Powerless to help

[ACSRS: Determination and Resolution]

Moments after making her declaration, Kuroko cut the call.

That sent Uiharu into overdrive. She contacted Anti-skill and began frantically typing.

Joule wasn't quite sure what Uiharu was looking for but she and Saten worked together to try and help her in any way they could.

Mostly that boiled down to Saten providing food and Joule felt out with her power to look for Kuroko.

At least that was what she said she was doing, in truth she had sent Lumen out to scout. With any hope she could help Kuroko.

It took a little more than five minutes to find her. Lumen reported her findings and Joule repeated it for the benifit of Uiharu and Saten.

"Found her. She's hurt. Musujime has pinned her under a lot of tables."

"No...!" Uiharu gasped. After a moment she centered herself and prepared to act.

"Where is she? How badly is she hurt?"

Joule told her where she is before following up with "There are a lot of scrapes and bruises. Possible bleeding and it I don't know if she would be able to stand. She's talking with Musujime, maybe buying time?"

Uiharu frowned as she sent the information to Anti-skill. They would hopefully get there in time.

Joule listened as Lumen gave a running commentary of the subject they were talking about. She didn't repeat this, she didn't want to talk too much about the parts where Musujime mentioned the sisters. To her, that was still Misaka's secret.

A bit later Lumen passed something on. Joule couldn't stay quiet at that.

"Musujime is a bit stupid."

Saten raised an eyebrow at that "Really?"

"She's full of self-pity, and a hypocrite."

"Ah." Saten nodded as if that explained everything.

"She said-" Joule cut herself off to switch to something more important "Kuroko got up, she looks quite bad. I definitely think her legs are hurt."

Neither of them responded to that. Really, what could they say at this point. Joule was simply saying what happened and none of them could interfere.

"She shot Kuroko!"

It came out quickly, Joule's voice tore slightly as the words came out.

Saten fell onto a seat and held her hands as if in prayer. Her lucky charm was held between them.

Uiharu turned to the computer and could be heard muttering.

"Please, Anti-skill you need to get there soon."

Joule kept watching as Musujime cracked. Her powers going wild. She prayed right along with the others.

A soft gasp escaped her lips as Lumen told her about the gun being raised again. She exhaled when the gun was broken by a spoon.

Then the next threat came and Joule stammered it out.

"She, she's going to destroy the building with her ability."

Uiharu seemed to stop for a moment before diving back into the work as if she hadn't stopped at all. Saten didn't react, she just continued hoping.

Briefly Joule concidered not saying anything else until the situation was better. Her friends didn't need to hear about it just getting worse and worse. But she decided against it. Uiharu would need accurate information to help Anti-skill and Saten would notice if she only told things to Uiharu.

Lumen relayed the shaking of the building. Why was Kuroko not teleporting out?

Dumb question, just ask her.

Lumen forged the connection "Kuroko!"

Kuroko's thoughts felt sluggish. She was on the edge of consciousness as pain threatened to push her over.

"Kuroko! You need to teleport!"

"I can't." She barely managed to pass her message across the network Joule had established.

"Why not?"

"Too weak."

Joule was frantic too by this point. Across this distance there was no way to boost Kuroko's ability. No song could cross that far through the air.

There was one way, one terrifying way. She couldn't do it though. Surely something else would happen. Surely...

"Please-" Kuroko's thoughts were quiet even as the building shook around her "Tell sis- tell them all that I am sorry."

"Kuroko!" Joule spoke both across the connection and out loud. The room around her shone. There was the sound of the building breaking apart.

Soon though, it was clear the light and thunder wasn't Musujime. That was a railgun.

[ACSRS: The only way]

"Misaka is there!" Joule reported, a moment later she added "Touma too!"

"Touma?" That actually suprised them more.

A moment later, Joule breathed a sigh of relief "They have her, Kuroko is safe."

The wave of relief passed through the room as everyone collapsed onto something soft. Lumen began the flight back to her as Joule checked the clock. It was past midnight now.

Joule's phone rang. It was GV. Naturally.

She explained what had happened at that it was probably better for her to spend the night here rather than go home.

"It's a school day tomorrow though? Are you sure? I can come pick you up if you want?"

Knowing him he would literally carry her home. That might be nice actually...

"Sure." She spoke almost without thinking and then blushed when the full reason came to her. She didn't change her mind though.

As he came over, she said goodnight to her friends. Saten grunted something, already basically asleep and Uiharu replied with a "Goodnight" of her own.

Tomorrow after school she would go with them to check on Kuroko, hopefully she would be fine.

As she expected, GV carried her home. It was just a problem that she was too tired to enjoy it.

She fell asleep before they were even all the way back. She was too exhausted after all of the worrying she had needed to do.

End of chapter.

And another arc goes by where basically nothing changes from Joule and GV being there. Well, there are changes, just not major ones.