"Ok, I can do this," said Tofu as he knocked on the Tendo's door.

Tofu gripped a pushpin in his hand. He hopped the pain from the pin would keep his mind strait when he was around Kasumi.

It was a little odd that Tofu had not thought of this idea before. Nevertheless, time has a way of changing people.

Just as the doctor heard someone walking towards the door, a bird flew by, narrowly avoiding flying into his head.

"That was weird," said Tofu.

"Hello doctor," said Kasumi

Tofu turned to face her, his vision and mind already becoming hazy. Quickly, he gripped the pin and everything suddenly went back to normal, aside from the pain in his left hand.

"Hey Kasumi, I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by and see how you all were doing," said Tofu.

Kasumi smiled like usual, "Oh well, Ranma, Akane, and Nabiki are at school right now and Ranma's parents went to see about repairing their demolished home."

"Well would you like some company," asked Tofu, his voice very shaky.

"That would be nice."

As they walked into the house, Kasumi's smile never faded, meanwhile Tofu was sweating buckets trying to keep his composure.

"What do you want," demanded Ranma as he jumped into a fighting stance.

"I just came to talk. I swear. I also didn't want to go back to the dark warrior just yet. He's probably still really mad about yesterday's failure," said Megumi.

"And why should I believe anything you say?"

"I've told you before that you can't."

Megumi's face went sad and tears were beginning to form in her eyes. Even though she was an enemy, Ranma still had absolutely no resistance to a crying girl.

"What's wrong," asked Ranma, feeling very uncomfortable.

"I never wanted any of this," said Megumi.

"Look, Carmilla…"

Then Megumi shoved Ranma hard, "My name is Megumi, not Carmilla."

"Alright Megumi. Whatever you want to call yourself. What did you come to talk about anyway?" asked Ranma, at a loss of what to do.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for lying to you, all of you."

Megumi turned to leave when Ranma quickly called out, "Wait, I have something to ask you. Why is it that both Niseko and Carmilla could appear in two places at once?"

Megumi sighed, straightening out her kimono as she spoke, "Before I was given the mask of darkness, I was just an ordinary witch. Both my parents are gone and no one in my old town would talk to me out of fear. Then one day, the dark warrior came. He showed me the mask and said that it would make all my dreams come true. In one moment of weakness, my life was changed."

"You didn't answer my question," said Ranma.

"I'm getting to that. The mask increased my powers it levels that I had never dreamed of. Particularly my power to create illusions. However the mask was made from darkness and as such, it was under the control of the dark warrior as so was I. I created Niseko to act as my spy. She was a living illusion. She could eat, sleep, and do anything else to appear human. That's why she could spend the night at Ukyo's the night we met."

"So every experience we had with her was a lie."

Megumi went silent for a moment before speaking, "I have to go, hero. I'm sorry."

Then Megumi ran past Ranma, her hand quickly snatching a hair from Ranma's head.

"Oww, hey Megumi wait," shouted Ranma.

However, it was too late. Megumi had jumped from the roof and disappeared.

"So what kind of demon will you summon master," asked Koruma.

"Just wait and see," said the dark warrior as he held his talisman in the air, "I command the darkness to send fourth Magma to do my bidding."

When the dark portal opened, nothing came out.

"Hey boss, I think it's broken," said Masara.

As Koruma and Masara got closer, two large fireballs shot from out of the portal, hitting them.

"Idiots," muttered Kiema while she watched the two of them scramble to put out the fire.

Then as if on cue, a demon composed entirely out of molten rock and holding a large flail walked out of the dark portal. The flaming rocks even formed an evil face on the demons' chest.

"What do you want," asked the demon.

"You will not speak to the dark warrior in that disrespectful tone," said Saffron.

"I'll speak to him however I want," said Magma.

"It's getting hot in here," said Taro.

Suddenly, Magma swung his flail at Saffron who easily avoided it. Saffron countered by running up to Magma and kicking him to the ground.

"Enough," shouted Kage.

The dark warrior marched past Saffron and picked the demon up off the ground by his neck.

"Listen you pathetic worm. Your only job is to go to Nerima and spread chaos and fear. And if the power rangers try to stop you, destroy them."

Kage then tossed the demon through the magic mirror.

Then, just as Magma went through, Megumi reappeared.

"Is it done?" asked Kage.

"Yes, I'll be preparing for my spell as soon as possible," said Megumi as she showed Kage a total of eight hairs, one from each ranger.

"I see the witch finally makes herself useful," said Kiema.

"More useful than you've ever been hag," replied Megumi.

With that, Megumi left the room.

After school, Akane had dragged Ranma out shopping. Ranma hadn't had the chance to tell her about his talk with Megumi.

Ranma was about to be dragged into a clothing store when something strange caught his eye.

"Hey Akane, what do you make of that?" he asked as he motioned over to Dr. Tofu walking calmly next to Kasumi.

"That is strange," said Akane.

They watched as Tofu and Kasumi enter a café and decided to follow them out of curiosity.

Ranma and Akane sat several tables away, behind the couple.

"How is it that he hasn't started dancing with his skeleton yet," asked Akane.

"He's also not randomly injuring anyone," said Ranma.

"At least Kasumi seems to be having a good time."

At that point, Kasumi laughed at one of Tofu's jokes.

"It's been so long since I've been on a date," said Kasumi.

"Date?" inquired Tofu.

"Well, this is a date isn't it?"

Tofu smiled, his hand gripping the pushpin harder than ever, "I guess it is. I hope you're having a good time."

Kasumi smiled back, "I am."

Ranma took a quick glance over at Akane who was busy focusing on her sisters' date. If only she could be that cute. Then again, the fact that she wasn't is what made her the person he lov…lik…tolerated. Why did it suddenly feel so hot in the room?

A woman eating alone called over a waiter, "Excuse me, could you turn down the heat?"

The waiter nodded and walked towards the thermostat. He was almost there when a molten hand burst from the ground.

"Flee for your lives humans," said Magma as he burst from the ground and into the cafe

"Not good," said Ranma as the civilians began to clear out of the diner.

A fairly large man accidently ran into Tofu as he was making his way towards the exit, causing Tofu to drop his pushpin.

"Kasumi, I'll save you," called the doctor as he picked up an old woman and leaped out the door.

Akane was quick to grab a table and use it to create a hole in the wall of the café so the panicking civilians could escape.

As the people escaped, Ranma noticed that Kasumi was on the floor.

"Kasumi," called Ranma.

"Help, I twisted my ankle," said Kasumi.

Ranma ran over, picked her up, and ran out of the hole Akane made.

However, just as he was exiting, Magma launched a fireball in his direction, hitting Ranma in the back. Nevertheless, Ranma kept running, deciding to deal with the demon after Kasumi was safe. Akane ran right behind him.

Once they were a safe distance, Kasumi was quick to say, "Oh my, I sure hope Tofu was able to get that old woman to safety."

"I'm sure their fine," said Akane.

Ranma turned back to Kasumi and Akane, "Akane, after you make sure Kasumi is safe, call the others."

Then Ranma ran off to confront Magma.

"Try not to be late for dinner," called Kasumi.

Ranma arrived back at the dinner to find it in ruins. Luckily, all the civilians seemed to have fled.

The streets were eerily quiet.

Suddenly, Ranma ran into an alleyway as a wall of fire came at him.

"Come out and fight red ranger," called Magma.

"I really wish I had a plan right now," said Ranma as he grabbed his morpher.

Magma slowly walked down the empty streets until he saw a red light coming from the alley. Then much to his delight, the red ranger emerged, his spear in hand.

Ranma tossed his spear at the demon who easily knocked it away with a swing of his arm. However, Ranma followed up the attack with a jump kick that crashed into the demons head.

However, as soon as Ranma's foot came into contact with the demon, Ranma quickly jumped back in pain.

"I bet right now you're feeling my heat through that fancy suit of yours," said Magma.

"So I can't touch you. Big deal," said Ranma.

As Ranma ran to grab his spear, Akane, Ryoga, Shampoo and Mousse showed up, already morphed.

"Where's the rest of you," said Magma.

"There are already more than enough of us to beat you," said Ryoga.

Shampoo and Mousse began to charge forward.

"Wait, don't touch him," yelled Ranma.

But it was too late. Shampoo and Mousse each landed several punches on Magma only to burn their fist on the demons body.

Magma countered by swinging his flail, knocking them both into the side of a parked car.

"Ryoga, maybe our ki attacks will work," said Ranma.

Ryoga and Ranma stood next to each other, focusing their ki.

"Moko Takabisha/Shishi Hokodan" shouted the two rangers. Their attacks spiraled around each other as they flew towards the demon.

Just as the rangers' combined attack was about to hit, Magma braced his feet on the ground and unleashed a stream of fire to counter.

"Keep it up," said Ranma as he continued his attack.

"I'm trying," said Ryoga.

The red and blue rangers continued to fire their ki only for demon's fire to counter and repel it.

"An opening," said Akane as she summoned her hammer and charged the demon.

Out of the corner of his eye, Magma saw Akane coming and quickly leaped out of the way causing the yellow ranger to be hit by the ki of Ranma and Ryoga.

"Akane," shouted Ranma and Ryoga.

Just as they were about to run to her, Magma blasted them with a large fireball.

Once they recovered, Ranma and Ryoga regrouped with the other rangers.

"What we do Ranma? He stronger than most demons," said Shampoo.

Magma heard her comment and said, "As long as the earth fuels my power, you rangers will never be able to beat me."

The rangers charged him again. Shampoo and Ryoga tried to leap over him for an overhead strike only for Magma to kick Ryoga to the ground.

Magma was about about bash Ryoga with his flail only for Mousse to run up and block the attack. While Magma was distracted, Shampoo ran up behind him and smashed her chui into his back.

Magma pushed Mousse away, then turned around and hit the pink ranger with his flail, knocking her away.

Magma began swing his flail around, waiting for the next ranger to attack. He did not have to wait for long since Akane was already right in front of him. Magma swung his flail once only for Akane to block with her hammer. However, the force was enough to knock the yellow ranger's weapon out of her hands.

When the flail came around again, Akane caught the weapon with her hands. Magma then swung his weapon so hard that it lifted Akane off the ground and tossed her into Ranma.

WHACK

"Oww, what happened," said Tofu as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You've been carrying me for the past twenty blocks. This isn't even my neighborhood," said the angry old woman Tofu had rescued. She was about to hit the doctor with her cane once more until Tofu put her down.

"You're not Kasumi," said Tofu.

It was then that Tofu realized that his mind had once again left him.

"Oh no, I bet Kasumi thinks I ditched her."

"Forget Kasumi, what about me," yelled the old woman.

Tofu bowed his head apologetically, "I'm sorry ma'am. I'll call you a cab."

Once the old woman was on her way home, Tofu's mind went back to the demon.

"I'll have to deal with Kasumi later. I hope Ranma and the others were able to get everyone else to safety."

Tofu then grabbed his morpher and leaped to a disserted rooftop.

"Sheng Xiao, Power UP"

The violet ranger then summoned his steel claws and teleported back to where he had last seen the demon.

As the rangers regrouped, Ranma came to a realization.

"We need to get him off the ground," said Ranma.

"Why?" asked Shampoo.

"I get it. He said that he was powered by the earth so if he's in the air then we can win," said Mousse.

"That's easier said than done," said Ryoga.

"Are we gonna talk about this all day or do it," said Akane.

"I'm waiting," the demon taunted.

"Come get us," said Shampoo.

Magma's body began to glow and radiate even more heat as he charged the rangers. Then he unleashed a wall of fire at them.

"Get behind me," said Ryoga. Then the blue ranger summoned his umbrella and opened it to use as a shield while the other rangers took cover behind him.

Ryoga began to charge forward as Magma continued his attack.

"Someone do something. I can't hold him off for much longer," said Ryoga.

"Burn rangers," laughed Magma.

However, his attacked ceased when he heard someone call, "Hey ugly."

The violet ranger stood behind the demon with his claws ready. "You're going to pay big time for messing with my friends and especially for messing up my date."

"You're all talk ranger," said Magma.

Tofu didn't bother to respond. He charged the demon, slashing wildly with his claws. Magma blocked and countered each of his attacks. Then, just as Magma was about to get the upper hand, Ranma intervened and slashed the demon's shoulder with his spear.

Akane and Shampoo then followed up by ducking low and striking Magma's legs with their weapons, bringing the demon to his knees.

Magma was about to swing his flail at them but his arm was caught by Mousse's nunchucks.

Tofu quickly took advantage of the opening by cutting a fire hydrant open with his claws. The cut was angled so that when the water burst forth, it shot strait at Magma.

Once the water hit, steam flowed from the demon.

"Akane, get him into the air," said Ranma.

"I'm on it," said Akane. Then, the yellow ranger uppercutted Magma into the air with her hammer.

Once Magma was in the air, his body turned black and he hardened into a solid piece of lava rock.

Then Ryoga, leaped into the air shouting, "Bakusai Tenketsu." With a single touch from Ryoga's breaking point, Magma's body burst.

"Did we get him?" asked Shampoo as many small black rocks rained down.

"I sure hope so," said Mousse.

Then, as the rocks hit the ground, they began to glow.

Suddenly, large burst of lava erupted from ground, causing the rangers to run for cover. The lava swirled around and eventually reformed Magma's body.

"Nice try rangers," laughed Magma.

"Just once I'd like things to work in our favor," said Ranma.

"Here he comes again," shouted Akane.

As Magma charged the rangers, a black feather came down and embedded itself into his body.

"What's going on?" asked Tofu.

"Usually when the black feathers appear, our problems get a whole lot bigger," said Ryoga.

The rangers raised their morphers and each shouted, "We need Zodiac Zord power now."

Tofu was quick to copy the phrase. He heard a roar coming from his morpher and a violet Chinese style dragon flew down. The dragon zord looked like someone had attached a dragon's head to a freight train.

Instantly, Tofu found himself teleported inside his zord.

"You're zords don't scare me," said Magma.

"Akane, you think you can get him into the air again," asked Ranma.

"I'll try," said Akane.

Then the tiger and pig zords charged Magma. The pig head butted him while the tiger slashed him with its claws.

With one swing of his weapon, Magma knocked both zords away. Then the rooster zord came spinning towards his head, nicking him.

"What was the point of that?" laughed Magma.

"To distract you," said Mousse.

As Magma's head was turned, the horse zord ran up to him and kicked him several times.

However, Magma grabbed the horses' legs and tossed it away.

"Are you ready dragon?" asked Tofu. In response, the dragon zord roared and flew into battle. The dragon wrapped itself around Magma, binding his arms.

The ox zord then came charging and head butted the demon off the ground.

As Magma was in the air, the dragon uncoiled itself and its eyes began to glow. Then a blast of lightning shot out of the dragons' mouth.

Magma took the blast at full force as he collided with the ground. Unfortunately, he was still able to get up.

"Let's bring' em together guys. If the megazord can stop him than I don't know what will," said Ranma.

As the megazord formed, Tofu asked his zord, "Can you do anything like that?"

Then the dragon acted almost as if to show off. Its head detached from its body. The front legs straightened out and fused together while the back legs did the same, forming arms. Then it's neck and tail folded back and formed a pair of legs. Finally, the head attached itself to what was once the dragons' underbelly and humanoid head emerged.

"Dragon zord warrior mode: activated," Tofu read on his terminal screen.

"Now that's pretty cool," said Ranma

Meanwhile, the zodiac megazord summoned its sword and dashed forward to attack.

"I'll rip your megazords to pieces," yelled Magma.

"Someone needs to cool off a bit," said Mousse.

The megazord slashed at Magma with its' sword, chipping away at his body. Magma countered by smashing his flail into the megazords' side and toppling it.

"His fire is melting through zords armor," said Shampoo.

Just then, Magma was hit by a jump kick from the dragon zord. The dragon extended its hand and helped the megazord up onto its feet.

"Thanks doc," said Ranma.

Once Magma was back on his feet, he began to swing his flail around, causing the zords to jump back.

Tofu waited for the right moment, just as the demon's weapon came towards him. Then the dragon zord dashed forward and punched the weapon back around like a tetherball, sending it flying towards Magma.

The flail crashed into the demon, causing him to fall.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," said Tofu.

As Magma got up, his first sight was the megazord's fist in his face.

However, just as the fist was about to connect, Magma blasted the megazord with a ball of fire. The dragon zord tried to intervene only for Magma to grab his weapon a knock the zord away.

"We can't keep taking hits like that," said Akane.

"I know but as long as he's on the ground, he'll just heel himself and keep getting stronger," said Ranma.

"Then we need to destroy his body into pieces so small he won't be able to reform anymore," said Mousse.

"I think I can help with that," said Tofu.

"Great, then all we have to do is get him off the ground once more," said Ranma.

"I should be able to do that," said Ryoga.

Magma then pounded the ground with his weapon and a column of fire erupted from the ground. The zords easily dodged the fire.

The megazord countered by firing the pigs' tusk chains, wrapping them around the demons waist.

"Shampoo diverting core energy to arms," said Shampoo as she typed several commands in her terminal.

The megazord and demon struggled with each other, both of them pulling against the other. Luckily, the tide turned when the dragon zord delivered two strong punches to Magma's back, causing him to be momentarily distracted.

The distraction was just big enough for the megazord to gain the upper hand and pull the demon off its feet. Then the megazord began to swing Magma around before finally tossing him into the air.

Tofu shouted, "Activating final strike: Thunder Cannon."

The dragon zord then clapped its hands together and when they pulled apart, a large beam of lightning erupted towards Magma.

Magma shouted in rage as the blast hit him, completely pulverizing his body and turning it to dust

"Overconfident fool," said Kage, with nothing but cold rage in his voice.

"We'll get them next time my lord," said Saffron.

But Kage didn't listen, he was focused on the black dust that was slowly pouring into the throne room. Soon, the dust began to reform into small black lava rocks. Before long, Magma was reformed.

"What are you doing back?" yelled Kage.

"I underestimated the rangers. Please show mercy and give me another chance," said Magma as he sunk down to his hands and knees.

Kage got up and lifted the demon to his feet.

"So you say that as long as you have the earth, you can always gain strength?" asked Kage.

"Yes," said Magma.

"Well that proves a problem. I already have a useless flamethrower that can heal himself. But unlike you, he doesn't have to rely on the earth for power and he never gives me any back talk."

Then the magic mirror showed an image of deep space.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go," said Kage as he tossed Magma through the mirror.

The demon floated through space for several seconds before he collided with a comet and the rocks that made up his body floated in every direction. Since anything resembling earth was millions of miles away, it would be a long time before Magma would even be able to think about reassembling himself.

Then Kage turned back to the rest of his underlings, "Let that be a warning to the rest of you."

The next day, Tofu was able to ask Kasumi to a movie. As she was getting ready, Tofu told Ranma and Akane about his push pen method and asked if they could think of a less painful way to keep him sane.

"We should have thought of this months ago," whispered Ranma.

"I still think there has to be a better solution," said Akane as she grabbed a handful of popcorn. Ranma, Akane and the other rangers sat several rows behind Tofu and Kasumi so as not to disturb them.

"Tofu looks like he's tunning out again," whispered Ryoga to Ranma.

Shampoo was quick to notice that the doctors' leg was beginning to shake very erratically. He was obviously fighting the urge to dance around. "Any second now," she said.

"Akane, hand me another kernel," asked Ranma.

Akane sighed and dug through her popcorn tub, handing Ranma a fairly large kernel. Ranma then grabbed a rubber band from his pocket and held it between two of his fingers to make a makeshift slingshot.

Then Ranma launched the kernel, hitting Tofu in the back of his head. After a second, Tofu's leg stopped shaking and he felt brave enough to attempt the "yawn and grab," which Kasumi didn't seem to mind at all.

"Nice shot," said Mousse

Ranma cautiously glanced over at Akane, wondering how she would respond to something like that. Then he glanced over at Shampoo who was sitting on his other side and decided that now was not the best time to test it.

Then Mousse attempted the "yawn and grab" with Shampoo who almost instantly punched him away.

Ranma sighed and launched another kernel at the doctor.

"You know we can't do this on all their dates," said Akane.

"Well when you can think of something better, let me know," said Ranma.

Then couple sitting below them turned around whispering, "Will you all be quiet. We're trying to watch the movie."

It only took another ten kernels for Tofu to get through the movie. Then another twenty pebbles for him to walk Kasumi home.

"This was nice," he said to Kasumi.

"Yes it was. I'd love to do it again," said Kasumi.

"Me too."

With that, Kasumi went inside and Tofu began to walk happily back to his clinic. His only regret was that a small bump was forming on the back of his head.

(Authors notes)

*For a better idea of what the dragon zord looks like, just think of a violet pallet swap of the red dragon thunderzord.

*I borrowed Magma from PR: Mystic Force incase anyone was curious.