Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Twenty Six: Boisterous Party
Beta:
Mikoto walked into the Judgement 177th Branch Office alongside the Usagi to find everyone waiting for them. Literally. Nunotaba-san and Kurozuma-san she could understand, the former was intimately tied to the incident and the latter worked as a grunt for her two troublesome kohai. Heck, she could even see why Awatsuki-san, Wannai-san and Kongou-san were there, they'd been involved for some time now. What had left her incredulous was the fact that Kiyama-sensei, all of Saten-chan's siblings and Haruue-san was there too.
"Did everyone know about this night time raid but me?" Mikoto whined.
Most of them, thankfully shot each other confused looks. Unfortunately for the [Railgun]'s self-esteem, Saten-chan had to pipe up.
"Not the specifics, but I did inform everyone that you and Naru-san would be on a mission."
The Number 5's head sparked in annoyance.
"You sent me on a mission without giving me giving me any details at all!"
It was Saten-chan's turn to blink in confusion.
"I just told you to pick Naru-san up because she was running late." Turning to address the blonde, the info broker demanded. "What did you do?"
"Might have been a little more noisy with my distraction than I'd planned."
"How noisy?"
"Just roughhoused some of their security, nothing major."
"That's not the point!" Mikoto shouted. "Why didn't you tell me that you two were going to raid STUDY's HQ?"
"Does it matter right now? We have other things to do, Sempai." The Usagi said flippantly.
"Besides you were stressed out enough after the attack on the factory, I didn't want to overburden you." Saten-chan added with a nod.
"Oh! For the love of science!" Mikoto hissed in exasperation as she walked forward and bonked her idiot kohai on her head. "Look, I'm your Sempai and can handle a little overwork. So next time when you need to go do stuff like this, let me know."
Spinning she pinned Namikaze with a look as well. "You too."
Both Dark Siders exchanged a look before giving her a reluctant nod.
"Now that that's settled, let's get this meeting started alright." Konori-sempai said stepping to the head of the large group of people in her workspace. "Everyone up to speed with what we've worked out so far?"
"Actually, whatever happened to Aritomi?" Mikoto asked, recalling that she'd lost track of the man after Saten-chan had her Powered Suit golem carry the man out of the factory. She had been so preoccupied with rushing over to Heaven Canceller's hospital alongside her fellow Level 5 and Nunotaba-san with the data they'd retrieved to have him immediately begin synthesizing more of the poison neutralizer that Febrie needed, that she'd almost completely forgotten about the unscrupulous scientist altogether.
"Anti-Skill has already proven to be compromised. The fact that they've confiscated all the useful evidence from the first two attacks proved as much." Saten-chan explained. "I contacted my backer and she has arranged for us to use some of her personal forces. He is being detained by them and recovering from… tripping."
"Is that what we're calling it?" Mikoto deadpanned.
"Yes."
"You didn't torture him too badly I hope, Rui-chan?" Shinoda-san asked her sister.
"Considering what he's done to Febrie-chan, I think Rui-nee should have just killed him." Izumi-san said angrily. Many of his siblings seemed to agree with him. It seemed that the young Chemicaloid hadn't just won over Saten-chan but her whole household. The girl was certainly well championed.
Is her ability moe-ism or something? Mikoto couldn't help but think.
"No, he's more useful alive at the moment. Sadly." Saten-chan informed her brother with a pout.
"Why is my family such a murderous bunch?" Edasaki-san said with a put upon shake of her head.
"We did all get put through hell because of a mad scientist." Kiyama-sensei chimed in. "That it has had an impact on our morals shouldn't be a surprise."
The telepath's shoulders sagged at that and Haruue-san patted her arm consolingly, before trying to change the topic for her best friend's sake.
"Kiyama-sensei, how's the progress with making more of Febrie's lollipops?"
"The first batch should be ready by morning." The scientist assured them, earning sighs of relief from everyone.
"As heartening as that is, it does not mean we're out of danger. Even if Aritomi is out of the equation, STUDY will continue on. It was the plan all along." Nunotaba-san stated. "Come tomorrow, the entire CIty will be at risk."
"How's it going to happen?" Namikaze asked the dead eyed girl.
"STUDY's means of attack will be to use Febrie's sister, Janie, and her Diffusion Ghost ability, to control a large number of Powered Suits in a coordinated attack." Nunotaba-san bit her bottom lip, a nervous look on her face.
"...That could cause an untold amount of damage. Security bots, Powered Suits, and whatever are everywhere in the City. If they all went rogue…"
"Holy shit! A whole bunch of those running amok will be a huge problem." Kurozuma-san said, his fist clenched in a white-knuckled grip. "A lot of people could get hurt."
"It is a major threat." Saten-chan agreed. "Thankfully, Diffusion Ghost can only give out primitive commands to objects it control. This means the attackers would consist of nothing more than a easily picked off rabble."
"A heavily equipped rabble." The former Skill-Out informed her. "And numbers are a thing too. This ain't gonna be a walk in the park."
"Kurozuma-san is correct," Kuroko added, looking worried. "If nothing else the Powered Suits will be superhumanly strong and durable."
"Do we have the numbers to handle something like that?" A pale Wannai-san asked.
"Don't worry, everyone, I've got it handled." Konori-san said with a reassuring smile. "I'll make a few calls."
"It can't be to Anti-Skill," Kuroko said looking cross. "I tried calling up Yomikawa-sensei for help earlier. Unfortunately, she's been suspended from her Anti-Skill duties. Worse, she said that most of the equipment used by Anti-Skill is now provided by STUDY Corporation itself, meaning that they aren't willing to do anything against the company."
That left almost everyone uneasy. Hearing that the City's security force was in the pocket of a corporation bent on its destruction was liable to make anyone wary. Though Kurozuma-san and Kiyama-sensei's unsurprised looks were unsettling in their own ways.
"Don't worry," Konori-sempai reassured her subordinate. "That wasn't who I was talking about in the first place. I'm just gonna call up some friends of mine."
Mikoto didn't see how that would help any, but the Usagi and Saten-chan seemed to.
"I'll call up some friends too. You'll do the same, Ruiko-chan?"
The Number 3 nodded, a vicious smirk on her face. Mikoto was a little unnerved by that, just who exactly was the [AIM Sovereign] gonna call in? She'd bet it was some Dark Side group, but who exactly. Whoever it was, the [Railgun] didn't think she wanted to know.
If they were anything like her siblings, who were looking very bloodthirsty at the moment. She pitied any STUDY goon who had the misfortune of running into them.
"Most of you aren't gonna be doing any fighting."
Or not.
"What?" "Sensei!" "That's not fair!" "Rui-chan gets to fight, why not us?"
"Most of you are Level 2s at best and have little to no combat ability. Besides, you all just came out of rehab. Do you want to end up in the hospital all over again?"
That earned many grumbles of acceptance.
"Can Banri-chan help me at least?" Saten-chan asked her mother.
The scientist considered this for a moment.
"Very well, if she agrees. I take it you need Haruue-san's help as well?"
Saten-chan nodded and turned to the two telepaths who exchanged a glance before nodding in agreement.
"Then the rest of you will help keep me company in the lab while I finish up the production of Febrie's lollis." Kiyama-sensei decreed with motherly authority as she eyed her brood.
"Hai!" The group groaned.
"With that settled, then let's start planning how to wreck STUDY's plan." Namikaze said eagerly. "With everyone pitching in, they'll crumble like a wet sand castle."
Mikoto looked at her kohai incredulously at her strange analogy, but everyone else just seemed to get caught up in her enthusiasm.
"Even with reinforcements, we likely would still be outnumbered." Nunotaba-san said just as the group was getting psyched up.
"Yeah, but how many Level 5s are going to fight for them?" Namikaze grinned wildly. "Last I checked, we've got three. Plus maybe two more if we play our cards right."
"They do have a large army though," the teen scientist countered. "Uiharu-san, you've gone over the data we acquired from their servers correct? Have you figured out how many Suits we're dealing with?"
"Give me a minute." The hacker said as she typed away at her tablet to pull up the relevant data. "I've not consolidated the numbers, but it looks like they have roughly t-twenty thousand Suits!?"
"Oh. That's actually kind of fun." Namikaze hummed.
"Okay, that might actually be a problem. With that many of them, we would take forever to destroy them all." The info broker said sounding surprised, before palming her face in frustration. "Why did I dismiss them buying all those Suits in the first place?"
"If it makes you that uneasy Ruiko-chan, why not just call up your boytoy? Or are you two still having a spat?" The Usagi asked with interest.
"W-What?!" Mikoto sputtered in shock. To even suggest that!
"Accel is kind of depressed at the moment." The Number 3 said with a blush. "He's not up for doing something like this."
The pigtailed blonde rolled her eyes. "Wonderful. I'll see if Misaki-Sempai can lend a hand. Maybe lure [Meltdowner] into things. She's stupid enough to fall for it."
"Wait." Kiyama-sensei cut in. "And back up. What's this I hear about Ruiko dating Accelerator?"
Mikoto blinked. Kiyama-sensei didn't know?
If the shocked looks of Saten-chan's family and almost everyone else there was any indication, it seemed that the info broker had somehow managed to keep her infatuation with the pseudo albino a secret.
"We'll talk about this later. I promise. But for now, we have more important things to discuss." [Multi-Skill] tried to evade the question.
"No we won't. Explain right now young lady."
Saten-chan looked all around the room, her cheeks turning pink.
"Kaa-san~!"
"Actually, Kiyama-sensei," Konori-Sempai said carefully as she eyed the woman warily. "Saten-san is right. You might want to save the questioning till later."
"...Fine." Kiyama-sensei said, but her tone indicated the conversation was far from over.
"Back on topic," Saten-chan said hastily clearly eager to move away from discussion about her love life. "With the numbers in play, even with more Level 5s, we'll need to make this fight as short as possible to reduce the risk of innocents getting hurt."
"Any suggestions?" Kuroko asked, "Because I can't see anyway to avoid a prolonged fight at this point."
"We need to rescue Janie, the source of STUDY's Diffusion Ghost ability."
"Can you locate her, Saten-san?" Uiharu asked hopefully.
"I've been trying, but have had no luck." The AIM manipulator confessed. "STUDY is masking it somehow."
"They are more than likely dropping Janie into a coma when her ability isn't in use." Nunotaba-san corrected her. "Thus reducing her AIM to undetectable levels."
"She's just being used as a tool." Mikoto gritted her teeth in anger. It didn't matter that she wasn't a 'real' human being. To treat anyone sentient like that? It tore at her deeply.
"Rui-chan, would that really work?" Harada-san asked his sister.
"It might." Saten-chan said with a shrug. "Different people's AIM fields react differently to being unconscious, so I can't say for certain."
"Either way, it just means you can't find her." Kuroko concluded, before turning to Nunotaba-san. "Do you have any clue where she might be?"
The disgraced scientist just shook her head. "If I did, I would've told you already."
"So we'll have to use Febrie-chan's link to Janie-chan to find her." Uiharu-san concluded.
"Link?" Mikoto asked. She hadn't heard anything about any link.
"It's Febrie's ability." Saten-chan explained. "She seems to be able to affect the AIM field patterns of others. So far she seems only able to create interference in their abilities. She also resonates with Janie's field."
"That sounds similar to your own ability, Saten-sama." Kongou-san noted. "How fitting."
Saten-chan looked at the heiress in confusion for a moment, but eventually chose to ignore the comment. She was the only one who seemed confused though, as everyone else had knowing looks.
"Good point Kongou-chan." Namikaze nodded.
"So Febrie-chan and her sister's powers resonate like mine and Erii's?"
"Essentially, Banri-chan. And that's how we're going to find her."
"Won't we have to wait till the attack happens?" Wu-san said looking nervous. "Rui-chan, you'd only be able to detect Janie-chan's AIM when she uses her ability right? So it would be the same for Febrie-chan, right?"
That brought some pause to the Number 3.
"That makes sense. That means we will have to look for her when the fighting begins."
"I'm gonna say it now before you think of doing something stupid. You can't go with Febrie-chan." Namikaze said looking at Saten-chan sternly. "We need your experience at fighting battles like this."
"But-"
"If you're worried about keeping her safe, then I'll take her." Mikoto stepped up. "You might be stronger than me, I'll admit that, but I'm still a Level 5. No one will hurt her while I'm around."
"Last time a stranger took her." Saten-chan coldly reminded.
Mikoto admitted to only flinching a little at that. Still, she stood firm.
"And it won't happen again. Period."
The brunette looked at her searchingly, before reluctantly nodding.
"Fine. Just take care of her."
Their conversation was interrupted as a yellow and white blur sprinted over from the rest area and latched itself onto Saten-chan's right leg.
"Febrie-chan, don't run." Park-san scolded, as she trailed after the younger girl.
She and Fujii-san had been helping their sister watch the Chemicaloid while she slept.
"Febrie want to help too!"
Saten-chan just patted the girl's back and shot a look at Fujii-san as she walked over.
"You heard her. She refused to go to sleep."
"Which meant she overheard practically everything." Park-san added.
"Febrie help! Please Rui-nee!" The adorable blonde pleaded as she looked up at her guardian with her already dreaded puppy dog eyes.
As expected, Saten-chan couldn't say no to that. "A-Alright."
"Yay! Febrie save Janie!"
The next day as the clock struck noon, at campuses all over the City which were hosting the Academy City Research Exhibition Assembly, various trailers opened up to reveal hundreds of Powered Suits that suddenly came to life and began forming up in infantry formations.
Fortunately, few if anyone was nearby to see this and the handful who were quickly fled. Not all of them who ran however did so solely out of concern for their own safety. Some of them quickly fished out their phones even as they ran to carry out the important task that had been assigned to them.
"Namikaze-sama, we have enemies inbound."
"Alright, thanks." Naru said in response to the scout's response.
In order to combat the coming forces, Konori-Sempai had mobilized Judgement who took two zones of defense. She even showed up with a high powered tranquilizer rifle that she'd gotten from who knows where. It was a fancy thing that was designed to use a variety of different bullets, and in this case she'd come packing rubber bullets. They were non-lethal but still packed some punch, hopefully it would be enough to harm the Powered Suits.
It's better than nothing, I guess? Naru thought with a shrug. At least, Wataru decided to back her up equipped with the latest prototype powered fist. They also had Wannai-san and Awatsuki-chan to help the effort.
Uiharu had set herself up at the other Judgement zone, backed up by a group of three of the City's security robots which she'd used her hacking skills to 'borrow' from Anti-Skill. When Ruiko-chan had found out, she'd gotten a look on her face that had Naru certain that the computing genius would be getting a present soon which packed quite a bit of firepower. For now at least, she had Shirai-san and Kongou-san to make up for the lack in that department.
Naru's own Rabbit Faction had also joined the fray to aid their leader in the defense of one of the target zones. And, after a phone call, the blonde had even managed to get some reinforcements from [Mental Out]'s own faction, though not as many as she would have liked.
"Okay, they're coming." Naru said, her voice raised as she turned to face the various Tokiwadai girls that had heeded her call to arms. "So for the last time, I'm going to remind you that this isn't going to be a game. This is a real fight, so you'll need to take this seriously. Of course if any of you want to leave now, I'm not going to judge you."
Inwardly, Naru would very much judge them and would think them cowardly weaklings. If not for Konori-Sempai insisting on saying all this, the blonde honestly wouldn't have bothered.
At seeing how none who followed her wished to leave, a pleased smile came to her face. This only grew as they began to organise themselves into groups and began taking up positions. With the hasty way they'd been gathered, Naru hadn't had much them to properly set up a command structure so had just appointed people she knew, mainly the other girls who had served at the Alice in Wonderland cafe they'd organised for the Midsummer Festival, to lead various small groups. While it wasn't anywhere near ideal, it seemed to be working reasonably well so far.
Her phone rung again, and Naru quickly pulled it out and answered the call.
"Hello?"
"My reinforcements have arrived. You can quit worrying now." Ruiko-chan's irritated voice said without preamble, before hanging up without so much as a goodbye.
Naru gritted her teeth in frustration. Here she was worrying about her friend and she was being treated like a nuisance?
Ruiko-chan had got in touch with Oyafune Monaka, who had said she would send a small squad of her own forces to join them. At first, Naru had been hopeful that the addition of some professionals in the fray would boost morale. However, as time grew short and the Dark Siders still hadn't made an appearance, the blonde had started to worry.
"I'm going to check on Ruiko-chan." Naru said as she put her phone away. There was no way she was going to leave her friend to fight an army on her own, no matter her moniker.
"Red Queen, you're in charge."
Without waiting for the girl to reply, Naru teleported away to make sure that Ruiko-chan was alright.
She materialized to see dozens of soldiers running around and setting up firing positions behind cover. Some of them were even unloading heavy weapons.
"Wow. This is a first. I didn't think you could get any of your 'fans' to show up." Naru commented as she did a quick headcount. "Heh, I still have more."
At her teasing, Ruiko-chan just shrugged. "Mine are simply qualitatively better."
She gestured to the men and the blonde noted their combat gear, which was adorned with the Number 3's flower symbol, and armed with railgun rifles.
"Ha! I have Level 3s and 4s, they don't need fancy toys."
Just as their playful banter was about to continue, one of Oyafune's gunmen walked up to them.
"Ma'am, we're formed up in the firing line like you requested."
"Very good, Captain." Ruiko-chan told the men. "Are the snipers in position?"
"Lieutenant Ylva reports she just finished setting up."
"Then we need only wait," the Number 3 told him. "Get back to your men, Captain. It won't be long now."
A sniper named Ylva? Why is that so familiar?
Maybe because it's the bitch who shot you up when we fought MAR?
"Great. Her." Naru said, miffed at the mere mention of the sniper who had given her so much trouble. "Mind if I have a word with her later?"
"Feel free." Ruiko-chan said with a shrug.
"Who are these people anyways? I've never even heard of a group like this." Naru asked, worried that this unknown outfit wouldn't be up to scratch and put her friend in danger.
"They're called Maniple. Oyafune set them up recently. She insisted on sending them once I told her what was going on."
"Bullshit! They're wearing your symbol!" Naru refuted pointing at the white flower shaped hairpin that her friend was always wearing.
"I honestly don't know why they're dressed like that." The [AIM Sovereign] said with a shrug. "As part of their cover maybe? Or a joke? Like I said, I honestly don't know."
"Didn't your boss send anyone?" Ruiko-chan asked, sounding curious. "This is quite the major attack. I would've thought he would have sent some backup."
"Nope." Naru said through gritted teeth. "I managed to get through to him on the phone, but all he had to say was that he thought I could handle the situation without his help."
The Number 3 opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut as the soldiers under her command began opening fire. Spinning to look at what they were shooting at, the two Level 5s spotted a throng of Powered Suits charging straight towards their position.
The attack had begun.
"I've gotta head back. Give them hell." Naru said as she teleported back to her zone.
It was time to teach STUDY the price of picking a fight with Level 5s.
Ruiko took a calming breath. She was uncharacteristically nervous. Not over the upcoming combat per se but the intense bloodlust she felt as she finally got the chance to fully unload her up till now largely bottled up rage at Febrie's predicament on the ones responsible or at least their pawns. She couldn't afford to allow it to dictate her actions however, not when it could distract her in a fight. So instead she shunted all the emotion into her AIM body which twitched in agitation. Not that there were any nearby AIM sensors to notice.
Once prepared, she placed down down a translucent box directly in front of the firing line that she'd ordered Maniple to set up. As their bullets flew through the box, the rounds accelerated under the influence of the powers she'd unleashed.
A small smile came to her face, pleased by her latest attempt to stack her powers. Ruiko hadn't been sure if this particular technique would be ready in time for this fight, but was glad it seemed to be working fine.
The barriers are keeping the gravity fields nestled within well enough. It seems my barrier fixation lately has yielded some results, after all.
Some of the rounds however were accelerated a little too fast, causing them to burn up shortly after they exited her field and long before they even hit their targets due to the increased air resistance.
I guess this technique still requires some more refinement.
The first of the accelerated rounds finally hit the Powered Suits. The shots having more penetrating power than they should have, punched through whole ranks of the enemies with a single shot destroying them in the process.
One of the Maniple soldiers whistled as he saw the destructive effect of their latest volley. "And I thought the RRs were deadly."
"Shut it! Don't get distracted." The outfit's captain shouted over the din of the fight. "Or the enemy will pull out something and we won't be ready for it."
As if to prove the point, the ranks of the zombie like Powered Suits shifted and a pack of the Suits that matched the description of the ones Naru-chan encountered in STUDY's Headquarters stepped forward armed with heavy weapons. Most were lugging over machine guns, but worryingly a handful were armed with RPGs and laser gatlings. While the bullets of the machine guns wouldn't get through the gravity box, the light of the lasers certainly could while the RPGs could easily arc over the box.
"Dammit Murphy..." One of the soldiers grunted as the rocket armed Suits fired off a barrage of their payload at Ruiko and her men.
Concentrating, Ruiko focused as she called on another set of her emulated powers. In response, the air above Maniple began to arc with static in a dome of sparking electricity. This new protective barrier intercepted the rockets mid-air and caused them to explode well away from her men.
"Don't worry about their return fire. Just focus on taking them down." The Level 5 instructed.
"Aye, you heard the girl. Keep firing!" The captain ordered.
Unfazed by the failure of their rockets, the Powered Suit horde opened up with their laser gatlings. Ruiko frowned a little at just how many of the weapons that STUDY had acquired. They were some of the City's latest creations and they really shouldn't have so easily fallen into their possession, particularly in these numbers.
Were the Kihara really backing them this much?
Then again, she wasn't exactly going to look a gift horse in the mouth either. For while the weapon was definitely dangerous, it wasn't exactly that efficient. Even with the use of advanced cooling systems and a gatling system to ensure that the barrels didn't fail too quickly, they couldn't last more than a dozen or so shots. As such, after only a couple of minutes the weapon became little more than dead weight until the barrels could be replaced. Considering the replacements weighed quite a bit on their own, it really made the weapon quite inefficient.
That said, while they remained effective the lasers were a big threat. As such Ruiko used Dark Matter to conjure a set of strategically placed mirror walls to deflect the lasers safely away.
"Take out the lasers while they swap out their barrels!" Ruiko ordered.
It proved unnecessary however as Maniple began concentrating their fire on the laser armed Suits before she'd even finished her sentence. Their snipers leading the way by taking out a dozen, or a little over half, of the laser weapons all on their own.
Unfortunately while they were all focused on dealing with the heavy weapons, the melee armed Powered Suits had managed to maneuver themselves into a position where they were now poised to attack Maniple from the sides.
"We're being flanked! Team A and D move in to intercept them!" The captain ordered his men.
"I've got it!" Ruiko shouted as she used a wave of telekinesis to reduce the front ranks of the flanking Suits into scrap.
We're going to be overrun at this right. Diffusion Ghost, what a monster of an ability. Well, two people can play at this game, Janie.
Still using her telekinesis she pulled off a few strand of hairs off her head and cut it into smaller pieces. At the same time, she used the scarp she'd created to build her own small squad of Powered Suits in the same model she'd used during the previous day's raid on the factory lab. Slipping in the pieces of her hair that she'd just snipped off before they were finished, she called on her emulation of Janie's Diffusion Ghost and animated the Suits.
Giving them the simple commands to engage and protect Maniple she was satisfied to see that they were doing their job splendidly. They might have been rushed kitbashed constructs but they were nevertheless proving superior to the mass produced Suits used by STUDY. While Janie's pawns moved in a way that was reminiscent of zombies, Ruiko's creations in comparison moved much more fluidly as they weaved in and out of their counterpart's ranks and tore them apart with the axes she'd equipped them with.
"Ma'am, should we be worried that they could be hacked?" One of the soldiers asked her.
"No. I'm in control of them. Just concentrate on taking the enemy out from range, I'll keep them out of melee range." The brunette instructed as she created more and more Powered Suits of her own.
Despite that, the firefight began to become repetitive, more and more of STUDY's Powered Suits popped up as if they were being mass produced on site. But neither Maniple nor Ruiko were worried as they were hardly feeling pressured, as they easily and steadily destroyed the Suits as soon as they got within the sights of their guns.
With the battle in her zone winding down into a attrition grind, Ruiko decided to use her powers to check on the progress of other zones as she went into an autopilot state.
The two Jugdement held zones weren't doing as well as her own. While their more powerful Espers had taken out the few heavy weapons the attackers possessed, the sheer weight of numbers that the Suits still had was still piling on the pressure.
Over at Konori-Sempai's zone, the senior Judgement agent seemed to have abandoned the tranquilizer gun she'd brought with her having finally realized how ineffective it was against the Powered Suits. Instead she'd picked up a broken street sign and was using that as a weapon instead, even as Kurozuma-san watched her back. They were doing an excellent job if the trail of smashed Suits they left in their wake was any indication.
They made quite the 'badass', as Naru-san would say, couple.
The rest of the Judgement agents in the zone weren't doing so well but they nevertheless were still doing a good job at holding the line as it were. Wannai-san and Awatsuki-san were especially effective, they worked together like a well oiled machine, their powers used in unison to great effect to allow them to chalk up a number of kills that rivalled Konori-sempai and her ex-Skillout boyfriend.
Things are doing well there, it seems. Ruiko noted with satisfaction.
Turning her attention away from that zone, she instead keyed into the security feeds for Uiharu's zone.
She found her best friend fighting on the frontlines, using her security robot thralls to knock the Powered Suits over and leave them to the heavy hitters to take out. This usually was Shirai-san who teleported her javelins or whatever she'd laid her hands on into the machines. Either that or Kongou-san who used her Aero Hand to send various heavy items smashing into the downed Suits.
Uiharu really needs something with more firepower at her disposal. Ruiko noted with frown. She shouldn't need to wait for other people to take out her opponents in a fight.
Even as she mulled the possibilities of what to gift her best friend to enhance her combat abilities, she idly noted how the other Judgement agents in the zone were doing a reasonably good job at fending off STUDY's pawns. In fact, overall they seemed to be doing better than the other Judgement zone for that matter. Though that might have been due to the terrain advantage. Whereas the other zone had chosen to fight in a broad open area, acting on Shirai-san and Uiharu's advice, this group had made use of a set of stairs as a chokepoint and largely negated the enemy's numerical advantage.
I wonder how Naru-chan is doing? She thought curiously. She wasn't worried. She had full faith in her fellow Level 5's abilities, but still wanted to know how things were going for her.
With that thought in mind, she turned her attention to the Number 2's zone.
Naru had to admit, things did not start off as well as she thought they would have.
While her zone certainly held the firepower advantage in comparison to the other zones and the mass of Powered Suits, the lack of coordination on her end certainly didn't do the Rabbit Faction any favors.
The blonde Level 5 spent pretty much the whole time protecting her followers rather than destroying the enemy.
Creating an earthen wall to block off a round of gunfire from tearing apart one of her Rabbit Faction followers, Naru ground her teeth as her frustration grew.
"Thank yo-" The girl tried to say, but Naru was already on the move. She launched a gout of fire from her mouth, the white hot flames melting a group of Powered Suits that were flanking some of Misaki-Sempai's girls.
What the hell, why aren't combat classes offered at Tokiwadai? At least they aren't screaming like headless chickens. Naru thought as she panted a bit while she scanned the area to see who needed the most help.
This was why she was a solo act on her missions. If it were just her, she could have cut loose and reaped these robos to high hell and back.
Come on, how to turn this around?
As she pondered this, she lashed out with a bolt of lightning from her fingertips and fried a line of enemies.
Just as she feared she was at wits end, a small idea formulated in her mind. Looking around, the blonde lets out a shout. "Dormice, pull back. White Rabbit back, Mad Hatter up!"
The girls who were dressed in those outfits during the Midsummer Festival took the hint and did as ordered. Mad Hatter, a Pyrokinetic, launched a fireball at a rocket launcher unit, blowing it up and three of its compatriots with it.
Seeing her idea yield results, a grin grew across the pigtailed girl's face. She had taken to this like it was a fight, but it wasn't. This was a battle and that meant if she wanted to win then she needed to provide the girls under her command the leadership they sorely needed, not acting as a champion charging blindly into the enemy ranks.
"Bandersnatch, charge. Jubjub Bird, retreat!" Naru declared as she pointed with her hands.
Bandersnatch, a electomaster that specialized in using magnetism to create a suit of metal armor, tore right through a enemy melee unit.
"Flamingos distract! Gryphon, bombard!"
As she began actively coordinating the girls, slowly but surely the tide began to turn and they began to push the Powered Suits back at last.
Just then however the ground rumbled, catching the blonde's attention as she turned to see some kind of weird machine leaping towards the fight. It resembled some kind of strange cross between a robot spider and a tower that seemed to have been copied directly off a medieval European castle. The base had eight long spider like legs, a large rocket built into its base and a whole set of smaller maneuvering thrusters, while the tower portion was bristling with gun ports and topped by a stubby looking cannon in a turret.
With a earth shaking crash the monstrous Mobile Weapon landed right in the heart of the battle.
Naru pulled out her phone and called her walking encyclopedia of a friend. "Oi, Ruiko-chan. What the hell am I looking at?"
"It's a group of nerds attempting to recreate an Ork Stompa."
"Uh…"
"Just smash it."
"Now that I can understand." Naru offered a mock salute, knowing the brunette could see it. She'd after all managed to ID the Mobile Weapon.
Speaking of the crime against good design, the damn thing had opened up with the many guns it sported, which revealed themselves to be a mix of machine guns, plasma bolts and conventional cannons. Thankfully, the Tokiwadai students were smart enough to head for cover the moment the walking arsenal made an appearance, with only those with the strongest defensive powers staying back to cover the retreat.
The girls didn't seem to be the crudely designed behemoth's main focus however as it slowly shifted so it could level its main cannon on Naru. As it did, she could feel the electricity surging down the barrel and winced a little.
Huh? Looks like someone got themselves a mass driver. The demon fox sealed into her noted with some surprise. Wasn't that still in the prototype stages?
Within a blink, Naru teleported out of its view just as it fired its round. The force of the shot sent the machine stumbling back slightly even as its thrusters burned hard to counteract the recoil.
The round impacted the earth with a massive explosion, leaving in its wake a large crater where she once stood and an equally large cloud of smoke from.
A whistle came from within her mind. If that had hit a building, it would have erased it. Looks like they've been making improvements last I checked.
They still have a long way to go if they want to match up to some real power. Naru retorted.
If it's anything, you humans are good at creating destruction.
While neither Naru nor her tenant were particularly impressed with the mass driver's firepower, the Rabbit Faction and their allies certainly were if the panicked rush they were in to flee the machine was any indication.
"Can't let that thing fire its main gun again." Naru noted with some annoyance. "With that much firepower it's certain to kill someone. Eventually."
That and you need to take it out before it scares away your whole army. Kurama said with an unimpressed snort at what he perceived as the cowardice of the running schoolgirls.
Silently agreeing, Naru activated her Panzar Frame. With her hulking form, she rushed at the tower with a fierce tackle. The force of it shook the mobile gun tower. Seeing its advance halted, the Stompa attempted to push back against the Level 5 in a contest of strength, even as it redirected some of its secondary guns to run down fire on her armored body.
Readily taking the challenge, Naru grinned. "Let's see how well you're made."
Ignoring the intensifying hail of fire pinging off her Frame's armor, she began to steadily push the ungainly machine back.
"Damn it! Why won't you just die already!?" A panicked male voice that must have belonged to the machine's pilot screamed over its external speakers as the Stompa began to tilt back ever so slightly.
"Sorry, but I've got better things to do." Naru told the pilot. "This is taking too long. So take this!"
With a roar, Naru had the pistons built into the forearms of her Frame pull back before slamming them down hard into the Mobile Weapon.
"[Double Sudden Impact]!"
The forces unleashed by Naru's attack was devastating and utterly disintegrated a large chunk of the Stompa's entire front. This included half of the thing's legs and tilted it even further back.
In the face of the force of her attack and the lost of so many of its limbs, the unstable gun tower toppled backwards. As it did, Naru came into full view of the giant rocket in its base.
"Burn, you monster!" The pilot screamed as the rocket activated and washed Naru with flames.
"Okay, now you are just being desperate." Naru sighed and marched through the flames.
The thick hands of her Frame gripped the edges of the booster and with a grunt, promptly ripped it off in one shot. She didn't stop there though and proceeded to continue to tear into the rest of the machine.
It wasn't difficult for her and soon the Level 5 had torn her way into the cockpit.
Seated there were two tall and slender bespectacled men. One had short spiky dark brown hair, while the other had his lighter brown hair combed and parted at the left side of his head. They were scuffled up, and sported some injuries from the fall.
"Hello victims. How ya doin'?" Naru said with a smile from within her Frame.
Her ears picked up a faint trickling noise as the two shook with fear.
"Aw...gross."
"Is Rui-nee going to be okay?"
"Of course. She's strong after all." Mikoto answered Febrie who was secured on her back. The two were running towards STUDY's base of operations.
"Naru-nee and everyone else?"
"Definitely. They are all strong too." The electromaster said as she stopped on top of a skyscraper and tried to get her bearings. "So where to now, Febrie?"
The little girl closed her eyes for a moment before pointing towards a sports stadium that was barely visible a couple blocks away.
"It's over there! Janie's there!" The blonde said with excited confidence.
"Alright, hold on tight!" Mikoto declared as she headed towards the stadium.
So we're almost there. Walking right into the enemy's base. Mikoto thought to herself nervously. Whatever danger is there, I better make sure nothing happens to Febrie. It was hard enough to convince Saten-chan that with her experience fighting armies she was needed to help lead the defense. I really don't want to see what she'd do if something did happen to her little girl.
Especially after the only reason she's not here was because everyone was unanimous in vetoing her when she suggested it.
Probably because nobody wanted to give her the chance to lose her cool like she did when she encountered Aritomi.
As she leapt into the arena of the stadium, she shelved her thoughts for the time being.
"Now what?"
"Give me a minute, Mikoto-nee." Febrie knitted her brow, concentrating. Her twin ahoge bouncing as she pointed to the far exit. "There! There!"
"Right let's go."
It seemed that STUDY was not going to make it easy for them though, as suddenly Powered Suits swarmed out of every conceivable entry way into the arena to stop her.
"Do they honestly think this'll stop me?" Mikoto snarled as she used her electromagnetism to rip dozens of the wrenches the Suits were using as melee weapons out of their hands and slammed them back into their owners, wrecking them.
Even as the fight began in earnest, the stadium's big screen displays came to life and revealed a chubby bespectacled male wearing his black hair as a bowl cut who was dressed in a lab coat over a buttoned-up collared shirt and pants, both blue-green in color.
"Do not underestimate the quality of quantity, [Railgun]." The man who Mikoto recognized as Sekimura Hirotada, a member of STUDY's Board of Directors and apparently its interim leader, said with with a veneer of confidence. Though the sweat on his forehead made clear just how nervous he truly was.
Mikoto just snorted at the man's taunt and took out another dozen Suits by forming hundreds of Iron Sand bullets on the arena floor and firing them into the machines' undersides.
"Hiro-kun! The Suits are being taken out too quickly across the board! At this rate they'll all be wiped out in ten minutes!" A female voice shouted to Sekimura from somewhere offscreen.
The chubby scientist gulped nervously, but quickly composed himself. Or at least as well as he could. He still looked like a wreck to Mikoto, even as she casually used some electromagnetically assisted gymnastics to evade a bum rush by a group of Suits and jump up into the stadium's stand.
"Don't panic, Jun-chan! We prepared for this, activate the failsafes!"
"Huh?" Kazari said as she rapidly typed on her tablet trying to restore control over her suddenly disabled security robots and the communications network. "We have a problem! Our comms are down!"
The nearby Judgement officers heard this and began to worry. If that were the case, their coordination would deteriorate significantly. This might not be a problem in the zones with the heavy hitters but for the members of the student-based law enforcement organization this was a major blow! With their generally low Levels, the only way the Judgement agents had been able to keep the Suits at bay had been by coordinating their efforts. If this was compromised then they wouldn't stand a chance.
Don't worry, Uiharu-san. Edasaki-san's voice said reassuringly into Kazari's mind. Ruiko-chan planned for this. Erii and I, along with the rest of the telepaths have this covered.
Suddenly a telepath nearby began barking orders, startling Kazari. She however quickly got the picture.
"The telepaths are substituting for our comms?" The computing genius asked rhetorically even as she began to heed the orders.
Hehe! STUDY already showed they could hack into the City's electronics. So, of course they would try something while attacking. Good thing Ruiko-chan prepared for it! Banri-san giggled through the telepathic link.
C-Counterattack is a go! Haruue-san meekly cheered.
But how do you all have the range? Kazari thought back. Most telepaths have very limited range don't they?
Did you forget Erii and I can boost our Level if we resonate our AIM fields? Edasaki-san said smugly. Ruiko-chan helped us with that and now we're the nerve centre for our own little telepathic switchboard.
Kazari couldn't help the pout that spread across her face at the realization that her best friend had kept yet another secret from her.
Cheer up, Uiharu-san. Ruiko-chan has always been like that. She likes her big reveals.
I know, it just so… Just, mmh… She can be so t-trying! Kazari thought back with long simmering frustration at Saten-san's antics.
Tell me about it. Edasaki-san said empathically.
"Ha!" Mikoto shouted as she took out another dozen Powered Suits with a particularly powerful electric bolt. STUDY had hardened the damn things just to make her life difficult and so she was forced to hit them with bolts three times her normal output just to short them out.
It was a big reason why she was panting, and sweat trickled down her face. The Suits were proving tougher than she expected and as such the fight was dragging on, exhausting her in the process.
She wasn't going to back down though, not with Febrie burying her face in her back so as not to see the 'scary robots'. The damn things had scared the girl and Mikoto was going to pay them back for that.
Clutching Febrie's legs tighter, she looked around. The row upon rows of rows of Powered Suits continued to filter out of the large exits of the stadium.
"Hiro-kun, the drones just finished the final checks. The Big Z is ready for launch." A now much calmer version of the female voice from earlier told the still nervous looking Sekimura, who breathed a sigh of relief at the news.
Big what? Mikoto thought in a cloud of confusion as she destroyed a trio of Powered Suits.
"It is? Then send it out already!" The man ordered enthusiastically.
There was no reply from the woman, but she must have complied as suddenly the center of the stadium rumbled. Turning to look, Mikoto watched with wide eyes as the Suits shifted to open up a large open space that she quickly realized was over some kind of door built into the arena floor.
Shit! She cursed and ran to the side as the ground split open. She fished out one of her Dark Matter tokens and was about to flick it, but was forced to abort the attack and jump out of the way as a Powered Suit took a swing at her.
They keep getting in the way! I can't get a bead on it. Mikoto fumed as she lost the token and was forced to focus on protecting Febrie from the press of Suits.
Once the hatch opened, Mikoto looked up as a hulking monstrosity emerged from it. It was easily two stories tall. It had an oblong body that was supported by sturdy two legs that had some kind of cannon muzzle built into the centre of its body, dozens of smaller turrets studded its waist like a belt, a set of six missile tubes were built into its shoulders and it had a pair of forward facing miniguns just below its lone tracked optical sensor.
"Holy cow…" Mikoto blinked at seeing this monster of technology. It looked like it came straight from some anime.
"How do you like our Big Z, [Railgun]? It's our finest Mobile Weapon. It's even equipped with a particle cannon based on [Meltdowner]'s powers." Sekimura boasted.
Despite his obvious pride at his creation's main weapon, the mecha instead opened the fight with a missile barrage. With no way to make it under cover in time, Mikoto hastily released a burst of electrical energy in the form of a makeshift shield. The missiles exploded harmlessly against the shield, but pumping out all that electricity had left the Level 5 winded for a moment.
This was more than enough to allow a whole bunch of Suits to close the distance and start swinging the various oversized tools they were using as bludgeons in attempts to smash her and Febrie's heads in.
"Not on my watch." Mikoto hissed under her breath as she used more of her electromagnetically assisted gymnastics to evade their swings. It was a wild dance as she ducked, rolled and jumped over and under the wild attempts of the Suits to kill her.
Febrie tightened her hold against her vest as she whimpered.
"Back off!" Mikoto roared as she electrically charged the ground and a burst of iron sand shot up to stab at the surrounding Powered Suits.
While she was busy with her wild evasions however the Suits' big brother wasn't idle. Instead, it had been using the time she had been distracted by its lesser counterparts to charge up its main weapon. With the a low hum and the crackling of static, a massive particle beam came barreling towards the [Railgun].
It was the way the way the incoming beam turned the world blue with its awesome glow that had Mikoto turn back towards the Big Z, only for her eyes to widen in horror at the oncoming death ray. Acting on pure instinct, Mikoto brought up her hands. Just before the mighty beam collided with her she seized control of its path with a electromagnetic field and deflected it. The [Railgun] grunted at the power behind it and was forced to use all her strength just to deflect it just barely off to her side. It evaporating part of the stadium along with a few dozen Powered Suits and bathing Febrie and her in intense heat.
The blonde hissed at the sudden temperature even as Mikoto panted from the exertion and tried to recompose herself. The Mobile Weapon wasn't about to give her that luxury.
It leaned forward and opened up with minigun fire and lasers from the turrets along its waist. Hastily throwing up a weak electromagnetic shield she ran for cover knowing full well that she needed time to catch her breath.
And I'm not the only one. The electromaster thought as she noted how the mecha was slowly building up charge for another shot of its main weapon.
As she ran for the cover offered by the backstands she was thankful that the Big Z was being completely indiscriminate in its fire, as thanks to that it was helpfully taking out all the Suits that might have gotten in the way of her run for cover.
Maybe I can hide Febrie here? Mikoto thought with a twinge of panic as she finally ducked into the relative safety of the halls behind the stands. As soon as the idea came to mind however she shook it off. No. If I did that a stray blast could hit her. Dammit, okay what else can I do?
Just as she tried to come up with an idea, a large crash drew her attention. Turning, she saw the Powered Suits coming through other entryways from the stands to get to the pair. Looking at them, Mikoto realized something.
None of the ones pursing her had ranged weapons. Heck, none of them she'd fought so far had any.
Sadly, just as she thought that, a pair of the Suits that Saten-chan had informed them was utilised exclusively by STUDY HQ Security appeared with flamethrowers of all things in hand.
Stupid brain. You jinxed us!
Febrie whimpered at the sight of the two round headed machines and the flickering flames of the pilot lights of their weapons as they leveled them at the duo in preparation to roast them alive.
"Not a chance!" Mikoto declared as she sent them flying with her electromagnetism. They slammed into a wall hard. Hard enough in fact to rupture the fragile full tanks of their weapons and cause them to explode, setting both them and a half dozen of the normal Suits ablaze.
The explosion was satisfying to her, but only for a moment as more Powered Suits took the place of the ones she'd just destroyed.
Seriously, where's the factory they're making these things in? Mikoto sourly thought as she started to run down the hallway. We might just have to get out of here and regroup. It's hard enough to get in with Febrie on my back. I can't risk her like this anymore. Saten-chan would kill me if she gets hurt.
An explosion rang in her ears and Mikoto was pretty sure it wasn't her doing. This point was emphasized when they were followed by a dozen smaller explosions and the Suits suddenly turning around to stream back into the stadium, leaving only a few behind to engage her.
"They must be heading out to stop whatever is causing those explosions. Guess I'm not priority one anymore." Mikoto noted with relief as she took care of the last stragglers. "I wonder who showed up though?"
"Check?" Febrie asked curiously. "Rui-nee will want to know so she can repay them."
"Sure." Mikoto agreed. She was curious too, and while she didn't think they were in any real danger she agreed with Febrie that it was only right to repay the favor to whoever had came to help them.
"How are you holding up?"
"Febrie's scared, but knows Mikoto-nee will protect her."
The sweet little vote of confidence made Mikoto feel all fluttery inside.
"Of course!" Mikoto nodded as they exited the tunnel leading back to the stadium.
They were greeted with the sight of Shizuri Mugino and her team duking it out with the Big Z and its legion of supporting Powered Suits. The Number 6 was happily blasting into the hordes of machines while occasionally deflecting the beam cannon or lasers. Kinuhata was walking through the mechanical swarm completely unfazed by any of their attacks and casually tearing apart any machine that stood in her way. From further up on the far stands, she could see the Frenda girl set up in some kind of impromptu artillery position. She was surrounded by dozens of ammo crates of varying sizes from which she was pulling out rockets by the handful and launching them at the throng of STUDY's toys.
They were doing a pretty good job of destroying the whole lot of them too. Already Mikoto could see that the numbers of the Suits which to her had seem endless had noticeably thinned and even the intimidating Big Z was damaged, with a handful of its laser turrets out of commission and its twin miniguns reduced to scrap.
"Looks like we've got a distraction, Febrie." Mikoto smiled over her shoulder. "Let's go and find Janie while they play janitor."
"Help does chores." Febrie nodded in agreement.
"I wouldn't let Mugino hear you say that." A tired voice said, nearly making Mikoto jump out of her socks.
Spinning around she found the track suit wearing Takitsubo Rikou standing behind her looking as lethargic as she always was.
"Geez, put a bell on or something. Give a girl a heart attack..."
"O-kay. Just wanted to say hi and whatever." The perpetually exhausted girl yawned out. "Mugino said to taunt you, but I'm sleepy so I'm going to listen to Frenda and just stop at saying hello. So hello."
Mikoto just blinked at the AIM tracker in confusion.
"H-Hello." Febrie returned in between giggles at the older girl's antics.
Febrie, don't respond to the weird girl. It's not good for your health. Mikoto thought sadly before saying. "Yeah, hi. We'll be going now."
"Sure. Bye." The ITEM member said as she gave them a distracted wave and collapsed into a seat.
Are all AIM manipulators insane? I mean there's Saten-chan and now this girl. I really hope Febrie doesn't grow up to be like them. Mikoto thought to herself worriedly as she watched the girl doze off, even while her teammates were fighting a pitched battle less than a hundred metres away.
"W-What do we do? [Railgun] has made it past our defenses. We're sitting ducks here!" A female voice said from the STUDY control room just down the hall from where Febrie and Mikoto were. She could hear the panic and worry that must have filled the STUDY control room as she rapidly closed the distance.
"We have our trump card. W-We can win. We'll destroy every last one of them." Sekimura said, his voice barely quivering. "Jun-chan, activate the Silencer!"
She'd heard enough. Using a burst of electromagnetism as a boost, her running speed doubled and she closed the distance to the control room in seconds.
"I don't think so!" Mikoto roared as she unleashed a powerful electrical surge that blew the door to the room open while shocking Sekimura. It however completely missed the girl with short brown hair styled in a bowl cut and long fringes that cover her eyebrows as she pressed a ominous looking red button on the console on the far side of the room.
"Y-You're too late, Esper. We win! W-We won!" The proxy leader laughed as he slid down and twitched in pain.
"Dammit, what did you do?" Mikoto rounded on the girl, Jun presumably, and marched up to her in a threatening manner.
The older girl cowered under the intimidating gaze that the Level 5 brought to bear against her and quickly spilled the beans.
"We activated the weapons on the Endymion orbital elevator we covertly installed using the construction drones we provided." The young woman said, her knees knocking as she tried to look brave.
"Not just that!" Sekimura chimed in, as he recovered enough to speak properly. "We armed those drones too. There's enough firepower inbound to level the City and that's not even the best part!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Janie!" Febrie whispered in horrified realization.
Mikoto however was still clueless, thankfully the STUDY idiots were in a generous mood and quickly filled her in.
"All that firepower is only a screening action." Sakurai said, eying Mikoto warily. "The real weapon is a missile with 5,000 filaments of Janie's hair. It will detonate over the City and disperse them all over, where they will be used as a transmitter for her ability. We'll use it to cause a fission chain reaction of all AIM Diffusion Fields in Academy City."
"That'll kill everyone!"
Febrie whimpered at that and buried her head into Mikoto's shoulder.
"Yes," Sekimura agreed, while Jun nodded. "And since all you Espers are here, it would render your kind extinct! Then the genius of non-Espers like us will finally be recognized once more!"
"You're insane!" Mikoto spat even as she dug through her pockets, she needed to call the others and come up with something to stop this apocalypse from happening.
As soon as she did however, she saw that she had a message. One that made her realize that everything was going to be alright.
[Incoming orbital bombardment. Don't worry, follow my instructions and everything will be alright. Saten Ruiko.] - Saten-chan
Ruiko was quite happy with the progress of the battle so far, all the zones had settled into a winning battle of attrition. Even the Judgement zones which had her worried for a bit had settled down as the enemy's seemingly endless reserves had started to dry up. Febrie-chan and Mikoto-Sempai's situation was even better as ITEM had showed up unexpectedly to help her. Ruiko had suspected the prideful [Meltdowner] wasn't about to let the slight STUDY had done her go that easily, but had not foreseen her intervening at quite so fortuitous a time for them.
It's almost like someone planned this. Ruiko thought suspicious of the apparent coincidence and looking in the direction of the Windowless Building warily.
She was pulled from her thoughts of a possible conspiracy when the alerts she'd set up in the City's satellite network began triggering one after the other. They had been installed as part of an effort on her part to give herself and by extension her loved ones warning of any incoming large scale external threats to the City, before the authorities deemed it necessary to inform the masses. It was a paranoid thing to do, but considering every second could count in such situations Ruiko thought it a prudent precaution.
And as she processed the data on what had triggered the alerts, she felt thankful she'd been so paranoid.
With a burst of electromagnetism and telepathy she sent out a message to all allied forces.
And isn't it convenient that the communications network just came back online? Really can't you be a little more subtle, Crowley?
[Incoming orbital bombardment. Don't worry, follow my instructions and everything will be alright. Saten Ruiko.]
She added more specific instructions as necessary, informing the frontline fighters to continue to focus on the Suits while rotating out anyone with any useful abilities that could help with the defense against the orbital strike.
That was only the work of an instant and in the next she'd teleported over to Banri-chan's side. Her sister startled at her sudden appearance but recovered quickly enough and opened her mouth to speak, but Ruiko cut her off.
"Banri-chan, relay my orders. Naru-san use Festung. Sempai your railgun. Knock down as much of the incoming fire as possible. Everyone with a ranged ability should do the same. Anyone capable of forming barriers are to do so to provide cover."
The telepath blinked a second at the fast paced delivery but nodded and dutifully got to work.
The City's anti-orbital defenses should take out most of the fire but with the volume involved, it'll need some help.
"Their targets are the Assembly venues. Forwarding targeting data now." Ruiko said before rattling off as much data on the incoming attack as possible telepathically to Banri-chan, the method allowing for a far more rapid transfer of information.
That done, she moved on to the next phase of the operation, she continued issuing orders by supplementing her verbal instructions with detailed instructions via telepathy. "Barrier users create interlocking barriers over the targets. Use the following pattern."
This isn't anywhere near dangerous enough to be STUDY's trump card. They have to know the City's defenses can handle this, even if imperfectly. So what- Ruiko's thoughts were interrupted as she noticed in the satellite feeds how one particular missile was almost being shielded by the rest of the barrage. What's with that missile? Diffusion Ghost's AIM is spiking it! If that thing hits! Shit!
"Ruiko-chan! Namikaze-sama is saying she needs better targeting data." Banri-chan said sounding just a tinge hysterical. "Everyone is. What do I tell them?"
I can't help them. I need to counter that AIM weapon.
Just as Ruiko was at her wits' end, her phone rang. Reflexively she answered without even looking at who was calling.
"Do not worry Ruiko-sama, the Misaka Network will handle coordination, Misaka informs with confidence. Just hand the phone over to Edasaki-san and we will handle the rest, Misaka reassures."
Relief filled the Level 5. The computing power of the Sisters' network would be more than enough to take over calculating the data needed to coordinate the defense.
"Banri-chan, here." Ruiko said as she shoved her phone into her sister's hands. "They'll give you the numbers. Just have everyone follow their orders!"
"H-Hai!" Her telepathic sister said as she hesitantly put the phone to her ear.
Alright, just focus. You can do this. You're the [AIM Sovereign]. Like hell this is going to stop me!
As she applied her power over the City, her awareness expanded and she 'saw' as everyone jumped into action to protect their beloved home. As much as she could see anything when she was looking on without eyes but through the strange senses of her AIM body.
She ignored how the City's automated defenses: interceptor missiles, anti-aircraft cannons, and anti-orbital particle weapons came online and began taking down the bulk of the incoming fire.
Instead she watched through her esoteric senses how Naru-san, Sempai and hundreds of Espers with ranged powers opened fire under the direction of the Sisters and began to shoot down more of the barrage of STUDY's kinetic and energy weapons. This translated into one large rainbow of destruction aimed for the heavens and it clashed with the orbital attack in a way that lit up the sky in a blanket of explosions.
At the same time, as many others used their powers to raise a checkerboard of different barriers to create protective domes over the Assembly venues. These protected thousands of innocents within from the dozen of stray shots that slipped through the interception fire unleashed by the City's combined defenders.
Only a fraction of her mind was focused on observing this though, as the bulk of her formidable computational power was instead focused on negating the effect of Janie's Diffusion Ghost as it tried to disrupt the collective AIM field of the City and cause an immense Poltergeist that would likely level the whole of the Japanese Islands.
Janie must be immensely strong or whatever amplifiers STUDY has her hooked up to must be, because this feels like the time I had to push a building without super strength. Ruiko idly mused as she struggled against the Chemicaloid's power. Ugh. I just had to remember how that felt didn't I? Curse Gensei for his sick experiments.
Despite her apparent levity, the stress of what she was doing was immense and she felt her body break out into a sweat even as her breathing steadily grew more laboured. Her vision both natural and esoteric dimmed as she was forced to shift ever more computational resources to the fight. She was isolating each one of the thousands of Janie's hairs that were in the City, not just in the missile but among the countless Suits used in the attack and destroying them one by one, denying their use as transmitters for her powers.
Blood began to trickle from her noseand Ruiko turned away from Banri-chan to avoid alarming her sister, even as the strain ricoheted up another notch. Things got harder as more and more of the hairs were destroyed as the Chemicaloid's power became more focused on each individual hair making it harder to isolate.
Damn! They must must be turning up the amplifiers.
She was blind and deaf by this point as she fully transferred the processing power for such to the contest of strength. At the same time, she felt dimly how the trickle of blood from her nose steadily grew into a small river.
Should have activated Chrysalis Mode from the start. Ruiko bemoaned her lack of foresight as it took everything it had to stop from showing any untoward signs to her sister. It wouldn't do for her to panic now when she was so crucial to coordinating the City's defense.
Just a little more! Ruiko told herself as the last few hairs were cut off from Janie's power.
"Done!" The Number 3 breathed out in relief.
She was panting heavily, her body having spent every ounce of her energy it had in her effort to stop the AIM bombs. Utterly drained, her legs were the first to give up and the brunette fell to the ground. The hard surface felt like the best pillow in the whole wide world at the moment.
"Ruiko-chan!"
At her sister's frightened cry, Ruiko just closed her eyes.
She was so tired.
It was late at night in the Tokiwadai Exterior Dormitories and Kuroko was sitting down to write in her journal at the end of a long day that saw the culmination of what was one of, if not the most, demanding cases she'd ever handled as a member of Judgement.
26/08/20XX
The matter of the STUDY Incident has finally been settled. The fact that no casualties occurred on both sides was the most surprising outcome of the battle. Of course there were injuries, but the fact most made it out unscathed was a miracle.
Though Saten-san gave us all a scare at the end there. What is with that girl nearly killing herself after major battles? This is the second time and in just as many battles too. Is this going to be a trend, because if it is I don't think my heart can take it. Seeing her lying there in Edasaki-san's arms, her clothes stained red by her blood and unconscious was terrifying! Uiharu was beside herself. Next time someone needs to be next to her to make sure she doesn't do stupid things.
And it better not be Kiyama-sensei. I almost teleported over to her and punched that woman when she'd just told us over the phone to leave her daughter alone and let her heal using her regenerative powers. I know it was the logical thing to do, but damn it that woman could've sounded a little more worried.
I'm just grateful Febrie didn't see anything. Saten-san having woke up and cleaned herself up before the little girl got there. The little blonde had been through enough trauma. She didn't need to see her mother figure look like an extra from a horror movie.
All that aside, in the end the biggest harm was that the Research Exhibition Assembly was delayed due to STUDY's little Silent Party. Yes, it was a stupid name but it was apparently what they'd called their plan. That aside, the delay was truly a small price to pay considering what was at stake.
As for the investigation into Silent Party, it had "apparently" been tampered with to show the Trinity in a more favorable light. Supposedly instead of showing that they acted like a bunch of vigilantes who acted on their own, they had, officially at least, been acting under the direction of the City's Board of Directors the whole time.
Saten-san and Uiharu had done a great job altering the digital records. While Namikaze-san asked Shokuhou Misaki, the Number 7, to use her powers to brainwash the authorities. Though that proved unnecessary as they had been disturbingly helpful in the whole coverup process, apparently deciding that they wanted a share of the good PR for saving the City despite having done practically nothing. That and they didn't want to be seen as not having total control over the Level 5s.
After the whole thing was over, Onee-sama had finally managed to free Janie, much to Febrie's joy and the two Chemicaloids were brought into Saten-san's home for security reasons. Nunotaba-san had objected at first, citing how the twins would be safer outside the City. That had led to Saten-san laughing in her face.
I honestly had never really seen her laugh before. Giggle, yes. Chuckle murderously, more times than I'd have liked. But actually laugh, never. It might not have been the most appropriate response to Nunotaba-san's worries, but seeing Saten-san react like that was incredibly heartening.
The high schooler was thankfully not offended either, especially after Namikaze-san explained to her that Saten-san would rather die than let anyone hurt the girls and that there were few places safer for them at the moment than under a Level 5's protection. Much less that of the Trinity as a whole. Reluctantly, Nunotaba-san agreed.
Speaking of the formerly disgraced scientist, she had joined the household as well to act as a live-in nanny due to her close ties with the young girls. Officially though, she would be hired as a researcher in Kiyama-sensei's team and enrolled into Kirigaoka Girls' Academy thanks to Oyafune-sama's intervention.
I still can't stand how having people like that as their backers lets Saten-san and Namikaze-san get away so easy with all the crazy stuff they do when it comes to the law, but I guess this time it's for a good cause.
It makes me wonder what else they have done behind the scenes in their Dark Side adventures? Though maybe it's best I never know.
It does make me wonder just how corrupt is Academy City? It makes me sad inside… but at the same time it makes me want to change it for the better.
I wonder if I can do that though.
I know Onee-sama feels the same. Maybe we can work together? Two lovers against the world! It certainly held a romantic feel to it. Though she'd need to work pass her the deep hate for the Dark Side she's developed first. It's gotten to the point I'm thinking it might be irrational. Then I remember what the Dark Side is capable of and realize there's no depths of hatred for it that is excessive.
Out of all of us though it was Namikaze-san whose growth was perhaps most surprising. During the battle, she'd played a large role in directing her Faction. From what I had heard it was a slow crawl at the start before she took initiative and stepped up to take command, apparently turning the tide in the process. She had confessed to us how much harder it was to be a leader then she originally had suspected. Konori-Sempai had told Namikaze-san that while it is indeed hard, it was worth it to help lead your friends succeed. Sempai even offered to give Namikaze-san some tips when she had some off time. She looked very interested in the offer.
Well, I guess that's the summary for today. After all that I really hope we catch a break and there aren't any new Incidents for awhile. I need the vacation.
Kuroko.
Omake: A Day with Febrie.
Sitting on her bed in her new room at Rui-nee's house, Febrie stared at the tablet in her hands. Her twin ahoge twitching as she pushed the START button on the app she had running.
"Hello, Febrie's diary?" The little blonde whispered into the receiver. "Um, Kuro-nee gave me this. She said Febrie should keep track of things. Like how my day was. Febrie doesn't get it, but she'll do her bestest!"
She nodded firmly.
Febrie is being so re- rez- spoonsible? Right, rezspoosible! Febrie was a rezspoosible girl.
Already excited at mastering a difficult word, she was buoyed even further as she watched her words appear on screen.
"My day was good. The sun was pretty, clouds were fluffy and I got to play with Rui-nee today. She's the most mommy-like out of the Nee-chans. She can be stwict but fair. Like during dinner just now, she scolded Kiyama-baba for trying to give me candy for dinner. Febrie doesn't get it. She likes sweets. But Febrie still loves her loads! She's always taking care of me. Making sure I get dressed properly, getting me something to eat when I'm hungry and loads of other stuff too. She's also always there when I need her, even when it's late at night and I get lonely or scared, she lets me and Janie too, crawl into her bed and sleep with her. She's cuddly."
Febrie was interrupted when Kiyama-baba poked her head into her room.
"Febrie-chan, what are you doing?"
"Recording my diary." The little girl replied holding up her tablet.
"Oh, alright." The woman nodded. "When you're done come over to Ruiko's bathroom okay? Janie's almost done and then it's your turn."
"Okay!" Febrie beamed and returned to her diary. "It's time for bubbles soon. Hopefully next time me and Janie can play bubbles together!"
The woman blinked and backed away slowly. "Maybe."
With that Rui-nee's mommy closed the door and left Febrie alone.
"Sorry Diary that was Kiyama-baba. She's Rui-nee's mommy. But it's weird, most of the time it looks like Rui-nee is the one taking care of Kiyama-baba instead, even though Kiyama-baba is the grown up. Febrie doesn't get it."
The Chemicaloid pouted for a long moment as she pondered on the conundrum, before dismissing it for later. She had a diary entry to fill.
"Anyways today Rui-nee took me and Janie to go visit Ui-nee. Shinobu was there too. I missed her but Shinobu was busy lately with school and work and stuff, so she couldn't play as much. But she promised that she'd be more free soon. Me and Janie were really happy to hear that."
As much as Febrie and her sister adored her new family, Shinobu was the first person that had ever been nice to them and neither of them would ever forget that so it was sad to not get to spend as much time with her as they liked. Thankfully, they had many other Nee-chans now to play with too, so it wasn't that bad.
"Ui-nee is weird and talks a lot, but she is really smart and played video games with me. She made Rui-nee get all worked up when she wanted to play Street Fighter with me for some reason. I wonder why?"
The blonder tilted her head in innocent confusion.
"I asked them, but they said they'll tell me when I'm bigger. Febrie is already a big girl, isn't she? Kuro-nee said so when she showed up with Mikoto-nee and tried to get me to try out some strange looking panties. I don't really know why both Rui-nee and Mikoto-nee had to shock her all black for it."
As the image entered her mind, the little girl couldn't help but giggle.
"Nee-chans are funny." Febrie noted. "Mikoto-nee is pretty fun to be with. Though she can be pretty stupid too."
The young blonde's cheeks puffed out in irritation. "She tried to get her Gekota finger back. Again. Even though it's Febrie's now. She even tried to trade Febrie a lesser Gekota! And icy cream!"
The shame! How could she think that Gekota could be traded for something so trivial!
"At least Mikoto-nee's silliness made Rui-nee smile. She's super pretty when she smiles. I wish she smiled more."
The girl sighed wistfully as she tried to imagine why her guardian seemed like a statue so much of the time. Shaking her head to clear it of such thoughts, Febrie got back on topic.
"Still, despite being stupid, Mikoto-nee is pretty cool because she knows how amazing Gekota is. It's the bestest!"
Suddenly Febrie's new phone beeped and the blonde put down her tablet for a bit to check the message she'd received.
[Night Febrie-chan. Had fun today. Let's have more cookies at the park tomorrow! ;) ] - Naru-nee
"Hehehe!" Febrie giggled in excitement and typed out a reply on her phone using the neat little emoticons that Naru-nee taught her all about.
[Hai~! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ] - Febrie
"That was Naru-nee texting me." The blonde told her diary as she picked her tablet back up. "We're going to have more cookies and play in the park tomorrow. She's the bestest out of all the Nee-chans. We play, have fun, go flying. Janie is scared of high places so she didn't go flying. Still, she finds Naru-nee interesting too. Seeing how Rui-nee panics whenever she takes us to do something exciting is fun too. She runs around like we're going to hurt ourselves or something, but Naru-nee would never let that happen. She's a good Nee-chan. Rui-nee is just a worrywart but that's okay too because she's worrying about us. And I like that. Janie too."
Febrie paused as she thought about all her Nee-chans.
"Febrie loves all her Nee-chans! Janie does too, I'm sure, because we're the bestest family ever."
"Um!" Janie said in agreement as she walked into their room holding Rui-nee's hand.
"That's good to hear, Febrie, but it's time to take your bath now. So put away your tablet okay?" The older girl told her with a soft look on her face.
"Hai!" Febrie agreed as she hastily stopped the recording and put away her portable computer.
It was finally bath time and those were always fun. Playing with water with fun. She couldn't wait!
Done and done, thanks to the team of Nameless as always.
Phew! The Silent Party Arc is done! With that, we can go back into some of the Toaru Index events, or at least those involving a certain Accel.
Nameless: So it's mecha visualizations time. The Mobile Weapon used at the Assembly grounds should be straightforward. As mentioned in-story, it's a Ork Stompa from Warhammer 40k, though since they are non-standard in appearance just go with the description already provided. As for the Big Z, well it should be obvious but it's the MA-08 Big Zam from the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
Or in the words of the Game Grumps, Big Zam! Always pick Big Zam boys and girls. So we had a lot of fun with the arc as a whole. Gods Febrie is so much fun to write and we get to write a personality for Janie in the following arcs too! The Omake was a blast too. XD
Nameless: I personally love the way Febrie has wormed her way into the hearts and minds of the Trinity and co. It is proving a wonderful chance to explore their CD. Ruiko becomes motherly. Naru reinforces how she's a bro and even got a chance to show off her beginnings of some leadership skills. Mikoto's isn't as positive but she's continuing to solidify her thinking about the Dark Side, which is important to shape her responses to things to come.
Naru of course realizes she's been too much of a lone wolf on ops to properly lead a group of her followers. Hopefully as she grows, she learns to be a better leader for her Rabbits.
Nameless: We'll see. Maybe, maybe one day we'll have her take a leading role in the Trinity. Unlikely, as the other girls are kinda domineering in their own right, but maybe.
Well, you know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace out my peeps!