After years of research and planning the Ishimori Institute had finally made the breakthrough they'd been dreaming of. Deep in the forest, shrouded by ancient foliage, were the ruins of a temple forgotten by history.
Lani Akana was so excited she could hardly contain herself. This was the kind of stuff that put people in textbooks.
She was already working out her public statement when one of her colleagues approached her. "What's going on Shingero?" She asked.
"You're going to want to see this," he said with a bewildered expression. The two moved further into the dig sight. The actual digging hadn't even begun yet but the crew had already staged the equipment.
The two stepped into a tent where Shingero consulted a laptop. "While running another sonar scan, this time deeper than our last ones, I noticed something particularly unusual," he explained.
Lani looked over his shoulder, her mouth flattened into a focused grimace. "This is unusual."
"What do you think it means?" Shingero asked
didn't look away from the screen. "I… have no idea."
Her mind was racing. Directly under the temple, quite possibly inside the temple, was a small pocket of water. "I'm going to have a friend of mine at Pine Ridge take a look at this."
"Oh, Solon?" Shingero asked. "Tell her the miso soup recipe she sent me was fantastic."
"Noted," Lani said, though she didn't have it in her to smile.
The first thing Ollie did when he woke up was call an old friend on his communicator.
"Hey Solon," Ollie said to the cybernetic dinosaur.
"Ollie!" Solo exclaimed excitedly. "How have you been?"
"Good," Ollie said as convincingly as he could.
"Hmmm…" Solon muttered as she studied him, "How's Japan?"
"Beautiful," he replied. "But hey, do you think you could send me some files from the Legendary Ranger Database?"
"Well, that depends," Solon said. "You don't have much data on that communicator and some files are so big they won't even open."
"The Samurai Rangers."
"Oh! That should be managa- wait, wait. Why?"
Ollie laughed nervously.
"Is there something you need backup for? I can call Grid Battleforce. In fact Amelia just-"
"No! It's okay. I'm just looking into something for my mom."
"Okay…" Solon replied.
Internally Ollie sighed. Lying to Solon was one of the worst things he could do. But he didn't want anyone else involved.
"It's transferred now," Solon said. "But if you need anything else, even just someone to talk to. I'm always here for you."
"I know," Ollie said. "Thank you."
"Be safe," Solon said and ended the call.
Ollie took a second to sigh and recollect himself. Then he opened the file she'd sent him.
Lauren was in the middle of her morning kata when Emily stepped into the room.
"What do you want?" Lauren asked, not even bothering to look her way.
"I just want to talk."
"If it's about that Blue Ranger I'd rather not."
"No," Emily said. "It's about Jayden."
"Oh," the Red Samurai Ranger said, feeling a bit off guard. "What about him?"
"Well, I've been thinking," Emily began. "Something that the Nighlok said last night seemed kind of off.'
"The part where he acted like an uncooperative jerk? Because that was pretty par for the course."
Emily sighed and Lauren paused mid-swing. She wasn't trying to be mean… it was just something that she subconsciously circled back to. Especially when she was stressed.
"No, the part about being rust on its master's blade," Emily said. She took a second to choose her words carefully. "I've definitely heard Jayden say something like that before."
Lauren frowned. "What do you think that means?"
"Honestly I have no idea," Emily replied. "But it gives me this pit in my stomach."
Lauren couldn't agree more. "I never should've let him go alone."
"Hey don't be so hard on yourself," Emily said. "Someone needed to keep the homefront safe," she lowered her head and added. "It's not like any of us were doing it."
"Don't pawn this on yourself," Lauren replied. "You and Mike have Tina now. All of you just moved on, lived your lives, and there's nothing wrong with that."
After a moment Emily nodded. "You're right. And besides, feeling sorry for ourselves won't do any good. But that goes for you as well y'know."
Emily stepped closer to Lauren. "Sometimes you're so much like Jayden it hurts. I know you Shiba feel like the world is on your shoulders but you have to remember that you're still human at the end of the day. You're going to make some mistakes and there's no reason to mope over it."
Lauren nodded slowly. "You're right… thank you." She set her spin sword on the ground, a sad smile on her face. "I'm supposed to be the leader but lately it feels like you guys have been the ones holding me up."
Emily offered a smile back. "Of course we are, Lauren. That's what good teammates do."
Before Lauren could even process what was happening, let alone how she was feeling, her arms were wrapped around Emily as the two embraced in a tight hug.
Lauren, who'd only been hugged a handful of times in her life, couldn't imagine a better feeling.
Antonio couldn't help but offer a massive smirk to the man who offered him the shrink-wrapped cod.
"One thing I'm definitely going to miss about Japan is the fish," He said to the Pink Ranger beside him.
Mia chuckled. "I know, I bet Spike is jealous of all the sushi I've been eating." Her smile fell at the thought of her husband. Antonio felt for her, he couldn't imagine being so far away from family. When he moved back to Panorama his family was only a few hours away, not an entire ocean.
"Hey, I'm thinking about checking out some retro gaming shops for some spare electronics. Do you wanna come with me? Maybe you can find something for Spike while we're there."
"Sure," Mia said with a fresh smile.
The two samurai headed down the sidewalk and Antonio was beyond blessed to have Mia's company. Since their arrival to Japan she'd been the one he'd grown closest to. Mike and Emily mostly stuck together and no matter how hard he tried to break through Lauren's wall it proved neigh impenetrable so Mia became his default company.
"Spike sent a video of Tina's first dance recital," Mia said. "She's getting really good… well as good a six-year-old can be."
"That's fantastic," Antonio said. "I never really pinned Spike for a dad type but I'm glad he's doing such a good job."
"It was rough at first," Mia admitted with a nostalgic smile. "But he grew into it fast. Honestly, I couldn't imagine starting a family with anyone else."
"Then it's a shame that I'm going to shatter it."
The two Samurai whipped towards the source of the gravelly voice.
The warrior before then was more humanoid than a typical Nighlok, with an onyx-colored face that had a silver helm wrapped around it. His hands were covered in gauntlets of a similar color and they crawled up to the elbows of a white jacket that hung open to reveal black plated skin with an eye sticking out of his chest.
The warrior unsheathed the long katana covered in elegant silver embroidery and pointed it toward the duo. "I am the Shadow Ronin," they said. "Are you ready to fall by my blade?"
Before they knew it the Ronin was a blur of motion heading right towards them.
Ollie took a deep breath as he glanced down at his phone. He fought away his second thoughts. Then his third one as well.
He knew he couldn't keep running from this forever. So before any fourth thoughts could sneak up and ruin it Ollie quickly dialed Ameila's number.
It rang. It rang for so long that Ollie nearly panicked and hung up himself. Then, right before the voicemail would greet him, he heard a voice that sent his brain through a whirlwind of emotions.
"Hey Ollie-"
"Amelia I…" Ollie managed to say before noticing the tone in her voice. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," she replied unconvincingly. "I just… I have a lot going on right now. Can I call you back later?"
Suddenly the world shrunk in on itself. The hand holding up his cell phone went numb.
"I'm really sorry…" Ameilia said. "I'll call you back as soon as I can."
"Okay," an absolutely gutted Ollie replied. "I love you, stay safe."
"You too," she replied before ending the call.
You too… the words echoed in infamy through his mind.
Panic welled up inside him, closing his throat.
At that moment he needed to go somewhere and he needed to get there fast. So he threw on his shoes and headed out of the door to catch the next bus to the dig site.
But as he neared the next block the cracks in the sidewalk began to glow with crimson energy, then before he knew it he was suddenly surrounded by Moogers.
"Oh great," he muttered, recalling them from the Ranger Archives. He summoned his Morpher and drew his Dino Key, but as he prepared to slide the key into the device the furthest Mooger was reduced to dust.
Two more exploded in abrupt succession, creating a flurry of smoke and dust that obscured the figure further.
"Follow me," the figure said. There was a flash of golden metal and the Moogers closest to Ollie ceased to exist.
Ollie followed the figure out of the cloud, revealing the Red Samurai Ranger.
But this time it wasn't Lauren.
This Samurai Ranger was male, and clad in a similar attire to the Shark Mode; only the vest and gloves were black with gold trim.
"Jayden?" Ollie asked the Ranger.
"There's no time to explain," the Red Ranger said. "I need you to come with me."
Ollie didn't bother wasting time with questions. He was in the presence of a legendary Ranger and knew Jayden would only be acting like this if there was a good reason.
The two headed down the street, quickly turning towards a back alley Ollie assumed to be a part of a shortcut.
"Wait…" Ollie said, looking at the buildings that surrounded him. "This is a dead end."
"Yeah, you could say that," Jayden said.
Ollie felt a knot twisting in his stomach.
The Red Ranger turned on his heel and swung his Spin Sword at Ollie in a dangerously fluid motion. If not for a spike of adrenaline the sword would've bisected Ollie instead of slicing the air.
Ollie managed to morph as the Red Ranger wound back his next swing. By the time the blade came towards the Dino Fury Ranger, he was ready to parry with his own sword.
"What the heck is your deal?!" The Blue Ranger exclaimed.
"I tried to make it easy for you," The Samurai Ranger said with a hint of annoyance. "But I suppose you'll continue to put up a fight."
Ollie was left confused and stunned as the Red Ranger unleashed another devastating storm of attacks.
Antonio groaned as he pulled himself back to his feet. Smoke rose from his scorched suit and a thin crack ran across his helmet.
It was clear to him that this guy was no joke.
The Shadow Ronin parried the Pink Ranger's attack before delivering a blow that sent her rolling through the air, landing a few feet from her gold companion.
"You okay?" He asked Mia.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied with a hint of humor.
"I'm fantástico," the Gold Ranger replied. "That's more than this guy will be able to say in a few seconds."
"This has been quite the battle," The Shadow Ronin said. "But all good things end eventually."
"Couldn't agree more,' Antonio said. "Thankfully I've been cooking something up that'll even out odds a bit."
Using his digital symbol power Antonio summoned his very own spin sword, then he revealed the Black Box.
"Y'know, ever since I figured this thing out I've been itching to give it a spin," the Gold Ranger said as he placed the Power Disc inside the Black Box. "So how about we finally see what all the hype is about."
The Gold Ranger lifted the box and pressed the button on top of it, causing his body to explode with golden light.
With the Super Samurai vest wrapped around his suit, Antonio armed his new spin sword and charged forward.