New Scan
[ASG2: The Secret Plan]
The last day of July had come and Gunvolt was worrying. The letter from before had arranged this afternoon to have their abilities retested to see if they have improved. Joule was significantly less worried and was already planning what to say.
The two of them were sitting at the table they ate their meals from and occasionally glancing at the clock on the wall.
Joule broke the silence with some optimisitic words "You could still just hold back, I don't think anyone would notice as you still haven't used any of your special skills."
Gunvolt sighed "But I have been seen using raw strength on par with Misaka, at the very least they are likely to call that out."
Joule thought for a moment before replying "Set a condition, say something like 'Oh I can only use that amount of power when there is another powerful electromaster nearby', wouldn't that work?"
Gunvolt slumped down onto his arms as he grunted "Could work but it still might be called out."
The two of them continued to talk while glancing at the clock every few minutes to check for when they would be leaving.
When the time came the two picked up there ID cards and a few other miscellaneous objects before leaving through the door. The walk to the building that was used last time they had a system scan only took about half an hour thanks to a bus route they had found.
They arrived at the building and headed in. At the front desk they were greated and told to sit on some seats and wait to be called, they did so as both of them went over the scripts that they had planned.
As with the last time they had come, a pair of scientists entered the lobby from a corridor leading into the building proper and each scientist guided one of them to a diffrent lab for testing.
Joule arrived in her testing room that was very similar to the one she was in the first time, except that it had all the random stuff designed to test for which ability she had removed and replaced with a large block that looked like a recording studio. It still had the chairs and other assorted things that related to telepathy in there as well.
As the scientist led her to sit on a pair of chairs with her, she asked "So Joule, have you noticed any new great growth in power?"
Joule tilted her head as if to concider before replying "I don't think so?"
The scientist tutted before pulling out a notepad and begining to ask questions from it, regular things at first like if she has grown and by how much (She had grown by a centimeter), if she was sleeping and eating properly (she was) and a few other normal things before flipping over a page of the notebook and asking "Do you have previous experience in Neuroscience, Psychology and/or music production?"
Joule had been waiting for a question like this, she had created the vaccine song while Kiyama had apparently said no-one would be able to. So Joule simply nodded and answered "I have made music before."
The scientist pushed up her glasses "But neither of the other fields?" and Joule nodded.
They began to work through regular telepathy tests, testing if Joule could send thoughts to the scientist (Weak but yes) and a Zener card test where Joule was meant to pull knowledge of what card was being held by reading the scientist's mind (She was unable to).
Joule could say with honesty that she enjoyed these tests as she could try her hardest and as long as Lumen stayed quiet as her 'hairpin' nothing more would be noticed.
It was at this point however that the suprise came, the scientist asked her to follow her into the recording studio-like box. Inside were another two chairs as well as things like recording equipment.
The scientist sat down on a chair and signaled that Joule should sit in the other. Joule felt a little uncomfortable as she could feel the hidden recording devices somehow, A few mics and cameras were set up to conver the entire room.
The scientist smiled and spoke "Due to you not having any training in psychology or neuroscience, it was determined that your ability had something to do with the cure created. As so we asked the judgement members who were there and they said you had listened to the level-upper and sung the song to counter it."
The scientist raised her had to gesture around the booth "This place is fitted with various recording devices, try singing here."
Joule tried to chuckle but she quickly thought at Lumen "Will this force my power higher?" Lumen 'nodded' "I won't be able to hold back much but as long as I am not singing with you, it won't be your full power."
Joule nodded and asked "If there are recording devices may I be left alone while I sing?" The scientist shook her head "The best I can do is stand on the other side of that one-way mirror, the test involves sending to me and I can't be too far away." at this the scientist pointed at a mirror that was along the front wall of the block.
Joule sighed but she really didn't have a way out of this short of admitting everything so she nodded "Please do that."
The scientist left to stand behind the one way mirror.
Joule took a deep breath and Lumen readied herself to minimize the power going to Joule.
[ASG: Pain from the Past]
Joule began her song, as she was singing properly the power flowing to her was greater than the seventh mist incident but with Lumen's help she was suppressing it to only as much as she had gotten from humming.
Regardless she now had more than enough to perform the required test. She reached out with her mind and touched the mind of the scientist, she just poked her mind and first before placing her mental thought connection onto the scientist's mind.
{"Testing Testing One, Two, Three"}
She sent her thoughts and felt the scientist think something back to her
{"Is it two way now?"}
{"Yes, I can hear you"}
Joule felt the woman relax through the link before saying that she could stop singing, Joule did.
[ASG2: The Secret Plan]
Gunvolt too had been taken to a similar room to his first visit but most of the equipment apart from the things that help test Electromasters had been removed. In their place was various pieces of electrical equipment and a few computers.
The pair of them first sat down at a desk to go over a few questions (Have you noticed a large jump in abilities, etc.) and then after that the scientist looked around the room towards a few large pieces of equipment.
GV and the scienist walked over to the large piece of equipment that GV now recognised as a telsa coil. The scientist explained "Most Electromasters develop an ability to resist electricity, this coil has a controlable output so we can test how much your power will let you withstand."
GV went cold, while he did resist electricity that was due in part to a 'coat' of not-quite-sweat that his body produced. He had no control over it so he couldn't hold back and he couldn't get away from this test without being suspicious.
He would have to take his chances at first before sabotaging the coil in some way.
The scientist had walked towards the controls of the coil and GV prepared himself. The charge was generated and it leaped for him. GV's coating lowered the damage of the charge and let him absorb it as extra energy. As the power rose slowly GV calculated the best time to break the coil, The highest point of the shock probably.
As the thorn-like bolts struck him he calculated and struck back through the oncoming bolts. He struck the coil directly and there was the sound of a fuse breaking within.
GV internally smiled as the scientist rushed out to see what had happened.
When the scientist found the blown fuse he cursed before sighing "Seems like we will need to just use the point you had reached as the current max."
The scientist then directed GV towards the computers and explained the test.
"These computers are all on but their inputs and outputs have been disconected. You are to try and act as the inputs and outputs using your ability and I have a tablet here to show me the screen."
GV concidered the task before asking "Can I just try acting as the input for now and we can test outputs later?" The scientist nodded and noted his words before flicking some switches on the wall and pointing to a diffrent bank of computers with active monitors.
GV was definately able to act as an input and he was run through a few tests like seeing how well he could create a digital picture out of simply looking around the room.
In the end both scientists took the adepts back to the lobby before wishing them well.
Joule and GV walked home discussing the tests when Joule got a text from a friend that asked how it went and to inform her that the friend group was heading to the arcade. Joule looked at GV as if asking for something and he sighed and nodded.
Joule smiled and thanked him before taking off in a diffrent direction to meet her friends.
[ACMI: Hizumi]
Aleister looked at the infomation that had just gotten and smiled. It was as he had suspected, the two of them were stronger than they let on
Even concidering the fault in the machine (Which Aleister suspected was sabotage designed to hide the full extent of his powers) the boy was at least Level 4. The girl on the other hand still seemed to be level 2 during the tests but when she started singing her level jumped to a very high level 3. The clearness of her voice through the telepathy was recorded on the information he had been given and telepathy can only be that personalised at high level 3.
His running theory was still that they were both somehow level 5 and limiting their power, their AIM fields spoke to that effect. The girl's AIM field had also become much more active while singing so he suspected that she had restrained herself in some way to limit her maximum output.
Could she be as strong as Mental Out? Or could the boy outperform Railgun?
A chuckle came from the floating man, while they were not originally a part of his plan they would make good back-ups in case something went wrong.
On a diffrent subject he thought the AIM burst had been interesting. An artificial angel was just what he had been going for with his own planning and the level-upper network had produced a similar being. He would have to accelerate his plans and find some way to bring Misaka into contact with Accelerator in the coming month.
Joule talk 12: Joule and Friends
[[ASG: Cyanotype]]
Joule met with the others in the arcade. Misaka was just in the process of defeating another student in a fighting game while Saten was playing some sort of dancing game on a diffrent machine.
Uiharu noticed her and waved her over to a small table where Kuroko and she were sitting watching the others.
The girls chatted and Joule told them how the test had gone.
Kuroko turned from looking at Misaka's back to looking at Joule "You mean singing actually makes your ability work better?"
Joule nodded and Uiharu pondered the new information.
Misaka and Saten came to the table and Joule told the story again for their benifit.
Misaka gave her a pat on the back and some warm words while Saten looked on with just a hint on envy that was gone before Joule looked over.
Together they all talked and smiled and played some more games.
*They all feel closer to each other*
End of chapter
I said this chapter was coming a bit ago so no shock there but anyway.
Did you know the railgun OVA doesn't really fit into the timeline as I am understanding it, Touma in it has not lost his memory so it must be before the index arc but in it they mention defeating the AIM burst so it must happen between the 24th and 27th. The problem is that Touma was knocked out during these three days. So I'm basically pushing the OVA forward to happen some time during the next month of the timeline.
Anyway, for all readers enjoy yourself.