Closing in
[ACMI2: Incredible Power]
Even as Uiharu looked at Gensei Kihara, she was trying to find a way out.
Saten stopped in the middle of a step when she heard, she was within about fifty meters of the soldiers and was waiting for Nokleben. Now though...
Nokleben spoke quietly over the radio "We still have our main goal, we're going to take them out if we can. Put your lives before any small part of the mission. We tip the scales as much as we can, then we get the Sister somewhere safe while we wait for my boss to arrive.
Uiharu nodded, tapping over to her defenses.
Walls wouldn't do anything to him, not with that ability under his control. What she could target instead was-
"Hallway 1 F, Full spectrum scanner-" She paused as numbers flooded the screen before finishing the command "Target 14."
The spectrum analysis camera locked on to the metalic Esper. She didn't seem to notice it but Gensei did.
"Oh?" He asked.
That camera broke a moment later and gave a read-out of what it had learned so far about the Esper.
...Ok, no. The esper's puppet. They weren't in it, it was being controlled with an AIM field. The camera couldn't track it back though.
She flipped over to the radio again and gave a warning "The metal esper isn't actually here. That doll is just a function of her ability, you can't stop it."
"Understood." Nokleben responded "You have a plan?"
She did, as it happened.
The doll didn't have any eyes. Indeed, the camera had picked up that it saw using it's necklace. All she had to do was fry that and- No, it wasn't that simple. She'd tried the electric flood earlier. That would have destroyed it if it wasn't shielded.
No, she'd need to brake it.
And she could use the lethal defenses on the doll without feeling bad.
"Hallway 1 F, automatic cannon 4. Precise Mode. Target 14, Sternum, Manubrium."
The cannon exited the wall and it fired the moment it had a good lock. Gensei broke it a moment later and before the bullet hit the doll, it dodged out the way.
That was meant to be a supersonic bullet!
She needed a good angle for this.
A blind spot that could still see the doll's necklace. She had no doubt that an attempt to shoot through the doll's back might not work if it can shape itself freely to redirect the bullet.
"Hallway 1 F, automatic cannon 5- no, cancel. Automatic Cannon 8. Precise Mode. Target 14, Sternum, Manubrium."
If she just fired the next one in sequence, they'd notice it for sure. This one was in Gensei's blindspot so even as he turned to the roof to destroy it, it got a shot at the necklace from above.
The doll fell backward but the bullet caught the camera anyway.
It should be blind now!
"Very clever." Gensei admitted "A careful thinker, someone that Misaki could get in an emergency... I assume it's you then, Mr Nokleben?"
Now, Uiharu had a choice. Gensei was starting to try to talk to her, she might be able to stall him. At the same time though, he's been talking and walking this whole time. She wouldn't put it past him to locate her just from the sound of panic in her voice as he got closer.
...One message shouldn't hurt. Right?
"Hallway 1 F, Speaker, Voice Modulator, Begin."
She took a breath before speaking again.
"Gensei Kihara-"
"No." He said quickly to interupt her "A girl, who... Ah. It's you isn't it? Goalkeeper?"
Uiharu shuddered. He recognised her from just that?
"Then I guess there's no point trying to hack the security systems then." He murmured quietly "It would take too much time. However-" And at that he raised his voice again "I would think a judgement officer would have more important things to do."
He wasn't moving, he was actually being stalled- No, some of the soldiers had spread out. They'd find Saten if they did that!
Uiharu looked aside to a monitor and saw that Saten had noticed them moving too and had got more distance while Nokleben dropped down the last flight of stairs.
"It's my duty to protect the innocent." Uiharu stated even as she used a key command to disable the voice modulator.
Gensei chuckled at her words "Oh really? I guess you see me as some evil villain who needs to be stopped for the good of everyone? Well, I guess you aren't too far off. Is Miss Misaka somewhere around too then?"
And now he was just fishing for information. How could she get through this without telling him anything?
"She's safe from you."
"No she isn't."
Gensei chuckled as he began walking again, a soldier and the esper still with him, how did she know where she was going?
Now though, the soldiers were split up. Nokleben struck first, ducking through a corridor and taking out two soldiers with a perfectly placed shot each. Saten's work was less perfect but no less impressive.
She glanced around a corner and a guard raised a gun, ready to shoot her. That glance had told Saten everything she needed to know.
She threw her first baseball hard at the wall where it spun with all the force she had imparted upon it and ricocheted down the hall to hit the soldier in the head. As he was stunned, Saten ran around the corner and wacked his knees with the baseball bat.
The man fell and Saten used the bat to knock away his gun and hit him again in the shoulder. The man doubled over and Saten stepped back, panting and looking upset. Why would- Oh, this was her first real time hurting a person.
Uiharu switched back to Radio, in doing so allowing Gensei to continue on without a conversation partner "Saten, you can come back up here if you want?"
Nokleben took out the last guard that had split up and put his hand to his own radio.
"You should do it. I don't think they'll split up after that. You did fine."
Saten nodded slowly and she asked "Best way upstairs?"
"I'll get an elevator ready for you, just head away from the stairs." Uiharu said with a forced calm as she watched Gensei reach the second level and begin to climb to the third.
If he knew what room she was in, it was possible that they'd reach her before either of the others. She saw that Mr Nokleben was heading back up towards her now but would he be fast enough?
As Saten reached an elevator Nokleben made a suggestion "Send her to the roof, we can meet her up there. We'll bring the clone up there to hide."
Saten agreed and Uiharu directed the locked elevator to bring her to the roof. Now it was only a matter of who reached the room first. Mr Nokleben or Gensei Kihara?
End of chapter.
The next chapter will be the last of this mini arc about them holding off Gensei, then we're back to Joule.