00188. Money glitch?

    For Christmas Eve this year Theo did his same tradition of giving everyone a couple of gifts. He dropped them off at the base first before he portaled over to Xavier''s school and dropped presents off for everyone there. Afterwards he portaled to Kamar-Taj where he set up a tree with lights and dropped off gifts for all of the sorcerers there. While Theo himself didn''t train with everyone else, he visited the library there a bunch and met most of the people training there. So most of them knew him as Ezekiel, The Ancient One''s apprentice.

    Once he finished off with being Santa, Ezekiel stopped by the medical facility and picked up Tsunade before he portaled to Tony''s workshop. As they stepped out of the portal JARVIS said, “Welcome, Ezekiel and Miss. Senju. Mr. Stark is currently in the living room with Miss. Potts.”

    “Thanks, JARVIS.”

    “You know my services don''t come cheap, I better be getting paid for this.”

    Ezekiel frowned as he glanced at Tsunade and asked, “Didn''t I just give you like ten million a few days ago?”

    Tsunade shrugged as she followed Ezekiel to the stairs as she said, “It''s gone.”

    “How do you keep losing so much money?” Ezekiel asked as he opened the door leading upstairs.

    “It was just some bad luck is all...”

    “You say that every time. But there is no way your luck is really that bad. It''s statistically impossible.” Ezekiel said as he shook his head.

    When Ezekiel and Tsunade arrived in the living room they found Tony cuddled up on one of the couches with Pepper as they talked about something quietly. Ezekiel smiled to himself for a moment before he made his presence known. Tony turned from his spot on the couch to see Ezekiel before he let out a sigh and said, “JARVIS, we''ve talked about notifying me whenever Ezekiel visited.”

    “I did, sir.”

    “No you didn''t.” Tony said in an annoyed tone.

    “If you check your email you will find that I notified you over a minute ago.”

    “That''s not how you should notify me about Ezekiel!” Tony said as he got up from the couch.

    Pepper stood up from the couch as well and went to greet Ezekiel and Tsunade as JARVIS said, “You never stated exactly how I should inform you, so I chose email as the default.”

    Tony glanced at Ezekiel as he said, “I never should have had you help me with programing JARVIS.”

    Ezekiel smirked as he said, “I just helped with the initial programming. This behavior is all JARVIS... I like it though.”

    “Thank you, sir.”

    “Don''t encourage him!” Tony said as he playfully punched Ezekiel on the shoulder.

    Ezekiel chuckled as he turned to Pepper and asked, “How are you doing?”

    “I''m good and so is the baby.” Pepper said as she rubbed her belly that was still mostly flat.

    Ezekiel nodded before he said, “I know Tony found a doctor who is under NDA to watch over you and the baby. But I brought Tsunade by, to give you a check up just to be safe.”

    Tony glanced at Tsunade who was having Pepper lay down on the couch as he said, “You sure this is necessary? The doctor I hired said everything is fine.”

    “Better safe than sorry. Besides, Tsunade has better ways to check the condition of Pepper and the baby.” Ezekiel said as he motioned towards Tsunade as she checked over Pepper with green light coming out of her plans.

    As they both watched Tsunade work, Ezekiel asked, “Looks like everything is going good, uh?”

    “There are some issues, but overall it''s going well.”

    Ezekiel patted Tony on the shoulder as he said, “Good, I''m happy for you guys. Just don''t fuck it up.”

    “It can''t be that bad... No one is that unlucky.” Pepper said.

    “JARVIS, how much has Tony''s casino made from Tsunade this year?” Ezekiel asked.

    “Miss. Senju has spent just over four hundred million this year according to casino records.”

    Pepper went a little pale as Tony laughed and put his arm over Ezekiel’s shoulder and said, “Thanks a lot buddy.”

    Ezekiel shoved Tony away as he said, “You''re not welcome. And don''t expect it to happen much longer.”

    “What? Why not?”

    Ezekiel smiled as he said, “I''ve been building a casino on Genosha. Once it''s completed, that will be the only place I let Tsunade gamble going forward.”

    “No fair! You shouldn''t hog a cash cow like that.”

    “You didn''t even realize she was a cash cow until I just told you.” Ezekiel said as he shook his head.

    “To be fair I don''t pay attention to any of the businesses I own, unless they start to lose money and someone brings it up.” Tony said with a shrug.

    “Isn’t Tsunade just spending Ezekiel’s money?” Pepper asked.

    Tony shook his head as he said, “No. Ezekiel steals money from criminals and gives it to Tsunade to use. He basically uses her to launder stolen money.”

    “Currently all that money is going to you...”

    “I know, which is why you should let her visit my casino more often.” Tony said with a smile.

    “Why are you stealing money? Don''t you make enough from Vibe and the deals you have in place with Tony?” Pepper asked as she stared at Ezekiel in surprise.

    Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Sure I have money. But criminals also have money that they will use to help commit more crimes with. So if I steal money from criminals, I see it as helping to prevent crime.”

    Ezekiel flashed a smile and threw up the peace sign as he said, “You can think of me as a superhero.”

    “I''ll consider you a superhero if you keep sending Tsunade to my casino... Or make me a partner for the casino you are making in Genosha.”

    Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “No way. The Genosha casino is already owned by me and Magneto with plans for it to basically fund the island going forward.”

    “Is the casino really going to make enough money to run Genosha?” Pepper asked.

    Ezekiel smiled as he said, “That''s why Tsunade is only allowed to gamble at my casino. She should easily be able to fund Genosha each year.”

    Ezekiel ended up staying with Tony and Pepper for a little while before he headed home for the night. Tomorrow was Christmas and he knew it would be a busy day. His whole extended family got together and hung out all day at May and Ben''s house. After dinner was finished, Theo made a couple plates of food and sealed them away to keep them fresh.

    It wasn''t hard, he just made a simple genjutsu to make everyone not notice what he was doing. He also packed up a couple of each dessert along with some eggnog and a few other snacks. Once everything was prepared and sealed away, he moved back to where he should be and canceled the genjutsu.

    While Theo didn''t like to use his skills on his family, sometimes it was needed because he had no other choice. Once Theo and his family returned home, he created a clone and headed down to his training room. From there he switched into Ezekiel before he headed towards Genosha and the magic school after that.

    After he arrived in the hidden basement area, he found Tao waiting for him as she played on her phone. Ezekiel pulled out some of the holiday cookies Milly and Issac made, along with a present which he placed down on her coffee table. Tao placed her phone down and pulled out a gift herself as she said, “Merry Christmas.”

    Ezekiel took the gift and sealed it away as he said, “Merry Christmas to you too.”

    Tao nodded before she created a portal to Hel as she said, “Enjoy your date.”

    Ezekiel knew better than to respond so he just stepped through the portal instead. As he arrived he found Hela with a slight smile on her face as she said, “Welcome back.”