Chapter 343: Corpo BS

"There is no way in hell… why is Alexa rank A?" [Fan Girl] complained as soon as [Big Brother] showed them their rankings.

"I am intrigued by this too." [Meat Shield] chimed in unhelpfully. "I would think I pose more danger than Skye."

"That's why I didn't want the stupid rank to be here." [Big Brother] sighed, "Here, look at mine and you will understand it."

[Big Brother] then pulled out his own blue screen, so Alexa took the chance and peeked!

"Ah yes, nepotism." [Fan Girl] said nodding, "We know for a fact that you are a Core user. So that's a lie too."

"It hasn't been updated okay." [Big Brother] grumbled, "I want to add the [Core User] but Sapphire keeps saying that we need a big reveal, not a silent one."

"…Then if it hasn't been updated why are you Rank A?" [Meat shield] pointed out.

"Hmm…" Alexa pondered, "This one smells like its like… almost a year old?"

"Somewhat around that time yes." [Big Brother] nodded at Alexa's point, "Around when we were setting up Albireo and her system for Aquila. I was the first to be registered, and we use the same metric your kind loves…"

"Our kind?" [Fan Girl] arched an eyebrow at that word, "You mean 'Our kind', as you are too a Core user now."

"Wannabe Heroes, Villains and everything in between." [Big Brother] corrected [Fan Girl], "You all crave for these meaningless labels. And do you want to know what metric is used for these ranks?"

"We will not like this, will we?" [Fan Girl] said turning to [Meat Shield].

"Please tell us." [Meat Shield] was more sedated when speaking to [Big Brother], like he should!

"You will not." [Big Brother] said with a very big smirk on his face, "Feast your eyes at the reasoning behind the S-List to F-list!"

"That's stupid." [Fan Girl] sighed as she pointed at the blue screen where [Big Brother] had brought forward, "This is stupid."

"It is very self evident if you ask me." [Big Brother] shrugged, "If you are a normal criminal attempting to be a villain. You get into the normie list, F-List."

Then a blue screen came out from nowhere and materialized itself besides the main blue screen, in there a few videos of weird people dressed up in costumes trying to commit crimes, fighting against other people dressed un costumes in fistfights.

"Here we have the F-List examples. People that you find out in some communities, normal civilians trying to get into the big leagues and what not. Like this one, Sparrow Man vs The Harlequin." [Big Brother] pointed out a video of a man dressed in brown clothes and a feathery cape fighting a guy dressed in a green carpet-like suit he was wearing a weird hat that had two cones for some reason? That didn't look comfortable, at all, "If we move up the list, we find ourselves with those that are on the E-list."

An image of two young Heroes of justice suddenly showed up, two brave heroes who worked their hardest to achieve their achievements!

"It's Alan and Glory!" Alexa said doing tippy tap jumps and pointing at the blue screen!

"People who are a menace but only against other people." [Big Brother] didn't acknowledge Alexa tippy tap jumps! "Fancy interesting powers, but ultimately, they are only effective against other people."

"… Why are they that low?" [Fan Girl] was the one to ask, not Alexa. Because Alexa understood the intricacies of the complex system that [Big Brother] was explaining, "It makes no sense that they are in the E-List if you and Alexa are on the A-List."

"They can at best become a menace to other people. They have no feasible way to to go beyond threatening people's livehoods, establishments or organizations." [Big Brother] said shaking his head and smirking a little, just a little! "Honestly, I had hopes for them… They had to go and cripple themselves… Or well, I guess the Harmonia brat still has some hope."

"That does not explain why you put yourself and Alexa that high." [Fan Girl] still complained about that, she was not very mature, unlike Alexa who accepted things as they were!

"Let's move to you two then." [Big Brother] sighed, waving his hand and changing the images on the blue screen to videos of [Meat Shield] and [Fan Girl], "As you can see, Eduardo has proven capable of destroying buildings and ruining business. No complaint on his grade I assume?"

"Not from me." [Meat Shield] said shaking his head, "I would say Skye qualifies well on her assignment considering his Core Power."

"You would be wrong." [Big Brother] shook his head as the focus shifted to the video of [Fan Girl] hovering on the air and speaking at the communicator on her mask, "Skye Venti, alias Sylph. She shown the ability to scout effectively and also the common sense to stay outside the range of his enemies. She also showed the necessary skills to effectively ruin the day and direct her fellow coworkers effectively and neutralize the reinforcements of a lower end Saintsworths establishment. Which means she gets the pass into the B-List."

"Lower end Saintsworths establishment?" [Fan Girl] said with an arched eyebrow, "It was a Saintsworths Bank."

"One with no Saintsworths security." [Big Brother] pointed out, "And one that while had our emblem, it didn't have the golden eagle. So yeah, lower end stuff."

Then with the flick of his writs, the blue screen then shifted to images of [Big Brother] on meetings with other people, of him signing documents and in one particular image of him pushing a red button.

"Alexanders Saintsworths, your boss." [Big Brother] started, "One word from me, one push of a button… and your city stops working. That's it."

"… Oh… right…" [Fan Girl] said as she slowly turned her face to look at [Big Brother], "You were that kind of asshole."

"I mean, the list is very specific in what calls A-List danger entity." [Big Brother] pointed at said blue screen which had the list, "Threat against cities and stability. I can wreck most cities with a few calls, and this are my personal effects that I can do with stuff that is mine, not Saintsworths endorsed. But actually assets I own."

"Then Alexa…" [Fan Girl] turned to look at Alexa, "Why is she there?"

"You damn well know why she is there." [Big Brother] said in a serious tone, "Because she is my sister."

Only for all the pressure that had been building up made [Fan Girl] deflate to the ground.

"Honestly, if she asked me to destroy a city… I am not sure I would say no." [Big Brother] then turned thoughtful, "I would probably find a way to convince her to not do it. Or just move the people out into a new city. I do have a new place that kinda could do with more people… So it would be a win-win scenario."

"Please don't joke about that." [Fan Girl] sighed shaking his head, "I almost thought Alexa could destroy a city by herself."

"Alexa can." Alexa helpfully said, "Ale can too! She almost did it once!"

"She what?!?" [Fan Girl] shrieked, "When?!? How?!? What?!?"

"In the last mission." Alexa pointed at the blue screen, changing the contents to a video of Ale setting out one of the wiggles. "See? If that thingie had left the area, that could have destroyed the city!"

"Oh… So that's what that alarm was for…" [Big Brother] said nodding, "Can you send this video my way Alexa?"

"Alexa can!" Alexa then proudly moved her fingie "[Main Core] do the thing!"

"*Beep*" And a beep sound came out of [Big Brother] "Thank you."

"The hell is that?" [Fan Girl] asked next, pointing at the video that Alexa had given them as evidence, "It looks like… a tentacle monster? An ocean megafauna? What is that?"

"That is based in one of the offshoots amoeba that dwell deep in the Mariana trench." [Big Brother] helpfully showcased another image at the side, it kinda looked the same didn't it? "One that was tempered in a mana rich environment to make a Core trigger event… or I think its based upon that at least."

"And Ale made those?" [Big Sister] said confused, "Why would she spawn something like this?"

"And what is her rank if she can do this? Also A-List? Or is there something above that?" [Meat Shield] asked next, right! [Big Brother] hadn't said what spot did Ale have!

"…Alexa, can she still do these things?" [Big Brother] asked Alexa, he didn't doubt Alexa, that's why Alexa loved [Big Brother]! He always trusted Alexa! Like he should!

"Alexa doesn't think so." So Alexa answered truthfully! "Ale may be able to do it again, but right now she could maybe make the smollest one, but not one that could grow as big."

Not unless she managed to connect back to Alexa like before, but that would be walking backwards, so if Ale didn't want that, Alexa wouldn't force it.

"Then she keeps her previous spot." [Big Brother] said raising his finger towards the blue screen, showing up Ale's rank in the list!

"D-List?" [Fan Girl] seemed confused, "That… doesn't look right."

"She has more potential than either of us. Why is she so low?" [Meat Shield] also asked, "The amount of damage she is capable should put her at least on my same level."

"Usually… I would say the same, but the thing is…" [Big Brother] sighed as he showed the videos, "She is more of an anti personal fighter than anti building."

The video showed her fighting in the sports festival, then how she fought on the sewers and finally… The fight against Meli-Meli.

"Even at the highest recorded attack, she had to sacrifice and damage herself to achieve a high burst of damage. And even that." [Big Brother] slowed the video and showed how the bullet hadn't hit Meli-Meli, "She didn't quite hit the spot."

[Big Brother] then sighed and turned to look at the list, then to [Meat Shield] and [Fan Girl].

"Another way of seeing would be by the amount of people you can affect." [Big Brother] then changed the blue screens, this time he left them empty and he started drawing on them, "The lowest point is a [Core Power] that can affect just some people, the more people you can affect at the same time, the higher you go into the list. At her most highest point Ale demonstrated the ability of being able to fight against multiple people at the same time, but that is still anti personnel. She has no ability to cripple an organization effectively."

Alexa grumbled at that, if Ale put herself to the task, Alexa was sure that Ale could cripple a few petty organizations!

"Don't get me wrong, I do think she could be higher on the list. But at the end of the day, she currently doesn't have the ability to do so." [Big Brother] shook his head, "Albeit, that is right now. These are just measurements for the people around to mess around, and are not definitive. We will use our own measurements internally. And you can be sure as hell these will not be so vague."

"Wait what?" [Fan Girl] was the one to react to this, "What do you mean with… higher? Aren't these set for life? I mean, we can find new applications and what not… But aren't Core powers kinda set?"

"You didn't pay much attention, or they didn't tell you?" [Big Brother] asked, "No, they should have told you. I am sure they did at some point, then are you just… baiting?"

"I don't know what you mean." [Fan Girl] said while turning to [Meat Shield].

"Will you encourage Core Evolution?" [Meat Shield] was the one to ask, "Further refining our [Core] to increase our power? Or what is what you mean."

"That could be a way to see it I guess." [Big Brother] nodded, "But I mean that we will teach another way to deal with [Core Powers]. You see, I have been studying them since I was a little kid."

[Big Brother] smiled evily! He was planning to do evil stuff!

"Among the things I found was that… [Core Users] and [Core Powers] are utter bullshit." [Big Brother] hath spoken!

No wait, that was bad! He was badmouthing the powers to be!

"You have someone praying fervently for something, so they get a monkey paw that grants their wish." [Big Brother] put an image of [Eleanore] praying near her bed, only she looked smaller! Like Alexa sized! "You have people who believes that because they live among people with animalistic powers, they will become one of them. You have people that believe that because their trigger event was in a high stress scenario, they NEEDED to consume human flesh, so they became monsters. You have people that believe that since the experiment failed, they became monsters… And then you have people with an utter belief in themselves, that the power should work in a certain way, so they get a power that reflects that…"

The images then flashed faster and faster, from [Snout Nose] that Alexa hadn't seen since that first time they got the introduction to [Hephaestus' Forge] to [Frank The Beetle] passing by [Sam] and for the briefest of seconds [Big Brother] showed on the screen too!

"They all have powers, they all have the same source, so they all should work the same. And yet they don't. Why?" [Big Brother] then turned to [Fan Girl] and [Meat Shield], "Why do your powers work like that? Do you believe in the [Wish] theory? Or do you think your environment had something to do?"

"I had my powers from the start, you know that." [Fan Girl] was the first to answer, "I don't know what or how I got them. From the moment I was aware, I had them."

"I wished for a sturdy body." [Meat Shield] spoke next, "So I guess I do believe in the [Wish] theory."

"Well, then does that mean you think I wished to be a battery?" [Big Brother] said as he raised his hand and Lightning was discharged from there, "Do you think [The Scorcher] wished to be a flamethrower? Do you think all [Tinkerer Core] users wanted to be tinkerers?"

"I don't know." [Fan Girl] answered annoyed, "What does it matter?"

"It matters, because I don't believe for a second Mana doesn't have hard rules." [Big Brother] then pointed at Alexa, "What do you think Alexa. What did you wanted?"

"Alexa wanted to be happy!" Alexa answered with a smile, "That's Alexa's wish!"

"See?" [Big Brother] nodded and ruffled Alexa's hair, two things in one motion! As expected of [Big Brother], "My wish also makes no sense in what power it granted me. If that was what granted me my power. So that means that there are more to the wish theorem. So the schools in this city study this phenomena. And by doing so, they seek to further the power and mastery of all [Core Users] that end up enrolled here."

"So the thing about all of them being independent…" [Fan Girl] asked as she pulled out her pamphlet.

"Its the truth." [Big Brother] answered, "But that does not change the fact that ultimately they all work for me."

"Fricking corpo bullshit." [Fan Girl] cursed at the heavens, all the while [Big Brother] laughed like the evil last boss that he was.

Everything was all right in the world.