Zoorangers

by Bionichute

When a group of mysterious creatures start wreaking havoc across Zootopia, Nick and Judy find themselves thrust into a legacy of heroes they never knew about, and must use new powers in order to save not only the city, but their whole universe. Features numbers of characters from across Super Sentai history. (Updates whenever I finish an episode)

9. Episode 8 - Enjoy the Silence

Episode 8 - Enjoy the Silence, Feel the Noise

Yogostein's feet clanked against the ground as he approached the caged sheep, who was currently curled into a ball and crying.

He looked into the cage as he got close to it. "I have a question, sheep." He said, the only response he got was more crying.

He sighed, and then shook the cage. The sheep let out a shriek as she tumbled back and forth in the small cage, smacking into bars over and over again.

"What do you want you..." She angrily said, rubbing her snout in pain. "You... what are you, exactly?" She questioned, fixing her glasses.

"I am Yogostein, Earth Pollution Minister of Gaiark, son of Yogoshimacritein!" He announced proudly, as if it would mean anything to the confused and terrified sheep.

"Uh huh." She let up, eyeing the golden robot up and down. "Well, you look more like a tin can to me, Frankenstein. Anyway, what do you want?"

"I wanted to simply ask you a question." He stated, looking into the sheep's eyes with his deep red optics.

"Just a question?" She said, bemused. "Lay it on me."

"What kind of music does Zootopia like?"

There was a moment of stunned silence from the sheep, as she simply looked at the dead serious robot in confusion.

"You know, I was the mayor for a while, I know a lot about pipelines, undercover work, weird government cover-ups," She said, breaking the silence. "And you just want me to tell you about music?"

He gave a simple nod. "I require a popular musician for my next plan."

"What kind of plan is it?" She asked.

He pushed the cage, causing it to swing again. "Wouldn't you like to know, wool."

After the cage began to settle, Bellwether began again. "So, why exactly should I tell you anything?"

Yogostein held his spear up to the cage, sticking it in between the bars and directly near the sheep's neck. "Because if you don't, I can kill you on the spot." He rather calmly explained.

Bellwether gulped, and pushed the spear back. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you everything I know about pop stars."

He pulled the spear out on his own, and clanked it against the ground.

"If you want a big pop star, I'd go for Gazelle, she's basically been the hottest singer in the city for years now." She stated. "At least, she was before I went to jail."

The robot laughed. "Perfect, now all I need is the producer, which I can look up myself." He turned and began to walk away from the caged Bellwether.

"Um, excuse me?" Bellwether sheepishly asked, causing the robot to stop in his tracks and look back to her. "Can you get me something to eat? I haven't eaten in twenty four hours, I'm starving."

He turned away from her again. "Try asking someone who actually needs food." He mockingly stated. "Unless, you want some liquor."

"I really can't have alcohol, can't hold it down."

The robot rolled his eyes, and headed out towards the exit.

---

March 25th

"Yeah, yeah, I know she wants 'better music'." The jackal said into the phone as he reclined in his large office chair, feet on desk. "But we're music producers, we don't do good, we do popular."

Suddenly, a buzz came from the intercom on his desk. "Mr. Richards, you have some visitors and..."

He slammed his paw on the button on his desk, and put his phone down. "Not right now, Ms. Tannington, I'm on the phone with Reinhanna's agent, very important stuff."

"It's Rammington," the timid voice continued over the intercom, just seconds after. "And this is probably more important."

"Probably not, Standington." He said back. No response. Richards chuckled, and pulled his phone back up to his ear. "Sorry about that, what were we talking about again?"

After a few more heated minutes of back and forth on the phone, there was a sudden knock on his door. It was a hard knock, sounding like metal hitting against the fake wood of the door.

"Hang on, getting another interruption." He said into the phone, irritated. "NOT NOW, DANNINGTON!" He yelled.

The knocks quickly subsided. The jackal ran his paw across his head, trying to regain his cool. "Sorry again," He said back into the phone, letting out a weak laugh. "Secretary's trying to get a raise or something, not a big deal."

There was then a pound on the door, nearly causing the jackal to drop his phone in surprise. This wasn't a knock, or even someone pounding on a door with their fists. This was the sound of a large object hitting the door, and it became apparent as the door began to bend inwards with each pound.

Richards paused in stunned silence, and looked at the door as the pounding continued. After only a few pounds, the door flew completely off its hinges, literally, as it landed just in front of the jackal's wooden desk.

A large creature sidestepped through the door, its dull golden texture becoming visible in the room's mood lighting.

Richards held the phone up to his mouth and whispered. "I'm gonna have to call you back." He quickly hung up before another word could be swapped. Then he dropped it to the ground.

He cleared his throat, and fixed the large sunglasses he was wearing. He then let out a high pitched screech of terror, cowering in fear from the robotic monster before him.

"I assume that you are Jerrick Richards?" The creature asked, walking forward from the doorway. As he did, a number of smaller creatures walked through, each also clearly robotic in nature.

The jackal gave a small nod. "And I also assume that you are the idol Gazelle's manager?" The robot continued, walking closer and placing his hands in the desk.

"Wait," The jackal said, all fear suddenly disappearing. "Are you just a weird fan? Because I thought you were going to kill me!" He began laughing. "Listen, Daft Punk, I may be her manager slash CEO of Richards Records, but I can't get you an autograph, you have to wait until..."

"Quiet." The robot suddenly produced a spear, and held it to Richards' throat. The jackal complied with the robot's request.

One of the smaller robots pulled up a large, green chair, which the main robot sat down in. "Now, I'd like to make an offer to you." it said, a phantom grin appearing on its unchanging face.

He pulled out a flier, and placed it down on the desk, the jackal reaching over to look through it. It was written in a language he couldn't read, the letters seeming to consist of various different gear symbols.

"I am Yogostein, a member of the Gaia Ark Environmental Protection Service, we're an up and coming group who want to help protect this planet." The robot halfheartedly explained, seeming to choke on nearly every word. "At least, that's what you're going to say."

"What?" The jackal said, looking up from the nonsense flier.

"You're going to have Gazelle hold the world's largest charity event for us."

The jackal burst out in laughter at this request, pounding his fist against the table and nearly crying. "Yeah right!" He said between guffaws. "We don't do charity events, no way, no how!"

The robot stood up. "Very well then. Ugutz, get him." Two of the smaller robots circled around the desk, and grabbed the jackal by his sharply dressed shoulders, lifting him up. Yogostein then pointed his spear back at the jackal, this time energy coursing throughout it.

"Excuse me, what I meant to say was 'You're going to have Gazelle hold the world's largest charity event for us' unless you want your fried corpse found at your mother's front door step."

Richard let out a high pitched yelp as the spear came closer to his neck. "Alright, alright!" He yelled, the robots lowering him down. "I'll do your charity event. Where do you want it?"

"The largest concert stadium in Zootopia, obviously." Yogostein stated. "Oh, and before I forget..."

He grabbed the jackal by his suit collar, and dragged him across the table. He stared into Richards' eyes, and pulled out a small object. Gear shaped, and with a blue crystal carved into the middle of it. He then jabbed it right into Richards' stomach, where it disappeared, fusing into the jackal.

"What!? What was that!?"

"Oh, you know, just a listening device slash bomb." Yogostein calmly said, dropping the jackal to the ground.

"B-bomb!?" The jackal yelled, clutching at his stomach in a panic.

"A deterrent, if you will." Yogostein began. "If you tell anyone about this, I will personally see that you become nothing more than stains on your ugly green walls."

The jackal felt like throwing up from all the stress, but all that come out was a dry heave. "So get calling that pop idol Gazelle of yours." Yogostein stated, grabbing the jackal by the chin and staring directly into his eyes.

"And remember, I'm always watching you." The robot's red eyes turned into static, and then displayed Yogostein's own head, showing exactly what Richards was looking at. "You have a week."

He then laughed, and let go of Richards, and walked out of the room, the other robots following, and one even putting the door back on.

The jackal fell to the floor, and rested there for a few minutes. He then crawled back over to his phone, and dialed a number into it.

"Hello? Gazelle, baby? Yeah, I need you to come back to Zootopia, pronto."

---

March 27th

"Holy cheese and crackers!"

The door burst open, Nick looking around to see if Judy was okay after she had yelled. "What's going on, are we under attack!?" he yelled looking around.

Everything seemed fine, Judy was just laying on her bed, phone clutched in hand. "Uh, only the best thing ever happened!" She stated, hopping off her bed and showing the fox her phone.

"Gazelle is having a charity concert on Monday!" The screen certainly showed that, a large add on her FurBook page showing. "That means that we can get to go see Gazelle, and donate to a good cause!"

He squinted at the ad, trying to find the name of the group the money was going to. "Gaia Ark Environmental Protection Service?" He said, finally finding the logo in the corner, barely visible. It was more industrial than any environmental protection group's logo should have been, with a stylized gear coming out of the also stylized acronym, GAEPS.

"Never heard of them." He said.

"Apparently they're new." Judy said, looking back at her phone. "Anyway, it's on the 31st, wanna go?"

The fox thought to himself. He didn't actually like Gazelle's music, something that'd gotten him kicked out of several bars over the last 7 years. But at the very least, he would get to hang out with Judy in a non-work fashion.

"Sure," He said. "I'd love to."

---

March 31st

It had been a week of relatively normal police work, all building up to the thirty first, which had coincidentally been their day off. The two had been preparing all day, going to a concert was a big event, especially one that was happening so late at night.

"How long until you're ready to go?" Nick asked Judy, who was in the bathroom.

"Just a bit longer, don't worry!"

"Well if you want to get good seats, we have to leave in about half an hour." He stated.

He walked over to the couch, and fell onto it, waiting for his turn to freshen up. He took off his Zoolizer, and placed it on the table next to Judy's. The two had decided that wearing them to the concert might end up being too suspicious, so they decided to leave them at home. Suddenly, his phone began to ring.

He looked at the display, making sure it wasn't another mystery caller. This time it wasn't, but the number was one he'd recognized, and hadn't seen in a long time. It was Finnick's.

He answered it. "Heeey, Finnick, how's it going?" He answered cheerfully.

"Nick," Finnick started in his deep voice. It sounded different, less angry than usual, but more solemn. "Do you think we can meet up tonight?"

"What, like on a date?" Nick joked. "Well sorry, I already have one of those booked tonight."

"Listen," His voice got angrier, before calming down again. "I'm in a whole lot of trouble, and I need someone to talk to about it."

This sounded completely serious, and Nick was beginning to get a bit worried. "Uh, alright, where do you want to meet up?" He asked.

"Romino's."

"Okay, where else BESIDES Romino's?" Nick tried to get the fennick to change his mind. "The food there's really expensive, and I don't think I need to remind about me and Romino's issues with each other, right?"

"Money shouldn't be an issue for you, Slick." Finnick joked, his voice going back to that normal Finnick tone, only with a much larger hint of sarcasm. "We're meeting up at Romino's, that's final."

Nick sighed. "Alright, but if my carcass is found in a dumpster tomorrow, I'm blaming you."

"See you at ten."

"Alright, bye." Nick hung up, and slumped back down into the couch, resting his arm on his eyes. "Judy's never gonna believe me."

The bathroom door swung open, Judy dressed in much more casual clothes. "Alright, Slick, your turn." She said, walking over to him.

"Judy, I'm really, really sorry, something's come up." He tried to explain, the rabbit letting out a groan and rolling her eyes.

"Like what?" She asked skeptically. "An old friend of yours wants to meet up somewhere shady?"

"Actually, that's right on the money, Carrots." He said, completely earnestly.

"I know you don't like Gazelle, but you could've just said 'No' a week before we made all these plans."

"Judy, Finnick said he's in some kind of trouble, it sounds important!" He continued to try and explain, but she clearly didn't believe it.

"Alright, fine." She said, putting her hands up. "You go do whatever you need to, but I'm going to this concert."

She stormed towards the door, and left, slamming it shut. The fox was left in the apartment, feeling incredibly guilty about having to just abandon this. He looked at the time on his phone. It was eight, and Romino's was all the way in Sahara Square. And since Judy most likely took the car, he's have to take the bus.

He'd be just on time if he left right now. Which he did, running out of the room, leaving the Zoolizers behind.

---

A few rather uncomfortable, quiet bus rides later, and Nick found himself outside Romino's.

The place was large, extravagant. The lights and bright purple of the place shone against the mostly dull yellows of the Sahara, and made it especially noticeable at night. And being a night club, it was definitely designed to be that way.

"Sill as ugly as ever." Nick said to himself, looking up at the tacky blinking lights that spelled out "ROMINO'S". The apostrophe's light had gone dim, making the sign read more like a bad ripoff of a pizza joint.

He looked around, hands in pocket. Finnick and his van didn't appear to be there yet, so the fox leaned against the building and waited. He played around with his phone for a few minutes, before a loud honk nearly caused him to drop it.

He looked up, and saw Finnick's red van, the same tacky mural drawn on it as when they had last seen each other. Finnick gave the fox a glare, before parking it to the side of the building.

The two met each other halfway. "So, how's it going, Finn?" Nick tried to greet, holding out his paw. Finnick smacked it away and let out a growl.

"Awful, what's it to you?" The fennick answered, as the fox rubbed his paw from the rather hard smack. "Let's just go get something to eat, I haven't had anything good in months."

'Months?' The fox thought to himself as he followed Finnick into the building. A large rhino greeted them, as he brought them to their table, a booth at the side of the building, Finnick's van visible just outside of it.

After a few minutes of awkwardly avoiding each other's eye contact, Finnick finally let it out.

"I'm broke, Nick."

'Oh shit' Nick thought to himself as Finnick stared into him with tired eyes. "But what happened to all the money?" He asked. "We were doing that for fifteen years, and it's all gone?"

"It's not like you gave me a lot." Finnick mumbled.

"I gave you half every day, how is that not a lot!?" He was utterly baffled at the prospect of this. "Did you get conned by loan sharks or something?"

"No, I'm not an idiot." He said gruffly. "I was renting an apartment, had to get food, gas for the van, that kind of shit builds up over time!"

The waiter came over, ready to take their orders. Finnick ordered a bug salad and one of the more expensive drinks, while Nick ordered water and a chicken and cricket burger. As soon as the waiter left, they began talking once again.

"Why didn't you just get a job?" Nick asked.

"Do you honestly think someone like me can get a good job?" Finnick snidely said. "That's the reason I started conning with you, we were both unemployable. But now here you are, suddenly with a well-paying, respectable job!"

"Finn, are you trying to get me to give you money?" Nick asked.

"Nothing slips past you, Slick." Finnick joked. "I don't need the apartment, I got the van, I just need money for food, dry cleaning, and gas, alright?"

"And how much would that be, exactly?" Nick asked.

"I dunno, about a thousand a month?"

Nick sighed. "Alright, but I'm only doing this because you're my friend, got it?"

After a bit longer, the waiter returned, giving them both their dishes of food. The Fennick quickly began to scarf into it.

"Damn, I forgot how good Romino's cooking was." He said between swallows. "I've been living off dry ramen and McPawnalds for three months, this is the first real thing I've gotten to eat in a long while."

"You can quit with the pity party, Finn." Nick joked, the fennick giving him a glare before going back to eating. Nick took a big sip of water from his glass.

"So, how's it going with your girlfriend?" Finnick asked, a sly grin on his face.

Nick tried not to spit the water out in surprise, and painfully swallowed it down. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-what girlfriend?" He nervously sputtered, knowing exactly who Finnick had meant.

Finnick burst into laughter. "Oh my god, it's true! You and the bunny cop are an item!?"

He could feel his skin turning red as he scratched at his arm. "N-no, we're just partners."

He slapped his forehead as Finnick began laughing again. "I mean we're partners on the force!"

"C'mon, Nicky, everyone in the city knows it!" He stated, trying to stop laughing. "Have you seen some of the shit online once you joined the ZPD? I'm talking fan fiction, Nick, FAN FICTION!"

"That is weird and disgusting." Nick said.

"Yeah, so is most celebrity gossip."

"We're officers, Finn, not celebrities." Nick stated, though he didn't entirely believe himself at this point.

"You know I'm just teasing ya." Finnick said. "I'm just glad I'll get this money stuff sorted out, now how bout we enjoy the rest of the night?"

"Alright, but I'm not getting any alcohol, I have work tomorrow." Nick said, finally grabbing his burger.

About an hour passed, and the two had finished, and were simply waiting for the bill.

Finnick was surprisingly not drunk, despite ordering a few other, cheaper drinks. Little guy could always hold down his liquor.

Nick felt something in his pocket shake. It was his phone. As he pulled it up, he glanced at the time, 11:40, about ten minutes after the concert started. The number was Judy's.

"Hello, Judy?" He said into the phone. No response, only a faint buzzing sound. "Hello? Hello?" Still nothing. He hung up. "Weird."

"What as that?" Finnick asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"The 'bunny cop' and I were supposed to go to a concert, but then you called, and things changed." He explained, putting his phone away. "I thought she was calling to make me feel guilty, but looks like she probably just sat on it."

He felt something in his gut say something was wrong. Suddenly, Finnick gained a look of terror at something behind him.

"Nick, it's..."

The fox suddenly felt someone grab him by his shirt collar, lifting him up into the air. It was a large, surly hippo, who gave Nick an angry glare.

"Oh, heeeeey Romino." Nick said nervously. "How's it, uh, been going?"

"What are you a doing here, fox?" Romino asked in his heavily accented voice. "I tolda you to never come to my place again."

"Listen, I might've dined and dashed a few times..."

"You did it every week for a year."

"Alright, fifty two times, but I was actually going to pay you this time!" He pleaded. "I'm done doing shady stuff, just let me pay!"

"Alright," The hippo said, dropping the fox to the ground. "But you nevera come back here again!"

"Yes sir, got it sir!" Nick said, terrified. He reached for his wallet, and gave the hippo what he owed, and then quickly rushed out of the restaurant, leaving Finnick.

"What an idiot." Finnick said as he hopped down from his seat and headed for the exit.

---

About fifteen minutes earlier, at the concert hall...

"Stupid lying Nick..." Judy muttered to herself as she looked around the crowded arena. For larger animals, there was barely any room to move around, but for someone small like her, there was lots of room.

The concert was going to begin in about a minute or so, so she had to find a good place to sit. It was a lot more difficult than the last time she went to a concert, mostly because the place was absolutely packed.

After a bit of walking, she spotted someone familiar. It was Clawhauser! He and Judy had been talking about seeing the concert all week, of course he would show up.

She ran up to the cheetah, who was holding a soda in one hand, and a tub of popcorn in the other. He nearly dropped them when Judy yelled his name.

"Judy!" He yelled, turning to her. "I see you made it to the show!"

She nodded. "Wouldn't miss a Gazelle concert for the world!"

The lights began to dim, and the two looked towards the stage.

"Ooohhh, it's starting it's starting it's starting!" Clawhauser said quietly.

In a shower of sparks, the podium in the middle raised, revealing Gazelle and her tiger dancers. She began to sing her most popular song, Try Everything, which had basically become the theme of the city by this point.

But halfway through the song, something odd began to happen. Judy couldn't entirely make it out, so she climbed on top of Clawhauser's head in order to get a better look. It was some kind of smoke, spiraling around the stage. She also noticed Gazelle getting a nervous look on her face as the smoke came in closer.

Soon enough, the smoke had shrouded them, the music still playing while Gazelle and her backers began to cough uncontrollably, before falling down.

The crowd began to rabble, no one was sure if this was part of the show, it was environmental based after all, or if something was going on.

The true answer was revealed to Judy when the smoke cleared.

In the middle of the stage stood Yogostein, with four Ugutz surrounding him. He grabbed the microphone from around Gazelle's head, and placed it on his own.

"Greetings, people of Zootopia!" He began. "I am Yogostein, Pollution Minister of Gaiark!"

Judy slapped her forehead. Gaia Ark. Gaiark. How could she have been so stupid? She hopped down from Clawhauser, and rushed towards one of the exits.

"You organics are so easy to manipulate," He continued. "Just tell them something they want, and they'll come in droves."

Judy tried to push the door open, and even leaped up to the handle to try and get it open. It wouldn't budge, the door was locked, and she was betting it was like that on every other door.

"So how does it feel knowing that your own city idol, Gazelle," He picked up the unconscious Gazelle. "Was the bait needed for my own elaborate trap to end you all!?" He threw her off stage, the crowd reacting with boos and yells.

"Now you fools won't be able to try ANYTHING!" He yelled, begin to laugh. He then turned to an Ugutz. "That was a bit corny, do you think?" The Ugutz shook its head, and gave a thumbs up. "Oh, maybe I'll have to do standup later. ANYWAY! It is time to meet your destroyer!"

He pulled out a gear, and hurled it at one of the speakers lining the walls of the stadium. Judy ran out to look at it, as it was just above her.

It shifted and twisted in a very mechanical manner, until eventually a creature fell to the ground, nearly crushing the rabbit.

Judy could only make it out from behind, where it revealed its awkward, boxy shape. It mostly appeared to be made out of a lot of tubes. The horrified reactions from the crowd told her the front wasn't that pretty either.

It leaped to the stage, where its full visage could be made out. It had a weird, sneering face, and most of its body parts were covered in a variety of speakers. It then pulled out a strange looking microphone, which seemed to double as a spear, judging by the three sharp blades it had.

"MY NAME IS!" It yelled into the speaker. "SPEEEEEAAAAAAKER BAAAAAANNNNKIIIIIII!" The monster's horribly loud voice echoed throughout the arena, causing every animal there to cover their ears in pain.

"You still got it!" Yogostein said, playfully hitting the monster on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Master Yogostein!"

"Let's get this show really started!" Yogostein yelled, snapping his metal fingers.

Suddenly, music began to blare again, this time not the music from before, but instead some kind of heavy, industrial rock song.

"SCREAM YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!" Yogostein yelled. "SCREAM AS LOUD AS YOU CAN, BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Even more suddenly, a hoard of Ugutz appeared all around the crowd, and began to attack them. Everyone began screaming just like Yogostein had demanded.

Judy felt her wrist. There was nothing there, she had left her Zoolizer at home. That was a bad idea in hindsight.

"Do it, Speaker Banki!" Yogostein demanded, the speaker monster nodding in response.

Its mouth unnaturally unhinged, and it began to inhale. Everything in the concert hall fell silent. Judy looked around, mouths were still moving, feet were still stamping, but nothing was coming out of them.

"What in the world?" She tried to say, only to find nothing coming out of her mouth.

'I need to call Nick.' She thought, reaching for her phone.

"How do you like that, you animals!?" The monster yelled. "Enjoy the sounds of silence!"

She quickly dialed in his number, and tried to speak into it when he answered.

"Hello, Judy?" Nick said on the other side.

She continued to try and warn him, but nothing was coming out of her flapping lips.

"Hello? Hello?" The phone hung up, and pounded her forehead with it. She then turned to the monster on stage, who was busy dancing around.

It twirled its microphone laughing to itself. Yogostein then hit it on the back, seriously this time. He had apparently gone mute as well.

"Alright, I guess it's time for the show stopper!" It pulled the mike in closer, and held up a finger. "A one, a two, a one two three BOOOOOOM!"

With the final yell, a visible shockwave erupted from the monster's mouth, blasting everything away as it moved in quickly.

Judy tried to scream as it came towards her. The last thing she felt was being knocked back.

Everything went white.

---

Nick opened the door, and walked into the apartment quietly, not turning any lights on. Knowing Judy, she was probably in bed, passed out. Not because she was drinking, but because she had spent all her energy. He really didn't want to wake her, but he had to check in order to calm his nerves over the phone call.

He creaked the door to her room open and looked inside. "Judy?" He whispered. She wasn't in her bed. And judging by the complete darkness of the apartment, probably not in the place yet.

His heart began to pound. Was she in trouble? Did something happen? "Okay, calm down." he said to himself, turning the lights on and then sitting on the couch. "She probably met Ben there, and they went to get donuts after the show, nothing to worry about."

This explanation still didn't set well in his gut, and he checked the time on his phone. It was 1:30, well past the time she'd let herself be out. "Oh, that's not good." Judy had an amazingly strict curfew for herself, so her not being home was a problem.

His phone began to ring as he thought about this, surprising him. "Hello?" He answered, hoping it was Judy.

"Wilde," Rang the voice of Bogo, sounding very solemn. "We need you over at the concert hall."

"What? What happened?" Nick asked in a panic, clutching the phone with both paws. "Is Judy-"

"Just get over here, Wilde, ASAP."

He hung up on his own.

In only a few seconds, Nick was rushing through the door again.

---

Soon enough, after a very, very uncomfortable bus ride, Nick arrived at the concert hall.

It was an absolute mess.

It less resembled the large open are is had once been, and now a mess of concrete and electronics. Al of the grass that had been planted has also turned grey, and some of the ground was straight up lifted.

Of course, none of that was bringing up the fleet of ambulances parked outside.

He rushed through the gathered crowd, and passed the ambulances, spotting Bogo speaking to a leopard in a paramedic's uniform.

"Ah, Wilde, there you are." The buffalo said, turning to the exhausted fox.

"Judy..." He said, panting. "Is she... okay?"

"I'm sorry." The paramedic said. "She's over there." He pointed towards to a stretcher, only one of a couple dozen that had been around the scene.

He rushed over to the stretcher, Judy's tiny body covering barely any of it. "Oh god..." Nick let out, feeling himself begin to weep. "I'm so sorry..."

He felt a hoof place itself on his shoulder. "She's alive, Nick." Bogo assured him. "Barely, but she is alive."

Even with that news, he couldn't stop crying.

Bogo walked away, only to be approached by the paramedic. "Shouldn't you tell him what happened?"

He looked back at the fox, whose tears were beginning to stain the sheets of the stretcher. "Let him greave right now, there's more important things to worry about."

Nick continued crying over that stretcher for what seemed like days, even though it had just turned out to be around an hour. He was knocked from his mourning by a tap to the shoulder.

"Excuse me," Said another paramedic, this one a gazelle. "We need to move her to an ambulance."

"Let me come with her." He begged.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to come to the hospital during visiting hours." The gazelle said, pushing the stretcher over to an ambulance.

Nick fell to the ground, and into a fetal position. It was all his fault, he could've saved her.

He could've saved everyone.

---

He sat in the chair next to her bed. He looked at her still body, and could feel the urge to tear up. But he couldn't, especially considering who was supposed to be coming by soon.

He sucked it up, despite how hard it was, and continued sitting in silence.

He thought about how stupid he had been, especially with that... stop he made. It'd be better not to think about that, it just made all this feel even worse.

"Oh Judy, I wish I could've been there to help you..." He said, wiping away a few tears that managed to slip by.

He heard the door slide open, and looked over. Two rabbits walked in, a female one carrying a bouquet, and a male holding a box of... chocolates?

"Oh, excuse me!" The male one said. "Are you Nick?"

"Yes, I am." He said solemnly, walking over and shaking their paws. "You must be Judy's parents."

The rabbit nodded. "I'm Stewart."

"Bonnie." The female one said.

"Pleasure to meet you both." He looked back at the unconscious body of their daughter. "Shame it had to be under these circumstances."

"Well," Stu said, walking over to look as his daughter. "At least she's alive. That's the most we could ask for."

"So, Nick." Bonnie asked, taking a seat. "How exactly has Judy been handling the city life these days?"

Nick sat down. "It's been three years, of course she's adjusted to it." He explained.

"Judy was... has always been open-minded." Stu said, looking around the hospital room.

"Tell me about it." Nick said, remembering back to the first day they met. She certainly didn't judge him during the ice cream shop incident... even if it was under false pretenses.

"She's probably had more trouble adjusting with living with me, honestly." He said.

He then noticed that the two rabbits were staring at him in shock.

"She never mentioned you two were living together!" Bonnie replied.

"I swear, we're just roomies, completely separate bedrooms!" Nick frantically tried to explain.

"I swear, if you touched a single hair..." Stu began, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

A fourth person walking through the door. This one a wolf in a doctor's coat, with a name tag reading "Furnandez".

"Excuse me, are you Ms. Hopps' parents?" She asked the rabbits, who nodded. She turned to Nick. "And you must be her... boyfriend?"

"JUST A FRIEND!" nick yelled, waving his paws. He was screaming internally, what an embarrassment.

"Alright then." The wolf said. "I'm Dr. Furnandez. I'm here to tell you about what's going on with your daughter and... Friend." She pulled out a clip board and walked over to Judy's bedside. "She's in some sort of coma, but it's unlike any known to medical science. We can detect brainwaves, but she can't wake up, it's like she's stuck in a dream state."

"But, she will wake up, right?" Bonnie asked.

"We don't know, like we said, we've never seen anything like this before."

"Is this happening to all of the mammals that were at the scene?" Nick asked.

"No, it seems this only happened to all of the elephants, rabbits, mice, and other sound sensitive mammals that were there." Furnandez explained.

"So, it had to be some kind of sound attack..." Nick said to himself. That kind of unnatural ability had to be some kind of monster, but whose monster could it have been?

Another knock at the door. Everyone turned to see Chief Bogo peeking in.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asked the doctor quietly. The wolf shook her head in response. "Alright, good. Wilde, I want to talk to you about this."

He followed the buffalo out of the room, and down the hall. "Seems another officer was at the concert as well." Bogo said.

They walked into the waiting room, where Clawhauser was waiting. He looked rough, having a large, steel crutch to help him balance on his now bandaged leg.

"Ben, you're okay!" Nick yelled, running to the overweight cheetah.

"My body may be okay, but my heart has been crushed..." He said melodramatically. "Gazelle was injured during the attack, and she's probably not gonna be going on tour for a few months!" He began to sob.

"That's really not important now, Clawhauser." Bogo said. "You saw what happened, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, sure did Chief!" He said, quickly stopping his crying. "It was another one of those weird monster attacks, a big robot guy!"

A robot guy? That had to have been Yogostein! Wait a second...

"Were was the charity money going to?" Nick asked the buffalo.

"It was apparently going to a FAKE environmental protection group, named Gaia Ark something or other." He said. "Funny enough, when we got there, all the money was gone."

Gaia Ark. Gaiark. That was the thing Yogostein said he was a member of. Wow, he really had been an idiot the last few days. The fox reflexively facepawed, the two other officers gave him an odd stare as he realized what he did.

"Anyway, I just thought you might like to know all that, Wilde." Bogo explained. "Now go home, get some rest."

"Thanks, I will chief." The fox lied. Now that he had some form of target, he'd head out and take care of the son of a bitch.

As the fox rushed off, Bogo was hoping Nick wasn't doing exactly what he was planning.

---

Nick had been jumping around the roof tops for hours, looking for something, anything that could alert him to this sound monster. His suit was starting to feel... odd.

He scratched at his arm.

He looked across the city skyline, trying to hear something, but there was nothing of real note. It was just the sounds of simple city life, but for some reason he could hear all of it. It was actually starting to irritate him.

He looked at the device on his arm. "I wish you'd actually work for once, you piece of junk."

As soon as he finished saying that, it let out a high pitched beep. He suddenly got a whiff of something, something nasty. It smelled like gas fumes and battery acid.

His sense of smell wasn't usually this good either, but he didn't particularly note that.

He scratched at his arm again, feeling fur run through his claws, and then leaped off towards the smell.

The smell eventually trailed off, but he had spotted the monster by then anyway. It was standing on a roof below the one the fox was standing on, facing towards an open park.

"Time to get this party started!" It yelled. "Vamola!"

"Not if I can help it." Nick said to himself, creeping up to the roof's edge. He leaped off, and landed with a thud behind the monster, who turned to notice him.

The monster let out a surprised yelp, and backed away. "What the heck are you!?" It said, fear apparent in its quavering voice.

"What?" Nick said, confused by the monster's statement. "I'm a Zooranger, can't you tell?"

"Ugh, you look a lot... uglier, than I expected." The monster continued, stepping a bit closer.

"Now that's just..." He paused and grabbed his throat. His voice sounded wrong. Not different, but... wrong, far more angry than he was actually trying to be. He was usually good at hiding his emotions, why were they falling through now.

He looked at his gloved hands, or what should have been gloved hands. Instead, they were very clearly paws, covered in white fur with black tipped nails.

"What's happening to me!?" He yelled, looking at the rest of his body. Instead of a suit, it was all blood red fur, even darker than what his suit usually looked like. He had even gained a bit of a hunched over stance.

He felt a crack in his jaw, as his mind slipped away. The muzzle part of his helmet opened up, revealing jagged teeth formed from the outside of the helmet, and a mouth leading to a black void. The new creature let out a howl, unlike an actual animal, and more like a monster. Two blood red, glowing eyes phased through the black of the helmet's visor.

"I AM GOING TO RIP YOU TO SHREDS!" It yelled in a sneering, hissing voice. It leaped at the speaker monster, who had no time to dodge out of the way as it grabbed onto its face.

It clawed into the monster's metallic skin with no effort, exposing wires, and causing oil to spill out. "Get off you monster!" The monster ironically yelled out, managing to hit the fox beast away.

The things tumbled to the ground, and then quickly righted itself upwards, unharmed by the hit. "Come now," It said slyly. "I have a name."

"From what the boss told me, your name is Nick Wilde." The boom box said.

"Wrong answer." It said, giving a grin. "The name's..."

"SAVAGE!"

"UGUTZ!" The speaker yelled. "PROTECT ME!"

A dozen Ugutz suddenly appeared, marching towards the snarling beast. "Ah, I suppose you want a demonstration of how savage I really am!" It began to laugh, and rushed into the crowd of Ugutz.

It slashed at one, which seemed to go right through the robot, it quickly falling to bits. "Looks like you're just falling to pieces over my power!"

He then leaped up onto another one's shoulders. "I suppose you morsels think yourselves pretty strong huh?" It mocked, as the Ugutz tried to hit him. "You seem to be getting a bit big headed about that, let me HELP YOU WITH THAT!"

He then slammed his paws against the sides of the Ugutz' head, causing it to be instantly crushed, a spray of oil coming from it like a popped grape. The oil covered the fox and a handful of nearby Ugutz. The monster was laughing the entire time, and wiped up the oil to smell it.

"Mm, you know, you guys smell pretty good." he looked at the circle of Ugutz closing in on him. "But I wonder how well you taste?"

He leaped at one of the Ugutz, knocking it to the ground. The fox began to claw into the robot, and bite into its innards, pulling the wires out and swallowing them whole. "Tastes like disease and death, my favorite." It quipped.

The fox quickly turned around, and performed a single large swipe through the remaining Ugutz, who all fell to pieces. "Idiots."

It turned to the Speaker Banki, and slowly walked towards it, eyes piercing the robot's own. "I wonder how well you taste, noisemaker."

"I don't want to find out!" The speaker robot pulled out his spear microphone, and quickly thrust it in the fox monster's direction.

As the blades approached, the fox effortlessly dodged out of the way, and grabbed the pole of the spear, pulling it away from the robot. "Nice stick." The monster said. "Wonder how tough it is?" He grabbed it with his other paw, and quickly snapped it in half, tossing the parts behind him. "Aw, broke just like that. Maybe you won't break as easily."

The monster swiped at the robot, causing it to spark and fall to the ground, where it crawled away. The fox beast creeped dangerously closer towards it, mouth open and horrid panting noises coming from its void of a mouth.

"GET AWAY!" The speaker Banki yelled, kicking at the fox. It missed the first few times, the fox managing to dodge, until a single kick managed to knock the monster away, where it landed with a thud.

"Ugh..." The fox let out, its voice starting to change. Slowly, it shifted back to the more armored appearance of the normal suit. Nick got up, and looked at the cowering monster. He saw the massive wounds inflicted on it.

"What did I do...?" He said to himself, having blacked out for a few minutes. The last thing he remembered was leaping off the building and confronting the monster. Then it all went black.

"DISTRACTED!" The monster yelled, running up and sucker punching the fox backwards. "See you, Savage!" It yelled, as smoke began to cover it.

"Hold on a second!" Nick yelled, pulling out the Vickscannon and firing it at the cloud. As the blast traveled through it, the smoke cleared, revealing the monster had vanished.

"Damn it." He said, laying down on his back. "What happened to me?" He asked himself. He had more questions than that.

Questions like, "Why did I black out?" and "Why did that monster call me savage?" or even "What in the world was that monster even planning to do?"

Throughout this thought process, only one word continued to ring through his brain.

Savage.

---

The speaker monster stumbled into the main chamber, nearly collapsing as it did. "Master Yogostein!" It weakly cried out.

Yogostein turned from his conversation with Sambash, and looked at the limping monster. "By Batcheed's gears, what happened to you!?" The robot asked, walking over to help it up.

"It was the red one, he turned into some kind of monster!" The speaker tried to explain. "It said it was called 'Savage', reduced my Ugutz squad to dust!"

"Well that's something that's never happened before." Sambash said, taking a swig of his bottle.

Yogostein cleared a number of bottles from the table, and helped the speaker Banki lay down on it. He inspected the wounds, which were deep, most likely unfix-able. He was losing a lot of oil, and if he stayed like this, would most likely deactivate in minutes.

"Hmm, I hope you've caused enough chaos, Speaker Banki." Yogostein stated. He turned to the large cylinder. "My Omnipotence, can you gift me a Chaos Badge?" he asked.

A bolt of red electricity shot from the cylinder, and into Yogostein's hands, where it formed into the sharp red badge. Yogostein flipped the speaker monster to his other side, where there were barely any damages, and jabbed it into the flat backside of the monster's head.

Yogostein stepped back, and helped the monster up as he began to glow red. "Ugh, this feels very uncomfortably numb..."

He began to scream as the red light enveloped him, causing his body to shift. His already large head grew wider, more speakers appearing on the new flaps. The bit connecting his bod and his head caved inwards, making room for a neck and shoulders, which grew shoulder armor with more speakers on them. All of his speakers gained a golden mechanical plating as well, which was already apparent on new ones.

His legs grew longer, and then became more raptor like, thin flaps with even more speakers fell down from his upper leg, covering his new digitigrade stance. His face then grew even more sinister looking, the edges of his grin curving inwards, and two large horns forming from his forehead. Finally, a tail, resembling a plug, appeared from his backside, and whipped around.

"CHAOS SPEAKER BANKI!" It yelled. "Guess this is what they call going platinum, huh!?"

"Hah, good one!" Sambash complimented, taking another swig of beer.

"That was a lot like what happened to the fox ranger." The speaker continued. "He started going crazy, and then all of the sudden he'd become some kind of animal! I mean, more than usual, I'm assuming."

Meanwhile, Long was watching intently from the sidelines. The thing the speaker described had intrigued him, one of the first things in a while that had made him less bored.

"An animal, hmm?" Long said to himself. "Sounds interesting, might be what I've been looking for. I'll have to keep my eyes on this fox..."

"Alright, now you're all patched up, go get back to destroying!" Yogostein demanded, pushing him towards the exit.

"But, what if that Savage thing shows up again?" It asked, sounding worried.

"Nothing can break through the gold plating in your speakers." Yogostein explained. "You should be able to take care of him easily."

"Got it boss!" It said, bowing. It then rushed out the door, ready to bring more chaos.

---

Nick had been sitting on a roof for about an hour, thinking about what had happened. He didn't want to go into his ranger form, especially after that blackout. He didn't realize it was possible to feel sorry for one of the monsters, but he had, and its wounds had apparently been caused by his paw.

"You know you can't do anything without her." A voice said. "She's the reason why you have a life at all!"

"What?" Nick sat up, looking around for the voice. "Who said that?"

"I'm your deepest thoughts, Nicholas." The voice continued. "Give in to your feelings, and you can save her."

"I can't, not after that." Nick said to himself. "I don't want to cause that kind of horror show again, just let me do it on my own!"

"Very well. But let's see how well you do without me next time."

The voice suddenly stopped. The fox hit his cheeks a few times. "I think I'm going crazy without someone to talk to." He started reflexively scratching his arm again, and jerked it away as soon as he realized what he was doing.

He then felt something rise up from his stomach, and into his mouth. It was hard, made of... metal? He spit it out in a gob of black goo. It looked like a nut.

Why was that in his stomach?

The Zoolizer suddenly began beeping again. He took a gulp, closed his eyes, and hit the button. He opened his eyes, and looked at himself. He was in his normal ranger mode, nothing weird going on.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god." he pumped his fist, and then leaped off, trying to find the monster.

After a bit of searching, he found the monster, this time in the middle of an intersection, stopping all the traffic. It looked… different. Had it already gone into Chaos form? He hadn't even figured out what the thing could do besides shoot sound!

Even with so little information, he couldn't just let it cause trouble, so he leaped down into the intersection.

"Stop it right there, boxhead!" He yelled as he landed, sword drawn. "I'm not going to let you do… whatever you're doing."

"Well, if it isn't…" The newly demonized monster squinted at the fox. "ZooRed? Is that what you call yourself when you aren't a horrible monster?"

Okay, that raised some questions.

"Uh, yeah, ZooRed." He said, trying to hide his confusion. "Okay, let's just fight already."

He rushed at the monster with the Foxfire Blade, attempting to strike it. With the hit, the sword only bounced off harmlessly. The monster laughed, and pulled out a large spear with a microphone on the bottom. It struck the fox, knocking him backwards.

"After you, or whatever animal you became, broke my microphone, I had to get it replaced!" He yelled. "But this one's much better, it can do stuff like this!"

He pointed the three-pronged end of the spear at the fox, which produced a stream of lightning. It hit the fox, and caused him to be electrocuted. The force of the electricity brought him to his knees, and nearly drained all his remaining energy.

"Hah, you just got thunder struck!" The monster laughed, Nick's charred body letting out a groan.

Nick slowly got up, and drew the Vickscannon. He tried to aim it the best he could, which was tough considering he was nearly unconscious. He got a lock on, and fired, but the blast only bounced off, and caused the monster to laugh again.

"Shit."

"You know, it's been fun." The speaker said. "But I feel it's time to finish this off, y'know? UGUTZ!" He threw a pile of nuts and bolts into the air, where quickly shifted and twisted into a group of Ugutz. "Get some noise started, you junkers!"

The Ugutz nodded, and then rushed into the traffic. They began smashing windows and reaching into cars, turning on radios, starting car alarms, and causing people to start to scream. Oddly enough, all of the radios were playing the exact same industrial rock song.

Nick covered his ears, the amount of noise was painful.

"Perfect, what a cacophony!" The monster postured in triumph. "Now, fox, it's time for you to face two thousand decibels of PAIN!"

The beast opened its mouth, and began to inhale with alarming strength, a visible vortex of air travelling into its mouth. After a few seconds of this, everything went quiet. Nick uncovered his ears, and looked around.

People were still screaming, he could tell that, but nothing was coming out of their mouths, a fact they seemed to notice as well. "So that's what you do." Nick said, or tried to, as nothing came out of his mouth either.

"You ready to feel the noise, ZooRed!?"

The monster turned to him, and in a split second, unleashed a blast of sound directly at him. The blast hit him like a brick house made of trucks, instantly lifting him off his feet, and knocking him back at ridiculous speeds.

He felt his body hit something. And then again. And again. He kept hitting things as he flew back. He was being shot through buildings. It was like a bulldozer going through a shed, massive hole were being left behind as he traveled.

It felt like he was never going to land, but eventually he did.

His back slammed directly into a building, leaving a noticeable crack. He slid down to the ground, limp, and tried not to pass out.

Something he couldn't do.

Just as he closed his eyes, he saw something approaching, a creature in a black robe. It was too blurry to make out.

"Looks like my time's run out…" He said weakly, closing his eyes. The last thing he saw was the black figure reaching for him.

---

He opened his eyes, and looked around. It was pitch black, there was nothing anywhere.

"Is this hell?" He asked. "Did I finally kick the bucket?"

"I guess it was a matter of time." Nick said, letting out a weak laugh before beginning to walk through the void.

He had failed everyone, what a perfect way for a conman to go out. "Guess this is what they call wallowing in self-pity."

He felt something behind him.

It was hot, and making horrible noises. It was also towering behind him.

He quickly turned around to see what kind of hell beast was stalking him. It was horrifying.

It was himself.

"Sorry, but you're not dead yet, Nicky." The copy said. As he examined it, he noticed something off. It had much mangier fur, and its eyes were blood red.

"If I'm not dead, then where am I?" He asked, a bit frustrated.

"You're in your mind, Nicky boy." It explained in its slimy voice. "Not exactly that many places to be when you're nearly dead."

"I suppose you're some sort of mental manifestation of my guilt, anger, and sorrow?" Nick joked.

"Close, Nicholas, but I'm no mere thought in your head." It said, creeping up to him. "And I'm not just something you came up with, you're not nearly that special."

"Okay, then what are you?" Nick asked, backing away from the copy.

"I'm just something locked deep inside everyone." It mockingly explained.

"Okay, if you're in everyone, why are you talking to me?"

"Who knows, maybe I just want to taunt you for being a complete failure in everything you've ever done!" The copy began to laugh, a Nick gained a scowl.

He began to walk away from the laughing clone. "Go make fun of someone else, I've had enough of that my life." He dismissed.

"Good idea, maybe I'll go see your girlfriend!"

Nick stopped dead in his tracks. "Don't you dare do anything to…" He tried to say as he turned around, only to be greeted by another surprise.

Where the copy stood once was now a mangy clone of Judy, with pure blue eyes. "Surprised, Slick?"

He began to back away again. "How are you doing that?"

"Like I said, I'm a part of everyone." It explained, laughing. "Now, here's what I wanted to talk to you about."

It disappeared, and reappeared right next to Nick, arm wrapped around his shoulder, back as a copy of himself. "See, I know how much you want to, you know, save the city, and the only person in your life you've cared about, but I also know that you're not strong enough!"

"What? How am I not strong enough?" Nick asked, pushing the copy away.

"Well, you did just get almost killed by it!"

Nick growled, he did have a point.

"But I AM strong enough!" It said. "So here's the deal, I'll kill the monster for you, return your life to normal, BUT!"

It twirled its finger around, taunting the fox. Here comes the bad part of the deal.

"I want to use your body whenever you go into that super hero mode of yours. Sound like a deal?" It held out its paw, staring directly into Nick's eyes.

"No."

"What?"

"I said 'No'." Nick repeated. "That sounds like a horrible idea. I'll figure out how to beat it myself, I don't need help from a demon."

The copy lowered its paw, and growled. "Very well. Hope you enjoy getting fully killed."

The thing backed away into the darkness, slowly vanishing, one piece at a time, his eyes disappearing last.

"Okay, time to wake up." Nick said to himself.

He wasn't waking up.

"Wake up, Nick!" he yelled to himself. "WAKE UP!"

---

He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He was… somewhere, definitely not the nowhere in his head.

The question was where, though.

It was brown and ugly, and he seemed to be laying down on an awful green couch, which wasn't very comfortable. Considering the only light was an artificial lamp above him, he had to guess it was a basement.

He turned his head, seeing a large object covered by a tarp. It was definitely a TV, which meant this was definitely someone's house. He guessed he'd been kidnapped by some weirdo fan. He tried to sit up, but a jolt of pain shook through him. He could barely move.

Unable to move, in extreme pain, and trapped in somebody's basement. Wonderful.

He then heard a door open, most likely the door to the basement. "Hey, are you a kidnapper?" He yelled, trying to get the mammal's attention.

He heard the door slam.

He rested his head back on a pillow and sighed. It was silent for a good seven minutes before he heard the door open. This time, he also heard footsteps.

He looked up at the stairs in front of him, and a figure walked down. They were completely shrouded in a black cloak, which looked to be about three sizes too big for them. It walked, and nick noticed it also had a hunched stance.

"I see you're awake, Nicholas Wilde." It said calmly in a deep voice. A deep voice that sounded wrong, somehow.

It sounded like a voice changer.

"Who are you?" nick asked, as the figure helped him sit up straight. He also noticed it was wearing heavy gloves, and by the footsteps, boots of some kind as well.

"I wish I could tell you." The being said, glancing over to the corner of the room. "But I can tell you I am a friend. You would be dead if I wasn't there."

Nick looked at his arms. They were completely bandaged up. He felt bandages on his chest and legs as well.

"I fact, you should be able to move on your own by now." It explained. Nick tried to move, and still felt a pain, but managed to get up on his own.

"By now?" He asked, turning to the figure, who was at about his height. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days." The creature said.

"TWO DAYS!?" He yelled in a panic. "That… that monster's probably destroyed everything by now!"

"Not everything, it's just been smaller attacks. You still have time, Wilde" The creature turned back to the corner. "Of course he still has time, he's a ranger, right?"

"Yeah, I am." He answered.

"Oh, no, I wasn't talking to you." The creature solemnly explained. "I suppose you can't see him either?"

"Uh, nooo?" Nick said awkwardly, backing towards the stairs.

"Of course not." The thing sighed. "Great, now you're making me look even crazier than he probably already thought I was." It yelled at the corner, the voice changer becoming more obvious as it yelled.

Nick tiptoed towards the door, only to be stopped when the figure dashed in front of him at unnatural speeds. "You can't leave that way." It said.

"Why not?"

"Because it would…" It paused for a second. "…Endanger the plan and…" Another pause. "…Lead you to figuring out who I am too early." It turned to its side. "That correct? Alright. Besides, I had something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"What is it?" Nick asked, seriously weirded out by what was going on, but just going with it.

"I saw your little event during that first fight." It said, walking over to the couch. "It was terrible, but I knew it wasn't you doing it."

"Wait, have you been watching me?" Nick questioned.

The thing nodded.

"How long have you been doing it?"

"About half a month, but that's not the point." It said. "The point is, don't let that happen. You can't win all of your battles through brute force. Think up a strategy, use what you have, and what you know, to defeat the Speaker Banki and save everyone." It then walked over to the corner, and grabbed something from a box.

"I know you can do it, Nick."

For some reason, the fox felt a burst of confidence. There was still time, he could save Judy, and the city. He could be a real hero, on his own, for once in his life.

Suddenly, something struck him. "Wait, if I can't use the door, how do I get out of here?" He asked as the being walked closer.

"Like this." The creature said, pulling a hammer out and striking Nick on the head with it.

He was knocked out cold.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes, and was suddenly laying by a very familiar bridge. He rubbed his head, and got up.

"Better get to work."

---

"Let's get this concert started!" The monster yelled as it danced around on stage.

The Ugutz had set up a stage in the middle of a park, where a large number of animals gathered. The entire plan had taken two days to actually set up, but he was finally going to destroy the city for good.

"Hit it, boys!" He yelled, pointing his microphone towards a gathering crowd.

A group of Ugutz moved in to the crowd, each carrying a different instrument. One carrying a guitar rushed up to a nearby rhino, and whacked it over the back, causing the guitar to shatter.

"Great, this shirt was brand new." The rhino said, before kicking the Ugutz away.

"Hm, maybe the instrument weapons were a bad idea." Speaker Banki said to himself, as the Ugutz continued to try and harm the group of mammals with their instruments. "Maybe playing the instruments would have worked better."

He turned to the group of injured Ugutz. "Alright, I was trying to be thematic, but obviously this isn't working." He admitted. "Just attack them with your club things!"

The Ugutz pulled out their "club things" and began hitting the mammals in the crowd with them, which seemed to be going a lot better judging by all the screaming.

"Ah, much better." The speaker monster said to himself.

"Not so fast!"

The monster turned, spotting the heroic fox running towards the stage, holding a large cannon. He leaped onto a rhino, and aimed the cannon at the Ugutz, blasting a few nearby ones.

"What!?" It cried. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Can't kick me from the charts that easily!" Nick quipped, leaping onto a nearby lion and blasting a few more Ugutz.

"I think it's time for you to go back to the cutting room!" He spun his microphone around to the bladed side, and shot bolts of electricity at the fox.

The fox leaped off the lion, and into the air, deflecting the bolt of electricity with his blade. It flew towards another Ugutz, who began to short circuit when it hit.

Nick ran, and leaped onto the stage, sliding a bit before stopping. "We're going to finish this." he growled.

"The only thing finished is your musical career!" The monster quipped, shooting another bolt at the fox, who jumped out of the way.

He jumped up and struck one of the speakers on the monster's head, only for the hit to reverb back and cause the fox to fall to the ground. The monster kicked him backwards, and started to laugh.

"There's no way you can beat me!" It boasted, pounding at one of the speakers next to its head. "My speakers are reinforced, nothing can destroy them!"

"We'll see about that!" Nick yelled, pulling the Vickscannon out and aiming it at the monster. He pulled out the ZooTag for the cannon, and inserted it.

With the usual cry, it fired a massive fireball at the monster, who just stood there and took it. A burst of smoke was created form the blast, which the monster quickly cleared, letting out a fake cough.

"Oooh, ow. That really hurt." It deadpanned.

The cannon fell to the fox's side as he tried to gape at how it hadn't done anything.

"Face it, Nicky, you can't do anything without the bunny." The voice in his head began to taunt him. "And she left you, just like everyone else you've cared about. Only this time, it's your fault."

He pounded at his head, trying to get the voice to shut up. "Shut up!" He muttered repeatedly.

"Let me in, I can fix this guy up real good." The voice said.

He looked up, seeing the monster laughing at him. He felt like the weight of the world was collapsing on him. It looks like he didn't have a choice, he need to let this thing out.

But then he noticed something.

Sparks, sparks popping on the monster's shoulder armor. It apparently didn't notice, since the speaker seemed very proud of itself.

"That's it!" Nick said to himself. "Sorry, creepy voice in my head, I've got this figured out."

He pulled out a golden ZooTag, and stuck it in the Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!
ROCK N ROLL
DROP N ROLL!
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paw with a burst of fire. He immediately felt its weight, as his arm dropped and the blade clanged against the stage floor.

He had forgotten how heavy the dang thing was.

"What in Machine World is that thing!?" The speaker monster asked, baffled.

"It's a guitar."

He rushed at the monster, the sword leaving a trail of sparks as he dragged it. With all his strength, he swung it upwards, directly into the monster's shoulder armor and ear speakers. The force of the sword unwillingly dragged the fox upwards as well.

The monster screamed as his armor and ear exploded, rendering them completely useless. "My unbreakable reinforcements!" It yelled. "They've been broken!"

In mid air, Nick began to feel the sword tilt, meaning gravity was a natural force in the universe once again. It crashed into the stage, ledging itself in the fake wood, the fox gripping the handle with all of his limbs.

He looked over at the monster, its ear only hanging on by a loose spring, which it tried to push back in. It was distracted, and Nick was ready to get to step two of his plan. He leaped off the sword, onto the monster's head, and then hopped down behind it.

He turned around and saw it, the red symbol that had been on all of these monsters. He quickly drew his sword, and swung it. The blade flew off the hilt, connected to a thin wire, and plunged directly into the middle of the symbol.

The monster shrieked in even more pain, the volume of it loud enough to pierce eardrums. Red mist began to emerg from the wound he created, much like on the wolf monster the week prior.

He pulled the sword back, it near instantly retreating back to the monster turned around, and shot a bolt from its microphone spear. The fox ducked out of the way, and in between the monster's legs. He leaped up and pulled the much larger sword from the stage's floor, and dragged it off into the field.

"It's time for your curtain call!" Nick said, as he began to spin the sword around in a circle. The centrifugal force of the blade kept him spinning for a few seconds. It began to glow a burning red, which meant it was ready.

He quickly stopped spinning, and struck the blade clean across the monster and the stage that were a few yards away. The faint image of the slice appeared on both the monster and his stage, a faint red line glowing on them.

"Ashes to ashes, bank to Banki!" It cried out in pain, it and the stage exploding into a massive ball of fire at the same time.

A speaker flew out of the massive fireball, and crashed onto the greenery, also exploding. "Probably should've stopped that." Nick muttered to himself.

The flames cleared, leaving only a small red badge laying on the burned remnants of the stage. Nick quickly ran over to it, trying to grab it before it could do anything, but a shock hit him and knocked him away.

The badge quickly rose into the air, and formed the monster, completely renewed, on the horizon of the city.

"Oh, I suppose I can do an encore!" It yelled, before quickly realizing something. It patted its ear, and then its shoulder. "Hey look at that, completely restored! Now I can destroy this place much faster."

Nick placed his gloved hand on his forehead. He hadn't considered the renewal aspect of the giant form.

Aw, pumpernickel.

---

She had felt like she was laying in this field for years.

It was a marvel, tall, lush grass, expanding out as far as the eye could possibly see. The sun shone down on her as she relaxed. The bunny didn't know where she was, exactly, but she didn't care. It was too peaceful to leave.

The ground began to shake, knocking Judy from her gaze into the cloudless sky. She sat up, and looked around. The ground shook once again, this time something noticeable happening along with it. The grass began to die, turning from a bright green to a hellish charcoal black, before it all turned to dust.

The bunny stood up as this happened, revealing the charred earth beneath her. It was hard as a rock, nothing like it had been only a few moments ago. Then she heard the footsteps. Her heart began to pound, she was in danger.

She ran, the footsteps managing to keep up with her. Judy didn't look back as she ran as fast as her legs could possibly carry her. A light shone on her, instantly causing her to become exhausted, and fell to the ground. The footsteps stopped.

She moved onto her back, and looked into the light. It was the sun and the moon, larger than they should ever be, and moving closer together in the sky. She felt compelled to look into them, despite it hurting her eyes.

The two celestial bodies moved together, fusing together into an eclipse. The light of it nearly blinded the rabbit, but she continued to stare into it.

And as soon as the eclipse had formed, it had disappeared.

Not only had the eclipse disappeared, but everything else had as well. The rabbit was now laying down in a black void. Then she heard a voice, humming a slow tune, gradually moving closer.

She bolted up, but couldn't move her legs. The humming continued, and eventually stopped with an eerie laugh. Then, everything became bright again, light shining from below her feet.

The ground had turned a solid red, and visibly began to bubble. She felt herself plunge into the liquid, and struggled to stay afloat, it felt like something was pulling her downwards. The liquid was burning her, she could feel it, but nothing visible was happening.

With a final struggle, she was pulled under, unable to let out a scream.

---

She jolted awake, and looked around. She was in a hospital room. Clean, bare, white.

"Judy!?" A voice said to her side.

She turned and saw her parents. She jumped out of bed, and gave them both a big hug. "What happened to me?" She asked, both relieved, and confused.

"You were knocked out for three days, hun." Bonnie told her.

She let out a squeak. "Three days!?" She grabbed her head in a panic. There was a monster running around, and she was knocked out. "Where's Nick!?"

He father shrugged. "He ran off a few days ago, not really sure where he went." He explained.

"That dumb fox..." She muttered, facepawing. "He's probably gotten himself killed by now."

"What?"

"Never mind." She said quickly. "I need to go find him."

"But you... you just woke up!" Her mother said, worried. "What if you got hurt, or..."

Judy started hopping up and down. "See? Not hurt!" She said cheerfully.

She started to run for the door, only for a sudden quake to strike the building. A rather tacky painting on the wall fell, and a vase full of flowers fell off a desk next to her bed.

"What in the sam hill was that?" Stu asked, regaining his balance.

"Okay, now I REALLY need to go!" She yelled, dashing out the door and down the hospital hall.

She ran as fast as she could to the exit, nearly getting stepped on a few times. She crashed through the double doors of the building, and looked around. She saw the monster, the one from the concert, massive in the outskirts of the city. It was slowly moving in.

"Not good, not good!" She muttered in a panic. She looked at her wrist, the Zoolizer wasn't there. "Definitely not good."

She dashed off again, this time heading towards the apartment

---

Nick looked at the two ZooTags in his hands, his heart beating like a drum.

"Okay, can I actually get two of these guys out here on my own, or do I need to be combined to do that?" He wondered to himself, before looking up at the slowly approaching monster.

He then heard the sounds of a motorcycle, and turned to see a very familiar blue bike speeding towards him.

"Oh thank god."

The bike skidded to a halt, and the bunny rider climbed down, clearly out of breath.

"Blue, I'm so happy you're not dead!" The fox yelled, scooping the rabbit up into a hug, trying not to cry. "I'm so happy..."

"Can't... breath..." She wheezed as the fox squeezed her.

He quickly dropped her to the ground. "Whoops, sorry about that." he then realized something. "Hey, you didn't have your Zoolizer when you were at the hospital, how did you..."

She gave him a glare, and the fox began to laugh. "Did you seriously run all the way from the hospital to the apartment?" He guffawed. "Man, I knew you bunnies were good runners, but that's ridiculous!"

"I think my running habits are the least important thing right now." She panted between breaths.

Red looked back at the monster. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He pulled out the ZooKitsune ZooTag. "You ready to do this?"

"Yeah, just..." She gasped. "Gimme a sec." She took a deep breath, and then let it out. "Alright, now I'm ready."

"Good, because that over sized karaoke machine's already in the city."

"Oh scrat!" She let out, quickly slipping the ZooTag into the Zoolizer. Red quickly followed up, and the two leaped into the cockpits.

The robots dashed towards the monster, who was already in the city boundaries, and crashed into it, knocking it back out of the city. The two robots used the crash to rebound to two different buildings, and then leaped back into the air, unfolding to combine into ZooRobo.

The giant robot crashed into the ground as the speaker monster got up. "Agh, you really know how to ruin a show!" It yelled, shooting a bolt of electricity from its microphone.

The robot quickly pulled out its sword, and slashed into the bolt, destroying it. "Guess you could call us professional showstoppers!" Blue yelled out.

"Oh great, two's even worse than one!" It yelled, realizing that a second ranger had joined in. "Doesn't matter, your fox friend only managed to beat me through pure luck! "I'm completely invincible now!"

Swiftly, ZooRobo jumped towards the monster, and slashed it with its sword. In a shower of sparks, the monster was knocked back to the ground. It felt the speakers on its chest, and realized they had been destroyed.

"Augh, how'd you do that!?" It yelled as it got up.

"Honestly, if I could beat you on your own, then the two of us together can take you down easily." Red mocked, the monster growing angrier.

"And you know what's even worse than two?" Blue asked, rhetorically. She pulled out the golden ZooTag. "THREE!"

She placed it into the slot in the control panel. ZooBison phased into existence right next to them, and leaped into the air, unfolding and combing with the other two robots.

"ZOOROBO, BISON MODE!" A voice cried out from the mech.

The robot spun its guns around, and aimed them at the monster's speaker ears. It fired, causing them to pop off in an explosion.

The monster yelped in pain, and then attempted to strike the robot with its spear. ZooRobot blocked it off with one of its guns, and fired the other directly into the monster's face. The monster dropped its spear due to the pain, and clutched at its face with both hands.

"Ugh, this is just getting pathetic." Red sighed. "I can't believe we both nearly died to this guy."

"Haha, yeah wait what?"

"I'll tell you later, let's just finish this guy off."

The robot placed both of its guns together, energy building up between them.

"BISON RAMMING SHOT!"

The robot fired, the blast forming into the head of a bull, which charged directly through the monster. It failed around as it sparked and teetered over.

"This is the end, my friends!" It yelled, falling over and exploding.

"Never mess with a duet!" Blue yelled triumphantly.

---

"So, taking off the Zoolizers, fun in practice, horrifyingly dangerous in execution." Nick said as he closed the apartment door behind him.

"No kidding, we both nearly died." Judy replied back, twisting at the device on her wrist.

"So, how are all the other victims doing?" The fox asked, walking over to the kitchen to set up the coffee maker.

"They all recovered, amazingly enough." Judy explained. "It looks like when we defeated the monster, everything went back to normal!"

"Well, isn't that just the best news of the day."

"So, Nick." Judy said, sitting on the couch. "Was that hug when I showed up genuine, or...?"

Nick felt his heart begin to beat again. Luckily Judy wasn't looking at his face, or she would've noticed it had turned a bit redder. "Well, I'm not saying it was, but..."

"I knew it." She whispered to herself. "I think we need to talk about some stuff later."

"Great idea!" He yelled, seeing an opportune moment to change the subject. He walked over to the couch, and leaned on its back. "How about I tell you the weird thing that happened to me today?"

"What, you mean besides almost dying?"

"Please, I've almost died like..." He counted on his digits. "More times than I have fingers."

Judy gave him a glare.

"I'll tell you about my run in with the Sahara mafia later," He said. "Let me tell you what I ran into after I nearly died. I was kidnapped by some... thing, and it helped me heal up after two days of being knocked out."

"Something, not someone?" She wondered.

"Couldn't tell what it was, it was wearing a cloak. Seemed nice, though." There was a ding from the kitchen. "Ah, coffee's ready." He walked over, and picked up the cup, taking a sip. "Man, haven't had a good cappuccino in three days."

"Was there anything else about this guy?" Judy asked, trying to get Nick to continue.

"Oh yeah, he kept talking to something." He said after another long sip. "Probably something in his head."

"Okay, so you got kidnapped by a crazy mammal." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I said nice, not mentally stable."

"That reminds me, I ALSO had something weird happen when I was nearly dead!" Judy announced. "It was a weird dream."

"Oh, a weird dream, how unique." The fox said sarcastically, taking another sip from his coffee.

"No, there was something... meaningful about it." She said quietly. "You know how our call signs are the Sun and the Moon?"

He nodded, taking another sip.

"Well the sun and moon were there, and they..." She clasped her paws together. "They combined into an eclipse." She then splayed her hands out. "And then there was nothing. Absolute darkness."

"It was just a dream, it probably doesn't mean anything, Carrots."

"Then! Then there was some kind of horrible red, burning liquid." She continued, ignoring the fox. "And I started drowning in it, something was pulling me down."

"So, there was darkness, then there was lava." He said. "I don't really see anything in that."

"There was also something there with me."

The fox's eyes widened a bit as he continued drinking the coffee.

"It had a horrible laugh, sounded like if a snake could talk."

Nick sputtered, spitting the coffee back into his cup. Judy turned after hearing him choke. "You okay?" She asked.

"Peh, yeah, just..." He coughed a bit. "Just remembered a really funny joke!"

Judy rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed now, I'd like to get some real sleep after three days."

Nick walked over to the sink and dumped the rest of his coffee in. "It's a bit early, but do whatever you want, Fluff." He said, reaching for another glass to fill with water.

He heard her bedroom door shut, and then something else. A laugh. A laugh like a snake.

"Good thing you didn't tell her about me, Nicky boy." The voice in his head said. "I'd love to see how surprised both of you are next time."

"There won't be a next time, whatever you are." Nick said, filling the glass with tap water.

"The name's Savage, by the way." The voice continued. "And trust me, I'll be here for quite a while..."

"Whatever you say, Jack." Nick said quietly, taking a sip from his glass.

He looked down at the Zoolizer, and then walked over to the table in the sitting room. He took it off and placed it down. It had suddenly hit him how tired he was as well, so he walked off to bed.

The sleep was fantastic.

---

"The night sky sure is wonderful, huh?"

"I suppose." Said the white and black figure as it stared into the sky. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I need to talk to you about them." The silver figure said, walking across the roof and towards the other being's red gaze. "I feel like I need to join them, soon."

"You can't." The being said, turning away from the other's glinting suit. "When the time comes, then you can."

"I can still help them, right?" It asked. "As long as I don't reveal my identity."

The white figure grunted.

"It's like a game, I know how much you like those!" The silver being continued, jabbing its elbow into the other creature's back.

"Very well." The white and black creature sighed. "But if you mess up, and they figure out who you are before the time comes, then I'll have to find someone else to use your powers."

"Deal."

"Enthusiastic, aren't we?"

"Well," The silver being started. "You said this was to 'cleanse your sins', so I want to get started on that right away."

"So, you just want me gone quickly."

"That's a reason, I suppose."

The silver being sat on the roof, and continued looking up at the stars. "What do stars remind you of?" It asked. "They remind me of when I was little."

"The stars?" The white creature said, its red stare turning upwards.

"They remind me of when I died."

The silver being turned around, prepared to ask another question, only to realize the other figure had disappeared.

"Sorry for asking, doctor."

---

Here we are, the end of the first arc, and having broken the big 100,000 word milestone.

A good chunk of this episode is set up for later stuff, and trust me, none of you know what I'm planning on doing. Espcially when we get to the later stuff, that's gonna get wild, without an E.

The entire idea behind Savage, by the way, was to see if I could make Snide from Dino Charge into more of an actual character. Turns out he's ending up a lot more like Beetlejuice.

But yeah, first arc ends with a cliffhanger for something that should come off as pretty obvious if you know the formula to Sentai. In fact, you could've probably seen it coming back in episode 4!

Next time, romance (And ninja) is in the air.