A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

Chapter 296: Things do be looking different huh

As Ale traversed the sewer system she couldn't help but realize how good of a decision she had made. She couldn't even begin to imagine how wearing that skirt would have felt considering how far away she was traveling.

Long skirts and sewer water did not mesh, at all. But the idea of modifying the skirt into a mini skirt was even less appealing. Even with her military-style boots.

Since those boots would not mesh that good... unless she modified the skirt for a more gothic or punk style, which would need her to find a model to work with, and she didn't want to start looking into pictures to get that, not right now. When she just wanted to go back to their apartment and rest in a less stressful setting.

So cargo pants was her choice, it meshed quite well with her military style boots, so she wouldn't need to change anything about her outfit to get it to combine.

It also had the added advantage that she would not need to worry about her travel under the sewer system.

[New subroutine has been set, as soon as host leaves the sewer system there will be a full body cleansing routine ready.]

[Are you sure that this is a good use of our resources?]

"Yes, it is." Ale said aloud immediately, "I don't know how we did it before, but... Did we block our sense of smell? I have memories of this place smelling bad, but not this bad..."

Ale of course knew that they had smelled the place, she had the full memory and composition of what they found at the time, but even so, for some reason it was hitting more strongly than before.

It almost was enough to get her to shift her approach and just continue the rest of the travel back to the apartment on the surface. But she wanted to get as far away from this place before resurfacing. She didn't know how close had been the [Heroes] watching, but her entry into the city had not been that... sneaky.

And since she landed in a public building like that, they may be looking for her. So she wanted no issues. Not yet anyway.

So she had planned this route that would get her as far away as possible, not many minions wanted to come this way, it did not help that it would put her near [Sam]'s territory.

The map didn't have as many signs of alarms as before, so that was that. She guessed that whatever [Sam] had been going last time they were around was either finished, or solved. Hopefully it was solved and she would be able to visit him, while she... didn't really had known how to react to him the last time. That was then, now she was feeling more confident in herself.

She hadn't researched the ancient reservoir of sacred texts in vain.

"Main Core, keep the scanner to maximum output, as soon as you find a sign of alarm or a dense cluster of mana... warn me." Ale said as she fixed her cap in place, and made sure her shirt was okay.

Her current look was, as she had commented before, cargo pants and military-style boots, but her top was the shirt with the weird red dice design and the cap with small demon horns.

It fit her aesthetics as her A-tube persona; nothing screamed Fallen Angel as much as this, actually... Wasn't this a contradictory statement with Gabriel Light?

He was a Minion known as [The Fallen Angel], but his aesthetics were more of a being of light. Heh... he didn't have a copyright for fallen angels, her style was closer to demons anyway.

If Gabriel wanted to be the Angel of Light who fell, Ale was closer to a demon who crawled under the sewers!

Hypothetically speaking of course, she was not going to come under here without a mask or a way to purify the smell before it hit her nose. Main Core had refused when she asked about this, noting that Ale didn't have a wide enough repertoire of smells to replace the stink of the sewers with.

It was really bothering her the fact that they didn't have access to the whole library, she was so going to fix that tonight. As soon as she could get some time to sleep and go bother Alexa anyway.

[Acknowledged.]

[Starting wide area scan.]

[Current expenditure of Mana within mana regeneration limits.]

[Will create an alarm when the deficit becomes unsustainable.]

"The what now?" Ale stopped for a second, then regretted it as the smell started to stick more to her and continued moving, "We are wasting Mana? Expending Mana? Why?"

[Mana is being sent outwards as a signal, the way our Mana reacts with the surroundings is how we are mapping.]

[Mana is a resource with its uses.]

[As thus, while host can regenerate Mana easily enough thanks to the reinforcement done to the Mana Core. It will still spend some mana.]

[Possible solutions: Seek Core Evolution to increase efficiency from Mana processing and purifying.]

"... I mean... I understand that on an intellectual level." Ale said nodding, "But we weren't spending mana doing this before."

[Chances are the expenditure was not being lodged because of a faulty process.]

[Current programs and databases are being fixed and standardized; there have been many inefficiencies within host's programs and databases.]

Main Core sounded... pissy.

"Sorry about that," Ale said shaking her head, "But you only have yourself to blame for it since we left most of this work to you."

[...Noted.]

Yup, that was a pissy Main Core all right.

"So...." Ale turned to a stop in a suitable ladder that ended in a convenient exit, "... How far are we?"

[Currently two streets away from the theoretical limit of observation.]

[Host may exit at her leisure.]

"Exit it is then," Ale said as she crouched low and prepared to jump, usually this would be where she would redirect and prepare the exit of the hydraulic system that allowed her to jump.

But her current body had been reforged by the changes that Main Core had set up, meaning she wanted to test her new baseline form.

Her strength and dexterity had remained the same, but her weight had not. Her previous body was designed to be able to move and act as normal with her weight. How much could a loss of almost 20 kilograms of weight affect her?

Then there was also the fact that her new body was not normal bone and flesh, her skeletal system was a reinforced new alloy. Her muscles had changed to be more strong too.

"Let's check then," So Ale focused her strenght, felt the power build up on her legs (Unsure if that was actual Mana pooling there or it was mayhaps some of her delusions) "Jump!"

But either way, Ale jumped, perhaps with more gusto than needed. She raised her fist up and punched the cover of this particular manhole out of the way.

And as soon as she cleared the exit she could see the light of the world once again.

[Adjusting eyes.]

[Filtering excess light.]

[Done.]

Her sight returned to normal even before she was aware that the light had started to blind her, but that small stop was enough for Ale to notice her surroundings. She was in an alleyway at the dead end of two buildings.

A couple trash dumpsters and not a sign of life around. Even after the manhole cover hit the ground, making a ruckus.

"Who even throws these things," Ale said dusting herself clean.

[Starting cleaning subroutine.]

Main Core came to the rescue, even if Ale felt the drain of a couple points of Mana, it bothered her the fact that Mana was no longer... as freely available as before.

Whatever the old asshole had done seemed to have fixed whatever bug Ale had been using to their favour, the advantages were useful so she didn't think that this made her end up in a worse position.

But it still bothered her.

"So... Where too..." Ale said pulling out her phone, now that she was outside the sewers the signal came back and her phone started synching itself with the local netwrok, meaning she had now access to A-maps, the favorite app for anyone like Ale who was not good with directions.

"Who goes there!?!?" Not that she went far as alarms rang inside her head.

[Detected hostile.]

[Half a meter behind, 40° to the left.]

[At host's blindspot.]

[Building countermeasures.]

Ale was reacting before she finished reading the notifications as the image of the interlooper started to materialize in her awareness. She hadn't turned her head and instead had started preparing to jump away.

"Oh...[Frank the beetle]?" Only to stop herself short as the image finished materializing.

It was the same person that Alexa had found the first day they came out into the open, the [Insect Core] user who had pointed them towards Haephestus' Forge.

"You know me?" [Frank The bettle] said as Ale turned to look at him, he was lowering the hood in an attempt to hide their face, "Who sent you? Did they not tell you who they sent you to find?"

There was a grimace on his face as he spoke and Ale could see malice within his eyes.

"Just because I don't...." [Frank the bettle] shook his head, "Leave child, leave and do not turn back. Whoever paid you, whatever they paid you with, turn it with the police. Tell them they sent you to a bad trigger called Frank. They will know who it is."

"...Amm..." Ale said raising a hand, that made [Frank the bettle] stop muttering to himself, "I... You helped us before. I didn't look like this then, but do you remember helping a small blonde girl?"

Ale started fiddling with the phone, "Main Core. Upload a picture of Alexa." Mostly doing nothing as she sent that message to Main Core.

[No files available.]

"How the hell... Upload this memory then!" Ale scrambled as she started recalling the memory of when they spoke on the couch within the mindscape.

[Processing...]

[Turning visual data into image format.]

[Done.]

[Uploading via Mana pathway.]

"Here, I looked like this." Ale turned her phone as the image of Alexa from Ale's POV was on the phone's screen. "See? We looked like this then."

"....The child?" [Frank The Bettle] said looking at the phone, "No, Alexa?"

Oh, so he did remember them.

"...But you aren't Alexa." [Frank The bettle] said narrowing its eyes at Ale, "You do not feel like Alexa."

... That... was more ominous than Ale had expected, and for some reason was a surprise.

"I am Ale." Ale said nodding, pointing at the picture in the phone, "Alexa is the younger identity while I am the teenager identity, our Core Powers works right that."

Then Ale waited, there was something... eerie about how [Frank the Bettle] was looking at her, something that Ale couldn't find from the memories that Alexa had shared with them.

His eyes, they seemed... devoid of life in a primal way that Ale wasn't sure she could ever explain. It was closer to how an animal would look at you. How had Alexa even decided that it was a safe thing to speak with him?

"...I see." [Frank The Bettle] said nodding slowly, as if he just remembered that he should do that, its neck creacking as the chitin plates within his neck brushed against each other, "Did they took you in? I assume your Core turned towards something less... disturbing?"

"They took us in yes," Ale said nodding, now that the weird feeling started to dissipate Ale could take in the data more clearly.

[Warning, current conversation partner's sensory organs are not on his face.]

[Host is being analyzed and observed from primary sensory organs currently located within the target's torso.]

Main Core highlighted a part of [Frank The Bettle]'s torso, a part of his buttoned shirt that was currently exposed. One that had what looked to be a crystal sphere.

Main Core then zoomed it in and sure enough, Ale could see an insect eye, contrary to the human-like eyes on his face. That... seemed to be an ingenious design to have, was this an attempt to safeguard his vital organs? Or perhaps a deception needed after he triggered in the wrong way?

Ale knew that [Frank the Bettle] was a bad trigger, and then there was the innate fear he had shown to [Corrupting] Alexa before, but was that really such a thing?

Ale didn't knew, she didn't have a metric to find that.

"And you could say our Core triggered more towards something... human I guess?" Ale answered with a shrug, "We ended up as a Shapeshifter."

"Shapeshifter... I see..." [Frank The Bettle] nodded his head mechanically again, "I am glad you didn't end up like me. Did they not tell you warnings about me? If so... I may need to give them a visit."

"Oh that?" Ale answered with a shrug, "Yeah they seemed worried about us having made contact with you. But you aren't dangerous, are you?"

Ale noticed the posture of [Frank The Bettle] shift ever so slowly, as if he had made a physical attempt to take a step back only to stop himself, his clawed hand close and open ever so slowly and his normal human hand ball into a fist only to scratch at the side of the crystal ball in his chest.

"Or at least not to us." Ale carried on, as if she hadn't noticed any of that.

[Building up Nanite swarm.]

[Situating nanite charges near vital organs in preparation for fight.]

[Preparing stimuli to adrenaline gland.]

[Flooding circulatory system with nanites in preparation for wounds.]

"I still don't understand much about Core Powers and the seemingly arbitrary separation we have to them, but I know one thing for sure." Ale continued on pointing at [Frank the Bettle], "You are probably among the most powerful and dangerous Core User we have met, and this does include the scrambled guy and the theater dude."

"...If so why are you entertaining this conversation?" [Frank the Bettle] asked, "You seem aware, more aware than you were before. The first time we met, you didn't seem to understand the danger you found yourself in."

"Because there is something important for me to say," Ale said as her own preparation finished, she had made a conscious effort to keep the mana usage and expenditure to the minimum, or well, Main Core had, "Thank you."

"I beg your pardon?" [Frank the Bettle] said back. "What for?"

"You pointed us in the correct direction, whether it was because it was Alexa the one who asked or not, it is thanks to you that we are here today." Ale continued on, "So thank you, because of you we found our footing and managed to survive to this day. So thank you."

"...It was nothing," [Frank the bettle] shook his head as he answered, "But do take caution who you speak with, as you seem more aware of your surroundings. As you said, I am a dangerous individual, most [Insect Core] who have lost their sanity are dangerous, some more than others. Those of us that seem to have 'managed' to return to their humanity are those you should beware the most."

That... seemed counterintuitive.

"Those who regained their humanity?" Ale asked, "Like you who have human parts back?"

"Yes," [Frank the beetle] said nodding, "These human parts are not brought back because of our awareness, but because the insect side in us wants to mingle within humans so they hunt more efficiently."

...Oh.

"Yeah, that would be a smart way to go about it." Ale said nodding, "No wait, then what about Sam?"

Ale had said the last bit aloud, not really intend to bring that into discussion.

"He is among the most dangerous of us, while his way to deal with it may seem like it worked." [Frank the beetle] turned to stare at the manhole from where Ale had come out, "He dances between insanity and humanity. I would advise you not to visit him, if possible. Or not alone."

And after saying that, [Frank the beetle] started to disappear in front of Ale's eyes.

"Glad to see you are okay," [Frank the bettle]'s voice carried within the wind, "May you find what you wish for."

"Just to make sure... but you aren't around anymore, are you?" Ale asked aloud, her guard still up and her nanites ready to fix her wounds.

[Increasing Mana sensor and Mana radar.]

[No hostiles or hidden subjects around host.]

"... I need to find how he does that," Ale said turning to walk towards the street, it was around time she finally made it back to the apartment, and now only the walk there was left.