"Mia, no!" Mike pleads, "No, no, no! I'm the reckless one with the bad ideas. You're the level headed one with the common sense! Not the other way around!"
"This could be my way back into the game! If I can handle different obstacles, like maybe stairs, then I could adapt my fighting style and be the pink ranger again!" she exclaims, "We both know that you guys can't be down a ranger in a time like this, so if you teach me…" She gestures with her hands for him to fill in the rest.
"No, Mia that would get you killed!" he admonishes. She shrugs and he sarcastically says to himself, "You don't care. Of course not. I can't teach you this stuff, Mia. If you get hurt again, Jayden will ring my neck!"
She sighs, "I get it. I'll just go down to the skatepark and figure it out on my own." With that she turns and begins to wheel outside, but he grabs the back of her chair and spins her around.
"The only reason I am saying this is because I know that you aren't bluffing," he tells her, "Fine. If we are going to do this, then we are going to do this right. Look at his chair. It has a lower back and a seat belt. It obviously is designed for this. Yours is the clunky kind the hospital gives you! Before we do anything, if we do anything, we are getting Antonio to help us build you a better suited chair."
"So you'll do it?" she asks.
"Do I have a choice?" he counters. She hugs him really tight and then races outside past Jayden and Kevin as they spar. "Where are you going?" he yells.
"To the docks!" she exclaims and points towards the gate. With that she wheels out onto path that leads to town.
"What is she doing?" Jayden asks.
"Well," deciding that it would be best to not tell anyone, he says, "Since everyone else is training, she begged me, the slacker, to take her to the docks. She wanted to see the place where it happened, and she really wants to see Fernando. He was that fisherman dude who pulled her out of the water."
"Ok," he says, "make sure she doesn't do anything stupid?"
"Since when am I the responsible one?" Mike asks and then without waiting for an answer, turns and runs after Mia. Once he catches up with her he tells her of his alibi and they head towards the bus stop. Once it arrives, Mike goes to pick up Mia, but the bus driver, and old portly woman with a bad attitude stops him.
"You can't bring that wheely thing on my bus! It won't fit and that girl would need a seat to sit in, 'cause we both know that she would be standin' if she could. There 'ain't no seats left, honey."
Mike goes to retort, but Mia stops him and says, "Come on, there are never any seats left on this bus." She turns and wheels away. Mike glares at the lady who just sneers back. "Come on, Mike!" she yells. He marches off after her grumbling about the lady and using some heavy language. Mia sighs, "Mike, just knock it off. I'm used to it. This sort of thing happens to me all the time. People don't tell you this, but it comes with the chair and a boatload of other problems."
"Well, I'm still filing a complaint!" he exclaims, "I took a picture of that bus' license plate!"
The walk to the docs is a lot longer without being able to take the bus. Even though she wonders if Antonio will even still be there, Mia confidently pushes ahead. When they finally reach him, they see Antonio packing up for the day.
"Antonio!" Mia yells. He turns and smiles when he sees his friends approaching. He puts down his things and walks over to them.
"¡Hola amigos! What's up?" he asks.
Mia excitedly looks at Mike and then back at Antonio and says, "We need your help with a project."
"Sure. What do you need amiga?" Antonio asks.
"We need you to help us build a chair that might withstand battle," she says. Antonio's face gets serious and worried. She continues, "I think we found something that might make it possible."
"Chicita, that is insane! You'll get killed," he yells.
"That's what I told her, but it's either help her try to do this safely or let her try to do it on her own," Mike explains, "We will only send her out into battle with Jayden's approval, but first we need a chair that would work. We found something that could be a base model, but I figured with your tech skills we could make it battle ready." Still unsure Antonio shakes his head. Mike sees this and says, "Hey! You said it yourself that with her experience she can do it. We never said that it would be easy, but it's better than nothing!
"We believed in you when you first came here, so now you've gotta believe in us," Mia adds.
Antonio looks down at the ground and sighs, "Well, then I guess we better get to the drawing boards. Speaking of which, where are the drawing boards going to be. I'm going to assume that you're not telling the others for now, right?"
"You'll do it?" Mia asks with glee.
"Yeah, I'll do it," he chuckles. She embraces her two friends in a giant group hug. The two guys share a knowing look and laugh. Mia tells them that she has the perfect place for the project and that she'll show them when they get home. They still need to stop by Fernandos in case Jayden asks. As they make their way they stop at Fernando's shop, he greets the trio with a smile.
"Hey, little one! How are you holding up?" he asks Mia while crouching down to bee at eye level with her.
"I'm doing fine, and for the record I was taller than you when I was on my feet, little one!" she jokes.
He puts a hand on her shoulder and laughs, "You're the craziest kid I've ever met!" They talk for a little while longer, but eventually a customer pulls him away. As they leave they hear him reciting the tale of that fateful day, with a couple of embellishments.
"I knew about the back brace, but I didn't realize I fought of seven guys wielding guns and knives while saving ten children," she sarcastically quips.
"Oh, by the time Fernando is done with it, you would have single handedly taken down a full army of mutant soldiers and you fell off a bridge into a pit of shark infested molten lava!" Antonio laughs. They all joke about it the whole way home. By the time they get there they came up with a story so elaborate that it barely even resembles the original.
Ji walks up to them and asks them what took them so long, and after explaining the issue with the bus driver, he sadly looks down at Mia and tells her not to take it personally. Mia shrugs it off and wheels inside to get something to eat.
"The way that lady looked down on her really rubbed me the wrong way," Mike grumbles, "She acted like Mia was some rodent."
"Yeah, and after she defeated those flaming, ninja, monkey, undead warriors saving the hundreds of defenseless, starving, orphan children you'd think she'd get a little bit of respect!" Antonio jokes.
"What?" Mentor asks. The guys shake their heads and laugh.
In unison they say, "It's a long story!"
A/N: Hey! I hope you had a Happy Holidays and enjoy the New Year! I hope you liked this chapter, and if you do please tell me what you liked, if you didn't tell me what I need to change.
The guy I mentioned in my story's name is Aaron Fotheringham. He is a total boss. This is also a disclaimer for future references. I do not own him. I found him while doing research.