Chapter 46: Please drink Responsibly.... (Patreon)

Her walk had been mostly calm, some people had turned to look at her while she was leaving the [Park], but no one had outright stopped her, perhaps it was because she was leaving using her [Teenager Stage] form?

[Eleanore] had recommended against using her [Child Stage] form, so she had settled on her [Teenager Stage] form. It was honestly, weird. First, she had asked her to change her form, but when she had said about using her [Child Stage] form, then she had trouble with that.

Alexa hadn’t made new [Blueprints] yet, so she didn’t had that many options. Granted she could craft one from scratch if needed, but that honestly felt more like a waste of resources. Besides she would need to get too many points right to make a [Blueprint] from scratch.

The [Human] body was way too complicated in the most stupid ways possible, it was a work of art? Yes. It had plenty of redundant systems to make sure everything worked right. But a single mistake could end with her missing a [Limb] or with a faulty [Heart]. Granted most of those mistakes she could fix by expending extra [Biomass]...

But if Alexa didn’t need to waste extra [Biomass]...why waste it? She had three workable forms already, plus the [Male] variant. She could collect new samples later and start her own project for new forms later. For now, she would settle with these.

So in turn, it meant that she would walk around using her [Teenager Stage] form till she arrived at the destination she was given, some kind of [Safe House]. Why was it [Safe] or why the other houses weren’t [Safe]... She didn’t know.

But that was her current target, so she would go there. As far as she could tell the address she was given was set up in a [Residencial] sector. Her current search using her [Cellphone]’s map function came up with several of such sectors, it seemed that the [Humans] had set up their [Homes] in determined sectors and pilled up there.

The [House] seemed to be basically a big [Den]-like structure where they would undergo their [Sleep] cycle and [Maintenance] needs, kind of like her new [Den], only instead of having a [Room] set up within a [Building]. These [Homes] were smaller [Buildings] set up in square sections that divided a big plot of land. Why would they go for such an inefficient way to live? Alexa didn’t know.

The [Humans] had set up rows upon rows of the [Buildings], each of these [Buildings] had a pre determined amount of [Land], most had some empty area in the front of the [House], either decorated by [Flora] or by [Artificial] entities set up on the front. Some had miniaturized mockeries of [Humans], while others had [Organic entities] patrolling around. Some kind of quadrupedal organism, Alexa had almost prepared for combat when one of those had started [Barking] at her, but reading the [Sign] on the side of that particular [House] had not helped calm her. [Beware of Dog].

She didn’t like those [Dog] creatures, they reminded her of some of the more biological P-series subjects that liked to hunt in hordes, and her small search on her [Cellphone] had found a similar species, [Wolves]. An ancestor to these [Dogs]. Alexa would check later if she could get a [Blueprint] of them to look for weakness. She also had the option of...[Disposing] one of her fellow [Minions], the one that had shown hostility to her, snout face aka [WolfMan].

Either way as she continued walking towards her destination she couldn’t help but think. Wasn’t it more efficient to live on [Apartment]-type buildings? Surely it would be easier to administer the land like that. Alexa didn’t know why they would go for such a type of living arrangement.

She was coming close to the place she was supposed to go so Alexa decided to prepare herself and check the data that [Eleanore] had sent her about this place. So when she came to the address she was given she found…Another of those [Houses], it had one of the [Vans] they had used for the [Mission] parked outside, that seemed…. ill-advised.

But Alexa wasn’t sure if there was a reason for it, so instead she walked to the [Door] and pushed the button at the side of the [Door].

“Password?” A voice spoke immediately after she pushed the button.

“[Eleanore] said that you would know I was coming,” Alexa answered while unfolding her [Mask] and putting it on. “I’m Rhapsody.”

There was some movement behind the [Door] and after a few seconds the door was opened, on the other side stood a [Human] that she hadn’t seen before, it seemed to be one of the [Black Masked Minions] since he had part of his mask on the side of his face.

“I’ll be damned, she was indeed alive.” The [minion] spoke while giving way for Alexa to walk into the house. “Hey Mikey, your boss is alive after all. I think she looked taller on the video.”

“Rhapsody!” Another [Minion] came rushing, he was indeed the same [Mikey] she had seen before, only…”...who is this girl? Rhapsody should be around our age, this can’t be older than twelve. Are you Rhapsody’s daughter? She is on her way.”

What?

“I’m Rhapsody.” Alexa said once more, “[Eleanore] said you would know I was coming.”

“...Whatever you say kiddo, hey Al? You still have cereal? We have Rhapsody’s daughter here!” [Mikey] ignored her and started speaking with another [Minion].

That was annoying.

Why didn’t he believe her? Hadn’t they spoken about her power? She remember saying that she was a shifter right? That she could shift her form.

“Sigh.” Alexa had arrived at her destination, so surely [Eleanore] couldn’t get mad at her for changing to her [Young Woman] stage right? Either way, this would be annoying to explain and they may not believe her. [Mikey] seemed convinced that she was her own [Daughter] after all.

So with an internal prompt, Alexa started to shift, again.

“There, now do you believe that I’m Rhapsody?” Alexa said after her body shifted form to her [Young Woman] stage figure, again. She had shifted her shorts again into pants as her form changed. Her top hadn’t needed such help since this [BodySuit] was designed to stretch and match her form.

She would not let her pants to be lost ever again, it was such a convenient [BodySuit].

“....well I’ll be damned…” The [Minion] who opened the door first said as he whistled. “Hey, Mikey…do you want to change teams? I wouldn’t mind swapping wolf man for yours.”

“Go f#ck yourself Ben,” [Mikey] answered as he turned to look at Alexa, “...Right, a Shapeshifter. Man that will be hard to get used to.”

Some of the people around had brought their phones and had them pointed at her, Alexa was…not sure what to think about that.

“Okay people, you know them rules. Any video of this gets out of our internal network and we will be using phones without a signal for a year…Again.” [Mikey] said aloud, most of those with phones turned them down while others groaned, “I know, just make sure it stays only on the internal network…unless Rhapsody has a problem with that,”

All those around seemed to turn to her at as if waiting for an answer.

“Just….be responsible with the information?” Alexa said unsure how to react.

“...Before any of you even thinks about uploading that video, remember that Rhapsody is Cerberus's favorite. And Gabriel seems to be interested in her too.” [Mikey] said while motioning for Alexa to follow him.

So Alexa did so while the [Minions] behind spoke among themselves, her [Phone] did rang with a notification, it was from their internal social network, someone had [Tagged] her. Perhaps it was about whatever they had recorded?

She would check later.

“Okay, first of all. Thank you, you didn’t need to fight Chrysalis or V-8.” [Mikey] said as he walked towards the [Refrigerator], he brought a couple of cans from it and offered one to her. It read [Beer] on it. He took one for himself and pulled his mask from his face leaving it on the [Table].

“Not a problem, they were obstacles on the [Mission] so they needed to be dealt with. I was the only viable option that had a way to deal with them and also [Survive].” Alexa answered while opening her can of [Beer] and likewise taking off her [Mask] and leaving it on the [Table].

As far as her searches on the internet found that this was a drink to be shared amongst [Friends] or in [Celebrations], she had found some warnings about not exceeding or drinking big amounts. But no mention about how much or how little that was.

“No, you don’t understand.” [Mikey] said as he took a drink from his can of [Beer], “You white mask minions would get pulled out, you may be a newbie but Fairy’s team powerset is useful. Maybe you would spend the night in jail, but that would be about it. We black masked ones….a week at best a month at worst. Depending on our time with Haephestus’ Forge maybe more or maybe less.”

Would that be the case?

“[Yes, no reason to waste valuable assets on the release of low power or low priority assets.]”

Main Core seemed to agree on that.

“Even so, that was the correct answer at the moment. [Hero Designation: Chrysalis] was dangerous to leave alone. She would probably not only restraint but was a danger to mission parameters.” Alexa said as she eyed her can of [Beer] and took a sip of it.

It tasted awful.

“Hahahahah, first time drinking beer? Yeah, it tastes awful…” [Mikey] laughed at her, it probably reflected on her face how awful it tasted, “Either way, you didn’t need to risk it that far. I saw the video…I should have probably explained more about her since you don’t seem to know, but Chrysalis gets nasty against female minions or supervillains.”

Nasty?

She was indeed an awful adversary, but what did [Mikey] mean with [Nasty]?

“How so?” Alexa asked while taking a smaller sample of [Beer], she would try to analyze the composition to see what the purpose of the [Drink] was.

“She gets too vicious, as you experienced yourself. She maims and disfigures anyone that she gets her hands on. That is why she is merely a sidekick and not a heroine, hell they can’t let her go since she would just turn vigilante.” [Mikey] answered emptying his can of [Beer] and opening another one, “She should have stayed with V-8 who was responsible for her, but since you incapacitated him…she took that chance to act freely. Case in point, she tried to disfigure you.”

  “[From information we can infer that ingesting greats amount of Beer can result in hampered cognitive responses, it is advised that host does not continue ingesting this as host has been seen with hampered decision making as is.]”

First of all, rude. She was very good in her decision making thank you very much.

Second of all…So this beverage had great amounts of alcohol and would hamper her decision making huh? She was feeling more relaxed as the drink had started to settle on her body. Was it because the alcohol seemed to be affecting how her [Brain] behaved?

She could see an increased amount of dopamine within her body, which in turn made her relaxed and happy. This drink was dangerous.

“It was a meaningless attempt as you can see.” Alexa said as she emptied her can of [Beer] and grabbed her chest, “See? I fixed the problems.”

[Mikey]’s eye turned to first look at her chest, then silently passed her another can of [Beer]. “I can see that, what’s the deal with that form you came in anyway? Did you use that to dodge pursuit? Or what?”

Somehow [Mikey] not looking her more annoyed her.

“That was my [Teenager Stage] form, [Eleanore] asked me to not use this form while coming here. Something about [Tinker Recognition Systems] or something. She wanted to make sure no one would search for my body or whatever.” Alexa said as she opened the second can of [Beer] and took a smaller sip from it.

She wanted to taste it slowly, it still tasted awful, but she for some reason, couldn’t help but want to keep drinking. Was it because it stimulated the release of dopamine? The [Social] aspect of this ritual of drinking?

“hmm….so what? your power lets you change into what you looked while younger?” [Mikey] asked as the someone knocked on the [Door].

“No? I mean that form is like…a day older than this one?” Alexa answered as she thought about that. [Humans] seemed to take too much importance to [Age]. “I mean, that form is indeed the [Younger] version of this one you are seeing right now. But only because this one was designed to look like an older version.”

That had made [Mikey] stop in its tracks, as if Alexa’s words had made him stop and think about something.

“Rhapsody?” [Golem]’s voice sounded at the back of the [House], it seemed as if he had just arrived. Only he seemed to be coming from another room different from the one she had arrived.

“Here! We are in the [Room] with the [Refrigerator]!” Alexa said raising her voice as she took another sip from her [Beer].

She was enjoying it, why had she hated it before? Oh right the taste, maybe she could alter its composition to add a little [Mango] flavor to it? Would it taste weird?

She got the feeling that it would taste weird, but then what was she supposed to do?

“Oh there you are, Cerberus called us telling us that you were fine and would come to this safehouse, we had just arrived at the base….” [Golem] said as he walked into the [Room], he stopped speaking when he noticed what [Mikey] was drinking.

The [Minion] in question had its face start changing to more pale colors, was he attempting to become a [White Mask] minion by changing his face’s color? Either way [Mikey] silently drank all his [Beer] in one gulp, put his [Mask] on, and kneeled on the floor.

“...Mikey…are you…trying to get Rhapsody drunk?” [Golem]’s voice was cold, his eyes even though they were made of stone seemed to glare at the [Black Masked] Minion.

“...She just survived a near-death event, I thought…We thought that she could use the beer to help her with the adrenaline crash…” [Mikey] said in a small tone, [Adrenaline] crash?

“[Notice: Host organism was flooded with adrenaline during the fight, a backlash from the drop in adrenaline was to be expected. Host dodged this event by making a new body. But the expected outcome from such an event included emotional instability and difficulty for breathing, weakness, and loss of consciousness.]”

That was…potentially dangerous, especially after a fight, and while being on a hostile, she would need to check on the type of reactions her body had.

“...I see, and you thought it safe to get her drunk? Do you understand how this looks to me?” [Golem] spoke as he made his knuckles crack, each time one made a cracking sound [Mikey] recoiled more.

“You need to see it from my side too!” [Mikey] said in a rushed voice, “To me, she is the new weirdo Core Power user, she is hot and seems stable enough!”

She was hot?

“Main Core? What is the current temperature?” Alexa asked aloud while emptying her second [Beer] can and trying to grab a third one, for some reason her [Hands] seemed to be having some trouble latching into the can, but she managed to get it after the third attempt.

“[Internal temperature is stable at 36.8ºC. Noticed a temperature rise, probable side effect from drinking the beverage designated: Beer. No extra care is needed at the moment.]”

“...She seems stable enough anyway.” [Mikey] added while Alexa was opening her third can of [Beer]. “How old is she? Her real age?”

“We aren’t quite sure. We think Cerberus knows, but as far as we can tell…She seems to like being more on her younger forms than her adult form.” [Golem] said as he started duplicating himself. Weird, why was a pile of rocks able to multiply itself?

“So what, twelve? She is in reality twelve?” [Mikey] said as he too, started duplicating himself. Was this some kind of hidden power the [Humans] had? Had Alexa managed to find a new [Human Skill]?

“Twelve? You must know very short kids, as far as Alexa has said her youngest form is five. At least the one she has shown us.” [Golem] said as the room started to move around.

“I…don’t…why is everything spinning?” Alexa said as she felt a new sensation come from within her body.

Was this a new [Emotion]? A new facet of her [Power]? A new technique developed by [Main Core]?

“Bleeeeerghhhhh………….” Why was the [Human] body so focused on discharging liquids that they ingested?

“[Lose of consciousness detected, starting sleeping protocol. Starting shift into Child Stage form.]”

With some luck the room would stop spinning the next time Alexa woke up.