00059. A deciding vote.

00059. A deciding vote. AnnouncementSo I changed a few things and will no longer post a single chapter every Monday. I will post at least one chapter a week with the goal of being consistent at two chapters a week. We will see what happens though. Enjoy the chapter.

After they ate, Tao took Ezekiel back home so he could switch places with his clone. He also made sure to share his memories with Itachi before they switched. Tao took Itachi back to the base where he shared the memory packet with Ezekiel who was in the meeting room with everyone else. Once finished, Ezekiel smiled as he said in a completely different voice than normal, “Good news everyone!"

Everyone seemed a little confused at Ezekiel’s statement and the weird old man voice he used. Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Never mind..."

Ezekiel scratched the back of his head for a moment before he said, "It worked, we can go ahead with the mission.”

Bucky and Steve looked relieved but Fury frowned as he asked, “What about Romanoff? Won’t this ruin the timeline for her?”

Ezekiel grinned as he said, “She will be fine, actually she will be better than before.”

Everyone else besides Tao was a little lost as Steve asked, “Mind filling the rest of us in, who is Romanoff?”

Ezekiel typed on his computer and a profile for a young girl came up, she had her hair dyed blue and bright green eyes. It displayed her full name as Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanova. Ezekiel pointed at the screen as he said, “In a different timeline she becomes one of the world's best assassin’s before she turned into one of the world's heroes. She is currently in the red room program along with her adoptive sister Yelena Belova.”

Steve frowned a little as he asked, “Are you planning to train her?”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “Yes, if that is what she wants. If you don’t want to help, that's fine. But keep in mind, Romanova and the other girls we rescue from the red room are coming here and they have been trained for years to be assassins and spies. I will have my clones help deprogram them, but if they want to join us... I won’t tell them no.”

Steve looked upset as he was going to speak again, but Bucky placed his hand on Steve’s shoulder as he said, “I know how you think, you want those girls to have a normal life. But those girls are anything but normal. We might be able to help the youngest ones to have a normal life. But the girls who have been there for years are already trained killers.”

“But they should have a chance at a normal life also.”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “And I will offer them that chance, but I won’t force them to live a normal life if they don't want to.”

Steve still looked unhappy as Ezekiel said, "I know you aren't happy with training kids, but just pulling them out of the red room is keeping them alive."

Ezekiel typed on his computer and some files popped up on the screen. They showed how many girls had been brought into the program over the years and the number of graduates it had. The number was less than one percent of more than ten thousand. Everyone was surprised at the low number and Peggy asked, "Why is it so low?"

Everyone frowned at the news before Ezekiel said, "During this week we also need to try and recruit a few people who can help us." He typed on his computer and a few pictures appeared on the screen.

Fury was the first to react as he said, "Are you out of your mind? Those people are enemies!"

Peggy nodded her head as she said, "I have to agree with Fury."

Ezekiel glanced back at Fury and Peggy as he asked, "Who exactly are they enemies with?"

Fury frowned as he said, "With us."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "I never had a confrontation with them before and as far as I know they don't even know we exist."

Fury and Peggy both looked displeased but it was Hank who said, "I remember fighting one of them before when I was still in Shield."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "I could see that since the U.S.S.R. never joined the world security council. But we aren't Shield so we should try to make contact and recruit them."

Fury still looked upset as he said, "How will we even vet them?"

"I am going to use my clones for that. That way I can make sure there won't be any issues. I am confident in recruiting two of them, since in almost every future we looked at, they were with us. The other two joined us also, but it wasn't as consistent."

Fury and Peggy still looked reluctant so Ezekiel said, "Fine let's vote on it. All in favor?"

The vote count was split dead even, with Tao, Ezekiel, Steve and Jarvis who voted for it. While Fury, Peggy, Bill, and Hank voted against it. Ezekiel looked a little disappointed as Bucky asked, "I know I am new but do I get to vote?"

Ezekiel looked at Bucky for a moment before he looked at everyone else. Peggy shared a conversation with Fury from just a momentary glance. She then looked at everyone else for a moment before she said, "I don't think anyone has an issue with it."

"Great, I vote for trying to recruit them."