Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00195. Meeting a guardian?

Within a few minutes, Tao was able to place the Red Skull's soul into the clone body and anchor it in place. Afterwards Ezekiel pushed the Red Skull still in the wheelchair over to the edge of the cliff. He paused for just a moment before he picked up the Red Skull and tossed him off the cliff as he said, “Hopefully this works.”

“If it doesn't, you can still use your original plan… But I still think this was a little cruel.” Agatha said as she watched the Red Skull plummet towards the ground.

Tao shook her head before she said, “If we had woken him up before he was thrown off the cliff… That would have been cruel. But this, this was merciful.”

“Considering what he did in his life, he is getting off pretty easy if you ask me.” Ezekiel said as the Red Skull slammed into the ground far below.

Ezekiel glanced down at the scene far below before he said, “Uh, would you look at that.”

Tao glanced over the edge as she asked, “Look at what?”

“I always thought they toned down the scene in the movie so kids could watch it… But it really looks like a body doesn’t just explode apart when dropped from such a height. I don’t even see any blood.” Ezekiel said as the pillars behind them started to pulse into the sky above them.

“It has to do with the mass of the object and how gravity affects it.” Tao said as she glanced back at the pillars before she asked, “I’m guessing that’s supposed to happen?”

“It did in the movie.”

A vortex of power formed in the sky above them as it started to glow before a massive surge of energy blasted out of it that covered the whole sky. A moment later Ezekiel, Tao and Agatha were laying in some water a distance away from the mountain they were just on. As they sat up Ezekiel instantly lifted up his right hand to see if they collected the soul stone. When he found nothing he frowned before he stood up and glanced at Tao and Agatha.

Both of them were glancing at the glowing orange stone that was in between where all of them were placed. It was just laying underneath the water perfectly spaced from each of them. Ezekiel moved towards Tao and Agatha to help each of them up before he said, “It’s nice to see that my theory was correct.”

As they each performed a spell to dry off their clothes Agatha said, “You never really explained what your theory was, you just told us the movie logic was stupid and sacrificing a person you love doesn't make sense.”

Ezekiel nodded as he glanced towards the soul stone and said, “I was positive Red Skull was fucking with Thanos because of the type of person he was. Even if the soul stone made the Red Skull act as some type of guide, it didn't control him directly.”

As both Agatha and Tao started to perform a few spells to test to make sure it was the soul stone, Ezekiel said, “I am pretty sure the soul stone just gave him a soul form and that was it. As for him telling people they needed to sacrifice the person they love for it… That was him just being a bitter asshole.”

As Agatha finished her first spell she asked, “And that was your theory? He was an asshole?”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Well, my theory was that you just needed to sacrifice a soul to get the soul stone… Just think about how easy it is to get the other stones and then this one has some stupid test to it? That just seemed like added movie drama to me.”

Tao nodded as she finished her spell and said, “That makes a lot of sense, but now we need to determine if this gem is like the one from the comics or not.”

Tao pulled out the device they made to contain the soul stone and after it was sealed in its new home, Tao turned to Ezekiel as she said, “So that’s four down.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “I’m pretty sure Thanos has the mind stone in that scepter from the movies. So hopefully we can collect that sooner or later when it comes to Earth.”

“If it comes to Earth you mean, right? I assume you plan to interfere when Thor comes to Earth, correct?” Tao asked as she stored the soul stone's container away.

Ezekiel smirked as he said, “You think I would miss out on that? Besides, the rainbow bridge getting destroyed causes a lot of issues in the greater universe I don’t wanna deal with, so it would be best to stop that.”

Tao nodded at that before she shared a glance with Agatha and asked, “And you plan to use that chance to mess with your girlfriend's father, right?”

“She isn’t my girlfriend… And yes, I plan to fuck with Odin while I help out Thor and maybe Loki. It depends on how much of a dick that guy is.” Ezekiel said as Tao and Agatha both shared a smile.

Ezekiel waved them off before he said, “So besides the mind stone, which we have no idea where it currently is.”

Agatha cut him off as she said, “We just need the reality stone to complete the set.”

Tao nodded as she said, “As for the reality stone, you said we just need to wait for the convergence to happen and we can get it.”

“Yup. But we’ll have to deal with the dark elves when that happens… I wonder if they’ll even appear if we seal away the stone before they can sense it?”

Tao started to open a portal back to Earth as she said, “We could always wait to seal it until after we bring it out of the pocket realm it’s sealed inside of.”

As the portal opened up Ezekiel said, “Wait, we need to hide the evidence that we were here.”

Tao thought about it for a moment before she closed the portal and opened a new one to where the Red Skull was. After they stepped through the portal, Ezekiel sealed the body away before he used a spell to remove the little bit of blood that remained afterwards. As Tao was about to open a portal back to Earth, the engines of a spaceship flared loudly in the distance. Tao stopped making a portal as she glanced at Ezekiel and asked, “Didn’t you say no one was supposed to know about this place?”

Ezekiel shook his head before he said, “No. I said, no one should know that the soul stone is here. As for the planet, it’s on a lot of star maps and marked as not habitable.”

Ezekiel glanced into the distance at the spaceship that was in the process of making its descent from the atmosphere before he said, “Let's go see who it is.”

Tao glanced at the ship before she asked, “Do you really wanna waste time on this?”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Maybe it’s some space pirates and we can confiscate their ship in the name of justice and turn them in for the bounty at the same time.”

Tao rolled her eyes at that before she opened a portal to Earth as she said, “Just use the bracelet when you want a portal back to Earth. Agatha and I are gonna focus on researching the soul stone and see if that other plan you have will even work.”

“Alright, good luck.” Ezekiel said before his afterimage faded away.

Tao glanced towards the direction of the ship before she looked at Agatha and asked, “What sounds good for lunch?”

As they stepped through the portal Agatha asked, “How about that ramen place in Genosha?”

Ezekiel moved in the direction of the spaceship for a little while before he came to a stop by some large rocks. It gave him a spot to hide at and at the same time observe the ship that was in the process of making its descent. About five minutes later the ship leveled out and flew towards the mountain next to Ezekiel. It flew around it a couple times before it found an even spot on one side of the mountain and started to lower down as it prepared to land.

Ezekiel wasn’t in a great spot to observe the ships landing spot, so he quickly moved towards the area as he used his skills to be as stealthy as possible. It didn’t take long for him to reach the area and hide among some larger rocks as the ship finished its final descent before it touched down on its landing gear. After about a minute a door opened up from the back of the ship and Ezekiel was forced to move to get a better view.

As Ezekiel moved to a new position, someone walked out of the ship onto the ramp and Ezekiel could only smile to himself. A beautiful green skinned woman stepped onto the ramp as she looked around the area. Her mostly red hair was loose and fell just past her shoulders and bounced around slightly as she walked. The red was highlighted by her green skin and piercing brown eyes. She was in a black colored outfit which consisted of pants, a halter top and leather like vest.

Ezekiel observed her for a few moments as he decided what to do. On the one hand it was an opportunity to make a potential ally. On the other hand he wanted to stay off Thanos radar for as long as possible. While he wouldn’t have to deal with the man having a bunch of easy power ups, Thanos was still powerful on his own and if he was anything like his comic book version… Well he would be even more of a hassle to deal with.

As Gamora pulled out an ancient looking scroll, Ezekiel made his decision and disappeared from his hiding spot. As Gamora looked over the scroll a voice said, “You should be more careful with that, it looks really old.”

A knife appeared in Gamora’s off hand as she swung it behind herself and twisted around to see who snuck up on her. As she looked around in confusion to find no one, she heard behind her, “You should be careful, knives are sharp.”

Gamora kicked out behind herself before she quickly spun around to find no one again. A voice filled with concern said, “I know you're supposed to be an assassin, but you're being a lot more aggressive then the ones I normally hang out with. If you wanna make friends, you should probably tone it down a bit.”

Gamora’s eyes narrowed as she glanced around and said, “If you know who I am, then you know I have no need for friends.”

“Now that's just sad, everyone could use a friend or two… Even if they personally might not think that they do.”

Gamora glanced around herself as she said, “How about you stop hiding and show yourself.”

“I'm not hiding… You just haven't been looking in the right direction.” The voice said with a hint of mirth.

Gamora’s head snapped upwards to see  a man hanging upside down by his feet which were attached to the hull of her ship. He smiled at her as he casually waved with one hand as he said, “Yo.”

Gamora’s hand flicked out a moment later which sent a knife flying towards Ezekiel’s head. He caught the knife without much effort and used a chakra exercise to dexterously flip it around his fingers as he said, “You should be careful with these things, they're sharp.”

Gamora’s eyes narrowed and she started to reach for the gun strapped to her waist as Ezekiel said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I only came here to talk.”

When Gamora's hand reached her gun, she felt the coldness of metal against her throat which made her whole body tense up as she watched Ezekiel above her fade away and he said from behind her, “If you feel like talking with me, remove your hand from your gun. Otherwise… I’m going to leave since this will be a waste of time.” Ezekiel’s voice trailed off as the knife was removed from Gamora’s neck.

Gamora relaxed her body and moved her hand away from her gun before she slowly turned around. Ezekiel was about twenty feet away sitting on a rock as he twirled Gamora’s knife around his hand with practiced ease. He smiled at her as he asked, “So do you wanna talk?”

“What do you want?”

“Straight to the point it is… Did you come here for the soul stone?” Ezekiel asked.

Gamora’s eyes narrowed a tiny bit and her hand twitched towards her gun for a moment before she asked, “Soul stone? What’s that?”

“It was the only thing worth coming to this place for.”

“Was?” Gamora asked as she studied Ezekiel more closely.

“I just helped someone collect it.” Ezekiel said with a shrug.

“And where are they now? My sensors picked up a weird power surge from the planet, but didn’t pick up another ship in the system.” Gamora said as she cautiously glanced around.

“They left after they collected the soul stone.”

“How long ago and why did they leave you behind?” Gamora asked as she turned her attention back to Ezekiel.

“Right after your ship entered the atmosphere.”

Gamora’s eyes narrowed as she asked, “They have a stealth ship that my sensors couldn’t pick up?”

Ezekiel lifted his arm up and created a portal in front of himself that opened right in front of Gamora who jumped back in surprise as she pulled her gun out. Ezekiel smirked and stood up before he walked through the portal to appear in front of Gamora as he said, “There are far faster ways to travel the universe then a spaceship.”

As the portal disappeared, Ezekiel held up Gamora’s knife to her by its blade as he said, “You can have this back, the craftsmanship is below my standards.”

Gamora slowly holstered her gun before she cautiously took the knife back from Ezekiel and asked, “Who are you?”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t introduce myself because someone was being grumpy.” Ezekiel said before he smiled as he stuck out his hand and said, “I’m Ezekiel, nice to meet you.”

“Gamora, but you seemed to know that already.” Gamora said as she glanced at Ezekiel’s outstretched hand.

“In my line of work it pays to know useful information.” Ezekiel said as he dropped his hand back down.

“And what exactly do you do?”

Ezekiel lifted his hand and a card appeared between two fingers which he handed towards Gamora as he said, “You can consider me a problem fixer.”

Gamora hesitantly took the card which had a net ID for Xandar, the Kree and the Shi’ar Empire printed on it as Ezekiel said, “That’s how you can contact me if you ever need to hire me.”

Gamora glanced up from the card but Ezekiel was only an afterimage that faded away a moment later. Gamora glanced around for Ezekiel for a few moments before she headed back into her ship and prepared to leave the planet. While she originally planned to confirm the soul stone was here and then destroy the information about it… Now she planned to tell Thanos that someone else already has it and maybe give him Ezekiel’s card.