Sentinel - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8

Adam hummed along with the music coming from his headphones as he checked the readouts on the console for the cloning machine that Rudy's new body was currently growing inside of. At the moment, Rudy's body looked to be about ten years old. It was perfectly formed and healthy. Another week and it would be fully grown. After that came the really hard part, transferring Rudy's consciousness into it.

That had presented a bit of an issue. A scan of Rudy's brain had revealed a much higher neuron density than Adam's brain had. It forced them to incorporate some of Rudy's genetics in order to improve the clones brain and make it capable of handling the information contained in his original bodies mind. It would be a disaster if Rudy's intellect was negatively impacted. His intellect was a core part of his being and losing it would destroy who he was.

On the bright side, incorporating some of Rudy's original DNA made it easier to modify his looks to be different from Adam's to distinguish them from one another when Rudy got older. Genetically speaking Rudy would be ninety percent Adam, ten percent his original self.

Finished checking the readouts, he turned to the massive tank where Rudy resided, “Were on schedule and there's no signs of any issues thanks to the data you had from reverse engineering that Mauler Brothers design.”

The data had been necessary to speed up the growing process. The best he could do with the technology he had access to was a month to fully grown and ready. The Mauler Brothers technology had lowered it to two weeks, basically cutting it in half. The best part was that the odds of anything going wrong with the accelerated growth was less than one in a million.

“Thank you for all of your help, Adam.”

“No need for that. We're going to be family.”

“Indeed. Will you be heading to Guardians HQ now?”

“Yeah. It's about time for my training with Kate and Eve.”

“Very well, I will see you there.”

Adam chuckled at that. His eyes turned red and the world around him swirled as he was sucked into the Kamui dimension. Another swirl and he was leaving it in a specially designated area. Robot, in an effort to keep the separation between Adam and the Guardians official, had designated a small room as Adam's landing zone. It contained a palm reader lock that Robot could override to keep Adam out in case of official meetings or business that he couldn't be part of.

Slapping his palm to the lock, it beeped and the door opened. He calmly walked through the base, giving a nod to Black Samson as he passed the larger older man. That reminded him, once he finished with Rudy's new body, he should work with him to build some upgrades for Black Samson. Though he had been given the same shield belt that all the members of Teen Team had been given. The same went for Shrinking Rae and Monster Girl. No one complained about the extra protection.

“Adam!”

He turned at his name being called and grinned at the sight of Kate walking toward him. When they met she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him enthusiastically. He kissed back with just as much enthusiasm. They were lost in each other until someone cleared their throat.

They broke their kiss and turned to see Eve standing near them in her costume and tapping her foot while giving them a flat look, “You done?”

Eve's tone was a little acidic, but there was a small quirk to her lips to let them know she was joking. Monster Girl was covering her mouth to hide her smile and giggles from the trio. Adam used Eve's power to transform his street clothes into his costume while stepping away from Kate, “Yeah, we're done. For now.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

Together the four of them made their way to the Guardians training room. They still hadn't officially announced the new Guardians as they were still undergoing training. Though Cecil was getting impatient, thus Adam's presence as Sentinel. He swapped Power Mimicry to Kate's power. It's the one thing he could offer to the team, a powerful adversary for them to fight against. Though Black Samson and Rex seemed to be offended by his presence as a trainer.

Black Samson was also really prideful. He'd flat out refused any help in improving his gear from Robot and Adam. He'd claimed that if he couldn't build it himself, then he didn't need it. He'd been extremely annoyed when he realized the shields that Adam and Robot had designed completely nullified his weapon system rendering everyone invulnerable to his attacks in training.

As for Shrinking Rae, she tended to train on her own. It was a bit difficult to figure her out.

Once they were in the training room, he split into three copies of himself at the same time that Kate did. He split off to fight all three of them with a smile.

With Monster Girl.

Sentinel looked at his young looking opponent. It was still weird to know that she was technically older than him. Though, he did have to admit, she had to be at least a little happy with her curse. It did give her a form of biological immortality, after all.

He pushed that aside and addressed her, “I've been meaning to ask something. Back at the try outs for the Guardians, you transformed just one arm to knock the shit out of Rex. Can you transform just specific parts of your body, or were you just delaying the full transformation?”

“I was just delaying the transformation. Once I initiate it, I have to complete it. I can delay it for maybe a minute at most, though I've never pushed it past a few seconds. Why?”

Sentinel grumbled, “Damn. I was thinking partial transformations could be a way around you being de-aged constantly. You know, just in instances where a full transformation isn't necessary.”

Monster Girl smiled, “Well, it was a nice idea.” Blue magic swirled around her body transforming her into her hulking green form, “Let's do this!”

Sentinel and Monster Girl charged at each other, their fists slamming together in an explosion of force.

With Atom Eve.

Sentinel smiled as he stepped to a different area where he and Eve could spar safely. Their spars tended to get explosive given their strength. Though this time, he wanted to focus on something different, “Eve, before we get started I want to talk a bit.”

Eve moved closer to him and gave him a curious look, “Sure, what about?”

“Well, I've seen how you like to do things and I'm curious about why you don't do smaller, smarter things to save on energy.”

She frowned and crossed her arms pushing her breasts up and forcing him to keep his eyes from wandering, “What do you mean?”

“Well, for example, instead of hitting someone like Tether Tyrant with a blast, why not turn all the air around his head into an anesthetic gas? He, and anyone else relatively normal in the super department, would be out in just a few seconds and down for the count for quite a while after.”

“That...” Eve frowned, “I never thought of anything like that.”

Sentinel nodded, “Okay. So, maybe instead of fighting this time, we go over different ways you can manipulate reality to take people down with relative ease.”

“Why? Did you have other ideas?”

He nodded, “Sure! I know you can't do anything to sentient living things, but what about their clothes?”

Eve blinked, “What do you meant?”

“Well, what if you transformed a villains clothing into steel or durasteel? Most villains couldn't be able to move after that. If they have a gun why not turn it into a Nerf gun? Are they wearing armor? Turn it into paper! Are they super tough? Turn the air in front of their eyes into super small extra sharp diamonds. Every blink will be extremely irritating if not blinding.”

Eve stared at him with her mouth hanging open. He continued, “When you make armor for yourself, make it out of beskar instead of hardened air. If you insist on making hardened air shields, why make them as just one huge construct? Why not make it out of dozens or hundreds of small interlocking hexagons with multiple layers. That way, instead of the whole shield failing after a few hits, only one small section of one layer does.”

He snapped his fingers as a thought came to him, “Why not fire concentrated beams of light or high intensity laser beams as an offensive attack instead of a giant hammer? Oh man! You could so easily create a basic ruby laser of nigh unlimited power. A ruby rod wrapped in a perfectly smooth reflective surface with only one tiny exit, and then light generated by your power. It's only limit would be how much power you put into the light. Well, as long as you drained the thermal build up. Or... fuck, I mean, it doesn't HAVE to be small either. You could make a ruby laser with aperture several feet wide and destroy entire city blocks with it.”

Eve just stood there, mouth open, eyes wide and unfocused as her mind went over the things he was saying. Sentinel just smiled and let her think. Eve wasn't stupid so much as she was unimaginative. If he could get her to think creatively, the only thing that would limit her would be her own energy reserves. So, he remained silent and let her work through her thoughts.

[Feat Achieved! Change the way Atom Eve views her power. +1 Bronze Gacha Ticket.]

With Dupli-Kate.

“How's your breathing training going?”

Kate inhaled deeply then exhaled rapidly sending out a small breeze, it wasn't much compared to what he could do, but it was a massive improvement from where she had been in the beginning. She answered, “I'm onto the third gourd. The herb upgrade made the first two too easy. I think I'm close to breaking it.”

Sentinel smiled widely, “Excellent! Once you break the fifth we can get to training the technique. Getting it to a constant unconscious level like mine will be super annoying though.”

He was always using Total Concentration Breathing, but mostly to a low level, nowhere near the maximum he could if he focused on it. He'd been using it for months now and the improvement to his base body was becoming very obvious. The sooner he could get Kate to that level, the sooner she could begin to grow stronger.

… And Rex too, he supposed.

“Alright, today we'll work on your sword forms in preparation for teaching you the Thunder Breathing techniques.”

Thunder Breathing didn't make him a master swordsman or anything, but it did include the basics of swordsmanship and that was what he planned to teach Kate. Together they raised their wooden katanas, or bokken, and began exchanging blows at rather intense speeds. Sentinel was faster than Kate could hope to be so the restricted himself to her speed, which was still faster than any non-superhuman could hope to match.

Kate's improved reflexes really showed through during the training, as did her past martial arts training. She was picking up what little he could teach her exceptionally fast and that was something worth praising her for, “You're doing excellent!”

Kate's answer was to work harder. He loved that about her. It made training her doubly rewarding. Not only was she all for increasing her skills, but the more skilled she became the less he had to worry about her on the field.

-----Line Break-----

Adam observed as a mass of various droids went about their work. He'd spoken with Robot and together they'd bought and refurbished an old factory in Detroit. The droids were assembling exploration probes.

He'd found, after diving into the Star Wars tech a bit more, that their hyperdrives relied on 'hyperdrive lanes' to travel safely through space. Large gravity wells from stars, planets, and black holes were a big problem.

Naturally, he'd looked into scanners and sensors he could install to keep an eye out for problems. Only, Star Wars scanners SUCKED. From what he could dig up, the best ones ever produced could only scan a single light year out. The speed of his hyperdrive would make that range useless. He'd cover that distance before the sensor could accurately take a read of the next light year ahead. It'd be a whole lot of stop and go.

Thus, the small probes he had his droids making for him. Each probe was, essentially, just a hyperdrive, a sensor suite, a small number of hyperwave transceivers to deploy, and a droid brain to control it all and send back data via the transmitters.

Having to actually do all of that was a complete pain in his ass but necessary if he wanted to fly through space with the technology bases he currently had access to. Thankfully, none of this was really costing him any money, just time, which was only mildly annoying.

The plan was pretty simple. Every time the droids finished a probe, it was launched into space and sent in a chosen direction. The probe would then use micro-jumps to explore in a pattern specifically designed by Rudy to be highly efficient. After a jump, the probes would take a detailed scan and send the data back.

That was where the hyperwave transmitters came in. Hyperwaves had a good range to them, but it was still limited. So, once the probe left transmission range, it would drop and activate a new transceiver. He was basically making his own HoloNet one transceiver at a time. It was worth it though because it allowed for instant communication between Earth and the Probes no matter how far away they got.

Slowly, but surely, he and Rudy were mapping the galaxy.

It was also what allowed them to begin work on their new secret project, Project ARK. Though it would be a while before they could do any major work on it. Their more pressing project was his next stop after he finished checking the progress of his droids here.

It only took him a few minutes to see that everything was on track. After topping off the materials storage, his eyes flashed red and he vanished in a swirl.

When he reappeared he was standing in a room with one hell of a view. Looking through the floor to ceiling windows he could see a small army of mining droids going to town on a resource rich asteroid. The station he was standing in was all the way out in the asteroid belt. The station was still in its infancy, though it was rapidly expanding and would soon be able to do it's designated job.

Building and launching exploration probes without needing his input. Well, the process would always need his input as he needed to use Eve's power to generate materials they couldn't otherwise engineer. Thankfully, that only consisted of durasteel ingots. Rudy had helped reduce how much of the fictional metal they were using by replacing it with regular steel, which they could very easily obtain by mining iron rich asteroids.

Obviously, using steel made the probes less durable, in some aspects, but it was still used to reinforce the hull for added protection. He'd already gotten a head start and was there to make even more of the metal. It would be a couple of more weeks before the station reached the size he and Rudy had designed it to be. Only then would it begin to pump out probes at a steady pace of one probe every two days. Given their current setup on Earth only produced one probe a week, it would be a massive increase in exploration speed.

Another addition to the station was going to be the best sensor array he could fabricate. It might only be good out to one light year, but that was more than enough to map asteroids and comets as well as keep an eye out of anything heading toward their solar system.

Even with all of this and plans to expand exponentially in the future, Rudy was certain it would take decades, if not a century, just to make their galaxy, let alone all the other galaxies out there. Unless Adam got another tinker ability for a high tech civilization or some focus that included spaceships.

“I never imagined something like this would happen in my lifetime, despite knowing aliens like Omni-Man exist.”

Adam turned to look at Rudy's drone that had spoken, “Me either. Hell, less than six months ago I was a normal kid living a normal life. You've at least been a genius your whole life.”

They lapsed into silence and watched the droids flying in space ripping the asteroid apart with extreme efficiency. The material would be used to expand the station and in the production of more mining droids. He wanted a whole army of them ripping apart asteroids like a ravenous swarm before he stopped making more. Expansion was the name of the game, for the moment.

Eventually, he decided to stop wasting time and vanished in a swirl.

-----Line Break-----

Adam walked up to Eve and waved casually, “Hey, Eve, do you know why Mark hasn't been around lately? I know you two go to school together so I figured you might know what's up.”

Eve smiled at Adam and walked closer while she explained, “He's shadowing the Mars mission. Apparently Cecil asked his dad, but his dad said no so he volunteered to do it. He'll be gone for another week and a half.”

“Well damn. I finished making him a few things so I wanted to give them to him. Oh well, they can wait. Still, good for him. It's not everyday even we superheroes get to go to another planet.”

Eve laughed, “Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I'm a little jealous.”

“Jealous of what?”

Both Adam and Eve turned to see Kate walking toward them, it had been her asking the question. Eve answered for them both, “Jealous of Mark getting to go to Mars.”

“Shit, really?” Her gaze moved to Adam, “When are you going to finish your spaceship anyway? If Mark's going to Mars I want to go somewhere further to show him up a bit!”

Her comment might have sounded conceited and competitive, but there was a playful tone to her comment that let them know she was only joking. Her comment though, got Eve's attention, “Wait,” she faced Adam, “Spaceship? You're building a spaceship?!”

Adam grinned like a kid about to talk about is favorite toy, “I am! It's based on the X-70B from Star Wars The Old Republic. It's the ship used by the Empire Operative. It's a sleek and comfortable shuttle that looks like a flying hotel suite but hides several nasty surprises. I'm giving it some massive upgrades as well as a full stealth cloaking system.”

Both Eve and Kate looked amused and excited. Eve spoke up, “I want to be there for the inaugural flight!”

Adam chuckled, “As long as it's okay with Kate.”

Kate nodded eagerly, “I'm totally fine with her joining us.”

Neither Adam nor Eve noticed the hidden subtext of her statement. Adam turned to Kate, “Since Mark's off planet and I only planned to help him with some gear, how about a date?”

Kate laughed, “Sure! Let me get changed.” She grabbed Eve's hand, “You can help me pick!”

Adam watched his girlfriend drag her best friend into her bedroom for fashion advice. Better Eve than him!

-----Line Break-----

Adam stood in a large lab built into the asteroid station. Floating within a tank was a younger version of himself with just some minor changes. Next to the tank was another smaller one, a mobile on that Rudy was currently piloting for the final stages of their plan.

“The body is in perfect condition. All cybernetics and implants show all green.”

Adam looked over the readings and nodded in agreement, “Everything is set. We're ready for the final stage.” His gaze moved to where Rudy's disfigured body was floating in his tank, “Are you ready? Once the transfer begins it cannot be stopped midway without serious brain damage at the minimum with death being the most likely. The process is likely to hurt, a lot.”

“I am aware. We have gone over this multiple times. Begin the draining process and prep the body.”

Adam nodded and did just that. The clone body was lifted from the tank by a robotic arm and placed carefully on a specifically designed chair. With the body in place, breathing lightly and lacking any form of thought, he began attaching leads from a wrath to very specific parts of the clone's head. He took as much time as he needed to make certain he got everything perfect. A single mistake would be horrendous.

Even when he was done, one of Rudy's drones moved over to double check the work. Someone else might've complained, but Adam knew how important getting this right the first time was. Once he was done and confirmed everything was perfect, Rudy moved his tank close to a second chair.

Adam stepped close and looked at him through the glass and fluid filling the tank, “Are you sure you're ready for this?”

There was a short pause as Rudy honestly considered it, but in the end, “I am ready. This body has held me back long enough. I want to be free, to experience the things you do. I want to be free to... love.”

Adam smirked but said nothing, though he had a fairly good idea who Rudy was speaking about. He doubted anyone else noticed the way he acted around Monster Girl, Amanda. He was rooting for both of them. They had the potential to be a good couple and Rudy was a good chance for Amanda to have a relationship with someone that wasn't creepy or with someone on a sex offender registry.

Adam took a deep breath and slowly let it out, “Alright. Let's begin.”

Rudy had his drone step up to the capsule containing his real body and open a valve to begin draining it, “You know, I had to redesign my containment unit to be able to do this. My last one wasn't designed to be opened.”

Adam chuckled at the commentary. With a loud hiss the green glass of the container slid to the side. Rudy's drone reached in an carefully detached his body from the cables connected directly to his head. Once detached it carefully set him on the smaller chair where Adam immediately placed a mask over his mouth. Regular air actually burned his lungs after living in the highly oxygenated liquid of his container.

With the mask in place, Adam went about connecting a matching wreath to Rudy's head. Due to malformations it required a different setup and a little more precision in the placement of the leads. Again, the drone double checked when Adam finished. With everything in place, Adam stepped over to the console that would perform the mind transference.

He took a deep breath and looked directly at Rudy, “Last chance to back out.”

Rudy's eyes looked directly into his. When he spoke, he did so with his human voice, the first time in a long time, “It...” he breathed hard, “is time.” He gasped, his body twitching with pain, “I would rather die.” He hissed the word 'die', “than live one more day like this.”

There was steel in his eyes while he stared at Adam, “I want to live, Brother.”

Adam took a deep breath to steady his emotions. Then, he nodded in acceptance of Rudy's resolve, “Then you will live, Brother.”

He turned to the console and pushed the final button to begin the transfer process. There was no light show, no bolts of electricity dancing along power lines. Instead, there was a gasp of pain from Rudy while the clone body began to twitch. Adam stared at the console and watched the progress bar slowly ticking up over time.

The thing was, they both knew the truth of what was happening. The transfer device was scanning through Rudy's brain, targeting one neuron as a time. The neuron was scanned, then copied into the new body's brain while simultaneously being destroyed in the original's. In short, Rudy was killing himself one neuron at a time to give a copy of himself a new life, a better life.

“Thank you.”

The sudden words caught Adam off guard. He turned to look at the original Rudy. The process was nearing fifty percent and he could already see the light of intelligence fading from his eyes. Adam gave him a wobbly smile, “See you soon.”

The last sign of intelligence left Rudy's eyes. Adam turned away and checked on the progress. He stared at it, not wanting to watch Rudy's body twitch while his mind was destroyed neuron by neuron. Once the progress bar reached seventy-five percent, Rudy's original body began to scream. The sound was... horrific.

Adam did his best to ignore it and was grateful, if a little sickened with himself, when the screaming stopped at ninety percent. He turned once more and walked to the edge of the bed where Rudy's new body lay. It continued to twitch while it was built piece by piece. The minutes ticked by until, with a low chime, the process was completed.

He stared down at the slowly breathing body of his new brother, silently waiting for him to wake up. Thankfully, Rudy didn't keep him waiting long. With a shocked gasp, Rudy sat up and looked around rapidly in confusion. His confusion quickly cleared and his new emerald green eyes locked onto Adam, “It... worked.”

“How are you feeling?”

Rudy's face scrunched up in concentration while he pushed himself off of the chair and onto his feet for the first time in his life, “I feel... amazing. My mind is the same as ever and I remember everything. But my body... I never knew what it was like to have a body without pain.”

His eyes found the smaller chair where his now deceased body lay. He slowly walked over to it, looking down at what he used to be, “I am... free.” He reached out and touched his old body while tears trickled down his cheeks, “I will live a real life this time, for the both of us.”

Adam stepped next to his new brother, “Let's give him the most amazing send off we can.”

At a mental command from Adam, a portion of the wall folded open to reveal a small black metal casket perfectly sized from Rudy's old body. Adam looked at Rudy's new body and smiled, “Not many people can claim to have been buried in space.”

Rudy looked at the casket and slowly smiled, “It's perfect.”

Together, they buried his old body in space. Launched at high speed so it would leave the solar system and travel into unknown space within the month. Once it faded from view, Adam looked at Rudy with a grin, “So, when are you going to introduce yourself to the Guardians in person?”

Rudy lifted his hands to his face, clenching and opening them a few times, “In a day or two. I need time to truly become accustomed to my new body.” He blushed slightly, “And all the maintenance it might require.”

Adam looked confused for a moment before he started laughing, “I get ya. Don't worry. I'll only share stories of your embarrassing moments with Mom, your sister Eve, and any future girlfriends or significant others.”

Rudy stared up at him, “Please don't.”

Adam smirked down at him, “Sorry little bro, older brother privileges.”

Rudy pouted, it was adorable! And made his way to a room that had been prepared for him to use. Adam watched him go until the door closed. After it did, his gaze moved down to some system notifications.

[Feat Achieved! Help Rudy become a real boy. +1 Gold Gacha Ticket.]

[Feat Achieved! Prevent the resurrection of The Immortal. +1 Gold Gacha Ticket.]

He stared at the screen in front of him for a very long time. The first one made him smile. The second made his stomach drop.

“Well. Shit.”

-----Line Break-----

[ROLLING!]

[Animal Lover, Common Trait, All mundane animals like you, and non-mundane ones like you more easily.]

Adam stared at the result of rolling the bronze ticket he'd gotten a while back. Well, it was a start to getting rid of one of his curses.

[Animal Antagonist, Major Curse, Animals really hate you, they really do. Any feral animal that sees you perceives you as an active threat, a competitor, or prey to be hunted. Resolve: Acquire 3 traits that increase your rapport with animals.]

'Roll a gold ticket.'

[ROLLING!]

[Tinker – Ecology, Rare Ability, Allows you to build, construct, and design contraptions or machines that deal with Nature, utilizing, helping and benefiting from it. You can create Bio-Domes, incredibly efficient fertilizers, animal lures and foods, very efficient solar panels and geothermal reactors, terraforming equipment and much more.]

Normally, Adam would have been thrilled with that particular roll, but it wasn't what he was looking for. Something he did with Rudy was preventing the resurrection of The Immortal. What or how, he had no idea. He was praying, desperately, for something that would let him fix that mistake. The Immortal was a powerful hero that the would could use. Preventing his return was weighing heavily on Adam's conscious.

'Roll the last gold ticket.'

[ROLLING!]

[Esper, Elite Trait, You are a naturally born Esper, abilities are second nature to you. You understand, develop, and master abilities far faster and you possess a unique intuition when it comes to your abilities. Ability cool downs are halved.]

Adam scowled at the results of his last available roll. While it wasn't bad, it was not what he was hoping to get. Mastering his abilities wouldn't give him a way to bring The Immortal back to life. He dismissed the last screen from the gacha and focused on the view out the window of his space station. He needed to get ready for a date with Kate soon.

Thankfully, she was all the distraction that he needed.

-----Line Break-----

Adam was on cloud nine. He'd just had a wonderful night out dancing with Kate after he'd cooked dinner for them. Even a five star restaurant they'd once visited hadn't even come close to Adam's cooking. Therefore, they never ate out when going on dates, he always cooked for them. Then they did their date activity. This time, Kate insisted they go dancing where she finally discovered Adam's fatal weakness.

He had two left feet.

And now she had sore feet.

Kate giggled when they stopped at the door to her room in the Guardians base. Adam pinned her to the wall and pulled her in for a deeply passionate kiss. Kate groaned in appreciation, her right leg sliding up and hooking around his waist to pull him closer to her. Their tongues pushed, rubbed, and danced against each other. Kate's moans grew louder, until she couldn't take it anymore and broke the kiss.

Adam looked down at her, his lips still tingling. His question was clear in his eyes, he wanted to know why she'd stopped. Kate's lips curled into a sultry smile. When she spoke her voice had a husky tone to it that sent a tingle down Adam's spine, “Do you want to come in?”

Adam's heart started beating like a drum in his chest and he found that his mouth was suddenly drier than the Sahara Desert. Words utterly failed him, but he did manage to nod. Kate's knowing smile had his cheeks feeling hot, but he wasn't blushing! No matter how much Kate's smile said he was!

She grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand and opened the door to her room with the other then dragged him inside. He managed to get a look around her room, noting that it was pristine, meaning she'd cleaned it before hand. He'd seen her room enough to know that Kate, while not a slob, did leave clothing and other items out that made her room looked lived in. Now? There wasn't a single thing out of place.

She'd planned this.

His eyes immediately snapped back to Kate when she stepped back and rolled her shoulders to drop her jacket leaving her just in her tank top and jeans when she kicked her heels off next. Then there were two Kate's, one on either side of him. They both ran their hands over his chest to the hem of his shirt, then grabbed and lifted it over his head. After tossing his shirt away, the Kates ran their hands over his bare chest showing their appreciation for his well defined physique.

One Kate stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him hungrily. The other whispered into his ear, “I've wanted to do this for a long time.”

Both Kates stepped back from him leaving him panting and wanting more. With matching smirks, they gripped the hems of their tank tops and peeled them off revealing the distinct lack of a bra. Kate wasn't the bustiest of women, but right then and there Adam swore that her breasts were the greatest in the word. Her dark nipples immediately hardened in the chill of the air making it harder for Adam to look away.

One of the Kates giggled at the sight of their boyfriend staring at their tits. They'd talked about their past relationships so she knew he'd only ever been with one other woman in his life. One Kate moved behind the other, her hands slid up the other Kate's stomach and cupped her small but perky breasts in her hands. The groped Kate let out a moan while the other Kate molested her, “Like what you see?”

Adam nodded slowly, unable to form words at the moment. The groping Kate giggled again and whispered in a sultry voice, “You could join me, I won't mind.”

Adam needed no further encouragement. He stepped forward and intertwined his with the other Kate's. Both of them happily molested the Kate between them to their hearts content. Hearing the moan both Kates let out when he pinched her nipples and gave them a little twist, sent pleasant shivers down his spine.

They kept it up for a little longer before both Kates acted together to grab his hands and pull him toward the bed. As they got close to it, some power returned to his brain, “Wait.”

Both Kates looked at him in confusion. Not wanting her to get the wrong idea he quickly explained his reticence, “Contraceptives.”

The Kates both smiled while one answered, “I'm on the pill.”

Adam shook his head and swapped in his Tinker – Erotics power. A quick thought about contraceptives and he had something perfect. He held his hand out, palm up, and generated four small pills. Three of the pills were pink while one was blue. He quickly explained, “The pink pills are for you. They're basically 'The Pill' on steroids. Just this one will last until you take the counter pill.” He grinned at this next part knowing that any woman would love it, “It also drastically reduces and sometimes eliminates the symptoms of periods and PMS.”

Both Kates eyes widened in surprise, then they snatched all three pills. One went in each of their mouths and the last was put aside for Prime Kate to take later. After taking their pills one Kate asked, “I take it the blue one is for you?”

Adam nodded and tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it dry, “It basically renders me infertile until I take a counter agent for it. Zero percent chance of accidents. And, if we eventually decide we want to start a family, just one pill each and we're back to our normal fertility.”

The Kates smiled widely while one pulled him into a deep and hungry kiss. All three of them fell onto the bed with Adam on top of one Kate with the other to the side. But a moment later it was just Adam and the Kate beneath him. She broke the kiss and looked up into his eyes, “I wanted our first time to be just one of me.”

Adam leaned down and kissed her lips softly, “One or one hundred of you, doesn't matter to me.” He smirked playfully, “Don't forget, I can keep up with you.”

Kate's eyes glazed over at the thought of a massive orgy just between her and Adam. She quickly shook the thought off and gave him a quick kiss, “Next time.”

There were no further words exchanged. Adam immediately kissed Kate hungrily while his hands explored her chest. Kate moaned and squirmed beneath him. Soon his lips trailed from hers to her neck, down her collar bone, and to her breasts. His lips wrapped around her nipple, his tongue teasing the hard little nub.

While his lips and tongue teased her breast, his hands slide down her sides to her hips, then across her stomach to the front of her jeans. He popped the button and pulled the zipper down before grabbing the sides of the jeans and pulling them down. Kate happily helped by lifting her hips off of the bed.

Much to his disappointment, he had to let go of her nipple to move down further to peel her skin tight jeans off. Kate laughed and wiggled while he did. Shortly, he had her in nothing but a tiny thong. Adam leaned down and trailed kisses all the way up her body until he was hovering over her and looking down into her eyes, “Are you sure?”

He would never say it aloud, but he was rather nervous. He'd only had sex once before and it had been awkward, embarrassing, and shorter than he would have liked.

Kate nodded, “I've waited long enough.” She leaned up and kissed him, “Now, strip.”

Adam tapped into Atom Eve's power and used it to strip his clothing off completely leaving himself completely naked. Immediately his once restrained erection dropped down and lay against Kate. He could feel the humid heat coming from her core.

Their lips crashed together in a passionate kiss. Kate draped one leg over his hip and began grinding herself against him, the only thing separating them being the laughable small piece of cloth passing as Kate's thong. Adam rolled his hips in a specific manner that shoved the piece of cloth to the side. Both of them let out moans as Adam drove deep into her.

Adam shuddered at the feeling of Kate's heated core wrapped so tightly around him. They paused to revel in the feeling of finally being one together, then Adam began to move. Expert Kama Sutra was a skill he'd gotten a long time ago and had zero use for, until that moment. The full knowledge of the skill kicked in and Kate's soft moans grew louder.

“F-Fuck!” She gasped and shuddered as Adam moved his hips just so, “I thought you'd only done this once before!”

Adam grinned playfully and let his body move like it knew it needed to. His actions eliciting a sharp gasp of pure pleasure from Kate. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “My Power is pure bullshit.”

Kate moaned in what sounded like agreement. She'd lost all ability to speak when he ramped up his efforts. His hips moved with precision and skill that sent waves of pleasure through both of them. Kate's whole body shuddered while she bit her lip to keep from screaming as she came. Adam groaned at the feeling of her spasming and fluttering around him, but he didn't stop. He thrust into her through her entire orgasm causing her to let out keening moans of pleasure bordering on pain.

He slowed for a bit, letting Kate catch her breath and come back to reality. It took her a few moments, then she was looking up at him, “That... was amazing.”

Adam smirked, “That, was just the beginning. Now that you're warmed up...”

He grabbed her hips and lifted them up to change his angle. He began thrusting hard and deep hammering into Kate's g-spot like there was no tomorrow. Kate's gasps gave way to incoherent screams of pleasure as he found and exploited every single weak spot he could find.

Kate threw her head back and screamed, her whole body spasming as she climaxed again. Adam let out a deep groan feeling her squeezing down on him again was enough to drive him over the edge. He slammed his hips into hers to bury himself as deeply inside of her as he could. His balls churned and his cock pulsed while he painted Kate's insides white.

Kate's whole body locked up when she felt his cum spurting inside of her. Her eyes widened when he filled her, and then overfilled her. She groaned at the feeling of his cum leaking out of her around the airtight seal of her pussy clamping down on his thick cock.

After finally catching her breath, Kate spoke in an almost reverent voice, “That... was amazing.”

Adam laughed lightly while looking down at her, “What makes you think we're done?”

Kate's eyes widened when she realized that Adam was still rock hard inside of her. Then she whimpered as a second Adam appeared next to the original. She quickly made a copy of herself to entertain that Adam so they couldn't gang up on her!

Their night filled with absolute debauchery had just begun.

-----Line Break-----

Adam awoke with a soft groan. His everything felt either amazing or sore. Memories of the night before flooded his mind. He was pretty certain that half the things he and Kate had done were illegal in at least a dozen states. Once the clones had come out, all hell had broken loose. Together they'd probably had more sex in one night than most couples did in years.

He slowly sat up and realized he was on the floor sleeping between a pair of Kates covered in cum. Ceaseless discharge had, apparently, turned Kate on like nothing else. Once he'd explained it, there had been two Kates for every Adam and all the Kates were intent on seeing if he really did have infinite cum. In short, the answer was yes.

That combined with both them having enhanced stamina meant they'd gone for hours before all the Kates had tapped out. Adam could have kept going, but even he was looking to get some sleep at that point.

He gently wiggled his way out from between the Kates and began walking around touching other copies of himself and pulling them back together into one. As the last one merged with him a system notification appeared.

[Feat Achieved! Fuck Katherine Cha (Dupli-Kate). +1 Gold Gacha Ticket.]

[Feat Achieved! Participate in a massive orgy. +1 Gold Gacha Ticket.]

[Feat Achieved! Impress the Guardians of the Globe with your sexual prowess. +1 Platinum Gacha Ticket.]

Adam read over his rewards and grumbled to himself. He didn't appreciate the wording of the first one. He and Kate's first time had been making love. They didn't fuck until the orgy began. Which, he couldn't deny had been fucking amazing. The telepathy between all of his bodies didn't just increase the pleasure additively, it was multiplicative. Which was why Kate was still asleep.

He couldn't help wondering what she would think when he started to pull out sex toys from his Tinker – Erotics? Poor girl didn't know what she was in for.

Finally, there was the last reward and... He felt both embarrassed and prideful at knowing the others had heard them. The bedrooms didn't have dedicated soundproofing, but did have thick walls that should have prevented the majority of the sound. It probably worked just fine until the orgy really got going.

'Roll a gold ticket.'

[ROLLING!]

[Martial Foresight, Elite Skill, Kengan Ashura - The Foresight is a technique developed by skilled fighters. It is a skill that allows one to predict a target's moves to dodge and counter them through quick analysis and instinct. Your Foresight is quite basic, and will require actual fights to train and develop.]

'Helpful, but not what I NEED. Roll the last gold ticket.'

[ROLLING!]

[Cupid's Blessing, Rare Trait, Your luck with your romantic life seems to be greatly increased. Remember to thank Cupid.]

He scowled at the result of the roll. It still wasn't what he needed. In fact, it felt like a waste because he already had an amazing girlfriend.

'Roll the platinum ticket.'

[ROLLING!]

[Tinker – Armor, Epic Ability, Allows you to build technological constructs or contraptions related to armored suits or power armor such as the Iron Man Suit, Fallout Power Armor, basically, you can build any kind of powered suit as long as it is not larger than 5 times your size, because then it is classified as a mech.]

Adam scowled at the results. Another tinker specialty was nice and all, but still not what he wanted! Why couldn't it have been a tinker tree with resurrection as an option? He'd already looked into all of his others and only Star Wars had offered anything. Unfortunately, the tech only worked with a fresh corpse. The Immortal had been dead for weeks.

He'd just have to keep rolling tickets when he got them and hoping for the best.

He pushed his depressing thoughts to the side and used Eve's power to clean himself up and put some clothing on. He floated gently into the air and hovered over to one of the four Kates asleep on the bed. Flying was easier than trying to walk around all the Kates sprawled on the floor. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. She stirred a little, but continued to sleep.

The door closed gently behind him while he made his way to the kitchen. He was starving and he knew Kate would be when she woke up as well. So, obviously he was going to make her a very filling breakfast!

He froze after stepping into the kitchen. Eve, Rex, and Amanda were all sitting at the table with cps of coffee and dark circles under their eyes. The moment she spotted him, Amanda practically shouted, “What the fuck where you two doing?!”

Rex was next, “Dude! Fucking respect! But JESUS TITTY FUCKING CHRIST, keep it down next time!”

Eve just glared at him with a light blush on her cheeks. He realized she probably got the worst of it since her room was literally right next to Kate's. The perils of being best friends.

Adam flushed under their looks but didn't back down in the slightest from them. He just plastered on the grin he'd woken up with, “Sorry about that. We might have gotten carried away.”

He made his way over to the fridge and began pulling out ingredients. If they didn't have what he needed, he used Eve's power to make it. Amanda spoke up from behind him, “No, seriously, what the fuck did you two do to make so much noise?!”

Adam looked over his shoulder and grinned. Instead of an immediate answer, he used Kate's power to split into two, while he continued to work, the clone wiggled its eyebrows suggestively, “Guess.”

Amanda's jaw dropped in shock. In hindsight it was fairly obvious, but still! Once she recovered, she closed her mouth and scowled while muttering, “Lucky bitch.”

Adam snickered then got to work on his cooking. Soon the scent of his cooking food filled the kitchen and he had three mildly annoyed and clearly very hungry heroes staring at him. Since he wasn't a complete dick, and did feel responsible for keeping them awake while fucking Kate, he was cooking enough to feed everyone.

About half way through his cooking, Black Samson entered the kitchen, his nostrils flared while his eyes zeroed in on the food. Adam glanced over at him and smiled, “There's enough for you too, if you want some.”

Black Samson shook his head, “I'm on a strict diet to maintain my form.”

Adam just shrugged and continued his work. He got the feeling that Black Samson didn't like him. Any time he offered something to the man, he was turned down. Black Samson was always polite about it, but it was mildly annoying to constantly have his good intentions dismissed so quickly.

Maybe because he wasn't a member of the Guardians? Then again, he always turned down Robot's offers too. Then again, everyone still thought Robot was just a machine, they didn't know about Rudy. That would change in the next day or two, once Rudy felt he was ready to leave the station and meet everyone in person. Which, honestly, turned out to be a very good idea.

He still remembered the first time Rudy had eaten real food. The poor guy had ended up ugly crying while raving about the flavors and textures he was experiencing for the first time ever. It might have been a bit much for Adam to be the one to do the cooking, he reflected. Then there was what came naturally after eating and drinking, using the bathroom. Again, something he'd never had to do which required Adam to awkwardly talk him through the process with a door between them.

Black Samson worked on his own food, a lot of prepackaged and processed protein bars, fiber bars, and some custom made ones Adam didn't know anything about. The guy didn't eat food so much as survive on pure nutrients. It must've been extremely bland.

Black Samson left shortly after that but his place was quickly taken by Shrinking Rae who happily took a seat at the table when food was offered. Once she was sitting, she gave Adam a playful smirk, “So, you and Kate seemed to be having a lot of fun last night.”

That got a round of quiet complaints from the others at the table and a snicker from Adam. He looked over his shoulder at her, “Damn right we did.”

Shrinking Rae laughed, “Good for you! Maybe now Kate will be a little more relaxed.” She smirked at Adam, “And you too for that matter.”

Adam laughed, “I suppose so. Still, next time we'll either go somewhere private or I'll soundproof the room so you guys can get some sleep.”

“You fucking better!” Rex shouted.

Just a few minutes later, Adam was setting down plates filled with food that the others could dish for themselves. He'd already filled two plates for himself and Kate. At her door a clone popped out to open it then vanished. Stepping inside he saw only a single Kate laying on the bed and smiling at him as he stepped inside.

She licked her lips at the scent of the food and spoke softly, “When I woke up and you were gone, I was a little upset. I thought you'd taken off. Then I opened the door to my room and realized you were cooking breakfast.”

Adam smiled softly, “I'd never just run out after an important milestone in our relationship. Not unless it was a real emergency. But in that kind of case, you'd likely be running out with me.”

Kate chuckled, “Damn right.” She lifted her arms and made grabby hands, “Now feed me! That smells divine.”

Adam laughed and walked over toward her. With a thought a wooden lap desk appeared in front of her in a flash of pink light that let him set her food down. Another flash of light had a glass of orange juice appear. A third, and final, one swept over Kate's entire body cleaning her off.

All talking ceased when they began eating. It was a special phenomenon that his food always produced. Unless it was to moan, people tended to not make verbal sounds while eating anything he cooked. Once the food was finished, Adam and Kate left her room, only for Eve to immediately grab Kate and drag her off for girl talk. Adam pretended not to notice that both Amanda and Rae followed the pair into Eve's room.

Let the girls have their girl talk. While they did, he'd go and get some work done. Maybe he should go on patrol, he hadn't done that in a while. But, before he did, he opened a portal to the Kamui dimension and reached into it to collect his GDA earpiece. Slipping it into his ear, he tapped it, “This is Sentinel, checking in.”

“Sentinel, it's good to hear from you. There are no current threats requiring your attention.” the calm voice of a woman on the other side of the radio confirmed.

“Copy that. If anything happens let me know.”

“Will do, Sentinel. GDA, out.”

“Hmmm what to do, what to do?”

-----Line Break-----

Sentinel dropped from the sky at high speed, his fists aimed toward his target.

Killcannon, a low tier villain with a durable battlesuit and a laser canon arm, aimed said cannon at Sentinel and let off a dozen shots. The laser blasts hit Sentinel but didn't have nearly enough power to even hope to harm him.

Sentinel came to a sudden stop in front of Killcannon and stared at him, “How is someone like you not in jail already?”

Killcannon smirked, “Because I'm the best!”

Sentinel arched an eyebrow and then casually waved his hand. Pink energy rippled over Killcannon and disintegrated his cannon arm and the armor of his suit leaving him as nothing more than a normal man.

While Killcannon, sans cannon, stared at his now missing arm with his mouth open, Sentinel grabbed him by the front of his suit, pinned him to a street light, and stuck him there with a generous application of webbing.

“Well, you won't be going anywhere this time.”

While nearby civilians, most with their phones out, cheered, Sentinel shot up into the air with a bright smile on his face. Doing good always felt so good.

-----Line Break-----

Adam walked through the main hall of the Guardians headquarters with Rudy walking right next to him. He looked down at his little brother, “You ready for this?”

Rudy nodded, “A month is more than sufficient time to become accustomed to my new body. I'm sure I will learn more as I live day-to-day with my new body.”

Adam nodded in agreement, “That's all of life. Just remember to actually take some time to live your new life. Don't spend it all training, working with the Guardians, or on improving our technology. Get out and have some fun.” His voice turned teasing, “Maybe think about dating.”

Rudy's cheeks gained a hint of pink. With his mission accomplished, they stepped into the main area and were greeted by the sight of Black Samson and Shrinking Rae talking by the console with Robot nearby. They both paused and looked at Adam and Rudy.

Black Samson scowled, “Adam, this is Guardians Headquarters, not some place you can bring your little brother to whenever you feel like it! How did you even get him past security anyway?!”

Rae looked concerned but let Black Samson do the talking. Adam just smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't need to say anything since Rudy had already taken a step forward, “I am Rudy Cross, but you know me better as Robot.”

The drone walked over and stood next to Rudy while Black Samson and Rae stared, gobsmacked. Robot took the moment to speak through speakers all around the headquarters, “All members of the Guardians, please report to the console.”

An awkward silence descended while other members trickled in one by one. They all gave curious looks toward Rudy but didn't say anything since both Robot and Adam were standing next to him. Rex was the last to step in and was as crude as ever, “What the fuck robot! I was close to a new high score!”

Rex paused as he spotted Rudy, “Why is there another twerp in here?”

“Hey!” Monster Girl shouted.

Black Samson spoke next, “He claims he's Rudy Cross and that he's the real Robot.”

Rudy nodded, “I am. I created Robot and remotely piloted him because my original body was too... damaged and weak to do anything else. Adam and I worked together to clone this body and transfer my consciousness to it.”

“Holy fucking SHIT! Seriously?!”

Rudy nodded, “Yes, Rex. When it became clear to me that you all had trouble following the orders of what you believed to be just a machine, I knew I had to do something.”

“Why are you a fucking kid then?!”

Rudy's cheeks flushed slightly while he looked directly at Monster Girl, Amanda. Her eyes widened slightly, “For me. He did it for me.”

Rudy nodded slowly and spoke directly to her, “I wanted you to know that there was someone who truly understood your situation.”

Amanda blushed a little. Black Samson had to ruin the moment, “You think following a kid is somehow better than following a machine?”

Rudy turned to Black Samson and narrowed his eyes, “Though I am in a young body, much like Monster Girl, I am much older than I appear. Cecil has placed me as the leader of the Guardians of the Globe and until such a time as he removes me, I will lead as I see fit. Your experience and knowledge is something I appreciate, but your attitude is beginning to grate. Either fall in line, or leave. I will no longer allow you to continue to bring disharmony to the group.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared between Rudy and Black Samson. Slowly, Black Samson's lips curled into a smile, “It's about time you took a stand as a leader, Pinocchio.”

There were some laughs and smiles at the joke. Adam threw his hands into the air, “Party time! And I'm cooking!”

Everyone cheered at that.

-----Line Break-----

Sentinel stood still while the supervillain he had been sent to capture continued to try and knock him out by applying judicious violence to his face. He let out a long suffering sigh as he stared at her through the punches, “Look, I get it, in your position I'd be pretty pissed off too.”

The villain, a Caucasian woman wearing a one piece suit, fingerless gloves, and, well, he wasn't sure what the things on her feet were called. They were like socks, just without the toes.

Oh, and her entire face was covered in fur with a small dark dog-like nose and long hair that was thick like a lion's mane. Hell, the fur around her eyes was actually darker, like a raccoon's.

His comment seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect. Her punches became even more vicious, slamming into him with enough force to seriously injure a normal person, but barely enough to make him even feel it. The last few months of sitting in space, or under the effects of Rudy's gamma cannon, had let him abuse the hell out of his Radiation Absorption ability and Glowing One trait. His base body was now as strong as Super had been the first time he used it. The only reason he still used Super was for the flight!

After another couple of blows, Sentinel sighed. His body turned into a blur as he moved faster than normal people could track. His fist lightly tapped the villain, who called herself Roarface of all things, under her chin.

Her head snapped up with a loud crack. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious. Sentinel sighed and shook his head, then proceeded to bind her up in webbing for the GDA to pick up easily.

-----Line Break-----

“Sentinel.”

Adam immediately jerked to attention, “Cecil.”

“I need you to get to Chicago and down the Tower Plaza immediately. The Guardians are in deep shit.”

Adam was already on the move, Eve's power turning his civilian outfit into his costume. The next moment, a swirl swallowed him into the Kamui dimension, which he immediately exited in downtown Chicago. He'd never been to the Tower Plaza building before, so it was as close a she could get.

Adam took to the sky and blasted toward the general direction he knew the skyscraper was in, “Fill me in, Cecil.”

Invincible went and made friends with a street level thug known as Titan. Together they went to take on the crime lord known as Machine Head. It should have been easy, until Machine Head's crony Isotope teleported in a group of supervillains. I got a tip and sent in the Guardians, but they're getting their asses kicked. There's some giant white cat man beating the shit out of Invincible and Monster Girl. The others are dealing with Magmaniac, Tether Tyrant, Kursk, and Furnace.”

Sentinel looked over the city and spotted the building he needed to get to, “I'm almost there.”

“Good luck, kid.”

Sentinel turned deadly serious as he closed in on the building. If his friends were hurt, the villains would pay.

AN

Another 10k words done and dusted.

As usual, there's a lot going on in this chapter. I just wanted to point out a few things I couldn't explicitly say since the MC isn't a character with knowledge of the Invincible series.

First, did you know that Shrinking Rae is actually Shrinking Ray, a dude, in the comics? Even more interesting, Ray died when Komodo Dragon ate him. In the series, Rae survived that, then had her little romance with Rex before he died. I had no idea since I've never read the comics and only realized it when I went to a comic wiki instead of a series wiki.

Second, Adam is taking a lot of work off of Mark/Invincible's hands. This subsequently means that his relationship with Amber is a LOT stronger than it otherwise would be in the canon timeline. While Mark still isn't a perfect boyfriend to her, he's only fucked up about half as much at this point. He even made it to the dinner with her family on time. I didn't explicitly state it in the chapter, but with Adam asteroid mining, it would be obvious he'd automatically intercept and mine any asteroids heading for Earth.

Third, let me know how the sex scene went. The Invincible world is pretty mature, and I wanted to reflect that. Sex scenes won't be super common, but the first time with each woman will probably be written out.

Anyway! Let me know what you thought of the chapter!