A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

"So?" [Elder] snapped his fingers and all the walls started going down, as they went down Ale retraced the shift on her body back from the mechanical to the organic at the same time. "What's the plan now?"

What was the plan?

"I wanted to ensure my Core power worked and they do." Ale said looking once again to her hand, "Albeit not in the way I hoped, but they still are good, even better than before, considering how I was using them before."

She had been more inclined toward mechanical modifications from the beginning, and her partial transformation always included some mechanical aspect. The reinforced skeletal system.

The boosters she installed on her legs, the [Arm-mament], everything she had been using and working with had been a combination of mechanical and biological.

So if anything, this worked better for her than anything.

"Then, do I need to update your file?" [Elder] asked pointing at his tablet, "You are aware that the works you get assigned depend on what you can do, so if you can't shapeshift..."

"But I can." Ale said immediately, "Still, update it. Just add a mention that my shapeshifting is oriented towards machines and that any change should account for that."

"You got promoted as a Mimic Class Shapeshifter." [Elder] said looking at Ale with a serious face, "We can't pass your impersonating androids and exosuits as a mimic class Shapeshifter."

Couldn't they?

"I still have other Sparks." Ale said more towards Main Core than anything.

"Do not burn your Spark for something this trivial." [Elder] said shaking his head with a frown, "Even if you could trigger a new spark after experiencing one, you should do it on something you actually want to do."

[Affirmative, we have three remaining sparks. What is the prompt you wish to execute Mistress?]

"What could I do to pass up as a Mimic Class shapeshifter, when my power is moving towards machinery." Ale said aloud, "Deception? Holograms? Synthetic flesh?"

No wait, she could still do those right? She had done the weird eldritch flesh tentacle at the apartment. Why could she do those? If her powers weren't no longer those as before, she should not be able to do that.

"Main Core, why could we do the eldritch flesh tentacle?" Ale asked inwardly, "Main Core may have seen something on those mysterious logs of his."

[Eldritch Tentacle was set up as a sub routine blueprint under the Nanite genre, as thus it was not considered flesh crafting.]

Flesh crafting...

Oh, yeah that could work.

"I have an idea, and this is something I will need to do, something I want to do." Ale said turning to [Elder], "What do you know about synthetic organs?"

"Those the Saintsworths are using?" [Elder] asked frowning yet again, "There are some theories about how they came to be, from the ridiculous statement that they are cloned organs to the expensive ones that claim they grow using Nanite technology."

"And what do you think it's the correct answer?" Ale asked, she had seen some of those clones bodies, so she didn't suspect that to be a possibility. Alexanders was growing cloned bodies for the purple-haired woman, so it wasn't impossible for him to use some of those organs as spare parts for others.

"I suspect they are using a combination of stem cells and accelerated growth induced by specific Core Powers." [Elder] said confused, "Why?"

"Because that will be my next spark." Ale said placing a hand atop her chest, "I don't know how one goes about it when trying to trigger them, so I'll do what Alexandra did when she wanted to help us."

It felt right, and Alexandra had managed to get the power to help them. A power that was totally different to what they should have, just as how Ale now had a power totally different to what they should have. Was this a signal?

A sign that both Alexandra and Ale were moving farther away from Alexa? Ale did not know. But for now, she closed her eyes and started to circle the Mana across her body. After her mana did a few circuits across her body, Ale opened her eyes and raised her other hand to the sky.

"I wish!" And said the same words that Alexandra had done, she didn't include a speech or anything else. Instead, she thought about what she wanted.

"A way to use my current powers to emulate the powers of a Shapeshifter."

"A way to create fake flesh and organs to create artificial bodies."

"A way to replace the bodies of others for my own gains."

"A way to help those that suffered bad triggers."

Ale thought about what she wanted to achieve and about how to go about it, a few ideas went over her head, possible paths she could take, from straight up building a similar system to what Alexanders had shown on the video about the primordial matter.

The video with the vats that had several bodies of the purple woman, to a new field that would allow her to clone bodies, all kind of similar plans went over, all it would take was for Ale to take hold of one of those and she felt that the answers would take form.

But she also noticed that her [Core] would felt stressed, her path would diverge, was this what [Elder] referred to crippled core?

Her base nature was not that of biological form, it was set up on the machine spirit. So they felt wrong to Ale, but she still wanted to follow this path.

It was not till she noticed a smaller less sucesfull path that she felt some hope, at the back of the ideas with 100% sucess rate, there was a smaller subset that had no hope of success. Or well, not 100% as the other paths.

[Nanite grown flesh and organisms.]

[These have a lower success rate as society as a whole has not accepted this path.]

The theory was solid, one would build the synthetic flesh using biomass and then join it with the target, the mana of the target would synchronize itself to the new flesh and they would acclimate over time, their new cells would replace the nanite made ones and eventually the body would no longer hold nanites.

But at the start?

It was all but a nanite construct, so they would be unstable without Mana to fuel them, it was useless to the common populace, but to Core users? It would be no different than normal.

And if Ale played her cards right, it would allow her some degree of shapeshifting.

"Thank you." Ale said aloud as she clutched the [Spark] close to her chest, the information about what she needed to achieve it the hard way, and the information about how to do it the easy way filled her brain. "So, they give you a way to make it manually and not only one to do it with our [Core Powers]?"

"...You managed to do it?" [Elder] asked surprised, "Just like that? By making a wish? What did you wish to? The Saintsworths god?"

That was a terrifying prospect.

"They have a personal god?" Ale couldn't help but ask shuddering, "Please tell me they don't worship the Calamity bullshit?"

"...Some do, no wait. You prayed to that thing?" [Elder] was surprised, "That's... I mean he is your brother, so you get a direct line?"

"...Please stop killing your character," Ale said shuddering, "It does not fit you."

He was [Elder], he was supposed to be this bruff old senior that was a no-nonsense person.

"Ah... you are right lad." [Elder] said coughing into his hand, "Excuse the slip, but you gotta understand. What yah did is not normal, people tend to take months and years to achieve a second spark, and even that one usually is under duress."

"Well, I cheated." Ale said shrugging, "I have direct Access to Main Core, so she helped me with part of it, and because of that. I get to do this."

Ale raised her right arm as she saw the mana meter go down a single unit, and soon enough her arm was surrounded by synthetic flesh, first weaving the muscle fibers outwards as they formed thick muscles, after a few seconds she was once again feeling the weight of the ridiculously big gorilla arm that Alexa had used before.

Now that she was making it manually with close to no help from the original power of Alexa it was heavier, albeit more complex. The original blueprint didn't work as it was hazardly made, so Ale had built the muscles one by one, this arm had close to no fat and was pure muscle.

So it was incredible heavy, incredible expensive to keep alive and as thus, Ale dismissed the thing. It had burned most of her calories from breakfast and part of her reserves that she kept around for emergencies.

"I can pass up as a shapeshifter again." Ale said nodding, "Do add an addendum that my shapeshifting got more expensive and that I have issues going into smaller bodies, it is not... Impossible I think? Is it Main Core?"

[It is achievable, but you will need to go full mechanical first, then build the flesh suit around yourself after trimming yourself to a more basic configuration.]

"Ah, Main Core says its possible, but annoying." Ale did not elaborate on the how, the mental image had not been a comfortable one to have after all.

"Noted kiddo." [Elder] said writing on his tablet, "So, what can you do then? That is not normal shapeshifting is it?"

"It's closer to creating a fake body atop mine." Ale said answering, "It will not work as well as a true shapeshifter, but not many will notice the issue, and with more practice I'll keep getting better. My power will still works in the same way as before, I will need samples to transform into other people or extrapolate their bodies from data available."

That had not changed in the least, what changed was that it would cost her way more than before, this single change had not that much of an expensive cost manawise, but Ale had burned through most of her reserves. If she hadn't...

If she had used only mana, the cost would climb very fast, and the fact that it was a mechanical based change meant that it would be easier to catch her, also since she would need to change into her mechanical form and hide herself in the meat suit...

That would limit her form and size, she could probably pass as kid the age and size of Alexa, but that would be her limit, compared to before where size was not a hard limit. Her power had been pretty much been nerfed in that sense.

On the other hand, since she could craft literally anything she could come up, and that she had several blueprints of human bodies stored from the time they had been going around building up samples and bodies, Ale had most of what she needed to start working on fixing [Golem].

Now she would need a new sample of his body and to start seriously working on the blueprint that she would use. The basis of what she picked would allow her to link the new body to his [Core], so really. All that was missing was experimenting and testing.

And they would probably have enough time when they got to Aquila.

"Noted." [Elder] wrote more on his tablet and pushed a button, "I just sent the update, you will get a notification on that soon enough."

[Received email.]

Sure enough Ale got the notification a second later, it had an update about her power evolving towards a more focused goal dedicated to a combat genotype, which was not a lie.

It had a note that stated that her power still could do several of the things that she had done before, but at a steeper cost, so whoever wanted her for her previous abilities would need to foot the bill on the biomass consumption.

It added a secondary note about how she had moved towards more mechanical shifts, and that those types of jobs would be more suitable for her.

"Will they not suspect anything?" Ale said as she read the last lines, "All its missing is outright stating that I became a Tinkerer."

"Not really." [Elder] shook his head as he tapped a few times on his tablet and offered it to Ale, "See for yourself."

On it, there was a few files on other shapeshifters, and their theorized powerset. A girl who could turn into trees (And only trees), a guy whose power limited him to only green animals (Why green specifically? The hell if Ale knew).

A guy whose power was limited to changing his arms and legs into inanimate objects, from steel bats to a hammer and concrete pillars. Statues and even parts of a car.

It made no sense how that could even work, he was not making the whole thing, only limited parts of it.

"...That's... that should not work." Ale said looking at [Elder] awaiting for a confirmation that this was a joke, "How does that even work? Why can he transform his legs and arms into bike parts, but his torso remains normal? What about the fuel? The engine?"

"Don't think too hard on it." [Elder] said shaking his head with a laugh, "Mana shenanigans. Trying to understand it is useless, what probably happens is that he is burning Mana to compensate, meaning he will never graduate from being a Sidekick."

Ale did notice that most of those that were limited to some degree were all under the title of Sidekick or Minion to some degree, did they ruin their path of power in some way?

"So, do you think you could fix Vulcanus?" [Elder] suddenly asked, "And what would you need to do it?"

"...." Ale was surprised by the sudden question.

"Don't get coy with me kiddo." [Elder] stared straight at her, "The implication of your mana flesh, and the way you are making it. Is it wrong to assume that you are trying to fix the bad trigger of your pal? Golem was it?"

"Yes." Ale said nodding, she had to admit to that truth, if she managed to fix his body, then they would notice anyway. "I promised to help him, so this is a step towards that."

"Then the same should apply to Edwards." [Elder] pulled a storage device, "Here is all the data I have on his condition, his body, the experiments they did on him, everything I managed to get, none of it ever touched any network, not even mine."

And with that said, he offered it to Ale.

"There are no other backups." [Elder] added as soon as the device touched Ale's hands, "Tell me, can you heal him?"

"I..." Ale let a flare of mana flush the device and downloaded all the data, the experiments done to him, the conditions of his body, the last health check up done on him almost ten years ago, the theories [Elder] had about where his body was and what percentage was still organic. "... I don't know, I would need either a sample of his mana, his biological body or a fragment of his Core."

If it was before, perhaps only a sample of his mana would have sufficed, but now? She would probably need all of those.

"...You drive a hard bargain." [Elder] said as he thought, "The mana is easy to get, the organic sample and the sample of his Core will be harder to get. If you get those will you be able to help him?"

"I... At the very least I should be able to start seeing if I can make him a new body?" Ale said still unsure if this was a good idea, "But will it even work? I will need to connect his [Core] to this new flesh body, if he doesn't want to..."

Then it was a moot point, one could not force someone into a body they did not want, and Ale doubted that [Vulcanus.exe] would enjoy going into a flesh body. How would they even go about that? While normal [Vulcanus] may want to return (Perhaps?) to a normal body.

[Vulcanus.exe] would not want that. If Ale ordered it using her authority then perhaps she could force it?

But she would never do that, it was not right. They were Villains, but that did not made them evil. And Ale would stick by that.