Weight of the World-p.r.s

21-let's go super (samurai)

The next few days went by peacefully, surprisingly enough. Both Jayden and Brooke felt significantly less stressed with Deker gone, and the silver and red rangers soon settled back into their usual routines. Even with the lessened stress, they knew the world wasn't safe yet. The war was far from over, so the two continued doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. The team had noticed the way Brooke and Jayden had gotten closer to each other- if that was even possible, them having small smiles on their faces whenever each other was around. The five other rangers found this slightly amusing, as their leader and the girl who has worked herself to the point of exhaustion, shared an almost romantic bond. They hadn't seen anything yet, but they all made a plan to catch the silver and red rangers in the act.

Brooke let out a groan of annoyance as she hit the ground with a thud. She shot a glare at the cage symbol from where it was written in the archives, picking herself up off of the ground. While she could stay on her feet most of the time, the symbol liked to catch her off guard and send her tumbling to the floor again. The lack of progress was frustrating, and Brooke tried not to compare herself to Antonio, but the gold ranger seemed to be programming the black box at record time. And she couldn't even get the symbol to stay in the air most of the time.

Shaking her head, Brooke's eyes flashed as she tried to push those thoughts aside. Her and Antonio were in vastly different situations, but the black box probably took more symbol power. Agh. "Enough, Brooke," The silver ranger muttered to herself, rooting her sneakered feet on the ground. She flipped open her samuraizer, activating the brush portion and moving to draw the symbol again. "Symbol Power: Strength!" She called, drawing the symbol in the air.

It hung in the air for a couple of seconds, Brooke's expression turning into one of hope. But it quickly fell as the symbol fizzled out in silver sparks, Brooke running a clawed hand over her face. Silently cursing the cage symbol with every word she could come up with, she looked down at the samuraizer in her hand. Compared to the teams', it had seen much better days. Some of the paint had chipped off, and there were scratches from Brooke's claws. Or her mom's, Brooke couldn't really tell.

Still, Brooke resisted the urge to throw her samuraizer across the room. The lack of progress was frustrating and somewhat worrying. She knew she had to start trying harder- but she knew Jayden would have her head if she overworked herself. It was a thin line between working hard and overexertion, and Brooke found herself crossing that line more than she liked. Still, she would do what it takes, and if that meant overexertion, so be it. She rooted her feet to the ground and started drawing the symbol again.

The rangers, sans the silver and red, were actually out enjoying themselves. Jayden had the ability to, actually, but he opted to stay with Brooke instead, and he had ignored the knowing look Mike gave him. Brooke found it endearing, but now she didn't even know where the red ranger was. She had holed herself in the room where she worked on mastering the cage symbol, well, now the strength symbol, shortly after training started, and Brooke wished she could be doing something actually enjoyable with Jayden. But, that wasn't the case, for a multitude of reasons.

It was a race against the clock to get the symbol mastered before Xandred rose again, and Brooke knew that. She tried to not let that fact stress her out too much, trying to ignore the fact that the fate of the world rested on her shoulders. Still, with Deker gone, there was only one main stressor, and Brooke found herself slowly climbing out of her depressive episode. Which lasted a couple of weeks, but still. Her anxiety and general fear got replaced with determination, and Brooke vowed not to let the team down. Not like her mom did.