Dr. Blend - Episode 1

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Dr. Augustus Blend worked as a scientist in a top-secret Area 51 facility. He specialized in understanding consciousness. For ten years, he studied neurological connections through brains both in animals and humans. He also studied cloning. Under his assigned government project, he was to clone animals and humans without consciousness that originally possessed one. His job was to make cloned biological containers. Within a decade, his contract ended, and he was "unsuccessful". The government abandoned the idea since he was the most intelligent person they could find.

During his employment, he was kept under constant surveillance. However, he didn't need to go far in order to continue his experiments privately. The Doctor previously had a lab setup in the basement of his home, the same home his mother left him and her mother before that. The lab was converted from an old cellar. He had the equipment needed to do some "take-home" research even before he started the job. Luckily for him, they didn't find access to the basement during the initial interview for the position. So, although his location was being tracked, he was home the whole time, continuing experiments below ground.

While the government thought Augustus was a homebody, he was really keeping information from them and practicing in private. While he unsuccessfully "continued" his expected-to-fail research for the government, he occasionally earned free time and spent that time doing what well-off people do and "traveled" to other countries. What he was really doing was going to very specific classified sites and exploiting his clearance for "research" purposes. He was swabbing samples and collecting DNA from high-valued beings, both extraterrestrial and borderline terrestrial.

By the time he was let go, the Doctor had already succeeded with his private experiments four times. Traveling through Brazil, Jamaica, Egypt, and stopping by California, Augustus had cloned a Vampire Lord, an ancient witch doctor, an Egyptian goddess, and an extraterrestrial. All of these beings were top-secret, known to members only with full clearance. This was information that he got in secret by classified methods. On record, he was never physically at any of these sites.

These beings were cloned and currently float in giant, down-screwed cylinder cryocapsules with Blend's lab. These capsules drain and are unscrewed by giant robotic arms controlled by a spherical computer attached to the ceiling. During Augustus' employment, these were the only beings that were re-created. However, they were never tested by transferring consciousness. After leaving his job, the Doctor decided to reanimate these containers, but not before adding three more bodies to the mix.

After gaining the time to continue experimentation, Mr. Blend decided to take DNA from his prior experiments and mix them, creating different possibilities. He also turned to the animal kingdom to come up with even more potential creations. Eventually, a tiger-like beast and a fully aquatic member were added to the party. Finally, he turned his attention toward his last pride and joy, a beast named Brune he heavily guided through development.

Brune is a hulking avatar who was intended to be the best of all worlds: alien, mythical, god-like, and beast. The end result was a magic-sensitive tank, which is part vampire. With his alien DNA, he is quick to heal, and while he is not "aquatic," he has made up for it with the ability to hold his breath for up to an hour. With super strength and his ability to tap into certain psychic powers, he was to be the world's first "superhero." This was something the Doctor didn't even consider until he formed his collection and decided he could finally have a purpose. Before, he only wanted to experiment and seek answers to the unexplored.

With a new purpose at hand, Augustus set forth on learning to transfer consciousness to these lab-grown beings and back. He put in an additional decade of research before achieving a final result. An external chip he named the Temple Blender would be placed on one of each of the members' temples, including his own. In theory, on command, he could transfer his consciousness to these assigned containers and back. He envisioned a team of heroes, a band of beast-like avatars. He named them the Blend Seven.

For the occasion to be memorable, Augustus planned to finally test his experiment on July 7th, in the seventh hour. He was to transfer his consciousness to his joy, Brune, and back. However, the second part of his plan did not come to fruition. Unplanned, all of his experiments were on a different psychological level than humanity's own. This was something that was not discovered until after he had made the transition. Once his consciousness took hold of the blended beings, it no longer would transfer back. His body died the second his consciousness left it because it was not equipped to operate without one. Dr. Blend would be forever stuck in at least one of the Blend Seven.

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BRANDING OF THE BLEND SEVEN

Fast forward four years, and Dr. Blend had never left the house. After embodying Brune, it took him two more years to try again with his other subjects. Luckily for him, the liquid they stay afloat in is anti-aging. With every subject he tried thereafter, he was able to transfer his consciousness and back amongst them. It was not the technology that had failed, but rather, the DNA he had used between all of them, which seemed to be connected. It was more advanced than humans. Was this really an indication that aliens lived among us through history as demigods?

He was now forced to live as one of seven of his recreated or custom-made demigods at all times. It was not such a bad curse to live with besides the fact that he could literally be never seen or known again under his former alias. After experimenting and playing God, the Doctor realized he reached too far for the stars, and he was now stuck in his own fantasy. He could either destroy it all or embrace it fully. He settled on the latter.

He embraced the former heroism he once declared upon his future self, although he was half-kidding at the time. While he created the ideal candidate in the past (Brune), he did not fully expect to continue to discover how to successfully transfer consciousness. So, the Blend Seven was going to stick around, he decided, and he was going to give this self-forged hero thing a shot for real.

He named each member of his team as he transferred into them, and he spent weeks in their bodies getting to know them. Whatever otherworldly DNA was mixed in led to strange phenomena within each person. Cravix, a reanimated 3000-year-old Vampire Lord who terrorized villages and dominated the skies, has the power of flight, strength, night vision, and ultra-sensitive hearing. Yah-ven, the tiger humanoid, renamed a Leogin, has the power of ten men, the speed of five, and the keenness of three. Transesha, the self-claimed Egyptian goddess, wields a small levitating relic that only works for her. This relic allows her to levitate, and it allows her to enhance her psychic powers and use them against others.

A member we've met before is Brune. In addition, there is Ghanvasta, a Jamaican witch doctor who can resurrect the dead and summon spirits to help him in battle. Those same spirits can guide him to fly. Ariendel has a special place in the heart of the Seven as the youngest and most beautiful. She is a fully aquatic mermaid woman who can speak to sealife, echo-communicate, and has ultra-human strength. Finally, the brain of the group is Lyra Novaflare. She is a reembodied alien from a 1960s California UFO crash site - one that was extremely well hidden. With green skin, large eyes, and two antennae on her head, she can send long-distance comms only using her body in the form of natural radio waves. She is also resistant to radiation, poison, intense heat, and cold. She can see in the dark and can see extremely far, making her a great sharpshooter.

Year three had Blend making external suits for each member of the squad. He was fully vested as nothing filled his mind more than the potential of what could be, which sparked from a path he forced upon himself. That, and unlimited time in a limited space, possessed him to plot his path to success as a hero. Stretchy suits fit each unoccupied companion perfectly, hugging them with dark purple and gold-orange trimming. A logo is advertised on their right breasts': a brain and a cyclone merged as one.

However, the new cosmetics alone were not enough before taking to the streets in search of a crime to solve. Exo-tech was also needed. While superpowers may be enough to fight most crimes, planning for anything is a must. In the cuff of each suit sleeve, Dr. Blend implanted a touch band that allowed him to control the transfer of his consciousness during an emergency. He can use this in conjunction with his temple blender to allow him to make a quick transition.

To complement the suits, the Doc invented artificially enhanced goggles that fit each ally snugly. These bring to life a Heads Up Display complete with an artificial intellect to help guide him on his journeys. And last but not least, Augustus invented the grapple pack. Wired into the goggles by a thin embroidered line to connect with the AI, the grapple pack is a hardened backpack that is actually a robotic tech kit. At the four corners of the pack are retractable poles with slingshot grapples at the end. The pack communicates with the HUD in the goggles. During a fight, the AI will take control and help the user dodge or attack. Its like having additional spider legs, which can also sling you around on grapples.

Finally, in year four, to celebrate what he calls his self-schooled graduation, the Doc invented The Floor Manager, or the single-minded, borderline sentient Artificial Intelligence that he streamlined through the goggles HUD and temple blenders. For short, Augustus calls him Dootz for no reason in particular. Dootz operates as one mind at a high level but can individually take control of all other units in a unique fashion.

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THE TITLE WHICH STUCK

Rudger Quest, a local T-shirt printing and hobby store, was robbed live on television during an interview. Today was the day, he decided, that he would break the solitude - but not under his former alias. He would never have that opportunity again. Maybe it wasn't a risk after all since none of these beings looked like him. Or maybe it was because of his former knowledge, which could be tracked. In any case, today, he was going to risk it.

Brune, his home-grown baby, was chosen as a vessel to carry out this first mission. After putting on his grapple pack and fitting his goggles to his head, he took off in the direction of distress. Despite his heavy weight, the automatic grappling from the tech pack flung and swung Brune through the air at great speeds. Without much thought from Brune, Dootz controlled the trajectory of his companion that wore him in the preprogrammed direction.

With a thud, Brune landed with a planned fast descent, which cracked the pavement under him. He approached the front entrance, running without fear of danger. From what he remembered previously advertised on the news, it was just two guys and a big stick - which would be no match for Brune. He headed toward the stand-alone, two-story brick building. Prepared for a fight, Brune kicked open the already slightly ajar door.

One thief was "bagging the bread," and the other held an employee at stick's length, ready for a wack. At this point, the news crew was gone, and the police were on their way. The victim's nametag read, "Hughie." Brune spoke for the first time in a deep, commanding tone that startled even himself. 

"Put that shit down."

On command, the thief "dropped that shit" and turned around slowly, shaking. The sight of Brune standing 10ft tall gave the man's trembling legs enough energy to run away, like a wobbly deer. His sad excuse for a stick bounced off the Spanish tile of the warehouse-like store. His companion quickly followed him out the door without turning back, dropping the bag.

A man's footsteps were heard coming down the stairs from the second floor. Brune realized he was standing amidst aisles of video games and collectibles. Upstairs must've been where the T-shirts were printed because a blonde, skinny guy flipped a hot shirt and said, "Aye. What's this? A big RoboCop?" His name badge read MTee. He was eating a sandwich one-handed as a pickle slid further out of its wedged place.

"What? No, I'm a hybrid badass." Brune went on to explain defensively in a deep voice. 

"Not just that," Hughie said with upward, star-gazing eyes. "You saved my life. You're an Ultrahero Supreme, I think."

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