I think Joe's resisting me on this fic because he knows I plan on being mean to him in later ones. Sigh.

#

Joe ran. His lungs were starting to burn, and he knew his leg muscles weren't going to thank him later, but he didn't let his pace slacken, sometimes dodging around pedestrians, sometimes knocking them right over with muttered apologies he was sure they didn't hear. It was a back alley, so there wasn't much traffic, but it was enough to be troublesome, blocking his view as he tried to gauge the distance to the other end.

Bursting out onto the main road so fast he almost tripped in surprise, he skidded to a halt, his Gokai Sabre appearing in his hand automatically. Still getting used to that. In front of him, people screamed and scrambled to either side as two motorcycles, bearing not only their riders but several chests strapped over the back, came roaring along.

Joe tensed, left hand at the small of his back, right gripping the sabre's hilt tightly. The motorcycle on his right was approaching first. He slashed out, the sabre cutting into the front wheel and halfway through the engine before he jerked it free. The left bike tried to veer, but Joe was already up again, kicking the rider right out of his seat. The bike crashed onto its side, carried on by momentum.

He glanced over his shoulder. The bike he'd cut was on fire, but several Siragosians were already dousing it. The other one had crashed into and destroyed several street-side stalls, but it didn't look like it had hurt anyone. He turned his attention to the two riders, who were just starting to get their feet under them. "Even on a peaceful planet like this, there are guys like you. I was having a good day." He moved closer, pointing the tip of his sabre at their heads, but they'd drawn guns from their coats.

"Look who thinks he's so cool with a sharpened stick!" The one Joe had kicked levelled his gun at the former Zangyack's face. Joe eyed the barrel and raised a brow.

"You two are going to get yourselves hurt."

"What the hell can you do to us?"

"Not me." Joe's eyes flicked sideways, to the flash of red behind the two criminals. "Him."

They turned, and Marvelous smiled, the butt of his Gokai Gun coming down hard on one man's head. Joe leapt forward, punching the back of the second man's skull with the hilt of his sabre. They both went down, and Marvelous lifted his eyes to Joe. "I didn't think you'd actually run fast enough to cut them off."

"The bikes weren't that fast." Joe rested the flat of his sabre against his shoulder, looking down at the unconscious thieves. "Now what do we do with them?"

"Don't know..." Marvelous ran his fingers through his hair, his gun having vanished to whatever no-space their weapons went to when they weren't being used. "Damn... really don't want to carry them."

"Excuse me!" They both turned. Headed towards them was a woman in a sharp red uniform, several more officials having appeared beside the motorcycles. The one approaching them stopped and smiled. "Are you the ones who stopped these criminals?"

Joe lowered his arm, letting his sabre disappear. "I guess we are."

She bowed. "Thank you so much!" Rising back to meet their eyes, she smiled. "You've saved irreplaceable artifacts from the city's museum!"

They exchanged looks, neither having had the slightest idea about just what the criminal had stolen. Marvelous answered. "You don't need to thank us. We only went after them because they nearly ran us over in the middle of our shopping."

"Saving the artifacts was just a coincidence." Joe avoided looking at the woman's eyes, though it didn't seem that her cheer had faded any with the revelation.

"Even if that's the case, you still did our city a great service, and I thank you." She took a pad of paper from one pocket, wrote down a few things in a language Joe couldn't read, and then tore off the sheet and handed it to him. "There's a bounty on these two. Take this to the main station and you can collect it."

When she turned her attention to the slowly-awakening thieves, they took their opportunity and walked away, Joe examining the indecipherable language on the paper.

After asking for directions twice to find the station, and then once more to relocate the shop where Marvelous had left their purchases, the two of them were on their way back to the Galleon, actually richer than they'd been when they'd left that morning. The Siragosians they'd met were so trusting, and why wouldn't they be? Trust was easy, Joe supposed, when the universe had yet to show them its cruelty. Their peace couldn't last, but Joe wouldn't be the one to break their happiness. "I can see why you chose to land here." He slung the exercise bench they'd bought a bit higher on his shoulder as he spoke.

"Yeah. It's a good place to visit if you don't want to run into trouble." Marvelous shifted the two bags in his hands, mostly additional stuff for the galley. "Speaking of trouble, how're you doing with the ranger keys?"

"I know pretty much all of mine well enough to call them now, since Navi's been helping me." The robot had a basic knowledge of what each key was capable of, though not enough to satisfy the strategist in him. "It would be easier if we could test them in combat."

"Why don't we?" Joe raised a brow at Marvelous. The captain was smiling. "Sure we could find a place to practice before we leave this planet."

"Against each other?" He'd seen Marvelous fight. The man was reckless bordering on stupid, but he had the skill to back up what would normally be bad decisions.

"Unless you think we could find volunteers around here." Marvelous' smile became a smirk as they approached the Galleon, held in place by its twin anchors buried in city grounds (amazing that they got away with that, really).

Shifting the weight of the exercise bench again, Joe grabbed his chain with his free hand. "If you think you can handle it."

~~~

It hadn't taken long to put everything away and find an open area on the planet. The ground was rough black, patches of weeds ranging from navy to turquoise struggling to poke through the bed rock. Joe figured it was better that way. Fewer things to catch fire, going off of what Navi had told him about the various keys in Marvelous' colour.

They stood facing each other, mobirates in hand. Already the energy was completely different from the training Joe was used to. He drew his key and flipped open his mobirate in almost the same moment Marvelous did. "Gokai Change!"

The Gokaiger suits had barely materialized before Marvelous had another key out. "Gokai Change!" \

Zyuranger!

He charged. "RyuGekiKen!" The slim blade slashed for Joe's chest, but GokaiBlue jumped back, mind already whirring. He needed better defense, and knew just the key for the job.

"Gokai Change!"

Abaranger!

"Tricerabunker!" The RyuGekiKen crashed against his shield. Joe swung out, knocking Marvelous' arm wide before swiping for the chest with the shield's forward horn. Marvelous staggered, but caught an answering blow across Joe's left arm before they jumped back from each other.

Joe banished the TriceraBunker and drew his laser. He fired, and Marvelous deflected all but two of the shots. They grazed his left arm as he let the RyuGekiKen vanish and drew a new key. "Let's see what this one can do. Gokai Change!"

Gaoranger!

"Gaomanebuster, final mode!" Marvelous took aim with the miniature cannon. No way the TriceraBunker was stopping that.

Joe drew a new key. "Gokai Change!"

Magiranger!

Marvelous braced, holding the cannon steady before squeezing the trigger. "Gao!"

"Jinga majuna!" The words came to Joe without his thinking about it, magic forming a translucent blue force field in front of him that took the blazing sphere from Marvelous' cannon.

The shield broke, and Marvelous was already rushing him, the Lion Fang slashing his shoulder. He staggered, but stabilized himself in time to kick Marvelous back before the red warrior could get another attack in. Rather than give Marvelous time to recover, Joe extended his Magistick. "Blue Splash!" Water burst from the ground under Marvelous' feet, knocking him backwards. He turned the fall into a back flip, avoiding the final geyser.

As soon as his feet touched the ground again, Marvelous had another key out. "Gokai Change!"

Hurricaneger!

He drew the sword from the sheath across his back. "Hayatemaru!"

Swords. Good, Joe had a key he wanted to try out for this style. "Gokai Change!"

Shinkenger!

"Shinkenmaru!" He blocked Marvelous' opening strike, twisting the Hayatemaru to one side and putting the flat of his Shinkenmaru across Marvelous' abdomen. Marvelous recovered, the Hayatemaru swinging down to stop a scant inch from Joe's neck. They paused like that, each listening to the other's quick breaths, and then Marvelous chuckled and stepped back. Joe mirrored the motion, their weapons disappearing as their transformations released.

Marvelous stretched, rolling his shoulders before pressing a hand against the part of his chest the Tricerabunker had struck. "Not much for pulling your hits, are you?"

Joe smirked, flexing his own shoulders. "It's not something Zangyack teaches, no." He became aware of just how tired he was, far more than he should have been, for the duration of their fight. "We'll have to get used to using the keys."

"Yeah." Marvelous' tone said that he'd noticed the added drain as well, and the two of them headed back to where the Galleon rested above the nearby cliffs.

"I've been thinking about Navi's prophecy." Joe broached the subject as they moved into the ship's shadow, and Marvelous raised a brow.

"About stealing from the right places?" They grabbed the waiting chains, conversation held as they were drawn back up to the Galleon.

Once they were on their way back to the main quarters, Navi flying along behind, Joe continued. "Why don't we target Zangyack?"

Marvelous' eyebrows shot into his hairline. "Hell of a suggestion."

"It's not like we're on their good side to begin with." Joe shrugged, climbing the stairs to the central room of the ship. "And I can't think of a better way to find someone else for this crazy dream of yours."

A smile curved GokaiRed's lips. "I take it you have an idea of where to start?"

Joe smirked in turn. "I might."

#

THIS JUST IN I kind of hate writing fight scenes for Gokaiger like dear god the Gokai Changes having to look up the capabilities of literally EVERY RANGER EVER and then figure out the strategic minds of the Gokaigers themselves and decide which keys they'd want to try first. So that's why this chapter took so long and I am very sorry and will try to get better at this Gokai fight scene stuff I promise.

Also PSA for any of my readers who have tumblr, do feel free to add an x to my pen name (loonriderx), run to my blog and fill my askbox with nagging for updates. Because I work better when someone is looming over me waiting to read the thing.