Captain Chaku is a minor protagonist of Power Rangers Beast Morphers, featured in a rather prominent role in the second season episodes "Intruder Alert!" and "The Greater Good", which both aired in 2020. He is an alien officer of the G5 Galaxy Police Force, who came to Earth to hunt down an intergalactic criminal named Ryjack. Externally, Chaku is identical to a human, but as G5 Galaxy Police Force officer, his body is covered in cybernetic enhancements, most notably on his face, giving him an almost skeletal robotic left eye, his facial cybernetics somewhat resembling that of a T-800. He is also clad in a silvery suit of cybernetic armor, and his cybernetics grant him enhanced strength, durability, and a built-in laser cannon, known as the Enforcer Laser. Chaku also wields an energy blade, and has access to the Reptilobeast, a zord-like spacecraft.
Captain Chaku was portrayed by Jack Buchanan. He is an adaptation of Space Sheriff Gavin of Metal Heroes, an identity carried by multiple Sentai characters, although his direct counterpart is Go-Busters' Geki Jumonji.
Biography[]
Past[]
Captain Chaku is an alien from the G5 Galaxy, where he had a young daughter named Starlight. However, when he joined the G5 Galaxy Police Force, he was given extensive cybernetic enhancements and sent on many long assignments across deep space, keeping him away from Starlight for extended periods of time. However, Chaku feared that his daughter would reject him due to his mechanical enhancements, so when he would contact her, he wouldn't remove his helmet, citing police regulations and believing that his duty was to the greater good. Additionally, at some point, he took on a seedling of an alien carnivorous plant from his homeworld as a sort of pet.
Throughout his career, eventually gaining the rank of captain, Chaku caught or terminated many criminals, eventually tasked with eliminating an incredibly dangerous gang of powerful alien criminals, led by the rhino-like Ryjack. Over many years, until the early 2020s, Chaku hunted the gang down, imprisoning all but Ryjack himself, who was deadly enough to warrant termination. Chaku chased Ryjack across seven galaxies, eventually tracking him to Earth. Finding out about Grid Battleforce, Earth's latest and most advanced team of Power Rangers, who were utilizing energy from the Morphin Grid itself as a power source, Captain Chaku sent a warning to them concerning Ryjack's arrival, as Ryjack was seeking to raid Grid Battleforce's stash of advanced, alien, and mystical Ranger weapons.
Intruder Alert![]
When Chaku arrived on Earth, Ryjack had already somehow found his way to the Crystal Dimension, where a group of digital and robotic entities led by the evil AI Evox made a deal with him to help capture Morph X, the energy Grid Battleforce was generating from the Morphin Grid. Chaku also saw that his cybernetics were running low on power, and went to a Morph X generator tower, siphoning some energy from it into a recharging device. The Rangers, detecting Chaku's alien biosignatures, assumed he was Ryjack and confronted him, aiming blasters at him when he tried to reach for his recharger. Due to his low power, Chaku was unable to communicate with the Rangers, instead saying some robotic gibberish, prompting the Rangers to fire at him, forcing Chaku to teleport away and leave his recharging device behind. Assuming it was a weapon, the Rangers had it locked in the weapons vault. Chaku later teleported into the vault to retrieve his device, but tripped a silent alarm and was promptly captured by the Rangers before he could use it, his weakened state allowing them to restrain him and have their robotic companions, the Beast Bots, lock him in a holding cell. Within the cell, Chaku kept losing power, as the Rangers soon met the real Ryjack, who used his alien toxins to poison Rangers Zoey Reeves and Ravi Shaw, although Rangers Devon Daniels, Nate Silva, and Beast Bot Steel got away with the two. Now knowing that Chaku wasn't Ryjack, and figuring he could help, Devon proposed that they could question Chaku to get his help, even though Nate and Steel still thought he was dangerous. Entering the holding cell, the Rangers found that Chaku had collapsed and was on the verge of death.
Chaku's full armor and energy sword
Chaku, seeing Devon alongside Nate and Steel, who had Chaku's recharging device, reached for it while making more robotic gibberish. Realizing he needed it, and not seeing Chaku display hostility, Devon gave it to him with some hesitation. Chaku put it on over his helmet's mouth, recharging him and allowing him to speak English. Chaku then properly introduced himself, asking if all alien visitors were treated so harshly, before explaining his purpose on Earth, Steel being awestruck by Chaku's position as a galactic police officer. When told that Zoey and Ravi were infected by Ryjack's poison, Chaku ran to their beds in the medbay, administering an antidote to them, which was fortunately compatible with human physiology. Then, Vargoyle, one of Evox' robotic minions, had appeared on Earth with a massive robot known as a Gigadrone, moving to attack a Morph-X tower. Chaku, armed with his finger-mounted energy cannon and laser sword, accompanied Nate, Steel, and Devon in attacking the evil robots, pairing up with Devon to fight their way through a group of robotic foot soldiers, the Tronics, to reach Vargoyle, while Nate and Steel took on the Gigadrone. Vargoyle, who had a compliance collar on to ensure his loyalty to Evox, was soon damaged enough to break the collar off, making a run for it on a dirt bike, but Chaku and Devon chased him, Devon riding a Beast Bot named Cruise in motorcycle form and Chaku summoning a vehicle known as the Galactic Interceptor, the two heroes battling Evox on their vehicles. Chaku then jumped off his vehicle and tackled Vargoyle off his bike, and the battle continued on foot, where Devon and Chaku both used their most powerful moves, Devon's Beast-X Slash and Chaku's Enforcer Strike, to destroy Vargoyle, as Steel and Nate destroyed the Gigadrone.
After the battle, the Rangers and Chaku returned to base, finding Zoey and Ravi recovered, where they learned who Chaku really was after first being alarmed by his presence. After they apologized to Chaku for assuming he was an enemy, Chaku assured them that he was proud to work with them, revealing that the reputation of the Power Rangers spread across galaxies, and that he would gladly stay on Earth long enough to see Ryjack destroyed. Then, Ben and Betty Burke, two bumbling Grid Battleforce security guards, tried to show off their newest security device to the Rangers and Chaku, programmed to attack anyone without a newly issued security card. However, as the Rangers and Chaku were not wearing such a card, the device shot ropes onto them, restraining them and tying Chaku to Devon, but the group laughed off the situation.
The Greater Good[]
Afterwards, Chaku remained with Grid Battleforce while searching for Ryjack, going to sites of two Morph X tower attacks led by Ryjack, but he would arrive too late to stop the attacks, instead handling cleanup. After a third attack, the Rangers met Chaku as he was extinguishing fires caused by Ryjack, realizing Ryjack had allied with Evox. Chaku reminded them that while Ryjack seemed willing to steal Morph X for the AI, Ryjack's true goal is to steal the Ranger weapons in the vault. To even the playing field, Chaku's superiors sent him a personal battleship, the Reptilobeast, capable of transforming from a spacecraft to a reptilian mech. Then, back in Grid Battleforce HQ, the commander of Grid Battleforce, Commander Shaw, impressed by Chaku's work and power, offered him a position in Grid Battleforce once Ryjack is destroyed. Chaku was visibly hesitant, noting that Earth was far from the G5 Galaxy, but accepted, believing it was for the greater good. As such, he promptly collected some personal effects and brought them to the room designated as his quarters, including his carnivorous plant, Ben and Betty helping him move his things in.
As Ben and Betty moved Chaku's things in, they opened a box holding Chaku's pet plant, making Chaku quickly order them not to move, or else the plant would eat them. The plant then grew in size, frightening the two humans and making them panic, which caused the plant to swallow them whole. Chaku pulled out a repellant spray and sprayed the plant while ordering it to let them go, which it did, spitting the two out and shrinking again, allowing Chaku to seal it in its box. Chaku apologized to Ben and Betty, telling them to wash off the plant's mucus, which had stuck on them. Once the two left, Chaku used a holographic device to call Starlight, who was still home in the G5 Galaxy, seeing how Starlight had grown bigger. Starlight told him how she was regarded as very smart in school, just like Chaku, and Chaku told her that he was proud of her. Starlight then asked him to remove his helmet, but Chaku once again said he wasn't allowed to while on duty, before ending the call, saying he loved Starlight more than she knew. Then, Chaku and the Rangers were alerted to Ryjack drilling through the base's lower levels, trying to reach the weapons vault. Arriving on the scene, Chaku and the Rangers instantly destroy Ryjack's henchmen, revived Putties and Vivixs, and Ryjack, recognizing Chaku, demanded to know how they found him. Chaku noted that Ryjack wasn't very quiet, but Ryjack refused to surrender. Chaku and the Rangers then attacked him, but Ryjack's armored skin rendered most of their attacks ineffective, although Chaku was still able to knock him down. However, Ryjack then survived an Enforcer Strike from Chaku and several blasts from the Rangers' stronger weapons, teleporting away.
As the Rangers returned to Commander Shaw to get the tunnel sealed, Nate, who had secretly seen Chaku contacting Starlight, pulled him aside and told him how he overhead it. Chaku immediately became defensive, asking what right Nate had to spy on him, and Nate tried to insist that Chaku return home to his daughter. Chaku countered by saying that he had a responsibility on Earth that came first, but Nate realized there was something Chaku wasn't telling him, telling the alien how he personally knew what it felt like to be separated from one's parents, not wanting Starlight to go through that. Chaku then relented, taking off his helmet to show Nate his cybernetics, saying that the enhancements took away the father Starlight knew. Nate tried to assure Chaku that Starlight would still love him, but Chaku simply put his helmet back on and declared that he served the greater good, solemnly saying that he would never return home.
Soon afterwards, the Rangers and Chaku were deployed to confront Ryjack again, who had appeared atop a building, wielding a raygun that could reanimate dead monsters. Engaging him, Chaku was able to knock the gun out of Ryjack's hands, and manages to disarm Ryjack with the Rangers, cornering the criminal. However, Ryjack then pulled a device from the ruined world of Andresia, which enabled him to grow to giant size. To fight him, the Rangers summoned their megazord, but Ryjack was still stronger than them, only for Chaku to summon the Reptilobeast in its mech form, blasting Ryjack before he could destroy the megazord. With Chaku's help, the Rangers repowered their own mech and utilized their most powerful attack to finally destroy Ryjack, fulfilling Chaku's mission.
Chaku reunited with Starlight
With Ryjack destroyed, Chaku and the Rangers returned to base, where the Rangers congratulated Chaku for finishing his mission, which could allow him to finally retire. However, Chaku still believed he should serve Grid Battleforce, although Commander Shaw heard the sadness in his voice, even while Chaku insisted, he served the greater good. Nate then led Chaku to a room holding a neural aligner device, which was capable of restoring Chaku's organic body. Realizing he could return to Starlight, Chaku entered and was reverted to an organic. Overjoyed, Chaku asked how he could ever thank them, but the Rangers said that there was no need, for they wouldn't have been able to destroy Ryjack without him. Chaku then told Nate that his parents should be proud to have a son like him, hugging the young human. Before he left, Chaku asked if there was anything he could do for the Rangers, and Steel excitedly asked for the Reptilobeast, but Chaku had to clarify that the mech was Galaxy Police property. With that, Chaku bid the Rangers farewell and saluted them, teleporting back to the G5 Galaxy, retiring from the G5 Galaxy Police Force and coming home to Starlight, also letting Grid Battleforce keep his plant. Shortly afterwards, he contacted the Rangers one last time, where he and Starlight thanked them for allowing him to finally come home.
