Having issue with 2013 27" USB ports

I want to start by saying I have successfully installed Ventura on a 2011 iMac last week. So I know what I am doing, lol

Now into the 27" 2013 model;

Ok so I got open core on a USB, and was at the 2nd reboot period.

MacOS Catalina was still on internal HDD

I was installing Ventura to an external SSD

System went to reboot 3rd time but only HDD is showing, so ....naturally. I booted to recovery and erased my Catalina drive hoping to force feed my USB and external SSD. Now I cannot move my mouse on boot menu only keyboard works. Seems like I have lost high level USB support...

Also, holding Alt (on windows keyboard) to get into boot menu only brings up HDD OS (now Moutain Lion) and Recovery on same HDD...I am a PC guy, is there some version of bios I can reset?

Any ideas are welcome, I cant even boot my Batocera drive or from a USB for installing a supported OS at this time. And internet recovery gives me Mountain Lion only as a install choice.

I want to add that once in Mountain Lion I can see my USB drives and my mouse works