00160. A weird feeling.

00160. A weird feeling.

The sound of fists hitting flesh could be heard as two boys fought with each other. It wasn't a normal school yard fight though, since both boys flickered around the training area faster than the eye could see. And both of them traded more blows with each other in a minute, then professional fighters would during an entire fight.

The high speed fight was watched over by a handful of other kids who tracked the boys with practiced ease. The fight didn't seem to have a clear winner at first, but as it dragged on, it became clear one of the boys was losing steam. After another minute or so the boy collapsed on the ground, completely exhausted.

Theo stood over his defeated foe and let out a tired sigh before he asked, “Why can't you be like the others?”

The other boy used the last bit of his strength to roll over as he said, “Because your skills are lacking. Besides, you only won because you have more chakra!”

“And you fighting with me till you collapse helps me in what way exactly?” Theo asked.

“The longer we fight the faster you improve.”

Theo reached down and helped the other boy up as he said, “Don't use that as an excuse, you’re just a battle maniac, Madara.”

“Pretty much. Even in a completely new world you haven't changed one bit.” Hashirama said.

“It's just the power of youth! With our new bodies it burns even brighter than normal!” A boy in green spandex said.

Theo glanced over to his new training partners and couldn’t help but smile slightly. After the first group were given time to adjust to their bodies. Theo basically started a fight club with a handful of them. The group only had nine members currently if he included himself, but would definitely grow in time.

The only reason the group was currently so small, was that the first group mostly contained non combatants. Plus the second and larger group were still adjusting to their new bodies. It would be another few weeks before they were ready for any type of combat focused chakra training.

Theo glanced at the boy in green spandex as he said, “You're up, Guy.”

“Yosh! Let's show everyone a brilliant display of youth!” Guy said as he gave a thumbs up with his brilliant smile.

A blonde haired boy chuckled before he said, “This is the last spar, then you need to practice fuinjutsu.”

He even tested out a few of the prototypes and could only shake his head in pity. With what they wanted to bring to market, Theo was sure most of the companies would give up after a year or two. A couple of them would definitely tough it out and try to take some of the market share. But unless something drastic happened, Tony's phones would always hold the lion's share of the mobile market.

As for the phone project for the US government, it was still being worked on. The amount of paid government employees was ridiculous and Theo was positive half of their jobs didn't need to exist. So far all of the higher up positions in the government had phones, the main issue was everyone else. He focused on the federal government first, then state and local last.

Once that was completed he planned to branch out to government agencies. Then law enforcement, first responders and others. Tony fought back against the idea a bit, since the contracts weren't going to make much money. But he agreed to have Stark Industry's bid for all the contracts they could, since Theo promised him more alien technology.

As for expanding the phones into other countries and governments, that was a slow process. A few were already in talks, but a lot of them were on the fence since they were made by a US based government contractor. While China, Russia and a few other countries flat out refused even talking with Stark.

Theo didn't mind though because no country banned the cell phones outright. Since that was the case, it couldn't stop him from sending phones as gifts to import people in power. So sooner or later they would end up in the hands of most government officials of every country. It was a more roundabout way, but if it worked, Theo would complain.

vvvvv

It was a Friday and something felt off to Theo. It started just after he woke up and he couldn’t figure out why. Breakfast with his family, school and then helping out at his dad’s shop. All day he felt weird, it was if someone or something was watching him. He used a couple spells when he was alone to figure out what was going on, but he found nothing abnormal.

When he finally returned home with his family was when that weird feeling finally peaked. Something about his house was off, like someone had been inside the house while his family was out. Nothing looked out of place and Theo didn’t see anything wrong, but he knew someone else had entered the house. Theo used a few spells on the house to make sure nothing was wrong and sent a quick text message to Tao and Agatha asking them to look into it themselves before he joined his family for dinner.

At dinner the feeling lingered and for the first time since Theo put protection spells on his family, he regretted not doing something to the house itself. He considered it of course, but his main concern at the time was making sure his family was okay if something happened. Well and the fact that large scale protection spells on a stationary object like a house could have unintended consequences. The main one is it lights up the whole place like a Christmas tree to people who can sense magic. Sure if he had Tao build them, she could negate or fix most of the issues, like she did for the bases and Genosha. But when Theo brought up the idea, she refused because she wanted Theo to do it as a new form of training.

Theo ended up giving up on the idea at the time, since he had a lot of other projects going on at the time that were more important. It would also take up most of his time to learn the skills properly since it involved rune magic engraving, magical item creation and a few other skills Theo only touched on. In hindsight Theo should have at least added a sensor spell or two, or maybe even a clone to watch over the house.

As he ate dinner with his family, he thought of different things he could implement going forward and wondered if Tao and Agatha found anything. He already planned to switch with a clone after dinner so he could talk with them and also brainstorm a few ideas on how to safeguard his family's home going forward until his main projects to protect his family were completed.

Once he finished dinner, Theo helped with the dishes before he went downstairs to his room and created a clone. As the clone headed upstairs, Theo moved to his closet and transported to his training room. When he appeared in the room he turned towards Tao’s area and froze.

A man’s voice rang out as he said, “Good to see you Ezekiel. Or should I just call you Theodore or do you prefer Theo more?”

Theo’s eyes narrowed and his voice was raised as he asked, “How did you find me?”