Just before the finish line…
[ACMI3: Strength of an unusual power]
Joule didn't say anything as Misaka proffered her hand to help the girl up.
"Hey there, ready to head out?"
The proxy-prisoner nodded, "How long has it been since the test started?"
Uiharu answered that with a glance at her laptop "Umm… an hour or so?"
The team helped her onto one of Uiharu's hacked drones to make transport easier. They didn't want her to trip or otherwise hurt herself.
"Do you have a way out planned?" The prisoner asked "Or are you winging it?"
Kuroko tapped her chin "We could always use the hole we broke in from?"
"Probably not a good idea." Misaka disagreed "It will likely still be flooded with people."
"How about the main entrance?" Uiharu suggested "I'm deep enough in the system now that I could just hack it open."
The prisoner blinked at her and noted"That's incredible, did you manipulate the security staff or find a discarded machine before the test began?"
"No." Uiharu smiled and scratched at her cheek "I just… hacked them all here."
As the team rode towards the exit, she explained to the prisoner basically what she'd told the others earlier.
"I bet the director is furious." The prisoner smiled, "If there's nothing they can do to stop you now."
"It's his own fault." Misaka smirked "If he left his defences this open for Uiharu, it just goes to show how his boasts before were just a load of hot air."
"Oh yeah, Misaka, whatever happened to your robots?" Uiharu asked "You disconnected them from the network when you hacked them so I can't see them on here."
Misaka looked around as they left the building and nodded at a few of the massive security robots from outside of the wall were slowly making their way towards the group.
"Over there, I guess they were too slow to help us in the end."
"You're a hacker too?" The prisoner asked "Are all of you geniuses?"
"No." Misaka shook her head "Uiharu's the natural genius, I'm an electromaster so I get to cheat a bit."
"It does seem a little strange though…" Uiharu muttered "Convenient, sure, but the lack of human guards made this really easy."
"Guess that's just another flaw the director will have to correct for." The prisoner remarked airily.
As they were moving though, they suddenly hit a snag.
Misaka noticed it first, glancing up in time to see a bottle of something soaring over them.
"Everyone scatter!"
However the fact that they were all perched on the robots made it take a crucial moment to dismount, delaying the escape.
The bottle exploded, spraying a clear liquid over all of them. The liquid didn't hurt them but it melted all the metal that was on them, including Uiharu's computer and the robots they'd all been sitting on.
"No…" Uiharu moaned "My laptop…"
Misaka looked around, angrily as the prisoner sat up, their chains having melted away too.
All of this had also broken Shirai's monocle so Joule couldn't see what was going on anymore.
"Who did that?" Misaka demanded, "Show yourselves you thugs!"
But no one appeared.
"We don't have time to look." The prisoner said quietly "Won't the security be back under their control in a moment?"
Uiharu nodded quickly "Yes, but how do we get out now? I can't hack through the main door now."
"We'll just have to use the other exit." Saten pounded her fist into her open palm and pointed.
Luckily, Shirai's earpiece hadn't been hit so Joule could still speak to her "There's still a way-"
Shirai listened and nodded before explaining to the others.
"If we can attach my phone to the main door, Joule thinks GV could hack through from a distance with Uiharu's help."
And so the new plan was set and they raced on foot to the main door. There were a large number of still active guard robots but Misaka's hacked robots were finally useful in taking care of them.
Uiharu was given Misaka's phone and she called Joule with that as Shirai's earpiece was attached. She began to focus just on the hacking job as everyone else stood around.
"I think this went quite well." Misaka remarked, she was in a good mood again, thinking about just how wrong they'd proven the director.
The prisoner nodded, "Yeah, you all did quite well." She glanced at the door with a smile.
As they stood around though, Misaka heard a familiar voice.
"Oh hey, is that you Misaka?"
A small girl wearing a flu mask ran over panting.
"You?" Misaka was surprised but then shrugged "Good to see you again."
"Oh, who's this sis?" Shirai asked looking the young girl up and down "I haven't seen her before."
"Really?" Misaka was mildly surprised.
The girl took over "Ah, I never introduced myself, please call me Iizumi. I work with Judgement."
"You do?" Shirai was curious "Which branch?"
"49th."
Shirai nodded slowly "Okay, good to have you then. When did you meet my sis?"
"Your sis? Railgun? A few nights ago. She helped me hunt down a rogue cyborg."
Kuroko's head slowly turned to Misaka.
"If you were out getting help from a Judgement officer that night, why didn't you just ask me?"
"I needed someone to cover for me with the dorm supervisor." Misaka muttered "Besides, I was going after the gynoid for my own reason. It was just a lucky coincidence that I could help out Judgement at the same time."
"Doors ready to open!" Uiharu called as she looked back "Oh, who's this?"
As the doors began to open, she took the phone from the wall terminal and headed over to everyone else. The prisoner wasn't part of the group but she glanced at the door, maybe wondering if she should just go.
"A judgement officer of the 49th branch." Shirai noted "She apparently had Sis' help with work a few nights ago."
"The 49th branch?" Uiharu glanced at Iizumi "How new are you? I've met Nayuta before but…"
"Ah, not more than a week or so ago." Iizumi glanced away "Sorry, I'm still quite new at this."
As they chatted, they heard a yell.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
A pair of other girls jumped out of the trees and grabbed the prisoner before sprinting towards the opening door.
"No!" Shirai yelled, sprinting after them. Misaka followed a moment later before everyone else started running too.
If they failed and had the victory stolen from them at the last moment-
And that was when one of Misaka's hacked robots that had apparently stayed outside the walls rushed out to block the kidnapper's way.
Shirai caught up and threw a kick which the girl with pink hair caught on her arm, which appeared to have some sort of wrapping around it to blunt blows.
Misaka and Saten cornered them.
"Just give her up." Misaka commanded "You aren't stealing this victory from us."
There was a pause for a moment and…
"Yeah, no way out of this one."
It was a surprise to hear that voice. Misaka glanced back to see Iizumi put up her hands "Sorry for lying Misaka, I'm with them."
"Why are you telling them Leader?" The pink-haired girl complained "You've got a taser."
"Railgun is probably immune, even with her powers not being usable properly." Iizumi or "Leader" remarked to the girl.
Misaka looked a little betrayed as the girl continued "I'm not actually from Judgement, sorry. That was all part of the distraction. Could you let my friends go."
After a moment… they did. The girls needed to release the prisoner but they were left alone by Misaka's robots as Misaka's team crossed through the door.
Over a loudspeaker a voice called out "Trial Over! Trial Over! Participants have successfully broken out the prisoner. All participants should quickly leave the prison! I repeat…"
It did repeat and the team looked around.
They'd done it.
The proxy prisoner smiled.
End of chapter.
SCAVENGER might have been a little out of character but it was their original plan. I think the only real OOC thing was Leader giving up so fast but I think she would have done something like this in the situation.