Brooke found herself flipping through dusty archives- but not the regular archives this time. It was her family's, the Wolfe family's archives. They were included in the box that held the Wolf Kunai, and Brooke had instantly started to scour them for information. The archives were relatively simple, just leather-bound journals that smelt of dust and mildew, but that wasn't the bad part. Four out of the six archives were written in Latin, and while Brooke had a somewhat decent grasp on the language, it was frustrating.
So, the silver ranger used most of her free time to translate- scribbling down notes and various symbols in a spiral notebook. Brooke had first summarized the archives- archives one and two were about the origin of the silver rangers, archives three and four were about symbol power- which Brooke found herself the most interested in, and five and six were about nighlok and zords. Brooke had started with the fourth archive, and while the process was slow and made her want to slam her head against a wall- she had learned some new symbols.
It was all coming together, in its own way. Included with the archives was Jane Wolfe's journal, and Brooke was hoping that would have some answers about her missing memories. As to why they were wiped, and so on. Funnily enough, Maxx had gotten his memories wiped as well, the two Wolfe siblings not remembering anything before the ages of ten and twelve. It was somewhat confusing, but that narrowed down Brooke's suspicions that it wasn't just due to her being the silver samurai ranger. If Maxx had been affected as well- then that meant it had to be due to the Wolfe family in its entirety. Still, it didn't make it any less confusing, and deciphering her mother's journal was tricky for Brooke, and usually caused more questions to arise- with little answers. But she had the answers now, Brooke just had to look for them. Which was something she could do.
--
After breakfast, the team gathered into the meeting room, Brooke sitting next to Emily as Jayden was standing next to Ji, the red ranger wearing his normal unreadable expression. And with that, the meeting began.
"Now that we have recovered three of the lost disks, we have a new power." Ji started, and Jayden nodded curtly.
"Beetle, swordfish, and tiger," Jayden stated, setting the respective disks gently on the table. "Together these three disks allow us to form the samurai battlewing." He explained, Ji opening the archive that he held, holding it up so the team could see.
Drawn in the archive was a bird- but it held characteristics of the three zords that combined to make it. "That looks like one powerful bird." Mike blurted, the green ranger looking at the drawing of the battlewing and then down at the three disks, Brooke noticing the excitement radiating from the green ranger. Which was somewhat confusing, but Brooke pushed it aside.
Ji nodded at Mike. "Yes, thanks to these disks," The older man agreed, lowering the archive and scanning the team. "So each one has to go to the one we think is truly ready to help pilot the battlewing." So that explained Mike's excitement- Brooke guessed that he wanted one of the disks.
"First, the tiger zord goes to Brooke," Jayden announced, and Brooke shot him a quizzical look as she took the white disk out of his hands. "The original silver ranger was the first one to use the tiger zord, and it's bound to her now, it makes Brooke our best option," Jayden explained, Brooke's eyes flashing gold for a second.
Still, Brooke broke into her signature grin, nodding confidently. "Won't let you down." She vowed, looking down at the tiger disk in her hands. A lot was happening in the past week- not that Brooke was truly complaining. She liked the new sense of power that came with each disk, having the raw strength underneath her fingertips was a nice feeling.
"The swordfish goes to Kevin, who caught it and therefore has a connection to it." Ji declared, handing the blue disk to a beaming Kevin. The blue ranger looked like he had just been told he had won the lottery, a wide smile on his face as he nodded confidently and inspected the swordfish disk with pride in his eyes.
"We decided that the beetle-" Ji started, and Jayden finished for his mentor. The two were playing off of each other's statements like it was a ping-pong match. It was somewhat amusing. Mike was now on high alert, staring at the orange disk in Jayden's hands with anticipation in his eyes.
"Should go to Mia." Jayden finished, handing the disk to the pink ranger. If Brooke had to pick a moment where shit hit the fan, it would be now. Mike had instantly deflated, and Brooke subconsciously tensed, feeling her claws grow in.
Mia's eyes widened. "Me?" She echoed, taking the orange disk out of Jayden's hand, looking almost like a deer in headlights as she looked at Ji.
Ji nodded. "We trust your control and your symbol power the most, and we know you'll do the difficult work that's needed to master this disk." He explained, and Mia stared down at the orange disk in her hands.
Brooke perked when she felt the energy in the room shift, her and Emily sharing a worried look when Mike cracked his knuckles. The green ranger looked about ready to hit something, and the expression caused fear to rise in Brooke's chest- she knew that expression all too well, it was one James had worn quite often. However, the silver ranger pushed that fear aside. It wasn't James, it was Mike, and Brooke knew that no matter how pissed Mike was, he wouldn't sock a fellow ranger in the face. James was long gone.
Jayden's voice snapped Brooke out of her thoughts. "We're counting on you, Mia." The red ranger urged, and the pink nodded, confidence shining in her eyes.
"Thank you," Mia said sweetly, looking at Jayden and Ji with an expression that was a mix of joy and pride. "I won't let you guys down." She promised, and Brooke caught the bitter expression on Mike's face.
Let the games of jealousy commence.
--
Lunch rolled around, and the rest of the team heard Mike training as they ate. Well, Brooke walked into the kitchen late, giving Jayden a frazzled sort of smile as she went to go stand next to him. Brooke had forgotten from when she took Latin in school- that translating was a bitch. Even with google translate, the silver ranger wanted to throw the archive across the room in frustration.
"Everything alright?" Jayden asked quietly, his voice full of concern as he inspected the silver ranger. Brooke was stressed, shown by the tension she held in her body. Truthfully, she wished she could take another nap in Jayden's arms because that was the best nap she's had in a while.
Brooke didn't voice that wish, her gaze flickering to Jayden, grey eyes meeting blue. "Just a little stressed out, nothing new," She answered, and when Jayden looked almost guilty, Brooke backpedaled. "It's not because of the disk- don't worry. My damn family just doesn't make it easy for me to get the information I need. I fucking hate Latin, and that's what the archives are written in, which is frustrating. You're all good in my book, so relax, yeah?" Brooke nudged Jayden's shoulder with her own, Jayden rolling his eyes with a ghost of a smile on his lips, the pair walking towards the counter to go serve themselves some sushi.
The playful mood dropped when the team heard Mike let out another yell. "I wonder what's up with Mike? I've never seen him train that hard." Kevin wondered, and Brooke and Jayden shared a look of "here we go", the silver and red rangers staying mostly quiet.
"He's been working on his symbol power a lot lately, too. I think he wanted that disk bad." Emily mused as she sat down at the small table.
Mia had an expression of guilt on her face. "I know, I feel bad taking it from him." The pink ranger agreed, looking down at her hands.
Jayden and Brooke were having a silent conversation with looks alone. The two rangers had picked up on it randomly one day and used it when things got a little too hectic. The others thought Brooke and Jayden were just making eyes at each other, but the rest of the team didn't bring that thought to light. The silver and red rangers were surprisingly dense when it came to their emotions and feelings for each other, and the other four just watched. It was amusing.
"Don't feel bad, your hard work is one of the reasons why we've chosen you. I told Mike he needs to work just as hard." Ji chided, looking at Mia with a stern expression.
Brooke snorted at Jayden's expression of "please don't rope me into this", watching as his blue eyes flickered to Ji then Mia, then returning to his sushi, the red ranger letting out a quiet sigh. Brooke discreetly grabbed his hand under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze and then returning to her sushi, watching as Jayden brightened somewhat out of the corner of her eye.
"But he's been trying," Emily argued, but her voice was still soft as she looked at Ji.
Ji nodded curtly. "Yes, I believe he truly has it in him," The older man agreed, his voice hard. "But until he learns to listen, he's not ready."
Brooke nudged Jayden's foot with her own, breaking into a grin. "Really glad I didn't have a father figure present in my life, I did a lot of stupid shit and most definitely would've gotten talks like that." She muttered, shoving a piece of sushi in her mouth.
"Like what?" Jayden asked curiously, and when Brooke swallowed her mouthful of food, her eyes had the glint that Jayden labeled as the mischievous glint- it was the way Jayden knew she was planning something.
"Another story for another day," Brooke replied, finishing her sushi. "We've got a jealous green ranger on her hands."
--
Brooke was about to slam her head against the wall when her samuraizer started beeping. Letting out a sigh of relief, the silver ranger set down the archive, her wolf zord flying off of her shoulder and into her open palm, folding up into its parallelogram. Attaching the zord to a belt loop in her jeans, Brooke rose to her feet and left the room where the archives were kept, flipping open her samuraizer and bringing up the map of Panorama.
Sometimes the gap sensor was slower than her samuraizer, as to why, Brooke didn't really know. Seeing Jayden shoot her a confused look, Brooke pointed to the gap sensor, and as if it was on cue, it started blaring. She stood next to Jayden as he tapped the coffee table, the map appearing as the others ran in- even Mike.
Jayden scanned the map, his gaze landing on the red dot. "Downtown." He declared, and the team sprinted out of the Shiba House, morphing early to save time.
Once the team reached Downtown, Brooke scanned the area, furrowing her brows. People were crying, looking depressed, or having some sort of mental breakdown. It was strange, to say the least, and the team shared confused murmurs.
"What's with this?" Mike wondered as he took in the scene. "Everyone's so gloomy, it's like they're all Kevin." The green ranger teased, and Kevin seemed to bristle at Mike's words, getting ready to walk over to the green ranger.
Brooke's eyes flashed gold as she spotted a dark grey rain cloud about 200 feet away from the team. When the rain came rushing down and soaked the people in that general area, their moods changed. Well, at least that explained one thing. Brooke made a move to call out to the others but stopped herself when the nighlok appeared.
The nighlok had a blue body with what could only be called a conehead, which was brown, and held a staff in its hand. "Isn't it wonderful! Such delicious depths of despair from my rain!" The nighlok cackled, motioning to the pedestrians that were losing their shit, too wound up in their own emotions to even notice the monster. "They're so lucky, being able to experience the purest, cruelest, and loveliest misery of all: the loss of hope."
"Let's get rid of this one as fast as we can," Brooke urged the others, drawing her katanas. "Who knows what might happen if the people stay like that for too long." Honestly, she was worried that the people who were affected by the nighlok's cloud were going to kill themselves. It wasn't the brightest outlook, but Brooke knew firsthand what the "loss of hope" felt like. It wasn't a good feeling.
"We will," Mike promised, his voice full of confidence as he drew his spin-sword.
"Ooh, what a disgusting sunny outlook you have. Even when the forecast calls for rain! My rain of pain!" The nighlok threatened, the team getting ready to charge the monster.
On Jayden's command, the six rangers rushed forward, Brooke feeling her senses perk up. As the nighlok raised its staff, Brooke flipped open her samuraizer, drawing one of the symbols she had picked up from the archives. "Symbol Power: Protection!" She yelled, activating the symbol as the nighlok fired. The symbol for protection, which was the kanji 保護 drawn in silver, shone in the air, becoming a shield and absorbing the blast from the nighlok. Still, Brooke skidded back from the attack, Jayden steadying her before she could fall.
"Nice one." Jayden praised, and Brooke smiled faintly under her silver helmet, but her smile fell when the nighlok prepared to fire a second blast.
"Mia, Brooke! We have to use the new disks!" Kevin called, attaching his swordfish disk onto his Hydro Bow, Brooke sliding the tiger disk on her Wolf Kunai, spinning the weapon around in her hand subconsciously as she made a game plan. She could rush the nighlok- that could work.
Mia nodded confidently, holding up the orange beetle disk. "Right." The pink ranger agreed, making the move to attach the disk to her Sky Fan.
However, the nighlok seemed to have other plans. "No! Wrong as rain!" The monster sneered, firing a blast.
The blast sent the beetle disk flying in the air, and Mike instantly perked up, leaping into the air and catching the disk with ease, Mia running up to him. "Wow! Good catch!" The pink ranger cheered, holding out her hand slightly, motioning that she wanted the disk back. Mike seemed hesitant, and then quickly attached the beetle disk to his Forest Spear.
"Oh fuck me," Brooke swore when Mia and Kevin started yelling at Mike about the disk, turning her attention to Jayden. "I'm gonna rush the thing. Hopefully, that will do something." She explained to the red ranger, who nodded slightly.
"Stay safe." Jayden urged, his gaze sliding to the rest of the team as Brooke nodded and sprinted towards the nighlok. The team, sans him and Brooke, were arguing, and that caused a tension headache to start forming. Jayden didn't feel like dealing with that, as he didn't know exactly how to, so he didn't. "Focus, get him now!" He commanded, motioning to the nighlok.
The nighlok was now in the air, its conehead now umbrella. Brooke leaped into the air, managing to get a couple slashes in before she hit the ground, rolling over her shoulder and jumping to her feet quickly. Kevin had followed her lead, starting to fire a couple of his blasts at the nighlok.
Mike, however, was not doing well, striking with his Forest Spear- but nothing happened. "Why isn't it working?" Mike muttered in frustration, the nighlok rising higher into the air.
Brooke grit her teeth. Now really wasn't the best time for this, She thought, but she didn't voice that thought aloud. She spun the tiger disk on her Wolf Kunai, the weapon lighting up a brilliant silver color. "Wolf Kunai: Tiger Slash!" Brooke yelled out the command, slashing with her kunai.
The silver attack hit the nighlok but didn't knock it out of the air like Brooke hoped it would. "It must make you sad, to be so lame!" The nighlok heckled at the team, recovering from the attack and flying off.
Brooke demorphed and shared an annoyed look with Jayden, who demorphed as well, and her gaze flickered to the blue and green rangers. She was pissed- not even about the nighlok, more about the fact that Mike and Kevin had started an argument on the battlefield. However, Brooke tried not to let her anger show, walking up to the three other rangers, forcing a grin.
"It's not your fault, Mia," Jayden reassured the pink ranger, who had an expression of guilt and fear on her face.
Brooke offered Mia a smile. "You can't control others' actions- you were just unlucky," Mia nodded, looking a little less fearful. Brooke brought her fingers to her mouth, letting out a loud whistle that got Kevin and Mike's attention. "Quit arguing- we're going back." She barked at the two rangers, her eyes flashing gold as she spun on her heel and started the walk back to the Shiba House.
--
Brooke sat in the middle of Emily and Mia, the girls all sharing collective looks of annoyance mixed with discomfort. Brooke felt bad for Jayden, as he was the one who had to explain the shitshow, as was now just standing there and looking like he wanted to use his symbol power to ram a rod into his own throat. Kevin was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, leveling an angry glare with Mike.
"Mike, I am so disappointed," Ji started, his face not showing much anger, surprisingly, but his voice was still firm. "Putting yourself before the needs of the team places all of you in serious danger." He forcibly tapped his staff on the ground for emphasis, and Brooke cringed, glancing at Jayden.
Grey-gold eyes met blue, and Jayden did his little thing that Brooke found cute- quirking a brow ever so slightly. It was also him silently asking Brooke if she was okay, and she nodded faintly in response, letting out a quiet sigh as she turned her attention to Mike and Ji. She had never gotten the disappointment card played on her- it was a more disappointment punch to the face from James. Seeing Ji not even raise his voice was incredibly different.
"Here I thought you were, finally listening to me and training hard to strengthen the team," Ji continued, Brooke wondering why the rest of them had to sit through this. She kept comparing this to James, and the memories that came rushing back made her want to throw up. Still, she tried to keep her composure, holding a neutral expression, her eyes now a pure gold as Ji continued his lecture. "I can't believe it's come to this, but you've become a risk to the others. I'm going to have to ask you to hand over your samuraizer." Ji stated, his voice hard.
Mike's expression of shock turned into anger quickly. "What? You're benching me?" He exclaimed, fury sparkling in his eyes.
Ji's mouth was set into a thin line. "It pains me to say it, but, I don't think you're ready to become a true samurai." The older man answered, and Mike had apparently had enough.
The green ranger rose to his feet- meeting Ji's gaze with his own. "I'm tired of your lectures, you don't know a thing about me," Mike's voice was cold and sharp, Brooke's even widening ever so slightly. "And if I'm not ready, how come I'm able to do this?" Mike flipped open his samuraizer, Jayden starting to walk towards the green ranger as he drew a symbol and activated it, the green symbol hitting a plant.
The plant grew and wrapped around Ji's staff, the older man shooting Mike a warning glare. "Stop this," Ji commanded, the rest of the team perking up.
"Mike, stop." Mia's voice was sharper than Ji's, the pink ranger walking over to the green.
Jayden walked over to Mike as well, his expression turning from blank to annoyed quickly. "Mike, that's enough," Jayden commanded, and with that, Brooke decided she'd seen enough.
While the others were preoccupied with Mike, the silver ranger quietly slipped out of the room, jumping slightly when she heard the plant crash to the ground, presumably breaking. Brooke made her way to the outdoor dojo, settling herself on the bench that was farthest away from the doorway. As she did so, her wolf zord flew out of Brooke's pocket, seemingly noticing its owner's distress.
The wolf zord let out a whine, pawing at Brooke's nose, the action causing Brooke to break into a small smile. "I'm okay bud, here, let's play." The silver ranger flipped open her samuraizer, drawing a symbol and activating it. A tennis ball fell into Brooke's open hand, and she raised the ball slightly, the wolf zord letting out happy barks. Brooke threw the ball, and the wolf zord zipped through the air, chasing it.
It was a mindless activity, a simple routine that Brooke did whenever she was too stressed out to function without having a mental breakdown. Despite the tennis ball being bigger than her zord, the wolf zord always returned the ball, dropping it into Brooke's hand with a series of barks, and the cycle repeated itself. It went on for maybe ten minutes or so until a flash of red that intercepted the ball. The lion zord let out a roar in response to the wolf zord's growls, the red zord dropping the ball in Jayden's hand as he walked over.
The wolf zord flew over to the red ranger, letting out a whine, pawing at the tennis ball in Jayden's hands. Brooke laughed at her zord's antics, raising her eyebrows at Jayden. "He wants you to throw it," Brooked urged, and Jayden did just that, the wolf and lion zords zipping over to the ball. "So, how'd everything go?" She asked, the wolf zord dropping the ball into her hand again.
Jayden frowned slightly as he took a seat next to Brooke. "Mike walked out, a plant's broken- so, not great. Are you doing alright? You looked like you were about to have a breakdown." Jayden asked, and Brooke let out a sigh, the ball disappearing in a flash of silver.
"It was just trauma things," Brooke sucked in a breath, her eyes flashing gold. The two zords noticed the silver ranger's distress, the wolf zord settling on the top of Brooke's head, and the lion zord sitting on her shoulder. "I don't really wanna talk about it if that's alright? It's nothing against you, it's just-"
Jayden cut off Brooke's nervous rambling with a small smile. "That's perfectly fine, Brooke. Don't worry about it." He reassured, and Brooke let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Thanks," Brooke flashed Jayden a small smile. "What'd Ji do? I assume something happened in that regard." Brooke wondered, looking at Jayden with curiosity sparkling in her grey eyes.
Jayden found the expression cute. "I just told Ji some stuff that he taught me when I was younger," Jayden explained, turning his gaze to the woods. "I think he wants Mike to be like me, honestly." The red ranger let out a small sigh, watching as a bird landed on one of the training dummies and pecked at its armored shoulder.
"That would be an extremely cursed timeline," Brooke muttered, trying to imagine the scene.
Brooke was close to Jayden partly because of his personality- she found it endearing and interesting the way she and Jayden were opposites in some spots. While the red ranger usually radiated a quiet aura, the silver ranger was loud, in a sense. But, despite that, the two got along well, and Brooke liked to tease the red ranger. While she was friendly to Mike- she even viewed the green ranger as a friend, being close to him like she was with Jayden? She couldn't. Brooke knew her head viewed Jayden differently than the others- she just couldn't figure out how. Viewing Mike the way? Cursed.
Shoving those thoughts aside, Brooke drew her knees to her chest. "It makes sense, in a way." She stated, holding out her hand slightly. The wolf zord flew over to her hand and folded back up into its parallelogram.
Jayden looked at Brooke with a quizzical expression. "How so?" He asked as Brooke shoved the zord back into the pocket of her leather jacket.
"Don't take this the wrong way- but you're technically the model child out of all us," Brooke remarked with a small laugh. "You're the one Ji raised, so he probably came to the conclusion that: "oh Jayden's this way, so the others are going to act this way", and Mike and Ji just… clashed in that way. Ji set expectations for Mike that he set for you, and Mike rebelled against those expectations, but both of them are technically in the wrong- they went about it the wrong way." She explained, grey eyes sliding over to Jayden, who let out a quiet groan.
"I don't know how to deal with this, Brooke. As you can tell, I'm not exactly the best with words." Jayden confessed with a small sigh, and Brooke gave him a reassuring smile, loosely intertwining her fingers with his.
"You don't have to deal with this one. It's between Mike and Ji- and you can't control either of them, and they'll sort it out," Brooke nudged his shoulder with hers. "You might be the high and mighty red ranger, but you don't have to worry about stuff like that. Conflict happens, and if it doesn't necessarily involve you, I'd say just leave it. It's just better that way sometimes." She stated, and Jayden nodded faintly, eyeing Brooke curiously.
"You know all of this, how?" Jayden wondered, and Brooke let out a bark of laughter.
Letting go of Jayden's hand, Brooke turned so that she was facing Jayden fully, sitting cross-legged on the bench. "Maxx is an asshole. And as his sister, I have free reign to call him that. Don't get me wrong, I love him, but god damn," Brooke shook her head with a grin, ponytail swinging. "He likes to pick fights a lot, and I used to try to patch things up, I thought that it was my job as his big sister. But, it's stressful and fucking exhausting, so I just left things. I stepped in if things got too bad, but when it's smaller things like this, it's better for me to leave it because it's out of my control," She smiled at Jayden, taking his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. "So I rambled, but, moral of the story- don't worry about it. Things work out like they always do."
Jayden let out a quiet laugh, running his thumb over the faded scars on Brooke's hand. "Like they always do," He repeated in confirmation. "I enjoy your rambling. It's cute," Jayden added, watching as Brooke processed his words and grew flustered.
Brooke's eyes flashed gold, and pink dusted her cheeks and the tips of her ears. "Not planning on changing." She grinned, but Jayden saw right through it, but he let Brooke have her fun. He only hummed in response and squeezed her hand- and Jayden knew she was right.
Things will work out like they always do.
--
"Hydro Bow!"
"Wolf Kunai!"
Both Kevin and Brooke fired off their attacks, but the silver and blue attacks completely missed when the nighlok flew in the air, cackling. "Back for another dose of delightful despair, I see!" The nighlok sneered as it hovered in the air, far too high for any of the team, minus Mike, to reach.
"Well, if it isn't Mister Happy." Jayden scoffed, pointing his spin-sword at the nighlok, and Brooke held in her laughter. That was one of Jayden's worst taunts to date.
"Yes!" The nighlok agreed. "You can't even come close to defeating me while I'm flying!" The monster challenged, readying its staff and firing.
Brooke flipped open her samuraizer and got ready to draw the protection symbol again, but it was too late. The blast hit the team, all five rangers hitting the ground hard. Brooke heard her samuraizer clatter to the ground a couple of feet away from her, and she moved to go retrieve the device-
"We can't move?" Brooke blurted out in shock, but then steeled her nerves. She shifted, but the brown wolf took two steps forward and then collapsed again, Brooke forcibly shifting back into a human. "Shit." She hissed, as a new sort of pain filled her body. Her heart went into overdrive, and it hurt. Brooke demorphed, gritting her teeth together and clenching the front of her shirt tightly in a clawed hand.
"Brooke?" Emily asked worriedly, looking at the now demorphed silver ranger, who had an expression of pain on her face, canines fully grown in.
Jayden felt his face pale at Brooke's expression, and he willed his body to move. But he couldn't, and that caused panic to settle in. Luckily Mia was at the girl's side, the pink ranger gathering enough strength to sit next to Brooke and help the silver ranger to sit up.
"I think whatever the nighlok did to us that made us not move and my shifting is going haywire," Brooke choked out, her face pale and her eyes a brilliant gold. "It won't kill me, but it hurts like a bitch." She let out a hiss of pain, and black spots decorated her vision, her subconsciously slumping against Mia.
"Just hang on, we'll figure something out," Mia reassured, the silver ranger nodding weakly.
The nighlok noticed the team struggling and snickered. "I'll put you all out of your marvelous misery!" The nighlok threatened, readying its staff to fire another blast. "Goodbye fools!"
"Think again nighlok!" As if on cue, Mike came sprinting in, stopping in front of the team. "You'll have to get through me first." Mike challenged, and Brooke had never been for the green ranger- because she didn't know if she could take another blast without serious consequences. And she didn't feel like dying today.
"Excellent! You'll get to feel the same delicious defeat they did!" The nighlok exclaimed gleefully, and Mike narrowed his eyes.
"Try me." The green ranger spat, flipping open his samuraizer. "Samuraizer: Go Go Samurai!" Mike drew his respective symbol, and the green suit materialized on his body. "Samurai ranger, ready!"
Mike spun the disk on his spin-sword, summoning his Forest Spear and calling out the weapon's name. He attached the green bear disk to his spin sword and ran forward, ignoring the nighlok's witty remarks and dodging its blasts. Spinning the weapon over his head, Mike thrust the tip of his Forest Spear into the ground, using it to help propel himself in the air. Now the green ranger was just hovering in the air, and Brooke didn't know if that was her hallucinating from the pain or not. She just accepted it and closed her eyes. It wasn't the strangest thing she's seen.
"It's time for a change in the weather forecast!" Mike called, spinning his Forest Spear over his head. The weapon turned back into his spin-sword, and Mike spun the bear disk on the hilt of the weapon, the blade of his sword lighting up green. "I predict mostly scattered leaves and an end to your sad showers, once and for all! Spin-Sword: Tree Symbol Strike!" The five green attacks hit the nighlok and sent it flying across the city, the monster exploding when it made contact with the ground.
As Emily and Kevin congratulated Mike, Brooke felt some of her strength return. With enough willpower she forced herself onto her feet, stumbling over to retrieve her fallen samuraizer. Jayden was quicker, picking up the device and looking at Brooke with concern underneath his red helmet.
"Are you sure you're okay to fight?" Jayden asked, his voice laced with concern, and a ghost of a smile appeared on Brooke's lips.
Taking her samuraizer from Jayden's hand, the silver ranger nodded. "It's the easy part now, I'll be careful," Brooke vowed as the silver suit appeared on her body, giving Jayden a thumbs up, the red ranger squeezing her shoulder comfortingly in response.
The team went into megamode power when the nighlok grew in size, the original five forming the samurai megazord and Brooke appearing in the cockpit of her wolf zord, the team glaring at the nighlok who let out a laugh. "Even now, you're not a match for me!" The nighlok snickered, flying into the air again.
Brooke heard the others' confused murmurs, and the wolf zord growled at the monster, who fired blasts from its staff in response. The wolf zord bounced out of the way just in time, Brooke pointing forward and yelling out a command. "Howl!" The silver burst of energy hit the nighlok, stopping the monster's assault on the samurai megazord.
"We can't just let him take shots from above us! It's risky, but we need to try the samurai battlewing combination," Jayden urged, Kevin and Mike, who was given the beetle disk from Mia, agreed and attached the blue and orange disk to their control panels. "Brooke?" The red ranger asked the silver, who was busy trying not to get shot at, the wolf zord bouncing around with a series of barks.
"Yessir," Brooke joked, attaching the tiger disk to her control panel and spinning the white disk. She soon appeared in the cockpit of the tiger zord and folded up her megablade, sticking it into the control panel. "It's showtime!" Brooke flipped open her samuraizer and drew the combination symbol. "Zords Combine! Samurai Battlewing!" She yelled, activating the symbol.
The three zords formed the samurai battlewing, and Brooke enjoyed the sense of power underneath her fingertips as she steered the zord. With the help of Mike and Kevin, soon the nighlok was dealt with, the three rangers making the final strike. The nighlok soon exploded, and Brooke allowed herself to relax as Jayden's voice floated through the comms.
"Samurai Rangers, Victory is Ours."
--
Brooke watched Mike give the plant to Ji, nudging Jayden slightly with a grin. "See? I told you things would work out." She commented cheekily, and Jayden rolled his eyes with a small smile.
"You're something else." Jayden retorted, and Brooke pretended to pout, which quickly turned into a cheeky smile at Jayden's glare.
"Hey now, you wouldn't have stuck around this long if you didn't find it somewhat funny," Brooke fired back, her grin growing wider and grey eyes sparkling with what seemed like adoration. "So I'm doing something right, or you're a really good actor." She added, watching as Mike flipped open his samuraizer, and the playful atmosphere dropped quickly, the team, sans Mike, tensing somewhat.
Mike noticed the increased tension and shook his head with a grin. "Hey, relax. Watch this." The green ranger drew a symbol in the air. The symbol hit the plant, and the plant grew, and turned into a fist, and Jayden glanced at Brooke, who was watching the plant with a curious expression.
"I'm glad you're here." Jayden murmured, and he didn't intend for Brooke to hear it- but he forgot about the girl's heightened senses.
Brooke didn't respond directly, keeping her eyes trained on the plant as it fist-bumped Ji as she stepped closer to Jayden, discreetly holding his hand, rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand. Jayden enjoyed the action and found that a small smile was growing on his face as the team went about their after-battle cheeriness.