#dark mist

Astral/Number 96: Dark Mist Pokémon AU Designs

Power Rangers, Dino Charge X Arc V!

... Dino Charge bc it was my first PR show. Basically me sticking Arc V characters into the world of PRDC in the place of the OG characters-

Here's a list of who's who!

Yuya Sakaki: Red Ranger

Yuto Sakaki: Black Ranger

Yuri Sakaki: Purple Ranger

Yugo Sakaki: Gold Ranger

Zuzu Boyle: Pink Ranger

Rin Hiragi: Green Ranger

Celina: Blue Ranger

Yusho Sakaki: Aqua Ranger

Lulu Obsidian: Graphite Ranger

Zarc: Silver Ranger

Ray: Keeper

Astral (Yes there are characters from other shows): Heckyl

Dark Mist/96: Snide

Zane: Fury

Aster: Curio

Leo: Sledge

Henrietta: Poisandra

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"Come and play with us!"

Well I'm back. Anyway. Malevolence. Arrogance. Villain.

Considering the other two characters I drew, who else to have but this guy?

Once again, I've been very self indulgent and this is his redesign in my au. Like canon, he looks like the evil twin of Astral- however there are elements of his outfit that are slightly different to Astral's, including his markings, which are all red in this design, and his outfit is intended to be more like a leather suit (contrasting Astral's, whose is more silk-like).

In terms of lore for this AU, 96's story is very different. While initially assumed to be an evil Number Card (which was never a satisfactory explanation for Astral because how? Why? None of the other cards are like this?), it's later revealed that he isn't a Number Card at all. He the eldest Prince of Astral World, the next Emperor (hence the broken throne he's sitting on). And therefore, he's Astral's older brother. And no, his name isn't Dark Mist, it's Erubus.

Like his father, he's a being of Chaos (which did nothing to soothe the Order-obsessed elders of Astral World), and he was presumed dead after the family was attacked. Instead, he lived in hiding, up until he met Kazuma and Mira Tsukumo. He was the one who helped with their plan to send Astral to Yuma (the information being fed to them by Enna, who Eliphas couldn't bear to separate from her child even if said child had no recollection of her) to prevent the destruction of Barian World- at least, that was Kazuma, Mira, and Enna's intentions. Erubus didn't care if Barian World lived or died. He just wanted everything to go back to the way it was- he's entirely selfish, always has been. It just happened that his selfishness was centred on his family, and helping the others meant restoring it. So he used a little trick of his, and disguised himself in a form of pure chaos energy, bonded to a card in Astral's deck, to come along for the trip.

The plan was that once on earth, and therefore too far for Eliphas to interfere, Erubus was going to forcibly return his brother's memories, tell Yuma what was going on, and from there they'd work out what to do. Unfortunately, something went wrong, and Erubus lost his own memories. And as such, Number 96 was born, as the card he hijacked was scattered with the others, and without his memories of his family to anchor him, he had nothing to hold his worst impulses back, and nothing to explain what the feeling of urgency was, what that emptiness was, beyond it centering around Astral. Unable to identify the feeling, he interpreted it to be telling him to destroy Astral and consume his power.

Later on, when he and Astral have their final duel, just like how Astral was sent back home, so too was he, and there he woke with his memories once again. He's the one to help Yuma find where Astral is, explaining what's truly going on. After Astral is rescued, and his memories restored for good, 96 initially chooses to not involve himself in the conflict because he just doesn't want to.

Only for him to show up during the Barian Onslaught, and try to take out Vector anyway. Because even selfishness can make someone selfless, and he surprised himself by discovering that he was very much willing to give his life if it would give his little brother the chance to end this conflict and restore their family. Even if he wasn't there to see it.

Yes, I've altered his story a LOT, but I didn't want to change him completely and turn him into someone noble and good. He's Number 96. He's a bastard, and entirely self centred. Even at the end, when he's doing something selfless, it's still fuelled on what he wants as opposed to what is right. So really, it's a good thing that what he wants is his family restored, and not, say, world domination, because otherwise not even his family could stop him from seeking it out. I think he was underused by canon, like Astral World, and while they were clearly going with the concept of this being Astral's darkest impulses, I think him being from a piece of Don Thousand kind of just invalidated that, and they still didn't even use or explore that idea fully; what are these "dark impulses"? Where would they even come from? It would have been really cool if it turned out that 96 was Astral's rage and hurt manifesting at the treatment he got in Astral World, at his frustration of being totally invisible to all- heck, he could even have been Eliphas' creation to try separate all emotions from Astral but it failed- and that's why he's Astral's "darker impulses", he's the anger and hurt that has nowhere to go and that wants to lash out and cause harm, like the Sargasso breakdown, but with 96 just being a rogue piece of Don Thousand that kind of makes that whole thing completely pointless. In any case, I think Astral's backstory and the entirety of Astral World was underused, got little focus despite being the literal main mystery of the series from the start, so why not tie 96 to that and give him an actual reason to have been there than just "Don Thousand accidentally yeeted you in here LMAO", that kind of feels like they had no idea how to tie 96 in with everything else. Anyway I better shut up now lmao this is now rambling