The Story!

The Command Center (The Day After Arrival in California)

Logan was not entirely sold on the notion that he needed to hold back even one tiny bit. He was still simmering mad after seeing his friend injured and hospitalized only a few days ago. He'd seen that he was still bruised and cut the previous night, even though the wounds were healing quickly. They didn't seem deep, just extremely painful. That was enough to send him into a frenzy, even though he'd been keeping the full extent of his dissatisfaction away from his friend. That boy, he thought, did not need any additional pressure when it came to this situation. The important thing was that he didn't get freaked out, and as long as Logan kept his cool and limited his anxiety to internal expression, everything would be fine! Probably.

As NERV stalled for a few minutes, Logan made sure to check in with Shinji. Continuing to speak Japanese, he asked his charge a fairly simple question. “How do you think we should do this?” It was a serious concern. They'd talked about it a little bit before, but hadn't entirely sussed the strategy out.

The kid frowned and said, “I don't really know anything about this sort of thing. You're smart, please use your best judgment.” He looked nervous, but he wasn't falling apart or anything like that.

Best judgment it was then. He'd have to play it cool, making sure that he didn't allow himself to get riled up. There was no need to instigate outright conflict if it wasn't necessary, but it was absolutely essential that the negotiations achieved tangible benefit for the high school boy. This was all for his sake, not some weird grab for power and influence on Logan's part. That was what he was telling himself, even though this was by definition a very obnoxious and overbearing plan.

“Rangers, please be ready to come into view. I may need a bit of backup,” Logan requested and admitted. The Rangers nodded in unison, if not in sync. Then Shinji stepped into view when Logan gestured 'come here' with his middle and index fingers together. They didn't have much time beyond this, as soon the Viewing Globe displayed a trio of individuals. On the left was Captain Katsuragi with her reassuring smile on display. On the right was the blonde woman whom Logan had come to know as Ritsuko Akagi, NERV's top scientific mind. In the middle should have been Commander Ikari, the man Logan wanted to speak to. It was not. Instead, it was the old man that Logan had seen only at other meetings and debriefing-related situations: Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki. He was an old and skinny Japanese man, and the diplomat had not successfully gotten a good read on him yet.

In fact, he was the first to speak. “Hello, Ambassador. I trust you're well, and have called this assembly for a purpose.” He didn't smile, or scowl or anything like that. In fact, he was almost a mirror of the cold pokerface Logan was trying to maintain at the moment. Just older, but with equally grey hair.

“Shinji Ikari and I are both well, and I assure you this meeting is of utmost importance,” Logan began. “Before we begin, though, I think we should wait for Commander-”

“That won't be necessary. I will be participating on his behalf.” Dull as dishwater, Fuyutsuki said these words with a finality that implied that any further inquiries at to the Commander's whereabouts would be fruitless.

This flipped the whole script, but Logan couldn't let them know how thrown off he was. Instead, he curtly responded. “In that case, I'll begin by clarifying that my actions are my own. The United Arms bears no responsibility for the actions its individual members take during their free time. That said, you should now consider the pilot of Evangelion 01 to be under my custody. He will only be returned to Tokyo-3 pending changes to the combat situation. Shinji, do you agree that this is correct?” Logan stared quite blankly, while Misato's jaw dropped and Ritsuko furrowed her brow. The Vice-Commander just stared back, his pokerface unbroken.

“Yes,” Shinji confirmed. “I also give full consent for you to speak on my behalf in this matter.” Shinji was obviously nervous, based on how clenched his hand was behind his back. He was keeping it together though, as he didn't have to do much but be assisted.

“Logan, are you nuts? Co-” Misato started, but was cut off.

“I see. What about his current terms of employment does Shinji find to be unacceptable?” Fuyutsuki answered in an everyday tone of voice like his faction wasn't being blackmailed.

“Where to begin? Safety is an obvious concern – in the wake of the fight several days ago, it's become evident that the current protections NERV has in place won't always be enough to keep him from injury and possible death. To put it simply, I'm taking it upon myself to enforce the hesitation and unwillingness to risk his life that Shinji has expressed verbally many times.” The Ambassador and Shinji shared a quick look at one another and the former continued, “Speaking clearly, he won't be fighting until you can assure his safety.”

Fuyutsuki looked as if he was considering the situation, but the scientist shot Logan down, scoffing. Ritsuko coldly shot back, “Shinji's unit has one of the greatest defensive powers imaginable already. If the AT Field isn't enough, it comes back to his skill as a pilot.” She looked at the pair of pilots like they were complete dolts, sneering and saying, “Maybe he should actually attend sync tests.”

Logan felt his face growing slightly hot with anger, but knew that she'd opened the floodgate. He nearly spat out, “No, it's clearly not just a matter of giving him a barrier. I know how those sync tests work, and I know that they can be just as dangerous as actual combat.” He looked at all three of the NERV representatives, checking for any sort of weakness of character. Of the three, Misato looked miserable, Dr. Akagi seemed pissed, and Vice-Commander looked like he was staring through the UA agent. It was sort of like he wasn't even looking at him.

Misato began to say “I don-”, but she was once again shut down. Ritsuko groaned and said, “That's ridiculous. It's literally just an extended diagnostic intended to test the sync ratio of the pilot, and challenge them to increase it manually. It's an extremely safe procedure.” She was practically rolling her eyes.

For the first time in this conversation, the grey-haired young man smiled. “Extremely safe if everything goes as planned,” he begun, taking an almost perverse satisfaction as he prepared to sock it to them. “It doesn't always go that way, though. I will say this right now: Shinji has told me about Rei Ayanami, and how she was injured in one of those very tests. If you can't even protect the pilots from their own machines, how can you expect Shinji to fight all the additional threats to Tokyo-3 that have already started arriving from other planets?” It was a bit weird to refer to alternate Earths as other planets, but that's what they were.

Fuyutsuki answered that question, taking control of the meeting since it was getting away from him. “The truth is that if he doesn't fight, he will die just as violently. You've asked for a guarantee of Shinji's safety, but we at NERV are the only ones offering him any chance of survival whatsoever.” The old man paused before continuing, “Make no mistake. If-”

“WARNING! Danger, danger! A monster is attacking the city!”

Logan whipped around, looking for the source of the voice. It was a silly looking humanoid robot, with a red and black frame, a lightning bolt on his chest, and what looked like a UFO for a head. Instead of eyes, it looked like it had some kind of eye visor, which was red and lit up at the moment. He was still shouting, “Rangers, you have to get out there!”

Misato was confused and asked, “What's going on over there?”

Logan answered quickly, gesturing for the squad to come into view. Seeing all five Power Rangers shuffle into view of the VG got perhaps the most surprised reaction of all from the NERV people. “We'll continue this later. In the meantime, the Power Rangers have business to attend to and so do I.”

Kim shouted in English, “Yeah! In fact, watch how we handle things.” She adjusted the Viewing Globe to a picture-in-picture setup, and the assembled on both sides of the ocean got their first view of the attacking creature. Well, at least that was what Logan assumed would be the case. He turned out to be correct, as a view of what looked to be a golf course was under attack by a giant pile of rocks assembled into humanoid form. He didn't really get the correlation, or why this particular monster was chosen for this purpose, but he looked to be screwing it up pretty badly, and was chasing around people who were riding golf carts. It looked like he'd herded them together, and was a decently fast runner despite being made of stones. In the globe's other picture, the NERVites were talking, but the audio on their stream was muted so they were just shouting into the wind. It was quite a funny image, but both of the foreign pilots were paying close attention to the feed of the golf course.

“Rangers, this is Rockstar.” Zordon spoke, in his usual semi-boom. “Like all Repulsa Gang monsters, it is extremely dangerous and must be handled immediately. However, Rita has already used her wand to increase his size. You will not be able to handle this on foot.” It was certainly far huger than Bones – more like King Sphinx's massive height, as Logan recalled. This was only his second encounter with a giant-sized monster sent by Ms. Repulsa, and he was actually a little relieved at the thought that he didn't have a mecha to scramble in.

“In that case, we need Dinozords!” The leader of the Rangers raised her hand to the sky, and emitted a brief burst of pink energy from her glove. “I'll head out ahead of everyone and intercept it! The rest of you, try and combine! We need to show NERV what our Zords can really do, and fighting separately won't cut it!”

Yellow, on the other hand, looked completely unconvinced. “That's not really safe at all, is it? You can't afford to always run off by yourself just because you have the fastest Zord. We should all go together, and fight as a full team.” She crossed her arms and stared down her leader.

“Holding back isn't safe either! We need to hit Rockstar hard and fast, and I can get some info on how he fights since my Zord will be safe. Then all you four have to do is seal the deal!” Ms. Hart held her hands at her hips and stared back.

“There's no need for conflict, Rangers. Both of your approaches have merit-” The giant head began, but was interrupted, because nobody could get a word in edgewise that day.

“They do, but we can only pick one! Logan, what do you think?” Kim asked, putting the pressure back on the Ambassador.

Well, gee.

Choice Time!

>Logan had to give Kim some credit: her moxie was unparalleled, and it was true that she could get in and get as much information as possible.  Plus, what was that about combining?  It sounded interesting.

>The Yellow Ranger was clearly wise and protective.  Her words rang true – the Power Rangers were surely stronger together than they were separately.  It would take a little more time to engage Rockstar,  but NERV would get to see all the Zords in individual combat.

The Command Center, mere minutes after the Rangers received their warning

Okay, so he'd gotten in between a pair of Power Rangers and possibly created a minor splinter in the group's unity by favoring one over another. That probably wouldn't be a problem, right? Logan was a little nervous about this, as he watched the Zords travel through the city with incredible speed and safety. The Wonderchild and Eva 01 rarely harmed their usual urban environment outside of battles, but the unbelievable ancient animal themed robots were jumping over buildings and traveling at high speed without even cracking the pavement. “They're definitely superhero machines,” he noted out loud as he stared into the beautiful globe.

Well, actually not all of them were equally skillfully piloted. The Pink Kimber, despite being able to fly over buildings, was soaring quite low, dodging through streets full of buildings, doing barrel rolls and looping back every once in a while so as to not leave her fellow Power Rangers behind. It would be fair to assume that she was trying to let off steam over the fact that Logan had sided with the Yellow Ranger, but there couldn't really be reasonable confirmation of that either way. Despite the riskiness of such behavior, she was pulling it off. A few near misses notwithstanding, that awesome girl did not hit a single thing except air. It was fun to watch the Pterodactyl in action, if the ambassador was honest about it.

Seeing that he had very little time before the Rangers engaged their opponent the grey haired dudeski turned toward the teenager he had 'captured'. “Hey, Shinji. Sorry our little chat had to get-” spoke Logan, before realizing that his roomie was already engaged in a chat.

He was offering his hand to the robot that had shouted the warning earlier, and introduced himself. “I am Shinji. Nice to meet you.” he said, having mastered these simple English phrases quite well. It was a bit obvious that the Japanese teen wasn't quite sure what to make of the short little robot. Eh, he wasn't that short. I'm not talking Custom Robo size, nor Mouse Droid size, nor even R2D2 size. He was short like a slightly below average human.

“Hello Shinji, it is nice to meet you in person! Zordon has updated my data banks with your information.” The little dude seemed perky enough, even though his movement was slightly stilted. “I am Alpha Five, lovable robot and assistant to Zordon and the Power Rangers. Do you understand my speech?” Alpha tilted his head slightly to the side, possibly a practiced gesture since he hadn't human facial features to express himself with.

“A little. Good we know you, Alfafive.” Shinji looked like he was actually glad to be speaking to the robot. Maybe it was a little bit of a distraction from the direction the talk was heading before it was interrupted. Maybe it was the cute and high pitched lil' voice the robot had. Maybe Shinji just liked bright colors and smooth surfaces. You never can tell what's going on in that kid's brain. He's disturbed.

The huge head began talking, and though it was obvious that he was speaking to his rangers he made himself audible to those physically present. “Rangers, you have nearly arrived at Sage Links. Have you developed an engagement strategy?”

The Red Ranger answered this question. “Yeah! The golf course is wide open territory, so all we have to do is hit Rockstar from five different directions and we'll take him down! No way he can beat all five Dinozords at the same time!” This was a very, very simple plan. Logan wondered if Red thought of this, but realized it probably didn't matter. After all, once Logan got to see the Dinozords in action, it was obvious to him what the other creatures were. The Yellow Ranger was clearly a sabretooth tiger rider, while the Black Ranger piloted a giant black mastodon. What Logan had figured for a carnosaur was actually the Red Ranger's tyrannosaurus rex. His guess that Blue's mech was a triceratops was correct, at least, and they were all totally wicked giant robots. It wasn't hard to have full faith in their ability to beat a giant pile of rocks.

While they'd made the trip mostly together, the gang split off for their approach so that they could position correctly. Essentially they were forming a star shape, with the Pink Ranger approaching the links from the north, and the others adapting points roughly even distance from one another going clockwise. The order of this theoretical clock was, pretty simply, Red-Blue-Black-Yellow. If there was a tactical value to this formation and order beyond merely encircling, it wasn't readily apparent. Now was the time for the Power Rangers' power to be rangered. Wait, no. Not rangered, revealed. That's the ticket.

“Ready?” asked Kimberly over the voice communication stream the globe and Zords were operating on. Before the other heroes could even confirm that they were, she followed this up with “Charge!” and this they did!

The charge came not a moment too soon, with all 5 mecha launching toward the inner areas of the 18-hole course. The reason it was well-timed is that Rockstar was literally holding a golf cart full of old people in his wicked mitts. This ended practically the exact moment the mecha got close enough for him to notice their now-wild tromping. Unfortunately, instead of being frightened by this assault the pile of stones seemed thrilled.

“Power Rangers! I knew you jerks would show your dumb faces! Come and get me!” the giant pile of red-orange rocks said, and threw the golf cart towards the Mastodon! It looked like the 'pass' was good, though. The Black Ranger was able to catch it using his machine's MastoTrunk, and was able to tell from a brief visual check that the passengers had thankfully been able to hold on for dear life. Things did not go entirely well, since the damn Star of Rocks had more ammunition than just a cart! He actually grabbed rocks off his own body and threw them at the same target! Maybe it seemed slower than the others, or maybe it was just a bigger target, but Rockstar's aim was true. BR was a little too busy lowering the civilians to safety to pay enough attention to dodging, and as a result his machine got pelted by a few of the smallish stones. Generally, this would be a problem only if it did serious damage, but something was off about what happened.

The stones remained stuck to the Mastodon, and it looked like it was having a little trouble continuing its charge towards the fiend. “Guys, I'm hit. Something's gummin' up the works!” It looked like he was struggling, with some of the stones having impacted on his unit's legs. As well, it wasn't just one barrage of stones. No, the monster was throwing fist after fist of them, even though the other units were practically on top of him, and Kimberly's pink lightning was already firing at him.

In fact, that same girl shouted over comms, “That's good stuff, B! Keep taking those stone shots and we'll rip this idiot apart!” as she bombarded the target with pink energy.

“Yeah, nobody calls us jerks! He's the jerk!” shouted Red as he went in to pound and swipe with his unit's small but functional arms. Sadly, that ranger's T-Rex had apparently gotten a little too close. Shortly after he spoke, Rockstar wrapped his arm around the bright red mecha and slammed himself to the ground, taking the robot with him! This had a few effects: the pink bolts started missing since he was lower, and the yellow and blue Dinozords, which both had been charging for their own sort of tackle had their attacks stuffed in different ways. While the Sabretooth Tiger had leaped for a pounce, the Triceratops was piloted to to a grounded kind of bash. Yellow missed entirely, while Blue failed to make the impact he needed on a now horizontally-oriented Rockstar.

“You Power Dummies are as brainless as these rocks! Have some more!” That's what RS shouted as he started smashing the prone Tyrannosaurus with one fist while chucking a few slightly larger boulders at the blue vehicle that had failed to successfully ram him. Predictably, those attached as well. However, unlike the Black Ranger it seemed like Blue would have a hell of a time getting them off. His machine had no trunk, after all.

Logan, for his part, was still impressed by the Rangers even though Rita's monster was doing quite well against them. He considered offering them a bit of unsolicited tactical advice, but before he could make a decision his phone buzzed. It was a message from the purpleheaded captain, and it didn't seem cute or bubbly like she usually tried to make her texts come across as.

“Very fucking rude.” The ambassador from the UA quickly looked into the picture-in-picture shot of the NERV people. They were all still there, and Misato looked to be biting her lip slightly, staring straight into the camera. She looked confused and unhappy, despite being able to see a good shot of the exciting battle.

“Do you think they can still see us?” wondered the Third Child aloud.

“Maybe...” Logan answered, not sure himself.

Choice Time!

>Logan wanted to chime in, and would indeed.  He thought it would probably be a good idea to focus on getting the stones off as quickly as possible.  They were gumming up the works.

>Logan really didn't love the idea of interfering with the Rangers' funky flow.  Nobody likes a backseat pilot, and for all he knows if they spend time getting every little rock, the Star will kick their butts.

Other Choice Time!

>Logan took the easy way out and did not text Misato back.

>Logan took a more challenging path and texted back.  You may choose which direction he might like to steer the conversation in.  This would be your very first open ended choice!

The Command Center, Watching Rockstar vs the Dinozords

To be honest, Logan wasn't keen on being Captain Obvious. The idea of getting sticky rocks off their mecha's bodies did seem a little too 'doy' to bring up, but these were top heroes. It seemed like they might work like individual little drones, or foils to put it another way, but Logan couldn't be sure exactly how the rocks operated. Did Rockstar have some kind of preternatural ability to control them? He could never be sure exactly how these monsters and their powers worked. Between Bone Zones, Giant Sphinxes, and now walking boulder collaborations, it was obvious to Logan that there was practically no pattern as to what kind of monsters were sent from the moon. Well, one. He hadn't seen a female monster yet, despite the boss of the villains apparently being called Rita Repulsa and being an evil witch.

Logan was distracting himself, thinking about those sorts of things. He really didn't know what to say to Misato. However, he was honestly feeling pretty damn solid about the path he was on, and the somewhat showy way of expressing that he and Shinji were in a safe position to bargain from was a part of what was making this the case. Because of this, he felt the need to be pretty damn honest. Let's be real, though – Logan honestly didn't like what was fucking going on, and decided to drop a truth bomb on Misato. His fingers glided rapidly across his phone's screen, tapping out the answer that he decided to go with.

“Manipulating kids into riding giant deathtraps is pretty goddamn rude as well,” he typed back, before hitting send without even hesitating. Sure, he could have tried to relate to her, and remind her that obviously the Power Rangers had not chosen to have their home city attacked at that particular moment. Moreover, he didn't want to get distracted by the message. Instead Logan got back to paying close attention to the fight, which was going... okayish. All 5 units were still in fighting condition, and at a glance it looked like bits of rock were being broken off from the boulders composing Rockstar. That was Kim's work, as she bobbed and weaved through the skies to make herself a poor choice of target and blasted with her usual blue lightning streams.

On the other hand, there was a quickly worsening scene that was arising. While the Tyrannosaurus was still struggling to get up against the weight of the monster pinning him down, it looked like the Mastodon Dinozord was getting absolutely buried. It was quickly becoming obvious that even though the Black Ranger was operating his machine's trunk with full speed and efficiency, it was not a viable option for him to dodge additional projectiles. Blue and Yellow seemed to be circling the enemy and using their comms to coordinate it. The two pilots were clearly looking for the right moment to charge and pounce, in the process maybe freeing their Red teammate from being pinned and bashed on. With the arm he wasn't using to chuck stones, Rockstar was even grinding the tooth T Rex mecha's head into the grass. Well, actually on further inspection Logan realized there wasn't any grass on Sage Links. It had looked like it, but mounting damage from Rockstar slamming the red unit into the ground was exposing the fact that it was all some kind of facsimile. The eco-friendliness of such a gorgeous golf course would impress Logan if he wasn't getting antsy.

As he stared into the viewing globe and ignored a quiet buzz of his phone for now, the main thing he was thinking was that he would much rather be inside of the Wonderchild than there at the base. He could have provided incredible tactical value even if he was just knocking rocks off of units, but transporting it would have been out of the question for the incognito strategy he was going for. Instead, he bit the bullet and put on the figurative Captain's Hat. Pressing the button that seemed to let him speak towards the globe and be heard, he addressed the team as calmly and respectfully as he could. “Rangers, Black definitely needs help. You guys can't let yourselves get buried in stone!”

“No crud, Corgan! The world's best superheroes are not getting buried by rocks in our giant metal robots, d-” begun saying the Pink Ranger, before the rest of what she was saying ('-on't worry', to be specific) was subsumed by the Blue Ranger.

“No, he's right! The Mastodon's a sitting duck with as many boulders as it has attached!” shouted the blue dude, his concern obvious even under his anonymity-protecting mask.

On the other hand, Black didn't seem to agree. “I'm fine, just keep hitting him as hard as you can! I'll get these off!” To his credit, he was operating the trunk as fast as he could, but it looked bad.

Yellow ended up shotcalling, serenely stating “That doesn't work for me.” As she carefully stalked Rockstar and pounced, she said “Now! Blue, use your horns to pull them off!” The pounce made contact, and indeed knocked Rockstar off of the Tyrannosaurus he was mounting and into a nearby sand trap! Pretty, white golf course sand scattered around, but settled fairly quickly. It wasn't much of a visual disturbance, like some weird sandstorm attack or anything like that.

“You want to go, Pikachu? Let's go!” growled Rockstar, as he tried to pull off the bright yellow sabretooth tiger mecha that was pounding and clawing at the area his neck would be on a normal humanoid. As this happened, he was entirely unaware of the fact that the Triceratops was driving over to the Mastodon and launching three spearlike horns from its head! These seemed to be attached to long, stretchy looking cables, and each speared into individual stones. Just as fast as they'd extended, they retracted and pulled the stones away!

Between this and the trunk doing work together, the Mastodon was sooner than later clear and free! The places where the immobilizing, irregularly shaped semi-orbs smashed into him and stuck on looked like they had taken some pressure damage! As Logan saw this on the screen, a thought crossed his mind that he would have possibly been crushed if he'd not made the suggestion he did. Maybe they'd have noticed anyway, though. Either way, the Black Ranger spoke up. “You my boy, Blue!” he said, continuing on to say “Hey... I just figured something out.” The teen in the black suit stroked his chin briefly, like he'd just had a serious epiphany. However, this epiphany went out the window when he saw that the Yellow Dinozord was being lifted in the air, stones strategically placed to block its cool silver colored limbs from moving with any sort of agility or power. “Red! If you're good, tail whip that sucka into the water hazard!” He pointed with his giant robot trunk towards a nearby body of water that was designed to make the golf course more challenging.

Cut-in:

The Red Power Ranger fist pumped in his machine, the small cockpit view showing this in a second picture-in-picture box on the viewing globe (the first still showing the Tokyo-3ple at NERV HQ in silence). “I'm more than good! I'm great!” he shouted, before clomping over a few steps and slamming his robot's segmented red and silver tail into the torso of Rockstar just before he was able to smash the tiger into the ground as he'd planned. As predicted, the momentum combined with his sheer size forced Rockstar to land in the water hazard. Unfortunately for the good guys overall, the monster wasn't fully submersed thanks to its huge size. Unfortunately for the Yellow Ranger, her mecha was now falling all on its own, having been knocked out of Rockstar's grip when he was tail smashed. Unfortunately for the Red Ranger she'd been hit too far and his machine's arms were too stubby to catch her!

Fortunately for Kim, she had a hella fast mecha and hadn't gotten a good shot at Rockstar for a while because he had her teammate grappled. The Pterodactyl rocketed through the sky with great speed, scooping up her fellow female Ranger's unit using its largely flat and stable frame! Even though the huge cat mecha was bulkier, the pink, red and white one was easily able to carry it. Logan smiled seeing this, but refocused back on the monster being fought. That was going fairly well too, as Mastodon was practically being made to stampede!

The pile of rocks had just started to pick himself up and out of the body of water, but the semi-crushed looking pachyderm stood proud and tall. “Cool your jets, Rockstar!” was all he said, broadcasting it using the same voice amplification Kim had used the night Logan met her. Beyond those four words action would do the talking, and in this instance the action would come in the form of a concentrated white mist emanating from the Mastodon's trunk opening! It wasn't initially clear what it was until it made contact with the pool of water, freezing it on contact and rapidly locking Rockstar into the position he was in as he was trying to stand. This consisted of both feet and his left arm touching the water, and because of that he found himself quite stuck.

RS initially raised his right arm (presumably to try to smash himself out of bondage), but quickly realized the realized the stream of icy mist was not stopping and in fact the chill and immobility was spreading to his entire body. Because of this, he growled “Oh god!” before seizing up tightly. These would prove to be his last words, as before any of his teammates could crash the party and take the credit, the black and silver unit charged forward once again, literally jumping into the air despite its general lack of agility! Whilst midair, the Mastodon gracefully crunched through Rockstar's very being, shattering the monster to pieces and saving the day!

“YEAH!” said every single Power Ranger, as those six musical notes that Logan had already come to associate with the Power Rangers filled the air both at Sage Links, and in the Command Center.

While one might be hesitant about such a monster as Rockstar being killed, it seemed the pieces were quite inert. The leader of the Rangers spoke directly to NERV, asking “What did you guys think of that? Badass, huh?” Because of this, Ritsuko was rolling her eyes, while Misato looked to be holding back the fact that yes, she thought it was cool. Fuyutsuki, still stone faced like he thinks he's a poker world champion. Meh. Kim was glad the team she lead had all done well and told Logan, “Feel free to get back to the meeting. I'll make sure the squad gets back to your side asap!”

“Well done, Rangers. As your Pink has said, please return at once. I have much to say to all of you.” Zordon said to his Rangers, smiling like a proud father.

Finally, the Zord feed was broken, and all that was left was three employees of the Japanese organization. “I know I enjoyed watching that. These are the heroes protecting us, so I hope now you understand what kind of a position we're negotiating from.” said Logan, still smiling at how awesome the MMPR were.

Misato, on the other hand, did not look happy. “The Commander has sent over a statement.”

It was Fuyutsuki that read it, though. Speaking the words as he read them off a slip of paper the Vice Commander explained, “NERV's official position is that at this time we will not negotiate with those who seek to blackmail us. If Pilot Ikari is returned to Tokyo-3 and NERV's protection immediately, we will reconsider seeking retaliation against the individual or individuals responsible for this kidnapping. You have 24 hours to make your choice before this deal is off the table.” This was the last thing said before NERV cut off the feed on their end.

“Logan... That didn't sound good.” Shinji said, whatever small amount of color and vitality there was in his face draining out. “Did they just threaten you?”

The Ambassador groaned. “Not officially.”

Chapter 5 - Farewell Tokyo 3 Complete

Ending theme:

Choice Time!

>Logan realized he had fucked up.  Honestly, he'd expected them to buckle or negotiate, not stonewall him.  He figured it would be a good idea to get back to Tokyo-3, while Shinji stayed in Angel Grove where he was safest.  He would negotiate in person.

>Logan decided to stay the course.  He and Shinji had come to California, and it was not going to be so easy to rattle him.  Instead, he would request that the Wonderchild be sent to Angel Grove as a safety concern.  If he had to, he could request a temporary transfer to being the Ambassador to the United States instead.  With his successful record, it would surely be granted.

Can we ask Shinji what he thinks? 'cause otherwise we're only about 60% better than NERV.

Well, let's do what the kid wants and call in the Wonderchild and all those favors for shifting ambassadorship.

Poor Misato. Tell her we don't blame her. Situation sucks. But we've gotta do what we think's right.

Episode 6 – Do You See What Eyes See



“Do it!”

“Doooo it!”

“You can make it!”

“Don't let us down!”

“I'll do it!”

Shinji, against all proper logic and reason, went ahead and slid! Despite the fact that the slide begun its descent many meters above the ground, and despite the fact that the fall was nearly entirely vertical. He didn't care, even though he had never been on one! Arms across his chest, he descended toward the ground, “Ahhhhhh!” emitting from his mouth all the way! It was a truly incredible sight, and one to be proud of. As he rode the water all the way to the landing zone, his new associates were cheering like mad! And by associates, that refers to all five unmasked rangers and fat boy Logan!

Well, he wasn't that fat. He just looked chubby compared to the Kimberly, Zack, Jason, Trini, Billy, and especially the super skinny little Shinji Ikari. Still, he had a really cool pair of grey swim trunks with a white stripe on it, so he was feeling like a boss. Three days had passed since NERV had issued their ultimatum, with two days having passed since their deadline elapsed and just one day had elapsed since the Power Rangers had revealed their secret identities to their guests. It was actually quite an honor, since they'd initially shown such apprehension to unmask in front of a NERV employee. Did Shinji still count as one, even? Whether he was or not, it didn't matter: he had made it through the tallest and most intense ride in the park.

“Congratulations Shinji!” cheered Kimberly Hart, clapping and looking cute in her little pink swimsuit.

“Congratulations, Shinji!” concurred the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston. He had these nerdy looking goggles on, suiting his typical geeky white boy persona.

“Congrats, Shinji!” commended Zack Taylor, the Black Ranger who was also black skinned. Logan tried not to laugh when he realized that was the case.

“Congratulations, Shinji!” said Trini Kwan, the skinny but precise Yellow Ranger.

“Congratulations Shinji!” said Jason Lee Scott, the only remaining ranger that wasn't a part of the love fest.

“Con-gratulations, Shinji!” yelled Logan, clapping his hands as he watched the muscular Red Ranger pick Shinji up and place him on his shoulders like he was marching around a triumphant king.

Shinji just said, “Thank you.” and blushed like crazy. He didn't really know what to say to such an ovation. On that night he had been spending the day with new friends at Water Explosion, the most X-Treme water slide park in all of Angel Grove! While they'd spent the entire day riding tubes, lazing in the river, and sucking down snow cones, night had come and that meant that it was just about time to be exiting the park. The most crestfallen was probably the Red Ranger, Jason. He looked a little crestfallen when the announcement came on the loudspeaker. “Dudes and Dudettes, that's the end of another cuh-ray-zy day at Water Explosion! Come back and ride the pipes again next time!” was what it said.

It had been JLS's idea, proposed when Logan admitted he'd never been to such a business. Clearly this was something Jason was into in a big way, and even though it was time to leave the sea blue colored park, he was still having a great day. With that in mind, he continued carrying around the Tokyo-3 resident, and the entire squad was happy as clams. Even Logan, who had to use hella sunscreen so as not to burn, was in a happy mood. As they exited, the young people naturally had to retrieve their personal effects from the lockers included with admission. It seemed like there was a very welcome message on his phone. “The package is downtown,” along with some coordinates – from United Arms Mechanic Division!

“Yes!” he exclaimed, unbelievably happy about how things were going. Sure, NERV had cut off all communications, and yes, he had gotten into a fairly risky situation. But hey, he was happy to be there with his allies, and the fact of the matter was that this was going to be his new home! In light of the fact that he was allowed to stick around in the newly integrated version of California as Ambassador to the states, Logan realized that he was going to have a ton of fun if he played his cards right.

“Okay Team,” Kim addressed her friends, going on to ask “I want ideas! The sun may be down, but that doesn't mean we have to go home!” She was back in her street clothes, and was striding back towards the van they'd taken to get there alongside the others.

“We could head out to the park, and see if there's a bonfire going. Those are usually fun.” Zack pitched in, advocating for flame despite his mecha being aligned with cold.

Logan was still smiling from the fact that the package was downtown. “I could show you all my mecha! It's here.” He raised his grey eyebrows a few times – the international symbol of being a creep, generally. Not that he was one.

“We could split up and all get a good night's sleep!” Billy the nerd suggested. It was an option.

The Yellow Ranger thought about it for a second like they all did, but unlike them she decided to speak up. “Logan, it looks like you really want to show us your mecha. Is the itch really that bad?” She warmly beamed at him, having identified the fact that he was a mark for his unflashy giant robot.

Choice Time!

>”Yes.  You totally have to see this thing.”  Logan really liked that idea.

>”Nah, let's hit up the park!  There's got to be something fun going on at a bonfire!”  Logan had never been to one, actually!

>”Nah, let's call it a night.”  Logan was the oldest in the group, and therefore had to make the boring but responsible choices.  It's just how these things work.

You cant spell good times without Bonfire.

Lets go get our Bonfire on guyz.

Also sorry I thought I already voted here at Gamefaqs.