Zoorangers Chapter 34: Episode 33 - Into the Spirit, a Super Sentai + Zootopia Crossover fanfic

Episode 33 – Into the Spirit

October 5th, 2019

"Ugh, can't believe we have to wait a MONTH!" Sambash groaned as he paced around the base. It had been two weeks since the incident with Long's botched plan, and the villains were starting to get impatient.

"I know, right?" Yogostein replied. "All because Long tried to get too ambitious, and somehow we're the ones who are punished!"

"We were on such a good track record before he did this!" Sambash continued. "I don't even get why we need this 'recharge' anyway, haven't we gathered enough… chaos whatever, to fuel our monsters?"

"I believe you two are getting too worked up over this." Kyuemon said, startling the two as he appeared from nowhere.

"We haven't gotten to do anything," Yogostein shouted. "Of course we're getting upset!"

"Just think of it like this," Kyuemon continued. "You can use this downtime to think about future plans. Come up with your masterplans or some such."

"Masterplans?" Sambash said to himself. "Hmm."

"I've already thought about my masterplan, I don't need more time to plan it!" Yogostein shouted. He let out a grunt, and stomped off.

"I'm more worried about what's happening soon!" Yabaiba said, popping up from under the table and startling the two.

"I'm going to go and… do something else." Sambash said, quickly getting up and leaving the room. Kyuemon and Yabaiba were left alone.

Kyuemon let out a sigh as Yabaiba turned to him. "You wanna know what I'm worried about?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"Nope!" Yabaiba answered. "So, we're in the middle of October, which means we're almost at HALLOWEEN!"

"Halloween?" Kyuemon said, a bit confused. "Why would you care about a human holiday like that?"

"Uh, because it's the BEST holiday?" Yabaiba replied. "Especially for us monsters, it's the day we get even more evil energy!"

Kyuemon stared at him, a bit dumbfounded.

"No seriously!" Yabaiba continued, getting up. "Demons and ghosts like us get supercharged when Halloween rolls around! I wanted to take advantage of that and cause some trouble."

Kyuemon thought for a second. It was stupid, but he had a point. Halloween was at the end of the month, meaning that they would be fully able to attack the city by then. "Alright, what do you suggest we do for a plan?" Kyuemon asked.

"Uh, I dunno, I'm not that smart." Yabaiba admitted. "I was hoping to get some ideas from someone else…"

"Wonderful." The yokai said, sarcastically. "If you come up with anything, let me know-"

"HEY!"

The two turned over to the cage hanging from the roof. "Helloooo?" The sheep inside said. "Why does nobody ever ask me about evil plans, I thought that was the reason you guys brought me here!"

"The reason none of us ask you anything-"

"Hey, I ask her stuff." Yabaiba interrupted.

"The reason the INTELLIGENT villains here don't ask for your help is because we have nothing to gain from a lower being like you." Kyuemon explained.

"And yet you get constantly beaten by those lower beings." Bellwether snidely said. Kyuemon growled in response, as Yabaiba giggled quietly.

"Very well, if you think you're so smart, why don't you come up with a plan?" Kyuemon growled at her.

"I can give you a tip." Bellwether continued. She quickly pulled herself forward, head going between the bars. "But you have to get me something to eat and drink after."

Kyuemon scoffed. "I'll get you those if the idea you have is any good."

"Trust me, this is good." Bellwether continued. "I doubt any of you know this, but there's been a pretty big influx of mammals using their phones for everything."

"I am aware of the concept." Kyuemon said.

"Well, a lot of other mammals complain about our electronics slowly taking over, turning us into zombies. I think it's a bit ridiculous, but that's beside the point."

"I don't really SEE your point." Kyuemon scoffed. The sheep glared at him.

"Wait, did you say 'zombies'?" Yabaiba said. "That's a perfect idea, zombies are the HOTTEST thing in Halloween culture!"

"Excuse me?" Kyuemon said, confused.

"I thought you said you were supposed to be smart," Bellwether said. "And you can't even read between the lines."

Kyuemon paused, and thought for a moment. "Hmmmm." Suddenly it clicked. He shook his head in embarrassment. "Ah, I see what you're getting at now. I will say, it isn't a terrible idea."

"Great, then you have to get me something to eat and drink." She said, suddenly turning stern.

"In a moment." Kyuemon replied quickly, turning back to Yabaiba. "How about you and I work together for this plan?"

"Seriously? You and I, working together?" Yabaiba said in disbelief. "I'd love to!"

"Excellent. I will need someone a bit more charismatic for this."

October 29th, 2019

"Ohhh, I'm so nervous!" Judy said, pacing back and forth in front of the door. "What if I botch it? Nobody will take this seriously then!"

"Judy, you're great at speeches!" Nick said. "Just go out there and tell everyone about what's going on."

"But what if nobody believes me? I just feel like I have a lot of pressure, I've never had this much responsibility before." She continued.

"Just get out there!" Max said, handing her a remote and quickly pushing the rabbit out of the door.

She entered the darkened bullpen, which was full of her colleagues, alongside Emily and Henry. They seemed a bit out of place, wearing their casual clothes, despite them being a part of the force now.

It had been an entire month since the debacle. It took half the month for them to get their jobs back, and even more than that to set up their new roles in the police force, out of request by Herder and Bogo. The mayor seemed to be the main roadblock in the way of getting what they wanted.

Judy had been assigned to give a speech to the entire precinct. Nick, Max, and her had been keeping them out of the dark for most of their time as Zoorangers, and it was important to illustrate what, exactly, was going on.

She took a deep breath, and walked up to the podium, cranking the platform up so she could see the whole room. She cleared her throat, and started.

"Hey, everyone!" She said. "Long time no see, huh?"

Dang it, she botched it.

She grimaced as small chuckles could be heard through the room. There was a small creaking noise as she glanced over at the door, Nick and Max coming out. Nick shot her a double thumbs-up. She took another deep breath and continued, putting on a more serious tone.

"You are all here today to learn sensitive, classified information." She continued. "As is mostly obvious, Zootopia has been ravaged by horrible monsters throughout the last year, and me and my partner, Officer Wilde, and fellow officer, Wolford, have become superheroes."

It sounded a lot weirder saying it out loud to a crowd. Maybe that's why AkaRed said to keep it a secret, too awkward.

"This speech is the explain just what is going on with this whole ordeal." Judy said. "We'll start with the most important part, just what we're dealing with."

She pressed a button on the remote, a projector at the back coming on. It projected an image of five drawings, rather crude sketches of the monsters they had been fighting. They had been drawn by Max.

"These are our five main threats." She said. "We weren't able to get any pictures of them, so we got someone who had been close to them to draw sketches. They're pretty good if I say so."

"She's just saying that." Max whispered to Nick. "I think they're terrible."

"You drew them all in five minutes, I think they're pretty good for that." Nick replied.

"You don't know the struggle of an artist."

"These five are the ones responsible for creating the monsters that me and my team have been fighting for the last few months." Judy continued. "And, I know this may seem completely ridiculous, they come from an alternate universe, one that's completely different from ours."

There was the sound of confusion throughout the room. "Don't try to think about it too much, you might end up vomiting." She said, trying to get them to calm down. "We're going to cover all of them, going from least dangerous to most dangerous. Though, keep in mind all of them are dangerous."

She pressed the button again, flicking to a slide depicting the full sketch of Yabaiba, which was the same sketchy, crude quality, and had his name and title under him.

"This is Yabaiba, a 'Duke Org'. He's the least dangerous of these guys, and is kind of just an idiot." She said, chuckles coming from the crowd. At least they had laughed at an intentional joke. "He's still a threat to most mammals, however, and can handle a knife surprisingly well. His monsters seem to be more dangerous than him, and have caused a number of… strange events for us."

"Did we ever tell you about the time travel bit?' Nick whispered to Max.

"Dude, I still remember being erased from existence." The wolf said back.

Judy pressed the button again, flicking to the sketch of Sambash. "'Gun Boss' Sambash. As his name states, he has guns. Not laser guns, bullet guns. I feel the threat should be obvious." She said. "He behaves like a biker thug, and that goes along with his monsters too."

"What do you think that stuff they wear is?" Nick asked Max. "It feels weird, kind of like skin."

"I don't want to know."

The rabbit moved to the next slide, consisting of a picture of Kyuemon. "Kyuemon, just, uh, Kyuemon." She started. "To be honest, we haven't seen a whole lot of this guy, so we can't measure exact danger levels, but he is still a threat, we can be sure of that. His monsters have been a bit less of a threat, but they have been very strange most of the time."

"Weird, or just boring." Nick joked.

The next slide came up, showing Yogostein. "'Earth Pollution Minister' Yogostein. He's a robot, and seems to come up with some of the more clever, direct plans." She explained. "He's responsible for the arena attack, and the near invasion a few months back. He can be a bit goofy at times, but that doesn't lower his overall danger levels."

"Should she have told them about the alternate layer whatevers?" Max asked.

"I still don't get that at all, so no, she shouldn't have."

Next slide, this one showing a sketch of a cheetah in a longcoat. "Enter. He might look like a normal cheetah, but he's actually a digital creature taking on the form of one as a disguise. He can blend in easily, and is incredibly manipulative." She said. "Despite him not doing that much damage, his danger is pretty clear."

"What do you think he actually looks like? Max asked.

"Probably like the rest of the monsters." Nick answered. "Really ugly."

Judy flicked to the next slide, showing a sketch of Long. "The Infinite Dragon, Long. He is the most dangerous villain we've fought, and managed to manipulate the entire city for a good few months. He's the one of these villains that is truly a monster. His danger level is near maximum."

She flicked to the final slide, with a big question mark on it. "Finally, we have their leader, The Omnipotence." Judy said. "We have no idea what this guy looks like, or even what he is, but he brought these villains back to life somehow, making him probably the most dangerous of them all."

"The reason I'm telling you about these monsters is very important." She continued. "As of today, Bogo has opened up a temporary police squad designed around fighting these monsters. My team and I are the main part of the group, but we have two new members you might have met, Officers Hyerez and Hornsby."

"I can't believe we officially have those titles now." Emily said to Henry.

"It's only a very large technicality, Em."

"We also have Clawhauser on double time, checking for monster updates as well as dispatch." Judy continued. "We need you all to help as well. If you see a monster, call in to Clawhauser and tell him where and when you saw the monster. We've also directed the message around the city as well. In order to protect everyone, we all need to work together."

"Remember, despite us listing them in least to most dangerous, do NOT attempt to take them on yourselves. They are still incredibly dangerous, no matter what." She reiterated. "And, uh, that's it."

The rest of the officers clapped as she lowered the platform, before walking back off into the other room.

"How did I do?" She asked, out of breath.

"You did fantastic." Nick said. "Trust me on that."

She wiped her brow, and the three walked out back into the lobby of the station.

"Man, I can't believe we get to fight monsters and be officers at the same time now!" Max said, in disbelief. "Its like, everything I ever wanted."

"Honestly, I'm glad we're getting the extra help now." Judy said, a bit relieved to be out of there. "I'm not sure how long we could keep fighting them without revealing our identities anyway."

"We haven't gotten a monster alert in a month, though." Nick said. "Maybe after we wrecked them they decided to hide away for good."

"This happened before, Nick, I don't think we're done." Judy said. "Either way, we've got our jobs back, and we're still officers, so we should go on patrol now."

They walked by the front desk, and were quickly interrupted. "Oooh, hey guys!" Clawhauser said, catching their attention. Judy seemed to jump as he called them, going into a serious stance.

"Do you have a monster alert, Ben?" She asked.

"Oh, no, sorry for startling you." He apologized. "I just wanted to ask if you and Nick were going to come to the Halloween party on the thirty-first."

"Mmm, probably not." Judy said. Max's ears popped up as she said that. He quickly glanced at Nick, who was shaking his head.

"Aw, but you guys never come to the Halloween parties." Ben said, disappointed. "We even made you guys the guests of honor!"

"I'll be coming, Ben!" Max announced, though Clawhauser didn't seemed that thrilled.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you always come to the Halloween party." Clawhauser said. "It'd be a lot more special if all of you came!"

"Which is still a 'no'." Nick said. "This is one of the few things me and Judy agree on."

"Yeah, it's a very rare event for us to agree on not doing something." She said. "Come on, we have work to do."

"Oh, okay." Ben said, slumping back in his chair.

Max watched them as they walked towards the door. He wasn't part of their team when on duty, but…

He quickly dashed after them, and followed them out of the building, catching them on the sidewalk. It was a brisk autumn day, the wind blowing fairly breezily.

"Hey, that was pretty rude." Max said as he followed them to the parking lot. "Ben looked really disappointed that you weren't coming, what do you have against Halloween?"

"I don't have anything against it, per say." Judy said. "I just feel like we shouldn't waste resources on something like the party, especially on Halloween night."

"It's a morale thing, though!" Max said. "Besides, we still have tons of officers patrolling the city on Halloween, its perfectly safe."

"I just don't think it's a good use of my time, alright." She snapped back.

"What about you, Nick? Why do you not want to go?"

"I hate Halloween." He said. "Bad experiences, alright? Don't really want to talk about it."

"Oh, alright then." Max said as they continued along. "But I feel a bit upset you guys don't like the best holiday."

"We like Christmas." Judy said.

"I think he means Halloween." Nick followed.

"Yeah, Halloween is the best holiday!" Max declared. "It's a time where all the weirdos get to come out and show what they love! It's a day for kids to overcome their own fears and watch whatever spooky thing they want! It's the greatest!"

"I think you're stretching a bit." Judy chuckled. "Its fun, sure, but I don't think it has that many values besides… diabetes."

"You guys just don't have the Halloween spirit in you!" he quickly lifted the two up, clutching them under his arms. "I know you guys will love it if you just get in the right mood!"

"We appreciate the gesture, Max, but-"

Judy was interrupted. "We're going to a Halloween store; you guys will get it then!"

"Max, we really don't-" Nick was interrupted as Max ran over to his own cruiser, and tossed them in the back seat. He got in, and drove off quickly.

"Guess we don't have much of a choice." Nick groaned from the back seat.

"You certainly are… spirited, about this, Max." Judy said, though she wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

"I love Halloween, and I feel like others should love it too, y'know?" He replied. "It's like if someone didn't like Christmas, I'd want to help them enjoy it too."

Nick sighed. "It's thoughtful, but we really just don't want to go to the party."

"Yeah, it's really nothing personal." Judy said.

"Well, it is for me." Nick muttered.

"And that's why we need to find your Halloween spirit, Nick!" Max said. "We're going to my favorite seasonal Halloween store, Black Bat Halloween, we'll definitely find some spirit there!"

The two looked at each other. Judy gave a shrug, and Nick sighed. It didn't seem like they were going to get out of this anytime soon.

The car parked in front of a large building, part of a shopping center in Sahara Square that had been there for years. The three got out of the cruiser, and looked up at the building. It had a large, orange banner hanging from it, reading "BLACK BAT HALLOWEEN – COSTUME AND DECORATIONS".

It looked professional enough, but it clearly wasn't what the building was originally used for.

"Hey, wasn't this that electronics store that went out of business?" Nick asked as they walked towards the entrance.

"Yeah, they use the building for seasonal stuff now." Max replied.

As they walked, Judy glanced towards the middle of the shopping center's parking lot. A large white pedestal had been placed there. It seemed like an event was planning on being held, though she hadn't heard about anything.

The three entered the Halloween store, and were instantly met with a ridiculously large amount of tacky decorations and costumes. The place was crammed full of Halloween items, there being surprisingly little space to move around, especially for larger mammals.

Max took a deep whiff of the air. "Ah, I love the smell of that cheap plastic."

"This certainly is… something." Nick said as he walked up to a nearby rack of items. He pulled a fake plastic picture off of it. It was lenticular, the picture shifting from a normal black and white picture to one where the mammals had been replaced by skeletons.

Was this supposed to be… scary?

Judy glanced around. There were actually a few customers from what she could see and hear, but there still weren't that many. Could be because it was early, could be because it wasn't that popular. She walked past rows of different costumes, all consisting of various different themes and colors.

"Whoa, was goin' on here?"

The three glanced up as a bat flapped down from the air. He was wearing an orange shit, a pin reading "MANAGER".

"What are police officers doing at my fine establishment?" The bat asked, looking at the three.

"We're not on duty right now." Max said, though he was technically lying. "We're just here to check things out, entirely for Halloween based purposes."

"Alrighty…" The bat started to flap back up, but paused, drifting down a bit before gliding over to Judy. "Hey, wait a sec… You guys are the Zoorangers, ain't ya?"

"Yes?" Judy said, not sure exactly what to reply with.

"Wow, actual celebrities, at my shop!" The bat said, sounding fairly happy. "Hey, I gotta show you guys something, follow me."

He flapped up into the air, before gliding off. The three officers followed him to the direct middle of the store. What they found was incredible.

And ridiculous.

It was a massive, nearly cube shaped rack that held a ton of different Halloween costumes and decorations… all based around the Zoorangers.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Max let out, awestruck.

Nick and Judy both stared at the collection of most definitely not entirely legal goods, absolutely dumbstruck and unable to say anything.

"We got a massive shipment of these things earlier this week, you guys are super popular again!" The bat said as they started to examine the items.

Max excitedly went through the costumes and props that were there, while Judy and Nick examined them, unsure what to do.

"I can NOT believe this!" Max said, running around the racks to get to the two. He held up a costume, depicting ZooSilver. "I'm a Halloween costume!" He said, with absolute glee. He held the costume close to his chest. "This is everything I have ever wanted."

"I mean, I guess its nice that we're role models." Judy said as she walked around. "But this just kind of feels weird and off, don't you- WHAT THE HECK!?"

Nick and Max followed her, and spotted what she had reacted to. Costumes of their villains, almost all of them, minus Enter for some reason.

"Why would they sell costumes of… of terrorists!?" Judy shouted in utter disbelief.

"Okay, I was sort of finding this neat, but now I'm kind of angry." Nick admitted. "This feels… remarkably unaware."

"Okay, yeah, I have to agree." Max said, before hanging the costume back up. "This kind of ruined the whole mood, didn't it?" The other two nodded in agreement.

"Let's get out of here." Nick said, before storming off, Judy quickly following.

Max took one last glance at the costume of himself, and followed them.

"Okay, so that wasn't… the greatest." Max said as they exited the store. "But, maybe I can show you some of my personal stuff!" He suggested.

"I'd rather not see your 'personal stuff'." Nick joked.

"No, I mean my own decorations and costumes!" Max corrected. "I have tons of them, it'll be fun!"

"I wouldn't mind heading back." Judy said. "I want to see if I can figure out who manufactured those, and sue them for copyright."

"Just make sure you do some research, wouldn't want to file a spurious lawsuit." Nick said. "I know that's a bad ide- Hey, what's going on over there?"

The two looked over to the middle of the parking lot. The pedestal that Judy had spotted earlier had suddenly gained a massive amount of attention, a mob of mammals standing around it, though nothing seemed to be happening.

They walked up to the crowd and watched. "What do you think is going on here?" Max asked.

"Probably some kind of publicity stunt." Nick suggested. "Maybe some kind of new fur cream."

Being the tallest one there, Max glanced around the crowd of many different mammals. He had caught a whiff of a familiar scent a few moments earlier, and used it to find Emily, who was standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Hey, Em!" he shouted, waving his paw in the air. She turned to them, and quickly started to move through the crowd.

"Hell are you guys doing here, I thought you were on patrol?" She said as she walked up to them. She was still in very casual clothing, and carrying a bag of groceries.

"We were going to go on patrol, until Jack O' Lantern boy here dragged us to the Halloween store." Nick explained.

"Oh, so you guys have no idea what's going on either, do you?" She asked.

"Absolutely not."

"So, why are you here?" Judy asked, eyeing the bag. "Doing some grocery shopping?"

"Yeah, I was just getting supplies for-"

Before she could finish there was a sudden explosion of smoke from the top of the pedestal. Purple in color, it spread across the lot, leaving the entire audience coughing. Two figures appeared from the smoke, now standing on top of the pedestal.

One was an antelope wearing a ringmaster uniform, and carrying a megaphone. His fur was almost entirely white, and his eyes were an odd shade of yellow. The white on the fur was only broken up by yellow, green, and purple markings under his eyes.

The second figure was someone in a cartoony mascot costume. It looked like some kind of feline, red, brown, and white in coloring, and with arms and legs a bit too stumpy to properly move around in, while its head was strangely large. It seemed to have two tails, and its pudgy stomach was marked with a green watch-like design, with the wristband heading around its entire waist, forming a belt.

"Hello ladies and gentlemammals!" The antelope shouted into the megaphone. "I suppose you're all wondering, 'Just what is going on here'?" The antelope moved in a weird, exaggerated manner, and its voice seemed… familiar.

"Well, I'll tell you what's going on!" He continued to shout, the mascot character starting to dance, as best it could with the stubby limbs. "This is the greatest deal of the year, no, the greatest deal of the century!"

Nick, Judy, Max, and Emily watched on, completely baffled by what they were watching. The entire audience seemed to think similarly too.

"Today and tomorrow, we'll be selling an exclusive preview version of the new Carrot Inc. device, one so hot it hasn't even been announced yet!" The antelope continued. "INTRODUCING, THE Y-WATCH!"

There was another puff of smoke, this time a smaller pedestal appeared on top of the larger pedestal. On top of that pedestal was a small, white watch. The antelope grabbed it, and slapped it onto his wrist.

"This device is like our Carrot Inc. branded Y-Phones and Y-Pads, except its even better!" He continued to shout. "This device not only keeps time, but you can browse the internet on it, listen to music, play games, and SO, SO MUCH MORE!"

"Oh, wonderful, another technological 'marvel' that will be obsolete in the next year." Nick grumbled.

"Yeah, even if they're having a sale, its probably going for incredibly high amounts." Judy followed.

"You're probably wondering how much we're selling them for today!" The antelope said. "Normally, these would sell for around eight hundred dollars, but we're going way lower than that." He looked over the crowd for a brief moment, before pointing at a random elephant. "You! How much do you think we're giving this away for?"

"Uh…" the elephant paused for a moment, not sure what to do. "Four hundred?"

"EHHHHH!" The antelope yelled, crossing his arms in the shape of an X. "Wrong, we're going even lower than that! Any other guesses from the audience?" There was muttering from the crowd, but no actual answers. "Here's the answer…" He backed away from the crowd, and took a deep breath.

"We're giving it away…"

"ABSOLUTELY FREE!"

There were surprised gasps from the crowd, alongside lots of muttering. "Hah, yeah right." Nick scoffed. "There has to be a catch."

"No catch, we're giving them away for absolutely nothing!" The antelope said. He looked over the crowd again, and spotted Nick, Judy, Max, and Emily. He let out a small laugh, before leaping down from the pedestal. "We're going to be giving our first Y-Watches to these lovely mammals in the back!"

He moved through the crowd, until he reached the four. He pulled out a white box, and held it out in front of Judy. "Do you want this one, Madame?"

"Uh, sure?" Judy said, grabbing the box. Nick gave her a quick glare. "Hey, its free."

The antelope slid over to Max. "How about you, sir?"

"Sure, I love free stuff." Max said. The antelope pulled out another box, seemingly from nowhere, and plopped it into the wolf's paws.

"What about you two?" The antelope continued moving over to Nick and Emily. "This is a once in a lifetime deal, I doubt you'd want to miss out-"

"No thanks." Both of them said.

"Listen, you have no idea who you're talking to right now." Nick started, approaching the antelope, who backed away. "I can smell a scam a mile away, and this is the rottenest smell I've whiffed in a long while."

"Yeah, you don't seem particularly trustworthy." Emily added.

"Hm, fine!" The antelope said, sounding a bit angry. He moved back through the crowd, and leaped back up onto the pedestal. "Everyone else here that isn't a KILLJOY can line up to get their own Y-Watch from Neko, our new mascot!"

The mascot character jumped up and down cheerfully, waving at the crowd.

"And we're not limited either, we're giving them to anyone who comes to this parking lot! So, call your friends, your family, yell about it to random mammals on the street! Let them know about this amazing deal!" He continued to yell. "You can even get multiple, we don't care! Just GET THEM!"

The antelope clicked his heels together, before vanishing in a puff of purple smoke. The mascot stepped to the center, and held out two more of the boxes. The crowd proceeded to go wild, as the mascot started to throw them into the mob.

"I wonder how much storage this thing has." Max asked himself, shaking the box.

"I doubt that thing even works." Emily scoffed. "They wouldn't give them away if they were completely functional."

"Emily's right, it could be, I dunno, some kind of test run." Nick said.

"Seems like it works fine." Judy said, tapping at the watch on her left wrist.

The other three paused to look at her, each of them a bit confused by how she had gotten the watch on so quickly.

"Please, you're looking at me like I don't buy a ton of Carrot products." She said. "I know how these things work."

"Well, I should probably be heading back." Emily said. "I have some important business to attend to-"

"Hey, I know!" Nick blurted out. "How bout you come over to our place for a bit, and we can, I dunno, hang out?"

"Like I said, I have some important-"

"I think it would be fun!" Judy said, butting in. "You haven't gotten to catch up with Nick for years, and we've just sorted our lives out again, so…"

Emily paused for a moment, before letting out a half sigh, half chuckle. "Alright, I'll go along with you guys." She said. "But we have to pick up some food beforehand."

"Hey, wait a second…." Max said. "Did you two just-"

Nick gave a smug smirk to the wolf, who squinted at him in return.

"Ugh, this is HELL!"

The antelope stumbled into a back alley near the parking lot of the shopping center. "Kyuemon, you there?" He said. "I can't handle wearing this thing anymore!"

"Relax, I'm here."

He looked down the alleyway, seeing a yellow fox. He performed a quick motion with his hands, before pointing at the antelope. It exploded into a burst of purple smoke, which cleared to reveal Yabaiba, still wearing the ringmaster uniform.

"How can those guys handle having skin and fur!?" The jester monster asked, shaking the smoke away. "Especially in this kind of heat, I thought it was supposed to be fall!"

"They feed in different temperatures into the different sections all year round." Kyuemon explained. "The only place that gets natural weather is the central section. Antelopes aren't particularly meant for desert heat anyway."

"Well, then why'd you turn me into one!?"

"There was nothing else that fit you." Kyuemon said. "You needed to have something flexible."

"Fine, whatever." The clown said, crossing his arms. "Hopefully that show didn't go to waste, and this plan works."

"Did you manage to give the Zoorangers the watches?" Kyuemon asked.

"Yeah, but only two of them." He sighed. "I feel like not getting the fox might be a problem."

"It would be… If I didn't already plan on that." Kyuemon said. "Trust me, I'll make sure everything goes off without a hitch. All you and Nekomata have to do is make sure everyone in the city gets those Y-Watches."

"Alright, I got it." He said, brushing the fox off. "I'm guessing your plan involves looking like that?"

"Yes, yes it does."

"So, this is where you guys are living?" Emily chuckled as she sat down on the couch.

"Uh, yeah." Nick said, a bit embarrassed. "I know it's a bit… strange."

They were in Max's house.

For the last month, that was the only place they could go, since they had no money. Max owned the property, so they decided to stay there until had gathered up enough cash to buy a new apartment, even if it wasn't their old one.

"Nah, there's nothing strange about it, hombre." Emily said. "This is the kind of life we've lived, remember?"

"I get what you mean," The fox started, hopping up onto the couch. "But its just that I'm supposed to be a professional now, and I'm mooching off a friend."

"There's really no need to feel guilty about it." Judy said from the chair next to the couch. She was still staring and tapping at the watch, before she looked back up at them. "Friends are there to help when you're in trouble, remember?"

"Yeah, chin up, zorro." Emily said, bumping her elbow into the fox. "There's no reason to be ashamed of-"

"ALRIGHT I'M BACK!"

Max walked down the hall and into the living room, carrying a massive green plastic box. He was clearly having trouble with it as he stumbled back and forth a bit. He slammed it to the ground, shaking the room, and leaving the wolf panting on the floor.

"Uh, what is that?" Emily asked.

"It's…" Max attempted to climb up the box to get back on his feet, but quickly fell to the ground again, still out of breath. "…It's my Halloween box."

"Oh." Emily said, sounding a bit disgusted.

He finally got back up, still a bit out of breath. "Specifically, this is my box from the last two years."

"Uh, what exactly does that mean?" Judy asked.

"Do you have different decorations every year?" Nick asked as well.

"Well, duh, you can't just repeat the same thing every year." Max scoffed, like it was obvious. He lifted the lid of the box open, and tossed it off to the side. "It also has all of the costumes I've worn from the past two years, too."

"You mean, your Halloween costumes?" Emily asked, with a bit of a chuckle.

"No, just costumes." He said, pulling out a silver outfit. It was similar to his ZooSilver costume in build and coloring, but had a few differences that differentiated it. "This was what I wore to last years ZooCon, it's the Lunar Ranger from Zoo Rangers Wild Force."

"Uh huh." Judy said, a bit confused. "How much did you spend on that?"

"A lot." He said, quickly pulling out another costume, this one black. "This is Ranger Series Black from Zoo Rangers RPM, I wore this to the con before last year's."

"You're pretty into your… costumes, huh?" Emily said, stifling a laugh.

"And this is what I wore for Halloween." He said, pulling up a black robe and a wolf skull. "Check it out, the eyes on this one light up." Max quickly demonstrated, the eyeholes of the skull blinking orange. There was a bit of an awkward silence before they flashed off.

"The rest of the stuff in here is my decorations," He continued. "I haven't had a chance to decorate this year, because of all the things going on, you know."

"Wow, that's really…"

"Lame." Emily finished off for Nick. Max's ears drooped a bit upon hearing it.

"Seriously, Emily?" Nick said. The hyena had, unfortunately, said what both of them were thinking out loud. Emily had never been one to hide her emotions, unlike Nick.

"Well, it is." She continued. "Halloween itself is a waste of time."

"Oh my god…" Nick mumbled. "I know you don't like Halloween, but you don't have to be a jerk."

"It's alright." Max said, sullenly, putting the costumes back in the box. "I can tell when nobody wants to pay attention to me."

Nick shot Emily a glare, but she didn't seem to express any sort of guilt over the situation.

"Max, you should open your Y-Watch!" Judy suddenly blurted out, seemingly unaware of what had just happened. She glanced around. "Uh, did I miss something?"

Nick's tail twitched, how had she missed all that? Judy was usually incredibly alert, and missing a conversation like that wasn't really in her character.

"No, you didn't miss anything." Max said, grabbing the box off the TV stand behind him. "Guess this box is the only interesting thing I'll show off today."

"Stop being passive aggressive." Emily growled.

The wolf quickly unpacked the box, and took out the watch. It was a shiny, metallic white all over, with very little blemishes. The actual watch part of the Y-Watch was round, kind of like a normal watch, but slightly larger in order to fit the screen. He popped it onto his left wrist, and started to play with it.

"So, what can this thing even do?" Max asked Judy, not glancing up from the watch.

"It basically does everything." She said. "You can browse the internet, send texts, its even a phone."

"That's awfully… convenient." Nick said.

"Wait, don't your actual phones do all that stuff?" Emily asked, a bit confused.

"It's the shape, carrying it around on your wrist makes it more convenient." Judy explained.

"Oh wow, check this out!" Max said, quickly tapping at the screen. The watch started to play music, sounding like a rather generic "spooky" song. "It connects to my Y-Pod, so I can play my Halloween playlist wherever I go!"

"Wonderful." Emily scoffed.

"Why do you have a Halloween playlist?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"Because I like to listen to music while I work on stuff, it helps me concentrate." He explained. "Why not keep it seasonal, you know?"

The music continued to play, as Max suddenly became entranced with his new Y-Watch.

Nick placed his paw to his chin in thought. This was strange. He knew that Judy and Max were way more into the technology than he was, but they seemed to be remarkably into the Y-Watches, more than even their actual conversations.

Factoring that in with the strange, somewhat familiar salesman, and then giving them away entirely free, something weird had to be going on.

"I'm going to head out." He said, hopping down from the couch. There wasn't a response from Judy or Max, and he slowly walked out, seeing if they'd do anything.

Emily raised an eyebrow, and followed Nick out, leaving the wolf and rabbit to enjoy their new toys.

"Where do you think you're going?" Emily said, catching the fox on the sidewalk.

"Police station." He said. "This entire thing feels suspicious, I need to check if there's been anything up with the Carrot company."

"You're just going to walk all the way to the station?"

"It isn't THAT far." He said. The fox stopped, and turned to her. "Besides, we could, I dunno, talk on the way there?"

"Love to, zorro."

The two started to walk down the street, the station was only a few blocks away, it would be around twenty minutes in total to get there. It was oddly quiet, however, no cars coming down the street, nor that many mammals walking either.

"So, what have you been up to lately?" Nick asked the hyena.

"Been trying to adjust to… not being in prison." She admitted. "Herder managed to get Henry and I enough money for some cheap apartments, but it just feels weird."

"I know how that feels." Nick sighed. "It's difficult trying to go straight-edged after so many years."

Emily chuckled. "I don't know how Henry's been handling it, but… I wouldn't call my place that great, I'm basically surrounded on all sides by noise."

"Probably not the worst apartment I've heard about." Nick laughed. "Judy used to live in a place where the neighbours were so loud, they shook pictures off the walls."

"That sounds like hell." Emily said. "How long was she there?"

"Two and a half years."

"Yikes."

Nick's ears popped up after a moment of silence. He turned to face Emily, walking backwards in front of her. "Hey, it's almost November, do you still do-"

The fox was interrupted as something bumped into him, knocking him over. It was a wildebeest, who continued walking along, looking at something on his wrist.

"HEY!" Emily shouted. "PENDEJO! AT LEAST APOLOGIZE!"

He didn't seem to notice.

"Hell was that guy's problem?" Emily said as Nick got back up.

"He was looking at his watch." The fox said, dusting himself off.

"Oh, you can't be serious." She said.

"Alright, we need to keep an eye out." He started. "Look at the wrist of anyone we pass, check if they're wearing a Y-Watch."

Emily sighed, and then nodded. She was enjoying having a conversation with someone for once, but this seemed important to Nick, so she complied.

They continued to walk to the station, making sure to check anyone they had passed.

As they got closer to the station, it was near the middle of the city after all, the crowds of mammals started to get larger and larger. They passed by shops, checking into them through the windows to check what their current watch fashion statement was.

"So, everyone you checked had a watch?" Nick asked. They had arrived at the station, and decided to recap on what they had saw on the way there.

"Pretty much everyone I could see was wearing them." Emily said, shrugging.

"Everyone I saw was wearing them too." The fox noted. "I think everyone in the city besides us might have one."

"You know how stupid that sounds, right?" Emily said with a bit of a laugh. "There's probably some mammals out there who don't have them."

"On the way here, I saw a homeless skunk and a ninety-year-old elk wearing them." Nick noted. "I just feel like something weird is happening."

Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright, let's go check if your conspiracy theory has any merit."

The two walked into the station, and were instantly greeted by a few officers walking around, all of them tapping at the Y-Watches on their wrists.

"Oh, em, goodness!" Clawhauser said as they entered. "Hey Nick, hey, uh…"

"Emily." The hyena said.

"Emily, got it!" Clawhauser said. He quickly held up his wrist, the flab on his arm was being pressed down by a Y-Watch. "Have you guys SEEN these things!?"

"Yeah, we saw like, three-hundred of them on the way here." Nick said. "We need to check some stuff on the computers, is that alright!"

"Yeah, sure, I don't think anyone's in there right now anyway." Ben said. "If you guys want some of these watches, I could go and-"

"Yeah, thanks but no thanks, Ben." Nick quickly interrupted. He gave a wave, and the two headed into the computer room.

It was definitely empty; the rest of the officers were probably using their watches to check things on the internet rather than the desktops. It was more "convenient", as Judy had said.

"Why'd we have to come here to use the computers?" Emily finally asked as Nick climbed up onto a seat the reach to desktop. "Couldn't you just use your phone?"

"We have some things in records that you can't get to online." Nick said as he pulled the keyboard closer to him. "Financial records, history of the CEOs, that kind of stuff."

"You ever consider using this stuff for blackmailing?" Emily joked.

"Are you kidding?" He scoffed. "Judy would literally kill me if I did that."

The fox started to look through the computer's database, pulling up anything related to Carrot Inc. His search seemed to come up fruitless, with nothing particularly odd being noted by the files. At least, not in any recent capacity.

He then started to look online, and found a surprising article.

"Carrot Inc. founder Steve Maws Reveals Odd Marketing Strategy" it read. Nick raised an eyebrow, and clicked on it.

There wasn't anything incriminating, it was just an interview with the turtleneck wearing rabbit, published only a few hours ago. He talked about the new PR guy, the antelope from earlier, but didn't mention a name. he did oddly seem to praise the odd antelope a lot, however. Overall, a complete failure of an investigation.

The fox slumped back. "I swear there's something up." He said. "This has to be the monsters, they have to be doing… something."

"Yeah, when the company itself announces what they're doing, there's no way its illegal." Emily said, leaning on the chair. "I have no idea if its good for the company, but down with the establishment and all that."

"I know a scam when I see one." He continued, crossing his arms. "And this reeks."

"Have you considered that you might just be getting old?" Emily suggested.

"You're one to talk, you're like three years older than me." Nick scoffed.

"Yeah, and I'm the one who kept in shape, lanky." She mocked, elbowing him.

"I'm only just over thirty, I'm not that old."

"You don't have to deny it, it's a thing that happens." She said. "You're just not able to keep up with the kids."

The fox groaned, and quickly hopped down from the chair. "I'm going to head back home." He said. "You should probably head back too, there's only, what, four days before the start of November?"

"Yeah, and I got a lot of setting up to do." Emily said. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah." Nick said as the hyena left with a quick wave, which the fox returned. Nick placed his paw to his chin again. "Maybe tomorrow will shed some light on this…"

Nick walked into the house, and glanced into the living room. Max and Judy were there, but they were talking instead of just looking at their watches. There were also a lot of Halloween decorations littering the floor.

"Hey, I'm back." He said, walking in.

"Hey!" Judy greeted, hopping down from the couch. "Where did you and Emily go?"

"Oh, we just went… out."

Judy raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that," He said. "We just had some catch-up time."

The rabbit laughed. "I knew that's what you meant, slick." She said. "We were just worried something happened."

"Awfully considerate." He said. "Why aren't you guys on your watches?"

"Turns out they have a really short battery life." Max said. "Like, 2 hours, tops."

"So, Max started showing me his Halloween decorations." Judy followed up. "Some of these things are way too high-quality to be decorations."

"Yeah, that's the point." Max said with a chuckle. "It's about showing off and trying to scare kids. My house isn't even the most extravagant one on the block most of the time."

"Huh." Nick said, picking up a plastic bovine skull. It started to rattle in his hands, shocking him and causing him to drop it. The fox let out a nervous laugh as the other two giggled at him.

"So, you guys want to go see a movie tomorrow?" Max asked.

"Depends on the movie." Nick said, trying to avoid stepping on anything as he walked through the room.

"Well, it's kind of a tradition for me to go see a horror film before Halloween." He said, starting to twiddle his thumbs. "And I thought, since we're all together, we could all go."

"Sounds fine." Judy said. "There's worse things we could do on our break."

"Yeah, guess I'm fine with that." Nick said. He might not have liked Halloween that much, but horror films were a different story.

Besides, he really wanted to see how Judy would react to one.

A few hours passed, and it was starting to get late. The three headed to bed, Max going upstairs to his own room, while Nick and Judy headed down to the basement. As it turned out, the uncomfortable couch down there was also a futon, so they at least had somewhere to sleep.

Still wasn't very comfortable.

"Have I said that this just feels like we're back in Mr. Big's place yet?" Nick asked the rabbit, who was laid down next to him.

"Yes, you have." She responded. "Multiple times in fact."

"Well, I said it again." He continued, turning over on the mattress. He really wanted to talk about how awkward actually sharing a bed was, but couldn't bring himself to. Judy seemed to share the same sentiments from what he could tell.

"I know that this probably isn't the best bedtime discussion," She started, looking up at the ceiling. "But what do you think the monsters have been up to? I wouldn't think they'd just do nothing for a whole month after all that."

Nick really wanted to bring up the watches, which he still felt something off about, but he had no evidence that it was related to the monsters. He'd look like a conspiracy theorist, something he really didn't want to come across as in bed.

"Probably nothing." He eventually said. "They're probably just scared of us."

"Still doubting that." Judy said with a sigh. "Goodnight, Nick."

"Goodnight."

"Check it out, I'm ordering our movie tickets ON THE WATCH!" Max said.

"Fascinating." Nick groggily said, taking a sip of his coffee. Judy was also drinking her coffee, but was simultaneously playing with her Y-Watch as well. "You guys have waited all night to use these things again, huh?"

"Yep." The rabbit chipperly let out. It looked like she was checking her emails.

The fox let out a muffled noise of disapproval as he took another sip from his coffee.

"So, which movie are we going to today?" Judy asked Max. "I saw that there was a new Saw movie coming out, I hear those are passible."

"Not that one." Max replied. "It's a surprise."

"Well, when's the showing?" She asked. "I should be able to figure it out."

"Just after twelve, so in a few hours." Max said. "And its not at any big theater."

The two of them looked up at him, and then at each other. That certainly sounded… odd.

"I can tell you it will be a BLAST, though." Max said. He at least sounded optimistic about it.

There was a sudden buzzing noise. Judy looked at her watch, and tapped on it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Judy!" It was Clawhauser on the other side, the screen showing him sitting at the front desk. "You got a Y-Watch too?"

"Yeah, I did!" She replied.

"Aren't these things great!?"

"Yeah!"

"I'm talking to you, through my wrist, it's amazing!"

"Are you just calling to talk about your electronics, or do you have another reason?" Nick asked, grumpily.

"Oh, yeah, this is important!" Clawhauser said. "We got a report down at the ZRS station, there's a monster attacking down there! The SPD are already on their way there, but they'll probably need help."

The three were instantly alert. "Alright, we'll head out ASAP!" Judy said, putting on her leader tone.

"Oh, and I got that report through my Y-Watch!" Ben continued. Nick instantly slumped down a bit.

"Seriously?" Judy said, going back to a more casual tone. "That's amazing!"

"Alright, we can talk about this stuff when there isn't a monster!" Nick said, clapping his paws. That seemed to snap Judy out of her trance.

"Oh, right, yeah." She muttered. "She you later, Ben!"

The cheetah gave a quick wave with his other hand before hanging up. The three gave a nod, and quickly moved out.

"Geeerageragerapo!" The monster said as it fiddled with something on the roof of the radio station. The building wasn't that large, but it did have a large antenna on it, which is what the monster was playing with.

"Just gotta twist a wire here, nyudge a bit here and-" An electric shock quickly went through the monster's body, causing it to stumble back. "That oughta do it!" It sputtered, before leaping down.

As soon as it hit the ground, it noticed the massive armored truck, alongside two armored mammals, armed with guns.

"Hold it right there, you… Uh…" Pink said. She tried to aim her blasters at it while coming up with a quip, but nothing seemed to come out.

The monster looked like a feline, at least, that was the closest comparison they could make. It had a large, orange watch face embedded in its chest, underneath its brown, black, and white cat head. The watch itself was green on the inside, with a literal face inside of it, casting a scowl with hateful eyes and the watch's time, 10:30, clamped in its toothy jaws.

The teeth continued around the rim of the watch, up until an orange part of the watched that caved down into the face, making it look like it had angry eyebrows. Two large patches of fur overtook the monster's shoulders, movingto the watch's area, and bizarrely had teeth on them as well. The rest of the monster's body was cat-like and furred, but lead to more orange watches. The arms seemed to be more wrapped around the arms rather than attached to them, creating more of an armor like look.

The arms themselves came to an end with large, mechanical claws, controlled by the monster's paws inside the device. Its legs were a similar story, though the watch armor only seemed to cover the front of the legs, a unique orange fur coloring helping them blend in slightly. The feet, however, were entirely covered by armor similar to the ones on its hands. It had two tails, each pointing off in a different direction, and were entirely watches, with the monster's fur coloring creeping across part of it. The tails both ended with large watch connector points, the metal bars seeming to have been sharpened to a point.

"Geeeragerageragerapo!" The monster laughed, placing its claw next to its immobile cat mouth. "Its just you saps, I thought it would be the real Zoorangers!"

"We're just as effective of taking you down as they are." Green said, stepping forwards. Before they could continue, the sound of motorbikes quickly came from down the street.

The bike sounds headed into the parking lot of the small radio station. The Zoorangers quickly hopped off their motorbikes, and entered into the battle.

"You guys alright?" Blue asked as the three met with the SPD.

"We haven't even started fighting yet, so yeah, we're fine." Pink said. "But we'll be even better when we kick this guy's ass!"

Red took a quick glance at the monster. "Hey, have I seen you somewhere…?"

"WHAT!?" The monster shouted. "Nyo, why would you have seen me anywhere!? I just showed up, totally nyot part of an elaborate scheme, nyope!"

"Uh, alright." Silver said. "That sounds awfully suspici-"

"I AM YOKAI NEKOMATA!" It shouted, interrupting the wolf. "I am master of time, and the one to kill you meddlesome animals!"

The Zoorangers prepared for a fight, taking on a battle stance as Nekomata paused for a moment.

"But nyot right nyow!" It finally let out. "I have more important places to be-"

Blue quickly fired a volley of laser shots into the monster, causing it to stumble back. "No you don't!" She yelled. "If you think we're letting you get away, guess again!"

"Yeah, we're not going to let whatever you're up to happen!" Silver followed. "We protect this city for a reason!"

"Ugh, fine, you give me nyo choice!" Nekomata shouted, reorienting himself. "Prepare to face my feline fury!"

Fireballs burst from the tips of the Nekomata's tail, balancing on the point of the needle. He thrust his arms forward, causing a flurry of fireballs to fire from them, and towards Red, Blue, and Silver. Green quickly stepped in front of them, blocking the fireballs with his back.

"Whoa, nice save, Horns!" Red said, giving a thumbs-up.

The bull let out a grunt as he shook the pain off. He quickly spun around, and fired a blast at the feline monster.

The blast hit him directly in the clock on its chest, causing it to fly through the air and smack into the front wall of the radio station. "Just doing my job." Green said, though he was still obviously in some pain.

"Let's take this guy out before the clock hits twelve!" Blue said. The five of them rushed towards the monster as it got back up.

The Nekomata swung its claws forward, attempting to strike at Pink and Silver. Silver blocked the claws with his sword, while Pink held them back with her pistols. They quickly pushed the monster in, letting Blue and Red leap up and kick it in the chest, knocking it back down.

"Augh, I might nyeed some help!" The feline monster shouted as it rolled on its back for a moment. "Jukkarage, attack!"

The ground shook for a second, before a dozen of the stone monsters popped up from the ground, each holding a large blade and mumbling something. "Great, gonna play it that way." Red groaned.

"Oh man, now the fight's getting started!" Silver said. He started to fiddle with the watch on his wrist, before loud rock music started to play from it. "Now I can just play fight music really easily, and not just hum it in my head!"

Everyone there, monsters included, turned to look at the wolf.

"What, it's perfectly normal!"

They started to fight. Pink and Green rounded up a few of the Jukkarage, Pink shooting at their feet to corral them into a single spot, before Green fired a blast, destroying them. Despite this, more of the Jukkarage seemed to appear from nowhere and continue attacking them.

"These guys seem a lot more…" Blue paused, before leaping up and slashing at a Jukarage with her knife, before kicking it away. "More aggressive than normal."

Silver slashed through a few of them, before some more jumped him from behind, slashing at his back with their own blades. "yeah, and that just makes them more annoying!" he shouted, before spinning on his heel and slicing through them.

The monster got back up as the five continued to fight the Jukkarage. "Gerageragerapo!" It chuckled. "Nyow I can do this!" He eyed the fox, who was locked with the blade of a Jukkarage. "Out of the way, fun size!"

The feline monster dashed in, and knocked the Jukkrage away, taking the fox by surprise. He quickly brought a claw down, but Red managed to block it just in time.

"You think you can win, huh!?" The monster said, bringing another claw down onto his sword, causing Red to stumble back. "Well you can't, it's already too late for you and your friends! You don't even knyow you've lost!" He started to rapidly strike at the fox's sword, continuing to push him back.

"Sorry, but…" Red let out a grunt as the monster hit his sword again. "But I REALLY can't take you seriously with that speech impediment."

"HEY, I DIDN'T GET TO CHOOSE HOW I TALK!" The monster yelled before slamming both its claws down. The force of the strike slammed Red into the ground, and popped him up into the air, where Nekomata quickly punched him across the parking lot.

Red skidded across the ground, before stopping. He quickly got to his feet, and got back into the fight, leaping up and attempting to strike Nekomata with his blade.

The feline monster held its claws up, causing the blade to bounce off. Red tumbled back to the ground, and the monster raised its claws up. "Nyow, prepare to be-"

"'Scuse us!"

The monster turned around, seeing that it was now surrounded on al sides by the Zoorangers and the SPD. Blue gave a quick wave of her paw.

"What happened to all my-?"

"We destroyed them all." Pink said, rather bluntly.

"Oh."

He glanced around again. "Well, I didn't want to fight you guys anyway. I was hoping I was sneaky enyough to get everything done without being spotted, but I guess it couldn't be helped!" It said. "Besides, I already have everything set up here! Meow-meow!"

The monster waved its claw, before vanishing in a burst of familiar purple smoke, leaving the five coughing. "Ugh, can't believe that guy got away!" Emily said, her armor folding back into her belt. The rest of them untransformed as well, the fight music stopping.

"What was that he said about… everything being set-up?" Judy asked, a paw placed to her chin in thought. "Was he doing anything weird when we got here?"

"Didn't look like it." Henry said. "It looked like he was trying to destroy the antenna, but it doesn't seem like it worked."

"Strange… It didn't want to fight us, and it said it wanted to avoid being seen…" Judy continued to think for a moment. "What could it mean?"

Max let out a gasp, everyone turning to him. Did he have an answer?

"Oh gosh, we're going to be late for the movie!" He said, absolutely panicked.

"Max, we have more important things to do right now than go see a movie-"

The wolf quickly scooped the rabbit and fox up, and started to run off, leaving the hyena and bull behind.

"Idiots." Emily sighed. She glanced at Henry, who was fiddling with something on his wrist. "Hey, is that-"

"Yeah, it is." Henry said, bluntly.

"Seriously?" She said. "I thought you were smart enough to not fall for a scam."

"I have my reasons, Em, don't worry." He replied.

"Whatever." She let out, before storming off.

The feline monster stumbled into the mountain cave, a bit out of breath. "Master Kyuemon!" He shouted as he entered the base. "I did what you told me to do!"

"Excellent." Kyuemon said, stepping towards the yokai in his regular monstrous form. "Though I see you had a bit of interference."

"Those guys were nyo problem!" He said, still very clearly tired from the fight. "I could take them on a hundred times!"

"I doubt that." Kyuemon sighed. "But you did manage to plant it, correct?"

"Yep, it's directly connected to the antennya, the largest radio wave transmitter in the city!" Nekomata stated. "They didn't even knyow what I was up to!"

"Probably too busy looking at their watches, hm?" Kyuemon said with a slight laugh.

Nekomata laughed in response, before turning back to his master. "So, how's the plan going?" Nekomata asked. "You think we're almost done?"

"Very close to being done." Kyuemon said. "By my estimations, only around two hundred civilians don't have one of our Y-Watches yet. I've had Yabaiba go around delivering them by hand."

"Oooh, sounds exhausting." Nekomata chuckled. "Glad I'm nyot doing it!"

"Actually, it seems Yabaiba is getting a bit tired." Kyuemon said, turning to the table in the center of the base.

The two walked over, and watched as the flat surface shifted, revealing a scene of the city. Yabaiba, in his antelope form and still wearing the ringmaster outfit, was sitting on the ground next to a building, completely out of breath.

"I was hoping you could take over for the rest of this." Kyuemon explained.

"Great." Nekomata said, sarcastically. "Do you knyow how difficult it is to move in that mascot form? It's awful!"

Kyuemon glanced at the yokai, shooting him a steely, yellow glare.

"N-nyot saying I won't!" The Nekomata stuttered. "I'll get on it right away, just poof me in!"

The fox yokai performed a quick series of hand motions, causing Nekomata to disappear in a puff of purple smoke. In his place was Yabaiba, back in his monster form, but still wearing the ringmaster outfit.

"Ugh, I can't feel my legs…" He groaned as he got up. "Feels nice to be back to having normal knees, though!"

Kyuemon looked the Org up and down. "You know you don't have to wear that outfit anymore, correct?"

"I like wearing it." Yabaiba said, tugging at the red jacket. "It makes me feel like I have control!"

"Mm, of course you'd wear it because of something like that." Kyuemon sighed.

Nick, Judy, and Max had just finished watching "Paws of Fate".

Supposedly, it was a horror film, but the only horror the fox and rabbit had found in it was how horrifyingly terrible it was. Bad acting, a confusing plot, and the first twenty minutes consisting of nothing but a car driving in the ugliest quality possible.

Somehow, Nick and Judy seemed to be the only ones there that didn't enjoy it.

It was located at a much smaller theater, located in the slums of Tundra Town. It was still decorated for Halloween, and it was clear whoever the management was had a love for films in general, as the place was lined with old posters.

It wasn't packed, but there were a good number of mammals there (There were more there than some movies Judy had taken Nick to see), and everyone, including Max seemed to be laughing and having a good time.

"Oh man, wasn't that amazing?" Max said as they exited the theater, alongside the rest of the theater goers. "I really liked the part where the goat with the weird knees showed up."

"Did we watch the same movie?" Judy asked. "Because that was absolutely terrible."

"I agree, probably the worst movie I've ever seen." Nick said as he munched on some popcorn.

"Well, that was kind of the point!" Max said with a laugh. "The guy who runs that theater plays a different bad horror film every year, and I've been to every one of them."

"Well, that's good, but why did you take us along?" Judy asked.

"To help you find your-"

"Our Halloween spirits?" Nick finished, dryly. "Listen, Wolfsbane," He said, dropping the popcorn bag and walking over to the wolf. "It's really… admirable that you're trying to get us into the spirit, but sometimes you can't get others to see your way."

"I just want you guys to enjoy something I like…" He muttered.

"Don't get all passive aggressive on us." Nick said, rather rudely.

"Nick, just stop," Judy said, stepping between the two. Max's ears perked up. "You stop too, Max. Nick was incredibly rude about it, but he's right. We just don't like Halloween."

"I get it." Max said as his ears drooped, and he put his paws in his hoodie's pockets.

"We have more important things to worry about, like the monster." Judy said.

"Hey, uh," Nick paused for a minute. Hopefully this didn't come off weird. "I'm not the only one who thinks it's a bit odd that a watch monster showed up as soon as a new watch caught on, right?"

"That's a good point, Nick." Judy said. The fox swelled for a moment. Would she figure out there might be something connecting the two? There was some actual, albeit tangential, connection between the two now, so she could maybe…

"He was probably created from one of the Y-Watches!" Max said.

Nick's ears fell once he heard this.

"Right!" Judy followed. "They probably stole one, and used it to create that Nekomata monster!"

"Now we just have to figure out what its doing!" Max continued, as Nick quickly facepawed.

Judy's watch began to ring again. This was just the "Annoy Nick Hour", wasn't it? She quickly answered, Clawhauser showing up on the screen.

"We got another report!" He shouted. "Its in Tundra Town, the monster from earlier and, uh…" The watch's camera quickly flicked away from Clawhauser's face, showing the inside of the front desk. "Yabayba?" He finished, the watch focusing back on his face.

"Yabaiba." Judy corrected. "I know it's difficult to pronounce, most of their names are. Are the SPD on the way?"

"Actually, we're not sending the SPD in, just you guys!" He said. "We got the call from an anonymous source, and said that the two monsters were preparing something! Apparently, he got in close and they didn't see them! That's why Bogo just wants you guys to go, it's like a stealth mission."

"Alright, we'll head over there right away." Judy said.

"Oh, one more thing!" The cheetah said, just before she could hang up. "I got that message by a Y-Watch too!"

"Technology is truly amazing." Nick said, completely dry.

The three quickly rushed off.

"Okay, we don't need to transform for this." Judy whispered. Nick and Max nodded in response.

The three of them had entered the slums of Tundra Town. The coordinates Clawhauser had sent lead them right to a particularly shady alleyway.

They duck down, entering more stealthy stances as they silently moved through the snow and down the alleyway. The alleyway lead to a building at the back, though there were cracks in the side that lead to a snowy area between the buildings.

That was where Yabaiba and Nekomata were. The two seemed to be talking about something.

The three pressed themselves against the wall, and leaned in to the small passage, without being seen, to listen closely to their discussion.

"So, I actually think that KitKat are the best chocolate bars." Yabaiba said.

"Pssh, of course you'd think that!" Nekomata mocked. "Only fools like KitKats, and you're the biggest fool I've ever seen!"

"Well, what kind of chocolate bar do YOU like, fleabag?" Yabaiba retorted.

"I prefer a classic Twix bar, I'll have you know."

"Riveting discussion." Nick quietly mocked. Judy proceeded to shush him.

There was silence for a moment. "Alright, I guess we should talk about the important things." Yabaiba quickly said.

"Are you saying this chocolate bar discussion ISN'T important!?"

"You know, we have to talk about… 'the plan'."

"Oh, right."

"Finally, we'll figure out what they're doing!" Judy excitedly whispered.

"It's a good thing those Zoorangers didn't botch 'the plan' when they attacked me!" Nekomata said. "Or else 'the plan' could have been completely ruined!"

"Too bad they can't stop us!" Yabaiba followed. "If they wanted to foil 'the plan', they'd have to come to our secret base!"

"You mean, the one in THE MOUNTAIN?" Nekomata added on, sounding a bit oddly stilted.

"No, our super secret hidden base in the city!" Yabaiba said. "The one we spent all month building!"

The three Zoorangers locked their eyes together. That's why nothing had happened, they were planning some kind of invasion!

"We should probably head there now!" Nekomata said, still a bit stilted.

"Right, off we go!"

There was a poofing sound, the same that had happened when Nekomata had disappeared before. The three Zoorangers stepped away from the wall, Judy quickly checking to see if they had gone. The small area had been completely vacated.

"This is big!" Judy said, starting to pace around. "They're planning something, and we have to find this base before they can pull it off!"

"Problem is that we don't know where the base is." Nick added. "We'd basically have to check the entire city."

"Why don't we split up?" Max suggested.

"Isn't splitting up always the worst thing to do?" Nick asked.

"That's only in horror films."

"Max is right," Judy quickly said. "If the three of us split up, and Henry and Emily take downtown, we can cover the whole city."

"Wow, I actually had a good idea." Max said, still acting a bit passive aggressive. Nick squinted at him.

"Max, you take Tundra Town, Nick, you take Sahara Square, and I'll take Savannah Central." Judy ordered. "I'll call up the SPD and tell them to start looking downtown, got it?"

The two nodded, and quickly transformed. Max leaped off, while Nick summoned his bike, riding it off. Judy ran off without transforming, quickly dialing something on her watch.

"Geragerageragerapo!"

Yabaiba and Nekomata stepped out of the alleyway. "Good job with the smoke effects." Yabaiba said to an unseen third party.

"My pleasure." It was Kyuemon. The Zoorangers hadn't managed to see him due to the angle of the building. "Everything's been going exactly according to plan."

"Yeah!" Nekomata said. "After you sent in that distress call, they came running!"

"And they actually believed that secret base baloney!" Yabaiba laughed. "They'll be looking for it all day, and they won't come up with anything!"

"Except for exhaustion!" Nekomata followed, the two of them both laughing.

"And meanwhile, we only have one thing left to do." Kyuemon continued. "You two better prepare for tonight. We have a spectacular Halloween party coming."

"So, you guys couldn't find anything either?" Judy tiredly asked into her watch.

"Nope." Emily said on the other side, talking through her phone. She, similarly, sounded exhausted.

They had spent all day trying to figure out where that hidden base was. The five of them had managed to search the entirety of the four main districts of the city, searching every nook and cranny they could possibly find something in, but still nothing came up.

"Did you check, uh, the fountain?" Judy said as she fell down on Max's couch, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, we did." Emily responded. "Listen, Hopps, I think you might've been tricked."

"The only place where a hidden base could be would be under the city," Henry said into Emily's phone, a bit muffled. "And you three already dealt with a hidden base under the city."

"But why would they make us look for a fake base?" Judy moaned.

"Probably to tire us out." Nick said. The fox was equally tired, and planted on the couch, right next to Judy. Max was on the chair next to the couch, half asleep.

"But they have to have a reason, right?" She said. "To distract us from something?"

"Probably, but what would their plan even be?" Emily asked.

"Something involving the watches", Nick wanted to say, but stopped himself.

Judy let out a prolonged, loud sigh, waking Max back up. "We'll just have to figure it out tomorrow." She groaned. "I can barely even think, I'm so tired."

"We are too." Emily said.

"I'm not."

"Well, you have more stamina than an elephant, Horns." Emily chuckled. "Henry's just driving me home, you guys should probably get some rest."

"Yeah." Judy said. "See you guys tomorrow." She quickly hung up, her arm dropping to the side of the couch. "Even fi there's no monster stuff, tomorrow, it's still going to be busy."

Max's ears perked up.

"Yeah, gotta keep the streets safe for those kids trick or treating." Nick said.

"Oh, so you're still not going to the party?" Max said, a bit upset.

"Sorry, Max, we just… don't want to." Judy said, rather bluntly.

"I get it." Max said, getting up from the chair. "If you guys change your minds, though… just come talk to me."

He gave a quick wave, and somberly headed up to his bedroom.

"He does know it's only seven, right?" Nick asked. Judy scoffed in response.

"We're all tired, and we should probably go to sleep too." Judy continued. "Well, I should at least, I know you nocturnal types are weird about it."

She quickly hopped off the couch, and headed towards the basement door. Nick watched as she walked down it.

"Looks like I got the place to myself." Nick said, a bit smugly.

He paused for a second, and instantly passed out, head plopping against the couch as he started to snore.

"Ohhhh, MAN!" Yabaiba let out. He was dancing around the mountain base, absolutely excited about the real plan. "I haven't felt this excited about doing an evil scheme since… the one with the turbine!"

"What the heck are you guys doing?" Bellwether asked from inside her cage.

"We're using your plan, sheep." Kyuemon said. "And I must say, it is going rather well."

"Well, it isn't really MY plan," She said, modestly. "You guys are the ones who filled in the details."

"Yeah, look at us!" Yabaiba said, wrapping his arm around Kyuemon's shoulder. "A real team effort, huh?"

"Get away from me." Kyuemon said, pushing the Org away.

"So, what exactly ARE the details of your plan, anyway?" Bellwether asked, curiously.

"We gave free, hi-tech watches out to everyone in the city!" Yabaiba started. "And in a few hours, all of 'em are gonna be turned into brainless zombies!"

"I don't entirely see the connection between the watches and the zombies." The sheep admitted. "How did you guys even get the watches?"

"I went in and brainwashed the CEO and founder of the Carrot Inc. corporation," Kyuemon started. "Allowing Yabaiba and Nekomata to go undercover and deliver the watches to everyone in the city."

"We got Yogostein to modify them a bit." Yabaiba added.

"They now react to special Yokai energy called 'yo-ki', which festers the world in extreme amounts every Halloween." Kyuemon continued.

"And we're going to get Nekomata here to channel that into a device we planted on this antenna," Yabaiba followed. "Sending it across the city, which will cause the watches to transform into zombifying parasites!"

"That's… pretty elaborate." Bellwether admitted. Arguably, it was more elaborate than her scheme, which was already stupidly elaborate.

"Wait, how do you expect me to channel yo-ki?" Nekomata asked. "I'm nyot exactly the best at channeling that kind of power!"

Kyuemon silently held up a Chaos badge, and quickly tossed it at the monster. It impaled the glass on his chest, causing him to begin transforming.

The transformation was simple, and spread across Nekomata's body in a flash. The glass quickly fixed itself as the badges was absorbed into Nekomata's body. The face in the watch changed, becoming red and its already angry face becoming even angrier looking, its eyes becoming beadier, the faux-eyebrows tilting more, and the mouth clamping down on the time signature even more. The Chaos Symbol was positioned directly above its brow.

The monster's fur quickly changed, becoming different shades of black and grey, and eyes glowing red. The watch pieces changed color as well, turning purple. A blue cape suddenly sprouted from his neck, hanging over his left arm. The feline yokai then started to hover slightly above the ground.

Surprisingly, those were the only changes that seemed to be visible.

"I am nyo longer Nekomata…" It said. Its voice had changed from a bit of a screechier one, to a deeper, more serious sounding tone, though it still seemed to be the same voice. "I am… DARK NEKOMATA!" The monster flicked its cape as it finished

"Actually, I think it's supposed to be 'Chaos Nekomata'." Yabaiba corrected.

"Dark Nekomata sounds cooler." The monster claimed. "Is it time to complete our plan, Master Kyuemon?"

"Indeed." He said. Kyuemon performed some hand motions, before Dark Nekomata disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The cat monster suddenly reappeared on top of a roof. The roof of the radio station he had attacked earlier, to be exact. It was early morning at the latest, the sky somewhat grey as the sun just began to peek out from the horizon. He spotted the antenna.

A small object had been embedded in it, a disc resembling the face on his previous form's chest. The monster thrust his claws towards it, shooting out a beam of energy into the small disc. The energy seemed to be absorbed into it, and rose up through the antenna.

Suddenly, the antenna began to glow an eerie purple, before beginning to spin around. Visible waves began to fire from the antenna, purple rings of energy that rose up into the air, and spread across the city. Impossibly, the sky instantly shifted back to night as this happened.

The rings encircled the entirety of the city. Not a single life form there would be safe.

Nekomata let out a laugh as he prepared to watch the chaos unfold.

A loud bump shocked the fox from his sleep. He pushed himself up, and looked around. "Great, I fell asleep on the couch again." He mumbled groggily to himself as he sat up.

He looked over at the hall, right by the entrance to the basement. Judy was standing there, back to him, her head rocking back and forth. She was wearing her casual clothes, since none of them managed to change before going to sleep it looked like.

"Hey, Carrots!" He said, quickly hopping down from the couch. "You hear that weird noise too?"

No response.

He paused, shook it off, and started to walk to her. "I don't think it was anything, but if you need Slick Nick to be there for you, I can come downstairs and sleep there." He said, sounding a bit smug, and sincere at the same time.

He placed a paw on her shoulder.

"You're not usually that quiet when I make a quip like that." He said, a bit nervous. "You're… not usually this quiet at all."

Everything fell still for a moment. The rabbit's head started to jerk, unnaturally, before beginning to twist to face him.

He let go of her and started to back off as she turned around completely. Her eyes were completely purple. Not like her usual, pretty violet, but entirely a malicious looking dark, glowing purple that lit up in the darkness. Her jaw was hung open as well.

She still stood there, silently, head jerking every few moments.

"J-Judy?" He said, stepping forwards and raising a paw to her face.

She quickly let out a horrific sounding growl, snapping into a feral position. It sounded like her own voice, mixed with the sound of someone choking to death. The sudden change shocked Nick, causing him to fall to the ground.

She started to crawl across the ground on all fours towards him, still growling, as he quickly skidded across the floor himself. He scrambled to his feet before she jumped at him, managing to barely dodge out of the way.

"What the hell's going on!?" He shouted, running to the other side of the room. The rabbit quickly turned around, and started to crawl towards him again.

He rushed into the hall, and up the stairs. Maybe Max could help figure out what the hell had happened to her. He liked horror films, and her certainly felt like he was in one right now!

That idea was quickly dashed as he reached the top of the stairs, immediately spotting the wolf slowly shuffling down the hall. He had the glowing eyes as well, and the same horrific sounding growl.

The fox glanced back down the stairs. Judy was crawling up the stairs, and the wolf was slowly approaching him.

"Really don't want to know what happens when you guys bite me." He said, before slamming the button on his Zoolizer, transforming into ZooRed.

He looked down the stairs, and then quickly managed to leap down, jumping directly over the rabbit. He needed to get out of here, find some actual help to figure out what had happened to his friends. He rushed to the door before the zombified versions of his friends could react from the jump, and jumped up, managing to pull it open.

The fox froze in terror.

There were dozens, or hundreds, of mammals walking around, all in a zombie-like state, with the glowing eyes of his friends. What the hell was going on? Did he sleep through a zombie outbreak or something?

There was a groaning noise behind him.

He spun around, and stepped out of the way as the zombie rabbit leaped through the door and into the yard. He quickly slammed it shut, and locked it, before ducking out of the way again as the wolf lunged at him.

The zombified Max slammed into the door head-first, as Red quickly stepped back out of the way. He rose up nearly instantaneously, seemingly not affected by the head injury.

"Whoa, Max, hold it!" Red said, the wolf slowly approaching him. "Try to snap out of it!"

The wolf unsheathed his claws, before swing both his paws down, jabbing into the floor and just barely missing the fox. In that brief moment, Red managed to catch something on the wolf's arm.

It looked like the Y-Watch, but instead of looking like a normal device, it had transformed into something distressingly organic… and somewhat familiar.

The watch had a bulging green face instead of the screen, matching that of Nekomata's. The wrist strap of the watch had grown veins, and rows of teeth were coming out of them, each of them biting into the wolf's flesh.

"Okay, definitely not going to listen." Red muttered as he ran back into the living room. His suspicions seemed to have been correct, the watches WERE part of an evil plan. An evil zombifying plan that he needed to stop.

The obvious solution was to tear the watch off of him… but the teeth were biting in very deep by the brief look he had got. He wouldn't be able to tear it off without causing major bodily harm, and he really did not want to do that.

He looked around. There had to be some way to stop the zombie without hurting his friend, right?

"Maybe I just need to try harder." He muttered again. He ran up to the TV stand and grabbed a box resting on top of it. He turned back to the wolf, and waved the box. "Hey, remember these? You love video games!"

The wolf just growled in response and shuffled closer.

"Hohkay, not doing the trick." Red said, quickly flicking the box away. Hopefully there wasn't actually a disc in it.

What else could he use…

"Remember your favorite TV show, Max?" He asked, jumping out of the way again as the wolf attempted to bite him. "Zoo Rangers! It helped you become an officer!"

Still nothing.

The wolf quickly spun around, kicking Red in the stomach and launching him into the couch, which tilted with the impact.

"Ugh, guess talking won't help!" The fox muttered, shaking his head. He needed something to get Max's mind straight. Suddenly, something clicked.

Max had said something like that the other day, right? Something that helped him concentrate.

Music! That was it!

Red glanced at the coffee table, his phone was sitting right there. And the wolf was slowly approaching. He grabbed it, and opened the music app. Before he could do anything, he leaped off the couch as Max jumped at it, fully knocking the seating over.

The fox was about to press play on the first song in his selection, but paused. What if Max didn't respond to his music? Maybe he needed to try something more suited to the wolf.

He fumbled a bit to open the web browser, and quickly typed in "good Halloween music" into the search, keeping an eye as the zombie wolf climbed over the couch. He hit the first result, from a kid's movie, and a spooky tune started to play.

The wolf approached, but then suddenly stopped, making a loud groaning noise. The watch trapped to his wrist started to spark, before the face of it exploded. The watch let go of Max's arm, and dropped to the ground.

Max stumbled forward, and shook his head. "What…? Where…?"

"Oh thank god that worked." Nick said, untransforming. "You alright there, Wolfsbane?"

"Why am I downstairs?" Max asked. "Why does my arm hurt?" He continued, rubbing where the watch had been biting him. He glanced down to see the smoking remains of his watch. "Why is my Y-Watch destroyed, and why does it have teeth?"

"SO!" Nick said, clapping his paws. "I had a suspicion that those watches were actually part of an evil plan, and I was right."

Nick cautiously tapped the watch with his phone, it not seeming to react. He quickly grabbed it, and showed it to Max in full. "This thing was biting onto your arm, and turned you into a violent… zombie, for lack of a better word."

"Seriously?" Max said in utter disbelief as Nick dropped the watch back to the ground.

"I managed to free you by playing some Halloween music." The fox followed. "Seems like it worked!"

"Well, that's good." Max said.

"I know, right?" Nick said with a chuckle. "Judy was under the control of it too… and I think the entire city is, as well."

"Are we seriously in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?" Max asked, both a bit freaked out and excited. "On Halloween day?"

"Looks like the spooky dice rolled in your favor." Nick said, quickly checking his phone. "We're celebrating Halloween after all."

"I'd rather not celebrate it like this."

Nick paused for a moment. "My phone says its seven AM, but its still pitch black out."

"That's definitely not normal." Max replied. He thought for a second. "Wait, so, if all this is a monster plan, then it has to do with Nekomata… which means…"

"It has something to do with the radio station he attacked." Nick said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "We should get Judy back to normal and…"

The fox paused. He had forgotten about Judy. He quickly slapped himself in the face.

"What's wrong?" Max asked. "Oh no, do you not know where Judy went?"

"She jumped out the door." He groaned. "She could be anywhere in the city, and I don't think we have enough time to go looking for her."

"Well, we should head out anyway." Max said. "Not much else we can do other than try and stop this."

Nick nodded, and the quickly rushed out of the house and into the zombie infested streets.

The two hid behind a dumpster in an alleyway. They had been running from the zombies for around an hour at this point.

They couldn't hurt them, since they were still just civilians being controlled… but they were still trying to attack them. The best they could do was try and sneak around them.

"I don't know if we can make it." Max whispered. "They'll tear us to shreds, and there's nothing we can do."

"I know, this is probably the most effective plan these monsters have had." Nick admitted. It was a pretty airtight strategy, and limited what they could do.

The radio station was in the business district, which was only a few blocks away, but it would still take them a long time if they kept at this pace. A horde of zombies was shuffling down the road to the place. If they ran in, they'd be attacked instantly, and who knows if they'd survive.

"Hang on, let me try something." Max said, quickly sneaking out from the dumpster.

"The hell are you doing!?" The fox angrily whispered at him. "You're gonna get killed!"

"No, trust me, I saw this in a movie." He said. The wolf cleared his throat, and then stuck his arms out, slowly shuffling forwards while groaning.

He was pretending to be a zombie.

"That isn't going to work!" Nick whisper yelled.

Max didn't answer, and quickly shuffled into the crowd of zombies. Somehow, it seemed to be actually working. The zombies didn't seem to pay attention to the slowly shuffling wolf, and continued on their brainless way.

"You have to be kidding me." Nick grumbled.

He got out from behind the dumpster as well, and began to imitate Max's movements, shuffling forward and groaning. He couldn't believe it was actually working as he shuffled past a zombified wildebeest. The two began to slowly shuffle down the street, working their way through the zombies and to the business district.

After what felt like a distressingly long time, they had made it. Nick's legs were starting to get tired, shuffling was a really hard thing for his muscles to actually pull off.

The two of them glanced at the end of the street, where the radio station was. It was glowing with an odd purple color, while the antenna spun around rapidly, shooting rings of purple energy into the air. A large number of zombies seemed to have flocked to it, as there were more on the street than there were elsewhere.

How much longer was he going to have to do this? Hopefully not much longer. All they needed to do was get close to the station, and charge in.

Before that plan of action could go into motion, Nick spotted something in another alleyway, between a convenience store and some kind of kitschy art store, both of which looked recently abandoned. There was a yellow fox there, who subtly waved his paw at him.

It was Kyle! He was alright, and wanted them to come over!

Nick quickly turned his shuffle to Max, bumping into his legs. The wolf glanced down, as the fox nudged his head over to the alley. Max nodded, and the two slowly shuffled over, before quickly ducking back into the alley.

"Oh thank god." Nick moaned, clutching his throat. "My throat hurts from all that groaning."

"I'm really glad you guys are alright!" Kyle said, leading them back into the alley some more.

"We're glad you're alright too." Nick replied.

"Well, we're mostly glad we're not the only ones in the city who aren't zombies." Max followed. For once, Nick got to elbow someone for being rude.

"Yeah, when I woke up, the whole city was covered in these zombie things." Kyle explained. "I tried to check out what was going on, but they chased me all the way here."

"So, you've just been hiding in an alley?" Max asked.

"Nope, I've been hiding in this convenience store." The yellow fox replied, pointing over his shoulder to a back door. "Zombies don't know how to use doors, apparently."

"That's definitely some good news." Nick sighed in relief.

The three quickly went through the back door, Max pulling it open for the smaller mammals to go through first. The place didn't seem like it was abandoned, it actually looked like it had just been closed up like normal.

"So, the zombies can't get us in here?" Max asked, a bit skeptical. "Usually zombies are great at busting things down to get to brains."

"These aren't actually zombies, Max." Nick stated. "They're just being brainwashed. They'll probably only attack us if they actually see us."

"Yeah, and we should probably be fine in here for the next few months!" Kyle said. "This place is stocked with food!"

"Yeah, we're not living in a convenience store for the rest of our lives." Nick stated. "All the trouble is coming from that radio station, and we're going to go stop it?"

"'We're'?" Kyle said, sounding a bit hopeful.

"Max and I." Nick followed up. "Its too dangerous for someone like you."

"Oh." The fox muttered, a bit upset. "But I don't think you'll be able to make it."

Max's ears raised.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"Well, there's… these blue guys stationed outside." He explained. "If you get spotted, something bad would probably happen."

"And how do you know that?" Max asked, skeptical.

"Uh…" Kyle paused for a moment. "It just kind of seems obvious."

"He's right." Nick said. "The guards will probably alert the monster, who will attack us when we're surrounded by guards AND zombies." The fox glanced up at the wolf, giving him a condescending look. "Why are you being so rude, Max?"

The wolf was suspicious about this fox. He had a smell on him that sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"No reason." Max said. "If what he's saying is right, we'll need a plan to break in."

"I think I have a plan, but we'll need more than two of us here." Nick said, starting to pace around. "But we might be the only ones left that aren't… Hey, wait a second!"

The fox quickly pulled out his phone, and dialed a number.

"Hello?" Emily said over the phone.

"Hey, Em!" Nick greeted. "We're kind of in the middle of a crisis here, and we need you!"

"You mean the zombie crisis?" She said.

"Yeah, you know about it?"

"I got woken up by my neighbours trying to break through their doors, of course I know about it." She said. "You got an answer for this? Hopefully you have a reason why its pitch black at nine AM, too."

"I was right, the watches were part of an evil scheme." Nick said. "Turns out they're mindcontrol devices that turned everyone wearing them into zombies, including Max and Judy. I manage dto get Max to snap out of it somehow, but we lost Judy. I'd say, 'I told you so' but I really wish I was wrong right now!"

"Alright, so where do you need me?" She asked.

"By the radio station, that's where all the trouble's coming from." The fox stated. "We're in an abandoned convenience store, and we need you here ASAP!" He paused for a moment. "Just try not to hurt anyone on your way here, alright?"

"Can't promise that." Emily said, before the sound of a zombie growling could be heard. There was a loud thwack, and then a thud. "Already failed your request, zorro."

"Alright, just don't kill anyone, kay?" He said with a sigh, before hanging up. "So, we probably have a bit of time before she gets here, what do you guys want to do?"

"How about we try to find something edible in this place?" Max said, sifting through some of the racks. "We both missed breakfast, we should probably keep our energy up."

"Good thinking, Max." Nick said.

"I, uh, have to use the bathroom." Kyle said, before dashing off to the back of the store. He entered the bathroom, and slammed the door shut.

The fox started to make several quick motions with his hands, before a dark rift of energy burst in front of him. It opened to reveal Yabaiba. "Hey, Kyu, how's everything going?"

"Worse than it could be." Kyuemon whisper growled. "It turns out that the Y-Watches have some weakness we're not aware of, and now two of the Zoorangers and one of their new members aren't being mind controlled."

"Aw, that sucks!" Yabaiba said, sounding a bit sad. "I really wanted this plan to go off without a hitch!"

"Don't worry, I should be able to work something out." Kyuemon said, before sighing. "Hopefully, that is."

"Well, keep at it!" Yabaiba said, giving a thumbs-up. "Don't want a month's worth of planning to go to waste!"

An hour later, the three trapped mammals were still waiting for Emily to show up. "When do you think she's going to get here?" Max asked as he leaned up against a rack.

"I dunno, she doesn't live that far away from here." Nick groaned in response, leaning up against a freezer. "I think she's in Savannah Central, but I guess the zombies have been slowing her down."

There was a sudden crashing noise outside, sparking all three of them into an alert. "What was that?" Kyle asked, running up from the back of the store.

"Hopefully not trouble." Nick said.

While the lights of the convenience store had been switched on, it was pitch black outside. A figure started to move towards the door, masked in shadow. The three braced themselves for an attack.

"Hey, lemme in!"

It was Emily, she was pounding at the glass door. "This thing's locked, y'know!"

"Oh, right!" Nick said. He quickly pulled out a pin, and jumped up, sliding it into the door's keyhole, and unlocking it.

"Sorry for taking so long, the commute was brutal." The hyena joked as she entered the store. "Nice hideout." She glanced down at Kyle, who gave a quick wave. "Who's your friend?"

"Kyle, he's kind of our 'superfan'." Nick said as he slammed the door back shut, locking it before any zombies could get in. He sighed in relief, and walked towards the three others. "Alright, for the last hour, I've been trying to come up with a plan."

"Never a good sign." The hyena continued to joke.

"Not the time, Em." Nick groaned.

"Just trying to lighten the mood."

"I think I've worked something out." He said, starting to pace. "It's not as good as something Judy would come up with, but I think it should work."

"Lay it on us!" Kyle said, enthusiastically.

"So, the first part of the plan…" He paused, and took a deep breath. "Emily, Max, I need you to work together and distract the guards in front of the station. While they're distracted, I'll sneak into the station, and destroy the antenna. After everyone is freed, we'll take down Nekomata."

"Sounds good." Max said.

"Do I really have to work with Mr. Pumpkin Spice over here?" Emily groaned. Max quickly shot her a glare.

"Oh my god, Em, we don't have time for this." Nick said, starting to get frustrated. "Just follow the plan, and we can get to fighting afterwards."

"Hey, what about me?" Kyle asked. "Don't… don't I get to do anything?"

"No, you don't." Nick said, starting to sound much more frustrated than he had moments before. "You're not a super hero, Kyle, you'll just get hurt."

The fox's ears drooped as he backed off.

Nicks hook his head, and turned back to Emily and Max. "Alright, you two got it?" He asked. "Gonna work together for a bit so we can actually deal with this?"

"Yep."

"Yeah…"

"Alright, let's go."

The three quickly transformed, and headed out the door of the store, leaving Kyle behind. The fox started to laugh.

"Idiots." He said to himself. "You've just made this so easy."

He performed several quick motions with his paws, before disappearing in a burst of dark energy.

He reappeared on the roof of the radio station. "Whoa!" Dark Nekomata said, quickly slipping back into his old voice for a moment. "Master Kyuemon, what are you-?"

"The Zoorangers have a plan, and we're going to stop it." He said, interrupting the feline monster. "One of them is trying to sneak through the front door during a distraction."

"Hah, those three will be running to their deaths!" Dark Nekomata laughed, before falling silent for a moment. "How are we going to stop them?"

"You leave that to me." Kyuemon said. "I'll set everything up, I just need you to do one thing."

"And that is…?"

"Find the rabbit, and bring her here."

Nekomata gave a salute, before flying off.

"Alright, so here's what we do." Red quickly started as they ran down the street, avoiding zombies that were prepared to attack them. "I'll duck out of the way for a bit, and you guys distract the front guards, that should draw the others out and let me make a run for it."

"Got it." The two said.

The fox quickly dashed to the side, and stayed behind the two. The zombies were focusing more on them, and the general chaos would let him get in without being spotted.

The radio station came into view. There were around six Jukkarage out front, acting as guards. Pink and Silver could handle that small of an amount no problem.

He quickly ran to the side of a building, as Pink and Silver ran towards the end of the cul-de-sac that the radio station had created.

"Hey, el cargazón!" Pink shouted as her and Silver leaped into the parking lot of the station. Pink fired her blasters at one of the Jukkarage, causing it to explode.

They landed, attracting the other five, who drew their blades and started to stomp towards them. Silver drew his blade, and rushed in, locking blades with one. Pink moved in as well, quickly pistol whipping one of the guards.

Red watched on as the five remaining guards entered the battle. He quickly dashed in, sneaking behind a parked car, before going for the door. He jumped up and, surprisingly, it was open. He was expecting to have to use a lock pick, but not having to was even better. He entered, and pulled the door behind himself.

He took a deep breath, and turned to the hall of the station.

There were around sixty to seventy Jukkarage, all standing there, all waiting for him.

"Well, this wasn't in the plan."

Outside, Silver and Pink continued to attack the Jukkarage guards. Silver quickly slashed through one with no effort, while Pink quickly blasted two in the head with her pistols. The two quickly joined together as the last two Jukkarage charged from both sides. Pink swung her pistols over her shoulders, firing them at the one heading towards Silver, while the wolf quickly spun around and shot a fireball at the one running towards Pink.

"Whoo, that was fun!" Pink said. "Nice and breezy, huh?"

"Uh, I don't think it was SUPPOSED to be that breezy." Silver said, a bit worried. "Weren't the other guards supposed to show up…?"

"Uh…"

"IDIOTS!"

The two looked up, seeing the transformed Nekomata floating above them. "Did you really think we'd be beaten by such a simple plan!?" He mocked. "Nyo, we're too smart for that! Zombies, attack them!"

With that shout, the two looked on as the crowd of zombies turned towards them. Their glowing eyes, all in various places, stared at them. They started to move forward.

"This isn't good." Silver muttered.

"We should make a run for it, shouldn't we?" Pink said.

"Oh yeah, definitely."

In an instant, the zombies started to charge towards the two. A few larger mammals jumped in first, a rhino quickly divebombing them. They split up, go around the rhino as it crashed into the ground, before making a full-on run for it.

A hippo made a move for Silver, trudging as fast as it could to block him. He stumbled back before colliding with the flesh wall, and leaped out of the way as it attempted to chomp down on him. He scrambled to his feet, before hearing a shriek and looking up.

A handful of bats started to fly down, attempting to scrape at him with their teeth. "AUGH! ITS MY WORST NIGHTMARE SLASH GREATEST DREAM!" He yelled, swatting the bats away and running through the crowd of zombies.

Pink ran as well, and quickly became blocked by a large, black panther, who growled at her. It rushed forward and attempted to swipe at her, but the hyena ducked out of the way, and then quickly kicked the zombified feline in his back, knocking him down.

"There's YOUR bad luck!" She shouted, before running off. As Pink ran, she suddenly stumbled, and fell to the ground, and began to be dragged across the pavement. She looked at her feet, spotting a bunch of… mice? No, definitely rats. An army of them, all working to pull her away.

She attempted to shake them off, managing to get rid of most of them, though a few still clung on. She got back up, and started to flick the mice off of her suit leg, before raising a foot to them. Instinctively, the mice started to run off. She quickly got up, and started to run, meeting up with Silver in a small open area.

The two drew their weapons as the zombies closed in, preparing to attack. "What are we supposed to do now?" Silver asked, panicked.

"Why don't you just jump!?" Pink shouted.

"Oh yeah, I can do that!"

The wolf quickly grabbed Pink's paw, and leaped up into the air, the two landing in front of the store. Silver quickly rushed in to the store, still dragging Pink behind him, and slammed the door behind him.

"Whew, that was close." Silver said, letting go of Pink. The hyena quickly stumbled back, and fell down. "You alright?"

"Give me a WARNING before you leap three stories in the air!" She shouted.

"Oh, sorry!" He apologized. He glanced around for a second. "Hey, is something missing…?"

Pink got up, and looked around as well. "Yeah, where'd that yellow fox go?"

"Great, did he run out while we were doing the plan!?" Silver shouted in frustration. "We need to go back out and find him."

"Uh, might be a problem." Pink stated.

Silver turned back to the front of the store. The zombie horde was starting to surround the store, preparing to break in.

"Oh, wonderful."

"Alright, guess you guys are all new callers, huh?" Red said, flipping his sword into the air, before catching it. The Jukkarage quickly stepped forward, mumbling and brandishing their blades.

"To play you in, how about a classic?" The fox said, also prepping his blade.

He leaped forward, bringing his blade down as he slashed through one of the Jukkarage. He skidded across the tiled floor, and then used the momentum to spin around, cutting through several more of them.

"You guys should really just tune out!" Red joked as he jumped up again, quickly flicking his blade. It quickly detached from the hilt, spinning around in a circle and destroying the rest of the Jukkarage in the main hall.

"Alright, time to move on to the next track." He said. He took a step, and then quickly pumped his fist, ecstatic about the number of jokes he was making. He then quickly dashed down the hall, which lead directly to another room, this one, compared to the bare entrance, had a few chairs littered around.

The building was only a few stories high, and not that tall, only a few stories… but it seemed to have been built in an incredibly strange way. He ran out the only exit, and luckily found the stairs. Just before he could go up them…

"HELP!"

The fox froze. The scream had definitely come from down here, and the voice sounded familiar.

Kyle?

He quickly dashed down the hall again, following the screams. He came to a recording room, and leaped up on the control panel, spotting Kyle being attacked by a few of the stone monsters.

He rushed over to the door to the other side, and tried to open it, but it appeared to be locked. He couldn't get through there without wasting time unlocking it. There had to be a quicker way.

The fox quickly got an idea, and pulled out his yellow ZooTag, plugging it into the Zoolizer.

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

The gloves appeared on his paws as he leaped back up to the control panel. He drew back his arms, and slashed at the window, causing it to split apart into neat slices of glass. The Jukkarage caught find of this, before Red leaped in and quickly slashed them all to pieces.

"You alright?" Red asked the panicking fox.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kyle said, getting back up.

There was silence for a moment as Red stared at him through his visor. "Why are you here?" He finally asked.

"I, uh, snuck in after you." He admitted, ashamed. "I felt like I could help."

"You went against my orders, and almost got yourself killed." Red snapped. He groaned and shook his head. "I'd tell you to leave, but it'd more dangerous out there than in here with me." He admitted.

"Kyle's ears poked up. "So, I can come along?"

"Yes, but just… stay close to me, alright?" He said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"Alright, sir, I got it!" He said, giving a faux-salute.

"Also, keep quiet." Red continued. "We want to do this without any fighting, alright?"

Kyle nodded, silently.

"Alright, let's go." Red said, running up to the door, and kicking it down. While the fox's back was turned, Kyle chuckled to himself.

"I got it, alright." He said to himself, a wicked grin growing over his muzzle.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

The hordes of zombies banged on the front door and windows of the store, attempting to break them. "We need to get out of here." Silver said.

"Great idea." Pink replied, sarcastically. "Where the hell are we supposed to go?"

"They should have a back area." Silver said quickly jogging to the back of the store. Pink shook her head, and followed.

She was greeted with a metal door next to the bathroom. It had a padlock on it, most likely trying to prevent anyone from breaking in. Unfortunately, that also meant they weren't able to get it.

"I don't think we have enough time to find the key." Pink said. "So now what do we do? Get eaten by zombies?"

Silver quickly held out his blade, and spun the guard, switching it to moon mode. "Oh, there is NO way that is going to work." Pink sneered.

Silver stepped back, and thrust the rapier forwards, the laser whip going directly into the padlock's lock. He quickly twisted and turned the blade multiple times. There was a sudden click, and the padlock opened.

"Huh."

Pink quickly tore the padlock off and threw it to the ground, along with the chain it was attached to. They both ran through it, and into the freezer.

"Now we can just freeze to death." Pink said. She paused. "Is that better or worse than being eaten by zombies."

"Neither is going to happen." Silver said, quickly grabbing a heavy box and pushing it towards the door. "Why don't you trust me?"

"Because you're a child!" She yelled. "Why would I trust anyone who gets that excited over a holiday meant for children, or who dresses up as characters from kids shows!?"

Silver paused for a moment, before continuing to move heavy boxes over to the door, creating a decent barrier. There was the sudden sound of glass breaking, followed by many angry groaning noises.

"Get down." Silver said. "Get ALL the way down."

"What? Why!?"

Silver moved up to the wall on their other side. It was lined with frozen foods and other things that needed to be frozen. "There isn't a solid wall here." He stated. "If they spot us, they could come in easily."

"This is a wonderful safe spot." Pink followed up, still sarcastic.

"But they don't know that." Silver continued. "So lay down, and be quiet."

She sighed, and the two of them laid down on their stomachs, neither of them breaking past the small, solid wall at the base of the floor.

"I have a question." Silver asked, quietly.

"Didn't you just say to be quiet!?" Pink whisper yelled back.

"You act like you personally dislike Halloween." He continued. "Why is that?"

"Is this really important right now!?"

"Yes." Silver said. "I just want to know so I can understand why you don't like me. I'd like to change whatever I do that upsets you, so we can be… better teammates."

The hyena sighed, and then started. "My parents came from out of the country to Zootopia, but I was born here. We had financial troubles, so my dad got some money from the mafia." She explained. "When he couldn't pay it, the mob… killed him and my mom."

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Silver said. "You don't have to continue, I didn't know…"

"No, I'm going to keep going." She sighed. "I was left on the street for the rest of my life, well, up until now, I guess. I was only with my parents for a few years, but I remember something special they did every year, at around Halloween time." She continued. "They'd bring out an altar, dedicated to their parents, and every time they'd bring out candy and other treats…"

Normally, the hyena sounded annoyed or ambivalent towards everything, but as she talked about this, she seemed to be… happy.

"The Día de Muertos." She said. "Its one of the few things before their deaths that I can remember clearly. So, I decided to do what my parents did, and celebrate it each year, for my mom and dad."

"But I really couldn't." She continued. "I never had enough money to get what I needed, and every year I would see all these kids with their parents, going out for Halloween. It felt like the world was mocking me."

There was silence from the two, making the groaning noises from outside more noticeable.

"I'm sorry." Silver said, absolutely genuine.

"You don't have to apologize." Pink said. "You didn't do anything."

"I shouldn't have been so… passive aggressive about all this." He admitted, the hyena quickly shooting him a somewhat confused look.

"Seriously, I should be the one apologizing," She chuckled. "I've been really rude to you."

"No, if I had known about all that, I wouldn't have tried to force it on you the other day." Silver continued. "I wish there was a way I could make it up to you, and we could become friends."

"We can worry about that later, kid." Pink said. "You know, when we aren't about to become muerto ourselves."

There was a sudden banging noise at the door. The two quickly got up, and looked at the blockade. One of the zombies was barging into the door, attempting to force it open.

"Hopefully that isn't soon!" Silver said.

Red and Kyle quietly stepped through a darkened room of the radio station. They had managed to reach the third story of the building in an alarmingly fast time. There weren't even any bad guys on the second floor

They peeked around the corner, spotting a handful of Jukkarage guarding the stairs. "Looks like those are the last of the guards. Guess they sent all of them to the first floor." Red said, before turning back to the yellow fox. "I'll take care of these guys quick, you stay here."

Kyle quickly nodded.

Red brandished his clawed gloves, and leaped out, flinging several sharp laser slashes at them. The monsters weren't destroyed by the assault, most of them just stumbling back. They were, however, alerted to the fox's presence.

Red leaped forward, slicing through two of them as they charged forwards. As the remaining Jukkarage charged at him, he leaped back and fired more laser slashes at them, the barrage being enough to destroy them.

"Alright." Red said, a lot louder. "Its safe, Kyle."

The yellow fox stepped out, and glanced around cautiously, before running over to Red. Red unsummoned his gloves, and the two made their way up the stairs.

"I need you to stay in here." Red said to Kyle as they reached the top of the stairs. There was only a door between him and the monster.

"Right, because the monster's dangerous." The younger fox said. "I'll just stay here, like you said."

"Good."

Red charged through the door, kicking it open. He stopped, spotting the monster, Nekomata, hovering near the antenna. He ran across the roof, and pulled out his sword as he leaped up to strike the monster.

Dark Nekomata quickly spun around, grabbing the sword with his massive claws. "Hey, I've been waiting for you." The feline monster said as the fox dangled from his own sword.

"And I've been waiting to kick your ass."

Red grabbed the hilt of the blade, causing it to detach from the blade itself. He landed on the ground, and tugged at the wire, with enough strength to pull Dark Nekomata down from the air and slam him into the roof.

The blow caused the monster to let go of the blade, which quickly retracted.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Nekomata yelled. He started to wave his arms in front of his face, as his watch face started to glow. "Geragerageragerageragera…"

"PO!"

He then thrust his arms forward, firing a large ball of energy from his stomach. Red leaped out of the way as the ball crashed through the edge of the roof, destroying part of it.

"You should just give up while I'm ahead!" The watch monster laughed.

"How are you 'ahead'?" Red asked with a chuckle.

"I dunno, maybe because of HER!"

Nekomata swung his claw to the antenna. Two Jukkarage came out from behind it, carrying… Judy! She was still zombified, and one of the Jukkarage had its blade to her neck.

"Judy!" He shouted, before glancing back up at Nekomata. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

"Oh, I won't!" Dark Nekomata said, snidely. "But only if you back down, and give up!"

"Please!" Red scoffed. "Its two guys, I can deal with them no problem."

Nekomata let out a laugh, and looked towards the door. "Who said there was only two?"

Inside the building, the yellow fox had made his way downstairs. He performed a rapid series of hand motions, nearly a dozen to two dozen Jukkarage appearing.

"Go finish that fox off." Kyuemon growled.

The Jukkarage quickly ran up the stairs, and burst through the door, flooding the roof. Red looked around, as multiple thoughts ran through his head.

Where had they all come from? He was pretty sure there weren't any left in the building.

Oh god, what happened to Kyle? If these monsters swarmed in, does that mean he was hurt?

And his most worrying thought.

There was no way he could take on all these monsters alone.

The fox dropped his sword, and fell to his knees. "Alright." He muttered. "I give up, you win."

"Oh, MAN, that feels good to hear!" Nekomata said, floating down to get a better look at the fox. "You ready to die, Zooranger?"

Red lowered his head, and braced himself.

Silver and Pink quickly ran up to the boxes, and pressed their bodies against them, trying to keep the zombies from breaking through.

"I don't think we're strong enough!" Silver shouted.

"Just push harder!" Pink yelled.

Silver spun around, and started to push the boxes with his back. There was a sudden rustling noise from the racks they had been hiding behind. The products that were lined up started to be torn off the shelves, revealing the glowing eyes of the zombie citizens.

"NOT GOOD!" Silver shouted.

"Shit!" Pink shouted as a particularly tough barge knocked her down. "This is REALLY not how I want to die!"

"What are we supposed to do now!?" Silver shouted again as smaller zombie mammals started to crawl through the cracks.

"We can punch 'em!" Pink responded.

"I'd rather not cause bodily harm to anyone."

"You're no fun."

There was another crash, the boxes tipping over. Another crash, and a bear burst through the door, letting out a gurgling roar. The two screamed in terror, and closed their eyes, bracing themselves for it to strike at them.

Suddenly, there was music.

Loud music. Music that seemed to drown out the growling.

Techno music?

"What the? Where am I…?"

The two opened their eyes, and looked back at the bear. Somehow, he had been turned back to normal, and the Y-Watch was laying on the floor, completely burnt out.

They looked back, and the rest of the previously zombified mammals had returned to normal as well. The techno music was STILL playing, however.

"'Scuse us!" Pink said as they sneaked past the dazed bear.

They ran into the main part of the store, and spotted where the music was coming from. It was Henry, holding his phone up.

"Henry!?" Pink said, confused. "I thought you turned into a zombie!"

"Nope." He said, not turning the music off. "You didn't even call to check."

"Well, when I heard it was the watches turning everyone into zombies, I kind of just assumed…"

"You assumed I'd be wearing the watch, right?" He said with a chuckle.

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay, what the hell did you just DO!?" Silver asked. "How did everyone just turn back to normal!?"

"Like I said to you earlier, Em, I had a reason for getting one of those watches." Henry started to explain. "And like you said, I'm not dumb enough to fall for a scheme like that. I could tell something fishy was up, so I decided to check the watch itself."

"Wait, so you checked the actual internal workings of it?' Silver asked. "I didn't know you knew how this kind of stuff worked."

"Me either." Pink said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I read a lot of engineering and technology guides while I was in prison." Henry said. "Not a lot to do when you're stuck there for years."

"Anyway, I found a weakness in their build." The bull continued. "When I opened the watch, there was this odd purple… thing, stuck in it. It didn't seem to do anything until the energy from that antenna started pouring out. The best I could describe it is a half-magical -half-machine virus of some kind."

"Oh, obviously." Pink said, sarcastically.

"Okay, but how did you figure out the cure?" Silver asked again.

"It turns out that whatever those viruses were latched onto picked up soundwaves." He continued. "Which normally wouldn't be a problem in short bursts, but the kind of soundwave caused by music causes it to overload and burst."

"Nick said he saved me earlier with music…" Silver started. "So that's how he did it."

The bull nodded. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"He went to go stop the antenna, but it looks like we don't need to!" Silver said. 'I'll radio him up and tell him, you guys go cure more of the zombies!"

Henry put up his armor, and headed out with Pink. Silver placed his paw to the side of his helmet. "Red, you there?"

There wasn't a response, but he could hear breathing.

"Okay, stealth, I get it." He said. "We figured out how to cure the zombies! You just need to play music, and it'll destroy the watch!"

Red's ears popped up.

Dark Nekomata raised his claw, and prepared to bring it down. "Wait!" Red shouted, looking back up. "I want a last request."

"What?" The feline monster said, a bit confused. "Uh, what is it?"

"I just want to play a song." Nick said, untransforming and pulling out his phone. "It's a song that reminds me of a very, very special mammal in my life."

"Guess that's fine." Nekomata said. Apparently, he didn't know about the watches' weakness.

He cranked the volume on his phone, opened the music app, and pressed play. He held the phone up as the music started.

"I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I'll just start again
I keep falling down
I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now to see what's next
Birds don't just fly
They fall down and get up
Nobody learns without getting it won"

"AUGH, WHAT IS THAT WRETCHED NYOISE!?" Nekomata cried, covering his ears. "It's so… PEPPY!"

The Jukkarage responded in turn, all of them placing their hands to their heads. The two holding up Judy didn't seem to notice as she blinked a few times.

"What?" She mumbled, glancing around. "Where am-"

She was cut off as the watch around her wrist started to spark, and then explode, causing one of the Jukkarage to recoil backwards, letting her go. The watch dropped to the ground along side the stone monster's sword, and left the rabbit hanging from her arm in the other one's grasp.

She quickly shifted her bod over, and then hip checked the monster, knocking it back as well. She landed on the ground, free. The rabbit then glanced in the direction of the music.

"Nick has some explaining to do." She mumbled before transforming into ZooBlue.

She leaped into the air, and crashed down in front of Nick, who quickly shut off the music. "Hey, Carrots!" He said cheerfully. "Glad you could make it to the party."

"After we deal with these guys, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do." She growled in response.

"WHAT!?" Dark Nekomata cried. "What is this!? How did you get free from our zombie spell!?"

"Turns out, watch boy," Nick started, tossing his phone up into the air. "Your perfect plan had a bit of production flaw!"

"What!?"

"The mind control of those watches could be counteracted by music!" The fox explained. "I don't know how it works, but it does, and all of the zombies in the area should be entirely cured by now!"

"That's impossible!" The feline monster said as it floated upwards and looked onto the street. There were none of the zombified mammals there anymore, just three figures standing in the middle of the road. "WHAT!? But… But…!"

"Okay, think I've got the gist of it." Blue said, before twirling around and firing her guns at Nekomata. The monster let out a cry of pain as it fell to the ground. "Watches, zombies, mind control, sounds like you had a rough… night?"

"Actually, it's like, twelve PM." Nick said, before quickly transforming into ZooRed. "That antenna is the source of our problems right now." He said, pointing at it.

"We might have a bit more of a problem." Blue said as the army of Jukkarage started to swarm in closer.

"Not when we're together." Red said, pulling out his sun-shaped ZooTag. The two quickly fist bumped, and plugged their super ZooTags in.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two transformed into the Solar and Lunar forms, quickly drawing their weapons. A few moments passed, and there was a massive explosion on top of the building, engulfing the whole thing, including the antenna. Bits of metallic shrapnel flew out from the blast, the antenna completely destroyed.

"Yikes!" Pink shouted, looking up at the building. "Hopefully they're okay."

"Don't worry, they are." Silver replied.

Red and Blue leaped down from the building as the smoke cleared. The energy pulsing from the antenna seemed to vanish, the sky clearing to reveal the mid-day sun.

"GAAAAAH!" Dark Nekomata yelled, floating back up into the air. "We were so close to victory, and you ruined it!"

"That's what we do!" Blue said. "Ruining evil schemes is what being a hero's all about!"

"Come on guys, let's finish this feline freak off." Red said. The five quickly surrounded the monster, each of them drawing their weapons.

"DON'T THINK I'LL GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" The monster growled. He raised his claws which started to glow purple, and began to swipe them around rapidly, sending energy slashes out all around him

The five scattered, but Pink and Green rolled to opposite sides, and quickly blasted at the monster with their guns. The monster lit up in sparks, and stumbled back, directly into an attack from Silver and blue, who slashed right through him with their blades.

Blue quickly leaped back as she hit the ground, and started clashing her blades with the monster's claws. Silver quickly ran up to Pink, and raised his paw for a high four.

"What's that for?" Pink asked.

"It… It means I want to do team attack with you." He said, a bit awkwardly.

"You could just tell me that, then."

The two quickly moved into performing their attack, Pink rapidly firing at Dark Nekomata. Blue kicked off of the monster's body before the blasts hit, but Silver quickly followed by firing a fireball out of his blade.

The fireball caught the laser blasts, causing it to glow pink as it slammed into the monster, knocking him through the air. The monster crashed into the ground, and quickly got up, spotting Blue and Red quickly jumping in front of him to go for an attack.

They both swung their weapons at the monster, who quickly grabbed both of them, Blue's sword by the blade, and Red's staff by its rod. "Hah, guess you guys thought a bit too lowly of me-"

Before the monster could finish mocking them, the staff's end started to jut forward and backwards, extending in and out as it smacked Nekomata repeatedly in the face. "Ow, hey, quit it!"

The monster quickly let go, letting the two finish their attack by leaping up and simultaneously striking the monster in its watch face. The glass cracked as it was flung backwards, this time into a building.

The wall it crashed into received a large dent, and the monster stumbled back to its feet. Green quickly came charging in, ramming the monster through the wall and into the building. "Hopefully nobody owns this place." The bull said to himself as he took aim at the monster through the hole. The monster was shot many more times, before it let out a quick growl.

"Okay, enough playing around!" It said, raising back into the air. It quickly dashed at green, tackling him out of the way before swooping up into the air. "You'll all get to see my real strength now! Prepare for my ultimate attack!"

The monster started to wave its arms in front of its face. "Geragera PO!" The monster thrust his arms out, firing a purple ball of energy towards Blue, who quickly leaped out of the way as it exploded, creating a small hole in the concrete.

The feline monster continued to perform the motion, firing out the energy balls rapidly. After a minute, the ground was littered with craters. "Hah, guess you guys are gonna have a bit of trouble!" The monster laughed from above. "If only you guys could hover like me, geragerageragerapo!"

"Gimme a sec." Red said, before slamming his staff into the ground. He gripped tightly to it as the pole suddenly extended upwards, taking the fox along with it. The monster let out a whine as it watched the pole extend well above him.

It then retracted, leaving Red up in the air. The fox thrust the staff forwards again, it rapidly going back and forth to hit the monster repeatedly once more. The monster let out another growl. "Time to show off my ultimate technique! CLAWS OF FURY!"

Dark Nekomata started to punch rapidly, managing to block out all of Red's attempted strikes. The force of the punches gradually pushed the rod back, moving Nekomata closer and closer to the fox.

"Okay, that's bad." Silver said. "We should probably do something."

"Pink, Green move over to the monster's right and left!" Blue ordered. "Silver, we'll take the back!"

The three nodded, and they all moved into position. "Alright, while he's distracted, we're going to fire off all out attacks!" She explained. "GO!"

Blue rapidly slashed her blades forward, while Silver fired multiple fireballs, and Pink and Green fired shots from their own blasters. All of them connected with Dark Nekomata, who was blasted back out of the air.

The monster crashed back into the ground, but started to crawl back up. Quickly, Red thrust his staff down, launching him back into the air and over Nekomata's body. He then started to rapidly thrust it down onto the monster's back, pounding him into the ground even further. He then retracted it, and swung it, launching a massive fireball.

The flame exploded, leaving the monster weakened in a crater.

"Alright, time to finish him off!" Red said, the five of them leaping into the crater.

"Oh, I have an idea!" Silver said, quickly gathering the five rangers together. "Since this is our first official mission as a team, why don't we destroy the monster together?"

"Silver, only me and Red's weapons can combine." Blue said.

"Well, we don't have to combine them." He said. "Let's just shoot at him at the same time!"

"Alright, if it makes you feel better." Red said.

Red and Blue quickly combined their weapons, pointing the large bow at the slowly recovering Nekomata. Silver drew back his sword, and prepared to fire a flame from it. Pink and Green quickly pointed their own blasters at him

"FIRE!" Blue shouted.

They all fired their weapons at the monster. The various forms of energy converged, and seemed to engulf the monster in energy for a moment, before bursting into a towering pillar of flames. A rather obsolete wrist watch flew from the flames, along with the Chaos Badge.

"Whew, wasn't that awesome!?" Silver shouted, raising his paw for a high four. Nobody responded. "Oh, come on."

Pink shook her head and let out a small chuckle, before high fouring the wolf. He gave her a smile behind his mask.

"HEY!"

The five turned to face the station, watching a smaller, yellow fox in a hoodie run out. It was Kyle, running up to them. "Did you guys beat the monster?" He asked, out of breath.

"We did." Red said. "But you should probably get out of here."

"What, why?" He asked.

"Because we aren't done yet." Blue followed. The rangers watched as the Chaos Badge flew into the air, and then off into the horizon, reforming into a massive Dark Nekomata.

"NYOW I'M BIGGER THAN EVER!" It shouted. "COME AT ME, BITE SIZES!"

"Oh, right, got it!" Kyle said. "I'll go off now, see you guys later!" he quickly dashed off, leaving the five behind.

"Who was that?" Green asked Pink.

"I dunno, some friend of theirs." She responded.

The bull glanced back up at the monster, and looked to the three Zoorangers. "You guys can handle this one." Green said, as he and Pink backed out of the crater.

The three ZooRangers summoned up their mechs, forming into ZooRobo and ZooKami. They stomped towards the monster, who grinded his claws together.

ZooRobo moved in first, and attempted to slash at the monster, but before the blade could connect, the yokai-watch hybrid flew into the air. "GERAGERAGERAPO!" It laughed. "I can still fly, idiots!"

"Great, how are we supposed to get him down from there?" Red muttered. "Think we should go for long range?" He asked.

"We can try, but I'm not sure if it'll work." Blue said, sounding a bit unsure.

"I'll keep him busy!" Silver said, quickly shifting from ZooKami to ZooOkami. The wolf mech leaped into the air, and slashed at the monster with its tail, knocking it away.

Red quickly pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it in.

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

The two mechs quickly combined, ZooOkami falling back to the ground and shifting back to ZooKami. ZooRobo aimed its guns up at the monster, and rapidly fired.

"Hey, watch it!" It shouted. The monster started to block the bullets fired at it, and quickly managed to reflect a few back.

"Augh, this isn't working!" Blue grunted.

"Hold it, I think I have an idea!" Silver said. ZooKami quickly jumped to the opposite side of the monster. "Fire one of the guns at me!"

"Excuse me?" Red said, puzzled.

"Just do it!"

ZooRobo pointed one of its guns at ZooKami, and one up at Nekomata. "Hell are you guys doing?" The monster questioned.

The armed mech started to fire at the feline monster, who continued to block, but then quickly shot at ZooKami rapidly as well. The wolf mech started to bat the blasts back up at Nekomata with his sword, striking the monster in the back.

"MEEYOWTCH!" It shouted as blasts started to hit from both sides. The monster quickly fell to the ground, now at the mercy of the robots.

"Alright, guess its TIME to finish this!" Red said. Blue shook her head at the joke.

They pressed both of the guns together, building up energy for a moment, before firing it at the monster. The blast formed into a bison's head, which quickly rammed through its body.

"NYOOOOO!" The monster shouted. "I didn't even get to try the chocolate…" It fell over, and quickly exploded.

Nick, Judy, and Max appeared back on the street, and ran out of the crater, meeting with Emily and Henry.

"Well, I feel like we've all learned lessons here." Nick announced, crossing his arms. "If anyone has any idea what they were, feel free to share."

"Maybe we learned about the societal implications of technology ever encompassing our lives, and how eventually corporations will reduce us to herded masses." Henry suggested.

The four looked at him oddly.

"You know, evil watches, zombies." He continued. "It's a metaphor."

"Well, I don't know about that, but I feel I learned something." Max started. "I learned that trying to force what you feel onto others just distances you rather, instead of bringing us together." He looked down at Nick and Judy. "I just want to apologize for all the stuff I did to try and force you to like Halloween."

Emily smiled a bit at the wolf. Maybe he wasn't as childish as she thought.

"Actually, maybe going to the party this year would be fine." Nick admitted. "It's been a terrible day, and some relaxation would be nice."

"Really?" Max said, a bit surprised.

"Maybe you're right." Judy said. "With all this stress going around the last month, we haven't really had any time to unwind."

"Seriously?" Max said, still baffled. "After what I learned, you guys want to go now!?"

The two cautiously nodded, and Max fell silent.

He quickly hoisted them up. "We're gonna go get some costumes!"

Nick and Judy glanced at each other, before the wolf dashed off. The hyena scoffed, and shook her head. Nope, definitely as childish as she thought.

"Are you really, seriously sure you want to dress up as that?" Nick said as the three costumed mammals walked down the entrance to the station.

Nick was dressed as a pirate, complete with hat an eyepatch. A rather childish costume, to be sure, but he had always wanted to go as one since he was a kid, so it made it the obvious choice for him. Judy, however, was dressed as a zombie, wearing tattered clothes and white contact lenses, as well as slightly matting up her fur.

"Yeah, not really sure that's appropriate for an officer, let alone a superhero, to be wearing." Judy said, a bit concerned. "You might set a bad example for the children."

"Oh, come oooon." Max whined. The wolf was dressed in a baggy half purple, half white outfit, featuring a cape, and a horn taped to his forehead. He was dressed as Yabaiba. "Its Halloween, you're supposed to dress as bad guys!"

"I still think its wrong, and a bad idea." Judy said.

"You're the one dressed up as a zombie." Max grumbled.

"Yeah, not even the first time you've been a zombie today." Nick joked.

"Har, har." She grumbled. "Lets just get in there and relax already."

They walked in to the station, and were greeted with a very… odd scene.

Everyone there was wearing different colored outfits, though they all looked the same. In fact… they looked like the Zooranger outfits.

"Surprise!" Everyone shouted.

"How do you guys like our costumes?" Clawhauser asked, wearing a yellow version of the costume. "We decided to dress up as our own colors of your costumes to celebrate you guys coming back!"

"That's… very sweet." Judy admitted, though she was a bit weirded out.

"You come up with it, spots?" Nick asked.

"Actually, it was Bogo's idea!" He said, looking over at the buffalo, who was dressed in a black version. "Seems he appreciates you guys a lot more than it seems."

"You should've told us." Judy said, elbowing the chubby cheetah's leg. "We wouldn't have gotten costumes if we knew we could just come in our superhero outfits."

"We wanted to make it a surprise, sorry."

"I probably would've shown up in this anyway!" max admitted. "What's a superhero gathering without a villain, right?"

The fox let out a laugh. "Alright, Halloweenie, let's get this party started!"

The hyena placed the small altar on the desk in her apartment. It wasn't very large, only big enough to maybe fit two. She let out a sigh as she looked at the altar.

It wasn't much, just the last remaining picture she had of her parents. It was surrounded by a few candles, and a painted plastic hyena skull. In front of the picture were a few bowls, each containing a few cheap candies she had managed to buy. There was also a bottle of liquor, which was the most expensive thing there. It was all placed on a few brightly colored cloths, to brighten it up.

"Lo siento por el altar de aspecto barato este año. Sólo tengo suerte de poder hacer una." She said, before letting out a weak laugh. Before she could continue, there was a knock at the door.

She got up from her bed, and opened the door. It was Max, carrying a bag. "Hell are you doing here?" She asked.

"So, I… I wanted to make up for how I acted the other day." He said. "So, I decided to come over and, uh, celebrate the Day of the Dead with you." He held up the bag. "I don't really know what you need for it, so I just bought some, uh, soda and candy."

Emily sighed. "You got a lot to learn." She said. "Come on in."

The wolf walked into the tiny apartment, and sat on the bed next to her. She clasped her paws together, and started to talk again.

"Mucho ha cambiado tan rápido." She continued. "Me siento libre, finalmente, como si se hubiera quitado una cadena. Ojalá estuvieran aquí para ver cuánto he hecho."

She let out another sigh, and glanced at the wolf. "You gonna say anything?" She asked. "It's rude to keep them waiting."

"Oh, uh…" Max unsteadily clasped his paws together as well. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Hyerez. I'm one of your daughter's co-workers." He started. "I don't know much about her yet, but I'm hoping that, maybe, we can become closer friends. What I do know, is that you would be so proud of her if you were here today."

Emily let out a smile.

"Was… was that good?" He asked, nervously.

"It was alright." She said.

"So, I have a question." The wolf started, getting up and looking at the altar. "What exactly is this kind of stuff for? I mean, what does it represent?"

"Wanna learn some culture, huh?" She laughed. "Sit down, and I'll enlighten you."

The wolf complied.

"Every November first, its said that the spirits of the dead are free to roam…"

Happy Halloween! August counts as Halloween, this is a scientific fact.

I don't have a lot to say about this other than I felt I needed to do a Halloween special at some point, and why not just have it take place on Halloween itself? As you might tell by my love of monsters and such, I love Halloween as well.

I also really, really tried my best to represent Dia de los Meurtos as well as I could. I probably got a lot of things wrong, the Spanish at the end is probably terrible, but I tried to make it as respectful as I could. Not sure if I succeeded or not.

Anyway, this counts as sort of a buffer between the last and new arc, mostly here to set up our new status quo.

But next time, we get the real arc going! Remember that talk about a new member?