A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

Chapter 298: Cliches, more cliches… anyone want more cliches?

"State your business Saintsworths," [SuperForce] said yet again.

Ale was now keenly aware of the issue that she had walked herself into. [SuperForce] was... dangerous, his power was something that she didn't quite understand that well. But she knew that he had been able to survive and counter forces that seemed way more superior than what she knew how to work with.

It looked somewhat similar to the power set that [Stellar] had shown, wonder if that one would be the next one she saw?

Surely?

She would come at any second...

Any second now....

"So?" [SuperForce]'s armor made out of energy seemed to glisten as more and more Mana started to course through it, "Surely you did not make this for nothing?"

Yeah... She did, plenty bad decisions and grudge made her do this.

"Okay," Ale said taking a deep breath, not having the derranged woman around helped her calm down, "First, let me start this with this."

Ale moved along and pulled her other bracelet, the one that had been given to her by [Elder]. "Do you know what this is?"

"...So not only a Saintsworths, but a Scion Saintsworths." [SuperForce] said narrowing his eyes, "You truly are tempting your luck, did they not tell you? What I do to Saintsworths?"

[Warning.]

[Mana Spike detected.]

[Hostile intent detected.]

[Searching database...]

[Found countermeasure within database.]

[Starting Energy Burn.]

[Increasing muscle efficiency.]

[Expected Mana burn: 25]

[Within acceptable margins.]

Ale saw the world start to slow down, but within this slowed down world [SuperForce] was moving, slowly, not as fast as [V-8] had moved. But still moving.

And to her right within her POV, she could see the instruction and a timer, along with a mana bar that was slowing down, more after the 25 mana points that had been expended.

[Mistress, please make haste.]

Ale send an acknowledgement inwardly and start to move, it hurt, which shouldn't have come as a surprise since she was actively moving herself faster than she should be able to move. It was only possible thanks to Main Core puppeting her body via the use of the nanite swarm within her body.

Either way, she moved and manipulated the second bracelet as she dodged to the side. The eyes of [SuperForce] were not following her movements, which probably meant that while he could move at these speeds, he was unable to process and think at the same speed.

And advantage, perhaps she could...

[Warning.]

[Detected hostileMana fluctuations within Mana Armor.]

Or not.

Either way, Ale moved out of the way and when she was out of danger's grasp (Or death's graps if she was interpreting the strenght and speed at which [SuperForce] had moved). Ale focused in unfolding the bracelet.

"Stop!" And returning to normal speeds, she screamed as [SuperForce] turned his face towards her. "Look at the stupid thing first!"

Ale had unfolded the bracelet [Elder] gave her, it had returned to its mask form.

"...A [Haephestus' Forge] minion mask?" [SuperForce] said in a questioning tone as his Mana started to slow down both in power and speed. "...But... you are a Saintsworths."

[SuperForce] seemed confused about this.

"I may be a Saintsworths, but that does not mean I stand with the Saintsworths." Ale said shrugging, "Or more like, I was not a Saintsworths when I joined Vulcanus."

"... So the Saintsworths gave you that thing?" [SuperForce] said as he lowered the intensity of his mana armor, it was still very much covering his whole body, but it wasn't as obvious as before, "If so, I would advise you to destroy it as thoroughly as you can. If you can't do it, give it to me and I'll do it. Nothing good comes from getting a link towards the High Council."

...Yeah, about that...

"It wasn't given to me by the high council." Ale said wondering if it was worth having this thing destroyed so she could get this one out of her hair. She didn't think Alexanders would be so petty as to not give her a new one.

"...Doubtful, any Saintsworths contact you had came from them." [SuperForce] didn't merely say that, he stated it with full confidence, "Only way it wouldn't be like that is if [The Calamity Dragon] gave it to you directly, and while he may be whimsical. He isn't that..."

...that?

"Did Alexanders Saintsworths give you that Saintsworths Bracelet?" [SuperForce] asked, only this time he was also pointing his closed fist towards Ale, highlighting a ring that held a purple gem, a gem that was now shining. "And did he give you any mission when doing so?"

Ale was not sure what to think-

[Detected Mana Radiation wave.]

[Analyzing Mana Alignment.]

[Detected similar mana wavelength within database.]

[Downloading...]

[Mana Wavelenght aligns to Eleanore Windsors Core Power.]

...It was [Truth Mana]? This... this bastard was compelling her to tell the truth?

"...It was him yes," Ale was about to answer with an insult but that was what came out of her moth, before she could even think about it she raised her hand towards her throat, in an attempt to stop herself from speaking, "He gave no missions, orders nor commands when giving me this, he merely want-"

Before continuing spilling more Ale quickly sent all the nanites she could control within both her hand and throat to close her windpipe, quelling her own voice at the source.

She still felt her mouth attempt to finish speak, but she was too busy glaring daggers at [SuperForce].

"I see, that is enough." [SuperForce] said lowering his hand, "Sorry about that, you can't be too sure with the Saintsworths these days."

As soon as he lowered his hand, Ale noticed the mana radiation had stopped. So she took this chance to gauge her options, a normal person would probably dismiss this right?

They would ignore the violation of her rights, her mind and her intentions. It was [SuperForce] the one who did it after all, he surely had a reason. Besides, everyone knew the Saintsworths were the most evil thing on this planet.

That was common sense.

[Starting Nanite Factory.]

[Starting flood of Nanites within host's body.]

[Burning energy.]

[Starting Mana Foundry.]

[We are ready Mistress.]

"And those are idiots." Ale said mostly to herself as she felt her body flood with Mana, Nanites and power. But that was not what gave her confidence, no. What gave her confidence was something else.

Rage.

Fury.

Righteous indignation.

And the fact that while she was mostly sure that [SuperForce] could feel the Mana burning brightly within her, he still didn't raise his defense, nor reinforce his mana armor.

He was that sure that nothing bad would happen to him. Even after he had showcased that it was possible to surpass that type of Core Power, he had shown Ale how to do it after all.

But the man continued to smile as if nothing was wrong in the world. As if he was in the 'Right' even after what he had done.

"..." And that, above all, was something Ale couldn't stomach. The hypocrites like him, like [Eleanore] that wielded these kinds of abilities and still thought themselves the good people just because they only wanted the 'truth'.

So Ale did the reasonable thing, the normal thing, the thing that anyone would do.

"AAAH!" And as she screamed she did a partial materialization of her Minion Body Suit, only her right arm that was balled into a fist materialized the armor, part of her torso armor and some bits around her waist.

These were the bare minimum according to Main Core's quick calculation, and she was going to use this as a test, she was not fully blinded by rage after all.

What mattered was that she could wipe that know-it-all smile from this man's face.

*Clank*

"A metal fist?" [SuperForce] said as Ale's armored fist hit him straight in the... armored helmet. A faint outline of a helmet had stopped Ale's fist from impacting him.

And there seemed to be some limited telekinesis at play, since Ale was held there in the air.

"So either you have access to an artifact that lets you materialize your body armor, like we do..." [SuperForce] said eyeing Ale's mask that was being held with her other hand, "Or your [Core Power] is similar to [Hermes]."

[Elder]? Oh right, he had a Core Power focused on exosuits or something like that.

Ale could work with that.

"Neither you asshole." Ale said smirking as her plan had worked, "Eat a Pile Driver to the face!"

And as she finished saying that she kickstarted her plan into motion. The reason she had only materialized her right's arm armor was because this way she could hite the changes being made to her arm. That is to say, just like how she could remodell her arm into an Anzo20mm anti material rifle, she had done the same but this time with a Pile Driver.

The idea that she had made to overpower the Core power of [Chrysalis], since [SuperForce] seemed to have a similar one, she was going to use it as experiment.

The changes to her back and waist were to redirect the excess energy safely.

[Starting Pile Driver.]

And with that said from Main Core, two thing happened at the same time.

Number one, there was the sound of an explosion as the Pile Driver was ejected from Ale's fist, breaking past the armored fake fingers she had left in place.

Number two, from Ale's back her shirt had now three gashes as the exit point of the excess energy exited her body. If there had been flesh in those places it would have been burned from the extreme temperatures from the exhaust vapor.

"... Well played," [SuperForce] merely said as Ale was thrown away, "I hadn't been reminded of my own mortality in quite some time."

As soon as Ale touched the ground she quickly started reconstructing her arm and reparing the parts that needed repair.

[Estimated repair time, 15 minutes with no Mana expenditure.]

[3 seconds with Mana expenditure.]

"An interesting body you have there," [SuperForce] commented as he spat to the side, a small trickle of blood still on his mouth, and a small cut in one side of his face.

That had been what Ale's attack amounted to.

"It didn't look mechanical, and I know for a fact you bled before." [SuperForce] said pointing at the spot that Ale had been when she crushed her phone before, "Was that part of your plan? No, you hadn't planned to expose yourself like this did you?"

Now he was monologing? Wasn't that a Super Villain thing?

"You did this for a reason... Was it my artifact? I noticed how you stopped yourself from speaking, was there something you were about to say that you shouldn't?" [SuperForce] seemed confused, "Even if you weren't a Saintsworths before joining [Haephestus' Forge] I refuse to believe they wouldn't train you, more so if the [Calamity Dragon] was the one to induct you... Unless..."

"You gotta be kidding me..." Ale sighed as she picked the slow repair mode, she didn't want to burn more Mana than needed.

"...Was it something I did?" [SuperForce] asked as the wound on his face was no longer there, he had regenerated his face. Somehow, was this a common known skill among [Super Heroes]? Was it something they learned to do when they made it high on the List? "You claimed to hate [Chrysalis], but I do not torture or harm Minions nor Villains. What reason could you possibly have to hate me?"

"...You... are a Hipocrite." Ale said standing up, the armored bits of her right arm falling into the ground as her flesh arm was shown, fresh wounds as the flesh was slowly tending and weaving itself.

Not even a wince from this? Man, talk about a hard public to please.

"I have been called that before yes," [SuperForce] said nodding, "[The Calamity Dragon] has a tendency of calling me that. Only he has done that, not even the High Council of the Saintsworths calls me that. Care to elaborate? He has never elaborated on it, and since you are the only one besides him that has referred to me like that... I am the favorite [SuperHero] in this side of the Americas you know."

Ale couldn't help but laugh at that, then wince as laughing made her try to move her right arm and the jolt of pain made her stop.

"...You.... Are you not aware of it?" Ale said sighing, "You claim to be a [Hero] but you use an artifact whose sole purpose is to steal my awareness, my free will to answer to your whims."

[SuperForce] frowned at that statement.

"I do not deal with [Mind Core] artifacts." He stated, "And I have never done so."

"And yet, you used an artifact with a Core power similar to that of [Cerberus]." Ale pointed, "A [Core Power] who compelled me to answer whatever you wanted, giving me no chance to resist or the freedom to decide not to answer."

"It was for a good reason." [SuperForce] countered, "I needed to confirm that you were not a threat-"

"I showed you proof that I was a Minion." Ale laughed harder, "By definition, I AM a Threat, I am an accessory to crimes all the time. There was never a doubt about that. Does that mean Villains have no rights?"

"..." [SuperForce] could not answer to that, "Iskander, resume travel, warn me when we are about to get to my destination. Also do not take more people while we traverse."

"As you wish." The speaker answered, "Do you require medical assistance? Or... Reinforcements?"

"No." Ale said shaking his head, "We are done here."

"I still have questions." [SuperForce] said as he frowned.

"And you have a magical ring that will force me to answer them" Ale said nodding, "And as we have proven... I have no way to resist them, you may toy and mold my mind to answer you however you want... Wonder if it would have been better to have the derranged woman use that, at least that way they wouldn't have been hypocritical about it."

[SuperForce] turned to look at Ale, then at his ring, and finally to the broken ceiling of the bus. Then without saying anything, [SuperForce] removed the ring from his hand and threw it towards Ale.

Of course Ale caught it by reflex and stared back at [SuperForce].

"You say that I am a hypocrite for using it against you," [SuperForce] said as his Mana Armor disappeared, even to Ale's mana sensors, the man now looked normal. No Mana readings at all, "You may use it against me, or do whatever you want with it. Be it give it to [The Calamity Dragon], the [High Council] or even to [Vulcanus]."

Ale frowned as she looked at the stupid thing.

"Main Core, can we destroy this?" Ale sent the query.

[It is possible to destabilize the make of the ring.]

[It may expose Mistress power doing so.]

[Do we proceed?]

"You are a sick man [Superforce]." Ale said as she sighed, "How Many Core Powers do exist that can destroy this?"

"Not many, there are some variations of Molecular Shifters that could... My kind could... And finally... A few of the forbidden Core Powers could." [SuperForce] answered.

"So congratulations," Ale said as she sent the prompt to destroy the stupid thing, "You have found that I am a Molecular Shifter, go and die in a ditch."

The ring then was promptly split in two by the middle.

[Absorbing excess Mana from Mana Crystal.]

"Name's Rhapsody by the way." Ale said as there was a ding from the speaker system, they had arrived at her destination, "Thank you for showing me that my current theory about how to bypass [Chrysalis]'s armor will work. If you want her to keep her head, then make sure I don't find her."

"...Noted." [SuperForce] said nodding, "Can you tell me why do you hate her? You are using the same name as the Minion she... fought against."

"Nice way to describe mutilating someone while laughing only to throw their dead body into the sewer and then throw a bomb afterwards." Ale said as [SuperForce] did not react, so the bastard knew that too? What a good day to find reasons to hate one of the people who seemed reasonable before, right?

Now... How to say this without exposing herself even more? Oh right... There was that.

"She killed my mother." Ale said, that did get a wince from [SuperForce], "That a good enough reason?"

"...I'm sorry for your loss." [Superforce] merely said that as Ale got off from the bus.

Ale didn't knew what to think, if she had truly a mother-daughter relationship with Alexandra... She would probably swear to kill him too. Good thing that she didn't.

Otherwise, this would have turned even more of a cliché than it was.

"But for real," Ale said as the door closed and the bus started to move, "Go and die in a ditch or something."

She didn't have any reason to believe he could hear her, but she also didn't doubt that for a second.

When the bus made it to the end of the street, she saw a streak of purple fly out from the bus, and then shoot straight to the center of the city.

But she didn't have time to worry about that, as she had finally made it to her destination. Back to her apartment. Man this took more than she wanted or thought it would take.