Chapter Text
Tall, crystalline spires burned as the warships of the Alternian Empire fired away upon the peaceful world.
Her Imperial Condescension stood atop her royal battleship, HER IMPERIAL CRUISER, as it rained fire down upon one of Crystalia's famed Four Giants, the last remaining of the four- the Speed Giant- was facing Destiny itself.
Crystalia was making its final stand against the Alternian Empire, and she was losing.
King Oladin hurried his precious daughter along down the ruined hallways. The mans very body was made of a royal blue hued crystal, the same as his daughter's, but it was battered- cracked and damaged.
His Kiramental was running low- his sparkle and shine was dimming fast. The King was on death's door, and he and his daughter knew it. It was why the king's brother was fighting the Empress of Alternia and not him.
They paused on a bridge connecting to the royal palace, and gazed out at the Speed Giant as the upper torso cracked- cracked cracked cracked- white fragments of stone breaking apart before the Speed Giant split apart violently in a burst of light- the main body returning to the Black Kiramei Stone as Mashin Jouki shrunk in size to prevent its own demise...
And alas, the poor Kiramei Stone in the center of it all shattered into fragments- glittering with the burning light of Crystalia's fall.
"Uncle...!" The princess cried out, reaching out in horror.
"We must hurry, Mabushiina!" The king declared, and dragged his daughter away from the scene.
Still, they entered the throne room- the throne room where an Ancient, Destiny Style Stargate and an Alternian styled Stargate dialer resided- stolen away from one of the Empress' worlds. A daring act that had been born of desperation- an act that was so very unlike the peaceful Crystalian culture, and yet...
King Oladin had only one choice in the matter if he were to save his people.
King Oladin turned to his daughter, "Please, Mabushiina, take the Kiramei Stones with you. Find the Sparkling Warriors- the Kiramagers! Fight with them against these tyrants who threaten our peace!"
"I- I'll try, Father!" The Princess nodded, and hurried for the back of the throne, where the five Kiramei Stones were hidden- Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, and Green were removed from their carefully carved slots in the back of the throne as the King went for the Alternian Stargate's Dialing Device.
His Dreams had shown him but one way to preserve his culture.
The day of Crystalia's fall... A series of symbols were to be put into the Stargate's dialer.
He punched them into the dialer rapid fire, and waited as the sluggish, Ancient Stargate slowly rotated within its place in the floor.
The Empress had upgraded her intergalactic Gate network over time, but Crystalia's Stargate was the last of those ancient models that had first been seeded across the Galaxy.
It had stood time immemorial within a museum until just recently, when the Alternians dialed in, checking for an ancient gate to be replaced.
The symbols on the gate lit up slowly, one at at time.
'Too slow, hurry! Hurry!'
The King turned for his painting pad, and tore off the most recent sheet of paper. He folded it, and handed it to his daughter. "Please, when you arrive, dial this address. It will be a safe haven! They will not follow you there!"
"But, Father! I can't leave you!" the princess began, having finished securing the Kiramei stones into a bag. "You must come with me!"
"I cannot, my dear," The King said, his tone of voice sorrowful, and his body resonated with the emotion. "That is not my Destiny."
WAAA WAAAA! The Stargate announced, and then, in the back of the room- KAWOOOOOSH!
A wave of blue water like light rushed forwards, and then collapsed into a standing wall of shimmering, glimmering light. Hope, and potential, for the future.
"You must go!" Oladin said, motioning for the open Stargate. "Now, before the-"
There was an explosion then- and the throne room doors burst open with a shower of flame and sparks.
In walked an Alternian SUBJUGGLATOR, as well as... a masked man in dark armor, carrying under one arm the Black Kiramei Stone for Mashin Jouki.
"GO!" The King drew his sword, and interjected himself between the princess, and the strange warrior and the Alternian clown, by means of roaring and throwing himself at his enemies.
The Princess rushed for the Stargate and paused to watch for one last moment as her Father fought bravely to his last breath... and then hurled herself through its event horizon.
"DAMN IT!" The Clown roared.
"NO!" The dark suited warrior cried out- and... And the King faltered.
"...Garuza?!" Oladin asked, having recognized his own brother's voice. "You dared betray us to the Alternians!?"
The suited warrior turned his head towards the king- and a Crystalian chime rang through the air.
His brother was laughing even as he held a hand into the air, and the Clown growled, taking a step backwards.
"Yes, my dear Older Brother... It is I, Garuza. And I was to do what you thought you were! I was to preserve our culture by handing those Kiramei Stones over to the Empress of Alternia..." The suited warrior spoke. "But now I-"
The King interrupted then- swinging his foot out and kicking the Black Kiramei Stone out of his Brother's loosened grasp- sending the thing twirling, spiraling through the air before it bounced off of the ceiling and traveling through the Stargate.
The Stargate timed out after the transmission was completed for some inexplicable reason, and the Clown and the Traitor gazed in shock at the Stargate as it shut down.
"Hah..." Oladin laughed- a chime of his own echoing in the room amidst the sounds of battle outside. "That is one more of my Mashin's taken out of your grasp, Little Brother."
The Traitor roared- and a dark power burst forth from his sword as he swung it in a rage at his brother- who dodged the first strike and allowed that dark energy to smash into the Alternian DHD- blasting it and shattering it into pieces.
But the dark power that had been tapped into did not stop there.
No, the blast of power from that first sword strike continued on and smashed into the ancient model of Stargate itself- a model that was nowhere near as stable or resilient as the newer models that the Empress of Alternia had rolled out.
That is to say, an Alternian Stargate might have withstood that blast much better than the Destiny of this poor Stargate.
It shattered, blown apart as energy ruptured across the entire Stargate's superstructure- rattling out through the chevrons even as the cut continued on wards through the stargate itself and into the wall beyond.
When the smoke cleared, it was clear as day to see that the Stargate would not be dialing out again ever, for it lay in pieces scattered across the room.
A small fragment of that Stargate had found itself lodged within the chest of the Clown accompanying the Traitor.
Purple blood spilled onto the floor, and the Traitor could only stare on in horror as his accomplice fell to his knees, and then onto his front- fully driving that shard of metal through the clown's heart, silencing it.
The Traitor turned on his brother, and could only stare on as the King breathed his last breaths, spending them laughing, mirthlessly, at the turn of events as he, too, understood that he had a large shard of Stargate protruding from his backside.
"So... it seems your attack struck me true regardless..." The King would have smiled if he could have. "I hope your attempt at selling us into slavery was worth it, my brother..."
And then, the King of Crystalia fell onto his side, and passed on into the next life.
The Traitor stood there in silence, and then removed his helmet, revealing the face of a Crystalian whose body was dark purple in crystalline hue. Some would have even dared to say that it was as black as his armor... but it wasn't. Not yet.
The Traitor fell to his knees, and allowed the dark power within him to corrupt his form further, darkening the Crystal of his body deeper in color, and deeper into the depths of despair as he mourned not the death of the man he'd planned to kill all along, but the death of his plans to rule Crystalia in his brother's stead. Even his eyes changed color, shifting from the natural blue color of the Crystalian species towards an ominous red color.
All that remained of who the man was before was the golden hue of the crystals that made up an appearance of facial hair.
"She's going to kill me," The Traitor whispered. "The Empress... she's going to kill me."
Crystalia had truly fallen that day...
As a tear of golden light suddenly opened where the Stargate had resided, and the Traitor shielded his eyes from the sight...
He had no way of knowing that the world his brother had sent his niece to was one that was at the nexus hub of countless time loops.
Oladin had not been lying when he said the Empire could not follow her through to the next address she dialed through the DHD on the planet Haven.
After all, solar flares and Stargate wormholes tend to equal a total temporal displacement when a traveler passes through.
The princess never saw the stone for Mashin Jouki lying on the forest floor as she fled through the Stargate while the sky turned to crimson.
No, but one of the native monkey like creatures did, grabbing the stone, and carrying it with it deep into the forest, where it would burry it in the ground along with several nuts and seeds, thinking the Kiramei Stone too was itself a seed waiting to grow.
And so Mashin Jouki slept for a very, very long time as a tree grew around it.
MASHIN SENTAI: KIRAMAGER.
EPISODE ZERO, SIDE B.
EARTH DATE: FEBRUARY 4TH, 2011.
Princess Mabushiina of Crystalia awoke, lying in a bed, gazing up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
Grateful for the fact that her crystal eyes could gaze in all directions without visibly moving, she looked around, and came to realize she was in an infirmary of some kind, onboard a spaceship.
The design was unfamiliar to her, but... but there was someone sitting calmly in a chair nearby, reading a book. Someone who was distinctly Alternian.
The woman who sat there wore no military uniform that Mabushiina recognized- in fact, she seemed wholly... mundane. Civilian. But there was an air about her, something Powerful. Something... Definitely powerful. A leader. A commander? Maybe a General.
Her eyes... her eyes were a shade of green.
Green wasn't... what was it with the Alternians? Royal was Purples, and the lowest were Red... Greens were in the middle?
She didn't look like any kind of body guard, and more to the point--
There! There on a desk nearby were the Kiramei Stones. Why? Why would the Alternians leave them unguarded?
Something wasn't right.
Something-- Mabushiina's hands tensed up, clenching at the sheets. The noise was enough to cause the woman to glance away from her book, and then asked, "Are you awake this time, or are you just having more bad dreams?"
...More...?
Mabushiina froze, tried to pass it off as if she were sleeping still but- but--
"I suppose if you're actually awake this time," the woman closed her book, "I should call for a nurse, or a doctor. But somehow I think that might just scare you more." She turned in her chair, and made the book vanish from her hands into thin air. "You can keep pretending to be asleep if you'd like to. Or maybe you still are asleep? Who can tell. You're not a species any of us have encountered before."
"...What?" Mabushiina spoke it aloud. The gig was up. She forced herself to sit up. "What do you mean by that-!? You're an Alternian! Your people were just attacking my planet!"
"Were we?" The woman mused. "Or maybe it's just a matter of perspective." She made a pamphlet appear in her hand with a swooshing motion, and handed it over. "You may want to read this."
Hesitantly, Mabushiina took the pamphlet.
Its surface was coated in two different alien scripts- one the Alternian language, and the other some alien font she didn't recognize, but somehow could understand both, and saw that they read the same sentence.
"So you were found next to a Stargate on a planet known for its Solar Flares. What happened?"
"...What do solar flares have to do with anything?" Mabushiina asked.
"The long story made short is that the planet you were found on- we call it Haven- is in orbit of a sun with frequent Solar Flares, and when a Stargate Wormhole interacts with a Solar Flare in just the right way... Time Travel happens," the woman then offered her hand, "My name is General Okurii Leijon, I'm the head of Diaspora's Stargate Command, and from our point of view, the Alternian Empire was disbanded around half a decade ago, and the planet Alternia itself nolonger exists."
Mabushiina could only hazard a guess- "You mean... I'm in the future?"
"We figure you came from around a thousand years ago, based on the solar flare database," 'Okurii Leijon' said, hand still extended.
Mabushiina gazed at the offered hand, and hesitantly reached her own hand out to touch it.
They grasped, and shook.
"So when you say that you've never encountered my people before...?" Mabushiina began...
"We couldn't find your race from descriptions alone in any of the records we inherited from the Empire's database catalogues stretching back at least two thousand years," Okurii answered. "That's not to say you don't exist in it somewhere, but... you likely gave the Empress such a humiliating defeat that she decided it was better to revision history so that you didn't exist as anything more than a footnote. But if we had a name to work off of, maybe we'd be able to narrow our searches better."
Mabushiina considered for a moment, and then said. "I am Princess Mabushiina, of the Kingdom of Crystalia. My father is... Was King Oladin."
"Crystalia..." Okurii frowned, and then her eyes glimmered with a spark of recognition- and it was not a happy one. "Oh, oh my. You really are quite far in the future, aren't you?" The sad tone to her voice that had crept up told Mabushiina what she'd feared before she heard the full story.
Crystalia was one of the Alternian Empire's more 'recent' conquests, but had been driven almost entirely out of a greedy desire for resources.
The planet itself had rich, abundant quantities of a mineral the Alternians then called 'Electro-Quartz' but these days was labeled as the element 'Naquadah.' The empress had wanted to exploit the planet for all it was worth for that reason alone.
Her people- the Crystalians- had only been native to that world and had not been much in the way of explorers or technological designers... The planet itself had been strip mined to near oblivion in the thousand years since the final battle.
It was suspected that the survivors of Crystalia's fall had been moved to slave colonies for the Alternian Empire, but nothing could be found of where they were moved to, or where they were moved from. It was incredibly likely that if any Crystalians did exist in this modern day and age, they hid away in secret corners of the galaxy, on worlds where the Alternian Empire had no interest.
Crystalia itself was an uninhabited chunk of rock, now. It wasn't fit for life at all.
Mabushiina had no mission now. The enemy her Father had asked her to fight had won the day... only to be defeated a thousand years later by a rebellion of its own people who were tired of the constant warfare.
And so, seeking nothing but to adjust to the new world she found herself in... Mabushiina entrusted the Kiramei Stones to a Scientist who was developing technology for an Inter Galactic peacekeeping force called the Power Rangers, who lived in another Galaxy in a City called Atlantis.
"Everyone, Awaken!" Mabushiina called out.
"MASHIIIIN~~!"
Doctor Gina Kae stared at the five floating rocks before her- Blue, Pink, Red, Green, Yellow.
Some darted around the room, examining everything like impatient children, others were a bit more sedate.
"Is it finally time to fight!?" The Red Stone asked, loud and boisterous as it darted around the room. "Tension Maxed Out!"
"Aawh!" The Yellow Stone mimicked a yawn, sleepily hovering in place. "I wanted to sleep a little more."
"I will patiently await the time to meet my Lovely Master," the Green Stone said with a curt bow through the air.
The Blue Stone glittered anxiously, "It's gonna be tough to find a partner who resonates well with me!"
"Ohhh! I hope they're cute! I'm super duper exciteeeeed!!!" The Pink Stone cried out, whirling around the room excitedly.
"They... talk," Gina stared on.
"Yes," Mabushiina said with a nod. "They have such unique personalities... I..." She sniffled. "To think they and I may be the only remnants of Crystalia left..."
Gina placed a hand on the crystal woman's shoulder, and gave it a reassuring pat. "Don't worry. I'll keep them safe."
"Thank you..." Mabushiina said, and then turned to the Stones. "Kiramei Stones! This... this is Doctor Gina Kae. She will be your guardian and help you find the partners who resonate with you the most!"
And so time was spent, passing by far too quickly... Doctor Kae motioning through various Zord designs with Mabushiina and the Kiramei Stones, until finally the five gemstones settled on their forms, and transformed from mere gemstones into fierce, transforming machines made of hardened crystal.
And so Mabushiina left Atlantis to begin her hunt of the Alternia Galaxy for any surviving member of her planet's culture... Weeks would pass, turning to months, before fate finally allowed her journey to have an impact.
EARTH DATE: AUGUST 6TH, 2012.
As Mabushiina departed one of the Mofang Settlements through the Stargate, one irate Mofang (Another species native to the Alternia Galaxy that had fought against HIC's Empire), named Kurantula, snarled slightly, and began storming out of the village for a cave, deep in the mountains.
There, he found Garuza- impossibly frozen in age not by the dark power coursing through his body but through some other means- sitting at a table, carving away at Naquadah Rich Rocks to create masks and helmets.
"Old Man! Old man!!" The Mofang man began. "You'll never believe it! You'll never believe what I just saw!"
"And what's that, fool?" Garuza asked, glancing up at the Mofang while not ceasing his carving. "It had better be important to violate the truce I made with your village when you settled here on my world all those years ago."
"I saw a girl of your species!" Kurantula said, his green-painted lips spreading into a grin. "A Girl with blue skin and gold trim! She said she was a Princess looking for her people!"
Garuza's carving knife stopped cold in its tracks.
"...Did she happen to give a name?" he asked, voice cold.
"Aye aye!" Kurantula nodded. "She said her name was Mabushiina!"
The carving knife fell to the cold stone floor of the cave with a clatter, and Garuza stood from where he sat.
"Mabushiina..." Garuza's hands flexed. "That name... I haven't heard it since the day Crystalia Fell. Did anyone mention that I was here?"
"No way!" The Mofang shook his head. "We said we'd never seen anyone like her before! Just like you asked with the pledge!"
Garuza gazed at Kurantula for a moment, then he asked, "And did anyone send you to tell me of this?"
"No way! I felt it was my own civic duty! The others were too scared to do anything! They don't want any trouble! But me, I say that life is too boring that way! So no! I came to tell you as soon as she left through the Stargate!" He answered.
Garuza gazed at the Mofang a moment further, "Did she mention how she survived all this time?"
"Time Travel! A solar flare, she said!"
Hearing that response, Garuza's whole body vibrated- a tinkling, amused noise filled the cave as he laughed silently.
"I see." Garuza finally said, and then he turned towards the suit of armor deep in the back of his cave. "Well, then. I think I know what my next move is."
"And what's that, Old man?" Kurantula asked.
"Call me 'Lord Garuza,'" the Traitor of Crystalia said, approaching the rack in the back of the cave. "And as for what I intend to do..." he reached a hand out, and brushed against the face of the helmet he wore on that fateful day. "I intend to fulfill on a promise I made to myself when Crystalia Fell."
Garuza remembered it fiercely as he began to don his armor once more...
A golden tear in space time opening there in the palace throne room - a future version of himself stepping through the rift, accompanied by a man clad in golden armor. A man who gave him a letter to give to himself. A letter held securely in the back of the helmet.
And thus, Garuza quoted himself, "When the day that I learn of Mabushiina's fate comes, it is a sign, heralding our True King's return."
"Our True King?" Kurantula asked, even as Garuza held his helmet, and gazed into its obsidian face.
Garuza turned to face the Mofang, and placed his helmet on with a pressurized hissing seal.
"The King of Kings," Garuza spoke. "GILGAMESH."
As he spoke that name, in another galaxy, in the remnants of a battle between the Wraith of Pegasus and countless others- a burst of golden light appeared, forming a portal, and through that portal emerged a planet.
Earth, long since lost, had returned home.
"Tell, me, Miss Leijon," Doctor Gina Kae's voice said off camera as it focused on the Alternian girl before her. "If I were, for some reason, to deny you application into the Ranger Classes, what would your fallback be?"
"Hmm..." Nepeta Leijon mused on it for a moment, then answered, "Probably a Doctor like Momma Marsti is?"
"I see, and not follow into politics like Okurii?" Dr. Kae asked.
"Mmh... Nah. I think Momma'Kuri's got that part handled," Nepeta smiled.
"Mister Okimaw, if I were to deny you entry into my classes, what would you do as a fallback?"
Equius Okimaw stared ahead blankly for a moment, then removed his sunglasses. "If I absolutely had to, my Father says he has several opportunities for me to join the Diasporan Actor's Guild for work. I've also been trained in many forms of combat, so the Stargate Program is an option. I've especially been focused on sword-play as of late... But if I had to pick something for myself... I think I would like to focus on archery."
"I see, very interesting."
"Miss Sheppard, if you were to be rejected from this class, what would your fallback plan be?"
Harley Jade Sheppard hummed for a moment, her wolf ears flexing. "Well, I'm in a Track and Field club on weekends. I really like running and racing! It's fun!"
"And if that failed to work out?"
"Um..." Harley frowned. "Probably I'd... I guess I'd take up Jumper flight training after Dad? Probably head up a Recon Team or something. Go exploring through the Stargate, maybe?"
"Understandable." Dr. Kae clicked a pen.
"Tomo Strider," Dr. Kae paused. "If I were to decline you entry into my class, for any reason what-so-ever, what would your fall back plan be?"
The cat-crow hybrid shrugged their shoulders, orange wings flexing slightly. "I'd probably play video games for a while until i figured something else out."
"So you have no alternative ideas at present as to what you'd do if you had to choose a carreer alternate to the Ranger Program?"
Tomo Strider laughed. "Heck naw! You know us Striders, Doctor Kae. We're notoriously bad at figuring out what we want to do when what we've wanted to do gets upended."
"Would you pursue an E-Sport, then?" Dr. Kae asked.
"...I dunno. I never thought about that." Tomo shrugged. "I guess... Yeah. I guess if I could make money off of it, sure."
"Miss Egbert, if-"
"If I were to be declined entry to this class, what would I do?" Rose Egbert asked, raising an eyebrow. "Probably, I'd take up the violin a bit more seriously. Perhaps dip a toe into more serious music production beyond that. Maybe find a music store and learn from the quote-unquote 'masters' for a time?"
"...I see."
"Miss Egbert, if I were to deny you entry into my class, what would your fall back plan be?"
"Uhhh..." June Egbert blinked. "...Maybe I'd like to become an actress? Maybe not infront of a screen, but. Maybe... Voice Acting could be nice?" She shrugged. "Other than that, Uh... I dunno, the only thing that comes to mind is Motorcross but I've never really had much of an interest in that, to be honest. I dunno why I thought of it, really. Why do you think I thought of it?"
"That's a question for Atlantis' Therapy department, I'm afraid."
"Ah, fair enough."
"Thank you for your time," Gina Kae said to herself as she finished rewatching those sections of their old interviews.
She turned towards her empty class room and sighed. "Very well, then. It looks like I'll be choosing them for this project after all."
She looked at her computer screen, showcasing five giant gemstone zords laying in their hangar, lights pulsing as they chatted to each other.
"Tomorrow," she said to herself, as well as a promise to those five Machines. "You'll have most of your partners."
It was a shame that the Egbert siblings had chosen different Power sets from the other four. It meant a bit more work for her.
EARTH DATE: AUGUST 7TH, 2012.
And so she watched as those four stood at their table the next day, equipping their Kiramei Changers, and activating their newfound powers.
Harley Sheppard- Equius Okimaw- Tomo Strider- Nepeta Leijon.
Green, Blue, Yellow, and Pink had been bonded.
And soon, they were to meet their Partners for the first time.
"They're... giant glowing gemstones?" Nepeta asked, gazing out the window at the five Kiramei Stones that had returned to their 'true sizes' after being in their 'compact travel form' for so long.
"These are your Mashin Zords," Dr. Kae said. "In their default forms, they will rest in this form within the hangar until called upon or needed elsewhere. They're also ones I've experimented with a unique growing and shrinking mechanic with as well. For portability sake, they can transform into a small form about..." She held up her hands and made a small shape the size of something that could fit in a pocket. "This big, likely? We've had it varying so far, depending on the need."
"But... they're giant rocks otherwise?" Nepeta asked.
"Not at all," Dr. Kae tapped on the map screen next to the window and brought up visual diagrams of the Zords. "When needed for battle, the Mashin Zords will transform into vehicles, and be able to combine in three different ways. Red, Yellow, and Green can combine into a Land Mage formation, Blue and Pink can combine into a Sky Mage formation, and all five can combine together into, well... I haven't given it a name yet, truth be told. I can leave that one up to you all."
"Wow," Harley stared out, placing her hands on the window after having stared at the map screen. "So we each get one? I get a race car!?"
"Awh," Tomo frowned, connecting their color with the zord on the map. "I get a Shovel-car? I guess that makes sense."
"Ah," Equius nodded. "I see. Some of the items we picked up correlated to these Zords."
Nepeta stared, and then squealed, "Oh! That's a really cute Helicopter!"
"Why thank you!" A suddenly cute and girly voice interjected from her Morpher as the Pink Zord glowed within the bay. "I think you're cute too!"
Nepeta stared, then, asked, flatly. "What?"
Dr. Kae coughs, and then says, "Your Morphers also serve as communication devices not just to your fellow teammates, but also to the Artificial Intelligence that have been installed on your Zords." The A.I. remark was a real half truth of a statement, that it was.
"No way! They can talk!?" Harley asked, excited. "Do they have names!?"
"Yes, they can talk, and yes they have names," Dr. Kae answers, before suddenly leaning down and speaking into Nepeta's morpher. "I was going to save the reveal for after the photo shoot though, Heliko."
A pink ring on Nepeta's morpher, and the gemstone zord itself, flashes as a voice comes out, "Aww! But she's just so cute! I couldn't help myself! And she thinks I'm cute too! I think this is going to be a great partnership!"
"Heliko?" Nepeta asks. "That's your name?"
"Yep! That's my name!" The zord in the bay sort of rocks side to side as it glows. "Mashin Heliko! At your service and ready to sparkle-shine with glittery guts!"
"...Why do they talk?" Equius asks.
His morpher- and the Blue Zord- answers that time. "Because we're totally awesome and unique, Aniki!" It sounded like a younger boy's voice speaking there,
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Equius says. "But you can call me Equius."
"Mashin Jetta ready to fly, Aniki!" the blue zord calls out.
"While we've given other zords Rudimentary A.I. to assist with piloting to reduce psychic strain," Dr. Kae clarifies, "the idea was given to me during a meeting that instead maybe the solution was instead to offload part of the mental load into the Zord piloting itself. We're running a few experiments to see how that works out. One of the end result projects is the Mashin Zords." She was bullshitting entirely for that second part.
"This is amazing!" Tomo brings their morpher up to their face, and says, "Hello! I'm Tomo!"
The Yellow gem-zord glows- "Pleasure to meetcha, Tomo! I'm Masihin Shovellow! Heave Ho!" That one sounded like Equius' mom, Konnyl Okimaw, were she perchance to have the occupation of a construction worker.
Harley smiles, and waves to her zord. "Hello! I'm Harley!"
"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Harley," says a suave, kind of old-timey romantic sounding voice from her morpher, as the green zord glows. "I am Mashin Mahha."
"They sure do have unique voices, don't they," Nepeta stares into the bay. "...What about the red one?"
The voice this time comes from the nearest wall speaker. "I'm Mashin Fiya! Still awaiting my partner with my TENSION AT MAX!" The red Zord glows and rocks side to side. "Man! I'm a little impatient though! How come my partner isn't here yet, huh!? It's burning me up!!!"
"Because nobody drew your items," Doctor Gina Kae couldn't help but sigh. This was going to be a big problem to deal with.
Still, the momentous occasion was captured on camera.
"MASHIIIN!"
Garuza stood before a Stargate, clad in his armor, and as for the Mofang who accompanied him, he now wore a strange set of armor and carried a staff with some kind of needle gauge on it. Most of his face was covered by a strange mask that left his mouth and jaw exposed, and was decorated with even more absurd masks.
All of it was Garuza's crafted works.
The traitor of Crystalia reached his hand out towards the Stargate, and intoned a simple phrase- "I extend out the Contract of the Holy Grail as promised to me by Lord Gilgamesh so that I might serve as his faithful servant. Open Now: GATE OF BABYLON!"
A golden portal tore into existence within the Stargate's ring, and Garuza and his Mofang Companion stepped through the rift.
They emerged in the ruined remains of Stargate Command's gate room, atop the metal ramp with several holes punched in it.
The lights were out, but golden light sufficed the entire area from the portal- revealing the pooling water that flooded the bottom inch of the entire floor of Level 28.
The Stargate creeked ominously as the rift shuttered behind them, sending the room into a darkness that could only just barely be seen in.
A figure who looked like a corrupted Power Ranger stood at the bottom of the ramp, wearing a blood red suit with a vaguely serpent like theme. He held a sword that was alight with dark red blazing flames. Garuza dubbed him "Blaze" for the moment for simplicity's sake.
"Lord Gilgamesh is interested to know how you knew of that command spell," the warrior, 'Blaze,' said, leveling his sword at Garuza and the Mofang.
"He himself gave it to me a thousand years ago," Garuza explained. "In an event I've come to understand is a Stable Time Loop come to pass."
"Very well," 'Blaze' allowed, and lowered his sword. "Follow me."
And so he lead them towards a stairwell, and took it but a floor up. They entered the abandoned Conference room, and continued into the former General's Office.
There, sitting on a throne of gold, was a Human-Wraith Hybrid of a man with golden blonde hair, and clad in golden armor. His eyes glowed crimson, and candles floated across the room, seemingly enchanted.
"My Lord," 'Blaze' said, "Two are here to see you."
"You are dismissed, Enter," the man on the throne said, and 'Blaze', well, Enter, Garuza corrected himself, bowed to exit.
Garuza prepared himself as his new Master eyed him quietly.
Finally... "Well well," The King of Kings possessing a Wraith Commander's body spoke as he swirled a wine glass across his fingers. "When I set about conquering this facility to secure my grasp of this planet, I wasn't expecting to encounter any Time Loops. Not yet, anyways. I was preparing to use those fail safes in case of my own imminent demise. Tell me, what reason brought you here, sir dark knight and crimson jester?"
"I am Garuza of Crystalia," Garuza began. "And I am here because with your aid, a future me saved me from an untimely death. And not just that, blessed me with eternal life."
"I see," King Gilgamesh stared Garuza over. "Yes, I do truly see now. I can sense one of my powerful Relics within your soul. If I did not feel it also within my Treasury, I might accuse you of being a mongrel thief! But oh, to be freely given? Hmm... what an interesting detail."
With a snap of his fingers, two chairs of a very fancy style materialized from golden portals.
"Come, have a seat," Gilgamesh said. "We simply MUST talk."
Some time later, Garuza stood in the dark waters of a corridor within the flooded Level 28 of the SGC.
"I will grant you an army of minions- Bechats- as well as a weekly allotment of monster minions to use at your disposal," Gilgamesh's declaration echoed through Garuza's head as he stared at his helmet. "I declare you now Garuza, Demonic General of Jodonheim, and leader of one of my many armies dedicated to conquering this universe and bringing it under my rule, one planet at a time."
Garuza placed on his helmet, sealing it with a hiss of oxygen.
"I cannot allow these mongrels to rule themselves freely, polluting my garden and ruining its beauty," Gilgamesh had continued.
Garuza strode forwards into the Gate Room- still as it was for the moment, but Garuza had plans for expansion. Already, he had plans for changing things for his own tastes...
"However, I am still in the process of putting more of my armies together. Until then, I will loan you some warriors if you wish to pursue any... personal Vendettas, to get the steam out of your system as it were."
"There will be but two missions of that nature," Garuza had answered. "I must retrieve Mashin Jouki..."
The Stargate itself would be duplicated, and that duplicate transformed into something as tall as most buildings- a gateway to other worlds for monsters as tall as buildings. But for now, the room was still small and tiny.
He looked at the warriors he had 'borrowed' for this first mission, and then turned towards the Stargate's control room, similarly to be transformed. Grinders and Bechats- these strange, slimy creatures in brown suits and even stranger masks- stood at the ready.
"Begin the dialing Process. We must retrieve Mashin Jouki's Kiramei Stone from Haven," Garuza ordered.
"Mashin Jouki?" Gilgamesh had asked, intrigued.
"A Machine created from a Kiramei Stone- a sentient vehicle that is only pilot-able by those of my Royal Family's bloodline," Garuza had answered.
The Stargate began to spin to life- the light of the orange chevrons flashing across Garuza's helmet.
"And what of this other task?" Gilgamesh had asked.
"I Seek but one thing," Garuza had answered him.
The Stargate locked, and with a Flash of golden light- another of King Gilgamesh's portals opened.
"Go," Garuza ordered. "Retrieve the Black Kiramei Stone from Haven."
And thus, the army of Venjix Grinders and those three monsters leading them stepped through the Gate.
"I can sense the spirit of my brother, Oladin. It has reincarnated somewhere, or perhaps is merely guiding events elsewhere through another vector." Garuza clenched his hands into fists as he recalled his own words. "Either way, my Elder Brother's meddling will no doubt manifest itself further down the line if we do not end it before it can take root."
"Very well, Garuza. I will trust your experiences with your family to be more informed than I in this one case. Infact, I will allow you one better than borrowing other members of my army." Gilgamesh had smirked. "I'll allow you a free trial run at a giant monster without needing to dip into your weekly allotment for that mission. Let's make my conquest of the Universe go smoothly, together, shall we?"