00155. There was only ever one choice.

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay. I was sucked into a youtube void filled with anime/manga/manhua/manhwa recap videos. I think I watched like 40-50 videos in the past week and it totally killed all of my writing time. I think I am done with that now and you should expect chapters of the new story coming up next week, so look forward to it.

When Ezekiel arrived at Tony's house he expected only two or three prototypes. What he found instead was that Tony finished all of them. Apparently Tony liked a lot of the concepts and wanted them for his own house, so he went out of his way to complete them all.

All the prototypes Tony created were designed around creating a smart home. He made a smart thermostat, lights, doorbell, garage door opener and many more. All of it was designed to work and integrate seamlessly with the cellphone they created.

Ezekiel already finished the software that connected everything together easily, it would just need some fine tuning now that they had the protypes. He also planned to let people create their own software to interact with the devices if they wanted. It would help create more jobs, open up competition in the industry and also help sell more of the products.

Besides that, Tony completed another project Ezekiel asked him about. It was a state of the art body camera. While he could have made a larger version and shrunk it down with help for Hank. He wanted to create something that could easily be mass produced without much issue.

It took a while for Tony to figure out how to do it, since he needed to shrink everything down and keep the specs Ezekiel asked for. But now that he had a working prototype, he needed to test it out. Ezekiel planned to use it while he went around and fought crime. Once he was satisfied with it and how it functioned. He planned to mass produce them and give them to police stations around the world, starting with the US first.

While it would cost a lot to do something like that, Ezekiel didn't care. His end goal was to get as much information as possible. It would also help keep police officers more accountable and make it easier to prosecute people in court cases.

He was sure there would be a big push back from all over the place about the body cameras at first. But that was part of the reason he planned to give them away for free. Add in some help from Vibe and the media and it should all work out. At least that is what Ezekiel hoped for.

While Ezekiel was at Tony's he also inquired about the project to give cell phones to the government. He expected there to be some issues, but currently the only issue they had was making enough phones. It turns out that when Tony offered to sell discounted phones to the US government, they instantly agreed.

The next few weeks passed by quickly for Theo. He mainly trained, worked on a few programming projects, visited Hela, Tony and spent time with Gabby and the other kids. He also kept track of what Norman was doing and if he was looking to sell off his company.

At first there was no movement and Theo thought his plan failed. But during the last week of the deadline, an announcement was made that Norman wanted to sell his company. There were a lot of rumors and speculation going around about why he wanted to sell his business, but no answer was forthcoming to the general public.

Theo himself didn't make an offer for the company, but he used a shell company to bid for the research project Richard and Mary worked on. He wanted control of it so he could keep them safe and didn't have to worry about something happening to them. Even with the magical protection spell placed on them, Theo was being cautious.

Once the contracts for the sale of the company were in negotiation, Theo sent a message to Norman that read, “I'm glad you chose wisely. Once the sale is complete, I will contact you.”

While the normal process to sell a company could take up to a year, this one only took a month. Oscorp wasn't a mega corporation just yet, but it was very close to being one. It also had a lot of famous scientists and important projects being worked on there. So when Osborne looked around for interested parties he found a few pretty easily.

Since that was the case, Theo worked quickly to place bids for the projects he wanted. He also asked for the people who worked on the projects. It took a little bit and he overpaid for everything, but in the end he picked up what he wanted. Theo was able to purchase Richard and Mary's project, along with their work contract for almost double the price. Beside that one, he also picked up two other important projects.

The first one was for limb regeneration which was headed by Doctor Curt Connors. While it wasn't really needed with project Revival, Theo thought it would be a good idea to pick it up. He planned to help Curt out with a new body through Revival and then have the man slowly perfect the formula. He figured if the man wasn't rushing to cure his own issue, the lizard would never happen. At least that is what he hoped for.

The other project he acquired was one that explored ways to create a new power source. It was run by Doctor Otto Octavius and with Theo picking the man up this early he hoped nothing would happen to the guy. He was a brilliant scientist and Theo wanted to help the man achieve his goals. He also wanted to use the project to take over the power industry with clean and super cheap power.

With those people and projects now under his control, Theo needed to find a place for them to work at. It looked like he would need to change the design for his Vibe project slightly and incorporate more space for scientific laboratories.

vvvvv

It was almost midnight and Norman was seated in his home office as he watched his computer screen. Just a week ago he was still a successful business owner, so the habit of staying up late in his home office was hard to break. The only problem was Norman had nothing to work on. Currently his computer was on and a web browser was pulled up that showed Vibe’s video platform. He just watched another random video out of complete boredom.

After the video finished someone said, “See, retired life isn't so bad.”

Norman glanced up as he asked, “You think this is fun?”

The man covered in smoke and shadows shrugged as he said, “It’s a good way to kill some free time, plus some of that is better than what you would find on TV.”

Norman tried to find the man’s face hidden in the smoke filled hood as he said, “I did what you asked.”

The man nodded before he said, “You were a little slow, but you made the right choice.”

Norman leaned back in his chair as he clasped his hands together and asked, “When will you keep your promise.”

“Soon enough. First I need to give you something.” The man said as he lifted his arm above Norman’s desk.

He touched part of his arm and a moment later a small metal briefcase appeared on the desk. As the man pulled his hand back he said, “I brought that so you wouldn’t get bored.”

Norman glanced at the case as the man said, “Open it up.”

After a few moments Norman reached over and clicked open the locks on the briefcase before he opened it up. Inside were a few USB drives, a large folder filled with paper and a couple sealed vials. As Norman looked at everything the man said, “Just because you sold your company, doesn’t mean you need to give up your original passion. This is research into a few different idea’s I’ve had over the years. Most of it is close to complete, but all of it still needs work and fine tuning.”

Norman picked up the large folder and opened it up to read a little bit about it before he asked, “And why exactly are you giving this to me?”

“Because most of that is in you and your wifes field of expertise.”

Norman frowned as he asked, “Is this why you made me sell my business? You want me to complete these projects for you?”

“No, I could complete them myself if I wanted. You can think of this as just a bonus reward.”

Norman glanced back down at the first research project as he said, “But something like this will be worth tens of billions once it’s completed.”

“I already have more money than I know what to do with. What’s the point in having even more?” The man asked in a mocking tone of voice.

Norman glanced up at the man as he asked. “Then what’s the catch?”

“You can complete the research, patent the technology and license them or just sell it off. It doesn’t really matter much to me, just don’t start a new business. Also make sure your first priority is always your family. Actually once your wife is healed, you should be able to have as many kids as you want. Her health is always what stopped you both before this.” The man said.

“When will she be healed?” Norman asked.

“As soon as you wake up.” The man said as Norman’s vision blurred.

Norman awoke to a scream which jolted him out of bed. He quickly glanced around the room before he noticed his wife frozen in place as she stared at a mirror. He walked towards her back as he asked, “Hunny, what's wrong?”

He didn’t get a response and instead froze in place once he was next to her. While they weren’t that old to begin with, only in their mid thirties. They now both looked to be in their late teens at most. His wife's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed Norman’s hair and face and asked, “Norman, did you do this?”

Norman shook his head before he said, “No, someone else did.”

“Why?”

Norman pulled his wife into a tight hug as he said, “He promised to do it, if I did something in return.”

Emily hugged Norman a little tighter as she asked, “Is that why you sold the company off?”

Norman reached down and lifted Emily’s chin up and kissed her gently on the lips before he said, “It was the only way to save your life.”

Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes before she pulled Norman into a deep, passionate kiss. As they kissed each other, the outside world started to fade away and the only thing that seemed to matter was that single moment for them. After some time passed they heard someone clear their throat loudly and they immediately stopped their make out session.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I came to inform you breakfast is ready.” A handsome young man said.

Norman studied the man for a moment before he asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Bernard, sir.”

Both Norman and his wife stared in shock at the man for a few moments before he asked, “Really?”

The man nodded as he said, “I’m not sure how it happened but it appears we’ve all regressed in age.”

Norman waved off the comment as he said, “Let’s not worry about how it happened, let's just be happy it did. Also, now that you’re young again, maybe you should think about starting a family yourself Bernard.”