Ladies and gentlemen of fanfiction, I, Storm Hawk 21, present the latest chapter of Samurai Forever. I gotta say, it was a hassle getting this out. I'm a procrastinator by nature, and I loathe having to do anything other than slacking off. Still, I enjoy writing and I promise that this story will be continued. I just don't know when I might update it. Oh, and I'm going to be working on some other fics as well. I might alternate updating stories, or just do them both at the same time. I don't know yet.
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers. From Mighty Morphing to Megaforce and everything that comes afterwards, me no own.
Chapter 6 – Bad Luck
The moment they morphed, all four Rangers leapt in a different direction just as a massive crevice appeared below where they previously were. They landed just as the light faded to reveal them suited up and ready for a battle.
"Samurai Ranger Red, Jayden! Ready!"
"The same! Pink, Mia! Ready!"
"The same! Yellow, Emily! Ready!"
"The same! Gold, Antonio! Ready!"
"Samurai banding together to save the world, POWER RANGERS SAMURAI! Ready for battle!"
"Wow," B. C. whistled. "Nice reflexes." He stressed every syllable, so it sounded more like, "NA-I-SU RE-FU-RE-KU-SE-SU". He snapped his fingers again.
The Rangers tensed, expecting another chasm to suddenly appear out of thin air. They were completely unprepared for Jayden slipping and nearly losing his grip on his sword. Jayden picked himself up, nodding.
"So that's what you meant by 'bad luck'," he mused. "But it'll take more than a few bruises and scrapes to stop us."
"I know." B. C. reached into his shōzoku and pulled out…
Antonio's eyes widened. "JAYDEN! MOVE!"
Jayden rolled away in time to see a few shots whiz by. Antonio rushed B. C. at a speed the others haven't seen in a long time, his Barracuda Blade a blur along with the rest of him. Yet, much like before, their opponent seemed to know where the next strike would be two strikes ago. However, Antonio learned from his previous experience and took a half step back just as B. C. lashed out with some wicked looking claws. They harmlessly hit nothing but air.
Using his opponent's surprise, Antonio bashed him right in the skull with the pommel of his sword, sending him reeling back. Emily and Mia chose this moment to join in the fray, only to fall flat on their face when the ground beneath their feet collapsed into a small trench and tripped them up.
B. C. steadied himself and was rubbing a spot on his forehead. "Yow, that wasn't half-bad!" He applauded again, this time sounding more sincere. "Even fools learn, I suppose. But how did you know?"
"We encountered one of your officers before," Antonio replied. "The enfriada con hielo snow woman."
"Ah, you must mean Yuki," B. C. snapped his fingers again, though this time it seemed to be unintentional. In the distance, Jayden heard a large crash followed by a discordant note and a somewhat agonized shriek echoing after it. What was that?
At the site of the incident…
The man was speechless. His mouth was gaping without a single syllable being so much as uttered. Oh the horror! The sheer, absolute, and complete horror! He wanted to look away, but he couldn't bear to divert his eyes from the terrible carnage.
He was just walking along the road and said hi to the nice mover fellows when it happened. Someone laid out a fresh pie on the nearby windowsill and the two men, entranced by the tantalizing aroma, practically floated all the way to it. However, they had momentarily forgotten their task and let go of the rope they were using to hoist up a large grand piano.
Without anything to anchor it, the two-ton instrument plummeted right on… on… on…
"MY CABBAGES!"
Underneath the trashed piano, the wreckage of what used to be a cabbage cart complete with produce was completely flattened and unsalvageable. The man dropped to his knees, tears freely falling from his eyes and loud sobs escaping him. He had to be strong…
The man took one more look at his beloved cabbages, and gave in to the immense sorrow. His precious… his precious… precious!
Doesn't this stuff only happen in TV and cartoons?!
Back to the Future! Wait, wrong series…
Back to the park and the Rangers…
"That ice woman always seems to cause trouble for us," B. C. muttered. "It's like she delights in seeing us have to toil laboriously because of something she did…" He continued on his tirade and began to mumble a few choice words to describe her that were too graphic for the nature of this fanfic.
Whoa. Is that even a word, let alone possible? And I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Hey, that one's not even part of any known language!
Ahem…
The team took a few moments to stare in shock. Antonio was first to break the silence.
"Well, I guess you learn a few things if you've been around that long…"
"Yep!" B. C. exclaimed proudly. "Youngsters today think they're so bad, swearing and cursing with every other word. But they aren't anywhere close to the masters! And the words now are mostly just negative meaning words that were perverted into something bad. Wait til you hear some real cussing!"
Mia scrambled to cover the sides of Emily's helmet. Strangely enough, it had worked, and for the next several moments all Emily could see was their adversary angrily shouting words and phrases into the air and Jayden and Antonio were apparently shouting something back. She couldn't really tell, since both of them had helmets on, but she was fairly certain. After a while, B. C. continued with his yelling and the two friends began to comically chase him around the park. Emily mentally played some circus music in her mind to go along with it and nearly burst out into laughter.
It was even funnier since B. C. was using his powers to make the two of them trip up in ridiculous ways. Neither of them got hurt, but they were probably getting pretty exasperated and fed up by now.
"Jayden, (huff, huff) this is (wheeze) muy ridículo!" Antonio panted. He was doubled over, hands on his knees and breathing heavily. Jayden was only slightly better off.
"I agree, but don't you think something is strange?"
If he wasn't wearing a helmet, Antonio's ludicrous expression would be visible. "We're modern day samurai in spandex fighting to protect the world from monsters straight out of mythology and we're currently chasing a black cat ninja who causes bad luck whenever he snaps his fingers and he's swearing enough to make an entire crew of sailors faint. Nothing is strange to me anymore, mi amigo."
"That's actually perfectly normal for a Ranger," Jayden pointed out. "What I'm talking about is the fact that we're already this tired." He would've said more, but he was interrupted by a fit of coughing.
"I was wondering when you would notice," B. C. approached them. "It wouldn't be sportily of me to not explain why, so I will. Tell your friend to remove her hands from your other friend's ears. I really don't want to have to explain it twice." Jayden and Antonio told Mia to go along with it and she reluctantly complied.
"All of us Akuma members and others like us actually don't exactly exist in your world. Or, more specifically, few of us actually have a corporeal form. We need to make one so we can appear and interact with people and objects of interest in this plane, but to do that we need a certain amount of a specific type of energy.
"Before, we would use our own powers to generate that energy, but that method tended to drain us quickly and most of us couldn't keep it up for long. That's when we discovered you humans. You naturally generate and emit the energy we needed. Now, if that were it, then we could probably live side-by-side with you by living off of the natural discharge you produce. But that wasn't the case.
"The main problem is that there just wasn't enough to maintain some of the more powerful ones. Low-level peons, like Moogers, or some of less aggressive were perfectly fine, but many of us were unsatisfied and refused to leave it at that. Our researchers spent centuries to discover ways which we can extract more energy from you humans. We had our first major breakthrough when we discovered that we can stimulate the production and release of that energy by causing a state of fear and panic in the subject. That held us over for a good while, but it just didn't last.
"Over the years, we grew stronger and found that what we were managing to harvest wasn't enough anymore. Some of us panicked, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that a few took some rather, ahem, drastic measures to try to produce more energy. It didn't work and all it didn't was cause humans to be wary and furious. We ended up going into hiding, and we would've stayed that way if our researchers hadn't made their second breakthrough.
"They managed to narrow down what it was exactly that provided us sustenance: life force. That explained a lot and made it easier for them to come up with more ways to increase the harvest. But again, some of us went a little overboard and we had to temporarily retreat. Then came the third and latest breakthrough: technology.
"While most of us were woefully inept, the few that were tech-savvy constructed a device which allowed us to extract enough energy from not only humans, but all living things to sustain ourselves just by being within a certain range. Of course there was a lot of trial and error, somebody once melted their bum off by accident – long story, kind of funny actually – and there was a lot of debate as to how big the radius should be before it was decided that it should be set to 'close proximity'."
Mia was horrified. "You mean, this entire time, you were drain us of our life?"
"Not quite," admitted B. C. "Some time ago, we discovered a certain strain of humans were resistant to our drainers. We narrowed it down to what is called the 'Ranger Gene'. Or the 'Sentai Gene', but you probably don't even know anything about that and don't need to. Except maybe for the young lord over there." He gestured to Jayden.
B. C. cleared his throat. "No, the most we could do is sap your stamina from you. That's why you're so tired."
"That makes sense," Emily realized. "When we were fighting Yuki, we got exhausted really fast. I thought it was because of us being a bit out of practice, but this explains it perfectly!"
"So, what are you going to do?" B. C. taunted. Jayden stood straight, his sword at the ready.
"Beat you," he said confidently. However, he was already worn-out. Antonio was probably just as if not more drained than him, and if what this guy said held any truth, he's been sucking their stamina throughout his long lecture. Mia and Emily might be better off, but they won't be enough to beat B. C. and his ability to cause misfortune.
He's going to have to make an all-or-nothing bet on this one attack. Whoa, déjà vu.
"Fire Smasher!" Grimacing behind his visor from the weight of his normally trusted weapon, he reached into his belt and pulled out a white disk. He set it into the oversized sword and a second version, exactly the same as the first, materialized in his other hand. "Dual Disk! Double Fire Smasher!"
With all of his remaining strength and Symbol Power, he rushed forward and slashed both his swords, creating a big, fiery 'X'.
B. C. yelled as he was flung back from the sheer force of the blow. He tumbled and rolled for a few meters before coming to a halt. He was unmoving for several moments.
Jayden panted and struggled to remain standing. Did he do it…?
B. C. began to shake and his laughter echoed throughout the park. He rose to his feet, almost entirely unscathed save for a few scorch marks on his clothes. He earnestly applauded, confusing Jayden and the others.
"It's been ages since I've had this much fun!" he gleefully exclaimed. Then his features turned serious. "Sadly, I have to end this now." He brought out the gun again and leveled it at Jayden. "These bullets were charged with my power. Even if you survive, and it's unlikely, you'll be cursed with misfortune for the rest of your days. It's been fun, Red Samurai."
He pulled the trigger, and everything seemed to slow down. Antonio cried out and desperately tried to move. Emily and Mia were scrambling towards him, but they were too far away. Jayden was paralyzed as he could only watch the projectiles making their way towards him. Is this how it would end?
"Growth!"
Out of nowhere, a symbol flew towards the ground in front of Jayden, causing a huge tree to sprout and block the bullets.
"What?" B. C. was just as clueless. "Who dares to interfere?"
"Just me," somebody relied. Jayden couldn't see who it was because he was on the other side of the tree, but it definitely sounded familiar. "A samurai that happened to be passing by." His eyes widened. Wasn't that…?
"Shodō Phone! IPPITSU SOUJOU!"
A green light flashed. Jayden saw that B. C. was stunned.
"No… you aren't supposed to be here… you are…!"
"Shinken Green! Tani Chiaki! Tenkagomen no Samurai Sentai! Shinkenger, mairu!"
"Ippitsu Soujou!" = "With these few brushstrokes we report to the emperor!"
"Tenkagomen no Samurai Sentai! Shinkenger, mairu!" = "The Samurai Sentai authorized by divine providence! Shinkenger, go forth!"
So, what did you think? Like the latest guest appearance? If you do, there's more in the coming chapters, but not just by the Shinkengers. Keep reading to find out who.
Thanks for reading my stories! Remember to leave your thoughts in the reviews. I can't improve if I don't know what you guys think or if I should change anything. Until the next chapter!