Episode 6: The Sky is Always Darkest Before Dawn(PR: OF)

This is the sixth episode of Power Rangers: Omega Force. This episode continues off just after Episode 5: The True Shade of Darkness, and introduces the evil ranger's Zords and Megazords.

March 14, 2010 ~ Neo-Omega Base
Star, now concentrating on Joseph, put an actual scan on him. The actual scan showed something a bit off. "Oh..." she began. "...that's not good..." She put the Starlight near his heart. "A tangle of dark energy and his pure energy is keeping his heart from beating..." Clutching her own chest she peered over him. "They need you more right now than they do I..." Pouring all of her energy into the Starlight, she pushed it into the core of swirling energies. His heart rate began to increase normally as her vision started to fade. "I...will...be out...for a while..." She slid onto the ground, closing her eyes.

Meanwhile, Dominic slowly brought himself up and looked at himself. There was a long slash running down his leg. "How did that get there?" he asked himself. He limped to an area away from view. "This can't be happening..." Back at the Neo Base, like before, Sean's head pain came back. And this time he had a vision. He saw Vile and Dominic in a split-screen kind of way. He explains what he sees. "I see Vile talking to Dominic saying 'Find those rangers and if you fail me again, I will destroy the darkness in your heart.' And now nothing." The others have wondered why this has been happening to Sean. "This has happened a lot to you, hasn't you?" asked Zedren. "Yeah," he replied back. "Is this merely your ability or is it the ability of all those who act as guardians of Zordon? I have met many of his guardians, but I've never noticed this ability in them." "That's because Zordon was the only one to give me this ability," replied Sean.

Meanwhile, Joe woke up and felt as good as new. "Talk about just what the doctor ordered!" he yelled in happiness. He stood up and removed the bandages around his chest and then noticed Star passed out on the floor. "Star? STAR!?!" He couldn't wake her so he instead put her on the healing table and called for some help. Andros rushed in and looked her over. "She's very low on strength," he began. "She just needs some rest. I sense everything is ok with her brain waves. She's just tired. She need to rest for about, say, 72 hours." Dominic shook himself and turned to the rangers. "Time for plan B..." he told himself as the room turned dark. Nobody could see anything, or anybody. Dominic was gone too. "I kinda forgot he was in the room," Joe realized. "We should of strapped him down. It seems like every time I see him he gets stronger and stronger. I don't want to know what coming next. Isn't there some way to stop him. Diabolico, before, it looked like you knew about him. So any thoughts?"

"Well I don't know of Dominic, but the spirit inside him I do know," Diabolico began. "Its the Demon Beast King known as Fenrir. Millenia ago, when the demons walked on the earth alongside humans, there was a great war between Fenrir and his followers against the humans and the rest of the demons, including myself and Queen Bansheera. The battle was immense and many great warriors were destroyed. We finally managed to seal away Fenrir. However, the humans generalized the idea of 'demon' and thus feared us. We were locked away as well and well the rest of that story you can look up under the Ranger archives under Lightspeed, but I digress. It was foretold that Fenrir would one day return and take on a human host. Although the human would be endowed with great strength, there was to be a cost. I don't know what the cost was to be, but I can assume it will be probably more beneficial to Fenrir rather than to Dominic."

The lights came back on. Star was missing, and a paper was on the floor. It said, If you want her, you have to find me. "This guy is really getting on my last nerve!" he yelled in annoyance. "Where can we even begin to search?" "Well, I think his ego might be hurting since we beat him," Zedren began. "Which only means that he's gonna be more angry and powerful next time. I believe he will give us a clue as to his whereabouts. But we must be careful. It could be a trap. And who knows what else is waiting in store?" "I don't care!" yelled Kent with rage. "We need Star back." He then morphed, grabbed his Stego Staff and slammed it angrily against a nearby crate, smashing it to pieces. Dominic sighed. He was deep into the earth, but where? Fenrir hadn't told him, for he had just transported him there. Star was in a dark cage made of shadows. "Bah, this is so boring..." said Dominic, impatiently. "On a side note, I think it's really cool that half the walls down here are made of rock," said Joe out of random. Dominic patiently awaited. "Any day now..."

Meanwhile, in the vast regions of space, a shrill laughter filled the air. "Teehee! These rangers are wonderfully delicious actors, no?" the mysterious figure told Vile. "'Actors?'" replied Vile. "They are down right disgusting if I may say." The figure spoke again. "And the Wolfy Boy. He's even better! He tricked the rangers. Kudos to him." Vile snorted. "Sure he is. Now if only he could follow orders." The giggling figure looked at him and muttered very slowly, "He does. Just not YOUR orders." The figure laughed out loud again. "Well, let the play resume!" Dominic sneezed. "Oh great, someone is talking about me," he told himself. He sighed once more and looked around the dark room. "I wonder..." began Diabolico with curiosity. "I wonder if Fenrir would go back to his original base deep within the recesses of the earth. It was pretty close to the Earth's core, so its very hot down there." "Sounds like something Dominic would do," began Joe. "If we don't get there fast he won't kill Star, but the heat will. So how can we get there?" "I could perhaps summon a demon portal. Its a one way bridge. You can go in but its very hard to get out. You need an equally powerful force on the outside to bring you back." "How 'bout the zords?" "The zords have a link with the rangers so they can teleport into them. It should still work deep under ground. What do you guys think?"

Dominic sneezed once more. "This is not good." He stood up and walked around the cage, anxious. "Risky, but I'll do anything to help Star!" yelled Kent with courage. "Same here. Star risked her life to save me more than once. It's the least I can do." "Very well then," said Diabolico as he materializes his demon staff and says a chant in a language that can't be comprehended and then fires the staff at the wall. A portal then opens. "OK guys, let's go." He then walks into the portal, unmorphed. A huge cavern expanse opens in front of Joe. There are tons of Stalactites and Stalagmites all around the cavern. There are large demonic statues of wolves, serpents and many others. Joe then saw the cage where Star is held, about 130 ft away from him. There are also streams of lava falling down grooves cut into the walls which lead into lava pools and rivers throughout the space. It's incredibly hot.

Dominic sighed. "Finally, what took you so long?" asked Dominic from behind Joe. He was obviously annoyed. Joe turns around and says, sarcastically, "Yeah, sorry to keep you waiting Dominic. Or am I speaking to Fenrir?" He hears Dominic sneeze again. "Well, looks like someones got allergies. I hope you're not allergic to dogs, considering you have the spirit of one inside you." Joseph then wipes the sweat off his forehead from the heat. "Whatever you say..." replied Dominic as he spun his hand around in a circle, and pitch black wolves with yellow eyes appeared from the ground. "Go sick em' Fenris..." The wolves howled and ran towards Joe. He tries to kick one that is heading his way, but his foot goes right through it. "Wonderful!" he told himself. "As if demon wolves weren't enough, they're demonic GHOST wolves." The pack circled Joe. Another wolf runs by Joseph. He dodges the first, but the second slams into him from behind. Joseph stumbles and almost falls into the lava pit. The lava bubbles and makes his jacket catch on fire. He takes of his jacket and throws it aside. Dominic sighed. "This should be fun..."

Joseph stood up. "OK, enough messing around." He raised both arms. "Gold Ranger Power!!" And thus, Joe was fully morphed. One of the wolves was running towards him. He punched it in the mouth and the golden aura of his suit was able to penetrate the darkness creating it. "I'm getting tired of these games. Golden Radiance." The wolf spirits evaporated away into a black mist. "Any more appetizers Dominic, or can we skip the warm up?" Dominic sighed. "Okay then, time for the main course..." He stepped forward but was then struck by lack lightning. He held his head in pain but then seemed normal again. He morphed this time, with even more darkness then before. "Come mortal!" He jumped upward and stroke the ground around Joe, causing a massive quake. The cavern rocked back and forth with the stalactites come crashing to the ground. The lava pools shook back and forth causing some of the lava to spill over. "This is a very bad place for this fight." Dominic chuckled, he landed on the roof and jumped down once more, slashing at Joe. "Too easy, too easy..." Dominic summoned another pack of wolves and stood there. Joe went to go attack Dominic, but the wolves got in the way and pinned him to the ground. Joseph held one of the wolves mouths open to avoid being bitten. Dominic slashed at Joseph while he was down and jumped back. A blade of darkness formed on his foot and he jumped up and slashed it down at Joe.

Joseph recovered from Dominic's attack but noticed his chest shield had a huge slash mark in it. He then, while still on the ground, swept kicked the surrounding area, knocking Dominic of his feet, but just to throw him off balance. No real damage was done. Dominic fell but quickly regained footing. Joseph got up and tried to jump kick Dominic, but he grabbed his leg and slammed him to the ground. He then thinks to himself, I have to move this fight somewhere else. With Fenrir in charge he's stronger. And with this extreme heat, we're weaker. Dominic laughed manically and jumped, kicking Joseph in the face. Joseph felt the might of the Liopleurodon, quickly recovered, then grabbed Dominic, started running and then slammed him into one of the walls so hard that the cracked impression had orange veins running through it, signifying that any more strong hits would make the lava on the other side burst through. Dominic lost his balance with the slam. He quickly recovered and slashed at Joseph. Joe's armor was starting to show signs of tear. The constant barrage of slash attacks was taking it out of him, but he would never give up. Dominic continued his onslaught.

Just as Dominic was about to hit Joseph with a powerful punch, Joseph stopped it and got to his feet, making both of them in a standstill, stunning Dominic long enough to free Star and get her out of where he was. Unfortunately, he wasn't stunned as well as Joe thought. Dominic didn't waste time and quickly tripped Joseph. "Now to paralyze you..." With a flick of his wrist, spears rained down and blocked Joseph from getting back up. Joseph then shouted, "Golden Radiance!" Just then, his armor glowed brightly evaporating most of the spears. He grabbed his chest because his power was getting used up by using this attack so often. Dominic looked at Joseph. Darkness quickly moved from his helmet, over to Joseph's. Joseph's body went limb with paralysis. He concentrated with all his might and shattered the darkness enveloping him. He then back flipped off the ground and grabbed Dominic from behind. He held Dominic's arms at his [Dominic's] side to stop him from attacking, possibly stunning him. Dominic fell as Joe released his grip. Joe then rushed to the cage where Star was being held, and gave the surprisingly low-stamina Fenrir a kick and the hold on his prison was broken. He landed and reached into the darkness before Star suffered any damage.

After breaking the stun, Dominic didn't waste much time. He sprang forward and grabbed Joe by the color of his neck. Darkness surrounded him, making him much stronger than he was before. "What have you done mortal?" asked Dominic. "If I were you, I'd be more concerned with what this mortal is gonna do to you!" yelled Joe. Dominic smirked and threw Joseph against a wall. Then a clone of Dominic appeared, this time fully covered in darkness. "Great, now there's two of them. But I wonder if his power also split in half?" The clone started shifting, seemingly disappearing and reappearing at right times. Joe thinks to himself, Perhaps that astral projection is controlled by Dominic's consciousness. Maybe if I interrupt it, it will disappear. Joe tried to kick Dominic in the back to make him lose concentration and hinder the spirit projection, if it actually is mentally connected. Dominic's clone disappeared for a moment, but reappeared. However, Dominic's darkness was down for a moment, giving Joe a strike of opportunity.

Joseph was just about to drop kick Dominic when Zedren called on the com link. "Joe, do you have Star?" asked Zedren. "Yeah, but Dominic's way too powerful," replied Joe. "Have yourself teleport back via your zord link. You'll end up back in your respective zord cockpit." "Will do." Just then, Joe teleported out. He ended up in the Liopleurodon Zord Cockpit in the zord area. Star was right next to Joe, but still unconscious. Joe then picked her up and exited the Liopleurodon. Then Zedren walked up to them. "I have a feeling this isn't over. Not by a long shot. Dominic's gonna be really mad. I hate to see what he has next up his sleeves. Oh well, at least you will no longer be fighting him and the heat." Dominic could not believe that his only victim escaped. "He will pay dearly!" yelled Dominic as he teleported to the surface.

Ecliptor took Star to the Medical area for be treated for whatever energy she lost while reviving Joe previously. "I don't think things can get much worse," said Joe, unmorphed. Meanwhile, on the surface, across the horizon, a bloodcurdling howl was heard. A wolf like figure was running across the horizon, towards the Rangers. A wall of darkness followed after it, stealing the souls of everything caught behind it, empowering the Zord. The alarm systems of the underground base went off. and a large picture of the city goes on screen.

"You've got to be kidding me!" said Zedren as he turned to the other rangers. "Rangers, it looks like Dominic's got a zord of his own and knowing his record, he's gonna tear the city apart looking for you guys. Go and engage him in battle with your zords. A zord for zord fight." "Great, look's like our jobs not done yet," replied Joe. "Let's go guys." Joseph jumped into his Liopleurodon zord and went out of the underground bay and went into the waters off the coast of Angel Bay. While he was heading towards the shore line, the Liopleurodon zord was rear-ended, as if something else just as massive as it was in the water approaching as well. The water was literally teared apart as a massive head lumbered over the Liopleurodon. It opened it's mouth and let out a devastating roar. Joseph was stunned at this massive creature. It was as massive as the Liopleurodon zord, no, MORE massive is more like it.

"Unleash the panther!" yelled Sean as the Panther Zord arose from the nearest volcano closest to the Liopleurodon zord. Sean jumped in and yelled, "Flaming Panther Roar!" Just then, the Panther Zord launched a fire blast from its mouth at the Jormundgar Zord. The Jormundgar Zord was still in the water, unaffected by Sean's attack. It trashed it's tail around, slashing at Joseph's Zord. The Fenrir Zord was now almost at full power. The Liopleurodon tried to slam the Jormundgar zord with its flippers, but missed. The seas churned as these two massive beasts battled. Joe then radioed the others, "Can someone handle that Fenrir zord?" The Stego zord, out of nowhere, slammed its tail on the Fenrir zord, but the Fenrir only flinched and continued to store energy. "Panther Inferno!" yelled Sean as the Panther Zord blasts the Fenrir zord with a massive fireball attack, but misses. Just then, the Fenrir Zord charged the souls to its mouth, making a purple orb form, slowly destroying the city even though it was still storing energy. "So sad rangers," said Dominic, sarcastically. "You couldn't stop me..."

The Jormundgar Zord went under and then crashed above, around Joseph's Zord, constricting it from moving. "Panther Slash!" yelled Sean as the Panther Zord hits the Fenrir Zord and does some damage, yet it still stores energy. Then Dominic then released the blast, engulfing the Zords in the souls of the city people. "Ha!" yelled Dominic with anticipation. The Jormundgar Zord continued it's constriction on the Liopleurodon Zord. As Joseph sat in the Liopleurodon Zord, dozens of lights and warnings went off showing that the zord was in distress. "So you want to try to crush me huh?" he asked himself. "Well, 2 can play that game!" The Lio zord opened its massive mouth and crunched down on the Jormundgar zord with such excessive force that the Jormundgar zord released its grip and was now hanging on as the Lio zord thrashed around with it, all the while with massive waves crashing into the shore-line. The Jormundgar Zord opened it's mouth and shot a green beam in the Lio Zord's face. The blast was also made from the souls the Fenrir Zord stole.

The Fenrir Zord let out a missive howl, and the Jormundgar replied. It headed underwater and dug through the ground to reach the Fenrir Zord. The links that make up the body of the Jormundgar zord come together, making it half as long as before. The tail and head then come together and form the legs. The Fenrir zord in mid run jumps into the air and its front legs fold backwards around what used to be the abdomen of the zord and the back legs become perpendicular to the rest of the zord forming its arms. The head moves down to the chest revealing another head hidden within the base of the body. The tail also becomes a crescent saber.

"Okay guys, let's do the same!" yelled Joe as he made a special hand movement and the Lio Zord jumped out of the water. "Primal Megazord: Beast Formation!!"

The primal megazord landed a powerful punch into the Fimbulvetr Megazord's chest. The sun literally blanked out as the Ragnarok Zord appeared. "It's time for your deaths rangers..." said Dom as the Ragnarok Zord spun it's blade around and the city was surrounded by flames. "What just happened?" asked Kent. Then he looked up and saw the thundering beast blocking out the sun. "Oh. Well, this sucks." "This is not good," said Joe as he commands the Primal Megazord to spin its tail to make a whirlwind to try to put out the flames, but they seems to act more like an evil hellfire, rather than regular flames. They decrease in size, but not by much. The Ragnarok Zord slashed at the Primal Megazord. "Die!" yelled Dom. The Fimbulvetr Megazord slashed again at the Primal Megazord, creating a large gash. "Panther Claw, Inferno Strike!" yelled Sean as the Primal Megazord blasted a gigantic fire blast from the panther claw and stunned the Ragnarok Zord.

Meanwhile, in the Neo-Base, Zedren sent the rangers schematics for a new weapon on screen. "Use that new weapon rangers," he began. "And Diabolico told me that in ancient times Fenrir stood with Jormundgar as well as another. The 3rd part isn't there. Don't ask why, just count your blessings and use that new weapon." "Okay," replied Joe. "Liopleurodon Drill Saber!" Then the tail of the Liopleurodon detached and became a drill/saber-based weapon. The primal megazord then got locked in a sword battle and managed to slash the Fimbulvetr Megazord across the chest, causing powerful damage. The Fimbulvetr Megazord slashed once more, creating another slash, but then was locked once more in a clash. The Fimbulvetr Megazord broke the clash and countered the Primal Megazord. The Primal Megazord attempted to dive bomb, but as it tried to take off into the air, it was knocked back down by the Fimbulvetr Megazord and came down crashing into a nearby construction building.

The Fimbulvetr Zord stood over the Primal Megazord. "Time to finish this..." said Dominic. The Fimbulvetr Megazord's sword grew in size, and darkness formed over it. As the Primal megazord lay on its back it used the Stego Mini-Vulcan Rocket Launchers on its shoulders to strike the Fimbulvetr Megazord, break its concentration and interrupt its finishing move. The Fimbulvetr Megazord stumbled for a bit. They used the thrusters on the back legs of the Stego as a push to get back up with Dom being preoccupied. The Fimbulvetr Megazord then tumbled backwards once more.

The Primal megazord shot up into the air and did a somersault up at about 5,000 ft, then dived straight down towards the Fimbulvetr megazord. It put its drill saber forward and the kinetic energy of the spinning drill made it glow red and the excess transferred to the Stego Wings making them like energy blades. The zords then collided and did a massive blow to the Fimbulvetr Megazord. Static radiated from the zord as it hit the ground with serious damage and a huge drill indentation in the center of its chest. The Fimbulvetr Megazord disappeared into thin air, with the screams of Fenrir. Dominic laid on the ground, knocked out. The souls returned to their original bodies, and the fire died down. The Primal Megazord separated back into the normal zords.

Sean got out of the Panther Zord and walked up to Dominic, still unconscious. "I pity you, demon!" he yells with anger. Then he [Sean] and the rest of the rangers teleported to the secondary Command Center and Zedren congratulated them all. Dominic got up and shook himself. "Looks like Fenrir is gone..." he told himself. He then looked around. He was standing in the middle of a street. He walked to the sidewalk and stood there, confused.

Meanwhile, inside the Neo-Base's infirmary, Star managed to open her eyes to an extent. The Starlight materialized again and glowed a gentle black, almost... ""Obsidian..." she told herself.She had a feeling Fenrir was gone, which left Dominic somewhat unstable. Still feeling a bit woozy, she got off the bed and transported to his exact location. She noticed him first and drifted towards him, still hazed. She got to him, and slightly shifted herself to grab a pole. "Dear Wolf, you are free," she whispered to him. She held out her hand to Dominic, nearly close to fainting again. Dominic was confused with the girl but shrugged. He then remembered something. "Oh wait, you were the one I had to kidnap..." He stopped, sighed to himself and took Star's hand. "This is not going to be good, I have to go back to THEM..." Star shook her head. "No, you don't have too any longer." As if to respond to her, the Starlight luminously glowed between them. "As some say, 'Once a ranger, always a ranger.' Now that you don't take orders from Fenrir or Vile, you can come with us..." She looked at him hopefully.

Dominic pondered for a second. "Go with you guys? But, didn't I just try to kill you people? They'll try to kill me, even if I said that I'm on their side." Star looked at him for a moment. "Well, some may let their past experiences hinder their judgment, but I'm sure they'll come to accept you, eventually." Eventually... thought Dominic as he sighed once more. "Fine, I'll go..." Star smiled. "Thank you." They both disappeared and teleported to the base. They were both in the infirmary. "Well then, I'll get Zedren. He's probably going to be alot more trusting to you than the others." She walked out, throwing a key at Dominic. "That's to lock the room. Wait 'til I get back with Zedren." "Lock the room?" he asked, but Star was already gone. "Oh brother." He grabbed a seat and sat down, feeling his stomach churn, which was not a good sign. Once in view, Star grabbed Zedren's arm. "Can I talk to you privately?" She gave him her best 'Don't Ask Questions' look. "Okay then, good." She dragged him over to the infirmary. She took a deep breath. "Okay. Dominic's in there. Only he's not all possessed and dominating and filled with crazy Wolf Mojo anymore..." She paused. "So, I asked if he could join us..." She paused to see his reaction.

"Well, this certainly isn't the first time this has happened," began Zedren. "Some of the rangers won't be too happy or trusting of this, but I kinda know how he must feel. He wants to make up for past evils. I accept him. Look at the bright side, the greater the evil he did, just means that the good he will do will have to be greater." Dominic sighed and kicked the chair back. He had his hands behind his back and obviously bored out of his mind. Just then the door opened and Zedren walked in. "So Dominic, I have to say this meeting is a lot better than our last one." Dominic smirked. "I can only agree," he replied to Zedren. "Star tells me that you might want to join our side. Any new reasons why you would think this?" He says this as if he already knew the answer, but wants Dominic to say it. He then says with a smirk, "You know we only have the best on our team, you think you can handle it?" Dominic broke out laughing. "I'm sorry but I can easily handle any of your rangers one on one, or even a full out brawl. You know that." Zedren laughs as well. "Good to hear. Well, if you're serious about this then sure. But you still didn't answer my question. Why fight against Vile and evil? And please, no sarcastic answers." Dominic nodded and sighed. He got up and looked around.

Dominic was humming a small tune to himself. He was still bored out of his mind, and he didn't really want to be here. The only thing keeping here was Star, or is it? He stretched his hands out, and sighed. Then Vent walked in and saw Dominic. "You!" he yells as he ran to him, sucker punched him, and dropped-kicked him. Then he pulled out his blaster and aimed it at him. "You've gone too far! Too many have suffered at your hand. I must end it here!" A blast was charging in Vent's blaster that he was planning to fire at Dominic. Dominic was easily able to dodge these attacks and stood there. "Try me," said Dom. Then Kent ran in, hearing the commotion. "What are you doing?!?" asked Kent. "Dominic has proposed to JOIN us." Dominic shot Kent a look. "Hey, I wasn't the one with the idea. You can blame Star for that." "What's with the look? You had a blaster to your head and I just stopped the holder. I could shoot you myself, if you prefer." "You can decide," Dominic replied. Just then Joe walked in. "What all the commotion about?" he asked as he saw Dominic. "You!" He then raised his morpher. "What in the world are you doing here? I'm really getting sick and tired of you."

Just then Zedren ran back in after letting Dom think about his choice. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he began. "Knock it off everyone. Dominic is on our side now." "What?!" asked Joe. "It's true. Star brought him in and the evil of Fenrir has left him." "Well, if Star trusts him than fine." He turns to Dominic. "But considering what you did to me and Izabel, you'll have to forgive me if I'm not as trusting s everyone else. You're gonna have to prove yourself." Dominic sighed. "I'd rather not," he replied. "Believe me if you want to." Dominic walked away, to another room.

"I can't believe that guy," Joe began. "First he plays a part in trying to kill me and Izabel, then he uses me to find the base, then steal the info of our weaknesses, then blows the base up, kidnaps Star, and NOW he thinks he can just become a part of the team and not have to do anything. Either he's delusional or he is so full of himself he thinks that we need him." "I hate to say it Joe, but we might consider some of the anomalies we just picked up," replied Zedren. "What do you mean?" "Star just told me that apparently there are no signs of life in the city. And the worst is, this all happened during your fight with Dominic, and prior to the Megazord fight." "So is this Vile?" "We don't know. My hands are tied at the moment. I guess you can say for the time being, Star has been promoted to Commander. I honestly have no idea what we are dealing with here." Back to Dominic, he was now gone. He was on the surface, sitting on a bench in the middle of a park.

Elsewhere, in the busy streets of Angel Bay, people were leisurely walking. Everything was, well, normal. A figure appeared over the city. "~Teehee!" he began. "In case our Wolfy Boy makes a tiny mistake, I'll set the next plan in motion. Oh wait! That's my plan!" The figure laughed very hard at itself.. "I crack myself up." He tore across the sky in a swift motion, causing dozens of small letters to rain down the city. Down below, a somewhat still confused Iza was still baffling with Joseph's condition. "He was hurt and yet..." she told herself as a letter fell right in front of her. It boldly said:

'~Teehee, come to the most thrilling show of a Life time,'' ''Tricks and Performances for all ages! And a hint of mysteriousness to add to your night. Come to the Masked Ensemble Circus! We guarantee you'll have the life knocked right out of you.'

She looked at it, and in a hypnotic state said to herself, "Maybe I should go here..." Above her, the figure laughed over the city and said to himself, "Yes my lovely audience, accept my gracious invitations!"

''' To Be Continued... '''