“Move it, move it!” Flashfire shouted, as he used the Cancer Kyutama to keep the various forces of Dark Matter back, a massive red claw of energy sprouting from his back. He used it to swipe away the Invader soldiers, or redirect them away from the fleeing citizens of the planet of Keel. It was mostly a tree-top based world, with its villages based in the trees high above the swampy wetlands below.

Running across rope bridges, the various Rangers fought on very thin and very precarious ground that in the high winds rushing up from below them could easily turn against them.

“Monoceros Crash!” Flurry shouted, leaping into a large group of Indavers -Monoceros Drill equipped and slamming them up against one of the massive trees that made up the village.

On a bridge below her, Fågel fired a streaming hot jet of water using the Aquarius Kyutama at another group of Invaders before switching it out for the Centaurus Kyutama and her lower body changed into that of a horse. Galloping forwards, she sliced and diced through the hordes of grunts with her Astral Axe before leaping skywards, her body shifting back to normal. Slamming her personal Change Kyutama onto her axe, she lunged forwards and let out a cry of: “Aldebaran Impact!” and slammed the axe into a gunship that was firing upon both Rangers Silver and Gold.

The gunship was sliced in two with the smoking remains falling to the forest floor beneath her. Knowing the ground was coming up fast, Fågel once again switched Kyutamas and engaged the Cetus Kyutama, firing a blast of water not unlike the one you’d see from a whale’s blowhole that propelled her back upwards. She did a flip in midair and landed on another wooden platform before helping Pharynx take down some more foot soldiers. Two Strongindaver charged forwards at them from either side, and both she and the Changeling King shared a look.

“Oh no, you don’t!”

“Aldebaran Impact!”
“Ophiuchus Impact!”

Both swung their weapons and took out the advancing forces before they heard the sound of another gunship.

“Oh hell, they just don’t give up do they?” Fågel asked.

“Got you covered!” a voice shouted through the comms before the sound of an eagle’s screech was heard, and the Eagle Voyager flew in just as the gunships arrived, before wings ignited in purple flame and cut right through the enemy ships.

“Good word Jabari, but we’ve still got a Moraimarz to worry about,” Flashfire told him, even as he redirected the citizens of the treetop city into the various craft that would carry them up to the Shining Armor which was laying in low orbit. Easily visible through the treetops was a Moraimarz, stuck deep into the ground and glowing a bright purple as it drained the planet of its energy.

“Stripped, how’s that fire support coming along?” Flashfire asked as he clashed blades with a Strongindaver, sparks flying as their blades met a few times before he finally sliced it down with a Regulus Impact. “Getting hammered down here! And that Moraimarz isn’t going to destroy itself!”

More Invaders came to try and take out the Beast Star, before Flashfire whipped out his sidearm and fired upon them, sending the soldiers down in just a few quick blasts of laser fire.

“Sorry!” Stripped said, as up above Dark Matter flagships warped into orbit, taking fire upon the Shining Armor. “Currently can’t provide that -Oh, for Faust’s sake!- as you’re not the only one getting hammered here!”

He was suddenly thrown to the floor as an explosion rocked the ship. “Shite…” Stripped muttered to himself as he picked himself off the floor, wiping away some of the blood from his mouth. “Alright then… That’s the way you want to play it? Have a taste of this! All gunners, prep for fire control. Lock on, and fire upon those flagships!”

Parts on the Shining Armor’s hull shifted and moved in whirring and clanking sounds before massive cannons were revealed, and with heavy thuds, they expelled powerful blasts of energy at the flagships.

Seeing the laser fire exchanged in the sky above him, explosions becoming visible in the evening light Flashfire then pulled out his sword once more as he leaped onto a passing Eagle Voyager.

“Jabari! Moraimarz, dead ahead! Lock on target, and fire!”

“But… But the shielding on that thing is just too thick!” Jabari sputtered out. “There’s no way a single Voyager’s weapons would breach the outer walls, never mind destroy it!”

“Not just a single Voyager you have with you is it?” Flashfire asked, before slamming his personal Kyutama into his sword, and making it glow with a cyan light. “Now, are your weapons systems locked on?”

“Y-Yes, but…” Jabari stammered out, before he realized what his commander was planning. “Oh, that is genius. Should have thought of it earlier!”

“Yeah, well I’ll give you the credit for the idea on the mission report,” Flashfire remarked as the Moraimarz began to come up fast. “...Assuming we don’t splatter on impact.”

“Wait… what?” Jabari asked, blinking and then his eyes widening in shock.

“No time for second-guessing,” Flashfire remarked as he calculated the odds of this actually working in his head. Like Jabari, he figured out pretty quickly that they weren’t good. “It’s time to test both of our luck! Now or never after all. And now is a… Regulus Impact!” he shouted letting loose a powerful energy slash from his sword while Jabari fired a beam of pink energy from the Voyager’s ‘beak’.

A powerful explosion rumbled through the forest village, the shockwave snapping rope bridges and sending various Invaders tumbling to their doom. Flurry had to use the Andromeda Kyutama to anchor herself to the tree with an iron chain. Then the fireball came, and Fågel used the Scutum Kyutama to throw up an energy shield to shield the rest of the team and the villagers in their transport craft from a part of the blast wave.

As soon as the dust and smoke cleared, trees being scorched in some places but still standing tall as if a seeming testament to their great age. As for Jabari and Flashfire, Jabari had thrown up an energy shield in the nick of time right before the explosion would have consumed them both.

“You are an idiot, an absolute idiot…” Flurry muttered giving Flashfire an affectionate glare. “But I love you for that, you know that right?”

“Oh relax, he’s not just a normal idiot,” Pharynx remarked. “He’s an idiot of quite an unfathomable force, whose idiocy overcomes Equus’ gravity.”

“Yeah, that is he is…” Flurry chuckled as she looked at the fleeing Dark Matter ships. “Rangers, I believe our work here is done.”

Back aboard the Shining Armor, everyone was going over what they’d learned on Keel. For some reason, for the last few weeks, they’d found Dark Matter was targeting planets with abnormally high levels of Planetium. Okay, maybe that wasn’t so weird as it meant more energy for their ships and weapons, it was exactly how Dark Matter knew which planets held the most planetary energy that confused them.

“I just don’t get it…” Stripped said before letting out a yawn having been at this for hours, Jabari and a few of the other scientists onboard the ship having pitched in to help. “Been just going over all the planets we’ve gone by, and there’s no seeming way to connect them beyond their abundant mass of Planetium, and the only way we know about the planets having these abnormal masses is by scanning their surfaces, while being on the surface!”

“Hmm, exactly,” Jabari said before pulling up two holographic screens, with Flurry and the rest of the Rangers watching intently. He pulled out a pointer and gestured to the first screen which showed a planet’s infrastructure glowing a bright red and orange hue. “See, this right here is a normal planet and its amount of Planetium. And this…” he said, gesturing to another screen showing a planet glowing a bright blue and white shade. “Is a planet like Keel, just bristling at the seems ready to burst, chock-full of the stuff. Now, what we need to figure is where the next planet like Keel is, and why exactly the Dark Matter group is targeting them in the long run. Hell, we need to know what they even what with a normal amount of Planetium. We’ve been able to figure out just a small sample of the stuff would power a warship’s core, via studies of Lupus’ Moraimarz but why would Dark Matter need so much?”

“They’re gluttoning themselves, fattening themselves up like pigs!” Stripped said, slamming a fist down on the table. “That’s what they’re doing. And the worst part is, we don’t know why or how to get to the next planet in advance before they reach it, simply because we don’t know what that next planet is!”

“It gets worse,” the Doctor said, speaking up for the first time. “Before I deliver to you the good news, there’s some bad news first. Remember Jume? That planet that was so heavily guarded and cost us so many troops?”

“Yeah, how could I forget…?” Flashfire muttered, rubbing his forehead. There’d been a lot of funerals that day.

“Well, sad thing is, I sent that Dark Matter aligned satellite we hijacked back there and it came up with this…” the Doctor continued, pulling up a screen of his own that showed several Planetium-filled Moraimarz leaving the planet before it blew up in a nearly blinding explosion. “They went back. Those bastards went back!” the Doctor nearly snarled.

“All of that hard work, for nothing! All of those lives, for nothing!” Flashfire shouted, before swearing quite heavily in Prench staining the air blue as he punched a bulkhead cracking it. Panting and sweating hard, he strained out: “And… and what’s the good news?”

“There’s this hub,” the Doctor continued. “Dark Matter has a few of these scattered across the galaxy, sending ships to and fro to destinations chosen by whoever runs the base. I’m willing to bet that if we take one of these hubs for ourselves, wipe it clean of every scrap of information it has then we can find out what exactly Dark Matter’s Endgame is, or at least a part of it.”

“Okay then, it’s official. Dark Matter wants to go to war with the entire galaxy, we employ some guerilla tactics of our own,” Flurry agreed. “Doctor, where’s this nearest hub?”

“Just a few short light years from here, shouldn’t take less than an hour to reach it. Trouble is, it’s gone dark from preliminary scouting and it’s in the middle of an asteroid belt made up of this nasty form of metal that pretty much ruins communications unless you were specially prepared for such a thing. Dark Matter is, which is what worries me when I said this base has gone dark.”

“Maybe they’ve abandoned it?” Stardust suggested. “Oh well, I suppose the only way we’ll find out is if a few of us go on ahead and have a little look around. I’d suggest the Piercing Arrow along with Pharynx and Jabari stay behind, keep a good eye on this planet just in case Dark Matter decides to make a return trip. I’ll encode the date for the Dragon Knight Megazord to you, Pharynx, just in case you need it.”

“Solid plan,” Pharynx agreed, possibly for the first time with this idiot. Truth be told though, he was wondering why him? The leader of Keel, a woman named Eris apparently was so in love with him, having heard of his feats amongst the Kyurangers she’d tackled him upon hearing that they were to save his planet. And as you might have guessed, Pharynx was not a touchy-feely guy. ...Personally, it was of his mind he should just suck her love dry and leave her as an emotionless husk just to be rid of her, but he doubted anyone else would have been a fan of that. “So, guess that means you’ll be going to the hub?”

“Yes,” Stardust nodded in confirmation. “Or, I would be if I didn’t have things to do here. Instead, I’m electing Flashfire, the Doctor and Stripped, Coldcast and Fågel to go in my place.”

“...You just don’t want to put your poncey ass in the line of fire, that’s all…” Pharynx muttered under his breath in an inaudible tone. Truth be told, both he and Stripped were rather suspicious of Stardust, ever since Stripped had found Pharynx sealed away, and they hadn’t bought any of his excuses. To be honest, if it didn’t count as high treason they would probably be investigating him. Stripped had half a mind to do that anyways.

“Well, you heard the man. To the Voyagers!” Flashfire barked out before an explosion rattled the ship. “What the Hell was that?” he asked, pressing a comms button.

“Sir, we’ve just had Dark Matter warships drop out of warp! They’re locking onto us, seeing a teleportation signature already!” a voice from the bridge.

“You say signature, as in just one?”

“That’s right sir!”

“So, looks like he’s finally arrived…” Flashfire murmured as he drew his sword, having suspected this was going to happen sooner or later. “Ladies and gents, looks like our next Karō has arrived. In which case... Pleure le chaos et laisse glisser les chiens de guerre.”

And so Eriedrone was met, the Karō bearing this massive golden halberd that looked like it could do some damage and wearing this long green robe.

“So, you’re the leader of the Sagittarius system?” Flashfire commented. “And I was expecting something more… I don’t know, tape à l'oeil I guess. Like this horse-being with a giant bow and arrow, not… well, whatever the hell you’re supposed to be. But, let’s get on with it.”

“Where’s the usual destiny and honor speech you and the other Rangers are so fond of? About how your friendship will-”

“Say the change!”
“Cerberus/Lupus/Draco/Scorpius/Aquila/Libra/Dorado!”

Flashfire socked him across the jaw making Eriedrone stagger. “Speech that!” Flashfire remarked, morphed into his ranger form wiping the blood off his gloves. “I’m not in a really good mood right now, especially after learning after what happened to Jume so you can just shut it.”

“Very well then,” Eriedrone commented. “I always viewed words as pointless conjecture anyways.”

With that, he held his halberd suspiciously like a bow, and Flashfire’s eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of a Kyutama depicting what else but the Sagittarius system attached to the weapon.

“Move, now!” Flashfire barked out as he saw Eriedrone point his weapon at the ceiling, and a massive horde of golden arrows reigned down upon the group. Each one that hit, caused a small explosion, and Flashfire and company were sent hurtling into the next room.

Picking themselves up off the ground, they bore witness to Eriedrone chuckling.

“I thought as much, you’re just as pathetic as I predicted. How’s it feel having your own powers turned against you?” Eriedrone chuckled.

“You talk too much…” Flurry stated, grabbing the Monoceros Kyutama, slamming it into her Kyuchanger and activating the Monoceros drill and surged forwards. Eriedrone, at what seemed like lightspeed- sidestepped out of the way before catching her and throwing her into a bulkhead. Before any of the other Rangers could even attempt to strike back, Eriedrone was on them in a second and firing more of his energy arrows at them. Waving his hand even as the other Rangers arrived, the rest of the team could only watch as Eriedrone and his opponents vanished into this black void.

When Flashfire awoke, he was in what could only be described as this shadow realm, a crude copy of the dimension he was familiar with. Indeed he could see Pharynx and Spada trying to figure out where the team was but he could not interact with him, nor could Coldcast and the rest.

“Wondering where you are?” Eriedrone asked, as he smacked Stardust to the floor. “One dimension over, two spaces to the left. Welcome to the Shadow Realm, something only us Karō and Don Armage himself can access. You can call it the upside down version of your dimension. The shadowed veil.”

“Flurry was right, you do talk to much. I thought you viewed that as pointless conjecture?” Flashfire asked, as he swung his blade hoping to activate the Ara Kyutama but to his surprise it wasn’t happening. It seemed the nebula gases that powered the Kyutamas were different here, which in hindsight shouldn’t have surprised him, rendering them useless.

Eridrone said nothing, and slashed Flashfire across the chest several times, sending him staggering, and the same fate met the rest of the Rangers even as they tried to take on the Karō. He either side-stepped out of the way with his sheer speed or just overpowered them with sheer might. Then, he ran forwards in a green blur and sent them sprawling back into the Kyurangers’ normal dimension, throwing up a wall of arrows to prevent anyone else from interfering.

“Oh, so that’s how it is…?” Flashfire asked. “You only talk when it suits you best, AKA when you like to brag about your power?”

Eriedrone grabbed him by the throat before he threw him into the floor. “You know, I’ve been doing some studying of how you’ve led the team so far, with my various spies across the universe and I have to say I’m not impressed. You’ve bungled about so often, it’s lucky you’re still alive! Like take landing on that planet designed to eat your despair. You ignored all obvious warning signs and were nearly killed for it. Then you landed on that ice planet, and nearly died of hypothermia,” Eriedrone stated, continuing to lay both a verbal and physical smackdown on Flashfire. “And just now. Keel. You nearly got you and your Pink Paladin killed just destroying one Moraimarz. We have thousands. One destroyed is of no consequence. Face it, Beast Star, you’re a terrible leader. And because of that, your team is dead. Now, I’d like to say I’m reveling in killing you myself, but that’d be a lie. Instead, I’ll just finish you quickly and with a little help at that. Now, I really must thank both Flurry and Sir Ikargen for what’s about to happen now, because without their contributions this next bit wouldn’t be possible.”

Flurry was genuinely confused on that before her eyes widened as she realized what Eriedrone meant as he brought out a Kyutama with the letters KR on it, and pressed down on it.

“Soiya! Bujin, to the Stage!”

A swarm of locusts filled the room, and this dark voice proclaimed: “Darkness Arms! Ōgon no Kajitsu!” and when the locusts cleared, standing there was this silver armored warrior. It bore chest armor in black and purple coloring resembling apple slices of all things and a stylized helmet resembling the katakana for evil, with a sword resembling a purple orange slice in one hand. Around his(?) belt was a sliced open padlock depicting this strange sword he held.

“I am the Golden Fruit, and the arbiter of your devastation. I am one of the Femushinmu, I am Kougane.”

Shrugging, Flurry slammed the Kyutama into her morpher, making it proclaim: “Wizard, please~!”

Flurry, even as she clashed her spear with this ‘Kougane’ or whatever he called himself going blade to blade with him, continued to think back her battle with Kukata.

“So, I presume you’re the one who’s been causing all of this despair?” the man asked in a deadpan tone looking at Kukata Tamaa. “Generally, creatures who look like you, well they never mean good intent for anyone,” Adjusting a black ring on his hand, his gaze turned to Flurry. “Young miss, you look like you could use some hope.”

“I already found my hope, but an assist would be nice. Name’s Flurry Heart. Yours?” Flurry asked.

She knew exactly what had happened, now that she thought about it hard enough. Someone else, that Sir Ikargen creature had been watching and taking data away from the Wizard Kyutama, and now Dark Matter had been able to create a one-off Rider Kyutama of their own. Mind you, it only needed to be a one-off considering Eriedrone was the one who did the summoning.

“Souma Haruto,” the young man answered, moving his black ring to his belt buckle. “The Last Hope.”

Spinning around to avoid a powerful sword strike from this so-called Golden Fruit, she struck him with her suit’s scorpion tail stunning him briefly, giving Coldcast a chance to rush forwards and strike the dark Rider across the chest with a powerful slash from his Astral Claw.

Slipping a red ring onto his other hand Haruto added, “But right now, you can call me, Wizard.”

Flicking the cutting blade on his belt once, the dark Rider summoned fifteen apples of purple energy and with a jab of his sword sent them flying towards the Rangers.

“Darkness Squash!”

Thinking quickly, Stardust slammed the Pavo Kyutama into his cane, before a manifestation of a peacock’s tail feathers sprung up from behind him. Even as the apples flew towards his team, he launched the tail feathers like darts at the apples and Kougane.

Before anyone could get the chance to take a strike at Kougane, Stardust and then the rest of the Rangers were struck across the chest by Eriedrone’s halberd.

“When… When we focus on one, we get slaughtered by the other!” Flurry panted out, and to make matters worse Eriedrone had thrown them into his Shadow Realm once more rendering the usage of any more Kyutamas impossible. Well, any of their own anyways.

Kougane pulled out another sword, this one seemingly having a gun built into its hilt and slammed it against his first sword combining the two. He flicked the cutting blade on his belt once more, and a wave of pink energy resembling an orange flattened the Rangers to the floor just in time for Eriedrone to hit them with another wave of arrows.

“Look at you… Like the Femushinmu, you fall easily,” Kougane stated. Flurry wanted to ask why this Rider would ally themselves with Dark Matter, but then again she knew from personal experience some people just liked to kill. Now, after all this was over and done with, maybe Kougane would turn on Dark Matter and slaughter them. Not that it really mattered, considering they may not live to see that. “And your allies, whoever they may be cannot be here to save you.”

Flurry looked out a window and saw that the Piercing Arrow and the Celestial Radiance's lights had gone dark. The other colony ships were soon to follow. Presumably someone -That someone being Sir Ikargen most likely- was performing acts of sabotage and leaving the ships open to the Dark Matter warships’ own laser fire.

“Madako, it’s so nice to see you’re coming in use,” Eriedrone commented. “This should be finished within a matter of minutes.”

What had happened was this. Madako, Sir Ikargen’s right-hand woman had teleported onto each of the ships, and disabled their primary core functions. Anyone who tried to stop her, she just shot to pieces with her gun. Or if she was feeling particularly cruel, turned them with one shot into a puddle of slime. Pop went the pony, so to speak. It was a nasty way to go, but sadist as she was, Madako reveled in it.

“Exactly, these jelly brains never knew what hit them!” Madako cackled, as she teleported onto the next ship on her list, repeating the process. Meanwhile, the battle with Eriedrone was not going… well.

He swung his halberd and brought it down on Flashfire, or he would have had Flurry not struck him with her stinger tail stunning him. Sharing a look with Flashfire, she asked: “Do you trust me?”

“Always,” Flashfire asked. “Whatever you’re going to do Flurry, do it.”

Flurry nodded with Flashfire nodding back. Slamming her palm into the bulkhead beneath their hooves, the bulkhead began to rust and rot away. That was one of the powers of being the Princess of Autumn and Winter. Everything rotted and died before spring came and brought with it new blossoms. Flurry rarely, if ever, used this power, as she honestly thought it a fairly disturbing power considering the implications of just what exactly it could do.

But in any case, the floor beneath Eriedrone and Flashfire gave way and knocked Eriedrone into such a state of shock that he lost control over his Shadow Realm and allowed Stardust to hit him with a blast from the Aquarius Kyutama just as Flashfire and his now solo opponent fell down into another deck.

Now, it was just a battle -for Flurry and her Rangers at least- against Kougane. She just hoped Flashfire could hold his own against Eriedrone long enough for whatever reinforcements they had left to arrive.

“Darkness Au Lait!” Kougane’s driver called out as he sent a massive apple comprised of dark energy towards the Rangers, with only the combined powers of the Aquarius and Cetus Kyutamas holding it back. Jabari then leaped backwards, disengaging the Aquarius Kyutama’ power, and letting loose with his twin Astral Blasters riddling Kougane with laser fire.

Then, Flurry and Fågel surged forwards readying their individual finishers.

“Antares Impact!”
“Aldebaran Impact!” both Rangers cried out as together, their combined weapons slashed Kougane across the chest and as they ran past him, they spun around and let the Doctor use them as a stepping stone for his own Impact finisher, which sent a multitude of various energy arrows from his crossbow weapon towards Kougane...

Meanwhile, Flashfire went sword to halberd up against Eriedrone jumping up to avoid a low swung strike from the blade, only for Eriedrone to once more use the Sagittarius Kyutama again, and hit him with a swarm of energy arrows.

“I’m still surprised at you, you continuing to persist in this futile endeavor,” Eriedrone remarked even as Flashfire screamed out in pain as he was struck across the chest once more. Even when he tried to meet Eriedrone’s halberd with an Ara Kyutama-infused strike from his sword, Eriedrone simply feinted and got in another slash.

“For some reason, you’re still continuing on in the face of certain defeat. You know, a real leader would know when to pack it up, and go home. I promise you, there’s nothing wrong with admitting defeat. Honestly, stupid as he was, Lupus saw the potential in you lot and I must admit a group of Dark Kyurangers on our side would be useful. Just not you of course.”

He began socking Flashfire across the jaw. By now, the Ranger had been knocked out of his morphed state and his chest was covered in bloody wounds.

“Like I said, you’re a terrible leader. You’re reckless, stupid, and have almost gotten you and your team killed so many times by now it’s not even funny anymore.”

Eriedrone was met with only silence at those words.

“What, no response to those accusations? In my experience, heroes would be bellowing out their beliefs, about how we're wrong!” Eriedrone remarked even as Flashfire struggled to stand, the broiling heat of the core beneath him. Flashfire looked towards the miniature sun that powered the ship’s fusion reactor, and the lack of guardrails that were on either side of the catwalk. The catwalk that both he and Eriedrone were currently fighting on. He thought back to his time on a certain ice world, and how his failure to check for asteroids had led him crash-landing onto it and nearly dying in the process.

“Come on Red…” he whispered. He honestly didn't know why he was talking to a machine, it wasn't like it could hear him and talk back. But for some reason, just like he did with his personal Voyager, he felt a living emotional connection with this one. “You can do this, you can pull yourself together. You feel it don't you? Just like me.”

Sure, that little mishap had yielded some form of reward in the Leo Minor Voyager, but the point was he never should have been on that planet, to begin with.

“There is no response to you calling me a bad leader, leveling all those accusations at me. And you know why? Because you're absolutely right in saying I'm a terrible leader and I've made a lot of mistakes. And I'll be paying for them, but you know something else? Even if all of the galaxies cry out and scream for my head, I'll never stop extending a hand to help. If I didn't the regret curling up inside me... That would be far worse than any accusation or punishment you could level at me. Flashfire Lulamoon, the Element of Kindness and the Howling Star.”

With that, Flashfire threw his sword at Eriedrone, who simply laughed and sidestepped out of the way, but what he didn’t predict was what happened next.

“Pegasus!”

Flashfire came flying at him, a hoof leveled at his chest and sparking with a light green energy, the ranger himself now clad in the Pegasus Armor that Coldcast had ‘reclaimed’ from Lupus. Suddenly, Eriedrone found himself hit again and again by a blinding blur of light, Flashfire coming in for another pass around the room every time and never giving Eriedrone a chance to react. Finally, he grabbed his sword again to slow himself down, and disengaged the Pegasus Armor before shouting out: “Regulus Impact!” as he slashed Eriedrone across the chest with one powerful swing. Eriedrone staggered back, his armor partially destroyed and let out a snarl.

“Very well, another time.” he stated with a small bow acknowledging such a worthy opponent before teleporting out in a green flash. Flashfire demorphed and returned to the others, just as they finished off Kougane in an ‘All-Star Crash’ attack, the belt collapsing to the floor as the only evidence he was even there to begin with.

“Eriedrone? Y-You defeated him, all by yourself?” the Doctor stammered out in shock.

“That’s my Grand frère for you!” Coldcast cheered pumping the air in victory.

“No, not killed as you think,” Flashfire corrected. “Just sent into a retreat.”

But the biggest shock was yet to come, as eyes widened as they stared upon Stripped Gear, half of his skin torn off, falling away and exposing electronics underneath. Everyone stared wide-eyed in shock, not knowing what to do or even how to process this revelation.

“I’m… I’m a robot?” Stripped Gear asked, one of his optics blinking out in shock as he held up a hand studying every wire and every gear in it before parts of his body sparked from all the damage taken to it. Even as Stardust and Flashfire screamed out his name, he fell towards the ground...

Author's Notes:

Well, that just happened.

So... Yeah, that's Eriedrone and Madako. Rest assured, this won't be the last clash with either of them. And yeah, the Pegasus armor is back after a long absence. ...Least in my case, unlike Kyurangers proper, I won't have to worry about it falling apart because of poor suit design.

And Kougane. Yes, another legendary Rider summoning, even if this time it's of an evil Rider. Now, before you all go off on me for letting the 'Golden Fruit' get his ass handed to him so easily, remember he was tanking multiple finishers anyways, and even in Gaim Proper, Kougane as Kamen Rider Jam took damage from Mitchy's Budou Ryuhou suggesting his defensive capabilities as Jam are quite low.

Now, another thing, I was going to use Fourze's Bounce Back as music for Flashfire's final strikes against Eriedrone as he donned the Pegasus Armor, but it just didn't feel right for the sour tone of Flashfire accepting what a poor leader he was. Hell, the only reason you got Time of Victory and Missing Piece in the last chapter as insert music was that their over the top heroic lyrics contrasted with Stardust's true nature.

As always, comments, thoughts, and suggestions are welcomed.