I dedicate this chapter to Chylea because it's freaky how often she guesses what happens next and I'm pretty sure she could write this story for me!

Well you can have food fights at school…and Conner edges that little bit closer as Grace uses her powers.

Chapter 29 – Fighting is educational?

Grace settled herself comfortably on the bench smiling as she watched the students of Reefside High go wild at the promise of lunch time. She'd been feeling good since she had last seen Kira on the Saturday; even the usual Monday blues had been kept at bay. She hadn't even gotten a headache from healing Kira; it had taken her a while to put all the facts together but eventually she had come to the conclusion that her Ranger power was that of healing. It worried her slightly that she had tired so easily before, over reached herself with so little effort; after all she had only healed a few bruises and tiredness, it seemed her boundaries were small.

Grace pulled out her book and studied the cover; Karate in the advanced stages, it seemed that her skills had improved and she had to practice she needed some new moves. She had to build up stamina, speed and precision and maybe in time she could stretch her boundaries and improve her powers.

She opened the book and slipped between the pages immersing herself in her new interest, it was not long however before a shadow slipped over the table.

"Miss- um, Grace?" A surprised and curious voice interrupted her concentration. She looked up to find a smiling Kira and a disbelieving Trent; she couldn't help but notice that Kira's hand was slipped comfortably into Trent's.

"Trent!" She exclaimed, all else forgotten. "What on earth did you do to your eye?"

Her concern made him blush. "Oh, um…it's nothing really."

Grace made her way around to the other side of the bench and with a no nonsense attitude began to inspect the enormous black right eye. "Nothing? It looks terrible Trent how did you do this?" Trent shrugged uncomfortably and winced as she ran her fingertips over the swelling. Grace turned questioningly to Kira.

"Kira?" She tailed off at the sight of the young girl's long cut on her cheekbone. "What have you two been doing?" She said with a shake of her head, inspecting the slice. "Honestly, anyone would think you two had been fighting each other!"

"My money would be on Kira!" Said an approaching voice. Grace turned to see Ethan and Conner ambling towards them, she instantly noticed the way Conner held himself stiffly and that his bag was not on his usual shoulder.

"I dunno' Conner," Replied Ethan and reached across the table for her book, Grace caught a glimpse of dozens of cuts on his arm as his long sleeve rode up. "Looks like Miss Peyton is learning how to kick butt too!" Conner raised his eyebrows in speculation.

"Well you all look like you got caught in a war zone," Grace said defensively. "I thought it would be prudent to at least know a little in a place like this, and it looks as though you could all do with some help." The sound of jeering yells brought her attention to proceedings behind the teenagers. "Excuse me a moment." She said and ran over to break up the fight.

"Yeah," Snorted Conner lowering himself onto the bench. "Help would be good." They watched as Grace grabbed the two boys fighting and began to lecture them.

"Now imagine if she was on the team," he continued. "We'd have no problem."

Ethan looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Well look at her," Conner said, gesturing to the history teacher; she wasn't shouting just calmly talking to them both. "She's fair but she doesn't put up with crap; firm but fair as my mom always says. Doesn't that seem like a Ranger themed characteristic?"

"I guess," Trent replied with a smile. "I would say firm but fair describes her accurately."

"She doesn't even have to yell at them," Conner continued. "Look, she even manages to make them feel ashamed without being really angry." Indeed the two boys looked rather embarrassed and miserable at her disappointed expression. "That's the kind of thing Dr.O does, it's worse than punishment it just makes you feel like crap because you value their opinion."

"Wow Conner," Ethan looked impressed. "That was deep and sounded like it came from experience."

Conner cleared his throat and looked slightly flushed with embarrassment. "You guys have to admit though, Grace and Dr.O, there is something about them that makes you want their approval and…I dunno' lately there's been something about Grace that I just can't put my finger on."

Kira frowned at Conner but he was right; they'd never really thought about it before but from her friends' expressions they were now, it wasn't something noticeable until you really looked for it and you couldn't put you finger on it; it was elusive. Grace looked like she was letting them go when Principal Randal suddenly appeared; the young curly haired woman seemed to step in front of the two boys as though trying to protect them. She was shaking her head vehemently but Principal Randal didn't look impressed and shook her hand at Grace as though dismissing what she was saying; she then beckoned to the boys and Grace rolled her eyes.

"Oops," Said Kira with a wince. "Looks like Principal Randal isn't going to be as lenient and Grace is going to have be the defense."

"She likes looking out for people." Trent said. "She's good at it too."

Ethan nodded in agreement. "It's like she has this thing where she has to heal everyone, you know; make them better."

Conner's head snapped up from Grace's book. "What did you say?" There was urgency in his voice.

Ethan rolled his eyes. "I said –"

"HELLO!"

The Rangers turned to see the monster from the previous day stood waving a clawed hand at them, Reefside students began screaming and panicking, running in all directions in an attempt to get away. Through the panicked mass Dr.O could be seen, pushing his way past and yelling for everyone to get as far away as possible.

"Hey guys." He said, reaching their sides.

"Here we go again." Groaned Ethan.

"DINO THUNDER POWER UP!"

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Grace ran through the empty corridors checking the classrooms for students and trying not to listen to the sound of small explosions and yelling that came from outside. She herded the four students she had found down the maths corridor and as far away as possible from the fighting outside.

"Miss Peyton!" A cry from one of the classroom's grabbed at her attention.

"Run for the exit!" She called to the four in front of her and ducked into the classroom, the sounds of fighting growing louder. Two girls were huddled at the back of the class underneath one of the tables, Grace ran to them keeping low as one side of the room was comprised of large glass windows.

"Come on girls," Grace began to usher them towards the door she had just come through. There was a sudden roar and the sound of something shattering, glass flew across the room forcing the three of them to duck. Crouched by the door Grace raised her head slightly to see what had happened; a red clad figure lay in a tangle amongst the broken desks and glass. With a groan the Power Ranger pulled himself up, shaking his head to clear it and with a growl hopped back through the window.

"Go, go!" Grace pushed the girls out into the corridor and ran with them towards the door at the end. Something slammed into her with a force that knocked the breath from her body; a hand wrapped itself around her throat. "Go!" She shouted at the girls who had hesitated with cries of alarm; they didn't need telling twice.

"How sweet, rescuing the student body." Elsa's voice was recognizable despite the fact everything was going dark and she couldn't breathe. "If it weren't for you they'd be student bodies!" Elsa cackled at her own joke.

An explosion rocked the building and threw them both sideways, Grace felt the crushing grip on her throat suddenly release as she was sent flying; she ended up in the middle of the corridor and on the floor. She struggled to pull herself up coughing, she looked around at the devastation; there was rubble everywhere and small fires, giant holes gaped in the walls and ceiling and dust filled the air. Behind her down the far end of the corridor she could see tyrannodrones and the occasional and distant flash of yellow that suggested Kira had her work cut out for her. Grace brought a hand to her face; her right eye was aching like an old bruise and she was sure she had a half healed cut on her cheek; she didn't remember feeling them happen…

Elsa gave a groggy sounding groan bringing Grace back to the situation at hand, she pulled herself up before Elsa could take advantage of the situation, but unfortunately the woman gave a screech of rage and grabbed at her before she was quite steady; her head and ears were ringing. The witch like woman grabbed her hair and tried to swing her around into the wall, Grace gave a yell of pain as her shoulder crashed into the wall but rolled to one side forcing Elsa to do the same and slammed her elbow into the woman's stomach.

Leaning against the wall and trying to catch her breath Grace gave the off balance woman a kick for good measure which sent her reeling. Grace turned and ran down the corridor but she was knocked to the floor again as the part of the wall she had just passed exploded into the corridor and the black ranger flew in and hit the opposite wall. More dust and rubble rained down from the ceiling forcing her to cover her head with her arms, and a solitary sprinkler in the ceiling began to spray water onto the floor.

"Tommy?" She pulled herself over to the prone figure and gave him a shake. "Come on Tommy, please get up!"

"BLACK RANGER? COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" A loud and menacing voice could be heard over the sound of explosions that were still going on.

In a panic and with shaking hands Grace pulled off one of Tommy's gloves and gripped his hand in hers, twining their fingers and closing her eyes. She felt this strange awareness of his body, everything else just disappeared and became quiet and echoey as though it were happening a long way off. She took a deep breath and concentrated on the awareness, letting it slip over her as though she were running her hands across him; she let it sink in when she came across things that didn't feel right, bruised skin and bones. She saw what had happened as though in a flashback or memory; those bruises had been caused by the red ranger being thrown into him and so had the broken ribs, that cut had been a piece of glass, that bruise had been the wall. She came across a series of small cuts on his shoulder and let her awareness sink into them, healing them. She jerked back to reality with a hiss as she felt pain shoot across her shoulder and dropped his hand with flash of thorns echoing in her head.

"AH HA!" Grace turned to see a large red and thorny monster peering through the hole in the wall; now she knew what the thorns belonged to. "THERE YOU ARE!" Tommy stirred feebly beside her with a small groan.

"What the-" Grace began in alarm.

"I'M THE ACANTHID!" It yelled and grabbed Tommy by the ankle and began to drag him back through the wall. Somewhere in the back of her head Grace made the connection; Acanthid: Latin for thorn.

"I haven't finished with you!" Came a loud screech from back down the corridor.

"Shit." Grace turned to look at Elsa but another explosion shook her to the floor; it was, she decided, like being on a bouncy castle when you didn't have any balance and people kept jumping on you. She yanked herself back up again and threw herself into the nearest classroom as the ceiling panels that covered the pipes gave a groan and fell in, she vaguely registered Elsa's outraged scream. She sat with her back against the wall and pushed her hair out of her face, her heart was pounding in her chest and her breath came hard and fast. It was definitely time for a change.

"Dino thunder power up!"

A/N I ended up researching the name; I was going to use a name of a red rose but nothing sounded threatening so I went for the Latin names but again they weren't much good so I just went for something Latin; see a process of elimination! So what do you think? Couldn't think of anything in keeping with Power Ranger 'cheesiness' of monster names! Anyways tell me what you think because the fighting thing is definitely not my strong point but unfortunately my story means I can't really avoid it. REVIEWS, WHAHOO! Xxx