Creation of hope
[ACMI: Aseri]
Joule sat at the computer in the corner of the room pulling up some audio editing software. Kuroko had gone and 'Borrowed' some research papers from Doctor Kiyama's lab that could be helpful to her efforts. Her computer had deleted it's memory so she couldn't work directly from the doctor's materials but the research papers should help.
Kuroko and the chief of this judgement branch were using a pair of laptops on a nearby table to try to dig up information that might help Joule or Misaka. Misaka was currently in a taxi, trying to catch up to Kiyama.
Joule had opened two copies of the audio editing software and imported the level upper into one of them. She needed a good look at it's components before she was to dismantle it.
It was now time to do something risky. Joule pulled a pair of headphones over her ears and prepared herself.
"Lumen, are you ready?" her thoughts were quiet yet resolute. Lumen nodded as well as a butterfly could "I'm ready, let's do this."
Joule had known that she would need to listen to the level-upper to compose the antidote song. If she did it would likely take effect and try to bring her into the network. Lumen's job was simple, she had to block the level-upper from being able to effect Joule's mind by influencing her sensory inputs.
Joule took a breath but before she hit play she heard something worrying from behind her.
"Anti-skill managed to locate Kiyama but she is engaging them. What's more, she is using an ability." Kuroko was talking to Misaka over a phone connection that both people at the table could hear. After a second the chief (whose name was Konori according to Kuroko) reported that Kiyama had never gone through ability development and yet seemed to be demonstrating multiple abilities.
Joule pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to GV, he had asked to be kept informed of the big stuff.
[GV, something big going down at a bridge. A level 5 is on the scene but can you check it out just in case?]
Kuroko mentioned something about a compound esper as Joule got her headphones back on and set to filter mode. She couldn't be distracted when doing this or Lumen's protection might fail.
She hit the play button, listening to the first few seconds of the level-upper while looking at the wave of the audio. Lumen's protection made her a little dizzy but she needed to focus here.
Joule continued listening and typing while a battle went on over the phone.
[ACSR: Battle Area]
Gunvolt didn't like the sound of an issue that required Level 5 espers to deal with but he went along, Joule had sent some coordinates with her message so he found the bridge that she had mentioned. It looked like a part of it had collapsed and there were two people fighting around the rubble beneath.
He only recognised one of the two women, the younger one looked to be the electric esper that Joule had mentioned was a friend of hers. GV was fairly sure that she didn't like him so he ducked behind some rubble to listen in.
The older woman was talking "There is just one little matter that I need to look into further, once that is done I'll release all of them. I won't sacrifice anyone."
She was interrupted by the Electromaster "You won't sacrifice anyone? What about all the people you dragged into this? What about all the people whose lives you've toyed with? After all you've done there is no chance of you getting away with this!"
The older woman sighed before replying "Good grief, you may be a level 5 but still you have no idea how the world works do you?"
"Not the twisted world you live in!"
"You undergo a special ability development on a daily basis, do you really think everything they do in this city is safe and humane? The powers that be in academy city are concealing something very important about these abilities, the teachers who work here no nothing about it. But they are still developing the brains of their young students everyday. Can you begin to understand how dangerous that might be?"
Gunvolt mentally agreed, Sumeragi was very similar in some ways. Developing abilities in children- abilities that work because of the children's warped view of the world no less was suspicious.
As the Electromaster began to attack she spoke "I'll admit that is quite the interesting story you just told and I'll be sure to take a nice long look into it, once I've taken you into custody!"
Tendrils of iron sand shoot forth which are blocked by rubble controlled by the woman.
The woman looked annoyed "That will have to wait, I have other things to attend to at the moment." she threw a bin filled with tin cans with her ability towards the electromaster, the tin cans spilled, falling in a blanket.
The electromaster muttered something while the woman asked "So what will you do now?" the girl replied "That's easy, blow them away!"
Her electricity shot forth, targeting each can and destroying it.
"That is very impressive, too bad."
When the last can was destroyed the girl spoke "Well, I made short work of those. Are we done ye-" Before she finished gunvolt saw a can appear behind her and begin compressing itself. The girl likely couldn't see it and so couldn't defend against it.
He stood up quickly and destroyed the can himself.
Both the woman and the girl looked at him in surprise, to simplify things he just looked at the girl and said "Joule asked for me to help."
"What? She knows you?" the girl asked but Gunvolt replied "Questions should be kept until we are not right in front of someone who just tried to blow you up."
Both their eyes fell on the woman who seemed to be thinking. She eventually asked "What do you think then, academy city is hiding things that could put people in danger."
Gunvolt closed his eyes for a moment as he thought of what to say, eventually he opened his eyes and spoke "Yes, it is probably doing wrong. The underworld of academy wouldn't be as large as it is if their were not things to hide and do under secrecy."
The woman began to speak "Then you see why I am doing this?" before GV cut her off "It does not condone this level of collateral damage to seek the truth."
It looked like the woman was getting angrier "Then to save lives, the lives of all the children that academy city has destroyed. For them!"
Misaka took this one "So you hurt hundreds of students to save them? You are a hypocrite doing as much damage as you are trying to prevent!"
The woman looked like she was punched but she quickly recovered "The Level-upper isn't permanent, it can be cured."
"So what?" Misaka asked bluntly "Do you think just because it is reversible it is fine? You are putting people into comas for crying out loud, they need medical attention to live and you say that it is fine because they can be cured of it. What if the cure was destroyed, what then?"
The woman yelled "Well what do you know, can you imagine how it is for the children who trust in the scientists to be betrayed?" without waiting for a reply she lunged, a boiling blade like a sword emerging from her hand.
The blade would have sliced through Misaka if she hadn't sidestepped. She got behind the angry doctor and electrocuted her.
Kiyama slumped and all present heard her memories.
[ASG: Today's contract]
Joule pressed a button, the base composition seemed fine. Lumen had reported that it should remove all symptoms.
Just now it had to be tested.
Kuroko's updates led her to believe that Misaka, GV and Kiyama were underneath the bridge fighting. Eventually the report came through "Kiyama has been stunned."
Joule took a deep breath and began listening to the level-upper she needed to test if the symptoms could actually be removed. To do that she would need to show symptoms.
She wasn't going to use the extra power it offered, she just needed to sense it.
Sorrow came to her. She could feel the emotions in Kiyama, sorrow for the students that were just used up in an experiment. She could feel the sorrow of the network, thousands of level 0 students who just wanted powers.
She took a breath, she would sing to cheer them on. She stopped the level upper and listened to the treatment song. The sorrow faded to be replaced with a sense of personal sadness.
In this city there was so much sadness, it wasn't that different to Sumeragi controlled cities. If so then she knew the song she wanted to sing for them.
[ACSR: Katsubou]
"What was that?" it was a quiet voice, Misaka's voice was shaking.
All other than her had just heard the voices, only she saw the memories.
"You saw what they-we did." Kiyama was on the ground holding her head, her own sadness intensified the sadness inherent in the network.
She groaned in pain, the network pressing upon her. Misaka shakily asked "What were they doing?"
Kiyama climbed to her feet, still holding her head with a hand. "On the record or off of it? officially it was designed as a test in controlling AIM diffusion fields but the real study-" she stopped for a moment as the pain in her head grew again "-was on the effects of an ability beyond it's natural limit. They overstimulated the children's AIM diffusion fields in order to study runaway abilities first hand."
"Then-" Misaka was getting it
"They were intentionally manipulated to run out of control, but I didn't realise what was going on until after it had happened."
Gunvolt could see the woman's pain, her sorrow after she was tricked into betraying those she cared about. He could see Sumeragi doing the same, it seems in truth academy city wasn't that different.
Misaka was shocked "Experiments on children."
"Innocent little kids and even after all this time they still haven't woken up. We stole their youth from them and for what? To turn them into laboratory rats?" Kiyama was clearly getting a bit hysteric but no one could blame her for that.
Gunvolt spoke up "You mean to say that they are still alive?" An Ironic smile was then seen on Kiyama's face "Yes, in vegetative states that they don't seem to be waking from."
"But, if something that terrible happened why didn't you report it to Anti-skill?"
"Twenty-three times, that's how many times I requested to use tree diagram. If I could just get access I could find a way to save them, I could run simulations to find the true cause of the accident. Tree diagram is the greatest supercomputer in academy city. If I had it I could have brought those children back. I could have set them free to run and play in the parks as children ought to do." She quickly turned to the two Electromasters and began to yell "But I was always turned down, twenty-three times they all said no! Don't you get it? The board of directors was in on it, there was no way anti-skill would act!"
Misaka spoke up "There must have been a better solution than this!"
"YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING!" Kiyama was truly hysterical now, the network was fragmenting and reorganising in insane ways as it was now uncontrolled.
"I would do anything to save them, anything in the entire world! The whole city can hate and revile me, I don't care, I'm not going to let anything stop me now!"
The network went taught and then collapsed. There was no order keeping it together. The collected mass of ten thousand esper's minds were now working in whatever way they felt like.
And now they felt like sorrow, pain and rage.
Kiyama's headaches broke over and she cried out in pain while holding her head. She spoke quietly in response to Misaka asking what was wrong "The network, it's out of control." she then collapsed to the ground.
From her back a light emerged. It formed a fetus.
It screamed out, the feelings of every esper in the network were there.
[ASG: The muse's tears]
In the Judgement office, Joule was singing. The other two had put on headphones as they would need to focus but the song was almost finished.
The song ended and Joule collapsed onto her chair. As the others removed their headphones Joule asked the Konori "Okay, it's complete. How do I get it to the hospitals?"
End of chapter