Author's Note: This will be the last post for about ten days. I'll be without internet access, but should be back to regular posting afterwards.
Also, thanks to all who have read, followed, and reviewed thus far! I appreciate all the encouragement!
Death Was Arrested - Chapter 4
*Deep Space*
Tony reclined on a chair in a small portion of Nebula's ship, his feet resting on a small table in the center of the room. They had been traveling for what felt like days, and while it seemed he was able to rest, the memories of his latest battle made him restless. He wanted to get home, get back to his workshop, start working on solutions. The sound of Strange's voice continued to motivate him, he knew that one way or another he would help save the universe.
"There was no other way," he repeated to himself. He fiddled with a bag of zargnuts, which was about the only food that he felt was tolerable that Nebula had given him. There wasn't much in terms of rations, Nebula hadn't planned on needing too much in the way of sustainance on her journey to Titan, but there was at least enough for the two of them to eat for at least a few more days. His rations were in his little section, which doubled as a pod that he could use to pilot himself if ever needed.
He swung his legs off the table and stood up, stretching his arms upwards and swinging his head and neck, trying to keep from getting too tense on the intergalactic flight. He walked over towards a metal helmet. Most of the remaining nano technology was used to form it, and he pushed a button to see a holographic image of Pepper Potts eminating from it's power source. "I'm coming home to you." He went to graze her face with his fingers, but they phased right through. "That is... if you're still here."
Before he could say anything else, he noticed something moving towards their ship out the window. He walked over to the window to see what was going on, and to his dismay, hundreds of golden plated ships were approaching. He went to walk out of his room to warn Nebula, but before he could, the airlock door separating his pod from the rest of the ship shut. He banged on the door and yelled. "Hey! Open up! Something's coming straight for us!"
"I closed the airlock door, just in case," Nebula grunted through the ship's intercom system. "I'm picking up activity..." Explosions interrupted her explanation, as the group of ships attacked theirs.
"Let me out! Let me help you!" Tony pleaded. But before he could say anything else, the next thing he knew, his portion of the ship took on heavy damage, the force of which flung Tony spiraling into one of the steel walls of his ship, knocking him unconscious.
Tony's eyes fluttered a bit, the first thing he noticed was the sharp pain from the back of his skull. He staggered to his feet, realizing that all the lights in his pod were dark. He moved slowly towards the front of the pod, which had a small set of controls to pilot it. He sat down in hopes that he could understand how to fly it, but it was no use. The entire control panel was powerless, just like the lights. Hope drained from his soul as he frantically explored the ship's controls and wiring, hoping against hope that he could restore power. Several hours went by, but no amount of intellect or will was solving the problems that he faced.
"I invented nano tech and built an armored suit in a cave, but I can't figure out how to power this hunk of junk," he sighed, sitting down on the pod's cold floor. "Come on Tony... how do I get out of this. How do I get home?"
*Avengers Facility, Upstate New York*
Thor and Loki walked around the facility, now wearing civilian clothes. They remained quiet for a while, with the latter seeming skittish around his brother.
"Am I still the worst?" Loki asked sheepishly. Thor ignored the comment, continuing to sulk as they walked. "Thor..."
"How did you do it?" Thor asked. "I... I clutched your body while our ship broke apart..."
"I left when half of our people left," Loki replied. "I projected my image onto another, and I controlled him from a small pod close by. I... I knew that Thanos would get the stone. I thought with my trickery, I would be able to provide at least some leverage."
"Leverage to escape without being harmed?" Thor challenged. "Or was it leverage to get another innocent killed, after you used him to go after Thanos. Or maybe, leverage to finally get the earth you've always wanted to rule, now that it's been decimated."
"I was trying to help you!" Loki yelled, the burst of emotion caught Thor by surprise. "I thought if I could distract them, if I could get here in time..." Loki was unable to continue, as he was blindsided by emotion. Tears flowed down and pain was written on his face. Finally, as the emotion passed, he looked at Thor with weeping eyes. "I thought this was my redemption."
"Brother..."
"I am not worthy to be called that," Loki replied.
"Family isn't like Mjolnir," Thor challenged. "You weren't worthy to lift the hammer, but you were chosen to be an Odinson. You don't get too choose whether you are worthy or not, father chose you to be his son. Because of that, you will always be my brother." He paused for a moment as he too had a tear in his eye, emotion gripping the god of thunder. "I don't know why I must keep saying this to you... but you have, and always been my brother. There is nothing you can do to change that. And while I don't like that you have deceived me once more, I'd rather you be alive and deceptive than dead."
"Thanks?" Loki replied shakily. "Look... about the other Asgardians, we need to find a ship and get out of here."
"What good will that do, Loki?" Thor asked. "We don't even know where Thanos is, yet. We must give it time."
"That's all fine and good, but when we do find them, there is someone else we search for," Loki replied.
"Who?" Thor asked.
"I don't know their name," Loki started. "But when I fell from the rainbow bridge in Asgard, and travelled throughout space, I heard of a warrior from the kree."
"I know of the Kree," Thor replied.
"Yes, but this one was different," Loki replied. "She's part human, and once lived on this planet. Rumor has it that she is one of the most powerful beings on the planet."
"Any idea how to find her?" Thor asked.
"Not exactly... all who told me about her said they hadn't heard or seen from this warrior for years."
"Unless she shows up on our doorstep, we probably should think of other ideas than to hope that we can find a half-kree, half-human super soldier to help us with our problems." Thor's tone discouraged Loki, who furrowed his brow.
"Do you have any better ideas, brother?" Loki scoffed.
"I don't, brother. I don't."
*Mojave Desert, CA*
Tommy and Steve flew straight away to the old sight of the power chamber, making it in record time across the country. They landed the quinjet down about a mile from the location, and then they hiked from there to make it to the site. As they drew near, they saw the ruins of the old headquarters.
"Is this it?" Steve asked, pointing to the building.
"Yeah, that's it," Tommy replied. He had been back a number of times to learn about the morphing grid, how he could connect the dino gems to it, and how to utilize other powers along with it. But regardless of how frequently he had seen his old base of operations, he continued to be surprising mournful over what had become of it.
As they continued to walk towards the dilapidated building, Steve asked, "What happened here?"
"After I left the rangers, an evil space pirate named Divatox destroyed it. I couldn't believe it when T.J. told me about it." They arrived at the base of the building, and started looking for the entrance. "This place always felt indestructible. Even when other enemies tried to destroy it, Zordon always found a way to safeguard it."
"Zordon?" Steve asked.
"He was our mentor, our leader..." Tommy began to choke up, thinking back on when Andros killed Zordon to save the world.
"And a lot more?" Tommy nodded at Steve's question. "This was like home for you, wasn't it?"
"Yeah... seems kind of silly, now that you mention it."
"Doesn't seem silly at all," Steve replied. "Sometimes, fighting for what you believe in is exactly what home is." Tommy nodded and wiped away his tears, and then moved over towards a part of the building, and he started groping the side of it.
"There should be a secret control panel that we can use to enter the building. If I can just... there it is!" After Tommy found it and pushed in a code, a door appeared that allowed them entrance into the building. They wandered around the main command center for a few moments, with Tommy checking a few obvious spaces in the room before moving on.
"Anything?" Steve asked.
"No," Tommy replied. "I figured there wouldn't be anything, but I wanted to check first. There's a storage space below this, the crystal might be in there."
"Lead the way." The pair made their way down below, and there they spent what felt like hours rummaging through all of the miscellaneous things, from old plans to the power chamber, to the old mighty morphin suits that once occupied the glass chambers in the back of the command center. Tommy began to grow concerned that they would never find the crystal, or that by the time they found it that it would be too late.
"I'm starting to wonder if the crystal is buried beneath the ruins of the building," Tommy said aloud. "Or if it's even here."
"Would one of your old teammates know?" Steve asked, pausing his rummaging.
"Even if they do, I haven't gotten a hold of them, and they haven't called me back," Tommy replied. "Let's go outside, police the grounds." They returned outside, where the sun was beginning to set.
"Well, we only have an hour or so of daylight left, we better make it count," Steve replied as they started to wander around the exterior of the power chamber. They searched for about a half hour, but it became increasingly clear that they had too much ground to cover between the two of them.
"I'm starting to wonder if it's worth us being out here," Tommy sighed. Around that time, Steve looked out on the horizon below and saw a large, black SUV headed straight for them.
"Tommy, I think we have company," he said. "Any hostiles that would know about this base?"
"None that I would think of as current threats," Tommy replied. This put Steve somewhat at ease, but he still felt uneasy about the vehicle approaching. It stopped fifteen feet or so from them, and the lights and ignition were turned off immediately. All four doors opened, and for a second Tommy and Steve tensed up. But Tommy was relieved when he saw who exited the vehicle.
"I didn't realize that Captain America was a former power ranger," Rocky joked as he slammed his door shut. "Did you, Adam?"
"Never knew," Adam replied in a jovial manner, shutting his driver-side door. "Of course, Tommy didn't tell me he was stealing my color either."
"You guys have no clue how happy I am to see you," Tommy ran to embrace his brothers-in-arms. "You got my message?"
"We did," an Australian voice softly rang behind them. Rocky and Adam parted to reveal Kat and Tanya.
"Hi Katherine," he replied, pausing for a moment. The awkward greeting wasn't lost on the other former rangers. "Tanya. It's good to see you both."
"It's good to see you too, Tommy," Tanya replied. "We just wish it was under better circumstances."
"Me too," Tommy replied. He turned to Steve, who waited behind him. "This is Steve Rogers, or as Rocky pointed out, Captain America. Steve, this is Adam Park, Rocky DeSantos, Tanya Sloan, and Katherine Hillard. The zeo rangers."
"Thank you for coming on short notice," Steve added. "If you haven't noticed, we have a bit of a crisis on our hands."
"I'd say," Adam replied. "It's not everyday that a bunch of folks you work with just suddenly disintergrate."
"Did this have to do with that alien attack in New York?" Tanya asked.
"It had everything to do with it," Steve replied. "I can explain more in the jet, but first we need to know something. Do you know where the zeo crystal is?"
"We think the crystal could be the key to getting the world's population back," Tommy explained. "But we've looked around here for hours, and haven't come close to finding it."
"That makes sense, since I had it locked up in storage," Adam replied nonchalantly. The comment left Steve and Tommy speechless. "When my powers got restored for our fight against Thrax, it made me realize there were a lot of things left in the power chamber that needed to be secured, so I placed the zeo crystal in a warehouse downtown with a lot of other stuff."
"We picked it up on our way from Stone Canyon," Rocky added.
"So... did you say you have a jet?" Tanya asked.
"We do," Steve replied. "How would you like to help us save the universe?"
"Avengers and Power Rangers team up?" Rocky asked excitedly. "Count me in!"
"We're ready to come and fight," Adam affirmed.
"In that case, let's get going," Steve commanded. "Unless we need anything else?"
"Nope, as long as you have your zeo shards, we should be good to go," Tommy replied. His gaze, however, didn't leave Katherine. He could tell she felt uneasy, but he didn't know why.
"Adam, can you drive us down to our quinjet?" Steve asked, interrupting Tommy's thoughts.
"Sure thing, just tell me where to go."
To Be Continued...
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- Googz333