Author's Note: I forgot to mention that I have this set in 2009, mainly to help the timelines of Power Rangers and Avengers in sync. Just think of the Avengers timeline starting in 1998, rather than 2008 (When Iron Man first hit theaters)
Chapter 3 - Death Was Arrested
*New York City*
The alleyway was dead. No activity, no signs of life. It was light outside, it was the only sign of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic time. Without much warning, there was a ripple, then a flash... suddenly Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, appeared wearing his super suit.
"Hope!" He cried. "Hope!" Silence. "Hank! Janet!" Still silence. He flipped off his helmet and looked around, but found nothing. "Where am I?" He wondered aloud. He wandered out into main drag of the city, but where he expected taxis, hustle and bustle; instead there was nothing but wreckage. "Something's not right." He continued to look around, starting to dread ever finding his way out of the quantum realm.
He looked on the horizon to find the old Avengers tower, though it had certainly seen better days. "Well, Mr. Stark, looks like you ran out of all your ingenious robots to keep something clean," he quipped. "Serves you right..."
A big crash behind him stopped his frustrated venting. He hurriedly looked behind him to see two of the ugliest looking creatures he had ever seen. They looked like giant, black, dogs, but had six arms in addition to their legs. If it had eyes, he couldn't see them. But their teeth... large, gleaming white, razor sharp teeth.
"What in the..." He said audibly. It wasn't so loud, but loud enough to attract the attention of the beasts that stood hundreds of feet away. "Oh no."
The animals roared, and began to chase down the displaced hero, who turned and ran, hoping he could escape them. He weaved his way through the wreckage of all the cars, trucks, and other objects that clogged the New York City streets, trying to figure out where he could go. It didn't take long for the beasts to catch up to him, however, and they pinned him down and slashed at him with their claws, Scott screaming as they sought to devour him. He tried desperately to press the regulator so that he might have a chance to defeat them, but his arms were pinned between the animals and part of the wreckage in the streets. He heard one of the animals yelp, however, and then the other one was sent flying with an energy blast. He quickly stood up and looked around, only to be shocked at who he saw.
"Let's get you out of here," Tony Stark said, wearing his red and gold iron man suit. He landed and retrieved the battered Ant-Man. As they flew, they flew right past where Scott thought they would go, the avengers building. They flew out towards the Hudson River, where Tony slowed down over the middle of the body of water. "Pegasus." As soon as he uttered those words, a very familiar object emerged from the depths.
"The raft?" Scott asked, his tone a frustrated one. "Seriously, you save me from those things to put me in prison again?"
"Scott, this hasn't been a prison for a long time," Tony said, waiting for it to fully emerge until they descended.
"Then what is it?" Scott asked quizzically.
"My home." The statement shocked Scott. But before he could ask anymore questions they descended down to the raft, which had become a very large research facility hidden underwater. They closed the hatch and sealed off the room, the loud humming outside indicating that the large vessel was submerging once more. Tony's helmet disappeared in a flash, revealing a much more pronounced gray color in his hair, and he turned to Scott.
"We thought you were dead," Tony replied.
"Dead?" Scott asked.
"We figured the decimation wiped you out, and if not, then soon after when Red Skull and his army of outriders came to invade a vulnerable planet..."
"Hold on Tony, I'm confused," Scott stopped him. "Decimation? Red Skull? Outriders?"
"You don't know?" Tony asked.
"Know what?" Scott asked.
"Come with me," Tony replied. Scott shrugged his shoulders and followed him down to the main level of the vessel. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was doing an experiment with Hank, Janet, and Hope," Scott replied. "We were..."
"Hank Pym?" Tony stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, you know him, heard you guys were rivals and..."
"Pym's been dead for five years," Tony replied solemnly.
"What?" Scott asked. "What do you mean he's been dead for five years? I just saw him, we just..." he stopped himself for a moment. "What year is it?
"2014," Tony replied. Scott gasped. "I can explain some things in a minute, but it would be helpful if you saw something first." They walked onto the main command center of the vessel, which was filled with work stations, computers, and had a modest number of people working behind the desks. "Just to give you fair warning, you might be shocked by what you see next."
"What's that?" Scott asked.
"Hi Dad," a voice said from behind them. They turned to find a young woman, probably no more than 14 or 15 years old. She had beautiful, long brown hair, and her eyes... they gazed into Scott's, and he knew without a doubt that this was his daughter, Cassie Lang.
"Peanut?" He asked. She ran to him and embraced him, beginning to weep over her long lost father. Scott's face, however, was now even more shocked than before.
After a few moments to collect themselves, they went to another room to piece together what was happening. "So... five years ago, you were working on a project with Dr. Pym," Tony started. "What were you guys doing?"
"We were collecting samples from the quantum realm," Scott replied. "I lost contact with them, and had no way to get back. So I explored for the next couple hours or so, and then after traveling through a couple of weird looking things, I ended up here."
"The quantum realm?" Tony asked.
"You went there when you went sub-atomic, right?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah," he replied. "Janet mentioned that there was a possibility of traveling through time vortexes... that must've happened in my time down there. But... why did I lose contact with them initially?"
"Thanos," Tony replied. "It's the only explanation."
"Who's Thanos?" Scott asked.
"Remember the battle of New York?" Scott nodded. Tony continued. "Thanos was the one that sent Loki. Sent the army to destroy the city. Well, while you were exploring the quantum realm, Thanos was launching a universal attack. He was collecting the infinity stones, which if all six were assembled together, he had the ability to wipe out half of humanity. He got them, and, well... all he had to do was snap his fingers."
"You said Hank was gone... but what about Hope? Janet?"
"I'm sorry Dad," Cassie replied. "We never found them."
"I... I don't..." Scott stammered. "What happened to this Thanos guy?"
"We never found him again," Tony confessed. "I assumed he was back on his home planet. I came back and isolated myself, tried to build a Thanos killing weapon. Meanwhile, Thanos loaned his army to an old foe of Cap, the Red Skull. Apparently he repaid the favor to him for helping him get one of the stones. So the exiled avengers... the ones that were left anyway, they went to fight. Thor went to find help and never returned. I was too angry and bitter to join the fight, and the Avengers were eliminated one by one. Cap was the last survivor." A tear came to Tony's eye. "At that point we had reconciled, promised to help him fight... but at that point, resources were spread thin. We had a mission where the two of us had to split up. Red Skull got the jump on him... we lost him about two months ago."
"I..." Scott was speechless. How could he leave for the quantum realm, only to show back up in reality where everything was so disjointed? "I'm sorry, Tony."
"Don't be sorry, Scott," Tony replied. "Because, maybe... just maybe... we still have our one shot to get everyone back."
"What do you mean?" Scott asked.
"What if we could control a time vortex so you could go back in time? You could take some of the tech Tony was working on back to my past self, convince him to work with the Avengers?" Cassie asked.
"Peanut... how do you even know if we could do that?"
"Because I've been using Hank's tech to help in the fight against Red Skull," she replied.
"What?!" Scott shouted. He looked angrily at Tony. "You put my daughter in danger?!"
"Scott, you have to realize, we don't have many people to turn to," Tony calmly responded. "Cassie volunteered, and, quite honestly, there aren't many others that can help us." Scott relented, and then looked back at his daughter, and then back to Tony.
"Let's get me back to the past," Scott replied.
*Avengers Facility – Upstate New York, Present Day*
Clint, Tommy, and Kimberly arrived via the invisiportal network, appearing right outside of the training room within the facilities.
"That was a hell of a rush," Clint said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, it takes a while to get used too," Tommy replied. "You ok, Kim?" She nodded without saying anything.
"Let's head over to the security station, I should be able to look at the video feeds to see if any of the avengers are back... and if there's anyone I should avoid."
"Avoid?" Kim asked.
"The Sokovia Accords have blacklisted me and a whole host of superheroes from avenging," Clint explained as he led them through the facility.
"I would think they'd make an exception considering that half the world's population just died," Kim reasoned.
"Yeah... somehow, if 'Thunderbolt' Ross survived, he'd find a way to pin it on us," Clint explained. "He was adamant that the Avengers break up in the first place. If I hadn't agreed to retiring, they would have kept me locked up for the rest of my life."
"Goodness," Tommy sighed. "Locking up heroes for trying to protect people."
"It's amazing he never came around after one of our giant zord battles wrecked the city," Kim quipped.
"Well, that might have had something to do with Director Fury," Clint replied. They made it to the door that led to the security station, and he picked the lock to open the door. "Fury wanted to keep you guys out of danger, so he made sure that whatever information he had on you all, that it was kept secret to most of S.H.I.E.L.D. He felt you were too valuable to have the general organization know more than the basics about you guys."
"Was Fury the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Kim asked.
"Yes," Clint answered. "He's also the one who thought up the Avengers." They explored the smallish room and found the video monitors, which were behind a rounded desk. They gazed into the screens and saw almost no signs of life.
"Looks like it's deserted," Tommy observed.
"Huh," Clint replied. "Except Director Fury..." His voice trailed off. He pulled up video of the common room that the Avengers shared while living on base. "He's here."
"Well... that's good, right?" Kim asked. She expected him to answer, but he ignored the comment and looked more closely at the man through the screen. He was fiddling with a kitchen knife in his right hand as he paced the room.
"It would be good if that were actually Fury," Clint replied. "Somebody's impersonating him."
"How do you know?" Kim asked.
"He's left-handed," he replied. "And he doesn't pace."
"Maybe that's changed now that everyone's dead?" Kim asked.
"I'm telling you... that's not him. I don't know who he is, but that isn't Fury."
"Well, then what do we do?" Tommy asked.
"We could try and take him out, question him, figure out his motive," Clint started to explain. "Or, we could wait and see if back up arrives."
"That is if they're coming," Kim added. "Tommy, you said you have your zeonizers, how long can you hold the power before it fails?"
"It depends," Tommy replied. "A few years back I used the powers, and they didn't fail on me. But I have no idea how much juice this thing has without a direct connection to the morphin grid or the zeo crystal. I brought the emergency morpher as well, but again, the dino gem doesn't exactly have a lot of power there right now."
"Look, let's wait it out for a couple of hours," Clint reasoned. "We haven't given our position away, and whoever that is doesn't seem to be too keen on searching anyone else out right now. I'll keep my eyes open on the monitor, see if there's anything else unusual."
"But what about..."
"If the others arrive, we'll make our grand entrance," Clint interrupted Kim. "Look, I know you don't like this right now, but this is our best option right now."
"Who do you think he could be?" Tommy asked.
"Well, there's a whole host of possibilities," Clint admitted. "But if I had my money to bet, I'd bet it on an Asgardian."
"Thor?" Kim asked. "But I thought he controlled thunder and lightning?"
"Not thinking about Thor," Clint replied. Suddenly, they heard a loud noise from outside, eminating from a quinjet flying above them. "They're home."
Steve Rogers led his remaining crew into the Avengers facility, making their entrance into the common room where Director Fury was waiting. "Director Fury?" Rogers asked.
"Captain," Fury replied, turning around to face the remaining Avengers. "What took you so long?"
"We were in Wakanda," Natasha replied. "Honestly, it's a marvel we got here when we did."
"Any word on Stark?" Thor asked.
"Stark?" Fury asked.
"Yeah, where's Tony?" Bruce asked. "We called Pepper on the way, she has no idea where he is."
"That's not important now," Fury replied. "We have word that imminent threats are coming here. Thor, we need you to find the other Asgardians, enlist their help until we can assess the damage here."
"Why my people?" Thor asked. "Why now?"
"Because people from your world can help us, and right now they don't have a home," Fury explained. "They can come here for respite, and..."
"What do you mean Asgardians wouldn't have a home?" Steve asked.
"Asgard was destroyed by my sister," Thor explained. "Which... how would you know about Asgard's destruction?"
"Like I always say, you need to keep both eyes open," Fury smiled. Right then, a silent figure dropped from the rafters behind Fury, landing and quickly drawing his katana, placing the blade on Fury's neck.
"Luckily I always do," Clint threatened.
"Clint?" Natasha gasped, seeing the director in peril. "What are you doing?"
"Exposing a rat," Clint replied. Flanking behind him were Tommy and Kim, who were merely in awe at being in the same room as Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
"Look Barton, I..."
"You're not going to talk your way out of this... Loki."
"That's impossible," Thor reasoned. "I watched Thanos strangle his lifeless body." In that moment, a saddened Fury transformed. They recognized him instantly. The slicked, long black hair. His green tunic, with gold adornments, and pale white skin.
"Surprise," Loki replied sullenly. "I assure you brother, my deception was not meant for evil."
"I watched you die!" Thor shouted, raising Stormbreaker, his axe. "Why would you..."
"I want Thanos dead," Loki replied. "I want our people to be restored. I thought... I thought I could help you, while also sparing you the pain of knowing that I was still alive."
"Yeah right," Clint quipped. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't let this blade sink right into your neck? How do we know you didn't help Thanos kill all our friends? Our families?!" A tear formed in his eye as he gripped his sword tightly, his face strained as he so desperately wanted a reason to let it plunge into his flesh.
"Family... oh Clint," Natasha gasped. "Laura..."
"They're all dead!" He shouted. "And now you're going to die..."
"Clint, hold on for a minute," Kim warned, placing her hand on his arm. "He might be responsible, but what if he isn't?" Clint looked at her as if she were crazy. But Tommy backed her up.
"She's right," he added. "Look, even if he is responsible, you kill him, there's no way to figure out what he knows. What if he's instrumental in getting our friends back?"
"No offense, but who exactly are you people?" Natasha questioned.
"Reinforcements," Tommy replied. Clint looked at the former leader of the power rangers, and after a moment of tension, he lowered his sword.
"You're right," Barton replied. "But for the record, I don't trust you."
"I don't doubt that," Loki replied. "I am sorry, brother."
"We can discuss it later, Loki," Thor replied matter-of-factly. "Right now, we need to know anything you can tell us about Thanos." Thor and Loki wandered off, deciding that it would be helpful for the pair to talk privately, knowing that their shared connection with Thanos destroying their people might help them piece together things. Meanwhile, Tommy and Kim made their introductions to the rest of the Avengers.
"So you guys were earth's first power rangers?" Rhodes asked. They nodded. "I remember back when you guys first hopped on the scene, we had training drills on how to handle both the monsters and your zords. Crazy..."
"Power rangers... that sounds kinda stupid..." Rocket muttered as he scurried up on the counter. His appearance startled Tommy and Kim.
"Is that a..."
"Yes, I look like a stupid raccoon," Rocket interrupted Kim. "We get it, no one's used to a raccoon that talks, can we get on with the conversation."
"So... is this all there's left?" Clint asked out of the blue. "Wanda, Sam, Vision?"
"All gone," Steve replied.
"And Bucky?" Clint asked. Steve nodded, the sadness in his eyes indicating the pain he felt over the loss of his friends. "I'm sorry, Cap." He put his arm around his shoulders, comforting him.
"Thanks."
"Any word from Tony?" Clint asked.
"Nothing," Bruce cut in. "Neither he or Scott Lang is responding. And I don't really know exactly how to get in touch with Wong, unless we went to the New York Sanctum."
"Wong?" Clint asked. "Sanctum?"
"He... uhh... is a wizard, works with..."
"Doctor Strange?" Kim interrupted.
"How... how do you know about Strange?" Bruce asked.
"Wait... there's really a guy by the name of Doctor Strange?" Rocket chimed in. "That's the stupidest name I ever heard of."
"Yes, there's a real guy by the name of Doctor Strange, and I know him because he told me we were the key to stopping Thanos' plot," Kim shared.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked.
"Twelve years ago, an astral projection of Doctor Strange showed up in my apartment. But he was from this time. He told me that he looked forward in time, and saw there was only one way to defeat Thanos, and that I would have to find a way to help you," she said, pointing to Steve, "and Tony."
"We think the key might be in the zeo crystal," Tommy added.
"I remember hearing about that, it was in Fury's files," Banner replied. "Massive energy source, never knew where it went."
"My guess is it's buried somewhere underneath our old command center," Tommy replied. "But I have my zeo shard. It's the source of, well, what's left of my zeo ranger powers. I need to try and get in contact with the rest of my old team, see who's still alive, and see if we can get the shards."
"Look, even if your old teammates are still alive, and we get these shards, what's it going to do for us?" Rhodes asked.
"I don't know," Kim replied. "All I know is that Dr. Strange said we were key to helping you."
"Tommy, when you said that the zeo crystal helped you become the zeo power rangers, how exactly did it do that?" Banner asked.
"It was connected to the morphing grid," Tommy replied. "The grid was able to give us unique powers, but our original powers were destroyed. We needed a new source of power to allow the grid to continue to give us our powers."
"The zeo crystal isn't just a power source, it could harness power as well," Banner realized.
"What do you mean?" Rogers asked.
"The grid... while it needed a power source, it had some elements of power and structure all ready, right?"
"Yeah..." Tommy started.
"What if the zeo crystal could harness even greater powers?" Banner pondered. "Like the power of the infinity stones?"
"That's all well and good, but last time we saw Thanos, he teleported on out of here," Romanoff replied. "How can we get the stones if we don't know where Thanos is?"
"One step at a time," Steve replied, shaking out of his contemplative state. "Look, this isn't exactly going to be a quick fix. But let's start working on what we can control. Tommy, can you call your former teammates, ask them to come here?"
"Sure thing," Tommy replied.
"Rocket, you're familiar with space travel, is it possible for you to use what we have here to help us find Thanos?"
"I might be able to figure it out, but it might take a while," Rocket replied. "Your technology ain't exactly advanced..." he muttered under his breath.
"Use whatever means necessary," Steve challenged.
"I can probably help with that," Bruce added.
"Ha, I doubt it," Rocket quipped, much to the chagrin of the rest of the team.
"Actually, I think it would be helpful if you went to see Wong, see if you can track down Tony," Steve replied.
"That is if he's still alive," Bruce wondered. "Don't you think you should come along?"
"I'm not sure Tony would want to see me," Steve sighed. "The last thing he would want is to take an order from the guy who abandoned him."
"I'll go," Kim said suddenly. "I'll go with you, Dr. Banner. Strange came to see me. If I can explain that to Stark, maybe it will help ease some of the tension between the two of you?" She paused, waiting for Steve to give the go ahead. He nodded in agreement. "Besides, if he isn't there, maybe Wong can help us know more about what Strange meant by everything he shared with me."
"Great," Steve replied. "Natasha, Clint, and Rhodey, you'll work with me to figure out next steps here on the ground. There's a lot of frightened people out there, and we're going to need to find help, as well as communicate with the government to see how we can help."
"Hopefully Ross won't have a problem with you coming back," Rhodey quipped.
"He doesn't have a choice," Steve commented. Tommy entered back into the room with a frown on his face. "Tommy?"
"No one picked up," he sighed.
"It's possible they too were wiped away by the snap," Natasha replied. The possible realization brought an added weight to both Tommy and Kimberly. Not only were their original teammates gone, but now all of the zeo rangers, minus Tommy, were gone too?
"Maybe," Steve interjected. "But we can't assume anything. Look, you said that you think the zeo crystal is hidden underneath your old command center, right?" Tommy nodded. "Call your old team back, tell them that if they're alive, to meet us there."
"Us?" Tommy asked.
"I'm going with you."
"Steve, what about..." Natasha started, but Steve continued.
"If this crystal is buried underneath the ground, Tommy's going to need another set of hands to get to it."
"Fair enough," Natasha replied. "We'll stay here and work on potential solutions, and support Rocket here. We'll fill Thor and Loki in once they come back."
"I'll get on the line with Ross and see if we know who's left," Rhodes added. The looks given by Clint and Natasha caused Rhodes to further elaborate. "I'll make sure I speak carefully, to make sure that there isn't any desire to arrest you." The pair relaxed at the explanation.
"I'll fire up the jet," Steve replied to Tommy. "Bruce, do you know where you and Ms. Hart are going?"
"Bleecker Street, shouldn't take too long to get there by car," he replied. The Avengers filed out, leaving Tommy and Kimberly alone for a moment.
"Be careful out there, ok?" Kim said, beginning to chew her bottom lip.
"We're going to get our friends back," Tommy replied. "I promise." He placed his arm on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. However, he could tell something wasn't right. "What is it?"
"The last time we said goodbye, I made a really stupid decision that kept us from talking for the next twelve years," Kim muttered. "I just hope neither of us run into trouble."
"When you're a power ranger, you don't exactly avoid trouble," Tommy chided.
"I know," Kim replied. "Come back in one piece."
"You too."
To Be Continued...
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- Googz333