Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00209. Unexpected problems.

About a week passed since Morgan was born and Theo was still getting his ass kicked by Tao. Or as she called it, “Training.” Theo would never call it that though over the simple fact he now needed medical staff on duty because Tao was getting more aggressive. Before he would be bruised up and exhausted from sparring and now he was bleeding and broken from it.

As Theo was being healed by Shizune he said, “Could you tone it down next time, we are supposed to be sparring.”

Tao took a sip from her teacup before she said, “I already told you I wasn't going to hold back during these training sessions. Besides, you're adapting well enough, even when I increase the power output in some of the attacks I use.”

Theo let out a sigh as he closed his eyes and let Shizune finish healing his cracked ribs. Once she was finished, Theo portaled her back to base before he took a quick shower and headed to Hela’s. Once there he ended up taking a nap on her couch as she watched some Vibe videos of people customizing Gunpla kits.

She had yet to start her first real kit and was in the process of learning different things people did before she started her own. After a couple hours Hela woke up Ezekiel before they went out to eat. Afterwards Ezekiel left to go meet up with Fisk about the first project he was working on.

Ezekiel portaled onto the roof of a row house in Hell's Kitchen before he headed into the building. As he worked his way down to the ground floor he glanced around at the currently bare floors. All of them were gutted except for anything load bearing and those were all fixed or replaced. Otherwise each floor was almost barren as it waited for the rest of the work to be done.

Ezekiel found Fisk on the first floor as he talked with a couple people over a table. As he approached Fisk and the others noticed him before Fisk said, “I didn't expect to see you here.”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “I just wanted to check on my investment and see how things were going.”

“After you fixed the issues with our permits, we haven't had any issues with the city or the inspectors.”

Ezekiel reached the table and glanced at the blueprints as he said, “Yeah, you shouldn't have any issues going forward with the rest of the project.”

“What do you think of the layout?” Fisk asked as he pointed to the first floor on the blueprints.

Ezekiel looked it over as he asked, “You removed two apartments?”

“With how small they were, it made more sense to remove a couple of them and give everyone else more room.” Fisk said as he pointed to the new design and added, “With four apartments instead of six per floor, each tenet gains almost four hundred square feet.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “It looks like you took my advice seriously and aren't doing this for profit.”

“You’re the one footing the bill and you gave me a target budget. Besides, it's less money to build four apartments compared to six and we even have room to build a laundry room for the building in the basement.”

Another man that Ezekiel recognized as the henchman who answered the door at Fisk’s apartment happily pointed to the map and said, “We also reinforced the floors and added sound proofing to them, so people don't have to worry about noisy neighbors.”

“It made the ceiling height a few inches lower, but I think it's a fair trade. We also had money in the budget after removing the other apartments.”

Ezekiel smiled as he asked, “I didn't even think of that issue, but I like it. Are you planning to use better insulated materials between the apartment's?”

Fisk nodded as he pointed to the outside walls of the apartments and said, “Mainly for the outside walls, but we also plan to use it for each of the bedrooms as well to help keep noise to a minimum there.”

“And that's not going to push anything over budget?”

Fisk shook his head as he said, “The sound deadening drywall is only four times the price of normal drywall. The insulation for the walls isn't that bad either. In total it's less than the cost to build an entire kitchen for one of the units, so there's no need to worry about it.”

Ezekiel nodded before they went on to talk about a few more things that they changed for the building. After a short tour to see a few things Fisk wanted to highlight, Ezekiel told him to keep up the good work before he left to go meet up with Tony.

Ezekiel portaled into Tony's workshop like normal to find it empty before he was greeted by JARVIS who said, “Mr. Stark is currently in the living room with Miss. Potts and Morgan.”

“Oh, you’re calling her Morgan and not Miss. Stark? Or Stark junior?”

“Morgan seems like the most appropriate type of address to use for now.” JARVIS said as Ezekiel opened the door that led up to the living room.

In the living room he found Tony and Pepper seated on the couch close together as they quietly talked and watched Morgan who was asleep in a child carrier. Tony glanced over and put a finger to his mouth and once Ezekiel was closer he said, “She just fell asleep.”

Ezekiel smirked and rubbed the top of Tony's head as he said in a playful tone, “Look at you being all responsible and acting like an adult.”

Tony swatted Ezekiel’s hand away as he said, “Stop messing around.”

Pepper chuckled almost silently before she said, “He's right though. You've been acting even more like an adult than normal.”

Tony frowned slightly as Pepper pulled him closer to her and said, “I like it though.”

Tony's frown disappeared and was replaced by a stupid smile as he wrapped an arm around Pepper. Ezekiel glanced around before he asked, “Is Happy still visiting Anna?”

Pepper nodded as she said, “We gave him a month off since Anna is almost finished with her movie and doesn’t have a project scheduled.”

“Oh, nice. I'll have to pre book a room for them at the hotel since they will probably visit Genosha.” Ezekiel said as he pulled out his tablet and started to type on it.

Pepper glanced up from Tony's shoulder as she asked, “Why'd you stop by anyways?”

“I need a reason to stop by? I just wanted to check up on both of you. Do you guys need anything?”

Tony shared a glance with Pepper who shook her head, so Tony said, “Nothing for now, but thanks for the offer.”

“In that case I'll leave you all alone. Text me if something comes up.” Ezekiel said as he created a portal and quickly left through it.

Over the next few days Theo did his normal routine until he received a text from Adrian Toomes about an issue that just cropped up. Theo quickly changed into Ezekiel before he portaled over to meet the man at the office. As he stepped out of the portal he heard him arguing with someone.

“You're out of your mind, no one's gonna pay you! You're a scrap yard, not a garbage dump!” Adrian said in a raised voice.

“No, fuck you! I'll haul it across town then!” Adrian said before he slammed the phone down on the receiver.

“Did something happen at Aleksei’s scrapyard?”

Adrian dropped into his chair as he said, “It's not a something, it's a someone. This jackass named Boris is running the place now and is trying to charge us for the scrap we bring in.”

“Where's Aleksei at? He wouldn't let someone ruin his business like that.”

Adrian shook his head slightly as he said, “That's the thing, he disappeared the other day and this Boris guy is now running the place. I can’t even call Aleksei, since it says his cell phone is disconnected.”

Ezekiel pulled out his tablet and started to type on it as he said, “Don’t worry about selling the scrap for now. I'll find out what's going on and fix it.”

“Alright, we'll just store it on the empty site next door for now.” Adrian said as he reached for his office phone to make a call.

Ezekiel quickly portaled out of the office and appeared at the main base where he went to his office. Once he arrived he greeted a couple people before he started to work on his computer. Within half an hour people started to stream into the room and before long Ezekiel had twelve people in front of him.

Ezekiel glanced up at the person directly in front of him as he said, “I want Aleksei Sytsevich found as the main priority. Afterwards I want to know what is going on with his scrap yard.”

The man nodded before he turned to the other people with him and said, “Squad one go interrogate Boris for information. Squad two go check Aleksei’s last known address. Squad three is with me and we will check in on his close relatives.”

A moment later everyone quickly disappeared from the room to head to the portal room for deployment. Afterwards Ezekiel turned back to his computer and continued his own search. While he had looked into Aleksei before, after he found out the guy was basically a legit business man and not a criminal, he left the guy alone and didn’t dig anymore.

As Ezekiel searched online, he cursed the fact cellphones and other smart devices weren't everywhere yet. Aleksei himself didn't seem to have a cell phone yet, but did have a pager. The only issue was the pager was currently off or disabled so he couldn't ping it. As for finding Aleksei with cameras, that was impossible after he left Ezekiel’s neighborhood, since the rest of NYC wasn't covered in them.

During his search he did uncover a bit of information about Aleksei’s family. Apparently his mother, father and younger sister were still living in Russia currently and it looked like he sent them money every month. Other than Bank records, bills, and some medical documents. Ezekiel found nothing else that would help in the search so he decided to head over to Hela’s and wait for news from his team.

A few hours passed before Ezekiel’s tablet started to go off with messages. As Ezekiel started to check them, Hela glanced over from her desk where she was sanding model parts and asked, “Did your people find something?”

“Yeah, I need to go meet them.”

“Can I come?”

Ezekiel glanced towards Hela and met her eyes as he said, “If you want to, but it probably won't be that fun.”

Hela set her tools aside and then stood up before she used a magic spell to clean up. Ezekiel studied her for a moment before he asked, “Do you want to change first?”

Hela glanced down at her outfit which consisted of blue colored pajama pants with different Gundam's patterned across them and a blue t-shirt with Char standing on his Gundam's shoulder screen printed on the front. The outfit was topped off with blue fuzzy socks and Gundam themed slippers. Ezekiel smirked the tiniest bit as Hela blushed before she used a spell to change into something else. Afterwards they quickly portaled over to meet Ezekiel’s team.

They arrived at a warehouse near the main port of the city where Sakumo greeted him and said, “The target is being held inside by a group of men affiliated with the Russian mafia.”

“How many?”

“Twenty, mostly armed with basic firearms.”

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow as he asked, “And you haven't cleared them out yet?”

Sakumo smiled as he said, “I thought you would want to do it yourself.”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Normal humans? They're too weak to be any challenge. Just clear them out.”

“Understood.” Sakumo said before he secured his mask in place and disappeared from view.

Ezekiel glanced towards Hela as he said, “Let's head inside, they should be done in a few moments.”

Ezekiel and Hela walked through the door and were greeted by a couple bodies laying on the floor. Within a few minutes both of them made it to where Aleksei was being held and he was in the process of being healed. Ezekiel looked over the large man and couldn't help but frown at his state. The man was brutally beaten with large purple bruises, cuts and burn marks that covered his body. His eyes were completely swollen over and he was currently unconscious as two of the people gave him basic treatment.

Ezekiel quickly created a portal as he said, “Take him to the medical wing.”

Ezekiel left the portal open as he turned to the man who was being scanned by a Yamanaka clan member. As the man finished his work the two ninjas returned through the portal so Ezekiel closed it before the Yamanaka member gave his report. Apparently the Russian mob wanted to take over Aleksei’s scrapyard and were trying to get him to sign it over.

As for why they targeted him in the first place, the man had no idea. But they at least knew who they worked for and where they were at so that was their next stop. Ezekiel glanced towards the Yamanaka member and said, “Check the rest for crimes they’ve committed and then punish them appropriately.”

As the man left to carry out his orders, Ezekiel pulled out his tablet and typed on it for a few minutes before he said, “After he's done and everything is cleaned up, we'll head to the next target.”

“Understood.” Sakumo said before he sent a message to the rest of the team.

Ezekiel glanced over to Hela who was looking around and said, “I told you it wouldn't be that fun.”

Hela smiled a little bit as she said, “It’s fine, I need to get out a little more.”