[Monaco,2010.]
Eddard entered the Grand Prix Lounge which Jacob had gotten arranged.
"Since he got his contract revoked."he heard Tony Stark speaking.
Justin Hammer answered shiftily,"Actually,it's on hold."
"That's not what I heard.What's the difference between'hold'and'cancelled'?The truth?"Stark asked
The reporter asked,as she pushed the dicta"Yes,what is it?"
"No.The truth is…Why don't we put that away?The truth is,I'm actually hoping to present something at your Expo."Hammer said looking at Stark nervously.
"Well,if you invent something that works,I'll make sure I get you a slot."
A woman with red hair similar to Eddard's own spoke to Stark then,"Mr.Stark?"
"Yes?"
"Your corner table is ready."'Natalie Rushman'spoke.
Eddard took it as his queue to talk to Stark as he went to the bathroom probably to have another breakdown.
He knocked on the bathroom door."Mr.Stark."
A minute later,Stark appeared and asked exactly as you would imagine the man asking,"What is it,carrottop?"
"Eddard Clarke,Mr.Stark."
"You know me,so can we get on with it?"Stark asked while handing his tie and suit to Eddard.
"You are dying."stated Eddard bluntly.
"Okay buddy,if you are going to be discussing conspiracy theories or going to say I am evil because I earned my money war profiteering.Tell me something new."Stark rattled off as he tensed while sneakily checking if I had a gun.The man was very paranoid.
"No,Mr.Stark,I meant how you are dying due to the palladium in your body."
"So what do you want from me-money?Because you have some miracle cure?I know your type.You got this information somehow and now are trying to make use of my desperation."Stark ground out.
"I am not here to give you a cure Mr.Stark.I am here to give you something you desperately need-Hope.Howard Stark had the cure you are looking for.You just have to rediscover it."Eddard answered easily despite the man's anger.
Stark whispered,"Bullshit."as his anger was replaced by skepticism but Eddard could see the hope in the man again.
Eddard smiled at the man,"Be seeing you,Mr.Stark."He walks out of the room leaving a stunned Stark behind.
Eddard sees the'Widow'looking at him from the corner of her eye as she waits for Pepper Potts.He walks up to her and greets her,"It is an honour to meet you,Miss Romanoff."
She greets him with a pleasant but polite smile on her face then what Eddard said registers in her mind and her hand goes to her chest immediately but Eddard interrupts her and says,"I am not an enemy of yours dear,I did not mean to startle you."when he sees her relaxing,he adds,"I don't think it is a wise idea to put a firearm between your breasts."
"The dress doesn't have another place to hide weapons,Mister?"She shrugs while asking for his name.
"Clarke,Eddard Clarke.Miss Rushman,I think your employer needs you now.Be seeing you."Eddard comments seeing Pepper Potts panicking due to Stark's recklessness as he starts to sit in the Formula 1 car.
Eddard just walks away from the shit show the place was going to be.
[221B Bleecker Street,NYC]
[A few days after the events in Monaco.]
Eddard walked into his home and went straight into the meeting room, where he found everybody in his order assembled.
"So are you all prepared?" He asked everybody.
"Yeah, if we could get something like the arc reactor and the Stark's suit. It would be awesome." Nathan commented.
Eddard chuckled and asked, "I thought only the engineers would be interested in the armor."
"The cooling and on-board computer technology could fuel our work ahead as well, you know. Stark is a monster when it comes to computing as well, his virtual assistant is one of the most user-friendly programs I have ever seen." Harry added as Mia nodded alongside him.
"Good for you then. But remember that what you will be getting will be cheap knockoffs at worst and second-grade items at best. And tell me all the directions you will be following again."
"We have revised this ten times by now. You are such a worrywart." groused out Stormi.
Eddard frowned, "Well, forgive me if I want you to live."
Jake, James' son, said , "When we see an offline drone, we pick it up and take it into the RV which we modified as a farraday cage. It will stop us from going kaboom since it will block all communications from the outside. Then we start leaving the place in our RV while Stormi and Draco shred anything looking our way wrong using shotguns filled with Adamantium shots. While Jessica and I are cutting the drone into pieces and removing the arc reactor while also removing the weapons on it using blow torches and adamantium drills and chainsaws. If everything fails and we see a beeping red light, we dump ourselves into the vibranium box in the RV or dump the drone into the vibranium box depending on the situation. Elizabeth will be driving . Our main purpose there is getting the drone, We will leave the fighting to you. Correct?"
"Yes." Eddard answered.
Nathan chimed in, "Harry and I move to Hammer Industries Headquarters and erase all data related to the drones and any other schematics. We remove the data from the backup servers and burn down anything that might contain this information before clearing up after ourselves. We only move after the pretty woman has taken out any guards. We will have Beth and Paige as escorts. Correct?"
"Paige?"
"We only knock people out, killing them would be illegal because we are the one trespassing. And while force could be justified, killing can't be. We use the stunning bullets you gave us. We do not engage the 'pretty woman'." She gave a side eye to Nathan at the last words.
Nathan said, "Oh come on! You all are like my sisters, it would feel weird to look at you like that."
Harry smirked while looking at Sophie and said ,"Yes I agree! All of you are my brothers and sisters except for her." he nodded to Sophie.
Sophie blushed at the boy's flirting.
Eddard and the others, meanwhile, were looking at each other awkwardly.
Eddard really wanted to see Nathan embarrassed, so he commented, "Nathan, I really hope I don't have to explain to you two about the birds and the bees. You know, safe sex and stuff. James will kill you if you get Sophie pregnant so young."
Jake exclaimed like it was an amazing idea, "I will kill Harry before dad gets to him."
When Sophie glared at her brother, he just shrugged and said, "What can I say, you are my baby sister."
The boy blushed and retaliated against Eddard, "Says the man who is a virgin a-and hasn't dated a single girl. What were you going to tell me that storks bring babies, you useless god."
Everybody started hooting and whistling at Eddard .
"You were out of line on that one." said Draco, "You don't diss a bro like that."
Eddard looked at Draco , "Did I ever tell you how grateful I am to call you my friend, Draco?"
Draco replied, grinning, "You have."
Jessica asked, curious , "But I am actually quite curious myself, why don't you date someone?"
"You don't have to answer that." Mia glared at Jessica.
Jacob said grimacing, "Anybody who he dates will be a huge target for anybody who hates him in the coming years."
"Him talking like Gandalf the Grey doesn't help his case either. Man seriously, Eddard you can go from talking about how you don't like fanta to giving life lessons quickly." Paige commented.
"To be fair to me, I am a god. I am supposed to be a profound thinker.", Eddard commented, "Though I sometimes speak bullshit just so that I can help people. Like remember that time when I told Stormi that Gods are people too, nope, magic and divinity always effects the person in some way. We most probably don't think the same way either. I just don't want you all to see me like an alien since my only friends are in this room and you seeing me like an unstoppable monster would hurt."
Kayneth chimed in , "You aren't a monster boss.", everybody nodded at the comment.
Eddard's face hardened "Kayneth- this is a warning that I think I must give to all of you. Just because I look like a human does not mean I am one, never forget that. I killed 12 people in a minute. You forgetting that might just someday spell your doom."
"Meh, don't care. You ain't a monster mate. Killing evil bastards don't count. And this is what Paige was talking about, why do you always dwell on shit like this abruptly."
"Can't help it." Eddard shrugged.
"Well you should or you will be still a virgin when we are all married." Harry snarked.
Eddard snarked back, "Then you will most probably be dead by the time I get married, maybe ask your girlfriend to hasten that life extension research or your children would be raising my kids." Eddard realized what he had said and hurriedly added, "Sorry, I didn't mean to go that dark."
"You were out of line, but it was a brilliant comeback." Jayden chuckled after saying that breaking the suddenly quite atmosphere.
"No offense taken mate, you outliving us all isn't that bad. It would be disturbing if I outlived a literal god." Harry chuckled.
"That is another reason I don't date. Imagine outliving everybody you care for. I am honestly not prepared to live for thousands of years. As a god of light, healing and purification, I will live for even longer then most gods probably."
"You make your life sound difficult." Draco muttered, "Guess all that power comes with a lot of baggage."
"It does." Eddard shrugged.
"You don't your powers ?" Jacob asked surprised.
"Oh, I love my powers but the consequences, if you really think about them , give you an existential crisis. In theory, I should be able to resurrect dead people without consequences by loading the bodies with the concept of revival and life but when Jayden and I tried it.
The rat we had revived dropped dead as if something had cut its strings a minute after revival. It just dropped dead, there was no medical explanation of course, Sophie confirmed it later after doing all kind of checks and tests. I can revive the recently dead but the longer something was dead the more energy it takes and there comes a point where it just becomes impossible. And reviving the dead feels wrong."
"So have you ever tried reviving people?"
Jayden said, "We have. It did not turn out good. The man was a criminal, of course. What came back was a literal corpse. The creepy smile on the face was disturbing to say the least."
"I have never asked but what kind of concepts have you two played around with?" Elizabeth asked.
" Light, hope, blood-bond and healing are the concepts we have tested the most. The most weird one was what we called, ' Laplace's demon'."
Jessica butted in here to explain "Laplace's Demon is a thought experiment in determinism that describes a being that knows the present, and through it, the past and future. But it isn't a concept is it, it is an idea?"
"A concept is an abstract idea. Anyways we put the concept in a pair of glasses. You know what happened when he put the glasses on." Jayden pointed towards Eddard.
"We had put concepts of safety and containment on the room. When I put the glasses on I could see everything in the room. And I mean everything, I could see everything. No better way to explain it, I was omniscient in the room. What we also discovered was that knowing the future by knowing the present was impossible. And also that my abilities can't assert a false concept." Eddard explained.
"False concept?" Draco muttered, looking at Jayden.
"An idea that is incorrect, or works by ignoring another concept. Laplace's demon only works for predicting the future if there is only order in the world but the problem is it disregards the presence of chaos completely. Thus, if the world was perfectly deterministic, this would work but it won't because the world is not. It also clashes with concept of free will."
Draco shrugged and said, "I still don't understand but thanks for trying to dumb it down for us common folk."
Jayden chuckled, "No problem mate."
"Alright, it is time to move." Jacob said, looking at his Rolex Sky Dweller.
"Jacob I never asked your income. I am pretty sure that is a Rolex. " Eddard commented.
Jacob grinned and said, "Used the money I was saving for college for investments, bought it from the dividends."
"Does your dad know?" Eddard asked seriously.
Jacob deadpanned, "Of course. He went with me when I got it. I would say I am one of the richest people here."
Eddard shrugged, "Just got to make sure."