novelraw Chapter 277: The… Nuzzler Pounce Armor Mk 2….
Chapter 277: The… Nuzzler Pounce Armor Mk 2….
Ale ended up just picking up ten pairs of shorts, five pairs of shirts, two blouses, and three pajama blouses. She would not elaborate on what extra things she packed (THERE WAS NO EXCESS OF SNACKS IN THOSE BAGS).
Ale didn't mind that much what she picked, since she could change the clothes as needed when needed. She left most of the other stuff there, the plushies that were sitting on her bed, the chair and personal devices.
All the time she was doing that, the little girl continued naming the unnamed vehicles she had control over.
It was kind of dangerous to think about it, so many vehicles on the hands of such a weird AI. Not that Ale had many things going for herself, if one thought about it. It was better to have a whole unstable AI than whatever Alexa and Ale were.
At least that one was more predictable, Ale couldn't for the love of all that was sacred even think or find what Alexa would do.
When Ale was done she walked out to the living room finding Miriam Eversoul holding a big wheeled suitcase, compared to Ale's messenger style backpack it was quite the difference.
But then again, Aelxa had more stuff with all the plushies that she had. Miriam Eversoul had gone the safe route and stuck a few there no doubt.
"Ready?" Miriam Eversoul asked looking behind Ale, "Where are the rest of your things?"
"I only packed some clothes and a few snacks." Ale answered, honestly, she didn't need that many things, but that was that, and this was this. "Thank you for packing Alexa's plushies."
"...You sure you want to roll with this?" Miriam Eversoul asked looking at Ale with some... sadness? Why was she like that? "I am sure the device Alexanders made will work just fine, you don't need to worry. If not he will probably be in Ohio with some dubious excuse ready to pick you up."
Ale didn't doubt the fact that Alexanders would be there, if nothing else to check on Alexa.
"I got a message back and they said you confirmed the departure." Miriam Eversoul turned to look at her, "They want you in the facility to prepare everything, even if the plane is leaving tomorrow we will need to go before noon."
They did? Why? Ale didn't see any excuse that could justify this and the little girl (Iskander) hadn't said anything about it either.
"Then when do we need to leave?" Ale asked confused, trying her best to not look at the little girl with red hair running around. "And where do we need to go?"
"They said that they will provide temporary housing." Miriam Eversoul sighed, "So the sooner it will probably be the better as this way we will be able to deal with whatever problems that comes from this."
Did she expect problems?
"Do you think something will happen?" Ale asked, looking at her arms, she could get the Arm-mament within seconds, but she didn't have as much material to work with at the moment.
Before she had set up most of her spare metals for this transformation within her body armor, but she was running around without that.
"If you expect problems then can I have my body armor back?" Ale decided to ask, if they would need to fight, she wanted to be as prepared as possible. While she could make a new one, the exotic materials on her body armor would make it very expensive on her stock.
"... Your asshole of a brother thought about that, the vehicle that will come and get us will provide you with that, he also said that he prepared some gifts." Miriam Eversoul seemed... angry at this, "The bastard knew from the beginning, he sent me a message saying that he had no authority over the flight plans and whatnot, and that I could decide if I told you about this or not."
"...Thank you." Ale said after a few seconds, she knew that couldn't have been easy. "But even if you didn't tell me, I would have found a way to arm myself."
"I know," Miriam Eversoul admitted that she knew that too, "It's better that you use the resources of the Saintsworths for this. I don't think you will get attacked here... I hope you aren't attacked here not with me around anyway. But since I will not be able to travel with you on the plane..."
"You think they may attack the plane?" Ale nodded, thinking back to the schematic and blueprints that taught her how to make the escape pod, "He also thought about that, Alexanders."
"He always thinks the most stupid things." Miriam Eversoul nodded, "But he has never been wrong, he is like a cockroach in that aspect."
Ale couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Is that why people think he is the big bad evil dragon?" Ale asked laughing harder and harder, "Because he is that hard to destroy?"
"... He also collects shiny treasure, has an ego the size of his fortune, and is very petty." Miriam Eversoul nodded, and pointed out each characteristic, "But he gets the job done, the vehicle will be here in fifteen minutes."
That was... fast.
Ale couldn't help but turn towards Iskander, the little girl nodded and made placed her index finger atop her lips, a gesture to silence Ale and ensure she didn't expose her... Or something.
"Then let's go I guess..." Ale nodded and picked up her backpack, "Will you need help packing things?"
"No," Miriam Eversoul shook her head, "I will come back to my own apartment and prepare everything to move here, then go back to Ohio when you are about to land."
Ah right, she could just teleport back with ease. Meaning her travel would be faster and easier.
"Then let's go and wait for the vehicle." Ale decided that would be the best thing to do at the moment, since waiting here was pointless.
"Sure," Miriam Eversoul nodded to Ale and like that, they moved to the outside, waiting at the sidewalk.
They weren't even five minutes before a pair of vehicles parked in front of them. One was a sports car, nice and fancy. The other was a limousine, refined and fancy.
"It's this one." Miriam Eversoul said, pointing to the limousine, Ale had expected it to be a sports car, to be honest.
"Are you sure?" Ale asked as she climbed to the limousine, "Because that one seems like it would get us faster."
"That it would," Miriam Eversoul said climbing after Ale into the limousine, knocking on the window that separated their seats to the driver.
The window was tinted to Ale couldn't see anything behind about the driver... if there was even one, she was fearing that this limousine was also being controlled by Iskander.
"It will, however, not have this." Miriam Eversoul kicked the seat in front of her.
You see, this limousine had seats on both sides the front and back of the space where they were seated. Ale guessed that most limousines had an arrangement like this, but wasn't it dangerous for those sitting with their backs to the driver? Wouldn't the acceleration make them slip forward into whoever was seated in front of them?
Either way, she didn't have time to worry about this as the seat in front of her opened wide and showed what was hidden within.
"I admit my foolishness," Ale said from the side of that seat that had opened. She was sitting looking forward as the limousine advanced. Besides her the opening showed a new body armor.
It was... similar to the one she had used before, hell, it was practically the same, but somehow Ale could identify that it was different.
"Here, see for yourself." Miriam Eversoul said pulling a tablet from the limousine and offering it to Ale, "Your brother couldn't help himself and brag."
Ale picked up the tablet and started reading
--------------------------------
[Hello! It is I! Your favorite and most beloved...
I can't. I just can't do this.
It is I, Alexanders Saintsworths.
What you are seeing is the modification of the body armor you came with. The onboard data we found claims it was called 'The Pounce Armor Mk 1' or 'Nuzzler Armor Mk1'.
I am not one to judge people by their tastes, but... wtf?
You can think of this as the Mk2 version of whatever weird cat thing you have going. If you are really into it, I can get you some prosthetics that can link to your neurological makeup and work like real organic parts, I guess?
Either way, let the onboard AI that was put in place guide you, it is a very basic one, so you can dispose of it when you are done if that's what you want.
Signing off, your...
Alexanders Saintsworths.
------------------------
"...I DIDN'T NAME IT!" Ale screamed as she felt her face flush red in embarrassment.
Why was she even embarrassed? The stupid Core had named it for her! It wasn't her fault!
"...If it helps I didn't read whatever he said." Miriam Eversoul said from the side, "Older brothers have a thing with bothering their little sisters, so don't think too much of it."
They did?
"For all his failings at least he cares, which is something I didn't ever think I would say." Miriam Eversoul added with a smile. "Do you want me to turn my eyes away while you change?"
What for?
They had seen her already, no doubt they had seen and examined her body fully when they did all those testings before.
Or that was what Ale was going to say at first, but something bothered about it, and felt like she should still ask for that.
"Thank you," So Ale merely said as such and waited till Miriam Eversoul turned her face to the side and closed her eyes.
Ale noticed the tint on the windows darken, and a small curtain fell from the ceiling, hiding her from Miriam Eversoul and the tinted windows.
Like that, Ale removed her outer garments and put on the bodysuit. Unlike her previous bodysuit, this one included an extra inner body armor. The fabric felt like devilthread. But surely this much of this material wasn't something easily acquirable, even by someone like Alexanders.
Ale still found that the fabric had other textiles and similar materials woven into it. She found a few small metal plates here and there to protect the usual vital organs of the human body.
And on her back there was a thicker plaque that had an inboard micro computer, the local assistant AI that Alexanders had mentioned was set up there.
All she needed was to put on the other parts, which quickly interfaced with the inner body armor. It also meant that this was more comfortable since the cold metallic parts didn't touch her skin directly.
"It feels... weird." Ale said as she finished putting on the body armor and wearing the gauntlets, "Like I am not using it right."
"[Detected new connection...]"
"[Executing handshake protocol...]"
"[Loading up new databases...]"
"[Checking hierarchy...]"
"[New AI subsumed to Main Core.]"
"[Do you wish to enable stealth mode?]"
"[Y/N]"
Yes?
Ale couldn't help but think as thus.
She hadn't finished speaking when she felt a burst of energy leave her body and focus on certain metal plaques on her body armor, these took in the Mana and soon Ale felt her armor react to this burst of power.
She had almost jumped away from the sudden feeling, but before she could do so, the boots on her feet shifted and reconfigured themselves into a pair of combat(But trendy) boots.
Her gauntlets shifted into bracelets that matched her usual style, the chest armor turned into a leather-like coat with metal spikes here and there.
Her armored pants turned into cargo pants. As for the Nuzzler helmet?
As soon as Ale put a hand on it, the helmet turned into a black tar-like liquid that traversed through her arm and part of it turned into a choker while the rest moved to the her back, turning into a hoodie.
"...Of course, the madman gave you a Nanite-powered body armor... What else could he give you..." Miriam Eversoul said sighing and covering her face with both hands, "He is doing this to mess with me, he is totally doing this to mess with me."
"...I can return it if you think that would be the right move...?" Ale said trying her best to not think about excuses to keep this body armor, it would give her a great excuse to hide some of her powers, but... it was also dangerous.
Pretending that her Nanite shenanigans came from her armor? Surely a few tinkers would find out.
"No," Miriam Eversoul said as thus to Ale's relief, "If you can try to feed some of your core power into it though."
"You mean my mana?" Ale asked, the thing had leeched some of her Mana, she could see the meter going down from 27/27 to 20/27 already.
"Yes, that." Miriam Eversoul nodded, "Most average Tinkerer Core and Technopath Core users can't mess with artifacts that are bound to someone else. The common phenomena among those are people that can channel their core power through the objects. That is to say, Mana in this case."
"It already did that." Ale said playing with some of the bracelets she now had in one of her hands.
Ale did like this look, albeit a little too much on the punk motorcycle girl.
".... Of course it would do that by itself." Miriam Eversoul sighed and placed both her hands atop her face again, "This man will be the death of me."
"Is there a problem with that?" Ale asked confused, wasn't that what she asked of her? "I can try and channel it again, I got a good idea of how it felt."
"No, once is enough." Miriam Eversoul said shaking her head, "Usually people and tinkerers don't set up their artifacts like that, since that would mean the device would bind itself to the first person touching it."
Ale nodded at that statement, it sounded like the smart thing to do.
"The fact that your armor did it like that meant that Alexanders was sure you would be the one to touch it first." Miriam Eversoul glared at one of the corners of the vehicle, Ale didn't detect any camera there, "Meaning he knew I would pick this car, so the whole charade of leaving the choice to me was pointless. I danced to his tune."
Ale could understand why that would be annoying.
"He probably set up something like this on the other vehicle." Ale said after a few seconds, "And if not, he could have set up something like this at the place we are going."
"... He probably did," Miriam Eversoul nodded in understanding, "You are right. It still annoys me though."
"Fair," Ale could get behind that, "Speaking about preparations... What can I expect about the place we are going."
"Well, we should have probably started with that to be honest." Miriam Eversoul said sighing, "Since we have arrived, see?"
And as soon as she finished speaking, the vehicle came to a full stop. Ale quickly packed the clothes she had taken off into the backpack she was using and turned to the door just in time for it to open.
They had arrived.