She was comfortable, whatever place she was in at the moment. She could feel a warm blanket above her, and on her arms, she felt a squishy thing. It seemed to be made of some type of artificial fur. Alexa wasn’t quite sure what it was made of or how, but she liked the feeling it gave her when she hugged it to her chest.

“Mgh….” Alexa felt her mouth utter those words as she stretched her body. She felt the comfortable allure from whatever object she was lying atop of.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in some weird [Room] that she didn’t remember walking into. Looking around her, she found that the [Bed] was the object she had been asleep on.

“So this was how they used it?” Alexa mumbled as she looked around her.

Her [Room] also had one such invention, but she hadn’t been sure how to use it, so the previous night, she had entered her [Sleep cycle] under the [Bed]. It seemed like the obvious answer since it would hide her from interlopers and also provide her with some disguise.

She now felt dumb. Could she have experienced such a blissful [Sleep cycle] by merely laying atop the [Bed]?

She would need to reevaluate how she went about living in a [Human] society. Could one get this level of comfort from merely sleeping atop a [Bed]?

“Rhapsody? Are you awake?” A voice came from the other side of the [Door]. Alexa recognized it, of course, for it was the voice of [Fan Girl].

“Alexa is awake!” Alexa said speaking to the [Door] as she stood from the warm embrace of the [Bed]...with little to no success, for the terrible embrace of the [Blankets] had entangled her feet! “Help! This [Bed] does not want to release Alexa!”

The door opened, letting the black-haired girl walk in just in time to see Alexa’s feet entangled in the blanket. The little girl struggled to release herself from the blanket with little to no success.

“Good morning Alexa,” [Fan Girl] said as she looked down at Alexa, “Glad the old pajamas we found here fit you. We couldn’t get your pants out…so we ended putting the pajamas above your pants, but… the pants somehow dissolved after we got the pajamas on you.”

So these clothes were called [Pajamas], “Main Core! Log the make of [Pajamas]!” Alexa commanded as she was still trying to release herself from the vicious grab of the [Blanket].

“[....logged textile construction and make of current Outfit into database. Host may proceed to either change the size of Legs, deconstruct the Blanket, or perhaps…Stop struggling and let the gravity allow host to release herself.]”

Main core, as always, was sassy with her. Granted, it saved the make of these comfortable clothing…and gave her some ideas about how to release herself from the tight grip of the [Blankets]...but still!

“It’s okay, those pants were made with my Power. So Main Core probably re-absorbed them when it detected I had new pants on.” Alexa answered as she let her body relax, Main Core had said that doing so would allow her to escape from the embrace of the [Blankets].

She doubted it. When a [Predator] got a [Prey], they rarely allowed them to escape. After all, why would the [Blanket] allow her to escape? It didn’t make sense. But she was in a somewhat safe environment, so it was the perfect place to test Main Core and show him that he wasn’t as smart as he thought!

Surprisingly, as soon as she stopped struggling and let herself go limp…the terrible grip the [Blankets] had over her let go. She felt herself fall on the floor, [Fan Girl] just stood there smiling at her while looking down at her.

“Is the floor comfortable?” Asked [Fan girl], smiling at her.

“Yes,” Alexa answered while thinking about how [Main Core] was probably laughing at her for how this had resulted. The thing hadn’t said anything yet, but Alexa was almost sure it was also laughing at her.

“Okay, first thing first. Golem asked me to check on you.” [Fan Girl] said as she brought a cup of smoking beverage. “How are you feeling? Headaches? Dizziness?”

“Main Core?” Alexa asked aloud.

“[Notice: Symptoms stated by Human Designation: Skye/Fan Girl/Sylph are what host was supposed to feel, most of the causes that would make such symptoms manifest got fixed while on sleep-cycle.]”

“Nope, Main Core fixed them as they came.” Alexa smiled as [Fan Girl] offered her a cup of warm beverage. Alexa wasn’t sure what it was, but since it was offered and it was a liquid, Alexa took a sip of it. And immediately regret it.

“I know, bitter, right? That is what I drink to deal with hangovers.” [Fan Girl] said with a grin on her face, “So this ‘Main Core’ fixed your hangover huh…Wish I could do the same. I would drink so much.”

“Then why don’t you?” Alexa asked. As far as she was concerned, she only needed to speak with her [Main Core], right?

She knew for a fact that [Humans] also had [Cores]; the purple girl had been proof of that, even if she had hidden hers and didn’t let her study them. But she had proven that [Humans] also had [Cores], heck. They even spoke about them when they advertised their [Powers].

“My power is wind, remember? You have a Core Power that allows you to get drunk. Mine allows me to fly,” [Fan Girl] said with a wry smile.

But well, if she wanted to pretend that a normal [Human] couldn’t do that, who was Alexa to judge her over that?

“Okay, but what is a hangover?” Alexa asked, since [Fan Girl] didn’t want to speak about that, she may as well explain what kind of thing a [Hangover] was and how one ended with one. Main Core had listed a series of Symptoms, the same as those [Fan Girl] asked. But she hadn’t explained what it was.

“Well, that conversation isn’t quite for this age range you have at the moment…” [Fan Girl] said looking at her up and down.

“What about now?” Alexa said as she prompted her body to shift, it grew a few centimeters till it turned into her [Teenager Stage] body. Her [Pajama] was now clinging more tightly to her body. However, it was still comfortable enough, even if the pants had moved from ones that covered her feet to ones that went to her ankles.

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“...It’s an adult thing, and I am uncomfortable speaking about it with kids. Your mother is the one that should explain this really.” [Skye] said, still dodging the problem. Would she need to shift to her full [Young Woman] form?

“Fine,” Alexa said, grumbling. Of course, that was an act! For Alexa quickly ordered Main Core to start the shift into her final form.

“And…” Alexa started speaking as her form shifted. The blouse she was wearing became very tight as her chest grew in size. Her pants ripped out as her waist grew in size, too. Before she could speak, one of the buttons of her blouse broke, sending it flying straight at [Skye]’s face. “...what about now?”

“...Yeah, stick it on my face how you have a better body than me.” [Skye] grumbled as Alexa quickly started sending some biomass into her pajamas to adjust them into her new form.

This was harder to do since the pajamas were made outside of her power, so she needed to analyze them and fix them in one go. At least they had been made from a single material (Silk), so she only needed to increase the amount of said material and distribute it across her clothes.

It barely took her a minute (Around two minutes and sixteen seconds, to be precise) to finish fixing her clothes and making a loose blouse with some pants to match.

“Right….” [Skye] said as she saw Alexa’s clothes get fixed in real time, “I hate your power.”

Well, that was….rude? Alexa wasn’t quite sure how to react to this, since she hadn’t done anything wrong as far as she was aware.

“Anyway, Cerberus said that I could act as if you were a normal adult when in this form. So I guess my explanation should be okay? If you had a fifteen-year-old form, then perhaps it wouldn’t feel so damn awkward though.” [Skye] grumbled as she held her head with one of her hands. “A hangover is what we call the sickness that hit us after a night of drinking.”

….What?

“You get sick from drinking? Is your [Liver] okay? Why would you feel bad from merely drinking?” Alexa asked worriedly, she had seen the [Human Blueprint] and merely drinking shouldn’t end with those kinds of symptoms.

“...Drinking as, drinking beer. Wine, Alcohol, the good stuff,” [Skye] added afterward, “You know, the kind of things you drank yesterday till puking your guts out.”

….

Alexa silently touched her stomach. Of course, she knew all her internal organs were there. “Did I…need to make a new set of [Guts]? Why would the [Human Blueprint] end with one putting their internal organs outside?”Alexa was worried; perhaps using a [Human Blueprint] wasn’t such a good idea.

Any organism that would repeatedly pull its internal organs in the outside was wrong.

“.... It's a way of speaking, you puked mostly food. We found a half-eaten burger, a weird green goo, a candy wrapping, and an MRE package. You need to chew your food, girl, also, why are you eating food wrapping? That isn’t good for your stomach.” [Skye] said, bringing her own phone and showing a picture of her [Child Stage] form sleeping, and on the side were those same articles [Skye] had said.

A half eaten burger, some [Candy] wrappings she had remade to search later. One of the MRE packages wrapping with a bar intact and other things she had decided to save for later. She didn’t have much room to take stuff with her that wasn’t meant to be hidden. So she had been using her [Stomach] for that.

And since she was pretending to be [Human] she had put some things she knew [Humans] had there, such as a half-eaten [Burger].

“Aren’t [Human] stomachs meant to have those articles there?” Alexa asked in a small voice. She…wasn’t quite sure, to be honest; so far, she had only analyzed in depth one single sample of [Humanity], after all.

“I mean, food is meant to be there. But you still need to chew it properly; if you don’t, you will only get sick.” [Skye] said worriedly, “But that is outside of what you asked, so…hangovers…”

Right, she had asked about that.

“When you drink yourself into sleep, usually that means that you have too much alcohol on your system, so the next morning you end up waking up with a killer headache, dizzy, and usually grumpy.” [Skye] said one by one the problems that came from drinking too much alcohol. Or [Beer] in this case. “Some people deal with it differently. Some go to a hospital to get an IV, others drink water, some cure hangovers with more beer…And some, like me, drink Tea to deal with it.”

So this hot beverage was [Tea], huh? She would file that knowledge for later use. Perhaps she could find some hidden healing properties in it since [Skye] was using it to deal with this [Sickness].

“And I should…” Alexa said leadingly, she honestly didn’t feel any of those problems after all.

“Dealing with a killer headache or puking your guts out (figuratively speaking).” [Skye] answered as Alexa had hoped.

“Yeah, I don’t feel any of those things,” Alexa said as she made a quick check of her body, as far as she could see, everything was in perfect condition. If anything, she seemed to have a bigger reserve of alcohol in her. It would provide to be helpful for some of her experiments, or perhaps she could attempt to remake one of those weaponry systems the [Humans] hadn’t allowed her to use before?

“And that is why I hate your power.” [Skye] said with a smile on her face. It was such a weird dichotomy. “You must have some degree of regeneration thing going or maybe an augmented metabolism?

Did she have some of those things? She could, of course, heal and regenerate parts of her body, but that wasn’t free like most of the [Core Powers] seemed to work, or at least how the people around seemed to imply they worked. She needed biomass and energy to make her healing or regeneration work.

So then, what was an [Augmented Metabolism]? A quick search on the Internet gave her the answer: they usually referred to [Humans] who could internalize and bring the nutrients from the food they ate faster.

Yeah, she liked that definition.

“It is probably the [Augmented Metabolism],” Alexa answered, as she took another sip from the awful hot beverage, it…wasn’t becoming easier to drink, was it because she wasn’t getting dopamine hits from it? Unlike how it had been with the [Beer]?

“Thought as much, most shapeshifters or body shifters have some degree of augmented metabolism, either by direct or secondary effect of their Core Powers.” [Skye] nodded with her as another facet of Alexa’s power got explained in…perhaps the not most precise wording.

“So, next question.” [Skye] said, taking a deep breath and schooling her face. She had turned from [Playful] to [Serious]. “Did Mikey force you to drink beer?”

…what?

“No? He offered me a drink, and I took it.” Alexa answered, confused.

“Did he say that it was water, soda, tea, juice, or anything other than beer?” [Skye] asked inmediately aterwards.

“No? The [Can] said [Beer] at the side of it. He never said it was anything other than that.” Alexa answered.

“Okay, good. We needed to make sure, Cerberus is ripping him a new one since he gave beer to a kid, but still, we needed to make sure. If someone invites you to drink something, don’t accept it like that. At least check for drugs in it.” [Skye] carried on speaking with a worried face, “Do you know how worried we were? Golem almost crushed Mikey’s head!”

What?

“How does someone check for [Drugs]?” Alexa asked, “And why would [Golem] crush Mikey’s head? He was a helpful [Minion].”

“I mean, some use fake nails that change color when in contact with drugs. They just dip them in their drinks before taking a sip,” [Skye] said as she showcased a different-colored nail.

“Main Core?” Alexa prompted inwardly as she touched the [Nail] with her [Finger].

“[Detected chemical within fake covering of Nail initial analysis seems to point to a chemical agent within it that react to some of the chemicals saved within database.]” Main Core showed her a list of chemicals to which the [Nail] would react. Some of those she had gotten from the bloodstream of the [Human] that she had [killed] and [Devoured] before.

“Others use some fancy drinking straws that do the same, others use rings…Most don’t just…accept drinks from random people you meet in a villain safehouse.” [Skye] sighed at the last part. “No matter your Core Power, if you are unconscious, it usually means you are as feeble as the next girl.”

“But I’m not like other [Human Girls],” Alexa said. As far as she was concerned, the [Conciousness Stream] that was in her body wasn’t the full extent of what was [Hers]. Case in point, she didn’t have access to all her [Memories], not while on this body at least.

“I know. Cerberus said something similar, that your Core Power may be reacting differently thanks to your circumstances. I had never heard of someone’s power activating while they were unconscious. And your Core Power activated not once but twice.” [Skye] sighed once more as she spoke. Perhaps her [Lungs] were faulty? “First, when you changed to…your little girl form, then when we put the pajama. Your bodysuit got loose as if you had become thinner to help us take it off, then your pants dissolved and sank into your body when we got you the pajama pants on…”

Yeah, it would be awkward to have two sets of pants at the same time, after all. Good job, [Main Core]!

No, wait, “Why did you attempt to put me in two sets of pants?” Alexa asked. That was a weird thing to do right?

“You asked us to,” [Skye] said, turning to her, “Or a mechanical voice that sounded like you asked us to. We called Cerberus to ask for directions when we couldn’t get the pants off. We got worried that something had gone wrong with your power. It isn’t the first time a Shape Shifter screws themselves up because they got drunk while using their power.”

Oh, so that could happen? Why? Perhaps they shifted into the wrong configuration?

“While speaking with her, a mechanical voice asked us to put the second set atop you, and Cerberus asked us to do it as instructed. Then, when the pants dissolved Cerberus asked us to leave the phone in the room and leave.” [Eleanore] had spoken with [Main Core]? “She called Golem after fifteen minutes, and when we got into the room, nothing had changed, so I took my phone, and we carried you to this room.”

“Main Core? What did you speak with [Eleanore]?” Alexa prompted inwardly.

“[Nothing relevant, mostly got queried about host’s status and current mission parameters. Also got asked why we acted as such.]”

Wasn’t that because it was the most efficient way to go about it? It would cement her position within the organization while making other [Humans] be grateful to her. It would also make it easier for her to go as an interceptor unit and, in turn, give her more chances to get free [Biomass] from hostile targets.

Really, it was a dream come true for her.

“So anyway. I came to check on you since Billy said you were awake.” [Skye] said while looking her up and down. “And yeah, you look fresh as a pickle, I wish I could wake up and look like that. Your Core Powers are unfair.”

She had said that twice now.

“So? What is next?” Alexa asked, setting a reminder for herself to give [Skye] a power set similar to hers if she ever found a way to change the composition of the [Core] that granted powers to [Humans] and her.

“Next? We celebrate a job well done; we are getting a party for the success of our first mission. And you, my girl. Are the guest of honor.” [Skye] smiled ominously at her while saying those words. They seemed to imply celebration, but…Alexa wasn’t sure why she thought they weren’t.