No-One But You (The Star Child's Eclipse)

Chapter 41: Daydreamer (Part 1)


Tony Stark slowly glanced up from his lunch as soon as Obadiah Stane's precious baby boy re-entered the room and stepped in front of his section of the table.

The prince of darkness was still wearing a pair of dime-store sunglasses too, and they were probably borrowed from Wade Wilson.

Tony made a gentle assumption about that, and he could tell Ezekiel Stane was only wearing Wade's shades to hide the fact that he was friggen hungover.

It was beyond obvious.

"Can I help you with something?"

Tony didn't like being approached by a fucking Stane, or stared at, so he dropped a simple question in order to get the ball rolling.

Ezekiel was processing what he recently learned in Charles Xavier's office, and it's safe to say that the baby Jackal was a little more than pissed off…

He told Xavier that he wanted to understand what happened between him and his former mentor, but he needed to have NO MEMORY of the actual encounter.

The "quiet coyote" couldn't have any of that shit on his plate, so he gave the mutant access to his mind, and the memories he had regarding any intimacy with Victor Von Doom were as "suppressed" as they could possibly get.

It didn't make Ezekiel feel any better about it, and he was still fully aware that something occurred. He just had nothing to reflect back to… if that makes sense?

Anyway… the Jackal was super pissed off at himself, and he decided to leave the office and take his frustrations out on Tony Stark.

Wade Wilson was, where?

Ezekiel thought of that just before he re-entered the deliberation room. He made a mental note to track the mercenary down as soon as he was done confronting a CERTAIN SHARK.

Tony's behavior toward him was bothersome, so Ezekiel decided to take a moment, approach, and dive into whatever fucking issue his fellow inventor was having.

"I'd like to respond to any questions you have about Wenwu, and I don't understand why you're shutting me out of this meeting."

"I'm not shutting you out. My questions are specific to Doom, and I simply stated that your presence isn't necessary…"

…..

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Ezekiel's anger flared up immediately after Stark gave his quick-wit response. He spoke with such a sarcastic tone too, and everything about it just rubbed the baby Jackal wrong.

Steve Rogers to the rescue? Tony heard that beautiful blonde as he gave the "conversation" a soft sigh.

"Why are you claiming that my presence isn't necessary?"

"Because we've been waiting for YOU to present YOUR entire plan to infiltrate the Ten Rings, and we've collectively made the decision to not rush you on the subject. Victor Von Doom is a separate matter, and your presence in those discussions aren't necessary."

Are we all on the same page now?

Tony Stark took another bite of his delicious sandwich, and he made a mental note to thank Steve for heading out and picking it up.

The blonde was too friggen adorable…

Ezekiel watched that SHARK as he carried on with his meal as if what he said wasn't offensive…

….

Well, wait, actually… it wasn't offensive. Ezekiel blinked a number of times as Stark's words registered in his head, and he inwardly came to the conclusion that he wasn't offended by it at all.

It made sense in that moment, after the baby Jackal heard the entire explanation.

Sure, Stark was a snark about it, but Ezekiel was a logical person. His emotions were out of the equation as he processed, so…

"Oh. Well, I already sent out the details a while ago. What's supposedly missing from my plan?"

"Uhh, first off, Rae-Ann has explained to us that you and Wade Wilson will only be operating on this mission as… consultants. That means… what exactly? Because you're kinda leaving your team high and dry if that's the case."

Was the clone of Captain America's mom and the Black fucking Widow going up against the ruler of the Ten Rings without Zephyr and Sevgili?

Are we for real?…

Tony wasn't having that shit at all, and he didn't want to have a conversation about it with Ezekiel like that until he was friggen ready.

The prince of darkness was there now and kinda in his face about it, so Tony kept it going…

"Second, you did provide a clear plan for your crew to infiltrate one section of the Ten Rings, in Beijing, but the incognito leader will be… where? I'm not seeing enough information on how your team will be navigating around him."

Wenwu's details were hella vague, and Tony's gut instinct led him to poke around in Doom's circle to ruffle some feathers and gain some clarification on that.

Let's just call it a hunch.

OH, and Ezekiel's mind, body, and soul just underwent something MEGA traumatic, and Tony definitely wasn't ignoring that.

His approach was salty, like always, but he wasn't including Ezekiel in the conversation to give him the additional time he needed to get his ass back in gear.

That's all.

I mean, just look at Ezekiel's current appearance. Tony Stark took a moment to look the "fellow" inventor over, and even a friggen blind man could see how hard he was struggling.

So, there was some empathy going on that wasn't openly discussed.

Tony actually sympathized with Ezekiel, and he was actually trying to give the guy a break..

"I'll look over the plan and follow up on that, soon.."

Ezekiel was physically hearing everything that Tony Stark was saying, but the idea of answering questions like that felt very heavy… and removed from the Jackal's soul as everything processed.

He started looking around for Wade in that moment, truth be told, and Tony could see that DEADPOOL had become a friggen baby blanket for Ezekiel Stane, in a sense.

That poor thing was looking all around for him, and it was honestly the saddest thing Tony had seen in a long while…

The image of a broken baby lamb kinda crossed the brunette's mind in that moment too, so Tony ignored a specific smirk that was beginning to show up on Steve's perfect face.

Don't eevvvvvveeeeeeen go there, blondie.


Chapter: END

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