[SS] Lighting the Fuse

They had been running when the announcement sounded and it took a few moments for him to parse what was being said, slowing to a halt as he remained vigilant for more heavily armed troops.

“That was no test. How are they planning on covering up what's happened in that café?”

He glanced sideways at the girl beside him. Even after everything she'd been through she was still naive in a lot of ways. She likely didn't comprehend the full reach and power of the organisations who 'ran' Academy City. Covering up such a small scale incident was nothing to them. A few bribes, some threats and falsified reports. All that and worse were within the capabilities of the city's 'rulers'.

“...They might've found her after all.”

"It looks that way, doesn't it?" He uttered quietly.

"Listen. You and I don't need to get involved in this. Whatever 'this' is. There's nothing keeping you from turning away now before you get in too deep. We can report this whole thing to Anti-Skill and let them deal with it. I certainly wouldn't think any less of you if you took the smart option and stayed out of it."

He looked Mikoto in the eye as he said this, but after a moment that serious exterior fell away and he found his mouth curling into a foolish smile as he predicted her response. It was obvious to anyone who knew her which path she would take in this situation.

"So. How are we going to track those guys down? If they've found her then that should make our job easier, right? They're using electronic communications after all..." He said needlessly, as though he wasn't standing next to the world's only Level 5 Electromaster.

«What do you want?»

A stern voice resounded from the other end of the connection. Hearing it, however, Satomi Mayuso immediately felt familiar with it. That pragmatic choice of words, the cold sternness ignoring all societal convention, and the rough sharpness of a drill instructor, all those were traits of one person and one person only.

«It’s been a while, Kaizen Satoshi.»

There was no use in playing it polite, yet she still attempted to, was her goal not the conversation’s content, but creating one to begin with.

«Cut it short.»

Of course he would say that. Of course he would wish to be spared of honorifics and chit chat. Again that man’s pragmatism was all that would surface here, taking the reign. Yet, in that way it would serve to become the sole challenge to her objective. She needed time. So cutting it short would in no way bring her any benefit whatsoever. Therefore…

«I’d love to congratulate you. You captured me. Good work. Very good work. I assume everything went perfectly according to your schedule, so rejoice. You have accomplished your goal, or haven’t you? Tell me, which way is it?»

She was attacking. Discarding all fears and mustering all bravery within her, Satomi Mayuso would unleash her vicious attack.

«It’s not over yet. Your side is still moving. So what do you want?»

He was a hard nut to crack.

«What I seek? Shouldn’t you already be aware of that? You are the ones engaging into this mindless chase. You are the ones attempting to eradicate me and my allies. Hence you of all people shouldn’t be----»

«You have lost. You will perish. But that’s not what I am asking. What do you want, right now?»

But once you hit the right buttons, he would spring open as though crunched by a nut cracker. That falling voice was enough of an indicator for that. She grinned.

«I want to hear: What are the next steps in your scheme? You acquired the most valuable factor, yet how will you make use of it? What is the way you will use this opportunity? I am curious. I believe you understand. After all, I do stand at the centre of this.»

Suddenly the conversation’s tone darkened. There was a shift not only in the reaction from the man on the other end as his anger slowly but surely began to boil, but from the frail innocent princess caught by the overwhelming power of war. As a flash of light ran across her round shaped glasses, that fluffy twin tail scientist transformed into a cunning demon.

She had done it. This was the path to her victory.

«Now, tell me, how will you complete your ordeal?»

«You will be brought before me. You will give me the access keys. You will bring me to your allies and that weapon. Then all of you will face your demise.»

Now how much longer would it take?

As usual, Frenda ended up being the one who would be doing the brunt of the scouting work as Mugino decided to stay behind and do whatever she wanted.

Though, for all she knew Mugino could be doing her own scouting in a way that didn’t involve her navigating through the labyrinth this are had surprisingly become. Searching for the control system had become a huge pain in the ass in a way that she couldn’t even begin to quantify. Any panels she found were purely for the ventilation system and any documents left lying around were hardly related to the central control system in this portion of the facility.

She could just hope that whatever Mugino was doing was bringing forth more progress than her own actions.

But despite her lack of any real progress, the absurd rail-like all over the place were far too much for her to ignore. But at the same time, they were far too large and plentiful for her to really do anything about aside from keeping note.

After all, trying to do anything rash at the stage where they had no information would be far more detrimental than leaving things as is.

Or so she thought.

In that sterile silence, however, Frenda’s ears began to catch wind of something.

A mechanical sound had spurned into motion and Frenda’s body immediately loosened up. Whatever was coming was something she needed to get a view of and avoid. Quickly, she grabbed a handful of her pyramid bombs and threw them up in the air.

As she immediately backed up almost ten meters on instinct, the bombs went off and their light illuminated that dark, dark facility for just a brief moment.

"Listen. You and I don't need to get involved in this. Whatever 'this' is. There's nothing keeping you from turning away now before you get in too deep. We can report this whole thing to Anti-Skill and let them deal with it. I certainly wouldn't think any less of you if you took the smart option and stayed out of it."

Mikoto originally looked at him with a thoroughly confused expression; it was odd to imply they weren't involved in this matter considering he had shoved a salt shaker in that woman's eyesocket. Even assuming that they refrained from pursuing the researcher girl from earlier, it was unlikely that they hadn't entirely alienated that seemingly military force anyway.

Furthermore...

“But the authorities won't do anything about it anyway. If the higher-ups can profit from it..” Her expression had turned fairly more grim as she spoke, and her frown that indicated her mind wandering to more unpleasant matters made it that she hadn't noticed his oddly-timed smile.

"So. How are we going to track those guys down? If they've found her then that should make our job easier, right? They're using electronic communications after all..."

Snapped out of almost heading down her negative train of thought, she looked around the district. That had been the case, hadn't it? Though there was no guarantee that it'd get them to Mayuso's side, at the very least it seemed like a good way to obtain a lead.

“It'll be difficult, but...”

Signing at him to be silent for a little bit, Mikoto closed her eyes to relax and focus. Going off electromagnetism alone, this city was making too heavy of a usage of it to pinpoint anything accurately. The current lack of presence in the district may help somewhat, since there hadn't been much time since the “test” had been called off, but even that was a stretch.

“...Huh?”

She suddenly widened her eyes, somewhat alarmed as she frowned again. There was a horribly out-of-place signal being transmitted only a few mere kilometres away. It wasn't like a typical appliance or a more regular modern, connected vehicle. Off first impressions alone she had the odd feeling that it was so carefully crafted that it had to be another of those things that truly shouldn't belong in a city filled to the brim with adolescents.

Annoyingly enough, that very notion was what they were likely looking for. And if not, then it was the only thing she could feel in her possible surroundings that would hint at anything that fit the idea of a military attack on a bland café.

Almost immediately after she realised that, she took off running. No warnings or explication had been given; she felt like they had wasted enough time chatting around, especially considering the (admittedly low) probability that she was wrong, and they likely wouldn't get another chance like this.

And what was revealed by the explosions’ light was all the more fatal.

However, it would turn out to be none of the fatal kinds she would have expected.

What came down was a single structure. Not one her eyes would understand right that first moment. But once they would, she was bound to realise its spread. From left to right. From top to bottom. Its covered the entire area above.

It was gigantic. Like a roof it was covering nearly the entirety of the shafts radius. It was massive. Heavy enough to require all those strong rails to carry it.

And it was coming down quickly, ready to easily crush both invaders under its many tons of weight.

The iron sky was falling down.


The plan had been simple: Capture the girl and transport her to the base.

It had been straight forward, not minding any complicated protocols. Once the capturing operation was executed, it would be shrouded by the announcement of an unscheduled exercise coming to an end. Then she would be loaded onto an imprisonment vehicle disguised as your average transporter.

A simple white vehicle with nothing much to offer from the outside, yet reinforced by the sturdy materials that could only be labelled as asteroid proof.

However, to further the security, three additional vehicles would serve as its company. Disguised as ordinary family cars, similar to the main transporter, they would hardly stick out, all the while each of them being equipped with a hidden turret that could easily be manoeuvred to the outside by discarding the roof. In case that wouldn’t suffice either, three additional drones were sent to monitor the streets from up above, ready to snipe any and all interference. Maximum security.

Clearly, that girl was treated like a military grade prisoner.


Clearly, she very well knew her situation.

Yet for some reason she was the least baffled out of all people. Bravely she faced off against the leader of the enemy army, as their electric communication would continue.

«Simple as always. But, there is one flaw in your plan. It is a bug I snuck into your calculations. Therefore, as a result, all you will face is an error notice.»

She was sure of it. She was entirely convinced of the turn of events she had manifested in her head.

Yet, it didn’t faze him.

«You keep talking and talking. But what is it that you have? Those people that helped you? Are you trying to tell me that a bunch of civilians you randomly met are supposed to pose any threat to Thanatos?»

«Haven’t you monitored the situation? That girl. Have you not examined her clothing? Have you not noticed that school’s emblem?»

«What? Cut the games. Spill it.»

Noticing the shift in his otherwise strong voice, she chuckled.

«That girl is an Electromaster attending Tokiwadai Middle School.»

As he fell silent the final nail had been hammered into his coffin.

It didn’t need a genius to understand the realisation he had just made. The realisation she wanted him to make. She knew time was nearly there.

«You of all people should know who Tokiwadai’s Railgun is and what she is capable of.»

Those words were filled with confidence and trust – emotions Satomi Mayuso had been building this entire time. She had only met her today, but she knew she could rely on that girl no matter what. She knew everything there was to know about her. Every fine detail. Everything. Absolutely anything. So she knew…

that girl would never let anyone down.

“Mugino! Above!”

The moment the light reflecting off the falling structure and back into her eyes, she immediately headed back to where she had started and transmitted her warning to Mugino before reaching into her skirt and pulling out a few chemical vials.

After feeling across the labels to make sure she had the right ones, she emptied the two vials into a spherical container. Once they were empty, she tossed the vials away and rotated the upper half till she heard a click.

With as much strength as she could muster, she tossed the sphere upwards and forward towards the ceiling structure.

She would melt through as much as she could. The explosion from the chemicals and the structure of the sphere would direct the hyper-corrosive byproducts into the ceiling and melt through a fair amount. Or so she hoped.

Having completely left Guy behind in her sprinting pursuit of her odd sentiment, accelerated by very convenient electromagnetic travelling, Mikoto finally arrived at the source of that signal. And likely, what they were looking for.

A very suspicious grouping of transport vehicles, for a district that was supposed to still be deserted.
It could still be that she was wrong and that what she was about to do would get her in strong trouble with Anti-Skill. Nonetheless, this would likely be her very last chance and lead to wherever Mayuso had disappeared off to.

And so, the entire plethora of vehicles found itself forcibly lifted from the ground, rendering the wheels entirely useless to flee from thereon. Once they had been fully lifted a good metre or so from the ground, they had then be flipped upside down a couple times.

She felt bad for Mayuso, providing she was in there, but the enemies from before left her no leeway of mercy.

“Hi~”

And boy would she get in trouble if those vehicles were entirely unrelated to this matter…

«Mugino! Above!»

When that shout had arrived, Mugino’s guard had already been up, had she already felt the tremor of the moving colossus. A circumstance enabling her to make the most straight forward choice momentarily. Thus, she would take aim nearly immediately, seeking out the most viable part of the structure all around. And just like that in a mere moment, speers of green light would slash across the far space, making an easy prey of her target.

Her target, however, was not the overwhelming mass rushing down towards them. Much rather it was the less obvious choice of the structure carrying it.

With the three beams, she had at her disposal, she would launch a simultaneous attack at the rails scattered about, aiming for three in particular. The positions – even though she had no actual knowledge about the majority – were something she guessed taking into account both the blue prints she had seen on their journey through the underground facility as well as the distance and schematic of those she had encountered on her way.

And just like that, a deafening impact would shake the entirety of the empty space, as all of a sudden the unknown, yet overly heavy mass would find itself caught in the malformed state the Meltdowner attack had left the sturdy rails in.

A last minute save?

No, just a temporary illusion of safety.

Not giving the two the girls any time to catch their breath, a ground shaking creaking noise would announce the continuation of the nightmarish downfall. Immediately passing the baton to certain death yet again.

And in the very next instance the final impact came, shaking the entire shaft under the countless tons of the heavy drop.

But what of the two intruders?

She may have been too lucky, or possibly too smart. Yet in the end, the hole Frenda had molten into the overly sturdy structure had been deep enough, somewhat. To her very fortune the end of the rails had been about one metre above the actual ground, forming the separation between the two unendingly tough masses. A space likely meant to enable maintenance workers to crawl underneath the steel ceiling in some not all too unlikely scenarios. And with the hole she had created, Frenda would find herself able to stand perfectly upright, with only her beret possibly getting a tiny bit too close to the sticky, caustic end.
A stance that would have meant doom at any other spot.

Yet what of Mugino?

«Frenda? Can you hear me? This is interesting. Very interesting.»

Of course, as her voice would speak up from the earpiece Frenda was wearing even now, there was no concern whatsoever for her comrade, even after that epic failure of a saving catch attempt she had just committed.

Instead she would move onwards with what mattered most, still somewhat alive.

As she stood there in an upright position, still leaned against that gigantic rail she wore her naturally displeased face. Similarly to the blonde, Mugino had found herself in a pretty confined situation, created by her own quick draw solution. At the very last moment she had managed to melt through the connector forming the bridge between the rails and the massive elevator, erasing it entirely and using the newly created free space to harbour her body…even if some areas could certainly use more space.

«This structure is pretty high. I can’t harldy make out its top from here. Given its weight and the equipment needed to carry it, I’d say it’s about four metres high. And from what we can take from the spread of the rails it likely covers the perimeter of the entire ventilation shaft. A bit surprising that it doesn’t show up on any of the blue prints, isn’t it?»

With Mugino displeasure could easily twist to pleasure. As she announced her discovery a delightful smile would form on her glossy lips.

Adding her own knowledge of the situation to Mugino’s discovery, Frenda would certainly find herself able to connect the dots by herself. Yet, even before she would get to that, she would make a new encounter as she’d look around.

The hole went quite deep into the structure, passing through a heavy armour of steel, some supporting materials and unveiling something that lay beyond. With how messy her intrusion into the foreign grounds were, it would occur behind a cover of molten materials, but still visible.

A hollow space. Deep and dark.

A shaft of some sort?


As if to answer the call of her announcement, the world began to shake around Satomi Mayuso and her capturers. With the armed men and women’s shouts growing ever more confused, she knew the time for her rescue had come.

Yet, admittedly, she didn’t know in which form.

All of a sudden, the sensation of gravity was lost, leaving each and everyone in the confined space to fall over, like chips in a bag, leaving them to float for a just a moment, before making them crash into the next best wall just the next instance. A rough landing to say the least.

She couldn’t know, but this was what had happened for all three of those vehicles at the very same time without any indicator enabling them to predict the sudden turn. Thus, all three crews were caught entirely off guard, becoming victim to a definitely critical attack.

After slamming into the ground, the cars would drift across the sturdy asphalt for a few metres before coming to a halt due to lost momentum – one of them due to crashing into an illegally parked car.

Then, where there had been panicked shouts before, there was only silence.

Was it over?

With her head and stomach spinning and her vision blurry, the blue haired fluffy pig tails researcher girl found herself to be the sole lucky passenger, having landed rather softly, compared to the two guards who come to cushion her fall.

Still, even then she needed two moments. One to adjust to the circumstances and another to fiddle around in search for her glasses.

With at least a bit of her composure and vision regained, she would force her shaky legs towards the vehicle’s back door, hurriedly making sure to break through the security encryption, using the key card she’d snatched from one of her abductors.

And then, finally she would catch fresh air again, becoming the first of the many people to stumble out from the turned over vehicles, shaky on her legs and with a strong need to unleash the contents of her stomach right away. An urge she could only resist because she collapsed onto the dry asphalt right away.

«…uuuu…..I think my intrigue…has been saturated…»

However, being the first to return to their legs didn’t mean she was the last to.

With a loud swooshing sound, another announced their presence. A single man had crawled out of one of the other flipped vehicles, mounting a heavy device on his shoulders. A rocket launcher, the kind meant to deal with tanks. One he had just fired, sending a high-speed projectile flying straight towards that monster of a girl.

A desperate last resort attempt at a comeback.