Chapter 3

Nick stopped dead. He felt something nagging at him. He needed to go back; he knew the others needed him. There was trouble, and something was really urging him to go back and help fight. Feeling more confident, he turned around a raced back.

He saw his fellow rangers and then pulled out his morpher. "Magical Source. Mystic Force!" he shouted and changed into his power ranger uniform. He stood in front of the rangers and said, "Come on, we can't give up!"

Madison for some reason felt a surge of admiration for Nick. She stood up and began to fight. Nick urged the others on. Soon, every warrior was up and fighting. The zombies were soon either rushing off or were getting beat by the rangers. Maddie dropped to the ground and knocked three of the zombies off their feet and then jumped up and felt power rising inside her. Suddenly, water sprung up from the forest floor and flew up into the sky like many fountains and carried the zombies with them.

Nick kicked and threw punches and he too felt power rising up in him. Just then, fire came from his hands and burned the zombies. Chip felt the same way. "Hey guys, check this out!" he exclaimed with lightning struck the zombies. Vida began a whirling wind that carried the zombies into the air while Xander began controlling vines that attacked the zombies.

"This feels great!" shouted Xander excitedly. Maddie nodded and looked at the water that soon came back down to the ground. But she felt something grasp her neck and she gasped for breath. Vida yelled, "Hey, get away from my sister!" and kicked the zombie that had his hands around Madison's neck, into the sky and it got carried away in a whirl wind. Maddie fell to the floor and began coughing really bad. Xander and Chip chased the last of the zombies away while Nick battled with the leader of the zombies, which was a huge monster, who was soon defeated by Nick.

Maddie was still coughing and was really shaky while Vida looked at the red marks around Maddie's neck. Vida winced. Chip, Nick and Xander came and kneeled beside Madison. "Are you okay?" Nick asked, looking at the wounds on her neck. Maddie nodded. "Yeah, I'm…" she trailed off as she coughed some more. Xander helped her up and they walked back into the human world.

The next day at school, everyone was wondering why Maddie's neck looked so bad. "I'm fine, really. I'd rather not talk about it," she had said to everyone who had asked her what happened.

"What's with that geek? It's not like she was almost murdered or something," muttered Nick to Xander. "Uh, Nick… she kind of almost was murdered," Xander told Nick. "Well, she doesn't have to act like she's the only person in the world who had ever been threatened by anyone in their life," he spat, glaring at Madison, but at the same time, he felt sympathy for her.

Maddie caught Nick's glare and looked away, rolling her eyes. "Why does he always have to start something?" she asked. Vida breathed an irritated sigh. Madison shot her sister an apologetic look an after a few long moments, she began blurting out about how rude and insensitive Nick was. Vida smiled and shook her head and laughed.

"What?" asked Madison. "I swear, you act as if you like the guy," teased Vida. "What! Me? Like someone like Russell?" she hissed with a disgusted face. Vida shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, fine. You don't like him," she said, not sure if she was completely convinced.

Nick turned away, but their cell phone morphers rang. Just then, the bell rang for school to end. "Perfect timing," she whispered and he and Xander raced over to Chip who lead them over to the two sisters. "You guys ready?" Nick asked. Everyone nodded. "Let's go then," Nick told them and he lead them to where the danger was.

There, in the park, was a bat vampire woman. "Hello, rangers. I'm Necroali. And you're dead," she hissed and attacked the rangers. "Magical Source. Mystic Force!" they all chanted and then they attacked Necroali. Vida dusked and dodged blows from the vampire and then created a whirl wind, but the vampire destroyed it and made it head towards Maddie and Nick.

Maddie screamed and reached out for something, but nothing was in reach. Nick blasted fire at Necroali before he was carried into the air with Maddie. Necroali flew back and crashed into some trash cans. She quickly regained her strength, and the other three rangers attacked her.

Meanwhile, the whirlwind was dieing down, and then, Nick and Madison fell from the sky. But, Maddie toppled onto Nick. Her eyes widened wit embarrassment and her cheeks flushed a bright red. She got off of him and he looked at her, obviously embarrassed too. They quickly joined into the battle and Necroali backed off. "We will meet again, rangers," she declared and vanished.

The five teens arrived back at Rootcore. "You all fought well," Udonna said to her apprentices when she came out from one of the rooms. Clare, Udonna's other apprentice that was training to become the next sorceress, was with her and was smiling at them with admiration. "You guys were awesome," she exclaimed. Maddie smiled and then turned to her sister. "That was a pretty strong whirlwind you made back there," she commented. Vida and Maddie gave one another a high five. "Yeah, it was good, wasn't it," she said proudly.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but the bad part was is that you made Miss. Rocca, the klutz fall on top of me," he muttered. "I'm not a klutz," she yelled, stalking up to Nick, her arms crossed over her chest. "Yes you are," he teased. "Alright, that's enough, you two," said Udonna, stepping between the two arguing teens.

Maddie glared at Nick, feeling she really wanted to strangle him. Nick was returning her stare. "Why do you have to be such a jerk?" she asked, her eyes growing from anger to sadness. She turned around and walked out of Rootcore. Nick stared after her, shocked by not what, but how she had asked him why he was acting like such a jerk. He had never seen her so hurt, and why was even hurt?

He shook his head. Whatever Madison thought or felt, that was her problem and he didn't give a care. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and then saw Vida looking at him with such rage and fury. "What?" he asked. She shook her head and then Nick turned to see Xander and Chip looking at him with uneasy stares. "Nick, I think you really hurt her feelings this time," said Xander. Vida pushed past Nick and went after her sister.