A/N: Morning, everyone! Well, it's that time of the week again, but this time, we're gonna be going back to the casual chapter format, as I said last time. Of course, given the title of this chapter, some of you either know exactly what pop culture topic is gonna be discussed today… or you have absolutely no clue. But don't worry, it'll make sense in a little bit. But before we get to our heroes, how about we check in on how our favorite villains are doing, huh? This is…

Chapter 41: GABURINCHO! Kyoryu Carnival!

…..

Rojo was dying. …Okay, not dying in a literal sense, but she might as well have been. The entirety of her Tuesday had essentially consisted of sitting on the couch and trying desperately to ride through the current heatwave… and failing. Their apartment was in a fairly un-ventilated environment and unfortunately, they didn't have much in the way of air conditioning. The best they could do was open a window and prop up a box fan in it, and even then, that only helped a little. Rojo, for her part, was sweating her ass off and splayed out on the couch in a black tank top and shorts, which went the same for Neo in the chair adjacent to her.

The bounty hunter peered up and saw Neo trying to cool herself with a pink and brown folding fan, and failing miserably. "Neo, girl, I give you an A for effort, but that ain't gonna help." If the mute girl could whine sadly, she probably would have as she slumped in her seat. "Ugh, yeah, I'm right there with ya. Why the hell does it have to be so BLASTED hot?!"

"Oh, relax, you two." The duo craned their heads around to see Cinder come waltzing out of her room, fully clothed and seemingly in a pleasant mood. She went into the kitchen area, and much to their shock, they saw her pour a cup of piping hot coffee and take a sip from it as she stood by the window. "This heatwave will be over by tomorrow. We'll survive."

Neo's jaw was practically on the floor as Rojo shook her head. "…Cindy, are you even human?"

"Rojo, you should know by now that I handle heat better than most people." Cinder grinned knowingly. "But don't worry, I've got the two of you covered." She opened the fridge and tossed two bottles of water toward them. "Here, your… what is it, eleventh bottle today each?"

"Hey, if you were normal and sweating like us, you'd probably be slugging down this stuff too." Rojo and Neo both started gulping their water down like it was liquid gold, the two sighing in satisfaction afterward. "Ugh, I can't believe this is what we've been reduced to. First we get chewed out by the Boss Lady after failing in Mexico TWICE, and now we're forced to suffer through a heatwave…"

She trailed off, however, when she saw Neo set her attention down the hallway leading toward the bedrooms. Specifically, the monochromatic girl was staring worriedly at Emerald's room, and Rojo immediately starting feeling concerned as well. "…Cindy, have you seen Em at all today?"

"No… I haven't." Cinder's eyes followed theirs, landing on Emerald's door. Ever since they got back home, Emerald hadn't emerged from her room once, not even to eat. Thankfully, each of their rooms had a small bathroom, so that was no concern, but the thief hadn't spoken to any of them in the past twenty-four hours. 'Then again… I suppose it IS understandable.' Cinder thought to herself as her mind went back to what happened yesterday when they came back…

…..

Rojo opened the door to the apartment, putting a smile on her face even after the lengthy scolding they had gotten from Salem. Cinder stood next to her, but seemed much less enthusiastic. The redhead took a deep breath and put her hands on her hips. "Okay, so Mexico was an utter bust. But the best we can do now after all of that is move forward to the next plan, right? So let's—AH! H-Hey!" Before she could even finish, Emerald practically stormed past both of them, carrying her suitcase as she made a beeline for her room. "Um, Em? A-Are you—"

"Emerald, please, wait!" The two women were taken aback as Mercury ran straight into the apartment, his hand reaching out as Emerald marched away. "I-I just wanted to—" SLAM! But he didn't get the chance to finish before Emerald opened the door to her room and slammed it closed, its locks clicking shut. "…Explain myself."

Both Rojo and Cinder gave Mercury an unimpressed look, crossing their arms at him. "Well, if you hadn't snapped at her yesterday, perhaps this wouldn't have happened." The Fall Maiden pointed out.

"Why do you think I've been trying to APOLOGIZE for the past DAY, Cinder?!" Mercury exclaimed as he spun toward them. To their surprise, he wasn't really angry so much as he seemed desperate, and even concerned as he glanced back to Emerald's room. "I just… wanted to let her know I didn't mean any of what I said to her."

Just then, Neo came into the apartment, wearing a serious face as she went up to Mercury. She pointed at him, then to Emeralds room, and then held her hands up close together before pulling them apart. Rojo picked up on the message immediately. "Yeah, Neo's got a point, Merc. Ya gotta give her some space before you can even THINK of apologizing." She shook her head at him. "Because honestly, she's not gonna stop being mad at you after a day."

As much as Mercury wished that wasn't the case, he knew that Rojo was right. He hung his head low in shame. "…I screwed up, big time."

"Indeed, you have, boy." Through the front door next came Khyber, the alien hunter walking up to Mercury. The young assassin raised his head to meet Khyber's gaze, knowing that his time was limited. "However, it is best not to dwell on that now. You've requested to be put under my training, and it's best to start immediately. Perhaps with this, the two of you will be able to have the space you need… while focusing on something OTHER than your own troubles."

Mercury pursed his lips at this. He HAD personally requested that Khyber train him, but he knew that it probably wasn't going to be an enjoyable experience. …Still, the alien had a point. Anything was better than wallowing in his own troubles at the moment. "…Alright, let's go." The two walked out of the apartment, with Mercury turning back to the ladies one final time with a wave. "…I'll catch you girls later, I guess." And, in a flash of light, both he and Khyber disappeared, having returned to the latter's ship.

…..

That was the last time they had seen Emerald, and the fact that she hadn't emerged from her room since then was very much cause for concern. Cinder had to admit, since she had reflected on everything that she and her teammates had gone through, she had gained much more appreciation for them. Of course, it was a fairly slow process for her to become more of a team player, but she was willing to learn. She still hesitated to call them "friends", though… but at the same time, she had grown attached to them in their time together. A sigh escaped Cinder's lips and she walked back toward the bedrooms, going up to Emerald's door to knock on it.

"Emerald, it's two in the afternoon." she stated firmly. "You can't possibly stay in there forever." She paused for a moment, receiving no response. She pursed her lips irritably and shook her head. "Listen, moping over what Mercury did won't do you any good. It's best if you simply try to not think about it and focus on something else." Once again, no response, and this made Cinder grumble and start twisting the knob, only for it to be locked. "Oh, you little… fine!"

Cinder raised a finger and created a small flame at its tip, one that was extremely hot. She pushed her finger against where the latch was and melted through it, resolving to just but a new knob later. Rojo had come over to see what was happening when Cinder pushed the door in forcefully. "HEY! Are you even listening to—AH!"

"Oh god!" Rojo and Cinder couldn't help but gasp at what they saw. Emerald was spreadeagled on her bed, seemingly passed out and her breathing erratic. The room was almost as hot as an oven, with the only airflow coming from the open window, which didn't exactly help. The green-haired girl was wearing nothing but a grey tank top and matching shorts, both dripping with sweat as much as she was. "EM!" Rojo practically lunged toward the bed, taking the girl's hand. "Speak to me!"

"Wait right there!" Cinder rushed back toward the kitchen, coming back seconds later with a cup full of ice water. "Get clear!" Rojo moved away and Cinder splashed the water and ice mixture onto Emerald, dousing her and making her eyes snap open.

"AAIIIIIIIEEEEE!" Emerald screamed and shot up from her bed, only to crash to the floor immediately. She coughed and hacked as she shivered from the sudden cold, though admittedly, she felt much better than she had just a few moments before. "W-W-What happened?!"

Rojo picked her up and, to her surprise, gave her a hug. "You nearly suffered a damn HEATSTROKE, that's what happened! Don't you DARE scare us like that again!"

Emerald blinked in surprise, stunned that Rojo would be this worried about her. Her eyes trailed over to Cinder, who didn't seem to impressed. "Emerald, what were you THINKING?! Locking yourself into this oven of a room?! I might be able to handle this heat, but you cannot."

"I… I-I'm sorry." Emerald hung her head shamefully, hugging her arms around herself as she remembered why she locked herself in here to begin with. "It's just… I-I was so mad and—"

"We get it." Rojo put her hand to Emerald's shoulder assuredly. "Merc was a big jerk to you the other day. It's understandable why you're mad, but you don't have to lock yourself away and bottle all that up, you know?" She extended a hand to Cinder, who nodded to Emerald. "We're here if you need to talk to anyone, Em. Us girls gotta stick together, ya know?"

"I-I…" The thief screwed her eyes shut, bowing her head to them both. "I'm sorry I made both of you worry. I almost cooked myself in my own room and that was really stupid of me."

Cinder gave her a shrug. "I won't argue that, but for now, the best thing we can do is move forward." She took Emerald by the arm, leading to her and Rojo leading the girl out into the main area. "Now come on, it might not be particularly cool out here, but it's certainly better than in here.

Emerald smiled gratefully at the two. "Thanks… but could I maybe get some clothes that AREN'T soaking wet first?"

Rojo sent a smirk down to her. "Ah, c'mon, I'm actually kinda jealous of you. Clothes splashed with ice water sounds pretty refreshing if ya ask me."

"True… but they were drenched in sweat, too, so if ya don't mind, I wanna change and get a PROPER shower in, too."

"…Okay, fair point." Rojo and Cinder let Emerald go and she headed into the bathroom, the bounty hunter pondering what to do next. "Hm… oh! Hey, I've got an idea." Cinder gave her a curious glance, to which Rojo sent her a wink. "I think I know something that'll cheer Emerald and all of us up pretty quick!"

…..

Meanwhile, across town, the Omni-Hunters had all pulled up to Ben's house, the group having just returned from Mr. Smoothies with their bounty of flavorful drinks. One young man in particular, though, was getting ribbed for his choice of flavor as they walked into the house. "Sun, do you KNOW how predictable you are?" Weiss asked.

"Oh, what? Because I got banana?" Sun retorted with a roll of his eyes. "At least I got a NORMAL flavor, unlike Ben over there."

Ben shook his cup at him. "Hey, don't knock the oatmeal smoothie until ya try it, bro."

Yang took a sip of her strawberry drink as she eyed her boyfriend. "How the hell do they even MAKE a cool drink out of something that's supposed to be hot?"

"Meticulous experimenting and testing, that's how!" Ben said proudly. "Mr. Smoothies prides itself on its team of flavor researchers in order to get their flavors just right."

"Well, I'm certainly not complaining!" Blake said as she took a sip from her own smootie, her kitty ears flattened out as a happy smile broke out across her face. "This salmon smoothie is to DIE for! Ah! I think I'm in heaven…"

Weiss grimaced and set her blueberry smoothie down. "And I think I need a break before I get—"

"AAAAAH! Brain freeze!" Ruby screamed.

"Yeah, that." Weiss rolled her eyes as she chopped her partner on the shoulder.

Rex came in after them and nudged Sun's arm. "Hey, don't feel too bad, dude. I got banana, too, so really, she should be shouting at BOTH of us." The two boys chuckled and knocked their cups together, earning an eyeroll from Weiss.

'Robo-dolt, YOUR obsession with bananas just baffles me.'

Kevin, Gwen, Team JNPR, Neptune, Ilia and Penny all followed them inside as well, the latter carrying several trays of smoothies on her arms. Somehow, the redheaded android was able to keep all of those perfectly balanced, without even spilling one cup. In total, there were six trays holding four smoothies each, and she seemed very happy about that. "With this many smoothies, we should be set for the rest of the afternoon!"

"And thank goodness for that." Pyrrha sighed, sipping her grape smoothie all the while. "Hopefully today is THE hottest day of the summer, because I don't know if I'll be able to handle this much heat going forward."

"You said it, Pyr." Jaune agreed as they all moved into the living room, the team all taking a seat on either the furniture or the floor. "Hey Gwen, you don't happen to know the weather for the rest of the week, do ya?"

Gwen took out her phone and started scrolling through her apps, hoping to answer Jaune's question. "Well, let's see… oh, here we go." She broke out into a small grin when she saw what the weather was calling for tomorrow. "Ah, good. Seems like we're going way down tomorrow, back to a comfortable 65 degrees."

"Fahrenheit or Celsius?" Rex asked, earning him a collective deadpan gaze from the group. "…What? It's a legitimate question."

The Anodite shook her head, putting her phone away. "Fahrenheit. And it seems like it's gonna stay that way for the week, so we should be good for a while." Gwen set her sights over to Ren, who seemed a bit lost in his own thoughts as he sipped his smoothie. "…You alright, Ren?" She successfully garnered the green ninja's attention at that moment. "You've been a bit more quiet than usual since the training session. You aren't, um… still hurting, are you?"

Ren's face flushed red and he waved his hand rapidly. "N-No, it's not that at all, really."

"Heh, well that's good news." Nora nudged him in the arm, giving him a wink. "I mean, Six must've kicked ya REALLY hard."

Kevin raised an eyebrow at the ninja. "Hey yeah, weren't you wearing your cup, dude? Since Jaune got kicked in the nuts that one time, we've all made sure to wear 'em."

Some had to stifle a laugh as Jaune narrowed his eyes at the Osmosian. "Gee, thanks Kevin, I really wanted to remember that moment." Kevin wore a cheeky smirk and Jaune rolled his eyes, setting them back to his friend and teammate. "Ren, ya don't have to tell us what's bugging you if you don't want to. We know you like to keep to yourself a lot, so it's no problem."

"Well, it's not that, really." Ren explained before sparing Kevin a glance. "And yes, I WAS wearing protection. It's just Six really DOES kick that hard." He craned his head down to the floor. "But… I'm a little nervous for tomorrow, you know? Six accepted my request to learn under him. This is my big chance to study from a master swordsman…" He clenched his cup nervously. "I want to make a good first impression, but… will he see me as a novice? Will he be unimpressed, or—"

"Ren, you're worrying WAY too much." Rex assured, reaching out to pat his back in assurance. "Six doesn't judge people like that. Sure, you're definitely not AS experienced as him, but that's the whole reason why he accepted that request of yours. So that you COULD learn."

Ilia gave a nod to the young ninja. "Yeah, don't be so worked up, Ren. We know you'll do great, right guys?" A collective cheer came from the teens at her words, which took Ren by surprise.

Just then, a certain hand reached out and grabbed Ren's own, and just by how it felt, he knew exactly who it belonged to. "Renny, listen to me." Nora beamed up to him, her smile warming him up in an instant. "I know that you'll do great under Six. Since the day we met, I've always believed in you, so do me a favor and start believing in yourself on this, 'kay?"

Ren blinked in surprise, but eventually, he returned Nora's smile, giving her hand a squeeze. "Thanks, Nora. That… really means a lot." The duo couldn't help but blush as they continued to gaze into one another's eyes, leading Neptune to cough into his hand.

"Ahem, well, glad that we're all on the same page here." The blue-haired boy raised his drink up to his teammates. "So here's to wishing Ren luck training under Six. Because if today's session is anything to go by, he might just need it."

"Seconded." Sun brought his cup in before Kevin, Yang and Ruby did the same.

The rest of the team shook their heads at that, but before the subject could be changed, they heard a set of footsteps from the nearby stairs. They moved their heads up just in time to see Sandra coming down into the living room, giving the Omni-Hunters a greeting smile. "Oh, I thought I heard voices down here!" She gave a whistle up the stairs and called out; "Sweeties, they're home!"

All at once, a bunch of barking could be heard before Zwei, Romulus and Rema came bowling down the stairs, making a beeline for their respective owners. Ruby, Blake and Pyrrha laughed joyously as they bent down and picked up their pups, happy to see them as well. "Ah-haha! Oh, Zwei, there you are! Were you a good boy today? Did you watch your little cousins?" Zwei barked and nodded to her in response.

"Aw, that's good." Blake said as she let Rema lick her face. "Yes, thank you, I need this after a long day."

"I'll bet it was." Sandra said as she came over as well. "I saw the news today. It seems like you all got a bit hotter under the collar than I imagined you would."

Pyrrha sighed, holding Romulus close to her chest. "You could certainly say that, yes. But it was also…" The young warrior's mind went back to that moment down in the Hot Spot, where Jaune had stripped off his armor and hoodie and inadvertently gave her a show she desperately wanted to see again. "…Very enjoyable."

Sandra tilted her head. "…Pyrrha?"

"Hm?"

"Dear, you're drooling."

The redhead panicked and let out a yelp as she wiped her mouth. "EEP! S-Sorry! I'm so sorry. M-My mind just left for a second…"

Yang snickered to herself, knowing exactly why that was. 'She be thirsty for hunky knight, hehe…'

Sandra clapped her hands together, sending a hopeful smile out to the group. "Well, it just so happens that you came back right in the nick of time." The team grew curious as she explained. "You see, Carl and I were setting up the fan up in the attic to keep the upstairs cool today, when we noticed that the place was absolutely filthy. We've been going through everything to see what we can keep and what we can potentially sell, and we'd greatly appreciate a little help."

"And don't worry!" Everyone snapped their heads up as Carl came down the stairs as well, dusting off his hands. "The attic's pretty cool now, so you all should have no problem."

"Oh, sure, Carl!" Ruby replied as she raised her drink. "We'd be happy to help! We'll just finish our smoothies and—"

"Um, Ruby?" Penny came over, still balancing all of the additional drinks on her arms. "I believe you're forgetting the second round."

But Carl also noticed the other drinks, and he raised a hand to the girls in reassurance. "Hey, don't worry about these ones, guys." He took a holding tray from Penny and pointed toward the back of the house. "We've actually got a BIG freezer on the back porch that can keep these drinks cool easy. So, once you're finished up there, you can start on round two of your smoothies. How does that sound?"

Ben glanced out to his team, silently asking how they felt about it. And, one by one, the team all smiled back at him, showing their support for the idea. The only one left was Neptune, who didn't seem too thrilled with the idea as he slurped on his smoothie. But, as the team set their sights on him expectantly, he gave a sigh and raised his hands. "Oh, alright, I'll help… and just when I was hoping we wouldn't have to put in any more effort today."

"Oh, quit whining." Weiss scolded, pointing a finger at him. "My team and I are living here, remember, so it's only fair that we pitch in every once and a while."

Blake nodded at that. "Yeah, Neptune, it wouldn't kill you to help out, either. Getting lazy and complacent isn't a good thing, you know." Neptune just hummed an acknowledgment and went back to his smoothie, while Blake just rolled her eyes and put her attention onto Carl and Sandra. "So, where should we start?"

"We're in absolutely no rush, Blake." Sandra asserted, taking some of the drink trays from Penny as well. "Finish your drinks and we'll put these ones into the cooler. Then we'll show you where you can get started…"

…..

Back across town, the Ministry girls had gathered in the living room, surrounding the table as Rojo came in from her room, holding some sort of black box. But, as she came in, they realized that it wasn't JUST a black box, but a game console of some sort. Cinder, Emerald and Neo all tilted their heads as she set it down under the television and went to plug in the cables it came with, unsure of what she had planned. "Um, Rojo?" the Fall Maiden spoke up, noticing the odd circular logo on the side that had an "X" inside it. "What is that?"

"Hmhm, this, my dear Cindy, is my Xbox One." Rojo pat the top of her gaming console as she plugged it into the wall, pressing the power button to switch it on. "And WE are gonna be playing some co-op video games so we can get our mind off of everything that's been going on these past couple of days."

If anything, this made Neo tilt her head more as Emerald scratched her cheek. "Uh… Rojo, I think you should probably know… we aren't exactly into video games."

"Yes, honestly they're rather trivial, if you ask me." Cinder agreed, lounging on the couch. "After all, why fight something inside a computer game when you can fight in real life?"

"Fair point, but trust me, this'll be a good way for us to blow off some steam." Rojo promised before running back to her room and retrieving two controllers, handing one to Cinder. She initially refused, but Rojo simply dropped it on her lap, leading the young woman to grumble at her. "Ah, you'll be find, Cindy, don't worry. Of course, we'll have to take turns since it's only two-player for the story."

Emerald sighed and shook her head. "Well, I guess we're doing this then. What game are we playing?"

"Oh, we're playing an absolute classic." Rojo pulled out a game box and showed it to the others, reading the title aloud; "Ladies, welcome… to Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Trust me, you're gonna LOVE this." The girls simply watched as Rojo set the game into the console and selected it on the home menu. Then, before long, the opening intro played;

"For a time, the humans of Sera knew the illusion of peace. Until… Emergence Day." The four women watched as massive creatures suddenly erupted out of the ground in the relatively peaceful city on screen, before it then flashed forward to several soldiers fighting off the rather grotesque, multi-legged beasts. The sound of a chainsaw roared as another soldier cut through a more bipedal monster, but soon enough, the girls from Remnant took notice of the weapons the humans were using.

"Wait… are those… guns with chainsaws built into them?" Cinder asked. "That is…"

"Utterly METAL!" Rojo practically screamed while making a horns gesture.

"…I was going to say a bit excessive, but whatever floats your boat."

Emerald deadpanned over to the raven-haired young woman. "Cinder, Ruby uses a GIANT SCYTHE with a sniper rifle built into it, and you think chainsaw guns are excessive?" Neo gave a shrug to Cinder as well, showing that she thought the weapons were pretty tame by their standards. Cinder simply shook her head and focused back on what the game was saying.

"In time, their valiant defense… was crushed." Cinder couldn't help but smirk at the narrator's words, liking the sound of what she was hearing. "With billions dead, humans denied their enemy control…" She watched as several laser beams suddenly came blasting down out of the sky, forming X shapes before coming together in several concentrated beams, obliterating the land. "…By destroying their own civilization. Now, the long struggle against overwhelming odds approaches a final, desperate stand."

As the game's title flashed on screen, Rojo smiled and nudged her head toward it. "Eh? Eh? C'mon, you gotta admit, that's pretty cool, right? Gettin' to mangle some insect ass with kick-ass weapons? I'd say that makes for an awesome afternoon, right?"

"Well, it's something, I guess." Emerald said as Rojo got herself and Cinder right into the game. But, while she was seeing the action going down on screen, she couldn't help but still feel awful about what happened the day before. Even at that moment, she could hear Mercury's hurtful words ring in her ears, and all it did was make her feel angrier. She shut her eyes, trying to block it all out. But all she could hear was his stupid voice…

"Em. Emerald… EMERALD!"

"SHUT UP, Mercury!" The thief snapped, breathing hard as she glared forward… right at Rojo. Not Mercury. Cinder and Neo stared incredulously at her as panic started to overtake her. "…R-Rojo, I—"

But then, Rojo got up from her seat and moved over next to Emerald, draping an arm over her back. "Wow, girl, you've got it worse than I thought." She tapped the controller on Emerald's shoulder, locking eyes with her. "You know, locking yourself in your room is one thing, but this just proved my theory…"

Emerald blinked in confusion. "What theory?"

"You have Mercury on the brain." Rojo poked the greenette's head with a smirk. "And he's not getting out."

A blush came to Emerald's cheeks and she snapped her head away in denial. "Th-That's absurd! The only reason I'm thinking about him is because of how MAD I am at him. Simple as that."

Rojo folded her arms, nodding her head a little. "Yeah, yeah, you make a good point. But here's a counterpoint; think about WHY you're mad at him. Because he hurt your feelings, right?" Emerald's expression softened slightly as she craned her head down, gripping her knees tightly. "Hm, thought so. Em, if I'm being honest, this is exactly why I wanted all of us to play this game together."

"Huh?"

"Listen, I get it. You two are partners. Have been for a long time, and really, it's no surprise that there could probably be something more there." Rojo's smirk returned, causing Emerald to grimace. "Listen, take it from someone who's dated partners in crime before; that territory doesn't come easy. There'll be bumps in the road, probably a few potholes like the one you're in now. But you can't let your frustration get the better of ya when stuff like that happens, otherwise, you won't get anywhere."

Emerald had to admit, she definitely wasn't expecting THIS kind of wisdom to come from Rojo of all people. And it was evident that neither Cinder or Neo had either. But the advice itself… was actually pretty sound, all things considered. "Wow, um… thanks."

Rojo set a hand on Emerald's shoulder, offering a supportive grin. "No problem. Bottom line; don't make the mistakes I made, 'kay? Take some time to forget your troubles and have a little fun. You and Merc can sort all that out when both of you have cooled off." She set the controller down on Emerald's lap. "Now here. Use the Lancer to eviscerate some Locust scum. I promise, it'll help ya feel better."

The thief picked up the controller and hit the Start button, immediately thrown into the action. Rojo quickly relayed the controls to her and, before she knew it, Emerald was in the middle of a pack of "Locusts" and started shooting them down. And whenever one got too close to her, she used the chainsaw function of the Lancer to practically disembowel the beast. And she had to say… it felt good. "Oh-hohoho! Me likey!"

"Knew it would." Rojo smiled approvingly as she watched Emerald and Neo start going ham on their enemies, with Cinder now sitting next to her. "Aw, passed it off already, Cindy?" the bounty hunter gave her partner a tiny pout. "And here I thought you'd at least go twenty minutes."

"Well, it's not AS bad as I was expecting, I suppose." Cinder shrugged. "But still, not my thing. Thank you for the offer, though." She sent an inquisitive sidelong glance to the redhead. "Now… about those "partners in crime" that you… cavorted with?"

"…Crap."

…..

"Ah-ha! Awesome!" Back at the Tennyson home, the Omni-Hunters were standing in the house's attic, which they'd just finished clearing out and cleaning up. As they gazed out over their handiwork, they couldn't help but grin at their accomplishment. It had only taken a little under an hour to get it all done, all thanks to a lot of teamwork. Neptune was certainly thankful for that as he sat down on a nearby stool. "Phew, that actually took a lot less time than I expected."

Ruby gave him a thumbs up. "See, Neptune? No use in complaining when something doesn't take too long at all!"

The blue-haired boy waved to her. "Ah, yeah, well… I guess it wasn't as boring as I thought it'd be either."

"No kidding." Kevin said as she rifled through a certain box labelled "Plumber Stuff". "I mean, check out all this old Plumber gear that Max just left up here!" He picked up a strange device that resembled a pen with a tesla coil on both ends. "I mean, does he even KNOW how much this stuff goes for nowadays?" There was a pause as Ben and Gwen deadpanned at him. "…What?"

Gwen sent him a disappointed frown. "Kevin, what did we say about thinking in terms of money?"

"Hey, I'm not thinkin' of sellin' it, if that's what you're thinking." Kevin brought his hands up defensively, only for Ben and Gwen to each raise a brow at that. "…Well, okay, I'm mostly not thinking about it, but I'm not gonna do it!"

The rest of the team laughed at Kevin's remark as the Tennyson cousins rolled their eyes. "Gwen, let's face it; Kevin's hopeless." Ben smirked as he approached the steps leading downstairs. "Well, after all this, I think it's time we get to that next round of smoothies, eh? Who's ready for that?"

Yang and several others raised their hands in approval. "Heck yeah, Green Boy! We're SO ready!"

"Well… maybe not ready to head downstairs just yet." Blake said as she and Weiss were looking over some old family albums, with Jaune and Pyrrha peering over their shoulders. "There's still a lot of interesting stuff up here that I think deserves a little peek." She lifted the album up, showing a black and white picture of a young boy, dressed in a scout uniform. "I mean… is this who I think it is?"

Gwen smiled at the picture, recognizing who it was in an instant. "Hmhm, yep, that's Grandpa Max as a kid." She spared her cousin a quick glance. "And we should know since we actually saw him as a kid."

"Heh, yeah… but you're right, Blake. There's probably still a ton of interesting stuff we haven't come across yet." Ben ushered for Gwen, Kevin and Rex to come with him downstairs. "So, here's what we'll do; we'll go get the smoothies and bring 'em right up so we can keep searching for stuff, 'kay?"

Sun and many others gave them a thumbs up. "Sounds good to us, Ben. We'll let ya know if we find anything neat." With that, the Alien Trio and Rex all went down to get their drinks, leaving the others to start searching around. "Man, how is it that all the cool stuff ends up in people's attics, huh?"

"Well, this house DID used to belong to Max himself, remember." Ren pointed out as he opened a dresser drawer, pulling out a pair of glossy black dress shoes. "I bet he keeps a lot of his stuff here since there's no room in the Rustbucket."

Jaune eyed the pile of stuff they had gathered up worriedly. "Hm… hope that doesn't mean we put some of HIS stuff on the "Sell" pile."

"Eh, if we did, we probably would've noticed it." Nora shrugged as she bounced over to some more shelves that were in a particularly far corner. "Heck most of that stuff we piled up HAS to be newer, and his stuff has to be at least a century old, so don't sweat it."

"…Nora, how old to you think Max is?" Ren muttered.

"Oh, hey!" Nora pulled out an old, leather-bound book from one of the shelves. "A dusty old book! Think it'll disintegrate if we blow on it?!"

"NORA!" the team shouted in a panic, pointing behind her.

"What?!" The redhead snapped her head back around… just in time to see the upper shelf suddenly go lopsided right where she pulled the book out. How that thing had been supporting that shelf for so long, she had no idea. But the main problem was that there were two big boxes on that shelf… and they were now tumbling down toward her. "Oh crap—AH!"

Right before the boxes could land on her, Ruby and Yang sprang forward with arms outreached, the Blonde Brawler pulling her friend out of the way before her little sister used her Semblance to catch both boxes. The Hooded Huntress flew around the attic briefly before coming to a stop, sighing in relief as she set the boxes down. "Hah, phew! That was a close one."

Yang poked the top of Nora's head playfully. "You good, Nora? Those things almost hit ya right on your noggin!"

The hyper redhead chuckled sheepishly, glancing down to the book in her hands. "Hehe, yeah… who knew this old thing was holding onto that big a load?"

Ruby shrugged as she went to sit down on the boxes, unaware that she had moved something in them in a certain way as they were caught… "Heh, well, let's just be glad that ya didn't get buried in them. They're actually a bit heavy, so whatever's inside them is probably pretty—"

Kch-KING! Gaburincho!

"AAH!" The second Ruby sat down, something made a noise from inside the top box, making her shoot up immediately. The others also recoiled a bit at the surprisingly loud noise, almost as if the box had actually shouted at them to not sit on it or something. Both boxes had been sealed shut with packaging tape, so they couldn't tell what it could've been. "W-W-What the heck was THAT?!"

"I… I-I don't know." Ilia admitted as she took out her Lightning Lash, bringing out only the tip of it from its handle. "But how about we find out?"

But then, Penny's eyes literally lit up, shining a light on the boxes to see if she could find any clues while Ilia opened them. It didn't take her very long before finding some words scribbled in marker on the side. "Wait, look here." The team gathered around as Penny read the top box first; "Weapons-slash-Batteries…" She craned her head down to the second one. "And… Voltasaurs?"

"The heck is a "Voltasaur"?" Neptune asked.

Ilia took the top box off, finally opening it. "Only one way to find out. Let's see what kind of weapons we're talking abo—oh."

The team grew concerned at Ilia's tone as she peered into the box. "What is it, Ilia?" Weiss asked. "What'd you find?"

"Heh… well, they're weapons, alright." The chameleon girl reached in and pulled out… a small plastic sword. It somewhat resembled a katana blade, it's handle black with some silver and yellow detailing. The blade itself was made of a soft, bendy plastic and was painted a metallic yellow, though oddly enough, most of the sword was actually stylized to resemble a beastly head of some sort, and it had a pump action right at the base of the blade for some reason. "I think THIS might be what shouted at you, Ruby. Ilia went to open the "jaw" of the sword and it made a noise, the power having been switched on. But, to everyone's surprise, something actually came out of its "mouth". "Oh! What the—"

"Got it!" Ren said, grabbing whatever it was before it could hit the floor. He lifted it up into the light… and was surprised to see that it was a small, green plastic battery. But what was more interesting was that it actually had a clear window with a holofoil image inside, one of a green Velociraptor. "…Okay, now THIS is strange." He noticed that there was a button on top of the battery and he clicked it, the image inside flipping around to a glow-in-the-dark version of itself. "VERY strange."

"I guess when the box said "Weapons/Batteries", it wasn't lying." Pyrrha pointed out. She and Jaune went over to the box as well… and their eyes widened at what they saw next. Pyrrha reached in and pulled out a big, yellow and black plastic revolver with silver detailing… and it was ALSO stylized in the shape of a beast head. Jaune, meanwhile, took out a long, blue and gold sword that also had a pump handle on it, along with a pair of red eyes near the hilt to make it resemble a beaked creature.

"…Yeah, these are definitely toys." Jaune deduced, as Pyrrha started pulling the trigger on the gun, which started making shooting sounds… that oddly enough also sounded like roars. The blonde knight reached in to pull out a strange gauntlet that resembled a bird's head, also painted gold, blue and silver. He could tell that it must've gone with the sword he found. "Really cool toys, honestly."

Pyrrha tried pulling back on the hammer of the gun, but found it to be locked in place, until she noticed a small button on the gun's handle and pulled it back, allowing her to open the gun's "mouth". It even made a proper "chk-chk" sound as the barrel lit up. "I'm starting to wonder if we found some of Ben's old childhood toys that were stowed away."

Blake came over and pulled out a bag that was absolutely filled to the brim with similar batteries as the one Ren was holding. "Ya think? These colorful little things just scream "play with me"." She opened the bag and pulled out a red battery with an image of a Tyrannosaurus inside of it, and on the back, it had a word in white lettering; "Hm… Gabutyra? Weird."

"Blake, if I may." Pyrrha reached her hand out and Blake obliged, handing her the battery. The young warrior pointed the toy to her face, noticing two circular holes in the barrel, and it didn't take her long to figure out how the toy worked. "Hm… I wonder…" She inserted the battery into the bottom hole and the gun made a clanging noise, which elicited a few "ohs" before Pyrrha closed the gun, making it "bite" on the battery. And then…

Gaburincho! GABUTYYRRRA!

Ruby's eyes lit up in child-like wonder. "AH! It did a thing!"

"Haha! Oh my god, really?" Ilia laughed. "What the heck was that?"

"Probably the craziest noise I've ever heard." Neptune guffawed as well. "GABUTYYRRRA! Haha, man, that's a hoot!" He reached into the bag Blake was holding and took out another battery, this one blue and marked "Stegochi". "Hey, Pyrrha, could I see that for a sec, please?"

Pyrrha gladly handed him the toy gun, showing him how to open it. "Sure, be my guest. Just press this switch to free up the latch on the hammer."

Neptune took the toy gun and opened it up, twirling the blue battery in his fingers before inserting it into the top hole. "Alright, now let's see what we get when I do… THIS!" He pushed the top of the gun back down, and it screamed out;

Gaburincho! GABUTYYRRRA! SUTEGOCHI!

The team erupted in sounds of awe and laughter at the gun's announcement before Nora suggested something; "Ooh! OOH! What happens if you spin the gun's barrel?!"

"Ah, good idea!" Neptune concurred, placing his hand on the clear plastic barrel. "Let's find out!" He gave the barrel a spin and it started flashing red, with a charging-up noise playing through the speakers at the same time. Neptune pointed it forward and pulled the trigger.

VAMOLA MUCHO! Gaboom! GOTCHIIIN!

"HA! Okay, now THAT is freaking amazing." Neptune set his sights on all of the other batteries in the bag that Blake was holding. "And that can only mean that all of THOSE have to make their own noises, too! Let's test 'em out!"

But before he could, Yang couldn't help but wonder something out loud. "Hm… but what the heck even IS a "Gabutyra" or "Stegochi"? I mean, they're probably Dinosaurs, sure, but—"

"Huh, Yang?" Sun piped up, leading everyone to turn toward him as he knelt over the bigger box, which he had opened up. He reached in and turned around with a big grin, pulling out something that made everyone's eyes widen. "I believe THIS is Gabutyra."

What Sun held in his hands was what could only be described as a big, robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex figure made with mostly red plastic, with a yellow lower jaw and tail, along with plenty of silver and black paint detailing. Its big, green eyes were prominent, as was the small, yellow crest on the back of its head. "…Someone pinch me." Ruby muttered. "Because that has to be the COOLEST T-Rex I've ever seen!"

"And it gets even better!" Sun flipped a switch on Gabutyra's side, getting a growling noise as it came on. He then pulled the dinosaur's mouth open, revealing another hole meant for those batteries. "He's got a power switch and he's compatible with the batteries! Neptune, mind ejecting that one for me?"

"Sure, dude!" Neptune opened the gun and quickly found the ejection buttons for the batteries, though he was surprised at how quick they shot out. "Oop! Hah, here ya go!"

Sun caught the battery and gave him a thumbs up. "Thanks. Now… let's see what we've got." He pushed the battery in, snapped into place, and as the sound played, he made Gabutyra bite down on the battery, making the yellow crest pop up into several feathery frills.

Gaburincho! GABUTYYRRRA!

"Ah-ha! Sensational!" Penny clapped her hands excitedly. "What a fascinating and tremendous toy! I'm especially intrigued at how all of those batteries are so compatible with everything."

Weiss titled her head to the side. "Hm, a bit gimmicky, but it's pretty effective at making you remember their names."

"Oh, and we're gonna learn ALL their names." Sun assured as he craned his head back down to the box. "Take a peek in there… we've got a LOT more where Gabutyra came from." The Omni-Hunters gathered around the box and immediately, their eyes lit up as much as Ruby's did before… and yet somehow, the Hooded Huntress STILL managed to outshine all of them.

"AAAAAAH! So. Many. DINOSAURS!" Ruby reached in and pulled out a figure that appeared to use the same mold as Gabutyra. However, it had with a different, long-snouted head, longer arms, and a new dorsal fin piece, making it into a Spinosaurus. It was also primarily a deep navy color instead of red, its with its lower yellow jaw already hinged open. "Blake! Please tell me you have a matching battery in that bag!"

Blake raised a hand to Ruby, telling her to wait. "Hold your horses, Ruby, and lemme see… ah, here we go." She pulled out a matching navy battery, with the image of the Spinosaurus inside. "So this one's called… Tobaspino."

"Weird, but I'll take it!" Ruby snatched the battery away, much to Blake's chagrin, and quickly switched the toy on. She pushed the battery into its mouth and closed its jaw, causing an angled piece that resembled a boomerang to suddenly snap out of the sail.

Gaburincho! TOBASPIIIINO!

Ruby giggled and bounced up and down, very much enjoying herself. "Heeheehee! These dinosaurs are amazing!"

"Pretty sure they're called "Voltasaurs", Ruby." Ilia said as she too reached in, pulling out a smaller one. This one was clearly a black Parasaurolophus, its head crest painted bright yellow to contrast the color. "And I gotta say, they look pretty cool."

Neptune reached in and took out a blue Stegosaurus with yellow back plates and tail spikes, showing it off to everyone. "No kidding. Anyone wanna bet that this is Stegotchi?" He peered closer at the Voltasaur before a thought occurred to him. "I wonder…" Neptune ejected the blue battery from the gun and put his thumb into Stegotchi's small mouth, only for the entire upper half of his head to suddenly slide up on a rail. "WOAH! Ha! I was right! Chew on this, little guy!"

He inserted the battery and it clicked inside of Stegotchi's mouth… only for it to not go any further. "Um, Neptune, are you sure—"

"Wait, wait, there's a button on his belly!" Neptune quickly noticed, pushing the small button in. After that, he pushed the battery into Stegotchi's body further… and from his back, a large blade popped up, taking everyone by surprise. "…Guys, these dinosaurs have so many gimmicks, it's awesome!"

Ren eyes the green battery he was holding and searched around in the box, quickly finding a green Velociraptor as he read its name. "Hm… so you're Zakutor, huh?" He picked up the toy and opened its mouth next, though this time, its lower jaw moved down. Ren inserted the battery all the way in and suddenly, the Raptor's tail split into three parts, almost like a claw. "Hm, a bladed tail. Nice."

"Blake, lemme see that bag again, please." Ilia requested, her best friend more than happy to oblige. It didn't take her long to locate a black battery that matched the Parasaurolophus, and she noticed that its name was pretty on the nose. "Heh, Parasagun. Has a nice ring to it. Now, open up!" Ilia pulled Parasagun's mouth open and inserted the battery, and all at once, its tail opened to reveal that it was actually a hidden rail gun. "Oooh, a secret gun! These guys are just packed full of weapons."

A sudden gasp rang out through the room as Nora almost dove head first into the box, only to pull herself out with a new little friend of her own. "Look at this Triceratops! LOOK AT IT!" Indeed, one eyeful of the trike and it was clear that Nora would love it… for it was bright pink. Also, it had a large drill for a tail and drill horns on its forehead as well. "It's so freaking cute and destructive! Battery, please!"

After rifling around the bag again, Blake found some pink batteries… though she found that they were actually a few different shades of pink. So, she had to go by the dinosaur that best match, and eventually, she found the perfect match. "Hm, that one's name is apparently… "Dricera"."

"I love it!" Nora said as she grabbed the battery and inserted it, making the drill tail spring out a bit more and its yellow tip extend. "Eee! What a cutie!"

"Heh, okay, those ones ARE cute…" Jaune snickered as he pulled out another Voltosaur… one with a very impressive wingspan. "But they've got nothing on THIS guy's cool factor!" The group marveled at the gold and black Pteranodon that he held in his hands, its wings accented with blue lightning bolts. He flipped the switch and pressed a button on its back, making it roar loudly. "Blake, what's this one?"

Blake found the gold battery and tossed it to him. "Why don't ya find out, Jaune? Maybe it says its name, too?"

"Hey, good idea." Jaune approved, opening the Pteranodon's mouth. "Open wide, bud, time to eat!" He inserted the battery and closed its mouth, all while the flying saurian shouted its name;

Gaburincho! PTERAGOOORRDON!

There was a brief pause before Nora suddenly belted out a laugh, with a few others snickering at the name of the Voltasaur. Jaune himself was a bit taken aback himself. "…This awesome thing's name… is "Pteragordon"?"

"HA! Gordon!" Nora howled from the floor.

Pyrrha placed a hand on Jaune's back, giving him a sympathetic smile. "Well, I suppose they can't all be winners, Jaune… hm, but what's this one?" Pyrrha reached in and procured another rather large Voltasaur, this one white and purple with a long neck and fins that seemed to be attached to huge rocket thrusters. In fact, the Voltasaur itself was heavily similar to a rocket ship, while still successfully resembling a Plesiosaurus. She eventually found the power switch and made the Voltasaur roar with the press of a button. "Hm, this one is rather stylish, if you ask me."

"If you like giant rockets, sure." Blake commented before finding a purple battery and handing it to Pyrrha. "Apparently this one's called "Plezuon"."

The Invincible Girl took the battery graciously and opened the toy's mouth, inserting the battery and locking it in. She wasn't sure how it went in all the way at first, but then she noticed that there was a button on the landing gear on its neck. Pyrrha pressed it and pulled back, activating its own noise;

Gaburincho! PLLLEZUON!

While the announcement did make her giggle a little, Pyrrha was a bit perplexed on the pronunciation. "That's odd. It did sound somewhat like an "L", but also had a bit of a rolling "R" in there."

"I'm starting to get the feeling that these toys might be very foreign, actually." Blake pointed out as she took hold of another Voltasaur; a grey and yellow Pachycelphalosaurus with a big, spikey wrecking ball for a head. Blake found its corresponding battery and read its name. "I mean, take this one, for example. This one's called… "Bunpachy". Not too sure what the "Bun" part of its name is…" She put the battery into Bunpachy's mouth and the wrecking ball was pushed off of its head, hanging down from its tail on a plastic chain as its real, hardhat-like head was revealed. "But I think it might have something to do with the wrecking ball."

"Very possible." Weiss agreed, taking out one of the last Voltsaurs in the box. This one was a cyan-colored Ankylosaurus… with a very stubby tail and a big blue cylinder in its back. "And what about this one?"

"Apparently, this one's called "Ankydon"." Blake answered, handing the cyan battery to her friend. Weiss pulled Ankydon's mouth open and inserted it, allowing the REAL tail to come swinging down, revealing it to be a full-on hammer. "…And its weapon makes ALL the sense in the world, honestly."

But Nora didn't seem too pleased as her eyes shifted between Dricera and Ankydon, feeling very conflicted. "Aw, man! This one's pink and that one has a hammer?! Why must these two adorable little dinos make me choose my favorite?!" The team couldn't help but chortle a little at that before Nora saw that there was still one Voltasaur left… at least, she was pretty sure it was another one. "Uh, guys? I think the last one might be in pieces."

The rest of the team peered into the box, and indeed, there were several pieces of plastic body parts strewn along the bottom, colored silver, gold and black with a few hints of red here and there. Yang took out the biggest piece, which must have been the main body, studying it closely. "Yeah, but… how do we put it together?"

"Good question, I—woops!" Sun cut himself off as Gabutyra slipped in his hand a little. He didn't drop the toy, but he DID hit a button on its side… and from there, it started blasting VERY loud, fast-paced music, accompanied by even louder whistling. The team covered their ears as it kept playing, all while wondering how it happened. "AAH! What the heck?! Why's it playing music?!"

…..

As that was happening, though, Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Rex were coming back up the stairs and headed toward the attic. Each of them were carrying a tray full of smoothies, eager to get them back up to their team. However, just as they approached the ladder up to the attic… a certain piece of loud samba music suddenly came blasting out from above, making them pause. "Woah! What the—what'd they find up there?!" Rex asked.

"I dunno, but whatever it is, it's freaking LOUD!" Kevin emphasized, covering one ear.

Gwen's brow furrowed, though, recognizing the music from somewhere. "Wait, I know that tune… Ben, didn't you—BEN?!" Without warning, her cousin put his smoothie tray on the floor and rushed right up the steps, almost as if a match had been lit under him.

The hero had identified the music almost immediately, his mind having flashbacks to several years ago when he heard that same music constantly. But the thing was… this HAD to be impossible. All of those toys had been sold off… at least, that's what his parents told him. But, as he nearly leaped up into the attic, he saw that this was no mistake. There, he saw his team all gathered around… and holding his Voltasaurs. His eyes snapped toward Gabutyra in Sun's hand and he dashed forward, hitting the off switch before anyone could react.

"Huh? Woah, Ben!" Sun sent a smile to him. "Nice timing, dude. Thanks."

"No problem…" The hero scanned his eyes across his teammates, taking count of each Voltasaur. Nearly all of them seemed to be accounted for… and one look down only confirmed that, seeing Bragigas having been disassembled to be stored at the bottom of the box. Plus, he saw that all of the role play weapons AND batteries were here as well, and at that very second, he found himself overjoyed. "HAHAHA! No way!" He took hold of the yellow and black revolver, elated to have it in his hands once more. "Guys, where did you find all this stuff?!"

"Oh, they nearly fell on my head." Nora revealed, pointing toward the semi-fallen shelves in the corner. "They were stacked up on that top shelf, and when I pulled a book from the bottom, it fell."

Ruby wore a big smile, presenting Tobaspino to Ben. "But I managed to save them! These gotta be yours, right?"

Ben could feel himself starting to choke up a little, as much as he didn't want to admit it. "Hah… yeah, they are. My god, I haven't seen these in years… I thought my parents sold them all." He heard Gwen, Kevin and Rex making their way up the ladder with smoothies in hand and he held up the toys to show his cousin. "GWEN! You'll never guess what these guys found!"

As Kevin and Rex came over, Gwen had to pause, her eyes nearly bugging out as the memories started flooding back. She knew she had recognized that music… and her eye started twitching. "Oh… oh no."

"Hah, dude, sweet!" Rex said as Ben handed him the revolver. "Dino Charge stuff! That's super cool!"

"Uh, heh, might wanna correct yourself there, dude." Kevin pointed out, heading over to Jaune and inspecting Pteragordon's underside, finding Japanese text engraved on its belly as well as a logo that resembled a sad child biting down on something. "The Dino Charge versions of these toys did NOT have this kind of quality to 'em. This stuff is straight from Japan."

Ben nodded, pointing at his best friend. "Exactly, Kev. They're genuine Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger toys."

The teens from Remnant, however, were simply confused by what they were saying. "Um… "Dino Charge"?" Blake asked.

"And what do these toys have to do with "Zoo dens"?" Weiss followed up.

The three boys from Earth couldn't help but burst out laughing at the misunderstood mispronunciation, and Ben quickly began to explain; "Haha, no, no, that's Zyuden. It's a Japanese word meaning "Beast Power". And the word Sentai essentially means "team" or "squadron"."

"Okay, but what's a "Kyoryuger"?" Jaune added.

"Now that actually IS a made-up word." Ben conceded. "It combines the Japanese word for dinosaur; Kyoryu, with the word "Ranger". So essentially, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger can be roughly translated to "Beast Powered Squadron Dinosaur Ranger" in English. But honestly, no one uses that kinda terminology since it's a mouthful."

Pyrrha held up Plezuon, giving it a curious gaze. "So what you're saying is that these things are from a TV show?"

"Yep, though they're actually a WHOLE lot bigger." Kevin nodded. "Kyoryuger's actually one of MANY in a massive long-running series of Japanese TV shows, collectively known as Super Sentai. Which itself is actually a part of the Tokusatsu genre."

At that, Yang perked up as she recognized the term. "Oh, wait! That's what you said Godzilla is a part of, too, right Ben? Giant monsters made of big rubber suits and all that?"

Ben smiled to his girlfriend, affirming her guess. "Exactly right, Goldie Locks."

"Though Godzilla is part of the Daikaiju subgenre," Rex clarified, "where Super Sentai is more along the lines of the Henshin subgenre. Henshin meaning "to transform."

"Yep. See, Super Sentai can basically be described as teams of young people coming together to fight against the forces of evil, mostly monsters." Ben explained before pointed out across all of the Voltasaurs. "And because those monsters tend to grow in size, pretty much every Sentai team has a squad of special mecha that they use to take them down."

Sun and Neptune seemed to be intently focused on what Ben was saying, liking the sound of this more and more. "Okay, you've got our attention." Sun grinned, taking up the black and yellow revovler. "So these teams just fight monsters with these weapons?"

Ben took up the revolver and opened it up, reaching into the bag to grab another Gabutyra battery. "Well, yes, but not JUST with the weapons. The Sentai teams are all granted the ability to transform into colorful-suited warriors with awesome helmets, which is why it's called the henshin subgenre." Ben inserted the Gabutyra battery and closed the gun, with it making its usual sound. "And this just happens to be the Kyoryuger's henshin device; the Gaburevolver." Ben pointed the gun up, put his hand on the barrel and gave it a spin, exclaiming; "Kyoryu Change!" Before long, the Gaburevolver started playing the same music that Gabutyra played. "So they'd insert their corresponding battery, also known as a Zyudenchi, into the gun—"

"Which plays awfully annoying music." Gwen mumbled to herself.

The Omnitrix bearer deadpanned at her before going on. "As I was saying, they'd insert the battery, give the barrel a spin, and then they'd dance to this samba music." He held up a finger to the team. "Which I do NOT know how, so don't expect me to do it." Ruby, Yang and Nora all seemed a little upset, but kept listening; "And then… FIRE!" Ben pulled the trigger and the sound of drums came from the gun, finishing the transformation sequence. "…And there you go, I've just transformed into Kyoryu Red, leader of the Kyoryugers."

"…This all sounds very nerdy." Weiss commented.

"And FUN!" Penny expressed as she clapped her hands.

Ben rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. "Hehe… well, it's a lot more awesome on the show itself, I can say that much."

"No, no it really isn't." Gwen shook her head. Ben once again narrowed his eyes at her as she made her case. "Listen, Ben… Transformers, I get. Godzilla, I can understand. Heck, comic books, video games and movies are ALL things that I can somewhat enjoy… but I could never in a million years understand how you like Power Rangers."

With a roll of his eyes, Ben made his counterpoint. "Okay, one; it's Super Sentai, not Power Rangers, there IS a significant difference."

"Miniscule at best."

"SECONDLY…" Ben pointed an irate finger at her, daring her to interrupt again. "…You've never given Tokusatsu a fair shot, Gwen. All you've done is constantly roll your eyes at it. Sure, it's a series made for kids with crazy concepts and sometimes, even crazier costumes. I get that. But in most cases, Sentai is actually very well-written and can create very compelling stories. Heck, I'm STILL recommending you give Magiranger a shot."

Gwen shook her head. "And I keep telling you that I don't get the appeal of people in spandex and big helmets fighting rubber monsters."

"Says the girl who once wore a cat suit and fights monsters almost every day." Ben countered, which earned another grumble from his cousin. He faced his team again every eagerly. "Which reminds me, while I should show you Kyoryuger, there's a TON of other Sentai that you need to see. Magiranger, Abaranger, Boukenger, Gekiranger, Zyuranger… OH! And of course, there's Gokaiger, can't forget that one. Plus there's—"

"We'd ALL be happy to at least give them a chance, Green Boy." Yang grasped her boyfriend's hand, stopping him before he went too off the rails. "Right, guys?" The Blonde Brawler got a cheer from the group in response, with Blake and Weiss somewhat less enthusiastic about it. Ren simply gave a thumbs up, which led Yang to reach down into the box once more and pull out a piece of the final Voltasaur. "Now, how's about we put this guy together, huh?"

"Oh, I'd be MORE than happy to!" Ben, Kevin and Rex joined in as they emptied the parts out of the box, laying them all out on the floor. Ben rubbed his hands in anticipation, ready to get to work. "Hehe, and this just happens to be my favorite Voltasaur… let's see, these are the front legs… here's the hind legs. Tail, neck… and Dino head."

By the time he was done, Ben had assembled an absolutely huge Brachiosaurus mech, which the team marveled at. "Woah! He's certainly a lot bigger than the others!" Neptune pointed out. "And man, he's got a LOT of those holes for the batteries in his back."

Ben reached out and grabbed the back full of Zyudenchis, ready to insert several into the Brachiosaurus' back. "Yep, now let's see if I remember the pattern…" He began plugging in several Zyudenchi, reading their names as he went along. "We have… Deinochaser, Deinosgrander, Kentrospiker, Stymero, Allomerus, Beyonsmo… hehe… Ovirapoo, Igeranodon, Tuperanda, Gurumonite, Archenolon, Pukuptor, and Futabain!" With that, the entire back section of the Brachiosaurus was now filled in, with Ben pulling out one last Zyudenchi, the silver one. "Now, get ready!" He pulled down the Brachiosaurus' jaw, inserted the battery and then flipped it down into his neck. And as he closed the Voltasaur's mouth…

Gaburincho! BRRRRAAAAAGIGAS!

The team gasped at the sheer force of that scream, with several gazing in awe as Ben hefted the Voltasaur up. "And there you have it! BRAGIGAS is all ready to go!"

"Ben?!" The young hero's attention was drawn to the ladder down stairs, where he saw his mother and father arrive with curious expressions. "We heard a commotion going on, what's… oh dear." Sandra paused as she saw what the team was holding in their hands… a bunch of toys that she thought she'd never see again. "W-W-Where did you… HOW did you—"

"That's kinda what I want to know, actually." Ben concurred, raising a brow to his mother. "Mom, I thought you said you sold off all my Kyoryuger stuff. What gives?"

Sandra tapped her fingers together awkwardly, glancing to her husband. "W-W-Well… I thought we did, but… wait." She glowered slightly at her husband, who appeared very guilty all of a sudden as he tugged at his collar. "Carl… you never sold them like I asked you to, did I?"

"…Okay, Sandra, I can explain." Carl assured as he now had both his wife AND his son staring at him, waiting for an explanation. "See, I WAS going to sell them… but after I saw how disappointed Ben was after it, I hid them up here in the attic instead." He rubbed his neck awkwardly, all while Ben's features softened. "I was going to wait until he was ready to move out so I could give them back, but apparently my hiding space wasn't THAT well-hidden…"

Sun pointed over to Nora, who waved with a bright grin. "You can thank Nora for that."

"Of course I can." Carl sighed as he faced his wife and son. "I'm sorry… for lying to both of you about this for quite a while. I—oof!" He was cut off when he felt Ben wrap his arms around him in a big hug.

"Thanks dad." Ben said in gratitude. "I appreciate the thought, I really do." He gave a sidelong glance to his mother and cousin, however. "Good to know that someone around here appreciates how much these meant to me."

"Ben, sweetie, they're too loud." Sandra emphasized. "And you played with them constantly for a year. Can you honestly blame us for not wanting to have those blasting through the house for god knows how long?"

Before an argument could break out, however, Kevin decided to interject. "Uh, sorry to get in the middle of all this, but I'm pretty sure Carl mentioned that he recently soundproofed the nerd basement, right?" He pointed downward and suggested; "So why not just bring all the Sentai stuff down there if it's really THAT loud?"

The Tennysons all paused at the Osmosian's point. And Sandra had to admit, it was a fair one. "Well… that IS true." She set her eyes to her son, who was resolute in his stance, and she gave a conceding sigh. "Oh, alright. I see no problem with this if the noise isn't going to be an issue anymore." She pointed a stern finger to her son to emphasize a final point. "But I expect you to take ALL of it with you when you DO eventually move out, okay?"

"That's fair." Ben said, cracking a small smile. After all, as frustrating as this all was, he couldn't bring himself to be totally angry with his mother. Especially since all of this happened a long time ago, so there was no sense in being mad over it. "Thanks, mom."

"Okay, so quick question." Ilia piped up, garnering Ben's attention. "What the heck even IS "Power Rangers", exactly? Gwen mentioned it earlier and I think I remember Swift mentioning it, too. You said it's different from Super Sentai, so what is it?"

"Oh, heh, it's the American adaptation of Super Sentai." Ben elaborated. "Though in reality, both versions of the shows are significantly different beasts, at least in most cases. See, when Sentai is adapted here in the states, they usually only pull the fight scenes from the original show and splice it with original scenes featuring English-speaking actors. And because of that, the writers are free to take the story in any direction they want." He lifted up the Gaburevolver to emphasize his point. "For example, Kyoryuger and its Power Rangers equivalent "Dino Charge" are actually pretty different, especially in terms of story and their gear since… well, they don't play music or shout at you."

Ruby couldn't help but pout at that. "Wow, really? But that's the best part!"

Ben nodded in agreement. "I know, right? Kinda disappointing, but for an American audience, it's understandable. Japan is… a lot more accepting of weirdness like toys that shout at you and dancing while transforming." He gave a small shrug. "And credit where it's due, Dino Charge isn't a bad season of Power Rangers… though it's ending could've been less confusing."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "And that's an understatement."

"Well, whether it's called Power Rangers or Super Sentai, I'm still willing to give it a shot." Jaune said as he inspected Pteragordon again. "After all, if these shows have giant robot dinosaurs that fight giant monsters, I'm ALL over that."

"Great! …Though I should probably tell you about the best part of these dino mechs, just in case you guys haven't already been sold enough." Ben went over to Sun, Neptune and Nora to make a request. "Hey guys, could I see those three Voltasaurs? Trust me, you're gonna love this." The three readily brought the three colorful dinosaur robots together and Ben set them down on a nearby table, before then removing the Zyudenchis from their mouths. "Alright, so first thing's first, we gotta scan the batteries in a specific order, so…" He switched Gabutyra on and, one by one, Ben placed the Zyudenchis into Gabutyra's mouth;

Gaburincho! SUTEGOTCHI!

Gaburincho! DRICEEEERRA!

Gaburincho! GABUTYYRRRA!

After that, Ben placed the batteries back into their respective places and got to work, flipping up Stegotchi and Dricera's legs first. And after he did… they were revealed to have huge fists molded on their backsides. Ben pulled off Stegotchi's back plates and unfolded them into what appeared to be a shield, placing it in the Voltasaur's hand. He then pulled off Gabutyra's tail and folded its legs back, all while extending the rear and then bringing it all down to form a pair of MUCH bulkier legs. Ben rotated Gabutyra's waste so that the side of the Voltasaur now resembled a chest, with the remaining top part of the tail and the head becoming massive shoulders. "Alright… now here comes the fun part."

Ben pressed the black button in the center of Gabutyra's "chest" and the music started up again, all while the hero started plugging in Stegotchi and Dricera. And considering that their mouths had to be open with their Zyudenchi's sticking out, it appeared as if they were "biting" down on the connection ports.

Gaburincho! SUTEGOTCHI! BOOM!

Gaburincho! DRICEEEERRA! WHHHIIIRRR!

HA HA! SHIM-HA HA! HA HA! SHIM-HA HA!

After both were plugged in, a rhythmic chanting was added to the music, all while Ben took Gabutyra's tail and opened it up, pulling out a red helmet with five yellow spikes on it. He attached the tail to the back of the toy and then revealed the head of the new robot, before placing the helmet on over it. With a press of a button, a percussion of drums were heard before the massive mech screamed out its name;

KYYYOOORRYUJIN!

And, after one final bit fanfare from the toy, Ben lifted it up and presented it to the Remnant teens, who were all staring at it with surprised expressions. "And there you go! Here is the main mech of Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger; Kamitsuki Gattai Kyoryujin! So, what do you think?"

"I think… that we should've been watching this AGES AGO!" Ruby exclaimed, rushing up and grabbing Ben by the shoulders. "A bunch of smaller robots coming together to form a GIANT robot that fights giant MONSTERS?! Ben, why the heck have you been holding out on us?! C'mon, I wanna start watching this stuff NOW!"

"Same!" Nora approved, with Yang, Penny, Sun, Neptune and Jaune all following suit. "Hard same!"

Ren, Ilia, Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha all shared a look, before the green ninja cracked a smile. "You've got to admit, it does sound pretty neat. I say we at least give a few episodes a chance before we judge whether we like it or not."

"Yeah, I'm willing to give it a shot." Blake agreed, with Ilia and Pyrrha nodding as well.

Weiss was still a bit hesitant, but ultimately gave in. "Eh, I'll try anything once."

"Alright, so we're all agreed!" Ben ushered the gang to follow him down the stairs. "C'mon, bring the Voltasaurs and other stuff and I'll see about showing you guys some episodes." Once all the figures were boxed up and brought down the stairs, though, Ben couldn't help but wonder to himself; "Hm… I wonder what Sentai's doing nowadays…" He took out his phone and did a quick search on what the latest Sentai was… and his eyes widened considerably at what he saw.

The image was of five VERY odd-looking Sentai suits, with the most normal ones being the red and yellow ranger. But even then, the red ranger had a peach-themed headband on his helmet with a samurai's ponytail on the back, and the yellow ranger was carrying a MASSIVE club. From there, it just got stranger, with the blue ranger being ape-like and having furry arms, and the pink ranger having long legs and feathery wings. And finally… the black ranger looked like something that came right out of Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with exaggerated head, hands and feet.

Ben blinked a couple times to make sure that he wasn't seeing things before slowly putting his phone back into his pocket. 'I have SO many questions… but it's Japan, so I probably should've expected that.' He shrugged it off and followed his teammates, ready to get them started on what he hoped would be a very fun time for everyone.

…..

A/N: Yes, that's a VERY real Sentai. Look it up, it's amazingly weird and apparently based on the Tale of Momotaro. HAS to be the most Japanese Sentai series yet, and certainly one of the craziest-looking. Oh, and it has the distinct honor of having the first MALE Pink Ranger ever, so there's that, too! …Plus, the main mecha is freaking INSANE.

But indeed! SUPER SENTAI! About damn time Ben introduced them to it, right? I teased Power Rangers ALL the way back in Volume 1, but I never really got around to introducing either it or Sentai during that Volume. So, better late than never, I guess. But yeah, if you couldn't tell, I'm REALLY into Super Sentai, especially Kyoryuger. It's the first Sentai I ever watched, after all, so it only feels right that I pay my respects to it here. And as someone who's recently gotten back INTO Tokusatsu after a long hiatus from it, I've gotta say, I've been really branching out into all the different facets of the genre, and I think it's only appropriate that the crew from Remnant be enlightened about it as well. Yes, like Gwen said, it's cheesy and over the top, but that's why we LOVE it. Of course, we'll be seeing how the team responds to the actual show in due time, but for now, the mecha toys are a pretty good place to start, I feel, especially since Kyoryuger's designs are visually quite appealing.

Also, apologies if the topic of Power Rangers is a bit more subdued here in comparison to Sentai, I'm honestly just much more into Sentai than I am of Power Rangers these days. Last time I really enjoyed a season was RPM, really. But don't worry, the gang WILL see some of the Americanized versions of Sentai, too. …Except for Operation Overdrive and Super Megaforce, obviously.

In other news, though, we got to see what our Ministry girls have been up to since they got back from Mexico, and… well, it's clear to see that they aren't in the best of shape. Especially Emerald given what happened between her and Mercury. Granted, locking herself in her room probably wasn't the BEST decision, especially on a hot day, so there's that. But hey, at least Rojo was able to help get everyone in a better mood by showing them some video games, right? Admittedly, I haven't played Gears of War myself, but after watching plenty of Let's Plays and just knowing the premise of the series, it's something I can easily see Rojo being into. Hopefully Emerald feels better after some Locust exterminating, hehe.

But now, we come to the subject of NEXT TIME! After we see how the team reacts to their introduction to Sentai, we head right back into the thick of things as Ben and Team RWBY head to the Plumber Base for training the next morning… only to stumble across some members of the Collective and they decide to give chase. They follow them back to their temporary hide out and we get a bit of a confrontation… that's cut short by a sudden robbery nearby. Just what IS going on in Bellwood lately? Well, we'll just have to find out next time, so stay tuned, everyone! Thanks for reading guys, and as always, stay safe out there!