All that starts well ends well!

Did we get them all?

Core:

Termination of external nanites confirmed.

Do you wish to replace the lost swarm? Y/N

Yes Alexa does!

Alexa had felt a targeted Mana Wave thrown at her Nanites that had remained within Alan, the things seemed to have enough Mana from Alexa to survive a few minutes more, Alexa had planned to recover them later, but Alan not only jumped away but also started looking inside, somehow.

She didn't know [Humans] could do that.

"So? What's with the hair then?" Glory asked once again to Alan; he was now wearing blue hair instead of his normal black hair, the same as his eyes. Had the [Core] altered that much?

"What about it?" Alan asked back, passing a hand through his hair, "It's normal? It is now a few centimeters shorter than it was before, the follicles are healthy, and it retains his….wait, why do I know how long it is? And the properties…and…Why the hell is it blue?"

Alan then suddenly grabbed a strand of hair and pulled at it; Alexa didn't notice any resistance as the strand of hair was removed from his head as if nothing.

"Huh…that was easy…." Alan said as he turned his eyes to the strand of hair in his fingers, "....Blue?"

"Blue," Alexa said nodding, what? It was blue! And Alexa hadn't done that!

"Blue, like how your parents wanted." Glory said nodding, "Alexa said that she didn't…so….did you really….Trigger a Core?"

Yes, Alexa knew for sure, her readings also confirmed it! And she really wanted an update on that; she had some files transmitted to her from the nanites that had remained and survived the creation of the [Core], of course. That was interesting too, she could recieve data from them so long they retained some of her Mana…

What was the difference between her Mk1 Nanites and the others? Was that how P4 had managed to make that weird thing that had been stuck to teach before? When the original Meli-Meli incident?

She needed more data! Moreeee dataaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

"....Yes….Somehow," Alan said, closing his eyes, "Let me….if this works…..maybe?"

Alan said raising his left hand to the ceiling and snapped his fingers, as he did so a wave of color struck his hair and….it turned black again, "....Didn't think that would work…why did that work?" Alan was as surprised as them it seems, as he opened his eyes they were now once again black.

"So you are a shapeshifter now too?" Glory asked turning to Alan and looking him from feet to head, "Is it because Alexa somehow triggered your Core? I guess that is fine in itself, your family wanted a Core focused towards the body…mine will probably riot if I get that though. Mother was very nitpicky with my appearance…"

"Not quite…" Alan said, shaking his head, "I don't think I am a Shapeshifter…Alexa? How do you change yourself into someone else? You said something about blueprints…but how do you get them?"

How? Alexa just….takes a sample, reads it, downloads the DNA data into her database, runs it through some modeling, creates a virtual machine to make sure everything is in order, and then executes it?

How does one explain that?

"Alexa takes a sample, deconstructs the information in her head, then change the thingies till they match the data?" Alexa said thinking on it or a few seconds, "Alexa needs to make sure the Blueprint is viable and will work, so she usually only changes form into things she knows will work and not make problems for her, like…I can turn my hand into metal blades, but I need to make sure I can compensate and isolate the parts beforehand. Like…If Alexa wants to pull a sword from her tummy, she needs to make it around her stomach and intestines. Make sure they are safe before actually making it."

Alexa was not sure if she was explaining that right.

"So…you need to fully understand what you are shifting into before, right?" Alan asked as if to make sure, "So if I do this…"

Alan took a step forward to Alexa and poked her in the arm with his finger. She did notice his finger had pulled some of her skin, but she took that opportunity to take a sample of him too, so they were equal!

"Hmm…..yeah, I don't get it." Alan said shaking his head as he looked at the finger he used to poke her, "I know that it's dead cells and all of that, but…I don't know how you get data from this."

Well, Alexa didn't get data from that; Core did!

"No, can you help me discover what this thing in my chest does?" Alan said, turning to Alexa, "Without shoving something in my throat if possible."

….tch….

"To the experimentation table!" Alexa said raising her finger to the ceiling, "And by that Alexa means that Alan needs to lay on the floor."

"Yes yes…" Alan said letting himself fall…..

"How are you doing that?" Glory asked as they saw Alan slowly fall to the floor, as his body was slowly going from 90º to 80º…to 50º…to 30º…..He was quite literally slowly falling to the ground.

"I…have no idea." Alan said as his back finally touched the floor, "I just thought about not wanting to hurt my back by letting myself fall onto the floor, so made my knees extra strong?"

Alexa guessed as much, but to see it in action…it was weird, Alan was weird, his body was weird. And that was coming from Alexa who could also do that (But unlike Alan, she could make it look cute!)

"No wiggles?" Alexa said, placing her hand on Alan's chest.

"No wiggles," Alan said shaking his head.

That was boring, but Alexa would refrain from using the wiggles….

Instead, she sank tendrils ultra-thin surrounded by pieces of her own flesh to hide the Nanites within; she didn't want to quite use the Nanites in the open just yet…not till she knew for sure.

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"....Alexa? What the hell? Are…are you sending your veins inside my body?" Alan asked, looking at Alexa weirdly.

"You can sense them?" Alexa asked turning to look at Alan, surprise on her face, he should not be able to see them, these were almost a micrometer thin!

"I mean…you just shoved them…no wait….how am I even seeing them? They look like….they are thinner than my hair…roughly….oh god, I didn't need to know that….are….are you wrapping them around my lungs? Why are you sneaking them around my lungs?" Alan asked as his face seemed to want to turn green, but somehow he was controlling it so as not to puke.

Why did he want to puke? Alexa was not doing anything that would make someone puke!

"Because I don't know how much of my [Core Powers] I can use? Besides, your [Core Power] seems too weird. You shouldn't be able to see my tendrils without a way to monitor them inside your body. But Alexa doesn't see anything of the like." Alexa said shaking her head, she hadn't found any [Nanite] yet, so how was he even seeing that?

Alexa had already arrived at the [Core] and the thing was pulsing waves of Mana…that returned? Was this a sonar? A mana sonar?

"....well….that is a horrifying thought….is this how it looks when you take those samples you say?" Alan asked, shuddering, "Every time?"

What was Alexa supposed to say?

"I mean….yes?" Alexa said confused, "Alexa just takes a tiny-itty-bit and squirrels it away while deconstructing it? Do you want me to do that inside you?"

"No!" Alan screamed as Alexa felt his body tense, she half thought that he was going to jump away so she prepared the trigger for self-destruction of her Nanites, but in the end Alan didn't jump away, "No, I just….okay….here, decompose this."

The what?

Or so Alexa thought when a cell came around and stood in front of her main tendril, it was…an antibody? It looked like an antigen cell.

"But isn't that for dealing with the sick?" Alexa asked as her tendrils darted around the thing poking it here and there.

"Yes, I just need to see how you go about it." Alan said, clenching his fists, "Quick, this is taking quite the mental toll on me."

Weird…

Alan was being weird, but who was Alexa to judge, so she sent her tendrils to the thing, enveloping the white cell and slowly and methodically ripping it apart and sending the pieces insinde her tendrils.

Before that, of course, she had remodeled the inside, making a sort of conveyor belt-like one with smaller tendrils inside them, and she made sure to remove any and all [Nanite] from the interior. Right now those tendrils only worked to shove the pieces of the cell inside Alexa's body.

"......ugh…….I feel like puking…." Alan said once again.

Why? It was a white cell, he had millions of trillions of those right now, heck, this was probably one of the most common ones! And besides, they didn't have nerve sensors! They didn't feel a thing!

"Okay…that….that was a horrifying experience, but I somewhat got the gist of it." Alan said gulping hard, "Okay….yes….No way in hell I can do that; how do you even, the micromanagement of it? I lost sight of the things you ate like a few centimeters in of those tendrils."

So he did know what was happening inside her tendrils! At least when some of his cells were around anyway…So that meant….No wait, was it because of the mana fields then? Alexa had noticed that the mana field around the cell parts had dissipated halfway inside her tendrils…

"Okay….do you need something else? Or how can I help you understand what my Core does?" Alan asked, he seemed to be forcing himself at this point if Alexa was to be honest.

"...Can you splinter a piece of your [Core]?" Alexa decided to ask; she couldn't take a piece without using some of her [Nanites], but if he saw them….

"....I mean, I think?" Alan said, closing his eyes, "....Yes, I think I can….something tells me this will hurt like a bitch. Are you sure you need it?"

What was a bitch?

"Yes," Alexa said, she had gotten some [Blueprints] from [Golem]'s [Core Fragment] after all. So she was sure she could identify what Alan's [Core] was.

"....okay….Glory, could you cover your ears?" Alan suddenly said.

"...I already heard you swear, but fine." Glory said, placing her hands atop her ears.

"At one…at two…At….three…." Alan said and Alexa felt the Mana within him change and move, "At four…at five….at…."

She noticed how it seemed to change forms, from a saw into a knife, from a knife into a hammer, from a hammer into a screwdriver…finally turning into what looked like a pickaxe. She was wondering how that even worked, but before she could ask, she saw the pickaxe strike at the [Core].

"MOTHERFUCKER SON OF A BITCH WHORE WHO FUCKS DONKEYS IN THE ALLEYWAY OUTSIDE A CHURCH WHILE A PRIEST MOLESTS CHILDREN AT TWELVE O'CLOCK!" What?

Alexa wasn't sure what Alan had said or how that was relevant to the [Core Fragment], but what she knew was that there was now a quite sizeable piece of [Core Fragment] floating around inside Alan's chest, it was roughly a third of the [Core]...

And she could see how the [Mana] within the site was rushing to mend the cracked [Core], it was even already growing back to normal.

"....at least it is fixing itself…I dreaded having to do that….there….grab it…before….I decide to….stick it back…" Alan said between breaths, did it hurt that much? Because he didn't scream in pain.

He did scream weird words, though.

Alexa decided to extend one of her tendrils towards the [Core Fragment] and noticed how there seemed to be a mana field all the time around the thing…No way in hell to get one of her [Nanites] close to it without Alan seeing it now…

Wait…

"Core? Can you like….get the blueprints without Alexa poking that thing with her Nanites?" Alexa decided to ask, when one didn't know, they needed to ask someone who knew after all.

Core:

Acknowledged.

And there, the [Core Fragment] shone in blue light before disappearing, neat.

"......Oh….now that, that is how I imagined using Core Powers would look…." Alan said, nodding tiredly, "Sorry….Can't….focus…..too much…..tired…"

And after saying that, Alexa saw something quite…worrying, all inside Alan white cells surged all around and went straight towards Alexa's tendrils. They destroyed and ravaged everything that they saw, and if Alexa hadn't removed her [Nanites]...

"Yeah….that…..that is scary," Alexa said removing her hand, she had needed to cut the connection to her tendrils, and left around five centimeters of them growing outside Alan's body.

Since these didn't have any [Nanites] inside, she couldn't see, but she could guess what had happened to the extra five centimeters of tendrils.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Alan said tiredly as he raised his torso and remained sitting on the floor, "So, what's the verdict doc? Will I be cool?"

Core?

Core: Blueprint acquired: [Body Core]

Well, that was….lackluster? But Alexa could see how that worked.

"You have a [Body Core]," Alexa said reading the name of the [Blueprint], "After seeing what happened, Alexa guesses that you have full control over your [Body], that is probably how you changed your hair color and eye color."

"Wait, so he…can control his body? That's his power?" Glory said from the side, "That's….lackluster."

What was Glory speaking about?

"That is one of the most dangerous [Core Powers] that Alexa has seen," Alexa said shaking her head, "With training, Alan could probably pass as a [Shapeshifter] and [Beast Core] with some training."

"But you said that his core power was controlling his body? How could that work?" Glory said confused.

Was….was she dumber than Alexa had thought before? Or was there some bias in the information at play?

"I'm with Glory on that, Alexa; explain," Alan said, turning to Alexa, but now that Alexa knew the full…or the theoretical limit of Alan, she now knew that she needed to phrase this well.

"In a nutshell," Alexa said, standing up, "This is Alan as of now."

Alexa said and did a twirl, as she finished her twirl she now looked exactly like Alan.

".....You look good in a skirt." Glory said smirking.

"Thank you!" Alexa said, compliments were nice, even if Alexa always looked nice in skirts. "As I was saying, Alan can fully control his body, which means that with enough biomass, he can pass from this…."

Alexa said pulling some extra biomass from her banked storage into her tummy, "To this." And using that extra biomass she increased the size of her arms, that is to say, "Gorilla Arms mode."

She returned to the hugely muscular form her arms had that time she killed her first [Human].

".....That is Cool…..or would be if not for the skirt." Alan said, nodding and turning to stare at his own arm, "...I can indeed move extra muscle mass…but to that extent? I doubt anyone has that much muscle in his body."

"Correct," Alexa said, snapping the overly muscular fingers she now had and returning to her normal (Cutestest of them all) form, "Alexa compensates with extra biomass; for example, using 30 kilograms of meat and around two liters of mango juice to make."

And that biomass would only retain around a fourth? She was at a fourth loss right now, right?

She wasn't sure but it should be around that.

"So….You are saying that since I have full control of anything inside my body…All I need to do is compensate the missing muscle mass with meat?" Alan asked, looking weirdly at Alexa, "Where do you even store all of that?"

Well, in her [Banked Storage]!

Not that she could say that, it would get weird explaining that, she wasn't even sure if the blue boxes were a [Core] thing or not, since she wasn't sure if anyone else saw their [Core] as Alexa did.

"That was in Alexa's tummy…some in her legs and a few kilograms in her hands!" Alexa said, shrugging, "Alexa loses most of it when she uses it since my [Core] isn't that good at it, but Alexa guesses by what information she got that yours is better, so just…stockpile it?"

"...you are not stockpiling a thing," Glory suddenly said, why not? "I will not have a fat fiance."

….fat?

Was…was Glory saying that Alexa was fat?

"And you!" Glory suddenly screamed at Alexa! "...How much extra do you have right now? Because I'm not seeing it."

How much?

[Query: How much extra biomass is in storage.]

[Answer: 12 extra kilograms.]

"Twelve Kilograms?" Alexa said as she was poked all around, "Most of it is in Alexa's tummy and her feetsies!"

Glory took that to focus her pokes at her tummy and her feetsies…or well, her thighs to be precise…

"...hmm….the stomach feels normal but the legs do feel more dense…interesting…" Glory then glared at Alan, "You are still not allowed to increase your weight, but you may stockpile extra muscles in your arms, legs…and get some abs I guess."

"Aye sir madam!" Alan said saluting, why was he saluting? "....As soon as I find out how to turn the meat we eat into muscle fiber…."

That last part sounded pitiful, it wasn't even that hard to do!

"Now….it's my turn," Glory said pulling out Alan's blazer out from him and…throwing it away, "I didn't want to use mine but oh well…"

Alan's blazer had some weird black sticky goo, Alexa wanted to take a sample later of that. But while she was thinking of that Glory placed her own blazer in the floor and laid her back against it, then thinking it through she stood up and turned her attention to Alan.

"Alan, get me one of the spare thermal blankets from the first aid kit, some water pouches and go get my spare uniform. Also, go take a shower while Alexa does my procedure." Glory said in a demanding tone that didn't leave an option for anyone else.

….So she was still going to do it, huh?

Alexa…would need to take some extra measures this time, she did want a full record of it. It was time…to not boogey, but to get serious.

[Execute Alexa.seriousbusiness.face.emotion.Alexa]

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[Dang it!]

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