00055. Finally a new lead?

Erik watched in slack jawed fascination as Ezekiel and the three people with him quickly looted an entire storage room of its vibranium with the help of Tao's portals. Within ten minutes they cleared out an entire room, over five tons of vibranium. Even though Tao sounded reluctant to help at first, she was smiling while helping remove all the vibranium.

About halfway through Erik asked, "Shouldn't this place be guarded or have some type of alarm?"

Ezekiel chuckled as he said, "You would think that, but Wakanda in its arrogance never thought that someone could even get here in the first place. There are monitors on the doors and cameras in the halls. But the storage rooms themselves have nothing."

"With how we left, aren't they going to know we stole all this vibranium?"

Ezekiel grinned as he looked at Erik as he said, "Probably, that is why I am going to leave a note. It will throw them off."

Erik and Tao had a dubious look as Ezekiel laughed and he said, "Trust me, they won't even see the note for like six months or more."

When they were finished, Ezekiel left a note in the room that read.

'To whom it may concern, the vibranium in this room was claimed by the rights of Finders Keepers. Since claimed under Finders Keepers Law, if you wish to have it back you must find it.

-With love,

Fred.'

Once they were back at the base and all the vibranium was added to what Ezekiel already took from Klaue. Tao gave Ezekiel a questioning look as she asked, "Are you sure that was the best idea? Not only our display of power, but we also stole from them. On the tech side of things they seem powerful, should we be making Wakanda our enemy?"

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "Tech wise they are powerful, but it's only because of their supply of vibranium. Honestly their tech while advanced isn't that far ahead, maybe fifty years and the gap is closing fast. As for making them an enemy? Everyone on that council is old and you saw it from not just the king, they are too stuck in their traditions. Trying to make a deal with them properly most likely won't work."

"Aren't you being short sighted?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Probably, but I am betting on the future King and his sister. I am going to monitor what happens in Wakanda for a while, but I am sure the king will keep what happened a secret. Whether he does or not, I plan to make contact with T'Challa and his sister at some point and introduce them to Erik. If we do anything with Wakanda I want to be working with T'Challa, not T'Chaka."

Ezekiel paused for a few moments before he said, "I do admit letting Erik speak might have been a bad idea. But I wouldn't change it. That kid has so much potential and I don't want to see him waste it because of all of his anger. Letting him vent at his fathers killer helped. Along with his therapy session today."

Tao glanced at the large pile of vibranium as she said, "Make sure you bring up Wakanda at the next meeting, the others should know about them and what happened."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "I already have Shisui drafting a report for it. Anyways, I am going to go check on Erik, I will talk with you later."

Tao nodded in reply as Ezekiel left her and his clones and made his way to Erik's room to check up on him. When he got there, he found the door to the room open and Erik was laying on his bed. Erik was holding his father's ring above his head as he was studying it intently.

Around this time Fury sat up on the bed he was laying on in the holding cell. He looked a little pale and he had sweat on his forehead. He looked around the room for a moment before he checked his watch. After he noticed that almost three hours had passed he said, "That mother fucker." He stood up and went out of the room to find Ezekiel.

At the same time Ezekiel walked in Erik's room as he said, "Penny for your thoughts?"

Erik glanced at Ezekiel for a moment before he looked back at his father's ring. He was quiet as Ezekiel moved over to the only chair in the room and sat down. Erik sighed before he sat up on his bed to look at Ezekiel.

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "I figured you might wanna talk a bit?"

Erik frowned as he said, "No…"

Erik then let out a sigh before he said, "Yes… That son of a bitch, he was just so arrogant."

As Erik talked, his voice was rising as he said, "The more he talked the more I wanted to punch him in his smug face. Everything that was coming out of his mouth was a lie and it made me hate him."

Erik chuckled at that as he said, "More than I already did."

"Your dad being a traitor wasn't a lie."

Erik glared at Ezekiel for a moment before he let out a sigh as he said, "He was just trying to help people."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Maybe, but he was doing it in the wrong way. Did you know he planned to make a bomb using vibranium?"

Erik looked a little shocked at that as he said, "My father wouldn't have done that!"

"You don't know your father as well as you think you do. While he did want to help people, violence isn't the only way to do things. Even if he wasn't going to use the bomb, just making it to use as a threat is a terrible idea. That's why I showed you what would happen if you followed his path."

Erik frowned as he asked, "So using violence sometimes is the right way to do things?"

Ezekiel nodded his head in reply, before Erik laughed as he said. "Doesn't that make you a hypocrite? You were the one who said I shouldn't follow my fathers path and yet now you are saying sometimes violence is the answer?"

Ezekiel gave a self deprecating laugh as he shrugged his shoulders and then said, "I probably am a hypocrite… You know I killed a lot of people recently."

Ezekiel had a sad smile on his face and after a long pause he said, "I would like to say it was for a good reason, a good cause. For something noble, but honestly it was because I didn't have a better choice…"

Erik didn't seem surprised as he studied Ezekiel for a few moments before he asked, "Wouldn't anything be better than death?"

Ezekiel gave Erik a serious look as he said, "There are things far worse than death. But no, death was the best option out of what we came up with. I still don't like it myself, but sometimes when you have a choice to make, you don't really have a choice to make. Does that make sense?"

Erik nodded his head a little as he said, "I get it. The way you worded it was bad, but I get it."

They both stayed quiet for a few minutes before Ezekiel finally said, "So how do you want to move forward from here? Say the word and I can get you into any school you want. Honestly you wouldn't even need my help, you could just ask Hank or Bill for a recommendation letter."

Erik was quiet for a while as he looked at his father's ring again. When he tightened his fist over the ring he asked, "You said you were going to change the world for the better. What if I decide to stay here, to join whatever it is you are doing here?"

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "We would be glad to have you. But what do you want to do if you join us?"

"I wanna fight. I saw what I could become if I trained… But I also wanna help in otherways, I really like mechanical engineering. Would I be able to do both?"

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "Yes, yes you can. I will talk with Hank and Darren, we will come up with a lesson plan to get you a masters degree in mechanical engineering and anything else that you might be interested in. At the same time, I will talk with Steve and Logan so they can start to give you combat training and a better physical training regiment overall."

"Logan? Who is that?"

Ezekiel had a puzzled look as he asked, "You haven't met Logan yet? He is here every few days to see Laura. He's kind of like her father…"

"That short smelly guy is Laura's father?

Ezekiel laughed as he said, "That is definitely one way to describe him."

Erik thought about it for a moment before he said, "I only really saw him once up close, but now that I think about it. Laura looks a lot like him."

"Yup, she definitely took most of her genetics from Logan." Ezekiel gave a slight chuckle as he stood up.

Ezekiel glanced over to Erik as he said, "You should get some sleep, it's been a long day and I still have some stuff I need to do."

Erik nodded his head but stayed sitting on his bed as he went back to looking at his father's ring. Ezekiel closed the door as he walked out of the room. He looked to the left of the door and asked, "I suppose you want to have a talk too?"

Fury had a frown on his face as he nodded his head. He turned to his right and started to walk down the hallway and Ezekiel followed along behind him. They didn't speak as they walked, but Ezekiel was fine with that. He wasn't really in a rush to find out how this conversation was going to go. After a few minutes they made it to the main meeting room and both of them sat down in their normal chairs.

Ezekiel waited patiently until Fury said, "You are a real son of a bitch, you know that?"

Ezekiel smirked as he said, "Yup."

Fury still had his frown as he asked, "Are any of those things going to happen in this timeline? Are they what you are trying to prevent?"

"In this timeline? I hope not, or we will be in trouble."

Fury's frown turned into a glare as he said, "Then why would you show me any of that?"

Ezekiel was a little surprised at the question and said, "You know why."

Fury scowled at Ezekiel as he raised his voice slightly as he said, "Of course I do! You think you are clever, you think I will back off just because you showed me all the ways I could fuck up?"

"No, I showed you what happens because you wouldn't put your trust in other people. I won't be like you, I just gave you some of my trust. Hopefully it wasn't misplaced."

"You didn't give me…" Fury's face went through a range of emotions Ezekiel had never seen before. He almost looked happy, before his face schooled to its normal disappointed frown as he asked, "How much of that will happen?"

"Maybe thirty percent or so… Could be more, could be less."

Fury was quiet for a few minutes as he started to think back over everything Ezekiel showed him. After a while he looked at Ezekiel as he asked, "So Stark's kid will become…" An alarm went off in the room and a second later a screen popped up, it showed that some foreign diplomat was just assassinated. It also went to a live feed from a satellite and it showed a man with a metal arm riding on a motorcycle.

Ezekiel had a wide smile as he said, "To answer your question yes, yes he does. But now that you know, what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing."

Ezekiel smirked as he asked, "Why?"

"Because if I interfere it might not happen."

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, "Now you understand why I am trying not to fuck with the timeline to much."

"But you already have, just bringing Steve out of the ice this early will have a big impact."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "I already have a plan for that in place, but we can discuss that later with everyone else. But first I need to inform Steve and the others that I found Bucky."

Fury nodded his head at that as he sat back in his chair and started to think over all the new information he gained from Ezekiel. He was trying to consolidate everything that happened in all of the worlds he saw first. Then things that happened in most of them, then in half of them. He would still check out stuff that only happened in one world, but only after he confirmed if those people existed in this world.