On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

40 - Pale / Bullshit

"No!" Mia screamed as she watched the nighlok begin to extract a shining orb of light out of Jayden's body.

His spirit was being stolen

His body became lifelessly pale the second his spirit left the tip of his tongue.

Before the Splitface could swallow the spirit, Mia rushed towards the nighlok with an adrenaline boost. She slashed him with her sky fan, coming in between the nighlok and the spirit.

Splitface was forced to withdraw his spirit eating mouth.

When Mia charged at him with another powerful attack, the nighlok became frightful. Splitface ended up dodging the attack by splitting into spheres.

As Mia attacked, Antonio rushed over to Jayden, holding him on his lap and taking his pulse. His heart rate was too faint for comfort.

As a result of Splitface's failure to eat the spirit and splitting himself, Jayden's spirit was left shaking in midair.

As Jayden's spirit was no longer being pulled by the nighlok, it began to return back to him. His spirit zigzagged quickly and violently as it made its way back to Jayden's body.

Antonio watched, shocked as the spirit forced itself down Jayden's throat. His skin began to revert back to a healthy tone.

Antonio once again checked his pulse, but it was still as weak as before.

He became concerned and decided to stick by Jayden and protect him from the nighlok. This way, Splitface wouldn't be able to steal Jayden's spirit while he was vulnerable.

Antonio also decided to take the time to prepare a marking symbol just in case.

While Mia's attention was averted towards Jayden, the nighlok has taken the opportunity to split into a bunch of spheres again and swarm her with more attacks.

After they finished off the rest of the moogers, Kevin ran to check on Mia while Mike and Emily stood against the nighlok.

"Stay back Em!" Mike told her as he charged towards Splitface.

After witnessing what happened to Jayden, he wanted to protect her.

Kevin prepared his hydro bow to back up Mike. With his aim on Splitface, he awaited the perfect moment to strike as Mike charged with his Forest Spear.

Splitface noticed what was going on and decided to completely ignore the green ranger. He split into spheres and swarmed Kevin causing him to fall back.

Right afterward, Splitface began to become weary and dry. He wanted to take down the red ranger before he left, so he made his way towards the gold ranger.

Mike and Emily stood in a readied position, however the nighlok decided to swarm right past them and appear before Antonio.

Antonio was quick with his barracuda blades and slashed the nighlok a few times before he could knock him off his feet.

With no other choice, Antonio resorted to shielded Jayden's body with his own.

Splitface seemed annoyed by the resilient gold ranger, especially since his energy and patience was limited.

The nighlok ended up turning and swarming through the green and yellow ranger with all of his might.

As both of them were knocked down, Splitface stood before Mike and aimed his spirit eating mouth at his head.

Before he could rip out his spirit, Emily launched herself between them and grabbed the nighlok's arm.

She wasn't about to stand there and watch Mike's spirit get stolen.

"Emily!" Mike hopelessly watched her spirit leave her body and floated straight into one of Splitface's many mouths.

Just like Jayden had, she immediately de-morphed, revealing her pale skin.

Mike caught her limp body before she could hit the floor.

After stealing a spirit, Splitface was delighted. "It was fun rangers! Now I shall take my leave!"

Splitface was overdoing it by staying long and exerting a lot of energy while he began to dry. And so, he slipped through a crack and disappeared into the other world, proud of his work.

~~~

Lauren looked through the archives to see which nighlok the rangers were referring to. "Ah, Splitface."

Kevin had told her what happened to Jayden and Emily, who were both resting on beds in the medical room.

Everyone was in the room, watching the two of them rest. Mike sat by Emily's bed, squeezing her hand.

All of them were holding ice packs on their pains from the battle.

Mike expected Lauren to be very upset or even frightful about what happened to her brother, but she seemed to be indifferent.

"Antonio, it was smart to have marked him with that symbol. According to the archives, we have 24 hours until Emily's spirit is Splitface's to keep. If we fail she will be stuck in a numb and practically lifeless phase for the rest of her life." Lauren concluded.

When Splitface faced off Antonio in attempt to reach Jayden, Antonio marked him with a symbol.

"As for Jayden, there has never been a case before where a soul was intercepted from Splitface before he could consume it."

Lauren turned to Mia. "I believe you did a good thing Mia. He's at less risk since he has his spirit."

"Given what you've told me, I believe he's just stuck in a comatic state from the shock his spirit faced. If that's so, he'll wake up soon so it isn't a big deal."

"Isn't big deal?" Mike jolted out of his seat. He couldn't stand how Lauren spoke about the situation with a calm and seemingly emotionless tone.

"That's your brother!" Mike harshly pointed at Jayden's unconscious body. "You're speaking theoretically! What if he stays like that forever?!"

Lauren was taken aback. She looked at Mike's angry face, unsure of how to react.

"Mike, calm down." Mia stopped icing her aches to put her hand on his shoulder. She understood that Mike was very stressed, but she was concerned about Lauren.

Mia knew that Lauren had feelings, even if she didn't understand them or couldn't express them. She also knew Jayden's state must have been killing Lauren.

"Where were you? What were you doing? You're supposed to be super strong, aren't you? What makes it so that you can't fight with us?!" Mike accused her. "It shouldn't be so hard!"

"Remember what Jayden said. As the black ranger, Lauren doesn't follow the red ranger." Kevin reminded Mike.

Kevin didn't like the fact that Mike was snapping at Lauren. She seemed confused and completely frozen.

"Bullshit! You might as well be the spiritless one!" Mike stormed out of the room.