Disclaimer: I do not own Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. I'm only playing with them.

I watched Meteor Catastrophe again and this popped into my head. Reviews are welcome.

I chose not to use speech tags for the majority of the words spoken over the intercom (in italics). I found it flowed better.

Cheering with joy, Ban slipped back into his seat.

"Did you see that, partner? I did it! Mission complete, partner"

"Respond, Ban. Ban. BAN!" Hoji cried.

"Huh? Can't you hear me?" Ban asked. He checked the PA system. "Ah mou! All the systems got scrambled by the energy from the blast. I can receive, I just can't transmit yet." Hoji's next words distracted him.

"Idiot…" Hoji whispered, his voice heavy with sadness "Why? Why did you…"

"Partner," Ban murmured, awed. Hoji was sad, for him? He listened in awe to his partner's words.

"There are plenty of replacements for me…" Hoji said, voice thick with emotion. "With effort, anyone can act like me... But Ban, it's not that easy to replace you!"

That's not true, Ban thought. Hoji is Hoji. Sure people can act like him, but it wouldn't be him. Why is he saying that?

"Even though I passed the Tokkyou exams…even now, I feel like I've always lost to you."

Ban was shocked. Partner feels that way…towards me? And why does he sound like he's…

"Even when separated from you…after a bit, I always thought that we'd be reunited. You are…To me you are the ultimate…the ultimate partner!"

He really thought so? Ban wondered. I had no idea…

The sound of Hoji's sobs came clearly through the loudspeaker. He's crying, Ban realized. He's crying because he thinks I'm dead. I'm dead, and he'll never get the chance to tell me any of this. He looked down, ashamed.

"Sorry, partner," he whispered. A moment later, Hoji's breathing evened out, and his PATwing sped up, heading towards Earth, leaving Ban behind in the temporarily paralyzed PATwings. Ban turned off the PA system and slumped in his seat.

"Sorry, partner. Guess I made you worry." He grinned. "Thanks for calling me 'partner,' even if you did think that I was dead." A beeping sound caught his attention. "Yay! The engines are back online! I can't go very fast just yet, but at least I can get moving!" However, before he did so, he turned the PA system back on. "Even though I can't talk to them just yet, I still want to hear what they say." He turned his robo and slowly headed back to Earth.

"This is Hoji."

"Hoji!"

"The large meteorite?"

"Its destruction was successful. There is no longer danger of it impacting."

"I see. Thank goodness."

Sighs of relief from Swan-san and the others sounded clearly through the loudspeakers.

"But Ban is…" Hoji faltered, before continuing on, "Ban…has died in the line of duty."

"What?"

"No."

"Sempai has?"

"You're joking, right?"

"You ARE joking, right?"

"Why?"

Ban grimaced. Too bad that my PA system's still down, he thought. Otherwise, I'd use it and tell them that he's wrong. But with the shape this robo is in right now, I can't do much.

"This is Ban's…my partner's…battle of revenge!" Hoji yelled. "Unforgiveable!"

Ban watched his partner's robo on his monitor. "Reckless partner," he muttered. "I'm not dead!" Though, he thought, it is kind of nice to know that he actually cares.

"Okay, Hoji move away! I'll finish it!"

"Roger!"

"Volcanic Buster!" Boss called, activating Deka Base Robo's final attack. However, it proved futile against Browgouls.

"What?!"

Browgouls attacked the Robos as they stood shocked.

"Curse you!"

"What's going on?"

"It's too strong."

"What should we do?"

"Even though Sempai gambled his life to protect the Earth!"

"You can't give up! Combine the three Robo's energy into one."

A beeping sounded in the cabin, and Ban was overjoyed to see that all his systems were working normally again. "Then let's do this!" he yelled over the open line.