A Certain Scientific Experiment (Arc 3 Main Story)

Kuroko watched as Guy landed next to her with shrapnel sticking into his body. Despite his powerlessness, he was still standing up to Accelerator with a smile on his face, albeit a forced one.

Even as Accelerator readied for his next onslaught, he was still working to help protect her and Mikoto.

"We're gonna have to run." Guy laid the situation bare to her. "Think you can get our Ace to safety if I hold that bastard off?" He asked while getting to his feet.

Ahh…why was I getting so bogged down like this? She thought. She had realized something. She came out here against all odds for a reason. Even if she could not fight Accelerator…even if she was powerless against him, there was still something she could do.

Like Guy, she rose to her feet, grimacing at the pain from the pain in her arm and leg but she was still able to focus. She could still act. "Of course I can. Onee-sama is my dear, dear friend." She smiled. "It would be pretty disappointing if I couldn't." It was not a grand smile. It was not some grand gesture. It was merely a sign that she had grasped onto a new hope and refused to let it go.

"Make it quick. I don't want to take too long with him."

Kuroko gave off a nod before teleporting to her Onee-sama without even a word. After all, there was no need for words at this point. Only action would suffice.

"Onee-sama!" She exclaimed to Mikoto, stifling any urges to try and hug her friend. "We need to hurry and escape the area. That barbar--I mean sensei is holding off Accelerator so we can get you and your Sister out of here. We have to hurry and get your Sister, he won't hold out for long."

The girl wasn't visibly bleeding that much, yet she wouldn't be surprised if she suffered from a lot of grave internal damage as the skinny Level 5 repeatedly pounded into her. At the same time, it couldn't be said she was openly trying to defend herself.

“Sorry I took so long.”

And though she was expecting this to be her end, something very, very unlikely happened. Mikoto's eyes widened in shock, there was no way that could be possible... “What the hell are you...” She muttered as she forced her upper body back up, becoming spectator to the beat-up her teacher was given.

“What the hell are you doing here?! Get away, you're going to die even if you stay defensive!!” She yelled in pure terror, she was certain she had taken him out earlier enough that he wouldn't be able to interfere, but she realised as she gritted her teeth at the sight of all the people who intervened for her sake that it wouldn't work on him; it never did. It made her happy, but it also disgusted her to no end that so many people would help someone pathetic.

"We need to hurry and escape the area. That barbar--I mean sensei is holding off Accelerator so we can get you and your Sister out of here. We have to hurry and get your Sister, he won't hold out for long."

“But he...!”  

...Wait, something clicked as Mikoto closely thought about it. How did Kuroko know about her Sisters and the project in the first place? Mikoto asked herself that as she stared incredulously at the younger girl who was trying to teleport her away. “Kuroko, you... went through my files?”

"But he…!" Mikoto had seemed to start to try and protest against Guy's intervention and current beating. However, she seemed to speak on a different subject immediately after. "Kuroko, you…went through my files?"

Those words dug at the twin-tailed girl's core. Of course, she had looked through her files. She did it knowing Mikoto would probably not take it well if she found out. She was fully prepared to hear this question eventually asked, or so she thought. But it still hurt. It definitely hurt.

Under normal circumstances, she would have probably stuttered and tried to make some cover story off the top of her head. Under normal circumstances, she would have probably tried to maintain her trust somehow and keep it from crumbling under any circumstances.

But now was not a set of normal circumstances. It was far from it. The priority was to protect Mikoto, her dear onee-sama. As long as she could successfully do that, nothing else mattered. Even if it pained Kuroko, she was fine and willing to lose Mikoto's trust in her. Even if those bonds crumbled apart, she could always work to repair them so long as Mikoto was alive. In the end, that was fine with her.

There was no point in hiding that she made a gross invasion of her privacy.

"ONEE-SAMA!" She shouted, gripping on Mikoto's wrist. However, this was no longer her typical shout of adoration or longing. This was her plea. "I know you would not have liked me to have looked at your files but I had to. You can berate me, punish me, and even cut your ties off from me if necessary. I will even bow down in apology for as long as it would take to satisfy you when all is said and done. But now is not the time! We have to get you and your Sister to safety as soon as possible so that we can minimize how hurt that barbarian gets. So, where is your Sister, Onee-sama?!"

Really, the last thing Mikoto felt she deserved was a friend like this, she thought as she slightly trembled. She used her free hand to point a few metres away, towards where she had previously dropped off the Sister with a metal beam.

Kuroko had a point, the more they'd argue and the more likely it was that the reckless boy near them would be killed off. Time was of the essence.

“Over there, I think...” Mikoto muttered defeatedly, though it was likely the Sister was moving towards them. As much as she wanted to argue with Kuroko, she could only follow along until she made sure Kuroko was in safety. If she tried to knock her out now, it would most certainly doom the twin-tailed girl and their teacher.

"Over there, I think…" Mikoto muttered while pointing off in another direction. Sure enough, Kuroko was able to spot the brown-haired girl in a Tokiwadai uniform staggering off in that distance.

Kuroko smiled somewhat. Even if it possibly was only temporary, her onee-sama had trusted her enough to cooperate in getting them out.

"All right, onee-sama. Let's go!" With that, she immediately teleported over to the Sister in the distance and landed right next to her.

As soon as she touched ground, she grabbed at the wrist of the Sister. It was at that moment when she realized that she did not have some sort of name to refer to them as aside from the 'Sisters'.  So, she came up with a temporary one the spot. "Come on, little Sister. We need to get out of here."

She was hurt seriously hurt and if she was correct she was suffering from internal bleeding. But she wasn't going to cry, she wasn't going to complain. She had died over 10,000 times and she had remembered each one. Since she had experience each one thanks for the Misaka network. This indifference to pain and her own suffering was starting to hinder her ability to act as she nearly collapsed on her way towards the others.

"Misaka seems to have taken more damaged from her fight then she had realized. Mentioned Misaka" The sister's conscious was failing and she would of easily collapse immediately if it wasn't for a sudden tug at her wrist. "Come on, little Sister. We need to get out of here." The tug was enough to keep her awake and she look up towards she remembered quite strongly. Though she herself didn't meet the twin tailed girl Kuroko. But it was Misaka 10032 who was observing through the Misaka network. The one who had scared the poor kitten from before and horribly ended up stalking 10032 with poor results.

"Judgement girl... Why... Why are you here?"

The ground beneath Guy's feet shook with every slow, deliberate step Accelerator took. He scanned the horizon slowly for traces of the Electromaster and her clone before his keen eyes spotted them perched on the distant container. With a slow, sighing exhale he lifted the rebar in his hand like a javelin and launched it. The air split with a crack as the steel rod broke the sound barrier, narrowly missing the girls in the distance.

Accelerator grunted, tapping his foot and another piece of rebar jumped from the ground with the shockwave. He snatched it out of the air and took aim again.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Guy called out from Accelerator's blindside. The albino spun to face him just as a fist shot towards his jaw. Guy felt his arm shudder with the collision. The sensation was as if he had just punched a reinforced wall. He staggered backwards shaking his hand. "If you want to go after them you'll need to deal with me first."

Accelerator responded with a casual backhand, swatting Guy away like a fly. The young teacher came to rest a few feet back, his head swimming.

OK. So a frontal assault isn't going to work. Guy surmised, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. So what's plan B? He looked around for something, anything he could use to equal the odds. His eyes came to rest on the industrial crane dangling overhead.

[OOC Note: Dialogue applies whether she dodges or not, so nothing in the post should influence her actions... I think.]

«Oh well, let’s end that jumpy kiddy game!»

The scene unfolding in front of her made the girl who had removed her school's blazer grow a somewhat maniacal smirk, with an expression bearing an odd mixture of fear from the raw danger around her and of amusement from the people fighting it, as she slowly bent her legs to jump.

“You know, I dare say this city is as fascinating as always even if it now allows civilians to meddle in its private business.”  She started in a cocky and provoking manner as successfully landed where she had intended – on the mystery person's container. The girl's hair slightly flew around despite the lack of wind and alongside her, three fireballs had aimed aimed to crash right into the masked person while their guard was down.

“I mean, isn't it fascinating how willingly idiots will throw their lives away for overly heroic ideals?”

This would surely be enough to buy some time for the bunch of reckless girls to escape, but even without that in mind the girl found herself meddling in this dangerous environment for a very specific reason.

Her own personal entertainment.

She would most likely regret stepping out of her observing position, the enemy this time was nothing she could handle with any ease. Despite that, the girl still stood in the way of someone who would mercilessly kill to allow Accelerator to continue his experiments as ordered by the darkest sides of the city for the sake of a show she refused to miss out on.

“Do me a favour and let me enjoy these fools' parade a bit more, will you? I want to see if their naïve morality can overturn this city's expectations.” As she ended, the amusement in her face slowly shifted to a more serious expression.

Accelerator launched the steel bar in his hands, sending it spinning end over end towards his intended targets. Fuck making them suffer. Fuck proving a point. Fuck this whole God damned experiment. He just wanted the Electromaster and her friends dead. With the force and speed of his Vector Change ability behind it, the blunt object had been transformed into a whirring helicopter blade capable of smashing through anything in its path. Any person who stood in its way would surely be cut in half.

But he wasn't done with just that. Stomping forwards the cables and reinforced girders jumped skywards, tearing free from their moorings and rising up like writhing snakes, shooting up into the sky to rain down on the girls like a shower of arrows on an ancient battlefield... Just as a cluster of falling construction equipment came crashing down from the crane overhead.

The deadly projectiles clashed against the falling obstructions and the whole lot fell on top of the white haired youth who gritted his teeth angrily. This was absurd!

Up above, Guy watched with satisfaction as the monster was crushed beneath a ton of metal. But his relief turned to disbelief as a bony white hand reached up through the wreckage.

"You've got to be kidding me."

What was supposed to be a simple moment to teleport out was immediately interrupted at the sound of a rebar being launched at the three girls and barely missing her. Kuroko's calculations were immediately cut off and her focus was immediately broken.

That was way too close for comfort. She thought for a second before reforming her focus. Ah, forget it. I have to teleport us out of here before another attack like that can hit us.

At this point there was no point in worrying about whether another attack was coming. She had to get her onee-sama and the sister out of there. So, she closed her eyes and ran the calculations in her head.

She paid no mind to the sound of Accelerator's next incoming attacks. The sounds of the spinning rebar and rain of rebars never even reached her as the three girls had instantly disappeared from the battlefield right before the spinning rebar cut through where the girls had been and another rebar had stabbed straight into the ground that she was once standing on.

After two jumps through her teleportation, the girls were standing in an alleyway about a hundred meters away from the battlefield.

"You asked why I came, right?" Kuroko directed towards the Sister. "It's quite simple, actually. I came to save Onee-sama and her Sister. That's all it is and that's all it needs to be."

To say she was caught off guard was an understatement. Though she had a vague awareness of this person's peculiar ability from their previous demonstrations, Natsumi wasn't specifically sure of what to expect.

In which case the last thing that would've come to her mind was the definition of a true “human bullet”.

Natsumi had slightly moved towards one of the container's edges before the person successfully got close to her but the distance had been travelled far too fast to her own liking; earning her a sense of dreaded discomfort as the person nearly landed a punch on her throat. (...Fuck!) She thought and suddenly, a wall of flames radiating extreme heat emerged; it neared about two metres in height and its width was fairly enough to protect the slender girl.

A wall of that size was quite demanding and, frankly, exhausting to keep up for any amount of time but it didn't seem like the girl had a choice if she cared about her neck. The split second of peace the wall offered allowed her to run off the edge she had somehow managed to get closer to; willingly falling off the stacked pile as she bombarded the woman with numerous fireballs that had merged into a wave at a snap of her fingers.

He watched the three girls vanish from sight. That was the hard part done with, now all he had to do was get himself and Natsumi out of danger and...

The crane shook beneath Guy's feet and he staggered against the railing. Down below Accelerator kicked the supporting struts of the machine and they buckled sharply, causing the tower to list dangerously to one side.

Going down wasn't an option. If the fall didn't kill him, then the angry albino would. Guy glanced across to the next crane along. If he could make it across the arm he should be able to jump. It was more than a gamble, it was pure insanity.

His feet clattered against the walkway of the crane arm as another supporting leg gave out from underneath it. The already tilting tower pitched forward and just as the ground gave out from under his feet Guy propelled himself forwards one last time. His hand reached out for the cable of the second crane and he felt his shoulder jar from the sudden stop. He didn't have time to congratulate himself on a death defying escape. Swinging his weight towards the rooftop of the dockyard's warehouse, he tumbled onto the corrugated steel surface with a groan.

(Capable of throwing containers into the water and capable of achieving inhuman speed?! They just smashed through a fucking wall of fire, goddammit!)

The landing had been quite rough on the back of the girl who was unused to throwing herself out of the path of what was comparable to a bullet. But in the time she fell, she thought she could see in her peripheral vision the blurry, faraway sight of a specific boy jumping from a crane to another as his albino pursuer caused destruction all around.

One thing that passed through her mind was that, if her mind wasn't going insane, he was definitely not a normal person, and though she wanted to keep on looking to confirm her doubts on that matter, it most certainly wasn't anything close to an option right now.

(OST: watch out!)

She confirmed that fact to herself as the enemy temporarily retreated while she rose back only to her knees in an odd crouching position that leaned outwards with a hand on the ground to balance herself and deeply inhaled. (Calm down and think.) She told herself in her slight intimidation of the enemy's unknown ability. (No matter what, Esper can't have two abilities, which means those two things have to be linked...)

(Increased force? That's the only thing that would justify lifting a container like it's nothing and it would explain why they're able to move so fast by propelling their feet with it, but even then that still tells me nothing on the limits or the counters... If that's it then I need to make sure they don't hit me or I'm plenty layers of screwed.)

Despite her rushing thoughts to analyse the enemy's ability, she was almost like in a meditation state as the girl clearly listened to her surroundings while tuning out any interferences such as the fight going on nearby. And the purpose of that was very simple; to feel the one thing that would give the girl the dodging upper hand. Something that people from the depths of Academy City couldn't hide well, especially this person seemingly dedicated to fighting:

Killing intent.

«You ain’t bad, but that isn’t gonna save you!»

Just as the person had taken advantage of Natsumi's earlier speech, Natsumi was taking advantage of the aura the person gave off; that of a predator's.

As that human bullet arrived faster than what the eye could follow with the intent of crashing right into her, Natsumi bowed her head and stretched her limbs to push herself sideways harshly onto the ground to narrowly dodge the surely lethal attack. She then using her forearms to quickly force herself back up again as she started running backwards and throwing a multitude of fiery waves towards the enemy as she ran towards the set of containers they had previously been on, setting her back against them.

Needless to say, those weren't exactly kind moves for her arms or ankles.

(This is bad... If they just smashed through a wall of fire that's supposed to burn your skin off then there's nothing I can do with normal means. I'd need something to my advantage area-wide to think about stopping them...)

...

(Stopping?)

Then she wondered something: What was in those containers anyway?

"You asked why I came, right?" Kuroko directed towards the Sister. "It's quite simple, actually. I came to save Onee-sama and her Sister. That's all it is and that's all it needs to be." The sister known as 10031 was shocked to some degree indicated by her eyes widening in response. Now some distance away from the experimental area her mind wasn't so caught up about worrying for the others. Ironically it was when she was away that she had realised she had worried so much. ... "Worry? Misaka asks thinking about that word." What had it truly mean to the sister was rather new, though she has already displayed it numerous times very recently.

Even this girl in front of her had worried recently to a large degree over Onee-Sama and now she was also incliuding

And without realising beneath the weight of her own worry for them, the normal cool beauty demeanor she had always displayed started to crack even more. This had only swelled more emotions deep within her self that she struggled against. Emotions that just don't feel right with her and will probably never understand. She wasn't the only one as numerous other sisters connected to the network was witnessing what Misaka 10031 was seeing right now. And she could hear their whispers of confusion over and over in her mind as she continued to stare back at Kuroko in response. "Sister? asks Misaka" She knew the meaning of that term. But was it even right to call her just that? She was one of many 'Misaka sisters' a product designed for a purpose and nothing more....

"Moving in position to begin experiment says Misaka 10032" among the many confused voices echoing through the Misaka Network, one stood out among the rest with surprisingly a calm tone which fitted the normal behavior made iconic by the sisters.

"This Misaka's experiment hasn't finished yet Says Misaka who stands up in response. There is no need or authority to begin yours 10032. Despite the interruptions reminds Misaka we have to finish the experiment. "

"As of a few minutes again experiment number 10031 had ended with the disappearance of that sister from the testing site. And according to the scheduled planned this means experiment number 10032 is authorized to go ahead Says Misaka 10032 finding the perfect location."

"Misaka doesn't understand your intention 10032, the experiments had never progressed unless we Misakas can no longer or we have defeated Accelerator reminds Misaka 10031."

"They worried about us... Misaka doesn't properly understand, but she has seen it push them to dangerous lengths to help those they worried about and could this mean what they doing here is for us Misakas? .... This one isn't entirely sure, but there is something this Misaka is sure about and that is by returning the favor declares Misaka 10032 as she finishes her preparations..."

"10031 asks 10032 to share her location on the network. Where are you asks Misaka 10031"  


Disagreements within the Misaka network as 10032 shares her location at 10031's request to find her closer then she had expected. The only difference was she was far up above them on one of the buildings looking from a distance towards the scene of the chaos which had derailed the project. This sister 10032 hadn't lost her cool beauty demeanor as she leans down behind the Metal Eater Mx and loads the final bullet in the cartridge.

The risk was known to this sister, the fear of hitting Accelerator could mean her death from previous experimental records. But that wasn't her intention at all, since the only thing on this sister's mind was returning the favor and there was more then one way to skin a cat.  

"Nyaa..."

The same black little kitten was at the sister's side which cause the sister to look towards it for a single moment. Putting her finger in front of her mouth the sister responds. "Neko... shhh whispers Misaka"

(Guess he ran... Here's hoping the other nutcase won't come after me now...)

So she had thought about Guy but at the person's unwelcome comments, Natsumi was sent off her thought train and incoherently muttered something about 'not looking like berserker gorillas like them' despite the gravity of the situation. But slowly her face twisted into a smirk as the human bullet came charging towards her while she removed her back from direct contact with the set of containers, ready to dodge again.

The fact that even though cloth, thanks to her back's tender skin, she could tell she had completed her objective, it surely meant that she had done so particularly well.

“At least, the “princess” isn't the one who's going to get their pay-check cut for focusing on the wrong opponent and allowing the targets to escape!” She said with a grin as she bent her legs to fall without leaning forwards but instead backwards to hopefully barely graze the attack again, though while nearly slamming her head against the containers and scratching her knees on the ground.

After that, she stretched her legs out again to jump away from Mari slantwise, using her hands to slightly roll and push herself back onto her feet by bending and stretching her arms. With that landing, the girl was prepared to either run as fast as she could away from the cannon ball or duck and hope it'd help her avoid the potential consequences of her dodging out of the way, even if she did have quite the preference for the latter over the former.

In the aftermath of Mari's assault a thick cover of dust had enveloped the 'battlefield' like rolling mist. Someone grabbed Natsumi's shoulder from behind and pulled her from the cloud.

"Time for us to get lost." He said, helping her to walk by slinging her arm over his shoulder. "It doesn't matter how good the Directors are at cover ups, this much commotion will have caught someone's attention." He coughed weakly. It was clear that he was reaching his limit. If he hadn't passed it already. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to stick around and get blamed for this."

The two of them staggered away from the waterfront and into the night.

Accelerator was breathing hard. Long, ragged, growling breaths.

They'd gotten away. Defied him. Those vermin who weren't even fit to lick his shoes.

His breaths grew louder, more strained. His hand started to tremble and his teeth ground loudly.

They'd made a fool of him.

Accelerator's bestial growling grew until the sound could not be contained. He erupted in a howling cry.

"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!" And the cloud of dust exploded in a ball of flame along with him. The dust explosion ripped through the waterfront.

In an abandoned building of the 10^th District.

District 10, a well known location of Academy City for its urban decay and the basic hideout district for most Skill-Out members thanks to a lack of proper security. Not usually a place you would fancy for a visit especially bearing in mind that the District was particularly unwelcoming with its graveyard for the occasional dead students of the city and the Reformatory for the students that have misused their abilities.

In other words, the best place to hide for the suicidal group that had declared war against the Dark Side by attempting to go against experimentations that had the purpose of developing the first Level 6 the city could boast of... And unfortunately for their chances of survivals, they had succeeded in disrupting the experimentations and were currently taking care of one of its subjects.

But a simple hideout was nothing difficult to find in this district and in this odd building that had seemingly once been a lair for particularly rowdy Skill-Out members despite its lack of any sort of furniture besides a very simplistic couch and table, one could find many old weapons of all sorts laying around and various first-aid kits, most likely for the most rash delinquents of the group.

“So while I'm sure everyone wants to make a good, refreshing trip to the hospital...” Natsumi trailed off as she gradually glanced at the injured lot of suicidal idiots while she sat down on a couch that looked like it had gone through many wars by how destroyed it was. “...If we want to stay alive then that is not an option. And make sure to keep it quiet, I don't want Skill-Out on my ass as well.”

“You guys wouldn't be in this situation if you had just stayed away instead of trying to save me.” Mikoto eased herself on the ground while she took a quick peek at Imouto, and growled a mutter in annoyance at the older girl whom she felt was at fault for the massive disruption of her plan. “Especially if you had butted out.”

“I wonder what you're talking about.” Natsumi smirked and shrugged as an accompaniment to her reply.

To this, Mikoto only sighed and frowned as she didn't have the energy to seek a fight just yet, turning instead her attention to Imouto once more in profound worry to analyse any potentially severe injuries she could have suffered, only deciding to focus elsewhere once she had confirmed that nothing seemed wrong.

She felt reluctant and even fairly scared to openly talk to Imouto and ask her if she was okay after her utter failure at doing what she had set out to accomplish to save her, so instead Mikoto stared deeply at the severely injured Kuroko. "I don't enjoy the idea that you went through my files, but I should have expected that you would turn over the city to find me." She tentatively shot humorously at the younger girl with a sad, apologetic smile before sincerely apologising and bowing her head.

"Sorry for worrying you so much, Kuroko."

After her apology she rose her head and stared at Guy who was as equally beaten up as the rest of the lot, if not more, for the simple reason that one question plagued her mind and it was likely that the question was shared amidst all girls of the group. But she was interrupted by Natsumi before she could even utter the question.

"The "try and make sense of this shitstorm" chat is nice and all but if anyone's got a plan on how to get out of this mess, I'm all-ears." It was unlikely they would even be able to step outside the District alive without a proper plan and in due time, even this place would become dangerous. "Shirai, supposedly-reliable-adult-I'm-supposed-to-trust, any ideas?"

Kuroko was grateful for many things. Getting away from Accelerator alive was one thing. Successfully getting Mikoto out of there alive was another. Getting the Sister out of there was another. Even having this moment of rest was something to be grateful for. So, even though she was in the run-down District 10, she could live with it. It was not the worst result. Even though, she could still feel the pain all over her body from being thrown around along with the pain from her own stakes piercing herself, it was definitely not the worst result.

So, Kuroko avoided complaining about the situation. She took one of the first aid kits that were lying around and opened it. Luckily, it seemed the disinfectants inside the kit were nowhere close to their expiration date and the bandages inside seemed to be unopened.

She took a seat next to Mikoto and leaned on the wall. As she started the process of disinfecting her open wounds.

“So while I'm sure everyone wants to make a good, refreshing trip to the hospital…” Natsumi spoke. “...If we want to stay alive then that is not an option. And make sure to keep it quiet, I don't want Skill-Out on my ass as well.”

“You guys wouldn't be in this situation if you had just stayed away instead of trying to save me.” Mikoto spoke in turn.

"Onee-sama…"

“Especially if you had butted out.”

“I wonder what you're talking about.”

Kuroko watched as Mikoto turned her head to the Sister and then to her. Kuroko found herself a bit surprised at Mikoto's deep stare. "I don't enjoy the idea that you went through my files, but I should have expected that you would turn over the city to find me."

"Onee-sama…" Kuroko was just as surprised that Mikoto could drop any humorous quips in this kind of situation. But, it was likely her way of dealing with the confusing situation at hand. At least, that is definitely what it seemed to be since Mikoto shortly after bowed her head in apology.

"Sorry for worrying you so much, Kuroko."

That simple gesture was too much. Kuroko cracked a gentle smile at those words. "It's fine, onee-sama. Really, though…you should learn to trust your loyal Kuroko a bit more. I will run to your side and support you no matter how difficult things get. I am right here by your side for you to lean on. So, you should trust me more often, onee-sama."

"The "try and make sense of this shitstorm" chat is nice and all but if anyone's got a plan on how to get out of this mess, I'm all-ears. Shirai, supposedly-reliable-adult-I'm-supposed-to-trust, any ideas?"

"Geh." Kuroko could have done without the subtle jabs, but Natsumi had a point. They all needed to get out of this mess somehow. "As far as leaving this place safely, I can teleport people in shifts of 2 at a time once I numb the pain on these wounds on my limbs. But, something has been bugging me for a while. Remember what the papers about the experiment said? That the entire experiment was based on the assumption that the Number 1 would kill Onee-sama within 185 moves? Even though we've intervened, our actions would likely be counted as negligible by the scientists watching the experiment progress, especially due to there being another person on their side working to prevent this. Not to mention that we made a mess out of one of the experimental trials. We've thrown off the experiment quite a bit with our actions. Do you think it has been pushed to a point of no return already?"

Perhaps it was subconscious but Kuroko seemed to be edging away from trying to confront Accelerator again. After all, none of the people in the room could do anything to stop it. Perhaps the best case was that the experiment was already over due to the base assumption being cracked apart but life usually does not tend to be that convenient.

“Even if you teleport you'll be caught since we have nowhere to hide right now. Academy City doesn't like to be fucked around with.” Natsumi pointed out as she raised her hand in slight interruption, pondering Kuroko's question before arriving to a conclusion.

“It'd be nice and nifty if it were the case, but we only meddled on the surface of the experimentation by saving the clone.” She said as she threw a first aid kit to Imouto and brought her knees to her chest.

“Because if they predicted that I would be killed within a set amount of moves, then it means they expected that I would meddle and created themselves a safety margin for whatever could happen to Accelerator, the Sisters, and anyone related, is that what you're thinking?” Mikoto continued with a question, after a glare at Natsumi for her choice of words, in the grim tone that had been plaguing her mind for the past weeks.

“Precisely. You're not going to manage to make them think they're in the wrong until you strike the core of the experiments, the idea that started it all; anything else is things they had predicted precisely to stop people from interrupted the experiments.”

But there was one thing they all knew to be true; they could not possibly disprove that killing Mikoto 128 times would not make Accelerator grow to Level 6. So that idea was already out the window, leaving them screwed to think of an idea to stop the experiments before time would run out for them.

“So, as I said, if any of you has an idea of something we can do now to get out of this mess then by all means, suggest away.” Natsumi muttered in utter boredom as she looked at Guy, Kuroko and Imouto, though she was slightly worried at the thought that perhaps the city would be ready to nuke down the building just to get rid of the meddling party; anything could happen at this point.