Chapter 11
Today happened to be a different kind of day that began on the shore a few miles away from the city. A young man that appeared to be a fisherman was walking on the sand with a fishing pole upon his shoulder dragging a small cooler behind him, containing more fishing poles on the side. He soon stopped a few feet from the water once he had the city in his sight "Finally! I have arrived! Wait till they get a load of me, this will be golden baby!" the fisherman then looked down to see a little robot octopus that had popped out from the cooler "Not yet buddy." the little octopus then went back in the cooler as the guy closed the lid and continued his way toward the city. At the household the Gap sensor went off having the rangers dash out of the building responding to the alarm of a Nighlok appearing in the city. Though once they reached the location which happened to be a pier, the rangers looked around finding no signs of the evil creature. "So where's the Nighlok?" asked Mike, Jayden soon felt a gust of wind blow pass him and looked around for the source of it. Emily took notice of this and asked "Jayden…What's wrong?" "I thought I felt something…Like someone watching me…But it's gone now." Kevin then picked up a hidden Gap sensor that laid in a drain "Something definitely triggered this Gap sensor." "Yeah but what?" wondered Mia, Jayden began walking away "Come on guys let's go." as the other rangers followed their leader, the fisherman had just arrived at the pier taking a good look at it then at the city "Ah…Now I can move on to more important business."
Back at the household Nariko was in the dojo putting up a practice sword when she heard footsteps in the hall. The Yamada heir turned around to find the rangers were back and seeing her fiancé approaching her "Jayden you're back." "Yeah…" he pulled her into his arms and gave her a short kiss. They then pulled away as Ji arrived "That was fast rangers." "It doesn't take long to deal with nothing." replied Mike "The Gap sensor was working fine…But no Nighlok, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary." told Kevin, Nariko looked at Jayden "So it was a false alarm?" "Maybe…I'm not sure yet…" "Jayden…What's with the kiss? I've never seen you act this so affectionate before." "Maybe because I felt like showing how much I care about you right now." "Jayden you-" he cut her off with another kiss which didn't last long, Jayden was the first to break the kiss as they all heard something hit outside. The red ranger left his fiancé to investigate the front, once he opened the door Jayden found an arrow embedded into the wooden wall which happened to have a message attached to it. He pulled the arrow from the wall and brought it back inside to show everyone else "It just says see you soon." Mia seemed to be baffled by this "See you soon…What a Nighlok attack?" Ji shook his head "No…Not here at least…The house is protected by defensive symbols." "And they're doing a good job." said Mike who then took the arrow from Jayden "I mean someone shot this arrow." he soon sniffed the arrow "Something fishy about this…" "Obviously." agreed Emily "No there's really something fishy, smell!" the green ranger held the arrow towards Emily who smelled it only to make a disgusted face "Ugh!"
Later that night everyone was simply relaxing and were doing their own thing. Inside Jayden's room he happened to be sitting at his desk writing some kanji upon a piece of paper. Having the feeling of being watched the red ranger quickly got up from his sitting and turned around bringing out his samuraizer only to find nothing there. Feeling a bit annoyed he began looking around "Where are you?" the door to his room was then opened by Nariko who asked "Jayden what's wrong?" "There's something here!" soon the other rangers showed up at the door just as Jayden felt something go pass him "There! Did you feel that?" not sure what Jayden felt Kevin shook his head "No…What do you feel?" the red ranger quickly shushed him and pointed towards a sliding door, slowly he crept towards it just as the others gathered in the room. They watched as Jayden stood in front of the door and quickly opened it only for the group to scream a bit before realizing that it was a practice dummy that had fallen out of the closet. "Don't scare us like that!" exclaimed Mia "I could have sworn there was something…" said Jayden, Mike patted his leader's shoulder "Relax dude there's nothing here." "There's definitely something other worldly here I sensed it." Nariko went over to Jayden and gently placed her hand on his shoulder "I'm sorry Jayden…But we didn't sense anything…Could it be your imagination?" soon Ji entered the red ranger's room "Jayden…It's important to trust your instincts…But I don't feel another presence." the red ranger once again felt something go pass him, causing Jayden to take action. He quickly summoned his spin sword and turn around only to stop his blade close to Emily's and Nariko's face. Both girls gasp as they were greatly surprised by Jayden's sudden action. Realizing what he just did Jayden apologized "Sorry Nariko, Em…" he soon began looking around again, growling under his breath "Where are you?" The red ranger then left his room and into the dojo with the others following. While Jayden was looking around the dojo trying to locate the presence he was feeling Mike admitted to the others "You know he's really got that flipping out thing down path huh?" Nariko lightly elbowed the green ranger in the side "That's my fiancé you're talking about Mike!" "Sorry…" Kevin asked the others in a low voice "Anybody else feel anything?"
Soon the red ranger entered the bathroom after giving up his search for the presence he felt earlier. "I know something was there…" muttered Jayden, he stood before the sink, placing his hands on both sides leaning against it. Little did he knew a Nighlok by the name of Vulpes happened to be the one watching Jayden from the Netherworld with a mirror of his. "Mirror, mirror on his wall who's the most freaked out ranger of them all? Ha, ha, ha! This should feed his paranoia." said Vulpes who waved his hand in front of the mirror. Soon another wind blew pass Jayden making him looking quickly to his side to find nothing. He then shook his head and went ahead on turning the sink water on, the red ranger gathered some water in his hands and splashed some water upon his face. Jayden ceased for a moment and looked at the mirror muttering "It's gone…" he looked back at the running sink water before turning it off. The red ranger then wiped his face with a towel and quickly left out of the bathroom and towards Nariko's room. He lightly knocked on her door once reaching it, from inside he heard "Come in." Jayden then entered, quietly closing the door behind him. Nariko who happened to be sitting upon her bed brushing her hair looked at her fiancé "Oh Jayden…" "I'm sorry if I happened to disturb you." "No not at all…" she placed her brush in her lap and patted her mattress "Here come and sit with me." and the red ranger did just that, he sighed a bit as he sat down having Nariko lay her head upon his shoulder "You still feel that presence?" "Kind of…I have a feeling that a Nighlok is doing this to me." "Are you sure?" "Not entirely…But I do have something planned…Nariko I want you to come with me tomorrow." "To where?" "Spring Valley…My plan will most likely work there." "All right I'll go with you." "Then I'll take my leave so you can get some rest." but before Jayden could get up, Nariko stopped him from doing so "No wait…" "What is it?" "Could you at least stay here a bit Jayden until I fall asleep?" "All right…I'll stay…" Jayden then laid down on the bed followed by Nariko who rested her head on the red ranger's chest. Slowly but surely the princess closed her eyes and fell asleep, Jayden saw this and smiled. He soon wrapped arm around Nariko holding her in a protective way and just like that the red ranger fell asleep also.
The next day the couple left the household leaving Ji a note and made their way to Spring Valley. Upon arriving Nariko looked around at the scenery "I forgot how peaceful this place is…" Jayden then held her hand and began leading her towards the water "Come on we need to go this way." while they were heading for the water, in the Netherworld Vulpes happened to be watching the two with his mirror. Octoroo soon entered the little room he was residing in on the boat "So Vulpes…" "What?" "You have any luck spying on the red ranger?" "Luck? Try skill! It's tricky now because the red ranger can sense me, but my enchanted eye will see all! Oh it gives me evil fuzzies all over!" "Fuzzy smuzzy! All I care about is seeing him practicing that sealing symbol! If he perfects it Master Xandred will be sealed down here for good! And we all will be done for!" "Don't get your tentacles in a twist! Oh! It looks like he's starting to practice it right now and his little fiancé happens to be there with him!" "He's doing it? Really?" "See for yourself squidly!" Octoroo stood at Vulpes' side and watched through his mirror to see Jayden writing a symbol "Now we're seeing eye to eye!" once the red ranger was done, the symbol had smoke appear blinding the enchanted eye's sight. "What's wrong? Looks like smoke has gotten into your all seeing eye." said Octoroo "This can't be!" exclaimed Vulpes, the smoke began clearing only to reveal both Jayden and Nariko gone "I spy with my little eye…Nothing!" declared Octoroo, Vulpes grabbed his mirror "Where did they go? Ugh! I'll take care of it myself! Nuts!" the Nighlok then stood up and stormed off the boat having Octoroo yell after him "I want results!"
Vulpes soon arrived at Spring Valley to find no signs of Jayden or Nariko, he looked at the mirror in his hand "Ugh! I can't believe they forced us to come to this vile world!" from out of nowhere Nariko appeared and quickly grabbed Vulpes' mirror right out of his hand "I'll be taking that!" "No! My enchanted eye!" Jayden then jumped out from the water in his ranger form and attacked the Nighlok with his spin sword. As Vulpes fell upon his back, he quickly got back up on his feet "Argh! Give me back my mirror!" Nariko joined her fiancé's side, handing him the mirror "You know it's not nice to spy on people." "I said give it back!" "Jayden, Nariko!" called someone, the couple and Vulpes looked to see Mia and Kevin already in their ranger forms heading towards them. They soon stopped a few feet away from Vulpes, swords drawn "Kevin…This must be the Nighlok that Jayden has been sensing this whole time." "You know this fight isn't fair!" declared Vulpes "Neither is watching us but luckily I saw through you…When I splashed water on my face the presence I sensed went away, that's when I realized that water can help me block your spell. I knew then that this was the one place I could truly hide from you." said Jayden "Of course! The water in our world is more purer than the water of the evil Sanzu River." said Mia "And the water from the spring must have cut off the creepy Nighlok spell completely!" said Kevin "He may have fooled our Gap sensor but not us." said Nariko, Jayden then tossed the mirror into the air and cut it in half making Vulpes cry out "No my mirror! And I never got to see you practice that sealing symbol!" "So that's what you were after!" said Nariko "Who cares if you know all of you are still going down!" Jayden looked back at his fiancé "Our plan went perfectly now I want you to return to the household, the others and I will handle this Nighlok from here." "All right, be careful!" the Yamada heir then left Spring Valley, in order to let the rangers deal with Vulpes.
While running through the forest Nariko happened to run right into someone, sending them both falling onto their backs. "Ugh! What was that?" groaned Nariko "Hey what where you're going!" snapped someone, the princess looked to find it happened to be the fisherman who she bumped into "Why should I watch where I'm going? You're the one who ran into me!" "I did not! Besides I wasn't the one who was running!" before Nariko could say something else, she took a good look at the fisherman and who looked somewhat familiar to her "Have…Have we met before?" "Not sure…" the fisherman also took a good look at her, his eyes stopped on the princess' necklace and immediately recognized it "No way! Nariko is that you?" "How…How do you know my name?" "Nariko it's me! Antonio! Don't you remember me?" "Antonio?" she took one good look at him again and immediately recognized him "Oh my gosh Antonio?" "Yes!" the fisherman helped her up only to be wrapped in a tight hug by Nariko who exclaimed "Is it really you Antonio?" "Of course it's me! Who else could it be?" "When did you get here?" "I arrived in the city yesterday." "But…What are you doing here?" "Well I was going to go help Jayden and his team." "How can you do that? You're not a ranger…" "Oh contraire, you see dear Nariko things have change since I've been away now if you'll excuse me I must go and aid the rangers!" Nariko go of Antonio who quickly darted away and the princess was amazed at how fast he left only to hurry after "Oh Antonio I hope you know what you're doing!"
Later after watching the whole battle Nariko was surprised to find that Antonio can morph into the gold samurai ranger, and with help of him and his buddy Octozord, Antonio and the rangers defeated Vulpes for good. Antonio soon met up with the rangers still in his ranger form and dragging his cooler along "Well how about that guys? Was that golden with a capital G or what?" "Start talking! What's your story?" demanded Kevin, Antonio then powered down in front of the group "I just came to help because all of the Nighlok that have shown up…" "Hey you guys!" all of them looked to see Nariko running towards them "Nariko, we thought you went back to the household!" said Mia, the princess stopped right beside Antonio "Well I was…Until I ran into this guy here…Whom I must say I'm very proud and impressed of." "Wait…So you're saying you know this guy?" questioned Mike "Of course! He's on our side!" Antonio nodded and looked towards the red ranger "Yeah! Tell them Jay." from the moment he saw the gold ranger's identity Jayden couldn't stop smiling and asked "Is that really you Antonio?" "Ha! I knew you would remember me, including Nariko!" "I can't believe it's really you…" "Believe baby I'm back! And I'm ready for some action!" Antonio then approached Jayden doing some martial art moves, he tried landing a punch on the red ranger who easily stopped his fist with his hand. "You still think you can take me?" asked Antonio, Jayden simply smirk and they continued their fight which had they had started from the moment Antonio attempted to land a punch on the red ranger. Nariko couldn't stop smiling as she watched her fiancé and the fisherman fought, Emily then lightly pulled on the princess' arm "Nariko that guy is amazing! I vote he should join our team!" "Wait…He's good today but one battle doesn't make him a samurai." said Kevin, Mia shook her head "Say what you want but today Antonio definitely delivered his golden moment." Nariko laughed a bit while nodding in agreement "Now that I absolutely agree on Mia, it makes me really happy to see those two reunite after so long."