Author's Notes: As a reminder, this story takes place in June of 2004, right after the end of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. Mystic Force hasn't happened yet; Nick hasn't moved to Briarwood and Xander, Chip, Madison and Vida have yet to become Rangers.

Chapter 118

The Trouble with Shellshock

"Oh, look, it's Rocky and Adam," was all Justin had time to say before his brain processed the entirety of what he was seeing. Rocky and Adam were racing through the woods as fast as they could while being pelted with balls, clubs, bowling pins and other sundry commonly found in juggling displays. Rocky was limping and there was a rip in Adam's sleeve that might have come from one of the throwing knives being employed by one of the thirty-odd people chasing Rocky and Adam. Most were wearing clown outfits, right down to the floppy shoes, but there were three acrobats, a bearded lady, what could have been a lion tamer and several others dressed in miscellaneous circus attire. Every so often, a member of the mob would shout the word "bonkers."

Justin and Cam froze in place, staring openmouthed as the bizarre little procession went by. A full minute after the scene had disappeared from view, Cam said, "Um, did you just…?"

"Don't worry, I saw it too," Justin assured him.

Cam breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh. Good."

Justin shook his head. "Only in Angel Grove could you see an angry clown mob chasing your friends through the woods and not be hallucinating. Well, I'm gonna go check it out, see if Rocky and Adam need any help—you coming?"

"No, thanks," Cam said apologetically. "If I wanted to see clowns fight I'd be watching Marah and Kapri's rematch with Elsa."

Justin laughed. "Okay. Catch you later, man."

Cam nodded and watched as Justin jogged in the direction the clowns had gone, easily picking up the trail of circus props they had been throwing at Rocky and Adam. Cam sighed and started heading back towards the meadow, but stopped as he heard the faint sounds of sobbing.

Cam glanced around for the source, wondering if someone had been hurt in the crossfire between the clowns and Rocky and Adam. After a moment he spotted a glimpse of movement behind a nearby tree and headed towards it. On the other side was a girl with long dark hair, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth and sobbing so hard she didn't even notice Cam approach.

Cam stared at her, at a loss. He wasn't very good with crying females—though he got a little better every time Marah lost a goldfish—and he wasn't sure what to say. A cursory once-over told him that she didn't appear hurt, just upset, but he couldn't very well just leave her to sob uncontrollably without at least asking if he could help.

"Hey," Cam called softly. She looked up at him, and he could see she might be pretty if it weren't for the mess her crying was causing. "Are you okay?" She shook her head. "Do… do you want to talk about it?"

"I-I-I want to t-talk to him!" she wailed between sobs.

"Him. Who's him?"

"A-Adam," she cried.

He frowned. "You don't mean Adam Park by any chance, do you?"

"Yes, Adam Park!" A bit of anger creeped into her tone. "I came all this way and I finally found him and he has a-a-a girlfriend!" She shook with more sobs. "I know it's been awhile and I know when we first met I wasn't the sort of girl he could love, but I really thought we had something, you know?"

"I'm… sorry to hear that," Cam said, shifting uncomfortably. "But… um…"

"It probably really is that horrible Amanda girl," she continued bitterly. "I knew there was a reason he was always dragging her along."

Cam felt a need to say something useful. "Um… his girlfriend's name is Tanya. Not Amanda."

"Tanya? The Yellow Zeo Ranger?"

Cam stiffened. "What?"

"Tanya Sloan." The girl stopped crying, her eyes narrowing in cold fury. "Yellow Zeo Ranger. Of all the secret-identity Rangers on Earth she's the easiest to find. And she's…" She let out a shuddering breath. "But he told me I should respect their relationship. If I try to hurt her or break them up…"

"I think you should respect it," Cam said flatly. "If he's with Tanya then he's with Tanya. There's no reason to cause trouble for them."

She regarded him thoughtfully. "You think?"

Cam sighed. "Look. I believe that if something's meant to happen, it'll happen, but you can't force things like destiny. Destiny just happens, whether it's a school getting sucked into the sky to fulfill an ancient prophecy or running into an old flame at a moment when you're both ready to be in a relationship. Causing problems for him will get you nowhere but even more unhappy. He won't thank you for it."

She reflected on this for a moment. "You're right. I mean, I have all the time in the world. I can wait for it to end on its own, can't I?" She smiled weakly up at him. "You're very wise, Green Ranger."

Cam blanched. "Um…"

"I recognized you, of course," she continued. "You are Cameron Watanabe, right?"

"You've heard of me, huh?" Cam asked slowly. "Like you've heard of Adam and Tanya?"

"I'm Sabrina," she said. "I used to associate with the Mighty Morphin Rangers."

Cam relaxed a little. "Oh. Well, like I said, things happen for a reason. All you can do right now is wait and hope and try to look for love in other places."

She grinned. "You're right. There are plenty of other available mates in the universe. I just haven't mated in awhile—I'll figure it out eventually."

"…Good for you," Cam said awkwardly. "Look. There's a whole festival going on for this Power Rangers Day—why don't you go back to the meadow and get some tissues to wipe up your face, maybe get some food and do a little shopping and everything? Try to enjoy yourself? Take your mind off him?"

"I'd be glad to," she said happily, holding her hand out to him.

Cam blinked. He had meant she should go cheer herself up, but she seemed to have taken it as him offering to cheer her up. Still… what could it hurt? She did need cheering up, and he didn't want to upset her again; besides, he was curious to know what she meant by "associate with the Mighty Morphin Rangers."

Cam took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Once she was upright she didn't let go of his hand, lacing her fingers with his and standing a tad closer to him than absolutely necessary. Oh, well. She was kind of cute, and she seemed nice enough.

"Xander? Xander!"

Tori ducked down behind a middle-aged man who was buying his son a toy at a vendor's booth. She hadn't realized until Rocky and Adam had vanished that she was going to be in a bit of hot water if she saw that Xander guy again—after all, she was no longer with "Blake," and she was actually even leery of finding Blake at all now—if Xander saw her holding hands with her actual boyfriend, he'd assume that she was holding hands with a guy who wasn't "Blake" and might think that she was open to seeing other men.

"XANDER!"

Tori peeked out from behind the man she was using as cover. A dark-haired girl in denim shorts and a powder-blue tank top was standing a few yards away, anxiously glancing around for Xander. Tori was pretty sure the girl was the one Xander had been with before he'd attached himself to Tori.

Tori sighed, feeling bad for the girl. She looked kind of panicked, and the crowd was swelling to epic proportions; finding one person in the park was going to be difficult. Tori had last seen Xander on the other side of the park—it wouldn't kill her to at least point the girl in the right direction, if the girl was even looking for the same Xander.

Tori straightened up and headed over to the girl. "Hey," she called, and the girl looked over at her, confused and a tad nervous; Tori figured she was probably the shy type. Tori held up her hand to simulate Xander's height. "This 'Xander' you're looking for—is he about yay tall, Australian accent, doesn't take no for an answer?"

The girl sighed in relief. "Oh, good, you've found him."

"I ditched him, actually," Tori said apologetically.

"Understandable," the girl muttered, looking quite annoyed—Tori would be too, if her friend had ditched her to chase girls. "Well, thanks, anyway."

Tori smiled sympathetically at her. "I can show you where I last saw him, if you want."

The girl's face lit up. "Could you?"

Tori nodded and headed back towards where she'd ditched Xander, motioning the girl to follow. "So are you Madison, or Vida?"

"He told you about us?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, he mentioned driving in from Briarwood with his friends Madison, Vida and Chip. I'm Tori, by the way."

"I'm Madison. Vida's my sister."

"Nice to meet you."

"You, too. I'm sorry if Xander, um, bothered you."

Tori smiled. "I can take care of myself. He seemed harmlessly, really—but he comes on strong."

"That's Xander," Madison agreed.

They walked in silence for a minute. Tori noticed that Madison was a tad uncomfortable in the crowd, often avoiding eye contact with passersby and keeping close to Tori.

"So are you into Power Rangers?" Tori asked. "Xander didn't seem to care much about them."

"Xander's from Australia—he thought we were kidding when we told him there were superheroes in California," Madison explained.

Tori grinned. "I used to think they were a hoax, too."

"I never really thought much about it, but Chip did. He loves fantasy and science fiction and superheroes, all kinds of stuff like that. It is pretty cool when you think about it, though, that these people fight evil and monsters and all kinds of things… it's so heroic. I could never do anything like that."

"Thanks," Tori said, touched. "I mean, uh… most people think I'm crazy, being interested in Power Rangers."

"Trust me, no one is as crazy about them as Chip," Madison said.

Tori smiled at her as they came to a halt near the vendor where she had found Adam. "This is where I last saw him," Tori said. "I'm not sure which way he went."

Madison nodded and looked around. She sighed. "I'm never going to find him. Maybe Vi will have better luck."

Tori gave her a sympathetic look. In spite of the fact that she didn't want to see Xander again, Tori couldn't help feeling bad for Madison. Madison definitely didn't look thrilled at the prospect of scouring the park alone for Xander.

"Look… my friends are lost somewhere in this crowd too, and I already got my autographs from the public identity Rangers. I'm not doing much except listening to the questions and I can do that anywhere, so I can help you look for him if you want."

Madison looked so relieved Tori forgot all about the fact that she wasn't Xander's biggest fan. "Could you? I'd really appreciate it."

"Sure." She started walking again, Madison falling into step beside her. "So," Tori said, "Tell me all about Briarwood. That's a pretty quiet town, isn't it?"

"…and that's how the penguins got in the dolphin tank," Conner told Kat ruefully. She was giggling so much she could barely breathe. She and Conner had been swapping Bulk and Skull stories, and he was currently regaling her with the tale of their exploits at the zoo.

"Those… poor… animals," Kat gasped out. "I can just see Bulk telling a giraffe to giddy up!"

"Oh, no, he said it the old-fashioned-cowboy-movie way," Conner said. He twisted his face into an imitation of the panicky expression Bulk had been sporting at the time. "'Giddap!' The giraffe didn't take it so well."

"I wouldn't either!" Kat's laughter increased at the mental image of Bulk clinging to a giraffe's leg. Conner watched her laugh until it finally died to the occasional chuckle, at which point Kat noticed his scrutiny. "What?" she asked.

"You're so pretty when you laugh," Conner said. "Your whole face lights up. It's like watching a marble statue come to life."

Kat smiled, touched. She might have wondered if he were sincere if he didn't seem so frank and honest. Kat found his openness refreshing—in fact, she found everything about Conner to be refreshing. Part of her was waiting for him to disappoint her, to reveal some flaw that would lessen his appeal, but she had been growing even fonder of him the longer they talked. She was starting to think that maybe he didn't have those sorts of flaws that would make her turn away from him, that whatever his issues and shortcomings might be they were buried beneath enough good qualities to be insignificant.

"Thank you," Kat said. "You're so sweet."

"You make it easy," Conner replied. He looked away, seeming a tad sheepish. "I want to kiss you, but I'm guessing that would be really inappropriate at this point."

Kat's eyebrows rose. He really was brutally honest. She admired his ability to say what he thought… and she admired the fact that he didn't just try to kiss her and hope for the best. She might have thought it inappropriate, if he had tried. Now, however, it seemed like the best idea in the world.

"You're wrong," Kat told him, shifting slightly to face him better.

Conner looked up at her. "Hmm?"

"You're wrong," Kat repeated. "It wouldn't be inappropriate."

"Oh," Conner said blankly. Then realization dawned. "Oh! Oh, cool!"

Kat chuckled and leaned towards him, but before she was halfway there Conner's lips pressed gently against hers, his hand coming up to cup her neck, his thumb caressing her cheek. He seemed to be holding himself back, not wanting to rush her, which Kat found considerate. She opened her mouth to him, partly to reassure him but mostly just because it felt amazing. It was everything first kisses should be—curious, enticing, tentative but somehow passionate. His tongue slipped inside her mouth and Kat responded to him eagerly, trying to remember just when the last time she had felt this good during something as simple as a kiss.

Finally she pulled back, reluctant to stop but desperate to collect herself. She leaned her forehead against Conner's, unable to bring herself to move any further away. He let his hand drop but didn't otherwise back off, and they sat there for a long moment, eyes still closed. It occurred to Kat that she should say something, but she couldn't think what. She was afraid of spoiling the mood, but the longer the silence stretched the more worried she became that it would turn awkward.

Suddenly she felt a little silly. Here she was, making out in the forest with some guy she'd just met. He certainly seemed polite, and sweet, and funny and interesting and honest, but she didn't know him and a few hours of conversation weren't enough to start kissing him no matter how right it felt.

"This is fast," Kat said. She had meant to say "too fast," but it wouldn't come out. While she knew it should feel too fast, it somehow didn't feel fast enough.

"You're right," Conner agreed, his voice low and rough, his breathing ragged against her face. "It's a little soon."

Kat smiled, wondering if he had a problem with feeling it was too soon as well. "I just feel like I've known you forever," she confessed.

"I want to know you forever."

Kat kissed him again, overwhelmed by the way his statement made her feel. Conner was quick to reciprocate, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer; Kat's hands slid up his biceps, over his shoulders to wind into his hair. Everything was perfect, even more perfect than their last, first kiss, and it felt so right, so incredible—

"Oh. My. God."

Conner and Kat snapped apart like glass shattered by a bullet, their heads whipping around to see Rocky and Adam, covered in bruises, debris and miscellaneous stains, staring in horror at Conner and Kat. As one, Rocky and Adam turned to look at each other and said, in perfect unison, "Tommy's going to kill him."

"Jinx," was all Rocky had time to say before the first clown caught him.

Kat gaped in shock as a clown built like Hulk Hogan slammed into Rocky, tackling him to the forest floor in a blur of colorful fabric. Two more clowns leaped at Adam, seizing him by the arms, and one of them noticed Kat and Conner. The clown's expression darkened—as much as the bright makeup on his face would allow—and he turned over his shoulder to shout "It's the kid! It's the kid they were with!"

"Conner, run!" Adam yelled, hooking his foot behind the knee of the clown to his right and pulling; unprepared, the clown went down, releasing Adam. Adam socked the other clown in the shoulder and the clown yelped, letting go and backing away. Adam went to help Rocky, but Rocky could take care of himself; by the time Adam reached him Rocky had thrown off his attacker and was rolling to his feet.

A bowling pin clocked Rocky in the side of the head just as he stood up, and Rocky's face twisted in pain, then in rage. He scooped the pin up. "Quit doing that!" he roared, flinging the bowling pin with all his might.

Kat looked beyond Rocky to see the bowling pin strike one of no less than thirty circus folk, who—with the exception of the one Rocky had beaned with the pin—were closing in fast. Her jaw dropped a little lower, her mind unable to process the scene—but then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and instinct took over.

"Look out!" Kat called, jumping up as one of the clowns Adam had bested tried to jump Adam from behind. Before Adam could turn to face him, Conner grabbed the clown and flipped him over his shoulder. The clown hit the dirt hard, stunned by the impact.

Conner glared at Adam. "What do you mean, run?" he demanded indignantly, a full two seconds before what might have been a lion tamer slammed bodily into Conner. Conner went sprawling.

Adam started to intercept the lion tamer as he advanced on Conner, but a female trapeze artist flung a punch at Adam. Adam caught the woman's wrist and dodged several more blows from her other fist before pushing her away from him; she stumbled back and tripped over Conner, landing hard in the dirt. Adam again moved to help Conner, but Rocky knocked into Adam from behind, having been shoved into him by a pair of clowns.

Kat hurried towards Conner, only to find her path blocked by a small clown and another in patched overalls. "This isn't your fight, lady," the small one growled. "Stay out of it."

"We don't got a problem with you," added the clown in patched overalls. "Just them."

"I don't care if you've got a problem with me," Kat said grimly, dropping into a fighting stance. "If you've got a problem with them, then I've got a problem with you."

The two clowns looked at each other, shrugged, and lunged at Kat, only to collapse a second later when Conner appeared behind them and swept their heads together. Kat grinned at Conner, who smiled back and then nearly jumped out of his skin when a whip cracked right behind him.

Conner spun around to see the lion tamer glowering at him. "Jeez, is that a bullwhip?" Conner asked, horrified. "You should be careful with that thing. You could put someone's eye out."

The lion tamer looked rather offended by this, and cracked the whip again; Kat couldn't be sure, but he seemed to be aiming for Conner's eye. Conner ducked, and when the lion tamer made to pull the whip back Conner dove forward, snatched the whip out of midair and yanked it from the lion tamer's hand.

"What is going on?" Kat called as she rushed towards a bearded lady who was pinning Rocky against a tree.

"Remember that carnival in Stone Canyon we couldn't take Billy to?" Adam asked as he elbowed another clown in the gut.

Kat frowned in thought as she avoided the bearded lady's sloppy uppercut and kicked her in the side. "The one he got banned from?"

"That's the one," Adam said, dropping a male trapeze artist and taking a swing at a clown. The clown narrowly sidestepped Adam's swing and socked Adam in the jaw, making Adam wince. "You know what, Kat? I'll tell you later," Adam growled, sweeping the clown's legs out from under him.

Kat was fine with this, needing to concentrate; she had at first assumed it would be easy to knock out a few civilians, but it had been a long time since she'd been in a real fight and she certainly wasn't used to fighting ordinary humans who weren't under evil spells. Inflicting pain on them seemed cruel, but after the first few hits she took she began holding back less.

Kat found herself in trouble after a few minutes, thanks to a trio of acrobats who were quick, strong, limber and able to move with a remarkable synchronization. She was just starting to worry when Justin came out of nowhere, kicking the first acrobat out of Kat's way and tossing another one into a tree, giving Kat ample time to handle the third and turn to face another clown.

"Hey, you guys stopped running!" Justin called cheerfully to Rocky and Adam. "I thought I'd never catch you."

"Wasn't our idea," Adam said through gritted teeth as he wrestled a guy in a game attendant uniform to the ground.

"We got distracted," Rocky added, hurrying over to attack the acrobat Justin had kicked. "We saw Conner kissing with Kat."

"Ooh, Tommy's going to kill him," Justin said with a grin that vanished when a man in leather pants belched a stream of fire at him.

"Why do people keep saying that?" Conner complained. "Dr. O was fine with—sword swallower sword swallower help!"

"I'm coming!" Justin called, but yelped when the fire-eater spat flames at him again. "Stop it! We are in a forest!"

Kat bent down, scooped up what looked like the remains of a banana cream pie and hurled it at Conner's sword-swallowing opponent. A skinny kid in a game attendant uniform jumped on her back before she could see if the pie connected, but when she glanced that way again she saw Conner standing over the sword-swallower's prone body and curiously inspecting his weapon. "Huh," Conner said, "they really are real swords."

Kat flung herself backwards into a tree, dislodging the kid on her back, who slid down the tree trunk to the ground and stayed there. There were more carnies lying down than standing up, but unfortunately for Kat, one of the ones left standing appeared to know a lot of kung fu.

The kung fu clown took quite awhile and plenty of concentration to subdue; by the time she managed to take him down with a well-timed roundhouse, the rest of the fight was over. Adam and Justin were both breathing heavily, glancing warily around at the circus folk littering the forest floor, and Rocky was taking out a final clown with a bit of Brazilian jujitsu. Conner was standing a few feet away from Kat with an awestruck gaze on his face.

"That was amazing," Conner breathed. "I wanted to help you, but it was just so… so… you're amazing."

Kat beamed at him, pleased by the praise. She was about to reply when she heard Aisha shout, "What are you doing?" from behind her, making Rocky, Adam, Conner, Kat and Justin jump.

Aisha stared around in disbelief at the five ex-Rangers standing over the motley assortment of battered and/or unconscious carnies. Then she glared at Rocky and Adam. "I can't leave you two alone for a second."

"Hi, Aisha," Adam said wearily.

"It's not our fault," Rocky insisted. "This was all Trini."

Aisha gave him a dubious look. "Right. Trini got you into a fight with thirty clowns? How, exactly? She's not even here."

"I'm guessing long story," Justin joked, hopping over a fallen knife-thrower and picking his way across the field of fallen circus folk.

"Trini's the one who punched Bonkers on Wednesday," Adam explained. "That's what started this whole mess."

"I wonder how they found us," Conner mused. "I mean, yeah, it's possible they were just here for Power Rangers Day, but—"

"One of them mentioned the fortune teller I met at the carnival," Adam said. "Elena… Luna, I think her name was. She interpreted dreams for me and Kira, and one of the clowns said Rocky and I were right where Elena said we'd be."

"Well, she can't be that psychic, or she would have warned them they'd get schooled," Rocky pointed out.

Adam shrugged. "As long as she doesn't divine my home address, I don't really care." Sighing, he made his way through the heaps of injured clowns. "I've got to get out of here. I've got to get out of here before the day gets any weirder."

"You can't bail on Power Rangers Day," Justin protested.

"Watch me," Adam said darkly. "If I live to make it to the parking lot, I'm out of here."

"You realized you just jinxed yourself, right?" Aisha asked. Adam grunted noncommittally and continued stalking out of the forest. Aisha shook her head. "So. Any of you seen Scorpina around?"

"Evil monster Scorpina?" Kat asked, startled.

"Yeah. She showed up, professed her love for Adam and ran off crying," Rocky said. "It was great."

"I heard that!" Adam called over his shoulder without slowing down.

"What is going on out there?" Kat demanded. "Scorpina and clowns and… and…"

Justin shrugged. "It's Power Rangers Day. Were you expecting anything less?"

End Notes: And with this chapter, we mark the seven-year anniversary for "Of Love and Bunnies."

To commemorate the occasion, I thought I'd share a few stats:

As I post this, "Of Love and Bunnies" has 118 chapters, 605,391 words and 4,478 reviews. It has 943,163 hits, is in 39 C2 communities, 971 people have it on favorites, and 739 people have it on story alert.

To all the people who've ever had a kind word to say about OLaB—thank you very much. We're amazed by how awesome you guys have been.

To all the people who've ever dropped something, hurt themselves, fallen over, embarrassed themselves while trying to read this story in public, spat and/or snorted food and/or drink—we're very sorry about that. We added a warning label/disclaimer to chapter one just for you.

To all the people who think we suck—for crying out loud, this is a Power Rangers fanfiction. We're not here to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

To all our loyal fans, I swear to you, we will finish this before another seven years has passed. Maybe. Probably. Well, hopefully. It just keeps getting longer.