HIATUS

THE MOMENT ETHAN LOST CONSCIOUSNESS:

"Sir, you have on an incoming call from Miss Ava", Alfred said to Howard Stark.

"Me? Where is Ethan's clone? Isn't he in charge of that?", Howard said as he looks at the hologram that was in front of him. The hologram that Howard was looking at was some design features that he wanted to add to Project Watchtower.

"It seems that all of the available clones that Sir Ethan had are gone sir", Alfred stated.

"All of them?", Howard said as he stops looking at the hologram that was in front of him and instead began to listen carefully to what Alfred was saying.

Alfred was the AI that Howard with the assistance of the Chronicoms had made a few years ago.  Due to the technology that the Chronicoms had, Alfred was incredibly advance, he is far better than Tony's AI, Jarvis.

"Yes, sir. The 5 clones in the Lighthouse, the 3 in sir Ethan's mansion, and the one in the head office of the Umbrella Corporation. They all vanish in a puff of smoke sir", Alfred stated through the speakers that could be found in the entire Lighthouse.

Shocked at what he heard, Howard immediately asked, "Did anyone saw the clone in the office disappear?". If someone saw Ethan's clone disappear in a puff of smoke then that would be a huge problem.

"No, sir. Luckily the moment the clone disappeared, he was alone in his office. But the disappearance of the CEO of the Company won't go unnoticed for long, especially since no one saw him leave. I estimate that in 30 minutes, sir Ethan's secretary will enter his office to send some documents for him to sign. She would be very much shocked to not see sir Ethan in the room", Alfred explained.

"Okay, accept the call and place and it in the hologram in front of me, but before that save my work", Howard said.

"Of course, sir", Alfred responded.

The hologram designed that was in front of Howard change into the face of Ava, she had a flustered look on her face.

"What the fuck happened?", Ava asked.

"So, it happened there too, huh? It seems all of Ethan's clone vanish in a puff of smoke", Howard said. Then suddenly a scary idea pops into the head of Howard and he immediately asked Ava, "The Phantoms! Without Ethan or his clones, who is controlling them?".

"Don't be frantic, Howard. Sir Ethan had places precautions for that. Since the Phantoms belong in the Summoning Category, sir Ethan had given as the summoning contract or in this case, the seal to control the Phantoms and all the reanimated just in case if something bad happens. Case an point this scenario", Ava said.

"Good, we don't want the Phantoms losing control and attacking anyone", Howard said.

"One good thing, I guess. The clone that was with me disappeared in the middle of our conversation between us and another faction,  that faction was against working with the Xandarians, which went bad when they saw the person they were talking to disappeared. This ruined our streak of successful missions from the Nova Empire. After all the mission we took for them just so we can gain a sort of rapport with them,  now it might as well be ruined. Thinking about this makes me go, agh!", Ava said in annoyance.

"Since this happened everywhere I think we should call everybody, right?", Howard said as he changes the topic back on track.

"Yes, I agree. Maybe not Erik though? and perhaps not Romanoff as well. Last I heard she is currently deep undercover somewhere", Ava said.

"Alfred, give us a rundown where everybody is", Howard said to Alfred.

"Yes sir,...It seems that both Sir Erik and Miss Romanoff are currently off the grid. Sir Erik is in Europe somewhere, and Miss Romanoff was sent by SHIELD to Spain a few days ago. Contacting them will bear no result. While both Sir Barnes and Sir Ward are currently on vacation. One is in the Philippines and the other is in Argentina, respectively. Would you like for me to contact them sir?", Alfred asked.

"Yes, and place them in the hologram", Howard said.

One by one the hologram of Ava was soon accompanied by the hologram of Barnes and Ward.

"I for one thought, I was in vacation", Ward said as he began sipping the juice out of the coconut that he was holding.

"Why did you call us Howard? Did something happen?", Barnes asked.

"Yes, all of Ethan's clones had vanished. Do any of you know why?", Howard asked.

"No"

"Not a clue"

"Where is the real Ethan though?", Barnes asked.

"Sir Ethan said that he will be in Kamar Taj, that was 48 hours and 14 minutes ago, sir Barnes", Alfred said.

"Oh, maybe something happened there. I'll go and check", Barnes said as his communication device.

"Ahhh...Did you see the necklace that he was wearing?", Ava asked.

The men on the call were confused, they didn't know why Ava would talk about the necklace that Bucky was wearing especially in a situation such as this.

"He and Romanoff are finally official! Imagine what their future babies would look like", Ava said.

"There dating?", Grant asked.

"Yeah, both of them were talking about the things that they went through, and soon they realize how alike their life story is. Lucky them, I want to find love too, you know", Ava said while pouting.

"cough...cough...I'm available if you want", Grant said with a sarcastic smile.

"Yuck, you're like a brother to me", Ava said with a smile on her face.

"Damn....", Grant said as he took the 'L'.

Howard just showed a slight smile because of this.

After a while of waiting, Bucky returned.

"He's in Kamar Taj. It seems that he was doing something there and he lost consciousness", Barnes said.

"Will he be waking up soon?", Howard asked.

"The Ancient One said that she doesn't know. So, it could be a few hours, days, or weeks. We have no clue when he'll wake up", Barnes said.

"Then we need to handle some of his responsibilities for a while then", Howard said.

The rest nodded in response.

"Grant, I need you to handle the Umbrella corporation. Let Barnes teleport you there.  Alfred will be there to assist you", Howard said.

"Me? I don't know how to run a company", Grant said.

"You can have an open line with me at all times, besides you are the only one that can transform into Ethan. So, that technically becomes your job. Hopefully, this will be over in a few days", Howard said to them.