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C&S Electronics Institute
Xander's POV
~Last location. Here's hoping my guests are as stupid as they've been so far.~ He thought landing on the sidewalk outside the building, ~Don't know why they've eased up but I plan on making full use of this chance.~
"So what're we here for?" Missus Misaka asked getting off his back.
"The last piece I need for my gear and the tools I need to put it all together." He replied having gotten used to her since he'd been forced to bring her along.
Oh it hadn't been hard for him to figure out that Kihara's plan was to have the woman be a handicap for him so he couldn't go all out since she didn't have the attributes to survive either all in fight or flight. The fact that the goons and police were staying close but not taking advantage of the woman weighing him down told him that they were giving him leeway because Gensei was curious. Curious about what his plan was and if he had anything else under the hood that might be interesting enough to experiment on later.
Cocky bastard!
While he didn't think the old man would hold back his attack dogs forever he did think he would have more elbow room than a smart pursuer would allow him.
BIG mistake!
"Good because I've been curious about what exactly that is." Missus Misaka said following him as he approached the front door, "Especially since you won't tell me what you plan on doing afterwards."
"The less you know the better it is for everyone." He said using TK to force open the doors that someone had locked in a stupid attempt to keep him out, "What I'm involved in isn't exactly legal and the people pulling Anti-Skill's strings don't like loose ends. As long as they think you're just some worthless extra in this lame action movie you'll probably get to disappear after this."
"And if I don't want to be an 'extra'?" She asked sounding like she wanted to follow the rabbit hole all the way to the end.
All the way to Wonderland.
If Wonderland was populated by amoral mad scientists and goons who chatted about delivering people as lab rats without batting an eye that is.
"Then you either have a death wish, have one helluva large medical insurance plan or are secretly a globe trotting super spy that can kill people with just about anything." He replied following his A.I companion's directions to get to the last part he needed, "You don't go into a lion's den without having the training and the tools to survive bumping into the lion."
"Well fighting's not really my thing but I still want to see what you're making so you're stuck with me." She said never once falling behind and not sounding like she'd listen to him telling her to get lost.
Like mother like daughter he figured.
It didn't take long for him to reach the room and thanks to mote the lock on the door was overridden granting him entry after just five seconds of contact. Once inside his cybernetic eye highlighted the machine containing the part he needed so he walked over and set down the bag containing the rest before going to work at gaining access to the machine's insides. Fortunately for him this machine didn't have two dozen different connections to the component he needed and so he didn't need his partner's help getting it out. Taking a brief moment to inspect the part to make sure it wasn't damaged or suffering from problematic wear and tear he slipped it into the bag before getting up off the floor just before new directions popped up on his HUD.
"So is it going to take long to put your stuff together?" She asked as they left the room.
"Not long. If we'd had to go someplace else for the tools to put it altogether it'd take longer." He replied keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, "Ten or twenty minutes probably."
"Probably? You mean you've never done this before?" She asked sounding a little surprised.
"Nope. But I've got detailed schematics and an edge that'll let me get away with doing it solo." He replied turning a corner to head down a different hallway, "If I'd had to do this a year ago I'd need to call my best bud Willow for back up and maybe a specialist."
"Huh…must be a pretty impressive edge." She said sounding intrigued.
"Like you wouldn't believe." He said with a smirk wondering how the woman would react to seeing the techno-organic material at work.
When he arrived at the room containing the machines he'd need to piece together his weapons and gear he was a little surprised to see a guy in his fifties wearing a lab coat asleep in front of a computer console. There hadn't been a single person in the building up until now leading him to believe that someone had issued an evacuation order upon thinking that this building was a possible destination of his. Had this guy slept through it? Or was this some kind of trap?
Deciding to go with the safe option he reached out with his TK and raised the guy up off the chair before directing the man to the second room entrance on the other side. Better to keep the number of witnesses and problems to a minimum where and when possible. However he only got the guy about halfway before he woke up and began to freak out at floating through the air without a visible clue as to how it was being done.
"What the hell!? What's going on?!" The guy asked even as he tried to look around more.
"You slept through an evacuation order and now I'm getting you out of the room." He replied resuming the TK effort of sending the guy to the other door, "Get out of here. I'll be done in a few minutes and you can go back to doing whatever you wan to do."
There. He figured that any sane guy would jump at the chance of getting away from strong and dangerous people especially if they were told they could resume their lives soon enough.
"Like hell I'm getting out of here!" The guy exclaimed working even harder to free himself the TK grip, "I custom made every piece of tech in this room! They're my babies! No way am I gonna let some weirdo mess with them!"
"It's not like you've got a choice dude." He said shaking his head with mild incredulity at the futile efforts of resistance, "With my telekinesis you're going where I want you to go one way or another."
"Think again!" The man yelled before with a poof of displaced air the guy vanished only to reappear a few feet away with another displacement of air.
"Teleportation?" He asked not really expecting or wanting a reply.
"You go it!" The guy declared with some smugness before a bit of uncertainty creeped in, "Sure I can't do it as well as that Musujime girl 'cause I'm just a level 3 but…but I can keep this up all day! Just try to get me out of this room! I'll just come right back!"
Shit.
Short of using force in order to make the guy back down and leave he really wouldn't be able to make the man leave. Thing was if he did something like that he was pretty sure he'd make an enemy of Missus Misaka leading to a whole different kind of headache that he wanted to avoid at all cost. Even if she wasn't a threat from a combat point of view she was the mother of Misaka Mikoto who was one of the strongest espers in Academy city. With no way of knowing when or how he'd be leaving this reality he didn't want to risk having girl hunting him down and blasting him to bits. Sure he'd managed to beat the green laser girl who was almost at the same level of power and skill but that didn't mean as much as some people thought it would. Each person was a unique individual with abilities and skills no one else had. Who knew if he'd fare so well against someone capable of firing off lightning bolts or propelling objects at railgun speeds.
"FINE! Just stay out of my way or I'll bounce you off the ceiling enough times to give you a concussion." He said heading over to the console mote indicated, "I'm on a tight schedule."
He didn't get a response from the guy but he took that to mean that the man wouldn't get in his way for the time being.
Setting out the acquired components one after another in front of him he felt himself pause for a moment as a sliver of fear at what he'd be doing manifested. He trusted his A.I partner and he had resolve enough to keep going but the uncertainty brought about by the unknown caused a response he couldn't suppress immediately.
~Shake it off Xan! You came here to do a job so let's do it!~ He thought before pressing his techno-organic arm against the centre of the console, ~You're up partner! Do your thing!~
~Acknowledged. Accessing armament and support gear schematics.~ Mote mentally sent him through their connection, ~Accessing techno-organic configuration subroutines. Beginning utilization of available technology and initiating assembly process.~
With those 'words' his cybernetic looking arm lost its form and began expanding outwards like an infection flowing along until it reached its target before somehow fusing with it. Honestly if it wasn't for the confusing sensations he was getting sent through the goop's connection he'd be in awe of what he was seeing. The way his partner was disassembling, reconfiguring and assembling the various components was impressive. Even the equipment that'd been in the room was being operated with a level of precision and skill that would've been impossible for a human to replicate. Little by little the tools he'd need to protect the copy of Misaka Mikoto's newest clone began to take form in front of him. Things were inserted, parts were fused and outer casings snapped into place.
All in all his partner did good work and just before they would've hit the twenty minute mark it was done.
One futuristic looking rifle, one cool looking pistol and a vest of some sort that at first glance appeared to be made of fabric but upon a closer inspection was more akin to microscopic chainmail in nature.
With the job done the techno-organic matter retracted from the other things in the room and slowly but surely settled back into the default form of a human arm that matched his normal human one. However it was just as was finishing that he noticed something poking out of the techno-organic matter but it was submerged soon after with no outward sign of its existence being visible to the naked eye.
~What was that?~ He asked his partner even as he began inspecting the new creations.
~This unit is uncertain what its 'partner' is referring to.~ Mote thought sounding genuinely unaware.
~That green rectangular looking thing made out of glass or crystal.~ He thought being as specific as he could be, ~You've got it embedded in my robo-arm.~
There was silence for a moment and he could almost picture an A.I fidgeting before finally getting an answer.
~This unit discovered another file set aside from the armaments and equipment before you.~ It thought to him before being up an image of the item he had spotted, ~This unit was uncertain of the feasibility of it being replicated until arrival in this room. With confirmation of expected components as well as some that were not anticipated this unit decided to add this item to the list of those to be assembled.~
~And the reason why you tried to hide it?~ He thought with a raised eyebrow.
~…This unit wished to examine the completed item and perform a few simulated test runs before alerting you to its presence.~ His partner thought in reply with some reluctance, ~The schematic file name 'Prosh' and its contents implied advanced capabilities. This unit wished to become more familiar with the prototype and its functions in order to minimize the probability of harmful consequences.~
So a piece of high tech that could get him killed so his partner wanted to work on it in secret.
He could accept that.
~No live tests unless you're sure it's safe or we've got no other choice.~ He thought to his partner as he put the vest over his shirt, ~What I'm about to do is gonna be risky enough without throwing something untested into the mix.~
~Understood.~ Mote thought before going silent.
Putting the pistol into the holster that was built into the vest and slinging the rifle over his shoulder using the metal weave strap it had he considered himself ready for what came next.
"Alright! Show's over you two." He said turning to Missus Misaka and the lab guy, "From here on out I'm flying solo. You two should probably find someplace safe to hide for awhile. Once their attention's on me they'll probably forget about you guys entirely."
"You're about to do something out of an action move aren't you?" Missus Misaka asked with a look of suspicion, "Like go on a killing spree or take on Anti-Skill by yourself."
"I'm only going to do what I've gotta do. Nothing more and nothing less." He replied firmly and without giving anything away, "Besides the ones I'm going be using these on have long since stopped being worth someone's mercy."
He was about to leave when the guy in the lab coat teleported in front of him and grabbed him from the vest.
"Well count yourself among them you bastard!" The guy yelled sounding completely pissed off, "You took it all! ALL OF IT!"
"Took what?" He asked not quite getting why the guy was so angry.
"The Saronite of course!" The man yelled pointing to a part of the room that the techno-organic matter had come into contact with, "It took us five years to synthesize that much and now it's gone! Do you know how hard it was to piece it together grain by green grain!? DO YOU!?"
Shit.
"Well then I'm sure you can do it again." He said before delivering a solid right hook to the man's jaw.
Just as he'd hoped the man was KOed immediately proving that while the guy had a high IQ he also had a glass jaw. With any luck he'd be long gone before the guy woke up and too far away for the man to even think about teleporting after him.
"Hope you're not thinking of doing the same Missus Misaka." He said turning to the woman who was only just now looking away from the unconscious man on the floor, "That wouldn't turn out well for either of us."
"Ah…no. Not going to happen." Missus Misaka replied only taking a second or two before shaking her head in the negative.
Probably was feeling a little overwhelmed with the assembly of the guns and gear with him knocking out a stranger just making things that much weirder for her. Understandable even in a world where people had weird powers.
Still…
…would it be enough to keep her safe.
Kihara obviously wanted Missus Misaka to slow him down and complicate any fighting so what would the man do if he exited the building without her. Would he copy what he did before and put her in mortal danger forcing him to sprint back to save her? Would he use her as a hostage to force a surrender?
He didn't know.
But he did know he wasn't so cold that he could take that chance.
~Send a text message to Misaka Mikoto.~ He thought to his partner, ~Give her a location I can hand off her mother at without too many prying eyes. She needs to keep her mother safe.~
~Acknowledged. This unit will update your map waypoint once the hand off location has been selected.~ Mote thought in response.
He just hoped that as much as Gensei might want a weight tied around his neck he'd forget about Missus Misaka once the fireworks started.
A Certain Academy City Hospital in District Seven
Project Fulgora Prototype's POV
Looking at the scenes playing out on the television in the room she still could not fathom why strangers were going so far to secure her freedom.
She was an artificial construct, a modified duplicate of Misaka Mikoto also known as Railgun, created for the purpose of reaching the theorized level six of esper powers.
She was not human.
As such without some sort of practical reward for their efforts the logical course of action would be to abandon her and leave Academy City as quickly as humanly possible. Yet Subject zero-zero-one-omega, Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko were willing to oppose Professor Kihara Gensei and the forces at her creator's command. She did not know the full extent of those forces but if they were anything like the resources available to her creator both power as well as number would be great. They would most definitely be greater than three people regardless of how powerful or skilled they might be. Whether they were overpowered or defeated by a strategically sound plan the end result would be the same.
So…why? It made no sense.
She wasn't able to think on the matter further because a moment later Shirai Kuroko hurried into the room with an expression that implied something alarming had happened.
"Here! Get dressed!" Shirai ordered even as the Judgment member tossed some clothes at her, "We gotta go!"
"Misaka asks for clarification on what is going on." She said even as she moved to do as she had been told.
"Ten guys dressed in gear better than Anti-Skill just entered the hospital." Shirai explained while she used her teleportation power to move various heavy objects up against the only door in, "The Frog doctor said he was going to try to get rid of them but I don't see that happening."
"Why not? Misaka has noticed that the frog faced doctor holds considerable weight in this hospital." She said having used her time in the hospital to learn what she could, "Without some form of overriding authority it should be rather simple to make them leave."
"If someone from an illegal experiment's trying to get you back they're probably the ones who sent those guys." Shirai said evaluating one final object before deciding that it was too light to be worth the effort, "I doubt they're going to give up just because Doctor Frog tells them to go away."
True.
Nothing seemed to be beyond Doctor Kihara Gensei's grasp so a fabrication of authoritative documentation or gaining the cooperation of someone with the needed authority promising the authenticity of the documentation. It would also allow the doctor to reclaim her with the minimal evidence of anything untoward or illegal.
It was then though that her mind considered another possibility as a result of her training compelling her to look beyond the obvious to the hidden.
"There is another possibility Misaka says having considered another sequence of possible events." She said becoming more certain as her mind pieced together actions and reactions, "Many times during Misaka's training the overseer Doctor Therestina Kihara Lifeline would hide the true threat beneath a more obvious one. The threat of a bludgeoning implement was often meant as a distraction to allow a cutting implement to strike from a different direction. She would use previous training sessions to anticipate how Misaka would react to certain threats to manipulate Misaka into moving where she wanted Misaka to go."
"You think the guys downstairs are trying to get us to leave the hospital and ambush us?" Shirai asked looking like she was giving the possibility real consideration.
"It would draw less attention and involve fewer witnesses." She replied pointing out the advantages of such a strategy.
"Then what do we do?" Shirai asked looking as though she had no ready ideas of her own.
"In the training sessions Misaka underwent I was often able to gain the upper hand by finding a route she did not anticipate." She replied remembering the times when sudden inspiration and improvisation allowed her evade Doctor Lifeline's efforts to do her harm, "What was your original plan for leaving the hospital?"
"I was going to use my power, Teleport, to take us to one of the rooftops nearby and keep moving until we're blocks away from the hospital." Shirai replied an expression of contemplation on her face, "Then…well…I guess take you to the Judgment office I work at before calling Oneesama to go there."
"Then perhaps it might be best to leave by another route. A way they would not anticipate or get assets into position to block." She proposed considering how such things could be accomplished.
"Teleport's still our best way to get away but I need to be able to see where I'm teleporting to." Shirai said sounding as though fragments were coming together, "If the rooftops are out and running away on foot isn't any better then how…"
The friend of her 'Big Sister' paused as a look of inspiration and realization came over it but only when the resolve of a choice being made manifested did she know a plan had been decided on.
"I have an idea. You're not going to like it any more than I do but it's definitely not one they'll see coming." Shirai said with some disgust in her voice, "Get dressed. We probably don't have much time left."
Nodding in agreement she did as asked and began to change out of the hospital gown and into the clothes that'd been provided. There did not seem to be a central theme to the collective articles of clothing but they did appear to be close enough to her size that they wouldn't have trouble staying on. With efficiency and speed she slipped on the shorts that appeared to be made from a stretchy pink fabric before pulling on the shirt that in her opinion had been poorly designed. While the sleeves were sufficiently long to reach her wrists the main part of it only came down halfway to her waist leaving a fair amount of her midriff exposed.
"Misaka thinks that these clothes are ill designed for blending into the crowd." She said bending over to tie the laces on the sneakers.
She waited for a few moments to hear what Shirai had to say about that but no words were spoken. Even when she provided the member of Judgment an additional thirty seconds nothing was said so once she finished with her shoes she straightened up and looked in the girl's direction.
What she beheld was a puzzling sight that she had no means of understanding given that none of her training involved correctly interpreting the facial expressions of others. She had no idea why Shirai Kuroko was looking at her with wide eyes with mouth agape with a bit of saliva dripping down her jaw. However before she could analyze what her eyes were telling her Shirai appeared to come out of whatever mental state she'd been momentarily trapped in.
"They were all they had in the hospital lost and found that looked like they'd fit you!" Shirai exclaimed in a hurry before grabbing her by the wrist, "Now come on we gotta go down a few floors before those goons make it to this one!"
In the blink of an eye the world changed revealing them to no longer be in the room she'd been resting in but the hallway but she did not have much time to think on the matter. Two seconds later the world changed again to that of what she presumed was the hospital's stairwell. A wise course of action since it was more likely that any pursuers would use the speed of the hospital elevator to their advantage and at most might send a small group to watch the stairs. With Shirai's esper power of Teleport it would be easy to take them by surprise and dispatch them before they could warn their allies. While she was not completely recovered from her fight in the cemetery she was fairly confident that she could overcome whatever protective gear they might be wearing. So long as they did not possess anything capable of sending an alert to the others upon destruction or the detection of an intense electrical field an unnoticed escape was possible.
As the world blinked once more she found her prediction to be accurate as she and Shirai now stood before two people clad in the same gear she'd seen in Doctor Kihara Gensei's facility. In response to their arrival the enemy raised their weapons to attack and in response she prepared to cover for Shirai's momentary shock by building up an electrical discharge to neutralize the threat. However before she could act the man on the right slipped on something as he took a step forward causing him to flail about wildly unintentionally firing his submachine gun in the process. To their benefit though the flailing and unintentional shooting resulted in a quartet of bullets striking the second goon in the chest and while it didn't look like the rounds penetrated they did knock the goon off his feet. The first one soon followed when the man failed to regain his footing and instead made the slipping worse but this turned out to be the prelude to something more profound.
As the last of the bullets in the flailing man's gun left the weapon two things happened.
First the bullets that'd been fired upwards somehow managed to tear through that which kept a fluorescent light fixture attached to the ceiling at the top of the stairwell.
Second the bullet riddled fixture fell all the way down from the top of the stairwell and somehow managed to land just right on the two armed men to bypass their protective gear. The materials that the fixture was made out of were not the sort that would be capable of piercing their vests even with your average person giving it their all. However if one allowed for gravity to lend a hand and the right bits struck the gaps in the gear the end result was unavoidable.
That result being the throats of both men being torn open gruesomely and even if it didn't kill them instantly the amount of blood loss would ensure their demise.
"THAT…was wierd." Shirai said sounding like she couldn't quite believe what'd just happened, "Still with all that gunfire the others'll probably come this way soon and we can't be here when they arrive."
A blink later and they appeared to be in the middle of a pipe network likely constructed to support the hospital above but it was when Shirai began to work to open a grate in the floor that she realized what the plan was.
"Misaka asks if you are sure that this is the only way while mentally curling her lip in disgust at what awaited her." She asked not liking the plan but privately conceding that it could work.
"We can't take the streets because it'll put innocent people in danger and it'll make it easier for them to grab us." Shirai replied after successfully getting the grate off with a brief use of her esper ability, "The rooftops will make it impossible to hide. This is the best way to get out of here without anyone knowing how."
Taking another look at the opening that used to be blocked by a grate she found herself wishing that there'd be new clothes waiting for where ever they were going.
She doubted that the ones she had on would survive the trip.
C&S Electronics Institute
Misaka Mikoto's POV
~Okay! I can do this!~ She thought spotting her mother talking to some Anti-Skill officers, ~Just gotta keep it casual. Subtle. No problem!~
She was sure if she said it enough times she'd actually believe it.
"What've you gotten mixed up in this time idiot mother of mine!?" She asked at the top of her lungs.
It was the way they sometimes greeted each other so it was perfectly normal.
Right?
"Mikoto-chan? What're you doing here?" Mom asked sounding understandably surprised.
"Well it's kinda hard to miss all the news broadcasts showing my Mom being taken all over the city by a TERRORIST and SABOTEUR!" She replied reminded of all the times her mother proved oblivious to how her actions affected those around her.
"Don't yell at me I'm your mother!" Mom yelled back clearly put on the defensive, "And he's not that bad! I don't know where they got the idea that Alexander's a terrorist or anything. Sure he's weird and stuff but he also saved my life and hasn't hurt anyone. It's all just a big misunderstanding!"
~No shit!~ She thought knowing all too well what'd probably happened.
She might not know much about Xander but she did know quite a bit about the dark underbelly of Academy City. There were shadows in the city, secret labs running secret experiments, and they had the backing of some very powerful people if not the most powerful people. If anyone was responsible for making up the story about Xander it was them and it was to make them a smokescreen that they could use to recapture her newest clone and Xander. But they crossed the line when they got her mother involved!
"So did you tell the Anti-Skill that? Where he's going?" She asked making it sound like it was only natural that her mother tell Anti-Skill everything.
"I told them I don't know where he went and it's the truth." Mom replied glancing with irritation at the members of Anti-Skill, "All he said was that he was going to do what he had to do and the people he was going to it to were way past mercy."
That settled it.
Xander was definitely going after the people responsible for the creation of her newest Sister and from the sounds of it wasn't going stop at just beating them bloody.
She had to find him!
She'd once gone down the road he was stepping on and it was completely useless in the end. She'd done everything she could to destroy the data being used in the experiment AND destroy millions of yen in equipment but it hadn't slowed down the project one bit. In the end it'd taken the idiotic actions of one level zero moron to stop it by calling into question one of the main components: that Accelerator was the strongest and therefore the most likely to reach Level Six. With what she'd been able to put together about her little Sister's situation the only way they'd ever give up on her would be for the newest victim of her old choice to be rendered powerless. If that happened then she'd be worthless in the eyes of the scientists that'd created her being of little value aside from perhaps dissection to figure out how the electro-master power had vanished in the first place.
"Whatever! You need to got back to wherever you're staying and forget about all this." She said trying to pressure her idiot mother into obeying, "You've already gotten into enough trouble as it is!"
"You're blowing everything out of proportion Mikoto-chan." Mom said dismissing the danger of things, "Sure it was a little more excitement than I'm used to but it turned out okay. I'm fine, Xander's fine and once Anti-Skill gets its head out of its ass about him everything'll be fine."
With an expression of exasperation at her mother acting like something other than a responsible adult like she should be she decided to try a different tactic.
"Don't you have better things to do?" She asked going with her Plan B, "Weren't you in Academy City gathering information for that mid-term paper your professor gave your class to write? You can't get distracted like last time and ask for an extension. I doubt Professor Nagumo is going to let you slip by again with the same old excuses."
THIS had an effect as her mother remembered the time in question and how it'd taken one helluva excuse pulled out of her ass to convince the man in his fifties to show some flexibility. Her mother was man things, mostly things she liked, but one of them wasn't a smooth talker who could talk her way out of any jam. If her mother failed to submit an excellent paper this time around she'd have one helluva hole to dig herself out of if she didn't want to wash out at the end of the year.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I've got plenty of time!" Mom replied only partially managing to pull off the look of confidence, "Besides thanks to Xander stealing that part it'll be awhile before I can get the last of the data I need. I'm sure Professor Nagumo'll understand if I'm just a LITTLE bit late."
"Or he'll bust your chops for being lazy and not looking for some other way to get what you need." She said not letting her mother squirm her way out of things.
"Sigh…yeah that does sound like something the old fossil would do." Mom said finally admitting that perhaps she had better things to do.
Good.
"There are a few other places I can get what I need but it involves talking to people I really don't like." Mom said with a light grimace, "They'll make me pay for every page I need."
"Yeah I know people like that but it's all a part of life." She said knowing one in particular that made it positively painful to get any kind of help out of.
Bitch never passed up a chance to make her life difficult and worst of all it was always done in a way that made it impossible for her to retaliate without looking like she was the one in the wrong.
"Then I better get it over with sooner rather than later." Mom said before taking on a look of steely resolve, "They'll give me what I want or I'll raise six different kinds of hell!"
She was a bit shocked at the proclamation but relaxed when she decided that there was no way her mother would be foolish enough to do anything illegal. At most she'd only wind up undermining her own schoolwork and maybe requiring she take the entire class over again. In her opinion it'd be her mother's own fault and it'd be well deserved. If it somehow FINALLY managed to get her mother to realize that she needed to grow up a bit then she'd finally be able to relax a bit whenever her mother came to visit.
With that they parted ways with her saying she was heading back to the Academy but that was a lie.
She planned on using the same tactics she'd originally used to shut down the Radio Noise project to find Xander and stop him from going down his chosen path. She wanted what he wanted but they needed to brainstorm and come up with something that might actually work.
She'd find him soon enough because she'd been able to tell right away that this was his first time in Academy City. Given that the tech inside of the city was thirty or forty years ahead of what existed on the outside the odds were good that Xander would give away his position sooner rather than later. Once that happened she'd use her powers to get there in a flash and use her previous experience trying to shut down Radio Noise to predict what escape route he'd be using to flee the area.
She had this locked down! Just wait and see!
Fifteen Blocks Away
On Top of a Roof
Xander's POV
"You sure you can do this?" He asked looking at the hologram being generated by the reconfiguration of his metallic palm.
"It is well within this unit's abilities." A loosely humanoid form said in the hologram, "With the enhanced hardware configuration of your arm and this unit's Strong A.I configuration there is a high probability of success."
"I'm not saying you're not good at what you do. What you've managed so far proves you've got skills partner." He said trying to phrase things the right way, "I just want to make sure you're taking every precaution you can think of. Academy City's on the cutting edge of tech and the people we're after have to have guessed we might try something like this. If they have anything resembling a brain they'll have stuff in place like viruses, tracing programs or maybe even some sort of shutdown code for you that we don't know about."
"You need not worry 'partner'. Ever since you outlined your plan I have been running predictive scenarios in order to fabricate tactics and strategies that offer the highest probability of success." The humanoid hologram said not sounding deterred in the least, "This unit has prepared programs to both counter enemy efforts to locate us as well as to protect this unit from harmful viruses and malware. In a worst case scenario this unit will disconnect from the network should three of its five firewalls fail."
"Good to hear." He said telekinetically opening the access panel built into an expensive looking satellite setup, "Let's go fishing!"
With that he pressed his techno-organic hand to the exposed circuitry before watching bits of wiring grow out of his metallic limb to interface. Thankfully he didn't have to see every line of code flash past his eyes as his partner worked and was only shown the broadest strokes of what was being done and the progress that was being made.
The goal of the plan was simple enough: they were tapping into one of the top data hubs in Academy City through which petabytes of data were channelled before going to their final destination. The one they were at was a bit down the list but that was only because the security around the others was too high to risk going for them. As it was they'd only been able to use this one because he'd had his partner pre-load programs into all the monitoring systems they'd been able to find to have technical difficulties. Nothing that'd make people suspicious but rather common ones that happened the world over and would only require a short visit by a technician to fix.
Based on previous reports they had about seven minutes before the technician would arrive and less than five after that before the 'difficulties' would be remedied.
Unless something unexpected happened they'd be done in ten minutes.
It was their intent to find likely candidates for members of Academy City's scientific underworld or as he preferred to call them 'prey'.
If he was going to stop the dark underworld from chasing after the girl he saved then he needed to make it too costly for them to do so. At first glance the right idea would be to trash their equipment or destroy their precious scientific data but he knew that was too simple an approach. Both money and info could be backed up or replaced easily enough if the right people were involved. If he wanted his efforts to matter then he needed to take out something that couldn't easily be replaced even with money and power. In his mind that could only be one thing: people.
Data and money were useless on their own without people to make use of them.
Then there was the fact that scientists qualified to fulfill roles in the underworld didn't exactly grow on trees. He doubted that whoever the ringmaster of the underworld turned out to be would be satisfied with merely 'average' scientists so if some were lost it'd be awhile to hire replacements. In some cases it'd only be a couple of years but in others the mastermind might need a full decade to fill the vacant position. Sure he doubted that there were shortages of scientists in the required field but they would also need a high level of moral flexibility or perhaps a complete absence of morality to qualify. Could they be hired and yet kept in the dark about what they were working on? Possibly but that'd only add to the effort that would need to be made to get the desired results. Far easier to target someone who just needed the right incentive to agree to work on the necessary project.
If he eliminated scumbag scientists like Kihara Gensei in large enough number the mastermind would be hard pressed to replace them anytime soon. If this kingpin had some sort of overreaching goal in mind then the loss of scientific brains would lead to delay after delay. If that goal was time sensitive then the loss of so many minds could very well be a crippling blow.
He'd kill them off until he was satisfied then issue this ultimatum to the ringleader: force your cronies to give up all efforts to reclaim or harm the girl he'd come to save. He'd even extend that to the 'little sister's' family to be on the safe side since he knew from dealing with demons that assholes loved to find verbal loopholes to get out of any deals that'd been made. He'd then make it sound that if the deal was broken he'd come back and finish the job to put a perpetual knife over the ringleader's head. It wouldn't last forever of course since once he left this reality for his next stop he'd never see this one again but hopefully by the time the mastermind figured this out the Misaka family would hopefully be prepared to fend for themselves.
Either Railgun would gain enough additional experience and power to make provoking her a big mistake or the family would leave Academy City altogether.
He'd make sure with his efforts he'd leave a big enough impression that it'd be a long while before the assholes got up the nerve to test how truthful his warning really was.
"Search completed. Data acquired." His partner said as the connections to the satellite setup withdrew and his hand went back to normal, "I was only able to come up with a list of twenty likely candidates fitting the parameters you set."
"That's a good enough base to work with." He said satisfied with his partner's success, "If they're anything like the assholes back home they'll have kept tabs on their competition in the evil scientist parts of Academy City. Between your abilities and my telepathy we'll pry new targets out of those twenty as we go to flesh out my kill list."
"This unit has constructed an order in which the targets should be eliminated." His partner stated before the humanoid form was replaced with a map of Academy city marked with numerous inked crosshairs, "It is based on the reliability of the data indicating their current location, the depth of the suspected corruption and the level of difficulty in eliminating the target. Until you're more familiar with your abilities and the sort of opposition you will face it is only logical to start small."
True.
The only downside though was that if he took too long with the small fry it'd give the bigger fish time to up their protection level to the next level. It was a sacrifice he'd have to make though because charging in against a tiger when you'd only just got your first spear was suicide. Better to make sure he stood a better than fifty-fifty chance of landing the kill shot first.
"So who's the first one to die?" He asked steeling himself for what was to come.
"A former researcher by the name of Amai AO." His partner replied providing a 3D holographic projection of his target, "He was originally a researcher for the First Production Plan of the Sisters Project the objective of which was to develop military clones of Misaka Mikoto. His speciality was in creating personality data for the clones that incorporated self-learning capabilities. However when the clones failed to achieve a power level higher than level two or three it was deemed a failure. He was also part of the Level Six Project that resulted in over ten thousand Misaka Mikoto clones. Information on his current activities suggest that he is engaged in activities both illegal and involving an organization outside Academy City."
So…this guy was part of experiments that created thousands of girls like the one he'd come to save just so they could prove a theory and make some money. If this guy was anything like Kihara Gensei he didn't see the clones as people but rather as factory produced lab rats. A thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? All that mattered was a balanced budget, a return on their investment and the successful proving of their theory of the day.
"Sounds like someone that needs to die." He said heading for the roof access to the stairwell, "Mark his location along with places he's spent the most time at in the last three weeks."
"You got it." His partner said before the map in his electronic eye's HUD lit up with dots.
The Streets of Academy City
Mid-To-Late Evening
Amai Ao's POV
This was going to work!
THIS HAD TO WORK!
There was no other way for him to survive and perhaps prosper!
To think it had started out so simply only to go from bad to worse.
In the beginning he'd been a respected researcher but also a member of the bolder group of scientists that worked in Academy City. Unlike those who slaved away at their jobs while abiding by the rules of society he like many others put their devotion to science and pushing its boundaries whenever possible. They'd been blessed with the fact that so long as their theories were sound and the benefits promised to be profitable enough the ones who ran the city would support their efforts. He'd started out with a few minuscule projects starting out but once he'd proven his skill the ones behind the Sisters Project had recruited him to develop a personality matrix for their clones. The objective of the project was to successfully clone one of the few Level Five espers in Academy City before bringing the prototype up to the original's level. Once that was accomplished they would move onto mass production before selling them to whichever country or company could pay the required price. His part was to construct a functional mind of sorts that could learn as it went and only become more effective as time passed. Clones by themselves after all were mere lumps of flesh without a mind to operate the body and no investor would be patient enough for the clone to reach Railgun's level the natural way.
It was soon after the prototype began testing though that a potential problem manifested.
Even though the clone had been put through the same power development routine as Railgun the prototype barely manifested power consistent with a level two or three. They'd made four further attempts to manufacture a level five electromaster esper only to fail each time. In order to find out what was going on they'd fed all the data into the super computer Tree Diagram so that it could find the answer. Sadly the answer it came up with was that after over a thousand simulations the super computer concluded that it was impossible to create a Level Five clone of Railgun even with the utilization of genetic manipulation and the Testament learning hardware. He'd railed against this conclusion and had spent every moment before they let him go trying to come up with a solution but it all ended in failure.
This was bad for him because he'd invested considerably in the project and had even called in favours believing in the massive payday he would've received if the project had succeeded.
He'd been desperate and it'd taken everything he had to convince the people he owed money to give him more time to pay them back.
It'd been a godsend or so he'd thought at the time when he'd been contacted to help with the repurposed Sisters Project with the objective of creating the first ever Level Six esper. Thanks to the simulations of Tree Diagram it'd been concluded if the strongest Level Five esper Accelerator killed Railgun one hundred and twenty-eight times then the boy would evolve into a Level Six. However since it was impossible for someone to die and then be brought back to die another hundred and twenty-seven times Tree Diagram proposed cloning Railgun a total of twenty thousand times. Even if the clones were only Level Two or Three in strength the end result would be the same. Thus he had been brought back in to oversee configuring the mental matrices of the clones and he'd been happy to do so. With the payday being offered for work on the Level Six Project he'd be able to pay off all of his debts and still have a healthy amount of money left over. Plus if Accelerator did successfully reach Level Six then anyone associated with the project would be in high demand from others in similar fields guaranteeing long term financial gains.
Then his hope had been shattered by that Level Zero nobody who somehow managed to defeat Accelerator by PUNCHING him into unconsciousness!
PUNCHING!
All of the people involved in the Level Six Project had scrambled to find an excuse or theory for how it'd happened with the desire of having the entire thing written off as a fluke. An extensive background check was done on Kamijou Touma looking for any signs of an esper power that could explain his victory without invalidating the premise of the Level Six Project. They'd even done some digging to see if somehow Accelerator had been convinced to throw the fight either with a big payoff or some sort of blackmail. In the end though none of them had been able to come up with anything that didn't sound like the whining of sore losers or desperate scientists.
Without Tree Diagram to run new simulations to get the project back on its feet the entire operation was circling the drain along with his financial well being.
THAT had led him to his current gambit and the sole means of escaping a very unpleasant fate.
He'd heard STORIES after all about what some of the people he'd borrowed money from did to those who failed to pay back what they owed on time.
Without the benefits that came with a successful Level Six Project his only chance was to prove that the Sisters through his efforts could still be effective weapons of war. Even if they couldn't be organic mobile railgun platforms or walking lightning bolt generators the Sisters clones could still perform one military task.
That of disposable terrorists.
After all frontline soldiers were only part of a country's war efforts with other fronts proving equally valuable. With the Sisters clones a buyer could coordinate a city if not nationwide terrorist strike that no one would be able to see coming. Through a unit similar to Last Order the clones could be coordinated in a way that could not be listened in on by the enemy even if the method could be theorized upon. Best of all by eliminating all self-preservation instincts and thoughts they would ensure that the clones would prioritize their assigned mission above all else. Add in a chemical cocktail that would essentially cause the clones esper powers to overload turning them into an electricity bomb and a lot of damage could be done.
With this in mind he'd managed to sneak a virus into the Testament machine responsible for configuring Last Order's mental matrices that would cause all the Sisters clones to run amok. They would attack anyone they saw with the intent to kill and when there were no living beings to kill the clones would just destroy whatever they knew to be explosive when a spark was introduced. Once each unit's level of injury reached a certain point they would then collectively seek out a connection to Academy City's power grid before using it to generate the biggest bang possible.
He wasn't quite sure whether it'd be a citywide EMP or flashier explosions as the power grid overloaded but either way it'd get the point across to his potential future employers.
Best of all the the finale would reduce the Sisters clones to charred husks utterly obliterating any evidence of his involvement. He'd already come up with perfectly plausible excuses should anyone point the finger at him and ensured that the only evidence that irrevocably implicate him would die with the clones.
However even with his preparations he had not expected Last Order to seek out Accelerator much less attempt to befriend him. It'd forced him to wait until the clone was alone at the restaurant before acquiring her but once that had been done he'd relocated to the safest place he knew of to wait out the countdown. He knew that Yoshikawa Kikyou as well as a few others would be smart enough to deduce both his plan and involvement but their intelligence was also to his benefit. Each of them would weigh the pros and cons, the costs and the benefits, of getting in his way before deciding to mind their own business. If his plan succeeded there was a chance they could each play up their involvement in the Level Six Project in order to gain new employment. However if they tried to get in his way and stop him it'd only cost them valuable resources that could be put to better use further each of their individual goals.
All in all the only people he had to worry about were those who'd be provoked by the destruction and death caused by the successful deployment of his virus. It would after all result in a great deal of death and destruction some of which might affect those with significant influence in Academy City. That was why with the deal between him and Association de Ciencia the moment his idea proved effective they would get him safely out of Academy City. He knew they had the resources to do so and since he was the only one with knowledge of the virus as well as the data he'd stolen from the Sisters Project they wouldn't be able to replicate his finale without him.
He'd be safe from those he owed money to and be the director of a business venture that would make him quite wealthy indeed.
As long as nothing went wrong.
Nothing could go wrong right?
No one knew where he was for sure and he'd made sure to turn off the car as well as park in the most remote dark corner of the property he could find.
He was perfectly safe!
A flutter of feathers and motion out of the corner of his eye caused him to start but when he looked to the source he saw it was only a few crows taking flight and so his fright faded…
…right up until he spotted Accelerator walking towards his car in the rearview mirror!
He knew he stood no chance against the strongest esper in Academy City so he started his car up frantically relief bolstering his confidence when the engine turned over. With a surprising amount of skill he managed to maneuver the vehicle to turn around before he aimed it right at the boy and pushed for as much speed as he could. He knew that this was likely useless but he was desperate and a sweet voice in his mind whispered that perhaps if he acted swiftly enough he'd take the young man by surprise. That brief moment of disbelief might just be enough to let him kill the kid so he could relocate someplace else!
He barely remained conscious when the front of his car bent AROUND the boy like it'd been rammed right into a pillar of solid titanium.
Blasted rental's air bags hadn't even deployed!
Well you get what you paid for or rather put on your credit card with the intent of paying it NEVER!
"Now then, what to do?" Accelerator asked rhetorical with casual menace.
Not wanting to sit around to find out he tried to get out of the car but a casual use of Accelerator's esper power caused the door to slam into him knocking the air from his lungs as well as banging his head against the frame. He drifted between consciousness and unconsciousness thus he was only just able to make out that Accelerator was talking to someone about what he'd done as well as how to stop it. This made him claw his way mentally back to full consciousness in order to ensure that didn't happen and thus take away his only method of saving himself. It was hard, SO HARD, but desperation was a potent motivator and so progress was made little by little.
When the world was in the last few moments of coming back into focus he found out that he'd fallen out of the car onto the street but he didn't dwell on that for too long. Instead he forced himself onto his hands and knees before reaching into his coat pocket to bring out the gun that was his last piece of protection against a future he rejected entirely. Forcing himself to turn around he pulled himself halfway into the car before taking aim at Accelerator's head.
"Don't…interfere…" he managed to gasp out.
Then, on a whim, he decided that Accelerator wasn't the sort of person that'd obey an order like that so he began to pull the trigger to shoot the boy in the head. Based on the expression on Accelerator's face there was a chance it'd work if he did it before the Level Five could finish whatever it was he was doing to Last Order.
Then his finger and hand suddenly froze in place before he could put enough pressure on the trigger to cause the gun to fire.
"You won't be killing anyone else Amai Ao." A voice he didn't recognize declared before suddenly his body was pulled by some unseen power out of the car and thrown against a nearby chainlink fence.
He recovered faster than last time and so he was soon able to turn towards the source of the unknown speaker only to blink at the sight of what he saw. Walking towards him was a young man clad in a blue combat vest, jeans and boots but those weren't the things that had his attention. No what had his attention was the fact that a full third of the young man's body seemed to be made up of metal except for the left eye that looked more like a lens of some sort. Grasped in the newcomer's arms was a rifle of unknown configuration but much more advanced than anything he'd seen before during his entire stay in Academy City.
He didn't know who this newcomer was but he did recognize the threatening aura coming off of the young man.
You didn't survive as part of Academy City's scientific underground without being able to tell the predators from the prey.
"You were a part of an experiment that disregard the inherent rights of thousands and condoned the murder of those thousands all just so you could make money and prove your theories." The unknown young man declared with clear disapproval, "You might think that because this was done with the backing of Academy City's board of directors that you can escape punishment. You're wrong. By the time I'm done those thousands of young ladies will have been avenged and I'll know what you know about the scientific scum of Academy City. Start praying to whatever deity you worship…not that it'll do you any good."
Before he could say anything in rebuttal the young man raised his metal arm towards him…
…and then his brain exploded into indescribable pain!
Thinking of any sort became impossible after that.
Accelerator's POV
~What the fuck is that guy doing to Ao?~ He thought looking as the guy he'd been planning to kill was clutching his head like it was the only way it was going to stay in one piece.
He didn't know and honestly he didn't care beyond the fact that it meant he could focus on wiping out the virus that Ao had uploaded into the brat's brain. He'd never admit it out loud but he'd been in a bit of a tight spot a few seconds ago and might not have managed to get out of it on his own. His esper power depended on his brain being able to do the calculations needed to make it do what he wanted it to do by manipulating the vector values of anything that touched his AIM field. A minute ago too much of his brain was working on fixing the brat to spare the processing power needed to reflect a bullet so it'd come down to what would happen first: would he finish his work or would Ao shoot him in the head.
He didn't have a hole in his head but it wasn't because he'd won the race but more because an stranger had decided to butt in.
~Whatever.~ He thought finishing his work on the brat and confirmed it with the palm computer in her lap, ~I've done my good deed of the year.~
Standing up he was only planning on sticking around long enough for Kikyou to show up and take the brat off his hands but when he noticed blood beginning to drip out of Ao's eyes and ears his curiosity was snagged. If for nothing else than to kill time he tried to figure out what was being done to Ao and why it might make the moron react this way. It was obviously something that focused on the head but that only narrowed down things a little. It could be anything from bone manipulation to blood flow manipulation to some form of mental attack. Thinking back a bit to what he'd overheard about the newbie knowing everything Ao knew though it was probably some form of esper telepathy. What didn't mesh though was the fact that the guy had to be hitting Ao pretty hard to get a reaction like this and the only telepathic esper he knew of with any kind of power was Shokuhou Misaki from Tokiwadai Middle School. But whoever this new guy was wasn't like her at all since he didn't see any remotes in his hand though maybe the metal arm did the same thing.
Whatever he was doing to Ao didn't last much more than five minutes before the metal arm was lowered and Ao stopped screaming like a little bitch with severe lower pain tolerance levels.
"Definitely need to dial it back. Maybe a third or a quarter of what I used on him." The guy said obviously an amateur if he didn't know how to use telepathy on someone without scrambling their shit up, "Still I got a few bits and pieces so it's not a complete waste. Who's next on the list?"
"Fugan Ryuuzou. He is a known weapons designer for the sanctioned illegal operators in Academy City but is exceedingly paranoid." A synthesized but articulate voice said apparently from the guy's mechanical arm, "Based on the data I was able to acquire he is experienced enough to detect a trap by Anti-Skill, sets up countdown file deletion programs on everything he makes and even monitors his creations afterwards to ensure they're being used for the purpose specified by the client. Also he insists on being paid in gold bars rather than conventional currency or banks."
"So how did you manage to find him?" The guy asked looking at his arm as though it were a person.
"It would seem that a disgruntled former client has been searching for him for awhile." The arm replied promptly, "They have insufficient protections on their files and were in the process of sending some of them to a consultant in the hopes of learning more. It was easy enough to take everything the former client had and do a superior job searching for Ryuuzou."
"Careful! Pride goeth before a fall and all that." The guy playfully chided his arm.
"Pride is a human trait. I am an artificially intelligent assistant program thus it is impossible for me to feel pride or fall victim to it." The arm said in a mostly monotone way but with a hint of indignant tone mixed in.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" The guy said before slinging the rifle onto his back, "Mark his location and let's get going."
"Well doesn't this sound like fun." He said deciding to get in on the discussion, "Gotta say seeing you turn Ao's brain to mush was the most interesting thing I've seen all week."
"SO glad I could help you fight off boredom Accelerator." The guy said with a bit of sarcasm, "Now you've got a kid to get back to her parents and I've got another notch to add to my resume so have a nice night."
So the guy had a list made of scum to kill and planned on killing more tonight. Sounded like more fun then sitting around waiting for Kikyou to show up. From the sounds over the cell phone she was already on her way and couldn't be more than five or six minutes out. With Amai Ao dead the kid could stay safe for that long without him playing guard dog for her.
"Kid's not going anywhere and Kikyou'll be here soon enough." He said with his 'could not care less' tone of voice, "If you're planning on doing some hunting I'd like to tag along. Might keep the night from being a total loss."
He wanted it to be more assertive but there was too much he didn't know about the guy for that. How was the guy getting around? Where was Fugan Ryuuzou? How did the stranger plan on killing the weapon maker? His power meant getting around Academy City on his own wasn't a problem but without the right info he'd almost certainly wind up arriving too late to enjoy the show. Better to try and tag along from the beginning.
"I'm not here to save your lousy night of partying Accelerator." The guy said not looking cowed by him in the leased, "Besides I'll probably be pissing off a lot of people before I'm done. You might be the strongest esper in Academy City but you're an idiot if you think the top dogs running things don't have a way or three of taking you down if you make too much trouble for them."
He wasn't stupid.
He knew that the people with power in Academy City would try and figure out ways of protecting themselves against his esper power but he wasn't too worried. All their plans would be based on science and that was something he could work with. With his power you needed to be the smart to get the most out of it both for offence and defence. Given enough time he'd be able to figure out whatever'd been drawn up to beat him and crush it into dust. As for hurting their feelings he didn't give a flying fuck about that. He'd seen the shitty sort of people that'd be pissed if he helped this new guy and they were losers with crappy dreams who didn't have any real power to call their own. All their power was based around money, politics and favours. Pathetic!
"And you care why?" He asked steering the conversation in a new direction, "We aren't all buddy buddy and I get the feeling you won't be sticking around once you've finished with your list."
Silence was his response but seeing the guy's eyes dart at his metal arm every so often made him thinking that he was mentally talking to his 'artificially intelligent assistant program'. The chatting didn't take too long and from the look on the guy's face a decision had been reached.
"Fine. You'll be good as a distraction at least." The guy said without even a shred of caring, "Some of the guys on my list have some pretty heavy security especially the Kiharas. Having you 'tag along' will make getting to them easier."
This guy was planning on killing more than one Kihara?!
He couldn't help himself…he began to laugh with malicious joy at the idea of someone putting someone from that family in the ground especially if it turned out to be that asshole Amata.
"Oh I'll do more than distract them!" He declared with glee at the night that awaited him, "Lead the way!"
Tonight was going to be a fun night and after he got some sleep he'd check in with Kikyou to see how the brat was doing just 'cause it'd be annoying as hell to have that question floating around in his head for the next month.
Besides if he didn't check in he was sure the woman would find a way to let him know anyhow.
Better to get it over with and out of the way.
