Power Rangers Super Samurai vs. Ronin Warriors
Chapter 32: The Search for Shiba
Lauren woke up with a shot in the middle of the night after dreaming about Jayden's recent capture by the Nighlok. What were they planning? And why did it involve her brother?
She headed into the kitchen to get a drink of water and found Ayame hard at work on her laptop and Mia taking a study break.
"You're both pulling all-nighters? I thought Mia's test wasn't until the end of the week?" "
"Yeah, but where she spent yesterday with her eyes closed for the most part, she's trying to make up for it."
"Okay, but why is she sleeping now?"
"Relax, she's just taking a study break. She told me to wake her up in," Ayame checked the timer on her laptop, "Six minutes and counting."
"You usually go straight through the night, so what's bothering you?" Ayame asked.
"Jayden. You said that the ritual requires a human sacrifice, right?"
"Unfortunately. Even better, there are no special requirements like your father's brother's nephew's former roommate needs to be the one sacrificed."
"I suppose it would make more sense if there were something specifically tying Jayden to the ritual, but I might be even more distressed if that was the case."
"Maybe they're doing it intentionally?" Ayame suggested. "Trying to stick it to you guys because he killed Xandred in the first place?"
"You could be right; all I did was spend my whole life mastering a five-kanji seal that didn't work in the end. So, what are you working on this time?"
"I'm multitasking. Himeihoshi is flying over the city trying to map it out and looking for any nooks and crannies or hidden places where they could be holding Jayden since they definitely didn't take him to the Sanzu. He's not too happy I replaced his gun pods with terrain mapping and ground-penetrating radar, but he'll live. He's lucky I didn't replace all his missiles with non-lethal varieties."
"And what are you working on specifically while Himeihoshi does that?"
"Attempting to upgrade Torasume with a personality matrix like the ones in the other Slaves. I never got around to installing it because the placeholder I put in caused him to go feral and run away before. Plus, yesterday he didn't join the fight with Suiren because he saw a billboard for dog food with a large dog on it and started growling at it. Enough's enough; the problem is I can't figure out what kind of personality to give him!"
"I'm sure you'll think of something," Lauren replied as an alarm went off, causing Mia to awake with a start.
"Hey, Lauren. What are you doing up this late?" she asked.
"Couldn't sleep."
"Well, you're welcome to stay with us until you get sleepy." Mia offered.
"No, that's okay. I should try and go back to bed. See you guys in the morning."
The following morning, Mia slept in while Sakura and Lauren went for a jog.
"You hanging in there?" Sakura asked as they took a break.
"I guess so. Just wasn't expecting Tenma and Octoroo to grab Jayden so suddenly."
"Have to admit; we didn't see it coming. Probably were betting on us being down to fumes so it would be easier. So, what's the problem? You thought they would have grabbed you instead where you're the actual heir?"
Lauren nodded.
"Don't beat yourself up over it. We'll get your brother back somehow before they can use him in the ritual."
"I hope so. Race you back to the house!" Lauren taunted.
"Hey! Wait up!" Sakura shouted as she hurried after her.
Lauren was waiting back at the front door when Sakura arrived.
"Hurry up slowpoke, before your big sister eats all the food Ran and Mia made!" Lauren teased.
"Morning!" Ran called as she cooked away.
"So, Ayame, any luck on giving Suiren's kitty a personality?" Lauren asked.
"No…and it's really pissing me off!" Ayame growled.
"The Folding Zords don't talk either, and they work fine," Emily explained.
"True, but your Folding Zord doesn't go bananas when it sees bananas."
"Aya-nee, have you fixed Tora-chan yet?"
"No, I still have to program his personality, although I can't think of anything!" Ayame reminded her.
"You still coming to the beach with Oneesan, Mia and I after Samurai Practice?"
"Yeah…Sakura, you still want to sit this one out?"
"Yeah, Lauren's still worried about her brother, so we're going to go check out some of those hits Himeihoshi found last night. After that we might catch a movie, so don't wait up for us."
"I'm going for a skate with Mike and Emily then headed to the beach after that," Ran explained to everyone.
"Swim practice with Dad after this," Kevin explained.
"Fishing?" Antonio answered simply.
"All right everyone, just remember to keep your phones and Samuraizers on so that I can call you if there's a breach." Mentor Ji explained.
After Samurai Practice, Sakura and Lauren sped off on Kanesada towards the first location marked on Ayame's map.
"You think this will work?" Lauren asked over the roar of Kanesada's engine.
"Ayame marked every single anomaly within and ten miles outside the city limits she could find. They can't take your brother to the Sanzu, so he's still got to be in our world." Sakura explained.
" But we're really going to be off the grid for this one. Sure, we can help the others if they need it?" Lauren asked.
"Don't worry, Kanesada's fast. Plus, if we need to, Ayame built something for him to make him go really fast."
Down at the beach, the girls arrived with their backpack chairs and set up camp shortly after their arrival.
"Ahh…I love the beach." Suiren sighed as she settled into her chaise. "So, Mia, what's on the agenda today?"
"Try and get a little studying done because my test is tomorrow, but I'm going to try and grab some sun while I'm at it."
"Sounds like a plan," Yuri observed.
"One way or another I'm going to program a personality into that kitty if it's the last thing I do!" Ayame shouted loud enough the entire beach could hear her.
"Calm down Ayame. You'll figure something out." Yuri assured her.
"I hope you're right Oneesan, but it's easier said than done."
"What exactly is Toratsume, anyway?" Mia asked.
"He's based off a Blade Liger," Ayame explained.
"Well, a liger is a cross between a tiger and a lion, so maybe you could keep that in mind?" Mia suggested.
"Could work." Ayame acknowledged as she typed away.
The roar of jet engines was heard, as strange fighters flew overhead.
"Those don't look like any jets I've ever seen," Mia observed.
"That's because they're Houji's. Be back in a few!" Ayame exclaimed, getting up from her towel and racing for the nearest place to armor up safely.
"Himeihoshi, you're on!" she called as soon as she armored up and rocketed skyward.
"Now this is more like it! Houji sent his pathetic planes to tango with me!"
"Careful there, hotshot. Could be a trap."
"Trap, shmap. They'll all be scrap metal in minutes."
Tracking him on her radar, the blip representing her and the one representing Himeihoshi got closer and closer.
"Okay, open your canopy. I'm coming in!"
"Please fasten your seatbelts and secure your tray tables, because it's time to kick tires and light fires!"
Himeihoshi added thrust and rocketed off towards the targets.
"Okay, I count at least fifteen of them. I say we try and thin the herd before we move in for the kill." Ayame said.
"You do remember that I really don't have anything for long range kills, right?"
"Right. Lock on with your missiles as far out as you can, and we'll see if we can surprise them."
"That, I can do. Let's see…one idiot…two idiots…three idiots…four idiots…five idiots…six…seven…eight…nine…ten! Missiles away!"
Ten missiles streaked from their concealed launchers towards Houji's fighters, splashing half their number while the other five targets managed to deploy countermeasures or dodged altogether.
"You guys think you're so Sierra Hotel, don't you, dodging my missiles, well let's see if you can dodge my cannons!"
Himeihoshi's gun pods barked twice, and two more of Houji's fighters went down in flames.
"Splash two more! Didn't even have to give them the whole nine yards!"
"Three more left. Unfortunately, it looks like they're trying to bug out." Ayame informed him.
"Oh no, they don't!" Himeihoshi replied, adding more thrust himself and chasing after them.
"You DO realize you're over a large city, right? They won't take kindly to you going supersonic."
"Relax! I'm not going to break too many windows at this altitude."
"I don't want you breaking any windows!"
"So, we flew like crazy over Toyama back home, and they didn't complain."
"Just try not to let them get away, that would be bad," Ayame replied.
"Ya think?" he retorted.
"Relax, I've got three shots lined up, just waiting for tone…and…buh-bye!"
Three more missiles flew off, taking out tow but missing the third as its target broke sharply into a dive to lose it.
"OHHH NO YOU DON'T!"
Himeihoshi also launched into a steep dive after his target, with poor Ayame along for the ride.
"DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Himeihoshi shouted, firing more missiles than necessary to completely obliterate his target.
"Ahhh, I feel better now. Let's RTB Ayame…Ayame? Ohhh crap…she's not going to be happy when she recovers…"
Later, back at the beach…
"I am going to kill that crazy plane…" Ayame grumbled.
"What did Himeihoshi do now…" Yuri asked.
"He dragged me into a dive so steep that I blacked out…I'm surprised his target fixation didn't make us crash…and I still have work to do on Toratsume…Mou! I hope Lauren and Sakura are having better luck than I am…"
Meanwhile, Sakura and Lauren had checked nearly half the locations Ayame had indicated in and around Panorama City, with no luck so far.
"Well, that's half the locations Ayame marked for us and no sign of the Nighlok or my brother." Lauren recapped as she and Sakura grabbed some lunch at a café near their last waypoint.
"He's somewhere, don't worry. We'll find him and turn that squid into takoyaki." Sakura assured her.
"Are you sure we're not overlooking anything?" Lauren asked.
"Positive. All the sites we've searched so far don't look like they connect to the Sanzu or were used by the Nighlok to perform a ritual involving a human sacrifice. When Ayame made the map, she tagged every anomaly Himeihoshi scanned with the ground penetrating radar she equipped to him in place of his gun pods. Unfortunately, someone has to go investigate them in person."
Some distance away in an underground temple which would have been next on the girls' list, Jayden was chained to the center of a ritual circle lined with sigils that Tenma was carefully and deliberately adding energy to as Octaroo stood in a pool of Sanzu water pacing nervously as both Grinders and Moogers stood guard.
"Ooahoohh!" Octoroo exclaimed, his voice echoing through the chamber, irritating Tenma.
"This is extremely complicated, squid! You wouldn't want me to screw it up, would you?"
"My apologies, but one of the Rangers and those girls you despise are nearby!"
"Have Houji dispatch those Super Grinders he keeps going on about, from locations at random so her tech-savvy sister can't triangulate and destroy them!"
Sakura's cell rang, and she answered it. "What is it Ayame?"
"I'm picking up lots and lots of bogeys headed in your direction. Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint their point of origin. I'll keep trying though."
"Okay, keep an eye on them for me; we're on our way."
"I'll get the check," Lauren said, flagging down their waiter.
Minutes later, the two were speeding towards the middle of nowhere to intercept.
"Um, Lauren? Do Grinders normally have four arms?"
"Not that we've fought before. Why?" she shouted over the engine.
"Because it looks like Houji's moved past duplicating and on to upgrading."
They may have had the head of Grinders, but that's where the similarities ended. Each had arms with forearm blades sticking out the back, with nasty looking fingers. The lower right arm on each of them looked very bulky, but the hands looked fully articulate. Sakura brought Kanesada to a halt and the two dismounted before Kanesada transformed into his robot mode.
"Let's not take any chances." Sakura nodded to Lauren.
Sakura began focusing her Chi and burst into flame, as Lauren went through her morphing sequence, and then inserting the Shiba Fire Disc on her Spin Sword and changing into Shogun Mode.
With battle cries the two charged forward, Lauren having doubled her swords and changing them to Mega Blades as well. Some attacks they blocked with their arm blades, others with their spindly fingers. One fired a particle beam from one of its lower arms, which Lauren barely avoided. Sakura aimed and fired a charged shot at said arm, blasting it off.
"Mistress…?" Kanesada began to say.
"Not now Kanesada!" Sakura said as she deftly parried attacks from one of the robots and chopped its arms off.
"I just thought that you would like to know that more of their less-modified cousins are headed our way." He replied.
Sakura swore under her breath as she realized he was right and opened a channel to Ayame, who was still at the beach.
"I take this has to do with all the bots headed your way?" Ayame asked.
"Send Armor Set A," Sakura replied.
"No problem, it'll be on its way in a second."
A pod fired from the Kusanagi in orbit, which broke apart after entering the atmosphere before flying down to Kanesada and attaching to his back, legs, and arms, equipping him with additional weapons. Two more pods dropped 5o either side, which Kanesada opened and attached his twin gun pods. He placed his crosshairs on the advancing Grinders, and locked on, before unleashing a hail of gunfire from his gun pods, missile launchers, and the long cannon over his shoulder.
"Kanesada will take care of them; let's focus on these guys!" Sakura said as she fired a salvo of micro-missiles from her shoulder pads that destroyed yet another one of the upgraded bots.
"Damn, even my Wildfire Swords aren't doing jack to these guys!" Sakura exclaimed as she sheathed them and ignited her beam swords as Lauren slashed away at bots, decapitating them.
Sakura followed suit by cleaving another two in half.
"Let's try this!" Lauren called, bringing out her Samuraizer and quickly tracing the kanji for fire and sending it to Sakura's swords, which she then brought down on the remaining bots.
"Well, that's the last of them." Lauren replied.
"I took out as many as I could before my ammo depleted. Unfortunately, there are some stragglers headed our way."
"It never ends, does it?" Lauren asked.
"Relax. I've got this," Sakura said, joining her katana end to end and then rocketing off towards them.
"FLARE UP…NOW!"
Like a comet, Sakura smashed through the remaining Grinders, vaporizing them.
"Now, if we could only figure out where they came from." Lauren wondered. "It would make our search much easier."
"Ayame, any ideas?" Sakura asked.
"Unfortunately, that's a negative. The bots all deployed from different places, so there's no common point of origin. You're going to need to check the rest of the locations I marked."
"And why did I think you were going to say that..." Sakura replied. "Bad news, Ayame can't figure out where they're coming from so we're still doing this the hard way."
"Um…Boss? The samurai destroyed the Super Grinders…" Octoroo reported.
"Well, tell Houji to build more! The two of them CANNOT find this place until after the ritual!" Tenma insisted.
"You're not going to get away with this!" Jayden protested from his chains.
"I've gotten away with far worse things. This is a cakewalk compared to that."
"I hope you eat your words!" Jayden shot back.
Back at the beach, Ayame was working away on her laptop, while Suiren and Ran snoozed and Mia studied, only for Ayame to suddenly exclaim loudly…
"UGH! I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!"
"What?" Yuri asked.
"I just realized I didn't do any thermal scans of the locations. Don't know about squid boy, but Jayden and our old pal Tenma just might!"
"What's the racket…some of us are trying to nap here…" Suiren moaned.
"Ayame had an epiphany and decided to share it with the world," Yuri explained.
"Oh, okay," Suiren replied, closing her eyes and stretching out.
"I feel kinda bad, being here while Jayden's captured, and Lauren and Sakura are the only ones actively looking for him."
"Hello, multitasking? Trying to find Jayden AND enjoying the beach. It's possible!" Ayame chimed in.
"Ran! Over here!" Yuri called out as she spotted a girl with purple hair.
"Hey everyone. Sorry I'm late; our skate turned into a Mooger fight." She explained.
Mia took out her earphones.
"I'm sorry, did I hear that right? You guys were attacked by Moogers?"
"M-hmm."
"So why didn't he call us?" Mia wondered. "Or Kevin and Antonio even?"
"Beats me. But it looked to me a little that Mike was trying to show off for us. At least three times Emily and I had to bail him out because the idiot got himself into more trouble than he could handle himself."
"He does realize how dangerous that is, to begin with, add Tenma to the mix and he's asking for trouble?" Ayame added.
"Before we discuss this any further, could we go get something to eat? I'm starving!" Ran exclaimed.
"Yeah, same here. There's some beach café up near the parking lot; let's head there, grab some lunch and bring it back here." Yuri suggested.
"Will Suiren be okay?" Mia asked.
"Yeah, she's fine. Besides, if we woke her up, she'd think there was a monster attack." Ayame assured her.
As the group went to procure food, a green ring portal opened above Suiren's head, and a green goo dripped into her open mouth…
As the girls returned with food, they found people running away from the beach and the entrance blocked by strange conquistador men.
"Those…don't look like Moogers or Grinders," Mia observed.
"Ping Pong Ping Pong! Those are Drumm Soldiers!" a voice said in Japanese, as a strange green mushroom-headed monster stepped forward.
"I'm not letting anyone near my new Minusaur!"
"Minusaur, what's a Minusaur?" Ayame wondered.
"All I know is that Suiren's somewhere back there and we need to get past these guys to get to her." Yuri reminded them. "Let's pound these clowns!"
"Crap, they have them here too?! And what are those three, the deluxe models? I don't care; get them get them!"
In unison, the Drumm Soldiers went into a phalanx and advanced slowly on the group.
"We've got to get past those shields somehow," Mia observed.
"I'll clear us a path," Ayame replied, touching an emblem on her unpowered gauntlet and summoning her bow. She drew back the bowstring and began gathering energy in the arrowhead.
"ARROW SHOCK…WAVE!" she exclaimed, as she loosed the arrow, sending a powerful attack straight into the enemy ranks which vaporized all caught in its path.
"All of you can do that?" Mia gasped.
"Yep and us five have a stronger version we save for dire emergencies," Ayame explained.
"Don't just stand there; GET THEM!" Mushroom-head called again.
The enemy soldiers broke formation and charged the heroes as a melee ensued. Ayame keeping back and taking out targets of opportunity with her bow while the other three went on the attack with swords, polearms, and fists.
Ran grabbed one and closed the claws of her man-catcher, and then tossed it at a few others, knocking them down, while Mia parried their spears and tried to land blows with her Spin Sword.
"Think those shields can protect you? Try this on for size!" Yuri called out as she launched a battle cry and slammed her Knuckle Bomber into one of their shields, causing it to buckle. She attacked the same spot again and again, and that led to it breaking, and the hapless foot soldier then got a Knuckle Bomber sandwich to the head.
Ayame fired a salvo of missiles at the shields of five of them, which attached to the front and then fired through them, hitting the soldier behind and taking them out.
Just then, a humanoid hermit crab stepped forward, clearing his way past the Drumm Soldiers.
"It's about time! Destroy them!"
"AISHITERU BEACHUUUU!" It bellowed, firing a green beam of light from its beach shovel at Yuri, turning her into a beach umbrella with a lily on it!
"I said to destroy them, not turn them into beach paraphernalia!" Mushroom-head shouted.
Ran fired one of her grapples to reel in her big sister, but the monster pulled it away.
"MINE! AISHITERU BEACHUU!" it shouted, firing yet another beam at Ran, turning her into a beach chair with a violet on it!
"Not Ran too!" Ayame exclaimed.
Mia attached her Turtle Disc to her Spin Sword and landed a finisher, but his shell absorbed most of the attack, and she turned into a Pink Samurai Ranger beach towel! The monster grabbed the transformed items and ran off with them, as Ayame chased after it back to the beach, where Suiren and their stuff was strangely still there, as it drove its shovel into the ground and a giant sandcastle formed around it.
"That's not good." Ayame declared as she stared up at it. "And my phone is in there….M. O. V. I., call Sakura's cell."
Still out looking for Jayden, Sakura and Lauren had stopped at the next point of interest when Sakura heard her cell ring right after they shut down Kanesada's engine.
"Ayame, calm down, what happened?"
"Some monster turned Oneesan, Ran, and Mia into beach items and then retreated into a giant sandcastle! I think he's got Suiren too! We need to get back to the house and figure something out quick!"
"Well, we still haven't found Jayden yet, but this is bad too. We'll meet you back at Shiba House, and Lauren's going to call the rest of her team too so we can figure out our next move."
This Brings this Chapter to a Close…
A young woman in medieval fantasy clothing was eating a bag of chips and watching videos online when she shouted, "Guys! Get in here quick!" with a full mouth.
"What is it, Asuna?" a fellow with blue hair asked.
"There's a Minusaur in Panorama!" she replied with her mouth full.
"Swallow first, and then tell us!" the older looking fellow wearing black replied.
She took a sip of water to wash it down, and then replied, "There's a Minusaur in Panorama City!"
"Ehhhh!?" her four teammates and female friend exclaimed.