Chapter 16: About [Humans], [Powers] and Beetles (Patreon)

"Well for starters let's go by the beginning. What do you know about our [Powers]?" Asked the [Human].

Powers?

"[Word seems to be resonated with the energy within host's Core.]" Main core seemed to detect some weird resonance with her weird new [Core].

"It's the amount of strength we can use as [Humans]?" Alexa answered tentatively.

Was this a trap question?

"Hmm....almost right, not all humans have [Powers]. But all the humans that have [Powers] are stronger than normal." The [Human] stated simply.

What?

Not all humans have powers? Then there were weaker humans?!?

HOW?!? How was it possible that a race that could subjugate the square-shaped entities could be weak?!?

"I see that you don't seem to believe me." The [Human] said, "So that means that either you haven't been around other people or that everyone in your family awakened a [Core] huh."

[“Notice: Human seem to believe in host being Human.”]

That was good to know.

"For example, in my case, I can do these kinds of things." The [Human] made a motion with its hand and the rocks around started floating around, the rocks seemed to shine with purple light same as the one that his body was shining with. "This is the same power I used to stop you from crashing into a building."

So, this human used this [Power] to stop her from her escape?

She hadn't felt anything like that before, it was almost as if she had been stuck in an invisible substance that seemed to encompass her whole body, yet she was still able to interact with the gases around. As evidence for her being able to breathe and inhale or exhale the atmospheric gases around.

"And the difference in our [Power] is what allowed me to prevent you from using whatever [Power] you used to fly," The [Human] seemed to say that part in an inquiring tone, but after a moment of silence he shrugged and carried on. "So, a [SuperHero] is someone that when granted this [Power] decided to use it for good. In my case, I don the persona of [SuperForce]."

And after saying such he placed his arms on his waist and stared at an angle of 85° towards the left upwards, having its cape move against the wind and using the [Smile] that somehow had shown its white teeth.

"So, you use your power to...hunt [Prey] for other [Humans]?" Alexa asked not quite sure what to make of this discovery.

Somehow the [Humans] had distinctions among themselves, having some wielding more power than the others, that seemed to explain why her body didn't seem to hold any type of power, perhaps the [Blueprint] she had used was of a [Normal] human instead of a [SuperHero] one.

"...that isn't quite right...We do hunt... [Villains], but mostly to keep the peace, if those don't bring troubles we are quite happy with letting them do as they wish actually." The [Human] answered with a wry smile.

Then what was the point?

"[Notice: Human designated SuperForce seems to have some kind of energy barrier surrounding its body, attempts to pry open have been deem too risky to attempt against a target willing to disclose information.]"

Main core seemed to have taken the time they spoke to try and get information on this [Human], she was quite happy with letting that go, at least for now...Or till she found a way to take a sample.

"So young lady, while I'm happy speaking with a young candidate I do nee-" The human started saying when its face turned from that [Smile] into another she hadn't seen before, its eyes turned sharp like those of a [Predator]. He seemed to glare at something while quickly opening its arms wide.

"[WARNING WARNING WARNING! INCOMING MASS OF ENERGY TRAVELING, EMERGENCY DODGE SEQUENCE STARTED.]" Main Core seemed to notice something too as she felt her body start producing a cocktail of drugs and flooding her system with it.

"RUN!" And she felt her body be thrown away from where she was by the same weird substance that stopped her escape.

She allowed herself to fly through the air as she focused her attention towards the human [SuperForce], he had taken an attack straight on and didn't seem to be hurt, the attack had been a fireball that seemed to be contained within the small testing room without ceiling that she had been forced to land in.

"Well well well, if it isn't my favorite [SuperFarce]. Since when are you molesting children? Does this mean I'm the [Hero] this time?" Was all she had been be able to hear as the figure of a red-haired [Human] showed flying above [SuperForce].

Its presence also signaled the moment she wasn't held by the weird substance and as soon as her feet touched the floor she started moving as fast as her current body allowed her. First by running in the opposite direction those two [Humans] seemed to be fighting, she didn't want to be in the middle of another [Human] test.

She had barely managed to escape the testing chambers, so she didn't want to join another one. So she ran, she moved her small legs as fast as her current body could tolerate, this place was weird, tall squares made of the same material as the outside of the place she had escaped from.

The only difference was that the making of the [Doors] and [Windows] didn't seem that sturdy, even the outer materials, while solid. It wasn't that resistant as far as the probes [Main Core] did to its materials as she passed them.

Either way, she was surprised by how vast and empty this new testing chamber was, or this [Room]. She wasn't sure of how to differentiate them at the moment, as far as she was aware, most of the [Rooms] she walked in with the other [Human-child stage] humans were [Rooms] instead of [Testing Chambers].

And since only a [Testing Chamber] had danger, this should be one. No matter which one it was, she needed a safe place to find first, so making sure she wasn't walking closer to the confrontation she had left behind she looked around.

"[Notice: Passage to underground level found, it should be better to escape in that direction since both targets of conflict seem to have some form of flying capabilities. So underground environment will grant Host a higher chance of survival.]"

[Main Core] pinged her with that information while also focusing her attention towards an opening in the ground, it seemed that it was some kind of [Door] that led underground.

Alexa didn't see anyone around the open [Door], nor could detect any living beings down, so turning back to make sure no one was following she found a big circle of fire in the sky and figures zooming all over the open sky, that was all the incentive she needed to dive into the unknown.

The path downwards was smooth sailing, each step echoing announcing her arrival, she grimaced with each step and quickly shifted the material of her [Shoes] to something that was less obvious when walking.

In the end, she decided on a soft amalgamation of [Rubber] and [Cloth], it meant that it granted fewer defenses to her [Feet], but it was more comfortable and more importantly, silent.

And after going down for a few meters down she found....

"[Heaven]"

It was...

"[Wonderful]"

She couldn't find the right [Words] to describe it.

"[Marvelous]"

[Main Core] didn't seem to have that problem of course, but she didn't have access to the same extensive library that [Main Core] had, not consciously of course, since the [Data] [Main Core] could access was stuff she had internalized and assimilated, so if she wanted she could do it too.

Only that she was-

"[Lazy]"

-doing more important stuff, such as running for her life away from danger.

The place she found herself in was a type of [Maze] similar to those she had been made fight before, only...this one seemed to be suited to [Humans], and more importantly...it didn't seem to have [Danger].

The [Test chambers] on it were small [Rooms] with crystal [Doors] that seemed to allow everyone to see into the [Test chambers] within, she walked past them all of course, even if they didn't seem dangerous that was by her standards.

As far as she knew the [Humans] fought under different settings, as a race whose half its population had more power than the rest they probably held different and more skewed standards.

So while the [Test Chambers] that held [Armor] were appealing she ignored them, even when one [Test Chamber] held small figures that seemed to call to her with the [Test Subject] of small size and [Fluffy] making she walked past it too!

Even the [Test Chamber] that appealed to [Main Core] with square-shaped entities full of those strange lines was ignored!

Yes, if she was suffering then [Main Core] will suffer with her!

"Yoh girlie!" ASDASLDHFASDLKFASDFASDF MAIN ENGINE BURN 500% FOR 1 SECOND!

"[Denied, no hostile intent detected.]"

....

"Girle you okay? Sorry for scaring you." The [Human] that spoke before totally not scaring her was poking at her side.

Such dangerous entities these humans, walking past all her defenses and penetrated her protections as if it was a simple fabric instead of the mighty [Armor] that she had copied from Melissandra and the [Teacher].

"You okay? Someone there? You don't speak [Common]?" The [Human] kept prodding at her while making weird facial structures.

"Yes YES," Till she couldn't hold it anymore and swatted its hands away from her face. This [Human] had started stretching her facial skin, and while she knew her [Disguise] was impervious, she didn't want to risk it.

"There we go girlie," the [Human] said while snarling at her.

"[Facial structure detected and analysis finalized, emotion-face detected and catalogued as smile.]"

The [Human] [Smiled] at her while saying, "What are you doing here alone? Did you separate from your parents when they gave the alarm? It is dangerous to be alone with [Scorcher] on the loose." He seemed to be wary of something, even if that something wasn't her.

Its mannerism spoke of someone waiting for something was dangerous around, was this [Scorcher] that dangerous? It sounded like someone that she could [Learn] plenty of.

"But it's okay! [SuperForce] was deployed as far as I could hear before they closed the doors into the bunker..." The [Human] smiled at that, then turned to her, and then his smile dimmed, but he shook his head quickly enough and nodded at something, "Right, the bunker doors... Come with me girlie, the bunker should have outdoor cameras, they may not let me in... but they wouldn't let a girl like you outside, I will get you to one and you can ask to be let in."

Then the [Human] grabbed her hand and some tremors hit the place, this made the other [Human]'s face frown and say "Let's go quickly, it seems the fight is getting closer to this side."

"[Notice: Tremors determined to have the strength of a Magnitude 4.5 earthquake. Integral structure seems to suggest it was designed to break into big pieces that would allow survivors to hide between the pieces. Current size of host means that this environment is perfect for ambushing Humans and getting more samples, advice to stay in this area and use opportunity to strike when the chance appears.]"

That had been one long message from [Main Core], "Are we in danger?" So she wanted to make sure the evaluation from [Main Core] was correct, and as such she asked the [Human].

He seemed somewhat different from most of those she had interacted with so far after all.

"What? Of course not, they designed the underground mall to be sturdy, see those lines on the ceiling?" And the [Human] pointed with one of his claws at the same lines that [Main Core] had highlighted when giving its explanation. "They are break points designed to make a collapse more controlled, some [Tinker] designed it so that the pieces break and create openings for survivors to hide while waiting for rescue."

So the [Human] gave reason to [Main Core], but then the main important part came next "What about if a [Predator] uses those to attack isolated [Humans]?" so Alexa asked.

That made the [Human] stop in its tracks as he grabbed with more strength her arm as his other claw opened and closed, then this [Human] turned his stalk eyes towards her while his [Human] eye kept moving forward.

"Then that one would not be a human anymore, but a beast... no Human would attack another one in a time of need like this one." He said with finality and then stopped moving as they came to an opening with four paths opening in four different directions.

"Do I scare you?" He asked her, "Is my monstrous appearance really that bad? I thought...I thought that since you didn't scream you didn't fear me."

The [Human] left her hand go and touched his claw first, then moved to the half of his face that was covered in chitin with a pair of stalk eyes on the side, she didn't understand why this [Human] only did half of its [Face] and [Arms] and not full body modification.

It irked her how she could have a full blueprint if he only did the full body, but so far, all the information she got from it was useless since something seemed to make the human parts work with the nonhuman parts and she couldn't isolate that part.

But either way, she needed to answer his question, didn't she?

"No, you don't scare me." So she answered honestly, she had seen what the [Chitin] could do firsthand as a fellow user of [Chitin] derivate armors, if anything she knew better than most P series subjects how to deal with it.

And since this [Human] had half of its [Head] unprotected it would be easier to deal with him, especially if she incapacitated his stalk eyes. Really, stalk eyes? That was a very bad decision to go for.

"[Lousy design]"

See, even [Main Core] gave her the reason here!

"...I see...thank you for not fearing me." Said the [Human], weird. Why would she fear him?

He didn't seem that impressive, if anything he reeked of [Failed experiment] more than anything, besides, he didn't even seem to have many muscles on his nonhuman parts, and his [Chitin] parts weren't lustrous enough, evidence that he wasn't even taking good care of them!

Why use [Chitin] if you aren't going to take care of it?!?

What did he think [Chitin] was? A cure-all?

No!

Well, yes it was, but one needed to take care of it dang it!

"Now, before we move to the shelter you need to do something for me okay?" The [Human] said as they started moving once more, he seemed to be guiding her to a [Shelter], whatever that was. "And this is important so no matter what you need to do it, can you do that for me?"

He seemed to be about to ask her to do something of utmost importance, and since she was looking to integrate into any group within the [Human] society to blend in... she would do her best to fulfill this [Mission].

"If they ask if someone is with you..." Started saying the [Human] and stopping for a second to look around as they stopped in front of a square-shaped reflective surface that had [Armor] on display. "You need to say that you are alone."

Ah, he wanted to ambush the other [Humans], maybe they weren't part of the same [Faction]?

"They will attempt to scan the area for other people, but these [Parts] make me invisible to their scanning." The [Human] said, so he was a [Predator] even with all of those bad designs?

Maybe she needed to readjust her judgment.

"It's okay, I will find a place to hide and weather the storm. Just make sure to enter and be a good girl okay?" The [Human] placed his normal [Hand] atop her head and moved it from side to side.

It felt...

"[Emotion recognized, categorizing...Notice, Human emotion generated endorphin secretion...Human emotion name: Joy, pleasure....]"

It felt good.

"I will be seeing you around girlie, if you ever find yourself in the slums or near ask for Frank the Beetle. They will point you in my direction." The [Human] did that weird [Laugh] thing they liked doing, "Not that you should be on the slums...if others see you around they will think you want to awaken a [Beast-Core] or [Insect-Core]. You don't want that even after you awaken."

Then afterwards he pushed her towards one of the [Doors], "Enter that store and follow the yellow arrows, when you find the metallic door just push the button and the camera should turn on by itself, they will scan you and let you in."

After saying that the [Human - Designation Frank the beetle] started blurring and soon enough she wasn't able to see him.

"[Warning, no signals of human detected. Re-designating threat level from Negible to Extreme.]"

And yet, somehow...She didn't think that Frank would ever be a danger to her, even if [Main Core] kept sending warning signals her way.

But for now? She walked towards the door and followed the yellow things on the floor.

"[Designation assigned to yellow geometrical figure: Arrows]"

And following after them she soon enough was standing in front of a [Door] different than the ones she had found before, she had seen doors made of [Vegetable Matter], doors made of [Crystal-like material], and then it was this...

A door made entirely of [Metal], the alloy seemed to include most of those materials she had once used for her [External plates].

And sure enough, as [Frank] had said, at the side was a button with a weird symbol, so she pressed it and soon enough one of the square-shaped entities embedded in the wall spoke to her.

Now she only needed to find out what was the deal with this place that Frank wanted her to go into.

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