The rangers walked through the room containing the frozen Founders.
Tengu, Radar, among the others…
"..." Ziga stared silently as they passed them before the group saw a person in the middle of the giant room absorbing energy from the Founders, multicolored energy feeding into her icy aura…
Lunatsuki.
"I see you figured it out." The ice goddess noted.
"Release the Founders!" Azu demanded.
The masked woman snorted. "Or what?~" She growled sarcastically.
"Or else we'll make you." Azu told her fiercely, visor glowing, the frustrations of not only being jerked around all day, but the harm to good people she'd caused igniting a fiery passion of a dragon within her.
Lunatsuki tilted her head, the eyes of the mask glowing a subtle yellow, "You remind me so much of her back in the day…" She holds out a hand and a ball of electric and frost energy begins to form in it. "Let's see if you're as strong as she was, RyuButterfly."
"Sounds good to me. Everyone ready!?"
"READY!" The team called.
Lunatsuki shot that ball of energy towards them, Azu summoning her Monarch Hilt, igniting the sword and slicing downwards through it, the two halves shooting out to the upper walls on either side of her.
"LET'S GO!"
The team ran at her, Azu jumping up, lifting her sword, Ziga summoning her tonfas, Nazu his crossbow, Slavi her knuckle grips, and Andah her yoyo.
Lunatsuki launches the ball formed in her hand between the team members, an explosion of ice and lightning erupting where it landed, intended on damaging all of the team members in one blow, Azu noticing it.
"JUMP!"
Everyone leapt out of the way, Andah carrying Ziga into the air with her spring step.
Azu landed and brought her sword down on Lunatsuki at the same time Nazu shot at her while Ziga blasted lightning at her. Lunatsuki grabbed Azu's sword and used it to block Nazu's shot, throwing Azu aside as she dodged the lightning blast with an aerial backflip, landing on one of the ice blocks containing a founder.
"Hey, you heard of a fastball?" Andah grinned at Ziga through her helmets, Ziga grinning back.
As Lunatsuki formed an ice sword covered in lightning, she noticed something and blocked the tonfas of Ziga, who had been launched by Andah. Lunatsuki sent her flying, Andah catching her before throwing her yellow ranger back at her, Ziga flipping off of her shoulder, landing behind her and sweep kicking, Lunatsuki leaping off before kicking her in the face, spinning fast enough to create a lightning ice drill, driving Ziga into the wall, Azu rushing by with her sword once the goddess stopped, Lunatsuki grabbing her sword and throwing her around, Azu letting go and shooting fire from her foot at the sword, igniting it further and causing it to knock Lunatsuki into a wall.
"Hehehe… Not bad. My turn…" Lunatsuki formed two swords out of ice, and in a flash of icey blue lightning, she slammed Azu into one of the stone pillars at the opposite edge of the room.
Nazu aimed from behind one of the pillars, shooting a water projection of a dragonfly at her, Lunatsuki turning and cartwheeling over it, sending arcs of ice at him, Nazu ducking behind the pillar and pressing his fingers to the side of his helmet. "Anyone find some blindspots yet?"
"I got slammed into a stone pillar like a Looney Tunes character, gimme a sec…" Azu groaned, freeing herself from the pillar, Lunatsuki in front of her before sending a punch, Azu barely dodging it, Ziga sending an aerial roundhouse at her predecessor, who ducked under it, Azu grabbing Ziga's leg and spinning her towards Lunatsuki, Ziga slamming her tonfa into the goddess' face, BLASTING her with lightning.
Lunatsuki groaned in pain, stabbing her swords into Ziga to return the favor at Ziga's stomach.
Ziga was sent flying by the ice lightning blasts, Azu barely catching a fist before yelping, Lunatsuki grabbing her by her helmet and slamming her into the ground, stomping on her afterwards. Lunatsuki follows up by slamming her fist down onto Azu, coating it in ice lightning, Azu's eyes narrowing.
[MAGMA ROARYAL BLAST!]
Lunatsuki was blasted back by a magma construct of a butterfly that SHOT from Azu's Ryubiter, launching Lunatsuki across the room and into a wall, making her cry out again as her spine compressed against the hard stone.
"Tenacity, quick thinking…you're a worthy successor to my red…" Lunatsuki grunted.
Azu got up, twirling her Ryubiter. "Heh, thanks for the kind words, but like you, I don't think I'm that good." She followed that up with a few more shots, which Lunatsuki blocked and deflected.
"You give yourself too little credit." The goddess told her, making hand motions before slamming the ground, an ice lightning storm erupting from the ceiling, the rangers having to move quick to avoid it.
"Shit shit shit!" Andah cursed, leaping out of the way and pushing Azu away, Nazu staying behind his pillar.
"Dammit, stuck here…" He muttered, peeking out from behind to try to spot an opening. The next time Lunatsuki wound up an attack, she turned her back to the Blue Ranger.
'Gotcha.'
Just as she was about to send it out, Nazu slotted the geyser Ryumucard in, blasting.
[GEYSER! G-G-G-GEYSER!]
A blue geyser that shot out a dragonfly-dragon came at Lunatsuki, SLAMMING her into a wall.
"Ahhh damn, your Blue's just as sneaky as mine was…" She groaned in the crater before grinning, turning to a burst of ice and snow, a spinning hurricane before she slammed her foot into the side of Nazu's helmet, sending him flying into a wall.
Andah leapt forward, flipping in the air her yoyo flying around her before she whipped it at Lunatsuki, wrapping her up and pulling herself towards the goddess.
"Hmmm almost as agile as my Green." Lunatsuki commented, raising a hand to punch Andah as she came down.
Andah instead hopped off of her fist, flipping and kicking her in the back, sending her flying, the yoyo going taut before Andah pulled back, punching her back again, pulling back, the grasshopper leg on her boot bending as she raised her leg to prepare to super kick her.
"Gah! Not bad reaction time either."
Lunatsuki kicked at Andah's foot, the resulting clash creating a shockwave that knocked everyone back.
Andah flipped back, spinning Lunatsuki around and into a wall, Lunatsuki freezing it and sliding across it before jumping onto another wall, slamming her foot into it, trails of icicles sprouting fast towards Andah, who jumped and flipped to avoid em as much as possible, letting out a yelp as one struck her, sending her away, Lunatsuki using this opportunity to untie herself, grabbing the yoyo and wrapping Andah up in it, pulling her to herself, grabbing her by the helmet and SLAMMING her into the ground.
"Not. Bad." She growled through the dirt.
Lunatsuki smirked, perking up before dodging…a magma construct?
[MAGMA ROARYAL BLAST!]
Azu then kicked her from behind, her foot covered by a magma construct of a butterfly-dragon.
"BUTTERFLY BURNING BIG BANG!" She yelled out, shooting past her.
Lunatsuki groaned at the heat before the previous magma construct, a dragon head with a butterfly on top, raced back at her, sending her flying into the air and lighting her on fire.
"Hah, did I piss you off, butterfly? That almost stung."
Azu landed on the ground, twirling her Monarch Hilt in sword mode before she leapt at Lunatsuki, who put out the flames on her body, or rather, FROZE the flames and sent them as daggers towards Azu, who leapt and flipped around them, slashing at her.
"You've got her ferocity, I'll grant you that!" Lunatsuki cackled as she ducked under the slashes to blast Azu in the chest, sending her skidding back, Slavi coming in from behind, her knuckle grips forming pink energy blades and slashing at Lunatsuki.
"Oh so very protective! That's so much like Pink." Lunatsuki dove behind cover to avoid the slashes.
"You ok?" Slavi asked Azu.
"Been better, this bitch is tough…" Azu answered, dusting off her chest plate. "It seems taking her off guard and pinning her down are the only ways to land solid hits on her."
"Got a plan?"
"I may have one. Get Green. When I give the signal, use your elements." Azu spoke through the private channel. "You use your plants to hold her down, while Green blows away her cold when she attempts to freeze em."
"Sounds good to me. Let's try it."
Slavi went off to get Andah, while Azu, Ziga, and Nazu surrounded Lunatsuki.
"Ah, primary colors." Lunatsuki looked around herself. "You know I always found it odd, the color schemes of Sentai. Red, blue, and yellow make sense, as well as green, but then you have pink and rarely do you have orange on the same team as the first four, even purple."
"She's actually got a good point, why is that?" Nazu asked Ziga.
"Don't ask me, I'm as lost as you!" Ziga threw up her hands.
"Will both of you just focus?" Azu groaned.
"It's a legitimate question!" The two countered.
Azu facepalmed.
"If it helps, the Kyurangers had all six colors of the rainbow, and even some intermediate colors." Ziga pointed out.
"Oh really?" Lunatsuki asked.
"Yeah, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, gold's a shade of yellow, there was also sky blue."
"I prefer to call it an ICY BLUE!" Lunatsuki quipped, spinning around suddenly while throwing ice daggers that left trails of lightning, the three dodging em and firing with Ryubiters.
Lunatsuki raised up ice shields which reflected the shots back at the rangers, sparks flying before she zoomed up to Azu, face to face before she SLAMMED her fist into her gut, KNEEING her in the face, sending her upwards before roundhouse kicking her in the path of Nazu and Ziga.
Ziga caught her leader, the force sending her flying, Nazu turning to fire at Lunatsuki, who grabbed him by his hands, beginning to freeze him over. As she started this, vines shot up from below Lunatsuki and grabbed her arms, pulling them down hard and forcing her to let go of Nazu.
Lunatsuki growled, attempting to freeze the vines before a harsh wind blew, the cold flying off into the exit towards the cliff.
"I am SO glad our suits have heat regulators…" Nazu grunted as Ziga helped Azu over, the latter using fire to melt the ice on his arms.
"That's gotta smart, though, let's take her out before anything else happens." Azu stated while thawing Nazu's arm.
"Agreed." Ziga pressed the finisher button on her morpher, forming a lightning ball in her hands getting into a stance.
"Alright," Nazu, once his arms were thawed, shook them a bit, flexing to make sure they were alright before charging his crossbow.
Azu charged her sword.
As the three charged their finishers while Andah and Slavi held Lunatsuki down, none of them noticed a new arrival.
Lunatsuki raged against the vines angrily and soon a spout of water came down from above between her and the rangers.
The rangers jumped back, and the spout dissipated, Sealifea having arrived.
"Oh for fuck's sake…" Azu facepalmed.
"I mean you kinda jinxed it." Slavi pointed out tiredly.
"I AM GOING TO POUND YOU INTO NEXT WEEK!" Azu yelled out.
…
Everyone was silent.
Andah smirked, eyebrow raising.
Lunatsuki snickered while Sealifea held back laughter.
Nazu facepalmed while Ziga shook her head.
"NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Azu shrilled.
"Sureeee it wasn't, Red~" Lunatsuki snickered again.
"I am going to brutalize you." Azu deadpanned.
"Have to catch me first!" Lunatsuki leapt up, vanishing into snow while Sealifea tried to calm down from holding in her laughter.
"Oh will you shut up!?" Azu snapped firing at the water monster, who dodged, sending a water projection of a shark at her, Azu dodging as Nazu and Slavi fired at her, Andah aiming to tie her up. Just as Ziga went to help, she was grabbed by Lunatsuki.
"Let's leave these people to their party, eh?" The goddess whispered, slamming her into the far off wall and zooming at her.
Ziga's eye widened before she leapt out of the crater, firing her Ryubiter at her predecessor, who created an ice wall to reflect the shots back, Ziga pointing and sending a lightning bolt at her. Lunatsuki groaned, holding her arms up to tank the hit.
Ziga leapt up at her, sending a bicycle kick infused with lightning at her, Lunatsuki blocking before forming an ice sword and attempting to stab her successor, Ziga kicking off of her, landing on the ground, grabbing her tonfas again and crossing them as Lunatsuki came down at her with her sword.
"How did you get brought back to life?" Ziga demanded, glaring.
Lunatsuki giggled. "Oh come now, I think you know.~"
"..." Ziga's eye widened. "...no…!"
"Heheheh, c'mon now, Yellow, is a little mask all it takes to not recognize her?~" Lunatsuki sneered in a double voice again… A familiar, double voice.
"Shut up shut up SHUT UP!" Ziga yelled, breaking the lock and starting to attack with more ferocity and lightning infused attacks, to the shock of the others as they heard the commotion.
"The hell?" Azu's eyes widened before she ducked under a slash by Sealifea's projection, clashing swords with her.
"Oopsy daisy~ Did I strike a nerve? Of course I did, you're so much like me~"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ziga's visor glowed a bright yellow, crackling with lightning as she attacked more fiercely, her lightning effects on her weapons shining more brightly.
"Z, what the heck?! What's she going on about?"
"LET HER GO YOU BITCH!" Ziga yelled, ignoring Azu as she aimed solely for the mask now. Lunatsuki moved deftly, using Ziga's momentum against her, a swift kick to the back slamming Ziga face-first into the wall. Azu disengaged from the fight with Sealifa, making it in time to block Lunatsuki's follow-up attack.
"Yellow, you ok!?" Azu asked, her sword blazing fiercely as it clashed with Lunatsuki's ice one.
"Gah!" Ziga pulled herself out of the wall. "Lunatsuki isn't the woman, it's the mask! That bitch is possessing one of her worshippers!"
"You know her!?"
"Of course Ziga knows her, she got her killed… well, nearly~" Lunatsuki cackled.
Azu turned to Ziga. "Z…who is she?"
"...Subazerra…my former teammate…" Ziga answered, shaking. "The one who died…"
The others looked on in shock.
"...shit, how do we separate em?" Slavi called out as she undulated around Sealifea's attacks with her serpentine body, slashing with her energy blades.
"Destroy the fucking mask!" Ziga suggested forcefully, rushing at Lunatsuki again.
"Alright!" Azu broke the lock kicking with Ziga.
Lunatsuki blocked, calling ice lightning upon them, which they dodged, Azu flipping off of Ziga's back to leap up and slash down at the goddess, who spun to avoid it, slashing across Azu's back, sparks flying from her armor.
"Sealifa! Is the next dose ready?!" Lunatsuki called out as she continued to dodge and block the two rangers' attacks.
"Yes, my lady!" Sealifea called out.
"GIVE IT TO ME!"
Sealifea formed hand signs quickly before leaping over the rangers' attacks, slamming her hand on the ground when she landed, glowing blue lines connecting to the frozen Founders appearing, energy converging before they shot towards Lunatsuki.
"NO!" Ziga rushed forward to try and interrupt the process, a little too late.
Lunatsuki exploded in power, turning towards Ziga, her eyes glowing with the aura from her body before she launched forward, slamming her fist into Ziga's face, cracking her visor to show her one good eye, SLAMMING her into the wall in a huge explosion.
"Ziga!" Azu called moving to protect her again.
When she went into the crater, she saw Ziga severely injured, her transformation cancelled, now just in her covert suit, visor cracked. "Oh fuck…"
"Oh fuck is right." Lunatsuki whispered, Azu spinning around and dodging a punch, grabbing Ziga and flying back.
"Just one punch…!?" Azu muttered.
In a split second, a decision was made. "EVERYONE PULL BACK!" The others nodded and started to move back, but not before Lunatsuki sent a bolt of ice-lightning at Ziga.
"SHIT-"
Azu conjured fire to try to block it, hurriedly reaching for the teleport button on her morpher. While her fire weakened the bolt, it still connected with Ziga, knocking her unconscious. As she fell to the floor, Ziga swore she heard a particular word in her mind.
"Disappointing."
The first thing Ziga woke up to was…well, pain.
Soreness throughout her body, primarily her face.
As she opened her eye, she saw Amy sitting by her bedside.
"Did… did we get her…" Ziga groaned groggily.
Amy, gripping her hand, shook her head. "No. More importantly, are you ok?"
"I'll… be fine…." Ziga grunted, attempting to sit up, Amy gently pushing her back down.
"No. You were beaten pretty badly. You need rest." Amy told her.
"She took… she took…"
"I heard…" Amy said soothingly. "...I'm sorry."
"So…so close…." Tears started falling down Ziga's face.
Amy hugged her gently, careful not to aggravate her injuries. "Lunatsuki was your predecessor, and one of the most skilled, legendary holders of the mantle ever, while you're only a few months into being RyuMantis. The fact you did as well as you did is amazing. It's not your fault."
"Why… why did she…" Ziga stammered.
"I…dunno. I'll look into her history, see if we can find out her motivation."
"Have to… have to fight her again…"
"Do you think you can do it?" Amy asked her seriously.
"I… Need more…"
"Ziga…" Amy said sternly. "...do you think you can fight her, when she's possessing Suba?"
Ziga hesitated.
She kept trying to imagine it…only to wince everytime, the idea of Suba, dead for real this time…by her hand.
"...I…It's Suba…"
"I know." Amy squeezed her hand. "For now, rest up. I'll try to get some stuff to help ya heal more quickly so you can get back in if you're up for it." She sighed. "But you do make a good point…"
"The Heart…any progress?" Ziga asked.
"We just need one more component for the power up items." Amy told her.
"What is it?"
"A crystal from a Draginsect."
"..." Ziga looked to her. "You have one in mind?"
"We've tried getting one from Chrysogladia, but she instead pointed us to Suzesaki."
"The Hornet?" Ziga asked in confusion. "...what does she want?"
"No clue. She just said…'disappointing.'"
Ziga's eye widened.
She…
She remembered…when she fell unconscious…
She sighed. "Joy. I'll see what I can do to make up for the disappointment."
"Huh?" Amy asked.
"I heard her voice," Ziga told her. "I heard it as I went unconscious…I guess she was watching me."
"...I wish you luck, then." Amy smiled.
Ziga smiled, Amy going off to get her some medicine.