Rainbow-charged! (Patreon)

Let your life be colorful unless you’re a Ranger! Stick to one or else, your soul will be drowned in a deluge of rainbow splashes!

Special thanks to my royal and loyal patrons!

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Get the palette!

“Not again!” groaned Tyler the Dino Charge Red Ranger impatiently.

It was the second time that he lost contact with his teammates, Chase the Black Ranger and Riley the Green. All he got from the communicator was static and the suppressed gibberish. He thought he heard screams, but nothing was certain at this point.

“Everyone… Take… Take… Paint… Color!”

Nothing was certain except there was definitely an emergency at the local youth center. The police and emergency services got the call they never wished to receive: a monster attack during a taekwondo tournament. They got the place surrounded but the entrance to the large convention center was blocked by strange colorful rubber. A SWAT officer came in with a chainsaw. Sparks flew, but its dangerous blade couldn’t cut through. To everyone’s surprise, it was made blunt.

Everyone also heard the call for help from the inside. The stretchy material vibrated with the punches and pounds of many young athletes. Tyler wasn’t wrong about hearing screams.

“We gotta help them!” exclaimed Koda as the Dino Charge Blue Ranger. He scanned the building for any sign of possible entrance, but no luck so far. All the windows and doors were clogged with that strange substance.

There were louder screams. As strange as it looked, some people got thrown out of the rubber barrier. The Red Ranger’s advanced visor locked in on their faces. They were all adults. Parents, security guards, and even two of the martial arts coaches were forcefully evacuated from the place. “I don’t know what just happened but I don’t think it's a good thing,” commented Shelby as the Dino Charge Pink Ranger.

“They’re eliminating the adults. The kids are in danger,” concluded Tyler with a clenched fist. Something had to be done. “Hang on, Guys!”

The Red Ranger grabbed the back of his teammates’ belts before leaping with them across the expansive parking lot. They landed on the massive structure’s building, away from the civilian commotion below. “All we gotta do is to find a way in. How about this?” proposed Pink as she pointed out the main elevator shaft. She easily ripped off the metallic cover with her superhuman strength.

“Good thinking! Let’s go!” replied Tyler with a thumbs-up. The trio jumped into the chimney, not realizing that their action was observed by a dark figure at the other end of the youth center roof.

Tyler looked down at the long, dark shaft. Even his steps on the metal support structure echoed in the void. Luckily, the Rangers didn’t fall for a long time. They entered the elevator car that was stuck on the top floor. Koda didn’t even need a sword to force open the thick door.

Like ninjas, the heroes explored the dark corridor. The power there had been turned off. The only source of illumination was the emergency system’s crimson glow. “Where to?”

The Pink Ranger tapped the side of her helmet. The tracker system lit up not just for her, but also for Blue and Red. They saw two pulsating markers that should be the location of the Black and Green Rangers two floors down. “They’re close,” said Shelby.

“Should we try to contact them?” asked Koda.

The Red Ranger shook his head. “Too risky. What if they’re hiding from the monsters? We’re gonna blow their cover. The best thing we can do now is to rendezvous with Chase and Riley before putting an end to this craziness.”

“Any clue about what we’re gonna face here?” asked the slightly nervous Pink Ranger.

“Don’t know, just keep your guards up. We saw what this thing is capable of. Now that we’re inside, the threat is more real than ever.”

“Not to mention all the kids it took. I can’t imagine what diabolical plan the monster has for them,” replied Shelby with a shiver.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to stop it.”

“Time to take the rough way down then,” said Koda with more excitement as they neared the corridor’s end. Tyler agreed and the three Rangers readied their Dino Sabre swords.

The glass wall on the second level of the main tournament arena tribune erupted. The Vivix foot soldiers were mercilessly taken down by slashing attacks even before they could see the heroes. Those who could got gunned down by Koda’s and Shelby’s Dino Charge Morphers’ additional firepower.

The fiery battle did damage on the surrounding colorful seats with the Red Ranger throwing away a Vivix onto three more before striking them all down. Small explosions erupted on the causeway. As their adversaries’ numbers depleted, the Dino Charge Rangers moved to the main floor. With a superhero landing, Tyler and his gang faced the main culprit of today’s problem.

“Ah, the colorful warriors are here. Are you ready to join my palette of beauty?” said the monster who looked like a twisted version of a French painter complete with a twirling mustache and a painter’s hat. Leaning on his left was a massive round brush as his staff.

“Nah, we’re gonna pass. We’re joining the main event of kicking your ass!” replied Tyler heroically.

Giggling, the monster showcased the head of his round brush that was hued with glimmering splashes of green and black paint. “Recognize this?”

The Rangers became alarmed. “What have you done to them?”

“You’ll soon see, Rangers.” The painter monster flicked his finger. “Or should I say, you’ll soon join the gallery!”

Paint gushed out from beneath the monster’s boots like a flood. From it, rose many figures. Shelby gasped when she realized who they were. “The athletes!”

The Dino Charge Rangers were suddenly surrounded by dozens of young martial arts athletes still in their uniforms. Their faces were completely splurged with rainbow paint. Their eyes and entire expressions were blank. “Hey, guys, wake up!” called out Koda.

But his words only made them take a fighting stance. The monster hugged one of the taekwondo athletes by the neck. Even suffocated, his victim didn’t budge as his servant. “I admire these kids as blank slates, but they are just too bland. They present no challenge to my artistic experience. I am here to create masterpieces, you see.” The monster flicked his finger again and the athletes rushed toward the Rangers. “That being said, I found them entertaining as cannon fodders!”

The punches and kicks were useless against the superhuman Rangers, but the enslaved boys and girls were a good distraction. “Wet on dry!” he declared as he struck the Blue Ranger with his brush staff. Koda was thrown back, but his landing was made worse by the swarming boys.

“Koda! You’ll pay for that, Monster!” Shelby aimed her Dino Morpher at her enemy, but a group of girls blocked her view. They acted like human shields. “No, get away!”

“Does your taste in art include harming little girls, Pink Ranger? Hahaha!” The monster lifted his brush high. “Spatter, spatter!”

Small blobs of paint got hurled toward the Pink Ranger. They exploded on contact. Shelby shrieked as the pain made her tumble backward.

Two Rangers down. Tyler didn’t sit idle, but his attack was easily blocked by the monster’s brush. “Being an avant-garde, are you?”

Out of nowhere, the Ranger’s enemy brought out a giant palette that cut across his chest like a particular shield. Grunting, Tyler was thrown back with his sword fell away with a clanking sound.

Almost immediately, the enslaved athletes gathered around Tyler. They held his arms back, forced him to kneel, and took away his sword. The same went for his teammates. The Dino Charge Rangers were now helpless before the monster. “I must say that you brought a new school of art here. The same goes with your friends!”

The monster suddenly split into three similar figures. Each of them stabbed their brush staff onto the Rangers’ helmet forehead. A jolt burned into Shelby, Koda, and Tyler’s minds. In the very vivid illusion, the trio saw their friends’ fate. Their final moments before the monsters took them.

Like this time, the Black and Green Ranger were distracted by a horde of enslaved children. How could they mount an attack without harming those young slaves? The answer was they couldn’t and the monster instead attacked them without mercy.

Sparks flew from all over their suits, even leaving torn parts and burn damage all around. Chase and Riley knelt exhausted. They couldn’t even get back up to fight. The monster then split just to choke the two defeated heroes.

Behind them, appeared two big canvases. The monster clones threw the Black and Green Rangers onto them. They screamed as the board slowly devoured them.

The painters laughed maniacally as the two heroes slowly got pulled into their two-dimensional prison. Their legs, then waists, then abs, all in agonizing slow rate so that they could feel false hope.

“Reach my hand! We gotta unite our powers to stop this!” called out the Black Ranger. Green nodded, but the two found it impossible to reach each other. Their extended arms always almost touched the other but not really.

That was until their arms were no more. Eventually, the two Rangers became new paintings of horror. They were trapped in their last pose of futile attempt to prevent their twisted vore. Once in a while, the trapped heroes were pushed out against the inescapable shiny, latex-like canvas. Tyler and his friends could hear their deadened pleas for help.

“You bastard!” cursed the Red Ranger as the monster clone put away his brush staff. The vision gave him nothing but more reason to fight him. His rejuvenated energy burst out as a critical uppercut that sent the painter rolling in the air. “Sorry, boys and girls. But bruises are good when you’re learning martial arts! Dino Steel, Armor On!”

The children screeched as they were blown away from Tyler’s glowing suit. His costume got an extra layer of metallic fortification. Along with it, his raised hand caught a fresh individual weapon in the form of an armored boxing glove in the shape of a T-Rex head. He immediately used the item to hit the tumbling monster into exploding with a violent splash of paint.

“No!” blurted the other clones, but their captives got their own enhancement modes. The Blue Ranger stabbed the chest of one of them while Pink drilled into her counterpart. The demons cried in pain before they erupted and sprayed the heroes with their disgusting paint.

“Yuck!” complained Shelby, but at least her situation was better than before.

Or perhaps not. The pool of rainbow paint moved on its own toward the lower form entrance hallway. It grew into another painter monster. “Your art is overwhelmingly transgressive, Rangers. But you haven’t beaten me yet. Come to my gallery for the main event! Hahaha!”

The monster ran toward the darkened hallway. The Rangers went after him.

Actually, only two Rangers since Tyler had his doubts. It was definitely a lure to a trap, and they-

The paint splurges on his costume glowed for a moment. His train of thought stopped. His muscles tensed. Something was changing him, but the Red Rangers didn’t realize it.

“Let’s go, Tyler. He’s getting away!” called out Shelby with the similarly-glimmering paint spots on her pink costume.

Tyler steeled himself and rushed to be with his friends. They didn’t notice that the enslaved young taekwondo athletes behind them were reaching out for freedom as the invisible forces pulled them into the surrounding tribune. One by one, they became mural paintings of screaming champions.

The Rangers lit up their helmet illumination. They got the first glance of the intricate and serpentine glow-in-the-dark abstract design on the walls. Their rushing steps echoed in the corridor that slowly enlarged itself. Tyler and the others found themselves in a large chamber with a tall ceiling. Its size could rival the main tournament arena floor.

But this place was not for sport. It was for a twisted version of visual art. Thick black pillars and long walls created a maze in the twilight. Koda was surprised when he found a painting of a screaming teen next to him. Worse, the painting was alive with the teenager in the taekwondo dobok uniform weakly pushing against the inescapable latex canvas cocoon. “Help… Help…” begged the boy.

He wasn’t the only one as the Dino Charge Rangers found a collection of horror. Rows of paintings were displayed across the labyrinth. Each contained the captured athletes. All of them were late teenagers or young adults with belt colors of red or black. Many more had the stripes of honor. None of their skills and experience saved them from the monster’s hunger. All they could do now was lamenting on their fate. “This is his masterpiece,” said Koda with an agitated voice.

Tyler too felt the dread. The thought of youngsters who dedicated their lives for the good of sportsmanship and healthy competition got cocooned in suffocating prisons was too much. The Rangers must put an end to this grotesqueness. He dashed toward the labyrinthine hall’s end.

“Welcome, Rangers!” greeted the monster again in a room filled with paint cans of all colors. “Ready to be my new canvas? I promise that I will be gentle unlike what I did to your friends.”

“We’ll never yield to your perverted art!” exclaimed Shelby the Pink Ranger defiantly.

“Are you sure about that? You’re so far away from home, Rangers. I’m not sure that your Morphing Grid connection works in my abode anymore.” The monster took out another brush, this time it was a normal size.

With his command and to the Dino Charge Rangers’ shock, he controlled the various paint cans to burst out with streams of color. His dance made the flowing rainbow twirled and grew.

Taylor knew about the monstrosity that he’s planning. “Everyone, combine your weapons!”

Shelby and Koda nodded. Without a time to spare, the trio combined their special Dino Spike weapons. The armored glove, the spiked gauntlet, and the deadly drill locked themselves with each other into the more formidable Triple Spike.

The Red Ranger pointed the weapon at the coming paint flood just in time. An energy shield was produced to protect the warriors from whatever effect the cursed liquid would have. “Hang on!”

It wasn’t enough because the monster had another trick up his sleeve. The blocked rainbow fluid reacted with the spots on the Rangers’ suit to weaken them. Tyler already felt his muscle tensing and aching. Koda had his foot sliding. Shelby had her concentration failing.

But that wasn’t the worst as the flood went around the energy shield and attacked the three Rangers from behind.

The Blue, Pink, and Red Rangers gasped as they were hit by the deluge. The monster controlled his attack to form a giant bubble that trapped the heroes without allowing them to get out. More and more of the paint spurted and burst on their costumes. Tyler felt his mind explode as his mental defense broke down. “It’ll be a delight to add you pathetic color heroes to my catalog!”

The flood ended. The flow of colors returned to their respective paint cans. All that was left were the defeated Rangers. They stood wobbly in the chamber’s heart. Tyler held the Triple Spike weapon with both hands and they gave up on it. “I can’t think anymore…”

“Well, well, I wasn’t sure that the dyeing process would be successful, but I’m confident now. Let’s see how you look now, Slaves!”

The confused Blue and Pink Rangers obeyed their master. They grabbed their helmets and discarded them. Their faces were now exposed to the demon, completely washed out with random splashes of a rainbow.

Shelby and Koda had blank expressions. As if the last attack robbed them of their emotions. Their mouths hung, their saliva drooled, and their eyes half-opened.

“Thank you for your customized products, Rangers! I’m sure this will be so useful in expanding my collection!” giggled the painter monster as he held two new cans of paint. On their sides were the Dino Charge Rangers’ symbol.

Almost instantly, the broken Rangers’ suits changed to befit their new status. The fabrics became glossier and tighter than ever. All the muscular details of their bodies were pressed by the corrupted costumes. The paint marks became permanent and glimmered with newly-absorbed powers.

Actually, he held three cans. Tyler’s color as the Red Ranger was there too. The young hero himself screamed for the last time as his vibrant soul was drained from his body. Like his former teammates, he also discarded his useless helmet. His face was also drenched in the rainbow as Inkmaster’s newest soldier.