A Portal opened up inside Tony's workshop and Ezekiel stepped through it to find it empty. Normally when Tony was home he spent most of his time in his shop. It was the first time Ezekiel came to visit Tony and he wasn't in the place. Now that he thought about it, Ezekiel never stepped out of Tony's workshop himself.

After giving it some thought, Ezekiel decided to go find Tony and maybe explore his house a little. He moved towards the security door and moved up into the house. As he climbed the stairs he could hear Tony talking with someone.

Tony said, "I’m telling you, whatever tech he uses is beyond cutting edge. He can somehow fold space and travel wherever he wants in an instant."

"I think you might need to cut back on your drinking. No matter how many times you describe it, it sounds like magic, Tony."

Tony let out a groan and said, "That's exactly what he calls it. Magic."

"Are you sure he isn't a meta-human?"

Tony let out an exasperated sigh before he said, "He could be, I've seen him move way too fast to be a normal human. But when I asked him about his portals. He told me they were made with magic."

"Alright, so where is this new magician friend of yours? You said he comes by all the time, but I still haven't met him."

"He said he needed to take care of some things and wouldn't be by for a while."

The man chuckled as he said, "I think you, Happy and Pepper are trying to play a joke on me."

"I told you, it's the guy from the Las Vegas video."

"Uh huh. But yet you have no idea how to contact him."

Tony sounded frustrated as he said, "I can contact him. Well, maybe. But I would have to try and hack his servers again…"

"Tony Stark, afraid to hack someone else's computer servers? That's new."

Tony let out a nervous chuckle before he said, "He told me, he would permanently ban me from the Vibe platform if I tried to hack it again. And I’m in the top ten, of the most followed people on the platform!”

The other person started to laugh as Ezekiel moved into the large living room area. Ezekiel glanced at Tony before he looked at the other person and said, "And I will too. I figured threatening to destroy some of Tony's servers wouldn't stop him from trying again."

Tony jumped up from his seat as he said, "You're back! What the hell took you so long?"

The other man stood up from his seat and turned around. He wore casual clothes and stood the same height as Tony. His skin was a rich chocolate color, while his black hair was cut short. His dark brown eyes glanced at Tony for a moment before he said, "You must be Ezekiel."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "And you're James Rhodes. One of the few people who can put up with Tony's over inflated ego."

James smiled as he said, "Someone has to, otherwise he would have no friends.”

“I’m right here you know!”

Ezekiel moved forward with his hand extended as he said, "Ain't that the truth. It's nice to meet you, by the way.”

James, who looked a lot like his movie counterpart from Iron Man two, took Ezekiel's hand. As they shook hands he said, "And you as well."

Tony stepped next to them as he said, "Ezekiel, Rhodey. Rhodey, Ezekiel. Alright, you're friends now."

Tony turned to Ezekiel as he said, "Now, show him the portal thing."

As Ezekiel stepped back a bit he said, "I'm not some pet, I don't do tricks on command."

Tony had a pleading look as he said, "Come on just one portal. Please. He doesn't believe you can make them."

Ezekiel glanced at Rhodey as he said, "I never noticed how much he acts like a child."

Rhodey nodded in agreement as he said, "I've known him since college and I still have no idea how he gets with so many girls."

"He's rich." Ezekiel said.

Tony nodded and added, "I'm also handsome and charming."

"You’re also egotistical and kind of an asshole.” Rhodey said with a smile.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Ezekiel nodded as he added. “And a lush.”

Tony frowned as he said, “Not even a minute and you guys are already teaming up on me.”

Rhodey shrugged as he said, “You kinda make it easy.”

Ezekiel smirked as he said, “He’s right. As to your earlier question, I was busy.”

“Well, leave a phone number or something for next time. I wanted to talk about the project a few times, but you weren’t around. Plus what the heck were you doing, it’s been over four months.” Tony finished as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“What project? Are you making a new weapon or something?”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “Smartphones and tablets.”

Tony nodded as he said, “It’s kind of a big secret right now and I am currently testing the prototypes.”

Tony pulled out a sleek looking black device about seven inches long by three inches wide and about half an inch in depth. He pushed on the front glass and the screen flickered on to show a picture of Tony with four half naked girls with him in a bed. Thankfully Tony was still in clothes. He flicked his finger over the screen in a pattern and the phone unlocked to show the home screen. Another picture of Tony was on the screen this time sitting in a car, a girl's head was in his lap…

Ezekiel shook his head as Rhodey said, “Ummm, I don’t want to know.”

Tony smiled as he said, “It’s just some road head and you can’t see my dick or anything.”

Rhodey waved his hand at the phone as he asked in a slightly annoyed voice, “This is your new project?”

Ezekiel grabbed the phone from Tony as he said, “Yes… But Tony isn’t showing you the reason for it.”

“Don’t look through the picture folder!” Tony exclaimed as he tried to take the phone back.

Ezekiel glared at Tony as he said, “I wasn’t going to, no one wants to see your penis.”

Ezekiel turned the phone to Rhodey as he said, “This will be the future. It’s not only a phone or a camera. It’s a whole computer in your pocket.”

Ezekiel opened up the web browser which was opened to a porn site with the tag redheads highlighted. Both Ezekiel and Rhodey turned to look at Tony who flushed and said, “Maybe we should use one of the other test phones and not my personal phone for this.”

Ezekiel handed the phone back to Tony as he said, “How about we just give him one of the models to test with?”

Tony closed his phone quickly and as he placed it back in his pocket he asked, “Are you sure? I thought you wanted to keep it a secret?”

“None of them have logos, right? He could just say it’s some government project. Plus I want to take a few and give them to some people for testing.”

Tony nodded in understanding as he asked, “I have four different models ready for testing and I already gave one to Pepper and Happy.”

“So I get to be a beta tester?” Rhodey asked, before he continued, “It won’t be as fun as the jet you made, but this is probably safer.”

“The jet is totally fine.” Tony smiled as he said, “If it wasn’t, the Air Force wouldn’t have bought a hundred of them.”

Rhodey had a frown as he asked, “After how many crashes? Fifteen?”

“The test pilots pushed them too hard and we needed to work out the kinks.”

“I was one of the test pilots!”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “Are you guys finished, or do you need a room?”

Before Rhodey could speak Tony said, “No, we're good. Let's get him a phone and then let's get some dinner.”

Rhodey nodded as he said, “Food sounds good to me.”

After that they headed down to Tony’s workshop. Rhodey was given one of the higher end test phones and Ezekiel took the rest. When they figured out what they were gonna eat, Tony called Happy down to join them.

As Happy entered the room he asked, “What car do you wanna take, boss?”

Tony smiled as he pointed at Ezekiel who was off to the side playing with one of the phones. Happy nodded in understanding as Tony said, “Alright, lets go!”

Ezekiel glanced up before he let out a sigh and said, “Fine.”

Ezekiel spun his right arm around and a portal opened up in the middle of the room. Rhodey’s eyes widened as he looked at the portal. Tony smirked as he patted Rhodey’s shoulder and said, “I told you. Now let's go eat!”

After a few moments, everyone moved through the portal and it snapped closed behind them. They were in an alleyway with no one else in it. As Rhodey touched the side of one of the buildings Tony asked, “So where are we?”

“You said you wanted Italian food right?” Ezekiel smiled as he walked forward and said, “You won’t find a better place than in Rome.”

vvvvv

It was late in the night and Ezekiel had returned everyone to Tony’s house after dinner. Before he left, he gave Tony his email address. Since Tony started complaining about Ezekiel disappearing after drinking over a whole bottle of wine by himself. As Ezekiel appeared in his training room, he smiled as he saw Tao and Agatha chatting and drinking tea.

He moved towards them both as he said, “I brought you both a surprise.”

Both women looked over to Ezekiel as he pulled out the two extra test phones. He handed one to each of them as he said, “These are the beta phones me and Tony are working on. I was hoping both of you would like to test them out for me.”

Tao examined the device for a few moments before she asked, “Won’t Tony be able to track these?”

Ezekiel shook his head, “They’re on my network and I already checked them for anything hidden. Tony didn’t hide anything, he is too afraid of being banned from Vibe.”

Agatha smiled as she said, “I don’t really have a use for a device like this.”

Tao nodded and tried to return it to Ezekiel as she said, “Neither do I.”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “Just check it out and play with it. If you don’t like it after a week I will find someone else to test it for me.”

Both women nodded and accepted the phones. By the end of the week, both women found the phones useful and didn’t return them to Theo.