00028. Using clones to learn is broken.

00028. Using clones to learn is broken.

To say that Fury was displeased would be an understatement. Fury was pissed, it had been a month since Ezekiel showed up at the base and all he has done is study books or programming. When Fury asked for an update on the Hydra list, all Ezekiel said was "I am still working on it. They are better at covering their tracks than I initially thought."

Ezekiel hadn't given them a single new lead and Fury was getting a little impatient, he needed time to plan, but he couldn't plan anything till he knew who to target. Ezekiel seemed to be wasting time on things that didn't matter currently and if something didn't change, Fury would have to take matters into his own hands.

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Over six months passed as Ezekiel waited for Xavier's reply. He was actually surprised it was taking so long, but he couldn't blame the man. Trying to convince a man like Magneto to talk with an unknown person, who has unknown powers couldn't be easy. He thought Xavier would have at least reached out about helping Logan, but they probably used his name to look up info about him.

As he waited his life formed a new routine. He would wake up and make a set of clones for The Ancient One to transport to the base. It was easy to hide, since she would pull him into the mirror dimension for a few moments, then put him back. He was able to make clones even on the weekends this way. Since his larger batch of clones lasted about a day, it worked out perfectly.

His clones over the past six months had read everything that he asked Sam for. He even sent different people in his clones to reread the college level books. Who knew that ninjas were taught to speed read, in case they needed to copy secrets from documents that they couldn't steal. It also helped that Ezekiel only sent the smartest people from Naruto's world. Doing so helped to expand his and everyone else's understanding of what they read. They had already transitioned into the practical lessons and set up a few labs. His clones were now doing practical exercises, to better understand everything and how it worked in this universe.

Fury had not been happy with Ezekiel, over how he had been spending his time. He had expressed his displeasure many times over the past few months, when they had their weekly meetings to go over projects, recruitment and other items. Ezekiel finally handed over a data packet full of info about Hydra to placate Fury some. The packet contained information of their bases, assets and personnel that Ezekiel had found so far. All of it was outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. since Ezekiel was still working on finding all of the double agents. Ezekiel wasn't worried about Fury using the info yet, the group needed a lot more people and Fury was the most paranoid person he had ever met. Fury wouldn't make a move till he was ready for checkmate in five different ways.

Speaking of recruitment, Ezekiel was able to vet everyone who was brought into the team which included a few sorcerers, thanks to The Ancient One. One of them was Master , which was a big shock to Ezekiel. The man seemed distant from everyone, but he did his job well as a teacher and helping portal people and materials in and out of the base. As for teaching, his students were Ava, Coulson, Sam, Grant, Hope and surprisingly Maria Hill and Fury. Ezekiel asked them why they wanted to learn magic and they both responded that portal travel was too good a skill not to learn.

Another thing that The Ancient One did was set up that spell array around the base. The base only had four points of entrance now, the main gate area, a secret exit tunnel, a portal entrance and a portal door to the beach island. The last one was added in since The Ancient One didn't want to deal with portaling the kids to and from the island. The island Ezekiel found out had more than just a nice beach, it was about twenty-five miles or so across at its longest point and had a mountain range in the middle of it that had snow on it most of the year. Something about magic made it possible to not melt. Besides that it had the clearest water in the world, it almost looked like a swimming pool with waves.

As for the kids, they seemed a lot more happy, they all had their own rooms, computers and everything else they asked for. Ezekiel and Sam had even set up a theater room for everyone. Fury wasn't too happy with that, but since Ezekiel supplied the budget for everything, he couldn't say much else. He had also explained that it could be used as a briefing room, which finally made Fury stop complaining about the waste of space as he saw it.

Besides his clones and the base, Theo had been busy himself. He was just over two and a half now and had spent as much time as he could training his skills and expanding his chakra. He could now make over twenty clones that last about thirty hours. It was improving his and everyone else's understanding faster with more clones rereading books, while others worked in the labs that were set up. He had almost finished his first main project and the side project he was building for S.H.I.E.L.D.. He had been programming a social media platform for the main project, but not a normal one. This one was an integration of all the best ideas from his old world.

It had everything all in one application and website. A main profile section that would be tied to a single person. From there they could enable other features they wanted to use. Its first section was a friends and family platform to keep in easy communication with people you might not see every day. You could share photos, videos, and talk about anything you wanted to with the people you were connected to on it.

Theo knew what was coming and let out a little sigh before he asked, "Yes, Milly?"

"Te-o, Will you read me a story?"

"Didn’t you say last night, if I read you a story you wouldn't ask tonight?"

"But Te-o reads the best stories. Te-o is better than daddy at story time." Milly was standing up in her crib and giving Theo her puppy dog eyes.

Theo had a new routine with Milly, she would give him that look and he would then read her a story till she fell asleep. Theo’s parents also had a new routine, when they were down stairs they would cuddle on the couch and listen to Theo reading a story to Milly over the baby monitor. The first time it happened, they were surprised, but after the first few times, it turned into something they enjoyed listening to and turned it into their nightly routine after they put the kids to bed.

Theo let out another sigh before he climbed out of his crib, went over to the book shelf and looked around for a few minutes. He had already read everything that was on the bookshelf to her at least twice now. So he decided to tell her a new story instead and walked over to Milly's crib, before he quickly climbed up into her crib. He looked over at her and said, "Come on, get in your bed properly or no story."

Milly laid back down and curled up under her blanket before she asked, "Te-o didn't bring a book, how can Te-o read me a story, without a book?"

Theo sat down next to Milly as he responded, "That is because I am going to tell you a whole new story. It's a story about magic, you like magic right?"

"Milly wants to be a fairy when she grows up."

Theo reached over and rubbed Milly's hair lightly for a moment as he said, "I am sure you will be a great fairy when you are older."

Theo removed his hand as he said, "Now then, let me tell you about ."

As Theo started the story, he looked over at Milly, who was looking at him with rapt attention. Theo would never say it out loud and always acted like it was a chore when she asked. But spending time like this with Milly was his favorite thing in the world to do. It was followed closely by spending time with his mother and father. While he might have his memories from his past life with him, he never felt so happy and complete in his old life. He tried to fill the gap with Sam and while he loved his son dearly, something was always missing. Something that Sam himself as an A.I. couldn’t properly fill up even after he gave himself emotions. Something that only a true family could give to Theo, unconditional love.