Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
The ShinLiner shot across the desert like a gleaming green arrow, racing across the sands down the corridor of pillars Ra had created for them.
"Shin, how much longer until we get there?" Nushi asked.
"Hell if I know," Shin replied, frowning and tapping his instruments, which were going haywire. "I can't make heads or tails of these readings. Which I guess makes sense, since we're basically in another plane. I'm not even sure how long we've been going, the chronometer's all screwy, which is a BAD thing as far as a time machine is concerned!"
"We'll get there when we get there," Goro said, cleaning his gun. "Hopefully before it's too late."
"Which it will be," Ariel said. She didn't sound particularly pessimistic or gloomy, merely stating a fact.
"I really hope you're wrong this time," Nushi griped.
"I'm not," Ariel said, and her girlfriend reluctantly admitted this was probably the case.
"This conveyance of yours is truly remarkable," Thotep commented, admiring the cushion on his seat, the carpeted floor, the high-tech wall sconces, and the other amenities. "I must say, it's not like what I ever imagined a time machine would look like!"
"What did you imagine a Time Machine would look like?" Gozim asked, sharpening his blade.
"Well, before today I never actually imagined such a device existed, but I doubt I ever conceived of it looking like this," Thotep admitted.
"This thing is even more high-tech than my ship," Akilah commented, her tone approving but envious. "A lot more comfortable, too."
"Are all such conveyances in your time like this, Nushi?" Cleopatra wondered, petting a purring Nefer who was reclining in her lap. "I'm kind of jealous you can't take us back with you for a visit."
"While that might be nice, it's probably not a good idea," Nushi agreed. "We've probably abused the time space continuum enough for one day, right, Shin?"
"Don't want to cause a temporal paravox!" Shin agreed.
"You know, if I weren't in your head all the time, and we weren't unable to lie, I'd wonder if you were making half of these things up," Mibojin commented.
"I wish I was making half of this junk up," Shin said seriously. "Time travel is serious business. And speaking of serious, it looks like we've just about reached our destination!"
While all the Bugrangers and their Divine Insects could see through his eyes, the Egyptrangers didn't have that luxury, so Shin conscientiously activated a holo-display of what was in front of the ShinLiner.
The Egyptrangers gasped.
Cart took another swig of Enetron.
Mark, who'd spent most of the trip being violently sick in the bathroom, stumbled out, took one look at what they were racing into, and rushed back into the bathroom.
Some distance ahead of them, a small mountain of rock rose from the sands of the Duat, covered in hieroglyphics which Thotep immediately recognized as spells of protection and containment. A small façade was carved into the front of the rock in a combination of Greco-Roman and Egyptian styles, flanked by a pair of sphinxes with obelisks and Etruscan pillars forming a ring around the structure. A pair of large stone doors hung crookedly open in the façade, indicating that, as Ariel and Shin had predicted, Caesar and his party had already made it inside the tomb.
That wasn't what shocked everyone, though. That would be the full-scale battle being waged in the dunes surrounding the tomb.
At least a thousand legionnaires and monstrous centurions were locked in pitched battle with an army of Ushabti and animal headed demons with sharp fangs and even sharper knives. The sand was being stained red with blood, and whenever a soldier of either side fell, their bodies were immediately swallowed up by the desert, never to be seen again. Towering soldiers made of bronze, massive Minotaurs of fire and rock, fearsome Cyclopes, and even a Cerberus or two were present as well, struggling against equally colossal Ushabti and even some of the immense animals that called this sand ocean home.
But not even that was as spectacular as the literally divine struggle going on behind the rock. A skyscraper sized man looking as if he had been carved from volcanic obsidian with a flaming beard, wearing black robes and armor, a horned helmet which covered his entire head, and wielding a bident was furiously fighting a green skinned man of equal size whose entire body was covered in white linen, wielding an immense flail and crook while wearing a white plumed hat shaped like a bowling pin and a spectacularly beautiful woman with a long red formfitting shoulderless gown and a crown shaped like a chair wielding a scepter and an Ankh. While the two men seemed to prefer fighting with their enchanted and very powerful weapons, the woman kept a distance, constantly chanting spells to aid her green skinned partner while bombarding the more monstrous being with powerful magic like fallen stars, serpents, and other projectiles that seemed like nothing less than miniature suns.
"It's King Osiris and Queen Isis!" An excited Cleopatra exclaimed.
"Oh gosh, she's beautiful!" Ariel cried. "And she's so magical I can feel it from here!"
"You think she can help me?" Nushi asked, glancing at Coccinella.
"I certainly hope so," her partner replied, flicking her elytra.
"Who is their opponent?" Mibojin inquired.
"That's Pluto," Mark said, dragging himself out of the bathroom. "God of the underworld. The Roman underworld, anyway."
"But he doesn't look anything like a dog!" Ariel protested.
The Egyptrangers and Mark gave her confused looks. Her friends groaned.
"Oh, right, Disney doesn't exist yet, never mind. Hey, think we should tell him the stellar body named after him has been demoted to a dwarf planet?" Ariel wondered.
"I do not think that would be wise," Manti said.
"You're right, he won't get the reference either," Ariel agreed.
"That's not what I-"
"Are we going to have to get into the middle of that?" Nefer asked in concern. "That's a pretty big fight."
"I don't really see how we can avoid it," Cleopatra murmured. "There's two entire armies between us and the entrance to the tomb. While the servants of the gods will do their best to ignore us, there's no way the Roman legions will let us pass unscathed."
Shin chuckled. "Oh, but there's something you're forgetting, Your Majesty. The ShinLiner can move in four dimensions. And while yes, that means it can travel in time…"
The train rumbled slightly, and then, to the astonishment of the Egyptrangers and Mark and the amusement of the rest of the Bugrangers, the ShinLiner began to rise into the air. Several of the Roman and Egyptian forces on the ground paused in the middle of combat when they felt a shadow pass over them and looked up in disbelief as the vehicle from the future flew over their heads.
"It also means it can fly over any obstacles in its path! So, who wants to cut right to the chase and make an entrance of our own?"
The responding cheer was unanimous in nature.
The heart of the tomb of Alexander the Great was as resplendent as that of any Pharaoh. Gold and jewels and treasures he had plundered from every corner of the known world were piled up against the walls, which were covered in frescoes depicting the many wars he had waged and the nations he had conquered in his lifetime. Statues of himself and the gods, both Egyptian and Roman, rose occasionally from the vast sea of riches like small islands in a golden ocean. Several sarcophagi lined the wall, containing the mummies of the numerous concubines and slave girls he'd ordered buried along with him to serve him in the afterlife. Thankfully, while Alexander's soul had been consumed by Ammit, those of his would be consorts had been granted passage to the Sea of Reeds.
The splendor of the chamber was rather spoiled by the bloodstains and corpses of Roman legionnaires and the monstrous mummified guardians and demons that had been tasked with guarding the tomb. While it had been a difficult struggle, Caesar's party had managed to fight their way to the inner sanctum, the knowledge Argus managed to convey to his master before his demise helping them navigate the numerous traps and curses filling the ancient structure, though not without suffering heavy casualties.
It had all been worth it, Caesar thought to himself as Brutus struggled to lift the lid of the massive solid gold sarcophagus in the center of the room. Soon, he would claim the Eyes of Alexander, and all the sacrifices he and others had made would not be in vain.
"You should be honored," Caesar smugly told a heavily chained and hobbled Masaru, being guarded by Anastasius and Valentinian, the two soldiers looking enviously at the two score or so other legionnaires which were all that was left of his raiding party scattered about the room, helping themselves to the loot. "Soon, you shall witness the birth of a new God!"
Masaru gave him a bored look. "New gods are born all the time back when I'm from. Most of them get killed off pretty quickly."
"Yes, but we aren't in your time, now are we?" Caesar pointed out. "This is not Japan of the 21st-century, where you can't throw a rock without hitting someone in a mask and colorful costume! Heroes like the Egyptrangers are far rarer in this era, and once they fall, nobody can stop me, not even the Gauls! I shall change history, prevent my fated end, and ensure the Roman Empire lasts forever!"
"That's what most of the newborn gods back in my time say too," Masaru countered. "Usually right before they get a Rider Kick to the face or are bisected by a giant robot."
Caesar's eye twitched. "Brutus! How much longer!"
"Almost… Got it…" The aptly named brute said through clenched teeth, muscles heaving, veins bulging out of his forehead and arms. "And… There!"
With a considerable grunt of effort, he managed to pry open the lid of sarcophagus, which fell onto an unlucky legionary and crushed him and cratered the ground. "Phew! That was pretty heavy! REALLY didn't want anyone getting in here. Or getting out."
"Well done, Brutus! Now, we will be the first mortals in centuries to gaze upon the face of Alexander of Macedon, the man who once ruled almost the entire known world!" Caesar said eagerly, rushing up to join his comrade as they gazed into the sarcophagus.
"… He's smaller than I thought he'd be," Brutus said after a moment. "He looks just like any other moldering old mummy to me."
Indeed, the mummified corpse inside the sarcophagus didn't particularly look like he had once been a legendary conqueror who ruled over almost the entire known world. The shriveled cadaver was wrapped in tattered, moldy bandages, the numerous magical amulets of protection and jewels he'd been buried with tarnished, cracked, or outright broken. The golden mask covering his face was covered in rust and twisted from a beautiful visage to a death's head.
"The gods of Egypt deemed his soul unworthy of passing on to the afterlife, so didn't bother giving any protection to his body, it would seem, even though they dragged his tomb here to the underworld, where time has no meaning," Caesar murmured, a troubled look on his face. "Is this to be my fate as well, old friend? Will I receive any reward for my actions in life in service to the gods and my nation? Or does nothing await me but the void, and for my body to become nothing but a frail, withered husk which not even worms will touch? Even if I am to suffer eternal damnation, at least I would still exist…"
"Well, once you get the Eyes, you can avoid that fate," Brutus suggested.
"Oh yeah? Doesn't seem like they helped your guy Alexander in the end!" Masaru shouted, and Caesar uncomfortably had to admit he had a point.
"So, where are the Eyes?" Brutus asked, doing his best to put Masaru's argument out of mind.
"Beneath the mask," Caesar replied.
"Right. Of course they are," Brutus responded. "So, we're absolutely sure none of us are getting cursed once I take this thing off, right?"
"We shouldn't be," Caesar said, though he didn't sound entirely certain.
Brutus grimaced. "Screw it. We've come this far."
Bracing himself, he grabbed the mask and ripped it off in a single motion…
And he and Caesar both recoiled. "By the gods, he's looking at us!" Brutus cried.
If the mask had been grisly, the face beneath it was positively grotesque, Alexander's heavily decayed features shriveled, warped, and tortured, mouth hanging open in an endless silent scream. However, while the rest of his face had been brutally ravaged by time, his eyes were still clear and perfectly preserved, staring at the desecrators of his tomb as if in judgment from beyond the grave.
"I would ask for your forgiveness for this trespass, O great Alexander," Caesar said solemnly. "But I know you are in no position to do so."
"By Jupiter, it's like they're following me," Brutus murmured, hopping back and forth, unnerved at how the eyes seemed to be staring right at him no matter where he was positioned. "But where are the Eyes?"
Caesar nodded at the eyes. "You're looking at them."
Brutus stared at him for a minute. "Wait. You mean… You mean the Eyes of Alexander are…?!"
Caesar nodded. "The actual eyes, yes."
Brutus's eyes widened in horror and he slowly backed away from the sarcophagus. "Yeah, no. Julius, old friend, I've done a LOT for you over the years, but I think this is where I draw the line. I am not reaching in there and plucking out a dead man's eyeballs."
"Don't worry, old friend, I'll do it myself," Caesar said. He squared his jaw and reached into the sarcophagus…
And hesitated. Awkwardly, he glanced over his shoulder. "I, um, don't suppose anyone would be willing to pull these eyeballs out for me? They will be rewarded very handsomely."
Every legionnaire in the room suddenly found something absolutely fascinating to occupy themselves with, unable to look their master in the eyes.
Caesar grimaced. "You know, I probably should be more upset by that, but I get where you're coming from."
"Haven't you always said that a good leader should never give an order they're unwilling to carry out themselves?" Brutus recalled.
Caesar sighed. "I did, and never have I regretted that more than this instance." He took a deep breath. "Okay. For real this time."
He reached for the eyes again. Wavered. Made a face. Finally he covered his eyes with his free hand and reached out…
And that's when the ShinLiner smashed through the wall, crushing several legionaries.
"What?!" Brutus cried as Caesar yanked his hand back from the sarcophagus, hoping nobody noticed the look of relief on his face.
"Ha! You guys are in for it now!" Masaru crowed eagerly as the Bugrangers, Egyptrangers, and Mark disembarked from the train, the 11 of them standing dramatically before the startled Roman forces.
"So are you, Aso! You still have a lot to answer for, trying to hijack my train and getting us stranded here in the first place!" Shin shouted.
"Oh right, I did do that, didn't I?" Masaru suddenly remembered.
"To be perfectly fair, it was more Aranea's fault that we crashed here, not Masaru's," Mibojin pointed out.
"You can't blame her for that! It was destiny or something!" Ariel insisted.
"Which Nushi's actions earlier demonstrated is not infallible-" Mibojin started.
"Can we not get into that right now? Feels like it's played out at this point," Goro interrupted.
"Egyptrangers! So we meet again!" Caesar declared dramatically, swishing his cape behind him. "Cleopatra, you're looking well."
"You… Don't. You look really tired," Cleopatra observed. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"
Caesar laughed harshly. "Sleep? When would I have time to sleep, what with trying to manage a war effort, dealing with the Senate back home, the constant headaches from the Gauls, the unending demands of the gods, and the sudden realization that my own nephew has been plotting against me all along?!"
"Uncle… I'm sorry, but what I do, I do for the greater glory of Rome!" Mark insisted. "I love our Republic and what it stands for, but I feel as if we've gone too far! You've allowed your obsession with the Gauls, with power, blind your judgment! You've turned a not insignificant number of our soldiers into monsters, for Minerva's sake!"
"Which the recruiters never mentioned was a possibility, I might add," Valentinian complained.
"And now you're invading a foreign country's underworld to try and claim a forbidden power? You've gone too far, uncle! I'm sorry, but I have no choice but to stop you-" Mark cried.
"Oh come on Mark, we both know this isn't really about that, you're just trying to impress Cleopatra," Caesar said wearily.
Mark stammered, flustered, as Cleopatra looked at him. "Wh-what?! That's not…sh-she has nothing to do with this, I'm merely trying to do what is right-"
"Mark, it's okay, I've been there, I know Cleopatra is ridiculously easy to fall in love with," Caesar told him patiently as Mark grew increasingly more flustered. "Men like us have been doing stupid things to try and impress beautiful women since the dawn of time. Honestly, if I still thought there was a chance between the two of us – um, there isn't, is there?"
"There is not," Cleopatra said, genuinely apologetic.
"Right, if I thought there might still be a chance for the two of us to patch things up, I'd be strongly tempted to just wash my hands of all this and go home," Caesar admitted. "But I've done too much and come too far and my pride won't let me back down, especially so long as those blasted Gauls continue to defy me! So, while I do not blame you for your choices, nephew… Nor can I forgive them, so have no choice but to treat you as I would any other enemy!"
Mark's shoulders sagged at this.
"And speaking of enemies… So, you are the infamous Bugrangers," Caesar observed, turning to face the heroes from the future. "Your friend Masaru has told me all about you!"
"Not our friend," Shin said automatically.
"No matter what he has told you, I rather doubt it will give you any advantage whatsoever against us," Mibojin said calmly.
Caesar raised his eyebrows. "Oh no? He's told me a great deal about the era you come from… And thanks to the Time Machine you were so thoughtful enough to bring me, soon I will be able to conquer it, and all other eras!"
Shin laughed. "Ha! And did he happen to mention that I'm the only one who can operate the train?"
Caesar frowned and glared at Masaru. "He did not."
"Hey, this is news to me, too!" Masaru insisted.
"No matter," Caesar said dismissively. "Once I have the power of Alexander, we'll see whether that remains the case. Brutus! My Legion! Delay these so-called heroes while I claim my prize!"
The various legionaries scattered around the room dropped their ill-gotten loot and drew their weapons. Brutus laughed triumphantly, cracked his neck, and punched his open hand. "Okay, now this is the sort of dirty business I'm more than happy to take care of!"
He vaulted over the sarcophagus and landed on top of the discarded lid, drawing his massive meat cleaver sword and slammed it into the ground hard enough to crack it. "Okay, heroes! I've tangled with you Egyptrangers before… But I'm eager to see just what you warriors from the future are capable of! Show me what you've got!"
Goro's eyes were wide. "He's… a big guy, isn't he?"
"Um, exactly how strong is this guy?" Ariel asked a little anxiously.
"Very strong," Gozim replied.
"You know how most of the Roman forces in Egypt have been turned into undead and other mythical monsters?" Mark said nervously, gripping his sword.
"Yeah?" Nushi said.
"When offered the chance to become a monster himself, he refused. Said he didn't need it."
"And… Honestly, he really doesn't," Akilah admitted.
"Ah," Shin said faintly. "So it's like that then."
"Pretty much," Thotep agreed.
"Shit," all the Bugrangers said.
As his men began to engage the two teams of heroes, Caesar once again turned his attention back to the corpse of Alexander. "All right," he murmured. "Let's get this over with."
Squeezing his eyes shut, he slowly reached for the eyes.
Valentinian and Anastasius, the only two soldiers not currently fighting a color-coded hero, stared at Caesar in awe and a little terror, loosening their grips on the swords currently pointed at Masaru's throat.
Which, as it so happened, was exactly what he was waiting for.
"HENSHIN!"
In a flash of light, Masaru transformed into Kamen Rider ZO, snapping his bonds. Startled, Valentinian and Anastasius tried to attack him, but he immediately decked the former with a punch and took the latter out of the fight with a kick to the stomach, then leapt towards the alarmed Caesar with a cry of "ZO Kick!"
This is it! He thought to himself giddily, grinning under his mask. This is where I turn my life around! This is where I become a hero again!
Caesar reached for his sword, but couldn't draw it before Masaru drove his foot into his breastplate, causing him to fall back into the sarcophagus…
Touching one of Alexander's eyes in the process.
The chamber shook, and a tremendous blast of energy erupted from the sarcophagus, knocking everyone, even the seemingly invincible Brutus, over. "The hell was that?!" The giant warrior cried.
"Oh no… We're too late!" Cleopatra gasped.
"Called it," Ariel and Shin said.
Both Caesar and Masaru found themselves suspended over the sarcophagus, trapped in immobilizing energy fields. Alexander's eyes removed themselves from their sockets with a sickening squelch and rose into the air, glaring balefully at the entire chamber. There was a flash of light, and suddenly both eyes turned into white objects still shaped like eyeballs with a hook jutting from the rear and four claws clutching the eye, the pupil a pinkish image of a monstrous, somewhat leonine mask.
"The eyes… Transformed?" Thotep murmured, baffled.
Shin started. "Hang on… Those aren't just eyes, they're Ganma Eyecons!"
Ariel gasped. "Of course! This must be where the Alexander Eyecon came from! The Eyes of Alexander! It's literal!"
"Wait, hang on, that doesn't make sense," Goro protested. "Should eyecons even exist yet? Weren't they invented over a hundred years ago… Er, a couple thousand years from now?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure the Great Eye already exists, so…" Ariel shrugged.
"And I thought only one Eyecon could exist for a particular spirit at a time," Mibojin commented. "How can there be two?"
"I'm afraid only Edith knows the answer to that," Shin said. "But he's dead. I think?"
Ariel shrugged.
"We have no idea what you're talking about," Nefer complained.
"Eyecons are eye-shaped devices containing the essence of luminaries throughout history," Ariel explained. "Many great figures have had eyecons based off of them, including Tutankhamun!"
"Really? Is there one based off of me?" Cleopatra asked in surprise.
"As a matter of fact, there is!" Ariel announced, to her delight.
"Caesar also has one," Shin added, to her disappointment.
"And… There being ones for Alexander the Great mean…?" A confused Mark asked.
"Nothing good," Shin said firmly. "Back in our time, the power of the Alexander Eyecon was twice used to try and take over the world by some seriously bad guys. For it to exist here as well… And for there to be two of them…"
"That's twice as bad!" Ariel emphasized.
"Uh, Julius?" Brutus asked uneasily as the two eyecons began to approach the terrified Caesar and Masaru. "Is… Is this supposed to be happening?"
"I really, really hope so!" Caesar cried.
"No, get away! I'm not evil! I don't want your power!" Masaru wailed.
"Are you sure of that?"
To everyone's astonishment, the eyecons glowed, and a specter resembling a black and pinkish hoodie modeled to resemble Greek armor and a lion skin manifested their eyes.
"It can't be… It's Alexander the Great!" Gozim cried.
"But that's not possible, Ammit said she devoured his soul!" Nushi protested.
"She devoured most of it," the Parka Ghost of Alexander proclaimed. "However, the two last fragments of my spirit, my never ending ambition and unquenchable thirst for power, managed to survive by hiding within my eyes. For centuries I have waited for a worthy successor to inherit my soul… And now, at long last, I have not one, but two!"
"Wait, hang on, Caesar I can understand," Masaru protested. "But I don't want your power!"
"Do you not seek to change history? To conquer time itself?" Alexander retorted. "To gain mastery over your fate, and to alter the fates of others for the better?"
"… Okay, when you put it like that…"
"Dammit, Masaru!" Shin yelled. "You can't become the ruler of time, the position is already taken by another all-powerful conqueror who we more or less tolerate!"
"And you can't be the one to decide others fates, that's Aranea's job!" Ariel added. "Maybe! If she wants to, that is! It's kind of up in the air right now."
A very confused Caesar glanced at Masaru. "Wait, time already has a ruler? Why didn't you mention this before?"
"It didn't come up."
"Enough of your drivel!" An irritated Alexander bellowed. "Soon, you all shall kneel before the inheritors of my power-"
"Excuse me, Mr. The Great?" Ariel asked, raising a hand.
Alexander's eye twitched. "What?!"
"Why are you pink?" The sorceress asked.
Alexander stared. "… What?"
"Oh yeah, I was kind of wondering that myself," Formic admitted.
"Not that there's anything wrong with pink, it's a perfectly good color, lots of people wear it," Nushi said quickly.
"It's just not usually associated with men. Or infamous conquerors," Mibojin added.
"I mean, sure, Igarashi and Vice and Kadoya can all more or less pull it off-" Shin agreed.
"Isn't he magenta?" Caelifer asked.
"Yeah, that's what he claims."
"But it's not really a good look on you," Ariel continued. "Kind of takes away from the menacing ancient evil vibe you're going for."
Everyone stared at the Bugrangers.
"What is wrong with you people?!" Alexander demanded.
"You'd be surprised how often we get asked that question," Goro commented ruefully.
"… These are the kinds of heroes the future has?" Brutus wondered, bewildered.
"Enough!" Alexander roared. "Once my successors have inherited my power, you will all perish!"
"Actually, you know what, I'm starting to get second thoughts about this whole thing," Caesar said anxiously.
"And I never wanted this in the first place," Masaru added.
"Shut up!" Alexander yelled, flowing back into his eyecons, which shot towards Alexander and Masaru.
"Oh no you don't! Jiruma Magi Magiine!" Ariel cried, casting her exorcism spell…
At the same time Thotep thrust out a parchment and chanted something in Coptic. A burst of magic flew out from the scroll at the same time as a spell was cast from Ariel's wand, the two colliding before they could hit the eyecons and dispelling each other in a flash of light.
The magicians gave each other embarrassed looks. "Exorcism spell?" Ariel asked.
"Yeah. We probably could've coordinated that a little better, couldn't we?" Thotep bemoaned.
"Oh well. It was probably never going to work anyway," Ariel lamented.
The eyecons entered Caesar and Masaru's bodies. Another, even greater wave of power blasted out, once again bowling everyone over, shaking the tomb and causing blocks to fall from the ceiling, crushing several of the unfortunate legionnaires.
"The power… The POWEEEEEEEEEEER!" Caesar roared, eyes turning red as an open white and red tunic with scale mail for the midsection formed over his body, his cape turning into purple cloth with a red interior hanging down to his knees, a massive longsword materializing in one hand as his head was covered in a gold helmet resembling a lion's head with a red plume crest, a mask resembling an eagle beak forming over his mouth while bull horns grew from the side of his head. "With this power, I can finally conquer the Gauls… No, the entire world!"
"Finally… Finally, I have the super form which always should have been mine!" Masaru proclaimed. Like Caesar, he also was wielding a sword and wearing a tunic, cape, and helmet, but in addition he now had a radar antenna on his left hand, a modular weapon resembling Riderman's Cassette Arms replacing his right arm, flippers on his feet, bigger and sharper teeth, a dynamo on his shoulders, bat wings, and rockets on his waist. "With this power, at last, I will have the future which I have long been denied!"
Everyone stared at the duo. "Um… Am I the only one who's feeling kind of underwhelmed?" Brutus asked after a moment.
"Yeah, no, after all this talk about the power of the Eyes of Alexander, I thought there would be a bit more of an impressive transformation," Nefer agreed in disappointment. "Caesar is just wearing a helmet and tunic over his usual armor."
"To be fair, that's basically what everyone who used the Alexander Eyecon in the future got as well," Ariel admitted.
Shin started laughing hysterically. "And Masaru looks like a crappy action figure!"
"Crappy?! I now wield the power of seven Legendary Riders!" Masaru declared angrily.
"You have flippers! FLIPPERS!" Shin retorted, pointing at his feet. "Which of the Legendary Riders have flippers?"
"It's supposed to represent X!" Masaru insisted defensively.
"What the hell does X have to do with flippers?" Shin jeered.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Masaru snapped, not knowing either. "You'll soon see which of us is laughing, once I hijack the ShinLiner and use it to change my future for the better!"
Shin snorted. "Haven't you been listening? The only one who can pilot the ShinLiner is me!"
The dynamo on Masaru shoulders crackled and snapped and he pointed the radar dish on his left hand at the ShinLiner. The train shuddered, its red eyes flashing. "Alert. Hacking measures detected. Deploying countermeasures… Countermeasures failed. Owner registration has changed. New owner recognized: Masaru Aso."
"WHAT?!" Shin cried in horror.
Masaru cackled. "Perfect! ShinLiner, activate weapon systems! Fire on this room!"
"Complying," the train replied, eyes glowing ominously, front grille lowering to reveal a huge cannon powering up.
Everyone stared in horror. "Oh shit-"
The clashing underworld armies stopped in their tracks when suddenly the tomb of Alexander was enveloped in a tremendous explosion. Even the gods took a step back as suddenly Caesar rose from the ruins, growing to match their towering stature. As such, few noticed the ShinLiner also shoot out from the remains, moving at great speeds as it rose into the sky.
Pluto grinned. "So, young Caesar, it seems you have at last obtained the power my brother promised you. How does it feel?"
Caesar cackled maniacally, both of dark lightning crackling down all around him. "Magnificent! Is this what it is to be a God?!"
"It is indeed," Pluto said in amusement. "And what you intend to do with your newfound power?"
"I will at last wipe those accursed Gauls from the face of the Earth," Caesar swore. "And destroy everything that gets in my way… Starting with Alexandria!"
He swung his sword through the air, cutting open a gash in the fabric of space and time, revealing the city of Alexandria. He stepped through, the tear closing behind him.
Pluto cackled at the irate Osiris and Isis. "It seems that you have lost, old ones. At long last, Egypt will fall!"
Osiris grit his teeth, but Isis smirked knowingly. "All hope is not yet lost," she said, pointing at the ruins of the tomb, where a magical barrier Ariel and Thotep had generated to protect everyone, even Brutus and the surviving legionnaires, shimmered brilliantly before dissipating.
Pluto frowned in disappointment, then shrugged it off. "Oh well, I guess that's that, then. This whole scheme was really more Jupiter's thing than mine, anyway. I won't wish you luck, but neither will I pray for your demise. Until next time."
His body was enveloped in a tower of smoke and shadow, disappearing. All of his forces vanished in a similar manner, and the warriors of the Egyptian underworld threw up a ragged cheer, unaware that this was not a true triumph.
"Is everyone all right?" Ariel asked her friends and enemies.
"No!" Brutus wailed, bursting into tears. "Caesar not only didn't stop that bug guy in the goofy getup from trying to kill us, but he turned into a giant monster and left to destroy a city… Without me! I thought we were closer than that! Did he know the Senate has been trying to bribe me into killing him?"
"Wait, what?!" Mark cried, horrified.
"I turned them down!" Brutus said quickly. "… Unless they can make me a better offer. Hey, don't look at me like that, of the two of us, which of us actually betrayed Caesar?"
"… Fair point," Mark admitted grudgingly.
"Good work, Ariel," Nushi congratulated her girlfriend, causing her to preen in delight. "Perfect timing, as usual."
"Hey now, at least half that barrier was my doing," Thotep interjected. "And I'm pretty sure I got mine up first."
"Did not!" Ariel retorted.
"No, I'm fairly certain I did-"
"Both of you, shut up!" Shin snapped, startling everyone. "None of that matters right now! Masaru's hijacked my train! Do you realize how bad this is?!"
"… That's right. Who knows how much damage he could cause to the time stream?" Goro realized, horrified.
"Not to mention the ShinLiner's our way home!" Coccinella exclaimed.
"We have to stop him," Mibojin declared.
"But what about Caesar? He's tearing up Alexandria right now!" Nefer protested.
"We'll split up. There's two enemies and two teams," Cleopatra decided. "Nushi, you and your Bugrangers will go after the train, while we'll head back to Egypt to stop Caesar once and for all."
"And once we reclaim the train, we can grab our mecha from our time and come back to help," Nushi agreed. "Right, let's go-"
"Um, I think it might be too late, the ShinLiner just passed through some kind of portal," Akilah spoke up, pointing at a swirling energy vortex where the ShinLiner had just been, which was closing fast.
Ariel gasped. "Oh no, we're too late!"
"Like hell we're not!" Shin cried, crouching down, compressing his leg coils, and then leaping into the air with a shockwave which buffeted everyone back, rocketing through the skies like a green comet, passing through the time portal just before it closed completely.
"You know, I'm getting really tired of getting knocked over and having to pick myself up again," Anastasius complained.
"Suck it up," Valentinian said unsympathetically.
"He's gone!" Gozim exclaimed.
"Don't worry, once he regains control the ShinLiner he'll come back to help," Nushi assured them.
"Oh, of course, and since it's a Time Machine, he might be coming back already! He'll show up any second now!" Nefer said optimistically.
Shin and the ShinLiner failed to return.
"Any second now."
Shin and the ShinLiner failed to return.
"ANY. SECOND. NOW-"
"I think right now we should focus on what we can do, namely, getting back to Alexandria and stopping Caesar," Cleopatra suggested.
"You are correct, O Queen of Queens."
Everyone looked up to see Osiris and Isis, still gigantic, looking down on them.
The Egyptrangers gasped and quickly got down on their knees, Mark, the Bugrangers, and the battered Roman forces following suit a few seconds behind them.
"Egyptrangers, you must return to Alexandria at once if you are to stop Caesar before it is too late," Osiris said gravely. "One way or another, this will be your final battle against the Roman Empire."
"Wait, it will?" Brutus cried in dismay. "But there's still so much more fighting I wanted to do!"
Osiris glared at him.
"Right. Shutting up now."
"Bugrangers, I know this is not your era, but will you still support the champions of this age?" Isis asked, turning her gaze upon the heroes from the future.
"O-of course! You can count on us, Your Divinity!" Nushi promised.
Isis smiled so beautifully it made her want to weep. "Splendid. And I have a gift for you…"
Ariel gasped eagerly. "Oh boy! Is it a special Egypt-themed power up or mecha?!"
"Regrettably, no," Isis admitted, much to her disappointment. "However, I have something which may help your lover with her curse."
The goddess opened her hand, and a mote of light drifted down from it, landing in Nushi's hands, where it resolved itself into an Egyptian scarab amulet covered in a rust like substance.
Nushi frowned. Something about it felt… Familiar…
"Nushi… This feels like… A Divine Insect, almost," Coccinella said in astonishment.
"But not one any of us recognize," Lepidoptera murmured, perplexed.
"Which should be impossible, because we know all the Divine Insects," Manti insisted. "Arachnids, too. There aren't exactly a lot of us."
"There's no Buzzing link. It doesn't feel alive, or even dormant like the Great Divine Insects. But…" Goro trailed off. "There is… Something about it…"
"Your Majesty, do you recognize this?" Nushi asked Apista. "Does anyone?"
"No, we don't," the entire Buzzing replied, equally mystified.
"Lady Isis, what is this?" Nushi asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know much more than you," Isis confessed. "It fell from the skies a very long time ago, and my magic was able to uncover nothing about it or its origins save that it was intended for the Crimson Queen, one of the Promised Triumvir."
"In other words," Osiris cut in. "You."
"… Well that's freaky as hell," Goro said after a moment.
"Does that mean it really was our destiny to come here?" Mibojin wondered, troubled.
"… Just before our train derailed… I thought I felt something calling to me," Nushi said after moment. "I think… I think it was this."
"While I am unable to rid you or your partner of the dark magic infecting you, I suspect that this object, whatever it is, can," Isis intuited. "When the time is right, it will not only purify you, but open a door to greater power, allowing you to achieve your full potential."
Ariel gasped in delight. "Then it's your Battlizer, as the Americans would put it! How exciting! I can't wait to see it in action! Whenever that is."
"Thank you for this, Your Divinity," Nushi said gratefully, bowing her head.
"Think nothing of it. When the time comes for you to at last fulfill your destiny, I only hope I will be able to see it," Isis said with a kind smile.
She gestured, and an ankh-shaped portal appeared before them. "Go now. This will take you back to Alexandria. Be ready, for this may prove to be a fight unlike any other."
"We would help you ourselves, but now that this diversion is over with, we must join my son and the others in fighting Apep," Osiris apologetically.
"But know this: just as you have faith in the gods, so too do we have faith in our champions," Isis said proudly. "After all the battles and trials you have faced so far, we have every confidence you will prevail."
"We will not let you down, Your Divinity," Cleopatra promised. "Egyptrangers! Bugrangers! Silver Centurion! Roman soldiers! Let's go!"
"Hang on, you're not our boss!" Brutus protested.
"Do you want to be left here?" Mark asked.
Brutus considered this. "You make a good point. Okay, we'll come too."
"Good luck, heroes," Isis called after the two teams and the reluctant tagalongs as they passed through the portal. "And know that we Gods will always be with you."
Osiris frowned, glancing at the space where Shin had disappeared. "Unfortunately, none of us can help that emerald hero, wherever or whenever he has gone…"
"He is a veteran warrior, husband," Isis said assuredly. "I'm sure he'll be fine."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA WHY DID YOU THINK THIS WOULD WORK?!" Caelifer screamed as he and Shin shot through the swirling, crackling endless corridor of the time vortex, the ShinLiner straight ahead of them. In their flight, they passed rifts leading to other times and worlds, clocks some time traveling joker had thrown out a window, and what looked an awful lot like a blue police box.
"Quiet down, I've done something like this before!" Shin yelled at his partner.
"WELL I HAVEN'T!"
Shin rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, I've seen your memories, you've done crazier stuff like this with my predecessors!"
"Not while falling through a time tunnel, where the slightest mistake could lead to us getting booted from the time stream and lost forever in another timeline!" Caelifer snapped.
"… Point," Shin admitted. "But we're not going to fall out of the time stream, we calculated our jump perfectly so that our trajectory would match that of the ShinLiner, and momentum will do the rest. Just a few more seconds and we'll catch up to the train, and then we can beat the crap out of Aso, take back our home, and make it back in time to help everyone! "
Indeed, they were rapidly closing the distance between them and the rear car of the ShinLiner. It wouldn't be much longer now…
And then, to both their surprise, the back door of the train opened, revealing Cart.
"Oh look, and there's Cart! She's letting us on! Obviously she wouldn't want to work for that asshole Aso! I knew we could count on her!" Shin said proudly.
"Uh, partner? Something doesn't feel right…" Caelifer said warily.
The gynoid stood in the door frame, fingers clenched. "… I'm sorry, Mr. Kazamatsuri," she shouted at Shin, her voice almost torn away from her voicebox by the roar of the time vortex around them. "But Master Aso says you're not permitted to board."
Shin's heart skipped a beat. "Cart?!"
His loyal attendant, or rather FORMER attendant, trembled, unable to meet his eyes. "Please forgive me."
And then she produced a freaking BAZOOKA and pointed it right at Shin.
"Cart, no, don't-"
Cart fired.
A rocket shot out from the bazooka and impacted Shin, the explosion flinging him away from the ShinLiner. He and Caelifer cried out as they tumbled end over end, the train flying away, until they finally hit the side of the time vortex and were ejected from the time stream.