Back it up 5

Name: Antonio Garcia

Age: 16 and a half

Status: Dating Em's older sis, Serena

Element: Light

Color: The Gold Ranger

Hey, mi' aimgos! I'm Antonio Garcia, The Gold Ranger of the Power Ranger Samurai. I've always wanted to be a Samurai, and now I finally am! Man, that's Golden, baby! But anyway. You want my past? I warn you, it's not the happiest tale in the world.

I don't have a mother. Well, I do, since it's kind of impossible to not have one, but she's dead. I remember that night clearly. My dad was driving the car, mom holding me in her lap. I was six years old at the time, and she was humming to me. She was such a pretty, amazing mother.

Suddenly, a drunk driver pulled in front of us. Mom ducked over me, protecting me with her body. Dad got a broken arm, I got a few bruises, and Mama gave away her life to save mine. I sometimes wish I could of died instead of her. She had so much life and love in her…And me? Well, I don't know about me. I'm still trying to figure that out.

Anyway, Dad got depressed when she died. He moved us away, which deprived me of Jayden, who was my childhood friend and my only friend at the time.

He was such a good friend about the whole my-mom-died thing. He comforted me and taught me how to be a Samurai. I knew right then I wanted to fight with him against evil. When I moved, I kept training. It was tough, and nothing made much sense. It was if something was missing.

I remember the day it all fell into place.

I was training at the big tree where I'd set up a set. I acted as if a Nilock was attacking, and I was flipping and kicking off the tree and cones. My muscles had already grown, and I was basically shirtless. Suddenly, I noticed a broken cell phone in the dirt.

I picked it up, and noticed how OctoZord was beeping in a sort of pattern. I took them both home and worked on it at home. I pattered the wires like OctoZord's and replaced wires and such. After about six months, I'd built a Samurai Morpher.

Then was the big test: Would it work?

I had made a phrase built into it to turn it on, so I stood in the center of my set and breathed.

"Samurai Morpher: Gold Power!" I yelled, texting my light symbol.

I felt the power surge in my suit. For the next year, (I had been thirteen at the time,) I trained with and without the suit. It was very intense.

Then my father passed away.

He'd gotten cancer, and he lost the battle. I was too grief-stricken to eat or sleep for days. So I packed up a bag, packed up OctoZord, and became a traveling fisherman. I got over my depression, and started my quest to find Jaden and the other Samurai Rangers.

I trained myself against trying to survive.

I didn't have any friends, sadly. The one time I did, it wasn't very long. But she taught me a very important lesson.

I was, I found out later, two states away from where my soon-to-be team was. I was working on trying to sell fish, as always, when I little girl came up to me. She had light brown hair and tired black eyes.

"Please, sir," she whispered, "I am alone. Can I join you on your quest?"

"Sure, sweetheart," I shrugged, thinking she was just pretending.

But she sure wasn't.

When I packed up my stuff, she came after me with a little worn out blanket. She smiled gratefully as I led the way. She walked beside my cooler, playing with OctoZord. She was probably about seven or eight, and very sweet and shy. Her name was Claire.

We traveled across the state together. We really became close, just like a family. I fed her and took care of her, and she taught me how to be a friend and how to handle things. She was also very smart. Like once when we were cooking out.

"This fish is really good," she smiled up at me.

"Thank you," I stroked her dirty hair, "let's get that hair prettied. "

I carefully cleaned out her hair with warmed water, being careful not to burn her crown. As I was packing up, she played with OctoZord. Suddenly, she twisted her ankle in a hole.

"Oh my gosh," I knelt to her, "I'll go get a doctor."

"Don't leave!" her eyes begged against the twilight sky, "friends don't leave anybody behind."

I've kept all her smart, wise words at heart all my life. It turned out she was smart for saying that, because the wolves were coming out to feed about that hour.

But then she got sick about a month later.

She was weak and dying in my arms. We were apparently a state from the Samurai, but I wasn't thinking about that. I was in the field, and she coughed and shuddered in my lap.

"I'm dying," she coughed weakly, "I know I am. But don't cry forever for me. Go. Join the Samurai."

"Thanks, Claire," I cried, "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," she coughed hard, "my time has come."

"Goodbye, Claire."

"No," she whispered, "not goodbye. Just see you soon."

"Okay," I kissed her little forehead, "see you soon. I love you."

"I…" A shudder went through her little body, "love…you too."

Taking a breath, her little eyes were a million miles away. "See…." She whispered, "see…lights…"

She never spoke again. I felt my heart drop as I closed her eyes. She had been my family. Now she was gone. But I noticed something when I looked at the nighttime sky. The stars shone brighter now.

Wiping my tears, I buried her lifeless body and left that state running. The grief in my heart lessened, and I was back to normal when I reached the Samurai.

The rest is history.

The others don't know about Claire. But I guess that's for the better. They don't need to feel sorry for me. I feel I need to keep them thinking that my past was as golden as it is now.

Adious!

P.S. Your turn, Emily.