Paradise Lost

A/N- Well, it started off as a connerkira anguish fic thing, and I have somehow in the space of an hour managed to turn it into the beginning of an action story. Bear with me; I think it's still ok. Anyway, it's still Connerkira, don't worry there. It just might be a little longer then planned. Please review if you love it or hate it. And you never know, we may even dredge up some Tommy/Kim just for the fun of it.

It hadn't been an instant feeling. Of that he was decidedly certain. But, it had been getting stronger and stronger the more time he spent with her.

Conner sighed, flopping himself down onto his bed. He hadn't been able to get Kira out of his head! Every waking moment was spent thinking about her… Would she be in his next class? Was she looking at him? Was that smile sent at him or the guy behind him?

He had no idea what she felt about him. The way they interacted could hardly be called flirting could it? Some harmless tickling here and there, the joke that had had her calling him 'baby' for a week, the fact that she had laid her head on his shoulder last time they were on a couch together. What did she think of him?! It was driving him bananas. It really was.

Should he talk to Ethan about it? No… he would just laugh at him. Ethan had been teasing him for a week because Kira had put her head on his shoulder. It had hurt Conner that Ethan thought them getting together (or her even liking him back) was so unlikely he could make an enormous joke of it. No, maybe Ethan wasn't the best for relationship counselling.

Dr O maybe? Conner thought hard for a second. Nah, that guy had been crushed when he was Conner's age and never gotten over it. He didn't actually speak the team very often about it, but they had all seen the picture of his ex-girl. It sat above the doc's fridge, always perfectly dusted, but never mentioned. Nope, Dr O. was definitely out of the picture for this problem.

So who did that leave him with to ask for help? He groaned. Should he even be asking for help with this? Was he just fooling himself? Ddi he really like Kira as much as he thought he did? Was it just some desperate inner desire to pursue a normal life when his real life was filled with spandex costumes, and unbelievable monsters? Maybe. That just made his life sad, because he was trying to fool himself into liking the first girl he saw.

Or maybe not. Maybe he really liked Kira as much as he thought he did. This option didn't make him feel any better anyway. If he really did like Kira as much as he was sure he did, then all that was going to happen was his hearting getting broken into a thousand tiny pieces. Which sucked for him. It looked like neither option was a winner for him.

It looked like he was going to have to keep suffering in silence. And hope that Ethan would let off on his continuous bagging out. And keep his fingers crossed that if Kira got any whiff of his feelings for her she'd not laugh at him the way Ethan was. Thinking about it he might have to cross his toes as well. She was gonna laugh her head off if she ever found out he liked her.

ARGH! Conner shouted as he threw a pillow at the wall in frustration. Why wasn't life just easy? He knew that he was pretty lucky in the long run; he had enough to eat, clothes, freedom to worship God without persecution etc. but fair go! This was tearing him apart!

The way Conner saw it the only other option he had was to actually 'gasp' tell her how he felt. And that wasn't even one he wanted to consider. No, it looked like he would just continue to adore her from afar, and end up some lonely old sod in his late twenties like poor old Doctor O. Conner laughed sadly as he realised that it would one day be Kira's picture that sat above the fridge, not a speck of dust on it. What a depressing thought.

Before he could contemplate any further the familiar beeping rang out, holding back an annoyed groan (didn't those monsters ever stop coming!?) Conner lifted his communicator to his mouth.

"Go for Conner."

"There's a monster attacking at the park, can you get here quickly please?" Hayley said quickly, "the others are coming but you might have to hold him off yourself, they don't have your super speed."

"I'm on it Hayley. Conner out."

He rushed out the door of his room and out the front door, shouting a quick, "See you later" to his mother, who was by now quite used to this behaviour.

It didn't take long to get to the park, but there was still quite a scene when he got there. The monster, which looked like a big blue tongue lizard standing on two legs, was breathing fire out of its mouth, setting alight trees and park benches. It looked like people had long since evacuated, for which Conner was very grateful.

He moved forward, hoping to attack it without it seeing him first, but the monster spun around before he could, and Conner realised what it held in its hands (well claws).

A little boy.

"I dunno what the heck you are, but put the kid down mate. He isn't part of this." Conner shouted to the monster, taking a tentative step forward. He didn't want the little kid to get hurt.

"I was told you'd say that" the monster said, in its grating husky voice. "Elsa said you'd say that if I had a little hostage." He shook the boy for effect and the poor kid burst into tears.

"Put him down you SOB, he isn't involved in this!" Conner was shouting now, he desperately wanted to get the little boy away from the monster. The kid was almost hysterical. Strike that. The kid was hysterical.

"Elsa told me to say something else to you as well ya know." The monster said conversationally, giving the kid another little shake.

"And what was that" Conner got out, his voice quivering with anger.

"She said…" he paused; Conner had a quick look over his shoulder for the other two, wondering where they were. The monster began again, "I want to get this just right. Elsa will kill me if I don't. She said that I could give you back the hostage if you handed over yourself. That was it." The monster beamed at itself. "So what will it be? You or the kid?"

Conner froze. Elsa had said what? He was about to speak when something clicked in his head.

"Elsa knew you were going to be talking to me? What about the others? What did she tell you to say to my friends when they get here?"

"You're friends are coming." The monster scoffed. Elsa sent down some other friends for them, you were just for me.

He shook the bawling kid again. "WELL? Which will it be? You or him?

"Put him down and I'll come quietly."

"De-morph and I'll believe that." The monster replied.

Conner did as he was told, thought his hand shook slightly as he did. What on earth was this thing gonna do to him? He might not survive this. That was something he was quite sure of, though there was no question of what he should do. That little boy was terrified, and Conner would do anything he could to get him out of there.

If he didn't come back would she cry for him? At least this gave him bigger things to think about then whether or not he'd live the rest of his life a miserable bachelor. He might not get past today.

"I've demorphed!" He shouted to the monster, "now put the kid down!"

"Oh fine. You rangers and your nobility. Here…" he dropped the boy on the ground, and the kid ran straight to Conner and grabbed his leg.

"T'ank you mr ranger." He had said in a cute little kid voice.

Conner grinned in spite of himself, then stood up straighter and pushed the little boy behind him. The monster hadn't moved. Surely it couldn't be that easy to save this kid? He could grab the boy and make a run for it right then and the monster wouldn't be able to catch them. Unless of course… Conner cursed himself as he felt something bash him on the head.

MORON. He shouted at himself as he fell, Elsa's soldiers can disguise themselves. You just fell for the oldest trick in the b…

And then there was the darkness of unconsciousness.

A/N- Well, there we go chapter one. Love it, hate it? Tell me please! REVIEW! There should be more eventually.