00034. First one found.
Bringing everyone out of the genjutsu, Ezekiel smiled as he said, "Alright now that we are all on the same page, I will introduce you to the current Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. She is called The Ancient One and I would treat her with respect. She is a lot older than all of you combined and can easily crush you in a fight."
Ezekiel turned to Xavier and said, "I know you reading someone's mind is pretty much an automatic response, but control yourself. While you might be able to enter her mind, you might not come back out unless she lets you. So please behave yourself."
Xavier nodded in reply before Ezekiel said, "You can come out wherever you like."
The air shimmered next to Ezekiel before it cracked and a bald woman in yellow robes appeared next to him. She gave a non-threatening smile and said, "I am The Ancient One, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, it is a pleasure to meet you all." She bowed slightly to everyone before she looked at Xavier and said, "You lack control, I can feel your mind reaching out to mine even as you force it not to."
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After coming to an agreement with Xavier and Magneto, the next six months flew by for Theo. Theo turned three along with Peter, MJ and Jean, while Milly turned two. During that time, Theo and his clones had finished his social media platform and stealth launched all the starter platforms of it. It hadn't blown up yet, but it had over three hundred thousand registered users and was starting to pick up steam. Theo had targeted college and university students the most, but other people were starting to take notice and join.
The video platform was the second most used with over one hundred thousand users. There were already a few people that seemed to be focusing on creating and uploading content. The image hosting platform was the least used out of everything that was created. But it was expected since almost no smart phones currently had cameras that were reasonably priced for the average consumer. There were a few photographers who were using it to display their work, but the platform currently only had a few thousand members.
As for the yet to be named group Theo had brought together. Besides recruitment which was slow going, it was mostly training, gathering Intelligence and searching for hidden bases. We had found a few, but we didn't wanna make a move unless we had enough people for the fallout if things went sideways. That and the only two bases that were priority targets were Bucky's and the Weapon-x facility. As for the Intelligence gathering, with the new software that Theo had made for S.H.I.E.L.D. phones, that went better than expected. They adopted it after a week, the encryption is considered a work of genius and Sam was promoted for it. He has some extra responsibilities now, but one of Theo's clones takes care of all the work.
Another thing Theo had been doing was buying up property in the New York area. Mostly around where Stark would build his tower, but he was also buying a large area in Brooklyn. He had plans to make a headquarters for his social media platform. He planned to make some really interesting buildings with small businesses on the ground floor, the office space for workers above that. Then after the fifteenth floor it would all be housing. He wanted to buy a few city blocks and then make a private park for the buildings between them all.
As for Theo’s personal life with his family, besides the birthdays. Theo had finished the alpha of his game, with help from Peter. Peter read the programming book with help from Theo and wanted to help. So it turned into a joint project, with input from Milly who didn't want to be left out. It was basic and the graphics weren't great and everything was made of blocks. But his little sister loved to play it. Even his parents enjoyed it, they mostly watched Milly, Peter or Theo play-test it for bugs. But Theo’s BlockCraft was looking to be a hit. Peter's parents were completely surprised when they heard that Theo had made a video game.
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"Wait, you aren't being serious right now are you?"
Jacob smirked at one of the men he considered a brother and said, "If you weren't so busy working all the time both of you would have heard about it a few months ago."
Richard shook his head and said, "Me and Mary have deadlines we need to meet and the project was a lot harder than we expected. We had a lucky break though, so we are taking a month off to spend more time with Peter."
Jacob reached out and patted Richard's shoulder as he said, "Good. Even though Ben and May treat him like their own, he still needs his real parents too."
Richard nodded before he asked again, "You really aren't joking around about this? Theo is the one who programmed that game?"
Jacob nodded the smirk on his face full of pride as he said, "He found a how to code book at the library and wanted to read it. When he proved to us that he memorized the whole book in a few days, we decided to let him make something. This is what he came up with, he also had Peter and Milly help him."
"But he is barely three years old, to be able to memorize that book… To even program something like that… He might just be the next Tony Stark or Reed Richards!"
Jacob smirked again and said, "He's not the only one."
Richard looked at Jacob in surprise as he asked, "Milly is just as gifted?"
Jacob chuckled before he said, "While Milly is very smart for her age, Peter might be as smart as Theo. Peter was so enthralled by the concept that Theo was making a video game, he started reading the same programming book. He might have been slower, but now he and Theo brainstorm ideas on how to add things to the game. Theo said Peter helped him come up with about twenty percent of the current game code."
Richard looked in shock at his son, who was sitting next to Milly and Theo. They were currently letting Milly play the game and whenever an error came up they would save the error log file. Then reload the game from the last save file and let her continue to play as they talked excitedly about what they should add to the game next. Before they could come to a decision, Richard had come over and picked up Peter as he asked. "You learned how to program?"
Peter smiled proudly at his father and said, "Big brother Theo taught me."
Richard hugged his son tightly for a moment and said, "Let's go tell you mother how smart you are."
Peter's face lit up, before he frowned a little and said, "But me and Theo are still working."
Richard's face fell a little as Jacob laughed before he said, "Doesn't feel that great when it's used on you uh?"
Richard nodded his head mutely before Theo spoke up and said, "We can take a break for now. It will take us a while to figure out how to program the stuff we already came up with."
Peter nodded along to what Theo said before he smiled and told his dad, "Let's go see mother."
Richard smiled and walked out of the living room into the kitchen holding Peter. As they walked into the room, Richard could be heard saying, "Mary, guess who is a little genius."
Jacob smiled down at Theo and Milly as he said, "I still can't believe you guys made this."
"It wasn't hard after you read that book."
Jacob smirked at his son as he said, "I tried, but I couldn't understand that book at all. Give me an engine to fully rebuild over that stuff any day of the week."
Theo smiled up at his dad as Mary walked in from the kitchen holding Peter in her arms and said, "Let's see this little game you are making with Theo."
Mary walked over next to Jacob and said, "Richard said the kids were making a new game, but didn't wanna tell me about it. He said I needed to see it for myself. Where is it at?"
Jacob smirked and said, "Milly is currently playing it."
Mary looked at the computer screen for a few moments before she started to laugh lightly. She looked back at Jacob and said, "I know the kids are smart but this joke is a bit much."
"It's not a joke, Aunt Mary. We made this game ourselves."
Mary chuckled again as she set Peter down in the chair next to Theo. She ruffled Theo’s hair as she said, "If you guys made this, then prove it."
Theo smirked as he told Milly, "Milly save the game and then try to pick up a bucket of water again."
"Okay Te-o."
Milly walked over to some water, opened up her inventory and pulled out a bucket. She then saved the game before she tried to pick up a bucket of water. The game crashed and an error log file came up. Milly turned to look at Theo and asked, "Now what do I do?"
Let Peter have your seat, he is gonna fix it. Milly nodded and got out of her seat as Peter said, "I don't know if I can fix it Theo."
Theo smiled as he patted Peter's shoulder and said, "You will be fine, the log file is right there. Just read what it says and you will figure it out."
Peter still wasn't sure, but switched places with Milly. Mary watched quietly as Peter studied the log file for a while, before he opened up a program and lines and lines of code could be seen. He hit ctrl F, then typed in a few things before he started looking through the results. After a while he stopped and looked at the code in front of him for a bit. He pulled up the log file again and compared it to the code, after a few minutes he started to change the code. Everyone was quiet as they watched, Theo had a brilliant smile as he knew Peter had figured out the proper way to fix the issue. It took a few minutes, but Peter finished typing, saved his work as a new copy. Then closed everything and restarted the game and loaded the save game. He clicked the water with the bucket and it was filled, no error came up this time.
Peter turned around with the biggest smile on his face and said, "I did it by myself!"
Theo smiled back and was about to speak when Mary said, “Yes, yes you did sweetie. That was incredible.”
Peter was practically glowing from his mothers praise as she asked, “How come no one told us about this?”
May, who had walked into the room at some point said, “I did tell you, a few times. If I remember correctly, you said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful, I am glad he is having fun.’ or something like that.”
Mary actually looked embarrassed before she said, “Sorry.”
Peter was still smiling, but it wasn’t as bright as before. May gently pushed Mary towards Peter as she said, “Peter has really missed you guys, how about you go out and do something as a family.”
Mary nodded her head as she picked up Peter and asked, “What can mama do to make it up to you hunny?”
Peter thought about it for a while before he said, “Can we go to Coney Island?”
“Coney Island? Sure we can go there.”
Peter looked at Theo and Milly before he asked, “Can Theo and Milly come with us?”
“Sure, we can take everyone and make it a family trip. If they want to join us that is.”
May said, “Sounds like a good idea to me, what about you Jacob?” Jacob nodded his head in reply.
Milly looked at her dad and asked, “What is cone-e island?”
Jacob picked up Milly and said, “It’s a fun place that has games and rides. I don’t think you can do many of the rides, but they have cotton candy.”
“Candy?!? Milly likes candy.”
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Fury, Peggy, Steve, Hank, Coulson, Hill, and Tao were seated in a briefing room with Ezekiel who called them for an emergency meeting. On the wall monitor another group of people were gathered together. Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, Logan, Storm, and Beast were also called to join the meeting. For Magneto and the others they only saw Ezekiel and the other people beside Tao were all blurred out. They had been a little upset with not knowing who they were working with at first. But had gotten used to it after Ezekiel said they needed to earn the others trust first before they would share their identity.
Fury was the first to speak once everyone was seated and said, “I was in the middle of handling a very important issue, this better be good.”
Magneto looked like he was about to speak when Ezekiel said, “Hope you haven’t had lunch yet.” The screens for both groups changed and displayed what first looked like a small banquet room that was covered in red paint. On closer look you could see parts of chopped up bodies all over the room. The picture changed and showed the room from different angles, each time you could notice little things that you couldn’t see the first time.
Fury stood up as he shouted, “THOSE ARE CLASSIFIED!”
Fury’s outburst was actually beeped out for the other group, but they did see the person stand up and say something. Ezekiel had a program to bleep out anything that might give away who Fury and the others are. It would also change their voices and blur out what they looked like. Ezekiel smiled at Fury and said, “They might be, but they are why I called you here.”
Ezekiel looked at the screen and said, “I finally found one of our targets.”
Steve spoke up and asked, “Did Bucky do that?”
Ezekiel shook his head and said, “No, this was done by a young girl.”
Fury slightly glared at Ezekiel as he pointed at the screen and asked, “How do you know a kid did that?”
“I was able to find some images before and after she left the room.”
Fury slammed a hand down on the table as he said, “Did you erase all of the camera footage from around the area?”
“No, someone else did that, and they did a great job of covering their tracks. But I was able to recover the data.”
Fury shook his head as he sat back down and said, “I wish you would share that tech with us.”
“You know exactly why I haven’t shared it yet.”
Fury didn’t reply but Xavier spoke up and asked, “So why is this important to us?”
The screen changed and it showed a young girl about twelve years old going into a room, after a while that same girl came out of the room soaked head to toe in blood and gore. Ezekiel pulled up a good picture of the girl and said, “Meet X-23, she is a clone of Logan and we are going to rescue her, her mother and anyone else we find, when we raid the base she is being kept at.”