Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Sixty Two: Mutagenic Betrayal
Beta:
"Okay, I'm here." Naru said tiredly as she took a seat in a meeting room in the primary research facility for her Power Development Team. "You wanted to speak to me?"
That was an understatement. The two senior researchers sitting across from her at the round table had been hounding her for a meeting for weeks.
"It's like this, Naru-chan." Yomaura-Farina Kozue-sensei, the head of her Power Applications Team, said with a smarmy smile. "You see we've made a breakthrough in our examinations of Specimen Four, Codename: Kaguya. As you well know, it was a Level 6 version of your particular breed of Gemstones."
"That's old news," Naru said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "What did you come up with?"
"I was just getting there," the man said, sounding just a tad irritated. "Thanks to our recent breakthrough in studying its genome, we have developed a mutagen based on its DNA that we think can push you into becoming a Level 6."
Level 6 again!? What is with researchers in the City and their obsession with it?
"And what do you think of this Miyahara-sensei?" Naru asked Miyahara Tamotsu-sensei, her Equipment Development Chief. "Is this a good idea?"
"Not at all." Miyahara-san said with a frim shake of his head. "An experiment like this will invariably be extremely dangerous. I feel that it is prudent that we at least let the General Superintendent review it first. That way, we'd have outside eyes to at least go over it and minimize the risks."
"But we'd never get approval! It would be seen as a waste of resources. Due to Naru-chan's alien nature it would be near impossible to repeat!" Yomaura-Farina-sensei said as he slammed his hand on the table.
Bristling, Naru glared at the man for calling her an "alien".
Noticing this, Yomaura-Farina-sensei held up his hands placatingly. "You know what I mean, Naru-chan. Even if we succeed, the process would be nothing short of a scientific 'fluke' in their eyes. If they can't do it to say Accelerator or Saten-san, they'll deem it as a useless process."
"And they are not wrong!" Miyahara-sensei insisted. "The only reason you and your team want to conduct such a reckless experiment is because you've been blinded by the way that it could potentially fast track Naru-chan's development! All you care about is winning the race to Level 6. With the Number 1 injured and out of contention, you think this is your time to shine. You are so hung up on being ridiculed by the other Level 5s' research teams for being assigned to what you deride as [The Alien] to-"
"And you're not!?"
"No," the other scientist said with a shake of his head. "Not if it leads me to hurting Naru-chan, which your experiment likely will."
"Enough, both of you." Naru cut in sharply with a pout. "Let's be fair here and let Yomaura-Farina-sensei explain what this mutagen thing is all about? We're all people of learning here after all. Once I get the facts, I can make an informed decision about whether or not we should proceed with the experiment."
"Thank you, Naru-chan. As always, your rationality pulls through. Now, the project was originally aimed at developing a type of medical treatment. We attempted to splice your genes that governed your immense healing factor into others in the hope that it would grant them some semblance of your regeneration. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out as we hoped due to rejection issues."
"So it's been tested?" Naru asked, her eyes narrowed. "This mutagen that is."
"Yes," Yomaura-Farina-sensei said with a nod. "What we have planned is to use a modified version of the mutagen used in those tests-"
"Modified how?"
"Editing your DNA to give you regeneration that you already have would be pointless. So we modified it to make small meaningless edits to your DNA, it's basically just a test. To see if it'll work on you."
"So it's not going to make any real changes?" Naru asked. That doesn't sound too bad.
"No," Yomaura-Farina-sensei assured her.
Naru shot Miyahara-sensei a look and he nodded with a frown. "I've checked it and yes, the mutagen has only been modified to be a harmless test version."
Kurama, could you cancel any changes if they prove detrimental?
If it's minor then probably. The demon fox replied, sounding a little uncertain.
"Okay, but we'll try the test if it'll get you off my case." Naru said with a shrug. "But before we proceed with the actual experiment, I want this reviewed in more detail by Aleister and the Oversight committee. That okay?"
"Of course!" Yomaura-Farina-sensei said, sounding thrilled. "Let's do that test."
Naru wasn't too thrilled about this, but she trusted the scientists of her Power Development Team. They'd raised her after all. So if this little test satisfied them, she'd entertain them with it for now. Surely, nothing too bad could happen. Right?
Miyahara Tamotsu watched from an observation room as that idiot Kozue prepared to administer the test mutagen into Naru-chan inside an attached medical room. Honestly, despite reassuring Naru-chan that the test was safe earlier, he couldn't help but be worried about the whole thing. That was why despite it not being strictly necessary, he had decided to observe the experiment.
"This better work," Tamotsu said, shooting a glare to the members of Kozue's Power Application Team that shared the observation room with him.
"I-I'm sure it will Tamotsu-sensei." Their supervisor, a mid-ranking researcher that Tamotsu had never bothered to learn the name of, said nervously.
Not that Tamotsu bothered to listen to the woman. His whole attention was on what was going on inside the neighboring medical room where Kozue had just begun injecting his precious mutagen into Naru-chan's arm.
The reaction was immediate. Naru-chan's arm spasmed and ripped itself forcefully out of Kozue's grip and the girl's eyes glowed a ominous purple as a wave of chakra of the same color began pouring out of her writhing body.
"What the hell is going on?" Tamotsu demanded as he grabbed the lower ranked supervisor from earlier by the collar. Not caring that he was manhandling a woman. "What by Science went wrong?"
"Uh, it seems the subject has had an unexpected reaction to the mutagen." The woman said with disturbing dispassion.
"You didn't use the test mutagen, did you?" Tamotsu realized with building horror as Kozue's limp body was tossed into the glass of the observation window.
The woman paled at the sight and just shook her head, but incredibly still tried to justify what her team had done.
"No, we injected her with one that we believe would force her to immediately ascend to Level 6." The accursed woman confessed. "It seems we might have miscalculated."
"Miscalculated!? Does this look like Level 6 to you!?" Tamotsu shouted, gesturing to the cracking glass of the observation window and the sea of roiling purple chakra pressing against it.
The other scientist tried to sputter out a response, but ignoring the woman, he tossed her aside and ran out of the room.
"Evacuate the facility," he roared as he ran out of the observation room, slamming an emergency button causing a thick metal door to seal it, trapping the other scientists still inside just as the window in the room shattered. "We have an emergency."
Just as he said that, the metal door began to bulge probably from Naru-chan's out of control chakra slamming into it.
"Damn it!" He cursed, as one of the lower ranked scientists finally triggered the alarm to indicate an emergency and an accompanying evacuation. "How the hell do we fix this!?"
"Ah, AAAAAAHH!" Naru screamed, her hands clawing at her head as she flailed around. Her chakra was pouring out of her body uncontrollably, writhing and lashing out at everything around her as it did.
"Make it stop, make it stop!" She howled as her nails dug so deep into her face she clawed out her own flesh even as it rapidly healed itself.
Tendrils of chakra randomly struck out at objects and crushing them, tearing at walls, collapsing the roof and turning one of the scientists into pink mist.
Naru, Naru focus damnit! Shit, I'm trying to hold it back but you need to concentrate! Fuck, Kit listen to my voICe! ShiT, coME oN, HaNg iN thERe!
An eye, one not on her face, swiveled around and let her see the rest of her Power Development Team, those that had survived, running. Running! Form her!
"W̴̬̉h̷̳̞̏a̷̛̞͕̞̅t̷͚̪̄̎̀ ̸̡͍͖̪̅̏̒̓d̴̢͕̍̆̕i̶̹̗̓̃͒̒͝d̴̩̖̝͘͜ ̴͕͍̟͙̈́̽̀̑͝y̷̘͈̪̞̮̔͌̇o̴̻̒̕̕͠ŭ̷̼͎̙̣̼ ̸̫̳̻͗̈́̀d̵̲͉͖̈̆̿̕͜ớ̷̟͚̫ ̸̧͔͊̑̕͝t̷͈̰̑͋̚ō̵̳̬̙͂͝ ̵̛̬̋̚͝m̵̙͖͕͐̀͐͘͝e̵̘̰̹̦̾ͅ!̶̤̻̹͖̾̉͝?̴̞͑̄͝" Naru cried out, her voice coming out in a monstrous wail as she lost her awareness of the outside world.
A mysterious glowing woman stood on a high rise near Naru's destroyed research facility and watched with fascination as the mass of bubbling purple chakra that had surged out of the girl's body due to the effects of the mutagen stabilized into a new form.
It looked like a giant version of her, being at least two stories tall, including her distinctive hairstyle but it was wrapped up like some kind of mummy by what looked like a multitude of scarves that concealed everything including her face. Each of these scarves was seemingly formed from a separate element. Some were made of water, others wind, yet others fire, earth and lightning. Underneath the more transparent scarves, could be seen flesh made of raw translucent purple chakra. Naru's modesty was thankfully preserved by a band of earth over her bust and her waist being covered by a voluminous skirt that also hid her bound legs. Buried deeply inside the body and visible only through the brightness of the purple chakra that made it up was an orb that the mysterious woman knew contained young Naru. To finish its otherworldly appearance, orbiting around this body were multiple elemental orbs
Slowly, this monstrously changed Naru turned its head from side to side, as if looking for something. Then it cried out.
"W̴̬̉h̷̳̞̏a̷̛̞͕̞̅t̷͚̪̄̎̀ ̸̡͍͖̪̅̏̒̓d̴̢͕̍̆̕i̶̹̗̓̃͒̒͝d̴̩̖̝͘͜ ̴͕͍̟͙̈́̽̀̑͝y̷̘͈̪̞̮̔͌̇o̴̻̒̕̕͠ŭ̷̼͎̙̣̼ ̸̫̳̻͗̈́̀d̵̲͉͖̈̆̿̕͜ớ̷̟͚̫ ̸̧͔͊̑̕͝t̷͈̰̑͋̚ō̵̳̬̙͂͝ ̵̛̬̋̚͝m̵̙͖͕͐̀͐͘͝e̵̘̰̹̦̾ͅ!̶̤̻̹͖̾̉͝?̴̞͑̄͝ The transformed Naru said in a haunting trill, echoing throughout the area in a way that felt wrong and horrid, yet natural and beautiful.
"Oh, I didn't do anything to you." The woman said sympathetically to the girl even though she could not hear her and was not even addressing her. "But I am glad that this is happening. It will accelerate your growth so, so much. I am however sorry that you had to go through this though. But sadly, it is a must. After all, you are a being that grows through pain."
Glancing away from Naru, the woman looked down at Doctor Miyahara standing at the foot of the building on the rooftop of which she was standing on, and saw him shouting in dismay as the person he was talking to over the phone probably brushed him off.
"Damn them!" He growled as he pulled the phone away from his ear and almost smashed it against the ground.
Before he could though, he took a deep breath and calmed himself.
"I guess I have no choice. If the authorities won't help then I have no other options." He said to himself as he dialed a number and brought it to his ear. "I just hope the Trinity can actually do something."
Just as planned. The glowing woman thought with a triumphant smile.
"What the hell happened to the Chibi?" Mikoto demanded from Ruiko as the two of them plus Kuroko and Uiharu's combat drones rushed to the Namikaze Power Development Research Facility after Ruiko had received a call for help directly from one of the senior researchers from Naru's Power Development Team. "How the hell did she end up as that!?"
For her part, Ruiko turned with a worried frown towards the monstrous form looming docilely in the distance through the windscreen of the automated van that was driving them to the scene. Apparently Kurozuma-san wasn't available today. Something about taking Konori-sempai on a date?
Talk about bad timing.
"Elements of her Power Development Team apparently tricked her into testing a mutagen that would turn her into a Level 6. It didn't go as they planned. At least that's what I was told."
"That, Saten-san, is the understatement of the century." Kuroko spat out angrily.
"Save the anger for the people who hurt Namikaze-san, Shirai-san." Uiharu said from one of her combat drones as she pulled their van - Of course, their resident Drone Queen was in charge of driving their automated vehicle. - to a stop at the rendezvous point they'd arranged with Miyahara-sensei, the researcher that called them for help. "We can't- Oh no!"
"Uiharu? What's wrong?" Mikoto asked as she and the others filed out of the van.
The answer presented itself before the tech whiz could reply as the Anti-Skill forces which had surrounded Naru suddenly began opening fire on her. The response was immediate. Despite being quiescent till now, at being attacked, Naru retaliated. She answered machine gun fire, autocannon salvos and mortar rounds with fireballs, tornadoes, lightning bolts and all manner of elemental attacks.
"Stupid, impatient Directors." Ruiko cursed. "They just gave Anti-Skill orders to engage."
"They probably want to test what she is capable of." A rather plain man dressed in a casual outfit and a lab coat said as he walked over. "It's doubtful whatever the outcome that they'll ever get Naru-chan into this state again, so they aren't letting the chance slip by them."
"Very likely." Ruiko agreed even as Mikoto hissed in anger. "Miyahara-sensei, I presume?"
The man just nodded.
"Do you have any idea on how to change Naru back?" Mikoto asked the man without preamble. She was too pissed with this whole messed up situation to be polite.
"Honestly? No." The man said with a despondent shake of his head. "I had hoped that you girls would have a solution, because I don't have one and no one I have been able to approach has either."
Mikoto and Kuroko cursed at this under their breath, but strangely Ruiko just glanced at the nearest of Uiharu's combat drones as if in silent communication. There weren't any EM waves passing between them so that couldn't be the case, right?
"Saten-san! The Power Application Team!" Uiharu said suddenly and Ruiko nodded before teleporting a short distance away from all of them.
Mikoto was just about to ask her why she would do that when the Number 3 began to transform.
Her form bubbled as AIM solidified around her and took the shape of a humanoid figure that was at least two stories tall. Just like Mikoto remembered it, the so-called Angel looked like a caricature of Ruiko wearing a red ballroom dress and a pair of matching gloves that left her neck, shoulders and upper arms exposed, revealing its inhuman, translucent pink flesh. She was stuck in a position where she was leaning back, her arms spread and her head tilted upwards almost as if gazing skyward in prayer. Its hair was a perfect replica of Ruiko's, even including her trademark hair clip, and its face was hidden behind a blank masquerade mask.
At its waist was a structure that looked like a large glass dome that protruded from the folds of the thing's dress that replaced the Angel's legs entirely. The dome was filled with rainbow energy within which Ruiko floated. From its back, rainbow energy tendrils grew in a poor imitation of wings. This combined with the golden halo that floated over its upturned face were the only thing that really gave the impression that this thing was an Angel.
Seriously… Calling this an Angel? What were you thinking Ruiko?
"Sempai, Shirai-san, Uiharu, go to the other labs involved in Naru-chan's Power Development Curriculum." Ruiko said from inside the dome from which she controlled her Angel Mode. "The ones responsible for this mess developed an 'antidote' to the mutagen that turned her into this. It's a dose of the mutagen designed to fix errors by returning Naru-chan to her recorded gene map, which they've stored in one of their satellite labs, you need to find it."
"Got it, Ruiko!" Mikoto shouted up at the transformed Ruiko, even as she fished out her phone whilst the Number 3 began using Move Point to teleport the annoying Anti-Skill out of their way. "Keep the Chibi from going crazy, we'll get that antidote! Uiharu, find us those labs!"
"Already working on it, Misaka-san." Uiharu agreed.
"Onee-sama, who are you calling?" Kuroko asked, as in the background Ruiko engaged the forcibly transformed Naru by trying to wrap her wings around her.
"Sequenzia-san," Mikoto told her. "She deserves to know what's happening to her girlfriend."
As the call connected, Mikoto saw Kuroko nod in understanding. "Hello Sequenzia-can? I have something important to tell you-"
As her friends ran off, Ruiko turned her attention to her transformed friend. While they went off to find the McGuffin that would cure her, it was up to Ruiko to keep the Number 2 contained. A task her wings failed miserably at as her friend blasted them off her with attacks from those elemental spheres she had orbiting around her.
Which is fine. Ruiko thought with a grim smile from inside the bubble, or as Uiharu more charitably called it "the cockpit", of her Angel Mode, as she launched a barrage of energy beams to catch the transformed blonde's attention. At least if Naru-chan is fighting me, she isn't running amok and earning herself a kill order.
In response the spheres of different elements orbiting around her came to life again and fired beams of their respective elements to intercept Ruiko's own barrage. As the two powerful attacks collided, it caused a massive explosion that threw up a huge cloud of dust.
Naru opened fire next, sending beams of elemental fury shooting through the air at Ruiko.
They're off target!? Why? I didn't even move. Ruiko thought incredulously as she used a few barriers to deflect the handful of beams that had any hope of even hitting her. Wait, the only way that's possible is if… Naru-chan's unconscious in that thing and it's acting purely on instinct.
Smirking at that realization, Ruiko reshaped the AIM patterns that permeated the air above Naru's transformed body into a specific pattern. Seconds later, bolts of lightning fell from the sky reminiscent of what Naru had described as Sempai's Misaka bolts.
They barely did any harm to the transformed Number 2 though as three of the elemental orbs made of earth floated above her in response and transformed into a barrier of stone that easily absorbed the attack. All whilst the other orbs continued shooting in her general direction with the same abysmal aim as before.
Okay, so Naru can't aim for shit when acting on instinct but is super reactive to incoming danger. Ruiko surmised. I can work with that.
Suddenly a number of the spheres of water that had been orbiting the transformed Naru merged together and a large amount of water began condensing from the air to add to the growing body of water in swirling streams that lashed out in all directions as fine beams of pressurized water, cutting through roads and buildings effortlessly. A few even threatened to hit Ruiko but again she deflected them away from herself with a few barriers. But that was only the prelude to what Naru had in store it seemed, as suddenly the whole mass of water she'd collected shot forth in a truly epic tidal wave.
If you can't hit the target you might as well hit the whole area it's in, huh? Ruiko thought with an amused grin as she used an enhanced version of Mix Master to convert the whole mass of water into harmless oxygen and hydrogen gas. Well, relatively harmless anyways as she immediately ignited the highly flammable hydrogen, using the oxygen as fuel and then proceeded to condense it all into a plasma bolt that she sent hurtling back at Naru. It wasn't as impressive as the self-sustaining micro-sun that Accel had tried to create during their fight during his Level 6 Shift but it still wasn't anything to be scoffed at.
Thus she wasn't surprised when Naru-chan sent the bulk of her elemental spheres in a desperate interception. Thankfully for the Number 2 it proved enough and successfully negated the attack.
But it did what I wanted it to. Ruiko noted with a grin as she saw the depleted state of the spheres orbiting Naru-chan. There's only a dozen of them left and at the rate she's replenishing them… I'll be able to whittle that down to zero soon enough.
Maybe the unconscious Naru-chan understood her intent, or maybe she just decided that shooting attacks at her just wasn't working. Either way, her next move went in a completely different direction to what she's tried so far. As out of nowhere, a wave of purple energy rippled through the air and caused everything it touched to start to crumble.
Okay that can be a big problem! Ruiko thought as the wave rolled towards her and everything it touched was eaten away by Naru-chan's corrosive chakra. If the entity moved to a more populated area, casualties would skyrocket! It's smarter than I thought.
Even unconscious Naru-chan's vindictive streak could be something else.
Though it's not that hard to counter. Ruiko thought as she shaped a sizable chunk of the ambient AIM in the area into the patterns she needed to propagate a powerful vector manipulation effect as she emulated Accel's patented Redirection technique on a grand scale and sent the corrosive wave surging back to its creator.
Argh! This technique is so inefficient! Ruiko couldn't help but gripe. The amount of calculations and concentration to do it… How the hell does Accel manage this!?
Uncaring of Ruiko's wandering thoughts, the entity retaliated by releasing a wave of white hot flames that melted anything it washed over. One that it fanned by releasing a squall with it, billowing the flames larger and hotter.
Okay, so it's a slow learner. Ruiko thought with a tired laugh as she just used Redirection to once more return the attack back to the sender.
"You know, if we weren't in these boosted forms, Naru-chan would probably beat me. But as a monster? You don't have a chance. You lack even an ounce of your usual creativity!" Ruiko shouted as she went back on the offensive and sent thousands of lances of Dark Matter flying at her friend.
They weren't anti-chakra unfortunately. Even with Angel Mode, Ruiko didn't have enough mastery over the Number 4's ability to duplicate that particular feat but the super dense, non-electrically conducting, super temperature resistant material that she'd made the lances out of were more than enough to be a nuisance to Naru-chan and that was all Ruiko was aiming for. So she watched with satisfaction as her friend was forced to sacrifice the last of her orbiting elemental spheres to protect herself from the lances by transforming them into various elemental barriers. Even then, some of them slipped past and impaled themselves inside Naru-chan's body, not that it got a response from her.
"Can you even feel pain in there?"
Her only answer was a rush of earth that tried to swallow her Angel form. One that was rebuffed as it hit the bubble of Redirection that she'd trapped the thing in.
"Yeah, you're gonna have to try harder than that Naru-chan."
Maneuvering her Mobile Weapon out of the path of the incoming wave of earth, Shutaura cursed loudly as she came to a stop.
"Dammit!" She gripped her controls tightly and looked to her left, seeing Arisa's ghostly image. "Please tell me our magic can do something about that?"
She was begging, just looking at the, the monstrosity the City had turned her lovable girlfriend into tore her heart out and made her furious.
"I-I don't know if we can honestly. It's not like I know how to control our magic, Shutaura." The songstress said with a pained shake of her head.
"You're lying!" She scowled at her other half, betrayal bubbling up inside her and from the look on her face, Arisa felt it too. "You were able to use it during the Endymion Incident, weren't you?!"
"I'm sorry, but that was me acting on instinct. I swear, if I could Shutaura, I would do everything I could to help!" Tears built up in her incorporeal eyes, and the former idol rubbed them hard and fast. "Do you think I enjoy seeing Naru-chan like this?! I tried to call out to our magic, but nothing is happening!"
Seeing her other half so crushed and defeated, as she felt it too through their bond, Shutaura felt shame fill her and she slammed her controls again. "Dammit!"
An image screen opened to her right as Crow Two contacted her over her comms.
"Don't worry Commander, you just need to learn to master that power of yours. So next time you can help. For now, just do what you can. Crow Three to Six are helping with the perimeter while the others are looking for possible civilians in the combat area. We could use some help with another sweep though."
Taking a breath, the brunette nodded. "You're right. Thank you, Crow Two. Continue with the evacuation as ordered and let's increase the size of the designated combat zone. Who knows what stray attacks could slip past the current perimeter."
"Roger!"
Looking to the deadly battle in the distance, Shutaura swore she would never let this happen again.
Ever.
"This should be the place." Uiharu informed Mikoto and Kuroko as they teleported in front of yet another nondescript building that held one of the satellite labs run by Naru's Power Development Team. "All the data I've been able to access from Namikaze-san's team indicates that if the 'antidote' is anywhere, it's here."
"Got it, Uiharu." Mikoto told the tech wiz that was staying connected to them over the phone. "Try narrowing down where exactly it is inside the place so we can get to it faster. In the meantime-"
"We'll look for it the old fashioned way," Kuroko completed the statement as the two of them walked into the lab.
"Gotcha." Uiharu replied. "Already working on it. But you might want to try the specimens vault first. It's on sub-level four. They should store any sensitive material they have there."
"We'll start looking from there th- What the hell happened here?" Mikoto said, as she and Kuoko stepped into the reception area of the lab to find it trashed and the receptionist - a pretty young lady - pinned to the wall with kunai like she'd been crucified.
"Shinobi," Kuroko hissed. "Uiharu! If I teleport down four floors will I be on sub-level four?"
"Add an extra two feet." Uiharu replied quickly. "And yes, you'd be right in the middle of the vault."
"Right," Kuroko said as she grabbed Mikoto's arm. "We're going in Onee-sama."
With that she teleported them down into what Mikoto could only assume was this lab's specimens vault. It certainly looked like it with the many containment cells, which looked disturbingly like test tubes, that held all manner of strange things.
One of said cells had been smashed open however and a man with inhuman tar black skin was removing a talking head. Like it was literally just a head severed at the neck but which was somehow still talking.
"Oi! Oi, Zetsu, is that you? Thank fuck man. Do me a solid and get me outta here will ya?"
"Ah, Hidan. It's been years. Too bad you are no longer needed. Your services are voided."
"What?"
"I'm tying up loose ends, you religious idiot."
"What, fuck no! Let me go! You damn traitor!" The head cried out as it started to… shrivel. Like how a grape became a raisin when it was dried out, only happening at superspeed. It was honestly like watching the head have the life sucked out of it until it turned brittle and broke apart.
"What the hell?" Mikoto shouted as the man supposedly called Zetsu turned to lazily look at her and Kuroko. "What are you assholes doing here?!"
"Do you really need to ask?" The man said with a laugh as he snapped his finger and a dozen shinobi materialized around him in bursts of smoke. "We're here to destroy anything that might save the demon."
"Misaka-san, Shirai-san." Uiharu cut in through their headsets, her voice colder than Mikoto remembering ever hearing from her. "The 'antidote' is here. But it's deeper in the facility. I suggest one of you distract these guys whilst someone else goes get it."
"Her name is Naru!" Mikoto shouted as she signalled to Kuroko to go ahead and try and secure the 'antidote'.
She wasn't discreet enough though and even as Kuroko teleported further into the facility, four of the shinobi likewise turned to run deeper into the building in their silly arms held backwards running style.
Mikoto tried to stop them by hurling a lightning bolt at them but a couple of the remaining shinobi just did some silly hand signs and with a cry of Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall) spat out globs of mud that they quickly formed into a wall that shielded their comrades from her attack. Even if the wall shattered at the impact of her lightning.
"No. That creature that you call a friend is nothing short of an error to this world." The man with the strange skin said. "She is something that in her true world would be nothing less than a WMD (weapon of mass destruction), one produced by her own parents no less. You've seen what it can do, correct Misaka Mikoto? Not even the blood of thousands could sate its bloodlust if unchecked."
"Shut up!" Mikoto roared, teeth gritted as lightning danced around her head like a halo and she used some electromagnetism to rip whatever she could grab in its hold at the man and his minions. "Even if Naru can be an utter pain that teases way too much and is a bottomless glutton, she still came to help me at my worst moment. Saving me when I was in my deepest pit of despair."
The two who had spat out the mud wall from earlier repeated the feat and the lot of them leapt behind the cover they'd created. A few were a little too slow and got winged by this or that chunk of debris Mikoto tossed their way and one even lost a hand, but none of them were taken out outright. "So I'm going all in to save her, my friend! I am sick and tired of you damn Dark Siders. Always trying to hurt Ruiko and other Child Errors. Abusing Naru's trust and treating her like some alien monster."
"She is an alien." The black skinned man said as his shinobi unleashed a barrage of fire balls and wind blades at her that she blocked by throwing a bunch of metallic debris in front of her in a makeshift shield.
"The fuck I care!" Mikoto screamed as her body bled lightning and she fired bolts at them. "Just shut up and die you wastes of existence!"
Again they leapt behind the mud walls they'd created, but that was fine with Mikoto. They could turtle up all they wanted. She'd get them soon enough.
In the meantime though, she needed to keep them nice and distracted. With that thought in mind, she used her Electromastery to rip a couple of the containment cells out of their housings and tossed them straight at the earthen barricade the shinobi were cowering behind.
The wannabe ninja weren't total cowards though and four of them popped out of their cover to blast the makeshift projectiles that Mikoto hurled at them. Two of them cut the containment cells to ribbons with wind blades whilst the other two reduced them to slag with fireballs. It didn't completely eliminate the things as threats to them but it sure did reduce their deadliness as they ducked back behind their earthen defenses. The now small misshapen pellets of metal falling almost harmlessly onto the mud wall without penetrating much.
Mikoto was about to launch yet another attack when in a burst of smoke one of the shinobi teleported above her with his sword raised to slash her in half. She reacted quickly though and with the help of some magnetic attraction she managed to pull herself out of the way of the strike. And by the time he moved to attack her once more, she'd gathered together a blade of iron sand to parry his sword.
She wasn't about to risk her amateur swordsmanship against a trained killer though and so used the brief locking of their blades to channel a surge of electricity straight into the man's body via his own weapon, knocking him clean out.
"Game over," Mikoto said as she turned away from the knocked out swordsman and called on the iron sand she'd gathered behind the shinobi's earthen wall which promptly surged forth like a tsunami that smothered them. They struggled with superhuman strength against the ferrous particles but Mikoto held them fast and soon all of them were bound up tight in individual spheres.
All that is except their leader.
In a burst of raw kinetic force that reminded Mikoto unpleasantly of Accelerator's Redirection, the tar skinned man blasted her iron sand away from himself.
"Ah, she got all of you?" Zetsu said with a disappointed shake of his head. "I suppose that's my cue. Bye bye girls. I'll enjoy her suffering from afar~"
Mikoto tried to stop him but even before her lightning bolt was even fully charged, he'd teleported away. Worse as he did, he activated the dead man switches in the shinobi she'd just disabled, filling the room with explosions as he killed his own defeated subordinates.
"You monster!" Mikoto shouted angrily as the shield of iron sand she'd instinctively created around herself fell away and she surveyed the charred remains of her foes. "The next time I see you, you're dead."
Teleporting blind inside a building was a dangerous thing. Ending up in a wall was always a possibility. Thus using a succession of quick line of sight teleports was all Kuroko allowed herself as she pushed deeper into the lab, all whilst pursued by a team of four shinobi that despite her best efforts she just couldn't shake off.
Pushing through a door, Kuroko raced into a corridor lined by several doors. One of many in this facility.
"Turn left. It should be down that corridor." Uiharu informed her helpfully and Kuroko obligingly teleported around a corner to the left, narrowly avoiding being shish kabobed by a brace of kunai in the process.
"Uiharu, which room?" She demanded as she found herself in another corridor lined by doors, even as she ducked purely on instinct.
An action that saved her from having several kunai lodged into where her head had previously been. Teleporting a few paces away, she brushed a hand against her thigh holsters and sent a set of nails directly into the joints of one of the shinobi, immobilizing his limbs as he cried out in pain.
"Third room to the left. There's a passcode needed, but just teleport inside. I've disabled the fail safes in there." Uiharu answered quickly.
"Roger!" The twintailed officer replied as she teleported thrice, evading an elemental attack each time, and arrived into the safe area where the antidote was stored.
"Drawer!" Kuroko shouted urgently as she surveyed the room filled with cabinets.
"Thirty-six B!"
Locating and opening the indicated drawer, she pulled out the flute vial filled with a baby blue liquid.
"Objective acquired, heading-"
And then the object in her hand was replaced with a stress ball.
Spinning around, she saw the tail end of another shinobi running away and gave chase.
"Give it here!" Kuroko growled as she teleported to the low left of the shinobi scoundrel that seemed to have grabbed the key to saving Namikaze-san's life.
Her sudden shift through dimensions thankfully caught her opponent by surprise and she was able to touch the vial with her fingers. That was enough to allow her to teleport it right out of his hand and into hers. She smiled and teleported back out into the corridor as she said, "Onee-sama, I ha-!"
She was cut off as she cried out in pain and heard the sound of shattering glass.
Looking down, the vial had exploded in her palm courtesy of one of the shinobi's blasted kunai! The throwing knife having sliced two of her fingers to the bone in the process
"You should have left the building, fool." The shinobi taunted.
Getting her teeth, she ripped off one of her sleeves to swaddle her hand, trying to stem the bleeding.
"They destroyed the vial. I repeat the antidote is lost. We need a new plan."
Kuroko could mope about her failure later, she had a friend to save.
"They destroyed the vial. I repeat the antidote is lost. We need a new plan." Mikoto heard Kuroko say over her earpiece and she felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, but that didn't stop her from hurrying to her roommate's side.
Like Kuroko said, they could still win this. They just needed a new plan. There had to be a way they could save Namikaze. There had to be!
As she leapt around the last corner separating herself from where Kuroko was with a electromagnetically assisted leap, Mikoto found her friend wrapping her bleeding hand in what looked like a torn bit of her sleeve even as she teleported away from the persistent attacks of the three shinobi that was still combat able. One of them teleporting in just as Mikoto herself arrived and joining his peers' assault as he did.
"I've had enough of you ninja rejects!" Mikoto roared as she made her presence known by sending a powerful electrical surge down the corridor, shocking all four of the shinobi into unconsciousness.
"Thanks for the save, Onee-" Kuroko began only for Mikoto to wrap her in a shield of iron sand just as the fallen shinobi's dead man switches went off and their bodies exploded. "What in the world!?"
"Dead man switches." Mikoto informed her, her voice coldly furious. "Their leader set it up so they explode when they're captured."
"That's-"
"Something we can worry about another time. Right now, we have to focus on saving the Chibi."
"Yes, we should." Uiharu said over their earpieces. "So plug one of your phones into the lab's offgrid server farm. It's the first room on the right. If this place had the antidote then there's a good chance it has the data on how to manufacture it and likely the equipment to do so."
"Uiharu, you're a lifesaver." Kuroko said as they both walked over to the door the tech wiz pointed out and Mikoto, in a fit of pique, used her powers to force it open. Inside, like Uiharu had said, was a server farm.
"Any machine in particular we should plug you into?" Mikoto asked as she pulled out her phone.
"No, it shouldn't matter." Uiharu reassured them. "Not with the Sisters backing me up. Besides, identifying the master system would take too long anyways."
"You recruited the Sisters?" Mikoto asked, surprised.
"Tsundere-chan showed up at our base and volunteered their help actually."
That lovestruck fool. Mikoto thought with a slight smile. I can see it.
"Alright, I'll leave it to you guys." Mikoto said, confidently as she plugged her phone into the nearest port she could find with a USB cable that Kuroko had found from somewhere.
Inside the control centre under Saten-san's house that had become the Trinity's CIC (Combat Information Center) during operations, Kazari typed furiously at the keyboard of her console as she worked to extract the information she needed from the offline servers of Namikaze's Power Application Team aka the ones who had turned her friend into an berserk monster. Access that had been secured by Misaka-san and Shirai-san fighting off the shinobi no less.
Logs containing the details of illegal contact with the shinobi? That explains why they knew the antidote was in that lab. Kazari thought as she dismissed the newly unlocked communication logs and dug deeper, ignoring the indignant gasp from the Sister named Tsundere-chan that was serving as her point of contact with the Misaka Network, the source of the much needed computational power that she was using to tear through the protections around the data so quickly.
A proposal to harvest Namikaze-san's eggs to start breeding programs to try to recreate bloodlines from her homeworld and their associated abilities? Rejected for lack of viability due to compatibility issues with the DNA of terrestrial humans? Thank Science!
Tsundere-chan roared in outrage as she read the file herself, but again Kazari ignored her. She could get furious at the sheer gall of these researchers later. For now, she was on a mission and she couldn't let herself get distracted. Namikaze-san's life was at stake!
At last! The research notes on their mutagen research! The Level Six Activation mutagen… No, not this one. Kazari mused as she scrolled past it quickly. The Baseline Control mutagen? Got you!
"Misaka-san, Shirai-san," Kazari all but shouted into the mic of her headset, so excited she was. "I've found the formula! Go to sub-level six. Shirai-san, I'm sending you the coordinates now. One of the automated chemical mixers there is still working. I've already ordered it to start producing the antidote for Namikaze-san. It should be done in…"
"Five minutes," Tsundere-chan cut in through her own headset. "Misaka concludes. They already had the base mutagen stored in the machine, it just needs to be fine tuned to the right variant which thanks to its design is fortunately not all too difficult. Misaka says with relief."
"Got it, Uiharu, Tsundere." Misaka-san said, sounding relieved herself. "Kuroko's already teleported us over to the mixer. We'll handle things from here. You girls did good."
Tsundere-chan preened at the praise but Kazari wasn't in the mood to relax just yet. Instead, she turned her attention to the screen showing the fight between Saten-san and Namikaze-san. So far it looked like her best friend had the blonde contained but for how long? And would Namikaze-san burn herself out from sustaining her new form? If so, how long did she have?
"Just hurry, Misaka-san, Shirai-san." Kazari told her friends. "Just hurry."
Kuroko teleported herself and Onee-sama back to the battlefield between Namikaze-san and Saten-san and was stupefied by the sight before her. Battlefield was really the only way to describe the scene before her. It was like something out of the Iliad, the terrain having been warped beyond belief as the two titanic beings fought it out with little care. Although, strangely enough, all that devastation was contained inside a defined circular area centred around Namikaze-san's immobile transformed form.
"How-"
"Ruiko!" Onee-sama shouted to get the Number 3's attention. "You using some kinda barrier?"
"If you can call a zone of Redirection that then yes, I suppose I am." The [AIM Sovereign] said as she floated towards them inside the domed cockpit of her Angel Mode. "Did you get the antidote?"
"Yes," Kuroko said with a nod, raising the vial of the precious baby blue liquid for her inspection. "But how are we going to deliver it? I mean I doubt just poking that thing that Namikaze-san has become is enough."
"No, it isn't." Saten-san confirmed with a nod even as she reflected a wave of lava Namikaze-san sent hurtling towards them back at its creator with her emulation of her boyfriend's signature defense. "That thing is made of chakra. It's technically speaking not part of her body, same as my Angel Mode's flesh isn't even though it's an extension of me. We need to inject it directly into her actual body."
"Which is inside the bright purple orb in the center of that thing, isn't it?" Onee-sama reasoned, even as she fired a couple railguns to help Saten-san's energy beams as they trimmed those elemental spheres that kept forming in an orbit around Namikaze-san and which the Number 3 seemed determined to keep the number of down.
"Yes," Saten-san agreed. "You thinking what I'm thinking, Mikoto-sempai?"
"Full power?" Onee-sama asked, shooting the other Level 5 a questioning look.
"Shirai-san, any idea what they're talking about?" Uiharu asked, sounding concerned.
"Full power." Saten-san replied before Kuroko could say a word.
"Gotcha," Onee-sama said as she built up the electricity around herself and fished out not one of the Dark Matter coins she usually used as the bullets for her railgun but a larger weight of the stuff from the fanny pack of ammunition she had started to carry around when they got involved in Incidents. "Kuroko, get ready."
"Yes, Onee-sama." Kuroko said, dutifully before adding for Uiharu's benefit. "Trust us."
She would not fail like before. She refused. This was her mindset as she rushed over to the familiar duffle bag that Saten-san conveniently teleported in front of her and hastily began putting on its contents.
Her Judgement partner sighed but said nothing else.
"Kuroko, you ready?" Onee-sama asked a few seconds later.
"Ready." Kuroko said with a nod as she tightened one last strap of the suit that she hoped would keep her alive.
"On the count of three." Onee-sama said as the intensity of the electromagnetic fields she was building around her reached a crescendo and static arced everywhere. "Three!"
"Two." Saten-san said even as she fired an especially powerful barrage of energy beams at Namikaze-san to keep their friend off-balance and hopefully ignorant of their intentions.
"ONE!" All three of them shouted in unison as Onee-sama fired the most powerful railgun that Kuroko had ever seen her use.
It burned a trail of fire through the air before slamming into Namikaze's transformed form like the wrath of an angry god from some ancient myth, blasting a massive hole in the monstrous thing in the process and exposing the purple sphere that contained the blonde's real body. However, almost as soon as it was revealed, purple chakra poured out of the edges of the thing's wound and rapidly began to knit it closed.
"My turn!" Saten-san shouted as her wings shot forward faster than Kuroko had thought possible and the prismatic tendrils gripped the exposed edge of the hole that Onee-sama's railgun had created, forcing it to stay open. "Shirai-san now!"
Kuroko hadn't needed the prompting. The moment the purple sphere had been exposed, she'd already begun her calculations. So even as Saten-san spoke, she rematerialized directly above the sphere and allowed gravity to pull her the last few feet she needed.
A sphere of what looked like steaming water tried to slam into her from the side but one of Saten-san's wings batted it safely out of the way and Kuroko reached her destination unhindered. And that's when the burn started.
Kuroko had known intellectually how corrosive Namikaze-san could make her chakra but actually experiencing it for herself was something else entirely. If not for the suit of anti-chakra armor that they'd initially acquired during Namikaze-san's kidnapping, she'd probably have been burned to a crisp upon contact. Even with it, the pain was hellish and wherever the suit left her skin exposed, a thankfully small area - they had splurged on full body armor back then -, almost instantly bubbled and suffered extremely painful second degree burns immediately upon contact with the chakra.
But the physical pain was nothing compared to the heartbreak she felt as she saw the naked girl curled up into a fetal position inside the sphere. She looked so small as she shivered and whimpered as if in the throes of some terrible nightmare. Seeing her usually vibrant friend reduced to something this miserable tore at Kuroko's heart. It was a sight she wanted to erase from existence as quickly as possible.
It was this determination that pushed her to swim through the caustic chakra surrounding Namikaze-san and to her side despite the pain of her ever worsening burns.
As she finally made it next to the blonde, she gripped the injector tightly in her hand and raised it up. "Don't worry, Namikaze-san, we're here for you. Now wake up!"
With that bold demand, she jammed the injector into the girl's shoulder.
Naru stirred, rolling and twisting as she felt like she was living through some kind of nightmare. It came in flickers, disjointed memories of her thrashing through the City, causing buildings to collapse and fighting Rui-chan in her Angel Mode in some kind of kaiju battle.
Kaiju forms were so overrated though!
She felt her senses returning to her as something punctured her skin and a foreign substance coursed through her veins.
"Namikaze-san!" The whispered voice of Shirai-chan called out. Though it kept getting louder. "Namikaze-san! Wake up!"
She felt tears well up in her eyes as she sensed the familiar displacement of air as she was teleported somewhere. She didn't know where, but her legs hurt as gravel dug into them. Her whole body ached like nothing else, her brain felt like it was spinning on an axis. Yet when she opened her leaking eyes, she saw Rui-chan and Mikoto-sempai rush over to her and hold her tight.
They smothered her with kindness and love. Rui-chan even conjured a blanket to swaddle Naru's shivering naked body tightly.
Naked? When did I end up naked? Naru thought to herself in confusion as she tried to make sense of what happened, her eyes falling on twin disintegrating gigantic forms a short distance away. One she recognised as Rui-chan's Chrysalis Angel Mode but the other… It looked like the kaiju form she'd become in her nightmare! What the hell happened!?
"It's okay, Naru, you're safe. We promise." Sempai whispered kindly as she rubbed her face into Naru's hair.
"I was so worried, Naru-chan. I did my best not to hurt you, but it was hard to keep you in place! I swear I'm going to erase every one of those bastards that did this." Rui-chan hissed into her shoulder, refusing to let her go.
The blonde felt safe and secure in a way she rarely ever did as she nuzzled into her two friends as the tears refused to stop flowing from her eyes. "Un."
Her voice sounded so small and pathetic that she released another sob. She didn't know what was going on. Not really. Just that something terrible had happened to her. But she just felt so loved in that moment that she couldn't really do better than that. The emotion was just too much.
"NARU!" The two toned voice of Shu-chan and Arisa-chan cried out, full of concern, suddenly from behind them.
Naru spun in her friends' arms in its direction and saw her girlfriends' personal Mobile Weapon screech to a halt nearby before the Saint-Esper Hybrid promptly leapt out of the cockpit and rushed over.
"Hey Shu-chan, I'm fine no-" She rasped out.
She didn't get to finish her reassurance before her girlfriend pulled her out of her friends' arms and into her own.
"Sequenzia-san, take care of her okay?" Rui-chan said sternly.
"Yeah, we'll check in with you in a couple hours." Mikoto-sempai said, patting Naru's shoulder comfortingly. "You take care of the Chibi. We'll settle things here."
Naru couldn't help it as a vicious smile spread across her face. She could only imagine the hell her friends were about to unleash on the assholes who had put her through the nightmare today.
"Please take good care of Namikaze-san." Shirai-chan said from where she was sitting down, dressed up in a suit of armor and looking exhausted.
"What Shirai-san said," Uiharu said via her nearest combat drone. "Don't worry about anything else today, Namikaze-san, we'll take care of everything."
"Thank you guys," Naru said, turning to face her friends with tears in her eyes at the clear care and concern they were showering her with.
Turning to Shu-chan, Naru snuggled into her side. Safe, this was safe. She was safe.
"Shu-chan, Arisa-chan, please take me away from here." She said, her head resting on her girlfriend's shoulder. "I don't want to be here."
Shu-chan nodded and picked her up in a princess carry. Even as tired as she was, Naru couldn't help but have a rosy blush at her girlfriend's gallantry and snuggle deeper into her arms.
"Whatever you say," Her girlfriends said in unison as they offered her a comforting smile.
Naru gave her friends one last wave goodbye before settling against Shu-chan's side again and dozing off.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Whoo! Now this? This was one heck of a chapter that has been in the notes near the creation of the fic! The twists and turns of trying to pump Naru into Level 6 territory and this is the chakra beast that it leads to. Frightening huh? Hashirama cells? Fuck that, we've got Kaguya cells mofos!
Nameless: And then Black Zetsu just had to dip his hand into the pool to make things even more difficult for our heroines. Hope you guys liked that.
Honestly, that Zetsu, making an enemy out of all of Naru's friends. But no, Jinchuriki having happiness? Never! Boo, I hope he dies soon.
Nameless: On another note… Hope you all like how Naru is just so blasé about being part of a ménage à trois. To be honest, that's the part about the chapter that most tickled me.
Still, the ending was so sweet I have to go brush my teeth. Girlfriends are best friends, and best friends are girlfriends, whoo! And yes, Naru loves both her GFs, after all, she's got a big enough heart for both!
Nameless: And ya know, they're actually the same person. Can't forget that particular aspect of things. ;)
And just a small shoutout to Nameless2210 and his new completed story: The Council of Thirteen. It's a good read that blends a lot of different things together in a medley of fun times. Give it a gander!
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!