Ahim thought over her plan of attack. She remembered sitting in on tactical briefings during the attack on her kingdom and knew that Sonar's sonic blast was his strongest point. He's not used to fighting up close, Ahim deduced. If I could engage him in close quarters combat, I might have the advantage.

Ahim pressed the button on her belt buckle again, pulled out another ranger key and put it into her mobirate.

"Caaaaaaaaaranger," the mobirate cried out and Ahim was transformed into a pink costume with a helmet that had what looked like a car's grill around the black visor, headlight's on top of the visor, a yellow rectangle on the chest and a red blaster in a holster. Ahim drew the blaster and fired at Sonar while running towards him very quickly thanks to the speed boost from the Caranger powers.

Sound waves started generating from Sonar's armor, deflecting Ahim's blasts. He raised his staff to fire another blast and Ahim dashed to the side. Sonar didn't fire because he wanted to finish her off with a single blast. Ahim ran towards him in a zigzag pattern to throw off his aim.

Ahim was very close to Sonar now and running straight at him. He raised his staff and fired another sonic blast, but Ahim jumped into the air as he fired and avoided the attack. She pulled out another ranger key and put it into her mobirate.

"Liiiiiiiiiiiveman," the mobirate cried out and Ahim was transformed into a black and white costume that had a white skirt with a black trim and a black helmet modeled after a bull. She was wielding a rod in her hand.

She landed behind Sonar and they both turned to face each other. Ahim tried to strike Sonar with her rod but he blocked with his staff. Sonar blocked the next few strikes, but then Ahim got a hit in. She followed up with two more strikes. Sonar countered by head butting Ahim in her chest and vibrating the tuning fork on his helmet.

Ahim was sent flying back and reverted to her Gokai Pink costume. Meanwhile, Sonar was reeling from his own attack.

I hate it when I do that, Sonar thought as he was dizzy and his ears were ringing. He had just pulled off a desperation tactic to buy himself some breathing room. On the plus side, she's probably worse than me right now.

Ahim was not feeling great after that last attack, but she persevered and got back on her feet. She saw that Sonar had been hurt by his own attack and this was the perfect opportunity to take him down.

She pressed the button on her belt buckle and the ranger keys of her two most immediate of predecessors shot into the air. The Shinken Pink key landed in the receptacle on her Gokai saber as the Gosie Pink key landed in her Gokai gun's receptacle.

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinal wave

Ahim swung her saber in an upward slash that created a gust of wind so powerful, it lifted Sonar off the ground while damaging him. Ahim shot her gun, which sent out a horizontal tornado towards Sonar that sent him flying out of the mall.

…..

Onboard the lead Zangyack ship, Oilles Gil was loudly displaying his displeasure at seeing Sonar's defeat.

"Do not worry, lord Oilles Gil," Insarn said, attempting to reassure him. "The ship is about to experience a malfunction that will greatly aid commander Sonar."

"What kind of malfunction?" Oiles Gil asked.

"This kind," Insarn said as she picked up the gun that operated the ship's enlarging ray and fired at the Earth's moon. The beam bounced off the moon and headed towards Sonar's location in Sherman. Even Oiles Gil knew that Insarn's talk about a malfunction was the official version of events if they were asked about it.

…

Ahim stood by the mall's entrance and looked at Sonar's defeated form. She felt glad that she had not only avenged her kingdom, but also saved Illana and the innocent Americans from him.

Unless of course… Ahim thought and was interrupted by a familiar green energy beam hitting Sonar, making him grow to the size of a skyscraper. That were to happen, Ahim finished her earlier thought.

Ahim stood in silent panic in front of the enlarged Sonar. Normally, this would be the part where she and her friends brought in Gokaioh and the Gozyudrill, but they were on the other side of the planet. And even if they knew she needed them, it would take the Galleon at least two hours to come to her aid.

As she was contemplating how doomed she was, Ahim saw Octus and a large, blue robot she didn't recognize (but assumed was Lance in his armor) flew towards her. The two of them landed near her and Octus went to help Illana.

"Sorry we couldn't get her sooner," Lance said, though like Illana his voice sounded different through the armor. "We came as soon as Octus detected Illana activating her armor."

"Illana," Ahim said in worry as she looked at her friend. She saw Octus standing over her armor and open a panel on it and a current of energy travel from Octus to the Corrus armor. Ahim didn't this know, but Octus was boosting the armor's self-diagnostic program so it could quickly repair itself.

With the armor fixed, Illana stood up and flew to where Ahim and Lance were. Octus followed her. "We have to stop him," Ahim said. "Octus, you know what to do."

"Right," he said he nodded his head. "Form Sym-bionic Titan."

Octus began growing many times his normal size. Lance went inside him. His armor split apart and began forming a robotic skeleton of sorts throughout Octus. Illana landed on the opening made from Lance's armor splitting. The chest piece of her own armor stuck out and four metal bars came out of its corners as it crew. Ahim couldn't see this part, but Lance and Illana were now floating inside a chamber, wearing the black neural interface suits from their own armors. Octus's head was floating above them and a beam of yellow energy was connecting the three of them.

"Amazing," Ahim said. The transformation sequence was very different from how her crew combined four vehicles with the Gokai Galleon to form Gokaioh. Also, seeing Titan up close was a world apart from viewing news footage of it.

Sonar aimed his staff at Titan and fired one of his sonic blasts. "Form sym-bionic shield," Illana said as a round shield formed on Titan's left arm. Titan blocked the sonic blast with the shield. Titan was undamaged from the attack though the same couldn't be said for every piece of glass in a half-mile radius, which had shattered from the sound of the blocked blast.

As this happened, ten zugormin enlarged behind Titan. "Oh no," Ahim said as she saw this development.

"Enemy reinforcements just came in from behind us," Octus said, notifying Lance Illana.

"Any ideas?" Illana asked.

"I've got one," Lance said.

A pair of wing-like objects emerged out of Titan's back. The Zugormin fired energy blasts at Titan but jets fired out of the wings, lifting Titan off the ground and out of the line of fire. The blasts went towards Sonar and he sent out a sonic pulse from his armor that deflected them.

"You idiots almost shot me," Sonar yelled at the Zugormin as Titan flew towards them. Titan landed near the Zugormin and slashed one with its sword. Several others shot more blasts but were blocked by Titan's shield.

Titan slashed more Zugormin and they fell to the ground. Some managed to hit Titan with their claws, but the attacks were ineffective. Titan quickly slashed the remaining few.

While Titan was occupied with the Zugormin, Sonar raised his staff fired another sonic blast. Titan had dealt with the last Zugormin as it saw the blast but couldn't react in time.

Titan staggered back as it was hit. It didn't fall over, but significant damage was done.

"We can not take another hit like that," Octus said.

"I hope you have another idea, Lance," Illana said.

"As a matter fact, I do," Lance answered. As he thought of his idea, several missiles appeared on Titan's shoulders and legs. The missiles launched and Sonar sent out a relatively weak but wide reaching sound wave that made the missiles explode prematurely.

"Ha," Sonar laughed at the smokescreen that had appeared between him and Titan from the missiles detonating. "Is that the best you've got?" Sonar received his answer in the form of an arrow shooting through the smoke screen too fast for him to form a sonic pulse around himself and hitting him in the chest. "Guess not."

Three more arrows shot out and hit him. The smoke screen dissipated and Titan stood wielding the Sym-bionic bow. "It worked," Illana said jubilantly at the success of Lance's plan. He knew Sonar would shoot down the missiles, which would create a smoke screen that would obscure a second projectile attack.

Sonar was really angry now. After the damage he took from those arrows, he couldn't finish this fight. Worse, he lost track of Ahim De Famille after growing to giant size. But he knew how to get rid of both with another one of his desperation tactics. His body started giving off pulses as he began building up energy.

"What's he doing now?" Illana asked.

"He's going to commit a suicide attack that will unleash a sonic blast which will destroy Sherman," Octus explained. "He'll reach critical mass in sixty seconds."

"We have to get him away from the city," Illana said.

Titan's wing jest came out again and it flew towards Sonar, grabbed him and flew into the sky. Titan was taking damage from the sonic pulses, which were growing stronger.

"We have to let go of him in eight seconds or we'll separate," Octus said.

"But will we be far enough away from the city?" Illana asked.

"We'll have to be," Lance answered.

Titan let go of Sonar and stopped accelerating. Sonar continued to move upward because of inertia. Then Sonar went up for a while before stopping and then exploded as he built up enough energy. Titan suffered some minor damage from the explosion, but Sherman was unharmed.

…

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Oiles Gil screamed in frustration aboard the Zangyack lead ship. He started going around the bridge and hitting gormin in the head to vent, knowing full well that they would never hit back the emperor's son.

"Sir," one of the gromin said, interrupting Oiles Gil's tantrum. "Solomon from G3 wishes to speak with you."

"Well I do not wish to speak with him," Oiles Gil replied angrily. "Damaras, handle this matter."

"Yes sire," Damaras said as Oiles Gil left the bridge. He was very glad that the prince had decided to leave: he didn't strike Damaras as having the capacity for subterfuge that was now needed. "Put Solomon on screen," Damaras commanded. Solomon appeared on the view screen in front of the bridge, dressed in usual sunglasses, black hat and black coat ensemble.

"I'll get straight to the point," Solomon said. "I know you just sent one of your action commanders to the United States. Care to explain why?"

"That was not one of our commanders," Damaras explained. "The one you are speaking of was an exile of the empire. I don't know why he went to that part of the planet, but it wasn't because he ordered him to."

"Then how do you explain the energy beam that came from your ship and made him grow?" Solomon asked.

"We had a power surge through the ship," Insarn answered. "The surge spontaneously activated the enlarging beam, bounced off your planet's moon and hit the rogue commander. I will show you proof as soon as I run a system analysis."

And create a forged system log, Insarn added in her head.

Solomon knew that the two Zangyack officers were lying. He also knew that at this point in time, the smart thing to do was keep the Zangyack at bay with diplomacy until he gathered enough forces to fight them off.

"Be sure to tell this to the imperialist brat you work for the next time you see him," Solomon began. "I have no problem with you attempting to apprehend those pirates you're after who are in Japan. But you sent your forces outside Japan, and we'll have a problem. Also, I have weekly conferences with commander Kruger from S.P.D. to keep myself informed of your activities. Good bye."

Solomon disappeared from the screen. Damaras and Insarn were left wondering how they would tell lord Oiles Gil how the conversation went.

…..

It was sunset now and Ahim was standing outside the Gallalunans' house, waiting for the Gokai galleon to come pick her up. Illana was with her, saying goodbye to her friend.

"I had a great time today, Ahim," Illana said.

"Even the part when Zangyack forces were trying to kill us?" Ahim asked.

"Well, I could have done without that part," Illana said. "Still, it was great to see you again."

"It was great to see you too," Ahim said. "Sadly, I have no idea when I will be able to come see you again. I was very lucky to get this day off and my crew is very busy with matters in Japan."

"Maybe I'll come see you then," Illana replied. "Titan can get to Japan very quickly."

"I would like that very much," Ahim said, then hugged Illana. Illana returned the hug and both princesses thought over the events of the day.

Ahim didn't show it, but she was ecstatic over how things went. She had found her old friend who had helped her avenge her people. As for Illana, she was also happy to see her old friend, but also to get her first clue regarding the coup that had taken so much from her and her people.

The two of them separated and the galleon hovered over the street. A rope lowered down and Ahim grabbed onto it. As the rope raised Ahim towards the ship, the two princesses waved goodbye to each other.