She had ended up following the route that Sam had given her, it had been uneventful, the route was calm and the smell was normal. The air was quite clean and the water that passed was clean unlike the one on the other parts.

She had even reconnected her sense of smell to make sure, the fact that this route only went on this kind of setting was….

“[....]”

“Main Core? A word for it?” Alexa said aloud as she was coming close to the end of her walk.

“[Not important enough for a perusal in database, if host wishes for a word for it. Please proceed to search on the internet network accessible from Cellphone.]”

…Weird, why was Main Core like this?

“[Host didn’t take a sample from subject. Target Designation: Sam seems to be a combat model. Acquiring the blueprint should be a priority.]” Main Core said back to her.

That was indeed the truth, Sam was quite dangerous…he had some way to affect her on an hormonal level that was…worrying. She hadn’t been able to think straight, Alexa had acted…

“[Like a teenager in heat.]”

….That wasn’t quite right, was it? She had been a [Teenager Stage] girl for half a minute, but most of their conversation had been on her [Young Woman] stage. Was it perhaps because Sam’s form was close to her [CRAB] form?

Actually, he claimed to be a [Spider], but what was an [Spider], and how was it related to [CRAB]s?

“[Rhapsody? Come in? Are you okay?]” The voice of [Eleanore] came from her mask as soon as she walked into the outside.

It was weird since her mask was still in her bracelet form, so Alexa poked one of the sides of a little metallic part and pulled at it, that was all it took for a small little piece of it to separate. It was a small circle-like object that Alexa put into her [Ear].

“This is Rhapsody speaking,” Alexa said while placing a finger above the small sphere.

“[Thank god you finally answered, Billy wouldn’t tell me what the deal with you was.]” [Eleanore] said as Alexa walked towards one of the [Benches] and sat herself there, she was going to test her new [Cellphone] after all. “[Status report Rhapsody, what happened?]”

Well, that was…somewhat complicated, wasn’t it?

“We found resistance from a [Hostile] group composed by at least two [Hero class] entities. Minion [Mikey] described them as [Hostile Hero #1, V-8] and [Hostile Heroine #1, Chrysalis].” Alexa started recounting what had happened, she of course glossed over whatever parts of the event could be perceived as inefficiency on her part.

Such as how she hadn’t consumed the bodies of the enemy [Minions], nor how she had failed to [Terminate] the hostile targets that she fought. She did explain how she had ended up fighting against [Gun] type weaponry and how she had managed to defeat them by an advanced use of her strategy and situational awareness.

“[....So you let them shoot you when it would end with them being hurt?]” [Eleanore] said in a small trembling voice, was [Eleanore]finding her use of the [Human] body smart? She probably was right.

“Yes, it was the most effective way to deal with the situation. And while it cost me some [Biomass] and [Energy] it allowed me to finish the encounter fast enough. I have recovered the missing [Energy]thanks to some objects from [V-8], but the [Biomass] may require additional effort….” Alexa said leadingly, they had promised her [Biomass] and she hadn’t gotten any, besides the one that [Skye] left her.

But that barely qualified!

Granted, she did get some from her foray into the [Sewers], but that had come from her own effort. So that one didn’t count!

Banked Biomass:

Currently: 150 kgs of Biomass

Yeah, she could probably survive on that alone, but still! More [Biomass] was never wrong!

“[...Please tell me that was the only time you ended up wounded…I can understand why Billy wouldn’t….Billy?]” [Eleanore] said on her earpiece, but…that wasn’t the only time?

“Next we ended up with an encounter with [V-8] and [Chrysalis], it was deemed that the mission would be a failure if we couldn’t deal with them. So…” Alexa said. This one may be…harder. “I set up a trap to deal with [V-8] and then lured away [Chrysalis].”

So Alexa said as much, she was getting the hang of speaking with this thing. And all it took from her was extending one extra tendril from behind her ear to activate the earpiece. So Alexa was now turning on her [Cellphone].

It asked for a [Carrier], so she just linked the thing to her mask. [Billy] had said that in case of emergency or missing a [Sim Card] they could do that. The [Phone] accepted her prompt and turned on allowing her to navigate on the internet.

“[No wait, you lured away Chrysalis? How did you manage to run…Wait a sec.]” [Eleanore] started asking only for her to stop midway, someone at the back was speaking to her. “[A video? What Video? Hero rips open a Villain lackey?]”

That…sounded like it was probably her.

“Search….Crabs and spiders…relationship….” Alexa would search that video later too, for now, she had more important things to check on. Like she needed to make sure her body wasn’t reacting weirdly to Sam. She liked Sam, she wasn’t sure why, but she did.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“[Alexa dear? What form are you at the moment?]” [Eleanore] asked her in a sweet tone, somehow that made Alexa feel [Fear].

“...I’m in my [Young Woman] stage right now, why?” Alexa answered as such. It was the truth after all.

“[Can you quickly change to your little girl form? I need to say something to you, and I doubt it will have the same effect on this form.]” …That was weird, Alexa was aware that her different forms seemed to react differently and act differently. Case in point only one of her three current forms could speak normally with Sam.

“Sure? Wait a sec.” Alexa answered while checking her surroundings, it seemed that they were empty. So pocketing her [Phone] Alexa took a deep breath and focused inwardly.

“[Received orders. Starting shift.]”

Main Core announced, somehow this change felt like something she shouldn’t do. Something at the back of her mind was screaming at her to stop. But Alexa wasn’t sure what, it felt as if it was some kind of instinct, the same kind that she had felt when [Main Core]asked her if she wanted to remove the hormonal reaction she got seeing Sam.

“I HAVE COME!” But Alexa in the end didn’t mind and changed anyway.

[Eleanore]had been good to her after all!

“[Alexa? Are you little?]” [Eleanore]asked in the funny thing on her ear!

“Yes! Alexa has arrived!” So Alexa answered while speaking to…to…to her ear!

“[Good]” And [Eleanore] seemed happy too! Really, all was better when Alexa was around. Why did they even need older Alexa? The cutetests Alexa was the betterest Alexa!

“[WHY DID YOU LET YOURSELF BE CAUGHT?!? AND THIS?!?! YOU LET YOURSELF BE HURT?!?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS WORRIES ME?!?!?]” But suddenly Alexa was under attack!

The words!

The words kept coming!

And they hurt!!!

Alexa wasn’t sure why but they made her eyes start leaking! This was weird!

“I’m sorry!” Alexa said while she felt her breath pick up, “I’m sorry!”

She was…She was…

“[Crying.]” That!

“[Oh no little lady, nothing of that!]” But [Eleanore] kept being angry at her! What did she do?!?!?

“It wasn’t me!” Alexa said defending her honor, for…it really hadn’t been her!

“[....*Sigh* Okay, I’m not mad at you Alexa. But you need to set boundaries.]” [Eleanore] said in a more normal tone, Alexa was still crying since she was being scolded for something she didn’t do! “[You need to speak with your other forms, they can’t just…They can’t just let themselves be hurt like that. If someone caught you like that you just go with them. Worst-case scenario they send you to jail and we bail you out.]”

They would?

“But the mean lady hurt my booba,” Alexa said looking at that particular log, as far as she had seen that had hurt…very much. “And I liked that booba, but mean lady… she broke my booba!”

Well, it wasn’t her booba, not anymore, that one she had left behind. She had new ones after all!

“[Chrysalis is a different case, if you see her you run away. You don’t make her chase you.]” [Eleanore] said, her tone was still hard. “[So, can you get the older one back on the line?]”

What? Injustice! She got called only to be scolded?!? This was injustice!

“[I need to scold her too.]” [Eleanore] added on the line.

“Right away!” Alexa answered happily, if she wasn’t the only one to be scolded then it was fine!

“Main Core!” So Alexa commanded!

“[...host is still the same person. Host will only get scolded twice.]”

“It doesn’t count since it feels different!” Alexa said back while she felt her body shift, she went from small to big in a few seconds.

And then Alexa was once more in her [Young Woman] form, staring at her own hand and feeling …wronged.

“Let me state that I didn’t feel an ounce of pain nor did I lose anything that couldn’t be replaced,” Alexa said while speaking into her earpiece again.

“[...So you say, but there is this one record…]” [Eleanore] spoke while playing a record on the other side of the earpiece. Alexa could hear herself scream for help and pleading for salvation. “[You are a good actress if you say that you didn’t felt anything.]”

“....That wasn’t…I…” Alexa wasn’t quite sure how to explain that, how does one explain the fact that it hadn’t been a real Alexa the one that felt all of that?

“[Or what? Are you saying that you made another you to act in your stead?]” [Eleanore] asked with some mirth in her voice.

“...” Oh, [Humans] could do that?

“[Alexa?]” [Eleanore] suddenly had a more worried tone of voice. “[...You didn’t right?]”

“I…may have separated my [Stream of Consciousness] to create a version of myself that couldn’t turn off her pain receptors and increased the hormonal response for panic to create a good act?” Alexa said sheepishly. “I was told I was bad at acting, so I needed to really sell the act…”

At that point it wasn’t Alexa’s fault, to be honest, it was more…of a problem in the situation.

“[...please tell me you didn’t made a new System mate just for her to suffer.]” [Eleanore] asked her.

What?

“...no? I didn’t suffer.” Alexa answered, “Well…The memory of pain and panic got deleted as soon as we moved to this new [Body].”

“[Body? What happened…Billy….what is in those logs you don’t want to show me?]” [Eleanore] suddenly turned away from the conversation with her.

So that made it easier on Alexa as she continued searching for the information she wanted on spiders and crabs.

“So the spider and the crabs are from the same family? But different species huh…Is it this then?” Alexa wondered aloud.

“[...Okay, saw the picture. I wish I didn’t need to, but I had to. Please tell me you didn’t show that corpse to your younger form.]” [Eleanore] suddenly spoke to her again.

Didn’t [Billy] tell her that the picture had been taken on her [Child Stage] form?

No wait. “Corpse? There was no corpse in that picture.” Alexa said back confused. “A corpse is the [Terminated] body of an [Entity]. I am not [Terminated] so that means that the [Body] you saw in the picture wasn’t a corpse. It was….”

How to explain it…Was it a quirk of her [Core Power]? Or what they understood as her [Core Power]? Oh right. There was that.

“That was merely some [Biomass] in the form of Alexa.” So Alexa declared, granted. It had been what had housed her during the first days on the outside of the first [Den] but at the end of the day…It was merely [Biomass] on the form she had taken.

“[...So all of your psyches are healthy?]” [Eleanore] asked, such a weird question.

“Psyche….the state of the mind.”

“Yes, my [Mind] is 100% functional. There are parts that I can’t access and…some seem to work outside of my control. But the Alexa that screamed for help wasn’t hurt more than this Alexa you are speaking to.” Alexa answered, that…wasn’t quite right of course. Or not in the same way that [Eleanore] wanted to know.

“[...truth. So you are okay, as much as Alexa is okay…Okay. I will believe that.]” [Eleanore] said on the other side of the line.

Interesting…If one was to be very specific, that Alexa had [Died]. But since it suffered the same kind of injuries that Alexa herself had experienced at some point, then it was indeed the [Truth] that the Alexa that was made from a strip of her [Consciousness Stream] was indeed not hurt more than her.

“[Now, with that out of the way. Rhapsody, you have gone beyond what was needed of you. And in doing so you have experienced wounds that you didn’t need to bear.]” [Eleanore] started speaking in a more serious tone. “[Haephestus’ Forge will always remember those that go above and beyond. As such, you have been granted the official status of full-time Minion. Congratulations, you will need to come by and get your new gear.”]

That was…lackluster?

She only needed to sacrifice some [Biomass] scream, run into the sewers, meet a hot spider man, and get scolded?

No wait, one of those wasn’t needed, was it?

Why had she been scolded? That one was out of line!

No wait, more importantly!

“Wasn’t I a [Minion] already?” Alexa asked, she had been under the impression that she was already working for [Haephestus’ Forge] as a [Minion].

“[You were on probation for Minion Work, we don’t accept all that come. Half of those that joined with you are plants or spies. Some only want to work for a few weeks too, so we can’t show them all. That wouldn’t be appropriate for us or them.]” [Eleanore] answered her question, and…yeah. That seemed fair.

“So, what changes?" Alexa asked, she…didn’t feel that different, the mere statement hadn’t changed anything about her. And as far as she was aware her [Mask] hadn’t suddenly changed or received more data.

“[Well, for starters if you get thrown into Jail you will get the best lawyers we can pay.]” [Eleanore] started giving her the answers to her change. “[Also, your new mask will have a recording feature. Any time you end up fighting or encounter a Hero or Side-kick it will record the fight should you wish for it to be recorded.]”

“...Can I turn that off?” Alexa asked, she didn’t want for that to be recorded.

“[The recordings are private, only you can see them. But yes, you can turn them off. And if you don’t turn them off you can decide to not share them.]” [Eleanore] said. She still didn’t see any appeal to that.

All her fights could be recorded by [Main Core] already, so if she needed to record or recount any of that it was already doable for her.

“I will take that into consideration.” Alexa said, “Now, while this is a nice spot to be, do I need to remain here?”

The sun was about to rise and Alexa really wanted to leave, she wasn’t in the right clothes or mood to stay in public, she wanted to take a shower, sleep, and maybe eat something.

“[Oh right, sending the coordinates and a map for the nearest hideout.]” [Eleanore] said and sure enough, she heard a beep on her [Mask], a quick prompt to [Main Core] and her [Cellphone] linked to the mask giving her a mental projection of the map.

“Okay, anything I need to deal with before moving to the next part of this [Test]?” Alexa asked as she made sure her muscles were all in working order. She had been resting for almost half an hour while explaining herself to [Eleanore]. She didn’t want her [Muscles] to go cold.

“[Nothing much, if possible go without your mask at least till you arrive at the same street the hideout is at. They will be waiting for you, and the hideout will receive a ping when you are near, so putting the mask on is not needed.]” [Eleanore] added some extra data after that.

It was mostly centered around what she could expect to find en route, some warnings about other [Gangs] and [Groups] that roamed these areas. What to do in case an [Officer] stopped her (These seemed to be a noncore power member that enforced the [Law] like the core power members of society). And some points that she needed to make sure to obey while she was moving as a [Civilian].