Watching the fireworks from afar

[ACSRT: Lab Rats]

While the battle continued in the ruined warehouses out of sight of the telepath and the azure striker, they left the library.

"And now we leave it in her hands." Shokuhou muttered.

Misaka now knew what she had to do, save Kuriba and destroy the Doppelganger.

Nokleben was there to chauffeur them where they were going next, which was...

"What's our next move then?" GV asked.

Shokuhou leaned on her arm, looking out of the car window. She'd given Nokleben instructions on where to go. Really they were just driving around and around the area where the fight was taking place.

"Clean-up. I'll honour the Doppelganger's wish. I won't allow something like this to happen again."

[ACSRT:Now, Let The Experiment Begin]

A little earlier, Misaka had grabbed Kuriba as she fell and then used her ability to pull them both away from the Doppelganger's reach.

She slipped her phone away, having caught Shokuhou's words about the Doppelganger's goal.

"Why? Why do you want to destroy all the information about how you were made?"

Misaka's voice reached the Doppelganger but she didn't respond, she couldn't respond. Not without giving up the very last piece of her plan.

"She hates me." Kuriba muttered "I... I need to get rid of my soul to give her a place to-"

"Don't be stupid." Misaka yelled at her "Can't you see anymore, that isn't the point."

Kuriba flinched as she jumped out of Misaka's grip.

Misaka looked up at the Doppelganger, her mind running quickly.

"You can observe for yourself that you don't have a true soul, you hate living in a robotic body and you're trying to prevent anyone from recreating you again. You're suffering- and you don't want anyone else to suffer like you are." Misaka nearly grasped the entire thing right there, her eyes opened wider "This isn't for you, it's for... You were never going to destroy the city at all, were you?"

"You're mistaken there," The Doppelganger lied "I'm still attached to a few more of those fuel tanks, want to see what happens when I make them explode at ground level?"

Misaka had faith that she had guessed right and she looked not just at the Doppelganger but beyond her, at the airship behind her that appeared to be sprouting some sort of tail.

It was right behind her, right in the same line-

"Oh."

Misaka's voice was quiet as she put it together and she repeated what she said earlier.

"You hate living in that body... you don't just want to stop others coming into existance, you want-"

The Doppelganger frowned and she threw her decoys at Misaka. She couldn't allow Misaka to finish that thought.

Misaka dodged and glanced to the side. Some of the decoys had intentionally missed her to go after Kuriba. A quick blade of iron sand cut their strings too. She didn't get quite how they worked but there was nothing spiritual about this. Those were muscle fibres that she and GV had theorised about.

"I am going to destroy the city if you don't stop me."

As she spoke, the Doppelganger floated up towards the airship "All I need to do is to drop this on the city. Maybe I won't take out all of it but I can certainly hope I get you two in the blast."

Misaka took in a breath. To go after her, she'd need to do this with a lot of focus to avoid knocking out all electronics in a wide area. She released some of the self-imposed limiters on her power and allowed her electricity to flow throughout the area. She gathered up all the iron sand she could and gathered it to a cloud below her.

Equal and opposite reaction. She used the full weight of the sand to shove down and she shot up. Another pull of her power meant she was being followed up by a snake of iron sand she could use as a platform and guide. She used it and grappled onto the "Tail" that was growing out of the airship.

This was a physical form of the fibres that the Doppelganger was using.

Quickly climbing the plant-like stem, she found the Doppelganger at the top of the airship.

"Can't you just live?" Misaka asked, pain in her voice "We can talk to the scientists, get them to realise that their entire experiment is pointless. We can get them to delete the stored data, or at least append it to show that it's all a bunch of rubish!"

The Doppelganger just smiled and looked at its hand.

"What a cruel thing to ask of me. Imagine if you suddenly learned one day that you were just a fake. A lie covered with a layer of skin. Would you have the confidence to live as a 'she' and not an 'it'? If you think just continuing to exist as a thing is enough to bring happiness to a machine, your human ego has betrayed you. To be in this body is to be reminded every waking moment that I have no soul. To continue to exist in a form that doesn't offer any escape from that thought is torture."

Misaka grit her teeth.

She knew those words, she'd heard them implied before. The idea of being an 'It' instead of a 'She,'

But unlike her Sisters, there was a clear difference.

Her sisters were people who thought they were machines and needed to be corrected.

The Doppelganger is a machine that has realised it wasn't a person.

And so...

"Please." The Doppelganger said simply.

Misaka's eyes watered. Lightning crackled. Charges leaping between Misaka, the airship and the skies above.

She had gathered a storm. A swirling maelstrom of clouds gathering around the ship.

A charge built up.

"If this is really what you want..."

Misaka hated it, but she also wouldn't deny it. Not if it what also stop the chaos.

Doppelganger nodded. The lightning flashed.

The airship began to burn, and then it exploded.

End of chapter.

Yeah, team GV and Misaki have finished almost all of their work. So I focused on Misaka instead here. She'll also get the start of next chapter. Probably.