00118. Making a friend? Maybe?

A portal opened up in Tony's workshop and Ezekiel walked out of it. In his hands he carried a couple of bags, which he placed on a table. He looked around the room and not finding Tony, picked up the bags and headed upstairs.

As he moved upstairs he could hear Tony arguing with someone.

"I already told you, the project doesn't interest me."

Someone let out an exhausted sigh before they said, "It might not interest you, but the company is under contract. You know the same company you own, the one with your last name on it."

"It's just a single development contract, we've failed to deliver on them before. I doubt another failure will be an issue."

Ezekiel made it to the top of the stairs and saw a tall bald headed white man in a suit as he said, "We at least delivered failures or half working prototypes. We currently have nothing to deliver for this contract."

Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose as he said, "We have a whole team of overpaid researchers on payroll. Have them make something."

"What do you think I've been doing for the last nine months? While you've been working on some secret project, which you still won't even tell me about!" The man said as he sat down on the couch with a huff.

"I already told you, I signed an NDA till the project is ready for stage one. Once we are finished with this round of tests, I should be able to talk about some of the project with you."

Ezekiel walked out of the stairwell and towards the living room as he said, "That'll be in three months or so, if the simulated load tests finish running with positive results."

The man turned around as Tony said, "Just in time like always, I was getting hungry. Obie, this is Ezekiel. Ezekiel, this is Obie."

Obadiah seemed a little on guard as he stood up from the couch and said, "Forgive me, I didn't realize Tony was expecting any guests. I'm Obadiah Stane.

Obadiah reached out a hand to Ezekiel after he set the bags down on the table. As they shook hands Ezekiel said, "You're fine, Tony wasn't expecting me. I just show up whenever I'm in the area. People call me Ezekiel, I'm a professional delivery boy."

After they shook hands Stane said, "You have to be more than a delivery boy. I saw your performance on TV with Tony."

Ezekiel smiled as he moved towards Tony and handed him a USB before he said, "You're right, but ninety percent of my interactions with Tony are strictly delivery based."

Ezekiel turned to Tony as he said, "That's all the current data we've collected. Check it over and see if there's any issues."

Tony slid the USB into his pocket as he said, "I'll check it over later. What'd you bring for dinner?"

Ezekiel pointed to the bags and said, "Just some burgers and fries. I also brought a keto-friendly lettuce wrapped burger for Happy."

Ezekiel glanced at Obadiah as he said, "I always bring extra, so if you're hungry, feel free to dig in."

Obadiah glanced at Tony pulling out food as he said, "Thank you, but I ate before I arrived."

Tony unwrapped a burger as he said, "More for me and Ezekiel then."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Unfortunately I can't hang out today. I mostly came by to bring you that data."

"What? Why not? What's so important you can't hang out for a while?" Tony asked.

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, "I have some negotiations to hold with a secretly exiled princess for an item in her possession."

Tony perked up as he asked, "Secretly exiled princess, uh? Is she hot? And if she is, mind if I tag along?"

Obadiah rubbed his temple as he said, "Tony please don't give us any more bad press."

Ezekiel just smirked before he said, "As far as looks go, she's good enough to be a model and while normally I might say no to inviting you along… She's basically a homicidal maniac with daddy issues, so you guys might actually get along and hit it off."

Tony started to laugh and even Obadiah joined him, thinking it was a joke. When Ezekiel didn't join them Tony stopped laughing and asked, "Wait, you're being serious?"

"I met her about a month ago and she was surrounded by dead bodies at the time, so... Yeah."

Tony put down his burger as he asked, "Dude, what the fuck is wrong with her and why isn't she in jail? Also what does the crazy bitch have that you need to trade for anyways? Can't you just take it from her?" 

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "I already told you, she's a homicidal maniac with daddy issues and she's currently imprisoned. It's part of the reason she is living in exile, they couldn't lock her up in her native lands."

Ezekiel then glanced from Obadiah to Tony as he said, "As for the item in question… Let's just say it's worth a small army. Plus I would rather make friends with her, then have a new potential enemy."

Tony shook his head as he said, "I'm good, I'll just stay home and check over the data you gave me."

Ezekiel shrugged as he started to walk out of the living room and said, "Suit yourself, I'll be back in a week or so."

Ezekiel nodded to Obadiah as he said, "It was nice to meet you Mr. Stane. Till next time."

"Same to you." Obadiah said.

After Ezekiel left, Obadiah glanced at Tony as he asked, "He's the reason you're working on that secret project?"

Tony nodded as Obadiah asked, "Who exactly is that and how did you meet him?"

Tony shrugged as he said, "I'm not really allowed to talk about it. But you're free to look into him if you want. I did and all it gave me was more questions."

Obadiah raised an eye as he looked at Tony and asked, "What's really going on Tony? First you say you can't talk about some secret project. Now you can't tell me about the person you are working with. Normally you can't wait to brag about stuff like this and I know it's not because of the NDA you signed, so what's the issue?"

Tony shook his head as he said, "I really can't talk about it."

Then he mumbled to himself, "He'll ban me from Vibe if I say anything." Before he took another bite of his burger.

A moment later Happy ran into the room with his gun out before he saw Obadiah and Tony. Then he saw the bags of food on the table and said, "He did it again!"

vvvvv

A portal opened in Hel close to Hela as she was watching a world war two movie. As Ezekiel stepped out of the portal Hela said, "Pause."

The portal closed as the movie paused and Hela turned to look at her new guest. Ezekiel smiled as he said, "I'm happy to see you putting that to use."

Hela nodded as she said, "I admit, it's made staying here a little less boring."

"Glad I could help."

Hela nodded again and said, "If you've come for an answer, I still haven't made up my mind."

"That's fine, I actually wanted to see if I could trade your possible future for that soul sphere."

Hela shook her head as she said, "I don't think that's a very fair trade."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "You're right. I would be trading at a loss."

Hela raised an eyebrow as she asked, "What makes you think that? You said it yourself, you can't guarantee that what you share with me will happen or not."

"That's very true, but I can share more than one future with you… How about I show you the ten most likely to happen. Then you can plan against them."

Hela's eye's narrowed slightly as she said, "You want me to believe you've seen my future enough, that you know the ten most likely ways I'll die?"

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, "I have no reason to lie to you."

"You also have no reason to tell the truth."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "You're wrong about that. I am trying to befriend you, lying would be counterintuitive to that process."

Hela's eye's were almost slit's as she asked, "And why are you trying to befriend me?"

"Do I really need a reason to make a new friend?" Ezekiel asked.

"Of course. Everyone makes friends with people who are useful. If they're not useful, why would you need to be friends?" Hela asked.

Ezekiel let out a sigh as he asked, "Fine, it's because you're strong and you won't always be locked away? Happy?"

Hela shook her head as she said, "That's a good reason, but it's not yours. Now tell me why you want to be friends."

"You won't like it…" Ezekiel said.

Hela frowned as she asked, "Because you're just like everyone else? You have a use for me and once that's been filled, you'll pretend I no longer exist?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No… The opposite actually. I've seen many different versions of your life and they were all about the same. But the one thing I noticed through every single one was you never had a true friend. Someone who wanted to be friends, just to be friends. You kinda make that hard for people to do in the first place, so I can see why it hasn't happened before though."

Ezekiel pointed to himself as he said, "But I am willing to put in the work if you are. Not because you're powerful, or who your family might be or anything else for that matter. I would like to be your friend, just to be your friend." 

Hela's eye's were still narrowed as she asked, "What about the deals you are trying to make with me?"

"Those are straight forward trades, where both parties gain something they want. Nothing more or less and if they don't go though, I won't hold it against you."

Hela laughed before the chains started to shake and her arm moved out of them holding the soul sphere. She locked eyes with Ezekiel as she said, "Take it."

"But we…"

"I said take it!" Hela's arm shook as she held it out of the chains.

Ezekiel moved close, reached out and took the soul sphere in his hand. It was warm to the touch and vibrated slightly once it was fully in his hand. Hela's hand disappeared back into the chains as Ezekiel looked her in the face and asked, "Why?"

"Because I felt like it, now leave. I wanna be left alone." Hela said.

Ezekiel glanced at the soul sphere for a few moments before he smiled and said, "Thanks!"

Ezekiel pulled a flash drive out of his pocket and moved next to the device he left last time and plugged it into the device as he said, "If you wanna see what might happen to you, just tell the device you wanna see the future."

As Hela glanced at the device, Ezekiel rubbed his bracelet and pushed some power into it. A second later a portal opened up and he stepped through it before it snapped closed behind him. Hela let out a sigh before she said, "Resume play."

vvvvv

A few hours later, Tao, Agatha, Ezekiel and a few of his clones were in the medical base with the cloned body of the valkyries leader. Tao was holding a device that held the soul sphere and was focusing on the soul sphere itself. After a while a wisp of light came out of the soul sphere and was pushed into the body.

After a few moments, the valkyrie leader shot up on the bed holding her chest as she sucked in a ragged breath. Within moments she rolled off the bed and took up a defensive stance as she glanced at everyone in the room.

Ezekiel raised both his arms up and said, "Lady Sanhildr, we mean you no harm."

Sanhildr narrowed her eyes as she asked, "Who are you? Why am I here?"

"I'm Ezekiel and you're here because you died."