Episode 16 – Eclipse of the Hearts
"Please, let me go!" The mole pleaded as the monster lifted him up.
"Fat chance." Sambash responded. "I need someone like you." In his other hand, he held up a small token, resembling a beetle. He jabbed the object into the mole's chest, and dropped him to the ground.
The mole began to writhe and struggle on the ground, as green slime seemed to appear from its skin. The slime eventually completely covered the mole completely, and soon hardened and expanded into a hideously large egg.
"That's nasty." Sambash said as the egg began to crack open. With a sickening squelch, the egg burst open, showering the nearby area in green goo, and revealing a new monster.
It groaned as it stretched out. It resembled an insect, specifically a bee, with an armored torso, and two stinger-like pieces of armor hanging from its arms, each armed with a stinger. Around its waist hung a skirt of leather, like the end of a jacket, with one piece in the back resembling an abdomen, and another, though smaller, piece in the front. Its legs were full on clad in leather, complete with leather boots. Its face had a permanent toothy scowl, and two antenna protruded out of its cheeks. Around its neck were two bulbous, black pieces, which were connected to two sharp bits facing forward. The overall look of the creature's head and neck armor made it look like a wasp's head. Both a pair of legs, and a pair of rather small wings protruded from its back as well.
It looked at Sambash. "Yo, boss, how's it going?" He greeted.
"We don't have time for chitchat, Neikaa." Sambash replied, sounding a bit frustrated. "You have a mission to do."
"A mission?" Neikaa said, intrigued. "From the captain?"
"No, from me!" Sambash yelled. "I need you to create a massive earthquake, turn this city into a pile of rubble!"
"Ooh, I like that plan!" The bee monster said, rubbing his hands together. "But if we're going to be making a powerful earthquake, we need to find good weak spots!"
"And whose job is that!?" Sambash yelled.
"Well, mine, I guess?"
"Correct, buzzhead." He responded.
"You're a lot angrier than usual." Neikaa pointed out. "And that's saying something."
"Listen, if we botch this, I'm probably going to be killed again." Sambash explained. "I'm feeling very stressed."
"Then I promise I won't fail, boss!" Neikaa assured, saluting. "I'll head for the first weak spot right now!" With that, the bee pulled out a rapier, which let off a slight glow. His tiny wings began flapping rapidly, lifting the bee monster into the air. It quickly zoomed off, in between the buildings surrounding them.
"I hope you don't muck this up again, Neikaa." Sambash said to himself. He thought for a second. "Maybe I should help him if the Zoorangers show up, that'll be fun at least."
He started to laugh, and hopped on his motorcycle, flying off into the air.
Neikaa zoomed through the city, looking for the perfect spot to plant an earthquake needle. He landed in a park, and looked around, his head twitching. This would be a perfect spot. The only problem is that there were animals here, staring at him in fear. He needed to get rid of them.
He flew up into the air again, and zoomed down into the face of a nearby elephant. "Boo!" He shouted. The elephant screeched, and ran off. This caused a chain reaction, causing everyone else to clear out of the park.
"Yeah, ya better run!" Neikaa shouted. "Not that you have anywhere to run too!" He flew high into the air, and rubbed the rapier, causing it glow, and extend to ridiculous proportions. The bee quickly twisted it around, and jabbed it into the middle of the park, the blade cutting right through the ground.
He flew back to admire his work. It had been awhile, maybe he should test if this still worked. He flew back a bit, and aimed one of his stingers at the blade. He fired a blast from it, causing the needle to begin shaking. He flew down to get a better look at the ground.
Surrounding the blade were now small, jagged cuts in the ground, a small tremor. The needle was working perfectly.
"You really need to apologize." Judy said as they walked into the station. "I don't think you understand how much that hurt him."
"Oh, I know." Nick said. "I just really do not care."
"Well, I hate to inform you, but we're going to be working with him for quite a while!" She said, sounding a bit cheerful, but also highly sarcastic and frustrated. "So if you don't apologize to him, then you'll be threatening the city." Her tone suddenly turned dark.
"Yeah, no." Nick said, nonchalantly. "At least, not until he can prove he's responsible enough for this job."
"I don't think you're responsible enough for this job…" Judy muttered to herself.
She looked over, spotting Wolford approaching them. She gritted her teeth, this was not going to be good. He cleared his throat, catching their attention.
"So, hey," He started, looking at Judy. "I was wondering if, maybe, you still wanted to go to the pub for that team building exercise." He asked.
The fox laughed. "No way, Wolfsbane, I got better things to do."
"I wasn't asking you, Wilde." He said flatly. "Obviously you have better stuff to do, you are leader, which means you'll actually have to think for once in your life. Takes a lot of effort." The fox glared at him as he gained a smug grin. "Since me and Judy are just extra members, we could obviously go for the team building exercise without you."
"I'm sorry, Max, but that's something we should all do." Judy stated. "It wouldn't be a team building exercise without the whole team, y'know?"
"Alright, I guess we just won't do it." Max said. "Oh well."
Judy's ears drooped as the wolf continued towards the bull pen. "C'mon, Carrots, we should probably go before we get yelled at by Bogo. Again." Nick suggested.
The fox headed off as well. The rabbit standing there for a second, thumping her foot rapidly. She stopped, and smirked. She had a really brilliant plan to get the two to maybe tolerate each other. She just had to hope Bogo would comply.
She rushed into the bull pen after the fox, the two climbing up onto their seat. Bogo stormed in. "Alright, first things first," He sounded. "Monster reports, Officers Hopps and Wilde."
Judy sighed in relief. Not at the monster attack, which was a bit odd, but at them being giving duties first.
"Last night, and a bit earlier, we got reports of a monster harassing mammals in Savannah Square, and later on, in Tundra Town." He explained. "It left behind something interesting, maybe you two could figure it out."
"Sir!" Judy sounded. "I'd like to make a request!"
Bogo's eyebrow raised.
"Specifically, I'd like to request we get some extra help." She said, trying not to sound horribly anxious. "I want Officer Wolford to accompany us." The fox glared at her, and the wolf tilted his head in confusion.
"Well…" Bogo started, thinking. "Last time you teamed up to deal with an odd case it went well, and I only had him on traffic duty…" He snorted. There was silence.
"Sir," Sounded Delgato, Wolford's partner. "I can handle traffic duty myself." He stated. Wolford looked at him surprised.
"Very well." Bogo said. "Officers Hopps, Wilde, AND Wolford, you will be going to Tundra Town to investigate."
"I object!" Nick wanted to say, but he knew that once Bogo had made his mind, it was made for good. All he could do was go along with it, and it sucked.
After all the other assignments were handed out, the three headed out. "That was really cool, Judy." Max said.
"No problem!" She replied. "The team being all together will make fighting the monster a whole lot easier."
"Yeah. Easier." Nick scoffed.
They got into the car, and drove off towards Tundra Town.
"That's the second largest needle I've ever seen." Nick said, looking up at the massive needle, stuck into the snow in the middle of a Tundra Town park.
"What was the first?" Judy asked, genuinely curious.
"The needle they used when I got my shots." He finished with a grin. She sighed, of course it was a joke.
"What do you think it's here for?" Wolford asked, walking up to it.
"Maybe it's the monster's calling card?" Judy suggested.
"So, what do you think we're dealing with this time?" Nick asked. "Mad doctor that's actually a walking syringe?"
"That sounds amazing." Wolford said, not catching the sarcasm.
"I feel like a doctor monster would go around injecting MAMMALS, not the earth." Judy said. "And besides, the needle isn't really a syringe."
"You're right." Nick said, looking up. "Probably an acupuncture monster."
"Well," Wolford sounded. "There's only one way to find out!"
"What?"
Wolford then delivered a swift kick to the needle, causing it to wobble around, emitting a horrible, high pitched noise.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Nick yelled, pulling his ears down. Judy was in even more pain than him, due to her far more sensitive ears.
"I THOUGHT SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN IF I HIT IT!" Max yelled back. "SO I KICKED IT AND SOMETHING HAPPENED!"
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" A fourth voice yelled from above. They looked up, seeing the monster, resembling a bee, zigzag through the air towards the needle. He grabbed it with one of his hands, causing the needle, and the noise, to stop. "Do you know how dumb that was, vertebrae!?"
"Um, very dumb?" Max guessed as the monster landed.
"Yes, it was very dumb!" The monster reiterated. "If that had kept going, you couldn't destroyed the whole planet!"
"How?" He asked.
"The needle would've caused a massive vibration that would result in the earth falling to bits!" The bee explained. "I just want to destroy the city, not the planet!"
"How are you gonna do that, buzzboy?" Nick asked, stepping forward.
The monster scoffed. "Why should I tell you?"
Max quickly ran over to the other two, them getting into a line. "Because we're the Zoorangers!" They pressed the buttons on their Zoolizers, and transformed.
"Ah, polistes." The bee monster said. "Probably should've guessed that."
The three pulled out their weapons, while Neikaa pulled out his rapier, and they rushed at each other. Red rushed up first, clashing blades with the bee, before Silver leaped in and delivered a blow to the monster's side, knocking him away. Blue finished by blasting Neikaa back with a few shots from her Rabblasters.
The monster stumbled back, before stick its arms out and firing a flurry of blasts from its stingers at the three. The ground lit up, snow blasting upwards and sparks flying. The three rangers stumbled forward a bit, in pain.
"I thought," Red started, groaning a bit in pain. "Bees died after they stung someone!"
"I'm a wasp, idiot!"
He drew his rapier again, and rushed at them, striking and knocking back the rangers with three quick strikes. Blue tumbled back through the snow, but got to her feet,, and quickly dashed at the monster with her daggers. The two clashed, the rabbit managing to block every strike the monster attempted, before leaping up and jabbing him in the gut.
"Ow, that stung!" He let out.
"This is gonna sting even more!" Red yelled, pulling out the Vickscannon. He fired, the monster being launched back as the fireball hit him and exploded.
The wasp got up, only to see Silver heading for him. "Let's see how you deal with a fellow swords master!" He shouted, swinging his blade at the monster, who continued to block each swipe.
Red kept the cannon pointed at the monster. "Pup, get out of the way!" He shouted to Silver.
"No, I've almost got him!" Silver shouted back.
"Alright then." The fox whispered, readying the cannon. He fired. Neikaa noticed immediately, and wrapped the wolf into a grip, using him as shield to block the blast. In an explosion, the monster stepped back, letting Silver fall to his knees.
Red grimaced a bit. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blue shouted.
"He was in the way!" Red excused, trying not to sound as guilty as he felt.
Silver got up, and pushed the fox backwards. "You did that on purpose!" He accused.
"So what if I did!?"
"I don't have time for this." Neikaa said to himself, pulling out a handful of golden coins. "I have a job to do!"
He threw the coins into the air, and as they came down they transformed into a large group of Yartots. "Distract them!" The bee yelled, motioning towards the three arguing rangers. The pirates grunted in confirmation, Neikaa quickly taking to the skies, and flying off.
Blue spotted the pirate monsters approaching them, and tugged at Red's sleeve. "Uh, guys?" She said.
"Well, that teaches you to be reckless!" Red yelled.
"Me, reckless!?" Silver yelled back. "You're the one who shot me without thinking!"
"Guys!"
"WHAT!?" They yelled, turning to her.
"WATCH OUT!"
She pushed them out of the way as one of the Yartots swung its sword, barely missing them. Blue pulled out her blasters, and quickly shot the monster down, reducing it to orange dust. "Seriously, this is what happens when you fight!" She said. "We start getting our rear's kicked!"
"He's the one who started it." Red said, sounding a bit like a petulant child.
"Real mature, leader." Silver snarked. The fox gave him a glare.
Blue was shaking angry at this point. They were in the middle of a fight, and they were still doing this! It was aggravating her. "Alright, you two want to argue?" She started. "Go argue! I don't need two bickering babies to deal with these guys!"
She ran up to the group of pirates, and leaped into the air, summoning the Buster Boxers. She came down to the ground with a powerful punch, launching the Yartots and the snow they were standing on away.
She turned to a group of the dazed pirates, and punched her gloves together. She ran up, and delivered a powerful punch to one of their heads, instantly vaporizing it. "DUMB FOX!" She yelled, before turning to another one, who dropped its sword in fear. She let loose another punch, causing an energy blast to fly into the pirate, making it explode. "STUPID WOLF!" She continued.
This continued, the rabbit yelling obscenities as she slaughtered the Yartots effortlessly. "Is she usually this… scary?" Silver asked, the two watching on in fear as she continued to insult them.
"Not usually." Red answered.
Soon, the monsters were all wiped out, and the gloves disappeared from her paws. "I did this so we could try to work together as a team!" She yelled, stomping up to them. "AND YOU'RE STILL ARGUING!"
"Carrots-" Red tried to say, before being shushed by the rabbit.
"But-" Silver tried to let out.
"DON'T TALK!" She yelled. "I need to think."
There were a few minutes of silence, the two remaining silent as the rabbit paced back and forth through the snow.
"Alright, so," Blue eventually said, stopping. "This needle is obviously some sort of… vibration… thing, and there was another planted in Savanna Square, so that means he's planting them all around the city for some purpose." She put her paw to her chin, in thought. "So, if I were to guess, he'd be going to… Sahara Square next!" She deduced, "C'mon, let's go!"
Blue pulled out a blue ZooTag, and slipped it into her Zoolizer. The Usagider appeared in front of her, and she hopped on. She glanced at the two other rangers. "Are you coming?" She asked.
"I kind of don't have any way to get there." Silver told her.
"That's alright!" She said. "You can ride shotgun."
"Oh, thanks-" He started, stepping towards the bike, only to be interrupted.
"You can ride shotgun with Nick." His ears drooped down.
"Blue, seriously?" Red started. "Even I know that's a bad idea."
From behind her mask her eyes seemed to glow a terrifying red as she glared at him. He felt his heart jump.
"And by bad idea I mean great idea c'mon let's go!"
They skidded their bikes into the middle of a Sahara Square plaza, face to face with another massive needle. It seems it had just been planted, as Neikaa was still standing around, admiring it.
As they skidded to a halt, sand spat onto the bee, alerting him to their arrival. He turned around to see them getting off the bikes, Silver sat on the back of the red bike. "I'd make a joke about you being a bad driver, but you really aren't." Silver admitted as he got off.
"Oh, uh, thanks." Red said.
"Oh great," The bee bemoaned. "I thought you guys were idiots, how'd you figure this out?"
"They might be idiots," Blue started. "But I'm not! And it was pretty easy to figure out."
"Whatever." Neikaa said. "Even if you manage to follow me around the whole city, you still won't be able to stop me from creating an earthquake massive enough to destroy the whole city!"
"Wait, that's your plan?" Red said, a bit confused. "What does a bee have to do with earthquakes?" He asked.
"How should I know!?" He yelled. "I'm just a bee themed space alien!" He put up his arms, preparing his stingers. "Time for round two!"
He rushed at them, swinging his stinger arms around. The three leaped out of the way, as the monster hit the bikes, getting the stingers stuck into them. All three rangers prepared their long ranged weapons, Silver spinning the guard to Sun Mode.
They fired at the same time, hitting the monster in the back, a shower of explosions and sparks emitting from it. The bee let out a groan of pain, before spinning around, bikes still stuck to the stingers. It lifted them up into the air, causing the rangers to step back in surprise. He quickly swung both of his arms, tossing the bikes towards them. The rangers leaped out of the way again as the bikes hit the ground, exploding.
"Great, that bike's been destroyed two days in a row." Red lamented.
"I really enjoy not having to take them in for repairs." Blue said, getting up and drawing her daggers. The monster puleld out its rapier, and the two dashed at each other, blades clashing. Blue managed to block off a number of hits, and jab the monster in the legs a few times.
"Ow, that stings!" It yelled, stepping back. "But you know what'll really sting?" He asked. Quickly knocking the daggers out of her paws. "My secret technique!"
He quickly slashed downwards, and then up diagonally right, then diagonally left, diagonally right again, and then diagonally left for the final strike. Each strike left a glowing line, making the outline of a large, angular B.
The floating letter exploded, and knocked Blue backwards. "Just call me 'Bee Zorro!'" Neikaa said triumphantly, before pausing for a second. "Bee… Bee Zorro… Beezorro… whatever!"
"Judy!" Red yelled, running up to his dirt covered partner. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I just…" She said weakly. "I just need a rest. Nick, Max, please finish him."
He stood up, and pulled out his blade. "Alright, buzzer, let's finish this."
Silver stepped up next to him, placing a paw on his shoulder to stop him from rushing forward. "Hold it there, leader," He said. "We need a plan in order to do this!"
"You want a plan?" Red said. "Here's a plan, GET HIM!" He broke from the wolf's paw, and rushed at the monster.
"THAT'S NOT A PLAN!"
"I'LL COME UP WITH SOMETHING EVENTUALLY!" Red yelled back, continuing to rush towards the monster.
Neikaa scoffed. They quickly locked blades, seemingly at even skills. Silver quickly rushed up to his side, and attempted to strike. However, the bee pulled out another rapier, and began effortlessly blocking both the ranger's strikes.
"Here's a tip!" He said, jabbing the rapiers into their chests, launching them backwards. "And now here's some advice, never announce your reckless plans before attacking!" Yellow energy glowed through the rapiers, and he slashed them forward, releasing energy slashes towards them. They hit, creating massive explosions of sand around them.
They cleared their eyes as the sand fell back to the ground, and the monster had simply vanished. "Damn it!" Red yelled, throwing his sword to the ground. "You let him get away!"
"Me!?" Silver said, surprised and insulted. "You're the one who announced your non-plan!" He yelled back. "I still have no idea why you're the leader, you're a complete dunce!"
"I'd like to see you come up with something better!"
"You wanna see me?" Silver said. "Alright, how bout we finish that duel from yesterday?"
"You're on!" Red stepped forward, and picked up his blade. "No interruptions, just you and me! Whoever wins is the leader!"
Silver let out a growl, and the two quickly locked blades, striking at each other. After a few clashes, Silver managed to hit Red in the gut with a sneaky kick, knocking him back. "Oh, that's how you want to do it, huh?" Red quickly swung his sword, causing the blade to fly off of its hilt, attached to a cord. The blade flew towards Silver, who blocked it.
Red pulled the hilt upwards, causing the blade to fly back up into the air. He quickly slashed it wildly, causing the blade to follow suit. Silver could only block the slashes for so long, before the slashes penetrated his defense, causing him to shower with sparks.
"Hah, guess you can't handle the Foxfire Blade's secret ability!" He joked. "Master swordsman by tail."
Silently, Silver spun the guard of his sword.
"SHINE SHINE MOON"
His sword glowed with blue energy, as he quickly struck forward with it, the energy lashing out and jabbing into the ground in front of Red. The fox gulped, and quickly leaped off, as the wolf continued to jab forward with the laser sword.
The blade cleaved holes into the ground as the fox ran away. "Hey, are you trying to get me killed!?" Red yelled, leaping out of the way of another strike. "Because that's not what a duel is!"
"Well, if you're dead, you be causing any more problems will you!?" Silver yelled, quickly going form the jabs to a a whipping motion, knocking red in the face a few times.
"You do realize that's worse, right!?"
"I don't really care!" Silver yelled back. "I've done nothing but try to be nice to you, and you've responded with nothing but arrogance and insults, you aren't a good leader so why should we even keep you around!?"
The fox couldn't really come up with an answer. For one, he was using basically everything he had to dodge each strike Silver was making, and for two, he was kind of right. The fox was far too prideful to announce his mistakes, which had become a bit of a problem his entire life.
"Well, this all started because you showed up!" Red finally answered, rushing forward, and knocking Silver back with a sword slice. "If you hadn't shown up, we'd have beaten this monster by now!"
"Yeah right!" Silver retorted, spinning his guard to Sun Mode. He flung a fireball forward from the sword. "If I wasn't here, that monkey thing would've killed you both!"
Red blocked the fireball with his sword, and the two rushed forward, clashing once again. They continued struggling, completely even in their strength.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!?"
They turned to see Blue, who had woken up. "Seriously!?" She said. "ANOTHER duel!? What are you, children!?"
"Well, he started it." Silver said,, as they lowered their blades.
"You are." She said, baffled. "You're actual children."
The fox tried to say something, but was interrupted. "No talking." The rabbit snapped. "I have the perfect idea to get you two from fighting." She said.
"From now on, I'M the leader!"
"What!?" The other two let out.
"I don't want to sound rude," Silver started, a bit nervous. "But I don't think you can be leader…"
"Why?" She snapped again. "Because I'm a girl?"
"No, because…" He tried to find the right words, this was horrifically awkward. "It's because you're… not… red?"
"Seriously, is leader a coloring thing?" She said, baffled. "Who cares? I'm the only one of us three that has any sense of responsibility."
The two rubbed the back of their heads. It wasn't really that hard to admit. Red thought about how they basically only survived the Night Howler case was because of her. "I think…" Red started. "I think that's a wonderful idea."
"Thank you." She said to the fox. "What do you think, Max?"
"It's… alright, sure." He said. "People complain about red always being the leader anyway."
"Then it's settled!" She said cheerfully. "I'm the leader, you follow what I say, and right now, we have to head to the Rainforest District."
"That's where the bee's headed next?" Red assumed.
"Probably. If he plants those vibration needles in the four main sections, it'll probably destroy the city." She explained. "We need to stop him before that can happen."
They nodded, and prepared their bikes. Or at least, tried to.
Blue jiggled the ZooTag around in her Zoolizer. "Why isn't it working?"
"Probably because they got blown up." Silver suggested, motioning towards the still burning wreckage of the bikes. "Must have a recharge time when something like this happens."
"So, uh," Red started, rubbing his head. "Anyone got train tickets?"
They say on the train, awkwardly. They were still in their suits, and every single mammal on the bus was staring at them.
"That was a joke, Blue." Red whispered to her.
"Well, do you have any better ideas?" She asked, the fox falling silent.
Red felt himself getting poked. He turned to his side, and spotted a very young beaver. "Are you guys the real Zoo Rangers?" He asked, wide-eyed.
"Uh, yes." Red answered, putting on a slightly deeper tone. "Yes we are."
"Why are you on a train?" He continued to question. "Don't you ride on bikes?"
"They kind of, uh, blew up." The fox answered.
"Who's that guy?" The beaver asked, pointing to Silver.
The other two turned to look at him, and Silver turned to look at the beaver. "I'm new."
"Cool."
As soon as the train stopped, the three dashed off, stepping into the muddy roads of the Rainforest District. "Well, that was probably the worst idea I've ever come up with." Red admitted, the other two rangers nodding in agreement.
"So, where should we look first?" Silver asked the rabbit.
"Well, we should split up, and then communicate with each other when we find it." She started. "If we don't find it, we'll rendezvous back here and-"
"Or we could just follow him." Red chimed in, looking up into the sky.
The other two looked up as well, seeing the bee monster flying through the air, having a bit or trouble due to the climate of the area.
Blue's ears drooped a bit. "Of course."
So, they followed, eventually coming to an outcropping in the muddy ground, surrounded by tall trees. They hid behind a nearby bush, watching as the bee flew down from the sky. It pulled out a rapier, which glowed with energy. It suddenly grew to a massive size, and the bee jabbed it into the ground.
"That's a lot less gross than I was expecting." Red whispered.
The bee flew to the ground, and admired his work. They leaped out from behind the bush. "Stop it right there, wasp boy!" Blue shouted, blasters drawn.
It turned around and sighed at them. "Great, you losers again." He bemoaned. "Why don't you just start fighting again so I can move on with my life?"
"That's not going to happen this time!" Blue said, triumphantly, before she tilted her head a bit. "It isn't, right you two?" She asked the other two, who nodded rapidly.
"Well, we got a bit of a surprise for you guys this time." The bee said, ominously. He pulled out two handfuls of golden coins, and threw them up into the air. Mid-air, they transformed into a large group of Yartots.
Red laughed. "More pirates?" He said, amused. "Yeah, it's not like we fought these guys a few hours ago!"
"These… these aren't the surprise." He said, rather matter-of-factly. "I can see how you would think that, by how I worded my statement, but they aren't."
There were the sound of gunshots, and then sudden explosions around them, knocking them to the ground. The rangers quickly swung around to see Sambash, twirling his smoking pistol. "Yo." He greeted.
"Sambash!" Blue yelled.
"Villamax!?" Silver yelled at the same time.
Basically everyone turned to look at him. "What?" He said. "He's from… Zoo Rangers. Lost Galaxy."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sambash said, completely confused.
The three got up. "Alright." Silver started. "I'll take… whoever that is." He pointed towards Sambash. "You guys take care of the Swabbies."
"That's not their name either, but whatever." Blue shrugged, before her and Red rushed into the group of pirates.
"Alright, Villa… Sam… whatever." Silver said, walking towards the biker, sword drawn. "Just you and me, one on one!"
"What?"
"You know," He started, his sword dropping. "A sword fight." Sambash glared at him, in both anger and confusion. "You do have a sword, don't you?"
Sambash responded by firing his gun into the wolf's chest, knocking him back. "Guess that's a 'no'." Silver said as he recovered from the shot.
"I don't know who you think I am," Sambash started. "But I'll tell you who I actually am." He fired another shot at the wolf. "Gun Boss, Sambash, one of the bosses in Space Pirate Barban. Swords are for wimps." He fired another host of shots into the wolf's chest, knocking him to the ground.
"Guys!" Silver yelled to the other rangers. "I have made a terrible mistake!"
"Tell me about it!" Red laughed as he slashed at another Yartot. "You just chose to fight one of the big villains by yourself!"
"God damn it." Silver said, pounding his fist into the mud. He quickly hopped up, and backed off from the slowly approaching biker.
He turned to the crowd of pirate monsters, and leaped into it, starting to take care of them himself. "That's not gonna help, wolf boy." Sambash said to himself, firing his gun into the crowd. Somehow all of his shots managed to hit the Zoorangers, not even scraping the Yartots.
"You could've kept him distracted!" Red yelled at Silver, as he blocked a series of sword slashes from the Yartots, which nearly managed to hit as he flinched from the wound.
"I'd rather not die!" Silver shouted back, dealing with a very similar situation to the fox.
"Sometimes you need to sacrifice yourself for the team!" Red continued yelling, slashing through Yartots as he approached the wolf. "Maybe you should've taken a few extra shots!"
"Are you asking me to be killed!?" Silevr said, also approaching the fox through the crowd of pirates. "How insensitive are you!?"
"Oh no." Blue said, leaping to the top of a Yartot's head. "I thought this would work!" She quickly leaped from pirate to pirate, until she reached the two, who had started arguing again. "Guys!" She yelled. "Please, we're in the middle of a fight!"
"YARTOTS!" Neikaa yelled. "Clear out!" He waved his hands, and the pirates parted from the three bickering rangers. "Ready, boss?" he asked the biker on the other side of them.
"Always was."
Neikaa thrust his arms forward, firing his stingers at them, while Sambash rapidly fired his pistol at the Rangers. There was a massive burst of mud, sparks, and a large explosion. As it cleared, the three collapsed to the ground.
Sambash strolled up to them. "Never thought your demise would come about because of yourselves, huh?" He said, pointing his gun to the rabbit's head. "I find it pretty fitting, actually."
Before he could fire, there was a sudden blur around them. A white blur that whipped and whirled, knocking the two monsters backwards, and clearing out a good chunk of the Yartots.
"What!?" Smasbash yelled, looking around. "Who's there!?"
A figure emerged from the brush surrounding them, shadowed by the trees.
"I fear no crime, I fear no punishment…" The figure started. "I live a dangerous life, once I see a chance, I won't hesitate. I will strike in a flash."
The figure stepped out from the shadows revealing himself. A blood red visor, a white suit with gold and black trimming, and a large crest on his helmet.
"I am AbareKiller."
"Master?" Silver said, looking up from the ground. The other two watched in awe.
"I don't care who you are!" Sambash yelled, pointing his gun at the approaching AbareKiller. "I'm gonna put you down like the rest of the animals!" He fired his gun rapidly at the ranger. Killer pulled out a small dagger, and effortlessly sliced the blasts out of the air.
Sambash stepped back, shocked. "Yartots!" He yelled, waving his hand. "Get him!"
AbareKiller gave a chuckle as the pirates rushed towards him. "Game…"
He clutched his fist.
"Start."
Suddenly, almost nonsensically, music began to stream through the air. A loud, heavy rock song that sounded incredibly ominous. Red looked around, a bit confused. "Where's the music coming from?" He asked.
"Music playing means something awesome is about to happen." Silver answered, watching on in awe.
AbareKiller strolled into the approaching crowd of Yartots, each swinging their weapons and mumbling loudly. With a single sweep of his dagger, a huge swath of the pirates had been disintegrated, reduced to nothing but a large pile of orange dust. He glanced at one of the now terrified Yartots, and quickly jabbed his sword through it, causing it to disintegrate.
He began cutting through the pirates, both gracefully and brutally, the song continuing to play. With a final slice, he spun around, surrounded by a pile of orange dust. He continued to step through it, approaching Sambash.
"Neikaa!" He yelled, motioning to the bee. "Take care of him!"
"Got it, boss!" Neikaa said, pulling out a rapier. He rushed at the white ranger, their blades clashing. AbareKiller seemed to hold him back effortlessly as the bee used all of its strength to try and push him back. With a flick of his wrist, AbareKiller cut right through the rapier, causing the upper half of it to fall to the ground.
Neikaa backed off, terrified. "W-what are you!?"
"The most powerful being in Hell."
AbareKiller slashed twice, in an X-shaped pattern. There was a massive explosion, and Neikaa was launched backwards, landing in the mud next to Sambash. "I don't think he's being hyperbolic…" Neikaa said weakly.
"We just need to plant one more needle." Sambash said. "We won't let you stop us!" He yelled to AbareKiller, who had stopped in his tracks.
"Go ahead." The white ranger said. "I won't stop you. That isn't my job."
"Wait, really?" Sambash said, shocked. "Let's get out of here then!" He snapped his fingers, and his flying bike came down from the sky. He hoisted Neikaa's heavily damaged body over his shoulder, and hopped onto the bike, which flew off. The music stopped.
AbareKiller sighed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted."
Silver crawled up from the mud. "Master Mikoto!" He said. "Where… where have you been?"
"Hell."
"Oh."
Blue and red also got up. "So, that's the guy you were talking to?" Red asked, Silver responding with an affirmative nod.
Blue gritted her teeth, something not noticeable behind her helmet. "Everyone, back away slowly." She whispered.
"What?" Silver said, confused. "But, he's my friend."
"What did AbareKiller actually you about himself?" She asked.
"Uh, he told me that he was a doctor turned vigilante, basically." Silver answered.
"He lied." Blue said, sounding a bit intense. "Killer by name, killer by nature. He was a supervillain who killed and tortured for fun!"
"What!?" Silver said, stepping back. "Why didn't you tell me that!?"
"Because it's something I try to forget every day." AbareKiller replied, sullenly. "My horrible actions resulted in ruining the lives of innocent people, the death of a loved one, and eventually my own."
"The book didn't mention that…" Judy said to herself, feeling a bit rude.
"You didn't lie about sacrificing yourself to save people, right?" Silver asked, trying to sound hopeful.
He nodded, and the wolf sighed in relief. "It seemed bad luck and death followed me everywhere I went." Mikoto continued to explain. "I suppose that's what happens when you're an other dimensional god."
"What?" All three of them sounded.
"That's a story for another time."
"So," Red started up, stepping forward. "If you're dead, how are you here?"
"Probably a ghost." Silver said. "I just assumed he was just haunting me."
"Technically," Killer started. "I am both alive and dead. An old friend you two should be acquainted with let me slip through the cracks for a short while."
"AkaRed?" Blue said to herself. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to deal with you three."
The three stepped back, and drew their weapons.
"Not like that." He corrected. "I'm here to deal with a problem you seem to be having, at the request of AkaRed."
"Who's AkaRed?" Silver asked.
"What kind of problem would that be?" Red asked, indignantly. "That we're alive?"
"Please answer my question."
"Later, Max." Blue told him.
"The problem is your lack of teamwork." Killer explained. "I am here as a warning of what's to come if you continue. I didn't work with my team, which ultimately ended with them barely defending the world. Due to our lack of teamwork, we could have prevented far more destruction than ended up happening." He fell silent for a moment. "This is your warning. If you continue this behavior, it will result in far more than your own deaths."
Blue took a deep breath, and gripped her paws tightly. "That's… what…" She turned to the other two and stomped her feet "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU TWO FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS!" She burst out, frightening them.
"But we hate each other!" Red told her, and by extension, AbareKiller. "Our personalities are completely incompatible." Silver nodded in response, agreeing with the fox.
AbareKiller crossed his arms in thought. "Have you tried actually getting to know each other?" He finally suggested. "I hated the leader of the Abarangers, but I feel we could've been… friends."
"That's a great idea!" Blue said, cheerfully, before her ears drooped. "But, we still have the monster to deal with. We can't just take a break."
"I'll give you some extra time." Killer said, before he slashed his blade forward. Silver was the only one of them who had to duck, as the resulting energy wave flew over his head and crashed into the needle behind them. It sparked with energy for a second, and then exploded. "There, that should give you time to at least become acquainted with each other."
Blue nodded, and the other two rangers stood about awkwardly. "Thank you, AbareKiller. I'm glad I was wrong about you."
He nodded at her. "Now, my time here is almost over." He said. "I wish you all well. Save your world." With that, AbareKiller burst into particles of light, which quickly disappeared.
"Alright!" Judy yelled, untransforming. "Who's ready for a house party?"
"What?"
"Do you have your keys on you, Max?" Judy asked as they stepped up to the door of his house.
"Uh, yeah." He answered. "Why?"
"Because I need them."
"I can let myself in, you know."
She nodded, gave a smile, and held out her paw. The wolf rolled his eyes, and dropped the keys into it. "Thanks." She said.
She hopped up, and unlocked the door, swinging it open for the fox and the wolf. "I know what you're planning, Carrots, and it's not gonna work." Nick said as he stepped into the house.
"Why not?"
"Because you can't lock someone inside a house."
"Who says I'm going to lock you in the house?" She retorted, feigning offense. She then quickly swung the door in the fox's face. There was the sound of a lock clicking as he stared at the door, nonplussed.
He sighed, and unlocked the door. He tried to open it, but it only slightly budged. "What the…?" He said, tugging at it. It wasn't locked, he could see the door moving, but it wasn't opening fully.
Then, he felt a buzz from his phone. He pulled it out, he had gotten a message from Judy. He opened it, and grimaced at the picture attached to the message.
It was a selfie of Judy, performing the peace sign. Next to her was the railing of the house's steps, a black cord wrapped around it. The other end of the cord was tightly wrapped around the doorknob. That explained it.
"u 2 ply nice!" The message read.
He groaned, and stuck his phone back in his pocket, turning to the wolf. "Looks like we're stuck in here."
"She does know this is a voluntary thing, right?" Max asked. "Like, she didn't have to lock us in." The fox performed a large shrug.
"I guess she just doesn't want us doing anything crazy." He assumed.
"That means 'you doing anything crazy', right?" The fox nodded, reluctantly. "So, what do you enjoy doing, anyway?"
"What?"
"Y'know, hobbies." Max said. "You have to do something besides be a police officer, right?"
Nick rubbed his head. He didn't actually know what he enjoyed doing on his time off. "Well, I mostly just watch TV." He said. "Judy's the one who actually gets me to go out and do things."
Max looked at him oddly. "You rely on her a lot, huh?" The fox nodded. "Wanna just… talk about things?" He suggested. "You know, calmly?"
"I already talk my therapist's ears off every week." Nick said.
"Well, if we want to be friends, or whatever, then we should get to know each other more." He motioned to the living room. "C'mon."
The fox followed, and they seated themselves on different seats, Nick on the couch, Max in a chair. Nick began to tell his life story, going over his missing father, his turn to crime, and his eventual redemption thanks to Judy. Max also gave a bit of his story, which he admitted was definitely not as interesting, mostly a normal story about his inspirations to become an officer.
"I've told you before, but what inspired me to be a cop was stuff like Zoo Rangers, Super Mammal, The Bat, stuff like that."
"You're a comic book fan?" Nick said, jolting up from his seat. "My dad had a huge collection of vintage comics, I read them all the time as a kid!" He let out a sigh in remembrance. "There was the one where The Bat and Robin had to fight a rainbow monster, it was ridiculous!"
"Your dad collected Silver Age comics?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's awesome. "I'm actually a bit of a collector myself. Wanna see them?"
"Would I ever!"
They got up, and Wolford brought him to a small room off the side of the living room. In it were three massive bookshelves, full of different comic books. "Holy smokes, I wasn't expecting you to have this much."
"Collecting is a very serious business, Nick." Max said. "Eventually, I'll be able to sell these all for a fortune. Not that I ever would."
Nick combed through them. There were hundreds of different books, his dad's collection only fit into three shoeboxes, so this was mindboggling. "How do you pay for all this?"
"Perks of living alone." He said. "It's worth it though, there's some wonderful stories in there. Ever read Doom Patrol? Great series."
"So, you don't live with anyone else?" Nick asked. "But this house was made for more than two people, isn't that a waste of space?"
"Nope!" Max said. "It just means I have more space to store stuff."
"Must be real conversation starters, huh?"
"Uh, yeah." He cleared his throat. "For all those… guests I have."
"Do you really not have people over all the time?" Nick asked, confused. "You're like, the nicest guy on the force, how do you not have a bunch of friends?"
"Social anxiety."
"Oh." Nick said, rubbing the back of his head. "It… must get lonely, huh?"
"It really does." Max sighed.
"I know how that feels." The fox said to himself, quiet enough for the wolf to not hear him. "What about Delgato?" He asked. "You two are partners, you seem like good friends."
"He has his own life, you know." Max said. "We're more work buddies anyway."
There was a bit of silence for a moment. "So, uh, you have more stuff here?" Nick asked. "Wanna show me?"
"Sure!"
They went upstairs, and entered what probably should have been a bedroom. Instead, it was lined with shelves and shelves of toys. "Wow, this is like, what ten thousand dollars' worth of toys?" Nick asked as he entered the room. He was somewhat stunned by the amount of stuff in this single room.
"Oh, probably more than that." Max said, not exactly sounding proud. "I've been collecting stuff like this since I was a kid." He walked over and pulled an old looking toy from the shelf. It was colored red, blue, and yellow, and had a stylized lion head on its chest.
"That's the original Megazord from Zoo Rangers, isn't it?" Nick asked. The wolf nodded.
"It's the one I had as a kid, it's important to me." He said. "When you don't have much in your life, you need to fill it with something, and I fill my empty spaces with stuff I collect."
"That's an admirable way of looking at it." Nick said, looking around the room. "I didn't really have anything to fill my empty spaces with until recently."
"You mean Judy?" He asked, turning to the fox. Nick nodded. "She really is that important to you, huh?"
There was some more silence, as Nick fiddled with one of the toys. It was a robot made up of cars, each with a very obvious, anime-esque face on it. "So, is there anything else you want to show me?"
"Uh, I guess." Wolford said, a bit awkwardly. "It's in the basement. Which you've, um, already seen."
As long as it wasn't a creepy dungeon basement, which Nick knew it wasn't he would be fine going down into it. He followed the wolf to the basement, and it was still basically the same as it had been when Max had, um, kidnapped him a while ago.
"Sorry about that, by the way." Max apologized.
"It's fine, I would've died if you hadn't."
He looked around, it was mostly the same, a rather uncomfy couch sitting in the middle of the room. However, he noticed something else. The object that had been covered by a large tarp was no longer covered, revealing an old TV set. Next to it was…
"Oh my god." The fox let out, walking over to the TV.
"What's wrong?" Max asked.
He fiddled with a grey box sitting on the ground, two large, purple buttons on top of it. "Is this a Super Nintendo?" The fox asked.
"Uh, yeah." The wolf said, a bit confused. "Why do you ask?"
"I always wanted one of these when I was a kid." Nick explained. "Never had enough cash, and when I did have enough, I didn't have a house."
"Seriously? That's awful." He paused for a second. "Y'know, I'd let you play it, but we're kind of running on a time limit right now."
Nick looked at him, a bit confused, before it came back to him. Monster, trying to save the city, all that stuff.
"But, if you still want to after we save everyone, we could come back here and play it for a bit." He continued. "No fur off my back."
"That's be great!" He said cheerfully. "But we still need to do something while we wait for Judy to unlock the door. Who knows how long-" There was a sudden vibration from his phone. He pulled it out, it was another text from Judy.
"B back in 30 min 2 let u out, gting supplies"
"'Supplies'?" He asked himself. "What kind of supplies do you need for a monster attack?"
"Was that Judy?" Max asked.
The fox nodded. "She'll be back in a half hour, so we have some time to kill."
"I thought bees were supposed to be more durable than that." Sambash scolded, watching as Neikka finally woke up. He had brought the damaged and unconscious bee monster back to the mountaintop after their run in with whatever that white guy was supposed to be.
"Hey!" The bee monster yelled, getting up. "That guy hit like an earthquake. Ironically enough."
"I don't care!" Sambash snapped back. "You're too weak, obviously, we'll need to give you an upgrade."
"What?"
Sambash pulled out a red, spiky object, and quickly tossed it at the monster. It raised its arms to block the object, but it impaled into one of the stingers on its arms. It let out a cry of pain as it began to twitch with red energy.
Neikaa's shoulder began to puff up, turning orange, and suddenly becoming covered in holes. This seemed to spread down his arm a bit, but the stinger above his hand also began to change, merging around the forearm until it was nothing but a stinger. The symbol of the Chaos Badge was emblazed on the stinger as well.
His rather tiny wings grew to a much larger size, and a second pair, about the size his other pair was before, sprouted out below them. All the yellow on his body gradually shifted to more of an orange, while his leather hangings sprouted out into full coattails.
"BUZZZ-IT!" The monster cried as his transformation finished. "Yikes, what was that!?"
"Like I said, an upgrade." Sambash stated. "Now, go plant the last needle, so we can destroy this city once and for all!"
Neikaa gave a salute, and flew off into the air, dashing off at devastatingly fast speeds, zigzagging through the air.
Sambash watched. "How the hell do bees fly like that?" he questioned.
Judy stepped back onto the steps, carrying a small plastic bag. It had the supplies they needed to take down the monster, and save the city. She really hoped that her idea of getting them to socialize would at least make them not hate each other.
She set the bag to the ground, and leaped up to the cord connecting the door and the railing. In a swift motion, she unhooked it, causing it to limp down. She then leaped up a second time, unlocking the door She kicked the door open. "Alright, I'm back!" She yelled.
As she walked into the living room, she dropped the bag and let out a massive gasp at the indescribable sight.
Nick and Max, talking, not arguing. They were laughing, chatting about interests, it was terrifying.
"Oh, hey, Judy!" Nick said, rather cheerfully. "This stupid idea of yours actually worked pretty well."
"Stupid idea?" She said, confused. "I had you guys trapped in here, it was like Saw!"
"We could've just left through the back door, you know." Max said. The rabbit gritted her teeth again.
"So, you guys seem like you were in the middle of a… a…" She tried to spit out the unbelievable phrase. "Friendly conversation?"
"That's what I mean by 'your stupid idea worked pretty well'." The fox reiterated. "Turns out me and Max have a lot in common, we just show it in different ways."
"Similar interests too." Max continued. "Kinda weird, actually."
"Well, I'm glad this at least all worked out!" She said. "Now, I need to explain my plan for how to deal with the monster."
She placed the bag to the floor, and pulled out a few different cans of bug spray. She handed one to each of them, and held the last one herself.
"Seriously?" Nick said in disbelief. "You went to buy bug spray?"
"I don't mean to sound rude," Max started, looking at the can. "But, like, really?"
"Trust me, this'll work!" She tried to assure them. "We just have to surround him, and then spray him at the same time, it should be enough to distract him so we can finish him off!"
The two looked at her. "You know this stuff was made to kill tiny insects, right?" Nick asked. "And that monster is about one thousand times the size of a tiny insect?"
"Like I said, this will work!" She reiterated. "We just need to work together, alright? And besides, I'm the leader, what I say goes."
"I mean, it's better than anything we could have come up with." Max shrugged.
"Attacking him is a start, at least." Nick said. "I don't think now's the time to really be coming up with weird plans, we're kind of on a time limit."
"Actually, thanks to AbareKiller, we aren't!" She exclaimed. "He destroyed one of the needles, we don't need to rush anymore!"
"Until he realizes something is wrong." Max chimed in. The rabbit shrugged in response.
"It still gives us more time."
"Alright, so what exactly is your plan?" Nick asked, crossing his arms. "Beyond just spraying him with bug spray, I mean."
"Well, first, we spray him, and then we do some… team attacks?" She said, a bit unsure. "I really just want to make this teamwork thing work."
The fox rolled his eyes. "Alright, you're the leader, you do the planning."
Suddenly, there was a horribly loud beeping. Both of them looked at Maxwell.
He looked at his wrist. "Looks like it's go time."
The monster crashed into the ground, directly outside of the central tower. "Perfect spot!" he yelled, ignoring the screams of fear around him. He pointed his stinger arm towards the glass door, and fired, shattering it. He then strolled in, and looked around at the terrified animals walking around. "Alright, boys!" He said, tapping his shoulder.
Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise, a massive swarm of bees flying out of the holes on it. The swarm flew around the room, flooding the room, scaring off the mammals.
"Much better!" Neikaa cried. He stretched his arm a bit. "Alright, time to destroy this city for good!" He flew up into the air, and raised his arm upwards. It began glowing, as the stinger began to grow to ridiculous proportions. He aimed it towards the ground, and fired, the massive stinger forming into a needle.
He landed to the ground, and let out a laugh. He pointed the stinger at the needle, and fired. As soon as it hit, the needle began to vibrate, and let out an ear rending noise. The building itself began to shake, objects beginning to shift around, paint beginning to chip, chairs falling over.
"Wait, what!?" It yelled out, rushing over and stopping the needle. "That was supposed to destroy the city instantly, what's happening!?"
"Your plan's just been foiled, Honey sucker!"
He turned, and saw the three Zoorangers, walking into the building. "Honey sucker, really?" Red said. "Could've done something a bit cleverer."
"Oh, if it isn't the Lagomorph and Canidae Arguing Circus!" The monster irritatingly cooed. "Here to bungle everything up again!?"
"Eh, that was slightly better." Red said, glancing towards his somewhat confused partners. "Coulda put in some Lupis, since we have a wolf here."
"I don't care!" It snapped back. "What did you do to my needle!?"
"We didn't do anything." Judy started. "You might know who did do something, though!"
"What, who?" The bee asked, confused. "You don't mean that white guy, do you!?"
She nodded. "He destroyed the needle in the Rainforest District, your entire plan has gone kaput!"
"Not until I get back there and set it back up!" He yelled back.
"You're gonna have to get through us first!" She yelled, the three posing and pulling out their weapons. "Let's do it, guys!"
She twirled her weapons around, and stomped on the ground, pointing her daggers at the monster. "DEFENDER OF THE MOON, ZOOBLUE!"
Red slashed his sword against the ground, sparks shooting off. He spun the sword, and placed it on his shoulder. He swiped his thumb against his snout. "CHAMPION OF THE SUN, ZOORED!"
Silver took a deep breath, and raised his arms to the air. He then quickly whipped out his blade, and spun around. "WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE, ZOOSILVER!"
The three rushed at the monster. "Alright, boys, I need you again!" He tapped his shoulder again, causing a swarm of bees to shoot out. The three skid to a halt, and quickly turned as the swarm flew at them.
"I HATE BEES!" Red yelled, as the three split up, the swarm splitting as well to follow them. He quickly spun around, pulling out the Vickscannon, and firing a shot at the insects, which seemed to have no effect. Blue's nose twitched a bit.
"Do we already have to use the bug spray?" Silver yelled to Blue.
"PROBABLY A GOOD IDEA!" She yelled, pulling the bug spray out and spraying the swarm. The bees dropped to the ground, and seemed to evaporate into an orange mist, which swirled back into Neikaa's shoulder holes.
"Oh, wow." The monster sarcastically started. "Bug spray, where did you get that wonderful idea."
Her ears drooped a bit. "Save the bug spray, guys!" She yelled to them, rushing towards the monster, daggers ready. She leaped into the air, the bee's stinger quickly extending. As she flew down and swung at the beast, it blocked her, and flung her back.
She skidded to the ground, and Neikaa quickly motioned with one of his hands. The two bee swarms chasing the other two rangers quickly reformed into a single large swarm. It pointed towards her.
"Aw pumpernickel."
She tossed her can of bug spray towards Red, where it rolled to his feet. The bees quickly formed a swirling orb made of bees around her. "GUYS!" She yelled from inside the horrible buzzing sphere prison. "YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF HIM, QUICK!" She quickly dodged as bees began to fly at her from inside the prison.
"Hope you're not allergic, rabbit!" The monster yelled, before turning to the other two, who had regrouped. "Now to deal with you two bickering losers."
Red picked up the can. "Alright, let's try this plan out." He said, having horrible doubts about it.
"You don't think this is a bad idea?" Silver asked.
"Oh, I totally do."
Silver pulled out his can, and the fox pulled out his other can of spray. They rushed at the monster, Silver leaping over him, turning to face the monster's backside. "What are you two idiots doing?" The monster nonchalantly questioned.
"Just bugging you!" Red said, as the two sprayed the bee in the face and back. It kind of looked around, confused, as the two started to back away.
"…Seriously?". Neikaa quickly spun around, stinger outstretched, knocking them both down.
"BLUE!" Red yelled, getting up. "YOUR PLAN'S A BUST!"
"I HAVE A BETTER IDEA!" She yelled back, letting out a pained whimper as she got stung by one of the bees. "FIRE!"
"Fire?" Silver questioned, helping Red up.
"The bug spray!" Red said, pulling the cans out. "Bug spray is flammable!"
"If we use our fire attacks, we could destroy it for good!" Silver chimed in. "But we'll have to do this together if we want to finish him off right now."
Red nodded, and turned to the bee prison. "You're a miracle worker, Carrots!"
She let out a horrible, pained yell.
"We should probably hurry on this." Silver said.
"Alright," Red started, holding out the bug spray cans. "This will take a bit of dexterity. You up for it?"
Silver spun the guard on his sword, switching it to Sun Mode. "I am now."
"What the hell are you two up to?" The bee questioned. "I'm excited to see how you butcher another chance to beat me!"
Red then chucked one of the cans at the monster, it hitting him in the face. Silver turned to look at the fox, who now had the Vickscannon in his paw. "What?" He said. "I need an extra paw."
The two pulled back their arms, and chucked the cans at the same time. They both attacked, Red firing a shot from the cannon, and Silver slashing his sword, sending off a blast of fire. The shots hit the cans, which burst into a surprisingly massive explosion, charring the ground with flames and destroying any wooden object in the room.
"Wow." Red said, shocked. "I didn't know they were that flammable."
"It might just be our attacks."
The fire cleared, and the monster was still standing, albeit on fire. It let out a scream of pain. "BEES! HELP!"
The swarm of bees flew away from the rabbit, and began swarming around the monster. The flew back into the monster's shoulder, having cleared the fire. "Ah, much better."
"You just made a big mistake, waspy!" Blue yelled, running up to her partners. "Now you have to deal with all three of us!"
"Uh oh."
"TIME FOR THE ZOOKAIZER!" She yelled, pumping her fist with an enthusiastic leap. She recoiled in pain a bit as she landed. "Oh, yeah, bee stings still hurt."
The three flung their weapons into the air, where they combined into the massive gun, aimed directly at the monster.
"SOLAR NATURE BLAST!"
The cannon fired a large orb, which split into smaller red and blue orbs. The orbs flew through the monster, and flew up above it, combining back into a large silver orb, and slamming down onto the beast, causing it to explode. A small mole flew out of the explosion, landing unconscious on the ground.
The three sighed in relief, watching as the massive needle dissipated. "Thank goodness that's over." Blue said, wiping her brow. "The stress was killing me."
"So, why didn't you just do the bug spray plus fire plan in the first place?" Red asked.
"I wasn't really thinking about that when I came up with the plan." The fox rolled his eyes at the rabbit's statement.
Suddenly, there was a ding, and the elevator on the other side of the room opened up.
"WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS GOING ON DOWN HERE!?" Mayor Lionheart yelled, storming out of the elevator. "Shaking, burning smells, I'm pretty sure I just heard an EXPLOSION!"
He looked around the room, spotting the unconscious mole on the ground, a floating, red object,a nd, of course, the Zoorangers, who stared at him awkwardly.
"Sir, we can explain-" Blue started, only to get interrupted by the lion.
"Oh, another monster attack deal, huh." He said, suddenly sounding calmer. "Thanks for dealing with that Zoo Rangers." He noticed Silver, and walked up to him. "Didn't realize you got a third member, that's perfect for publicity!"
"Publicity?"
"I mean helping out defeat all these evil monsters." He quickly corrected, none of them looking amused. "I actually wanted to talk to you all about something, the secret identity thing is great, but how about we set up a, say, meeting, where you give the whole city your real identities?"
"That sounds awful." Red said frankly. "And if you excuse us, we have a giant monster to deal with."
"What giant monster?"
His eyes widened as the red object barely grazed his mane. It flew out the window, and there was a sudden tremor, followed by echoing laughter.
"That giant monster."
The four of them rushed out, and looked up at the giant monster hovering on the outskirts of the city. "Well, you better go destroy it!" Lionheart yelled. "Can't have the city being destroyed!"
"We're getting to that, don't rush!" Silver said. "This is a delicate process!"
"So, since we just learned the values of teamwork or whatever, how about we, I dunno, defeat this guy as a team?" Red suggested.
The other two nodded, and readied their mechs. Silver popped in the disc, while the other two popped in their ZooTags.
All three mechs appeared, and they leaped in, the robots leaping up into the air and forming into their robot forms.
They crashed in front of the monster, earth shooting out from their feet. "This is great!" Silver exclaimed, cheerfully. "All three of us, in giant robots, at the same time!"
Back on the ground, Lionheart looked on. He pulled out a cellphone, and quickly dialed something up. "Hey, do you have the plans ready?" He asked. "Because we might need to make some more models."
"How is that fair!?" The monster yelled. "Two against one isn't even at all!"
"It wasn't even on the ground either!" Blue yelled, jolting the controls forward, causing the robot to swing its sword into the monster.
The monster stumbled back, and all four looked up as they heard a laugh. In the air, there was a burst of purple smoke, a shadow of Kyuemon appearing in the air. "He's right, you know." The illusion sounded. "How about we tip the scales a bit?"
The shadow pulled out what looked like a small hammer, with a star attached to the front of it. He spun the star, and swung it forward, causing purple smoke to shoot out from it. The smoke swirled, and quickly formed into two giant monsters, which looked like they were made out of bones of various creatures, some unrecognizable.
"Behold the Gashadokuro." The shadow sounded. "They should be able to take care of you." With another laugh, the shadow disappeared.
"Thank you, Kyuemon!" Neikaa said, waving his normal hand at where the shadow was. He then turned to two mechs, and pointed at them with his stinger. "GET THEM!"
The giant skeletons let out horrifying roars, and stomped forward, drawing out swords also made out of bones. They swung the swords, the mechs quickly drawing their swords as well to block them.
ZooRobo struggled as the bone beast pushed down on the sword. "Great, guess they also learned about teamwork!" Red joked, trying to lighten the situation.
ZooKami also struggled a bit. Neikaa quickly stepped up to him, and jabbed the wolf mech in the side with his stinger. The robot stumbled, letting the skeleton's blade cut through him.
ZooRobo quickly turned to its partner, but the distraction let the other skeleton cut right through it. "Great, we're gonna die to a bunch of skeletons!" Red paused for a second. "Actually, never mind that's a great way to die."
"Not the time, Red!"
"I think we need to do something drastic." Silver started. "I think we need to unlock our final, true combination!"
"We have a final, true combination?" Blue questioned.
"All the good mechs have a big combination!" Silver continued. He pulled out the silver disc. "Let's try this." He slipped it into the slot in the control panel's dashboard. A button off to the side began to glow. "Guys, but your things into the thing, then hit the thing!"
"What?" Red said.
"I think he means put the ZooTags into the slots and hit the buttons." Blue translated. "Just guessing though."
They both followed, slipping the ZooTags into the slots, and hitting the buttons next to them that began glowing. Both mechs leaped into the air, ZooRobo uncombining. ZooSagi unfolded, a pair of fists revealing themselves from the soles of the robot's feet. It split in two, turning into a pair of arms.
ZooKami's body shifted, forming into a torso. ZooKitsune Shifted around more, the fox's head forming into a chest piece, while the legs and back of the mech formed into an ornate cape with spiked shoulders. All three combined, and the two weapons flew into its hands. It crashed into the ground, between all three monsters.
Lionheart looked on, amazed, before speaking into the phone. "Yeah, definitely going to need a new model."
In the cockpit, the seats shifted around, Silver's cockpit quickly rising up.
"ZOOROBO OH KAMI MODE!"
"See, told you!" Silver said, pounding at the controls. "THIS IS AWESOME!"
"So, what, we just gave them even more of an advantage!" Red said, a bit panicked. "Three against one isn't good odds!"
"I think ZooRobo might be even more powerful now!" Blue stated. "We can totally take these guys out!" Silver nodded, while Red rolled his eyes. "Let's do this!"
The three jolted their controls, causing ZooRobo Oh Kami to quickly spin around, and sliced at one of the Gashadokuros. The blades unleashed a red and blue burst of energy, flying directly into the monster, making it burst into a pile of bones.
"Holy smokes." Red said, surprised. "That's stupidly powerful."
The mech spun around again, unleashing more swipes at the remaining bone monster. The energy bursts hit it as well, also destroying it.
"Stay back!" Neikaa cried, stepping back as it fired at the robot. Its stinger shots were quickly deflected by the mech's swords.
"Let's finish this." Silver said, pumping his fist.
"SOLAR ECLIPSE DESTROYER!"
The mech moved the swords in half-circles, and quickly slashed them down. Each movement made a white line behind them, which quickly fired off as they slashed down. The slashes quickly fired into the monster, stunning it. The mech then performed two horizontal slashes, those slashes also launching off. As they hit the monster, it began to spin around, turning red hot, and then exploding.
The explosion cleared, and the monster stumbled forward. "Wanna hear a bee joke?" It said, dazed. "How do bees even fly? They're wings are too small to get their fat bodies off the ground! What's the deal!?" He quickly tilted over and exploded.
"That was Zootastic!" Red cried.
"Is that seriously your end battle catchphrase?" Silver asked. "I know we're friends, but it really is awful."
"C'mon, seriously!?"
"So, I said to the beaver, damn that's a nice dam!" Nick joked. "And that's how I tricked a beaver out of a year's supply of wood."
Max laughed a bit. "Did you seriously do that?" He asked. "That's completely ridiculous."
"Ha ha, yes," Judy started. She nervously looked towards the bullpen. "It's great hearing your life stories, Nick, but we kind of have…"
"Did I ever tell you about the time I managed to swindle a giraffe out of his mother's handmade turtle neck sweater?" Nick asked Wolford, ignoring the rabbit.
"You haven't told me anything about a lot of your life, actually."
"Well, do you want to hear it?" He asked.
"How about I tell you about the time me and Delgato managed to stop a criminal arsonist?" Max started. "That was an exciting one."
"Guys?" Judy said, trying to get their attention. They continued to chat, ignoring the rabbit. She sighed.
"What have I done?"
"IDIOT"
There was a zap of red lightning, which flew directly into Sambash's body. The volts coursed through him as he stumbled forward.
"FOOL"
Another bolt, and Sambash fell to his knees.
"HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY MY DIRECT ORDERS"
A third strike, and Sambash collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain.
There was a horrible roar from the Omnipotence, shocking the other villains in the room. "DUE TO SAMBASH'S FOOLISHNESS, WE NOW REQUIRE AN EXTRA RECHARGE OF ENERGY BEFORE THE NEXT ATTACK"
"How long is an extra recharge?" Yabaiba asked. "Ten minutes, an hour…?"
"APPROXIMATELY ONE MONTH FROM NOW"
There was a collective groan from the group. "Thanks a lot, Sambash." Long yelled at the unconscious heap on the floor.
"WHEN I FINISH RECHARGING, I EXPECT YOU ALL TO HAVE COME UP WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE PLANS YOU COULD HAVE" The Omnipotence stated. "WE WILL DEFEAT THE ZOORANGERS, AND WE WILL DESTROY THE CITY"
There was a sudden, horrible crackling noise.
"AND IF YOU DO NOT, I WILL REDUCE YOU TO SCRAPS ON THE FLOOR"
"Don't worry, monsieur Omnipotence." Enter started. "We will have them out of the way as soon as possible."
He gave a sly smirk.
Arc 2 is now finished, huzzah!
Yeah, like bring up AbareKiller just to have him not do anything. Also, there's that political intrigue thing I last brought up in… yikes, episode 2, I think?
I hope Nick and Wolford's friendship didn't come off as too rushed, I tried to make it at least feel natural. And yeah, gonna admit it, I'm basing his personality slightly off of my anti-social, hoarder ass. A self-insert, if you will. Except probably more likable than I am.
Also, I'm going to be taking a slight break. Probably just a week or so, to get some other important real life stuff done. See you all in 2017, everybody!
Next time, if anyone can be anything in Zootopia, why can't a monster?