Two hours later Mikoto wakes up. She instantly realized that she was in a room that she did not recognize, though it did not look like a lab room. In fact it looked like a welcoming area. She looks around and realizes she was still in the STUDY factory and that she was still immobilized and on a stretcher. Thankfully she was not strapped down and that Shinobu was sitting next to her.
"Oh so you are awake. Its been two hours since you passed out. I need to inform you that you will not be able to move for another 3 hours. But be glad to know that they did nothing to you. They didnt even search you while you were sleeping," Shinobu informs Mikoto, though she wasnt looking her in the eyes.
"Well im glad to hear that I still have everything I came with. So how did you end up working for these scientists?" Mikoto asks.
"I had tried to help you back in the level 6 shift program. I had gotten into one of the facilities and tried to insert a code that would allow the clones to fight for themselves but I was stopped and captured. Then they sold me to work for this organization," Shinobu explains.
"Im sorry to have dragged you into this. Your life must have been horrendous recently," Mikoto says quietly. She was sad for Shinobu, having not realized exactly what she had been going through till now.
"It doesnt matter. I have never had anyone to rely on before and so I don't expect for you to help me now," Shinobu says, turning and walking outside of a window to look out.
"Why do you think I cant help, or that I might be willing to help?" Mikoto asks, beginning to see the real problem. Shinobu didnt know how to ask for help, just like Mikoto was before Touma saved her sisters.
"Nobody is willing to help me. Besides its not like you would be able to help in your current situation," Shinobu says depressingly. Then she hears the sounds of sparks flying, but it takes her a moment for her curiosity to build enough for her to turn around. She was surprised to see Mikoto struggling to her feet, a pained expression on her face.
"How are you doing that? The paralyzer blocks all signals to your muscles!" Shonobu asks in shock.
"Im using my power to directly control my body. It stings but I can handle it. Now I need to tell you something." Mikoto states, looking Shinobu in the eyes, forcing her to listen to what she has to say.
"I am a level 5 esper, full of pride in my abilities. Yet the past couple months have proved to me that I am not worth anything if I dont have people who can help me. My friends have given everything in order to help me just because I asked them to. They care for me that much, that all I have to do is ask them to have my back. In fact they are already on their way here to save me. But we still wont be able to stop these scientists so we need your help. So I am asking you. Will you help me?" Mikoto asks.
Shockingly Shinobu begins to cry. She responds "No. I ask you. Will you help me?"
"Yes I will. When my friends get here we will take you with us. Then we can figure out how to stop STUDY together," Mikoto responds quickly.
"No I will stay here. They are going to act tomorrow, and if we have someone on the inside then we will be better off. If they notice that I had a chance to leave and didnt, then they might allow me to stay. From there I can help you more. I just need a promise that you will come back for me when this is over," Shinobu counters.
"Okay I promise to come back for you. But are you sure about this?" Mikoto asks.
"Yes I could not be more sure," Shinobu states, conviction in her eyes. Just then explosions are heard from down the hall, and an alarm goes off.
"Well that must be my way out, so I will see you tomorrow Shinobu," Mikoto says as she struggles her way out of the room.
"Yes, i will see you again Mikoto," Shinobu says as Mikoto exits the room. Mikoto heads down the hallway, heading towards the noise of fighting. She turns a corner and sees Kuroko finishing off some security bots.
"Kuroko!" Mikoto yells out, glad to see her friend. Though hindsight says she should have expect what happens next.
"Sissy!" Kuroko yells out, leaping at Mikoto. The moment she touches Mikotos body she gets shocked, and falls to the ground smoking.
"What did I do to deserve that?" Kuroko says struggling to get up.
"Sorry I didnt warn you, my body is going to be a giant taser for the time being. Sorry about that," Mikoto apologizes quickly, forcing herself to not lean over and try to help Kuroko get up. She watches kuroko get up, the shock in her eyes slowly transforming into understanding.
"Right. Then lets get out of here," The two begin their walk out of the facility, with even more Security bots chasing after them. But Mikoto kept her power active, and none of the bots could get close. Eventually they get back to Judgement branch 117. The moment Mikoto walks into the office, she collapses onto one knee, breathing heavily, with electricity flowing around her.
"Zapper! Are you okay?" Touma says, reaching over. He believed her ability was on runaway, so he was going to use his imagine breaker to cancel it out. But he didnt know the truth, and that if he does touch her, then she would be paralyzed.
"Dont touch me!" Mikoto yells out, leaping backwards just enough to dodge Toumas right hand. The look of shock on everyones faces but Kurokos tells her to explain.
"Sorry but i cant let you touch me with imagine breaker right now. My power is the only thing allowing me to move right now." Mikoto states.
"What do you mean Mikoto?" Uiharu asks, confused.
"At the facility I was injected with a paralyzer. I allowed them to do so, as I needed to get a little more information. I knew Raiden had already gotten everything he needed but I still had some questions. I may have had my questions answered, but then i was unable to move. The paralyzer they injected prevents signals from going to my muscles, so instead I managed to use my power to directly control my muscles. It turns me into a giant stun gun and hurts alot, but I can now move," Mikoto explains.
"I see. Well im glad you had enough sense to activate your distress signal. I see they didnt take anything from you," Raiden comments.
"Yep. They didnt even search me, though they do know you were in the system now. The flash drive was left behind," Mikoto says.
"Thats okay, i got everything we needed. Now Is there anything else you can tell us before we look at the data?" Raiden asks, guessing that Mikoto was hiding something.
"I meet a scientist i know from before. She is a good person though and stayed behind to help us by being the inside man so to speak," Mikoto says, trying not to say where she knew her from before.
"Well then, give me 10 minutes while I look through the data. Then i will call to you." Raiden says, turning to the computer screen next to him and getting to work. Uiharu also joins him, as does konori. Mikoto heads over to the couch, lying down and letting her power cease to control her muscles. She was immediately unable to move once again, and there she stayed till Raiden and Uiharu were done.
10 minutes later they were finished like he said, and they had both good news and bad.
"So did you get the formula?" Mikoto asks from her place on the couch.
"Yes we did. Its not too bad of a formula, so I will send it over to the doctor to make. The bad news about it is that it will take 2 days to make," Raiden states.
"We dont have that kind of time. We have one day left after today to get her more suckers," Ruiko says worriedly.
"We might have to raid their factory to find out if they have more," Kuroko says.
"Well they do have more at a different location, ones who exact location we can not find, but something else is there as well," Uiharu says.
"What else is there?" Touma asks.
"Remember when Febri said she has a sister? Well that seems to be true, as she is also there. Her name is Janie, and is the basis for an all out attack on academy city!" Uiharu exclaims.
"What!" Everyone exclaims in unison, with mikoto forcing herself back onto her feet.
"We found records of shipments containing the parts needed to make over 20000 mechs like the one Mikoto fought the other day. And if thats not enough, it seems there plan will be started tomorrow, at the convention," Raiden states.
"Thats too many for all of us and judgement to take on alone." Konori states quietly, going over the math in her head silently.
"And we cant call Anti skill. The data shows that the STUDY corporation has bribed them to stay out of it. This will be up to us," Uiharu adds.
"Well we still have Raiden, and I know i can handle the mechs," Mikoto states.
"That wont be enough. Even if you go full strength Mikoto, how many of us will get hurt before you end the fight? If anything we need more of you…..wait!" Raiden says, his eyes widening when he comes to a realization.
"No! We are not involving them! They have suffered enough already!" Mikoto yells as pain flashes through her eyes.
"But they may be our only hope for saving the city," Raiden continues to press.
"Who are you talking about!" Everyone but Touma, Raiden, and Mikoto yell. Febri stayed out of it since she didn't know what was going on.
"Do you want me to tell them?" Raiden asked Mikoto.
Mikoto takes a deep breath and says "No i will tell them." She turns to face her friends and asks, "Do you remember that rumor of the level 5 that had clones?"
"Yes, though i didn't really believe it," Uiharu says.
"I heard of it, never believed it," Kuroko also says.
"I may have thought it true once in awhile," Ruiko admits.
"Well it was true. I was the level 5 that was cloned. I already told you that my DNA map was given to some scientists. Well it was used to create clones of me," Mikoto begins to explain.
"What?" The others exclaim in disbelief, But mikoto continues.
"Originally they wanted to see if they could mass produce a level 5 esper, but all of my clones had too low of power. The strongest were only at level 3 or so. Then a new experiment came, an attempt to achieve a level 6. The scientists wanted to see if they could get Accelerator to level 6, as Tree diagram said that he was the only one capable to achieve the new level. It also said that if we were to fight, i would lose in exactly 185 moves. Tree diagram also ran the calculation that if accelerator killed me 183 times, that he would achieve level 6. But they did not have the ability to do that, so instead they decided to use 20,000 of my lower power clones. I tried stopping the experiments, thats how i found Raiden. But it was to much for us to do alone, the experiment was working at a faster pace than we could stop it. By the time I first found out about all of this, 10000 of my clones had already died. Thats when I decided that in order to stop the experiment, i had to prove tree diagram wrong. It said i would be killed in 185 moves against Accelerator, so what happens if I died in 1? Tree diagram was destroyed so they wouldnt be able to recalculate anything. That would have ended the experiment, but meant i would have had to die," Mikoto continues to explain.
"So why did you not do that?" Ruiko asks.
"Touma convinced me otherwise. Do you remember when he came to our dorms looking for me kuroko?" Mikoto asks her friend.
"Yes. He only stayed there shortly before disappearing," Kuroko remembers.
"Well he disappeared to go save me. He found out what I was planning on doing and was dead set on stopping me. He wanted to save my clones as well, but he didnt want me to die in the process. So he stopped me, then left to fight Accelerator. He would have lost though if it hadnt been for Raiden and I distracting Accelerator, while the clones stopped one of Accelerators attacks. Since then I have not spoken to my clones, preferring to let them live their new lives in peace," Mikoto finishes.
"Wow sissy, we never knew. Why didnt you tell us?" Kuroko asks.
"Because I didnt want to drag you into a fight you could not win. Accelerator would have killed you without hesitation. Like how I am not going to let us drag the sisters into this fight as well!" Mikoto turns, glaring at Raiden. But to her surprise, it was Touma who spoke.
"Wait Mikoto, Raiden has a point. There is just under 10000 of your clones left, and including them will give us a serious advantage. I believe the sisters will be mad at you if you dont offer them a chance to pay back their debt," Touma states.
"They dont own us!" Mikoto glares.
"Thats not what they think. They consider us their saviors, and now know what its like to live. They won't let others die when they could have helped. They are like you in that way, as you would rather put everything onto your shoulders then to share the burden," Touma presses. Mikotos shoulders drop, finally giving in. She wasnt happy about it, but she had to admit that Raiden and Touma were right. They needed the sisters to win this fight.
"Okay but if we are going to do this, then we are doing it my way," Mikoto states, her resolve hardening.
Get out your guns, battle's begun.
Are you a saint or a sinner?
If love's a fight then I shall die
With my heart on a trigger.
They say before you start a war,
You better know what you're fighting for.
Well, baby, you are all that I adore.
If love is what you need, a soldier I will be.
Sometimes to win, you've got to sin.
Don't mean I'm not a believer.
And major Tom will sing along.
Yeah, they still say I'm a dreamer.
They say before you start a war,
You better know what you're fighting for.
Well, baby, you are all that I adore.
If love is what you need, a soldier I will be.