Savior

[ACSR: Quiet Stratagem]

They reached the alley shortly and found Frenda sitting against a wall.

"Are you okay?" Joule called as she rushed over. Frenda tilted her head slightly and Joule saw a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

"Wow." She murmured quietly "I... thought you'd take more time."

Uiharu came over quickly, dialing the number for the hospital as she moved.

"This is Judgement, we have an injured girl here."

It looked like there was something wrong with one of Frenda's legs. It was bent at a strange angle.

"Who did this to you?" Joule asked as Uiharu kept working to get an ambulance for Frenda.

Frenda's eyes fell as she spoke "The second level 5, a guy from an organization called SCHOOL. He... he tor..." She coughed and Joule steadied her as it became a coughing fit.

"He used his power, said that he'd kill me if I didn't..." She coughed again "...didn't tell him where our base was-"

"And you did." Joule and Uiharu looked up suddenly. A woman was standing at the other end of the alley. She looked angry.

"Who are you?" Uiharu moved slowly as she spoke so she was standing between Frenda, Joule and the unknown woman.

The woman raised an eyebrow "I'm that girl's boss. She's been very naughty, can't you leave this to me miss Judgement officer?" Her voice was patronising as she spoke, clearly not taking Uiharu seriously.

"We're getting her medical attention, we've already called for the ambulance." Uiharu said, not backing down.

Based on what Frenda had said, she'd betrayed her allies on the dark side by giving up their base. There was no way they'd leave her alone with someone who admitted to being her boss after something like that. Joule knelt and tried to help Frenda to her feet but the girl didn't have much strength left.

The woman shook her head "I'm afraid that wasn't a request. It was an order." She held up her hand and a glowing green orb of light appeared above her palm.

[ACMI3: Wring your neck]

"My name is Meltdowner." She said "I'm a level 5 if you weren't aware. Now, if you don't back off, you're going to find out why I have my name."

But Uiharu, brave as she was, shook her head.

"What's going on?"

Someone had appeared on the other side of the alley, the way Joule and Uiharu had come in from. Last Order had poked her head inside. Meltdowner saw her chance and pointed at the girl.

"Well then, let me change my demand. You go, or the girl gets to see what I can do."

Joule's thoughts spun.

"Lumen, Lumen, you need to be quick!"

"Don't worry." Lumen answered quickly "We're already here."

Last Order was suddenly jerked out of the way of the end of the alley and someone new stepped forward. Someone with the same face as Last Order.

[ACSRT: Why Is Misaka Mikoto Here!?]

Railgun faced down Meltdowner and the woman sneered.

"You?"

"I must admit." Misaka spoke slowly as she fished around in her pocket "I'm having a very bad day. Seeing you again isn't helping."

Meltdowner reached into her pocket and tossed out something that looked like a sheet of black paper covered in triangles. Before anything happened though, Misaka's railgun fired instantly from a coin she'd pulled out of her pocket moments before. The blast shot through the material (Which actually seemed to be made out of glass or plastic) and shattered it to pieces.

While the level 5 was distracted, Joule and Uiharu quickly lifted up Frenda and ran down the alley. Misaka was running the other way and throwing out more coins to deflect her enemy's shots as they targetted the girls.

As they ran out of the end of the alley, Uiharu grabbed Last Order with her spare hand and everyone ran together.

"Are you okay Frenda?" Joule called as they moved.

"Been better." The blond girl complained quietly "What'll happen to me?"

Joule was firm on her next point "You'll live, we'll get you healed up."

"Then what?" The girl said quietly "The entire dark side'll be wanting my head after this."

Joule felt something warm against her neck where Frenda's hed was resting. Tears?

"Anti-skill will protect you!" Uiharu noted.

"No they won't." Frenda complained "They work for the same people. There's no difference there..."

"What do you mean?" Joule asked as they turned a corner.

"The dark side works for the board of directors too. All Mugino has to do is to demand information on where I am and she'll break in to take revenge."

"I refuse to believe that." Uiharu said simply "Not that the dark side works for the board, I mean that Anti-skill would allow you to be attacked. They wouldn't send people to fight themselves surely."

Frenda chuckled weakly at that "Just what do you think is going on today? It's a battle royale, all of the dark side groups in this city are fighting it out. The branches easily fight each other if there's proper reason."

They ran in silence for a time before Uiharu got on the phone again to direct the ambulance to where they are now.

When it arrived and they checked they were safe, they jumped in with Frenda as the medics on standby went to help her as much as they could before they reached Heaven Canceller's hospital.

Also, Joule was glad for the fact that HC had given them clear information that if it was to save a child's live, he'd charge academy city itself instead of them. He'd told them one of the previous times they'd been there.

The only question now was how they'd keep Frenda safe.

They heard that Misaka was okay on the way to the hospital, she said Meltdowner had broken off the fight to take a phonecall, but it was likely she was still going to come after Frenda. It would be hard to keep her away. They had to hope that they'd be able to figure it out together.

End of chapter.

Mugino jumped to murder a bit faster than canon but that's because she heard Frenda admitting her crime to outsiders. That made her rationalise away killing an ally a whole lot faster. In canon it probably took her a lot longer to get from "Frenda must be responsible" to "Frenda just admitted she's responsible" to "Frenda must die." We see in the anime that Frenda was alive during the call with hamazura but dead by the time hamazura was getting Takitsubo to safety.

But yes, Frenda isn't dead yet, but the arc also isn't over yet.

This chapter was written during the time when is bugging out with the email system. If I didn't see any reviews because of that, I'm sorry.