Episode 21 – Virtual Disaster

"I'm glad we're going out for a bit." Nick started. "Just you and me, out on the town, having some fun…"

"Nick, we're shopping."

The two were in the middle of one of Savannah Central's many large shopping centers. Not quite a mall, since it was wide open, but it took up a lot of open space. It was the closest one nearby, and was usually the one they went to for grocery shopping.

"Yeah, but isn't it fun to get out of the house sometimes?" Nick said.

"You hate shopping. I'm the one who usually does this." Judy said. "I'm assuming you have some sort of ulterior motive for why you wanted to come."

"I don't have any motives!" He said. "I just thought, maybe we could…" He started rubbing his arm. "Do something after this?"

"You mean, like, a date?" Judy asked, with a smirk.

"I guess." He said, awkwardly. "Maybe we could go to a coffee shop, or get some lunch, or…" His ears jolted up as he spotted something. "Oh my god."

Judy turned and looked around, alert. "What, is it a monster?" She couldn't see anything, or at least anything noteworthy.

The fox quickly ran off towards a building. Judy followed behind. They stopped in front of the window of the building, displaying a poster for some kind of electronic device. It was black and grey, sitting next to a TV. A paw was coming down from above, and lifting something out of the middle of it.

"I didn't realize it was out already." Nick said, looking up at the poster.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

The fox looked at her. "Don't you have social media, Carrots?"

"Yeah, why?" She said.

"It's the Nintendo Switch!" He said, motioning towards it. "It was everywhere a few months ago! How have you not heard about it?"

"I just follow celebrities." She stated.

Nick shook his head, before looking back up at the poster. "When I was a kid, I wanted to get a Super Nintendo." He started. "I always saw it at stores, but my family never had enough money. By the time I had the cash to get it, they stopped selling them, and I didn't have anywhere to keep it either."

"So, this is a nostalgia thing?" Judy asked. The fox nodded. "I never really cared about video games." She continued.

"Really?" The fox said, a bit surprised. "You were born in the early 90's, I thought everyone back then played video games."

"I guess not when you're busy working on important things." She joked. "Playing those things limits your productivity."

"You know Max plays video games, right?" Nick asked. "Like, he has a big collection of them. Saying that is kind of indirectly insulting him."

Her ears dropped. She really didn't like being judgmental of others, which was something very difficult. "Max is very productive." She admitted. "But I, personally, don't think I'd enjoy them."

"That's fair."

Just as the two were about to walk off, a voice called out from behind them.

"Oh, hey, Nick, Judy!"

They turned around, spotting Kyle. He was standing only a bit away from the building, carrying a bag that seemed to be full of different types of liquor, as well as a few foods they hadn't seen before.

"Hey, Kyle." Judy greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, shopping." He said. "What else do you go to a mall for?"

The two looked at each other and shrugged. He had a point. "Hey Kyle, you play any video games?" Nick asked.

"Uh, not really." He said. "Never had an opportunity to, I guess. Why do you ask."

"I was trying to make a point to my partner here, but it didn't entirely work out." He stated. There was some awkward silence.

"Well, see you guys later!" Kyle said, jogging off.

"Why did you have to make that awkward?" Judy asked as they started to walk off as well.

"He looked like the kind of guy that plays video games." Nick said. "I thought I might be able to prove my point."

"You're really weird sometimes."

The fox ran into an alleyway, looking around to make sure nobody was watching. "Video games. Interesting concept." He said to himself. "Maybe I could make some use of that." He looked down at the bag in his paw.

"I should probably get these back to base first."

The fox snapped his claws, summoning a well of darkness in front of him. He stepped through, before it quickly vanished.

"Remember how I said I wanted to do something after we finished shopping?" Nick asked as they walked up to the house.

"Yep."

"I didn't mean throwing in a third wheel."

"Listen, I need to know." Judy said. "I kind of feel too distant from him, and we're supposed to be a team. Understanding one of his hobbies is a good start, right?"

"Are you sure you aren't just doing this to prove your point?" Nick asked, a bit skeptical. "I know you hate being wrong."

"I also hate being a jerk to my friends." She said. She quickly knocked on the door, which opened up to reveal the wolf. He was dressed in rather casual black shirt and grey slacks.

"Oh, hey." He said, clearly not expecting them. "What's up, guys?"

"We just wanted to come over for a visit." Judy stated. The wolf welcomed the three in.

"I never really get guests." Max said. "The last time I had anyone over was when you locked Nick and I in here."

"Yeah, good times." Nick said, not sounding sarcastic.

"Okay then."

"So," Judy started, clearing her throat. "I hear you play video games?"

"Yeah." Max started. "I've got a lot of them. Do you play them too?"

"No, no." She said. "I'm just interested in them! You mind if I check out your collection?"

"Sure." Max said, shrugging. "I have my PS4 and some new games over by the TV."

The rabbit quickly hopped over to the TV stand. There was a pile of around five different games, each in a blue case. She quickly looked through them.

"What's up with her?" Max asked.

"She's trying to prove a point." Nick explained, quiet enough for the rabbit to not notice. "'Grr, video games bad', or something."

"Really?" Max said. "She never really came off as that kind of mammal."

"Max," Judy started, holding up two game cases. "What do you find… appealing, about these games?"

"Well, they're… fun." He said, shrugging. "I haven't beaten any of those yet, so I can't really give full opinions yet."

She looked at them again. "Nier: Automammal? Nyaoh?" She said. "What are these games even about?"

"Well, they're-"

"They look pretty violent." Judy said, placing them back on the shelf. "I don't know if I could handle them."

"I have games that aren't that violent." Max said. "If you want, I could show you some of those."

"Really?" She said, surprised. "I'm surprised someone like you has… kid's games."

"I watch a kid's TV show every week," Max started. "Of course I have kid's games."

Suddenly, their Zoolizers started to beep loudly. "Man, I was hoping something like this would happen later in the day." Nick said, disappointed. "Alright, we can handle this video game stuff after we deal with the monster."

The other two nodded, and they headed out.

"Alright, the monster should be around here somewhere." Silver started as they walked into the open block. It was a business district, specifically near an electronics store called Beast Buy.

"So, where is it?" Red asked, looking around.

The doors of the Beast Buy slid open, a large number of mammals running for their lives from the store. After the stampede finished, the monster walked out. It was mostly grey and rocky, but its head seemed to consist of most of a laptop. The rest of its body was also covered with a number of keyboard keys. Each key on its body had a pair of red eyes.

It was carrying a worker, a deer, by the throat. "What is this, some kind of joke!?" The monster slammed the worker into the ground, and stepped on top of the deer's chest. "This can't be all you have!" The monster held up two stacks of five games in both of its hands, while pressing down on the worker's chest.

"Sir…" The deer said, weakly. "This is an electronics store, not a-"

The monster stomped down. "Video games are electronics!" It shouted. "Video games are more important than anything in life! How am I supposed to cause trouble with only TEN games to be inspired by!?"

Sudden blasts hit the monster, knocking it to the ground. The games flew out of its hands. "How about you don't cause any trouble?" Blue yelled. The three of them had their weapons prepped. The deer quickly scrambled away as the monster laid there.

The monster fell limp for a second. The rangers looked at each other, confused. Had they beaten it that easily? Suddenly, the monster's body began to blink in and out, before vanishing completely.

The monster instantly reappeared, standing fully upright. "That hurt!" It shouted at them. "You dare mess with the master of computer games, Mokumokuren!?"

A sudden swipe appeared beneath the monster as it struck a pose. A triangular black flash appeared, followed by the monster's name appearing in stylized letters. Mokumokuren stopped posing, causing the image to vanish.

The three stood there, dumbstruck.

"I swear, these things get weirder and weirder every week." Red said, shaking his head.

"You must be the Zoorangers!" The keyboard monster said. "Master Kyuemon told me that you like games, so, you wanna play?"

"We don't want to play anything with you!" Blue yelled. "We're here to kick your butt!"

"Ah, so I see you guys are hardcore!" The monster laughed. "I'm going to have to take this seriously, too!" The monster quickly circled around, whipping its arms around. The eight game cases flew back into its hands.

He quickly examined them with his myriad of eyes. "Oh, I'll start with this one, it got the best reviews out of them all." The eyes on its spacebar disappeared, being replaced with two rows of blunt looking teeth. It opened up, stretching the monsters face out, as he popped the chosen game case into it. Its mouth vanished, turning back into eyes.

Mokumokuren let out a roar, as purple smoke began to emit from it. A loud voice, seemingly from nowhere, yelled something out.

"DANGEROUS ZOMBIE"

"Mmm, tastes like the dead!" He said, wiping the space bar with his wrist. He quickly flicked it into a point. "Get 'em!"

As he pointed towards the three, purple smoke began to come from the ground. Rising from it were a number of Jukkarage, though instead of their usual stone looks, they now wore tattered clothing. They started to shuffle forward, awkwardly.

"What the hell?" Red said, watching as the monsters slowly approached. He didn't seem frightened, more confused.

"I thought we were dealing with a video game monster, not a…" Blue paused for a moment. "Zombie monster?"

"I think I know how this works!" Silver said, startling his teammates. "He ate the video game, so now he has powers based on it!"

"If this was a trivia game, you'd be correct!" The monster said, shining an okay sign.

"Then that means he took the power from a survival horror game." Silver continued. The zombies were still slowly shuffling towards them.

"And that means…?" Blue asked.

"The challenge of a survival horror game is that you don't have a lot of ammo or weapons to deal with monsters." Silver explained. "And you know what we have plenty of?"

The two looked at Silver, then at each other, and then at their blasters. "Oh, I get it." The fox said.

The two prepared the guns, as Silver switched his blade to Sun Mode. They began rapidly firing at the army of zombies, wiping them out in only a few seconds.

"Son of a glitch!" The monster yelled, stumbling back. The zombies hadn't even gotten close to them! He thought this was supposed to be the strongest of the games, but it seemed he was wrong.

He pulled out another game case, and stuck it in his mouth. Again, a voice from nowhere yelled out.

"SHAKARIKI SPORTS"

"What kind of game is that?" Blue asked, turning to Silver.

The wolf shrugged. "I have never heard of either of those before." He said.

"Sounds like its sports based." Red said. "So maybe he's gonna put us into a deadly game of dodge-ball."

The monster waved its hands at the ground, shooting out what looked like a wave of pixels. The ground pixelized, and caused a rather eye-searing pink and green bicycle to appear. "See you, noobs!" He gave a quick salute, and hopped on the bike, speeding away.

Well, that might be an overstatement.

The bike was constantly leaning side to side as the monster tried to pedal as fast as it could. The three watched, fairly baffled.

"So, do we just… let him go?" Red asked.

"Why would we do that?" Blue said. "He's a monster."

"I dunno, I kind of feel sorry for him."

"I'll handle this." Silver said, stepping forward. He spun the guard around.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

He whipped the blade forward, shooting out a whip of energy. It reached up to the monster, and wrapped around its body. Silver tugged it back, causing the monster to land in front of them.

"Now, can we start this fight for real?" He said, sounding a bit exasperated.

"H-hang on!" Mokumokuren said, getting up. "That was just round one! I need to prepare for round two, that's the rules!"

Silver was about to yell something, before Blue placed a paw in front of him.

"Just…" Blue let out a big sigh. "Just let him do it."

The monster scrambled over to the games, and seemingly randomly shoved four of them into its mouth. Once again, a voice from nowhere yelled something out.

"MIGHTY ACTION X! TADDLE QUEST! BANG BANG SHOOTING! BAKUSOU BIKE!"

"Alright, now I'm ready!" The keyboard yokai said. He spun around, a large, fairly generic sword appearing in his hands. "Prepare to face the true power of a gamer!" He brandished the sword at the three.

"Finally, an actual fight." Red said.

The three rushed at the monster, each with their weapons drawn. Read leaped in first, clashing blades with the monster in mid-air. The monster flung Red off, as Blue leaped in for a strike of her own. Suddenly, in a cloud of pixels, the monster materialized an uzi, and began shooting at her. The rabbit hopped about, avoiding the bullets.

Silver ran up next, sword drawn. The monster held both of its weapons it its chest, and dashed forward at ridiculous speeds, reappearing on the other side of Silver. The wolf looked around, confused, before a sharp pain hit. He fell to his knees.

"The boss is vulnerable!" The Mokumokuren shouted, before leaping high into the air. He came crashing down on Silver, slamming him directly into the ground. He then leaped off the wolf, and onto Blue, and then onto Red.

He leaped off the fox, and into the middle of the triangle of them. "Well, its been fun." He said, starting to sound a bit sad. "But I know how to make it even more fun!" It shouted, suddenly sounding joyful again. "Everything's more fun with CO-OP!"

The three got up, and looked at him, baffled.

The keyboard monster turned to Blue and Red, and motioned his hands. The ground beneath them pixelized, and shuffled them over to the monster. He gave a wave to Silver, without looking. "Sorry, Wolfgang, but this is a two player only game!"

"What?" Silver said, getting up.

"But don't worry, I'll give you spectator mode!"

The monster snapped its fingers, and the three became enveloped by a large glowing cube. TH cube began to shrink down, and then vanished in a burst of light. Max untransformed, and looked at what remained.

It was an NES.

He picked it up, and looked at it. It seemed to be completely normal. He popped the lid open, there was a cartridge inside. He pulled it out.

The art on the cartridge was completely black, marked only by the Mokumokuren's black eyes. Below it, in a red stylized font, read "Mokumokuren's Game of Death".

"Oh god."

He rushed off, the console under his arm.

The wolf practically flew into his basement. There was something bad happening, and there was only one thing he could do.

Set the console up.

In the middle of the basement was an old analog TV sitting on top of a stand. It was a massive, bulky black beast of outdated technology. Connected to it were a number of old consoles, from a Genesis to an SNES.

He quickly unplugged all of them, and plugged in the NES' cords. He took a gulp as his finger hovered over the power button.

Click.

The console let out a burst of energy, knocking the wolf onto the couch seated in front of the TV. He watched as the machine crackled with electricity, leading from the wires to the TV. The screen flicked on without any input.

On the screen was another pair of Mokumokuren's eyes, but rendered in a pixelated style. Under them read "PRESS START"

Max looked around. He didn't have any NES controllers, and the console hadn't come with one. "I can't." He said, hoping that somehow it could hear him.

The eyes suddenly turned angry, the text changing to "UGH FINE"

The text vanished, and the eyes raised off the screen. The black of the screen cleared in a wipe, revealing a grassy plain. Or, what seemed to pass for one in an old video game, mostly being entirely green with a handful of darker green patches.

In the middle of the screen were two 8-bit figures, standing there. They looked like Nick and Judy, Nick dressed up in his standard tacky shirt and tie, and Judy in her police uniform, which he was pretty certain she wasn't wearing before this. They bobbed up and down, in some kind of idle animation.

Suddenly, a text box appeared.

It was completely black, and showed up at the bottom of the screen. On the right side was a pixelated version of Nick's face, looking confused. "Carrots, where are we?" appeared in the box, written in white text.

Suddenly, the text box changed, switching to one with a portrait of Judy, also looking confused. "I don't know." Appeared in the box.

The two began looking around rapidly, the idle stance simply switching directions. They then looked at each other. Another of Judy's text boxes popped up, this one with her looking worried. "Where's Max?" It read.

Another text box, this one with Nick having a quizzical expression. "Didn't that monster say something about this only being two players?"

The screen darkened for a moment, as ominous 8-bit music started. From the top of the screen lowered a much higher resolution pixel version of Mokumokuren. He even had more animation in his idle, too.

"Hahahaha!" It laughed, the sound coming pretty clearly through the TV's speakers. "You two are trapped in my GAME OF DEATH!" Tinny thunder sounds played quickly after it finished. "And there isn't any way for your friend to help you!"

Max clenched both of his paws. "We'll see about that."

Judy rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She looked around. There was nothing but a wide-open field, completely devoid of anything for what seemed like miles. The grass seemed very… pixelated. Not actually real.

She looked at herself. She was suddenly in her police uniform, something she hadn't even touched the entire day. Why was she wearing this?

She looked next to her. Nick was there, also looking around. "Carrots, where are we?" He asked, confused. They had just been in the middle of the city, and now they were… somewhere.

"I don't know." She said, shrugging. The two got up, and looked around again. She turned to Nick. "Where's Max?"

The fox thought for a moment. "Didn't that monster say something about this only being two players?" He said, after thinking for a moment.

The sky suddenly darkened, laughter filling the air. They both looked up, watching the sky as a back figure lowered down. It was Mokumokuren, riding on a large, circular platform. It touched onto the ground. "Hahahaha!" It laughed, stepping off the platform. It pointed towards them. "You two are trapped in my GAME OF DEATH!"

The sky darkened completely, thunder sounding as the monster continued to laugh and approach them. "And there's nothing your friend can do to help you!"

There was silence, as the three braced themselves for a fight.

"But, that really doesn't have much to do with anything right now."

The mammals practically tripped over themselves.

"Then what was with all the build-up!?" Nick yelled, frustrated.

"When the final boss first appears, it has to be dramatic!" The Mokumokuren said. "Anyway, this GAME OF DEATH is special!" He snapped his fingers.

There was a large burst of light behind the two. They covered their eyes and turned to it. The air itself seemed to rip open, revealing three pixelated portals. One was pink, one was green, and the last was yellow.

"If you two want to get out of here, you'll have to beat my games!" The monster explained. It vanished, and appeared next to the pink portal in a burst of pixels. "First up is the Platformer Challenge! Which one of you is gonna take it?"

"Uh…" Both of them let out.

"Can't decide?" The monster said. "Guess we'll have the third wheel decide!" he snapped his fingers again.

Suddenly, two large boxes appeared over their heads, startling them. "What the heck are those?" Judy asked.

"Your stats!" The monster explained. "I'm letting your friend out there pick who goes first."

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked, absolutely confused.

Max looked at the screen. It had turned black, with his two friends appearing as detailed sprites on the screen. Below them were two sets of three bars, each colored something different. One was represented by a heart, the other by a claw, and the last by a foot.

Health, strength, speed.

Above them read "CHOOSE".

Max smacked the sides of his face. This was an important choice. Which one of them would be better to handle a platformer? Generally, platformers had enemies, traps, and difficult jumps. He looked at their stats. Nick had more health and strength than Judy, but his speed was lesser.

If he wanted to survive, he'd need the health.

"Nick!" he shouted at the TV. "Pick Nick!"

"We have our results!" The monster yelled as a short fanfare played. The black boxes above the mammals disappeared, as the portal began to spin. "Basic rules before we go!" The Mokumokuren started. "One, you need to complete the objective I give you! Two, you only have three lives! After three mistakes, if you die, you're dead for real!"

"Wait, WHAT!?" All three rangers yelled.

The portal spun faster, creating a vortex. Nick was quickly ripped from the ground, screaming for his life as he entered the portal.

Nick quickly sat up, and looked around. He was in his suit, meaning that he had somehow transformed between the split second he was sucked into the portal and now. Examining his surroundings, he was in some kind of city.

Definitely not Zootopia.

Maybe not even a city.

The building he was standing on was nearly board thin, only really capable of holding something of his width. On one side of the building was what looked like a sky, but was more like a projection. Flying cars flying around stylized buildings, projected onto a wall, infinitely.

On the other side was the same thing, but in reverse. Above him was pure blue, like a sky, but still flat as cardboard. A hole opened up in the "sky", Mokumokuren riding down from it on his platform. He lowered himself to be just in front of the fox.

"Alright!" He started, producing a microphone from nowhere. "Welcome to the first game! Your goal here is to reach the end of the stage, without losing all three of your lives!"

"How will I know when the stage is over?" Nick asked.

"When the stage stops scrolling, duh!" The monster yelled. "The challenge starts now! GAME START!" He quickly rose back up into the hole, leaving the fox confused.

"God, that guy's pretty eccentric, isn't he?" Max said.

"Tell me about it."

The fox's ears jolted up in surprise. He quickly looked around. Where did that voice come from?

"We have communicators, remember?" Max said.

Oh yeah.

"Wait, so you know what's going on?" Nick asked.

"I'm watching you on my TV, right now." Max explained. "When he took you guys, he left behind a game console, and when I connected it to my TV, it started showing you guys. I know exactly what's going on."

"So, you can see everything?" Nick said. He quickly held his paw up in a peace sign, and looked around. "Can you see what I'm doing now?"

"Yes, you're holding your paw up."

"Alright, just wanted to make sure." He said, lowering his paw. "So, you're going to help me out?"

"Yeah, platformers are my favorite genre." The wolf explained. "Like he said, you gotta go until the screen stops scrolling."

"I don't know what that means."

"Don't worry, I'll let you know when that happens." He said. "Just move forward for right now."

The fox nodded, and headed forward for a bit. After a short bit of walking across a weirdly long building, he encountered some odd floating objects. They were odd blocks, red in color, and with a large Z marked on them. There was several of them, lined up in a long row. Underneath the blocks stood a Jukkarage.

"An enemy!" Max said. "You need to beat it if you want to get past."

"That is something I can do." He reached for his sword. He patted down his suit. It wasn't there. "I don't have the Foxfire Blade."

"Wait, seriously?" Max said, surprised. "Well, if you don't have that, you just need to jump on it."

"Why would jumping on something kill it?" Nick asked.

"That's just how it works in these games."

Nick took a deep breath, and walked up to the monster, catching its attention. It stepped forward, arms raised. It also didn't seem to have a weapon, but it was definitely trying to menace him.

"Oh yeah, if it touches you, you'll probably die."

"WHAT!?"

Nick quickly started backing up as the monster approached. "You can't jump on it with the blocks in the way." Max said.

"What do I do!?"

"Just lead it out from under the blocks." He said. "It should keep following you no matter how far you go."

Nick complied with this frankly insane sounding strategy. He continued heading backwards at a brisk pace, the monster seemingly not able to run. The fox kept an eye on the blocks, and waited until they ended.

Eventually the monster was lead out. The fox leaped into the air, and came crashing down on the monster. As soon as his feet touched the monster's head, it burst into rocky pieces.

"I cannot believe that worked." Nick said, baffled.

"Something that could only happen in a video game." Max said. "Now, hit one of those blocks, it might have a power-up in it."

"Don't need to tell me that a power-up's good." Nick chuckled. He jumped up, and smacked the block on the bottom with his fist. The top of the block popped up, revealing a puff of dust. "Well, that was disappointing."

"Just keep hitting them, one should have a power-up."

The fox continued hitting the long line of blocks, each one turning up nothing. That was, until he hit the final block in the long line. Form it burst a cloud of confetti, alongside the Foxfire Blade! The blade flew out, and clanked onto the ground.

Nick quickly scooped up the blade, and held it above his head. A triumphant sounding melody played. "I got it!"

"Alright, now that you have that, you can attack!" Max explained. "Also, if I'm right, you should be able to take an extra hit."

The two continued on. Max continued helping the fox through the bizarre concepts in platformers. Endless pits were jumped over, instant death spikes were avoided, and even more enemies were defeated.

As Max sat on his couch, fully transformed into ZooSilver, he could only think of two things. One, this suit was really uncomfortable to do anything but fight in.

The second, more important thought, was that something was up. The entire thing had been fairly… standard. He had expected the monster to cheat in some way, but the only crime he was committing was just really awful game design.

Eventually, they came to the part where the screen stopped scrolling.

"So, what do I do?" Nick asked. The only thing in front of him was a wall, which seemed to have a bumpy, silver gate attached to it.

"There might be a boss fight." Max said. "Enter the door and see what happens."

Nick walked up to the gate, and placed a gloved paw on it. The gat instantly slid up, startling him. He walked through the hall it lead to, and out the other end. The area was now boxed in, Nick having to jump from a raised platform in order to reach the bottom.

There was a slam. He looked behind him, another gate had slammed behind him.

"I'm surprised you even managed to make it this far!"

He looked up, Mokumokuren lowered from above. "Doesn't matter, you'll lose to the boss of the game anyway! Introducing…" He snapped his fingers, causing a burst of pixels on the other side of the room.

Kamaitachi emerged from it.

"Oh great." Nick sighed. "This guy again."

"You know this guy?" Max asked.

"Yeah, first monster we ever fought."

"HEY!"

Mokumokuren lowered down to the startled fox. "Who are you talking to!?"

"Uh, nobody?" He lied. "Just… me, myself, and I!"

"I knew it, you had help!" The monster yelled. "I was just gonna have you fight this guy again, but I think you need to be taught a lesson!"

He snapped his fingers again, causing the Kamaitachi clone to become engulfed in more pixels. It let out a roar, causing the pixels to scatter. Its appearance had changed. Its upper half remained similar, but now it had four chainsaw arms. Its lower torso was now just a whirling tornado. The emblem of chaos appeared on the weasel's forehead.

"LEVEL UP!" Yelled a voice from nowhere.

"Meet Chaos Kamaitachi!" The Mokumokuren introduced. "He's the late game version of this boss!" The monster gave a quick wave, and rose back into the air, laughing.

Red drew his sword as the monster just floated there, menacingly. Suddenly, the monster jolted forward, spinning around with all four of its chainsaw arms outstretched. The fox leaped over it, looking back as the monster suddenly stopped and turned as well.

It slashed through the air, firing off four sharp bursts of air. Red quickly weaved between them, and rushed up to the monster. He slashed it, causing the Kamaitachi to roar in pain. Before the fox could react, it spun forward again, knocking him back.

"Agh, lucky shot!" He yelled as the monster stopped. He brandished his sword. His sword.

His sword was gone.

"What!?" He yelled. "Where'd it…!?" Before the fox could finish, the monster slashed at him again. He quickly jumped into the air, dodging the strikes.

"He hit you!" Max yelled. "You lost your power-up."

"Oh COME ON!"

"If he hits you again you're dead!" The wolf warned. "Be-"

The monster dashed again, slicing right through the panicking fox. He fell to his knees, and began evaporating. In a few seconds, he vanished completely.

Suddenly, the fox appeared in the middle of the stage, completely normal.

"What the hell?" He said. "Didn't I just die?"

"You still have two extra lives!" Max explained. "Try to not waste them."

"Oh, I won't."

Red pulled out a yellow object, and gave a quick smirk from behind his helmet. "Guess he didn't consider that I have other power-ups."

He plugged the tag into the Zoolizer, causing it to glow and emit noise.

"ICH NI
SAN SHI
GO GO GO!
RACING CLAWS!"

He bared the claws at the monster. The two locked sights, and dashed at the same time. They ripped through each other, Red ending with a slide. The weasel monster let out another roar, before exploding.

"Man, these things are great." Red said, stretching his arm. Suddenly, there was a ripping sound. The fox turned to look, seeing another portal rip through the air. It quickly swept him from the ground, and sucked him in.

The screen went black.

"GAME CLEAR!" Yelled a voice.

Nick was flung back into the field, landing on his face.

"So, how'd it go?" He glanced up, Judy was standing next to him.

"Fine, I guess." He said, getting up and brushing off his shirt. "I mean, aside from the part where I died."

"You what!?"

"Don't worry, it was just one life." He assured. "Not a very fun experience, though, try to avoid it."

"YOU!"

The skies darkened again, as the Mokumokuren lowered from the sky, all of his eyes turning angry. "YOU CHEATED!"

"I beat your game!" The fox retorted. "You didn't say how I had to beat it, there were no rules against using my own weapon!"

"Did I miss something?" Judy asked.

"Yes, and no, don't worry."

The monster growled, and stomped on the platform. It quickly hovered over to the set of portals. The pink one had vanished. The keyboard yokai pointed at the rabbit. "Since your partner did the first one, you get to do the second one!" He motioned towards the green portal.

She punched her paw into her palm. "Alright, I'm ready for this." She rushed towards the portal, and leaped into it.

The monster started laughing, and hovered over to the fox. "No matter how hard you try, you and your girlfriend aren't getting out of here alive." He threatened, before flying off.

"That probably means something bad."

Judy looked around. She had apparently transformed at some point, so she was looking through her visor. She seemed to be in the ruins of a city, not destroyed for long judging by how fresh some of the ruins seemed.

The most likely conclusion is that a war had happened… but there wasn't a sound for miles. She could tell.

"Hey, Judy!"

She practically leaped ten feet in the air.

"Oh, sorry! It's me!" The voice said through her communicator.

"Max?" She asked. It certainly sounded like him. "How are you…?"

"I'm watching you on TV." He explained. "I'm here to help you get through this. I helped Nick get through his challenge."

"Is that why the monster said he cheated?" She asked.

"Probably. Guy seems like a sore loser."

"Alright, enough of your chitchat!"

Judy looked up, seeing the monster lower from the sky on his platform. "Time to get this challenge started. The mission here is to defeat the enemy team!" He explained. "Either you get one hundred kills first… or you die."

"Enemy team?" She glanced around the ruins. There was no one else there.

The monster snapped its fingers, summoning up a massive circle of Jukkarage around her. They all seemed to wield guns, rather than the swords they usually had.

There had to at least be a thousand of them.

"So, where's my team?" She asked.

The monster burst out laughing, before falling silent. "Good luck." The monster raised back up into the sky, the sound of its fingers snapping going through the air. "GAME START!"

Blue pulled out her blasters, and circled around, examining the monsters. Many them ran off into the empty buildings, while a smaller number remained on the main battlefield.

"Alright, you're gonna help me, right Max?" She asked.

"Yeah. First off, PAY ATTENTION!"

She leaped out of the way as a group of the Jukkarage blasted at her with their, apparently, laser based weapons. "Shooter games require a lot of focus!" Max started over the communicator. The rabbit fired a few shots at the group of monsters that had fired, obliterating them.

"They're fast paced," The wolf continued. Blue looked up and around, many Jukkarage had gathered on higher levels. They were aiming through windows and over destroyed chinks of wall. "And if this is anything like an actual competitive match, those guys are at full mental capacity."

"If they are, they're a lot smarter than I thought." She said, before leaping out of the way of blasts from above.

The laser fire chased her across the battlefield, it seemed that the Jukkarage were hanging around every building she could see. She ducked into a nearly destroyed building, behind a chunk of destroyed wall, which seemed to keep her out of harm's way.

She took a deep breath, and spoke into the communicator. "How am I supposed to beat these guys?" She asked her current helper.

"That keyboard weirdo didn't tell us anything other than to beat them." Max said. "Usually in a game like this, there are different game types. Death match, king of the hill, capture the flag, but we don't have anything to go off."

"So, there's a specific goal for all of these?"

"Yeah. Death match needs you to beat at least fifty opponents, king of the hill has you capture points for as long as possible, and capture the flag has you collect an object, and bring it back to base."

"Alright, so the last two don't seem to be here." She rationalized. "So, this is probably death match."

"Makes sense for a death game."

"So, kill fifty of them?" She said, a bit concerned. "But there's at least a thousand of them out there, that seems a bit too easy."

"Are you seriously complaining about something being too easy?" Max asked as the rabbit looked over the wall. The coast seemed clear.

She quickly sprinted out from behind it, but slowed down, and watched around carefully. "No, I just mean…" She started, pausing to listen for any danger. "When something's this easy, that means something bad is going to happen."

The monsters quickly appeared again, and began firing down onto the rabbit. She continued to dash out of the way, while also occasionally firing at a handful of the Jukkarage. Around seven of them, by her count.

"I think that's thirteen I've blasted." She said, deftly dodging some more laser fire. "Including the ones from the start, that is."

"Alright, you're… doing great!" He said. "Are you sure you need my help?"

"Now that I know what I'm doing…" A few Jukkarage came running out of a building firing their guns at her. She leaped into the air, and blasted them before landing. "I think I can handle it. Twenty."

A series of red lights suddenly littered the ground, coming from different directions all around her. She dashed out of the way as a massive explosion rose from the ground, barely missing her. When did they have snipers?

She dashed into another nearby building. This one was relatively more intact, having a flight of stairs that led to the roof. Before she reached the roof, she huddled to the wall, and listened. Definite footsteps, as well as grunting. It was definitely guarded.

She poked up from the stairwell, and aimed her guns at the Jukkarage. She quickly blasted it. "Twenty one." She whispered, climbing up over the wall.

She glanced around, the monsters were covering every single roof and second floor she could see. She ducked behind the side of the roof, making sure to cover her ears. She raised one of her blasters over the raised wall, and started firing rapidly. They were bound to hit some of them.

She listened carefully to the number of anguished grunts before she pulled the gun back down. "Let's see, I think that was thirty-two?"

Her ears twitched as she heard footsteps coming from the stairs. A troop of Jukkarage come up from it, cornering her. Before she could fire back they blasted at her, knocking her off the building.

She crashed into the ground, somehow not feeling any pain. That wasn't the only weird thing, though. As she got up, she noticed that the edges of her visor were blinking red.

"Oh hey, I have a thing to say!" Max suddenly shouted, seemingly happy. "That red blinking is how the lazy kinds of shooters show how close you are to dying without having a health bar."

"So, I'm almost dead?" She said. "But I didn't feel anything."

"Trust me, that's just how it works."

Suddenly, in a bit of déjà vu, the monsters started to swarm out of the buildings, circling her. "Make this quick!" Max said. "If any of them hit you, you're dead!"

"Quick?" Blue said, twirling her blasters. "I can do quick."

She began to spin around, blasting the Jukkarage rapidly. She kept count with each one she blasted, while also weaving in and out of their fire. In a few seconds, she had gotten to forty-nine. There was still an army, but if Max was right, this final shot would win the game.

Before she could fire, the monsters suddenly stopped. They began to distort into pixels, and vanish from view.

"HEY!" She yelled. "You can't just remove everyone, how is that supposed to be fair!? I just needed one more-"

"Your 'one more'…"

She froze at the sound of the voice. It was one that still haunted her, even after months. One she'd thought she'd gotten over.

She turned around.

"Is right here, fuzzball."

It was Makirika, the mantis monster.

Though it would be more accurate to say it was Chaos Makirika. He looked significantly different from normal, a lot sleeker. The jagged spikes on his head had changed to a stylized V-shape, while his face now looked like more of a helmet, with a red visor. His once complicated body had smoothed over, retaining only the base colors. Even his sickle hands had changed, now being large spikes instead of mantis hands. Its chest had the emblem of chaos emblazoned on it. He looked more like a sci-fi hero than a bug monster.

"You."

"Yeah, its me." The monster said, stepping forward. "I dunno what's going on here, but I finally have a chance to get my revenge on you little carrot muncher!"

"I take it you had some issues with this guy?" Max asked.

"Second monster we fought." She explained. "Still one of the worst, in my book."

"Aw, lovely of you to still remember me." The monster said, mockingly. "Now, let's get this over with, killer."

She let out a growl, and quickly blasted at the monster. The shots harmlessly bounced off an orange field that projected around it. The mantis laughed as it started to approach. The beast man aimed one of its spiked hands at the rabbit, before firing off a laser.

She leaped out of the way. "Max, I need some advice!" She yelled, continuing to dodge fire. "How do you beat a guy with a shield!?"

"When this happens in a boss fight, you usually need to find the boss' weak spot." He explained. "Usually a big glowing thing."

"His shoulders, got it."

She aimed for one of the monster's giant shoulder pads, and fired. The shots still hit the shield, dissipating immediately. "Oh, come on, seriously?" She yelled, dodging out of the way of another of the mantis' shots.

"Try hitting him in the back!" Max suggested "Sometimes the shield doesn't cover that."

She nodded, and rushed at the monster. Before it could process what was going on, she leaped over it, performing a flip. During the flip, she fired at the monster's back. Still, the shots were deflected.

She landed, and skidded across the ground, dust flying up. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Is that seriously the best you got?" The monster asked as it turned to her, sounding very disappointed. "Man, you were stronger when we first fought."

"I'm stronger than I've ever been." She retorted.

"Then why can't you break my shield?" It asked. "How can you be stronger when you can't even get past me for a second time?"

Blue let out another growl, this one louder. "Judy, calm down." Max said. "I'm sure we can find a way to…"

"DISTRACTION!"

The monster blasted at the rabbit as she listened to her advisor. The sharp bolt of energy pierced through her, causing a horrible burst of pain. She fell to the ground, twitching. After a few seconds, she vanished.

She blinked back into existance a moment later, standing decently away from the monster. "Oh, so I guess that's what its like to die." She said, looking over her body.

"Fun?"

"Nope."

She punched her paw into her palm. "I think I know how to break through the shield."

"Does it involve cheating?" Max asked.

"You know it." She answered, pulling out a ZooTag. She plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!
GET FIGHTIN'!
DON DON BAM!
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The boxing gloves appeared on her paws, the sound of a bell ringing punctuating it. This caught the monster's attention.

"The heck're those?" It asked, pointing towards the rabbit.

"These represent the strength I've gotten from my friends!" She punched one of the gloves forward. "The strength I've gotten from leading, from helping others!"

She dashed at the monster, and leaped into the air. Using all her strength, she punched into the shield. The glove clashed against it, but didn't bounce off. She pressed it down harder, and harder, until the shield cracked.

In an instant, the shield broke into pieces, the force of it launching them both back. Blue skid to a halt, while the monster tumbled back, and fell. She brought her arm back, as far as she could, and swung forward, launching a massive blast of energy at the monster.

The blast hit, causing a massive explosion. When it cleared, the monster had been obliterated.

The gloves disappeared from the rabbit's already gloved paws, as she pumped one into the air. "WOOHOO!"

"Only one more challenge left!" Max said. "And considering both of you still have two lives left, this should be a cake walk!"

Suddenly, the air above Judy ripped open. A green portal had formed, it swept her from the ground, and everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR!"

Judy flew through the air, and struck a perfect three-point landing on to the pixelated grass.

"How come you stuck the landing, and I fell flat on my face?" nick asked, walking up to her. His arms were cross.

"Because I," She started, standing up. "Was expecting it."

Thunder crashed as the two looked up. Mokumokuren rode down from the sky on his platform. "Ugh, you cheated AGAIN!" He yelled, absolutely frustrated.

"Well, you cheated first that time!" Judy retorted. "You made me fight a thousand guys on my own, and then you made the boss invincible!"

"The boss wasn't invincible, okay!?" The monster said. "You were supposed to lead it over to explosive barrels, and that would break the shield!"

"I didn't even see any barrels!"

The monster thought for a second. "Hmm, maybe I forgot to program them in…"

Judy pulled her ears over her face in frustration.

"Alright, bring on the third challenge!" Nick started, striding forward confidently.

"Are you sure you're ready for the last challenge?" Mokumokuren asked, with a bit of a chuckle.

"Yeah, pretty sure." He said. "We both have two lives left, no matter who goes, we win."

The monster burst into maniacle laughter. The two mammals looked at each other, nervous.

The yokai floated down closer, and stared at both of them, its many eyes shining.

"When did I say you both had three lives?"

Their eyes dilated as the monster started to laugh again.

"You did, though!" Judy blurted out. "You said we both got three lives!"

"No, I said 'you only have three lives', I never said you both did." The monster said. "And by the way, you both have to do this next challenge."

"WHAT!?"

"And if either one of you loses, you both die." He gave a quick salute. "See you, suckers!" He raised back into the sky, laughing the entire time.

The two mammals looked at each other. "Did he just hustle us?" Nick asked. Before Judy could respond, they both heard a crash. They turned to the yellow portal, which sucked them from the ground.

The two skidded across the ground as the portal shot them out. They were both back in their ranger outfits, and seemed to be out in the middle of a desert. A vast, vacant desert, with nothing for miles.

Though, they did appear to be standing on a paved road. The Mokumokuren floated down from the sky again.

"Hello, contestants, welcome to the racing challenge!" It greeted. "The goal of this game is simple. All you have to do is reach the goal before your opponent!"

"Alright, nice and simple." Red said, rubbing his paws together. "Nice of you to be more straightforward with us."

The two rangers pulled out their bike ZooTags, and summoned up the Kitsugider and Usagider. The hopped on, and headed for the starting line, a white line painted across the ground.

They paused for a moment, looking around. Nobody else was there. "Excuse me?" Blue started up. "Where's the competition?"

"Oh, he should be here in a minute." The Mokumokuren chuckled.

The two looked back, watching as a plume of black smoke raised into the air from far away. Something was coming.

From far away, they could tell it was massive, larger than anything they had seen without being in a giant robot. As it got closer, they heard the sounds of a train, a loud whistle, and the wheels chugging across the ground.

When it got even closer, they realized what it was.

It wasn't just a massive, black steam train. It had a face on it. The face of Incinerator Banki. The thing parked directly behind them, letting a massive cloud of black smoke expel from its mouth as it stopped. The two coughed as the smog cleared away.

"Here he is," Mokumokuren introduced. "Chaos Incinerator Banki, back from the scrapheap to show you two the real meaning of speed!"

The train made a guttural growling noise in response.

They turned back to the road ahead of them, though they could still feel the monster's breathing on them.

"Alright," Max started up, through their commlinks. "My screen's showing a display of the map. Aside from a bit in the middle, its mostly just a straight line. A very long straight line."

"So, the strategy is just 'keep going fast until you tell us not to'?" Red asked.

"Basically, yeah."

"I think that's something we can handle." Blue continued.

Mokumokuren floated up to them, hovering well above the starting line. He now held a checkered flag. "On 'game start'…" He held the flag up. "GAME START!"

He brought the flag down, and the three racers zoomed off.

The dust cleared, leaving the monster coughing. It quickly turned into a laugh as his plan started to unfold. "Now I'll make sure neither of them get out of here alive!" His platform quickly raised into the air, and flew off, following the racers.

The Zoorangers raced down the desert road, side by side. The Chaos Banki Beast still remained behind them, only by a bit. "That thing is a lot faster than I expected." Red said.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be catching up to us." Blue said. "We should be able to win this easily!"

"Guys, maybe you should keep an eye on him!"

"What?" Red quickly looked back, seeing the familiar blue figure of a Jukkarage standing on top of the train monster. It gripped onto the Banki's chimney, and pulled out a large black object.

It started to chuck the object at them, seemingly being able to pull out infinite amounts of them. The objects hit the ground shattering, but creating clear obstacles. The two had to swerve out of the way as the piles of rock started to cover the ground.

"Is he throwing coal at us!?" Red yelled.

"Max, what do we do?" Blue asked.

"Uh, try returning fire!" He suggested. "If he's allowed to attack, you should too!"

Blue nodded. If the road was a straight shot for the next bit, she could probably hit the monster without worrying about the road. She leaped up, and balanced on the cycle's seat as it continued to drive. She pulled out her blasters, and fired at the monster. Instead of disintegrating, it was launched off the train, and crashed into the ground.

The rabbit quickly focused back on the road, which was now clear of debris.

"Nice shooting there, tex." Red complimented.

"Thanks, I had a bit of practise earlier." She placed a paw next on her helmet, activating the communicator. "Max, how close is the middle section?"

"You still have a while before that." He said. "Why do you ask?"

"Just want to know how long we can keep defending ourselves." She said. "Also, can you describe the middle part? That might be useful."

"Oh, it's like…" He paused. "It's like a bowl of spaghetti." There was confused silence on the other side. "Its just a really curved road going over itself a bunch."

"I might have an idea." She said. "Just let me know when we're coming up to it."

"Alright. Also, you still probably want to watch out for that guy."

She looked behind her. The train's massive, ugly face was eyeing Red, who hadn't noticed. The monster shifted over a bit, going directly behind the fox. "Red, watch out!"

"What?" Suddenly, there was a large clanging noise. He looked behind himself. Not only was the monster closing in on him, but its mouth was slowly opening and closing. Oh god, was it trying to eat him?

In a few seconds, he felt the monster bump up against the bike, pushing it forwards a bit. He felt a burst of hot smoke against his back, which clouded around him. "I can't see!" He yelled, feeling his bike beginning to swerve.

The smoke cleared quickly, the fox fixing his bike during the short clear time. "Ah, screw this!" He shouted, pulling out the Vickscannon. He aimed it behind him, without looking, and started firing rapidly.

One of the shots managed to go straight into the train beast's mouth. There was a small explosion sound as the train pulsed for a moment. It started to slow down, its neutral expression changing to a more pained one.

"Take that, smog breath!" Red cheered.

"That was great, Red, but," Blue started, moving her bike closer to the fox's. "We actually need him to be going fast to do the plan."

"Can't you ever explain your plans to me beforehand?"

"If I explained them first, then the bad guys would know what it is!"

"This guy has a furnace for a brain, Carrots!"

"Guys, you're coming up to the… windy road bit!" Max shouted into both their communicators. "If you want to do this plan of yours Judy, you better get to it quick!"

She nodded. "Alright, Red, stay close, and fire at the monster!"

"Won't that just slow it down?" He asked.

"Just aim for parts that aren't weak spots, I guess!" She said. "We just need to irritate it!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and began rapidly firing at the monster, blindly. The shots bounced off of its metal body, but they did seem to be irritating it. The train let out a roar, and sped up, eventually returning to coasting just behind them.

"Alright, that should be enough, hopefully." Blue said. "Max, how long until the first turn?"

"A minute, at the pace you guys have been going." He stated. Everything was set in place, there was just one thing she couldn't control to get the plan working.

Thirty seconds later, they spotted something on the horizon. Some kind of wall, rising up.

Looks like everything was going to work out.

As they closed in, it was pretty clear the wall was actually a large ramp, part of the first, incredibly sharp turn. Blue closed back into red, and held her paw out. "Grab on!" She yelled.

The fox wasn't sure what she was going for, but he grabbed on anyway.

As they came to the ridiculously sharp turn, Blue followed along it, bringing them up the ramp a bit as the skidded through the turn. Suddenly, she stopped.

"Watch this." She said.

The two looked back, watching as the train monster zoomed past them, going right up the ramp and into the air. There was a loud groan, and then a sudden crash. Shortly after, there was a massive explosion, clearing out the entire winding road.

"Wow." The fox let out, not able to say anything else.

"Defeated the monster, made a shortcut." She said. "We got this in the bag."

The two started their cycles up again, and made a quick leap across the ramp. The entire section of the track had been reduced to a charred wasteland, parts of the train monster scattered around. "How do you come up with these plans so quickly?" Red asked as they drove through the oddly serene landscape.

She shrugged in response.

Eventually, they made it to the other side, the track starting back up again. In a few minutes, they would be free, and kick that monster's butt.

"Hold it, noobs!"

Mokumokuren lowered from the sky, keeping ahead of them while riding his platform. "Hey, qwerty boy." Red mockingly greeted. "Here to tell us we can go home now?"

"We did kind of destroy the only other guy in this race." Blue followed up, smugly.

"Oh, you two!" The monster laughed. "See, I expected you to cheat, which is why I programmed in a bit of a safeguard!"

Suddenly, the ground around them began to crack open, leaving a trail as they continued to race. "Meet your real competitors!" The monster yelled.

Out of the ground suddenly burst hundreds of Jukkarage, each riding one of those pink and green bicycles. They seemed to be handling it much better than the yokai had, and were able to keep up with the motorcycles.

"If a single one of these guys makes it to the finish line before you, you're getting cut from the program!" The monster threatened, before flying off on his platform.

"Well, this is great!" Red yelled. "The finish line's coming up, what are we supposed to do!?"

"Uh, just shoot them, I guess!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and began firing rapidly at the bike riding stone army. Though they blasted a large number of them, explosions and bike parts flying everywhere, the numbers never seemed to dwindle.

"THIS ISN'T WORKING!" Red yelled.

"Max, they just keep coming back!" Blue said into the commlink. "What do we…?"

"I think I have an idea!" The wolf said. "Going by what the monster said, only one of you needs to win. Someone needs to stay back and handle the monsters, while the other crosses the finish line!"

"NICK!" Blue shouted. "GO ON AHEAD!"

"What!?"

"I can handle them, you just need to win the race!"

Blue Ground her bike to a halt, and hopped off. She looked behind her as the fox sped off. The army of monsters was approaching, and she couldn't let a single one of them pass. Blue pulled out her blasters, and started to fire.

Like before, no matter how many she shot down, they kept coming back. She could hold them, but the rabbit wasn't sure for how long. She blasted one after another, but it didn't seem to be doing anything to slow them down.

They were closing in, but she needed to hold strong. Soon, the blasts wouldn't be able to do anything, but she needed to hold out a bit longer. Nick could do it, she knew he could. She could trust him with her life.

That's what partners were for.

The bikes headed for her, and zoomed past. If Nick wasn't almost at the finish line, they would be done for.

Suddenly, the sky turned dark, a portal ripping through the air above her. He did it! He made it to the finish line before the monsters had. Everything was going perfectly.

Wait a second.

That portal was blue. Wasn't the one they went through yellow?

It ripped her from the ground, and everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR!"

Judy fell to the ground. It wasn't the grass from the digital plain, it was hard rock. Like that of a really old castle, or a dungeon. It was also pitch black, so she couldn't see anything. What she could tell was that she wasn't in her suit anymore.

It didn't feel like her uniform, or her normal clothes, though.

"Nick!?" She yelled into the darkness. Her voice was a bit muffled, there was some kind of scarf covering it.

"Judy!?" A voice responded from somewhere in the darkness. It was Nick, he was nearby.

Lights began to flick on, a number of torches lining the stone whiles catching on pixelated fire, which lit everything up. The two had been standing right next to each other. They glanced at their clothing.

"What are you wearing?" They both said, simultaneously.

Nick was dressed in what looked like light armor, covering most of his body and making him look slightly bulkier. It was mostly steel, with an undercoat of red cloth. He had a helmet on his head, which his ears poked through. Out of the top of it was a large red feather.

Judy, meanwhile, was covered in a hood, with a bandana covering her mouth. She was also wearing a blue, ragged outfit that covered her entire body, leading up to gloves.

The two laughed at their weird outfits for a moment, before there was a thunder clap. They turned to look down the hall, watching as a figure materialized. It was Mokumokuren.

"Welcome, heroes!" He started. "Are you ready to begin the final challenge?"

"You said there were only three challenges." Nick said. "What's the deal with this?"

"And what's with the outfits?" Judy followed up.

"Well, because you three CHEATED, I felt we needed a final tie breaker." The monster said. "And the outfits are for effect. You're a knight," He pointed to Nick. "And you're a thief." He pointed at Judy.

"Why am I the thief?" The rabbit asked, feeling a bit insulted. "I've only stolen one thing in my life."

The fox raised an eyebrow. He'd have to ask about that later.

"Who cares!?" The monster yelled back. "Its just an aesthetic thing anyway! Anyway, your goal here is to beat me, so try your best!"

"Beat you?" Nick said. "That should be easy."

The two pulled out their weapons.

Or, well, they pulled out weapons.

Nick pulled out a fairly standard looking broadsword, while Judy pulled out a pair of twin daggers, which actually looked like daggers and not carrots.

"What the heck!?" The rabbit let out, looking at the knives.

"Oh yeah, I also changed your weapons." The monster said, almost as if it didn't matter. "Probably should've told you before I did THIS!"

There was a bright flash, and when it cleared, nothing had changed. Mokumokuren stood there, several feet from them. Suddenly test appeared in front of him.

"MOKUMOKUREN draws near! Command?"

"Oh man," Max started. Somehow, they still had their commlinks up. "You guys are in an RPG. This might be trouble."

"Max?" Nick said, a bit confused. "How are you still talking to us, we aren't in our suits."

"I think he might have just reskinned them, somehow." He explained. "They're still your suits, they just look different."

"That's weird." Judy said. "So, what are we supposed to do in an RPG?"

"Defeat the enemy, basically."

"Got it." Judy tried to rush forward, but her feet wouldn't move. Its almost like they were glued to the ground, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull free. After a few minutes of struggling, she gave up.

"Oh, I guess its Nick's turn." Max finally said.

"What does that mean?" The fox asked.

"That means you're the one who gets to attack." Max explained. "RPGs are usually turn based, so after you attack, Judy should be able to go next."

"Alright, that doesn't make any sense." Nick said, but he still went with it. He rushed at the monster, the armor clanking as he did. He slashed the sword through the monster, which didn't seem to hurt it at all. Instead, a large number appeared above it, reading 100.

Almost instantly, Nick felt himself jerked back to the spot he was previously standing in. Now his feet couldn't move.

"Your turn, Jude."

The rabbit, quickly stomped her feet, prepping them. She dashed at the monster and slashed at it with both her daggers. Again, no response, but two numbers, both reading 50, appeared with each strike. She was also jerked back into place.

"Guess what, you low levels?" The monster started. "My turn!"

The Mokumokuren raised its hands, summoning massive fireballs in each of them. He thrust his hands forward, launching the flames at the two. The fire burst, striking immense pain through the two as they fell to their knees.

Large numbers flashed in front of their faces, each reading 500.

Judy rose back to her feet, rather unsteadily. "Seriously?" She said. "He can deal five hundred damage to us, but we only cause one hundred?"

Nick rose as well. "I'm starting to think this guy doesn't play fair." He joked.

"Yeah, he just took out half of your health." Max said. "If he hits you again…"

"How are we supposed to not get hit?" Nick asked. "We're pretty much sitting ducks when his next turn comes!"

"I think I have an idea." The wolf said. "Just wait until his turn comes up."

Nick dashed forward first, swinging his blade through the monster. Judy followed up, performing a similar action. Both hits only caused 100 damage.

"Time to end this!" The monster yelled, preparing to attack.

"Alright, just repeat after me."

"Hey, master program!" Nick yelled. "You call this a video game, its more like a mobile game!"

"WHAT!?" The monster yelled back, stepping down from its attack. "I'll have you know that not a single phone could handle this game's graphical capabilities, let alone its complex mechanics!"

"Sorry, but I've seen better graphics while playing Candy Crush." Nick retorted.

"Nice one." Max said.

The monster clenched its fists, and started to glow red. Text appeared below it.

"MOKUMOKUREN has become frustrated! Attack increased!"

"Wait, no!" The monster yelled. "I didn't want to spend my turn on that!"

"Too bad!"

The two rangers launched at the monster again. The monster began to prepare an attack once again. "My attack's doubled, I'll kill you both in one shot!" It threatened.

Judy gave a quick nod to Max over the commlink. "I doubt that, considering how much you forgot to program into the game already!" She taunted.

The monster stopped its attack, and stumbled forward. "What does that mean!?"

"Well, you forgot to program in the barrels during that boss fight." She said. "Maybe you didn't even program in the damage for that attack!"

"I put a lot of work into this, ingrates!" The monster yelled, starting to glow red. "Try to respect the guy who's going to kill you!"

"MOKUMOKUREN has become frustrated! Attack increased!"

"WHAT!? NO!"

The pattern continued for a while.

"That platformer was so poorly designed, it was like some bad fan game!"

"Your stuff would be laughed off of Steam Greenlight!"

"No Mammal's Sky was better than anything you've put out."

"Reviewers wouldn't even give this a good score if you paid them!"

With each insult, the monster wasted a move, until eventually his health was nearly drained. It stumbled back as Judy flew back to her normal spot. "How is this happening!?" It yelled. "I programmed this so that I couldn't lose!"

"Enough games!"

There was a burst of dark energy between the triangle the three had formed. From it emerged Kyuemon, who walked up to the stunned monster.

"M-master Kyuemon!" It sputtered. "How did you-"

"I guess you were really just a disappointment again, Mokumokuren." Kyuemon held up a red object. "Maybe you'll be better off with a power-up."

He tossed the Chaos Badge directly into Mokumokuren's space bar, and then vanished in a burst of purple energy.

The monster began to convulse, and then flashed in and out. The monster then changed suddenly, growing two crooked horns out of its massive heads. All of the eyes on its body changed into the chaos symbol, while the eyes on its space bar transformed into a crooked smile. A robe covered its body, which was covered in shifting mouths and eyes.

"Everyone knows that when the final boss is about to be defeated," The monster started, swinging its now claws hands out. "It goes into its more powerful second form!"

Stylized lettering appeared underneath the monster, reading "CHAOS MOKUMOKUREN".

Suddenly, the two found that they could move their legs again. They both drew their weapons, and started to approach the new chaos yokai. "Hold it!" It said, sticking an arm out. "Why don't we take this somewhere a bit more… advanced?"

"What?" Both of them let out.

The monster swung its arms again, shooting a burst of dark energy. Everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR?"

Max watched as the TV screen began to crackle with electricity. It burst open, shooting glass all over the room. Out of it flew a cloud of darkness which travelled up and out of the basement. Left behind were Nick and Judy, back in their ranger suits.

They looked up at him. Max was sitting on the couch, in his suit. "Have you been sitting like that the whole time?" Nick asked.

"Yes."

"That looks uncomfortable." Judy said.

"It definitely is."

He quickly jolted up, and stretched out. "Alright, we have a monster to deal with, so let's get on that." All three nodded, and rushed up the stairs.

Silver slammed the door open, all three running out. They all saw the cloud slam into the street outside, and reform into Chaos Mokumokuren. "Time to get this game started!" It yelled.

It let out another burst of dark energy, pixels following as it traveled. "Its time for this game to be over!" Silver yelled as the three ran up to the yokai, weapons brandished.

"I doubt you can beat me on super hard!" The monster retorted.

"Well, I'm definitely a higher level than you!" Silver continued. Blue and red looked at each other, confused.

"Enough of the puns." Nick let out. "Lets just fight already."

"Level one, start!" The monster held out its fists, pixels beginning to cover them. They formed into two large gauntlets, ending at blunt keyboard key points. Both of them had Mokumokuren's eyes on them.

"GEKITOTSU ROBOTS!" A voice from nowhere yelled.

"Key Puncher!"

The monster punched both of its fists forward, launching off the keys, which appeared to be rocket powered. They flew towards the rangers, who prepped their weapons. One of the keys flew towards Blue, who raised a foot, holding it at bay. She pushed it back, and smacked it with one of her daggers, changing its trajectory

Another one flew to Red, who blocked it with his sword, the flying fist pushing against it. It started to push him back, until Silver swung his blade into the key, changing its direction as well. The keys launched into the air, and circled back to Chaos Mokumokuren.

The keys landed back on the monster's arms, as he rushed forward. "I'll handle this one." Blue said, slipping the Boxer Busters ZooTag into her Zoolizer.

She leaped into the air, and the two began to exchange blows. They were rapid and furious, shockwaves flying out every time they connected. Finally, Blue jabbed into the monster's fist, and quickly followed up with a kick, knocking the fist away.

The monster stumbled back as the rabbit landed back on the ground. She dashed into the air, delivering a blow directly to the monster's face. It flew back and crashed into the ground, the gauntlets disappearing.

"Ugh, that didn't go well!" The monster said, getting up. "Time for level two!"

The monster flourished its arms again, this time causing a much larger number of flaying keys to materialize. They were only different due to the fact they had little wings jutting out of the sides.

"JET COMBAT!"

He threw his arm forward, sending the platoon of flying keys towards the three. The eyes on them began to light up, before firing a flurry of lasers towards the rangers. There was a rain of sparks as the lasers hit them.

"Alright, Blue, Silver!" Red shouted, pulling out the Vickscannon. "Let's shoot these keys out of the sky!" The other two nodded, Blue pulling out her blasters, and Silver quickly switching his sword to Sun Mode.

The three began firing up into the sky, knocking the keys out of the sky. With each one, the flying keys crashed into the ground, causing small explosions. Some flew directly towards them, seemingly in suicide runs, and by the time they were cleared out, the three were spread out.

"Time for wave two!" The monster yelled, spreading out his arms again. Three large clouds of the keys flew out of his cape heading towards the rangers.

Silver spotted this, and quickly dashed to the middle of the street. The swarm aimed at him followed him as he did. The wolf spun the sword guard around again.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time froze, Silver preparing the Eclipse Thruster. He began to jab his blade around at the highest speed he could possibly manage. He fell to the ground, using his sword as leverage to hold himself up. Time resumed again.

The massive number of flying keys suddenly exploded.

The two ran up to Silver. "You alright, Wolfsbane?" Red asked, trying to help the wolf up.

"Yeah, just…" He stumbled forwards a bit. "Over exerting myself a bit."

"LEVEL THREE!" The monster yelled, they turned to face him. The Mokumokuren pulled out a pair of thin swords, and slashed them about.

"GIRIGIRI CHANBARA!"

It dashed at them, swords raised. "Stay back for a bit, alright?" Red suggested to the wolf, who gave a quick nod.

The two raised their weapons as well, and charged in. Blue leaped into the air, rapidly clashing blades with one of the monster's swords. Red was busy dealing with the other sword, the monster somehow managing to effectively handle them both at the same time.

The Mokumokuren knocked both of the rabbit's blades out of his path, and knocked her to the ground with a single slash. It turned to the fox, and began wailing on the fox's blade. The two clashed rapidly. The monster's ability with the blades being surprisingly adept.

"Think you can handle this steel, fox!?" The monster threatened, slashing both of the blades onto the fox's. Red pushed back, but the monster seemed to be too strong.

Suddenly, the monster reeled in pain, dropping the blades. It had been struck in the back by something. It quickly spun around, seeing the rabbit, daggers drawn. "God, don't you even know the basics of one on one combat?" She asked, twirling one of the daggers around.

There was another pain in the yokai's back, launching him off. Red stepped up to Blue, and the two fistbumped. "Never let your guard down."

"Gah, stupid animals!" The monster yelled, the swords suddenly reappearing in a burst of pixels. "I'll rend your flesh form your bones!"

"That'd be a lot more threatening if I thought you could do that." Nick said, pulling out the Racing Claws ZooTag. The claws appeared on his paws, and the two dashed at each other.

The monster brought the swords down, only for Red to catch them in his gauntlets. The fox gripped them around the blades, as tight as he could manage. Using his strength, he pulled the blades down to the side. He quickly let go, and unleashed a quick flurry of slashes at the monster. The swords shattered, and the keyboard yokai flew back.

Silver ran up to the two. "How you doing?" Blue asked.

"Just needed a quick breather, don't worry."

The monster struggled to get up, and let up a roar once it finally did. "I'll use my ultimate secret weapon!" It yelled. "Prepare yourselves, for the ultimate pain!"

High paced techno music began to permeate the air, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"DOREMIFASO BEAT!"

The monster suddenly started dancing. Not even incredibly well, it was kind of stumbling around a bit. The three rangers glanced at each other as nothing else happened.

"Alright, let's just finish this." Red said, pulling out the cannon and sword. The three tossed their weapons into the air, forming the Zookaiser.

"SOLAR NATURE BLAST!"

The three fired the cannon at the monster, who suddenly stopped dancing as the blast approached him. "Wait, hold on, I wasn't-"

The blast split into two different orbs, red and blue, which sliced through the monster's body. They quickly raised up into the sky, and combined into a silver orb, which crashed down onto the monster and exploded.

The monster stumbled and sparked, letting out a final cry as it exploded. Out of the explosion flew a keyboard, which crashed into the ground, shattering into pieces.

"Well, that was a pain." Red said, relieved.

A red object raised from the explosion, and flew off into the distance, reforming into Chaos Mokumokuren. "LOOKS LIKE I HAD AN EXTRA LIFE!" The monster roared.

The three summoned up their mechs, quickly forming into their giant robots. "Alright, let's get ready to teach this guy the basic coding for a beating!" Blue quipped as the two mechs stomped forward.

"That was a pretty good one." Max admitted.

"Two against one?" The monster yelled. "That's not fair play! ENGAGING CO-OP MODE!"

A sudden cloud of pixels appeared next to the monster, which quickly formed into that of a Gashadokuro. "Get ready for a real power play, Zoorangers!" The monster said, pulling out a large staff, tipped with what looked like an escape key.

"I'll take the skeleton guy." Silver said, ZooKami readying its blade.

The two nodded, before watching as the keyboard monster approached. "Alright, let's get this started." Red said, quickly plugging a ZooTag into the cockpit.

"BAN BAN BOOM!
GIRI GIRI!
CUTTING THROUGH!
ZOOKUMA!"

The bear mech appeared, and quickly combined with ZooRobo. It stomped forward, and delivered a quick slash to the monster's staff, which it held in a block.

ZooKami slashed its sword forward as well, clashing with the Gashadokuro's bone blade. The mech effortlessly pushed the monster's sword back, and delivered a quick strike to its skull, sending sparks flying.

The skeleton beast unhinged its jaw, and began spewing a number of bones at the wolf mech, who blocked them with its sword. It quickly swung the sword through the monster again, causing it to stumble and fall. As it hit the ground, it burst into a pile of bones.

ZooRobo swung its claws into the monster's staff again, sending sparks flying. "If you wanna get past, you'll have to download the new update!" The monster joked, pushing the bear claws back.

"The only update we'll need," Red started, the mech raising its claw higher into the air. "Is kicking your butt dot EXE!" The robot brought the claw down in a swift motion, slicing right through the staff.

"That's not even an update file type, you idiot!" The monster yelled as it flew back.

The mech raised the claw in the air. The claws began to glow, and stretched upwards, to ridiculous lengths.

"CRASHING SLASH!"

The mech brought the claw down onto the monster, cutting directly through it. The monster began to spark, and tip over.

"GAME OVER!" It yelled as it fell, exploding as it hit the ground. ZooRobo turned away from the explosion, jutting a claw forward.

The three returned to the ground, and untransformed.

"Well, that was a trip." Nick said. He quickly turned to Judy. "So, did you learn anything today?"

"What?"

"Well, Max helped us out a lot with his video game knowledge, so…"

"Are you still on about that?"

The fox's jaw dropped a bit in confusion.

"Did you seriously think I went to his house to rail on him for liking video games?" She asked, almost seeming offended. "I really do want to figure out why he likes them."

"Really?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's, uh, really cool of you."

"Really?" Nick said, surprised.

"Yep."

"No moral lesson about how…" The fox thought for a moment. "How having a hobby isn't harmful, or something?"

"Nope."

The fox stood there, stunned. He had no idea what to say.

Judy clapped her paws together. "So, you said I could maybe, try one of those games out?" She asked Max.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He said. "We got the rest of the day."

"Well, I'm going to go home." Nick said. "I feel humiliated and tired."

"Alright."

"See you later!"

A few moments later, the fox was left alone. He gave a shrug, and headed off.

Nick was wrapped up in his blankets, already having drifted off into sleep hours ago. It was dark, just past midnight at the earliest. The fox was woken up suddenly by loud beeping. He groggily reached for his night stand, snatching his phone from it.

He rubbed his eyes, and looked at the caller ID. It was Max. Why was he calling this late?

"Hello?" The fox mumbled.

"Hey, Nick!" It was Max, and he sounded wide awake.

"Why are you calling me, Wolfsbane?" He asked. "It's two in the morning."

"Yeah, uh, I need you to come pick up Judy."

Nick's eyes burst open. "She hasn't left yet?"

"Nope. She's been here. For the last eight hours."

"What's she been doing?"

"She got really into Nyaoh." Max said. "I have a bunch more games more her speed, but she picked that one for some reason."

"She any good at it?" Nick asked, curious.

"She's been stuck on the first level."

The fox let out a chuckle.

"So yeah, I'm really tired, and we both have work tomorrow, so can you please come get her?" He sounded desperate.

"I'll be over in a few, don't worry." Nick said, hanging up. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. Getting completely obsessed over something? That definitely sounded very Judy-like.

"So, is the weapon ready?" Herder asked as Leopold walked him into a large, open room.

"The prototype is, sir." Leopold explained, putting heavy emphasis on the word prototype. He walked the goat up to a large stand.

On the stand was a gun, relatively large for anything other than a massive animal. Its barrel was an upside-down triangle, which led to a more rounded grip embedded a bit near the back of the gun. The gun's grip and trigger were odd, a protective point of metal covering the bottom, and a larger chunk covering the top. Next to the gun sat the coin.

Herder stared at the weapon in awe, despite not being tall enough to reach it.

"We call it the Anti-Matter Blaster." Leopold said, grabbing onto it. "The name doesn't really mean anything, but its pithy."

"Pithy is good." Herder stated. "So, how does the coin function into it?"

"Well, the coin is the power source." Leopold explained, grabbing onto it. On the top piece of the gun, there was a small slot, just large enough for the coin to fit in. The leopard slipped it in, causing the gun to emit a small hum.

"Once its in, the Anti-Matter Blaster starts to use its energy." Leopold continued. He motioned to another scientist, a polar bear. He quickly dragged over a large wooden crate, which seemed to be on level with the gun.

"So, when we fire it at something…" Leopold started. He swivelled the gun around on its stand, aiming it at the crate. Herder noticed the rest of the scientists back away from it.

The leopard pulled the trigger, firing a massive grey blast of energy at the crate. The crate glowed as the beam struck, and in a few, brief moments, vanished completely.

"It completely disintegrates, molecule by molecule."

"Amazing." Herder said, genuinely awestruck. It was something the leopard saw rarely. This might actually have been the first time. "You managed to make this in a week?"

"Its amazing what you can do when your job is on the line." Leopold wanted to say. A simple "Yes, sir." came out instead.

"So, if you could do one in a week," Herder started, tapping his hooves together. "Then I suppose you could make more, correct?"

"More!?" Leopold yelled. "Sir, this is only a prototype, there's still so many things we haven't tested! We don't even know if the coin has enough-"

"Shut it, Leopold." Herder said. "I'm your boss, what I say goes. And I want more of these made, got it?"

Leopold took a deep breath. "Alright, we'll have more made by next week." He reluctantly said.

"Good." The goat said, walking away. Everyone sighed in relief as he left the room.

"Alright everyone." Leopold started. "You heard the chief, let's get to work."

There was a collective groan from everyone in the room.

Another chapter down! I originally wanted this to be a character focused episode for Max, but it ended up being more of one for Judy. I also was going to have this be a subtler tribute to Ex-Aid, but I said screw that and made it as obvious as possible.

RIP Dan, he was the best evil Rider design in a while.

Don't worry, we're almost out of the filler stuff. We only have, like, one episode of filler before we head back to main plot stuff.

Next time, we tackle another staple of Sentai, and basically anything, if we're being honest. Yep, we're doing the dreaded amnesia episode.