Chapter 261: Chapter 261

The morning came as always comes, but what was different was that what she found when her awareness came back was surprise, she had expected to open her eyes within the separated space designated for Maintenance.

She had thought of a few strategies to calm down Alexa and get her to the side while she worked, half sure that Alexa would have showed with all the good intentions to help during the Maintenance.

"Ale cheated!" And instead she woke up on the same bed she had fallen asleep, with a wet pillow under her face and a blanket thrown to the side. Also the screams of Alexa at the back of her mind.

"Alexa?" Ale couldn't help but say while stretching, it was... surprising, she clearly remembered going to sleep with her street clothes, and yet she had woken up in a pair of comfortable pajamas.

Had she been changed while asleep? By who?

"You cheated! You somehow made it so Alexa missed the maintenance thingy!" Alexa contained complaining at the back of her mind, "Alexa wants to help too! Ale doesn't have to do it all by herself!"

That... made her stumble, for some reason. Ale was not sure why, she had known that Alexa would do just that, even like how she acted, Alexa was a sweet girl who cared in her own way for those close to her heart.

It was something she had expected to happen after all, yet it surprised her nonetheless.

"You didn't do the maintenance either?" Ale asked standing up and finding a pair of slippers ready for her, they were also her size, fitting neatly on her feet. That was... creepy.

"Nu-uh!" Alexa denied it, Ale could almost see Alexa sticking her tongue towards her while closing her eyes and puffing her cheeks at her, "Alexa was ready to help! She had prepared a cute outfit and her favorite pen to help Ale do the maintenance thingy!"

....That trully sounded like something that Alexa woudl come up, she probably was quite hyped about helping doing that chore of a workload wasn't she?

"I truly didn't do it by myself, I was too tired yesterday to even think about quick-starting it myself, so perhaps we can do it right now." Ale said smiling, she was ashamed of the fact that she had thought Alexa would merely try to get on her way.

"...You didn't?" Alexa asked confused, "But... the alarm isn't there anymore."

"What alarm?" Ale asked confused, as far as she was aware there wasn't any sign or alarm to tell them when it was due for maintenance checks, they mostly went by rough feeling and guesswork from Alexa's state and what they themselves experienced.

Most of the Maintenance had been like that, done after something that changed or affected them greatly. Each achievement or event that happened would move the next Maintenance closer and closer.

There was no way that after what had happened... After what they went through one wasn't due.

"The maintenance alarm thingy!" Alexa said once more, "It's gone! Not only the light, but the whole thing!"

...Was there something within the mindscape that only Alexa could see? Or was she interpreting data in this way for some reason?

"Main Core, Core." Ale said narrowing her eyes and pinging both entities, if someone knew what had happened, it would probably be one of them, honestly. It was probably Core the one at fault here, "What happened to the Maintenance, wasn't it due?"

[No maintenance needed at the moment, all programs and databases are within working order.]

There is no longer any need for regular Maintenance, the stability within the Conscious Stream has equalized. All that is needed to keep it working as normal can be achieved by regular automated diagnosis and defragmentation.

Host no longer requires to partake on this.

...That was... convenient.

"Yay!" Alexa cheered from within the mindscape, "We can eep all night long then!"

Of course Alexa would think as such, Ale for her part found it very convenient, just when she wanted to question and peruse some of the data they had access while the Maintenance was being done.

Ale had noticed it in one of the latter ones that they could see all that made them from a higher vantage point during Maintenance. How they acted and thought, even the things they weren't aware were thinking. Such as the reactions and how their subconscious behaved was available during the Maintenance.

She had planned to see if there was a tip in there about why things had moved as they did. Why people seemed to react in the way they reacted to them.

But that only meant that Ale would need to find another way to check on that. It didn't mean that she was out of means to check on that.

"Now you see," Ale said, nodding and dismissing the blue screen that had manifested itself in front of her, "It seems we no longer need to worry about maintenance runs... at least in our immediate future."

Ale didn't see that as a bad thing, if anything it just highlighted more issues for her to worry about and think, namely, the timing of this announcement. Or well, it wasn't even an announcement, more like a confirmation.

Why had their Consciousness Stream suddenly turn more stable?

Was it because Alexandra had left?

The regularity of these maintenance runs had diminished after Main Core left them, and now that Alexandra was gone, they had outright disappeared.

Were Ale and Alexandra straining Alexa?

Surely that wasn't. Ale had seen the size of Alexa's Consciousness Stream and compared it to the size of Ale, and Alexandra's Consciousness Strand was ridiculous. There was that much difference between the two.

"Gnuuu..." Alexa for her part still seemed ready to complain about this. "You win this time."

But at the end only said as much, "Do you want to come out now?" Ale said preparing herself, she had liked being out, but knew that Alexa probably wanted to stretch her legs, it was a surprise the fact that the girl had let her this much out. Usually she would want to come out by now.

"Alexa can spend a little more time here." Alexa answered as such, "She wants to continue working on her surprise gift!"

"Don't peek!" And like that Ale felt the window into their mindscape close, not in the mean that she was unable to return of course, but more so in the way that she... couldn't see what was happening inside, she could still get a feeling for where it was and how to access it, but seeing what was happening inside was impossible.

"That is one weird feeling to have." Ale said shaking her head, "Fine, then I guess I'll go and see what I can prepare for breakfast..."

Ale decided to think about how Alexa had done that in another occasion, for now she was getting hungry. They hadn't been able to stockpile nutrient-dense food after coming here.

That was among the list of things she needed to prepare, while they could probably source some nutrients from the [Banked storage], Ale didn't want to sap biomass from there unless it was truly needed.

Since they could source biomass and nutrients from literally anywhere, she could get as how Alexa had done with their first attacker in that dark alley, or getting from the local fauna. Plenty hostile animals had been found in the sewers after all.

So walking towards the door to the hallway, Ale opened and first was surprised by the glare of light entering the room, the first thing that Ale noticed after the glaring light was the smell.

It smelled like honey, chocolate, and... were those pancakes?

The second thing she noticed was the sound and disinterested wave of a blonde man sitting at the table, "Oh, she awake. Morning sleepyhead." Ale of course knew who this was.

It was one of the few people that knew the most about Alexa, and probably one of the most dangerous to their current situation.

At the other side of the table was the figure of a scowling black haired woman who, unlike Alexanders, was not eating from their plate.

"Good morning Ale," Instead she turned to look at Ale and smiled, "Hope you had a nice sleep? I took the liberty of changing you into that. I hope you don't mind, I tried getting your brother to do it... But he refused."

"I mean... I just said that she is a growing girl and I am a man." Alexanders said shrugging, "I also said that I didn't mind doing it so long you didn't make it weird."

"YOU MADE IT WEIRD, YOU PERVERT!" Miriam Eversoul said raising their voice, ".... Ale probably wouldn't have any issues unless you brought it like that!"

"I would probably not have issues before he said it like that." Ale said nodding, "I have them now... Or I would have them but..."

Ale turned her eyes to the side of Alexanders. The figure of the purple woman was floating, eating from a plate of pancakes, too, but neither Miriam Eversoul, in front of Alexanders, nor Vivian Kellet, who was nonchalantly cooking more food in the kitchen as if this was normal, seemed to react to her.

"It's fine Ale, you aren't his type. He does like them somewhat petite but not underage, so if you somehow keep that figure(Even with the Saintsworths' blood running in you) for another six to seven years, then he may take an interest in you. For now however, he is just messing with that bitch." Sapphire said lazily, Alexanders didn't react to this, meaning that the purple-haired woman was telling the truth... to some degree.

Ale wasn't sure how much it was the truth, since that woman was... not particularly petite, that is to say, she was loaded with all the possible plot that dress was capable of holding.

"Do you want yours with banana, strawberries or normal?" Vivian Kellet asked from the kitchen, turning to Ale, "Or are you a weirdo like your brother and will ask a custom-made with a recipe pulled from the net?"

Ale took that as a cue to look into what Alexanders was eating.

"...Mango Pancakes?" Ale asked surprised when she saw them, these were the same type of pancakes that Alexandra had made... "Those... if possible."

"So you like them too?" Vivian Kellet asked sighing, "Give me a few minutes. Didn't think anyone else would ask for them, should have guessed you would be like him."

"I am just taste testing them after seeing the recipe floating around." Alexanders said, shrugging, "I wouldn't have thought you had this type of talent, Vivian."

"Cooking just requires you to follow the recipe, compared to sequencing the genetic code from a database, which is harder in comparison." Vivian Kellet said turning her attention to the stove once more.

"That is an unfair comparison, I could say that anything is easier than creating an artificial intelligence as advanced as a human mind too." Alexanders grumbled it was in moments like these that Ale couldn't help but see the similarities between this blonde asshole and Alexa. "I just came by to drop some of your things sis."

And after saying as such Alexanders pointed to the side with his fork, "Some clothes I found, your battlestation and some of the toys that Alexa had." As the blonde man continued listing the stuff that he had brought, Ale got an info dump sent her way with a message and a few new files for her database.

[Do play along Ale. Neither Vivian Kellet nor Miriam Eversoul truly understands what you are. The clothing was made up to your body specifications, and Alexa's body specifications. We got that from the core dump you did before.]

And there was a 3D map of her body and Alexa's body, from the tip of her hair to the bottom of her feet. Same for Alexa, everything was mapped out, which it was... it shouldn't come as a surprise, since the nanites ran through her body at all times, it was obvious that these data was somewhere up within her AI Core.

But she didn't have access to this data, and neither had Alexa ever said anything about it. Whenever Ale needed to focus in a body part she had all the information about it of course, but she hadn't thought about how much data there was that she didn't have access.

[Also the toys I said are stuff Sapphire picked up that she thought Alexa would like. The battlestation is the original by the way. Vulcanus sent it my way so I had it there, all your data is still there so you are welcome. You may want to address your fans' worries, a few think I sent a hitman your way. If you need any kind of evidence to stir the drama, do ask. I always enjoy feeding the trolls.]

... What was this madman talking about?

"Thank you..." Ale said confused and surprised, "... Will you stay?"

Ale wasn't sure why she asked that, but as soon as the words left her mouth she noticed as if there was a shift in the room.

The first to react was the purple woman who started laughing, dropping her plate, not that it fell to the ground, since it was a virtual representation, it merely remained floating there as if nothing had happened.

"I..." Alexanders was the second to react but merely turned to look at Miriam Eversoul who opened her mouth and closed it, "... will think about it. For now I came by only to leave this, I do have work to do and some stuff to take care."

"I see..." Ale answered, somewhat conflicted, she should be happy that he wasn't going to remain, as Aelxanders was more of a danger than anything.

"But he will be coming by often!" Miriam Eversoul finally reacted and said as such, "Right Alexanders? RIGHT?!?!?"

The black-haired woman kicked Alexanders under the table; she was not subtle about it either.

"...Ouch!" Alexanders complained at the sudden kick, "I guess? Sapphire, can we fit it in the schedule?"

The purple woman "HAHAHAAHAHAHAH!" Who was still laughing summoned a blue screen and started to scroll through it, swiping her hand now and then, "Yes handsome."

Sapphire's voice came from the speakers of a phone that was set up on the table, "We can add at least two visits per week, if you don't mind removing some of the meetings with the high council we can increase it up to four visits per week."

"... You heard it kiddo," Alexanders recomposed himself and said while turning to look at his mango pancakes, "At least two times each week, we will see how it goes afterwards."

"....See? Everything works out." Miriam Eversoul nodded, "I'll work from my side too to ensure he has the needed free time, he will be here so much you will regret asking to see him!"

Ale nodded at that, unsure why she was feeling relief from that.

"Here is your breakfast." Vivian Kellet said placing a plate of food in the table, "Do you want chocolate? Coffe? Soda? Milk? Milkshake?"

Ale walked slowly to the table sitting in front of her plate of food, "Chocolate is fine....?"

It wasn't even a second later when a glass of chocolate was put in front of her.

"So, what are your immediate plans then?" Alexanders decided to ask at that moment, right when Ale picked up the fork and was about to start eating.

"My... plans?" Ale asked, confused, her immediate plans had been to get back to their home or to a safe spot... But this was safe right?

So what was she supposed to do now?