Act 2: Chapter 16 - Lab Shenanigans and Baby Hunting
School District 7
Yoshikawa's Research Lab
Theron and Saten are outside the research lab of one Kikyou Yoshikawa. The exterior of the building doesn't look fancy like most research facilities in Academy City.
"At least this place isn't suspiciously fancy and super clean like some places I've heard about here in this city." Theron mutters to himself.
"Huh?" Saten asks, hearing what he has already said.
"Nothing." He answers. "Let's head on inside."
Entering through the front entrance, they find a receptionist behind a desk and walked over to her.
"Excuse me, is Yoshikawa here?" Theron asks. "I was sent over by Yomikawa."
"You must be the kid Yoshikawa wanted to meet." The receptionist smiles. "Go down the hall, make a left turn, and you'll find her in one of her labs. She's honestly been studying whatever technology and data she and her small team of scientists have recovered on that giant spaceship that's still residing in the 23rd School District for days now nonstop."
"Thank you." He bows in respect before the two teens walk down the hallway.
It wasn't long, but they began hearing commotion going on inside one of the labs.
When Theron and Saten entered inside, they are shocked to see that the lab is huge as they see a team of scientists studying on what appears to be the remains of a hyperdrive from the crashed ISD.
"Whoa..." The two said in awe.
"Seems like they're going all out just so they can study what's left of Imperial tech that's recovered from the crash site." Theron comments.
"Hey look! It's Misaka!" Saten says as they see Misaka talking to a a woman in a lab coat with a plain t-shirt underneath it and has straight short black hair. "Hey, Misaka!"
Misaka and the woman are interrupted when they see Saten waving at the Tokiwadai girl with a huge grin on her face, and they notice that she's with Theron.
"Saten! Theron!" Misaka greets happily as the Jedi and the Force sensitive girl walk up to her and the woman. "Good to see you!"
"Well this is a surprise." Theron says. "What are you doing here?"
"Well you see, I was curious about the scientists Yomikawa is friends with so she gave me the address." The Railgun explains to her friends before changing her expression with concern towards the Jedi. "Hey, about what happened yesterday-."
"Say no more, Misaka. It's alright." He interrupts her. "I should be the one to apologize to you, Shirai, and Uiharu. I wasn't in the right mind yesterday."
"Excuse me?" The woman next to Misaka says to Theron, getting his attention. "So you're Theron Skywalker, right? Kikyou Yoshikawa. I'm a friend of Yomikawa's. She spoke highly of you for saving her men and the entire city."
"Entire planet." He corrects her. "But yeah, I get what she means."
"Still," She continues as she and the teens start walking towards the remains of a hyperdrive her team of scientists are studying. "I can't believe that we're not alone in the universe. And what's shocking is that humans are more diverse than just here on Earth."
"There are other sentient species besides humans." He explains while observing the scientists at work.
"Really? Tell me, what's it like exploring other worlds?"
"I can't exactly give you an honest answer, but I haven't been travelling to other star systems in my old Galaxy."
"How come?" She further questions him.
"Sorry, but I can't answer that question. It brings a lot of bad memories." He apologizes, not wanting to discuss it after this morning's meditation with Saten.
Misaka leans over at Saten.
"What does he mean by that?" Misaka whispers.
"Theron and I had a meditative session this morning, and I accidentally saw one of his memories that traumatizes him so much." She whispers back.
"Will he be alright?" Misaka further questions with concern in her voice.
"Yeah." Saten lies, not wanting to worry her or the others. "He and I are both struggling to move on from our past."
The two girls went back to listening in on Theron's conversation. Yoshikawa listens as the boy explains about hyperspace travel and the Purgil that inspired it. Then, he briefly went on about how the Empire came to be (though, not the entire truth as mentions of the Galactic Republic using a Clone army against the Separatists was kept from her and the two girls present with him). This shocked and disgusted Yoshikawa. She believes that they're very similar to the Nazis from World War II who nearly wiped out the Jews in concentration camps, and that the Empire are enslaving or possibly committing genocide on other sentient species that are seen as a threat to them. Theron points out that in his galaxy that's in a different universe, the Empire nearly wiped out a race called the Lasats as they were one of the first to stand up against the galactic regime.
"And the Empire doesn't care about one of their own, seeing them as expendable tools to their regime?" Yoshikawa concludes in disgust. "Bastards. It's like the Dark Side of Academy City all over again."
"Except it's way worse." Saten agrees with the woman. "The Jedi were nearly wiped out in a purge when the Empire was formed. Theron was a Jedi in training but..."
"...My master and I were never involved in the Purge, so we were lucky to survive." Theron finishes the girl's sentence. "Unfortunately, they found us and my master was killed when he tried protecting me."
"I'm so sorry." Yoshikawa says with dread. "My condolences to your master then. Who was he? He sounded like he was a great teacher to you."
"Come to think of it, you never told us his name." Misaka points out, curious about Theron's master's name.
"Yeah. What was his name, Theron?" The Level 0 asks her crush.
"His name was Hideo Shan." The Jedi explains. "A former Jedi Knight from the old Order."
"Former?" The two girls said in unision.
"Let's just say that he and the Jedi Council didn't exactly see eye-to-eye due to master's disagreements with the Council's decisions."
"Wait, hold on." Saten interrupts, surprised to hear that Theron's teacher isn't a strictly by-the-books kind of Jedi. "Are you saying that Hideo was rebellious?"
"You'd be surprised about what he did in his time as a Jedi." Theron chuckles at the stories his late father figure and mentor told him about.
Suddenly, a red blaster bolt flies past Yoshikawa and the teens. The laser blast bounces off the walls multiple times until it dissipates into nothingness.
"What the hell!" One of the scientists scolded one of her colleagues. "Are you trying to get us all killed or something?!"
"Sorry! I think this firearm is faulty or something!" The second scientist argues with her.
"Or maybe you're using it all wrong! Seriously, learn when to NOT touch something that's foreign to us."
The three teens all sweat-dropped at the sight of the scientists bantering with each other.
"I think it's safe to say that they don't know how to use a blaster." Misaka deadpans, earning nods from her friends.
"It's not the blasters." Theron explains with a blank face, getting his friends's attention. He seems to be annoyed. "It's likely that stormtroopers were never given proper training. Either to focus more on strength in numbers or they limited their training on purpose. Or both."
"Jeez. Talk about wasted potential." Saten sarcastically comments while rolling her eyes.
...
"That was interesting, to say the least." Theron admits as he and the girls walk down the busy city streets.
"Sure was." Misaka agrees. "Still, I'm surprised that her dream job was to be a teacher."
"There must be a reason to why she chose to be a researcher instead of pursuing her dream." Saten wonders with her finger on her chin.
"Probably the Dark Side of Academy City, no less. If she's friends with Yomikawa, then she probably knows Accelerator and his governing chairman status." The Jedi theorizes without realizing he's correct and all.
Suddenly, his comm link goes off and he immediately answers.
"R4?" He pauses. "What? And you just took your eyes off for only a few minutes? Damn it. I'll start looking now."
"Let me guess, you and R4 are having trouble with something?" Saten questions.
"It's nothing major." He lies. "Look, I need to run an errand so I'll meet you down by the clover fields. Won't take long, okay? See ya!"
Before the girls could say a word, Theron had already left them by themselves near a certain vending machine.
"Well, he seemed to be in a hurry." Misaka jokes.
Just then, the girls heard rustling in the bushes.
"What's that sound?" Saten asks nervously.
"Don't know." The Level 5 says with suspicion in her eyes, electric sparks surrounding her as she prepares to defend herself. "We know you're there! Come out!"
And then, the unexpected happened. The Child walks out of the bushes with his ears drooped down, and he looks really lonely. This confused the girls as they look at each other. Saten then slowly walks toward it and cautiously picks the green infant up with her hands.
"Okaayyy... Let's take a good look at you." Saten says as she looks at the baby face to face. "What is this thing? Is this a baby?"
"I've never seen a creature like this before." Misaka says as she closely looks at the Child. "What do you think this is, Saten? It doesn't look like Gekota."
"I don't know." The Force sensitive girl shrugs. "But I think it's a baby."
"Huh?" The Railgun blinks a few times before realizing something. "Wait, you don't think Theron has something to do with this?"
"Well, it's kinda obvious. He IS a human from outer space after all." Saten points out before looking back at the baby and then smiling warmly. "Hey there, little guy. Did that grumpy and brooding Jedi left you lonesome all on your own?"
The Child coos in response and seems to be curious around her.
"Seems to me that you must be good with taking care of babies, Saten." Misaka teases with a wink.
"W-Wha?!" Saten blushes in embarrassment. "Oh, no. It's my first time doing this, to be honest. Though I do read a few baby books at one point."
"Remember when you were raising Febri? You definitely have the traits of becoming a mother some day."
"Now hold on a sec, Misaka!" Saten argues, blushing even more. "Raising Febri is totally different from raising a baby! Febri's a kid. This... pointy eared little green fella... is only an infant! Why would you think that I act like an actual mother?!"
Soon the baby starts whimpering, getting the girls's attention once more.
"Hey, I think it's hungry." Misaka points out.
"Well, Joseph's is only a few blocks away but I don't think the baby can wait that long." Saten says.
"Hmm." The Railgun ponders to herself before noticing the familiar vending machine that's right next to them. "Ah! I know!"
Misaka runs over to the vending machine and inserts a coin before performing a roundhouse kick. Soon, a drink can falls out of the machine into the tray and she picks it up.
"You sure love to kick that vending machine, huh?" Saten smirks.
Ignoring that comment, Misaka walks back to Saten and the Child, who have just sat down onto a bench.
"Here." She hands her friend the warm drink can. "The vending machine was lucky enough to pop out a can of warm broth for the little guy."
"Thanks, Misaka." The rumor hunting girl says and opens the top up for the baby. "You hungry?"
The baby curiously looks at her and then takes a few sips from the warm broth.
"You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to babysit you till Theron meets up with us at the clover fields." She says to the infant before slyly grin. "And then, I'm going to charge him for watching you."
Misaka sweats drop at this.
"Seriously?" She questions her.
"What? Just because I have powers now, doesn't mean my level has changed. I do need money to get by at my place."
...
School District 6
Amusement Park
There was fire everywhere as it ablaze the amusement park. Bodies of innocent people are scattered everywhere, either piled up or set on fire from the source that caused it in the first place. That includes a small unit of Anti-Skill officers. The Inquisitor looks around the damage he has caused, satisfy with his work.
"This will draw the Jedi out in the open, and will motivate him to come and face me." He says to himself aloud. "He has the child. And he will be a powerful servant of the dark side."
Just then, he hears groaning and turns around to see that a member of Judgement is injured.
"Seems he's still alive." The dark side Force user deduces in his thoughts, not bothered at all for the injured officer's survival.
The Inquisitor then walks over to the crawling officer that could no longer keep going and stands before him.
"Y-You won't get away with this." The Judgement officer says while coughing up blood. "Anti-Skill will hunt an intruder like you down."
"I'm flattered." The dark side wielder sarcastically responds. "But I'm not after you. Tell your colleagues that I'm looking for a dangerous fugitive in your precious Academy City."
"Wha-?" The teenage officer says but the Inquisitor uses the Force to put him to sleep.
"That'll keep him from losing any more blood until the authorities arrive, so that they can get my message."
The Inquisitor walks away from the scene just as sirens from a distance is heard.
...
Back in School District 7, Theron continues to look for the Child but to no success.
"R4, please tell me your scanners have found the kid." Theron pleads through the comms, beginning to get desperate of finding him.
"I don't, Theron. I've done a city wide scan like you asked me to do, but there's no sign of the baby." R4 says. "Why don't you use the Force? It'll be easier for you to track him down with it."
"That's not how the Force works." He deadpans in annoyance. "How many times do I got to keep telling you? I can't even make a connection with animals."
"Oh, right. You told me you were swallowed whole by a Krayt Dragon." The droid forgotten about.
"Don't remind me." The Jedi bitterly says before changing the subject. "Anyways, did any of the Imperials that have been arrested in the aftermath of the invasion started talking about what they're doing here on Earth?"
"No. Anti-Skill are having difficulty in getting any useful information out of them."
"They're trained to resist interrogation after all." He mutters. "Hey, I gotta go meet up with Saten and Misaka at the clover fields. I'll keep my eye out for the kid. He seems to like stowing away in my pack."
"Enjoy your new date with Saten, meatbag." R4 laughs before ending the call.
"IT'S NOT A DATE!" Theron yells through the comm-link while blushing. "Damn that droid. He's a real pain in the ass sometimes."
...
A few minutes later, Theron reaches the clover fields that are south of the Tokiwadai Dorms. Looking around, he finally sees Saten and Misaka lying on the fields napping.
"At least there sleeping." He chuckles at the sight of his friends napping.
But then, he sees that the sleeping Saten is holding the sleeping Child.
"Hey!" He shouts at her walking down the small slopes.
This eventually woke Misaka and Saten up as they jump up in surprise.
"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Saten shouts dramatically.
The baby then wakes up crying.
"No, no, no! It's okay." The girl calms him down with a motherly, gentle voice. She then notices Theron next to him as the girls stand up with a glare at him. "You woke him up, Theron! You have any idea how difficult it was to finally get him to sleep?"
"Hand him to me." He demands calmly.
"Not so fast." She refuses while holding the baby in her hands. "You can't just leave a baby unattended like that!"
"Yeah, Theron." Misaka agrees. "What the hell were you even thinking?"
"Okay, first of all, that's not my fault. I had R4 babysitting him, and somehow he must've followed me." He explains truthfully.
"You expect me to believe that?" Saten questions with an unconvinced and angry expression. "You know, you have a lot to learn in raising a young one."
"Ahhhhhhhh." The baby coos out in agreement, earning a smug look from Misaka and Saten.
Theron didn't start arguing with them and looks at them.
"Thank you." He says for finding the Child and looking after him.
"So how did you end up finding this cute little guy?" The Railgun asks while gushing over the baby.
"Long story." He says. "One that I don't feel like talking about."
"Theron." The Level 0 says in a stern voice. "Do I need to blackmail you again?"
"Okay, fine!" He says in annoyance. "I went off world for a while. Just before yesterday's Midsummer Festival."
"What?!" They shouted in unison.
...
One big explanation later...
"You promised us that you wouldn't go behind our backs! Why would you keep doing this?" Saten lectures.
Theron looks away, knowing he doesn't have an answer for them.
"Theron, I think you need to learn about how friendship actually works around here. You're not alone in this conflict, remember? Let us help you just as we're helping in babysitting the kid. Trust me, I know this from experience." Misaka says.
Misaka has always wanted to do things alone without involving her friends in it. Thankfully, she has learned this from both Saten and Touma. For Theron, however, he can't do it. He can't do it because he made a promise after his master Hideo was killed.
"You don't understand. I don't think you'll ever understood." He says with seeds of doubt within him.
"What? We can't help you but you can help us?" Saten questions in disbelief.
"I've lost master Shan. I failed to help him. But I promise myself... that I won't lose anyone else. Even if I could never involve those but R4 close to me."
Before the girls could chew him out more, sirens are heard as a few Anti-Skill vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances pass by.
"They seem to be in a hurry. I wonder what's going on." Misaka says curiously.
The three teens look up and see that Academy City's only news blimp is showing a huge fire and dead bodies scattered everywhere.
"What is that?" Saten says with concern.
"Trouble." Theron says as his expression turns serious with a frown.
To be continued...