A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

[Fake consciousness stream terminated due to extreme trauma to the head.]

[Heartbeat stopped due to extreme trauma.]

[Vital Signs….None.]

[Starting monitoring of nearby area.]

[Checking for evidence of activity.]

[Time limit before damage to brain tissue became too extensive. 5 Minutes.]

[Time limit before damages become too extensive that it becomes prohibitive to regenerate….15 mins.]

[Timer started.]

---

At the bottom of the sewers was a woman's body; well, a body was a word too strong to describe what was at the bottom of the manhole. It was the half of a body, the upper half, but even that….

Her right arm was broken and was closer to paste, while her left arm had broken while falling, the woman had attempted to slow her descent by grabbing hold of the ladder, but her attempt to do so had ended with her breaking her left arm for her weight and speed was too much.

And if that wasn’t enough, she had hit the floor head first. She was breaking what was left of her face and snapping her neck. So, in a nutshell, what you could find at the bottom of the ladder was the badly damaged body of a young woman bleeding away. No motions or even brain activity was found within this body.

She was just there motionless for minutes and while at the top one could hear commotion it faded away soon enough. The most commotion came when the second half of her body was thrown down followed by someone pouring gasoline down there.

Afterward, a small box with a timer marking 30 mins was thrown down and the manhole was closed again.

[The current situation exceeds the threshold for Main Core decision-making program.]

[Forwarding situation to administrator.]

[Answer received.]

[Restarting linking from Host to current body.]

[Restarting reconstruction of body.]

—--------------------------------

Suddenly the body at the bottom of the ladder started moving, its chest seemed to move as if someone was trapped inside, the body acted as a if it were a puppet whose strings were being pulled.

Then without any warning an arm suddenly emerged from the wound around the waist, it was bloodied and smaller, as if it was a child's arm.

“I LIVE!!!!!!” Alexa was alive!

“And this stiiiiiinkkkkssssss!!!!” She emerged as if she was a butterfly from her cocoon. What was her cocoon you ask? It was Alexa of course!

What else could it be?

“Was all of that really necessary Main Core? Alexa will have nightmares!” Needing to crawl from her former waist pushing the gore away had been nasty.

But Alexa did it! Because she didn’t want to burn! Burning sucks! And it hurts! Actually…If it wasn't for the gasoline, she may have slept for a few extra minutes…

“Right…What am I supposed to do with the shell? I don’t think I can use it…most of the muscles are torn…And they doused….[Gasoline]? I think it’s [Gasoline] never used that one too much, too unstable.” Alexa was smelling her former body as she spoke.

As she started fiddling with the controls to release the size adjustment to strip herself and get some clothes to dress (It was windy here! And she was naked!), she noticed that her mask seemed to be blinking on the side. So putting that on she went through the options on it to restart it…

“[RHAPSODY ARE YOU OKAY?!?!?]” Came the voice of the [Elder] crashing into her ear.

“[RHAPSODY?!?!? ANSWER! WE HAVE REPORTS OF CHRYSALIS ASKING FOR CORPSE CLEANING!]” Was the next voice message that came.

Followed one by one by more messages raining down.

“Hello? This is Alexa speaking!” Alexa said skipping most of the new other voice messages.

“[Alexa?]” The voice of the [Elder] came asking back with a trembling voice.

“Ah sorry! I mean, this is not Alexa but [Rhapsody]!” Alexa quickly corrected herself, truly, it was hard having multiple names! “I’m fine now! I am missing….”

Alexa looked at her [Shell], “Around 40 kilograms? I think?” Alexa wasn’t quite sure, even though she had a fancy blue screen hovering in front of her face with her missing [Biomass]. “Yes, I have around 40 kilograms less! “

“[...are you okay? Your vitals….]” The [Elder] trailed his voice, her vitals? Oh! The thing! The [Bodysuit] had her vitals things!

“Wait a sec!” Alexa quickly said as she started taking off her clothes from her body to put her clothes on her body!

…this was weird!

“There!” Alexa said as she pushed the buttons on her belt and gloves making the thing stick to her body. She used some of her [Nanites] to clean her blood from her clothes and clean herself. “My Vitalis should be fine now!”

“[....*sigh* you will give me a heart attack, you are lucky that Eleanore wasn’t around or she would rip you a new one…No wait, this…how old are you right now?]” The [Elder] asked her. Why did that matter?

“I’m five!” Alexa answered while staring at her former body. It was weird. Was it weird that it made her hungry? She surely would taste well—she had made herself, after all! Surely she would match her own tastes.

“[....god, what happened to you? Why are you in that form?]” The [Elder] asked her, why did it matter?

“Well, you see… The mean lady was hurting me , she was touching one of my no-no zones too!!! But we didn’t have a nice form of escaping, so we made a way to escape!” Alexa started explaining their strategy! “So we prepared a distraction! We made my body go bam! And and and then while she screamed and tried to explain we threw ourselves into the tunnel!”

That had been hard! [Main Core] said that she needed to be very good at her act, so they made a new virtual machine to pretend it was her! And that was…scary, she had seen the line of thoughts and how that Alexa acted. Her fears had been real…

She…Didn’t want to deal with that, so she had deleted those [Emotion Logs] as soon as she returned to control her body! It also hurt! It was a good thing that it hadn’t hurt her!

Really, the [Human Body] was weird. She wasn’t hurt, and even if she fixed it, it still hurt. She had been having trouble with her leg after it had been fixed; it was part of the reason why she had decided to make a new body!

Also, there was some type of complex decision-making behind it, but she wasn’t quite sure what those decisions were, she had forgotten them already!

“Actually, I need help with something. Do I need to dispose of my other body?” So Alexa asked turning to look at her disfigured body on the floor. One of her boobas looked more like a burst balloon, both of her arms had been broken and her face looked like a tender piece of meat than a face.

“[...Your other body?]” The [Elder] asked her, he made her [HUD] send a few diagnoses. “[Do you have any problem with your body?]”

“No? Not this one, I mean this one, let me….Here!” Alexa said as she used one of the functions of her mask. One that allowed her to take [Pictures] and send them.

“[WHAT IN THE SACRED BALLS OF THE ALMIGHTY ARTILLERY!]” The [Elder] screamed, “[GIRL!?!?!? WHAT IS THAT?!?!?]”

“That was Alexa! Or older Alexa? That was the [Shell] I was using, this is the new one!” Alexa said as she started poking her former body. “But do I need to keep it here? They threw [Gasoline] and a [Timer] that has like 17 mins left.”

“[...Is that timer white with a transparent window with two liquids circling inside?]” The [Elder] asked after taking several breaths to control himself.

“Yes! Does this thing have a [Live Camera]?” Alexa asked, she hadn’t seen that function on it! That was Dangerous!

“[No, you can only take pictures on that version, we will get you one with the live camera next. If the liquids start going fast you need to run. That is a chemical bomb, you need to run as fast as possible away. We will send a map to your mask, follow it as best as possible. We will lose contact when you go deeper into the sewers.]” The [Elder] said as a map showed on her mask. “[Good luck Alexa. We will have a conversation about this….later.]”

“Okay! So I need to leave this [Biomass]?” Alexa asked eyeing her shell.

“[RUN!]” The voice of the [Elder] screamed in her ears so Alexa started running.

She eyed the map on her mask and continued running, she was running low in [Biomass] so maybe she could catch a snack on the way? It was possible, but she wasn’t quite sure about how to deal with that and the possibility of a snack on the way.

But then there was the next problem, what they had thrown behind her was a [Bomb], something to deal with her, if she hadn’t reacted or wake up when she did…Then she would have lost more [Biomass], that is if she hadn’t outright [Died] there.

“[Rhapsody…..losing….contact…..high….energy….saturation…..be….careful….with…..rogue…..cor-]” Was the last thing she got from her mask as it turned off, the mask seemed to turn off several features on it.

At least her map seemed to remain on the thing, and some of the other functions remained. Her clothes still remained firmly set on her—well, most of them. She didn’t have the boots or pants on her; she hadn't put those on since her lower half...Well, it lost control over her bladder and intestines and was dirty. Something didn't feel right about using those, so she left them! Right now, her shirt was acting as a pseudo skirt at the moment.

She still had some materials from her initial forage into the world at large, so she made a pair of shorts and left her feet bare with the remaining material. She could use the contact with the ground as a way to measure the type of materials on the floor.

As far as she could see, the [Sewers] seemed to follow the same type of design all around, with giant tunnels with green water flowing and some weird materials floating on them.

“RAAAW!” And there was the occasional screech from the weird organism there.

Like this one for example, “Hello! I’m Alexa!” It was some kind of quadrupedal organism with grey fur, it was somewhat short. It was almost as tall to reach her knees.

“RAWR!” And it kept showing its teeth at Alexa. This entity had a long pink tail with some weird stone thing at the end of its [Tail]. “RAWR!”

It was fluffy-looking and seemed to be almost ball-like.

“Here! I have teeth too!” Alexa said as she removed her mask and folded it into a bracelet, “See, teeth!”

Alexa showed her teeth at the [Organism] and it jumped at Alexa! It seemed to want to claw at her arm while nibbling on it. As if it wanted to eat her? But Alexa was not food!

“Bad fluffy thing!” Alexa said as she balled her fist and punched the thing into the back of it. “Bad!”

The [Organism] screeched at her while using its tail to attack her. Alexa merely jumped to dodge the attack and shifted her arm into a new setting. She morphed her arm, making more muscles to increase her strength and tying them to her torso for balance. At the end of her hand, she made a set of five claws made of bone and reinforced with metal for an edge.

“Tei!” And with one war cry that would bring terror in the minds of the most seasoned warriors Alexa strikes!

“RAWR!” And the creature screamed as Alexa’s fist sank into its back. It tried to escape and run away. But Alexa didn’t let it!

Instead, she clawed deeper into the creature and snapped its spine in two. The creature cried in pain, but Alexa didn’t mind it. “You started this [Test]. And I hunger!” Instead, she walked closer to the thing and sank her claw into its [Head].

Most organisms seemed to stop [Working] when that part of their organism stopped working, such a weird weakness… Why not host their [Consciousness Stream] on a [Core] like her? This way, they would only need to relink the [Consciousness Stream] when they remade the body!

Alexa did that and it worked! Surely it would work with everyone else too!

“Thanks for the meal!” Alexa said happily as she shifted her other arm and started clawing at the [Creature], she ripped and crushed the meat and organs, her [Teeth] seemed to be weak and unable to rip apart the meat or bones. So she shifted them into sharper fangs, her mouth didn’t seem to be big enough for the bigger parts. So she dislodged her jaw allowing the meat to pass through.

She ate, she devoured, she feasted on the [Creature].

Notice:

New Blueprint acquired. Giant Mutant Rat.

So it was a [Mutant Giant Rat]?

How was she able to know the type of creature? What was this blue box?

Could….Could Alexa eat the blue box?

No.

Oh…shame.

“Well, that happens when you are mean to me. Next time you better behave!” Alexa scolded the remains of the [Mutant Giant Rat] after leaving only some bones and part of its heart. “....I better finish my meal…”

And then Alexa moved on to eat those too!

She was getting fat from all of this, well not fat as big, but mostly moving the biomass to her [Bank Biomass] thing. The thing seemed to eat the remaining biomass that exceeded the limits of her current form (30 kilograms).

And banked the remaining away, the rat had given her almost 20 extra kilograms for her things! (After reducing the half that the thing took!). However, when she was nearly done, she found herself with something she hadn’t expected to see.

“Main Core? Is this…?” Alexa said aloud as she looked at the gray cracked marble on her hand.

She had found it near the [Heart] of the rat.

“[Design seems to be similar to the Core unit. More investigation is required.]”

It was a [Core], grey in color and seemed to be broken. Was that why it hadn’t regenerated? Alexa was intrigued. She hadn’t been able to find these things in the [Humans]. While she was aware that she had one on her body (the one that housed Main Core), she wasn’t sure if there was one for the blue box.

“Well, wonder what this will give…” Alexa said while popping the [Core] into her mouth and sending her [Nanites] to work. She started disassembling and analyzing the thing as soon as it entered her mouth.

Notice:

Beast Core - Rat blueprint acquired. Beast Core - Basic blueprint acquired. Mutant Core blueprint acquired. Broken Core Blueprint Acquired.

“What?” Alexa said aloud as the information finished downloading into her mind, how had one single [Core] provided four blueprints?

She understood the first one, since the thing was a [Rat], but couldn’t it just give her a [Mutant Giant Rat core]? Why all the components? Actually, wasn’t the [Giant Core] missing?

This was false advertising! She would file a complaint! What was a complaint? She did not know! But she would file one!

“[Notice: Host is shaking fist towards the ceiling. The current environment seems to be hostile. Perhaps it is better to do so in a safe environment?]”

….Main Core didn’t understand her. Still, it was right about her current situation, so Alexa stopped shaking her fist against the ceiling (IT FELT RIGHT OKAY?!?), licked the remaining blood from her finger and lips, and continued moving.

This place may have more meals, so she needed to move! Perhaps one would even be her new favorite flavor! (Mango!) One could never know….Well, Alexa knew; she was sure there would be at least one Mango-Flavored Mutant Rat!

---

“GOD IS DEAD!” Who was this [God]? She wasn’t sure, but the phrase was logged in her [Blueprint] to be said in a moment of extreme duress or while in incredible amounts of pain.

And since Alexa was in extreme despair….

“[Notice, no entity has been categorized under the designation God. Host should move to next biomass target.]”

Main Core of course didn’t understand her either, the problem…The problem at hand was…All the rats tasted the same…And not a single one gave her new [Blueprints], they gave her new colors for her [Fur] catalog, they gave her some variations on the [Teeth] front, one gave her an interesting [Disease] that seemed to be made in such a way that it would make the target fear [Water]. Such a weird kirk….

But they all tasted the same!

They may as well taste as nothing!

WHERE WAS HER PROMISED [GIANT MUTANT RAT MANGO FLAVOR]!

Alas, Alexa could declare proudly. “God is indeed dead.” Again, she wasn’t quite sure who that [God] was or why he was [Dead], she would check on that as soon as she could on her…

Oh…

“My cell phone!” Alexa quickly checked again and indeed, her cellphone was missing…

Or to be precise, it was precisely where she left it, in one of the pouches of her pants…

The ones she didn’t bother putting back on… The ones that had been left behind with her former [Shell]. The ones that had burst in flames around one hour ago…The ones she had lost beyond any degree of doubt.

“RAWR!” She couldn’t even put effort into it anymore, she was being surrounded by a large group of rats after going ham seeking for the legendary [Mango Flavored Rat], and ended up in a place without a good way to escape.

“Right…if [God] is dead….then I will make it myself. Prepare yourselves you rats!” Alexa said as her body started shifting, her arms turned into bulkier and stronger versions, her hands once more instead of fingers ended in sharpened claws.

Her feet morphed into a setting closer to the rats but bulkier, and a set of three claws extended from her feet. Her face while it did not change too much in overall form, her mouth now sported a pair of front teeth similar to those of the [Rats] surrounding her.

“I…will….make…you…..into…..mango!” Alexa said between chitters as this half-transformation forced her to make those same weird noises the rats also made.

She would find the mango-flavored rat, or would make one herself, that was the promise Alexa made to the weird entity called [God].