Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, that privilege belongs to Saban, Stan Lee, and JK Rowling.
A/N: As an FYI, this is taking place after Dino Thunder, around the Summer of 2005. All the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking place a few years earlier than in the movies themselves to line up with this timeline.
A/N 2: Thanks so much for reading, and for those who have reviewed so far! It's humbling to see all of you who are following and reading and reviewing, and I'm incredibly grateful for it!
A/N 3: For those who aren't too familiar with anything other than Power Rangers, this might be a rough chapter for you in terms of following along. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
Mighty to Save – Chapter 2
*Abandoned Research Facility, Location Unknown*
It was a dark and stormy night, and the outside of the facility was completely lifeless. There wasn't a trace of activity, and certainly it wouldn't be expected to contain anything of importance. Yet, a cloud of what looked like smoke trailed through the sky, cascading towards the ground. It landed, revealing Lucius Malfoy, who now stood at the entrance of the seemingly abandoned facility. He entered and took the elevator down, the doors revealing a flurry of activity. Researchers of all kinds were attending to the cube in the center of the room.
"Lucius," Loki said, appearing with Kim and Agent Barton by his sides. "Good of you to join us."
"My Lord," he gave a small bow. "How may I assist you?"
"For now, just make sure we're on schedule," Loki answered.
"I see the scepter has allowed you to coerce certain people to our cause," Lucius said, pointing to Kim and Barton.
"Loki has merely opened our eyes," Kim replied. "Soon, we will be set to win the earth for him."
"And what makes you say that?" Lucius asked.
"The pink ranger prototype," Agent Barton replied. "It harnesses the power of the tesseract. Once we are able to figure out how to stabilize the full power of the tesseract, we'll be able to bring Loki's army, and Kimberly will be able to lead them into battle."
"Good," Lucius replied.
"Just remember our agreement, Lucius," Loki said. "If you serve me, you may sit at my right hand as I rule."
"Master," Kim interrupted. "Shall I transform?"
Loki merely smiled and motioned his hand towards the prototype. "Here it is," Loki said, picking it up and giving it to Kim. "Open it." She put it down on the table and undid the locks and swung open the top of it. She peered into it to see a pink device and a key, along with a ipad tablet which only blinked the word: execute. She slipped the device onto her wrist and slid the key into it. At first, nothing happened. She peered into the tablet, which was fastened to the back of the briefcase, and slid the lockbar over. At this point, it read "please enter the passcode to finalize."
"Billy, do you really think you're going to keep me from the power I deserve," she said. She typed in the word 'Pterodactyl,' and as the ipad replied 'password accepted,' she began to feel a surge of energy. The wrist device became magnetic, and the force of it pulled Kim's wrist to a separate compartment of the suitcase, a smaller suitcase in itself. She pulled out the smaller component, and it began to mechanically separate and encase Kimberly in itself. Within a matter of seconds, the suitcase became a uniform, similar to the one Kim had worn when battling Ivan Ooze, but instead of a coin on her chest, instead it was a blue orb, which symbolized the power source it used.
"How do you feel?" Loki asked.
"I feel ready to lead your army, Loki."
*The Burrow*
Mr. Weasley, and the rest of the Weasley family, were helping raise the party tent in preparation for another wedding in their family. Two years before it had been Harry and Ginny, and now Ron and Hermione were finally ready to walk down the aisle. It had been a rocky road for the pair, as they had broken up and gotten back together more than a few times. However, it was clear to them that they were meant for each other, despite the fact they got on each others nerves.
Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny all stepped inside while the rest of their families, including Hermione's parents who were muggles, helped set up for tomorrow's festivities.
"I can't believe this is actually happening," Ron said.
"That's only the 400th time you've said that," Harry joked.
"Honestly, Ronald, contain yourself," Hermione quipped. "It's not like you're going to be walking down an aisle with a ridiculously long dress, one which is easy to step on and trip and fall... oh that would be embarrassing."
"It really isn't all that hard," Ginny said. "You'll do great... it's going to be a fantastic day."
"Yeah, and just remember," Harry added. "At the end of the day, you're married. Regardless of what happens."
"Just hope that crazy psychopath that captured Kim doesn't show up," Ron said. "If that guy shows up..."
"I don't think he would," Hermione reasoned. "I mean, we haven't seen a trace of him for five years. I feel so bad for Tommy."
"Speaking of him, is he, Jason, or Katherine coming?" Harry asked.
"No," Hermione replied. "We sent an owl to both. Jason and Kat replied saying they would love to, but are too busy. Tommy's invite never made it to him. It's like he disappeared."
"I can't blame him, after what happened," Ron said. "I just hope he's ok."
"I'm sure he's fine," Harry replied. "How are you two doing?"
"Nervous and excited," Hermione said.
"Agreed," Ron stated, smiling at Hermione, giving her a quick kiss on her forehead. "It's kind of crazy to think of where we've come from."
"Yeah, between all our arguments, the wizarding war..." Hermione started to speak, but then her voice trailed off. "Do you hear that?" Although they were about to say no, suddenly they heard a sound in the distance. At first it was like a low buzzing sound, but quickly it became louder and louder, but they had no idea what it was. The four of them ran out the door to see what it was, and they, along with the rest of the Weasley's, were astonished with what they saw.
"What's a helicopter doing here in the Burrow?" Hermione asked.
"A what?" Ron asked. Mr. and Mrs. Granger overheard them, and joined in the conversation.
"A helicopter, it's something us muggles use, particularly for short-range flight or military use," Mr. Granger explained. They heard him, but barely considering the aircraft was now landing in the green pasture by the recently assembled party tent. "It looks American."
"American?" Harry asked. The door opened, and Director Fury, dressed in black trench coat, pants, shirt, and donning his eye patch, hopped out of the vessel with a case in his hands. The chopper finally started to stop the propellers, and it soon quieted down. Mr. Weasley approached him first.
"Excuse me sir... but... how did you find your way in here?" He asked. "Furthermore, what is that marvelous contraption... are you one of Ron and Hermione's guests?"
"One question at a time," Fury replied with a small grin. "Arthur Weasley, my name is Nick Fury, I direct an American Government Division named S.H.I.E.L.D. I found my way in here because our agency has worked closely with the American Magical Government for quite some time."
"So... you're not one of Ron and Hermione's guests?" He asked.
"Sadly, I've haven't met them... yet," he said, looking at them, along with Harry and Ginny. "But I've heard great things about them. If they weren't getting married and going on their honeymoon, I'd probably be here to speak with them too. But instead, I'm here to talk to one Harry James Potter." Harry stepped forward at the call of his name.
"Why do you need to speak with me, sir?" He asked. He wasn't sure whether to trust this man or not.
"Because Albus Dumbledore seems to think that you can be of service to us, and I know he's right," Fury replied.
"Dumbledore has been dead for..."
"You and I both know that the former Headmaster of Hogwarts has ways of passing on advice," Fury interjected. "His portrait hangs in our war room. It was a gift from your boss, Minister Shacklebolt."
"Kingsley?" Ron asked surprisingly.
"We go back a ways... as do Albus and I," Fury shared.
"Ok, so you want me to be of help to you, what can I do?" Harry asked.
"Come with me," Fury said as he began to walk from the pack.
"Wait, we're coming too," Ginny said, Ron and Hermione confirming they wanted to hear what was going on as well.
"Guys, I don't think..."
"It's ok, Mr. Potter," Fury interrupted. "Your wife, brother in-law and future sister-in-law are welcome to see too."
"The rest of you, if you could keep working on the wedding?" Hermione asked as she began to walk away with the others. Mr. Weasley tried to say something but Molly, his wife, stopped him.
"Let them go, dear," she said. "They're aurors, they can handle themselves."
The five of them walked into an isolated part of the field, and then Fury spoke. "Ever hear of an Asgardian named Loki?" Harry nodded his head, and Fury continued. "Many years ago, after World War II, we discovered a power source called the Tesseract. It may be the most powerful source of energy we've ever discovered, so we began to research it. We even made some prototype weapons, suits that you four would be familiar with." Fury opened the case he was carrying, and it projected a hologram for all to see.
"Power rangers?" Ron asked.
"That's right," Fury explained. "We, more or less, completed three of them, but then Loki stole both the Tesseract AND the pink prototype."
"He has Kim with him, doesn't he?" Harry asked. "So she can use it to help his cause?" Fury nodded. "What do you want me to do?"
"After the wedding, I want you to come in and be a part of a team," Fury said. "We're calling it the avengers initiative."
"And who would be a part of this team?" Harry asked.
"See for yourself," Fury replied, the hologram now showing the rest of the team.
"Jason and Tommy are part of it?" Ron asked.
"We hope," Fury replied.
"Who are the rest of these guys?" Hermione asked. "How could people like this Agent Barton or Agent Romanoff be part of this team? They seem ordinary."
"Or this Steve Rogers, fellow?" Ginny asked. "He doesn't seem all that tough." Fury only grinned.
"I would have thought that since your last war, you'd have realized the power of mere muggles," Fury replied.
"Good point," Harry confessed.
"Here, this is a device to give you our location," Fury said, throwing a tiny object to him. "Until then, enjoy the wedding." He turned around and entered the chopper, and soon left in a wave of sound. As he was in the distance, Ginny turned to Harry.
"Can I come with you?"
"And what about us?" Ron asked, pointing to him and Hermione.
"For now, I think I should just go," Harry said.
"And why is that?" Hermione asked with a small scowl.
"Because you're getting married," he pointed to the two of them. "And Ginny, while I appreciate your desire to help, I need you here. Last time I took on Loki, it was an utter mismatch. If I fail... if this Avengers team fails, I need you to lead the second wave."
"Ok," Ginny submitted.
"Look, I'm not leaving til after the party tomorrow," Harry explained. "After that, I'm leaving, and I want you, Ginny, to get in touch with Kingsley. We're going to need all hands on deck if this thing gets past the States."
*Calcutta, India*
Bruce Banner, dressed in a purple button-down shirt and jeans, was wandering the city streets following a little girl who had come to him for help. A virus had been spreading, one that few could treat, and Banner had been devoting his life to helping the people who became infected with it. This girl came to him claiming her mother was sick, so he followed. After clearing the major part of the city they came to a house that was on the city's outskirts. He followed the girl into the house, and as he looked around for the mother, he realized the girl immediately went to a window and climbed through it. He had been played.
"Should have got paid up front, Banner," he said to himself.
"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle," a voice said from behind him. He turned to see a beautiful woman, but he got the sense she was more than just eye-candy.
"Avoiding stress isn't the secret," he replied.
"Then what is it?" She asked, moving towards him. "Yoga?"
"You brought me to the edge of the city, smart," he answered, not falling for her seduction. "I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?"
"Just you and me," she replied simply.
"And your actress buddy," he said, referring to the girl. "Is she a spy too? Do they start that young?"
"I did."
"Who are you?"
"Natasha Romanoff."
"Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not gonna workout for everyone."
"No, no, of course not," She replied. "I'm here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"How did they find me?" He asked.
"We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."
"Why?" He asked, not buying her story.
"Nick Fury seems to trust you," she said. "But now we need you to come in."
"What if I said no?"
"I'll pursuade you," she said, again moving a little closer towards him, only the table in the middle of the room separating the two.
"And... what if the other guy says no?" He asked, referring to the Hulk that raged inside him.
"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you wanna break that streak."
"I don't always get what I want."
"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe," she shared, changing her tactics.
"Well, those I actively try to avoid," he said sarcastically.
"This is the tesseract," she said while pulling up a picture of it on her smartphone, showing it to Banner. "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."
"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"
"Well, he wants you to find it," she explained. "It's been taken. It omits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be."
"So... Fury isn't after the monster?"
"Not that he's told me."
"And he tells you everything?" Banner pressed her, still skeptical of what she was telling him.
"Talk to Fury, he needs you on this," she urged him.
"He needs me in a cage?" He pressed even further.
"No one's gonna put you in a..."
"Stop lying to me!" He ferociously interrupted, slamming his arms down on the table in front of him. She pulled her gun and pointed it at him, breathing heavy, trembling that the monster inside was about to make its way out.
"I'm sorry," he said with a small grin. "That was mean, I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay?" She hesitated, continuing to stare a hole where she would shoot if she needed too. "Natasha." Finally she blinked at the sound of her name, and lifted her shoulder.
"Stand down," she said, obviously into a microphone she was wearing. "We're good here."
"So..." Banner said. "Just you and me, huh?"
*Stark Tower, NYC*
Tony Stark, wearing the Iron Man suit, had just returned from completing a new arc reactor under the sea, giving his new tower at least one whole year of clean energy. As he approached the inside of the tower, his collection of state-of-the-art machinery took off the complex suit, and walked towards his girlfriend and business partner Pepper Potts, who had been waiting for him as they tested their new project.
"Levels are holding steady... I think," she said to him. He stood next to her as they looked at the vitals on the computer screen.
"Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: how does it feel to be a genius?" He asked.
"Well... I wouldn't really know now, would I?" She chuckled.
"What do you mean?" Tony asked. "All this, came from you."
"No, all this came from that," she replied, pointing to the miniature arc reactor that lived in his chest.
"Give yourself some credit, please," he continued to playfully banter with her. "Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit."
"Twelve percent?" She asked. Tony was having a tough time whether the offense in her voice was mocked or real.
"An argument can be made for fifteen," he replied, hoping it was enough to make her feel better.
"Twelve percent for my baby? She asked again.
"Well... I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things," He explained. "And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you." She looked at him with cold eyes, and he knew he was digging himself into a bigger and bigger hole. "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"
"Not going to be that subtle," she replied coolly.
"I'll tell you what, the next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower."
"On the lease!" She argued, but now a bit more playfully. Suddenly JARVIS, Tony's A.I., alerted him.
"Sir, Agent Coulson is on the line," JARVIS said.
"What does this guy want," he said to himself. He picked up his phone and clicked to pick up.
"Mr. Stark," Coulson said over the phone. "We need to talk."
"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."
"This is urgent," Coulson continued.
"Then leave it urgently," he said. Suddenly, the elevator opened across from them, and Coulson stepped into the room. "Security breach." He looked over to Pepper. "This one's on you."
"Mr. Stark," Coulson uttered again.
"Phil, come on in," Pepper responded, going over to greet him warmly.
"Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent," Stark replied.
"We need you to come in, Mr. Stark. Take a look at this." He tried to hand him a briefcase, but he refused.
"I don't like being handed things," he replied.
"Well, I do," Pepper said, taking the case from Coulson. "Here you go," she said, then handing it to Tony. He looked at it and turned around to put it on his desk.
"Consulting hours are from 8-5 every other Tuesday," he replied, obviously trying to get rid of Coulson.
"I'm not here to bring you in as a consultant," he said. "We're bringing the team together."
"The avengers?" Pepper said ecstatically.
"The avengers initiative is dead," Stark said. "And besides, I thought I didn't qualify. What was it... I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and I don't play well with others."
"That doesn't matter now," Coulson countered. "Look at the case, and see for yourself." Tony gave Coulson a look, but Pepper came back over to encourage him.
"Just take a look, Tony."
"I just... I thought we were having a moment," Tony shared.
"I was having twelve percent of a moment," she said sarcastically.
"Ok... I'll take a look," he said, realizing that Pepper had won this battle. He opened the case to find a hologram floating in the air.
"What is all of this?" Pepper asked.
"This..." Tony tried to explain, but all he saw were other heroes, Loki, and a description of the tesseract, and the research that went with it.
"I'm going to take the jet to D.C. tonight," Pepper said
"Tomorrow," Tony argued.
"You've got homework... a lot of homework," she replied.
"Fine," he acquiesed. "One question, agent," he said, turning to Coulson. "I've heard of some of these guys. But Harry Potter, Tommy Oliver, Jason Lee Scott? Who are they?"
"From what Director Fury has told me, the one young man is a wizard, and the other two are the earth's finest power rangers."
"So the avengers initiative has dissolved into cheap parlor tricks and a couple of spandex wearing weirdos, no wonder why you needed to call me in."
"We don't need you that much," Coulson replied firmly. "We'll see you soon."
To be continued...
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