Chapter 2

*Wakanda*

'Steve?' Bucky's voice was laced with confusion. His arm began to turn to dust, leaving his best friend, Steve Rogers, to watch in horror as he fully disintegrated. Rogers looked around him to see other teammates, dear friends, brothers and sisters in arms, dying right in front of them. T'Challa. Wanda. Sam.

"Steve?" Natasha Romanoff stirred Captain America back to the present. They sat in a room within the Wakandan palace, what seemed to be a preparation room for the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's army. At the present moment, it was just the two of them. He was seated up against a wall, Natasha sliding in right next to him.

"I keep seeing him in my head," Rogers confessed. "Bucky was so confused. And then... he was just gone."

"Don't go down this road," Romanoff gently challenged him. "Thanos was a whole different type of threat."

"We lost half the universe," Steve shot back. "Doesn't really matter if we went up against a different type of threat." He stood up and began to pace. "Where do we go from here?"

"Maybe we'll be lucky and Thunderbolt Ross was wiped from existence," Romanoff quipped. "At least then we'll be reinstated."

"Ross wasn't the bad guy, Natasha..." Steve's voice began to fade once more, this time due to another memory.

'I'm sorry Tony. He's my friend." Steve stood there, ready to continue his fight with Iron Man, trying to save his best friend from youth.

"So was I."

"Maybe this is all my fault," Steve reasoned. "If I had just signed the accords... If I had just told Tony..."

"What's done is done," Natasha interjected, standing up. "All we can do now is grieve, and figure out what to do next." She walked over and embraced him, resting there for a long time. Tears flowed from both heroes for minutes. And then they broke apart, wiped their faces, and exited the room to find the depleted avengers team waiting for them. Rhodes, Bruce Banner, Thor, and their new friend Rocket Raccoon.

"What's up?" Steve asked.

"The Wakandans want us to clear out soon," Rhodey explained. "Something about this not being their fight anymore."

"We need them on this," Natasha replied.

"Maybe we can float the idea later down the line," Bruce jumped in. "Look, they just lost their king. A good chunk of their land has been destroyed. Emotions are running high, it may not be the right time to ask them this."

"Look, buddy, who cares about emotions," the diminuitive Raccoon snapped. "Didja see what just happened? Did they?"

"Rabbit, as much as you are right, it may be difficult to enlist their services," Thor replied.

"Did you just call him rabbit?" Rhodey asked. "You do know that's a raccoon, right? I mean..." Rhodes stopped himself for a minute. "I'm arguing over a talking raccoon... you know, it's still blowing my mind a bit that you talk, right?"

"If I had a unit for everytime I've heard that one..." Rocket quipped.

"Look, not to break up our brief moment of levity, but we've got to figure out our next play," Bruce interjected.

"Do we have anyway of knowing if Tony is alive?" Steve asked.

"We could contact Pepper, see if he's spoken to her," Natasha added.

"That is if she's still alive," Rhodey responded. "Look... we could head back to home base, send out a signal to any who would still be alive. Gather together and see if we can figure out a workable plan."

"All right, let's get the jet and get ready," Steve decided.

*1992 Valencia Road, Reefside, CA*

"You live all the way out here?" Kim asked as she got out of her car. Tommy was ahead of her, leading her up to the front porch of his home.

"Yeah... you know me," Tommy replied as he thumbed through his keys to get his house key. "I used to go to my uncle's cabin to get time alone. I appreciate the seclusion, gives me time and space to think and proces..." Tommy's voice trailed off as he went to stick his key into the doorknob. Curiously, the door had opened on its own. "That's strange... I never forget to close and lock my door."

"Do you think..." Kim started.

"Shhh," Tommy silenced her, putting a finger up to his mouth. He stealthily entered his home, using his phone as a flashlight. He flipped on the lights, and entered his living room cautiously. Kim followed, looking behind her just to make sure no one was following them. She slowly closed the door in hopes that no one would hear them, and then signaled to Tommy that no one followed them in as she entered the living room.

Tommy looked around the room, stroking the model t-rex skeleton on his side table on its head before moving past Kimberly towards the kitchen. He slid his arm across the wall to flip on a light switch, and as the room was illuminated, he was shocked to find a man dressed in black sitting down at his kitchen table. His head was shaved on the sides, brown and slicked up on top. He had a sword holstered on his back, a quiver on the other side of his back with what looked like an endless supply of arrows. His bow was on the table, his hands open, showing no signs that he wanted to fight.

"My intel says you know how to use teleportation devices," the man grunted. The man's voice startled Kimberly, who gave an audible gasp. She cautiously stepped into the room, sliding beside her ex, trembling at his presence. "All I want is access, and I'll be on my way."

"Even if I could..."

"Dr. Oliver, don't try and talk your way out of this," the man interjected calmly. "S.H.I.E.L.D has long known about your association with a certain group of spandex wearing super heroes."

"Who are you?" Tommy asked.

"My latest cover?" The man asked. "Was as Ronin. Some know me as Hawkeye. But my family... they knew me as Clint. The Bartons." Though his demeanor was bordering on menacing, Kim noticed the tear that was forming in the corner of his eye. "Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up, just like it's any other day. You make your kids... your wife breakfast. You play with them, you kiss them, you embrace them, you laugh together, just for someone or something to rip them away from you?"

"What happened to them?" Kim asked, dreading that she all ready knew the answer.

"First it was my oldest, Cooper. He went the quickest. We were playing ball out in the yard, I threw him a pass. But he slowed up... and he just vanished." Clint closed his eyes for a moment, the pain of reliving the moment getting to him. "Lila was next. I ran into the house..." A tear slid from his eye. "She was playing with one of her favorite dolls when she just turned to ash. Nathaniel was with my wife, Laura. He was seated at the table, waiting for Laura to finish dinner. Gone in an instant. Turned to ash."

"He really did wipe out half the planet," Kim muttered.

"Who?" Clint asked, staring at her intently. "Who did this?"

"I'm not sure exactly who he is... but his name is Thanos."

"You worked with the Avengers, right?" Tommy interjected. Clint nodded. Tommy looked over towards Kimberly. "That guy who warned you about this, he said we needed to find Tony Stark, right? Would you know where he is?"

"I don't know where he is, but I have an idea of where Steve Rogers is," Barton replied. "That's why I wanted to use your teleportation tech. I wanted to find a way to get to them as quickly as possible, but with all the air traffic going haywire, there's no way to get to them fast right now. If I could teleport, I could join up with them faster."

"Tommy, I thought teleportation died with the command center and Zordon?" Kim asked.

"Not exactly," Tommy replied. "Look Clint, we can get you to where you need to go, but on one condition."

"What's that?"

"Take us with you."

"You want to come and join our merry band of misfits?" Clint asked.

"If you had intel on our technology, you certainly know our former occupation as power rangers," Tommy retorted.

"I know all about that," Clint replied. "But you lost your powers years ago, right?" Tommy grinned, and then walked over to the side table with the model t-rex on it. He pulled down on the jaw, and it revealed a secret passageway, a staircase in the middle of the living room floor that descended to the basement.

"Follow me," Tommy said. They wandered down the stairs to the old command center of the Dino Thunder rangers. Much of it looked like it hadn't been touched for years. But there were a couple of work stations that still seemed presently in use, including a large computer and viewing screen at the end of the room.

"This was where you operated out of, isn't it?" Kim asked.

"The Dino Thunder rangers, yes," Tommy replied. He sat down at a desk, and pulled a keyboard in front of him and began typing, all of which was being displayed on the screen. "You had asked about our teleportation tech, but we don't exactly have access to straight teleportation any more. It died with the power chamber explosion back when Divatox destroyed it in her fight with the Turbo rangers. But one thing that we discovered was there's a network of invisi-portals. They can essentially teleport you to certain locations. One thing we could do is tap into that network and see if it can take us where we want to go."

"Was that your idea all along?" Kim asked.

"Not exactly," Tommy replied, still typing up a storm. "Remember when I told you I had an emergency kit back at Hayley's?" Kim nodded. "I have some pieces here that might be helpful for us. It should be able to let me make some makeshift morphers for the time being, at least until we can find the zeo crystal."

"The zeo crystal?" Kim asked.

"That still exists?" Surprisingly, Clint asked.

"You knew about that, too?"

"The zeo crystal is one of the most powerful energy sources on the planet, if not in the galaxy," Clint reasoned. "You really don't understand how much S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about you guys, or about what you had in your arsenal, do you?"

"I don't, but the problem is I need to find out where it is," Tommy replied. "I have my shard, and it gives me temporary power to my zeo ranger powers. But I need to find the whole crystal, and the other shards."

"That would mean..." Kim started to say, but Tommy finished her thought.

"We have to hope that Rocky, Adam, Tanya, and Kat are still alive. Or, that we can find their zeo shards." Before Tommy continued, there was a beeping sound on the computer.

"What's that?" Kim asked.

"The computer has locked onto the invisiportal network," Tommy replied. "The question is where are we going?"

"There's an Avengers facility in upstate New York," Clint replied. He nudged Tommy out of his seat and typed in the coordinates. "How long until we can get there?"

"Shouldn't take more than a few minutes," Tommy replied.

To Be Continued...

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- Googz333