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)

39. Episode 38 - The Perfect Candidate

Episode 38 - The Perfect Candidate

The biker sat on his chopper, right next to the entrance of the cavern. He was holding up a notepad, and flipping through some of the pages. He examined one, and then nodded to himself.

"What are you looking at?"

Sambash glanced up, it was Enter. He had seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere.

"Did you do that just to try and scare me?" Sambash said as he closed his notepad and stood up from his bike. "'Cause it didn't work."

"Why would I want to scare such a trusted colleague?" Enter said in a bizarrely charming manner.

Sambash glared at Enter for a moment. "Are you trying to butter me up or something?" He asked. "Some kind of scheme you want to do that I need to be involved with?"

"Well, its less a scheme and more… a deal."

Sambash tilted his head, and let out a laugh. "Alright, what kind of 'deal' are you trying to make?" He asked.

"I want you to get me the inactive Zoolizer those three have been running around with." Enter continued. "If you get that for me, then I'll help you with your next plan."

The biker monster thought for a moment, pulling out his pistol and tapping it against his head. "Alright, I guess I could use your help for something I've been thinking of."

"Excellent." Enter said. "I suppose you have some sort of a plan to deal with those three?"

"Well, let's just say… I know a guy." Sambash said with a chuckle, getting back on his bike. He started to rev it up, the machine propelling itself into the air.

"By the way, what exactly is this plan you have?" Enter asked over the revving of the engine, entirely out of curiosity.

"Why would I tell you it right now?" The biker said. "I can tell you this, though… it's gonna be big."

"Really, REALLY big."

---

The hospital door slid open a bit, a hyena quickly poking her head in. She glanced at the bed, the wolf was there, laying down. "Hey, Max?" She said, opening the door a bit more. "You doing alright?"

The wolf glared at her for a second, before letting out a sigh and rolling onto his side. "I'm doing okay." he muttered.

She walked into the room in full, letting out a sigh. "Yikes, you being melodramatic or what?"

It had been two full weeks since Max had been hospitalized. He was getting better, and the doctors were saying that he would be out in a few days.

"I'm not being melodramatic." The wolf whined. "I just hate not doing anything for so long. I feel antsy, you know?"

"Eh, I get it." Emily replied. "But that doesn't mean you got nothing to do, right?" She walked up to his bed, and sat down at the edge. "We brought your electronics here the day after you were admitted, how is that not enough to do?"

"I mean like… moving around." Max said, rolling onto his back, and edging a bit away from Emily. "I just want to go out and do something, being stuck in a bed is painful by itself."

"Well, you're here because we don't want you to die." She continued. "And you probably don't want to die either. So you'll keep resting up until the doctors say you're ready to go."

Max let out another sigh. "Yeah, I will, but… I'm a bit worried."

"'Bout what?" Emily asked.

"I just have a feeling something bad will happen while I'm here, and I won't be around to help." He continued.

"Is this related to that depression thing?"

"What?" Max blurted out. "Who told you about that?"

"Nick told us all the moment he was finished talking with you." Emily said. "Like, do you really think that's something he would've kept secret?"

The wolf let out a small, annoyed growl. "Well, this isn't about my self-loathing issues, I'm just worried there might be a monster attack, and I won't really be able to do anything to help."

Emily thought for a moment. "That is an issue, yeah."

"Like, what am I supposed to do when we need to fight a giant monster?" He continued. "We're at the point where the original one's kind of worthless, so they need my robot."

"Can't you just take your thing off?" Emily asked.

"My Zoolizer? Yeah, I can take it off." He said, raising his wrist. The device was still attached.

"...Do you sleep with that thing on?"

"Uh, nooo?"

She quickly rolled her eyes. "No, what I mean is, have you checked to see if you can summon your big robot while you're not wearing it?"

"Oooooh." the wolf let out. "I never thought about that. Hang on…"

He quickly sat up, and unbuckled the Zoolizer, handing it and a small coin to the hyena. "If I'm not out of the hospital when a giant monster shows up, just give this to Nick and Judy." He said.

"Uh, alright." Emily said, with a quick, surprised chuckle. "I thought you were going to test it out right now."

"That'd be incredibly stupid." Max said. He paused for a moment. "Do you know what Nick and Judy are doing right now?"

"I dunno, some kind of talent show thing?"

"Oh, wonderful."

---

"Why are we doing this again?" Nick asked as he leaned on his paw out of boredom. The two were sitting at a white table, neither of them taking up that much space due to the size of it.

"Because we have to find someone who can be ZooYellow." Judy replied with a sigh. "You made a promise to Max that you'd do this, remember?"

"No, I didn't mean 'why are we trying to find ZooYellow', I meant why are we doing this talent show thing again?" He said.

"Because this is the last method we have, sorry. And also we have this place rented for the next few months." Judy said, before one of her ears popped up. "Wait, you're the one who came up with this idea, why do you hate it?"

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty."

There wasn't a whole lot they could really do besides this. They had tried to do online ads, but those didn't turn out well… at all. They tried asking mammals in the street, but that just went awkwardly. This was all that was left, and it was going… about as well as you'd expect.

Judy looked at a clipboard, with the list of mammals who had come to try out. "Have we even gotten one that matches any criteria?" Nick asked, leaning over to look at the paper.

"Well, yeah." She said. "But none that have all the criteria at the same time."

There were around thirty names on the list, a lot less than the turnout from before, which was probably a good thing. Most of them were really just not suited for the job. It was less of a disaster than it was before, however… but only by a little bit.

"I don't think this is going to work out." Judy said with a sigh, placing the clipboard back down on the table. "I'm starting to think that maybe Finnick was the only real choice."

"Even if he is, that doesn't mean we have to force him to be on our team." Nick said. "He made his choice."

"I get that, but… you know." She sighed. "I'm just getting really frustrated at all this."

"Don't worry, I'm sure something will come along!" Nick said, quickly patting the rabbit between her ears. "Maybe we'll end up getting lucky, and find that… perfect candidate!"

"You're being pretty optimistic today." Judy said with a chuckle. "You sure you're feeling alright?"

"I just really want to get out of this room."

"Well, we aren't leaving unless-"

Before she could finish, the Zoolizers started to buzz.

"Unless something like that happens?" The fox finished.

"Yes, unless something like that happens." She said with a sigh.

---

"Alright boys, line 'em up!" Sambash shouted. The crew of Yartots under his command dragged over a few mammals, an elephant, a tiger, a rabbit, and an elk. The four were tried up at the wrists, and each had a Yartot blade next to their stomach.

Sambash was attacking a market place, at a rather busy time. Dozens of other mammals were scurrying away from the attack, and these four just happened to be unlucky enough to get caught.

The biker monster stepped forwards, as the Yartots pressed the four mammals into the front of a building behind them. The general pulled out his gun, and started to twirl it around.

"Lessee…" He muttered, still spinning the gun on his finger. "Which one of you would be the most fun to take out?"

He quickly stopped the gun, pointing it at the tiger. "Hm, tiger hunting. Might be too easy." he quickly moved the gun to the rabbit. "No point in this when you aren't running in fear." He then pointed it at the elk. "Ooh, those horns would look nice on my wall… but there's no real challenge to that."

Finally, he pointed the gun at the elephant. "Could use you to see how tough my bullets are." Sambash said, pulling his gun back and walking towards the pachyderm. "Maybe I could sell your tusks on the black market, make a bit of indecent cash off this."

"Alright, that's enough of that!"

Several laser shots fired at Sambash and his Yartots, causing them to scatter. Red leaped into the battle, shortly before Blue leaped in as well. She fired at the monsters again as Red lead the four mammals to safety.

"Alright, I was wondering when you two would show up!" Sambash said, twirling his gun around again.

"Shut it, helmet head." Blue snapped. "I'm not going to let you or your monster hurt anyone!"

"Uh, Blue?" Red said, jogging up next to her.

"What?"

"I don't think he HAS a monster right now."

Blue glanced around. There were only the weird pirate minions, not a single unique monster in sight. "What the heck…?"

"Oh, you two caught me at a bad time, see?" Sambash started. "I was JUST looking for someone to turn into a monster! Shame you had to interrupt me."

"Yeah, like we'd just let you go and make one." Red said, drawing his blade.

Sambash shrugged. "Oh well, guess you guys are itching for a bit of a challenge, huh?" He quickly snapped his fingers. "Yartots, get them."

The pirate monsters let out a cry of gibberish, before rushing at the two Rangers. Red quickly leaped up and slashed through one of the pirates, turning it back into dust. Blue followed up by jumping and kicking at one of them, before leaping off and kicking another Yartot in the face.

"I thought you said this would be a challenge!" Red chuckled, before he slashed at another Yartot's legs with his claws.

"You might want to pay better attention." The monster replied.

The two turned around, coming face to face with two large cannons, each with a Yartot manning one. They both tugged at the strings, and fired out cannonballs from them. The two leaped out of the way as the cannonballs crashed into the pavement.

Sambash quickly readied his pistol, and fired it at Blue as soon as she landed. The rabbit was knocked across the road by the shot.

"Oh yeah, you also have to deal with me!"

She quickly got up, shaking the blast off. Without a word, she pulled her blasters out. "Red, take care of those cannon guys, I'm going to handle Sambash." She ordered.

The fox nodded, and pulled out a red ZooTag. He quickly plugged it into his Zoolizer.

"GAO, RAWR!
BEAT THE BEAST
KING OF THE JUNGLE
BRAVE, GAO!"

The twin blades appeared in his paws, as he quickly started to spin them around. Red leaped at the two Yartots, who pulled at the strings on the cannons again, firing another pair of cannonballs at him. The fox slashed his blades forward, cutting directly through the cannonballs as he landed in front of the two cannons.

The Yartots started to freak out as Red leaped up onto one of the cannons, one of the pirates leaping into the other's arms. "Yeesh, you guys are pathetic." Red said, shaking his head. He quickly sliced the two in half, the sand falling to the ground.

Blue faced Sambash, her blasters pointing directly at him, and him pointing his gun at her. "Man, a good, old fashioned stand-off." Sambash said with a chuckle. "You wanna take some paces?"

"Ugh, shut it."

She quickly fired both her blasters at the monster, who in turn quickly fired his own gun at the blasts, causing the lasers to disperse. As Blue reacted in shock, he quickly moved to firing at her feet, causing the rabbit to leap back.

"Face it, rabbit," Sambash started, twirling his gun around. "You'll never be as good of a gunslinger as I am. There's a reason why I'm called 'Gun Boss'!"

"Well, when you put it that way…" Blue said, quickly crossing her arms. "Maybe I should try something different!" She quickly pulled out her daggers, and rushed towards the monster.

He quickly shot at her, but the rabbit leaped out of the way of the bullets, leaping up and slashing at Sambash's midsection. He stumbled back a bit as the rabbit landed back on the ground.

"Red, hit him now!" Blue shouted over to the fox.

Red was standing on top of one of the cannons, both of which were pointed at the monster. He pulled both the strings, causing two more cannonballs to fly out. Sambash let out a grunt as the balls flew at him, but he quickly backhanded one of them, causing it to whiz right over Blue's head and smash into a nearby building.

He instantly followed up by shooting the other cannonball with his gun, causing it to halt its momentum and fall back to the ground.

"You really thought that would work-"

"Heads up!" Red shouted. At some point during the attack, he had pulled out the Vickscannon, and aimed it directly at Sambash. He fired a shot from it, which struck the monster directly in the face, causing him to let out a growl.

"You just got lucky, mutt!" Sambash growled, before unleashing a flurry of bullets in the fox's direction. He leaped out of the way as the bullets crashed into the cannons, reducing them to scrap in only a few shots.

"You ever think about quality testing your cannons?" Red joked. "They seem a bit flimsy to me!"

"The only flimsy thing here is going to be your dead bodies!" Sambash growled.

He quickly pointed his gun at Blue, who stepped back, before pointing it back to Red. The biker monster stepped forwards, but was suddenly interrupted by something.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?"

The three looked up at a nearby rooftop. Crouching down on it was a yellow furred jaguar, dressed in a long black jacket, yellow shirt, and jeans. He also wore sunglasses, which he tilted up to get a better look. His fur was a bit scuzzy looking, and he overall gave a sense of… aloofness.

"The hell are you?" Sambash asked, lowering his gun.

"A jaguar, obviously." He laughed, before jumping down from the roof. He stretched his limbs out a bit, before pacing up to the monster, who in turn backed away. "Looks like you're attacking these two. That's not really a nice thing to do."

"Shut it, cat." Sambash snapped, quickly pointing his gun at the jaguar's face. "Or else I'll blow your head off, too."

"Oh, nice, what kinda gun is that?" The jaguar said, grabbing it from Sambash's hand.

"Hey, give that-"

"Revolver pistol, nice wooden handle." He continued ignoring the monster.

"Uh, what's going on?" Red whispered to Blue. She shrugged in response.

"Wonder how this baby shoots…" The jaguar said, quickly pointing the pistol down towards Sambash's feet and firing.

"Be careful with that thing, holy shit!" Sambash shouted.

"You can have it back." The jaguar said, tossing it over to Sambash.

The monster caught it in both his hands, and then glanced up, just in time to see the jungle cat sock him directly in the face. He stumbled back a bit, clutching at his helmeted head.

"Now's our chance!" Blue shouted. Red and her quickly pulled out their bladed weapons, before leaping at Sambash. They struck at his body, causing him to tumble to the ground.

Sambash quickly got back up, but the jaguar leaped forwards. The monster attempted to block, but was blind-sighted as the feline hit the ground, and swept at his leg. As Sambash started to fall, the jaguar then performed an uppercut, knocking Sambash right back onto his feet.

The biker gave out a quick grunt as he attempted to swing his pistol at the jaguar, who dodged out of the way. He quickly followed up by smacking Sambash in the shoulder with his palm, and then delivered a knee to his gut.

"Ugh, I've had enough of this!" The monster growled as he stumbled back. He snapped his fingers, causing his flying motorcycle to swoop in. He quickly hopped on, and drove off into the sky.

Judy and Nick quickly untransformed. "So, what do you think his plan actually was?" Nick asked. "Seems like he just wanted to make some trouble. Didn't even have a monster."

"Yeah, that's a bit concerning." Judy said. She started to turn around, presumably to face the jaguar. "Hey, thanks for…"

He was gone.

"...Helping us?"

"That's also very, very weird." Nick said. "Who do you think he was?"

"I dunno, but I have a weird feeling…" She started. "Courageous, active, heroic, yellow…"

"Oh, please don't tell me…"

"I think that guy might be our new ZooYellow."

---

The motorcycle skid to a halt as it re-entered the cave. Sambash quickly got off it, and cracked his neck as he walked towards the table in the center.

"Well, that was humiliating." Enter said from behind him. Sambash turned around, noticing that he was in his cheetah form. He was also holding… something. It was a hexagonal, black device, with a ring of teeth in the middle of it.

"I don't entirely see how a random attack was supposed to help get the Zoolizer." He asked. "Seems to me you were just sort of… messing around."

"Relax, data boy." Sambash said as he sat down. He quickly cracked his neck again. "Sweet Daitanix, that was a good punch. Anyway, everything's going fine. I just need a bit of time for this to get going. Can't rush along plans, right?"

The fake cheetah let out a quick "tch" before walking off.

"Yo, where you heading off to?" Sambash asked. "You usually don't put on the furs unless you have someplace to be."

"I have my own plans to follow right now." Enter said, almost dismissively.

"It has something to do with that device, don't it?"

Enter let out a growl.

"Just because I'm not as smart as you, doesn't mean I'm blind." Sambash continued, without actually looking at Enter. "And just for the record, I don't actually care, its just you trying to be secretive all the time is getting annoying."

"Fine, I am going to be using this device." Enter blurted out. "That make you happy?"

"Yeah, go on your way, man."

The cheetah let out a small growl again, before walking out of the cavern. He exited on the outside of the mountain. "Let's see, where would be a good place to start…" He glanced across the field, before spotting a rather large hole in the ground.

"There we go."

---

There was another knock at the hospital door. Max quickly closed his laptop, and placed it to his bedside as the visitors came in. It was Judy and Nick, who quickly hopped up onto a small metal platform next to the bed.

"How's it going, wolfsbane?" Nick asked.

"Oh, you know, still restless." Max said. "This is kind of a surprise visit from you two, what's up?"

"The WEIRDEST thing just happened!" Judy said. "We got a monster alert, and went to see who it was, and it was Sambash, without any monster."

"No monster?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's definitely a bit off."

"But that's not even the weirdest part!" She continued. When we were trying to fight him off, this jaguar guy showed up and started to fight him!"

Max's eyebrow raised as he sat up. "Jaguar guy? What was he like?"

"He looked homeless." Nick said. "But he did actually manage to beat Sambash, which is impressive, I guess."

"Oh, I see where this is going." Max said. "You guys want to make him ZooYellow, right?"

"Well, one of us does." Nick said.

"Yeah, I do." Judy said, putting her thumb to her chest. "I'm the leader, remember? Besides, he was… pretty incredible. He wasn't even scared of him."

"So, you know who this guy is?" Max asked. "Like, you have a name or anything?"

"Uhhhh, not really." Judy admitted. "He kinda vanished before we could ask him anything."

The wolf let out a sigh, and laid back down. "Alright, I don't really want to be rude, but we did just kind of go through this whole… thing." He said. "It might be best to be a bit cautious, you know?"

"That's what I was thinking." Nick said. "What if this guy is some kind of criminal, or just, dangerous, or… you know what I mean?"

The rabbit looked at him for a moment, and then let out a sigh. "I mean, you're right." She said, hopping down from the platform. "But, we don't have a lot of choices left. I want to assume the best of everyone, you know?"

"I know that, but we're in the middle of something, you know, serious here." Nick said. "I just… I don't want anyone else to be hurt because of a dumb decision we made."

"Right." She said. "We'll go over this very, very carefully. If we run into him again, we'll make sure to get some information before he decides to run off."

"You two just… be careful, alright." Max said. "Don't want all of us incapacitated."

Judy nodded, and prepared to say something, but was distracted by a buzz. She pulled her phone out of her jean pocket, and answered it.

"Uh, hello?" She said as Clawhauser appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Judy, Nick, we have a… visitor?" The chubby cheetah said, looking a bit concerned about something. "He says he's looking for you guys, but he won't tell us why, so, uh, can you get over here ASAP?"

"Well, that's strange." Judy muttered. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

"Hey Ben!" Max said, sitting up.

"Hey Max! Sorry that you're stuck in the hospital!" Clawhauser said. "Hope you get better soon!"

Judy quickly hung up, and brushed her ears back. "Uh, you gonna be fine here, Max?" She asked.

"I'm fine." He said, laying back down. "Everything's fine, you guys have more important stuff to deal with now."

"Alrighty." Nick said, a bit unsure, as he hopped down from the platform. The two quickly headed out, and back to the station.

Max remained silent for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

"I really want to get out of here." He muttered as he rolled over.

---

The fox and rabbit walked into the lobby of the station, and were instantly greeted with a strange sight.

It was the jaguar from earlier, leaning on Clawhauser's desk. "So, that's when I went to the cabana and beat the snot out of that punk." He said to Clawhauser.

"Wow, that's incredible!" Clawhauser said, in awe. He quickly noticed Nick and Judy, who were looking on in confusion. "Oh, hey guys, this guy wanted to meet you! He was just telling me a story about how he stopped a crime lord while vacationing in the tropics!"

"'Ello there!" The jaguar said. He had a bit of an accent that they hadn't noticed before. "You two were the ones runnin' around in the superhero costumes, right?"

"Yeah, we are." Nick said. "Name's Nick, that's Judy, and who exactly are you supposed to be?"

"Oh, didn't get to give you my name before I had to run off, sorry 'bout that!" The jaguar said. He quickly pulled out a rolled up sheet of paper, and unrolled it. It was one of the fliers for the ZooYellow tryouts. "See, I saw one of these fliers and wanted to see what it was all about, so I zipped off, but wouldn't you know it, I realized you two were the ones I was supposed to meet!"

Judy hopped up and grabbed the flier from him. "Wait, you actually wanted to come to the tryouts?"

"You know it!" He said. "Fancy myself a bit of a hero," He said, kneeling down and holding his paw out. "Name's Spike."

Judy quickly shook his paw, which he then held in front of Nick. The fox crossed his arms and glared at him. "Yipes, don't have to be such a stick in the mud." Spike said.

"So, you're a 'hero'?" Nick asked, a bit curious. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Means I go around helpin' people." He said, bluntly. "Took out a number of crime lords, stopped a few mob attacks, you know the drill."

"That's amazing." Judy said.

"Amazingly unbelievable." Nick followed. "If you did those kind of things, how come we haven't heard about you before?"

"Uh, 'cause I've never been here before?" Spike said with chuckle. "See, I've been travellin' around the world most of my life, takin' in the sights and such. Been through a lot of stuff, including several martial arts training regiments, and I've even mastered a few weapons in my time."

"Right." Nick said, still not convinced.

"I came 'round to Zootopia 'cause I heard about you two." Spike continued.

"Seriously?" Judy said, shocked.

"Yeah, the monster fightin' stuff's been heading around the world, y'know?" The jaguar continued. "You guys are big shot heroes, and I wanted to see how well I measured up."

"Well, I personally, think you measure up perfectly fine." Judy said. "And, wait, if you were heading to the tryouts, does that mean that you wanted to become ZooYellow?"

"Yep, I wanted to at least give it a shot."

"Well, you managed to fight off a monster mostly on your own, which is more than anyone else we've seen can say…" She said. "I think you're perfect, but I know that Nick here… isn't."

The fox still had his arms crossed, and was still glaring at the jaguar.

"Well, maybe I can show him I gots what it takes!" Spike said. "You guys got a training spot 'round here right?"

"We have a gym!" Clawhauser said. "It's somewhere at the back."

"Right, perfect!" Spike said. "Think you guys can let me in there so I can show my stuff?"

Nick let out a small growl, causing Judy to, in turn, let out a sigh. "Nick, you can at least give him a chance to show us what he's got."

"Yeah, fine." The fox muttered. "We'll be back there in a second, you go on ahead."

The jaguar gave a nod, and ran off to the back of the station.

"I know we have to be cautious, but we have absolutely no reason not to trust him at this point." Judy said. "And we especially have no reason to act like jerks to him."

Nick seemed to ignore her. "Ben, can you look to see if there's a file on him?" he asked the cheetah.

"Uh, I can't really, sorry." Clawhauser replied. "If he's from out of state, then the database won't have anything on him. Sorry."

"Oh."

The fox kicked at the ground, before the rabbit grabbed his arm and dragged him off. They headed down the hall to the gym, Nick shuffling and pouting as they walked.

"Seriously, Nick, you do this every time someone tries to come into our lives." Judy said, sounding a bit annoyed and slightly worried. "Are you worried that something will happen to me?"

"Well, no, but…" Nick paused as he caught up to her. "I'm just worried, alright?"

"I get that, but I don't think we have anything TO worry about." She replied. "Spike seems like a really nice guy, even if he's a bit… showoff-y."

"That's the thing that gets me, he just acts really arrogant." Nick said as they reached the entrance.

"We've known him for like, seven minutes." Judy said.

"Whatever, its just how he's coming off to me." The fox said as they walked into the gym.

The gym was outfitted with most things that were needed. Weights, punching bags, treadmills, there was even a boxing arena for sparring matches. Spike was sitting on one of the weightlifting benches, still dressed in the same outfit.

"You might want to change out of that before you start training." Judy suggested. "It might get in the way."

Spike laughed. "What you think is a detriment, I think of as a handicap. Watch this."

The fox and rabbit glanced at each other in confusion as the jaguar started to stretch. After a few moments, he readied himself, and made a running leap. He somersaulted in the air, landing on his paws, and then boosted back into the air, landing in the boxing ring, right on his feet.

Spike held his arms out, and the two started to clap. What else were they supposed to do?

"Like I said, I've been through a lot of training." Spike reiterated. "I know about five different martial arts, and am an expert gymnast. I even know gymkata!"

"That's impressive, I guess." Nick said, reluctantly. He didn't even know ONE martial art.

Spike flipped out of the arena, and landed on his paws again, this time walking on them over to a punching bag. He quickly hopped to his feet, and stretched his arms out. He hopped on his feet a few times, before kicking the bag, causing it to swing off.

As it swung back, the jaguar quickly smacked at it with his palm, causing it to be pushed back a bit more. He then kicked it again, even harder by the looks of how the bag was swinging. Spike dropped to the ground as the bag swung over him, and he quickly jolted up, kicking the bag with both his feet, and flipping back to a standing position.

"How's that?" He asked, a bit smug.

Judy started to clap, as the fox just stood there, a bit annoyed.

"You're fantastic!" The rabbit said. "I've never seen a mammal with that kind of athletic prowess before!"

"I've seen YOU pull off more impressive stuff." Nick said.

"I mean a NORMAL mammal." She corrected. "You're not an acrobat or fighter for a living, are you?"

"Nope, don't even have me a job." Spike said. "Just drift from place to place, makin' cash wherever I can."

"Yo, what's going on in here?"

The three turned to see Emily and Henry entering the gym. "Em, Henry, what are you two doing here?" Judy asked.

"Uh, Clawhauser told us you were back here?" Emily said. "Not really that big a deal." She looked at Spike for a moment. "Is this the guy you want to be our new team member…?"

"Indeed I am, name's Spike." He said, holding his paw out. The hyena looked at it for a second, and then walked off.

"He looks a bit rough." She said, sitting down on a nearby bench.

"Very… homeless looking." Henry said, examining him.

"You're saying that like the three of you weren't homeless at one point." Judy said.

"She has a point." Nick said, begrudgingly.

"Just because I'm homeless doesn't mean I'm not capable." Spike said. "Want me to show you guys what I'm capable of?"

"I think you've shown off enough for today." Nick said.

"Oh, righty then." Spike said, a bit disappointed. He glanced around for a second. "Hey, I thought there were supposed to be five of you guys."

"There are five of us." Judy said. "One of our teammates, Max, got in an… accident the other day. He's in the hospital."

"Well, why don't we go and visit him?" Spike suggested, clasping his paws together. "If I'm going to join you guys, I need to get to know you all, right?"

"We've already visited him today." Nick said. "It might be rude to go in there for a second time."

"I haven't visited him yet." Henry said.

"You haven't visited him at all." Emily said.

"Okay, true."

"Let's just all go as one big, happy team, right?" Spike said. "It'll be fun, we can take a group picture!"

"I like how… enthusiastic you are, but…" Judy started.

"We're going to wait on the group pictures." Nick finished.

Before they could leave, Judy's phone started to ring. "Hello?" She asked as she answered it.

"Oh gosh!" Clawhauser said on the other side. "We have monster attack reports down in the Rainforest District! You need to head down there quick!"

"Ben, we're just down the hall, you could have come and told us that." Judy said.

"I could've, but then I would've had to have gotten up! Say bye to me on your way out!"

Judy sighed as she hung up. "Alright, we have monster stuff to deal with." She started, turning to Spike. "Wanna come along for the ride?"

"Oh, one hundred percent yes." He said. "I get to fight, right?"

"Uh, we'll see." Nick said. "Let's just head out before anything bad happens."

---

"Hopefully those idiots show up soon." Sambash said. He sat upon an oversized tree root, watching as his army of Yartots ran through the muddy field, chasing a variety of mammals. He crossed his legs, and spun his gun around as the plaza was cleared.

His head perked up as the sound of engines started to come closer. "Ugh, finally." Sambash said, not moving from his position.

The two motorcycles, along with the large armored truck, pulled in to the field, mud spraying as they skidded to a halt.

Blue and Red hopped off their bikes, and the sides of the truck flipped open, Pink, Green, and Spike walking out.

"Oh hey, it's that guy again!" Spike said as he caught Sambash sitting on the root. "This should be easy, then!"

"I wouldn't bet on that." Blue said. "You just hold back for a bit, don't want you getting hurt."

"Alrighty." Spike said, slightly disappointed.

"The bunny is giving you some good advice." Sambash said, standing up. "You probably want to hang back, or else you'll get your skull caved in."

"Come on, I beat you last time!" Spike said with a chuckle. "I can do it again!"

"You got lucky!" Sambash said, before firing his gun in the direction of the five. Mud burst up under their feet as they scattered. Yartots quickly tromped through the mud towards them, waving their swords.

Red, Blue, Pink, and Green quickly leaped into the fight. Red sliced through a few off the Yartots, while Blue fired at a few more, reducing them to sand. Pink and Green fired at the pirate monsters with their own blasters, causing more of them to be turned to dust in an instant.

"I got more where those came from!" Sambash shouted, pulling out two handfuls of golden coins. He tossed them up into the air, and another army of Yartots fell from the sky, adding to the remaining crew.

"Okay, there's a lot of them now!" Red shouted as the pirates started to swarm in on him. He slashed the legs of a few of them, causing the pirates to stumble back for a moment.

Blue was surrounded as well, but she quickly leaped up and landed on the head of one of them, preparing to take a vantage point. She leaped in fear as she heard a gunshot, the Yartot she was previously standing on suddenly bursting into sand.

She landed on the head of another one, and looked up to see Sambash, aiming at her with his gun.

"Oh boy." She let out.

Pink and Green were having slightly less troubles with their groups of Yartots. Emily clawed a few of them, causing clouds of sand to burst into the air, while Green simply smacked the small-fries away with his cannon.

"This is gonna start getting annoying." Green grunted as he punted a few more pirates through the mud.

"Question, why does this guy even use pirate minions?" Pink asked, shooting a few of the monsters in the head. "Isn't he supposed to be a biker?"

"Heyo!" A voice shouted, causing the two to look up. Spike crashed into the ground, and started to punch the pirates away. "I think that guy was part of a pirate crew or something, that's why he uses pirate minions!" He explained, still punching the monsters away.

"How do you even know that?" Emily asked.

"Intuition!" He said, before he jumped up and kicked off the back of a Yartot, launching the jaguar across the field.

"That was… weird." Green said, before quickly blasting at a few more of the monsters.

Spike quickly landed in the middle of the circle the Yartots had formed around Red. In a swift move, he kicked the circle away, completely knocking the crowd away from the fox.

"I didn't need help!" Red yelled, before Spike quickly darted off towards Sambash.

He leaped up into the air, high enough to reach Sambash, and attempted to kick the gun out of his hand. Sambash quickly pulled his gun back, and grabbed the jaguar by his foot. He dangled Spike above the mud, and let out a quick yell of "HEY!" to get the rest of the Zoorangers' attention.

"Looks like this guy got too cocky!" Sambash said as the Zoorangers and Officers looked up at him. Most of the Yartots had been cleared out at this point, and the four watched as the jaguar struggled in the grip of the monster.

Sambash aimed his gun at Spike's head, prepped to fire. "Let him go!" Blue shouted.

"Don't think so." Sambash said, rather bluntly.

"Jude, I think I might need some extra support, y'know?" Spike shouted down to her.

"I don't know what that means!"

"I need the super changer thing you guys use!" He shouted back down. "If I get that, I can beat this guy up right good!"

"Why would I have it on me right now!?" Blue shouted back up.

"Oh, cripes."

"Don't worry, we'll get you down from there!" Blue shouted back up. Her and Red quickly leaped up onto the root, and drew their weapons.

Sambash looked back and forth at them for a moment, before shaking his head. "Idiots." He muttered, before letting go of Spike. The jaguar dropped from the air, and splashed into the mud. Sambash quickly pointed his gun at Blue, who stepped back for a moment.

He just let out a quick growl, and then snapped his fingers. His motorcycle came flying in, and he jumped up on it. The bike quickly vanished into the treetops.

"What was that about?" Red asked.

"Uh, I guess we just made him mad?" Blue said.

They quickly leaped down, back into the mud, where Spike was reorienting himself. "Ugh, great, all my clothes are ruined." He muttered. He quickly shook it all off, spraying the mud everywhere. "There we go."

The four untransformed, and Judy started to pace through the mud. "He didn't have a monster here, either." She said. "He didn't even seem to have a plan…"

"Maybe he's just getting sloppy?" Spike suggested. "The way he ran off like that makes me think he's just scared of all'a you."

"Doesn't seem a lot like him…" Judy said.

"Hey, question," Spike started, snapping Judy out of her thought. "You said you don't have the wrist device on ya, so where is it?"

"I had to hide it." She said. "Someone could break in and try to steal it, that would be a problem."

"Especially considering what happened last time." Nick said.

"Alright, makes sense." Spike said.

"I just want to say you did pretty great out there." Judy continued.

"Until you got dropped in mud." Nick followed up.

"Well, everyone makes mistakes!" He chuckled, before clasping his paws together. "We gonna head to see your mate now? Seems like some fun!"

"Right, we should introduce you." Judy said. "Come on!"

As the five walked to the truck, Emily trailed back to talk with Henry. "I think there's something weird with that guy." She whispered. "That whole thing seemed a bit too convenient."

Henry nodded. "I'm with you, but I feel we should hang it out for a bit." He said. "Wait for something more damning to happen."

"Good idea, don't want to make asses of ourselves."

---

Enter placed the device on the roof of the building. He was in the middle of the city, almost exactly, only a few blocks away from the fountain, which seemed to be an important landmark. He quickly tapped the top of the device, causing the teeth to open up.

The false cheetah stood back up, and waited around for a moment. His ears quickly twitched as he heard an engine roaring… above him.

He looked up, it was Sambash, riding on his flying motorcycle. It quickly landed on the roof of the building. The biker monster didn't seem to be in a particularly decent mood.

"I take it you haven't managed to get the Zoolizer?" Enter said, a bit mockingly.

"There's been a bit of a…" Sambash paused, and pounded his fist against the bike handle. "…A delay."

"I take it something went wrong?" The cheetah asked.

"Nothing has gone wrong so far." Sambash said. "But it just might take a bit longer for me to get through my part of the deal. I just wanted to get this done with quickly, but I guess those dumb animals keep getting in my way no matter what."

"Shame in that." Enter said, nonchalantly.

Sambash glanced down at the device. "That thing again." He said. "Knew you were doing something with it. What is it?"

"An energy collection device." Enter said, kneeling down and picking it back up. "It absorbs residual energy in a nearby area."

"What kind of energy?"

"Any kind." Enter continued. "Including kinds you can't see."

"Uh, alright." Sambash said, a bit confused. "I'm going to head back to base and wait for my next chance. See you later."

The motorcycle hovered into the air, and then zoomed off towards the mountain. Enter let out a sigh, and looked around.

"That should've been enough time to collect everything from around here…" He said to himself. "Where should I go next?"

---

Max was typing something down on his laptop. It wasn't like he had much else to do. When he was feeling restless, he wrote down lists of things. It wasn't productive, but it was something to keep his mind busy.

He let out a yelp as the door to his hospital room slammed open. He quickly shut his laptop and sat up.

"'Ello, you're Max, I presume?" Said an oddly dressed jaguar.

"Uhhhh…"

"Sorry!" Judy said, stepping around him. Nick, Emily, and Henry quickly followed into the room. "Max, this is Spike, he's our…"

"Potential." Nick quickly interrupted.

"...new member." Judy finished, before striking a glare at the fox.

"'Spike'?" Max said with a chuckle. "Weird name."

"It's what I was born with." He said, walking over to the bed and sitting down on it.

"Spike's kind of incredible." Judy said. "He's good at martial arts, is incredibly acrobatic, and he even says he's already stopped a number of crimes on his own."

"Shucks, you flatter me."

"Really, huh?" Max said, a bit skeptical. "And you just kind of showed up out of nowhere?"

"Not out of nowhere," Spike corrected. "Out of town. Big difference."

Max stared at him for a moment, and took a quick sniff. He didn't smell anything off about him, at least nothing as noticeable as it was with Kyuemon.

"He says he's a wandering vagabond." Nick said. "That he's been around the world."

"It's true!" Spike said, standing up. "Been from the north to the south, south to the east, east to the west, west to the north, and anything in between."

"So you're a perfect fighter and athlete who's been all around the world, and suddenly just decided to show up when we need someone like you." Max said, skeptically. "Convenient."

"My life hasn't been convenient, kid!" The jaguar said, before letting out a sigh and calming down slightly. "I was abandoned when I was little. I didn't know who my parents were, and I was raised by anyone who was nice enough to take me in. As I grew up, I had to learn to be stronger than anyone else, which is why I'm so good at fighting."

"Oh." Max said, slightly shocked. "Uh, sorry for assuming anything."

"Its fine, I just got a bit worked up." Spike said, before turning to face the wolf. "But its nice to meet you, nonetheless! Sorry 'bout your injury."

"Its alright." Max said. "I'm starting to get better."

"Good for you!" Spike cheered. "Soon as you're better, we can all start fightin' the forces of evil together!" He quickly spun around to face Judy again. "Speaking of 'together', I need somewhere to stay if I'm gonna be working with you. Got any ideas?"

"Oh, right!" Judy said, placing a paw to her head. "Uh, I guess you can stay at our place."

"Also known as, my place." Max said.

"Sounds like a good idea!" Spike said, flicking his jacket. "You don't have to worry about my quarters, I can sleep anywhere."

"Seriously?" Nick muttered. "We're just gonna let this guy sleep in our place?"

"Uh, yeah." Emily said, interrupting the conversation. "Me and Horns are gonna head out." She continued, pointing her thumb towards the door. Henry nodded in response, and the two headed out.

"You guys go on ahead." Nick said. "I'll be out in a minute."

"You're not going to do anything weird, are you?" Judy asked.

"What, no, of course not!"

She gave a skeptical nod, and headed out the door, Spike trailing behind her. As they left, Nick turned to Max, before hopping up onto his bed.

"Come on, you didn't think there was ANYTHING weird about that guy?" He asked.

"Well, he just kind of seems odd in general." Max said, a bit freaked out at how angry the fox was. "Listen, you have every right to be paranoid after what's happened, but I don't feel like you should push someone out of your life just because of that."

"I'm not 'pushing him out', I think there's something weird about him!" The fox shouted.

"Well, do you have any evidence BESIDES him just showing up?"

"Do you seriously think something that convenient just happens!?"

Max stared at Nick for a second.

"The group of evil soldiers that were sent to kill us just happened to be your childhood friends, the mysterious hero who helped you for weeks ended up being a guy who worked with you, and both you and Judy ended up becoming the Zoorangers together."

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it.

"Lives are filled with conveniences, Nick." Max said. "Besides, if he was a villain in disguise, he would've smelled weird. Personally, I think his story checks out."

"Fine, whatever." Nick let out, hopping back down from the bed. "See you later."

"Bye." Max said as the fox walked out.

---

A bit later, they arrived back at the house. "Wowser, look at this place!" Spike said as he walked through the door, stepping right over Nick and Judy. He glanced around rapidly, looking at everything.

"Its a house alright." Nick said. "You never been in one before?"

The jaguar paused from his awing, and dropped to the couch. "Well, I have, but its a bit different when you actually get to live in one for a change."

"I know that feeling." Nick said, a bit reluctantly.

Spike quickly got back up, and stretched out a bit. "So, weird question, but, where is that wrist thingy I'm supposed to get?"

The fox's ears twitched at this.

"Well, we have it hidden somewhere in the house, in case burglars break in." Judy said. "I had to hide it better after the last monster attack, it turned out that someone we trusted ending up being a villain in disguise."

"Ugh, that's terrible!" Spike said, sounding genuinely disgusted. "What kind of monster would do something like that?"

"I know, right?" Judy said.

"So, why are you asking about the Zoolizer?" Nick asked. "That's what they're called. Zoolizers."

"Hey, just curiosity, mixed with a bit of excitement." Spike said. "I mean, how could I not be when I get to be a real, super powered super hero? It's like a dream come true, you know?"

"Yeah, stop being weird, Nick." Judy said, tapping her foot rapidly. She turned back to Spike. "So, where would you like to sleep?"

"Like I said, anywhere." He replied. "Maybe somewhere warm. Haven't had that in a long while."

"You can sleep in the basement?" She suggested. "I mean, that's where me and Nick sleep, might be a bit dark for you…"

"Ooh, I love dark spaces." The jaguar said, clasping his paws together. "Why don't you show me?"

"You go down there and look around for yourself." Nick said. "I want to talk with a certain rabbit for a bit."

"Oh, private talk, I get you." He said, with a wink, before rushing off to the basement.

Nick turned to look at Judy. She was glaring at him, and he knew the exact reason why. But he needed to bring it up.

"What the heck is going on with you, Nick?" The bunny asked, shaking her head. "Do you have to be a… a JERK to everybody new we meet?"

"Carrots, I have a bad feeling about this guy." He said. "Like, a genuine, real bad feeling. Think about it, he just shows up, and wants the Zoolizer? Is that not suspicious to you?"

"Actually, it's not!" She said. "I think you're just being paranoid because you don't want to go through potentially losing someone again!"

"I'M NOT BEING PARANOID!" He growled.

"Nick, please." She said, calmly. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. Just try to trust someone for once."

"I'll prove I'm not being paranoid!" The fox continued, seeming to ignore her. He walked over to the couch, and hopped up onto it. "I'm going to sit here for the rest of the night, and see if anything suspicious happens. AND WHEN IT DOES, I'll get to do my victory dance."

"Whatever." The rabbit let out as she shook her head. "I'm going to go check on Spike."

The fox plopped down onto couch, legs crossed and tail in high alert. He was going to show her. Show her that he wasn't just emotionally ruined, that he was RIGHT about something for once.

Hours past, and the fox was still sitting there. He hadn't moved at all, not an inch from the spot. The moon had already come up, but he wasn't sure what time it was. That would require moving and take his attention away.

But he was also starting to get hungry. And thirsty.

He clutched at his stomach, and then hopped down from the couch. He headed to the kitchen to get some blueberries from the fridge.

He grabbed a pawful of the berries, and tossed a few into his mouth as he walked back to the couch. To his shock, Spike was suddenly sitting on it.

"What? How did you…?"

"Just a tip, Nick," He started. "If you want to catch someone in the act, you can't just do the same thing for hours."

"And you know this how?"

"Experience." He said. "Sit down next to me, I wanna talk."

"Uh, okay."

Nick carefully walked over to the couch, and hopped up, not dropping any of the blueberries.

"I know what's going on, you know." Spike said. "You think I'm trying to steal that Zoolizer, right?"

"Uh, noooo?"

"That's a 'yes' then." The jaguar said with a chuckle, the fox quickly letting out a groan.

"Listen mate, I know it can be hard to trust others sometimes, that's happened to me a lot." Spike continued. "But locking everyone out won't get you anywhere. Sometimes you just need to let go of your reservations and make new friends."

"Why should I have to?" Nick said, sinking into the couch. "The only thing letting others into my life has done is bring me… pain and suffering."

"I don't know what happened in your life, but I do know what happened in mine." Spike said. "And trust me, trusting others is a good thing. Sometimes you're used, but a lot of the times you end up with someone new in your life."

Nick let out a sigh, and then quickly hit himself on the forehead. The jaguar was right, he was just trying to lock others out for no reason. He wasn't being paranoid, he was being stubborn and stupid.

"You're right, I'm sorry for thinking you were evil or whatever." The fox apologized.

"No problems." Spike said. "It's a bit difficult, but once you meet the real me, I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Go get some sleep, man."

Nick nodded, and hopped down from the couch. He rubbed his eyes as he headed down into the basement, leaving the jaguar behind.

He crossed his legs, and gave a small smirk.

---

Enter had arrived at his next location, a construction yard. Well, it was previously a construction site, the building had been standing for a month by this point.

Still, he walked around the outside of it, in the grassy yard that had been planted. He slipped his goggles on, and started to look around.

Through his goggles, he could see what he was looking for. Particles of green energy, floating and whipping through the air, phasing through solid matter and then back out. There was quite a bit of it here, though he shouldn't have been surprised.

He pulled the device out again, and placed it on the ground, quickly tapping it so that the teeth would open up. The false cheetah stepped back, and watched as the energy was sucked into it. There was a flurry of the energy, forming into an invisible, silent tornado, existing somewhere on another plane of existence.

In a matter of seconds, the energy was absorbed completely, leaving the air clean of it. He picked the device back up, closing the teeth again.

"That should be more than enough." Enter said to himself. "But a few more stops won't hurt."

As he walked off, he looked at the device. "I might not be able to regain its physical form, but… I suppose it won't need it."

He doubted that Sambash could do what he asked. But at the very least, he could do one very important thing.

Buy him time.

---

"So, you talked about it last night?" Judy asked as Nick and her walked up the stairs.

"Yeah, he told me I was being an idiot." Nick said. "Though, not in those words exactly."

"Well, sometimes you need to sugarcoat things."

The two paused as they walked into the living room. Spike was laying on the couch, asleep. Well, he was basically half on the couch, his arm drooping off of it. It looked like he was about to fall off.

The two tilted their heads in confusion, and the jaguar promptly fell to the ground, landing on his let out a pained whine as he got back up.

"Maybe I shouldn't have slept there." He said, pounding at his own head. He looked at the two, eyes a bit bleary. "Oh, 'ello guys, what's going on today?"

"Uh, not much." Judy said, walking to the kitchen. "We don't have a monster to deal with, so I guess we just have the rest of the week off!"

"Oh, that's nice!" Spike said. "I was kinda hoping something would happen so I could test out those powers."

"Better luck next time." Nick said, hopping up onto his chair. "Hey, whaddya eat?"

"Me?" Spike said, a bit surprised.

"Yeah, do you eat insects, or fish, or are you a vegetarian?" Judy asked. "We have a bit of everything."

"I-insects?" The jaguar said, his cool dropping for a moment. "Uh, I'm a vegetarian. Yeah."

The three ate breakfast, the jaguar seeming to be uncomfortable the entire time. It was quite awkward.

A bit of time passed, and the three were now relaxing. Spike was still looking at some of the things in the house, while Nick played on his phone, and Judy went over some reports.

Suddenly, the rabbit's phone went off.

"Uh oh." She muttered, pulling it out. It was Clawhauser.

She quickly answered it, the cheetah appearing on the screen. "Guys we have a monster attack down in Sahara Square." He said. "And it's a BIG one! Reports are saying there's like, two-hundred monsters!"

"That's not good." Nick said, dropping his phone onto the couch.

"Obviously not." Judy followed. "We'll be there in a bit, Ben."

"Emily and Henry are there already, so you might want to be quick!" He said. "I dunno if they can hold them off that long."

Judy nodded, and hung up. Without a word she hopped off the couch. "Alright, Spike, you ready to do this?"

The jaguar looked at her, eyes beaming. "You mean its time for me to get the thing?"

"It is time for you to get the thing, yes." Judy said. "Follow me."

The rabbit and jaguar headed towards the basement, Nick trailing a bit behind. They headed down into the bedroom, and past the couch-slash-bed, into a pile of boxes. She sidestepped around the boxes, slipping through a crack. The boxes rustled a bit, before she came back out, carrying a small, wooden box.

"Was it seriously hidden there the entire time?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, why would anyone look for an advanced piece of tech behind a pile of junk?" She said. "Seems pretty obvious to me."

Nick let out a sigh and shook his head.

Judy opened the box up, revealing the blank Zoolizer. "Wow, wow, wow!" Spike said, grabbing it. "This thing is incredible!"

"Alright, before we marvel at it, let's head out." Nick said. "You can get a chance to show off to the monsters, we have friends to save."

Judy nodded, and the two rushed up the stairs. The jaguar held the Zoolizer up, and gave a quick, quiet laugh. He calmly walked up the stairs, following the two.

---

The three drove through the sand on their motorbikes, Spike riding on the back of the Kitsunaider. They quickly arrived at a large plaza in the middle of the district, with a large fountain in the middle of it.

Pink and Green were already there, but were fighting against a ridiculous amount of the Yartot pirates. Clawhauser wasn't wrong, there were at the absolute least two-hundred of them, but the number seemed to be an underestimation.

The bikes skidded to a halt as the three looked over the sea of monsters. They watched as Pink pistol whipped several of the pirates away, while Green rapidly fired his cannon, knocking the orange monsters away.

Overlooking it all, on a nearby building, was Sambash, who seemed to just be sitting there. The three hopped off the bikes, and headed into the fight.

"You two go in and rescue them." Spike said to Red and Blue. "I'll stay in the back and make sure that none of these guys escape."

"Alright, good idea." Blue said. The fox and her quickly leaped into the crowd of the monsters, leaving the jaguar behind.

Red pulled out his sword, and slashed through a few of the monsters as he landed. Blue, in turn, pulled out her blasters, and kicked off of one of the Yartot's heads, firing her blasters and clearing out a chunk of them with her shots.

She hit the ground right next to Pink, skidding a bit on her feet. "You guys alright?" She asked.

"About as good as we can get with-" She quickly paused, firing a few shots at some more of the Yartots. "With all these assholes running around."

"Well, you're doing a good job!" Blue said, firing a few shots at the monsters herself.

The two paused for a moment as Red leaped through the air, cutting through a few of the Yartots. "Glad to see you're alright, Em." He said. "Think we should go help Horns?"

Pink glanced over at the bull, who was currently blasting and slamming through a good number of the monsters, not seeming to have any real trouble.

"Nah, I think he's good."

"Alright, then let's clear these pirates out before they can start looting." Blue said, quickly pulling out a white ZooTag. Red followed by pulling out a yellow ZooTag. They quickly plugged them in.

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

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

The axe appeared in the rabbit's grip, while the clawed gauntlets appeared on the fox's paws. Blue raised the massive axe upwards, before slamming it downwards, unleashing a burst of energy that almost instantly eradicated two dozen of the Yartots, causing them to burst into sand.

Red, however, dashed off, going in between the Yartots and rapidly slashing at them. The pirates started to fall one by one, until Red stopped for a quick breather. One of the Yartots tried to sneak up on him and swing its sword, but the fox reacted quickly and slashed at it.

The four continued to bash at the monsters, and soon there were only a few left. "Alright, we're almost done!" Blue said, slamming the axe's handle into the ground.

"Yo, you brought that weirdo jaguar along with you, right?" Pink asked.

"Spike?" Red said. "Yeah, he was supposed to be making sure none of them got away.

"Well, looks like he's not doing a great job." Green said.

Blue and Red looked at the way they had come in. The jaguar was missing. "What?" Blue said, glancing around. "Where did he-"

"Oh no." Red let out, pointing towards the rooftop where Sambash was.

Blue looked up. The jaguar was there, looking at Sambash, who was in turn looking back at him.

"Spike!" Blue shouted. "Get down from there, you know you can't take him!"

The two turned to look down at the four. Almost instantly, another group of Yartots appeared, surrounding the Rangers, with their swords prepped to strike at them.

"What the-?" Red let out.

"Oh, sorry 'mates'!" The jaguar shouted down, before holding the blank Zoolizer up. He quickly tossed it to Sambash, who caught the device. "Guess you should've listened to your fox friend!"

"The "jaguar" held his paw up to his face, and started to glow. There was a quick flash of light, and the jaguar was suddenly replaced with something far more monstrous.

It was a massive, muscular insectoid monster, colored red, yellow and black. Its legs were entirely black, barring its feet. Its lower legs were covered in bands, which in turn were covered in spikes. The creature's feet only had two toes, both of which ended in large talons. The rest of his leg seemed to be covered in extra armor as well, though this armor seemed to be made up of its actual exoskeleton.

Its body seemed to be very muscular at a glance, with a broad stance and visible abs. However, these also seemed to be part of the monster's exoskeleton. Its arms were covered in yellow gauntlets, which were lined with spikes, and ended with large claws. The creature's actual hands came out through a hole at the end.

This lead up to its shoulders, which seemed to be made out of the claws of a mole cricket. They didn't seem to function, but instead only worked as heavy armor, which worked its way down the monster's hunched back. Finally, its head had a grotesque, snarling face, with the elements of a mole cricket's face forming above it, complete with antenna and two spikes that pointed forwards. The creature's neck also seemed to be muscular, though this again just seemed to be part of the exoskeleton.

Blue and Red stared blankly as the monsters started to laugh.

"I can't believe you idiots fell for this!" Sambash yelled down to them. "Let me introduce you to GURINJII!"

The monster gave a quick wave. "I'm the best actor in the Barban pirate crew!" He said. "I'm so good, I can even shapeshift into other people!"

"So that's how he knew why he used pirate minions." Green said.

Red and Blue continued to remain silent.

"Let me tell you, hanging out with you guys SUCKED!" Gurinjii said. "Pretending to be all goody-good like that, for a full day? I wanted to die the entire time! And giving the hokey speech to you, fox, that was the worst part! I'm amazed you fell for it!"

"Yeah, that must have been why it was so easy for Kyuemon to trick you all." Sambash said, tossing the Zoolizer up into the air. "You're all just gullible, trusting idiots! Don't you know that trusting others is a weakness?"

Blue started to clench her fists, while Red remained completely still.

"Boss, you know what the freakiest thing about this place is?" Gurinjii said, stepping closer to Sambash. "They EAT INSECTS!"

"What!?" The biker monster said, sounding genuinely grossed out. "Ugh, that's just nasty! You guys are sick!"

Blue let out a pained yell, and then grabbed hold of the axe, quickly flinging it towards the monsters. They quickly stepped out of the way as the axe sliced through the top of the building, and continued to fly off into the distance.

"Aw look, the bunny's angry!" Gurinjii laughed. "Let me handle these weaklings, boss."

The mole cricket monster quickly pulled out a rather plain looking broadsword, and leaped down into the plaza.

Without any warning, Blue rushed at the monster, and attempted to perform a dropkick on him. She ended up hitting the dull side of the sword, and the monster quickly flung her back to the ground. Almost instantly, she attempted to attack again, this time pulling out her daggers.

She leaped up, attempting to strike the monster's sword with her own blades. They clashed, but Gurinjii quickly flicked his sword upwards, before punching her away. She hit the ground rolling, stopping directly in front of Red.

"Judy!" He said, snapping out of his daze.

"I'm fine." She said, though it was in a tone that meant she was obviously not fine at all.

Gurinjii stepped closer, preparing to bring his blade down. Pink and Green rushed in, blindsiding the mole cricket. The bull rushed into him, knocking him back, while Pink quickly fired shots directly into his chest.

"Guys, you need to go get the Zoolizer thing back!" Pink said to the Zoorangers. They nodded, and quickly rushed at Sambash.

"Oh, the bull wants a fight, huh?" Gurinjii mocked. "Let's see how well you do with a target you can't hit!"

"What?" Green said, confused. "You're a really big guy, I can hit you easily-"

The monster leaped up into the air, and then crashed down into the sand. A lump of sand started to move around rapidly around the bull.

"Oh, right." He muttered. "Mole cricket."

Blue and Red leaped up onto the roof of the building, confronting the Gun Boss himself. "You guys really think you can get this away from me?" Sambash said with a chuckle. He quickly pulled out his gun, and started to fire at the two.

The fox and rabbit leaped around the roof as Sambash shot at them. "Stay still, you rats!" He shouted.

"You can't even get our species right?" Red said as he hit the ground in front of Sambash.

The monster stepped back, and prepared to fire his gun. The fox quickly slashed at his legs with his claws, causing Sambash to stumble for a moment. As he glanced back up, Blue flew in and kicked him right in the face.

He lost his grip on the Zoolizer. It hit the roof, and bounced off into the sand. "SHIT!" Sambash yelled as he recuperated.

Red and Blue hopped down before Sambash could, and the rabbit almost instantly scooped the Zoolizer out from the sand.

"GUYS, WE'RE GOING NOW!" She shouted over to Pink and Green.

"Give us a second!" Pink shouted as she jumped around the sand. The lump of sand was still zooming around, and the two were anticipating the moment that Gurinjii would pop up.

Green was trying to stomp on the burrowing monster, but had yet to succeed. The bull lifted his foot, preparing for it, and then stomped down as the lump moved passed him. This caused the lump to flatten, and the monster burst from the ground a second later.

Unfortunately, it landed right on its feet, still carrying the broadsword. "Ow, that hurt!" It shouted, before rushing forwards, preparing to swing the blade.

It clanged against Green's cannon, but the monster's strength allowed the blade to start cutting into it. Before it could continue, lasers shot at its side, causing sparks to erupt from its body. Gurinjii let out a grunt as he turned to see Blue, with one of her blasters drawn. He quickly noticed the Zoolizer in her other paw.

"What the, how did you-?"

"Gurinjii, get them!" Sambash shouted down. "They got the Zoolizer, and if they get away with it, I'LL HAVE YOU PAY!"

"Ack, yes boss!" Gurinjii said, giving a quick salute. He readied his sword, and dashed at Red and Blue. The two rushed forwards themselves, but didn't attack.

Red quickly started to slide, going between Gurinjii's legs, while Blue leaped over the monster. He paused for a second as he turned around, preparing to attack them again.

He looked as the two kept running, with Green and Pink following behind.

"Shit!" He let out, stomping the ground.

The mole cricket monster let out a quick yelp as Sambash jumped down from the roof and landed behind him.

"Boss, please, don't hurt me, I did my best!"

"I really want to wring your goddamn throat right now." Sambash said, clutching his fists as tight as he could. He quickly loosened them up. "But that would be stupid. You know where they keep the thing, right?"

"Yep, it'll be somewhere in that house." Gurinjii said.

"Good, then we don't need them alive anymore." Sambash said. "Just go kill them, and wreck the house until you find it."

"Right." Gurinjii said, giving another quick salute. He started to stroll off, but was quickly stopped.

"Hold it," Sambash said. Gurinjii turned around again, seeing that Sambash was now carrying a small, red object. "I'm gonna give you a bit of an upgrade, just to make sure you pull this off."

"What?"

Without warning, Sambash jabbed the Chaos Badge directly into the monster's chest. It quickly fused into his body, and Gurinjii started to twitch and change.

Almost instantly, his shoulder armor burst off, now with its own set of arms connected to his back. The spikes on the front of it grew longer as well. A row of large spikes burst out of his back, traveling all the way down. His front arms started to grow a bit larger, with the metal now forming completely around his hands, and an extra claw burst from the metal. His claws were now completely movable.

His legs grew a bit larger as well, and his overall shape changed to an even more hunched over one, making it easier for his new arms to punch at things. A plate of exoskeleton armor covered his face, leaving an insect like visor over it.

"CHAOS GURINJII!" He roared, before leaping up into the air and bursting into the ground. He quickly sped off through the sand.

Sambash looked around for a moment, and kicked at the sand.

"Fuck."

---

Around an hour had passed since the four had arrived back at Max's house. For most of that hour, Nick and Judy had been entirely silent, as Emily and Henry simply waited for them to say anything.

Finally, Nick said something.

"We are absolute morons."

He got up from the couch, and started to pace around. "You guys aren't idiots." Emily said.

"No, we are." Judy said. "We fell for the same trick twice in a row. And we were even trying to be more cautious."

"How are we supposed to trust anyone after this?" Nick said, frustrated. "Everything he said was bullshit, even the complimentary stuff!"

"Hey, guys listen…" Emily started.

"Was I wrong to trust someone?" Judy asked, seemingly ignoring the hyena. "Like, that's how I was raised, how am I not supposed to trust someone?"

"Guys…"

"This happens every time!" Nick said with a growl, also seeming to ignore Emily. "Every time I try to let someone into my life, something goes wrong! Why does this keep happening!?"

Henry quickly slammed his hoof on the floor, catching their attention.

"Listen to the hyena." He said. "She has good advice most of the time."

"...Most of the time?" She said, sounding a bit offended. She shook it off, and cleared her throat. "You two really shouldn't be beating yourselves up about this."

"Why not?" Judy asked.

"Because I know how something like this feels." She said. "I was betrayed by someone I trusted… a long while ago."

"Her ears started to droop, and Nick's followed suit.

"But, that's not really what I mean." She continued, starting to pace around the couch. "When that happened to me, I was upset at first too, to say the least. But when I thought about it more, I started to get angry… and then I did something about it."

"You can't just beat yourselves up over a dumb mistake." She said. "It happens to everyone, and sometimes its worse than others. There are things in this world that just aren't fair, but if you let those get you down, then you'll never be able to do something about it."

"So, you're saying we should just get over it?" Judy asked. "That's something that's hard to do."

"You knew the guy for a day." Emily said. "I knew the guy who betrayed me for most of my life. It took me years to get over that."

She sat down next to Judy, and carefully placed a paw on her tiny shoulders. "I'm not saying you'll be able to get over it instantly, but you can do something about it right now. Get what I'm saying?"

"Not really." The rabbit admitted.

"I get it." Nick said. "We just have to beat that guy, and we'll start to get over it."

"Oh." Judy said, a bit disappointed.

"Well, that's not entirely what I meant-"

Emily was interrupted by the Zoolizers going off. "Alright," Judy said, standing up. "Even if I don't get it, I know what we have to do. We need to stop that monster, and make sure no one else is hurt."

The other three nodded. Nick stepped forwards, and punched his paw into his other. "I'm ready to go take out some frustration on that asshole."

"So, I don't think either of you really understood what I said," Emily said as she stood up. "But yeah, let's go save some lives."

The four quickly headed out.

---

Max let out a long sigh as he continued to lay on his bed. He was feeling perfectly fine at this point, and just wanted to move around again. He was starting to get really, REALLY anxious. Was he going to be stuck here for another week? The thought was terrifying.

The wolf quickly sat up as the door to his room opened. He honestly thought it was going to be Nick and Judy again, but it was the antelope doctor again.

He walked into the room with a grin on his face. "Hello, Mr. Wolford, how are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm feeling fine." Max said, laying back down.

"Well, that's good, because I have some good news."

The wolf catapulted back up.

"Everything's pointing towards you being one hundred percent healed up." The doctor said. "You should be able to leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh thank god." Max muttered.

"But you'll need to stay here until then, just in case."

"I got it." Max said. The doctor gave a nod, and headed out. Max looked over at his bedside table, eyeing his cell phone. He quickly grabbed it, and dialed up Judy's number.

She answered, but the screen didn't flick on. "Max? You called at a really bad time." She sounded a bit surprised, mixed with some form of anger. Hopefully not directed at him.

"Oh, sorry." He said. "Want me to hang up?"

"No, keep going, there's really nothing stopping you."

"Okay." He said, a bit confused. "Uh, I'm being released tomorrow. You wanna come pick me up?"

"Sure." She said. She seemed to be cheering up slightly. "Hopefully we'll have sorted this all out by then."

"Uh, what exactly is going on?" Max asked.

"Turned out that guy we tried to recruit was a monster who wanted to steal the Zoolizer." She explained, in a bizarrely matter-of-fact way.

"Oh." Max said in response. His ears perked up as he realized what she had just said. "Excuse me, what?"

"Yeah, that happened."

"Does he have the Zoolizer?"

"No, we managed to get it back, but now he's attacking the city and we need to stop him."

The wolf flicked his blankets up, and started to get up. "I'm on my way there."

"Max, don't." She said. "If the doctors don't think you're ready to go, then you need to stay. If anything happened to you…"

Max let out a sigh, before laying back down. "Fine. But you're sure you can handle this guy on your own?"

"Yeah, we should be able to." She said. "See you tomorrow."

The wolf let out a sigh as she hung up. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment.

---

The armored truck drove into the middle of an open city block, followed closely by a pair of bikes. The vehicles stopped at the edge of a road. The Zoorangers got off their bikes as the SPD Officers exited the vehicles. All four of them looked around.

There wasn't a monster there.

It had clearly been there, however. Various cars had been tossed around, and several nearby buildings had chunks torn from them. Rubble littered the street. Hopefully the lack of any life meant that everyone had gotten away.

"So, there should be someone here, right?" Red asked as he walked into the middle of the street.

"I don't get it, this is where the Zoolizers said to go." Blue said, scratching her head. She was interrupted as her ears perked up. She had caught the sound of… crying?

"You hear something?" Pink asked.

"I do…" She said. "Someone's crying. Its a kit."

"That's not good." Red said.

"Its over there."

The four rushed over to a nearby alleyway. Blue quietly stepped in to the alley. She held her hand back, and then turned back, placing her paw over her visor. Green and Pink nodded, but Red looked back and forth at them, confused.

"What does that mean?" He whispered.

"It means 'keep watch'." Pink whisper growled. "You've been working on the force for three years and you don't even know the signals?"

"I didn't entirely bother, no…" He said as they walked off from the entrance of the alley.

Blue quietly stepped towards a dumpster, and peeked around. There was a small bunny, crying. "Hey!" Blue whispered. "Are you alright?"

The kit turned around, and looked at her for a moment, before nodding.

She held her paw up, and helped the bunny up to its feet. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here before anything happens."

The two headed back down the alley, but halfway there, the rabbit's paw slipped out her her own. "Hey, don't let go, we're-"

She turned around, but only managed to catch a large, red object flying at her. It smacked right into her, launching the rabbit out of the alleyway. There was even a large burst of dust and rubble as she flew off, before hitting the ground and rolling across the asphalt.

"What the-!?" Red let out. The three rangers looked back into the alleyway.

They were greeted with the monstrous, large form of Chaos Gurinjii, and started to back away as he exited the alley.

"God, you fell for that again!" He laughed as his upper claws pulled him out of the alley. Almost instantly, Pink and Green started to shoot at him, but he quickly punched at their blasts. "Are you guys idiots, or what? I'm going for the first option!"

Red rushed over to Blue, and helped her back up. "You just got tricked again, Blue."

"Seriously!?" She said with a growl. She quickly got back to her feet, and pulled out the moon shaped ZooTag. "Let's dig this guy a grave."

"Ooh, mole cricket pun." Red said, pulling out the sun shaped ZooTag. "You're getting better."

They quickly plugged the ZooTags in.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, and readied their weapons.

Chaos Gurinjii stepped forwards, and smacked Pink off with one of his arms, before punching Green to the ground with one of his upper claws. "So, you guys can transform too?" The monster said with a laugh. "Lets see how you like this transformation!"

There was a bright flash, and then Chaos Gurinjii was replaced by yet another form. He was now a much smaller, somewhat sleeker blue creature, wearing a white robe and bony sandals. Its back was covered by a large, blue cloak, and its arms seemed to be covered in coral-like armor. Its head was oddly bulbous, with an anchor tattoo painted directly onto it, and a pony tail sticking out of its otherwise hairless head. A sword was sheathed at its hip.

Its face, however, was the original Gurinjii's face, looking completely out of place.

"You guys take up the samurai theme, I'll follow suit!" The monster said, with Gurinjii's heavy voice. "Prepare to be sliced like fishes!"

He dashed at the two, attempting to bring his sword down on them. The two quickly sidestepped out of the way, both ending up on either side of the monster.

"Maybe you need some extra sword training!" Blue said, leaping up and swinging her twin blades at the monster.

With lightning fast reflexes, Gurinjii pulled his katana directly under the rabbit's blade, blocking her. "I'm not the one who needs training, rabbit!"

"Yeah, but maybe you need better peripheral vision!" A voice yelled behind him.

He quickly glanced back, before Red jabbed his staff right into the monster's back. He stumbled, letting Blue push her blades off of the sword, and flip directly over him. Gurinjii quickly turned around, before Blue started to fling laser slashes at him.

The lasers exploded upon hitting him, causing Gurinjii to stumble back.

Just as he regained his composure, several laser shots started to hit him in the shoulder. He looked over to see Pink and Green, their weapons smoking.

"Didn't anyone tell you never to bring a knife to a gun fight?" Green said.

"Didn't anyone tell you never to bring a gun to a sword fight?"

"Ugh, lame." Pink said, before firing at the monster. He quickly whipped his sword around, blocking all of the shots.

"Hah, nice try!"

The monster was quickly whapped in the side of the head as Red's staff extended directly into it, causing the monster to stumble off.

"Didn't I just say something about periphery vision?" The fox said.

Red and Blue quickly moved in to attack the monster. They leaped around him, getting in blows whenever they could. The monster attempted to block each of the hits, but its singular blade wasn't good enough to block the attacks from two opponents.

The two quickly leaped back, and then pulled their own weapons back. They both thrust them forwards, Red's staff firing out a fireball, and Blue's swords firing out laser slashes. They collided with the monster, causing it to fly off.

"Augh, I can't beat you guys in this form!" Gurinjii complained as he got up. "This body's too… stuck up! I need to get a bit looser!"

"Oh great, this again." Red said, as he and Blue covered their visors.

There was another flash of light, and now the monster had changed into yet another completely different form. It was a massive change from the previous form, being a lot slimmer and a bit more feminine, though still very monstrous.

Gurinjii's face was now plastered between two large horns, both decorated with Egyptian styled stripes. This extended to two long ribbons on either side of his face as well, which acted as frames to… another, much larger version of Gurinjii's face. The rest of its body was odd as well, with reptilian arms with rows of red gems, and pink, baggy pants that ended in a pair of monstrous crocodilian feet marked with sharp claws. Its shoulders were two massive spikes, which were also plastered with hideous versions of Gurinjii's face.

"Let's see if you enjoy some MAGIC!" Gurinjii shouted, before thrusting his arms forward.

There was an instant explosion in front of the two, launching them back toward Pink and Green. They rolled across the ground, and the two quickly helped them up.

"That's… probably the creepiest thing I've ever seen." Red admitted as Pink helped him to his feet.

Gurinjii started to laugh, as he raised his hands into the air. Two wrecked cars started to float up as well, the four watching in awe for a moment, before the monster thrust his claws forwards.

The cars started to zoom towards them, before the four leaped out of the way. There was another large explosion behind the Rangers.

Before the four could even recuperate, Gurinjii thrust his hands forwards again, causing tons of tiny explosions to erupt around the Zoorangers.

"HAH HAH HAH!" The monster laughed. "THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY FOR YOU TO DEFEAT ME!"

Pink quickly rolled out of the smoke, and fired off a few shots. They connected with the face on Gurinjii's chest, causing several explosions to go off, and knock the monster back to the ground.

"I believe they call this the 'squishy wizard' phenomena." Green said, prepping his cannon. Gurinjii quickly got back to his feet, before the bull fired the cannon.

There was another explosion. This delay in attacks let Red and Blue get back up to their feet, and rush in.

As the smoke cleared, Gurinjii was back to his feet, and the two leaped in to attack. Red went for the monster's stomach, landing and quickly extending his staff into it, while Blue went for the shoulders, quickly kicking off the monster's head and flinging laser slashes at the face covered mounds.

Blue landed behind the fox as he pulled the staff backwards. He then quickly swung it forwards, slamming the monster directly in the stomach and launching him off.

Gurinjii's smoking body rolled across the ground again, before stopping on his back. "Ugh, I need something more… durable."

He quickly got to his monstrous feet, and the four Zoorangers covered their eyes once again. It quickly cleared, and the monster was replaced, once again, by another.

The new form was made entirely out of bronzed steel and far more muscular than the other two forms. Like the others, it had Gurinjii's face plastered onto it in a way that looked unnatural, but now its head was also topped with a large viking helmet, complete with horns. The rest of his body was covered, absolutely COVERED, in spikes. It looked like he was wearing a full body set of armor, but the armor was actually his skin.

He quickly pulled out a large axe, which had a large, spiked ring around its two blades. "This guy was always second best to me!" Gurinjii said. "Strong, tough… but obviously nothing compared to the boss!"

"What are you talking about?!" Red asked.

Without warning, the steel beast charged forwards, bringing his axe to the ground. The two dodged out of the way as the blade crashed into the asphalt. The force of the blow caused a large chunk of the road to crack.

He quickly pulled the axe back out, and turned to face Red and Blue. They quickly thrust their weapons forwards, shooting off projectiles. They crashed into the monster's body, causing no visible damage.

"Hah, my body is completely invulnerable in this form!" Gurinjii boasted. "Hear that, you two?" He said, turning to Pink and Green. "No cheap shots now!"

The two quickly drew their guns, and started to fire. The shots bounced off of Gurinjii's steel body, causing them to fire towards Red and Blue.

"Hey, watch where you're shooting!" Blue shouted.

"We can't do anything about this guy!" Pink said.

"Maybe you can't, but maybe I can." Green said, before stomping over to the steel monster. He lifted his cannon up, and then slammed it against the monster. The force of the blow seemed to actually cause damage, causing the monster to stumble back.

"OW! That hurt!" It shouted.

"Alright, so we just have to hit it really, really hard." Red said.

"I think that's something we can do." Blue replied.

They quickly rushed up to the monster, Red leaping up into the air in an attempt to slam his staff down on the monster's head. Gurinjii quickly pulled out his axe as the staff came down, blocking it. Blue went for the feet, rapidly slashing at the monster's steel boots.

Gurinjii quickly thrust his axe upwards, causing red to fly off. He then started to stomp around at his feet, attempting to squish the rabbit that was attacking him. "Stay still!" He grunted as he tried to stomp down on Blue.

"No deal!" She replied, backflipping away from the monster. She then kicked off the ground, launching forwards with both of her blades pointed directly at him. The force of the leap was strong enough to cause the blades to leave scrapes on the monster's steel body.

The rabbit bounced off, as Red leaped back in. He thrust his staff forwards, directly into the monster's stomach, to no effect. "Was that really the best you got?" Gurinjii taunted.

"No, but this is."

He quickly pulled the staff back, and then thrust it again, still to no effect. Then the staff retracted a bit, and then extended back into the monster's stomach. It started retracting and extending faster and faster, jabbing into Gurinjii's solid body with each hit.

It was going as fast as a jackhammer, and the monster's body suddenly started to crack "W-what!?" He shouted out as Red stopped for a moment.

He clawed at his wound for a moment, before looking at the fox again.

"This is for lying to me."

Red thrust the staff directly into Gurinjii's face, piercing directly through it. The monster let out a scream as it stumbled back, before there was another flash of light.

Gurinjii had finally reverted back to his Chaos form, and was still stumbling around in pain. "You!" He shouted, turning back to the fox and rabbit. "I'm going to CRUSH you!"

"Sorry, I think you've got that backwards!" Blue said.

All four of them rushed at the monster, which tried to squish the fox and rabbit with his front arms, but was quickly distracted as Green and Pink started to fire at him. Blue and Red slashed at Chaos Gurinjii's stomach, before they thrust their weapons into it, launching the monster off.

"Ugh, this shouldn't be possible!" He growled as he got back up. "I should be destroying you filthy vertebrates by now!"

"This is what happens when you mess with us." Blue said, sounding angrier than she had in a long while. "If you thought we'd take this lightly, then you're a complete idiot!"

Red stepped forwards, and held his staff out. It extended slightly, before Blue threw her weapons into the sides of it, forming the large crossbow weapon. Blue grabbed onto the crossbow, while Pink and Green prepared to fire their weapons.

"Ready?" Blue asked, turning to her partners. Red gave a quick nod, while Pinka nd Green gave slightly more ecstatic nods.

"WAIT!"

The four turned back to where Gurinjii was, only to now see a certain jaguar standing there.

"Hey, we don't have to do this, right?" He said, not even attempting to put on the accent. "I can just stay like this and we can be pals, get over everything, you know?"

Blue and Red glared at him for a moment. Their stares, even though he couldn't see their eyes, pierced directly through him.

Without a word, the four fired, the massive energy beam fusing with the pink and green shots and turning into an even larger beam. The jaguar quickly covered his face as the beam struck right through him.

A massive explosion erupted from where the monster was standing, both a red object and a small mole flew out of it. The tiny mammal hit the ground, unconscious.

"You two get that mole to safety." Blue said. "We'll handle the giant monster part."

"Wait!" Pink said. "Before that happens, I need to give you something."

The rabbit and fox tilted their heads in confusion as she pulled something out. It was Max's Zoolizer. "Max told me to give this to you guys in case a giant monster fight was going to happen." She said, tossing it to the rabbit. She stumbled back as she caught it. She quickly tossed Red a coin, the one that Max used to summon ZooKami.

"Do you really think that will work?" Red asked. "I thought only we could summon the big robots."

"I dunno, but we could try!" Blue said. The four quickly turned to watch as the Chaos Badge launched up into the air and into the horizon.

There was a burst of red light, before Chaos Gurinjii appeared on the horizon. He let out a roar. "COME TRY ME ON FOR SIZE NOW!"

"Well, we better try it out now." Red said, holding the coin up. Blue held the Zoolizer up, letting him plug it in.

In a flash of light, ZooKami appeared in front of them. "Alright, so that worked." Red said, genuinely surprised.

The two quickly plugged their own ZooTags into their Zoolizers, summoning their own mechs. As they entered, Blue quickly realized something.

"Wait, doesn't he need a pilot?"

In response, the robotic wolf let out a howl, before leaping through the city.

"Guess not." Red replied.

ZooSagi and ZooKitsune leaped through the city as well, traveling right behind the wolf-mech. They quickly ended up in the outskirts of the city, with the titanic mole cricket monster waiting for them.

"Let's put 'em all together!" Red said, pulling out a red ZooTag, which he quickly plugged into his Zoolizer. His Zoolizer started to let out drum beats, as he shrugged.

"BRAVEST OF ALL TIME!
A GOLDEN GOD OF JUSTICE!
EVIL RUNS IN FEAR!
ZOOSHISHI!"

The massive, golden lion mech appeared, and let out a roar, stunning the monster for a moment. The four mechs quickly leaped into the air, and formed into the new golden force that was called…

"ZOOROBO BRAVE OH KAMI!"

The golden mech crashed into the ground, debris flying out in all directions as the ground beneath it cracked. It shined in the setting sun, as Chaos Gurinjii backed off, clearly intimidated.

The robot waved its sword around for a moment, and struck a pose.

Then, nothing happened.

"Is something supposed to happen…?" Chaos Gurinjii asked, a bit confused.

"Uh, give us a sec!" Blue shouted out. She quickly looked over at Red. "Why aren't we moving!?"

"Ask the empty air." He said, pointing towards Silver's cockpit. Of course, it was completely empty.

"Oh, wonderful."

"I'm going to attack now!" The monster roared as it started to stomp towards the immobile robot.

"Ack, I'm going to take over!" Blue said, before leaping over to Silver's cockpit. She quickly grabbed at the controls, causing the legs to start moving.

Unfortunately, the arms started to droop, and dropped the sword to the ground.

"Oh, OF COURSE!" The rabbit shouted.

"Should've seen that one coming." Red sighed.

Gurinjii rushed at them, but ZooRobo quickly stepped out of the way. As the monster came to a halt. The mech lifted up its leg, and kicked Gurinjii back, before stumbling off.

"How about I take the arm controls?" Red asked.

"Won't we lose control of whatever you're controlling?" Blue asked.

"It's just the head, I don't really see anything going wrong."

The fox quickly leaped over to Blue's controls, and started to move the controls. The mech instantly responded, stomping forwards and punched Chaos Gurinjii's right in the face. The monster stumbled back from the blow.

It let out a grunt, before looking down at the large sword on the ground. He quickly picked it up in his claws. "Can't defeat me if you don't have this!" He taunted, waving the sword around.

"He has a point." Red said.

"Give that back!" Blue shouted. ZooRobo stomped forwards, preparing to attack the monster, but it quickly sidestepped out of the way.

"Turn around!" Red yelled. Blue attempted to turn the mech around, but its head wouldn't follow. They couldn't react in time, Gurinjii struck them in the back with both of its shoulder fists.

"Why didn't the head move!?" Blue shouted, absolutely panicked.

"Oh, shit, that was what I was supposed to be controlling!" Red replied.

"Guess we'll just have to react faster." Blue said.

Gurinjii hopped across the field, still clinging on to the sword. "If we can get the sword back, we can beat him." Red said.

"Here goes nothing, then!" Blue said, before ZooRobo charged in.

The mech charged at the massive mole cricket monster, who let out a laugh. "I can keep this up all day!" It shouted, before leaping forwards, and flying over ZooRobo.

As he flew over, however, the mech punched him right in the stomach, causing the monster to fall out of the sky, dropping the sword in the process.

ZooRobo quickly rushed over and dropped into a roll, picking the sword up in the process. "Alright, now we just need to soften him up a bit!" Blue said.

The monster let out a groan as it got back up. It quickly spotted the golden blade, now in ZooRobo's metallic hands.

"Yuh oh."

ZooRobo quickly rushed in, and slashed at the monster. Sparks erupted from his body as the sword connected. This was quickly followed up by another slash, and then a kick, which knocked the monster back.

Gurinjii quickly reared his massive punching arms, and started to stomp forwards. ZooRobo quickly slashed his blades twice, firing off golden laser slashes that went directly through the monster's back arms. He let our a yelp of pain as they dropped to the ground.

"Let's finish him off for good now!" Blue ordered.

ZooRobo slashed its blade downwards, forming a crescent shaped mirage of energy. Energy then started to gather in the lion head on its chest, forming a mirage of the sun. The energy fired out as a beam, combining with the moon energy. It crashed into the monster, causing a massive explosion.

"BOSS, I FAILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED!" Gurinjii shouted as he stumbled about, before exploding for a second time.

ZooRobo slowly turned around as the explosion erupted, and proceeded to strike a pose.

"Nature, protected."

---

A bottle smashed against the rocky wall of the cavern. This hadn't been the first one, as a pile of shattered glass, liquor, and frustration had been formed over the last few hours.

Sambash rested his head against the table, holding a half-full bottle. He let out a groan as he lifted himself up, and started to pour the liquid onto his face.

Enter walked into the base, quickly turning back into his human form. He glared at Sambash as he slumped back down onto the table. "I'm assuming things didn't go well." He asked as he walked past.

Instead of responding, Sambash tossed the bottle over his shoulder, it nearly hitting Enter. "It went like shit." Sambash finally said, before hanging his head and letting out a sigh. "Listen man, I'm real sorry. Guess I'm just worthless."

"Actually, you did incredibly well."

Sambash glanced back up at the robot, and proceeded to stand up. He seemed angry. "Are you pitying me?"

"What? Non non non!" Enter said. "Your plan worked amazingly well to distract the Zoorangers while I worked on part of my next… plan."

"The thing involving that… energy whatever, right?" Sambash asked.

"I managed to gather all I needed." Enter said, clutching the device in his hand. "And as I said, I'll so anything you want. Nothing stupid, though."

"Aw." Sambash let out, sarcastically. "I was going to make you do the chicken dance."

Enter glared at him.

"Alright, you want to hear what I want?" He said.

"I want jewels."

Enter looked at him, slightly confused. "Jewels? Your big plan involves… jewels?"

"The shiniest goddamn jewels you can find!" Sambash replied. "The most valuable ones in the entire city! I need a lot of them. A LOT of them."

Enter let out a sigh. "I… suppose I can work that out." His rather disappointed tone seemed to shift in a moment. "Actually… that's perfect."

He started to walk away. "Hold it." Sambash said. "Why'd you even want the Zoolizer? Its not like you could use it."

"Oh, I have my ways."

---

"Man, is it good to get some fresh air!" Max said, stretching his arms out as he exited the hospital. Nick and Judy followed behind him, and watched as the wolf started to stumble for a moment.

Judy rushed up and tried to help him. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just…" The wolf made a disgusted face, and then shook his head. "Its just because I was laying down for two whole weeks."

"That happened to me once." Nick said.

"Really?" Judy said, a bit surprised. "What put you down?"

"Depression."

The mood dampened for a moment.

"Anyway, uh, sorry about what happened with… that guy." Max said as they closed in on the police cruiser. "I should've been able to figure out something was up with him."

"Yeah, it… sucked." Nick said, rather bluntly. "Don't you guys think its weird how we havent found anyone besides Finnick to play the part?"

"Yeah, it's a bit strange." Max said, his vertigo kicking in again for a moment. "The only other candidates have been villains manipulating us."

"And that's a mistake we're never going to make again." Judy said with a commanding tone as the three hopped into the cruiser, the rabbit at the wheel. "From now on, we're keeping the Zoolizer locked up. Forever."

"Excuse me?" Nick spat out from the passenger seat.

"Forever?" Max said from the back seat, a bit shocked. "But, what about ZooYellow?"

"If the bad guys want it, its too dangerous to even have around." Judy said. "I trust that the five of us can defeat the villains, and a villain getting their hands on it could be disastrous. This is what AkaRed warned us about when we first met him, so I suggest we follow that advice."

"I suppose that's… fair." Max said, slightly disappointed. He quickly sat back up, and placed his paws on the back of the driver's seat. "Hey, if you're dropping bombs, can I drop one too?"

"What?" Judy said, confused. She had just placed the key in the ignition.

"I want you guys to move out of my house."

Both of them turned to look at him.

"...WHAT!?"

---

Enter looked on into the midday sky. It had taken a few hours for the energy he had collected to gestate and form. He had realized that it was ready when it started hopping around violently. He pressed down on the top of the device, causing it to open.

The energy started to swirl out, fully visible and taking on the form of green mist. It swirled around in the air, before taking on a concrete, though still intangible shape.

It formed into a skull, specifically the form of a canine's. The eye-holes quickly lit up with orange lights, and the skull started to look around.

"What? Where am I?" It snapped, in a slithering voice.

"'Allo there, Monsieur Savage."

The skull glared at enter for a second. "You! You're one of Long's buddies!"

"Buddies is a strong word." Enter said. "We're more like… business partners."

"What happened? I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare." Savage asked. "And… what happened to my body?"

"Long removed your energy from that lion's body, remember?" Enter explained. "Without anything to channel your form, you were just meaningless energy. I collected that energy up, and rebirthed you."

"I would have appreciated a body." The skull said.

"I have my limits." Enter said. "But, I would like to make a deal with you."

"No thanks, I've had enough deals for my immortal lifetime." Savage said, turning away from Enter.

"This is a deal with only good for both of us." Enter said. "I need your energy, and I can grant you a body at the same time. It's a win-win situation."

"Interesting, but how do I know you won't betray me like your 'business buddy'?"

"Trust me," Enter started, with a rather sly smirk. "I have more important people to betray."

"I don't know what that means, but I believe you… a bit." Savage said. "I'll go with it, as long as I get to kill some things."

"There will be plenty of killing." Enter assured. "But we'll need to wait a while before we can get started. And you need to hide."

"Got it." Savage said. "Oh, question."

"What is it?"

"Whatever happened to that snake, Long?"

"Right now, he's stuck in a wall."

"Hah, nice."

---

There we go! I kind of lied about there being no monster, but there was really no monster for around 70% of this, so it was a white lie. Unlike some things I could name.

You all can probably see where all this is going if you look into it. We're only two episodes away before we reach the final arc, and trust me, everything here is going to pay off. Pay off a lot sooner than you'd expect, actually.

Next time, oh yeah these characters are all cops huh?