Power Rangers: ARCANA
Deck 2: The MAGICIAN Part I-3
Back in Baldur's shrine, the teens await Daniels' surprise.
"Listen to this," The manager says. They all look up.
Mika doesn't seems amused. "What's the news Mr.D-"
"Rangers," They hear a calm, deep, echoing voice. "I'm pleased to see your solidarity as a team."
"Is that…?" Janet is awestruck.
"Lord Baldur." Daphne nods.
"Yes." The tarot club manager nods. "Apparently the Gate shadows hold the crystals' powers. Each one you defeat should weaken Baldur's seal." Daniels says.
"Okay. So we'll just have to wait for the next one." Janet says.
"Don't worry. I'll warn you if I sense one. And with lord Baldur's presence starting to become more prominent, he may even be able to track Nyx." The club manager says.
"That's great." Sage says.
"Wait a minute. There are like twenty crystals, you're saying we have nineteen more of those big ugly shadow things to destroy?" Tate asks.
"Was this too much of a challenge for you?" Janet smiles playfully.
"No. Not at all. I'm only saying that this'll be easy." Tate smirks proudly.
Daphne hasn't been saying much and it has the others worried. She stands there somewhat eerily. She finally speaks.
"I've got to go." She says.
"Go? Why?" Tate asks.
"Yeah, don't leave. I think we should celebrate. I mean we destroyed our first real shadow." The boy in green says happily.
"No." The redhead says rather harsh. "I'm leaving now." Daphne departs and the blonde boy heads toward her. "Tate. You should celebrate with the others. I'll call you later." The girl in pink says.
The blond boy looks at her confusedly as she leaves.
"Daphne's been acting real weird since that incident with Nyx." Tate says.
"She must still be getting used to the new responsibilities." Janet says.
"Yeah, she only needs some space I'm sure." Mika adds.
"Yeah. Space." Tate says dejected.
~The Forest
Daphne arrives alone in the forest. She heard someone calling her again. Not Nyx though. It sounded male this time.
"I summoned you here, pink ranger, because Nyx's darkness resides inside you." A humanoid figure stands on a tree above the redhead. Daphne looks up.
"Who are you?" She asks and the shadow smiles. It hops down in front of the gorgeous girl.
"I'm Nebiros, General of shadows. I'm what you'd call an Alpha shadow." The monster introduces itself. It has indigo skin and no pupils. The monster's dark hair is held by red cloth and it's cloaked in some sort of funky robes with random designs and fabrics stitched together.
"What's an Alpha shadow?"
"We are Nyx's personal body guards. We're stronger than the Mask shadows and of course the Blank shadows. I'm the puppet master. I summon all of the Mask shadows-or-Gate shadows as the lord of light calls them."
"Why does he call those ugly things Gate shadows anyway?" Daphne asks.
"They hold the crystal's powers that seal him away. They are his gate per se." Nebiros explains.
"Hmm…so what do you want with me?"
"When you were hit with the mother's dark energy blast, it was to turn you into a servant. But, Nyx's darkness may be what lured you here, but tell me this ranger pink," The shadow starts. "You have no intentions of helping Lord Baldur. Do you?"
The redhead is quiet as Nebiros paces through the grass. He circles around her, awaiting an answer. "I don't." She says. A big white smile dresses Nebiros' creepy, blue face, revealing his sharp, beastly teeth.
"Stand still." The Alpha shadow says. He takes a few steps back from Daphne. He pulls out a marionette. It has curly red string hair, button eyes and cute pink little clothes.
"Is that supposed to be me?" The redhead girl asks.
"Yes." Nebiros holds up the marionette and summons a green needle.
"What're you-?" Daphne realizes she can't move.
"You'll be my first puppet in aaages." Nebiros smiles and takes a green needle to the puppet's chest. Daphne squirms. "It works…" Nebiros says chillingly. "I'm gonna turn you into a servant of Nyx."
"You can't! I just don't want to be a ranger! I don't want to be a shadow!"
"Too bad." Nebiros inserts the green needle into the puppet and it shines a misty ominous light. The Daphne doll becomes engulfed in darkness, as does the real Daphne. The girl twists in the dark energies. Her eyes glow yellow as she is changed into a monster.
~Baldur's shrine
"I still can't believe you were able to get pizza delivered to the shrine Mr. Daniels." Janet says taking a slice and taking a seat.
"There are a lot of servants of Baldur left in Hal Valley. I never said only I and the rangers were in this city." The man takes a slice of pizza.
"True." Sage eats, he and Mika laugh and Janet smiles. The girl in red looks to the blond who didn't touch any of the food. He was only looking at his phone.
"Tate, are you still worried about Daphne?"
"Yeah, I just want to know if she got home safely." He says glumly.
"I could track her morpher." Daniels says.
"Could you? She won't respond to my text or answer my calls."
"All right." Daniels taps the side of his glasses and some sort of hologram appears. It looks like a map of the city. "Here we all are; in Baldur's shrine." The manager points to dots in the rangers respective colors located at Lake Sleipnir. His finger traces the hologram toward a pink dot. "Here is Daphne." He says then his face becomes bothered. "Oh my."
"That looks like the woods where Nyx was!" Mika says.
"Daphne's house isn't in the woods, is it?" Sage says looking at Tate.
"No. No, it's not." Tate stands and runs out of the shrine.
"Tate!" Janet hurries after him.
~The Forest
"Daphne! Daphne where are you?!" The blond boy runs through the trees. "Daph!" He screams.
Janet is close behind him. "Tate!"
"Daph?" Tate stops momentarily only to see the girl in red had followed him.
"Tate, Tate it's only me." Janet fixes her coat while panting. "You're fast."
"Janet, you're talking to the Hestia Argonaut's captain." Tate somehow boasts while searching for his girlfriend. "I've got to be fast…"
"You're very fast. Now let me help you find Daphne." Janet says. Tate stands there for a moment, thinking. "We are a team now too." The girl in red assures the boy in blue.
"Okay." Tate nods. They split up, screaming the redhead's name. Janet searches around each tree carefully until she reaches a clearing.
She says to herself, "This is where we saw Nyx…" She searches the clearing. She hears a little beeping sound. She sees a faint pink light from the grass and runs toward it. There are singe marks on the ground where what looks like a gold morpher sits. "This is Daphne's…" Janet says quietly. She puts her face to her wrist to contact Baldur's informant.
"Daniels. I've found Daphne's morpher. But I don't see her anywhere. There are singe marks on the ground where I've found it. What do you think happened?"
"Nyx. She must've taken her..." Daniels says then he's quiet. "No, I would have sensed her…
"Then who could it have been?" The girl in red asks.
"I'm not sure, but until I can find out how they cloaked their presence, I want you to get out of the forest without back up."
"I understand." Janet says into the morpher.
"And Janet,"
"Yes?"
"Don't tell Tate you found the morpher without Daphne. This could really upset him, knowing that we don't know."
"Understood." The brunette girl says.
"Janet! You find anything?!" The girl in red heard Tate coming from the forest. She turns to see him, slipping the morpher into her coat pocket.
"No. I think it's time we call it a day. I'm sure she'll turn up." She lies.
Tate frowns. "I guess you're right. We would've heard from her by now…"
Janet puts her hand on the blond boy's shoulder. "She's fine Tate." She forces a smile.
The blonde nods. He seemed unconfident though.