Cal had put her trust in me, so I would go all out when making her a new body. Even though it would be easy to erase the wear of time on Cal's body, I wanted to give her the power she desired.
Starting with her arm, I removed the old scar tissue and directed the body to start regrowing the limb. Before I began operating, I fed Cal a supplement to give her body plenty of energy. As the arm regenerated, I went top to bottom, replacing old cells with new ones, gradually turning back the clock, making Cal look like a twenty-year-old.
And if I weren't in doctor mode, I would have stopped to engrave her face into my memory. Once I finished, I went back to see if I left any trouble areas. Finding none, I moved on, starting with her skeletal structure.
After watching her fight, I had a pretty good idea of her usual fighting style. Cal liked to use her legs, so I reinforced her leg bones while elongating them slightly. Her bones had minor fractures that I fixed and increased bone marrow and blood cell production.
Though I created a new set of problems, I needed to completely redo her circulatory system as without an improved series of veins, arteries her blood pressure would be through the roof. Trying something new, I remembered reading about how the giraffe was able to pump blood up its neck by using a series of pumps.
Testing it out on myself first, I elongated my arm and raised it in the air. After a few minutes, my arm hadn't gone numb, so it was a success. After putting them in Cal's body, her heart rate evened out.
That was my last significant chance. The last thing I changed was her ligaments and tendons, increasing her flexibility to almost unnatural levels. I let her body recover from the changes before I tapped Cal's shoulder, waking her up.
Cal groaned and sat up, looking around at the unfamiliar environment, "What the hell happened? I reached for your hand, and then..." Cal's eyes regained focus, and she glared at me, "You could have told me what you were going to do. And why the hell do I feel so sore? What did you do, Soren?"
Not responding, I handed Cal a mirror, and she snatched it out of my hands. Cal froze as she stared at her young face. Looking down, Cal couldn't believe her eyes as she made a fist with her new arm.
"Soren...I don't know how to thank you." Cal hugged me, and I could feel her tears soaking my color. Smiling, I smoothed back her hair, "You don't have to. I did this because I'm your Captain it's my job to take care of you."
Cal punched my chest, and I grunted, and even she looked surprised at how powerful she was, "Yeah, I did more than just turn back time." Taking a step back, Cal bounced on the balls of her feet, "You're a miracle worker. I haven't felt this good in years."
"So what's your next move, Cal?" Grinning, Cal walked past me before grabbing the back of my shirt, "I want a rematch, pretty boy. I have this hot young body, and I'm going to use it to beat your ass."
Sighing, I didn't refuse. Cal would come down from the high eventually, but she would act like a younger version of herself until then, which I didn't know was a good thing or not. Back on deck, a smile split cal's face in a constant grin, and I still couldn't believe how smart she was.
"Are you ready yet, pretty boy? My body is aching to move." Raising my hands, I nodded, "Ready when you are." Needing no more indication, Cal pounced, almost breaking the deck as she flew past me over the railing into the water.
Running over, I looked down to see Cal bobbing in the ocean. I tried to school my face, but I couldn't help myself, "Not a damn word out of you." I helped Cal onto the boat, her grin now replaced with a scowl, "We may need to work on boundaries. Your mind hasn't caught up with your body."
"Can't you fix it? You did all of this." I shook my head, "I don't want to mess with your head. Even I did it perfectly. There may be some overlap. You should know there are no shortcuts to power."
Cal snorted, "That a load of bullshit, you just made me twenty years younger. If that's not a shortcut, I don't know what is." Realizing when I wasn't going to win an argument, I stayed silent and went to retrieve a set of weights.
Setting down a few hundred and thousand pounds in front of Cal, I smiled, "Okay, these should be good to start with." Cal looked at me like I was insane, "How am I supposed to lift those?"
"Trust me. I built your body myself. I know what you can handle. Just try it, will you?" Sighing, Cal moved over to a barbell with two five hundredweights and got into a position. With a groan, Cal squatted the weight with easy standing up to her full height.
I smiled as Cal got into the rhythm doing ten without stopping. Dropping the weights to the ground, Cal was grinning again. "So what's next, coach?"
I spent the rest of the day with Cal helping her test her boundaries and limits. And when we finished, I had another surprise when Leana had already made dinner.
"Captain, welcome back!" Leana jumped into my arms, and I caught her, "I hope you saved enough energy for tonight." Leana whispered the last part, but Cal seemed to hear it as she smirked.
Evos was setting the table while Ace was asleep at the table. Cal smacked Ace on the back, and he collapsed with the wind knocked out of him.
"Oh, guess I still need to work on controlling my strength."