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)

40. Episode 39 - Thief in the Night

Episode 39 - Thief in the Night

A shadowy figure stepped through the ornate museum. It was pitch black out, and the few souls left in the building had no idea that he was here. He let out a chuckle as he walked closer to a glass case in the middle of the room.

The grand exhibit of the place, a massive ruby, claimed to have been owned by royalty in the mid-eighteen-hundreds, and potentially thousands of years older than even that. He admired it for a moment, before stepping back.

There was a quick flickering of light on his shoulder, something quickly popping up from it as well. Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of its shoulder, and collided with the glass case. He drew a circle with the beam, and then finished. He knelt down, and pulled the glass out carefully. Placing it on the ground, he grabbed the ruby.

As he pulled it out, sirens started to wail. He tossed the ruby up as he watched four guards run into the room, each being an animal of fairly large demeanor.

"STOP!" One of them, a buffalo, yelled. "DROP THE RUBY!"

The thief faced them, and let out a much heftier laugh as the guards stepped back in shock. "What the hell is that thing?" The pig guard asked.

"A good thief never exposes his identity!" The thief said. Something on his shoulder flicked up again, revealing to the guards what looked like a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass quickly shot out several bursts of light, which hit the ground in front of them and burst into smoke.

The guards coughed and waved the smoke away, revealing that the thief had completely vanished, alongside the ruby.

"What the…?" The buffalo said, shocked. "Where did he…?"

"Just going to say it, but I think we have a problem." The rhino guard said. "I'm calling the police station. We're getting some experts in on this."

"Good idea." The buffalo said. "You calling for a detective?"

"No, I think we need something better than a detective." The rhino said. "That thing wasn't a mammal."

"Wait, you don't mean…?"

The rhino nodded.

"We need the Zoorangers."

---

The rabbit and fox walked into the station, looking absolutely exhausted. Clawhauser watched them as they drearily walked to the bullpen. "You two alright?" He asked, a bit worried.

"Yeah, we're fine." Nick said, letting out a yawn.

"Because you look exhausted." Ben continued. "Were you guys up late?"

"We've been trying to look for an apartment." Judy said. "We were out all day, trying to find the right place."

"I thought a few of the places were nice, but Miss Picky here has to have it all be perfect." Nick said.

"Nick, every single place you picked was a dump."

"Yeah, but they were cheap dumps."

"I thought you guys were living with Max? He decide to kick you out?" Clawhauser asked.

"Yeah, he did." Nick said.

"'Kicking out' is a bit harsh." Judy followed. "Its a good thing that we've been saving our money ever since we got back to work."

"Oh, I get it, if you pool the money together, you'll be able to buy one!" Ben said.

The two nodded. "Biggest problem is that we haven't found any places with furniture already." Judy said.

"Well, we have, but apparently they weren't good enough for you." Nick mumbled.

The rabbit glared at him for a second. "We left all our furniture back at our old place. Didn't exactly have time to move it all out."

"Well, hope you guys get successful sometime soon!" Ben said. "You better hurry, you'll be late for roll call."

"Right, thanks for the chat, Ben!" Judy said with a wave as they headed off.

The two paused as a gruff voice shouted down at them.

"HOPPS! WILDE!"

The two looked up slowly, spotting Bogo looking down from the floor above them. He was glaring at them, and made a quick motion with his thumb towards his office. He promptly stormed off.

"That's not good." Nick said. "That was his 'you messed up badly' look."

The rabbit gave a nervous nod, and the two headed up to the office. "Did you do something stupid again?" Judy whisper asked as they approached his door.

"We weren't even here yesterday!" He replied. "How could I have done something stupid in the five minutes we've been here?"

"Remember the time with the coffee and the mop?" Judy asked.

"Oh, come on, that wasn't five minutes."

"You're right. It was three minutes and fifteen seconds. I timed it."

"Well, I…" Nick grunted as they headed into his office. To their surprise, Max, Emily, and Henry were all there. It looked like they were all waiting for them. Max in particular looked very tired.

"Yo." Emily said. Henry just gave a quick nod.

Bogo let out a snort from behind his desk. "You're finally here."

"Were we supposed to be here?" Nick asked.

"I called you two hours ago." Bogo explained. "The only one who answered was Wolford."

The wolf snapped awake for a moment at the sound of his own name. He glanced around, a bit confused.

"Oh, uh, yeah!" Max said. "You guys slept through the call. Bogo wanted us to come here earlier, but I managed to get you guys an extra hour of sleep."

"Yes, Wolford explained to me about yesterday." The buffalo said. "But just because I understand doesn't mean I'm not disappointed."

"Missing an important call two hours before work, I think that might be a new record!" Judy joked.

"Hey, this is your mistake too." Nick replied.

"So, considering all of us are here, I'm guessing we have an emergency?" Judy asked.

"Of a sort." Bogo said. "Last night we received a call from the National History Museum about a robbery. The Rodentia Ruby was stolen last night. "

"Sounds pretty normal." Judy said, a bit confused.

"Normal, aside from the robot with lasers." Emily joked.

Bogo nodded. "The report we got said that the thief wasn't a regular mammal. We can't verify this, but its best for all of you to go investigate. See if you can work anything out before things get out of hand."

"Yes, sir." The five said. Judy, Max, Emily, and Henry walked out of the room, Nick trailing behind them.

"Wilde."

The fox paused, and turned to the buffalo. Nick could feel Bogo's stare piercing directly through him.

"I'm growing a bit thin on patience with you two." He said. "If you two keep messing with police business without a good reason, I might have to do something… drastic."

"Uh… y-yessir." Nick said, before quickly running out.

Bogo let out a sigh, and leaned back in his seat, pulling out his phone. "That oughta put him in line for now."

---

"The Rodentia Ruby…" Judy said as they looked around the museum. It was part of the exhibit on priceless artifacts. The room was one of the best kept in the entire museum, and as such was one of the better looking ones as well. It was lined with red carpets, and each display had a comforting brown and gold design to it.

"Why's it called that?" Nick asked.

Judy looked at him, a bit surprised. "Hey, I have more important things to learn than about big gemstones." He said.

"The ruby was found back in the eighteen-hundreds, in Old Rodentia." Henry started, quickly interrupting them. "It was found by a group of miner mice who were trying to find materials for townhouses, but they found a ruby around half as tall as either of you."

"Wait, it was seriously that large?" Nick said, surprised. "With a name like that, I would have expected it to be tiny."

"Its called the Rodentia Ruby because it was made into a display piece outside the queen's castle after they found it." Judy continued. "Do you not read history books or something?"

"I prefer to live in the now, rather than the past."

The five walked up to the large casing in the middle of the room. The glass case had only been touched on one side, a large chunk of it had been cut into a circle, which in turn was placed on the ground.

Oh yeah, and the ruby was missing.

"The security for this room is supposed to be impregnable." The buffalo guard said to Judy. "The four of us were guarding every possible exit, and the only way out would have been through the ceiling window."

Judy glanced up at the window. It hadn't been touched in any way, not a single hole. How could a criminal, monster or not, have gotten out without leaving a single trace?

"You're completely sure that he didn't take a more obvious exit?" Nick asked. "Like, no gratings, or…?"

"Completely sure." The guard said. "It vanished right in front of us in a puff of smoke, just like that."

"And you're also completely sure this was a monster attack?" Max asked. "Any description of what he looked like?"

"It was dark." The pig guard said. "We could only make out shapes. All I saw was that it had a top hat and a cape on."

"Did you see how it carved this glass out?" Judy asked, stepping on the large chunk of glass.

"No, the alarm only goes off when the ruby is removed, so we only got alerted when he took it." The rhino guard said. "But it shot a laser at us from its shoulder, that could have something to do with it, but…" He shrugged.

"So, we don't have any actual evidence that its a monster." Emily said, a bit annoyed. "It could have just been someone in a top hat."

"Well, guess that means we can head home." Nick said, clutching his paws together.

"Nick, we can't do that." Judy said, slightly angry. "Monster or not, this is a crime, and its our jurisdiction to deal with it."

"Alright, alright, it was just a joke." Nick said. "But personally, I think this is just some wannabe supercriminal who got lucky."

"I think it might be a monster, actually." Henry said, a bit out of nowhere.

"What give you that idea, Horns?" Nick asked.

The bull looked at the casing, examining it a bit. "Well, for one, look at how tall this case is." he said. The casing only reached around half way up Henry's entire body, meaning that it was of middling size. "Then look at how the glass was carved." He continued.

Judy looked at it for a moment. The hole was slightly off-center, and even a bit oddly shaped. "So?" Nick interrupted. "He was off center, what does that mean?"

"Well, the thief had a laser attached to its shoulder, and this placement matches up perfectly if he was standing directly in the middle." The bull continued to explain. "And if you factor in how the glass was cut…"

He placed a hoof on the glass, and started to slide it across the circles. The glass was angled like it had been cut from slightly above, getting flatter at the top and sharper at the bottom.

"...It was cut from slightly above."

"Then that means we're dealing with someone in the middle size class, right?" Max guessed, speaking from experience. Henry nodded in response.

"But here's the problem," The bull continued. "No medium sized mammal has shoulders broad enough to fit where this was cut."

"That's definitely odd." Judy said. "I guess we can't rule out a monster just yet, huh?"

"I never ruled it out, I just said it wasn't very likely."

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring. She quickly answered it, Bogo's face showing up on the screen. "Chief, what is it?" She asked.

"More news related to your case, potentially." He said. "We just got an influx of calls from other museums, art galleries, private collectors, and jewelry stores. All of them had some kind of precious jewel stolen, well wnough that most of them didn't notice until the morning."

"Were there any details?" She asked. "Size, species, anything?"

"All we got were hysterical calls." The chief said. "If you want details, go and ask them yourselves. I'm sending you a list of the sites."

He hung up, and the rabbit quickly slipped her phone back into her pocket, before letting out a sigh. "Looks like we have a lot of running around to do today." She said.

"Ugh, don't we ever get to have a break?" Nick moaned.

"Obviously not." Max followed up.

"There's no guarantee this is the same guy, but all of this happening on the same night definitely isn't a coincidence." Judy said. "Let's head out."

---

"Hah, look at all these gems!" The skull said as it floated around the table. It was completely littered with gems of all kinds. Small, large, blue, green, red, opaque, clear… a gem suitable for every type of person was there.

"This is the most color I've seen in this place!" Savage said, mockingly. "Seriously, you could lighten this place up a bit."

"I don't care." Enter said. Savage let out a growl, before floating over to Enter.

The two turned to face the monster who had collected all of the gems. "You did an excellent job for just one night." Enter complimented. "But, what else should I expect from Louperoid?"

"Hah hah, you flatter me!" The monster said.

Louperoid was a humanoid robot, much like the rest of the Metalroids, though he in particular was very human looking. His body was almost entirely black, only marked by orange markings sporadically scattered across his body, each shaped like a diamond or crystal. The black was only broken up by yellow-gold wires on its chest, red lines running across its body, silver highlighting, and, bizarrely, an entirely red left leg.

Its head seemed to mostly consist of a large top hat, with four blue lights on it, and a heart design at the very top. Under the top hat was its actual face, a stump with one eye on its right side, formed from a large lens. It also had a cape, which seemed to actually be a large sheet of black and silver metal, formed into a three pointed, stiff cape.

It also had very large shoulder pads, each marked with yellow like on its chest, and large silver objects. He also carried a cane, fit for his size. It was entirely silver, but with a large, red ball on top of it.

"I must say, I'm impressed myself!" Louperoid boasted, rubbing its free hand on its face, in the exact position a mustache would be. "I was thinking of going for a second run, actually!"

"Fine." Enter said, looking over at the gems. "Sambash said he needed a lot, so the more the merrier."

"Tally ho!" The monster said, spinning its cane around. "But after all that, I'm afraid that things might end up getting too easy! A daylight run would make it tougher, yes, but what else could give me the challenge I so desperately crave?"

"I have a challenge for you." Enter said. "I need you to steal something from some very special animals."

"Ah, those meddling Zoorangers, correct?" Louperoid guessed. "What could those knaves have that's possibly worth my accomplished thieving prowess?"

"They wear these things on their wrists." Enter said, grabbing onto his own wrist. "They call them 'Zoolizers'. I need you to steal all of them for me."

"Hah, that's all?" Louperoid said. "That will be like stealing a confectionery from an infant!" He gave a quick wave of his cane, before vanishing in a burst of light.

"That guy talks a LOT." Savage muttered. I barely understood any of that!"

---

Several hours had passed since they had been given the case. They had been around the entire city, been to every spot that had called in, all twenty-five of them.

They were absolutely exhausted.

"You know, I was hoping we wouldn't be running around all day for two days in a row." Nick grumbled as he sunk back into the couch.

"I just wanted an extra hour of sleep…" Max followed up, rubbing his temples.

"Judy was busy looking at a handful of notes on the coffee table. They had managed to gather some more info… at least, a tiny bit more. The evidence consisted of witness anecdotes, security tape footage, and scene investigation.

Henry had been a major help throughout all of this. Judy wasn't even aware he had such good deductive skills. Guess you never really know a guy when he doesn't talk a lot.

The evidence was all pointing towards one thing, something they probably should have seen coming. The thefts weren't normal. Whoever had done this had somehow managed to avoid security cameras, even when they were aimed at the gem they were planning on stealing.

"What do you think the monsters want with gemstones?" The rabbit asked. "Doesn't seem like there's much value there."

"Maybe they're looking for, like, a mythical magical gem?" Max suggested.

"Well, so far they've only taken really shiny rocks." Nick said. "I don't see anything magical about that."

"Hey, I've watched a lot of things with magical rocks." The wolf said. "Villains are attracted to those things, you know."

"They could be stealing them just to make trouble." Judy suggested. "I mean, they didn't really need to steal all that money that one time…"

"We still don't know if it's actually a monster yet, you know." Nick said.

"You really think somehow managing to break into heavily guarded museums and collections without being spotted at all, even by cameras, is something a normal thief could do?" Judy said, a bit unimpressed by how stubborn the fox was being.

"It's a possibility, you know."

"It doesn't really matter." Max said, with a quick sigh. "either way, if it's a normal thief or a monster, we've pretty much reached a dead end."

"You're right." Judy said, quickly hopping back onto the couch. "We can't do anything until we catch the crook in the act. And who knows how long that'll take…"

She watched as Nick pulled out his phone, and started to browse something. "What are you doing?" Judy asked, trying to lean over and peek.

"Apartment hunting." he said. "Need to do something to pass the time, right?"

"How's that going, by the way?" max asked. "You guys were out all day, you had to have had some success, right?"

"It went terribly." Judy said.

"For you." Nick quickly followed.

"Nick, one of those places had rat squatters!"

"I thought you were Miss Tolerance?"

"I don't tolerate HAZMAT ZONES!"

"You see what it's like?" Nick said. "I pick out a bunch of great places, and she finds something to nitpick!"

"Uhhh huhhhh." Max let out. "Why don't you just let Judy pick one?"

"Because every apartment that's perfect for her is also a thousand a month."

"Okay, yeah, I'll admit that." Judy said. "But I had to live in a nightmare apartment for a few years, I'm not doing that again."

"Why can't you just let us stay here for a bit longer?" Nick asked. "We've been getting along well, I don't see that much of a problem."

Max looked at him for a moment. "For the past few months, I have been letting you live here out of the goodness of my heart, and you two have been great guests… but you also haven't spent a single penny on any of the necessities that we have."

The two's ears started to droop a bit.

"I've been paying for everything while you two were saving up. I'm nearly broke, and Kitmas is coming up soon." He continued. "I need to save some money up for that… and, well, honestly its just been a bit awkward recently. What if someone comes over to see me, and you guys are just… there, y'know?"

"Alright, alright, I get it." Nick said, a bit annoyed.

"I can give you guys however long you need, but I'm going to be sticking to your asses from now on." He continued.

"So, who's this 'someone' you want to come over?" Judy asked curiously, a smirk on her face.

"Ooh, asking the big questions." Nick said, with a laugh as he elbowed her.

"W-what?" Max said, a bit embarrassed. "It was a hypothetical someone, not anyone real!"

"The two glanced at each other, and then back at the wolf. They did not buy that at all.

"You hunting after someone special, Wolfsbane?" Nick said with a chuckle. "Who is it?"

"It's no one, seriously." Max said, starting to get angry.

"Alright, we were just joking." Judy said, Nick glanced at her for a moment, before nodding hesitantly.

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise. The Zoolizers were going off, which meant that a monster was attacking.

"Oh thank god." Max whispered to himself.

"Hey, maybe this is the monster we're looking for!" Judy suggested. "Maybe we can stop him before he causes any more trouble."

Nick and Max nodded, and the three quickly headed out.

---

"Where is it!?"

"I-I don't know!"

The monster slammed its cane into the desk, leaving a visible crack on its otherwise smooth finish. The rest of the bank's patrons started to scatter after the strike echoed. He glared at the gazelle teller. "Don't you lie to me, I know you know where it is."

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" She replied.

"The four million dollar pearl!" He shouted. "I know that this bank had it stored years ago. Tell me where it is!"

"I've only been working here for a year, I don't know!" She yelled back. "Talk to the manager or-"

The door slammed open, causing the monster to turn around. "See? Told you it was a monster!" Blue said as Red, Silver and her rushed in.

"Alright, alright, I'll admit I was just being really hopeful." Red said.

"Ah, there you three are!" The monster said. It quickly spun back around to the teller, and tipped its hat at her. "Thank you for your time, madame, but I have a withdrawal to make."

"What-?"

He spun back around again, and flicked his hand out. "Buglers, get them!" he ordered. Suddenly, an army of the purple, robotic footsoldiers appeared, armed with their massive claw weapons.

Louperoid then leaped over the barrier between him and the teller, and headed off into the back of the bank.

"If you were just going to steal it, why did you even ask me where it was!?" The teller shouted.

The Zoorangers drew their weapons and rushed at the platoon of monsters. Blue rushed in first, leaping up and kicking one of the Buglers in the face, which in turn launched her off so she could slice through a few more in midair.

Red and Silver headed in next, the fox leaping off of the wolf and slashing down in midair, cutting a Bugler directly in half. He then spun around and quickly slashed through the ankles of a few more of them.

Silver blocked at a few strikes the Buglers attempted to make, but quickly knocked them back, before jabbing through a number of them. He then quickly spun his blade's guard around, switching it to Moon Mode. He whipped his blade forwards, lashing through a few more of the monsters.

Red and Blue continued to fight through the Buglers, doing well for quite a bit. After cutting downa few more, Blue prepped her daggers, and readied another strike as one of the Buglers closed in.

Before she could do anything, her eyes seemed to start to close by themselves. She caught herself, shaking her head to keep herself awake as the Bugler rushed in. She got her bearings back, before backflipping out of the way as it attempted to strike her. In response, she pulled out her blasters, and fired a few shots at it.

"The heck was that?" Red asked, sounding a bit concerned.

"Ugh, I think the last two days are starting to catch up to me." The rabbit replied. "I just felt really… tired for a second, there."

"Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us." The fox said, a bit worried.

The three continued to fight through the robots until nearly all of them were laying on the ground in pieces.

Once they were clear, the three leaped over the counter, and behind the teller. "What was that monster after?" Blue quickly asked the her.

"Uh, some pearl?" She said, not really knowing what else to say. "He might have headed to the vault at the back of the building."

"Got it." Red said. The three quickly rushed off down the hall, leaving the teller confused and tired.

They reached a large vault near the back of the building. It had been opened, somehow, and the inside was lined with gold, stacks of cash, and several jewels. Standing in the middle of it all was the monster, who was resting on his cane.

"Hello there!" He said, picking his cane up and twirling it around. "Fancy meeting you all here."

"Cut the chitchat, crook," Red started. "You're the guy who's been going around stealing gems, aren't you?"

"Oh my, I thought you'd never figure that out!" The monster said with a chuckle, before performing a courteous bow. "My name is Louperoid, master thief by trade."

"Well, we're not going to let you take anything else." Blue said. "You're going down, here and now!"

"Yeah, you're going to cash in your last check!" Silver followed up.

"Please, can we make this fight at least a tad respectable?" The monster said, sounding surprisingly annoyed. "Puns are so… juvenile."

"Well, I already hate this guy." Red admitted.

The three rushed into the vault, and started to fight with the monster, who readied his staff as a weapon. Blue and Red leaped up, clashing their blades with the monster's cane, before he managed to push them back to the ground.

He quickly whipped his metallic hand forwards, causing wires to spring out of his wrists and lash at the two. They leaped out of the way as the wires hit the ground, and then quickly retracted back into the monster's body.

Silver rushed in next, and entered a duel with the Metalroid. They clashed weapons together for a few seconds, before the monster effortlessly seemed to push him back, and then jab him directly in the stomach, causing a quick burst of sparks.

Silver yelped in pain for a moment, briefly glancing down at his chest before looking back up. The monster had suddenly vanished in the brief second he had looked down.

"What the-?" He quickly let out, before feeling a sharp pain in his back. The wolf was flung forwards into the wall, briefly catching the shape of Louperoid as he flew. The force of the impact shook a few of the gold bricks.

"What just happened?" Blue asked.

"I dunno, it was like he just vanished!" Red said.

"Indeed!"

The fox did a double take as he looked to his side. The monster had suddenly appeared there, and delivered a quick kick to the fox. He slid across the ground as the monster let out a quick laugh.

"There is a reason why I'm considered a master thief, you know." He said, smugly. "And as it turns out, those skills are very useful in combat!"

The three Rangers grouped back together as the monster talked. As they prepared to launch another attack, two things popped out of the robot's shoulders. They looked like large… lenses?

Before they could do anything, several lasers shot out of the devices, hitting the ground at their feet and causing quick bursts of smoke.

"Ack, what the-?" Blue let out as the smoke plumed.

Before the smoke could even clear, the monster appeared behind them, and quickly whacked all three of the Zoorangers away with his cane.

As the three attempted to recover, the monster turned to one of the shelves in the vault. He quickly noticed the shiny, white orb sitting there. "There you are, my beauty!" He declared, picking it back up.

"You put that down!" Blue yelled as she aimed her blasters at the monster.

"Oh, excuse me for a second." He said, politely.

Not taking any chances, the rabbit fired two shots at the monster. However, in the moment that the lasers fired out, the monster suddenly vanished, alongside the pearl.

"Wh-what!?" She let out, looking around. "Where did he-!?"

"WATCH OUT!"

Blue glanced up, and dodged out of the way of her own lasers. The lasers had bounced off of the gold, and in turn continued to bounce off of the reflective surfaces that littered the vault.

"Another reason for no guns inside!" She quickly yelled.

The three continued to dodge the blasts for a minute, before Louperoid reappeared, and swatted them away with his cane. He no longer held the pearl.

"Sorry for the delay, I stopped for a bite to eat!" He joked as he stepped forwards. "Now, where were we?"

The robot suddenly vanished again, appearing almost instantly in front of Silver. It delivered a quick punch to the wolf, before suddenly appearing behind him, and then kicking him in the back. He disappeared and reappeared again. This time kicking Blue up into the air, and then quickly appearing in front of Red and smacking him with his cane.

The monster continued this teleportation trick for far longer than it should have, popping in and out to smack one of the three around for a moment, and then moving on to another one of them in the split second he had appeared.

Eventually, the three were littered around the room, battered and beaten.

"I believe I've had my fun for the day." Louperoid said, tipping his hat. "Now, its time to get to business."

It disappeared again, before red was suddenly scooped into the air by his wrist. Louperoid had appeared again, free hand reaching for the Zoolizer on his wrist.

"Hey, you're not allowed to touch that!" Red shouted, before swinging his body into the monster. However, before he could even collided with the monster, Louperoid had vanished and then reappeared, gripping onto the fox's wrist from the opposite side.

"My my, talk about a bad aim!" The monster joked. He quickly grabbed the Zoolizer on Red's wrist, and somehow managed to start to pull it off.

Red let out a scream of pain as the monster pulled it off, and then dropped him to the ground. There was a flash of red light, and Red had reverted back into Nick. He struggled to get up for a moment, but quickly fell to the ground, passing out in the process.

"One down, two to go!" The monster said. He quickly vanished again, this time picking up Blue and almost instantly repeating the same process.

The rabbit had barely any time to react before she was wracked with pain, and then knocked unconscious, reverting back to Judy and dropping to the ground.

"Hah, Master Enter made this sound like it would be a challenge!" Louperoid laughed, tossing the two Zoolizers up into the air. He turned around and looked at Silver, who was starting to recover, and even had his blade drawn. "My, you're eager to lose, aren't you?"

"GIVE THOSE BACK!" The wolf shouted. He quickly rushed at the monster, and the two clashed weapons.

For a brief moment.

He only saw the sparks from the metal clashing appear, and then the monster was gone.

"Honestly, if you wanted to be defeated, you could have just asked!"

He could feel the monster preparing to strike from behind him, so he swung his blade around, and blocked the monster's cane. He tried to keep the monster at bay for a moment, but he could suddenly feel his legs get weaker.

No, not now! He just needed to keep it up for a bit longer…

"Looks like you didn't get enough rest, eh?" The monster taunted as it pushed the wolf back. "I wonder if you could have taken me on even if you weren't. Either way, it looks like you could use a NAP!"

Louperoid raised his cane, and then slammed it down, knocking the blade out of the wolf's paws. The robot then quickly grabbed onto his Zoolizer, and pulled it off. There was a sahrp jolt of pain through his body, before everything went black.

…

The rabbit took a deep breath as she jolted up and looked around. She shook her head as she got up, and then noticed Nick, laying on the ground. She quickly ran over, and shook him. After that didn't work, she slapped him.

"OW!" He shouted, getting up from the metal floor. "I'm in enough pain as is, I don't need any mroe thrown on me!"

"Sorry, but you weren't waking up." She said. "And we have an even bigger situation now."

Nick glanced at Judy's wrist, which she was gripping. Her Zoolizer was gone. He looked down at his own wrist, and his was gone as well.

They both looked over at the still unconscious Max, and ran over, rolling him onto his back in an attempt to wake him up. He groggily got up. "Can't you guys just let me sleep for a bit longer…"

"Yeah, not right now." Nick said. "That guy stole our Zoolizers."

"Oh, so that wasn't just a nightmare." The wolf said, rubbing his head before getting up.

An dreadful silence fell over the three for a few minutes.

"So…" Max started, rubbing his wrist. "What… what are we supposed to do now?"

"We have to beat the monster." Judy said.

"But… how?"

She fell silent for a moment. She glanced over at Nick, who was sitting in a corner of the vault, absolutely silent.

"I… I don't know."

---

"How exactly did you guys get your Zoolizers stolen?" Emily asked as she paced around the living room.

"That monster roped us into a trap." Judy said. "It was a surprise attack. We weren't ready for it."

"Seriously, that guy could move at three hundred miles per millisecond!" Nick said. "He was zipping around the place like it was nothing!"

Emily let out a combined grunt and sigh. "How are we supposed to deal with this guy now?" She asked. "Me and Henry can't take him on by ourselves. And we especially can't do this with sulky over there."

She pointed over to Max, who was huddled up in his chair. He hadn't said a word the entire time that Emily and Henry had been there.

"Yeah, this is a major problem." Judy said. "I… I don't know what to do." She continued, sinking into the couch. "I feel like a failure."

"Just because you messed up bad doesn't make you failures." Henry said. "You just need to think this through, come up with a plan."

"A plan?" Nick scoffed. "How are we supposed to come up with a plan to beat a monster we could barely even hit WITH our powers?"

"Well, a plan still isn't a bad thing to have." The bull continued. "Just try to logic it out."

"Hmm…" The rabbit let out, starting to think. "Well, even if the monster shows up again, there's no guarantee that he'll have them with him… but it is a possibility. And, it's not like we're completely out of combat options." She quickly glanced at the hyena and bull.

"So, you're suggesting that we try and handle the actual combat, while you guys try to get the Zoolizers back?" Emily guessed. "Good plan… if you guys could get close to him."

"Hey, it's not like we're useless without our powers!" Nick said.

Suddenly, Max's ears popped up, and he quickly unfurled his body out. "Why don't we use our police equipment on the monster?" He suggested. "We should be able to get some things out of it, right?"

"Good idea!" Judy said, hopping to her feet. "Our police equipment is built to stop these kinds of criminals, heck, he might not even see something like that coming!"

"That sounds reckless and stupid." Nick said. "But it's also the only thing we've got, so I guess I don't have much of a choice."

"Hey, you have us as backup, zorro." Emily said with a chuckle. "We're pretty good at the whole monster fighting thing by this point."

"I think that's everything settled, right?" Judy said. "Now we just have to wait for a report to come in!"

"Uh, how are we supposed to get a monster alert without our Zoolizers?" Max asked.

"I sent a description of the monster into Clawhauser, who sent it around the city." Judy explained. "He's on top of that kind of stuff, so we should get something soon… hopefully."

"Yeah, but who knows how long that will take?" Nick said.

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring.

"How convenient."

She quickly answered the phone. "Oh my gosh," Ben started from the other side. "I just got a report of our monster-guy in Sahara Square! It looks like he's heading to the Desert Treasure jewelry store!"

"Thanks for the tip, Ben!" Judy said. "See you later!" She quickly hung up, and tossed her phone onto the couch. "Alright, this is our chance, guys! Let's try to actually stop a crime!"

---

"Ah, the Desert Treasure Jewelry!" The monster said as it walked up to the rather small, but ornate building. "Home of the semi-famous 'Eye of the Desert', a quartz stone that's semi-known for its shininess!"

It planted its cane in the sand as it continued to talk to itself. Everyone else in the area had quickly cleared out in fear, but Louperoid hadn't seemed to notice. "Not for sale, a one of a kind item, the perfect prize for my previous successes!"

The robot shook a bit in surprise as the sound of an engine grew from behind it. He turned around, and watched as a large truck pulled up to him, and the doors flipped open. Nick, Judy, and Max, dressed in their police uniforms, stepped out, alongside the fully armored SPD Officers.

"How did you find me here?" The monster asked, less upset and more inquisitive.

"We have other resources besides our Zoolizers." She said. "Your little crime spree ends here!" She finished, pulling out a taser.

Louperoid let out a sputter, before it turned into full on laughter. "Hah, you think you can take me on without your precious Zoolizers?" He mocked. "Look at you three, you're just cute little woodland animals trying to play people now!"

The rabbit's eye twitched for a moment, before she fired her taser at the monster. He caught the wire in his hand, and glanced at it for a moment.

"I don't see what this thing is supposed to do." The monster mocked, tugging on the wire. "You think a little taser could-"

The robot paused for a moment, before it started to jitter around, dropping the wire.

"Elephant caliber taser, asshole." Judy said.

Louperoid stumbled back, and crashed into the glass window of the jewelry store, falling through it. "Hah, nice work!" Nick said, fistbumping the rabbit. "Didn't expect that to actually work.

"You guys got everything else loaded in the back?" Max asked the armored hyena.

Emily gave a quick nod. "You guys get what you need, we'll keep this ladrón de mierda busy."

The three nodded, and hopped back into the truck. Pink and Green stepped forwards and readied their weapons as the monster recovered from its shock.

"That was severely uncalled for!" It shouted as it stood up. "How DARE you make someone of my stature look so undignified!?"

He finally turned to look at who he was talking to, and only saw Pink and Green, preparing to fire their weapons at him.

"Ah! Um, uh…"

They quickly opened fire on the monster, both of their shots connecting and sending it flying deeper into the store. Louperoid crashed through several of the displays, sending glass and jewelry flying all over.

"Hey, I expect you to pay for that!" The clerk, a camel, shouted.

The Metalroid let out a grunt, before it suddenly vanished, and then quickly reappeared outside of the store. "I'll show you hooligans how to treat a master thief!"

"I think we're treating you exactly how you should be treated." Green said, before firing his cannon at the monster. The monster teleported directly in front of the bull as the shot flew off, and then lashed his arm out.

Wires sprouted from it, and started to wrap around the bull's body. "Let go of him!" Pink yelled, before firing several shots at the monster. He whacked them away with his cane, and started to lift the bull up into the air.

The monster let out a laugh, but then turned towards the parked truck as he noticed something moving. Nick, Judy, and Max were standing outside it, armed with various different types of police equipment. The wolf had a riot shield in one hand, and a smoke bomb in the other, Nick had a bottle of pepper spray and a nightstick, and Judy was carrying a tranquilizer dart gun.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" The monster said, getting distracted from its attack on Green. In response, the bull quickly kicked the monster in the side of his head, causing him to stumble back and drop the bull to the ground with a thud.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Max said, quickly pulling the pin out of the smoke bomb. Pink and Green quickly scattered as he threw it at the dazed monster.

The canister clanked against his top hat as it started to leak smoke. The monster looked down, before it burst into a massive cloud of smoke.

"What is this nonsense!?" The monster shouted as it became enveloped. He waved his cane around, attempting to clear the smoke, but was quickly interrupted as Max rushed in and tackled him with the riot shield, knocking him back.

As he regained his balance, he looked around, still shrouded in smoke. Something he couldn't quite make out rushed through the fog and smacked at his ankle, causing Louperoid to recoil in pain for a brief moment. It rushed through the smoke again, hitting his other leg.

The robot let out a growl, and managed to pick the assailant up as it made another dash. It was the fox. Louperoid lifted him up by the shirt, and prepared to strike him with his cane.

"Ever thought about getting glasses?" Nick suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You're gonna need them."

He pulled out his can of pepper spray, and shot it directly at the monster's eye. It let out a screech of pain as it dropped both the fox and the cane to the ground, and started to stumble back.

"YOU MONGRELS!" He shouted. "YOU'LL ALL PAY FOR THIS!"

Louperoid started to wipe at his eye, and noticed that the smoke had cleared, but as he fully cleaned it he was suddenly met with a kick directly to his face from Judy. He fell to the ground, and tumbled around for a moment as he tried to get up.

"Where are our Zoolizers!?" She shouted at the robot as it got to its feet.

"Somewhere you'll never be able to get to!" He declared. "Master Enter has them in the mountain, and even you three aren't stupid enough to go there as you are now!"

"He's got a point." Nick said.

"And it looks like you're all out of weaponry!" The monster continued. "Prepare to be killed-"

He suddenly felt something jab into his leg.

He looked down, noticing a rather large orange dart sticking out of it. He then looked up at Judy, who had the dart gun held up. He let out a sigh.

"Drat. Looks like I'll be making a hasty retreat." Louperoid declared. "But you three will not be so lubkeh bleh…"

The robot started to fall over, but quickly vanished from sight.

"So, did we just manage to defeat that guy without our powers?" Max asked, a bit shocked.

"Technically we just managed to fend him off for a while." Judy said. "But yes, that's better than what we did last time."

"Yo, I'm proud of you three!" Emily said. "You managed to do that pretty well. Now you just need to get the Zoolizers back, and we'll all be golden!"

"But he said that the Zoolizers were being kept in the mountain…" Judy said, crossing her arms. "And he was right, we'd be idiots to try and do that."

"Right, all the monsters live up there." Henry said. "Trying to do that would be a suicide mission."

"But… how will we ever get them back if they're up there?" Max asked. "Like, I doubt they'd be willing to give them back to us."

"Yeah, we might just be… screwed." Nick said, a bit uncomfortably.

"Something will work out in the end." Judy said. "We just need to keep doing our best, and we'll figure it all out. We just proved we can fight them off without the Zoolizers, so I say we keep at that until there's some kind of opportunity."

"That's really the only thing we can do, if we don't want to die, at least." Nick said.

"Best thing to do is just get everything ready for the next attack." Max suggested. "You know, get some more supplies and all that."

"I agree, but I don't think we'll be seeing that guy for a bit." Judy said, looking a bit smug. "That dart I shot was ALSO elephant caliber. With his size, he'll be out for hours."

"How does that even work on a robot?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"You know, I'm not really sure."

---

The skull floated around the room, chuckling as it looked at one of the walls. "What are you doing?" Enter asked.

"Admiring this work of art!" Savage replied. He was looking at the trapped Long, still embedded in the wall of the base. "You think he's alive in there?"

"Probably." Enter said. "He is immortal."

He looked down at the table, at the three devices placed on it. Red, Blue, and Silver. They were lined up in rows, and he quickly ran his hand over them. With these, he was one step closer to getting to his ultimate goal.

He then quickly looked over at the floor. An unconscious Louperoid was still laying there. He had appeared like that the previous day, which had put a fairly big dampener on their whole operation. Of course, they still had a surplus of gems, but they could always use a bit more.

Suddenly, the robot burst to his feet, looking around in alarm. "What!? Where-!?"

"Oh good, snoozy's awake!" Savage joked as he floated over. "How's it going?"

Louperoid cleared his throat, ad placed his cane to the ground. "It appears we might have a slight problem with the plan."

"Is the problem that you got knocked out by a bunch of animals?" Savage joked. "Because that looks like the problem to me."

"I wasn't 'knocked out'." Louperoid said, sounding a bit insulted. "They caught me by surprise, I could have defeated them if I had known they were coming."

"Riiiiight."

"It appears the former Zoorangers have access to other forms of monster tracking." He continued. "That's how they managed to stop my last theft." He stepped up to enter, and went down on one knee. "Master Enter, do you have anything I can use to get those three off my trail?"

"Sounds lik you're scared of fighting the cute widdle bunny wabbit!" Savage said, before breaking out in laughter.

"Quiet, you infernal skull!" Louperoid yelled, getting to his feet. He quickly pointed his cane at the canine skull, who just continued to laugh maniacally.

"If you want to defeat them for good, I can always upgrade you." Enter suggested.

"An upgrade?" Louperoid said, sounding insulted again. "I'm good enough to defeat them already, why would I need such a thing? I just need, uh, a slight bit of support."

Enter let out a sigh. "You've already used your light manipulation powers to disguise yourself from security cameras. Have you tried something a bit more complex?"

Louperoid thought for a moment. "You mean like… a disguise? I suppose that would be fortuitous. But… I don't know if I have the data to use a disguise." He continued. "My programming only allows me to manipulate light via teleportation and invisibility."

"Hey, I know somebody with a good disguise." Savage said, floating over to Enter. He then proceeded to headbutt his shoulder a few times.

Enter let out a sigh. "I suppose I could lend you some of my disguise protocol data." He said with a sneer. The android got to his feet, and held his hand out. Red numbers started to shoot out of his hand, and into Louperoid's body. This took only a few seconds, before Enter pulled his hand back.

"There, you should have the ability to disguise yourself now." Enter said. "Why don't you try it out?"

"Excellent!" The monster said. "TRANSFORM!"

There was a flash of light, and the monster was suddenly replaced with a black wolf in a tuxedo and top hat. He still carried Louperoid's cane.

"Ugh, organic forms are so… primitive." He said, looking himself over. "But I suppose this should keep them off me for a bit longer." He gave a quick bow. "So long, master Enter!"

He quickly vanished, leaving Enter and Savage alone again.

"GrrAGH!" Savage yelled. "Why are we still letting that idiot run around!? We have the Zoolizers," He continued, floating over to the devices. "So why don't we just put one on and get to wrecking shit!?"

"We can't use those ones." Enter said, grabbing the top of Savage's head and moving him off to the side. The android sat back down. "Those ones are imprinted already. We need the one that isn't imprinted."

"Then why did we even steal these ones!?"

Enter grew a quick smirk, and started to rub his thumb and middle finger together.

"Black Mail."

---

The camel swept the last of the glass from the floor and into a dustpan. "Damn monsters, always running around causing trouble…" He muttered to himself. "Hope they get dealt with soon…"

The camel perked up in surprise as a bell chimed. He turned to the entrance of the store, and watched as a bizarrely dressed wolf walked in. "Hey, we're closed." the camel said. "If you want something for your costume, come back tomorrow."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that the place with the broken windows was closed." The wolf said, feigning sympathy. "I'll just be on my way and-"

The wolf suddenly vanished from the camel's sight. He glanced around the store, trying to see where he could have gone. He then quickly scratched at his head in confusion.

Then, there was a tap on his hump.

He turned around. It was the wolf. He was holding a stone. A rather familiar quartz stone. "Hey, put that back!" The camel snapped. "My boss is going to kill me if he knew someone touched that."

"Oh, so it looks like I won't have to do much ELSE here." The wolf said with a quick chuckle. He suddenly vanished again, but before the camel could even react, he suddenly found himself pushed to the ground.

"Hey!" he shouted as he got up. "Come back here! THIEF!"

The wolf laughed from the roof of a building across from the jewelry store. "Easy. Whatever sources they have shouldn't be able to track me while I look like this." He said. "Now, it's time to get back into the swing of things. Tally ho!"

---

Around a day had passed since the monster had shown up. This meant that, for once, the group managed to get some amount of relaxation during a monster attack. This, especially after the last while, had proved to be somewhat of a godsend.

Of course, the fact that there hadn't been anything reported was certainly a worry as well.

Well, specifically a worry for Judy.

"We should have heard something by now." She said as she paced around the living room. Nick and Max were sitting on the couch and chair, respectively, the fox playing on his phone, and the wolf working on his laptop. The rabbit turned to the wolf. "You're absolutely sure nothing has come up?"

"I've been checking the monster report feed." He said. "Only thing's that have come up have been obviously fake. Maybe that tranquilizer just worked really well?"

"No, that thing shouldn't have knocked it out for this long." She said. "I'm worried. I think there's something we're missing."

"I say 'don't worry'." Nick replied. "Like you said, we're good enough to take that guy on by ourselves, even without our powers. Maybe he realized that too, and decided to stop bothering."

"You know very well that's not how this works." Judy said, rapidly tapping her foot in frustration.

"I kind of agree with Nick." Max said. "Not on that point, like, at all, but I agree you should take it a bit easy before anything happens."

"How can I take it easy!?" She shouted. "There's a monster running loose ACTIVELY causing crimes that WE should be dealing with, AND our only way to stop him has been taken from us! This is a VERY stressful time!"

"And the fact you're that stressed about it is a sign you should try to calm down." Nick said. "Seriously, shouldn't this silence be a good thing to you? It's not like nothing happening is causing us any real problems-"

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring. "Oh, that might be Ben!" She said, quickly zipping over and grabbing it.

She paused and gulped as she read the number.

"Oh, that's not a good look." Nick said, putting his own phone down. Max quickly shut his laptop.

She took a deep breath, and answered it.

"HOPPS! WILDE!"

The two cringed as Bogo yelled at them through the phone. He looked absolutely livid.

"Heeeey, chief." Judy greeted, meekly. "Uh, what's going on?"

"We haven't been slacking off!" Nick quickly added. "We've been doing a lot of work, trust me!"

"Doesn't seem like you've been doing ANY work at all!" The buffalo replied. "Did you two even know about the robberies that have been happening all day!?"

"W-what?" Judy said, her arms shaking. "We didn't hear anything about those!" She quickly glanced over at Max, who gave a quick shrug in response.

"There wasn't anything like that on the monster report feed!" He said. "Are you sure this is even the same guy?"

"I've gone over all twenty reports, and they all match the THIRTY reports from yesterday." Bogo continued. "It's the exact same thief, and the fact you three aren't out on patrol is… well, let's just say it's not helping you right now."

"We got it." Judy said, with a disappointed sigh. "We'll head out right now to investigate, and get everything ready for an encounter…"

"You don't mind if we borrow some more smoke bombs, right?"

---

The three pulled up in a police cruiser, right next to one of the robbed locations. It was the mansion of a particularly wealthy stoat. Apparently a family heirloom had been stolen from right under his nose - Literally, as it was a jewel apparently forged into a necklace.

"Yikes, look at this place." Nick said as they admired the large, white, blisteringly bright mansion. "Think we'll ever get a place like this?"

"Well, considering the only mammals who are capable of owning houses like this are the one percent who were born into wealth, I really doubt it." Max quickly said.

"Fun ruiner."

At the gate of the mansion was the elderly stoat, and his two bodyguards, both moose. "Ah, you must be the officers on the investigation of this shadow thief, correct?"

"Oh, so the news already has a title for him." Nick said, sarcastically.

"Actually, that's just something I came up with." The stoat said.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but only sighed.

"Can you tell us anything about what happened?" Judy asked. "We need to figure out if this even is the same thief, so any details would help."

"Oh, I can give you quite a few details." The stoat said. "I managed to catch a decent glimpse at him, he really liked showing off, actually."

"Hmm, interesting…" The rabbit said as she wrote the detail down.

"He was a wolf," The stoat continued, causing all three officer's ears to pop up. He then pointed to Max "Around your size, lad, but entirely black. Wore a ridiculous top hat and tuxedo outfit. Orange accents, looked completely ridiculous."

"Hmmm." Judy let out, tapping her pen against the notepad. "Did he do anything… weird? Like, I dunno, vanishing from sight and then reappearing?"

"Oh, yes, that's how he managed to escape!" The stoat continued. "Though, odd thing is, he broke into my collection quite normally, by the looks of things."

Nick looked at him, a bit confused. "What's so odd about that?"

"Well, you'd think that with that kind of speed, he wouldn't waste time fumbling around in the dark." He continued. "The jewel wasn't even there, after all."

"In the dark…" Judy muttered to herself. "Hm. Thank you for your time, sir." She finished.

The three headed back to the cruiser, and began to talk about the information. "So, I wasn't the only one who found that weird, right?" Max said from the back seat. "Like, that sounds like the monster, but… I'm pretty sure he wasn't a wolf."

"Yeah, that was strange." Nick said. "You think its the same guy, Carrots?"

"I think it is." She said, before pausing for a moment. "I think I had am epiphany."

"About the monster, or about your life?" Nick joked.

"The monster. I think I figured how its powers work." She said. "In the vault, it was zipping all over the place like it was nothing, but when we were fighting outside that store, he wasn't, right?"

"I thought that was just because we surprised him?" Max said.

"I'm not finished." She said. "And then, apparently, he broke into a darkened room in that guy's house, when he could have just teleported… I think his power has something to do with light."

"Okay, how, exactly?" Nick asked.

"In the vault, everything was shiny and reflective, right? Like, that place was almost nothing but shiny stuff." She explained. "Then he got weaker when we ended up shrouding him in smoke. I think he uses light reflections to teleport."

"Weird." Max said. He thought for a moment. "Wait, then that means he could be using light to alter how he looks to others, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking!" Judy replied.

"Well, I'm glad someone here gets it." Nick muttered.

Judy quickly pounded her fist into her palm. "Alright, we need to keep vigilant." She declared. "The monster is still running around, and we need to keep more eyes out for him. We're gonna head back to the station, and you can head off to patrol on your own, Max."

"Oh, okay." He said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I'll give Clawhauser a description of the monster's disguise, and then Nick and I will head out on our own." She continued.

"I'll call up Em and Horns to tell them what's going on." Nick said, pulling out his phone.

"Good idea."

"Good thing we stocked up on the weapons early." Max said. "I can take some with me, right?"

---

Around an hour had passed since the two had done everything they needed to at the police station. It hadn't been an eventful hour, but uneventful patrolling was better than no patrolling at all. They would catch him eventually.

But for right now, there wasn't a whole lot else to do besides listen to the radio - Though they could never really get their musical tastes to work together, so it was off.

Luckily, Nick had found an alternative.

"Check this place out," He started. "Pre-furnished, water's included, AND there's wi-fi!"

"Ooh, that sounds nice." Judy said. "How much is it?"

"Lemme look…" He paused for a moment. "Oh, that is a LOT of zeroes. Never mind."

"Nick, why are you looking at EXPENSIVE apartments?" The rabbit asked. "At that point we might as well just buy a house!"

"Well, you don't like any of the cheap places I'm finding, so I thought I'd look in the opposite direction."

"Nick, I don't know how you managed it, but every single place you managed to find was an absolute disaster." She continued as they started to move through traffic at a fairly slow pace. "And whenever I try to find something, you always say it's too expensive!"

"I, personally, think that all of the places that I've looked at were perfectly… livable." He said, sounding unsure, but very obviously not wanting to give up his side of the argument.

"I'm fairly certain one of the places you picked was also a front for drug dealing." She said. "I probably should investigate that once everything's sorted out…"

"I don't even see why you care, we lived in a literal garbage heap for several months." Nick said.

"Yeah, and that's not a thing I ever want to do again!" She said. "I know you've lived in some rough areas, but I do actually have some standards of quality I want to live up to."

"What would those qualities be, exactly?"

"Pre-furnished, doesn't have to be that clean, and we can pay for electricity and water." Judy explained. They had stopped right next to one of Savannah Central's art exhibits. "As long as there's no bugs nests or slime growing or drug dealers, we can live there."

"I'll try to keep that in-"

There was the sudden sound of glass shattering. The two quickly looked out at the art exhibit. One of the windows had been shattered, and standing in the middle of the glass was a wolf, dressed in a top hat and tuxedo.

"STOP! THIEF!" Shouted someone from inside.

The two officers quickly glanced at each other, before Judy quickly burst out of the cruiser. "GET THE EQUIPMENT!" She shouted at Nick, who gave a quick salute.

"What?" The wolf said, a crystal clutched in its paw. "Who are y-"

"Don't play games, crook." The rabbit said. "We already know that you're disguising yourself."

The wolf let out a sigh. "Alright, you got me, congratulations." He said, sarcastically. "But just because you figured out my little trick, doesn't mean that you're capable of beating me."

"Oh yeah, I think I know how to beat you now, too."

The wolf's eyes widened, before he quickly bolted off.

"NICK, I'M GOING AFTER HIM, TAKE THE CAR!" She shouted.

"But you know I'm a terrible driver!" He said, but it fell upon deaf ears as the rabbit bolted off anyways. He let out a sigh, and flipped the sirens on, before bolting off down the street.

The wolf kept running,making sure not to drop the crystal. He glanced down to see the rabbit right at his feet.

"Hey, did you know that rabbits are really fast?" She said, before proceeding to kick him in the shins. He fell to the ground, the crystal dropping out of his paw as it rolled across the ground.

The disguised Louperoid scrambled to his feet, and attempted to make a run for the the crystal, which had rolled down into an alleyway. Before he could, the cruiser drove onto the sidewalk, startling him.

Nick kicked the door open, and tossed a smoke bomb over to Judy before hopping to the ground. "You're under arrest!" He shouted as the disguised monster started to back away nervously.

"I radioed Max, Em, and Horns." Nick said as he walked up next to the rabbit. "I'd say I did that drive pretty well."

"It was pretty well for you." Judy said with a sigh. "We need to force him into the alleyway, he should be weaker in there."

There was a standoff for a moment. The monster glanced down at the alleyway. It was dark, which meant he basically had no way to fight back without getting a bit hurt. But he also didn't have any choice in the matter, that's where his bounty had gone.

He quickly dashed into the alleyway, leaping to grab the crystal. He caught it and quickly fell into a roll, before getting back to his feet. The faux-wolf let out a sigh, before looking down to the entrance.

The fox and rabbit were there, waiting for him and armed with their own weapons. "This thing isn't even real!" Louperoid said, holding the crystal up. "Sure, it's valuable, but it isn't a real gemstone."

"We don't actually care about that." Nick said. "That's theft, and we're cops, we're natural enemies, get it?"

Louperoid let out a growl. Before he could do anything else, Judy quickly tossed a smoke bomb, which quickly plumed into a massive cloud of smoke, covering the entirety of the alley.

Louperoid stumbled around for a moment, before Judy quickly leaped into the air and struck him directly in the face with her foot. He stumbled back, before Nick hurried in and smacked at his ankle. The monster let out a growl, before slamming its cane down towards the fox, who stepped out of the way.

The fake wolf stumbled around in the smoke for a bit, before both of the cops quickly tackled him, knocking him into a wall and causing him to stumble even more. "This is starting to get rather annoying!" He yelled.

"Then we're doing a good job!" Judy said. She leaped up and sprayed the monster directly in the face with some pepper spray.

As it let out a cry of pain, the disguise quickly started to distort, before bursting back to Louperoid's robotic form in a burst of light. The explosion was strong enough that it knocked the two back, and cleared the smoke out.

"You miscreants will pay for this!" Louperoid growled as he unsteadily stomped forwards. The large lenses on his shoulders flipped out, and he started to fire beams of light from them. The two tried their best to dodge the explosions, but they were eventually knocked back out of the alley and into the road.

"Hah!" The monster laughed as it headed out into the daylight. "You two will never be able to defeat me out here, especially not without your powers!"

The rabbit chuckled for a moment. "Do you really think we were TRYING to beat you?"

"Yeah, we'd have to be idiots to want to do something like that." Nick followed. "We were just biding time."

"Biding time…?" The monster said to itself. "What for?"

Engine revving sounded down the road, before a large vehicle rammed directly into the monster, sending it flying. The SPD's truck stopped, and Green, Pink, and Max got out of it. The wolf was armed with a taser and a riot shield.

"Hey guys!" Max said. "Turns out we were patrolling closer than we realized, so I hitched a ride."

"Alright, let's finish this thief." Green said, quickly aiming his cannon at the monster as it got to its feet.

"W-wait!" The monster shouted, before Green fired a flurry of blasts at the robot. It quickly teleported away from the blasts, and over to a nearby building. "You can't destroy me yet!"

"What's stopping us?" Pink rhetorically asked, before firing her own blasters at the monster. This time, the shots connected, but the monster quickly teleported afterwards, getting up close.

"You see, I can-" Before the monster could finish speaking, Max quickly rammed into him with his riot shield, and then instantly fired the taser at him. The robot started to jitter around for a moment, before letting out a roar as it regained control.

"IF YOU WOULD LET ME FINISH!" It shouted, stomping forwards. It quickly cleared its throat, and gently placed the cane to the ground. "I have a proposition to make for you five."

"Don't care." Nick quickly said.

"Oh, this is something you might care about considerably." The monster continued. "You see, I can give you your Zoolizers back…"

The three's ears popped up.

"Alright, now we're listening." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"However, this is not a transaction that I can just give for free." Louperoid continued. "You see, my master has been wanting something of a unique value for quite a while…"

"Your blank Zoolizer."

"Oh, absolutely not." Max quickly said. "That's going too far-"

"We accept." Judy said, much to the shock of the others.

"WHAT!?"

"Very well!" The monster said with a laugh. "I will contact you later tonight, giving you the location of our exchange. Farewell!"

With that, Louperoid gave a quick bow, and vanished.

"Hey uh," Nick started, turning to Judy. "Are you crazy!?"

"We can talk about this later." She said. "I'm not an idiot, Nick. But this might be our only chance to get them back."

"I'm just saying, this is probably the worst idea ever." He continued. "Anyone agree with me?"

The other three nodded in unanimous agreement.

"Listen, let's just meet back up at the house." The rabbit ordered. "We can talk about this then. But trust me."

"I have no intention of giving him the Zoolizer."

---

Louperoid appeared in the villain base once more, the crystal still clutched in his hand. He dropped it onto the table, alongside the other jewels.

"That should be everything conceivable as a precious gemstone in the entire city." He declared.

"Good job." Enter said. He looked over the gems on the table. "Hopefully he'll be happy with all these."

"How could he not be?" Savage said, floating over. "There's like, fifty of them here, how many more jewels does a guy need?"

Enter simply shrugged, and turned back to Louperoid. "Did you make the deal with them?"

"I did!" The monster said. "And they actually agreed to it! I would've expected a bit more of a fight from them, in all honesty."

"You mean the 'we'll give you back the Zoolizers in exchange for the blank one' deal?" Savage asked. "Why are we doing this again? It seems like an incredibly dumb plan."

"Not when you think ahead." Enter explained. "I've put considerable thought into this, more than you ever have with, well, anything."

"If my existence weren't entirely dependent on you, I would maul you right here and now."

"Basically, we aren't going to give them the Zoolizers!" Louperoid continued. "But they won't know that until its too late! We'll be the ultimate victors, and then we can crush them!"

"Alright, a bait and switch sounds nice," Savage started, before floating up directly into Louperoid's face. "But we've been keepin' track of you, bud. And frankly, I don't think you can defeat them even without their powers."

"It is a problem that they've managed to… figure out my weakness." Louperoid admitted. "But what am I supposed to do to counteract that?"

Without a word, Enter quickly tossed something at Louperoid. It smacked directly into his top hat. "What was-"

He suddenly started to convulse and change as the Chaos Badge absorbed itself into his system. Quickly, the red from his leg started to seep across his entire body, turning the orange accents into black ones in response. Eventually, the monster's entire body was covered in red. The cape then started to change, flicking out into five different sections rather than three, and splitting completely into independent sections rather than one connected cape, and becoming lighter in the process.

His hat's rim became slightly larger, but otherwise remained the same black, though the blue lights turned red, and the Chaos Symbol was now embedded in it, rather than the heart-shaped Vaglass logo. Its singular eye remained blue, but a lens grew around it, resembling a monocle, complete with a string connecting it to the side of his head.

The monster's shoulders grew slightly, but otherwise remained the same. However, he flicked the lenses out, which in turn flicked out into two more on each side, forming a triangle on each shoulder. Finally, his cane started to change, growing spikes on its red ball, and turning completely black.

"Behold, Chaos Louperoid!" He cheered, before giving a bow.

"I don't see that big of a change." Savage muttered to himself.

"I believe it is almost time for me to get going!" The monster said. "I just have one place to stop at before hand."

With that, the monster disappeared, leaving Enter and Savage behind. "You actually think he can get his hands on that blank Zoolizer?" Savage asked. "I trust that guy about as far as I can throw him. Which isn't very far, since, you know…"

"I do think he can get it." Enter said. "We've planned this all out perfectly."

"Yo, who you talking to down here?" Said a voice from one of the caverns.

Enter quickly held out a small device, and absorbed Savage into it. Sambash strolled into the main lobby and almost instantly noticed the jewels.

"Holy shit, look at all of these!" He let out, rushing over to the table. "You seriously stole all of these for me!?"

"It was a very advantageous suggestion." Enter said.

"I don't even know what that means, but I don't care!" He said, grabbing a handful of the gems. "I'm gonna go see if I can get these things to work with my next plan… see ya!"

He quickly headed back out through the tunnel, though there were still plenty of gemstones left on the table. Enter held the device out again, and pressed a button. It opened up, and the floating skull soon reappeared.

"You gonna do that every time someone comes in here?" He growled.

"Nobody here actually likes you. They'd kill me if they found out I revived you." Enter said. "I'm the only one who truly respects your power."

"Fine, whatever." Savage muttered.

---

"So, let's just go over this again," Nick started. "You are entirely aware that this is definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent, no doubt about it, a trap, correct?"

"Yes." Judy replied.

The five had gone back to Max's house after the fight. After a bit of relaxation, Judy called a meeting about the deal they had struck with Louperoid.

"And you're still going through with it?"

"Nick, don't worry, I have a plan." She said.

"We can still be worried even with a plan." Emily said. "Plans don't always work out, you know."

"Yes, but this plan is completely going to work." She said, sounding completely sure. "When has one of my plans backfired? That has never happened before."

"I can name a few cases." Nick said.

"Shush." The rabbit snapped. "Obviously this monster is going to try and trick us somehow, but we'll have the advantage, since we already know that its going to be a trick."

"That's a decent point." Max said. "If we plan carefully, then we can out-trick the monster's trick."

"In the trade, we call that a 'double hustle'." Nick said. "But I get what you're saying. I still think it's a terrible idea, though."

Henry stepped from behind the couch, and cleared his throat. "If we want to make sure this goes well, we need to all pitch in." He said. "I can help with our part of the plan." He finished, gesturing to Emily.

"We're the only ones who can effectively fight the monsters right now." He continued. "We'll be part of the escape. Once everything else has gone right, we'll bust in and let you guys get away with all of the Zoolizers."

"Alright, so we have the ending planned out." Judy said. "Now it's time to plan out the rest of it. First, we need to make sure we're properly armed. Don't want to go in too gung-ho."

"I can go get them." Max said.

"And what are we going to do for the actual transaction?" Nick asked.

"My plan was to swipe the Zoolizers when the monster is lulled into a false sense of security." She explained. "And hey, you're good at the whole lying thing, why don't you do that?"

"Guess I should have seen that coming." The fox muttered.

"So, here's the plan," Judy started. "Nick sweet talks the monster, I attack and get the Zoolizers from him, and then Emily and Henry come in and cover us as we get out of there. We bring the police equipment with us, just in case anything goes wrong."

"Sounds solid to me." Max said.

"Sounds fine." Emily said. Henry just nodded his head.

"Guess I don't have much of a say in this, do I?" Nick said with a sigh. "I think we're just too under-prepared to do this kind of impromptu hustle. We could end up in an even worse situation than we are now."

"Everything will turn out fine." Judy said, quickly grabbing onto his paws. "Trust me."

There was silence for a moment as Nick looked at her. He let out a sigh. "Fine. Just… don't blame me if something goes wrong."

A while passed. The five fleshed the plan out some more, while still keeping to the same general layout. The only flaw Judy had seen in between then and now was the lack of a location. The SPD would have to be hidden, which could be hard if they were outside, or if they ended up in a building without a back entrance.

Emily had assured her that they could just blow through any walls.

After the plan was mostly formulated, Judy's phone started to ring. She quickly answered it. Clawhauser popped up on the screen. "Ben?" She said, a bit surprised. "Why are you calling?"

"Because I just received a super weird note addressed to you guys." He said, calmly. "I found it on my desk after I went to the bathroom."

"What's the note say?" Max asked.

Ben placed the phone down, the sounds of paper unfolding being heard for a few seconds. He then picked it back up. "Alright, it says… 'Dear Zoorangers, if you want your Zoolizers back, meet me at the abandoned warehouse downtown. The one that's third from the right.'"

"How specifically non-specific." Nick said.

"'The rendezvous time is at nine PM, I anticipate your arrival with utmost… titillation.'" The cheetah finished reading. "There's no name here, it just ends."

"Thanks, Ben." Judy said with a laugh. She quickly hung up. "Alright, we have about an hour to get there. Max, go with Em and Henry to get the equipment, we'll meet you there."

"Alright." He said, giving a quick nod. The three headed out, leaving Nick and Judy alone for a moment.

"Why would he want to meet up during the night?" Nick asked. "Shouldn't that be him at his weakest?"

"Yeah, that's… a bit disconcerting." Judy admitted. "But if we follow the plan, I think everything should go well…"

She was starting to sound a bit unsure of herself. Nick let out a sigh, and placed his paw on her shoulder. "You're right. If we get this plan to work, we can get everything back to normal." He said. "And the plan WILL work. I'm sure of it."

Judy sighed, and then smiled. "Thanks, Nick."

He smiled back at her.

---

The truck pulled up to one of the abandoned warehouses. This was the third one they had to check, mostly because of the complete lack of directions that they had been given.

"Hopefully this is the right one." Nick said as Judy and him got out of the cruiser. "At least real criminals can give decent directions."

The SPD truck was already there, presumably it had the same troubles, and Emily and Henry were waiting for them outside it. Max was inside, gathering some of the equipment.

"Alright, Em, Henry, you guys head round the back." Judy ordered, quietly. She quickly pulled out her phone, and dialed in a number. Suddenly, Emily's phone began to ring. "Try to stay as quiet as you can, and when you hear anything that sounds like trouble, come in and help."

The hyena and bull nodded, and they quickly headed to the back of the warehouse. Judy turned to Max. "You got everything?"

He turned to her, and nodded. The wolf then quickly tossed out a few smoke bombs, cans of pepper spray, and a few hand-held tazers. Judy and Nick caught them, and holstered them to their uniforms. The wolf hopped out, armed with his own set of equipment.

"You guys ready?" He asked, a bit nervous. The rabbit and fox nodded. As they walked towards the warehouse, Judy pulled out the Yellow Zoolizer, and handed it to Nick.

Standing in the middle of the room was Louperoid, in his disguise… though he was now wearing a red suit, rather than a black one. "Ah, there you three are." He greeted. "I trust you've brought the terms of our agreement?"

"Yeah, but we're not giving it over until you prove you've brought our part of the deal." Nick said.

The wolf groaned, before pulling the three Zoolizers out. He held them all by the straps, and dangled them about for a moment. "These are what you mean, yes?" He asked.

"Yeah." Nick said, stepping forward. There was a bit of a pause.

"Well, are you going to bring it over here or not?" The fake wolf asked, starting to get frustrated.

"We'll place them in the middle of the room." The fox said. "At the same time. That way, nobody can do anything shady."

The monster growled, before they both started to walk to the middle of the room. They met in the middle, and glared at each other for a moment. Nick prepared to place the Zoolizer on the ground. "Alright, both at the same time, on three." He started. "One, two…"

Louperoid started to place the Zoolizers on the ground. "No, sorry." Nick suddenly said. "Didn't say three yet. Gotta start over."

The fake wolf's eye twitched as he brought the Zoolizers back up. Nick started to count down again, and this time the monster waited for him to say three… but the fox hesitated for a moment, not moving his arm as Louperoid started to place them on the ground.

"Sorry, nerves." he said. "Let's start again, last time, I promise."

"You're stalling." The monster said.

"Am I?" Nick said, surprised. He placed his paw to his chin for a moment. "Oh, I totally am."

The monster quickly turned around, just in time to watch as two smoke bombs came flying at him. During the prolonged transaction, Judy and Max had snuck behind the monster, and prepared to attack from the corners of the room. They managed to pull it off without Louperoid noticing.

Nick leaped out of the way as the smoke bombs burst, clouding the room in a thick, heavy smoke. Judy and Max quickly rushed in, Nick following slightly behind. All three of them rushed at the fake wolf, preparing to strike.

Judy leaped up into the air and kicked him in the face, while Max shoulder tackled him. The monster stumbled back as Nick moved in from behind, quickly pulling out one of the blocky, close ranged tasers, and jabbing it into the monster's leg. It started to jitter around, dropping the Zoolizers. Judy rushed in and grabbed the three devices, before the three retreated outside of the smoke.

The monster let out a roar, before the smoke burst away, cleared in a quick moment. The monster had transformed back into its robotic form, only now it looked different.

"You three will pay for that little trick." He declared, surprisingly calmly.

"So what, you got an upgrade." Nick said. "We've got our Zoolizers back, you're about to go down for good!"

"Alright, guys, let's do this!" Judy shouted.

They quickly slapped the Zoolizers onto their wrists. Judy slammed her paw down onto the button first, and struck a fighting pose.

She quickly started to stumble as the Zoolizer started to make… strange noises.

"ZOO ON!" A voice shouted from it. It was a male voice, and not one she had heard before. It then started to make stock explosion and laser sound effects.

"W-what!?" She shouted, pulling it off. Nick and Max responded, pulling them off.

Max stared at the bottom of his for a moment. "…Made in China!?"

Chaos Louperoid started to laugh, which quickly went from a snicker to a boisterous guffaw. "Did you idiots really think we'd just give you the Zoolizers back!?" He shouted. "I bought those at a TOY STORE!"

Judy started to shake and clench her fists for a moment. She quickly tossed the toy at the monster, which hit it in the head.

Nick followed by quickly slamming the toy into the ground, shattering it. Max, however, slipped it into his pocket without the other noticing.

"Now, I gave you what you wanted, technically." The monster started. "I think I'll be taking what I came for now!"

"You might have tricked us," Judy started. "But you won't get the Yellow Zoolizer from us!" She quickly pulled out her phone. "Guys, its time!"

There was a quick explosion from behind the monster. He turned around to see the SPD Officers, and a massive hole in the wall. They quickly started to shoot at the monster, who took the hits and stumbled back.

"Think you might have backed yourself into a corner here, Lupen the NERD!" Max taunted.

"Ugh, that was terrible." Nick groaned.

"Yeah, your light reflection powers won't work here!" Judy said. "There's no lights for you to use!"

The monster thought about it for a moment. "Hm, you make a decent point." He declared. "But I think you ignored one extreme point…"

Suddenly, the top of the monster's hat flipped open. A large rod extended out of it, which quickly started to electrify. The energy gathered at the tip of the rod, forming into a sphere that brightened the entire room up to a ridiculous degree. It then shot up into the air, and hovered, forming a miniature sun.

The metal in the room, which was a LOT of the room, suddenly became very shiny. The monster vanished, and then reappeared on a nearby staircase, and then teleported over to a wall, and then over to Pink, who he gripped by the throat. He then teleported back to the center of the room.

"What was all that about me having backed myself into a corner?" He said.

"LET GO OF HER!" Green shouted, pointing his cannon at the monster. He quickly moved Pink in front of the cannon, causing the bull to hesitate for a moment.

"Now, if you want your friend here to come out of this deal alive, you will give me the Zoolizer." Louperoid threatened.

There was quiet for a moment. Judy was racking her brain for a solution to the problem, but nothing was coming up. Nick was having equal trouble. They had no idea what to do at this point. They didn't have a choice.

Well, not at the moment they didn't.

As the Metalroid glared at the three, Pink raised her blasters to the monster's chest, and placed them against its body. He glanced down, before the hyena quickly shot at him, knocking Louperoid away and causing him to let go of her.

"Manos fuera, ladrón tonto!" She shouted at the monster.

"It doesn't matter if she escaped!" The monster said, regaining his footing. He quickly pointed at Nick "I'm still taking that Zoolizer from you!"

"You're NOT getting it!" The rabbit shouted, stepping in front of the fox. She quickly pulled out her tazer gun, and fired it at the monster.

He held his cane up, and whipped it at the cable, causing it to wrap around. He pulled back, tugging the gun out of the rabbit's paws. "That isn't going to work a fourth time." The monster said, wagging its finger.

He quickly vanished, and then reappeared next to Max. He quickly held out his pepper spray, which then caused the monster to recoil for a second. Louperoid quickly teleported behind the wolf, and kicked him in the spine, knocking him to the ground.

Before the monster could teleport again, Judy rushed up and attempted to kick the monster in the back. However, his new cape seemed to spring to life, forming a series of tentacles which then proceeded to lash at her in a fury. She was knocked across the room, covered in scrapes.

Green and Pink quickly stepped in, and blasted at the monster, hitting it a few times. Louperoid seemed to barely react, before the lenses on its shoulders sprung out. They started to fire a flurry of lasers at the two, causing them to scamper away.

Louperoid turned to Nick, who stepped away, nervously. "Without your powers, you're worthless." The Metalroid mocked as he stepped closer. "And even if you did, there's no way you would be able to beat me now."

The monster lashed its hand forwards, causing wires to fly out of its wrist. They whapped at the fox for a moment, before knocking him to the ground. The Yellow Zoolizer slid onto the ground, and the tentacles lashed at it, pulling it into Chaos Louperoid's grasp.

He glanced around the room, eyeing at Nick, Judy, and Max. He stepped over to the fox's body, and planted his cane down on his neck. Before he could do anything else, he was shot in the back. He turned around to see Pink and Green. The monster let out a growl, before it vanished.

The small sun fizzled out, leaving the room, once again, completely dark, lit only by the lights on the SPD Officer's armor.

"We need to get them out of here." Green said, rushing over and picking up Nick and Judy. Pink nodded, and headed to help Max up.

The wolf let out a groan. "Nice to see you're still conscious." Pink joked.

"What happened?" Max asked, still stunned.

"You guys got your asses kicked, and he stole the Zoolizer." Pink explained as they exited the warehouse. "But you guys could have been killed, so its not all a loss."

"Oh, great."

They slowly headed to the truck. Green placed the smaller mammals gently on the back seats, while Pink helped Max up to another seat. As he sat down, he noticed that Nick was awake, and gripping onto Judy.

He was crying.

---

"I can't believe this worked." Savage said, completely surprised. He watched as Chaos Louperoid handed Enter the blank Zoolizer. The android walked over, and placed it on the table. Savage quickly floated over. "Look at that, a complete collection!" He joked.

Enter ran his hand over the four Zoolizers, and then proceeded to sit down.

"So, what's the next part of the plan?" Savage asked.

"Nothing." Enter said, fairly bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Savage said. "We're not going to do whatever you were planning and kill them with our new power?"

"Mmm… not yet, at least." Enter said. "I want them to know how truly hopeless their situation is before I kill them."

"Alright, smart guy, you might want to play the misery game," Savage started, floating right up into Enter's face. "But I have an URGE TO MURDER, and if you're not going to let me do that to them, I'll do it to one of your pals."

"I don't care." Enter replied, again, quite bluntly. "As long as they don't have the Zoolizers, we've won."

Enter's eyes widened as he felt a tremor. His heart started to beat as he got to his feet, and glared at the massive cylinder at the back. "What's gotten into you?" Savage asked.

Suddenly, a pulse of energy flew through the air, as the cylinder lit up with an unholy red light. The pulse nearly knocked Enter don, and completely knocked Louperoid to the ground. Enter quickly pulled the energy collection device out, and prepared to suck savage into it.

"ENTER"

Another pulse shot across the room, causing the device to drop out of the android's hand. "W-what is it, patron?"

"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR FRIEND" The Omnipotence roared. "I HAVE LARGER CONCERNS WITH YOU"

"How did you know I was-?" Enter started, before pausing. "What have I done wrong? I've beaten the Zoorangers, I should be rewarded!"

"THAT WAS YOUR MISTAKE" The Omnipotence continued, confusing both Enter and Savage. "RETURN THOSE DEVICES AT ONCE"

"What!?" Enter yelled, angry and confused.

"I put in a lot of effort to steal those!" Louperoid said as he got back up. "Why should we return them!?"

"They're beaten, they won't cause any more trouble for us UNLESS we give them the Zoolizers back!" Enter tried to explain. "Returning them would just cause us more problems!"

The Omnipotence burst into laughter, shaking the entire mountain. "ENTER, YOU KNOW SO LITTLE" It said. "I NEVER REMEMBER SAYING THAT YOUR GOAL WAS TO DEFEAT THE ZOORANGERS"

The android's eye twitched a bit at this comment.

"YOUR GOAL IS TO SIMPLE ACQUIRE CHAOS ENERGY FOR ME" The Omnipotence continued. "AND ON THAT FRONT, YOU AND THE OTHERS HAVE DONE MAGNIFICENTLY"

"I don't need your praise!" Enter shouted. "I had this scheme planned for so long, you can't just have me give it all up!"

"YOU ARE ALLOWED TO KEEP THE BLANK ONE" It said. "I DO FIND YOUR PLAN INTRIGUING"

Enter was confused and definitely a bit creeped out at this comment. He hadn't told anyone about this plan, especially not the boss. How did he know about it…?

"RETURN THE OTHERS" The Omnipotence continued. "OR ELSE…"

The cylinder started to glow, before lightning began to strike from it. It ripped across the entire room, leaving burn marks across the floors and walls, but not touching any of the monsters there.

"I WILL MAKE YOU PAY"

Enter took a deep breath, and walked over to the table. He picked the Zoolizers up, and tossed them at Louperoid, who fumbled a bit as he caught them. "Return these."

"What?" The monster said, shocked. "I'm a thief, returning things is the opposite of what I'm programmed to do!"

"Just… do… it." Enter growled.

"Oh, uh, yessir!" The monster quickly vanished, leaving Enter and Savage alone in the room.

"The heck was that about?" Savage asked. "I'm not complaining, actually. Means we get to test the new power out on them at full strength."

"I suppose seeing how powerful it truly is will be an… upside." Enter said, still sounding disappointed. He grabbed the Yellow Zoolizer, and headed down the tunnel, Savage quickly following after.

---

Judy let out another aggravated scream as she huddled up in a ball and rolled back and forth on the couch. They had made a quick stop to the hospital after the warehouse incident, and Judy ended up being the one in need of medical attention. It had taken a full night, but they managed to get her patched up decently.

Her screams were a mix of frustration, sadness, and pain.

She unfurled herself, and started to punch the couch cushion she was sitting on, before letting out a loud, annoyed grunt.

No one really had the nerve to say anything. Nick was on his phone, trying to keep his mind of the situation. Max was sitting in a chair, seemingly thinking about something, but it was hard to tell. Emily and Henry felt the most awkward, considering they neither had anything to add to all of this, and were loitering about in someone else's home.

"What are we supposed to do?" Judy said, after nearly an hour of her grunting and yelling in anger.

"Don't ask us." Emily said. "At this point, the only thing I can think of is just letting us handle the monsters."

"Which is a terrible idea that will get us both killed." Henry added. Emily nodded her head in agreement.

"We can't just let the bad guys win, right?" Judy said to Nick and Max, hopping down from the couch. Neither of them responded. "…Guys?"

"Sorry, too busy dealing with other things." Nick said, bluntly.

"Seriously?" The rabbit muttered. She turned to Max. He was leaning on the chair's rest, and had his head on his hand. He seemed to have genuinely not heard her. "Max, are you even listening?"

He still didn't respond.

She hopped up onto the opposite rest, and snapped her digits. The wolf popped out of his trance, and glanced around. "What? Whu-?"

"What were you thinking about?" Judy asked, a bit curious.

"Uh, about what happened." He said. "I mean, I don't know if this will be helpful at this point, but the monster did something weird that we might be able to use-"

"Yeah right." Nick interrupted, still glaring at his phone. "We can't do anything right at this point, so why would we even bother fighting that thing again?"

"You can't be serious right now, Nick." Judy said. "We aren't giving up until we die."

"Maybe you aren't, but I am."

"How are those two dating when they argue all the time?" Emily whispered to Henry. The bull shrugged in response.

"Can I at least say what my idea is?" Max asked, raising his paw into the air. Nick and Judy just shot him looks, so he lowered it.

"No, go ahead." Judy said. "Anything can help at this point."

"Okay, so…" He started. "When I tried to pull the pepper spray on the monster, it kind of reacted… differently. It seemed like it was scared of it."

"I mean, who doesn't hate pepper pray?" Nick retorted. "Stuff stings."

"We can attest to that." Emily added.

"Yeah, but that thing's a robot, it doesn't have eyes to hurt." Max continued. "So, why would he even be scared of something like that?"

"I'm guessing you have a reason, don't you?" Nick asked.

"I think that his light teleporting power is based around what he can see!" Max explained. "If he can't see any reflections, then he won't be able to do anything that dangerous! If we can hit him with the pepper spray, we'll be able to fight him in the open, without any real problems!"

"That's… actually a pretty good idea." Nick admitted, finally looking away from his phone.

"Problem is actually trying to actually spray him." Henry added. "And also the fact that none of us can actually destroy him right now."

"Yeah, that's a problem." Max said, slumping down in his chair.

"At the least, its something we can use to drive him off for a while." Judy suggested. "But… who knows when he'll attack again."

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring.

"Okay, is that gonna happen every time we say something like that?" Nick asked, annoyed.

She quickly answered the phone, Clawhauser's face showing up on the other end. "Oh my gosh guys, the monster's shown back up!"

"We can tell, Spots!" Nick said. Judy chuckled in response.

"Yeah, but I bet you didn't know that he's in city square!" Clawhauser retorted. "And he's also not actually attacking anyone, he's just kind of… standing there, not doing anything."

"That's odd."Judy said. "Ben, we need you to prep up some pepper spray for us. Think you can do that?"

"Uh, sure, but you guys have been using A LOT of pepper spray recently." He said. "I'm not sure we have a lot left, but I'll see what I can scrounge up!"

"Thanks." She said, before hanging up. "Alright, so we're going to try out Max's plan. Try to… fend him off."

"Can you fend someone off when they're not actually attacking?" Max asked. "Won't we technically be the ones assaulting him?"

"Doesn't really matter." Nick said.

---

The truck pulled up to the plaza, right on the road in front of the Oasis Fountain. The five got out of the truck, Judy, Nick, and Max armed with a can of pepper spray each. Emily and Henry quickly armored up as they headed into the plaza.

Standing by the fountain was the monster, who, like Clawhauser had said, was doing nothing. He was sitting on the side of the fountain, but quickly got up as the five arrived.

"There you all are." Louperoid said with a laugh. "I've been expecting you for a while!"

"Yeah, that's usually what happens when a monster waits around for us." Nick said. "What exactly are you up to?"

To their shock, Chaos Louperoid pulled out the three Zoolizers. "Behold, Zoorangers," He started. "It seems fortune has shined on you all, for I bring you the REAL Zoolizers!"

"You expect us to buy that those are the real ones?" Judy said.

"If they are the real ones, why did you even bring them here?" Nick asked. "If we get them back, you're pretty much screwed."

The monster paused for a moment, and took a glance at the Zoolizers. They were right, if he did what Enter wanted, then that would mean he'd be on death row.

"Er, why would I give them back to you!?" The Metalroid shouted, rather hastily. "I'm going to, uh, DESTROY THEM! Right in front of you, so you know there's no hope!"

"There's something weird about this." Judy whispered to Nick and Max. "I mean, a different weird than usual."

"I get you." Nick said. "He's a bit awkward. I think those might be the real ones."

"If they are, then that's a threat we can't take lightly." Max added. He turned to Pink. "Think you guys can handle him for a bit?"

"Oh, absolutely." Pink replied. The two stepped forwards, and fired at the monster. Louperoid quickly teleported out of the way of the blasts, which hit the water in the fountain and caused a burst of the liquid to spray up into the air.

The monster reappeared over at a nearby lamp post. Before it could react, Pink and Green charged in, the bull running ahead and tackling the monster. The force of the charge sent the monster flying, smacking into the wall of a nearby building.

As Louperoid attempted to get back to his feet, Pink rushed in, and grabbed onto his arm with one of her paws. "Let go!" The monster shouted.

"Now you know what it's like!" She said, before, aiming one of her blasters at his face. She fired and let go at the same time, causing the monster to stumble back from the blast.

The monster regained its composure for a moment, before thrusting its cane forwards, shooting out a series of lasers at the hyena. She leaped out of the way as sparks flew into the air, and burst into a roll as she hit the ground.

The monster teleported over to her, and kicked her before she could get up. "You really think you'll be able to take these things from me?" He asked with a laugh.

"Yes, actually."

Before the robot knew who even said that, he found someone wrapping their arms around his own, putting him into a lock. It was Green, who had put enough pressure on to even stop the monster's cape from doing anything.

The monster let out a grunt, before he attempted to teleport away from the bull. He spotted a glinting window nearby, and teleported… but the bull was still locked around him.

"Dangit!" Louperoid let out as it struggled.

"Guys, now's your chance!" Green shouted to the three. The rabbit, fox, and wolf nodded, before rushing at the monster.

Judy leaped up into the air, and delivered a kick to the monster, Nick scratched at its legs, and Max punched him in the face. They hit all at the same time, and dazed the monster for a moment. Using this opportunity, Green lifted Chaos Louperoid up into the air, and slammed him down into the ground.

With that blow, the Zoolizers flew off of him, and fell to the ground. The Zoorangers rushed over, and picked them up.

"Hope these are the real deals." Nick said, a bit worried.

They slapped them down onto their wrists, and then pressed the buttons.

In a flash, the three had transformed.

"ZooBlue!" Blue yelled out, striking a pose.

"ZooRed!" Red shouted, also striking a pose.

"ZooSilver!" Silver finished, striking a final pose.

"ZYUMEN SENTAI, ZOORANGER!" They all shouted.

"No!" Louperoid yelled as he got back up. "I knew we should have just destroyed those things!"

"There is one thing that's going to be destroyed today." Blue started, pulling out the moon shaped ZooTag.

Red followed by pulling out the sun shaped one. "Guess what it is?"

"I don't want to know!" The monster shouted.

They quickly plugged the ZooTags in, and turned into their Solar and Lunar forms. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to strike the monster, but were stopped by Silver.

"Hang on, guys!" He said, pulling out a small disc. "You have to let me on this, too!"

He plugged the disc into his Zoolizer, causing a flash of light. "RAMPAGE" His Zoolizer shouted, as the super form of Silver was revealed.

"Isn't that thing dangerous?" Red asked.

"I think its mediated by my anger." Silver said. "And right now, I'm only PRETTY angry, not furious."

"Hopefully you can keep up!" Blue said.

The monster started to back off for a moment, before he turned around, coming face to face with Green and Pink. Before he could do anything, the two punched him in the face, knocking him back.

"Let's let them have this one." Green suggested. "Seems like they really want it." Emily nodded, and the two sneaked off.

"You three might have your powers back, but that doesn't matter!" Chaos Louperoid shouted. "I'll crush you all like last time!"

The top of his hat opened up, and shot a miniature sun up into the air. He let out a laugh as the entire area lit up to ridiculous degrees. All the Zoorangers had to shield their visors… except for Red.

"That the best you've got?" He asked.

"W-what?" The monster said, before clearing its throat. "No, of course not, I have much better up my sleeves!"

He quickly vanished, before reappearing behind the three super Zoorangers. His cape stretched out, and prepared to strike them, but Red quickly whipped his staff backwards, it extending in the process, and wrapped the cape around it. He then flung the cane over his head, sending Louperoid flying into the ground.

"You just got lucky!" Chaos Louperoid said. "Watch THIS!"

His cape started to stretch out, before they started to vanish at around the mid point. "Watch out!" Blue shouted, before all three of them leaped out of the way. The capes started to stretch out of every possible reflective surface, and strike at the three.

They danced around the capes for a bit, but they didn't seem to stop. Red quickly ducked under one flying out from a window, while Blue jumped over one that came out of the fountain's water. Silver spun past one that came out of a severely reflective part of the ground, and fired a few shots from his gun arm at the monster. The capes suddenly retracted in an instant, returning to Louperoid's body as they wrapped around his front, protecting him from the blast.

"Thought we'd be having an easier time with this!" Red said.

"We need to blind him." Silver suggested. "You guys still got the pepper spray on you?"

"I do!" Blue said. She pulled out the can, and glanced over at the monster. "Let me handle this, you guys keep his cape-tentacles busy!"

Silver and Red nodded, as the rabbit dashed at the monster. The capes continued to strike at the three, until Blue suddenly curved around to the monster's backside.

"What is she planning!?" He asked himself. "I can't move from where I'm looking, or else those three will get me, but if I don't-"

"You'll get sneak attacked!"

Blue slid into the monster's leg, knocking it onto its back. The capes retracted as it fell down, letting Red and Silver rest for a moment. Blue quickly hopped up onto the monster's body shaking the can of pepper spray as she did so. She walked up to the monster's neck, and aimed it at his eye.

"No, wait-!"

Before he could finish, she sprayed it, for quite a bit longer than she probably should have, causing Louperoid to let out a shrill scream of pain. In response, he quickly smacked her in the side of her face with his fist, and then crawled back up to his feet.

"I'M BLIND!" He shouted, rubbing at his eye. The spray wasn't coming off this time.

"And now you're completely vulnerable!" Blue said as she got to her feet herself. She readied her blades, but paused as the monster started to laugh.

The laugh quickly turned into a snarl. "You think you're clever!? Well guess what!? I'M NOT BEATEN YET! LET ME SHOW YOU MY ULTIMATE ATTACK, WHELPS!"

The miniature sun started to fly over to Louperoid, and then suddenly split up into six even smaller suns, stationing themselves in a pyramid formation behind both his shoulders.

The lenses on his shoulder popped up. "I don't even need to see to use this one!" He shouted. "I'll just BURN YOU, LIKE THE INSECTS YOU ARE!"

Two massive laser beams fired out of the monster's shoulders, scorching the ground as they moved towards the Zoorangers. They leaped out of the way as the lasers hit a window, and in turn reflected off into the sky, hitting a tall building a handful of miles away.

"Yikes!" Silver shouted. "How are we supposed to deal with that thing!?"

"I know how." Red said, tapping his staff against the ground. "They call this 'Solar mode' for a reason, y'know?"

"Good idea!" Blue said. "But you'll need to be quiet, or else…"

"I can hear you scheming!" Louperoid shouted, quickly zipping the lasers over to where Blue was standing, she flipped out of the way before they could strike.

Red gave a nod, and started to tip toe towards the monster.

"Hey, Loopy!" Silver shouted. "We're over here!"

The monster growled, before moving the lasers over to where Silver was. He also dodged out of the way.

"Whoops, wrong way!" Blue shouted.

As this continued, Red managed to sneak up on the monster. He slowly reached towards the suns with his staff, but one of the cape sections whipped out, knocking him back.

"Did you really think I'd fall for that so easily?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of."

The capes started to lash at him, but the fox quickly started to strike back with the staff. They clashed for a moment, before Red stepped back, and shot a burst of fire at the monster. "AHHH, HOT!" He let out. The cape sections had been lit on fire, and started to burn away.

"Alright, time to play ball!" Red said, before leaping up and swiping up all the small suns into the center of his staff. They collected into a single large ball of fire, covering the entire end of the staff. The fox rushed back over to his teammates as the confused monster tried to figure out what happened.

"What did you do!?" Louperoid shouted, stomping forward.

"I took the heat." Red said. He then turned to Blue, and nodded at her. "Good one, right?"

She shook her head.

He stepped back, and pulled the staff back over his shoulder. "You guys ready for a home star run?" He asked.

"I don't know what that means, but sure?" Silver said.

He swung the staff like a bat, launching the large fireball off of it. It flew at the Metalroid, and exploded into a massive burst of fire.

The fire quickly cleared, revealing the weakened Louperoid, who stumbled to his knees. "Ugh, just finish me off right now." He grunted.

"I don't think you've been thrashed enough yet!" Blue said.

"Yeah, and we have some frustrations to work out." Red followed.

"Ugh, this sucks." The monster muttered as the three ran up to him.

Silver ran up first, and slashed upwards with his sword arm, bringing the monster back to its feet. He then shot the robot at pointblank range, causing him to fly off. Blue ran up behind him as he flew off, and leaped up into the air. She started to rapidly slash at the thief with her blades, before kicking him off. She continued to fling laser slashes at the robot, keeping him up in the air for a bit longer.

Red headed underneath the monster, and swung his staff upwards. It extended up, and slammed into the Metalroid's stomach. He then let out a burst of fire from the staff's tip, burning the monster, before he thrust it up and knocked Louperoid up into the sky.

The three gathered, and Red and Blue quickly combined their weapons into the combined crossbow. The jaw on Silver's chest opened up, revealing a cannon. The three aimed their weapons upwards, and fired. The lasers combined together, and struck the Metalroid in midair, causing it to explode.

From the explosion fell a magnifying glass, which shattered as it hit the ground, and a Chaos Badge, which just bounced.

"That felt so good!" Silver said, triumphantly. "Oh, hang on a second." He said, quickly turning back to his normal form.

"Why did you do that?" Blue asked. "Don't you want to stay in that form for the big monster battle?"

"You know how terrible it'd be to try and pilot while wearing that thing?"

The three quickly turned to the Chaos Badge as it started to float up into the air. It quickly flew off into the distance, and exploded into a flash of light. As the light cleared, it revealed Chaos Louperoid, completely revived.

"Time for me to steal your LIVES!" He roared.

The Zoorangers quickly readied their robots, which quickly combined into ZooRobo and ZooKami. The two mechs stomped towards the giant Metalroid.

"Think we should call up the lion guy?" Red asked.

"Nah, I think we can take this guy out just fine with these." Blue replied.

"Excuse me!?" The monster shouted. "Am I not worth your time!?"

"No, you aren't." Silver said.

The mechs quickly stomped forwards, and both of them attempted to slash at the monster. Its cape tendrils quickly lashed out, and blocked the strikes, knocking them both back. The monster let out a laugh, as the lenses on his shoulders popped out. Lasers started to fire from them, causing explosions and sparks.

The mechs stood strong, however, much to Louperoid's shock. He let out a growl, before sending his cape to attack them. The two mechs started to slash at both of them, knocking them aside as they started to head back towards the monster.

Both of them managed to get up close to the defenseless monster, and brought both their blades down at the same time. The force of the blast caused a massive explosion, knocking Louperoid to the ground. He scrambled to get back up, and the top of his hat popped open.

He leaned forwards, energy building up, and then fired a much larger sun towards the two mechs. ZooKami slashed at the orb, and knocked it back. The monster whacked it into the air with his cane in response. The ball flew in an arc towards ZooRobo, who quickly smacked it with the side of his sword. The sun flew directly into the unprepared Louperoid. Another explosion erupted as the sun hit, leaving the monster stumbling and in pain.

"Ugh, maybe I should have just took up that job as a hatter…" The Metalroid muttered to itself.

"Haven't gotten to use this in a while!" Red said as ZooRobo stepped forwards. It quickly raised its sword up, moving it in a clockwise pattern. An aura of energy formed, before it zig-zagged the blade, forming a Z-shaped aura of energy. Finally, it thrust the blade forward, sending the energy flying directly at the monster.

It sliced right through him, and he started to spark and stumble. "I knew he shouldn't have made me return them!" Louperoid whined.

"What?" Blue said. "You… purposely returned our Zoolizers!? Who made you do that!?"

"That Omnipotence fellow!" He shouted. "It doesn't matter, at least you idiots will never claim my stolen goods!"

The monster tilted and fell over, before exploding into a massive burst of fire. ZooRobo and ZooKami turned around as the explosion erupted, and struck poses.

"Nature, protected!"

The mechs vanished, and the three landed back in the middle of the plaza. They quickly turned back to normal. "Ugh, that felt SO GOOD!" Judy said, hopping about.

"Tell me about it!" Nick followed. "I almost forgot how exciting that always is."

"I'm just glad to have this little guy back…" Max said, looking at his Zoolizer. Nick and Judy looked at him for a moment. "Uh, because, then I couldn't… fight any more monsters." He hastily added.

"I don't think you guys should be celebrating just yet." Henry started. "We're still missing something."

Judy's ears popped up. "The Yellow Zoolizer!" She said, slapping herself in the forehead. "It's still up in the enemy base… we're never going to get it back!"

"I say we don't worry about it." Nick said, surprising the rabbit. "We're five strong, if we stick together and keep at this pace… we'll have the bad guys beaten in no time."

"That's… optimistic." Judy said.

"Yeah, you hit your head?" Emily added.

"No, I just…" Nick paused. "I feel really good right now, I dunno."

"You know, all those gems that monster stole are also up in the mountain." Max said. "We're not going to be able to get them, either."

"Hopefully neither of these things come back to bite us." Nick sighed. "Though, Bogo will probably be… furious."

"We can worry about that later." Judy said. She let out an exhausted sigh. "Let's just head home."

Everyone nodded, and they headed back to the truck.

---

"You're telling me you HAD the Zoolizers," Sambash started. "And then the boss man told you to… return them?"

Enter nodded.

"That's fuckin' stupid." Sambash said. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"Apparently it has something to do with 'Chaos Energy'." Enter said. "I think that's something he made up. I'm sure he has something planned against us."

"Should we be talking about this in here, though?" Sambash asked, looking up at the massive cylinder. "He could hear us insulting him, and put us in the same situation dragon boy is."

"I think he's asleep." Enter said, getting up. "So we shouldn't have to worry about-"

Before the android could finish, The Omnipotence sprung to life with a burst of red energy.

"I AM AWARE OF ALL THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHILE INSIDE HERE, ENTER" It roared. "AND I HAVE AWOKEN TO ALLEVIATE YOUR CONCERNS"

Enter raised an eyebrow.

"CHAOS ENERGY IS GATHERED THROUGH THE ACT OF DESTRUCTION AND FIGHTING, SOMETHING THAT THIS WORLD HAS LACKED FOR MOST OF ITS HORRID EXISTENCE" The Omnipotence explained. "BUT THE MOST POTENT FORM COMES FROM WHEN GOOD FIGHTS AGAINST EVIL, THROUGH THAT STRUGGLE WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GATHER UP AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT IN BUT A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME"

"So, you're just having us fight to gather up energy?" Sambash asked. "The hell are we even doing that for!?"

"TO GET YOUR REVENGE" The Omnipotence roared. "YOU DO REMEMBER OUR DEAL, DON'T YOU"

Sambash shook his head. He really DID want to get revenge… and there wasn't much else he could do. He wasn't in any position to retaliate, either. This guy could take down an immortal, and the rest of the villains and him would have no idea how to get back home without the boss.

"Fine, whatever." Sambash said, still very clearly angry. He quickly stormed out of the chamber.

Enter glared into the red void that was The Omnipotence.

"I still don't entirely believe you." Enter said. "Wouldn't we get more Chaos Energy just by destroying the planet?"

"DO NOT FRET" The Omnipotence assured. "WHEN WE ARE FULLY CHARGED, THERE WILL BE NOTHING THIS PLANET, NOR THE ZOORANGER, CAN DO TO SAVE ITSELF"

"Tch."

Enter started to walk out, but was stopped by one last booming vocalization from the cylinder.

"ENTER, HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT YOU REMIND ME OF SOMEONE THAT I USED TO KNOW?"

Enter rolled his eyes. "You do too."

He headed down the hall, but managed to catch a surprisingly quiet chuckle from the inner sanctum.

---

The three had arrived at Max's house after Emily and Henry dropped them off. For most of the night, they just spent it relaxing.

But throughout the night, thoughts had been running through Judy's head. Not good ones. Why did the monsters need all those gemstones? What were they going to do with the Yellow Zoolizer?

And most importantly, why would the leader of the villains want them to have the Zoolizers?

She glanced around the room. Nick was on his phone, while Max was on his laptop. It was quiet, but she felt like it was time to break the silence.

"What do you guys think of what that monster said?" She asked.

"About the Zoolizers?" Max said. "That was definitely… odd."

"It's gotten me worried." She said, shaking her foot back and forth. "This Omnipotence guy is supposed to be the big evil… why would he want to help us?"

"That's a mystery we might never learn." Max said. "Best case scenario is we have somebody in the bad guys who wants to actually help."

"I sincerely doubt that." Judy said. "I doubt a guy named "Omnipotence" would ever be considered a good guy… Comes off egotistical, you know?"

Max nodded. "Best not to worry about it." Max said with a sigh. "If you let it bother you, we won't be able to save the world, right?"

She let out a sigh. "You're right, I should really just-"

"OH MY GOD!" Nick suddenly shouted, startling the two.

"What, what is it!?" Judy asked.

"I just found the PERFECT APARTMENT!" He explained, slamming his digit into his phone screen. "It's got all your specifications, pre-furnished, no drug dealers, apparently its in good condition…"

"That sounds great!" Judy said.

"You guys wanna go check it out?" Max asked.

"We'll have to set up a good time." Nick said. "You know, work and stuff. I'll send an e-mail and set something up."

"Alright!" Judy let out, jumping up to her feet. "We're not going to have to sleep in a basement anymore! We'll have actual BEDS!"

"There's only one bedroom, though." Nick said.

Judy looked like she became slightly enthusiastic, but her ears didn't drop. She then pumped her fist into the air.

"Good enough!"

---

Enter and Savage stood on the top of the mountain, the moon shining down onto them. "What'dya think of that guy's bullshit excuse?" Savage asked, before chuckling to himself. "He thinks he can trick us."

"Indeed." Enter said. He looked down at his hand, which was grasping the Yellow Zoolizer.

"So, when we get this all sorted, we're going to kill him and take over, right?" Savage asked.

"Definitely." Enter responded. "It's time to get this started."

He turned around, and glanced over at another object. It was a cage, containing a sheep who was, currently, asleep. "What's the plan got to do with the lambchop over there?" Savage asked as Enter walked over.

He picked up the cage, and carried it over to Savage. "I need you to take something from her." He started.

"I need her skin."

"Oh ho ho, now you're talking my language!" Savage said. "How much? All of it?"

"Enough to wrap around my wrist." He said.

Savage nodded, a bit disappointed. He opened his jaw up, and slipped through the cage bars. He stretched his jaw open to ridiculous levels, almost completely dislocating it.

However, the sheep started to move. "What?" She let out as she got up. "What am I doing out-"

He words turned to bloodcurdling shrieks of pain as Savage bit down on her. His teeth teared through her prison outfit, wool, and upper layer of skin. In a swift motion, he had torn off an clean rectangle of flesh from her back. The sheep simply twitched in pain for a moment, before passing out.

It was only the upper layer of her skin. As much as he wanted to murder the sheep and then eat her corpse, that would leave little flesh left. He need to show SOME restraint.

Savage gnashed the skin around in his mouth for a moment, before spitting it out onto the ground. It was completely sans fur and the prison uniform, a simple, long strip of white flesh.

Enter picked it up off the ground. Luckily for him, it wasn't covered in slobber. Energy beings couldn't salivate, for obvious reasons.

"Why do you need that?" Savage asked.

Without a word, Enter quickly wrapped the flesh around his wrist, and then closed his eyes. His arm suddenly started to melt off, turning into red wireframe version, with only the additional skin left in tact. However, after a second, it started to turn into a wireframe as well, fusing with his arm. His "flesh" crawled back up his arm, with the pale white skin now fused into the rest of his skin.

"Neat trick."

"I need the flesh for a very simple reason." Enter said, waving the Yellow Zoolizer. "This thing only reacts to animal DNA. I needed to incorporate some of that into my own code, and now it should register."

"It's time, Savage."

"Ha ha, I've been waiting for this for a WEEK!"

The skull floated over to Enter as he held up the Yellow Zoolizer. His energy form seemed to absorb itself into the device, causing it to glow green. Enter smiled as the Zoolizer started to change. It turned gunmetal gray, with red accents. A rim of sharp teeth exploded from the edges, destroying the animal head design that hid inside. The button had disappeared, as the teeth now formed into a sort of switch.

Enter then slapped the device onto his wrist, causing it to light up. His smirk turned to a grin, as he pushed the jaws of the device together.

"SAVAGE"

Dark energy started to swirl around him, covering his entire body, before it stopped.

Enter started to laugh, though his voice also seemed to sound a bit like Savage's at the same time. "'Allo…" He said, his voice sounding normal.

"ZooDark."

---

Like you didn't see this coming! Apparently nobody did, even though I felt I foreshadowed it REALLY bluntly. No description of ZooDark yet… gotta tune in next time for that one.

Also, I came up with this episode well before Patranger and Lupinranger got leaked, so that's a complete coincidence. Also, what's with every Sentai and Kamen Rider series recently fitting in perfectly well with this fanfic? Stop giving me material!

I also want to note that it's pretty awkward trying to do giant fights with Go-Busters monsters, mostly because a lot of them just weren't designed for it, for obvious reasons. I like to think they're all equally surprised when it happens, but they try to keep cool. Also, I did entirely include the wolf form for Louperoid just so I could make a bad Lupin the Third joke.

Also, more foreshadowing with The Omnipotence. Also referencing one of my very blatant inspirations for him.

Next time, ZooDark makes his move… and the circus comes into town.