A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

Chapter 274: The fear of Nanites.

".... Did it work?" That was the first thing that Ale asked as she stretched and looked around herself.

She had been kind of tired and as soon as she arrived into the mindscape, she noticed that most of the rooms weren't open to her. It had been somewhat of a surprise. But then again, she should have seen it coming.

It was tiring, Ale had needed to latch herself into the mindscape and then split her thought process; half was dedicated to keeping herself latched into the mindscape's outer space. And the other was dedicated to keeping herself stable.

That is to say, she hadn't been able to fully rest and defragment herself, usually they used the sleeping time for that.

Defragmenting the data that they had experienced.

"... If you are asking if Alexa was out, then yes." Miriam Eversoul answered, almost making Ale jump out from the surprise, she had expected to wake up to either Alexa angrily shouting something about cheating, or wake up on Alexa's bed.

"Oh..." Ale said turning around and looking at herself.

She was wearing her normal clothes and they were in the living room, Ale didn't see anything out of normal, so that was that. An internal query showed that it was barely ten in the morning. So Alexa had probably been awake for something closer to three to four hours, depending on what had happened.

So all things considered, it was a little less than what Ale had wanted for Alexa to be out. But it was better than nothing.

"Your older brother was around, he spoke with Alexa and promised to send you a manual, can you check if you received it?" Miriam Eversoul said offering Ale a phone. "Also this is your new phone."

New phone?

Not that Ale was going to complain about that. Taking the device she got a data packet from Alexanders and she promptly downloaded the data into her AI Information Core.

It was some data on a new Nanite Swarm that Ale couldn't detect or control, apparently they would only materialize to work when a very specific set of instructions appeared.

Somehow, Alexanders had managed to encode them into Mana and become reactive when the specific material that Ale's body turned into came into being.

How the hell did he manage to do that?

"Did you get it?" Miriam Eversoul asked, making Ale become aware of the fact that she was being stared at.

"Ah yeah," Ale answered nodding and opening the file on the phone, it was... way less explicit about it. And for some reason didn't go into the topic of it being Nanite swarm.

Ale hadn't had the time to check on the conversation or whatever Alexa had done while she was asleep.

"Okay," Miriam Eversoul nodded, but didn't take the phone, even though Ale was offering, "Now... How much about what happened did you see? I mean about this morning."

"... Nothing?" Ale answered, wondering if she should do a quick download or not. It somewhat felt like it wasn't proper, she had Main Core peruse the data and bring whatever was necessary though. So there wasn't a need for her to check on it.

"Alexa said you two can see what the other is doing at any moment." Miriam Eversoul said, "I don't know how it is for you particularly, since most Systems have it different."

Ah right, they also had bought the whole System thing that Eleanore made up for them, Ale sometimes forgot about it. Albeit it may have become the truth. Ale still didn't really think of them as such, since that was a Human condition and they... weren't quite human.

"Some have partial access, some only get impressions of emotions, and then there are the examples as what Alexa described," Miriam Eversoul picked up the remote and turned on the television, only muting the sound, "Watching memories as if it was a live stream."

"We do that one," Ale nodded as she pointed to the television, "But we also have full access to the database of memories, we can forbid... or well, Alexa can forbid me from accessing certain memories if she wants, but while I could ask her to no watch something, she can still sidestep that. Not that she would."

Ale knew that Alexa would respect her privacy, even if she didn't have to give her such thing, there was no way for Ale to know if she respected the privacy or not after all.

"Right," Miriam Eversoul nodded, "And you didn't watch today's event because Alexa wanted privacy?"

"Ah no, I was asleep." Ale answered with a grimace, "Since the disease that Melissandra left, I have some... issues. Alexa is helping with them."

"...I also wanted to ask about that." Miriam Eversoul grimaced as she remembered something, "Alexa spoke about some...'Ouchies' as she described. I assume she refers to wounds or damage?"

That was one way to describe them, Ale still remembered the weird-ass worms that Alexa claimed were wiggles. Those did not look like tentacles, at all.

"You can say so," Ale nodded after shuddering, "I perceive them as cracks, rips, and gashes. But 'Ouchies' is such an Alexa way to describe them."

"What causes them?" Miriam Eversoul asked in a serious tone, "Can I assume they are psychological wounds? Is it memories from your time in a less stable enviroment? Someone bringing up bad memories?"

"I am unsure what causes most of them, I just suspect the latest one was caused by Melissandra Singh's Core Power." Ale answered, that was also a question she wanted answered after all, "But it isn't important, Alexa is healing us."

"How?" Miriam Eversoul asked confused, "Alexa's Core Power is that of a Shape-shifter, or something close to it."

Close to it was an understatement.

"I am not a programmer, engineer or a scientist." Miriam Eversoul admitted, "But even so, I have some knowledge of psychology and medicine. And there are some wild theories out there about destroying the parts of the brain that hold the memories of trauma to deal with that."

That was indeed an efficient way to solve it.

"Please tell me you two aren't doing something like that." Miriam Eversoul pleaded in a small voice, "Neither of you has the know-how about how to do that, so please, tell me you aren't doing that."

"No," Ale answered honestly, they hadn't thought of doing that after all, not that they would ever do something as barbaric as that, "I am... unsure of how Alexa does it, but even if we tried that route, it would be pointless, the nature of our power would return us to normal after all."

After a Blueprint update they would return to normal, their body would be whole again, and if the damage came from a physical body part, then it would be restored. Making this approach meaningless to execute.

"The nature of your core power?" Miriam Eversoul said nodding, "I see, it is probably because of how your Core interacts with your identity as a System rather than a single mind. The original form your body always returns to after the power runs out is the same, so any change to it would be pointless. Just like how a normal shifter always returns to their original body."

That was... albeit not as the normal convenient excuse, it was at least more logical than the usual leaps in logic that people did. Now Ale only needed to return to Ohio and test if it would be like that there too.

"Yes, something like that." Ale said nodding, "Anyway, what's the deal with this then?"

Ale pointed out to the guide that Alexanders had sent to the device, "It doesn't explain how it works, but only gives a vague promise that it will ensure the effect from the Death Mana will be limited if it does burst. And that I will have a few minutes and a couple of hours at most after my return."

Ale didn't mind it of course, she did want to return, but had expected some more... complete and effective.

"I haven't checked on it, but from what the asshole said, it is the best he can give. And after it breaks apart it will not work again." Miriam Eversoul sighed, scrolling through the file till she found the Warning. "See?"

"This will only work for a couple weeks at best, after which your body will have acclimated once again and this will not work again." Ale read it, that was... kinda useless? He had burned a good viable way to solve the issue? Why? "Why did he come out with this? Wouldn't doing further study be better?"

"Because his ego was hurt." Miriam Eversoul answered almost instantly, "Or that is what I would think normally."

Was it not because of that?

"I think... the man is a softie to you and Alexa," Miriam Eversoul added, "Usually he wouldn't show such a half-assed product, he probably couldn't get something working as he said, and came with this half-assed answer."

It was... kind of impressive if nothing else.

"And he also took into consideration the fact that you want to return back there, so he rushed the production and gave us this." Miriam Eversoul pointed to an open box with nothing inside, "Would you have returned even if he didn't produce something?"

"Yes," Ale had decided to return, it was necessary for their future plans and-

[Warning: error number has risen yet again.]

"I would need to give Alexa some very specific instructions, but we will return." Ale knew it was the way forward for them, they needed to deal with this. And finding out if this was localized to Ohio or not was part of the way to solve it.

"There you have it." Miriam Eversoul pointed, "That was probably the reason he even gave you this."

"Since I was going to return no matter what, he decided to provide this?" Ale was confused, "Then wouldn't it be more important for him to develop something if that was the case?"

"If you will return no matter what, he had no other option." Miriam Eversoul grimaced as she spoke, "Why am I even justifying his actions? Anyway, the point is. He claimed that this was the best he could make, that there would probably not be anything better within a month. Would you wait more than a month?"

"I am not sure I can delay this more than a week." Ale shook her head, the error count going up meant that her time was limited if nothing else, "Probably within tomorrow or the day after we will need to go back."

"So there you have it, if you are leaving this soon, he felt the need to finish it as soon as possible." Miriam Eversoul sighed, "He hates losing, so he will probably continue working in alternatives."

"But the data says that this method will not work again." Ale pointed out, "Unless he updates it while we are still using it?"

Ale didn't think that was possible, or was it?

They didn't understand fully the nanite swarm did they? If Miriam Eversoul didn't know they were using nanites...

"He probably plans to update the nanite charge that he injected within Alexa." Miriam Eversoul definitely knew then, "Ah, right, it doesn't say on the parts that you showed me, but the means he used is Nanite Tech. Do you know something about it?"

"It is forbidden, for one." Ale said sighing, "Everyone seems to have a fear towards the possibility of a Nanite outbreak."

"Not towards a nanite outbreak, but towards a nanite core. Different." Miriam Eversoul clarified, "Nanites by themselves are maneagable, you only need a Technopath Core user and the nanite outbreak can be controlled."

"Then why fear a Nanite Core?" Ale pointed, if a simple tinkerer or subtype of tinkerer could stop them, they weren't a danger.

"A Nanite Core is a theorized Core user who can generate and subsume other nanites," Miriam Eversoul pulled the remote and started fiddling with her phone, "They control nanites by means of their Core, so the nanites are enslaved to them and as thus, can't be affected by other Core users."

After some fiddling, the television started showing videos of a mass of gray matter moving.

"And since they can't be controlled by anyone but the Nanite Core, it makes them extra dangerous." The video showed the gray mass moving and engulfing everything on its path, from buildings to people fighting it, "Unless one can locate the Nanite Core User, the nanite swarm becomes unstoppable, as it grows more with each matter it absorbs... It will overwhelm the planet sooner rather than later."

Ale... was wondering if this happened or was a theorized outcome.

"The only answer in this case is the scorched earth strategy." The video zoomed out, the gray mass almost had engulfed the city on the video, at least till a single projectile traveled towards it.

As soon as it was above the site, an explosion flared and the video went white. When it returned there was a crater on the spot where it had a city before.

"Or as the blonde asshole likes to say," Miriam Eversoul shook her head, "We had to bomb it to kingdom come. A two-step explosion, albeit it doesn't look like that on the video."

The video rewounded itself and zoomed into the projectile, a missile that now was traversing through the air very slowly. First, it opened itself and threw smaller round objects above the city.

Then when the smaller objects were far in the sky. The device that had remained there burst into a white nova.

"First the missile shoots into the sky the secondary charges. When they are cleared from the area of impact the nuclear device explodes." The video started moving forward as a white explosion bombarded the city. "When that is finished the overhead devices burst. A thermobaric explosion consuming the O2 in the atmosphere and finishing the work. Leaving no living subjects, even if the nanite swarm could reform itself. Without O2 and with the high temperatures from the multiple explosions, no human could survive that."

Ale almost pointed out that the Nanite swarm wouldn't survive the amount of electromagnetic radiation, but then remembered that a nanite swarm formed by Mana could probably survive it...

So she decided to not say anything.

"That is what we fear," Miriam Eversoul pointed out, "We fear that we will need to destroy one of the few surviving human environments because someone awakened a Nanite Core and decided they wanted to rule the world."

"This happened?" Ale asked with some dread in her voice, "Where?"

"It was known as..." Miriam Eversoul said with a small sigh, "...California."

That sounded like a place that Ale did not want to go to, the temptation to go and retrieve whatever Nanite swarm remained was soon squished away by the mere mention of that acursed place.

"Fair," Ale merely said, "I can understand the issues. So the problem is not the nanites, but the idea of a Nanite swarm made out by a Core Power."

Ale once again reaffirmed the problem with their power, whatever their Core Power did. The actual Core Power made out of Mana, it allowed them control over a nanite swarm. Ale hadn't seen if they could grow out of control like in the video example. At best they had managed to create that weird mass of flesh in the sewers.

But that felt less nanite and more organic to be honest.

"So if you ever see someone with powers that resemble that." Miriam Eversoul showcased images of the original Nanite Swarm in California, the living metal moving with little to zero originality, it was closer to someone controlling liquid metal rather than a Nanite Swarm. "Run away and call your brother or Vulcanus if you can."

"Alexanders?" Ale asked confused, "What can he do?"

"Skip all the formalities," Miriam Eversoul answered, "He was the one to first suggest to nuke the city eight years ago."

Eight years ago? So this was eight years ago?

"And he also provided the prototype bomb used too." Miriam Eversoul shook her head, "It did the work. Ensured nothing came out of that city. By the time we used it there was no living human... or so he said."

Ale... was inclined to believe that to be a lie. But she didn't pointed out.

"Fair," And merely said as thus, she would need to prepare some extra routine check ups for Main Core, they could not be suspected of being a Nanite Core. Ever.