The body collector

"If I might suggest a different approach to our situation?" Tex offered, as the empty jacket waved an arm to get everyone's attention. "In order to satisfy everyone's interests but also uncover more information on this nanite sabotage that might reveal clues as to the whereabouts of the nanite master chain, I suggest combining myself, as well as Angels Seven and Five. If I'm anchored to Angel Five's healthy form as we enter Angel Seven, I should be able to stabilize her enough that we might get a better recollection of the events of the night before. Should this experiment work, we could expand the procedure to other Angels who are currently incapacitated. Rider Five, I would be able to then keep a 'soft link' to you via the nanites in Seven's head. Is this acceptable?"

That was a lot of words. It took you a moment to boil it down to: everyone but you in the same body.

"I... suppose, will you at least be able to have an Angel Endo at the core if we're going to travel?" you said to Angel Five, who then relayed your words to Tex.

Tex shimmied her hips on Seven's lap once realizing you were amenable to the plan. "Of course, I'll synthesize one the moment you're out. I will design something I think you will like, if Five and Seven are in agreement."

"Well, I literally could not say no, since I want what Rider Five wants," Angel Seven said in a remarkably casual manner.

Angel Five took a moment to think about the proposal. "Can I have some baseline control over the body as well in that case?"

"Naturally, Angel Five," Tex said. "I would be relying on your brain in particular for core functionality in this case. My presence would be merely to act as an interface between you and other bodies in this configuration, as well as providing the protective layer that would allow you to be inside her body without armor. However, that core functionality only extends so far--as the external form, Angel Seven will be speaking and moving primarily, although she cannot extend her behavior beyond your core control. As an example, she will act mostly like Angel Seven, but if she is asked to identify which Rider she is paired with, she will identify Rider Five as you would."

Satisfied, Angel Five smiled slightly. "Well, as long as they aren't trying to link me to other Riders... Alright, I guess let's do it! Get my Rider out of me."

With the help of Angel Seven and Tex, you managed to free yourself from Angel Five's body, already sort of missing your presence in it, but at the same time feeling a little normalcy in your own form again. Checking to make sure you were all still in one piece, you nodded to yourself. "Alright, I guess you can begin whenever you--"

Turning to look at the others, you already saw Tex envelop Angel Five in an orange armor-like bodysuit, and the duo immediately hopped into a waiting Angel Seven who had gotten on her knees to prepare for the entry. It took just a couple moments before Angel Seven stood again, this time taking on a riding outfit grown around her body in black and orange that Tex synthesized for her.

"Oh weird, okay," Angel Seven said, walking back and forth. "I still feel mostly like me, even though someone else is inside. I can hear Angel Five in my head, she wants to talk, but... am I going to have to relay her words every time, Tex?"

"Hmm, that does pose a problem," the disembodied Tex voice said while Seven checked herself out. "Let me try something quickly."

In a strange instant, Angel Seven's head seemed to vanish and warp as her freckles and longer red hair disappeared, to instantly be replaced by Angel Five's shorter blonde hair and face! She stumbled for a moment. "What... Tex, what the hell is this?" Angel Five said, glancing down at herself, touching her hair, feeling her face. "I'm... me again? Wait, my head is me, but this still feels like Seven's body. It's subtle, but still. Did you... did you phasebind my head to her?"

"I did. This will be the easiest solution. When either you or Rider Five want to talk like this, I'll phase in your head, and you will take primary control. If he wants to talk to Angel Seven or there is some urgent need for Angel Seven to express herself, then I will swap the phasebinding so her head is present and she will take primary control, while you maintain secondary core control."

Angel Five flexed her fingers again, then touched at her chest--feeling Angel Seven's body from below her chin! She shivered a little. "Alright, well... if you can make it feel seamless, like Seven and I are linked together, then it won't be so jarring..." She glanced at you and grinned a little, putting a hand on her hip. "Makes things more interesting for you, I hope! Two-for-one Angel, all in one body. Kind of like you could change the channel on my body and go from sporty partner to the cute cuddly girlfriend type... maybe this could be fun, actually."

You nodded, watching Angel Five touch and tease her form. "I agree, but Tex said this might give us better access to Seven's understandings of the happenings that night, so we should talk to her about that first."

As promised, the seamless 'channel-changing' woman's head instantly switched back to the freckled redhead's cute look, as she smiled at you. "If that's what you'd like, Rider Five," she said, stepping closer to you. Subtle differences like how she walked or moved her hands were obvious, but Seven still acted as friendly to you as Angel Five would have! "I can feel Tex trying to access things, little blips of memories, but... could you ask me some questions? Maybe that will help. ...Maybe some water, too."

As Angel Seven sat, no longer so handsy with herself, you went to the kitchen to pour some water. "You said you were attacked in the park from behind, and you heard a voice. Did you recognize the voice?"

Blinking rapidly like her brain was going into overdrive, Angel Seven scrunched her nose in thought. "No, I didn't. However, it was male, older. Fifties, maybe? And... there were two voices. I felt the impact from behind and was pinned down, they poured what was likely the nanites in my head onto me first, the older man said 'not that one, that's the wrong one' and the other person, younger, said... 'sorry doc'. That voice was mumbling, but something about it sounded familiar, I just couldn't pinpoint it since my helmet muffled the voices quite a bit. That's when they poured more onto me from behind."

"How were you immobilized?" You handed the glass of water to Angel Seven.

"The strike from behind knocked me forward, then it felt like a hand pushed on my back and forced my head down. I couldn't turn my head; the helmet prevented me from looking to the side where they were talking." Angel Seven took a sip, closing her eyes as she shuddered a little, reliving some memories she probably didn't care to see again. "I... do remember seeing a disconnection message in my HUD, I couldn't talk to dispatch. Most people wouldn't know how to jam that signal, someone has to be really familiar with Yabusa protocols to do that, I think. But then when I stood up, I felt... disconnected from myself, I just didn't want to chase after them. I couldn't do much anyway since my Angel 800 frame failed and I didn't have a Rider to back me up. I tried to take off as much of the armor as I could, but eventually I just... didn't care about it. Or anything. I just felt like standing... my mind was clear--it was like I was in the deepest meditation of my life."

You crossed your arms, pacing back and forth as you processed most of the earlier parts of what Angel Seven said. Someone referred to as 'doc', with some vaguely familiar voice, held down by a person powerful enough to match the strength of an Angel's Endo augments... "Angel Five, what do you think about this?"

"Oh, very suspicious," Angel Five said, as her head instantly changed back to the short blonde style. Her hands again returned to light prodding of herself, but there was at least a continuity between Seven and Five as they shifted back and forth, and Angel Five even went so far as to sip some of the water for herself. "I can almost hear the voice in Seven's head, I'm seeing some of these memories as if they were mine thanks to Tex. I definitely feel like the 'sorry doc' voice is someone I'd heard before, but it's not a lot to go on. We need more info."

You turned to her, looking her up and down--despite having Angel Seven's body from the neck down, she still seemed mostly like your usual Angel. "Info from whom? We don't have anyone else identified from the park that evening."

"Not from the park. From the other Angels, the ones Yabusa is helping recover from the nanites!" Angel Five stood up, stepping closer to you as she took your hand to squeeze, her eyes darting left and right as she formulated a plan. "We could connect to them too, Tex can help. They might have heard or seen something if they were sabotaged in a similar way! There's five Angels affected, and one more who doesn't have a rider who could help. We could go into some of them. All of them, maybe! And piece together these memories with their own."

"...And that also means more heads to swap in and out, doesn't it?"

Angel Five grinned as her face blushed lightly. "I mean, it's a diverse group! It might be fun, to me it feels sort of like I connect to their personalities too, which is interesting. I'll keep them all in line, but... I mean, you can say no, if you want. We can just go talk to them. But I think this is the kind of thing Tex could help us with."

"I am very good at atypical methodologies of data collection," Tex affirmed.