People were screaming, running around in a panic as Mia continued on her run from the arcade. She heard her Samuraizer bleeping, and knew that the Gap Sensor had picked him up, so she knew that she could continue to the scene, knowing that the others would be along shortly.
Arriving in a wide street, she saw a Nighlock in the middle of it, terrifying the people. She ran towards it, flipping out her Samuraizer.
"Go Go Samurai!" She screamed out, morphing into the Pink Ranger. She brought her Spin Sword up over her shoulder, screaming as she rushed towards him. The Nighlock just looked at her, and she could almost swear she saw it smiling. As she swung her sword with all her might, she found that it just passed straight through him with no resistance whatsoever, like she was slicing through empty space. Only the dissipating smoke indicated that she had gone through anything at all.
"What the...?" She asked in confusion, looking around for any signs of it. She saw the Nighlock again a few feet away. Leaping into the air, swinging for the fences, she found the same thing happening. A puff of smoke, and the Nighlock was nowhere to be seen.
"He's over here!" She heard Mike calling out as he arrived. She turned around, seeing Mike coming in on the opposite side of the street, thrusting at the Nighlock with his Forest Spear. He just looked around in confusion as once again, it simply vanished in a puff of smoke. The others arrived shortly afterwards, congregating in the middle of the street.
"Uh...what happened?" Mike asked her. "I mean, I know we're getting tougher, but surely the Nighlock aren't getting that easy to beat."
"I think that's a little optimistic." Kevin agreed.
"The same thing happened to me twice before you arrived." Mia informed them. "I guess this is one of the Nighlock's special abilities at work."
"Didn't we already fight a Nighlock we couldn't hit?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, that guy with all the red hair and the bad Yosemite Sam accent." Mike agreed.
"Please, do you really expect me to copy someone as lame as Dread Head?" The Nighlock asked as he stepped into view. His golden skull-like face seemed to be sneering at them as he brought forth his sword. "I'm the coolest guy around."
"Yeah, so cool you won't stand and fight like a man!" Mike called out, converting his Forest Spear back into a Spin Sword. "I'm going to cool your jets!"
"Let's see what you have!" The Nighlock replied. He and Mike exchanged blows and insults for a few seconds, before Mike caught him with a telling blow across the chest. The Nighlock started staggering around in pain.
"OK, you've got some moves, but this is cool!" He stated as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Rangers all formed up a circle, looking around for any signs of the Nighlock.
"Alright, where did he go?" Kevin called out.
"There he is!" Antonio called out.
"Wait, he's over here!" Jayden announced.
"I've got him here!" Mike added.
"Wait, I see him too!" Emily called out. "What's going on?"
"He moves faster than Antonio!" Mia concluded. Eventually, he stopped long enough for them all to see him in once place.
"Not quite pinky." He laughed. "Now you see us..."
As he said that, suddenly hundreds of versions of him appeared, before quickly disappearing back into him. "Now you don't! Now you know why they call me Duplicator!"
"Oh great, one Nighlock was bad enough!" Antonio complained as Duplicator finally stopped in one place long enough for them to focus on him. Seizing the opportunity, Kevin brought forth his Hydro Bow and fired a salvo into him. Duplicator fell to a knee, calling out in pain.
"You got the right one!" Mike yelled excitedly.
"Antonio, you're the fastest!" Jayden called out. "Quick, get him before..."
"Psych!" Duplicator taunted them as he disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing that it was yet another copy. Antonio stumbled through the smoke, swinging his Light Zord's blade.
Shortly afterwards, half a Dozen copies of Duplicator rushed into the street, taking on all the Rangers in a savage battle. The Rangers fought bravely, but struggled against the powerful Nighlock. They quickly learned that while Duplicator's clones would disappear when hit, causing him no harm, they could most certainly harm the Rangers! A short time after the battle began, the Rangers were forced to re-group, Kevin helping Mia to her feet. Just then, the clones disappeared, leaving Duplicator standing alone in the street. They saw him clutching at his chest, and a few cracks beginning to appear.
"You Rangers got lucky, I'm drying out!" He told them. "Next time, don't expect me to be so easy on you!"
With that, he disappeared into a Gap. Mia and the others all gathered in the street.
"Alright, that guy's seriously going to get on my nerves!" Mike told them. "How are we meant to beat him if we can't even hit him?"
"Well, I landed a hit." Jayden told them. "I felt it. I think I had the real one."
"Great, so all we have to do is figure out which one of them's the real one!" Emily grumbled. "That should be easy!"
"Guys!" Antonio called out, pointing up to a street camera. He just smiled. "The whole thing was on camera!"
"Great, so we can watch an instant replay of us having our asses handed to us!" Mike stated.
"Either that or we can watch the footage and see if there's something that can tip us off to which one's the real Duplicator." Antonio suggested. "If only attacking the real one has any effect..."
"Right, we'll work on that when we get back." Jayden told them. "Come on. The people here are safe. Let's go home and figure out what to do about Duplicator."
In the arcade, Spike had finally joined the others, and was currently playing a spirited game of Time Crisis II with Mal, leaving Jimmy, Vicky and Cody to watch on. Jimmy looked around and saw something that caught his attention.
"Oh holy crap, can you see that!" He screamed.
"What?" She asked him.
"The original Street Fighter!" He called out, pointing to a cabinet in the corner. "It's still working too! I didn't think anyone would still have one of these!"
He rushed over to the cabinet, fishing around in his pockets desperately for some change. Cody saw this happen and smiled. Looking to where Mal and Spike were playing their game, he realised he now had a moment with Vicky on his own.
"So...Spike tells me your end-of-year formal isn't far away." He began.
"Yeah, it is." She told him. "I normally just go to these things with my friends."
"So...you aren't going with anyone?" He asked her hopefully. She just shook her head and sniggered a little.
"I'm not exactly the kind of girl who has to worry about beating the guys off with a stick." She told him. Cody just started stroking his neck nervously as he tried to find some words.
"Well, I kind of said to Spike that I'd like to go to your formal." He informed her. "I don't really get on with the kids at Western. I usually give these things a miss, but I guess I'd like to see what its like."
"Cody, that'd be great!" She called out. "I mean, it is generally geared towards the popular kids, but it's usually a good night. I'm sure you'd have a great time!"
"Well, I was kind of wondering if you'd like to go." He said, struggling to get the words out as his mouth dried out. "W...w...w...ith me?"
Vicky almost choked on her soda as she heard this. She couldn't believe it. Was this really happening?
"G...g...go to the dance with you?" She asked him. "Like...as a date?"
"Yeah." He replied. He was starting to feel a distinctly nauseous feeling in his stomach as he waited for Vicky to answer.
She was feeling no better. Cody was a nice guy. He was friendly, funny...he was about her brother's age, something that she had to admit did feel a little weird as she thought about it.
She had another reason for not being sure about this, looking to where Spike was paying with Mal. She knew he was still a little raw about what had happened with Melanie, and she knew that it would take him a good while before he was ready to consider someone else, but she always had held out a hope that maybe he would see her that way.
As she saw Spike with Mal though, she couldn't help feeling dejected. He hadn't looked twice at her. He hadn't been interested in her, even before Melanie. How could she possibly compete with that? Looking back to Cody, she could see him starting to panic. It was a little cute to see, she had never anticipated someone looking at her like that. If Spike had any interest in her at all, surely she would have known by now right? She just nodded.
"Sure, that would be nice." She told him. Cody looked like he was ready to faint as she said this, his smile splitting his face.
"You mean it?" He asked her. "Really, wow that's just...wow!"
Vicky pulled him in, hugging him. She had been holding onto her hopes with Spike for a long time, but now she was starting to think that maybe it was it was time to just move on. She liked Cody as a person, and perhaps she would have a good time at the dance with him.
As they were in the middle of one of the major boss battles, Spike glanced across at Cody and Vicky, seeing them hugging. He felt his jaw clenching and his stomach starting to knot up. Seeing the way they were both smiling, he could just tell what had happened. He was sure that Cody had asked her. Mal just groaned.
"Come on Spike, Mad Dog just wasted us!" He complained.
"Oh...uh...sorry." Spike stammered.
"You've got the quarters!" Mal told him. Spike wasn't paying attention though. "Spike, the countdown..."
He was too late though. As Spike turned back to the machine, the countdown to put in more money to continue the game ended, and the Game Over message flashed on the screen.
"Nice one Spike!" He complained. He just sighed. "Oh well, how about a game of Tekken instead?"
Spike just nodded and followed Mal to the next game.
Back at the Shiba House, Antonio had tapped into the city's surveillance system and was scrolling through the cameras, trying to find the ones in the street the battle had been on. He called up a split-screen of four different cameras, and using an LCD projector, started playing them on the wall. He smiled as he turned off the lights and Jayden shut the blinds, allowing them to see the footage more clearly.
"Well, it looks pretty good from here." Antonio told them. "We can see the battle pretty clearly..."
"Including...the cameras caught me morphing?" Mia shrieked. "Oh my God, they could identify us and..."
"Hey, do you really think we never thought of that?" Jayden asked. "There are so many cameras around town; we knew we'd need to get that covered. Ji's had contacts in the surveillance department."
"So..."
"Trust me, all of us will have been caught on camera dozens of times." Jayden assured them. "The only reason we don't have people coming around is because we have friends making sure those clips...disappear."
"Well, watching this back doesn't make it any less embarrassing." Mike complained as he took some trail mix and started crunching it. "This isn't helping at all. I mean, all I see is me getting dumped on my butt again and again and..."
"Wait, what was that?" Mia asked, pointing to something. "Antonio, can you put this camera on the full screen and run it back?"
Antonio did as he was told, bringing up the image. They watched as Antonio rushed his copy of Duplicator, swinging through it with his Light Zord blade. She took the remote and scrolled through it again, and again, this time zooming in.
"What is it?" Kevin asked her. "What did you see?"
"Look at the beam from the Light Zord." She told them. Although it was still daylight when the first attack took place, the Light Zord still glowed as it was used. She had pulled in really closely, and it was only then they noticed something.
"The light just shines through him." Kevin commented.
"His copies are basically just smoke!" Jayden called out.
"It'll be getting dark soon." Mia told them. "If we're lucky, he'll come back then, when the Light Zord's beam will have more effect."
"I'll just go charge it." Antonio told them, picking up the Light Zord and taking it aside. "Something tells me this little guy's going to get quite a workout."
As Jayden turned the light back on, they all started to head off to prepare. Mia just grabbed Emily as she was about to go to her room.
"Emily, I wanted to talk to you." She told her. "It's about what happened with Mike earlier."
"I know, I should apologise." She muttered. "I know he was only trying to help."
"Well, you'll never guess who I ran into when I was out jogging." She told her. "Spike."
"Oh, right." Emily replied. "How's he doing?"
"He's doing alright. He asked after Serena." She informed the Yellow Ranger. "He said he and Bulk are training with Cody and his dad in the meantime."
"I guess at least that means they'll be keeping up to speed while she's away." Emily said with a shrug. Mia then just came a little closer.
"You know, Cody and his dad are good, but I was just thinking, you and Serena had the same teacher. Your styles are a lot more similar." She told her.
"Yeah, mom taught us both." Emily replied.
"I was just thinking, maybe Cody and his dad would appreciate a little help with them." Mia told her. "Maybe you could give them a few pointers. I know that the carpentry business keeps Cody's dad pretty busy."
"Wait, what?" Emily asked her. "You want me to train them?"
"I was thinking more like help them train them." She suggested. "Come on Emily, I'm not talking about a lot, just a couple of hours each day."
"I don't know..."
"You helped Serena with them once before remember?" Mia asked her. Emily just nodded.
"Yeah, I did." She answered. "I have to admit, they were a lot better than I would have thought."
"I'm not sure..."
"Oh, well, I guess that's alright." Mia answered. "I suppose you could always spend your days with Mike on his video game marathons."
"Mia..."
"I know how much you loved fishing with Antonio." She continued. Emily just rolled her eyes. "And somehow I think letting you loose in a kitchen..."
"Alright, alright." She groaned. "I guess I'll do it."
As she stomped out of the room, Mia smiled to herself. She had hoped she could get Emily to agree, to give her something to concentrate on other than the dramas at the house. She knew that Emily had never taught anyone before, but she had been there when Serena was teaching, and she hoped that between her skill and her observations, she could get by. The worst case scenario was that Cody's dad could do the lion's share of the work and take Emily's suggestions.
"Who knows, maybe if you pretend to have some fun, you'll end up having some by mistake." Mia whispered, before turning her attention to the dinner she had prepared earlier, switching on the cooker to re-heat it. If they were going to face Duplicator again, they would need their strength. All they could do now was hope that he showed up.
At the Sanzu River, Duplicator was busy soaking himself in the river, recovering his strength as Serrator approached him. He saw the powerful Nighlock approaching and smirked.
"I take it you saw how I embarrassed the Rangers earlier." He commented.
"I saw how you managed to dry yourself out." Serrator taunted him. "Until then, it was all rather impressive though."
"What have you done to them recently?" Duplicator sneered in disgust. Serrator just laughed.
"Now, I'm not interested in immediate results. Expediency is not a factor when you are immortal." He told him. "I believe in the long game. I have something in the works."
"That sounds like an excuse to me." Duplicator told him, getting out of the River. "Now, I'm fully rehydrated, I'm off to finish the Rangers."
"Now?" Serrator asked him. "In the dark?"
"Unlike you, I do believe in expediency?" Duplicator stated. "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do tonight? By the time morning breaks, the Rangers will be destroyed, and Xandred will be only too happy to award me the pick of the spoils of war."
With that, he disappeared. Serrator just turned and left.
"How hastily you rush to battle. Perhaps if you knew what I did, you would not act so quickly." Serrator chuckled. "Of course, if you do rush into battle and get yourself destroyed, that simply means less competition when the REAL endgame begins."