00163. 6 months in a flash.

September 2003

The project to expand the family shop took a little longer than expected. But now that it was completed, they could finally do everything in house if they wanted. The only issue was some of the equipment they purchased couldn't be operated just yet.

While Ben, Jacob, Jon and Sara were skilled and even specialized in certain aspects. Some of the equipment purchased was highly specialized and needed proper training to use correctly.

And while all of them were eager to learn, it would take a while to become proficient with the equipment. The CNC machines in particular required them to learn other things like CAD to be able to use it properly. There was also a waterjet cutter, a high end lathe, milling machine, and a cutting edge paint booth with a state of the art computer aided paint mixer.

But those weren't the only tools they purchased. Anything that was almost worn out or needed extra maintenance was replaced with brand new machines. It was mostly the tools that wouldn't be cost effective to fix properly. Besides that they also purchased some high end metal fabrication equipment.

Since they were a custom fabrication shop, they had a couple decent welders, pipe bender, press break and other things. But as they upgraded the shop, Jacob made sure to get everything they could possibly need. So the shop now had a couple top of the line welders, a proper welding table with every type of jig you could possibly need along with a bunch of other stuff Jacob wanted.

The very last thing that was purchased for the shop was a set of tools for Theo and Peter. Jacob made sure to get them both what he called a starter set. It was basically all the standard hand tools someone would need, along with some extra ten millimeter sockets and a small rolling tool chest. 

With that the shop was finished and had over doubled in size. They could easily bring more cars in to be worked on, but the only real problem now was man power. Since the team was so small, if they wanted to work on more cars, they would need more people.

Theo already anticipated this happening and made preparations early while the shop was being worked on. He checked with all the ninjas who had bodies and found a handful of people who were interested in cars and wanted to work on them.

His next step was getting them trained, so if they interviewed at the shop they could possibly get jobs. First he did some research and found some of the top people in the industry and copied their knowledge to his people. As for how, they just waited till the target was asleep before Inoichi and the person gaining the knowledge got to work.

With that Theo had over twenty people with a ton of knowledge about cars, engines, fabrication, upholstery, painting, CAD and more. The next step was practice and practical knowledge, so the whole time the shop was being worked on. Those people practiced in another shop Theo and his clones set up for them. Theo wasn't completely sure when his dad would hire new people, but he planned to be ready and the longer it took the better.

During that same time period Theo spent most of his time training. He trained in magic, fighting, fuinjutsu and ninja arts. The schedule was so packed that he ended up sending a clone to school for himself most days. He would always switch with it after school to go help out at his dad's shop though.

As for the secret organization, they slowly scouted out more recruits and some of which were Shield agents. Speaking of Shield, you would think with the group being over five years old, they would have cleaned up Shield by now. Unfortunately the problem wasn't that simple, with Fury's paranoid caution, Theo's knowledge and the fact Hydra was so splintered. It would never be a simple task to complete.

So far they had confirmed a little less than ten percent of people in Shield weren't Hydra moles. That might seem small, but Shield had a current global staff of over a hundred thousand people recruited from all over the world. Plus the process of checking each person took a minimum of a few weeks if not months.

Plus almost all of it had to be done by someone. Sure, Theo hacked into people's computers and other devices. But Hydra weren't fools and a lot of their interactions were old school and encrypted. They also communicated by computers, phone and other means. But all of those were made in house by Hydra. So unless Theo found a Hydra agent and had direct access to those devices, it was impossible for him to tap into them.

To make matters worse, the people they knew about like Jasper Sitwell, Wilfred Malick and Alexander Pierce only gave them so much information. As far as Theo could tell, no one had a full list of who was in Hydra. Besides the small factions inside of Hydra itself, the whole thing was designed into basically terrorist cells. So while they had discovered small pockets of people, they were still missing a lot of information. Hydra wasn't its crazy arrogant self from the civil war movie yet, apparently.

It also didn't help that his original plan failed. The phone software he created for Shield was stolen by Hydra. But after they tested it for a while, they never implemented it. While Theo didn't know the reason, he had a good guess. Most likely they couldn't crack the software and decided not to use it.

Theo didn't mind it though, since he knew that Hydra would only get bolder as time went on. Besides Hydra wasn't only in Shield, they were spread throughout the whole world hidden inside governments, businesses and the military. Theo was pretty sure that Hydra had a bigger members list then Shield did and that was kinda scary.

During that same six month period Theo's new project with Tony was almost completed. The smart home devices were thoroughly tested and currently in production. The announcement and release of the products was scheduled for the end of November, just in time to be sold for Christmas.

With the smart home device project basically completed, Theo also started a new project with Tony. Tony originally made a few different body cameras for him to test out and he had Madara and a few other ninjas do just that. They used them for a few months as they fought crime in different cities. Theo then took the footage of the people breaking the law and uploaded it to a new website he created.

The website was mainly designed so that the people they captured and turned into the police could be easily prosecuted. The other effect was to show off the utility of the body cam and how it could be used. With that in place Theo and Tony worked on getting police unions across the country into talks about using them. It was still early in the process, but Theo planned to have it adopted within the next few years at the latest.

The last project Theo started during the summer was Vibe Media Group. It was a subsidiary of Vibe and was focused on entertainment. Theo planned to bring any popular games, comic, anime, manga, book, movie and TV series from his old world to this one. Well, only if it wasn't created already. He did check if the people who created it in his world were alive here.

Unfortunately almost none of them existed in this world. He did find a few of them though, since this world had a lot of popular movies and TV shows he remembered. But there were slight differences in them compared to what was in his original world.

As for the entertainment Theo planned to produce first it was of course video games. He could easily use his clones for most of the work. For games that required voice acting he could use all the ninjas that now had bodies. Mocap work could also be done by them along with sound effects.

vvvvv

A portal opened up and Ezekiel stepped through it into Hel carrying a pizza box. As the portal closed behind him Hela looked in his direction as she greeted, "Welcome back."

Ezekiel placed the pizza down on the pub table next to Hela as he said in a cheeky tone, "Thanks for inviting me."

"How was your week?" Ezekiel asked as he pulled an ice cooler from his storage seal and opened it up to grab a root beer.

Hela frowned slightly and her eyes held a tiny hint of emotions as she said, "It was fine. I mostly watched the anime you recommended."

Ezekiel looked up just in time to notice Hela's frown and asked, "Is something the matter?"

Hela glanced at Ezekiel as her face went back to its normal appearance as she said, "No. Everything's fine."

"Are you sure? You normally have a hint of a smile when I'm here, but you were just frowning. Did something happen while I was gone?" Ezekiel asked as he sat down in his chair but kept looking at Hela.

Hela turned to face away from Ezekiel and her cheeks flushed the slightest tint of red as she said, "I do not smile."

After a few seconds as her face returned to normal she turned back to Ezekiel and said, "And nothing happened while you were gone."

Ezekiel unsealed the pizza box and opened it up as he said, "Alright, if you say so. But remember, if you ever want to talk. I'll always be glad to listen."

A few moments later a movie started playing and the two fell into silence as they ate and watched the movie. After almost an hour or so Hela quietly asked, "What would you do if…"

Ezekiel turned towards Hela to see her with her head down and her face filled with concern. Ezekiel frowned slightly as he asked, "What's wrong?"

Hela kept looking down as she said in a voice filled with fear, "You once asked to see my life… And depending on it you would possibly grant me my freedom from this place."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Yeah, it's one of the main reasons I came here."

"What. What if… What if you don't like what you find out?" Hela asked as her voice quivered softly.

"Find out? You mean about what you did during your life?" Ezekiel asked.

Hela nodded slightly before she asked in a voice that almost broke, "Would. Would you still be able to call me your friend if you found out I was actually a monster?"

Ezekiel was frozen in place as he watched Hela. Her whole body looked to be trembling and he noticed the eye he could see was tearing up. Ezekiel stood up from his chair and moved in front of Hela before he gently lifted her head up by her chin. Her eyes held a hint of fear and the edges were moist as Ezekiel stared into them. Before he leaned in closer and pulled her into a tight hug that was made awkward by the chains that covered her body.

As he hugged Hela, Ezekiel raised one hand up and gently stroked the back of her head as he said, "I would never think you're a monster."

Hela's body shook and her voice cracked slightly as she said, "But… You don't know me… You don't know what I've done."

Ezekiel pulled back and looked into Hela's eyes as he said. "It doesn't matter."

"But I." Ezekiel placed a gentle finger over Hela's lips before he asked, "I already said, it doesn't matter. Do you want to know why?"

Hela nodded, so Ezekiel removed his finger and placed it over her heart as he said, "Because I know that deep down, you're a good person. A person I consider a friend and nothing will ever change that."