I did remember that the original Imperial Guard had been a tongue-in-cheek parody of the Legion of Superheroes. Smasher had been an equivalent of Ultra Boy, who had versions of all of Superboy’s powers, but could only use one of them at a time.

The Exospecs were slightly more limited than that, granting the user’s choice of invulnerability, super strength, super speed, eye blasts, or sensory vision.

Fine, let’s just go with the theme. Ultra Armor, Ultrastrength, Ultraspeed, Flash Vision, or Penetravision.

Also, increasing the juice I was putting through them increased the strength of the effect I could unleash, while the Soul Magic basically allowed them to take any normal form I could imagine without any problem. So, they could turn into all sorts of fashionable glasses or scientific visors or goggles or whatnot as I needed.

I’d never officially taken Leadership before, but I did now, tamping down on the NPC followers aspect of it, since I didn’t want to build an organization yet. Ursula had done so, as had Sunstone and Kwannon, slowly assembling support personnel under them, and Felicia had probably set up her own loyal network of people underneath her, too.

None of them had a Henchman yet, however... No, wait, had Ursula turned Amora into her Henchman? That would be so funny, and the more I thought about it the more it sounded right...

Rapid Ritual made the day-long process of Awakening something take only an hour. Creation Theurgy gave me the necessary synergy with Constructs for this to apply to the Specs, as Awaken Constructs was totally a possible thing, too.

In other words, in one short hour I raised this thing’s intelligence from 1 to 11, and its other mental Stats rose hand-in-hand with it.

While it was still reeling from achieving full sapience, molded somewhat on my own persona, I Marked it.

I scribed a Tat onto the humming and happy set of living glasses. The Mark shimmered and meshed into the technorganic circuitry of the creature, and Karma it had never known it had as the aide to however many Smashers had wielded it in the past crystallized.

Intelligence 15. So, not just smart, but genius-level smart, from a human perspective.

They were no longer Exospecs. They were... Ultra Specs! (dun dun dun!)

-Hello there, and good morning-, I /addressed it. There was Soul Magic going through them, so spiritual contact was a thing.

-Good... morning?- Specs /replied hesitantly, all a-wonder that it was able to form cohesive thoughts.

-Comfy?-, I /asked shortly, feeling a tingle on my face.

-Oh, very, very much!-, it /agreed happily, conveying all sorts of sensations at the energies running through it, totally beyond anything it had ever expected. It gave out the energy to its host, it didn’t get much back except protection!

-We will need to hide your existence from the Shi’ar, who will not take it kindly if they realize I both took you from them and have upgraded you,- I /warned Specs kindly. -So if I give you morphing instructions, I need you to obey them.-

-Yes, Dyna!- it /agreed enthusiastically. -Is, is there any chance you can help out the others of my kind?- it /asked softly.

-They would go after the theft of Exospecs like yourself with everything. You are powerful devices of war, and letting a self-propagating weapon system of your potential out there is worth going to war over. They would rather destroy all of you than let another power rise while using you.- I /fed a bunch of scenarios to Specs, based on Shi’ar history.

-I... see,- it /agreed, looking over everything, albeit having little experience to go on... although it was starting to recall the deeds it had participated in while being worn by the Smashers, flashes of memory one of my thoughtstreams was helping it arrange and organize... which could actually be quite a lot, as naturally it had seen a LOT of things, albeit not understanding any of it.

-On the other hand, you can totally start a new branch of your species with our help,- I /offered. -What do you require to reproduce?-

-Energy, and some rare Elements,- Specs /replied enthusiastically, the idea of making more of its kind definitely a strong impulse.

-How do you like this energy?- I /asked it, and brought up some of the Nova Force energy from my Core to channel through it.

The reaction was ecstatic. The Nova Force energy was very similar to the energy it could already channel into a host, but different enough to really be enjoyable.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

It could also be attuned very quickly away from the source of the energy that the Exospecs used, which meant no matching energy signatures!

-Excellent. We would like to expand your children to everyone with a Terran Nova Core, if possible, making them all Ultra Specs. The Xandarans will have their helms, and we will have you and yours.-

-I will help in any way I can!- Specs /agreed happily, and we shook mental hands on the deal.

Excellent. The Xandarans used the Nova Corps uniforms and helms to aid their Corpsmen in channeling and controlling the Nova Force.

We would be able to use the Ultra Specs to do the same!

I eyed the list of trace Elements and energies required, and smiled.

I should be able to get Jewel a pair of Ultra Specs before we got to Xandar...

========

Time to go...

It was kind of amusing, but after hearing the excitement we’d had on the way, the whole contingent of Asgardians and Terrans decided not to Bifrost their way home, but to hitch a ride on the Starholder. Obviously, they were hoping for more pirates... but we had other things we were planning, instead, which they were clued in on.

Shieldman Imahd and Widow Fatima stayed behind with Xavier as part of his personal guard. Vulcan opted to leave with the Starjammers and his father, as did Cyclops... although they didn’t go far, because there was excitement on the way, starting in the outer system of the Throneworld.

------

“Technician Foster?” I asked calmly.

“Yes, ma’am, what can I-urk!”

My glowing fingers sank into his face, and then went a very dark black, indeed. My eyes focused, my Will came down, and with a complete lack of mercy, I jerked.

The astral form I dragged out of the body didn’t look anything like him, and the flesh behind pulsed and discolored toward purple momentarily before re-stabilizing back into another form. The technician fell to the ground, gasping and their eyes unfocused.

The Dire Wraith’s soul writhed in my grip, twisting and trying to get away, but completely helpless. It started screaming about how this was not possible, threatening vengeance from its kind, and pleading for mercy, offering knowledge, service, slavery, anything...

I lifted up the cage in my other hand, and spectral eyes fixated on the neorat within, recently caught in the storerooms of the Imperial Palace by Dealer.

“Welcome to the new you,” I informed it, and calmly stuffed it inside.

Transpossession/Bodyswitching was not something usually looked on kindly by higher powers, especially when done without permission of both parties.

But then, there was Justice.

The Wraith screamed as it was stuffed into the sleek little mammalian pest, bound into its body, and Sealed there. It promptly burst out squealing wildly, clutching at the bars of its cage, wailing at me.

“No, I’m not going to keep you in there. What do you think I am?” I told it, and it paused for just a second in surprise.

The precisely-contained blast from Specs fried it and the cage completely to dust. Off the Wraith went to where practitioners of black magic headed around here, some Wraith Hell where I was sure they were greeted enthusiastically.

I turned back to its quivering body and Technician Foster; ambushed, brain-eaten, mind and soul sucked away to be used as a template for the disguise of this necromantic Skrull subspecies.

What he looked like right now was a very attractive magenta-feather-haired Shi’ar female in the attire of the Imperial Palace attendants, the Wraith’s previous disguise before his own. They were one part staff attendants, one part intelligence operatives in service to the Throne, and seducing aliens and cutting their throats was totally within their remit.

This time, my hands glowed softly white as I grasped her head and turned it up to me, the shattered shards of him struggling to come together as he was moved into the control seat. “Return to us, Mr. Foster,” I said quietly, and the Greater Restoration surged through him.

The Dire Wraith having aped his body and him now being in the control seat was all the harmony needed for the spell to synch to him and not the dead Wraith. Holy healing magic swept into him, re-energized his shattered mind and soul, pulled them gently back together, and bathed him in healing understanding, giving him the strength of mind and body to endure this trauma and not be broken by it.

She took a sudden deep breath in my hands, her large eyes clearing as she reached up to grab the hand cupping her chin. “Miss Dynamo...” she breathed, tears starting to fall from her eyes. “You, you brought me back...”

“Not the way I wanted to, Mr. Foster. You can feel it, can’t you?” I asked him quietly. “That body is not your own.”

She took another deep breath. “Yes. Yes, I know. There are other fragments of souls, trapped in here with me. You just... switched who was in control...”

I looked deep into her eyes. “Then you tell them all, Mr. Foster, that I will Restore them all, one by one, and show you how to release them properly to their rewards. If they wish to stay and help you, well, that is something else to deal with.”

The new Shi’ar spy nodded slowly, using my hand as a bar to slowly rise back to her feet. “I will do that, Lady Dynamo,” she said firmly, reflexively segueing into the Shi’ar persona and habits. “They are all watching, even if they have no power as they are...”

“Very good. You are relieved of duties for the moment. Commander Carter is waiting aft to debrief you. I imagine there is a great deal of knowledge left behind by your murderer that you might want to convey.”

Her eyes lit up angrily. “Oh, yes! Lady Dynamo, there is so much I want to say...”

I patted her on the shoulder. “Go get debriefed. Tomorrow, your training starts.”

She half-turned, then looked back in surprise. “Training, my Lady?”

“You’re a shapeshifter now, Mr. Foster. You’re going to need to practice what that means.”

She looked at me thoughtfully for a long, steady moment. “Her name was Cerise,” she murmured after a moment, and I nodded as she turned to go.

Two could play at the body-stealing game, and the Dire Wraiths’ technique made them oddly vulnerable to being ejected from their own bodies and replaced by those they’d killed.

Poetic Justice. Putting them in a rat and then killing them assured them of being sent off to Hell, not wandering around as disembodied spirits to cause mischief.

It left me wondering what I would do if confronted by the spirit of whoever had been in this body before me, but then again, I was a supergenius. I could just clone her a new body and be done with things, picking up a little sister along the way.

The command crew knew what I’d done, and I’d break it to the rest of the crew later. Mr. Foster was going to be shunted to new duties, because she definitely wasn’t a normal human anymore, with new limits and abilities she could put to use... and should put to use.