Chapter 320: Teddy
After discussing more on the logistics and if it would even work, Ale decided to shelve that plan of [Elder] for later perusal, she would check on with [Vulcanus.exe] later... After confirming that he wouldn't do anything else after getting the question from her. Not that she thought that [Vulcanus.exe] would even want a normal body, but perhaps the prospect of getting rid of normal Vulcanus would be enough to entice him?
He would probably ask Alexanders about it, and then that would get another question coming from him, more about what Ale had done and how, since he probably had a full idea of what Alexa could and couldn't do.
He should have it anyway, since the original body they developed from was under his laboratory...
It was under his laboratory right?
I mean, Alexa was in a laboratory that Alexanders had access, so the project ought to be fully funded and directed by him, Ale had not thought much on that before. She felt as if she had some information on that, but the data was not quite... accessible to her.
Why?
"Main Core? Do you have the data on that? I feel like we discussed this before, I know they were selling the P-series bioweapons, I saw the files when we stole them from the bank." Ale sent the query inward wondering what this was about.
[No data stored about that. Doing an integrity check up on the memory files.]
Great. More to worry about, as if Ale didn't have enough things to worry about already.
"Well, it was a nice meet-up." Ale said sighing and shaking her head, [Elder] had been doing passive and not so passive scans for the last few minutes to Ale's body, both with the power armor on and off.
Or well, with her body shifted into a mechanical one and otherwise, it wasn't a power armor per se. As her body had changed to a machine, but the design and implementation was close enough to a powered body armor that it was a moot point.
"Yah getting tired kiddo?" [Elder] said turning off the scanners, "Well, I got enough data to excuse you from most of the other missions yah would get sent. So that's that, whenever yah want to change from teams give me a call, I'll set yah worktable in a good spot."
Change of teams?
"Why would I want that?" Ale asked confused, she didn't have any issues working with [Golem] and Big Sister, what could prompt her from changing teams? And more importantly, why would she even move towards [Elder]'s team? She was a combat Minion after all.
"Most Tinkerer Cores end up wanting to flex the tinkering muscle, so working at the workshop is the easiest way; it also pays better and has fewer risks." [Elder] said with a shrug, "Cowards, the bunch of them. In my time, we worked side by side and fixed things while dealing with the megafauna, not in a comfortable temperature-controlled workshop!
"Suck it old man!" Someone hollered back at [Elder].
That got her by surprise.
"The perception barrier was turned off when I turned off the scans." [Elder] smirked at her, "Noticed when I put it but didn't pay attention to when I turned it off did yah?"
Ale had not.
"Main Core?" So she asked inwardly, perhaps Main Core forgot to tell her?
[The change was gradual; it moved slowly as it synchronized the external dummy to what Mistress and Elder were doing. We did not notice when the barrier was finally turned off.]
So Main Core also didn't notice, that was worrying to say the least.
"So since I am closer to a Tinkerer Core you think I would want a job here?" Ale said pointing around them, a few of the minions were paying attention to their conversation, so Ale didn't outright stated that she was a tinkerer core.
"Might as well tell you right now." [Elder] nodded as he answered, "You would not be the first, and not all the Minion working here are full Tinkerers. The little lazy ass coward brat that you heard right now? He is a Brute Core User for example."
"I am a Strength Buff Type Core user, you old goat!" The Minion in question hollered as a metal pipe came flying towards them. It did not get close to them since an invisible barrier stopped the metal pipe before it got close enough, but that had surprised Ale.
"What he said," [Elder] did not seem to mind the obvious aggression against his person, "So long you can work and fix stuff, you are welcome here."
That was t empting yes, it would mean a safe haven for Ale to experiment and learn about her [Core Powers], it would also let her infiltrate and get to know so many new technologies, her database would greatly beneffit, and that is without even mentioning the fact that by being this close to [Elder] she would be able to take over the whole network with almost no problem.
Not that she would take in the job offer.
"I am leaving for a new mission soon." Ale said sighing in defeat, "If not I would be greatly tempted."
"Ah right, the Aquila mission." [Elder] said facepalming, "Forgot about that, well, don't forget to check on Vulcanus and Lena before leaving."
"I understand why [Vulcanus]," Ale said, nodding and tilting her head slightly to the side, "But why [Eleanore]?"
She didn't see any reason to visit that excuse of an irresponsible woman, she owed her nothing.
"For one, she is the HR representative." [Elder] pointed out, getting a groan from Ale, "And for other... she is a good girl, she doesn't mean for you to suffer or has a grudge against you, even after all that happened."
"... You mean the fact that she fractured Alexa's psyche by her irresponsible comments?" Ale raised a finger as she said that, "Or how she tried to cripple Alexa's [Core] by tying an unbreakable vow to her using her [Core Power]?"
That was a big red flag if Ale had seen one, and she would have succeeded if not for Alexandra and Ale's intervention, which made it even worse in Ale's eyes.
"Or how about the fact that she has a pathological hatred towards the Saintsworths, to be precise Alexanders. Who if you forgot, is Alexa's brother." Ale finished her exposition, "How in the seven planes of hell would it be possible for her to not have it against us?"
"... Fine, but you can't blame an old man for trying to get his kids to play together without bad blood." [Elder] sighed in defeat, "At the very least can you try to understand her?"
"I do understand her," Ale said in an even tone, "She is a bitch who decided to hate someone else because their name, tried to manipulate a five year old innocent little girl and got burnt when it didn't work how she wanted."
Ale had no pity for her, [Eleanore] may be a victim too, but that did not excuse her.
"Her sad past has no meaning or is an excuse for the shit she tried to pull, and if she really couldn't tolerate what she got, she could solve it easily enough. I am sure you know how to solve it too, don't you?" Ale smirked, the solution to the whole damocles sword that Ale had set up to her was quite easy, and if what Ale had found out from the files and logs she had pulled was to be trusted. [Eleanore] wouldn't lose that much.
Her Minion identity, [Cerberus] was not active, she came out from time to time, mostly for diplomatic meetings and what not, but her power was not unique, she was famous because she didn't come out t hat often.
So really, [Haephestus' Forge] would not lose anything if she stopped coming out, she may even be happier if she stopped being affected this much by her Core Power.
"...That is not fair," [Elder] said closing her eyes, "Would you do what you suggest? Would any Core User do it?"
"I am not the one screaming injustice upon the world because the bad decisions I took." Ale answered, "If she really wants to get rid of that, she only needs to stop using her [Core Power] against everyone, actually. An aspect of Alexa's Power could even help her. She only needs to ask Alexa to tweak her Core Power."
"...What?" [Elder] asked, turning quickly to his tablet and punching some buttons on it, the isolation barrier rising up once again, "What?"
"Alexa can interface with Cores to some degree, but you already knew that." Ale said shrugging, "She has done it a few times in public, surrounded by plenty people."
"...She...?" [Elder] started speaking only for his eyes to glaze over and turn motionless, Ale felt the ambient mana shudder for a few seconds only for it to return to normal.
[Isolation barrier deactivated by external force.]
"You won't say..." Ale said nodding, she was getting more and more interested on this phenomena.
"...You were saying kiddo?" [Elder] asked as if the previous conversation hadn't happened, his eyes had shifted back to normal from the sad gaze he had before.
"What were we speaking about?" Ale asked in an innocent tone, "I got distracted by a message Big Sister sent."
"That you are planning to leave for Aquila in your infiltration mission." [Elder] said looking at his tablet and frowning, "...weird."
"What's up?" Ale said intrigued, [Elder] had scribbled something on his tablet before his gaze fully went blank, "Any interesting message?"
"Just an error message, been getting a few of those as of late." [Elder] said shrugging and punching some buttons on the tablet, "So, any plans now that this is done?"
"Not really, will go and do some rounds. Go speak with Vulcanus next I guess." Ale said, checking if this would prompt [Elder] to ask her to check on [Eleanore] too.
"Good," [Elder] said only that, "Do try to gauge if he is willing to let you analyze some of his biological samples, he should still have a few here and there."
...Which it didn't.
"Will do." Ale said as she turned towards the exit, "I'll see you later then?"
"Sooner than you think." [Elder] said waving her away, it probably meant that he would see them go, as this was a long term misison perhaps he would need to prepare some special gear for them?
That or some spares for them, [Golem] didn't need special armor and Big Sister mostly traveled light, Ale could fix her own stuff since she was making it anew with every shift... All she really needed was some of the base material and that one she could store in encapsulated locations across her body.
She did wonder why she no longer had as much access to the [Banked Storage] anymore, but since it was part of Alexa's power, she assumed it had to do with that.
A weird division was made between Ale's powers and Alexa's powers. They were kinda similar, but the division and delimitation was too arbitrary to be a funny hehe-haha from Alexa.
More investigation was needed on that.
Either way, Ale started moving away from the central worktable/workshop and moving towards the exterior, as soon as she left that part of the workshop the walls started going up.
It seemed that [Elder] was going to start working in earnest, "Did you capture the whole thing Main Core?" Ale asked mostly to herself, she didn't really need to speak aloud, but since she was wearing the Minion mask she could probably pass it up as her using the internal communication system.
[Both conversations logged.]
[Stored within different files.]
[Dummy conversation is ready for perusal as needed.]
Ale didn't felt like reliving that whole thing right now, more so since that one was probably something she wouldn't really need to worry about.
Speaking off...
"You are the Minion from before right?" Ale said as she moved closer to a worktable where a buff Minion was working bending some pieces of metal.
She knew they were buff because he was wearing a sleeveless Minion armor, and his arms were almost as thick as Ale's torso. Why was he so buff if he was working in a Tinkerer workshop? Didn't this work require fine movements? How could he even do that with those hands?
"Yeah, name's Teddy." The Minion answered turning to Ale, he was wearing his Minion mask...
But the thing barely covered part of his upper face, and it was not one of those models that looked like googles. This was a normal Minion mask, but it barely covered his nose and part of one of his eyes.
Must...not....laugh.
"Nice to meet you, I am Rhapsody." Ale said, trying to do her best to not laugh at the irrationality of this situation.
[Notice, encounter is being recorded.]
"WHY?!?!?" Ale almost screeched that aloud.
[Mistress desired to record it.]
I mean, yeah, it was hilarious, but even so it was rude... On the other hand.
"...Thank you." Ale thanked Main Core, she could probably find a way to use this... surely.
"I know." The Minion (Teddy) said as he stopped folding... steel? He was folding steel with his bare hands, and somehow he was not leaving imprints of his hands on his current work, "Billy has not stopped parroting about a new shining star that would turn out to be a tinkerer, that's you right?"
"...I guess." Ale said shrugging, "So I was wondering, how much did you hear?"
"You mean before or after the barrier went up?" The Minion said with a smirk on his face... that was not covered by his mask... So he couldn't hide it properly.
"...Yes." Ale answered, was it that bad the isolation barrier?
"It was a good barrier, before you ask." Teddy said as if he understood the implicit question on Ale's silence, "But I helped him set up the barrier projectors, it was a rush job so he didn't had time to hide them up."
"Then, after he set down the barrier and before he put it up again." Ale decided to check on if the change had affected this one too.
"Nothing much, I did wonder why he put it down only to put it up again." Teddy said with a shrug, "I assumed he fat fingered the barrier button and then played it cool by showing it to you, trying to get you to work with us. Was it that the reason?"
"It was not." Ale said shaking her head, "I just wanted to know if someone had heard what he asked me about [Eleanore]."
That was a shame. She had hoped for a bigger sample to know about the limits of these interferences.
"Sorry to disappoint." Teddy shrugged as he picked up his sheet of metal, "If you are going to speak with Cerberus then do me a solid, tell her to eat shit."
The minion silently closed his fist on the sheet of metal, making it almost turn into a ball thanks to his strength.
"... You don't like her?" Ale asked surprised, so far almost everyone had liked her, or at least hold some degree of respect for the woman, which ahd annoyed her.
"I got sent to combat missions because my Core Powers, even though I registered as a non-powered Minion." Teddy answered Ale's question as thus, "I asked for a change to this team because of it, and only got it accepted because they were doing remodelations. Billy decided to accept me as part of the crew when he noticed I was good working with my hands... But if it was for that bitch, then I would be working as a mule, even though I got this power specifically because I wanted the strength to get away from conflicts."
"...Wouldn't a barrier type of Core Power, or a speedster Core Power be better?" Ale couldn't help but ask.
"...Try to negotiate with the monkey paw that gives the powers." Teddy said turning to his workshop, "Not all of us are chosen one that get to pick the power they want."
That... was fair.
"Thank you, if it serves as consolation, she can't use her power as well as before." Ale said as she turned to walk away, "If she bothers you give me a call. I wouldn't mind an excuse to get her into trouble."
And with that, Ale moved away towards the exit. Next stop, Vulcanus.