Stage One

The following takes place after the return of Renna the Betrayer, which occurred the evening of September 25 between the hours of 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM Eastern time.

He just barely made it home.

Later he would wonder how, but for now it was enough that he made it.

The flight from the Glen, where Hex had found him, had been interrupted by a single stop, just long enough for the armor to reclaim him. Inside of it there was less chance of further damage being done, with the suit's inertia-negating properties, than there was if he allowed it to carry him home with Diana in command of it. Later he would thank his lucky stars he had thought to include that kind of emergency protocol.

If he survived this.

He had hoped there would be more time. But the arrival of Hex - who had no doubt detected the energy surge of Renna's return from orbit - had interrupted that.

Renna hadn't approved of his idea, even when he had explained the logic of it and he had assured her he would survive. But it was a necessity, after all, so that he could be held blameless of her return. He couldn't very well expect to keep the trust of those deemed by so many to be heroes if everyone knew he had willingly participated in her return, and what he had in mind had to not only appear authentic - it had to be authentic as well.

So she had done as he proposed - infected him with her latest strain of virus, that he had witnessed Katt using, and then proceeded to methodically pummel him to near the point of death.

And had left him there to be found by Hex.

The pain was excruciating, even with the virus already altering his genetic makeup, as bones broke and wounds were opened. Through the haze of pain, he had sworn there might have even been a look of sincere regret and pain in her own features.

But she had done it, and then laid him on top of the inactive armor he had left laying on the floor. Almost tenderly.

The Betrayer, indeed. The sarcastic thought had echoed through his mind as he lost consciousness. She may have been his greatest enemy, his biggest challenge to overcome, and maybe even twisted to the point of utter insanity by a lifetime - several lifetimes - of pain and suffering beyond his wildest imaginings...but he didn't think the title held much truth in it.

It was a unique sort of love they shared, without a doubt.

Strange that he would find such a thing in someone that was so grave a threat, but there it was.

He managed to hold on - only just - to a thread of consciousness along the trip home. Even with that, though, he had been unable to pilot, had left it in the AI's hands to get him home, and as they descended through the port into the basement level he had breathed a sigh of relief, trying to ignore the thick, cloying, coppery taste of blood in his mouth. Trying to ignore the tremendous pain of broken limbs as Diana walked the suit to a waiting gurney, laid him down on it, and deactivated the suit for him. Mechanical arms in the suit assembly area stripped him of the tattered body suit and pulled the inactive armor away from his limp form as the cool female voice spoke.

"Sir, what you are about to attempt is inadvisable. I am detecting several fractures, internal injuries and cerebral trauma as well as numerous cuts and contusions. I would advise you to seek help at the nearest medic-"

He cut her off. "No...no hospital...dis...will work. Start...phase one...of de...Guardian project."

There was a momentary pause from the AI, before she simply replied with, "Yes, sir."

Several of the robotic arms descended from the ceiling, all wielding a thick needle attached to an even bigger and thicker syringe willed with a silvery-grey substance. All of them dropped down, their needle tips pointing to different parts of his body, and without hesitation each stabbed into him - his head, arms, torso, legs - at once and injected their contents into his body.

For a long moment he simply laid there, wondering if his treatment was going to work.

And then the seizures began. Light at first, then more violent, convulsing and flopping like a dying fish gasping for air as the nanomachine treatment began to take hold. The AI dutifully recorded his vitals as they rose, then spiked at tremendous levels as he went into a gran mal, so hard that it would have knocked the gurney over if the robotic, AI-controlled arms did not descend to stabilize it.

And then, finally, with a shuddering breath and a final flop...

...the monitors showed a cessation of life functions as his heart flatlined and he fell limp.

Stage Three

It was time for the third stage.

The second stage had been a grueling nine hours. The nanomachines had begun by altering his skeletal structure and interlaced them with carbon nanotubes reinforced by his OmniPower crystalline lattice polymer material. That had been the most painful part - akin to having millions of microscopic drills piercing every bone in his body simultaneously and tapping at the insides with icepicks.

Next had been the alteration of his musculature. That had been not so much painful as it was an odd sensation, making his muscles twitch and spasm in odd ways that felts as though they were receiving low-grade electric shocks. As the nanomachines wove more of the OmniPower-reinforced carbon nanotubes into his muscle tissues and made the appropriate connections, however, the spasms became fewer and fewer, and finally ceased altogether.

At the same time the muscles were being augmented, other nanomachines were underlining his skin, not with the OmniPower-reinforced interlacing carbon nanotubes, but rather the OmniPower crystalline-lattice polymer itself, a layer of the clear energy generating material mere millimeters thick, serving the dual purpose of underskin armor and an energy-generating sheath that went from the top of his head to the bottoms of his feet. During this, all of the connections were made between the skeletal interlacing, the muscle interweave, and the underskin sheath to hundreds of newly-constructed micro-scale flywheel energy storage cells that were nestled next to the bones in his legs, arms and spine.

That part had itched like a bastard. And during each period of discomfort he had made a mental note that some sort of anesthesia should be included in the process.

Finally, the nanomachines inside his body had gone to work on his brain, a process that had caused him to black out as genetic material of his brain tissue was first re-written, then augmented, and finally the nanomachines had set about constructing and connecting the direct neural link hardware that would enable him to wirelessly link with his home computer interface, as well as to the systems being added to his own body. Another modification to the primary visual cortex enabled him to access an augmented-reality overlay to his visual field.

When he woke up, the process was complete. The test was simple - with a thought he uplinked to his central computer and asked Diana - via the link - to transmit the data feeds on his newly enhanced systems.

And as it scrolled across his field of vision, a smile grew on his face. "All right, Di. Final stage time."

The cool feminine voice came back to him, and he realized he had spoken out loud. It would take some getting used to, being able to instantly communicate via a neural interface his commands to the AI. "Sir, I highly recommend you have some-"

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Later, Diana. Fer now what Ah want is t'get de final stage done."

There's another pause, and then the robotic arms descended again with their syringes full of black-and-silver swirling solution...