DISCLAIMER: I do not own A Certain Scientific Railgun or Halo
Unknown Location
Unknown Date
"Ouch..." Mikoto muttered, getting up onto her feet as she rubbed her butt after having landed on it pretty hard. Before she could wonder just what had happened, a certain redhead appeared in front of her, a very upset look on the girl's face.
"Onee-sama!" Kuroko exclaimed, crossing her arms as she narrowed her eyes at Mikoto. "I warned you about using your power! Why didn't you listen to my warning?"
"It's not my fault!" Mikoto shot back. "That guy pulled a gun!"
"That's not an excuse for electrocuting the power plant!"
"I didn't mean to!"
As the two girls continued bickering, Saten helped Uiharu back up on her feet. "Hey, Uiharu, you okay?" Saten asked her friend, dusting the girl's sleeve off.
Uiharu smiled at the taller girl. "H-hai." She said softly, still a little shaken up by what had happened. Taking a deep breath, setting herself at ease, she looked around where they were at, wanting some light to be shed on their current situation. "What just happened?"
Saten shrugged before picking up her baseball bat, bringing it to rest on her shoulder. "Yeah, weren't we fighting some thugs who stole... something...?" Her voice trailed off as she saw that Mikoto and Kuroko were still too busy arguing to pay any attention to anyone besides themselves. Saten and Uiharu shared a small look between each other, a nervous smile on both of their faces.
"And now look at what's happened! Your actions have probably caused yet another blackout!" Kuroko gave off an exasperated sigh, turning her back on Mikoto as her hand went up to her cheek. "Honestly, Onee-sama, I don't like for you to get involved in my work. I know you mean well, but this is just too dangerous and if you were to be hur-"
"Where are we?" Mikoto asked, looking down the alley, ignoring Kuroko.
Uiharu blinked, taking a look at the Level 5 before examining their surroundings more closely. She saw unfamiliar scenery all around them, nothing like the alleys that they had just been in. "Where's the power plant...?" She asked, doing a full 360 as she looked around, but the plant was nowhere to be found. Adding to that, the sky up above was filled with dark clouds, in complete contrast to the clear sky just moments ago. By what light broke through the clouds, they appeared to be in a small alleyway between two buildings, one of which was crumbling around a massive hole in it. The air was warm, much warmer than it should have been. It was also terribly silent, save for the vague, spontaneous bits of...
"Gunfire...?" Mikoto asked as she walked out of the alley, voicing all of their thoughts as she looked down both sides of the street, becoming even more confused when she saw nothing that looked even the least bit familiar. There were abandoned cars everywhere, some parked by the side of the road while there were others that were just sitting in the middle of the street, with a door or more wide open. The buildings looked just as abandoned, with doors still open and items strewn all about inside; inside wasn't the only place, as there were many more items scattered about on the street. Even stranger, the cars didn't look anything like the models in Academy City.
"I don't think... we're in Academy City anymore..."
"What?" Kuroko asked, dumbfounded.
Mikoto looked over her shoulder. "Kuroko, just look."
As Saten and Uiharu watched, both as confused as Kuroko, the teleporter walked up to Mikoto's side and looked around, her eyes widening at what she saw. "This can't be..." Kuroko breathed, her eyes darting from side to side. "Just where are we!?"
"No way!" Saten exclaimed, getting a little excited as she rushed out past the two girls, coming to a stop as she took a quick look around. "Uiharu, come over here!" She beckoned, her excitement reaching her voice as Uiharu curiously edged closer, soon joining the three girls at the mouth of the alley, a mixture of confusion and shock forming in her eyes at what she saw. "We're in a totally different city!" Saten exclaimed, a big smile on her face.
"Everything's... abandoned." Uiharu whispered. Why would everything, from items to entire buildings and vehicles, just be... left behind? "It had to be an evacuation..." She said. It was the first thing that came to her mind, and it'd explain why everything was scattered about.
"Evacuation?" Mikoto asked. "What were they evacuating for?"
Before Uiharu could answer her, they all heard an explosion in the distance, quite a bit away judging by the loudness of it. "An... attack." Uiharu muttered, just as another bout of gunfire started.
"An attack!?" Saten exclaimed, Uiharu only nodding her head in response.
"What should we do?" Mikoto asked, looking towards the source of the gunfire. "We don't even know where we are."
Kuroko stepped forward, her eyes meeting with Uiharu's as she took charge of the situation. "First of all, we need to find shelter. If there has been an attack, it is far too dangerous to stay outside. There should be a bomb shelter for this, but we need to find it." Kuroko's hand went to her chin as she looked down. "But..."
"But it may be even more dangerous to move around." Uiharu finished for her.
Kuroko nodded. "That's right."
"But we can't just stand around here." Mikoto said with a sigh.
As they all thought about what to do, Saten looked up into the sky. Her thoughts were interrupted as soon as she spotted something big coming out of sky, heading right towards them. "G-guys..." She began taking a step back. "There's something coming straight at us!" She exclaimed, causing both Kuroko and Uiharu to snap their heads up.
Their Judgment training instantly kicked in. "Everyone, get back in the alley!" Kuroko shouted, Uiharu grabbing Saten and pulling her down to the ground in the middle of the alley. "Onee-sama!" Kuroko cried out, grabbing Mikoto's arm and teleporting them both down to the ground.
Mikoto cried out as her back hit the ground for the second time that day, but all thoughts of discomfort were forgotten when she saw some kind of aircraft pass by overhead, a large hole in its side and flames covering its entire left wing. She could feel the heat of the flames against her skin, pricking her nerves as it passed by; and, only moments later, a massive crash rippled throughout the area, making the ground vibrate underneath the girls and causing a roof to cave in.
"Onee-sama, are you injured?" Kuroko asked in a soft voice, her face only centimeters away from Mikoto's own.
Mikoto looked into her eyes. "Kuroko, that was a plane..."
"A... plane...?"
Their eyes widened at the same moment. If it was a plane, there had to be people in it! "Uiharu!" Kuroko called out, appearing at the mouth of the alley as Mikoto climbed back up onto her feet. "That was a plane that just crashed! We need to check for survivors!"
"R-right!" Uiharu answered, quickly following Kuroko with Saten right behind her as Mikoto darted out in front, taking the lead, much to Kuroko's displeasure.
The plane was far down the street at an intersection, only part of its tail protruding out from behind the buildings on their right. Debris was littered all around it, and several visible cars were complete wrecks from where the plane had run over them on its way down; the road itself showed the angle it had come in at, with the asphalt broken and a gorge running through it. Just as Mikoto approached the second alley down from the one they had left, something suddenly stepped out from the shadows. Something big, tall, and not human.
Mikoto cried out, stopping so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. Behind her, the girls stopped almost as suddenly as she just had, and Uiharu was unfortunate enough to slip and land on her butt. They all stared up at the creature, Uiharu clutching her laptop to her chest.
It was... big. It towered above them all, standing at least eight feet tall with a broad chest and a narrow waist. Instead of a mouth, it had mandibles, two on either side of its face along with four-digits on its hands, two opposable thumbs on each hand. It's knees bent backwards and yellow-orange eyes stared down at them, with what almost seemed like disgust in them. It looked like some kind of alien. A very intimidating alien that frightened them, especially with the way it was looking down on them.
"Hi-hi there..." Mikoto muttered, taking a step back, the color draining from her face. It started towards her, alarming her when it didn't stop. Behind Mikoto, Saten was dragging Uiharu back up onto her feet as they all started walking backwards away from it. "H-hey...?" Mikoto tried again. The alien didn't respond, it's hand only going down to its thigh and grabbing a device on it, flicking it once and activating it. What appeared to be blue energy appeared on either side of the apparent 'hilt', forming into two blades that ended together like a prong.
"Onee-sama!" Kuroko cried out just as the alien raised the sword up above its head, Mikoto catching the movement and already guessing what it was going to do.
Just as she rolled to the side, the alien brought the sword down right where she had been standing. As she got back up onto her feet, it was already lunging forward with its sword ready for a horizontal slash. Mikoto acted quickly, using magnetism to propel her back just as it slashed through now empty air. Her back hit the building behind her hard, nearly making her cry out in pain before she dropped to her knees. She suffered through it, and locked eyes with the seemingly confused alien. "Wh-what are you doing!?" She cried out, ready to unleash her power as electricity began to spark down her arms.
It eyed her for a few moments, its eyes trained on her arms. "Heretic..." It finally muttered, right before its eyes narrowed onto her own. "Die!" It roared, rushing her. With little time to think, she raised her hand and sent a bolt of lightning straight into its chest.
Toha's shields suddenly collapsed as his eyes were blinded by the light, his HUD going haywire and failing on him as he dropped down to his knees, crying out in pain as the shocks flooded his body. Then, just as soon as it began, it was over, leaving him sitting there with scorched nerves. His eyes were wide open in shock, as he wondered just what this human, this filth, had done to him even as his hands hit the ground, his breathing becoming ragged.
Lightning...
It had shot lightning at him! Right from its fingertips...!
Im-impossible! He cried out in his head. Not even the demons are capable of such atrocity!
The heretic took a step towards him, his eyes snapping up as more lightning sparked in the palm of its hand. "Still awake?" It asked, saying something in its language that he didn't understand.
Toha's eyes darted for his energy sword, but it was nowhere in sight; he was unarmed! "Do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?" More lightning sparked in its palm, stronger than before. This human was going to take him down, and so easily! No... Not after all these years of being stuck in that forsaken dropship! Gathering all of his strength, he roared one last roar of defiance as he grabbed his only plasma grenade, right before the lightning enveloped him and unconsciousness swept over him.
His scorched body slumped to the ground, his hand opening up and allowing a glowing, blue ball to roll out of it and stick to the ground.
"There." Mikoto said as she looked at the smoking, yet still alive, alien. She wondered if she had gone a little overboard with that last shock of hers, but that first shock had been enough to make anyone pass out! Well, anyone human... and even if he did get hurt because of her, it was his own fault for attacking her. As she took another step towards it, she caught sight of something glowing right by its hand. "What's-"
"Onee-sama!" Kuroko cried out, appearing right behind her before teleporting them both away. When the alien had roared before the brunette's second shock, she had caught sight of it grab something off of its belt; a small, blue orb. When she saw it start glowing, she didn't know what else it could be other than a grenade.
Sure enough, as soon as she and Mikoto arrived at the car Uiharu and Saten were hiding behind, the orb exploded in a brilliant, fiery hot flash of plasma, sending a wave of heat that washed over the entire area. When the girls looked back after the flash, they saw that the entire area around the grenade was melting, and further out the rest of it was charred black; and, right in the middle of it was what remained of the blackened body of the alien.
"What... what was that?" Mikoto asked, covering her mouth as she looked away from the corpse, the smell of scorched, alien flesh making her sick.
"It was a grenade..." Kuroko muttered.
"A... grenade?" Mikoto asked, looking at her friend with wide eyes.
"Yes." The redhead merely said.
"Why... why would it...?" She spared another glance at the corpse before once again tearing her eyes away from it, her free hand tightening into a fist. The fetus-monster during the Level-Upper incident had been one thing to kill; but, this alien... it had been an actual, living being. It had spoke English. It obviously had had intelligence; but, now, it's just a charred body void of any life. Even though it tried to kill her... Even though it took its own life...
Why...?
A hand was suddenly upon her shoulder, and Mikoto looked back over her shoulder and into Saten's eyes. "Misaka, you didn't do anything wrong." She began, a smile forming on her face, "You protected us, all of us."
Uiharu gave a quick nod in agreement. "Sa-Saten-san's right! It would have killed you if you hadn't done something!"
Mikoto gave them a soft smile, the somber look still in her eyes. "Yeah..." She said, despite feeling like there was something that she could have done to prevent its death. She didn't even know why it had attacked them. It had called her 'heretic', so was it for some kind of religious purpose...? Even so, it... It didn't have to die!
Kuroko placed a hand on Mikoto's other shoulder, her grasp a little tighter than normal. She knew what her Onee-sama was thinking; but she didn't know what kind of consul, if any, she could give. So, she just opted for trying to get her mind onto saving lives, instead of thinking about the lost. "Onee-sama, we need to check the crash site out, see if anyone survived."
Uiharu nodded. "The grenade might have left some kind of radiation, so we should move around it just to be safe." She said, taking a look over the blast area only to shy away when her eyes landed on the corpse.
"Right." Mikoto agreed, standing up tall as she looked around for a side route. "That way." She said, pointing to the only alley they had passed on their way down the street. "I'll take the lead, just in case we come across anymore aliens."
"I shall also take the lead!" Kuroko stated, not going to let her Onee-sama face such danger alone again. Mikoto smiled at her, a warm smile that sent red racing across the younger girl's cheeks.
"I'm counting on you, Kuroko."
"Hai, Onee-sama! Kuroko will not let you down!" She proudly stated, a hand against her chest.
Mikoto's mood improved, and her smile grew as she looked back at Uiharu and Saten. "Let's go!" With that, they started making their way towards the crash site, not yet realizing that they had landed in the middle of a gruesome war, but it was only a matter of time...
