"This... has not been fun…" Alex grumbled as he leaned against a pillar of rubble. For the last four hours, he and Ragyo had been fighting to the death. Both had received wounds that should have killed lesser men and women, but to the two super beings it was nothing. Alex had quickly learned in the fight that this was a battle of attrition, something of which he was normally the victor, but Ragyo's means of healing placed this style of conflict in her favor.
Where Alex and other Viral Beings healed by using their collected Biomass to fuel and boost the healing process, Ragyo's Life Fiber-enhanced body simply stitched the damage back together. He would dismember her, and she would just reattach the lost limb as if it was nothing. He then moved on to blunt force through his Hammer Fists and Muscle Mass. But that turned out to be a bad idea, it had cost him far more Biomass than he ever gained in damage to Ragyo. The second he changed his style of combat she went on the offensive, and since she was continuing with her bladed weapons, she was able to inflict mass amounts of damage to his body without threat of parry or an effective block. The only means of fighting that he had a advantage in was range, his bio-gun had far more of it than those irritating threads of sharpened Life Fibers that she had. But his Whip Fist was out due to this range issue, it didn't have the length for him to stay out of her own range combat.
"Now my dear Avarice-kun, you're not trying to hide now are you?" Alex quickly spun and blocked the incoming strike. Ragyo's face had returned to a mocking smile the second she found herself the party with the upper hand. Likely she found it funny that Alex was so irritated to find not so easy prey in the Revocs CEO. "I have to say you were right, I haven't had this much fun in ages." She mocked as she pressed her blade against Alex's Bio-sword.
"Fucking cunt, I'm going to gut you and hang your insides over those fucking clothes you love so much." Alex growled, he really hated this woman. Blacklight instincts had marked Ragyo as a rival Apex Predator and as such her existence was fanning the flames of hate in the Supreme Alpha.
"Such bestial language Avarice, finally showing your true nature?" Ragyo said before jumping back before Alex had a chance to skewer her with a explosion of Blacklight tendril spikes.
"DANE!" Alex roared over to his allied Alpha. "We're leaving!" He raged, hating to leave Ragyo alive. Dane arched an eyebrow at the apparent cowardice. "Don't you fucking start getting ideas! This is not a fight between Evolved, so I can retreat all I damn well want!" Alex angrily pointed out, if this had been a fight between Evolved the act of an Alpha running away would say to all other Evolved that they were no longer in charge, and there was an open season on their head. But this was not that case, this was a fight between a Evolved Alpha and another entity altogether. And it wasn't like Dane would do much better, so the point was a good one. "Release the Horrors!"
"Very well, we won anyways." Dane said much to the irritation of Ragyo. Dane then focused on the clutch of pods they had brought with them and hidden inside the cargo areas of the Revocs headquarters. Down, far below the fight between super beings, twenty four pods cracked open and twenty four Blacklight Horrors poured out to wreak carnage in the building.
"What was that, what have you brought you little beasts?!" Ragyo stopped smirking now as she was weary of what they might have unleashed in her domain.
"We call them Horrors, they're our terror units and they are a bitch to clean out." Alex grinned at the frown forming on Ragyo's face. "And besides, Dane's right, we've already won this fight."
"You think you two have won, even if you dare to think you can escape me and the Life Fibers, you think you've come out of this encounter the victor?!"
"Yes, just confirming Life Fibers exist means we have won in this meeting." Dane said, arms crossed confidently as he planned out their exit strategy. "Not only that but we have gained much in the way of combat data as well as details on your plans and mindset. As for our escape…" Just then Ragyo was blinded by a swarm of crows, all clawing and pecking at her before flying away. When Ragyo was able to see again she saw both Dane and the man she knew as Avarice Mercy to be gone.
"Fucking fuck! That bitch got the better of us!" Alex's fist obliterated a nearby air conditioning unit as he and Dane collected themselves on a rooftop on the fringes of the city. "These Life Fibers are going to be a real problem. We can't consume them, and fighting them is a sonofabitch at the best of times."
"We also have no way of knowing how many humans they've enhanced. Ragyo could be a special case or there might be hundreds like her." Dane mused as Alex continued to curse like a sailor. "Maybe it was a bad idea showing ourselves this early."
"Whatever, what's done is done and now we need a game plan." Alex said as he slumped down against the wall separating the roof from the open air of the street below. "She's got to have opposition, every 'take over the world' plan breeds dissenters. Plus Ragyo screams of a woman that would make quite a few enemies out of former allies. See if any of her old friends are still kicking."
"Sure, those Horrors should be causing enough of a distraction for us to move a little freely among her staff." Dane said as he planned on consuming a few Revocs workers, knowing full well he'd have to be cautious due to the likely presence of Life Fibers in their clothes or bodies. He knew that Alex threw up tainted blood when he encountered them, so unless they wanted to risk an outbreak he would need to be extra careful to clean up any messes.
"That's good, I'm going to wait here, and later I think I might go do some hunting. I need to replenish my Biomass in case goose lady comes looking for a round two." Dane nodded and jumped off the roof, gliding away as his boss was left to himself. "Fuck… that fucking bitch." Alex sighed as he really wished he had a cigarette or a beer on hand. This trip had really not gone as he thought, but he had to expect this to happen at some point. The dice roll had come up badly, and he was faced with an enemy that could match him. He knew this day was coming ever since Mileena's old squad showed their hand, but he never expected it to come in the form of Ragyo Kiryuin.
Tokuma Norio was fleeing for his life in abject terror, something he never once in his time on Earth thought he would need to do. Never did he think he would be in a situation that out of a horror movie. But here he was running from those… monsters.
As he ducked around a corner while holding onto his mouth to try to conceal his breath, he turned around to get a small peek behind him. He saw down at the end of the hall two of his coworkers being dragged off by the monsters that had come out of the vents five minutes ago. They were tall, almost too tall for the hallways. and skeletally thin. But the creepiest thing about them was their mouths, huge and running sideways down their face, neck, and upper torso.
He watched in horror as one of them began eating Azami whole. She screamed as it pulled her into the gaping mouth, small tubes extending out from the hole, poking and inserting themselves into her body. Her screams soon died out, her struggles ceasing as the monster pushed her all the way into its body like there were no bones to offer resistance.
Norio couldn't watch anymore as they began eating Marise next. He quickly began running down the next hall as fast as he could. Pure terror flooded through his veins, pushing him to go faster. The sounds of bumps and screeches in the air vents only added to the fear and sense of dread. His mind not remembering all those horror movies he had seen, all those times he had laughed at the stupid victims as they made such moronic mistakes. He then made the mistake of hiding in the first room that he came across: a broom closet. He rushed inside, slammed the door and locked it tight, then barricaded it with anything he could find.
"Shit shit shit shit… what the fuck… I'm just the fucking IT guy at a clothing company! Monsters and horror shows are supposed to happen in American big cities, not a clothing company in Japan!" Norio cried as he huddled in the back of the closet, but in his panic he had never noticed the black and orange fluid sliding down from the ceiling and quickly forming into the shape of a man. "Wait! What was… ugh!" The last thing Norio saw was another monster punching him through the gut while small tendrils shot into his body.
"All the access I need to peek into Revocs' personnel files…. lucky me" Dane thought as he continued his hunt through the building.
Alex didn't even react to the presence that landed to the roof, it was strange. He detected no real smell that he recognized as biological, just the scent of perfume, and tacky gaudy stuff at that. Plus the sounds the presence made weren't normal human breathing patterns, much too few and far between. It was almost like it was more mimicking the act of breathing then actually breathing.
"Golly gee, that was sure fun to watch." It had an annoyingly cutesy voice, making an attempt to sound like a young girl but there was again an artificial undertone that gave Alex pause. "I've never seen Lady Ragyo have so much fun with someone!" He decided it was best to get whatever bothersome issues that had followed him over with. He looked up and to his continued irritation saw at a small girl in a pink lolita-style dress, even complete with a matching parasol.
"Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Alex sighed not enjoying the strangeness that seemed to be around this city. It wasn't that he didn't like strange, he loved it as it made life so much more interesting, but this girl was not the brand of strange he enjoyed. "So I assume you're a spaghetti monster as well?" Alex said with very little effort in his speech. He was tired, pissed and past the mood for bravado. The girl only responded with a growing smile as she pulled out a tape measure.
"That's right, though I'm insulted to be compared to something so crude."
"You seem to be very good at hiding your emotions." Alex grinned, but on the inside, he was getting more irritated by Life Fibers and their habit of breaking the rules. Whatever this thing was it was giving off zero biological reactions, and even though Alex didn't have Dex's Limelight-enhanced senses, he still had a higher level than any normal human. Plus, he had the memories of dozens of interrogators, psychologists, and profilers working for him. Since the being before him displayed zero micro-expressions, changes in scent, posture shifts, or nervous tics, all these things were useless in the current situation. "But I can guess you want to kill me."
"Wow, you sure are smart." Even Alex could tell that was sarcasm. In the blink of an eye, she whipped her measuring tape through the air, only to be met by Alex's Viral Armor as he mentally commanded it to boost its hardness at the temporary cost of movement. This worked out and the girl's rush of attacks had no effect.
"Well, looks like that flimsy piece of shit isn't nearly as effective as those swords that cunt made."
"Don't you dare speak that way about Lady Ragyo!" That had the exact reaction Alex wanted and expected. The mask this thing wore cracked at the insulting of Ragyo.
"Fuck off, as far as I'm concerned me and her are mortal enemies. There can be only one ultimate life form on this world, and I will be it." Alex declared, his voice echoed and grinding due to his Viral Armor. "Now, why don't you be a good little girl like the one you dress up to be, and go back home. I'm not in the mood for any more playtime." Her opponent had already scoped this one out, he knew she was on a completely separate level then Ragyo, but he still wanted to avoid any more lost Biomass.
"Sorry but That's. Not. Up. To. You!" She chirped as she moved toward another attack but was quickly pinned down by a mass of extended tendrils coming from Alex's body.
"You're also a lot slower than Ragyo." Alex said conversationally, putting all his focus on strengthening the tendrils as he could feel the girl push against them with strength that belied her body type. "I already told you I'm not in the mood. The only reason why you even found me was because I need information on Life Fibers and every time you people come to me I gain more insight on how you all tick." One of the tendrils moved over to the girl's face and shifted into a wicked multi-pronged claw. "Now, answer my questions or I'll take an eye from you."
"Like you could hurt me, you naked beast!" The girl mocked not at all concerned with the delicate situation she was in: pinned down by tendrils coming from a demonic looking super being while a claw hung right over their eye waiting to gouge said eye out. Alex didn't say anything before making good on his threat and quickly piercing the girl's eye with his claw. He could feel the Life Fibers fighting, but the resistance wasn't nearly enough to stop him and he soon had a bloody blue eye in the grasp of one his tendrils. He brought the grisly sample up to his face and studied the object while he knew the girl was regenerating a new one.
"So, not only can you heal by reattaching limbs and body parts back together, but you can regenerate. Shit… well, let's see how far this goes." Alex said as he shifted the tips of several of his tendrils into blades and began cutting into the girl with surgical precision. He could feel the Life Fiber creature struggle more to get free, but he merely tightened his grip. To Alex's interest, his captive seemed to do so more fiercely once he started moving to the more vital organs, including the lungs and heart. "Ah… so you do have some weaknesses." Alex would grin if he had a mouth, but as he was still in his armored form he had no face beyond the menacing slots that were where his eyes should be. One of the tendrils pulled the heart out of the body without separating the two completely, after which the girl began fighting the most. Alex brought the organ over to his eyes, quickly noticing that it wasn't a normal heart by any means. The girl's nature as a Life Fiber being was made apparent by the purple threads woven throughout its flesh. "Very interesting indeed…" Alex said before returning the heart to its normal place. "… it still functions even when taken out of the body." He mused dispassionately, he had found another place where Life Fibers and Blacklight differed.
As it would appear that Life Fiber beings only had one heart and likely other vital organs as would be the case when taken into account the urgency the girl gave when he had her heart in his control and the fact it still was connected and functioned. Blacklight seemed to have the advantage in this regard, as when an organ got destroyed or removed it would turn to raw biomass and attempt to reunite with its original body. Evolved are able to survive short periods without their vital organs, much longer than needed as once an organ was lost a replacement was made. For situations of worse damage, the body could go into a stasis/reboot state where the body would regenerate the entire lost portion of the body to its last functional state. This was how Evolved could have their heads and brains taken off and still remain the same person. Ordinary flesh and DNA had no memory, but Blacklight remembered everything.
Alex continued his dissection, never wavering or hesitation during the mutilation. Despite the childlike form the thing had, Alex paid it no mind. He didn't even see this thing as anything close to a human, and he wasn't going to give it any special treatment. The former Gentek scientist's morals concerning even human life were shaky at best considering Infected and Evolved were his highest priority. He had no issue performing incredibly painful, and it was nice to know that they could still feel pain, invasive tests on the Life Fiber being's body. The only sounds the thing made was various threats and curses of revenge. Again it was paid it no mind.
"Uh… Alex, what are you doing to…. what appears to be an underage girl?" Dane said as he came to rest on the roof an hour later.
"You, shut up, this is a fucking Life Fiber being. I'm just testing a few theories on it." Alex explained.
"It still looks rather lewd to me." Dane commented before his Alpha dropped the body to the roof. It had served its purpose now that Dane had returned with information of what they could do.
"You… you damn beasts… I'll rip you to shreds…"
"You're welcome to try, I still have enough biomass to heal from any wound you inflect." Alex mocked as he stood up. "But... I don't have time to play with you anymore." At that he once again escaped via his crows while Dane vaulted into a glide, leaving the strange Life Fiber being without another word.
Ragyo pierced the head of what she hoped was the last of these creatures. Those vermin had left quite the nasty parting gift, creatures that had sowed chaos and panic throughout her domain. The attack would no doubt set her shortest-term plans back by months, though her long-term ones were untouched.
They had killed and demoralized many within her headquarters. To the pigs in human clothing these things could be viewed with terror. From the way they moved to their appearance, it was the stuff of nightmares. But Ragyo was something far above the naked apes that worked for her, so she was easily able to kill off all twenty three of the monsters. She had received no more reports of incidents and was now assuming that she had finished them off.
"Hoomaru, be sure to install a checkpoint for all incoming shipments. We don't want more of these creatures making their way into our home now do we?"
"Not at all Lady Ragyo, it will be done."
"Good, now our next task is to find… what happened my dear Nui?" Ragyo asked as she sensed the distraught feelings in the Grand Couturier of Revocs.
"Oh Lady Ragyo!" Nui wailed, crying as she appeared next to her, it was a sight that Ragyo was unused to seeing. "It was horrible! I went to finish of the naked beasts that you were fighting with and... and…" Nui sobbed as she tried to explain what happened before she turned cold and emotionless. "… that bastard cut me… he cut me open and played with my body like a lab mouse… we have to make him pay."
"Oh we will…" Ragyo confirmed. Her voice barely hiding the rage she was feeling. "… these new beasts will not get away with such an insult." She said, fully intent on making good on her promise. First she would deal with the apparent mental damage the encounter had wrought on her precious Nui.
"You sure that this guy is who we're looking for?" Alex asked Dane as they approached a large mansion. The grounds were poorly kept and few if any of the lights in the house seemed to be on.
"Yes I'm sure. From the various memories I gained from the employees and the intel I got from their computer networks, I was able to piece together that this man is likely a turncoat. He's currently a Revocs scientist but as I said it is suspected that he's not as loyal as he seems." Dane explained as they approached the door.
"Is there a chance that he's being watched?" Alex said as he knocked on the door.
"Doubtful, I don't sense any nearby lifeforms, and there wasn't a single memory I found of surveillance being used. Plus, if he really is against Ragyo then I'd expect him to be paranoid enough to have deterrents for that sort of thing." The two of them waited for a while before Alex knocked again. They waited still longer. "I really hate people who don't respond on time." Dane mumbled while Alex also was getting more aggravated. Just as one of them was about to kick the door down, it creaked open, revealing a five year child behind it.
"Eh… I think you might have gotten a few things wrong." Alex smirked at Dane who just ignored him.
"Well hello there miss, we're here to see one Isshin Matoi, is he here?" Dane said flashing his trademark grin. The girl just stared, frowned and slammed the door in their faces.
"Smart girl." Alex commented before turning into a murder of crows and flying up to the roof. Dane followed him with a single jump up and then watched as he flew down the chimney. The room Alex found himself in was a mess, piles of books caked in dust that also blanketed everything else. He was frowning as he reformed back into his human shape. From what he saw at the front door there was at the very least one child living here. A house as big as this might be hard to keep perfectly clean but from the look of his surroundings it was clear that this place might be a danger to the child. Alex experienced a brief surge of emotion that reminded him of how hungry he was, at least he was assuming that the feeling in his gut was hunger.
The Viral moved delicately through the room without disturbing a single mote of dust. The hall he found outside of the room was just as poorly-kept as the room with the fireplace. The floor looked to be at least somewhat clean, but the walls and paintings were faded, peeling, and grimy. Alex noted that a few of the paintings were torn apart in very much the fashion of someone venting their feelings on one of the people in said painting. Alex walked through the hall, not concealing his footsteps as his goal was to find another person.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Ah, just the man he was looking for. He turned his head slightly and found an old scraggly-faced man pointing a shotgun straight at his head. The old man was wearing a lab coat, so it wasn't a tremendous leap to assume he was the scientist that Dane had spoken about.
"Ah, doctor Matoi. My friend and I tried knocking, but no such luck it seemed." His remark was met with the sound of the gun cocking. "Then there was a girl who slammed the door in our faces at the mention of your name." The elderly-looking man narrowed his eyes. "But to answer your demands…" in the span of a second Alex turned around and snatched the gun from his hands. "… my name is Avarice Mercy…" Alex introduced himself under his stage name while emptying the ammo onto the floor. "… and we need to talk about Life Fibers, as well as your work on destroying them."
"So that bitch found me out, earlier than I expected but not unprepared for…" The doctor's hand rushed to grab something in his coat only to be stopped by a Blacklight tendril extending from Alex's arm to his wrist.
"You are mistaken, I'm not part of Ragyo's little clothing circus." Alex said before shifting into his Viral Armor. "I'm simply another predator seeking to eliminate my competition."
"What… what are you?"
"I'm sure you've heard of the Blacklight Virus." Came the answer, Isshin Matoi's eyes narrowing again as he pieced together the situation he found himself in. Alex had no doubts that a man like him had heard of Blacklight, if nothing else than as a potential means of achieving his own goals. "Here's what's going to happen, I'm going to let you go and we are going to let in my underling. I'm absolutely sure you've heard of him: Dane Vogel of the Ultor corporation. You and him can talk business while I raid your kitchen as I find myself hungry for something to eat." Alex said before releasing the doctor and starting to walk toward the front of the mansion. Isshin meanwhile was a little shocked and confused at the day's events. It had started as a normal day in his lab, then came an intruder alert, him thinking that Ragyo had finally figured him out, and now he had himself a meeting with the Chairman of the greatest threat to Revocs and a creature of a virus that destroyed a major US city.
The two walked back to the front door and let Dane in, Doctor Matoi and Dane exchanged greetings with Matoi praising Dane for his company's efforts to keep Revocs at bay. The executive just waved it off, Ultor wasn't trying to do anything but make a profit. The doctor explained that the girl that had slammed the door in their faces had been his five year old daughter Ryūko, the two of them had a fairly strained relationship as he had dedicated so much of his time towards fighting the Life Fibers. Alex had noted the pain in the man's voice at speaking about this however brief it was, so he at least didn't outright detest the man. The scientist at the very least knew that he was in the wrong with how he was treating his own family, and his reasons for doing so were also at least defendable. Didn't mean Alex had to like it given how pro family he was, but he could understand the situation.
Doctor Matoi cordially brought the two Alphas to his lab and showed them his research notes. Matoi had begun the story of how he came to work with and research Life Fibers, how he found out their evil history and plans, and his efforts to end them. Dane was mostly the one listening while Alex just skimmed the notes, but both men could tell that this version of events was a lie, a lie wrapped in truthful facts but a lie nonetheless. The doctor was hiding personal events, but both of the Virals knew that at some point or another they would find out so they left the issue alone for now.
"They honestly think that Life Fibers are some alien force that evolved humans for food?" Alex asked as Matoi finished explaining more about the lore of Life Fibers.
"Yes, ridiculous. But that shows the level of insanity the Life Fibers inflict on their victims. They have no physical proof on the matter, and there is substantial evidence against them." Matoi scoffed. "But the true origins of the Life Fibers are shrouded in mystery with only that harebrained explanation the only answer we have."
"I have a pretty good theory." Alex thought, though he seriously wished it was wrong. "Are you sure that Life Fibers weren't made by Ragyo?"
"No, they found her. Not the other way around."
"Shit… then that means it's highly likely that Life Fibers are a creation of those fucking reality tumors." Alex grumbled to himself, leaving both Dane and doctor Matoi confused.
"Uh, Alex… something you wish to share?" Dane said not liking the idea of Alex keeping information all to himself.
"No, doesn't matter. Matoi, have you been in contact with the Illuminati?" Alex asked as he set down the notes currently in his hands.
"Yes, they are one of the backers of my organization. I have tried to explain the threat Life Fibers pose, but they assured me that my efforts are all that is needed at this point." Matoi said with clear irritation in his voice at the inaction.
"I'm sure that they know exactly what kind of threats there are. If they think that everything is under control, then it is. It's their job and they do it well." Alex confirmed much to the slight vexation of the doctor.
"Never knew you to hold them in such high regard Alex." Dane said, he had been informed of the Illuminati and bits of information on their purpose by both Alex and Mileena. He was sure that they were holding back but it was fine, that whole world was not something Dane felt any reason to learn anything more about.
"They do do their job thoroughly, well… the main branch does anyways." Alex chuckled as he began walking out of the lab.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Dane asked as he watched his Supreme Alpha start to leave.
"Gonna find food, feeling hungry ever since we got here." Alex responded before opening the door to the rest of the mansion. "You can get the rest of the details and work out so kind of deal I am sure…" Alex said before closing the door behind him."
"Your leader is not a very hands on type of person." Matoi observed with a small measure of concern.
"He is when he needs to be, problem is… he's the one to decide when that time is." Dane sighed as he prepared himself for the next stage of their discussion. Meanwhile Alex continued his walk through the large mansion that was the doctor and his daughter's home. There was a notable lack of any personal items, photos, or anything that suggested that anything resembling a family lived here.
"What could drive a man to drown himself in work enough to ignore his own daughter. It better have been terrible… or I might start considering killing the fool on principle." Alex grunted as he made his way through the dusty halls, focusing on where there was the least amount of said dust. The kitchen had to at least be somewhat clean and therefore a simple path the his objective. Alex's enhanced senses picked up the sound of a small child struggling with something, or at least that's what he guessed at. The various memories of mothers and fathers he had in him had similar sounds banked away as child trying to steal from cookie jar.
Alex was smiling as he opened the door, expecting to see the cute sight but to his surprise that wasn't what met his eyes. Instead of a child piling boxes on a chair trying to reach a jar on top of a refrigerator, it was a child standing on a pile of boxes so that she could see what she was doing on the stove. From the smell, Alex could tell it was rice boiling in water.
The child turned around at the sound of the door, likely expecting her father but was surprised to see the stranger she had slammed the door on. The surprise caused her to tilt back, cartwheeling her arms atop the small tower of boxes she was using to support herself. Bad luck and Murphy's Law went into full effect as she fell back, flipping the boiling pot of water up into the air as she did so. Everything slowed to crawl, the girl falling to the ground and the boiling water hanging above her in the air, ready to fall down with her and scald her. But once she hit the floor, the pain of the boiling water never came.
"Daijōbudesu ka?" Alex asked in flawless Japanese as he expected she had yet to learn a word of English. The girl opened her eyes and saw the man that had come in standing over her, quickly figuring out what just happened. that he had just saved her. "Watashi o shinpaishinaide, watashi wa hontōni hayaku iyasu." Alex said in response to the concerned look in the child's eyes, alleviating any worries she might have over him. But once the moment of concern passed the girl's face had hardened with a slightly forced scowl.
"Watashi wa anata no tasuke o hitsuyō to shimasendeshita. Watashi mo hayaku iyasu." The girl pouted, feeling the need not to have to rely on anyone. Alex quietly chuckled as he stood upright again, remembering how the rebellious stage came early for the neglected. But it was the second part of her statement that had him interested even more, I also heal faster. Given whose daughter she was, it wasn't a stretch to connect a few points into a working theory.
"Is that so… interesting. Izure ni seyo, watashi wa anata no shokuji o dainashi ni shimashita. Anata ga tsukutta no wa mubōdeshitaga, watashi wa sore o." Alex promised to make the girl a replacement meal after he had been the cause of the loss of meal in the first place. She looked back up at him with slight surprise at the idea. She watched as Alex checked though the kitchen to see what he was working with, frowning the whole time and muttering stuff in English. She thought that maybe he was regretting making the promise to help her, but in reality Alex was slightly peeved at the limited ingredients he had to work with. He found himself having to pull out every memory from any chefs he had consumed and every reality cooking show his victims had watched, "Only instead of a mystery basket ingredient to deal with… I have a kitchen filled with expired packaged foodstuff and very limited quantity of actual fresh food." Alex grumbled as he went through another cabinet. Eventually he had assembled a… workable amount of ingredients. The girl's eyes widened at the sight of Alex shifting his arm into a bio-claw to chop up some onions. She didn't run away, scream or otherwise display alarm, just continued to watch as he prepared the food.
"Anata wa nanimonodesu ka?" The question was completely innocent. Anyone would ask what someone was after seeing them morph their arm into something else, and the way she spoke lacked any fear or disgust, just curiosity.
"Watashi wa ningendesu. Yuiitsu no chigai wa, hotondo no hito ga watashi no yō ni shinka shite inai to iu kotodesu." Alex replied, giving a honest answer. He was human. Just a little more evolved than most. "Anata wa dōdesu ka?" Alex asked with a slight smile. He knew the true answer, she was a Life Fiber being, but he wanted to see if she knew that and if so what she might believe on the subject.
"Watashi wa ningendesu." So she didn't know, she still thought she was human. There might be more truth to that than what Alex first thought. She didn't give off the same artificial sense of existing as the fake girl he had played with on the roof. She felt more like Ragyo, disturbingly like Ragyo. But the fact that his Blacklight instincts weren't demanding he rip her limb from limb said a lot. It meant that she was human enough to not cause a trigger for hostility from Blacklight. Alex continued to prepare the meal and soon placed all of the ingredients into a pot to let the whole thing cook. "That felt nice… different than what I normally use these things for." Alex said to himself as he splayed his fingers and looked at his bio-claws. He then looked back to the child, his mind racing through all the information currently present to him. As the food cooked and the girl looked up at the stove clearly anticipating the heavenly-smelling meal, Alex was formulating a multitude of plans for the future and how might he implement them. Though he didn't actively realize it, many of those plans were being influenced by both his Blacklight instincts and his subconscious wants and desires. After the timer on the stove dinged and Alex prepared the meal for the girl, he watched passively as she ate before he spoke again, still in Japanese. "Hey kid… if you wanted… would you like to come with me and leave this place?"
Reviews
Helkil - I will see if I can sip them in. Don't have every bit of SR3 planned out and I won't be doing everything they did in SR3 but I can see what I can do.
Amvmaster - thank you and WD fun will be coming but sorry but you might have to wait a while. I have a lot of work to do. Please try to enjoy what I am able to do now.
rmarcano321 - not what you expected huh?
Xalimech - More Constructs are in the works and Revocs and Life Fibers are becoming a little more involved now.
Notsae - yes I didn't want Blacklight to OP the shit out of Life Fibers so I made them slightly immune to Blacklight. Doesn't mean they can't be stabbed to death... eventually.
IAmPedobear - No SR4 as it is too in conflict with sequel plans. Thank you for reading