Joule's tale
[ASG: Cyanotype]
Joule and Gunvolt's apartment was quite crowded.
Joule herself was sitting in a chair, GV was leaning against the wall to her side.
Around the table sat her friends, Misaka leading them while Arisa sat on the bed. Touma, Index and Kanzaki were here too but they were a bit further away in the kitchenette.
They were all here for a simple reason. Joule wanted to explain herself to her friends and allies. Kanzaki hadn't been invited specifically but she had Touma and Index to vouch for her and GV had let the matter go.
Joule didn't really know where to start so she thought about it while holding a cup of tea.
When she finally made her choice, she took a sip of tea before begining.
"I don't have a family name."
No one responded at first. Their faces were a mix of surprise, confusion and condolence.
Misaka was the first to speak "You didn't have parents then." It was a statement, not a question. She already knew that Joule was created in a lab.
"I didn't," Joule confirmed "I was created by a group of scientists belonging to the Sumeragi Group."
"Created?" Arisa whispered quietly, Joule nodded and explained.
"I'm like Febrie in a way. For those who didn't meet her, Febrie was a little girl we found who had been created by STUDY."
"Umm, what exactly do you mean when you say 'created'?" Index asked "As in, born for a purpose?"
"No, artifical insemination. Something like cloning. I never had a mother. Someone donated their cells to act as a base but I never learned who." Joule explained.
Misaka nodded and asked "You said something to me in the past. The Sumeragi group isn't around anymore right?"
Joule tilted her head to the side to think "You will not find them in academy city. But there is something else, I'll explain that later."
Misaka looked worried but Joule nodded and Lumen took on her human form.
"This is Lumen." Joule began just as Lumen spoke at the same time "My name is Lumen."
Joule nodded slightly "Can those who can see her raise their hands please?"
Misaka, Kuroko, Arisa, Kanzaki, Touma and Index raised their hands. Saten and Uiharu were unsure.
"I can only see her slightly and I can't hear her." Saten explained.
Joule nodded and brought them in to a telepathic link so Lumen would be able to talk to them directly. She then nodded to Lumen.
"As I said, I am Lumen. I am a manifestation of Joule's power."
Misaka caught on quick "Like the AIM burst?"
"Sort of, but it's slightly different." Lumen explained "Joule can't handle her full power so she pushed part of it into me. My title is 'The Muse', in much the same way that you are 'Railgun' Misaka."
"A title?" Kuroko asked "What exactly do you mean?"
This time it was GV who answered "Sumeragi had a system for naming our abilities. I was an 'Azure Striker' or someone who controlled electricity."
"Like Electromaster?" Uiharu asked.
GV shrugged and held out his hand which crackled with blue light "I'm not sure that it's that simple, an Azure striker's lightning always comes out as blue, regardless of environmental conditions."
"So cold-weather lightning?" Misaka asked "Regardless of conditions?"
"Something like that." GV noted "Regardless, Joule's power was called 'The Muse.'"
"And I was born from it as a way to handle her power." Lumen explained.
Touma nodded thoughtfully "So it's high level telepathy then?"
Lumen hesitated before explaining "Sumeragi actually categorised it as an electron-controlling power. But it affects the mind and I think it might go a bit further than either of those facts alone."
"What do you mean?" Uiharu asked.
"It's all waves to me." Lumen began "Electrons, brainwaves, soundwaves, lightwaves, I can see waves and with power I can alter them slightly."
"That means...?" Uiharu sounded like she already suspected something but it was Misaka that noted it "Wave control?"
Lumen gave a shrug "I'm not sure. What I can control directly depends on my current power."
Joule nodded "Without Lumen, I'm basically just a low-level telepath who can hack things with a touch. With her though... well, you remember my songs?"
"How did you sing with me?" Arisa asked curiously "How does wave control make you a saint?"
"One of the types of waves I can control," Lumen begins "I don't have a good name for it so I'm just calling it a 'power wave.' I can feel waves coming from Espers when they use their power so at first we thought it was AIM fields."
"Then we felt Mages and you, Arisa." Joule noted "And it was part of the same set of waves. When we sung together, we copied the waves you gave off."
No one quite knew what to make of that. Joule even caught Index whispering something to the effect of "How would that even work?"
Finally, when everyone had calmed down, Joule moved on to the final point.
"There's one last thing. You know I wasn't made in Academy city. Well, it might be fair to say I come from very far away indeed."
"Africa?" Index tried.
"Further." GV noted "Try, not on this planet."
That prompted a quiet scream from Saten who suddenly asked "You're an alien?"
"Depends on your definition." GV noted quickly "My best guess is that we are from a parallel world."
"Parallel world?" Index asked.
"They exist?" Uiharu asked.
"Apparently. We were sent here through some sort of wormhole." GV revealed.
"But how does that work then?" Saten asked "Did you come from a world where the germans won the second world war or something like that?"
"No, but our world was quiet a bit darker than yours." Joule began "I don't think Sumeragi ever existed in this world but they were very important in ours."
"Why? What did they do?" Touma asked.
"Sumeragi was founded in the Heian period and they quickly got involved in the supernatural." GV explained "In the modern day they became a powerful corporation that would come to dominate virtually everything about Japan, with the legitimate government becoming little more than a mere puppet."
"That sounds awful!" Uiharu exclaimed.
GV nodded "It get's worse though. Do you all know what a Gemstone Esper is?"
When he got mixed answers he quickly explained "It's the term for Espers that gained high level without ability development."
"Like you?" Saten asked but Joule shook her head.
"We were given our abilities artificially and wouldn't count."
GV nodded "Regardless, Gemstones began appearing all over our world. Sumeragi took advantage of this and researched them while they were being treated like enemies of humanity. They developed methods of copying their abilities. They then used their artificial adpets to take over the world."
"How terrible." Misaka looked angry "How dare they?"
GV nodded "We were freed from them by a group called QUILL. I was freed by QUILL's leader and went on a mission later to destroy what we believed to be an AI that Sumeragi was using to detect adepts. It was called 'The Muse'."
Eyes went to Lumen then who nodded "They had locked Joule in a machine and were using machines to control me. My ability to increase an Adept- an esper's power made the Espers easier to track."
"Adept? Is that your world's word for Esper?" Uiharu asked.
GV hesitated but nodded "There are a few differences but overall, yes. Regardless, when I found Joule locked in that machine, I freed her and we escaped."
"That's amazing!" Arisa exclaimed "It's so romantic, like a prince rescuing a princess from a castle."
"Or an angel rescuing a lost soul from the underworld." Lumen agreed with a smirk. At the word angel, Joule had blushed slightly but they quickly moved on.
Joule took questions but she had covered most of the main topics so it was over quickly.
After that it was time for everyone to head back. Joule joined the others with bringing Kuroko back to the hospital. The fact that she had been allowed out at all was quite fortuitous as this was not a talk that Joule would have been happy to have in a hospital.
End of chapter.
Good lord, there are way too many characters right now. I think my skill with writing shrinks as more characters are present in a scene.
Edit: Changed the ending slightly to better lead into the next arc