You want to shuffle bodies around

Escorted by Mona's drone team back to a Yabusa Robotics satellite facility in Spiral City, you hashed out the details of the plan with your partner and your soon-to-be boss in the fancy luxury car that even a remote-operated robotic clone of someone could appreciate. You'd all came to the same conclusion: you weren't going to hold any minds hostage in a body. But what bodies they were in when given control again, that was another matter!

"That's a lot of shifting and fusing, not to mention two bodies that need medical attention," Mona said. "It's a big ask."

You frowned, glancing at Safiya. "If it's too big a problem, we can--"

"I didn't say it was a problem, just a lot of things to consider," Mona interrupted. While she had moments of friendliness and a true passion for showing off all the new tech Yabusa had in the works, Mona didn't waste any time when talking business, she was clearly in charge even if it seemed like you were dictating the terms of this business transaction. "We'll need to bring Aiden online, he'll help us out with the spatial calculations. Tex could probably do all of these things you're asking, but they'd be limited or deteriorate after a short time, so some supercomputing AI will help."

"There are a few unknowns, as well." Safiya shifted in her seat, excited that Mona was even considering this proposal at all! "Namely, the Geistknight gem, I don't have much knowledge in magic."

Mona snorted. "Did my little Tex just say she believed in magic? After what she's capable of doing? I'm sure Aiden will uncover an understanding of that gemstone, which in turn will be actually very valuable data for me so I guess thank you for stealing such weird super-powered bodies." Mona's skepticism of magic aside, she at least seemed confident in this AI of hers.

Once you entered the Yabusa facility, Mona led you deep, deep underground in an elevator off limits to anyone but authorized personnel, handing you umbrellas for some reason unknown to you at first. When the elevator opened, you and Safiya ventured into the dark, futuristic domed room hand in hand, staring at machines far larger than anything you'd ever seen before! You walked along a catwalk, above a lake of glowing machines immersed in water for liquid cooling; from the ceiling, pipes dripped and sprinklers did the same for machinery along the dome, creating rain in this uncomfortably warm and humid room. Hums and beeps and clicks echoed all around you, like a creature speaking in an alien tongue. From the ceiling and floor, two pillars of technology converged at a singular point at the center of the catwalk: a clean-looking and brightly-lit room with glass walls, far more inviting than the surrounding machinery.

"Ladies, this is Aiden, a compact version of our flagship AI named MirAI. Can you tell that my sister Mira named it? You should see the setup she's got going in Alaska!" Mona grinned as the three of you entered the glass room, a door sliding shut with a hiss to block out all the noise from outside except for the soft patter of rain on the glass, which was soothing and pleasant in a way. "Aiden, good morning. Two scanning beds, please."

"Good morning, Miss Yabusa." From the ground, blocks of the floor gathered and rose upward, clicking together and ascending like building blocks. Each block looked about an inch wide, and the resulting two tables appearing in the room looked like they belonged in a classic low-resolution video game. "This process would be more efficient with the lithium nanomachines instead of phasing in the macro-blocks. Have they been found yet?"

"Not yet, but this is the team that will get them for you." Mona touched something on each bed to cause them to start glowing a soft blue, before motioning for both you and Safiya to lie down. "Well, some of them. You'll see after a phase scan. Check the gem embedded in the chest of the muscly one too, I want to know what that thing is and what's inside."

You looked around as you sat down on the table, curious. "Your AI said it was phasing in those blocks. Is this whole room a phase binder?"

"Smart cookie," Mona said, as she helped Safiya up onto her table, tapping her forehead so she would lie down. "This isn't just a phase binder, though! There's more ways to deal with phase. Isn't that a good slogan? I'll have to use it at Y-Con 23 when I show off Aiden and MirAI out. Anyway, phase binding is like glue, but there's other useful features of that little 'imaginary' space that lays on top of ours. Aiden can bind, cut, split, fuse, copy, erase... all via phase manipulation. It creates an incredibly robust result. Like, Hideki scientists might stick two bodies together, but they'll do things like 'neural weaves' and whatever and call it a day, that's sticking more cells in a place already overcrowded with them. A phase fusion, though... mapping cells together in and out of phase at the smallest points, turning a person into a mobius strip where there's only one side to them, not two squished together! Phase binding is a nice start, but it's a rudimentary technique compared to Aiden's phase fusion."

You glanced worriedly at Safiya as this girl in a biker jacket monologued like a supervillain talking about their evil schemes, not really understanding the complex numbers and quantum properties behind phase mechanics to know if this was all real or just a lot of techspeak that didn't really mean anything. Before you could say anything, the bed started to grow around you, creating a cover over the top to scan from both sides. You closed your eyes as the blue light intensified, feeling the heat of the process!

Seconds later, it was done, which felt almost impossibly fast. "I have results for you, Mona." The AI projected a holographic screen in front of Mona, so she could confirm the results. "Bed 001 contains one Rider platform, inside one Angel platform. Injuries to stomach and intestinal tracts, recommend immediate medical evaluation to resolve. Extremely high confidence in survival probability if treatment begins within five minutes or less after phase removal. Two other entities, one from the outer body and the other using the gemstone as a conduit to connect as well."

"Data on the gem?" Mona requested.

"Extradimensional energy source. Lattice inclusions suggest patterns similar to circuitry for channeling energy. Phased storage and recall device, as well as neural interruption and rapid musculoskeletal augmentation. Running trace on energy source... failed. Running analysis of energy patterns... unknown. Recommend further investigation. Time to complete analysis: seven weeks."

Mona shook her head. "We'll save that analysis for later, these bodies need to be out and about. How about bed 002?"

"One Angel platform and synthetic 'Tex' construct, connected in a process similar to phase fusion. Fused state is 87% stable." As Aiden said the last part aloud, Mona seemed genuinely impressed that Tex had managed to do anything like that on her own! "Phasebound to outer body."

Satisfied, Mona walks between the two scanning beds. "Good work, Aiden, all of that is confirmed by what these two told me earlier." She looks down at Safiya and yourself, a hint of excitement in her eyes at getting a chance to do some experiments that she couldn't speak of in public. "Point of no return, ladies. This is your last chance to back out of the plan."

You shook your head, as did Safiya. "We're ready," Safiya said.

"Good! Sleep tight, then. Next time you wake up, there will be quite a few more beds in here. Aiden, put these two nice ladies to bed before we begin."

The moment Mona said those words, you felt incredibly drowsy, and barely a second later, your eyes closed and everything went dark.