Zoorangers

by Bionichute

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

36. Episode 35 - Beastman Wars

Episode 35 – Beastman Wars

The room was cold, dark, lit only by a few dim candles… and one of the two cretures inside. The armored monster stepped towards the middle of the room, towards a stone altar, another creature laid upon it.

A lion, wearing only a cloth, eyes closed and unresponsive, but unknown whethe or not it was unconscious. Surrounding its body were dozens of small stone statues, the top of each carved into the shape of a creature. An eel, a baboon, a pangolin, angler fish, and even a centipede, alongside many other, all surrounded his body, touching his skin.

"The ritual… begins." The armored creature said. He held his hands over the lion's body, golden energy starting to flow out from him. The lion started to struggle, his body, and the statues, starting to glow as the energy entered him.

The monster stopped releasing the energy, and pulled out a small, red object. He thrust it down into the lion's struggling body, plunging it into his chest. The lion let out a pained shriek as the object absorbed itself into his body, covering him and the statues in a shroud of gold and red energy.

The monster stepped back as electricity crackled from the energy, leaving burn marks across the stone walls. There was a sudden shockwave as the energy cleared, knocking the monster into the wall, and putting out the candles.

He glanced up, watching as his new creation rose to its feet, and let out a roar. He started to laugh.

"Welcome to our world, my ultimate creation."

"My Ultimate Beastman!"

---

"I think this is the absolute dumbest idea you've ever come up with." Judy said, tapping a pen against her desk.

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun." Nick replied. He sat in a chair next to her, and Max in a chair next to him. They were sharing a large desk, which in turn was in the middle of a decently sized rehearsal room they had managed to rent out.

The place was fairly bare, mostly because they had cleared up most of the space. It was a simple white room, with a few mirrors at the back.

"Being a Zooranger isn't something you can just… audition for." Judy said. Her and Nick had slightly taller chairs, but they still had to stand in order to be seen over the table. Max just had to sit down. "Its about, you know, justice and doing what's right. And remember, we only have one shot at this."

"It'll be really easy!" Nick declared. He tapped the sheet of paper in front of him. "We just have to ask the questions on these pieces of paper, and if they match the criteria, then they get to be the new ZooYellow!"

"This sounds incredibly unreliable." Max stated.

"Listen, this room cost a LOT of money just to get for today, so we have to do this."

The door creaked open, and Clawhauser popped his head into the room. "How's everything going, guys?" He asked. "Want me to get you some coffee?"

"Yes, please." Judy replied, rubbing her temples.

"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes!" He said, giving a quick wave. He shut the door, but it quickly opened again. "Have you guys seen how many mammals showed up for this?"

"We've been stuck in here for the last hour, Ben, so no, we haven't." Judy answered.

"Alright, because there's at least two to three hundred lined up outside."

Judy's ears popped up, Clawhauser quickly leaving before she could start yelling.

"Nick."

"Yes, Carrots?" Nick replied, a bit smug, despite knowing what was coming.

"Did you advertise this?"

"Of course I did, how were we going to get anyone to show up otherwise?"

"How MUCH did you advertise it?"

"I placed a few fliers around." He said. The rabbit turned to look at him. "And some newspaper ads."

Judy continued to glare at him.

The fox let out a sigh. "And some radio ads. And a TV spot."

"How much is this stunt costing us?" She asked, trying to hold back her anger a bit.

"Us? Nothing." He explained. "I funded it entirely through Bogo and Lionheart."

Judy leaned over the table, placing both of her paws over her face. "You scammed them into this, didn't you?"

"No!" Nick adamantly declared, crossing his arms. "I told them I needed the money to help find the new member, and they both realized how important that was."

"Is it wrong that I don't believe you?" The rabbit muttered.

A bit passed, and Clawhauser returned with the coffee. The three of them got ready as the clock ticked down to when the auditions would begin.

Seven AM.

Clawhauser acted as the doorman, letting each try-hard mammal in. Hours started to pass as they went through them. Some were wannabes, clearly not fit for the task despite having the heart, while most others seemed to have come entirely for a shot at fame. Anyone showing that kind of attitude was kicked out immediately. A good chunk of the others were entirely out of place, mostly mammals trying to show off their rather mundane talents.

"So, your name is…?" Judy asked, barely looking up from her paper. She had run out of coffee hours ago, and was in desperate need of a break.

The current audition was being held by a white tiger. "Daniel Lily." He said. "I've been following you guys ever since you started, and I've always wanted to help others. I've studied a bit of martial arts, so I'm combat ready, too."

Judy popped her head up to look at the tiger. He sounded completely genuine, and looked like he was in shape. In the last hundred or so, they hadn't really found anyone like this. He matched the criteria she needed. The rabbit opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted.

"You're not yellow enough." Max said, a bit rudely.

"What!?" Judy shouted.

"Max has a point." Nick continued. "You sound like what we need, but… the color's not right. If we were looking for ZooWhite, then you'd be perfect."

"Oh, COME ON!" Judy shouted again.

"Oh." The tiger said, clearly disappointed. "Well, I guess I'll just head out now…" He slumped off through the door, as quickly as he had come.

"I can't believe you two." The rabbit grumbled.

"Hey, I'm just trying to keep up with tradition." Nick said. Max remained silent.

The door opened, Clawhauser walking back into the room. "Hey, guys, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." Judy said, still sounding a bit miffed.

"Why can't I just be your new member?" He asked. "I've got, like, everything you need!"

The three remained silent for a moment. Talking about this was a bit awkward. "Ben, we can't just… give you the Zoolizer." Max started, standing up.

"Yeah, it's a bit more… complicated." Judy continued. "We're not doing this for fun, we have to protect lives, and if one of us… isn't capable of that, then…"

Clawhauser's expression started to fall.

"We only have a single chance to do this, Spots." Nick started. "We can't just give it to you, you know? It's a permanent deal."

"So, you're saying I'm too…?"

"Ben, you know we don't mean it like that." Judy said. "We just don't want anyone getting hurt, especially not one of our friends."

The cheetah remained silent for a moment. "You're a member of our team, anyway!" Max said. "You're the most important member, without you, we wouldn't be able to track monsters as efficiently!"

The cheetah smiled a bit, before remembering something. "Oh yeah, there was a monster sighting nearby!" He explained. "The SPD are already on their way; you guys should get there too!"

The rabbit quickly hopped out of her seat, leaping over the table. "Alright team, we have a mission to do!" The three started to run to the exit, but Nick paused at the door and turned back to the cheetah.

"Spots, we need you to cancel the rest of the auditions for today, alright?" Nick said. "Tell them to come back in, I dunno, a week!" He quickly ran back out.

"Got it, Nick!" Clawhauser shouted back.

---

Silver landed in the middle of the plaza, Red and Blue quickly following behind him on their bikes. They hopped off, and glanced around.

"So, there was supposed to be a monster attack somewhere around here, right?" Red asked, glancing around the area. The three heard the sound of tires screeching, and turned to see the SPD's truck, Green and Pink getting out of it.

"Alright, where's the monster at?" Pink asked as they approached the three.

"If we knew that, we'd be fighting it." Red said.

There was a sudden scream, and the five quickly rushed off towards it. Passing around a building, they saw an antelope, being approached by a green creature.

The creature didn't look like anything they had seen before, its head seemed to be lizard-like, with bug-red eyes, and a rather erratic red pattern crawling across its face. Its head ended in three points, one in the middle going up, while two others at the sides went downwards. It seemed to have a beak for a mouth, and a small, yellow antenna popping out of its forehead.

It was hard to make out its body shape, but it was definitely a bit hunched over. What was noticeable was the red pattern continuing across its body, legs, and arms, broken up by a yellow chest and a white scarf around its neck. On its right arm was an odd looking, silver armlet, and both arms ended in what looked like black gloves, with sharp claws. On the creature's back was what looked like a small fin, which also seemed to be on its wrists and ankles.

Its legs ended in black boots, and it wore an odd belt around its waist. The belt had the same red bug-eyes, but also had an odd handle, and a red diamond pattern going around the black belt strap. Stuck in the middle of the belt seemed to be a buzzsaw of some kind. As Blue examined it, something felt off, it looks familiar, but she couldn't place where she would've seen something like it before.

The antelope let out another scream as the creature attempted to step towards him, but then stepped back. "You have seen-" The monster attempted to say, before the antelope screamed again, and ran off.

"Well, that looks like a monster to me." Red said, pulling his sword out. The rest of the team, besides Blue, responded in turn, pulling their weapons out, and running at the monster.

"Wait!" Blue shouted, stepping forward. She shook her head, and ran into the fight.

The monster glanced as the five approached. It let out a quizzical noise, and leaped up into the air, landing in front of them and causing them to stop in their tracks. "You… Zoo?" It asked, looking down at the fox.

"I don't know what that means." Red said. "But you better stop terrorizing those civilians, or we're going to have to throw down."

The creature knelt down, and tilted its head, confused, before standing back up, albeit in a hunched position. "Need to find Zoo."

"I think he's been trying to find us?" Silver whispered down. "I mean, what else could he be looking for?"

"Maybe a beauty saloon." Pink joked.

"Guys," Blue started, catching up with them. "I'm not sure that's-"

"Listen, pal." Red started. "I think we're the ones you're looking for, and if you're looking for a fight, you've come to the right place."

"Guys, seriously-"

The four Rangers quickly pulled out their weapons, and attacked the monster. Silver quickly swung at the creature, who seemed to effortlessly block it with his claws, before delivering a quick kick to launch the wolf across the plaza.

Pink and Green moved in next, Green swinging his cannon in an attempt to hit the creature, but it quickly leaned back, the cannon swinging right over it. It then moved to a handstand, kicking the bull back with both of his feet as he flipped back over to his feet.

Pink holstered her blasters, and swayed into a fighting stance, similar to the monster's own hunched stance. She moved in for a hit, but the creature grabbed her paw in one of its claws, before delivering a quick punch to her face, knocking her back.

Red glanced around as the monster turned to him. He clutched his sword, and hopped back, swinging it at the creature. The blade detached from the hilt, swinging towards the lizard-like creature. In response, it quickly pulled at the red handles on its belt, pulling them off and revealing a rope. The creature rapidly swung the rope at the blade, causing it to wrap around the sword's wire. With a quick tug, the monster pulled Red through the air, and then slammed him into the ground.

The four got up, groaning in pain as the monster looked around. "This guy's pretty tough." Red muttered as he climbed back to his feet.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you rush into a fight like an idiot!" Blue shouted, sprinting up to the creature. She glanced up as it looked down at her. She really hoped she wasn't wrong about this.

"Listen, we're so sorry for attacking you." She started. "We've all been a bit on edge for the last few days, and someone like you showing up doesn't really help."

"Carrots, what the hell are you doing!?" Red shouted.

The creature looked down at her, before kneeling. "You… Zoo?" It asked.

"Yes, we're the Zoorangers." She continued. "Do you come from the other timeline?"

The creature shook its head. "Here to help."

"Oh." Red said, dropping back to the ground, alongside Silver, Green, and Pink. All four of them were a bit embarrassed now that they had realized they weren't even attacking a monster.

"What's your name?" Blue asked.

"Me am… Amazon!"

The four other rangers gathered around Blue and Amazon, the five quickly untransforming. "So, this guy's a buddy from the other world?" Max asked.

"Seems like it!" Judy replied. "We should get you to a safer spot, where you won't be yelled at." Amazon gave a quick nod.

---

Amazon looked around the house, seemingly in awe of everything around him. The five watched on, silently, as he poked at one of the video game consoles on the TV stand, and recoiled a bit when it turned on. Max quickly got up and started to shoo him away.

"The heck is up with this guy?" Nick whispered to Judy, who was sitting next to him on the couch.

"I dunno." She said with a shrug.

"So, is this one of your friends from the alternate universe, or whatever?" Emily joked from behind the couch, reaching down and tapping Nick on the head.

"Alternate timeline." Henry corrected. The hyena stared at him for a second. "I actually pay attention to what I'm told."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is." The rabbit said. "He's just… a bit… weirder than what we're used to."

"Hey, Amazon Prime!" Nick said, catching the creature's attention. "Care to explain what's up with you?" Judy let out a groan, and facepawed.

Amazon quickly moved to the coffee table, and hopped up on top of it, nearly knocking over a mug. Max was having a panic attack as this happened.

"KAMEN RIDER… AMAZON!" Amazon shouted. "Amazon born in Amazon, given GiGi Armlet," He clutched at the armlet. "Given power to protect world!"

"You were born in Amazon?" Nick said, a bit confused. "You mean, the jungle, or…?"

"Jungle!" Amazon shouted, waving his arms. "Protect jungle!"

"Ooooooh kaaaaaay."

Max walked up to Amazon, and started to examine him. "I really like your suit." The wolf continued, walking around the table to get a better look. "It's very unique."

"Not suit."

"Not suit?" Max repeated, confused.

"Not suit." Amazon pounded at his chest. "Body."

"Oh."

"So, you're one of those… Kamen Riders?" Judy asked, standing up on the couch. "We met a few of those guys before."

"I wish you guys bothered to explain any of this to us." Emily muttered. "You told us we were dealing with 'Sentai', not… Riders."

"From what we've gathered they're very similar." Nick replied. "They're just slightly more… gimmicky."

Amazon nodded. "Amazon is Kamen Rider! Here to help. Red one said bad things coming."

"'Bad things'?" Nick repeated. "Hmm, don't like the sound of that. We already have enough bad things to deal with."

"Did AkaRed give you any details on this 'bad thing', or…?" Judy started, trying to get something out of the Rider's very… stunted information.

"Bad thing."

"Very informative." Emily chuckled. "I don't think we're gonna get any info out of lagarto boy here."

"Usually these guys showing up means something big is going to happen." Judy started. "The last time a Kamen Rider showed up, it ultimately resulted in you guys getting your powers."

"You mean our medals?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, those were used by this guy named Ohs…" She paused. "That's not important now, we have something dangerous coming, and we need to be prepared."

Almost as soon as she finished, their Zoolizers started to go off.

Amazon let out a growl. "Bad! Danger!"

"That enough preparation for you, Carrots?" Nick joked as he hopped down from the couch.

"Not nearly." She said, sounding a bit worried. "We need to head out ASAP."

---

The five arrived at the scene downtown, Amazon taking a ride in the SPD's truck, while the Zoorangers rode in on their bikes, Silver riding on Red's. They parked their vehicles, and glanced around.

The place was in ruins, pieces of concrete littered the ground, and a most of the buildings had pices cleaved out of them. It was like a disaster had just hit.

"This doesn't seem… particularly great." Red joked as the three hopped off their bikes. The SPD's truck parked next to them, and the three passengers got out as well.

"This isn't time for jokes, Red, there could be mammals in danger." Blue said.

"I only see five mammals in danger right now." A voice behind the six laughed. They turned around to face whoever it was.

Long.

He was standing amongst the rubble. He must have been the one who caused all of this.

"Long time no see, hmm?" The armored monster cooed. "I've missed having my fun with you all. And I see you brought a pet alongside you."

"He's not a pet, he's an ally!" Blue snapped, before pointing her daggers at the monster. "You caused all this destruction, right?"

Long let out a chuckle. "Me?" He started, raising his hands. "I'd never do such a thing."

"Liar." Silver muttered.

"Guess you decided to take us on yourself now, huh?" Pink started, stepping forward. "Well, you've had this a long time coming, golden boy!"

"Why would I ever face you myself?" Long continued. "You're nowhere near my strength."

Amazon shuffled over to Blue, and whispered something. "Monster… not all danger."

"'Not all danger'?" She whispered back, confused. "Is he not the only one here?"

Suddenly, Blue's ears twitched as she picked up something from behind them. Long wasn't the only one here. There was something else, and it was…

It was coming straight for them.

"GET DOWN!"

Blue ducked to the ground alongside Amazon, but the other Rangers were too late. A creature from behind them, spinning through the air like a drill, rushed towards them. It pierced through them all, and flew over to the Infinite Dragon himself, leaving the Rangers to fall to the ground in pain.

"I didn't cause this destruction, you see." Long started. "Like you, I brought a pet along. Let me introduce you to him.

The creature stopped spinning, revealing itself to the six in full.

The monster, whatever it was, was covered in black, obsidian armor with golden highlights. Bursting from its chest were five carvings of different animal heads, forming a circular pattern consisting of a boar, a rat, an ox, a horse, and a kind of ape. In the middle of the five was the symbol of chaos. Its arms were similarly covered in different animal heads, its shoulders displaying the heads of a crane and a crow, acting as shoulder armor with golden beaks.

Its elbows were marked with pads, one resembling a seashell, and the other the plating of a pangolin. Its upper arms had engravings of the upper half of a crocodile's head on one arm, and the other a carving of a centipede, wrapped around the arm. Its lower arms, directly attached to its wrists, had another scowling ape head, while the other seemed to have what looked like a fairly ordinary fish.

On the creature's upper legs were an eel, wrapped around one of the legs, and a cobra wrapped around the other. Its knees were marked with a pair of slightly different frog heads. On the lower legs were a scorpion and a gecko, hugging onto each of the legs. The creature's feet resembled animals as well, one of the boots resembling an ostrich head, and the other an angler fish, complete with lure. The back of the monster was marked with a line of fur, stretching from its neck, and around the outline of its back, though it was impossible to see if there was anything else on the back.

Even stranger were the monster's proportions, which were unlike any monster they had seen before. Its body matched up with a fairly slim feline, the hands and feet matching up with feline paws. Its head had a similar shape to a feline as well, though it was covered in a helmet, an opaque black visor covering up any face. The helmet was finished off with golden markings resembling a lion on either side, and more of the fur crawling down from the back of the head.

The monster let out a roar and snarled as it stepped forward. "Oh god, what is that?" Silver muttered as he got up.

"It looks like a bad art project." Red joked as he got back up as well.

"This, my friends, is my ultimate creation!" Long declared. "Created using the power of every Beastman at my disposal. He has the power to use of their abilities, a truly unstoppable force! I call him… the ULTIMATE BEASTMAN!"

"Beastman?" Amazon said, jumping back to his feet. "Geddon! Bad!"

"Geddon…?" Long muttered, before laughing. "This creature is better than anything those idiots could have created."

"Alright, so you made a 'super strong' monster." Red said, a bit smugly. "We'll see how long it lasts against all of us!"

Long started to laugh again.

"Ugh, this guy is super creepy." Pink muttered.

"I doubt you'll WANT to kill this monster." He continued. "You see, the power of every Beastman isn't the only thing I threw in… I added someone a few of you might know a bit… intimately."

He glared directly at Red, his visor glowing a deep, threatening red. Red paused for a moment, before quickly realizing what Long was getting at.

"You didn't."

"Didn't what?" Blue asked. "What's he talking about."

"Blue, that's not just a normal monster." Red said, having become incredibly serious in only a brief moment. "It's Clawbick."

Reflexively, Blue, Silver, and Pink's ears jolted up, while Green simply stared at the fox. Amazon didn't entirely understand what was happening.

"Correct, fox." Long replied.

The five glared at the Ultimate Beastman, who hadn't responded, or even talked the entire time they had been talking about him. It seemed it move mindlessly, bestially. It was rather disturbing.

"What did you do to him!?" Pink shouted, stomping forward.

"I found him wandering around that underground bunker, and it took days of cold-blooded torture, but I managed to make him as obedient as a housecat."" Long explained. "Where I come from, we call it… domestication."

A shudder went up Blue's spine. The way he was talking about, well, whatever it was, was more disturbing than she felt it should be. She could tell that Silver, Pink, and Green were disturbed as well, but Red simply seemed angry.

"See, if you decide to destroy my Ultimate Beastman…" Long started, circling around the monster and placing a hand on its shoulder. "…Then you'll have to kill Clawbick as well."

There was hesitation.

Long pointed towards them, causing the Ultimate Beastman to let out a roar, and rush towards them. The eyes on the monkey head on its head started to glow, as he swiped his armored paw forward. The six quickly leaped out of the way as a slash of energy flew at them. There was a burst of dirt, which exploded from the ground as the slash hit. The dust cleared, revealing the concrete had been directly cleaved through.

"Well, that's gonna be a problem." Red muttered. He dashed into the fight, drawing his sword, and leaping up to strike the monster. Red brought the sword down, slicing directly through the monster's body, causing it to stumble back with a grunt.

Long looked on, letting out a sigh.

Blue and Silver rushed in next, each preparing to strike with their weapons. Blue leaped up while Silver remained grounded, and slashed at the monster's sides. It grunted as it stumbled back, and the three ducked out of the way. Pink and Green moved in, and fired their blasters at the monster, knocking it to the ground.

"This guy is supposed to be your strongest monster?" Silver laughed. "He's a chump!"

Long remained silent and continued to observe.

The monster let out a grunt, before the pangolin armor on its elbow started to glow. An obsidian ball quickly enveloped him, and began to roll around the area, knocking into all five of the Zoorangers like a much more violent and controlled game of pinball. They were all flung across the plaza, Red and Green being flung into the sides of buildings, while Blue, Silver, and Pink were tossed to the ground.

The ball cracked, and then exploded, revealing the Ultimate Beastman, who let out a roar.

Blue got up, and glanced around for a moment. She couldn't see Amazon anywhere. Where did he go? She shook it off, maybe he wasn't as helpful as he seemed. And admittedly, he wasn't helpful to begin with.

The monster let out another roar, as the rat head on its chest started to glow. Electricity coursed through its body, and shot out of its arms as it thrust them to its side, causing two massive explosions that didn't seem to be aimed at anyone. The Beastman then began to spin around rapidly, becoming a gold and black tornado, continually shooting off bolts of electricity in random directions.

"The hell is this thing trying to do!?" Pink shouted over the electrical booms.

"I don't think it knows!" Blue shouted back. "I think it's just doing things at random!"

"Well, we need to get it to stop spinning!" Red followed. "Henry, with me!" He said. The bull nodded, and the two grouped together. They both pulled out their cannons, and fired simultaneously fired blasts. The shots met directly in the middle of the monster, but the spinning caused the blasts to be shot back where they came from. The two ducked out of the way as the energy flew past them and exploded.

"You know, I could've told you that would happen." Green said.

"Then why DIDN'T YOU!?"

"Learning experience."

"Nick, you just need to get that thing to stop, and we can try to subdue it!" Blue said, running over. "You and Silver should use your whips to tie him up!"

"Another good idea, Carrots!" Red said, getting up. "Hear that, Wolfsbane?" Red said to Silver, who was on the other side of the monster.

"Yeah, I got it." He said. "We need to do this at the same time, though. If we don't, we could just get caught up in his spin cycle."

"Got it." The fox glanced at the rabbit. "We need someone to give us a countdown simultaneously, think you can do that?"

"You know I can." Blue said. "Alright, on my mark!" She said through the communicator, to both the fox and wolf.

Silver quickly spun the guard of his blade to Moon Mode, and prepared to strike. Pre-emptively, Red removed the blade from his sword, it clinking to the ground to reveal the wire.

"One, two, THREE!"

They swung their blades, hopefully at the same time. The energy whip wrapped around one of the monster's arms, while the wire wrapped around the other. The monster stopped as they tugged, arms pulled out all the way out. It struggled and grunted as it attempted to break free, but to no avail.

"Alright, now we just need to finish it off!" Blue said. "Green, Pink, let's do it!"

The two nodded, and gathered to Blue. "Remember, we don't want to kill him, just knock him out." Blue reiterated.

"I WISH we could kill him." Pink muttered.

The three prepared their blasters, but were interrupted by something.

"GI GI!"

Everyone glanced around.

"What was that?" Blue asked.

"GI GIIIIIIII!"

"It sounds like its coming from…" Green started, looking up at the building behind them. It was a nearly collapsed building, missing most of anything that made it stable.

But somehow, Amazon was standing on top of it.

"GIIII GIIII!" He let out again, everyone looking up to watch him. He flapped his arms in an odd manner, crossing them and then swinging them out rapidly in an odd battle stance.

"AH! MAH! ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!"

He leaped up into the air, pulling his arm back, preparing to perform some form of karate chop.

"GREAT SLICE!"

He fell down as he performed a massive chop, slicing directly through the middle of the Ultimate Beastman. It let out a horrific roar of pain, as black goo burst from where Amazon struck, spraying over the Rider. The five Rangers looked on, fairly horrified at what had just happened.

Red and Silver were so stunned that their whips retracted on their own, leaving the monster free as it stumbled back.

It continued to grunt and clutch at its body in pain as Amazon sprinted back up to him, slashing at the monster's arm with his claws. In a single swipe, Amazon cleaved the arm clean off, causing a burst of the black goo, which started to spray from the stump left behind, and pour from the arm that landed on the ground.

The Beastman struggled as Amazon approached again, but he was quickly interrupted as Long appeared in front of him. The armored monster kicked the surprised Rider back, knocking him to the ground.

"We're getting out of here." Long growled. "I know exactly where I went wrong with you."

The two vanished in a burst of golden mist, leaving the arm behind.

There was stunned silence, everyone looking either at the goo-covered Amazon, or at the severed arm on the ground.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Judy shouted as she untransformed, unable to think of anything else.

Amazon tilted his head in response, confused, as the rabbit ran up to him. "Amazon, we weren't supposed to do… THAT!"

"Amazon… not hurt?" He said, confused. "Hmm, not understand."

"Of course you don't!" She said, exasperated.

The other four untransformed as well, Henry heading to check out the arm.

"That was equal parts incredibly, disturbing, and shocking." Nick said.

"Yeah, that's… I dunno what to call it." Emily said, genuinely not sure what to say.

"That would have been amazingly cool if there wasn't any of that goo." Max said. He carefully reached out, and scraped some off of Amazon's face with his claw. It felt like what a cloud would feel like if you could touch it, it felt both soft like marshmallows, and completely nonexistent.

Before he could examine it any more, the goo started to evaporate, starting with the goo on his claw, and moving on to the goo covering Amazon.

"Guys, check this out!" Henry said.

The five turned to the arm, which seemed to be… melting. It was turning into even more of the goo, before eventually evaporating as well.

"Guess Clawbick's not getting that arm back any time soon." Nick joked.

Judy started to pace around. She was at a loss for what to do. "We need to regroup." She said. "This is a major, MAJOR problem, and we can't just not have a plan."

"But we can't just have TWO psychos running around the city while we try to come up with something." Nick followed. "What are we supposed to do about that/"

She thought for a moment. "Um, Emily, Henry, go search for that thing. It should be weakened, considering… yeah."

"Got it." Emily said, before glancing at Amazon, who was sitting on the ground, still confused. "What are we going to do about him?"

"We'll take him back to base with us." She said. "If we come up with any plans, we'll let you guys know, alright?"

Amazon sat on the ground, mumbling to himself. "Amazon no hurt… Amazon no hurt, or hurt friends. Amazon no hurt anymore."

---

"So, we have one of the smartest villains in our rogues' gallery running around with a violent murder, who also has access to a bunch of different powers." Nick started as he leaned back on the couch.

"That's the gist of it, yeah." Judy replied. She was pacing around, trying to think of, well, anything they could possibly do to defeat them. It was starting to get late, and no more reports came up, so it was safe to assume they were done for the day.

"I can't think of anything." She finally admitted. "I don't know how to defeat them WITHOUT killing Clawbick. Long might be the only one who knows how to turn him back to normal, but…"

"Maybe we just need to knock it out of him somehow?" Max suggested.

"He got an entire arm chopped off, and nothing happened." The rabbit replied. "I feel like that would've done something to him."

"True."

Judy turned to Amazon, who was looking out a window at the back of the house. "Amazon, you're here to help us, right? Do you think you can come up with anything?"

"Amazon not good at plans." He admitted, looking back from the window. "Amazon fight."

"Helpful." Nick said, sarcastically.

"Its not like you're coming up with anything, Slick." The rabbit snapped back. "If I'm stumped, then you're even more stumped than I am."

"Yeah, I actually have an idea."

Her ears popped up, and she shook her head while letting out a sigh. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because you won't like it."

"Lay it on me, anyway."

Nick let out a sigh as he sat up. He took a deep breath, and told them his plan.

"We just kill him."

Silence creeped across the room. Max backed off as Judy entered an intense staring match with Nick. Her breathing got a bit more rapid, but the fox remained calm.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No, I'm not." Nick said, dead serious.

"Oh my god, Nick…"

"I don't see why we should let him live at this point." The fox growled. "You know what he's done, right? He's taken so many lives by this point, why should we show him any mercy?"

"Nick, we aren't the ones who decided who lives and dies." Judy said. She was very clearly disgusted by what the fox was saying, which he seemed aware of, but not particularly bothered by. "Something like that is up to the judge, we're just officers."

The fox remained silent for a moment, before hopping down from the couch. He glared at the rabbit for a moment. "Isn't that what we do anyway?" He said. "Isn't deciding who lives and who dies what we've been doing for the last year?"

"Nick, this is different-"

"HOW!?" The fox shouted back, startling the rabbit. "He's more of a danger than some of the monsters we've killed, I'd put him at that level!"

"I'm NOT killing anyone!" She shouted back. "I won't have anything like that happen again, alright!?"

Nick paused, and glared at her. "You weren't that generous with Era, were you?"

He walked off towards the basement door, leaving the rabbit behind.

Thoughts rattled around Judy's head. She knew that Nick and Clawbick had a past together, a bad one at that, but she didn't realize how much… disdain the fox had for him. It was disturbing, and nothing like how he usually was.

Distressingly, he had a point. At what point did they consider something a monster? It was something she had been ignoring since the whole thing had started. And… god, she did kill Era, didn't she? Even if it was out of mercy, she had still killed someone she had considered a friend. And what about that traffic light monster?

She fell to her knees, a sudden weight of horrible, horrible guilt coming over her. Max looked over at her, making sure she was alright. The rabbit took a deep breath, and got back to her feet.

"Max, what should we do?" She said, weakly. "I don't know how to deal with this…"

"I… I don't know." He responded. "I don't want to kill anyone either, but… Clawbick might be too much of a threat at this point…"

"We can defeat him without killing him." Judy said, less a statement, and more of a way to comfort herself. "I'm not going to let anyone else die."

Amazon looked on from the window, and then glanced back out.

---

"IDIOT!"

Long slapped the corrupted lion with the back of his armored hand, causing the Beastman to fall to the ground. The two were in an alleyway, hiding out after the utter failure of a fight from earlier. The lion was still missing his arm, and whimpering in pain

"I gave you the power of an entire army, and yet you couldn't figure out how to use ANY OF THEM!" Long shouted. He let out a growl. "Maybe destroying your mind wasn't the best idea… Hmm…"

The dragon warrior raised his hand up, golden energy starting to emanate from it. He thrust his hand forward, firing the energy at the monster. It let out a roar of pain as it hit, but quieted down once the energy was fully integrated.

Before the monster could do anything, the gecko on its leg lit up. Black goo started to spread out of its arm, forming into a new shape. In a moment it had hardened, creating an exact replica of the monster's lost arm, complete with animal carvings intact.

The Ultimate Beastman let out a grunt, as it climbed up the wall of the building behind it, returning to its feet. "I have returned some of your mental faculties." Long explained, as the monster looked at itself.

"Who… am I?" It asked.

"Hm, amnesia." Long muttered to himself. "Must have been a side effect of the torture, his mind recessed…" He glanced over at the monster, who still seemed very confused. "You are my loyal minion, the Ultimate Beastman. You hold the power of many different warriors, and are helping me to conquer this planet."

It stared for a moment, and glanced back down at its paws. "Yes… that makes sense." It said to itself. "I feel the power…" he clutched his paws, and looked up at Long. "What shall we do next, my master?"

"I want to test how well you can handle your powers." He explained. "And I know just who to test them on." The armored creature snapped its fingers, causing both of them to disappear in a cloud of golden mist.

The mist flew up into the sky, searching for its new prey.

Only a few blocks away were the SPD, still searching for Long after many, many hours. "Think we should turn it in soon?" Emily asked, checking her phone. "It's been about, what, five hours?"

"Yeah, I'll take you home in a bit." Henry said. "Just need to be careful."

"After his arm got cut off, Long's probably running for the hills." Emily chuckled.

Henry nodded. "Not really sure how anyone could recover from that-"

The bull's eyes widened as the golden mist appeared in front of them, Long and the Ultimate Beastman appearing from it. He swerved in the middle of the road, and skid to a halt. The two got out, putting on their armor.

"Damn it, I was just ready to go for a coffee!" Pink growled as they confronted the two monsters. The hyena noticed that the Beastman had somehow recovered his arm. "What the…?"

"How did you grow your arm back?" Green asked, equally confused.

"That is the skill of the Gecko Beastman, Moriya." Long explained. "Ultimate Beastman… destroy them."

"Yes, master." The monster growled, stepping forward. The crow and crane heads on his shoulders started to glow, before the monster thrust his paws out. White and black feathers made of energy flew from them, directly at the SPD Officers. They jumped out of the way, the feathers impaling the truck instead.

"Damn it, Dave!" Henry shouted, before firing a shot from his cannon. The frogs on the monster's knees started to glow, as the black goo began to cover his body. The energy blast hit him, but didn't seem to cause any effect, the goon retreating back into the monster's body.

Pink quickly fired her blasters, but the Beastman retaliated by aiming the fish head on his wrist at them. It started to glow, and fired out several shots of water, knocking the lasers out of the air.

He then quickly aimed the fish head at the bull, and fired several more shots. They hit him, but seemed to cause very little damage. The Beastman rushed up to the bull, this time both the centipede and the cobra on his body beginning to glow. His paws started to glow purple, as he began to start rapidly punching the bull at remarkable speeds.

After many, many of the punches, he stopped, causing Green to fall to the ground unconscious.

"Well, this might be a bit of a problem." Pink admitted.

The Ultimate Beastman turned to face Pink. The crocodile head started to glow, before the Beastman jumped into the air, spinning around at remarkable speed. He flew at Pink, sending her flying and crashing into the ground.

The monster approached her, looming over her like a black shadow. "Dave, please, you don't want to work with that guy!" She pleaded.

"He is my master." The Beastman said. "I have no idea who this 'Dave' is."

The cobra started to glow again, as he jabbed a claw down into the hyena's body. She quickly fell unconscious.

"Good work." Long congratulated, walking over to the Beastman. "Though, these two were the weakest of the lot."

"Should I kill them?" The Beastman asked.

"No, not yet." Long said. "We can find some use for them."

He let out a quick laugh, as all four vanished into the golden mist.

---

"So, Amazon, what exactly do you… eat?" Max asked from the kitchen. He glanced over at the Rider, who was starting to examine his electronics again.

"Amazon eat meat."

"Oh, so you're a predator?" Max said. This was a bit of a problem. Nick and Judy were both vegetarians, so he had only stocked on predator foods for himself. He glanced in the fridge. "Uh, I only have some fish, but that would take a while to cook…"

"Cook?"

Max glanced back at Amazon, who was curiously looking back at him.

"Uh, you're fine with… raw fish?"

"Fish, yes." Amazon said. "Eat fish."

"Okay, but… you're going to have to eat it outside." Max said, walking over to the back door. "This stuff is messy when raw, I'm not getting it on my carpet."

"Amazon like outside better than inside"

Max opened up the door, letting Amazon out into his back yard. He grabbed the fish, and tossed it out the back, wincing as Amazon started chomping into it.

The basement door opened up, Nick and Judy walking in. "How you guys doing?" He asked. "Got over that fight from last night?"

"Hah, no." Judy said. "I made Nick sleep on the couch down there."

"Not the worst place I've slept, admittedly." Nick said.

"You didn't even talk about it?" Max asked, a bit concerned. The two turned away from each other, and the wolf let out a sigh. "You guys are incredibly stubborn."

"He's the one who's stubborn!" Judy shouted. "How thick headed do you need to be to think that killing someone is acceptable!?"

"When its for the good of everyone!" Nick shouted back. "Do you know what the monster did to… to a whole lot of innocent mammals!?"

"You've told me hundreds of times by this point!" She retaliated. "Just because he's a horrible, absolutely disgusting creature doesn't mean we should kill him!"

"Yeah, and it's not like we don't do that-"

"You guys are starting to repeat your arguments, stop it." Max interrupted. "Now, I got Amazon his breakfast, you guys better get something to eat too. Maybe getting something in your stomachs will put you in a better mood."

"Hmmph." The two let out at the same time, crossing their arms and turning away from each other again.

An hour passed, and the three had eaten their breakfasts. But they were still arguing, of course.

Max watched on from the kitchen table as the two argued. "I get that ideals are a hard thing to change, but I really don't think now's the time for this…" He muttered to himself. The wolf's own ideals were conflicted over this as well. He knew that defeating the monster was the right thing to do… but he also didn't want to kill anyone. He was just as confused as Nick and Judy were, just a lot less hostile.

He glanced out the window, spotting Amazon, who was laying on his back, seeming to just take in the fresh air.

"Wish life was that simple." He muttered again.

There was a sudden buzzing sound from Judy's phone, shocking Max out of his funk, and causing a halt in the two's argument.

The rabbit quickly picked her phone off the table. "It's Clawhauser, he probably has a report on Long!" She said, answering it.

"Heeeey, Judy!" Clawhauser said as he appeared on the phone screen. He looked a bit nervous.

"You have a monster report, right, Ben?" She asked. "This isn't about a meme you saw online again, right?"

"No, this is… very serious." He said, his nervousness becoming more apparent. "So, Emily sent me an email a minute ago…"

"Oh, so the SPD have something to report on?" Nick said. "Makes sense they'd be the first to find Clawbick."

"Well, I got excited, but… all that was in the email was… this."

He fumbled with his phone a bit, before pointing the camera at his computer screen. On it was a very blurry picture, which seemed to show Emily and Henry, gagged and bound to the girders of a construction site.

"Oh god." The rabbit let out as the picture focused in better. "Who sent this…?"

"Not Em, obviously." Nick said. Max came over to get a quick look at the photo as well.

"Then, I got… a voice mail." Ben continued, pointing the phone at a much older looking phone. He pushed a few buttons on it, causing a voice to start speaking.

A very familiar, very distressing voice.

"Hello there, I assume this is the police station." Long said over the message. "In particular, I'm assuming this is the overweight cheetah that seems to love helping out my enemies. If it is, it would be just grand of you to send this message to the Zoorangers."

There some sounds over the phone, sounding like footsteps. There was a slap, and then a cry of pain.

"I have your friends." Long continued. "If you want to see them alive again, then you'll need to come to Skylight Heights construction site downtown. I'll be eagerly waiting."

The message flicked off.

There was silence for a moment.

"You should probably get on that." Ben said. "See you guys. Please go save them." He hung up.

There was more silence from the three.

Nick clutched his paw tight, and then slammed it into the coffee table. "GOD DAMN IT!" He shouted. "We need to go kick that guys ass RIGHT NOW!"

"Nick, this is obviously a trap." Judy replied. "We can't just go in unprepared. And we don't need to defeat them, all we have to do is save them. I can sneak in while you two distract Long and-"

"You really think that'll work!?" Nick shouted back. "He'll probably kill them if we try to do anything like that! We NEED to go defeat them."

Max looked on as the two started arguing again. After a minute, he clapped his paws. "Guys, we don't have time for this." He said. "If we don't head to the site right now, Emily and Henry are good as dead."

The two fell silent. "He's right, we'll figure out something once we get there." Judy said. She thought for a moment. "Do you think we should take Amazon?"

"I personally don't want to see any more gratuitous violence." Max admitted.

Nick nodded. "Besides that, he could end up being a liability." The fox explained. "The guy isn't particularly bright, and could get in the way really easily."

"Right." She said. "Let's head out."

The three rushed out through the front door, unaware that Amazon was looking in at them through the window. "Where they go?" He asked himself. "Hmm, sense bad… go help…"

The Rider slunk around the back of the house, and quickly started to trail behind the motorcycle bound Zoorangers.

---

The three arrived at the construction site. It was for a large skyscraper hotel that had been in the works for a few years. It was still nowhere near complete, but seemed to be spacious enough for a large brawl. As they walked into the yard of the site, they spotted Long and the Ultimate Beastman, standing on a raised platform in front of the two SPD Officers, who had been knocked out cold.

"Ah, pleasure to meet your acquaintance, once again." Long said with a laugh.

"Hey, how'd crazy cat up there get his arm back?" Red shouted up. "You do more weird experiments to him?"

"The Ultimate Beastman has truly unlocked his full potential." Long explained. "It was thanks to the technique of one of the many Beastmen residing in his body that he was able to regrow it."

That's weird." Blue said, rather bluntly. "But we showed up! Release our friends!"

"Hmm, I'll release them..." Long started. "…But only if you can defeat my Ultimate Beastman. If you do, somehow, manage to defeat him, then I'll give them back to you."

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." Red said to the rabbit.

She scoffed in response. "I'll think of… something." She stepped forward. "Alright, we'll take him on again! Expect it to go as well as last time!"

"Oh, I doubt that…"

Long motioned towards them, and the monster leaped from the platform it was on, crashing into the ground.

"My master has told me a lot about you. About how you meddled with his plans for so long." The Beastman said, startling the three, but especially Red. It sounded nothing like Clawbick… at least, not the Clawbick he had known for a long while. It almost brought back a flash of nostalgia.

He shook it off, and stepped forward. "So, got your brain back, Clawbick?" He started.

"I don't know who that is." The Beastman said. "Is it related to that 'Dave' those two mentioned?"

"I think he has amnesia." Silver suggested. "Something definitely happened to him, at least."

"Yeah, not that hard to figure out." Red said, pulling out his sword.

"You two fight, I'll sneak off to rescue Emily and Henry, got it?" Blue whispered. "It's the safest bet we have right now."

"Yeah, got it." Red said, Silver giving a quick nod as well.

Red and Silver rushed at the monster, Red leaping up as the wolf continued to run on the ground. The eel on the monster's leg started to glow, as he made a paw-motion towards Silver. A spurt of slime fired out from his paw, directly at the wolf's feet. In a split second, Silver found himself falling over onto his back.

Red continued his leap, and prepared to strike at the Beastman with all his strength. The monster slashed at him, firing out several energy slashes. Red slashed through them, but was met by a bright light, which blinded him for a moment. As he fell to the ground, the monster raised its leg, and quickly slammed the fox into the dirt.

"Weak." It said. "And don't think I've forgotten about you."

Blue paused in her tracks. While Red and Silver were fighting, she had quickly dashed over to the construction site itself. She was just about to go under the first platform, when the Beastman started to talk to her.

He quickly spun around, and fired several shots from the fish head on his arm. She leaped out of the way as the blasts hit a girder behind her, slicing it apart. There was a rumble, and she scrambled to get out from under the construction before it collapsed. She glanced back as she ran out, the unfinished building's frame slightly bending under its own weight.

Guess it wasn't load-bearing.

The monster quickly turned back around as Red and Silver continued their charge, quickly slashing at the monster's chest simultaneously. It stumbled back, before flinging its arms forward, firing out white and black energy feathers from its hands. The two quickly leaped out of the way as the feathers cut through the ground.

The monster spread its arms out, attempting to hit them, but soon felt himself interrupted by a strong kick to his back. He stumbled, and turned back, spotting Blue behind him, blasters ready. The rabbit quickly opened fire on the monster's face, causing it to stumble back even more.

It let out a growl as the three grouped back together. Red let out a chuckle as he turned around to face Long, who was still watching above them. "Looks like he's still got some bugs!" The fox joked. "Maybe you should call customer service!"

Long remained silent.

"Yeesh, that guy does not like jokes." Red grumbled as he turned back to the monster. He pointed his blade at the lion. "Alright, time to finish you!"

"Non-fatally finish you." Blue added in.

Red rolled his eyes from behind his mask.

"You're slightly tougher than I expected." The Beastman said. "But you're still not tough enough to defeat me."

The ape head on his chest started to glow, black goo starting to flow from the monster's body. It flowed into two separate masses on both sides of the monster, and seemed to form into two distinct bodies. The slime hardened, revealing two more of the Ultimate Beastman.

"And you're definitely not strong enough to defeat three of me!"

"This is gonna suck." Silver muttered as the three monsters charged at them.

One of the Beastman seemed to head instinctively for Red, who leaped out of the way as it let out a slash, cleaving a large chunk of the ground in front of it. He pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it, but the monster backhanded it back, the blast knocking him into a girder.

Silver fought with another one of the Beastmen, attempting to rapidly slash at it, but the monster somehow blocking every slash effortlessly. He stopped striking the monster for a moment, preparing to switch to another mode of his sword, but was soon kicked in the back by another Beastman. He stumbled into the first Beastman's attack, a double handed punch, which slammed the wolf into the ground.

Blue hopped and rapidly slashed at the other Beastman, attempting to avoid his own slashes and kicks. She managed to do well for a moment, before the Beastman landed a lucky blow, knocking her to the ground. The other two clones absorbed themselves back into the monster's body as he stood amongst them, victorious.

"Well done!" Long said, clapping. "You've managed to defeat them, now… kill them."

"Yes, master." The Beastman said. He glanced over at Red, who had gotten up, but was clearly dazed from the impact. Something about him just made the Beastman want to… rip his innards out.

The monster stomped towards him, but was interrupted by a sound.

"GI GI!"

"What the-?"

He turned around, and almost instantly was met by Amazon, who leaped down from the sky, performing a large chop.

His hand slashed through the monster's chest again, causing it to stumble back. The Beastman let out a grunt of pain as the Rider approached, leaping up and kicking him in the chest next.

He clutched at his chest as Amazon continued to attack. He slashed and kicked at the monster's body, black goo flying out of his body with each attack. After a few moments of the attack, the goo seemed to start disappearing, replaced with green electrical crackles.

Amazon quickly hopped back, and prepared to perform his finisher, the fin on his back twitching. He rushed forward, preparing to leap up and perform the attack, but the Beastman let out a scream of pain.

More electricity burst from his body, all three Zoorangers looking on from where the monster had taken them down. There was a sudden burst of green energy, knocking all four of them away. The monster stumbled a bit, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"What!?" Long growled. "GrrAGH, what is it NOW!?"

He glanced at the Zoorangers as they recovered. "We beat your monster!" Blue shouted up. 'Give us back Emily and Henry!"

Long remained silent for a moment. "I said that YOU needed to beat him. Not that ridiculous caveman."

"Rude." Amazon said back to him.

"I will return." Long declared. "Maybe then, you will be able to save your friends!"

He, alongside the Beastman, and the tied-up mammals, vanished into golden mist, which fluttered off through the sky. Blue let out as angry as a growl as a rabbit could manage in response.

"That lying, horrible… SNAKE!" She yelled, untransforming alongside the other two Zoorangers.

"I'm gonna be honest and say that we should have predicted that." Max said, bluntly. "He's a bad guy, they never actually play by the rules unless it benefits them."

"He's right, but this is still a problem." Nick said in response. "We need to do something about this, fast. He probably retreated back to the mountain."

"Nick, don't even think about it." Judy snapped.

"Think about what?" He replied, sarcastically. "Going up to the villain lair and actually doing anything to save our friends!?"

Max let out a sigh, and looked at Amazon, shaking his head. The Rider tilted his head in confusion.

"That's a death sentence, Nick!" Judy shouted. "There's still seven incredibly dangerous villains up there, and we're NOWHERE near prepared to take all of them on at once!"

"We have our Solar and Lunar forms, though!" The fox retorted. "We were strong enough to take on Long with that, I say we can take on all six at once!"

"Are you forgetting that Long is IMMORTAL!?"

"Well, what are we supposed to do, sit around and do nothing!?"

"We wait until Long shows up, and then figure out how to defeat Clawbick." She explained, with a lower voice, but still intensely. "If we do that, we'll save Emily and Henry."

"How exactly are we supposed to defeat him WITHOUT killing him?" Nick asked.

"We have to do what Amazon did, cause… whatever that was to happen." She continued. "If we do that, then we'll have won."

"But that won't get rid of the problem! If we just defeat him like that, we'll STILL have a monster that can take on all of us at once running around!"

"Well, we can't just let Emily and Henry die now, either!"

"Alright, alright, you two!" Max shouted, quickly lifting the two up by their shirts. "This has gone on long enough. We won't come up with anything if you two keep acting like this. We're going back home, and you two are going to talk through your problems, peacefully."

The two groaned as Max carried them out of the construction site, Amazon following close behind.

---

"Wow, did you seriously use ALL of your minions to make this guy?" Yabaiba asked, examining the unmoving body of the Ultimate Beastman, who was placed on top of the table in the middle of the chamber.

"Almost all of." Long responded. "I saved one more, just in case."

"He's rather… ornate, isn't he?" Kyuemon said, also examining the body. "Shame he didn't work out that well."

"He worked PERFECTLY." Long growled. "He seemed to have had some sort of… energy flow problem. I can easily fix it."

"You're talking about that thing like it's a machine!" Yogostein said from the far side of the table, sounding a bit offended. "If I was making something like that, and not saying I would, I would make it a perfect machine! With all those organic parts, it just becomes a liability!"

"Qi can only be used by living creatures." Long said. "Qi alone is a force stronger than anything that powers your scrapheaps."

"You said he managed to take out all the Zoorangers, right?" Sambash asked, seated in a chair a bit farther off from the table. "How did he even lose? Seems pretty lame to me."

Long twitched for a moment. "This… creature, that's been following them around managed to catch him by surprise. I suppose that the pain the beast inflicted on him was bad enough to send him into shock."

He looked up, glancing at Enter. The entire time, he had been staring at the Beastman, seemingly fascinated by something. "Take a picture, it'll last longer." Long said.

Enter glanced up, and shot him a sarcastic smile. "No, I think I've seen everything I need everything goes well, mon amie."

Long looked back down at the Beastman. "Everyone back off, I'm going to perform the ritual."

The villains did so, each of them creating enough space between themselves and Long to hopefully not be blasted apart. The Infinite Dragon raised his hand, golden energy starting to form at his finger tips. He then jabbed his hand into the monster, the energy quickly spreading through his body. It let out a pained grunt as Long removed his hand.

The Ultimate Beastman slowly sat up. "Are you feeling any better?" Long asked.

"I'm feeling perfect…" It said, standing up. Its tone had changed somewhat, a lot snider than the obedience he displayed earlier. "Let's go kill those Zoorangers."

Long paused for a moment. "Very direct, but an acceptable plan." Long said. "But I believe we've had enough pressure for a while. We will wait just a bit longer before having our fun."

The Beastman simply let out an annoyed grunt, as the other villains, including Long, left him alone.

He clutched his fist, and let out a laugh.

"Prepare yourself, Long."

---

The three had arrived home, and several hours had passed. It was starting to get dark, and neither Nick nor Judy had started to talk about anything. Instead, the two skulked about the place, avoiding each other.

They were acting like children.

Max had been watching this unfold over the entire day, and it was starting to get aggravating. They wouldn't be able to get anything done unless they worked together, which seemed impossible at the moment.

He knew that ideals were a hard thing to really talk through, but they could've at least tried. Him and Delgato had gone through things like this before, but they still worked together. If they couldn't overcome their own differences, their friends would probably…

He shook it off, and let out a sigh. He looked down at the foot of the couch, where Amazon was sitting. "What do you think we should do?" He asked, almost out of the blue. "There's no way we can rescue Em and Henry when they're acting like this…"

"Amazon understand fox." The Rider said. "He afraid, angry."

Max looked at him, a bit confused. "You can tell what he's thinking?"

"Amazon angry at enemies for hurting friends." Amazon tried to explain. "He want to protect friends, but… confused."

Max's ears perked up as the Rider talked. "I have an idea." He started. "You understand where Nick is coming from, right? Why don't you go explain it to Judy? Maybe you can get her to understand him better."

Amazon paused for a moment, and then shook his head. "Go find rabbit, talk to her." He said. The Rider jumped up from the ground, and started to sniff at the air. He jumped over the table, and headed upstairs.

He creeped into the master bedroom, where Judy was. She had come up here to just look at the moon for a bit and gather her thoughts. The moon always seemed to relax her. Unfortunately, she had to stand on a chair in order to look past the windowsill.

"Hello." Amazon said, causing her to let out a small yelp.

"Oh, sorry." She said, turning to Amazon. "Uh, why are you here?"

"Amazon want to talk."

"Well, if you want to talk, maybe you should go take some speech courses…"

Amazon quickly shook his head. "No. Talk you."

"Oh, talk to me." She sighed. "Uh, alright." She muttered, sitting down on the chair as Amazon walked over. He crouched down next to the chair.

"This is about Nick, isn't it?" She asked, Amazon nodding his head.

"Amazon try to… explain how fox feel." He started. "Fox… confused and angry at monster. Very… personal. Rabbit understand that?"

"I guess." She said. "I just… I don't feel like I would go to the levels of hate he has right now."

"What does rabbit know about fox and monster?" Amazon asked. "You know past?"

"Past?" She thought for a quick moment. "Well, I know that Clawbick was… abusive to him and his friends. I suppose that could mean a lot of things."

"Rabbit know where fox come from?"

"Not really." She said. "I was bullied, sure, but never… abused." She paused for a moment. "God, I must've been coming off like an asshole."

"Rabbit not worry." Amazon said. "Fox need to get frustrations out. Only bad people want to kill. Fox not bad, Amazon can tell."

"Maybe you're right." She said, placing her chin on her paw. "I'll talk about it to him in the morning…"

Amazon tilted his head, confused. She still seemed upset about something. "Something bother rabbit?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Judy said, clearly lying.

Amazon continued to stare at her for a moment, before she finally let out a sigh.

"Okay, yes, something's still bothering me. It was what he said earlier… about us killing monsters." She let out another sigh. "Its been haunting me ever since our first day… is it right that we're killing these monsters? They might be evil, but I know its possible for them to change, so… should we keep doing this?"

It went quiet for a moment. Amazon finally spoke up.

"Destroying monsters… good. More be hurt or killed if not." He started. "Every monster has a leader, with black soul. If the leader not destroyed, then whole world in danger."

Judy looked at him. "So, you're just saying what I'm doing is fine? That I shouldn't feel guilty?" She started, getting a bit angry.

"No."

The rabbit's nose twitched.

"Being… hero, means you make tough choice." He said. "Amazon had friend that was monster, but knew that destroying other monsters helped everyone."

"What… what happened to your friend?" She asked.

"Friend helped me fight monsters." Amazon explained. "Killed… by own kind."

"That's terrible." She said, shocked.

"Redemption of monsters, possible." Amazon continued. "But dark heart leads more dark hearts. Some impossible to redeem."

"So, if I want to make the world a better place, then I need to do this?" She asked, still confused.

"Rabbit help monsters who need help, right?" Amazon asked. She nodded in response. "Then you already do right thing. Heroes help, you hero."

She gave a small smile. "That makes me feel a bit better." She said. "Getting called a hero by an actual hero. Thanks, Amazon."

"Amazon, always help!"

---

Nick had stayed in the basement for most of the previous day. He had been doing it to mostly just avoid talking to Judy. He knew it was incredibly childish, but she just didn't understand. She didn't understand what had happened between him and Clawbick. She could never really understand that kind of betrayal.

And he'd been through it twice.

As he skulked around the basement, he had lost track of time completely. He had spent the entire time thinking about things. About whether he was right or not. He didn't really want to admit it, but he knew he was wrong. He had especially regretted bringing up Era, that was just a horrible, horrible thing to say.

But it didn't mean that Judy was entirely in the right. She had no right to tell him what to feel.

Eventually, he had completely passed out on the couch, without even unfolding it into the bed.

He woke up, and cleared his bleary eyes, before getting up and going upstairs. He felt in a much better mood.

"Hey, Nick!" Judy said from the dinner table. Seems like she was in a better mood at this point, too. "Come sit down with us!"

The fox shrugged, and got up onto his seat, joining her and Max at the table. "Where's Beast bOy?" He asked. "Outside again?"

"If you think I'm letting a messy eater like him eat in my house, think again." Max said. He quickly glanced at the two. "So, I'll go make some coffee, and you guys can sit here, and… chat."

The wolf got up, leaving the fox and rabbit at the table. "Nick, I wanted to say that I'm, uh, sorry." Judy admitted, rather quickly. "I have no idea what happened with you and Clawbick, so I don't have any reason to judge how you feel."

Nick remained silent for a minute.

"Uh, I'm sorry to." He finally said. "I was kind of acting like a jerk."

"You were acting like an incredible jerk." She followed. "But I know why you were acting like a jerk. It's all fine."

Max walked over, carrying two cups of coffee. Thank god they had managed to work through that. He placed the cups in front of them, and headed back to pour his own.

Judy took a sip of her coffee. "Nick, what exactly DID happen between you and Clawbick?" She asked after placing the cup back down.

"I, uh, don't really want to talk about it." He said.

"That's fine." She replied. "If it makes you feel uncomfortable, then we don't have to talk. It must have been something pretty terrible to say you want to kill him, though."

"I never said I didn't want him to die." The fox quickly said. "I just… wouldn't want either of us to do that. If we did that, I guess we'd end up being just as bad as he is."

Judy nodded as Max sat back down at the table, taking a sip of his coffee. He was interrupted by a phone ringing.

"Hopefully this is Clawhauser." Judy said as she hopped down from her chair. She walked over to the coffee table, and grabbed the phone off it.

She froze as she read the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Nick asked, a bit worried by the sudden silence.

"It's… It's Emily."

Nick and Max got up, and walked over to Judy. She answered it.

The camera came on, revealing both Emily and Henry, tied, bound, and gagged to a pair of trees. They were still unconscious, but were much bloodier than they were before.

"Hello there." A voice on the other side said. It was Long's. The camera spun around to reveal him. "I'm so sorry to intrude on your day again."

"You're pulling the same trick again, Long." Judy said, angrily. "Its not nearly as shocking."

"You know what? I don't care." He said. "Same deal as before. Come meet me at the base of Mount Animalia. See you all soon."

His visor started to glow, and the camera began to glitch out. In a few seconds, the call was terminated.

"Em's gonna be upset when we tell her that her camera got turned into a puddle." Nick joked. "But seriously, we need to head out."

The rabbit nodded. "So, our plan is to get Clawbick to fritz out again, that'll count as a defeat and we can save Emily and Henry."

"Sounds good to me." Max replied. He paused for a moment. "Think we should take Amazon with us this time?"

"No, we shouldn't." Nick said, bluntly. "He's the reason why they got away last time."

"He's also the reason why we didn't die last time."

"I agree with Nick" Judy said. "If we manage to pull this off, we won't need Amazon's help."

Max sighed. "Fine."

The three headed out shortly after that, leaving the Rider behind.

---

A short while later, they arrived at the entrance to Mt. Animalia. After talking with the guards for a few minutes, they were allowed through. They walked up the trail, heading up the mountain and into the forest that covered it.

Nick took in the fresh air. The trees, to him, towered above, with blue sky and sunshine piercing through. It made him feel nostalgic for a time he barely remembered, and almost made him forget what they were here for.

"You know, my dad used to come up here every week." He said to Judy.

"He did?" She replied, a bit surprised. "I wouldn't expect your dad to have been a hiker."

"Yeah, every Saturday he'd hike the trail." Nick continued. "Sometimes he'd bring me, but I was a brat and hated it." He let out a sigh as his ears fell. "Kind of regret it, in hindsight."

"Everyone has regrets they can't change, Nick." Judy said, trying to comfort him.

"Man, isn't it nice up here?" Max said, before taking a sniff. "Ahh, smells like trees. Shame we're probably going to end up doing some environmental damage."

"We'll try not to." Judy said with a laugh as they came up to a clearing. It was next to the path, and with a large, rocky cliff hanging above them "I wouldn't want to harm anything up here." She finished.

As soon as the rabbit finished, there was a loud sound. The three leaped out of the way as a fireball flew past them, and exploded, instantly incinerating a tree behind them.

"I, however," Said a voice. The three looked up at the cliff, as Long and the Beastman walked into view. "Have no qualms about destroying everything here." Long finished.

"ZOO ON!" The three yelled, quickly transforming. "Where are our friends!?" Red yelled up.

"They're right behind me." Long said. "You just can't see them over the cliff."

"Liar!" Blue shouted.

"I'm actually not lying." He said. "Ask your wolf friend, he should be able to pick up their scents."

Silver sniffed the air for a second. He definitely picked up their scents… alongside the remnants of burned metal. "Yeah, he's telling the truth."

"Oh." Red said, shocked. "Well, what do you want us to do, fight your monster again?"

"Yes." Long said, simply. "Same rules as last time. If you manage to win, I will give you your friends back."

"Alright, you're on!" Silver said. "Prepare to have your butt kicked!"

Long let out a chuckle, before turning to the Ultimate Beastman. "Kill them."

The Beastman didn't move.

He glared at the Beastman again, before motioning towards the Zoorangers. "KILL THEM!" He shouted.

The Beastman still didn't move.

"Are you disobeying your master!?" Long shouted, grabbing the monster by the shoulder.

Almost instantly, the Beastman reversed the grab, throwing Long off of the cliff. He crashed into the ground with a grunt. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" He yelled as he got up.

The Beastman peered down from the cliff. Suddenly, a pair of threatening green eyes appeared behind its visor.

Then it started to laugh.

The laugh turned to a guffaw, until the monster finally stopped, utterly thrilled at something. "WOO!" It shouted. "It's GREAT to be back!" Its voice had completely changed, and it sounded… familiar, somehow.

"What's going on?" Blue asked her teammates. They both shrugged.

"What kind of joke is this!?" Long shouted.

"Oh come ON, guys!" The Beastman said, seemingly disappointed. "I was hoping to make this the big reveal, and you can't even remember my VOICE!?"

Long thought for a moment. "Wait… no, it can't be!" He shouted. "You were destroyed! I made SURE OF IT!"

"Wait, does he mean…?" Red asked. He glanced back up. "Is that…?"

"Come on, say my name!" The monster said, grandstanding. "You all know it SO well!"

"Savage!" All four shouted.

"Bingo!"

"How are you even here!?" Blue shouted up. "We destroyed you!"

"Wrong!" The monster said. "You only managed to destroy MOST of me! You see, I'm not as dumb as some villains here think I am…" He glanced down at Long, who let out a growl.

"I planned for my eventual destruction, especially after Long betrayed me." He continued to explain. "I put a good chunk of my own energy into Davey-boy here, and Long applying his own energy seemed to have woken me up!"

"Why are you here, Savage!?" Long growled.

"I told you that I would get my revenge on you, Long!" The monster said to him. "Little did I know that you'd end up being the one to bring it upon yourself!"

"Come down here and fight me, then!" Long challenged. "I doubt you can even use that body effectively!"

"Wanna bet?" Savage laughed. Unbeknownst to everyone below him, one of his feet let out a glow.

Savage leaped down from the cliff, a shockwave of energy flying from him as he hit the ground. The unicorn on his chest, and the shell on his elbow, started to glow. Black goo started to flow from his arms, forming spiralling armor on both of them, which both ended in sharp points.

He rushed at Long, jabbing one of the spikes forward. Long quickly grabbed it, but found himself being pushed back as Savage continued to charge on ahead, directly into the Zoorangers. The three leaped out of the way as Long was pushed into a tree.

Savage took a step back, and started to repeatedly slash Long with his weapons. He then pulled both arms back, and thrust them into Long's chest. The force of the blow was strong enough to send Long directly through the tree, the plant splitting in half. He continued to fly, and crashed through several more trees.

He rolled down the mountain grass a bit, before stopping. Savage held up his weapons, which soon turned back into goo and retreated into his body. He spun around to face the Zoorangers, who pulled out their weapons. The monster stood still as the boar head on his chest started to glow.

The three rushed forwards. Blue leaped up, and slashed at Savage with her daggers. Red quickly jumped in, holding up his sword to use as ground for Blue to jump off of. As soon as she finished, Red started to slash at the monster's legs. Silver rushed in next, and slashed more at the monster's chest, sparks flying off. He quickly switched to Sun Mode as Blue and Red pulled out their guns. With Blue still airborne, they fired all of their shots, point blank, at Savage, creating a massive explosion.

But there was something odd.

There was no sound.

As the three backed off from the explosion, they noticed that the entire area had fallen silent. They couldn't hear anything, not even leaves rustling.

The fire from the explosion cleared, revealing Savage, seeming to be completely unharmed. He let out a laugh, which was still somehow audible.

"Boom."

There was a sudden pulse of sound from the monster, completely invisible, but powerful enough to cover most of the ground around them. Trees flew from the ground as the area was reduced to an open patch of grass, dirt, and rocks. The Zoorangers were flung through the air, each of them crashing into the rocks behind them, and crashed to the ground.

Savage cocked his head from side to side, seeming to just have been stretching it out. Sound had returned at this point. "Did you guys get worse than before?" Savage asked, sounding a bit disappointed. "I thought you guys would at least be some trouble…"

The three watched helplessly from the ground as Savage approached them, but he was interrupted as flaming arrows started to strike him in the back.

He turned around, just in time to watch Long leap up from below, landing a punch directly to the monster's face. Savage stumbled back, as Long quickly thrust his arm forward, firing off several fireballs.

"Gah, you're persistent!" Savage retorted.

"I'm immortal." Long said, bluntly. "If you think you can defeat me, then you're dead wrong."

"I'd consider ruining your precious plan beating you!" Savage mocked. "Now, get the hell out of my face!" The pangolin head started to glow, before the goo appeared and started to cover up Savage, turning him into a ball.

He started to roll at Long, who braced himself as the rolling monster crashed into him. "YOU THREE!" Long shouted at the Zoorangers, as they got up. "ATTACK HIM NOW!"

"Why should we!?" Red shouted at Long.

"Because if you don't, this idiot will go and destroy your entire city!"

"Compelling reason." Red muttered.

"We'll use our finisher!" Blue said. "Let's combine all our weapons!"

Red and Silver nodded, and quickly formed the Zookaizer. They charged it, and then fired. Before the beam could hit however, Savage uncurled from his ball, and grabbed onto Long. The beam hit him for a moment, before he let out a laugh. He spun around, making the beam hit Long instead of him.

The Infinite Dragon let out a yell of pain as Savage let go of him, causing Long to fall to the ground. "Looks like you saved my life yet again, Long!" He mocked.

"You…" Long weakly said, reaching up, attempting to grab the monster. His arm fell limp, and the monster vanished, Red noticing a small, golden object sitting on the ground. Before anything could happen, energy started to build around where Long had died. It flew up into the air, and into the mountain.

"Well, well, that was fun!" Savage said, clapping his paws. "I'm gonna go head to the city and destroy it, see you all later!"

"NO!" Blue shouted, stepping forwards. Before she could even finish, Savage leaped off into the city. The forest fell silent as the realization hit them. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Blue continued to shout.

"We need to go stop him!" Red said. "If we let him do anything, then the city is done for."

"You two go and stop him." Silver said. "I'm going to go rescue Em and Henry, take them back to my place."

"Good idea." Blue said. Silver gave a nod, and leaped up onto the cliff. Blue looked back at Red. "You ready to go do this."

"Yeah, but…" He paused for a moment. "I'm not sure we can stop him without killing him now…"

Blue glanced at the ground, and then back up at the fox. "I'm sure we can." She said. "We just have to figure something out."

Red shook his head as the rabbit ran off. He quickly followed behind her.

Up on the cliff, Silver walked over to the still unconscious hyena and bull. He quickly cut them down, and removed their bondage. "Alright, let's get you two back somewhere safe." The wolf said to them. Using all his strength, he lifted the two onto his shoulders, and leaped off into the distance.

---

The golden energy emerged into the dark base of the villains, before reforming into Long. He rolled across the ground as the other villains watched on. He was met with mocking laughs as he rose to his feet.

"Brilliant show there, dragonbreath." Sambash mocked. "What is that, the SECOND time you've been betrayed by your own monster?"

"Shut it, worm, or I'll squish you like the bug you are." Long growled.

"I'd be way more scared if I thought you could even touch me." Sambash continued. Long raised his hand, fire starting to spew from it.

"Stop acting like idiots." Kyuemon interjected. Long's fire quickly subsided. Kyuemon glanced at him. "You're just lucky that The Omnipotence isn't awake right now. Who knows what he would do to you if he found out you wasted resources like this."

"Oh, I know what he would do!" Yabaiba said, raising his hand. "He'd kill Long, and probably replace him with that Savage guy!"

"And that's not something any of us want!" Yogostein said, stamping his spear on the ground. "The guy was a real creep the last time he was here, even for one of us!"

Long grunted. "You're saying all this like I would LET him do all this." He went quiet for a moment, thinking. "Yes, I know what I'll do. I know how to work this to my advantage…"

With that, Long disappeared into golden mist, which flew out of the base.

The other villains started to laugh.

"What an idiot." Kyuemon said. "How many times do you think he'll embarrass himself like this?"

"Oh, I hope it's a lot of times!" Sambash replied. "Its really funny."

Unaware to the rest of the villains, Enter stood at the back, having seen the whole thing. He chuckled to himself.

"So, Savage is alive, hm?"

---

Red and Blue rushed into the middle of a plaza, the closest one to the Mt. Animalia entrance. The place was in ruins; even worse than the plaza they had fought the Beastman in before. Buildings were wrecked, cars were flipped over and flaming, and the ground had been shattered in places.

"I think he's nearby." Red said, trying to ad some levity. Blue just shook her head.

Before they could move, a figure crashed down in front of them. It was Savage. "Ugh, you guys love following me around, huh?" He groaned.

"Do you seriously expect us to just let you do this!?" Blue asked, incredulous. "Stopping you is kind of our job!"

"Eugh, so touchy!" Savage was clearly uninterested in fighting them, as he lolled his head around. Finally, he stopped. "Why don't you guys show me what you've got?" He asked. "I'd love to see if you could even scratch me!"

"'What we've got'?" Red said. He looked at Blue, and they nodded to each other. "Alright, lets do this!"

The two pulled out a pair of ZooTags, and quickly plugged them into the Zoolizers.

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

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

Savage started to laugh, as the ostrich head on his foot started to glow.

The massive sword and boxing gloves appeared, and the two rushed into combat. Red jumped up and swung the blade at Savage, who managed to catch it in one paw. Blue rushed in next as Red hit the ground, jabbing at the monster's feet. Red, now on the ground and sword still in paws, pulled back the blade as the monster stumbled. He spun around a full 360 degrees, slashing directly through Savage's midsection.

The monster stumbled back from the blow, with Blue quickly running in and leaping up, performing a powerful uppercut. Savage let out a laugh as they rushed in again. Both the frog heads on his knees started to glow, the goo coming out of them and forming a shield. They both struck the shield with their weapons, to no effect.

The goo retreated back into the Beastman's body, as both the fish and crocodile heads on his body started to glow. He braced himself, before launching forward like a tornado. Water seemed to stream out of the tornado as it moved forward, covering it completely. He rushed at Red, who prepared to strike him down with his blade. As the blade clashed with the tornado of water, it seemed to explode into a burst of liquid.

Red was sent flying from the blast, the Solar Flare Saber vanishing completely as he hit the ground. Savage, however, remained completely unharmed from the blast. He turned his gaze to Blue, who put up her boxing gloves, prepped to fight. The two rushed at each other, Blue leaping up into the air and preparing to unleash a torrent of blows upon the monster.

Savage paused, as the centipede and monkey head started to glow. The claws on his armor started to glow as well. As soon as Blue began to rapidly punch at Savage, he began to slash at her, at an even faster speed. Each of her blows was blocked by the monster, who managed to get in several hits himself. Blue continued to punch as fast as she could, but fatigue was starting to kick in. Savage used this opportunity to speed his slashes up even more, hitting the rabbit with hundreds in only a few seconds. He finished by slashing her directly into the ground, leaving a crack. The Buster Boxers vanished as she got up.

She quickly rolled away before Savage could crush her under his foot, and met up with Red. Savage let out another laugh. "Is that really all you guys've got!?" He asked. "I know you've got more weapons tucked up your tiny behinds, show me them!"

"Not yet, freak!"

He turned around. Silver jumped through the air, and slashed at Savage with his rapier. He quickly rushed past the monster, and met with the other Zoorangers.

"You managed to get them to safety?" Blue asked.

Silver nodded. "I asked Amazon to fill them in when they wake up." He turned back to Savage. "Now let's end this guy!"

"Oh, if it isn't glitter boy!" The monster mocked. "I suppose you want to hit me with all you've got as well, hmmm?"

"Uh, yeah?" Silver said, a bit confused. "Why would you ask that-"

Before he could finish, Savage thrust his arms forwards, firing out black and white energy feathers at the three. Silver quickly spun his blade's guard to Eclipse Mode, time freezing. In a few moments, he slashed through the feathers, and made his way to Savage, quickly slashing at him with his blade.

Time started back up, and the monster stumbled back as the blow connected. What remained of the energy feathers flew over Blue and Red's heads harmlessly. "I think he's planning something." Blue suggested. "He's goading us into using all our weapons."

Well, if he is planning something, then he's not gonna get it!" Red said, pulling out another ZooTag. "Because we'll stop him before that!"

Blue nodded, and pulled out her own ZooTag. They quickly plugged them both in.

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

"TRAINING THE WILD!
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!
POTSURI! ZUBARI!
WILD AXE!"

The claws and axe appeared, and the two rushed in again. Silver was busy holding Savage back, but he stepped back as Red and Blue joined in. He quickly switched his blade to Moon Mode, whipping it forward and wrapping Savage up. Blue ran in first, leaping up and bringing the axe directly through Savage's middle. Red ran in behind the rabbit, and quickly swerved to the side, turning into a blur as he rapidly slashes at the monster.

The fox stepped back as Savage struggled, and broke through the energy whip. The monkey and rat heads started to glow, and he began to spin around. He turned into a tornado of slashes and lighting, quickly knocking all three back. He stopped, and turned to Blue, arms open.

"Hit me."

The rabbit hesitated for a moment. This was probably a bad idea, but she didn't really have a choice. She made a running start, before leaping up and preparing to strike at Savage once again. The frog heads, as well as the pangolin head, started to glow. The goo slithered out of his body in a moment, covering in several layers as he curled up into a ball.

The axe came down… and shattered. The blade was ripped to shreds by the pure toughness of the armor Savage had formed. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as Savage quickly unfurled, delivering a powerful uppercut to the rabbit's chin, sending her flying.

Red let out a growl, and rushed at super speeds to Savage. The scorpion head started to glow as he did. Red attempted to swipe at Savage's leg, but it gracefully moved out of the way in a sort of dance. The oddness of this caused the fox to stumble, slowing him down and leaving him open to a kick from the monster.

He hit the ground, but wasn't done yet. The fox rushed forward again, but the eel on Savage's body started to glow. He shot out slime from his hand, directly into Red's path. He slipped almost instantly, letting Savage kick him away. Red hit the ground, and the claws vanished.

"Oh, come on!" Savage scoffed. "I know you got better! Use those fancy super forms if you wanna take me out!"

"He's definitely up to something." Blue said as the three regrouped. Red and her pulled out the Solar and Lunar Zootags. "If we use these, we could defeat him… but we'd also have to kill Clawbick." She said.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." Red said. "Sometimes we have to make tough decisions."

"Right. Yeah."

"You guys take him." Silver said. "I'm going to try and figure out what he's up to."

"How exactly are you going to manage that?" Red asked.

"The Ultimate Beastman was used by mixing in all of the monsters from Zoo Rangers Jungle Fury," he explained. "If I can figure out which ones he hasn't used, then I might figure out his plans."

Blue nodded. "Try to figure it out quick, alright?"

Silver nodded back.

Blue and Red turned back to Savage. Blue glanced at the Lunar ZooTag, and sighed.

They quickly plugged them both in.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, their weapons appearing in their paws.

"Lets finish this."

They rushed at the monster, Blue leaping in and slashing with her blades. They fired out energy slashes, but the ox head on Savage's chest started to glow. He waved his hand, causing a mirror to appear. The slashes hit the mirror, and were instantly reflected off. However, Blue spun around, and slashed at the slashes. They turned into crosses, and smashed through the mirror, slicing directly through Savage.

She hit the ground, and rushed up to him, leaping up and rapidly slashing at the monster. He attempted to block, but it didn't seem to be working, the blades simply cut through him. The rabbit performed a cross-cut, breaking through any armor he had left, and sending him flying.

Red leaped in next as savage recovered, extending his pole out to rapidly jab into the monster. The frog heads on his legs started to glow, spewing out a shield of hardened goo. Red continued to jab at the shield, before it eventually cracked, braking through and jabbing back into Savage.

He spun around as Savage stumbled, creating a circle of fireballs around him. The fox motioned at the monster, and the fireballs flew through the air, crashing and exploding into the monster's body. He let out a cry of pain as he was flung across the plaza.

The monster was starting to get weakened, sparks were bursting from him, and he was barely standing.

Meanwhile, Silver was trying to go through all the monsters in his head. "Okay, so, the only ones not there would be the ones we fought, so…" He started to mumble to himself. "No, he just used the mirror guy… has he used the cobra…?" Silver let out a grunt. "What is he planning!?"

The two powered-up Zoorangers looked at the monster. "I say we finish this." Red said. Blue nodded, reluctantly.

They quickly formed their weapons into the crossbow, and aimed it at the monster.

Silver's ears popped up. "Wait, he hasn't used… OH NO!"

He started to run up to the two.

"GUYS, DON'T FIRE, HE'S GOING TO-"

It was too late.

They fired the blast directly at Savage, a massive explosion erupting from him. It quickly cleared, and somehow, Savage was still standing… but only barely.

He was teetering over, but he managed to let out one final laugh before dying.

"We did it." Blue said, somberly.

"No, you didn't." Silver said. "We just made our problem worse."

"What?" Red said, confused. "He's dead, there's not much of a problem there. Aside from the moral implications."

"No, he isn't dead." Silver said, pointing at Savage's body. "Look."

They watched. The corpse suddenly started to glow, and raised into the air like a puppet, its loose body shaking as it rose to its feet.

There was a devastating cracking noise as the monster started to move again. He was alive, and even worse, fully recovered.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Savage laughed. He pointed at the two. "You idiots don't know what you've done, have you!?"

"Nope, but we're not gonna let that get us down!" Red said. Blue and him ran at the monster, both of them leaping up to strike him with their weapons. Savage remained perfectly still.

The weapons collided, with a loud thunk. Nothing happened.

They both hit the ground, and stepped back. "Uh, I feel that should've done something." Red said, worried.

"Oh, no it shouldn't have." Savage growled. They attempted to strike at him again and again, but there was nothing. Nothing was working. "Is this all you're going to do? Lame."

He quickly grabbed them by their weapons, and then flung them off towards Silver. "Gotta thank you all for your contributions!" He said, snidely. "Now if you excuse me, I have more places to destroy." He leaped off immediately after.

The Zoorangers fell silent.

"What just happened?" Blue asked.

"He used the power of one of the monsters." Silver explained. "In jungle Fury, there was a monster that came back to life when it was destroyed, the only difference being that it was immune to any attack that hit it before."

"Wait, so…" Blue said as she got up. "We… we just made him invincible!?"

"Uh, yeah."

"This is JUST GREAT!"

"And it's about to get better!" Red said, pointing off down the plaza.

They turned, seeing, of all creatures, Long. He was walking directly towards them. "Great, another invincible baddie." Blue scoffed.

"Relax." Long said as he approached. "I'm here for… friendly negotiations." He explained, having to choke out the last two words.

"Yeah, we don't exactly believe you." Red said, crossing his arms, which was very hard to do with all the extra armor.

"Well, if you want to save this city, then we'll need to work together." Long explained.

All three glanced at each other, and then back at Long. They were all very confused and startled by the words that had come out of his mouth.

"What did you just say?" Blue asked, holding a paw up to her ear. "I usually have really good hearing, but I think I misheard you."

"No, you didn't." Long said. "I hate to admit it, but only the four of us can stop Savage."

"And how exactly do we do that?" Silver asked. "He's invincible."

"Invincible… to attacks." Long specified. "That is the solution."

They remained silent for a moment.

"Sorry, we don't really get it." Red said.

"I'm getting there." Long continued. "If you three can manage to hold Savage still long enough, I can use my powers to remove the Qi that makes up Savage from Clawbick's body."

"Really?" Blue said, surprised. "You want to get rid of him that badly?"

"Hold it, lightfoot." Red said, putting an arm out in front of her. "If we do that, we'll just be left with you and your monster. You'll probably destroy us, then!"

"Ah, very clever, fox." Long said. "Except, when I remove Savage's Qi, I will also have to remove the Qi I implanted, meaning Clawbick will be returned to normal. Overall, it's a win situation for all of you."

Red grumbled something. "Fine." He blurted out. "If that's the only way, we'll do it."

"And hey, check it out!" Blue said, elbowing the fox. "Non-violent solution! Told you it would come around!"

"Yes, whatever." Long said. "Go find Savage, I'll meet up with you there."

The three nodded, and quickly ran off, leaving Long behind.

"Hmmph. Idiots."

---

The hyena rubbed her eyes as she sat up. She glanced around. She was back in Max's place, by the looks of things. She couldn't even remember what had happened over the last few hours… or was it days?

She was seated in a chair, and spotted Henry, laying down on the couch, it barely fitting him. He was still unconscious. She unsteadily got to her feet, and walked over to the kitchen, quickly pouring herself a glass of water. She gulped it down.

She turned around, and let out a scream.

Amazon had suddenly appeared behind her.

"You awake!" He said. "Feel better?"

"No, I feel like shit." Emily said. "How long was I out for?"

Amazon started to count on his fingers. "Two."

"Two… what?"

"Days."

She let out a growl. "Where're Nick and his friends at?" She asked.

"Went to fight monster." Amazon explained. "Bad monster, stronger than before."

So, the monster got stronger…" She said to herself. "Seems accurate, considering what we ran into."

"Wolf say to stay here, wait for you to wake up." Amazon continue. "Now Amazon go fight!"

Amazon prepared to rush out the house, but his scarf was quickly grabbed onto by Emily, halting him. "Oh no, you're not gonna leave us behind! You're going to stay here until Henry wakes up." She explained. "Once he's all ready, THEN we can go fight."

Amazon hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Wait for bull, then fight."

"Right, good… whatever you are." Emily said, letting go of his scarf. She turned to the kitchen again, and clapped her paws together. "Alright, lets see what kinda grub Max has…"

Red, Blue, and Silver ran into the middle of downtown. The Oasis Fountain sprang up from the middle of the park they had entered. Savage was standing right there, gazing at the oasis.

"I don't think he's noticed us yet." Blue whispered. "Tread lightly, maybe we can get the jump on him."

They quickly and quietly approached the monster, who still hadn't seemed to have noticed them. He was continuing to gaze at the oasis. They snuck up behind him, Blue preparing her swords, while Red prepared his staff, and Silver prepped his blade. They edged a bit closer.

With that, they all swung their weapons forward at the same time. They all struck Savage at the exact same moment, but all three weapons delivered the same result, a dull, loud clunk.

Savage let out a laugh, before he quickly spun around, low kicking all three of them. They went flying, and crashed back into the ground several feet away.

"You idiots really think I didn't hear you?" Savage mocked as they got up. "I heard your armor clanking, I just decided to give you a free hit, to show you how invincible I am!"

"Alright, remember!" Blue started. "We only need to hold him down for a bit, then Long will be able to extract Savage from him!"

"What!?" Savage shouted. "That can't possibly work!"

"Won't know until we try, huh?" Red replied.

The three dashed in, Blue and Red leaping up as Silver ran straight forward. The wolf barged right into Savage's body, as Blue and Red landed on his back, attempting to knock the monster off balance.

"Grah, get off!" The monster grunted. Silver rushed in again, this time only going for a simple push. Savage started to fall, and Red and Blue quickly leaped off of him, pushing him into the ground even faster.

As soon as the monster hit the ground, he ducked into a roll, ending on one of his knees. "Alright, now we got you!" Silver shouted as he whipped his blade forward. The energy whip flew from it, and wrapped around the monster's torso. Silver lifted the monster up into the air.

"Long, are you ready!?" Blue shouted. She glanced around, Long was nowhere in sight. "Damn it, he isn't here yet, we need to buy more time!"

"Time YOU DON'T HAVE!" Savage growled, before nearly instantly breaking from the whip. He landed on the ground, and the ape head on his chest started to glow.

In a few seconds, the black goo started to pour out of his body, and spread out in a circle around the Zoorangers, covering a massive area. The goo began to bubble and rise, forming into new shapes. An army of Savages had appeared.

"Oh, this is just great!" Red bemoaned as the monsters all started to laugh. "Now we have to deal with MORE invincible monsters!"

"They might not be invincible!" Blue suggested, rather quickly. "They're just copies, so maybe they don't have the invincibility thing yet!"

"We'll have to test that theory out!" Silver replied as the monsters started to charge in.

Silver jumped in first, and quickly slashed at one of the monsters, hoping that it would cut through. Thankfully, it seemed it did, as goo suddenly spurt from the Savage copy's body. It let out a screech as it melted into more goo, which quickly evaporated.

"Looks like he's spreading himself a bit too thin!" Silver said, quickly slashing through a few more.

Blue stepped back, and quickly slashed her blade, firing off several laser slashes. They cut through the monsters effortlessly, a mass of goo appearing in their wake. "Yeah, with so many copies, he must be using up most of his energy!" Blue suggested.

Red clanked his staff against the ground, fire welling up in the center of its ring. He quickly spun around, firing out multiple fireballs, which quickly burned through the remaining Savage clones. The plaza was covered in the goo, but it quickly vanished.

"Hm, didn't go as well as I planned." Savage said. "Guess I have to do it myself!"

He ran up to Silver, quickly grabbing onto him with a headlock. He brought his other paw to the wolf's stomach, the claws jabbing through his suit and into his skin.

Silver let out a cry of pain as Red and Blue ran at him. "Stop!" Savage yelled, causing the two to come to a halt. "If either of you come closer, then I'll rip his stomach open!" The monster threatened.

"Well, if we can't move, what about somebody else?" Red asked.

Blue shot him a confused look, and then glanced behind the monster. There was definitely someone coming up behind him.

"Who else would be here!?" Savage growled. "Last I checked, you three were the only real problems!"

"Well, looks like you need a bit of a catch-up." Red said, clanking his staff against the ground. "Why don't they introduce themselves to you?"

"What-?"

The monster felt several sharp pains in its back, as it let go of Silver. The wolf fell to the ground, and crawled away as the monster stumbled back.

"Yo, this guy given you trouble?" Pink sounded from the other side of the monster. He turned around to face her, Green, and Amazon.

"YOU TWO!" He growled. "HOW ARE YOU STILL USING THOSE SUITS!?"

Pink and Green fell silent for a moment, and glanced at each other, then back at the monster. "Hey, you guys want to fill us in?" Green yelled over to the other Rangers.

"Its Savage!" Blue shouted over. "He's possessing Clawbick's body now!"

"Well, shit." Pink said.

"Amazon distract!" The Rider said. "Go help team!"

The two nodded at Amazon, who quickly rushed at Savage. The Rider leaped up into the air, and quickly scratched at the monster, cutting holes into him and causing goo to spurt out. Amazon landed on the ground, and quickly kicked the monster in the stomach, causing him to stumble back.

Savage glared at the Rider, and let out a laugh. "You're my kind of enemy!" He said. "You're violent, you cut through me without any hesitation! I'd say there's not many heroes like you."

"Sometimes violence needed." Amazon growled, before leaping t the monster. Savage braced himself as Amazon wrapped himself around his body.

Pink and Green met joined up with the other three. "So, how the hell'd Savage come back?" Pink asked.

"He put his energy inside Clawbick, and something happened and now he's back again." Red quickly explained. "More importantly, we need your help."

"Don't you usually?" Green chuckled.

"What for?" Pink asked. "You guys having some trouble."

"Uh, yeah, actually." Blue said. "He's completely invulnerable to our weapons."

"Excuse me?"

"He used the technique of a monster to read our moves…" Silver grunted as he tried to get up. "And he tricked us into using all our attacks on him. But you guys didn't attack him at all. You can still hurt him."

"We can't destroy him, though." Pink said. "He might be a terrible guy, but Dave doesn't deserve to be completely vaporized!"

"Well, lucky for you guys, all you need to do is hold him down for a bit." Red continued. "Then our 'secret weapon' will show up, and get Savage out of his body."

"So, just hold him down?" Green asked, a bit confused. "For how long?"

"As long as I need."

The two turned, and pointed their guns at the speaker. Long had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Whoa, hold it!" Blue said. "Long's the one who's going to remove Savage from Clawbick, alright?"

"Oh, come on." Pink groaned. "You guys actually believed this… mentiroso montón de mierda de lagarto podrido!?"

"Wow, ouch." Green said.

"I don't know what you just said, but trust me, you all don't have a choice." Long said. "If I can't remove Savage from him, then that will be the end of this city, and I'll have to put up with him for an eternity. Either way, we both get our own rewards."

"Ugh, fine." Pink grumbled. "We'll go try and stop him."

The two quickly rushed back into the fight. Amazon and Savage had been continuing their fight, and were now currently locked hand to hand in a struggle. Savage broke from the lock as the SPD Officers fired their blasters at him, causing the monster to scream in pain.

This left the monster open, letting Amazon scratch directly through the monster's chest. There was a loud cracking sound, as three of the heads on Savage's chest fell to the ground, and shattered.

"What!?" he shouted, confused. "How did you-?!"

Green quickly moved up to the distracted Savage, and slammed him in the side of the head with his cannon. The Beastman went flying, and crashed into the ground. As Savage tried to get up, Pink quickly rolled in, and fired at the now blank spots on the monster's chest, causing him to fall over.

"You see what Amazon did there, Henry?" Pink asked.

"Yeah, he cut off the heads!" He responded. "That might mean he lost some of his powers." The bull turned to Amazon. "Hey, try cutting off more of the monster's heads, we might be able to get him to hold still easier like that!"

Amazon gave a quick nod, and then shouted a loud "GI GI!" before rushing at Savage again. He leaped through the air, gliding past Savage as he got up. The Rider managed to scratch at several of the heads on his arms, all of which fell off and broke apart as they hit the ground.

"NO!" Savage yelled. "HOW CAN YOU BE DOING THIS TO ME!?"

"Amazon strongest!" The Rider boasted. "Amazon stop you now!"

Amazon leaped forward again, rapidly scratching at the monster's body. He leaped back and forth, heads dropping from his body with each leap. In only a mater of moments, the only heads on his armor were the ones on his chest.

Savage stumbled, he was left nearly powerless by the Rider. Amazon let out another "GI GI!" before leaping high up into the air.

"GREAT CHOP!"

The karate chopped directly through the monster's body, sparks flying off. With that chop, he managed to hit the remaining heads, which fell to the ground, destroyed.

"No, NO!" Savage yelled. Before he could do anything, Pink and Green rushed up and grabbed him by the arms. "LET GO, I WON'T GO BACK!"

"Sorry, but it looks like your revenge was a bit short lived, Savage." Long said with a bit of a laugh as he strolled over to the struggling Savage.

"No, keep away!" He grunted, as he continued to struggle.

Long held up his hand, and Savage began to go still. He started to glow with golden energy, which quickly shifted to green energy. The green energy started to flow out of the body and into the air, a faint scream going through the air as it vanished.

The SPD Officers dropped Clawbick's body to the ground, he was completely unconscious. Reb, Blue, and Silver ran up to the inspect the body. Silver rolled him over, and Blue placed a paw on his chest. He was still breathing, much to her relief.

"We need to get him to the station before he wakes up." Blue said. "Put him back in prison, where he belongs."

"Oh, I don't think you'll be doing that any time soon…"

The five turned to face Long.

"See, like I've done with so many… I've tricked you." He said, bluntly.

"Oh, of course!" red said, prepping his staff. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!"

"But… what did he even do?" Pink asked, confused. "We beat the monster and saved Clawbick, so…"

She was interrupted by a burst of energy from Clawbick, which sent everyone besides Long flying. He was lifted into the air by some invisible force, purple energy covering him entirely.

"When I saw what was happening, I decided to go back to an old stand-by of mine…" Long started to explain. "Summoning the God of Destruction."

"WHAT!?" Blue shouted.

"That is probably the worst news I've heard today." Red followed.

"In order to summon the God of Destruction, I required someone who had heavy amounts of Qi, and absolutely zero emotional or physical connections." The Infinite Dragon continued. "And going by his mental issues, this lion seemed to be the perfect candidate. By the removal of Savage from his body, I have severed his final connection…"

"AND UNLEASHED DESTRUCTION!"

Clawbick's body twitched, and let out a scream of pain. He started to enlarge, growing to the size of a giant. He let out another roar, and stomped forward, crashing through a building.

"YOU WILL ALL DIE!" Long roared, triumphantly. "AND NOT JUST YOU, BUT EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET! INCLUDING MY IMBECILE 'TEAMMATES'! I WILL BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, AND BUILD THIS WORLD ANEW! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

With that, Long disappeared into golden mist.

"I think dragon boy's gone off the deep end!" Red said. He watched as the massive Beastman stomped forward, still groaning in pain. He then turned to Blue. "Think we should do something about this?"

Wordlessly, Blue pulled out a ZooTag. Red pulled out his own in response. Silver joined in as well, pulling out a small disc.

The three quickly summoned their mechs, and combined them into ZooRobo Oh Kami. "Be careful where you step, guys!" Blue said as the mech stomped forward and a steady pace. "Don't want to step on any small houses!"

"Bit hard to do." Red replied.

The robot caught up with the monster, who was in the middle of smashing a taller building in half. The mech quickly slashed at the monster's back with both of its swords, causing the Beastman to turn around, backhanding the mech in the face as it did so.

ZooRobo stumbled back, steadying itself before it could hit a building. It stomped forward once more, and brought down both of the blades… to no effect.

The monster let out a roar, and swiped at the robot again, sparks flying off. "Augh, we can't even hurt this thing!" Silver yelled.

Back on the ground, Pink, Green, and Amazon watched ZooRobo repeatedly get attacked by the monster. "God, can't they do anything!?" Pink shouted.

"It looks like he's too powerful." Green said. "I don't know if they CAN defeat him."

"GI GI!" Amazon yelled, startling the two. "Amazon go help! Amazon help friends!" He quickly ran off towards the robot, leaving the two confused.

"How's he gonna help?" Pink asked. Green shrugged in response.

Back in the mech, ZooRobo stumbled back again as the Beastman kicked it away. "Augh, won't anything work!?" Blue shouted, slamming her head into the control panel.

"Long said something about… connections, right?" Red asked. "That this thing only exists when someone doesn't have connections? What if we made a connection with it?"

"How do you think we do that?" Silver said, frustrated. "Talk to it?"

"No, not talk to IT… Talk to HIM."

"Wait, you don't mean…?" Blue said. "There's no way that'll work."

"Get me in close." Red said as he got up from his seat. "I'm gonna see if this WILL work."

He leaped out of the mech, and landed on its hand. He teetered across the edge as it stomped towards the monster. It was just then that Red remembered that he had a horrible fear of heights. He took a deep breath, and slowly edged his way to the edge of the closed fist.

He gripped for dear life as it suddenly swung forward, hitting the monster directly in the shoulder.

"Make a run for it!" Blue shouted through the communicator.

The fox nodded, and quickly dashed across the fist before anything could happen. He hopped up onto the monster's shoulder, before the Beastman pushed the robot's fist away.

Red took a deep breath. He hoped this worked.

"HEY, CLAWBICK!" He shouted. "REMEMBER ME!?"

The monster ignored him, and instead continued to attack ZooRobo. He let out a growl as he was ignored. The fox twirled his staff around, slamming the dull end of it into the monster's shoulder.

"Alright, if you can't hear me, maybe you can FEEL ME!"

He rushed towards the monster's neck, and jabbed the staff forward. The sharp edges on it dug right into it, almost effortlessly, despite the lion seeming to be wearing armor. Still there was no response.

"There should've been something…" Red said to himself as he pulled the staff out. That's when he noticed something odd.

There was still a wound, cut directly through the monster's armor… except, there was only black inside. Goo quickly started to build up, fixing the wound in a few seconds flat.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Red's head.

"This isn't his real body." He said to himself. "It must be some kind of… construct? Maybe if I…"

It was a risky shot, but he had to take it. He jabbed the staff into the monster's neck again, and swept down, creating a bigger wound. This one opened up enough for the fox to fit in, but the goo was quickly building up to fix it.

With only slight hesitation, Red ran and leaped into the black pit. He shut his eyes as he hit.

For a few seconds, there didn't seem to be anything. He was simply floating in… something. He really did not want to open his eyes. After a moment, he hit the ground, which was strangely soft.

He finally opened his eyes, and looked around. He was in a black void, which seemed to stretch out endlessly. But there was one single thing besides him there.

Clawbick.

His lifeless body was hanging in the air, a single light shining on him from what seemed like nowhere. The light still did nothing to brighten up the rest of the void.

Nick untransformed, and sprinted up to the lion. He gulped, and leaped up, grabbing onto the lion's leg.

The two fell to the ground almost instantly, Clawbick finally showing some form of life as he groaned and got up. Nick quickly backed away as the lion got to his feet.

"Ugh, where am I?" He muttered, sounding nothing like his usual self. "Wait, who am I?"

"Your name's Dave, remember?" Nick said.

The lion shook his head, as if remembering something. "That… that is my name, isn't it?" He looked down at the fox. "I feel like I know you from somewhere…"

"My name's, uh, Nick." The fox started. "Nick Wilde, remember?"

The lion grunted again. "Nick… Yeah, Nick!" He said, sounding very… happy. "You and I are… friends, right?"

A sudden, strange feeling ripped through Nick's body. It was a burst of… nostalgia? For some reason, he had felt like he just met up with an old friend. Someone he hadn't seen in ages. It was like he had met up with Dave, the old Dave, before he went psycho.

"Oh god, Dave…"

Back in the outside world, the monster let out a massive roar, before charging at the mecha. It quickly grabbed onto the robot's wrists, as the two struggled.

"Ugh, hope whatever Nick's doing works!" Silver shouted. "Because if it doesn't, it's the end of the line!"

"I'm sure whatever he's going to do will work!" Blue responded. "The only reason we're struggling is because we don't have a third pilot! We just need to overcome that!"

ZooRobo quickly broke from the monster's grasp, and slashed at its chest, causing it to stumble backwards. The mecha stomped forward, and kicked the God of Destruction in the stomach. It let out another roar, and leaped forward, slashing at the mech.

There was an explosion, creating an open wound in the mecha's chest, revealing wires and other machinery. "Oh god, that's not good!" Blue let out.

"Has that ever happened to us before!?" Silver shouted back.

The monster quickly slapped at the robot's head, causing the seating inside to spin around. Lights were going off at this point, the thing was nearly falling apart. They were almost definitely screwed.

Then, there was a shout from below them.

"GI GI!"

The two looked at the center pillar of their control room, and watched as Amazon climbed up it. "Amazon here to help!" He said, hopping into Red's empty seat.

"Oh, great!" Blue said, a bit relieved. "You ever pilot a robot before, Amazon?"

"Amazon ride bike, that same thing?"

"Oh, great." She let out, now disappointed.

"You at least have some sort of… trinket, right?" Silver asked. "Something you can use to help us out?"

Amazon let out a confused noise.

"We're dead."

Back inside the monster's body, Nick continued to glare up at the lion for a moment. They were friends again.

But it was only for a brief moment.

He let out a sigh as he realized what he had to do. It was something he truly, truly did not want to do.

"Nick, are you feeling alright?" Dave asked. "Are you trying to think of a way to get us out of here?"

"Yeah, I am." He said, with another sigh. "But if we want to get out of here, I need you to remember what happened. What happened between you and me."

"We're just friends, right?" He chuckled. "Sorry, I… I can't remember anything."

"Dave, do you remember what happened a month and a half ago?" Nick asked. The lion shook his head, and the fox placed his paw to his chin. "Well, try to remember what happened a bit after we first met, alright?"

"I can't." The lion said.

Nick started to pace around. He was going to have to do this directly. It wouldn't be nice, but it was the only way they could get out of here.

"Remember what you thought of me?" Nick said.

"Uh, not reall-"

"You thought I was a freak, someone who didn't belong." Nick continued. "Remember that? Remember how much you hated me?"

The lion stared at Nick in confusion for a moment, before he let out a grunt of pain, and started to clutch at his head. "I… I can't…"

"Remember how much you hate me, Clawbick!" Nick shouted. "Remember what you did, remember how I betrayed you!"

"AUUUGH!"

He fell to his knees, still clutching at his head. "No, I won't let him… I just got back…"

"What?"

Clawbick fell silent, his paws hitting the ground. There was a sudden flash of light, and the two were now… somewhere else. A dirty looking apartment building, it looked like it had either been abandoned, or left in disrepair.

The lion climbed back to his feet, and let out a small laugh. "Thank you for reminding me, Nick." He said. His voice sounded more like the snide tone of the Clawbick he had known.

This was both a very good thing, and a very, very bad thing.

He turned around to face the fox. "Looks like we're aaaaallll alone here… wherever this is." He said. "How about we finish this for good?"

He unsheathed his claws.

Outside, ZooRobo was trying to hold its own against the monster. More damage had been caused, chunks of metal ripped directly out of the monster's arms and torso. Things weren't looking good, even with Amazon's help.

"We're reaching critical amounts of 'lots of damage'!" Silver shouted, the lights inside still blinking on and off.

"Very scientific!" Blue shouted, as she moved the robot in for another sword swing. Like the rest, both blades simply bounced off the monster.

"Amazon need to help." The Rider said to himself. He looked down at the control panel. There was a slot in it. He gazed at his hand "Hmmm."

The Rider raised his hand, and quickly jabbed his claws into the slot. "Whhhat the hell are you doing!?" Silver shouted as he watched Amazon so this. "We're taking enough damage as is!"

Before Amazon could say anything, a green light started to glow from the slot. The flashing lights quickly shut off, replaced by a soft, green one. Suddenly, jungle tones were heard, and there was a flash of light.

"AAAAAH! MAAAAAAH! ZOOOOOOOOOOON!"

From the sky fell a mech, rather small compared to their other mechs, around as big as ZooRobo's forearm. It was shaped like a chameleon, and landed on top of a building next to them.

"Did Amazon just summon a mech with his claws?" Blue asked.

"Looks like it!" Silver said. "Sorry for yelling at you, dude!"

The mech opened its mouth, a long pink steel tongue flying out and jabbing directly through the God of Destruction's body. It rapidly pierced through the monster's body with several more strikes, leaving large holes behind as it did so. The holes seemed to fill themselves in quickly, but the attack seemed to actually be causing the monster pain!

The mech leaped up from the building, ZooRobo raising its arm up into the air. The chameleon robot landed on the arm, and wrapped its feet around it, a loud click signifying that they had fully combined together.

"Maybe we can do something with this!" Blue suggested.

"Well, we know this thing can't be hurt," Silver added. "So how are we supposed to buy Nick any more time when we're running low on… working robot parts?"

"Amazon suggest plan!" The Rider shouted. "Wrap up! No move!"

"Good idea!" Blue said. "We'll use this new mech's tongue to do that!"

ZooRobo thrust its arm forward, the chameleon's mouth opening up and flinging forwards. It quickly went past the giant Beastman, and began to wrap itself around him, leaving him completely tied up. It struggled, but couldn't seem to break free.

"Alright!" Silver cheered. "Now we just have to wait for Nick to finish up!"

Clawbick leaped forward, attempting to slash at Nick. He leaped out of the way. The fox was a lot less capable when he wasn't transformed, but he felt it might not be the time to do that.

The fox noticed a beer bottle next to the incredibly old TV in the corner of the room. He rushed over to it, and grabbed it. As he turned around, he saw that Clawbick had picked up an entire wooden chair, and was preparing to throw it.

Nick leaped out of the way as the chair crashed into the TV, causing it to erupt. Nick barely hesitated, throwing the bottle directly at Clawbick's stomach. It shattered on impact, and the lion let out a pained wail.

There was another flash, and the two were suddenly in a very old classroom. It was in disrepair as well, with a broken window, and several missing desks. Clawbick picked up one of the desks, and looked around, trying to find Nick.

The fox was hiding under the desks, sneaking by Clawbick as he looked around. The only thing Nick could assume was going on was that these were places from Clawbick's memories… maybe places that had bad memories associated with them?

He didn't have time to ask, as he snuck up to Clawbick and slashed at his leg with one of his own claws. The lion let out a scream, as he dropped the desk to the ground, barely missing the fox. He ran off, Clawbick quickly following behind, tossing desks that were in his way.

Nick headed into a corner, and then leaped up onto one of the desks. He leaped off it, and then off of Clawbick's head. "I JUST NEED YOU TO SAY IT!" The fox shouted as he landed on another desk behind the lion.

"Say WHAT!?" Clawbick shouted.

"Something we both know!" The fox said. "We need to form that connection again!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, you freak!" The lion shouted. There was suddenly another flash.

Nick fell the desk he was standing on disappear under him, as he hit a hard wooden floor. He glanced around.

It was the house he had stayed at when he was living with Clawbick. It looked more run down than before, visible mold growing on the walls. As he examined it, he realized he was in the basement, the place where…

Oh, god.

The fox got to his feet, starting to breath heavily. "Looks like we've come full circle." He said, sounding a bit unsteady.

"Oh yeah, this is the place where your life was ruined." Clawbick said, with a chuckle. The laugh made Nick's stomach tighten up.

"I just want you to say three words, Dave." Nick said.

"Don't call me that." The lion interrupted. "The only mammals that get to call me 'Dave' are ones I trust."

"Which is nobody."

Nick turned to the lion. "Listen, Dave. We won't get out of here unless you tell me what you think of me, got it?"

"Leave? Leave WHERE!?"

"Wherever this void is!" Nick shouted. "And if we don't get out of here, then the world will be destroyed! Can you at least TRY to work with me on this!?"

Clawbick looked at the fox. "I don't trust you one bit."

"Jesus Christ, can you just STOP being a useless piece of shit for ONE MINUTE!?" Nick shouted, absolutely furious at the lion.

"Sorry for thinking of you as a lying, scum-sucking piece of dirt, Nicky!" Clawbick yelled back.

"Just say THREE WORDS!" Nick shouted back. "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF ME!"

"You want to know what I think about you!?" Clawbick shouted, stomping towards the fox. He raised his claw into the air, and prepared to slam it down on the fox. "I HATE YOU, AND I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Nick grinned.

"That's what I wanted to hear."

"What-?"

The entire place began to shake. The building around them began to collapse, the walls and floor starting to crumble into nothing. The both looked up, and shielded themselves as the ceiling above them started to fall.

Outside, the God of Destruction let out a pained whine, as it started to glow purple. It struggled and yelled for a good few seconds.

"What the heck's going on?" Silver asked.

"I think… I think Nick beat him!" Blue said, ecstatic.

There was a flash of purple light from the monster, and it was suddenly gone. The tongue retracted into the chameleon mech's mouth, before it leaped off of the mech, and then vanished in a flash of light.

"Aw, didn't even get to name that guy." Silver muttered.

The mech disappeared, and Judy, Max, and Amazon arrived back on the ground. Waiting for them were Emily and Henry, alongside Nick and an unconscious Clawbick, the suit gone from his body.

"What happened to him?" Max asked.

"I dunno, must've been drained when he turned back." Nick said, tapping the lion with his foot. "But check it out, I managed to beat the monster, and not kill Clawbick!"

"Good on you!" Judy said, punching him lightly on the side. "How did you do it?"

"I went into some metaphysical space inside the monster's body that represented Clawbick's mind, and got him to reconnect with me… by making him hate me again."

"Oh"

"And, I think I learned something while I was doing that." Nick said, his voice lowering a bit. "I learned that… that the Clawbick that I first met is still somewhere in him. Something happened, but he's still in there."

"Really?" Emily asked, a bit shocked. "How do you know?"

"When I first talked to him in there, he sounded like he did when we first met." Nick said. "I dunno, maybe it was just because he had amnesia."

"Doesn't matter much anyway." Max said. "He's still a criminal, which means…"

"Gotta arrest him now, yeah." Nick said.

Judy quickly hopped up onto the lion's back, and pulled out a pair of large pawcuffs. Henry and Max lifted Clawbick's arms up so she could clap the cuffs across his wrists.

"Think you guys can take him to the station?" Judy asked the hyena and bull. "We have a guest to see off."

"Sure." Emily said, with a shrug. "Almost like we're real officers now!"

Nick watched as they dragged him off. He let out a sigh.

Maybe, one day, they could help out their former friend.

---

Hours later, the three, plus Amazon, were waiting outside the city. It was the usual field where the Rainbow Line showed up. It didn't seem to be showing up, however.

"Its been an hour." Max said. "The train's supposed to be here soon, right?"

"Yeah, it usually comes at around this time…" Judy said, a bit confused. "Maybe there's a hold-up?"

Nick remained silent, and strolled off through the field. Amazon watched, and then followed. "Fox feeling okay?" The Rider asked.

"Yeah, I'm just…" He stumbled over his words for a moment. "I just feel a bit… wrong."

"Amazon know what fox thinking."

The fox glanced up at the Rider. "Wait, you know that I'm-?"

Amazon nodded. "Amazon know you feel out of place." He continued. "Amazon felt out of place. Grow up in jungle most of life… but had to go to city. Felt out of place, but… Amazon managed to find… family."

"Family…" The fox said to himself. "I've heard that before."

"Amazon never fit in." The Rider continued. "But it alright. Amazon is Amazon, and Nick is Nick."

Nick smiled a bit.

"Thanks. That makes me feel better."

"Glad Amazon could help."

There was a sudden loud noise, like a train pulling into a station. Both of them looked up as the Rainbow Line zoomed out of the sky and onto the plains.

"Amazon have to go now." Amazon said. He ran over to the train. The door slid open, and he quickly got in. The three mammals waved farewell, as he started to do the chopping pose from earlier.

"GI GI!" he shouted as the train door closed. The Rainbow Line quickly took off back into the sky.

The three watched on.

"That guy was weird." Max said. "I liked him."

"A bit too violent for my taste, you know?" Judy said. "But his heart was in the right place."

Nick just let out a sigh. "So, do you guys think that's the last we've seen of Savage?" He asked, abruptly.

"Well, he doesn't have a body anymore." Judy said. "I imagine that he won't be able to do anything without one."

"Yeah, and he'd need help getting a body back, and who would want to team up with him after that?" Max laughed. "Even the villains don't like him."

"I guess you'd have to be crazy to want to do anything with him." Nick said. He let out a large yawn. "Ugh, I'm exhausted, let's head home."

The three promptly did so.

---

There was a crackle of red light, alongside screams of pain. Long was flung across the room, and crashed into the wall. "YOU BETRAYED ME, LONG" The Omnipotence roared. "YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THIS"

"Punish me all you want!" Long retorted as he got up. "I can handle anything you throw at me! I AM IMMORTAL!"

The Omnipotence fired another blast of red lightning at the monster. The blast pushed him into the wall behind him, and then started to drag him up to the ceiling. Long watched, helplessly, as the wall started to move. Rocks started to come out, and wrapped around his limbs. He was stuck, trapped to the wall for however long The Omnipotence wanted.

"You think this is a punishment!?" Long shouted. "I'll get my revenge on you! I'll kill you all! I'll-"

Long felt a tug. He was being pulled… into the wall. "What!? NO!" His body was being absorbed into the wall. "I can destroy the Zoorangers!" He shouted. "I CAN DESTROY ALL FIVE OF THEM! JUST DON'T LET ME-"

With a final scream, Long was fused into the wall, only an outline of his body remaining.

"Yikes." Sambash let out. "Guess that's why we don't mess with the boss."

"'Five Zoorangers…'" Kyuemon said to himself. "Does that sound wrong to anyone else?"

"Yeah, aren't there six of them now?" Yabaiba asked.

"Exactly." Kyuemon continued. "The yellow one didn't even show up during Long's escapades either."

"Isn't that mysterious?" Enter said, walking in front of the yokai. "We should… investigate, hmm?"

"Ah, you want me to do it…" Kyuemon said. "Hm… I suppose I could go out during the next plan… would be a good distraction…"

"Oh, I wanna do it!" Yabaiba said. "I liked working with you before, Kyu, even if it didn't go well."

"Ugh." Kyuemon grunted. "Fine, I'll work with you again."

Enter walked off down one of the halls as the villains began discussing their plans. "Tres magnifique!" he said to himself. "Savage is still alive, and one of the Zoorangers is missing…"

"I think I have a plan forming."

---

I'm back! This episode was delayed by a day because my computer died, and I didn't have enough time to catch up. Uh, sorry.

Anyway, not sure I used Amazon in a great way, but I wanted him to show up, so whatever. If you want, you can read into this episode as being some kind of loose commentary about how Amazonz was a terrible show, but whatever. If you can't really tell, the Ultimate Beastman is a combination of every monster from Gekiranger that I didn't use in the series.

Next time, be ready to roar.