Play "Falling" by Cryoshell
Instrumental
The screen starts off black. One by one, spotlights come on, revealing the three Rangers looking at the ground. They then lift their heads as the title Power Rangers: Paleo Force shatters through the remaining darkness above them.
Lights out.
Duncan, Brody, and Cooper stand together at the generic quarry, looking at their Zords and smiling.
No one's here.
Kenny is working on a circuit board with a robotic hand sitting on his desk. He grins as he taps the circuit board with a stylus, making the hand twitch.
Hear the silence.
Jane and Brody are together at the hospital, Jane bandaging Brody's leg.
Scent of fear.
All the heroic characters look up to the sky.
You start running.
The view moves up into space, where we see our main villains in their spaceship, followed by a close-up of each of them.
With mistrusting and skeptical eyes.
We get a shot of Cooper, Duncan, and Brody staring down an army of Shadows.
Are you haunted?
The three look at each other before nodding.
I call out.
One by one, they take fighting stances as they ready their morphers.
I'm counting on you.
The screen cuts to black.
Falling.
All three Rangers charge in slow motion as an explosion goes off in the background.
Is this the end of the line, and can we make it in time?
In a rotating shot, Brody slashes Shadows with his Carnage Sword, Cooper shoots them with his cannon, and Duncan blasts enemies with his Switch-Gun.
Falling.
CJ extends her arm, directing her Zords to charge forward.
My world is spinning around. I'm crashing into the ground.
Calios descends from space like a comet and, after landing, steps forward, slowly drawing his sword.
Falling.
Moses folds his arms as three silhouetted figures gather on either side of him.
Now I need you to see it's up to you and me.
The Paleo Force Megazord shifts into sword-and-shield mode. It slashes a monster, then uses its Cryo Slash on it, making it explode.
I'm counting on you.
Consecutive shots of Cooper doing a Ranger Punch, Duncan doing a Ranger Slash, and Brody doing a Ranger Kick at the screen.
Cut to the end of the song as the music fades out.
The Rangers stand confidently in front of their respective Zords, who roar behind them as the screen fades to black again.
Chapter 22
"Is everything set up, Moses?" Calios asked.
"That's right," Moses confirmed with a nod. "My old gang is on their way here now. They should arrive within the hour."
"Very good. CJ, go bait the Rangers out," the knight turned his attention to their newest member.
"Why can't I just fight them myself?" CJ asked.
Calios rested his cheek in his hand. "In case you forgot, you've been on a bit of a losing streak lately. Besides, with Moses's gang on the case, we won't need you for this."
CJ said nothing, though her fists clenched and unclenched. "Whatever you say, boss," she said, grinding her teeth behind her helmet.
As the Red and Black Ranger walked over to the launch tubes, Lensia thought to herself, 'Welcome to my world, kid.'
Duncan and Brody were chillaxing on their couch, watching All Hallow's Eve.
"And that's why we should hate clowns," Brody said as the movie came to an end.
Duncan was about to reply when his phone buzzed. Seeing it was a text from Cooper, he read the message and reached for the remote, turning on the news. They both stood up when CJ appeared on the screen.
"Hey, Rangers," she said, sounding bored. "Head over to the town square around one. Let's just say you're in for a surprise." The picture cut out.
Double-checking the time on his phone, Duncan also went over the text Cooper had sent. "Mr. Cooper said he'd meet us there. You wanna go?"
"Alright. You get us a cab, and I'll call Kenny and see if he can bring G2." Brody pulled out his phone as they got going.
When they arrived a minute later, Brody got out of the cab with a frown on his face.
"What's up?" Duncan asked.
"Kenny's grandparents came over to see G2. They're kind of ornery, so they're not letting either of them go. It's just us Rangers," Brody reported.
"Hey, lads!"
The brothers saw Cooper approaching them from one side. From the other, all three of them heard chuckling and turned to see not CJ as they'd expected, but an anthro Mosasaur in a navy blue bathing suit.
"I guess you're Moses?" Brody thought aloud as he and his team morphed. "Calios must be getting serious if he's sending one of his best goons."
Moses crossed his arms, not sure whether that had been an insult or a compliment. "You guys like to gang up on a single enemy, don't you? You're about to find out how that feels."
At that moment, six objects whizzed down from the sky like meteors and landed around him, three on each side. When the smoke cleared, the Rangers got a good look at the new group of anthros. While they couldn't discern the exact species, they had a feeling these were all sea creatures like Moses.
"I say we introduce ourselves, guys," Moses said.
The first one had a red, mostly featureless body, save for a few flecks of white on his skin here and there. He had chameleon-like eyes and a cone-shaped shell sitting on top of his head. "I squeeze the life out of anything! The Ordivician Sea! Cameron the Cameroceras!"
The second one had a carpet of thick scales covering his head and the back of his neck. His front side was tan while his back side was burnt orange. Most noticeable of all were his teeth, which looked like they could slice through anything. "There's nothing I can't slice through! The Devonian Sea! Duncan the Dunkleosteus!"
The third member of the team was a bit skinnier than the rest, his tan body dappled with green splotches. He had a protruding snout filled with needle-sharp teeth. "Taking you down lightning-fast! The Triassic Sea! Simba the Cymbospondylus!"
To the Rangers' surprise, the next member they observed was clearly female, as evidenced by the two-piece bikini she wore instead of swim trunks. Her front side was a dull white while the rest of her body was gray, though her lips were black. Her horizontal tail fin made the Rangers guess she was some kind of dolphin or whale. "I'll make your ears bleed! The Eocene Sea! Bailey the Basilosaurus!"
The fifth member, an anthro great white shark in a one-piece swimsuit, had a simple design compared to those that came before her. "I'll swallow you for lunch! The Pliocene Sea! Megan the Megalodon!"
Last was the sixth member of the group, a large creature with a light-colored front and a black back speckled with white. He had a long snout with tons of teeth that were so big that they stuck out of his lips even though his mouth was closed. "I rip apart enemies at any size! The Jurassic Sea! Leopold the Liopleurodon!"
Moses himself went last, "I'm the king of Hell's Aquarium! The Cretaceous Sea! Moses the Mosasaurus!"
The seven of them took fighting poses as Moses announced, "We are the Seven Deadly Seas!"
The Rangers simply stood in place, not looking bothered in the slightest.
"This is usually the part where people get intimidated," Cameron said.
"Yeah, I tuned out halfway through all those alliterations," Duncan replied, yawning.
"I couldn't take it seriously because of how plain all your names are," Cooper went next. "You're huge, scary, and you've got all those teeth, and they really just call you Megan?"
"I got bored the moment you started that stupid-ass role call," Brody finished. He chuckled as he turned to his friends, jabbing a thumb at the villains. "Can you guys imagine if we did something like that?"
That made the other two Rangers chuckle as well.
"…Get 'em," Moses ordered. He and his crew charged.
The Rangers snapped to attention as they were quickly ganged up on.
Cooper was double-teamed by Cameron and Megan. The anthro Megalodon spun in place, slapping Cooper in the face with her tail. The Pink Ranger tried to finish things fast with a Ranger Punch, only for Cameron to get in the way, blocking the strike with his shell.
"How tough is that thing?!" Cooper asked, stunned that his finishing move hadn't hit home.
"It's this tough!" his red and white opponent shouted. The Cameroceras leapt back to gain distance before diving forward, spinning like a drill.
Cooper twisted so the attack only grazed him, though this left him open to a face shot from Megan. As he lunged out of the way, the shark woman took the opportunity to sink her teeth into his shoulder.
"I'm not into S&M!" Cooper shouted despite the pain. He tapped his morpher, shifting into Flying-Type. The energy surge forced Megan to let go.
The Green Ranger took to the sky, summoning his flail. Before he could use it though, something wrapped around one of his ankles. To his shock, one of Cameron's arms had turned into a tentacle and stretched far enough to ensnare Cooper from thirty feet in the air. Despite having no suction cups like a squid or octopus, the tentacle still had a tight grip, so tight that his ankle was starting to hurt.
Cameron laughed maniacally as he tossed Cooper around like a rag doll. After smashing him into the ground several times, he dangled him overhead for Megan to swing at.
Duncan had to deal with Bailey, plus the monster fish that shared his name. His Chasmo-Shields helped him defend himself, but he only had two shields, while his opponents had four fists, so naturally some hits were slipping through. Drawing his Switch-Gun, he shot the ground they were standing on, turning it to ice. His ice powers allowed him to stand tall while the two sea monsters began slipping.
His relief was short-lived when Bailey unleashed a piercing scream so loud he had to cover his ears. The soundwaves from the scream caused the ice to shatter.
Now completely mobile again, the monster Duncan charged in, his jaws wide open.
The White Ranger held up a shield, which the Dunkleosteus slammed his upper jaw into. Feeling something wasn't right, Ranger Duncan checked his shield to find a half-inch-deep cut in its center. Seeing as no other attack had damaged his shields until now, he was naturally taken aback.
"Holy shit," he got out.
"I told you, there's nothing I can't slice through," the armored fish boasted. "Off topic, though, isn't it weird that we're from two different worlds but our names are the same?"
"I know, right?" the ginger teen agreed. "It's almost like some cheap joke."
"Who cares?!" Bailey shouted as she tackled the human Duncan from the side. She kept going until they crashed through the wall of a nearby skyscraper, sending them tumbling into a parking garage. The two fell over in a heap on the concrete.
"Ugh, that one hurt," Duncan groaned as he flipped over and pushed himself up. As he did, he heard a growl.
"What. The fuck. Do you think you're doing?"
Coming fully to his senses, Duncan looked down to see his hand planted firmly on one of Bailey's breasts. "Uh, whoops?"
Bailey grabbed the offending hand and bit down on it.
The White Ranger screamed as he tried to pry his hand free. Suddenly, he got an idea. "Hey! If 'saurus' is in your species name, how come you've got a dolphin tail?"
Just as he'd hoped, Bailey opened her mouth to reply, "Because I'm a type of whale."
Duncan tilted his head, pulling back his hand. "Wait, you're a whale? But you're not fat."
That comment earned him a gut-punch. "Watch your fucking mouth!" Bailey growled.
Responding with an uppercut, Duncan replied, "You don't have manners either!"
"Fuck you!" Bailey shouted as she bitch-slapped him.
Not taking that sitting down, Duncan slapped her right back. "Fuck you!"
As the two took turns slapping each other, the monster Duncan tried to break up the monotony. He lunged at the White Ranger with his jaws wide open. "How about I join—"
"Stay out of this!" his enemy and his teammate yelled in sync. They both wound up and punched him so hard, he was launched through the wall of the building.
Turning back to focus on each other, Bailey grabbed Duncan by the neck and pulled him close. "Get that fucking suit off."
Duncan's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't exactly argue.
The anthro Dunkleosteus didn't stay down for long and moved to rejoin the fight. However, he stopped cold when he saw what was going on inside the building.
"Uh, maybe I'll just join one of the other fights," he said to himself.
Unlike his friends, Brody had the misfortune of having to face three opponents at once: Leopold, Simba, and Moses. After taking a brief beating from the three of them, he drew his swords and spun in place, forcing them back with each slice. Wanting to keep up the attack, he charged at Moses, swiping his swords all over.
Moses nonchalantly dodged every slash, calling out, "Leo, you're up."
Before Brody had a chance to process that, the anthro Liopleurodon appeared out of nowhere right in front of him, hitting him with an uppercut. As Brody staggered back, Leopold wrapped his arms around his waist and leaned way back, performing a German suplex on the Blue Ranger.
"Move!"
The second Leopold scrambled away, Moses unleashed a powerful jet of water from his mouth, blowing Brody away.
Struggling to his feet, Brody panicked. This battle was going downhill fast. "Time to step things up. Dai-Henshin!" Using his morpher, he shifted to Electric-Type and began literally running circles around his enemies. Before he could attack, though—
"Punchintheface!"
The announced attack caught Brody off guard and floored him all over again. He shook his head and saw Simba skid to a stop in front of him.
"You're not the only fast one around here," the Cymbospondylus boasted with a grin.
Brody scowled under his helmet and resumed his super speed. When he saw that Simba was keeping pace with him, he began throwing punches and kicks wildly, trying to throw him off his guard. The ichthyosaur met him blow for blow and soon turned things in his favor by front-flipping and hitting Brody in the shoulder with an ax kick.
Stunned for a moment, Brody raised his other arm and fired some of the feathers on his forearm. When his opponent recoiled, Brody dashed forward to strike again, only to falter when he slipped on something wet.
"Water?" he said, seeing that the floor around them was soaked now. Simba and Leopold saw their chance and grabbed his arms, holding him in place.
"You can thank me for that," Moses said as he approached the Yellow Ranger. He cracked his knuckles and began using him like a punching bag.
Seeing his friend had fallen into a similarly dire position, Cooper felt compelled to turn things around. Aiming a hand at each of his opponents, he fired his wind beams, giving himself the chance to get away. He swung his flail, knocking down the foes who had Brody.
"Time to fall back!" he yelled, grabbing Brody by the arm and hoisting him into the air.
Flying a good distance away, the two Rangers settled down to catch their breath—
—until Cooper sat up. "Shit, I forgot Duncan!"
"He'll be fine. If things get too tough, he can dig his way to safety," Brody pointed out. He de-morphed and pulled out his phone. "Hey, Jane? We're pretty banged up."
"Head over to my place," came her voice from the other end.
Brody nodded, hung up the phone, and turned to Cooper. "Alright, follow me."
"A girl tellin' you to come over? Ooh la la," Cooper chuckled.
"Hey, what'd I miss?" asked a familiar voice.
Brody and Cooper grinned as their missing member made his return. "Duncan!"
The ginger teen smiled, though he was in rough shape. He had a bloody nose, and his body was covered with bruises.
"Dude, are you okay?" Brody asked. "You were fighting that whale thing and the fish with teeth, right? Were you able to destroy either of them?"
"I don't know about the teeth guy, but I did destroy the whale girl," Duncan grinned. "I mean, she also destroyed me, but whatever."
Cooper narrowed his eyes, processing Duncan's words and facial expression. "I've seen that look before…Did you fuck that whale?"
"Technically, it was hate-fucking, but yeah," Duncan admitted shamelessly.
Brody's jaw dropped. "Are you nuts?! She's a whale and she's our enemy!"
"She's also a double D," Duncan replied without missing a beat.
"I—You—Wha—" Brody stuttered for a moment before facepalming. "Let's just get to Jane's place."
"Hey, Bailey," Moses asked. "I'm trying to figure this out. Two of the Rangers got away from us by flying off. How'd the one you and Duncan were fighting get away?"
Without looking up from her nails, Bailey said nonchalantly, "He put my legs to sleep."
That made all the villains in Calios's throne room raise an eyebrow, which was impressive, considering pretty much no one there had any eyebrows to raise.
Calios leaned forward. "When you say that, do you mean—"
"Yeah, I do mean." The Basilosaurus began walking out of the room. "I'm gonna go for a swim in this planet's oceans. Maybe eat some sharks."
"Do that, and you're dead!" Megan threatened her.
"Keep telling yourself that," Bailey said, flipping her off as she left.
By the time the Rangers arrived at her place, Jane had a first-aid kit ready to go.
"He suplexed you?" Jane repeated after the team recounted their fight. "Well, that explains your neck pain."
"My dick is sore. Is there something I can do about that?" Duncan asked.
Jane looked at him blankly. "First of all, never ask me that again. Second of all, try some lotion next time."
The chat was interrupted by a knock on the door. Happy to stop talking to Duncan, Jane went to open it and found Kenny, finally having escaped his family obligations.
Kenny whistled when he saw his friends' injuries. "Looks bad."
"Eh, we've had worse," Cooper shrugged.
"You guys are gonna need a plan," Jane pointed out, closing the door again.
"G2 could help out?" Kenny suggested.
Brody's eyes widened. "That's right, we'll have G2, and we can call the Cryos in for backup too. We might have a chance after all."
"That's great. Then maybe you guys'll be a challenge tomorrow," said Simba from the lounge chair he was, well, lounging in.
Everyone jumped in shock upon noticing him.
"When did you get in here?!" Jane shouted. "How did you get in here?"
"I came down through the chimney," Simba jabbed a thumb at the fireplace. "Just like Manta Claus."
"Manta Claus?" the group repeated.
Simba nodded slowly, looking around at everyone with confusion. "You know, the jolly old manta ray who swims down people's chimneys once a year? If you've been good, he leaves you presents, and if you've been bad, he leaves you a lump of dead coral? I guess you guys don't have anything like that on Earth."
"What the fuck are you doing in my house?!" Jane repeated.
Suddenly, a voice came from the other room. "Jane? I heard shouting. Did someone break in?"
Everyone went quiet as Jane hastily covered her tracks, "Nothing, Dad. I was napping and woke up from a nightmare!"
"Oh, okay."
Everyone, minus Simba, sighed in relief.
"Now, where were we? Ah, right, I was telling you that we're gonna fight tomorrow. Hope you're ready. Everybody got that?" They all nodded, and Simba grinned. "Then see you later." The Cymbospondylus made for the door, singing, "Jeremiah was a bull shark. He was a good friend of mine."
When he left, the group returned their attention to each other.
"Okay, now that that's done…" said Brody. "Kenny, make sure G2 is in top gear for tomorrow. The rest of us should rest up. We've got a big day ahead of us."
The next day, the team assembled at the Bransons' house.
"Everyone ready?" Brody asked. The gang all nodded. "Then let's go."
As the group walked, Brody noticed that Kenny and Jane weren't staying behind, but it made him smile. "You guys know that, without powers, you're taking a big risk, right?"
"You all take much bigger risks with your powers, so I actually think this one is proportional for us," Jane pointed out.
"This isn't the first time they've helped you out either," G2 followed up, earning a pat on the back from his creator.
At that moment, the Cryolophosaurs entered the scene from an alleyway and walked alongside the group.
"The gang's all here," Brody grinned. He resumed a serious look as they reached the town square where the Seven Deadly Seas were waiting for them.
Moses whistled at the sight. "Wow, you've actually got us outnumbered."
An explosion occurred as a new enemy was launched in from space. The enemy turned out to be a certain evil Ranger. "Not with me here, they don't," CJ said.
"Who invited you?" Leopold growled.
CJ ignored the black and white reptile. "Now, who should I fight? Eenie, meenie, miney, you two!" She pointed at Duncan and Cooper.
Cooper crossed his arms. "Anyone ever tell you you're a sore loser?"
"Works for me," Duncan said with an angry smile. "And this time, I'm gonna finish you off."
"If we're picking our opponents, then I want the girl," Cameron said, chuckling perversely as he wiggled his fingers at Jane, making her cringe.
Brody morphed, drew his Switch-Gun, and tossed it to Jane. "Here."
Following Brody's lead, Duncan gave Kenny his Switch-Gun as well.
G2 raised his hand. "I have a question. There are two Duncans here, right? To help tell them apart, we should call them Gooduncan and Baduncan."
"Ha! That's perfect!" Cooper and Leopold agreed in sync. Their laughter was cut short by glares from their respective Duncans.
"Turn yellow if you want to live!" Simba yelled as he charged at Brody. The Blue Ranger only barely managed to activate his power-up in time. While the two disappeared in a blur, the rest of the two teams engaged.
CJ split in two, with her red half targeting Cooper and her black half going for Duncan.
Dark CJ threw a low kick. When Duncan gave ground, she lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck with her Biting Gauntlet.
"How does it feel?!" she asked maniacally. Bringing him to the ground, she began pounding away at him.
Desperate to get out of that situation, Duncan shifted to Ground-Type, with the resulting energy surge jolting Dark CJ off of him. Unfortunately, Dark CJ wasn't too disoriented to press the attack, firing a barrage of darkness bullets from her gauntlet.
Duncan slammed his palms into the ground, causing a wall of earth to rise in between him and the bullets. To his shock, the bullets stuck to the wall like ordinary shadows, slid around to the side of the wall facing him, then resumed firing themselves at him.
"The fuck?!" he yelled as the bullets tore into him.
Cooper grunted as Flame CJ tackled him through the wall of an antique shop. He hammered her back with several punches before she let go.
Flame CJ summoned her gauntlet and unleashed several short bursts of fire. When Cooper dodged those, she got in close and grabbed him by the head, pulling his face into her knee.
The Scotsman caught the knee with one hand and used the other to punch her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. While she staggered back, he took note of how the fire she'd started had spread throughout the store.
"Fighting in a burnin' building, eh? Feels like something out of a movie." He advanced on his red foe and hit her with a jab, a cross, a hook, and an uppercut in rapid succession.
Losing her temper, Flame CJ snarled like a mad dog and grabbed Cooper's upper arms. She began spinning in place—so fast that the Pink Ranger's feet left the ground—and threw him back out the hole he'd made when they'd entered.
Picking himself up quickly, Cooper saw the evil Red Ranger charging up her gauntlet for a fire blast. Deciding to respond in kind, he summoned his cannon and charged it up as well.
In the brief second or two before they both fired, Flame CJ absorbed all the fire in the store into her gauntlet, not extinguishing the blaze but rather adding its power to what she'd already charged up.
The two gave battle cries as they let loose, and their elemental beams collided for several seconds. However, due to CJ's extra boost, fire overpowered water for once and Cooper was blown away by the attack.
"Get the fuck away from me!" Jane shouted as she fired her borrowed Switch-Gun. The Cameroceras monster had turned both his arms into tentacles, and she didn't want to imagine what he would do if he got ahold of her. She thanked her lucky stars that she preferred pants over skirts.
"Come on, girl. I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna have some fun with you is all," Cameron said as if that were reassuring.
"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" Jane shouted back.
Having distracted her with his tentacles, Cameron made it clear just how close he'd gotten to Jane. "Peek a boo!" He headbutted her, stunning her long enough for him to grab her wrists with his tentacles.
Panicking, Jane pulled her right wrist close to her face and bit down on the tentacle wrapped around it, forcing Cameron to let go. Flicking the Switch-Gun into its sword mode, Jane slashed the tentacle holding her other wrist before cutting into Cameron's torso. She followed it up with a tornado kick to the side of his head. Preparing to end it, her next move was a downward slash, also to his head.
But the slash simply bounced off the Cameroceras's shell, giving him time to recover. Turning his right tentacle back into a normal arm, he punched her in the gut. Before he could do anything else, though, he jumped in pain.
"Ow! What the hell?!" He reached behind him and pulled out a sharp object. "A feather? Who shoots a guy in the ass with a feather?"
"Me, apparently," Brody said to himself. He parried an attack from Simba before throwing two roundhouses, one at his thigh and one at his ribs.
Simba blocked the first kick with his shin and the second kick with his arms. In return, the Cymbospondylus threw a rapid flurry of punches.
Brody met the barrage head-on, and their fists collided again and again.
The lightning in Brody's fists was beginning to hurt Simba. "Okay, new plan!" the marine reptile yelled angrily. He began spinning rapidly in place, swinging his tail around like a circular saw.
The Yellow Ranger leapt back to gain some distance, but his enemy followed close behind, still spinning. With little other choice, Brody tried to block the tail strikes. When he succeeded, Simba switched tactics again and began biting at him furiously. The bites were coming so fast, Brody could barely dodge. Simba's onslaught was starting to wear out the boy's stamina.
Getting an idea, he let Simba bite down on his left forearm. Despite the pain, he fired his feathers straight into the creature's mouth. As the Cymbospondylus gagged from the attack, Brody double-checked to make sure Jane was okay. His worries were validated when he saw that the tentacle monster she was fighting was preparing to do a drill attack with his shell.
Kneeing Simba in the gut, Brody ignored the burning in his lungs and dashed over.
"Ranger!"—he got in front of the attack, his fist glowing yellow with lightning—"PUNCH!" His fist collided with the shell and, with an explosion of bright light, knocked the monster away.
Brody clutched his aching fist and turned to face Jane. "You okay?" he gasped.
Jane looked her friend up and down, getting the feeling that he was a lot worse off under his suit. "Are you?"
"I've been better," Brody chuckled. "But it's worth it for you."
Flattered, Jane blushed.
"Kiai!" Kenny shouted as he slashed with his sword. As a karate-ka, he'd normally fight barehanded, but his opponent was a marine reptile from another planet, so he wasn't taking any chances.
In the blink of an eye, however, Leopold disappeared out of sight, evading the slash.
Kenny looked around, only for the anthro pliosaur to pop back up out of nowhere and throw a punch. Alarmed, Kenny quickly parried the attack and threw another slash.
This time, Leopold opened his big mouth and caught the blade with his teeth. Ripping the sword from Kenny's grasp, he spit it out and moved to take a bite out of him.
Sidestepping the bite, Kenny jabbed the Liopleurodon in the ribs and neck. Unfortunately, Leopold's scales were thick enough that punches from an ordinary human did next to nothing.
"I barely felt that! And now you're gonna feel this!" Leopold disappeared again.
Growling at the vanishing act, Kenny felt something crawl up his pant leg. Before he could do anything, he felt something bite him in the ass. Yelping in pain, he reached into his pants and grabbed the tiny offender, who turned out to be Leopold, now shrunk down to just a couple inches tall.
"That's your trick?!" Kenny marveled. He threw his enemy to the ground as hard as he could.
Leopold grew back to full size and laughed, though he was now a little bruised. "Wow, that's the closest you've come to doing some damage since we got started!"
With that, he lunged again.
Maniacal laughter filled the air as monster Duncan lunged at G2.
G2 caught the Dunkleosteus's jaws and held him back. His feet skidded as he struggled to keep the armored fish at bay. Seeing that his eye-beam would just bounce off Duncan's head, he aimed at his torso instead.
This proved effective and forced Duncan back, clutching his stomach in pain. Unfortunately, he quickly learned from this and kept moving so that future shots only hit his head. This allowed him to get in close and land a punch on the robot.
"You're…weirdly good at taking headshots," G2 said as he got up.
"If you think that's impressive," said Duncan, cracking his knuckles, "just let me show you how well I can deal them out."
The Cryolophosaurs all went skidding down the street, landing in a heap against the thick garage door of a fire station. As they struggled to their feet, Moses, Bailey, and Megan all laughed.
"You three are even weaker than the Rangers!" Megan taunted them.
The pink Cryo ignored them and looked around, observing the rest of the team's situations. Duncan and Cooper were losing ground against the CJs, Brody had to watch Jane's back in addition to his own, G2 was having trouble getting around Baduncan's defenses, and Kenny was struggling to protect himself against Leopold.
Deciding it was time to cut their losses, the trio nodded at each other, agreeing to enact their escape plan. First, they all roared as loudly as they could. The noise was too much for anyone to take and caused heroes and villains alike to pause and cover their ears in pain.
Next, the Cryos used their combined spin attack to plow through their opponents, sending Moses, Bailey, and Megan tumbling to the asphalt. With their distractions in place, they rounded up their allies and the whole group made a run for it.
As the ringing in his ears faded, Leopold grinned. "That's twice we've driven them off now! And they didn't even put up much of a fight!"
"Don't get a big head," Moses scolded him. "Look what happened to the others who sent them running. You can celebrate when they're dead."
"I'm just glad the Brown Ranger made it. We were gonna meet at the aquarium later tonight," Bailey shrugged.
That made the rest of the group look at her funny.
"That's what you care about?" the Duncan on their team asked, stupefied. "Whether your fuck buddy is alright?"
Bailey wasn't fazed. "So would you, if you had one."
"Well, that coulda gone better," Cooper remarked as the group made their way back to Jane's house.
"How's everyone doing?" Jane asked.
Cooper gave a thumbs up. "No worse than last time."
"I got shot up, but I'll be fine," Duncan followed up, trying not to wince from the pain.
"I'll be fine once I get my wind back," Brody reported.
Kenny slung an arm over G2's shoulder. "All good here."
"And I'm fine too. Thanks, by the way." Jane smiled at Brody, making him blush a bit. "So, I guess we're all good to go." The Cryos growled at being excluded, making Jane backpedal. "Uh, you guys okay too?" They all nodded.
"This is great," Brody said, feeling optimistic despite it all. "We've survived two fights with those guys now. Things are only going to get better from here."
Duncan looked at him curiously. "You mean we're gonna get more power-ups?"
"That's not really an option," Chazz butted in.
"What do you mean?" Cooper asked.
Chazz proceeded to explain, "Dino morphers can only handle the power of up to two Dinozords, and you guys have two apiece. Trying to add a third would just overload them."
"So we're stuck with just you guys?" Duncan summarized. "No offense?"
"That's actually not what I was talking about anyway," Brody said. "In Kamen Rider, the heroes always do a little better in each fight. Sometimes they have to lose a few times, but each failure makes them a little bit stronger."
The rest of the team nodded at his statement, recalling how they'd slowly made progress against CJ when she first showed up.
"I guess what I mean to say is," Brody finished, "we'll get 'em next time."
At home, Brody kicked back and watched some Kamen Rider Kabuto, having put himself in the mood during his "pep talk" earlier. After a few episodes, he lifted his head at the sound of footsteps and spotted Duncan heading for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To the aquarium," his brother answered.
That made Brody raise an eyebrow. "At night? Isn't it closed?"
Duncan shrugged. "I'm gonna sneak in and meet Bailey, then we're gonna—"
"Never mind! I'm sorry I asked!" Brody cut him off, turning quickly back to his show.
Chuckling, Duncan made his way out the door.