Improved Team

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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[▪︎30th August 2003▪︎]

[▪︎Santa Monica, California▪︎]

"We are almost there, get ready."

I turn my head and announce to the Guardians as we streak across the sky, the soft wind rustling my long hair and kissing my face.

"Copy that."

Robot nods his head, his body lying horizontal in the air with his hands lying by his sides as a blue concentrated burst of heat sprays out of his palms and his foot. The others near and around him nod also.

Everyone is flying on their own near beside Robot except Monster Girl, Shrinking Ray, and Dupli-Kate who are seated on Robot's former yellow hoverbike behind the group with me at the head leading them. Monster Girl who is in her human form looks older than she did a month ago.

In a few minutes, our destination appears before my eyes, and with that, I speed up slightly, the others also increase their speeds and follow.

"Alright, we are here. Dupli-Kate, Shrinking Ray, and Samson handle the civilians, the rest direct your power at the Squidmen. Let's finish up before the Atlanteans catch up."

I designate orders swiftly as I stop and hover calmly in the air, looking at the wide beach filled with shimmering brown sand as the Squidmen and Octoboss emerge from the sea with their aircraft, prompting the swimsuit-wearing civilians to scatter in panic and fear.

The Squidmen are tall humanoid creatures wearing dark blue skintight uniforms with their heads being almost identical to that of a squid.

In their three-fingered hands are advanced plasma rifles that hum as they aim at the screaming and running civilians.

Octoboss, their leader is a shirtless seven feet tall Squidman with light brownish course skin coated in white spots, donning alone black sophisticated jeans adorned with metallic scales.

His big eyes are oval shaped and are violent red and beneath them are large and long tentacles sprawl in the air, extending from his chin.

His hands have no fingers but in place of them are long dangerous looking tentacles that can easily break the bones of ordinary humans.

He is a member of The Order and also the leader or King of his race of Squidmen who come from another planet. As his planet is dead, he wants to conquer the seas of Earth and create a new Kingdom for his people.

That's why he always tries to defeat the Atlanteans. Even going so far as to steal their technology for his own gain just like now.

He is amongst the few villains I've encountered whose plans or goals actually make sense and are logical but just like before, he'll get caught and spend his time in jail no matter how noble his goal is...

"Roger that!"

All of them exclaim with a nod and immediately dash toward the menacing enemies.

Within moments, they pounce on the small army of Squidmen and start doing their designated tasks.

Dupli-Kate immediately creates clones and sets to work, removing and protecting the civilians from the scene as stray plasma blasts dance around the place with aerial and virtually invisible support from a flying Samson and a shrunken Shrinking Ray.

There's one different thing though about the way Dupli-Kate is saving people.

She and her clones are holding fully grown and heavier civilians as if their weightless and tanking the stray plasma bolts without even a scratch on their suits...

This is the same for some of them who a te busily battling the shooting and restless Squidmen and the fearsome Octoboss.

Rex Splode who is battling Octoboss on his lonesome near the mouth of the moving sea is blasting him heavily without throwing anything.

He's just attacking him agilely like a monkey with concentrated explosions that seem to come out of his palms, incurring substantial injuries on the raging giant who is trying his best to catch Rex to no avail.

Shrinking Ray who I can normally follow with my eyes even when he's shrunken isn't visible to me.

The only indications of his shrunken presence along the sandy landscape are the minute footprints that dot the ground and the impossible-to-notice vibration of the air as he moves.

...They've been upgraded, meaning their abilities have been modified to reach higher levels. And I'm the reason behind this.

A month ago, after hearing the plights of Monster Girl, I decided to push my plans of increasing the overall power of the team.

I had this plan because some of the members weren't up to my standards and as a special team I'm grooming, they needed to be the best of the best.

People who can handle situations perfectly without any outside intervention.

To start, I began with Monster Girl. Her situation was the most complicated of the team due to its magical nature so I focused on her first. In a day, I created a solution for her problem.

Whenever she transforms, her previously existing cells die off and disappear and her body compensates for this by rapidly creating new younger cells thus, making her body transgress.

To solve this, I fashioned a new breed of nanobots that'll copy her pre-existing cells and paste them the moment she cancels her transformation. This will allow her body to grow instead of making her de-age.

I can still remember the hug and kiss she gave me when I injected her with the nanobots. With that, I sealed her total allegiance to me.

With the others like Dupli-Kate, I just gave her a shot of Compound V that just targeted her physical attributes. Thus, giving her super-strength and agility comparable to A-list superheroes like A-Train.

With her cloning superpower that effectively duplicates herself with the exact physical and psychological aspects together with her newfound strength, she's now a literal force to be reckoned it.

In Rex Splode and Shrinking Ray's case, I just modified their already strong abilities.

I modified the system in Rex's hands to generate more explosive energy, so much that he can even ignite and detonate oxygen. And so, he doesn't need to throw objects charged with kinetic energy again as he used to like a barbarian. He's literally explosive now.

Shrinking ray just needed something little to boost his already deadly power and that comes to play in his suit.

His suit is now a highly durable and flexible super suit that—on his command—bends light around his figure, allowing him to be unseen by the naked eye while also being able to tank high forces of damage.

I would've increased the abilities of the rest of them but they are perfect just the way they are. There are some special plans for Ruddy but that's for later.

Now there are no weak links in the team, be it physical, emotional, or even psychological given all the mental conditioning processes I've made them willingly go through...

Now, they are looking like the team I've envisioned. A brutal, loyal, powerful, and experienced team dedicated to their craft...

"Aaaaargh! I tired of this, little one die now!"

Octoboss bellows loudly in rage as he blocks another explosion with his tentacles that burns them and then manipulates all his tentacles with gritted teeth to wriggle towards a serious-faced Rex Splode like a raging sea.

Unfazed, he flips on them and with the grace of a monkey, he dashes toward Octoboss's using his thick tentacles as a bridge.

As quick as lightning, he beautifully dodges the menacing tentacles and reaches his ugly face. With a sly smirk, he hops on his face before Octoboss can react—with a shout—blasts his face using a mighty concentrated explosion.

<Boom!>

He backflips to the sandy ground covered with deep smoking pits with large amounts of black smoke wrapped around his face, Octoboss stumbles and falls onto the ground with a loud bang.

Seeing this fear seizes the hearts of the remaining Squidmen and so they run towards their building-sized spacecraft but smiling darkly, Crysela blocks their path and proceeds to rip a big chunk out of the aircraft with her lithe fingers.

The Squidmen immediately drop their rifles and kneel on the ground with sad eyes as the Guardians gather and cuff the fallen Squidmen.

A proud smile draws on my face and as I'm about to descend a familiar voice rings in my ear.

[Prime, we have a problem...]