Over the next month Ezekiel went out of his way to join each training session Doom had with Tao. The first few weeks were Tao basically humbling the man as she broke him from his old habits. Afterwards it got kinda boring so Ezekiel decided to come back once Tao started sparring with Doom. The only downside to that would be, Tao would probably want to spar with him too.
It was around mid April when Ezekiel stopped showing up for the training sessions and focused on other stuff. Most projects didn't need his attention, but he still checked on them personally like Kingpin's new building that was almost finished. It was built in a style similar to a lot of Korean buildings, with the first three floors dedicated to stores and office space.
The rent was cheaper than most places and it already had a contract in place with a supermarket chain for a ten year lease. The contract also specified that building residents would be given a discount for shopping there. Besides the super market, there were a number of small businesses Kingpin found that signed leases including a doctors office, dentist and electronics repair shop. As for the residents, with the lower rent for the whole building, Kingpin had no shortage of renters trying to get in.
Ezekiel's next stop was the Vibe building that was finally being built. It was actually a massive complex that took up a few city blocks and Adrian Toomes was doing a great job with it. He made the original deadline Ezekiel gave him and collected the promised bonus. The bonus was pretty substantial and Adrian ended up giving all of his employees a ten thousand dollar bonus for their help.
Adrian and his company were already ahead of schedule for the project, but it would still take over a year before it was finished. The complex itself would be split between Vibe, Revival, and Ezekiel's other projects. Including the research teams he sponsored like the one run by Curt Connors and the one Otto Octavius. Connors worked mostly out of the hidden medical facility for now, but the plan was to have him transfer to the new building when it was ready.
As for Otto, he worked out of a new secure facility on Mars with a stupid amount of safety features. Half of them were science based while the other half were magic or seal based. Even though his project to create a miniature sun for unlimited energy was mostly safe. It was still in the experimental and testing phase which caused Ezekiel to be extremely cautious. Once it was finally stable and deemed safe for use, Ezekiel would figure out what was necessary safety wise and remove the extra.
Ezekiel also made sure that his other projects like the prison reforms were going smoothly as he secretly took over more prisons across the US. His other projects like his credit card company and the insurance company were also doing great. There were still little issues here and there, but after the initial issues and people realizing they couldn't handle things the old fashioned way. Well, most of them decided to try and compete normally, while the rest ended up closing down or selling the company for a loss.
As for Tony and his mysterious Ironman persona he was doing, it was going well. The past month he had seriously picked up the pace of his heroics. It was to the point he had JARVIS monitor for any type of thing he could help out with. So far he helped to end five hostage situations, ten armed car chases, three building fires, six bank robberies and a bunch of other small issues. That also didn't include him going to the middle of war zones and destroying weapons to stop conflicts.
Needless to say, Tony or his Ironman persona was all over the place lately and everyone in the world was paying attention because he helped people all over the place. Even without a friendly portal to save time, Tony's suit could travel around the whole world in about an hour. It was stupid fast and only worked because Ezekiel helped out with seals and magic runes.
Tony's ramped up his heroics because he's been wanting to finally tell the world he is Ironman, but he wanted it to be dramatic fashion. Something that hasn't happened since his suit is so over powered, nothing was really a challenge for him. It also didn't help that Ezekiel was more proactive against possible threats and helped stop them before they happened.
While he would never out right kill someone if they hadn't actually done anything yet. He did try his best to steer them away from being evil like he did with Norman, Adrian and Kingpin. Afterwards he kept hidden surveillance on those people just as an insurance policy. People would call him paranoid if they knew, but Ezekiel didn't care, he knew how crazy this world was.
May 3rd 2009
It was an average Sunday in Southern California, most people were out and about enjoying the weather while others were in church or at sporting events. It should have been a day like any other, but the San Andreas fault line near Palmdale started to act up giving off minor tremors early in the morning before stopping. It wasn't until six hours later that the real issue started.
A small earthquake with a magnitude of 3.1 happened around 9:30AM before a large earthquake of 5.7 magnitude hit close to LA. It was followed only a few minutes later by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that lasted almost a whole minute. The initial flood of calls after it happened actually brought down the emergency services phone line and the greater area of Los Angeles was in chaos.
Besides police and first responders, Tony in his suit was the first hero to arrive after he made sure Pepper and Morgan were alright. JARVIS was using camera's, cellphones and other things to point Tony to the worst affected areas while he contacted Ezekiel. Ezekiel was at home with his family relaxing after lunch when JARVIS said through his phone, "Sorry to interrupt, but a major disaster just occurred and Tony could use your help."
Theo's family turned to look at him as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to look at it while he asked, "What happened, JARVIS?"
"A major earthquake in the greater Los Angeles area, major building collapses along with sections of freeways. I've already confirmed over a hundred dead and counting."
Theo glanced at his phone for a few moments before he stood up from the couch and said, "I'll be home later for dinner… Maybe. JARVIS, please contact the rapid response team I created for natural disasters and tell them I'll be there in five minutes."
"What? I wanna go help too!" Milly said as she set down the book she was reading while Isaac nodded in agreement.
Daniel shared a glance with Jacob before she said, "While I don't want them to get injured, they do have powers, they can help you out and so can we."
Theo smiled at his family as he said, "While you could use a henge to disguise yourself. All of you are still learning to control your powers properly. There is a chance you could cause harm by accident when trying to help and I won't allow that."
Milly and Isaac pouted, while Daniel slowly nodded in agreement before Theo changed into Ezekiel and said, "Until you master your powers, don't even think about trying to play hero."
A portal appeared and Ezekiel disappeared through it as Milly let out an annoyed huff. Ezekiel stopped by the Xavier Institute first where he found Nightcrawler, Kitty, Logan and a handful of other people gathering outside. Nightcrawler noticed him first and teleported in a cloud of smoke twenty feet to appear next to Ezekiel as he asked, "Did you call us because of the earthquake that's all over Vibe right now?"
"Yeah, we are gonna help with the rescue operations." Ezekiel said as he glanced over everyone before he added, "One stop over in Genosha and then we will head there. Make sure you have your earpiece in so you can get direction from JARVIS who will be coordinating our rescue efforts."
Ezekiel created a portal to Genosha a moment later and after everyone stepped through it, he opened a portal to LA for everyone. As the first group moved through the portal, Ezekiel stepped out of the portal room to find the rest of his team. Most of them were ninjas, but there were a handful of valkyrie's along with Ava Starr, Gabby, Laura, Cessily, Magneto and a few other meta humans with powers useful for search and rescue.
Ezekiel waved them over as he said, "Over here."
As the large group approached Ezekiel loudly said, "Make sure you have your earpiece in so you can coordinate with the rest of the team."
As everyone entered the room to use the portal Ezekiel waited until he was the only one left before he walked through it. On the other side his rescue team was already separating to get a base camp set up while others moved out to help. With JARVIS in their ear and Nightcrawler acting as a teleporter for the teams. The almost two hundred people Ezekiel brought were quickly spread all over as they got to work.
As the camp quickly took shape, a new portal opened up and Kaecilius, Wong, Mordo and a handful of other sorcerers stepped out. Ezekiel noticed them as he was in the process of pulling supplies out of a storage seal. When they approached, Ezekiel paused what he was doing and shook hands with Kaecilius as he said, "This is unexpected, but thanks for coming."
"We figured you could use a hand, what do you need us to do?"
Ezekiel quickly pulled out new earpieces and handed them out as he said, "Just listen to JARVIS, he will point you to wherever you are most needed."
Nightcrawler appeared a moment later holding someone covered in blood as he said, "Medic!"
Tsunade, who was the closest, rushed over and started using medical ninjutsu as she said, "Follow me."
As they moved towards a tent that was being set up, Ezekiel turned back to bringing out supplies while everyone else rushed about their own business. Nightcrawler teleported away a few moments later only to teleport back a moment later with a new person in his arms. A few moments after that a portal opened and Wong carried a person into the medical tent.
Over the next five hours it was disciplined chaos, as JARVIS moved everyone around with perfect precision. While Tony wasn't part of the main group, JARVIS made sure he worked with them after they arrived. Even though Ezekiel's group was small compared to the size of the disaster itself, with their powers and skill sets they made short work of a lot of dangerous rescue operations.
Ava and Kitty were paired up with Logan, Laura and Gabby for search and rescue. With their noses and the girl's powers to phase through anything, they made short work pulling people from collapsed buildings. Magneto also helped out majorly by moving large chunks of debris out of the way to rescue people. But once most of the easy ones were resolved, he started cleaning up the freeways that collapsed and moving them out of the way to empty land.
The rescue effort lasted until almost 8PM when Ezekiel's team couldn't find anyone else trapped under rubble. They still helped out and kept looking till early the next morning, but with all of their powers they didn't find anyone else. They started to rotate out after that to rest and help with the major clean up which took about a week. There were still a ton of buildings and other structures that needed to be removed and rebuilt. But the city's infrastructure was in working order when Ezekiel and his team left.
There was a lot of news coverage about Ezekiel and his team helping out along with detractors spewing hate about them. But overall the reception was great and Tony finally gained his chance to come out of the hero closet as it were. It was near the end of the first twenty four hours after the disaster happened and they were in clean up mode at that point when some reporters approached Tony in his suit.
Tony was resting in the basecamp as he talked with Ezekiel when it happened. The group of reporters and their camera crew approached before one of them asked, "Ezekiel, would we be able to ask you a couple questions?"
"Sure-" Was all Ezekiel could say before everyone asked questions at once.
"Stop, one question at a time." Ezekiel said before he pointed at one person and said, "You first."
The man pointed towards Tony as he asked, "This robot has been seen all over the world recently, is it your creation?"
"I'll handle this." Tony said in a modulated voice as he stepped forward slightly.
Everyone focused on him before his suit opened up from behind and Tony stepped out dressed in a t-shirt and gym shorts. Everyone froze in place as Tony reached over to grab a water and protein bar before they all exploded with questions. Tony waved for them to stop as he took a bite of his bar before he pointed at a woman and asked, "You, go first."
"Mr. Stark, people have been calling this robot… Machine, Ironman. Is that what it's officially called or is it named something else?"
"To be precise, I am Ironman and this is just a suit I wear."