Ch. 38 - The Celestial Syndicate

"What are we even doing here? I could just be out there, having fun instead of wasting my time here." A young man void of bristles was walking alongside an old pair of man and woman as he complained.

"This is family bonding, Tony. You have to understand and just so you know, I owe the owner of this Park my life." Howard, his father, scolded him as Tony's rebellious attitude is getting on his nerves.

"What do you even know about family bonding." Tony looked away and muttered to himself as he clenched his fists in anger.

"Tony..." Meanwhile, his mother, Maria Stark comforted him as she casts a disapproval gaze at Howard, who sighed and rubbed his temples. The burden of your life being taken by Hydra anytime made him unable to sleep at night without thinking that Hydra would suddenly show up at his home and kill him along his family.

"I heard that." Howard said to Tony's earlier remark.

Tony didn't say anything and just ignored him as he looked around and saw many children enjoying the park along their families, hauling jealousy from Tony.

"Hello there, fellow friend." Suddenly, the Stark family heard a voice when they turned to the source of the voice. They saw a stunning man with a fine-looking outfit, however, what caught their attention was his height as he is the tallest person they've encountered throughout their lives.

"Hey there. You got...Taller?" Howard awkwardly greeted him back as he hugged him and patted his back.

"Doflamingo, that's my name. You can call me Doffy." Doflamingo smiled and hugged him back as he finally revealed his name.

"What an unusual name for an America, who named you? Your flamingo mother?" Tony took this chance to mock him as he even included his mother.

"Tony!" Both Maria and Howard yelled at him in unison while Tony just rolled his eyes and sighed.

"You must be Tony Stank." Doflamingo said to him, purposely misspelling his last name, which is a reference to a certain old man.

"...Sorry, are you insulting my smell or my name?" Tony's mocking smile disappeared as he felt offended on Doflamingo's comeback. No one, not even his uncle, Obadiah has insulted him like this. Doesn't this guy know who he is? He's a Stark, for god's sake! People respect him!

"Tony! I apologize for my son's actions, he's just a bit spoiled and I'm working on it. Anyways, putting the grievances aside, looks like your business is a huge success, Doffy!" Howard glared at Tony for the last time as he apologized at Doflamingo before changing the topic.

"Yeah, it sure did. Thanks to you. If you need anything, you can call me." Doflamingo took this opportunity to befriend the Starks, after all, there's still some benefits if he is acquianted to the Starks, especially in the future if Tony Stark became an Iron Man.

"Need anything..." Hearing what Doflamingo said to him, Howard muttered his words as his eyes gleamed in delight.

"Can we talk in private?" Howard said, gesturing that this important.

"Sure. I'll send someone to accompany the two of you, so you both could enjoy our park to the fullest!" Doflamingo nodded at his words before saying to Maria and Tony Stark.

"Thank you!" Maria held Tony just in case that he said something offending and expressed her gratitude to Doflamingo.

Doflamingo then gestured to Howard to follow him.

'Matilda...'

'No! You're expecting me to guide them?' Doflamingo feel Matilda's frustration.

'Well, the others staffs are busy.'

'I'm also busy, just so you know, I'm in charge of watching over the Amusement Park.' Matilda reasoned.

'Don't worry, I have my eyes over the Amusement Park.' Doflamingo assured her, after all, his Observation Haki could indeed cover over the entire Amusement Park, and nothing won't escape under his eyes.

'Y- It's magic, right?' Matilda deadpanned and said.

'Yeah.' Doflamingo lied, well, Haki is considered as magic in this world, right?

'Sigh, fine, you're the boss.' Matilda sighed and finally agreed.

'Don't worry, I have a surprise for you after this.' Doflamingo said in a mysterious tone.

'Now you got me curious. Alright then, goodbye!' Doflamingo's words seems to aroused her interests as she got excited before cutting off their link.

As for his gift for her? Well, he'll think about it later.

Meanwhile, during Doflamingo's conversation with Matilda, Howard was watching over him all this time and seeing him changing expressions again and again, ranging from a happy one to sighing in relief. Howard was now looking at him weirdly.

'What's with him?' Howard can't help but be curious on that predicament.

"We're here." Doflamingo and Howard arrived in front of a small building that reeks of luxury.

"It's my office." Doflamingo said in response to Howard's curious expression.

Once they got in, Doflmainog opened the lights and sat behind his desk.

"Alright, now we're in a private room. What is it that you want to talk about?" Doflamingo was curious on what Howard has to say which is why he agreed to his request for some privacy.

Howard looked around first then sighed in relief.

"Everyday, I lived under the fear that Hydra would send Bucky again to kill me. I know this sounds crazy but I have a feeling that soon, they'll send someone to kill and and my family!" Howard started pacing around the room while panicking.

"Calm down." Hearing the reason, Doflamingo could understand his feeling, after all, the fact that his whole family is under the threat of death, not to mention that the date of when they will strike is unknown.

"So, what's your plan? I'm sure that you won't just tell me about this, right?" Doflamingo asked him as Howard stopped pacing and stared at him.

"I need your help." Howard kneeled in front of him and begged.

"Help for what?" Doflamingo got annoyed at Howard, not finishing his sentences.

"You have powers, right? How much do you want? I'll pay you to guard me and my family!" Howard offered as he begged.

"I can't do that. I have many things to do." Just when Howard's spirits fell, Doflamingo continued.

"However, I have a solution." Doflamingo leaned forward and said it in front of his face.

"What?" Howard gulped and backed away.

"We destroy Hydra. Without Hydra, you won't have anything to worry about, right?" Doflamingo smiled as Howard widened his eyes in realization.

"But how are we gonna do that? We have no idea how deep Hydra has gotten inside Shield." Howard stated the problem.

"Don't worry, as long as we catch their current leader inside Shield, then I'll handle the rest." Doflamingo said, smiling mysteriously.

"Can I ask how?"

"It's family secret." Doflamingo shrugged his shoulders as he leaned back on his chair and let Howard think about his next decision.

After a few minutes, Doflamingo almost fell asleep when Howard's voice woke him up.

"I've decided." Howard stood from the couch and with a determined expression, he continued.

"Let's destroy those bastards! Who's their leader!" Howard said and then asked.

"Alexander Pierce." The moment his voice fell, Howard's expression turned into worst.

"S-sorry, who?" Howard cleaned his ears and asked him to repeat.

"Alexander Pierce." Doflamingo doesn't mind and repeated again.

"Pierce?! You mean the current head of Shield! Fuck!" Howard cursed and sat back on the couch as he scratched his head in frustration.

"Wait, why Pierce? I mean, how do you know it was Pierce?" Howard asked.

"You said earlier that I have powers, right?" Doflamingo said as Howard nodded at his words.

"Well, you can say that I have a friend who specializes on Intel gathering, in fact, she could be the most reliable Information Broker in the entire world, too bad she's under me and only follows me." Doflamingo said as he stood up and took a wine and two glasses from the cabinet.

"So, you got this information through her?" Howard asked.

"Yup. Anyways, with her. Gathering evidences would be easy, as long as I got Pierce, then she'll handle the rest." Doflamingo opened the cork of the wine and poured it in the two glasses.

"Then, what's the plan?" Howard finally agreed fully and sat on the chair in front of the desk.

"We wait." Doflamingo said as Howard frowned.

Seeing his frown, Doflamingo explained.

"Pierce is the current head of Shield and if something happened to him, it'll alert all the Hydra Agents and they might hide and be more cautious than they are right now, which would be harder. So we will wait until a new Director replaces him, someone that we could trust and will do things for us."

"I'm one of the Founder of Shield, so our vote is necessary when we place someone on the seat if the Director. So, who do you have in mind?" Howard asked.

"Agent Nicholas Joseph Fury." Doflamingo uttered the name.

"Agent Fury. I've heard of him, he is indeed a good agent and he has all the qualifications of a perfect agents. However, are you sure he's not a Hydra?"

"I'm sure. However, let's not rush too much. We can't just immediately replaced Pierce, it might also alert him if we do that. All we gotta do now is to gather as much evidence as possible and also allies, and once that's done, we need to be patient and strike then the moment they turned their backs on us. This will give us a chance to eliminate them all without causing much ruckus." Doflamingo stated his plan as Howard nodded his head. He agreed on Doflamingo's plan and he already has someone in his mind when he mentioned that they need allies.

"Peggy Carter, we could trust her. And also Sharon Carter, her niece." Doflamingo nodded his head at those names. According to the movie, they are indeed not Hydra's, so they could be trusted.

"Phil Coulson, we could also trust him." Doflamingo suggested as Howard nodded without questioning him. t this moment, he already trust Doflamingo's words fully.

"Both of us have similar goal, which is to finish what Captain America failed to finish. To the destruction of Hydra, cheers!" Doflamingo picked up the glass of wine and raised it above their heads as he gestured Howard to do the same.

"Cheers!"

Howard did the same and they both clanked their glasses.

*Clank!*

Both of them drank the wine and finished it without stopping.

"Ahhhh~ This is a good wine. Anyways, what's the name of our alliance?" Howard complimented the wine before asking as Doflamingo stopped.

He seemed to think for a few seconds before raising his head and looked at Howard.

"The Celestial Syndicate."

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