146

 

146.  Hot Justice! Super Ultra Miracle Fight!!

 

A spectrum of colored psynergy exploded through the ruins of the Takeda Factory, sending sparks through the wreckage. As they concluded their flashy opening, the five spandex-clad superheroes kept their poses locked firmly in place, patiently awaiting a reply.

 

"Well?" Vermilion Red held his arms pointed diagonally toward the sky. "Tell us your name, challenger, so we can amply honor your failed attempt at unjust victory!"

 

Vance Darcouver stood in dumbfounded silence. It all seemed so bizarre and stupid that for a few moments, he didn't even know how to respond, and simply gave them all a blank, dry stare.

 

"Oh, who cares about his name!" shouted Takeda Kanryusai, who was currently hiding behind a large overturned container in the distance. "He's foreign scum! Just finish him off before he destroys anything else!"

 

"My thoughts exactly, commander!" Aureolin Yellow twirled his bladed pole. "Watch as we shall extinguish this–"

 

A pale fist appeared in front of the hero's masked face and slammed him to the ground.

 

"Out of my way, you clowns." Vance's eyes regained their fire, and he rekindled his aura. "I don't have time for this!"

 

Aureolin clutched his latex mask and let out an anguished bellow.

 

"Yes, Yellow! Scream!" the red ranger called out. "That's the pain of evil you're feeling! Now, it's time for us to counter-attack and feed this baddie his just desserts!"

 

"With extra cream filling!" Aureolin Yellow scrambled back to his feet and charged forward. "Eat this!"

 

The minute Yellow reached the tip of the purple aura that shielded Vance's body, the masked crusader was thrown backwards into a pile of shattered monitors.

 

"Yellow!" Cerulean Blue looked to his comrade in horror, then swerved back to Vance. "Fine then, I'm up next! Tourmaline Bow!" Cerulean Blue loaded his weapon with a metal arrow. "G–"

 

Vance connected his leg with the tall ranger's weapon faster than he could react, leaving him defenseless. Before Cerulean Blue could finish stumbling back, Vance yanked him forward and thrusted his brow into the ranger's helmet.

 

Yet the ranger's suit showed no signs of wear. Refusing to let up, Vance stuck his foot out and tripped the fighter as he fell backwards, then caught his head under a heel. He grit his teeth as he felt the ranger quivering beneath him, and the others stood calmly by, watching their teammate take a beating.

 

"How could you attack someone before they finish their battle cry?!" Shocking Pink screeched. "Have you no honor?!"

 

"We're up against a truly ruthless dog this time around!" Myrtle Green curled his fists. "We can't let our guards down, Red!"

 

"Well said, Green!" Vermilion declared. "But if we combine our powers, we have nothing to fear! Let's make that villain regret what he did to Yellow and Blue!"

 

"Tri-Formation!" Shocking Pink leapt behind her two teammates and slipped heart-shaped shurikens between every finger.

 

Myrtle Green ran straight toward Vance, while Vermilion Red unsheathed his golden sword and leapt into the air.

 

"Vermilion Slash!"

 

"Myrtle Combo!"

 

Before either could connect, Vance shot up, slid around Vermilion and shoved him forward. Vermilion collided head on with his partner, and the two let out screams of pain followed by shouts encouraging each other not to give up.

 

Vance next used his aura to dissipating Shocking Pink's shurikens. She followed up by rushing toward him with two daggers brandished, so he lazily deflected her and took a minute to search for Takeda, who had already vacated the area.

 

At the far end of the factory he saw a spacious pit under an observatory enclosed in glass with a metal dais on top. The Shinsengumi stood in the center, watching the battle below with a nervous grimace on his face. Vance's destruction had ripped off most of the ceiling of the complex, and late morning sun shone through cracks that continued down the facility's walls. To his left and right, ruined assembly lines remained filled with half-built Greymatters.

 

"Don't give up!" SROAD cheered and picked themselves up as Vance approached the pit. "It's time to combine our power! S-Cannon, we summon you!"

 

Just as Vance prepared to leap up to the observatory, he felt psynergy surge behind him. The aura felt rainbow-colored just like before, except now it was much larger.

 

Vance looked back toward the rubble to see all five rangers gathered around a long, sleek metal cannon that shimmered like a metallic rainbow. While Myrtle Green and Celadon Blue balanced it on the ground, Aureolin Yellow and Shocking Pink held it steady on either side. As his four teammates fed their psynergy into the device, Vermilion Red stood behind the heavy piece of machinery and manned the control panel.

 

"That's it, SROAD!" Takeda called, as he fiddled with a control panel atop the dais, causing it to detach itself and hover up into the sky. "Justice is on your side! You are the true guardians of Yamato!"

 

Vance had just enough time to summon up a barrier before a spiraling spear of rainbow psynergy shot out from the cannon. Charged and potent, the staggering amount of psynergy hit him head-on, forcing him to skid backwards.

 

He clenched his fists and tried to push the beam away. They must be drawing this power from somewhere... More Greymatters?

 

"I can tell you're a trained warrior!" Takeda called out from the sky. "But no matter how much skill you have, you still do not stand a chance against our technology! We Yamatoans have surpassed humanity itself!"

 

Finally, Vance managed to shove his hands forward and dissipate the energy with his own. "You didn't develop this technology, Grayson gave it to you! He's just using you!"

 

"Go into barrage mode!" Takeda fumed. "Blow him out of here!"

 

"Barrage Mode On!" Red called out. "Fire!"

 

The concrete, steel frames, and bolts that held together the remainder of the Takeda Factory vibrated as the S-Cannon fired pulse after pulse of energy in rapid succession. Myrtle Green and Cerulean Blue struggled to hold the machine in place while Shocking Pink and Aureolin Yellow kept its aim firm.

 

Vermilion Red frantically thumbed the fire button. "Can you smell that sweet justice, everyone?!"

 

"Yeah, Red!" Yellow answered. "Totally tantalizing!"

 

"He keeps dodging the shots! This won't cut it!" Green growled. "We need the Hyper Blast!"

 

"The Hyper Blast?!" Pink screeched. "But what about the lab?!"

 

Takeda chuckled from above. "Don't worry about the lab! I made sure to equip a nurikabe dispenser!"

 

After another button push, a ghostly green wall with a grumpy-looking, humanoid face in the center stretched out behind Vance, protecting the rest of the laboratory from the assault.

 

"It's programmed to deflect the blast!" Cerulean shouted. "We're good to go!"

 

"Yes sir! Hyper Blast activating!" Red boomed, and the barrage ceased.

 

Vance dashed forward. "Oh no you don't!"

 

"He's coming toward us!" Blue called out, frantically turning to his teammates expectantly as he continued to hold the gun in place.

 

"Hyper Blast Go!" Red shouted hurriedly, as he pressed the button once more.

 

A massive, crackling beam ruptured from the cannon at lightning speed. Vance hardened metapsynergy around his body and cut straight through it as he continued to run forward.

 

"How?!"

 

Takeda watched in horror as the Albavitrean plunged his fist straight through the cannon, frying its circuits and Greymatter chip in a brilliant array of light and smoke. He felt the explosion sear through his aura, but revved it back into place, fully protecting himself while it knocked every super ranger to the ground.

 

"This can't be!" Cerulean Blue cried. "We lost to a human?!"

 

As the smoke cleared, Vance saw that the explosion had burned through pieces of the rangers' suits, revealing circuitry and wires beneath.

 

"Robots?" Vance called up. "You thought you could beat me with robots?"

 

"Not mere robots," Takeda scoffed, "humanoid machines with Greymatters installed at every vital point for maximum amplification! This is the future of all soldiers – the future of mankind! With this technology, we've outgrown both human and yokai resources – artificial intelligence and machinery is all that we need to create the strongest army this universe has ever seen!"

"Strong?" Vance waved his arm over the downed androids. "You call them strong?"

 

Takeda focused his spectacled eyes on Vance and grinned. "Yes."

 

"We have no choice..." Vermilion Red gurgled. "It's time for our secret weapons!"

 

"The S-Robos!" Shocking Pink raised a fist into the sky. "Super Robos, we summon you!"

 

A loud rumbling noise spilled into the complex grounds, coupled with tremors that nearly threw Vance off his feet. Five giant robots appeared in the sky, each shadowed by the glowing sun.

 

Vance shot over to the closest ranger, Shocking Pink, and attempted to cleave her torso. Just as he reached her, a column of light bulleted down, knocking him back with its velocity.

 

"Henshin!" Vermilion Red screamed, as he and his other four teammates were beamed up into the robots by magnetic tractor beams.

 

"Super Rangers of Absolute Destruction! Go!" Takeda shouted, right in time with an obnoxiously upbeat song that had begun to blare out from the speakers attached to his hovercraft.

 

"To save our planet!" Aureolin Yellow's piloted a towering, cone-shaped mech with long arms, decorated all over with a golden brick pattern and two shining eyes in the center. "I choose you, Gorgorotha!"

 

"To protect the weak!" Cerulean Blue piloted the tallest one, which featured long tentacle-like appendages and massive spikes protruding from its head. "I choose you, Radisraker!"

 

"To stamp out evil!" Shocking Pink's had a hammer-shaped head and a round pink jewel where its torso should have been. "I choose you, Laconizoid!"

 

"To promote peace!" Myrtle Green's mech was stacked with artillery, including two shoulder cannons, a rear rocket launcher, and many other nozzles extending from its two gun-arms. "I choose you, Dreadknought!"

 

"To create a new future!" Vermilion Red piloted a robot clad in spiked armor, wielding a massive blade. "I choose you, Weapotron!"

 

"Go into Formation M!" Takeda shouted. "You have a 100% chance of victory!"

 

"Formation M Activate!" Vermilion Red responded with haste, and the robots monentarily lined up in a V formation before converting on their prey.

 

The Gorgorotha slammed its fists into the ground, while the Radisraker whipped its tentacles downwards. Vance managed to dodge the first two attacks, but when the Laconizoid began spraying out a mess of pink lasers from the orb in her chest, it left him with nowhere to hide.

 

Next came the Dreadknought's artillery. Rockets, missiles, grenades, and human-sized bullets converged on Vance, who stood his ground and fortified a barrier. Even though a single one would only make a nick in his aura, the sheer number of them soon proved to be too much to bear.

 

With his shield weakened by the projectiles, Vance couldn't deflect all of the Radisraker's whipping strikes. When the first one struck him, he hit the charred ground with such force that his body bounced back up into the air, allowing the dexterous robot to juggle him with successive cracks from its tentacles.

 

Frantically, Vance focused all his efforts simply on protecting his body as each blow from the gargantuan mechanisms chipped away at it. This is insane! I can't keep up!

 

"He's ready for you, Red!" Cerulean Blue called from within his cockpit. "Give him a dose of SROAD justice!"

 

No! Vance flailed in the air as the Weapotron's blade eclipsed his body. How are these morons beating me?!

 

The robot's sword was far too big to suck up into a portal, so Vance grabbed on to one of the Radisraker's tentacles and let it pull him to the side. Vermilion Red tilted his blade in a last-minute effort to catch his foe.

 

The gleaming red face of the blade smashed right into the mess of tentacles, crushing Vance like a fly on a windshield, sandwiched between æsotech and metal earth. Screaming, he unleashed his psynergy once more, doing everything in his power to keep all the bones in his body from crumbling to pieces.

 

"You cannot win!" Vermilion Red insisted. "Evil is destined to lose!"

 

"Well? What do you think of my creations?" Takeda teased. "Try and take a guess as to how many Greymatters are connected together throughout all their mechs... No solitary human could ever survive such an augmentation – trust me, I've already tried it before!"

 

Vance shoved a burning palm upwards, doing his best to slice through the massive blade. As he slid his hand up, trying to cleave the sword in two, his body screamed out due to the strain, and another tentacle hit him hard in the back, knocking him to the side. Vance landed on the ground and heaved. His muscles ached, his body bled, but he was still alive.

 

"What?" Vermilion Red's voice echoed from his cybernetic gladiator. "How? How can this be?"

 

"We need to beat him down some more!" Myrtle Green added, as his mech deftly repositioned its guns.

 

"No, you idiots!" Takeda called angrily from the sky. "He's stunned! Use the finisher!"

 

I just need to catch my breath... Vance thought frantically, struggling on the ground. Hurry...

 

"The finisher?" Shocking Pink asked. "But the lab!"

 

"Forget about the lab! I want him dead! Now!!" Takeda screeched. "Do it or I'm going to fry you all myself! Victory is 100% guaranteed! My calculations are never wrong!"

           

"Roger!" Red's voice was followed by a cacophony of griding noises. "Gattai!"

 

The Dreadknought bent itself in half, creating a heavily-armed mobile platform from its chest. On top of it jumped the Weapotron, followed by the Gorgorotha, splitting its smooth body up into layers of ossified armor. Next came the Radisraker, who wrapped around the back of the herculean amalgamation and extended its long, waving ligaments toward the front. Finally, the Laconizoid snapped itself right into the center.

 

Takeda's maniacal laughter was barely audible over the symphony of churning as he nestled his dais on to the back quarter of the Weapotron's head. "This is it! Finish him!"

 

"Demolysm Robo!" Red bellowed. "Hasshin!"

Psynergy is about quality, not quantity. Vance staggered to his feet, an ant before the hulking, rainbow mess of machinery and Greymatters. At least...that's what I thought. But this...

 

The massive robot unleashed psynergy from every weapon attached to it, bathing Vance's world in a psychedelic convolution of color. Spreading through every corner of his eyes, smothering every pocket in his mind, Vance could sense nothing but pure, machine-powered, destructive energy.

 

This is too much... He stood frozen, hypnotized by the sheer volume of matter that combusted and generated before his eyes. I could never stop it all!

 

However, there was one tiny part of Vance's mind that was not captivated by the energy unloading before his eyes. A synapse connected to deep memories fired in his mind, responding to the faint sound of hurried footsteps clacking behind him. They drew closer, and a strange ripple of anxious excitement rushed through his body.

 

Gradually, the soft jingling of spurs grew closer – and that sound, no matter how minuscule it may have been, sounded painfully familiar.

 

It can't be... Vance panicked, so enthralled by the nostalgic sound that he nearly forgot to protect himself from the approaching onslaught. I must be going crazy...

 

In one moment, Vance had seen nothing but psynergy, ready to destroy him. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was all gone – and in its place stood a tall man, clad in a white cowboy hat, a matching pearl duster, tan slacks, and polished boots.

 

"C'mon, Vance..." he called out. "Don't tell me you slacked off the entire time I was gone?"

Next: Behind the Smoking Barrel