Chapter Twenty: Gattai

Gattai. Combination. An essential aspect of any sentai squad, really. The mechs had a dedicated button just for Gattai-related maneuvers. They all pressed it in turn, and what happened next occurred in a flash.

“Grrraaah!” Balthazar stood by and gave a gnarly cry rather than interrupt the transformation.

A holograph of Ren’s mech appeared before him. It was squat with a silly bucket-shaped head. Scary but not intimidating. It was a kappa. Of course, Ren couldn’t see the theming from within. It would form the torso and head of their combined mecha.

“Uh… Kitsune Mecha, combining!” Miyu said.

The fox-looking robot’s legs collapsed into itself, then it fused in the place of the Kappa-mech’s squat arm.

Yuto’s smalt-colored Wolf mech was next, taking the place of the right arm. Two tank-tread looking mechs with a tengu and an oni face at the front—how thematically appropriate—took the place of the kappa’s feet.

The other four members of the squad phased into the cockpit alongside Ren. That would explain why the space was so roomy.

“Mahouranger mech… transformed!” the squad declared.

They stood at the same size as Balthazar, now. Ideally, they would be evenly matched.

“Slink back to your castle and nobody gets hurt!” Ren boomed through some outside speakers.

Balthazar snarled. He was waiting for something.

A familiar six-legged horse emerged from behind the Kagehime’s castle. Its feet kicked as if galloping on dry land despite the fact that it sailed through the sky.

“Reinforcements!” Yuto said in a panic. They were outnumbered once more.

Only, the six-legged horse carried onward, rising in altitude to clear Japan’s central interior mountain range.

“Traitor!” Balthazar pointed his hammer at the flying horse. “You take the Kagehime’s gift and just desert? When this world belongs to her worshipcy, we shall hunt you down.”

The mahourangers looked to the retreating horse, utterly baffled. A voice invaded the squad’s comms network.

“Hehe. Bye-bye,” Becca said. “Y’see, I only took that fancy token because I was promised my host family’s dwelling would remain safe. You may notice that apartment complex on the far side of town.”

The combined mecha looked awkwardly to the far side of Tenshigurobu. A lone high-rise sat at the opposite end of town, positively out of place.

“If we fight all out, chances are the whole city will be leveled,” Becca continued. “So I’ll leave you two too it. Maybe you’ll only flatten the town center?”

“W-where are you going!?” Balthazar asked.

“Taking this baby back to Portland. See you later~” Becca said as her steed disappeared into the clouds.

“Back to one versus one!” Yuto taunted through the comms.

“Bah! I’ll deal with her later. Have at you!”

The Schattenritter charged, hammer up. The combined mahou-mecha dodged effortlessly, with the five rangers piloting it as one. This caused the hammer to fall… right upon the town’s high school.

“At least school is out,” Ren said. “Charge!”

+++

It was surely impossible to hide the battle between a mecha and a kaiju at this point. With the sun nearly set, at least most people ought to be at home and not out in the streets. The earthquakes caused by every step ought to force people to seek shelter.

“We need a weapon!” Haruto said.

“Summon… mecha-bat!” Ren said.

A bat large enough to fit a mecha arrived in their robot’s hands. ‘Hands’ here meant two jagged wolf and kitsune-shaped jaws, but they held the bat well enough. They swung at Balthazar, parrying the war-hammer and delivering a blow to the monster’s chest. Balthazar howled, then grabbed both ends of his hammer and gave the mahoumecha a shove.

“Not again!” Ren cried as he felt the mech’s legs lift off the ground.

The combined mech landed right in the city center, flattening buildings and upturning streets. Alarms blared. The ground shook as Balthazar surged forward, crushing entire neighborhoods underfoot. He brought the hammer down dead center on the mecha’s chest.

The other four rangers appeared to stutter with a static sheen. They weren’t physically present in this combined cockpit, merely beamed in from their individual mechs.

Before Balthazar could hit them with his hammer again, Miyu kicked him in the shins. The Schattenritter dropped his hammer directly onto the city hall! This gave them enough time to leap up back to their feet and grapple with the knight.

“Bah, you’re not even worth gifting as the Kagehime’s battle-thralls!” the giant beast-man covered their mech’s exterior cameras in spittle.

Miyu and Yuto’s holograms stuttered. “Our arms are being crushed!” they reported.

With a kick, Balthazar sent the mech sprawling backwards atop the city’s business district. It jumped over ot them and delivered a flying kick that crushed their right leg.

“Pressure warnings. It’s going to…” Haruto’s hologram faded out.

“We’ve got to dodge!” Further word from Sakura was cut short as Balthazar reached down and pulled the purplish ‘leg’ of the mech clear off, then chucked it backwards. It flew an impossible distance, eventually landing far out at sea.

“Sakura! Haruto! Are you still with us?” Ren said, receiving no response.

Next, Balthazzar grabbed at the rightmost arm and began to crush it at the ‘shoudler’ joint.

“We’re crushing half the town!” Miyu said as her hologram began to fail. “We’ve got to do some—”

With a mighty step, Balthazar crushed one of three remaining mecha-pieces.

“Miyu!” Yuto turned to Ren. “What are we going to do?”

The knight’s heavy mail boot hovered right over the camera, ready to crush the cockpit.

Ren tried his controls. Miyu’s mech could still be moved at least. He reached up and embedded the kitsune-face directly into Balthazar’s side. Yuto took the hint and grabbed onto Balthazar’s right shoulder with his own wolf-headed limb. Even without proper legs, the top-heavy mecha climbed up the kaiju. By forcing both levers forward, Ren delivered a mighty headbutt with his kappa-shaped bucked-face. Balthazar reeled back, badger-nose bloody.

“Again!” Ren repeated the motion twice more.

“Gaaaah!” Balthazar reeled back in pain.

Ren turned to Yuto. “Now!”

Yuto released his death grip on the monster’s shoulder and instead clamped the wolf-head down on Balthazar’s face. With the press of a button, smalt-colored flame roasted the beast-man. Hands flattened another few buildings groping for the knight’s Warhammer, then eventually settled for prying Yuto’s mech clear off his burnt and charred face.

“Gattai… mahou… headbutt!” Ren said, hoping his random shouts would imbue their attack with extra strength.

One last headbutt elicited a flurry of sparks from Balthazar. The rangers let go as their foe began to teeter backwards.

“Gaaah. A trillion years to the… Kagehime…” Balthazar said. He hit the ground with a fit of sparks that promptly turned into a great explosion that leveled every building for two blocks.

The mech was sent backwards, flattening yet more city center-adjacent wards and districts. Sparks invaded the cockpit as they spun and tossed about. Ren’s head spun for a full minute before he was able to get his bearings.

“S…status report!” he cried.

Only Yuto’s hologram returned. Haruto’s crushed leg-mech had been jettisoned in the explosion and flattened a nearby neighborhood. Miyu’s kitsune mech was still attached, albeit damaged beyond repair.

“Everything’s gone!” Yuto said with a sob.

Outside, the city of Tenshigurobu was unrecognizable amidst the destruction. That out-of-place apartment complex far in the distance remained. Balthazar was gone, replaced with a crater. His war hammer sat propped up on a half-collapsed office building.

They needed to get Miyu out of her mech. Get her back to the Temporal Fortress…

“Sakura… and Haruto,” Yuto said with a hoarse voice.

Ren nodded. They’d need to retrieve them. Hopefully the castellan had already warped them to safety.

“What have we done?” Yuto asked.

“Hey.” Ren grabbed at Yuto’s shoulders, causing the hologram to turn fuzzy. “We did our roles as mahourangers. Do you hear me? We’re big damn heroes and we saved the city.”

Yuto managed a faint nod.

“Saved. The city.” Ren emphasized.

That war-hammer slid off the ruined office building and flattened Tenshigurobu’s hospital, the last building standing in the city center.