A Bio-Weapon's Rhapsody

Chapter 224: Rhapsody’s past

The video started simple enough, a small resume of how this villain had managed to infiltrate the hospital, it was... honestly quite stupid. He merely stated that he was a new worker who was going to HR for his badge, he went on about how he had killed the one that was actually going to get hired and whatnot.Then once inside some misdirection and a simple virus in a data drive was all it took for him to delete the security footage.

Something like this wouldn't work nowadays of course, the Saintsworths had revamped most of their security and increased the amount of care they provided to their descendants.

But then again, this came mostly in the last decade... If this incident was almost two decades ago...

"Did they increase the security because of this?" Gabriel said aloud as he thought more about it, no one ever thought much when it happened. It was quite obvious that an ancestral clan would care about their kids, so why would anyone think too much of it?

But with this knowledge, it brought it all on a different light, had the bastard of Alexanders found about his sister? And how the Saintsworths didn't do anything? The previous head was one for Spartan education after all, he was the type of man who would throw his own people to the wolves if it meant that they would come stronger.

Of course he never actually went over the line, there was no evidence of him actively making life harder for those under him. But if they fell into a pinch? He would merely stand nearby and observe.

But that didn't matter, not right now, not at this moment.

The necklace answered, Gabriel sighed at the answer, he wished this stupid thing was connected to Vulcanus, then they would get the answer faster.

"Show me the experiments, ignore anything that doesn't affect Rhapsody." Gabriel commanded and pulled his chair closer to the monitor, as if he was at risk of missing information if he didn't pay attention.

the mechanical necklace's voice came from the computer.

The madman in the video said as he paced from side to side shaking his head,

"So he is a believer of those rumors," Gabriel said, shaking his head, "No evidence to prove them and merely suspicious insinuations from the Saintsworths themselves."

The man on the video shook his head as if he speaking to a dumb person,

The monitor started showing all types of data, lab results, studies done to other people, and the studies done to what was marked as P4.

"... The bastard only experimented on Rhapsody?" Gabriel grumbled as the data started to flash by the screen.

The necklace spoke as other test results started showing, from P0 to P9. From M0 to M9.

"I get it, I get it." Gabriel said, shaking his hand in front of the device, "Carry on, what more do you have here?"

The madman spoke nodding to the camera,

Then there were photographs of a blonde teenager with tests and a weight measurement as well as a height measurement, the girl in the photos... didn't quite look as Rhapsody did whenever she was moving on her teenage form, but it wasn't that far away from it.

Gabriel wasn't sure if he would go as far as to claim that too,

And sure enough, a video of the blonde girl crying and pleading came next, a video where this same madman ignored her cry for help and shoved a tube into her mouth and force-fed her a green paste... Was that...?

The man seemed quite proud at his mention of what was obviously torture,

No...

The madman said as his smile turned more derranged and derranged by the second.

"Madness... complete madness..." Gabriel couldn't help but say so as he stood and took a few steps backwards, these experiments... they were the same ones that they made Vulcanus go through, or well, the idea behind them it was the same. How much of a human needed to remain for a Core to manifest?

In this case however, the experiment was how much of Rhapsody needed to remain for this alleged Bloodline power to take effect. It was utter madness.

The madman said shaking his head, as if his experiments would serve such thing,

The madman kidnapped a second Saintsworths?!?!?!

The video showed the image of a weird patchwork woman, it was... closer to what one would see in a sci-fi movie of monsters if Gabriel was honest, and besides it, it was the photo of a blonde young woman... Or what remained of it.

The eyes were devoid of light, and tears flowed from them, the eyes of a young woman in absolute despair. Now, it looked closer to what the third and last form Rhapsody had shown them.

"THE BASTARDS!" Gabriel screamed as his fist came crashing down and almost broke the desktop; it was a testament to his self-control that he hadn't blasted the goddamned thing into pieces already.

The madman seemed actually sad of this. He was not aware of how close he had come from his demise.

Vulcanus?

"When was this?" Gabriel asked the necklace, and the date was highlighted a second after, it was... roughly when they started making a name for themselves, just when they went around destroying the hideouts of villains who went into human experimentation.

The madman said on the video,

The video started to move forward. Gabriel saw as more and more parts of what made the blonde woman human started to be carved away. The thighs got removed, and instead, a pair of tank treads were installed. Her abdomen was soon replaced by a metal box, her chest, her arms... Thıs content belongs to novelhall.com

Slowly all that made her human was being taken away, till they finally removed her head.

The madman said with a smile on his face as he walked beside a machine, which resembled a mechanical crab with no distinctive features,

No... It couldn't be...

The... thing spoke in a mechanical voice, he too had heard that voice before, sometimes when Rhapsody spoke of certain concepts she defaulted to that mechanical emotionless voice, he also had heard it from the recordings when Eleanore spoke to the entity that claimed to be Main Core.

The madman said nodding,

"You all will be immortal all right, I will make sure every piece of shit that wants to follow this type of research will think about you and then decide to better blow their own brains out!" Gabriel said as he glared at the monitor, "Tell me, there is something relevant here or can I blow this place to kingdom come?"

The necklace said and the video moved forward once more.

The image of the madman came into view once more,

The image shifted to one of a man in a body armor fighting Rhapsody on her mechanical form, the man in the video seemed to discharge a few lightning bolts whenever he was near Rhapsody, but Gabriel was only able of seeing it because of his own augmented senses. The armor also seemed familiar enough.

"Bring up the data of The Delivery Guy," Gabriel said, and a photo of the new vigilante/hero/Villain came into his heads-up display. The body armor was, similar enough that he could see some pieces matched, was it the same guy?

Surely it wasn't. If this person was a Saintsworths he should be able to storm this place... Unless... There was something he wasn't seeing.

The madman continued speaking as if the musings of Gabriel didn't affect him, but then again, it was a recording, there was no reason why it would stop only for him.

The same suspicion he had?

Then there was data on mythological creatures, entities that turned into other people, entities that stole other people's identities... And finally, entities that could mimic someone else,

That... explained many inconsistencies with what Rhapsody was doing. And explained what kind of creature she was tied to, the only question was... Did she awaken to this Core because her own identity had been stripped of her?

And... When did she awoke?

The video continued,

That was the last video file that was there.

The necklace stated as Gabriel stood and blasted the device to kingdom come, no one could ever find out about this. It was bad enough when someone discovered the nature of another person's Core.

But this? This fits too well.

"Can you find where Rhapsody is at the moment?" Gabriel asked, he still wasn't sure if he should even tell Rhapsody about her past. Had she actually stolen her own identity? What was the real identity of Rhapsody? The happy-go-lucky girl that she acted as a child?

The girl who craved recognition as a teenager?

The young woman who went clubbing with Sylph?

The necklace said as Gabriel put on his mask once again, he had access to his HUD even without it, but it was a thing about feelings more than anything,

And then he got it, the signal for rescue from the VVIP that Rhapsody had been following. And it was within the facility, in an isolated area that had no connection to the normal layout.

Great, now he had to babysit while also thinking about what to do with Rhapsody and this new data... A new data that Vulcanus would have access soon enough...

"Give me the coordinates," Gabriel grumbled, perhaps he would need to go to Billy before speaking with Vulcanus. He could already imagine what Vulcanus would say about this.

But for now, for now he had easier things to deal with. Like a pair of brats that had managed to sneak into a very dangerous supervillain base.