Sachi: Yes, Asuka DOES know of her origins, as this is the sequel to KOIFT6. However, she feels no need to tell Jin...yet. And yes, Jun is still alive. Why she decided to let Kazuya do the crazy stuff he doing now, even though she doesn't need him to tell her what he's doing...well that's a surprise for the end!
After this chapter, I'm going to be taking a break so I can focus on summer school again. If anyone wants to send me monster ideas, or plot ideas for episodes, be sure to drop me a line and I'll see what I can do!
Rock on...Shinkenger!
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Established 1872, the Tokyo National Museum, or Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. The museum collects, houses, and preserves a comprehensive collection of art works and archaeological objects from Japan and other Asian countries. The museum holds over 110,000 articles, which includes 87 Japanese National Treasure holdings and 610 Important Cultural Property holdings. The museum also conducts research and organizes educational events related to its collection.
Astaroth had been watching television when he noticed a news report on an ancient shield that had arrived from London to be put on display in the Tokyo museum, at which point he called me into the room and informed me that the shield in question was actually one that he had fought against back in the 16th century. Astaroth demanded that he be allowed to retrieve this "Elk Shield" and crush it into dust so that he may settle a vendetta he had with the previous owner.
I was reluctant at first, due to how this would certainly bring unwanted attention to me if Astaroth was to be followed by the Shinkengers, whose identity Astaroth continued to keep secret. However, if this shield was worthy of Astaroth's attention to a point where he feared its power, then it could prove useful to me.
Of course, not everything went as planned…
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"Grr…we're wasting time!"
Hwoarang pounded his fist on the coffee table as his patience wore out. It had only been one day since he was forced to bury his friends Jae and Choi thanks to the golem known as Astaroth after coming to Japan to fight Jin Kazama. Swearing vengeance on his friends' graves, Hwoarang had agreed to help Jin, Asuka, and Xiaoyu take Astaroth down…on the condition that he was the one that delivered the finishing blow.
The four of them had spent most of the day practicing their martial arts technique, being they still had no idea where to find Astaroth or what his next move would be. Jin was particularly disturbed by the strength of the "Mong Kong" monster that fought them. Even though the Shinkengers managed to destroy him, the gorilla had strength far above any human levels. Furthermore, they now had concrete proof that Astaroth was taking orders from someone else.
Hwoarang, of course, had just about had it with investigating something that couldn't possibly be found with the little evidence they had. As Jin began going over what he had found, the Korean made clear his agitation.
"How can we just sit here on our butts, when that monster is out there running free? I said I'd help you, but only if you'd help me get what I want!" Hwoarang stood up and headed for the door of the mansion. "It's becoming pretty clear that I won't be getting it listening to you!"
"Hwoarang, don't be an idiot," Asuka ran after him and grabbed his hand. "Let's say you do find him…what will you do then? Last time, he stood on your neck until you passed out! Try imagining what he'll do if you go at him alone!"
"Get your hand off of me, bitch!" Hwoarang angrily snatched his hand away and turned around. "You don't know what it's like to lose someone who's close to you! So don't preach to me about keeping a cool head!"
"What did you call me?" Asuka quickly assumed a fighting stance. "Say that in my face, asshole!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Jin's voice boomed with such power and ferocity that Asuka and Hwoarang immediately ceased quarreling. "I don't like being the dark any more than you do, Hwoarang, but there's no way we can take him out without first finding the last of our group!" Jin took a deep breath and sat back down as Hwoarang and Asuka walked back over to the coffee table. "However…I think we might be very close to finding that person…"
Standing up and walking over to the nearby answering machine, Jin pressed a button on the machine and a woman's voice began speaking:
Hello, Jin? This is Vicky returning your call about Steve. As a matter of fact, he did have some kind of device on his wrist like the one you described when he left for Tokyo last week. He told me that Lei Wulong gave it to him in the mail and told him to keep it on him at all times. At any rate, I called Steve and told him that you called about him, and he says that he'll be glad to talk to you when he has a chance. Good luck on whatever it is you're doing!
"Jin!"
Xiaoyu ran into the room just as the others finished listening to the recording. "Astaroth has been spotted at the Tokyo National Museum!"
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"No doubt about it: this is definitely the genuine article."
Astaroth looked at the display case in front of him after shoving aside a few more security guards that impeded his path. The shield inside the display case was blue in color, a gold insignia marked on its front. Astaroth was still unsure as what Kazuya would want with such an object, but he didn't really care. As long as he could desecrate the weapon of one of his former enemies, he was a happy golem.
But as he reached for the display case, however, Astaroth received a violent electric shock. Roaring in pain, Astaroth pulled his hand back in surprise. It seemed that the shield was booby-trapped. Raising his axe in frustration, he prepared to smash case open when he heard a voice behind him.
"Astaroth…please allow me. Our lord would be displeased if we damaged the shield."
Standing behind the golem was a most peculiar individual: he was wearing black suspenders and a white knit shirt with a rose pinned near his heart. His hands were covered in black gloves, and in each hand there was a foot-long metallic rod. What was most intriguing about him, however, was that his head was not shaped like anyone else's: it was the shape of an oversized horseshoe magnet, complete with a silver color and red-and-blue tipped ends.
"Hmph," Astaroth let out a grunt as he let the bizarre figure pass. "I suppose you're right, Polevolt. What do you have in mind?"
Clicking his Escrima sticks together, the one called "Polevolt" held them over his head as they began to crackle with yellow electricity. Once they were at full power, a beam shot out of each of their tips, surrounding the glass display which crackled with its own power. After a few seconds of the energies clashing, the glass case exploded and the shield flew towards Polevolt as if it was a spaceship caught in a tractor beam like in old science-fiction movies.
Catching the shield as it came his way, Astaroth tucked it over under his shoulder and nodded to Polevolt. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, guv…"
Turning around at the unknown voice with a heavy English accent, Astaroth and Polevolt laid eyes on a handsome, medium-built Caucasian man with blonde hair. He was wearing a long-sleeved light blue knit shirt and navy-colored fingerless gloves, the red union jack on the back of each hand and a gold stud on each knuckle. His sapphire leather pants shone in the light as he pushed his nose-pinch glasses slightly. "That shield there happens to come from the Museum of London…and it certainly wouldn't be proper n' all if I let you take it, eh?"
"Pah," Polevolt lowered his Escrima sticks and put his wrists to his hips. "Who do you think you are, you ninny? Take a hike!"
"'A ninny?'" the blonde man wagged his finger and clicked his tongue. "You ought to be taught some manners, mate. But as for my name: I am the UK Stingray and World Middleweight Boxing Champion Steve Fox!" The man performed a quick flurry of punches before assuming a fighting stance.
Astaroth readied his axe as he noticed something quite familiar on Steve's left wrist: a silver device with two blue windows in the form of the kanji "Tekken."
"So you're the last one!" The golem began pounding his axe on the marble floor and called forth his Lizard-men. "This time there will be no escape!"
As three red-skinned reptilians popped out from under the floor and bared their fangs at him, Steve whistled in amusement and awe. "Crikey…those are some big crocs," Steve slapped his forehead sarcastically as he gave his best Steve Irwin impression.
Underneath the humorous remarks, however, Steve began to sweat. He had never seen creatures like the Lizard-men, and was a little bit concerned with lack of knowledge of what the creatures were capable of.
"GET HIM!"
Astaroth and Polevolt shouted their order simultaneously as the trio of Lizard-men hissed and charged at Steve while the English boxer resumed his fighting stance. Dodging to the right as one Lizard-man attempted to bite him, Steve punished the reptile with a couple of powerful left-handed haymakers. The next Lizard-man took a swipe at the Englishman with its sharp claws, but Steve evaded that attack as well by bending over backwards, then countering with a punch to the top of its head as he straightened himself out.
The third one that came at the British boxer, however, was a tad more skilled than its brethren. Rather than coming at Steve blindly, it chose to begin the fight on the defensive. Steve let loose a series of straight punches that seemed like blurs to the naked eye, but not one of them hit its mark as the Lizard-man moved it head like a cobra and evading each strike. Once Steve let his guard down to catch his breath, Lizard-man spun around with lightning speed and sent the boxer sprawling with a tail whip.
As Steve's body flew in the air, however, his wrist device began to glow a blue light, and instantly enveloped his entire body. Flipping onto his feet, Steve felt the warm energy course through his body. Well...it looks like it's morphin' time!
The blue light slowly dissipated as Steve admired his transformed state: a stylish fusion of blue, gold, and platinum. His torso was now adorned with platinum body armor with two shoulder pads of the same color attached to it. On the body armor a sapphire jewel that pulsated with power. The rest of the body was covered with a blue body-suit, with the wrists and boots being the same platinum color as the torso. His blue gloves were studded with golden spikes, and around the waist was a golden belt, bond together with a platinum buckle bearing the two kanji "Tekken." Steve's face, and his entire head, was now covered with a round blue helmet, with only black visor with gold trim in front of the eyes allowing for sight. At the side of the visor on both sides was the number "3" written in gold.
"Faster than lightning, stronger than steel..." Steve tapped his helmet once and gave a thumbs-up to the Lizard-man that was tilting its head in curiosity, "…and a helmet to keep me face pretty in case something happens. I still haven't thought of a good name for meself…"
Rubbing the lower part of his helmet in deep contemplation, Steve let down his guard and the Lizard-man ran at him to resume its assault. However, Steve rocked back and forth and avoided forward stabs from the Lizard-man's claws, all while still rubbing his chin.
"Ah! I have it now," Steve punched the Lizard-man with a right cross that was so powerful that it forces the creature to spread its arms out. Following with a powerful left uppercut, Steve completed his sentence. "You may call me…ShinkenBlue!" The Lizard-man fell down on its back as it faded into unconsciousness with the uppercut knocking it out. "Pleasant dreams, worthy adversary," Steve gave a two-fingered salute to the fallen creature as he ran back to where Polevolt was standing.
"Hey, wait just a moment there," Steve raised an eyebrow behind his helmet as he noticed that Astaroth was missing. Pointing to Polevolt, who now had the shield propping his foot up, Steve brought up his question: "Hey guv, where did our mutual friend go?"
Steve's question was quickly answered as he felt monstrous arms hug him from behind, one of them holding a giant battle ax. Lifted off the ground, Steve flailed his legs wildly as he was brought into a crushing embrace. "I'll strangle the life out of you," Astaroth roared as he tightened his death-grip on Steve.
"Oh yeah?" Steve shouted between struggled breaths, "It just so happens-ugh-I like to start each day with a good hug!" Ugh…who am I kidding? Everything's…going black…
However, just as Steve was about to lose consciousness, Astaroth roared in pain and dropped the British fighter. Gasping for air, Steve quickly unclipped his helmet and took a deep breath while Astaroth turned around.
"What?" Astaroth raised his axe and narrowly blocked a kick to his face. "How did you get in here?"
Now standing in front of Astaroth was Hwoarang, fully dressed in his ShinkenBlack armor. Rather than answering with words however, he flipped awe from Astaroth's low ax swipe and spread his arms out, allowing Xiaoyu and Asuka to propel themselves off his shoulders and drop-kick Astaroth in the face.
"Ugh...quite a close call there," Steve took another lungful of air and picked up his helmet. Turning to a red-clad fighter, Steve clipped back on his helmet and gave a thumb-up. "I don't know who are mate, but thanks for the assist."
"Don't mention it," Jin shook Steve's hand once the blue-clad boxer recognized Jin's voice. "Now let's put that axe-wielding psycho in his place!"
Astaroth shook off the blows he received and resumed his fighting stance as Steve and Jin rejoined the Shinkenger group. "I will send you all to hell," Astaroth spun his axe around wildly as he prepared to rend their souls. "Not a hair of you will be getting out alive!"
I beg to differ, Astaroth's headset radio buzzed lightly in his ear as he confronted the group. Let Polevolt deal with them and return to base.
Astaroth let out a roar of anger and sent Hwoarang, Xiaoyu, and Asuka sprawling as he ran for the door. Damn, Kazuya says I need to go now, Astaroth grumbled to himself after listening to his headset raido, what does that fool have up his sleeve now…?
"Damn! He's getting away," Hwoarang quickly got back onto his feet and ran after Astaroth. However, he didn't get farther than ten steps when he felt a sharp pain in his back. Turning around to face the source of the attack, he saw Polevolt with his Escrima sticks crackling with energy. "Hey, magnet-man, did you do that?"
"Damn right I did, you cur," the magnet-head pointed his Escrima sticks at the quintet as he kicked the shield under his feet aside. "My name is Polevolt the Escrima magnet and if you want to save this Elk Shield, you'll have to get through me first!"
"I've got no problems with that, weirdo," Xiaoyu and the others jumped out of the way as Polevolt dove towards them sticks-first and landed on his face. "You hit Hwoarang, and I'm going to make sure to pay for that!"
Scrambling back onto his feet, Polevolt caught Hwoarang's axe kick with his forearm, and retaliated by sending the Korean youth into the air with a vertical swat of left Escrima stick, then juggled him in the air with repeated stabs of both sticks and sending him sprawling with another swat.
Next up were Steve and Jin, who came at Polevolt simultaneously with two powerful punches. Blocking both punches with his Escrima sticks in an "x" position, the fiend kicked both of them away with a roundhouse kick, then ran up to Jin before he could hit the ground, hitting him in his kneecaps with both Escrima sticks. "You seem to be the leader of the bunch, my crimson friend," Polevolt put his foot on Jin's chest and prepared to deliver a killing blow. "Let's see how gung ho you are after I smash your skull!"
However, Jin was saved by a timely intervention in the form of Xiaoyu's Shooting Star technique, which kicked Polevolt five times before being sent flying off Jin as Xiaoyu gracefully landed from the flying kick flurry. "Don't worry, Jin," Xiaoyu put out her hand and helped Jin back up as Polevolt turned to face his next opponent. "I'll make sure that you stay safe!"
"Thanks, Xiao," Jin dusted himself off and resumed his fighting stance. "Be sure to help the others too, though."
Polevolt narrowly dodged a kick from Asuka and punished her with a blow to her ribs. As Asuka gripped where she had been struck, Polevolt took advantage of her weakness and sent her sprawling backwards by hitting her with both Escrima sticks as if he were a golfer hitting a tee. Asuka crashed into a display case, shattering it as she stuggled to get back up.
"Now that is no way to treat a lady," Steve ran over to Asuka and helped her up before resuming his fight with Polevolt. "You ought to be taught some chivalry!"
Quickly ducking under Polevolt's horizontal swat, Steve began pummeling the fiend with a flurry of punches. The punches rained down upon Polevolt's abdomen, causing him to drop his Escrima sticks. However, the punches did not cease, as Steve's Gatling gun technique seemed to paralyze Polevolt in place. Finally, when it seemed that the punches would never end, Steve sent the creature flying into the air with an uppercut.
"Thanks for the assist, Steve," Hwoarang gave a two-fingered salute as he caught Polevolt with his foot and began to juggle him the air as a soccer player would a ball. Jumping up in the air and sending his flying with a tornado kick, Hwoarang issued his warning: "Xiaoyu, heads up!"
Already prepared for the monster, Xiaoyu shot out both her palms simultaneously and sent the creature flying towards Asuka, who then sent it towards Jin with a jumping roundhouse kick.
"Time to end this," Jin crackled with his red ki and charged up his ultimate attack. With Polevolt coming at him headfirst, Jin let loose his most powerful technique: the Eighth Gate of Hell. Shattering the creature's two head spikes, Jin sent the creature screeching to the floor, bleeding sparks just like its predecessor Mong Kong. After trying to get back up, Polevolt let loose a death cry and exploded in a fiery plume that shook the foundations of the museum, leaving only a big black spot on the marble floor.
"Another one bites the dust," Asuka dusted off her hands as she ran over to Jin. "Just goes to show that you don't mess with the Tekkenshu Sentai Shinkenger!"
"Is that what our name to going be?" Hwoarang rolled his eyes beneath his helmet. "As long as our roll call is more badass than our name, I'll deal with it…especially since next time we're going to finish off that freak once and for all!"
After dusting himself off, Steve walked over to the shield that Polevolt kicked aside and dusted it off as well. Putting it back on its stand within the now-shattered display case, he walked over to Jin and shook his hand. "I don't suppose I could bother you and ask if I could join your group, eh guv?"
"The more, the merrier: welcome to the team." Jin nodded to Steve as he let go of his hand. Xiaoyu clapped in approval as Jin and Steve walked up to where she, Hwoarang and Asuka were waiting for them. "OK guys…there's a big crowd out there, so let's be sure to keep our helmets on so that whoever it is Astaroth is working for doesn't figure out who we are."
"Ha! I can deal with paparazzi," Hwoarang scoffed as the quintet walked out of the building to face the people gathered outside. "It's fangirls I have problems with…"
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"Astaroth…"
Kazuya walked over to the golem that was sitting on the couch sulking. "Do not consider this a loss."
"HOW CAN I NOT?" Astaroth got up and smashed the coffee table in front of him. "I COULD HAVE DESTROYED THEM! WHY DID YOU HAVE ME BAIL?"
"Because," Kazuya smiled evilly as he handed Astaroth five photographs, "while you were fighting, I overheard their voices. Tell me…are these the Shinkenger you saw?"
Astaroth looked at the photographs and nodded each time he saw one. Kazuya took them from him and continued smiling. "Those are five of the greatest martial artists in the world. That's why I had you pull out: now that we know who they are, we can reconsider our plans..."
Walking away from Astaroth as the golem reached for the remote and turned on the television, Kazuya's smile faded and turned into an angry grimace. OK, Jin…you want to play hardball? I'll give you hardball! By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be begging me for mercy!