12 RAZA

Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar is an ambitious man.

He is not just a member of the ten rings… He is a conqueror!

Afghanistan is not the only place that will be under his rule. Under Xu Wenwu's Ten Rings, Raza believes that he can reach much higher places. For that, he needs to prove himself first.

Proving one's self, then promotion has been always the logical step. However, Raza sees a shortcut on a man by the name of Obadiah Stane.

Raza fears that his selfishness is clouding his judgment so he sent one of his people, Ahmed, to infiltrate Obadiah's security detail through Hell's Kitchen's recommendation. Obadiah however doesn't know this…

In a week's time, Ahmed should be ending his contract with Stane soon and should be on his way back here in Afghanistan. Raza has been waiting for some time for Ahmed's news. But one week and some days have passed, and he still gets nothing which rouses his suspicions.

Waiting for the phone call from his subordinate, Raza finally receives one. To his surprise, it wasn't Ahmed, but Obadiah Stane himself.

"This is Obadiah Stane speaking… Is this Raza of the Ten Rings?"

Raza almost drops the phone in his hand. The Ten Rings is a secretive organization. No one directly addresses them by name. Raza can only assume that Ahmed was found out and cracked on their interrogation which impresses him.

Someone who receives training from the upper-class warriors of the Ten Rings is considered a strong person. Even Raza who receives his training from the highest-class warrior, Death Dealer, doesn't look down on those who trained under the upper-class warriors.

The reason is simple… It is their tolerance to pain and torture. Raza can only think of the freaky tech that the Americans come up with on the fly.

"What do you want?" Raza gravely asks Obadiah.

"Cooperation… I already have a contract in my mind… How should we do this? Do you want me to send an email? Fax? How do you usually do it?"

Raza smirks… Looks like Obadiah didn't come for trouble.

"The Ten Rings' grasp is everywhere. We don't need the guarantee of some flimsy contracts. What could a paper even guarantee me? Mr. Stane… The Ten Rings operate on trust… Tell me what you want, and I'll tell you what I want…"

Raza hears Obadiah laughing from the other side of the phone. Obadiah reigns in his laughter.

"Do you want money? If it is a hitman kind of job, how much do you usually ask?"

"You want to know my price? Unfortunately, I am not a hitman, not a salesman even… I am a terrorist... You see, Mr. Stane it was you who came to me first, and not the other way around. Tell me, who is it that you want dead?"

"Hmmm… My nephew... just a rich asshole. He is Stark industries' current CEO… he lacks ambition, loves to show off, and most of all despite his bad qualities, he has a patriotic heart… If you ask him to sell you weapons, he'd surely not entertain you and he might as well go to extra lengths of selling his merchandise at a discount to the military just because you asked him to sell to you… He is that kind of man."

Raza shuts up. Obadiah knows too much of him and knows that he wants weapons. In terms of information, Raza is on the losing side. The only saving grace to this is that Obadiah seems to be quite amiable for a partnership.

"Fine, you'll have your deal… Just promise me you'd get me my weapons. If you renege on this, remember that the Ten Rings have a grasp of anything."

"Excellent…"

Coming to an agreement, Raza brings down his phone and ends his conversation with Obadiah.

Meanwhile, in Obadiah's office, he has this full smile on his face. The information he received from Stray is worth it. At first, Obadiah is doubtful if his two-billion dollars is worth it.

But with two-billion dollars alone, Obadiah gets a connection with the Ten Rings and also at the same time information on where to get the tech to propel himself to power, fame, and money.

In front of Obadiah is a picture of a man by the name of Ivan Antonovich Ivanko.

With a few dialing, Obadiah contacts an old acquaintance. "Russo! How are you doing, my friend… I have a job for you… Have you been to Pakistan? I haven't… What do you say about a quick job for me there… Locate and extract… it is easy money, you don't have to exchange bullets with anyone. I'll pay you handsomely…"

…

While the world is trying to screw with the ignorant Tony Stark, Morgan has to suffer greatly.

Under the alias, 'Maguna Morgan', Morgan was able to get herself a job in Stark industries as an intern. Showing her talents, and genius to Tony Stark, she was able to have the man himself take a liking to her. That was the easy part.

Now, the hard part is when Tony starts screwing other women. Morgan is enduring quite well as she was able to learn things about her father from her mother. The playboy, philanthropist, and visionary Tony Stark after all is such a man.

Morgan doesn't like what she is seeing, but she cannot rush things. This kind of love thing takes time. Strangely, Tony isn't making any advances to her which Morgan is thankful for. It is creepy if a dude starts hitting on a 15-year-old girl who is his daughter. Sure, Morgan did fake her age, but she thinks, a true playboy would at least make a move on her.

As Tony Stark's closest aide, she is responsible for a lot of things. Checking up on hotels, going to the casino with the man himself, and even sending flowers to the playboy's girlfriends. Honestly, Morgan is sick of it.

Finally, a change of pace presents itself to her. Tony Stark's kidnapping and his account of the matter is a hidden story from the world. Not to Morgan though as one of the stories her mom tends to tell her is Ironman's origin story.

With her own scheming, Morgan was able to sneak herself to Tony's itinerary of demonstrating Stark industries' new weapon— the Jericho missile.

"How the hell are you even here? You are everywhere, kid…" Tony complains to Morgan who was sitting in front of him. They are riding on a private airplane, and everywhere the eye can see is just clouds, and clouds, and more clouds.

"Mr. Stark. I am your closest aide. I am anywhere but here…" Morgan sighs in exasperation. It has been more than one instance in that Tony Stark tries to shake off Morgan. Today is just not the day for Morgan to miss things out.

"Maguna, why are you so eager to prove yourself? Is it a family matter?" Tony curiously asks Morgan to which Morgan just shrugs off by laughing.

"Maybe, I don't know. I just like working for you, Mr. Stark…"

"That… That, you see that, right? You are so eager… You see, I also did some things like you. I also faked my age once… You, little miss, faked your age to 20 years old… That's too much, you could have tried 19 or 18, you know…"

This is not something Morgan can just shrug off by laughing. Hearing Tony call her 'little miss' is a different matter though. Morgan feels a sense of happiness inside her as she recalls her dad usually calls her a 'little miss' bringing her both happy and sad memories.

"15 years old, that's my real age…"

"Damn, we could be sued for child labor here. What I can promise you Maguna is that I'd never rat on you…" Tony says with an awkward smile. Learning of Morgan's true age rattles him. "Oh god, what is the HR doing? I was thinking maybe you are 17, but 15? That's too much, isn't it? How did HR not know this? Ha ha ha…"

"If you are thinking of firing someone, then don't. Give them a bonus instead for finding a treasure like me." Morgan smugly defends the people from HR. "The HR after all was very impressive. Did you know? Hacking their system took me a good long week! That's something else! Usually, I only need half a day to hack into a bank!"

"…"

The two of them arrive at their location. Greeting them outside the plane is William Gabriel, a high-ranking officer of the US air force. After some pleasantries, they proceed on to the military jeepneys. Morgan is still in tow.

Tony smirks at Morgan sitting beside him as he brings the conversation back on track. "Forget a bonus, they'd get a pay raise instead so that they can do a better job…"

There is no out-boasting a Stark. It just happens that Morgan is a Stark too. "Yeah, sure… But you have to do something with the IT guy. That dude deserves a promotion."

"Yeah, and I'll promote Natalie too… That sexy lass from Notary Public?"

"Yeah and what? You'd replace Ms. Potts with this Natalie?"

"W-what? Isn't that too much? I'll just promote the janitor then… Duke is really great at his job."

"Come on, man… Just promote Natalie, then you promote Ms. Potts."

"You want me to make Ms. Potts COO?"

"No, just promote her into your wife and make Natalie your secretary."

"…"

The bickering just never stops. Morgan likes this. No, she loves it. It is like all of her time with her father stolen from her is… here… in this timeline… returning to her…

Morgan however doesn't want this world to remain just a timeline or as fragments of the memory of the past… She wants more… She wants an alternate timeline just for herself, a universe with a Tony Stark.