The plan was quite simple in execution and idea, it required of Ale to use the data they provided to change form into some of the people working within the [Bank], once there, she would take the required data and use their [BioSignature] to open the deepest part of the [Vault] in search for some [Documents]. The whole plan had been made with the idea of stealing [Data] that was stored in physical format instead of [Digital], she wondered why they would make it harder for themselves when they could just store it on a digital format.

“That is so no Technopath Core or Tinker Core can touch the power lines and steal all the data.” [Skye] said from the side as she thought on that part of the plan.

“Precisely, the ultimate way to make sure no one steals anything is to limit the human factor. And since Mimic Cores are usually mad or hard to get ahold of since the government pays premium to them so they act as body doubles…” [Aqua] added from the side, “That is why you, my small minion, got such an important role in this heist.”

The blue-haired woman had remained to ensure that Ale could indeed memorize everything and even queried her on what she had read, making sure everything was in order, they even tried to get her by making her recount some of the plans backwards, Ale didn’t knew why that mattered, but she did so.

“Are you positive that she had no access to the database anymore?” [Aqua] even asked this as they finished the last batch of questions.

“Yes, we isolated her mask, and we even tried changing it to a new one with no connectivity at your last request.” [Gabriel] answered with a sigh, “It seems that she does learn faster by using the digital form, anything else we can help you with?”

[Aqua] pondered for a few seconds before shaking her head and turning to look at Ale one more time, “No, that will be all. What do you require to make a full copy of myself?” She said standing in front of Ale.

“A strand of hair should be enough, in case that isn’t available, then extended touch is good enough.” Ale answered, unsure why that mattered, [Aqua] hadn’t been on the list of shifts she would need.

“Good, we will take this into consideration for future plans, for now that will be all by me. We will expect you and the other Minions to be ready and in place next week.” [Aqua] then walked out of the room, with all the Dominio mask minions following suit after her. Leaving only the black and white mask minions.

Some let out a sigh of relief while others started speaking with their fellow Minions nearby. Ale was surprised by this; she was half sure most of them hadn’t finished memorizing their data packets after all.

“Okay, you know the drill, at least memorize the parts that affect you, raise your hand if you don’t mind sharing some of the money from this with someone else and we will assign an extra minion to stand on HQ reading your paper package.” [Gabriel] said smirking, more than half of the minions here raised their hand (The Dark Magical Girl Alliance was one of those that raised their hands too).

The [Fairy Team] was one of the very few that didn’t raise their hands, so Ale was quite proud of this.

“We will be counting on you Rhapsody.” Till [Skye] said that from the side.

[Golem] only had a single paper sheet with a phrase, so she hadn’t expected much from him.

“Don’t make us look bad.” [Golem] said joining [Skye] on the side.

So she would need to memorize their part too and give instructions? Yeah, she could do that, but even so it rubbed her the wrong way, as if she needed to study and cover her teammates… She would demand Mango for this later.

But for now she did what she had wanted to do anyway, she took the paper packet from [Skye] and started reading,

She had been given an [Overwatch] job, they wanted Sylph to fly and hover above the [Bank], mostly to scout data and find possible [Hero] approaches and report them so the minions and Villains in charge could intercept them in favorable spots to continue the [Heist].

These seemed to imply that Sylph would be able to move around fast enough to monitor multiple points of intrusion, Ale doubted someone who could only [Fly] could achieve these objectives and voiced her doubt about it.

“No it’s fine, I can manage this much. The higher I am, the easier it is for me to use my powers. You can trust big sis!” Had been the answer from [Skye].

“We decided on this proposition after seeing the footage of her recent encounters, both encounters seem to point that this was possible so The Theater Master decided to give her this job.” Was how [Aqua] answered.

Ale didn’t understand these statements, they seemed to imply that the encounters (Plural) that [Skye] had found as a Minion were enough to put this forward, but as far as Ale was concerned all the encounters that [Skye] had before had been:

One - The Warehouse incident, in which [Skye] was supposed to work as overwatch, but her area of watch had been way less extensive and detailed.

Two - The School Incident, she wasn’t quite sure how this Theater Master had gotten this one, but maybe they had seen something that Ale hadn’t?

The school classroom did have access to the [Video Footage], so maybe someone downloaded it? But in those at best they could find the weird way that [Skye]’s wind behaved? Was that some kind of clue that Ale missed?

What surprised Ale more was not the fact that [Skye] was this sure that she could manage such a wide range of overwatch just because she was so high away from the ground that no one below would be able to see her clearly. No, it was not that.

It was the fact that [Golem]’s paper package was as thick as everyone else, and it had a very detailed description of what type of [Heroes] and [Minions] he could expect to find at what times and even in what order they may arrive.

What it boiled down at the end was that he was expected to fight each of them; the more detailed instruction package included some suggested styles of combat, from pure grapples to punches, kicks, and even one movement that was described as ‘Full Nelson.’ Whatever that was.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

She understood why the details could be boiled down to the alternative piece of paper that [Golem] was holding that read only, ‘Beat anyone that comes near you within an inch of the gates of death.’

But if anything, it made her take a note to never go the full muscle mass of destruction she was able to become. If going that route meant that she would be thought of as a mindless mass of muscles, then it wasn’t worth it.

So making sure that [Golem] didn’t see the full paper package, Ale took it away and squirreled it away with hers and [Skye]’s paper package. Neither of these two had a personalized database as far as she could see, Ale did ask [Aqua] and [Gabriel] (After [Aqua] left) to make sure.

“No, we don’t have that much free time. Maybe Scorpio could pull multiple databases for each Minion, but she rarely works with Villains…or Heroes for that matter.” [Gabriel] shrugged while answering her question about it, making Ale wonder what kind of [Core User] would name themselves [Scorpio] and then not work for either [Heroes] or [Villains]; why to take an [Alternative Name] if they wouldn’t work for either.

“Okay.” Ale answered nodding her head, “Do you want me to take a sample of you for later use too?”

Ale wanted that [Blueprint], the fact that he could [Teleport], [Fly] and even have partial transformations…

“Hah!” [Gabriel] barked a laugh and teleported away from her, “You wish. Good try but no, these powers are too much for a young one.”

[Gabriel] kept on laughing as he teleported all around the room as if to flex his [Core Powers], Ale seethed at this obvious provocation.

She would have her due!

One day!

When she developed countermeasures for these movements, perhaps she could use a variation to the method she had used to deal with [V-8]? It should be doable.

“hmm……..that was weird, not like you can copy the Core Powers, why did he run away?” [Skye] said from the side confused, placing her hand atop Ale’s. “Don’t mind it too much, all the Lieutenants are weird. They developed too much their Core and wind up weird in their head.”

….so it was a problem with their [Cores]? How would that even work?

“Did they get a [Mind Core]? Does everyone have one of those in secret or something?” Ale asked back, she had been getting too many mentions to those things. Almost as if everyone had been tampered with something to that end.

“No no, when you…well, no wait. You just triggered yours right? Dang it, how do I even explain this…” [Skye] said mussing about what to tell Ale, was this something confidential? “Look at it like this, you changed after getting your Core Powers right? You aren’t even able to copy Core Powers, so why does he care? Not like you couldn't change into his looks anyway.”

Well, [Skye] was right to a certain degree. Ale couldn't copy [Core Powers] , not yet anyway. She had tried of course, but so far she only had the base [Blueprint] for some [Cores], and hadn't gotten much time to study them, besides the [Mind Core] and that she hadn't been the one to make use of them, but mostly [Main Core] doing its own thing.

Ale wanted to check on that. Perhaps she could leave a note for herself when she was either Alexa or Alexandra?

...Perhaps she should take this chance to study it herself, Alexa may end up messing around and Alexandra could end up either drunk or flirting with Sam instead...

To be fair, Sam did have a nice body, but even so. They should stick to their priorities.

Like right now, her priority should be memorizing as much as possible from these paper packages, she of course had scanned the information so it was already stored within her [Database]. Perhaps she could focus on other things?

But to what? What should she do if she wasn't going to prepare for this? Her options were to prepare for this, or finish her previous homework from school...

That or well, continuing something she had done before...Perhaps she could use this as an excuse to work on some personal projects?

"Is there a place where I can practice?" Ale decided to ask if there was, and then she could start working on some modifications to her base blueprint.

"There is a communal gym and some isolated rooms to practice Core Powers." [Golem] was the one to answer first, "The individual rooms are well set up and can withstand the rigors of high-powered individuals such as myself even."

....show off.

"That should do." Ale said turning to [Golem], "Can you guide me to these facilities? I want to practice part of my [Core Powers]."

"But why would you need those rooms? Can't you just use the normal ones?" [Skye] asked from the side, "I mean, you are just going to change form right? That doesn't need anything special."

....That was true...

No one had complained about how her powers worked either, was it because she mostly looked as if her body aged at fast speed? She hadn't paid too much attention to that.

She was half sure that at the very least, when she did the shifts manually they just looked like that, using her other... [Powers] may look different, hadn't the [Mind Core] shone a little when forming? As if showing up from nothing.

She needed to check on that.

"Changing into another thing is harder and may end up in...unexpected changes." Ale decided to answer while raising one of her fingers, "Case in point..."

And made that finger burst into a mess of flesh and blood, she hadn't tried to change it into anything, and had cut the nerve endings there so it didn't hurt.

But even so, she saw several people wince and a couple of those that used the half mask covering instead of the full one, cover their mouth as their face lost color.

"....Point taken." [Skye] said shaking her head, Ale couldn't quite see her that well since [Skye] also used the full face mask. "...Are you okay? That seemed to hurt..."

Well, it would had hurt if Ale hadn't cut the nerve endings... then yes, it would hurt as hell. But as it stands, it didn't. "I am fine, I cut the nerve endings before doing the shift, and while I lost some [Biomass] and [Blood], the loss was minimal since the shift was focused on the tip of my finger." And so she rebuilt the broken finger to normal.

"I was attempting to make a variation to a high-speed delivery system for ranged attacks." Ale lied of course, she had achieved what she wanted, make a explosion within her finger. "So if I want to experiment I need a place isolated enough and private so this can be contained."

That made both [Golem] and [Skye] take a second to think, was her request that hard? She didn't think so, it was, if anything. Very reasonable.

"I think we can work something out, just to be sure. Not all the changes you make end up like that, do they?" [Golem] asked as he stood, "I mean, changing into someone else without a...what do you call them? Blueprint? That will not result in pain or...exploding parts?"

Why would he...

"No," Ale answered, "At worst, the only discomfort I could get would be from [Body Dysmorphia]."

That had been quite an interesting case that [Main Core] had pulled from the [Internet], a mental condition where [Humans] thought that their body was flawed or didn't match them. And, in turn, attempted to fix it by any means necessary.

It was usually what made other [Body Shifters] to stick with fixed forms or not branch as much as she was able. Really, the [Human] mind was quite interesting...

"....right...." [Golem] shook his head and pointed to Ale "Follow me, I will get you to the room I was using, you can use it for now. I will check on Billy to see if we can get you one."

So [Golem] had one already?

"Don't look at me, I just fly around and practice up in the air." [Skye] said before Ale could turn to ask to her, "Not like I need a closet to push the wind around or anything."

...right...

"Okay." Ale nodded nonetheless and followed [Golem]; she was already planning what modifications she could make. She had plenty of things to play around after all.

Some [Blueprints] she had taken and never gotten around to check how they worked too...

"Oh right, while you do that I need to go and get something!" [Skye] suddenly said and left, running in the other direction, "I'll call for you to let me in in case you get there before I do!"

Wonder what [Skye] was going to get?

"Remember, Rhapsody, if you ever need something, you can ask Skye or me." [Golem] said suddenly as he continued moving through the hallway, people walking to the sides to give way to him. "People still haven't processed how to deal with you, but some are bound to start thinking bad about you sooner rather than later."

Why? She was the prettiestest of all! She should be pampered! not Hated!

....she just did the same phrasing as Alexa...dang it.

"They will start thinking about how you can Mimic other people, and if you manage to pull it off without taking those 'Samples' you asked about, it will get worse." [Golem] continued speaking, soon enough they arrived in front of a door with metal bars making sure no one could walk in uninvited. "I am not saying that you should stop using your Core Powers, nor should you limit them. If you can change into other people without needing to touch them or take in their 'Blueprint,' as you said, it would be for the best."

Then what was the problem?

"You want me to...make sure I am ready for people to realize what I can do?" Ale asked, this seemed like a weird problem to have.

"I am telling you that...While your younger form may not get it, and the older form may know how to deal with it like an adult. You right now are a kid, so if people start saying bad things to you or bothering you, you can punch them." [Golem] ended up saying that, "We are working for Villains, so we get to punch people we don't like."

"Or throwing them." Ale said remembering the 'Baseball Especial'. "Not that I would throw people...I may poke them tho."

Ale liked that more after all, and to make that statement obvious she changed her hands into the [Arm-mament] setting, transforming her fingers into claws, very sharp claws.

"...Try to not stab them in any vital spot." [Golem] said, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"HERE IT IS!" And before he continued saying anything else, [Skye] came hovering just a few centimeters above ground, she was holding..." With this you will be able to mix around better and may even get away with using some of the more brutal parts of your powers!"

It was a sample of something that [Skye] had said she would get her later. Perhaps Ale could finally test some aspects of one of her [Blueprints] now...

She only needed to take the [Sample] and try to mesh it with one of her [Cores] when she made them.

"Nyaaaa~~~" Now only to take the sample from this [Creature]...