00113. A deal with Fury.

As some of the world powers started to gear up for war. Theo decided to move forward with an idea he'd been thinking about for a while now. But he would need something special to be able to pull it off correctly, which meant he needed to acquire something important. 

Instead of stealing it, Theo decided to just go to the source and set up a meeting with Fury. While he was in his personal office at the base, he sent a private message to Fury before he waited for him to arrive, while he worked on the software for the cellular transmitters. After a little over three hours Fury finally arrived and sat down in front of Ezekiel's desk.

Ezekiel looked up with a smile as he said, "Thanks for joining me. I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

Fury shook his head and said, "Nothing important. Just a bunch of useless work by the WSC and Pierce, that want it done before the US and its allies invade Iraq."

"I still can't believe they convinced people that Iraq is any type of a threat, even after I posted evidence that said differently." Ezekiel said.

Fury focused on Ezekiel as he asked, "Let's cut the bullshit here. Why did you ask to talk with me?"

"I need to borrow something you have." Ezekiel said.

"No."

Ezekiel frowned as he said, "You don't even know what I want."

"Doesn't matter, the answer is no." Fury said as he sat back in his chair.

"You know I could have just stolen what I wanted? You know why I didn't?" Ezekiel said.

Fury raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Because Peggy and I would have chewed you out?"

Ezekiel let out a sigh as he said, "Because we're allies and we're supposed to help each other out."

Fury smiled the tiniest bit as he said, "Glad you finally figured it out."

"So can you help me out?"

Fury smirked as he said, "Only if you help me out first."

"The new body I made for you doesn't count as help?"

Fury shook his head as he said, "Besides the eye, my old body was just fine. So no, I don't count my new body as help."

Ezekiel crossed his arms over his chest as he said, "Fine, tell me what you want help with. But keep in mind that if we don't come to an agreement. I'll just steal what I need from Shield, because as far as I'm concerned Shield is basically Hydra right now."

Fury frowned as he asked, "And what exactly do you need to borrow anyways?"

Ezekiel smiled as he shook his head and said, "You'll know if we come to a deal. Plus I don't want you trying to hide it, if our talks fall through."

Fury nodded in respect as he said, "At least you're learning."

"Tao's been a good teacher. Now what do you want?"

Fury pulled out a folder and handed it over to Ezekiel as he asked, "Read that first."

Ezekiel picked up the thin folder and opened it up to see some confidential Stark Tech files. They contained some information on the project Tony and Ezekiel were currently working on. Nothing important tech wise was in the files, but it did outline possibly creating a new branch of the company to serve as a cellular service provider.

Ezekiel looked up from the file and asked, "Okay… So what do you want?"

"You said before you were helping Tony make cellphones and tablets. I assume you are doing the software side of things? Which would also include doing all the networking?" Fury asked.

Ezekiel nodded and said, "Yes, I have my side of things almost done. We are just stress testing Tony's hardware for any issues and I'm currently optimizing the code. Then we'll be going into production mode."

Fury tapped the folder and said, "I want a back door into the system you are putting in place. I assume you are going to spy on everyone who uses your software just like everyone who uses Vibe."

Ezekiel let out a hearty laugh as he leaned forward clutching his stomach. Fury instantly frowned at the reaction and asked, "What's so funny?"

In between laughs Ezekiel said, "You."

Fury narrowed his eyes as he watched Ezekiel laugh. It took about a minute for Ezekiel to stop and catch his breath before he said, "I'm not giving anyone access to that type of unfiltered data. Especially not a paranoid super spy like you."

Ezekiel focused his gaze on Fury as he said, "I wanna tell you to fuck off for even asking, but I should have expected it coming from you. So I'll give you another chance."

Fury pulled out another folder and set it on the table as he said, "It was worth a shot, I brought this just in case."

Ezekiel picked up the folder and started to look it over. After a few minutes he placed the folder down as he said, "This is actually doable. But I'm letting you know now. I'll know everything that you use it for."

Fury frowned as he said, "That isn't what I asked for."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "You're right. You just asked for a custom built program, that you can use to hack into basically anything. I admit, I might be a little too trusting, but I'm not stupid Fury."

Ezekiel pulled out a small flash drive from his desk and said, "You basically want one of these for personal use."

Fury glanced at the drive for a few moments before he asked, "And what's the issue with that?"

"Well, you thinking I am stupid enough to give you something like this without some type of restrictions or oversight. There's also the fact you think this can do everything you want it to do. I'm great at what I do Fury, but even I have limits."

Ezekiel placed the flash drive down and started to type on his computer as he said, "Let me show you something."

After a couple moments, Ezekiel spun his screen to Fury and showed him a detailed diagram of the flash drive and said, "As you can, these things might be powerful computers I made with the help of Hank's Pym particles. But their main design purpose is to connect to my servers. That's where the heavy lifting takes place."

"I thought you were some kinda genius coder and most security was a joke to you?"

Ezekiel nodded and smiled slightly as he said, "While I might make it look easy, I put a lot of effort and prep time into everything I do to make it seem that way. I have clones compiling new code every day, improving our systems and defenses, while also improving the ways I slip through everyone's cyber security and remain hidden." 

Ezekiel picked up the flashdrive again and held it towards Fury as he asked, "You can have this one if we have a deal."

"I won't make a deal unless you tell me what you want."

Ezekiel smirked as he said, "Come on, you already know what I want. Plus if I have it, Hydra won't be able to get it."

Fury frowned again as he asked, "What do you want it for?"

"Besides protecting it? I want to try something with it and Tao and Agatha have already agreed to help with the project."

Fury raised one of his eyebrows as he asked, "And what exactly would this project be?"

"Just exploring a few places normal portals can't go to. Mostly different planes that are normally locked or hard to enter without knowing the proper way inside." Ezekiel said.

Fury stayed quiet for about a minute before he reached forward and took the flashdrive from Ezekiel. As he placed the drive in his pocket he said, "You'll have to figure out a way to replace it with a fake. We don't want people asking questions when it goes missing."

Ezekiel smirked and pulled out a plain looking briefcase from behind his desk and opened it up facing towards Fury as he asked, "You've seen the real thing before, you think this will fool people?"

It was the first time Ezekiel saw Fury display anything close to shock. Well if he was being honest it was just a slight twitching of Fury's lip. But he would take it.

Fury closed the briefcase as he said, "Give me a few days and I'll get you the Tesseract."

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "Pleasure doing business with you."

Fury nodded before he walked out of the room with the briefcase in hand.

vvvvv

True to his words, Fury brought Ezekiel the Tesseract within a couple days. The first order of business Tao and Agatha did was to create a suppressing array for the space stone hidden inside of the Tesseract. They created it with the help of the ley lines found in Genosha. It was hidden in a chamber underneath the school they created on the island. 

It only took them a couple of days with Theo and his clones acting as helpers. He didn't help with the actual spell or creation of the array. But he would bring them whatever materials they needed as they built it. Once the array was completed they removed the space stone while inside the array and rested it on a pedestal they created for it.

Afterwards Tao and Agatha spent the next month building a magical device to harness the powers of the space stone. While Theo helped where he could and carefully watched them work. The device would act as a permanent holder for the stone and would also let them use it for spells going forward. The only downside was they could only use it while inside the array, if they wanted to keep emissions from the stone secret.

The device they created looked a lot like a sling ring, but was more of a blueish silver in color from the use of Vibranium in its creation. The space stone itself wasn't visible on the device and was hidden inside it when not in use. The inside also acted as a mini sealing array to hide the stone and make it passive when inside the device.

The main reason for that feature was so Tao could use the device as a normal sling ring. Since it was decided that Tao would be in charge of the device because she was currently the strongest person amongst them. The argument could be made that Agatha was stronger, but the reality was Tao being younger was still more powerful than Agatha.

For their next project they created safety arrays, shields and other protections around the main sealing array. They wanted to make sure any place they explored wouldn't be able to follow them back through any portal they made. They also made the array as the anchor point for the sling ring, so it would be easy to create a portal back in a hurry.

Once finished with the device, they did some minor tests mostly to test the power of the device and check for energy leakage from the array. When everything tested correctly and they couldn't find any type of issue. Theo finally told them the first place he wanted to go and why.

"You realize this could backfire if you're not careful, correct?" Tao said.

Theo nodded his head before he said, "Yes, but if it works we could potentially gain a powerful ally. Look, I just wanna go and chat with them. Worst case it doesn't work out."

Tao frowned as she said, "I've read ancient stories about her. I don't think she'll be a good ally for us. Most likely she'll be an enemy to us if we even release her."

Agatha nodded in agreement as she said, "I've seen her once, long ago, when she came to Earth with her father. She was like a bloodthirsty attack dog. Her father was the only thing that kept her in check."

"Which is exactly why I think it could work. She needs help and I am willing to offer it. If she turns it down, we make plans to contain her."

Tao let out a sigh before she said, "Fine, we'll try it out. But if things go wrong, you'll get punishment training for a month."

Ezekiel shivered at the thought as he said, "I'll keep that in mind."