00181. You only get one.

October 2005

It seemed like the Chaste was a little more cult like than Theo originally thought since they tried to blow him up for taking over the Hand. He wasn't that upset, but he changed the way he handled dealing with them moving forward. Whenever they showed up to cause problems, the Hand were ordered to fight and capture them. If they had issues or the enemy was too strong, they would call for backup and either Theo or real ninjas would show up to handle them.

Instead of killing any of them, Theo collected them and put them in a temporary prison. He then had people search through their memories for the locations of Chaste bases and other members. It took a while, but Theo and his team were able to capture a good portion of the Chaste and their leadership. Once they had Stick and a few other notable leaders he decided to have a sit down and chat with them.

Three people were locked in a small room and none of them looked happy. The first was an older man who wore what looked like a Vietnam era US Army uniform. His faded green colored army jacket was open which exposed his gray colored t-shirt while he wore small blacked out glasses under his green hat. He was an older man with short cut gray hair and wrinkles that covered his gaunt face.

Seated next to him on the floor was a younger man with shoulder length black hair. He was shirtless which showed off his impressive physique along with a bunch of scars that covered his body. He was stoic as he waited for whatever was going to happen.

The last person in the room was a young woman with brown hair and eyes who paced back and forth in worry. She was slim and almost looked delicate if you weren't paying attention. But her body was in fact muscular and full of power like a taut bowstring ready to be released. She wore plain looking street clothes, jeans, a band shirt and a brown jacket. 

"Will you stop that?" The man with glasses finally asked.

The woman turned to look at the man as she asked in a nervous tone, "How are you two so calm?"

"What will happen, will happen." The younger man said with his eyes closed.

The older man nodded in agreement as he said, "They want us for something, otherwise we would already be dead. Now we just have to wait to see what it is."

"But what if they plan to torture us?" The woman asked.

"Then we just need to endure until we can escape." The younger man said without an ounce of emotion.

"Torture isn't really my thing and it doesn't help to use it on people." A voice said from the door as it opened.

Into the room stepped Ezekiel with a smile on his face as he glanced at the three other people in the room. The woman moved back towards her companions as Ezekiel shut the door and said, "You know there is one thing I don't really like."

Ezekiel glanced at the three people in the room before he said, "And that is being blown up when I am just trying to have a conversation. It's rather rude and shows the other side isn't sincere in their actions."

The older man turned in Ezekiel's direction as he said, "You're part of the Hand. There is nothing sincere about you."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "You should be glad I don't consider your previous actions for what they were or we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, Stick."

"That doesn't change the fact you are part of the Hand." Stick said with a slight frown.

"I am not part of the Hand, I only took it over after I disposed of their old leadership." Ezekiel said as he leveled a glare at the other two people in the room since it would be wasted on Stick.

"Now I don't want to waste anymore time with this bullshit so I'll make this completely clear for all of you. The Hand is no more and what is left of it is being used by me for my own projects." Ezekiel said as he raised one hand and pointed at the other three people in the room before he said, "That means you and your little club are obsolete and no longer serve a purpose. Going forward do not mess with the remnants of the Hand or attack them."

Ezekiel focused his chakra aura and pressed it down on all of them as he said, "If you do, I will personally do the same thing to the Chaste that I've done with the Hand."

"Is that understood?" Ezekiel asked as he applied more pressure to them with his aura. When none of them replied even after half a minute or so, Ezekiel dropped his aura and turned around to walk out of the room. Just before he disappeared from sight he said, "Consider yourselves warned and make sure you collect the rest of your people before you leave."

Ezekiel left the door open as he walked out of the room and after a few moments the woman collapsed to the ground as she asked, "What the hell was that?"

The younger man stood up as he said, "Another one of his powers most likely."

Stick also stood up as he said, "Let's go."

"Go? You really think he is letting us go?" The woman asked as she wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead.

The younger man reached down to help the woman up as he asked, "Why would he leave the door open, if he wasn't letting us go?"

"To mess with us?"

Stick took the lead as he flicked out a collapsible baton and walked towards the door as he said, "There's only one way to find out if it's a trick."

The other two quickly followed along behind Stick as they traveled through a hallway. On each side of it spaced every ten feet or so were doors that opened to small prison cells similar to what they were trapped in. After a few minutes of walking they came to a larger open area of the prison block. In all of the cells that lined the area were people who immediately recognized the trio and called out for help. The woman was the first to act and moved towards a guard room next to the tunnel they just exited. Once inside she glanced at the control board for a few moments before she flipped a couple switches and it opened all of the doors in the area.

After everyone was released and started to make their way outside, Stick turned to the younger man and woman as he said, "Spread the word that we will not act against the Hand for now."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" The woman asked.

"I want everyone to observe their actions and report their findings. While I don't like it, we need to verify what they are up to and see if what that person said is true."

"Can we really trust what he said? They are part of the Hand after all." The woman asked.

"Time will tell if what they said is true or not." The younger man said.

The woman glanced at all the Chaste members who were still walking out of the abandoned prison as she asked, "And if it's true and the Hand is no longer the Hand we once fought?"

"We will figure that out when the time comes." Stick said.

vvvvv

After Ezekiel finished up with the Chaste he created a portal to Culver University to visit a certain scientist who was working on a super soldier project for the government. Ezekiel tracked the project for a little while now and with its progress he figured he might as well stop in and introduce himself finally.

Ezekiel appeared on the roof of the building the research was being conducted in and after a quick check around walked inside. Honestly with what the project was about, he expected more security for the place and guards. Instead it was only locked behind a few electronic doors which used RFID badges which he easily bypassed with his tablet. He also took care of all the camera systems in the building so he wouldn't show up on any of them.

Once inside the main room with all the servers, Ezekiel hooked up his tablet and started copying the data. Once he was finished he implanted some hidden malware into the data that would scramble it, if it was copied. He would still need to check a few other places and make sure there were no other backup copies made. But he already had a good idea who might have those copies so he wasn't worried. He also connected the servers and systems to his monitoring network so he could track the progress of everything.

Once he was done, Ezekiel placed an order on his tablet before he got comfortable and checked over a new video game his clones were creating. About half an hour later Ezekiel opened a portal to his favorite pizza shop to see Joe who glanced up for a second before he reached over and picked up a couple pizza boxes. As Ezekiel took the boxes he said, "Thanks, Joe."

"Don't worry about it kid."

Ezekiel closed the portal, placed the pizza boxes down and pulled an ice chest out of his storage seal. He grabbed a rootbeer from it and cracked it open as he started to browse Vibe. Once he found something interesting he picked up a slice of pizza and ate as he waited for Dr. Banner to show up.

Ezekiel didn't have to wait long for the man as he entered the room as Ezekiel started on his second slice of pizza and was in the middle of watching one of Nightcrawler's videos. Nightcrawler was still one of the most popular Vibe users around because he didn't try to entertain people, he was just authentic to himself and wholesome which made people like to watch him. Banner was so engrossed in reading what was in his hands that he didn't notice Ezekiel at all until he started laughing at Nightcrawler doing something stupid and pissing off Kitty. Banner looked up in confusion to see Ezekiel with his feet up on Banner's own desk, eating pizza and watching videos on a tablet.

"Ummm. This is a restricted area, you shouldn't be here." Banner said as he nervously pushed on his glasses to straighten them.

Ezekiel glanced up from his tablet as he said, "If this place is restricted, you should really up the security. I walked in here with some pizzas and an ice chest and no one stopped me."

Banner glanced at the large ice chest on the ground and pizza boxes on the desk for a moment before he asked, "Really? Who let you through the doors?"

"They were unlocked." Ezekiel said with a shrug of his shoulders before he took another bite of his pizza.

Banner glanced back at the door he just entered before he turned back to Ezekiel and said, "If that's the case, I'll have someone come by and fix them. But you can't stay here, you need to leave."

Ezekiel paused the video on his tablet and set it aside as he said, "I'll leave in a few minutes Dr. Banner after I take a few minutes of your time."

Banner's eyes narrowed slightly and he backed up a bit as he asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm just a person who stopped by to give you some friendly advice about your gamma induced super soldier experiment. But if you need a name, people call me Ezekiel."

Banner was alarmed and moved closer to one of the computers and where a panic alarm button was for emergencies as he asked, "How do you know about my project? Did you hack into our systems?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Nope, that type of thing doesn't interest me."

"Then how do you know what Betty and I are working on?"

"I can see the future and I wanted to warn you about it. Well if you are willing to… I guess not." Ezekiel said and Banner pushed the panic button and an alarm started to blare out.

Ezekiel stood up from his seat, sealed away the rest of the pizza, his tablet and then the ice chest before he picked up his root beer and said, "Well since I don't have much time, the only thing I will say is be careful around General Ross and don't let him rush you into things."

"Why should I." Banner froze as Ezekiel created a portal, raised his root beer up and said, "Catch you later doc."