The first moves are made
[ACMI: Strain]
Uiharu sat looking through some the the building's blueprints. She carefully ignored thinking about the massive room labeled "Redacted."
She had obtained the blueprints from Mr Nokleben and in turn he had obtained them from Misaki. The fact that she was so clearly against them knowing about whatever was in that room was kind of worrying but there was more than enough here to plan for a defense.
She was still sitting in their makeshift command room. The sister still slept nearby and Mr Nokleben was checking the security feeds.
Saten had gone out on a patrol, baseball bat and balls in hand. She had a radio to talk with them if they needed help anywhere.
Nokleben had made something clear though. If it came to fighting armed soldiers, he was to be the first line of defense.
"Well, second." He had said "If we can catch them in one of this building's traps, that would be best."
And this building was full of traps, Uiharu had catalogued them and had set up programs to make them easy to trigger when the time came.
Back on topic though, Nokleben would be the one facing armed troops. The only thing Saten would be doing is fighting any who tried to run away. She wouldn't be fighting anyone who might actually shoot her.
Hopefully.
Nokleben had switched over from the screens to do some reading. There were enough alarms that they didn't both need to be looking at everything so they'd both got something to do on breaks. Uiharu would chat with Saten and the man would read.
As Uiharu checked one of the outside cameras again, she heard a groan from the bed. She and Nokleben looked up to see the sister open her eyes.
"Coming around are you?" Nokleben asked and the sister looked in his direction as he continued "We're in school district two. You can rest easy."
"Then does that mean," She said slowly "that you're the one who found me and brought me here? Asks Misaka, attempting to express her gratitude."
The man raised a hand "Please, all of this is just part of the job. You really don't need to thank me."
The Sister began to turn to look around the room but it seems before she did, she ran out of energy and fell asleep again.
"She's not recovered yet then." Uiharu stated.
Nokleben shook his head "It hasn't been long enough yet. She should wake up again within the hour though. She'll be weak but she'll stay awake then."
Uiharu nodded but at that moment there was a loud sound.
[ACMI2: Incredible Power]
The alarm.
Uiharu tapped on the laptop to bring up the sound.
"Saten!"
"I hear it!" came the quick reply.
Nokleben pulled up the alarm on screen. A group of people had cut in through a side door.
"Five men and a scientist-" Uiharu said for Saten's benefit before stopping as they saw what looked like a doll made of liquid metal followed in after the scientist "And an Esper." Nokleben added helpfully.
"An esper?" Saten asked, a soft panting to her voice as she sped up "How can you tell?"
"It looks like a person made of liquid metal." Uiharu said quietly.
After a moment Saten asked "Are we sure that's not a mage?"
"A mage?" Nokleben asked but Uiharu shook her head.
"I doubt it, why would a scientist work with a mage."
As the group headed down a hallway, Uiharu got the traps ready. They weren't as strong on the lower level but that meant they could be used to take people alive. Nokleben stepped out of the room and began to run as she tabbed across to the first trap. Neither of the others were even on the bottom floor yet so now was the best time.
"Entrance Hall 3, Electric floor." Uiharu said, using voice commands to activate the traps.
On the screen, she watched as no one seemed to react except the esper who shuddered.
Insulated shoes then? They were getting to the end of the hall where there was a locked door they'd have to cut through again.
"Same location, Door 3, Electrocute."
The door now carried a charge. If they tried to set cutting equipment against the door, it would send a shock through it, maybe damaging the internals.
That reminded her, Saten was almost down to that floor.
"Electric floor, off."
She watched on a camera as Saten took the stairs down two at a time to reach the bottom floor. Nokleben was still a few floors up relative to her.
Uiharu would need to hold them a little longer.
As they tried to cut through the door, the charge broke their drill and she heard a curse over the camera recording.
"It's no problem" the scientist said as a hole suddenly appeared in the door as if it was being consumed.
Uiharu hit a button to change from voice commands to her allies radios.
"The scientist has an ability." She had records on another screen as she read out "I think it's Vanish Area."
"Which is?" Saten asked as Uiharu watched the soldiers move through the new opening.
"It's related to teleportation, it allows you to remove bits of an item elsewhere. The user can't control the destination."
"Wait, parts of an item?" Nokleben asked, panting "Could he teleport one of our arms?"
Uiharu paused to read "I don't think so. Non-living matter only. At least on the records I have here. The esper with the ability went missing recently."
"You know what that sounds like?" Uiharu asked quietly "The Level upper."
Uiharu nodded "It could be, but if it was, we should watch the scientist, if he has more abilities we can confirm it."
As the enemy group advanced, Uiharu tabbed back to voice control.
"Hallway 1 F, Restrict Wall."
It wouldn't stop someone with Vanish area.
Walls slammed down throughout the hall. They split up the soldiers.
Now, would the scientist free them or leave them behind?
He sighed "Really? My oh my, whatever will I do now?"
He turned and held his hand out and the walls vanished slowly, freeing the soldiers.
Turning towards one of the cameras, he smiled.
...She recognised his face now. She'd seen it over a month ago, in Kiyama's memories.
She slammed over to radio even as he began to speak.
"It's Gensei Kihara!"
"Shit." Nokleben muttered "This is going to be a problem."
End of chapter.
It really was a long time ago when She saw Kiyama's memories. It was back in the time where it would be one chapter per episode or so, instead of one chapter per... 2 to 3 odd minutes of each episode.