A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

Chapter 295: Ale’s new clothes…Cap or not?

Her travel through the base and towards the exterior went without any trouble; most of the base was devoid of human life at the moment, thanks to the evacuation order given before. So Ale could exit it easily enough.

She did catch some minions wearing extremely heavy-looking protective suits, and a few who fussed over her to get her out and scanned her for contamination.

Ale of course accepted the check ups, since there was no risk for her, besides. Main Core had said that they wouldn't find anything odd or weird. So while she got scanned, she made sure to ask for the results to be sent her way.

Main Core would be waiting those results to check on them, it was turning to be quite useful after whatever improvement he had derived from the meddling from the Alexanders assholes duo.

So that gave her hope for whatever was from those scans, she didn't doubt Main Core's prowess, and it had given her an accurate scan of her body via the use of the Nanite swarms. Which was another thing that Ale was intrigued.

These... weren't the MK1 or the Mk2 successor generation that they were used to use.

They were without a doubt Nanites, that was for sure, but didn't move or behave like her previous nanites at all.

If anything, these looked... weird. Not weird type worm kind of things like whatever Alexa had going on their mindscape. Nor weird like the new yellow fat bird form that Main Core had taken.

But weird in the sense that, "Why ants?" These nanites looked closer to ants than anything. Unlike the MK1 model that looked closer to smaller crab-like form, unlike the successor MK series that looked like crayfish.

Her Nanites looked like plain old ants.

*Sigh*

She would need to kickstart a maintenance to check on that, or perhaps ask the ND0 System when they talked... which was a thing that was going to happen apparently.

Main Core hadn't said anything about when that was gonna happen or how it was scheduled, nor what those 'Appropriate channels' it had used were.

And Ale didn't want to meddle too much with that either, as they had more important things to do right now.

"That would be all." And before she could continue her thoughtful state, someone said that as the sound of a pressurised door was opening, "Sorry about that, no one had complained, saying this felt like ants all over their body, we will check on it. It may be because you are not wearing a body armor suit or exosuit."

Ale heard the voice of the Minion say while shrugging.

"It's fine, just make sure to send the scan results my way when they are done." Ale answered back as she dusted off rest of the sterelizer gas they used on her, the scanner that they put her in was also working as a sterelizer chamber and they actually used that to get her out of the building, "So... Anything I need to know before leaving?"

"Nothing much," The Minion said shaking its head, "Go into that tent and you can change... or so I would say, but since you are only using your mask ill get someone to give you spare clothes and a backpack... Unless you don't mind just removing the mask?"

Ale looked down at herself, she was currently wearing her usual get up of short pants and oversized hoodie. It was part of her brand after all, not that many would recognize her like this.

Her channel was getting some tractiong so the risk of an Aleniated fan finding her was real, but then again there wasn't much they could do to her...

And they would need to say the secret word to identify themselves as an Aleniated fan...

"... I would appreciate that, yes." Ale ended up saying, "Do I get a pick?"

"... You're kidding, right?" The Minion turned to stare at her, Ale could guess that it was giving her a shocked expression, even if she couldn't see their face, "We will... I'll try I guess? But there is only so much we can give you, we weren't planning to give spare clothing to madman Minion types. Who is your captain? I need to file this later."

"You can send it to [Golem]," Ale said nodding, "And it's fine, so long I have the fabrics I'll make do."

"Golem... Golem..." The Minion said messing with the tablet, "Oh... Fairy Team Golem? The wrecking ball Golem?"

The wrecking what?

"...Yes?" Ale said wondering if [Big Sister] also had a moniker now. "I guess? I didn't know he got a nickname."

"After what your team did during the zombie raid and the bank heist, of course he did." The Minion turned to look at Ale, "But you... Fairy Team only has two other members and you don't look like Sylph..."

"Rhapsody," Ale said nodding, "That would be me. The third member, sorry if you only know me as a hot lady. But you know how it is with Core Shenanigans."

Ale... guessed that only their form as Alexandra was known, but she refused to take that form for something like this, if they didn't believe her that would be that.

"...Oh... So you were alive..." The minon said as it lowered the tablet, "Welcome back Rhapsody."

And then, for some weird ass reason, the Minion saluted at her.

"Hephaestus' Forge welcomes you back!" And screamed as he doubled down on the salute, well, he mostly just stood straighter, "We will do our best to get you a variety of clothes."

The Minion then turned to its tablet and started pressing and twisting the thing as fast as it could, "Get me a variety of clothes for a teenage girl! I don't care where you get them! Shake a clothes store or steal them from the nearby buildings! Sizes? How would I know something like that! Just bring the boxes!"

...Ale felt like she had started something she was not ready to deal with.

"I'll... just go and check if there is something for me to use..." Ale said as she started walking towards the tent they pointed, "Don't mind the clothes, I can shapeshift so it doesn't matter if they see me either way."

"..." The Minion turned to look at her, was he narrowing his eyes at her? "We will get at least two sets of clothes within 3 minutes, one of your peers from the same Minion batch got us an approximate sizes, if they aren't a good fit we will get another set within five minutes."

Ale didn't want to ask who on her cadre knew her sizes, she did not want to know who was that. So far the only people who had guessed her clothes sizes had been some of those that used the title of 'The sanest Aleniated #1 Fan' from her streaming career.

To know that a Minion among those that joined at the same time as her had the same types of talents... Ale would talk with Vulcanus and get that one booted even if it was the last thing she did.

"Thank you," And speaking of, Ale walked calmly (Read it as ran) towards the tent in question.

When she entered a few minions were changing and talking among themselves, most still wore their masks, it was at that time that Ale noticed most had the non-powered masks.

And when they noticed Ale, those that had stood even after changing into street clothes started to walk outside. The way out was simple: one walked into an enclosed, small room, removed their mask, and walked out as a civilian.

Pressumably way outside and far away from here.

[Detected subterranean pathways within those changing rooms.]

[Possibility of exiting near here is low.]

"Well, that does explain it." Ale said nodding, it didn't make sense if people could see minions entering here and normal civilians walking out, it would be counterproductive to the whole hidden identity thing. "And now I am speaking alone again."

Ale sighed at that, she would really need to work that one out.

"Miss... Rhapsody?" And while looking around, a Minion entered from the outside of the tent, carrying two duffel bags with him, "Here are the change of clothes, and your new backpack."

"...You only have two duffel bags." Ale pointed out as the Minion put those same duffel bags on the table.

"You may keep whatever duffel bag you wish, or both if that is your need." The Minion said, "I'll take my way out, no new Minion will enter here while you change, the local AI will tell us when you leave... or when you decide that enough time has passed for it to tell us that you left, whichever you decide."

And faster than Ale could ask something else, the Minion left.

"That was weird," Ale said aloud, again. "That was weird right? What do you think is the reason of this Main Core?"

[Host seems to be idolized by other peers.]

[The way they acted after finding your allegiance with subject Golem may be why.]

[Searching within available databases.]

"You do that, and I do this." Ale said opening the first duffel bag and putting the clothes on the table. "Hmm....."

And as she was frowning, Ale started to unpack the second duffel bag besides the contents of the first one.

"I don't know what to think about this either..." Ale said looking at the contents of both duffel bags, from what she could tell... this was not something that was prepared with her in mind, or even sourced specifically for her. "... someone is not getting their clothes."

The contents of the duffel bags was as follow.

Left duffel bag:

-One pair of cargo jeans.

-A black T-shirt with the emblem of a red dice.

-A black cap that had the motif of a demon-like girl.

-A leather woman's wallet.

-An energy drink shaker.

-A notebook filled with music lyrics (They were a banger, and Ale was saving them and searching to see if someone had sung them yet.)

-A lunchbox (With lunch still inside)

Right duffel bag.

-A green skirt.

-A white buttoned blouse with long sleeves.

-A green ribbon that seemed to be for her blouse.

-Some hair ornaments.

-A journal written in multiple languages, of which Ale could decipher only a few.

"These were definitely other people's belongings." Ale sighed, she... didn't felt like taking these, and at the same time, didn't want to go out like she was, not after getting them to prepare these up, "What to do..."

[Found answer.]

"You did?!?!?!?" Ale was surprised by Main Core, "Perfect! Give it to me straight teach, what do I do?"

Main Core was definitely her new favorite AI, it made it worth all the annoying things that Alexanders and Alexander did to her!

[There are videos of the Zombie Raid mission, among them a few minions uploaded the scene of what they deemed 'The Rhapsody Solo Raid'.]

[Minions have come with the theory that you are a Super villain daughter, possibly an S-List Super Villain.]

[They think you are here to train and/or as a way to prepare to replace your progenitor.]

[They have deemed Subjects Golem and Sylph as possible bodyguards as they also have shown prowess superior to a normal Minion.]

[As thus, they are working under fake ideas and have come to idolize host.]

"...That doesn't solve my problem with the clothes though." Ale said sighing, "I mean, it's nice to know that [Big Sister] and [Golem] are being respected... even if for the wrong reason."

She knew that [Golem] was powerful, the fact that Alexa had deemed him as [Meatshield] meant that he was powerful enough to defend them. And... Now that Ale had more freedom to think and follow the line of thought she wanted... She could give another look to the data she had collected on Cores and bad triggers.

And for a bad trigger... Golem was better than what most could hope for. Even as a bad trigger he was able to sustain himself by taking in mana, meaning his Core was a cut above the rest, even Ale could only do that as a recent development.

That meant that Ale didn't need to worry as much about his metabolism and about his internal organs, she could start building the new blueprint and leave that part to the last, his Core would do the work and assimilate itself to the new body they ended up making for him.

Since he would not die by organ failure, Ale only needed to correct the issues as they came, so even if the shift failed or ended up wrong, [Golem] would not die.

[Big Sister] on the other hand, she had proven that her actual power was not wind manipulation but a sub aspect of teleportation, same as... The same as Alexandra.

How she was faking a dominion over wind... Well, Ale could only guess, the simplest way she could think was that [Big Sister] was teleporting or opening gateways up high in the air, where the wind currents stood the strongest.

But that would mean [Big Sister] could open a portal or teleport things as far away as 20k to 50k. That would make her... well, extremely powerful.

And while she liked to know more people were aware of this, she had wanted a solution to the clothing issues.

"I wanted to know what to pick... But I don't want to leave people without their stuff... That feels wrong." Ale groaned.

[...Host can just copy the design of the clothing she wants to use and leave the originals.]

"...Oh..." Ale said scratching the back of her head, "Right... we can do that... we are a shapeshifter core and what not."

[...Our Core Powers can indeed pass up as such designation.]

[Start building duplicates of clothes?]

"Ah yes, let me..." Ale moved to place a hand atop each bundle of clothes.

As soon as her hands touched them, she could see as if the objects were being scanned, to her eyes it looked as if blue lights spread across the clothes and a virtual representation was being drawn on her mind's eye.

The texture, make, even the parts that had been fixed, all of it was being drawn inside Ale's minds.

And besides that, something else was also being drawn up.

"...Those are the original people who used these?" Ale asked as the image of two women was being drawn inside her mind's eye.

The cargo pants set was apparently of a young woman with dirty blonde hair, not actual blonde hair like a Saintsworths, but perhaps she had some Saintsworths blood in her parent or grandparents.

The skirt set however was of a girl roughly three to four years older than Ale, she had long brown hair that went almost to her knees and seemed to have a more serious aloof temperament.

"... Way to make me feel inadequate." Ale said shaking her head and storing the data away at the back of her mind, "So... Skirt or Jeans huh..."

Ale would need to pick one before going out... Or well, she didn't need to pick right now, she could pick up on the way out right?

"Main Core, set up this to call our leave two minutes from now." Ale said as she moved to the exit, "Also send a note that we decided to leave without changing, so the original owners can come and pick up their stuff."

Ale decided to leave both duffel bags as normal, just how they were before she took their contents. With that done, she jumped into the exit and found... a path into the sewers.

Why was it always the sewers?

"...This goddamned city has a kink with sewers, I swear to god..." Ale sighed and started her descent into the sewers, she was no longer wearing her mask and her clothes started to shift and change as she moved.

On her hand was a map (An actual physical map) with annotations of where she could exit and where that would leave her.

Now she only needed to follow it.