Thrown about by several large explosions, six colorful heroes in tight spandex ran for cover from their foe, a very large demonic-looking creature with a few eyes too many, some impressive wings, and a third bionic arm. The green hero leaned out from behind the wall that he stood behind.
“Captain, guys, I don’t think we can do this by ourselves,” he said, his voice not at all affected by the helmet completely enclosing his head. “I think we should call for reinforcements.”
The red hero nodded, crouching behind a large crate that had somehow survived the onslaught. “You’re right, Doc. We shouldn’t let pride at what we do endanger us this much.”
The yellow one softly laughed. “Humility from Captain Marvelous, and all it took was a bad guy that’s strong enough,” she said mockingly as she watched Captain Marvelous take out the cellphone-like device that he and his team used to get into costume, and punched in some numbers.
“Yeah hi, this is Gokai Red,” the captain spoke, holding his cellphone against the side of his helmet. “We got a situation here that we can’t handle, and we’d really like some backup. You can tell where we are, right? Yeah, okay, I think we can hold out a little longer. Thanks.”
“I can’t believe that guy managed to counter almost every attack we threw at him,” the pink hero exclaimed as she joined her teammates in waiting for the requested backup.
The blue one merely nodded and adjusted the grip on his cutlass.
After another few tense moments, the monster grew restless. “Come out and fight me, you cowardly excuses for space pirates,” it bellowed, somehow without moving its mouth very much. It then fired several more shots in the general direction of the hiding heroes. With a cry, the heroes were thrown to the ground once more, behind the smoke generated by the attack. Their costumes evaporated off their prone bodies, leaving them in their usual, similarly color-coordinated clothing. The smoke cleared to reveal the pirates slowly marching towards the monster, arrogantly twirling their weapons and generally making a real smug, if not somewhat bloodied impression.
“You people gotta be joking. You’re still coming at me all confident like that?” the monster roared.
“Yeah,” Captain Marvelous replied. “Cos it’s not just us doing this anymore.”
Just when the captain finished his statement, three more colorful heroes arrived on the scene, quickly rappelling from the roof of one of the nearby buildings.
“This round, we’re playing,” the new red hero proclaimed. As one, all three newcomers put their right hand to their left wrist, turned a ring around on the devices they wore on their wrists, and then pressed the big button inside the ring.
IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME, a disembodied voice called out as the new heroes’ costumes quickly materialized from their feet up, leaving only their eyes uncovered. Holding their arms such that the sunglasses that had popped up from the wrist-worn devices aligned with their faces, they themselves called out “Let’s morphin’,” upon which the sunglasses wrapped themselves around the holes in their helmet, finishing their heroic ensemble.
The monster stood there, dumbfounded. It didn’t recognize the new heroes very well. Before it could ask who they were supposed to be, the pirate heroes standing further back took out their cellphones, stuck a key in each, and turned.
Another, more excited voice called out, GoooKAIGER!
“Now, let’s make a show of it,” said Captain Marvelous, now Gokai Red once more. The new arrivals braced themselves in front of him as the red one tapped out a beat.
“Busters! Ready…”
At that precise moment, the monster realized who he was up against. He hadn’t trained against the Go-Busters and their specific fighting styles, like he had against the thirty-five teams that had come before. He started to panic. He had one trump card, but was warned by his superior that it was too risky to use.
He used it anyway.
“GO!” Red Buster finished, and charged towards his opponent, followed closely by his yellow and blue teammates, and the Gokaigers trailing right behind.
A rippling portal appeared in their path, between them and the target, and all nine warriors ran right into it and disappeared.
The monster had no idea where they’d end up, but could only hope it was somewhere in deep space or something. He hadn’t taken the time to set a destination, so as far as it was concerned, they could be anywhere.
What mattered more to the monster was that the Gokaigers were out of his proverbial hair, and so were the Go-Busters. The trump card had obviously worked, at least in the sense that if it had transported the two Sentai into some inhospitable or (heavens forbid) downright deadly environment and killed them, it had done at least the most important part of its job just fine.
But if it had to be entirely honest, the limb pain that the sudden playing of that trump card had left it with was a bigger source of concern.
Meanwhile, somewhere else entirely, a young earth-pony colt by the name of Ochre Flame sat in a small family restaurant, waiting for the rest of his friends of arrive. He nibbled absently on a hay fry, and turned to his companion, a pegasus colt roughly his age.
“I’m tellin’ ya, Gilson. This is gonna be the day,” Ochre said with regained confidence. “By this time next week, we’ll all know our destiny.”
Gilson Process nodded with a short grunt and nabbed a fry from Ochre’s plate. “I’d hope so. We’re all at the threshold of drinking age and we’re still blank. How often does that even happen?”
“Hard to say,” said the little unicorn filly that walked in. “Sometimes, in general. But when you have five of them in one city, the odds go down fast.”
“Lutein,” Ochre said in greeting.
“Ochre. Gilson. What’d I miss?”
“Ochre was just having another quasi-prophetic moment over his fries. I was just about to make a wager on it,” Gilson answered.
“Were you now?” asked Lutein, flicking a lock of her goldenrod mane away from her face.
“Yeah. And I’ll bet you twenty bits that he’s full of plop and we do not get our cutie marks this week.”
“You’re on, Gil. I’ll see your twenty, and raise you another five that we do.”
Ochre took the last hay fry and looked out the window. “What’s keeping Fandango and Pine Blade?” he asked nopony in particular.
“I think Fandango said she’d go ahead to the place, and she’d bring Pine along,” Lutein helpfully answered.
“Then I suppose we should head out ourselves and get this party started.”
Shortly after the three ponies met up with their friends in a field just outside the city, Lutein twitched and fell over. Gilson and Ochre were there with her within seconds. The lithe earth-pony colt Pine Blade silently nodded in approval of their prompt reaction.
“Lute! What happened? Are you okay?” the two colts asked as one.
“Yeah, I’m good,” the little unicorn answered. “Thanks for the concern, guys. There’s just… something massive coming. I can feel it in my horn, and it… surprised me, is all…”
With a loud crack, a distorted hole was torn in the air above the field, and nine colorful bipeds fell to the earth.
Author's Note
海賊戦隊 ゴーカイジャー X 特命戦隊 ゴーバスターズ X
夭の戦隊 ポニレンジャー
ZA FANFIC
Pirate Squadron Gokaiger X Special-Ops Cell Go-Busters X Celestial Taskforce Ponyranger
THE FANFIC
“What are they?”
“I dunno. Fandango?”
“Not a clue, Lute dear. I’ve seen a monkey once, but never with clothing on. I can’t even imagine a monkey wearing this.”
Fandango poked at Gokai Green’s helmet with a levitated stick.
“So you think they’re some sort of monkeys?”
“It’s my best bet, Blade.”
Behind the ponies, Blue Buster stirred awake. Blearily looking through his visor, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in a generic industrial complex. When he confirmed, with a little help from his helmet’s diagnostics, that he was in good shape, he slowly shifted into a sitting position. With his sense of direction restored, the second thing he noticed was that he and his friends were loosely surrounded by what seemed to be colorful equines, though he couldn’t quite tell how colorful through the tint of his visor – everything tended to look a little blue to him.
“Oh hey, the blue one’s awake,” Blue Buster heard the red pony say. This observation troubled him a little. “Who and what are you?”
Blue Buster coughed into his mouthpiece. A short burst of static sounded from his helmet, and Ochre took a step back.
“Woah! I may not know much about monkeys but I do know they don’t run on electricity!”
“Sorry,” Blue Buster mumbled as he scrambled upright. “Something in my throat. And we’re not monkeys.”
Ochre Flame gave him a ‘well, carry on then’ look as Gilson Process stood next to him.
“We’re humans,” Blue Buster finished. “Specifically, my friends and I, and the pirate-looking people over there, are Rangers. We defend our world from outside threats.”
Ochre looked at Gilson. “You ever heard of those, Gil?”
“Rangers? Nope. I mean, I know of rangers, but those don’t dress like that.”
“Forest archers?”
“The same.”
Blue Buster chuckled. “We’re not forest archers. Though some of us do practice archery, and some have this whole forest theme going. But we never got properly introduced, didn’t we?”
“Completely forgot about that,” Ochre admitted. He took a step closer to Blue Buster and extended a hoof. Blue Buster, in turn, crouched a little for the height difference and extended a hand.
“Ochre Flame, useless slacker and part-time Cutie Mark Crusader.”
“Ryuji Iwasaki, special operative with the Energy Management Center,” Blue Buster said as he shook Ochre’s hoof. He didn’t feel at ease to outright admit he was an agent, but this was clearly not his world – his helmet had informed him of as much. “Those are my partners Hiromu Sakurada and Yoko Usami,” he indicated, “and those are the Gokaigers… I’m not entirely sure who they are, but the red one’s Captain Marvelous.”
He was just reaching for his helmet when something finally registered in Ryuji’s mind. “Wait, did you say ‘crusader’?”
“Cutie Mark Crusader, yeah. We’re looking for our cutie marks, cos we’re all way too old to not have any,” Ochre Flame explained.
“That’s right. Nothing worse than being a late-bloomer,” Gilson Process nodded. “I’m Gil, by the way. Gilson Process, and these are our friends, Lutein, Fandango, and Pine Blade.”
Ryuji took off his helmet, revealing a human face to the ponies for the first time. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Dear Princess Celestia, that’s no ordinary monkey,” Fandango gasped. “It doesn’t even have any fur!”
“Well, you’re no ordinary pony, miss,” Hiromu said in his usual blunt manner. He had woken up just before the ponies were introduced and just barely caught their names. “I’ve never seen one with a horn before.”
Just before Hiromu could reach for the command button to un-morph, Ryuji stopped him. “Can’t guarantee we’ll be able to get it back, with where we are and how we got here.”
“Oh. Okay,” Hiromu agreed as he followed Ryuji’s lead and just kept his helmet in hand. “Wait, lemme try something,” he said as he pushed the button on his chest strap.
TRANSPORT!
Nothing happened. Aside from the weapon he already carried, his Sougan Blade, he had no access to his other stuff. Transporting his firearm, the Ichigan Buster, was officially no longer an option. It made him feel a little helpless, but at least the blade could double as binoculars. Looking over at the slowly rousing Yoko, Hiromu felt a lot better. Not just because Yoko was alright, but because she had the sense to bring a firearm.
“So… where is this? I’ve heard of alternate worlds – we’ve been to one, actually – but I can’t imagine one with talking pastel ponies,” Hiromu said as he took off his helmet.
“This is Equestria,” Lutein helpfully answered. “May I see that helmet, please?”
“I guess,” Hiromu shrugged. When the helmet glowed pink and floated from his hands, he wasn’t even surprised anymore. As a Ranger, you get to see some pretty weird things, and this was a talking yellow unicorn with apparent telekinetic powers in front of him.
“Do you people have any protectors?” Ryuji asked as he watched Lutein turn Hiromu’s helmet around.
Pine Blade stepped up to answer. “We have our Princesses, their Royal Guards, and the Elements of Harmony. The Elements and Princesses are the strongest forces we have, but they can’t be everywhere at once… and we’re pretty far from Canterlot, to be honest.”
“I heard you say… what was it, ‘morph’?” Fandango piped up. “What did you mean by that?”
“We don’t usually wear these costumes,” Hiromu replied before Ryuji could. “They’re our battle armor.”
Still holding her stick, Fandango poked at Gokai Green’s leg. “This doesn’t feel like armor.”
Haptic feedback? She’s not even properly holding that stick, Ryuji thought to himself. “That’s not ordinary spandex. It’s strong enough to block swords and deflect bullets,” he clarified.
“But usually the enemy has something even stronger,” Hiromu finished.
Ryuji held out his arm. “We put them on with things like this. This is a Morphing Brace, and I think the Gokaigers use some kind of cellphone?”
Hiromu caught his helmet as it was deposited in front of him again and watched as Lutein’s yellow glow instead took hold of the device she found inside Gokai Blue’s costume jacket.
“Did you mean these things?” she asked, not knowing what a cellphone is.
“Yeah. They take these little figurines from their belt buckles, and stick them into the keyholes,” Hiromu confirmed. Ryuji walked over to the unconscious pirates and crouched next to his counterpart.
“I wonder,” Ryuji mumbled as he inquisitively tapped Gokai Blue’s buckle. “How do they get all these figurines from such a small buckle? It’s not transport technology like ours – I heard they can do it from anywhere…”
Ryuji rather involuntarily thought of one time when Gokai Blue changed into a previous blue Ranger, just when he found the button to open the buckle. The front plate promptly spun around, revealing a tiny Deka Blue figurine (AN: that’s Power Rangers SPD), sitting in a molded case. Carefully, he pried the toy-like figure out of the buckle and stood up again, holding the object in his fingers.
“Okay, so that’s how that works.”
Gilson took the device from Lutein and set it down on the ground in front of him.
“Then, I think, they flip them open like this,” Ryuji recalled. He pushed in on the sides of the figurine, causing a spring-loaded mechanism to flip its legs up and reveal a key’s blade. He crouched down opposite Gilson Process and stuck the key into the device. “They turn it, and they morph.”
“Hold on. This little guy doesn’t really look like the other one, doesn’t he?”
“No, he doesn’t. That’s kind of the Gokaigers’ thing – they can turn into any of the many Rangers that came before them. I think that one’s a Dekaranger?”
“Hoji Tomasu,” a voice groaned. “Special Police Dekaranger, number two.”
Gokai Silver had woken up.
“Is that your name?” asked Fandango.
“No, I’m Gai Ikari. Goookai-AI-AI! Ow my head!” the silver Ranger called out as he clutched the sides of his helmet and dropped back on the ground, out cold once more.
“Okay. Strange name,” Fandango said to herself. “Gokai Silver, I’d guess.”
“I wonder what would happen if someone who’s not a human turned the key,” Ryuji wondered, forgetting that most of the Gokaigers weren’t actually human at all. “I know the costumes adjust to the user’s gender, but I don’t think…”
“Why not find out? It’s just sitting here, waiting,” Gilson spoke up. He bent down to take the key in his mouth.
“No wait!”
DeeekaRANGER!
Before Ryuji could take the device away from Gilson, the pony had turned the key and was temporarily engulfed in a blue flame. When the effect abated, Gilson was revealed clad in a tight blue-white spandex bodysuit, with a stylized black number 4 on his flank, and a fully face-concealing helmet with red lights on the sides, and points on top to contain his ears. The only parts of him still visible were his wings and tail, though they seemed to be even bluer than they were before.
“This… is so strange it’s awesome,” Gilson gasped in barely-constrained excitement.
Behind them, Gokai Blue’s costume burst away, revealing a still-unconscious Joe Gibken.
“I guess it only works on one person at a time,” Yoko stated as she crouched next to the swashbuckler. “I wonder why that didn’t wake him up.”
“Hold on, I can do a little healing magic,” Fandango said as she hip-bumped Yoko away. “Learned it from my mom.”
Fandango’s pink glow encased Joe’s head as she closed her eyes in focus. “Hmm. I don’t know anything about humans, but this looks like a concussion to me. Minor, perhaps, but nothing real bad.”
“So what do we do?” Yoko asked, pushing Fandango back again in playful retaliation.
“Don’t move them too much, and give them time to recover. That’s my not-even-close-to-professional diagnosis, and I’m sticking to it.”
“And maybe play around with these key thingies some more,” Gilson said, his voice only slightly muffled by his helmet. “You should try it, Fan. It’s a rush!”
As if to underline his statement, the siren lights in his helmet flashed. “Okay I did not expect that. That’s awesome.”
Well I’m not getting left out of this particular fun, Ochre Flame thought to himself as he watched Fandango carefully extract the transformation cellphone from her Gokai counterpart’s jacket. He brusquely stuck his snout inside Marvelous’ costume, intent on fishing out the captain’s cellphone, when said captain suddenly took him in a headlock.
“Don’t get too cocky, little horse.”
Author's Note
Protip: do not try to take a pirate captain's belongings while within arms reach.
Well, I decided to let haters hate and get back on this. Thanks to Alkali for snapping me out of this particular funk. So I mass-replaced ", with ," and wrote a bit of a better end to this chapter, in preparation for chapter 2. My invitation to suggest keys for the remaining ponies to use still stands, but kindly put them in the comments instead. Feel free to call them by their American names if that helps.
