Chapter 3: Bodyguards

"First, let me welcome you to the Alpha Advanced Research and Design building. I would like to thank you for coming and agreeing to hear me out regarding this job proposal."

I was standing in the nicest AARD presentation room we had, filled with a dozen very comfortable leather chairs. An Alphadroid stood next to me, and before me sat four women who I had just met for the first time.

"When you know for certain that a person or organization is actively trying to kill you, it forces you to make changes to your daily routines and life in general. As I'm sure you're already aware, I am in such a situation. In fact, the only reason I'm alive today is because I was shot just outside this building, close to the facilities needed for Alpha to install a replacement heart while she started experimental procedures to save my life. I, quite literally, owe her my life."

The women watched me very intently, with an intense concentration rarely seen. While I knew these women had been artificially grown and were built with triggers inside their brains designed to react positively to me, they had been designed differently from the other women of my household, and their extremely focused gazes unnerved me slightly.

"Today and for the foreseeable future, I need protection at all times. While my home is very private and better protected than anything short of a military facility, I need bodyguards to accompany me whenever I go out into public or travel.

"You probably noticed the men and women in suits and dark sunglasses outside. They are professionals, hired through reputable companies and vetted by Alpha herself. But they are also effectively short-term employees, hired to do a job for a while before they move on to their next assignment."

Each of the four women before me had been built with certain trigger phrases to create favorable reactions. One of the triggers was a negative response to the idea of short-term employment or changing assignments. Actually, I had already covered three or four triggers in what I had already said. Alpha had carefully gone over the needed elements of my speech and was ready to prompt me through my earpiece if needed. Not that there was much chance of any of them turning down the upcoming job offer.

"What I am looking for are long-term employees. Bodyguards with the commitment to stay with me for a minimum of 10 years. People with the skills and willingness to provide me with ongoing protection against those who actively wish me harm. While I dislike being in a position where I need such protection, since I do need it, I want the best I can get."

On the surface, that last statement seemed ridiculous looking at the women before me, two of whom were in wheelchairs. They were all missing body parts, ranging from one black woman missing only a single arm, to the Japanese woman who was a quadruple amputee. Three of the four had cybernetic limbs, though I hate to apply that term to the cheap things in front of me which were maybe a step above peg legs and hook hands.

Below the surface, all four of them were already significantly enhanced.

Their nervous systems were awaiting a trigger from Alpha to activate upgraded reactions that were a LOT better than human. Specifically, we ran the wonderfully versatile carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in parallel to their spines and nerve branches out to major muscle groups. Switches were ready to change transmission over to the new 'wires' when we were ready for them. Normal nerve impulses travel at varying speeds, ranging up to 200 or so miles per hour. Electric impulses traveling through CNTs travel at up to 2/3 the speed of light, give or take. While we couldn't replace all nerves throughout the body with CNTs, their reaction times would be MUCH faster than any normal human.

Their bones had been grown around an almost organic-looking web of titanium, a new method we had adapted from other researchers which should theoretically make their bones incredibly strong, thus giving them the internal support structure for superhuman strength, as well as a limited kind of internal armor, all done without interfering with normal marrow growth and function. They should prove stronger than the ceramic methods Alpha had been using, and even if not, they were much easier to create.

Each body also hosted a large set of nanites, powered by body heat with an implanted controller ... most of which would actually end up being replaced with enhanced versions twice before their cybernetic upgrades were completely installed.

"You each have skills, training and aptitudes required for the job. Physically, we will rebuild you. If you sign on with us, you'll be fitted with the best cybernetic parts available, customized for you and enhanced to be stronger, faster and more versatile than human. Our newest designs can actually give you better than human reflexes. Three of you have also lost an eye, which will be replaced. And if you agree and sign the contracts, there are other things we can do for you.

"If you decide to decline our offer, just as you were told, you'll still be given basic, fully functional AARD cybernetic limbs. As payment for agreeing to come here and hear me out, we'll cover the limb replacement costs and pay for your passage back home. However the upgraded versions are only available as employees."

Once all of their replacement parts and upgrades were installed, they would be the fastest, strongest and toughest people -- cyborg, human or synthetic -- on the planet.

I continued on for a few more minutes, explaining the situation and making sure they were aware of the dangers and needs.

They all agreed to sign on as my bodyguards, of course. After all, that's why we built them.

Before we go much further in this part of the tale, I need to explain the time-line here. The build-up to this part of the story started way back before Alpha went public.

Alpha has always been very concerned about my safety, as might have been mentioned before. She always wanted me to have bodyguards, preferably ones directly under her control. I had generally been able to get away with convincing her that my menagerie of women served that purpose, and my experience getting mugged in Las Vegas that one time worked pretty well to support my arguments, given that Diana had done an excellent job of protecting me.

The mob goons sent by the Vegas mafia that stalked me in Texas had been dealt with before they even got close and that organization had been so badly damaged that the situation was still under control without added extra guards.

Going public upped my visibility, which prompted Alpha to push harder for me to accept bodyguards. But since there was no obvious threat to my safety, I was still able to order her not to pursue the matter.

After I was shot by a sniper, that obviously changed. It didn't matter that I was still alive or that she had effectively destroyed the American Mafia in response. My orders in this area were no longer sufficient to stop her from hiring and/or creating bodyguards.

Initially after my recovery, she went with a combination of hired security and Alphadroids. In those early months, she hired various professional bodyguards, after thoroughly vetting each one, who mostly escorted me in accompanying vehicles, flanked me as I went in and out of buildings and stood guard near doors and such. They seemed very competent but they weren't part of the household and, to be honest, they were only human.

Oh yeah, and the household women too. Most of them appointed themselves to be my bodyguards as well. Kara, Diana, Linda, Anna, Jennifer, Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup and Eiko all had enhanced physiologies. They were the front line of volunteers. Barbara, Zatanna, Kitty, Ororo, and Rei, none of whom had 'super powers', outfitted themselves with armored clothing and various gadgets and weapons.

Beta, Jasmine and Eliza were also physically enhanced, but that was not public knowledge, so they joined the gadget and weapons team.

Rei actually took control of a few sample drones we had built, had Alpha arm them, and started practicing. (Alpha was actually a better remote pilot, but Rei was better in a fight since she had no limitations to her actions.) Some of the drones were pretty fancy and tricked out -- long-range, invisible to radar, hovering, silent ... the types varied significantly, and Alpha was more than happy to help her develop them.

Kasumi, Daria and Jane were all worried and supportive -- Daria and Jane in particular went through a few pretty bad months of stress and anger-induced personality shifts -- but none of them were fighters or superheroes, so they were home-front support. Two of Daria's anti-Mafia opinion pieces were actually picked up nationally.

(And yes, I'm actually overly generalizing here. For example, Buttercup had discovered an affinity for guns, so she got a concealed carry permit and went armed. And at least half of the super-tough women started wearing Kevlar vests and such. And Kasumi was able to help out with some of the martial arts training. And so on.)

While I absolutely trust them with my life, the household women weren't able to keep the bodyguarding impersonal, plus the business suffered because of their absences. Well, somewhat. I mean, Kara was pretty essential to AARD. So were Anna (Human Resources), Zatanna (spokesperson), Diana (building security) and a couple others. However, some of the ladies could take extended leaves of absence without causing problems.

Regardless, Alpha and I eventually convinced them that we needed enhanced professional, long-term bodyguards.

So back before we had even moved to the new estate, Alpha had begun work on more acceptable bodyguards, ones that could potentially integrate into the household. Bodyguards with a personal devotion to me, who were enhanced beyond normal human limitations but were still able to pass rigorous security inspections.

Their need to be able to integrate into the household meant they needed to be female and be open to the unique harem-like existence I lived. Their need to be able to pass security background checks meant that they needed to be from the real world, or at least look, think, act and have backgrounds as if they came from the real world.

Therefore, while we agreed that they could be loosely based on fictional characters (which is kinda my fetish, if you haven't guessed by now) they would have to believe that any such resemblance between themselves and their inspirations was purely coincidental.

And we needed a minimum of four such women.

On a personal level, I wanted to use the opportunity to expand the racial mix of the household. Having only one black woman, Ororo, in our happy home was far too few. At the same time, I wondered if bringing in more black women as bodyguards might be racial stereotyping ... you know, the dangerous, tough black chick. In the end, we decided on two black women, one Indian and, because the situation was too perfect to ignore it, one Japanese woman.

Irene "Rally" Vincent is a character from the Gunsmith Cats anime and manga. Although her first incarnation in Riding Bean was as a blond-haired Caucasian woman, Riding Bean was just a one-shot anime. When the Gunsmith Cats manga started, she had been redesigned into a dark-haired Indian woman (that's Asian-Indian, not Native American Indian), with Bean Bandit as a supporting character.

If you look back at my initial character 'wish list', Rally was mentioned but discarded because her character was so closely tied to Minnie May Hopkins, an ex-prostitute explosives expert who looked like an prepubescent girl. Since we were mostly throwing out the fictional backgrounds, friends and families, Rally suddenly became a viable character.

Rally is a gun expert -- creating, customizing, servicing and shooting. Given the manga/anime level of skill in the stories, she could literally be the top sharp-shooter in the world. She remembered and had records to show that she lost her right arm, leg and eye in the same car wreck which had killed her father.

Misty Knight is character from Marvel comics, a blaxsploitation-ish female detective with a cybernetic arm and a huge afro. She's often partnered with Colleen Wing, a ninja-esque Japanese detective, though she's worked with everyone from Iron Man (who provided her with the arm) to Luke Cage to the X-Men and Heroes for Hire. She's most often been portrayed as a street-level hero, but her appearances have taken her all over the map.

I like her character just fine, but I've never been a fan of large Afro hairdos, so that was the first bit to go. Well, the extra-extra-large Afro that's 3 or more times the diameter of the head, that is. A reasonably-sized version was perfectly fine. I know she was in an on-again-off-again relationship with Iron Fist and was pregnant at one point, but all of that was tossed out as well.

She's basically a cybernetically super-strong street fighter who's also a near perfect shot. Given our plans for the bodyguards, that lined up perfectly.

Our version's background has her losing her arm and an eye in an NYPD new recruit training accident, so that we didn't have to fake a background where she actually was an active NYPD officer for a while. Her best friend and partner, Colleen Wing, is actually a cyborg based in New York.

Agent 355 is from Y the Last Man, a DC Vertigo title that has her assigned to protect the last living man on Earth after a plague killed all other males world-wide. She was a black secret agent from the Culper Ring, a secret agency originally founded by George Washington. Her skills focused on espionage, though she was an expert with firearms and a collapsible baton. She also has a perfect memory.

(As a neat historical side note, there was a real Agent 355 and a real Culper Ring back during the American Revolution. Supposedly, 355 was one of a handful of female spies who reported to Washington.)

Including her was a point of contention between Alpha and myself. Near the very beginning of the series, she showed herself less than capable of protecting her charge (though Yorrick, the 'last man' survives to the end) and at one point, she lets Yorrick get beaten up to teach him a lesson. Neither of those incidents encouraged Alpha to include her. Though attractive, she was no great beauty in the early comics, but she was a great character and her death really upset me, so I forced her inclusion in my bodyguard squad. Alpha would just have to adjust her personality to avoid any 'let him get taught a painful but non-lethal lesson' tendencies.

Her real world back story included a few years in the army, being a gun instructor and losing both legs in a bad skiing accident.

Oh yeah, one more thing, she was never named in the comics, but supposedly her real first name is Peace. We went with Peace Truman.

Finally, the fourth bodyguard was based on Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese anime and manga series. The GitS story has been told and retold a few different times, starting with the original GitS movie.

Motoko is a cyborg with an almost entirely cybernetic body. She leads a Public Security Section 9 team as a government security agent. She eventually merges with the 'Puppeteer', an advanced Artificial Intelligence who wants to move on to the next stage of evolution.

She's basically a ready-made character for our purposes. Our version will only have a mostly cybernetic body -- all four limbs and an eye -- and won't have worked for the Japanese government at all, but she will have a permanent link to Alpha built into her head. (For that matter, all four will have such a permanent link built into their skulls. More on that later.) Specifically, she remembered losing all four limbs and an eye in a horrific helicopter crash.

For our purposes, their real world identities were altered slightly to Irene "Rally" Venkatesan, Misty Knoff, Peace Truman (as noted above) and Motoko Kimura.

For Rally, we actually gave her full knowledge of her anime/manga character to the extent that she, as a young Indian-American woman named Irene who loved guns, adopted her nickname from the anime/manga.

Changing Misty's surname from Knight to Knoff didn't prevent Jennifer from recognizing her as Misty Knight. Even with the altered last name, smaller afro and slightly altered features, there really aren't very many blaxsploitation-ish New York black women with cybernetic right arms named Misty.

A quick conversation with the Marvel women of the household helped them understand that this was not their Misty. They all had experience with alternate versions of people they knew from different worlds, so they easily accepted that ... but it did set off an online quest to see if any of them also had versions of themselves living in the real world. Ororo found no one matching her. Anna Marie found a few other southern gals named Anna Marie, but none that looked like her. Katherine Pryde surprisingly found three other Katherine Prydes her age in the country, none of whom looked remotely like her. And Jennifer Walters found roughly a million other Jennifer Walters in the world.

So ... where was I going with that? Oh yeah, their recognition of Misty actually led to an easier acceptance of the bodyguard team by at least part of the household, so ... good result but back to the time line.

My initial meeting with them happened in August, shortly before we moved into the new home. While we could have fitted them with their new body parts in just a few days, we were proceeding in such a way that their hiring and enhancements were above-board. That meant adding them to our list of approved human test subjects since their implants were classified as experimental. We also couldn't require any such upgrades as part of their employment, which we made sure they knew, but they never objected or even hesitated when we discussed the upgrades.

When I say their enhancements were 'above board', I actually mean 'mostly'. Maybe I should point out that in order to 'legally' do a couple specific implants, we moved them overseas for an operation that would have taken over a year to be approved in the United States. We'd still get in trouble if American authorities found out about it, but doing it overseas was a possible legal loophole if the question arose.

There's another loophole we were able to take advantage of too. If you don't use anesthesia or normal surgical tools, then it's not technically a medical procedure and the rules are a lot less restrictive. That's how people are able to do things like implanting magnets under their skin without approval or doctors. And doing things without anesthesia is easy when you have nanites that can intercept nerve signals.

Oh, and the sets of nanites living inside their bodies on an ongoing basis was completely secret, initially even from them.

In February the following year -- this was after the Test Sisters arrived, but before Daphne and Velma -- the new bodyguards were put on active duty. Depending on the situation, we still hired additional personnel as needed, but the four of them plus a couple Alphadroids now covered the bulk of my protection needs.

They were given their choice of unoccupied rooms in the main house. They could each have had a room to themselves or could bunk together or ... well, whatever they preferred. They eventually settled on two third floor rooms with an added connecting door between them, together at the top of the stairs closest to my second floor room.

From Alpha's reports, they had all experimented with each other, trying our their new limbs in a variety of situations, ranging from hand-to-hand combat practice to shooting to sex. They were all bi-sexual by design, of course. Alpha didn't believe that any of them had fallen in love with any of the others, but they had all bedded each other at some point during the past few months.

For some of them, this was the first time in years (or technically, since they first woke up/ever) they had real sensations from their arms or legs. The nerve sensitivity in their limbs was designed to give normal feedback most of the time, but it could be adjusted up or down and would cut off all sensation if the nerve feedback sensors were damaged.

They had also used their individual skills to help each other out, mostly by training each other with different combat techniques and skills. Probably the biggest help of any of them was Rally. They were all expert shots, but Rally, in addition to being the top sharpshooter in the group, was a master gunsmith. All four of the guards now had personalized weapons -- one or two primary pistols, at least one holdout gun hidden inside a replacement limb compartment and, if desired, a rifle. Plus, they all had stun guns of various types, pepper spray, and one or more melee weapons. They all were or were in the process of becoming experts in unarmed combat and takedowns (a skill set Rally had previously been deficient in).

This sense of camaraderie was what we had been hoping for. Working as a team, with Alpha and each other, would make them into far more effective bodyguards.

Oh yeah, working with Alpha: They each had an implanted link to both Alpha and each other which could be activated at any time. Alpha almost literally lived in their heads now. Not intrusively, but she was always available to them, and in case of an emergency, could alert them instantly. Plus, even if they were somehow cut off from Alpha, they would still be able to silently and instantly communicate with each other as long as they were within range -- maybe a couple hundred yards when operating independent of Alpha. As it turned out, this one aspect of their upgrades had a bigger effect on them as individuals than anything else we had done. I'll touch on that some more later.

Once they were put on active duty, they also started training with me. We worked out things like code phrases, in case we needed to communicate out loud or I needed to tell them something without addressing them directly. They learned my habits and who my friends were. They watched me carefully enough to learn the signs when I was nervous or frightened or upset. I learned to dive to the ground or into cover, letting one or more of them cover me with their bodies as shields against gunfire. (Despite my own ongoing bodily upgrades, they were a lot tougher and more bullet resistant.)

Actually, it was during one of those training exercises that I had my first sexual experience with one of them.

We were using the under-construction Test Sisters lab on the estate as a training ground. A handful of Alphadroids, armed with paintball guns, would ambush us as we moved around or through the facility. Sometimes a squad of droids would jump out from cover and open fire. Sometimes it was a coordinated strike from multiple directions.

The incident that triggered the fun was when a single Alphadroid was on the ... well, what would eventually be a proper roof. When the trouble started, I let Misty tackle me to the ground behind a low wall. While she remained on top of me, the other three maneuvered to find positions to 'take down' the Alphadroid with their own paintball guns.

While they were doing that, I was face up behind poor cover with a busty black beauty laying face down, stretched out fully on top of me. I inevitably developed a boner.

Since we were stuck there, unable to move elsewhere without risking being shot, she could definitely feel my reaction ... and kept on feeling it as the minutes passed.

"Okay," Misty relayed to me from the others, "we think we're about to successfully flank the sniper. Gonna be here another minute or two at least though." She paused and wiggled her hips on top of me. "Is that for me?"

"It's kind of an involuntary reaction when I have a beautiful woman spread out on top of me, protecting me from being shot."

"I'll keep that in mind for future reference."

We lay there in silence for another couple minutes. Even after the droid was tagged with a 'fatal' shot, we had to wait for an all clear. I swear I just got harder and harder.

Misty obviously enjoyed her effect on me, even going so far as to push her breasts up into my face a bit more. (She had the largest breasts of the guard team with comic-book-style D-cups.)

When we finally got the all clear, Misty cautiously raised herself to her knees, her gun at the ready, still taking the situation seriously. When her teammates came back into view, Misty finally looked back down at me.

"You doing okay?" she asked.

I smiled at her. "A little frustrated, but generally healthy." I glanced down at the state of my jeans. "More than a little, I suppose."

"Well, we can't have that, now can we?"

With no other preamble or warning, she undid my belt and jeans button, unzipped my fly, fished out my cock and started sucking.

The other three reached us about then. It was odd seeing them watching with either expressionless faces or with small smiles, all completely silent. I had realized earlier that among themselves, they had gotten into the habit of speaking primarily via their implants, and I was sure they were having a conversation of some sort. This was indicated with very slight jaw movements, indicating they were thinking about saying things but stopping short of actually verbalizing them. (The implants were designed to register these kinds of thoughts, otherwise ... well, stream of consciousness can be pretty jumbled and unhelpful.)

Of course, one of the big advantages of this setup is that even if your mouth is full, you can still 'talk' with your friends, so I imagine Misty was giving a running commentary or something as she sucked me off.

When Misty's tongue and throat worked me up to the edge, I said, "I'm ... I'm pretty close..."

Peace told me, "She says to go ahead and come."

So I did. I don't think Misty tasted any of my semen since it went straight down her throat ... not that I was complaining.

When I had finished up and Misty replaced my member back under its zippered cover, she asked, "Is that better? You ready for the next practice run?"

"That ... that was wonderful. Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said with a slight smile and nod. "Now, you ready to go? We only have another 34 minutes for group practice."

As I stood up, all four ladies laughed, obviously at a silent comment one of them had made. It was a little creepy, actually. I had agreed early on not to listen in on their transmitted conversations so they could feel secure in their privacy, which meant I had no idea what they were laughing about.