream and what little air was left in their lungs escaped in bubbles as they did. But Drallion heard them. Heard them all utter a single, hateful scream. Hate for their kind, hate for their society, hate for whatever Drallion compelled them to.
He swung his powerful tentacles and smashed the bonds of one of his victims, then another. Those freed followed their monstrous master as he swam forward and smashed the shackles of the others. Once the last were loose he pushed himself out of the cave with a single stroke of his tentacles, the blackened beachgoers shambling along behind him. Though no air was in their lungs they gave pitiful moans that only Drallion could've heard. But hear it he could. And if he had lips, he might have smiled.
They would go, they would fight the humans, and after the battle there would be even more unfortunate half-living creatures like the ones following him to shore. Those were the thoughts in Drallion's unscrupulous mind. And he knew the Guardrangers wouldn't dare raise a hand against their own people. Victory was assured...
So I found out where Eiji Mizumi had been those years. He beat me out to the island by a whole minute, and had a laugh while I grabbed my board under one arm and jogged out of the water onto the wet sand. As I did I thought I saw footprints up the beach, but I figured they were just Eiji's. I didn't really notice that they didn't go all the way off the beach, and weren't quite human...
"You sure seem pumped," I said.
"Jase, surfing is my life, as I'm sure you know. But I don't like doin' it when there's a million people crowding the beach and starin' at me. I ain't had a contest with another surfer since I gave up the professional stuff."
"Yeah well, sometime you and me'll have a real contest." I grinned at him.
"Sounds good to me. But first, I'm gonna ask you again, do you know why I quit pro surfing after I had that fight?"
"Again, Eiji, I have no idea."
"Then follow me, and I'll tell you all about it." He turned and walked into the forest on the inside edge of the beach, sinking his board nose-first into the sand and somehow getting it to stand. I jammed my board front-first into the sand, but it just fell over. Eiji kept going, though, and I left it there and ran after him.
He led me down a forest path and into a big clearing where a two-story house sat. We went inside and he made coffee while I sat down and explained what was on my mind lately. The stuff about Ryuji and me getting distant, while tactfully forgetting to tell him anything involving superheroes. Eiji listened well even with his back turned, but when he said to go on I got the feeling that this was something he had all heard before. And from that question he'd asked me before, I was starting to think he had.
"That sounds like a big problem you've got, Jase. But things change, even people. It's the only constant in the world," he said while he was sipping coffee.
"That's deep, man."
"Maybe, but it's the truth. Does your friendship with this guy really matter so much you want to keep him from changing no matter what?"
"Dude, Ryu and me'd been best friends for years and he never changed a bit. I thought it was gonna be cool working together on this new job, but suddenly he's in charge and it's like he's a totally different person."
"Mm-hmm. You said that. But don't you think that if his friendship really mattered to you, you'd accept him for what he is, even if it's something different than what you're used to?"
"If I could, I wouldn't be having these problems, would I?" I said.
"Jase, I'm gonna tell you a little story now, okay?" Eiji asked, but went on before I answered. "See, that woman I was arguing with before the contest, she was my wife. Remi's her name. She'd been a stay at home for a long time, but around then she decided she wanted to do something with her life. Get a career, make something of herself. So she started going to night classes and I hardly ever saw her anymore, even during the off season.
"Remi was happy with the new life she was making for herself, but I felt like I was second best to her. I told her so and she told me that was silly, but she kept going, working hard like she had been. So it wasn't long before I accused her of lying to me, and we had a hell of a fight.
"That was the beginning of the end. We started growing apart, seeing even less of each other than before. Remi showed up right before that contest to tell me she was leaving me and taking our son with her. I couldn't focus on the contest, so I lost, and I haven't heard from either of them since."
I was stunned. I had no idea a living legend like Eiji Mizumi had gone through anything like that. Maybe that was the reason somebody or something had sent him to meet him, but I'll probably never know.
"You see, Jase, if I'd accepted her decision, supported her, Remi would still be here. But I couldn't, I wanted her to be the way she'd always been before. And because I couldn't accept her even though she'd changed some, she left me. Sounds kind of like what you're going through, doesn't it?"
"Yeah…yeah, it does," was all I could say.
"It's not the same thing as being in love, but I think that if your friendship with this Ryu guy matters that much, you should try to accept him. Otherwise you'll just tear your friendship apart trying to change things back to the way it used to be. But if you want the rest of my take on this…I'd say he's worried about losing you, too."
I couldn't do anything but think he was probably right, and it explained why I'd lost against Drallion in my own element before. My mind hadn't really been on the fight.
Things were quiet for a long time in Eiji's kitchen. He sat across the table from me waiting patiently for a reaction, and I sat there tossing what he had told me over and over in my mind. Being Guardrangers together hadn't been turning out like I'd expected, but it'd be even worse if I kept on Ryu's back and threw away what we had left And losing that scared the hell outta me.
Just then my brain had an itch, like when Bes was sending out to warn us about danger. I kept my mind closed for right then, since I didn't feel like sharing my thoughts with any of the others just yet. "Hey, Eiji, I gotta go. But thanks for the advice, man."
"Don't worry about it. But keep it to yourself that I'm living out here, okay? Not quite ready to face the fans again."
"Hey, my lips are sealed. But I'll be back for a rematch sometime," I grinned.
"Any time you want, kid," he laughed.
I left Eiji's little house feeling better than I had in weeks. And honestly, I was kind of laughing at myself for not realizing it on my own. Even I knew a sentai's biggest strength was their unity, and I hadn't been doing much for that with being on Ryu's back.
I had almost reached the beach and was about to open my mind to ask Bes what was wrong, but through the trees I could see someone on the beach. Someone big and orange with long tentacles coming off from his neck. Yeah, it was Drallion, pacing around the edge of the sand while a bunch of black-colored people milled around like they didn't have a brain-cell between all of them.
A couple seconds later there was a flash and a ball of light flew down from the sky and turned into Sharaki. He didn't waste any time, asking, "I take it you're ready to attack, Drallion?"
"See for yourself, sir. Not as many subjects as I'd hoped for before the full assault, but they should do. And their numbers will grow once they battle other humans for us."
I wasn't doubting that this was what Bes had sent the alert for. I brought up my arm and got ready to change.
But then…
"What the hell are you goons doin' on my island?"
Oh my God…you've gotta be kidding!
"Your island?" Sharaki and Drallion said at the same time.
I guess I don't have to tell you guys it was Eiji, do I? Nah, I didn't think so. There he was, looking really, really annoyed, rather than scared or anything at seeing two alien warriors and a bunch of zombies. Man…can I just say that this really took the prize for weirdness?
"That's right, my island. I live here, and you ugly jokers and your fan club are trespassing." As he said that I noticed he was looking around every few seconds, I guess for signs that I had gotten off the island and not caught by these weirdos facing him down. But of course, there weren't any. My surfboard was still there, and only his footprints led from the inside of the island. "So get off, right now."
"So the Guardrangers aren't the only mortals around here with impertinent tongues," Drallion snarled, "Well, I'll fix that!" He brought up his tentacles and sprayed that black stuff toward Eiji, but I was already smashing into the open and holding out my Guardbrace.
"WATER…FOCUS!" There was just a flash of blue power and Waterguard had taken my place and was charging the Gargs with my Eternablade in hand. If Sharaki and Drallion were surprised, they sure as hell didn't show it. I yelled as I brought my Eternablade down toward Sharaki's chest, but he blocked my swing with his own sword, and Drallion swung his tentacles like whips at me.
But of course he wasn't fighting the same guy he was before. And I proved that as I jumped over his tentacles coming at me, a good twenty feet off the ground, and came down behind them immediately ready to fight again. I started to rush them, but Sharaki yelled a word.
"Silicons!" There was another flash of light and suddenly a bunch of their metal foot soldiers appeared between me and Sharaki. One whammed me in the stomach with his spear, and another one that tried to smash my head in with his club got his arms whacked off before he could even get it near me.
"I want that blue pest's head on a sharp stick!" Drallion spit angrily.
"We haven't time to indulge your baser instincts, Drallion! We're behind schedule already. I dare not keep Brannoch waiting longer than I must," Sharaki said, and he, Drallion, and the black-skinned guys changed into light and zapped off the island as I kept whacking away at the Silicons. But a second later something flashed out and smacked one of the Silicons down. It was Eiji, holding his surfboard like some kind of weapon. A Silicon charged at him and he smashed it with his board, not really doing any damage, but knocking it down and giving me a chance to run over and stab it through with my Eternablade.
"Looked like you could use a little help," Eiji said as I got back up.
"Hey, like I'd actually turn you down, man."
"I told you to call me Eiji," he said, smiling. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But there wasn't time to worry about that, the Silicons rallied back and attacked us again.
Meanwhile, Sharaki, Drallion and his victims appeared on a beach eastward of where they had attacked before. All was quiet for a second as the people were realizing what had happened, but then Drallion screamed, "Boo!" and all hell broke loose. Screams cut the air. People fled in all directions. And Drallion's tainted victims began to swarm after them with angry cries.
One of the zombies grabbed a woman who tried to run past him, and as he did, his blue hue traveled up her arm and spread over her body. Before she could even scream, she'd assumed the same ebon color of her attacker. The horror went out of her face, to be replaced by animal fury. She snarled and barreled after a fleeing bystander.
Anyone unlucky enough to be caught by one of the zombies became one, as if spreading their curse while Drallion, laughing riotously, and Sharaki, unmistakably indifferent, looked on. "See? We'll have an unstoppable army this way!" Drallion crowed, "And the best thing is the humans won't dare to kill their own people!"
"Indeed…" Sharaki said. He had chosen Drallion for this mission because he was at home underwater, but Sharaki had never planned on using his warrior's grim power that was now on display. But he was there to conquer Japan on behalf of his Empire, and he would do exactly that.
The innocent families and couples who'd been enjoying a day at the shore only a moment ago had nearly deserted the beach, trying to flee to their cars and make good their escape, but Drallion's zombies pursued. They smashed in windows with their bare hands to create more of their own, unmindful of the darkened blood that coursed from their fists as they did. Screams turned into feral snarls as the blackened people spread their affliction.
But as one of the unfortunate victims reached toward a young girl with his malignant touch, a long cable snapped outward from the distance and forced him backwards.
"Hold it right there, whatever you are!" called a brave voice as four figures clad in bright colors dashed up to the zombies.
"What the devil's going on here?" Sharaki demanded as he noticed the mindless creatures had stopped running around after the humans still unaffected. He narrowed his eyes and saw the beings challenging Drallion's victims. To his complete lack of surprise, it was the Guardrangers, armed and ready.
"This should be fun," Drallion chortled, "Go ahead and fight them, mortals! You'll be killing the same people you protected from Garganstah, though!" The Guardrangers shrunk back a step, but brandished their weapons. The black humans stepped forward, as if sensing their prey's unwillingness to attack, but then Fireguard's voice rang out and clear and confident.
"Who says we have to kill them?"
"SEISMIC FORCE!" Earthguard yelled, charging up and then bringing down her foot with ground-shaking force. The black humans were thrown this way and that, and before they could recover, Fireguard jumped high, summoned his power into the Dragon Steel and aimed the blade toward the ground as he came down.
"HELLION IMPACT!" A huge ring of fire leaped up around a bunch of the black humans, trapping them. He was about to do the same to another group, but a thick orange tentacle came flying out of nowhere and knocked him on his back.
"Seems we've got a smartass in our midst," Drallion said angrily. He didn't give Fireguard a chance to recover and closed in tentacles flailing. The others moved to defend their leader, but Sharaki and the black humans blocked the way.
"Too bad your friend couldn't make it," Sharaki said, "We'd have had such a great battle."
I wondered what Sharaki and Drallion were doing while I flipped and rolled away from the Silicon's attacks. Eiji was still knocking them on their chrome-plated butts with his surfboard, even if he didn't have the strength to do any actual damage to them. "How d'ya like that, metalhead?!" he yelled as another one went down. He almost seemed to be enjoying the fight.
I jump-kicked one Silicon in the chest, smashing it to bits, then as I came down, slashed another's head off with my sword. "Heh…heads up."
"Oh, geez! That stunk!" Eiji yelled as he batted another Silicon away.
"Hey, just because this job is serious doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have fun doing it!"
He got a chuckle outta that one. "But fun as this is, I got things to do elsewhere…ORCA BRAND!" A Silicon swung his sword at Eiji and chopped his surfboard in half as he jumped back, and I shattered that Silicon with my trident. The others grouped up and ran at me, but I didn't have time to take them out one by one. Instead I just gripped the Orca Brand, poured my power into it until it was glowing blue, then hucked it right into the middle of the group of Silicons as they ran. It cut right through them, the energy in the trident shattering each trident as it passed them, until it ran out of momentum and wedged into the sand like I'd failed to do with my board earlier. All that was left was a beach covered in pieces of broken metal.
"Kami-sama," I heard Eiji muttered as he walked up to my side, "I never saw anything like that!"
"You haven't??? Yeesh, that's a first. Especially coming from a local guy."
"Hey, I live a little far away from the conflict zone, kid."
"Speaking of that, I better go see what those guys' buddies are up to." I jogged over to where my board still lay and grabbed it. "Yo, Eiji, thanks. Y'know, for the pep talk. And…sorry about your board."
"Forget about it. Pay me back by your giving your best bud your support. Something tells me he could use it about now."
I gave him a thumbs up. "You got it, man!" I ran down the beach, board under my arm, and grabbed my Orca Brand as I went. I dove into the surf on my board, then stood up as I reached deep water, and started to power up.
As soon as I hit the water, a huge wave formed beneath me, but it was higher, faster, fuller than anything I usually created. I guess pulling myself out of my funk had amped up my powers, but right then all I was thinking about was showing Drallion who the real master of the water was.
As I rode the wave toward the shore, somehow I could hear Eiji say, "Kid, you're gonna do great things…"
The other Guardrangers fought bravely against Sharaki and Drallion, but the odds were simply not in their favor. The black humans not contained in Fireguard's kept getting in their way, clawing them and trying to pin them to the ground. And it wasn't as if the Rangers could fight back; they were ordinary people fighting their own protectors at the behest of a malevolent force.
"HYAH!" Fireguard shouted as he lashed his Dragon Steel at Drallion's head. But the tentacles around the monster's neck had started to spin like a buzz saw, knocking the weapon away with a CLANG that rattled Fireguard's teeth. Fireguard jumped and attacked, but Drallion simply leaned to one side and his whirling tentacles cut down the red Ranger. Before he could get up, a horde of black humans was upon him, pinning his arms and legs.
"Got a plan, Guardranger? Another clever trick that'll let you escape without bringing harm to your own people? I'd love to see it," Drallion cackled, stomping on Fireguard's chest.
"Get off my chest for a second and I'll be glad to show you! You've got no idea how tough humanity really is!" Fireguard shouted despite the pain.
"Oh yes I do! It's the reason you're on the ground getting crushed to death and I'm not!" Drallion laughed as his mindless thralls held Fireguard down, and stomped him again.
"Fireguard!" Earthguard yelled above the feral cries of the black humans raked her with their hands. "SEISMIC FORCE!" she yelled, again stomping the ground and literally shaking off their attacks and hurling Drallion to the ground. She rushed over to help, but the black humans and Drallion just got up again, and once more attacked the Rangers like a snarling, clawing black tidal wave.
Sharaki, meanwhile, took on the other two. Forest and Airguard tried to attack from both side with their Eternablades, but the veteran warrior simply spun in place and swung his sword, deflecting both swords and knocking the Rangers wielding them away with slashes across the torso.
"He's tough," Forestguard gasped as he clutched at his chest.
"I think I've got the answer to that," Airguard whispered back.
"Stop talking and fight! What kind of warriors are you?" Sharaki said indignantly. For all the wars he'd won, the Guardrangers kept managing to surprise him.
"The kind that that do things like THIS! HAWK--DIRGE!!" Airguard sang, blasting Sharaki with intense vocal power. He stumbled backwards, his armor cracked, and Forestguard could swear there was a pained look on his face for an instant. But just an instant.
As the assault died away, Sharaki smiled. "Impressive. But perhaps you'd care to sample my power. "CRESTIA! LIGHTNING BOLT ONSLAUGHT!" The two Guardrangers could feel Sharaki's power rise, travel into his sword which was pointed the heavens, and the skies cracked open, merciless bolts of electric blue lightning began to rain down on the heroes.
"Oh, boy…something tells me that was the wrong strategy!" Airguard shouted, throwing a hand over her head. "HAWK WIND GUARDIAN!" A whirling shield of translucent white appeared above her, deflecting some of the lightning strikes, but the sheer force of the attack still drove Airguard to her knees.
"Too late to worry now!" Forestguard said as he pressed her into a crouch and covered her with his own body. A bolt shot down, missing Earthguard by inches. As she wondered what to do to avoid getting fried, she saw Fireguard lift his Dragon Steel high.
"Nan desu ka?? What are you doing?!" she demanded, anxiety whose source she didn't know clear in her voice, but a second later it became clear. A lightning bolt struck the sword, traveling into Fireguard's body. He twitched horribly for a minute, but retained his position. Another bolt struck, and again it spent a spasm through Fireguard's body, worse than before, but he held his ground. Then another, another, and another hit the outstretched Dragon Steel, and Fireguard screamed in anguish. But he did not go down.
"What's he doing?!" Forestguard shouted above the clatter of thunder.
"He's protecting us," Earthguard replied, as another electric bolt stuck the upraised Dragon Steel and surged into Fireguard. He was acting like a human lightning rod to spare his teammates the damage he was now suffering. Another bolt, mercifully the last, lanced from the heavens and struck the Dragon Steel. Fireguard's body contorted as electricity danced along his uniform, and he crumpled down.
The Rangers dashed to his side and knelt by their leader. "Baka! Why did you do that??" Earthguard demanded.
"Hey…I'm the guy in the red suit, remember? It's my job."
"How foolishly sentimental," Drallion's voice interrupted them, "Kill them!" The black humans closed in on the Rangers…
"What in the name of the nine planets is that?" Sharaki said, looking past them toward the ocean. A huge wave was coming toward the shore, and atop it could be seen a blue-clad figure on a surfboard.
Well, you can probably guess that this is where I came in.
I could see the others were in trouble, but this time I was ready to face it.
"BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" I yelled as I jumped off the wave and fell toward the ground.
I touched down in front of Drallion but immediately stood back up pointing my Orca Brand at him. "Looks like you got tired of pickin' on helpless kids."
"I'll be happy to pick you apart!" Drallion said.
"Ooh…there's an original comeback for ya," I said back. I could tell he was just dying to take me on again. His funeral.
Nobody said anything else. Drallion just screamed and sprayed his ink at me, and suddenly the fight started where it had left off. I assumed. Except this time around, Drallion was on my case again. I jumped away from his ink, and even though a little bit splashed onto the leg of my suit, nothing happened. I couldn't stop to think about it; his tentacles had started to spin and it looked like he wanted to see what they'd do to my neck.
"Remember what happened last time, Guardranger? You're no match for me!"
"You were fightin' somebody else then, ugly."
"Then show me who you are this time!" We charged.
Meanwhile, Fireguard managed to pull himself up. A few steps away Forest and Airguard were firing arrows and cracking the Gorilla Vine to keep the black humans away from their leader, and Earthguard's claws rang out as she smacked them against Sharaki's sword. She jumped back to avoid a vicious slash, but he focused his power again, and shouted, "VOLCANUS! MAGMA VULCAN!", loosing a rapid-fire volley of fireballs at the yellow Ranger. She got ready to duck, but there was no need as Fireguard hurled himself in between them and sucked the barrage harmlessly into his sword.
"You guys thought I'd stay down from just a few lightning bolts? I'm hurt."
"Fireguard, I--"
"Well, since you've recovered, let us end the discussion and battle," Sharaki said.
Wasn't one to waste time, Fireguard thought. Earthguard was only thinking about how it was the third time he had saved her from a brutal blast. But the time to think about that was not then, as Sharaki raised his blade and attacked the two Rangers.
Back to the real hero of this story.
Sorry. Ego moment there.
Anyways, Drallion wasn't playing around, maybe he could tell I really wasn't the Waterguard he had stomped before. He tried to whip me with his tentacles, ducking and leaning as I moved to avoid them, but I was too fast, too strong, too cool. His tentacles tore up the ground as I back flipped out of the way. They ripped the top half off a car as I ducked underneath. Now it was my turn.
I positioned myself carefully, then jumped up and kicked Drallion in the head as hard as a Guardranger could. He hit the pavement hard and the spinning stopped, but he got right back up, spraying ink shots all over the place. But I was ready.
"ORCA MAGNUM TYPHOON!" My whirlpool attack began as usual, right in the path of Drallion's oncoming ink. But instead of whirling out, this time in whirled in, sucking the ink into it and balling it up. I stopped the attack and the ink just fell and splattered on the ground.
"Sorry, pal, but I'm taking back my crown," I said right before I ditched the Orca Brand and charged up my new attack, white steam building in my hands and jumped at him. This hadn't worked the last time, but the way things were going, I was pretty sure it would a second time.
"ICE BLADE…AVALANCHE!" I brought my arms down in mid-air, and the white beam of my attack slammed into him, ice forming at the point of impact on him. But this time I added an extra kick. I called back the Orca Brand, in blaster mode this time, and let him have it at point blank. There was an explosion and ice crystals went everywhere. Drallion lay in a smoking heap on the ground. Somewhere behind me I could hear a pair of explosions and Sharaki yelling. I couldn't make out the words, but clearly, he was pissed about something. When the others gathered around me a second later I guessed they had taken care of the Baron for the moment.
"You did it, man!" Fireguard said, thumping my shoulder..
"I wish," I said as Drallion started to get up, looking like he'd gotten stuck in the French Fry cooker at McDonald's a little too long. "Let's put 'em together."
Airguard slid her bow into the end of the Orca Brand, Earthguard attached her claws to the front and Fireguard and Forestguard stuck their weapons onto the shaft of the trident. The two of them got on their knees and braced the Guardian Vulcan from the front, while the girls took standing positions next to me, since I was the one in the firing position (It's my show, remember?). All our powers flowed into it, and we all shouted at once.
"attack!" I pulled the trigger and a rainbow of our suit colors blasted out of the Vulcan barrels and into Drallion, who exploded as fell down from the blast. The zombie-guys froze for a second, then the black started to melt of them from the head down, fading until they were normal, untainted beachgoers again.
"WHOO-HOO!" I whooped amidst the others' cheers. DANG, that felt good! But what came next felt even better.
"DUDE!" Fireguard grabbed my hand and thumped me in the chest with his forearm. "That was incredible, man!"
"Yeah, you should be proud of yourself, buddy." Forestguard clapped me on the shoulders. "And that was one heck of an entrance you made, too."
"And on a surfboard, no less…" Earthguard put in. "Only you." Her tone was as dry as always when it came to me, but the usual tint of sarcasm wasn't. She almost sounded…dare I say…impressed?
"Oh, stop it!" Airguard came to my rescue, holding onto my arm with both hands. "He was fantastic!"
Man, I hadn't felt so great in weeks. But like I should've figured, it didn't last long.
"Not bad, heroes. Care to try it again at twenty times the size?" It was Sharaki, pulling a pouch off his belt. I knew what was in there, and what he was gonna do. But maybe getting my butt kicked and then kicking Drallion's butt had worn me out, maybe in the back of my mind I was still riding the wave that came when I beat him. Whatever it was, I couldn't move to stop Sharaki from opening the pouch and throwing it into the air over Drallion. None of us could, and in seconds he started to move, then grown. Then he was big enough to squash us like bugs.
"Let's see you manage that again, little blue boy! You'll soon be nothing but a broken smudge under my heel!" Drallion yelled, and I tried to cover my ears before I remembered how much of it my helmet covered. But now we could move, react, and we all did.
"GUARD BEASTS, AWAKEN!" Seconds later we could see them coming. Hellscar, Treebasher, Windshear, Terraclaw, and of course, my big buddy, Tidalstorm.
"Care to do the honors, man? I think you've earned it," Fireguard said to me as Drallion brought up his foot to stomp us.
"Oh, dude, HELL yeah! IMMORTAL FUSION!" And right away the Guard Beasts responded. They twisted and transformed, into legs, arms, and the other parts of a giant humanoid form. But we didn't stand around to see it. Just as Drallion's foot came down a beam of energy swallowed us all up and pulled us inside. A second later the lights came on in the little room where we reappeared, and in my head I could hear the Guard Beasts calling:
"WE ARE THE UNITY. WE ARE... DAICHIJIN!"
"GAIATIC CUTTER!" Fireguard called, and Daichijin's sword zapped into his hand. At a command from us he moved in on Drallion, but the monster suddenly raised his tentacles and splattered Daichijin with his ink. It didn't really damage him, but it did cover his eyes, and by the time he responded to our command to wipe it off, Drallion was right up in Daichijin's face.
Right away he grabbed Daichijin in his tentacles, then bashed his beak against Daichijin's head. The cockpit rocked and we were all thrown around. I tried to concentrate and get Daichijin to hit back with the Gaiatic Cutter, but Drallion knocked it out of his hand with a tentacle. Drallion lifted Daichijin high, then threw him down, hard.
"I think we're in trouble here, folks!" Airguard said, and she was right. Drallion stomped over and kicked Daichijin onto his back, then his tentacles began to twirl around and smash into our warrior again and again, shooting up huge sparks every time. The lights flickered in the cockpit, and I realized if we couldn't get Daichijin up soon, we never would.
"Airguard! Use the Crying Hawk, see if that can give us some room!" Fireguard said.
"Got it! CRYING HAWK!" Daichijin reached behind his back and pulled off Windshear, and a spear of blinding white smashed Drallion in the side, sending him down hard on his side. We all concentrated and Daichijin pulled himself up, grabbing the Gaiatic Cutter as he did. But Drallion was up too, and started the spinning tentacles routine again.
"Say goodbye, Guardrangers!"
"Airguard, again!"
"CRYING HAWK!" Another white blast tore through the air, but it was just batted away by the barrage of whirling arms. Drallion laughed.
"Drat! He's spinning too fast for it to get through!"
Just then something itched against my mind, and I steeled myself.
"Hey, Jase…what is it? You look like something's on your mind."
"More like in my mind, dude. It feels like something's trying to get into my brain."
"Just go with it, Jase. It's your Beast trying to tell you something," Forestguard said.
I nodded. "Okay, big buddy…lay it on me," I replied to Tidalstorm, and then let it fill my mind, "TIDAL IMMERSER!" I could feel Daichijin's power channeling into his left arm, Tidalstorm was building so much that we were all almost blinded by the blue light coming off of him. Drallion, by now, was charging us, ready to finish things--notice how the bad guys in sentai always do that?--but it was way too late. Daichijin leveled his arm and shot the energy out as a colossal wave-like wall of power that swallowed Drallion whole. It slammed him backwards and swept him up in the flow, while giant shards of ice pierced him and stabbed him, then finally dumped him back onto the ground, sparks flying like crazy..
"I think he's had enough, guys. Let's do it!" And we did.
"EARTH RAGE!" The Gaiatic Cutter glowed as it was drawn across the black dome on Daichijin's chestplate, then the big guy went into action without any prodding from us. He slashed Drallion with his sword. Then again, and again in a barrage of glowing, burning slashes, until Drallion finally gave a last shriek and fell down to an explosive demise. We had won. For a second I could see Sharaki looking like he was saluting us before he changed into light and flew away into the sky.
A little later, we were back on the beach, but not as Guardrangers, and Daichijin had gone to rest for the next time we needed him. The sun was just starting to set, and the people we had saved were milling around, trying to get their trips to the beach back on track.
I walked over to where my board rested after riding it all the way from Eiji's island. "Man, what a day. We bagged a monster, yeah, but I barely got to enjoy the beach after coming all this way," I said, mostly to myself.
"Jase, what the heck were you doing here all that time if you weren't surfing? You were doing that when you showed up again," Ryuji said to my back.
"Dude, it's a long story, and right now I'm not sure it's one I wanna share," I said as I turned around. Ryuji gave me a funny look when I told him that, but despite what Eiji had told me I had a lot to think about and didn't want to drag him into it, so I let it go.
"Kind of wish I'd brought my suit," Tochiro muttered, then we all noticed Miaka dashing toward the water as she hopped along pulling off her boots and socks.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I think Jason's right," she giggled and splashed water at the rest of us. A couple kids squirted her with water pistols, and she laughed and whipped water at them, too. She was wearing a white sleeveless turtleneck and black hip-huggers--not exactly beachwear, but clearly she didn't mind getting them wet. Tochiro got his hiking boots off himself and joined in, and I moved toward the water to help defend my teammates from those kids too.
I turned back when I noticed it was just the three of us. "Hey, you two gonna join us?"
"Water's not my neck of the woods," Naoko replied dryly.
"Nah, Jase," Ryu said like it was a reflex he couldn't control, "You guys go ahead, but I've had about all the action I need for one day."
I don't have to tell you I was disappointed, but I remembered what Eiji had said, and pasted on a smile, "Okay, dude. Catch you later."
Ryu nodded back with a lopsided smile. "Later, man." Then he and Naoko turned around and started to walk off the beach.
Wow. Maybe he was actually coming around after all. Maybe in time us being best friends wouldn't be strained by being heroes.
But that was another story.
Peace, folks.
Jason Marger, aka Waterguard
