"Kyumachi," Budo said. The door to the general's corridors slid open, and out stepped a warrior dressed in ancient- Japanese type garments and armor. He inclined his head.

"Come here, Medon Medou," Iresia said as she waved her hand over a crystal ball she carried in her palm. A snake-like creature with Medusa-like hair appeared on the railing of a stairwell that led onto the deck.

"Dangasu," Batbos said as he slammed the end of his axe against the ground. A creature covered head to toe in metal armor stepped onto the deck. What looked like large tread blades were attached to his shoulders. 

"Wait!" Sanbashu said. "I will handle this matter!"

"Why you?" Iresia said as the group of generals began arguing.

"Silence..." Zaihabu said, but they kept arguing.

Sherinda tossed her sword like a spear at them. Sanbashu caught the blade. The scarcely clad Balban woman shouted at the generals. "Stop!" she shouted. "The captain commands you!"

"This infighting is exactly what brought on our defeat from the Gingaman 3,000 years ago! We will try a new strategy this time." Zaihabu pulled four cards out from his belt. "Divide these among you. The winner will go." The captain tossed his four cards forward. Each general caught a card in their hand. "Who has the Joker?"

"I do!" Sanbashu said as he flipped the card around.

"Then you will do it," Zaihabu said. "Go collect the energy."

"Here," Bukarates said as he waddled towards the crab creature with a small box. The black box was outlined in faded gold. "Collect the energy with this."

"Good...get to it!" Sanbashu shouted.

"Okay!" Korushiza shouted as he left the castle ship.

Sherinda watched the villain leave as her mind wandered. Bukarates had said the ship needed energy. Energy. An evil grin crossed her face. She knew the perfect place.

During the day, Ryuuta and his father drove through the city streets of Stone Canyon on their way back to their home. Ryuuta was playing a handheld game when his father suddenly skid the car to a halt. Ryuuta nearly banged his head on the dashboard.

"Dad!" Ryuuta said. "What ya do that for?"

His dad pointed forward. Cars were screeching to a halt as Yattatoo swarmed across the streets. The villains leapt onto cars and smashed their swords through windshields. The soldiers pulled motorists from their vehicles and tossed them to the ground.

The Balban monster stepped forward and placed his foot on the hood of a nearby car. "That's a nice vehicle," he said. "Now where's its energy."

The creature used his brute strength to lift the car high above his head. He slammed the car back against the ground. Gas started leaking from the tank. The villain turned towards the grunts. "Gather it!"

The Yattatoo held the storage box beneath the car and started to gather the gasoline. The villain watched with approval. "Yes..." he said. "This is the energy we will use to revive Daitanix!"

Boku hovered through the Ginga Forest as fast as he could. The small creature flew over towards a clearing where the teens were gathered. "Everyone! Balban are attacking the city!"

Ryouma snarled. "Let's go." Ryouma and the others grabbed their Seijuukin and strapped the blades across their backs. 

Sherinda lead the Yattatoo through the woods north of Stone Canyon. They came to a stop. "The Forest is nearby..."

The Yattatoo started to charge forward, but Sherinda extended her sword to stop the soldiers. "Wait!" She took a step in front of them. "This is just the border. Hmmm. This will be child's play."

Sherinda energized her blade and swung horizontally through the air. The saber tore a slash through the border of the pocket dimension that held the Ginga Forest. She placed her hand in the rip and tore a hole open large enough to walk through.

Sherinda led the Yattatoo into the forest. She extended her sword and started shouting commands. "Go! To the center of the forest!"

The rangers skid to a halt nearby when they watched the villains charge onto their land.

"Why are they here?" Saya asked.

"They're headed towards our village," Hayate said.

"We have to stop them," Hikaru said.

Shaman Ohghi paced back and forth with his staff as various warriors equipped themselves with swords, daggers, and bows and arrows. "Be on guard...They're coming."

The Yattatoo charged forward from the trees with their curved sabers in hand. The warriors returned the advance. The two armies slammed against each other and clashed swords.

A group of archers climbed to the treetops and set their sets on the second wave of grunts in the distance. They snapped a volley of arrows that arced through the air and struck down several dozen soldiers.

Ryouma, Hikaru, Hayate, Gouki, and Saya charged at the advancing grunts from the flank and started slashing through them, blades sparking on impact while ripping through the soldiers.

Ohghi knitted his brow when he saw the young warriors continue their advance through the enemy soldiers. "What are you still doing here?! I told you to go to the city!"

Hikaru swung upward, slashing through a solider. "We can't leave while the Balban are still here."

Nearby, Sherinda casually walked through the ranks of tribesmen. Her hand was held forward as she fired jagged energy beams from her palm. The beams tore through some of the tribe's finest warriors.

She smiled as she sensed the forest's raw power. The Ginga Forest was pulsing with life. "This forest is ripe with energy."

Sherinda tossed a metallic sphere covered with spikes onto the ground. The spiked object started to drain the life forces from the forest. The sphere pulsed with power and slowly started to expand. 

"They're trying to steal the forest's energy!" Ohghi shouted. His face grew pale when he realized what the Balban were plotting. "I see...They're trying to revive Daitanix."

"No!" Gouki shouted.

Gouki pounced forward and chopped his blade down towards the growing sphere. His sword struck an invisible energy shield that knocked the teen backward. Gouki crashed to the ground and tumbled backward.

Sherinda laughed. "It's impossible for you to remove my device."

Back in the city, Yattatoo continued to overturn cars at random and pull out the drivers. Ryuuta opened his eyes wide as the grunts came closer. "Dad...let's get out of here!"

Ryuuta bolted from the car door and started running. "Ryuuta!" Mr. Aoyama sighed. "That boy with be the death of me."

Sherinda cut down a tribe soldier and kicked his body away. The villain laughed as the sphere gathered more strands of energy. "Yes...take it all…"

Saya slashed a soldier away from her. "Ryouma...we have to stop her."

Ryouma slammed the end of his sword's handle against a soldier's face. "But how? Our weapons can't break through her energy screen."

"There's only one way..." Ohghi said.

"How?" Hayate asked.

Shaman Ohghi looked into the air. He slammed his staff against the earth below his feet. "Forest! Here me! Your life force must be protected!"

Ohghi pulled a palm-held mirror from beneath his cloak. He tossed the mirror upward into the air. The mirror pulsed with blue light that poured forth. The light splashed across the ground and spread across the forest.

Every leave, branch, blade of grass, and every piece of dirt in the forest slowly started to turn to stone. 

"What are you doing?" Hayate shouted.

"The forest must be protected," Ohghi said. "You, the chosen warriors, must go to the city and stop the Balban. You must not let them revive Daitanix."

Ryouma slashed upward across a soldier's chest. He narrowed his eyes as the forest around him slowly became stone. "Guys...let's go!"

"That old fool," Sherinda said. "Yattatoo! Fall back!"

Boku hovered down towards the wise man. "Elder!"

"Boku," Ohghi said as he pulled out a thick seed. "Give this to the Gingaman...you must go with them."

"Elder," Boku said. He did not want to leave the wise man or forest behind.

"Go Boku..."

The wave of stone slowly crept up to Ohghi. The shaman kept his gaze fixed on the sky as he turned to stone.

Boku reluctantly flew through the air towards the border of the forest. Ryouma and the others mounted on their horses and sped off towards the border.

"Don't look back!" Ryouma shouted as he led his team through the border.

Cars exploded across the city streets as Korushiza and the Yattatoo continued to gather as much gasoline as they could.  Ryuuta and his father ducked for cover at the base of a nearby building.

"Ryuuta," his dad said as he sat down, out of breath. "Let's rest for a while."

"We can't," Ryuuta said. "We have to go...get up and run."

A large chunk of debris almost fell on them as they screamed, bracing themselves. But five blurs of motion lead them to safety. Ryouma and his team got Ryuuta and Mr. Aoyama out of harm's way.

"Ryouma!" Ryuuta said as his eyes lit up.

Ryouma nodded. "Stay here."

The five teens ran off to face the Balban monster and Yattatoo.

"Collect more!" Korushiza shouted, not realizing that trying to collect gasoline to revive the beast-ship Daitanix was as futile as it was stupid. "We almost have enough."

"Stop!" Ryouma shouted as he and the other teens ran towards the villains.

"You..." the monster growled.

"Balban," Ryouma said. "This ends right now!"

"Hmph..." the monster scoffed. "Get them!"

Yattatoo leapt forward with their curved blades to attack the teens while jumping over any toppled car or vehicle in their way. The warriors stood firm and armed their braces.    

"Ginga Tensei!" Ryouma twisted the dial on his morpher, which clicked into position over a red line. "Ha!"

The teens slapped their braces' activation panels. The energy of their elements circled like pillars around them as they morphed into their armor. They snapped into animal-like fighting stances.

"Gingared, Ryouma!"

"Gingagreen, Hayate!"

"Gingablue, Gouki!"

"Gingayellow, Hikaru!"

"Gingapink, Saya!"

Gingared thrust his hand forward. "The sword of legend cuts through the galaxy...Seijuu Sentai..." Together, they shouted: "Gingaman!"

"Yattatoo...stop them!" the monster yelled.

"Break!" Gingared shouted as the Rangers pounced forward to attack.

Gingablue flipped across the ground and double kicked two soldiers while standing on his hands. Then he flipped on the ground sideways, wrapping his legs around a soldier’s ankles and tripping that soldier to the ground. He bashed that soldier across the face.

Gingapink scaled up a building while holding a soldier. "Later," she said as she let the soldier fall.

Gingagreen turned around slowly in his condor stance. He ducked under two villains swords, and then jumped over the same villains' low attacks as he kicked both soldiers across the face while in midair. He flipped and twirl kicked off of several more soldiers.

Gingayellow was clinging to the bottom a fire escape as he kicked and threw soldiers to the streets below.

Gingared and the monster tackled into each other, though neither one was pushed back. Gingared knocked the villain's hands away, and they both backfisted each other at the same time and were taken back. They circled around each other, Galaxy Red's movements were of the Lion.

They charged. Gingared double inner blocked a blow from the monster, then grabbed the creature by the head and tossed him over his shoulder and to the ground.

The monster rose to his knees as Gingared dashed forward, but the creature kicked Gingared back, and then fired at the Ranger with his energy rifle twice.

Gingared barely managed to dodge the blasts as he rolled over to a small pile of crates.

"Ha!" he shouted as he placed his hands together and blasted the monster with a fire stream. The stream exploded against the villain and knocked him backward. The pirate slowly rose to his feet, smoke still rising from his body.

"Seijuukin!" Gingared shouted as he unsheathed his sword.

Gingared slowly brought his blade upward as strands of crimson energy collected in the blade's hilt. Gingared brought the blade down towards his chest and twisted the sword so its edge faced the Balban. Red energy flared upward on the saber.

"Mane of flame!" Gingared swung the saber downward with a streak of fiery red energy. The blade produced a shockwave that exploded against the Balban creature with a burst of spark.

Gingared stood boldly in a victory stance as the other Rangers gathered around him.

"Bastards..." Korushiza cursed with his dying breath. He used the last of his strength to pull a vial out from his jacket. The vial's liquid was sold on the galaxy's black market 3,000 years ago. It was called Balban Essence.

Korushiza drank from vial. Its liquid started coursing through his veins and caused his body to expand. The creature grew giant.

"How are we supposed to fight him now?" Gingayellow asked.

"Like this!" Gingared shouted as he leapt up towards the monster. The giant swatted the Red Ranger from the air.

Gingared crashed against the ground as the others regrouped around him. He rose to his feet and looked up as the giant monster pointed his rifle downward.

Five beams of light suddenly shot down from the skies and exploded around the monster. The villain crashed against the ground. The giant Balban rose to his feet and looked up to see five giant beasts, a red lion, a yellow wolf, a pink wildcat, a blue gorilla, and a green condor. 

"That's..." Gingared and the others ran closer to the creatures. "It's the Seijuu!"

Korushiza rose to his feet and glared at the Star Beasts. "So...it's the Seijuu!"

The monster rose from the ground with his hand on his head.

The lion stalked towards the monster. The beast looked down at Gingared and lightly growled.

"You want me to hop on?" Gingared asked.

The lion quietly growled. Gingared could understand the beast. 

"Okay...here goes nothing," Gingared hopped onto the head of the lion. The lion and Gingared started to glow with fiery energy.

"He's doing it," Gingagreen said. "Ryouma's combining his Aasu with the Seijuu."

"Ha!" Gingared shouted as the lion opened its mouth. A Torrent of flame shot out that intercepted a rifle blast from the monster. The rifle blast and fire stream intercepted each other with an initial feedback explosion that caused the streets to tremble. The fire stream and plasma blast continued to resist each other.

The fire stream overpowered the villain's attack. The stream rolled across the Balban monster, burning its body into ashes and incinerating the creature.

The teens ran through the forest and stopped at the shore of a newly emerged lake. The lake covered the area that had once been the hidden Ginga Forest. They stared quietly as the waves slapped against the shore.

Saya bent down towards the water and picked up a small rose, a flower she recognized as coming from their village.

Gouki began to cry.

"Gouki!" Hikaru yelled, secretly biting back his own tears. "Stop crying!"

"There's only one thing for us to do now," Hayate said.

Ryouma nodded. "We have to stay here. Stay and finish the Balban."

"We have the Seijuu now," Saya said. "We can win."

Ryouma nodded. "We will win."

To be continued...Chapter 03