Zoorangers

by Bionichute

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

26. Episode 25-Trainy-ing! Controlling Qi

Episode 25 – Trainy-ing! Controlling your Qi

"Alright guys, ready for another go?"

There was a collective groan from the other two. Judy turned to look at them. The fox and wolf were dressed in light exercise outfits, both looking incredibly tired. "You know we're both nocturnal, right?" Nick asked, rubbing his eyes.

The three had started (Or rather, Judy forced Nick and Max) to train early in the morning. They had been doing it for the past week, the regiment consisting mostly of jogging around the park, and then doing various other activities like sit-ups and push-ups.

"You know this is necessary." Judy said. She was also dressed in workout clothes. "We need to get stronger to keep fighting, and we can't get stronger if we don't start working out more!"

"Do we have to do it at five AM?" Max asked.

"Yes." The rabbit said, bluntly. "Its always better to work out in the morning than at night. Besides, aren't you guys excited to see how we are tomorrow?" She asked. "We're gonna beat whatever they throw at us no problem!"

"It's been hurting how we do at work, Carrots." Nick said. "Max and I show up tired, and I have to sleep in the car for two hours."

"At least you don't have to drive." Max said.

"The fate of the world is a lot more important than our jobs." Judy said. "So, if you show up tired, no big deal. As long as we get stronger. Right?"

The two nodded, weakly.

"Great!" She said, clasping her paws. "Let's get to it! Like always, three laps around the park first!" She dashed off.

The fox and wolf looked at each other, both letting out massive groans. Reluctantly, they both ran off after her.

Around an hour later, the three had finished exercising.

"Woo!" Judy let out, before chugging down the last of her water. "Wasn't that invigorating?"

She looked at Nick, who was laying belly down on the ground. "Everything hurts." He groaned, slightly muffled by his tongue hanging out.

She looked over at Max, who was also laying on the ground, his legs up in the air. "I feel like a corpse." He muttered, before rolling over.

"You two are so overdramatic." Judy said, rolling her eyes. "You don't have to do this every day."

"How else are we supposed to tell you that we hate this?" Nick asked, getting up.

"I know you both hate it, but training is important." She said. "You would know that if you passed paw-to-paw at the academy."

"She's got you there." Max said, also getting up.

Judy pulled out her phone. "Oh cheese and crackers, its almost time for work!" She yelled. "You want a ride, Max?"

"A ride doesn't involve walking all the way back to my place, so yeah."

They headed over to the cruiser, and got in. "Hey, I have a question." Nick said as the car started to move.

"Is this about how you can get out of training?" Judy asked. "Because you can't."

"No, its just…" He paused for a moment. "For the last week, we've mostly just been patrolling. Do you think we can tackle an actual case with this early morning training?"

Judy scoffed. "We're great officers, we can handle anything." She said. 'I don't think we have anything to worry about.

---

The apartment door slammed open, the fox and rabbit sluggishly dragging their bodies in.

"'Oh, we can handle it.'" Nick started, performing a rude imitation of Judy.

"Nick…"

"Went really well, didn't it?" He said, angry. He flopped down onto the couch. "Great police officers, woo!" He raised his fist into the air, sarcastically.

"Nick, I didn't know that we'd-" She tried to continue, before the fox interrupted her.

"I didn't know lemmings could be master thieves!" He shouted. "We ran around the city for fifteen hours, and didn't even catch one of them!"

"We can worry about that later." She said. "Its midnight, and we have bigger things to worry about."

He sighed. "Sorry for yelling." He said. "I'm just really tired."

"I am too. Let's just go to bed."

The fox sat up. "Good idea."

The two headed for their rooms, Judy pausing for a moment. She let out a chuckle, and turned to the fox before he entered his room. "Hey, at least we don't have to train tomorrow, right?"

Nick laughed back. "Risking our lives fighting a monster is much more manageable than your training."

The two entered their rooms, and both of them nearly instantly passed out.

As Judy slept in her bed, dreaming about what could possibly happen the next day, she was unaware as something came into her room. A golden mist seeped through the cracks in her window, reforming into a massive red eyed creature that could barely fit into the room.

It looked down at her, silently, and pulled out an object. It placed the object on the rabbit's head, it seeming to disappear into her skull. The creature waved a hand over her, sending a wave of purple energy.

The creature disappeared into a burst of golden mist, which moved through the cracks in her door, and then into Nick's room. It reformed, still too large to fully fit. IT repeated the exact same process on the fox, and gave a small laugh once it finished.

It dispersed into mist again, and retraced its path out of the building. It reformed in the alley outside.

"The first step has been set." It said to itself. "The rest… is up to them."

---

It snapped its fingers.

Unlike Nick and Judy, Max HAD only gone on patrol that day. He got home much earlier, and got a much better sleep.

Well, until the monster alert went off.

The loud beeping shocked him awake. He scrambled to slap the device onto his wrist, scooping it up from his nightstand and fumbling with it.

As he put the device on, the information of where the attack was happening filled his mind. He got out of bed, and picked up his phone. "Hopefully they're up for it after today." He sighed, before speed dialling up Nick.

"Hey, this is Nick Wilde's answering machine. If you're trying to reach me, I'm either too busy to answer, or I'm ignoring you."

Why did he even call Nick?

"Hello, this is Judy Hopps."

"Judy, It's me, we have-"

"I can't come to the phone right now, so, if its important, please leave a message."

The wolf fell into silence as a beep sounded. Judy never missed his calls, especially on Mondays. Were they really that tired? At the least, the beeping should have woken them up.

He thought for a moment, always best to do that before panicking. The monster was located very near their apartment going by what the Zoolizer told him, they probably noticed it and were in the middle of fighting it. That's why they couldn't answer their phones.

Hopefully he was right.

Max rushed out of his house, and transformed, before leaping off into the night sky.

---

Silver rushed into the middle of a plaza, lined with large trees. There wasn't anyone, or anything, there. No monsters, no other Rangers. Just him.

He was pretty sure this was the place, though.

Silver glanced around the plaza, looking for something. His ears picked up the sound of… something flying towards him?

Before he could react, something scraped past his midsection, plunging into the ground in front of him. It was an arrow, silver, and with an odd, bushy… tail at the end of it.

He pulled it out of the ground and examined it. Alright, there was definitely someone here, but…

Before he could finish his thought, a rain of energy shot down at him, causing sparks to fly off of him as the wolf was knocked to the ground. He got back up quickly, and looked around, still no sign of anyone. Whatever this monster was, it was toying with him.

He looked up, seeing something in the sky, glittering. He spun the guard on his blade around, switching it to Moon Mode. He thrust the laser whip up towards it, but more of the energy fired from the flying thing, breaking the whip.

That could've gone better.

More arrows flew at him, which the wolf quickly dodged. Then more energy knives rained from the sky, which he also avoided narrowly.

Wait, was he dealing with TWO monsters here!?

He spun around, quickly switching his blade to Sun Mode, and sprayed a burst of fireballs around him. Before one of the fireballs hit a tree, something leaped out of it and hit the ground.

"Well, I was hoping to keep that going a bit longer!" The monster laughed as it stepped forward.

He heard the other monster land behind him. "Well, we don't have much time." It said. "So maybe it's better just to get this over with quickly." Silver quickly glanced back and forth at the two.

The first monster had a red and white head, with blue eyes and pointed ears. It also wore a blue longcoat, which seemed to be covered in decorative eyes… or maybe not decorative, Silver wasn't entirely sure. It wore rather normal brown boots, and white, baggy pants. A furry collar went around its neck, which split off into a tail at the back. The monster seemed to have a large fox's head embedded in its chest.

The second monster seemed to be female, and was mostly covered in dull browns and golds, aside from a few sections on her arms and legs which were colored pink and blue. It had rather long, blade-like ears, or at least what could at best be described as ears. Its head seemed to be completely featureless, only having a few black slits where its eyes should be. It had very large sleeves, each of which had several large knives hanging from them. On its chest, between its breasts, was a design that seemed to mimic the head of a rabbit.

"Who are you two?" Silver asked, continuing to look at them.

"Fox Fist User, Tsuneki!" The fox monster said. It twirled around a blue and brown bow, before bowing. "At your service!"

Fairy Fist User, Hiso." The other one said, in a much more collected tone. "The master sent us here to kill you."

"You can't kill me." Silver scoffed. "I'm not the only who's going to fight you! My teammates will show up soon enough."

The two monsters started laughing.

"What's so funny!?"

"Sorry, wolfy boy," Tsuneki started. "But your friends aren't coming to save your hide this time!"

"Maybe you should just run along and play with your toys." Hiso mocked.

Silver stumbled a bit, before turning to the rabbit monster. "How did you…?"

Tsuneki quickly fired multiple arrows in Silver's direction, striking him in the back while he was distracted. "Keep your eyes on the hunt, boy!" The monster shouted. "You should really focus on getting out of this alive!"

The wolf growled, and rushed at Tsuneki, swinging his sword at it. The fox monster blocked the blade with his bow, and smacked Silver back with it. He then felt multiple strikes in the back as Hiso jabbed at him rapidly.

Silver fell to the ground, and Tsuneki crouched down to look at him. "Are you sure the boss really wants us to kill this guy?" He asked. "He's way too weak, I don't even sense any qi on him. I think we're too good for this."

"I'M too good for this." Hiso said, harshly. "This guy fits perfectly on a Beastial Qi Fist User's level."

"That hurts, you know?"

Silver quickly got up, and socked Tsuneki right in the face, knocking him to the ground. He spun around and attempted to strike Hiso with his sword. The rabbit monster effortlessly grabbed onto the blade.

"See, he's totally on your level." Hiso said, not even seeming to notice the wolf, who was trying to push his blade into her hand.

"Ugh, shut up."

Hiso flipped the blade out of the way, and delivered a few quick kicks to Silver's gut, knocking him back. The fox monster quickly got up, and cracked his bow over Silver's skull, knocking him back to the ground. "I'm not this pathetic." Tsuneki scoffed.

Hiso picked the wolf back up from the ground, and delivered a few slashes to him with the knives on her wrist. He stumbled into Tsuneki's grasp, the fox wrapping his arms around his. Hiso stepped forward and kicked the wolf directly in the snout, before rapidly jabbing him in the stomach. She stepped back as Tsuneki let go, Silver stumbling forward.

He felt a sharp pain in his back. Tsuneki had just stabbed him with an arrow. He ripped it out of the wolf's back, causing him to untransform and fall back to the ground. He was battered and beaten, parts of his fur tangled with blood.

"Just pathetic." Hiso said.

"It isn't fair…" Max mumbled.

Tsuneki crouched down again. "What was that, wolfy?"

"Its not fair." He sputtered. "Two against one… isn't fair…"

"Wah wah, cry me a river." The fox said, getting up and kicking the wolf over. "There's no such thing as fairness in a hunt."

"I suppose its time to finish you off." Hiso said, placing a foot on top of the wolf's battered body. She paused for a second, before removing her foot. "…You got lucky this time, wolf."

"Whats going on?" Tsuneki asked.

"Master says to keep him alive." She said. "We're almost out of time anyway, we should head back."

"Awwwww." Tsuneki groaned. "It would have been hilarious to see their faces!"

Hiso slapped him in the face. "This isn't about your personal amusement, lower level." She said. "This is about appeasing Master Long."

"Why should I, I barely know the guy!" Tsuneki said. Hiso turned to him, and grabbed him by the throat.

"Because I'm stronger than you, so if you don't want to be killed, you do what I say."

She quickly let go. "Jeez, fine." The fox finished, before they leaped off into the horizon.

Max let out a groan as he rolled onto his back. "Everything's fine. You've survived worse than this." He said to himself, weakly. That was a lie. He had never been in as much pain as he was right now.

He laid there on the cold ground, and he could only think one thought.

Where were Nick and Judy?

---

"So, this is Zootopia."

The figure looked around as early morning light shone over the city. The white creature pulled out a map, and examined it. "Flots Flats…" He said to himself. "Should be around there… but where am I?" He glanced around. There were no street signs nearby, the road seemed to be one way – leading directly to the entrance he came in from.

He spotted a pig, who seemed to be getting the paper at the front of his lawn. He jogged over to him, putting the map in his belt. "Excuse me, sir!"

The pig glanced up, taken aback by the creature's appearance. "What the heck are you supposed to be?"

He looked down at his white outfit. "I'm, uh…" He paused as an idea came to him. "I'm a Zoo Ranger!"

"Oh, you're one of those weirdo heroes." The pig said, dismissively. "Why are one of you guys talking to me?"

"I just want to know what street I'm on." He said. "I'm new here, trying to find a place."

"Oh, so you're a tourist super hero." The pig said. "Well, you're on Prairie Road. This is where tourists from overseas come in most of the time."

He pulled out his map. "Alright, Prairie Road… Shouldn't be too far from here." There was a sudden loud grumbling noise. The figure kneeled down clutching his stomach. "Ohhh, I haven't had breakfast yet!" He glanced back up at the pig. "Are there any good breakfast places nearby?"

"Uh, there's a few nearby."

"Is there any with, uh…" He paused and looked at the pig. How could he make this not completely awkward? "Is there any place that sells… meat… products?"

"Well, Buga Burger has a good breakfast menu." The pig said, surprisingly not seeming weirded out. "Pancakes, hashbrowns, I heard the centipede breakfast sandwich is pretty good."

"Oh, I… I think I'll pass on that." He said, getting up. "What about fish?"

"There's a fish market nearby." The pig said. "You can probably find something there."

He gave a quick bow. "Thank you!" He then quickly dashed off.

'Man, I just want some pork buns…"

---

The fox sat up in his bed, and let out a big yawn, stretching his arms out. He smacked his lips a few times, and got up. He exited the room to see Judy up. She was always an early bird.

"Man," He started, sitting down on the couch. "I had a really good sleep last night."

"Saaame." Judy said back. She brought over some coffee, and sat down next to him. "It feels really nice to not have to wake up that early."

"You're the one who wanted to do this training thing," Nick chuckled. "And now you're happy you don't have to do it?"

"Oh, please." She scoffed. "I just have more energy than you two, it still sucks getting up that early."

"So, should we get ready for today's scheduled monster attack?" Nick asked as he sipped some of his coffee.

"Lets just relax for a bit."

Judy's ears popped up as a loud knock sounded from their door. It was less a knock, actually, and more of a pound.

The rabbit got up, and went over to the door. She opened it up, revealing the injured Wolford.

"Hey, how's everything going?" He said as he stumbled in.

"Oh my god!" Judy yelled, seeing the state of the wolf. "Max, what happened!?"

Nick got up, and quickly helped the wolf to his feet as he started to tip over. "Did the Wolf Pack get to you or something?"

They lead the wolf over to the couch, and sat him down. "I'll try not to get any blood on the couch." He said, weakly.

"Who cares!?" Judy shouted. "Just tell us who did this to you!"

"Two monsters…" He said. "Why weren't you there…?"

"Two monsters?" Nick said. "That's new."

"What's not new is our Zoolizers acting wonky." Judy said. "Even after we had them fixed. They probably didn't go off last night."

"Or we slept through them."

"We're really sorry." Judy said to the wolf. "I'm team leader, I should've been there."

"Don't worry." Max said with a weak laugh. "I'll be fine, I just need a… quick nap." He fell over onto the couch cushions, fast asleep.

"So, how are we going to handle this one?" Nick asked. "We've never had to deal with two monsters before."

"I think I have an idea." Judy said. "But you're not going to like it."

---

"You're right, I do hate this."

The two were sitting in the cruiser, dressed in their uniforms. They were on the job, on a day they usually weren't. "I was really hoping for at least a bit of a break." Nick complained.

"We're doing this because we need to look out for anything suspicious." Judy explained. "If the two monsters attack, there could be lots of mammals hurt. As long as we're aware, we'll be able to take them out."

"Oh, I get it." Nick said, not entirely getting it. "I will admit, it was pretty impressive how you talked us out of that fiasco from yesterday."

"Grizzoli and Trunkaby might not be fast, but they're clever." Judy said. "I'm pretty confident they can catch those thieves."

"They just sounded glad to have an actual case." Nick chuckled. He paused for a moment. "I am PARCHED! What's say we stop at the nearest Snarlbucks to get some supplies for this little stakeout?"

"You just want to try out the new mocha flavor, don't you?"

"You know me too well, Carrots."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll get you something at Snarlbucks." She paused for a moment. "I am kind of hungry."

A few minutes later, the two pulled into the Snarlbucks parking lot. Both of them hopped out of the cruiser, and headed in through the medium sized doors. "I'm gonna go to the little fox's room, alright?" Nick said.

"At least tell me what you want first."

"Plain donut, and one of the new blueberry mochas, extra whip."

The fox quickly headed off towards the bathroom as Judy got in line. She waited for a few minutes, occasionally moving forward to match with the line. It always took so long. About five minutes later, she was almost at the end.

She looked around. Usually Nick would tell her he was done when they made snack runs. It had been a while, and the fox still hadn't come out of the bathroom.

Her Zoolizer started beeping.

Mammals from around the shop stared at her. She gave a sheepish grin, before running off to the bathroom.

She pounded on the door. "Nick, we have an emergency!"

No response. She pounded louder. Still nothing.

She took a deep breath, and opened the door. "What are you even doing-" She stopped as she looked around the small restroom. It was empty.

Judy rushed out of the Snarlbucks as fast as she could. She spotted the cruiser, no one was sitting inside it.

Where did Nick go!?

She shook it off. Maybe he ran off to fight the monster without telling her. It didn't matter, since the longer she tried to figure this out, the more innocent mammals would be hurt.

She dashed behind the Snarlbucks, and quickly transformed. She ran off.

---

Blue stopped in a park, tall trees planted throughout. The park was only a short while from the Snarlbucks, so it didn't take her that long to run there.

She walked around, through the shade of the mid-morning sun. She heard footsteps nearby, instinctively pulling out her blasters in case it was a monster. The footsteps got closer, and she spun around to see who it was.

"Hey, put those things down!"

It was Silver. She sighed in relief. "You got the alert too?" She asked. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Like I said, I just needed a quick nap." Silver assured her. "Besides, there are three of us here, so we can them even if there are two!" He paused and looked around. "Where's Red?"

"I was hoping you could answer that."

"So, you don't know where he is?" Blue looked at the wolf for a moment. "Alright, that was a dumb question."

The two heard a rustling in the trees above them, causing them to go on full alert. Blue leaped back as an arrow flew at her feet. Silver leaned down and examined the arrow, it was the same kind the fox monster from last night was using.

"The monsters are definitely here." Silver said. He sniffed around. "Well, one of them is."

"Two on one is better than two on two." Blue said, prepping her daggers.

The two looked around at the trees, watching for movement. Blue's ears perked as she heard rustling in the leaves. She spun around and tossed her daggers into the tree, a loud yelp sounding from it.

The fox monster tumbled from the tree, landing to the ground on his side. It got up, and pulled the daggers from its back, tossing them to the ground. "What's the big idea!?" He yelled, stomping over to them. "You aren't supposed to throw things at me, I'm supposed to do that to you!"

"Who cares!?" Blue shouted, pulling out her blasters and firing at the monster.

It quickly knocked the blasts away with its bow. "What's the matter rabbit," It started. "I thought you had a thing for foxes?"

"What?"

As the rabbit was distracted, Tsuneki pulled out three arrows, and quickly fired all of them at once. The two leaped back as the arrows plunged into the ground. Silver quickly leaped back towards the monster, over the arrows, and clashed his blade with the fox monster's bow.

"Hunting a wounded animal is never fun!" Tsuneki said, quickly reversing Silver's strikes. He spun around and roundhouse kicked the wolf away. "Why don't you go back to licking your wounds?"

"Shut it!" He spun the guard around, switching it to Moon Mode. "Blue, lets do this together!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" She said, starting to dash forward.

Silver whipped the blade forward, lashing the rope of light around the monster's wrist. Blue leaped up, getting some leverage by pushing off of the wolf's head. She fired her blasters at the monster's bow, causing him to drop it.

"Ouch!" It shouted as the bow clanked to the ground. Silver quickly dashed up, and grabbed the bow. "Hey!" The monster shouted. "Give that back!" Silver delivered a quick kick to the monster's chest, knocking him back.

"Sorry, but your hunt's over!" The wolf said, cracking the bow over his knee. He tossed the pieces to the ground, awaiting a response from Tsuneki.

Instead of the anger he was expecting, Tsuneki simply laughed.

"You two are such idiots!"

"We just destroyed your only weapon!" Blue shouted. "You're the idiot for laughing about it!"

"Oh yeah, my only weapon." It scoffed. Tsuneki held out his hand, a burst of purple energy suddenly igniting from it. The energy shifted into the form of a new bow. "This bow is merely an extension of my Fox Style, I can just create another with my Qi!"

"Well, isn't that something." Silver said, both of the Rangers a bit shocked.

"Doesn't mean we can't just destroy it again!" The rabbit said. She quickly fired at the bow again, the monster quickly sidestepping out of the way of the blaster's fire.

"This is where the real hunt begins, friends!"

Tsuneki pulled out what looked like a simple leaf, and placed it on his forehead. Suddenly, around fourteen clones of the fox monster extended out from him, encircling the two Zoorangers.

They all aimed their bows at the two, and fired. Before the arrows could hit, the two leaped out of the circle, and onto the other side.

Tsuneki snapped his fingers, causing the clones to jump off into the trees. "If you two want to complete this hunt, you're going to have to find the real me!" He leaped off into the trees himself, vanishing from sight.

"Oh great." Blue sighed. She looked around, the shade of the massive trees blocking out the sun entirely. There were a lot of hiding places in this park, how would they even be able to find one of them? "This gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Hey, don't worry!" Silver said. He tapped at the snout of his helmet. "I've got their scent, we'll just follow it until we find the real one!"

"Good thinking, Silver!" Blue complimented, jumping up and giving the wolf a fist bump. "You sniff, I follow."

Silver nodded, and started sniffing around the area. He dashed off, Blue following right behind him. They ran for a moment, before Silver stopped between four trees.

"I'm getting an overwhelming fox stench here." He said. The wolf recoiled a bit. "There's another smell, smells really bad."

"Is it connected to the monster?" Blue asked.

"Its hard to tell since its just a smell, but-"

Blue's ears twitched as she picked up the sound of rustling in the leaves. "WATCH OUT!" She pushed Silver out of the way as four arrows launched towards them. The arrows connected in the air, and clattered to the ground.

"They're in the trees!" She said. Blue quickly fired her blasters into the trees, but before the shots could hit, the fox monster leaped out and surrounded them.

One of the Tsuneki clones rushed at Blue, who leaped into the air and slashed it with her daggers. The clone burst into a puff of smoke, leaving behind a single leaf.

Silver locked his blade with another clone's bow. He pulled his sword back, and jabbed it between the bow and the string. He pulled it back, tossing the bow away, much to the clone's dismay. He then thrust the saber into the monster's chest, causing it to poof away.

"At least we know they're ridiculously weak." Blue said, a bit thankful.

She quickly spun around, and slashed at the ankles of another Tsuneki that was sneaking up on her. It fell down, but before it could crash into her she stuck her daggers into the air. The monster was impaled on them, and burst into smoke.

The last of the clones backed up nervously, and prepared to shoot an arrow. Silver nonchalantly switched his blade to Sun Mode, and shot a fireball forward. The Tsuneki clone fired as well, but the fireball incinerated the arrow as it passed through. The flame struck the clone, who caught on fire, and then vanished.

"Four down, ten to go." Blue said, twirling her daggers. "Got a scent, Silver?"

He sniffed around for a moment. "Yeah, there's something over there!"

They ran forward for a bit, until Silver suddenly stopped in the middle of an even more heavily forested area. "They should be around here some-"

Before he could finish, arrows began shooting out from the trunks of the trees. The two danced around as the arrows continued to rapidly fire, them only barely managing to dodge most of them.

"Can you even see them!?" Blue shouted, looking around as she continued to dodge between arrows.

"No, they're too fast!"

"Don't you have a thing for that!?"

"Oh yeah!"

Between shots, Silver quickly spun his blade's guard, turning it to Eclipse Mode. Time seemed to slow down for the wolf. He looked around at the arrows, tons of them hanging in the air. He unleashed a flurry of sword strikes all around him.

Time returned to normal, and the arrows completely halted. The dozens of arrows shattered into pieces, and collapsed to the ground. "Thanks for the breathing room!" Blue said. "Time for me to finish this."

She pulled out a blue ZooTag, and plugged it into her Zoolizer.

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

The gloves appeared on her paws, complimented by a bell ringing. She hopped from foot to foot, the two waiting for something to happen.

An arrow flew, and the rabbit leaped up to deliver a punch directly to it. The arrow split from the force of the punch. The forest stood still afterwards.

"I don't think you'll be able to take them all out unless you, y'know, can see them." Silver said.

"Guess you're right." She said. "But, maybe I can…"

She winded up a punch, and slammed the glove into the ground. The force of the punch caused a massive quake, shaking the ground for a good few meters. Out of the shade of the trees stumbled the ten other Tsuneki clones, who were dazed by the quake.

"Get behind me!" Blue shouted. Silver did as she said, not really understanding why. The rabbit began punching forward rapidly, unleashing bursts of energy towards one of the clones. She began to turn, Silver following behind her, still unleashing her fury at them.

She had made a complete circle in only a few moments. They watched as the monster flailed in pain for a moment, before they all disappeared in puffs of smoke.

"Alright, that just leaves the real one!" Blue said. "Catch his scent yet?"

Silver sniffed around for a moment. "I can't smell it any more." He said, shrugging.

"Wait…" She paused for a moment. "HE GOT AWAY!?"

"Looks like it."

Judy untransformed, and smacked herself in the face multiple times. "WE WERE SO CLOSE!"

"Listen," Max started, also untransforming. "If he got away, that means he's going to attack somewhere else very soon."

"Good point." She sighed. "I'm going to head back to work. You go… rest."

"I said that I'm fine now." Max reiterated. "I'll just head back to my house and wait for the monster alert to go off again. "See you in an hour, probably."

He started to walk off through the forest. Judy started off as well, but glanced back.

Max was limping.

---

Judy walked back in to the Snarlbucks parking lot. She glanced at the cruiser as she got closer to it. There was movement inside.

Nick was there.

She wanted to dash up to the car, but she was both incredibly disappointed in the fox, and just glad to see him alive. She walked slowly towards the car, making sure the fox spotted her disappointed slash angry expression. He clearly did, his ears dropping down and eyes widening.

She quietly opened the door, and slid into the driver's seat. "Alright, what did I do now?" He asked.

"You know what you did."

"Clearly I don't if I have to ask."

Judy rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You abandoned me during a monster attack!" She yelled. "Why would you ever do that!? We're a team!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," He started. "I didn't even know there was a monster attack! I've been waiting in the car for twenty minutes!"

She glared at him. "Did you just get back to the car?"

"Yeah."

"Nick, an hour passed between you going too the bathroom and now."

He blinked at her a few times, confused. "What?"

"A few minutes after you went to the bathroom, a monster alert went off." She explained. "You weren't in the bathroom, or in the car. Where were you?"

"I got out of the bathroom twenty minutes ago, like I said."

The rabbit groaned. "You're usually better at lying than this!" She said. "Did you have someone you wanted to meet at this place, or…?"

"I swear, I wasn't doing anything other than using the bathroom." He said, placing a paw over his heart. "I didn't see or hear anything before that."

Judy paused for a moment. "So, this is the second time one of us has just… missed a monster alert."

"Seems like it." Nick said. "They aren't hard things to miss, so…"

"I think there's something weird going on." Judy said, starting up the car. "Stay alert, and in my sight at all time."

"Alrighty then." He said, flipping his pointed shades on. He glanced around for a moment. "Hey, you didn't get my order."

---

"You don't know how lucky I am to have found a good noodle place here!"

"Its always nice to see new faces here." Chuckled the red panda.

The white creature had stopped at a small noodle place in the middle of a rather seedy part of the city. He had just gotten back on track to finding Flots Flats, but his stomach had started growling.

He looked around the quaint establishment. "This reminds me of the noodle shops back home." He said with a bit of a laugh.

"I try to make it feel as authentic as possible." The red panda said. "It's the closest I get to my home too."

He quickly picked up the box of noodles. "Guess I should be paying you, right?"

The red panda nodded. The figure pulled out a small, green purse, and opened it up. He pulled out a few coins. "I think this should be enough to cover it?"

He put the coins on the counter. The red panda examined them. He really, really hoped he would accept them. "So, you're from overseas too?" The red panda chuckled, taking the coins. "Nice to meet someone from over there."

"Oh, uh, yeah." He stumbled. "Overseas, definitely."

"What brings you over here?" He asked. "Business trip, convention… some kind of race?"

"Business." He said, quickly. "I'm looking for an apartment called Flots Flats."

"Flots Flats, huh?" the red panda thought for a moment. "I don't think I've seen that place, but I can tell you where its not."

"Where?"

"In the middle of the Rainforest District."

He looked out the shop's glass doors, and into the muddy streets. "I guess you're probably right."

"A place like that would be downtown, how did you end up on the other side of the city?" The red panda asked, intrigued.

"Well, I went to get breakfast at the fish market, then I checked out a few souvenir places… A few shops, antique stores, places like that… Then I got hungry again, and came here."

They looked at each other for a moment.

"I get distracted very, very easily."

"No kidding." The red panda laughed. "If you want to make it there before nightfall, you better get going now."

"Good idea!" Before he could exit, he turned around. "Oh, I might come here again later, so keep the name 'Dan Hisatsu' in your head, alright?"

"Gotcha."

He exited the restaurant, and paused for a moment, looking down at the noodle carton. He opened it up, and split the included chopsticks. Dan pulled a wad of the noodles to his mouth, only for it to hit his helmet.

"How am I going to eat these…?"

---

Judy paced around the apartment as Nick watched, a bit frustrated. "We didn't spot a single monster that entire time." He said.

"I know."

"So, we went to work on our day off for no reason."

"I know."

"And the monsters might attack tomorrow."

"I KNOW!" She shouted. "My idea was a bust, you don't have to rub it in!"

"Sorry." He said, sincerely. "Just a bit frustrated."

"I am too." Judy said. She paused for a moment. "What do you think the monster's plan even is?" She asked.

"Considering the only two encounters so far, I'd guess they're trying to split us up." Nick guessed.

"That would explain why the monsters didn't show up for the rest of the day." Judy continued. "If they were splitting us up, then they'd have to wait for us to actually be split up."

"That doesn't explain my missing hour of time, though."

Judy went back into her thoughts. "These monsters are those Beast Men type monsters." She said.

"How could you tell?"

"It had a giant fox head on its chest." She explained. "Every other Beast Man guy we've fought had an animal head on its chest."

"Ah, the glory of design consistencies."

"My point is that every one of those monsters so far has been a mammal transformed into one of the monsters." She continued. "So, these two have to be someone in the city."

"So, the first monster was a fox, right?" Nick asked, Judy nodding in response. "What if its Kyle?"

"That's a possibility." She said. "But some of the Beast Men haven't been their species. Lupina wasn't really a mantis."

"Alright, fair point." He said. "So, it could just be anyone in the city, right?"

"Also a possibility." Judy said, before sighing. "But when I fought that monster, it felt like…"

She paused for a moment, leaving the fox curious and in suspense.

"It felt like what?"

"It felt like it knew me." She finished. "It talked like it knew who I was."

"That's… weird. And creepy."

"That's exactly what I thought!" She said. "It has to be someone I know, but… I don't know who."

"Well," The fox said, getting up. "Its late, and we have work tomorrow. I can say for certain that there will be monster attacks tomorrow, and we can settle this whole thing."

"Alright." Judy sighed. "I'm going to bed, this has been way too exhausting. Good night."

"See you tomorrow, Carrots."

The rabbit went into her room, closing the door behind her. "I should probably go to bed too." Nick said to himself, getting up. Wouldn't want to be completely out of energy for tomorrow, right?

He headed into his messy room, and crawled into bed. Hopefully he would get a good sleep.

It wasn't even five minutes after that he heard a loud beeping.

"OH COME ON!" He shouted, jolting up from bed and staring down at his wrist. The attack was happening rather nearby. He sighed, and exited the room, knocking on Judy's door.

"Fluff, time to get up, we have a job to do!"

No response, so he knocked again. Did she really fall asleep that quickly?

"I know you want to sleep, but this is an emergency!"

He knocked again, louder.

"Judy, seriously!"

He opened the door.

His eyes widened. She wasn't in her bed, and a nearby window was open. "Oh no, oh no." She repeated to himself, looking out the window. This is what Judy said had happened to her, but now it was happening to him.

He slapped his paws into his face, and quickly ran out of the apartment.

---

The fox transformed as he ran into a field. He looked back, still able to see the apartment. Why was the monster attacking so close to their home? This entire situation was confusing.

"Hey, Red!"

The fox looked back into the field, seeing Silver run up to him. "Look who managed to show up." He said, coyly. "You feel better?"

"I am at a full one hundred percent." Silver said, giving a thumbs up. He glanced around for a moment. "Let me guess, you don't know where Blue is, do you?"

"Absolutely no idea." He admitted. "She told me that something like this happened earlier."

Silver nodded. "It was exactly like this, except, you know, your roles were reversed."

"Yeah. There should be a monster here, right?" Red asked. He glanced around seeing nothing but an empty field. "Where is it."

Silver glanced up, and pointed. "There!" The fox looked up, seeing something glinting in the clear night sky. It seemed to be falling towards them.

The leaped out of the way as the monster hit the ground, sending a shockwave out around it. Red looked up to see the rabbit-like form of Hiso, who turned to him.

"Get up, fox." She said. Red crawled to his feet, and pulled out his sword. Hiso readied herself as well, striking a fighting pose.

Red and Silver dashed at her from both sides. Red leaped into the air, attempting to strike her with his blade. Silver did the same, except without the leap. She effortlessly slapped both their weapons around at the same time, and jabbed them both in their faces, knocking them back.

"Wow, you two are just as capable as I thought you'd be." She taunted, in a sarcastic tone that sounded familiar to the fox. "Of course, you are dealing with Pixie Fist User, Hiso!"

"'Pixie'?" Red chuckled, getting back up. "That is the least threatening title I have heard in a long time."

Hiso turned back to the fox, shooting him a glare with her eyeless face. She drew her hands in, and then thrust them forward, firing off a barrage of knives at him. He leaped out of the way as the knives stabbed into the ground.

Silver got up, and rushed back at the rabbit monster, who spun around and began blocking his strikes with her wrists. She knocked the sword out of the way again, and delivered a double palm thrust to the wolf's chest, launching him back to the ground.

"You two are such idiots." She started. "You have only fought Bestial Qi users before, you've never had to deal with a Phantom Qi user."

"What's the difference?" Silver asked, struggling to get back to his feet.

"Pure power."

She twirled around, shooting out a pulse of energy that brought both of the Zoorangers back to their knees.

Red chuckled. "I thought the difference was how arrogant you were!"

Hiso stomped up to the fox, and lifted him by his neck. "Watch your muzzle, fox, or else."

"Or what?" He spat out. "You'll sprinkle pixie dust on me?"

Hiso growled. Her long ears began to spin around, lifting her and Red up into the air. "Neat trick." He continued. "Don't you have a castle to fly over?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Silver yelled up to the fox, watching as Hiso prepared a knife in her free hand.

"Shut it, fox!" She yelled. "Or else I'll-"

"Sorry, but it looks like this flight's over."

Hiso looked down as something poked her in the chest. It was a large cannon. Red pulled the trigger, the close range of the blast causing an explosion. They both fell back to the ground, Red managing to roll onto his fours, while Hiso landed on her back.

Her ears span around as she was lifted back into the air and to her feet. "YOU!" She shouted, turning back to the fox. "YOU TRICKED ME!"

"Yeah, its called a hustle." He said, brushing off dirt. "Sweetheart."

Hiso clenched her fists, and let out a roar of anger. She started to dash towards the fox, who responded by plugging a gold ZooTag into his Zoolizer.

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

The massive blade appeared in his paws, and he swung it down. The rabbit monster halted in her tracks, and held the sword back with her hands. "Silver!" Red shouted. "Do something!"

"Oh, right, yeah!" He said. The wolf spun his sword's guard around, changing it to Moon Mode. He lashed it at the rabbit monster's hands, lassoing them. The rabbit glanced over at the wolf, before he pulled the blade down, tugging her hands down as well.

The blade slashed through her, cutting the laser whip as well. She stumbled back, letting out a screech of pain as sparks burst off her. Red leaped forward, and performed a spinning slash, cutting right through the monster again.

She stumbled back once again. The rabbit monster, instead of reacting in anger, started to laugh. "I've done what the Master wanted me to do." She said, smoke still billowing from her wounds. "And it seems like you…" She pointed towards the fox. "Have everything figured out."

"I'm a lot more clever than you think." Red said. Hiso let out another laugh as her ears started to spin. She lifted off into the air, and flew off in the direction of the apartment.

"What the hell is going on?" Silver asked, running up to Nick as he untransformed.

"I'm pretty sure I know what's going on." Nick said, brushing off his fur. "There's only one mammal who acts like that to my sarcasm."

"What?" Max said, untransforming as well.

"This doesn't involve you, Max." Nick said. He sounded a lot more solemn than usual. "Go home and rest, you're clearly not doing as well as you say."

"I'm part of the team, why can't you tell me?"

"We'll tell you soon." Nick assured him. "Go home."

The fox started walking off, leaving the wolf behind. He let out a sigh, and limped off.

---

The fox entered into the apartment quietly. He sneaked over to the open door of Judy's room, and peeked in. She was fast asleep, He let out a sigh, one of both relief and exasperation.

He walked over to the rabbit, and shook her. She let out a whine as he shook her again. "Nick, I'm trying to sleep." She said, sounding exhausted.

"I know." He said. "But I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"I just went and fought a monster." He sighed. "The same thing happened, you went missing, and you showed up when I came back."

The rabbit jolted up, now wide awake. "Seriously!?" She said, baffled. "What in the world's going on?"

"I think I know."

---

"No, Master, I haven't been slacking off."

Ken sat down on the hotel room's bed. The room was rather simple, pastel colors making it feel comfortable. The bed was also incredibly soft.

"I just got a bit… distracted." Ken continued into the communicator. "Yes, I used the map. You know I don't have a good sense of direction."

He placed a hand onto his helmet as he continued talking into his wrist. "I'm almost there, don't worry." He said. "When should you be here anyway? Tomorrow? Alright, I should have this sorted out by the time you get here."

He got up and started pacing around the room. "I know about what happened to them, that's why I'm here. And that's why you're coming. We both need to help them."

"Yeah, I'll try to figure out what happened to it when I meet them." Ken continued. "If I can, I'll try to get it back. Alright, see you tomorrow." He gave a quick bow, placing his palms together.

He rose back up as the call ended, and stretched out. "Got a busy day tomorrow, Ken." He said to himself as he headed back over to the bed. "Better get some rest!"

He fell over on the bed, head hanging off the other side, arms splayed out. He almost instantly passed out.

---

Judy had gotten very little sleep after Nick explained what he thought was going on. When she got out of her room, it looked like the fox had even less sleep than she did.

The apartment was deathly silent as Judy prepared some tea and coffee. She brought the drinks over to the couch, and sat next to the fox.

"So, you're absolutely sure that's what's happening?" She asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"I'm pretty sure." He said, grabbing the coffee and blowing on it. He took a sip. "We can make it through this. We've made it through worse."

"I'm not really sure we have." Judy said. "There's still so many questions, though. I have no idea what to do about this."

"Its pretty obvious what we have to do." Nick said, getting up. "We find Long, and get him to explain it. Preferably after we beat him to a pulp."

"That's the best idea we have right now." Judy admitted. "But until then, keep in my sight at all times."

"Same to you, Carrots."

Silence fell again, this time more of an awkward silence rather than a concerned one.

"So, do we go to work, or…?" Nick asked, rubbing his neck.

"We're not exactly in the best condition to." Judy said with a sigh. "I say we just wait until something happens."

"Can't do any harm if we don't do anything, right." He clapped his paws together. "So, wanna watch TV?"

She shrugged, and the fox plopped back down onto the couch.

Around an hour of awful TV later, the buzzer finally went off. Both of them sprang to their feet and stretched out. "Finally, I could feel myself getting dumber just by watching that." Judy said.

"You get used to it after a while." Nick said. "Alright, let's go!"

The two dashed out of the apartment.

---

The Rangers ran into a ruined building, obviously ruined for several years, and not touched by the city. They looked around the rubble, some of it seeming to be relatively new. "Really creepy place, fitting for a real creepy guy." Red said.

The two heard footsteps behind them, and spun around, pulling out their weapons.

"Whoa, whoa!" Silver yelled. The two relaxed their weapons as he walked up. "That's two times in two days!"

"You really need to stop sneaking up on us like that!" Blue said. "If you keep doing that, you will get shot!"

"I know, but…" Silver glanced up at a nearby overhang. "LOOK!" He pointed up.

They turned to look up at the floor above them. Sitting at the edge of the broken concrete was the golden figure of Long.

"Finally, I've been waiting for you two all day." He said. He hopped down from the upper floor, and crashed into the ground. "And I see you've brought the pup as well."

"Long!" Blue shouted, pointing her daggers at the armored monster. "We've figure out your plan!"

"I haven't!" Silver said.

"I know you've figured it out, why do you think I showed myself?" Long continued.

"We're going to kick your ass, and then get everything back to normal!" Red yelled.

"Um, excuse me?" Silver said, raising a paw in the air and interrupting them. "Hello, third member of the team here, completely lost. Anyone want to explain what's going on? Where are the other monsters?"

"Silver," Blue started, turning to the wolf. "We're the monster."

His ears popped up in surprise. "Excuse me, what?"

"Somehow, dragon breath managed to transform us into monsters." Nick explained. "We're here to find out how."

"I'm surprised you were the one to figure it out, honestly." Long chuckled. "I would've expected the rabbit."

"That rabbit monster gave it away." Red said. "There's only one mammal that reacts like that to my sarcasm." He quickly nudged Blue in the shoulder.

"So, you want to know how I did this?" Long started. "I sneaked into your apartment and infused you with the QI of Tsuneki and Hiso. Simple, really."

"Well, we could have guessed something like that." Blue shrugged. "But how do you keep transforming us?"

"Like this."

He snapped his fingers.

Red stumbled forward, letting out a grunt of pain. "Nick?" Blue said as the fox continued to growl. Purple energy seemed to burst from him, and quickly enshrouded the fox. The cloud of purple smoke grew larger, and then burst away, revealing Tsuneki.

The fox monster turned back to the two other Rangers, and gave the two a quick chuckle. "Looks like you found me!" He joked. He quickly pulled out his bow, and aimed it at them. "But it looks like you found me too late."

He fired a volley of arrows towards the two, who leaped out of the way. "Come on, fight me!" Tsuneki shouted as he fired another arrow at the rabbit.

Silver rushed forward, and attempted to slash the monster with his sword. He hesitated. The monster was still Nick, who was his friend. He couldn't just attack him…

The monster laughed, and slowly turned to Silver. "C'mon, hit me." It said, attempting to goad the wolf into it. "Do it!"

Silver started to shake. He couldn't move.

Sparks shot up from the monster's back. Blue had shot him in the back. "Nick won't feel any pain!" She shouted. "We need to beat this guy to free him!"

Silver tightened his paws around his sword's grip, and swung it across the monster's chest. Tsuneki sparked, and flew back, tumbling to the ground. "Great, I thought that would work!" The monster bemoaned as it got up.

The two Rangers leaped at the monster, both striking him. The monster flew forward, sparks flying as it tumbled across the ground. It got up, the eyes on its coat spinning around. "Looks like this isn't going well for you, Long!" Blue shouted, turning back to the dragon warrior.

He remained silent, arms crossed.

"He is really creepy." Silver said, shuddering a bit. "I really do not want to be near him at all."

Tsuneki took advantage of them being distracted, pulling out his bow. He fired a few shots, separating the two. Blue twirled her daggers, and leaped forward.

Long quickly snapped his fingers.

Blue cross-slashed across the monster's chest, causing it to let out a scream. The scream wasn't the monster's voice, but one far more familiar to the rabbit's ears.

It was Nick's.

She looked up, terrified by what she had heard. As the monster stumbled back, she noticed that its once blue eyes had turned an emerald green. He stumbled to his knees, and looked at her.

"Judy…? What's…" He glanced down at his hands, and let out a scream.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Blue yelled, turning back to Long.

"I'll let her explain."

"What?"

He snapped his fingers again, causing Blue to keel over in pain, purple energy starting to emanate from her as well. Nick tried to get up to help her, but the unusual body caused him to tumble over. He reached out as the energy began to cover her. "JUDY!"

The energy cleared, revealing Hiso, who gave a threatening laugh. "Master Long can control all kinds of Qi." She explained. "As such, he can swap our minds around."

Hiso went into a battle stance, and dashed at the fox-turned-monster, kicking him across the ground. "Stop it!" Silver yelled, running in for a sword slice. The slice cut across the rabbit monster's chest.

"What the HELL, Max!?" She yelled. The wolf suddenly noticed that her six black slits had turned lavender.

"Judy!?" He yelled, startled. "Is that you?"

The monster's eyes turned black again. "Not anymore!" Hiso proceeded to slash into the wolf's chest, and knock him back with a palm thrust.

Nick got up, seemingly getting used to the body. He prepped himself, but a sudden poof of smoke surrounded him, and he found himself back in his Ranger form. "Oh, this is annoying as hell." He grunted, pulling out his sword.

He rushed at Hiso, leaping up into the air. There was another poof of smoke around both of them, Red being replaced with Tsuneki, blue eyes and all, while Hiso was replaced with Blue.

The midair monster pulled out his bow and fired a volley of arrows at the completely unprepared rabbit, an explosion of sparks knocking her through the air.

Silver got back up, and rushed at the fox monster. He swung at Tsuneki, who blocked the strike with his bow. The fox monster swiped at the wolf with his bow, his eyes turning green midway through.

The momentum of his arm was already carried before Nick could do anything, sending Silver flying. He smacked into a wall, cracking it. "Oh god, I'm sorry Max!" He shouted.

"Can we stop beating me up!?" Silver shouted, getting back to his feet.

Nick turned around, seeing Hiso run up to him. She began to strike at him, the fox-turned-monster attempting to block. Judy was quickly put back in control of the monster body, as Tsuneki returned to being in control.

Tsuneki smacked at Judy with his bow, but she managed to get a hold of the new body and knock it back. She plucked a knife from the monster's sleeve, and started slashing at Tsuneki with it. The fox monster took a few hits, bit quickly knocked it out of her hands.

The two swung at each other at the same time, put quickly transformed back into their Ranger forms, punching each other in their faces. They both recoiled in pain, and then turned back to Long. They readied their weapons, and dashed at him.

He snapped his fingers once more, transforming them both back into the monsters. "This is getting incredibly FRUSTRATING!" Nick shouted.

"Turn us back!" Judy yelled, stumbling forward a bit on her odd feet.

"No, I don't think I will." Long said, emotionless. "I'm leaving you two like this forever. Good luck."

"You can't do this!" Nick yelled. "We aren't monsters!"

"Sure look like ones to me." Long chuckled. He suddenly became tense, spotting something behind them.

The two started to turn around, but instinctively leaped out of the way as a burst of projectiles fired forward. The crystal-like blasts pierced into Long, causing rapid explosions on him. He stumbled back, and clutched his chest.

"You."

The three turned to look at the being that fired the projectiles. From the burst of morning light stepped what looked like a Sentai Ranger, clad entirely in a white, orange, and black outfit. He had black, sharped shoulder pads, and a belt that resembled that of karate gi. He had a V-shaped black and orange marking on his chest, an odd claw-shaped marking, possibly a logo, next to it.

His helmet was vaguely shaped like a rhino, having a large, protruding horn coming out of the front. In one of its hands it carried a large, red and silver weapon, shaped like a blade with a hand grabbing onto it.

"Well," Long started, standing back up straight. "If it isn't the most worthless Gekiranger."

"You won't be saying that after I kick your ass for good, Long!"

The Ranger leaped over the two mammals-turned-monsters, and struck Long with the massive blade weapon, causing him to stumble back. The Ranger attempted to strike with the weapon again, only for Long to block it.

The rhino-like Ranger reversed the high block with a kick, stunning Long for a moment. Using this to his advantage, the Ranger rammed his head into the dragon warrior, horn first. Long flew back, and tumbled across the ground.

He let out a laugh as he got up. "I see you've gotten better since we last fought."

"A decade of training will do that!" The Rangers yelled back. He quickly flipped the blade of the weapon backwards, nothing obstructing the hand-like part.

"Twisting Bullets!" He shouted as he thrust it forward. An orange colored crystal like spike shot out of the weapon, Long quickly deflecting it. The Ranger ran forward, continuing to fire at him.

Long continued to deflect the projectiles, until the Ranger was up close. He leaped into the air, flicking the blade back forward, and slashed through the monster. Long flew back, and gave a grunt as he hit the ground.

"Enough of this." He said, sounding a bit frustrated. "I've done what I needed, time to leave."

"Hold it!"

The rhino Ranger rushed forward, and attempted to slash at Long again, only for him to burst into a cloud of golden mist and fly away. "Damn it!"

He turned to the two previously Rangers, and recoiled a bit. "Whoa, whoa!" Nick said, rising his hands up. "Don't shoot, we're not monsters!"

The Ranger recuperated himself. "Oh, I know." He said. "Its just weird seeing old faces again."

"Oh wow," Max said, untransforming and running up to the three. "You're the White Ranger!"

He looked at his outfit for a moment. "I guess I am mostly white." He said. "But I'm actually Ken Hisatsu, GekiChopper!"

"All the other Rangers we've run into have colors in their names." Judy started. "I'm pretty sure 'chopper' isn't a color."

"Its because I have a massive knife!" Ken said, holding up the weapon. He shook his head for a moment. "You don't need to tell me what's going on, I already know."

"Oh, good." Nick said, crossing his arms. "So, you can get us out of this mess?"

"Technically, yes." Ken answered. "But we need a more… peaceful place to talk about it."

"We can go to my house." Max said. "I don't think you two will even fit in your apartment anymore."

Nick and Judy looked at each other, and then recoiled at the sight.

"Can your house fit five people?" Ken asked.

"It's a house, of course it can."

"Alright!" He shouted, pumping his fist. "Let's go solve everything!"

---

"So, when are we going to solve everything?"

Ken looked up from the couch, seeing the fox monster staring down at him. "Look, I said I can technically help you." He said. "We have to wait for my Master to show up. So, be patient."

Nick growled, and tried to walk over to another seat, but tipped and fell over. He pounded the ground in frustration, Max running over to help him back to his feet. "How do you even walk around like this!?" Nick yelled.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it!"

The two looked over to Judy, who was rather unsteadily walking behind the couch. She almost instantly slipped, falling on her back. "Or not."

Max sighed, and ran over to help her up as well. "I like being tall, but everything about this body sucks!"

"Yeah, our faces don't even move!" Nick said, exaggeratedly posturing. "How am I supposed to look smug and sarcastic when I don't have a mouth?"

"At least you have eyes!" Judy said. "Its like looking through a mask in here!"

Ken quickly stood up between the two, arms out. "You just need to relax for a bit." He said. "Everything will be sorted out soon enough!"

Nick grunted, and awkwardly shuffled over to a chair. Judy remained silent, and continued standing behind the couch. "Try not to move around." Max said, out of breath. "You guys are really heavy. Its like thirty pounds of rubber."

Judy ignored the comment, and turned to Ken. "So, Ken, I'm guessing you know about Long?"

Ken fell silent for a moment, and sat down on the couch. "I'm part of the Beast Fist Sentai, Gekiranger." He started. "Long was our big villain. He's incredibly powerful, and absolutely immortal."

"Immortal?" Nick said. "So, he lives forever?"

Ken nodded. "He's so powerful that we couldn't even destroy him." He continued. "We had to use a special technique to transform him into a ball."

"A ball?" Judy chuckled. "Seems pretty embarrassing."

"Oh, it definitely was." Ken laughed. "One of my teammates, Jan, took the ball with him when he went world travelling." He continued. "A few months ago, he called, saying that it had 'vany-ished'."

There was awkward silence throughout the room.

"That's Jan speak for 'disappeared'."

"Ohhhhh."

"From what we can tell," Judy started. "All of the monsters we've been fighting are supposed to be dead, so how did Long come back?"

"Whoever brought the other ones back probably freed him from the curse." Ken said.

"So, we've been fighting an immortal, all-powerful dragon demon." Nick sighed, falling back into his chair and facepalming. "Wonderful."

"Scorch was just kind of a loser in Zoo Rangers." Max said. "Didn't realize he could be that dangerous."

"How are we supposed to beat that?" Judy asked. "We're not even powerful enough to take on the clown guy ourselves!"

"That's why my Master's coming!" Ken shouted. "He's great at teaching, he'll be able to whip you all to a higher level in no time!"

"A Master?" Max asked, leaning in. "You mean like, a Sensei?"

"Isn't that what I've been saying?"

"So, this 'Master' is going to teach us how to beat Long?" Nick asked, sounding a bit excited.

"No." Ken said, bluntly. The fox monster slumped back in his seat. "Not even the most powerful warriors can defeat Long."

"That's not a very good sign."

"But, he can teach you how to get back to normal!" Ken continued. "And he'll definitely make you all stronger! That's the reason we even came!"

There was a loud knock at the door. Ken bolted up. "That must be him!" He rushed over to the door, and opened it, revealing…

"Oh my god, it's Doggie Kruger!" Max shouted.

It was indeed Doggie Kruger, the canine-like creature that had gotten Nick and Judy into this whole thing to begin with.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were-" Ken started, before being interrupted.

"He'll be here soon." Kruger said as he walked in. He glanced around, spotting the two transformed mammals. "Been a while." He said. "How's the assignment going?"

"Oh, pretty well." Nick started. "Except for the fact that we GOT TURNED INTO MONSTERS!"

"Hmm, yes, unfortunate." He said, before turning to Max. "And who might you be?"

"I'm, uh, the third member." Max said. "Warrior of the Eclipse, ZooSilver, and all that!"

Kruger stared at him for a moment. The wolf could feel his eyes piercing into his soul. Kruger finally broke contact. "You're probably wondering why I'm here."

"Considering we haven't seen you since day one, yeah, it's a bit of a mystery." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"AkaRed sent me here to figure out a certain mystery." He said, vaguely.

"Is it the mystery of 'Why we're suddenly monsters', because we have that already figured out." Nick said.

"Nick, seriously!" Judy yelled. "Mr. Kruger is still a higher rank than us, treat him with some respect!"

"No need to flatter me, Hopps." Kruger said. "As of right now, I am an equal, and we need to work together to solve this."

"Still doesn't mean he has to be rude." Judy muttered under her breath.

Max sneaked up to her, and started to whisper. "Why didn't you guys tell me you knew Doggie Kruger?"

"How do you know who he is?" Judy whispered back.

"He was in Zoo Rangers SPD, he was one of the best characters!"

Kruger turned to Ken. "I'm also here to give Mr. Hisatsu a stern talking to about his recent behavior."

"Oooh, what did hornhead do?" Nick asked, leaning forward.

"I didn't do anything!" Ken pleaded.

"He was supposed to arrive around 24 hours ago." Kruger explained. "He was supposed to help you before anything like this happened. But instead, he spent the time at antique shops and cheap noodle places."

The three turned to look at Ken, who's back was pressed into the door. "Seriously!?" Judy shouted, stomping over to him. "You could have prevented this, but you were… slacking off!?"

"I get distracted very easily!" He said, pushing her back. "Besides, its not like I've ever been to a city in another dimension before, of course I had to explore! Look at this…"

He pulled out an old looking, bronze amulet. It was pointy and somewhat evil looking. Judy looked at it, and she could swear that she had seen it somewhere before.

"I got this for two bucks!" Ken said. "Imagine all the secrets this thing's hiding!" There was another, much softer knock at the door. Ken put the amulet away before Judy could analyze it any more.

"Oh, that must be him!" Ken said, excitedly. He turned back to the door, and opened it.

On the other side of the door was a large caracal dressed in baggy, red clothes. He wore what appeared to be multiple scarves of different colors and sizes, the most prevalent being a large blue one, a white one with a brown paw mark, and one with three pomp oms hanging from it. He also appeared to be wearing a blue vest, which was obscured by the scarves.

Despite looking like a caracal, his build wasn't like any Judy had ever seen, resembling that of the Sentai Rangers… or in an odd way, Kruger himself. The strangest part of the caracal was its paws, which appeared to be completely unevolved feline paws.

It was very strange.

"Master Xia Fu!" Ken said. He punched one of his fists into his open palm, and bowed down. Xia Fu bowed in return.

"Sorry I'm late!" He said, in a somewhat jovial tone. Judy could tell he was somewhat elderly, but Masters tend to be. "I was getting something ready for later."

He walked over to Kruger, the two shaking hands. "Xia Fu, haven't seen you since the circus incident." Kruger said.

"It wasn't that long ago." Xia Fu said with a laugh. He looked over to Nick, then back at Judy, and then to Max. "Usually this is the part where people go 'your Master is a cat?'"

"Its probably a lot more odd in your world." Nick said, getting up. "So, you're gonna get us back to normal, right?"

"Don't be rude to Master Xia Fu!" Ken yelled, running over and grappling the fox monster.

"Guys!" Judy ran over, and smacked them both in the head, separating Nick from Ken's grip. "We should at least be able to introduce ourselves without fighting!" She cleared her throat. "I'm Judy Hopps, this is Nick Wilde, and over there is Maxwell Wolford." She took a bow. "Sorry about how me and Nick look, we're usually a lot less…"

"Monstrous?" Max chimed in.

"Exactly!"

"I know about what happened." Xia Fu said. "And please, there's no need to be so polite about this!"

"But!" Ken sounded.

"Quiet, Ken." Xia Fu said, bluntly. "The first step to me helping you is simple. I just need you both to… stand over by that wall."

The rabbit and fox looked at each other, recoiling a bit at the monstrous sights again. They shook it off, and walked over to the wall on the other side of the couch.

Xia Fu stood in front of them, his paws behind his back. He examined the two for a moment, before his once closed eyes popped open. "My word…" He said as he turned around. "I've never seen so much qi in a single creature before!"

"This might be a stupid question," Nick started. "But what the hell is 'qi'?"

"To put it simply," Xia Fu said. "it's a super energy that can be used to fight. It comes in different varieties, both good and evil."

"My team fought guys who used Bestial and Phantom qi." Ken continued for Xia Fu. "We used Wild, Violent, and, in my case, Diamond qi types to defeat them."

"So, we have a lot of 'qi' inside of us?" Judy asked. "What's that mean?"

"The amount you hold is impressive, its more than bodies like yours should be able to handle." Xia Fu continued. "And it isn't even a single type of qi, I'm sensing all kinds within your systems. Wild qi, Bestial qi, Violent qi, Diamond qi, Raging qi, Savage qi…"

"Whoa, hold on a sec." Nick said, stepping forward. "What was that about 'Savage qi'?"

Kruger stepped forward as well. "Yes, tell us more about it, Xia Fu."

"Well, Savage qi is the ultimate form of Wild qi, which is the good qi, if you recall." He started to explain. "Using Savage qi, my students were able to unlock incredible powers. Why are you both so interested in it?"

"Me and Judy have been dealing with this… evil force that takes over our bodies sometimes." Nick explained.

"It calls itself Savage, but I think the name is coincidental." Judy said.

"Savage is what I'm here to investigate." Kruger explained. "AkaRed isn't entirely sure what it is, but we have a feeling it might be some sort of side effect. Of what, we're not sure."

"Hey, maybe I can help?"

The five turned to Max, who was raising his paw. "Do you know something about Savage?" Kruger asked.

"Well, I might know something." He said, tapping his claws together. "It might not be related to anything, though…"

"Well, it can't hurt to tell us!" Nick said.

The wolf took a deep breath. "So, when I was training with Dr. Mikoto, there was this… thing that happened during it. It was the one time Savage managed to take over my body, but Mikoto helped me regain my senses before I could cause any trouble."

"There were a few times when it seemed like he knew you…" Judy said.

"Yeah, that's where that came from." Max continued. "Also, if no one's realized it, I haven't been taken over by him at all."

"How did you manage that?" Kruger asked.

"You'd have to ask Mikoto about that." Max shrugged. "He did something with my Zoolizer, and then it just stopped happening."

Kruger pounded a fist into his paw. "Then it has to be connected to the Zoolizers." He deduced. "The Silver Zoolizer was designed by Mikoto, so it had more flaws compared to AkaRed's designs. May I see them?"

The two looked at their wrists, the Zoolizers weren't there. "Sorry, it looks like we left them on our other bodies." Nick said, sarcastically.

Kruger grunted. "Has anyone tampered with your Zoolizers recently?"

"Well, there was-"

Judy smacked her hand over the fox's monstrous face. "Nope! Nothing like that! Guess AkaRed's designs weren't perfect after all."

"Now we know that Savage was caused by a flaw in the system." Kruger said. "We just need to figure what he is, exactly."

"He said he was some kind of evil force." Max started. "The personification of violence, or something like that."

"I might have an idea." Xia Fu, now sitting on the couch, sounded.

"What is it, Master?" Ken asked.

"As I walked over, I noticed something strange about this world." He started. "It has much more qi than in our world, but it doesn't seem like the qi has been mastered by anyone. I suggest the theory that this Savage is made of untamed qi, manifesting through violence."

"That would make sense." Kruger stated. "AkaRed designed the Zooranger system to use the power of the five animal Sentai. That would include the qi."

"And since there's no other way to channel qi in this world, Savage manifested through that!" Judy deduced.

"Wow, we really managed to get through a lot of info there." Nick said. "Now that we've gotten that all sorted out…" He walked over to Xia Fu and kneeled down. "Can you PLEASE help us get back to normal?"

"I will, but we need to wait for a moment." Xia Fu said. "Be patient."

"Listen, tiny paws, do you know how hard it is to move around in this thing?" Nick said, starting to get annoyed. "I want to be back in my body, ASAP!"

Suddenly, there was another knock at the door.

"Max, was it?" Xia Fu said, turning to the wolf. "Could you get that, please?"

"Well, you are guests…"

He walked over to the door, and opened it. On the other side was a pizza delivery pig. "Did you order this pizza?" He asked.

Before Max could say no, Xia Fu spoke up. "I ordered it!"

The pig leaned in, looking at the collection of odd characters inside. He gave Max a quick, confused glance.

The wolf sighed. "I will give you a fifty dollar tip if you never mention this again." He took out his wallet, and slapped around seventy bucks into the pig's hooves.

"Thanks, sir!" The pig said, before rushing off.

Max carried the pizza into the living room. "Just place it down here." Xia Fu said, patting a paw against the table. Max obliged, placing it down.

"Master, is this why you were late?" Ken asked. "You were… ordering a pizza?"

The caracal pulled up a triangle, and hit it with a rod. "In life, there is training. There is training in baked goods, too!"

"You're so wise, Master!"

The four others glanced at each other, confused.

"I am pretty hungry." Nick said.

"Same," Judy followed. "We've only had breakfast today."

Xia Fu opened the pizza box, an overwhelming smell of fish instantly emanating from it. Everyone reached for their noses (If they had noses) to cover up the disgusting smell. The pizza was entirely covered in anchovies, if there were any other toppings, they were buried under the fish.

"Why did you order nothing but fish!?" Max screamed. "AHHH ITS LIKE I'M DYING!"

"In order to complete your training, you must remove unneeded details." Xia Fu explained. He raised his paws up into the air, and started rapidly jabbing forward at the pizza. With every jab he grabbed an anchovy, and scooped it into his mouth.

In a few seconds, the anchovies had vanished, revealing a rather normal looking pizza. It had pineapple, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and bits of tofu. There were still a few pieces of anchovy on the pizza, however.

"Sometimes, however, unneeded details can help improve." Xia Fu finished, wiping off his mouth with a napkin.

"I don't get it." Nick said, confused. "How is that supposed to help us turn back to normal?"

"Well, it wouldn't be training if I told you, now would it?" Xia Fu said with a laugh. "Now, who wants pizza?"

"I am pretty hungry." Nick said.

"We haven't had anything to eat since breakfast." Judy continued. The two each grabbed a slice of the pizza, and brought it up to their faces.

Nick examined the pizza for a moment. "How are we supposed to eat these without mouths?" He asked. Judy shrugged in response.

"Well, if you can't eat them," Ken started, snatching the pizza from Nick's hand. "Then that means more for me!" He slammed the pizza into his helmet, and let out a groan. "Oh, yeah, helmet." He wiped the grease off his helmet and looked around. "Anyone want this piece?"

The room was silent.

"The anchovies were enough for me." Xia Fu said.

"I've already had my lunch." Kruger sounded.

"Dude, you ruined the slice." Max said, sounding a bit angry. "Nobody wants it." He reached over the couch, and picked up a slice before standing back up. "But I will gladly eat this piece!"

The wolf started gnawing on the piece as Xia Fu stood up. "It appears the pizza has served its purpose." He said, walking up to Nick and Judy. "Now, if you are to understand my message, you must train."

"Oh great." Nick moaned. "More training."

"C'mon, Nick." Judy said. "This guy is a kung-fu master, imagine the stuff we'll learn!"

"Will we get to learn how to shoot energy blasts?"

"Nick, that's not-"

"Yes." Xia Fu answered, much to the rabbit's shock.

"Well, count me in!"

The three headed out of the house, leaving Ken, Kruger, and Max. Ken looked down at the pizza. "You know, I was really hoping there'd be pepperoni on it." He sighed.

Max swallowed some a bite of pizza. "What's pepperoni?"

Ken tried to speak up, but was interrupted by Kruger. "Do not say a word."

---

The two stood on a hill, overlooking part of the city. In the grassy field were two wooden dummies, which seemed to be connected to the ground.

"How did you get these here?" Judy asked, turning to Xia Fu.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Xia Fu said with a laugh. He walked in between the dummies, and turned back to the two. "Your training is simple. You need to dismantle these two dummies."

"Well, that should be easy." Nick said with some relief. "Do we get any tools too do it, or…?"

"You must do it by hand."

"Oh." They both said.

The two walked up to the dummies. Nick grabbed onto his dummy, and pulled at it. It was buried deep in the ground, and would not budge. Judy tapped at hers, the thing was made of completely solid wood, there was no way they could do this with just their hands.

"Master Xia Fu, this is impossible." Judy said, frankly. "We can't rip apart wood with our paws!"

Xia Fu was sitting on the grass, looking away from them. He held a cup of tea in his paws, and took a sip before saying anything. "I've seen my students make miracles happen." He said. "Surely, you can do this simple task?"

The two glanced at each other, and started to get to work. Nick started slamming his fists into the dummy, chipping off some of the wood. Judy started testing different areas to see if there were any weaker ones.

Hours past, the sun was nearly all the way down from the sky, and neither of the two had made much of an impact on the wooden figures. Sure, chunks of them were missing, but they certainly weren't dismantled.

Nick fell to the ground, back against the dummy. He smacked his forehead with his fist. "Man…"

"This is more difficult than I thought it'd be." Judy said, also sitting on the grass. She had her knees tucked in, and arms wrapped around them. Her massive blade ears bent back in order to let her.

"You thought breaking wood apart with our paws would be easy?"

"No, I thought sitting down would be easy." She said. "These ears are a pain. You just have a coat to get in the way."

"I think this coat is part of my flesh." Nick said. He poked at one of the eyes on it, which twitched, freaking him out. "I think those eyes are alive."

The two started laughing as they admired the sunset.

Max, Kruger, and Ken came up the hill, seeing the two laughing while surrounded by wood chips. "Did we miss something?" Max asked.

"Training." Xia Fu simply said.

"Are they done the training yet?" The wolf asked.

"Judging by them still being monsters, I'm assuming not." Kruger answered.

"They'll figure it out eventually." Xia Fu laughed.

"Well, can they figure it out right now?" Max asked. "Because we have a monster issue Downtown."

Xia Fu's eyes popped open, and the two stopped relaxing and scrambled over. "A monster attack!?" Judy shouted. "Why did it have to be now!?"

"Just how the dice roll." Ken said. "Sometimes you just need to go with what life throws at you."

Xia Fu stood up. "Excellent philosophy, Ken." He turned to the two transformed mammals. "Your training is now to defeat the monster, using your bodies." He placed a paw on both their shoulders, and gave a nod. "Good luck."

They both turned to each other, and then back to Xia Fu. "Okay, I guess we can try." Nick said, a bit unsure.

Judy elbowed him. "We will do it, Master." She grabbed Nick by the shoulder, and started dragging him off. "Seriously, you have to stop being so rude…"

"I should probably go with them." Max said, before Xia Fu stuck his paw out in front of his face.

"Let them do it themselves, they need to figure it out on their own." He said, moving the paw out of the way. "But they probably need someone to make sure they don't get killed."

Max and ken looked at each other, and then dashed off to follow Nick and Judy. Kruger stepped up to Xia Fu. "Personally, I would like to see how good their skills are." He said. "Would you mind if I follow?"

"Keep this a secret, but I was going to follow them too."

---

The two rushed into a construction site. "This is the place, right?" Nick asked as they headed into the unfinished building.

"I mean, probably?" Judy guessed. "It feels like a place we would find a monster."

"And a monster you have found."

The two turned around, seeing Long resting up against a pillar. He seemed to radiate light all around him, brightening the darkness of the night. "Long!" Judy shouted, stepping forward. "You're going to turn us back right now!"

"I said it before," The dragon warrior said, stepping away from the pillar. "But the answer is 'No'."

"Alright then." She said. "then we're gonna show you how bad of an idea this was!"

She made a gesture towards Nick, similar to that of pulling a string. Nick nodded, though she wasn't sure if he got it. She dashed forward, and thrust her arms out, shooting a flurry of energy knives at Long. He proceeded to smack each and every one of them out of the air.

"Please, you don't know how to use those bodies." Long scoffed. "Those styles require decades of perfection, you're just peons trying to use powers you-"

Long reeled back, feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder. There was an arrow stuck in it. He looked back over at the fox, who was holding a bow. "Look at that, I'm a natural born Robin Hood!" He joked, giving a thumbs-up.

"A lucky shot, mutt." Long growled, pulling the arrow out of his shoulder. There was no blood, but a yellow mist exuding from it. He placed a gloved mitt over the wound, pushing the mist back in. When he removed his hand, the wound had vanished.

Long dashed forward and leaped through the air, he landed a flying punch onto Judy, knocking her to the ground. He turned to Nick, who stumbled to prepare another bow. Long pulled back, creating a flame bow. He fired it, and then started to rapidly fire flame arrows at the fox.

He dodged out of the way, tumbling to the ground as the arrows trailed behind him. He got to his feet, and dashed at Long, attempting to hit him with his bow. Long grabbed it, and ripped it from his hands. The dragon warrior cracked the bow over his head, knocking him to the ground.

Judy got back up, and pulled out knives from her sleeves. She started to slash at Long, who continued to block the attacks. He knocked the knives from her hands, and hit her with both palms. There was an explosive force, launching her back to a nearby pillar.

"You will never be strong enough to defeat me." Long said, growling. "I am immortal, the most powerful being in the world! You'd need hundreds of years of training!" He held up his hands, lightning sparking from his fingertips. "Unfortunately, you won't get that training."

Before he could fire the lightning, pain struck him in the back. He turned around to see GekiChopper and Silver. "I suppose you two are here to save them?" Long sarcastically guessed.

"Yeah!" Silver yelled. "And I'm gonna get my revenge on you!"

Silver dashed forward, sword drawn. "Wait!" Chopper yelled, following him. Silver slashed with his blade, Long catching it in his grasp. GekiChopper rushed up and slashed at Long, knocking him back and making him let go of the blade.

"You can't just rush at someone like Long!" GekiChopper scolded. "He isn't a normal monster!"

"So, what do we do?" Silver asked.

"Gotta play smart." Chopper answered. "Like this!" He flicked the blade of the weapon back, and aimed up at a girder above Long. He fired two shots, digging through the girder. It started to crack, and fell on the stunned Phantom Qi user.

"I wouldn't call property damage smart." Silver said. Chopper gestured over to the two wounded allies.

"Let's get them somewhere safe." He said. Silver nodded, and the two ran over to Nick and Judy. GekiChopper lifted up Judy, while Silver did his best to lift Nick onto his shoulders. The two hurried off, attempting to find somewhere safe in the rather open area.

They ran behind the construction site's cabin, and rested the two against its metallic walls.

"The suns down." Silver said. "As long as we stay quiet, he shouldn't be able to find us. At least, for a little bit."

Nick and Judy started to groan, getting the two other Rangers' attention. "You guys alright?" GekiChopper asked.

"I'm fine, just my pride was hurt." Nick said. He then let out a groan of pain. "No wait, everything's hurt."

"We can't beat him." Judy sighed, placing her hands to her face. "We need to get back to our bodies, but…"

"Master Xia Fu's style is having people realize the training." GekiChopper explained. The three turned to look at him. "It's like a riddle, you need to find out what he means on your own."

They fell quiet for a moment. "Let's see…" Judy started, standing up. She started to pace around. "We have to use our bodies…"

"We already use our bodies all the time!" Nick shouted. "What, are we supposed to use them even more!?"

Judy's head popped up, and she let out a quick clap. "That's it, I know what to do!"

She rushed out from behind the shed. "Are you crazy!?" Silver yelled. "You're gonna get killed!"

"No, I'm not!" She said, defiantly. "LONG, COME OUT AND FIGHT!"

Mist flew through the construction site, before reforming back into the armored form of Long. "So, I see you're ready to die, rabbit." He said, stepping forward.

"Not just yet." Judy said back. "Because I know how to defeat you!"

Long gave her a stare, and then laughed. Without a word, he dashed at her. Judy took a deep breath, and prepared for the fight. Long threw a punch, but Judy leaned back as he swung, the punch missing her by an inch.

Long grunted in surprise, before the rabbit flipped, kicking long away. She spun in the air, and landed back on her feet. Long recuperated, cracking his neck, and attacking her once again. He attempted to kick her, but Judy leaped into the air, and kicked him right in the face.

As Long stumbled back, he noticed a purple glow starting to come off her. He started to laugh. "Oh, I see." He said. Judy said nothing back, and ran at Long.

She started to rapidly kick him, but he blocked each one. In a seamless motion, she fell to the ground and swept Long off his feet. He fell forward, and the rabbit thrust her legs up, launching him.

"I can't believe she's managing to beat Long!" GekiChopper said as the three peeked around the corner of the cabin. "I've never seen a style like that before!"

"I think I get what she's doing." Nick said. "I'm going in there too."

"Good luck!" Silver said as Nick ran into the fight.

"So, the fox joins us as well!" Long laughed as Nick ran up to him. Nick took a deep breath, and bared his hands at the monster.

He dashed at Long, and slashed at him with both hands. They cut through him like claws, knocking him back. Nick dashed forward again as Long blocked. He grabbed onto both of Long's arms, and started to pry them open.

"Impossible!" Long shouted, before the fox double-palmed him back. He noticed the same purple energy flowing off of Nick as well. He grunted in frustration as the two rushed at him.

He tried to block both their swipes and kicks, but kept failing, at least one of the two managing to strike at him. Nick grabbed onto his arm, and started to claw into it, while Judy ran up and rapidly kicked him in the face. The fox let go on the last blow, as Long was sent flying.

"We figured out Master Xia Fu's lesson!" Judy yelled, stepping forward. "We need to fight like ourselves, not with weapons, or like anyone else!"

"We're the strongest we can be when we work together." Nick continued. "We don't need anything else to help us but ourselves!"

The energy started to flow from them as they let out yells. "What's happening!?" Silver yelled, the force of the energy starting to push them back.

"They're getting rid of the bad qi!" GekiChopper said. "When they get rid of that…"

There was a burst of purple light, knocking Silver and Chopper back, and nearly knocking Long off his own feet. Long looked on as the dust cleared. A fox and a rabbit now stood in the place of the monsters.

The two looked at each other. "We did it!" Judy shouted, jumping up a bit to give Nick a high five. "We're back to normal!"

"I knew you'd be able to figure it out, Carrots."

"No you didn't."

Silver and GekiChopper ran up to them. "That was incredible!" Silver said.

"I've never seen anyone channel that much qi at once before!" Chopper said. "Now we can totally defeat Long!"

Long began to laugh maniacally, head to his forehead. The four looked over as he finished. "Do you really think you'll be fighting me?" He asked. "I feel like you're forgetting something very important."

He raised his hands into the air, one glowing purple, the other glowing yellow. Purple and golden mist began to flow through the air, gathering on either side of the Infinite Dragon. The mists formed into solid forms, Tsuneki and Hiso.

"Still four against three!" Nick said, a bit smugly. "The odds are in our favor."

"Really now?"

Long flashed a red object in both his hands. Two Chaos Badges. He looked at them and laughed, before tossing the two badges directly into Tsuneki and Hiso.

They started to spark with red electricity. The four heroes stepped back as the light connected between the two monsters, beginning to drag them together. The two abruptly slammed together, forming into a red orb of energy.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Long yelled as the orb let out deafening crackles of electricity.

The orb began to shift into a new shape, before it burst into a small explosion that rocketed dirt into the air. The dust cleared, revealing a single, completely new monster.

Its head was similar to Tsuneki's but completely white, only six black slits lining the side of the face to break it up. Hiso's ears seemed to hang from the monster's back, resembling wings. Its body seemed like a combination of both monsters, similar to Tsuneki's but with Hiso's coloring. It still had Tsuneki's longcoat, but the sleeves fused into Hiso's sleeves, and knives hung from the bottom of the coat. The eyes on it now seemed stationary, with the Chaos Emblem instead of pupils. On its chest was a fox head, with two stain glass ear-like protrusions coming out from behind it.

"We are Hisuneki." It said, speaking with both Tsuneki and Hiso's voices. "Prepare to be killed."

"Ready to go?" Judy asked, holding up her wrist.

"Fluff, I've been waiting to do this for hours."

"ZOO ON!"

The two transformed into ZooRed and ZooBlue, all four Rangers striking a pose.

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON!" Blue flipped up, and landed on her knees, arms out to her side "ZOOBLUE!"

"CHAMPION OF THE SUN!" Red made diagonal slashing motions with both of his claws, and then pulled both of them away from his face, claws bared. "ZOORED!"

"WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE!" Silver slashed his blade in a cross pattern, and then jabbed it forward. "ZOOSILVER!"

"Refining my ability, I cut open the path to the future!" GekiChopper performed a few arm thrusts, before swinging the large weapon down. "Amazing Ability! GekiChopper!"

The four dashed at the monster, who proceeded to pull the large blades from its back. Blue leaped in to kick the monster, followed by Red leaping over her to perform a slash with his claws. Hisuneki held the massive blades up, causing the two to bounce off it.

GekiChopper and Silver ran in next, attempting to slash at the monster with their blades. Hisuneki quickly moved the blades out, blocking the attacks. It knocked the blades back, and rapidly slashed at the two, sending them flying.

The double monster connected the two blades into what looked like a large bow. It aimed it upwards, and pulled back, creating a string of energy. It let go, firing a barrage of energy arrows up into the air. They fell down around it, striking the Rangers and causing explosions.

The dust cleared, leaving the four on the ground. Hisuneki broke the bow back into the blades, and looked at them. "I don't think we can beat this guy without weapons." Red grunted as Blue and him got up.

"Well, then what, is the lesson we learned pointless now!?" Blue yelled.

"I didn't say to not use weapons."

They turned around to see Xia Fu and Kruger entering the site. "Weapons are a supplement." The caracal continued to explain. "You need to learn how to mix the two."

"Mix the two…" Blue's ears perked up. "That's it!" She rushed over to GekiChopper, who had gotten up. "Ken, I need your weapon!"

"What? Why?"

"Just give it here!"

She leaped up, and grabbed onto the large weapon. Suddenly, it started to glow, the rabbit dropping back to the ground. Blue pulled out her daggers, which also started to glow. They tossed the weapons into the air, where they collided and caused a flash of light.

From the light fell a large weapon, which landed in Blue's paws. It was a massive axe, white in color everywhere but the blade. The blade itself was curved, resembling a rhino's horn. The axe was around twice Blue's height, but she seemed to carry it effortlessly.

The rabbit twirled the axe around, and slammed the handle into the ground. "Wow, you'd think this would be a lot heavier." She said, surprised. Blue grabbed it with both paws, and twirled around, slamming the blade into the ground. "But this is exactly what we need!"

"How?" GekiChopper asked.

"Like this!"

She rushed at the monster, and leaped up into the air. Hisuneki guarded with his blades, as Blue brought the axe down. It cut right through the blades, destroying them for good.

"Impossible!" The monster yelled, tossing the broken blades to the ground.

"Nothing's impossible!" She yelled.

She slashed at the monster a few times, the axe having broken its defense. The other Zoorangers rushed in, Red leaping in with his sword to strike a blow to the monster's chest. Silver switched the blade to moon Mode, and wrapped it around the monster.

He lifted it into the air, and dropped it in front of Blue. She swung at it with the axe, launching the monster into a nearby girder. It fell to the ground, and struggled to get up.

"Wow, that thing's pretty wild!" Red said, punching the rabbit in the shoulder. "Hey, why don't you call it the Wild Axe?"

"…I'll consider it." She said, before running over to GekiChopper. "Ken, let's finish this guy off for good!" Blue shouted.

"Oh, okay!" He said, a bit unsure. "…How do I do that?"

"Combine your powers!" Kruger shouted. "Use your combination finisher!"

"But I don't have a weapon!" GekiChopper shouted back.

"Use your qi!" Xia Fu yelled.

"Oh yeah!"

GekiChopper grabbed Blue by her waist, and lifted her up. "I'm going to infuse you with my qi now, alright?"

"Will it hurt?"

"Hopefully not!"

Energy began to flow from GekiChopper into Blue's body. She felt a sudden surge of energy run through her.

"QI CUTTING STRIKE, GEKI EDITION!"

GekiChopper tossed her up into the air, the Wild Axe starting to glow white. She slashed it at the monster, causing a crystalized blast of energy to strike impale itself into the monster. Using the force of another swing, she flung herself into the monster, the axe directly hitting the crystalized blast, sending it completely through the monster's body.

Hisuneki stumbled back, and exploded, Blue spinning around and jabbing the hilt of the axe into the ground and giving the peace sign.

The Wild Axe started to glow again, Blue letting go of it as it split back into the weapons that created it, as well as a white ZooTag. Blue caught the ZooTag as it fell to the ground.

"Alright, we did it!" She shouted, pumping her fist.

"Should we just prepare the robots before the monster turns giant?" Red asked, pulling out his ZooTag.

"No, you usually wait for the monster to turn giant." Chopper said. "Its kind of a rule."

"It's a dumb rule."

The four watched as the two badges flew from the monster's remains, circling each other. They flew off into the distance, and burst into energy, reforming Hisuneki on the horizon. The monster let out a roar in both of the monster's voices.

"Alright, Silver!" Blue said, turning to the wolf. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah!" He said, taking a step forward. The wolf froze in place, and started to shake.

"You alright?" Red asked.

Silver suddenly collapsed, untransforming back into Max. He tried to get up, but let out a yelp of pain. "I can't move." He said, weakly.

The two rushed over and tried to help him to his feet. It didn't work well due to the size difference, them only managing to get him up to his knees, and even then Max was tilting a bit. "You overexerted yourself!" Blue said. "I told you to take a break!"

"Yeah, I said to take a break too." Red yelled. "But nobody ever listens to me!"

"Guys, I'll handle Max." GekiChopper said, grabbing Max's paw and helping him up onto his shoulder. "You have a monster to deal with!"

They nodded, and summoned their mechs, which quickly formed into ZooRobo.

"You're fighting a two on one battle, fools!" Hisuneki roared. "There's no way you can win!"

"As long as we work together, we can defeat any monster!" Blue shouted back. ZooRobo prepared its blade, and stepped forward.

Hisuneki let out a laugh, and aimed its hands at the robot. It fired a flurry of knives towards ZooRobo, causing it to stumble and fall to the ground. The rabbit-fox monster held out its hands as ZooRobo climbed back to its feet. Energy, qi, seemed to flow out from the monster, creating the two massive blades.

"Oh, come on, seriously!?" Red said in disbelief.

Hisuneki let out a chuckle, before swinging the blades forward. It was yards away from ZooRobo, but the blades still managed to hit. The mech began to spark as the monster kept slashing.

"They're in trouble…" Max said weakly, trying to move. "I need to help them…"

"No." Kruger said, walking up to GekiChopper. "Ken, you need to help them yourself."

"What?" He said, surprised. "I'm not even a part of their team!"

"Summon your mech, it will unlock a power that will let them beat this monster." Kruger explained.

"Oh, I get it!" He said. "Take care of Max while I deal with this, alright?" He said, handing the wolf over to Kruger.

"I didn't agree to this."

Ken pulled out an odd-looking blade, a gem embedded in its edge, and a rhino head carved into its hilt. He lifted it into the air, causing the gem to glow.

Nothing happened.

He jabbed it into the air again, still nothing happened.

"SaiDain should be showing up now!" He said, looking at the blade. "Why isn't it working?"

"Ken," Xia Fu started, patting GekiChopper on the shoulder. "Did you actually bring SaiDain?"

He grabbed onto his helmet at screamed. "I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING!"

"You forgot to bring your mech!?" Kruger yelled, dropping Max to the ground.

"I'm fine, just leave me here." Max groaned as Kruger stomped over to the rhino ranger.

"We specifically told you to bring your mech!" He scolded.

"I just thought that bringing the sword would let me summon him!"

"SaiDain can't travel through dimensions, Ken."

They looked up, watching as Hisuneki continued to slash into ZooRobo. Ken gripped the blade in both of his hands. "Master Brusa Ee!" He shouted at the blade. "Give me the power to help them!"

The blade started to glow, which quickly enveloped GekiChopper himself. They turned into a ball of light, which zoomed through the air and into ZooRobo.

The cockpits in the robot swiveled around as a third one rose from below. GekiChopper was standing on a platform, two small red and blue pillars behind him. The platform was decorated with a rhino head at the front, and a small pedestal.

"Yo, how's it going?" He greeted, waving to the other two Rangers.

"Absolutely fantastic!" Red yelled sarcastically. "Hurry up and put the thing in the thing!"

"It looks like a tag!" Blue said.

"Oh, you mean this?" He said, flashing a white ZooTag at her.

"Yes! There should be a slot for it to plug in over there!"

Chopper glanced down at the pedestal. It had a slot in it. He shrugged, and popped the ZooTag into it.

"DAI SAI!
GRAND SAI!
BREAKING THE FIST
ZOOSAI!"

In a flash of light, another mech leaped through the air. It struck Hisuneki in the chest, sending the monster flying. The mech crashed on the ground, giving them a good look.

It was a stout rhinoceros robot, in line with all the other mechs they had gotten. The most notable part of it was its head, which was flat and blade-like, with glowing slits for eyes on its side. The rhino let out a cry, and leaped into the air.

It unfolded out into two arms, ZooRobo's normal arms folding back and in to make room for it. As the mech split in half, a faux rhino head revealed itself from the back. The mechs combined, the rhino head plugging into ZooRobo's chest. It quickly sprang open, revealing a headpiece that gave the mech a bandanna. The mech's arms ended in the rhino's face blades, which quickly twisted down, making them resemble axes.

"ZOOROBO, SAI MODE!"

ZooRobo swung the axes around, and started to stomp towards the monster. "You can't expect that to work twice!" Hisuneki yelled. It quickly swung the blades, and connected them back to its back. They began to flutter, lifting the monster up into the air.

It thrust its arms forward, firing off dozens of knives. ZooRobo held the axes in front of it, the knives harmlessly bouncing off of them.

"WHAT!?" The monster yelled.

"This guy's super strong!" Blue said. "You can't cut through his hide!"

"Its using the spirit of the Beast Fist God, SaiDain!" GekiChopper yelled. "He won't fall to someone like you!"

"Well, he wouldn't fall to weak attacks like yours!" Red continued.

Hisuneki growled. "I'll show you!" It fired more knives, which continued to bounce off the axes.

ZooRobo walked forward as the daggers flew at it. It stopped, and swung its arms out, sending the remaining blades flying. The axes started to glow, the mech swinging them and firing off bursts of crystalized energy.

The crystal slashes flew through the air, and circled around Hisuneki, cutting directly through its wings. The monster fell to the ground with a scream, and quickly got up.

"Time to finish this!" GekiChopper yelled

They put the two axe heads together, and stomped forward. They started to glow white as the robot approached the now cowering monster.

"HORN CRACKER!"

The mech lifted its arms into the air, and swung down through the monster's body. The force of the swung cut directly through it, causing Hisuneki to split in half. The two halves separated from each other as ZooRobo turned and struck a pose. The halves seemed to transform back into Tsuneki and Hiso, who both let out a cry as they exploded.

"Nature, protected!"

"That was Zootastic!"

The mech vanished, and the three reappeared back in the construction site. The rabbit high-fived the fox, and jumped up into the air to punch GekiChopper in the shoulder.

"We did it!" She yelled, raising her arms to the air.

"I am so glad that nightmare is over." Red said with a sigh of relief. They glanced over to Max, who was sitting up, paw clutching his head. They both ran over to him. "You okay?" Red asked.

"I'm fine." He said.

"No, you're obviously not." Blue said. "We need to get you to a hospital."

There was a cough, and the three looked up to see Kruger and Xia Fu.

"We should be going now." Kruger said, Xia Fu giving a nod in response. "We've done everything we needed to do. Please, get some help for your friend."

"Guess I'll be seeing you guys later!" Ken said, giving a quick salute.

Blue gave a quick nod to Ken. "It was nice meeting you, Ken."

"You're kind of a hard head, though." Red said, a bit dismissively.

"What was that!?" Ken yelled, bending down and getting directly in the fox's face.

The two growled and placed their helmets together, before backing off and laughing. "You're not bad company." Red said.

'You aren't either, fox!"

"Well, is anyone going to say goodbye to me?"

The six turned towards the construction site. Standing in front of it was Long, who seemed to cast a glow in the night. "What are you still doing here, Long?" Blue asked.

"Shouldn't you be running off to your mountain?" Red jokingly asked. "Coming up with another plan that won't work?"

The air fell silent as Long started to laugh. He laughed and laughed, with each second of it feeling like days.

"A plan that doesn't work?" he said as he finished laughing. "My plan worked flawlessly."

"How!?" Blue yelled, stepping forward. "We beat the monster, you didn't do anything to beat us!"

"Your plan just made us stronger!" Red continued. "That's a backfire if I ever heard one!"

"Why don't I let him show you?" Long said. The two looked at each other, confused.

Suddenly, something dashed from the shadows of the construction site, rushing past them. They spun around, watching as a green streak rapidly attacked the others. They watched them fall to the ground as they let out cries of pain. The streak dashed between the two, and stopped next to Long.

It was a massive, crystalline creature, slightly taller than even Long. It resembled a wolf… or a lion… or a fox… it seemed to emanate something from every animal, but its head was distinctly a mix of canine and feline features. Its head jutted forward, giving it a hunched appearance, with a crystal mane covering the back. It had massive hands, connected to massive claws, and thick arms that looked like a crystal version of an elephant's skin.

The claws themselves all seemed to be different, ranging from curved to razor thin, to knife-like. It had multiple tails, resembling crystalline fox, tiger, lion, and wolf tails. Its legs were digitigrade, like a horse, but its actual feet resembled that of a rabbit's. It was an utter mishmash of animals, its crystal body changing from green to blue. The most striking part where its eyes, which oddly enough resembled a goat's, except they were blood red.

"What the hell is that!?" Red asked, the two stepping back.

"Aw, don't you two recognize me?" It said with a laugh. Its voice was incredibly slimy, and familiar. "We've been friends for so long!"

Blue stepped forward. "It can't be." She said. "…Savage?"

"Bingo, sister!" It said, pointing towards her. "you're probably wondering how I got this sweet new body, right?"

"yeah, I thought you were just a metaphysical concept manifesting through energy or something." Red said. "You're only supposed to be able to control us, what are you doing away from our bodies?"

Savage patted Long on the back. "Gotta thank my friend here for that!" Long swatted at the monster, causing him to reel back. "Sheesh."

"This is what this entire plan was leading up to." Long started to explain. I knew that, somehow, you'd find a way to overcome the evil qi I infused you with. And with that energy, came Savage's own."

"While you two were fighting that mishmash monster, he was busy creating my body out of my energy!" Savage finished. "And guess what? We're going to kill you now!"

The two prepared their weapons. "Not without a fight!" Blue said.

The four ran at each other, Red leaping into the air to slash at Savage. In a single motion, Savage grabbed the sword, and flung Red into the ground. He proceeded to stomp down on him, before kicking him across the ground.

At the same time, Blue rushed at Long. She quickly tossed her weapons at him, but he smacked them out of the air. She jumped into a kick, but the Phantom Qi master grabbed her by the foot, and flung her into the air. He created a flaming bow, and fired it at her. She fell to the ground next to Red with a hard thud.

"Even with that pitiful training, you're no match for us." Long said, sounding a bit bored. "Pathetic."

"I was hoping they'd go out with a bit more too." Savage said, disappointed by the display.

The two crawled to their knees, but they couldn't get fully to their feet.

"NICK! JUDY!"

They turned back to look at their friends. Kruger, Xia Fu, GekiChopper, and even Max were standing.

"Combine your powers!" Kruger shouted. "Create a miracle!"

"Manifest your qi!" Xia Fu continued. "If you pool them together you will gain the power to beat them!"

"Me and Ken will keep them busy!" Max quickly transformed into ZooSilver, and pulled out his weapon. Him and GekiChopper ran forward, towards Savage and Long.

"Manifest our qi?" Blue said as she got up.

"What does that mean?" Red asked.

They looked over as Silver and Chopper fought against the two powerful beasts. They didn't stand a chance, they were getting completely pummeled. It was only a matter of time before the monster killed them.

"We need to do something quick!" Red said. "Or else…"

"Let's try this manifesting qi thing!" Blue said. She held her paws out, and fell silent. The fox glanced at her for a moment, before following. They stayed like that for a minute, but nothing seemed to happen.

"This is working great!" Red said sarcastically.

"Just concentrate!" Blue said, not changing positions.

'We need to help them.' Blue thought to herself. 'We need the strength to protect them… no, the power to protect everyone!'

Kruger and Xia Fu watched in awe as the rabbit started to glow with a blue aura. Red opened his eyes and watched as well, as the aura moved through her arms, and into her paws. It formed into a solid orb. She opened her eyes as she felt the object.

"I did it!" She said. She looked the orb over, there didn't seem to be anything to it. "But, what does this thing do?"

"You need both your powers!" Kruger said. "Nick, concentrate on something you want to protect!"

"…Protect?" He glanced over at Blue, seeing Judy within the suit. He took a deep breath, and shut his eyes. The fox began to glow red, which pooled itself into a second orb.

Long, who had his foot crushing down on GekiChopper, and Savage, who was strangling Silver, turned to look. The two Zoorangers held the orbs up, them starting to glow and float. The red orb suddenly gained several points around it, while the blue orb formed more into a crescent.

The orbs started to shrink down, and placed themselves back in their paws. They looked at the new objects. Blue held a blue and silver Zootag, a large crescent moon design topping it. Red held a ZooTag as well, his red and gold, with a sun design marking the top.

They glanced at each other, and then over to the monsters. Savage let go of his prey, dropping the wolf to the ground. He started to walk over to them. "What the hell are those?" It asked. "You two better not try anything funny."

Both Zoorangers grabbed the ZooTags by their large ends, and plugged them into the Zoolizers.

A heavenly sounding choir started to sound.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two transformed in a flash.

Red was clad in golden samurai-like decorations, not armor since it seemed to be connected to the suit. It covered a chunk of his body, but large parts of his arms and legs, and a bit of his midsection, weren't, revealing red. His helmet now had a large U-shape extending from its brow, the back of the helmet now becoming spiked. His gloves now sported much more noticeable claws.

Blue was clad in similar armor, but it was lighter than Red's. The details remained the same, except her armor was silver, with blue revealed underneath. Her helmet also had a large U-shape coming out of it now, and the back of it now had two curves that pointed upwards. She was more heavily armored on her feet.

"Casting a shadow over the darkened land!" Red started. He moved both his hands above him, and then moved them down in a quarter circle motion. He brought them close to his chest "Master of the Sun!" He then bared his claws, striking a pose. "ZOORED SOLAR!"

"Shining a path for those in need!" Blue moved one arm above her head, and the other down. She swung them, the one pointing down moving and curving up, vice versa for the one that was pointed up. Her pose resembled a crescent. "Goddess of the Moon!" She broke out of the pose, and kicked forward several times, before stomping her foot on the ground. "ZOOBLUE LUNAR!"

"Oh my god!" Silver yelled, getting up and running over to them "You guys got super forms!? That's amazing!"

GekiChopper swung his blade at the distracted Long's feet, and rolled away, getting up and heading over to the two as well. "We'll hang back and let you handle them!" He said.

The two upgraded Rangers marched forward, and then broke into a sprint. Blue seemed to be moving at double her speed, whipping around Savage and Long. She leaped up a few times, delivering what felt like hundreds of kicks in only a second.

Red followed afterwards. He moved slower, but a single slash from his claws caused Savage to reel back. He knocked into Long's back, the two were now surrounded on both sides by the Zoorangers. Blue leaped up and deliver a strong kick with all of her might, knocking them both into Red. The fox slashed forward with both his claws, with a force strong enough to send both of the monsters flying.

They tumbled across the dirt, and got to their feet. "This isn't going well!" Savage said. "What are we going to do!?"

Long remained silent.

Red held out his paw, a burst of energy coming from it. The energy formed into a long, golden rod, with a hollow circle at the end of it. It was marked with eight points surrounding it, the middle part of each side having no spikes.

"SOLAR STRIKER!" He said, spinning it around and slamming the hilt into the ground.

Blue held out her paws as well, energy coming from them. They formed two silver khopesh, blue lines running up the side of the curved blades. The hilts ended in small hooks that didn't seem to serve a purpose.

"LUNAR SLICERS!" She yelled, slashing the blades against each other.

"Oh, and it just got worse!" Savage yelled.

Red thrust the rod forward, it seeming to extend to strike at the opponents dozens of feet away. He rapidly did this, until the circle of the rod caught on fire, which only seemed to speed the attack up.

The two reeled back from the hits, until Blue stepped forward with her blades. She started to spin, becoming a small tornado. She dashed across the dirt, carving a trail in it, until she whizzed past the monsters, slashing directly through their legs.

Red ran up this time, and started to smack the two with the rod. He knocked them side to side, but quickly knocked the monster into each other and dodged out of the way as Blue started to slash her sword from far away. The rapid slashes manifested as energy, and flew into the two, sparks flying from them with each strike.

The monsters stumbled back, obviously weakened, as the Rangers gathered back together.

"Time to finish this." Red said.

"Let's make it flashy!" Blue continued. Red held out the rod, the circle facing upwards. Blue used the hooks to connect her khopesh onto the sides of the circle, making it resemble an overly large bow.

She grabbed onto the back of the rod, and they channeled their energy into it. The bow started to glow with both of their colors.

"SOLAR CYCLE BLASTER!"

The bow unleashed a massive blast of energy, ripping apart the ground beneath it as it headed right towards the monsters. Long quickly punched Savage, knocking him out of the way of the blast. It struck the Phantom QI user, causing him to let out a terrifying scream of pain, before bursting into a massive explosion.

The two lifted the rod and slammed it into the ground, before turning around and posing, right before the explosion cleared.

Savage scrambled to his feet and stumbled over as the smoke cleared. "LONG!" He shouted. Nothing remained, save for a small, golden ball. He fell silent for a moment. "He sacrificed his life for me…"

The two Zoorangers untransformed. "Did we just…?" Nick started, his heart racing.

"I think we did." Judy said, shocked. A smile crept across both their faces.

"WE BEAT A GENERAL!"

They grabbed each other's paws, and started jumping up and down in excitement, before closing in for a hug.

Max untransformed and ran over to them. "That was incredible, you guys!" he said.

"I know, right?" Nick said. "This is the kind of power we need!"

"I didn't even feel like I was conscious." Judy said. "It was like I was on autopilot."

"You'll be able to control it better as you use it more." Kruger explained. "I don't suggest using it often, however. Those forms could be a massive power drain."

"Got it." Judy said.

Ken and Xia Fu ran over, looking worried. "We need to get out of here."

"Why?" Max asked. "They got rid of the monsters. Well, one of them."

"Savage is good a reason as any to get out of here." Judy said.

"It's not that." Xia Fu started. "Long is immortal. He cannot die."

"Uh, tell that to his ashes over there." Nick said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.

There was a sudden crack of thunder, everyone turning to look over at Long's death spot. The golden ball lifted into the air, and started to spin around, golden energy flowing around it. The force of the energy was like a tornado, the heroes having to brace themselves as it gathered. There was a bright flash, followed by laughter.

Judy opened her eyes, to see a horrifying sight.

Long, completely revitalized. It was like they had done nothing to him.

"You should listen to your friends more." Long said, laughing. "I am the Infinite Dragon. I cannot die, and I cannot be killed. But I must say…" He paused, and started to laugh. "After over a decade of being trapped in that cursed ball… You two have given me the most interesting experience I've had. I must thank you for that."

He turned to Savage. "Wow, I thought you sacrificed yourself for me." He said, feeling a bit relieved. "You had me scared!"

"I only let myself die because I don't know if I can revive you." He explained. "You're too valuable to lose. Come, I must introduce you to my colleagues…" The two transformed into mist, gold and green, and flew off through the sky.

Nick blinked a few times, and finally broke the stunned silence.

"Did we just lose?"

---

The group headed into the outskirts of the city. "I feel that could have gone better." Ken said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Definitely." Judy replied. "I can't believe we got tricked like that."

"That scaly creep managed to trick all of us!" Nick said, frustrated. "He even tricked Xia Fu and Kruger!"

"He managed to trick AkaRed as well." Kruger said. "But we didn't have a choice."

"Long is a manipulative one." Xia Fu said. "He managed to nearly destroy the world with his trickery."

"I'm just gonna say he's probably the most dangerous villain we're going to have to fight." Max guessed. "Aside from like, the big final villain."

There was a honk from above, the group looking to watch as the Rainbow Line skid to a halt in front of them.

"Guess its time to say goodbye for real!" Ken said. He gave a quick fist bump to the three, and headed into the train. "Hey, do you guys have pork buns here?" He asked as he stepped in.

"It was a pleasure to train you." Xia Fu said. He bowed down, Nick and Judy following suit.

"Um, Master Xia Fu?" max asked before the caracal could walk away. "Do you think you could see… my qi?"

Xia Fu opened his eyes, and stared at the wolf for a moment. "You have…" The wolf waited in anticipation.

"An average amount of qi." He finished. "I'm sorry, but there isn't much you could do with it."

His ears dropped. "Oh."

"it's nothing to worry about." Xia Fu said with a laugh. "You don't need qi to be a hero." He gave a quick wave and stepped into the train.

The three looked up at Kruger. "Hopefully it won't be months until we see each other again." Nick said, holding up a paw for a shake. Kruger didn't respond.

"Do you two remember what AkaRed told you?"

"What?"

"About your third member."

"Third member…?" Nick said, confused. "He's right here!" He motioned towards Max.

"He isn't your third member."

Max's ears drooped down even lower as that exited Kruger's mouth.

"He was an emergency plan. He wasn't in the original plan." Kruger explained. "The third Zooranger is still out there, you just need to find him."

"Don't talk to him like that."

"Excuse me?"

He looked down at Judy, who looked absolutely furious. "You don't get to talk to MY team like that!" She yelled. "Max is my friend, and our teammate, that's more important than whatever plan you have."

Kruger sighed, and silently walked into the train car. The Rainbow Line took off.

"…Thank you, Judy." Max said.

"We should probably get you to a hospital." Nick said, looking the wolf over. He was bruised and bloody, even worse than he was this morning.

"Yeah, probably a good idea."

The three started to walk back to the city. "Hey, so now that we've been trained by a master, and have super powerful upgrades, do we still have to do the training?" Nick asked, hopeful that the answer would be 'No'.

"Yes." Judy said. "We can't slack off just because we're stronger now."

Nick groaned, as Max trailed behind them.

"You guys are stronger…" He whispered to himself. "…But what about me?"

---

"Sir, we've run into a bit of the problem with the system." Leopold said into the phone.

"Is it a problem we can solve, or is it a problem you'll lose your job over?" Herder replied.

"No, its…" His voice wavered, so he cleared his throat. "Its something we can fix."

"What is it, then?"

"We don't have a real energy source for the system." He explained. "We could work one out, but the level of electricity or radiation would be more than the amount the city uses yearly!"

"That is a problem." Herder said calmly as he slouched back into his sofa. "I might have a friend who can help."

"A… a friend?" Leopold said nervously. "You know someone who has a power source that powerful?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but I can ask him." Herder said. "I'll call you back once I've figure it out." He hung up before Leopold could say another word.

"An energy source, you say?"

Herder let out a shriek as Long walked into the room. "You can't just do that!" He yelled. "At least knock first!"

"I have an energy source all ready." Long said. "But, I have one condition for you."

"A condition?" Herder said. He thought for a moment. "What is it?"

"I need you to find the perfect candidates for the system." Long started. "Violent, dangerous criminals who will show no mercy dealing with our little problem."

"I can do that, but…" He paused. "Are you sure that's the kind of mammal we need for this job?"

"If you don't follow my orders, you won't have a power source." Long declared. Long's visor lit up, shining directly into Herder's face. "And you won't have a life."

"Okay!" Herder said, terrified at the monster. "I'll get criminals for it. I can go through the records to find some, probably death row guys…"

The room suddenly got a lot darker. Herder looked around, Long had vanished.

"Perfect."

---

Hey look, its another monstrous episode!

This is it, the halfway point of the series. I never thought I'd get this far, honestly. I thought I'd give up at around episode 10 or something, but I guess I just set my mind to this.

But, really, I just want to say thank you to the people who've read this. Knowing that I make at least a handful of people happy is incredibly important to me. It's not really something feel most of the time. Again, thank you all.

Now, since this is the halfway point, we have half of the story left! What can you expect for the second half, well, you can expect:
-More monsters!
-More Sentai and Kamen Rider cameos!
-More mecha and weapons!
-A complete change in the status quo!
-FIVE new Rangers, both good and evil!
-More plotlines to be finished!
-Zootopia characters becoming more important!
-More weird plots!
-Jokes!
-The true identity of The Omnipotence!

And more! Please stick around as I take a real break (I was writing this episode for like a week and a half, I need one), and next time…

Next time, the plot starts moving, and it does not stop.