Chapter 6
The Return of the Rubberobo Gang! / We're Aliens, Robo!
§
[One Night near the Park]
This strange affair all started when Arika and Brass were walking home as it got late into the night, not getting a real scoop after having her camera replaced when the old one broke. Thankfully, it was part "reimbursement" from the Newspaper Club and part "restitution" from the culprits for the full bill. But right now, no news is not good news for Arika.
"Big news is never easy to come across, you know," Brass said to her partner, "Let's try again tomorrow.
"Brass, you're starting to sound like Naruto-kun when you say that," Arika replied sarcastically.
They were coming across the railway tracks as the signals were going off and safety bars were lowered. Brass suggested taking a picture of a high-speed bullet train, which is better than nothing, but they looked to the left and then to the right. Not one single train, even a slow one, was passing by.
"Must be one of those days," Arika grumbled.
Suddenly a bright light is gleaming above them as the girl and Medarot look up.
"Arika-chan!" Brass exclaimed at the sight.
It appears to be a real-life flying saucer flying over them as it is about to land right in front of them. The hatch of the saucer opens as it reveals four figures covered by the bright light.
Arika couldn't believe her eyes as she snapped a picture with her new camera. The four figures started to move closer as Arika and Brass felt scared as they couldn't help but scream while huddling to protect themselves.
-Medarots-
[The next day, at the kid's park]
The cicadas were chirping rapidly in the middle of summer as Arika and Brass were talking to Naruto on top of the Jungle Gym while Metabee was on the ground keeping himself occupied.
"Eh? Dost mine ears deceive me? Space-men?" Naruto curiously asked.
"Yeah," Arika answered, not suring what to believe after what she and Brass witnessed, "With holes in the ozone layer, dioxin, and the pollution of the environment, it's safe to say that our planet is heading towards catastrophe."
"Can you be spif'fic, Arika?" Naruto is lost as he cleans out his ear, not sure if what he heard is true.
"What Arika-chan is trying to say is that aliens have come to issue a warning," Brass said.
"Girls, in a time when people don't seem to remember or even care about psychics like Nostradamus, you speak of space-men that are out of this world?" Naruto didn't know what to believe, "Y'know, the closest things to aliens that I can think of are Empress Patra (female EPP-Type), Cosmo Alien (Male ALI-Type), and the Alien Medal best for their shapeshifting Medaparts."
-Meda Vital Stats-
Empress Patra
Specialty: Transformation
·
Cosmo Alien
Specialty: Transformation
"You don't get it, Naruto-kun," Arika warned, "Carelessness is the worst threat! You know what they say,「 To fool your enemies, you first must fool your allies. 」"
"Arika-chan, I don't think that's the right saying for this, y'know. It's more like,『Expect the unexpected,』" Naruto said as he jumped down from the Jungle Gym to the rubber-piece ground to see what Metabee was doing as he was playing a handheld game.
Naruto asked Metabee, "Something wrong?"
"Finally, the time has come! I knew it was going to happen but this is much too soon! We'll be history, game over for good," Metabee was playing a handheld device thought to be out of trend, a virtual pet game. Unfortunately, the pet character just died and left a monument of its death. "『Close encounters,』 my ‹*bleep*›! To think that this one's lifespan would be so short. I'm feeling blue now."
"Poor Metabee," Brass felt a little sorry for him.
"I never knew that Medarots are into virtual pets," Naruto murmured.
"I thought that you're on the same subject, Metabee, but it's clear that you aren't on the same page... with us," Arika exasperatingly said with her overall strap out of place.
Brass shows the boys a photo that was too bright to tell if they're people or something else.
"I swear, I think I recognized them from someplace before and I don't think they're just aliens," Naruto said as he couldn't put his finger on the people wearing dark suits.
"What are you saying, Naruto-kun?" Arika questioned as she was trying to prove, "Brass and I saw them before our very eyes! Of course they are aliens!"
"I see now," Metabee surmised, "A human could be imagining things, but Medarots would never make such a dumb mistake."
This angered Arika and Brass as Naruto said to Metabee, "You just made a mistake already, baka!" Arika is giving off strange vibes as she pulls out a hammer and a flathead screwdriver and Brass has her safety locks removed, aiming to do Metabee serious hurt. "Start running, ponkotsu (piece of junk)!"
And the girls chase after Metabee for a while, Brass shooting Metabee while Arika readies her tools to disassemble him when he's down. After about a few minutes, Brass snapped out of her angry fit and remembered something as she showed an autograph in Japanese signed by a member of the Rubberobo Gang.
::Now I remember! The Rubberobo gang is back and at it again,:: Naruto quietly recalled the suspicious people wearing zippered skin-tight suits and antennas attached to them. The last time he saw them were the original 4 members - a brutish man named Typhoon (real name: Taiyō), a young woman named Reika (Minori), a bearded old man named Suzumé (Kakashi, a former Select Corps member), and a child member named Inago (Daichi). They must have a change in committee during their absence. Naruto knows them while Hikaru, Kirara, and Nae were babysitting him and the Rubberobo gang usually show up just to annoy him. (They weren't really all that bad at the end of the conflict.)
Back to the subject at hand, Naruto didn't want to reveal his history with the imposters as looked at the autograph and said to Arika, "Unless they're super-intelligent in understanding and writing Japanese, I don't think these guys are really just aliens. It even says, 「To my dear... 」. Sounds fake to me."
"It's not fake!" Arika yelled, "We saw them with our own eyes! Why won't you believe us, Naruto-kun?"
"Arika-chan…" Brass tries to support her handler.
"Oh, I believe you, Arika-chan," Naruto said before giving off angry looks, "I believe that you always do something crazy when you can't find proof! Like how you photoshopped pictures to prove that a UFO landed near the Ginjō schoolyard or the time that you think that ghosts that were haunting the men's and women's toilets. You're very much like the boy… no, the girl who cried wolf. What's so believable right now, y'know?"
"Y-you're wrong!" she nearly stammered, knowing that she hates it when Naruto is right, "It's true that I've done so in the past, but this time it's different!"
Naruto rolled his eyes, knowing that his friend is known to lie once too often as he said, "You're not pinning this on me to go along with you. If you want to bring a real alien in the flesh, then I might believe you."
(Pin-pon!) Suddenly, Arika has an idea, something that involves Metabee and some of Naruto's extra Parts.
-Medarots-
[Ginjō Elementary, Baseball Field]
Metabee is literally in a bind. He has [Kanéhachi Mk-2] Swick Leg Parts, the [Bankaran] Sweat Cloak and Sweat Cape Arm Parts, and the [Flat Steak] Slipper Head Parts, all recolored to silverish, but both of Metabee's arms were tied to ropes tethered to posts, preventing him from moving, and wearing a sign saying, [I'M 火星人] (Kaseijin / Martian), and a fake saucer front with a sign saying in English, [HELP ME!] with Kanji spelling it out.
"HEY, WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO DO THIS‽" Metabee yelled as he struggled as if he was a prisoner, "DAMN YOU, YOU ‹*bleep-bleep-bleep*›! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS! ‹*bleep, bleep, blippity-bleep*› Kikikiki..." (Naruto turned on the censorship option in his Medawatch, for the citizens' sake.)
Arika, Naruto, and Brass checked from an upstairs room to oversee the situation.
"Sorry, Metabee," Naruto said, "She talked me into it." (He was "invited" to go on a date with Arika a little later.)
Arika chuckled while looking at her field glasses and said, "We'll make our alien friends who have lost one of their comrades. When they come for you, Metabee, we'll take them by surprise!"
"Arika-chan called this,『the bait and catch the aliens』plan," Brass says to Naruto.
"I don't think anybody with half a brain is going to fall for that simple trick," Naruto doubted.
"What's that?" Arika angrily replied, "Are you saying my plan is stupid?"
"More like for the extremely naïve," Naruto replied and they suddenly hear the voice of a man falling into a pit trap (straight from a Monster Hunting game) that he obligingly set up, "What I tell ya, y'know." (He's glad that he didn't use an Electric Shock Trap.)
When Arika looked down, she found an eccentric old man dressed like an explorer with a bionic monocle on his left eye in the trap. "Oops!" she exclaimed in a brief panic, "That's not an alien!"
-Medarots-
The kids take the old man out of the trap (who stands about Naruto's height) as he introduces himself, "Good day, I work for the Alien Institute. My name is Kokonoé." He gave her and Naruto a business card.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience," a blushingly embarrassed Arika replied, "I... wanted to meet the space-men once more so I made this… Well, kinda."
"Don't "kinda" us when you make this crap, dammit!" Metabee yelled while still tied up.
"What I don't understand is why does this space-man fit have to involve us," Naruto doubtfully pondered.
"You'll understand," old man Kokonoé said, "It's undeniable that aliens have already arrived on Earth."
::Oh, brother,:: Naruto sarcastically murmured.
Kokonoé shows a regional map with red X's as he says, "There have been a number of UFO sightings around the world since the 1940's, like the Roswell case, for instance, or the experiments on strange corpses at Area 51, or strange cattle mutilations and abductions… Anyway, there have been news of UFO sightings that have been showing up more and more frequently by the year." He points out to the recent events, "Sightings in the city have been on the rise as of late."
"So we weren't the first ones to see those space-men," Brass noticed.
"Even before being noticed by humans, it's possible that these aliens have built a secret base on our planet!" Kokonoé excitingly said."
"A secret base? / A secret base?" Arika and Brass exclaimed at the same time.
"Hm, if they're as secretive as you say they are, then I believe that our space-man friends are a lot closer than we realize," Naruto surmised as Kokonoé then said his farewell with a warning.
Naruto then cuts the ropes off of Metabee, changes his Medaparts back to his usual set to and helps move the space props back into the school shed for future usage (maybe for the school festival).
It wasn't a total loss for Arika, but the date with Naruto was worth it…, at least that he hoped.
"Why do I have to put up with this?" Naruto grumbled as he was forced to go with Arika and Brass on a clothes shopping trip, being used as a model for trying on makeup, and has to be the "clothes horse" as he ends up holding the bags. (Both the girl and Medarot chuckled after the ashamed Naruto wiped the makeup off his face.)
Meanwhile, Metabee gets the last laugh for the day as he had to stay home while assisting Mama Chidori with the chores.
·
Little do the kids and their Medarots know, a certain group is gathering in a secret location, with 4 new admins codenamed Sakékasu (named after the leftover saké lees; the smart, yet dimwitted and immature man), Surumé (cuttlefish; the woman who has the sexy, feminine looks of the team and the brains, second to one of her partners), Sarami (a combination of a portmanteau and after the Salami sandwich meat; a pacifier-using, childish kid who is the real brains of the group), and Shiokara (named after Salted Fish Guts; the muscle and the seniority of the group; not the brightest bulb in the fixture, actually). They have plans to take over Ginjō City by hook or by crook before they take their next steps into world domination.
-Medarots-
[The next day]
Naruto was heading towards the Hop Mart when he noticed the familiar group selling merchandise, promoting their cause as aliens. Strangely, it was the Junior and Senior High school girls who were naïvely attracted to the limited racket and Naruto worries that those products could be a complete scandal, so he obeys his impulse to walk away.
[Inside the Hop Mart]
"The space-men's secret base?" Hikaru questioned.
"You heard me," Naruto said while searching for some groceries and getting some Bayonet Medaparts on sale, "You must have heard a lot of stories from your customers and all, Hikaru-nii. Do you know anything about them?"
"How should I know? Anyway, those space-men sure have gotten popular lately, such as selling their keychains, cellphone stick-on stands, music CDs, and even bento boxed lunches. Enough about that, Where's Metabee? Isn't he with you?"
"Well, it's about this…" Naruto explained the details.
[Meanwhile, at the school gym grounds]
Metabee was forced to re-equip his Medaparts in the alien get-up again as his arms were tied to ropes tethered to the post, again.
"Dammit! How long are you going to keep me tied up here‽" Metabee complainingly cussed.
"Until our UFO arrives," Arika answered.
"You've got to be kidding me! Brass, you do it! You'd make a better victim!"
Arika disagreeingly says, "Metabee, Brass is a female-type Medarot. She can't equip those parts because they're designed for a male-type Medarot, like you."
"So sorry," Brass apologized, "Arika insisted that you are bold, courageous, smart, strong, and sassy!"
"Blast you and your stupid alien ideas!" Metabee loudly grumbled. "I'm gonna get REAL sassy on your…"
"And that's how it is when your best friend is very persistent," Naruto said about Arika, "She has dreams of becoming a journalist, so she wants to meet the space-men once more in the frontline. There's no use arguing with her."
"Hm-hm," Hikaru agreed, "It seems that there are some incredible individuals here too." He looked at the particular old man looking at the products in the ice cream section.
"That's Old Man Kokonoé," Naruto said with a whisper, "I wonder what he's up to?"
"I think he's using the ice cream to give shape to the signals he's receiving from the space-men," Hikaru replied, "At least, he paid the bill."
Suddenly the whole neighborhood around the store started to rumble and shake.
Naruto and Hikaru checked outside to see what's going on and what they found really surprised them: a real UFO.
UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. Every unknown thing that flies through sky is technically a UFO, so the term 『UFO』 does not specifically refer to an alien spaceship.
It is shining blue, brighter than the sunny blue skies itself. Naruto prepares Laserbeak to fly and video-capture the sighting while he excused himself to run back to the school gym grounds to see if anything happens to his friends. Getting groceries would just have to wait.
-Medarots-
[Ginjō School Gym Grounds]
Arika couldn't believe her eyes, as well as Brass and Metabee, as she exclaimed, "They're here!"
Naruto released Metabee from ropes again while the UFO is opening the hatch, revealing a person inside.
"Uchūjin-sama! Come down, please!🌟 🌟" Arika's eyes were glowing in anticipation.
Naruto is skeptical as he spots a newer DGU Model Medarot OkeDogū inside the saucer and 5 newer BAT Model Medarots Gaufbullets flying overhead, carrying the UFO.
-Meda Vital Stats-
·
OkeDogū
Owner: (undisclosed)
Medal: M - Knight
Specialties: Defensive Tactics and Anti-Gunpowder
.
Gaufbullet
Owner: (undisclosed)
Medal: -Unspecified-
Specialty: Anti-air Missiles
"They don't look like space-men to me," Naruto felt disappointed.
Arika reactively grabs him by the shirt and yells, "Are you trying to make a fool out of me and the space-men, Naruto‽ I'm telling you that those are real space-men! They have come to Earth to greet us!"
"Say it, don't spray it, Arika-chan…," Naruto felt the spit coming from her words.
Then an announcement rings out from a hidden amplifier as a man's voice says through the microphone, » Now hear this. The aliens will be coming to your town very soon. Tonight at 18:00 hours, come and shake hands with us at the Elementary School! Come on!«
"Kyah! Shaking hands with a real life space-man!" Arika excitingly swooned, "Hear that, hear that? At 18:00! I wouldn't miss this for the world!"
"You wouldn't miss anything for the world, Arika-chan," Naruto remarked, but then he thought, ::But then, if they weren't really Space-men, I wonder how I would break the reality check with Arika-chan and the other people? I'm not gonna like this, not one little bit.::
-Medarots-
[Later, at Ginjō Elementary Gym Grounds]
A News Station, some journalists, and a few cameramen were anticipating the arrival, along with the crowd of people. A shakōki-dogū was erected near the school as a symbol to the space-men.
The podium was set-up, welcoming their guests.
Much to Naruto's chagrin, the space-men have become an instant phenomenon.
"Arika-chan…," Naruto is in the front row as he tries to come up with a riposte, "Something is not right here."
Arika nudged against him and said, "Uchūjin-sama! Come quickly! 💕"
"Arika-chan, get a hold of yourself, y'know!" he tries to make her understand, "Let's say if these space-men are the real deal. Do you really think you can be friends with some total stranger that looks this ridiculous‽" He shows a keychain of a woman wearing a dark skin-tight suit and a pair of antennae. "I swear, I know I've seen these particular people someplace before."
Arika places her arm on Naruto's shoulder as she says, "Naruto. You see, the Earth was always alone, alone in a corner of our endless universe, all by itself. They have come to bestow their greetings upon us People of Earth." She was hoping and praying for a miracle to happen, "Of course, people would welcome them. I believe that there are really aliens and space-men. I really do."
"Arika-chan, you are hopeless, y'know," Naruto sighed dismally.
If that weren't crazy enough, old man Kokonoé came by and made an ice cream sculpture of the shakōki-dogū just to prove his point.
But then, Arika noticed the electric blue saucer as it came to a safe landing on the podium. The bright electric blue lighting faded as the saucer opened the hatch, revealing 4 people in the bright background while the crowd cheered. (Arika is blushing in elation until her apple-cheeks start showing.) Then the people in zippered skin-tight suits appear in front of the crowd, all lined up horizontally, with the 4 said people with two antannae instead the usual one, meaning they're higher in rank.
Naruto doesn't recognize the usual quartet as the members of the Rubberobo gang, so he decided to play along for the gag.
The crowd hushed as the Rubberobos used their right arms and lightly made chopping motions to their necks and said like they're out of this world, "To the people on this planet, greetings. We are aliens."
The crowd cheered again for the fake space-men, thinking that they are real aliens. However, Brass notices that Naruto is gone, disappeared.
Naruto, who has enough of this nonsense, shunshins behind the sign where Metabee is equipped with the Bayonet Evolver part on his Right Arm and the Sum-Machinegun part on his Left Arm. They don't have as much punching power as his usual parts, but they still pack some good wallops.
"Okay, Metabee," Naruto said, "Aim and fire Sum-Machinegun at the Gaufbullets' ropes."
Metabee is on it as he fires at the ropes, cutting them, as the fake saucer starts to fall on the imposters. All but 4 of the admins were slammed by the fake saucer's heavy front. What's even surprising is that 2 of the admins' clothes were ripped - Sakékasu's boxers were revealing and Surumé's entire front (her sexy pink bra and high-cut thongs) - as they were shamefully shown in front of the audience.
The crowd was silenced as some people started to murmur about the fake space-men's indecency and foolishness. But the one whose dreams all shot to pieces was Arika, realizing that the cold, hard truth can really hurt.
Naruto explained to the crowd, mostly to Arika, "There, you see? These are what your "space-men" really are! They're the Rubberrobo Gang, stealing you out of your money and your Medarots with their illegitimate businesses, y'know!"
Sarami looks at the slightly taller Naruto and recognizes him from his big brother Inago's photos of the little brat who was part of the small group of people that stopped their plans in their tracks.
Arika ran towards Naruto and she cried while hitting his chest and shoulders, "It's not fair, Naruto! I wanted to meet the real space-men and here you are, spoiling things while trying to get my hopes up! I believed them! Why did I believe them! Baka, baka, baka, baka, baka…" She couldn't keep hurting Naruto when her continuous crying prevented her from doing so any further; she called him a heartbreaker. Naruto hugged Arika and said, "I know and I'm sorry to break it to you like that." They embraced each other in sadness. It was a bitter-strawberry moment for them and Brass was glad that things worked out in the long run.
"You little brat, robo!" Sakékasu interruptingly cursed, "Just look what you've done!"
"We aren't really aliens, robo!" Shiokara said.
"But you know who we are," Surumé said as Sakékasu filled in, "The evil secret society that plans to take over the world, the Rubberobo Gang, robo! Ogmaret, attack!" One of the nicknamed Gaufbullets started firing his missiles.
"Metabee!" Naruto declared as he moved Arika behind him while Metabee shot them down like a fly. He knows that Gaufbullet has weak armor, but is dangerous when in numbers and against flying-type Medarots. Gaufbullet starts shooting from his Head Part - - - missing the mark by a few centimeters. Brass wanted to join in as she asked Arika if she could battle alongside her. Arika realizes that she had made some several mistakes after she became the victim of a scandal, so she pulled herself together and unlocked the safety locks on Brass and angrily said to her foes, "For you to toy and take advantage of a pure maiden's feelings, pretending to be space-men, turning me away from Naruto-kun's warning, I'm gonna make you suffer 100 times worse than you made me! Just who the hell do you think I am! Brass, let's do it!"
"Let's," Brass obeyed as she readied her guns.
-Meda Vital Stats-
·
Sailor-Multi AKA Brass
Owner: Arika
Medal: B - Horned Beetle
Specialty: Precision Shooting
"Us too!" Naruto declared as Metabee's weapons are cooled off and reloaded.
"We'll just see about that, brats!" Sakékasu declared as his OkeDogū and his 2 remaining Gaufbullets are ready to rumble.
"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Uruchi declared as he made his appearance by parachute and landed safely before casting it aside, "Sorry for the wait, everyone. Today's Robattle will be a handicap match with Arika and Naruto versus the Rubberobo Gang! Which side will choose their respective Medarot as Team Leader?" Brass takes the lead for one side while Sakékasu's OkeDogū takes up the position. "Well then, Robattle, FIGHT!"
(DING!)
Naruto quietly explains to Metabee and Arika that OkeDogū has the ability to negate certain attacks, so he decides to cover Brass while she targets OkeDogū.
Metabee and Brass start firing at the Gaufbullets with their Rifle shots and they are immediately knocked down from the skies, extremely damaged, but aren't out yet. OkeDogū ready to play defense while Brass uses her Variable Hair to improve her and Metabee's aim and then uses Paterī Vulcan on OkeDogū who uses his Hand Shutter to try to negate the bullet rounds.
"So what?" Surumé mocked, "OkeDogū's Hand Shutter will stop such a weak move like it's nothing, robo!"
"News Flash, Miss Rubberobo! I'm afraid that OkeDogū doesn't have the ability to negate bullet rounds. Take another look at your Medarot's arm."
Metabee assisted Brass upon firing his Sum-Machinegun at OkeDogū's Hand Shutter as it began to crumble and his right arm was forced to explode and jettison, signaling that the Part has ceased function.
Sakékasu becomes incensed that two 5th Grade students outsmarted him somehow as Arika explains, "The Hand Shutter part can absorb things like missiles and bombs, but not so much on other parts, let alone machine-gun bullets. Thanks, Naruto-kun."
"Eh? OkeDogū, knock that Medarots' blocks off!" Surumé ordered the Medarot to do a full-bodied takedown.
"Arika, now's your chance to make it count!" Naruto said.
"Okay, I got it," Arika agreed, but noticed that Brass was charging up and started to glow. She didn't know what it was, but she said to Brass, "Let 'em have it!"
Brass fires a powerful Ultra Shot Medaforce attack on OkeDogū and the recovered Gaufbullets. All 3 Medarots took heavy damage as their Medaparts jettisoned and their medals ejected - OkeDogū's Knight Medal and 2 Gaufbullets' Jellyfish Medals - signalling that the battle is over.
(Ding-ding-ding!)
"Leader function ceased!" Mr. Uruchi declared, "The winners are Arika and Naruto!"
"That was great, you all!" Naruto praised his friends.
"Arika-chan, have I gotten stronger?" Brass asked her handler as she recovered her energy.
"Was that the same kind of power that Naruto-kun uses to pull off that feat? The Medaforce?" Arika wondered.
"You little cusses!" Sakékasu angrily said after his and his subordinates' clothes were ripped apart from the aftermath, down to nothing but "fig leaves" from their tattered suits to cover most of their nudity... (*wolf whistles!*) ...as he ordered one of his Gaufbullets, "Gokubat, attack them with your missiles!"
"Not so fast! Article 8, Clause 1," Mr. Uruchi warned the Rubberobo Gang, "Attacking the opponent after the match has concluded is forbidden!"
"Shaddap, you bastard!" Sakékasu kicked the referee off the podium with a drop kick. "Us bad guys don't follow any rules!" He and his partners started to think that they had the last laugh, so they did or so they thought.
"Ugh, now they've gone and dunnit!" Naruto slightly shivered as Arika wondered, "I saw one of those Rubberobo members do that to this referee once before and the result isn't going to be pleasant."
The referee climbed up the podium with a really scary look in his eyes, "Break the rules, would you? Intentionally attacking a sanctioned referee without just cause is a violation most severe! And violations bring penalties!"
The personal foul was reported to the Medarot Robattling Committee and orders the command to one of Medarot Inspection-owned units - an SAT-type Medarot named Erakado 30 (codenamed: Penalty-Box) - to deliver an immediate punishment to those who break the rules and those that wouldn't or won't play nice.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
Penalty-Box calculatingly pulls out a blowgun, containing senbon needles, and fires them toward the culprit from above the Earth's atmosphere right where the targets should be, after taking wind direction and the angle of velocity upon descent.
Sakékasu and his admins keep on laughing until the needles make their marks right on the pressure points on their necks (one needle landed on Surumé's rump), causing them to convulse from the needles' drugged contents and fall to the ground in a paralyzed state. The Rubberobo grunts were stunned at what they saw, as were the witnesses and Arika.
"Damn you! Look what you did!" one grunt argued over their admins' stiff bodies.
"Yeah, that wasn't very nice!" another grunt agreed.
"I will not, nor will I let anyone break the rules! This is what it means to be an official referee with me, Mr. Uruchi!" he boldly declared.
"Shit, robo! Remember this, robo! Run away!" the grunts dragged their admins and their wrecked Medarots (minus the surrendered parts) from the scene.
"I certainly wouldn't want to cross the referee like that," Naruto said to Arika.
Without proper reasons, nobody… nobody messes with the referee, period.
(Mr. Uruchi gives the audience a thumbs-up and a stylish grin.)
-Medarots-
After the Rubberobos' failed assault on Ginjō's citizens and old man Kokonoé left town in search for aliens elsewhere, Arika made an earlier bet with Naruto about those space-men and she lost, so she asked Naruto on another date, this time in a dress-skirt, as they walked back towards Hop Mart for some sea salt ice cream to share together while their Medarots have to stay home. They hang around under the bridge to talk about any plans for the rest of summer vacation before school starts again in September.
Arika blushes madly as she is not in her usual overalls as she worries about her elegance issues. In the fluster, she breaks the ice and asks, "Naruto-kun, how did you know about how the referee put the Rubberobos in their places years ago? You had to be at...at least a year old to remember all of this."
Naruto licks his ice cream and says, "Photographic memory. I tend to remember at a very early age, especially when Hikaru-nii, Kirara-nee, and Nae-senpai used to babysit me. I don't really know how I have those athletic and mental abilities, they just…?"
Arika looked Naruto in the eye and said, "I knew it! There is something strange about you! You have abilities no average 5th Grader can handle! Could it be that you're alien-related?"
"I don't think so," Naruto replied, "But there is something that I remember in one of my dreams." (Arika is listening curiously.) I recall a woman who was living on an unfamiliar planet that appears to be more rural than what it is here. Anyway, this woman has been living on the planet and has been imprisoned for a thousand years. She is more beautiful than even my own mother, very regal and majestic as a goddess, and she raises a family of her own. The alien woman unfortunately was turning into an unholy beast because of a power that she can't control so her twin sons stopped her and imprisoned her into a statue and split the monster energy into 9 beasts of power."
"Why that's terrible," Arika said.
"But that's not all," Naruto continued as he munched another part of the ice cream, "Many generations have come and gone and they constantly fight by means of the Ninja Ways, Martial Arts, and primitive means of technology. I remember a boy that looks a lot like me as he was orphaned at such a young age…" He explains the abridged details of the misspent life of a young boy containing one of the 9 beasts of power who has dreams of leading a village into prosperity, but it was all for naught. "The current leader made the village's people turn to evil ways and betrayed the young man's trust after they killed his best friend (who is a girl) and lover and desecrated her dead body. He escaped an evil organization as he escaped, but was caught into what appears to be the battle of the ages. Eventually, the young man was captured again and his hidden power was extracted along with the 8 other people with extraordinary powers to awaken the imprisoned monster inside a divine statue. It was the same beautiful woman who managed to free herself from her prison and from the beast within herself and she destroyed the world, saving only the young man who is at death's door as he lay dying from his wounds from torture. She gives her adopted grandson a second life before she and her family return to the heavens."
Arika's eyes are popping out from Naruto's strange story. But in her daze, she tripped on a rock and landed on Naruto… *smooch💕* He catches her fall but he lands on back and Arika's breasts glomp against him and accidentally kisses him upon landing. (It was their first kiss.) They couldn't help but taste each other's ice cream covered mouths as they broke the kiss.
"I can't believe I just did that!" both kids exclaimed at the same time and then they looked into each other's eyes, thinking that it was destiny that brought them closer together. They almost have the urge to try again, but Naruto checks the time on the Medawatch and notices that it's getting late, getting close to sunset, and that he has something to do, fixing OkeDogū's busted Hand Shutter and doing some important things around the house. Arika agreed as she has some things to do at her house too. But they enjoyed the ice cream moment, nevertheless. They haven't really told their parents or their Medarots about their secret tryst together.
-Medarots-
[The next day at a different park]
Naruto is with Metabee as he is wondering if the Rubberobo gang have been discouraged from the penalty phase from the referee or is stupidly foolish enough to try again with a different approach. He is listening to his wireless boombox, practicing his Capoeira and Lambada with an imaginary partner.
"What happened to Arika after that?" Metabee asked.
"After that experience, Metabee, I hope she learned her lesson," Naruto replied while practicing his moves.
"Naruto-kun!" Arika, back into her usual attire, called out, "I got a good scoop today!"
"Then again, Metabee, what do I know about her sudden cheerfulness," he murmured.
Arika grabbed Naruto by the hand and gleefully said, "After a cram session, I saw a Nessie-like creature in the lake at the water park!"
"Could be another Rubberobo trick, y'know," Naruto sheepishly said.
She takes Naruto on the lam to where Brass is located.
"Well, here we go again," Metabee shrugged as he followed the handlers on another (mis)adventure.
-Winning Medaparts-
Arika
OkeDogū: Arm Shutter (Left Arm)
Gaufbullet #1: Psycho Missile (Head Part)
Gaufbullet #2: Elect-Missile (Right Arm)
(Those parts were later traded with Naruto for female parts)
Naruto
OkeDogū: Hand Shutter (Right Arm)
Gaufbullet #1: Magne-Missile (Left Arm)
Gaufbullet #2: Grave (Leg Part)
§
A/N: This chapter wasn't covered because the DUB'd episodes were originally aired out of order, so to put the record straight, I had a little help rearranging the episode list, with a slice-of-life twist. Not to mention a Naruto/Arika moment that is mild in nature, none too serious.
Also the Shakōki-dogū resembles more of the Kunitsu (nation ruler) character - Arahabaki - in this scenario instead of the original outlandish shape.
And the heat will be on!
-blukmage19