Chapter 203: Red Ranger Against Reptilians
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RUMBLE!
A gigantic mechanical squid-like creature moved across the wastelands of North America, rushing towards the direction where the one riding this monstrosity could sense his friends’ Symbols were located.
“We’re getting closer, Zenith!”
Kenichi spoke through his Red Gaoranger Suit, as he glanced into the distance with the augmented vision the suit granted him. He seemed very concerned. From having to ally his lethal foe to having to seek his friends while he didn’t even know where they were.
With the only “surviving” Deus Ex Beast being the Red Lion, he felt like this was their greatest crisis so far. Not only were they stranded on another completely alien world, but his friends were scattered, and he had a bad feeling about where they could have gone.
“Hmph! Once we find the other Gaorangers, you’re going to help me find my fragments!” said Zenith. “As part of our deal, of course! If you dare not comply with that promise, then I will not hesitate to destroy you!”
“Fine, I know! Stop nagging about it!” sighed Kenichi. “A promise is a promise… Despite being my enemy, I will honor it and help you gather your fragments to unify them back to how you were. And once that is done and we are finally back to how we were, we will settle things down once and for all!”
“Yes, that’s right!” Zenith roared, laughing. “And this time I will not lose! Just wait and see!”
“Hah! As if Justice would ever lose to an evildoer such as yourself!” said Kenichi, trying to calm himself down. “And-”
“Huh? What’s that?!”
Zenith glared into the skies, pointing at them with his long mechanical tentacles. Above the heavens and clouds, a gigantic structure began to slowly descend; dozens of smaller flying structures separated themselves from the larger one, flying above the skies and inspecting the area.
“Aliens?!” Kenichi asked. “Don’t tell me…! Zenith! Is this your doing?! Are the Xeno Beasts here?”
“No, fool!” Zenith said. “Those bastards aren’t the Xeno Beast! I don’t even know where they’re coming from at all. Our spaceships are much larger and gigantic, and black with many spikes. Those spaceships over there are strangely streamlined, with weird scales and reptilian appearances; look, that one even has a head.”
“What in the world?!” Kenichi was shocked as several spaceships passed through the skies in that moment, and one of them stopped moving right in front of them, while two more stopped a bit away from them, descending into the ground.
“Who are you?!” Kenichi roared as he quickly summoned his weapon for any battle.
“{Crimson Blazing Sword of Courage}!”
FLUOSH!
A blazing crimson sword materialized out of nowhere, showcasing the power of the Symbol of Courage within the Red Dekai Gaoranger.
“Graaashaak! Graack?!”
However, from the spaceship floating in front of them, only unintelligible words could be heard, as it suddenly opened a large tyrannosaurus-like ornamental head at the top, revealing a huge cannon.
“Red Ranger, it is going to fire!”
“I know! I’ll slice through it!”
TRUUUM!
The beam reached Kenichi, impacting him with tremendous force! An explosion of red energy erupted, splitting the skies above and generating cracks through the ground.
BOOOM!
“Nnggh…! Dammit! What the- Ah!”
Zenith’s eyes widened as he saw Kenichi slightly burned, but his armor glowed with a fiery red aura, the Symbol of Courage glowing everlasting, as his sword cut through the beam.
SLAAASH!
The slashing wave of flames not only cut through the beam entirely, but it also reached the spaceship, dealing great damage to its surface armor and destroying the cannon attached to the ornamental tyrannosaur head.
“Now, Zenith! Push it down!”
“Way ahead of you!”
Zenith roared furiously, swinging his mechanical tentacles, grabbing the huge spaceship of over ten meters of height, and forcing it down into the ground.
CRAAASH!
As the spaceship impacted the dry land beneath, several smaller explosions triggered all over the entire spaceship, as cables and pieces of wire fell to the ground, flames spreading everywhere.
“Gryyaaasshkaah!”
“Gruooshka!”
“Greeshka Khuaashk!”
Suddenly, several huge, muscular reptilian creatures crawled out of the burning spaceship, completely shocked that a mere human and whatever that thing accompanying were pushed down.
They weren’t just a few, but dozens of such reptilian creatures, with heads resembling Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Velociraptors, alongside colorful feathers over their heads that resembled hair.
They wore, however, no tribal clothes at all, instead wearing highly technological equipment wrapped tightly around their muscular, green-colored scaled bodies.
They pointed laser guns at Kenichi, firing a barrage of red lasers at him.
“Dammit, there were a dozen of them inside?! And they got laser guns! Zenith, protect me with your tentacles! I’ll go fight them head-on!”
“You’re going head-on?! Hahaha! Maybe this’ll be the time I’ll see you perish.”
Zenith teased Kenichi, but the Red Gaoranger did not care.
He jumped into action, laser beams rushing towards him as he evaded them, jumping around dexterously and heroically.
“Damn Gaoranger!”
Zenith used his tentacles to tank the lasers as he rushed right behind Kenichi, furiously firing beams from his own eyes and blowing away some of the reptilians.
“Now!”
Kenichi jumped into battle as he swung his blade against the nearest reptilian, who groaned in agony as its chest was sliced through and an explosion of flames engulfed it.
BOOOM!
“Uuaarrck!”
The rest of the reptilians took out giant mechanical weapons, swinging them against Kenichi from every angle, but he quickly swung his sword as he spun forward, slashing through the reptilians’ bodies, explosions of flames coming from his weapon!
SLAAASH!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Uuaarck!”
“Kreekh!”
“Gryack!”
The reptilians couldn’t hold him back as much as they would’ve expected! Despite having the build of a normal human, he was much stronger than all of them combined.
“H-How is that human so powerful?!”
“That armor! It’s strange!”
“Agh, his robot is coming here again!”
As they communicated with one another, they panicked as they saw the gigantic tentacles of Zenith coming down towards them.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
In mere seconds, half of them were crushed to death, leaving behind nothing but splattered blood-covered innards and broken bones and flesh. Their powerful mechanical armors were of no use either.
“D-Did you have to be so merciless?!” Kenichi asked Zenith. “We need to talk to them! Don’t kill them all, Zenith!”
“Hah! You’re too merciful, Gaoranger!” said Zenith. “These bastards simply deserve to die and disappear for daring to attack me!”
Zenith rushed forward to kill the rest, only for the reptilian’s two other spaceships to begin firing massive cannons at him.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
“URGH…!”
Zenith moved back as his body gained large holes through it, where his black flesh could be seen beneath his mechanical armor.
The remaining reptilians tried to run away, but Kenichi didn’t let them, quickly summoning a grappling hook made of red metal and grabbing one of them, pushing it towards him.
The other two were engulfed in flames, screaming in agony as they burned, but they were tough enough not to die from that.
“I am not as merciless as Zenith, but that doesn’t mean I will be soft with you.”
Kenichi quickly weakened them enough so they couldn’t fight back.
“Tell me, who are you?! Have you seen my friends?”
“Graaack!”
“Grekekeh!”
“Gryakuh?!”
They couldn’t quite talk to him, speaking in their own reptilian dialect, making Kenichi more frustrated over time.
“Even the Xeno Beasts have technology that allows them to speak our language; why can’t you do the same?” He sighed, facepalming. “Whatever…”
He quickly slammed their heads with his hand, leaving them unconscious and half-burnt. The Gaorangers were protectors of humanity, not of aliens. This meant they were pretty merciless against them anyway.
“Zenith! Attack them back; don’t let them escape!”
“Hoh? I thought you were acting all soft before.”
“Shut up and do what I say! I’m only getting more and more stressed here, my friends… I don’t even want to think that the worst happened to them!”
“Hahaha! Fine! Let’s show them what we’ve got... Red!”
“Tch… Fine, Zenith!”
Kenichi knew what he meant, so Kenichi quickly ran over Zenith, entering a large cabin inside of the biomechanical monster and connecting his energies into his core.
FLUOSH!
“{Deus Ex Beast Transformation}!”
He pulled out a red card from his wrist and placed it on top of the black-colored control panel. The card released sparks of black electricity, slowly turning black and red instead, growing corrupted.
“Hahahaha! So this is the power you possess, Gaorangers! Now it’s mine!”
Zenith laughed as his entire body began to transform, his tentacles unified into giant, burly arms and legs; his squid-like body became a torso, while a new, humanoid yet demonic and malicious-looking head emerged above it.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The mechanical head resembled Zenith’s original face quite a lot, although it was now made of silver, red, and black metal, with huge horns, a lion mane-like crown, and red jewels as eyes.
“{Dark Deux Ex Beast Warrior: Demon King Zenith}”
Unlike the Mighty Brave Gaoyuusha, a combination of all the Gaorangers Deux Ex Beasts, this was only composed of one of Zenith’s body parts.
However, it was big enough to reach fifty meters of height easily!
“Hahahahah! I’ve gained supreme power!”
Zenith laughed as he started moving, rushing towards the two giant spaceships firing massive beams at them.
“Come and die!”
He swung his massive claws at them as he grew long tentacles that wrapped around the spaceship nearest to him, dragging it back to him.
“I’ll rip you all to shreds!”
Crack, crack…!
CRAAASH!
Zenith laughed like the terrifying warlord he was, using his giant claws to tear open the spaceship and break it into two. All the reptilians inside jumped out of the spaceship, trying to scatter like cockroaches.
“Don’t you dare escape, insects!”
Zenith wasn’t merciful at all, crushing them all with his foot, stomping them as if they were actual insects. The difference in power was simply tremendous.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
“Zenith! Stop killing them all; they’re running away anyways!” said Kenichi. “Aim at the other spaceship; it is trying to flank us from above.”
“SHUT UP, RED! YOU’RE SIMPLY TOO SOFT!”
Zenith smiled as he jumped into the skies, descending and kicking down the spaceship attacking him from afar with a massive strike.
CRAAASH!
The spaceship was instantly split apart, collapsing into the wastelands below and exploding with countless reptilians running away from the explosion while covered in flames.
“Gryyaaaack!”
Zenith smiled through his mechanical head, laughing as he began stomping them again. He was really enjoying the slaughter.
“Gahahaha! Stomp! Stomp, and stomp! GET STOMPED!”
“S-Stop Zenith! There are people down there!”
“Where? Tell me where to stomp them too!”
“I said ENOUGH!”
Kenichi’s powers suddenly forced Zenith to stop moving, his entire body paralyzed.
“Ugh?! W-What the…?!”
The Demon King couldn’t believe it, but the Red Gaoranger had taken complete control of his body with his Symbol of Courage!
“Did you think that you could freely do as you pleased?!” Kenichi furiously said. “The power you now have is thanks to me; as long as you use it, you have to also obey my orders as a Deus Ex Beast.”
“D-Dammit! This isn’t fair, you bastard! Free me at once! AAAARRGH!”
No matter how much Zenith complained, he was unable to free himself, slowly moving as Kenichi willed with his mind. The giant slowly kneeled, gently grabbing the people on the floor.
It seemed they were being abducted by the reptilians’ seconds before they arrived and had miraculously not been caught in the explosions, mostly because the battle occurred several hundreds of meters away from them.
“T-These are…! Everyone!”
Kenichi gasped in disbelief the moment he learned who they were. It was his whole group; all five of them were here! They were unconscious, and he couldn’t sense a hint of power from them anymore. But they were alive, however, in a state similar to a coma.
“Looks like they’re going to soon die! Leave them behind anyways; these bastards are useless!”
Zenith tried to whisper him evil words, but Kenichi didn’t even hear him talking, his eyes filled with disbelief, traumatized by what he was seeing.
“N-No…”
Their Symbols were stolen, and even their lifeforce was rapidly fading away; the Deus Ex Beasts that belonged to them were gone, hence they would be unable to recharge their energies easily.
“Why is this happening?! Dammit, dammit!”
He ran out of Zenith’s body and quickly called upon his lion, which was summoned out of a huge red gate that materialized out of nowhere.
“Red Lion, do you have some area where they can rest?”
“GRAAAOOH!”
The Red Lion opened a large door on its chest, leading Kenichi inside as the Gaoranger carried his friends one by one inside.
He ran through the inside corridors, leaving them in a small infirmary connected to machines that kept them barely alive.
However, they didn’t look good.
“Who could have done this to them…” Kenichi muttered. “Dammit…! Why is this happening to us? Everyone…!”
He fell to his knees; the brave hero of courage was overcome by grief and sorrow, crying and despairing in front of his dying companions.
“RED!”
“Tch…! What do you want now?!”
Kenichi was furious, glaring at Zenith.
However, once he stepped out, he saw someone approaching. A dying man wearing a red and golden suit, rather different than his own.
His body was covered in bruises, and it looked like one of his arms was bent the other way around.
“U-Uuggh…! Someone, please help me…! My friends… Galaxy Man he’s…! They’ve gone insane… Urgh…!”
“Wait right there! I’m coming to your aid!”
Kenichi didn’t even hesitate to finally help another human, rushing to his aid and carrying him back to the infirmary within the Lion’s mechanical body.
“You’re perhaps the first human I’ve seen here! What is your name? Don’t worry, I’ve treated your wounds.”
“A-Ah… You’re… ugh… I’m Wingspeed, a hero that landed here a few days ago… Urk! Listen to me! my friends… They’ve been brainwashed by something; someone is taking over them! I just ran; I didn’t even know what to do!”
“Oh… It’s the same with me… I guess… We’re in a similar predicament.”
“You don’t say…” Wingspeed laughed a bit. “Just what beef does life have against heroes with red suits, man…”
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