Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00193. Madara needs a hobby.

The next couple weeks flew by while Ezekiel and Agatha searched Morag for the power stone. They made decent progress in their search so far, but the main issue was Morag was a massive planet about five times the size of Earth. And even though they knew the power stone was somewhere just off the coast, the amount of it they needed to search was ridiculous.

If it wasn't for the fact they've already cleared about half of the areas they need to search. Ezekiel would probably call off the search for now and figure out a better way to find the thing. Like a topographic 3D model that predicted how the three hundred year tidal movement would work. But Ezekiel only thought of that after he spent over a week searching for the thing.

The other issue was if the model would even be accurate or not, since he had no idea what actually caused the phenomenon in the first place. It definitely wasn't the planet's orbit or anything else in the solar system and Ezekiel didn't want to waste time searching for some massive asteroid or something in space. Since that was the case, Ezekiel just stuck with what was already working even though it was slow.

After another uneventful search of Morag, Ezekiel came back through the portal Tao created to find Fury seated there as he read through a thick folder full of documents. Fury glanced up from the documents as he said, “We have a problem.”

Ezekiel nodded in agreement as he asked, “Yeah we do. Why are you still using paper documents?”

Fury’s right eye twitched slightly before he said, “I was talking about Banner.”

“Oh… What about him?” Ezekiel asked as Tao opened up a portal for Agatha.

“He should be attempting the experiment that turns him into the Hulk soon.”

“That should be in a few months… Unless he gets pressured sooner.” Ezekiel said as Agatha walked out of the portal before she greeted Fury and the others.

“Aren’t you going to stop him?” Fury asked as his right eyebrow raised up.

“I warned him about it and I plan to warn him again right before he attempts the experiment.”

Fury frowned as he asked, “Why aren't you going to stop him?”

“Because the Earth could use someone like the Hulk to help protect it. Especially a Hulk who is under control of himself and not just a rage monster.”

“What about Banner's blood and all the issues that can come from that? How are you going to stop that from happening?” Fury asked as he sealed away the documents in his hands and turned his full focus towards Ezekiel.

Ezekiel pointed at Tao as he said, “We've discussed it at length and she came up with a magic based solution.”

Fury turned his attention to Tao who was in the process of pouring tea for Agatha before she said, “I've created a magic spell that will basically destroy any part of him not connected to his body.”

Fury frowned as he thought over what that meant before he asked, “Any part of him? So like blood, hair or even skin cells?”

“Correct.”

“How would that even work? I know magic can do some pretty incredible things, but you are talking about a spell that would…” Fury’s voice trailed off as he realized just how absurd the spell sounded.

Tao nodded with a faint smile on her face before she said, “You're right, it would work at the cellular level.”

Fury was lost in thought for a few seconds before he asked, “Can it be dispelled or removed?”

“Only by someone more powerful than me and I would know the moment that happened.” Tao said before she took a sip from her tea cup.

Fury thought it over for a few more moments before he asked, “What about the incident itself? Doesn't it blow up the building Banner is in and kill a bunch of people?”

“We've already taken the liberty to seal off the laboratory itself. If the explosion happens, it will be completely confined to his laboratory. I plan to do a secondary explosion to hide what really happened after I clear the place of people.” Ezekiel said as he pulled up his tablet and found the plan he created for the event before he handed the tablet to Fury.

Fury was quiet for a few minutes as he quickly read through the entire plan and contingencies plans Ezekiel created for the event. Once he was finished he handed the tablet back as he said, “It looks like you planned for basically anything.”

Ezekiel pointed towards Tao and Agatha as he said, “It was mostly them. My plan was to seal the lab from the explosion and then portal the Hulk somewhere devoid of people.”

Fury let out a sigh before he said, “I should have known.”

Ezekiel smirked before he asked, “Was Banner the only reason for the visit or do you need something else?”

Fury shook his head before he said, “It was just Banner.”

“In that case I am gonna leave and go get some food. Does anyone care to join me?” Ezekiel asked as he glanced at everyone else. 

Everyone decided to join him and they ended up in Italy at some small family owned place in the middle of nowhere. Fury still made sure to henge into a different persona though. While it wasn't completely necessary, Fury was overly cautious and always changed his appearance when he was out in public and not with other Shield agents. After their meal, everyone split up to do their own thing. Which meant Ezekiel went home to train and when he arrived, one of his clones informed him that Madara wanted to spar with him.

Ezekiel let out a sigh but still opened up a portal to the main base before he went to find Madara so they could spare. While he could refuse and just ignore him, that would only work for a couple days at most. The reason being is once Ezekiel appeared in the main base, Madara would hunt him down and attack Ezekiel no matter where he found him.

It happened twice before when Ezekiel ignored Madara for over a week and he ended up with a destroyed office both times. While Ezekiel has attempted to redirect Madara's ‘enthusiasm’ for fighting towards other things like crime fighting. It only works for so long before he gets bored because it's not enough of a challenge. Even though he does help out regularly in fighting against supernatural threats like vampires because they at least put up a fight.

Ezekiel quickly found Madara where he thought he would, in the gym sparring with anyone who walked in. Madara was currently in the middle of a spar with Guy and while Madara looked exhausted, he refused to stop fighting even though Guy wasn’t holding back.

Ezekiel walked up to Steve, Bucky and Izuna who were off to the side spectating the fight before he asked, “How long have they been fighting for?”

Steve glanced at his watch as he said, “Almost an hour now. But Madara also sparred with me for about half an hour before Guy showed up.” 

Bucky glanced towards Ezekiel as he asked, “I'm guessing you're here because he wanted to spar with you too?”

As Ezekiel nodded, Bucky said, “He called me too. We sparred for about an hour before Steve showed up.”

“So he’s been fighting for almost three hours?”

Izuna shook his head as he said, “No, he was sparring with Blade when Bucky showed up and I watched him sparring with Mikhail in his bear form before that.”

Ezekiel shook his head slightly and patted Izuna on the shoulder as he said, “We really need to find your brother a hobby or maybe a girlfriend.”

Izuna chuckled as he said, “You think anyone would be able to put up with how he acts besides Hashirama?”

Ezekiel rubbed his chin in thought before he asked, “So you're saying we should put Hashirama into a female body? Or Madara?”

Izuna turned to Ezekiel with wide eyes as Steve asked, “You're not serious about that, are you?”

Ezekiel shrugged before he said, “It was just a passing idea… Anyways, I might as well get this over with since I'm here.”

Ezekiel stepped up to the fighting area and hopped inside before he said, “Alright Guy, let's tag out.”

Guy disengaged from Madara before he said full of energy, “Okay! But I want to spar with you once your match is finished.”

“Alright, just give me a bit.”

Madara smiled as he said, “You finally showed up. I've been waiting here all day!”

Ezekiel rolled his shoulders and started to warm up his body for a few moments before he said, “My clone told you I was unreachable and would be busy all day.”

“You just didn't want to spar again!” Madara said as he charged forward to attack.

Ezekiel parried the first blow and countered with a punch to Madara's throat. Madara's opposite hand snaked up and caught the blow before he tried to twist Ezekiel’s arm into a hold. Ezekiel easily broke free from Madara's grip when he pivoted backwards and twisted his whole body around as he raised his right leg up into a spinning hook kick.

Madara even in his fatigued state managed to duck just under the kick and countered at the same time with a punch to Ezekiel’s side. Ezekiel grunted from the blow but didn’t retreat from the attack and pushed forward to attack again. Madara tilted his head to dodge the blow but Ezekiel took advantage of his piston to grab the back of Madara’s head. As Ezekiel pulled Madara’s head down to his raising knee, Madara raised his left hand to block as he sucker punched Ezekiel in the kidney with a right hook.

Ezekiel took the blow as his knee broke past Madara’s guard and slammed into his nose. Both of them stumbled backwards from each other's attacks before they rushed towards each other again a moment later. While Ezekiel thought he would have a quick and easy spar with a worn out Madara. That didn’t happen as Madara lasted for over an hour before he collapsed on the ground without the ability to get back up.

As Izuna came into the ring to carry Madara out, Ezekiel breathed a sigh of relief before he mumbled to himself, “We really need to find Madara a hobby besides fighting.”

“YOSH! That was a mighty display of passion from both of you!” Guy said in an excited tone before he burst into laughter and then said, “The springtime of my youth is burning up and I can’t wait any longer, prepare yourself Ezekiel!” 

Ezekiel glanced up in time to see Guy surrounded in flames that he was pretty sure was caused by an optical genjutsu. A moment later Guy was running towards Ezekiel at full speed before he jumped into a flying kick as he said, “DYNAMIC ENTRY!”

Ezekiel barely dodged the kick before Guy landed and jumped back towards him with a spinning kick towards his head. Ezekiel was on the back foot for about a minute as Guy’s intense energy and relentless attacking pushed him into a defensive stance. Once he got used to Guy’s rhythm he started to counter attack and before long both of them were locked into an intense spar that lasted for over an hour before Ezekiel said, “Alright, I surrender.”

Guy paused mid punch before he twisted his hand and gave a thumbs up with it as he said, “That was a great spar, Ezekiel! I look forward to the next one!”

Ezekiel gave a slightly forced smile as he said, “Yeah… Me too.”

As Ezekiel exited the fighting area a black haired girl glomped onto him as she said, “That was such a cool fight!”

Ezekiel smiled down at Gabby and returned her hug as he said, “Thanks Gabby. I’m glad you liked it.”

Gabby let go and stepped back from Ezekiel before she started to mimic some of his moves as she said excitedly, “You were all like, BAM! And then you did that kick like this and it was all like WOOSH!”

Ezekiel chuckled as he watched Gabby go through a couple moves before she looked up at him with bright eyes and asked, “Did you come to visit me?” 

“Of course I did.”

“Good!” Gabby said before she grabbed Ezekiel’s hand and pulled him towards the exit of the gym as she said, “Let's go bowling.”

Ezekiel ended up spending the rest of the night at the main base hanging out with Gabby and some of the other kids. They mostly stayed in the rec room playing different games before they headed to the kitchen for a light snack. Afterwards he said goodnight to Gabby and the others before he called it a night and went home to sleep. After waking up in the morning and eating breakfast with his family, he created a clone that he sent to school as he headed back to Morag to keep searching for the power stone again.