Title: Operation Lightspeed

Rating: T

Disclaimer:

I do not own Power Rangers or any characters/plotlines used by Marvel. I do, however, own all original characters and their plotlines.

Authors Note: Hello, so welcome to my first-ever story. You may notice that this is slightly crossed with Marvel, but this story mainly follows the Lightspeed Rescue plotline. It just features some of the characters, like Coulson so I've decided to keep it in the Power Rangers category, hopefully this is okay with you guys? This is also posted on AO3 if you want to check it out. But anywho, enjoy!

The young red-haired woman looked up to the bright blue skies ahead as she rested her arms against the 1965 red Chevrolet Corvette passenger door, which was affectionately called Lola by her supervising officer, Agent Phil Coulson. They had been on the road for 13 hours after travelling from Washington, DC, to Mariner Bay, California, and Coulson had finally decided to put the roof down.

"Is everything alright?" Coulson asked, his eyes darting to her. She tried to sit up straight, her back emitting a satisfying crack.

Georgina nodded and replied, "I'm fine, but why didn't we fly Lola to Mariner Bay again?"

Coulson chuckled with amusement in his eyes, "A good old-fashioned road trip can be therapeutic," he explained. "Since we've spent most of our time indoors this past month, I thought this would do us good."

"Tell that to my back," she retorted, noticing the look on Coulson's face, "You are not the one who is eight weeks pregnant," she remarked. "How much longer until we reach the aqua base?"

"We're not heading directly to the aqua base," he answered, "Dana said she'd meet us at the air hanger," he added, checking his watch. "We should arrive there in the next two hours…"

Georgina battered her eyes and asked, "Is there any chance we can speed up that ETA?"

"Fasten your seatbelt," Coulson instructed as he activated the hover system. She smiled and looked down as Lola gracefully lifted off the ground.

~0~

Coulson's brow furrowed as he admitted, "I didn't realise there would be other people here," He brought Lola to a halt and noticed Dana waiting by the helicopter with four other individuals. Some appeared calm, while a couple of them appeared Jittery.

Georgina glanced up from her phone as Coulson exited the car, walked over to her side to open the door and retrieved their suitcases from the trunk, "Thank you," she murmured as he gathered their luggage.

Dana approached Lola with a smile and exclaimed, "You made it! I missed you!"

Georgina returned the smile, and although startled by Dana's tight hug, she said, "I missed you too," sensing Georgina's discomfort, Dana quickly released her. "Sorry."

Dana shook her head and reassured her, "No need to apologise," she then greeted Coulson as she observed two more SHIELD agents approaching Lola.

"Hello, Dana," Coulson acknowledged. He handed his car keys to the agents and warned them, "Make sure there are no scratches on the car. I want it to arrive in one piece at the aqua base."

They nodded and swiftly hopped into the car, "Yes, Sir," they replied.

"He's quite protective of his car," Georgina remarked, noticing Dana's expression.

Coulson approached the two young women and explained, "Lola is a collector's item. Stark doesn't even produce them anymore."

"I'm pretty sure Tony would scrap the engines," Georgina quipped.

"He wouldn't dare," Coulson replied with a smile, appreciating the familiar banter.

A young man wearing a cowboy hat approached the group, bumping into Coulson, "Sorry," he apologised. "How much longer are we waiting here?"

Dana apologised to him, saying, "I'm sorry, Joel. We were waiting for Coulson and Georgina," she gestured to the two agents. "We can set off now," she watched as Joel returned to the group.

Georgina blinked, remarking, "He seemed pretty upset."

"You can thank Tweedledum and Tweedle-Dee over there," Dana gestured to the two men in black suits, "They forcibly relocated them into the car from their lives."

Coulson nodded in agreement as they started walking toward the helicopter. "Well, the organisation is known for it," he opened the helicopter door and said, "Ladies first," he gestured for the woman in the back and yellow top to board.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling as Coulson helped her into the helicopter.

~0~

They all sat in the helicopter in silence until Carter suggested they didn't know each other and to do some introductions; after introducing themselves individually, he glanced out the window as the helicopter began to descend.

"Don't tell me," he said, turning to Dana, "we are going into that submarine, aren't we?"

Kelsey eagerly sprang to her feet and manoeuvred past Dana and Georgina. She rested her hands on both Carter's and Coulson's laps as they were seated closer to the doors, "Excellent!"

The Tannoy system echoed through the aqua base as they entered, announcing, 'Civilians and authorised personnel have entered the lightspeed aqua base. The security clearance has been checked and confirmed.'

Chad's eyes widened as he surveyed the base, "where are we?"

"I don't know," Kelsey patted his arm reassuringly, "but it's cool, huh?"

Dana turned to Georgina and asked, "Has it changed much since you were a kid?"

Georgina observed her surroundings and remarked, "The technology has changed, and there are new faces, but everything else seems the same," she smiled but was taken aback as the base's alarms suddenly blared.

Dana swiftly turned on her heels, "What on earth?" she exclaimed. "We are missing Joel," Coulson nodded, straightening his blazer before heading toward the Captain's office.

"I found him," said Georgina, nodding toward the controls in the far corner, "the cowboy is messing around with the controls."

Dana sighed, "That is a sentence I never thought I'd hear," She said, noticing Georgina's smile. She then walked over to Joel and gave him a stern lock as she turned off the alarms. "Come with me," she instructed Joel, grabbing the lapel of his blazer and dragging him along.

~0~

"Welcome," Captain Mitchell greeted as he stood there, waiting for them. "To the Lightspeed Aqua base."

Joel brushed past them, almost colliding with Carter this time, and made a beeline for the captain. "I don't care who you are," he waved his hands frantically, "but this is illegal; this is kidnapping!"

Captain Mitchell maintained his composure and calmly replied, "None of you are being held against your will; you are free to go!"

Coulson observed Joel nod and sarcastically said, "See ya," saluting before attempting to exit. Coulson swiftly moved to block his path, extending his hand in front of him.

"Oh, come on, Coulson?" Joel shrugged.

"That is until after you hear me out," Captain Mitchell interjected, "Please, take a seat," he gestured toward the available chairs in the room. Chad, Carter, Kelsey, and Georgina sat down; Joel reluctantly followed suit. Coulson remained standing by the door with his hands behind his back.

"Five thousand years ago," the captain began, "this part of the earth was inhabited by evil spirits—demons! If you will, whose sole purpose was to destroy and conquer," he observed their reactions; some leaned forward with interest while others appeared sceptical. Georgina seemed to have heard this tale before. "Luckily, there was a warlock who was strong enough to conquer them. Finally, the demons were captured and entombed,"

Captain Mitchell lowered his head. "But we always feared that one day they would escape and return to conquer Mariner Bay."

Turning to face the wall, he continued, "Well, it seems our fears have come true; just hours ago, nomad travellers crossed through the desert, discovered the tomb and released the demons back into our world," he turned back to face them, "Lightspeed has developed technology and highly sophisticated weapons that we believe can stop them," he walked up to the case that was sitting in front of them.

"Because of your skills," they all looked down as Dana opened black folders containing their information. "You have been chosen to use these weapons to defend the city—to become Lightspeed Power Rangers!"

Kelsey blinked in disbelief, "You built this whole aqua base so that the five of us could defeat some angry demons?"

Captain Mitchell smiled, "That's putting it simply, but yes,"

Joel looked up from the table, "I heard you out," he said, "I think you are nuts. I am out of here."

Carter looked up from the table as Joel attempted to leave the room. "Wait," he called out, "That explains it…"

Dana looked at Carter, "What?"

"The fire," Carter turned to Dana, "when I was saving that girl, I saw something in the flames; it was one of them," he looked to the others, "one of the demons…"

Dana spun around to face her father, "Father!" Before Captain Mitchell could respond, a beep sounded from above, prompting him to approach a monitor on the far side of the room, asking the person on the comm link to display it.

"Phil?" questioned Georgina, looking at her partner as he walked across for a better view. They watched helplessly as the demons wreaked havoc through the city, causing destruction everywhere.

Captain Mitchell turned back to them, "The city needs you."

"I'm in, sir," Carter declared, standing up.

"Me too," Georgina agreed, following suit.

Kelsey nodded, "Count me in."

"I want to help," Chad said, and they all turned to Joel, who appeared perplexed.

Joel swallowed hard, "What do we do first?"

Captain Mitchell opened a silver case, revealing six morphers inside the case. "These are your rescue morphers," he explained. "They are worn on your wrists," they all picked one up, examining them with uncertainty.

Dana looked down at the case, "Six?"

"You are the sixth," Captain Mitchell smiled at his daughter.

"Me?"

"For eighteen years," he began to explain, "I have been training you for this; it's yours if you want it?"

Dana nodded, her face lit up with excitement as she picked up the Morpher; she moved to the end of the line, standing next to Georgina in attention.

"Alright, Rangers," Captain Mitchell said with a smile, "It's time to get to work."

~0~

Dana led them to the cargo hold bay of the aqua base and into a narrow corridor with six jackets hung on hooks attached to the wall, "These are your jackets," she informed them. "Grab one."

Georgina beamed as she donned her jacket and turned the corner to catch sight of the yellow Lightspeed Rescue before them. "Wow."

Dana tossed the keys to Carter, "Carter," she said to get his attention; they all climbed into the rescue vehicle and headed to the surface. Carter drove them to the scene as quickly as possible, and they arrived to find strange bat-like creatures engaged in combat with civilians, cornering them.

"Come on," Carter urged, "let's help those people."

"Right," they all nodded.

Georgina swiftly leapt out of the car and rushed towards a small group trapped in an entranceway; she grabbed one of the creatures, urging the civilians, "Go! Go!" She roundhouse-kicked a walking bat so it wouldn't go after them.

"What I wouldn't give for May to be here right now," Georgina muttered to herself. She prepared for another confrontation, grappling with one of the demons. However, more of them suddenly appeared out of nowhere, overpowering her and throwing her to the ground.

Carter's voice came through their commlink, 'They're too strong for us.'

"Rangers," the captain's voice sounded. "Use your morphers," they all nodded.

Georgina forced herself to her feet and joined the other rangers. Carter called out to the demon, "Hey, you with the hot temper! Do you want to destroy Mariner Bay? You're going to have to go through us to do it."

"Gladly," the Demon replied.

Carter raised the wrist with his Morpher, "Ready?"

"Ready," the Rangers echoed.

"Lightspeed Rescue," they all called out, feeling a surge of power; Georgina watched as a round purple and white shield materialised from her morpher in front of her. A black visor formed in front of their eyes as they completed their transformation. They clenched their fists.

Chad raised his arm, "Woah," he exclaimed. "It worked."

"This feels incredible," said Kelsey with excitement.

"This is just what we needed," Carter declared, clenching his fists, "Let's get to work."

The demon pointed to the Rangers and ordered the Batlings, "Destroy them!"

"Power Rangers, Rescue Ready!"

The tables suddenly turned, and the Batlings were struggling to keep up with them; Georgina summoned her striker and quipped, "And you said taking the fencing elective was a waste of time, Coulson,"

The Captain turned to face Coulson with an amused expression, "I didn't tell her that," he shook his head, "exactly…"

After defeating their groups of Batlings, they joined Carter in defeating the demon. Carter called out, "Ready?" as he aimed his blaster.

"You ain't got the guts," the demon taunted.

"Fire!"

They watched as the blasts caused the demon to fall to the floor, with their backs turned to the explosion. They stood their ground until the fiery burst faded away. "Lightspeed, Power Down," they sighed in exhaustion as their Ranger suits vanished. They all smiled in relief as the remaining members of the public cheered and approached them.

~0~

They made their way back to the control room of the Lightspeed Aqua base with the crew surrounding them and offering applause as they progressed until they reached the main room, where they stood in a single line.

"It's no problem," Joel chuckled as he walked backwards, "If they come back, I'll show them a thing or two," he nearly stumbled into Kelsey and Dana but quickly snapped to attention upon noticing Captain Mitchell and Coulson standing in the centre of the room, waiting for them.

"There is a time to celebrate," the captain began, "but today is not that day," he observed as the smiles faded from their faces. "You see, Diabolico knows that you exist. Do you think this fight was tough? Just wait…"

Kelsey stepped forward, her concern evident, "But Sir," she said. "We just destroyed Diabolico, didn't we?"

"Oh no," he said, "that was just one of his monsters."

A murmur of unease rippled through the crew, "You want to defeat him?" the captain asked. "You got a lot of work to do," he glanced around the room, "We all do," he raised his voice.

"Yes, Sir," Carter affirmed, standing to attention and saluting. The other rangers hesitated but eventually joined in, along with the crew.