A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

So, apparently, [Vulcanus] found out about [Vulcanus.exe], nothing too troubling, totally not problematic at all, perfectly normal.

"[No.]" [Vulcanus.exe] said as the machinery around him continued turning on the remaining parts of the things around the office, he did not turn off the isolation barrier though, "[Hermes and The Fallen Angel dropped enough clues that I was unable to screen the data, enough that he suspects something is amiss. The logical threads are believable enough for him to trust the decisions I seeded.]"

"But?" Ale carried on, if he didn't suspect anything, then why did [Vulcanus] want another body?

"[He suspected the pure mechanical body is at fault for his lowered empathic situation.]" [Vulcanus] carried on speaking, showcasing a few videos and images of situations that [Vulcanus] had lived through, among them the original and the highly edited version of what happened when Ale's mission went south.

"Stop." Ale said raising her hand and pointing at one of the monitors, "Rewind it, showcase all the data of that mission, everything that you have on how it went, also broadcast that information to me. Main Core, analyze every bit of data."

[Vulcanus.exe] did as instructed, and started showcasing the scenaries in multiple monitors, from what Ale was seeing, she could notice something particular.

"I am... really busted huh." Ale said as she analyzed what was happening, how she behaved and dealt with the beacon of justice for starters, she had reacted without flustering or worrying.

She had released the eldritch horror and hadn't panicked when it started to speak, her fight against Melissandra Singh was other aspect that was surprising to her.

She knew logically that it hadn't hurt, she had turned off most of the pain receptors or stunt them when that wasn't an option, but even so, seeing the damage on her arm after the weapon was discharged, when she had shot the 120mm bullet.

That made her wince, then of course, the part where Alexandra came out.

"Why is it like that?" Ale asked as the video started glitching, the sound was off and corrupted too, the body of Alexandra wasn't that recognizable, if Ale hadn't know how it had went through, she had guessed it was an hologram or something.

"[Data was corrupted.]" [Vulcanus.exe] said opening an error log, he had apparently manually reconstructed the data from other sensors that hadn't been affected, "[The Mana phenomena made it impossible to recover, if not because I went physically to recover you, then I would have suspected someone had tampered the data manually, but the only people available when I arrived had no such abilities.]"

Ale nodded and continued watching the video, the scene when Alexandra teleported her away, and then how the head of Melissandra disappeared without much fanfare.

Ale nodded, that girl probably didn't deserve it, many people would say that, but not Ale. She deserved so much worse, the fact that she had some sad sappy backstory didn't matter to Ale.

Melissandra Singh had turned hostile and was partially responsable for what happened to Alexandra. So she was going to be put down, one way or another.

The video remained motionless as the static blob that was Alexandra stopped moving and laid down on the ground (Or fall to the ground? Ale was unsure about what had happened).

Then after sometime two people arrived there, the first being Gabriel - The Fallen Angel, and the other [Vulcanus...exe]. The first one it was not that weird considering he was a teleporter, and Ale had sent the little girl to search for him.

She hoped he would have arrived sooner, his reaction and how he moved closer to the static blob showed that Alexandra's condition was already beyond the point of hope. Not that it surprised Ale, since she already knew what fate had befallen her.

The next arrival was what surprised her, as far as she was concerned, [Vulcanus] and [Vulcanus.exe] should not be able to do what he did, but somehow, he teleported?

"How?" Ale said as she paused the video, "Your thing are machines, are they not?"

At least that was what she had guessed.

"[That is an application of a sub core we made.]" [Vulcanus.exe] answered as he opened part of his front armor, showing his innards, which were mostly machinery and a few crystals embedded into where his lungs and heart should be, "[It is an experiment sponsored by Lady Sapphire to try and create a stable connection to the source of Mana.]"

"The source?" Ale said confused, "...The ND0 System?"

"[Unknown.]" [Vulcanus.exe] answered as he pointed to one of the crystals embedded into his chest, "[We are calling it the information dimension, a way to interpret the data stored within the Mana. I did not teleport myself, more like I reconstructed a body on that side using the mana as a way to relay the information needed for that. As you can see, I pulled at the mechanical components to lower the expenses of this action.]"

[Vulcanus.exe] rewound the video and sure enough, he had indeed ripped apart parts of the machinery in the room before his body finally took form. That sounded expensive mana-wise.

"[Only someone with the prowess of Master could fully teleport himself using the mana stored within the information dimension.]" And [Vulcanus.exe] continued his example as the video was forwarded, Ale didn't mind it that much as it was a fight between Gabriel and [Vulcanus], but the part where Alexanders teleported into the room like nothing annoyed her. "[As you can see, Master turned himself into pure Mana, traversed the information dimension and arrived there. That is a feat I can't emulate, and true teleportation without having a Space Core or a Teleportation Core Power.]"

"He probably cheated." Ale said grumbling, the fact that the asshole could do that annoyed Ale. "Oh, the image cleared."

Ale said as the static blob that had been Alexandra cleared.

"[As Master arrived, he cleansed most of the interference and allowed better recording to be made, he also ensured that the body you discarded was not your main one.]" [Vulcanus.exe] said as the video showed Alexanders doing all kind of scans and analiyzis to the body of Alexandra, unlike [Vulcanus.exe], Alexanders didn't seem to treat roughly that body.

So the blonde man was getting some points going his way, while Ale was debating if she needed to try and test her 120mm arm cannon on her current boss or not. And the consequences of doing so.

"[Master confirmed that you were alive, and took charge of the body to prevent any data of you to escape.]" [Vulcanus.exe] stopped the video from continuing playing, "[What follows is mostly us dealing with the situation and cleaning the area, all mentions of you and Master were purged. Gabriel Light - The Fallen Angel- complained, but he was silenced when the information of your survival spread.]"

"You told them?" Ale said, confused, she had gotten the impression that no one knew she survived till Miriam Eversoul made that call.

"[No.]" [Vulcanus.exe] squashed those thoughts in one go, "[The information of your survival was brought by Hermes. He believed that since Cerberus was still bound by the oath, that meant you had survived.]"

Oh... That thing... Right, it was done and bound [Eleanore] to Ale's commands, so if it still worked it meant that Ale was alive?

But, wasn't that wistful thinking?

"[Had I not been told by Master that you were alive, I would have not believed it. But since I was aware of your survival, then I decided to not allow said information to spread.]" [Vulcanus.exe] carried on with his explanation of the situation there, "[As thus I sent The Fallen Angel on a long-term mission, he will start phase three soon.]"

Wasn't he coming back? [Elder] had implied that he was coming back.

But [Vulcanus.exe] was telling her that was not the case. So would Ale be able to see him before leaving? If he was starting phase three of whatever mission was that [vulcanus.exe] sent him away on, then probably not.

"Then, will you take one of the bodies that Alexanders is making for the purple woman?" Ale... would not be sure how to react to that, that would imply that [Vulcanus.exe] was female, but she knew that Vulcanus itself was male, or at least it was implied that he was male.

They used male pronouns with him, and his body was modeled after a male-ish form? It was somewhat androgynous, but it still resembled more of a male body .Kinda? If not male body it would be a very flat adult woman body, but even the flattest still had something going for them, right?

Ale without knowing looked down at her chest, and decided to not think too much on that, she had the ability to make synthetic flesh now, making fat and skin was easy enough, she could experiment and find out how to achieve those soon enough.

And if she couldn't then who cares, she was able to change her body into machines and then back, if she modified her mechanical body and then changed back to a normal flesh body, the changes should reflect...

No wait, that could become an issue if her body was damaged, then she would end up with wounds... But on the other hand, if she had a grievous wound, changing to a machine could allow her to survive.

But no wait, hadn't main core said it before? So long her [Main Core] survived, she was impossible to kill...

"Damned hell." Ale cursed under her breath, more experiments would be needed, first she would need to check if the wounds and state of her flesh body afected the mechanical body and then the other way around.

"[I will not use one of those bodies.]" [Vulcanus.exe] answered her previous question, she almost had forgotten what she had asked, "[Those bodies are incompatible with me, and even if they were, they are designed to house Lady Sapphire. Someone as lowly as this one is unable to wear them.]"

"Unable to wear them?" Ale was surprised at that, "Are you telling me that Alexanders made cloned bodies that can only be used by his AI Girlfriend? Talk about weirdly focused achievements."

That was, a waste to say the least.

"[Nothing like that. Master's creations can be used by others, be it by swapping the Consciousness Stream from one body to the next or by inserting other highly advanced AI into them.]" [Vulcanus.exe] corrected Ale, even if that made her more confused, "[I am not compatible with those since my existence is bound to the machine, I can only inhabit bodies that are machines or machine adjacent, and those are closer to biological than machine.]"

"The vat-raised bodies genetically engineered and made out of biomass are closer to a biological being for your tastes?" Ale was flabbergasted by that, "Then your other half can use them?"

"[Unkown.]" [Vulcanus.exe] said shaking his head, "[I can't modify his thread of thought towards that as he would not find logical to seek help from the Saintsworths.]"

"Bummer." Ale said with a shrug, "Though luck for my boss huh."

"[There is still hope for him.]" [Vulcanus.exe] raised his right hand and pointed at Ale, "[Should he get a boon from you Lady Ale, then he could achieve what he desires.]"

A boon from Ale?

"What can I do?" Ale was confused, "I am not into raising biological clones, my thing seems more oriented towards the machine than the biological, unless you want Alexa to make him a new body?"

Alexa could probably pull it off, Ale didn't doubt that, but she was not sure if that would be wise, last time ended with... well, it was somewhat of a mess when they remodeled Alan Harmonia and Gloria Blackthorn.

"[Your newest development.]" [Vulcanus.exe] said pointing at one of the screens behind him, that one showcased the data that [Elder] had updated, "[This here mentions you developed a way to emulate flesh via synthetic way, it has a description implying that this could be developed as a way to fix damage caused by bad triggers.]"

[Elder] probably added that since he guessed what Ale wanted to achieve with this, that is, to help [Golem] as she had promised to do before.

"[This one is probably an attempt to make my other half take interest into this and splurge money to develope a way to create an artificial body like master is doing.]" [Vulcanus.exe] turned to stare at Ale, "[But that works for our purpose, if you manage to create a viable body with this, I may be able to move there.]"

"...You?" Ale was surprised by that statement, she had assumed that [Vulcanus.exe] didn't want to leave the mechanical body, "Not your other half?"

"[I personally don't want a flesh body, it is inneficient and it is of my opinion that it will only downgrade my abilities.]" [Vulcanus.exe] almost said that bit with distaste, which was an achievement in itself since the machine spoke in an even mechanical voice, "[But Lady Sapphire and Master seem to think that the biological body is superior, so as their loyal servant is only right for me to strive to do like them.]"

"Amm... My whole thing seems to be turning into embracing the mechanical tho." Ale said tilting her head, "Wouldn't that mean that I am going against them? Are you okay with that?"

"[You are a Saintsworths Lady Ale, your esteemed self can do whatever she wishes.]" [Vulcanus.exe] could say the weirdest, more embarrassing things like nothing it seems, "[I suspect that if we attempt to move the Consciousness Stream from my Core, it will be my weaker self that will be left behind. As thus, moving myself ahead of time should be the only way for me to survive.]"

Oh...

So he was aware that [Vulcanus] was the actual owner of the body, then did he think of himself as a copy? A clone? An imposter? That... was kinda sad actually.

"I am sure we can find a way to save you if [Vulcanus] moves away from the body." Ale said reassuringly.

"[That is no issue, my AI Personality is backed up in an insolated server via relayed data transmissions at irregular intervals.]" [Vulcanus.exe] dismised Ale's worry, "[Him leaving this body will not impede or damage me, at best it will remove my ability to use his Core Power.]"

Ah... He just didn't want to lose the abilities he had earned from sharing a body with [Vulcanus]. Man, that was... he was evil...? Bad...? Ale was not sure what to think at the moment.

"Okay... Well... I'll... see about if it is possible to get you a body then...?" Ale said making a note about thinking about this, perhaps she could ask Alexanders or the purple woman on it? She doubted they would be helpful since to them [Vulcanus] was probably a sidenote.

Perhaps she could ask [Elder]? But if he found out that moving [Vulcanus] to a living body was possible and that she could get the mechanical side to accept then wouldn't they want her to set a trap?

Ale... didn't have that much of a problem with the mechanical side of [Vulcanus], she liked both of them, so if it was for Ale, she would rather both survive.

But was that even possible at this point in time?

The human side didn't know about his other half.

The mechanical side didn't even consider the human side, if anything it was actively impairing it.

Ale just wanted to chill, play games, stream, and enjoy some time off, why did she need to deal with these kinds of things? Perhaps she could leave it to Alexa?

....That was probably the worst possible option of the bunch, Alexa would either mesh the two together, or make two bodies, one for each, then split them by the half and stick each body with a half.

Now if each half was Vulcanus and [Vulcanus.exe]? Well, that was anyone's guess. So no, leaving it to Alexa would be a last option.