00109. The real reason for Vibe.

Just a preface before the start of this chapter and the next few. I debated adding this in since it's based on something that actually happened. But this also happened in the comics, so I decided to include it. Hopefully I did a decent job. Let me know what you think.

Theo was busy working on his personal mind defense spell as some of his clones study or worked on different projects. The spell matrix he was busy creating was special. It was made from one of the programming languages he created in his past life.

Normally you would want to be a more advanced spell caster before doing something like this. But Theo was making tremendous progress under Tao's 'aggressive' teaching methods.

Tao also taught him the underlying fundamentals to creating your own magic system. Tao herself used a unique spell casting formula which she has spent the last few hundred years perfecting.

Agatha also created her own magic system for casting. Neither woman showed him the inner workings of their magic system. But they at least showed him the same spell numerous times, using different magic systems each time.

Theo could easily see the difference in them, since each one left a different signature with the completed spell. While it didn't help him with his own creation, it did give him some ideas on what he was doing.

As Theo was working one his clones used for spying and information gathering dispelled itself to send him information.

Theo immediately canceled his spell and stood up which drew Tao and Agatha's attention. Theo moved over to his tablet and typed quickly on it as he said, "We have a situation."

Tao and Agatha's phone pinged with a message as Theo henged into his Ezekiel persona. He glanced over and said, "Let's head to the base, we'll need some help dealing with this."

Tao's eyes were narrowed slightly as she asked, "You're going personally? What's the issue?"

As Ezekiel made a portal he said, "A major terrorist attack on US soil."

"Well that isn't too bad, I was expecting a world ending threat or something. Where did the attack happen and how bad is it?" Agatha curiously asked.

After Ezekiel and the others stepped through the portal he said, "Nowhere yet and no matter what, we need to make sure it doesn't happen in the first place. I'll explain more once everyone arrives."

It took about half an hour before the main members arrived and the meeting started. Ezekiel, working on his computer, pointed everyone towards the main screen and said, "I was able to find intelligence about an upcoming terrorist attack against the U.S."

A picture on the screen popped up of a Middle Eastern man in a white turbine with a salt and peppered beard. As the info popped up on the screen Ezekiel said, "This man here was trained by the CIA to help fight Russians during the Afghan war. But over the past ten years he's been responsible for multiple terror attacks around the world. Most of them were made against the US."

"He's on the FBI's most wanted list. I've also had a counter terrorism team trying to locate him, without much luck the past few years. Did you find him?" Fury asked with interest.

"Unfortunately, no."

Alexei let out a little laugh before he said, "That man is worse than a cockroach. We tried to kill him many times in the eighties, yet he always lived or wasn't where intel said he would be."

Some more files pulled up on the screen as Ezekiel said, "I'm not surprised, he is part of Hydra."

Everyone read over the data on the screen before Fury asked in a slightly raised tone of voice, "So Hydra has been backing him all this time?"

"Yes. For almost three decades."

Fury narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Where did you get this info from?"

Ezekiel typed on his computer a little bit, before making more info pop up on the screen, along with a picture of someone else. Ezekiel glanced at Fury and said, "I got it from this man who is some kind of Hydra handler."

Steve spoke up as he said, "How did you get info from him? From my experience all Hydra agents commit suicide before they'd ever talk."

Ezekiel smirked as he pulled up a profile page for his Vibe social media platform. It was the profile for the man in question.

"For some reason he decided to use his encrypted Hydra computer to check out his profile on Vibe. After he connected to my servers I had access to his whole computer system."

Ezekiel typed on his computer to bring up more data on the screen as he said, "I have a program that scans people's computers for certain things. If it finds any of those things, me or my clones personally look into it."

"That's a major breach of privacy and people's personal rights. Why are you even spying on people who use your services in the first place?" Coulson asked as he read over the intelligence Ezekiel shared with them.

Ezekiel let out a chuckle before he said, "That's rich coming from someone who works for one of the world's foremost spy agencies."

Ezekiel shook his head before he said, "As for why? It's because I'm not stupid. The main reason I made the whole platform in the first place was to spy on people."

Everyone around the table had different reactions to that little bit of information. And for once Fury seemed a little impressed with Ezekiel and even nodded his head slightly in approval.

As Steve was about to speak up Ezekiel cut him off and said, "Before you go into some speech about respecting people's freedoms and our responsibilities to be good guys. Just hear me out first."

Ezekiel looked at everyone in the room and said, "Almost all of the spying is completely passive and I only ever look into people if the passive scan flags my system. Otherwise I have no idea what people are doing and the information from the scan isn't saved."

"It still doesn't make it right. You're breaking people's trust by doing that." Steve said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Alexei laughed out loud for a moment before he said, "This is the real world America's Boy Scout, not some 1950's dream world. If Ezekiel wasn't spying on people, we wouldn't have found this information."

Steve was going to respond when Peggy placed a calming hand on his shoulder. Alexei looked like he was going to say something else when Melina slapped the back of his head and said, "Be a good boy and don't start fights, you oaf."

Melina glanced at Peggy as she said, "Sorry about Alexei, he can't help being an idiot."

Peggy nodded in reply as Ezekiel typed on his computer before he spoke up and said, "This is why I spy on people."

A list pulled up on the screen, all of them recent arrests. Pedophiles, rapists, murders, extortion, along with a number of other crimes were listed. The list was in the hundreds and they were from all over the world.

Ezekiel pointed at the screen as he said, "All of those are people I found from spying on them. Every single one of them wouldn't have been caught without the incriminating evidence I found on their computers."

Ezekiel looked back over to Steve as he said, "I know how you feel and I respect your opinion on things. It's one of the reasons I wanted to make this council in the first place."

Ezekiel's mouth set into a thin line and his voice took on an edge as he said, "But I plan to change the world for the better, one way or another. And if that means I need to take off the kid gloves and get my hands dirty. I will without a second thought."

"If you still wanna have a conversation about my spying habits after this, I am all ears." Ezekiel pointed back to the screen and said, "But for now we have work to do. We need to take care of this before the attack ever happens and we can't use Shield to do it."

Fury let out a sigh as he said, "And we can't make them disappear, it would put Hydra on edge. Maybe tip off the FBI?"

"I'm not sure who Hydra has in their pockets. I was thinking we would do it locally and plant evidence." Ezekiel said as he pulled up info on the twenty people who were going to participate in the attack.

"Why would we have to plant evidence? Don't we already have it?" Jarvis asked as he studied the information on the main monitor.

Fury was busy as he worked on his computer and said, "They most likely won't have anything incriminating on themselves or at their residence. Most terrorist cells keep information to a bare minimum."

Ezekiel pulled up more information as he said, "Fury's right. They only know the other men they'll be working with. Each group is unaware of the others and thinks they will be acting alone."

Peggy finished going through the documents and finally said, "I agree, local will be our best bet. Maybe a drug raid on the wrong house?"

"That'll only work for one of them though. If we do it for more, it could raise flags with Hydra." Fury said after thinking about it for a few moments.

"What about a gas leak in one of the houses?"

Everyone turned to look at Bucky as he continued, "Kill them while making it look like a gas leak explosion."

Ezekiel started to type as he pulled up info on each terrorist cell and said, "As long as we can confine it to them alone, I don't mind."

One of the groups was pulled up on the screen. They currently lived slightly isolated from their closest neighbors. Ezekiel pulled up some more info before he said, "This would be the best target. The house is a quarter mile away from the road and they use an off grid propane tank. Alright, so that takes care of two cells. What else can we do?"

"Why don't we cause a fire and use magic to plant evidence in the aftermath."

Ezekiel looked towards Fury as he said, "I like it. Even if they get out of the fire, they'll be caught."

Hill glanced at Ezekiel as she asked, "Why don't we just place an Air Marshal on each flight? Wouldn't that solve the issue?"

"No, Hydra wouldn't be stupid enough to let Air Marshals on those flights. We have to assume that some people in the FFA are part of Hydra. We have to stop them before they even get close to those planes."

Melina smiled as she said, "How about we poison the last group."

"No, that would definitely make Hydra suspicious." Ezekiel said with a shake of his head.

Melina's smile turned into a wicked looking grin as she said, "We'll use something that takes a week or so to work. Something we can spike into their food and make it look like they ate it accidently. A delayed poisoning from food shouldn't raise any issues. I've used the same technique plenty of times before and was never caught."

"If all the cells are taken out won't that raise flags in the first place?" Jarvis asked.

"Probably, but if we do it correctly it might just seem like bad luck. At least that's what I hope will happen. It would be best if they were all taken out within a few days before their operation takes place." Ezekiel said as he pulled up some more information on the main screen.

"Why are you so determined to stop this anyways? Don't get me wrong, I don't want innocent people to be hurt. But you said we need to make sure these attacks don't happen." Tao asked as she looked at Ezekiel.

"Because I'm pretty sure this will lead to a protracted war on terror that takes decades to finish. Something Hydra would love."

The rest of the meeting turned into Ezekiel explaining what could possibly happen if the attacks were successful. When everything was said and done, a plan was in place and everyone voted for it.

The next couple weeks passed quickly as the plan was put into action and each cell was taken out a few days before the planned attack. Ezekiel used his spyware on the few people of Hydra he knew about to see how they reacted. Apparently there wasn't much chatter about it at all. It seemed like it was mostly attributed to bad luck and nothing else.

vvvvv

September 11th 2001

Theo was eating breakfast with his family when one of his clones dispelled itself. His eyes almost bulged out when he looked over the memory packet. He finished his last fork of bacon and eggs before he quickly moved to put his plate in the sink. As he turned to go down stairs, Jacob asked, "Where are you going? It's almost time to leave."

He turned to his parents and said, "I'll be back in a minute, I was gonna grab a book from downstairs."

Jacob let out a little chuckle as he said, "You and your books."

Theo didn't wait and quickly moved downstairs before he made a clone in his room who nodded at him. As the clone grabbed a book and went back upstairs, Theo changed into Ezekiel and made a portal. As he appeared in the base he was greeted by Fury and Coulson as they also portaled into the base.

"What's the situation?"

Ezekiel let out a sigh as he started to move out of the room and said, "Someone hijacked four planes."

"What?" Coulson said.