Well, I think I've settled into my school routine now. I got all my homework done (read: I have nothing due Monday, so I can procrastinate) and I had an idea for this chapter, so here it is.

"...at which point, I joined up with Dita, used giant laser beams to wipe out the remaining harvesters and saved the day." I finish.

Zan looks at me with an odd expression. "You know, when ever battle ends with 'we combined and overwhelmed the enemy immediately' it kind of stops being interesting."

"I know!" I grab another one rice ball Zan had prepared. Her cooking's been improving of late. "I'm still attempting to get Meia to agree to let us just blast the next group we come across rather than waiting around until it becomes clear than we need to."

"Why won't she agree?"

I wave her off. "Something about letting everyone participate. Maybe something about unions and overwork, I wasn't paying that much attention."

Zan puts a finger to her lips to think, absently licking some mustard off the finger as she does so. "I guess we would have to find jobs for the rest of the pilots..."

"Buncha lazy bums." I mutter, despite the fact that I myself fall into the category of pilot. "If we weren't fighting for our lives, they'd want to be treated like kings, never lifting a finger."

Zan looks over my shoulder, smiles awkwardly, and sips at her tea to cover her mouth.

Instead of turning around (the sensible thing to do) I continue. "I mean, just look at Jura. She acts like a queen all the time, and when there's nothing going on she cooks up schemes to bed me." I wait a breath to see if I can hear teeth grinding behind me, but since I don't I change my target. "Meia's too battle oriented to know how to do basic things like cooking, Dita's got her head in the clouds, and any effort she puts in is negated by the copious amounts of UFOs she decorates everything with."

There's still no teeth grinding, but there is a foot tapping. Giving up, I turn around in my seat to find a woman with bright lime green hair with her arms folded and foot tapping away. Er... her name is... uh... I should know this by now.

"...Del?" I ask cautiously.

I can see her veins pop out. "Yes, Del! Why does it take you four times longer to recognize any pilots other than the ones you regularly mate with?"

"Oy! It's combining, not mating."

She sneers. "Not with how they describe it. Meia wants you on the bridge."

"And she didn't just call me? Strange." I look down at my half eaten rice ball.

"Leader said something about you looking too much like everyone else these days." Del flips her hair back over her shoulder. "And to make sure it was you before I got you, no matter how detailed my disguise."

Whoops. Maybe playing that prank a bit too much. I turn back to Zan. "And Del, she's way too uptight. I'd think she was just like Meia, but she has Cel as a sister, so that might be her issue-"

Ah, Del also has a mean punch. My face is smashed into the deck with a double hammer-fist from behind. It hurts, but the rice ball takes the brunt of the impact. After pushing myself back up and adjusting my nose to make sure it's not broken, I turn to Del with false tears in my eyes. "Y-you killed my rice ball!"

"Well, I definitely have John." She mutters to herself, before bringing out a pair of the laser cuffs. "I'm authorized to use these if you don't cooperate."

I sigh and turn back to Zan. "Well, we'll continue our discussion later, my fair lady." I give a exceedingly deep, 90 degree bow.

She dips her head demurely with a smirk of amusement on her face. "Of course, good sir."

Del shakes her head as I turn to face her and we head out down the hallway.

It's been about a day and a half since Halloween ended. I had taken a good long rest, and was planning on doing a few things. One was catching up with Zan, since I hadn't really hung out with her recently, and I felt I needed to rectify that. The second was testing out the limits of my powers. For now, I know I can change myself into other people and change my clothing.

Oh, and I found out that I can instantly dry clothes that are on my body. Otherwise that combat would have been a bit soggy.

Anyway, I wonder if I'll have any time to do those things after Meia's done with me. She's been a bit irritated with how closed-mouth I've been about the future, or rather, how she perceives that to be. Instead, I've had to reflect on the fact that Christmas is still over a month away and... well, I'm ashamed to admit it, but my memory's become even more spotty than usual on regards to the series. I can't remember which episode goes where and I can't remember further than the basic details. After Christmas comes the second lockup by the females, Hibiki runs away, gets rescued by the skin harvestees, watches them go down in flames, and then the Nirvana joins back up to take down schlong ship #1. After that... 90 days until we get to Mejare and Tarak. We find that sarcophagus with... Mindy...? in it. Hibiki goes to the planet of psychics, and there's that second mission. Earth figures out how to make the anti-Vandreads, and there's that final battle. Other than that, I can't really remember. It's been hanging over my head recently, since Meia's been pestering more and more over it.

I blink. Or, rather than ticked at my closed mouth, Meia is ticked with how often I'd answered as her as a joke. Yeah, that seems plausible.

To take my mind off of such unpleasant thoughts, I turn to my escort. "So, what is Del short for?"

She glares at me with eyes that match her hair, in all their acidic glory. "Del isn't short for anything."

"Really? Huh. Cel is short for Celtic and Bel is short for Belvedere, so I just assumed."

Conversation apparently over, I start humming a new tune Zan had taught me, one I don't know the lyrics to yet.

It's only when Del slams her fist against the wall that I come out of my singing stupor. "Er, you okay?"

"Stop. Humming." Del grits out.

"Wha- Okay! Sorry." I take a deep breath. "Didn't mean to agitate you."

"You sure seemed eager back in the hangar." She deadpans.

"Yeah well, that was... Er, I get that I'm generally an ass to everyone, but I don't actively antagonize anyone. Much." I droop. "I'm sorry."

"Whatever. Can we just get back to Leader now?"

"Lead on."

We find Meia in a room near the Paksis, which seems to be some sort of research lab. Also in the room are Duelo, Parfet, and little miss Paiway. Dominating the center of the room is a glass tube that looks like it's designed to contain dangerous liquids, or maybe a zombie from Resident Evil. You know, the classic mad science containment tubes.

And suddenly I have a really bad feeling about why I'm here.

As Meia spots me she pushes off the wall and hits a switch, raising the glass tube into the ceiling. "Thank you, Del. Are you willing to stick around and help?"

Del looks at me for a moment before shifting her eyes back to Meia. "Is he gonna get hurt?"

Meia sighs and glances back to me. "How much trouble did you cause her?" She ask in a weary fashion, as if I did this all the time- oh, right.

"I hummed maliciously." I state. "And insulted her sister."

"Yet you're still unrepentant." Meia turns back to Del. "You can stay if you wish, but if you do you have to keep it a secret from the rest of the crew."

Del's ears perk up and she moves to lean against the wall. Apparently satisfied, Meia nods to Duelo. He step up and looks around the room. "As Meia said, this experiment is confidential, and unprecedented. Please do not share anything you're about to see outside of this room."

I glance at Paiway, who has her hand in her frog backpack and is looking amused with herself. "Okay." I say dubiously. "I suppose I need to climb into the definitely-not-a-vacuum-sealed-kill-chamber now?"

Several winces come from around the room, as I was apparently close enough to the truth there. Whatever, I step onto the circle and calmly watch the glass descend. On the far wall, I can see my vitals being displayed on the wall somehow. Unlike normal checkups, there's no electrodes on my chest.

Before the glass fully descends, I hear a knock on the door, but before I can hear the voices, the glass makes a seal, I hear a hissing and my ears pop, and all sound get's cut off. I tap the glass and I can hear the tik my fingernail makes on it, but this chamber is effectively soundproof.

From the door, Dita and Zan come in, looking at me with slight bewilderment. There's a brief argument where Dita get's literally hopping mad, and then they all turn to me.

I wave cheerily.

Duelo brings up a window, which allows me to hear him. I glance from the window to his face and then back. "Hi."

"Meia tells me that you have some sort of transformative power."

I sigh. "And what else is new?"

He blinks, but clearly decides to ignore that statement. "Could you please give us an example?"

I shrug, glance around the room and turn into Del. The woman in question's face goes a bit pale, especially against her hair. I glance down at my new clothes, which are identical to Del's pilot uniform. Though, it doesn't really feel like spandex.

Duelo is writing down more notes silently, and I notice that Del's voice isn't coming through the viewport despite clearly yelling. I glance over at the real Duelo, and back to the screen. For some reason, the images don't add up properly.

"Do you feel heavier or lighter?" Duelo finally asks.

"Nope. I feel... well balanced." I roll my shoulders. "Del really works out."

"Try walking around."

It's only about six feet diameter in this circle, but I do some very short laps around it. "I'm not stumbling around, if that's what you're getting at." I say.

"No, it's just that your mass hasn't changed. You weigh significantly more than Miss Delta does, yet you have no balance issues. In fact, you weigh exactly the same."

"Delta...? Oh, Del." I smirk in her direction, and she sticks her tongue out and pulls on her eyelid with her middle finger. "So, I didn't lose mass then."

"And it's not interfering with your balance either." Duelo cups his chin. "Parfet, what's the next test?"

"Oh, well, we can test a few more forms first." Parfet smirks. "How about we have him do the captain?"

Duelo looks me in the eye.

"Fiiiiiine." I turn into the captain, which is actually quite painful. It's only after a few seconds of waiting that I realize that the pain isn't going away, and that this must be how the captain is feeling. "Ow, someone get the captain some painkillers." I rub my back. "And someone steal me a walking stick."

"Interesting. You emulate the pain of others, as well as voice." He tabs on his clipboard a few times. "Transform into me."

"Okay." I respond in his voice, already doing so. Duelo is reasonably fit, but I can tell that his foot isn't exactly right. I tap it against the ground a few times but it stays cramped up. "Alright, so now what?"

Duelo stabs his pen into his arm, much to Parfet's chagrin.

I look down at my arm, which clearly hasn't been stabbing by a pen. Well, the reason for that test was obvious. I transform back to my default form and then back into Duelo. This time, there's a mark on my arm and a stabbing pain that gradually starts fading.

"Ow."

Del seems to have cheered immensely all of a sudden, and several of the other women in the room are giving her a look.

Dita walks up to the chamber and starts talking excitedly. I shake my head and mouth "Can't hear you."

She turns to Duelo, and they have a short exchange I can't follow. Another skill the Paksis didn't magically grant me, lip-reading.

"John, please turn into... how is it pronounced? Nepgear?"

"...Oy." I glare at Dita. "At least ask me to be Neptune or Vert. I don't remember the little sisters that well." I picture Nepgear to the best of my ability...

Huh. It's not working. I relay this to Duelo. He in turn says something I can't hear, and several of the others start talking. Dita starts tapping on the wall of the chamber and suddenly I can see what looks like an animator's sketch of Nepgear's model, complete with extended arms. She then rotates the model around.

"Now try it." Duelo says.

Something feels... wrong. My throat isn't wide enough, and everything is too bright. The onlookers all look very disturbed as well. A squeaky voice that does sound a lot like I remember Nepgear's comes from my throat. "Ah, what's going on?"

I can see Zan saying something, her face turning the same shade as Del's hair. I quickly revert back to normal. "No seriously, what was it?"

"You... didn't look human." Duelo says, for once losing his composure. "You actually looked like a 3D model come to life."

I raise an eyebrow. "Oh. So I don't have to limit myself to real humans?"

I ponder a moment, then transform into Bertholdt from Attack on Titan. Again, something is wrong, but this time it's obvious to me as my body collapses due to being 2D. One quick reversion later and I'm propped against the glass, panting. "Okay, so I can mimic things in their own media. Fantastic, if not useful."

"Maybe." Duelo turns to Parfet. "Thoughts?"

"He's clearly not mimicking exclusively from memory, but he needs to have a clear idea of who he's mimicking." She turns to look at me. "Can you do an original person? Or, how about a real body version of a fictional character?"

Like you? Heh, better not say that one out loud. I close my eyes and image the same Nepgear, but with more human features, like correctly sized eyes and more realistic head and neck proportions.

This time, nobody else looks like they're going to be sick, and I find myself wanting a mirror.

"Excellent!" Parfet says. She presses on the wall a few times and a new image shows up, a character I haven't seen before. "Now, can you do this character?"

I do my best to translate that woman's features onto a real body, than create-

OW. WHAT THE FUCK.

I collapse to the floor in pain. My leg has completely given out, and it feels like it's broken. "AhhHHhHhHhg!" I take a few deep breathes to calm myself and glare at Parfet.

"He obviously doesn't need full knowledge to reproduce someone." She says calmly, though she does look a bit apologetic. "I didn't say the character had a broken leg, and the picture clearly doesn't show that either."

I revert back, but remain sitting. "Yay."

Duelo scratches his chin again. "Meia says that you were able to absorb water out of your clothes, and you could take your clothes off, put them back on, and transform them."

I can see three sets of ear suddenly perk up, Zan, Dita and Meia all glancing at each other. I get another sinking feeling.

"Can you take of your t-shirt? I want to run some tests."

I reluctantly doff my shirt, for once glad that I wasn't in my usual body. This one has abs you could grate cheese on. I make it a point to ignore the three stares drilling into me. Wait, maybe more. Del seems to be looking at me pretty hard as well.

"Can you try changing that shirt into some other garment?"

I grab onto the hem of the shirt and imagine a pair of gym shorts. To my surprise, it works. Kind of. It looks identical to a pair of gym shorts I used to own, but it still feels like a t-shirt. A flash of insight hits me. "I don't think I can make one material into another. This is supposed to be Nylon, but it's the same thing my shirt was."

I try to make a duplicate of Meia's uniform, and sure enough it looks right, it's even shiny somehow, but it feels wrong. It's also thinner than it probably should be, my guess is because of how little material I gave it to work with. Maybe if I included my pants-

Mhm. Once quick glance out of the tube reminded me of how bad an idea that would be. "Hey, can I get out of this tube now?" I ask.

"Not quite yet. Now that we know you can change things outside your body, but not transmute them, we should try it with a non-clothing item." Duelo looks around. "Anyone have something they don't mind destroyed?"

Zan reaches into her apron pocket (She's still in her Reg uniform. When did "maid" stop being fancy dress for me?) and pulls out a small scanner we use in the Reg. Duelo takes it from her and sticks it into a hole in the wall he creates with a few more taps. Seriously, I want a computer built into my wall.

The small scanner falls into my hands from the ceiling. I look up to see a hatch closing. "Alright, what do you want me to do with it?"

"Turn it into a gadget from your home planet!" Parfet says excitedly.

Hmm... I have silicon, metal, and some plastic to work with. If I have sufficient knowledge of it, I can probably make it. Maybe not down to each individual transistor...

I try making a 3DS. No dice. Next, a original Gameboy. Again, no dice.

Switching gears, I go to development boards. Beaglebone, nope. Raspberry Pi, nope. Arduino...

To my surprise, I almost get an Arduino. The central chip isn't forming properly, which I guess I can chalk up to me not understanding it well.

Which means... I switch to the dev board we used at college. A small, black board with easy to trace lines, one whose assembly code we had dissected and written.

Just like that, a FRDM-KL25z board materializes in my hands. Of course, in here, I have no way of testing whether it works, but it sure looks convincing.

"That is so cool." I mutter to myself.

"Alright, there's no airborne contaminates let off, so I guess we can let you out." Duelo says, and he presses a button that raises the glass. Immediately, the sounds of excited conversation reach me and blur together until I can't tell who is saying what.

Once the glass is high enough for me to walk out, Dita steps up to me. "That was so cool!"

Zan nods her head in agreement. "I didn't know we had a changeling on board."

"To be fair, I figured it out myself only two days or so ago." I scratch my head. "To be honest, it seems a bit useless given I'm on a spaceship and we fight space battles, but it might come in handy once we get back to Mejare and Tarak."

Zan shakes her head. "If you can make things out of thing of the same material, then you can repair part really effectively!"

"And, you can design really cool costumes!" Dita says.

"And possibly you can infiltrate some planets we land on if they're hostile to us." Meia says. "In fact, you could possibly land on Mejare and Tarak without incident."

Uh-huh, I'd rather not get arrested with the rest of the pirates when we land on Mejare.

"Well, I guess, but for now it's best used for pranks." To accentuate my point, I transform into Meia and turn to Dita. In my best commander Meia voice (Which in this case sounds pretty identical) I say "Have to seen to the repairs on your Dread yet?"

Dita visibly stiffens, glancing between me and the real Meia. "That's really creepy."

Meia glances at me, then at Dita. "Well, have you?"

Dita cows slightly. "No fair. This isn't funny anymore."

After getting lecture on acceptable use of my power (Not allowed to use it without Meia's permission or one of her superior's permission) and then prodded until Duelo and Parfet were assured I wasn't made of nanites, come to cause a grey goo scenario, I was let free.

To a certain extent.

Despite Zan's lunch, I had become really hungry, probably due to exercising my new powers. So I had gone to the cafeteria and grabbed a few bites to eat, only to find that I had hangers on.

Not the usual trio of Meia, Zan and Dita, as Meia is reporting to the captain and BC, and Del has apparently taken a fascination with me. I hope it's not romantic.

I don't need a love pentagram. I already have a love quadrilateral, and it's frustrating.

"So, we should have you dress up as people from our movies!" Dita is saying.

Despite the whole non-disclosure thing, the conversation so far has revolved around the three girls thinking of wacky things to do with my powers. At least they were attempting to disguise their talk by using words like "dress up" and "make" without alluding to superpowers.

"Please no anime gi-"

"Anime girls!" She cuts me off.

I'm so glad Meia can't see me right now. I have a feeling she's be having fun at my expense.

"At least nothing from Valkyrie Drive."

"Nope! I have something better!"

For the third time in less hours, my stomach drops, and I stare down at my unfinished food. "I'm gonna hate myself for asking this, but... what?"

"Queen's Bla-"

I stand up and turn on my heel. No. No no no. Not touching that one with a twelve foot pole. Not if you paid me. Not if you gave me the entire Nirvana as my own.

"Aw, come on, John! It'll be funny!"

I look back at the pleading blue eyes of Dita, the curious, lighter blue eyes of Zan, and the gleeful eyes of Del.

"Right. Because extreme back pain, dressing in less clothes than your bikinis, and excessive gainaxing equals funny."

"Please?"

"No."

"I'll make you a delicious dinner!"

"Yeah right."

Dita and Zan lean in and start whispering to each other. Del smirks at me.

Despite myself, I stick around to see what the two girls come up with.

Dita leans back, a triumphant look on her face. "If you don't, I'll tell Meia that you were messing around in her body!"

...I have nothing to say. Other than I deserve what I do to myself. I think.