A Bio-Weapon's Rhapsody

Chapter 7: So you are indeed your own worst enemy…especially if you FOR SOME REASON ARE A DRAGON?!

So far, there hadn't been anything important on the front of supervillains…or heroes. The closest that Alexanders had seen so far had been a report of how they managed to neutralize the Golem a few minutes before the Scrambler arrived.No, the problem wasn't that. The problem had been something else.

It was the image of an old man walking beside him, wearing what looked like a suit similar to those his Father used to wear, not gaudy to those that looked them from afar, but expensive nonetheless.

No, the thing was…this person looked too much like his Father, but Alexanders knew he wasn't.

Sapphire didn't seem to react to this old man.

"Say, just asking but… I'm the only person awake around here? Or is anyone else? Besides the Theater Master." Alexanders said, ignoring the old man in his vision.

He didn't really walk with him, but it seemed more like he was moving in place with him, as if he was part of his vision.

The old man continued berating him; he had thought about feeding what helped Sapphire advance into something else, of course.

He had received inquiries about using it in his CARDINAL system, the AI that would direct his personal project of a super capital city, or into ALBIREO, his system of satellites hovering around the planet; it could even work into ISKANDER, the battleship/supercarrier he had designed.

And yet he decided to stick it into Sapphire,why?

Sapphire was trying to override some orders to try and get an extraction team to get him.

Alexanders could the orders trying to leave, since when could he do that? Granted, the orders got spread using electromagnetic waves, so it should be possible for him to detect and manipulate them.

But not yet; at best, he could discharge electricity and feed it into the suit to emulate magnetism to a low degree.

"I didn't feed the SEED into those things because I didn't want to, I asked myself what I would do, and what the people wanted me to do. Then choose what I wished," Alexanders said, turning to the vision of the blonde old man.

The old man spat in front of Alexanders,

"What the hell are you on about old man," Alexanders couldn't understand who this was, "Are you a ploy of the Scrambler? Or what? You look like Father, but not even he would go on his tirades this much."

So who was it? Alexanders was aware that he was within the area of effect of The Scrambler, but all the reports he got showed the same, the people would turn unconscious, wake up as someone else, or with different memories; at best, they would still be functional. At worst, they would turn ravenous.

But him? He was lucid, walking as if nothing, and could react and move as normal. That or this was a very complex hallucination…But then again, his night terrors were way too complex to be normal dreams-

Oh…

"... What's your name?" Alexanders asked as he stopped and regarded critically this old man. The suit was…not really up to his tastes, but it was something he could see himself wearing.

The old man said; with his words, Alexanders could see lightning dancing around the old man; his hair turned from washed-out blonde, almost silver hair, into golden.

The eyes turned from the sky blue to an azure fire-like, but in this old man's eyes, Alexanders could see the pupil of a reptilian creature.

"...I call bullshit on that," Alexanders quickly said, "Also, I never was a slave, so extra call Bullshit on that."

Sapphire asked on the back,

Well, that sounded concerning, Alexanders pulled on the current vital status and sure enough…He was kind of flatlining all the brain readings, as in…there was not a single reading.

Alexanders felt electricity coursing his body, but he had no control over it.

He…what?

No.

"While Father was never a good person, not even he would throw his own son into slave camps, the latest one was abolished before the first war even started," Alexanders said bringing such data, the Saintsworths had been part of it too, the clan head of the time had decided to cut their losses and fall to the back, merely allowing their foundries to sell the raw matter for the war front.

Alexanders knew the Saintsworths had ties with the weapon development, but he had done his part for helping the development of better technologies too. The weapons part was a part to help them develop more technologies.

Even the P-series test subjects were more of an attempt to create life suited for the exploration of dangerous areas.

The old man said, shaking his head,

Alexander's head suddenly was flooded by an immense amount of information that bombarded him, most of it was politics and information on technologies, some he already knew, others he had not allowed to develop, and a few ones were quite novel approaches to things he wanted to investigate later.

But the most important one? There were some applications to…not [Core Powers], some kind of super powers similar to these, some that seemed to be based upon manipulating [Mana] too. But working under different rules.

Alexanders even saw some of that information and started applying, it seemed to be…useful.

The old man grunted and suddenly the images and memories shifted, Alexanders found himself suddenly in a place that he knew very well. A place that he had been visiting for the past two years more often each day.

—---------------------------

A ruined wasteland and a city in shambles on the back, he was once more in the place he had been having nightmares.

The old man descended from the skies in front of Alexanders.

"...How are you doing this? Assuming you aren't a mere fabrication from the Scrambler. How can you even prove what you are?" Alexanders tried to interface with his bodysuit to make it leave the area of influence of the Scrambler.

The old man said and snapping his fingers a projection of the real world materialized. Alexanders could see himself standing there unmoving. His body emits lightning strikes from time to time, but none damage the things around him.

Of course he couldn't even see Sapphire anywhere. Was this from the surveillance system?

"So? You brought me here old man, what do you want? Are you going to replace me? Is this what everyone goes through when the Scrambler attacks them? They get replaced by an older, grumpier version of themselves?" Alexanders, of course, was going through all the safeties he had thought across the years since he started studying [Core Powers].

This shouldn't be possible, no one could replace the psyche, that was why The Scrambler was so feared, he managed to do something that no one should be able to. But if what Alexanders was seeing was to be trusted, then he was not really replacing people, but using twisted versions of the people to replace them.

The old man said, and with each word, new images appeared surrounding him, images of space colonies that seemed to be pulled from science fiction, images of spaceships, of people in the presidential office of major nations giving handshakes to the old man.

…Was…was all off that things that this bastard achieved? Why? Why was he looking for so much work?

"Oh my god, I was really a cartoon villain?" Alexanders couldn't help but ask. How was he even doing that? It shouldn't be viable, that kind of things only was achievable in fiction.

The old man said with a smirk on his face.

What was even the point? And where was that stupid lizard? Shouldn't he be arriving around now? Alexanders was hoping for that stupid thing to come and eat him so he could wake up and run the hell out of this place.

The old man smiled at him, as he smirked Alexanders noticed that a pair of leathery wings grew behind him. His shadow seemed to expand and form the figure of a gigantic creature.

"...Oh come on, that is the worst cliche of them, you are the stupid Dragon?!?!?" Alexanders groaned at the image.

He, of course, was also reading and studying some of the data that this old man had thrown his way when he was boasting about his achievements, more importantly, the data on how he was even doing this.

One of his , as he referred to them.

The old man said slowly, if Alexanders wasn't fighting for his life, he may have felt bad about this.

Alas.

"Found it!" He was too busy finding his chance to escape.

The old man seemed to perceive it too, as his eyes narrowed and focused on him, but it was too late.

"See you never! The naming could do some work, but Alexanders activated the [Mana] in the way that the Skill had described and felt the rush of energy as his brain was energized once more.

He could see the world slowing down and could even perceive the massive entity that was this monster in front of him; it was almost as if this whole planet was a part of the old bastard.

He really felt as if he was a dragon right now, but Alexanders didn't pay attention to that and instead focused on cutting apart the connection; he would check later to see if there were any mentions of the name of the planet being changed at some point.

That was a point of interest to him after all, their planet wasn't called Terra Invicta, but only Terra.

—----------

What he found himself with as his consciousness returned was problematic.

First of all.

*Bleeeerg*

His face mask opened and he puked a black sludge into the floor, this thing also evaporated as soon as it touched the ground, totally not suspicious at all. No sir. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ NovєlFіre.net

The second part was that Sapphire was rambling once again about marriage.

Really, if she was flesh and bone he may even consider it, the girl was cute after all.

Wait, was he always like this? He wasn't sure.

"Sorry Sapphire, it wasn't you. I am having a little trouble with my senses right now, I have to manually process and control all my body functions. I have no idea how that bastard moved around as if nothing, but I can't do it as well." Alexanders took a deep breath and felt his lungs hold in the air.

He sent the appropriate orders and felt his body start working in full once more; he could detect all the conditions of his body right now, from how much energy he had to how much fatigued his muscles were.

How much O2 was in his bloodstream, at what rhythm his heart was beating…No sane person could survive like this, and that monster of a bastard developed this kind of Skill? What kind of crazed person did something like that?

Sapphire sniffed as she poured over the diagnosis, Alexanders could confirm most of his suspicious checking on those too.

"Let's get going, I need to deal with this before this becomes too tiresome, also, prepare the countermeasures. If I faint, drive the bodysuit in a straight line to the closest hospital outside the area of influence of The Scrambler," Alexanders said, closing the face mask and walking towards the predicted point of contact.

He had been unconscious for some time, it seemed; both The Scrambler and The Theater Master had been fighting according to the intel he was reading, and Alexa was about to stumble into them…

Why was he even doing this?

No wait, had the old man said anything about Alexa? He hadn't…that was…interesting, he complained about how Alexanders lived his life, but didn't comment on the fact that he left running around a very expensive piece of technology?

Impossible.

The bastard would have pointed that as something that was the most wasteful thing of all, P4 was the most advanced technology the Saintworths Conglomerate had achieved on this century, and probably the only piece of technology that could measure against the achievements the bastard showed him.

But he didn't mention it?

There was something on that, that was for sure. For now, Alexanders continued his trek towards Alexa, he had many things that he needed to check, his walk was mostly normal with him speaking to Sapphire about what had happened, and showing her his memories, an advantage of whatever this state he was currently in was that he was able to turn his memories into electromagnetic and digital format. How did that even work? The hell he knew.

This was mostly Dragon Old Man Alexanders shenanigans, the heck if he understood how that man worked. He was still surprised that there was a version of himself so stuck up and grumpy, he was a very carefree person if he said so himself.

But that? That was a man who couldn't have fun even if it cost his life.

Sapphire spoke at the back while materializing herself on the rooftop in question.

On the ground level, he could see a man wearing an overly flashy tuxedo speaking with a man wearing a robe. For some insane and lunatic reason, Alexanders could see the tuxedo man as if he was several people speaking and glitching in and out of reality.

How did he know where he was moving in and out? The hell if he knew, this stupid kept giving him data that was pulling from god knows where.

No, his problem was not that, it was the robed man. He could see an innumerable number of shadowed figures in his shadow. As if it was an unending legion of people clawing at a barrier wanting to move into this reality.

That…that was .

Even so, he acted as if nothing.

Sapphire kept sounding more and more , too, and that was another whole thing that he would need to address.

Was she affected? Or had the AI Core done another logic jump? If it was the second he would dance and maybe start building her a body, if it was the first…Well…he would need to deal with that.

"No, we already started moving. There are enough evidence of me acting, and while I could wipe all the data, I want this identity to be isolated from my public face. So this needs to continue, if…there are any doubts of me lapsing again, pull me out. Don't wait and don't listen to anything I say unless you can also confirm with 100% proof that I am myself. Isolate all my records, including private ones. Even those that I can access, unless it is physically I don't want anyone to have access." He hoped it didn't go that far.

Sapphire said covering her mouth with her hands, that was such a… behavior, the panic and terror in her eyes were quite realistic too.

"Yeah, it will probably not get that bad. That stuck-up asshole will probably not even pretend to be me if it comes to that. But I don't want him to have it easy…Also…” Alexanders stopped moving, did…did he really need to say that? Was it even? Would he…of course not, no Scion of the Saintsworths would worry about a mere program. "If you suspect I am under his control run away, do not stay within radiowave distance to him, isolate yourself and launch into space. Hitch a ride into one of our space probes. They aren't graded for humans, but you should have enough space to survive-"

*holographic slap*

Alexanders of course didn't feel a thing, there was no way a hologram could bridge the gap between real and immaterial, not quite yet anyway.

Sapphire continued spewing curses and plans, Alexanders didn't think any of them had much chance of survival, from what he could glimpse…Even this was the most basic among the things that he managed to nab. It was too complex for him to wield, he was feeling the aneurysm at the back of his head already.

But he could deal with that later, there was a show and debut to start.

"Okay, got it. We fight him together next time he shows around." Alexanders said pacifying the AI, no, pacifying his comrade in arms, and the one person he could trust the most. Funny thing how that ended up. "Let's say hello and make a spectacle to my dear little sister."

Alexanders felt as if Sapphire had said something important, but decided to ignore it for now.

"Show time," He had more important things to deal with now.