IV

Chapter 20: Grounds Shattered in the Quiet Night

Silent_Preparation

Part 1

After agreeing on a temporary alliance, the first thing they done was share information about what they have done and discovered so far. "I see… so the security being off was your doing. What, I was getting worried over nothing. But still, it's impressive that you guys managed to do that. We could use someone with those skills on our team."

"Don't credit me for it, my backup is the one responsible. And trust me, the price for having her on your side is not cheap. A weak mind would crumble under her words... in a couple of hours..." Seeing how the boy trailed off, the Leader dropped the subject. "*Ahem* Anyway, was it really necessary to cut off the power?"

"That was our safest way to approach the situation. With no energy, the staff would panic and try to leave before they had a chance to move the cargo away. But it seems it wasn't enough, these guys must really want what's inside that container."

"Still, it doesn't looks like they are after us anymore." Added Yakumaru, running a few steps behind the other two. "Could it be that they really managed to move it away?"

"I think it's unlikely." Hishiro denied the possibility. "I checked up earlier and all paths leading to the basement were sealed off by those moving walls. Given how there's some kind of rule that prevent a high number of them to be closed at a time, if they had opened the path there, we would be running into a lot of them by now."

"So maybe they just evacuated everyone while we were busy fighting?"

"That would be the best case scenario, but I wouldn't count on that just yet." The boy then showed them the blueprints with his markings of movable walls on his cellphone. "At any rate, we need to find the place where these walls are being controlled if we want to get to the container. If there's no one there, then they probably ran away. But if you want to know my opinion, they are just waiting for a better opportunity to get rid of us."

And unfortunately, he was right.

After picking a route to search for the room in question, they turned on a corner and found themselves face to face with a powered suit equipped with a pair of gatling guns on each of its two arms, the barrels already rotating and ready to fire. Hishiro was the fastest to react and took cover on the corner they had just turned. The Leader took acton a fraction of a second later. "Watch out! Enemy ahead!"

Hearing that, Yakumaru stopped on her tracks right behind the boy and Naru dashed forward, making a paper barrier to protect the leader just before the hail of bullets begun, followed by the thunderous noise. Naru gritted her teeth while she tried her best to keep the barricade strong, but even the two left behind could see it wouldn't last, as the sheets were being torn and scattered all over the place.

"Step aside!" Yakumaru pushed Hishiro to the side, picked one of the spheres on her belt and sent it rolling on the ground towards the machine, exploding once it got close enough to its feet. It was a weaker blast when compared to the one she had used before, but it was enough to send the whole thing off balance, forcing it to stop shooting as the recoil would definitely send it to the ground.

With the metal storm finally over, the two behind confirmed that both Naru and the Leader were still in one piece. Too bad… I was hoping that at least one of them would be out of the game after that. Hishiro pushed the thought aside for now, loaded the AMCP and went to the frontline. They would doubt him if he didn't fight, so he had no choice despite wanting to just step back and hope they take enough damage to not get in his way.

Following his lead, Naru built her bunny armor and charged at the machine, intending to keep it from firing again. Her huge hands grabbed on the arms and forced them to aim downwards. But she didn't considered the fact that the gatling guns weren't the only weapons. Making a mechanical noise, long rocket launchers climbed from the suit's back up to its shoulders, point them past Naru at the two girls behind. "Oh no!"

Two missiles were fired right after, not giving her time to do anything about it. "Leave the one on the left to me!" Shouted Hishiro while slowing the projectile with his ability and shooting it down with his gun.

Yakumaru smashed a test tube against the wall making a bluish smoke screen spread out, while both she and the leader got out of the way. When the missile touched the gas chemical, it made a strange noise and it simply fell down as if it ran out of fuel.

Meanwhile, the powered suit regained its balance and kicked Naru's right leg. The force of the impact was stronger than she was expecting and she ended up letting go of the machine's right arm. Given this chance, it wasted no time before starting shooting again. Not only that, two more rockets were also on fired right after, turning the corridor into a certain death zone.

"Oh crap!" The male rolled beneath the missiles and faced the guns head on. He slowed down the projectiles with a wide distorted field, making them just slightly faster than airsoft shoots. Then, while taking hits and protecting his face with one arm, he blind shot all of his remaining bullets ahead. A few of them ate into the barrels of one of the guns, either digging holes inside the long tunnels or bending the metal structure. But one of his shots were actually lucky enough to hit the linking point between the other gun and the forearm of the machine. Sparks rained from there and the gatling gun stopped spinning.

"Good one, boy!" Prised the leader, holding the missile Yakumaru disabled earlier above her head like a basketball. Once the other two incoming missiles got close enough, she threw it at the left one and sent herself to the ground. Both of them caused a massive explosion on impact, destroying the third one that wasn't that far ahead. Standing up, the flu masked girl turned to Yakumaru and pointed to the powered suit's left arm. "There! If you hit that spot between the limb and the weapon, it will stop shooting!"

"Leave it to me!" Grinning, the capped girl lowered her body and dashed forward as fast as she could. "Naru, pull the arm a little closer!"

Following the command, the bunny armor tackled the center of the machine with its shoulder and pulled the arm just as she was told to, exposing the weak point. "Go for it, Ya-kun!"

From her belt, Yakumaru pulled a couple of smaller spheres and threw them towards the joint precisely. Instead of exploding, the objects sticked to it upon hitting and started to melt, corroding the metal on the process. The result was more than they were expecting, as the whole limb detached from the body and fell on the floor.

In response, the armor took a step back to adjust its aim, ready to fire the rockets one more time. "Oh no, you won't!" But Hishiro caught up its intentions right away and sent a grenade flying at the weapons. Naru was too close and barely managed to step away in time before the blast.

The fragments of the explosive not only damaged the weapon, but it seemed to have reached the compartment carrying the missiles, which caused yet another explosion on the machine's back, dozens of times stronger than the ones before, dismantling the whole thing and sending everyone else rolling backwards.

…

"Ugh… dammit..." Hishiro slowly got up, with his body hurting all over. It was difficulty to tell what was more painful, the slowed bullets or the explosion in the end. Ow! No, it's definitely the bullets! Thank god those were flat point bullets, otherwise this wouldn't end in just a bunch of bruises. I need to remember to never do this again...

Taking a look around, it seemed like no one left that battle unharmed, but none of them were too hurt to continue. After confirming that everyone was okay, the Leader wiped the dust from her clothes and walked up to the remains of the powered suit to analyze it. "It's a remote controlled model… I think we can track where the signal is coming from using it."

"That's good, but why had they sent the Queen Divers after us if they had a war machine like this one?" Asked Naru with a tired look on her face.

While taking the rounds that accidentally got into his clothes, the boy thought about the question for a bit before answering. "Well, if that's the only one they have, then they couldn't have used it to deal with all of us at the same time, since we were working separately until a moment ago. But I can't think of a reason as of why they couldn't have used it against one of us at a time. Not that I'm complaining, it would be a pain to fight it alone."

"If it's remote controlled… then it was probably impossible." Concluded Yakumaru. "Remember how the guard's radios weren't working? If that was because of a jamming signal, then this thing wouldn't work as well."

Jamming? Asuka didn't mention that at all, did she? Please don't tell me that there's even more people involved in this shit…

"Okay, I found it." Interrupting the discussion, the flu masked girl stopped messing with the machine parts and turned to the group. "They must have deployed it not long ago, because the source of the signal is really close by."

Part 2

"Wait, Aritomi-kun! The experiment was a success! I made it succeed! You can't just abandon me here! Are you listening, Aritomi-kun! ARITO-"

The despaired voice was suddenly cut up when he heard noise coming from the phone, meaning that the other party has ended the call. Left alone in this dark place only illuminated by the monitors in front of him - which were displaying what was the last nail of his coffin - that person wearing a lab coat over his Nagatenjouki Academy uniform sank on the chair. "You're kidding… this can't be happening!"

Only now, the poor male noticed he had been played all along. They told him that a rescue squad was ready to charge in and take him out of there if he succeeded. They even promised him that he would get an important position in the project. But now he was left behind, the enemy was on their way to get him and, according to the monitors, everything regarding the experiment and anything that could be used to link him to the group he had been working for was being deleted cleanly from the notebook's drive. He was set up as a scapegoat, and there was nothing he could do to prove his affiliation to the research team whatsoever. "Dammit! I-I won't let it end here! Not like this! They couldn't possibly have got rid of all the evidence in the lab! If I get out of here in time-"

But his last hope was mercilessly destroyed when the door behind him was smashed open. Yes, there was no time left for him to escape. Standing there were the 4 espers they had used for the experiment without their knowledge, and their eyes were filled with an insatiable blood lust. "Why, hello there!"

"W-w-w-w-w-wa-wait a moment! Let me exp-aah...GWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

It all happened in a matter of seconds. The human being that was there a moment ago was simply no more. All that was left was a grotesque pool of flesh and blood, caused by the giant paper hand smashing attack.

"Geez, Naru, what a mess! How are we supposed to get inside without stepping over this now?"

"S-sorry, Ya-kun… I should have thought of that earlier..."

Ignoring the complaints of the girls, Hishiro walked past them (and over the nasty puddle) to reach the computer on the other end of the small room. The Leader shrugged and followed him. The last two took a while before head in, tiptoeing over the corpse as fast as they could.

After messing with the notebook for a bit, Hishiro sighed and announced. "It seems like this equipment wasn't originally from this place, and someone did a nice job getting rid of the important bits of its contents. There's almost no data left here, and its battery will die out really soon."

"Cutting out the power really backfired in the end, huh? Otherwise we could have searched through the other computers..." Lamented Naru, also letting out a sigh.

"But what should we do about all those walls then?" Asked Yakumaru while taking a better look at the place. "There doesn't seem to be any manual levers or nothing of the kind here."

"As you said earlier, the only other explanation would be an esper power." Answered the leader, casting another glance at the remains of that man. "With him dead, we can only hope that the passages are open now. But if he really used some kind of ability to move them, that still doesn't explain how he could know where we were."

"There's also the matter of the possible jamming system that needs to fit somewhere in this puzzle." Added Hishiro. "Unfortunately, it's impossible to grasp all of the pieces in our current situation. I suggest we check if the path to the basement is clean and get this mission over before any other complications happens."

"Agreed. If the worse happens and the path is still closed, we still have one last resource at our disposal." Affirmed the leader while the other two nodded, making the boy feel a little anxious.

What is this girl talking about? If she had such means, why didn't she used them already? I have a bad feeling about this… I need to get rid of them quickly!

While they were all leaving the room, he stayed behind on purpose, eyeing the fusebox on the wall. "Oi, we are not going to wait for you if you can't match our pace!"

"Heh, you should be the one worried of being left behind." He answered the flu masked girl with a sinister grin and followed them. Soon enough, the notebook turned off on its own and the only remaining light in the room was a flashing red dot on the device attached to the fuse box that wasn't there when they had entered it.

…

Okay, I think we're far enough already.

Hishiro was toying with his cellphone inside his pocket without the others noticing as they made their way to the basement. His trap was already set. All that was left was to press a single button. With his heart racing, he casually walked closer to the leader, intending to finish her off first. And after taking one last deep breath…

The emergency lights went out, just as he planned.

"Whoa?"

"Wh-what's happening?"

"Is the emergency power supply over already?"

Alright, let's get started! That's what he intended - to use their own tactics against themselves. Knowing their overall position, he not only had the surprise element, but also an upper hand by not needing any light source to begin his attack. But one tiny variable totally out of his control would ruin his plans.

Before he could take any action or understand what was happening, Hishiro lost his balance and was forced to his knees. "What the heck is-?" His senses caught up with a small delay due to his focus being on somewhere else entirely, but once they did, he noticed that the ground was shaking and terribly loud noise was roaring all over the place. An earthquake? Now?!

To worsen things up, the ceiling started to fall apart, lowering a movable wall that was located there. Relying on their ears alone, everyone moved away from were the sound was coming from. For their luck, the tremor didn't last long, but the damage was already made.

A tiny flashlight held by Naru illuminated the darkness, but she only managed to find Hishiro there, leaning on the wall to get up. "Leader!? Ya-kun!? Where are you!?"

"We're here!" said a voice from the other side of the pile of ruble. "It seems like we got split up by the debris!"

This wasn't my fault... was it? Thought the boy as he approached the point where the passage got blocked, trying to act naturally. "There's no way we'll be able to clean that up. We should head for the basement and regroup there."

The answer took a while to come, which made him a little nervous. "Can you two get there though? Isn't the basement this way?"

"I have the blueprints, so it should be fine as long as the ceiling didn't collapse everywhere like this."

"... well, it can't be helped anyway. See you two there. Please be careful, Naru."

"Hmm, no problem!"

…

"Leader, are you sure about that? This is probably..."

"Yeah, I know. But there's nothing we can do from here. Let's just hope nothing happens until we met up again."

Part 3

"But that really surprised me. Who would ever imagine that an earthquake would happen all of a sudden?"

"No kidding… talk about bad luck."

With no other option, Naru and Hishiro were forced to take a detour to reach their goal. She took the lead, illuminating the path while he traced the route based on the map on his cellphone. But his real focus was on how to adapt his plan to this new situation.

"Come to think of it, these earthquakes have been happening quite a lot lately, right?" Continued Naru carelessly without knowing what the male was intending to do.

It's unfortunate that I got stuck with her instead of the leader, but from what I have seen, she seems to be the strongest of the group. It isn't a bad idea to get rid of her now that she's alone to make things a little easier. Yeah, that sounds satisfying. Hishiro then got closer to her quietly and pointed his revolver at her back.

Bang!

The girl stopped on her tracks. It was impossible to see exactly where the wound was formed, but it was undoubtedly a clean hit. Or was it? The boy heard a metalic sound of something small hitting the floor right after, making him doubt that it had actually worked.

"You see… just because my clothes are made of paper, that doesn't mean I'm defenseless against bullets."

"Oh, is that so? Ah, that's right, you did block all those shots from the powered suit back then… still, there was no way I could know that you would be so protected without making that multi-layered barrier."

"Usually I'm not, but I can't let my guard down when I'm alone with a boy that I had just met, so I made sure to make it extra tough this time. Though I would probably be gone if you had shot my head instead."

"That does not fit my tastes… but in this case, it was a mistake to not do so."

"... I'm not sure why are you doing this in the first place, but it doesn't matter. You do know what comes next, don't you?" After she said that, the tension in the area increased considerably despite the fact that they were still talking with casual tones.

"Sure. I was ready for that the moment I pulled the trigger. The true question is: are YOU ready for what's about to come?"

No more words were needed.

Naru flipped the switch of her flashlight, basking everything in darkness one more time, as the sound of her paper sheets forming the bunny armor roared in the corridor. Hishiro already expected that she would do that in case his first attack failed, so he kept his eyes closed for the past minutes as much as he could, in order to get his eyes used to the darkness. Of course, in an absolute pitch black space, that didn't mattered much, but as long as he had at least a weak source of light, his dilated pupils would be able to give him a clearer view of the scenery. And to fulfill this requirement, he made his cell phone display a white screen and placed it on the floor. It was really weak, but more than enough for him to make out the silhouette of his enemy.

And that's how he managed to see the incoming attack.

Naru swung her fist at him, intending to crush him in a single strike like she had done with the other male before. Hishiro rolled out of the way and fired a few shots, not caring if they would hit or not.

She reacted to the attack, trying to protect the parts of her body that weren't covered by the paper, giving him time to take a more elaborated action. He took a running start and jumped using the armored foot as a platform to get higher, aiming a punch at her face. However, he still wasn't able to reach it and ended up hitting her shoulder instead.

She prepared a counterattack, but the boy fired again right before she did. Even though she ignored her defense this time, no bullets managed to hit her, although her attack also missed.

His strategy was pretty much this: by firing his weapon in irregular intervals, the light created by the shoots wouldn't let her eyes adapt to the overall lighting of the place. So in the end, it was like fighting a blind giant in a cramped cave. The girl had actually dug her own grave thinking that she could overpower him in the dark.

Naru was getting impatient and flailed her arms around randomly, trying to land a lucky hit. But by now, Hishiro wasn't even near her anymore. He had taken his phone away and planted an explosive on the ground, the same kind he had used against the Queen Divers and the spare fuse box. With a simple press of a button, the device exploded right beneath the girl, scattering her armor around and sending her flying. "Sorry, but this is over."

Her body landed a few meters away, beyond his limited field of view. Walking slowly, he picked the flashlight she had let fall during the battle and turned it on. Now that he could see where she was, he confirmed she was unconscious, but she was still breathing and there was no sign of blood anywhere. "Did she managed to defend against the blast in the last second? That's impressive, actually. If she hadn't fainted, I would be out of options. I can't take those girls lightly."

Reloading his revolver, he walked closer to her intending to finish her off. But he only noticed something now that he stood by her side. He had blew up her armor with the last attack, and her armor was made from the same paper that made her clothes. Meaning that now, he was alone in the dark corridor with a naked unconscious girl laying on the floor. T-that doesn't matter!

He pointed his gun at her, but by doing so, he accidentally ended up paying closer attention to her body. From top to the bottom. She was totally defenseless. He could do basically do anything to her. What the fuck am I thinking?!

On a last attempt, he closed his eyes holding the gun pointed downwards where her body should be. Cleaning his mind of all thoughts, he took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

Click.

But that was the only sound that came from the weapon. It's no wonder that he ran out of ammo after shooting like crazy in that last battle. The problem was that just now he noticed he had REALLY ran out of ammo while he searched his pockets. All he had left was two reloads for the AMCP plus the amount he still had inside the cannon pistol.

"Oh well, can't waste those on a downed foe. I still have to deal with the other two after all." Clicking his tongue, he lowered his weapon and scratched the back of his head. "Goddammit... she should at least put on some underwear or something." After taking a final glance, the boy turned around and headed for the basement.

Part 4

The first ones to reach the basement were Yakumaru and the Leader. It was a massive room with several machines and glass tubes attached to the walls that could probably fit a person inside. Besides those, the rest of the space was occupied with large boxes, containers and several mechanic and robotic devices scattered all over the place. "Well, here we are. We can't take the target away without Naru around, so let's search for it for the time being."

As the leader suggested, the two of them started walking, checking on each and every container they came across, lane by lane, trying to match them to the info they had received from the client. "By the way, Leader… do you have any idea of what kind of machine could be inside it?"

"Actually no… but looking at what is being stored here, I think I can make a good guess." The smaller girl deviated from the route they were walking and crouched down besides a pile of metal equipments. "Unless all that is just for show, it's something that needs extremely high voltage outputs, electro magnets and complex joints. I would say it's some kind of powered suit, but to need such high amount of power… maybe they're attaching some special weapon to it."

Resuming their search, they finally stopped in front of one of the larger containers that matched with the description of what they were looking for. To make sure, the Leader checked the serial code on one of the edges. "5o#3-McR(P001)... This seems to be the one."

"Now we need Naru to move this out of here… should I go look for her?"

That moment, they heard footsteps coming from the entrance. The two girls turned around in a flash, expecting the worse. But the one who had appeared from within the darkness was their temporary ally. "You sure took your time. Where's Naru?"

"The container…" Instead of answering the question, Hishiro asked her with a tired voice. "Did you found… the container?"

Something wasn't right about his behavior. Feeling a bit anxious, the capped girl pointed at the container at their right. "Y-yes, it's this one."

Then a weak smile appeared on his face… before he flopped forward like a domino being pushed. The two girls just stood there in shock, not knowing what to do, until a puddle formed beneath his body. "Leader… is this blood?"

It was impossible to tell at first glance due to the darkness. The smaller girl lowered her flashlight and confirmed their fear, running to his side and flipping him over. "Hey… Hey! What happened?! What about Naru?!"

The boy answered in a pained tone. ""Queen Divers… we split up during t-the fight and.. UGH!"

After listening to his story, the Leader nodded to Yakumaru, who picked up her phone. "Yeah, this is bad. I'm calling Seike right now."

But she never got the chance to do so. It happened so fast that she took a while to understand what was going on. Something hit her hand and knocked out what she was holding. At the same time, the flashlight that was being held by the Leader fell to the floor and rolled away from them, changing the lightning of the whole environment. And right after… Hishiro was on foot, pointing a large handgun at her with a sinister smirk on his face.

But instead of being surprised, Yakumaru simply returned the smirk.

What fell from her hand wasn't exactly her phone, but one of her spheres, filled with some unknown chemical. Once it hit the floor, it released a smoke screen, blinding the boy just before he pulled the trigger, missing her by a mile. And then, she sent three more spheres flying at him as a countertack.

However, he was already expecting it and stopped them in mid air with his ability. "Not bad. You are way smarter than I thought at first. Since when did you knew?"

"The leader suspected you from the start. As for me… it was way too convenient for you to end up alone with Naru back then. If you and her had arrived here in one piece, there would be no reason to doubt you, but it seems like a wolf can't just stay still when he is left alone with a rabbit, huh..."

"I see… I can't tell if that was my luck or misfortune, but it no longer matter. This container is not going anywhere."

"Oh? And you think you can stop us alone?"

"Us? I think you should evaluate your count before anything else." He pointed towards the something that had hit Yakumaru earlier while giggling. Following it with the corner of her eye, what she saw there was the unconscious Leader, which made her click her tongue and glare daggers at him. "Don't give me that look. She was the one that attacked me while I was pretending to be hurt. Probably thought I couldn't fight back in that state… what an horrible thing to do, don't you think?"

"And what about Naru… what have you done to her?!"

The only answer she got was a wide smile that sent shivers down her spine. No more words were needed. She lost her cool and took of running, holding three test tubes on each hand. Hishiro released the spheres he was keeping still and welcomed her charge, ready to stop anything she would throw at him. However, she ended up kicking one of the spheres that fell down, sending it flying towards his leg.

Faced with an unexpected attack, he had not time to activate his ability and was forced to sidestep to avoid it. But that's what the capped girl wanted. She removed the lid of one of her tubes and splattered the liquid on the ground, where it froze instantly, creating a thin layer of ice on the area. Hishiro caught up on what she was planning to do and lowered his body, leaning on the floor with his hand to avoid slipping.

This gave Yakumaru enough time to reach him and launch the contents of her second tube at him. He managed to avoid it by swinging his body to the side, but she followed up with a knee on his face, making him fall on his back and slide along the frozen floor.

Hishiro rolled to the right when he saw more of her chemicals raining at him, getting on his feet on the process. The capped girl had even more tubes in hand and was dashing towards him to continue her attack. The boy quickly tried to predict the movement of her feet and spawned a distorted field on where she was supposed to step next. Yakumaru noticed it just in time to stop in her tracks once her left foot touched it, avoiding sprinkling her ankle. Still, that was enough. Hishiro shortened the remained distance between them in the meantime and knelled her gut without releasing her from the grasp of his ability, widening the girl's eyes in pain.

He intended to keep her in place and hit her until she passed out, but unlike his expectations, she was able to react, slapping him with the back of her hand. The strike broke his focus and the field around her foot disappeared, allowing her to send a high kick on his shoulder. The boy moved his body following the movement of her attack to lessen the impact, rolling to the side once and aiming his gun at her.

Feeling the danger of being shot, Yakumaru took of her hat and threw it forward to disrupt his aim, releasing her beautiful long hair. Just as she planned, the bullet fired missed her, only managing to scratch her hair which was what had actually distracted him. Clicking his tongue, he readjusted his aim and shot her again three times, but she had already taken cover behind a large steel box. Of course, the AMCP was capable of shooting through it, but it would be a waste of ammo if he couldn't aim at her.

Setting his gun aside for now, he grabbed a couple of his few remaining grenades and launched them behind the box. However, it seemed like she had the exactly same idea as some spheres came rolling towards him, ready to ignite. "Oh crap!"

Hishiro jumped back as fast as he could while making a sloppy field ahead of him to contain as much of the incoming blast as possible. He was able to avoid lethal damage, but ended up with a few burns on his hands. "Girls of Academy City really love explosives, don't they? Is this a new trend or something? Next time, could you at least try to hit the container with enough of those to scrap it? Would save me a lot of time if you did so."

"Shut up..." She said after leaving he cover, holding her forearm with her other hand. It looked like the grenade had damaged her as well, since there was blood dripping from within the gaps of her fingers. Her face showed nothing from the confidence or playfulness from earlier. All that was left was pure anger towards the enemy that had taken out two of her friends and hurt her to this point. Hishiro couldn't help but smile at her expression, enjoying overpowering her and getting secretly worried at the same time. She's just too clever and reacts too fast. If I slow down for a mere moment, it'll be all over. And I'm running low on resources… I guess I can't prolong this anymore. I'll plant the bomb on the container and get away from here before she gets a chance to have an advantage over me.

However, for the second time, the forces of fate would ruin his plans.

The ground beneath their feet started shaking once again, stronger than before, making the whole building roar as dust fell from the ceiling. Another earthquake? Just what the fuck is going on here?!

Yakumaru turned around and tried to reach the Leader that was still unconscious a few steps away from her, but the tremor was too much and she lost balance. Both of them were forced on their knees and couldn't anything but wait for it to stop. But unlike the previous one, it simply didn't. More and more dust kept falling down until they heard some cracking sounds from above. Yakumaru and Hishiro looked at each other one last time, knowing what was about to come. They were enemies for the time being, but they were still humans. When faced a incomprehensible force that could their lives without giving them the chance of doing anything, all rules meant nothing. Were they thinking about saving the other? Using them to survive? Perhaps just seeing if they would die before themselves? Maybe not even they had enough time to find out the answer. In a matter of seconds, the whole building fell apart above their heads.

Part 5

"*Cough*! *Cough*, *Cough*! G-goddammit...!"

From beneath the debris, Hishiro crawled his way out towards the only light he could see.

For a moment, he really believed he was done for. But in a desperate attempt to save himself, he created the largest field he could above him, hoping it would stop anything that could smash him. Needless to say, the amount of mass that fell down was way beyond the limit of his ability and his mind was crushed by a pain and pressure he had never felt on his life until now. When he came to himself, he was curled into a ball, surrounded by blocks of steel and concrete, with his body hurting all over, but he was still alive. Even the containers, steel boxes and spread machinery were completely destroyed, but he managed to survive and could crawl through a tunnel out of this situations. It could be because of his field needed up slowing down and changing the way the debris fell or by raw luck. Either way, he was finally free from that nightmare.

After stretching his aching muscles, he wiped off the dust he could from him and took another look on the scenery. "Yup, those girls and the target couldn't have gotten away after this..." He then picked his phone and called Asuka. "Mission complete. I'm on my-"

"DON'T 'Mission complete' ME! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE SHIRO?!"

"Sheesh, calm down for a moment. It turns out the lab wasn't an Egypt pyramid, but an ancient Mayan temple instead, set to crumble down once someone touched the treasure."

"There's no time for jokes! How are we going to explain this mess? You should learn to hold back a little!"

"It wasn't my fault! There was an earthquake and- wait, did you even thought for a mere second that I had enough power to make the whole facility crumble?"

Of course not. She was trying to hide it, but Hishiro could hear her giggling from the other side of the line. "Seriously, Asuka, you're gonna end up killing me of a heart attack one of these days if you keep doing this..."

"I doubt it. Did you really know what you have just survived? I don't think there's much in this world that can actually kill you, Shiro. You're just a few steps behind that Rüdiger magician from the other day."

"Ugh, don't remind me… and I'm sure I just got lucky this time. By the way, what's with those sudden earthquakes?"

"Dunno. But they have been happening quite often lately. Still… none were strong enough to make a building collapse until now. To be honest, it's probably the first time they happened in succession like this."

Something sounded off. Looking around, all the other buildings, which were supposed to be way weaker than the lab just now, seemed to be fine. Asuka was probably watching him somehow because she caught up with what he was thinking. "Weird, isn't it? The tremor was somehow stronger in the area, even though it wasn't the epicenter of the tremor."

"Is that even possible?"

"It happened before, but only with tremors that affected large areas involving several cities. In this case, it doesn't looks like a natural phenomenon at all. What do you think? Want to take a peek at some shady secrets~*?"

"No… I'm done for today."

"Too bad. Well, I'm going sniff around for a while, so I'll let you know if I find anything."

Finishing the call, the boy took a look at the time displayed on the screen of his phone. "23:13… what time do you even got to sleep, Asuka?" And from this angle, he finally noticed the despicable state that his clothes were in. "And how am I going to wash off all this fake blood and dust?"

…

A little away from there, Yakumaru opened her eyes and, for her surprise, she and the Leader were still fine. Actually, just the ceiling above them and the container was still in one piece. Before she could take a better look of her surroundings, someone called her from above. "Yakumaru… Are you alright?"

"Seike..." Long black hair and wearing a female sailor uniform, the one standing there firmly grasping the pillar sustaining the ceiling was the last member of SCAVENGER who was on stand by outside. "Why are you here?"

"I got tired of waiting. When a lot of people started coming out from the back door, I thought it would be okay to have some fun with them." He said while offering a hand to Yakumaru. She picked up the Leader beside her and climbed out of the hole. "Then the first earthquake happened and I got inside to check if everything was okay."

"I see… thanks. We own you-"

"Ya-kun, Leader! I'm so glad..."

"Naru! So you were fine… W-wait Naru! I'm gonna fall there again if you do- Hey, where you think you're touching!?"

Ignoring the commotion, Seike continued explaining. "I found her passed out not much long ago. Seems like she hit her head, nothing serious. By the way, is that thing down there the container we need to take?"

"Y-yeah." Answered Yakumaru, still struggling to get away from maid uniform girl's hug. "Hey, Naru, hurry up and bring that thing up here. Seike can't keep the structure from collapsing forever." Finally letting go, Naru formed the giant arm of her bunny armor and started dragging the container. Meanwhile the other girl noticed Seike was toying with something that looked like a purple rectangular glass recipient with something thin like a wire inside. "What's this?"

"No idea." He shrugged. "I found it nearby a collapsed wall in the lab."

Back then, they didn't paid the necessary attention to the object. Little they knew about its true meaning, how it would affect the lives of a few main pieces in Academy City nor how it would be the core of the massive and chaotic storm, set to shake the fates of all working in the backstage.

Between the Lines

August 6, 0:22, Nagatenjouki Academy Principal's office.

"You can tell your staff that they can relax, everything has been settled down."

The brown haired woman in dark blue overcoat sitting elegantly on the leather swivel chair talking on the phone was Yukiko Hayashi, the current principal of the prestigious institution. Due to her position, she needs to keep up with all the projects and researches that the staff of the academy is taking part on. And that means she can also use her influence to help them cross a few lines that shouldn't be officially crossed.

That's right, a school can't manage to be among the top institutions of Academy City by sticking to the rules all the time. That's one of heaviest responsibilities held by the principal.

"We can't thank you enough, Hayashi-san. Just imagining what would happen if someone else made use of the prototype..."

"Don't think about it, Takayama-sensei. Everything is fine now. And I have also signed a contract with a group that will most likely avoid such things from happening in the future."

"A contract? With who?"

"MAR. Have you heard of them? Their leader is eager to see the prototype in action."

"Yes, I know them, but…" The other party couldn't hide their anxiety over hearing those news, which was no surprise, since they were walking on a tight hope right now due to having so many people disrupting their work. "I don't understand why the Multi Active Rescue would need the equipment we're developing."

"Neither do I, but they have to deal with all kinds of situations, after all. Still, they are reliable people, so you don't have to worry. They are also looking into the strange earthquakes that have been getting in your way as well."

"Is that so… Well, I trust your judgment, principal. If you believe this is for the best, then it must be. When can we have the pieces for the prototype back in the lab?"

"Oh, Saito is taking they there right now, so you can probably resume your work by tomorrow."

The call ended soon after and the woman let out a tired sigh. "Nice try, chairman. Stealing the fruit of our work was an unexpected move, but I won't let you take this project from our hands no matter what. Now that we have a deal with Therestina Kihara Lifeline, you cannot attempt another bold move like this one. This is check. What will be your next move?"

…

"What a cunning woman indeed."

Those words were said to no one in particular. Actually, there was currently no other person in that place to hear them besides the speaker himself, the 'human' floating upside down inside the large cylindrical tube filled with a reddish liquid.

There weren't many people in the world that could be considered an annoyance by this human, who could turn each and every outcome to his favor on the long run, but that woman in particular was a literal pebble on his path. She not only recovered the prototype he was intending to give to another institution to complete it, but she also used the whole incident to run an experiment for another project under her supervision - and one that was a variable outside of his plans, which could turn out to be an obstacle later. "A machine capable of reproduce an esper power and an artificially created esper..."

With a simple movement of his index finger, a huge holographic multi-layered diagram appeared around the tube. He analyzed it cautiously from one side to another, pointing towards a few squares, changing their color to either green, yellow, red, blue or white, as well moving the lines that connected them in the complex pattern. Satisfied with the changes made, he dismissed the hologram and closed his eyes. "I probably could find a way to make use of all that."

Yup, this and the last one were supposed to be a short 5K words chapter. Looking at it now I can't help but scream "HOW THE HECK DID THAT HAPPENED!?" No joke, this is becoming a habit by now…

Well, let's set that aside and focus on what is really important. This was an hybrid action and build up chapter, and the first ever since… eh… *checks* Geez, ever since the battle between Hidhiro and ITEM (maybe I should write more of those). I made sure to have Hishiro and SCAVENGER both fighting together and against each other to please all tastes (lies, I just wanted to see that happening myself), but I also thought that an all out battle like the confrontation against ITEM wouldn't be as cool as he undermining their team and taking them out one by one in a more clever way. After all, it would be too cruel if I kept setting him up against large numbers of powerful espers all the time.

Speaking of cruelty, I have to say sorry for Naru. Only now I noticed I was too mean to her during these last two chapters. If I ever let SCAVENGER join the fight again in the future, I need to remember to treat her a little better.

And for the answer of reviews:

Guest: All I can say without spoiling anything is that Hishiro, unlike most of Touma's opponents, isn't the kind of character that needs someone to punch the truth on his face to be aware of the wrongs of his actions, and he won't change easily after losing a battle.

I guess that's it. I'll be doing some research during the weekend because I just found out about the existence of a certain character from a spin off that will fit right into the current arc, so this may delay the next chapter for a bit, but I believe it will be worth it. As always, thanks for the reviewers, the typo hunters and those in the backstage helping me out with ideas for the story, you are all awesome. See you guys next time!

…

...

Huh? What are you doing here?

"Misaka came to complain, as she was supposed to be the focus of this part of the story and yet has been reduced to a minor cameo with a single line so far, says Misaka as she pretends to not notice that she's releasing sparks of anger towards the author."

H-hey! Wait a moment! You will be on the spotlight soon enough, so please be patient and-AAARGH that hurts! You do know that I can't block that like Touma or Accelerator- AAAAAAH SUUUUCH MISFORTUUUUNE!