After an entire week of working on projects, it was finally time for the group to wake up.

Zeel and Alice had many weapons prepared in the worst-case scenario that the transformation had driven them insane.

Zeel had been tracking every step of their changes genetically, but once again the mind was a complicated thing.

After everyone was taken out of their respective stasis pods, Zeel and Alice noticed not much difference aside from all their eyes had become a silver color and their skins having a glossier sheen to them.

Their silver eyes were extremely captivating with Elizabeth's eyes being the most striking of the bunch. Zeel could even see a slight goldish lining inside the pupil.

"I don't know why I was expecting extra arms and stuff," Alice whispered to Zeel in a small voice that the entire group heard.

So their hearing was further enhanced?

"Woah, super hearing what's next can you guy sniff like dogs too?" Zeel joked to which John snorted while everyone else giggles just barely.

It was a rare occasion for Zeel to joke, but when it came around the joke would always be a good one.

They spent another week getting used to their heightened senses and abilities. Elizabeth could now manipulate both storms and lightning expertly, though her other elements were still lagging far behind.

Cindy could now manipulate vibrations and control the earth to do much more than just earthquakes.

John was faster and had an uncanny ability to copy the minor uses of legacies. Stanley had grown much stronger like the musclehead he was.

Marina's healing abilities could now be deployed without physical contact within a certain range and she could now control ice moderately, Vishnu could teleport distances twice what he could before and also shapeshift into anything he was able to visualize with great detail.

Ella was the biggest improvement as she could conduct mind attacks from great distances causing comrades to turn against each other. She did not require physical contact or close proximity to alter memories like Zeel.

Ella could now also cancel out one ability, no matter how mundane, while combining her dreynen legacy with her telepathy legacy – for example, if she denied flight for a fight, nobody would be able to fly within a 100m radius from her location, even with the use of gravity boots or wings.

Alice and Zeel were exceptions but their flight speed decreased drastically along with their mobility in the air.

It was a combination of mental suggestion and a flood of energy that followed the suggestion.

Zeel dubbed her ability 'Law creation' as it was akin to setting the law everyone had to follow in a specific area.

The Technique took a lot out of her physically and mentally, hence it was a last resort. Zeel and Alice were tempted to experiment in depth with her new technique but deferred from that action.

Ella's method of 'Law Creation' was more a psychological and energy manipulation phenomenon than actually banning something within a certain area.

It was akin to the difference between a card trick and actual magic.

After the week, everyone met once more, though they would all like a break since even fighting wars sometimes had intermissions. They knew that the plan was to acquire all the phoenix stones and Garde members first.

"So what's the update doc?" Ella said with everyone giving her strange looks, making her quickly provide an explanation "Sorry, saw it on a cartoon once,"

"He is more of a crazy scientist than any doctor I know," Stanley said slyly from his spot on the table.

His chair soon disappeared causing him to sit on the ground much to the amusement of everyone in the conference room.

Over time, Zeel had learned to become more tolerant towards those with less developed brains.

"Energy patterns have recently spiked near New Mexico, we have had a hard time detecting and differentiating phoenix stones from other earth energy signatures but this was just too obvious to not detect as it's constantly spreading. We have to get to it before it can spread further," Zeel explained patiently while also pulling up the corresponding environmental scans and demographics.

Alice decided to forego all the complications and just state their next mission "Also last night another number popped up sending a distress call, with number 2 dead, that just leaves-"

"Number 5," Cindy said while holding her head as if a painful memory was resurfacing, before saying "He is a betrayer; you couldn't find it when you read through my memories because they were in disarray but I remember now,"

"So a number who is a Mogadorian dog? Why am I not surprised?" Elizabeth stated like it was bound to happen at some point.

Truth be told, Zeel had expected several of the Numbers to betray at some point but with Alice's growing attachment to them, he doubts he would be able to eliminate them even if they betrayed the group.

Good thing these guys are smart.

"Honestly, I thought Stanley would be the Mogadorian dog," Alice said to which Stanley grunted but did not answer since he didn't want to sit under the floor should he disrespect Zeel's woman.

Instead, he turned towards Elizabeth and gave her a smirk "That's why you second place in everything,"

This statement caused Elizabeth to fume, but the group mainly ignored it as it was common for constant bickering between both of them over the past week.

Everyone knew of Elizabeth's one-sided attachment to Zeel that was only encouraged by Alice.

Elizabeth knew she looked pathetic chasing after a guy that mainly ignored her outside the bedroom. Truthfully, she was heartbroken and cried herself to sleep due to the blatant disrespect Zeel did not know he was committing.

It was humiliating to be chasing after a guy who only indulged in your body, especially if his wife was the one comforting you.

However, Alice's advice to win Zeel's affection was minimal at best. Zeel had no likes, dislikes, or interests outside of what benefitted him most at any point in time.

However, Elizabeth knew that sometimes, as a woman, it was best to suffer a little now to benefit later. Life was not a fairytale and nobody could protect her like someone as paranoid as Zeel.

But Elizabeth was unaware that everyone did not find her actions pitiful at all, only a bit amusing. Who wouldn't laugh if the mistress went to complain to the wife of being ignored by the latter's husband?

Then the wife gives the husband a scolding for not sleeping with the mistress. As far as everyone was concerned, Elizabeth was in Heaven.

Also over the past week John and Cindy seemed to have gotten closer, Marina and Vishnu as well, the surprise came with Ella and Stanley opening up to each other, though not intimate as the others, they had a mutual appreciation for each other.

"So how do we deal with Number 5?" Alice asked the most important question.

Zeel shrugged and replied with the highest display of emotions the group had ever seen him display "We launch the AGES Bomb,"

"AGES?" asked Stanley and Vishnu.

As new arrivals, they had yet to be included in any projects or begin their own for that matter.

"Alice Gravitational Environmental Simulator Bomb," replied Ella after which she sucked in a deep breath as she found it hard to learn the made-up names of all the technology around – no doubt Zeel's fault for his fanatical naming methods.