Power Ranger: Morphin' Space Pirates!

It was daylight in Promo Town, once known as Ponyville. It was changed after some complaints from non-pony folks. Besides that, nothing else has changed, besides the lowlines of technology.

At a medieval-style tavern, many folks are drinking and eating, talking about their lives or recent events. Waiters go around taking orders from customers or cleaning tables; that’s either unoccupied or having too many dishes that need to be cleaned.

Sitting at one of these tables is a well-muscled, pale peach-skinned young man with messy, average brown hair. He was laying back on the cushioned couch, glancing around the many anthros with his blue eyes. He was dressed in a sleeveless gray shirt, a black pirate design jacket with a red accent and silver sleeve cuffs, faded navy blue jeans with a brown buckle belt, and red loose shaft pirate boots. On his right hand, middle finger, a silver ring with an engraving of two cutlass swords crossing each other behind a red fox head.

The young man sighs as he sits forward, leaning his arms on the table. He grabs the huge cup of apple cider and takes a sip before placing it back on the table. "This reminds me o' the time I went across sea’s t' look fer new places t' drink! A bit raucous but it’s nah bad fer someone like me." He says to himself, reminiscing about the old times.

It comes to an end when he hears a lot of screams coming from outside. 'What the?' He thought before quickly drinking the rest of his cider before running outside, pushing the flap doors open and stepping outside, seeing people running away from something. "Wha'’s goin' on?" He says this before heading the opposite direction toward the ruckus.

Just as he reaches the market area, a couple of XBorg soldiers move out into the open from one road, along with three Bruiser officers following right behind them. Behind the group, he could see bodies lying lifeless on the ground and buildings burning around them. One of the XBorgs attacks one of the fleeing people, striking them in the back of the head with a silver mace-like weapon that makes the person drop to the floor, lying lifeless as they look at the man.

Seeing people being slaughtered, he pulls out a modified flintlock pistol and aims it at one of the grunts before pulling the trigger, the shot striking the grunt, who drops to the ground unmoving. The remaining figures all turn their weapons to solely focus on the man. "Ye blasted rats, get yer serves!" He says, quickly pulling the hammer and firing at another grunt as he moves behind a building corner for cover. All of the XBorgs fire at the building he moved behind, breaking the brick structure with pieces flying around from the shots.

He rolls back out into the open to fire another shot while pulling out another flintlock pistol, looking different from his other gun, from his coat and firing it at another, as they fall to the ground from his metal pellets, only for more to take their place. He fires a couple more while keeping himself on the move to avoid being an easy target. He dodges a projectile that misses his head entirely before shooting the one who tries to blast his head off.

"Do you want a hand?" A voice asks from above the group. All the robots and the young man stop firing before looking up where the voice came from. Standing on top of one of the roofs is a figure looking down at them. He has neatly combed black hair; bangs that curve over just above his eyeline; his eyes almost look bright red; he's wearing a long flowing red jacket; and the rest of him is obscured by the building roof railing.

"I would be most grateful 'n be a bit weary o' ye." He says it honestly.

The figure jumped off the roof, landing beside the man. "Just so you know, even when offering to help. I don’t do something for nothing. We’ll decide on payment after these Gormin and Sugormin are dealt with." That made the man raise an eyebrow at the names he used for the enemies.

"I, Arther, may oblige." Arther somewhat agrees with the term.

"Okay then." The second figure says before facing towards the creatures ahead of them before pulling out a flintlock pistol that looked similar to the one Arther was holding, firing multiple times in quick succession, most of the creatures dropping lifelessly. Arther fires his two pistols as well, not letting his shots miss their mark.

"This is not going to get me anywhere." The man mutters under his breath as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out what looks to be a red key in one hand before throwing his gun into the air as he pulls a phone-like object out of his pocket.

Not realizing what the stranger was doing, Arther puts away both of his pistols after knowing his normal pistol is almost out of ammo, and pulls out a similar red key and flick open a bulky red and yellow phone with black trim edges that also have a key slot.

Arther places the red key into the bulky phone key slot. "Set Sails!" He shouts before twisting it ninety degrees before thrusting the phone forward. The device vanishes back into his pocket while he stands at attention. Two X's pass through him and change his outfit to be a black bodysuit and a red pirate coat, gloves, and boots. Two X's swing back around to the front to form the red helmet. He announces, "Morphin’ Marauder, Red!" as he pulls out a special cutlass sword from his hip before swiping in a J-motion.

At the same time as Arther did his motions, the figure brought his phone across his chest, pointing the key in his hand forward as he shouted, "Gokai Change!" before putting the key into the phone, turning it the same way Arther had. Unlike Arther's transformation, a voice shouted out, "Gokaiger!" as the process proceeded. Once the transformation was completed, he calmly moved his hand in front of his face before saying, "GokaiRed." He caught the gun he had thrown into the air in his hand while pulling out his cutlass sword from his side in a similar fashion to Arther’s, holding it in the other.

There was a brief silence as both of their realizations caught up with them. "Huh?!" They say it at the same time while looking at each other in surprise.

"Why do I feel like something is not right with this?" The figure asks while looking at Arther.

"I would be the same, but I reckon we 'ave much more pressin' matters t' attend t'.." Arther says as he pulls his pistol with the icon of a similar key with a cross cutlass on the side of the gun. "-Savvy." With that, he charges in, guns blazing with a cutlass at the ready, taking out at least three of them as he does. The enemies open fire as well, at the charging Arther. He deflects the shots that would have actually hit him with his cutlass. He even angles his grip on the sword to hit with the flat side of the blade to send some shots back at them.

The figure begins to move towards the monsters ahead of him, firing his gun at them before darting off to the side, many of the monsters falling to the ground. The Bruisers turn and focus shots on the figure which is being blocked by his sword.

When Arther got close enough, he does a high flip forward at an XBorg and lands in front of it before slashing at its chest before standing straight up in a fencing stance before giving it an overhead slash as he does the splits, which made one XBorg miss with its mace-design gun. While having his legs stretched out across the ground, he uses his Super Megaforce Pistol and counters with a shot at the XBorg, who tries to whack him in the head before getting back up to his feet. "I may be a pirate, but I know how t' dance, ye fool!" He says this to the one he shot down before getting back into the fight.

"Keep yourself moving!" The second man's voice shouts back as Arther sees him jump over both him and the XBorgs, firing a barrage of bullets down onto them, each falling to the ground. He then spun backwards upon landing his sword, slicing into the chest of one of the Bruisers.

Arther runs in and Shin slides in between two XBorgs, slashing the left one and shooting the right before fully leaning back as the last Bruiser swipes where Arther’s head would have been. He pulls his legs out from under him before using his feet to kick the bruiser back, who uses its arm to cover and block the attack while stumbling back. Then Arther does a motion and pushes himself off the ground with the help of his arms and back while using his legs to swing himself back upright.

The Bruiser was about to charge at Arther, but it was stopped by a few shots from Arther.

"'ave some o' this!" Arther says happily as his cutlass is encased in waves of water, reeling his sword behind him as his gun points at the Bruiser as it charges air in the barrel. He pulls the gun hammer and fires a huge bubble that speeds headlong at the Bruiser. It thought it was just a wimpy failure of an attack, but is suddenly caught off guard as it sucks the Bruiser into itself, caught in the bubble. Bruiser tries to pop the bubble with its pincers, only for the bubble to stretch like rubber.

"Tidal Wave..." A voice calls out as Arther slashes forward at the Bruiser. A slash made out of watery waves shoots out of the blade and flies right at the Bruiser. When it hits the bubble, it cuts straight through the Bruiser, splitting it into two. The bubble pops loudly as it explodes. "-SLASH!"

"That looks pretty strange." The man mutters to himself. "Pretty sure that wasn’t a finisher like I remember." He looks back at the remaining Xborgs before bringing his sword up, blocking two of their maces when they came down at him. He pushes them off and shoots both in the chest. He quickly moves towards the rest, quickly cutting the rest down.

Clap clap clap "Bravo! For once, I might actually have a challenge doing this." A large monstrous figure walks into view, getting both Rangers' attention. He is a lamprey eel-themed monster with a gray-metal colored body with a few different sizes of turquoise orbs in a few places, and his right arm being a sniper gun. "Make it interesting at least." It opens fire with its gun, doing a bit of collateral damage.

The second figure comes to a halt and looks around before saying. "I assume you know how much it’ll cost someone to fix this mess. I assume you’ve got some kind of "sensible reason" or are going to pay for the repairs?"

"Only when this planet is ours, and that's a big maybe. You got more important things to worry about anyway." The monster chuckles a bit.

The figure let out a sigh before shaking his head as he shrugged his shoulders. "So it's one of those things. Invading this world for your own gain. How stereotypical of creatures like you."

"Can ye nah natter about Stereotypin'! I 'ave enough o' scallywags usin' that cliche response." Arther whines at the man in irritation on that subject. "'n ye;" He points his gun at the monster with his forefinger pointing as well. "... I got naught." He says this after a brief moment of silence, not coming up with anything to say to the invader.

"You're supposed to be a hero? Some hero you are, can't even quip properly. I have seen many attempts in my day, but yours at least got a good laugh out of me." Once again, the monster opens fire, with more accuracy than before, right at the so-called heroes.

Arther evaded the shots as best as he could, using his cutlass to block or deflect them. "First o' all;" He starts saying this as he takes a few steps forward while protecting himself. "I’m nah a hero, I be a pirate." He points out and literally uses his left hand with the sword and raises two fingers at the monster to indicate what he says next. "They be two different things.. 'n second," A projectile shot soars right at him with the flat side of his sword; he hits it right back at the monster. "'ave it back!"

"Yes, keep it up, make me work for it! A challenge is what makes me feel alive!" The monster grunts as the reflected attack hits it, but it seems only slightly dazed at best.

"Why do I get a feeling you enjoy getting hurt?" The second figure says. He had gotten behind the monster while it was distracted, slicing into the monster's back with his sword before shooting it multiple times.

Another grunt, but not a huge amount of damage. "Hurt? No, I don't enjoy the pain, I enjoy the fact you're making me hurt, making it a challenge that makes me feel more excited for the kill!"

"Masochist. Got it." The second figure kicks the monster in the back, knocking him back towards Arther, creating a small distance between him and the monster. Arther follows it with a rapid fire attack on the gray monster as he uses the pummel of his cutlass on the yellow buckle top, pressing a button that makes a hidden door on the buckle flip to reveal an odd key. Unlike the key Arther and the other person used, it didn’t have a person on the handle but a blazing lion's head and mane instead.

Arther grabs the key with his only available fingers and slots it into the sword key slot. He looks at the other red ranger. "Ahoy, switch weapons wit' me." He says as he raises his sword and gives it a few light shakes to emphasize which one he’s giving.

"You got it; catch!" The figure shouts back, shooting the monster a few more times before throwing his gun over its head towards Arther who threw his sword over as well. When he caught Arther's sword, he noticed the key was still inserted but not turned. Arther catches the gun and starts firing both pistols at the monster with perfect accuracy.

The man pauses when an idea pops into his head. Smiling, he threw his own key into the air before inserting it into the keyhole on his own sword. He brought both keys together, the sword closing up, sealing the keys inside the blades, before they heard a voice shout, "Final Wave!" as he crossed both blades in front of him, both glowing in a red hue.

After a couple of moments, he began to run forward before slashing both swords down. A red light encased the blade, as two crossed blades of light moved forwards towards the monster.

The monster tries to block it with his gun, desperate a bit. "So I guess I finally met my match..." He strains to speak as his gun shatters as the attack lands and cuts through the gunarm and strikes its body. "Why doesn't this feel as bad as I was expecting?"

Sparks fire off the monster's body as it stumbles back, the flaming embers still left on him, shaped like the maws of a lion biting down into him. Arther turns away, his right hand—still holding the gun—trailing his finger up to the edge of his helmet while twirling the other pistol in his other hand before whipping his arm aside and stopping twirling the pistol. Meanwhile, the second figure turns and walks away, both blades resting on his shoulders. With one last stumble, the monster explodes in flames as a loud roar of a lion comes from the explosion, displaying an amazing scene behind them.

After seconds passed, the figure took a single deep breath, canceling his transformation before walking back towards Arther. He held the sword and key he had thrown at him in his hand. "I assume you want these back?" Seeing both the key and the cutlass, Arther takes both back while giving the man the pistol back, which he places back inside his jacket.

"Thanks." Arther says as he reverts back to normal as well, with his weapon in tow. He was going to go back to what he was doing when he caught sight of something. "Hmm?"

Stepping out of the corner, a nervous cream-colored anthro mare with pink and navy blue hair and a tail walks out, wearing a thigh-long, single white dress with light blue short frills around the neck hole, yellow line short sleeve rims, and two light blue stripes that sandwich a yellow stripe around the dress covering her thigh. A shin long white sock with blue rims and last is slip in classic shoes.

She stops a few paces from them and asks anxiously. "Uh-um.. Thank you, both of you!" She says it in gratitude.

The figure hears this, turning to the woman with a curious look in his eyes. "It wasn’t a problem. I was glad to help. He served as a good enough distraction from everything else that's gone off for a time."

Arther faces the mare before giving a gentleman's bow. "Ah ye're too kind madom!" Standing straight again, he adds. "I hope ye're alright."

She nods at them. "I’m alright! Thank you for your concern. B- but please, may I ask, who are you?" She asks them.

"I’m nobody of any great importance. I just happened to be in the area when all this started is all." The figure calmly responds, still taking curious glances at the woman in front of him.

"O-oh." She says this in a slightly disappointed tone.

Arther walks up to a box and places one foot on top, getting their attention. He smirks before answering with a light chuckle. "Chin up lass, I'll answer yer riddle! I am Arther Mcfox!" He walks up to her before kneeling on one knee with his head bowed. "At yer service!" Her cheeks turned faintly red at his manners.

"I really should have got that name before this.." The figure says with a shake of his head before looking at the mare. "And I did not know him in any way before this, so don’t lump me in with him."

"Ohie!" Arther says with a hint of annoyance, as he stood up while turning to him. "Ye're makin' it sound like I be embarrassin' ye. I’m jus' bein' polite t' the fair lass like a full-pocketed cur, ye jus' stand thar 'n act all mysterious. At least greet us wit' yer name; at least?" The mare looks at the man, wondering that too.

"Take a look at how you're posing, then try to ask that first part again with a straight face." The figure responds with a shake of his head. "And frankly; before now you never asked who I was."

"I already said it; "I’m jus' bein' polite t' the fair lass like a full-pocketed cur" 'n that’s how I show me politeness. 'n aye, I didn’t ask afore, 'cause we we be fightin'.. The creature was attackin' the town 'n didn' look like they we be in a mood fer long natters. Ye expect me t' jus' stop t' jus' ask yer name 'n prolly get shot by a happy trigger monster? That’s squiffy!" Arther responds, repeating what he said before and then explains his reason for not asking for the man’s name.

"Uh;" The mare decides to invervine, getting Arther’s attention once again. During their conversation, her cheek redness has diminished. "I-if it’s alright, may I k- know your name, sir?" She asked the strange man. "So I m-may thank you p-properly."

"Hawkins… Matthew Hawkins." The man, Hawkins, answers calmly as he lets out a single, slow breath. "And may I ask yours, miss?"

"O-oh! M-my name is Bon Bon!" The mare answers.

"Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Bon." Matthew says, with a calm smile.

"Thank you. But may I ask.. why did you save us?" Bon Bon inquires.

"Let's just say I have my reasons and leave it at that." Matthew responds with a dismissive wave.

Arther just shrugs. "I was in the neighborhood 'n heard the screamin', 'n seein' wha' 'twas I decided t' save ye 'n others from 'em cause I wanted t'." Arther answer as well. "I’d like t' answer some more but shall ye be checkin' on everyone else?" He asked.

Hearing this, Bon Bon gasps before running toward somewhere. "I've got to go! Thank you for saving us!" She says this in gratitude as she goes around a corner, leaving the two alone.

"I'm pretty sure she had an ulterior motive for talking to us than to just thank us." Matthew states, looking at where Bon Bon had gone.

Arther lets out a soft sigh before speaking. "I wouldn’t know 'n I'll be honest, I don’t care if she does or nah. She’s safe 'n that’s all that shall matter." He says as he stretches his arms to the sky before dropping them back to his sides.

"If you say so."

"So.." Arther looks at Matthew. "Wha' are ye gonna do now? Or be it none o' me business?"

"Well…" Matthew began to say before stopping, hands going to his stomach and Arther heard the sound of it rumbling. "I was trying to find work to actually afford food. Not really much to catch out there… especially with nothing to use to cash them in with."

"Yah har har har ar! Well then, join me in the tavern! I was goin' back thar anyway! I’ll even pay this once, as a reward I owe ye!" Arther says wholeheartedly as he walks to the tavern he was in.

"I suppose I did ask for that one." Matthew responds with a smirk as he shakes his head, following closely behind Arther.

As the two of them left the market, a small figure looked on from a nearby sidestreet, the figure's eyes glued to Arther and Matthew's distant form.

The figure looks to be a small boy with pale purple scales, along with a neon light green frill ear and a spike spine from the top of his head to his tail, and having bright green eyes. He was wearing a green shirt with a purple hoodie jacket on top and dull navy blue jeans.

The young reptilian slowly steps forwards, his eyes continuing to follow them as he clutches a comic book in his hands, holding it close to his chest. The front page has one large image on the front. That of a green helmet that looked to almost resemble that of a dragon. A crest on top of the forehead starts at the nose bridge up and splits into two directions, both being the eyebrows. The middle split has a noticeable stripe piece shaped like a spear with a tiny diamond-shaped jewel embedded in the arrowhead that’s wedged between the splits. Teeth imprinted on the top and bottom of a single piece long sunglasses visor. The single metallic silver mouth covering has a closed lip dent to remind you that it's a helmet, and turquoise eyes below the eyebrow piece.

Once both Arther and Matthew were out of his sight, the figure took a single step forward, whispering to himself in stuttering awe. "T-The Rangers… They’re real!"