Chapter Text
The air was stale and musky in the old, dilapidated building.
Miu stuck out her Jet Dagger as she turned a corner in the filthy hallway.
“Ani, the coast is clear.”
Hiroto followed, his Jet Dagger raised as well.
“Good, Miu, but remember to be ready for anything.”
A few hours earlier, the siblings had been going about their day when their brains lit up with a signal that the Gaiark were at it again. They promptly transformed and took off to put an end to whatever their new scheme was.
Following where their psychic senses led them, they came to a worn-out door.
“Okay” said Hiroto, “on the count of three…”
The two burst into the room, finding it full of Ugutz Soldiers, Kitaneidas standing in the middle of them.
“Ah, welcome, Wings” said the Pollution Minister. “I’ve been waiting for you to arrive.”
“I guess the sooner we shut down your latest dumb scheme, the sooner you can get back to Hellgailles Palace and day drink with your loser buddies” said Miu.
“Au contraire, today I shall be day drinking in triumph, once I get your help for my new project.”
He took out a remote and pressed the button on it.
Before the Wings could react, an explosion erupted behind them, hurtling them to the ground, where they were further hit by debris from the wall. They were not seriously injured, but provided little resistance as the Ugutz Soldiers grabbed and held them, the Wings too dazed from the blast to break free.
The Ugutz dragged Miu to Kitaneidas, who took out a device, resembling a gun with a saucer at the end of the barrel. He stuck the saucer over the Silver Ranger’s head. When he activated it, she screamed in pain as blue electric currents erupted over her helmet.
“Miu!” cried Hiroto, who tried to break free to aid his sister.
“Patience, Gold, your turn will come right after she’s done” said Kitaneidas.
After what seemed like an eternity to the Gold Ranger, the screams and shocks stopped, and Miu fell to the ground. The Ugutz moved her limp body out of the way as they brought Hiroto before the Pollution Minister. He screamed in pain as he too had the device placed over him. When it was done, he dropped as his sister had.
“Well, I guess the only thing left is to dispose of the trash” said Kitaneidas.
The Ugutz Soldiers raised their swords over the Wings. Before they could swing them down, though, Hiroto pulled out his Jet Dagger and released a stream of flame at the grunts, forcing them back so he could grab Miu and take off.
Getting away, however, proved to be quite the endeavor - whatever Kitaneidas did to them, he could feel the effects, feel his mind about to collapse, but he needed to get his sister to safety above all else…
He knew he couldn’t go the way they came, but he saw another way. Hopefully their Chrome Suits would hold…
The Gaiark came out just in time to see the Wings go down the elevator shaft.
The Ugutz Soldiers moved to pursue them, but Kitanaeidas held them back.
“No need. We’ve got we came for, and with what we did to them, the Wings are no longer any threat to us…”
~~~
Miu groaned as she regained consciousness and sat up.
Looking over herself, she seemed fine considering what they just experienced, but she felt weird, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. The question was instantly forgotten when she saw Hiroto lying unconscious nearby.
“Ani? Ani! Ani, wake up!” she frantically shouted as she shook her brother.
Hiroto stirred, murmuring more and more until-
“I’m awake, god!”
Miu scooted back, at a loss as to why her brother seemed so cranky. Then again, she still felt odd herself.
“Ani, do you feel funny?”
“No!” he said, still angry. “And stop calling me Ani, that’s a girl’s name!”
Miu was confused, not to mention more than a little hurt, that her brother was suddenly upset with her for using the term of endearment she had used her whole life for him.
“Ani, what about Kitaneidas?”
“Who cares!?” shouted Hiroto in the same aggravated tone he had spoken in since waking up. “Let’s just go home, okay?”
Miu felt they should do something about the Gaiark, but if her brother thought they should go home, then that must be what they should do.
The two walked outside. Miu waited for Hiroto to turn so she could follow him, but her brother just stood still. The two looked down both ways of the unfamiliar street.
“Ani, which way is home?”
“Uhhh…”
The lack of an answer scared Miu.
“Ani, are-are we lost?”
“No!” shouted Hiroto, annoyed at the question. “I just need to figure out where we are, that’s all.”
As he tried to deduce that, Miu called out again.
“Ani, look!”
Hiroto was about to yell at his sister for bugging him, but then saw what she was pointing at: a candy store.
At once, worries about getting home were forgotten as the two eagerly ran to it.
~~~
Ren, Sosuke, and Hant walked on the sidewalk carrying groceries.
“I’m not denying Kegelesia’s hot, Hant” said Sosuke. “But even if you ignore that she’s evil, she’s a robot. You’d probably get your junk all mangled up if you ever did it.”
“There’s more to a relationship than just sex, right Ren?”
“I really don’t want to be involved in this conversation, guys - hey, isn’t that…”
His two teammates turned and stared at the sight before them.
There were Miu and Hiroto, their faces smeared with chocolate, both of them carrying two bags of candy on each of their arms while cramming more candy into their mouths with glee.
“Miu? Hiroto?” said the Blue Ranger.
When the siblings saw their comrades, they smiled even wider.
“The Go-Ongers!” said Hiroto.
“Sosuke!” said Miu.
The two ran up to their friends and comrades, seemingly unaware of any inconsistency with how they normally presented themselves.
“Uh, are you guys okay?” asked Sosuke.
“Yeah” said Miu. “Hey, do you know where our house is?”
The three Go-Ongers looked at each other, then back at the siblings.
“You’re sure nothing happened to you?” asked Hant.
“Nah, nothing happened” said Hiroto.
“Yes it did, Ani. Remember, Kitaneidas put a hat on us.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Kitaneidas?” said Ren with concern.
The Wings, unworried, continued eating their candy.
“Uh, what’s with all the candy?” asked Ren.
At this, the Wings’ demeanor instantly changed, and they protectively held their bags of candy to their chests.
“This is our candy! We bought it with our own money!” said Hiroto.
“Yeah, you want some you get your own!” said Miu.
“Okay, okay, it’s all right, we don’t want your candy” said Ren.
“Uh, I did, actually…” said Hant.
“Look, why don’t you come with us to the Ginjiro, we’ll drive you home” said Ren, “but first, I think we should have BOMPER check you out, okay?”
The siblings looked at each other, then turned back to the Go-Ongers and said “Okay!” in unison.
Hiroto walked up with Ren and Hant, Sosuke following them.
“Sosuke…”
The Red Ranger turned to look back at Miu, who was nervously looking down at the ground while holding out one of her bags of candy.
“…you can have some of my candy if you want…”
“Oh. Uh, I’m supposed to be on a diet, but I guess a peanut butter cup wouldn’t hurt…”
~~~
Once they arrived at the Ginjiro, BOMPER ran scans and tests on the Sutous, the two giggling as the robot’s instruments tickled and made funny noises. The siblings were now outside being watched by Saki while the male Go-Ongers waited to find out what had happened to their allies.
“So, what’s wrong with them?” asked Gunpei as Ren and BOMPER finished their analysis.
“Physically, they’re perfectly fine” said Ren. “But whatever the Gaiark did to them affected their brains. They retain their memories, but they’re now both around 5 years old mentally and emotionally.”
The other Go-Ongers were silent as they took this in.
“So” said Gunpei after gathering his thoughts, “they’re kids.”
The silence then resumed. It clearly fit with how they were acting, and it’s not as if they haven’t dealt with their fair share of bizarre situations in their fight against the Gaiark, yet the thought of their friends and allies, always so composed and mature, now having the minds of little kids…
“So, how do we fix them?” asked Gunpei.
“Obviously, curing them is our goal, but we have a more immediate issue. If they are mentally five years old, then we can’t leave them on their own.”
“So, you’re saying we need to babysit them?” asked Hant.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way to them but, yes.”
The team was again silent as they took that in as well.
“One question” said Gunpei. “What do we do if they don’t want us to watch them?”
Ren only answered with a sigh.
Outside, the siblings were at a table, both drawing with crayons.
Saki leaned over them.
“So, what did you guys draw?”
“I drew a fire truck!” said Hiroto as he proudly held up his work.
“I drew Sosuke on a motorcycle!” said Miu as she did the same.
The male Go-Ongers then came out.
“Okay” said Ren, “we’re going to take you home, but first there’s something we want to run by you.”
“What’s that?” asked Hiroto.
“We’ve noticed that you two are acting unusual.”
“What do you mean?” asked Miu.
“Well, like how usually when you guys come here you don’t pass the time by drawing with crayons.”
Miu and Hiroto thought about it, and decided Ren did have a point.
“So, we think we should stay with you guys until you get better, to make sure you’re going to be okay.”
The team nervously awaited their reaction. The Sutous’ faces were blank, and the Go-Ongers grew nervous, until they turned to each other, and smiled brightly.
“The Go-Ongers are going to sleep over!” they exclaimed, holding hands and jumping in excitement, as the Go-Ongers looked on in surprise.