The Muse Sings
As Joule turned to deliver the news of her success she heard a cry of annoyance from Kuroko "It's no use, every single camera has gone dead." Kuroko looked down at her phone and continued "My phone's not going through either."
Konori looked worried for a moment before looking to Joule in surprise as if only now hearing what she had said "It's finished Joule? And it would work?"
At this point Kuroko looked over too, momentarily forgetting her panic.
Konori nodded to Kuroko "Get her to the hospital, quickly."
"But Sissy needs my help!" Kuroko was begging to panic again. Konori then pointed out that with her injuries there wasn't much help she could be to Misaka and Kuroko grudgingly agreed.
[ACSR: Gyakuten]
The Fetus was floating in mid-air before Misaka and Gunvolt. Misaka was muttering something while Gunvolt kept his eyes on the target.
It roared and Misaka pulled up the rubble around her to act as a shield, as Gunvolt was not as skilled in magnetism he simply leaped into the air while using his powers to jump off the air to get over the shock wave that the creature launched at them.
As Misaka's shield broke the wave she fired off a blast of electricity towards the back of the creature. The attack blasted a hole in the creature and the electromasters watched as the creature quickly regenerated, grew two new arms.
"It's getting bigger." Misaka noted with a slight tone of worry, the creature had indeed grown slightly. and was now turning it's eyes towards the two of them.
The air chilled as ice crystals formed in the air and flew towards the two of them. Gunvolt simply used prevasion to dodge through the attacks while Misaka was forced to flee to the stairs up to the top of the bridge.
As she ran Uiharu called out to her, Uiharu had gotten out of Kiyama's car and headed down the stairs.
Worried about her friend getting hit she spun around to deflect a large piece of ice that came her way. She used her power to vaporise it and noticed that much closer to the creature the boy from earlier was almost dancing around it, his body seemingly coated in electricity.
As Misaka rather harshly turned around to warn Uiharu to stay where she was behind a column, Gunvolt was tiring. His septimal power required a break to recharge every so often. He needed a break from the fight to take a breather for a moment to recover but he was nearly spent and his prevasion wouldn't work if he was out of power.
Misaka and Uiharu were standing by the pillar when they saw Gunvolt tire. Instead of continuing the attack, the beast simply ignored him and began moving away from the bridge. Uiharu looked at it and spoke a few words "It looks like it's in pain."
Kuroko teleported with Joule to the hospital where most of the patients were.
There they found many medical professionals rushing around, they overheard one of them as they spoke to a nurse "They are all berserk while still asleep, it is very strange."
The two girls looked at each other and they teleported to Saten's room.
Saten was lying on her bed, writing about while held back by restraints. It looked like she was in great pain.
Kuroko prepared to leave the room but Joule spoke "Wait a minute Kuroko, I will see if the cure truly works."
Kuroko nodded as Joule pulled out Saten's phone, she had loaded the cure song onto it for transport. Joule took a breath and hit the play button.
It was a strange song, more like singular notes played on a synthesizer at first. Joule closed her eyes as if waiting and after about 15 seconds had passed the music changed, instead of singular notes it was growing more complex.
As more instruments joined the song Kuroko could swear that she could hear a few lyrics but they were lost in some of the other instruments.
By now Saten had stopped struggling and was lying still. Joule waited for a moment and then paused the song.
She put her hand on Saten's forehead and delved into her mental state.
She was still unconscious but the "Code" that had been installed in her was now gone.
Joule nodded to Kuroko and spoke "Let's get this to the doctors and the other patients."
[ACSR: Katsubou]
Gunvolt took a step away from the monster, it wasn't focused on him so he ran under the bridge to recharge for a moment.
As he did he heard someone laughing, Doctor Kiyama was supporting herself with one of the columns keeping the bridge up and laughing. As he saw her he heard gunfire from the top of the bridge, Anti-skill was likely firing on the monster.
He turned back to the doctor and saw the two girls approach. The doctor was muttering to herself and didn't seem to notice any of them.
"The network is utterly out of my hands at this point, that's it. I no longer have any hope about bringing back all those children who I helped to destroy."
She bowed her head in a seemingly sorrowful way before ending "They are lost forever."
"Please you cannot give up yet!" Uiharu was standing besides her.
She looked at Kiyama with a determined expression as the gunfire raged overhead and Misaka and Gunvolt approached.
"Is that an AIM diffusion field?" Misaka asked.
Kiyama looked at the moster before answering "It is most likely a collection of them, I think however that a more appropriate name would be an AIM Burst"
"The AIM diffusion fields of 10,000 people. All overlapped within the level-upper network. They are acting together to create a monster of latent consciousness."
"Simply stated, The monster up there is 10,000 children's minds and emotions acting together." Kiyama glanced at her listeners after stating that. The three of them were looking between her and the monster that was growing even more from the gunfire aimed at it.
All four of them stared at it, thinking about what those 10,000 must have gone through to make them all think like this.
"In a way I pity it." Uiharu spoke as she looked
Misaka was more practical "How do we stop it?"
Kiyama smiled sarcastically "You're asking me? You would never trust my advice after all I have done."
In response Uiharu just raised her hand so her wrist was in Kiyama's line of sight. "Then what about this, you took those handcuffs off me right?"
Kiyama tried to say that it didn't mean anything and Uiharu echoed something she had heard from Kiyama's memories to make her believe.
Kiyama sighed "There might be a way, if the network were to be removed then this creature would lose it's power source. I had the treatment program on my computer but it would have been deleted by my security, I have a spare in my car. One of you will have to get it and play it for the sleepers to undo the conditioning on the network"
Uiharu nodded "I'll do that." Gunvolt and Misaka nodded to each other, they would delay the monster and then defeat it.
Just before they all set off however a strange sound began to play.
Like individual notes from a synthesizer, the notes seemed random but Kiyama gasped "These are some of the opening notes of the treatment program!"
The four of them looked up but the speakers playing the music were on the bridge.
Suddenly the notes changed to actual music and Kiyama squinted "What is this? This isn't the treatment program?"
When the lyrics began Gunvolt smiled, while they were quiet he could hear the voice clearly. Joule had created her own antidote using the muse's power.
"It will work," said Gunvolt "I recognise who made this and I trust them to have made it properly."
The others looked and Gunvolt questioningly before Misaka just shook her head "Regardless even if the network is being taken down we still need to defeat the AIM Burst."
Gunvolt nodded and they ran out onto the field where the monster was dragging itself towards a large wall opposite the bridge.
[ASG OVA: The Last Hope]
The electromasters ran to fight the AIM burst. As Misaka started firing off blasts of electricity that were held off by a forcefield, Gunvolt dashed round the the monster's other side.
The monster roared and reached for Misaka who dodged away and used her iron sand sword to remove it's fingers. They seemed to still be regenerating but it was much slower now. Gunvolt took the opportunity and ran towards the monster, he took one of his strands of hair and tugged it off before electrocuting the side of the AIM burst and throwing the hair into the repairing tissue.
The Burst was now tagged.
Misaka was deflecting ice blasts with her powers when she saw Gunvolt dash away and knew it was time. Together the two electromasters allowed their power to flow. The forcefield of the burst might be strong but Gunvolt's current bypassed the shield and Misaka's could follow it's path in.
The AIM burst burned but it still moved. Kiyama had run part of the way to them and called out "It has a core, it needs to be destroyed to collapse the burst!"
Suddenly the three of them heard a voice, Saten's voice "Is that it? Are Level 0s permanently defective?" Another voice spoke then "That's what they think."
More voices now "I can't stand it" "It's hopeless" "As a Level 0..." "You probably wouldn't understand" "How painful each day is for us" "We come here with so much hope" "Nothing comes of it"
Misaka looked down, she had though about this before "Please stand back now you two."
Kiyama began to argue but Misaka said "When we save those children they will want to see you."
Kiyama looked shocked as Misaka turned to GV. In response to a repeat of her request to move away he simply asked "Do you not think I can keep up when you go all out?"
Misaka began to argue now but the monster reached out to grab them again before Gunvolt released a blast of lightning it it's direction. Without the Dart Leader his powerful blasts were inaccurate but the monster wouldn't be able to grab them with a vaporised hand.
Kiyama was stunned (Metaphorically, GV's attack hadn't hit her luckily) This power was outside anything he or Misaka had used earlier.
Misaka raised an eyebrow and simply nodded "Together then."
[ACSR: Only my railgun]
Together they turned and fired incredible blasts of lightning. The Burst's forcefield barely held it off but much of it's surface was being vaporised by the head alone.
The two of them could feel it, something within the burst refused to give. The core must sit there.
They stopped for a moment for GV to recharge, as they did the monster's other hand reached towards them only to be cut again by the iron sand.
The telepathy spoke again "Anyone" "Would want to be" "An Esper"
Misaka bowed her head as the two of them fended off more ice crystals. "I should have realised it long ago." Misaka seemed to be speaking to the Burst. GV thought it a bit pointless as the connection had been cut but he allowed her to continue.
"What's the use anymore, I'll always be nothing." "There is no point."
"I was finally so tired of not having any power, that it stopped mattering what I had to do to get it."
Misaka looked up to face the burst "I understand, but this doesn't have to be the end."
Gunvolt could feel her building a charge so he readied himself. It seemed like the Burst felt it too so it was trying to retreat. Gunvolt dashed behind the creature cutting of it's escape route, Misaka had walked around to stand flanking the Burst and she had pulled out a small coin."
"You're not defective, there is nothing wrong with you." Misaka spoke as she flicked the coin into the air.
"So don't give up!" The coin fell back down and she flicked it. The electromagnetic rails created from her fingers shot the coin forward towards the core of the Burst.
It pierced the flesh and pushed the core out of the Burst's body.
A moment later the core shattered due to the coin's power. As the beast began to fall apart, Doctor Kiyama looked at the two espers in awe.
End of chapter
Sorry about the lack of an upload of my other story this week, I was busy and forgot to make it.
Regardless the Level-upper arc's epilogue is next week