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 sothing else.
"You should not be here playing around," 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. "What are you even planning to do here? Deliver Pizza? Your talents aren't ant to be wasted like this, you need to be ready."
No, the thing was…this person looked too much like his Father, but Alexanders knew he wasn't.
"Are you okay Alexanders? Your brainwaves are all over the place…" 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 seed more like he was moving in place with him, as if he was part of his vision.
"Really? You stumbled into a nascent AI seed and decided to make a lover? Pathetic, you could have fed it to sothing more important, a City AI, a satellite AI, even a ship AI." The old man continued berating him; he had thought about feeding what helped Sapphire advance into sothing 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?
"There is no one around you, are…are you seeing things? All the sensors return no presence around, so unless an exotic Core User is around, you should be alone." Sapphire was trying to override so orders to try and get an extraction team to get him.
Alexanders could feel 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 to do. Then chose what I wished," Alexanders said, turning to the vision of the blonde old man.
"You are irresponsible, we are Saintsworths. We are the last beacon of hope and wisdom. We are those that should guide civilization." The old man spat in front of Alexanders, "And yet…here you are, playing around? Is this how the Scion of the Saintsworths behaves? You were gifted a chance! A second chance! And you are wasting it!"
"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 sa, the people would turn unconscious, wake up as soone else, or with different mories; 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 na?" Alexanders asked as he stopped and regarded the old man critically . The suit was…not really up to his tastes, but it was sothing he could see himself wearing.
"I am the greatest Scion the Saintsworths ever had, soone who clawed his way to success, from a re slave to the highest reaches. I am Alexanders Saintsworths." 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 I call extra call bullshit on that."
"A slave? Are you…are you speaking with soone?" Sapphire asked on the back, "...you… where is your brain activity?"
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.
"Our Father threw away into the slave pits to test if I was worthy of the na, I of course survived and managed to rise to the top, and your opinion matters not. You think you are awake because of your talent? Hah!" Alexanders felt electricity coursing his body, but he had no control over it. "You are awake because I allowed you to be awake, because I wanted to see what kind of man I had beco on this second chance."
He…what?
No.
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 ti had decided to cut their losses and fall to the back, rely allowing their foundries to sell the raw matter for the war front.
Alexanders knew the Saintsworths had ties with the weapon developnt, but he had done his part for helping the developnt 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.
"Are you really this…stupid?" The old man said, shaking his head, "Should I just erase you? Those who don't learn of their past are dood to repeat it; perhaps I should let you glimpse at our sins?"
Alexander's head suddenly was flooded by an imnse amount of information that bombarded him, most of it was politics and information on technologies, so 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 so applications to…not [Core Powers], so kind of super powers similar to these, so that seed to be based upon manipulating [Mana] too. But working under different rules.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Alexanders even saw so of that information and started applying it, it seed to be…useful.
"No, not that. [This]" The old man grunted and suddenly the images and mories 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.
"Welco, to the crown gem of our legacy. The most advanced city, a fortress city, a bastion of knowledge…Welco to [Aquila], the capital of the Saintsworths Conglorate." The old man descended from the skies in front of Alexanders.
"...How are you doing this? Assuming you aren't a re 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.
"You think I don't know of your safeguards? They are paltry compared to what I had to deal with in my ti." The old man said and snapping his fingers a projection of the real world materializing. Alexanders could see himself standing there unmoving. His body emitting lightning strikes from ti to ti, but none seed to damage the things around him.
Of course he couldn't even see Sapphire anywhere. Was this from the surveillance system?
"So? You brought here old man, what do you want? Are you going to replace ? 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 sothing 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.
"I want nothing from you, you can't offer anything of value. The best thing you have are mories of you wasting ti and playing around. Really, wasting Saintsworth's resources to harass strears? Fighting in comnts with people about if you are or not a Dragon? When we got to 2020, I had already colonized our local star cluster. Where is your space program? Your interstellar program? Your colonies? Your weapons? Your money? Your political might?" The old man said, and with each word, new images appeared surrounding him, images of space colonies that seed to be pulled from science fiction, images of spaceships, of people in the presidential office of major nations giving handshakes to the old man.
…Were…were all of those visions 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.
"No, we were the rulers of this world. All the people in power bowed to us or got removed." 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 co and eat him so he could wake up and run the hell out of this place.
"Waiting for sothing?" The old man smiled at him, as he smirked Alexanders noticed that a pair of leathery wings grew behind him. His shadow seed to expand and form the figure of a gigantic creature.
"...Oh co 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 so of the data that this old man had thrown his way when he was boasting about his achievents, more importantly, the data on how he was even doing this.
One of his Skills, as he referred to them.
"Yes, we are the [Dragon of Calamity]. The reason Terra Invicta faced this calamity, and the culprits of the demise of our world." 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.
"Wha-?" The old man seed to perceive it too, as his eyes narrowed and focused on him, but it was too late.
"See you never! [Trace!]" The naming could do so 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 ntions of the na of the planet being changed at so point.
That was a point of interest to him after all, their planet wasn't called Terra Invicta, but Terra Nova.
—----------
"Alexanders! Wake up! Please! Don't disappear on like this! I will send your search history to all the main newscasters if you don't react! I will even start the marrying process!" 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.
"Co on, I'm not that bad of a match. If anything, you will only get so bullying for marrying an Artificial Intelligence…" 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 it was 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 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 sothing like that?
"You are doing what? Huh…your vitals…are….okay?" 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 becos too tireso, also, prepare the counterasures. 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 so ti, it seed; 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 comnt on the fact that he left a very expensive piece of technology running around?
Impossible.
The bastard would have pointed that as sothing that was the most wasteful thing of all, P4 was the most advanced technology the Saintworths Conglorate had achieved in this century, and probably the only piece of technology that could asure against the achievents the bastard showed him.
But he didn't ntion it?
There was sothing 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 mories, an advantage of whatever this state he was currently in was that he was able to turn his mories into electromagnetic and digital format. How did that even work? The hell if he knew.
This [Skill] 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.
"Alex? Alexanders? You are about to arrive, P4 is on the opposite side from your position in one of the roofs eyeing the combat, she has a briefcase with her, possibly the target of this whole spectacle." 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 so 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 [Skill] 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 innurable 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 wrong.
Even so, he acted as if nothing was happening.
"...I have settled one of your hoverbikes on lower orbit; I can have it hot drop any second. Are…are you sure you are okay? You are bleeding from your nose, and your blood pressure keeps going down…Maybe we can call in a strike team? Purge the whole district? This…" Sapphire kept sounding more and more Human, 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 is enough evidence of 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 lapsing again, pull 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.
"....Do you want to start Alpha Mimic safeguards?" Sapphire said covering her mouth with her hands, that was such a…Human 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 if it cos 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 re program. "If you suspect I am under his control run away, do not stay within radio distance of 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*
"NO!" 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. "I will increase the computational power allotted to my mainfra and start working on a viable safeguard; we will use P9's data to make a scanner to verify your brain's integrity. We will make sure the instant that bastard tries to take you away we can purge him into oblivion, he will loathe the day he shows his face against the Saintsworths."
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 [Skill] 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 ti he shows up." Alexanders said trying to pacify the AI, no, his comrade in arms, the one person he could trust the most. Funny thing how that ended up. "Let's go say hello to my dear little sister."
"Why is she your sister anyway?" Alexanders felt as if Sapphire had said sothing important, but decided to ignore it for now.
"Show ti," He had more important things to deal with now.
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