Author: JadelynTate
Story: Alpha Operations
Disclaimer: Power Rangers are owned by Haim Saban, Avengers and Co are owned by Marvel. I write for fun, not for profit.
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will.
A/N 1: Prologue was crazy short so...here's the first chapter!

Chapter One:

"Guys, guys, be quiet!"

Kim watched in amusement as Tommy failed to get the group to shut up. You'd think a bunch of hyperactive rangers who hadn't all been in the same place at the same time in months, if not years, would be easy peasy for the consummate ranger to corral, considering he worked with teenagers every day, but Tommy was not doing well at all. She caught Hayley's eye, where the redhead was sitting quietly by Tommy's side, and the two grinned as he threw his hands up and sat back down, arms crossing as a pout appeared.

Kim put her fingers to her lips and whistled. Immediately everyone shut up and turned to her, some wincing at the echoes. Like it was her fault Tommy liked caves.

"We're here for a reason, I believe," she said simply and then turned to Tommy with a smile. "Well? What's up?"

Tommy shot her a thankful look and she preened slightly as everyone sat down and turned to the original green ranger.

"So, first of all, thanks for coming so quickly," Tommy said, looking over the rather large group who'd descended on Reefside. All of the original twelve, the former Dinos, and Andros and Ashley. He focused specifically on two of the former yellow's and the original black. "I know it was difficult to get away for some of you."

"You said it was important," Tanya said, sitting side by side with Zack. Nearby, Kira nodded. Kim wondered briefly where their staff thought they were—Tanya and Kira were both on tour at the moment (Kira was opening for Tanya), which meant they should have been getting ready for a concert that night. She made a mental note to ask Zack when she had a chance.

"It is," Tommy agreed and there was worry there. She wasn't the only one who noticed, either, cause everyone unconsciously straightened, focusing completely on him.

"What's up, Bro?" Jason asked quietly from his place next to Kim.

Tommy shared a look with Andros, who nodded from his place on the couch with Ashley. Tommy's lips twisted and he turned to them. "You all know about New York," he noted and more than one person gave him a duh look. The rangers, all sixty-seven of them, had been scrambling to get together to go to the attack when the portal had closed and the fight had ended. Some had already been in New York and had gone to work helping where they could, acting as Good Samaritans (there had been a lovely photo taken of RJ and Casey helping a little old lady away from the streets around the recently renamed Avengers Tower. Yet another was of Carter, who'd been in the city to do a seminar with the NYFD, dousing one of the aliens with a fire extinguisher as civilians fled behind him—that one was still getting the former red a ton of teasing).

"Well, the Avengers were announced shortly after the attack as being under the jurisdiction of a group known as SHIELD—" He paused a moment and looked at Hayley.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," she supplied helpfully and he nodded.

"What she said," he continued as some snickered quietly. "Anyway, they're an international organization, supervised by the UN's World Security Council, who's specific job is to deal with the problems that normal soldiers and agents can't—like New York and Loki and technically mutants, though the X-Men seem to be taking care of that fairly well on their own."

"What's that have to do with us?" Rocky asked, frowning.

"Well, apparently they've decided the Rangers fall under that umbrella," he began but had to shut up because at his words, half the room stood up and began talking over one another. Kim whistled again. At this rate, she might as well find an actual whistle.

"Thanks," Tommy smiled at her and she nodded. He turned to the agitated group in front of him. "I know, I don't like it either. But we've known for a while that the UN—and the US in particular—didn't particularly like that we refused to answer to any of them."

"The only thing keeping them from declaring us a terrorist group is that they're not sure how that would affect any future attacks that would need Rangers," Jason noted. He'd been an Army Ranger and had been unwillingly under the jurisdiction of a general who'd made no bones about the fact he wanted access to the Ranger tech and thought they were a dangerous group. The first chance he'd had, Jason had left Ross' unit. He'd also completely disobeyed orders and told Billy about one of the main targets of Ross' insanity and the rangers had been quietly helping Banner avoid the general when they could. The doc didn't know, of course, but that was the whole point.

"But everything's changing now," Tommy agreed. "And SHIELD has been pretty much hounding all the known rangers, which is why only Andros and Ashley are here from them." He didn't have to say it but everyone understood—they were all under observation and if the publicly known Rangers disappeared at the same time, SHIELD would take notice which was not conductive to what they'd been brought together to discuss. It was probably also why only the original twelve (and the Dino's) were there—it was easier for them to get away because they weren't known Rangers. They could then disperse and talk with the rest of the teams without raising too many eyebrows.

"Carter called me about it a week ago," Andros agreed. "Him and Captain Mitchell have been keeping them off for the time being but they both agree its only a matter of time before an order will come in for all of Lightspeed Tech to be turned over to SHIELD, one they won't be able to circumvent. SHIELD has too much clout and they're a UN entity; we're lucky the order hasn't come already."

Kim flashed back to the panic of when they'd heard the President had been considering ordering all of Lightspeed tech to be dispersed to the government to reverse engineer. It was only a timely intervention by the Prime Minister of England of all people that had stopped it—the man had had a little chat with the President about world sharing and the worry of the rest of the world about superior tech that wasn't their own. Kim, who'd heard about it from her father, figured the President had been worried about the US alliances with the various world governments if it became common knowledge that they had complete access to Ranger tech. He'd gone on to order that all Ranger Tech be turned over to the Rangers for cold storage and was therefore off-limits to any world government, a decree that had been supported by an equally worried UN.

Lightspeed had technically been a US project but it had been overseen by the United Nations. After numerous failed tests to get the ranger tech to work for UN soldiers after the team had retired, the entire thing had been scrapped and the tech locked away. Billy was still highly proud of that achievement, if only because it had proved he was better than the Lightspeed technicians and only one of them had ever known they'd been sabotaged. It was still a point of contention between him and Angela though.

"So what do we do?" Billy asked. "I mean, between me, Hayley, Cam, Rose, Justin, and Angela, we can lock everyone out of the tech so they won't be able to use it themselves but that doesn't mean they won't be able to reverse engineer they're own stuff—it's what I did and I was only twenty. They're going to have people just as smart as me and with more experience doing that—not to mention, they've got Stark."

From the expression on his face, he was more worried about the billionaire than about the SHIELD scientists and with good reason. Kim might not be scientific herself, but even she knew that the playboy would probably have little problem figuring out the tech. Some aspects, like the Morphin Grid, would probably give him trouble but...this was the man who'd built his first suit, if the rumors were to be believed, out of scrap metals in a cave. Knowing that, he'd probably be able to make ranger suits without the Morphin Grid, which was infinitely more dangerous. The Morphin Council didn't take kindly to rangers not attached to the Grid.

"We have to do something," Justin said from his place on the floor. Somehow, no one was entirely sure how since the media had gone digging like crazy post C2D, he'd never been outed as a former ranger, hence his presence at the meeting. "We cannot let the Ranger tech into unknown hands. It wouldn't end well for anyone."

"Captain Mitchell had an idea but...the Morphin Council would have to sign off on it," Andros said softly. "It would mean knowingly breaking, or at least bending, the Code."

Everyone shifted uneasily in their seats. The Code was a huge part of the reason none of them were known as Rangers, not to mention something they'd all sworn to uphold. Maybe not knowingly like the originals had to Zordon and the Dino's to Tommy, but subconsciously they'd all done so. Breaking the Code...it was a big deal.

"What's the idea?" Tommy finally asked.

As Andros outlined it, Kim felt her heart sink.

Breaking the Code was about to be the least of their worries.