Chapter 8

6 years ago

Ten-year-old Matthew was doing a private training session with his father. He might not understand why his parents are so focused on training him and his sister, but he actually enjoyed it. His parents were surprisingly amazing fighters and learning how to fight from them has been great. He also found that training can be a good way to release his anger at times. It wasn't that he got angry all the time. It was more like he got frustrated that he wasn't allowed to do everything that normal kids do. He wasn't allowed to do anything outside of school. Adrian had invited him and Gianna to his birthday party, but his parents wouldn't allow him to go. He doesn't understand why his parents are so overprotective.

Matthew was running through the training course in the forest by himself with his father monitoring him. He runs through it a lot with Gianna, but sometimes, his father takes him out to run it by himself and give him pointers. His father has also jumped in at the end and sparred with him before too. He doesn't mind that too much. His dad could be pretty fun during training. The man tends to not make training so serious and allows him to goof off sometimes. Like mentioned before, his issues are that he's not allowed to see his friends outside of school.

As the 10-year-old was caught up in his thoughts that he didn't see the tree that was right in front of him and ran right into it and fell onto his back. The young boy looked up at the tree that he just ran into with a huff. He stood up and kicked the tree while muttering, "stupid tree" under his breath. He noticed a weird looking hole in the tree and could see a dim red glow. He reached inside and pulled out some weird looking rock. "Woah. Cool," he said as he continued to look at it. As far as he knew, rocks were not supposed to look like that. It was weird to see something like this and it was just hidden in a tree in a forest close to their house.

"Matthew, what are you doing with that?" his father was behind him all of a sudden.

He quickly turned around and faced his father. "Sorry, dad," the young boy said. "I just found it and thought it looked cool."

The boy's father took the rock out of his hands and put it back where it was. "How about we leave that where it is, ok? It's not good to play with strange items."

"But why does it look like that dad? I've never seen a rock glow like that rock before. What is it?"

"I know to you it looks like something cool that you could show off to people, but sometimes cool looking items can actually be dangerous, so it's best to just leave it where it is. I don't know what me or your mother would do if something happened to you or your sister."

Matthew would feel bad if he made his parents worry about him, especially since his parents got so upset after what happened to the little sibling they were supposed to have 4 years ago. "I'm sorry, dad," he said.

"It's ok, buddy." The boy's father pulled him in for a hug. After a minute, they both pulled away. "I think that's enough training for today. How about we head back to the house and have some ice cream."

A big smile came onto the boy's face. "Yay! Ice Cream!" He walked back to the house with his father. He didn't want to worry his parents, but he also knew he would go back later just to take another look at the rock. He'll put it back after. How much damage could that rock do?

Present

Matthew paused mid-swing with the arrival of Octoroo. He really wanted to just smash this thing, but he felt like doing that would be a mistake at the moment. He knew that his sister was eyeing him and trying to figure out what was going on in his brain. Normally, they're on the same wave length all the time (some weird kind of twin telepathy), but right now, he's not sure if they are. Everything that has been going on has been overwhelming for both of them and it could be making it hard for Gianna to figure out what Matthew is thinking about, but not matter what, they always trust each other. It's always been the two of them through everything life throws at them. They always stick together. Matthew knows that whatever he decides, Gianna will have his back 100%. "We know what this rock can do," Matthew said to Octoroo. "Bring back Master Xandred. That's what you want. To bring him back and flood our world."

"Ooh. Aah. Ooh. That is true," Octoroo said. "Your parents defeated him with the rest of their team and ruined our plans. I spent a lot of time trapped deep in the Sanzu River researching any possible way to bring him back and that's when I came across the myth about that rock. The one chance I have of bringing him back and finally completing our goals. So, give me the rock."

"No way!" Matthew spat.

"Just like your father. So stubborn, but I would reconsider you giving me the rock if you ever want to see your parents again."

That made both of the young samurai rangers freeze. This was a hard decision. Eith hand over the rock to save their parents and allow Master Xandred to come back or destroy the rock and never see their parents again. This was a lose-lose situation. No matter what they did, it would be an awful situation for them. Matthew raised the rock again like he was ready to smash it, but he couldn't. He couldn't do it if his parents' lives were at stake. He looked at his sister who nodded at him. He knew how much was at stake, but they were still only 16 and they felt like they needed their parents. Matthew started slowly walking towards Octoroo with the rock. Gianna stayed back, but looked ready for a fight.

"STOP!" they all heard a familiar voice. They turned and saw Adrian with the other young rangers running towards them morphed. They all stopped in front of Matthew and Gianna ran up to them.

"What's going on?" Gianna asked.

"We found your parents and got them out of there are back to the Shiba house," Juliet answered. "Octoroo doesn't have any more leverage."

"There's no way you could've found them!" Octoroo said in disbelief.

"You better believe it," Benjamin said.

That was all Matthew needed to know. He raised the rock above his head one final time and smashed the rock on the ground. He also stepped on it for good measure.

"No!" Octoroo yelled and summoned a Nighlok. "Destroy them!"

Matthew and Gianna stepped in front of their teammates.

"SAMURAIZER!" Gianna yelled.

"SAMURAI MORPHER!" Matthew yelled.

"GO GO SAMURAI!"

"GOLD POWER! HA!"

The older twins morphed and all seven rangers started charging towards the Nighlok who was already charging at them.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!