Within the prison walls

[ACSRT: only my UNDO-KAI]

Once they were through the outer wall, it didn't take long for others to notice there was a way inside.

Misaka's team had been delayed outside the walls setting up a plan for later while Kongou's team had been rushing ahead, so she and her friends were at least able to avoid the coming crush.

The wave of people crashed towards the hole that Misaka's team had just entered through and Uiharu got caught up in it and carried through the opening in a crowd crush. Joule worried about them getting hurt in the crush.

The people were acting like a liquid forced too fast through a tube, when people reached the other side of the wall though, they began to split up and flow throughout the interior of the prison.

Most of them were heading in the direction of the girls building as that was where the target prisoner of the experiment was held.

Misaka, Shirai and Saten were spat out and they quickly rushed to one side to clear the exit for Uiharu, but she'd ended up caught a bit back in the crowd crush.

Some guard robots approached and now that they were within the walls, no powers could be used against them.

Either they had to go, leaving Uiharu behind, or they needed to just deal with these robots.

It was Uiharu who made the choice for them as it happened.

"Saten!" She called "Go on without me! I'll continue on my own!"

Saten grit her teeth as Misaka pointed out the robots were coming and they'd better get a move on.

Shirai looked over at the crowd crush too and pointed.

"Uiharu, link up with Joule when you can to keep up to date!"

"Right!" The unathletic judgement member called back.

Saten looked back as they started to run "Be careful Uiharu!"

As they started to run though, Shirai's earpiece buzzed. Joule's voice came out.

"You guys are heading the wrong way." Joule probably had a map up it seemed "Turn right up ahead."

The team did so, leading them towards the prison.

They ran into a guard robot with a weird, giant, human face. It was only after screaming and shooting it with a compressed air rifle that they'd been lent earlier by the team who'd had the suits that helped make the opening that Shirai recognised it as the face of the prison director they'd seen in the report advertising this event.

She still looked to be in shock though for a moment after the robot collapsed to the ground.

"You know that thing only had one shot?" Misaka noted. She'd said something about that before she'd passed it to her.

Shirai winced, breaking out of her shock at Misaka's voice "Ah, yes. I do. Sorry."

Saten looked down at the robot "I don't really blame you for firing at this thing."

It was quite horrifying.

As they ran, they encountered Kongou's group changing outfits. It looked like some black bodysuit that hugged their curves. Kongou looked up happily as she saw them.

"Ah, there you are, I was wondering when you'd get here. I had a gift for you."

She held up a briefcase "It has a few more copies of these bodysuits in. It's made of an absorbent material made by my family's conglomerate. They can fool various kinds of sensors."

One of her friends looked up from putting a plate of the suit on "It's actually broken into multiple pieces, so you can put it on over your uniforms."

As Joule looked through Shriai's monocle, she saw the girl wipe her nose to reveal a small string of blood.

Through Kuroko's ear came a small sigh.

Misaka… didn't look as convinced. She sighed in response to Kongou's offer but refused.

"I appreciate the offer, but this was meant to be a competition, it would feel wrong to use these."

Misaka then stepped a bit closer to Kongou and whispered something. Shirai was incredibly jealous of that and as Misaka stepped back, Kongou just let off a soft "Oh."

Shaking her head Kongou steadied herself "Right, yes, I'll keep that in mind. Really Misaka I wasn't even thinking about that. Anyway-"

She took another breath "What about your secret weapon Misaka? I thought it would be here by now?"

"I set them up to wait until the entryway was clear, I didn't want to hurt anyone with them." Misaka explained "They might be a while longer."

As they talked Saten tilted her head "Hey, do you hear that?"

Kongou froze "Yes I do, buzzing."

"Buzzing?" Shirai looked around and caught sight of it first. Miniature robotic wasps.

Misaka winced "I kind of remember these guys? Not sure though, it was when… you know, Daihase and Shokuhou?"

"They're likely able to inject you with sleeping drugs?" Kongou suggested as she pulled a hood up on her bodysuit "I'll leave the case with you anyway, just in case, for now though-"

She and her team ran off leaving Misaka's team surrounded by wasps.

"We'll have to outrun them!" Misaka decided, snatching the case up off the floor as to not leave them behind. However as they turned to run another robot appeared. A wrist span-thick robotic centipede that quickly wrapped around Saten.

"No Saten!" Misaka turned but there was nothing she could do, the AIM jammer and the wasps would make sure of that. At least until-

Kuroko caught it out of the corner of her eye. A splash of liquid falling towards Saten as if tossed out of a flash.

The liquid hit Saten but only seemed to affect the centipede, making it redden and fall apart as if suddenly experiencing weeks of rust.

Kuroko couldn't try to call out to whoever had helped them though, instead it was more important for them to grab Saten and pull her onward towards the girl's building and away from the wasps.

They couldn't escape though, the wasps were fast and they were flying as a swarm.

Shirai called out though "I'll hold them off, the rest of you, get inside. I'll meet up with Uiharu when she gets here."

This was not a heroic sacrifice. She had hope.

Misaka looked like she would refuse but Shirai gave her a confident nod.

Misaka and Saten nodded before running on while Shirai made some calculations and nodded.

She might not be able to teleport right now but her brain could calculate in 11 dimensions. As the wasps flew at her, she readied herself and lashed out with an arcing high kick taking out dozens of wasps in one move.

She dodged back though as this would only get harder the more she dealt with.

Due to that…

And then the wasps just… began ignoring her. They split down the middle, probably heading off to bother other contestants. Why?

"Hey Shirai!"

Shirai almost couldn't believe her eyes as she saw a small trio of security robots (the non-creepy ones) driving over to her with a girl lazily sitting on their back with her palm-sized laptop out.

"Uiharu?"

Author note:

Having Joule ready to overwatch for them changed the sequence of events quite a bit from canon, mostly because Misaka's team didn't go the wrong way at first.

Of course, this will make things more interesting. Especially because Misaka is currently in the lead and Joule has no camera there. She can't see what's going on inside until Uiharu and Shirai get in.