The flash of light was brief and went unnoticed in the alleyway. Marah looked around, but knew she had arrived before her sister. They had been trying to ninja streak everywhere. It was one of the latest elementary ninja skills they had picked up. Teleporting was most definitely faster, but they wanted to practice their streaking.

So while Kapri was streaking to Storm Chargers, Marah had teleported. She had good reason though, because Ninja was with her. And while it was possible to streak with her dog, the mostly grown puppy was just way too large to keep a good grip on during the long, multiple leaps required for streaking all the way from the Academy to the extreme sports store.

With teleporting on the other hand, she could just simply spread her power to include whoever or whatever she wanted without touching them. It was way convenient for transporting the very active dog.

A blur bounced off the building next door, and Marah watched as Kapri landed beside her. Kapri looked up and caught her sister’s eye. They high-fived at Kapri’s successful landing.

“We ready?” Kapri asked, glancing down the alley toward the street.

“Totally!” Marah answered. And she called to Ninja who had gone to investigate the dumpster. He trotted obediently over to her side, then followed her as the sisters headed down the alley.

Storm Chargers was packed. Saturday mornings were usually busy, Dustin had told her. But somehow she thought this was busier than normal for as early as it was. There were both moto and skateboarding events either in town or nearby that day. So maybe people were there buying last minute supplies? Yeah, that was probably totally it.

Marah and Kapri made their way to the front counter. Tori was there, books spread out in front of her. She didn’t even look up until Ninja made his presence known. The dog had rounded to her side of the counter, and sat by her stool. When she didn’t see him, he stood up, placing his front paws on her lap to get her attention.

“Oh! Hey Ninja,” she said, petting his head. “Where’s… nevermind.” Tori smiled as she looked up and saw Marah and Kapri in front of her.

“Hey guys!” she greeted. “Here to help me work?”

“Hi Tori!” Marah answered brightly, though she was a little confused. “I thought you said you didn’t work here.”

“Shyeah, you’ve only pointed it out several times actually,” Kapri added.

Tori sighed. “The only one of us who actually works here is Dustin. Now that Hunter and Blake are gone anyway. But Dustin has his freestyle competition today. And Kelly is one of the main sponsors of Shane’s skateboarding competition. So she had to be there today.”

“So that leaves you,” Marah guessed.

“So that leaves me,” Tori confirmed.

“You know, Tori, you should really relax some,” Kapri looked at all the textbooks spread across the counter. “You’re so overworking. The stress will do horrible things to your complexion.”

“Look who’s talking,” Tori rolled her eyes and immediately wished she hadn’t. As Kapri gasped and put her hands to her face.

“No, no,” she amended. “I just meant that you two are the busiest people on campus. Taking a full load of advanced classes plus the extra beginner classes. Kapri, you work in NinjaOps. And you’re both involved in almost every extracurricular activity on campus. I don’t know how you guys do it.”

Marah listened to Tori’s list and commented, “You’re right. Maybe I should get a job.”

Tori blinked. “That is so not what I meant.”

“No, but seriously,” she said. “Kapri works in Ops with Cousin. Why shouldn’t I have something too?”

“Well,” Tori shrugged, “you could always work here. Kelly could definitely use the help.”

“And I bet Dustin would like it too,” Kapri added, elbowing her sister.

Marah squirmed. She had to admit that working with Dustin was the first thing that came to mind. She just didn’t know if she was qualified to work at a place like Storm Chargers.

“I don’t know,” she finally said. “What do I know about extreme sports?”

“Well, I know you have excellent taste,” Tori smiled and nodded at her shirt.

Marah looked down. She was wearing a moto jersey. She had come to Storm Chargers last week with Tori with the intent to get something to wear to Dustin’s competition. And there was only one thing she had in mind. Free Air. An orange Free Air jersey actually.

Tori had approved of the purchase then. And it sounded to Marah like she was giving her approval on even more now.

She returned the smile. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Great! I’ll mention it to Kelly too,” Tori added. Then she noticed the line of people behind the girls at the register.

“Duty calls,” she muttered, and stood to ring up the customers like it was the last thing in the world she wanted to do.

Kapri turned to her sister. “Well, it looks like the guys are already gone. I’m going to head to the skate park so I don’t miss anything.”

“And I guess I have to head to Thunder Gulch.” Shane’s skateboarding event was in Blue Bay Harbor, but Dustin’s freestyle competition was over in Thunder Gulch, the home of the Thunder Academy.

She could teleport there pretty easily. But she would really like a reference point to actually teleport to. The only reference point she had in Thunder Gulch was well, the Thunder Academy itself, from when they had originally attacked it a year and a half ago. At least back on Uncle’s ship, they had a picture on the monitor to go by.

“Have fun!” Kapri waved. She gave Ninja a last pat, “Take care of her, okay?”

The dog barked, startling several customers who had no idea there was a dog in the store. Marah giggled and waved as her sister headed out the door.

As Kapri exited, Hunter came in. Kapri waved at him, causing Hunter to look twice as if to confirm who she was. He nodded back at her though, and headed toward the counter.

“Hey, Tor,” he shouted, completely ignoring the line of customers. “I was headed back home, but I wanted to see if you’ve heard from Blake yet.”

“Yeah,” she answered, also ignoring the customers. “He’s safe and sound in Silver Springs.”

“Hunter!” Marah interrupted cheerily. He looked over at her, surprised. The ex-Crimson Ranger’s appearance had given her an idea. And she presented it all quickly in a rush.

“You’re heading back to Thunder Gulch, right? Could you give me a ride? Please? Dustin’s competition is there, and I would really love to see it.” She smiled brightly, batting her eyes.

Hunter sighed, “Everyone’s pairing up, aren’t they?” Marah just continued to smile innocently.

“Alright. C’mon, let’s go. But I can only give you a ride there because I’m not coming back here.”

“Oh thank you!” she squealed, and hugged him. Then quickly let him go, and giggled at his shocked expression. “And don’t worry. Once I’m there, teleporting back here is no problem.”

Hunter frowned and nodded. She wasn’t sure if that meant he didn’t approve of the teleporting powers or what.

“Later, Tori,” he called, heading back toward the exit.

“Bye!” Marah added, jumping to the front of the line to give Tori a hug over the counter.

“Tell Dustin good luck for me,” she said. Marah nodded, waved, and ran out the door.

When she caught up with Hunter, he had stopped with his hand on his truck door. “Wait, you didn’t say he was with you.”

Marah looked around, but didn’t see anyone objectionable. In fact, the only ‘he’ she saw was Ninja, standing obediently at her side.

“What?” she went on with her innocent act. “He’s clean. I mean, do you know what you have to do to keep a white dog looking this white? I swear, he won’t mess up your truck.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to change his mind. He nodded and opened his door. “Whatever.”

Marah hopped excitedly and opened the passenger door. She helped Ninja into the cab, then followed behind him.

Hunter was giving the dog beside him a look like he wondered why Ninja wasn’t riding in the back. But one glance at Marah’s bright smile, and he apparently decided that arguing with her would do no good.

Sighing again, he put the truck in gear and pulled out of the lot.

Porter had made it. That was so awesome.

Shane high-fived his brother when he walked up. A little awkward, but Porter was really more of a no-nonsense kind of guy.

The brothers had been trying to spend more time together. To build that relationship they’d never had growing up with so many years between them. But both of them were making a real effort now. And that included workaholic Porter actually taking the weekend off so he could go to Shane’s competition.

They talked for a little while, then went back over so Shane could practice. He had been using a nearby set of stairs to practice a new dismount from his rail slide. On his fifth attempt he happened to look up. And nearly fell off at what he saw.

Kapri was approaching. And not just walking, she was practically skipping over. And straight up to where Porter now stood talking to Kelly.

Kapri had talked about his competition. And he had briefly wondered if she would come. So he shouldn’t have been surprised that she was there. But he was. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised nonetheless.

It was all Shane could do to not land on his butt. As it was he jumped off his board as it fell off the rail and clattered down the steps. All three looked up at him, so he gave them an ‘I meant to do that’ look before picking up his board and walking over.

“I’m going to check on things,” Kelly said, as she excused herself from the group. Besides sponsoring Shane, she was a major sponsor of the event too. She definitely had a lot on her plate. But Shane knew Kelly of all people could handle things.

As Kelly left he looked between Porter and Kapri. This was an introduction he never thought he’d be making.

“Hey guys. Um, Kapri, this is my brother, Porter. Porter –“

“Shyeah, I know,” Kapri interrupted. “We’re good friends. Right, Porter?”

Shane stared at them blankly. He was learning new things about his brother everyday. But this was different. And he couldn’t wait to hear how his brother was friends with a formerly evil space ninja.

“One of the times I was at the Academy recently I happened to run into Kapri and her sister,” Porter supplied.

But Shane just looked suspiciously between the two. That was it? Somehow he had expected something… bigger. Or something. “Yeah, why do I get the feeling you guys aren’t telling me something?”

Kapri simply smiled at the brothers and didn’t answer. Porter just shrugged. Shane sighed, knowing he wouldn’t get much more of an answer from either of them. Maybe they did have some things in common after all.

“So when do you go?” Kapri asked. She had turned to see the toteboard, but from there all they could see was its back.

“I’m fifth,” he answered. “At least that allows me a little more time to practice.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine!” she slapped him on the back enthusiastically. Shane looked at her warily, but he realized she was really trying to be nice. He returned her smile, as he heard the call for participants over the speaker system.

He slapped hands with Porter, and got a thumbs up from Kapri. “Okay, practice time is over, I guess.” He laughed and headed over to the course.

Marah waved as Hunter’s truck pulled back onto the road. She turned back toward the track, and smiled as she looked over the large field. It was filled with vans and trucks, trailers and bikes. Everywhere she turned there were people walking, talking, and pointing at whatever they saw.

And it looked like she’d arrived before it started. Yay! With a happy sigh Ninja and she headed off to find the Storm Chargers’ van.

Ninja found it before she did. And that was just because the dog found Dustin. He took off running, barking as he went. Marah saw Dustin’s dark head raise from his bike work. And she was oh so happy to see the smile that spread across his face.

“Marah! You came!” he exclaimed. He hugged her quickly, then let go to make sure Ninja got his much sought after attention as well. “I didn’t think anyone would be able to make it.”

“Of course I came,” she smiled. “Everyone needs a cheerleader, right? Oh!” She dug in the back pocket of her shorts, and pulled out a long stick with plastic fringe. “See, I even have a pompom!”

“That’s awesome,” he grinned back. “C’mon,” he said, taking her hand. “I have to check in, and I want to introduce you to some people.”

She looked down at their hands. He may have only taken it to show her the way. But she really didn’t care. Dustin was holding her hand. She was holding Dustin’s hand. They were holding hands together. However you looked at it, she was happy.

She nodded, and followed as he led the way through the crowd.