Blue Jet

[ASMItM: People are lazy and stupid]

The boy moved and pointed his gun down the corridor. He was soon followed by the woman who covered the hallway herself.

Gunvolt ducked down and floated ahead before pausing just before the T junction and looked down the corridor. Shutaura followed him to check the other side.

Lumen was still with him so he checked in with Joule.

"How are you doing."

"Poorly." Lumen relayed quietly "She's taken Joule and Arisa somewhere else and intend to put the others somewhere dangerous as hostages. Something like an airlock I think. She said that to Joule at least."

He and Shutaura headed out and down one of the two passages.

"She's got an AIM reader on Joule. She can't form an independent link without the reader getting it. I'm only free because I was already out when the reader was put in place."

Shutaura looked over at Gunvolt and Lumen, she could see the butterfly but couldn't hear her that well. She had asked about her but GV hadn't given any real answer.

"She's an ally." Had been all he had said.

He relayed the new information to Shutaura. She shook her head and the news "Hostages? I get that they're important but if your ally from last night was right there is more at stake than them. We should head after Ladylee."

The thing was, GV didn't want to argue. Yet, he knew that if something bad happened to them because he went after Joule first, she would struggle with it. As far as he saw, Joule accepted the possibility of death, maybe a bit too well for her age granted, but they were her friends and if he could save them first and then her afterwards...

"No." He shook his head "Ladylee needs them alive right? She'll be using the hostages to get Arisa to do what she wants, if we can save them first it takes away that option."

Shutaura grunted before nodding "Right."

It wasn't like she was going to advocate a plan that involved letting children get killed.

[ACSR: That Day Continued]

Mikoto Misaka did not feel safe. Partially that was because she was currently sitting in an airlock with an unconscious Kuroko.

Kuroko, like Misaka herself, her arms had been tied together with tape behind her back. Had she been awake, she might have just been able to teleport out of them with a bit of focus to free Misaka as well but Ladylee had ordered the guards to knock her out using an injection gun with some kind of sleeping drug in it.

She knew all of their abilities and had taken steps to prevent them from pulling off an escape.

It did raise a question though if they were willing to drug them, why didn't they drug her? Uiharu and Saten hadn't been drugged either but they were being kept in a different airlock.

Misaka kicked off to float towards the back where Kuroko was sleeping. She had just been tossed in and she bumped against the door at the other side.

Somehow she hoped that Kuroko was faking somehow but when she checked she found Kuroko was breathing softly and deeply asleep.

Getting out on her own was possible but it came down to a matter of moments. She could open the door with her ability but the moment she did, the guards would trigger the other airlock containing Saten and Uiharu. She'd have to open the door and then incapacitate all of the guards in the moment they were surprised. If she messed up by even a few moments, all of her friends would die.

She didn't like this.

"Kuroko?" Misaka whispered quietly to her friend. Kuroko didn't move in response. Why would she?

"What would you suggest?"

She'd hit a snag. She couldn't decide which choice to make.

This wasn't normally a problem for her, she'd be the one on the attack while her friends were safely behind her. Now though they were in harms way.

"You'd probably say something about how this proved that I shared your feelings. Then you'd-"

Something caught in her throat. She was getting too emotional. They'd all get out of this okay.

Right?

There was just too much going on for her. She was in space! Further than she had gone when she'd needed to destroy that missile.

This was exactly the reason she liked to go alone. When she didn't need to worry about her friends she could feel free to blast away.

Somehow she felt this was her fault. She could have shocked the guards when they were being brought to the airlocks. She could have attacked Ladylee earlier.

No, not that. Ladylee would have just gone through with her threat and killed the hostages.

Wait. No. Something felt wrong there...?

How would she kill the hostages? Would she flood the air out of here into space? If she did that would kill Arisa too right? Or at least it would prevent Arisa being on stage when the ritual needed her. The same went for other methods.

The audience couldn't be used as a hostage like that without risking the very spell Ladylee was trying to cast.

She'd been such a fool, she had let herself be caught when there were still options left! But now those options were gone!

She was such a fool!

Suddenly, she heard a loud crash from outside the airlock.

[ASG: Lightning Pierces Through]

Misaka kicked off the wall again and watched as a flash of blue shot through the corridor. During that flash, all of the guards had been knocked to the floor.

When one of them tried to stand, gunfire could be heard as their rescuers shot into view.

Gunvolt! And that woman from the group meant to guard Arisa?

The two of them opened the interior doors of the two airlocks.

"Are you okay?" Gunvolt looked in at her. She felt something strange then but nodded.

"I am, but they knocked out Kuroko with a drug."

Gunvolt took a small knife from a sheathe on his belt and cut the bonds that held her arms. He then headed back and grabbed Kuroko and pulled her out of the airlock.

At the same time, the other woman had freed the other two.

"How did you get here?" Uiharu asked the two of them.

"There was a fast elevator. it was designed for emergency response. I hacked it to get it going and the two of us took it up." GV explained. He then shook his head "Now, we just need to get to Joule and Arisa."

"They're that way."

Suddenly a third girl appeared. Misaka had never seen her before. She had long blond hair and a butterfly-like hair piece. She also had wings, they looked like they were holograms of some kind.

The mystery girl was pointing towards the center of the station and a few levels up.

"They're being held in a waiting room near the stage. We don't have long though, the show is starting in a few minutes."

"Who are you?" Misaka managed to get out. Everyone was watching her now but it looked like Saten and Uiharu couldn't see her well for some reason.

The girl gave a slight bow "I'm sorry that our first proper meeting had to be under these conditions but we need to hurry."

"But what's your name?" Misaka asked.

"You may call me Lumen." The woman replied.

End of chapter.

And they finally meet properly face to face.

Note: Only level 4+ can both see and hear Lumen properly. Saten and Uiharu are lower than that so they have a harder time making her out even when she is trying to be seen.