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)

33. Episode 32 - End of the SPD

Episode 32: End of the SPD

Oh god.

What had he done?

He looked at his claws. Blood stained them. It was covering him. There was something on the ground, where the body should have been. A cloud of red and green that pulsated for a moment… before it faded it.

"Dave?" A voice called from around the corner. "Idiota, where are you?"

He looked behind him, down the alleyway. Emily and Henry turned the corner, and were instantly stunned by the sight.

"Oh my god, Dave, what happened?" Henry asked, both worried and terrified.

"I… I don't know." The lion muttered. He glanced back down, the cloud had cleared, revealing the dead body of a full-grown panther. Wounds covered his body, ripping through his clothes, and a pool of blood surrounded him.

Emily ran over, and grabbed the panther's paw, searching for a pulse. "Oh god, he's dead." She muttered. She stared at Him. "Dave, did you do this?"

"I didn't mean to…" He muttered, tears starting to well in his eyes. He fell to his knees. "But he tried to… I didn't mean to kill him…"

Words soon turned to incoherent gibberish as Henry helped him back up. Him and Emily helped him walk away from the site, but a terrifying thought continued to flow through the lion's mind. As much as he swore he didn't mean to, as much as he was terrified by the concept of having killed someone…

It still felt good.

---

The truck bumped along the street roads. Clawbick pressed a button on the control pad, a quick ringing noise sounding through the vehicle. "Hello?" Leopold sounded over the speakers.

"Hey, Doc." Clawbick said. "We caught the Zoorangers, tell Herder."

"Oh, alright, I'll-" There was a pause. "You actually caught them!?"

"Yeah, we did."

There was a silent pause, though they could hear muffled chatter. "The chief's already here, he was doing an inspection, so you guys have great timing!" Leopold said. "The chief'll be… thrilled, right?" He said off hand. "Yeah, thrilled."

"We'll be there in five minutes, prepare the entrance." Clawbick continued. "Don't wanna be sitting around for a goddamn half-hour again."

"Alright, see you guys so-" Clawbick quickly hung up.

"So, where're you taking us?" Nick asked from the back. "Old asylum? Museum?"

"Nowhere inside the city, Nicky." Clawbick dully responded.

Nick glanced at his own teammates, who gave shrugs in response.

"If you were a kid, you'd think it was super cool." Emily said with a knowing laugh. She stopped. "Probably won't like it now, though."

There was silence for a few minutes, and then a quick bump. "Alright, we're here." Clawbick said. "You guys escort the prisoners, I'll park the car." He ordered.

"Alright." Henry said, standing up. "But first, we're going to need your wrist things."

"Our Zoolizers?" Judy said. "Why do you need them?"

"To confiscate them, duh." Emily said. "They're basically weapons, we can't just let you three run around in a prison with them."

"But-"

"Just do what they say." Nick sighed. "It'll be easier."

The rabbit gave a sigh as Emily knelt down, and took the Zoolizer off of Nick's wrist.

Henry took Judy's off, and looked at Max. The wolf instinctively jutted his hands away. "Please don't take it." He pleaded.

"Max, seriously?" Judy said. "Just do it, leader's order."

Max sighed, and held out his paws. Henry quickly pulled it off his wrist. "Alright, now we're getting out." Henry ordered, the sides of the truck opened up to reveal a grassy field. The two officers led the three out into the field, and it became obvious where they were.

They were directly outside of the city, around the same area where they fought most of the giant monsters. It was easy to tell, there were massive footprints everywhere.

"Not much of a base." Nick joked.

"This isn't the base." Henry said. The ground suddenly started to shake, and the three looked at where it was coming from.

A large, square patch of grass started to rise up, nearly one hundred feet wide on all sides. There was a horrible metallic screeching as this happened, most likely caused by the large metal bars on all four corners scraping against a metal interior. The patch of grass stopped many feet above the ground, enough for the already massive truck to fit in quite comfortably. There was a metallic platform directly under it, which the truck slowly drove onto.

The officers motioned for the three to follow, and they walked onto the platform. It started to shake again, and began lowering.

"What is this?" Judy asked as they passed ground level.

"An underground panic bunker." Henry started. The roof hit ground level, everything going pitch black. It paused, and lights at the sides of the metallic walls lit up. The elevator seemed to continue downwards shortly after that.

"Built around, I dunno, seventy, eighty years ago?" Emily continued. "It was made in case another war started."

"A war?" Judy said. "There hasn't been a war in a century, why is this place still operational?"

"They made it into a weapons research facility, its where they test new weapons." Henry answered. "Just because there hasn't been a war in one hundred years, doesn't mean one couldn't start tomorrow. At least, that's the idea behind it."

"Weapons? Like, for hurting others?" Judy continued. The bull nodded in response. She was stunned by this information, she had been convinced that nothing like this was needed, especially considering the strict gun laws in the city itself.

"Carrots, are you really surprised by this?" Nick said, way too nonchalantly. "This is how politics work, whoever has the best weaponry wins, according to most politicians at least."

"I just thought that 'Chief of Defense' was a meaningless title." She said. "I didn't know we had a weapons facility underneath the city."

"The guys upstairs love keeping secrets from us." Max continued. "Like Area Fifty-One."

Nick and Judy both looked at the wolf for a second. He looked back.

"What?"

The elevator stopped, revealing a slanted road that seemed to head off into utter darkness. The truck started to move forwards, and rolled down the road. The officers led the three to a nearby door at the base of the road, only slightly off the large elevator. It opened up, revealing another elevator.

"Alright, how deep is this place?" Nick asked as they stepped into the lift. He glanced at the buttons, there were only two, one pointing up, and the other pointing down.

"Don't worry, we're almost at the bottom." Emily said. "And if you think this is bad, try having to do this twice every day."

The smaller elevator stopped, leading to a hallway. They followed to=he hall into a large open space, lined with different machines that none of them had ever seen before. Odd contraptions, some looking like guns, some not.

Standing in the middle of the room was Herder and a leopard, presumably Dr. Leopold.

"Well, if it isn't our guests of honor!" Herder said as the Zoorangers were led into the room. "It's great to finally meet you three in person," He continued, walking over and shaking Judy's paw with his hoof. He was squeezing it to the point of pain, definitely on purpose. "My name is Herder, and this is my assistant, Dr. Leopold."

"Actually," Leopold started, clearing his throat. "It's 'Head of research and development-"

"No one cares, Leopold."

The leopard shut up.

There was a sudden rumbling sound as a door at the end of the room opened up, the truck driving in and parking in front of them. The cockpit opened up, and Clawbick hopped out. "Yo, I miss anything."

"Not yet, but I was just about to give my orders." Herder said to the lion. "I want you to take them to a free bunker, and let them rest for the night."

"What?" Nick said, confused. "Why don't you just do whatever you're going to do right now?"

"Because its twelve AM." He said bluntly. "I think we're all pretty tired now, right?"

There were collective nods.

"Then we can handle this in the morning." He said, before letting out a chuckle. "Besides, its not like you're going anywhere. Alright, see you all in the morning!" He ended, walking out through the hall.

"I'm amazed you handled that so well, Dave." Emily said to the lion. "I thought you'd be really upset about not being able to kill them right now."

"Nah, I got better things to do." Clawbick said. "Like sleeping."

The lion started walking off, leaving the five others behind as he passed through a different hallway at the end of the room. "Alright, guess we should take you to your… uh, rooms." Emily started.

"Ooh, I hope they're well furnished." Nick said sarcastically.

---

"Eh, not as bad as I was expecting." Nick said before the officers pushed the three into the bunker. It was made entirely out of concrete, with a small light and no windows, but thankfully it had two bunk beds.

Emily unlocked the handcuffs for them. She paused as she unlocked Nick's, and stared at him for a moment. She sighed, and left the room, shutting the door behind them. The fox stood there.

"This sucks." Max started, sitting down on one of the beds. "I guess we're actually full criminals now, huh?"

"Not yet." Judy said as she started pacing around. "It's up for a juror to decide, we still have a chance."

"Oh, I guess that's, uh, comforting?" Max followed. "Why do you think this Herder guy hates us so much?"

"I have no idea." Judy said with a shrug. "I've never even heard of the guy, I don't know why he'd have such a grudge against us."

"Yeah, it's not like he's really caring about the peace, the guy's clearly got a grudge on us specifically." Max continued. "Maybe we did something to him we're not aware of?"

"What could we have done that would've made this so personal?" She asked. "I don't think he even knew who we were before the doppelganger stuff, so it has to be something related to our Zooranger personas."

Max sighed for a second. "I know this sounds dumb, but maybe we should try applying some TV show logic to it?"

Judy paused and looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"I mean, a lot of stuff that's happened to us has been pretty standard TV show fare." The wolf continued. "I've watched enough to see some common threads. Like, maybe he's being tricked by a bad guy to do this?"

"I mean, the monsters have done terrible stuff like that before." Judy admitted. "But it doesn't seem like his hate is misplaced, either."

"Then I got nothing." Max said. "About the only thing we can say for certain is that it has something to do with Long, right?"

"That, or Long's just part of a bigger scheme." Judy followed. "Remember, Enter was the one who started this whole mess anyway."

"The bad guys don't really explain why Clawbick and his teammates are here, either." The wolf continued. "I guess we just don't have all the pieces to solve this mystery."

"We'll find out in the morning." Judy said with a sigh. She turned back to Nick, who was still standing in the same place. "Nick? You alright?"

The fox seemed to snap out of his trance. "What? Sorry, I was, uh, thinking."

"I know this whole thing's been rough." Judy said. "Running into someone like Clawbick again is… difficult, right?"

"You have no idea how difficult this is, Judy." Nick said, sullenly. He quickly smiled, and claped his paws together. "I call top bunk!"

He quickly climbed up the ladder, and hopped into the bed. Judy and Max stared at each other, Max giving a shrug. Neither of them were sure what had come over the fox in the last few moments.

"We should probably sleep too." Judy said. "I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be difficult."

"Hopefully just emotionally difficult." Max said, before wrapping himself in the thin blankets.

---

"So, you want to join our gang, huh?"

The lion knelt down to look the young fox in the eye. It was a terrifying experience, the lion's eye had a glint of malice in it. The fox took a gulp, and spoke up.

"Yeah, I want to join your gang." He said, absolutely confident.

The lion got back up, and let out a laugh. "Not a lot of mammals have the guts to talk to me like that." He said, bemused. "What's your name, kid?"

"Uh, Ni-Nick?" He mumbled. "Yeah, Nick Wilde. And for your information, I'm sixteen years old, I'm not a kid."

"Still younger than me." The lion said with a laugh. "You got some spirit, kid. I like you."

The fox's ears tried to pop up, but were blocked by the hoodie he was wearing. "Does that mean I'm in?"

"If you think you can handle it, sure." The lion said. "Follow me."

Nick followed the lion into a back alley, leading to what looked like an abandoned house. He opened the door, letting the two in. The house was both filthy and somewhat clean, like they had cleaned up only parts of it rather than the whole place. The dirty parts seemed to be nearly inhospitable anyways.

"Yo, guys, I got a newbie here!" The lion shouted. "Wants to join the gang!"

"That's one I haven't heard in a while!" Shouted a voice. The lion lead Nick into the living room, where a hyena in a pink tank-top had just gotten up off the couch. She glanced at the fox in confusion. "Is this the newbie?"

"Yeah, his name's Nick." The lion introduced. Nick gave a nervous wave to her. "He's got guts, I like him, but I wanted to know what you guys think."

"What's your background?" She asked. "I mean, what have you been through?"

The fox cleared his throat. "I had a fight with my mom, and ran away from home." He said. She raised an eyebrow, the fox seemed to be putting on a deeper voice.

"Not much of a story, is it?" The lion said with a laugh. Nick pulled his hoodie over his face in shame.

"Dave, don't laugh." The hyena said. Nick pulled the hoodie back, and looked up at her. "That's basically what happened to you."

"Don't have to rub it in, Em." Dave aid, crossing his arms. He glanced around for a moment. "Where's Henry at?"

"He went to the store to pick up some supplies." She said. "We're running a bit low on cash, I think we're gonna have to do another black market run soon."

"You know we barely get anything from selling off our stolen goods." Dave said.

"Oh, I think I can help!" Nick said, raising his paw up.

The two looked down at him, both giving a quizzical look. "How exactly can you help?" Dave asked.

"A couple years ago I started selling popsicles with one of my friends," He started. "We sold them at double the price, collected the sticks, and then gave them to the recycling plant for even more cash."

"Wait, you opened a racket?" Emily said. "That's pretty advanced stuff for someone your age, more than Davey here ever did."

"Hey, watch it." The lion snapped. "I don't see how popsicles will help us with our cash problem."

"Well, we can just sell things at inflated prices." Nick explained. "Give a good sales pitch, and anything will sell!"

"Will that really work?" Dave asked Emily.

She gave a shrug. "I don't know, but it sounds like a solid idea. We need to try something."

Dave turned back to the fox. "Alright, Nick, if you can get us some extra cash, then you're in the gang."

The fox gave a nod, and smiled.

---

There was a loud knock at the door, waking the three of them. "Ugh, what time is it?" Judy groggily groaned as she rubbed her eyes. She blinked a few times, but her eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness. "Ugh, can someone get the light?"

"Oops, sorry." Said a voice from the other side. The sound of a lock turning was heard, and the door opened up. The lights suddenly flicked on, and Judy managed to catch a hyena's paw slipping back out. The sound of the door locking sounded next.

"Seriously?" Max said, rubbing his eyes. "Couldn't you just come in?"

"We're prisoners, Max." Nick said, looking down at him from the top bunk. "They don't let guards into the cells."

"Yeah, I'm not letting you guys escape." Said the voice. The bar on the door slid off, revealing a small slit for Emily to look through. She wasn't in her armor.

Nick quickly climbed down from the top bunk, and stomped towards the door. "What do you want, Emily? Is it time for whatever you're planning yet?"

"No, its only like, four in the morning." She said. "I couldn't sleep without saying this… I'm really sorry for all of this. Genuinely."

Nick let out a sigh.

"I know I've probably hurt you through this, but me and Henry really haven't meant to." She continued. "I don't want you to hate us, we were forced into this."

"You didn't have to accept." Nick said. "You could've just said no, and told someone about Clawbick. They would have protected you."

"He'd find a way." Emily sighed. "I… I'm just sorry. I wish we could've met back up in a better way."

"I know." Nick said, flatly. "Just go."

She let out another sigh, and slid the metal plate back over the slit.

"I'm guessing you two have a past?" Judy asked.

"We were part of the same gang, I've told you this."

She glared at him. "No, I mean something more than just you knowing her, right?"

"Ooh, did you two date?" Max said, bluntly.

"No, we didn't date!" He shouted. The fox started rubbing his arm. "I… might've… Looked up to her a lot when we were friends."

Max and Judy gave each other a knowing look.

"Alright, I MIGHT have had a crush on her when I was a dumb kid." Nick finally let out. "Don't have to make fun of me for it."

"We're not making fun of you, Nick." Judy said. "Everyone's had weird, early crushes."

He fell silent for a moment. "I'd rather not talk about this all right now." He said.

"Alright, it's cool man." Max said, laying back down in his bed.

"Yeah, your old love life isn't important right now." Judy said, also laying down. "We should get some sleep."

"Alright… yeah." He muttered before climbing back up to his bed.

---

Clawbick creeped into the room, the green light pulsing on and off. "Hey, you ready for this?" he asked the creature inside the tube.

"Where were you last night?" Savage asked through his head. "You didn't come sleep down here, it was lonely."

"Yeesh, you're a bit clingy, huh?" Clawbick said, a bit weirded out by the telepathic crystalline monster. "Yesterday was rough, and I wanted to sleep somewhere where my back wouldn't cave in."

"Ah, preparing for today, I see?" Savage followed. "I get ya, I get ya… NOW HURRY UP AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The lion nodded, and pulled the sword out. He pressed the button on his belt, the armor forming around him, for safety. He dashed forwards, and slashed at the tube.

It clanged against the side, sending an electric shock through the blade and electrocuting him. He was flung back out of the room, hitting a wall with enough force to leave a dent. His armor folded back up, and he unsteadily walked back into the room.

"Oh yeah, should've told you that what ever this tube is made of is super strong." Savage said, Clawbick letting out an aggravated growl in response. "You'll need something a lot stronger than that sword to get me out of here."

"What?" Clawbick said, confused. "If you can't break it, then I don't think there is anything that can break it."

"See Davey, you're not the only creature who's mind I can read." Savage continued. "I've heard… rumblings about a powerful weapon located somewhere in this facility."

Clawbick raised an eyebrow. "Where would it be?"

"I don't know, I just know that its here, somewhere." Savage continued. "Find it, and you'll be able to break me outta here, and we can both get our revenge!"

"Well, that's not a lot of help." Clawbick said, crossing his arms. "This place is nearly as large as the city itself, where would I even start looking?"

"It shouldn't be too far." Savage claimed. "You just need to look thoroughly… but do it quick."

"You're such a good motivator, Savage." Clawbick sneered.

---

"Alright, it's nine AM." Nick said. "We should be getting close to whatever they're planning."

"It can't be a trial, that'd take way more time to prepare." Judy said as she paced around. "I'm really worried about what they're actually planning."

"I have a feeling that there won't be any justice systems involved." Max followed. "The bad guys don't usually do legal stuff."

"Herder doesn't think he's a bad guy, though." Judy said. "He's pretty high up on the legal ladder for the city."

"Technically we're not in the city." Nick said. "He might not have any power here."

"…Or, he has all the power." She said. "Think about it, he could kill us, and then claim we've been locked in prison. Nobody would ever be able to find out the truth."

Nick and Max looked at each other, nervously. "There's… there's no way he'd do that, right?" Max asked. "He wouldn't kill us."

"He hired a murderer." Nick said. "I don't think he cares."

There was a knock at the door. "It's time." Said a deep voice from the other side.

The door unlocked, opening to reveal Henry and a rather tired and sullen looking Emily. "You guys, uh, ready?" She mumbled.

"Ready for anything." Judy said.

The two officers quickly slapped the handcuffs back on the three, and dragged them all out of the room. They walked down the hall, and down into the main hall of the facility. There was a small room in the corner, which they were lead to.

The inside of the room, which seemed to be designed for much shorter mammals, rather than animals like Max, was designed very differently from the rest of the facility. It seemed more modern, with fake wooden panelling for walls, giving it a more coz feeling.

There were three seats in the room, alongside a desk, which Herder was seated on. The officers pushed the three in. Herder gave a nod. "Take a seat, please."

The three complied, since they didn't have much of a choice. "Nice place you got here." Nick said, attempting to start a joke. "You take it from your third cabin in the alps?"

There was silence. Herder and Judy glared at the fox, Max gritting his teeth. The fox's smug smile turned to a frown.

"Anyway, I suppose you three are wondering why you're here." Herder started, grabbing a pencil from a cup on the desk. He started to roll it around on the flat surface. "Why I've gone to such great lengths to capture you three."

"Yeah, we are." Nick said. "We've never even met you, why do you hate us so much?"

"I have a question for you three." Herder continued, ignoring Nick's own question. "Where were you all on March twelfth of this year?"

Nick and Judy's eyes widened, though Max seemed a bit confused. "I was at work." He said. "I don't see what that has to do with anyth-"

"March twelfth was the day you killed my son."

Max's jaw fell open.

"He was on his way home from school that day, he was studying to become a physicist, and we hadn't seen each other for a while." Herder continued, rolling the pencil faster. "He was always a punctual boy, so when he ended up an hour late, I knew something was wrong."

He rolled the pencil even faster, turning it more into a grind.

"When I checked the news, it turned he had died in a monster attack. A mantis monster or something, it attacked his car, and killed him." His tone was starting to get angrier. "I was devastated, he was the only thing I had left. When the idiots in the city called you heroes for destroying that bug, all I could think of was…"

He stopped rolling the pencil, and raised his fist into the air.

"WHY!?"

He slammed his hoof down onto the pencil, snapping it in half.

"Why were you being considered heroes when you couldn't even save a single life!?" He shouted, tears starting to well up. "I couldn't just let you… criminals run free, but nobody agreed with me until you actually started committing crimes! I was right, I was right all along!"

"You can't be serious!" Nick shouted, getting up. "We saved thousands of lives that day, it isn't even really our fault that he died!"

"The where were you!?" Herder retorted. "If you could've saved him, why didn't you!?"

Nick tried to come up with a rebuttal, but couldn't come up with anything.

"I wasn't even there!" Max followed. "And we've said this before, but those were clones committing crimes, we're the ones who stopped them!"

"Max is right, this is a baseless accusation!" Nick said. "Right, Judy?"

He turned to face her. The rabbit was shaking in her seat, pupils dilated.

"Judy?"

"I've already made my decision on what we're going to do with you." Herder said, trying to regain his composure. "In one hour, you will be executed."

"WHAT!?" Nick and Max shouted.

"That isn't legal!" Nick shouted. "This…"

"Nick." Judy said, finally speaking up. Her tone was flat. "Stop it. Just let us go back to our cell."

"Good idea." Herder said. The door behind them opened back up, revealing the SPD officers, who both seemed shocked. "Officers, take them away."

They were lead out of the office and back into the hall. "You heard all of that, didn't you?" Nick asked Emily as they continued down the hall.

"Nick, I… I did." She said. "We both did. I…" She fell silent, unable to properly vocalize her confusion, fear, and anger into a single sentence.

Henry unlocked the door, and the three walked in. He slammed the door behind them, locking it quickly.

"Henry, you don't believe it, right?" Emily asked as they started down the hall. "You don't think Nick would purposely do something like that, right?"

"Dr. Leopold told me to put these wrist devices in his office." Henry said, pulling the three Zoolizers out of his pockets.

"What? That doesn't-"

"I am going to do that now." Henry finished, walking down the hallway, leaving Emily behind. She let out a sigh. The bull was never good at saying how he felt, he was just trying to ignore it.

The hyena took a deep breath, and ran back up to him. "Uh, haven't seen Clawbick around all day, have we?" She started, trying to spark up a different conversation. Hopefully it would get both their minds off what they heard.

"No, I guess we haven't." Henry said with a sigh. "He slept in the bunker last night, but he vanished when I got up."

"Yeah, where do you think he gets to at times like this?" Emily asked as they reached Leopold's office.

"I dunno, maybe he found somewhere quiet to think." Henry suggested. "Might be why he seems a bit more sensible."

"I doubt that." Emily muttered at the entered the room.

The office was rather bare, the only furnishings being a large desk with a computer, and an office chair. There were also tons of screens on the wall, showing various parts of the city. Leopold was seated at the desk.

"Oh, hey guys." The leopard said, surprised by their arrival. "What brings you here?"

"We're here to deliver these." Henry said, holding up the Zoolizers. He quickly dropped them down onto the desk.

"Alright!" Leopold cheered. "I've been waiting a long time to study these things."

"What are you gonna do with them?" Emily asked.

"I was thinking I might be able to reverse engineer them, you know?" He said. "If I can do that, I might be able to design better weapons!"

"Oh, then keep it up, Leo!" Emily said, giving a thumbs-up. "From what we've heard, we have a hell of an uphill battle against these monsters."

"Don't worry, I'll get something finished soon." He said.

The two exited the room, waving back to Leopold before shutting the door. The sound of someone running quickly grabbed their attention.

It was Clawbick, who was running directly towards them. He noticed them, and skid to a halt. "Hey, guys!" He started, sounding overly friendly, at least for himself. "have either of you seen any… suspicious rooms around here?" He asked.

"This whole place is suspicious." Emily said. "What kind of suspicious are you looking for?"

"Uh, like, an extra guarded room or something?" He said. "Maybe with multiple locks, steel plating?"

"No, I don't think we've seen anything like that." Henry said. "But we also haven't been past this hallway."

"Yeah, this whole place is espantoso." Emily said. "Why do you even need to-"

"Thanks for that!" Clawbick said, running off down the hall.

"Think he's up to something?" Henry asked.

"The chance of him NOT being up to something right now is very, very low."

---

"I can't believe the kid's actually doing it." Dave said to the hyena. They were watching as the young fox managed to sell off most of their stolen goods.

A large rhino walked up to the small stand he had set up, and looked down at the variety of objects. There was pottery, electronics, photos, books, anything that could have some value to it. The rhino glanced at a vase.

"How much is the vase?" He asked.

"Fifty bucks." Nick said.

The rhino snorted. "Yeah, no way."

"Well, you're missing out then!" The fox said. This caught the rhino's attention. Nick grabbed the vase. "This here is a rare, imported vase from overseas. Its artisan crafted, fifty bucks is a steal for something of this quality!"

"It just looks like a vase."

"Well, it's a very fancy vase, and if you get it, you'll look fancy as well." Nick continued.

The fox was soon left without the vase on the table, and fifty bucks in his paw.

The day continued on, until the market they were attending was about to close.

The fox counted through the money. "Fifty, sixty, seven hundred bucks!" He said, counting the last of the cash. The stand had been completely emptied. "Told you I could do it."

"I'm impressed." Dave said. "You even sold all that stuff in an open market, I thought that would've been a bad idea."

"Trust me, the black market is not an ideal selling spot." Nick continued. "You don't really get any visitors, you have to go public if you want to sell."

"How did you get to be such a good…" Emily tried to search for a word. "Hustler?"

"A what?" Nick asked, apparently not hearing the word before.

"A really good salesman, basically." Dave answered.

"Oh, my dad was one of the best salesmen in the city!" Nick explained as he folded the stand up. "He was a lot more honest though. He was a tailor, but he worked as a salesman on the side."

"Your dad?" Emily asked. "I thought you were just living with your mom, what happened to him?"

Nick shrugged. "I dunno, just sorta vanished one day." He walked over to Dave, and handed him a stack of bills. "Here's your half of the money for today."

"What?" Dave said, grabbing the money. "It's my gang, why do I only get half of it?"

"I need it for… something." Nick said, straightening his hoodie out. "I don't want to talk about it. I need the money, and that's why I want to join your gang, because you're some of the best thieves in the city."

"Well, best amateur thieves." Emily said. "Can't beat that La Rouge guy."

"So, uh, am I in?" Nick asked.

Dave looked at the cash, then back at the fox. "Yeah, you're in, kid."

---

"I can't believe this." Nick said as he paced around the room. "This is crazy, we can't just be executed with no trial!"

"It's like Judy said," Max started, solemnly. "He has all the power, we can't do anything about it."

"We have to do something!" Nick shouted. "We need a plan, we need something." He turned to Judy. "Carrots, do you have any idea-"

He paused. While the two were ranting about this, they had failed to notice Judy herself. She was huddled up, sobbing. "Oh my god, Judy, what's wrong?" Nick said, quickly sitting next to her. He hugged her trying to comfort her. Max got up as well, to see what was wrong himself.

"Oh god, Nick." She muttered through the tears. "It was my fault. This whole thing is my fault."

"What?" Nick said, confused. "How is this your fault?"

"The monster, that was the one where I had that freak-out." She started. "The one where I gave up. The monster killed Herder's son when that happened."

"Judy, that's not-"

"IT IS!" She shouted, pushing him away. The fox fell to the ground as she got up, still crying. "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING THEN! HOW CAN I EVEN CONSIDER MYSELF AN OFFICER IF I LET SOMEONE DIE!?"

She stumbled over to the bunkbed, and started to slam her head against the metal pole. Max quickly rushed over as she struck it again, and pulled her away before she could hit it three times. "Judy, don't do that!" He said, placing her down.

"I deserve to die…" She muttered, as she went onto her knees, ears touching the ground. "I'm horrible, I can't do anything right, I'm a failure…"

"Judy, it wasn't your fault!" Nick started, trying to get her attention. "It was the monster's fault, there was nothing you could've done."

She raised her head, and shot a glare at him. "Was that supposed to make me feel better?" She said, depression gaining a hint of anger.

"Well, I, uh…" The fox stumbled to try and say something comforting. There was no way he could do this. An innocent had died, and it WAS their fault.

The fox fell to the ground, paw to his head. "God." He muttered. He tried to say something else, but nothing came out. "…oh god…" He finally sputtered, tears welling in his eyes as well.

Max didn't know what to feel. He had no connection to whatever was going on. He was out of the loop, and it made him feel awful. Not in the same way as his friends were feeling, but more in the way that he just couldn't help.

The wolf backed up, and sat on the bunkbed. There was nothing he could do.

Just like usual.

---

"Where the FUCK is this place!?" Clawbick shouted, his voice echoing down the empty halls of the facility. He was in his armor, entirely because the place had become too dark to see a thing, and it allowed him night vision. It seems like any power had been cut from the place years ago.

He stumbled down the hall, checking every door he could find. Most of them lead to more bunkers, while some lead to abandoned offices. There was nothing even noteworthy down in this hell.

"God, I'm going to be stuck here for ages." Clawbick muttered.

"Well, you better hurry up then, bud!" Savage said, startling the lion. "You got forty minutes left before the party starts!"

"This place is massive and empty, there's nothing here!" Clawbick complained. "Are you sure this powerful whatever is here!?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it." Savage replied. "I dug pretty deep into that leopard's brain for it, I planned this out, trust me."

Clawbick shook his head. "I don't know if I trust you, but I don't have much of a choice." He sighed. "I need some help, was there, like, ANYTHING else you got from him?"

"Not really." Savage said. The lion rolled his eyes. Before he could shoot a snide comment, Savage started up again. "I do have a general tip, though, try to find some electricity."

"What? How would that help?"

"If there's power, that means someone's actually been there recently." Savage explained. "Idiot."

"Alright, whatever." Clawbick said. "I'll try to find it soon, but-"

"Thirty-five minutes!"

The lion quickly dashed down the dark hallway.

---

The goat tapped the broken pencil end on his desk. He had been thinking about things. About the Zoorangers. Was it right to just kill them? Had he overreacted? Maybe he should at least hold a trial, and not just leave them for dead like he had planned.

Maybe he should-

"Hello."

Herder let out a scream as he nearly fell out of his seat. Long had suddenly appeared in his office. The armored creature let out a bright glow, scorch marks seeming to appear on the walls around him.

"I see you've managed to actually capture the Zoorangers." He said. "It took a much shorter time than I had expected."

"Yes, yes." Herder said as he straightened himself out. He paused for a moment. "I've been thinking about this."

Long's visor glowed a bright red for a moment, glaring down at the goat.

"I don't think we need to kill them." Herder said, tapping the pencil on the desk again. "I mean, I hate them, but if I kill them, I'm just as terrible as they are." He explained. "Maybe we should let the judicial system handle this-"

Long slammed both of his hands down onto the desk, and glared at the goat, staring directly into his eyes.

"What do you think will happen if you let them live any longer?" Long asked. "They've caused enough damage to the city as it is, and they're crafty enough to escape from a prison, I can tell you that."

"But… It doesn't seem fair; the wolf wasn't even involved in my son's death…"

"Guilt by association." Long said, standing back up. Burn marks in the shape of his gauntlets had been burned into the wooden desk. "They tricked him into joining, obviously. They might have advanced powers, but deep down they're just another gang."

Herder thought for a moment. "Fine, if you think they're that big of a threat… I'll do it."

"Twenty minutes until its time, correct?" Long asked. Herder gave a quick nod. "I'll be sure to oversee it."

Long vanished into a golden mist, which passed through the creases of the door. Herder sighed, and put the pencil down.

---

Nick walked up the stairs of the building. He was going to go in, and tell Dave what he needed to. He could be out of the gang at any point after that.

Over the last year, Dave had… changed. He become more violent. Abusive towards his friends. It used to only be playful jabs and such, but now it had become verbal abuse. The fox had had enough of it. He was going to get what he needed, and get out.

He approached the lion's bedroom door, took a deep breath, and prepared to knock.

His ear twitched as he heard voices.

"I can't believe this, Dave." One of the voices said. It was clearly Emily. "You did it again. How many times are we going to have to do this?"

"I swear, I don't… I don't mean to do it." Dave said. He didn't sound like he did recently, but more like the old him. "It just happens."

Nick gently placed his ear to the door, trying to hear them better.

"This is the fifth time, Dave." Emily said. She sounded pissed off at him. "I don't even know who it was this time!"

"I don't know either," Dave said. He sounded like he was going to burst into tears. "God…"

"If you keep doing this, we're going to be found out and arrested." Emily said. "Quick, help me get rid of the body-"

Nick let out a silent gasp as he heard that. Had Dave actually killed someone? Had he killed five different mammals? That sealed it, he needed to get out of this gang as soon as possible. He nearly had enough to-

"Nick?"

The fox let out a quick yelp as he turned to face Henry, who had suddenly appeared. "Are you eavesdropping on Dave and Emily?" Henry asked.

"Oh, no, I was just, uh…" the fox stumbled for a moment. "Waiting for them to finish up?"

The bull chuckled. "You know we have magazines downstairs, right?"

The fox blushed. "No, I'm serious, I need to talk with Dave about something." He said.

"About what?"

"Uh, it's a money thing." Nick explained. "I joined the gang to get some cash, and I have almost enough… I just need to get a bit more from Dave."

"What do you need the money for?"

"It's… a personal thing."

"Alright, you don't have to tell me." Henry said. "I say you ask him as soon as possible, you know? Besides, with the way he's acting, you might want to get out of here fast."

The sound of glass shattering interrupted them. They could hear Emily let out a "GOD DAMN IT!" from outside the house.

"Those two must be having fun." Henry joked.

Nick gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, fun."

---

The lion dragged his sword across the concrete wall of the dark hallway, he had been doing this for nearly his entire time exploring the place. It was a way to easily find his way back to the start, but it was starting to get annoying.

"You got five minutes left, bud." Savage chimed in. "Better find it fast!"

"I'd LOVE TO, BUT-" Clawbick paused for a moment. He had stopped at a turn. One of the halls had a dim light flickering on and off. "I-I found it."

"Wait, seriously?"

Clawbick rushed over to the light. There was a double door underneath it. He attempted to open it, but the door was locked. He slapped himself in the face, he should have grabbed a key or something.

"Guess I have to tough it out." He said, pulling his sword up.

He slashed through the direct middle of the doorway, and then kicked the door open. There wasn't much inside, only a few desks… and a pedestal in the middle, with a glass box on it. With another slash, the box shattered, and he grabbed the object inside.

"Is this it?" Clawbick asked, a bit frustrated. It looked like one of the medals he used to power his weapons. The ones he had a ton of already. "I have a ton of these already!"

"Yeah, but you didn't have THIS one." Savage said. "Trust me, this is the right thing, hurry back and bust me out of here."

Clawbick nodded, and dashed off down the darkened hallway once again.

---

"Alright." Emily said as she opened the door to the cell. "It's time."

The three prisoners looked depressed, and came out of the cell and into the handcuffs very willingly. "Listen, Nick…" Emily tried to start as they began walking down the hall. "I don't think this is right either, I-"

"Just shut up." He quietly said.

Henry gave her a look, and shook his head. The death row march wasn't a good time to talk.

They marched into the hall, where Herder and Leopold were waiting. "Uh, where's Clawbick?" Leopold asked, looking around. "He should really be here."

"We, uh, haven't seen him at all today, really." Emily said. "Last we saw he was running off deeper into this place."

"Hopefully he can find his way back." Herder sighed. "Don't want another death on my hooves."

"You gonna get this show started or what?" Nick growled.

"Yeah, if you're going to kill us, just do it already." Max said.

Judy remained silent.

"We'll get to it soon." Herder cleared his throat, and turned to the two officers. "I hate to say this, but we're going to have to have you kill them."

"What!?" Emily shouted. "You can't make us kill them, I was friends with Nick!"

"We don't really have anything else." Leopold said. "Any of the weapons we have in here would take a lot longer to set up."

"And my benefactor would get a lot angrier at me if I postponed it." Herder said. "Already got into a fight about this…"

"Benefactor?" Nick spoke up. "You're working with someone ELSE to help kill us?"

"Yes, it'd be impossible to do what we've done without the help he's given." Herder said. "But it doesn't matter now, since you'll all be de-"

"Stop."

Everyone turned to Judy as she started to walk forwards. "If you kill all of us," She started. "Then everyone is doomed."

"What does that mean?"

"The Zoorangers are the only way to save the world." She continued. "The SPD might be strong enough to defeat the monsters, but there's no way they can take on the generals."

"She has a point." Henry followed. "We tried to take one on, and even with six of us we couldn't defeat him."

"So, what are you saying, rabbit?" Herder said. "If you're trying to get out of this, then-"

"I'm not." She said solemnly.

"Wait, Judy…" Nick said.

"I blame myself for your son's death. The entire thing was my fault." She said, lowering her head. "Let Nick and Max go, let me die in their stead."

"No!" Max shouted. "You can't do this!"

"This is the leader's choice, Max." Judy said, raising her head. "Do you agree, Mr. Herder?"

The goat placed his hoof to his chin, and started to pace around.

"Uh, can I shoot this idea in the bud?" Nick said, speaking up. "I didn't agree to this, we're a team, it's either all of us or none of us." Max nodded to the statement.

"Quiet, Nick." Judy snapped. "This is my decision."

"You can't just throw your life away!" Nick yelled. "What am I supposed to do without you!?"

"You've figured it out before, you can figure it out again."

"No…" He muttered. "I can't…"

The goat finally stopped. "I suppose that's a fair deal." He admitted. "If we need some of you to protect the city, then getting rid of one shouldn't be much of a difference." He clapped his hooves together. "Alright, officers, ready your-"

Before Herder could finish, there was a bright flash, followed by the smell of smoke and fire. Footsteps came from the flash's direction.

"I'm hearing a lot of nonsense here, Herder." Said a familiar voice that emerged from the flash. "You ARE going to kill all of them, correct?"

The three Zoorangers' jaws hung open at the sight of the figure.

Long.

---

"So, you're absolutely, one hundred percent sure that this is going to work?" Clawbick asked as he held the medal up to the tube.

"Yes, absolutely." Savage replied. "Hurry up, he's already here!"

Clawbick popped open the bottom of his sword, and slid the medal in. He held the blade up, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did.

"I think this thing's a dud." Clawbick said, shaking the medal out of his sword. "Got any better ideas?"

"Hm, must be outta juice." Savage said. "Hold it up to the tube, I think I can recharge it."

Clawbick sighed. At this point he was just running through hoops to do this, at this point it would be better to just go up there and slaughter Nick himself. But for now, he did as the monster asked, and held the medal up.

An electric shock shot from the tube, hitting the medal. It started to glow green, and then let out a burst of energy, nearly knocking Clawbick down. "Jesus Christ, the hell was that!?"

"That was it being recharged, duh." Savage said. "Try it out."

Clawbick slid the medal back into his sword. In almost an instant, it let out a pulse of energy as well, glowing a devilish red color. "Holy shit."

"Behold, my friend!" Savage started. "That Cell Medal was the originator of this plan, one from an alternate universe! It holds ultimate power against this world, use it and destroy this HORRIBLE PRISON!"

Clawbick nodded, and slashed at the tube. The sword cleaved cleanly through it somehow, but that wasn't all.

A creeping light started to spread across the machine, spreading over every inch of its surface. Without warning, in almost an instant, the machine vanished from sight, the now freed Savage standing where it once was.

Clawbick was left speechless as he held the sword in his paw. "This thing can erase things from existence?"

"You bet it can." Savage said, walking past him. "Follow me, we're going to go kick some ass."

"One last question for you, Savage." Clawbick started. "Who exactly is this guy you want to get revenge on?"

"It's a long story."

---

"You can't be serious right now." Nick said, stepping forward. "Get these handcuffs off me, right now!"

Judy started to back off as Long's threatening presence walked ever closer.

"What?" Emily said, responding to Nick's yell. He was struggling to try and get the cuffs off. She quickly turned back to Herder and Long. "Chief, who… who is this guy?"

"This guy?" Herder said, pointing at Long. "He's my benefactor."

"Oh god." Judy muttered. "Max, you were right."

"I was right?" The wolf said, slightly confused. His ears popped up as it hit him. "Hey, I was right!"

"Herder, you're being tricked." Judy continued. "Your benefactor is one of the monsters trying to destroy the city!"

"What?" Herder said, a bit confused. He looked up at Long. "Are you really…?"

"And that's not all!" Nick started, still trying to break the handcuffs off. "It was his monster that killed your son! He was the one that did it!"

Herder's eyes dilated, and he started to shake. "Is… Is that true?"

"No, obviously not, they're trying to trick you." Long lied. "I mean only the best for this world."

"No, he doesn't!" Max shouted. "He's going to destroy it! He tricked you into capturing us, and he's trying to trick you into killing us so we won't get in the way!"

For the last time, Herder glanced at Long, and started to back away, alongside Leopold. "You tricked me, didn't you?" The goat muttered. "You've been manipulating me the whole time!"

Long crossed his arms, and fell silent. He started to chuckle, then laugh, and then burst out into full maniacal laughter. "I was hoping to keep this a secret until you killed them." He said. "I wanted to tell you myself, so you could think about how much of a fool you are."

"But really…" Long continued, turning towards Herder. "I'm amazed at how easily you fell for this. Did you really expect me to be on your side completely? The way you went along with my plan was amazing, you never questioned anything until the very end. I suppose that's revenge for you, it blinds idiots to the obvious."

Long quickly held something up, a statue of some kind. "Oh god, Herder, watch out!" Judy yelled.

The goat couldn't get out of the way in time as Long flung the statue at him. Leopold stumbled away as a cloud of black energy surrounded Herder. He let out a spine-chilling scream as the energy engulfed him, which was soon muffled.

The energy began to expand out, forming a new body. The energy quickly dispersed, revealing the monster that Herder had transformed into.

The monster was almost entirely blue, gold, and brown, and seemed to wear a fairly ornate set of armor. Large curved pauldrons marked its shoulders, which puffed out at their bottoms into frilled sleeves, which in turn transitioned to golden arm guards.

The monster also wore what looked like blue pants, covered by several separated skirt pieces that hung down. Its legs ended in golden shin armor, and then with grey boots that resembled a hoof. Its head resembled a helmet, though it covered the entirety of the head, and most likely was the head itself judging by the large eye that stared out from the center of it. On both sides of the head were spiral horns, each pointing outwards.

Finally, decorating the monster's chest, was the large head of a ram, golden wool decorations surrounding it.

The monster spun its head around in circles as the rest of its body twitched. "Beep boop, update complete!" It let out, before quickly clapping its hands. "Here I am, Capricorn-Fist user, Dorou, ready to own all you noobs!"

The five rangers and Leopold stared at the monster in confusion, the monster itself seeming confused as well. "What, is there a virus in my CPU?"

"You know, if you were aiming for threatening with this guy, dragon breath, you really failed." Nick joked.

"I brought Dorou here for a reason." Long started, completely serious. "Show them why."

"On it, boss!" Dorou said, stepping to the center of the room. "Behold, Capricorn style, Instant Hacking!"

The monster's eye glowed, projecting a holographic keyboard in front of it. The ram monster started rapidly typing at the keyboard. As it happened, things around the room started to light up.

Weapons, unidentifiable pieces of technology, they seemed to activate in an instant. "Oh god." Leopold said, running over to the rangers. "He's activating all of the weapons somehow, he's going to use them to kill us!"

"You got it, NPC!" Dorou mocked. "In only a few short moments, you'll all be permanently DELETED-"

Before he could finish, the lights flickered, and then shut off completely. Everyone looked around, confused, though Long's body seemed to light the entire room up anyway. "No! NO!" The monster yelled. "The computer systems are shut down, I can't hack into anything!"

"The power went out!" Leopold said. "Thank god, we're saved!" He paused for a moment. "Wait, the power was connected to the power station, which means… oh no."

"Doc, what's wrong?" Henry asked.

"I think we're in more trouble." Leopold muttered.

The ground shook for a moment, before a wall to the side of them exploded open, creating a massive hole. A green light shined from the hole, and stomped its way into the hall.

There was a familiar laugh as the green light made itself clearer. The Zoorangers froze at the sight of the monster, while the SPD officers backed away, and Leopold fell to the ground in fear.

"Guess who's back!?"

It was Savage.

"What!?" Judy yelled. "What's Savage doing here!?"

"That thing was given to us by him!" Leopold said, pointing at Long. "He told us to use him as a power source for our new weapons!"

"WHAT!?" Judy yelled again. "Why would you ever do that!?"

"I didn't really have much of a choice!"

"I guess that explains why we haven't seem him around for a while." Nick said. "In all this weirdness, I haven't really thought about it."

"How did you escape?" Long growled, stepping towards Savage. "That was supposed to be an impenetrable prison!"

"And it was, but I had a little help." Savage declared. He stepped to the side, Clawbick, armored up, stepped forwards, carrying his glowing blade.

"Yo."

"Oh god, Clawbick, you idiot!" Nick shouted. "Do you know how dangerous that guy is!?"

"Yes, I do." Clawbick retorted. "Why do you think I helped him?"

"Davey and I are birds of a feather," Savage started. "We both love murdering others, and we both have a specific someone we want to get revenge on!"

"I was getting tired of this prison anyway." Clawbick continued. "Me and Savage are gonna take over this town once we handle everything down here."

"I'm assuming you want revenge on me for my betrayal?" Long said. He started to laugh. "Do you really think you can defeat me? I am a god, challenging me is like writing a death warrant."

"Oh, you think I'm NOT a god?" Savage growled. He started slashing his clas against each other, sparks shooting off of them, before rearing them up. "I'll show you how dangerous I am!"

Savage rushed at Long, attempting to slash at him, but the dragon warrior quickly blocked the strike, and reversed it into a gut punch. There was a shockwave as the punch connected, both parties stumbling back.

Long clutched at his hand, which seemed to have been hurt in the impact. He clutched it tightly, and let out a low growl, before calming himself. "Dorou, I'll need your help in this."

"Right, boss!" Dorou said, giving a quick salute. He eye glowed again, this time summoning a holographic, curved blade in front of him. He grabbed the blade, causing it to materialize in his hand. The ram monster quickly dashed into the fight.

"You need any help there?" Clawbick asked, looking as Savage blocked the ram monster's attack, and quickly knocked him backwards.

"Nope!" Savage responded, blocking several of Long's punches.

"Oh, alright." He quickly jolted his head at the group of six, and pointed his sword at them. "Guess I'll just have to deal with you guys then."

He quickly dashed towards them, and prepared to strike them all down with his blade.

Suddenly, he paused, and let out a horrible scream of pain, before falling to his knees.

"What the-?" Nick started.

"Tame collar." Leopold quickly interrupted, waving the remote for the collar. "Maximum voltage, should take him a minute to recover."

Judy's ears twitched, the four villains were distracted. This would be a good time. "You need to get us out of these." Judy demanded, tugging at the handcuffs.

Without hesitation, Emily and Henry unlocked the three from their handcuffs. Nick rubbed his wrists in relief. "Wow, that was quick."

"You think we're just going to leave you guys handicapped when we have four monsters to deal with?" Emily scoffed. "We don't want to die either, you know. So, what exactly are we dealing with?"

"An immortal dragon god and the embodiment of violence itself." Max chimed in. "The two most powerful villains we've ever fought."

"Oh, that's wonderful." Henry muttered.

"At least they aren't teaming up right now." Judy said. "We need to get our Zoolizers back, where are they?"

"Last we saw them, they were in Leo's office." Emily said.

"Uh, I moved them down to research and development before this happened." Leopold said. "It's uh, a couple hallways down. I kind of had to rush over here so-"

"What!?" Nick shouted. "Why would you DO that!?"

"I had no idea we were going to be attacked by a bunch of monsters!" Leopold shouted back.

"No arguing!" Judy ordered. "If we want to survive, all of us will need to work together." She pointed at the SPD officers. "You two, fight against that ram monster and try to free Herder. It'll keep Long and Savage locked in their battle while we get our Zoolizers back."

"Uh, alright." Emily said, despite not liking the idea. It was the only plan they had right now, so going along with it seemed like the best choice.

"You two," The rabbit continued, pointing at her teammates, before thrusting her thumb over her shoulder. "Follow me."

Nick and Max nodded, before the three rushed down the corridor.

The two SPD officers turned back to Savage and Long's fight. Dorou would occasionally come in to attack Savage, but would be knocked away almost instantly. They summoned up their armor, aimed their blasters at the distracted ram monster, but were distracted by grunting next to them.

They watched as Clawbick climbed back up, and shook his head. "Ugh, once I'm done with Nick, you're next on my list, Leopold." He growled, before running off down the corridor as well.

"That's going to be a problem." Pink said. "But we got our own problems to deal with." They aimed their blasters at the monster again, and fired.

Dorou didn't see the attacks coming, and was knocked across the room. This caught the attention of the other two monsters, who turned towards the two.

"Hey, do you mind!?" Savage yelled. "We're TRYING to do something over here!"

"Pests." Long followed, waving his hand.

There was an earthquake, holes in the ground suddenly appearing all over. Rinshi started to climb from each of them, and hopped towards the SPD officers.

"Well, this sucks." Green let out.

---

"So, how do we know when we'll find this research and development place?" Nick asked as the three ran down the corridor.

"Uh, I'm not sure." Judy said, stopping. The other two skidded to a halt in front of her. "I was kind of just rushing ahead."

"Well, we could be lost in this place for hours." Nick said. "You should've asked Leopold."

"I know, but-"

"I have a suggestion." Max said. "Why don't we just look for the room that has 'Research and Development' written on it?"

"That's actually not a bad idea, good thinking Max."

The three prepared to run down the hall again, but froze in place as they saw figures moving through the dimly lighted corridor.

Rinshi, only a handful of them, hopping directly towards them.

"Ugh, I feel like I'm in a bad horror film." Nick said.

"Try a bad Kung-Fu film instead!" Max said, unsheathing his claws. He dashed forwards, and quickly slashed at one of the Rinshi, knocking it back into a few of the ones behind it. "Remember, these guys are pathetic!"

"Right, we can take them on without any help!" Judy said. She rushed forwards as well, leaping into the air, and kicking another Rinshi directly in the head, causing it to explode into purple dust.

"I'm just going to stay back here and not get attacked." Nick said, backing up.

"Good luck with that."

The fox froze, and slowly turned his head. Clawbick was staring down at him with his red visor. "Well, this isn't ideal."

The fox quickly dashed forwards as Clawbick brought his sword to the ground, cleaving through the concrete.

Nick rushed past Max and Judy, who were still fighting the monsters. "Nick, what the hell!?"

"RUN!" He shouted back.

They both looked back, the lion slowly approaching them.

"Okay, yeah, we should run." Max muttered.

The two quickly dashed off, leaving a number of Rinshi behind. The zombies mumbled incoherently to themselves, unaware of Clawbick. The lion effortlessly slashed through them, and continued down the path.

The three continued to run, slashing, kicking, and dodging Rinshi that continued to appear throughout the facility. "Where the hell is this room!?" Nick yelled as he scampered underneath the legs of a Rishi who had attempted to jab him with a spear.

"We just need to keep looking!" Judy said, kicking another Rinshi away. Her ear twitched as she heard metallic scraping coming from down the hall behind them. "We need to get moving!"

The seemed to be running for hours, and hadn't found anything. Empty room after empty room, nothing, nothing, nothing.

"After all this running around looking for R&D, I think I'll need some serious R&R." Nick joked, leaning against a wall and rubbing his forehead. The two equally tired mammals stared back at him. "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Nick, I don't think-" Judy paused. "Lighten… we need to look for a light!"

"You mean like the ones we've been running under?" Max said.

"No, a light from a room!" Judy continued. "Leopold said he had to rush to the hall from there, so he could have left the lights on!"

"Excellent deduction, Sherlock Hopps." Nick complimented, pushing himself off the wall. "Let's go find that room!"

They started running again. Due to how much time they had spent in the maze of corridors, it seemed like all of the Rinshi had just vanished completely. This at least made everything a lot easier.

A few minutes later, they had found it, a double doored room with the lights still on. They strolled into it. There seemed to be write ups, and unfinished machinery littering a large desk in the room. Max walked up to the desk, which was much to high for either Nick or Judy to reach, and snatched the Zoolizers off of the table.

"Alright, got 'em!" He shouted, quickly tossing Judy and Nick theirs.

"Now we just have to make it back and deal with those monsters." Judy said as they strapped the Zoolizers on. "Once that's done, our names will be cleared, and this insanity can end."

"Unfortunately, you're not going to make it."

They looked at the entrance to the small room. Clawbick was standing there.

"I've been waiting for this." The lion growled. He raised his glowing blade to the side, and slashed forward.

A laser slash shot out, directed towards them.

The beam exploded, sending pieces of the desk flying. "Hm, I was hoping you guys would put up more of a fight, but I guess I was-"

The smoke cleared, revealing the three Zoorangers, fully transformed. "Alright, we're back in business!" Silver shouted, pulling out his sword. "Man, I felt like I was never going to do this again!"

"WHAT!?" Clawbick shouted. "You three should be dead, this sword can destroy anything!"

"You can't destroy justice!" Blue shouted, pulling out her daggers.

"Wow, great comeback, Carrots." Red said, rolling his eyes behind the mask.

"Shut it."

The three dashed at Clawbick, each attempting to slash him with their weapons. Silver ran up first, and clashed blades with the lion. He pushed Clawbick out of the room, and into a wall, hard enough for the concrete to crack.

The wolf stepped out of the way as Blue leaped in, kicking the stunned lion in the face, before bouncing off and firing at him with her blasters. Red ran underneath her as she flew over, and leaped into the air, slashing Clawbick with his blade.

Clawbick seemed to be knocked unconscious by the last blast. "Alright, lets head back to the hall before anything catastrophic happens." Blue ordered.

"How are we going to find our way back, though?" Silver asked. "We got lost trying to find the place, so…"

"I say we follow these scrape marks." Red suggested, pointing at a large scrape mark along the concrete wall. "Someone must have been using it to mark the way back."

"Good eye, Nick." Judy said. "Let's go!" The three quickly ran off down the hall once more, following the scrape marks Clawbick had left earlier.

A moment later, however, Clawbick's unconscious body started to move again. He pushed himself from the wall, and grabbed onto the sword that had fell to the ground. "God damn it." He muttered. "God DAMN it. I'll kill them, I'll kill all three of them." He let out, starting to stumble down the hallway.

---

"Alright, we're here to help finish-"

The three Zoorangers ran into the main hall, and instantly froze. The two SPD officers had been absolutely defeated, though their armor was still up. Savage and Long were still fighting each other, though Dorou seemed to be taking a small rest.

"Oh god, Em!" Red shouted, running over to her body. He shook her, causing her to give out a cough. "Are you alright?"

"We tried to take out that monster, but the dragon guy summoned a bunch of minions." She started, weakly. "We managed to take them out, but they tag teamed us. We couldn't handle them."

"Nick, just let her get some rest, alright?" Blue said. She glanced around, while Green's body was laying only a few feet away from Pink's Leopold was nowhere to be seen. There was the remote he had been holding, however. "Where's Leopold?"

"He ran off somewhere." Pink sputtered. "He had the right idea."

"You all should have run off when you had the chance."

"Christ, Clawbick, can you stop sneaking up on us like that!?" Red shouted as he turned to face the lion. "It's getting really annoying."

"The hell are you talking about?" Clawbick said. "Whatever, I'm going to kill all of you, so Savage and I don't have to put up with your bullshit."

"Oh, really?" Red said. He quickly turned to Judy. "Alright, I have a plan."

"I don't like the sounds of that." Silver said.

"Shut it, Wolfsbane." Red snapped. "Okay, you guys need to take care of the monsters here, I'll take Clawbick. It's personal."

"Do you really think we can take on three different monsters?" Blue said, a bit confused by the fox.

Red puled out the sun-shaped ZooTag. "Ohh, I get it." Blue said, pulling out the moon-shaped ZooTag. "Let's do it!"

They quickly plugged both of the ZooTags in at the same time, an explosion of energy, knocking all of the monsters away.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two had transformed into their super forms. "Alright, Dave, we're going to finish this for good." Red said, pulling out the sun shaped rod.

"Hah, your costume just got even more ridiculous." Clawbick mocked. "How's that supposed to help you two out?"

Red lifted the rod into the air, and twirled it around, before slamming the dull end of it into the ground. Cracks started to form in a circular area around the two, red and gold lights shining between them. "What the hell…?" Clawbick let out, before the floor collapsed beneath the two of them.

"Did he do that on purpose, or…?" Silver started.

"Probably on purpose, I wouldn't worry." Blue said, pulling out her dual blades. "You take Dorou, I'll take Long and Savage."

"Seriously!?" The wolf shouted in disbelief. "There is NO way you can take both of them on at the same time!"

"Wanna see me?"

She dashed forward towards Long and Savage, who were recovering from the blast of energy. "Oh look, if it isn't the rabbit." The crystalline beast mocked. "Does the wittle bunny think she can defeat me?"

"No, I'm going to defeat both of you!" Blue declared, before leaping at Savage. She swung both her khopeshes at the monster, causing him to fly back into a nearby wall.

"You know you can't kill me." Long said as Blue turned to him. "You've seen that I'm immortal."

"Don't need to kill you, just need to get you out of here." Blue said, before swing both of her blades in Long's direction, flinging blades of energy at him.

He grabbed the blades of energy, and tossed them at Savage, most likely attempting to hurt him instead. The beast slashed at the energy, causing them to fly back and hit Long instead. "You're not going to backstab me any longer, Long, I'm going to wreck your shit!"

Long recuperated from the blast. "Things aren't going in my favor…" He muttered. "DOROU! GET OVER HERE!"

"Oh, right!" Dorou said, quickly shutting down a monitor he had opened in front of him. "I was just taking a break, sorry-"

"I DON'T CARE!"

Dorou grabbed his curved blade, and attempted to aid his master, but was quickly interrupted as Silver leaped in front of him, and started to rapidly slash him. "No way!" Silver said. "Blue needs to concentrate on those guys, a small fry like you doesn't even deserve your attention."

"But YOU'RE the one giving this small fry attention! What does that make you?" Dorou threw back at him.

"…Shit."

"OOH! SELF OWN!" Dorou cheered, before Silver promptly slashed at him with his sword, knocking him back.

Dorou quickly got up, and fired another holographic projection from his eye, this time forming a metal shield, which also materialized as he grabbed it. "Bam, level up!"

The two dashed at each other, clashing their blades. Silver pushed him back, and thrust his foot into the shield, knocking the ram to the ground. The wolf prepared a follow up strike, but Dorou blocked it with his sword, pushing Silver back.

Dorou climbed to his feet as Silver recuperated, and the two continued to clash their blades. "You think you can beat me!?" Dorous threatened as they stepped back from each other. "That's SUCH an EPIC FAIL!"

"Oh my GOD, I hate you so much." Silver muttered, before dashing back at him.

Blue knocked Long back once again, causing him to stumble. "I've been taking it too easy on these two…" He muttered to himself. "I think its time to show off part of my real strength!"

Long let out a roar, catching Blue and Savage's attention. He burst into a golden light, which lit the entire room up. He began to glow with an intense golden light, which soon lessened into a golden aura, brighter than his previous aura.

He raised his hands up into the air, pointing two of the fingers on one hand upward. He pulled back on something invisible, which quickly materialized into existence as a bow made of fire. He let go with his other hand, causing a barrage of fire arrows to begin falling from the sky.

"Oh, you're actually getting serious, huh!?" Savage said, almost cheerfully. "I was wondering when we'd get to the good part!"

He slashed at the arrows as they came down, slicing them in half with his claws. They cleanly cut through the flame arrows, which quickly evaporated afterwards.

Blue attempted to block the arrow rain with her blades, but the arrows continued to push down on her, ultimately resulting in her doing her best to dodge. The arrows erupted into flame as they hit the ground, making it that much harder. Despite her efforts, arrows would still hit her, resulting in a small explosion.

As soon as the rain had stopped, she had become exhausted, dropping to her knees and trying to catch her breath.

Savage, however, seemed perfectly fine.

"I knew you had it in you, Long!" Savage said, brandishing his claws. "I'm glad I wasn't the ONLY one taking it easy!"

He raised his claws into the air, them starting to glow with energy, before he slashed them rapidly up and down. Energy slashes flew from his claws, directed at Long. The armored monster kicked and punched them out of the way, sending the energy slashes flying all over the room.

One quickly headed towards Blue. She grabbed her swords, and quickly blacked it with them, and started to get up. "I'm… not sure… I can take these guys." She said in between exhausted breaths.

"Keep on it, Blue!" Silver said, as he entered another clash with Dorou. "I know you can take them on, it'll be fine-"

"DISTRACTION!" Dorou shouted, distracting the wolf from what he was saying and doing. The wolf was punched in the gut with the shield, knocking him to the ground. "Hah, LOOOSER!"

"I'll show you a loser…" Silver growled as he tried to get up. Dorou made quick work of that by kicking him in the face.

"Nope, you're not getting up!" The ram monster said, kicking Silver in the face again. "It's the ultimate strategy, stun locking!"

Silver tried to get up, but was quickly stomped on by the monster, who continued to stomp on him.

The SPD officers watched on from a distance. "We… need to help." Pink said, crawling to her feet.

"Em, no." Green said as he unsteadily got up as well. "We've taken too much damage. We'll die if we try to take them on."

Pink took a deep breath. "We'll all die if the Zoorangers are killed, we need to help them!" She yelled out, adrenaline pumping. The hyena rushed into the fight, quickly pulling out her pistols and firing at Long.

The armored monster stumbled back. "Oh, isn't that adorable, you think you can actually do something." Long mocked.

"I can try my damndest!" She shouted, firing another shot at Savage this time. She dashed over to the exhausted rabbit, and helped her up. "You ready to take care of these perdedores?"

"I have no idea what that means…" Blue started, before brandishing her blades. "But definitely!"

---

"So, you want some extra cash?"

Asking Dave about this at that moment was probably a bad idea, something Nick thought back on and regretted most days of his life. Hours had passed by before he could be let in, and when he did, it was into a barely lit room with the lion looking out the window.

The fox paused, and then nodded. "Yes, I just need a bit more. Maybe another hundred or three."

The lion paced around his room, thinking. "We had a deal, didn't we?" Dave started. "We split the money evenly every time you sell the goods. What happened to that?"

"We can still do that, Dave." Nick said. "It's- It's not a big deal, we make like five hundred a month."

"And you can get what you need at the end of the month." Clawbick said. "Is there a problem with that?"

"I… I guess not." The fox muttered. "I just want to do this as soon as possible."

"And what are you going to do once you get your money? Leave?"

The fox opened his mouth, but was interrupted. "Listen, Nicky," Clawbick started, turning back to the fox. "You're invaluable to us, you can't just up and leave. Imagine what will happen if you go, we'll probably all starve while you're living it up in the Bahamas or whatever you're saving for."

"It's… I'm not saving up for a vacation." Nick said. "This is for something important, and I can't just let you-"

"If you leave, I will make sure your life becomes a living hell, got it?" Clawbick snapped. "I won't have someone like you use me for whatever they want."

Nick started to slowly back up towards the door.

"If you want to keep that money, you'll be staying here for a long time." Clawbick said. "If you're part of my gang, then you're part of it forever, got it?"

"I… yeah, I got it." Nick mumbled, before heading out of the room.

Henry was able to spot the fox, as his room was right next to Dave's. he watched the sullen fox slink out and into the hallway. "Nick, you alright?" He asked, getting out of his bed and heading into the hall.

Nick remained silent, but stopped at the stairs. "Just leave me alone."

"Oh. Alright." Henry said. "If you want to talk about something, come and see me, alright?"

The fox silently walked down the stairs, leaving the bull to head back to his bedroom.

---

"So, deciding to take me on one-on-one, huh?" Clawbick mocked. The two had fallen into what appeared to be a boiler room, pipes lining the walls. A red glow seemed to permeate through the room as well.

"Its something I've wanted to do for years." Red said, clanking his staff against the ground. "I just didn't have the strength until now."

"'Until now'?" Clawbick laughed. "You've never had the strength, not to do anything."

"You ruined my life, you piece of shit." Nick snapped. "You're the reason most of my life's been as bad as it is."

"Hah, really?" The lion said. "I think you're looking too deep into what I did-"

Before he could finish, Red flew through the air, attempting to bring the staff down onto Clawbick's head. He quickly blocked the golden staff with his sword, but the fox's strength weighed it down a lot.

"Okay, you have gotten stronger!" Clawbick admitted, pushing the fox back, causing him to land on the ground. "But I'm guessing its only because of those fancy powers."

"I haven't gotten stronger physically, you idiot." Nick said. Red quickly thrust the rod forwards, which extended out to try and hit Clawbick. The lion dodged most of the strikes, but one hit him directly in the gut. "I changed myself, I made myself better. You're the same psychopath as you were two decades ago."

"Ooh, emotional strength." Clawbick sarcastically cooed. "Get real, you're just the same emotionally unstable fox you were back then too!"

"No, I'm not the hustler I was back then!" Nick shouted. "I have friends, I have a job, I have a place in the world, a job where I can make a difference."

"And look where that got you."

Nick shook his head. "You're just ignoring everything I'm saying, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Red growled, before flinging himself forwards again. The two continuously clashed their weapons, Red remaining in the air as he swung the rod again and again, attempting to hit Clawbick, who blocked every strike.

With a swipe from his sword, the lion knocked the staff away from him, and jabbed the blade into Red's just, launching him forwards, through the pile of debris that had been created from the fall. The chunks of concrete flew everywhere, crashing into the pipes. Wells of steam started to blow from them, creating a deafening wail.

The fox continued past the debris, slamming into a concrete section of the wall, hard enough to leave cracks. He looked up, watching as Clawbick walked towards him.

"Face it, Nicky, there's no way you can beat me!" He taunted. "Thanks to Savage, I have one of the most devastating weapons in the whole universe! I can destroy ANYTHING!" He demonstrated by slicing his blade through a single piece of debris that hadn't been blasted away. The sword cleaved through it with no effort, before the rock vanished in a flash.

"And what's this garbage about ME ruining YOUR life!?" He growled. "If anything, YOU ruined MY life!"

"What…?" The fox let out as he got up, with the help of his staff.

"You called the cops on me! You betrayed me!" He yelled. "I was almost sent to prison because of you!"

"Are you crazy?" The fox asked, though it was rhetorical. "I didn't even do anything to you! The police didn't even ARREST you!"

"It doesn't matter!" Clawbick said, dismissing the fox. "Ever since then, I've wanted to get my revenge on you!"

"Are you sure that's why you wanted the revenge?" Nick asked.

"W-what?" Clawbick stuttered, taken a bit off guard by the reply.

"To me, it seems like you're jealous of me." Nick followed. "I'm everything you ever wanted to be, but were too afraid to actually do!"

The lion stumbled back a bit. "N-no, that's stupid." Clawbick nervously stuttered. "Its because you wronged me and-"

"You're just lying to yourself at this point." Nick interrupted. "That's the real reason, isn't it? When we met again at the prison, you saw what I had, a job, a girlfriend, and you became more jealous of me than ever."

Clawbick couldn't respond.

"YOU wanted everything that I had, things you could've had if you actually made those choices YOURSELF!" Nick yelled. "But you're a COWARD! You couldn't go through with them! You wanted to distance yourself from everyone so they wouldn't find out!"

The fox stomped forwards, rod prepared to strike at the lion, who slowly backed up away from him. "The only choice you made resulted in you losing everything, your morals, your dignity, your friends-"

"I… I have friends." Clawbick said, meekly.

"You mean Emily and Henry?" Nick said. "They aren't your friends anymore. They're the ones who called the cops that DID lock you up. They thought putting you in prison would help, but I guess it didn't."

"Emily… and Henry… betrayed me!?" The lion growled. He seemed to be regaining some of his ferocity. A burst of energy shot out from him as he let out a roar, leaving Clawbick with a waving aura of red energy, while the red sections of his armor turned black.

"You're just trying to mess with me!" Clawbick growled. "I don't give a shit what you have to say! I'm going to rip you to shreds, fox!"

"Oh, that isn't good." Red muttered

---

Green rushed forward into the battle as well, blasting Dorou off of the wolf. "Whew, thanks." Silver said as the bull helped him up. "I thought I was going to have to listen to him forever."

"No problem." Green said, before firing another shot at Dorou.

With Blue and Pink, they had started fighting against the monsters as well. Blue had gone for Long, while Pink went for Savage.

"Hah, you really think a runt like you can hurt me?" Savage mocked as the hyena stepped closer to him. "My skin's made out of pure crystallized energy, it's impossible to-"

Pink quickly fired one of her blasters at the monster, which hit him directly in the stomach. "Ow! That actually hurt!"

"We're using a pretty powerful energy source ourselves!" Pink said, twirling her gun around. "Thanks to you, that it."

She opened fire on the monster rapidly, each shot hitting him and sending sparks flying. "Ugh, that's enough of this nonsense!" Savage yelled. He started to swipe the blasts out of the air. He let out a laugh and stepped forwards as the last blast was knocked away.

Before he could do anything, Pink ran up and pistol whipped him right in the face, causing the monster to be flung back. "I thought you'd be stronger than this." Pink said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"That's because you haven't given me a chance to HIT YOU!"

"And I think I'd rather keep it that way!"

Green and Silver took on Dorou themselves, going two-against-one. Green quickly stepped in and smashed the monsters shield, knocking him back into a slash from Silver. "Ow, this is totally unfair!" Dorou whined, stomping his foot on the ground. "HAX!"

"Okay, now I see why you hate this guy." Green said, before firing another shot at him.

The blast hit the monster's shield, but couldn't block another strike from behind from Silver. "Ow, I can't focus on both sides of me at once, you know!" Dorou said, turning to face the wolf.

"Yeah, not having any periphery vision must suck." Silver joked, before punching the distracted monster in the eye. The monster let out a cry of pain and stumbled back. "Green, grab him!" Silver shouted.

Green complied, quickly locking his arms around the monster's arms. "Hey, let go of me!" The monster cried.

Silver switched his blade to Moon Mode, and lashed the laser whip forwards, wrapping around Dorou's blade. He ripped the sword out of his hand, it seemingly dematerializing as it was flicked upwards. Silver then whipped it at the shield, and performed a similar trick.

With both his weapons gone, Green let go of the monster, and kicked him in the back. As the monster stumbled forward, Silver switched his blade to Sun Mode, and shot several fireballs at him.

The fireballs exploded, launching Dorou back into Green, who whacked him to the ground with his cannon. "Hey, is this what being a school bully is like?" Silver asked.

"I feel we're more creative than a school bully." Green said, before stomping onto Dorou's back.

"This is SO CHEAP!" Dorou continued to whine, pounding his fists on the ground.

Meanwhile, Blue took on long. She leaped up into the air, attempting to strike at the monster, who continued to dodge her attacks.

"Do you really think this will work?" Long mocked. "I can't be defeated, you know this."

In response, Blue quickly kicked one of her blades into the air, and began slashing at Long with her remaining one. The dragon warrior continued to block, but was unaware as the flying blade came down on him.

Blue kicked off of Long, landing back on the ground. The falling blade cleaved right down his middle, Blue quickly catching it once it was at her level. She then leaped into the air, slashing at Long with both of them, causing him to be flung back.

The monster stumbled, before glancing back at her. "I don't have to defeat you right now!" She started. "I just have to make sure you don't hurt anyone else today!"

"Futile!" Long shouted, frustrated. "No matter what you do, this place will be your grave! You have too much riding against you!"

"Really? Maybe you should pay attention to someone other than yourself!"

"What-?" Long quickly glanced around. He turned to Dorou, who was still trapped under the bull's foot. Then he looked over to Savage, who was putting up a decent fight against Pink, but the hyena was deftly dodging his attacks and retaliating with her own.

"There's too many of us for all of you to handle, Long!" Blue said. "You're going to lose!"

Long remained silent for a moment. Then he started to laugh, quietly. The laugh got louder, weirding the rabbit out.

"Do you really think I hadn't thought of something like this!?" Long shouted. "I have a plan for everything!" He pulled out a Chaos Badge, and flashed it in his hand.

"No!" Blue shouted, stepping forward.

"Do you want to see the real reason why I brought Dorou with me?" He asked, rhetorically. "Here it is."

He tossed the badge at Dorou, jabbing into its helmet. "What the-?" Green let out, before a pulse of energy knocked him away.

"Oh shit." Silver let out as Dorou rose into the air. The Chaos Badge absorbed itself into his helmet, and began to change the monster itself.

The monster's eye started to spin around as the helmet started to change in shape. The horns to the side turned green and black, resembling data from an old computer. Several more horns of the same coloring sprouted from the monster's helmet, resembling the top of the Chaos Badge. More of them sprouted underneath, giving the helmet the overall shape of the badge itself.

The monster's armor started to change to a much darker shade of blue, as well as a slightly lighter shade of gold. The armor started to cover up the monster's entire body, gaining neon lights across it, getting a more futuristic look to it. The skirts around his waist started to extend out a bit, becoming grey and gold SATA wires, which became a full skirt that surrounded the monster's whole waist.

The ram face on his chest changed to a much smoother, less detailed version.

"I AM INTERFAAAAAACED!" The monster yelled as it landed back on the ground. "Prepare for utter deletion!"

He waved his arms in the air. Suddenly, the machinery in the room started to act up again… this time in a much more violent manner. Several of the guns flew from the walls, and started floating in the air, before firing at the Rangers, as well as Savage.

"Yeesh, watch where you're firing those things!" Savage yelled, dodging a laser shot from one of the guns.

"You're saying that like we're on the same side." Long said.

Blue leaped out of the way of a shot as well, catching a glimpse of one of the guns. She slashed her khopesh at it, shooting out a blade of energy that cut right through it.

"Hey, those things are expensive!" Chaos Dorou yelled.

"Nobody cares!" She yelled, shooting a blade of energy at the monster directly afterwards. The blade knocked Dorou off of his feet, causing the guns to drop to the ground and break.

"Ugh, guess I'll have to get a bit more… INDUSTRIAL!" Dorou said as he got up. He swung his hands forwards.

Two large cranes tucked away in the corner started to roll over to where he was. These cranes had very articulated necks, and large claws at the end. They were most likely meant for moving heavy objects around the place.

Now they were going to be used to kill them.

The cranes zoomed forward, one lunging its claw at Pink, who quickly dodged out of the way. "Does he just have control over machines now!?" She yelled, dodging another strike.

"I sure do!" The monster said, swinging another arm forwards.

There was a beep from the armored truck. It started to roll forwards, revealing its multiple large weapons.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me." Blue let out as the truck started to fire its weapons.

---

The enraged Clawbick dashed forwards, swinging his blade at the fox, who quickly leaped out of the way as it cleaved cleanly through the walls behind him. The lion pulled his blade out, and fired several red energy shots from it. Red dodged most of them, but one struck him right in the shoulder.

As Clawbick approached the injured fox, Red swung his staff forwards, shooting off a fireball that hit the lion directly in the face. This stunned him for a moment, letting Red leap in and kick him away.

Clawbick was flung through the air, but flipped around, plunging his sword into the ground, which grinded his travel to a halt. He then swung the blade, cleaving it free from the ground, while also shooting a massive red slash of energy that also cut through the ground.

Red leaped out of the way again, as the slash cut through the wall as well. The pipes on the wall let out some more bursts of steam, the total noise being nearly deafening.

"Alright, Nicky, give up?" Clawbick threatened as he approached the fox.

"In your dreams."

Red quickly used his staff to bend one of the steam pipes that had been freed by the slash, blowing it into the lion's face. This didn't seem to affect him, other than causing him to flinch for a second.

"The hell are you trying to do?" Clawbick asked.

"I think you need a steam bath, Dave!"

Red quickly stuck the rod's open circle into the steam, going through the middle. As the steam passed through, it turned into flames, which quickly engulfed the lion. He let out a scream of pain as he stumbled back. Red quickly leaped in, and smacked him away with the rod.

Clawbick let out a growl, and then ran up to the fox, attempting to strike him down with the blade. Red leaped up as well, trying to block the sword. Instead, the lion's strength pushed him back into a wall.

The sword pushed into the side of the rod of his staff, pressed dangerously close to his neck. The blade pushed hard enough against the rod that it pushed against his neck and paws, effectively trapping him. "Why would I ever be jealous of YOU!?" The lion growled. "You're just a pathetic hustler, and yet you act like you have so much pride."

"I'm not a hustler any more-"

Clawbick quickly grabbed the staff, Red still hanging on, and slammed him into the ground, leaving a large dent. "Don't try to act so high and mighty, fox!" Clawbick growled. His voice had started to sound different, more growly and less like his overly smug normal tone. He had started to sound like a scratchier Savage, in fact.

"That rabbit, your girlfriend," He started. "You know you've tricked her!"

"What? I haven't tricked her!" Red said weakly, trying to climb back to his feet. Clawbick quickly brought his foot down onto the fox.

"Hah, you keep telling yourself that!" He laughed. "What do you think will happen when she finds out about your little secret? She'll probably hate you, freak!"

"I-I've kept it a secret for most of my life…" Red muttered as Clawbick grinded his boot into the fox's torso. "I can keep it a secret for the rest of it too!"

Clawbick scoffed, and raised his foot from Red. He then promptly kicked the fox into another wall. "You're pathetic."

Meanwhile, back up with the rest of the team, they were having trouble themselves.

The truck launched its missiles at them, creating a flurry of explosives around them. The rangers were flung across the room in different directions. As they were recovering, the cranes zoomed over, grabbing Blue and Silver with their claws.

"Hey, let go!" Silver yelled, trying to break free. "I didn't consent to this!"

Blue struggled as well, attempting to move her blades to a position they could cut through the steel, but she wasn't able to.

"Don't worry, we'll get you down!" Pink shouted. Green stepped forward, and fired his cannon at the crane holding Silver. The arm exploded, freeing the wolf.

"Hey, thanks." Silver said, brushing himself off. "Wanna go kick some butt?"

"Definitely." Green replied.

"You two ready to get YOUR butts kicked!?"

Savage rushed in from nowhere, attempting to strike at the two. They dodged out of the way, though Silver quickly moved back in to attack the monster. Green ran up and smacked Savage over the head with his cannon, but was quickly knocked back.

Pink tried to shoot at the crane holding Blue, but it didn't seem to be effective. She glanced over at Green, preparing to ask for his help. He seemed to be a bit busy.

"Damn it, my guns aren't strong enough!" She yelled.

"Wait, take my swords!" Blue said. She dropped the blades from her grip, causing them to drop to the ground with a clang. "They should be able to cut through this thing!"

"Got it!" Pink said, rushing over and picking the blades up. The crane quickly attempted to slam its claw into her, using Blue as a weapon, but she side stepped out of the way. The crane slammed into the ground… Blue taking the brunt of the attack.

"Oh, whoops, sorry!" The hyena apologized.

"No biggie!" She said, though she sounded a bit dazed. "My armor protected me!"

"I don't think that's how that works, but…" Pink shook it off, and leaped up, slashing at the crane's neck. The metal arm fell to the ground, releasing Blue from its clutches.

She shook her head as she got back up. "That was like a terrible rollercoaster." She mumbled.

"Actually, its more like one of those spinning rides." Pink followed.

"Gah, you stupid bugs!" Dorou shouted. "I'll have to pull out the big guns! HEN! SHIN!"

Dorou thrust his arms outwards. The truck started to transform, changing into its mecha form. It aimed one of its railguns, and shot a spread of bullets across the entire room. Pink and Blue managed to duck into a blind spot, but Green, Silver, and Savage were all struck by the bullets. They were flung across the room again, Green and Silver crashing against the wall behind them, and Savage managing to stop his momentum by dragging his claws into the ground.

"What the hell is that!?" Savage yelled. "Actually, I don't care, I'm going to rip it to shreds!"

He rushed towards the mech, and leaped up, scratching directly through its cockpit. 'Hey, stop that!" Chaos Dorou scolded. "Don't make me stop you!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, nerd?" Savage taunted.

"I can do this again!"

The mech suddenly fired more missiles, and started to back up. The missiles flew all over the room, hitting practically everyone but Dorou and Long.

One of the missiles was launched towards Pink and Blue, who were flung in opposite directions. Pink skidded across the floor, and next to the hole that Red had created. She quickly glanced down the hole, seeing Clawbick stepping on the fox.

Nick was in trouble. He definitely needed help. If he couldn't beat Clawbick in a fight, he needed to do something more backhanded. What would be a good way of pacifying him…

Oh, duh.

She glanced across the room, looking for the tame collar's remote. There it was, across the room… Right next to the robot. She needed to get over there and back. Time to run.

She dashed off, the mech seeming to spot her. It fired a barrage of bullets at her, but she slid under them. She quickly made it to the robot, much to the surprise of Dorou. "What!? What are you planning!?"

"Uh, nothing against you." She said, picking the remote up and tossing it in her hand. "Well, not yet, anyway."

She quickly ran off, leaving the ram monster very confused.

The hyena ran back up to the hole and glanced down. Nick was across the room, clearly in a lot of pain, and Clawbick was heading towards him. She glanced at the remote.

"NICK!" She shouted, holding the remote up. Both Red and Clawbick glanced up "TAKE THIS!"

She tossed the remote to Red, who quickly sat up and caught it in his paw. "The heck's this…?" He asked.

"IT'S THE REMOTE FOR CLAWBICK'S TAME COLLAR!" She shouted down.

Red glanced at the remote, and then back at Clawbick. He did have a tame collar, it had been wrapped around his neck the entire time. He had been wearing his weakness on his neck the entire time.

"The remote!?" Clawbick growled. He turned back to look at the hyena. "You really HAVE betrayed me!"

"No, Dave, you're the one who betrayed us!" Red followed. The fox used his staff to help him up. "You've done so many unforgivable things, hurt so many innocent mammals. Now its time for you to really pay."

"Bring it on, fox!" He goaded. "Hit me with what you've got!"

Red turned the knob on the remote to its maximum voltage, and hovered his thumb over the large, red activation button. "I'm going to press this button once for every atrocity you've committed."

Clawbick stepped back, clearly nervous. He clutched at his neck. "W-wait!"

Red pressed the button, sending a massive jolt of electricity through the lion's body. He let go of the button. Smoke was visibly coming from the lion's body, but he was still standing.

"That was for Emily."

He pressed the button again.

"And that was for Henry."

And again. And again. And again. And again. And Again.

"Those are for the mammals you murdered!"

He pressed it again, holding it for several seconds.

"That was for the homicide!"

He pressed the button, holding it down even longer.

"That was for the SECOND homicide!"

This went on for several minutes, going over Clawbick's entire personal history. As he went on, Nick got angrier and angrier, while Clawbick grew weaker and weaker with each shock.

Eventually, his armor seemed to fold back on its own. He fell to his knees, out of breath from the pain Nick had inflicted. "Please… have mercy…" He pleaded.

Nick glanced at the remote, then at the horribly burned mammal in front of him. "Why should I give you any?" he asked. "It's not like you ever gave it to anyone."

He pressed down on the button, causing another electric shock. This one went on for a painfully long time. Nick felt gross, disgusted in himself for even doing this, even if he deserved it. It just didn't feel right.

He let go of the button.

"That one was for me." He muttered, dropping the remote to the ground.

The lion quickly fell over, either unconscious, or dead. It didn't matter which. Red stepped on the remote, shattering it. He gave one last glance to Clawbick's unmoving body, and leaped out of the pit.

As soon as he was out, his eyes saw utter chaos.

Long and Savage were fighting each other, and everyone else was fighting against the SPD's giant robot truck, and what looked like the upgraded version of that goat monster.

"The hell did I miss?" Red mumbled to himself.

Blue's ears perked up as she spotted him. She dashed over. "Hey, Red, good to see you alive!" She greeted.

"Yeah, same." Red said. "So, can you tell me what happened here?"

"The monster can control machines." Blue explained. "That's it, really."

"Oh."

"We really need to beat him." She said. "And I think we can do that!"

"Together?"

"Together."

The two ran to the middle of the battlefield, and fistbumped. They readied their weapons, and dashed at the monster. Red went for the monster itself, while Blue went for the robot. Red jumped up, and smacked Dorou in the face with his staff. The monster bounced off the mech, letting Red follow up with another attack, as his staff extended to pin the monster to the robot.

"Hey, stop it!" Dorou whined.

The robot seemed to stop, unable to be controlled by Chaos Dorou as he was distracted. Blue used this opportunity to leap up onto the robot, and sliced at one of its arms, causing it to fall to the ground. She hopped to the other side, and sliced the arm there off as well.

Dorou grabbed onto the staff, and quickly pushed it off of him. He glanced up at the robot. "NO! My really cool mech! You ruined it!"

Blue leaped down, hitting Dorou in the face with her feet, knocking him to the ground. She jumped off, and landed next to Red.

"Nice work." Red complimented.

"Thank you." Blue said. "Why don't we keep that good work up and take care of this geek?"

"GEEK?!" Dorou yelled. "I'm a NERD, thank you very much! And I'm not out of this yet!"

He thrust his arms forwards, causing the robot to start shooting missiles. "I'll handle this." Red said. He started jabbing his pole forwards rapidly, striking every missile out of the sky, all of them exploding before they could touch the ground.

Suddenly, the missiles stopped.

"Huh?" Red muttered, turning back to the monster.

He seemed exactly as confused, thrusting his arms forwards, trying to get the mech to do something. "C'mon!" He said, trying it again. "Do something!"

"Hah, idiot!" Pink yelled from the other side of the room. "You used it too much, its gone muerta!"

"It's… it's out of fuel!?" Chaos Dorou said to itself. He turned around, seeing all five of the rangers standing there. "Oh, uh, hi?"

"You guys all ready?" Blue asked. The others nodded.

She dashed forwards first, performing an uppercut with her blades, launching the monster up into the air. Pink and Green followed up by shooting Dorou with their blasters, keeping him suspended in midair. Red and Silver were up next, and shot fireballs at him, keeping him in the air even longer.

Silver quickly jumped onto Green's cannon, who thrust it upwards, launching Silver into the air. Red leaped up next, both of them on each side of the airborne Dorou. They rapidly struck him with both their weapons, before slamming him down to the ground.

The ram monster bounced as he hit the ground, letting green bat him away with his massive gun. Blue quickly followed him as he flew through the air, and jumped up, kicking the monster before slashing it with her khopesh. He flew back to the group, but didn't make it before Red's staff extended, smacking him in the face and halting his momentum.

As Dorou recovered, he quickly found a whip wrapped around him. Silver quickly reeled him in, and flung him into the air. He fell towards Pink, who started to shoot him at near point-blank range. She shot him in several key locations, knocking all his horns off, and piercing through his armor, all while keeping him stunned in the air. She then placed both her guns together, and fired a larger balst, sending him flying again.

Red and Blue set their combined weapon up, and aimed it as Dorou flew towards them. They pointed it up, and fired the energy arrow directly through him. It pierced through his chest, instantly causing him to explode.

All five of them let out a victory cheer, as the stunned Long and Savage looked on, having stopped fighting as soon as they saw the first hit. Savage started clapping his claws together. "Okay, gotta admit, that was awesome."

Long just growled and clenched his fist. He quickly shot Savage a look.

From the explosion flew Herder, and a Chaos Badge, which clinked against the ground. Emily and Henry rushed over to him, their armor folding back up into their belts. "Chief, you alright?" Pink said, shaking the goat.

He opened his eyes, and sat up. "Ugh, what happened?"

"The Zoorangers and us saved you." Henry explained.

"They did?" He mumbled, surprised. He fell silent afterwards.

"We haven't saved you guys yet!" Silver said, pointing to the Chaos Badge. "We still got a giant monster problem!"

The Chaos Badge lifted itself into the air, and then flew off… jabbing into the ceiling. It started to hit the ceiling repeatedly, before it started to glow.

"Uh, that's new." Red said, watching the badge.

"Oh god!" Blue yelled. "Everyone get out of the way!"

"What?" Red asked.

"It's going to grow giant IN HERE!"

The five ran as fast as they could, Emily and Henry helping Herder along to the very edge of the room, right by the steel sliding door that had let the truck in.

Blue's prediction was right, as the badge exploded, creating a bright flash of light. Chaos Dorou had reappeared, towering above them while still crouching down in a four-legged position. The monster took up nearly the entirety of the room, his feet touching the corners. He let out a groan, before thrusting himself upwards.

The monster crashed through the ground, creating a massive surge of sunlight to flood the room as he pierced to the surface. "SYSTEM RESTORE!" The monster yelled, before leaping out of the pit and up to the ground.

"Oh, cheese and crackers!" Blue let out. "He's right next to the city!"

"We can't let him hurt anyone!" Silver shouted. "Let's go take him out!"

The three quickly summoned their mechs, which leaped out of the pit as well. As they jumped out, ZooSagi and ZooKitsune formed into ZooRobo, while ZooOkami transformed into ZooKami.

"Well, looks like we'll have to handle this some other time, huh?" Savage said, starting to walk away from Long. "Don't worry, this isn't over!" He said, turning back to Long as he walked backwards.

"Oh, but it IS."

Long thrust his palm forwards, shooting out a stream of golden energy, which flew directly towards Savage.

"What the-" The energy started to flow into Savage, causing him to groan in pain.

"The hell's he doing?" Emily asked as they watched the energy flow into Savage.

"I have no idea, but its probably not good." Henry answered.

Suddenly, Savage started to swell up, growing slightly larger. He then started to grow rapidly, until he had been transformed into a giant monster, on par with the monster that had just escaped. He leaped out of the pit as well.

Long quickly fell to one knee. "Used too much of my Qi on that…" He muttered. "I need to go recoup…" He dissipated into golden mist, which quickly vanished.

---

ZooRobo and ZooKami stomped forwards, towards Chaos Dorou. "Welcome to the FINAL BOSS!" Chaos Dorou taunted. His eye started to glow, creating a holographic laser sword, one much more futuristic than his previous steel blade. He grabbed it, and marched towards the robots.

"This guy should be easy." Red said, stretching his arms out.

"Right, he's just a geek with a lightsaber, shouldn't be much of a-" Blue was interrupted by a crashing noise behind them.

"Uh, guys?" Silver said. "We have REALLY bad news."

ZooRobo spun around, spotting the massive sized Savage. He let out an animalistic growl, which sounded like a mix between several different growls and roars at once. He slashed both his claws, knocking the mechs backwards.

Chaos Dorou took this chance, and swung his lightsaber at both of them, causing them to stumble forwards again. "Yeah, now this is a fair fight!" Dorou cheered. "Time to pwn you n00bs!"

"I'll take Dorou." Silver said, almost instantly. "You guys handle Savage."

"Hey, since when do you get to give orders?" Blue said. "I mean, it's a good order, but…"

"I really, REALLY hate this guy." Silver said, ZooKami stomping forward.

"Not really sure if we can do this ourselves." Red said as ZooRobo stomped towards Savage. "We haven't been able to take him on without our super forms, what's our mech supposed to do?"

"I got a pretty good answer," She said, pulling out both a blue and white ZooTag.

"Clever bunny." Red said, pulling out a gold and yellow ZooTag.

They both plugged one of the tags in, specifically the white and yellow tags.

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

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

The rhino and bear mechs appeared from nowhere. The rhino leapt forwards, smacking Savage with his horn. It then flipped around and combined with ZooRobo, forming into ZooRobo Sai Form.

"ZooKuma, go help Silver!" Red ordered. The bear let out a growl as it leaped over to the fight with ZooKami and Dorou.

The bear mech flew through the air, and started to rapidly scratch at the monster. "AUGH, ORGANIC CONTACT!" The monster whined, before the bear mech kicked itself off of him.

ZooKami stepped in, and slashed the monster with his sword, causing him to stumble backwards. "Alright, now we're getting started!" Silver cheered, pumping his fist.

ZooRobo stepped towards Savage, and slashed at him with the large axe hands of the mech. They seemed to cut through him, green shards of his crystalline body flying off. Savage let out a pained roar as this happened, and then reached forwards with his massive claws, grabbing onto ZooRobo.

"Augh, I really don't like seeing this guy's ugly mug up close!" Red yelled as they struggled to push the monster away. Savage opened his mouth wide, and chomped down on the robot.

His teeth went right through the robot's metal, mostly only affecting ZooSai's body. The rhino mech, from its attached state, let out a cry of pain as Savage pulled his mouth out. The mech stumbled back as the monster continued to slash at it.

ZooKami clashed blades with Chaos Dorou, the mech being strong enough to push the ram monster backwards. As the monster's feet dragged against the ground, he fired a laser from his eye directly into ZooKami, causing the robot to stumble back.

ZooKuma quickly jumped in, slashing at the monster before it could get another hit in on ZooKami. This gave the mech time to recover, letting him quickly get back into the action and land a direct attack to Dorou's midsection.

"Augh, dumb bear!" The monster shouted, knocking ZooKuma away. "I'll obsolete you!" He started to fire beams at ZooKuma which flipped and jumped to avoid them. One of the lasers managed to hit, knocking the bear mech away. He shot more blasts at it, causing it to explode.

"NO!" Silver shouted. "How dare you do that!?"

"Relax, its just a robot!" Dorou mocked. ZooKami stomped forward and slashed at Dorou. The ram managed to block it with his blade, but the wolf pushed down, and broke through the monster's defenses.

ZooRobo attempted to attack Savage, but the now mindless beast managed to keep getting in before they could do anything. "I think we're taking this the wrong way!" Red shouted, quickly pulling his ZooTag out. "I think we should play a bit safer!"

"Sounds like a good idea!" Blue replied. The two pulled out their other ZooTags, colored gold and blue, and plugged them in.

"BANG BANG
BOOM BOOM!
IT'S RODEO TIME!
ZOOBISON!"

"JUNGLE MIND!
BUSTING TIME!
UKI UKI OO!
ZOOSARU!"

The bison and ape mechs appeared out of nowhere. ZooSaru leaped over to help ZooKami, while ZooBison dashed forward and rammed into Savage, knocking him back. ZooSai quickly detached from the mech and vanished, letting ZooBison combine with ZooRobo into ZooRobo Bison Form.

The mech quickly started firing its guns at the monster, keeping it far away from them. "We gotta play the range game." Blue said. "Savage getting too close will lead to trouble."

ZooSaru leaped over ZooKami, and started to punch Chaos Dorou in the face "AUGH!" He yelled. "IT'S LIKE HIGH SCHOOL ALL OVER AGAIN!"

"Alright you horrible neet," Silver started, before delivering a sword strike to Dorou's chest. "Prepare to be deleted!"

The mech rose its sword into the air, and spun it around, creating a mirage of the moon in the circle. He then slashed downwards, the illusion flying forwards and carving through the monster. The monster let out a final scream as it exploded.

ZooKami quickly spun around, watching the fight between Savage and ZooRobo. The mech was firing multiple shots at the monster, but at this point they seemed to be ineffective, the beast just walking through them.

"Don't worry guys, I'm here to help!" Silver said, moving the mech over to the fight. ZooSaru quickly leaped over as well, landing next to ZooKami and pounding its chest. ZooBison stood next to them as well, letting out a snort.

"Let's take care of this together." Red said. "This is the end of you, Savage!"

The monster roared in response, and stomped forward. It slashed at the two mechs, causing them to stumble backwards. ZooRobo quickly opened fire as soon as it regained its footing, but again, the shots didn't seem to be working anymore.

"Ugh, we need something stronger!" Blue said. Her ears perked up. "Hey, why don't we just combine?"

"Oh yeah, that's a thing we don't really do often, huh?" Red said.

ZooBison quickly detached, and the two mechs combined into the colossus known as ZooRobo Oh Kami. The super mech stomped forward, both of its blades in hand. Savage followed suit, and the two titans began to clash.

ZooRobo struck at the monster with his blades, cleaving through Savage's crystalline skin, but it seemed to have no effect beyond that. Savage slashed at the mech, it still taking incredible amounts of damage from the strikes.

"Seriously?" Silver said, the inner mechanics of the mech sparking around them. "We can't even beat him with our ultimate combo!?"

"We just need to pin him down!" Blue said. "Keep him still, and we can get off our finisher!"

"I think I know how to do that!" Red said. "Let's bring in the cavalry!"

ZooKuma and ZooSai appeared, fine after a bit of rest. They landed in front of the mechs, ZooSaru and ZooBison joining in. They quickly leaped at Savage. ZooSaru started to punch at the beast's face, while ZooKuma dashed around his midsection, keeping his arms busy, while occasionally scratching at him. ZooBison and ZooSai rammed at his feet, preventing him from moving.

"Alright, now we can finish him!" Blue said. "Let's do it!"

The mech brought one of its blades downwards, and one upwards, and then slashed with moth of them. The slashes flew forwards, the mini-mechs leaping out of the way as they cleaved through Savage's body. ZooRobo then brought both its blades to its sides, one on the right, and one on the left, and slashed again. Those slashed flew forwards as well, again cleaving right through Savage.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The monster let out as it stumbled back. He quickly turned around, and stomped towards Mount Animalia as his body began to spark.

On the mountain, Long had arrived, stumbling onto the side of it. He was still weak from the amount of energy he had lost. He heard the monster's cry, and turned to look. The massive Savage was staring at the mountain…

No, it was staring at him.

"LOOOOOONG!" The beast cried out. "YOU TRAITOROUS FIEND! I'LL GET MY REVENGE ON YOU, IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"

With a final cry of pain, Savage's crystalline body exploded, his green energy floating up into the air, then dissipating.

While ZooRobo and its mini-mech partners struck a victory pose, Long watched on. He remained silent, and then stumbled off, attempting to find the entrance to the base.

---

"I can't believe we did it!" Nick said, Judy jumping up and high-fouring him. "We destroyed Savage!"

"Yeah, and we did it together!" Max added.

The three had returned to the underground bunker to celebrate. Judy glanced around, and spotted the SPD officers, Herder, and Dr. Leopold. The four of them were resting against a wall. "Hey, you guys alright?" She yelled over to them.

"Yeah, we're fine!" Emily shouted back. The four of them got back up, and Emily whispered something to Herder, who gave a nod.

The goat walked over to the Zoorangers, and cleared his throat. "I want to apologize profusely to you three." He started. "I was such an idiot for believing in that monster. Can you three forgive me?"

The three of them nodded.

"Thank you." Herder muttered. He looked back up at them. "And I'd also like to tell you that I'm disbanding the SPD."

"What?" Red said. "Why?"

"Because with you three around, they aren't necessary." He explained. "Don't worry, I'll make sure they get pardons for good behavior and-"

"Don't disband them." Judy said, defiantly.

Herder gave her a confused glance.

"They helped us out during that fight." She started. "If our two teams were to work together, we could take these monsters out even faster than before!" She sighed. "We can help prevent what happened from happening to anyone else."

Herder gave her a smile.

"We'd love to help you out, Judy," Emily said, henry following behind her. "But we can't."

"You guys don't have to be humble," Nick started. "You guys did great back there, and I can't think of anyone else I'd like to have on our team."

"No, she means we can't." Henry interjected. "That, uh, Savage guy, was powering our armor. With him gone, we can't use our armor."

"Actually," Leopold said, popping out from behind the bull. "I might have a solution to that!"

"Hey, where were you during that entire fight?" Max asked.

"Oh, I was hiding in my office." Leopold replied. "But, to the point, I had a bit of time to examine your transformation devices today, and I discovered something."

The three raised their eyebrows.

"See, they use some kind of wireless signal to connect to… something, and that's what powers them!" He explained. "If I had time to study them, to see how they work, I could maybe reverse engineer it, and we could use that to power the SPD Officer armor!"

"Seriously?" Emily said, surprised. "Then get to it, Leo!" She finished, smacking the doctor on the back.

"The problem is that I'd have to, uh, borrow, your devices." He said, directly to the Zoorangers. "Except yours, Wolford, yours is completely different."

The wolf raised an eyebrow to this.

"We can let you borrow them." Judy said. "If its for a good cause!"

"I mean, I guess…" Nick said, sarcastically. He gave a chuckle as the rabbit elbowed him playfully.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Silver said, stepping in. "That would give us, like, five members, right?" He said.

"It sure would, Max." Judy said, getting what the wolf was trying to say.

"Then that means…" he paused. "We're a full team now! We're a full Zoo Rangers team now!"

"What are you-?" Emily was quickly interrupted by Nick.

"Just let him be, he's nerding out."

"Well, that's all settled then!" Herder said. "I'll do my best to get everything back to normal, get Bogo back into his position, do a public service announcement saying how wrong I was, and everything should go over cleanly!"

"Alright, now we don't have to live in a basement anymore!" Nick said, pumping his fist.

"Oh, and if we're doing this…" Herder said, turning to Emily and Henry. "How would you two like to have ACTUAL jobs?"

"Wait, you mean…" Emily paused. "You mean we get to work with the Zoorangers, and get to be paid?"

Herder gave a nod.

"We're in."

"Alright, now that everything's settled…" Herder started. "Let's get out of this depressing hole!"

Everyone gave a cheer, and they all headed out of the bunker. Everything was fine, and all the chaos of the last few months would finally stop, and things would go back to normal.

But they all seemed to forget something.

In a pit of the bunker laid a burned body, the burned body of a lion. It started to twitch.

---

"YOU INCOMPETENT FOOL"

The Omnipotence roared, firing a beam of electricity at Long, who fell to his knees in pain. The other five villains watched on from a tunnel. "How badly do you think he messed up?" Yabaiba asked.

"He made a monster a day after I did." Sambash answered. "He messed up pretty bad."

"DUE TO YOUR PLAN BACKFIRING, WE NOW HAVE INSUFFICIENT ENERGY" The Omnipotence roared. "WE MUST WAIT A FULL MONTH BEFORE WE HAVE ENOUGH TO CREATE ANOTHER MONSTER"

"But my plan almost worked!" Long said. "I could've defeated them if Savage hadn't reared his ugly head!"

"BUT YOU DIDN'T" The Omnipotence followed, blasting Long with another bolt of lightning. He let out a pained scream, something he had never done before in his immortal life.

"I don't care about your rules!" Long finally said. "I am an immortal being, I cannot be killed! I will make this world my own, and you cannot stop me!"

"FOOL" The omnipotence said. "YOU ARE IMMORTAL NO LONGER"

"Hah, you lie!" Long shot back. "I regenerated the last time I was killed, my immortality remains!"

"I HAVE CONSIDERED THIS" The omnipotence continued. "AND I REMOVED YOUR COMPLETE IMMORTALITY WHEN I REVIVED YOU"

"What?" Long said, stumbling back. "That's impossible."

"YOU HAVE A WEAKNESS, LONG" The omnipotence roared, before shooting another bolt of lightning at him. "AND I WILL LET YOU LIVE WITH THE FEAR OF THAT"

"AND REMEMBER"

Long glanced up at The Omnipotence's tube.

"I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT YOU BACK, I AM THE ONE WHO CAN DESTROY YOU"

Long grunted, before stumbling over to the cave the other villains were standing in. He pushed them to the side and headed off into the interior of the base. "A weakness… That self-proclaimed god can't even tell a good lie." He muttered to himself.

"I'll figure out a way to defeat them all." Long said. "I will make this world my own."

---

"Hey, Nick, what's wrong?"

The bull approached the young fox. He was in the attic of the building, hood pulled over his face and crying. The sunrise peered in through the attic window. Henry sat down next to him, attempting to comfort him.

"What happened?" He asked gently. The fox sobbed in response. "Alright, you don't have to tell me."

"Why can't other mammals like me!?" Nick sobbed, leaning into the bull. "Why can't I be accepted somewhere!?"

"We accept you here, don't we?" Henry said.

"No, you don't…" He muttered. "I hate everyone…"

Henry gently pulled the fox's hood down, and started to pet him, trying to get him to calm down. "I don't need to know what happened." He said. "Just know that, eventually, you'll be accepted somewhere. I know you will."

The fox continued to sob.

---

"WILDE!"

The lion stumbled around the now abandoned bunker. It was pitch black, leaving him utterly blind. It didn't help that one of his eyes had seemed to have gone blind.

"WIIIIIIIIILDE!" He shouted again, slamming into a wall. "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!"

"Well, aren't you interesting."

The lion spun around, coming face-to-face with Long, who lit up the dark hallway. "You're lost, aren't you?" He asked, the lion backing away in response. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you…"

Long quickly vanished, and the reappeared next to Clawbick, grabbing his head and slamming it into the wall.

"Or maybe I am." He said, picking the lion up. "Doesn't matter. You'll be absolutely perfect for my next plan…"

---

And with that, the arc is over!

This has been one of the hardest arcs to write yet, but its also been a very good time, as t let me cover a lot of odder things. My goal for this series is to mix Sentai goofiness with some amount of human (Or mammalian) drama, and I feel this has been one of the finer examples of that in this whole series so far.

This is also what you could call the end of the, ahem, "Long storyline", of the show so far. Long isn't done for good, obviously, but from now on we'll be focusing on different villains a lot more.

I'm also going to be taking another break, but that's nothing new.

Next time, an in-universe Halloween special.