Kimberly 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."