The startled swarm woman spun around to view what had so suddenly broken the silence of the pits.

A woman stood at the back of the room in front of what looked like a laptop on a tripod. Most of the computers, and other monitoring equipment in the room was charred and blackened. An explosion had recently rocked the room, destroying them and most likely allowing her and the swarms awakening.

Be that as it may, this tripod computer looked brand new, untouched, as did the semi-transparent woman in front of it, A hologram of some kind then.

She was quite sure the machine was not in the room when she first emerged from the pit before her "fight" with the ant. She would have been far more interested in the more obvious source of potential information.

Her swarm instincts wanted to eat the laptop, it was like she was suddenly a starving beast presented with the world's juiciest steak. That was new. Yet it made sense, her current "dark vision" was more like a visual display of all the data from her scanners, as there was no light before the hologram. Scanners she only had because the swarm ate a ton of monitoring equipment from both pits, before trying to eat her. So she could now add those scanners to herself like she used to add the venom glands of a spider to her K9 teeth or other shapeshifting nonsense. The feeling was kind of like a more primal version of her need to know what made the giant ant tick. So while it was a new feeling, she could appreciate a literal hunger for knowledge if she thought about it like that.

The holographic woman looked just like her, somehow, and yet not at all. The hair was red instead of her jet black. The woman had freckles and pale pinkish white skin. The woman smiled, she was patiently waiting, while Omega got her thoughts in order. Omega was clearly of Asian descent, but a bit darker, maybe African and Asian. Would anyone this far after the end of the world even use such terms anymore?

Yet despite this, it was like looking in a mirror. like what she might have been like in a past life, or a parallel world. Maybe this person was also a shapeshifter and this was just how she felt like looking today. Maybe it was because they shared the same Ice blue eyes, not that Omega had seen her eyes in a mirror, yet Basic Information gave her a decent idea what her main form looked like.

Omega's ruminations were cut off by the holographic woman speaking."Good morning little sister" the woman spoke cheerfully "I am you" she paused for a moment "But also not, a personality imprint. My creators' designation is Alpha. You are a clone of her made as a weapon to fight her."

"Uhh..... ok" omega spoke hesitantly, a little taken aback by the info dump. She knew she was a clone, it was in her basic info about her creators "Then how are you here? Who are we, who are you, or maybe who was/is she? Also; What do you want?"

"Good Questions" the Alpha hologram paused, giving the look of someone considering something. "I am not the real Alpha, she left the earth along with all the other deadly sins and all or most of their other aspects. Aspects are what we call the various versions of the seven deadly sins, aka, the Family. For example, Pride could only have 1 'self' per world, so Alpha, was the ‘Earth Pride Aspect’, of whom I am a small personality Imprint” She paused, seemingly to make sure I was following her so far. “Alpha or Pride, also had a self in a pocket universe ‘Tera’, one on the moon, ’Ange’. There was another one exploring the solar system and stars, her name is ‘Mona’. All these powerful people doing research and sharing memories and experiences. You are almost like the ‘post-apocalyptic earth, Pride’, but while they were like split personalities with their own individual bodies, they all share a soul even. You being a clone, after all, have your own soul, so while the other versions of Pride consider you one of them, you will not get access to the shared memories unless you track down one of the others and share memories or merge souls in some way. You with me so far?”

So all these ‘aspects’ are avatars of the deadly sin of pride, so we use our deadly sin name as a global title for any of us?" Omega asked to make sure she understood the strange speech so far, and to distract herself from eating the strange computer the nice hologram was being beamed out of.

The hologram nods approvingly "we considered you one of these alternate selves, another pride. You may not be connected Spiritually to the others, in the same way, that they are to each other. However, you were made in their image, and given some of their powers. So we felt that we owed you all the help we could give you. So, before we left the earth, we built 14 bunkers deep underground, all around the world, 2 per deadly sin. These are intended as presents for you when you awoke. Each bunker has systems to help you along, once you find them. The closest bunker is Sloth Beta, this computer linkup was connected to a device with enough power to teleport a computer to help you get started. We were able to send this device to your location once you were detected."

Omega took it all in and thought for a moment. then said, "So you are saying 'I' left you here as a gift to help me when I woke up?"

Holo Alpha brightened up "yup"

"What kind of help?"

"Materials, and information trade. The deadly sin, Sloth, left specialized systems that also come with a storage matrix that can send goods you want to trade or store to the storage bays of Sloth Base Beta, while all the bases are equipped for long-range trade, only the Sloth bases have the capacity to act as a bank or inventory for you, this is especially useful with the difficulty in creating dimensional storage devices Post End"

Omega grew visibly excited by this "so you are saying: I could store spare materials in the computer... somehow?"

"ya sure, just let me show you how to access the invent--!"

She didn't get to finish as Omega literally exploded. No longer being able to hold herself back.

She turned into a mass of metallic fleshy chunks that were propelled forward, turning into a wave of metal that swept through the Hologram imprint of Alpha like she was not even there. Splashing onto and then devouring the computer.

Within seconds, all that remained was a glowing blue crystal rod. The rod was about the thickness of the reforming Nanite woman's thumb, and almost as long as the computer was wide. The holo woman seemed to be coming from the rod, now that the computer was gone. She was glad to find a way to absorb the computer without harming the only source of conversation. The tripod remained, seeming excessive, just to support the small glowing crystal rod.

The initially surprised and horrified hologram became progressively angrier as she spoke: "what the hell Omega! now we can't access the storage system, I am only capable of Data trades without access to the rest of my systems!"

The living nanite swarm woman shook her head in a mockery of sadness "Too surprised." is all she said calmly before she began to largely ignore the enraged Hologram.

She picked up the rod off the tripod and shoved it into her shoulder the flesh liquifying momentarily to allow the intrusion. The crystal now stuck half out. This still allowed the hologram to see and beam out the image of her form. Then she picked up the Tripod and tested putting something into her new Storage Matrix.

The tripod vanished and the status for Box #1 in her mind changed from Empty to Slothtech tripod x 1. There were 40 such 'boxes' and she was unsure how much each could hold. there were also more boxes full of stuff she could trade the stuff in her boxes for. it was like a storage system and a store she could sell stuff to and buy stuff from all rolled into one. She would have to check out the stores' wares later.

The holograms jaw-dropping made her smile. She arched an eyebrow at the hologram and waited for her to speak.

"How... What... Where?" the hologram started pulling herself back together "did you steal the computer's capabilities or something?"

"steal seems wrong, you said it was a gift: 'to get me started'. It seems like a waste of time to move everything to the computer before I could store it, so I incorporated the functions I could, luckily for you; your relay, crystal, rod, thingy is still necessary for me to access the inventory system. As well as whatever data exchange system you represent." She paused and grinned mischievously. "That and I think your personality imprint has drifted too much. I doubt the original Alpha would ever have been so surprised, not when she could be doing or say something productive instead."

The now panicked AI-driven hologram began talking more to herself "Wait, have I changed? Records do not indicate any of the other Prides reacting openly to surprises unless they were acting out a role. Maybe if I......" The hologram's existential crisis was cut off as the crystal rod sank into Omega's body.

Omega Shook her head at the distracting AIs antics. "guess we will 'exchange data' later" she sighed "maybe when she calms down...... from me eating her computer.... and then shoving her back into isolation."

she shook her head again, this time at herself. "Okay Omega, now you are talking to yourself ... Just like the silly AI. I Can't store the Relay Rod in her bunker without losing access to the base's storage matrix. It seems to be key to the teleportation tech, The rod itself represented a separate power from the teleport power she ate and copied from the computer. It was either too powerful or incompatible with her current mimic powers. So keeping it inside me seems like the best way to keep it safe and keep the hologram "me" quiet. Hologram me... Holo Me...... Holly! That seems like a better name for her. I'll have to remind myself to tell her later"

She began to look around more carefully, cataloging every visible pebble, every crack in the floors and walls, every blast mark, every melted computer, or monitoring system. She wanted to gather it all, along with all the magical concrete(MagiCrete maybe she was on a naming binge) and inferior Nanites or smart matter. she wanted to leave nothing in this room but blasted cracked stone.

An instinct to horde everything overtook part of her. Another part of her wanted to find out where the Giant Ant came from, or where the resident of the third pit went off to. her smart matter pit had dissected the first ant and sent back the results of the dissection. She was pretty confident she could Vivisect any other ants and implant them with smart matter nanites, bypassing their senses and making them view her as an ally and not food. Just some light, easy, brain surgery.

The indecision between looting and exploring was solved by her ripping herself in half and re-forming into Two little girl versions of herself:

The first wore a Gothic Lolita mockery of a Girl scouts uniform; Her black hair was up in pigtails with Pink and purple ribbons. On her head at a jaunty angle, was a black beret with a little cartoon looking skull in the Center of an Omega Symbol all in white, thus creating a mocking symbol for her scouting force of one. She wore a Black and Purple Plaid Skirt down to her knees, Pink Stockings covered her legs and glossy black Doc Martens with Chrome spikes shone from her feet. She had on a purple Blouse tucked into her skirt. The Blouse had the same Omega/skull logo on each shoulder and she had a black sash across her chest with a single badge on it, A silhouette of a person reaching into a robot's head and eating chips and circuits out of it. This new Mini Omega called herself 'Omega Scout 1'

The second One wore a scaled-down version of the Black lab-coat the bigger Omega had been wearing, but now with more of a real outfit as well; the same Glossy black Boots as Omega Scout, but without the chrome spikes. Black rubber gloves, A tablet computer in her arms, and Excessively decorative goggles resting on her head of hair, which was up in a severe bun. 'Doctor Omega 1'

Omega Scout Spoke as she flounced over to the smart matter pit "now it will be far less creepy when I talk to myself" Half of the finished smart matter flowed up out of the pit, forming into a black purse with chrome spikes, matching her boots. Then the rest flowed into the purse in a long stream, like watching a pool fill out of a small bottle, but in reverse.

Doctor O pondered the scouts' behavior. "It would have been just as easy to make the smart matter flow into your hand, or leg" she paused to consider "but I suppose using a bag, or external item makes it seem like the power is tied to the item, and not us. I approve of this as a best practice for using our inventory system in view of others."

The scout agreed cheerfully "Besides shapeshifting, and other biology. Sandbagging has always been our best skill. Pretending to be weaker than we really are, pretending not to know things we do. no one can kill you easily if no one knows what you can really do" she stopped, then spoke again a bit more seriously "we don't know what is or is not normal here, so being a lost and helpless little girl may be a good way to test the people or creatures we encounter."

The Doctor agreed with herself "yes, yes, then I can stay here and make more smart matter and gather up everything of potential use before exploring more of the facility above us. no data left un-downloaded and analyzed. I doubt I will find a way out before you do though, those ants probably have at least one surface exit."

"Sounds good, I will keep in touch as long as I can, maybe I can setup signal relays if we get too far apart to stay in contact." The scout said cheerfully as she wandered off into the darkness of the ant tunnel.

Doctor Omega jumped into the smart matter pit and melted into it, using her own bodies more advanced nanites to help convert the MagiCrete and metals around it into more smart matter or component dust she can fill an inventory box with. She had already put millions of individual grains of disassembled matter into the inventory box, most likely confirming that the system was based on the volume of matter stored, not the number of individual items, which was good for her nanite ass.

Once both her pit and the nanite pit had been dusted and absorbed she found out the storage limit per box was about 100 cubic meters, she could not control Smart matter while it was in storage, but she could leave it with orders to keep turning MagiCrete and metal into more of the smart matter. thus turning her distant storage 'boxes' into a nanite factory.

Without biological brain or nerve cells from a higher life-form to incorporate into the Nanites she could not make more of the nanites her and Omega Scout were made from. The Giant ants were just regular ants ballooned in size from magic as far as she could tell. So they were too primitive to produce usable mind cells. Even if she ate people she could not get cells as high of quality as her own brains or even her shapeshifter body had been.

She supposed she could use the brain, spine and central nervous system of a hypothetical dead person to create body nanites and then she could divide up her current forms further into the 'brains' for those bodies. but she wouldn't kill people just to allow her to multiply. however, when some people choose to be her foes and oppose her, she will happily devour them. Or dead bodies. she sighed, but it's not like they were gonna find a bunch of unclaimed fresh corpses just laying around...

She continued to ponder her possible methods of growth and send her thoughts and conclusions to her other half as she started in on the third pit. This pit lacked any MagiCrete, was full of claw marks, some of which may have been a language alien to her, but could also have just been random scratches. she decided to keep the scratched up walls to study later. So she had her nanites cut the walls up into ten-foot long by five-foot wide sheets that could be separated from the wall, then put into storage. she could store larger objects, but keeping them to a size she can still sort of physically handle seemed to make it a lot easier.

Soon Doctor Omega was done looting the third pit, everything of higher quality then rocks and dirt had been stripped from the room. Her need to take everything of value appeased, she moved to the door to the stairs up. Only to find that the stairwell had been filled with magicrete as well, she sighed and began dissolving the useful substance into her storage and hoped Omega Scout was having more fun exploring then she was eating rocks.