There may have been people who claimed that he was a monster, some even claimed that he was a Dragon or something ridiculous like that, Alexanders still was somewhat baffled at the fact that those fears even manifested in that weird doppelganger that The Scrambler conjured.

As far as his investigations on his own body came, there hadn't been any changes to himself after the event, his body was still the same to the last strand of DNA…At least the current updated version, his own body was somewhat different than the one he had been born with, but these changes came after his Core Triggering.

But then again, it was to be expected some change after such an event, the Human Body wasn't designed to discharge and absorb electricity like he was capable of, so some changes were expected and even welcomed.

He didn't want to burn his own nerve endings whenever he used his powers, he wasn't a masochist.

But that was beside the point, so, through his life, he had made many things, from the first time he built an ICBM for his science fair (It was more like a very powerful firework if he was to be honest, but since it exploded and could travel to other continents, it did qualify as an ICBM). To some, perhaps dubious experiments on life.

He did make a couple AI Singularities…Also, his experiments with the P-series test subjects weren't precisely…Humane, not that it mattered that much since by definition those test subjects weren't human…or alive.

At least not when they started anyway, some of those would qualify as living entities when he was done with them, he was at least sure that some organizations that preached that animals had the same rights as humans would hate him… Even with his very generous donations.

But even like that, he would never say that he had made a mistake. He knew that some of the things that he made would qualify as a Villain, hell, even a SuperVillain or a BBEG(Big Bad Evil Guy) couldn't be out of the question.

But if someone was to ever ask him what was the thing that he regretted doing…He wasn't sure what it would have been, was it funding a war between two city-states?

Was it not being honest about his personal project of a city-ship? About how many people could it host while being constructed? Was it the true identity of the meat he provided for those food banks?

Was it the fact that he got money from selling weapons to both sides of the same war?

"Look! Look! They have a sale! We have to go!" No, it wouldn't be any of those, "Come on handsome! You aren't planning on leaving me go alone are you? Don't you worry that someone will steal your lovely girlfriend?"

No, what he regretted the most right now was this. He…really shouldn't have said a thing before.

"I'm coming Sapphire," How did he end up doing this?

"Then let's go!" The purple-haired girl said smiling brightly at him, her eyes instead of a normal pupil had a pair of stars, and the iris while being purple seemed to be dotted with its own universe. As if that was the most normal thing to have.

There were two good things, however, first. Thanks to the advent of Core Users, it was quite normal to find people with weird body changes, from modified bodies, such as animal ears (cat, dog, fox, bunny….weirdly enough, elephant or less aesthetic-looking body parts weren't common), weird hair color (Like purple such as Sapphire).

And secondly.

"Who is going to even try to steal you? I bought the whole shopping mall and no one is here besides us and paid actors, they know better than try to flirt with you." Alexanders sighed in defeat as he was being pulled towards the clothing store that had piqued Sapphire's fancy.

The people that walked around them very carefully let them move towards their goal, they moved naturally to let them pass. People pretended to be having fun and talking among themselves, but really, most of the conversations had been curated to create the right atmosphere for a date.

Even the restaurants and people there were part of this whole ordeal.

"Ah come on, even if they are fake we can enjoy this!" Sapphire said doing a small spin and extending her arms to the sky, "Imagine! Me! Enjoying a day like this! Isn't it wonderful? Being alive that is!"

The purple-haired girl said while spinning more and more while laughing; it was a good thing that Alexanders had paid for the whole thing.

Even while doing that the people moved out of the way, some people even turned to look at him, a small shake of his head was all it took and they moved away.

If Sapphire wanted, she could even start singing and the people would join in, music and choreography included, Alexanders knew the girl loved this type of thing, he was aware of what type of media she consumed.

But for now it seemed as if the girl was happy to merely move from store to store testing clothing and playing dressing up herself, Alexanders and some of the staff members.

The girl really didn't know restraint, that was why Alexanders had bought the whole thing. Even he didn't want to waste time in lawsuits when someone was offended by Sapphire playing dress up with them…if they weren't informed beforehand, that is.

So….how did he end up with his now not-so-fake AI-Girlfriend in a shopping mall? Surrounded by actors, dancers, musicians dressed up as civilians?

Well….

It all started a normal average morning……

"Alexanders! Love! Wake up!" Sapphire started blasting her voice over the speaker system within the dormitory.

The girl had started taking a more proactive role recently, was it Alexanders fault for not setting up boundaries? Perhaps, but this one was the only one he couldn't get rid of, so it worked for him.

"Five more minutes…." Alexanders said groggily as he pointed his hand towards the alarm clock and a lightning spark flew from his finger towards the poor clock.

It was already toasted from repeated lightning strikes, so it didn't work anymore, but Alexanders had discovered that removing it just made his half-sleep self destroy more valuable parts of his dormitory, so he merely resigned to have a burnt clock on his nightstand.

"We did it! We managed to cultivate one!" Sapphire's voice sounded excited about something.

So Alexanders pulled out of his blanket and looked around; sure enough, there was a very energetic-looking Sapphire jumping around his bedroom. Of course, it was a hologram; the projection didn't bother with the furniture and merely walked straight through it while moving all over the place.

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"What did we grow?" Alexanders asked while sitting up and trying to make memories of the recent experiments on agriculture.

As far as he remembered there wasn't anything important on the agriculture front, there was one experiment on attempting to get hydroponics to work with less space and a more automated setting for a space station module, but that one hadn't finished testing quite yet, so it shouldn't be what Sapphire was speaking about.

"This! Look!" Sapphire said, pointing to his TV and hijacking the device signal. "You did it! You were right!"

On the TV there was the image of a….human-looking person, well, it looked humanoid enough anyway.

It didn't have any hair on its body; if anything, it seemed to look more like a mannequin than a human; its eyes were closed, and it was submerged in a green liquid.

"Well, that is disturbing," Alexanders said trying to make up what the deal with that was, "Not like we hadn't managed that one before, it is how we developed the P9 series, isn't it?"

Alexanders was confused; this wasn't enough to make a fuss; of course, the first time they managed to create one of those bodies, there had been a whole party and whatnot, and they would rule the organ donor market…

At least till they noticed the bodies degraded without a P9 core clone, and with one the whole thing always ended like one of the deranged splits offs, not useful for the intended purpose, and those always turned crazy after the two-month mark, so they weren't viable for anything but disposable assassins and terrorists.

With the added hassle of having to train and indoctrinate them for a month…It was easier to seed their AI Core with the mission and let them go, unstable as they were. It was cheaper.

But this?

"What's the deal with this one? Don't most of the P9 slave-clones always end up more…female? Why does this look so androgynous?" Alexanders said, standing up and walking to the TV; zooming out the image, he indeed found something quite peculiar, "No secondary sexual organs? Did P9 end up with another crisis of identity?"

"Tut-tut-tut, this isn't a P9-based body!" Sapphire said, smiling widely at him, "This one was made using the theories you got about your sister!"

Sister? Alexanders didn't….Ah…right…

"Alexa?" Alexanders had Alexa, right? Being half asleep always made him forget important things. Of course, he had a sister, Alexa Saintsworths, his TWIN SISTER. "The theories? About how she managed to get a stable body going? Wasn't that an Alexa thing?"

"Are you still asleep?" Sapphire asked confused, "You had this whole manic attack about her body being too normal for one made with Nanites and about how it would even work…were you drinking again? I told you that you just can't tolerate alcohol and beer…"

"I didn't drink," Alexanders said, "I loathe drinking, beer, and everything that stands behind that; if not for making the heathens easier to deal with, I would straight up prohibit alcoholic beverages."

Alexanders loathed very few things, being told he was a dragon, being told he was Lucky, drunk people, the idea of willingly drinking something that would destroy your own cognitive prowess? It was madness, true madness.

"So Alexa's body…this stupid Tinker twitch…." Alexanders grumbled, it was one of the things he hated of having Core Powers, the Lightning was useful, and having a body stronger just for the fact of being able to take in Mana was useful yes, but the side effects of the Cores… Yeah, he would need to deal with that, "What did I even do this time? Sapphire, play the recording I guess…You did record it, right?"

"Of course I did! You look so handsome while going on the whole Evil CEO persona!" Sapphire said while giggling and opened a small window with Alexanders raving and writing something on the computer.

"Hmm….So, not using an AI Core to direct the growth of the Nanite-made flesh, but using Nanites to grow independent flesh?" Alexanders said as he saw the video play out, his less….normal self had been going on tirades about the inefficiency of tying Nanites to the molecules that made a body and why doing so made the flesh unstable and prone to turn into dust, "Man, that version of me is smart. So Alexa either grew her body by using this method…or used Core Power shenanigans."

"Core Power shenanigans?" Sapphire asked.

"You know how they are, there is no logical reason for me being able to store and generate lightning, and being able to do so doesn't mean I should be able to interact with electro magnetic waves like I do," Alexanders had found in the memories of his dragon-self ways to interact with magnetism and electromagnetic waves, and testing those methods he had managed to create the [Railgun] technique.

It made no sense whatsoever, but it worked.

"If Alexa's Core is to blame, then it makes sense that her body works like it does. But the cost would be too expensive, and there are the updates from Vulcanus saying that she changes into multiple forms with little effort. The Mana expenditure would be too big." Alexanders said shaking his head.

"Unless she isn't making a special body, this one for example is barely above average. If anything, you are in better form, and you rarely exercise nowadays!" Sapphire said, pointing to the image on the TV again.

"I have been working. Besides; I still do at least one hour of exercise each morning." Alexanders grumbled, "Anyway, what's the deal with that then?"

"Well, like I said, we followed your new plan and built up the flesh using biomass and directing the growth; the origin of the fleshy bits is Nanite-made, but since we grew ordinary flesh from there. The whole body ended up being normal. It doesn't have any enhancement or increased density." Sapphire said pulling up statistics and placing them side by side, "And when we removed the AI Core the body didn't disintegrate, it has brain damage and it needs a respirator to live. But since the original AI Core isn't attached to it, we could probably use the organs…Not that it would be useful for anything else besides an organ factory."

Alexanders saw that same note and nodded, the brain was…not dead, but there wasn't any activity. If anything, it was closer to being in a coma…Some of the normal functions were there, and there was a note added at the end from Kellet that said that without a mind piloting the body, this experiment would end up as a dead end.

"And of course Kellet is already complaining that we are wasting time…and asking permission to experiment with genetic therapy on these bodies?" Alexanders smiled at the complaint at the end.

"...No cheating, you know Vivian Kellet is a bad influence. Half her experiments are the reason for the rumors about you being a secret supervillain." Sapphire grumbled, "...I know you have needs and whatnot….And that I can't…fulfill them…"

….Had he stepped in a landmine?

"You know we aren't like that, Kellet would probably date Eversoul before me." Alexanders said, shaking his head, "Besides, she already decided this project is done; if I were to date someone, it would be someone who can see the true merit of this."

"True merit? Isn't it for the biomedical field? Cheaper organs and whatnot?" Sapphire asked as her eyes flashed with numbers, the girl was probably searching his notes for the answer, but he hadn't written it quite yet.

"Remember what Kellet said?" Alexanders said, smiling at the silly AI, "These are useless without a mind."

"So…? Are you planning to make a Mind-type Core User to build one? Not even one of the A-List could manage it, the only one that could probably pull it off would be someone like The Scrambler, but that one…" Sapphire said, shaking her head, "It would be better if you didn't try to recruit him…again."

"Nah, I can only be rejected so many times, besides after last time? Nope, not going to try and recruit him. I can excuse him turning my messenger into…that, but he attempted to twist my mind. That I will not excuse." Alexanders had sent a disposable messenger so that was fine, but when he summoned…[That] to attempt and replace him? That was too much, "No, we will not be making new minds for these."

Really, that was a little too close to the terrain of supervillains from Sunday animes. He didn't need to make those, he already had a way to enclose something similar to minds anyway.

"We only need to put a mind in these," Alexanders said, pulling out his cellphone from the nightstand. "And Alexa already showed us that it is possible. At least with these anyway."

He pulled out the correct file and turned the phone to Sapphire. The girl had already scanned and read the data, but he still did so, and he liked these interactions.

"....you don't….but….would it work…?" Sapphire was stunned, so Alexanders declared that a win.

"Only one way to find out, we will need to install a few extras, like a high-speed quantum relay to this Core…And some safeguards that will allow you to slow down your processing speed….just in case." Alexanders said the last part slowly, he knew that it could come out…wrong.

"..." Sapphire was quite stunned, her holographic projection wasn't moving, not even the fake breathing and blinking that Sapphire did, she never quite installed a subroutine to do it, since she liked to do it manually since that way it was more 'natural' according to her.

"Sapphire?" Alexanders said, turning to his personal computer, the one place that was the closest thing to Sapphire's body in this room. Since she used that as a relay to project herself into his apartment. "A human body can't process the amount of data that you do; I know that you like to partition your positronic brain, all so you can speak in real-time with me…"

"....I'll….I'll feel Human?" Sapphire's voice sounded mechanical, perhaps it had affected her more than he expected?

"Only if you want, we can adjust it so only a partitioned part of you inhabits the body, but you may have a harder tim-" Alexanders didn't really like that option since it would be beside the point of the experiment.

"No!" Sapphire's holographic body reappeared in front of him, he could feel the one behind him fizzle out as soon as the new one manifested, "No…please…I…I don't think the split would ever want to return…If…if we do it, I want to fully be there…I'll convince CARDINAL, CRADDLE, ALBIREO, ISKANDER and the others to cover for me, please?"

"Of course," Alexanders knew that Sapphire liked to act as if the other artificial intelligences were as sentient as her, when in reality all she needed to do was file the order and wait for his approval, the other artificial intelligence would comply, "You can ask your sisters and tell them, if all goes well we could even assign some bodies to them if you want?"

That was a whole other thing, if this went well…Would the other AIs develop their own sapience? Sentience? Would they end up like Alexa?

Or would they end like Sapphire? Alexanders didn't know. What he knew for sure was that if Eversoul ever found about this experiment, the woman would have an aneurysm and probably tell him that he was playing with forces beyond a mortal's right to tamper.

Should those develop the same degree of sapience that Sapphire showed, would they even be artificial?

"Oh! That isn't a bad idea!" Sapphire nodded as she stared into the void and giggled while sending data packs to the main Saintsworths server; the data would probably travel around the world to all the other AIs that Alexanders had set up.

To the geocentric orbit where ALBIREO served as overwatch.

To the depths of the ocean where ISKANDER awaited to be called upon.

To the Saintsworths central spire, where CRADDLE monitored all the schools under his emblem.

And finally to the city being built right now that housed his most recent addition to the AI Sisters, CARDINAL STAR SYSTEM. The project that was previously AQUILA.

"Okay, I'm ready…" Sapphire said, closing her eyes and nodding. "Let's go on a date."

….Oh right…Sapphire would have a body…A physical body…

The girl who sexually harassed him daily…and sent lecherous looks at him…Was…was this a good idea? Perhaps he could start with one of the other ones first?

What would Alexa say right now? Ah right…

Dang it.

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