Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Sixteen: Sister Ops
Beta:
The lab building's lobby was classy in the most strangely unclassy way possible. It had all the corporate taste for opulent items without the slightest touch of personality. The deep brown floor shined as well any polished glass. There were beautiful flowers, the perfect shade of orange to compliment the woody hues and creams. On closer inspection their stamens had been pulled to prevent even the pollen disturbing the perfect sheen on the mahogany pedestal tables.
The whole thing was so artifical, this deliberate attempt at being subtly sophisticated but without a hint of human connection. It would have normally unnerved Mikoto, but considering what the lab that was the building's anchor tenant was involved in, all she could feel was disgust. These monsters were trying to hide their ugly sides behind a veneer of refinement.
Well, for not much longer if I have anything to say about it. The Electromaster vowed as she clenched her fists and sparks danced across her body.
Stepping into the lobby, she eyed the bank of elevators behind a fully automated reception desk/security checkpoint at the far side. If I remember correctly, the lab is on the fifth floor.
A quick glance to a directory pinned to a wall confirmed that.
Her EM sense told the Number 5 that the room was full of security. Cameras, laser trip wires, pressure plates, and dozens of other devices. They all had one fatal flaw though, they were tied to a single electronic monitoring system.
Cocky morons. Mikoto thought as she casually manipulated the normally well regulated current running through the heavily insulated system to shut the whole thing down.
Pleased with how easy things were going, she began strolling across the lobby and sent a pulse of static to trigger the call mechanism of the computerised elevator control system.
The ding of the elevator made her smile.
The Level 5 was walking towards it confidently and was halfway there, when a gunshot rang out.
"Gah!" Mikoto cried out, even as she reacted as quickly as she could and jumped behind one of the nearby pillars that lined the lobby and held up a wraparound second floor balcony that overlooked the entryway. Hissing, the chestnut haired girl looked at the graze to her shoulder.
"Ow, ow, ow." Mikoto hissed as the wound bled freely and hurt like hell.
Falling back on her limited first aid training, she knew she had to close the wound.
I'll be damned if a little flesh wound like this slows me down! Mikoto thought to herself with determination. Summoning a modest, by her standards, electric charge around her fingers, she zapped the wound to cauterize it closed.
Why didn't my EM Sense pick up the shot? Or a shooter? Mikoto thought as the pain dulled. Maybe some kind of shielded drone?
Reaching out with her EM sense once more, she sought out the security system that she'd previously disabled. Specifically, the cameras.
There! Mikoto beamed at her luck. Like nearly every building in Academy City, there were always cameras. Thank you- What!?
Her surprise was warranted, as she noticed a detail that she'd overlooked when she'd shut down the security earlier. The cameras weren't tied to the systems at all. They weren't even working! Instead someone had rather ingeniously rigged up a complex internal circuit in the devices that gave the impression that they were working normally at first glance.
Are they just for show or- Ugh, I've been had! Mikoto wanted to scold herself for getting caught in this trap but also for somehow letting the enemy realise she was after them. They had to have known she was coming, it was the only way they'd have set up a trap so specifically tailored to fool her. She decided to save it for later though. Right now, she had to find a way through this lobby.
Without the cameras to spy through and her EM sense unable to pick up her attacker, Mikoto had no choice but to stick her head out from behind the pillar to try and figure out what was going on. Her head had barely peeked around the corner of the pillar when another shot came her way.
Fortunately, this time the [Railgun] was ready for it.
In a well practiced application of her electromagnetic manipulation, she rapidly shifted a mass of iron sand in front of her face. The middle schooler had spent the whole time she'd been taking cover secretly amassing the magnetic dust to use as a shield.
As the bullet flattened harmlessly against her protective screen, Mikoto smirked.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that, you bunch of sickos."
Confident that her defenses would hold, the [Railgun] exited her cover completely. The girl flicked her hand towards the direction where the shot came from and a bolt of electricity soared towards where she guessed the sniper was. As she did this, she manipulated the iron sand that made up her shield to move the remains of the bullet to her hand.
The small pellets fell into her waiting palm and she noticed something.
Plastic!? Man, they were really prepared for me. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Mikoto scolded herself, but she wasn't going to back off. She had a mission, and the girl was going to get it done.
Keeping her iron sand wall up, Mikoto advanced towards the elevators. She'd let her overconfidence get the better of her once tonight already, she wasn't about to let it happen a second time.
She was twenty feet from her destination when dozens of gas canisters landed all around her. As gas filled the air, the middle schooler pulled her shirt up to cover her mouth.
That was when the majority of her iron sand disappeared from her EM sense. Strangely discolored and even hissing and popping in visible chemical reactions, the formerly metallic sand spilled to the ground and became useless to her.
It wasn't knockout gas? Mikoto's eyes widened, It's some kind of chemical that affects the metallic filings in the sand!
Arranging the meager remains of her iron sand into a much reduced shield, she made a mad dash for the cover of another pillar. It did little good as she was feet away from safety when she felt something pierce her leg.
Mikoto's eyes widened in pain as she tumbled forward onto her knees. Scrambling, she crawled behind the pillar, holding her injured leg.
That punched right through the shield. Mikoto noted as she examined her wounded knee. That means if the sniper wanted to, it could have killed me with that shot. Which means that they probably want me alive for some twisted experiment or something.
Anger bubbling within her, Mikoto charged electricity in her hand and flung it around her cover. The arcs of lightning forked across the lobby. It set the wooden furnishings on fire, smashed decorative pieces and fried the various flower arrangements. It did not however seem to hit the shooter.
Come on, where are you? Mikoto thought as she had no idea where the shooting was coming from. Whatever the sniper was using to keep itself - It's gotta be a drone - hidden was top notch and there wasn't even the slightest ping on her EM Senses. She was concentrating hard on futilely trying to pinpoint the enemy's location when suddenly said senses went crazy as multiple signatures filled the building.
Now what? Another attack?
A familiar feeling was coming over the [Railgun], the same sensation she felt when she'd tried to go up against the Number 1.
No! Mikoto's eyes lit aflame, these guys weren't on his level. And like hell would she let them stop her!
If they wanted to use petty tricks, then she needed to remind them what it meant to mess with a Level 5 through a display of raw power. I might not be Accelerator, but I'm still a Level 5. Don't underestimate me!
Electromagnetic energy coursing all around her, she sent a storm of lightning arcing around the pillar like a many headed hydra that struck at every single one of the dummy EM signatures that were messing with her senses all at once. In a single blinding moment, the decoys were destroyed and her senses cleared.
Didn't expect that I bet. Now where are you?
Her celebration was short-lived as another bullet - this time one of the bean bag variety - slammed into her side and sent her sprawling. There was no penetration this time, but there was still an intense perhaps even greater burst of pain. Clutching her side, the girl hissed as she shifted her position behind the pillar to get into cover that would protect her from the new direction of fire.
It repositioned while I took out the decoys? What the hell is it? The Level 5 questioned incredulously. Either way, as much as I hate to admit it, I have no choice but to pull out the big guns.
Reaching out with her EM sense once more, she focused in on the faint magnetic signatures of the steel reinforcing bars embedded in the insulating concrete that held up the building. Concentrating hard, she 'pulled' on these metallic supports.
As her power took hold, the pillars cracked and groaned as they split open, the metallic supports ripped out of them. Without these important pieces of metal to strengthen the concrete and help them bear the weight of the building, the whole structure began to sway ominously.
"Survive this!" Mikoto roared, even as the six storey building collapsed around her.
It was the first time Mikoto had ever literally tore down a building. It felt oddly satisfying.
Great, now I'm acting like the Chibi.
Once she had ripped the metal supports out of the concrete, she had quickly shaped them into a protective shell to shield her from the rest of the debris and rubble of the collapsing structure.
Worming her way out of the remains of the collapsed building, Mikoto opened the shell and looked around her. The building had been reduced to a complete ruin, but that only added to her odd sense of accomplishment.
An evil place like this deserved it.
Stepping through the rubble, Mikoto saw a few electronics. That was probably normal, there were bound to be computers and such, but one or two were oddly out of place.
They were EM transmitters. Probably the decoys from earlier.
The sound of scurrying caught her attention. Walking towards the source, she spotted the remains of a broken rifle made entirely out of plastic.
Mikoto frowned at the shattered weapon. They really were prepared for me, weren't they?
A groan hit her ears and Mikoto turned to see a woman crawling out of the rubble. She was in some kind of powered suit, like Threstina's but sleeker. One thing that really caught her attention was that the woman emitted no EM signature, not even the low level ambient signal that regular humans gave off.
It must suppress her EM signature. Wait, is she missing an arm? Feeling vindictive, Mikoto pushed away any compassion she might have felt to the back of her mind for now and approached the woman with purpose.
Spotting something that looked like a mannequin's arm, Mikoto quickly reasoned that it was the woman's prosthetic.
No EM signature out of it either... Made out of ceramics, probably. The [Railgun] observed curiously, but pushed that matter to the back of her mind too.
"Hey!" She called out to the crippled woman, climbing over some rubble. "You almost killed me, you psycho."
The woman dizzily got to her feet and just shook her head, pointing at Mikoto's shoulder.
Realizing the implication, the [Railgun] paled as she darted her eyes to her wounded shoulder.
She didn't miss at all, her shots were never meant to kill me. A chill ran down her spine at that realization.
"Why didn't you kill me? Isn't that your job? Or were you trying to capture me for one of your sick experiments?"
The haggard woman's only reply came in a barely audible whisper, "Number 2."
Anger flared through the Number 5 at the realization that the only reason she hadn't been shot between the eyes was because her potential killer was afraid of her higher ranked friend.
Needing an outlet to unleash her brewing anger, Mikoto lashed out at the sniper. Hitting her with a powerful electric burst that had the woman writhing in silent agony before falling unconscious. Still not done, she reached out with her powers to magnetically grab hold of some of the rebars she'd ripped out of the concrete earlier and wrapped them around the woman as makeshift restraints.
"Damn you." The Number 5 cursed as she glared down at the knocked out woman. "Damn your employers. The lot of you are monsters."
For a moment, Mikoto was strongly tempted to go further. To return the bloody favor that the Level 6 Shift experiment had reaped on her innocent clones on this woman. As soon as the thought crossed her mind though, she recoiled from it.
No. I can't be like them. Never like them. Ever!
"So your girlfriend failed." The elderly director gloatingly informed his teenaged counterpart as the directors of the Level 6 Shift project convened once more to discuss the latest development.
"Ylva's not my girlfriend." The youngest lab head replied automatically, his usually cocky demeanour muted. "And yes, you're right. She failed."
The other directors eyed the interaction with annoyed looks for a few minutes as the boy sulked and the elderly man preened at having got one over him. Eventually, the lanky man gave voice to their shared irritation. "Are you two done behaving like children?"
The two offenders nodded.
"Good." The cigar smoker acknowledged. "Then let's get down to business. Since the Number 5 has proven herself more of a threat than we expected, we'll need to escalate our response."
"Which means employing ITEM?" The woman cut in distastefully. "They are expensive."
"Do we have another option?"
"Unfortunately not."
"What about SCHOOL?"
Everyone looked at the old man who made that suggestion like he was going senile.
"They are even more expensive and unless you've forgotten we have specific orders to keep [Dark Matter] out of this unless absolutely necessary."
"It's not like he's their only asset." The elderly scientist said with a shrug. "But I get your point. ITEM it is."
"Any objections?"
There were none.
"Then I'll make it happen." The smoker said and stood. "This meeting is adjourned."
Naru rushed through the underground passageways of one the Level 6 Shift project's labs, moving so fast that she was practically a blur as she tried to find her very stupid Sempai.
She'd been worried about the Electromaster the whole day since she'd gotten the pre-dawn call from Saten telling her that someone had hired ITEM to deal with the older Level 5. After hearing that, she'd spent the whole morning trying to track her wayward Sempai down to talk some sense into her.
That sense of urgency had spiked when Saten had called her about ten minutes ago to tell her that the [Railgun] had engaged with the dangerous Dark Side outfit. Now, as she raced to save her older friend, the blonde couldn't have moved fast enough.
Come on you loud moron, make some nois- A loud boom echoed down a passageway and Naru halted her movements, Thank you for being loud!
Heading towards the source of the noise, the Number 2 found herself in a large underground room with a high domed ceiling.
Facing off in the center was Misaka-Sempai and the Number 6, Shizuri Mugino.
The [Meltdowner] was a tall young woman with a slender figure. She had long and soft tea-colored hair. Despite being on a covert mission, the older girl was dressed in fashionable clothing. In fact, she honestly looked more like a supermodel than the cold blooded assassin that she was.
In contrast, her schoolmate looked horrible. She was drenched in sweat and her whole body was scuffed up.
The Number 6 sauntered towards the Number 5 utterly confident in her victory, casually firing one of her particle beams at her opponent as she did.
Judging by how Misaka-Sempai only barely deflected the laser, she was running on fumes in regards to her reserves of electrical power too.
I've got to cut in. Now!
Acting on that line of thinking, Naru leapt into the air and angled herself for a landing between the two. As she came in for a landing, she poured chakra into her feet such that upon contact with the ground, it shook violently and a dust cloud was thrown up.
She wanted their undivided attention and she had it. Now to use it.
"Do you two know what a pain this is? You sure do know how to give me more work, Sempai." Naru scolded Misaka lightly and glanced at her, seeing the dolls hovering behind her.
"Huh? Frenda-chan's here too?" The blonde cocked her head as she recognized the dolls. They were some of the preferred tools of one of her favorite fellow blondes. "How fun."
"[Maniforce], what are you doing here?" The oldest of the trio of deadly women asked, her tone radiating caution.
"Saving the day, stopping stupidity, and maybe getting a pedi later. You?"
"Stop fooling around!" Misaka-Sempai hissed. "Answer the damn question. Why are you here?"
Naru glared at her Sempai as she replied, "To stop you from being an idiot and getting killed. Do you know how worried Saten-chan and I are about you?" The older girl looked ready to say something, but Naru ignored her and kept going. "No, you don't, you just want to be a idiot and get yourself killed trying to do the impossible."
"Saten got you involved in this didn't she?" The Electromaster accused.
"Yeah," The blonde bobbed her head. "And a damn good thing she did too. Because Sempai? You're seriously a pain with the way that you're making enemies. Though she could really do with getting off her ass more. It's just not fair how she's making me do all the legwork. Needing to focus on her info gathering my booty! I bet she just didn't want to fight anyone, that coward."
Her Sempai just stared at her with a look of exasperation and annoyance. The Number 6 however just cleared her throat pointedly as Naru wound up her rant.
Deciding to humor the walking gun battery, Naru turned to the oldest of the three, "Oi, Mugino-san, why don't you scamper off? I'm not in the mood to play nice."
The blonde shot Misaka-Sempai a dirty look at this, reminding her that she wasn't going to hold back with her either. At least not as much as she normally would have.
As expected the modelesque Level 5 took offense at Naru's dismissive tone and replied with a laser straight to her face.
Naru snorted as she fired off an arc of lightning. The bolt intercepted the laser mid-flight and diverted the blast upward into the ceiling.
"I wasn't kidding." The blonde said, her voice growing icy.
Mugino snarled at her, even as a soft gasp came from behind her.
Seriously!? She's surprised that I can manage that?
"Since when did you have the control for that?" Misaka-Sempai breathed in shock.
"[Elemental Empress], duh. You think I sit around and do nothing?" Naru asked her, her blue eyes never leaving Mugino's.
"Idiot." [Meltdowner] commented, even as she gathered together four balls of plasma.
"Your maximum, huh? Finally getting serious?"
The petite blonde threw her arms forward and a storm of lightning forked from her just as four beams of pure annihilation surged forth from Mugino. As the lightning intercepted the destructive beams that shot forth from the plasma balls. The storm scattered the beams all over the area, save for near Naru and Misaka.
Having been thwarted, the oldest girl fumed. Not that Naru cared as she curiously looked around, "Where's the rest of your lil gaggle of groupies? I miss Frenda-chan, you know? I wanted to see if I can make her pee herself. Again."
Her tone of sheer childlike glee at the possibility of traumatizing someone caught even Naru off guard. It was an utterly vicious thing to say. In that moment, she realized how terrifyingly similar she was to Mugino, a known sadist.
Both of them were arrogant and bloodthirsty too.
"You little-!" Mugino's eyes dilated as she screamed and began to gather together a massive amount of plasma, "Stop talking nonsense and take me seriously, you BRAT!"
Naru had belittled Mugino by not taking her seriously several times in the past and she had never got this angry before. So there's gotta be some reason that this time is special. Don't tell me that she's actually mad that I made fun of her teammate?
Glancing at Mikoto, Naru frowned, Guess that's another similarity between us. Both of us just can't be honest with ourselves and instead hide behind a mask. Geez, since when did two Dark Siders become so sappy?
While the blonde was busy comparing herself to her opponent, the Number 6 was channeling her anger into focusing all the plasma she could gather into a single massive mass. As the plasma built into a massive, barely stable ball, she fired the whole volatile concentration as a single immense laser.
Yawning, at the one trick pony that was the Number 6. Naru released a powerful lightning bolt to deflect it. The collision of the two forces caused the building to shake and the discharge of electrical energy to surge through it's power systems which caused the lights to sputter before cutting out entirely.
With the lights out, Naru focused on her sense of sound to compensate. Through it, she heard the sound of dozens of objects hurtling overhead in the direction of her opponent.
Heh, leave it to Sempai to use the distraction to attack with those bomb dolls.
Multiple flashes of Mugino's lasers and explosions told Naru that Misaka-Sempai's sneak attack had failed.
Hearing the frustrated huffs and puffs, Naru smirked. Though, it is a good idea. Now that [Melterdowner] is busy, it's the perfect time to end it.
Not letting the older woman recover, the blonde teleported behind her. Forming a large chakra mallet in her hand, she swung it in a bid to knock out the lower ranked Level 5.
To her surprise, Mugino whirled around with a cry of rage and fired another laser at Naru point blank, "Not this time!"
Teleporting to safety, Naru frowned at the sight that greeted her eyes as she rematerialized. In the glow of her plasma orbs, Mugino was sporting a deranged look of defiant anger.
The blonde wondered if she ever looked like that. Considering the similarities they shared, she might very well had…
A pit welled in her stomach, the mere thought didn't sit well with her.
I don't want that. I don't want to be like Mugino! I don't want to be a crazy sadist like her or wear a mask around my friends. They're the closest thing to family that I have.
Research. She had to find a way to fix this. She was sure that there was something in her manga and risque websites that could help her. She just needed to work harder to find it. There had to be!
Letting herself get distracted was a mistake though, as she realized when a worried cry from her Sempai brought her attention back to the fight at hand. Returning her focus to the world around her, she found herself faced with four lasers inches from reducing her into a bloody smear.
Thankfully, her tenant hadn't dropped his guard.
Just before the beams impacted, a sheen of dark red chakra poured out of her skin and encased her body.
"Namikaze!" Misaka-Sempai scrambled towards her, grabbing her shoulders to check the blonde, "Are you okay? Oh god, how did you- Say something?"
The blonde just sat on the ground stunned at the fact that she had let her guard down so much in a fight. So much so that she'd left herself open enough to be hit by a potentially lethal blow.
"Thanks, Kurama." Naru said aloud, confusing her Sempai.
In this world, you die, I die. And I want to live.
"Where did Number 6 go?" Naru asked, noticing that the laser shooting woman was missing.
"Huh?" Misaka-Sempai asked, as she whipped her head around. "She's gone?"
She ran away after firing off those lasers that almost killed you.
"Ah, so she ran away."
Naru frowned, she really wanted to pay the crazy woman back for almost killing her. Then again, perhaps it was for the best. She did have more important things to do right now.
I guess she gets a free pass this time. Naru reasoned with a shrug. She's most likely going to hole herself up somewhere until this blows over anyways and hunting her down would be a hassle.
Didn't you just promise yourself something? Kurama reminded pointedly.
Opps. Can't change overnight. Naru replied. Besides she deserves it.
A burst of discontent was the only response from her tenant.
Ignoring him, she dusted off her uniform and turned to her Sempai.
"What's with this lone wolf shtick? You rant at Saten-chan about it, but now here you are acting like a hypocrite. We're here for you, both of us! Hell, even if you don't trust us, there's still Shirai-chan and Uiharu-chan!"
Grounding her teeth, Misaka-Sempai just released her and marched away, "I don't need you to tell me how to do things! I'll fix this, I'll make them stop!"
"How? By blowing up a few labs?"
"If I take out all the labs involved-"
"Then they'll just find new ones! You aren't achieving anything doing this."
"You don't know that!" The older girl shouted back desperately.
"And you're in denial."
"Shut up! Shut up! Just get lost and let me do this. Please!"
Having enough of this, Naru decided the kid gloves were off.
"Sempai, this is for your own good. Sorry." The blonde declared as she charged at her friend, her miraculously still intact chakra mallet poised and ready to knock some sense into the other girl.
Misaka-Sempai eyes widened as she fumbled back, "What the-!" Quickly, using her powers, she threw whatever debris that her diminished powers could grab a hold of at the blonde.
Naru danced around, ducking over and sliding under assorted pieces of rebar and metal sheets with ease.
"Sempai, you're out of gas, stop making this harder for yourself."
The blue eyed girl's gentle scolding didn't seem appreciated as she closed the distance in a flash. Not one to simply 'give up', the chestnut haired girl instead just tried harder to hit Naru by increasing the volume of rubble she was hurling at the blonde.
Even when that failed and the [Maniforce] finally closed to close combat range, the [Railgun] still refused to surrender. Instead, she grabbed a loose piece of rebar and brandished it as a makeshift sword.
"Really? You're no swordswoman, Sempai." The Number 2 stated as her mallet shifted into a katana. She took a step forward and her Sempai inched back.
"Stop talking to me like I'm a child, Namikaze!"
"Then stop acting like one!" Naru shouted in kind, moving in close with a burst of speed.
The tired out Level 5 swung her makeshift sword gracelessly at her kohai and was easily parried. This left the older girl completely open, but Naru didn't press the advantage, instead allowing her opponent to make another wild swing. Again the agent of the City, easily parried the unskilled swing. This time using more force with the blow than beforehand, she knocked the rebar out of the older girl's hands.
Pulling a small spray bottle out of her pocket, Naru pushed it right in front of the older girl's face. Pressing the nozzle, a fine red mist sprayed into her Sempai's face.
"Hey, bleh, wha-wha ish thish?" Misaka-Sempai asked while swaying on her feet.
"Speciality knockout gas. Works like a charm." Naru smirked, as her Sempai crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. "Nighty-Night."
Looking over her downed Sempai, Naru sighed and knelt down next to her. Poking her cheek in irritation, she said, "You are being such a pain. I can't believe that I have to resort to this. Stupid hypocrite Sempai. Now to implement the second part of the plan."
Since learning of what her idiot Sempai was up to, Naru had brainstormed with Saten on a way to keep the chestnut haired girl safe. After some hard thought they'd finally hit on an idea and now that they had secured Misaka-sempai, it was time to put into action.
Placing a hand on her shoulder, Naru teleported them out of the underground area.
To a safer location.
Done and done, thanks to the team of Nameless as usual.
Now there was some nice action. Mikoto going around destroying facilities and not expecting them to set a trap for her? Just wearing a hat and a regular outfit (probably bought with a card) to disguise herself? Idiot.
Nameless: So we see the sniper from the Poltergeist arc again. The reasoning is simple. We've created an OC, let's not waste it and reduce them into a one appearance character. Not saying there aren't those running around, like the Level 6 Shift directors in this chapter, but it's something we're trying to avoid.
Speaking of those directors. They were rather unlikable, weren't they? Especially that obnoxious teenaged guy? Well, that's wholly intentional. [Cheeky grin]
E4E: Yes, because AC has so many smart kids who think they're all that. So why not make a little turd who thought the Level 6 Shift was an awesome idea. Welcome to Academy City; leave your morals at the gate.
Nameless: So there's a few things to point out in the Mugino fight.
Naru never took Mugino seriously, hence the lack of any serious offensive action by her.
Naru spacing out multiple times during the fight is a combination of the previous point and the fact that our favourite loli blonde is still in an introspective mood after the last arc. I know we said we'd tone down the CD and we're trying but considering the circumstances in-story it would be odd to not have her still be somewhat reflective at the moment.
Naru's assessment of Mugino's character is just that, hers. It is therefore obviously not entirely accurate even if there are elements of truth there.
E4E: You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!