Death Was Arrested - Chapter 6
Back on the jet, the rangers powered down while Natasha and Clint piloted the jet back to their headquarters. The rangers were together talking, minus Katherine, who again isolated herself. Steve noticed her avoiding the group, and was made aware of her near miss. He went and sat down by her, which only brought out a small grunt out of the tall blonde.
"When Tommy shared about the zeo team, he mentioned that you were sweet and gentle in your demeanor," Steve started. "Seems like he was wrong."
"Tell me, Captain, how would you like to get a voicemail from your ex, who you haven't heard from in nearly a decade, calling you for a mission to save the world hours after watching the one person who's been the rock in your life fade from existence?" Kat asked, a tear threatening to fall from her eye.
"Who did you lose?" Steve asked. She paused for a moment, he suspected because she was deciding whether she trusted him or not.
"Danny... my Danny." A few more tears fell. "He's... he was my older brother. When I moved back from London, I was a couple hours from Tanya and the others. Danny moved his medical practice to be close to me. He was there when Tommy..."
"When I broke up with you," Tommy interjected, who had come into the room. "Sorry to interrupt, but Clint wanted me to tell you that we're close to landing."
"Thanks Tommy," Steve replied, and then looked back at Katherine. "I'm glad you're with us," he replied, giving her a knowing look. "If we're going to get Danny back, we'll need your help." He placed his hand on her shoulder briefly and gave it a gentle squeeze before standing up and leaving her and Tommy. "Take a few minutes to talk things out, and meet us back in the facility."
"What about Zemo?" Tommy asked.
"I'll lock him back up in a cell, and figure out what exactly he was thinking starting that riot," Steve replied, walking out of the jet and grabbing Zemo, who was unconscious and tied up in restraints. A few moments went by without either talking to each other. Finally, Tommy made the first step.
"I'm sorry about how I treated you." Tommy was struggling to not be overcome with emotion. "You deserved better, and you deserved an explanation, and I gave you neither." He paused, waiting for Kat to engage with him, but she continued to stare at the floor. "In all of what I was going through, I never once stopped and considered how it was affecting you. It was selfish of me." Kat remained silent, struggling to look Tommy in the eye.
"If you think an apology can undo what happened..." Kat started.
"I don't," Tommy replied. "I know that you've had to bear the weight of my choices."
"You don't know anything," Kat countered, anger rising in her voice.
"I know that you saw your brother die right in front of you, and while Hayley wasn't my flesh and blood sister..."
"She your girlfriend?"
Tommy sighed at the angry question. "What is it with everyone thinking she's my girlfriend?" He ran his hand through his short hair, pondering what to say.
"Look..." Katherine started, calming herself down before she shared her next thought. "I came because you said there was a way to get the ones we lost back. I'm here. I want to help. I want Danny back. And whoever Hayley is to you..."
"My friend," Tommy replied.
"Ok... your friend, Hayley, Jason and the other rangers, and the rest of the population we lost, I'm here for them. But don't expect me to just saddle up and pretend like things are back to the way they were. I've carried too much pain in my heart for too long to do it. And seeing you with Kimberly does nothing to help it."
"Look, this is the first time Kim and I have seen each other for nearly 12 years," Tommy defended. The statement drew a soft chuckle from the blonde.
"You never were very aware about your own emotions, were you," Kat replied. With that she stood up and walked away, but not before stopping before exiting the jet. "I loved you, Tommy. With all my heart. I will do all I can to keep my emotions in check, to help the team accomplish what we need to do. But you need to know that it won't be easy for me."
"I understand," Tommy nodded. "All I want is for you to be clear-headed when we go into battle. I don't want you dying out there." Kat merely nodded, and then stormed out, leaving Tommy to do nothing but sigh.
Clint and Natasha were walking through the corridors of the Avengers facility, walking towards the armory to put away their weapons. Their hadn't been a lot of conversation on the ride back from their battle with Zemo, but Natasha finally broke the silence. "When did you become so proficient with a katana?" She blurted out.
"We didn't talk on the whole ride back, and that's the question you ask?" Clint replied.
"Look, I get you're angry about your family dying, but the whole new look, different fighting style..."
"I was fighting as Ronin a few months after Germany," Clint confessed. "Only a few side missions, contracted out with only two requirements. They can't know my identity, and the pay was good."
"Why? Didn't you want to remain with your family?" Natasha asked.
"Needed to pay the bills," he shrugged. "Though, the few missions I went on, they were a bit more compromising than I wanted. I had to change, I became more aggressive, changed my fighting style. It served me well in the new assignments, as well as concealing my identity. But that combined with seeing my family fade away... well let's just say it's become a lot easier to lose control."
"No offense Clint, but I miss Hawkeye." Natasha continued to put the weapons away, and then left Clint alone to let him ponder her firm statement.
A few days had passed in the Avengers facility, and morale was starting to fade. Rocket had little success in tracking Thanos or Tony, Thor and Loki spent more time arguing over the latter's trickery rather than finding solutions, and while Katherine's mood had improved, it was still clear she detested her pink predecesor.
Natasha and Steve sat alone in the lounge area of the facility taking a breather after spending all day with the others trying to find any leads that could bring them to Thanos. Invisiportals, nanotechnology, magic from a wizard, and none of it was getting anywhere. Steve let out a large sigh.
"You okay?" Natasha asked.
"I miss the good ol days," Steve replied. "Back before Erskine injected me with the super soldier serum, I wanted to fight in a normal war. No cosmic powers, no aliens, just a bully that I could see right in front of me. But this... my head is spinning after all of the options we explored." He stopped for a moment and finally looked up at Nat. "I can't fight a war if we can't find the bully."
"You talking about Thanos?" Natasha asked. "Or Tony?"
"Tony's not a bully," Steve replied. "I'd take him back in a heartbeat. I just hope he feels the same way... if we find him."
"We'll find a way," Natasha comforted him. "We always do." It was at that moment that a video transmission came up on the monitor, and after it was cued up and they saw the screen, they were shocked by what they saw.
"Is this an old message?" Steve asked.
"It's the front door," Natasha replied. They saw on the screen Scott Lang, who was standing in front of an old, brown van.
"Hi! Uh, is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport, in Germany? I got really big. Ant-Man? Ant-M - I know you know wh - I know you know that! That's me. Can you buzz me in?" Scott waited for a moment outside, wondering if anyone was there to receive him. "Maybe I didn't travel back far enough," he sighed. Suddenly, doors opened and revealed the pair who watched him on the monitor. "It's good to see you Captain, I wasn't sure if you'd reco..." Before Scott could finish his awkward introduction, Steve enveloped him in a massive hug, taking the wind out of him for a moment before he put him down.
"Are we ever glad to see you," Steve replied. "We thought you were dead."
"That's what Stark said," Scott replied. The statement startled the pair.
"You've seen Tony?" Natasha questioned, at which Lang grimaced.
"Well... sort of. We should go inside, it's kind of a long story."
"Let me assemble the team," Steve replied. After a few moments, the remaining Avengers and Power Rangers walked into the main lounge area, and after a round of introductions, and one more crack about the talking raccoon, Scott explained his journey into the quantum realm, how he traveled five years into the future and met with Tony, and how the earth was under siege by red skull and his new army of outriders. He revealed that they were all dead, minus Stark and his daughter.
"So... were we all dead?" Kim asked. "Including the power rangers?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Scott replied. "Tony didn't mention anything about the rangers, and he did mention that Thor went to outer space to get help, and never returned. Other than that, he told me that he reconciled with Cap in the end, but it was too late."
"This is good news," Rhodes replied.
"I'm not sure how you could possibly think this good news," Rocket quipped. "What exactly about 'we all die' except for the pirate angel, who's merely lost in space, sounds good to you!?"
"The fact that Scott saw Tony five years from now means he's alive," Rhodes countered. "It's possible that the future is all ready changing, because there's no word about the power rangers, and Scott is here, talking with us."
"That's all good, except we still can't find him," Banner sighed. "We've been trying everything we can to get some sort of location on him, and we're no closer to finding him than we were when we started."
"I might be able to help with that," Scott replied excitedly. "You see, I didn't come back from the future empty-handed. You see, Stark gave me some tech he was working on, some of which was for finding Thanos and controlling the powers of the infinity rocks, or whatever you guys called them. I've got them in my truck."
"Do any of them have nanotech on them?" Banner asked, his voice brimming with hope.
"I... don't really know what that means, but..."
"Tony's latest model suit was made by millions of tiny robots called nanotechnology, completely state-of-the-art," Bruce explained. "Depending on the tech that Tony gave you, he might have given us a way to locate him by taking the signal from his tech and searching for it."
"Buddy, we all ready tried that with soldier boy over here," Rocket sighed, pointing over to Rhodes.
"Look, we know that something has to work, right?" Tommy replied, a bit exasperated by Rocket's demeanor. "Then let's try it."
"Bruce, work with Scott and find that signal," Steve commanded. They nodded, and the work and research crew got to work.
"Thor, you and Loki need to stay here for the time being," Steve replied. "If you go out there now..."
"It's possible that we can find more troops, especially for the incoming battle with this Skull-man..."
"Red Skull," Steve corrected Thor.
"We can find help," Thor finished.
"Didn't you just hear what Scott said?" Steve asked. "We can't lose you right now."
"He's right," Kim added. "Look, at this point, if an army comes down from on high, we need our heaviest hitters here. The zeo rangers powers are limited until we find a way to wire the zeo crystal to a more stable power transmitter, and our man resources here are pitifully few."
"Fine," Thor replied. "But we leave the moment we find a way to find and kill Thanos."
"Understood," Steve acquiesed.
To Be Continued...
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- Googz333