As the monster reached down toward Will, it was struck by a beam of energy and thrown away in a shower of sparks. From the other end of the empty plaza, Emma dashed in unmorphed, leveling her Phoenix Shot weapon. Right behind her, Troy ran into the plaza and spotted the downed form of Will. "Emma, buy us a little time! I'm going to get Will to safety!"

The Pink Ranger nodded and quickly morphed, rushing forward to engage the gargoyle as it regained its footing. As Emma began to tumble and harass the creature with her own blaster, Troy hurried over to Will and found his classmate barely conscious, but delirious.

"Will! Are you ok?" Troy gasped, as he checked for any other injuries and found none.

"Troy?" Will croaked in surprise as his head lolled to the side.

Troy slung Will's arm around his neck and began to drag his classmate clear of the battlefield. "Just hang on. I'm gonna get you out of here."

"What are you doing? Just leave me and run." Will groaned.

Troy shook his head, "I can't do that."

"What's the point?" Will continued in delirious pain. "The monster was right. Sarah doesn't care about me. She just ran and left me here to die, so why should I care about living? What chance do I have now?"

"Well, I'm going to make sure you get another chance to tell Sarah how you feel." Troy grunted, getting Will to a safe corner of the plaza.

As the gargoyle grappled with Emma, it turned toward Troy and smirked, "You heard the kid. If he wants to give up and die, then let him!"

Troy slowly rose and faced the monster, clenching his fists in anger. "His heart belongs to him! I won't let you harm it any more!"

Behind him, Will whimpered, "Troy, aren't you scared?"

The Red Ranger turned and looked upon Will with a gentle, but determined expression on his face. "There are times when I get scared too. But whether its in love or war, they're both the same. You can't just run away. If you do, that's when it's truly over."

As she held the monster in place, Emma stood, momentarily distracted by Troy's impassioned speech before the gargoyle broke loose and shoved her aside.

As Will leaned his head back and seemingly passed out, Troy strode toward the monster and pulled out his morpher, transforming into the Red Ranger in a brilliant flash of light. As the gargoyle swatted Emma aside, it stopped in surprise as it saw the Red Ranger draw his Dragon Sword and rush into the battle with a furious shout.

Before the creature could react, the Red Ranger was upon it, hacking and thrusting with a flurry of blows. As Troy side stepped a swipe from one of the monster's wings, he parried another strike and counterattacked, sending the gargoyle reeling backwards with a powerful slash.

"You again?" it growled. "Can't you see I'm a lover, not a fighter?"

"You could have fooled us!" Emma called back sarcastically, taking a ready stance beside Troy as the other three Rangers joined the battle. "You're going to pay for breaking all those innocent peoples' hearts!"

The monster only chuckled and began to hover off the ground with its wings. "If you can even catch me!"

Nearby, Jake drew his axe and growled, "I've had just about enough of this guy! Let's get em!"

Following suit, the other Rangers charged forward in an all out attack with their weapons, blasters, or bare hands. To their surprise, the swift gargoyle wove through the battle, easily evading all of their attacks, or taking flying leaps to avoid getting hit. As the Rangers growled in frustration, they were all thrown backwards with another powerful gust of wind from the monster's wings.

Giving a victorious laugh, the creature produced its small bow and fired off another volley of poison darts, causing the Rangers to scatter and dive away as the bolts erupted along the ground in small explosions.

As the monster readied another attack, the Rangers crouched behind fallen tables, waste bins, and parkway trees for momentary cover. "What now?" Gia called. "This guy is way too fast! We'll never be able to hit him!"

That's when inspiration struck Troy and he called out to his team. "Everyone, I think it's time we put our own love advice to good use! Jake, Noah, then Gia!"

The other Rangers stopped to look at him a moment before they seemed to slowly catch on. Jake hefted his axe with a grin, "Bold action sounds like a good plan to me!"

Together, he and Gia charged forward and began to take furious swings at the monster with their melee weapons. Again, the monster used its great speed and agility to dodge the Black and Yellow Rangers' strikes, but as it did, it failed to notice the Blue Ranger studying its movements with a readied bowgun.

Again the creature outmaneuvered Jake and Gia, and shoved both of them over onto the ground before taking one last evasive leap upwards toward a nearby building's overhang. As it did, the monster was hit in the wings by a powerful shot from Noah's weapon. As Noah's shot tore through the creature's wings, the gargoyle crashed to the pavement in a heap.

"Now we finish things with style." Emma grinned as both she and Troy pulled out their morphers and unleashed a combined attack with their sky powers. In a flash, the monster was caught in a red swirling tornado and scorched by a bright pink thunderbolt as the wind dissipated. When the dust from the winds cleared, the stunned gargoyle staggered to its feet, only to be met with the Red Ranger's Dragon Sword crashing down on it for a finishing blow.

In one swift motion, Troy's powerful sword strike shattered the gargoyle monster, causing it to explode into a dark cloud of toxic poison and Vrak's magic. As the victorious Rangers powered down, they saw several motes of light emerge from the monster's remains and fly back to revive all the monster's unconscious victims.

Hurrying over, the Rangers gathered around Will as he opened his eyes and sat up groggily. "Hey, easy does it." Emma said gently helping to support him. "You took quite a fall."

Will nodded his thanks, then turned his eyes toward Troy in surprise. "Troy! You were the one who pulled me to safety. Where is the monster? What happened?"

Troy exchanged a knowing grin with the other Rangers and put a hand on Will's shoulder, "You totally missed it. The Power Rangers showed up and took care of everything. We're safe now."

Will nodded tiredly and tried to rise again, but Gia restrained him "Woah. Hold on there. You're in no shape to be running around."

Noah knelt down to his shaken classmate, "Gia's right. Jake and I will get you home. We can sort out the rest of this with you tomorrow."

Will simply grunted in agreement as Noah and Jake hoisted him up by the shoulders and carried him off. Troy watched with concern as the Black and Blue Ranger helped their classmate home when he felt a soft hand on his arm. It was Emma's.

"He'll be ok Troy. We should go check on all the other people that were hurt." With a quiet nod, Troy turned and began to follow Emma and Gia to make sure that the rest of the monster's victims had recovered. There was still a lot to do.

That following Sunday afternoon, the Rangers sat together with Will at the Brain Freeze, recounting the events of yesterday and treating him to some frozen yogurt. "I appreciate you all doing this." Will said swirling the last of his dessert around with a spoon, "I mean, not just for the dessert, but also for trying to set me up with Sarah yesterday."

"Speaking of which, I heard from her friends that she was able to get away safely." Gia offered helpfully. A large reason was because of you."

Troy put a hand on Will's shoulder, "That was really brave and selfless of you Will. I'm sure if the Power Rangers had seen it, they'd be proud too."

Will shrugged. "I guess so. Still, it's too bad that monster ruined the moment. It seemed like everything was going so well too."

At that moment, Will felt a gentle tap on the shoulder and everyone turned around to see Sarah Munoz, by herself and smiling timidly. "Hey Will. I heard you were here today. I hope I'm not interrupting something."

"Nah. We were just leaving." Troy smiled to her signaling the other Rangers to give them some privacy.

As the Rangers began to move to the farthest corner table, Jake gave a wolfish grin and made a thumbs up to Will as Gia grabbed the Black ranger by his shirt collar and forcefully hauled him away. "Come on! That means you too!"

After the Rangers cleared out, Sarah sat down with Will and smiled, "Listen, I wanted to come and thank you in person for trying to protect me from that monster yesterday. I think you were really courageous for doing that."

"Oh, you're welcome." Will answered sheepishly. "I'm just glad you're safe."

Sarah nodded with a sigh, "You know, I have to be honest. We've never really had much of a chance to talk before now, but I was really having a nice time with you yesterday."

Will shrugged, "Well, to be honest, I was having a nice time with you too."

Sarah gave a thoughtful look with the ghost of a smile on her lips, "It's also too bad that monster attack interrupted everything. If I remember right, wasn't there also something you were trying to say?"

For a moment, Will thought of Troy's words again and returned her smile, "Well… I wanted to say that I really liked you, and there's no reason we can't pick up where we left off, right?"

With that, he stood up and offered his arm, "Would you like to start by taking a walk?"

Sarah laughed, and took his arm. "I'd like that."

From their table, the Rangers watched happily as their classmates exited the Brain Freeze together. "You know, no matter how much you try to study it, I'll never really understand how this love thing works." Noah commented.

"That's because you need a girlfriend first, brainiac." Jake laughed, playfully elbowing his friend.

"And what makes you such an expert? Last I checked, you were still single too." Gia challenged him from across the table. As the three other Rangers erupted into a petty three way bickering match, Troy and Emma exchanged a small smile and began to laugh.

Later that day, as the early evening sky began to turn orange, Troy and Emma made their way home together from town, walking down the quiet streets of their neighborhood. Here and there, streetlights began to flicker on as they strolled the tree lined road.

"You know, I'm really happy things worked out for Will and Sarah." Emma smiled to herself, "and I'm glad we were able to help too."

"So, I guess that begs the question…" Troy replied with a smirk, "what's the next couple you're going to try and fix up? Jake and Gia maybe?"

Emma laughed aloud and shook her head as she calmed down again, "No. I was thinking I should maybe try to find a match for myself next."

"Oh?" Troy answered with slight worry. "Well, I'm sure you'll have no problems with that."

"Really?" Emma replied, stopping with a faint smile, "Because I was hoping to ask you for some of your advice. What you said the other day about just having to try your best and not run away was really good."

"You think so, huh?" Troy mused turning to look at her. "Because I was thinking I should probably take some of my own advice right now."

Emma looked back to him questioningly as Troy slowly stepped forward and cupped her cheek in his right hand. Leaning in, he softly pressed his lips to hers in a gentle tender kiss before letting go.

Emma stood with a stunned, dreamy expression on her face as Troy tried to catch his own breath, "Will hasn't been the only one with trouble expressing himself to his crush."

"Well, it's about time." Emma laughed gently, "I've been waiting for a while now."

The two continued smiling at each other and after a long pause, Troy turned to go with a sheepish shrug, "Well, I should probably get going. My house is just around the corner."

To his surprise, Emma began walking beside him and took his hand, threading her fingers through his, "But my house is still three blocks from here." she answered shyly. "I was thinking maybe you'd be willing to express yourself again along the way?"

Troy laughed in relief as he put his arm over her and pulled her closer, "I think I can do that… and tomorrow… and maybe if you're really lucky, every day after that too."

Emma sighed and gave a sly look, "You know, for someone who says he doesn't know much about relationships, you sure know how to sweet talk a girl."

Troy smiled in relief and remained quiet. He began to think where to go from here and what to tell the other Rangers tomorrow, but he decided it could wait. For now, he was content to continue walking alongside Emma in the setting sunlight with her hand still in his.

A/N:

Even though I'm not used to writing Romance fics, I still hope you romantics out there liked this one. As always, thanks for reading and feel free to sound off. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Do you want to sue me for contracting temporary diabetes? All comments (and/or Summons & Complaints) will be welcomed.