Ale stood there while she waited for Beatrice to react once more. The little girl had been making faces for around five to ten minutes while staring at a particular spot on the wall. Ale had checked, and there was nothing there. The girl had went from making happy faces, to sad faces, confused face, happy faces and even sad and angry faces a couple times.

At times like these Ale really missed Main Core, or being able to speak with Alexandra, but right now the older woman was being pampered by Alexa, and really. Ale knew that Alexandra needed, the toll on what the older woman had done wasn't erased quite yet.

Ale didn't want to even think about if it was permanent or not, she hoped it wasn't. But all she could do was believe in Alexa being able to fix the issue, and really, if Alexa wasn't able to fix it, nothing else would be. They couldn't go to any random Healer after all, Alexandra wouldn't risk Alexa like that, nor would Ale want to risk Alexa like that.

And on the bright side, Alexa wasn't bright enough to think about that either, or so Ale hoped. If Alexa went to see one they would be really exposed, the particularities of their situation would be brought to the very front and center, and god knows how that would be looked upon.

So she waited, waited for Beatrice to finally react, waited for Alexandra to return healthy once more, waited for Alexa to tell them that everything was fixed...

Overall, Ale was very good at waiting.

"Let's gooo!!!!" Only to end up with Beatrice screaming like that as if possessed by something. "Let's go Master!"

Master?

"Master?" Ale asked, confused, the weird glasses that she had given to Beatrice shining in red light; why were these things shining as if the light of the sun was hitting them just in the right spot?

There was no sunlight here, what was that Core Power doing? Beatrice?

"Yes!" Beatrice nodded while answering, "Mother Rona always said that whenever you find someone who is better than you, you should always show respect and think of them as Master, even if they don't accept you, you ought to learn something from them if you pay attention!"

That...was actually a very interesting way to look at things, one that Ale could get behind, since her own way to increase her own powers was by doing something similar, learning what she could from her opponents and then incorporating those into their own design, so really. Ale truly was doing what Beatrice's Mother was asking Beatrice to do.

Weirdly enough. She could understand why Beatrice would think of her as such.

"I am not your Master," Even so, Ale said as much, "What I do, and how I do it is different from what you can do."

Ale said so placing a finger against Beatrice's forehead, letting the smallest of tendrils to seep into the little girl.

Notice:

Blueprint acquired.

Beatrice Starcroft...Error...Error......Blueprint flagged as incompatible.

Addendum within the ND0 System found.

(This blueprint has been flagged as incompatible; blueprint has protection from a foreign Goddess. Tampering will not be tolerated.)

An additional note found:

Hey Alexa, don't go poking at other people's daughters. Good girls don't stick their little tendrils where they aren't wanted.

I'll get you a mango parfait when I go visit later, tell your asshole brother that I still haven't forgiven him.

 

Blueprint deleted.

Base blueprint of Core acquired. Core is not under the protection...downloading...

Download succesfull.

Core Phenotype: Performance

Sub Type: Body

Secondary Core detected...

Core Phenotype: Perception

Saved to database.

The Saintsworths Conglomerate encourages your good work to further the goals of its scions.

Well, that was a thing.

"So...What do I need to get you to be my Master?" Beatrice asked, still not moving from where she stood, Ale's finger still there. The tendril that had gone into the other girl's body slowly reeling back into Ale's body.

Without her command.

As if the mana within Beatrice was reacting and pushing it away on its own, with no obvious intent from the little girl.

"First...Tell me about your Mother...or Mom...or family I guess?" Ale asked, the gathering in the other room still weighing heavily on her mind. But the fact that there was something such as 'Incompatible' suddenly became more important.

There shouldn't be anything such as incompatible to them, Alexa was...not really a shapeshifter, but she could modify her body to fit to her needs, the memories of P4 still on her databanks.

Ale knew that P4 had started as little more than a box with wheels, and then modified itself to better fit the needs of the test chambers. From a box into a centipede-like creature, to a quadrupedal, to a biped...finally settling into [THE CRAB!] as the most optimal way to fight.

If they started as a box with wheels and currently were a little girl, what could be incompatible to them?

As far as Ale could see, there was nothing especial about Beatrice, hell, the most special thing about the girl was her Core, and Ale managed to nab that blueprint easily enough. With little to no effort.

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"Of Mom and Mother?!?!?" Beatrice said literally glowing, as in actually glowing, her eyes started glowing and that glow somehow matched the form of the glasses that Ale had given her. "Well, for starter Mom Elisee is a Heroine! The bestest heroine of them all!"

Debatable.

"Yes...What is that she does?" Ale asked, nodding at the tune of Beatrice's words.

"She has the prettiestest thing ever! It's all shiny with cute pink-like cotton candy! And her skirt is like, super poofy and goes fwoooooosh when she spins and turns, and has like...three layers of it!!!" Beatrice said spinning as she spoke with the hands to the sides, "And, and, and...The top layer has like glittery pink and blue stars that shine and move!!! And the middle layer has like pockets! Actual pockets!!! And the bottom layer is extra sparkly blue!!!"

Ale continued nodding as the girl spoke, imagining the design...to no avail.

"And her top! Her top is like...tight, but not too tight! As in it sticks to her body but she swears it doesn't hurt! And it glooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwssssssssssss!" Beatrice said, making a weird emphasis on it; Ale could not understand why someone would want to glow... Unless it was in the dark? But she didn't see a reason why someone would want their top body to glow?

Perhaps Alexa would like that...but she doubted this Elisee person thought like Alexa, that would be....scary.

"And she has these ultra super duper max plus ultra cute ribbons on her back and on her chest an extra biiiiiiigest bow, and when she jumps it goes like wheeeeeeeee!" Beatrice was not helpful at all..."AND THE BOOTS!"

The boots?

Ale could get behind that.

"They are like blue sky, and they shineeeeeee, they have these little wings on the back that like move and help her fly with their little flaps!" Ale doubted a small flappy wing would help anyone fly...at all...but then again, Core shenanigans was a thing that was real...for some weird reason, "And she has these cute loooooong gloves that go from her hands to her elbow, with a cute tiny blue gem right here!"

Beatrice was pointing at her own glove, at the top side of her hand, "Right here!" and kept pointing there.

"And her hair!" The hair? "Her hair like becomes super duper ultra fluffy and long! And she has glitter all over her pink cute hair with golden strikes of lightning like thingy!"

....What?

"And, and..." Beatrice seemed to want to continue speaking, but Ale raised a finger, making the girl stop. Wonder why that worked?

"And she has a Hero name, I assume?" Ale asked, deciding that an internet search would be more effective.

"Yes!" Beatrice said nodding but then covered her mouth, "But you must not tell anyone her super duper secret name okay?"

Ale of course nodded, because she would find out anyway later when she asked someone else, she doubted it was a secret...not with how much this girl spoke.

"She is the Magical Girl - Light of Love!" Beatrice said, literal stars almost jumping out from her eyes.

[Core, start a search with those words.]

[Searching...found one match, fifty-four partial matches.]

[Checking data....partial matches are for cosplayers, fans, and imitators...Deleting partial matches...]

[Notice: Found instances of Heroes following the costume trend, leaving for later perusal.]

Interesting...

The images....weirdly enough made sense with the description that Beatrice had given.

"I see, and what about the other one? Your Mother Rona, you said?" Ale asked, preparing herself for making another search, "Don't forget to add her Villain name at the end okay?"

"Ooooooooh!!!" Beatrice started...again, "Like okay, Mother rona is like, super duper cool, but in the dark coolz way!"

Yes, Ale could imagine someone very cool...Inside a refrigerator would make you very cool.

"Like her name is super duper cool, The Ultimate Villainess - The Promise of a Future!" Beatrice said and weirdly enough there was a small explosion behind her with special effects.

[Main Core? Did I see an explosion that didn't create vibrations?]

[Affirmative, no damage to the enviroment was detected.]

Core powers were fricking weird.

"And she has the ultimate coolness dress of them all!" Beatrice carried on as if nothing, "She wears a moonlight spider silk dress made out of weird spider silk that somehow weaves itself back as if it never was damaged! And there are, like, actual stars on her dress!"

What?

This woman used some of the same materials as Alexa's body armor? That...could be dangerous.

"And she doesn't even walk like normal people! She just like whooooshes around! Like a cool person who just kind of hovers!" Beatrice said, mimicking a weird crab-like entity...Ale somehow doubted that was accurate, but the images that she was getting from the data search did show that she somehow moved out of synch with everyone else.

What kind of weird Core Power did this woman have? Something similar to Beatrice probably.

Fricking non euclidian Core powers.

"And her red hair like shines extra red! And her eyes also shine extra red! She all shines extra red overall!" The photos did show there was some red to be had, but nothing that extreme. "And she also has boots!"

Okay, that was ridiculous, Ale would file a complaint, boots were her thing.

"Combat weird boots with spiky spikes!" Beatrice said pointing at her boots...that didn't had those.

"I am stealing her boots," Ale said nodding, "I mean, continue."

"And when she is in that form and fights with Mom Elisee she goes all dramatic and says cool stuff like 'I'm taking you home today my little star' kyaaaaaaaaa," Beatrice said screaming and jumping all around, "It's so cool!"

That....sounded weird, like something [Big Sister] would say to Alexandra? Actually, what was that all about?

"Like I know they love each other and come home after the fight, but Mom Elisee always turns beet red and throws big attacks at Mother Rona while Mother Rona laughs and parries the attack into the other Heroes around till there is no one else." Beatrice said nodding at that, as if it was normal, "Then they fight for a little while till they get tired and come home, and tuck me into bed and go to their own rooms."

Wait just one second there!

"Their own rooms?" Ale asked, as far as she was aware parent figures shared bedrooms.

"Yes, Mom Elisee sleeps in the room to my right, and Mother Rona sleeps in the room to my left, they make a sandwich with my room!" Beatrice said beaming, "The room in front of mine is for Gran-Gran, all of them! It has the biggestests of beds, we get to use them on my birthday when we all sleep there!"

...There were so many wrong things there that Ale wasn't sure if she was even the right person to point it or if she should just pretend to not see it, like everyone else did with Alexa's shenanigans.

You know what?

"I see," Ale would ignore it, if everyone did it with Alexa, she didn't want to deal with it either with Beatrice, so she would ignore it! It worked for everyone else, no reason why it wouldn't work for Ale either! "Well, that was enlightening...and what about your Gran-Grans?"

"Hmm...what about them?" Beatrice asked back confused.

"You had much to say about your Mom Elisee and your Mother Rona, surely you have also something to say about your Gran-Grans?" Nothing about what Beatrice had said pointed to something that could elucidate Ale about the weird blue notification.

"As far as I could find out, your Mother Rona seems to be a villain who fights using a variety of weapons, while your Mom Elisee seems to fight using some weird energy attacks?" Ale asked, neither power should allow them to affect Alexa's Core Power.

"Mom Elisee uses Magic and Mother Rona uses the power of Weapons yes," Beatrice said nodding, "Mom Elisee says that the power was inherited from Gran-Gran, and Mother Rona said the same."

Core Powers could get inherited? That was the first time that Ale had heard that.

No, wait, then what was the original power of those Gran-Grans?

"So what was the Core Power of your Gran-Grans?" Ale asked, if merely inheriting powers could give them that much power, what was the original?

The ND0 system did refer to whoever affected it a Goddess...whatever that meant.

"I dunno," Beatrice said, shrugging, "Every time I ask, they look at each other, sigh, and say that they will tell me when I grow up more...Or when they return from going for milk."

How far was that milk that they went for?

"I see..." Ale did not see what was that about, "Does the word Goddess mean something to you?"

"Dunno, Mom Elisee when she fights seriously she always prays to some Azure Moon Goddess or something like that for her big girl magic." Beatrice said, thinking back on it, "And Mother Rona, whenever she pulls out the big guns from her Core, always calls upon The Red Moon Goddess, but they never told me what it was about."

Great, so Ale needed to worry about three different Goddesses?

Notice: There is no need to worry about the Shadow Goddess, she can not make any reliable interference within Terra Nova. As that was the deal at which we arrived.

That did not make it easier or better, at all. If anything it only made Ale even more suspicious, had the ND0 System interacted with a fourth Goddess?

Or were the three goddesses actually the same as the one with which the ND0 system interacted?

And more importantly, what was it really? Ale knew it had referred to itself as an Administrator-like entity, but she had thought at first that it was an administrator for Alexa; this implied that it had a more far-reaching responsibility if it was capable of interacting with entities outside the scope of what Alexa was aware of.

As in this example, it had interacted with either three different entities, or one that passed as three...

Was this Shadow goddess like Alexa? Someone who was one person with three personalities?

So many questions...

"Well, I think we have given them enough time as it is." Ale ended saying sighing, no matter how much she wanted to get more data, she was not getting anything useful from Beatrice.It was almost as bad as speaking with Alexa, only she...didn't really care that much about this one? So it made even more annoying.

"Are you ready? Beacon of Justice?" Ale asked turning to Beatrice.

"Yes master!" Beatrice answered with a military-like salute.

Ale sighed yet again, "Remember, stay behind me, cover my back...And try to not get on the way." Ale said as she started to creep towards the next room.It was finally time to see what the deal there was.

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