Curse of a Mark
Chapter 3: A different road
Koomahana
Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are memories
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…
"Onee… sama," Mai questioned again, a strange tone of almost confusion possibly fear filling her voice. "Onee-sama… Onee-sama… Onee-sama, Onee-sama!" Mikoto didn't respond to Mai's voice, remaining still in her sprawled out position on the gravel, face turned away from them, blood pooling around her. "Onee-sama, Onee-sama, Onee-sama!" Mai's voice was so broken sounding that it gave Touma just enough strength to push himself up again, staggering to his feet, he regarded the white haired teen as he turned to look back at him in question.
"How can you?" Touma asked, glaring at the boy, "Who do you think you are that you can kill people without facing the consequences?!"
"I think I'm Accelerator," the boy replied dully, "and the clones aren't people. They're just dolls, no life expectancy, no soul, no personality, no life and no coast. Destroy one and they'll build another. They're basically robots in human skin."
"…Ax… Accelerator?" Touma questioned in confusion, not sure if he was understanding the older boy, "How can you say that about her?" Touma waved a hand at the crying clone, huddled over herself, hands racked through her hair and drawing blood, her body quivering and wrecked sobs tearing themselves out of her body. "She fought you tooth and nail to survive! And you're saying she has no life? You call her a doll with no soul, but she's sitting there crying over her big sister! She fought you not for the sake of some twisted experiment but for her life! You can't put a price on life!"
"Sure I can," Accelerator snorted in disinterest, "I know for a fact that one clone coasts about the same as an apartment."
"That's not right!" Touma shouted, bursting forward with a century long telegraphed punch aimed at Accelerator's face. Accelerator seemed unconcerned with Touma's efforts as he simply scuffed the toe of his shoe against the earth, sending a wave of sharp rock and dust into the black haired boy's face. Touma coughed and stumbled back before he tried again, only to get the same result. Mai observed the one sided fight for a moment, her eyes wide, before she carefully pulled herself up to her feet and just as carefully hobbled her way towards Mikoto. Reaching the original's side, Mai collapsed to her knees, feeling her mind go blank for the first time as she stared at the body of her 'big sister'. All of her life, 10032 dealt with the voices of her 'sisters' dwelling in her mind; their input and calm advise pushing her further in her training, their memories were like silent bits of advice or visions of certain events that could happen again if she took the same road as her previous sisters. She knew every route throughout the entire city, every ally, every corner, every street address; there was not a place in Academy City where her sister's haven't been where their memories haven't surfaced in the forefront of her mind.
And now… when 10032 needed her sister's advice, when she needed their calm intellect, their cold and detached mind set…
Everyone had fallen silent
Every clone in the city, every single one remaining in the Misaka net, collapsed somewhere; unable to comprehend their failure—her failure. She could almost see through their eyes; staring lost at the cement, gravel, dirt, paths in front of her. She could feel the concerned hands of stranger's touching her shoulders and arms, carefully trying to awaken her from her stupor, feeling the cold—too cold—breeze as it twirled past her without caring for her distress. She could hear the soft murmurs of voices, the chirping of various insects, the commands from her superiors, the questions from her teachers. She could smell sweets from stores, spices from restaurants, chemicals from the labs, water from the ocean, and earth from the forest.
Suddenly she could see, hear, feel and smell everything that surrounded her sisters
Most importantly, what was right in front of her seemed to be in startling celerity, as if she was seeing it all for the first time through bionic glasses. The blood shinned too brightly in the moonlight, her skin seemed too pale against the dark gray of the gravel, her uniform too dirty and her hair seemed too dark. The smell of blood filled her nose as strongly as the chemicals from her birthing room, the feel of gravel cut her knees like the feel of the cold marble of the laboratory. She could feel the icy fingers of the wind push and pull at her, raking through her hair like wolf claws, burying deep into her flesh like a dagger and freezing everything it touched.
She gasped as she realized that one of the newly awakened clones couldn't handle the stress of the other clones, having been awake for a few days she was unused to the sudden celerity of her predecessors sometimes shared with her. 10032 realized with cold, detached realization, that the clone had snapped at the stress and despair of her predecessors and her power ended up running amok at the laboratory; forcing the scientists in question to euthanize her for their own safety. The cold feeling of life slowly leaking out of her body almost felt like a comfort to 10032 as she continued to stare numbly at the body of her 'big sister'. The feeling of death that the new clone was experiencing and transmitting to all of them… it was the same feeling her Onee-sama had to be feeling. As sudden as the realization came it went, 10032 was suddenly alone, her mind silent, her body cold. She could no more see, hear or feel her sisters then she could hear her surroundings or feel her own body—she could only see the bloody body of her Onee-sama.
"MAI~!" she looked up at the sound of the name her sister had given her and found herself staring dispassionately at Touma as he ran towards her. A single second was all she needed to see that Accelerator was laughing, his arms spread out wide around him, his hands upturned towards the sky, blood dribbled down his chin from his nose. Touma continued to run towards her, panic in his eyes, desperation in his voice as he screamed her name over and over. 10032 could understand his desperation and fear, her natural magnetic field that was never dropped even when she slept told her that the railcar twenty-eight feet behind her was being moved by the wind Accelerator was creating. In a moment it would be floating and innless it gained significant height, it would slam down on her and Onee-sama; crushing them both. 10032 blinked slowly at Touma before she lowered herself onto the bloody ground and curled beside her Onee-sama, closing her eyes in acceptance. She could hear Accelerator's laughter and Touma's panicked screaming at her to move but she couldn't bring herself to care enough to move; if Onee-sama was going to get crushed then so would she.
"Mai!" Touma screamed loudly, his voice nearly hidden in the immense wind current and laughter of Accelerator. "Get up!" no reaction from the clone, "Mai! Your sister didn't kill herself just so you can get crushed by a container!" said railcar was sliding across the gravel, digging out a deep gouge in the earth, inching closer and closer to the twins. Touma found it strange how the twins seemed to be dead already, their bodies as still as ice carvings; could someone be alive and dead at the same time? Was that even possible?
"She died to give you a chance at life!"
She died… she died… it was her fault, if she wasn't born then her Onee-sama wouldn't have died, wouldn't have had seen the need to die to save her—them. Onee-sama is dead…
"She chose death to give you life!"
Give life? No… if she died then maybe Onee-sama could be spared and she could come back to life… was that a strange thought? A strange wish? Could it be done? Would Kami or the guardian of death allow them to switch places? Did they even exist? If they did, would they let them switch? Would they give Onee-sama her life back at the price of 10032 dyeing in her place? Could that be done?
"She wouldn't want you to give up and die!"
She'd want us to give up and die? Yes, she'll lay there and wait for the container to crush her, she'll die and she'll do so laying beside her Onee-sama.
"She'd want you to get up and fight!"
Fight? The thought echoed in her mind, a hundred different voices whispering together the single word, as if they didn't understand the meaning behind it.
"So get up!" Touma screamed, his feet sliding out from under him, making him face plant the earth. "Get up and fight!"
Fight? To take part in combat, to contend with struggle, to wage a battle, to try to prevent or oppose
"Mikoto wanted you to fight!" Touma screamed again, pushing himself up to look at the twins before he was swept away from them
Onee-sama… wants us to fight?
She wants us to combat for the sake of life?
She wants us to struggle to survive?
She wants us to wage a battle to live?
She wants us to oppose the scientists who command the experiments?
"She wanted you to fight for the right to live!"
Fight? 10032 slowly opened her eyes, staring dry-eyed at the pale face of her elder sister, the smooth aster skin marked with drying blood and ash, the soft up-turn of her lips that signaled a small but pleased smile. Onee-sama wants us to fight?
"GET UP!" Touma screamed desperately, at the same time Mikoto's eyes opened slowly and she stared back at 10032. The resulting clone felt her eyes widen, her heart beat increase, her mind turn into a buzz of voices with hundreds-thousands of questions repeating like a cruel mantra or twenty different CD's playing at the same time.
"Hay," Mikoto whispered, small smile still in place, "I thought… I told you… to live?"
"Don't die over something stupid, ya-hear?"
"No," 10032 whispered, her vision blurring, "you said not to die over something stupid."
"Hmm," Mikoto closed her eyes sleepily and moved her hand just that little bit closer to her clone, "the experiments are stupid."
"…yes," 10032 agreed softly, closing her eyes and smiling in a mixture of relief, understanding and misery, a truly human expression etching itself across her face for the first time. "Yes… Mai sees that now…"
"I'm glad," Mikoto whispered, her voice straining in the screaming of the wind that surrounded them, "now… why are you still here? Are you hurt?"
"Yes," Mai whispered, sniffing as her sight blurred and her nose started running, "Mai hurts everywhere."
"Get up!" Touma screamed, the railcar lifted and seemed to drop in seconds
"Really?" Mikoto asked, sounding amused, one hand rising past Mai's head, "how silly…" Mai gasped as the railcar touched down, creating a cloud of dust around them. Touma screamed in anguish, believing that he was too late in reaching the twins, Accelerator continued laughing demonically, the wind kept screaming as if in echo of the twin's last moments.
"How could you?" Touma asked, he was laying on the ground, his face just inches off the ground. "how could you do that?!" Touma glared furiously over his shoulder at Accelerator, his black eyes looking like the black flames from hell.
"So what?" Accelerator asked, his crimson eyes wide and his smile looking almost demonic."That's what they get for being so weak!"
"With your power, you should be protecting weak not destroying them!" Touma screamed as he pushed himself to his feet and readied himself to fight Accelerator again. "why do you want power so bad?! Why do you want to be a level 6?!" For a moment, it looked like Accelerator would answer sarcastically, undoubtedly ready to spue out something that would undoubtedly make Touma hat him even more. But then his mouth snapped shut, his face drained of color, his eyes widened as if he was staring at a ghost. It was in that moment that Accelerator's face almost appeared like that of a scared child's, that Touma realized that even someone like Accelerator had a story to tell, even if he didn't want anyone knowing about it. In the next moment, Accelerator was snarling and shaking his head, trying to ride himself of a memory.
"It's none of your concern," Accelerator replied sharply, his expression guarded, "just die already!"
"Would that person you're fighting for like your methods?!" Touma asked, making Accelerator jerk at the question, "do you think that person would like what you're doing?!"
"It doesn't matter what imoto wants because she's dead!" Accelerator snapped, only to realize what he said and blinked almost doubly at Touma. "Imoto?" Accelerator questioned, his face pinching in confusion and alarming Touma, "I don't have any siblings, I'm an only child."
"I see..." Touma sighed, a look of understanding on his face as relief settled in his stomach
"Huh? What do you see?" Accelerator asked, looking up at his creation as if he worried that something might've happened to it, seeing nothing wrong, he decided to put more effort into his project.
"Accelerator ! You're just like me! Your memory has been whipped!" Touma shouted loudly, "that's why you mentioned having a little sister but you don't actually remember having one!" It was as if his words never reached the albino, his attention was still riveted to the growing, glowing plasma high over head. "What makes your sister so different from Mai?!" Big mistake, Touma later decided that he shouldn't compare Accelerator's sister to any of the clones. The reason being was because Accelerator had immediately sent a cloud of rock and metal shrapnel flying through the air fast enough to make him blink and realize that he was leaning against a railcar a hundred plus feet away from his previous place. There was a shout, and though Accelerator didn't bother looking, Touma couldn't help it. A few dozen feet from him, were two box cars propped up by a third, creating a large protective burrier again the wind.
"Onee-sama," Mai gasped, snapping into a sitting position, somewhere in the back of her mind she could feel her sister's gathering once again, moving as fast as they could to the switchyard. "You shouldn't be moving," Mai carefully placed her arms around Mikoto, as if she was glass and she didn't know how to hold her. "You need to rest!"
"Hay now," Mikoto coughed, smiling tiredly at her, "Who's the big sister here?"
"Uh-um… you?" Mai answered unsurely, tilting her head to the side in confusion
"Then don't you think that I know what I should and shouldn't be doing?" Mikoto asked, seemingly amused with her clone, her brown eyes sparkling strangely.
"No," 10032 answered honestly, "you threw yourself in front of your Railgun trying to commit suicide to save Mai—Mai does not approve of this action!"
"Of course you wouldn't," Mikoto snickered, patting 10032 on her head, ruffling the clone's short brown locks, "but I bet if our places were switched… you'd have done the same thing."
"Of course Mai would," 10032 huffed, feeling her sister's get ever closer to her, "it is Mai's task to—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Mikoto hissed, her eyes flashing warningly at the clone, "Don't you dare say it."
10032 blinked in surprise, having never before seen her elder sister angry, "…yes, Onee-sama…"
"Good," Mikoto bobbed her head, her anger instantly gone as she lit up the rail car atop them and moved it to the side, revealing Accelerator to them. "Did he lose it?" Mikoto asked herself, observing her surroundings carefully, listening to the howling wind as if it were protesting the abuse it was experiencing and watching the strangely bright moon light make everything before then glow like it was made from moon light. Sighing heavily, as if she really didn't know what to do, Mikoto rolled her eyes sky word and froze. "oh crud," Mikoto breathed in shock, her eyes widening. Curious 10032 raised her eyes, instantly feeling the same surprise and shock as Mikoto.
"Onee-sama," 10032 whispered in both awe and confusion, "what is that?"
"Plasma… I think," Mikoto answered slowly. "It looks like he's gathering all the wind in Academy city and condensing it into a single place… by condensing so much air into such a small place… he could be making Plasma but… I've never heard of that being done with air before. I don't even know if that's possible…" in the back of her mind, 10032 knew that her sisters were on the move, the closest ones were moving towards them while others were moving towards the nearest wind turbine. They were dividing up their given tasks and being reasonable about it, those on the far side would rush to the nearest turbine and those close enough to the switchyard would continue making their way towards them.
"What do we do now?" 10032 asked, blinking slowly at the violet-pink glowing ball of shifting light, "Mai is already at several wind turbines and is rotating them back words to disrupt the flow of the wind… what do we three do here?"
"Figure out another way to stop him," Mikoto answered, pushing herself up to her feet, her body sparking and glowing with electricity as she forced it to move. "You keep the girls there until Accelerator has lost for sure, I'll distract him enough to completely lose concentration on what he's doing now."
"Onee-sama," 10032 reached out to her, bloody fingers trembling, her dark gray-brown eyes locking onto Mikoto's broken leg.
"Don't worry," Mikoto smiled down at her, "I won't die, not yet at least." She smiled in relief, glade her Onee-sama would fight for her life too.
"Be safe… Onee-sama"
"But of course," Mikoto smiled at her, "I still have to teach you all my tricks!"
…
…
All the wind in Academy City, Accelerator thought, crimson eyes glowing as he dropped them onto the cause for his sudden power boost, Touma was laying against the farthest railcar in the circle around them, looking like he was half dead. Accelerator smirked at him in amusement before he realized something was wrong—vastly wrong. His plasma was shrinking, becoming unraveled and unstable. His calculations were correct, they always wore, there was no way he could've mistaken the calculations it would take to create his attack to completely destroy the boy and possibly a good portion of Academy City. He hissed as the plasma unraveled before his eyes, glaring down at Touma, Accelerator quickly dismissed him as the cause; instantly he searched his surroundings for anyone or anything that could disrupt his attack. At first his eyes landed on the distant wind turbines in the next district over, his eyes widening fractionally as he realized that they were spinning the wrong way. He was filled with confusion for barely even a moment, he snapped around and his crimson eyes imminently locked onto the clone sitting on the gravel looking like some broken and bloody doll. Mikoto was standing protectively in front of her, her body aglow with her electricity, keeping it moving despite the broken bones she had and the huge blood lose she was starting to suffer from. For another moment Accelerator hesitated, his eyes landing onto Mikoto before dropping onto her still bleeding side and clueing themselves to her barely palm sized black mark. He was hoping that his last attack would knock her out for some time but it would appear she was more stubborn then he thought, her desire to protect the clone over powering her body's need to rest.
"Accelerator!" Mikoto screamed into the wind, pulling a single magnetic rail out of the ground and carefully wrapping it around her clone before nearly flinging her towards Touma, knowing she'd be safest with him. "You're craze for power ends here!" Accelerator stared blandly at the burnet, as if he didn't understand her words or couldn't comprehend her desire to fight him. Sighing again, Accelerator silently noticed his plasma disappearing compleatly but his wind still focusing around them in a dangerous spinning torrent. He turned his eyes heaven word for a moment before he nodded and turned to face Mikoto completely, giving her his undivided attention.
"You want to fight me to the death?" Accelerator asked, cocking his head to the side, "you won't win."
"I don't care much for winning," Mikoto replied calmly, her electricity shooting out to connect with the railcars, shredding them into pieces, "I car for my SISTERS!" she sent the shredded pieces of metal at Accelerator, already knowing that they'd never reach him yet trying all the same. Accelerator glanced at a nearby container purposefully and sent one of Mikoto's magnetized nails towards it, ripping the side wide open and spilling the contents for the world to see. Mikoto froze for barely a moment, her eyes widening in horror, her face paling further, her body twisting and her electricity already arcing towards Touma and Mai.
"Flower plus wind plus sparks," Accelerator smirked to himself, crimson eyes glowing as flower spilt into his current of wind, surrounding them in almost puriest white.
"Mikoto / Onee-sama!" Touma and Mai screamed at the same time, the former quickly shielding the later
"Look out!" Mikoto screamed, her eyes wide, one hand outstretched towards them
"…Equals boom," Accelerator relaxed his stance slightly, watching the flower dust brush the edge of Mikoto's electricity.
The ground shook
The air trembled
The sound traveled throughout all of Academy City
The darkness was chased away with a pillar of echoing orange flames
The stars were hidden behind a thick veil of onyx smoke and yellow light
…
…
She coughed and wheezed, tears threatening her vision as she tried to breathe in the sudden darkness surrounding and suffocating her. She pressed one hand to her head, wondering about the ringing in her ears and the throbbing in her temples as if someone thought it would be a great idea to replace her head with a drum.
"Are you alright?" she felt someone place a hand on her arm and reflexively looked in that direction, not expecting to see anything in the sheer darkness of… wherever she was.
"Mai is as well as to be expected," She answered stiffly, pushing herself up, one hand resting against the burning pain of her right arm, "Where is Onee-sama?"
"I don't know," the boy, Touma, said softly, "Can you give us any light to work with?"
"…Mai can try" 10032 answered softly, coughing slightly as she sat back to observe her new surroundings. Wasn't there a wall of fire coming at her? Was she dead and in the afterlife with that strange boy who knew Onee-sama?
…was Onee-sama with her?
With a fresh wave of panic coursing through her, 10032 lit up her good hand with electricity, gray eyes wide and searching as her new surroundings came into startling clarity. Touma hissed at the sudden light, flinching back before slowly letting his eye-site adjust to the pale blue light that now surrounded them. Together, Mai and Touma, stared dumbly at the black stained crimson that surrounded them, looking oddly metallic as it vibrated slightly, giving them barely any room to move without touching each other but enough to do so without touching it.
"Is this… a railcar?" Touma asked, pressing his hand against the nearest wall, only to hiss and jerk his hand back. "It's hot," Touma grumbled, rubbing at his now crimson stained hand, beating and burning furiously for his mistake.
"Look out!"
Touma gasped at the memory, his dark eyes widening as he snapped around to look for that girl flying towards them but their little eight by ten pace showed only the younger twin, Mai. He stared back at the younger girl, watching her tremble in her seat, her breathing beginning to quicken, her electricity starting to act haywire, shooting out at the hot metal like angry needles. He couldn't blame her, they watched as Mikoto dove for them, her electricity was already shooting into the metal boxcars around them and contorting them with little effort.
She must not have made it to them in time… her last action was to create this dome to protect them
"Onee-sama," Mai whispered, drawing Touma's attention back to her "Onee-sama…"
"…She should be safe," Touma said softly, not really wanting to give up on the girl who seemed to have an endless list of tricks up her sleeves. "She made this without thinking twice about it," He gestured to their cage, trying to smile encouragingly at the clone as she turned trembling gray eyes towards him, "She had to have created something to protect herself." It took a moment, the clone sniffed repeatedly, tears threatening her eyes before she was able to stop them, but with a few gasps of air the girl was able to bring herself under control again.
"Y-yes," Mai whispered, hick-upping even as she whipped at her wrist, ignoring the electricity that sparked off her fingers, "Onee-sama… she's defiantly alive." Her sisters were already there, searching for them. From what little of their memories she was allowed to see, she knew the switchyard was a complete mess, everything was upside down, burnt down and completely destroyed. They would never be able to clean it up before a civilian found them, then again according to a few of her sisters, civilians were already casing the place, looking for survivors. They would never be able to leave without Anti-skill or someone else finding them.
…
…
Her world was blurry, her body achy but numb at the same time, it was dark and yet there were flashes of light. Slowly her eyes pinched together before they slowly opened, her world was blurry and unfocused in her conscious state. She could barely make out the light-dark blue combo swirling seemingly in front of her face but as it slowly cleared, she realized there was something else between her and the swirling blue. Something pale and light… something as wavy and unsteady as the swirling blue far but close to her face, what could be that white-gray thing highlighted pale blue? She breathed, noting silently how her chest vibrated and something trickled out of the corner of her mouth, the white thing shifted and she could almost feel something tighten around her but she wasn't sure.
Did she hear someone whispering to her?
Did something just touch her forehead?
Was she wet?
Her world was darkening…
…
…
They had been called onto the scene, the echo of the explosion and blinding light alarmed everyone in the city. Technically Anti-skill was already on their way over to the scene when they got the call, several judgement officers were already there, using their telekinesis to lift some objects to aid their search. She showed up relatively quickly herself, living nearby helped. When she arrived on scene, it took everything she had not to openly gap at the mass of destruction presented to her like a blanket of war. There were still fires burning here and there, some containers still splintering open with echoing booms, some debris were still sent flying and some people were still combing the safer reaches as best as they could. It had taken them nearly an hour to organize a command system and organize a possible rescue of anyone who might've been caught in the explosion. It had been four hours since her arrival, blood was found in the apparent epic center, as well as bits and pieces of cloth that seemed to belong to a very familiar looking uniform. A certain red head judgment officer was the first to come to mind but no one brought forth a green badge so she held off on that particular assumption.
"Captain Yomikawa Aiho! Captain Yomikawa Aiho!" she turned at the sound of her name, her purple hair whipping around behind her as she snapped around to regard the panicked stricken man running towards her. "Captain Yomikawa Aiho! Captain Yomi—!"
"Stop shouting my name and tell me what's going on!" Aiho snapped out, purple eyes narrowing into a glare at the man as she started moving quickly towards him, "Well?! What's wrong?!"
"There a container of some sort," The man answered with a slight stuttered, stopping just to spin on his heal and start moving away.
"What do you mean 'some sort'?!" Aiho snapped out with a glare as she started into a dead run, following the man to his destination, the cause for his panic. "Is it a container or not?!"
"Well yes but," the man hesitated as he slid to a stop and pointed to his problem, "it's not a railcar!" she slid to a stop beside him, her purple eyes widening and her face paling at the object he was talking about. True to his word a metallic object sat on the gravel, nearly perfectly round and constructed with what appeared to be several different railcars smashed and twisted together. Sparks still rolled off its sharp corners, some of it was still glowing a molten red from the fire it survived through while some of it seemed to be glowing from the electricity it was halfheartedly bathed in.
"Wha-what in the world?" Aiho asked no one, a solid sounding thump sounded from the inside of the metallic orb, the electricity lighting up bright blue before dyeing down into little crackles again. "Someone is inside!" Aiho gasped, sprinting forward, "Get someone with Telekinesis here NOW!"
"I'm already here," a new voice gasped out, Aiho turned to look at the speaker, her eyes widening again at the sight of the young judgment officer. He was covered in burns, scrapes and bruises, his uniform was covered in ash and dirt, a few blood splatters as well, his brown hair stood on end and smoking a little at the tips. "We'll need someone to cool down that thing before I try again; I'm tired of getting thrown around by that thing."
"Just what happened to you?" Aiho asked, sliding to a stop to observe the high scholar
"I tried to lift the thing but it shot out electricity at me," the boy answered, "I tried lifting something to knock it away and it sent out an electric current that knocked a bunch of things over and berried it again. No matter what I do I can't move that thing without something happening to make the situation worse."
"Would a Hydro user help?" Aiho asked, "I know a girl who knows one. I've met her once or twice."
"That'd help but I'm not sure for how long," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "I threw some of my water at it but it was like there's an electric shield around it. Not a drop got through."
"…My friend still might be able to help," Aiho replied with a stiff frown, pulling out her cellphone and dialing away.
"Hello? Konori Mii here,"
"Konori-san do you have that nosy brat's number?" Aiho asked, "The red head friends with the Railgun?" Aiho turned away from the telekinesis user, purple eyes sharp like daggers as she glared at the metallic orb, "yeah her, can you call and tell them I need their help in the switchyard? Something's trapped under a… uh thing," Aiho frowned to herself, as if she didn't know how to describe the thing to her friend. "And it's lighting up with electricity but none of our efforts are getting the electricity to dim or go elsewhere. It's making everything more difficult than it needs to be." The voice on the other line rattled of some things in quick succession, Aiho simply made a few none con sounds like 'ah', 'hm', and 'yeah'.
"So you'll bring the girl's here?" Aiho asked with a curious tilt of her head, "Alright that's great, thanks for the help." She hung up and turned back to the telekinesis user and her subordinate, "The girls I was talking about, they'll be here soon."
"When will they arrive?" the man asked, both hands on his knees as he panted heavily. Before Aiho could respond, a strange little tinkering noise sounded, startling the three. Aiho glanced at the two males before she turned around and started to walk towards the epic center of the destruction, her eyes on the ground as she started to search for the creation of the strange noise. Pausing just off to the side of the epic center, Aiho blinked dumbly down at the ash and gravel ground, she crouched and brushed her fingers over a large lump on the ground.
The noise is coming from here, Aiho thought, carefully unburying the object in question, hesitating for a brief moment when the strange sound stopped. She stopped as she found something green poking out curiously from the ground, her eyes narrowed as she realized the strange thing was a cellphone. She went to grab it the ringing started up again, making her pause for a moment before she lifted it, opened it and answered.
"Hello?" Aiho answered the cellphone carefully, trying not to be unnerved by the dried blood dripping off from the end of the frog-shaped cellphone
"Who the hell is this?" a feminine voice on the other side asked rudely, making Aiho's brow twitch at the lack of manners from the young girl.
"This is Aiho Yomikawa," Aiho answered back, irritation sounding in her voice. "I'm captain of district eight in the switchyard sector, branch 73, who the hell is this?"
"This is Kuroko Shirai, of judgment branch 177th," the girl answered back, her voice was suddenly full of confusion and concern, as if she didn't know what to make of the woman answering her friend's phone. "Where is Mikoto? Is she there?"
"Mikoto?" Aiho asked, body stiffening, "Mikoto Misaka? As in the Railgun?"
"Yeah… this is her number so you should be on her phone," Kuroko continued, eyes narrowing for a moment as she decided to teleport her way towards her branch office. "Is she there?"
Aiho glanced around herself, her eyes momentarily falling onto the metal orb several feet behind her, "… I'm not sure how to answer that."
"What do you mean you don't know how to answer that?" Kuroko asked, frustration in her voice, "You're on her phone!"
"Her phone was half buried in ash and rubble," Aiho sighed, rising to her full height, "I'm sorry Shirai-san… Misaka-san… I think she's here in the Switchyard district seventeen… that might be why we can't move this giant metal ball. It might be her inside"
"Tell me everything you know!" Kuroko ordered coldly, Aiho sighed as she heard the telltale sounds of teleportation, she doubted the red head stopped to completely form before she was off again.
"… Last night about O-nine-hundred there was a dust explosion," Aiho explained, "I think she might've been the spark for that explosion."
"…is she alright?"
Aiho hated this part of her job
"…There's blood on her cell phone…" and all over the switchyard
…
…
Thoughts are helpful
Opinions are wonderful
Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?
Please no cursing!
And don't forget to rate and review!
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