Time seemed to slow down for Nazu as he traded blows with his navy counterpart, his peripheral vision catching RyuKabuto about to finish off Azu.
He called out her name, desperation rushing through his veins, fueling his yells which fell on deaf ears, as Azu seemed to almost welcome the oncoming finishing blow to her life…
But right before the attack landed, neon lines alighted across both Azu and Nazu, a rush of power accompanying it, the surge making a shockwave and knocking back both brothers.
"Wh-what the…?" Nazu muttered, looking at his hands and arms, observing the neon lines.
"The fuck…?" Azu questioned, she and Nazu noticing their injuries disappearing.
"Hah… Guess your team got the Heart. So Niknight failed…doesn't matter…" RyuKabuto grunted, getting up, ready to attack, but just as he started heading towards her…
"AZU!"
He was kicked into a wall by Nazu, the lines on his suit glowing brightly, illuminating him and the crater formed by the crimson ranger.
"Look, I get it. Maybe what happened wouldn't have happened if you weren't there. Maybe things might've gone differently, but guess what? They still happened! Who knows how differently things would've gone! Hell, maybe Ark would've just made another Humagear, or taken Metsuboujinrai under his control, but we don't know! What happened, happened. All you can do now is control what will happen!" Nazu told her, perking up before blocking a punch by RyuKuuga, getting into a clash.
"You have people who love you waiting for you. Aruto. Izu. They took you in, saved you because they care about and LOVE you! And everyone else, me, Ziga, Amy, Andah, Slavi! We care about you, dammit! You're our leader and friend! Even if you don't want to live for yourself, live for them! You say you don't want anyone else to be miserable or suffer cause of you!? Then live so you can come back to the people who love you, because they WILL suffer with the holes in their hearts that used to be filled by you! So get up AND FIGHT!"
Azu looked up from her position on the ground at Nazu, watching her blue ranger fight his counterpart, his words ringing in her mind…
People who cared about her…
Faces and memories flashed through her mind…
Her and Nazu's first meeting, that look of understanding between them…
Andah's incessant flirtations, but…also the times she made sure she was ok…
Ziga and her training…
Her time with Aruto and Izu…their smiles, their embraces…the warm feelings they brought to her chest…
And…Slavi…
Wait…
That…feeling in her chest…the one Slavi brought up…
In their first meeting…several of their fights…the cafeteria…
The village…
The walks on the mountain…
The maze…
That…Zea damned smile…
She clenched her fists, gripping snow in her hands as they shook.
RyuKabuto seemed to pause at Nazu's words as well once he got free of the crater.
He gripped his clubs tightly, looking towards Azu and in a burst of speed, moved to slam them into her…
And she took them head on, grabbing them tightly, getting up on a knee.
The crimson ranger's eyes widened at the sight as Azu slowly got up.
She was ready to die then…
What…what was this driving filling her, she wondered…
Those faces flashed in her mind, particularly of her saviors…and her pink ranger…
'Zea Dammit…' She thought, gripping the clubs tightly, standing up. 'I dunno why…but…I can't…not yet…'
"Izu…Aruto…Slavi…everyone…" She muttered, RyuKabuto tilting his head in confusion, the red ranger looking up at him, a red energy aura flaring up around her, the lines on her body glowing, fire gathering around her. "I'm coming." She flipped, kicking RyuKabuto's clubs hard, sending them to the ceiling and getting them stuck, catching him by surprise before she punched him in the chest before sending a flaming uppercut to his chin.
"GAH!" Ryukabuto had to let go of the stuck weapons to reel back from the sudden, passionate hit.
Azu clenched her fists as she stood fully up, willing her sword to her, the blade cutting by RyuKabuto's helmet, leaving a glowing red mark before landing in her hand, the red ranger pointing her weapon at her foe and getting into a stance. "Let's. Go."
RyuKabuto... laughed, "That's more like it!"
Nazu smiled at the sight as the two reds clashed with Azu's newfound passion, the blue ranger taking to the skies and zooming around RyuKuuga, shooting the ground around him, making a makeshift smokescreen, RyuKuuga shooting wildly to prevent Nazu from getting any closer.
Nazu continued firing at him, gathering up RyuKuuga's blasts with his weapon, spinning around, charging it up before combining it with his own blasts and firing at him. The blast elicited a shout of pain as RyuKuuga was sent flying by it.
Nazu slammed his sidearm in blade mode into RyuKuuga's side, the ninja crying out in pain and kicking Nazu away, the blue ranger firing with both guns after switching to gun mode, taking to the air and continuing his assault on his foe.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Azu and RyuKabuto's weapons slammed into each other over and over again, Azu fighting with renewed vigor, slamming the clubs down before elbowing her counterpart HARD in the visor, cracking it before spartan kicking him through some giant icicles.
Azu's wings flared up, becoming as large as boulders, flames swirling around her as she floated up, visor glowing as she sent powerful gusts of fire at RyuKabuto. RyuKabuto tried to hold his sword up to block but the fire and wind knocked him back, sending him through more icicles with a cry of pain.
Azu grabbed him by the collar, sending a fiery glare into his eyes through their visors before throwing him up into the ceiling, firing with her sidearm while lighting her sword up, going in for a slash.
RyuKabuto, realizing he couldn't dodge the attack mid-air, let his body go limp, letting the force of it carry him away so as to not get cut too badly.
Unfortunately, it did still hurt a lot, as it was an empowered slash which sent a deep and large cut throughout the area and ceiling, RyuKabuto landing away from her, sparks crackling around him before he was knocked out of his transformation, collapsing into the snow.
Azu floated down in front of him, staring at his limp form. "...I'm sorry…"
Back with Nazu, he got into another weapon lock with RyuKuuga, kicking him away before jumping up. Nazu looked down at the trail of circles he made during the fight, and smirked to himself as he heard a noise, a good noise, a noise that told him his plan had worked. The Roar of the Dragon from his earlier finisher.
He flew out of the way, RyuKuuga seeing a giant blue energy dragon coming back at him, and, realizing he'd been played, could do nothing but say "Oh shi-"
Before he got slammed down into the ground, the dragon biting into him repeatedly before exploding, creating a hole which got covered by debris.
Nazu moved next to Azu and panted from the battle. "Okay, ready to find the others?"
Azu nodded. "Thanks for making easy exits." The two flew out of the hole in the ceiling.
The Champion's Heart floated in the air, as if an observer to the battle going on between Niknight, the three rangers, and the arachnid trio. Niknight continued to be flirty as she ducked and dodged the various attacks.
"Ok, not that I'm complaining, but, who are these three?" Slavi asked, sending vines that sprouted holy swords at Niknight, who barely dodged them.
"Don't recognize em, at least with all that winter gear on, so don't have any guesses." Ziga responded, shooting with her sidearm. "Right now, we need to focus-...where's Andah?"
"Heh, Where do you think?" Slavi replied with a laugh as she dodged another attack.
Ziga briefly looked up, rolling her eyes behind her visor.
"You gotta admit it's a fun trick." Slavi chuckled.
Ziga shrugged. "Can't argue there."
Spydey meanwhile shot web balls at Niknight, who kept dodging, barely managing to avoid a strike from Scorpia's whip sword. "HOW! ARE! YOU! SO! NIMBLE!?"
Niknight looked over to Weava and gave a smirk.
Spydey and Scorpia briefly looked over at her.
"SHE WAS ALREADY LIKE THAT BEFORE I-...ugh, let's just focus!"
Niknight pouted, hands on her hips. "You are not as fun nowadays."
"And you're trying to torture me!"
Niknight shrugged. "Fair point." She flipped over some blasts before noticing something above her. "What the-"
"BONZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
Andah slammed Niknight into the ground with an enhanced kick, making a crater. Niknight groaned, Spydey shooting webs to try and keep her pinned inside the crater.
Niknight grabbed the webs and used them to pull and slam Spydey into the ground, Slavi stomping on Niknight's head, the toad woman moving enough to make it a shoulder stomp instead, groaning and grabbing Slavi's leg and slamming her into Scorpia.
Ziga opened fire with her side-arm to try and help, Weava throwing balls of energy.
Niknight grunted, taking both hits and rushing Weava, ready to punch, only for Scorpia's whip sword to wrap around her waist, pulling her back, Weava shooting web lines to pull herself towards Niknight and kicking her in the face. Niknight grabbed Weava in response and the two head-butted each other, causing both to groan in pain. They pushed against each other, forming energy balls and slamming them against each other, knocking each other back.
Scorpia caught Weava while Slavi and Ziga both punched Niknight in the face, the toad woman sparking with more and more energy as she was sent back.
Niknight panted, grinning, started to channel the energy. "...I gotta say…never been pushed this far…not in years…you really are worthy of your status…but how bout we finish this off in a BIG BANG?" She quipped, the energy forming into a sphere. As she lifted it up to launch it she was blasted by red and blue energy over the cliff behind her, being sent into a cliff side.
The others looked over to see Azu and Nazu standing at the cliff, their sidearms' tips smoking.
"Yosh…nice timing!" Ziga said in exasperation, grinning behind her helmet.
"So…" Slavi frowned. "The ones who wanted to fight you…"
Azu nodded. "Let's talk about it later. For now…" She turned her attention to the dazed Niknight, who was struggling to get out of the crater in the wall. "We need to take this one down."
"She absorbs attacks to charge herself up, we're trying to overload her but so far we don't do enough damage." Ziga explained.
Azu nodded, looking to Niknight and doing a quick analysis, her helmet's HUD and her own personal processors working on the analyzing. "The Roaryal Buzzsword should be enough. Everyone ready?"
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Everyone chorused.
Quickly bringing out their weapons and combining them, they got into their stance.
Niknight grinned, preparing to jump out of the way, only for her to get layers and layers and layers of webs thrown at her, sticking her to the wall, Spydey and Weava nodding at the rangers.
"GIVE HER HELL!" Weava yelled.
"RIGHT!" Azu called back, the sword glowing. "ROARYAL!"
"BUZZING!" The others yelled.
"SLASH!"
The group sent the sword slashing down at Niknight, sending a gigantic multicolored energy dragon at her. Niknight bent her knees, holding her hands out in preparation.
She tried holding it back, but she quickly began getting pushed back, the crater growing as she was pushed back, until finally-
BOOM!
A giant smoke cloud erupted, leaving a large smoking crater where Niknight stood.
Nothing…no trace of her. Not even a cube.
Azu stepped forward, a look of concern on her face. "We…w-we didn't…did we…?"
"Nah, classic escape plan. Look." Nazu said, pointing to some marks in the snow. "She managed to jump away in time to avoid anything more serious. So, not captured, but not dead either. I don't think she'll be bothering anyone for a while, though."
Azu sighed in relief. "That's good…"
"Now.. Who are you lot?" Azu asked as the rangers turn to Spidey and her crew.
"Travelers." Scorpia said smoothly. "We were here for the Heart as part of an adventure."
"Oh hey, fellow adventurers!" Andah grinned, shaking her hand, to Scorpia's surprise.
"Well, we're more superheroes." Ziga pointed out.
"We literally just went on an adventure and are likely to go on several more outside of Tokyo."
"True."
Azu then noticed the shorter spider was…staring at her. "...uh…y-yeah?"
"... You really care about life, don't you?" Spydey said gently, looking at Azu.
Azu blushed, bashfully rubbing her head. "...I…I don't…like the idea of taking lives if I can help it…"
Spydey stared at her in wonder, eyes sparkling before she nodded, turning to Weava who was looking at the crater where Niknight stood. "Are you okay?"
"... I… I know I'm responsible for how she is now but… The thought of losing her completely… was not happy."
"..." Spydey hugged her. "...you loved her…?"
"... Once upon a time…" Weava replied, side hugging Spydey.
Scorpia joined in. "Hey…you aren't losing us."
"I know. Thank you."
Azu looked upon the trio…for a moment, imagining herself…and a certain failed comedian and gynoid angel…
Shaking her head, she spoke. "You three gonna need an escort?" She asked.
"No, we'll be alright. Be safe." Spydey waved, Azu shyly waving back as the trio departed…
And Spydey d'awwed at her.
As they walked along Scorpia hugged Spydey. "Hey…no matter what the owl says…you did the right thing today."
"I know… Thanks Scorpia… Also did something happen? You've been a lot nicer to Weava."
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Scorpia squeaked.
"...Scorpi…" Spydey said incredulously.
"PAY IT NO HEED!"
Spydey turned to Weava, looking for more of an answer. Her friend just shrugged coyly.
"Mmm… fine, keep your secrets for now." Spydey pouted, walking ahead.
The three laughed.
The Heart floated into the hands of the five rangers, glowing ethereally.
"So this…is the Heart…" Azu muttered.
"Yup! Pretty impressive." Slavi smiled.
"Yeah…and I get the feeling what we got just now was…just a taste of its power…" Nazu commented.
"Just imagine how badass our team power up's gonna be!" Andah gushed.
"Oh I hope it's not another "Chestplate Only" thing. It worked okay on the Kiramagers but it's gotten boring…" Slavi started going off.
Azu chuckled at her Slavi's antics. "Let's just check on the Beetle Bros before we head out…"
The group nodded and they all headed for where the Brothers had been left.
…
When they got there, however…the bros were gone.
RyuKabuto was nowhere to be seen…and RyuKuuga had also somehow escaped the trap and vanished.
"..." Azu looked at the sight where RyuKabuto was.
"... Think they're gonna give us more trouble later?" Nazu asked.
"...Not anytime soon. We gave 'em quite the beating." Azu answered after a moment.
"But… Why… Why would they do this?" Ziga asked, frowning beneath her helmet, echoes of confusion and betrayal in her voice.
Azu and Nazu looked to each other, silently exchanging glances before turning to the others.
"Let's just…head back to the village…we got what we came for." Azu said. Everyone nodded and began the trek down.