Death Was Arrested - Chapter 5
*177a Bleecker Street, New York, NY*
Banner and Kim arrived at New York Sanctum, but it took much longer than they expected. Unlike the airways, traffic on the ground was still immensely impacted by the decimation. Abandoned automobiles were strewn among the streets, and law enforcement and transportation services must have been so hindered by the loss of personnel that there was barely any effort to help move things along. Add to that the chaos of worried and scared survivors who didn't know what to do, and you have long delays.
"I hope Wong is here," Bruce sighed. "It'd be sad if we travelled through all that mess for nothing."
"Someone will be here," Kim added, placing her hand on Bruce's shoulder. They knocked forcefully, but nothing happened. There were no footsteps approaching the door, only silence. Kim felt agitated, and began to knock at a quicker pace, when all of a sudden she went to knock and there was no door to strike. "What the..."
They were no longer outside in front of the sanctum, but now inside a beautiful looking lobby with an ascending staircase to an upper level, as well as a number of corridors leading to other rooms in the building. However, on the staircase, there was a massive hole in the middle of it.
"What the heck happened there?" Kim asked, pointing to it.
"I sorta happened," Bruce replied sheepishly. Kim's mouth hung open in shock. "I didn't mention that I was the hulk before, did I?"
"You know, that would have been good to know before we left," Kim replied. "That explains all the breathing exercises while we were stuck in traffic."
"I see you returned, Dr. Banner," a voice said from above them. They turned to find a larger asian man, one whom Bruce was very happy to see.
"Wong, am I glad to see you," Banner shouted up to him. "I was afraid that you might be gone."
"I have neither left the sanctum, nor perished," Wong replied. "Have you heard from Stephen?"
"I have, sort of," Kim interjected. Wong descended the broken staircase to be closer to them, and he gazed at Kimberly with a knowing look.
"When did you see him?" Wong asked.
"Twelve years ago," she replied. The response prompted a grimace from the wizard. "Look, I swear..."
"I don't doubt you Miss Hart," Wong replied.
"How do you know my name?"
"I'm a master of the Mystic Arts, it's my responsibility to know who comes to our doorsteps," he replied matter-of-factly. "I am concerned that, if Stephen Strange arrived in your past to discuss our present, it's very possible that he is dead."
"What makes you say that?" Bruce asked.
"He may have used the time stone to determine the best way to defeat Thanos," Wong explained.
"I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he did," Kim replied. "He said I and another were the best hope of stopping him."
"Then I'm confident that Stephen is dead. If he told you then, it means that while he can see beyond in the lives of others, he did not see his own fate beyond a certain point. If he would have survived, he would have come to you when he returned, not in an astral projection."
"Ok, Strange is dead, but what about Tony and Peter Parker?" Banner asked.
"I do not know," Wong replied. "However, if Strange is dead, I don't know how the others could have survived as well."
"Look Wong, fifty percent of the universe has been wiped out," Banner reasoned. "If Tony is alive, we need to find him and bring him home. I know you can teleport to different locations throughout the multiverse, is there anyway you can get us to him."
"I cannot help you," Wong replied. "Even if I could get to them, I have no way of knowing where they are throughout the universe. And my responsibility is here. Even Stephen really is dead, then the Sanctum remains unguarded."
"What good is the Sanctum if everybody else is dead?!" Banner started to shout, but Kim grasped hold of his shoulder for a minute.
"Calm down, I don't exactly want to see the hulk come out and terrorize us right now," Kim whispered. Bruce took a few deep breaths, while Kim returned her gaze to Wong.
"Wong, I know you have a giant responsibility here," Kim empathized. "But your friend and fellow wizard came to me, saying I needed to find Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, to help them defeat Thanos. If he came to you with the same plea, would you go to whatever lengths it took to find them? Or would you play it safe and keep going on with your normal life?" Wong pondered her request with a furrowed brow, but after a moment he looked back at the pair.
"I do not know how I can help," Wong replied. At first, this produced exasperated responses, but Wong continued. "But, I will accompany you to wherever you are going. If we can find a location, I may be able to bring him here."
"I have an idea," Bruce replied. "But we'll need to go back to the Avengers base."
"Oh great, another twelve hours in the car," Kim sighed.
"I believe I can assist here," Wong smiled, as he took out his sling ring. He circled his two fingers in the air, and an orange spark appeared in front of them, creating a sort of doorway that led to their base. "I believe this will cut the travel time to twelve seconds."
"Whoa, that's so cool," Kim gasped. The trio made their way into the main room, much to the shock of Rhodes and Romanoff.
"What the hell?" Rhodes asked quizzically. "How..."
"This is Wong," Banner explained. "He's one of the wizards we were talking about."
"First a talking raccoon, now wizards," Rhodes sighed.
"You have a raccoon that talks?" Wong asked, which brought a much needed chuckle from the others.
"Apparently he's a cybernetically enhanced lifeform, created on another planet," Natasha commented. "He's been talking about how outdated our systems are. He's got quite a mouth on him."
"Any progress from him or Thor?" Banner asked.
"Nothing yet," Natasha replied. "Honestly, we haven't seen Thor or Loki for a while since they went on their little stroll."
"Loki is here?" Wong asked, his voice laced with concern. "As in the Loki that destroyed half of New York?" She nodded her head. "Why are you working with him? He's on our watch list for most dangerous threats to our world."
"He's on ours too," Natasha replied. "But right now, he might be able to help us save the world, and we're running a little low on available fighters."
"It's a good thing that the cavalry came," a voice said from the far side of the room, accompanied by a number of loud footsteps.
"Rocky?" Kim asked, recognizing his voice. The zeo rangers and Steve entered the room with the zeo crystal in tow.
"Kim, is that you?" He asked. He ran over and gave her a hug, followed by Adam. "Tommy said you were here, man are we glad to see you."
"It goes both ways, Rocko," Kim replied. "Adam it's good to see you."
"It's been a long time, Kimberly," Adam smiled. Tanya and Katherine approached her, with Tanya offering a warm hug, but Katherine giving a brief, if not icy, embrace.
"So, this is it?" Adam asked. "The home base of the Avengers."
"That it is," Steve replied. "This is Natasha, Colonel Jim Rhodes, Dr. Bruce Banner, and..."
"Wong," Banner jumped in, introducing the Master of the Mystic Arts. "We're hoping he can help us get to Tony."
"Could you use the same magic that you used to bring us here?" Kim asked suddenly. "You were able to transport us from one end of New York to the other in a hot second. Couldn't you do the same with Tony?"
"Potentially, but we would have to find him first," Wong pondered. "Even then, I'm not sure my magic would be able to reach him, depending on where he is. If he's on this planet, or in this universe, then maybe. But if not, it may be impossible for us to get him."
"I think I might have a way to lock on to his location," Rhodes replied. "Wong, come with me. I'm gonna introduce you to our talking raccoon." They stepped out of the room, but before anyone could say anything else, Clint came barging in.
"You guys got here just in time, we have a problem," Clint replied.
"What happened?" Steve asked.
"Take a look for yourself, Cap." Clint turned on a video screen in the room, and the group turned their attention there to find that a sizable group were marching in downtown Manhattan terrorizing many of the remaining citizens. At the front of the group was a man that Steve remembered all too well.
"Zemo..." he muttered.
"Zemo?" Rocky asked. "What's a Zemo?"
"Helmut Zemo was the one who bombed a U.N. Summit in hopes of pinning it on Bucky Barnes," Steve started to explained. "He..." Before he could continue, the memory of Barnes disintegrating popped back into his mind, and he had to stop for a moment. "His whole agenda was to destroy the Avengers from the inside out."
"You could make an argument that it's Zemo's fault Thanos won," Natasha scowled.
"No... that was on us," Steve replied. "Look, we need to get out there and help rescue those people. Tommy, this isn't the mission we talked about, but is your team ready to go?"
"The zeo crystal should give us enough juice for now," Tommy replied.
"All right, then let's get ready," Steve replied. "Clint, Natasha, fire up the quinjet."
"What about me?" Kim asked. "My powers aren't tied to the zeo crystal, and while I might have enough power in my old power coin..."
"I'd wait it out here, help quarterback us from here," Tommy replied. The response saddened Kimberly, but Tommy placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I know you want to be out there with us. But let's make sure your powers have stability before we send you out there."
"All right, let's meet up at the jet," Steve replied. They all left the room, save for Banner, Kim, and Tommy.
"I'm going to check on Wong and them, and then I'll be back to help you figure out all the tech on our end," Banner replied, leaving the two alone.
"Well... here we are, saving the world again," Kim replied. "Guess for you this is a semi-regular occurance, huh?"
"Somewhat," Tommy shrugged. "But the stakes have never been so high."
"Tommy..." Kim muttered as she began to chew on her bottom lip.
"What is it?" Tommy asked. Kim hesitated, before finally speaking up.
"May the power protect you." She stood on her toes and gave Tommy a kiss on his cheek. While innocent enough, the gesture was enough to force Tommy's heart to race.
"Thanks," he whispered, leaving her alone. The zeo rangers, Clint, Natasha, and Steve got into the quinjet and left for Manhattan, with more than a couple of people eyeing up Tommy for his slight delay to the jet.
"So... are you and Kim back together?" Rocky bluntly asked.
"What?" Tommy choked out. "No, I just... she found me after the others got wiped away."
"Oh," Rocky responded.
"I've lost track of what day it is, or when we got in touch, whether it was today, yesterday, three days ago... but whenever it was, it was the first time I saw Kimberly since Muiranthias."
"Not in your mind..." Kat muttered under her breath, just loud enough for a few of the others to hear.
"Kat?" Adam asked curiously. She blushed, presumably because she didn't intend to be heard, and then quietly excused herself and went to another part of the jet. "Tanya, is everything ok with Kat?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure," Tanya replied. "Don't take this the wrong way Tommy, but I don't think she's exactly thrilled to be around you again after everything that happened between the two of you."
"Well... I don't exactly blame her for that," Tommy confessed.
"What the heck are you guys talking about?" Rocky asked.
"When Katherine left for London, I proposed," Tommy explained.
"What?" Adam asked. "Why didn't we ever know this?"
"Because it was short lived," Tanya interjected. "And, similarly to when Kim dumped Tommy, he in turn didn't give much explanation as to why he broke off the engagement. At least, that's what I've gathered from Katherine."
"She deserved better," Tommy confessed.
"You're damn right she did," Tanya affirmed.
"What happened?" Rocky asked. Tommy hesitated for a moment, but realized that, aside from Kimberly and Jason, and Hayley of course, he trusted this group of people more than anyone else.
"I had a mental breakdown when I went off to college," Tommy replied. The admission stunned his fellow teammates. "I was hospitalized for a few days, was close to withdrawing from school altogether. I... I didn't do well with the loss of being a power ranger. That was in addition to finding out I had a brother, finding out my long-term girlfriend was cheating on me, and transitioning from high school to college, I sank into a deep depression. I... part of me dated Kat as a coping mechanism. I truly liked her, and I enjoyed her company, but I was using her to escape the pain of that whole year. I broke up with her over the phone, and didn't reach out again for about a year."
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Adam asked.
"Because I was afraid," Tommy shared honestly. "Leader of the power rangers, undone by his own emotions. All I felt was shame and failure."
"Come on man, we wouldn't have judged..."
"I know, Rocko," Tommy cut him off. "It wasn't about you guys, it was about me. It helped that I met Hayley, who helped me through it. But she didn't know me from before. Sometimes, it's easier to share your junk with a complete stranger."
"I'm sorry that you went through that," Tanya replied.
"What happened to Hayley?" Adam asked.
"She was wiped away," Tommy replied somberly. Before the rest of the rangers could respond, Steve entered from the cockpit into the room they were occupying.
"We're three minutes out, are you guys ready?" Steve asked.
"We will be," Tommy replied, glancing at his fellow rangers. "Tanya, can you get Katherine?"
"Will do," she replied.
The jet landed on top of the old Avengers tower, and within seconds the hatch lowered to allow the heroes out on the roof. The rangers were morphed, Clint was in his new garb, which came with katanas rather than his patented bow and arrow, and Nat and Steve were dressed in their garb from their time on the run, with Steve sporting the vibranium arm shields that were gifted to him by the late T'Challa.
"Listen up," Steve called out. "Our mission is simple, contain and neutralize the threat, and protect the remaining citizens. Their leader is named Helmut Zemo, who you saw on the screen back at the base. Be careful, he's crafty and deceptive. But, I wouldn't be surprised if we get to him, the mob will die down. Detain him and bring him in. Understood?"
"We got it," Tommy replied. The eight of them rushed down the building and exited to the street level, and ran a few blocks to get to where all the commotion was. The streets were congested with cars and bodies, storefront windows were broken into, and gunfire was sprayed freely in the air and into the crowds. There were dozens of henchmen that were gathered around, shouting and intimidating others around them. It was then that Captain America made his move, climbing on top of one of the abandoned automobiles.
"That's enough!" He yelled into the air, halting the assault for a moment. "We've all sustained heavy losses recently. You can either return to your homes, and leave Zemo to us, or you can join him in defeat." Suddenly, Zemo appeared, making his way to the front of mob.
"Captain America," he cackled. "You look like someone who has lost much... maybe now you know what it's like to lose like I have."
"More than you can imagine," he challenged. "But that gives you no right to come and suppress innocent people here."
"And the Avengers had no right to kill the innocents in Sokovia! But now, you will feel defeat, good captain." Zemo turned to a couple of his comrades, and then returned his gaze to Steve. "Kill him." With the simple command, gunfire rained down on him. He quickly ducked behind a car to shield himself, the other heroes quickly following suit.
"This is one of those times I wish I hadn't traded in my bow and arrow for a sword," Clint joked.
"We've got this," Tommy replied. "Rangers, zeo blasters on lower settings." The five pulled the weapons from their holsters, and then quickly moved from their makeshift barricades to fire on their assailants. They very quickly mowed them down, stunning them in their tracks. When the mob had thinned out enough, Tommy shouted to the other avengers. "Now!"
The simple command prompted the three of them to move towards their enemies, taking them on in bunches. The rangers joined them, leaving their protective positions to help Cap and the others. They pulled their power weapons, and quickly dispatched of their foes. After a few moments, Steve saw Zemo trying to escape. "Zemo's on the run, I'm on him," he communicated, running after him at a breakneck pace.
As the rangers continued to fight off the remaining attackers, Katherine stopped and gazed at Tommy as he fought. It was then they heard a communication in their helmets, and it was Kimberly's voice.
"Sorry it took me so long to get on coms here, guys," she replied. "You guys are doing great, just keep closing in on them."
"Glad we have your approval," Katherine mocked, anger apparent in her voice. Kim's voice went silent over the radio, and no one spoke for what seemed like an eternity. However, Tanya replied quickly.
"Kat, you cool?" She asked.
"I'm fin..." she started, but as she was distracted, she was shot down by four different attackers. She was sprawled out on the ground, her armor fading from her body.
"Kat!" Kim yelled over the radio, alerting the other rangers to her imminent danger. One of the henchmen stood over her body, aiming his weapon to give the death blow, when a shadowy figure careened over him, grabbing and throwing him over his shoulder. Kat looked over, and was alarmed to find Clint brutally killing the four of them, running his sword through them without a second thought. The last one dropped to the ground, but Clint couldn't stop plunging his sword into the lifeless carcass. Faster and faster he thrust until...
"Clint!" Natasha shouted at him, awakening him from his bloodlust. He stopped and gazed into his friends concerned eyes, and then looked back at the unmorphed pink ranger, who couldn't believe what she had just witnessed.
"I'm sorry... I just..." Natasha interrupted the apology by giving him a long, uncharacteristic embrace.
"You don't need to apologize," she replied. "We're clear here," she communicated through their coms. "Anything we're missing?"
"Seems like all the bad guys are down," Kim replied over the radio. "Is Kat okay?" Kat scowled at her predecesor's concern. Natasha knelt down beside her to check her out, but all she saw were a couple of slight scrapes and bruises from the impact of the ground after she had unmorphed.
"Let me see your eyes," Natasha said to her, and she complied. "No signs of concussion, no bullet wounds, I'd say you'll be fine... as long as you can stay focused out here."
"I'll be fine," Katherine bristled.
"Look, as much as we need your help, if you're going to be a liability..."
"Who the hell are you to judge me," Kat challenged, rising to her feet. "I can hold my own..." Before she could continue, Steve spoke over their com units.
"I've got Zemo," Steve added.
"Hey guys," Kim replied over the radio. "You've got a lot of activity coming your way, looks like local law-enforcement."
"We need to get out of here, just in case if we're still on Ross' most wanted list," Natasha added.
"Let's meet up back at the jet," Steve commanded. The other rangers surrounded Clint, Natasha, and Katherine still morphed, agast at the carnage that Barton had left.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Rocky asked. "I thought we were trying to keep them alive..."
"Long story," Natasha replied, looking over towards Clint. "We can talk later, you guys heard Cap, we need to get to the jet."
"Kat, you better morph back, just to keep your identity safe," Adam suggested.
"Good idea," she agreed. "Zeo ranger one, Pink." With the command, she transformed, and followed the rest of the group back so they could fly back to base.
To be Continued...
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- Googz333