Following the tryouts, the rest of the superheroes had vacated the GDA premises, leaving the newly formed Guardians of the Globe seated in the arena on blocks that had been made into makeshift seats for our first team meeting.
Me, Robot, Shrinking Rae, Black Samson, Dupli-Kate, Rex-Splode, and Monster Girl. It was enough to make me feel a little out of place, but then again, my company was certainly weird enough in its own right. A girl who could shrink, a guy loaded with cybernetic enhancements, an artificial intelligence, a veteran superhero who'd lost his powers and now fought with the aid of a suit, a girl who could duplicate herself, and an alien from another dimension.
As far as crews went, none of us were exactly normal. Maybe that was par for the course, though. No one normal, average, or sane would be the sort of person who'd risk their lives day in and day out to be a superhero. It took someone with a few screws loose to be that kind of self-sacrificing without a moment's hesitation.
Was I there yet? Perhaps not yet. But I hoped to be that selfless, and like most things in life, you had to practice before you could get to where you wanted to be.
"As soon as the forensic investigation is completed, we'll be moving into the Guardian's headquarters. Until then, we'll be training here." Which was news to me but did make a lot of sense, even if I would have preferred to have my time as my own.
Welp. That was my own fault for wanting to join a superhero team. It'd be weird if I couldn't keep up with the pace that'd be expected of me.
Holding a piece of paper, I got the feeling he'd done it more for solidarity with everyone else that he'd passed it out to, rather than needing it. "Breakfast is at 6am, and then close-quarters combat exercises until lunch." Then he glanced over at Dupli-Kate, who had a two emblazoned on her chest instead of a one. "Where is Kate Prime?"
"She had a thing," the other Kate mentioned, and it did raise a question of how exactly her cloning worked again. I'd thought it was more of a hivemind, but maybe I was wrong.
And naturally, Rex was the next to pipe in. "Okay, just to make it clear, there is no universe in which I wake up at 6am if the world isn't on fire."
"It might be if you don't train enough," I pointed out. "Even a single second could be all that matters, sometimes."
"If the world needs me that much, I think it might be a goner already. Besides, c'mon Robot, we don't need this bullshit—it's us!" Which was a level of confidence that I could only admire, given the fact that his face was still a battered mess.
Robot was unphased by his friend's whining, though. "We're not on the Teen Team any longer, Rex. The stakes are bigger now."
"Exactly," Black Samson chimed in. "Though I'm sure you had a lot of experience wrangling teenagers, I was with the Guardians from day one."
"Wow, thanks, Dad! Maybe if you didn't lose your powers, you might have been there to help the Guardians on their last day."
I frown. That was… an incredibly disrespectful thing to say. Was Rex always like this, and it was just a side of him I hadn't seen yet? "That was an incredibly assholish thing to say."
Or was it just the actual likely concussion and brain damage he had? Whatever the cause was, it obviously struck a serious nerve for Black Samson.
Enough so that he all but bent over, getting straight into Rex's face.
"I don't know you yet. So I'm gonna assume that was just a shitty joke, and I won't have to beat your ass until all you wanna do is call me 'Dad' again."
There was a palpable menace projected in his tone there, and not without reason. If someone were taunting me about all my dead friends, I'd probably react just as poorly. Standing back up, he turned to face Robot, arms crossed as he focused on the mechanical construct.
"I don't know you either. But I do know that we need a leader that we can look in the eye. Not a bunch of ones and zeroes." Then he paused. "No offense."
"That's actually super offensive!" Kate pointed out immediately. "You think you should be in charge or something?"
"Which would also be stupid," I pointed out, drawing eyes my way. "Not that I'm doubting your capacity in a superhero role or the experience you're bringing to the table. Everyone here has more experience at helping people and saving the day than I do, but the reality of the situation is that Cecil approached Robot to lead this team. I'm new to this world, but one thing that's functionally universal is giving people the benefit of the doubt."
While he was an AI, Robot wasn't some emotionless machine. That much I could see through our limited interactions. He had pride in his work, got stressed and irritated, and was definitely attached to his loose network of friends from the Teen Team. It'd be insane to make the assumption that just because he was an AI, he'd be less capable of running a functional team. Until I saw evidence otherwise, I was inclined to at least give him a chance to succeed on his own merits or crash and burn.
"I mean, I am the most experienced…" Samson tried to defend himself.
"Experienced at losing your powers," Rex blurted out before pausing. "Wait, didn't I crack that joke already…?" Standing up, he stood in the middle of our circle of superheroes, gesturing at Black Samson. "Why are we even putting up with this guy? He wears a suit that needs batteries! Let's just get Eve back in here."
"I'm a little surprised she didn't make the cut originally," I admitted. Mostly because of how stupidly versatile her powers were.
"I'm new to this whole team thing, but I thought it involved teamwork," Shrinking Rae commented, glancing her bespectacled gaze between everyone. "Not really impressed at what I'm seeing so far."
"As did I," Robot admitted, sounding a little defeated.
The whole thing was sad, really. How badly did an AI have to be pushed to the brink to sound like that?
Rae sighed, standing up slowly. "Call me when this gets figured out, alright? I'll be in the gym."
"Me too," Kate added, getting up as well and following after.
With Rex being the third to leave, shoving his hands in his pockets. "And I'll… go supervise or something."
Black Samson moved to walk off too, but not before stopping at Robot. "Good first day, Robot," he sniped, which just felt so unnecessary.
It left the three of us in the circle: me, Robot, and Monster Girl. The last raised her paper with a bit of a concerned look shot Robot's way. "I can't do three combat exercises a day."
And the tension was beginning to genuinely get to Robot, judging by the terseness I heard in his voice. "I'm on a rather tight timeline to get this team combat operational."
"Look, man, I'm not bitching at you. Whenever I transform, I get younger. It's part of the curse that gives me my powers." Approaching Robot, she stood right next to him and me, glancing between us. "I don't look it, but I'm twenty-four years old. I used to go by Monster Woman, but it got too hard to explain. So, if you don't wanna start changing my diapers, three exercises a day is too much for me."
That… hmm.
Hmm.
"I…might be able to do something about that." I blurted out, focusing on her anew with my eyes, as I thought about the possibilities of a literal fountain of youth. There was jutsu that used life force and vitality in a very lifespan-cutting way that I'd never normally dream about using if I had a choice.
But using them in a pseudo-medicinal way was a possibility that had just opened up to me.
"Wait, really?" She perked up at the mention of that. "I…I'd kind of resigned myself to this, but are you serious?"
"My powers are supernatural in nature, basically a magical system with rules and whatnot. I can't promise you the world, but I can think of a few different ways to maybe help you out."
Not something that was, well, perfect off the rip, but if not shinjutsu, then there might be specially created fuinjutsu that could be tattooed onto her. The Byakugan and Otsutsuki abilities were a pathway to powers that some could consider unnatural. "Let's schedule some lab time, alright?"
"I too understand what it is like to have the world see you as one thing and not quite be truly seen for what you are," Robot added in. "If I could grant my own assistance, I'd be glad to."
There was a genuine look of something faintly hopeful on her features, as she seemed to at the very least take us at our word. But then she swallowed that hope and spat it back out with a smirk on her face.
"If… if you two end up getting my hopes up and this doesn't work out, I'm punching you in the dicks."
"Noted," Robot nodded.
"I'd rather not be punched in the dick, so I guess I'm obligated to try and succeed?"
"Damn right you are," Monster Girl responded, smiling all the while. "I'm Amanda. I guess I'll see you two around, or whatever?"
"For sure," I promised, as the girl walked off, leaving me and Robot alone with one another. When she was gone and out of earshot, though, I turned to slap Robot on the shoulder. "Hey, Robot?"
"Yes?"
"I dunno if my word has any worth, because I know we're not like… close friends or anything, but Black Samson just seems kind of like an old head, stuck in his ways," I started, drawing my hand back now that I had his attention. "I do think you genuinely have something to offer the world, and especially the Guardians of the Globe, as a leader."
Those green eyes watched me with a piercing, unblinking stare for a few moments before he gave me a nod. "I appreciate the sentiment, Taijitu. The support is…bracing."
I smiled. "Call me Genji. I think I'll go crazy if I only ever go by my superhero name. Save Taijitu for the field."
"Genji it is."
"Anyway, I think they've still got the autonomous puppet drone I made hanging around. I actually wanted your feedback on the joint articulation and some of the manufacturing processes."
"That sounds genuinely productive." My smile only grew wider when I heard the hint of actual excitement in his words, as he straightened up a little.
"C'mon. Let's see what we can cook up in the lab."
That was enough to get the two of us moving from the meeting space and off into other parts of the GDA headquarters. Partially because I did want to get going on those designs and see what the two of us could get up to if the situation were right. But also because I felt a little exposed under the eyes of our last visitor, who'd chosen to watch from above.
Up in the galley, where you could view the arena, was Omni-Man. He hadn't said a word, and frankly, I didn't know why he was lurking there quietly long after his son had left with Eve.
Maybe I was overreacting, and the guy had just never been one for making small talk or being part of Guardians of the Globe operations. It just gave me a weird, sinking feeling in my gut.
And more than anything else was the quiet surety that he had his eyes on me most of all.
Before I entered this new body, I generally didn't have the faintest clue concerning a lot of hands-on crafts. Like, I understood them in the abstract insofar as they existed out in the world. I'd just never put a whole lot of stock into the sorts of lessons that my high school shop classes had tried hard to instill in me.
However, that was no longer the case. Now that my mind was filled with designs and concepts that went beyond the normal sort of range of scientific notions, I'd found the act of creation to be meaningful indeed. With centuries ahead of me, too, I supposed that if I didn't take the time to delve into the sciences, I'd be wasting that eternity.
The art of puppets was one that was entirely foreign to the world I'd entered, and it was shown in the ways that my chakra-based scientific theories had wowed the scientists that I'd presented to. In turn, I was stunned by the breadth of sciences that Robot had at his disposal and not just had, but mastered.
"It's a path of technological innovation that I wouldn't have considered, personally," Robot admitted as he inspected the specific components of my Mark One puppet that seemed to interest him. "But then again, perhaps the combination of biological capacities with mechanical ingenuity has more merit than I'd considered."
"Thank you," I preened, genuinely pleased with the compliment. "I wasn't sure if I should go with a more humanoid model in the beginning, but I set it up because this was a unit meant nominally to interact with the public."
He didn't hum, but I felt as if the pause before he spoke was where a thoughtful one might have went. "I had similar design considerations for my baseline model," he admitted. "Designing things for the public to trust, while also not breeching into the uncanny valley, can be difficult."
"It's good to have someone who understands my aims."
"Likewise," he agreed. "Though I will say that there are a few elements that we could improve upon."
The smile on my face only broadened at his words. "I'm all ears."
"Have you thought about magnetic interlock fastenings? It's a very good methodology to avoid ungainly welding. Additionally…" It didn't take him long to dive straight into the best practices that he used in his own drones. More than anything else, it felt like he was eager to explain his own creations.
Frankly, I could see the gulf between me and Robot, at least when it came to our own fields of scientific expertise. He was objectively better than me as a multidisciplinary researcher and scholar, diving deep enough in terms of various kinds of engineering fields. His skill lies not just in the hardware, though, but in the software.
Whereas I was more of a specialist, but an exceedingly deep one, in a very narrow focus. That said, even what was theoretically a tiny professional field could hold hundreds, if not thousands, of individual developments within it. Especially the further you progressed down that tech tree. Ōtsutsuki as a whole had gone incredibly far down that road, and I was the end result of that research.
There would be times where I would ask clarifying questions to Robot, and he was polite enough to explain some of the higher-level concepts to me. Many of which would have literally gone over my head if my brain wasn't just factually built differently now. I was happy to return the favor to him when he asked about the hard science behind chakra, as much as could be given out effectively.
While he couldn't give me much help on the chakra-based side of things, the same could not be said about the principles of the puppet that relied on plain, regular science. Those were aspects that he was immensely helpful in. Just from working alongside him for a brief matter of hours, I was getting the suggestions for the next iteration of the puppet.
Smoother ranges of motion, integrated technological functions that could take a load off of what I had it do purely off chakra, things of that nature. It was the kind of treatment that made me beam at Robot, grinning broadly over at him.
"You, my friend, are truly a one of a kind intelligence."
With a soft incline of his head, he acknowledged my words. "I try. While I may recognize my shortcomings in other respects, it is good to meet a kindred spirit in terms of the path of innovation."
"Frankly, I think I'm going to have to ask Cecil for some kind of advanced tutoring, just so I can pick up some of these concepts and ideas sooner," I admitted, looking at the papers that were filled with scribblings between the two of us. "Your time is naturally too viable for me to monopolize like that."
"It isn't as if this is a totally one-sided arrangement, Genji," he gently admonished. "While I won't say your puppets beat my own drones in terms of outright sophistication, I have never truly been able to dive thoroughly into a stable magical system."
Gesturing to where the puppet stood, Robot continued. "I think there's genuinely a lot of overlap that can be done between integrating my creations with your chakra, if it proves as reliable as you make it seem."
"To a degree…" I trailed off, raising my hand and tilting it from side to side. "Chakra, natural chakra, requires living beings to produce it. Though once it's made, you can theoretically use it as a power source for regular machinery. It should also be feasible to work with natural energy, though, senjutsu, for a fuel source."
It was a pathway I wasn't entirely sure about if we were being honest. The consequences of screwing up senjutsu were the only reason I hadn't tried to pick up sage mode yet for myself. There just hadn't been an external pressure that required me to be that desperate. Alas, it was something that I was going to have to look into eventually.
Probably because I suspected it'd be one of the few real roads I could use to gain new power. Becoming a Sage wasn't easy, but it would boost my power by an order of magnitude. If not potentially opening up a way to evolve the Byakugan to a new stage of power. Either that, or a truly untold amount of personal suffering.
…For obvious reasons I was trying to avoid the undue personal suffering. No matter how likely it was for me to run into a lot of it as an aspiring superhero.
"The possibilities, if it allows for any true replication of even a smidgeon of your capabilities, would be well worth the time invested," Robot added, sounding a bit excited at the prospect. "Similar offensive variants in my drones have proven prohibitively power intensive, even with solar disks."
I paused. "Solar disks?"
"They're a form of battery, exceptionally common in functionally most 'supertechnology,' but also used in powering suits like Black Samson's," he explained, tapping the chest of the drone that he was currently piloting. "They're powered by background energy, or zero-point energy."
It was all I could do not to just gawk at the bullshit I was hearing. "Are you telling me you guys have limitless energy?"
"Not entirely. The requirements for a solar disk are entirely materially prohibitive, putting them outside of the budget of most governments to reliably install around most infrastructure. Despite the fact that subatomic space has almost unlimited electromagnetic energy from the virtual particle production, the disks themselves also have draw limits on how much energy can be reliably pulled through them."
"Okay," I nodded, my own worry about why the public had to pay energy bills being met in that moment. "So it's more material constraints than anything else, and the actual science itself, that keeps them from being used widely."
"Indeed. Though, they're also hard to use at scale at a certain point and thus tend to be supplemented with more traditional energy sources much of the time."
That was certainly news to me, but it did make plenty of sense in the abstract. I didn't entirely understand all of the science at play here, but I suppose that a world as densely technological as this setting would have an explanation for why certain things worked. Pausing, I shot a questioning look at my puppet.
"Do you think I could do the same with my designs?"
"...Perhaps. Magic, in and of itself, and the supernatural, is widely believed to be the end result of wildly different technological processes. Maybe you could find out if there's a way to tap into background energy through chakra?"
"Ugh. Another project…"
A low, amused noise that must have been an electronic chuckle rumbled through Robot. "For men of science such as us, the quest for advancement never ends."
Conversation died down after that, as the sound of scribbling pencils and electronic notes being taken filled the air as I tried to jot down some of the ideas for later. Not that I needed it, to be clear, but it was still good practice to write out things sometimes. You'd be amazed at the kind of thing you'd miss or get a new realization out of nowhere when doing so.
Though as we worked quietly, another question did come to mind. Not something particularly complex, just an errant thought that I'd had ever since I'd met Robot.
"Why Robot?" I asked, more than a little curious about the name he'd chosen. "You could have gone for something like, ah, Talos, or something else."
The rust-colored construct paused, obviously thinking through something hard, before turning to face me once again. "It has to do with the origin of the word."
"In modern parlance, the term robot came from the Czech language in 1923, coined by the author Karel Capek. From the word robotnik, which in and of itself comes from an even older Czech word, rabota. It interchangeably has connotations of slave, yes, but also to serve."
Gesturing to himself, he tilted his head ever so slightly to the side. "If nothing else, I look at myself as a public servant. All of my plans, theories, and ideas are for the common good of humanity and the world at large."
Then he paused, something wry and amused entering his tone as well. "Though I also believed it was simple and to the point. Easy to say for the purposes of superheroic work, which enables me easy access to the annals of power to progress my goals."
"... You're a good man, Robot," I spoke, and genuinely found myself meaning it. Maybe I'd never live up to those lofty ideals of superheroism that I looked up to, from comic books and movies. Mostly because I struggled to stay as sanguine and virtuous when flat-out evil was done before me.
But that didn't mean I couldn't respect and admire when someone did live up to those ideals. If for nothing else, Robot was someone who genuinely held my high regard for his stated purpose. There could be the chance that he was lying to me, and that was a genuine possibility. Yet I didn't feel as if that was the case here.
Perhaps a little too power-hungry, but was that worse than any of the comic book super-intelligences like Tony Stark or Reed Richards who sat on life-changing technology? There was no reason why anyone on Marvel's earth went hungry, save for the status quo. In comparison, I'd say that Robot's ambitions were a lot more achievable and honest.
Provided he didn't go crazy with power or something trying to reach a singularity. God, I'd look like I was eating crow later if that was the case.
"I am what I was built to be," the artificial intelligence demurred, looking away. "Now, I wouldn't mind some eyes on my own items of interest."
"It'd be my honor." And much to my surprise, I genuinely thought I meant it. While I intended to make friends with the rest of the Guardians of the Globe in due time, it was a bit surprising that the one I ended up having the most enjoyable time with was Robot himself.
Then again, out of the bunch of them, it was hard to be genuinely upset with someone who took themselves as professionally and politely as he did. Everyone else seemed to at least have a chip on their shoulder in some respect, outside of the guy who was constructed to be helpful. As far as I was concerned, he was a good person.
Though something else did come to my mind, a little question that was niggling at me. "May I ask how you chose certain people for this new roster of the Guardians? Some of the choices seem a little subpar, from the outside looking in."
Robot paused, one of the rare times I actually saw him taking the time to think rather than being entirely sure in his answer. "If I'm being honest, some were for tactical reasons, like yourself. Others were more interpersonal."
"Rex and Kate."
"They're comrades I trust, and while the invitation was extended to Atom Eve as well, she declined due to personal reasons." Which was news to me, seeing as I could see the use case her powers might have brought to the table. "Black Samson is a veteran superhero and would bring seasoned experience to the new formation of the team as well. Shrinking Rae provided a power with high amounts of utility and exotic combat potential, as demonstrated by her bout."
I gave a shudder at the thought of her crawling into any of my orifices. "Yeah, I can see how."
"Monster Girl's physical prowess as well is daunting, though I'll admit I was not aware of her limitations on transforming when my initial choice was made. Regardless, I'll concede that while I could have chosen those with more formidable powers, that was never what the original Guardians were about," Robot emphasized. "Darkwing had no powers at all, only training and gadgets. Aquarus worked best in aquatic environs but outside of them could prove weaker than many of his superhuman peers outside of the organization."
Stopping his work, he fixed me with his familiar green-eyed stare. "Heroism, and the drive to sacrifice yourself for others, is what makes a true Guardian of the Globe. I won't lie and pretend as if Kate and Rex are flawless people. They're not. But they are heroes, trained, conditioned, and ready to put their lives on the line every day for what they believe in.
"Now I'll concede that we seemed to have skipped straight to the storming stage of team development—"
"Storming?"
"Bruce Tuckman's stages of team development. Part of the material I've been researching is bringing together more disparate members of superheroes. Forming, storming, and norming."
That did sound familiar, but I wasn't sure what I'd heard it from before. "Sounds like you've done a lot of work to make this run as smoothly as possible."
"Correct. Though we seem to have skipped right past the forming stage, and went straight to storming, I have faith that we'll manage to become an organization that would make the first Guardians of the Globe proud."
If nothing else, I was a newcomer to a lot of this superhero stuff. Whereas Robot and the rest of the team had been doing it for years at this point. I was inclined to at least trust them when it came to the content matter that they knew best. Not that I thought that everyone wasn't a little silly for being so abrasive or reticent to train, but I could extend a little grace…
For now.
"Then I'll have to defer to your judgement. You're the specialist here, and despite all my power, I'm still a newbie," I admitted, inclining my head toward Robot. "Back to work?"
"Back to work," he agreed. "But your acceptance and willingness to work are appreciated."
"It's just good sense to listen to people smarter than you." Unless Robot was proven to have massive, obvious blind spots. But we hadn't known each other long enough for me to make that determination.
From there, we moved on from the topic of team composition and into the brainstorming and design work that had initially brought us here.
I can't say what my future ambitions would look like when it came to the Guardians of the Globe. But if nothing else, I felt comfortable saying that I had firmly made a friend. While he might not have been a physical peer, in the intellectual sense, he very much was one. The feeling was a warm one that settled in my chest as the two of us fell into an easy rapport, delving into our shared work.
Author's Notes
Not much has changed from the exclusive version of this post. Though, I did in fact add a little section near the end where Taijitu did straight up ask why Robot selected certain members.
Additionally, if you would like to read ahead, you can find up to ten chapters ahead via the linktree in my profile. For the time being, all adult content like future smut in anything I write, will be on , though in due time I'll likely try to get the processing and authentication through on to be able to post it there as well. So be mindful of where you're supporting me.