Story: Alpha Operations
Storylink: s/8589910/1/
Category: Power Rangers + Avengers Crossover
Genre: Kim H.
Author: Jadelyn Tate
Authorlink: u/875795/
Last updated: 04/26/2014
Words: 8392
Rating: T
Status: In Progress
Content: Chapter 1 to 5 of 5 chapters
Source:
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will. WIP
*Chapter 1*: PrologueAuthor: JadelynTate
Story: Alpha Operations
Disclaimer: Power Rangers are owned by Haim Saban, Avengers and Co are owned by Marvel. I write for fun, not for profit.
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will.
A/N 1: I haven't written in the PR verse in a very long time but this refused to leave me alone so...
Prologue:
In the end, she was fairly certain the blame for all of this fell squarely at the feet of everyone who was not her.
It wasn't like she asked to be drafted into the scheme to keep the various governments of the Earth from getting their hands on Ranger tech and using them as WMDs.
(That, she would insist to her dying day, was all Tommy's doing. Maybe Andros'. But Tommy was definitely in there too.)
If she hadn't been put in this position, then she would never have gotten involved with SHIELD. If she hadn't gotten involved with SHIELD, she would never have met the Avengers. If she hadn't met the Avengers, well ….
Point was, this was totally not her fault.
*Chapter 2*: Chapter 1Author: JadelynTate
Story: Alpha Operations
Disclaimer: Power Rangers are owned by Haim Saban, Avengers and Co are owned by Marvel. I write for fun, not for profit.
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will.
A/N 1: Prologue was crazy short so...here's the first chapter!
Chapter One:
"Guys, guys, be quiet!"
Kim watched in amusement as Tommy failed to get the group to shut up. You'd think a bunch of hyperactive rangers who hadn't all been in the same place at the same time in months, if not years, would be easy peasy for the consummate ranger to corral, considering he worked with teenagers every day, but Tommy was not doing well at all. She caught Hayley's eye, where the redhead was sitting quietly by Tommy's side, and the two grinned as he threw his hands up and sat back down, arms crossing as a pout appeared.
Kim put her fingers to her lips and whistled. Immediately everyone shut up and turned to her, some wincing at the echoes. Like it was her fault Tommy liked caves.
"We're here for a reason, I believe," she said simply and then turned to Tommy with a smile. "Well? What's up?"
Tommy shot her a thankful look and she preened slightly as everyone sat down and turned to the original green ranger.
"So, first of all, thanks for coming so quickly," Tommy said, looking over the rather large group who'd descended on Reefside. All of the original twelve, the former Dinos, and Andros and Ashley. He focused specifically on two of the former yellow's and the original black. "I know it was difficult to get away for some of you."
"You said it was important," Tanya said, sitting side by side with Zack. Nearby, Kira nodded. Kim wondered briefly where their staff thought they were—Tanya and Kira were both on tour at the moment (Kira was opening for Tanya), which meant they should have been getting ready for a concert that night. She made a mental note to ask Zack when she had a chance.
"It is," Tommy agreed and there was worry there. She wasn't the only one who noticed, either, cause everyone unconsciously straightened, focusing completely on him.
"What's up, Bro?" Jason asked quietly from his place next to Kim.
Tommy shared a look with Andros, who nodded from his place on the couch with Ashley. Tommy's lips twisted and he turned to them. "You all know about New York," he noted and more than one person gave him a duh look. The rangers, all sixty-seven of them, had been scrambling to get together to go to the attack when the portal had closed and the fight had ended. Some had already been in New York and had gone to work helping where they could, acting as Good Samaritans (there had been a lovely photo taken of RJ and Casey helping a little old lady away from the streets around the recently renamed Avengers Tower. Yet another was of Carter, who'd been in the city to do a seminar with the NYFD, dousing one of the aliens with a fire extinguisher as civilians fled behind him—that one was still getting the former red a ton of teasing).
"Well, the Avengers were announced shortly after the attack as being under the jurisdiction of a group known as SHIELD—" He paused a moment and looked at Hayley.
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," she supplied helpfully and he nodded.
"What she said," he continued as some snickered quietly. "Anyway, they're an international organization, supervised by the UN's World Security Council, who's specific job is to deal with the problems that normal soldiers and agents can't—like New York and Loki and technically mutants, though the X-Men seem to be taking care of that fairly well on their own."
"What's that have to do with us?" Rocky asked, frowning.
"Well, apparently they've decided the Rangers fall under that umbrella," he began but had to shut up because at his words, half the room stood up and began talking over one another. Kim whistled again. At this rate, she might as well find an actual whistle.
"Thanks," Tommy smiled at her and she nodded. He turned to the agitated group in front of him. "I know, I don't like it either. But we've known for a while that the UN—and the US in particular—didn't particularly like that we refused to answer to any of them."
"The only thing keeping them from declaring us a terrorist group is that they're not sure how that would affect any future attacks that would need Rangers," Jason noted. He'd been an Army Ranger and had been unwillingly under the jurisdiction of a general who'd made no bones about the fact he wanted access to the Ranger tech and thought they were a dangerous group. The first chance he'd had, Jason had left Ross' unit. He'd also completely disobeyed orders and told Billy about one of the main targets of Ross' insanity and the rangers had been quietly helping Banner avoid the general when they could. The doc didn't know, of course, but that was the whole point.
"But everything's changing now," Tommy agreed. "And SHIELD has been pretty much hounding all the known rangers, which is why only Andros and Ashley are here from them." He didn't have to say it but everyone understood—they were all under observation and if the publicly known Rangers disappeared at the same time, SHIELD would take notice which was not conductive to what they'd been brought together to discuss. It was probably also why only the original twelve (and the Dino's) were there—it was easier for them to get away because they weren't known Rangers. They could then disperse and talk with the rest of the teams without raising too many eyebrows.
"Carter called me about it a week ago," Andros agreed. "Him and Captain Mitchell have been keeping them off for the time being but they both agree its only a matter of time before an order will come in for all of Lightspeed Tech to be turned over to SHIELD, one they won't be able to circumvent. SHIELD has too much clout and they're a UN entity; we're lucky the order hasn't come already."
Kim flashed back to the panic of when they'd heard the President had been considering ordering all of Lightspeed tech to be dispersed to the government to reverse engineer. It was only a timely intervention by the Prime Minister of England of all people that had stopped it—the man had had a little chat with the President about world sharing and the worry of the rest of the world about superior tech that wasn't their own. Kim, who'd heard about it from her father, figured the President had been worried about the US alliances with the various world governments if it became common knowledge that they had complete access to Ranger tech. He'd gone on to order that all Ranger Tech be turned over to the Rangers for cold storage and was therefore off-limits to any world government, a decree that had been supported by an equally worried UN.
Lightspeed had technically been a US project but it had been overseen by the United Nations. After numerous failed tests to get the ranger tech to work for UN soldiers after the team had retired, the entire thing had been scrapped and the tech locked away. Billy was still highly proud of that achievement, if only because it had proved he was better than the Lightspeed technicians and only one of them had ever known they'd been sabotaged. It was still a point of contention between him and Angela though.
"So what do we do?" Billy asked. "I mean, between me, Hayley, Cam, Rose, Justin, and Angela, we can lock everyone out of the tech so they won't be able to use it themselves but that doesn't mean they won't be able to reverse engineer they're own stuff—it's what I did and I was only twenty. They're going to have people just as smart as me and with more experience doing that—not to mention, they've got Stark."
From the expression on his face, he was more worried about the billionaire than about the SHIELD scientists and with good reason. Kim might not be scientific herself, but even she knew that the playboy would probably have little problem figuring out the tech. Some aspects, like the Morphin Grid, would probably give him trouble but...this was the man who'd built his first suit, if the rumors were to be believed, out of scrap metals in a cave. Knowing that, he'd probably be able to make ranger suits without the Morphin Grid, which was infinitely more dangerous. The Morphin Council didn't take kindly to rangers not attached to the Grid.
"We have to do something," Justin said from his place on the floor. Somehow, no one was entirely sure how since the media had gone digging like crazy post C2D, he'd never been outed as a former ranger, hence his presence at the meeting. "We cannot let the Ranger tech into unknown hands. It wouldn't end well for anyone."
"Captain Mitchell had an idea but...the Morphin Council would have to sign off on it," Andros said softly. "It would mean knowingly breaking, or at least bending, the Code."
Everyone shifted uneasily in their seats. The Code was a huge part of the reason none of them were known as Rangers, not to mention something they'd all sworn to uphold. Maybe not knowingly like the originals had to Zordon and the Dino's to Tommy, but subconsciously they'd all done so. Breaking the Code...it was a big deal.
"What's the idea?" Tommy finally asked.
As Andros outlined it, Kim felt her heart sink.
Breaking the Code was about to be the least of their worries.
*Chapter 3*: Chapter 2Author: Jaded
Story: Alpha Operations
Disclaimer: Power Rangers are owned by Haim Saban, Avengers and Co are owned by Marvel. I write for fun, not for profit.
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will.
A/N 1: I meant to get this out quicker but I'm subbing for fifth grade for two weeks and didn't get the chance. :/ It's here now though!
Chapter Two
"Why did I get pulled into this, again?" Kim demanded as she smoothed her pants down her legs. They were black, to go with the black jacket she had on over the light purple blouse. She'd specifically chosen a color not her own for this meeting, as they weren't quite willing yet to reveal who she was.
"Cause you have experience in politics, you like arguing, your father is on the committee that funds SHIELD, and you had nothing else to do," Carter answered promptly. "And we all agreed you're the one who was most likely to be underestimated based on looks alone."
"Also, Tommy insisted it wasn't his turn and everyone else yelled 'Not It' before you could," Adam added with a grin. Kim made a face at them both.
"You guys suck," she grumbled. "This is gonna end in disaster. The first chance I get, I'm turning this baby over to someone else—maybe even Tommy."
"But he said 'Not it'" Captain Mitchell reminded her blandly and Kim resisted the urge to kick out with her foot.
"Look alive," Carter said suddenly and Kim focused on the two individuals in suits heading their way. More softly he told her, "That's Agent Sitwell on the right and Agent Romanoff on the left. Agent Sitwell is in Fury's inner circle, one of the higher members of SHIELD. He's handler for the Avengers and liaison to Stark Industries at the moment, since Agent Coulson died. Agent Romanoff...I think you already know."
Sitwell was older than her, though she was uncertain as by how much. Hispanic and bald, he gave off the impression of being completely no-nonsense. She'd heard about him before; he was heavily involved as the liaison to the Senate committee that decided how much funding and support the US would give SHIELD and thus, someone her father complained about constantly at the beginning of every year.
The woman she recognized as being the Black Widow, the only woman on the Avengers (which all the female rangers were still being pissy about). Her identity had never been revealed and most news footage of the fight didn't even have the Black Widow or Hawkeye in them, but Kimberly wasn't most people—Billy's satellites had been monitoring everything the moment he'd heard about the attack and the moment she knew she was the one to be doing this, she'd been watching the footage non-stop.
"Agent Sitwell, Agent Romanoff," Captain Mitchell greeted them once they stopped a few feet from them. He held out his hand and shook both of theirs. Carter quickly followed suit but Adam and Kim hung back a moment. Mitchell finally turned to the two of them. "These are two of our associates. Ms. Kimberly Hart and Mr. Adam Park. They're here for our meeting with Director Fury."
"We weren't aware you were bringing anyone," Agent Romanoff said, frowning. Kim leveled her with a look, not flinching at the veiled violence in the other woman's eyes. She kept her face blandly professional, un-intimidated, which was a lot easier to do than she'd been expecting. As terrifying as she'd been in the battle, Black Widow still didn't hold a candle to what Kim had faced in high school. At most, she was like Tommy when he'd been evil. Her lips quirked slightly at the thought and she saw the agent's own lips twitch in response. She couldn't possibly know what Kim was thinking, all Rangers were immune to telepathy thanks to the Power, so it must have been approval. She gave the woman a nod and then turned to Sitwell who was frowning at her.
"Agent," she greeted him coolly.
He gave her a once over and she could see the underestimation start, which was surprising given who was standing next to him. He frowned again. "I wasn't aware Senator Hart was interested in these proceedings."
"I'm not here for my father," she said simply and didn't add, 'though he knows I'm doing this'. "I'm here on behalf of Alpha Operations."
For the past month she'd been trying to subtly test her father on his opinion of the Rangers. He'd admitted to being concerned about them not being answerable to anyone but he had also made it clear he did not want the the US military to have control over any of the Ranger tech. He felt it would cause already high tensions with the other not-so-friendly nations to escalate even further—and given the anger of even their allies over the US's unwillingness to part with any of the recovered alien tech from New York, it would just make things even worse with them as well.
They'd discussed options for what the Rangers could (supposedly hypothetically) do about the whole situation. She'd given their actual plans as a possibility and to her relief, he'd been completely supportive of it, even going so far as to suggest he may suggest that himself to the President next time they spoke.
Having his approval, she'd gone ahead in the next part of the plan, which was telling him what, exactly, she'd gotten up to in high school. Only he'd broken down laughing before she'd even gotten to the important bit. Apparently he, her mother, and Pierre, had all known since high school. It was why they hadn't put up much fuss when Kim had asked to stay with Aisha to finish the school year before she'd ended up in Florida. They figured she and the team were trying to find a replacement, like they had with Jason, Trini, and Zack. He'd even gone so far as to inform her that all their parents, from the Scott's straight on down to the Hillards, had known and simply hadn't said anything.
She was still a little miffed about that, to be honest; all those years of sneaking around they'd all done, all the convoluted schemes Billy and Zack and Rocky had come up for on the few occasions they couldn't get out of their houses, and for nothing!
Her only consolation was the expression on Tommy and Jason's faces when she'd gone back to Reefside and ordered them to call and apologize for all the worrying they'd put their mothers through.
She focused back on Sitwell when he asked what Alpha Operations was. She smiled at him. "I'm afraid that's classified," she told him sweetly. "I'm only to speak of AO with Director Fury."
Years of dealing with her father's staff and various political allies and enemies had given Kim a keen ability to read people and right now, both Agents were displeased with her. She resisted the urge to smirk. It was about time the shoe went on the other foot!
"I'm afraid I cannot let you through to see Director Fury unless I know who you are, besides the daughter of a senator," Sitwll said sternly.
"We're vouching for her," Carter broke in. "Director Fury will want to meet with her."
"Be that as it may-"
"It's fine, Agent Sitwell, I can see when I'm not wanted," she said, smiling coolly, catching sight of Agent Romanoff's amused expression. She turned to Carter, her mind choosing her next words very very carefully. "Mr. Grayson, please inform Director Fury that once he wants to seriously discuss the Ranger situation, I'll be happy to take his call."
She and Adam were five steps away when Sitwell seemed to finally break out of his surprise. "Wait!" Kim allowed herself a brief smug smile before she smoothed it out and turned to him. He was looking between Carter and Mitchell and her and Adam with a look on his face that was part confusion, part worry, and part curiosity. "You never said said this was about the Rangers."
"Agent Sitwell, Ms. Hart and Mr. Park are with us and the only business we have with SHIELD has to do with the Rangers," Mitchell said, frowning and crossing his arms as he stared the other man down. "Why else would they be here?"
"Alpha Operations..." he started.
"Is classified but I didn't think I had to publicly announce it had to do with the Rangers," Kim broke in. "As Captain Mitchell said, our being in their company should have told you that. You're not a very good agent if you didn't pick itup right away."
"She's right," Agent Romanoff broke in and she was smirking. That was one woman who knew exactly what had just gone down and approved. Sitwell gave her a disgruntled look and she shrugged. "You really should have known. I did."
"Follow me," Sitwell said abruptly, turning on his heel and walking purposefully away from them. Pride, she suspected, had just been hurt. Part of her felt bad but a bigger part of her knew she had to do it this this way because otherwise, the repercussions could be...unfortunate.
"Kim..."
"Shush," she said, knowing what Adam was about to say. He'd been surprisingly quiet as she played Cat and Mouse but her actions were kinda mean.
"I was just going to say I think they chose well," he said simply. She frowned. Adam had been hesitant about Tommy and Jason's appointing her as the spokeswoman, not sure if she could hack it on the political level even with her father being who he was. It was part of why he'd tagged along. If he believed the group had chosen well, then...
Crap.
She really needed to get better at Not It.
*Chapter 4*: Chapter 3Author: Jaded
Story: Alpha Operations
Disclaimer: Power Rangers are owned by Haim Saban, Avengers and Co are owned by Marvel. I write for fun, not for profit.
Summary: When SHIELD starts sniffing around the Rangers, the Rangers take preemptive measures to make sure they don't get drafted against their will.
A/N 1: My substitute teaching, two week job is nearly over so I may (I say may cause too many teachers have been asking me repeatedly when I finish cause they need subs) have more time to devote to this in the coming time. Of course, once November hits, all bets are off as I have NANOWRIMO!
Chapter Three
The SHIELD headquarters was like any other office building she'd ever been in; boring grey monochrome and with desks spread out in a familiar looking grid pattern. The main difference was the security installed on each floor—at least, she thought they were on each floor. Sitwell and Romanoff had taken the foursome straight to the elevator and up to the top floor, where they'd discovered security officers posted at equal distances along the walls.
The layout for the top floor was open and airy, with windows facing every side except one. Sure, one side of the building had what appeared to be two separate offices and a conference room but the rest of the place was open floor with desks set up in a row by row pattern, each with high tech looking computers. There had to be dozens of desks and from the little she was able to catch before being ushered into the conference room, each was monitoring a different continent or country.
Hm. Good to know.
"Captain Mitchell," a tall dark skinned man with an eyepatch over one eye and a black leather get-up greeted the Lightspeed director with a handshake. She recognized him instantly, he'd been at her father's holiday party last year and hadn't seemed very happy about it. She's suspected then (and it was only reinforced now) that he'd only been there because the President had decided to accept the invitation (which meant so had everyone else) and he'd wanted the opportunity to network. The man nodded at Carter, shaking his hand as well. "Mr. Grayson."
"May I present Director Kimberly Hart, of Alpha Operations, and her lawyer, Adam Park?" Captain Mitchell greeted them. "They're here to speak to you about the Rangers."
"You're Senator Hart's daughter," Director Fury said, shaking her hand and studying her. She gave him her firmest smile.
"My father is aware I'm meeting with you but not why," she informed him. "He also doesn't know what Alpha Operations does and I'd appreciate it if he didn't find out from you. I'm sure you can agree that he has enough on his plate as is."
It wasn't a full out lie, her father really didn't know what Alpha Operations were going to do, but this was Kimberly's attempt to protect her father from schemes. She just hoped Director Fury left the man alone—he'd been and Oregan state Senator for ten years now and he had no plans on quitting anytime soon.
"He does," Fury agreed with a tight look that she took as confirmation he'd leave her dad alone. "You brought a lawyer?"
"Adam Park sir," Adam held out his hand. "I'm head of Alpha Operations legal team. Given the situation, I decided to handle this personally."
Technically Adam was Alpha Operations legal team but Fury didn't need to know that. Part one of this scheme was to make it seem like they were a bit more put together than they actually were. As it stood, the only official members of the AO were her, Adam, Jason, and Carter.
"What exactly will you be handling, Mr. Park?"
"The legalities of the Power Rangers forming a coalition with SHIELD," Kim answered before Adam could. "That's what we're here for."
"Alpha Operations then are..."
"The business front for the Rangers, as it were," Kim agreed as they all sat down. She was across from Mitchell, with Adam on one side and Carter across from him. Fury sat at the head of the table.
"I'd like to call in Agent Sitwell and my AD, Maria Hill-"
"No."
Fury paused and she had a feeling not many people had ever interrupted him before. She could see a spark of anger in his stance as he replied, "May I ask why?"
"The Rangers live by a Code," Carter was the one who answered. "We've asked Ms. Hart to follow that same Code in all her dealings as Director of Alpha Operations. Secrecy, as I'm sure you're guessing, is a big part of it."
Fury nodded slowly. He didn't seem happy about not having more of his people in the meeting but he was willing to adhere for now. That was a good sign.
Or possibly that they were being played, Kim wasn't entirely sure.
"So you were chosen by the Rangers?" Fury asked, looking at Kim.
"I was in the Peace Corps for six years and I was working as a peace liaison with Lone Wolf Industries when I was approached for the position," Kimberly said, sticking to the cover. They all knew it was likely Fury would put two and two together and come up with four eventually but the longer they could put that off, the better. And the info was true and would check out—following her stint in the Peace Corps, she'd been in charge of handling all the humanitarian efforts Billy's company did because, as the original blue had semi-jokingly put it, no one had a bigger "heart" than her.
"Kimberly and I are both from Angel Grove," Adam added. "Several times we both helped clear out civilians and assisted the rangers when it was needed. They remembered, which is why they found us. Afterward, our experiences simply made us easy choices for this project."
"A lot of people from Ranger cities, Angel Grove in particular, have gone on to work in volunteer and peace organizations," Kim added wryly. "Or the military. It's been a thing."
Fury nodded thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair. The information about the Ranger cities didn't seem to have surprised him so he'd probably already known. "Given that, they trusted you to have their back."
"And we will," Kimberly said. "They're not enemies, Director. They're heroes. They should be afforded the respect that deserves."
"I don't disagree," Fury said simply. His face hardened. "I simply don't trust anyone with that sort of power who doesn't answer to someone else."
"From my understanding, they do answer to someone, they just aren't of Earth," Kim said. "They're called the Morphin Council."
"And if the Rangers were to go off grid, what could they do?" That was what it boiled down to for a lot of people, her dad said. Rangers had, up to now, been almost exclusively heroes but there had been...exceptions and that worried the people in charge.
"Take away their powers," Kim answered calmly and succinctly. "The Morphin Council, and I've spoken to them myself as the face of Alpha Operations, is made up of former Rangers of other worlds. They're number one priority is protecting from evil, even if that evil comes from the Rangers themselves."
"They have the ability to take away a planet's ability to have rangers," Carter agreed. "And they've done it before, when Ranger teams have voluntarily gone rogue."
"How?"
"I'm not a scientist, Director Fury, but from what I understand, it boils down to them being able to cut off the, heh, power," Kim said, smiling a bit. "Every ranger gets their power from the same source, called the Morphin Grid. Every planet has a connection to it and the Council can cut off that connection. No more Rangers. Which, from my understanding, would be incredibly bad for Earth. Over the years, the Rangers have proven unconquerable—there are many who would take advantage of Earth's lack of Rangers to come in and claim it just for the clout it would give them."
"Also, the Grid is sentient to a point," Carter said and Kim blinked. She hadn't planned on revealing that but she was curious to see where Carter was going with this. "The Grid would never allow its warriors to use its power for evil. That's why they chose the Council—each member was chosen for their nobility, honor, and heart. Because of that, the Council will do anything to uphold the name and integrity of the Power Rangers, even if..."
He didn't need to finish, because Fury was nodding. "I still don't like that you don't answer to anyone on Earth, but at least you do answer to someone," he noted. He got a flinty look in his eye. "The Grid, you said it connects every world?"
"I wouldn't go looking for it, if I were you," Carter smiled, seeing where that was going a mile away. "People have in the past, former rangers and not. Those that found it said...they often wished they hadn't. The Grid doesn't like meddlers."
There was a warning there, one Fury had to have heard. He nodded slowly but she wasn't sure if he'd take it to heart. "Is that why none of the attempts to utilize the Lightspeed morphers have worked for anyone other than you six?" he asked and Kim could see Carter was surprised by the question.
"Most likely," he agreed after a moment of thought. "Before a morpher is bonded, the Grid...scans the person, for lack of a better world. If they're found worthy..."
"The power clicks on," Mitchell finished. "If not...nothing will happen."
Fury nodded again, looking thoughtful. "So reverse engineering the tech..."
"Wouldn't get you rangers, most likely," Kim offered. "No offense, but you're a spy and intelligence organization. From my dealings with the everyone involved, something tells me the Grid wouldn't approve of anything you'd want to do with a Ranger team."
"That said, we strongly believe, given what the Council has told us, that the Grid would never allow any of the former rangers to work for SHIELD," Mitchell said. "Rangers are usually chosen for specific reasons, to face specific threats, and...you already have fighters. The Avengers may just be enough to have the Grid cut off power to any ranger who would join SHIELD to fight alongside them."
Fury didn't seem to like that, not that she thought he would. "So us getting rangers would be almost impossible," he noted tightly and Kim shrugged.
"I'm putting my trust in what the rangers and the Council have told me and...yeah. I think you're out of luck on that front," she told him, being completely honest. No ranger wanted to work for SHIELD and so none would do so willingly, which meant the Council would intervene. It was the deal they'd struck with the group via Andros and her.
"Make no mistake, though, the Council approves of what you're doing," Carter said, smiling. "As do us rangers. You're trying to protect the Earth and we respect that—we simply have different ideas on how that can be accomplished."
"And what are your ideas?" Fury asked, head tilting slightly as he looked at them. "I'm assuming Alpha Operations has something to do with it."
"Good catch," Kim agreed with a smile. "Alpha Operations is a specific organization created by the former rangers. They've chosen everyone who works there, from me down to the janitors. Our base is hidden: it's an invisible untraceable island in the middle of International waters. The only way to get there is through specifically designed transportation pads."
They'd asked Zedd for access to Venus Island, which he'd promptly granted, even going so far as to formally give it to the Earth Rangers for use as their main planetary HQ. As the island existed in a dimension alongside their own, they all agreed the island was the perfect place for the rangers to stage from. Anton, Tommy, Zedd, the Earth and water ninja's under Dustin and Tor, and a few of the earth spirits of Avalon (including Xander, Madison, Leanbow, and Daggeron) had spent a week clearing it out for their use. As they spoke, various rangers and assorted allies were on site, building and setting up the actual base. Leanbow, who'd been more than happy to take over that particular job when Rita had asked him, had told her the last time she'd seen him that they'd probably be done in a week or so and those who needed to, could move in. Kim really needed to confirm everyone working there and quickly. She had a feeling Fury would want to visit.
"So when you said classified, you meant that quite literally," Fury said and Kim wasn't surprised he'd been listening in or had been informed of the conversation before they'd arrived on the top floor. He seemed somewhat amused which was either really good or really bad. She suspected there was little in between with this guy.
"Correct," she said, nodding. "Alpha Operations base has to remain a secret for the rangers and the employees own protection, but as a group, we're gonna go public as soon as an agreement is reached between us, SHIELD, and the UN."
"And what sort of agreement were you hoping for?"
And there it was. What everything boiled down to, what they'd spent months figuring out with the Council after Tommy'd called the emergency meeting in Reefside. She glanced at Adam, who gave her a small nod, and Kim turned to face Fury fully.
"Here's our proposal..."
*Chapter 5*: Chapter 4Kimberly looked around curiously when she and her small group landed on the top of Avengers Tower. They'd chosen to come in one of the older aircraft they'd built, the ones with reverse engineered ranger tech, so as not to give away all their secrets so quickly. Fury knew, from what Kim had told him, that the Rangers had access to much more tech than they'd shared and Kim knew that he'd do anything he could to get access to it, even now. She didn't want to bring in blatant ranger tech and then find out after the fact that the top of the Tower had scanning capabilities. Reversed engineer stuff wouldn't give him much more than what Billy was okay with him having.
"You know, Stark may not be happy to see me here," Andrew said to her left. "I am, technically, thecompetition."
"Stark can stuff it," Kim said as they waited for the ship's back ramp to lower. "You're part of AO, he can deal if he wants to get a look at what you're installing."
"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Carter asked from behind her. "Angela was saying Stark might actually be able to reverse engineer the pads."
"He'd have to have a complete understanding of Ranger physics," Andrew said. "And Billy and I both agree he'd never get past the Grid. It's less science and more...magic."
"We'll deal with that if it comes to it," Kim said firmly. "Until then, no worrying. You're gonna give me a bigger ulcer than I already have."
Eric smirked as he came to stand on her other side, dressed in the uniform they'd all agreed on for the AO. "You can always hand over the reins," he said knowingly.
She didn't answer.
"Look alive, people, the Hero-Brigade just showed up!" Taylor's voice said, coming from the cockpit. "Looks like Fury's with them, plus some guy in a doctor's jacket."
"A doctor?" Eric asked, frowning. "Why a doctor?"
"Because Fury has a patient I offered to have our people take a look at," Kimberly answered, waving back at where Dana was checking her bags and Clare was double checking her outfit. Their resident sorceress was still really nervous about the job Rita had given her at Kimberly's request. "I guess SHIELD's stumped on why the guy's not waking up. Fury mentioned something about magic being used during his attack, hence Clare. "
"I wondered why they came," Andrew murmured and then a moment later said, "We should lower the ramp."
"Taylor?" Kim called and a minute later the ramp began lowering. Kim was glad for her acute sense of balance, glancing over when Clare stumbled slightly. The ramp was less a ramp and more of a lift, lowering the small group and their cargo down to the ground below the ship. Kim glanced up idly to see Xander, Rose, and Jarrod all staring down at them nervously. Or, well, Xander and Rose were nervous, the former villian was all troubling stare—one of these days she'd get him to stop being so broody.
Once they landed, she waited until Eric and his team—Search and Rescue her ass, he was grooming a security force—got their bearings, hands hovering at their morphers. At the first sign of trouble, she knew, Eric would order the team to get her back inside the ship and the ship to take off, with or without the rest of them in it. Not because she was a damsel, oh no, but because Jason was being a paranoid little prick and it was rubbing off on the Quantum Ranger. She put up with it for now, mostly because the response of Fury and the Avengers amused her. Fury was scowling and Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain Rogers were all tensed up, expecting a fight.
Rolling her eyes, she stepped forward, hand held out. "Director Fury," she greeted him with a quirked grin. "Sorry about them—Eric's being paranoid. Again."
"Constant Vigilance!" Cassie called out and there was a smattering of snickers from the team as Eric scowled. Kim smirked—her successor would be hearing about that from her boss later, she could be sure.
"Can't take 'em anywhere," she said and Fury snorted, amusement in his eyes, if not his face.
"Director Hart," he greeted her, shaking her hand finally. "Welcome to Stark Tower."
"Nice suits," the man she recognized as Hawkeye noted. He smirked at her, giving her serious Rocky vibes. "No spandex, huh?"
Kim rolled her eyes. "Spandex does not breath," she informed the other archer, who chuckled. "We went for something a bit more hard-wearing."
Which was completely true. Jason, surprisingly, had been the one to point out that as an official peace-keeping/civilian assistance group, they might want recognizable uniforms for those who wouldn't be in the ranger suits. Kim and Ashley had taken great pains to design something that was professional but still, understandably, rangeresque.
The uniforms were all leather and stainless steel. No skirts here, even the women were in formfitting protective leather pants, which had caused some issues with the female rangers who were used to skirts on their suits. They all carried firearms against their thighs, even Andrew, and they all had high fitting collars to protect their necks. Those blatantly rangers, the ones everyone knew were rangers, had the top of their uniform dyed into a darker shade of their own color while those who weren't known had linings on theirs, supposedly "in honor" of who they were working for and to denote rank. Kim alone was sans leather—she was wearing a black dress suit, which coincided well with her "position" in AO.
"But you still look like a pride parade," Stark snarked, finally taking his eyes off the aircraft perched on his Tower. She smiled, amused, as she heard some distinct huffs behind and around her.
"Don't knock the rainbow," she advised. "Especially around this lot—they take their colors very seriously." Which so very much the truth—even Eric, who everyone referred to as Quantum, would not have anyone deride the color red in his hearing. She resisted the urge to shift and try and find herself some visible pink clothing. It had been unanimously decided that until her cover was blown, they would carry on as if it had not been—which meant no specific color for her.
Unless they saw her sans the suit, anyway, cause she was totally wearing pink underwear.
"Why?" Captain Rogers asked, head tilted.
"It's a psych thing," she told him. "Color denotes personality, tradition, solidarity, place on a team—would you be happy if you and the walking tin-can over there had to change colors?"
"Hey!" Stark exclaimed and Kim smiled briefly at his pout before focusing back on Rogers.
"I see your point," he conceded, lips quirked.
"I like you," Hawkeye said, relaxing his posture. He gave her an obvious once over, playful leering in his gaze.
"I live to serve," she replied dryly, looking over her shoulder when she heard a vaguely lion-esque sounding growl. She turned back to the Avengers just in time to see the Captain shift nervously away from the plane. "Though I have a lion in the ship that doesn't like it when guys flirt with me—something to keep in mind."
Eric snorted as he came back to hover over her shoulder. "One of these days he is going to figure out you are NOT his big sister," he said. "I really hope I'm there when he does."
"Shut up," she scolded before turning to Fury. "Before this degrades any further, perhaps we should do introductions?"
"The Avengers," he said without preamble. "Agent Barton, Agent Romanoff, Tony Stark, Captain Rogers, and Dr. Bruce Banner. Dr. Michael Regis, SHIELD physician."
Agent Barton was Hawkeye. She knew the rest (more or less) so she didn't need to confirm their personal identities. She smiled warmly at Dr. Banner, however, holding out a hand for him to shake.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Dr. Banner," she said and he frowned.
"I'm sorry, you know about me?"
"Ross is an idiot and the Rangers don't exactly take kindly to idiots like that," she informed him simply. He just stared at her, uncomprehendingly. She smirked. "Whenever they could they… tossed him off your trail. The original red in particular took it as a matter of pride that he could convincingly get Ross to think you were in Bolivia when you were, in fact, on the other side of the globe."
"I can attest to that," Will said as most of the team stared at them in surprise. "Cause for some reason, I was the one he usually got to run around with the "Hulk" simulator the original blue built. It simulates the trace radiation the Hulk gives off, which Ross was tracking to try and find you."
"You've got a gift for subterfuge," Kim reminded the former black ranger as Banner gaped. "Ross never stood a chance."
Fury wasn't the one who snorted. "That explains a lot," the SHIELD director noted. "Perhaps we should trade files?"
"Perhaps," she agreed. "So long as Dr. Banner approves. It's his safety at stake, after all."
It was a subtle warning, one Fury acknowledged with a brief nod of his head.
"Anyway, got off track again," she said. "I'm Kimberly Hart, director of Alpha Operations."
"Eric Myers, Quantum Ranger and Director of Search and Rescue and Security," Eric said. He jerked his head back behind him. "My current team, Cassie Chan, Space Pink; Ronny Robinson, Overdrive Yellow; Will Aston, Overdrive Black; and TJ Johnson, Space Blue."
Kim turned to look at him. "Since when are you security?" she demanded, hands on her hips. "I never made a position like that!"
"You didn't," he agreed. "We did. Morphin Red approved."
"Of course he did," she muttered, vowing to both smack Jason when she saw him again and remind him that she was in charge, not him, damnit! "We'll talk about it later."
"You'll talk, doesn't necessarily mean I'll listen," he said with a smug grin. She glowered at him before giving up and tugging a smiling Andrew, Carter, Dana, and Clare forward.
"This is Dr. Andrew Hartford, he created the Overdrive ranger tech and is part of our science group," she said. Then she pinned Stark with a stare. "I know you're rivals but play nice."
"Of course," he agreed easily—too easily. There was totally scanning tech on the roof. He raised an eyebrow in Andrew's general direction. "Hartford. Nice company you keep these days."
"I could say the same for you," Andrew replied easily. He gave the other man a quick hand-shake, smiling. "No worries Stark, I'm here to help install the pad, nothing more. You're secrets are safe from me."
"Are yours?" Stark asked, smirking. Andrew frowned.
"An-yway," Kim said before it could devolve. She tapped Carter's arm. "Most of you already know him, but this is Carter Grayson, former Lightspeed Red. He's now Director of our Emergency Response Division. And Eric's boss."
"And we will be talking about that security thing later," Carter added with a look at Eric. The Quantum Ranger just rolled his eyes.
"It's like herding cats," she muttered before motioning to the rest. "Dr. Dana Mitchell, former Lightspeed Pink and Director of Medical Services. Clare Emrys, head of Mystic Support. She's a sorceress, officially known as the Gatekeeper."
"The Gatekeeper was my mother," Clare said, smiling nervously at the group as they all shifted. "I'm just Clare."
"Well, 'Just Clare' was appointed to the position by the most powerful white sorceress in Avalon," Kim said, giving the girl a look. "She's got the goods."
"Why is she here?" That was Hawkeye, who was eyeing Clare somewhat warily. If she remembered the reports right, he'd been hijacked by Loki's magic. This couldn't be comfortable for him. She made a mental note to send him a recounting of her time as "Maligore's Daughter," though in a way that was obvious it wasn't from her.
"She's here to work with Dana," she told him. "She has experience with healing magic."
"And why is Dr. Mitchell here?" that was Stark.
"Fury mentioned there were still injuries among the SHIELD personell," she said, shrugging. "They're here to see if there's anything they can do."
"And why would you do that?" Agent Romanoff finally spoke up, looking coolly at her. Kim shrugged.
"A gesture of good-will," she said simply. "I want this alliance to work, Agent Romanoff. That means meeting SHIELD at least half-way, if not further."
"And what do you get out of it?" Stark asked. "I've read your file-your last job pays much more than this one."
"One, Billy's gonna kill you if you hacked his computers again," she said and Stark smirked. "Two, how do you know how much I get paid?"
"He's Billy, is he?" Stark asked and there was no misunderstanding what he was hinting at.
"Yes, has been since we were five years old and I decided William was too stuffy for him," she replied dryly. "Wanna try again?"
"Eventually."
"I look forward to it." She paused and then added, "By the way, tell Pepper I said hi and we need to do coffee one of these days."
Stark frowned at her, no doubt wondering if that was a threat or what it actually was-an old friend wanting to catch up.
Though she really honestly wanted to be a fly on the wall when Pepper found out she was head of AO now. They'd met at a joint Long Wolf/Stark Industries fund-raiser and had kept in contact. Pepper was a good friend.
"Perhaps we should get this installed and then head back to HQ," Eric suggested, breaking her and Stark's little staring contest. "Morphin Blue did say to be quick about it."
"True," Kim agreed. She raised an eyebrow at Iron Man. "This is your tower-lead the way oh Iron one."
"Funny," he noted, turning on his heels and leading the way inside. "You know it's not actually Iron though, right? It's a gold metal alloy-"
"I really don't care," she broke in before he could get going-she'd seen his youtube videos, give him an opening he'd never shut up. She paused and then added slyly, "Sorry, it's just, after flying in a zord, your, uh,prosthetic isn't that impressive."
A muffled choking sound made her glance over her shoulder to find Hawkeye stuffing a fist in his mouth, Widow and Fury smirking, and Banner and Rogers both hiding smiles. Turning back to Stark, she found him eyeing her speculatively.
"I see why they chose you."