Arrogance, part 2.

[estirose]

"We won't hurt you!" Kira called to the uniformed figure. "Please, stop."

"Somehow, I don't think he's listening," Conner grunted as he dodged another blow from the teenager's staff.

Indeed, if the teenager had heard Kira's words, he was ignoring them. Tommy deflected another blow with his own weapon.

Kira parried the next attack. "Hey, you," she said, trying to disarm him. "We're not the bad guys here!"

"Yeah, he is," Conner pointed out. "He's the one who attacked *us*."

"Ore wa saikyou no raidaa da yo!" the teenager screamed once more, knocking Kira out of the way and going after Trent.

"Knock him out first, talk sense later," Tommy said. "I don't think he's going to listen, at least probably without a translator."

"Right, Dr. O," Trent said, rapidly drawing some arrows and firing them in the teenager's direction. The teenager ducked them and pulled two cards out of a case on his belt, running them through one end of his staff. "Blizzard Crush" echoed out of the device as the teenager ran towards him again, launching himself in the air and kicking. An ice storm seemed to preceed his attack, and Trent was frozen in place for a moment before the armored figure performed a crushing kick, knocking him solidly to the ground.

With one enemy down, the teenager seemed to remember his original target, Conner. He charged towards him with the staff fully extended. "Super Dino Mode!" Conner called in response. He braced himself for the other teenager's attack, managing to grab him and throw him into a nearby tree.

The belt flew off the teenager, causing the same purple window to descend on him and change him out of his armored form. He got up slowly, his eyes on the boxy device, but Tommy scooped it up first. "I'm holding on to this."

"Beruto o morau!"

They didn't have a chance to try to figure out what that meant, as an Invisiportal chose that moment to flare into life, depositing Elsa and Zeltrax into the clearing. "Hand over the boy," Elsa demanded.

"No way," Tommy said. "He's coming with us."

The teenager let off a soft growl, the box reappearing in his hand, and swiftly applied it back to his waist. The next thing anybody knew, he was back in his armored form, swinging at Zeltrax and Elsa. "So, do we attack him, help him, or cheer him on?" Ethan asked.

"He is acting a little like Trent," Kira mused. "When he was evil, I mean."

"Gee, thanks," Trent responded wryly, managing to get up from where the teenager had knocked him over.

"Kira's right," Tommy said. "When Trent was still evil, he was attacking both sides too, at least at first."

"So you think he's possessed, Dr. O?" Ethan asked.

"Could be," Tommy said noncommittally.

"His gear probably speaks better English that he does, anyway," Conner muttered.

In the meantime, it appeared that the teenager was handily dealing with both Elsa and Zeltrax. "I'm gonna go help him," Kira announced, running forward.
The teenager swiped one of his cards and attempted to run Zeltrax through with his staff. As Zeltrax reeled from the blow, the teenager swung to face Kira. "Ore no da yo!" He swatted at her with his staff before turning his attentions back to Elsa and Zeltrax.

"Ooookay," Kira said, backing off. He seemed to have things well in hand.

After a few more minutes, the villainous duo decided that they'd had enough, leaving the Rangers to deal with the still-armored teenager. "Figures," Ethan muttered as the expressionless armor seemed to glare at them, as if debating whether to attack them again.

Instead, he walked off, still armored, with a gait that suggested he had far better things to do with his time.

"What was all that about?" Ethan asked. He looked at Trent.

"Don't look at me," Trent responded quickly. "I'm a chameleon, not a telepath."

"Yeah, but you've been evil," Kira said. "You might be able to figure him out."

Trent nodded. "I… guess I can." He paused. "Well, as much as I remember, anyway."

"* * *

The Rangers returned to the lab, chatting among themselves. As they entered, two figures sat near the main computer console. "Cam," Tommy asked, "what are you doing here?"

"I asked him to come," Hayley explained. Cam was still in the outfit he wore at the Wind Ninja Academy, suggesting the speed in which he had to have come. "That teenager? He's speaking Japanese."

"Which I speak," Cam said.

"Make any sense out of him?" Conner asked.

"Not much," Cam admitted. "Just that he's the greatest of the Riders, you had his belt, and that Kira was stepping in where she wasn't wanted."

"He made the last part kinda obvious," Ethan pointed out.

"Rider?" Tommy said, looking thoughtful.

Cam nodded. "That's what he was saying he was."

"Does that stir any memories, Dr. O?" Kira asked.

"Well, there was a guy named Dex that I met… but he was from another planet, and he was a good guy. I didn't get the impression that there were Riders on Earth."

"Which means he's probably not from this Earth," Ethan pointed out.

"The belt… that makes sense. Dex's morpher rested in his belt," Tommy continued.

"So, he's like this Dex?" Conner asked, trying to remember if Dex had appeared in the history video.

"I'm not sure," Tommy admitted. "It's something that we'll have to ask him."

"One more thing," Kira said. "Don't Japanese people know how to speak English?"

Cam shrugged. "I've met Japanese people who speak excellent English, but most people? Not really."

"So, in other words, we can't communicate with him, and as far as he's concerned, everybody's his enemy," Ethan summarized.

"And we can't communicate with him to tell him we're the good guys." Kira said.

"Does he even know what good guys are?" Conner asked, looking at Trent.