Author's Notes:

Well, I would have words to say about this chapter, but I think all 7,000 of them kinda speak for themselves, don't you?

Edit: Changed Zen-Aku's fight theme to something more apt for him.

Ponyville Hospital: ICU:

Princess Celestia looked down upon her adopted daughter as she lay in her bed, a sheet draped over her body. The slow, steady beep of the heart monitor was the only sound present in the room. The Princess of the Sun sobbed silently, her whole body shaking and trembling. This was all her fault, and she knew it. She’d created years of hatred and bigotry towards humankind and she’d done nothing to stop it, even when it nearly took Sunset from her.

She remembered a quote from a human she had met as Solar Flare back in 3021, right before she cut him down and rendered him to nothing but ashes scattered in the wind.

“You’ll reap what you’ve sown, Pony-Bitch.”

At the time, she thought nothing of it, but now she knew what that human meant. This was fate coming back at her. This was karma’s way of punishing her for wiping out a whole race. She was taking what was nearest and dearest to Celestia’s heart. First she sent Luna running afraid to parts unknown, and now bigoted ponies had just attacked her daughter and put her in hospital care just for even associating with the human known as Robert Williams. What would fate take from her next, Celestia had to ponder. Would it be Twilight Sparkle, her other adopted daughter, or her niece Princess Cadence?

“By all rights, I should find those who did this and render them to dust,” Celestia snarled mentally as she fingered the Solar Cell Morpher strapped to her leg like a gun and hidden under her long flowing white dress.

“NO!” Celestia quickly said to herself. “That’s what Solar Flare would want. If I did that, I’d risk her getting full control and become the very thing I always thought of humans… A monster.”

Celestia chuckled. She deserved this and she knew it.

“What’s that old human saying…?” She asked herself. “Oh, right… Karma’s a Bitch.”

Ironically, the only one who would be allowed to take on the mob and that attacked her daughter and not cause a political uproar was the subject of their own ire, Robert Williams himself.

“Oh come on… You know you want to let me out, just for a second," Solar Flare’s voice whispered. “Just take what you want, revenge. It’s all too easy once you give in…”

“NO! I’m not letting you out. I let you consume me once, and a whole race suffered the consequences. I’m not going to let that happen again and see the results,” Celestia snapped.

“Well, you can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, but sooner or later I’m going to cut you down,” Solar Flare sang in her head. “Tell that long tongued liar, the rambler, the gambler, the back-biter, tell them that Solar Flare and Celestia are gonna cut ‘em down.” She continued in a mocking tone of voice even as the Princess of the Sun tried to block it out. “You and I, we make a great team. The end of humankind showed that. You let me in once, you’ll let me in again. All in good time.”

“That will not happen,”Celestia growled out, her fist tightening.

“Well, I’ve got a fiddle of gold against your soul that I think I’m better than you. Care to take that bet, Celly-Belly?”

“Get out of my sister’s head, you monster,” Luna’s voice bellowed in her head. She ran into the room, dropping her Artemis disguise entirely, much to the shock of the hospital staff. Her horn flared as she transported herself into her sister’s mind.

“Ah, the Nightmare,” Solar Flare sneered. “Join the fun with no regrets, only greedy dirty deeds are allowed!”

“Do not think you hold sway over me, witch. Now BEGONE!” Luna bellowed.

“Alright, alright…spoil my fun. But I’ll be back, and you both know it. But for now, toodles!” Solar Flare sung in a singsong voice before vanishing into the dark depths of Celestia’s mind. The Solar Regent collapsed into her sister’s arms, sobbing.

“I… I can’t fight her off. S-she’s right, and we both know it! Sooner or later, she’ll take control again and nothing will be able to stop her, just like last time! Nothing!” Celestia sobbed as Luna held her in her arms and wrapped her wings around her.

“That will not happen sister, because I know you are stronger than that monster of a mare. You fought off this creature’s influence for thousands of years. You can fight it off just a little while longer until Twilight finalizes her plan. You were always the stronger one in the family, sister. As for me...When I let the Nightmare Forces consumed me, it took only but a few hours for them to take me over. With you, it took a full damned day before Solar Flare took over and unleashed her power upon humankind. If that doesn’t say anything about your strength, I don’t know what does.” Luna stated firmly.

“T-thank you for coming Lulu. T-thank you… Thank you for risking yourself, even if you knew Solar Flare might destroy you.”

Luna smiled. “We were always there for each other, that’ll never change,” she stated. “Now the darkest hour is just before the dawn. We’re in that hour together. Someday soon, that light will come.”

“But what if Sunset isn’t there to see it? She doesn’t have the advanced levels of healing we do. She’s only a young Alicorn, she hasn’t tapped into her full potential yet!” Celestia whispered.

“But she will live. There’s always hope. See that heart monitor, it’s still beeping. As long as that happens, she’s alive and there is a chance that she’ll live to see that dawn.”

Celestia smiled and wiped away her tears.

“You’re right. And Solar Flare… Tartarus, I was wrong about humanity. I’ve kept books about them in my private library, stockpiled whatever I could find about them and for the past 2,000 years, I’ve kept them to myself, letting the propaganda I created fester like a weed and let ponies believe what they want. But that ends today. There’s a famous quote I found in one of my books about humanity, and although it comes from a great conqueror, I believe it sums up any species. Not just humanity, but every species. It goes: ‘Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.’

“Yes… I remember that quote as well,” Luna nodded in agreement. “There’s another one I’d like to recite, one stated about a great tragedy back in the year 2001. It goes: ‘The reason I don’t worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I’ll take those odds every fucking day.’ That’s humankind, not what we ran into. That’s their spirit. And I’ll take that over what we’ve created, as I’m just as responsible for not dispelling the myths as you are, any day.”

Then a question came to Celestia’s mind.

“...Speaking of humans, where is Robert?”

The Prancing Pony: Suri’s Bedroom

“Oh… Uh… Just like that… Exactly like that...” A mare with a pale orchid coat of fur wearing a two-toned light blue scarf around her neck moaned out as Robert kissed the nape of her neck as she ran her hands along his scarred chest. All of Robert’s clothes except his boxers had been tossed off, with his Morpher lying on a bedside table. The twosome were in the mare’s personal bedroom at the Prancing Pony after she had “convinced” him to come up to her room for a few private tips on fashion, after Robert had mentioned how much he hated his trenchcoat and said how wrong it looked on anyone whose name wasn’t Captain Jack Harkness.

It didn’t take much convincing on Suri’s part for things to progress, as she did promise him to make him something nice that suited him as long as he did something for her. Of course, Robert wasn’t stupid; he knew her reputation from mutters and whisperings in the pub about how she had tried to plagiarize one of Rarity’s designs. He had his own plans in mind for the mare, and they weren’t just sexual in nature. In fact, he was performing a very fox-like maneuver that he had done a few times back when he was with SPD.

As Robert continued kissing her neck, he moved upwards to Suri’s lips and they smashed together hard, with the fashionista wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as they tumbled backwards onto the bedsheets together. Suri let out a small moan of pleasure as she let her tongue enter Robert’s mouth before she rolled him over. Now she was on top of him, her barely covered breasts just touching Robert’s chest before they pulled away gasping, a thin line of saliva connecting the small distance between their mouths.

“Well, even for a human, you sure know how to show a mare a good time,” Suri purred seductively, giving him a peck on the cheek. She moved her hands downwards to his boxers and let a hand slip inside them. Robert began groaning out in pleasure as Suri stroked him.

“How fast do you want things?” Suri purred. “I didn’t just learn how to control my hand movements for stitching you know.”

And just as Robert was about to give Suri exactly what she desired, something interrupted them. The Morpher had just given out its distinctive five-note beeping that it always gave when trouble was up.

Robert groaned out “Wunderbar…”

“...is that a good thing?” Suri asked.

“If it were only that, Suri, believe me. I’d be pleased in so many ways,” Robert grumbled before he quickly shoved Suri off of him. He threw on his clothes, put his Morpher around his neck and ran out of the room. He quickly opened up the Morpher and looked at the mini-map displayed to see where this week’s latest monster was.

Left on her own, Suri picked herself off the carpet and let out a huff before she tied her violet hair back into its normal bun. “Well, never had that happen to me before,” she muttered to herself, her arms folded across her chest.

Suddenly, Robert quickly reappeared and then handcuffed her to a bedpost. “Oh, change your mind?” she mocked, getting over her momentary shock. “Sorry, no takesy backsies.”

“No, that was for stealing my friend Rarity’s designs a while back. We’ll talk more later, in a police station. There are plenty of other ways I know of to get information out of a mare.”

Suri spat at him and snarled but Robert simply rolled his eyes and muttered: “Yeah yeah, next time you whore yourself out to anyone like any old slag, do a bit of a background check, eh?”

When Robert joined his fellow Rangers, he found Bunglay terrorizing the town, capturing ponies and putting them in cages, accompanied by the red armored Kingsmen who once served as Royal Guards to Emperor Mavro and his sons.

“Alright, what’s your game this time Bunglay? Last I checked, Lightning and I sent your sorry arse packing off-planet. Seems we need to re-teach that lesson. That was your first strike, two of ‘em left,” Robert remarked holding up a finger. “Might want to rethink what you’re doing here for a moment.”

“Funny, that’s not how I remember it,” Bunglay chuckled as he grabbed a pony whom Robert recognized as Sparkler with his hook hand and held her close to him by the neck.

“Okay then,” Robert growled out. “That mare you’re holding, she saved my life a while back, so that’s your second strike,” he snarled, holding up another finger.

“Now…let’s see, can I think of any more?” he asked sarcastically before he conveniently “remembered” and held up a third finger. “Oh, right. You just disrupted me from having a very good time with a mare so that’s your third strike against you, so do us all kindly a favor and bloody well piss off before we have to make you.”

Lightning stared at him. “Really… that’s his third strike? Preventing you from being a Foxy Man-Whore? I say we give him a pass just for that.”

Robert gave her a sour look. “I had other plans in mind for that mare, we’ll talk about them later. Right now, this guy’s about to get his sorry worthless pirate arse kicked off-planet.” Robert growled as he slammed a fist against his palm.

“We’ll see about that eh?” Bunglay chuckled darkly. “You see, when I had a little gander through your memories a while back, I didn’t just see files of past villains you see. Now, if you’re going to kick my sorry worthless pirate arse off-planet, you’d better get cracking on these faces you might remember first! Savvy?”

And then, appearing in dark swirls of smoke were three figures right out of ranger legend and all three of them Robert had met at one point or the other. First was the Lunar Wolf Ranger, Merrick and one of the first six Wild Force Rangers. The second was Lauren Shiba, the true head of the Shiba house and the Sealing Powers of her clan and also the true Red Samurai Ranger. These first two he’d met during the last month he’d spent at the Pai Zhau Academy. Lauren had come to challenge the Red Tiger Ranger, Casey, to a duel with Merrick as her traveling companion. The last face was one Robert knew all too well, his former squad leader AKA Sky Tate.

“Now, get them!” Bunglay ordered and snapped his fingers.

Against their own will, the three legendary Rangers shouted their morphing calls. “SPD: Emergency!”, “Go, go, Samurai!” and finally “Wild Access!” before in explosions, they stood clad in their costumes. Robert suppressed back a nervous swallow. This was not going to be easy. The X-Borgs and the Kingsmen he knew he and the others could handle, but as for these three, particularly Sky, he wasn’t so sure. And that wasn’t counting Bunglay. Who knew how powerful he was.

“I’d advise you to give up now, there’s not enough Rangers to go around for each of you. No matter how you slice it, two of you will have to face one Ranger solo each,” Bunglay laughed as the puppet Rangers advanced. The current team of Rangers morphed and readied themselves for battle anyways.

But right about then, the undeniably eerie and haunting song of a familiar pipe flute cut through the air. Zen-Aku stepped out of a shadowed alley, putting away his flute and unholstering his Crescent Blade.

“You must have miscounted Beast Hunter, as it seems you’ve forgotten about me,” he smirked and gazed at Bunglay like a caribou ready for the slaughter.

“Z-Zen-Aku?” Merrick asked in shock.

“Yes Merrick, my old friend, it’s me. Now, I don’t know how Bunglay brought you back from wherever it is you go when you die, but I promise you this,” Zen-Aku said as he pointed his blade at Bunglay with a look of pure and utter fury etched on his muzzle, “I will send you back there.”

“Enough with the talking. Now shut your gobs and fight!” Bunglay snapped.

“Zen-Aku,” Robert snarled. “Now I normally don’t take command, but in this situation, I have a personal score to settle. You and Vapor take Merrick. I know you can handle him Zen-Aku, given your… shared history. Sunburst, you and Lightning deal with Lauren. However, a word of warning. She didn’t get to be a Red Ranger without good reason. As for me, Sky’s mine and mine alone. I know how he fights, so I can handle him.”

“Agreed,” Zen-Aku stated firmly before the battle began. Bunglay tossed Sparkler aside and sat himself down on a bench to watch the fight.

“Spin Sword: Blazing Strike!” Lauren called and sent out a slash of blazing hot fire towards Sunburst and Lightning, who rolled out of the way to avoid it. Sunburst threw his hatchets at Lauren, but she soundly kicked them back at their owner, knocking him to the ground.

“I’m sorry, I can’t control myself!” she cried. “Bunglay, he’s pulling my strings like a puppet!”

“Yeah?” Lightning asked as she inserted her Giraffe Crystal into her Saber. “Well, we’ll just have to cut those strings for you.” She launched herself forward with a blitzing attack, their blades clashing again and again.

“You’re pretty good with the Blade,” Lauren acknowledged as she blocked another blow from the Giraffe enhanced Crystal Saber before rolling to the side to dodge a powerful downward swing and then she kicked Lightning in the chest and got in a horizontal slash drawing a bit of blood.

“S-So are you,” Lightning gasped out.

Lauren managed a shrug. “Well, what can I say? I’ve been pretty much training my whole life,” she remarked.

“Wow, you took the samurai thing pretty seriously didn’t you?” Lightning asked as she forced Lauren back with powerful lashes from her whips. But Lauren got in another Blazing Strike and sent it towards her foe. Thankfully, Sunburst recovered and knocked the flaming slash out of existence with a kick from the side.

“Ow, ow! Hot hoof, hot hoof!” Sunburst yelled as he jumped up and down from the searing pain in his right hoof before it eventually subsided and he rejoined the battle.

“Well, when you’re the one prophesied to seal away the leader of an ancient evil, it kinda goes with the territory,” Lauren remarked before she blocked a punch from Sunburst by catching it with her hand, then kicked both him and Lightning away.

“Symbol Power: Firestorm!” she called out as she drew out her Samurai Morpher and drew the kanji for Fire in the air and sent a swarm of flames right towards the two Rangers who rolled out of the way to avoid it before sharing a look.

“Any ideas?” Sunburst asked.

Lightning shrugged. “Buck if I know. You’re the brainy one, right?”

“Gah!” Sunburst said as he slapped a palm to his forehead. “I just remembered! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Can’t believe I forgot! A few days ago I was tinkering around with Navi and I came up with something!”

He opened up his visor and let out a whistle, and Navi appeared in a golden flash of light flapping her tiny wings. With another golden flash, she turned into a parrot-themed blaster rifle with Navi’s open beak functioning as the barrel.

Lightning stared at him. “A Navi Blaster? ...You’ve got to be joking,” she muttered, blinking to make sure she wasn’t seeing things or hadn’t gone crazy.

Sunburst ignored her, focusing all of his magic into the weapon and fired at Lauren, the blast being powerful to knock her out of her Ranger form and send her Spin Sword flying, with it impaling itself into the side of a tree.

“One Past Ranger down, two to go…” Sunburst thought with a sigh as he panted from the sheer energy exertion. “And then there’s Bunglay and his men to deal with. Somebody up there must really hate me today.”

Nearby, Zen-Aku and Vapor had teamed up against Merrick and were rolling to the sides to dodge his laser blasts from his Lunar Cue’s Sniper Mode. Zen-Aku sent a Crescent Wave towards his old friend, but he dodged it by jumping forwards and fired at Zen-Aku from above before flipping to the Cue’s Saber Mode. The pole-like blade extended out and dealt out a few strikes to Zen-Aku, but Vapor closed in and kicked Merrick in the side, making him stagger back.

“I’m sorry my friend. I don’t want to do this to you,” Merrick apologized. “Bunglay’s control…it’s too strong.”

“Yes, we both know the feeling all too well,” Zen Aku said as he slashed Merrick across the chest with his blade. As he did so, he thought back to the time when the Org General Nayzor put a bug in his head to keep him from remembering his past as Merrick. “But like before, these chains will be broken! You just have to fight it!”

“I… I don’t know if I can!” Merrick yelled out as he clutched his head in pain before he grabbed Vapor with a clawed glove and dragged her along the snow covered ground, then tossed her away into a tree.

“Vapor!” Zen-Aku shouted in concern.

“I...I’ll live, just have one big headache after this,” Vapor muttered before she inserted her Deer Crystal and changed her Crystal Saber to the Deer Clutcher, a grapple like weapon. She propelled herself forwards with her mighty wings and pinned Merrick up against a pine tree. But the weapon only held him only momentarily before he broke free, lunging forwards with his Lunar Cue, but Vapor jumped back as Zen-Aku blocked the blow with his armored wrist.

“So, anthro ponies as a new generation of Power Rangers?” Merrick questioned curiously. “What year is this?”

“By your time period, it would be the year 5026,” Zen-Aku answered.

Merrick let out a small gasp. “5-5026? I’ve been dead for…”

“Yes, I have missed you for millennia, old friend. My only regret is that we had to meet like this, and that the newest generation of Wild Force Rangers have to face their past in such a way.”

“N-newest generation? Then…then that means…” Merrick whispered in realization as his eyes widened once again. Zen-Aku confirmed his realization with a simple nod of the head.

“Yes, the Princess is awake once again and the Orgs now once again walk the face of the Earth, now under a new Master. We’ve been holding them off, but every day they grow in strength, power and number.”

“God, I wish I could help you Zen-Aku,” Merrick said as he kicked his old friend backwards.

“Yes, another number to our ranks, especially one as experienced as fighting the Orgs as you are would be a welcome addition,” Zen-Aku admitted even as he slashed Merrick across the chest with his Lunar Dagger. “Especially now of all times, when this team’s Leader is currently in the ICU under close observation.”

“I-ICU?” Merrick asked in shock. “W-what happened?”

“It’s a long story, and one I do not think you would like to hear. It’s better off if you do not know of what happened between when you passed and now,” Zen-Aku stated before with another Crescent Wave, he knocked Merrick backwards and demorphed him before whispering out a soft “I’m sorry, old friend.”

Meanwhile, Robert fought with Sky. Actually, fought wouldn’t be the right word. He was letting Sky kick his arse, he’d even demorphed to let Sky have an easier task of it. Sky fired his Delta Blasters at Robert, and he made no attempt of dodging out of the way, letting the blasts hit him.

“Come on Robert, you’ve got to stop me!” Sky yelled. “I won’t be able to hold back!”

“Please Sky, admit it,” Robert remarked as Sky kicked him in the face and made him stagger back. “You’ve been wanting to knock me off that high pedestal I always put myself on and show me that I’m not worthy of being a member of SPD. Well congrats, I’m handing you that chance on a silver platter.”

“Dammit Robert, get your shit together! Sure, you were an arrogant asshole, but you were a good cop! Andros was right, we both needed to learn to work together more!” Sky shouted back as Bunglay forced him to punch Robert in the stomach, sending him flying back into some crates. “Sure, you were arrogant but so was I, I admit that! I always wanted to make my father proud of me and show him that I was worthy of being the Red Ranger!”

“And you did that when you took down Merlock and avenged your dad!” Robert yelled back, clutching his side. “But you were always right about me, and we both know it! I’m dangerous to everyone around me! One day, I might have done something so mind-blowingly stupid and so show-offish that I could have gotten you all killed! You should have stripped me of my badge on the first day!”

“Enough!” Sky yelled. “I’m your commander, and deep down I think I knew you had potential, I just never looked deep enough to see it and help you reach that potential! You could be one of the best cops SPD ever produced with the proper help, I…I just never gave that to you, or listened to Commander Cruger or Andros until after you vanished! So shut your mouth and fight back! You’re a Power Ranger dammit! and Bunglay and those soldiers of his…they’re going to put the natives of this planet in danger, so get with the program and do what you do best!”

Robert nodded, then slammed his palm down on his Morpher and shouted “Legendary Wild Access!”

Sky’s eyes widened as with a flash of blue flame, Robert morphed back into the Orange Ranger.

“Huh, looks like Boom was more spot-on then he realized about there being an Orange Ranger someday. You know, somewhere in time and space I suspect he’s yelling for joy for no obvious reason,” Sky chuckled as he fired his Delta Blasters at Robert, but he simply leaped over the shots and knocked Sky to the ground with kicks to the legs.

“...Well, that’s new. Never seen you do that before.” Sky commented as Robert flipped and jumped backwards as some X-Borgs rushed at him, firing the rockets at the end of their cudgels. In midair, Robert with a sweeping Chi-enhanced kick that knocked the rockets back at the X-Borgs, causing them to go up in a large fiery explosion.

“Scrap once, and they’ll always be scrap,” Robert chuckled mentally as a Royal Guard rushed at him. He slid to the ground and knocked him to his feet with powerful kicks to the shins before grabbing his staff and using it to slice another of the Kingsmen across the chest. It sparked briefly before falling down while Robert broke the staff in half with his knee.

“Yeah, haven’t used those abilities I learned at the Pai Zhau in a long time. Too long, really. I’m a bit rusty…” Robert said as he kicked Sky in the gut, causing him to stagger and sending his Delta Blasters flying from his hands. “But I think it’s just like riding a bike; you never forget these sort of things.

“Now, come on, Sky, fight Bunglay’s control! You’ve faced more difficult challenges than this!” he shouted. “Facing down Omni and the Troobian Empire, and overcoming your own base flaws, this is just a small bump in the road compared to that!”

“Y-You’re right,” Sky growled out and concentrated as hard as he possibly could. All around him, the other puppets did the same, digging deep into their souls for the strength to fight the mind control.

Then there was a sound like strings being snipped, and they were free.

“Now, let’s show this pirate what SPD’s all about,” Sky grinned. “SPD: Swat Mode!”

Just like Robert before him, he too gained a flak jacket, body armor, sensors on his helmet and a Delta Enforcer in his hands and helmet lights flashing. Robert smirked as he picked up the fallen Delta Blasters and together as they stood back to back, fired into the wave of X-Borgs charging at them. No matter how many came, they all fell like dominos thanks to the waves of laser fire that just kept coming. Two Royal Guards put their staves together and sent a wave of energy manifesting in the shape of the Armada Symbol towards the two B-Squad Members. It was cut down by Lauren back in costume and holding the gigantic sword known as the Fire Smasher, a huge orange “Horse Cutter” like blade.

Next, Merrick appeared and shouted “Laser Pool! Lunar Cue: Break Mode!” and enveloped the two Guards in a pool table like construct of energy.

“Time to rack ‘em up! Lunar Break!” Merrick shouted and Zen-Aku tossed him his Animal Crystals before Merrick knocked them forwards like billiard balls and the two Guards were hit dead on. Emitting sparks, the twosome fell down and exploded in fireballs as the Animal Crystals flew back into Merrick’s hands. Some X-Borgs and two more Royal Guards rushed forwards to avenge their deaths, and an X-Borg fired his rocket at the end of his cudgel but Lauren leaped forwards and grabbed it in mid air.

“I think we’ve had about enough of you and your missiles. Here, I believe this is yours. Catch!” Lauren shouted before tossing it back at the X-Borg platoon destroying them all in a fireball while Merrick kicked away one Kingsman and grabbed his staff in one hand and knocked the other Guard’s staff from his hands sending it flying in the air before Merrick caught it. He then used them both to strike down the Guard in a downwards slice before tossing both staves away.

“Now, it’s only you and us Bunglay,” Robert snarled, spinning his Kitsune Blaster in his hands like an old west gunfighter as the other Rangers joined him, personal weapons in hand.

“Bring it on, maties,” he snarled and with a blur of motion charged right through the Rangers, slashing at them with an anchor like weapon. Lightning and Sunburst tried to slash at the Space Pirate with their Crystal Sabers but he simply shrugged off the attacks and knocked Sunburst to the side. Lightning flew backwards and fired a beam of golden energy from her Saber like a spear, but Bunglay simply smacked it away with his anchor. Robert went into SWAT Mode at that point. He knew perfectly well he was risking his own life to do that, but he also knew Bunglay had to be stopped and he needed all the extra firepower he could get to do it. Both Sky and Robert fired round after round at Bunglay, making him stagger backwards but otherwise he didn’t even seem to be affected. In fact, he simply laughed all the while.

Merrick tried to deal a few blows with his Lunar Cue in Saber Mode, but was simply grabbed and tossed through a store window, causing Merrick to demorph. Robert and Sky fired their blasters once more, but didn’t even dent Bunglay’s armor. He kicked Sky backwards before raising his rifle and shot Robert clean through the shoulder. Robert let out a scream of pain and clutched at the wound, blood oozing through his fingers. Vapor threw her Trident and it impaled Bunglay clean through, but he didn’t even seem to be affected. Frighteningly, Bunglay didn’t even bother to pull the trident out.

“You arrogant wasteful fools. You don’t get it, do you? I’ve survived hundreds of attacks against me, and a worthless band of fools like you are not going to be the ones to send me down to Davy Jones’s locker!” Bunglay boasted before kicking Vapor backwards into a fountain, causing her to demorph as well. Robert tried to fire off a blast but Bunglay knocked it away and fired at him again, knocking him out of his Ranger state.

“Alive or dead, it doesn’t matter to me,” he sneered. “You’re still worth quite a lot of space bullion to me.”

“I’ve got to help them!” Zen-Aku snarled.

“Wolf Attack!” a revived Koragg shouted. Projections of wolves heads burst into existence from the center of his shield and charged Zen-Aku, pinning him down.

“So…you’re the one they call the Night Wolf. You claim to be a noble warrior who fights with honor, but would one with that associate himself with a simple poacher like Bunglay?” the Wolf of the Night growled out. Koragg chuckled and locked blades with Zen-Aku.

“Normally, no,” he replied. “But I have heard of your reputation as the Wolf of the Night and one of the most feared warriors of darkness ever created and I want to see if you truly live up to that title.”

The two clashed blades again and again, sparks flying with every blow as the fight drew them further away from the main battlefield.

Meanwhile, Lauren picked herself up off the ground.

“So, you’re the last one left. Fitting how the girl always is the last to fall beneath my boots.” Bunglay chuckled darkly.

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re about to learn that this girl has more than a few tricks up her sleeve. I call upon the Power of the Ancestors!” she yelled, placing the Shiba House’s personal disk on her Spin Sword and spinning it.

With a flash of light, Lauren gained samurai like adornments, two huge shoulder pads and her shoulder plate becoming emblazoned with the kanji for armor, or Ko. Her belt buckle opened up to reveal a face with glowing green eyes. Finally, her helmet became more dramatic as it gained a large golden adornment for a head crest in the shape of her element, the kanji for fire.

“Shogun Mode!” she shouted as her boots implanted themselves on the ground with a mighty thud cracking the earth beneath them. “Time to get your ass kicked, Samurai Style.”

“How…?” Bunglay asked, truly stunned which wasn’t a feat that happened often in his lifetime. He knew Lauren had the Shiba Fire Disk and could have gone Shogun Mode with just a simple suggestion from him, but how she had managed to fight him off was something he just couldn’t figure out.

“Feeling surprised?” Lauren asked. “Yeah, I knew you knew I had this disk and could have gone into this mode anytime you wanted, but my willpower and my conscience was more than enough to fight off those suggestions you kept sending me. Now do me a favor, and shut up.”

She pulled out the Fire Smasher and swung it in a horizontal slash, with Bunglay blocking it with his anchor weapon. She then slashed downwards and utterly shattered the weapon right down the middle, making Bunglay stagger back from the force of the blow. She implanted the Fire Smasher into the ground and pulled out her Samuraizer, using it to draw the symbol for fire and then launched a blazing tornado at Bunglay. He roared out in pain as the tornado ripped and tore into his armor. When the flames finally subsided, Bunglay’s armor was revealed to be burned and scorched in several places, and purple blood was dripping through cracks in it and creating small puddles on the ground.

“I’ll be back to finish this another day, another time!” he snarled before teleporting away, with Vapor’s Trident clattering to the ground.

Elsewhere, the two wolf warriors were still dueling, matching each other blow for blow, Koragg swung low at Zen-Aku’s legs, but he leaped upwards to avoid the swing and kicked Koragg in the face making the Knight Wolf stagger back.

“So, you can fight me on the ground, but what happens when I take things up a level? Uthe Mejor Catastros!” Koragg shouted. A pure black horse burst out of a dark seal with a loud whinnying sound and galloped from the depths of the Underworld. “Now… Uthe Mejor Ultimas!”

With clanking and whirring sounds, Catastros stood up on it’s hind legs and split open as Koragg jumped through another Mystic Spell Seal, enlarging himself to titan size. He merged himself with his steed, his shield becoming the chest plate of the Megazord.

“Centaurus Wolf Megazord!” Koragg shouted as he gripped his glaive, which had once been part of Catastros’s mane and tail.

Zen-Aku rushed to Merrick’s location, retrieved his Animal Crystals and inserted them into his flute. He began to play a tune. As if in response to this, the Wolf, Alligator and Hammerhead Zords descended from the Animarium and Zen-Aku, knowing that he couldn’t toy with this opponent as he normally did, shouted, “Wild Zords, combine!”

Zen-Aku’s Animal Crystals launched themselves from his flute and danced in the sky as the very sun itself went into a full Solar Eclipse darkening the sky making it seem as if it was black as night.

The Alligator’s head folded up into its chest as its front legs detached and moved to its back while the back legs moved downwards and became feet. The tail detached and combined with the Hammerhead’s own. The Wolf Zord’s tail detached and formed a crescent-shaped boomerang which grafted itself to the Alligator’s head. With hisses of steam as they locked into place, the Wolf and Hammerhead became the arms and grabbed ahold of the Gator Staff, gripping it tightly. A wolf-shaped head with blood red eyes appeared and a giant golden horn unfolded from it.

Zen-Aku appeared in the cavern like cockpit with the emblem of a wolf behind him and set his flute plate down on the center console. “Predazord, awaken!” he shouted as the Megazord stood with the eclipsed sun behind it.

“Now, we shall see who truly rules the night,” Koragg snarled out. “Only one of us is walking away from this clash, and it won’t be you. Now…” Koragg said as he pointed his glaive towards the Predazord. “Let us duel with honor.”

The two gigantic titans clashed, the sound of their weapons meeting echoing for miles around. Koragg swung his weapon and hit the Predazord right across the chest, making it stumble back.

“Wolf Fury!” Zen-Aku snarled and hit the Centaurus Megazord with a hard right hook to the face. Koragg then fired a beam of pure red energy from the orb on his Megazord’s chest sending the Predazord flying back as it ripped up buildings in it’s path and the ground as well in the process.

“So, you think you can outclass me with your mere shadow of a Megazord?” Koragg laughed. Zen-Aku said nothing but grabbed the boomerang piece on his chest with his Megazord’s right arm and threw it at the Centaurus Wolf Megazord. The now glowing gold weapon did a good amount of damage as it flew around the Megazord and struck it in various places before returning to the Wolf Zord’s open maw.

“My turn. Dark Magic Spell Seal!” Koragg shouted before rotating his glaive in a complete circle, forming a seal and then slashing right through it. The resultant explosion engulfed the city, dealing considerable damage to the Predazord. Eventually, it fell back into the side of a mountain, caving the rocks inwards and sending trees flying.

“Do you give up yet? I have never been beaten in this combination and that day of defeat won’t be today.” Koragg laughed even as the Predazord picked itself off the ground and Zen-Aku snarled.

“You think yourself a Knight? Knights fight for justice, and after what I’ve seen today you are not worthy of that honor nor title. So as it seems, I must defrock you of your title, ‘Knight Wolf.’”

“Don’t make me laugh. Now witness the Power of the Master!” Koragg yelled out and formed a dark tornado of swirling black and purple energy that sent itself towards the Predazord. Zen-Aku smirked, then shouted “Predator Wave!”

The Gator’s mouth opened and fired a blast of light manifesting in the head of the Wolf Zord. The light went right through the swirling vortex, demolishing it and then hit the Centaurus Wolf Megazord dead on, knocking Koragg out of his combination and sending him back to the Underworld as he faded away. As for Catastros, he let out a weak nicker before he vanished in a plume of dark smoke as the sun and sky resumed their normal state.

Zen-Aku simply scoffed. “Pathetic.”

Meanwhile, a gray-furred stallion with a bald head and a handlebar mustache was walking down a path, eyeing an orange furred filly with a purple mane arranged in a tomboyish cut playing with a soccer ball with her two friends. He smirked to himself.

“Oh, that one looks like a nice catch,” he chuckled before a clawed hand reached out and grabbed him and pulled him into the treeline. The stallion’s eyes widened in fear as he faced a being, part skeleton, part flesh with one horn sticking out of the right side of his head and another jutting out from his forehead.

“W-Who are you?” he stammered out in fear.

“Nobody important…to you at least. But you…you’re important to me. Well, part of you is anyways.”

The stallion tried to run, but Helicos grabbed him.

“Now stay still,” Thrax chuckled darkly. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

The stallion tried to scream but Helicos clamped a hand over his mouth as The Master Org ripped into his chest with a squelching sound and pulled out the stallion’s still beating heart. The body slumped into the dirt, crimson red blood oozing from the wound and pooling in the dirt below.

“Oops, I lied.” Thrax laughed before he and Helicos teleported away...

(To be continued...)