Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'll keep in mind what you guys said and I'll continue to research things in the anime/LNs so I can make the story as authentic as possible. I hope that my OCs so far aren't too annoying. I'll be attempting to use canon characters this chapter, so don't be too disappointed if they're OOC. Also, this chapter will be very dialogue heavy because this chapter is all about characters interacting with each other in order to advance their own personal agendas. Anyways, here's the next chapter!

Arin Residence

Usually the house would have been full of life, but tonight it was largely silent. The only light within the house came from Roland's den, a small but cozy library like room with a desk and a computer surrounded by various books on AIM and other Academy City related sciences. The researcher was sipping a glass of water as he scrolled through documents on his computer. He suddenly stopped scrolling and his eyes scanned the computer screen, pinpointing important data he needed for the Machine Shop Project.

"This sure brings back memories." said Roland unenthusiastically as he sat back in his chair, sighing.

The presentation had been a major success, but he didn't feel like celebrating. There was still way too much work to be done. Also, reading about the past project he had been involved in was very depressing. Two photographs appeared on the computer screen and Roland froze. He slowly put the glass of water down and stared at the computer screen. Even after several years he couldn't shake the terrible feeling whenever he saw the two Espers in the photographs. Memories flooded into Roland's mind and he lost his focus.

A few years earlier…

"Researcher entering the testing area. Experiment shall commence shortly."

The white doors slid open and Roland entered, holding a clipboard and a long handled flashlight. He looked around the room and appreciated the effort put into making the scenery authentic. Large concrete buildings rose high above him and he was currently standing in the middle of a street. It was a perfect imitation of a city, minus the civilians of course. He raised the flashlight and shook it a little as he called out into the city.

"It's time for the last set of experiments. Come on out, Musujime." said the researcher as a teenage girl appeared in front of him, teleporting from some location within the fake city.

The girl had tied her long dark red hair into two ponytails and was still wearing the dark blue coat around her shoulders like a cape. She wore a pink crop top and pleated skirt and also had a flashlight dangling from a rope wrapped around her wrist. The girl grinned when she saw the flash light Roland was holding.

"Is that for me? You shouldn't have." said the girl as Roland tossed the flashlight to her, catching it with ease.

"Consider it a graduation gift. You've shown great promise, Awaki. You have the potential to become a Level 5 if you continue to work the way you have since the project started. This'll be one of the last sets of testing before the qualifications are met. Maybe a bit premature, but congratulations." said Roland.

"Well, let's just get started. I don't want to be stuck here for too long. The sooner I get to Level 5 the better." replied Awaki as she stretched.

Roland checked the time and wrote something on his clipboard. He nodded to the girl.

"You have permission to begin."

Roland ran through the empty streets of the fake city, furiously scribbling on the clipboard as Awaki teleported swiftly throughout the city, expending her abilities through strenuous use. The researcher smiled with joy as he continued to write observations.

"This is excellent! She's shown a great increase in strength since the last series of tests. It's working!" exclaimed Roland.

Suddenly Awaki stopped. She stood on the sidewalk, breathing heavily. Roland approached her carefully, worry on his face.

"Is something wrong?" he asked despite knowing the answer already.

"I-I'm at my limit. I can't go on," she gasped as Roland nodded his head, writing more onto his clipboard.

"You've worked hard today. Just one more extremely short range teleport and we'll call it a day. Just teleport into the concrete building you're standing next to and I'll get you some food and drink. How about it?" asked Roland as Awaki grinned, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

The researcher glanced down at his clipboard to check what he had written, Awaki disappearing from his vision for a moment. That was when he heard the scream. He immediately looked up and to his horror saw the girl's leg stuck in a concrete wall. His eyes widened and the clipboard fell to the ground. Awaki's screams echoed in his mind, but Roland rushed to help her. Unfortunately, as soon as Roland was close enough to do anything, the leg was pulled from the wall. Blood splattered all over Roland's lab coat and the researcher fell to the ground, disturbed by what he had seen. He couldn't think. He could only hear the screams. He felt sick.

"Roland!"

Arin Residence

The violent shaking woke him up. The researcher gasped and stood up from his chair, wildly looking around. Somebody grabbed his shoulders and shook him. The face of his wife entered his mind and he relaxed a little. He smiled halfheartedly as he looked up at his wife.

"You're back already?"

"What the hell was going on, Roland? You were thrashing around in your chair and I've never heard you scream so loudly before. Did you just have a bad dream?" asked Alice, crossing her arms.

"I was recalling the Level 4 Exhaustion Project. Something went terribly wrong and I just had a nightmare about it." explained Roland as he stood up slowly, holding onto the desk for support. He walked out of the den and headed for the kitchen, his wife following close behind. "I know living in the past is silly, but the past doesn't just go away, Alice."

Roland sat down at the kitchen table, rubbing his forehead. He felt sick. Alice handed him a glass of water and the two of them sat down, looking at each other.

"I know this isn't the most ideal time to talk about science related things, but we have to do it now." said Alice, Roland shaking his head.

"No, it's fine. Talking with you will definitely clear my head. I'm already feeling a lot better." said the short man as he grinned weakly, drinking from his cup.

"You've probably forgotten about this, but I haven't so I'll help you remember. Back when the project was still in its infant stages I wanted to talk about specific details related to who the command center would be and how we would acquire test subjects. You disagreed and we eventually decided to cross the bridge when we came to it. We're at the bridge now."

Roland nodded his head. He did have a vague memory of that night. He had been too afraid to delve into specifics because he was afraid the project would be shot down. The empty glass was pushed to the side and the discussion began.

"Alright, Alice, I'll cross the bridge with you now. You want to know who I plan on using as the command center, correct?" Alice nodded her head. "I'm not going to use Accelerator."

"What? Why not? He's the strongest Esper in Academy City and the current network he's linked to is insufficient." Alice saw the look on Roland's face and sighed. "Alright, fine, he's a bit of nutcase, but I've heard that he's developed a soft spot for a certain Last Order."

"My reasons go deeper than that, Alice. I don't want to use Accelerator not just because he's crazy, but also because he lacks what I want in a command center: caution. It's actually in good fortune that I remembered the Level 4 Exhaustion Project because that's what the project was missing. We should have been careful with the test subjects, but we sort of lost ourselves in our initial success and worked them like dogs. Look what happened." explained Roland as Alice held up her hands in defeat.

"I won't argue with that. Speaking of that experiment, you only seem to have nightmares about that teleporter girl. What happened to the other girl who could have graduated?" asked Alice innocently.

"First of all, her ability was Move Point. Second of all…," Roland paused. He recalled something that he had read on his computer before falling asleep. Something within Roland's mind clicked. "You just reminded me of something important, Alice. Thank you very much."

The researcher ran from the kitchen table to his den. He quickly found his phone on the floor and quickly scrolled through his contacts. Thankfully, he still had the number he wanted to call. He quickly dialed it and waited for an answer on the other end. After a few seconds of waiting he got what he was looking for.

"Hello?"

"Is this Takitsubo Rikou? My name is Roland Arin. I worked with you several years ago during an experiment that tried to elevate you to Level 5. Do you remember me?" he asked quickly, hoping she wouldn't just hang up right away.

"…Yes. I remember you."

"Excellent. I apologize for the short notice, but I was wondering if I could meet to talk to you about something in private. Would you be willing to meet me somewhere tonight?"

"Ok."

Roland quickly told her where to meet him and Rikou hung up soon after. Roland slipped the phone into his pocket and went to leave the house. Alice asked where he was going as he was putting on his shoes.

"I'm meeting an old student of mine. I'll be back soon. We'll begin the project tomorrow." Roland smiled. "I understand your confidence now, Alice. We won't fail. You're the brains of this operation after all."

And with that the short middle aged researcher walked out of the house, the door closing silently behind him.

A Certain High Schooloround. Awaki'

The ringing of the final bell could be heard throughout the school and within seconds hordes of students flooded out of their classrooms, hurrying towards home. Among the sea of students was Kamijou Touma, a Level 0 with a peculiar power in his right hand and an awful streak of bad luck. He yawned as he walked towards the exit of the high school, suddenly ambushed by two individuals.

"Kami-yan! Where do you think you're going?" said his friend Tsuchimikado as he appeared in front of Touma, surprising him.

The blonde haired boy was quickly joined by Aogami Pierce, a blue haired pervert who was known as the "Fetish King." Touma backed up in surprise.

"You guys were looking for me?" he asked as Tsuchimikado nodded his head.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to hangout after school because this idiot," he gestured to Pierce. "Forgot to do his homework and has to go to afterschool lessons soon."

Touma scratched his head. He tried remembering if he had any homework, but couldn't remember anything all too clearly. He shrugged his shoulders and agreed to hangout, the three boys walking towards the locker bay together. Unfortunately, disaster struck once they reached the locker bay. Aogami had to get something from his locker so Touma and Tsuchimikado were chatting when suddenly there was a huge commotion in the area.

"What the hell did you just say, punk?!"

"Mind your own business!"

There was a solid thud and soon people were shouting and throwing stuff at each other. People were fighting everywhere in the locker bay, Tsuchimikado and Aogami quickly looked at each other and then at Touma. The two quickly ran from Touma, leaving him behind.

"Sorry, Kami-yan but I don't feel like becoming a victim of a high school fight because of your misfortune." said Tsuchimikado as he ran to escape the brawl that was spreading.

"I have afterschool lessons! Gotta run!" shouted Aogami as he hauled ass with Tsuchimikado.

Touma could only watch helplessly as his two friends abandoned him in the middle of a warzone.

"Fukou da."

The fight was quickly broken up by the teachers, but Touma had not been spared. He took a few hits in the ribs and they ached terribly as he walked out of the high school, his right hand covering his wounds. He sighed as he looked up at the sky. The clouds were black and they rumbled angrily, big fat drops of water soon pouring down on him.

"Of course it rains on the only day I don't bring an umbrella." sighed Touma as he took off running in the direction of his house.

He ran from the school into a local park in order to save some time and was making great progress until he heard a piece of conversation that caught his interest. The high school boy stopped running and looked around the park to see where the voice had come from and finally pinpointed the voices to be near a large bush. He crouched and carefully crept up next to the bush to hear what was being said.

"You shouldn't have come if you didn't feel comfortable."

"No, I had to come. I still haven't repaid you."

"…I'll get right to the point. I need data on your ability. Would you be willing to undergo more experiments?"

"…"

"I apologize for bringing you out here into a cold and rainy park, but I thought it best to ask you in person for something this personal. I understand if you no longer want to be experimented upon after what happened in the past."

"No, I'll do it just this once."

The rain continued and made parts of the conversation difficult to hear, but Touma managed to make out most of it. He caught words like "Level Six" and "hardwiring" which immediately reminded him of his fight against Accelerator. Touma remained crouched next to the bush for a few more minutes trying to catch more pieces of the conversation, but there was only the sound of falling rain so he stood up to find that the mysterious speakers were long gone. Questions swam in his head, but Touma decided to think about what he had heard later because he was completely soaked in water and Index was no doubt waiting for him to get home. He didn't want to get his head bitten today so he quickly ran home, unaware of what he had just gotten himself into.

And that's the second chapter. I was originally planning to include Accelerator in this chapter, but I'll save that for later. I hope you guys didn't think this chapter was overly boring due to the focus on dialogue. I promise that there will be exciting action scenes later. I used Awaki, Tsuchimikado, Aogami, Rikou, and Touma in this chapter and I hope I didn't get them too OOC. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review if you want to see more!