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Chapter 227 - 00226. A date?

The next six months flew by quickly and winter break was soon approaching. During that time Theo's personal life was extremely calm with the only major thing being summer break. His whole extended family went on vacation again for a month and Jacob gave everyone else in the shop paid vacation for the same time period.

During the summer vacation they traveled around in some rented RV's and visited a lot of national parks. They also stopped at a few amusement and water parks, but the main focus was camping and outdoor activities as they explored different places. While it wasn't exactly on Theo's list of stuff he wanted to do, it wasn't bad sitting around a campfire with his family as they watched the stars and hung out.

Besides that, Theo entered his second year of Jr high school once the new school year started and he also implemented a safety barrier to his mind defense. With Jean now being trained properly to control her powers, Theo added an extra layer to his already formidable defense. It didn't actually protect his mind in the normal sense, so much as it added an extra layer that obfuscated it.

It was designed to make his "mind" look like anyone else's and could even be "read" by someone. While his real mind was hidden not only by magic, but chakra techniques, some special fuinjutsu seals and lastly by the ninjas who decided to stay in it. There was still a chance that Jean with the help of the phoenix force could blast through everything. But with the new mind in its place, almost no one would be able to tell that it was fake.

The technique was the combined work of Theo, Tao, Agatha, some Yamanaka clan members and Tobirama. It was chakra based and the best part was it didn't have a continuous cost to upkeep the skill, just the initial power needed to activate it. Once activated it remained in place until it was destroyed or dispelled by the user. It even worked when the user was asleep.

The downside was if someone probed into the "mind" created by that skill, it would slowly use up the chakra that controlled it. To counteract that issue, Theo just overcharged the skill with chakra and would reapply the technique every few weeks. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it worked for now and Tobirama was in the process of working with some Uzumaki seal masters to make a permanent version. The plan was for the seal to be placed on a person and it would use ambient magically energy to power the technique, since it acted as natural energy for people with chakra.

During that same six month time frame, Theo in his Ezekiel persona had Vibe launch a few more service platforms. The gaming platform was the main one that went live first. It already existed in a beta state and worked decently, but with the one point zero release it had a ton of features that made it very similar to gaming platforms he knew about before he crossed over. He took all the best features from each one and combined them into one platform and also linked it to Vibe.

The second platform he launched was something to go along with the gaming platform. It was based on popular communication platforms and while it was mostly meant for voice chat, it had secondary functions for text and video communication. While it could be used as a stand alone program if people wanted, it also had the ability to integrate into any of the other Vibe platforms. With the most popular one being the gaming platform.

As for the last two platforms launched, they were technically tied together. The main one was a platform for content creators that gave them the chance to earn money from fans. Whether they were writers, musicians, popular streamers or just models, the platform allowed them to connect with fans. As for what the creators gave to their fans in exchange for support varied on the creator. But so far it was working pretty well and people were very happy with the service and the very minimal fee it charged the creators.

The other platform that was launched was not only connected to that service, but also linked to all other Vibe platforms. It was a payment processor and something Theo overlooked for a while now. But with the launch of those sites, Theo decided it was better to keep everything in house going forward and that meant he needed to make one. But the payment processor wasn't just used on his personal sites. He offered the service to anyone who wanted to use it and since he had lower fees then every other provider… Well it wasn't long before it took off like crazy.

Other payment processors complained in secret and contacted Vibe for meetings about the platform service, while they slightly lowered their own fees to compete. At first he ignored them since he didn't care, but then they started calling on contacts in government agencies to do something about Vibe. So Theo decided to collect all the information he could on these background deals they were doing before he agreed to meet them.

The meeting was set to take place on a private mega yacht owned by one of the backers of a major credit card company. Besides him, there would be the other owners of credit card companies along with other important banking figures of the world. As for the content of the meeting itself, Theo wasn't told directly but already knew from the information he gathered. They planned to persuade him into joining their group that controlled a lot of financial issues and markets behind the scenes.

Persuade wasn't exactly the right word for it though, they planned to give him the choice of either joining them or they would kill him. If they ended up killing him, they would work to split up his company afterwards. Why not just kill him in the first place and take everything? Apparently they thought Ezekiel could be very useful if brought to heel and entered their little cabal.

As for what gave them their confidence, they had a couple meta humans on payroll and some technology that suppressed super human powers. Before Ezekiel was allowed to board the ship he would be forced to wear one of the devices. He would also need to turn over any electronic devices and be thoroughly searched as part of the safety measures. Afterwards they would travel hundreds of miles out to sea and then hold "negotiations" with Ezekiel. If things fell through, he would never make it back from the trip and they would make the whole thing disappear.

It was the middle of December and Theo just had his last day of school before winter break started. It was also the day before the scheduled meeting on the mega yacht. He did his normal routine with his friends and basically finished all his holiday homework at the shop before he went upstairs to help out for an hour or so. After getting home, eating dinner and hanging out with his family for a bit. Theo switched with a fresh clone, changed into Ezekiel and then portaled to the main base.

Once there he moved towards his section of the base to meet up with his team for the coming mission. Inside he found the squad leaders and his second in command gathered on some couches. Each one had a tablet in their hands as they went over the gathered intelligence and mission brief. Projected on the wall was a large blueprint of the ship, sliced into layers with information about different areas. It also included information about the crew, security, guests and the ship itinerary.

Ezekiel approached his second in command before he asked, "How's the preparations going?"

Sakumo lifted his head to look at Ezekiel as he said, "We've already scouted the ship and interrogated a few people. Everything checks out with the information you gathered."

Ezekiel nodded as he asked, "How is the plan, did you make any changes?"

"I made the decision to replace the crew and they are already in place. With Inoichi and a few of his clan members helping with mind reading, all of them are now playing their roles perfectly… As for the crew, they are being detained till after the mission is finished."

"Good work." Ezekiel said and after a moment of thought asked, "Anything special I need to know?"

Sakumo nodded and pulled something up on his tablet before he handed it to Ezekiel as he said, "Their meta human body guards are strong… They might not be an issue for you, but just in case I thought you should have information about their abilities."

Ezekiel nodded slightly as he quickly read through the information they collected. Ezekiel honestly couldn't recall ever hearing about these four people in the comics before and after a few minutes decided it didn't matter. Sure they each had powers, but Sakumo was right about them. They shouldn't be an issue for Ezekiel or most of the people he was bringing along.

After chatting with Sakumo for a while longer and double checking everything, Ezekiel headed out to hang out with Hela until he needed to go to the ship. It didn't take long to arrive at Hela's penthouse and be led inside where he took up his usual spot on her couch. While Ezekiel made himself comfortable on the couch, Hela went to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks and drinks before she came back and placed them on the coffee table.

Ezekiel happily accepted the root beer Hela handed him as he said, "Thanks."

Hela nodded in reply before she asked, "Is that meeting still planned for tomorrow?"

Ezekiel took a drink before he said, "Yeah, we just finalized the details, everything is ready."

Hela looked towards Ezekiel as she asked, "Are you sure you don't need my help?"

"It would be kind of overkill to have you join…" Ezekiel started to say when he noticed Hela's demeanor changed the tiniest bit. While he wouldn't claim to know Hela perfectly, he knew her well enough to know she was disappointed, so he quickly added, "We don't need the help, but how about you act as my date?"

Hela's eyes widened as she hurriedly asked, "Date? You wanna go on a date?"

Ezekiel smiled slightly as he asked, "I was given permission to bring a plus one, so if you want to come that would be the best option… Unless you wanted to use magic to sneak on board?"

Hela quickly shook her head while a slight blush painted her cheeks as she said, "No, no, being your date is fine."

"In that case, we should get you something proper to wear. You will need to look the part, after all." Ezekiel said she he pulled out his phone and sent a quick text message.

As Ezekiel received a reply, Hela said, "Look the part? I can make any type of clothes I need with magic."

"True, but your normal clothes won't do… Neither will mine, I actually bought a really nice suit that I picked out for the occasion."

Hela nodded slowly before she asked, "Then what should I wear?"

"A dress, but it should be the latest of fashion trends or something similar…" Ezekiel said before he glanced towards the TV and said, "Please play videos from the latest Milan fashion show."

The TV quickly changed to a video of men and women as they walked in fashionable outfits down a runway as someone talked about them. Ezekiel watched it for a few minutes with Hela before he said, "As long as you can make something similar to what they're wearing, it should be fine. You could probably get away with a really nice cocktail dress if you don't like what you're seeing… I personally went with a pretty standard three piece suit myself."

Hela watched the fashion show for a while and after half an hour stood up and used magic to change her clothes. She was in a skin tight emerald green dress that honestly looked painted on. It had a deep V groove in the front that not only showed plenty of side boob, but went down to her perfectly toned abs.

As Hela looked herself over she spun around slowly and asked, "What do you think?"

Ezekiel was completely stunned as he watched Hela spin around in the dress which had a split on each side that opened up to show off her legs. The split stopped just half way up her thighs, but it perfectly showed off her long elegant legs. As for the back of the dress, it hugged the rest of her body just as tightly as the front and Ezekiel's eyes lingered on one part of her body longer than the rest. When Hela finished showing off and looked at Ezekiel he could only give her a thumbs up because he was truly lost for words.

Hela smiled happily before she snapped her fingers and her normal comfortable pajamas and t-shirt appeared again. As she sat down next to Ezekiel she asked, "What do you want for dinner?"

Ezekiel who was still in a slight daze said, "You…"

Hela's eyes widened the tiniest bit at that comment before Ezekiel quickly added, "Want dinner? What do you want, you can pick…"

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