The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Kazuma Kamachi and Ryūtarō Nakamura

All rights belong to the original creators, J.C. Staff Co., Ltd.; and Triangle Staff

The Bluefire Phoenix presents...

A Chapter of The Serial Experiment...

Layer XI: The Q Source

Computers were simple. They were nothing but layers upon layers of cold hard logic; zeros and ones that, when read a certain way, represented data. Such elegance powered the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, which in turn operated the most advanced city in the world.

When a computer presented a problem, it could be quickly fixed. Especially for someone with my level of skill. There were a thousand different ways to solve a given situation, and they were all valid barring certain restraints.

People were not simple. They were an intricate web of contradictions, emotions, and motives playing off of other intricate webs of contradictions, emotions, and motives. Each a crude, cunning creature that worked together to create the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, to operate the most advanced city in the world.

When a person presented a problem, there was hardly ever a quick fix. I definitely wasn't qualified to handle them. Worse yet, there were a billion ways to respond but all of them might be completely wrong.

Despite my lack of people skills, I was drawn to Judgment almost since I arrived. I always looked up to them. A lot of the younger students did. We live in a city with a distinct lack of adults, and none of those adults were Espers so it made sense to turn to what amounted to the members of the world's most well outfitted hall monitor organization.

I had a lot to thank Judgment for. Mostly a chance to befriend Kuroko. Without her I would never met Mikoto Misaka and…and Lain. The mysterious girl named Lain. She was odd to say the least and not entirely in the quirky way.

Lain…it felt like she wasn't there half the time. Aloof was a good way to describe her presence. Ironically, my life had slowly begun to orbit that strange little girl. Now I was hiding in the city sewer system with said girl and her custom built computer.

Kuroko had left to get Misaka and that Alice girl that Kuroko and Misaka met during the mall disturbance. Lain was wearing an oversized shirt compared to her slight frame. It appeared to be the only thing that she was wearing. Fortunately Kuroko brought her some real cloths for when she…woke up. It didn't sound right to call it that. She was in some wide eyed, catatonic trance.

Her lifeless brown eyes creepily stared at me and her computer. The hairs on the back of my neck couldn't stand up much straighter. I continued to hook up her computer back to the Wired.

Delphi was not a normal PC by any stretch of the imagination. It was the kind of machine that everyday hackers like me couldn't even dream about. Things stirred bellow during my first few minutes of working on it. Fortunately I was alone. After that bout of embarrassment, I got to the task at hand and began trying to build a picture of what was going on.

Nothing felt right about…well everything. There had been a chill in the air ever since Anti-Skill started locking down the city. Judgment officers were order to their stations then locked inside, under guard. Even the Avri Units weren't behaving. I tried to call for one, but all I got was static.

That prompted an examination of Roots logs. I noted an odd feature of the log. The last entry was about three hours ago. It said that command of the organization was temporarily given to Anti-Skill. Which led to a more puzzling problem: Anti-Skill had been fairly quiet over the last few hours. The last order recorded was a dispatch to all officers not long after Root's log ended. It read: Epsilon Protocol 5-3 engaged, followed by an order to report to stations and await further orders.

I tuned into the radio frequencies Anti-Skill used. There was nothing but static. My thumb started to twirl. Anti-Skill and Judgment were supposed to work together. So why didn't I know about these Epsilon Protocols?

When I went looking for them, I found nothing. Not even a fringe site or forum came up. The only things that did come up were bits of unrelated junk from a variety sources.

I heard a weird whoosh behind me. Another followed it. I turned around to see a girl standing there. She was Japanese, with long brown hair and a wild look in her eyes. The girl looked around, finally settling on Lain.

Kuroko popped back to our little base with Misaka. Lain sprang up, locking eyes with her. I thought things would lighten up once Misaka arrived. But the room only felt colder. The girl's face couldn't pick a mood. It shifted between half a dozen different emotions, finally settling on a blank expression.

Misaka walked forward, brushing past the new girl and Kuroko. She stopped in front of me and reached into her pocket. Her hand pulled out something. She handed it to me. It was a flash drive? I looked up at her.

"See what you can do with this," Misaka muttered. My eyes blinked several times. I looked at the grey device.

My lower lip slipped between my teeth. I wasn't sure what to make of it. My attention was stolen by Lain and the new girl's first interaction. The new girl held her left hand up with her fingers spread. Her eyes were shimmering even in the limited light of our base.

Lain was curiously gawking at the girl. Her head cocked side to side, brow scrunched up in pondering. The new girl stepped forward.

"Alice," Lain whispered.

"Lain," Alice replied. Lain raised her right hand and locked it with Alice's left hand.

Kuroko looked confused at the strange performance. Misaka watched in a cool appreciation, arms crossed over her chest.

Alice placed her right hand on the side of Lain's face. Lain began to shake. Her face twitched. Misaka had started to claw into arms with her nails.

A horrific scream bellowed out of Lain's mouth. It stopped every now and again at odd intervals only to pick up with similar veracity after a breath. Eventually Alice got into the act too.

Misaka dropped to her knees, her hands now trying to reach into her head. Kuroko was hovering over her, telling her something to reassure her. Sweat poured from the skin of Lain and Alice, dripping to the floor. Blood vessels popped out of Lain's forehead.

Everything fell silent. Eerie, endless silence. Lain collapsed to the ground with Alice. Misaka finally got off of the ground after a moment. She hobbled over to me. "Uiharu…for…for the love of god: find out what's on that drive," she hissed.

"I—wha…what was that?" I whispered. It was mostly meant for myself, but Misaka quickly grabbed my shoulder and shook her head. There was something in her eyes. A primal anger burned behind them.

"Don't ask questions just figure out what's on the damn drive…please," the older girl ordered. I nodded meekly and quickly plugged in the drive. Misaka wandered back over to Lain. She knelt down, embracing Lain. Kuroko took Alice over to the bundle of sheets that we had gathered to use as our bed.

A window popped up on Delphi's screen, reminding me of my current job. It was a prompt for a very long password. I couldn't help but sigh. I reached into my backpack and pulled out my own drive.

Once plugged in I opened it. The drive was a toolbox of material I used in cracking into things on computers. I had a gut feeling this wasn't going to be easy. As I started to dig, my gut realized this wasn't going to be easy. Fortunately, this would provide a nice escape from whatever weirdness that was starting to take over my life.

Whoever encrypted this thing deserved a prize. Even Turing would have struggled with this one. But he didn't have a pair of Oracle Processors at his command. Fortunately I did, which would cut some tasks down from hours to a matter of minutes.

As the hours dragged on, I started to wish that life were more like the movies. The password would be something simple and easily deduced with merely passing knowledge of the person whose machine we were trying to crack. Alas, whoever owned this drive understood the concept of digital security. From what I managed to skim off the drive, it became apparent this was a Root drive. About seven years old based on the dates in a couple of files. They weren't particularly interesting, just uploaded photocopies of requisition forms sent to the city board.

Eventually I pulled out my spiral. I began to write out hypotheses and visualize problems. The longer I worked on Delphi, the less I felt in the real world. It was like I was standing between the Wired and reality.

But existentialism would have to be put on hold as I reached the end. I found the password. It had only taken…eight hours. Neat.

I opened up the drive's contents. It was loaded with dozens of folders. The only two executable files on the top level were videos named One and Two. I loaded up the first video and turned around. Misaka was still holding Lain. The girls were like a statue. Kuroko was looking over her phone.

I got up and placed my hand on her shoulder. She shot her head around, eyeing me with tired pupils. "We're in," I said. Misaka picked up Lain and walked over to the computer with me. Kuroko joined us as well. I started the video, turning up the volume.

The video started. The picture started with a Japanese woman dressed in business casual under a lab coat with frazzled, dyed blonde hair sitting in an office playing with an unlit cigarette in her hand. Her eyes were hung with major stress lines. She took a deep breath and put her smoke down. She straightened up her posture.

"Who I am shouldn't be important, but for the official record: my name is Dr. Harumi Kiyama. I have spent the past four years working for the Board of Academy City and Root. If I gave you the drive containing this video then it means I believe the time is right to take down the Board for its crimes. Otherwise: I'm either already dead or awaiting to become dead. In which case feel free to go f—"

The video cut with a censor beep to come back with the woman sitting up straighter, her cigarette gone. She cleared her throat. "This drive contains the evidence I've compiled so far and probably more. You should be aware that releasing these documents will have huge ramifications for Academy City. People will lose their jobs, the children will be interned, and all other sorts of hell will be unleashed. It is a steep price, I know. But we have to be stopped. Each folder in this drive is a collection of documents related to specific experiments I've managed to get and is accompanied by a video that gives a synopsis of what is in it."

The player closed. I then loaded the second video. Misaka and I leaned in as Kiyama returned to the screen. Her hair was shorter and mostly dark brown, with the tips of her hair now faded blonde. She was also far more frayed and wore an outfit similar to the first video. A weird looking pen with a…mouth piece was hanging around her neck. Her eyes wearily shifted every which way.

"Okay hopefully this will work," she mumbled before clearing her throat. "Hello, Railgun." I felt Misaka dig her nails into my back.

"I know that you've wanted the truth from me and that I've been less than forthcoming to you. Now I hate be a bitch, but I'm just not going to tell you. It's not that I don't want to. Believe me; I've been looking for a proper confessor for the better part of six years now. But it's quite simple really, I'm not going to tell you because I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. What I've done, what we've done is indefensible and I don't want you to look like a fool in some vain attempt to 'protect' my honor."

Misaka ripped even further into my shoulder. I tried not to squirm because I felt a wave a static run down my back. I felt Kuroko try to steady Misaka.

"Hopefully once you see the trial, you'll understand. So please get this drive to the UN, then you can learn as much as you can stomach," she said. "But before I go, I want you to do one more thing for me Railgun: once you deliver the evidence, I want you to take Lain and run. Go back to Japan and try to live out the most normal life you can. If anyone deserves it, it's you two." The video closed and Misaka released me. She started to pace around the space.

Kuroko tried to consul her. She was surprisingly restraint in not laying on the sexual undertones she usually employed with Miaka.

I began to look over the files on the drive, in a mood that I could only describe was macabre curiosity. They had odd names: Radio Noise, Aphrodite Initiative, Next Avatar, GECK, and alike. The one I stopped on was simply labeled PLHC. It caught my curiosity, what can I say. I entered the file and started the video. The other girls stopped their activity and returned to watch.

It started. Kiyama gave a brief introduction to the experiment. It was headed someone called Caiaphas, whom Kiyama referred to as a she. Apparently this Caiaphas was trying to turn the city's number one Level Five, a Russian boy referred to only as Accelerator, into…well a living particle accelerator.

Then the video switched over to footage of the experiment. Oddly Lain was there with him, her hair the same as it was when we first met. As the video continued, I felt my stomach violently churn as the experiment continued.

Image after image came up.

The screams. The cries for mercy. All unheard.

My body began to violently quake. Eventually I had to find a bag to vomit in. I looked up to find Misaka blankly staring at the screen. Her face betrayed not even the slightest hint of emotion.

It was a stark contrast to Kuroko, who had a hand over her mouth and a stream of tears flowing from her eyes.

Misaka finally turned to me. Her eyes were brown voids. "What do you feel…right now?" she asked.

"What?" I half whispered, half hissed.

"How did that video make you feel?" Misaka begged.

"I…horrible, sick…why?" I was able to respond. Misaka looked back to the screen.

"I didn't feel anything. Only anger when I saw what they did to Lain. But outside that…nothing," she said. Misaka dropped to her knees. "No...no…no. This is wrong. This is all wrong. I am in control. I am in control. I should feel something more. I'm not sick. I'm not sick!" she began to mutter in a panicked monotone.

I snuck back over to Delphi, quickly closed the video and the file directory, and then took the drive out. I pocked the drive. If the rest of the videos and files were even half as bad as that one, then I had a duty to turn it over to the authorities.

"Sissy what's happening?" Kuroko asked.

"Cutter said I...am fine. Cutter said I am fine," Misaka repeated, retaining that same eerie tone.

I stood up and looked around our dank headquarters. My heart skipped a beat. "Where is Lain?" I asked. The whole room shook with the sound of a massive explosion above.

To Be Continued...

A/N: When I was putting this chapter together, I wanted to emphasize the horror. Not enough to derail the tone of the story, but to add some more...unsettling elements to the mix. Now the best way to tap into horror is to play with humanity's greatest weakness: our need for cognitive closure. We need to see things in order to rationalize them, to complete the puzzle if you will. And that is where the best horror writers excel. By being vague and giving just a taste of what lurks in the shadows, they feed into our need to know.

To help my own attempt, I again shifted perspective. I won't annoy you with another perspective is important rant (but it is). Any who, I thought Uiharu would be the best way to go about this.

Until next time, I got nothing {Just like every other day}