Chapter 4

Vida came back to the Rock Porium to find Maddie helping a customer. She was smiling, but something told Vida that she wasn't alright. When she was finished with helping the customer, Vida walked up to her. "Hey, sis, are you okay?" she asked Maddie. Madison turned around to see her sister and forced a smile. "Yeah," she said. "I'm great." Vida sighed, unconvinced.

Maddie leaned against the wall. "Come on, Maddie. Nick was just…." Vida trailed off, trying to find the right words. Maddie shook her head. "I don't really care," she breathed and walked off to organize some CDs. Toby came up to the two sisters. "Hey, where are the rest of my employees?" he asked. "Out," said Madison without much feeling. Toby looked from Madison to Vida who just shrugged her shoulders.

When Toby left, Vida took the CDs from her sister and put them on the table next to them. "Listen to me, Maddie. Nick is not a bad guy. He's the leader of the rangers and we have to except that. He's our friend. If we are going to be the legendary warriors, we have to become one," said Vida. "But he's just so…." She didn't finish because she didn't know what to say. "I just don't like him. And I know he hates me, after all, we've been enemies ever since he arrived here," Maddie said to her sister. "Nick just needs to learn how to be… nicer," she said. "Just like you need to learn to be nicer," Vida retorted.

Maddie froze. Was her sister right? She shook her head. Instead of saying something back, she walked off again, but this time, she went home. Her sister came home about three hours later, and Xander and Chip were with her. Maddie had changed from her work outfit into white caprice and a tank top with dark blue and light blue stripes on it. When she came out of her room, she was surprised to see three of the five rangers heading to Vida's room with sneaky looks on their faces.

"Hey, guys, what are you doing here?" Maddie asked. Chip stood straight and smiled to Maddie. "Um, we were just coming over to hang out," Chip said, stammering as he did so. Maddie tilted her head to one side while the three teens hurried into Vida's room. Shrugging her shoulders, she went back into her room to finish her homework.

When she had finished, she began editing the videos she made with her camera. Was Nick right? Did she always hide behind her camera? Shaking her head, she thought, why should I even care about what Nick thinks?

The next day, she and Vida headed over to Rootcore, where they would be training. They met up with Xander who looked at Vida with a questioning stare. Maddie wondered what they were up to. Chip acted weird too, but Madison just ignored it. When Nick came, she ignored him completely, not even trying to glare at him or say something mean to him. "Alright, today we will be learning how to use your powers in various ways," said Udonna. They began their training and had to find their own flags somewhere in the forest and had to capture them, using their powers and overcoming any obstacle that was in their way. Madison saw her flag. It was in a crashing hurricane.

"Magi Staff!" she yelled and used her Magi Staff to make an opening in the hurricane and made water spring up from the ocean to create a path where she jumped from water step to water step. She jumped up and grabbed her flag and destroyed the hurricane with her Magi Staff. "Go Maddie!" shouted Chip, giving Xander a high five. Vida soon captured her flag from a tornado and Xander got his from trees that were crashing to the ground.

"Nick, it's your turn!" shouted Xander. Chip looked around for his, but couldn't find it. There was a firestorm and Nick's flag was in the middle of it. He jumped into the air and with his Magi Staff, he created a path of light where the fire shied away. He grabbed his flag, but the fire blocked his only path out. "Where is he?" asked Vida in a worried tone. Maddie felt a little worried too. Just then, a huge ray of light appeared and it destroyed the firestorm. He came out with his flag and everyone cheered. Maddie didn't join in, but she raced up to him with the others and smiled.

"Now it's my turn," said Chip. Then, he saw his flag under a heap of boulders. With his hands, he made a lightning storm and blew up the boulders and got his flag. Then, they magically appeared at Rootcore. "I'm very impressed with you all," said Udonna with pride. Clare raced up to them and smiled. "You guys are really amazing," she said. Vida smiled and Maddie said, "Well, we have a great mentor." Udonna shook her head. "You five are really incredible. I have a great feeling about you, and that you really are the legendary warriors," said Udonna.

Nick and Xander high fived and then they all kicked back and relaxed at Rootcore. Maddie took her camera out of her backpack and started filming. "Hey, V! You want to say something to the camera?" she asked, smiling. Vida was listening to some cool music and she turned to volume up. "Only to give a shout out to my best friends and to my one and only sister," said Vida. Maddie smiled and said, "That's Vida, my sister. She loves music and loves to DJ. She's really strong and sometimes protective of me, but I couldn't have asked for a better sister," she said to the camera.

She moved onto Xander and Chip. "Say hello to my two best friends, Chip and Xander. They are really fun to hang out with. Chip is daring and is really something else, but a great friend while Xander 'the great' is the ladies man, but is also a good friend," she said. "They're like the two brothers I never had," she said. Xander and Chip waved. She walked over to Nick. "Hey, Nick, you want to say something?" she asked with a smile. He looked at her and rolled his eyes. "Hiding behind the camera again, are we?" he asked. She turned to camera off. "I'm not hiding," she said. "Whatever," he muttered, not even looking at her.

Maddie opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she sat down next to him. "Look, Nick, if we're going to be the power rangers, we'll have to get along," she said, hating herself for saying that when she hated Nick so much. "Madison, you and I will never get along, okay… so stop making a bigger fool out of yourself," he said. "'At least I'm trying," she spat. "Which is more than any of us could say for you," she snapped and stalked off.