A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

The cooling when by as Ale waited, she chatted about the most mundane things while waiting. It was interesting, Vulcanus hadn't chimed in after [Big Sister] and [Golem] started talking to her.

Most of the talk revolved around what they had been doing and training they took, apparently they had gotten some time off from missions and training as they would be expected to get a new partner to enter the team.

That plan had been delayed after Ale showed signs of being alive, that is to say. When Miriam Eversoul and Vivian Kellet called [Eleanore] to confirm Alexa's story.

Nowadays they had been waiting for Ale's return, to confirm it with their own eyes.

"And so, we were actually planning to raid the Saintsworths to find out in which city they had moved you to. Since we didn't found anything on the local hospitals nor those affiliated with the Saintsowrths," [Big sister] ended her rant as thus, "It is a good thing you showed up since we couldn't get the old goat to compromise and help us."

[External temperature has arrived the safe margin.]

[Starting up opening up sequence.]

[Please prepare for decompression of Pod.]

Decompresion?

Ale was unable to say anything before she heard the sound of running water falling into the exterior.

"[Rhapsody, report.]" Followed by the voice of Vulcanus asking for something over the speakers, he had overwritten the voice of [Big Sister]. Ale could faintly hear her at the back screaming into something.

"The pod said something about starting decompression," Ale of course didn't fully elaborate, "It detected that the external temperature was within normal range."

"[... The temperature is indeed within normal parameters.]" Vulcanus said thoughtfully, as if there was something else that he was not mentioning.

"That is still boiling!" And sure enough, Ale could hear [Big Sister] again, she sounded winded up, had she run over there? "Ale! Don't exit yet!"

"[Even if she doesn't want to exit, that door will probably open by itself and there is nothing we can do about that.]" Vulcanus said in his normal even voice.

"....Damned hell!" [Big Sister] cursed, "Everyone! Out! If you are still here I will personally throw you into the boiling water!"

"[... Everyone not needed, evacuate, we aren't sure if there will be a reaction from the depressurization of the Pod and the cooling liquid.]" Vulcanus spoke after [Big Sister], "[Golem, Billy, Eleanore, you may remain. Everyone else out.]"

After that, Ale didn't got more transmissions from the exterior, but what she got was a live feed as the external cameras started showing the exterior again, sure enough Ale could see [Vulcanus] a few meters away from her Pod, and farther back [Golem] and the other Lieutenants behind him.

Going through the live feed, Ale finally found [Big Sister], she was... floating above the Pod with a frown on her face and biting her lips. Ale could see her speaking, but there was no audio feed.

The next second she noticed her Pod lowering further down. A few exclamations from the peeps that had remained and a singular nod from [Golem] as if he had expected it.

[Notice, detected spatial shift.]

[Notice, detected Space Aligned Mana.]

[Notice, detected shift in the external temperature.]

[Pod's temperature has lowered at a rapid pace, currently barely above 3°C.]

That... should not be possible.

"...Explain." Ale said aloud without thinking.

"[Sylph seems to have finally showed another aspect of her Core Power.]" Vulcanus was the one to answer her.

[Host's Pod was moved away from the place it had landed, it is currently set up twenty meters to the left of its original position.]

[Host's Pod was also subjected to extremely cold temperatures by the use of a wind draft with extremely cold wind. Pod integrity seriously compromised from the extreme change in temperature.]

[Care is adviced.]

"[This would put her as either a dual Core User, or a more advanced Core User.]" Vulcanus carried on with his explanation, "[Meaning the Fairy Team would have not one, not two, but three exotic Core Users.]"

Three exotic core users? Meaning [Golem] also had one huh. Well, Ale had guessed as much already from what she knew, but to know it for sure... Had [Golem] also needed to shown his hand?

What was in that hand?

Ale had so many questions and... well, these weren't as important and relevant from the grand scheme of things, as these weren't getting her new error counts.

But if she was to be honest, she would probably focus more on these if they put at risk her friends. Was that wrong? Well, if it was, whoever wanted to say that could come and bite her ass... preferably when she was wearing her body armor.

Either way, Ale turned her full attention to the door of her Pod, as it started to move, even with the external integrity so compromised, the thing still worked and soon enough Ale felt the rush of air from the exterior come inside.

With it, a cacophony of smells and sounds came too. Also, the biting cold of Arctic winds.

"You can stop that already [Big Sister]!" Ale screamed as she put her feet into solid ground since... well, it hadn't been that long ago if one thought about it, but in a way, she hadn't touched ground since Alexandra teleported her away.

Aquila was a floating city after all.

"Welcome back Ale." [Big Sister] appeared in front of Ale as if it was the most casual thing to do, there hadn't been a before, only the after. "Anything to say to me?"

"... You are supposed to be a [Wind Core User]," Ale said smirking, "This does not feel like what a [Wind Core User] does."

[Big Sister] smirked back at Ale and in one quick motion threw her arms around Ale in a hug, "... it's fine... worst case scenario I disappear in the wind again." [Big Sister] said in a small tone.

"I'm back [Big Sister]. I missed you too." Ale just said that back as she also hugged [Big Sister].

Ale could understand a little more about how Alexa felt with her 'Mom Person', [Big Sister] didn't have a reason to worry about her. If anything, she was closer to Alexandra than to her.

"... I'm sorry about... Alexandra." Ale said in a small voice, "It's my fault."

"No," [Big Sister] said back, "Nothing was your fault. I she... really... gone?"

"That is not the correct thing to discuss right now." [Golem]'s voice came down on them, [Big Sister] separating herself from Ale at that moment. "Welcome back Rhapsody."

"Glad to have made it back," Ale said with a nod that was returned from [Golem].

"We were worried, and would love to speak more with you." [Golem] said and pointed with his head to the left, at a measured distance from them stood [Vulcanus] with a few of his Lieutenants, Gabriel Light [The Fallen Angel] was missing from the group.

But as he had stated before, [Elder] and [Eleanore] stood among them. But now a few extras were there. Empress being one of those, and another girl with purple hair that seemed to be somewhat gaseous for some reason, Ale could guess that it was one of the last Lieutenants she hadn't formally met quite yet. That being said, Hydra.

When had they arrived?

"We will remain as long as possible, my allegiance to Haephestus' Forge is not cemented. I'll have your back if needed Rhapsody." [Golem] finished speaking and then turned to [Big Sister], "I assume you are the same? My reasons to stay with Rhapsody are both practical and simple."

"... I'll back you up, if needed be I can get us out too." [Big Sister] said with an almost imperceptible nod.

[Detected accumulation of Space Mana within Subject Sylph.]

So [Big Sister] was preparing to teleport away?

"It's fine." Ale said turning to both of them, "Thank you for worrying, but at the very least... I don't think Vulcanus will become an enemy."

Ale wasn't sure why they thought like that, what did she miss?

"Can't say the same about the rest... What happened to Gabriel Light?" Ale said looking around, she couldn't find him anywhere in the place, and she had even used part of her privileges to peek at the cameras.

"... He is... away." [Big Sister] said, shaking her head, "After you got... kidnapped, he was the only one who was willing to search for you with us. So Vulcanus sent him on a mission for that, before leaving though..."

"We will speak about that at another moment." [Golem] stopped [Big Sister], "Let's go Sylph."

And with a nod, he pointed with his hand to the door, "Before we leave, here is your mask Rhapsody." And sure enough a new mask was offered to Ale.

She... didn't really need that, since she could just make a new one, but she still took it.

[Detected foreign network connection.]

[Isolated network...Verifying...]

[Safe net confirmed.]

...This... Was a subnetwork hidden within [Haephestus' Forge]'s network, there was no way that [Elder] didn't knew about it. But Ale noticed that [Elder] was smirking under his mask at the far end of the group.

Was this... something he set up? Why?

What the hell had happened while she was gone?!?!?

"[I assume you have finished the preliminar greeting?]" Vulcanus said as Ale was too busy looking at the new bracelet that contained a copy of her mask.

While she had been thinking about what the heck had happened while she was gone both [Golem] and [Big Sister] had walked out of the room.

"[Then can we start your debrief?]" Vulcanus said pointing behind him, "[I apologize, but I will need you to either accept Eleanore's core power working in you for the sake of this or for you to accept being influenced by Hydra's Core Power.]"

The heck?

"...What is Hydra's Core Power effect?" Ale asked almost as a reflex.

"Poison." The girl with the purple ethereal-like hair answered, "I'll be making a truth-like serum with mana and feeding it to you. The effects will not be permanent, depending on the strength of your Core, they will last longer or not."

"From what we know, the effect will last about half a day. Taking into consideration the expected trigger date you had." [Elder] said after the purple haired girl, "I would recommend Cerberus as that one does not stress your Core. But... After her mess, I know it's hard to trust her."

That was the understatement of the century. But poison? A poison to tell the truth? Would it even work on her? In theory her Nanites would be able to split apart the effect and purify her system, but the question about it working or not... or well, the owner of said poison knowing that had happened or not was the issue.

Ale turned her attention from Hydra towards [Eleanore].

"..." This would be the safest option, she would only need to tweek a little her answers wouldn't she? Besides, that didn't work with absolute truth, it worked under the assumption of the owner as Alexa had found out. "[Eleanore], you will only verify if what I say is truth or not. You will not ask for elaborations nor will you ask questions, your only work is to confirm that I speak truthfully to the best of my knowledge. Under these assumptions you will be allowed to use your [Core Power] on me during the duration of my report and only during this particular report."

Ale felt a small shift on the ambient mana and sure enough her sensors detected the shift too. The interesting thing was, not was only [Eleanore]'s mana the one to change and shift.

Ale noticed there was a small... ripple to say it in a way that was understood, from Empress. The girl with the horns and the clothes that stuck to her body very tightly who smirked and nodded as if she had understood something.

"[Was that enough Cerberus?]" Vulcanus said turning to look at [Eleanore], a gesture that wasn't needed for him as he was probably connected to the survelliance system inside this room.

"...Yes." [Eleanore] said, still not looking straight at Ale, "I can use my Core Power on her for the duration of her report, and only during that, so..."

"[Good enough, Rhapsody. We will proceed to the briefing of your last mission.]" Vulcanus then turned towards Ale and walked to her, all the lieutenants behind him doing the same.

So Ale followed suit and walked towards them, she could not report while being on the far end of the room could she?

[Big Sister] had teleported her far away from her original position after all, the only reason she had been able to speak normally with [Vulcanus] and the others was because the speaker system of her Pod still worked.

When they stood in front of each other Ale took a deep breath and prepared herself, how to report it without showing her hand would be relevant.

"First, how much of what happened do you know?" Ale started with that question first, "Just so I can know what I can skip and what I need to explain."

"[Irrelevant for your briefing, you must report under the assumption that we know nothing.]" Vulcanus answered back.

Well, though crowd then.

"Okay," Ale said, nodding. This would mean the full report, which... would be annoying. "From the beginning then, I was deployed as surveillance and a way to ensure there was no breach for the manhunt of Test Subject MS, Melissandra Singh."

Ale started from the beginning then.

She started explaining what was expected of her and what she thought was expected of her, that she was supposed to ensure no one breached her spot in the containment and that she hadn't thought much about it.

"Then I got a rescue signal..." How she received the rescue signal from the two VVIP's and how she had been sent as a rescue, how during that she had found Beatrice Starcroft. Or well, the sidekick [Beacon of Justice] and how that one had stuck to her.

"..." That got a frown from one of the Lieutenants, one that hadn't really spoken much yet. "This... Beacon of Justice, just... followed after you thinking that you were more powerful than her? Are you actually more powerful than her?"

That... hadn't been what Ale expected as a question from them.

"As far as I can tell no." Ale answered honestly, since she was being monitored by [Eleanore], this wasn't worth the hassle of lying after all, "From what I understand from her [Core Power]. The only reason I could deal with her and contain her was because the [Beacon of Justice] believed that. I dealt with her as if I was dealing with Alexa, I don't think I would be able to contain her if her misunderstandings got cleared."

"[Truth]" [Eleanore] chimmed in at that moment. She had been saying this ever so often just to confirm that Ale wasn't lying.

"Right, sorry about the interruption, carry on." Empress said nodding as if she understood something, or well, as if she was happy with something. That was one weird interaction, perhaps her Core Power worked like Beatrice's Core Power?

Either way, Ale wasn't in the mood to deal with more things, so she nodded and carried on.

This was the important part after all.

"Main Core... prepare the virtual machine and start feeding the false data to it, we will start broadcasting the question to the virtual machine and feeding those answers to the exterior." Ale commanded, she would leave her body kinda half empty for this part.

It was necessary, the virtual machine would have control of her body for this part, but in exchange, she would be able to lie. Or well, the virtual machine would answer truthfully to the best extent of her knowledge.

She did not want to say how she had actually dealt with the zombies after all, since her method was... well, it was the same method and reason why people feared the Nanites.

She made a self-replicating organism that could theoretically grow out of control if it got enough biomass, which was not something you made under your neighborhood after all.

So she needed a way to edit that, and this was her answer. Hoping for it to work as intended!