Park Rangers (A Sentai Adventure)
It was a long walk to Lookout Point. And yet, day after day, for the two years that Neil and Aaron had worked as park rangers as Nallmu Falls National Park; they have made the journey. Leaving the rangers' station on foot; the pair ventured up the path near the cabins, past the RV campgrounds, and even further than the primitive sites. Onward they hiked -- around the lake, next to the bike trail blazes, and up the hill. After twenty long minutes, they were there.
"Will ya look at that?" Neil, an all-black German Shepherd, asked through the cool morning breeze. The bright blue sky was a majestic backdrop behind the dog as the pale yellow sun began to emerge for the first time over the tallest spot in the whole park. "It's totally worth it, our daily walk. Don't you think so, Aaron?" He breathed in the fresh flower-scented air and exhaled slowly as he spoke. "Aaron? Aaron..."
"Shh!" Aaron, a bushy-tailed skunk, hissed. "I'm caught up in the moment. So shut up." He slowly knelt down on the grass and sat cross-legged, patting out a spot for Neil beside him. He leaned forward ever-so-slightly and peered down at the shimmering, calm and clear lake. "It's the first day of summer, so you know what that means..."
"Bathing suit watching time!" the friends sang in unison. Their smiles spread from ear to ear and their eyes lit up with anticipation as the first daring camper inched toward the water and stuck in her foot.
"Go on, sweetness, the water's fine," Neil whispered, trying to coerce the svelte vixen with his mind. As if on cue, the young fox excitedly waved to the rest of the hesitant would-be swimmers. "That's it..."
It only took another two minutes for the dozen-and-a-half scantily-clad girls and guys to toss off their overshirts and sandals and hurry into the lake. The pier led to a diving tower which turned into quite the competition between the buff wolf in the boardshorts, the skinny lion with the dyed blue streaks in his hair, and the otterboy in bikini briefs.
"Hands down, this is the best view in the park," Aaron stated as he stared at the vixen. In his head, he started separating the crowd into three groups: "doable", "maybe doable", and "no way".
"Man, this is quite possibly the best view in the whole state!" Neil bit his lower lip, scanning the shoreline for anybody about to lay out a beach towel and start to sun themselves.
"You got that right, buddy," the skunk agreed. "You know, I think we have the best job in the whole..."
"What the fuck is that?" the German Shepherd interrupted, gesturing toward the nearly cloudless sky. Using his other paw, he pushed himself up off the ground and to his feet.
"What are you talking ab-- ohh!" Aaron exclaimed suddenly. He cupped a paw across his forehead to keep the ten a.m. sun out of his eyes. What he first thought was just a cloud was growing and starting to drift across the sky, seemingly straight toward Lookout Point.
"Should we..." Neil began to ask as the puffy white object grew closer and started to make a low rumbling noise.
"Run!" Aaron screamed, taking off toward the trail leading back to the rangers' station.
The skunk and dog high-tailed it; but no matter how fast they pumped their legs, the growling menace above them kept getting louder and louder.
"Shit!" Neil huffed, dodging a tree branch and stopping for a moment to catch his breath.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Aaron stammered, gripping his co-worker by the shoulder to turn him around and show him the incoming streaking cloud. "SHIT!"
They ran in a zig-zag, not knowing where to go. "What do we do? What do we do!?" the frazzled canine kept repeating.
"Fuck," the skunk continued to curse, his chest heaving up and down heavily. "Fuck, fuck fuck!"
"Aaron, we..." Neil tried to come up with a plan. But it was too late.
A thunderous clap boomed from behind them, its shockwave knocking them off their feet.
"Fuck..." Aaron croaked. He could barely even make out his own words through the buzzing in his ears. His vision started to blur, and then everything went dark.
* * *
"...your ass down here right now!" a shrieking voice stirred Neil back to consciousness. He shook his head, confusedly looking around to find the source of the sound.
"This little shit is running around like headless poultry so you report to me pronto! I don't care if it is his birthday party," the demanding disembodied voice continued.
"Your walkie," Aaron chittered, his eyes finally fluttering open. He groaned as he stood up, Neil offering him a paw for balance.
"Ma'am, we're on our way," Neil replied, pushing the button on his two-way radio. "We got caught up in that explosion. Everybody down there okay?"
"What the moldy cheesecake are you talking about?" Ma'am's gruff voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "Explosion? I will bill you two for whatever it is you broke!"
"Nevermind," the skunk responded, grabbing the radio from the German Shepherd. "We'll be there before you can swat a fly with your big beautiful ears."
"Oh," Ma'am replied, her voice softening. "Take your time, Aaron. I'll get the new guy to mop up the birthday kid's mess. But I do need you to clean the station's pool. There's some grime at the shallow end. You'll have to bend over and scrub on it really hard..."
"Ten-four!" Neil coughed, clicking off the two-way and clipping it back to his belt. "Man, you know you've got to stop flirting with that gross old rabbit."
"But it gets us out of so much work!" Aaron whined. "I strut around in my speedo for an hour or so a week, and you and I remain kings of the park."
"As long as I don't have to be there," Neil chuckled. "I don't know which would make me vomit more -- watching Ma'am ogle you while she rubs her round, wobbly chin; or seeing you in a speedo."
"Whatever, dog," the skunk retorted. "You just..." he stopped mid-sentence. His eyes narrowed as he spotted a charred, smoking indention in the brush just off the path.
"What?" the canine asked before realizing what Aaron was staring at. "Ohhh. That must be what caused that stupid explosion. The weird cloud-thing."
"And look," the skunk pointed, "there's another one!"
Chunks of grass-topped dirt and clay were scattered around each steaming depression. "What's that? Some kind of brick?" Neil asked, curiosity getting the better of him. He bent down to get a better view. "Naw, it's some kind of... I dunno."
The skunk joined the dog in examining the gray, rectangular object. "Don't touch it, you idiot!" Aaron slapped Neil's paw when he reached out to grab the unusual fallen brick-like thing.
"What if this thing's worth lots of money, though?" the dog tapped the corner of the strange object.
"Come on, man. Let's get out of..." the skunk started to pull Neil by his arm.
Dimly at first, and slowly getting brighter, a faint light sparkled out of the unidentifiable device. Panels on it started to slide around, rearranging themselves until they revealed a gleaming yellow gem.
"Cool..." Neil whispered, scooping up the strange box in his palm.
"Cut it out!" Aaron protested. He retreated a few steps, cautiously holding his arms in front of himself.
"Look, man," the dog lifted the brick so they could both get a better view. The bright stone in the middle glinted in the sunlight. "See, there's nothing... What!?"
Before either of them could stop it, the device began to float out of Neil's paw and bathed him in a bright yellow light. A black grid projected all over the dog; on top of his tan work shirt, his shorts, his socks and his boots. Then the light flickered off and on repeatedly. One by one, each segment within the grid-lines disappeared, revealing his bare fur underneath.
"Hey!" Neil flailed around, trying to stop whatever was happening from happening. "What is... What the..."
More and more of his clothing vanished, and the dog yelped as an unseen energy pulled his arms outward. His limbs and tail were now stiff and outstretched; and the dog was now as helpless as he was nude.
He struggled in vain. His biceps strained trying to break the grip of the invisible force that held him. The yellow glow would illuminate Neil for a moment longer, erasing the black lines running across his naked frame and replacing it with a yellow grid.
Just as his shirt and shorts had been seemingly deleted from his body, within each square popped a new shiny yellow uniform. From just under his neck to the tips of his toes, he was now covered in a mysterious stretchy material. Over the yellow spandex; black and white patterns appeared over his hands and feet paws, as well as across his chest and around his neck.
"Ew, dude," Aaron gulped, his eyes wide in shock at what was happening to the dog. "I just saw your dick."
Finally able to move freely, Neil sharply inhaled. "What in the fuck just happened to me?" He twisted his wrist back and forth, examining himself almost in disbelief.
"My turn now!" the skunk quickly blurted. He dashed to the other still-smoldering crater. "But no looking..."
Aaron turned his back to his friend before kneeling down to snatch the device up excitedly. Just like with Neil, the strange cube started to levitate and glow. This brick; however, emitted a white light. The skunk eagerly spread his arms out; and, just as before, his body became rigid as dark lines were drawn across his fur and clothing.
"Hey!" Aaron quivered, as the unidentifiable force spun him around to face Neil. "No, no! Come on now!"
Over the next sixty seconds, all of the skunk's garments were removed and replaced with an all-white suit with black markings identical to the German Shepherd's costume.
The yellow and white gems continued to glow in the gray floating objects, which had begun to slowly spin in mid-air.
"I hope that it gets bigger when you're hard, man," Neil laughed, finally taking his eyes off of his friend's crotch.
"It does! Not that it's any of your business," Aaron hotly shot back. "Not that yours is much bigger! And at least my... My tail... Hey, man, why is your tail yellow?"
The dog swished his tail to the side and twisted his head around to look. "Huh... I'm all color coordinated, now."
"My tail's changed too, isn't it?" the skunk glanced behind him. "Badass!" he beamed when he realized that his tail's fur was now snow white.
"So," Neil started to ponder, tapping his yellow and white boot in the dirt, "from the neck down, we match. But what about our... Eep!"
The black German Shepherd gritted his teeth as the strange brick device rocketed straight toward his face.
It hit him directly in the muzzle. But instead of hurting him, it transformed. It unfolded and the panels crept all the way around the canine's head. When it had finished forming a yellow dog-head-shaped helmet, the gem arranged itself on Neil's forehead and stopped glowing. In the opening over the middle of his face, a black screen slid down. He was now covered from the tips of his ears to the claws of his toes.
Neil blinked a few times. The helmet didn't obstruct his vision like he thought it would. The face-shield worked like some kind of monitor. When he looked over to Aaron, who was stumbling backward as his own alien box-thing was clamping itself to his head, symbols were displayed in yellow letters over the skunk's eartips.
More hieroglyphs typed themselves in the middle of the dog's field of vision, which changed styles. Again and again, more and more rapidly. Finally the text read: NATIVE LANGUAGE DETECTED: EARTH - UNITED STATES ENGLISH. After a few seconds, that message disappeared, and Neil realized that the words hanging over Aaron's head were WHITE TRANSFORMATOR.
"Neil, this is awesome!" the skunk exclaimed happily. "Wait, maybe I should call you 'Yellow Transformator' instead?" He chuckled.
Suddenly, more text flashed across each of their screens: Power Transformator User Manual Number One. Nod up and down to continue. Shake head side to side to cancel. Glance vertically to scroll. Use peripheral vision to skip back and forth.
"Whoa!" the dog gasped. "You getting this, Aaron?"
"Yup," the skunk replied. "Should we nod? I say let's go for it."
"Ten-four," Neil smiled as they both tilted their heads up and down.
Controls, Chapter One of Two-Hundred Thirty-Seven: Your colored Power Transformator suit is commanded telepathically. As long as you carry the Transformator Functioner (henceforth referred to as "TF Device") on your person, you need only think about suiting-up and the technology in the TF Device will obey and begin the transformation process. It is recommended that you wear it as your belt buckle, as that is the default and customary place for such things. You will also look cool, and if you need to hide it, just put your t-shirt over it. Wow, you're just like a secret agent!
"Man, there are like two-hundred chapters," Aaron whimpered. "I'm skipping ahead." He flicked his eyes to the right repeatedly, bringing up new sub-menus: Weaponry... Long-Range Communication... Enhanced Leaping and Landing Capabilities... He shook his head to exit the menu. "There we go! Hey, Neil, I'm going to jump to the rangers' station. See you there!"
Without hesitation, the skunk pulled off a heroic pose and flung himself high into the air. The German Shepherd followed just behind, shaking his head and removing the text from his display.
The two Transformators started to dive, becoming yellow and white bullets hurtling toward the base of the tall hill.
"Aaron! Did you look over the part about focus?" Neil's voice rang out in the skunk's ear.
"Huh, what?" Aaron stammered, confusedly. "How are you talking to me like that?"
"Apparently didn't read the tedious three sentences about long-range communication either," the dog snarked. "Look, when we do these superhuman things -- like leaping off of freaking Lookout Point -- you need to keep focus or else..."
"Shit! Fuck!" the skunk shrieked. His arms and legs flailed about as he realized what was happening. His white spandex outfit was slowly deleting itself, and he was wildly zooming far from where he intended. He steadied himself just in time to land in the rangers' station's pool stark naked.
Neil elegantly landed next to the diving board and, with a thought, exchanged his powered-up yellow suit for his uniform. Aaron, whose fur was smoking from the accidental transformation, swam over to the shallow end and pulled himself out. He instinctively shook the water off and looked around frantically for some clothes.
"Is that you, Aaron?" Ma'am called out, hearing the commotion just outside her office door. "I was just about to swat a fly with my big beautiful ears. Thought you weren't coming for a second."
"Buddy," the dog gripped the skunk by the shoulders and looked him right in the eyes. "You either need to put your hands over your junk, or concentrate and bring back your park ranger clothes. And do it quick, I heard Ma'am's chair let out a squeak of relief. She's waddling this way now!"
Aaron held his paws out beside himself. He clenched his fists and eyes shut, trying to focus on his uniform. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!" He squeaked a prayer. He didn't even open his eyes when he heard the door open and close. But then he felt two large arms wrap themselves around him.
"If you wanted a hug; all you had to do was ask, Sweet Pea," Ma'am's gravelly voice creeped into the skunk's ear. "Now, how did you get that spot clean in the pool? Your shirt's dry..."
"Telescoping brush," Neil explained to the overweight rabbit. Aaron slowly opened one eye and then the other, breathing out an accomplished sigh.
"Oh, hi... Neil..." Ma'am snarled. "Didn't see you there. Why don't you go up to the lake and make sure the college kids up there aren't drinking?"
"You know, sweet Vidalia," Aaron put on a big, fake smile, "I should really go with Neil and help him. You know, him being slow and all..." The skunk's voice shrank to barely a whisper as his sentence went on.
"Well, I was hoping to, ahem, supervise you cleaning the pool," the tubby rabbit grunted. "But seeing as how you're done, so be it." She turned to speak to the German Shepherd, "You work with Aaron today. He will make sure you are doing good work, okay?" She said each word slowly and nodded with each syllable.
"Okay, yes Ma'am. I will do good work today!" Neil grinned dopily and swayed his head as he replied.
"You can take the ATV if you want..." Ma'am started, before Aaron cut her off.
"No thanks," the skunk flashed her a wink. "Such a beautiful day, would be a waste to spend it on that loud old thing."
"Off with you then," the rabbit motioned them away with the back of her hand. She trotted back into the rangers' station, fanning herself with her paw as she went.
"How long are you going to keep telling her I'm a special-needs kid?" Neil narrowed his eyebrows at Aaron.
"If you're not going to flirt, you have to be dumb as dirt," the skunk chuckled at his own joke.
"That is so lame," the dog looked at Aaron with a blank face. "Now come on, it's swimsuit time!"
"You mean it's WHITE POWER time!" the skunk responded. He brought his elbow out in front of him, and did a few moves that he'd seen a cheerleader do at football games, then raised his fist into the air and activated his TF Device.
"You really shouldn't go around shouting 'white power' all the time," Neil reprimanded as he watched his friend's transformation.
"Ten seconds!" the skunk peeped excitedly. "And I was only naked for a split-second!"
"A split-second too long, if you ask me," the dog grinned. He crouched down for an instant, and before he was upright again, his yellow power costume was covering him.
"Race you there!" Aaron taunted as he took a step forward. He tried to sprint, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Neil hop in front of him and pull out some bitchin' yellow daggers. "Ooh, how did you do that?"
"Weapons chapter," the dog explained, before twirling his blades around and making them disappear into thin air. "Figured you skipped that one too. Look, we shouldn't dress like this in public. It's like ninety degrees out here, and nobody's going to believe us that these are air conditioned."
"I guess you're right," the skunk powered down, his TF device appearing on his belt buckle after his clothes changed again. "But you really have to show me how to bring out those weapons like that!"
"It's in the manual," the dog transformed back to his work uniform and replied. "You just have to take the time and..."
"Damn thing's cold!" a voice came from the camping area. "This propane cooker sucks."
"Dad! Can't we just build a fire?" a younger voice whined.
Neil and Aaron tip-toed over to the primitive grounds, hiding behind the trees as they went. They spied a young kangaroo and his dad arguing over their lunch.
"I'm not building a damn fire just to cook your hot dog," the father growled. "We already got the site packed up, and it makes no sense to build a fire for just one weiner."
"But, I'm hungry..." the little roo's eyes started to moisten with tears.
"WHITE POWER!" Aaron exclaimed, activating his TF device and leaping to the disagreeing family. He made some flashy arm gestures, and then punched a log next to the marsupial's lawn chairs. A few sparks popped up before the entire log erupted in flames. "No need to thank me! Just doing my job. And don't forget to completely smother the fire before you leave. WHITE POWER!"
The dad's face was frozen in a baffled stare. The kid giggled and high-fived Aaron's shiny vinyl glove.
"Remember," the skunk saluted the family, "only you can prevent..."
"Okay, Smokey," Neil grabbed Aaron by the elbow and escorted him back to the trail. "Think they've gotten the picture."
Hiking further up the path, the grinning skunk practiced his transformation time and time again.
"You really have to cut it out with that 'white power' business," Neil pleaded to Aaron in between costume changes. "People might get the wrong idea."
"Neil, news flash: my fur is mostly black!" the skunk waggled his head. "Duh! So is yours."
"But how will they know that in your all-white head-to-toe costume?" the dog went on. "Even your tail is white. The joke has run its course. Really." He looked directly at the reader... Aaron, that is... Reading more of the manual in his helmet.
"Look," the skunk gleefully showed off, "I can activate individual parts of my Transformator uniform. Watch this: bodysuit and no helmet!" Aaron's white facemask disappeared and a moment later, his spandex costume replaced his park ranger getup.
"That's far enough, little girl!" a faint, feminine voice drifted to the park workers, interrupting their conversation. "Where are your parents, anyway?"
"That came from the lake!" Aaron exclaimed.
"That was the hot fox from this morning!" Neil's eyes lit up as they both started to run towards the voice.
"Mommy, mommy!" the little swimmer called out. "Help!"
"Let's do our thing, hero," Neil poked Aaron in the ribs. "Just don't say..."
"I know, I know," the skunk waved the dog's paw away. "TF ACTIVATE!" he yelled, transforming and diving into the water.
"TF ACTIVATE!" Neil echoed.
In less than thirty seconds, they had swam out past the diving tower and pulled the distressed little bear girl safely onto the bank.
"Now, you run along to your family, you sweet thing you," Aaron patted the pig-tailed bear on top of the head and pushed her on her way. "Oh hi there, miss fox, and how are you today?"
"Really?" the vixen huffed. "Guys! There are two more of them!" She crossed her arms and slumped her shoulders.
The wolf, lion and otter that were having a diving competition earlier that day crept out from the woods.
"Oh?" the lion brushed his paw through his milk-chocolate-brown and sky-blue colored hair. "So we've got a yellow one and a white one now? Guess we're a team then, huh?"
"When that cloud thing exploded in the sky," the otter gave Neil and Aaron a few look-overs before smiling widely, "you found a TF Device and it turned you into a Transformator, right?"
"And besides the cool costume, you found out you can do all of these other awesome things too?" the wolf offered a paw for each of them to shake. "I'm Arnel. And as of today, I'm the Purple Transformator."
Neil and Aaron's visor bleeped some text over each of their heads. And sure enough, over the wolf's head read just that.
"I'm Dean," the otter bowed. "And my color is red."
"Chip," the lion patted the skunk and dog on their backs. "It's nice to meet ya. I'm blue!"
"And I'm the Green Transformator," the fox finally uncrossed her arms. "You can call me Mel."
"You guys wanna show us your uniforms?" Aaron asked, keeping his eyes on Mel.
"How about you transform first," the fox replied. "Because I get the feeling that you just want to try and get a glimpse of me naked while the device is doing its thing."
"Okay, okay," Neil held up his hands and compromised. "We'll transform back to our normal clothes, and then we'll all get to know each other."
The White and Yellow Transformators activated their devices telepathically and changed back into their park ranger outfits.
"You're pretty good at that," Mel praised. "As soon as those three realized that they could use those things to get naked faster, they ran off into the woods and I assume took turns sucking each other off."
"Twice," Chip grinned. "And we did anal once. But you'll just have to guess who the bottom was. It was actually more like a spit-roast, since there was a guy at each end..."
"I, on the other hand," the fox sighed, "have been studying up on this manual. I already have some martial arts training, so I've been practicing self-defense moves while reading up on how this suit works."
"So you're smart. And you can kick ass," Aaron joked. "I like that."
"I was starting to think that we were given these for a reason," Mel went on. "Like maybe we're supposed to use these powers to protect the galaxy from some cosmic menace or inter-dimensional threat. But the more I read, the more it seems that these landed here by mistake. We can pretty much just use them for whatever we want."
"TF ACTIVATE!" the six Transformators exclaimed. In a flash of yellow, white, green, purple, red and blue they all became costumed heroes once again.
"Ahem," Dean tilted his head and coughed, "we're gonna go do it in the lake. You guys have fun."
"Toodles!" Arnel sang as he, the otter and the lion willed their outfits away and leapt into the lake to skinny dip.
"Well, it looks like they're happy!" Neil slowly nodded, smiling.
"How about you?" Aaron asked, looking at Mel and telepathically removing his helmet. "We could take turns on you if you want. Or, you know, you could blow us..."
"Okay," the fox agreed. "But let's go to Lookout Point. There's probably a metric ton of cum in the woods there from those guys."
Neil, Aaron and Mel all laughed as their spandex disappeared in a flash. The sun started to set as they walked hand-in-hand on the trail away from the lake.
Meanwhile...
"What do you mean you sent them already?" a rumbling voice squealed into her phone. "They're not here. So where are they!?" Ma'am leaned forward in her chair, making it creak under her weight.
"They've been WHAT?" she yelled into the receiver, spit flinging off of her bottom lip. "How were they activated? Was it all of them?"
"Whew, only six out of twelve, huh?" the obese rabbit dipped her finger into some blue cheese dressing and licked it clean. "And you can guarantee the other six Transformator Devices haven't been activated? Good. I'll send the new guy to those coordinates immediately. Send over the top specimens from the lab. Looks like I'll have to take over the world with just six power suits!"
"Mwahaha! Mwahaha! Mwahahaha!" Ma'am laughed and cackled long after she clicked the phone off. By morning, she would have the remaining six Transformators under her command. Planet-wide domination will surely follow.
Unless...