Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00045. Trust isn’t always a two way street.

Logan was standing in a room with Ezekiel, Tao, Fury, Tobirama, Orochimaru, Stryker and some scientist they picked up at the facility they raided. The scientist, along with Stryker, were strapped down to a table and the latter was giving Logan a death glare. Logan had a small grin on his face, he might not currently remember the man. But after the way Stryker was cursing at him, he knew they had a history that wasn't pleasant.

Ezekiel nodded towards Tobirama, who walked next to Stryker, he did some hand seals as he said, "Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!" Before he placed his hand on the seal on Stryker's forehead. The man started to struggle at first before he started to thrash around and scream into the ball gag in his mouth. Logan watched with horrid fascination as Stryker seemed to disintegrate into pieces of ash that floated to the floor and started to build up into something else.

After a minute he stopped making noise and went still. The pile of ash finished forming up and turned into Dr. Sutter. When he was fully complete, Tobirama placed a control seal in the back of his head. As he opened his eyes Ezekiel said, "Mr. Sutter, you will only speak when asked a question and you must fully answer that question to the best of your ability, unless told otherwise. If you understand, nod your head."

As Sutter nodded yes, Logan asked, "What the hell did you just do?"

Ezekiel glanced at Tobirama and said, "You can start the next one."

As Tobirama started making hand seals, Ezekiel looked at Logan and said, "We used Stryker's soul to bring back Sutter. If we didn't place the control seal on him, it would be like he came back to life almost. With the control seal, he has no free will and we can get answers from him we normally wouldn't be able to get."

Logan grunted as he watched the scientist going through the same process and asked, "Who are you bringing back this time?"

Ezekiel gave a cheshire-like smile as he said, "Stryker."

Logan snapped his head to look at Ezekiel as he asked, "Can I ask him about my past?"

"That was the plan. The people we bring back can stay together for about forty-eight hours before the spell fails and they disappear. We would also like to ask him some questions, but you can have him for the first forty hours unless you finish with him sooner."

Logan grunted as he nodded his head and turned back to watch the scientist going through the same process as Stryker. The process finished quickly and Logan was led to a room with the reanimated Stryker while Fury took Sutter to another room for interrogation.

Ezekiel, Tobirama, Orochimaru and Tao went to have an overdue conversation regarding souls, astral projection and how it tied together with memories and a person's knowledge. Needless to say, their conversation ended up taking a few weeks. They took breaks of course, since the clones only lasted about twenty-five hours and Tao needed to sleep, along with her other duties. But they spent at least four hours a day discussing the subject in depth.

While Ezekiel was mostly just curious and wanted to know certain things, like how he still had all of his knowledge yet was just cell’s dividing in his mothers womb and didn’t have a body, much less a brain. Tobirama and Orochimaru on the other hand wanted to talk in depth about everything related to souls. Mostly for the upcoming project they were working on and also because they were knowledge junkies. 

Out of everyone currently in Theo’s head, Tobirama and Orochimaru were the most dedicated to learning. The others would go for a few hours, then get bored or tired of what they were doing and do something else. Tobirama and Orochimaru would spawn as clones and then spend the entire time buried in books, researching obscure things on the internet or doing experiments. Half the time they worked on projects together and would be in perfect sync with each other without saying a single word. Theo wasn’t sure if it was because they technically have the same memories or something else was going on, but it was pretty amazing to watch as they worked as a single minded unit.

A few days after Stryker and Sutter were questioned, Xavier contacted Ezekiel so they could meet. Xavier along with Magneto and Beast were transported by Kaecilius to the basement of the facility. On the left side of the basement area where some of the laboratories were. They were greeted by Ezekiel, Tobirama, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sarah, Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura.

Xavier sent to Beast and Magneto, 'Strange, everyone here is like Ezekiel except for Dr. Kinney. I can sense her mind, but it's like it isn't there. The others I cannot sense at all, like they don't exist. I wonder if Ezekiel trained them all to block out telepaths.'

Beast sent back, ‘That is a possibility professor, since Dr. Kinney’s mind is no longer open to you.’

Magneto, ‘Definitely something to consider, Charles.’

Xavier smiled as he said, "It's good to see you again Ezekiel, Dr. Kinney.” Xavier looked towards the other people gathered as he said, “It’s nice to meet all of you, I am Charles Xavier. These are my friends, Dr. Henry McCoy and Max Eisenhardt.”

Henry stepped forward, he was covered head to toe in a coat of fine blue fur. He was wearing a pair of square glasses that rested on the end of his snout, but behind the glasses you could see his yellow eyes and black vertical pupils. His pointed ears could just be made out, behind his wild mane of blue hair. And as he smiled, his fang-like teeth became very noticeable, before he gestured to himself with his unusually large hands tipped with claws as he said, “You can just call me Hank if you like, Dr. McCoy also works.”

The first to greet him was a man with pale skin and snake-like, yellow eyes. He stepped forward with his right hand raised as he said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Hank, You can call me, Orochimaru. Your last paper on genetics was captivating and I would love to discuss it in depth with you at some point.”

Tobirama stepped forward after Orochimaru and as he shook Beast’s hand he said, “Tobirama Senju. I agree with Orochimaru, that paper is a work of genius. How did you figure out how…”

Ezekiel clapped his hands as he said, “You guys can fanboy later, we have some work we need to do.”

Orochimaru glared at Ezekiel for a moment, but both him and Tobirama backed up and allowed the others to introduce themselves. As the others made introductions, Xavier noticed the youngest person in the group. The pink haired girl who looked no older than sixteen. He had met many smart people in his time, and while he was sure the group before him was well educated. He never heard any of their names before, let alone any mention of them anywhere in academic communities.

After everyone was introduced, Xavier said, “I don’t mean to be rude in asking this, but I have never heard of any of you by name before. Is there a reason for that?”

Beast nodded his head in agreement, he had never heard of any of them before and he had an eidetic type memory. Ezekiel smiled as he said, “They aren’t from around here and lets leave it at that.”

Xavier sent a message to Beast and Magneto, ‘Not from Earth then or something else? Different universe maybe?’

Magneto thought, ‘‘They seem human enough, but then again other aliens seem human enough.’

Beast sent back, ‘If they are aliens, why do they want to help Earth? Or mutants for that matter? With the visions Ezekiel gave Raven, I think they might be from a different universe. Possibly one that had one of those visions come true. Ezekiel and these people might be the survivors?’ 

Xavier smiled as he said, “I understand, we might be working together. But we still have our own secrets.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Exactly. One day we will bring you into our group completely, but we still have a lot of enemies and trust is a big issue for us. You obviously know the saying, ‘Trust is earned, not given’ Magneto said it not long ago when you agreed to work with us."

Xavier nodded his head as he said, “I have heard different versions of it, a few times.”

Ezekiel's face lost its normal half smirk as he said, “I personally think trust can never really be earned. It can only truly be given by someone who wants trust in return. Which is why I asked both of you here today. I want you to give me your trust, with something important.”

Xavier glanced at Magneto as he sent, ‘What do you think, old friend?’

Magneto sent back, ‘I am not sure, but if he is asking for our trust. Then it might be something he could easily take with his powers and instead wants us to trust him.’

‘I was thinking something similar.’ Xavier looked back at Ezekiel as he said, “Alright, what do you need?”

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “Samples of your genetics.”

Both Xavier and Magneto shared a glance before they both focused on Ezekiel as Xavier asked, “Do you mind if I ask why?” 

“That is where your trust comes in. That being said, you can take as long as you like to come to a decision. But we could still use Hank’s help with our other projects if he would like to join us.”

Magneto spoke right after as he said, “Fine, you can take some samples from me.”

Xavier looked over in shock as Magneto sent him, ‘If he gave us a hard time limit, I would have said no. But he said, “take as long as we want”, so either he doesn’t really care about genetic samples from us.’

Xavier sent back, ‘Or he already has samples from us.’

‘Exactly.’

Xavier looked back at Ezekiel as he said, “You can take samples from me also.”

Beast was a little surprised at Magneto and Xavier's response, but said nothing. Ezekiel smiled wide as he said, “I am glad to hear you agree. I honestly didn’t think you would so soon.”

Ezekiel turned to Sarah as he said, “Well I’ll leave everything in your capable hands, Tobirama and the others will help you from now on.”

Ezekiel looked at Xavier and his group as he said, "If you'll excuse me, I have some other things I need to take care of. But Dr. Kinney and the others can handle the rest."

Xavier nodded in reply as Ezekiel looked at Kaecilius and said, “Port me back and once you are done here, come find me, please.”

Kaecilius nodded his head as he made a portal. As Ezekiel was about to walk through it he said, "Just so you know, I sent your school a shipment of the new Stark Tech computers. There should be enough that every student and faculty member will have one with about thirty spare computers in case you need more or some break."

Xavier looked concerned, but Ezekiel was through the portal and it had already mostly closed when he went to speak. Xavier looked at Kaecilius who just smirked slightly as he shrugged his shoulders. Beast said what the professor was wondering about, "I hope he didn't ship them through normal means."

Kaecilius shook his head and said, “We transfer everything through portals. The Ancient One should have delivered it to your underground hanger by now.”

vvvvvvvvv

Ezekiel walked through the hallways of the base he was currently headed to the last person he wanted to collect genetic samples from. Besides Xavier and Magneto, he had also collected samples from himself, Hank Pym, Bill Foster, Logan, Coulson and Peggy. He also had collected samples from the base's cook, it took a bit to find a proper chef, but Peggy brought up Edwin Jarvis. The man was technically retired and even though he still served the Stark’s. Tony was almost never home and the man didn’t have much to do most of the time. So he was ported into the base every day and would prepare food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He would also make some easily reheated meals for people who ate at odd hours.

He also wanted to get samples from a few other people, but he knew asking Fury or Maria for samples wouldn’t work. Fury was too paranoid still to trust Ezekiel, and Maria was already on the fast track being groomed as his replacement.

It didn't take Ezekiel long before he located Steve, honestly he was never hard to find. The man only did four things currently, spending time with Peggy was the main one. Which if Steve wasn’t careful, Peggy might need a hip replacement or worse sooner or later. Ezekiel noticed her walking with a slight limp more than once, and he doesn’t think he is the only one to notice… Besides that, he was being caught up on everything he had missed while in stasis, which he usually did with Peggy and sometimes Coulson. Physical training was next and last was spending time with the kids living in the base. He kinda became their unofficial P.E. coach, which he strangely excelled at.

Ezekiel arrived at the base's indoor gym and stopped before the door. From outside the room Ezekiel could hear the loud solid thuds as Steve worked over a punching bag. Ezekiel grinned, he was glad he found Steve here and not with Peggy. Ezekiel opened the door as he walked inside, he took in the room.

The gym was actually expanded by his clones not too long ago. Some of the earth type users made the room a little bigger than a football field in size, with a ceiling height of thirty feet. The whole thing was reinforced and compressed so much that it was stronger than modern day concrete. The whole area was set up with a running track around the outside, with a full set of gym equipment set up on the first half of the field. Past the gym equipment was an area set up with mat’s and sparring equipment, along with all the training tools you would need to teach people how to fight.

Ezekiel was by the door and over sixty yards from Steve, who noticed him almost immediately. Steve reached out and steadied the bag, before he reached down to pick up a towel and wipe down the light sheen of sweat coating his forehead. While he was doing that, Ezekiel seemed to flicker and as the after image of Ezekiel faded out before the door another Ezekiel appeared standing a few feet from Steve.

Steve smiled a little as he said, “It’s hard, but I can still see you moving when you use that skill.”

“That just means I haven't perfected it yet. The true peak of that skill is to make it seem like I teleported.”

Steve shook his head as he asked, “So did you come to practice or did you finally come to ask me for some genetic samples?”

Ezekiel let out a sigh as he said, “Peggy told you, didn’t she?”

“Of course she did. She said you wouldn’t tell her why though. I can understand asking me for some samples, I have the perfect super soldier formula inside me. Figuring out how it works could be useful, but you asked her, Coulson, Hank and Bill for samples.”

Ezekiel nodded and said, “I also took samples from myself, Logan, Xavier and Magneto. I have a few things I wanna do, but the main one is running comparison tests with my genetics against everyone else. I wanna see how different I am from normal humans.”

Steve was quiet for a few moments as he thought about it. He reached down, picked up his water bottle and took a drink before he said, “You can take samples from me, but I don’t want you to make another super soldier serum, the world doesn’t need it. If you agree to that, you can have your samples.”

Ezekiel stuck his hand out and shook Steve’s hand as he said, “You have yourself a deal.”

After they shook hands, Steve smiled and asked, “Care for a spar?”

Ezekiel laughed as he said, “You know if you punch me, I will disappear.”

“I know, that’s why you need to dodge all of my attacks.”

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