Clash of wisdom

[ASG2: The Garden 3]

The garage was dark as GV walked into it. The only sources of light were from behind him and a van with it's lights on.

Slowly, GV began to walk towards it. If they had turned the lights of then they likely planned to ambush him.

"Would you kindly stop?"

A voice spoke out of the darkness. GV recognised the slight hum that meant that the voice was coming from a speaker. It sounded feminine and likely still quite young. He didn't stop though and continued walking.

"I can kill her."

The same voice as before, no longer as playful. GV drew to a stop, he was still about ten meters from the van that Joule was likely inside. If she was in there she was still unconscious otherwise she would be able to connect to him at this range.

"Good. You can play along."

The girl's playful tone returned. GV was able to tell that she was using multiple speakers. He let his electric field expand as weakly as he could and felt towards the speakers. She had three of them that were wall mounted. In addition there seemed to be something standing close to him in the darkness. He felt that there was a thermal camera in it, likely to follow his moves in the darkness.

The figure that the camera was attached to stood at roughly Misaka's height but the way his scan passed through it meant that it definitely wasn't made of flesh. It felt closer to metal but it moved slightly as he scanned it.

"Now, I know you won't just leave if I ask you to." The girl's voice came out of the first speaker again and as she continued it switched to the third speaker "And I do get it, she's important to you and you don't want to see her hurt."

He couldn't sense anyone else down here and the van had a faraday cage that prevented him from checking inside. The user could have been in there with Joule or she could be upstairs. Touma had claimed he saw Joule be loaded into a van. Assuming this wasn't a fake, he had no way to verify that, they wouldn't have had the chance to get Joule out.

"How would you kill her?" He asked suddenly "Are you with her now?"

The voice was silent for a moment before she continued just as she had before.

"I am indeed, I am currently patting her head."

The speakers were wireless and the van had a faraday cage. Either this girl wasn't with Joule in the van or she and Joule weren't in the van at all. He could call her out on that but that would shut her up and he needed more information.

The girl's voice spoke then "What would you need to let us have her for... a week? We'll give her back right after, honest."

"Are you asking me to let you borrow Joule?"

"Yes, I am." The girl's cheerfulness was starting to get on his nerves. If Joule was in the van, this girl had was bluffing about being able to harm her.

GV stepped forwards towards the van and as he walked slowly he spoke "Joule is not something that can be borrowed, your treatment of other humans is warped."

"But are you humans though? I mean, this girl here probably isn't. She was made in a lab." The girl's voice cut suddenly through the room and GV felt a chill go up his back.

Quiet anger filled GV's voice as he replied "And you say that makes her not a human?"

There was a pause before the girl replied "Yes." All of the playfulness in her voice was gone for that moment.

[ACSRT: I Cannot Hold My Anger Any Longer]

Lightning struck out, fast as a whip, towards the metal figure that was now standing a few meters behind him. It was made of metal, something heavy.

At the same time, it's arm streached becoming a whip of liquid metal and struck back towards him. He prevaded through it to the side and let out a blast of electricity from his entire body to get a better look at his target.

It looked vaguely human but it's body was made from what appeared to be entirely liquid metal. It even had liquid metal hair and but was otherwise naked other than a chain collar that had a skull pendant on it. The pendant contained the camera.

He took the chance to short out the camera, hopefully it would blind whatever esper was doing this. The metal still struck at him though forcing him to roll to the side. It had been completly unharmed by the lightning.

He realised then it was a trap of sorts, no matter what he did he would lose. If he stayed and fought the metal, he would lose eventually as he had no way of damaging it. If he left to hunt for the esper, the van would be able to get away with Joule.

He needed to find a way out of this trap or he could lose Joule forever.

The figure struck at him again and again he prevaded.

"Are you able to do that endlessly? That's cool but annoying."

In truth, his ability to prevade wasn't endless even if he pretended it was. Eventually he would tire, when that happened he wouldn't be able to properly focus enough to keep himself together. He might vanish and never appear again. That would likely create quite a big explosion if Mass-energy equivalence factored in. If she continued to attack him until he grew weak, he would have to chose whether or not to let an attack hit him.

He just needed to bring his goal back into focus. He needed to save Joule, this battle didn't matter.

He dashed towards the van, prevading through a metal dart that was shot his way. The dart quickly rejoined the figure after it missed him.

He took cover, placing the van between himself and the metal before throwing open the doors of the van. The faraday cage was broken and he felt the electronics within and a table that Joule lay on. She was still asleep, a drip ran into her arm from an IV bag above her.

"If you take her out of the van, I'll strike at her. All I would need to do is stab near her heart and you would have to watch her die." Her voice wavered a little as the girl threatened him. He still barely knew her but she had launched lethal attacks at him, it was unlikely that she was bluffing there.

Now that he knew for sure where Joule was, his next thought struck him. He closed the doors and stepped towards the edge of his cover. He could sense the metal figure out there. Taking out it's camera hadn't stopped it, it was able to sense him another way. Maybe a power based sense like he used.

A new voice spoke over the speakers suddenly, the voice of an old man "Greatings Gunvolt. If you don't want us to take her, I am willing to make a swap. We'll let her go in peace if you agree to stay in her place to be experimented on."

"I can't trust you to keep to that promise." GV called from behind cover. He didn't know where the microphones were listening from but they had to be somewhere.

Gensei Kihara's chuckle came through the speakers "You don't trust me? Well I can see why. But on this I give my oath. If you come peacefully we won't need to keep your friend. I would let her go today. Is that a fair deal?"

End of chapter.

I think I'm basically at the end of this arc as well. Only a little bit left.