[221B Bleecker St.]
[23rdDecember 2012.]
Eddard was sitting in his workshop as he finished Project Bridge. When Harry came to his workshop for the fourth time in the day with more news.
"Ed, there is an update on Stark's situation and Rebirth 2."
"Stark first mate."
"Well, Nathan has been searching for the man and look what we found." He handed Eddard a piece of paper.
"Sorry Harry never learned that latitude and longitude thing." Eddard shrugged at the dismayed look on the man's face.
"Maybe you should stop being a lazy slacker and start working on things actively." Harry chastised Eddard.
"And live every minute of my life suffering from overwork and exhaustion, what's the use being a god then? It's not like there is an active threat to deal with, I work on my abilities daily and also on my project, learning things that I might not use ever is a bit stupid, don't you think."
"It's Tennessee. Near a place called Rose Hill." Harry said shrugging.
"Alive and healthy I suppose?" Ed asked.
"Alive. His armour's screwed. Most probably out of power."
"Ok? What happened with Sophie?"
"Draco and Stormi both are about to undergo the serum."
"Tell me the result, I have an asshole to handle." Eddard then summoned Avalon and handed it to Harry adding,"If anything goes wrong, pray to me, the clover system will transfer it, Avalon will protect you."
"You don't have the sword, you transferred it to Stormi. You aren't going to Tennessee without any weapons, are you?" Harry asked looking at Eddard as if he was an idiot.
"I don't need a weapon, there are no threats I would need them for."
"You are acting arrogant."
"That's good, humbleness is overrated." Eddard smiled.
"Just don't die, my girl would probably be sad."
"You won't mourn me?"
"Nah, you are annoying. Are you leaving right now?"
"Yup. "
"How?"
"I honestly thought about using the Bridge."
"Ah! The Space Bridge, of course." Harry nodded and left the room.
Project Bridge was an idea Eddard came up with after the Battle Of New York. A bridge that could open a path anywhere on Earth. Eddard could open it from any world, but due to a lack of information, it could only take Eddard anywhere he had already been or anywhere on earth thanks to it being on GPS navigation satellites.
So he called out to no one in particular, " Gate." and there was a small ripple in front of him as a blue ripple appeared that slowly tore into a wormhole through which he could walk.
Eddard walked into the bridge he had opened.
[Rose Hill, Tennessee.]
Tony and Harley Keener were investigating a memorial when Eddard found the man.
He looked upon the two as they talked.
' What are you onto, Stark?' Eddard realized this place was also bombed.
"That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?" Eddard heard the boy say.
He heard Stark give an incoherent reply. The two talked for some time before Stark suddenly got up and started running away from the boy who followed after the man.
' What is going on here?' Eddard couldn't understand Stark's behaviour. Eddard had originally thought that he would meet up with Stark to take care of the problem and return home but this had gotten more problematic than killing the Ten Rings off. Stark had looked scared when he had run.
Eddard sighed, ' What's the rust that has gotten on the man of Iron?'
So he followed the duo quietly. He saw the two entering a bar.
' Taking a kid to a bar.' Eddard shook his head.
He followed them into the bar and saw Stark talking to a very drunk woman who threw a file at him, they talked a while before they were interrupted again by another woman.
This one had small burn marks on her face. She slammed a badge from Homeland security before trying to cuff Stark when the sheriff interrupted, she showed him her badge and asked him to stay away.
' No common agent would try to detain Stark, they would most probably say goodbye to their career.'
Eddard's thoughts were proven true as she attacked the deputy that the Sheriff asked to stop her.
' Shit is that badge burning?' knowing when games were over was Eddard's strong point.
He rushed forward as she brought the melting badge to the Sheriff's face, reaching just in time to stop it from touching the man's face.
"Officer, evacuate the people here, please," Eddard said calmly as he tore the woman's hand off her body expecting there to be bloodshed.
Eddard hissed as the ripped appendage suddenly started heating to a ridiculous degree.
"Shit! what the fuck?" He let go of the hand which melted the stone floor. He was not burned by the heat as much as he was disgusted by how the hand was still wriggling.
He saw that the woman had gone after Stark. He followed when he heard a gunshot and saw a bald man looking annoyed at the kid that had been with Stark, the boy had made the man miss using a bloody snowball.
The man moved towards the boy and Eddard heard an explosion which he ignored in favour of saving the boy. All it took for him to pounce on a man, at least twenty meters away, was a single jump. He ripped the gun off the man's hand before punching the bastard.
"You like glowing, right? Let's see how much." Eddard murmured before he started pouring light into the man's body.
The man screamed and thrashed like a fish out of water. Eddard had initially expected that the man would blow up but his experiment had succeeded when the glow suddenly started receding.
"What kind of abomination are you?" The feeling he got from the man after pushing the light had been of corruption, nothing as he had expected.
' These men are nothing like Rogers. I was expecting something like the super soldier serum.'
"Are you Eddard Clarke?" Eddard heard the voice of the boy he had seen with Stark.
"I am, you are?"
"Harley Keener. I am on Mr Stark's side." The boy- Harley said.
"Can you turn around, Harley?"
"Um- Okay?" The boy turned around awkwardly, Eddard could see him glancing at the pinned man.
"Pray to any God for forgiveness, for you will not find it with me," Eddard whispered in the man's ears.
"P-please! I don't want to die! No! M-mom! Argh!" The man was crying as he felt Eddard put his right hand over his left hand.
"Look at you, begging for your life, yet you had no qualms ending the life of a child, Funny how twisted fate is. I hope your mother finds peace."
Eddard, unlike how he always burned the target, used his divine energy to throw a beam of highly ionizing radiation that did not just burn the body but destroyed cellular structure and DNA itself rapidly.
When he was done, he burned the man's body.
"At least you died a good man in the eyes of your mother." Eddard shrugged, remembering his parents from his previous life, "You should have cherished the chance."
"You killed him." came the voice of one Harley Keener.
Eddard shrugged,"He deserved it, you don't try to kill a kid."
"You could have detained him." The boy said in a plain voice.
"Why would I waste my time with a murderer that I know won't change?" Eddard asked curiously.
"Heroes don't kill people, what is the difference between you and people like him, if you resort to killing too?"
"I am not a hero, Mr Keener, I am an Avenger. The only true duty I have is, to safeguard the people of Earth, I do not have any other principles than my own."
"But you are a god of LIGHT!" The boy seemed desperate to explain his point.
"So? My divinity doesn't make me a good man. Most gods of death you will see myths of are kinder than most other gods. Do you think the Chitauri saw us as good people?"
"Avengers aren't evil!" The boy roared with so much anger that Eddard flinched.
The boy had started openly sobbing. And Eddard was not sure what to do.
"We aren't." came the voice of Tony Stark, "Harley."
Stark was limping as he walked towards the boy, giving Eddard a pointed look.
"Look at me." the boy turned his tear-streaked face towards the billionaire, "The Avengers aren't evil, many of them made mistakes just like me selling weapons of war but none of them are bad people but Eddard has a point, you can't leave an operative like that alive."
Keener nodded, Stark looked at Eddard and asked, "What are you doing here? How did you even find me?"
"SHIELD and a boy in the order." Eddard shrugged, "What I am curious about is what are you even doing here?"
Stark lifted his hand which had a file in it,"Finding the Mandarin."
"Well, it looked like you were having trouble, so I thought to lend you a hand."
Stark looked constipated and thoughtful, at the same time, and then he nodded.
"We need a better connection and access to an intranet network." Stark then took out a car key from his pocket and pressed a button, there was the familiar sound of door unlocking from one of the cars in the parking lot.
"Let's go then." Eddard and Stark had moved a few steps towards the car when they realized Keener was following them.
Tony turned to the boy and said, "You need to go home."
"B-but I can help you, I saved your life."
"I saved yours first, and don't brag about saving someone's life, humbleness takes you a long way."
"You need me, we are connected."
"Nah I don't."
"So you are going to abandon me too, just like my Dad?" Eddard flinched at the boy's pitiful voice.
"Stop guilt-tripping me." Stark added, "We are going to fight, can't take you. Go home, Harley, take care of your sister and mum."
Eddard added, "Call this number two days from now." before handing the boy the manor's number, "I might have some work for you."