Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' is property of BVE or someone along those lines. No infringement is intended.

MAD SEASON

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Two: Coming Closer

"Put them some place and make sure none of them escape," the man who appeared to be the leader of this little party snapped to the others.

Conner felt the cold, sharp barrel of a gun press into his shoulder as the group was urged forward towards a hallway. He knew this hallway. It was the hallway that housed the bathrooms and the doors to get to the private offices of the powers-that-be of the mall. The group was marched down the hallway and the men broke the lock on the door that read 'private.' The hallway was eerily deserted. For a moment, he had hoped that someone might still be there or have heard them coming and called the police. Then again, he was sure the police had already been called. His heart pounded.

"In there!" someone ordered and they filed into what appeared to be a conference room. He felt himself propelled forward where he ran into Hayley's back.

"Search them," another person called.

Someone grabbed Conner from behind. He tried to struggle, but a fist connected with his jaw and he stumbled into the conference table. His vision blurred as a sharp pang dulled to steady ache. The man roughly patted him down, pulling his wallet, cell phone and keys from his pants' pockets and throwing it into a growing pile on the table. He was too scared to feel any indignation at the violation. His jacket was pulled off and the man began going through the pockets, coming up with a wad of tissues, some cough drops and his pen and notepad. The man flipped through the notepad, seeing some of his doodles for the book series.

"What have we here?" the man mused. "A little writer? What do you do? Sit at Starbucks and write poetry?" he sneered. "Nothing but a faggot." He roughly pushed Conner directly in the middle of his chest, forcing him against the wall. He coughed as the wind was knocked out of him.

Another man walked up to him. Conner winced as the foul breath got close to his face. "We might have some use for you, sweetheart," the man said, running a gloved finger over his cheek.

Conner fought the urge to yell or vomit. He had come to terms with the fact that he was bisexual, but he absolutely did not want to be raped by some crazed terrorists. For some reason, that prospect seemed worse to him than possible death.

"Sit down against the wall," another order came. He sank down to the ground, realizing that Tommy and Hayley were on either side of him. He turned slightly to Tommy and found a commiserating look in those dark eyes. He had no idea why he found Tommy's eyes so fascinating all of a sudden. Perhaps it was because he had never noticed that before. If this had been any other situation, he would have seriously considered pressing his lips to Tommy's and seeing what happened. But the cold reality was they were now hostages and Tommy was completely straight.

The terrorists were talking amongst themselves just outside the door. Conner took an opportunity to look around the room. There were no other exits or windows—it was probably a fire hazard and a half. The only way to escape would be to overcome these people somehow and Conner seriously doubted they would get far since the terrorists had automatic weapons and they had only their fists.

He felt Tommy lightly touch his knee. The gesture was simple and, to a casual observer, looked like a friendly touch. And Conner knew that was all it was, as much as he wanted to read into it. He had to stop this. It wasn't right.

"Are you all right?" Tommy asked.

He nodded quickly. "I guess so."

"They're not going to rape you," Hayley said softly. "That would detract from whatever their cause is. They're either going to bargain with the police or start killing us."

"Very comforting," Tommy replied, a biting sarcastic edge to his words.

Conner didn't say anything. Death had never felt so near to him. He was twenty-three and had managed to avoid most of the car wrecks that people in his age group faced. His twin brother had been in a car accident their junior year of high school and had turned his entire life around after that. Being a ranger had made him much more aware of the possibility of death, but it had never been as close as the barrel of a machine gun.

There were so many things he could to do. He wished that Eric, his twin, was not the only member of his family who knew about the books and the fact that he was bisexual. Eric had been surprisingly supportive when he talked to him about it.

"Conner, you're my brother. I don't care if you're gay, straight or bi. I don't care if you decide you want to be a Roman Catholic priest. I'll love you anyways. Besides, it's kind of neat that you're a bestselling author. I've read some of those books and thought they were great…"

He had been amused to find out Eric had been unknowingly reading his books. He had claimed that his girlfriend got him into them. If there was one member of his family he always felt like he could talk to and reveal things about himself to that he would never tell anyone else, it was Eric. The identical twins shared a bond that was elusive to anyone else. Eric always seemed to know when he was upset or angry and would call him. Conner did the same thing for Eric. They had never talked about that sense of precognition towards each other. It was always there and they didn't want their parents, firm skeptics, to crush that sense.

No one else knew about those things. Eric was his best friend, his confidant and he was the same to Eric. They had seen each other through scraped knees, fights with bullies, breakups and their parents' wrath. And they had always been closer than they let on to the public. The only thing he kept hidden from Eric was the fact that he was a Power Ranger. And still, he thought that Eric subconsciously knew that as well.

"What are you thinking about?" Hayley asked softly.

"My brother," Conner said reluctantly.

"Eric?" she asked with a smile. He nodded. "I've always liked him whenever he came to the café." She paused. "I don't know how your mother told you two apart when you were little."

"She always had our hair cut differently and had us in different clothes." He shrugged. "And Eric doesn't tend to do coffee shops or cybercafés. Not his thing."

"I don't imagine it's really your thing either," Tommy said dryly.

He cracked a smile. "No. But you'd be surprised."

Tommy opened his mouth to say something, but Hayley beat him to it. "Are you and Eric really close?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied. His thoughts went back to one night during high school when he had just broken up with his girlfriend. That was before he became a ranger…

His room was dark save for one small lamp on his nightstand that he had. He sighed, drawing his knees up to his chest and staring out the window at the ink black sky. His first breakup since freshman year. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Why was he the one mooning over a girl? He just felt… rejected.

"Can't sleep?"

He looked up to see Eric standing in the doorway of his room leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed. Eric… his image, the only difference being Eric's hair was shorter and combed more neatly than his. "How did you know?" he asked.

"You're awake," he replied. He pushed himself off the doorframe and crossed the room, sitting on the end of Conner's bed. "Are you all right?" he asked.

He shrugged. "I just can't believe Kelly broke up with me."

Eric nodded. "I know its rough, but, believe me, she was not the girl for you."

Conner remained silent, knowing that Eric was probably right in the long run. He had built up such dreams about them, almost to the point of imagining their wedding. But that was unrealistic. And who marries their high school girlfriend anyways?

"I'll let you in on a secret," Eric said, his eyes glowing with a conspiratorial light. "I had a huge crush on my teacher when I was still at that ninja academy."

"Tori?" Conner asked with a grin.

Eric shrugged. "She was hot. Of course, she wouldn't give me the time of day."

He had laughed, the laughter working like a soothing balm to heal his wounds. It was hard imagining Eric having a crush on a serious ninja teacher. He had heard all about Tori, since the day Eric found out he had been assigned to the water classes. Then their parents decided Eric was spending too much time at the academy and not enough time on his schoolwork and made him drop out of the ninja school. That had been hard on Eric. The rumor at that school had been that three of their teachers had been Power Rangers…

But they had stayed up that night, talking about the ridiculous things they had done, some separately and some together, but ridiculous nonetheless…

"We were always there for each other," Conner said. "I think the hardest thing we ever did was go to separate colleges."

"Could you have gone to the same colleges?" Hayley asked.

He shook his head. "Our parents wouldn't let us. They always thought we spent an unhealthy amount of time together growing up. Never mind the fact that studies have shown identical twins had this weird 'bond' thing."

Hayley smiled. "Your parents are strict?"

"Not strict. Just insane." He paused. "They have strange ideas. And they were both only children, so they didn't understand how siblings interact, let alone twins." He smiled. "We had our own language when we were little. Sometimes we reverted back to it when we got older, just to confuse our parents."

Hayley continued to smile. He could recall many times when he and Eric would pretend to be each other to confuse their parents. Or start speaking their own language again. It was strange, but he could never translate that language. It was something that just was. He and Eric understood it and that was all that was needed.

He turned towards the door, looking at the men there with guns. He only hoped he could make it out of this alive. Or make it long enough to tell someone other than Eric about the revelations he had had about his life.

Tommy smiled to himself as Conner talked about his brother. It was clear that the pair of them were extremely close. He was an only child. Well, he had been raised as an only child. The adopted son of fairly successful parents, he had done well in his childhood and adolescence, always knowing that he was adopted and not particularly caring. He had always felt loved by his parents and, once he became the White Ranger, felt like he fit in with the other rangers.

That tiny world he had knit for himself came crashing down around him when he found out about David and Sam and where he really came from. For most of his life, he had remained blissfully ignorant about his roots. Then he found his brother and his grandfather. It was hard for him to consciously think of David as his brother, even after all this time. He was an only child. It was how he had been raised. His adopted parents had adopted him in hopes of fulfilling the phrase 'adoption leads to conception.' Hadn't happened in their case. For the first time in a long time, after he had met David, he thought about what could have been if he hadn't been adopted. He would have been an entirely different person and not a ranger.

Well, he didn't really talk to his mother and father anymore. He and David kept in sporadic touch, but not enough to really consider themselves more than distant relations. With that distance, Sam was lost too, since his grandfather didn't know much about modern means of communication. After he opened his big mouth almost four years ago, things hadn't been the same between himself and his parents. Besides, his mother had visions of grandchildren and he just couldn't see himself with kids, no matter how hard he tried. And there was the slight problem that he hadn't had a real girlfriend since Kat back in high school. Kids didn't just come out of a cabbage patch and it took two to tango.

"Tommy," Hayley had told him one time during undergraduate school. "Stop living in the past and start living now. Kat is gone. You're probably not going to hear from her again. Find someone else and move on!"

That had been enough to propel him forward. Then Billy and Trini and their daughter came to UCLA with them. He and Billy had grown closer then and just the novelty of being around their daughter was enough to keep his mind off of Kat and the past. Then there was always Joanna and Chris, the cousins from Texas who had been he and Hayley's roommates respectively. Joanna had been a Marine Biology major and was often accused of loving fish more than people. Chris had been an Art and Physics major and got the honor and distinction of being the weirdo.

Those years had been some of the best. He and Hayley along with Billy, Trini, Joanna and Chris… hanging out and forming a new group… finding the support that all of them needed. He could recall trips to Best Buy, where Billy worked, to harass Billy and talk him into going out with them on Friday nights. Or laughing as Hayley and Joanna conspired to take Trini out for a night to get away from Billy and their daughter for a while.

"Remember Joanna and that bunch?" Hayley asked suddenly, drawing him from his reverie. Conner looked interested. He smiled. Hayley always had an uncanny knack for hitting on what others were thinking.

"How could I forget them?" he replied. He remembered he and Chris had plans for world domination. They had gone to Best Buy one night to expound on the plan with Billy…

It was late. Best Buy was going to close in about half an hour. Tommy and Chris walked through the doors, realizing that it was late and no one was likely to be buying a computer, so Billy would be free. Tommy reached into his jacket pocket, just to make sure the folded piece of notebook paper was still there.

"Got it?" Chris asked.

"Of course," he scoffed.

They made their way to the computer section where Billy was sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine, looking generally bored. Chris bounded up to the counter, slapping his palm on the surface and startling Billy out of his half-asleep stupor.

"We've got it!" Chris proclaimed.

"You found a brain?" Billy asked mildly.

"No," Chris replied, waving his arms in a grandiose gesture. "Show him, Tommy."

Tommy took the piece of notebook paper out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the counter. "We have a brilliant idea for world domination by infiltrating the towel market."

"The towel market?" Billy gave them a look that clearly said he thought they were sniffing glue or something. He also had another look in his eyes only for Tommy. 'All their enemies when they were active rangers were out for world domination and looked how it panned out for them.' Tommy gave him a pointed look trying to say it was all in good fun.

"Yes!" Chris cried. "Straight from Douglas Adams, a man after my own heart."

They then spent the next ten minutes outlining the plan which included slowly taking over the stock market, starting with linen companies. Once they took over the stock market, they could then move into the government since they would control most of America's money. In the government, they would slowly replace key offices before taking over. And once they had America it was only a matter of time before the world.

Billy had laughed, going along with the ridiculous plan. It was times like this that Tommy knew he was ultimately going to treasure, coming into Best Buy late at night and scheming about things that would never come to pass…

"We were going to take over the world," he said.

Hayley smiled. "I remember that. You guys also kept trying to interfere with Billy and Trini's life overmuch."

Tommy shrugged. "We were young and stupid and thought we knew everything."

"Chris certainly thought he knew everything. You just went along with whatever ridiculous scheme he came up with."

He shook his head. "Chris was fun to be around, especially when he was making fun of Joanna for her goldfish."

"You didn't have to live with the goldfish," Hayley muttered.

"This is why I had my own room my entire college career," Conner added in an undertone. Tommy nodded. It had been a huge adjustment for him, going from being an only child and never having to share to sharing a living space the size of his bedroom from back home. From what Conner had said, he imagined that Conner and Eric never shared a room even in early childhood. So, if he could get his own room, all the better.

"I don't blame you," Tommy replied.

Some shuffling noises came from out in the hallway and Tommy snapped to attention. Most of the hushed conversation that had been going on stopped. The men were out in the hallway arguing about something. He strained to hear the conversation.

"The cops are here," one of them stated.

"And they want us to start releasing hostages."

"Well, what else is new? You think they really want us to keep those sorry pieces of shit back here until we kill them. I thought you knew cops."

"Every hour they don't comply with our request, we kill one of them."

"Sounds good to me. Might even have some fun with that fag back there."

Tommy felt his heart constrict and he glanced to Conner. He had gone pale and his hands were just visibly shaking. He wanted to comfort him somehow, wanted to hold him and tell him that everything would be okay. But that wasn't possible in this situation or ever. In his experience, Conner was the straightest of straight guys. That light brown hair spilled over his forehead and Tommy wanted to brush it back, but he restrained all those urges. The last thing Conner needed was for those terrorists to actually think he was gay when he wasn't.

"Just release one hostage now," one of the terrorists said in a bored voice. "They'll see we're willing to negotiate and we'll still have all the others."

"Fine. Go pick one."

One of the terrorists came into the room fully. Like the others, he had on a ski mask and gloves. The bulky winter clothing hid his true form, but Tommy imagined that he was slightly built unlike the others. He held a machine gun, but it wasn't aimed at anything.

"Damn chink," someone muttered from the hallway. "It doesn't take that long to pick one of those damned hostages!"

The man studied all of them for a moment. Tommy could see his eyes and thought he looked familiar. Maybe he was grasping at straws, looking for a hand and then falling further when he realized there was no friend. The man's gaze fell on him and those dark, almond shaped eyes met his and he winked. Tommy stared at him. He had distinctly winked at him. This was getting way too complicated and weird.

He motioned to Hayley. "You," he said simply. "Come on."

Hayley gave them a frightened look. Tommy nodded at her, not trusting himself to say anything encouraging, not under an unknown gaze coupled with a gun. Conner gently squeezed her hand as she slowly got to her feet.

"Come on," the man repeated. "It's all right. I'm not going to hurt you."

"And I'll hurt you if you don't hurry it up!" someone from the hallway yelled.

The man let out a long sigh. "Just a minute!" he screamed back at them. His eyes went to the little girl clinging to her mother. "Pretend the girl is yours," he said in a hushed tone that wasn't heard in the hallway. "We don't harm children." He looked at the woman. "She'll take the girl and they'll both be safe."

The mother nodded tearfully at the man and hugged her daughter tightly. She kissed the little girl's forehead. "I'll see you soon," she whispered. "I love you." The little girl clung to her mother's neck, until the mother coaxed the child towards Hayley. She ran to Hayley and clung to Hayley's hand and the side of her skirt.

The man led them out.

"I said one."

"It's a mother and daughter. You don't want a rep for harming kids, do you?"

"Fine," a voice said grudgingly.

He heard footsteps down the hallway and even more distant voices of what must have been policemen taking Hayley and that little girl to safety. Tommy wondered why the man had not just sent the mother and the daughter. Why the charade with Hayley?

He glanced to Conner and saw confusion that mirrored his own.

What was going on?

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Special thanks to my reviewers. I understand that there probably won't be too much interest in this story, but I am flattered that a few people are reading and enjoying. :) My normal updating schedule will go into place as well-- those of you that have read one or more of my stories as I was posting it can probably guess what that is. But once more, thanks to my readers! --EK