Chapter One:
Battle of the Big Four
Thousands of years ago, in a cave deep under the Earth, two figures appeared in a flash of bright light. One was a young warrior, no older than sixteen, wearing the garb of the ancient Egyptians. The second, a strange alien creature with greenish-gray skin and long tentacles, clung to the boy's right arm.
"Where are we?" the boy, Khamun, said.
"Somewhere far from where any human will ever find it," the alien, Soto, said. He slithered down from the boy's arm, onto the black stone floor perfectly carved out of the deep bedrock. It led him into a large chamber over a pit of lava, a thin bridge leading out to an ornate black-and-purple pedestal.
"Did you build this place?" Khamun asked, carefully edging out over the bridge.
"I did," Soto replied.
"How?" The boy stared around, knowing an army of slaves could never have built such an edifice and lived to tell the tale.
Soto smiled a wide smile, one of his tentacles reaching deep inside himself and withdrawing a small glowing orb. "My people have many technologies yours will not dream of for many millennia. But fear not, my friend. Your time will come eventually."
He climbed up onto the pedestal, placing the glowing orb in its center, where its light illuminated the entire chamber.
"What is that?" Khamun asked.
"Call it an assurance," Soto said. "This device will slumber here, hidden deep, and will only awaken in the event something happens to me, and I fail to complete my mission. Hopefully, that day will never come, but if it does, I want it here just in case."
He wrapped a tentacle around the orb's glassy surface. "Sleep well, my friend. And glory be to our queen."
Thousands of years later, eight rangers raced together across a mountainous jungle island toward a massive complex built into the center. Four were on the ground, riding specialized high-tech vehicles. Four more rangers flew high above them, propelled by small, powerful rockets attached to their belts.
"Well, this is a familiar scene," the ground-bound green ranger said.
"Look alive, JAKQ team," the sky-bound red ranger reported. "About a dozen Crimers have set up a roadblock just ahead of you. Looks like they're armed with Shine weapons."
The pink ranger flying beside him shook her head. "You'd think they'd learn."
"Get ready, team," the red ranger on the ground said. "And remember these are ordinary humans. Try to take it easy."
"I'll make sure to use my light punches," his blue ranger said.
The four on the ground burst through the trees to find the roadblock just ahead of them, aiming large weapons glowing with golden energy.
"Karen!" the red ranger shouted.
"Got it!" his pink ranger said. She ejected herself from her vehicle, launching up into the air and focusing her magnetism on their weapons. With a sudden yank, their guns went flying from their grip to slam together and crumple into a ball. Her pink counterpart in the sky swooped overhead, dropping tiny bombs that burst into thick clouds of noxious gas. The Crimers coughed and gasped, the green ranger on the ground using his gravity powers to slam them down into the cloud, preventing their escape. One by one, each Crimer fell to the ground unconscious.
"Seriously, why do they even try?" he said.
"Hey, Josh," the blue ranger in the sky reported. "We've got bogeys coming in hot. Looks like Devil Machines."
"Look alive, people," his red ranger said. "Here comes the big fights."
One by one, a dozen large metal objects slammed into the ground all around them, rising to their feet and brandishing their weapons. The sky green ranger tapped on his visor, scanning them. "I detect they are using Shine energy, but it's not as efficient as it was under Iron Claw."
"So, what you're saying is, the Big Four did a hack job with theirs?" Sky Pink said.
"Basically."
"Well, then, let's see how well they fight."
The Devil Machines' eyes flashed red, and they launched themselves at the rangers. The rangers circled up, ready to take them on.
Up at the top of the island, in CRIME's central headquarters, four figures in Black Cross Mask costumes stood around a large table projecting a holographic view of the island.
"Big Four, sirs," a Crimer said, rushing into the room. "The Devil Machines are losing to the rangers."
The Big Four member on the south end of the table, dressed like a demon wearing boxing gear, crossed his arms. "I thought you said you were going to make them as strong as Iron Claw's," he sneered.
"I said, I was trying," the Big Four member on his right hand said, wearing what the 1970s would have thought a sci fi space captain's uniform would look like, with large fake bug eyes attached to the top of his head. "Ivan's notes and specifications were all over the place, and most of his prototypes were destroyed. And I was spending most of my time on our own specific upgrades."
The man at the north end, wearing a fake Egyptian headdress and armed with a sword, held up his hand. "That's enough, you two. Captain UFO, you said you spent most of your time on our upgrades, yes?"
The space captain nodded his head. "Yes, sir."
The Egyptian drew his sword and tightened his hand around it, making the blade glow with energy. "Then it's time we show the rangers what our upgrades can do."
The man to his right, clad in heavy-duty iron armor, crossed his arm. "And what of the Shine, General Sahara? Surely that is their target."
General Sahara smiled. "Do not worry, my friend. We have our guardian." He pointed at the Crimer near the door. "You! Activate the Devil Scrap."
The Crimer stood at attention and saluted. "Yes, sir!" she said, rushing out.
Down below, the rangers made quick work of the Devil Machines. The robots certainly put up a fight, far more than the Crimers had, and were certainly stronger than the base Devil Machine, but between the eight rangers, their numbers dwindled quickly.
Once the machines were down to four, Joshua Cage, leader of the flying rangers, rose up into the air. "We need to keep going. Greens and Pinks, you stay back here and finish these guys off, then fire off the flare for EAGLE to start moving in. Gordon, you and I will keep heading up the mountain. Blues, you two follow us and watch our backs."
"Yes, sir," the two blue rangers said.
"Go!"
The rangers broke up into their teams, four flying off and four staying where they were. "Hey, Peggy," the pink ranger on the ground said. She leapt into the air and came down right behind two of their opponents, clamping them both on the shoulders hard. "You want to toss out a few bombs? I think you'll find these two are nice and magnetized."
"Sure thing, Karen," the pink ranger in the sky said, flying over and dropping a bunch of heart bombs from her hands. The bombs flew straight to the robots' metallic armor, sticking fast. Karen backed away quickly, the Devil Machines struggling to pull at the small devices seconds before they detonated, blowing both robots apart.
On the other side of the battlefield, Benton, the green ranger on the ground, focused his gravity powers on his own opponents, rooting them fast to the patch of rock below them. His skybound counterpart Kenny threw his boomerang at them again and again, its bladed edge tearing their armor apart with every pass. Once they had cut open a sizable hole, Benton summoned his club, spun it around by its chain, and smashed it straight through both robots' chests, pummeling right through their less-armored insides.
The four rangers came together, looking proud of their fallen opponents. "And that's that," Benton said, wiping his hands together. "Now, about that flare—"
The green ranger found himself cut off as he felt a sudden powerful punch that seemed to burn right through his armor and send pain shooting up his spine, throwing him several feet forward and smashing into a nearby tree. His companions turned to find a man dressed like a demon wearing boxer's gear, not too far different from their friend Rio's.
"You want flare?" he said, a cruel tone to his voice. "I'll give you some flare." He raised his black punching gloves and clenched them, making them glow with energy and burst into flames.
"You're a member of this Big Four we've heard so much about, I take it?" Peggy said, hovering up before him.
"You are correct, madam," the boxer said, lowering one fist and bowing. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Hell Boxer."
"Nice to meet you," Peggy said. "My name is Peggy. And I don't take kindly to people hurting my friends."
She fired up her rockets and shot toward him, only to find herself frozen in midair. "What the—," she said, struggling to move and flaring her rockets. "Hey! What's going on?"
The Hell Boxer chuckled, enjoying the show. "Have you met my ally yet, Captain UFO?"
Over Peggy's head, the air shimmered, revealing a small silvery flying saucer, a bright yellow light beaming down from the saucer's base and holding her in place.
"So sorry to intrude on your important battle," a voice said from inside the saucer. "But I have so yearned to study those wonderful suits of yours. I hope you don't mind, but I wish to borrow this one and its wearer. For . . . experimentation."
"Experimentation?" Peggy shouted. "Over my dead body."
She struggled and fought as the beam started drawing her in. Clenching her fist, she summoned her sonic disruptor, rolled over, and blasted it straight at the base, making it go haywire, releasing her and making her drop straight to the ground.
"Ow," she said, sitting up and watching the saucer careen around above her for a second before stabilizing itself.
"Fascinating," Captain UFO said from inside his ship. "I wondered if I'd be insulated against that or not. Do you mind letting me borrow that to study?"
"Okay," Peggy said, getting to her feet. "These guys are annoying. Who wants to take which one?"
Benton got up behind her, rubbing his aching back. "Boxer's mine," he said.
Higher up the mountain, Gordon and Joshua raced, getting closer and closer to the top. Just as they were about to reach the command center, a sudden energy slash cut across Joshua's chest, a second piercing the tires of Gordon's vehicle and sending him spinning out. On the cliff above them, General Sahara stepped out, brandishing a glowing blade.
"Hello, gentlemen," he said, a smug expression on his face.
"We've got a Big Four," Joshua reported. "Blues, take him out."
Sean swooped in, firing a large blue arrow at the target. Seconds before it impacted, a second figure stepped in the way, covered in thick metallic armor that shattered the arrow on impact.
"You want to get to him," the newcomer said, "you've got to get through me."
"Not a problem," Rio Higgs shouted, dashing out of the forest and leaping into the air, throwing a powerful punch right in the man's chest and charging it with as much electricity as he could muster. The armored man tanked the hit, his armor glowing brightly with Shine energy, absorbing the attack and firing right back with the exact same amount of force, sending the attacking blue ranger flying backwards.
"Well done, Baron Iron Mask," General Sahara said. "Now, you keep the blue rangers busy. The red rangers are mine."
As the Crime Big Four focused on battling the rangers, they made two crucial mistakes. The first was miscounting the number of rangers at their door. The second was trusting the safety of the Shine to a spy.
Deep inside CRIME's headquarters, Agent Ten pulled open a large hatch, letting a yellow ranger inside, his costume matching those of the flying rangers. Dayton Owens climbed up and out of the hatch, stretching his arms and looking around. "It is good to be back on active duty," he said.
"Glad you made it," Agent Ten said. "And can I just say, sir, it is an honor to be working with you."
Dayton smiled warmly at the young agent. "You can get me to the Shine?"
"Yes, sir. Right this way."
She led him down a long series of corridors, taking it slow so as not to bump into any Crimers along the way. "Now, I must warn you," Agent Ten said. "The Big Four have constructed a guardian to protect it. It's sort of a Mega Devil Machine. You'll see when we get there."
"Looking forward to the challenge."
Agent Ten led Dayton up to a heavy door and tapped a key card to it. "Right through here."
She led him into what looked like an abandoned science lab, the Shine resting on a pedestal in the center, the room around it littered with junk and scrap metal.
"They left the Shine in here?" Dayton asked. "This place is a dump."
He stopped as what he assumed was nothing but leftover scrap started moving, shifting around, and piecing itself together into one massive body. "Yeah, that's not garbage," Agent Ten said. "That's the Devil Scrap."
Dayton stared as the guardian rose up taller and taller, dwarfing him by almost twice his own height. It seemed to be made, not simply of random scrap metal, but, in fact, the crumpled pieces of the Devil Machines the JAKQ team had destroyed in Silver City a few months earlier. Most disturbing of all, it seemed to have the metallic skull of Iron Claw sticking out right where its head should be.
"What. The. Actual. F—"
"Yeah," Agent Ten said, scratching her head. "They, um, hired a team of salvagers to bring back . . . whatever they could find, and stuck it all together to make . . . that."
Dayton stared at the monstrosity. "Okay, I know these are like really bad dudes who have done some really messed up things in their lives. Is it weird that this one feels like it's crossing a line?"
"You're going to want to move."
Dayton looked up to see the monster swinging its giant metal arm down on top of him. He and Ten both dashed to one side, the robot leaving a massive crater right where they'd been standing. It raised its arm and swept sideways, Dayton catching it and holding it back with his tremendous strength.
"Whoa, this thing is strong," he wheezed, the wind knocked out of him. "This thing has some Shine power in it, I take it."
"Yeah," Ten said, getting to her feet. "Keep it busy. I'll work around to detach the Shine."
"Sure thing," Dayton said, hearing the tech in his suit whirring and creaking in ways it definitely wasn't supposed to. He fired up his birdie rockets, letting go and launching into the air, letting the arm swing on past. The robot looked up, Ivan's dead skeletal eyes staring at him. He drew his club, switching it over to Rock mode. "Let's see how you hold up against this!"
He smashed the weapon down on the monster's head, leaving a large dent of his own in its patchwork armor.
"Haha!" Dayton shouted, looking pleased with himself.
The monster stopped, turning its head to stare up at him, its entire body starting to glow, the dent pushing back out and repairing itself.
"Oh, come on."
The robot extended wickedly sharp blades from one arm, rapidly spinning buzz saws from another.
"Gotta fly," Dayton said. He took off as the monster swiped at him with weapon after weapon.
Outside the base, the rangers struggled against their Big Four members. Benton and Kenny, the green rangers, took on the Hell Boxer, his fiery fists striking them again and again and again and again. Every single time Benton tried to pause long enough to focus his gravity powers, BAM! A punch to the gut. When Kenny tried to use his boomerang to attack from a distance, BAM! Shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile above, Karen and Peggy focused on Captain UFO. Karen used her magnetism, straining against the saucer, trying to pull it down out of the sky, while Peggy was perched on top, smashing at the glass dome to get at its pilot, who sat inside, watching every hit with rapt attention.
Further up the mountain, Sean and Rio dealt with Baron Iron Mask. Sean circled their opponent, firing arrow after arrow, trying his best to target any weak point he could find. The Baron met every hit and deflected it with ease. Rio kept his distance, every hit he'd tried so far returned to him with double the force. He studied his opponent, watching him for any possible weakness he could exploit.
A short distance above them, Joshua Cage attempted to snag General Sahara's sword with his whip and pull it from his hand, only for the general to charge his sword, sending glowing energy shooting up the whip and causing it to burst in Josh's hand.
"Agh!" Joshua shouted.
Gordon swept in behind his companion and fired an arrow at their opponent. General Sahara slashed his blade right through it as it flew, but Gordon was prepared for that. He snapped his fingers at the moment of the slash, causing the arrow to detonate with atomic energy and blast Sahara backwards.
"Gotcha!"
Finally, back inside the base, Dayton flew around and around, avoiding the Devil Scrap's attacks, parrying every blade with his club's Paper formation and doing his best to leave any kind of permanent dent. As the fight progressed, Agent Ten ran for the pedestal, doing her best to avoid the fight raging above her. She watched as hatches opened up all over the Devil Scrap's body and it started firing missiles at Dayton.
"Oh no," she said. She covered her head and ran as fast as she could as missiles burst around her. One detonated right next to her, blasting her to one side and knocking her into a wall.
"Ow," she said, sitting up, her ears ringing. She felt warm blood on her stomach, and she reached down to feel that she'd been hit by shrapnel. The wound felt deep. She shook her head and tried to focus. "Gotta get the Shine."
She tried to stand, but her legs didn't work. She reached around behind her back and felt that she'd been hit there too, just above the hip. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no. Not now." With all the strength she had, she struggled and crawled across the floor toward the Shine, willing her legs to do something. She grabbed hold of the pedestal and pulled herself up. The Shine was right there above her. If she could only grab it. She reached out with her hand. Closer. Closer. Almost there. Her fingers found it, wrapped themselves around its smooth, warm surface, and pulled.
The moment she disconnected it from its fittings, the Big Four lost all their powers. Hell Boxer's fists stopped flaming. Captain UFO's ship lost a significant amount of power. Baron Iron Mask's metal armor caved to a punch from Rio. And General Sahara's sword stopped glowing.
Each of the four stared down at their lost power, shaking their weapons around, then looked back up at their opponents. "W-we can work this out, right?" Hell Boxer said, lowering his fists and taking a quick step back.
"Yeah, no," Benton said. He focused his gravity powers and slammed Hell Boxer into the ground. Up above, Peggy shattered Captain UFO's dome, reaching inside and pulling the captain out. Rio wound up another punch and sent Baron Iron Mask flying several feet. And Joshua used his whip to bind up General Sahara, while Gordon kept him at arrowpoint.
"Well done, team," Joshua said into his comm. "Now, it's EAGLE's turn. Light the flare."
Inside, Dayton kept flying around the Devil Scrap, watching as it stumbled, its internal glow dimming. It stopped and looked down at itself, and Dayton grinned. "I'm willing to bet you're not going to be healing yourself anymore."
He tucked himself up like a missile, fired his rockets, and punched right through the monster's midsection, blowing a hole straight through it. The monster remained standing for just a second, staggered, then collapsed back into a heap of twisted metal.
"And that's what I call a strike," he said. "Great job, Agent Ten." He turned toward the pedestal to find Agent Ten slumped against it, blood pouring from her stomach, the Shine clenched in her fingers.
"Agent Ten!"