I really need to actually focus on these . . .
And yeah, I now I'm leaving such long gaps between updates but school sucks and I always get sidetracked.
But yeah, I decided to update this because I recently learned that Super Sentai are finally having some Female Green Rangers and OH MY GOD, I AM HYPED!
So this got me excited enough to write this!
And I know, I really need to stop writing these chapters in sections, but yeah, an update is still better than nothing.

So here we go! Hope you enjoy! ;)

Chapter 7

Thick as Steel Part 1

Ahhh, the weekend. The lovely, lovely weekend. The chance for the five Rangers to study over their own elements. With nothing to do, there was now nothing better than sitting down together in Elementopia and learning how to truly master their new powers . . .

Colin was sitting down on a wooden log bench, fixing his glasses so he could really concentrate on the little words in his Elemental Manuscript. Funny, the five of them had all received Elemental Manuscripts, something they had never really expected in terms of being town heroes. Fighting- yes, reading . . . really?

Turning over a page (or a stone slab with words carved in), Colin squinted his eyes, trying to memorize the little details on how to become a Lightning Master. So cloud activity contributed to lightning activity . . . wait for the sound of thunder before striking. But didn't lightning come before the thunder? Colin cocked his head a little, leaning down on his seat, wondering what kind of logic there was behind this when suddenly a gush of water sloshed over him.

Liam scoffed, eyes widened, mouth gaping as Colin jerked, dropping his manuscript, his glasses falling off.

"Oh my gosh! Th- I swear, that was not supposed to happen!" He sounded fairly shocked but was trying not to laugh at the same time.

Colin flicked his head, taking a moment to recover before putting his glasses back on again. "I can see that."

"No-no-no-no-no, seriously, seriously!" Liam chuckled. "I'm sorry about that. Look, I'll get it this time." He turned his back to the lake he had been practicing with and raised two fingers, grinning a little as he stepped into position.

"Okay." Colin had picked up his manuscript, rubbing his wet hair. "I'm watching."

"Right." Liam nodded cockily. "Water Elemental Master . . ."

He withdrew his hands, letting out a "HA!" but much to his surprise, the water only responded with a light ripple and shake, splashing against the bank.

"Wow." Colin raised his eyebrows, tightening his lips a little. "Real impressive."

"I swear." Liam turned back to face Colin with a pathetic little smile. "Seriously, last time I tried that move, the water, it all rose towards me."

As soon as he said this, the lake water suddenly rose towards him before towering above him and then dropping down completely before Liam could react and then next thing, he was soaked just like his fellow Elemental Master.

Colin clasped his mouth with his calm to try and keep the laugh from escaping but it wasn't enough and a manly yet high-pitched life was quickly heard as Liam shook his head like a dog, arms raised in horror.

"Wow, you actually laugh!"

"Sorry." Colin snorted, shifting around from laughing so much at the hilarious sight.

"Nice waterbending, Moses!" Jess yelled from the distance, raising her Elemental Manuscript.

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see you try it!" Liam shouted back, placing his hands on his hips, almost showing off now.

"Okay!" With that, Jess raised a hand and a massive gust of wind was blown towards Liam, so powerful, it sent him flying, flipping helplessly before belly flopping right into the middle of the lake. Again, Colin couldn't help but burst into fits of laughter as Jess stood up from where she was sitting and marched proudly towards the lake bank.

Liam quickly resurfaced, splashing about a bit, gasping for air before finally calming down. Spluttering a little, he looked out at his two teammates and yelled at Jess.

"How did you do that?!"

"What?" Jess chuckled mockingly. "I thought it might help you become one with your element!"

Liam lowered her eyebrows, smirking a little. And she had picked him for her test subject too, he thought as he began to swim boldly back to dry land. "So how'd you use those wonderful wind techniques then?"

Jess scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Maybe you should actually study!" She raised her Elemental Manuscript again for Liam to see, making Colin straighten, suddenly serious.

"Wait."

He glanced down at Liam who had reached the lake bank and was climbing out, made harder by his clothes that was sopping with water.

"Have you not been studying?"

"What's the point?" Liam shook his head like a dog, trying to shake away as much water as possible. "It's just some words carved into an old rock. I wanna get to the actual water master stuff!"

"Hey!" Colin's smile had dropped completely and he quickly raised his open manuscript in his arms. "This is more than just some words carved into an 'old rock!' I'll have you know I'm learning quite a lot from this!"

Liam raised his eyebrows in response, shifting his weight in interest. "Oh really?"

"Yeah!" Colin snapped, nodding fiercely.

"Show me then." Liam was eyeing the Elemental Manuscript that Colin was holding tight.

"Hm?"

"Show me some lightning moves."

"Like what? A lightning bolt, a thunder clap or . . .?"

Liam shrugged. "Nah, I don't care."

"Okay . . ." Colin looked down at his manuscript, tracing the carved in words with his fingers. "So first you pull in the clouds in, like that . . ." He raised his hand, mimicking a circling movement.

"I'm waiting." Liam was trying not to smirk.

"Shh!" Colin didn't even look up from his book, readjusting his glasses again, reading out the words more to himself than anyone else, making Jess pull a face.

"Boring."

She glanced down at her own Elemental Manuscript for a second before raising her hand and thrusting it out causing a big gust of pink wind to blow her away from the boys and back over to her wooden bench (landing neatly on her feet) in the far distance, leaving Colin and Liam to their own devices.

"Is something the matter?"

Both Colin and Liam both jumped at the sound of Celino's voice and were further shocked to see him standing there, eyes slightly wider than usual.

Liam raised a dripping hand to answer. "Well I'm wet so that's one thing."

"Ah." Celino nodded before adding "I'm sensing a lack of balance between the two of you."

"What?" Colin raised his Elemental Manuscript, wide open for Celino to see. "I'm studying the techniques this thing tells me to do."

"Yeah, and I'm trying to get the whole water bending stuff right, so . . ." Liam couldn't help but chuckle at his own confusion.

Celino tightened his lips a little. "So you already understand your own problems."

Colin and Liam exchanged confused glances before Liam burst into a fit of uncertain laughter.

"Trust me, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!"

"Maybe you do have the idea . . ." Celino was strolling around on the grass, avoiding eye contact with the two Rangers. "Maybe you just have to dig deeper into your mind to find it."

Liam snorted. Colin looked down at his feet.

"I will tell you this." Celino finally turned to face the two boys. "There is imbalance in your methods. And if you cannot level these out, you will never be Elemental Masters."

Again, Liam and Colin exchanged glances, both lowering their eyebrows, both considering those words. But when they turned over to look at Celino, he was gone. The only sound that was heard was the sound of the lake water lapping next to them.

Liam puffed out his cheeks exhaling loudly. "Honestly, that Celino guy is the weirdest person I've ever met."

Colin nodded slowly. "I think I agree."

Cortex was marching back and forth his lair with Ruckus frantically tapping away at the super computer, trying to find a new warrior to take on the Elemental Rangers.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm trying!" Ruckus waggled his fingers tapping on the keyboard that little bit faster.

Lilith tutted, looking up from painting her toenails. "Do you really need a specific warrior?"

Cortex froze and growled at Lilith. "Yes . . . I need the strongest warrior in the galaxy! I need one of an element the new Masters can't control."

"They're Elemental Rangers."

"I . . . don't care . . ." With every word he spoke, he took one step closer to Lilith who straightened in her seat a little.

"But they are."

"I know that," Cortex slowly breathed. "Now let me tell you something. You are to get up, and you are to go to Earth and search for a potential Master of Elemental Balance."

Lilith cocked her head. "But they already have their mentor guy? Don't you have to destroy him first to then get a new Master?"

Cortex growled a little. "Exactly. But even if I can't . . . The man doesn't have much left in him." A small chuckle escaped from him.

"So what do you want me to do?" Lilith muttered, though she sounded disinterested.

Cortex stopped chuckling only to grab the bottle of nail varnish (which was as big as a large bottle of wine) on the table next to Lilith and thrust it against the opposite wall, smashing it. Shards of glass fell to the floor with the bright pink nail varnish oozing in one big puddle stain.

"Well that was unnecessary!" Lilith snapped in annoyance.

"Well if it gets your attention, I consider it perfectly necessary!" Cortex snapped back. "Now you are to go down to Earth and find a potential Master of Elemental Balance!"

"But my toenails aren't dry yet!"

"NOW!"

"Okay!" Lilith finally stood up and stomped over to a nearby teleportation platform. "If you insist!" And with that, the teleportation platform underneath her glowed blue and Lilith flashed and disappeared.

Sighing loudly, Cortex turned to face Ruckus who was smacking down one button.

"You found one?"

"Uh-huh! Just as you described!"

Cortex lowered his head, chuckling once again. "Good . . ."

"Stupid Cortex making me roam here for no reason."

Lilith groaned as she wandered around the streets of New Zealand, not entirely sure what to do. A mother and her young son passed and the son stopped to look up at this peculiar female before speaking.

"Are you an alien?"

Lilith stared down at him. "What does it look like?" she sneered.

The boy's mother quickly tugged on her son's arm, forcing the boy to trail after her. Lilith just rolled her head and examined all the passing citizens before them. How was she even to know what exactly was a "worthy" Master of Elemental Balance? Was she just supposed to "sense" it or something?

'Cortex should go and roam his own cities.'

Lilith strolled into a more abandoned part of the town and stopped to observe.

"Hmm."

She took out her robotic alien cellphone and raised it to take a picture of the incomplete buildings, the trailing rubbish, the dusty breeze.

"So this is what Cortex wants to take over . . . Hmm."

Lilith swiveled her head around, settling into her surroundings when suddenly a silver flash appeared in front of her and the fiery image of a wolf appeared, making Lilith stiffen. But before she could react, the wolf pounced on top of her, knocking her to the ground making her scream and the wolf roared at her before jumping off and running away.

Lilith lay there for a moment, taking a moment to recover from what the heck had just happened, rolling around on the cold floor. Moaning a little, she slowly rolled over and climbed to her feet, stumbling a little as she stood back up.

Wait a sec.

That was the Wolf Spirit!

Lilith quickly ran forward a few paces but that Wolf Spirit was gone just as quickly as it had appeared and she couldn't see it even when she looked left and right.

"Blazes!"

Next thing, another flash appeared and another monster appeared: this one was almost entirely made of metal: steel slabs for shoulders, and massive iron fingers with two golden copper gleaming eyes. He raised his hand, sweeping the ground underneath him and sending chunks of rock flying towards an opposite building, smashing bricks and windows. People reacted immediately and started screaming and running away while the monster roared with laughter.

Lillith cocked her head a little before running up to meet this new monster.

"Are you the warrior summoned by Cortex?"

"Ohh!" The monster stopped what he was doing and turned to get a good look at Lilith. "Well aren't you a pretty one?"

Lillith tutted in response. "Did Cortex summon you?"

"Ah! Yes! Yes he did! Metalhead, my name is!" With that, Metalhead turned around and scooped up more ground in his massive hands and thrust the rock at the citizens which he luckily missed.

"Right then." Lilith straightened, trying to look and sound firm. "I imagine that Cortex summoned you you to destroy Elemental Power Rangers, right?"

"Elemental Masters, yes!" Metalhead seemed more focused on creating friction between his metallic fingers, creating sparky little flames that struck the buildings, igniting them completely.

'They're Elemental Rangers!'

"Right! I have a second request for you," said Lilith, trying not to sound too irritable. "Should you find a Wolf Spirit or anyone interacting with it, I want you to immediately report it. It may have something to do with Elemental Balance."

"Yeah, yeah." Metalhead marched over to a car and smashed it with karate chop.

"Alright," Lilith muttered, shrugging as she pulled out her cellphone and pressed a button, causing her to flash pink and disappear from the sight, leaving Metalhead alone to cause chaos.

Derek took a deep breath and waved his hands in a circular motion, causing streams of fire to appear in his hands.

"Focus . . ."

Derek swung his hands around, turning the streams of fire into one fireball. Okay. Nice and easy . . . Trying to keep his breathing steady, Derek eyed the target in front of him and went to shoot his fireball but out of the corner of his eye noticed a flicker and he tried to back away, shooting the fireball way off as a result. It flew way past the target and struck a nearby tree, setting it alight.

"Oh boy." Derek's eyes widened and he took a step back, when behind him, a gust of water appeared and struck the fire, quickly distinguishing it.

Turning around, Derek raised his eyebrows to see Celino standing beside him. Much to his surprise, he didn't look too angry or too disappointed.

"You make more progress than you think."

"Oh." Derek raised his eyebrows. "Thanks!"

Celino nodded politely in response. "Remember that you are the Master. You are the one in control. You need not fear something you know you can handle."

Derek nodded shakily, wringing his hands a little. "Yeah, I just . . . I just freak sometimes . . ."

"Hey." Krista had jogged up to Derek and Celino, obviously pulled in by the smell of burning wood. She didn't have to look to know there was a singed smoking tree nearby.

"Did you burn another . . ."

"Yep." Derek tightened his lips.

Krista nodded before glancing at the tree and raising a clenched fist. She opened her hand and shot a bright green beam at it. At soon as the beam hit the tree, the singed bark regenerated and the black leaves turned green again, the branches stretching out into full bloom. Seeing this, Krista beamed and smiled proudly at Derek and Celino who both looked impressed.

"You know . . ." Derek had a small little smile on his face. "You don't need to restore every single tree I burn."

"Nah, I like to," Krista replied happily. "Good practice too," she added, waggling her fingers, making Derek laugh a little. "The manuscripts really help too!"

"Yeah, from what I heard, Liam hasn't even glanced at them," Derek said in a mischievous tone.

Krista's eyes and smile widened in amusement. "Are you kidding?"

Derek nodded quickly, failing to keep his laughter from escaping. "He was there a while ago, he soaked himself in his own tidal wave, and he wasn't even ready for it!"

"Oh the poor thing!" Krista cried, though she was covering her mouth with her hand, trying to keep the giggles in.

"Yeah, you should've seen his fa-" Derek turned around only to realize Celino was gone, making him lower his eyebrows and shut his mouth.

Krista's smile slowly faded. "Well then . . ." She folded her arms, trying to think of something to make conversation. Weird how the disappearance of one person could make a funny conversation suddenly awkward.

Their Elemental Morphers suddenly bleeped and Derek and Krista looked up at each other, exchanging nods before sprinting over to find their fellow Rangers. Sure enough, they were by the lake . . . and Colin and Liam were having an . . . enlightened conversation.

"You know, if you read just one chapter, you might actually learn something," Colin explained, trying to sound as polite as possible, though there was definitely an edge to his tone.

"Dude, you're reading those things all the time and you haven't even done like one bolt of lightning!" Liam laughed a little rudely.

"Rangers."

The five Elemental Rangers all turned to face Celino who once again had appeared out of nowhere in front of them.

Liam pulled a face. "Don't you ever walk?"

Celino had a pouch of sand-like stuff in his hand. He reached in, took a handful and scattered it on the grass in front of the teenagers. The sand swirled in a graceful little circle before turning into some sort of viewing portal. There the Rangers all saw the metal monster destructing the city and he seemed to be having way too much fun doing so.

"Looks like we've finally got our second bad guy to deal with," Jess smirked.

"Yep," Derek agreed. "Okay guys, lets use our Elemental Morphers and turn him into scrap metal. Who's with me?"

"YEAH!" the other four cheered.

They all went to raise their Elemental Morphers and use the glass spheres to teleport when Celino interrupted.

"Wait."

"What?" Derek frowned a little, lowering his hands. "Wh- what's wrong?"

Celino for once this day did not look happy with the Rangers' agreement. "It has come to my attention that some of you are more capable of handling your Ranger abilities than others."

Once again there was an awkward silence, and no one could really complain because they knew he was right. All eyes were on Liam . . . and he was biting his lip, looking down at his feet.

"Well at least I'm practicing. He's the one not doing anything," he mumbled, pointing at Colin who gaped at him in response.

"Well I need to know what I'm doing before actually doing it!"

"Neither of you will be going into battle until you can learn to find a balance in your training methods," said Celino firmly.

"WHAT?!" Both Liam and Colin stared at Celino, both gaping now. And Derek, Krista and Jess looked stunned too.

"You're leaving them back here?" Derek repeated. "But then it'll just be three of us!"

"Yeah, that's two less Rangers!" Liam agreed. "Not that I don't have faith in them," he added, flicking a glance at Jess. "But still . . ."

"Well it's still three Rangers against one so perhaps they can overpower the monster," Colin replied.

"Hey! Do you remember the power of the last one?" Liam snapped back. "These are super artificial intelligent aliens, which by the way, I thought you knew lots about-"

"But maybe Celino means well for us, I mean we're getting more time to study our elements-"

"YOU'RE STUDYING ALL THE TIME!"

"And you're not studying at all!"

"ENOUGH!"

Celino's harsh voice made everyone jump and shut Colin and Liam up immediately. Now that he had gotten the Rangers' attention, Celino looked up at Derek, Krista and Jess and nodded. "We can't let the monster destroy too much of the city."

"Yeah," Derek agreed. "He's right. Jess, Krista and I will go fight this monster. You two . . ." His eyes swiveled between Colin and Liam. "Try to cooperate and do well with your elements okay?"

And with that, Derek, Krista and Jess rubbed their glass spheres, causing them to turn into their elements and disappear from the site, leaving Liam, Colin and Celino in Elementopia by themselves.

Liam scowled and glared at Colin who raised and dropped his shoulders, looking more tense than usual.

"Now then." Celino was back to his old, somewhat easygoing self. "Are we willing to improve?"

Aaaaand I'm gonna leave it there!

Yeah, I'm trying to extend chapters and make them more interesting because I've noticed I've been dropping down in reviews lately. And I KNOW, I need to update Sports Energy (Kinda wish I had a better title for that, lol) but yeah, exams do kinda come first. Sorry.

Nonetheless, hope you enjoyed, make sure you keep an eye on that Wolf Spirit and see you next time! ;)