Episode 40 - Savage City

The villains had gathered up in a small cave, near the back of the mountain, far away from where The Omnipotence had been. The only one who hadn't shown up was Enter, but none of them were bothered. Surprising most of them, however, was the fact that Sambash had called this meeting.

He explained to them what was going on, what The Omnipotence had said only a few nights before.

"So, you're saying that The Omnipotence has been using us?" Kyuemon asked.

"Looks like it." Sambash said. "I knew something was up with that guy."

"We're villains, we're untrusting of everyone!" Yogostein proclaimed.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do something about it." Sambash replied. "Being used is something I ain't gonna stand for."

"So, you're suggesting a coup?" Yogostein asked.

"More like a mutiny." Sambash said. "We're all powerful…" He quickly glanced at Yabaiba, who was sitting absentmindedly on the floor. "…Most of us are powerful, we can take him on!"

"I think you're vastly overestimating our abilities." Kyuemon said. "We might be powerful enough to take on any heroes we face, but I doubt we can do so for The Omnipotence."

"You remember what he did to Long, right?" Yogostein followed. "If we try to betray him, we'll end up like that too… or worse!"

"The only reason he imprisoned Long was because he's immortal." Kyuemon said. "We, on the other hand, are completely mortal. Trying to go against him would be suicide."

Sambash tried to say something, but couldn't. He kicked at the ground as he let out a frustrated yell. "Well, what are we supposed to do, then!?" He shouted at the fox yokai. "Just let him tell us what to do!?"

"I don't really see the problem." Yabaiba said. "I mean, we're doing this to get home, right? If we keep following along, we'll be fine."

"For once, Yabaiba raises a point." Kyuemon followed. "There's no downside to us following him, other than our own egos."

"Fine, whatever." Sambash muttered. "Enter didn't seem too happy about it."

Before the conversation could continue, a deep rumbling started to shake the room. "The hell-?" Sambash let out.

A few moments later, the rumbling stopped… and another kind of rumbling started. The rumbling of The Omnipotence's powerful voice.

It let out a roar, before saying a name.

"YABAIBA" It yelled. "COME TO ME"

The Org quickly scrambled to his feet, and ran out of the cave, the other villains following shortly afterwards. However, they were greeted by something peculiar.

The exit to the cave now lead out to the main hall, rather than the hall where they had found it. It had suddenly moved from the back of the mountain… to its very front.

"How is this…?" Kyuemon said to himself, before shaking it off.

Yabaiba ran up to the large tube, seemingly not noticing the massive spacial displacement they had just gone through, and quickly bowed. "What is it, your tubiness?"

"GATHER CHAOS ENERGY" The Omnipotence boomed.

"On it!" Yabaiba said. He stood there for a moment.

"You gonna do anything, bozo?" Sambash asked, before sitting down at the table.

"Uh… I can't think of anything."

"Not out of the ordinary." Yogostein muttered.

Yabaiba let out a frustrated grunt as he scratched at the sides of his head. "I think I've run out of plans! I can't even think of any good monsters! Why is it so hard to get rid of a bunch of animals-"

He paused for a moment, before letting out a laugh. "Yes, that's it!" He yelled. "I just came up with the greatest plan EVER!"

"Hyperbole at its finest." Yogostein mocked.

"Not even hyperbooly!" Yabaiba replied. "I have a plan that will completely knock you all off your socks!"

He quickly ran out through the exit, laughing and giggling as he did so. The three remaining villains watched on, fairly confused.

"He seemed more enthusiastic about that than usual." Kyuemon noted.

"Maybe the dunce will come up with something useful for once." Sambash said, looking at a half empty bottle of brandy. "Doubt it, though."

The door to the apartment swung open. "Here we are." The sheep landlord said. He was a bit rough looking, but it matched the rest of the apartment building.

Judy and Nick stepped into apartment after the sheep. "This is the living room," He started. It had blue carpeting, with a green couch pointing towards a wall. The wall had windows, as well as a rather old looking TV sitting on a TV stand in front of it. "Don't worry, the TV just looks old." The sheep assured them.

The two looked at each other, a bit skeptically. They followed the sheep over to a small corner of the room. "Here's the kitchen." he said. It was a very cramped looking kitchen, even for smaller mammals like them. Cupboards and pantries were lined up in a U-shape, with the stove and fridge on opposite sides. There didn't seem to be a microwave or toaster. The flooring there was hard, buts eemed to have a few… stains.

The sheep walked over to the next corner, and another door. "This is the closet." He said. "I recommend not leaving anything in there for too long."

That wasn't worrying at all.

"Over there is the bedroom and bathroom." The sheep continued, pointing to the other side of the room. There were two doors, and it was hard to tell which one was which.

Judy quickly hopped over to one, and opened it. It was the bathroom, which, surprisingly, looked like one of the cleaner rooms in the place. Hopefully that didn't mean ominous things.

Nick, on the other hand, went over to the bedroom door, and peeked inside. It had a double bed, and a dresser already, alongside purple walls. It didn't look that bad, at least, not to him.

"So, whaddya think?" The sheep asked.

The two turned to look at him, and then glanced at each other. "Can you give us a moment to talk?" Judy asked. The sheep nodded.

She quickly pulled the fox into the bedroom. "So, think we should get it?" Nick quickly asked, hopping up onto the bed.

Judy took a deep breath. "This place isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but that doesn't mean it isn't terrible."

"I think its fine." Nick said.

"Of course you do." Judy replied, ears dropping. She sighed. "I think I can make do with it, but we'll need to do a lot of work."

"So, you're saying we should get it?"

"We don't have much else to choose from." The rabbit said.

"We could live on the streets." Nick suggested. "I'm an expert at that."

"Aaaaabsolutely not."

A few hours had passed after they paid for the apartment. They had started to move in, and four suitcases were placed in a corner of the apartment. Immediately after bringing them in, Judy rushed off. She came back a half hour later, armed with a variety of different cleaning items.

"How much did you spend on all that?" Nick asked, looking over the couch's back at hehr. She had gotten spray bottles, a mop, a pawful of rags, air fresheners, soap, and even a vacuum cleaner.

"Still less than what we spent on this place." She said.

She grabbed the mop, and then stomped over to the closet, taking a deep breath. As she opened it, a horrible stench wafted out. It smelled like a dead body, or something even worse, if that was possible.

Nick instantly retched, and the rabbit slammed the door close. "We'll deal with that later." She said, catching her breath.

The rabbit watched as the fox pulled his phone out. "What are you doing?"

"Calling up Max, maybe he can help us out with the move-in." He explained. The phone rung for a moment, before the wolf answered.

"Hey guys." He greeted. "How's everything going?"

"Pretty well." Nick said. "We bought the place, it's alright."

"Oh, well that's good to-"

Judy grabbed the phone from the fox's paws. "Yeah, this place WILL be 'alright'." She said. "Right now it's a filthy mess."

"You lived in my basement for months." Max said with a chuckle. "Why do you care about a mess?"

"For one, we didn't have much of a choice, and second, we cleaned it up." She started. "Do you even use the basement?"

"Uh…"

Nick watched on for a moment, but soon realized he wouldn't be getting the phone back any time soon. He turned to glance at the TV. It looked old, old enough to not be able to connect to the internet. He walked up and peeked around the back.

No, it was definitely just OLD.

There wasn't even an HDMI connector, just the old multi-color plug-in connectors. And whoever owned seemed to have run off with anything to plug it in to, which meant they could only watch… ugh, cable.

He searched for a remote as Judy rambled on about the apartment to Max. He ended up finding it inside one of the drawers in the TV stand. It seemed to have been heavily used, and had a few distressing stains on it.

The fox sat back on the couch, and tried to flick the TV on. Unfortunately, it didn't actually turn on. He glanced at the remote for a moment, there was a light on it, which meant the remote wasn't dead. He quickly got up, and walked back over to the TV, and hit it with his fist.

Nothing happened.

He hit it again, and then again. On the last hit, the TV suddenly flicked on. The two mammals were startled as circus music played, and and an announcer started to yell.

"The Roary Brother's Circus of Wonder and Fun, coming to Zootopia TODAY!"

"Nick, seriously!?" Judy shouted.

"I didn't think it'd turn on!" He said, fumbling to smack the power button.

"Located just outside the city, come and see our acrobatics and daring dangerous stunts! A world of entertainment awaits-"

He flicked the TV off, and glanced at the rabbit, who in turn glared at him. He stumbled back over to the couch and sat back down, silently.

"So, I guess we have to buy a new TV at some point now." Judy said to the phone.

"That'll probably end up being more expensive than the apartment, if I'm being honest." Max said.

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?"

The tent had been set up quickly, and a large group of mammals had formed outside of it, all of them wanting tickets.

"How many do you think are out there?" A lion said, looking out the window of a trailer, which was parked next to the tent. He was half dressed up in a ringmaster's outfit.

"Oh, probably about… five hundred, by the looks of things?" Another lion said. This lion was sitting at a table, checking their bank account on his phone. He was dressed a lot more casually. "This is the largest turn-out we've gotten in five years. They're all a bunch of city-slickers who've never been to a circus before. Told you this would be a great place."

"You're right, as always." The ringmaster lion said, before taking a deep breath. "Better make this show as good as we can."

"We're the second best circus in the world, of course we can." The other lion said. "Get out there and put on a show already, everyone else is waiting for you."

The lion took a deep breath, and quickly headed out of the trailer. What felt like a moment later, he entered the tent. It was crowded with hundreds of different mammals, of all shapes and sizes.

He cleared his throat, and headed into the middle of the circus' dust floor. "LADIES AND GENTLEMAMMALS!" He shouted into the microphone he was wearing. "WELCOME TO THE ROARY BROTHERS' CIRCUS! PREPARE TO BE AMAZED BY TRICKS OF ALL KINDS, ACROBATICS, CANNONS, DEATH DEFYING STUNTS! ALL OF IT IS HERE, AND WILL BE SHOWN DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOUR FACES!"

The audience cheered, but the lion was still sweating a bit. This was a lot easier in front of a smaller crowd.

"But before we get started," He continued. "Let's open up with some light comedic antics! We have some hilarious hi-jinks to warm everything up, so SEND IN THE CLOWNS!"

Circus music started to play, signaling the arrival of the clown troupe… but none of them seemed to be coming out.

The lion looked towards the entrance at the back of the tent, and then back to the audience. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they realized something was going wrong.

Just before the ringmaster could say anything, something came cartwheeling out of the entrance. It cartwheeled over to the ringmaster, and did a handstand, before flipping back onto its feet.

It was dressed like a clown, with a baggy, multi-color outfit, a puffy rainbow wig, and a red nose… but not only was it not one of his clowns, it didn't appear to be a mammal at all.

It was a horned, bony creature, who quickly proceeded to give a bow as the ringmaster stepped back in shock. "Howdy there, folks!" The creature said, standing back up and giving a wave. "Are you all ready for an extravaganza of MISERY and TORMENT!?"

"Who are you!?" The ringmaster lion shouted. "What happened to the rest of the clowns!?"

The creature looked over to him and laughed. "Those clowns of yours were so lame!" He said. "But they're all a bit… tied up at the moment. So I brought my own."

The creature snapped his fingers, and suddenly, a horde of green monsters wielding clubs charged in through every available opening in the tent, some even cleaving through parts of the tent. The crowd screamed as the monsters went into the stands and started to attack.

"What-!?" The lion shouted.

"You been out of the loop here, buddy?" The clown garbed monster said, placing his hands on the lion's shoulders. "Zootopia's had a bit of a monster infestation recently!"

Before the lion could react, Yabaiba spun him around, and then slapped him in the face, knocking him to the ground and causing his hat to fall off. The Org skipped over to the hat, and picked it up.

"How lucky that a circus was coming into town the same week I came up with my master plan?" Yabaiba said to the unconscious lion. He pulled out a spiraling horn, and then jabbed it into the hat. It started to glow as he threw it to the ground.

The hat started to shift in shape, becoming larger and slightly more stiff. The glow cleared, revealing that the hat had shifted from black to red, with a black stripe running across its brim. Green horns burst from the hat, and pointed up into the air. Two more horns, purple in color, burst from the top of the hat and curved downwards.

The hat started to shake again as two legs burst from its bottom. The legs were white, mimicking a ringmaster's puffy pants, while the feet were large, pointed boots that seemed to meld with the pants. They seemed more like skin rather than any sort of clothing.

The hat popped up a bit more, revealing the bottom half of the monster's rotund stomach, the hat stretching and conforming around it. It struggled for a moment, before two arms burst from the bottom of the hat as well, red and with cracked, white facsimiles of cuffs, with hands that naturally looked like black gloves.

The hands gripped onto the sides of the hat, pulling it up and revealing the rest of the monster's body. Its rotund figure attempted to mimic that of a ringmaster, with various pieces of armored, exoskeleton-esque skin forming into a vague approximation of a red vest and a golden undershirt. However, the monster's form was large enough that the vest wasn't even zipped up, instead revealing the organic undershirt in full, which had a large purple orb between the two hanging parts of the faux-undershirt.

Its shoulders were covered in mismatched pauldrons, one completely connected and poking up into a spike, the other forming a sort of cover for the shoulder. The monster also wore a very clashing and tacky purple and orange striped tie.

The monster gripped onto his hat once more, and with a quick tug, it jutted up a tiny bit. This revealed a tiny ring of flesh, which opened up into an incredibly long, toothy mouth, a green void only visible inside of the maw.

Finally, part of the monster's hat folded in a bit, before two bits of the brim burst open to reveal two emerald green eyes. The monster let out a laugh as it patted its stomach.

"It's nice to finally put on another show!" It said.

"Animal Tamer Org!" Yabaiba said, patting the stout org on the back. "Been a long time since I saw you, think you can help with my master plan?"

"Anything for you, one-horn!" The monster said. "But how am I supposed to help with some master plan?"

"Look around you."

The monster glanced around the circus. There were animals everywhere. The monster let out a laugh. "Looks like my specific talents have come in use once again!" Animal Tamer Org said, stepping toward the stand.

He pulled out two large, purple and orange whips, and cracked them on the ground.

The sound echoed through the tent.

"What the heck is this?" Judy said as she reached behind one of the couch cushions. She was attempting to clean them, but the cushions weren't removable, so she had to reach behind them. She had found numerous coins and odd pieces of tat, but whatever she had found now was… sharp.

She pulled it out, revealing a small switchblade. She turned to the fox that was sitting next to her, and waved it in front of his muzzle.

"How the hell does something like this get behind the couch cushions!?" She shouted at him.

"I dunno, but you should probably go wash your paws." He said, calmly. "Could get tetanus, you know."

Judy groaned as she hopped off the couch. She walked over to a bin, and tossed the knife into it. The bin was full of broken glass and other sharp objects she had found while cleaning up the house.

She washed her paws in the kitchen, and looked at the room.

She had spent a good few hours just cleaning up the living room. It wasn't anything pretty, the carpet had a few stains that just didn't seem to come off, but other than that, the rest looked almost livable.

Almost.

Still, that was only the living room. She hadn't even started on the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or… the closet.

"How could somebody live in this place?" She started, drying off her paws.

"Some mammals just work with what they have." Nick said.

"It was a hazard zone until I cleaned it up!" She said, starting to sound a bit worked up. "What's even the point of houses if some mammals live like this? If you can't take care of a SINGLE room, you should just live on the streets, right?"

Nick looked at her for a moment. The rabbit was seeming to get war more worked up at this place, more than he had seen her before. Lord knows what she would be doing if they picked any of the other places.

The comment about houses kind of stung him a bit, personally, but he knew she wasn't directing it at him.

"I think you need to calm down for a bit, Judy." Nick said, getting up. "Take a deep breath, and think about the positives for a change. You're the positive one, after all."

She took a deep breath through her nose, as her ears drooped down. "You're right, I was just getting frustrated… but, I can't really think of anything positive right now…"

"Think about it like this," Nick started. "We're not stuck in a basement, or an even filthier basement. We don't have to, ahem, do private things in someone else's house, either."

"Fair points." She said. "And, if we work hard, we can get this place up to livable status soon!"

"Exactly!" The fox said, enthusiastically. "We just need to get this place all sorted, give it a few days, and then we'll be all settled in."

She gave a nod. "Thanks, I was getting… upset, there."

The fox gave a thumbs up, and headed back to the couch.

"Wait," Judy said, interrupting him before he could sit down. "Nick, can I ask you something?"

"Sure?" He said as he sat on the couch.

"How… how many houses have you lived in?" She asked. "Or, living spaces, I guess."

The fox thought for a moment. "Maybe… fifteen? It's definitely been over ten, at least."

"That's… a lot." Judy said, walking up to the couch. She leaned on the armrest. "All of them have been in Zootopia?"

"Yep." He said. "I had my mother's house, the abandoned house I stayed at with Emily and Henry, Mr. Big's place, multiple times, and there was a while where I had an apartment up in the Rainforest District."

"That's not getting into the places I had to stay while I was homeless." He continued. "Add those in and it'd come up to around thirty something."

"Yikes." Judy said. "It sounds pretty difficult to live like that."

"You have no idea." The fox said with a laugh. "Having any kind of roof over my head is still weird to me. But it's better than nothing."

There was silence for a moment.

"No wonder you picked all those places." Judy said. "Sorry about getting angry."

"It's alright."

"Though, we do need to get a new TV." He said. "This thing is useless."

Judy rolled her eyes. "A new TV would cost at least half of what we spent to buy this place."

"Then that's something we can save up for."

The rabbit let out a small laugh, but was quickly interrupted as their Zoolizers started to go off. "Oh cheese and crackers, it is Monday isn't it?" She said, panicking a bit.

"Can't we just settle into our new place without anything WEIRD happening!?" Nick growled as he got up. "Alright, let's go see what's up."

The fox walked towards the door, but let out a yelp of pain as he stepped on something. "Oh god, what happened!?" Judy asked, rushing up to him and helping the fox back on his feet.

"I think I stepped on some glass."

"THIS is the instrument of your ultimate plan?" Sambash mocked as he circled around Animal Tamer Org.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" Yabaiba asked. The Org was still dressed in his clown outfit, embarrassingly enough, though he very obviously did not care.

"Yeah, he's lame as hell." Sambash said, before lightly kicking Animal Tamer Org in the back. The pudgy monster stumbled forwards awkwardly, before falling to the ground. "Guy doesn't even look like he can fight."

"Hey, just because he's weak doesn't mean his isn't powerful!" Yabaiba said.

"Actually, that is literally what that means." Yogostein said, sat at the table. What you just said was a contradiction."

"Actually, it ain't not a contradiction!" Yabaiba retorted. He helped Animal Tamer Org up to his feet.

"Thanks, one-horn." The ringmaster monster said. "Duke Yabaiba is right, I have an incredibly powerful ability!"

"Why don't you stop talking about it and show us?" Kyuemon said, clearly getting a bit annoyed.

"Alright, we will." Yabaiba said, before heading over to a hanging cage. He peeked in, looking at the small sheep inside. She seemed to be in extreme pain, and the back of her orange jumpsuit was noticeably darker than before.

"Hell do you want?" She said to the Org.

"Okay, you're alive." Yabaiba said, taking the cage down. "Animal, show them all your showstopper!"

Yabaiba quickly kicked the cage, causing it to open, and for Bellwether to slide out of it. She unsteadily got to her feet, as thoughts flooded her head. She was free, but could she even escape? If she tried, would they kill her, or would they just not care?

She stumbled back as Animal Tamer Org stepped towards her, brandishing his whips. He let out a hearty chuckle, before cracking one of the whips on the ground. The whipcrack echoed throughout the room.

"Is that it?" Yogostein asked.

"Look at the sheep!" Yabaiba shouted, frantically pointing at Bellwether.

The sheep's eyes had dilated. Almost instantly she dropped to her fours, and started to trot around the room, letting out a small baa.

"Sheep!" The monster yelled, cracking his whip. "Lay down!"

The sheep stopped for a moment, before laying down on her side.

"Get up!" The monster yelled again, yet again cracking his whip.

The sheep instantly sprung to her feet.

"Do a backflip!" The ringmaster Org said, with yet another whipcrack.

Much to everyone's shock, the sheep suddenly leaped into the air and performed a backflip, before landing perfectly back on the ground.

"Back to your cage!" The Org shouted, with a final whipcrack. Yabaiba quickly set the cage back up, as the sheep walked back into it. He shut the cage door, and then hung it back up on the chain.

"Pretty great, huh?" Yabaiba said.

"He can control sheep, so what?" Sambash scoffed.

"Not just sheep!" Animal Tamer Org said. "Any animal of any kind, any time, any where! I can make any animal do what I command, no matter how dangerous!"

"And we're currently attacking an animal infested city." Yabaiba added. "I'm going to have Animal here brainwash any animals he wants throughout the city, and eventually we'll have control over the entire population, fully under our control! And that includes…"

"The Zoorangers." Kyuemon finished, sounding genuinely impressed. "Color me surprised, Yabaiba, you managed to come up with a decent plan on your own."

"'Decent'?" Yogostein replied, pounding his fist on the table. "This plan could win us this idiotic war! Go out there and get things done, partner!"

"On it!" Yabaiba said, giving a quick salute. Him and Animal Tamer Org prepared to leave, but were stopped by Yogostein.

"Wait," He said. "Take that thing off, please. It'd ruin any drama."

Yabaiba looked at himself for a moment. "Oh, guess you're right."

He grabbed at the clown suit, and then flung it off his body in a single motion. The clown garb landed on the ground as the two headed out.

"Don't tell me you guys think he's actually going to win this." Sambash asked with a groan. "Guy's a goddamn CLOWN! He'll mess it up!"

"You may not seem to realize this, but Yabaiba is quite reliable when given the proper supervision." Kyuemon said, calmly. "There is a chance he could pull this off."

"It's a very high chance, according to my calculations." Yogostein followed.

Sambash let out a frustrated grunt, before storming off into one of the tunnels. Shortly after, Enter came walking out, his right arm tucked into his sleeve.

"Ah, Enter." Kyuemon said. "Why didn't you show up at the meeting last night?"

"I didn't want to." He replied, bluntly.

"Really now?" Kyuemon said, getting up from the table. "You weren't doing anything last night?"

"Absolutely not." Enter replied. It wasn't a lie.

"Then what do you have in your coat?" The yokai asked. "It's a very conspicuous way of trying to hide something, isn't it?"

"What does it matter to you?" The android snapped.

"You're just incredibly suspicious." Yogostein said. "Of course, you've been like that since the start of this nonsense."

"Just because I like to do things by myself doesn't mean I'm hiding anything." Enter said, calmly. "Now if you excuse me, I have some business to deal with."

"What business?" Kyuemon questioned.

"Business with a friend." Enter said as he strolled out of the cave.

The room fell silent for a moment. "He's definitely hiding something." Kyuemon said. "I can sense these things."

"Well, if he's hiding something," Yogostein started. "As long as it helps us, there's no real problems, correct?"

Kyuemon let out a scoff, before walking out of the room, leaving Yogostein behind.

The robot glanced around for a moment, before pulling out a large bottle of liquid.

"Bottoms up!"

The two bikes zoomed into the outskirts of the city, a large grassy field marked with tons of footprints from giant monster and robot alike.

"Why would a monster attack the outskirts of the city?" Red asked as he and Blue both hopped off their bikes. "Isn't their whole thing to destroy the city?"

"I think that might have something to do with it." Blue said, pointing over to a clearing.

In the clearing was a large circus tent, alongside other things you'd expect at a circus, like food stands and several trailers… only the entire place was in ruins. The stands had been knocked over, and several holes had been torn in the main tent.

"A circus?" Red said, a bit surprised. "Wait, didn't we hear about that earlier?"

Before the conversation could continue, Silver crashed into the ground next to the fox and rabbit, startling them. The wolf, however, was completely unfazed by his hard landing.

"Sorry I'm late." Silver said. "I had to make some preparations for later, you know?"

"Uh, alright." Blue said. "We think that the monster's over there, and if it isn't, we should probably check in case anyone's in danger."

"Good idea." Red said. "Let's just hope there aren't any clowns."

The three rushed over to the circus tent. As they walked through a small selection of food carts and stands, an eerie silence fell over the place. It was unsettling, seeing a place that seemed this abandoned.

"It doesn't look like anyone is here." Silver said, looking around. "Maybe everyone escaped?"

"Surely we would have heard something from Bogo if there were survivors, right?" Blue said, sounding a bit concerned.

"What even did all this damage?" Red asked, examining a food stand that looked like it had been stepped on. "We should've seen something that could've done this by now, right?"

"Maybe we should check inside the tent." Blue suggested. "If there's any evidence, then it would have to be in there."

The three started towards the tent's entrance, part of which seemed to have been knocked down, leaving half the tent hanging over it.

Blue's ears twitched as they approached, she had picked up something coming near them. She quickly looked around, but didn't see anything.

"I think there's something here." She said, stopping in her tracks. Red and Silver stopped and turned to her.. "I think something's hunting us."

"What the hell would be hunting us?" Red asked.

"I don't know, but I heard something." Blue said. "Like a… It was like…" She struggled for a moment, trying to put it into words. "It was like my instincts kicked in for a second."

"Ancient bunny instincts, huh?" Red said with a chuckle. "Sorry, but I wouldn't exactly trust that."

"It's worked for us for millions of years, no reason it shouldn't now." Blue said, crossing her arms.

Silver sniffed at the air for a moment. "Wait, I smell something…" He said.

"Is it the peanuts?" Red asked. "Because that's all I can smell right now."

"No, it smells like…" He paused for a moment. "…A lion?"

Before any of them could react, a loud roar pierced the air. They looked up at one of the still standing food carts. A lion was standing on it, on all fours. It was glaring at them, and baring its teeth.

"Uh…" Red let out. "This isn't good, is it?"

The lion braced itself, and leaped at the three. They scattered in different directions, just before the lion could hit any of them. With a clearer look at the lion, Blue noticed that it had shreds of clothing over its body.

The lion moved around in a circle, glaring at all three of the Zoorangers as they stood still, paralyzed at the feral mammal.

"Why's he acting like that?" Silver asked. "You two dealt with this kind of stuff before, right?"

"Yeah, this looks like a Nighthowler thing." Red said. "But, how'd this happen? Didn't they boost security checks?"

"I don't think this is a Nighthowler thing." Blue said. "I don't know what it is, but it might have something to do with a monster."

"Seems like a safe bet." Red said.

"So, uh, how are we supposed to get out of this?" Silver asked. "I'm assuming running will just lead to a chase."

"That's very likely." Blue replied. "But we can't really use our weapons…"

"Let's just knock the guy out." Red suggested. "We're still physically stronger while transformed, so it shouldn't be that hard."

"We still have to make sure not to hurt him too badly." Blue reiterated. She thought for a moment. "Guys, can you grab onto him? Just keep him steady for a moment?"

The two nodded. Blue nodded in return, and then started to step back slowly. As soon as she did, the lion snapped towards her, and started to prowl closer and closer. The rabbit started to step back faster as well.

She then quickly burst off into a dash, but before the lion could chase after her, Silver and Red leaped in and grabbed the feline. Silver wrapped his upper arm around as much of the lion's back as he could manage, and the other arm gripped onto its leg. Red, being much smaller, wrapped himself around the lion's other front leg.

Unfortunately, he was quickly knocked off. Thinking quickly, Red pulled out his sword, flicking it so that the blade fell off and revealed the wire. He whipped the sword forwards, causing it to wrap around the lion's front leg a few times.

"Alright, we got him steady for a bit!" Red shouted to Blue. "What's your plan again!?"

"This!"

Blue rushed back into the fight, now holding a dart gun. She ran over to the side of the lion, and shot a dart directly into its neck. The lion let out a roar, and then thrashed around for a moment, knocking Silver and Red away.

In a few seconds, the lion fell to its side, unconscious.

Red took a few deep breaths, before getting back up and looking at the rabbit. "Where did you get that from?"

"I had to go change back to normal, so I could use the dart gun I brought." She explained.

"Why do you have a dart gun with you?"

"I bring almost all my police equipment with me wherever I go."

"Of course you do."

"What the heck was that?" Silver asked.

"I have no idea." Blue said. "But we need to check to see if anyone's inside."

The three headed into the circus tent itself, which was almost completely deserted as well. Light leaked in through the large holes. The only thing there was another lion, dressed in ringmaster clothes, laying unconscious on the floor.

"Think that guy hasn't gone savage?" Red asked as the three approached the body, cautiously.

"Well, he's knocked out, so…" Blue started. She started to walk faster, nothing happening in response. Red and Silver followed her after.

Red and Blue looked over the body, while Silver knelt down a bit to get a better look.

Suddenly, the lion let out a grunt, and started to move. Red and Blue stepped back in surprise, wwhile Silver stumbled back.

The lion started to get up, clutching his head. "What happened…?" He asked himself, before noticing the Zoorangers. He gazed at them, a bit confused. "Who are you guys supposed to be?"

"Super heroes." Silver said.

"And we're here to help you." Blue continued as the lion got to his feet.

He brushed himself off, and looked around. "Well, this turned out to be a disaster…" He muttered to himself. "You three know what happened here?"

"Absolutely no idea." Red said. "Did anything weird happen before you got knocked out?"

The lion thought for a moment. "I was about to start the show, but then… this clown showed up, along with a bunch of green monsters. Then he punched me in the face."

"Clown?" Blue said. "What did the clown look like?"

"He had a weird… bony face, and a horn." The ringmaster continued. "You know anyone like that?"

"Oh yeah, we sure do." Red said. "This whole thing kind of fits his motif, now that I think about it."

"So, obviously Ya… our culprit…" Silver quickly stopped himself. This stuff might have been too weird for a civilian to hear. "Wanted something from the circus, but what even here would make a decent monster?"

"A clown." Red quickly said.

"He's already a clown, Red." Blue said.

"He could have made ANOTHER clown."

"Wait!" The ringmaster said, starting to panic. "My brother! What happened to my brother?"

Blue glanced at Red, who quickly glanced at Silver, who glanced back to Blue.

"He's outside." Red said, bluntly.

The ringmaster quickly rushed outside, and the Zoorangers followed him back out. He knelt over the other lion's unconscious body. "What happened to you, bro?" He muttered.

"He tried to attack us, that's what." Red said. "He was acting like, well… an animal."

"That doesn't make any sense." The ringmaster said. "He was never very active, he just handled our business…"

Before the ringmaster could continue, the ground shook for a moment. It shook again,a nd the four turned to see a large figure moving in.

It was an elephant, walking on all fours. It was being ridden by two beings. Yabaiba, who sat at the neck of the elephant, and a new monster, who rode on a platform that had been attached to the pachyderm's back.

"How's it going?" Yabaiba said with a laugh. "Looks like you three met one of my new pets!"

"'Pets'?!" Blue said, furious. "What did you do to these mammals, you creep!?"

Yabaiba wagged his finger. "Sorry, but that trick's gonna be saved for the big show!" He said. "Speaking of, we're here to pick up a straggler!" He continued. "Turns out we were missing one of our lions! We need a full troupe for our big show!" He pointed towards the unconscious lion.

Animal Tamer Org marched to the side of the platform, and lashed his whip at the unconscious lion. The whip wrapped around his body, before the Org reeled it back in. The lion hit the platform, still completely unconscious from the dart.

"Get up, you lazy cat!" The Org said, cracking his whip. The lion started to stir, before waking up and getting back to its feet.

"Give him back!" The ringmaster shouted.

"Should I get him too?" Animal Tamer Org asked, leaning off the platform to look at Yabaiba.

"Nah, we only need this one." Yabaiba stated. "Hey, maybe you can come to our show, see what a REAL circus is like!"

Yabaiba pulled out a card, and tossed it towards the ground. Animal Tamer Org quickly lashed his whip, causing the elephant to let out a trumpet, and start to march off towards the city.

"Oh, we're not letting you get away that easily!" Blue shouted. "C'mon, guys!"

The three leaped up, and landed down on the platform. The Org let out a high pitched scream as it saw the three. "You guys aren't allowed to be up here! This is for performers ONLY!"

Yabaiba leaped up onto the platform as the elephant came to a halt. "Let me take care of this." He said.

The Duke Org pulled out a dagger, and waved it around. The three Zoorangers braced themselves for a fight, each both prepping to draw their weapons or leap out of the way.

In a quick motion, Yabaiba dashed at the lion, leaping onto it and wrapping his arm around its neck. He placed the knife dangerously close to the lion's throat.

"If you three don't get off, I'll kill this guy right here, right now." He threatened, with a hint of maniacle glee in his voice.

The Zoorangers froze. "We're not just going to let you do this." Blue said.

"Listen, you'll be seeing the show in forty minutes, tops," Yabaiba started. "You can try and stop us there. The location is on the card."

Yabaiba placed the knife closer to the lion's throat, who didn't seem a bit bothered with the situation.

"Got it?"

Blue let out a sigh. "Got it."

"Seriously?" Red said, shocked.

"Yeah, we can take him out right now!" Silver said.

"Well, I'm not risky a life." Blue said. "We're heading back and getting the ringmaster somewhere safe.

Red let out a sigh. "Fine."

The three leaped down from the elephant, which started to stomp off. They could hear Yabaiba laughing as it walked off.

They quickly headed back to the circus. The ringmaster lion was sitting on the ground and crying. "Don't worry." Blue said, patting him on the back. "We'll get your brother back."

"Please…" He sobbed.

"But first, we're getting you somewhere safer." Red said. "Not worth it hanging around this disaster area."

The lion wiped his tears, and got back to his feet. "I'll get you to the police station quick." Silver said.

"That's miles away from here, how are you-"

Silver grabbed the lion's paw, and then quickly leaped into the air, dragging the ringmaster along.

"That's certainly a… direct way of traveling." Red said.

Blue spotted a card laying in the middle of the grass. She picked it up, and read it.

"THE DUKE'S HEART POUNDING ANIMAL CIRCUS
Today, forty minutes from when I threw this card, the crossing of Oak St. And Pack St."

"'The crossing'?" Red said, peeking over Blue's shoulder. "Heck does that mean?"

"It means he's doing it in the middle of downtown." Blue said, crunching the card up. "If we don't do something about this, the city could be overrun by feralized mammals."

"That's definitely not good." Red said. "And if they're going downtown, that means there'll be a lot of other mammals running around…"

"He could do whatever he did to everyone here to… This is NOT good."

Around forty minutes later, as had been specified, Blue and Red arrived at the middle of a large crossroads. The two streets intersected in the middle, with a large plaza built around it. They had quickly gotten to evacuating everyone, so the entire street had been cleared.

"That clown should be here soon." Red said, looking around the street.

"Hopefully Silver's here before then." Blue said. "I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Not an unsafe feeling to have, Carrots." Red said.

Silver suddenly crashed from the air, landing next to the two. The fox and rabbit looked over at him, the wolf looked out of breath.

"Guys, I saw the parade." He said. "It's coming right this way. And there are a LOT of brainwashed mammals."

"How many are we talking?" Red asked. "Fifty? A hundred?"

"Over a hundred, and it looked like it was growing." Silver continued. "I think they're brainwashing mammals as they head here."

"We probably should have seen that one coming." Red said.

The ground started to shake periodically. The three Zoorangers ran into the middle of the plaza, and looked down each of the roads.

"Uh oh." Blue let out, her ears drooping. Red and Silver turned to look down the road.

There was a massive parade of animals. They were all considerably larger mammals, from bears to lions to rhinos to elephants, and most of them were still wearing, at least part of, their outfits. Alongside most of the animals was an army of Orgettes, some riding on the animals, or carrying large, colored banners.

"So, Blue, got any plans of how to, uh, stop all this?" Red asked.

"Uh, you guys got any tranquilizers on you?" She asked.

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"Well, then we just need to… beat the monster." She said. "Obviously he's controlling them all somehow, so…"

"Good idea, but, uh…"

The parade of animals headed into the plaza, the elephant from earlier leading the charge. The monster from earlier was still on the platform, but Yabaiba seemed to have gone off somewhere.

"Ah, looks like our audience is here!" Animal Tamer Org shouted down with a laugh. "You two ready to experience the attraction of your lives? It'll be to DIE FOR!"

He quickly cracked his whips, causing a host of the mammals to let out roars. A few bears prowled forwards, followed by lions, cheetahs, and other predator mammals. The bears were being rode by Orgettes, while the felines were totted along by more of the gooey green ogres.

"Alright guys," Blue started. She pulled out her dart gun. "I have one dart left, and I'm going to use it to take out the monster. Deal with the minions, then meet up with me."

The two nodded. "Don't worry, we won't hurt anyone." Silver said

"I won't either, unless it's someone I don't like." Red followed. Blue glared at him for a moment. "Kidding."

The two pulled out their swords, and leaped into the battle. Red started up by jumping up onto one of the bears, and pushing the surprised Org off of it. The monster fell to the ground, allowing Red to jump down and slash at it. The monster melted into a pile of goo.

As Red prepared to head off, there was a large roar. He turned around, and watched as the bear rose into the air, and prepared to slash at him.

He dodged out of the way before the bear could squish him, and quickly ran off. He came to a halt as a group of cheetahs and lions, alongside their Orgette handlers, surrounded him. He stumbled back a bit, before quickly leaping up and kicking one of the monsters in the face.

He landed on a cheetah, causing it to let out an aggravated growl. He quickly jumped off, and pulled out the Vickscannon. Hitting the pavement, he aimed towards the Orgettes carefully, and fired, causing the monsters to explode into goo, covering the animals, who let out even more stressed and angry noises.

"Sorry guys!" Red apologized.

Silver headed towards the elephant itself, and attempted to attack the Orgettes carrying the banners. "Nice to see you guys are already giving up!" The wolf joked as he approached two of the Orgettes.

The two Orgettes looked at each other, confused, before dropping the banner to the ground, and pulling out their clubs. They rushed in to attack Silver, who blocked the club strikes, before slashing at the two monsters.

The wolf turned away as the Orgs burst into goo, but found himself quickly ambushed by another pair of banner-carrying Orgs. They tackled him, and then pinned him to the ground, both with their banner's heavy fabric. Silver struggled for a moment as more of the Orgettes started to pile onto it.

With a bit of a struggle, Silver cut through the banner with his sword, causing the Orgs to scatter.

Blue looked around, attempting to find something to get up a bit higher. She needed a bit of height in order to get the shot right. She noticed another elephant nearby, heading right past the stopped main elephant. This one was slightly smaller, but it could do.

She dashed towards the elephant, quickly leaping up and landing on the back of a brainwashed giraffe. She ran up its neck, it seemingly not caring, and then kicking off towards the elephant. She hit the passing elephant's side, and then kicked off, up to the platform the monster was standing on.

"Ack!" The monster let out as it stumbled towards the platform's railing. "You're not supposed to be up here until the final act!"

"Consider your show canceled!" Blue said, pulling out her dart gun. She quickly leaped over to the railing, and fired it into the elephant's neck. It let out a trumpet, before the large mammal started to teeter.

The rabbit grabbed onto the railing, while the monster panicked. The elephant fell over, crashing into the road and cracking half of the platform, which slid off onto the ground.

Blue was hanging from the half that was still attached to the elephant, while the monster was on the half that had split off. The Org scrambled over the railing, before Blue swung herself over the remains of the platform and back onto the ground.

"You're an annoying little rabbit, you know that?" The monster said, a bit aggravated.

"I get that a lot, actually." She said. "Usually from guys like you, so I'll take it as a complement!" Blue quickly pulled out her daggers, and prepared to attack the monster.

She dashed at the monster, before leaping up and attempting to slash at him. The Org barely managed to duck out of the way, letting Blue land on the broken platform's railing. She spun around and pulled out her blasters, quickly firing several rounds at the ringmaster monster.

He lashed his whips around quickly, blocking the shots. As he finished, the rabbit leaped forward and attempted a diving kick, which the monster stumbled out of the way of.

"I'm guessing you aren't much of a fighter." Blue guessed.

"I'm only the host, I'm not supposed to have an active role!" The monster said. "But that doesn't mean that my boys can't deal with you!"

He cracked his whips, causing a lion and a bear to close in on her. He cracked his whips again, causing the two feral mammals to leap at her.

The rabbit dashed under them, and quickly slashed at the monster's legs causing him to hop around on one leg for a moment.

"Guys, let's take this monster down!" Blue ordered through the commlink.

Red and Silver quickly ran over, and all three prepared their weapons. Animal Tamer Org stumbled back. "Wait, don't hurt me!"

"Why shouldn't we?" Red asked.

"Uh… Can I get back to you on that?"

The three looked at each other, before they ran in to attack the monster. The three ran past him, slashing him with their blades. As they passed, they spun around and prepped their projectile weapons, Silver quickly switching his blade to Sun Mode.

They all shot at the monster's back, causing him to fall flat on his face. "This isn't going like how the Duke wanted at all!" The monster groaned as it got up. "But maybe… Maybe I can FIX THAT!"

He turned around, grabbing onto his whips tightly. The three prepared themselves for an attack.

"SIT, RABBIT!"

The three fell silent for a moment. Blue spoke up first. "What are you-"

Before she could finish, the Org cracked his whip again. Instantly, Judy transformed back to normal, her ears jolting up.

"Uh, you alright, Carrots?" Red asked.

She then fell to the ground on all fours. "Wait, did you just-!?" Silver shouted, quickly catching on.

"That's right, I can control any animal with these whips!" Animal Tamer Org said. "That's why they call me Animal Tamer Org, kind of obvious!"

He rose his whips up, and prepared to lash them again. "Now to round out my collection!"

Red let out a growl, before running at the monster. He leaped mid-run, and kicked the monster in it's hat head, knocking it to the ground. He landed on the monster's stomach, seething with anger.

"Turn her back."

"Hah, no chance!" The monster said. He quickly jolted up, flinging Red to the ground. "If you want to be with her, you can enjoy her as a SNACK!"

He raised his whips again, but he was suddenly struck in the face by a blue laser whip. During that time, Silver had switched his blade to Moon Mode.

"Nice try, kid, but you can't out-whip me!" The Org chuckled. He lashed his whip at Silver, it extending out at a rapid rate.

"No, but I can definitely do something about your whips!" Silver said. He lashed the laser whip again, managing to tangle it and one of Animal Tamer Org's whips together.

"H-hey!"

Silver pulled the whip right out of his hand, and tossed it up into the air. The whip hung there for a moment. "Red, shoot that thing!" Silver said.

The fox nodded, before aiming the Vickscannon up and firing it at the whip. It burst into a fiery explosion, ashes raining down.

"No, how could you do that!?" The monster yelled, stomping its foot. "That was my favorite whip!"

"Now you got a new favorite." Red said. He quickly pointed the cannon at the other whip, which was currently in the monster's other hand.

He fired, causing a fireball to fly into the Org's hand. He let out a screech as the whip flew through the air, catching fire as it did so. It fell to the ground in a pile of ashes.

"Uh oh." The Org let out. The two angry mammals stomped towards him. "Looks like we're taking a break!" The monster said, before grabbing the brim of his hat head.

He started to spin around, before his entire body was sucked into the hat. The brims of the hat started to get sucked into the hat as well, and then popped out of existence as it folded in on itself.

Nick and Max untransformed. The wolf looked around at the mammals, who started to pace off on their own through the plaza. "We should probably try to round some of these guys up." He said, to no response.

He turned around. The fox was approaching the rabbit, who was sniffing around at the ground, completely in a trance. He tiptoed, trying not to alert the rabbit.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you…" The fox whispered as he tiptoed closer, the rabbit still not having noticed the predator sneaking up on her.

Suddenly, her ears jolted up as her head twisted to look at the fox. He froze for a moment, mid-step, and looked around awkwardly. The rabbit quickly jolted off, and the fox fell flat on his stomach.

"That's going to be a problem." Max said, reaching down and helping the fox up.

"We can't just leave her here." Nick said, brushing his shirt off. "With all these predators around…"

His ears twitched. "Ugh, that felt wrong." He muttered.

"Nobody's in their right mind right now." Max said. "So, it isn't an incorrect thing to say, just… awkward."

"Very." Nick replied. "Let's get to rabbit chasing."

The two chased after the runaway rabbit, out into the cleared streets past the parade of mammals. She hopped down the sidewalk in huge strides, leaving the two in the dust.

After ten minutes, and not having caught up at all, the two paused for a quick breather. "How is she so fast?" Nick asked as he sat down on the sidewalk. "Like, she was already fast before, but I could keep up with her…"

"Must be some… instinctual thing." The wolf replied. "She probably doesn't know we're trying to help her. Being on all fours probably helps."

"That's just great." Nick groaned. "What are we gonna do, chase after her on all fours like… animals?"

"I think I can work something out." Max said. He quickly transformed into ZooSilver. "I have that thing, remember?"

"Oh, good idea."

He quickly pulled his blade out, and spun it around. It went into Eclipse Mode, causing time to stop. He quickly ran up to the frozen rabbit, and picked her up. Time restarted, and rabbit didn't seem to mind being picked up.

Nick walked up to Silver, who held the rabbit down slightly, and he looked her in the eyes. "We're gonna get you back to normal, Judy. Don't worry."

She sniffed at him for a moment, before lightly biting down on his nose. He let out a pained grunt, and pushed himself off of Silver's legs, causing the rabbit to let go.

"I'm gonna call up the station and let them know what's happening." Nick said, pulling out his phone. "Make sure she doesn't get away."

"Don't think that'll be a problem." Silver said, the rabbit seemingly not caring about being held up.

Nick quickly dialed the number, and Bogo popped up on the screen. "Ah, Wilde, what kind of antics have you and your friends gotten into today?"

"This sounds ridiculous, but I'm being entirely serious here," The fox started. "There's a crazed circus ringmaster running around, and he's been… feralizing mammals."

Bogo looked at him for a second. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It's like the Night Howler's effect, except… less violent." Nick explained. "But they're all acting like animals, and there could be some casualties if you don't put up… some form of protection."

"And why, exactly, are you, Officer Hopps, and Officer Wolford incapable of doing this?" The chief asked.

"We're, uh, going through some issues right now." Nick said. "We'll try our best to take out the monster if anything happens, but it might be best to send the SPD guys out on patrol too."

Bogo sighed. "Fine, but if you're messing with me, Wilde…"

"I'm not joking." Nick said, completely serious.

Bogo let out another sigh, before hanging up.

"Alright, that should hold things up for a little bit." Nick said, with an aggravated sigh.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Silver asked.

"Uh, you could come check out our apartment, I guess?"

The Duke Org was fast asleep in one of the chairs, head placed against table. The base was silent for once, but that would be broken once Animal Tamer Org stumbled through the entrance,.

"DUKE!" He yelled, fallingd own, and then getting back up. "WE HAVE SOME MAJOR PROBLEMS!"

Yabaiba continued to snore, still asleep. The Org walked up to him, and shook him. He suddenly popped up, and looked around.

"Oh, hey, Animal." Yabaiba said, placing his fist against his cheek. "How'd the show go? Did you manage to get rid of them?"

"Uh, not exactly." The monster said. "I managed to brainwash one of the Zoorangers… but the others destroyed my whips. I can't brainwash or control anyone now!"

Yabaiba jolted up. "Ack, seriously!?" He shouted, clutching onto his head. "This is bad!"

"You can do something about this, right, Duke?" The Org asked.

Yabaiba scratched his chin for a moment, and then rubbed his horn. "Ah, I think I've got something!" He said. He pulled out a Chaos Badge. "Maybe if I use this, you'll get your whips back!"

"What is that?" The monster asked.

"Not important!"

He quickly jabbed the badge into the monster's stomach, it absorbing into his body. The monster started to twitch a bit, before his body started to contort and transform. Its body started to slim down a bit, while its hat-head started to grow taller. The horns coming out of the hat moved up as well, extending out slightly in addition, while the eyes under the brim of the hat vanished.

A massive, singular emerald green, eye appeared in the middle of the hat. The monster's mouth fully expanded around its neck, and then popped off, attached to its body via a single pole of flesh. The monster's golden cape grew slightly longer, before an extra pair of arms burst from its body, right below its other arms.

The arms resembled his normal arms in every way, but were a bit shorter. The exoskeletal cuffs on all the arms expanded slightly, before black, wriggling strings of flesh burst out from the bottom of the edge. They extended outwards, wriggling like worms as they formed into new, organic whips for the monster. Finally, the Chaos Symbol appeared on the monster's purple stomach.

The upgraded Org let out a maniacal laugh, his head bobbing up and down as he did so. "CHAOS ANIMAL TAMER ORG!" He cried, lashing all four of his whips.

"Yeesh, talk about a mouthful." Yabaiba said. "Four words is a bit too much."

"I feel so much better!" The ringmaster monster said. "I feel like I could take this show WORLDWIDE!"

"Yeah, that'll have to wait." Yabaiba said. "We still have the next performance here to do!"

"That's right, I'll get to it in a bit!" The monster said. "I need to see what this new training can do!"

The two paused as footsteps sounded through the hall. They turned to face Enter, who was walking towards them.

"Oh, uh, hey… Enter." Yabaiba said.

"I heard about your plan earlier." He said. "And I must say… I think it's tre magnifique."

"What does that mean?"

Enter sighed. "It means I think it's a good plan, you dunce." He explained. "But… I think I know how you can make this all even better."

"Oh, really?" Yabaiba said, sounding a bit skeptical. "What would that be, exactly?"

"Listen," Enter started. "And you'll understand."

"JUDY, GET DOWN FROM THERE!" The fox shouted.

The three had arrived back at the apartment, and this seemed to have been a worse idea than Nick had thought. For the past thirty minutes, the feralized rabbit had been causing all sorts of trouble. Right now, the rabbit had somehow hopped up to the top of the refrigerator, and Nick was, of course, panicking. Max watched on from the middle of the apartment, not sure what to do.

The fox turned to him. "You're taller than me, get her down!" He said.

"Hey, she's not my rabbit." Max said.

"Ha ha, not funny." Nick replied. "If we leave her up there, she could be hurt."

Max walked over, and grabbed the rabbit off the top of the fridge, placing her on the ground. Almost instantly, the rabbit hopped over and onto the couch, and started to nibble at the cushions.

Nick let out a small shriek, and rushed over, picking her up and placing her back on the ground. "No eating the couch, who knows who's been sitting on that!?"

Judy seemed to ignore him, and instantly hopped off.

The fox let out a sigh, and fell onto the couch. "How is she even more frustrating?" He asked, rubbing his temples.

"Give her a break, this isn't Judy's fault." Max said.

"I know, I just… I'm scared." He admitted. "I don't want to lose her… again."

"Well, with that monster's brainwashing whips out of the way, we can just destroy him when he shows up next." Max said. "We just have to keep Judy safe until then."

"You know how dangerous this place is?" Nick said, getting up off the couch. "It's a death trap! When we got here, there were shards of glass, nails, and other things just laying around on the…"

He paused, and then dropped to the ground. He started to crawl around, looking for any sharp objects that could've been on the ground. Max let out an embarrassed sigh as he watched, before turning away.

The fox continued to crawl around, before finally finding a small, loose nail. He picked it up, and sat up a bit. He then noticed Judy, across the room, looking at him. She quickly hopped off, and he let out a sigh.

"What if there's some way to snap her out of it?" Nick asked the wolf as he got up. "It's just some kind of brainwashing… there should be some way to do it without defeating the monster."

"I mean, there could be." Max said with a shrug. "But if there is, we don't have any idea how to. We don't even have a lead."

"Well, we'd just need a way to knock some sense into her… not literally, of course." Nick said, before thinking for a moment. He glanced at the closet. "Hmm… maybe…"

He quickly rushed over and grabbed Judy by her arm, bringing her over to the closet. "Nick, what are you doing?" Max asked, a bit concerned.

"Listen, if there's anything that can snap someone out of a trance, it's this closet." Nick explained. He opened the door, causing a terrible smell to waft out.

Max let out a screech as he clutched his nose. Judy also let out a scream, before kicking the fox into the wall and running off.

Nick climbed up and closed the door. "Oh well, was worth a shot." He muttered.

"NO IT WASN'T!" Max yelled, still in pain.

Nick's phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, and answered it. "Hey, Nick." The caller said. It was Emily.

"Oh, Em, what's up?" He asked. "Anything happening? Monster sighting, maybe?"

"No sign of a monster yet, but, uh…" She paused, and looked around for a bit. "We might have something a bit bigger than that."

"Oh, great." The fox said, sarcastically. "What happened?"

"We haven't seen a single normal mammal since we started our patrol." Henry said, from off camera. "Only these feralized ones."

"Some of them are… looking at us." Emily followed, looking very concerned.

"That must be the monster's fault." Max deduced. "If he's back, that might be our chance to stop him!"

"Good idea, we'll be out in a bit to help." Nick said. "And if you guys run into the monster, try to take him on yourselves. He's terrible at actually fighting."

"Got it." Emily said. "Just get your butts out here ASAP, it's starting to get creepy."

She hung up, and the fox slipped the phone back into his pants pocket. "So, let's head out!" Max said, enthusiastically. "If we wait any longer, we could miss the action!"

"Uh uh, we're not going anywhere without Carrots." Nick said. "If we leave her here, she'll either ruin everything, or kill herself. Or both."

Max sighed. "So, what do you think we should do to stop her from doing that?" He asked. "We can't just bring her into a fight either, she'll escape."

Nick thought for a moment. "If only there was some we could tie around her to keep her from getting away…"

"You mean like one of those Kit Chains that terrible parents use?" Max asked.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Nick said.

"I think we can get something like that." Max said. "We should get going, bring her along."

"Wait, what are we supposed to use?" Nick asked, confused. The wolf looked at him for a moment. The fox let out a sigh.

"Oh."

The SPD Officers drove through the streets of the downtown area. They still hadn't seen any living thing besides the feral mammals, who were absolutely crawling around the place. They had to drive slowly to make sure they didn't hit anything.

"This is creepy, right?" Emily said to Henry. "It isn't just me, is it?"

"It is a bit unnerving." Henry admitted, looking through the window. He caught a cougar outside, which quickly turned to glare at him. He turned back to the road.

"This isn't going to look good for predators, huh?" She said, sounding a bit worried. "All of these guys attacking each other out of instinct…"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Henry said. "Knowing mind control, I doubt anyone will remember what happened when this is all done… If we manage to beat the monster, anyway."

"Ugh, I don't even wanna think about what'll happen if we don't…" Emily said, shuddering a bit.

The two felt a quick thump on the back of the vehicle. They stopped for a moment, and looked at each other, then to the back of the vehicle.

There was another thump, this time pushing the truck forwards a bit. "That's not good." Emily said, quickly flicking her armor up. Henry followed, his armor going up as well. The two exited the vehicle, weapons prepared, and headed to the back of the vehicle.

What was there was certainly odd. Two knocked out mammals, a panther and a rhino. "That's… worrisome." Green said, Pink nodding along in agreement.

They tried to head back towards the truck's doors, but were stopped as the cougar Green had seen earlier flew through the air, attempting to attack both of them. The two ducked out of the way as to cougar hit the ground, and turned around, growling at them both.

Before either could react, more animals, including non-predatory ones, started to swarm in on them. Several smaller mammals, rabbits and weasels and such, latched onto their limbs, while larger ones bit down on their bodies, keeping them in place.

"The hell's going on!?" Pink asked, getting weighed down by the swarm of other animals.

"Ho ho, looks like you two aren't having that great of a time!" A voice said.

"Who-?"

The ringmaster monster suddenly appeared in front of the two, snapping its left fingers. "I'm the showrunner here, and you're up next for auditions!" The monster said. He raised both of his upper arms, and prepared to strike with his whips.

Green grunted, before flinging off most of the mammals. He aimed his cannon at the monster, and fired. The blast hit the animal tamer, causing him to slam into a nearby building.

The monster quickly got back up, letting out a frustrated grunt. "I don't like hard to work with performers," He started. "So, I'll just have to show you how serious this production is!" He quickly lashed all four of his whips, the upper two before the lower ones.

"I just met this guy and I'm already tired of his circus jokes." Pink said as she struggled to break free of the swarm of mammals.

Green stepped back, preparing to fire, but bumped into something. He turned around, seeing a bear as large as him. It was standing on its legs, and pulled back its arm. In a swift motion, it let the punch loose, knocking the bull through the air and into a wall.

"Henry!" Pink shouted.

"Now that the problem is out of the way, it's time for me to get the show really started!" The monster cheered, clapping all four of its hands.

He quickly lashed the whips again. This time, the hyena froze, and the animals let go of her. She slumped down for a moment, before popping her head back up.

The monster giggled as it turned to the bull, who got to his feet, unsteadily. Green shuffled over to the hyena, and both of them then stood up straight. "Excellent!" Animal Tamer Org said. "Now, a quick test!"

He lashed his whips again. The two brainwashed mammals quickly pulled out their weapons, and fired at the buildings around them. Debris fell from the sky, and onto the street, the monster still cheering.

"Excellent work, excellent work!" He said. "Now, you two better get ready, because we have a rehearsal soon!"

"You know this is utterly embarrassing, right?" Red said as they walked down the street.

"Yep." Silver said with a sigh.

The fox was holding onto a leash, which was then attached to a harness that a wandering bunny rabbit was wearing. Red stopped for a moment, and looked back at Judy. She was sniffing at some grass that had grown through the sidewalk.

The fox let out a sigh, and tugged the leash, pulling the rabbit back over to him. "This just feels weird," He started as he caught up to Silver. "I really don't like it."

"Listen, what else were we supposed to do?" Silver said, stopping for a moment. "The only other thing would be to put a collar on her, and… you know."

Red scratched at his neck. Collars were generally only used as imprisoning tools, though one that Nick had never really had to deal with before. But he had heard horror stories. The only mammals that wore them in public were, well… definitely into strange things. He guessed that the harness was better than walking around looking like…

Before he could finish the thought, Silver pointed to something. "Hey, isn't that the SPD's truck?" He asked. The wolf was pointing towards a truck, which definitely was the SPD's. They ran up to it, Red dragging the rabbit along.

Silver looked through the front window, no one was in it. "They aren't here." He said.

"I can see that." Red replied. "But… why would they abandon their truck here?" He asked. "Henry wouldn't do something like that… What if something got to them?"

"What would have gotten them?" Silver asked. "We haven't seen anything along here…"

Silver paused, and Red raised an eyebrow. "Didn't they contact us because there was nothing BUT hypnotized mammals out here?" The fox asked. The rabbit hopped up onto the hood of the truck.

"Yeah."

"And the zero number we've seen is definitely weird, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"We just walked right into a trap, didn't we?"

To answer the fox's question, several colored clouds of smoke burst up around them, covering the street. Music started to play, before a large green blast of energy, and several shots of pink energy flew from the edges of the smoke.

Silver quickly ducked out of the way, but Red grabbed the rabbit, and then dropped down, barely dodging the fire. More shots flew overhead for a bit, before they finally stopped. The smoke started to disperse, and the two Zoorangers got up, Red letting go of the rabbit, while still clinging to its leash.

The two SPD Officers stood a yard away from them. "What the hell are you two doing!?" Red shouted. "We came here to help, and-"

"Ho ho haw!" A voice chuckled from behind them. Both turned to face the truck, which had been slightly wrecked from the gunfire. Standing on top of it was the upgraded Animal Tamer Org.

"Oh, great." Red said, ears drooping. "Just… great."

"You brainwashed Em and Henry, didn't you?" Silver said.

"Yep, they're the stars of my next performance!" The monster answered. "Aren't they something? With this upgrade, I can keep them in their normal states instead of just feralizing them!"

"How did you even do that!?" Red asked, furious. "We destroyed your whips!"

"Oh, like I NEEDED those whips, specifically!" The monster chuckled, before revealing his four, new, wriggling whips. "A good showrunner always knows what to do when something goes wrong!"

"So, if you don't NEED specific whips to brainwash mammals, how do you do it?" Silver asked, trying to probe a bit deeper. He turned to Red, and winked slowly. The fox just looked at him, not being able to see the wink through his mask.

"Well, it's actually a sort of sub -sonnnwaitasec…" The monster said, catching on to what the wolf was attempting. "I'm not revealing my tricks to you! That'd just ruin the fun!"

The monster raised one of its upper hands to its mouth, and coughed, the entire head springing up in response. "Anyway, we have a bit of rehearsal to do, so time to get to work!"

"Rehearsal?" Red asked. Silver shrugged in response.

The monster lashed his whips again, and the two turned around. Green and Pink started to charge towards them.

"Oh, I get it."

The bull started charging at the fox. Red quickly wrapped the leash around his paw, and dragged Judy along as he dashed out of the way. Green crashed into the car behind him, pushing it back a bit. The monster stumbled a bit as this happened.

Pink charged at Silver, who quickly pulled out his blade. The hyena attempted to pistol whip him, but he blocked with his sword. "Em, snap out of it!" He said, pushing her back. "Try and fight it, you're stronger than this!"

She froze for a moment, before aiming her pistols at the wolf. She fired several shots as he leaped out of the way, and into a roll. "That usually works on TV…" He said to himself as he got back up.

Red continued to leap out of the way as Green continued to fire on him. The fox had Judy wrapped under his arm as best he could, continued to dodge.

Right now, all he cared about was protecting her. He didn't even care about himself in the moment, he just didn't want her hurt.

He skidded across the ground, pulling out his blade with his free paw. The fox prepared to lash it at the bull, but he quickly realized how dumb of an idea that would be. "Hey, you got any ideas on how to fight them?" Red asked into the commlink as he backed off from the approaching bull.

It took a few seconds for Silver to respond. "Hell are you asking me for!?"

"Well, who else do I have to ask!?" Red yelled. He quickly dodged out of the way as the bull stomped down onto the pavement, cracking it slightly.

"We can't just attack them." Silver said into his own commlink as he quickly blocked another strike from the brainwashed hyena. "They're our friends, they could get hurt!"

The monster on the truck laughed, catching their attention. "This might be a rehearsal, but I'm not having them go easy on you! It's either kill or be killed, laws of the wild!"

"Stuff it up your hat!" Red shouted. He flicked his blade at the monster, causing it to fly off the handle. The monster let out a squeak of panic as the blade flew at one of the whips. The blade flew right through two of the whips, which dropped to the ground and started to wiggle.

Before anyone could do anything else, however, two more of the tentacle whips stretched out from where the previous two had been segmented.

The monster laughed again. "Infinite whips, sucker!" He said. "I have whips for days, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I think we should maybe be getting out of here." Silver suggested. "Come up with a plan or something, right?"

Red let out a frustrated grunt as he continued to run from the bull, rabbit still clung under his arm. The monster was right there, but with how things were going, it could only get worse. "Alright, we'll make a run for it!" Red said.

"Running away isn't part of the show!" The ringmaster monster said, quickly cracking his whips. "Get them, you brainwashed beasts!"

Pink started to fire her blasters even more rapidly at Silver. He quickly managed to block a few shots, but a few struck him directly. There was a brief pause in the fire, letting the wolf hop off.

Red was continuing to dance around and dodge whatever Green could throw at him. "Seriously, Henry, I thought you were a better shot!" The fox joked, to no reaction.

Silver dashed around the back of the truck, and quickly scooped Red and Judy up. He then leaped up into the air, out of the sight of the brainwashed officers and the monster.

There was silence for a moment as Animal Tamer Org looked up. "Hah, oh well!" He exclaimed. "They'll still be at the second ring of our performance." He continued, hopping down from the truck. The Org turned to his brainwashed slaves.

"And I must say, you two will make great bait!"

A few hours had passed since Nick and Max had escaped. They had gone back to Max's place, mostly because it was nearby.

The wolf was pacing around, while Nick sulked on the couch, still clutching onto the leash of the harness. Judy, however, didn't seem to care much. Nothing had seemed to really register with the entranced rabbit.

The only thing Nick could think to do right now was just look at her. What a completely undignified way to go out, reduced to a little lagomorph by a circus freak. He always thought they'd lose in a considerably cooler way.

He let out a sigh, and Max looked at him. "You feeling alright?" He asked.

Nick just looked at him for a moment.

"Alright, that's a 'no', I'm guessing." Max said, a bit embarrassed that he had even asked such a dumb question. Of course he wasn't feeling alright, almost all of his friends were functionally dead, and there was a high percentage that they could lose…

"I'm scared." Nick said, suddenly. "I'm incredibly scared right now."

"For Judy?" Max asked.

"For all of you." The fox responded. "I've already lost most of my fa… friends. If we go out to fight the monster again, then… you could be next, Wolfsbane."

Max blinked for a second. "You're worried about me?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Nick said. "We're all a team, we should all worry about each other, right."

"It's just… not something I expected you to say." Max said.

"I've grown really close to all of you over the last while, you know?" Nick continued. "I feel… fulfilled, for once. But I'm just so close to losing it all again… Losing even more…"

"Don't give up." Max said, sitting down next to the fox. "We can do this, we just need to… figure something out, right?"

"How are we supposed to beat him when he can control all of us, and we have no way of getting rid of his weapons?" Nick said, pounding his forehead. "I wish one of those Sentai guys was here to help, they could probably come up with something…"

Max thought for a moment. "So, the guy's an 'animal tamer', right?" He asked.

"That's what he said, yeah." Nick replied. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"No, I'm just thinking…" The wolf said, rubbing his forehead. "I almost got him to say something earlier… If the whips aren't what cause the mind control, then he's just using them as a… a conduit…"

"Something about 'sub somethings', right?" Nick said. "Sub sandwiches, submarines, sub…"

"Subsonics?" Max said. His ears suddenly popped up. "That's it!"

"Subsonics are like, sound waves, right?" Nick asked. "Wait, that'd mean that the whipcracks…"

Max got back to his feet. "He uses soundwaves to mess with our minds, probably tapping into an instinctual state near the back of our brains!" He continued. "As long as we can't hear the whipcracks, that means that we're entirely safe!"

"Nerd." Nick said, playfully.

"I think I have a plan." Max said. "We'll-"

Before he could explain, Nick's phone rang again. It scared the rabbit, who hopped off and pulled the fox to the ground. He let out a sigh, before pulling out his phone and checking the number. It was Clawhauser. He quickly answered it. "Hello?"

There was a sudden blast of carnival music, the screen only showing red and white, spinning around. "Hellooooo there!" A voice said. It sounded like Animal Tamer Org. Nick got back up to his feet as the voice continued to talk. "You are formally invited as the guests of honor to the SECOND ring of our three ring circus! The event is located at the precinct one station, and starts as soon as you get here, you filthy FOX!"

"And what if we don't want to, you circus freak reject?" Nick growled back.

"Well, then…" The camera suddenly flicked from the red and white colors to a shot of a dark area. Emily and Henry were there, not in their armor, but still clearly brainwashed. They were both attached to a prop of some kind. Emily was strapped to a spinning wheel, while Henry was sitting on a platform above a tank of water.

"...I guess we'll have to move on to our daring stunts!" The monster declared. "See how long a cow can last underwater, and how many knives a hyena can take!"

Nick growled. "Alright, asshole, we'll be there."

"Fantastic! I hope you two remember your role in this act… DYING!"

"We're improv actors." Max said. "We like to go on our own pace."

"Yeah, so you'll be seeing a show from us, alright." Nick said, before hanging up. "Alright, let's go."

"Bring Judy with you." Max said. "We'll need her later. I'll tell you the plan on the way there."

The skull growled as it floated about the top of the mountain, alongside Enter. "When are we going to go out there and DESTROY EVERYTHING!?" It yelled.

"Just relax." Enter said, with an exasperated sigh. "If everything goes well, we'll be able to show off our power soon enough."

"But I wanna do it NOW!" Savage whined, bobbing up and down in the air. "They're already weakened, we can just slaughter everyone and be done with it!"

"I don't feel that would be an accurate way to test our capabilities." Enter said. "If the rest of the plan is to go smoothly, then I need to make sure that we can defeat the Zoorangers at their full strength."

The skull growled, and floated around a bit. "Grrr, fine." It let out. "Not like I have much of a choice, I'm stuck to you right now…"

Enter looked down at the transformed Zoolizer. After it had been corrupted, Savage and himself realizes that the two had somehow become connected, both of them able to use the power of the Zoolizer at the same time. This also meant that Savage was always around, and talking in Enter's head when he wasn't projecting out from the device.

This wasn't a very optimal situation, considering the two had very, very different personality types. But there wasn't much to be done.

"How much longer is 'soon enough', anyways?" Savage asked.

"Depends on how long the second act goes on for…" Enter explained. "But, as soon as the third act starts… then it'll really be showtime."

The two Zoorangers, alongside the rabbit, had arrived at the station… or, what used to be the station, at least. The entire building was now covered in a massive red and white tent, one the looked in even worse condition than the one they had been to earlier. It wasn't set up like a tent, however, just draped over the building very haphazardly.

Red growled in disgust as they approached the building. The fox was still gripping to the leash, and the rabbit attached to it still didn't seem to care much about anything.

"This is just disrespectful." Red said. He quickly turned to Silver, and gave a thumbs up. "Ready to go?"

Silver nodded, and they headed into the station, passing under the curtains and through the front doors.

The inside was almost entirely pitch black as they entered, before two spotlights from above turned on. The station looked mostly like normal, but any extraneous objects, like Clawhauser's desk, had been removed, leaving a circular arena. The stairways and small garden areas were blocked off with metal gates. Despite that, the doors were not gated up.

Above them, on the upper floor, was a crowd of Orgettes, looking down on them. They instantly burst into cheers as the three entered, though the thunderous applause only startled the rabbit.

Chaos Animal Tamer Org was standing in the middle of the upper floor, looking down at the three. The two attractions from the call were there as well, placed next to him, with Emily and Henry still attached. He pulled out a megaphone, and started to yell at them. "ALL PETS ARE TO BE LEFT AT THE FRONT DOOR! PLEASE TIE THAT HORRIBLE RABBIT UP BEFORE THE SHOW BEGINS!"

The two looked at each other, Silver shrugging in response. "Alright, just at the front here?" Red asked, walking, or rather, dragging, the frightened rabbit to the doors. He wrapped the leash around a doorknob, and then glanced up at the monster.

"ALRIGHT, GOOD, NOW COME BACK IN HERE!" The monster yelled, head bobbing up and down with each syllable.

The fox stepped back into the main circular area. As soon as he did, a large metal gate, attached to the gates around the rest of the room, closed behind them.

"WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, ORGS AND SUCKERS ALIKE, TO ACT TWO OF OUR THREE RING CIRCUS!" The monster greeted, still yelling into the megaphone. "BUT BEFORE WE GET TO THE MAIN ACT, HOW ABOUT A LITTLE BIT OF A WARM-UP?"

He cracked his whips, which echoed throughout the building. The three doors started to shake for a moment, before they all burst open, flying off their hatches. Three feral and angry animals came walking out, though they couldn't make them out in the dark.

"FOR OUR FIRST EVENT, THIS DIPSTICK DUO WILL EITHER HAVE TO KILLE THEIR FRIENDS, OR WATCH THEIR FRIENDS DIE!" The monster cheered.

"What?" Silver said, confused.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Red mumbled loudly.

They were a buffalo, a cheetah, and a tiger. It was Bogo, Clawhauser, and Delgato, all still wearing their clothes.

"You're gonna get such a beating for this." Red said, pounding his fist into his palm.

"DON'T EVEN TRY IT YET!" The monster shouted. Spontaneously, his bottom arms pulled out several objects. One pulled out several baseballs, and started to juggle them. The other pulled out three knives. "IF YOU DO, THEN I'LL SEND YOUR PALS BEHIND ME TO A HILARIOUS DEATH!"

"Guess we don't have much of a choice." Red said.

The two looked towards the three angry mammals as they approached even closer. The feralized Clawhauser was the one farthest behind, due to his, uh, size, while Bogo and Delgato were incredibly close to attacking.

"I really don't want to do this." Silver said, looking at the tiger as it let out a growl.

"Me either, but we just have to bide a little time." Red followed. "So let's just-"

The buffalo let out a snort, before charging forwards. The two leaped out of the way as Bogo's horns hit the metal gate behind them. It rattled as he got stuck in them, said rattling as shocking the rabbit behind them as well.

The buffalo started to scratch at the gate, but was completely stuck for the moment.

There were two simultaneous roars, and the two Zoorangers braced themselves for the next attacks. Red looked over towards Clawhauser who had started to run at him, faster than he figured would have possible for the overweight cheetah. Silver, on the other hand, was almost instantly tackled by the tiger, knocking him back.

Red leaped over the cheetah, who attempted to make a quick turn, but ended up falling over. He rolled over into one of the garden gates instead, but almost instantly started to get back to his paws.

Silver was flung into one of the gates, and crashed onto his face. He quickly got back up, only to see Delgato preparing to swipe at him. He ducked down as the paw went over his head, and then quickly rolled out of the way.

The monster above them growled, and looked down at them from the railing. "Aren't you two going to attack them!?" He shouted. The Zoorangers continued to dodge the two felines' attacks with, with no response. "Hello!?" The monster shouted again. "Are you listening to me!?"

The buffalo pulled its horns from the railings, and turned towards Red, letting out a snort. The fox quickly sidestepped out of the way as Clawhauser attempted to dive at him, and watched him bounce off again. He was distracted, and didn't seem to notice the buffalo, only keeping his eye on the cheetah..

The buffalo scraped its hoof against the floor, and then proceeded to charge. The unaware fox only noticed moments before he was hit. He was sent flying, slamming into a grating, and then bouncing off and hitting the bottom of the upper floor, before falling back to the ground. The Orgette audience burst into cheers.

Red sat up, and shook the blow off as best he could. "Even when he's brainwashed, Bogo still hates me!" He joked to himself.

Silver was still dodging around the tiger's attempted strikes, but quickly realized that he was being pushed back. Behind him was the cheetah, and in front of him was a tiger, and both were preparing to strike.

He dodged out of the way, letting both of the felines smack each other in the face with their paws. The two cats started to growl and scratch at each other in response.

With them distracted, Silver quickly ran over to Red, who had gotten up by this point and was prepping to dodge another of the buffalo's charge. The wolf quickly grabbed the fox by his neck, and leaped up as the buffalo charged forwards.

The two landed on the upper floor, right in front of the monster. They quickly drew their blades, and pointed them at the monster. "Alright, hatter, time for us to shut this carnival down!" Red said.

"No you don't!" The monster said, raising its arms. "Since you survived the the warm-up, it's time for you to head to the REAL ACT!"

He lashed his whips down as hard as he could. The two quickly looked behind them at the entranced SPD officers. They started to stir, Emily managing to break from her locks and falling to the ground, while Henry burst through the glass. The both quickly put up their armor.

Almost instantly, they started to fire at Red and Silver. The blasts hit, and created a large explosion, sending them flying back to the first floor. As the two recovered, they noticed that the other animals had vanished. Before they could think about it, Green and Pink jumped down from the second floor.

"Alright, this could be going better." Red said, hitting himself in the head. He quickly turned to Silver, and made a pointing motion with his paw. "I think we need to actually fight these guys this time." He said, before pounding his fist into his paw. "They can take a hit, right?"

Silver nodded, and gave a thumbs up. The two readied their weapons, and headed in to the fight. Silver went for Green, and swung his blade at the bull. He blocked with his cannon, but the wolf quickly ducked down and swept at his feet, causing the bull to fall over.

Red went for Pink, leaping up into the air to try and strike her. She quickly blocked the sword swing, and continued to block for a few moments as the fox continued to leap around her and slash. Eventually a few slashes got through, and the hyena stumbled back.

The crowd started to cheer as the hits started to be dealt. Animal Tamer Org looked down at the fight, and rubbed all four of his hands together. "This is going even better than the rehearsal!" He said to himself. "But they need some more… encouragement. A little spontaneity never hurt a performance!"

As the four mammals continued to fight, the Org spotted the rabbit behind the gate, who seemed to be barely paying attention. He let out a laugh, before cracking his whips in her direction. The noise caused the rabbit's ears to jut up and eyes to dilate. She quickly got to her feet, and transformed into ZooBlue. She leaped over the gate, pulling the handle off of the door that her harness was attached to.

She landed in the middle of the fight, catching both of the other Zoorangers' attention. "Oh, this is definitely not a good thing." Red muttered to himself.

Unfortunately, the rabbit had also distracted the two from the fights they were currently having. Silver proceeded to get knocked right in the face by Green's cannon, sending him across the room. Pink quickly kicked Red away, and then fired at him several times, all of them connecting.

The brainwashed Blue quickly turned to Red as he attempted to recover. She dashed at him, and leaped into the air, delivering a diving kick to him. The fox was bounced off the ground via the force of the kick, and bounced up into one of the gates, before falling back down to the ground.

Silver quickly shook his head, trying to shake off the blow, and got up. He noticed the harness' leash, lying on the ground, but slithering away as Blue closed in on the fox. Silver jumped into a leap, and grabbed the leash.

He got back up, and tugged at the leash, causing the rabbit to be pulled away from Red as he got up. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the brainwashed hyena from going over and kicking Red right in the stomach. She then picked him up, and threw him across the room.

"Well, that didn't go as well as I planned." Silver said. A shadow suddenly cast over him. The wolf looked back, and was socked right in the face by Green, causing him to fall to the ground, letting go of the rabbit's leash. Blue instantly turned to him, and drew her blasters.

The wolf scrambled on all fours for a moment as he tried to avoid the lasers, but he was quickly shot several times by them. He managed to get back on his feet, and met back up with the fox.

The two drew their weapons, and prepared themselves as best they could, considering how much of a beating they had taken. Red had pulled out the Vickscannon, which he could hold up, but was a bit shaky. Silver's sword wielding arm was just as shaky, if not more.

The three brainwashed teammates walked towards the two, slowly. They were backed into a corner, and had nowhere to run to. Red fired several shots from the Vickscannon, most of them missing and hitting the ground and ceiling, but one managed to hit Green. Even with the misses, the blasts shook up the brainwashed mammals, leaving them open… for the moment.

The two quickly dashed between the three dazed brainwashed mammals, Silver quickly pushing Pink out of the way as the two made a run for the middle of the room.

"Alright, I'm going to finish this off." Silver said, giving a quick thumbs up. Red gave a nod in return. Silver quickly flicked the guard of his sword around, switching to Moon Mode. He lashed the laser whip forward, causing it to wrap around the three. Blue, Pink, and Green were quickly tied up and pulled together.

There was resounding booing from the audience.

"We just finished up your little act," Silver shouted up to the monster. "Come fight us yourself, you coward!"

The monster looked down, and pounded two of his fists on the railings. "I'm not giving up!" The monster responded. "I got a secret weapon!"

He quickly raised his two upper arms into the air, and then lashed the whips forward… in the direction of Silver!

The wolf let out a quick howl of pain, and fell to his knees, letting go of the three brainwashed Rangers.. "No, Silver!" Red shouted, backing away. "You can fight this!"

The wolf got back up to his feet, quickly followed by the other brainwashed mammals. Red backed up, too weakened to fight all four of them on his own.

"Isn't this a great show, folks?" The Org yelled to the audience. "Thrills, chills, twist, and turns, truly a triple A performance for the ages!"

The ringmaster let out another laugh, and looked down from above. He watched as the four quickly approached Red, but Silver quickly stepped out in front. He pulled out a disc, and then quickly plugged it into his Zoolizer. In a flash of light and noise, he had gone into Rampage Mode, and continued towards the fox.

"Oooh, this is gonna be a messy one!" The monster cooed, rubbing its hands together. "Get 'em! GET 'EM!"

The fox quickly rushed off, running around the center pillar. As he reached the other side, Pink and Green suddenly appeared, blocking his way. He turned back, Blue and Silver were closing in on him. He swished his tail a few times, and then looked at the gates.

"Alright, time to do this." He muttered to himself. He ran to the gate, and started to climb up it.

"What!?" The monster from above shouted. He quickly motioned to the Orgettes. "Get him, you idiots!"

Red climbed up, and onto one of the railings. He pulled out his blade, and jutted it towards the crowd of Orgs as they started to draw their own weapons. He stabbed into one of the Orgettes, and started to run along the railing, slicing through the monsters as he ran.

The brainwashed mammals below watched on, before quickly moving into action. Blue quickly grabbed onto the railing and started to climb up, with Pink behind her. Green jumped up next, and the bars instantly bent under his weight, knocking all three to the ground.

After a second, Silver's jetpacks activated, launching him up into the air. The fox reached the end of the railing, and hopped down onto the path to Animal Tamer Org's platform. Silent, the fox started to pace towards the monster, who started to back off.

As Red hit the mid-point of the walkway, Silver landed behind him. "Ah, good!" The monster let out. "Kill this fox, minion!" He quickly cracked his whips in Silver's direction.

Silver raised his gun arm, and pointed it towards Red. The fox stood for a moment. Silence fell as the audience, as well as the ringmaster himself, waited in anticipation.

In a split-second, Silver moved his arm up a bit, aiming it directly at Animal Tamer Org. Before the Org could realize what was happening, he fired a blast from it.

"W-what!?"

The blast hit the monster in the stomach, knocking him back, and onto the ground. "Alright, I can't believe he fell for it!" Red shouted. He quickly tilted his helmet to one side, and knocked at it a few times, and then the same on the other side. Silver quickly did the same as well.

"H-how!?" The monster asked, incredulous. "No animal can escape my hypnotic whips!"

"You let the game slip a bit earlier." Silver said. "We figured out it was some kind of sonic frequency."

"Yeah, some great power you have." Red said, sarcastically. "You just got foiled by ear plugs!"

The monster growled as it got back to its feet. "You might have gotten around it, but I still have the other Zoorangers under my control!"

Silver quickly activated his jetpack, and dashed at the monster. He grabbed onto one of the Org's hands , using his free hand, and then raised his large claw into the air. In a single motion, the claw went straight through the monster's hands.

It let out a pained shriek, as its hands from the cuff up fell to the ground. This included the whips, which Silver quickly grabbed with his free hand. He then turned to the reeling monster, and slashed with his claw, cutting right through the stem in the monster's mouth, which fell down and balanced on its body perfectly for a moment. He then quickly delivered a kick, knocking the monster off the platform, and through the front wall.

"Chief's not gonna like that." Red said.

"Consider the lecture we get a sacrifice for the greater good." Silver said. He held the whips up. "But right now, it's time to get everyone back to normal!"

The two leaped down from the upper floor. The three brainwashed mammals below started to charge towards them, but Silver quickly cracked the whips. The three suddenly froze.

"What?" Blue let out, shaking her head. "Where…? Why am I in the station…?"

"I was wondering the same thing." Pinks aid, also shaking her head.

"We just saved you guys!" Red declared. "You were under the monster's mind control."

"Oh, that makes… sense?" Blue said. She quickly looked at her back. "…Why am I wearing a harness?"

Pink let out a laugh. "Wow, didn't know you were into THAT kind of stuff, Judy!"

"What?" She said, confused. "What are you…?"

"I can explain it to you later." Red followed up. "Well, I'll explain… part of it. But right now, the monster is outside, and we have a job to finish."

"Alright, got it." Blue said. "Ready to go all in, Red?"

"Oh, you know it."

The two pulled out their moon and sun shaped ZooTags, and quickly plugged them into the Zoolizers.

"TAIYO~!
TSUKI~!
CELESTIAAAAAAAL
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their armored forms, and quickly used their weapons to slice through the gate blocking the exit. The metal exploded throughout the building, and the five quickly headed out into the parking lot.

The monster was there stomping its feet. "Alright, circus freak, time for us to end this!" Red shouted as the five pulled out their weapons.

"Grah, this isn't the end for me yet!" The monster shouted. "I have one more trick up my sleeve before I head to the big top in the sky!"

The monster held its hand-less stumps up, and the five watched as several, three-clawed appendages burst out from them. They clacked together as the monster started to laugh. Its hat-head started to float into the air, leaving the headless body on the ground.

"Okay, that's just… ridiculous." Pink said to herself.

"Prepare to face the hell hot hate of my horrid hat!" The monster said, its voice still coming from its body somehow. "There's no way you fools can take a balancing act like this on!"

"Was he always this annoying?" Green asked. "We didn't get to see much of him before the brainwash."

"Oh, yeah, he is just the absolute worst." Red said in response. He quickly tapped his staff on the ground. "Alright, let's get to this and finish this clown off!"

The hat floated towards them, and proceeded to fire out several lasers from its eye. The lasers struck at the ground around them, causing bursts of dust to erupt from the ground. The monster's body let out a laugh as the smoke started to clear.

"That could get annoying." Silver said. "I'll handle the hat."

"Let me get in on that action!" Pink said. "I mean, it's better to go two on one, right?"

"Uh, alright?" Silver said, slightly confused. He grabbed onto her paw with his free hand, and then quickly flew up into the air.

"Guess that leaves us and him." Green said, looking towards the monster.

"Don't worry, I think this'll be a pushover." Red said.

"Hah, I doubt you idiots can even reach me!" The monster boasted. He quickly bent over, revealing the inside of his head-mouth-hole. Fire started to build up inside it, before it fired out in a ring shape. The ring of fire flew towards them, and was followed by a string of more rings.

Blue dashed forwards first, and leaped into the air. She started to somersault as she flew through the rings. The monster looked back up as it finished firing the rings, and stumbled back in surprise as the rabbit flew at him, her blades now drawn.

Red, meanwhile, extended his staff upwards, putting at the size of the rings' circumferences. The rings slammed against the staff, and started to be absorbed into its end. The end of the staff burst into a massive plume of flames.

Blue spun around as fast as she could, blades drawn, and slammed right into the monster's body, knocking it to the ground. She hit the ground, and then vaulted out of the way as Red fired the massive flame at the monster. There was a massive explosion, and the body quickly fell down as the smoke cleared.

"That was for the presumed humiliation." Blue said. She quickly looked back at the fox. "It was humiliating, right?"

"Oh, definitely." He said. "I can give you the full, embarrassing rundown after this."

"Uh, no thanks."

In the air, Silver and Pink flew around the station, chasing after the flying hat. They swooped and zipped around, attempting to catch up with it as it flew backwards. The hat occasionally fired lasers at them, which just slowed them down even more.

"Why don't you just shoot him!?" Pink shouted up to Silver as they paused for a moment.

"Well, I can't do that when you're hanging onto my gun arm!" He replied, a bit angry. "I don't even know if I could hit something that small with it, though…"

Pink thought for a moment. "If you give me a good shot, I could probably hit it." She said. "I'm a better shot than you, y'know."

"How do you know that?"

"I have never seen you use a gun at all, ever."

"Fair enough." He admitted. "I'll try my best."

"Just fly up a bit, that should be good enough." She said. Silver proceeded to do just that, floating up a bit higher. Pink pulled out one of her blasters, and caught the flying hat in her sights.

The was floating around in odd patterns, almost like it was taunting them. She aimed her gun, and fired off several shots. The hat zipped around them all, but she quickly fired out a few more. "Estúpido sombrero gilipollas." She muttered to herself.

She focused the shot a bit more, following the hat around as it zipped. She quickly fired off three shots. The first two missed, but the third one managed to hit. "Nice job, Em!" Silver complimented. The hyena chuckled in response, and the two quickly flew over to the dazed hit.

In a swift movement, Silver slashed at the hat, sending it flying into the ground. They landed back on the ground as the hat crashed into its body. The five mammals gathered up as the body and hat started to stir.

"Oh no!" The monster said as it got back to its feet. It quickly placed the hat back on top of its body. "I can't believe you runts managed to beat me! This is just the worst!"

"Well, this is what happens when you try to mess with us!" Blue said, pointing towards the weakened monster. "Now it's time to pop your big top for good!"

Blue and Red combined their weapons together, while SIlver moved behind them, the giant jaw on his chest opening. Pink and Green moved to the sides of them, and prepared to fire their guns.

Before they fired, the monster let out a small chuckle.

The four fired simultaneously, and all the beams combined together into a single beam, which flew through the monster. It let out a scream as it exploded into a massive ball of fire. Out of the flames flew a top hat, which was on fire, and a red Chaos badge, which tinked against the ground.

"Thank god that's over." Red said, shaking his head. "Now that he's dead, everyone else should be going back to normal, right?" He asked.

"I mean, that's usually how all this works." Silver said. He turned to Pink and Green. "You guys mind going in and checking? We have a thing to do now."

"Got it." green said with a nod. Him and Pink quickly headed into the building.

"I'm sure it'll be alright." Red said.

The three then turned to the Chaos Badge, which started to float in mid-air. It zoomed off through the sky, and then exploded into a burst of light on the outskirts of the city. In the flash, Chaos Animal Tamer Org reappeared, looming over the city. He was completely revived, with his head reattached to his body… and his whips and hands back.

"TIME FOR ACT THREE!" It roared.

"Oh, that's the opposite of good." Red muttered.

"Quick, let's call on the robots before anything happens!" Blue ordered. The two nodded, and then quickly summoned up the mechs. ZooRobo and ZooKami crashed into the ground as they formed, and then stomped towards the monster.

"Hah hah!" The monster laughed. "You three idiot animals just fell for my brilliant plan!" It exclaimed, leaving the three confused.

"Your plan was to get killed?" Blue asked.

"Not much of a plan if you ask me." Red said.

"What? No!" The monster said. "Now that I'm a giant, my hypnotic whipcracks can take over the city in a single stroke! And once I'm done here, I'll move on to the REST of this planet! I'll turn this entire world into a chaotic circus!"

"Well, you're gonna have to get through us first!" Blue said. "Red, call him up!"

"Got it." He replied, pulling out a red ZooTag. He quickly plugged it in.

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

With a roar, the large robotic lion appeared from thin air. It landed on the ground, and then turned to the rest of the mechs, preparing to leap up and combine together.

But before the three mechs could combine together, the monster swung one of its whips, sending out a sonic wave. The wave hit ZooShishi, causing it to let out a pained roar, before its eyes shined red. "Hey, he's not even an animal!" Red said, calling foul. "You can't do that!"

"It's animal enough, stinko!" The ringmaster Org replied with a laugh. "Sic 'em, kitty!"

The robotic lion let out another roar, before leaping at ZooRobo. It crashed into the mech, causing it to split in two. "Guys!" Silver shouted. ZooKami started to stomp towards the monster, and prepared to strike with its sword.

"Sit, dog!" The monster cracked its whip again. This time, ZooKami froze, before uncontrollably shifting back into its wolf mode. It then sat down.

"Hey, what?!" Silver shouted, trying to get the mech to move. "This isn't fair!" He shouted.

"Life's not fair, kid!" The monster laughed. It quickly turned towards the brainwashed ZooShishi. ZooKitsune and ZooSagi were dashing around the field, attempting to dodge its own strikes. "Yeah, you try to run! Can't take down one of your own mechs now, can ya!?"

"I can't believe this!" Blue shouted, jerking the controls. ZooSagi leaped over ZooShishi as it swiped at the rabbit mech. "We're still losing to this guy! This is just… ridiculous!"

"Sorry, Carrots." Red apologized. "I thought we wouldn't have any trouble after that, but…"

"Nick, it's fine." She said. "It's not your fault we're losing. I think it's my fault, if I had been around to plan more…"

"Guys?" Silver said, trying to catch their attention.

"No, this was my fault." The fox said. "If I had thought ahead, we could've done something."

"Guys."

"So, basically neither of us thought this whole thing through." Blue said. "I still feel like I'm the one who should have done something more, but…"

"Guys, shut up!" Silver snapped. "There's someone on the mountain, look!"

The two mechs turned towards the mountain, letting their pilots see as well. There was a small, black figure standing on the top, only noticeable by a smoky aura wafting off of them. The smoke drifted off, waving as it disappeared into the wind.

"Who is that?" Red asked. "Why is he on Mt. Animalia?"

"I don't know." Blue said. "But… I have a bad feeling about this."

"Whaddya three yapping about?" The monster said, turning to face the mountain. "No one's allowed on the mountain unless they're-"

Before the monster could finish, the figure leaped off of the mountaintop. It flew through the air, smoke still drifting off and leaving a trail. It crashed into the monster's body… and then seemingly reappeared on the other side.

"What was-?" The monster let out, sounding confused. It froze for a moment. Suddenly, it started to spark. "What the hell? What just hit me!? I was so close, I can't end the show on something like this! I can't-!"

Before he could finish, the monster suddenly erupted into a massive explosion, which quickly cleared. ZooShishi's eyes turned back to normal, before it let out a roar, and then leaped off, vanishing in the process.

"Whhhhat the hell was that." Red said, shocked and confused.

"I think we just got… saved?" Silver said.

"But… by who?" Blue asked. "…It landed on the ground, let's check this out."

The mechs suddenly vanished, and the three were now standing in the middle of the field. Several yards away from them was the figure, the black smoke still drifting off of it. It quickly faded as the figure started to walk towards them.

The figure looked… familiar, but they had definitely never seen it before. It was the size of the Sentai Rangers, the humans, that they had run into before. The difference was that this one seemed to be dressed in an outfit similar to their own.

Most of the suit was black, but with dark gray highlights. The helmet was feline shaped, stylized much like the Zoorangers' own, except designed for the human head. The visor was blood red, and lined with teeth.

A twinge of fear struck all three as it walked forwards. The figure stopped, and let out a small, familiar sounding laugh.

"...The hell are you?" Red asked, trying to hide the fear.

"Come now, you don't recognize your old enemies?" The figure said, before laughing again and placing his hand to his chin. "Though, I'm not surprised. None of you have seen me in my true form…"

"Don't mess around." Blue said, pointing one of her blades at the figure. "Tell us who you are, or else."

"You may call us…" The figure stepped back, and then took a bow.

"ZooDark."

"Zoo… Dark?" Silver said. "What are you, some kind of knockoff?"

"Non non non," ZooDark replied. The rabbit's nose twitched as he said this. "Knockoff implies a lower quality, I'd consider us an upgraded version."

"Upgraded? That's… incredibly arrogant of you to say." Red said. "Let's show this guy what arrogance gets you."

"Guys, I don't think that's a good idea." Blue said, starting to sound worried. "We should get out of here, NOW."

"Oh, come on, Carrots," Red started. "You're gonna have us run away from a random cosplaying loon?"

"The is making a good suggestion." ZooDark continued. "But, since you insist on a fight…"

ZooDark held his arms out, a sickly green aura covering him. Out of his back burst two, large, ghostly skeletal arms, armed with massive claws on animalistic paws. A ribcage and skull then followed. The skull was distinctly canine.

The skeletal ghost let out a maniacal laugh, causing the three to stumble back in fear and surprise. "Haven't seen you three in a while!" It said, in a familiar, slimy voice. "Surprised to see me?"

"S-Savage." Red muttered. "But… we destroyed you for good… didn't we?"

"Can't destroy something without a body." Savage explained. "My good friend, Enter here, gathered my remaining energy and brought me back to life."

"Enter!?" Silver shouted. "Wait, what? How did you-?"

Enter… ZooDark held up his wrist, shining the corrupted Zoolizer at the three. "Surprised? I got my hands on that device of yours, and figured out how to use it myself."

"And thanks to ME, we're even more powerful than the three of you will ever be!" Savage boasted.

"We've beaten you three times, we can take you a third." Red said. He felt like he was pushing it a bit, but he really didn't want to show how scared he was.

"Nick, stop." Blue said. "We need to get out of here, right now, and-"

Before she could finish, ZooDark suddenly rushed forwards, the spirit of the savage beast following behind him. He quickly slashed at the three as he seemingly phased through them. Savage copied his movements as he swung at them.

The Zoorangers froze for a moment, before a sudden eruption of flames burst from beneath them. They yelled in pain as the monster turned around. ZooDark let out a chuckle as he and Savage looked on. The flames dispersed, revealing the three, heavily damaged.

"What… what WAS that?" Silver said, weakly. "He just hit us so hard…"

"He's too strong." Blue said as she tried to get up. "We need to head out and figure out a plan…"

"Aw, running away so soon?" ZooDaark asked, feigning disappointment. "I guess this isn't any fun for you if you don't have a chance… how about I give you a free hit? All of you, give me your best!"

Red and Silver got back up to their feet, and readied their weapons. Red swung his staff around, while Silver shined his claws.

"Guys, don't this is obviously a set-up!" Blue said.

"We can't just let this guy run around, can we?" Red said.

"Yeah, we have to protect the city, fighting this guy is part of our job!" Silver followed. "And besides, one free shot is better than none!"

The two ran at ZooDark, who stood idly by. Red leaped in first, jumping up and sending his staff flying as he landed. It extended towards the dark ranger, but as soon as it hit, he vanished in a burst of dark smoke.

Red looked around for a moment, but in the second he had looked away, ZooDark reappeared in front of him. He now had a sword drawn, similar to the one that Enter had used before.

"You missed." The monster said, snidely. He quickly kicked the fox, with enough force to send him launching into the city's barrier. Red hit the wall, leaving a large cracked imprint in it. He fell to the ground, in horrible pain and unable to get up.

Silver let out a growl as he aimed his gun arm at dark ranger. He fired several shots, but ZooDark effortlessly slapped the shots away. They flew off, hitting parts of the field and the barrier. Silver then ran at him, preparing to strike with his claw.

As the wolf swung the oversized claw, ZooDark caught it in his hand. "Did you really think that would work?" The villain asked. "Didn't you see what happened to your friend?"

"I… uh…" Silver had no idea what to do.

"You are all so much weaker than I was hoping." ZooDark said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Shame, I'm barely putting in any effort."

The wolf growled, and attempted to punch at ZooDark with his gun arm. The dark ranger caught it, punctuated by a laugh.

"I think he wants to see full power!" Savage said, hovering above the two.

"Well, I can't just end this here, can I?" ZooDark replied. "I'll give you a taste test…"

The dark ranger's hands started to glow with an impossible black light. Silver attempted to pull himself away from him, but his grip was too strong.

"NO!"

Blue rushed forwards and performed a leaping kick. ZooDark quickly turned to her, and let go of Silver's paws. He quickly smacked her with the back of his hand, knocking her to the ground. He then turned back to Silver, and raised his hand, which still glowed with the black light.

The wolf's eyes widened.

The dark ranger fired a blast of energy from his hand, directly at Silver. The force of the blast charred the ground around him, and burned his entire body. The wolf started to breath heavily, before falling to the ground.

ZooDark turned to the rabbit, who was just recovering. "I think that's enough for today." He said, before walking off.

"What!?" Blue shouted. "You're just going to let us go!?"

"Well, now that I've tested this power, I can safely say I can destroy you all at any moment." He explained. "Might as well let your demises seep into you before I take the finishing blow."

"And don't worry," Savage started. "We WILL be back."

"Ciao!" ZooDark let out, with a quick wave. In a flash of black light, he vanished.

Blue stood silent for a moment, and then fell to her knees. She let out a yell as she pounded at the ground.

"I can't believe this." Sambash muttered.

"It certainly is… impressive." Kyuemon let out, frustrated.

In the middle of the cavern stood ZooDark, alongside the spirit of Savage above him. Enter was flaunting the power he had gained.

"I suppose you all must be surprised, hm?" ZooDark said. He quickly pushed the button on the Zoolizer, and transformed back to his normal human-facsimile form. Savage quickly transformed into just the skull, and started to float around as well.

"Is this what you've been hiding?" Yogostein asked.

"It was a plan that took a while to fully form." Enter said. "Once I had heard about the free Zoolizer… everything clicked."

"Yeah, and you can consider all of that a test run!" Savage cackled. "The next time we go out, those animals will be torn to pieces!"

"And the city will be destroyed as well." Enter said. "We will have enough Chaos Energy to do whatever we want after that."

"HEY! What's the big idea!?" Yabaiba shouted, stomping into the room from one of the caverns. He marched up to Enter, and stomped his foot in front of him. "Why did you destroy my monster!? We had them beat!"

"I needed something impressive to introduce my new power." Enter explained. "Single-handedly defeating a monster they struggled to beat… I would call that a good entrance."

"Yes, very flashy." Savage followed. "And if we can destroy a giant monster, imagine how easy it is to destroy their robots!"

"What will the big boss say when he finds this out?" Yogostein asked, standing up. "He doesn't have a good temper for when things like this happen."

"As long as I'm gathering energy, there is nothing for him to complain about." Enter said, calmly.

"Yeah, besides, what else are we gonna do, backstab him using our new, incredible powers?" Savage said.

"How totally not suspicious of you to say." Sambash said.

"Y'ever hear of a joke, bike brain?"

Sambash laughed, and started to walk off. "Whatever, no matter what you do, I'll still be the star of this show by the end." He said. "My next plan's gonna be big, just trust me."

"And how, exactly, is this plan going?" Enter asked, slyly.

"It's going… well." Sambash said, harshly, before storming off.

"Poor guy, doesn't realize he's completely useless and a waste of space." Savage said.

"Yeesh, you guys gotta be rude all the time?" Yabaiba asked.

"Ow, ow, ow ow ow…"

"If you keep squirming it'll just hurt more." The rabbit said as she applied a few more dabs of disinfectant to a wound on the fox's side. He was laying on the couch, most of him wrapped in bandages due to the pummeling he had received. Judy wasn't looking great either, with a few bruises visible on her face.

"I can't believe this is happening…" Nick muttered as Judy wrapped the wound in gauze. "We got beaten so easily, and we were at full strength, too."

The rabbit remained silent as she moved on to another wound. "What happened to Max?" Nick asked, after a brief period of silence.

"He's at the hospital." She said. "Wasn't as bad as the last time, but… it was still pretty bad."

"Hopefully he'll be all rested up soon." Nick said, sighing. "It's almost the holidays."

"I'm more worried about you not getting better before Kitmas." Judy said, placing the disinfectant tube on the table, and hopping up onto the grody couch. "Well, actually I'm more worried about…"

"We should all be worried about that." Nick said. "But, I wouldn't worry too much. We can take him next time."

The rabbit glanced at him. "You're joking, right?"

"I'm not." Nick said. "I'm just looking on the positive side of things. We were just exhausted from everything that happened. If we fight him when we're not doing something, we can definitely beat him."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

Judy let out a small laugh. "Weird of you to look on the bright side, but thanks. That helped a bit."

"No problem." Nick said.

That was all a lie, really. He just wanted to cheer her up after all this, even in just a small way. That single attack from ZooDark had left him reeling and covered in scars. Just being near him was terrifying…

The fox really wasn't sure if they could ever beat something that strong. And it wasn't something he was going to put in the back of his mind. ZooDark could show up at any time, and who knows what would happen then.

But the holidays were nearly here, and this was a time for them to relax.

It wouldn't be very easy.

Wow I slacked on this one majorly, blame video games. and uh also on not wanting to upload it

Not much to say about the episode other than Animal Tamer Org being the perfect monster for something like this crossover. His flying hat was based on Hatenna from Zyuohger. ZooDark's design is meant to be similar to, unsurprisingly, Dark Buster's design, except it's still different.

We're near the end of this nonsense. Just ten more episodes before it's over.

Anyway, merry Christmas! And next time, a late Christmas special. Hey, if Kyuranger can have their be two weeks late, I can have mine be late too.