Friday, Early afternoon, 3

Following the explosive sound, a big hole was blasted open in the wall on the other side of the hallway, deviated a good meter away from the straight line it was originally going in. Mikoto stood with her arm stretched out still, breathing heavily while the last static charges left her body, glaring at the man in front of her.

The Sniper grinned, hands in his pockets. He'd just stepped back half a meter and let his ability take care of the rest.

"That's not very nice." He said. "'Murderer' is going a bit far, don't you think? I didn't mean to kill anyone; I merely played with the heating system a bit. Who'd imagined there was a gas tank in one of the stores?" His grin widened. "Boooooom…"

Her face twisted in anger, and a storm of lightning flew his way. None of the strikes hit, though, instead smashing into the walls and the ceiling scattering dust everywhere. When the electricity dissipated, he tsk'ed.

"Trouble with your kind of ability users is your power is simply too one-sided. If I lower the probability of you being able to produce electricity –"

BANG! The sudden sound of a gunshot erupted from behind Mikoto; Sniper was close to being grazed by the bullet sweeping past his shoulder even though he had seen it coming. Mikoto gritted her teeth, and then the steel bar that had previously trapped Sahari rose from the floor and sped right at him. It smashed into the wall beside the entrance to the store, Sniper grinning smugly as he neatly evaded the attack. However, through the ensuing dust Shizuka stormed forward and knocked into him.

He oof'ed as the air left his lungs. Shizuka's face was instantly cut open by several gashes, but she barely even flinched, and then another streak of lightning barely missed his head. He'd lost his surprise momentum, and was outnumbered; he needed to concentrate better than this to stand a chance against Mikoto.

Shizuka groaned when a deep gash protruded on her leg, and then the ceiling above them cracked open, and fell to the floor with a thunder, leaving a giant cloud of dust in its wake. The rubble effectively blocked the entrance to the store.

Mikoto coughed as the dust entered her mouth and nose, then whipped out another coin and aimed at the pile of rubble; behind her, Sahari smacked her hands to her ears. This time the electrical beam tore through the debris like a scissor through paper, and blasted the building materials in all directions.

The Sniper was already at the end of the hallway, jumping over obstacles like an athlete.

"Wait damn you!" Mikoto shouted, and ran after him. She could see nothing but the destruction around her, and all the pent-up rage inside was overflowing through her veins, clouding her mind.

"Misaka-san –" Shizuka could not say anymore before the girl had passed her, and the woman gritted her teeth, clenching her hands around the bleeding wound on her leg.

XXX

"Again!" Ruiko exclaimed as dust fell from the ceiling, the last echoes of the rumble dissipating. "Is it an earthquake or something?"

The guy they had helped was humping towards the escalator, and Kazari looked determined in the direction of the loud sound.

"Let's go, Saten-san!"

"Aaah, okay!"

XXX

Kuroko looked up at the mall as yet another distant booming noise was heard from inside. Sweat poured down the side of her face; she hoped the sound was not what she thought it was…

The Judgment branches had divided themselves and were scouring different parts of the building. Kuroko was moving to examine the area around the back; the damage would probably be very small there, but there were emergency exits at that side, so there might be someone needing help. Just as she came around the corner, she was shocked to see the persons outside the nearest emergency exit. The girl standing there looked her way, her face breaking into a grin.

"Sahari-san!"

XXX

Mikoto ran past a café when a stinging pain erupted from her arm, and she grimaced. One of the gashes had reopened, plaster going red already. She threw a lightning bolt into the cafeteria, tables and chairs thrown about by the power, but it hit the wall without making contact with her target, who so frustratingly stood in the middle of the store, plainly visible.

Sniper laughed loudly, echoing off the walls. "Come on, come on, miss number three!"

Irked, she charged her electricity again, the sparking noises filling her ears. A lightning storm assaulted the man standing arrogantly before her, and at the same time, she charged ahead.

He let the lightning bend away effortlessly, and then the floor fell apart beneath her; shock reverberating through her body, she fell.

There was at least seven meters from the ceiling to the floor on the next level – she'd have to break the fall –

"Hey hey, miss electroshock, you didn't forget, did you?" He laughed, and she realized he'd done it again; all she got was a spark, and no electricity to use as a lifeline.

Crap! Falling with the debris, she hurriedly adjusted her magnetic field, and hit the floor with a bang. Scorching fire filled her chest, and she grimaced, hoisting herself up on all four. At least her legs hadn't broken.

Sniper laughed from above, and she gritted her teeth again. The floor cracked beneath his feet as well, forced downwards by a sudden pull of magnetism, and he fell with a surprised yell. Even though his fall was not as high as hers because of the pile of rubble already there, he hit it a lot harder than she had.

Mikoto gave a grin tinted with pain; seems like even his ridiculous power couldn't battle the most basic law in the universe.

"You – didn't forget, did you?" She asked, in between gasps of breath.

"Gaah!" He rose from the rubble, bleeding from a wound on his forehead, and turned his furious face to look at her. She grimaced as new gashes slashed over her skin, some on the arms and one on the cheek; without being able to use electricity, the only form of magnetism she could do was adjusting her own magnetic field, and by doing that, she had several pieces of rubble gather around her like a shield. Though she miscalculated and ended up using more force than necessary, making some of the debris hit her body right on. Soaring pain ran through her chest.

She couldn't possibly fight like this; her sight was spinning and her mind threatening to black out any moment. She didn't have any more tricks up her sleeve, and there was nothing around she could use to help herself. Lots of debris – but it was useless trying to hit him with a frontal attack.

Her cover fell apart, most likely due to her being unable to concentrate, but perhaps also because he disrupted the magnetism. Would the same trick she'd used last time work again? But she wouldn't have the strength to slug him, or even start manipulating both their magnetic fields at once… adjusting only her own would only result in more debris hitting her head on, and that was not a tempting thought.

Her time for thinking was already over. He gripped her collar, lifting her from the floor with a furious face.

She grabbed his hand, grimacing; if nothing else she'd fry his brains out, or at least knock him unconscious –

But nothing happened of course.

Sniper was laughing loudly at her feeble attempt. "Desperate now, are we?" He kneed her squarely in the stomach, and she screamed in pain and collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath and not getting any.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he huffed, "here I was prepared for a hard battle, and this is all you've got?" He sounded disappointed, and nudged her with his foot. "Makes me wonder why MIKO is so set on having me fight you…"

She gritted her teeth, just as much from the pain as from anger. Why? Why was her power so easily manipulated by his ridiculous ability?

He reached down and grabbed her hair, and she cried in pain while he pulled her up to her knees.

"They even make me listen to that stupid brat!" He shouted furiously. "Do you get it? That fucking brat is kicking my ass around just because Kurina wants to see your fucking potential!"

He threw her back, and her shoulder hit the remains of a shelf with a thud; it was like having a knife driven through her chest. She gasped for air and rolled to her side, biting her lower lip hard.

If Mahashi-san wanted to see her potential, she would surely be disappointed; this was all she had, and it wasn't even enough to scratch Sniper in the slightest. If she could only pass out here and now and be released from the pain, it was enough for her. Anti-Skill would come, and with Capacity Down Sniper would be apprehended without her help, and everyone would be happy…

Her vision was turning blurry.

Suddenly something sparked in her pocket. Sounding like it was almost dead, the walkie-talkie poured out a rush of crackling sounds before finally a voice emerged.

"Misaka-san!" It was Uiharu's voice. But somehow, she also heard the voice for real; weakly, she turned her head to look upwards.

Ruiko, Kazari and Shizuka stood at the edge of the hole way up there. Shizuka was hoisted up between the two girls, an arm over each shoulder. Kazari was clenching the small walkie-talkie with a determined face, and Ruiko watched the scene below warily.

"Don't let the bastard get away, Misaka-san!" Shizuka yelled, her face covered in bleeding wounds and a red piece of cloth wrapped around her thigh. "He's not invincible!"

Well, that was easy to say; she wasn't the one lying here with ribs bathed in flaming chili sauce…

"Don't give me that hopeless look!" The woman shouted. "You're the Railgun, aren't you? Just use your imagination god damn it!"

"Tch." Sniper looked positively displeased as he gazed up at them. "I think you guys should get lost."

The ceiling cracked – Kazari and Ruiko exclaimed in surprise as their balance became wobbly, and then they all fell –

Use my imagination, eh… Mikoto closed her eyes wearily. How could she possibly just imagine anything to happen? Her ability was tightly bound the earthly laws; it wasn't as ridiculous as this guy's incomprehensible power. It was just electricity – blue sparks that could shock and burn, and magnetism, but it was all useless in this condition. Really, how could anyone just keep on fighting even when the outcome was obvious? Like that spiky-haired freak, even taking on the top level five all by himself… Even though he claimed to be a level zero, he'd used his wits and his ridiculous ability to its full extent, and eventually emerged victorious. Anyone else would…anyone else would certainly…

Her heart constricted painfully. Anyone else… but… I'm not just anyone else! Am I any worse than him? Electricity is versatile – it's not just lightning strikes or magnetism… Words from a distant past flowed through her mind; "If only we could understand your power and control the electric signals in our brain, we could help kids such as these…"

Her eyes shot open.

Kazari, Ruiko and Shizuka's fall abruptly ended when the debris falling with them suddenly magnetized and stuck together with the rubble already lying on the floor, creating a slide of debris sloping easily down to the floor. They hit it and slid down, hitting the ground with enough force to bruise, but was saved at least five meters of free fall.

Sniper's eyes grew large, and he looked back at Mikoto, who was just getting to her feet, still bleeding, scraped and bruised. She shouldn't be able to concentrate enough to pull off a move like that! Of course, even if he could lower the probability of it happening, it would never be zero – however she was hurt…

"I just realized…" she said, smiling weakly, "…when the electric signals from the nerves doesn't reach the brain…" She grabbed his arm; he reacted by adding another gash to her hand, but she didn't even flinch, "…then neither does the pain."

Suddenly his body collapsed, like a puppet with no master. He hit the floor like a lifeless sack, numbness filling his limbs. He opened his mouth to speak – and found he couldn't even do that. Not a single muscle in his body moved when he asked it too, and panic gripped at him, like it would anyone who suddenly lost all control of their own body.

Mikoto stood above him, smiling brightly, but to him, that smile was the same as a deadly grin. If she decided to finish him off now…

"I guess I should thank that idiot the next time I see him." She said. "Ah, but just in case you planned on doing anything else…" she bent down and put a hand on his forehead, and he wanted to scream, though his lips didn't respond to his commands. He stared at her smiling lips – and then everything went black.

Mikoto released a deep breath, feeling the exhaustion move steadily nearer with every second spent on controlling her own nervous signals. Thanks to that, she'd managed to get concentration back and even render Sniper unconscious, but there was no way she could keep it up for long.

She closed her eyes and released the restriction; pain rolled back into her body like a road roller was running over her. Breathing in shallow gasps, she forced open her eyes and looked at the trio who had fallen from the ceiling. It seemed they were mostly unhurt. Ruiko was pale faced, sporting a bleeding gash on her shin, and Kazari had a nice bump on her forehead, but none of them seemed to be bothered much. Shizuka, however, had passed out, and Kazari was busy rewrapping the makeshift bandage on the woman's leg.

"Hm?" Mikoto looked quickly around, then back at the girls. "Where's Sahari-san?"

"Huh?" Ruiko said, looking from Kazari's work to her. "Who?"

"The black-haired girl…"

"I'm impressed." From behind her, a peachy voice came. She turned around, and her eyes grew wide.

A young man in jeans and a white shirt, short brown hair and boring blue eyes was sauntering closer. No mistake he was Kono-kun from the interview at Anti-Skill; what the hell was he doing here? Beside him was Sahari Musiko; her arms bore a few gashes who'd already stopped bleeding, and her face was a grinning mask.

What was the most shocking, however, was the person whose neck he was holding in an arm lock, a gun pointed at her head –

"Kuroko!"

"Shotaro Hajime!" Kazari exclaimed at the same time. Mikoto gritted her teeth.

Kuroko's eyes were closed and she didn't react at their shouts. She looked dirty and scraped, and the bandages on one of her arms had loosened, revealing the red skin beneath. Mikoto lowered her chin slightly, a fire lighting up in her chest; even the pain seemed less constant at the moment.

The man stopped some meters away, smirking at her. "Hello, miss Railgun. I see you decided to come here – and this time, I didn't even need to convince you."

"Did you do all this!" Kazari cried, face pale but angry. "You're the one who made that gang fight happen to divert Anti-Skill too, weren't you!"

He laughed. "How mean. You haven't even introduced yourself, yet you're already passing blame on me."

"Let Shirai-san go, you monster!" Ruiko yelled, eyes shining furiously.

"Ah, I can't do that, see; it's a safety measure." He waved his gun mere centimeters away from Kuroko's head, eyes gleaming.

Mikoto's hands fisted, her face reddening with anger, and her shoulders rising in signal of danger.

"Oh, miss Railgun," he continued, meeting her gaze squarely, "I will shoot her."

She saw no joke in those eyes, and even though all her instincts cried otherwise, refrained from creating sparks in the air. At that close range, he could manage to shoot even if she used magnetism to pull his gun away, and besides… her head throbbed suddenly, and she put a hand to her temple.

Shotaro was smirking again. "Who knew level fives were so easily manipulated." He threw a gaze of contempt at the still Sniper. "Loverboy here, for example – one word from his beloved Kurina-san, and he went to seventh district to get your attention." His grin widened in a sickening way. "I never dreamed he'd do something this flashy; isn't he supposed to hate publicity?"

"You can control people's decisions, but not their actions." Kazari said heatedly from her spot beside Shizuka. Shotaro shrugged.

"I don't care. My goal was reached – I'm kind of disappointed though. Having such a hard time with number six… is the rankings just for fun or something?"

"It was hilarious how you lost to him." Sahari giggled. "Even I thought better of you, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You're just a brat after all."

"Guh –" Zaps of blue electricity escaped her, but Shotaro demonstratively shoved the gun harder into Kuroko's temple, making the small girl wince. Shaking with the effort of holding back, Mikoto gritted her teeth again. Why hadn't she been able to keep everyone out of this? No-one else should have been hurt; now Kuroko was hurt and threatened and even Kazari and Ruiko had been involved.

"You see how it is, don't you, Railgun-sama!" The dark haired boy laughed, his gaze at her arrogant and ridiculing. "Me and Mustaf arranged it all! We have friends, lots of friends, and I made them assault people – some of them didn't even know what they were doing!

"I made you decide to let Mustaf go that night on the bridge! I made Kurina-san decide to get involved personally, and I was the one who made you decide to look for Sniper! I never dreamed you'd get so severely beaten!"

Mikoto lowered her head slightly, and the dirt around her feet floated upwards a few centimeters, like from an invisible gust of wind.

Shotaro continued to boast. "Who knew it'd be so easy to influence a level five! It's hilarious! However, I can't have any of this chasing me down going on any longer." His face instantly turned serious. "I had Mustaf take the blame for me first, but apparently, that was not enough. So I figured I should get rid of you all." He threw a disgusted look at Sniper. "Who knew he was so useless though."

Kuroko's eyes quivered, and opened slowly.

"Shirai-san!" Kazari exclaimed. Shotaro looked down for a second, tch'ing.

"Ability 'Forced Decision', level four." The smaller girl croaked from his armpit. "You truly are the one who have been manipulating people from the shadows. Mahashi-san, Anti-Skill, your friends… everyone." Shotaro drove the gun hard into Kuroko's temple, and Mikoto gritted her teeth again.

"Shut your face, bitch, before I blow your brains out!"

Kuroko smirked tiredly, then teleported away, and Shotaro was holding nothing but air; bewildered, his gaze flew about the room, and Mikoto finally let out a stream of lightning. But the fierce electricity didn't reach the target; instead hitting what seemed like an invisible wall.

"What –" she started, and saw Sahari's grin – She's got an ability like that?

Kuroko appeared beside Shotaro and delivered a kick to his back so he fell forward, then followed it up with an effective karate chop, planning on ending it already – but her bandaged hand met another of those invisible shields, and she shrieked in pain as it hit the hard surface.

Sahari was grinning confidently, yet seemed keener on running away by now. Shotaro crawled away from the teleporter, and stopped at the electric charge that hit the floor in front of him. He turned to look at Mikoto, a sick grin around his mouth.

"You're way too stupid, Railgun! I'll have you attack your own friends just for that!"

Sparks was crackling in the air. "There's no way…" She started, "you'll ever influence anyone again!"

Shotaro's face turned shocked, then he got to his feet and ran – "Hell no!" – electricity ran over the floor, climbed the wall and seemingly entered the ceiling; it suddenly collapsed in front of him, steel bars falling with the debris and creating a barrier in his path. He turned, gasping for breath, and too late they noticed he still had his gun: There was a bang, and Kuroko cried out and fell, a bleeding wound sporting her shin. Mikoto's face turned white, eyes growing big – Shotaro was laughing, gun still pointed at them, even while Kazari and Ruiko ran over to Kuroko; Kazari tore off Kuroko's armband and Ruiko followed by unwinding her own scarf to make another makeshift bandage.

"I've done my part of the deal, haven't I, Sahari-san?" Shotaro yelled. "You'll date me now, right? No-one can say I haven't ridiculed the Railgun – I even made her fight the Sniper, and she lost!" He laughed again. Kuroko was gritting her teeth, and Sahari seemed uneasy.

"You're not so great after all, eh?" Shotaro was laughing wildly, fingers twitching and eyes gleaming madly. "Level fives aren't such a big deal, eh?" He looked at Ruiko, Kazari and Kuroko, who were just finishing binding the wound, and laughed even louder. "You're all weak!"

Mikoto felt her face heat up, and the air seemed foreboding around her, as if it would darken any moment, or start spewing out fire. She saw Kuroko's burnt skin and the makeshift bandage, saw scrapes and bruises on Ruiko and Kazari, saw the still form of Sniper, and Shizuka just starting to sit up, obviously in pain. Her guilty conscience of having them all involved gnawed at her mercilessly.

Still, in the end, it was he who had made it happen. He had manipulated them all.

"You…" she muttered, and the tone alone was enough to make a chill go down their spines.

"What, you want me to show you how helpless you are?" Shotaro grinned. "How about I blow another hole in your little friend?" He waved the gun in the direction of Kuroko, who grit her teeth again, preparing a biting retort.

However, just as her mouth opened, Mikoto said: "You did all this for a measly date?"

Her voice was level, but no-one in that room failed to recognize the anger boiling just beneath. She was staring at the floor, and the dust had risen around her, like in a slow, lazy dance.

"You… used your own friends…" a blue spark crackled from her shoulder, "caused all those people to be hurt … involved my friends…" another spark emitted from her temple, "and you even…" a burnt hand entered her mind, and she was unable to finish; Kuroko was at the verge of saying something, but didn't know what. She didn't know what could happen in this situation.

"…you did all that for ONE LOUSY DATE?" Mikoto's head snapped upright, and her yell was accompanied by a storm of lightning striking from the ceiling to her like the base for a thunder storm. The whole place lit up and a feeling of static ran through them all.

Kuroko grimaced, and the others shrieked in surprise and ducked. Shotaro was shivering, but still held the gun pointed at them. His forehead was shining with sweat.

"Are you going to fight me?" He smirked unconvincingly. "Haven't you realized yet? Your power is nothing compared to mine! I can force you to act in any way I like –" he turned his gun at her, "– or I could just shoot you!"

He fired, and then something completely out of the blue happened: Shizuka was suddenly falling, grasping her shoulder in a cry of pain, blood gushing everywhere. It was a given; anyone who had never used a gun before would have trouble aiming properly. Firing from a short range was easy, but hitting your target with several meters in between, even the slightest degree wrong could make the difference.

Mikoto's expression first turned shocked, then twisted in anger, and the force of her powers grew in coordination. With a mindless shriek of rage, the place where Shotaro stood was bombarded with a barrage of lightning – but through the ensuing dust, a shimmering shield emerged, and Shotaro sat behind it, sweaty and scared, but still grinning.

Sahari collapsed where she stood, clutching her head.

Shotaro's mouth twisted into a grin again, and he fired a series of shots at Mikoto – they were all incinerated instantly by lighting. His face turned ashen, and he continued to pull the trigger, but his gun only returned empty clicks.

"I won't pretend I understand everything," Mikoto was glaring at him angrily, "but I do understand that you're the closest badass around." Her voice had calmed down, but the electricity surrounding her gave away her state of mind clearly.

She was done being ridiculed and tricked, done being beaten around and incapacitated by pain.

"I don't understand your motif or your gain…" her jaw tightened, "but still…" she clenched her fists. Shotaro's expression became horrified, and sweat was pouring down his face. "…still…" the electricity grew in rage around her, dust and debris lifting from the ground and her hair and clothes fluttering, "…still, no-one hurts my friends and gets away with it!" Her voice grew louder, and her expression was more than furious. "You think your ability is so great it's made you totally reliant on it! Going on and on about level fives; I'll show you the real power of a level five!"

One could swear even her eyes was glowing with the color of electricity at that very moment.

There was an explosion of light, and the sound disappeared. It was as if it was blasted away together with any shadows, which were eradicated from the intense electricity emitted from the electromaster.

Kuroko and the others clenched their eyes shut and shielded their faces while feeling their clothes flutter wildly, and the debris around them rise into the air.

Shotaro screamed, but no-one heard, or even saw as he tried to crawl away from the cracking floor, then realized it was all falling apart, even the walls and ceiling.

From the outside, it looked like a giant lightning strike erupted from the mall. The buildings close by instantly lost power, street lights exploded, windmills stopped spinning and started smoking instead, and those outside ran for their lives.

Inside the building it was all white, hot and deafening, static running over their skin yet still not burning it away, as if the electricity had been tuned to affect the metal in the building and not living beings; tearing the mall apart, its very framework twisted and smashed by the enormous magnetic force.

It felt like ages passed, but in reality it lasted only a few seconds. When the blinding light finally faded, the air was still sizzling, and blue lightning crackled through it every now and then. Like a deserted battleground, the mall was silent. The silence seemed just as deafening as the noise before.

Kuroko had her hands clasped firmly on her head, and hesitatingly opened an eye; then both of them, and they were growing wide. Instead of looking ahead at a store with shelves and a cash register, she was staring right out into Academy City; there was no store anymore, no register, no wall. Half the mall was gone, both floors roughly cut in two. Heavy debris was spread all over; the rest was floating in the air as dust, creating the illusion of smoke. None of those steel bars or pipes had hit them, and that was certainly not a coincidence. It even seemed like the electricity had not hurt a single person.

Mikoto stood in the floating dust, breathing heavily while small sparks still travelled across her skin. She was watching the spot where the hallway had previously been, what was now an even bigger pile of rubble, and her head was throbbing dangerously. Her body was empty, like there was nothing left. At the moment, she doubted she could even make a single light bulb glow.

Shotaro was still on the same spot, sitting on his bottom, looking back at the electromaster with a petrified look on his face. He was scraped and bruised, but otherwise unhurt. His eyes were watering up, and he was shivering uncontrollably.

"H-how…" he stammered, "no way… fuck…" His gaze met hers, and he shrieked and shielded his face. "I'm sorry!" He cried. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry -" he fell over, hands on his head, and sobbed in fear.

"Pathetic." Mikoto huffed, sweaty and exhausted, and rubbed a hand on her forehead. She was feeling woozy, and suddenly collapsed on the cracked floor.

"Onee-sama!" Hurriedly despite her own wound, Kuroko teleported over and kneeled beside her, shaking her shoulder. Mikoto breathed shallowly and opened her eyes, looking up into the darkening sky that had been revealed now that the roof was gone. Her body felt like jelly, and her head was spinning. Someone had stabbed a row of forks at her chest.

"I guess that was a bit over the top." She said weakly.

"That was way over the top!" Kuroko shrieked, covering up her lingering fear with anger. "It would have sufficed to render him immobile!"

Mikoto gave a breath that could have been a laugh, avoiding Kuroko's eyes.

"That wouldn't have had the same impact, though." She said solemnly. "He needed a shock to get back down to earth."

"But still -!" Kuroko protested, but was silenced by Mikoto's tired smile directed at her.

Her voice grew more and more tired as she said: "I'm… counting on you to… clean up the mess…" Then she relented to the darkness tugging at the corners of her eyes, and fell into a mixture of unconsciousness and sleep.

"Wha – Onee-sama!" Kuroko's shrilled voice didn't even warrant a twitch from the burned-out Mikoto, and after hesitating a moment with a sour expression on her face, the pigtailed girl went on yelling her fear and irritation out on the other girl.

Ruiko was speechless. She'd seen amazing displays of power from the older girl before, but never anything like this. Never anything that had made her fear for herself as well.

Kazari seemed just as shocked, mouth agape and wide-eyed.

"Wow…"

Note: When I read this now, I can't do anything but think of how much I've learned - as a writer - since I wrote it. I would have gone through it and polished some parts even more, but I have barely slept this weekend (horror-live ftw), and I figured perhaps you wanted the chapter as it is rather than wait a long time for minor changes. Hope you enjoy!