The next morning, Will Park made his way toward the entrance of the Harwood County mall. Even for a Saturday morning, the downtown shopping district was relatively quiet and Will brushed away a piece of lint on the new sporty blazer that he wore. It was almost 11AM and just like Gia had planned, Sarah Munoz was already waiting beside a nearby fountain in the square, checking her watch and looking around. Taking a deep breath, Will steeled his nerves and wove through the crowd to approach her.

Up above on the plaza's second floor balconies, Troy and Emma watched curiously as they saw Will begin speaking to Sarah. After a few moments of talking, they saw Sarah stand up and give a smiling nod as she followed Will along the main strip of stores.

"Well, so far so good." Troy grinned stepping away from their vantage point. "I was a little worried at first, but I think our job here is done."

"Wait!" Emma called from the balcony. "Don't you think we should maybe follow along for a little while? You know, just to make sure everything is ok?"

"No. We're not going to spy." Troy smiled gently beginning to stroll down the walkway. "We already did our duty as cupid's helpers."

"Oh, I know." Emma smiled catching up to him and hooking her arm around his. "I was thinking we'd act more like guardian angels for now."

"Or... how about we just go and do something else if it'll keep your mind off of matchmaking for a while?" Troy sighed.

"Something else huh? Just you and me for the day?" Emma said, leaning into his arm with a playful flirtatiousness.

"Oh..." Troy sputtered in surprise as his cheeks grew warm, "Well, what I meant was..."

At that moment, both Rangers' morphers went off and Troy silently thanked Gosei for his timing. The two hurried over toward a quieter corner with some drinking fountains and pulled out their morphers. "Go ahead." Troy said quietly while Emma kept watch.

Gosei's deep voice replied, "Rangers, there's been a monster sighted near the city's central plaza. The others are already on their way."

"Got it." Troy called putting his morpher away and turning to Emma. "We have to hurry. That isn't far from here!"

With that, both Rangers took off running in hopes they could catch the monster first.

Meanwhile, Vrak's winged monster flew above the rooftops of the Central Plaza's Market Square, searching for its next victims. After perching on a nearby building, it sniffed at the air and wrinkled its nose. From its vantage point, it spied several young couples happily walking about the shopping district together. It could also sense the strong feelings of hopeful love in the air.

"Disgusting." The monster muttered to itself while it drew a small black bow and several darts made of magic poison. "Let's just see how hopeless and weak the humans become when they face real heartbreak."

With that, the creature fired off a hail of the poison darts on the unsuspecting people. As the people were struck by the darts, each of the victims paused as if they were momentarily stunned before they resumed their conversations or activities. Up above, the gargoyle waited patiently for its magic poison to take effect and watched as the real fireworks began to erupt. Down below, one young man looked on in shock as he offered his girlfriend a fresh bouquet of flowers, only to have her throw the flowers back in his face and angrily storm off.

Across the square, another young woman burst into tears as her boyfriend announced that he wanted to go back to his ex. As he walked off, he passed a teenage boy frantically checking his phone, worrying about why the girl he texted wasn't immediately replying. Nearby, another woman who looked to be around thirty, took the new dress she just bought and dumped it into a trash bin before slumping down, moaning, "Oh, what's the point? I'm never going to get married anyway!"

The gargoyle cackled in glee at all the human anxiety and misery brought on by its magic poison as it hovered down amidst the crowd of unhappy people. "Yes folks, love can be a terrible painful thing. But, just come to me and I'll make all those bad feelings go away!"

All around, the hopelessly heartbroken people in the square turned to the monster and began to crowd around it, begging for its help. "It's feels too awful! I can't bear to live without her! She'll never love me back! Make the pain go away!"

Raising its claw, the gargoyle summoned the magic darts back to its hand, along with the life force drawn out of the victims. All around, several people collapsed to the ground in a comatose state as the monster laughed even harder.

"Hold it right there!" Noah called out as he, Jake, and Gia burst into the square fully morphed. Seeing the scores of collapsed people littering the ground, the Blue Ranger gasped in shock. "What is going on here?"

As the gargoyle froze in momentary surprise, the Black Ranger quickly drew his blaster and pointed it at the monster. "I don't know, but that creep is about to get his wings clipped!"

Gia's hand shot out and halted the Black Ranger from firing. "Careful Jake! You might hit those innocent people!"

As the three Rangers hesitated, the last of the poisoned people gathered around the gargoyle, begging for it to take away the pain of their heartbreak. "With pleasure," the monster cackled gleefully. As the creature absorbed their life forces, Noah frowned, trying to comprehend the strange behavior of the people.

Turning to the Rangers, the gargoyle pulled out several new darts and laughed as it hurled them. "How about you three? You look like you could use some heartbreak!" The three Rangers tumbled aside and dodged the darts as they exploded along the ground. As they regained their footing, they drew their blasters, but found the monster already making a hasty retreat.

"Not so fast!" came a familiar voice as a pair of Power Rangers in red and pink cut off the gargoyle's escape. To the monster's surprise, both Rangers knocked it backward with a combined flying jump kick. As the creature recovered to its feet, it stopped again in surprise as it saw Troy and Emma pull out their own blasters and take aim.

"Oh wow!" it exclaimed, almost recoiling in disgust. "Those are some really strong feelings you two!"

Troy and Emma glanced at each other in momentary confusion, "What?"

But they were cut off as the gargoyle growled, "I don't have time for this! I'll deal with you two lovebirds later!" Before the Red and Pink Rangers could react, the gargoyle beat its powerful wings and kicked up a strong gust of wind and dirt, throwing them backward. As the dust cleared, the other three Rangers rushed in to help their friends, only to find that the monster had escaped.

"Shoot!" Jake grumbled taking a thorough look around. "He got away."

"Are you two ok?" Gia asked, helping Troy and Emma to their feet.

"We're fine." Troy replied stoically as he went into serious leader mode. "What happened to all these people? Are they hurt?"

Noah curiously bent down to examine some of the nearby victims, "Well, the good news is, they're still breathing and have pulses... but they look to be in some kind of coma. I'm guessing it had something to do with those darts that the monster was throwing around."

"Well it looked like some sorry excuse for a cupid." Emma chimed in. "Especially the way it kept talking about love."

Noah frowned pensively, "Well... now that you mention it, right before these people collapsed, they were all crying about how they were heartbroken and didn't want to live anymore."

"Evil enchantment. Got it." Gia called snapping her fingers. "So standard procedure then. We take out the monster and these people get their will to live again, right?"

Troy nodded, "Makes sense. Let's work off that assumption. Gia, I want you to call in some help for these people. In the mean time, we'll split off into teams to locate the monster. Jake and Noah, you two circle around from the district's east end. Emma and I will search from the west."

Everyone nodded and hustled off to their assignment, but as Troy turned to go, he saw Emma taking one more long look at the scores of people laying comatose in the square. "What an awful thing to do." she mused sadly, "breaking people's hearts and hopes for love. It's just not right."

"Don't worry Emma. We'll get em." Troy answered, trying to sound reassuring.

"Yeah." she agreed softly. "Though one thing is still confusing me about all this."

Troy gave a curious look, but stayed silent as Emma began walking beside him. "What do suppose that monster meant when it said it was sensing strong feelings around us? It did seem genuinely surprised."

"Oh..." Troy answered feeling his pulse quicken. "Umm, I guess it could be a lot of things, right? I mean, it could be because we're such good friends, or maybe because we're kinda partners with the whole sky element thing..."

Emma studied him for a long moment with an unreadable expression before continuing on with a shrug, "Maybe."

They continued walking quietly for several minutes before a sudden flash of panic lit up on Emma's face as she seemed to realize something. "Troy! We have to hurry! I think I may know where the monster is headed!"

"What?" Troy sputtered as she grabbed his hand and pulled him back toward the mall.

"If the monster is attracted to strong feelings of love and hope, where do you think there's going to be a lot of it around here?"

"Will and Sarah!" Troy gasped in realization as the two began sprinting back toward the mall. "Come on! We won't have much time!"

Elsewhere, Will Park walked along and gave a wide smile as he walked down the street chatting with Sarah. Things were going well so far and as they continued to window shop, he felt his confidence growing by the minute. Silently, he thanked each of Troy's friends for the tips they had given him.

Taking some of Noah's advice, he had learned about some of Sarah's favorite movies and music from Gia so that they'd have something to talk about. Later on, he remembered Emma's point about being kind, prompting him to offer carrying Sarah's bags. As they neared a cart selling flowers, Will decided to follow Jake's advice of being bold as he hurried over and paid for a red flower.

As he returned, Sarah stopped and gave a surprised smile. "Will? What's with the flower?"

"Well..." he started tentatively. "I guess there's just something I've wanted to say for a while, but I thought this would do a better job."

Sarah took the flower and gave an amused smile as she sniffed it. "Oh? And what was that?"

Will's mind raced. This is probably where Troy's words would have come in handy had he not looked up to see a huge winged creature land beside him in the plaza. "Look out!" Will cried trying to pull Sarah to safety as she gave a sudden cry of terror.

The gargoyle's eyes burned with glee as it turned to Will and laughed. "Oh, you've got it really bad. I can tell. Just wait until you see how pointless it really is!"

Will gave a fearful gasp and pushed Sarah toward the other fleeing screaming people. "Go Sarah! Run!" He shielded her as the gargoyle stung him with his darts and as Will fell over stunned, Sarah took one last terrified look before running away with the other shoppers.

As the monster loomed over his victim, Will began writhing on the ground as if in pain. "Do you see what unrequited love gets you, boy?" the monster laughed. "You try to tell that girl how you feel and you even stand up to protect her, but what does she do? She runs away and leaves you here. How's that for gratitude?

"It hurts." Will groaned feeling the weight and hopelessness of the monster's poisonous words penetrate deep into him. "Please... I can't..."

"Bear the truth that your little girlfriend won't ever return your feelings?" the monster cackled malevolently as it fixed its eyes on Will, "Well, don't worry kid. I'm here to help you, and I'm going to stat by taking away all your pain."