Episode 4: "Code"
Things were still peaceful in the River of Styx. At least... as peaceful as a dimension filled with the screams of tortured souls can be. Reapus still has not cooled down, and thus is still meditating in his chamber. Melodina, being mysterious as she is, has yet to return to the ship in the center of the river. This left Kalacles with uncountable amounts of free time. And of course he spends it doing what he does best, which is to use his time to come up with a genius way to get rid of the rangers.
"Okay... I may have set my hopes a bit high with that last attack..." said the squid with certainty. "But I shall prevail!" He took his staff over and snuck a peek at the human world. He was looking moreso at the household of the Sadiko family. He eyed Dan, who was now the current head of the family.
"I see... if I get rid of the leader... the rest will be easy!" With that he giggled madly and waved his staff over the river once again. This time, not only did spherical souls erupt from the river, but stranger plants also broke the surface, wrapping around the souls tightly. It compacted them and they glowed an ominous red. When the glowing subsided, a figure stood in their place. He was the off color of seaweed and was just as repulsive. It appeared as if he had two hands grasping him from behind, which were both a tint of orange. His fists were similar to boxing-gloves, although much more defined in shape. He bowed to Kalacles and said,
"Hmmm Hmmm, Just show me the ring coach! I'll knock 'em out faster than you can say KO!" Kalacles nodded and said,
"Boxivine... abit unorthodox, but you'll do." He showed his newest monster the rangers and said, "The red one. Destroy the red one and everything should fall into place." Boxivine bobbed his head up and down, saying,
"Hmmm Hmmm, Ding Ding the bell has rung, time for Round One!" He jumped off the ship, diving into the real world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Kendo club however, the younger students were even more suprised when they had recieved two new arrivals, Dave and Rebecca. Being trained to be Samurai, Lee thought it would be an excellent idea for the entire team to practice in school as well as outside school, to keep minds and skills sharp. However, today wasn't a normal practice. This week the club was to research Bushido, or Code of the Samurai. Rebecca, being the least knowledgable in the subject, had a hard time grasping the idea.
"Honor, Dignity, Respect... it's all the same! I mean even HUMILITY is here!" She said to herself as she continued to read more and more. One of the topics that caught her eye was the section on vassals and their importance to their lord. She was captivated by the aspect of loyalty and read a passage outloud,
"Vassals would lay down their lives for their lord at any given time. Their loyalty was one of the most predominant features about them." She pictured herself defending Dan all by herself, not caring to read the part about working as a unit. Dan whispered over her shoulder,
"Don't call me a lord, it's very awkward." She jumped and said,
"O-oh! Dan. Don't do that!" She laughed and Dan smiled. She decided to improve herself and devote her time to be an excellent Samurai. Starting with challenges of course. She tried to fight several of the members in the club, but she was soundly beaten. Her eyes couldn't get ahold of the blade in time. So, being the former champion, Vivian observed her matches and gave her some advice.
"Your.... not an offensive person. I think you should wait and counter your opponent. That's more your style." Rebecca disregarded the advice and continued trying to fight her own way. It didn't get her far however. So instead, she decided to imitate Vivian's sword strokes. But they were totally fast and unimaginably quick to copy, owing to the fact that she was aided by the wind. She began to wonder why she was earth of all things. She didn't like to sit and wait. It was against her personality. She just wanted a way to prove herself to the team and prove it fast. Of course the time came when their morphers, which acted as phones, beeped in the same chime as the Sadiko home. The team looked at each other and nodded but Rebecca was already out the door and teleported to the area saying,
"Just you wait, I'll prove myself a vassal worthy of my lord!" She already forgot what Dan told her.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca was the first one to get to the riverside and she faced the monster, who grinned madly. She took out her morpher and flicked the brush, bringing it forward. She said with confidence,
"Samurai Soul, Burn Fierce!" while writing the kanji for "Tsuchi" or "Earth". Immediately, she was covered in yellow energy with the symbol wrapping itself around her. Her ranger suit appeared from the brilliant light, leaving only her head revealed. Lastly, the kanji placed itself onto her face, creating the helmet and visor. Once the morph was complete, she drew her sword with a pose and said,
"Embodiment of the Solid Earth! Samurai Yellow!" She continued in a more final tone,
"I'll finish you before my lord gets here!" cried Rebecca as she slashed the monster several times. Of course, each of those times the blade was blocked by his enlarged arms. He made a punch to her stomach, which she managed to block, but the force of which made her skid across the ground. He banged his fists together.
"Hmmm Hmmm, My heart's not pumping yet! I need more!"
The monster punched the ground hard, making his fists dig into the ground. Rebecca wasn't paying it no mind, so ran forward blindly, drawing her sword and raised it high. Before she brought it down, one of the fists shot out of the ground, nearly incapacitating her, were it not for Dan's intrusion. He pushed her out of the way before the attack hit, making the target himself. The blow struck him hard in the side, making him fly a few yards until he hit the pavement hard. Rebecca was horrified and she cried out,
"Dan!" She ran over to him and knelt down, picking him up using herself as support. He was hit hard in the side and so it was too painful to speak right away. Rebecca looked back at the monster and yelled at him.
"No one hurts my lord!" She pointed at him and he snickered.
"Hmmm Hmmm, Let's see how the little girl matches up to the champ!" Boxivine threw his fists into the ground yet again, but this time, Rebecca was ready. Having seen his attack already, she knew that she could do it. Earth was her specialty afterall. So, she drew her sword and opened a compartment on her belt, revealing the Terra Disk. She placed it on the bottom of her sword and cried out,
"Hidden Blade, Energy Mode!" She spun the metallic disk on her sword and it began to rotate extremely fast, causing a swirl of yellow energy to surrond it. She posed with the sword and called out,
"Earth Form, Tremor Blade!" She slowly aimed her attack, timing it so that the vines wouldn't be a problem. Once she saw the vines coming out, she cried out,
"Ha!" And struck the ground with obscene pressure, splitting the ground. The attack split the monster in half, causing it to explode into debris. Dan managed to get up and, holding his side, he nodded in approval. She smiled, but was still sad that she couldn't prevent his injury.
"Dan... I'm..." But at the next moment, the water from the river splashed out, encircling the remains. Sprouting from it, the monster stood again, in his natural form. Towering over them, he shouted,
"Hmmm Hmmm, time for round two!"
Rebecca, now filled with determination coupled with her lone victory, said strongly,
"Don't worry Dan. I'll handle this myself!" She unlatched her holster and took out her triangular origami. Bringing out her morpher, she placed her origami on the floor, writing over it and saying,
"Origami Unfold!" The shape broke open as the phone stroked over it. It flew into the air as she cried out,
"Origami, Mountain Ape, Samuraizord Power!"
The mighty ape moved forward as she pushed against her Hidden Blade, which acted as the controller. The monster, being larger than the origami itself, threw a punch at it. Using the ape's agile limbs, Rebecca jumped upwards before the hit landed and whacked the monster easily on the head. Boxivine stumbled back a step, but it didn't do any kind of damage. It was more annoying to him really. So he threw a straight punch at Rebecca, who went flying. Before she hit the ground however, the other four origami of her teammates caught her. She was confused and abit hurt.
"Dan, guys! I said I could do this myself! I need to prove I can be a good vassal to my lord!" Dan sighed as he said,
"I already said it earlier, but please... don't refer to me as a lord. It gets way too awkward." Dave spoke up next, laughing abit.
"Dummy. If Dan puts up with me as a vassal, do you really think he'd think no less of you? I mean, you already proved yourself in that fight just now." Vivian, surprisingly had a few words to say as well.
"Even the strongest of warriors need help sometimes. Right?" Andrew agreed.
"Right. So now, let's cut down this overgrown weed!" Rebecca smiled behind her helmet as she spoke,
"You guys... alright let's do it!" Dan placed a hand over his hilt and said,
"Unity Form Activate!"
The megazord formed once again, and they all cried out,
"Emperor Samurai Megazord, Going Forth!" Bonivine shook his fists into the air as he spoke,
"Hmmm Hmmm, That toy isn't going to bop me one!" He shot a conglomerate substance from his mouth, which comprised of mud and various other elements. Reacting quickly, Rebecca used the shield based on the back of the megazord to block the hit. Moving forward, the rangers held the shield erect to protect themselves from the onslaught of attacks. Bonivine wasn't impressed.
"Hmmm Hmmm, So what! I'll still get you with my Knockout Vines!" He kneeled down onto the floor and gave a mighty punch with both fists. They dug underground, and dug and dug deeper and encircled the Megazord from under the surface. Dave spoke in panic,
"We can't fight something we can't see coming!" But Rebecca, controlling the right arm of the megazord, put the shield back. Andrew looked at her strangely.
"You have a plan?" Dan replied before Rebecca answered,
"Of course... Go for it!" She was glad he understood as she closed her eyes and concentrated. A strange feeling connected to her as she felt the earth under her. She finally felt the tremor of the arms moving. As soon as it reached the surface, she cried,
"NOW!" Dan moved the megazord forward, stepping on the vine-like fist before it could strike. Raising the sword, it fell down on it's captured foe and sliced it clean. Bonivine shrieked in pain and cried out,
"Hmmm Hmmm, MY ARM! MY BONTICALLY BEAUTIFUL ARM!"
Dave was amazed and puzzled at the same time.
"Wow! How'd you do that?" Rebecca smiled and said,
"I connected with the earth. I learned about it when Dan's dad had me read about the Samurai of the past." Vivian held her chin and said softly,
"Integration with your element... that's brilliant." Dan nodded. They all focused their attention on the monster. They all drew their swords and held it in front of them, calling out,
"Unity Form, Harmony Blade!" Bringing their hands down, they spun the metallic portion of their swords. They glowed a brilliant light, which was a rainbow combination of all of their colors. The megazord's sword also glowed the same color, only in it's design. Making a circle with the blade, it resembled a lunar body, until it made a complete revolution. Bringing the blade down, they all cried,
"Ha!" The slash went through and caused the monster to explode on impact. Dan looked over to Rebecca and said,
"You see? It's great that you want to be strong. Even better that you want to help the others protect me. But don't over do it. And... relaying on others isn't a weakness. It's a strength, Humility." Dave patted Dan on the back, saying,
"Okay Captain Morals, let's go! Mom has dinner waiting!" The five friends laughed and Rebecca was glad she was finally useful to the team.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next Time on Power Rangers Samurai Squadron:
An ancient relic that resembles a disk is found in the forest! Can the rangers unlock its secrets before the Styxerons destroy the city? Or will River End really meet its end?! Found out next time!