"...You gotta be kidding me," Was the first thing that Gabriel said as soon as he found the data from the surveillance system.

He had gone to a sub terminal designed for surveillance before going to fetch the cargo. Why? Because he needed to be absolutely sure that the data was accurate. What did he find?

A series of hidden laboratories that you wouldn't be able to access unless you had the correct clearances. The site had been abandoned roughly two years ago, and Rhapsody had run away around that time.

That meant that the girl had wandered for two years in the sewer system before coming out and have contact with civilization?

And meanwhile, he had to go rescue a pair of brats that had come to spend time as sidekicks in their free time?

Gabriel... Was not a good person, he never claimed to be unlike Eleanore, at least the cameras showed that Rhapsody was fighting well enough against the test subject MS2...

Right... The other child, the one who they had collectively abandoned, no hope, her Core Power had evolved in the worst way possible, it was a cognitive hazard for herself and everyone around, there were doubts about the girl being human at the moment. So much psychological corruption would invariably affect the host too. It was why so many Core Users decided to twist their powers (Like how Gabriel had done, even if he had done it for the wrong reasons).

But that was enough about it, "Send a signal back with this data we found, and tell them to charge double the VVIP contractor, their brats put at risk one of our employees." Gabriel said placing his necklace atop a spare drone, waiting for the beep that signaled the data transfer was complete and then letting go of the drone as his world slowed and he turned into Light.

He had activated his power for the first time and the first thing he did was wait to see if there was any reaction. These laboratories sometimes put mana dampeners, and he needed to ensure he would not be hit with one on the head.

"No reactions..." Gabriel said to himself within the frozen world made out of light. This was good; he had half expected at least one mana dampener, but then again. If he had them, Rhapsody wouldn't have been able to run away.

These types of supervillains always get overconfident in their own security, thinking no one would infiltrate this far in. But to Gabriel this was a good thing, so with a last look at the room he burst into an explosion of light.

Usually, his teleportation would never cause this kind of effect. Of course, he was a trained and fully understood Core Power; he was beyond the point where he would leave a mess because of his use of Core Power.

So why had he left an explosion of light behind?

Because he was pissed, he didn't want any evidence of the madman's machinations behind. Of course, he made sure to teleport the drone away of the room before doing this. It wouldn't do for the data to be lost because of his temper tantrum would it?

This, of course, strained his Core greatly, but it was a fair price to pay for doing this. Besides, he didn't want to waste time. He would go for Rhapsody, deal with the test subject and leave with Rhapsody.

And for that, he needed to go rescue the VVIP brats, so he teleported right in front of them.

"I am Gabriel the Fallen Angel," Gabriel said as he teleported into the room the brats had hidden in, they were... passable.

One of them moved before he even finished teleporting, which meant that he had sharp senses, among the sharpest ones he had seen in a sidekick. The kid had stood and stood in a defensive position in front of his female companion, the dumbfounded face he made was a minus, but his quick reaction still left him with enough points.

On the other hand, the girl didn't react to him, her eyes shone in purple light as if she was using her Core Power.

"[Light], [Angel], [Envoy], [Side character], [Fate defier]." The words came from the girl's mouth, but they seemed to echo within the room.

"Soul... What do you want me to do?" The kid who had stood first said while keeping his eyes on him, "The mask and body armor is of Haephestus' Forge, they are a supervillain organization..."

"He is fine, he isn't one of the bad guys." The girl said while still not looking at him, instead she seemed to look at something else, "We have some time, you can try asking him what bothers you."

"...Are you sure?" The kid said while still glaring at him, he was not lowering his guard, and was not moving from his position, all the while the girl continued looking somewhere else.

"Here is my credential," Gabriel said pulling out a black card with a gold emblem, it was a known credential within the high parts of society, one you couldn't get unless you were well connected.

And one they had earned by working for these leeches of society.

"...I will trust you for now, but if you make the wrong movement..." The kid said as he relaxed his position, not a single moment had Gabriel detected anything out of place from the kid.

As far as he could see, the only thing he had for himself was a good-built body, but as soon as the kid relaxed his stance and stood in a more relaxed manner, Gabriel noticed.

There were holes on the floor, as if something hard and sharp had burrowed exactly where the kid had stood. He hadn't heard anything burrowing though, he did heard the kid's boots as he stood in combat stance.

But that was about it, did he have something on his soles that helped to stand his ground? If so, that was one of the foolishest choices he could have taken. Those devices while they helped, they didn't took into account the health of their owner. And could very well end with the owner having broken bones as their spines and body didn't support the forces that were besieging them.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Tell me villain," The brat said while still glaring at him, "How do the Heroes know for sure that someone is a monster? Because their actions? Their body? Their mentality?"

What was this brat going on?

"What about you Villains?" The brat carried on and on, "Do you frown upon a monster presence? Do you recruit them?"

"A monster you say?" Gabriel said thinking for a second, who were the true monsters? That was easy, the Saintsworths. But this brat shouldn't be asking about that, he was probably thinking of something stupid, "Most monsters you will find outside the walls in the space between the cities, you must have heard about them. The great desert, the mega fauna and the things that hide within the sewer system. Just like the one we are hunting right now..."

Even if there were other monsters parading among humanity as if nothing, the owners of the mega corporations who experimented on their own sons and daughters... Actually... weren't these brats such an example?

"But I guess you are asking about someone else? The Heroes will never ever go after the owners of the mega corporations, you would have more luck in enticing a super villain to do so. But I will advise against that," Gabriel said, shaking his head at the idea. There were a couple of mad enough villains that would accept such a thing, of course, but none of them would allow themselves to be tied down to such endeavors unless you paid them with the company in question. And if these brats were the son and daughter of a CEO... Then all their value stemmed from that, so he doubted they would ever want to do such a thing.

"...What about their descendants?" The kid asked, "If they weren't entirely... human... Would they be monsters?"

"What are you talking about?" Gabriel said confused, "If you feel and think, if you love and regret, no matter how silly something is, then you are Human."

Rhapsody was such an example, a girl that should not be a working member of society, but he refused to ever think about her as a monster.

"I see..." The kid said looking back to the girl he had stood bravely to defend, "... Tell me... If we ever encountered a monster disguised as human, then what are we to do?"

"Think seriously if they are truly a monster or not first," Gabriel said, sighing and shaking his head, "Many Core Users turn to hideous appearances and retain their humanity, while others keep their human form but are rotten to the core. Of course that applies to normal humans too."

Such as the madman who owed this laboratory, and the high council of the Saintsworths.

"Thank you for your help, Villain." The kid said bowing to him, "My name is Body a sidekick who will one day destroy all of those that make monsters."

The kid said while raising his hand offering a handshake.

"I am, as stated before, Gabriel The Fallen Angel." Gabriel said taking the hand in, it was... denser than he had assumed, the kid probably was a physical body user, perhaps one more oriented towards muscle mass, or a reinforcer. Those were always harder to fight as they took more damage to take down.

"She is Soul," The kid continued, "My partner."

"I see..." Gabriel said looking the girl in question, "Is she okay?"

The girl continued muttering something under her breath as her eyes continued glued staring in a direction, the same direction, Gabriel got curios about what was in that direction and turned to the mini map on the side of her HUD.

Merely thinking about looking at it was enough to enhance the map and bring it to the forefront. A quick perusal showed what was in that direction, the combat test arena where Rhapsody was fighting.

"... I like you kid," Gabriel said as he dismissed the minimap with a hand motion, "I really do, but I am a villain. So we have different standards when moving and acting, so since I like you, I will give you only one chance."

As he spoke, he jumped back, his wings of light manifesting behind him, and above them, the bolter rounds he had come to use as means to attack, "What is your partner doing, and what are you two doing here?" The girl was staring straight in the direction that Rhapsody had gone, and the reason Rhapsody had even come here was because of them. This could not be a coincidence, "Don't think I don't know in what direction is your partner looking."

"...We came because-" The kid started speaking, only for the girl to stand up in one motion.

"We came to help," The girl said, staring straight in the same direction as she had, even though Gabriel had stood in the way on porpouse, could she penetrate his defenses even though he was actively getting in the way? "She needs help, my Core told me she needed help."

"She can... hear things," The kid said, standing beside the girl, ready to jump forward. "We mean no harm, if your comrade is there. Then she is the reason we came here to help. I am not sure how we can help, but Soul is sure that she can help her."

"...The reason why Rhapsody is here is because we received the SOS signal from you, and now you are telling me that you came to help her?" Gabriel scoffed at the flimsy excuse, "Don't make me laugh, are you here to kidnap her too? Are you working under the madman who built this place?"

It could be, perhaps they were also test subjects? Some who got indoctrinated? They hadn't found evidence of the master mind, not yet anyway. Vulcanus would find it soon enough after getting the data. And then, they would hunt.

"No," The girl said shaking her head, "She would have come, the [Daughter who defied fate] would have find this and then she would have come to rescue, this was predetermined."

The what now?

"We changed the order to ensure there would be hope." The girl said as her body started to shine in purple light, "And the time is here..."

"Cease the Core activation!" Gabriel said as he shot a warning bolter, the spear of energy was supposed to fly by their side.

*CLANK*

But the boy stood forward and his fist morphed into a black gauntlet that derailed the bolter round to the side.

So he really was a body type core user. Perhaps he could summon that black armor? But then why was his sidekick name Body?

"How long Soul?" The kid said as his body seemed to swell, his body armor gave way as a black armor started to grow under his clothes and come to the outside. It seemed... more biological than a normal Core summon type of power.

Perhaps it was... organic? But what kind of core would do something like that? If anything, this was closer to how Rhapsody's Core should behave...

Oh... Was he an actual Shapeshifter?

"Yes, it's time." The girl said as her eyes started to shine in a stronger purple light, it was almost as if her eyes had turned into a lantern in the darkness, the girl then joined her hands in a prayer form and as she spoke Gabriel felt the Mana around them react and converge somewhere else, "[Stabilize], [Condense], [Birth], [New Hope]."

And with that done, the girl fainted on the spot.

"Soul!" And with that, the boy quickly turned his back on Gabriel and started checking the girl, first the pulse, then the breathing, and he went as far as looking for hidden wounds and whatnot.

"..." For his part, Gabriel noticed the bolter rounds that he had kept around started disintegrating, same with his wings. With the mana being syphoned away, it would be almost impossible to use the outer manifestation of Core Powers.

Hell, he doubted even internal manifestation would be feasible till their own Core started producing the extra mana. Right now...

"...I'm sorry for asking this after having antagonized you." The kid said, turning to him, his black armor was slowly losing luster, but it was still a very solid thing, even if it started to decompose here and there, "Can you keep us safe while we leave?"

"Weren't you going to help Rhapsody?" Gabriel asked as he sighed, he wasn't that sure of being able to defeat the kid, and he wasn't supposed to be going to the field today, so he didn't brought his actual firearm either.

Not that he was going to shoot a kid, he wasn't a monster.

"We did," The kid said looking at the girl that was sleeping on his arms, "I don't know who that Rhapsody woman is. But Soul wanted to help her, so we did."

...Great, he had an unconfirmed Core Power that had allegedly helped Rhapsody, from the words he could understand (The girl had spoken in some broken weird gibberish that sounded weirdly mechanical and glitched, if that even made sense) he got 'Stabilize' and 'Condense'.

Perhaps that was what caused the mana convergence? Had Rhapsody's Core evolved?

He would need to check on that...

"Let's go," Gabriel said walking to the door, "I'm getting you to safety first and then I'll go check on Rhapsody, if something happened to her you two aren't getting out scot-free, got it?"

If all the mana went to Rhapsody... she should be fine, so for now, for now he would trust his gut and get these kids out, with some luck he could pawn them to Superforce, if the SuperHero managed to get here already.

He was late as it was.

"Be safe Rhapsody," Gabriel said looking in the direction that the Soul girl had been watching, "Move it kid, I don't have all day."

Gabriel could only hope that Rhapsody was safe.

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