Chapter 19

Never Alone

Panorama City

Jayden Shiba was alone. He used to like being alone, back when he was training to be a samurai, and not just a placeholder for his sister, Lauren. A true leader. The 18th Samurai of Fire. The Red Ranger.

But then the Nighloks came. And Mentor Ji had to summon the descendants of the Samurai families. Kevin Chambers would become the Samurai of Water, the Blue Ranger. Mia Watanabe would become Samurai of Wind, Pink Ranger. Mike Barnes held the power of Forest, the Green Ranger. And Emily Godfrey, standing in for her ill sister Serena, became Samurai of Earth, the Yellow Ranger.

Together they fought back against the Nighloks. And when Jayden's old friend Antonio Garcia surprised the team by becoming the Samurai of Light, the Gold Ranger, they taught Jayden something: he could trust them.

But they could not trust him; after all, he was only a stand-in until Lauren mastered the sealing symbol to stop Xandred, the master of the Nighloks. And soon when he was injured, arrive she did.

As Jayden fought his personal war against the half-Nighlok Deker, his friends came to his aid and helped Deker's love Dayu stop Deker from destroying Jayden. And with a little help from Kevin, Jayden was finally able to vanquish the cursed warrior.

But Dayu's tears caused the Sanzu River to flood, releasing Xandred; and while Lauren tried to seal him, the piece of Dayu's human side that he took from her shielded him from the seal. Lauren was injured, but gave up the rest of her Symbol Power to give Jayden a Hyper Powered Fire Disc that Jayden combined with his friend's powers to finally defeat Xandred for good, both in regular form and in Mega Monster form.

Jayden wondered why Lauren and the rest of the team went after him when he left. But they proved to him one thing: he wasn't alone.

Now Jayden couldn't stand being alone. Mentor Ji had always been fine company in the past and was an excellent sparring partner, but he missed his fellow samurai. There was something about the way everyone always came together, how they just seemed to gel. He missed that. If he could go for one more round with them at his side, he'd eat Mia's cooking for a whole year! Well…maybe he wouldn't go that far…but still he'd be willing to give up a whole lot. And besides, maybe after taking those cooking classes, maybe Mia's cooking had improved. There was hope for…

Jayden sighed. He was kidding himself. He knew that they wouldn't forget him, but they had moved on. Sure they might visit him every once in a while, but not all at once. And a full-fledged reunion was simply too much to hope for. Only one final run would have to be it. Still, it was always good to dream, right?

Jayden strummed a few chords on the guitar he got as a victory gift from Ji a couple years back. He had tried to think of a good song to write but hadn't gotten any good lyrics yet. Maybe he'd team up with Antonio to write one when Antonio came back from his fishing trip.

Speaking of fish, what was that smell?

Jayden put down his guitar, opened the door to his room, and headed towards the kitchen. What he saw made his mouth drop open in shock.

There were, to Jayden's best estimate, over FIFTY fish, all cleaned and gutted, ready to be cooked. And it's not like they were all one species, either. There were trout, grouper, bass, tilapia, cod, tuna, there was a giant marlin in there, there were even some that Jayden had never seen before. And in the middle of it all was Antonio, beaming at his best friend like he had just won the lottery.

"Ha-ha! How you doing, Jayden?" Antonio said, grinning with pride.

"Antonio? What is all this?"

"The mother lode, Jay. The mother lode."

"You mean you caught all these fish?"

"Es verdad. Highest total in the competition. 210. Nobody else even got to 100."

"I'm impressed."

"So are you going to welcome me home or what, hermano?"

"I would, but you smell like fish." Jayden said with a wry smile on his face.

"Don't I always?" Antonio countered easily.

Jayden laughed and gave Antonio a hug.

"See, that right there is proof that your sense of humor improved since the team got together," Antonio said, chuckling.

Jayden looked down at the floor, his mirth quickly vanishing.

"Jay, what's wrong?"

"It's good to have you back, Antonio, but I was wondering where everyone else was." Jayden sighed. "I miss them."

"Good to be missed, little brother," came a voice from the living room.

"Lauren?" Jayden turned; just like before, when he needed her, his sister was there.

The Red Ranger siblings hugged and after a good three seconds, found Antonio smiling with his arms open towards Lauren, expectant.

"What? No hug for me, Laur?"

"Oh, come on, Antonio; of course," she giggled and hugged him too. Jayden couldn't help but think that his first friend might have a crush on his sister, but decided not to call him on it…at least not until he could talk to him alone.

But somebody else did.

"Well, well, lookie what we have here," said Mike, who had just walked in hand-in-hand with Emily. "Looks like we got ourselves a new bloom growing here." Emily giggled at seeing what was going on.

Lauren quickly broke away from Antonio, almost turning as red as her uniform, Antonio did the same. Jayden shook his head. He didn't even try to correct Mike. Mike could jump to conclusions sometimes, but Jayden knew he meant well.

Instead, Jayden hugged Mike and Emily, then Antonio and Lauren did the same.

Kevin's arrival was a bit…un-Kevin-like. For starters, he wasn't wearing shoes. For another thing, he looked a little out of breath. And to top it all off, he was soaking wet.

"I'm sorry I'm late, guys, but I just had a big heat to qualify for the Olympic trials for Rio. I turned in my best personal times in 5 events and qualified for the trials in 4. I just had to share the news with everyone!"

"All right, Kev!" Mike pumped his fist and bro-hugged Kevin.

"That's great news, Kevin," Lauren said with a big smile on her face.

"Hey guys, I've got an idea," said Jayden. "Since we're almost all together, we can have a cookout with Antonio's haul."

"Excelente," Antonio grinned. "Should we wait 'til Mia gets here?"

"I'd rather not," Mike said quickly. "She can enjoy the food after it's cooked."

"And who says I haven't gotten better, hmm?"

"Uh-oh…"

"Foot in mouth much, Mike?" Mia laughed.

"Hey, girl," Emily hugged her good friend.

"Hey, Em. Had trouble keeping that dingbat in check?"

"I'm right here, ya know…" Mike grumbled.

"And you insulted my cooking," said Mia, pointing a finger at him.

"Which everyone knew was," Mike paused so as to think of the best way to soften the blow to the Sky Samurai, "…not quite up to snuff."

"I've had a little bit to improve it."

"Prove it."

"Tell you what. I'll make something for everyone and you guys can tell me if I improved. Deal?"

"I'll believe it when I taste it."

So it was decided that Mia would handle a secret special dish while Antonio handled the main fish fry.

When everything was settled, everyone discussed what to eat first.

"Look," said Mike, "It's like when there's good news and bad news. You want to hear the bad news first because the good news makes up for it. I'm eating Mia's dish first."

"You're wrong," said Kevin. "The good news gives you a boost to prepare for the bad news. I'm eating the fish first."

"Doesn't matter to me," said Lauren. "I still don't think she's that bad a cook."

"Do you HAVE working taste buds, woman?" Mike said incredulously.

"Maybe I'm not used to Antonio cooking every night, although that would have its perks…"

Jayden now wondered if the crush Antonio might have on Lauren was in fact reciprocated. He wasn't sure how to react to this. On one hand, his sister and his best friend in love. AWESOME! But with each other? It was a bit weird. Although, Jayden had always considered Antonio a brother, and (granted, this was jumping the gun by a longshot) if he and Lauren did get together, they might actually BECOME family.

At last the dishes came out. Mike decided to go with Mia's dish first, everyone else went with the fish.

Mike stared at it, wondering what it was supposed to be. Finally he had to ask Mia.

"That," she growled, "is tuna noodle casserole."

"Ooooo…kaaaaaaayyy. I'm just checking. Because it actually looks like tuna noodle casserole."

"Just eat it, Tree Boy."

Yeah, sure. Mike would do just that.

If he didn't spew chunks first.

But bravery was part of the code of the samurai, so he gamely stuck his fork in (with everyone watching) and took a bite.

To his surprise, it was edible.

Better than edible, it was actually pretty good!

The other samurai were shocked when Mike took a second bite. When he finished the plate, they thought it was a joke, that Antonio had cooked Mia's dish for her. Antonio shook his head, saying he had no memory of making it.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to try Mia's tuna noodle casserole. Mike just sat back as he took a bite of the salmon filet Antonio had made for him.

"So, what's your secret?" Mike asked Mia."

"Well…since you were willing to try it first, I'll tell you. It's a recipe from my second cousin Cameron. He told me that just the right ingredients can make or break a dish."

"Got that right."

"And not only that. The ingredients have to be in balance with each other."

"There you go."

Everyone was laying back when all of a sudden, the Gap Sensor went off!

"What? How can this be?" Mia said in shock.

"We got rid of the Nighlok." Emily said with worry on her face.

Mentor Ji came into the room. "Everyone, I feared this could happen. An outside force has united with the Nighlok forces and is attempting to bring them back to our world. It appears the battle isn't over."

Jayden and Lauren looked to each other, then Jayden stood up.

"We have no choice, then. We have to fight back." Jayden turned to his comrades. "This is the second time I've needed you to go to war. You have the choice this time. If you don't wish to fight, you may leave."

"Like there was any question," said Mia. "You won't lose me, not now, not ever"

"I stand by my friends, no matter what," said Mike. "Boo-yah!"

"Nobody makes me back out," said Emily.

"I will stand by your side for as long as this fight lasts and beyond," said Kevin.

"No doubt, brother. I'm here 'til the end," said Antonio.

"Lauren?" Jayden asked his sister.

"I stand with my family no matter what. Did you even have to ask?"

"Then we are united once more."