Studio Rogue

It was almost midnight when they arrived. Frankie’s mind started being blown even before they landed in the unknown park when she leaned over to look out the window and saw that the airport resembled the Chaos Bloom (localized name) from the original Die Rangers, one of the earliest Rogue shows she’d watched.

Traversing the relatively normal airport was a simple enough affair, but as soon as they left its sliding doors they were met with that familiar sensation of stepping foot in a new park- only this time, the park was foreign and new to their eyes to the point of feeling fresh again.

High black buildings. Neon lights. Street fashion. Lots and lots of shops and insane rides that even got Frankie a little excited, like the giant statue of Die Ranger Leon that had a coaster coiling around it like an elongated snake, right up to the point of his rainbow-tipped blade. For the first time the tourists actually felt like they were living in “the future” for once.

“So…” She turned to her little sister with a smile, ready for the addicting cycle to begin once again. “Where to firs-“

<Hey, lady!>

Katie’s self-indulgent hype was cut short when not two seconds into entering Studio Rogue, the girls found themselves surrounded by four thugs decked out in live trickery.

“W-what the-“ Frankie reached for her blades, which of course weren’t there now that they’d long since left the only fair they proved useful in.

The punks weren’t big or especially rich- they actually looked scrawny, and quite average in dress, with graphic tees and cargo shorts, yet each of them had so many doodads coming out of his body than the last. One of them had a laser barrel that extended out of his eye. Two had matching sets of electrified rods that jutted out of their forearms as soon as they struck an identical pose. The most convoluted of the cyber-fiends was a kid with arms that folded back entirely to reveal magnetic gears that formed two long whips. As if this wasn’t enough, they all had this same look in their eyes like they were really gonna kill them, and seemingly not even for any particular reason.

“What do we-“ Katie shuddered. Never before had they hit the dark side of a park so fast.

“Back off!” Yelled Frankie, but the attackers were just closing in, muttering to themselves as they did. She grit her teeth. She considered surrendering, but didn’t think that was what they were here for. She looked at the weakest one and started mustering up her courage to kick him somewhere he’d remember.

Before she could, the closest electrified one leapt at her from and Katie behind.

<I’ll kill you and make everyone forget you, Die Rangers!>

The sisters flinched, the buzzing of his taser sticks like jet plane mosquitoes hurtling towards them.

…

But no impact came.

Frankie slowly opened her eyes.

“逃げる!” The remaining lowlifes stuttered as they ram for the hills. The assailant’s weapon of choice was held in the metal hand of a young adult with bleached hair, clad in oshare kei and sporting only the small and minute trickery that was their silver fingers.

<L-let me go!> The captured crook shivered, too scared to use his other weapon. He didn’t want to wind up with every piece of tech in his body being broken. The second that hand had fallen on his gear, everything about it had temporarily stopped working, just like the rumors said.

<Aw, are you sure?> As they mocked him, the fear in the boy’s eyes looked like it was about to spill over. <You looked like you were having so much fun.>

He shook his head “no” as fast as his neck would let him, not even trying to struggle as they finally dropped him to the ground, from which he promptly hotfooted it far, far away.

“Nice to meet you.” The stranger extended their hands to the girls, the metal retracting off of them and back into their jewelry-clad wrists.