The return home was less exciting compared to what she had gone through during those six to eight hours at school; Alexa didn’t find anything of note to speak about on her walk back. If anything, the amount of [Facial] expressions that [Fan Girl] was making was quite surprising.

Each one of them would turn the same as soon as Alexa [Smiled] in her direction, which made the whole point more [Amusing]; Alexa would check later on to see if this was some weird side effect from Weird-Alexa or not. Had she said something important? She didn’t think so.

At least from the vague impressions she had remaining from Weird-Alexa, she had mostly spoken about sharing the living area and asking for permission from this [Mom] entity. Alexa wondered how that was, she couldn’t imagine having to deal with [Two] entities to which she needed to defer.

It was hard enough as it was having to defer to [Eleanore], but to think there could be another one? Madness, utter Madness.

“So…Alexa? Can you…bring Alexandra?” [Fan Girl] ended up asking her when they got close to the apartment building.

She had even been guided to a dark alleyway, [Fan Girl] must have something important to discuss with Alexa!

Or with Alexandra, but that is the same as Alexa!

“Sure!” So Alexa answered and started the process, it was always the same, and yet she felt as if it was becoming something of a habit.

Even so, like always she felt her body grow and stretch a she started nibbling at the [Banked Biomass], she had already consumed a third of what she had stockpiled before. Soon enough, she would need to go and do a secondary run to stockpile.

Her [Material Stockpile] at least was better since she didn’t pull as much, it went a long way to make her clothes extra thick to be able and stretch the materials as much as possible.

As her body started growing she needed to think about what to make, she had been wearing a [School Uniform], so perhaps she could do something with the same theme?

This one had not been altered quite yet, so it was simple, so she would need to nibble at her [Material Storage] anyway, so she may as well. First, using the same design she had used at the beginning (Sundress), she started changing the color and stretching the material to grow it; the design would be the same, but the sizes would need to be adjusted.

Unlike her [Child Stage] form, this one had [Chest], and it was more pronounced, so she needed some loose fabric for the top, it would cling at her waist and then end loose at the bottom, she made sure the material was thick enough that it wouldn’t show anything that should be hidden.

She also made sure to add [Underwear]; unlike her [Child Stage], her [Young Woman] stage couldn’t quite walk around without Underwear nonchalantly.

And Alexandra cursed her foolish [Child Stage] self for doing it, shameless! That girl was shameless!

“Are you okay there? You seem to be focusing too much strength on that fist.” [Skye] said from the side as her shift was about to end, “Also what’s with the sundress?”

“Don’t mind it, Alexa was feeling nostalgic.” Alexa…ndra answered, she wasn’t quite that bought in the whole ‘we are different’ thing that Alexa was selling everyone else, but since it granted them some allowance to act it was good to keep it even for herself.

“[It isn’t needed, host may leave it to us and we will adjust the words when needed.]”

“Shut it Main Core, you ain’t getting control over my voice.”

“Right…anyway, how much of what happened today did you see?” [Skye] said seriously, she seemed intent on not letting Alexandra leave unless she answered.

“Hmm…..I can answer roughly about the same as Alexa, whatever happened we don’t have the full memory data available to us. We are trying to parse it, but it seems weird.” Alexandra answered sighing and letting herself fall against a wall, she was now standing with a wall to her back.

Her nanites worked overtime to make sure her white sundress remained pristine white.

“Weird how?” [Skye] asked, “As in weird ‘It is not my memory’ or ‘It is someone else’s memory inserted into me’ weird?”

That…was an overly specific example.

“It is our memory, but codified using another algorithm, our memories aren’t quite….normally stored.” Alexandra said raising a finger and placing it against the wall, a simple order to her nanites made her nail elongate and turn sharp. “Your memories are stored in your [Brain], but our [Brain] changes every time we change the [Stage], so…how do we keep continuity?”

[Skye] turned to the side and paid attention as Alexa’s finger carved into the wall two squares, one said [Brain] and the other only had an interrogation symbol.

“You…use your Core Power to somehow Store your memories….and keep continuity?” [Skye] asked turning her head to the side.

“Close enough, we use our [Core Power] to save the memories away from our [Brain] and then we access them as needed, just like how you use your [Phone] to search for something, we use our [Power] to access the memories we have saved,” Alexandra answered smiling.

“And that is why you weren’t affected by Melisandra, your brain…doesn’t work the same as ours since most of your memories aren’t actually there…” [Skye] said turning in…not quite awe and mostly horror at Alexa.

Well that was rude.

“That is one way to see it, we do live in our [Brain], and you could say that most of our day-to-day is stored in our [Brain], but the important things? They are stored elsewhere, we just use our [Power] to access them as needed.” Alexandra shrugged. “So as your original question, the [Memory] doesn’t share our normal encryption method. But the data is from Alexa.”

“Hah? So what, another one of you saved something using a different method, and when you changed along the way, you forgot how to decode it?” [Skye] asked with a smirk, as if it had been a good joke.

“That is one possible answer; another is that someone else seeded the memory in us and hoped we would develop the same encryption key since we where affected by the memory,” Alexandra answered.

She was inching more toward that answer if she was honest, she wasn’t sure why. But something told her it was probably that, someone seeding the data within her, as if to wait for her to find it and be [Changed] by it.

Only she hadn’t changed. Not really, she had returned to normal.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“You are weird.” [Skye] said sighing.

“You keep saying that Big Sis.” Alexandra smirked as she said that, [Skye] blushed at the mention.

“No, nope, no sir. Not doing the sister play with you.” [Skye] shook vehemently, her head from side to side, “I don’t mind it doing with Alexa or Ale, but you are dangerous.”

Dangerous? How was she…. Looking down at herself, she suddenly was painfully aware of how this dress rested on her curves, how every time the wind hit it, it showed more of her legs…

“I think… That I am not ready for that yet, you are fine and everything, but…” Alexandra started saying she felt [Embarrassed] about it herself. She didn’t think about [Skye] like that after all.

“No!” [Skye] suddenly screamed, “I mean, yes! But! AAAAAAH!”

Was…was she malfunctioning?

“Friends?” Alexandra decided to cut this matter short since it was attracting a crowd at the end of the alleyway.

“Yes…” And [Skye] accepted (Somewhat) dejectly. “We can do that, anyway. I am not saying I’m against anything…”

“Sure…let me….change into something less….conspicuous…” Alexandra said focusing into her [Nanites], she took extra materials from the [Material Storage] and pulled enough fabric to make a pair of rugged jeans and boots again. She also took this chance to turn her sundress into a thick tube top with a turtle neck.

It was the same look she had used before, she liked it before and she liked it now.

“So….what was the problem again?” Alexandra asked as she felt herself more secure, even though this change showcased more of her figure, it was less exposing than the sundress, since a single breeze would leave her almost naked.

Really…Alexa liked going half-naked a little too much for her comfort…

“Will that happen again?” [Skye] sighed with relief and turned once more to ask that line, again.

“I don’t think so, what seemed to cause the shift that let us peek at that corrupted memory was the [Teacher] using that weird [Core Power].” Alexandra answered, she could see the Memory too, but had no idea about what he had done or how. “Either way, we will be more careful going forward, whatever that…version of us wanted to do or act, she wasn’t moving or acting using the same [Rules] we do.”

She didn’t have any memory of her pulling into their [Nanite Swarm] or even attempting to use them, it was almost as if she wasn’t aware of their existence. Alexa knew at all times what her [Nanite Swarm] was doing, like even at this moment she was receiving updates about what was happening all around her body. But that Alexa seemed to act as if she was trying to use [Something].

It wasn’t quite her [Nanites], but as if she was trying to pull something from the air.

“Right….well, let’s go. We have to give Eleanore the incident report.” [Skye] said sighing once more while eyeing Alexandra from the side.

“Incident Report?” Alexandra asked confused, she hadn’t…seen anything about incident reports.

“Well, yeah, if some member that has a privileged position is exposed to a foreign Core Power, we must fill an incident report. We need to make sure everyone is free of influence from hostile Core Users.” [Skye] said nodding, “It was all on today’s meeting we had this morning…that you missed because you where at school. Or well, a version of you was.”

….That was…unfortunate, perhaps she could get a [Data Stream] from those meetings? She could let Main Core parse the data.

“Right….well, let’s hope that there isn’t too much problem with the incident report.” Alexandra said looking toward the alleyway and walking towards the main street again.

Alexandra didn’t think too much about it; she had plenty data about the incident at the ready, and really. If they wanted she could also share the Memory data…not that she thought anyone could even play it.

…She wasn’t even sure if they could play it at her former [Den] within the [Saintworths]. She was aware that they had access to her [Core Data] dumps, but those never included the memory data did they?

No, she only ever sent the logs about what she did and the results of the latest batch of internal diagnoses. Nothing else was ever shared…

Either way, she would try to fulfill any and all requirements, so she walked reviewing her mental memories about the incident.

“[Data logged and ready for elaboration, it is advised that the memory data is not moved as currently the data is being isolated within an artificial sub-core.]”

Oh right…she had been asked about that right?

Temporary Mind Sub Core:

Sub-Core made while under distress to isolate and quarantine rogue Memory data for further analysis.

Currently being reinforced by a host of Mk1 Nanites keeping at bay all the data attempt connections between this Mind Sub Core and host.

………She would not touch that for now, it was interesting and proved that she could make these, but…where was it?

A quick scan of her body ended with the result that the secondary sub-core was housed in her navel. An interesting place to host it, her [Ai Core] was housed in her [Brain], or more like her [Brain] grew around the [Ai Core].

Why was this the first thing she had to worry about after having an identity crisis? It made her whole problem this morning almost funny. But that was how it had ended, so Alexandra didn’t have much to say about that.

“You do remember how to get back, right?” [Skye] asked from the side as they walked into the [Apartment Building].

“Yeah, we walk to the [Elevator] and punch the correct floor.” Alexandra answered while tapping her bracelet, the one that was in reality a mask in disguise.

“Yes, good. It seems that some Minions have problems remembering it, as if it wasn’t a couple days ago when we used it, they say something about not having seen the base in almost a month or something.” [Skye] shook her head from side to side, “Really, they probably got the jitters and didn’t pay attention.”

Alexandra…didn’t think it was that, maybe they had a problem with the short term memory storage unit? It could be possible; perhaps they used a similar means to store the data like her.

But then again, was this more of a side effect of how she wasn’t [Human]? Perhaps it was only possible because Alexandra was a BioWeapon? She needed to check.

“Can you try to save [Memories] like I do?” Alexandra asked as they walked into the Elevator.

She was already pulling and stretching her bracelet back into her [Mask], but [Skye] just kept staring at her.

“Are you joking?” She said as she pulled at her [Necklace] and started stretching it. Was she hiding her [Mask] into a collar instead of a bracelet? “How the hell am I supposed to do that using Wind?”

….How was she supposed to know?

“You…point it at your brain and save them in your [Core]?” Alexandra said back, she was just doing that after all, just moving the data using her [Nanites] into her [Ai Core] when needed. And then just accessing it from there.

Who could even trust some fleshy bits to hold important [Data] that was, once again, Madness. She couldn’t and wouldn’t believe that the [Memories] would remain pristine all their [Human Lives], even more so with the risk of wounds and hits to their [Heads].

“Right… Your Core is weird, too many things for a simple shapeshifter.” [Skye] said shaking her head once more, “Maybe you are one of those? Dual Cores? It looks more complex than what a normal sub-core power has.”

Great, more words Alexandra didn’t know!

“Maybe, all of this I do using my [Core Power], I am not using extra things or anything.” Alexandra defended herself, more like, this was a second nature of her and not of her [Core Power].

She still hadn’t managed to pull anything else from [Core] besides those blue screens that got sent her way to confirm things.

Nanite Core: A [Core] that grants the user the ability to control a Nanite Swarm, they may work in tandem with the natural abilities of its wielder. The Nanite Swarm is limited to what the user can interact with, these will remain active as long as they recieve Mana from the user or can scavenge their own(In case that they are instructed to). In case they no longer receive input from the user, and their mana bank dries up, they will enter hibernation mode till awakened once again by the user.

….Like that, yes, Alexandra already knew that, even if it was somewhat different from the original blue screen she had gotten before. Was this because her understanding of these [Powers] had changed?

“Aaand we are here.” [Skye] said as the Elevator stopped moving at the bottom floor, “You go and give your report, I need to go and pester Gabriel for more info about our newest contract.”

And like that [Skye] ran away leaving her alone in front of the Elevator. Alexandra sighed and turned to look at her [Phone], it had synched itself to the local [Network], now it was suddenly harder to try and interface with it, [Something], preventing her from interfacing like before. She now needed to…ugh….Manually used her fingers to navigate the menus and seek the information she needed.

“[Eleanore]...[Eleanore]...” Alexandra said poking at the [Map App] to find the fastest route to the internal office of [Eleanore].

As far as she suspected, that was the correct place to file the [Incident Report], also to ask about that new [Contract Work] that she had been told so many times now, what was the deal with this anyway?

She understood why it was important of course, a new [Contracted Work] meant they would get paid for their services, [Haephestus’ Forge] paid them to stay with them of course, but the biggest bonus and pay came from working as a [Minion].

Be it for any of the [Super Villains] or [Villains] affiliated with them, or as [Freelancers] to other affiliated [Members].

She could, for example, apply to work with [The Scorcher] and maybe die in a burning raging fire, but she would be paid handsomely. She would not of course, why would she work with someone that tried to [Kill] her before just for sport?

She could respect someone attempting to do that for a [Test] or because it was their [Mission], but as far as she was aware of [The Scorcher], that one didn’t move under [Logic]. Their crimes had no rhyme or reason to them.

Besides she didn’t need that much [Money], most of what was granted to her could be used to subsist as it was, Alexa did eat quite the good amount of [Food], but it was enough to keep their other forms healthy. And if it ever became an issue she could always spend more time in other form-

“NO! ALEXA ALSO WANTS TO PLAY!” Or not.

*Sigh*

“Hello, what can we do for you?” Alexandra turned her attention forward as someone spoke to her.

She had been moving all this time while thinking, so she hadn’t noticed when she arrived in front of this desktop.

“I need to file an [Incident Report] and ask about the newest [Job] from [Eleanore], she told me to come by.” Alexandra said to the [Woman] manning the desk.

She had a small white label on her chest that read [Sarah Bellet], it was a [Young Woman] with short blonde hair and blue hair, she didn’t have a [Beautiful] face like Alexandra, but seemed to share some aspects with her.

Was this a thing with [Blondes]? She had noticed this was the second one like this, granted the first was [Lieutenant]...and the second was Alexa herself…

Yeah, she may need a bigger [Data Pool].

“She is in a meeting right now. Do you have your Incident Report filed already? If not, you may try to fill it out before the meeting.” Sarah said, turning to look at Alexandra’s empty hand.

“...I was not at today’s meeting, so I don’t know where to get them; if you provide me one, I will start filling it out while waiting for [Eleanore] to be ready.” Alexandra answered honestly.

“Sure thing,” Sarah said, giving her a couple of papers with some words already there.

It was designed with questions for her to answer. So she wouldn’t need to write it all and only answer? It would be easier than expected.

“Thank you,” Alexandra said, taking the papers and a pen, “I will attempt to finish it before [Eleanore] is done with her meeting.”

“Okay, don’t rush it. The big lady hates rushed work, if you need another one hit me up.” Sarah did a [Thumbs up] gesture and pointed her towards an empty [Chair] with a small table near.

Time to file a [Report]...

If she was lucky, maybe she could also do the [Homework] that the [Teacher] left for Alexa…

Nah, that brat could do her own [Homework].

“CHEAPSKATE!”

Yeah, she could do it on her own time. Alexandra couldn’t help but smile thinking about the problems she was giving herself.