Weight of the World-p.r.s

14-family matters (part one of two)

After breakfast, Brooke found herself sitting at the head of the table in the meeting room, next to Jayden, per usual. Antonio sat across from his two childhood friends, a wooden pot full of water in front of him. In the pot, a gold zord was sitting in the water- which made Brooke wonder. Wouldn't it break the zord? Since the zords were technically robots and all. But, that obviously wasn't the case, since this zord- which was a golden lobster that Brooke found cute, was just sitting in the water. Quirking a brow, the silver ranger inspected the gold zord from her seat, grey eyes flashing and landing on a color that was similar to the zord.

Jayden noticed Brooke's curiosity and felt the corners of his lips twitch as the two watched their childhood friend present the golden zord with a flourish. "Behold!" Antonio started, motioning to the zord. "This is our new and improved friend, the clawzord." He introduced the clawzord, who chirped from its pot of water, and a faint smile appeared on Brooke's lips. It was cute.

"Where did you get this?" Jayden wondered, glancing at the golden zord and then the gold ranger.

"The claw zord was battle damaged years ago, so I hid it away," Ji answered, and Brooke raised her brows. It seemed fine, though she supposed Antonio had fixed it up some.

Antonio's pride was evident in his tone, and he radiated enthusiasm. "Ji asked to perform some on my tech whiz magic." He explained, and Jayden made a noise of confusion- which Brooke thought was cute.

"I wanted to see if he could actually do it," Ji muttered to Jayden, and Brooke pretended to not hear the older man. She found it amusing when the team forgot about her hearing- sometimes. The times where it was overwhelming? That was a different story.

"It's pretty simple," Antonio declared, flipping open his morpher and starting to text a symbol. "I just text over some samurai power symbols to reprogram him. The clawzord will be back in business soon." The gold ranger flipped his morpher shut, pride shining in his eyes.

"So you've been using electronic symbols?" Mia questioned, and Antonio beamed.

"Welcome to the 21st century," Antonio announced, pointing at Mia with a wide smile.

"Impressive, but this is the work of a computer nerd, not a samurai," Kevin stated, and the happy mood fell, Brooke and Jayden both grimacing at the change in Antonio's demeanor.

Brooke let out a sigh, running a clawed hand over her face. "Listen, we're not starting this today," She declared, crossing her leg over her knee. "Antonio has proven himself, again and again. And it really shouldn't matter how he uses symbol power because it's obviously working," She motioned to the clawzord for emphasis, and the team noticed her fully bared claws. "If it's not broken, there's no use in fixing it, y'know? We've already accepted Antonio into the team." Plus, that was extremely out of line and rude comment to make, there was no point. Eyes flashed, and Brooke radiated the "don't pick on my little brother" energy.

Both Antonio and Jayden shared a look at Brooke's words, and both of them were glad that she said something. Antonio, because someone was sticking up for him, and Jayden, because he didn't know what the fuck to do. The red and gold rangers both recalled memories of the silver ranger defending them both, and times haven't really changed since then. Well, instead of Brooke's pigtails and dresses, it was now stylishly messy hair and leather jackets. But, the girl's "take no shit" attitude when it came to her two childhood friends was the same. The two boys found it endearing.

"I said I'll give him a chance," Kevin argued, and Brooke quirked a brow. It wasn't in confusion, it was in "you're really doing this right now? I'd like to see you try", it was a mom look. "But being a true samurai involves much more than just pressing some buttons." The blue ranger declared, picking up his book off of the table and leaving the room.