"A doppelganger is a ghostly double of a person," Clare said as she read out of the book of Dark Magic, "Throughout the ages, they have taken the forms of various people, often being foreboding of death. Some doppelgangers, though, are harmless. The creatures dwell in the Desert of Lost Souls until they are captured or summoned to ours. Once released to the surface, the doppelganger takes on the form of the first person it meets. Telling a doppelganger from the original person can be…"

"Yeah, we get it," Vida forcibly slammed the book shut on Clare's hand, the apprentice pulling it away and shaking it to dull the pain. "Now why don't you tell us about creatures that they're actually planning to use against us?" Madison grabbed Vida by the shoulders.

"Sis, calm down. We don't know what Imperious is planning. Necrolai used a Soul Specter on us once. She could just as easily pull out a doppelganger."

"What else is in that book?" Chip intently asked, "I want to know!"

"A complete bestiary," Clare explained, "this volume has creatures of Dark Magic, but Five-Branch and Knight Magic have their own books as well. Udonna's library is really worth reading if you have the time. I think I've been through every book at least once…"

"We need to go home, Clare," Nick interjected walking to the elevator that led to the dragon head, "it's getting late."

"I'm staying," Madison insisted, "with Udonna's increasing absences, and Daggeron's constant training, Clare may be the only one who can actually teach us anything new."

"Just don't be home too late," Vida winked as she left with the others, "now come on, Xander. You can make your moves on Clare later."

"When did I ever say I was going to…?" Xander asked.

"I saw it in your eyes, loverboy," Vida snapped.

"Good night, Maddie," Chip waved good-bye.

"Good night, Chip," she said, "Sleep well."

Clare pulled the Five-Branch volume off the shelf, opened to the table of contents, and told Madison to select the first creature. An intense night of studying and preparation was ahead of them. The best offense, even in magic, is a good defense.

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Imperious sat on his throne, looking into the ovular piece of steel in his fan. "I'm so beautiful," he commented, moving his bandaged hand down his face, "yes, a great ruler of the underworld am I. When The Master rises, I'll be at his right-hand side, and the world will be MINE!"

"Imperious!" Necrolai's voice sounded from the top of the Pit.

"WHAT!" the mummy yelled, dropping his fan and hastily picking it back up.

"I got something that will show those Magicians once and for all!" she landed in the middle of the Pit with another bottle in hand.

"Another Specter?" asked Imperious angrily, "The last one failed horribly."

"It isn't a Specter," Necrolai retorted, "It's something else entirely."

Necrolai produced the bottle from thin air; it appeared in a flurry of purple wisps. It had a rounded shape at the bottom and a topper like a wolf's-head. The entire vessel was a deep purple, and something, cold and shaky, could be felt moving about inside. "Who better to beat the Rangers than the Red Ranger himself? He has such boundless power…he could defeat them in one spectacular burst of flame!"

"I see a burst of flame every time one of my creatures is defeated," Imperious sighed, "but for the Rangers, I might turn my head their direction. Who knows? It may even be colorful. Necrolai, I give you full permission to unleash your plan whenever you wish."

Koragg had overheard the whole conversation from the nearby archway, and he had all intention of hearing what was going on between the ruler and his servant. "This will either help the Magicians in becoming stronger…or it will kill them all from the inside," Koragg sheathed his sword in his shield, "but if it's the latter, then I'll have no choice but to interfere in that backstabber Imperious' plans once again." He walked off into the shadows, whistling a morbid tune.

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Madison had been assigned the afternoon shift on this Friday, so Vida was taking her usual place in the morning hours. It was just she, Xander and Nick at the counter that morning. Toby was listening to Jake Bonebreaker and the Metalheads in the backroom. The volume was turned all the way up, and customers were off at their own jobs, so they basically had the entire store to themselves.

Xander was zapping his wand at a poster of a scantily-clad female singer from the 80's, making her gyrate about in her paper confines. "I'd go on tour with you anytime…" Xander said, staring up blankly at the poster.

"Are you sure you're supposed to be using magic for that?" Nick asked.

"Oh, I'm sure," Xander said, winking at the woman within.

The woman winked back.

Vida continued organizing her shelf of records, and Nick held lonely countertop duty. Eventually, Vida just gave up and reclined in her chair behind the DJ booth. She took out her iPod's headphones and moved the buds close to her ears, only to be interrupted by the ringing of her Mystic Morpher. The gold phone, aside from the glaring "M" on its cover, was a nearly-inconspicuous way to hide her true, magical idenitity. Xander's and Nick's were ringing as well.

"Yes?" Nick asked.

"This is Chip!" Chip said tiredly, the clanging of metal could be heard in the background, "We've got a Dark Magic creature in the middle of town! Clare told us about this one last night. It's a…Manticore, I think."

"We'll be right there!" Xander said, "Let's go!"

"Ready?" Nick asked.

"Ready?" Vida snapped, "Toby's…"

"Not caring what's going on," Nick replied, "He loves that metal. Now, READY!"

"READY!" Xander and Vida yelled.

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"

Three beams of light shot from the tips of their phone wands, hitting the vintage disco ball on the ceiling, bouncing around the Rockporium, spreading out into three Ranger-colored Mystic Seals, and finally, in auras of flame, rock and wind, forming the spandex suits that the townspeople of Briarwood knew only as the "Mystic Force".

They ran out the door, not even caring to close up shop. Toby walked out from the backroom, checking to see if everything was cleaned up. The store was indeed in shape, completely spotless and devoid of anything…up to and including his employees. He muttered something about the disco ball's lights needing to be toned down and looked to the poster on the wall.

He could swear it mouthed "Toby". Tobias J. Slambrook had no other choice but to retire to his office and drown his confusion in the chords of classic heavy metal. Just like every other day.

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Chip had the rhythm going in him. He ducked, dodged, punched and shot bolts of lightning at the boar-like, tribal-mask-adorned beast. He didn't know why it was attacking the middle of an empty rock quarry, but monsters seemed to love those places. "Magi Staff, Crossbow!" He took aim and launched a lightning bolt into the Manticore's mouth. It choked on the lightning before spitting it back at Chip and glaring its eyes in his direction.

Suddenly, Chip felt the rhythm in him in an entirely different way. He couldn't stop moving his feet. And worse than that, he was dancing a Caribbean tribal dance that made him look like a theme park performer. Nick, Xander and Vida flew in overhead on their Mystic Racers, leaping to attack the Manticore. Xander flew in for an overhead slash with his Axe, but found the weapon ineffective.

Vida created a pair of fairy wings behind her back, but forced them away when she discovered them getting in the way of her dancing. Even Nick, who had attempted to call for his Mystic Speeder and crash Manticore's party, found his hands unable to touch the right buttons. They joined Chip in the dance craze that was forcibly sweeping the city.

"YES!" growled Manticore in a boar-like grunt, "Dance! Dance to your doom! When your energy is worn out, I shall devour your life force for my own personal ends!"

"You call this punishment?" Vida laughed, "This rocks!"

The dancing forced them into demorphing.

"Vida, now's not the time," Chip said, "We're in mortal danger."

"It's just life force," Xander said, "We can always get it back."

"So that explains why I found Aunt Niella in the backroom of Roo…" Nick cut his sentence off when the others started giving him odd looks.

"Punish me!" Vida yelled jovially, "Punish me all you want! I can take it, piggy!"

In a distant alleyway, the alien from another star system, coincidentally known as Piggy, could feel his ears burning. "I think I could like these human women," he thought to himself, "they're strong of will and heart. I may have to meet one of them sometime." As such, he returned to digging through garbage.

"Guys, I'm on my way!" Madison's voice sounded through the Morpher around their belts. They continued dancing, Vida waving her arms around in the air, completely enveloped in the experience. Chip continued eyeing her.

"Vida, are you just going to take this?"

"He may be a monster, but he's got his groove going on!" Vida cheered, "I like this guy!"

"VIDA, HE WANTS TO KILL US!" Nick shouted, "Is that getting through to you?"

Vida moved her head as though she was listening to her music. There was no hope for her.

A blue Mystic Seal appeared in the water, and Madison, already transformed, leapt from it. She fired a torrent of water at Manticore, but his mask took no damage. What Madison didn't know was that Necrolai was watching the team's every move, and her time had come. She was going to put her plan into action.

"This is it…" Necrolai plucked the wolf topper off the bottle, took a deep whiff of the contents within and sighed. "It smells like pure evil. I love that." The bottle tipped over and crashed, releasing a grayish mist that flew across the air. At that moment, Nick moved into its path, but Fate wasn't going to be so kind to the Vampire Queen. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched to see what would happen.

"Maddie!" Vida cheered, "Join in!"

"He's not going to affect me!" Madison said, "I've got a stronger will than that."

"But you can't resist everything…" Necrolai laughed to herself, "Like your precious Nick."

The grayish mist streamlined itself and darted through the air, heading right for Nick. Madison, at that moment, leapt where Nick was standing to dodge one of Manticore's eye blasts. She felt something hit her in the chest and knelt down to the ground. A blue fog surrounded her body and immediately faded. There was a flash of a Mystic Seal. No one was sure what had happened. She seemed to be unaffected.

"Thanks, Maddie," Nick said, "I owe you."

Madison said not a word and stood up, launching a powerful blast down the middle of Manticore's mask. The mask reformed, but the dancing stopped. Nick, Xander and Chip gained their footing, but Vida was still dancing. Madison grabbed her by the shoulders and told her to transform. Vida did so. The familiar spell code signal beeped on Maddie and Vida's Morphers.

"The Xenotome has recognized your courage to get up at the crack of dawn and fight," Clare said, "it's granted you a new spell."

"Then let's use it," Vida said.

The girls watched the spell syllables flash and typed in the new code, yelling it with powerful pride.

"GALWIT MYSTO TONE!"

A pair of red pom-poms, as bright as the Mystic Force Fighters, appeared in Madison and Vida's hands.

"They're so…girly," Vida commented, "but if I can dance, then let's go!"

"We're going to fight dance with dance," Madison said proudly.

"Mystical Motion Serenade!" the girls pronounced together.

Vida and Madison danced while they sung one of Vida's favorite songs. Xander, Nick and Chip, while no longer under a spell, were caught up in the beat. They tapped their feet and snapped their fingers as the girls went through their fanciful motions.

I got lost
In the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind
All this music

Madison and Vida zoomed out of sight, only to reappear at blazingly-fast speeds and strike Manticore in the heart. They finished off the song as they struck a victorious pose with the pom-poms held high in the air.

And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
It breaks my heart

Manticore exploded in a fiery blaze, just like all the creatures from the underworld did. Vida was saddened that the dancing had come to a close, but happy that she and Madison had won another victory for the team.

"Rocca sisters rule!" she proclaimed, raising her hand in the air and powering down.

"Sister?" Madison asked, "You're not my sister."

"…huh?" Vida arched her eyebrow in great confusion.

Madison snapped her fingers and powered down. In all respects, she looked exactly like the Madison they knew. The only differences were her plaid jacket and blue jean shorts, blue tennis shoes, and hair cut down to her ears. She gave Vida a questioning look.

"You've known me since elementary school, Vida…and you still can't remember that my name is Madison GREY."

Silence fell over the rocky beach.