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**robkelk**

That's a placeholder title for the forum. This is going into the main story thread on the wiki, so it doesn't need a "real" title.

EDIT: Post-retcon, all stories get titles. This one's is 5 vs 5

Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 4, 2017
11:27 AM

"I'm not talking to Mii right now."

Rob raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" he asked over his coffee cup.

"Her teams won yesterday."

"Playing what?"

"Basketball. The Hoops Classic games."

"Oh, right - the university matches. I didn't know you followed the varsity games."

Ami smiled. "I don't, but it seems like everybody else in my classes does." She took a sip of her own coffee. "Oh, this is good."

"Better than what comes out of the coffeemaker at home, right?" Rob took a quick sip of his coffee while Ami nodded. "Bridgehead is a local chain, and they do good coffee. I don't know what I'd do if they ever got bought out by one of the big chains." He put his coffee cup down. "But you wanted to talk where everybody else couldn't overhear us."

"I did, yes."

Ami took a long, slow drink from her cup.

People walked past the coffee shop, neither knowing nor caring what was happening on the other side of the shop's front window.

He didn't rush her.

"I finally got to talk with Hyoga about that link we all share."

He knew exactly which link she was talking about; under whatever spectrum it was that Skuld's glasses let them see, it manifested as a red string tied between their pinkie fingers. It was there when they first had the ability to look - which was after they had confessed their love for each other - and was strengthened when Hyoga learned how to stop her feelings for Rob from bleeding across their link. They thought that it would have dissolved once they discovered that their emotions were being controlled... but the connection was still there after they had used a divine wish to become free of outside influences.

"I'm almost afraid to ask what she said."

Ami knew that his love for her was real. She also knew he was three times as old as her, and respected that, so far, he had manifested his love for her only with words, not with deeds. She took another drink of her coffee to have an excuse to not answer for a moment - that let her choose her words carefully. "Hyoga's our protector now, just like Mamoru protects Usagi. And she cares for you deeply. She doesn't want to see you hurt."

"So, she ... did something?"

Ami nodded. "She strengthened and armoured the bond between us. The imposed bond isn't there any more - it's as if your wish untied the knots that somebody had tied to connect the red string of fate between us. But we excluded Hyoga from the wish's effect."

"Not by the wording of the wish, we didn't."

She shook her head once. "Not the wording, no, but Skuld knew the intent. It's Hyoga's red string between our fingers now, not Urd's or Peorth's or anybody else's."

Rob didn't know how he felt about that. "Can she untie it?" In a whisper, he continued, "And do I want her to?"

Ami sighed deeply, then pretended that she hadn't heard the whisper. "She can, but she doesn't want to. She says it's all or nothing, and she's afraid you won't like her any more if she changes things between us. Including between us and Mii."

"Oh, dear. Ami, you know what I think of you, and you know what I think of Mii - you were there when I answered you, and even if our emotions were being manipulated, in my case they were emotions that were already present." She smiled at his words; she still wasn't used to hearing a confession of love from somebody who she was sure that she loved in return. Then her smile dissolved - did she still love him? Not knowing Ami's thoughts, Rob continued, "But Hyoga doesn't know that. She knows what I think of her ..."

"So do I, every Friday night."

Rob looked startled. "Are we distracting you? I thought that she wasn't leaking her emotions across our link any more."

"It isn't that - Hyoga needs to consciously push an emotion across the link now, or purposefully listen for our emotions. But my apartment is directly above yours."

He winced. "Oh. I'm so sorry about that, Ami."

"Don't be." She smiled an honest, pure smile. "She deserves all the happiness you can give her, and if that's what makes her happy and it doesn't hurt you, who am I to complain? Especially considering what my birth certificate says. And I'll admit that some of the things the two of you say give me a different perspective on what my Gross Anatomy textbook says about the matter."

He was very happy that she was wearing her uOttawa coat and hat, and thus looked like a petite 18-year-old woman instead of her actual age - just in case somebody overheard their conversation. "I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that. Ask Mii why." They both knew that Mii knew the laws about such behaviour better than any of the others in their ... Group? Circle? Family? None of them knew what to call their relationship any more. "And I'll see about putting some soundproofing in my ceiling."

"Thank you, Rob."

"But getting back to what you said about the red string..." He sipped at his own coffee. "What do you want? This affects you, just as much as it does Hyoga and Mii and me."

She finished off her own coffee, carefully put the cup down in its saucer, looked straight at his face, and gave him an honest answer. "I don't know."

"If you want Hyoga to untie the red string between us, I'll respect that decision. But think about it. Don't rush to any decision. Talk with Mii about it, too."

She smiled at his trust in her. "Thank you, Rob. But I'm not talking to Mii right now, remember?" They both laughed at that.

As Rob's laughter trailed off, he replied, "I hope you'll take more than just a weekend to think about it."

"I've already taken a month."

He nodded. "It can be overwhelming, can't it?"

"The circumstances behind me being in Canada don't help, either..." She stopped talking as somebody outside the coffee shop caught her eye.

He looked at her, saw where she was looking, and looked outside to see an Asian girl with long hair who appeared to be a bit younger than Ami. She was carrying a large box or container of some sort, which she had wrapped her coat around... which showed that she was wearing a Tokiwadai school uniform.

"She'll probably talk to somebody her own age before she'd talk to me," Rob said. "Would you...?" But Ami was already out the front door. By the time he had his phone out, Ami was talking with the girl. He took a photo of the two of them through the window, and texted it to Mikoto and Kuroko with the question "Cosplayer or displacee?" and his GPS coordinates.

He just managed to put his phone back in his pocket when Ami lead the girl into the coffee shop. "How did you find your way here?"

"I honestly don't know. We were walking home from the veterinarian's clinic when I noticed that the temperature had dropped and I didn't recognize any of the buildings in the area. After I wrapped my coat around Ecaterina's carry-cage, I stepped out from the alleyway I had found myself in to discover that I had no idea where I was. Then you stepped out of this shop and spoke to me, and you know the rest."

Ecaterina's carry-cage. Not a cosplayer, he realized. He smiled at both girls, then said, "Thank you, Ami; it would be a shame to let this young lady freeze to death in our climate." Then he turned to the other girl "I suspect you're only carrying Japanese money. May I buy you a coffee or a hot chocolate, to help you warm up? You can pay me back once you've exchanged your cash for Canadian currency."

She looked at him with suspicion in her eyes. "Would you attempt to make a clumsy pass at me, knowing that I am ..." Rob and Ami joined in. "... Mitsuko Kongo of Tokiwadai?"

Mitsuko looked shocked for a moment, then regained her composure and continued, "I see that my fame has spread to wherever this place is."

"Ottawa, Canada, Miss Kongo. And my name is Rob Donaldson; I'm pleased to meet you." He noticed an odd shimmering in the air behind her - one that he knew he wouldn't have seen if he wasn't wearing the glasses that Skuld had given him.

"May I ask how you heard of me, Mr. Donaldson?"

"We told him what a pain you can be sometimes," said the girl who hadn't been there a moment before.

Mitsuko turned on her heel and confronted the girl who had just spoken. "That had better have been a poor attempt at humour, Shirai-san."

Kuroko looked Mitsuko straight in the eye. "You know that I don't like how you try to take advantage of oneesama being friends with you." Then she smiled. "But it's good to see you again, Kongo-san."

"You are behaving oddly, Shirai-san."

Rob cleared his throat. "We'll explain later. Ms. Kongo, do you have a place to stay in Ottawa?"

"I didn't even know that I was in Ottawa, Mr. Donaldson."

"Well, then ..."

Kuroko interrupted Rob. "Oh, no. Don't you dare say ..."

He ignored her. "I run a residence for displaced people, including Ms. Shirai, Ms. Misaka, Ms. Uiharu, and Ms. Saten. We have an available apartment."

"Aargh! You said it!"

"If you can tolerate the drama, you're welcome to use it while you're here." He turned from Mitsuko to Kuroko. "Oh, and Shirai-san, she's your school-mate. You get to explain the Metacontinuity to her."

The glare that Kuroko gave Rob in reply was, in his opinion, priceless.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 4, 2017
12:05 PM

"Welcome to Ottawa, Kongo-san!"

She blushed at having the attention of everyone in the room (save for Maika) focused on her. Using her folding fan to conceal her unease, she replied, "Why, thank you! There was no need to welcome me with a banquet, though."

Maika looked at her with lidded eyes. "This isn't a banquet, it's just lunch. All we did was set an extra place for you."

"Thank you, Maika," Rob said to the building's maid before she could continue. Turning to Mitsuko, he continued, "We normally have more people here for weekend luncheons, but some of your new apartment-mates are out shopping today." He looked around and failed to see any of the Misaka Sisters, then remembered that the firing range was open. "Or out practicing their hobbies, or whatever else it is they're doing right now. Feel free to choose whichever seat you want."

Mitsuko looked pensive at that invitation, then announced, "Oh, I wouldn't dream of encroaching on your hospitality by taking someone else's accustomed seat."

"Oh, that isn't an issue," Ami answered before Rob could. "We usually change seats every meal, just so we can talk with everyone else at least once a week."

"In that case, I accept your kind offer. But I should see to Ecaterina's well-being before I dine."

Rob nodded. "I suppose you should," he replied, dreading the response that he was sure was forthcoming from almost everyone else in the room.

Sure enough, when Mitsuko unwrapped Ecaterina's carry-cage, Maika, Mamoru, and all of the Sailor Senshi recoiled in fear... except for Ami. "Oh, she's lovely!"

"How can you say that, Ami-chan? That's a snake! Probably poisonous!"

"She isn't venomous, Usagi. She's a python." Ami moved toward the carry-cage, close enough to get a better look but not so close that she'd frighten the snake.

Seeing this, Rob cleared his throat and said, "Perhaps she could stay in your apartment for the moment, Ami-san. We'll figure out which apartment Kongo-san can use after lunch."

Mitsuko looked at Rob for a moment. "You appear to be uncomfortable in Ecaterina's presence, Donaldson-san."

"Not uncomfortable, just respectfully wary of an animal who could crush me if I'm not careful around her."

"She would never do that! I keep Ecaterina fed properly; she has no reason to hunt for food."

Rob smiled. "I'm happy to hear that, Ms. Kongo." Then he looked at the other people in the room, all huddled against the wall farthest from Ecaterina. "But it would probably be best for the harmony of the house if she was to refrain from joining us at meals, at least for a few days until everyone becomes comfortable in her presence."

Mitsuko nodded. "I understand the situation perfectly, Mr. Donaldson. Even in my dormitory in Academy City, there are some people who believe the stereotypes instead of the facts about pythons. But this reminds me; you mentioned Ms. Uiharu is one of your tenants, but I don't see here here."

"Kazari's out getting her laptop upgraded," Ruiko said before Rob could reply. "She said she's probably going to be at Piffle all day, and she'll get lunch at Chiroru."

"Ah. Then I am sure that her seeing Ecaterina again will be a pleasant ending to her day." Mitsuko turned to Ami. "Would you be so kind as to show me where Ecaterina will be staying for the moment?"

As Mitsuko, Ami, and Ecaterina left the room. Rob leaned over to Ruiko. "You've texted her?"

"I texted everybody about Kongo-san as soon as you all got back."

"Thanks."

A few minutes later, everyone had relaxed and Mitsuko and Ami had returned. "Your lodging here is more spacious than my dormitory room at Tokiwadai, but less spacious than I am accustomed to at home. Are all of the apartments the same size as yours?"

"The ones that I've been invited to enter, yes," replied Ami. "Except for a few two-bedroom apartments, but those are all occupied by families."

Mitsuko did her best to hide her disappointment. "I see. Well, one must accept what is available."

"Shall we sit here?" Ami gestured to a four-person table, rather than one of the larger tables that had been set for lunch.

"I would be delighted to join you for luncheon," replied Mitsuko as Mamoru held her chair out for her. Ami sat to Mitsuko's left, and Kuroko quickly took the seat opposite Mitsuko when she saw that Usagi was joining them to Mitsuko's right. "Even if one of the company might leave something to be desired." Mitsuko turned to Usagi. "And who might you be, miss?"

Before either of the Senshi could answer, Kuroko said with some satisfaction, "You are in the presence of Her Royal Highness, Serenity II, heir-apparent to the throne of the Crystal Millennium."

"Oh! Oh, my."

"But you can call me Usagi," added said princess while taking both of Mitsuko's hands in her own. "Pleased to meet you!"

"Please, call me Mitsuko, then," she replied while wondering just who this girl was. The references were obvious, yet impossible.

Maika and Makoto served lunch - nikujaga, rice, and corn potage - and the girls did the usual pre-meal small ceremonies. "You're lucky," Kuroko commented. "Usually we eat western food on Saturdays."

"Would that be French cuisine, by any chance?"

Ami shook her head. "No, it isn't anything that fancy. This -" she tapped the rim of her soup bowl with her spoon. "- is more likely to be a heavier soup made with peas instead of corn, and the main dish is more likely to be a heavy stew than nikujaga."

"And some of the other dishes are unusual," added Kuroko. "What was it that Rob-san called last week's main course? Tory air?"

"Tourtière," Usagi answered. "I thought it was good. More meat and less bread than a steamed bun."

Mitsuko looked puzzled. "Isn't that French?"

"French-Canadian," answered Kuroko. "I remember that much. The one thing it has in common with nikujaga is that they're both home cooking."

"I see," replied Mitsuko, obviously not understanding at all. A moment later, she turned to Usagi. "May I ask whether that is your natural hair colour? Judging by the way you wear it, and considering the title that Kuroko told me was yours when I asked, one might think that you identify with the old Sailor Moon stories."

Everybody else at the table sighed in unison. Kuroko was the first to speak. "Kongo-san, Rob-san told me to tell you about the Metacontinuity. We may as well do that now, since you've brought it up. She is Sailor Moon, and Ami-san is Sailor Mercury."

"Your attempts at humour grow less believable every day, Shirai-san."

Ami whispered, "Shabon Spray," covering her own meal - and only her meal - in a dense fog.

"That is an unusual esper ability," Mitsuko commented.

Rob looked at the girls from the next table over. "I doubt she'll believe you without more evidence. How about we watch a beach episode of an anime after lunch?" Glancing at Mikoto, he added, "I'll stop it early."

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 4, 2017
1:34 PM

"That was me."

Rob nodded as he put the disc back into its case. "Yes, Ms. Kongo, that was you."

"That ... was me."

"We did try to warn you," answered Ami.

"That was ... me."

"I thought the animators did a pretty good job telling the story of that day," Mii mused. "At the time, I didn't realize just how good we all look in swimsuits," she added while silently resolving to buy a swimsuit that actually fit her once springtime came around - she didn't want just anybody seeing that much of her cleavage.

"That -"

"Get over it, will you?" Kuroko almost shouted as she teleported into Mitsuko's personal space. "If you can't handle that, there's no way you can handle the other shocks that are coming your way."

Mitsuko went pale. "You mean to tell me that I need to be ready for additional surprises?"

Just then, the common room's door opened. "We're home, Misaka Niiko announces while removing her coat."

"We used up all of our allotment of ammunition at the firing range, continues Misaka Rei."

"So you'll need to pay for more, Donaldson-san, Misaka Nana adds, hoping that her request will be fulfilled soon."

"Oh, but I see we have a guest, observes Misaka Kokono. Hello." The barest ghost of what might be the precursor to friendly smiles appeared on the clones' faces.

Mitsuko blinked. Twice.

Completely deadpan, Kuroko said, "Surprise."

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 4, 2017
2:57 PM

Rob poured tea for Mikoto. "I'm impressed by how well Kongo-san took everything. She didn't lose her composure even when she met Accelerator."

"I think she was numb by then," Mikoto answered as she poured tea for Rob.

"Meeting Mimi - Last Order Mimi - and Chibi-Usa seemed to cheer her up, though. Where is she right now?"

"Usagi, Rei, Mimi - the older Mimi - and Ami took her to the sparring room, so they could show off their powers. Mitsuko-san asked to see what real magic looks like."

Rob nodded in approval. "We're going to have to start calling them Mimi M and Mimi H, or something else to keep them sorted out." Then he sighed. "Why do people from Academy City keep showing up here, though? I thought that this whole Metacontinuity was an emergency thing that would be over and done with in a month or two, then we'd all go home. That's why I said we should all attend the Halloween party in San Antonio - I thought it might be the only chance we'd all have to get together. But it looks like nobody's going home yet."

"It's not just people from Academy City, Rob. Think about it: First we showed up, then the Sailor Team showed up, then Accelerator and my clones showed up, then Mamoru-san, Chibi-Usa, and the Mau showed up, then Maika arrived, then we rescued Touma and Index, then the Osakas arrived, then we rescued Mimi, and now Kongo-san is here."

Rob sipped at his tea while he thought for a moment. "There was almost a regular alternation going there."

Mikoto looked worried at that comment. "Maybe there was a regular alternation, but we missed seeing some people."

He thought about her comment for a moment. "If that's true, who did we miss?"

She shrugged. "If we're lucky, some of Kuroko's classmates. If we're unlucky," she held up a copy of volume 12 of Touma's light novel series, "someone from the Roman Church, one or more of the Kihara family, or one of the other Level 5s. Or maybe the other Witches 5."

"If it happened at all," Rob pointed out. Then he frowned, remembering something that Ben had joked about during the Halloween party. "I think I'll ask the goddesses why we keep getting people from your worlds showing up, and see if they'll give us a list of people to look for."

"Will they answer?"

"Maybe. But I'm sure of one thing: They definitely won't answer if I don't ask."

Elsewhere
Same Time

"What are you reading?"

He looked up at his girlfriend. "Books about us."

"Is there anything in them that wasn't in the anime about us that you found?"

"Plenty. And you need to read the parts I bookmarked in volumes 15 and 19." He handed his tablet to her.

Five minutes later, she said, "We have to leave while we still can."

"All three of us, yeah. But where can we run to?"

She handed the tablet back to him, took a few of her pills, let them take effect, then concentrated. Shaking from the drug's side-effects (and her terror at what she'd read), she finally pointed. "That way. A long way away."

He already had a map running on the tablet. Drawing a line, and extending it again and again as he re-scaled the map, he finally said, "Looks like we're headed to ... Ottawa."

To be continued ...

**robkelk** · 12-24-2020, 03:11 PM

Merry Christmas! Here's something to read.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 6, 2017
3:29 PM

"Are you sure this is the right place? It basically looks like a dump - why would Railgun be living here?"

The only male in the car shook his head. "It's hardly a dump, unless you compare it to either of the Tokiwadai dorms. And remember what we have and haven't seen since we found ourselves in North America."

The only dark-haired person in the car nodded. "They're hiding, just like we are," she said weakly.

"They?"

"There's at least six espers in the building right now. Five of them feel like Railgun, but not as strong."

"Some of her clones, maybe?" the car's driver asked, loading a book on his tablet and showing it to the others.

"Clones? Oh, that's basically creepy!" The blonde girl looked at the tablet that the brunette girl had taken from the driver. "Hey... this says we knew about those clones. Nobody told me!"

"You have been something of a security risk lately."

She pouted. "I guess that's why I was going to be the first to die. I don't like your books, basically."

Inside the building that they were watching, three people were returning the favour.

"They've been sitting there for nearly five minutes," Maika pointed out while making sure the sheer curtain on the window remained in place, hiding their own identities as much as possible.

"They aren't hurting anyone," Rob replied.

"Yet. I recognize one of them. Maybe all three of them."

Rob turned to Accelerator - it was unusual for him to offer a comment without being asked. "Are they people we need to be worried about?"

"The one I know I recognize tried to murder Railgun's mother. The other two - well, does the name 'ITEM' mean anything to you?" Rob and Maika both grimaced. "Looks like it does. Think I'll go say hi to them."

"Hang on," Rob said before Accelerator could reach the door. "They probably know who you are - if you go out there, they could either run or fight."

"Whatever. You going, then?"

Maika grabbed Rob's sleeve. "They could kill you!"

Rob smiled kindly as he extracted himself from Maika's grasp. "Only if they can attack me. I can control water, remember? And there's a lot of snow - frozen water - out there for me to defend myself with."

"Your funeral, if you're wrong," Accelerator pointed out.

Rob nodded as he headed for the front door. "I know. I'm under a geas, remember? Sometimes I just gotta be a hero." After putting on his coat and boots, he grabbed an empty shopping bag, put a book in it, and headed out.

His leaving the building did not go unnoticed inside the car.

"Is that one of the espers?"

The brunette stared at him for a moment. "No."

"So, basically a civilian. Looks like he's going shopping."

"No, he's not," the car's driver said after a moment. "He's heading our way."

The brunette put her hand on his arm before he could do anything, and quietly said, "We have to trust somebody. That's why we came here."

He hesitated for a moment... which was long enough for Rob to reach the car and knock on the driver's window. "Hi there! Got a minute?"

The driver opened the window. "We're not doing anything wrong."

Rob shook his head in bemusement. "Why does everybody who's doing something they know is wrong start their conversations by saying that? No, don't answer that; I don't care. I've got something for you to look at." He offered the bag to the driver... who eventually took it.

He looked inside the bag, then handed it back, saying, "I've got a copy of that book on my tablet, thanks."

"So you already know the important part of what I'm hoping I can talk with you about," Rob answered. "Want to come in? You can park your car in the lot behind the first building."

"We'd better not," the blonde girl replied. "Basically, it's stolen."

Rob raised an eyebrow. "Well, there's a decent-size shopping mall ten minutes' walk away. Ditch it in the lot there and come back. I can wait; I've got all day. See you in a bit?"

"We came here looking for somebody like you," the brunette answered, causing the other two to sigh. "We'll be here."

Rob nodded as he walked back to the building. Once inside, he explained things to the others... and set the Good Neighbour System to Defcon 4.

Elsewhere
Same time

Text alerts popped up on nearly a dozen telephones in Ottawa alone.

Kuroko looked at hers and decided she wouldn't take the bus home that day - it would take too long. But she did text Mikoto to let her know she'd be teleporting as soon as classes let out.

In another classroom, Usagi decided that it was a perfect day to suggest to Ruiko and Kazari that they get to know Naru better - at Naru's home. Then she remembered how busy OSA-P was this close to Valentine's Day, and resolved to protect her noncombatant friends as best she could.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 6, 2017
3:47 PM

Rob set a tray down on the table that everyone was gathered around. "Coffee, anyone? I know I want some." As he poured himself a cup, he continued, "And does everybody know everybody else? I'm Rob Donaldson, and I run this apartment building - sorry, this apartment complex. To my left... well, does anyone here not know who Accelerator is?" That question got a brief chuckle from Accelerator and nervous shaking of heads from the newcomers. "The young lady in the maid uniform is Maika Tsuchimikado."

The male in the visiting group raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Tsuchimikado?"

Maika sighed and nodded. "He's my brother." Then she quickly added, "But not by blood."

Accelerator snorted. "I don't know what she sees in him."

"Be that as it may," Rob commented, "it's neither here nor there right now. Who do we have the pleasure of inviting into our home for a chat?"

Accelerator rolled his eyes at Rob's use of the word "pleasure"... which did not go unnoticed by the newcomers.

"My name's Shiage Hamazura," answered the young man as he poured a cup of coffee for himself.

"Rikou Takitsubo," said the brunette, in almost as deadpan tones as the Misaka clones routinely used.

The blonde grinned. "Call me Frenda!"

Maika raised an eyebrow. "Is that your name?"

Shiage nodded. "Amazingly enough, it is."

"Oh, fine. I'm Frenda Seivelun." She pouted, cutely.

Rob nodded. "Thank you." Maika and Accelerator noticed that he didn't smile. "Accelerator tells me you're with a team called ITEM."

"Yeah, I'm driving for them. Or maybe I should say I was driving for them, until we read ahead in the stories you have here and discovered what Meltdowner - she's the leader of ITEM - was going to do to Frenda."

"Yeah. So basically we cut and run," Frenda added.

Accelerator looked straight at Shiage. "You do that a lot. Skill Out to ITEM, and now to here."

"Think what you will of me, but I'm not going to let Academy City's Board of Directors or Meltdowner come down hard on people I like. If that means I have to run, then I run."

Rob nodded. "So you're doing that for other people, not for yourself. I can understand that. So... Skill Out. Does that mean you're not an esper?"

"Nobody in Skill Out is an esper," answered Shiage. "Except for that one Judgment bitch who was in Skill Out when Kurozuma was in charge."

Rob glared at him. "I asked because that ... 'one Judgment bitch', as you call her, happens to live here."

"Way to put your foot in it," Frenda said to Shiage.

"Yeah, you're just winnin' friends everywhere, Hamazura," commented Accelerator with a sneer.

As Shiage suddenly developed an interest in the coffee cup in front of him so he didn't have to look at anyone else, Rikou all-but-whispered, "I'm an esper."

Rob nodded. "Thank you, Ms. ... Takitsubo?" She nodded in return.

"We're all in those books, right? So basically you already know who we are. Why the questions?" Frenda asked.

"Because I'm not in those books," replied Rob. "And neither are a few of the other residents of this complex. It's just polite to let you volunteer the information that you want us to know."

"And I never read those books," Accelerator added. "Thought it was a waste of time, since we're not in Academy City now."

"Do you still think that?" Maika asked flatly.

He thought for a moment. "Nah, not if losers like Hamazura are gonna show up."

"I'll show you who's a loser!" Shiage shouted as he jumped to his feet.

"Enough!" Everybody stopped and looked at Rob. "If you absolutely must fight, do it outside." Nobody moved for a long moment. "Good. Accelerator does raise a good point - we haven't read all of the books yet. We don't necessarily know who you are."

"I know who she is!" came a cry from somebody who hadn't been in the room a moment ago. "That bitch tried to blow me up! Literally! What are you doing here?"

Everybody looked toward the door, to see Kuroko and Mikoto - the latter holding a coin in an outstretched hand pointed straight at Frenda.

Rob sighed. "Girls, I just said to take it outside if you're going to fight."

After a tense moment, Railgun lowered her arm... but she kept the coin in her hand.

Not for the first time, Rob silently thanked Rin and Usagi for blessing the building, what seemed so long ago. That there prevail here a spirit of camaraderie, goodness, compassion, friendship, and love, indeed. "I didn't expect you home for a little while, yet."

Kuroko smiled tightly. "I teleported Oneesama here. You did send an alert."

"Did I?" Rob looked puzzled, then nodded, "Yeah, I did, didn't I? I'll have to thank Kazari for adding text alerts to the Good Neighbour System."

"What's that?" Shiage asked suspiciously.

Rob smiled - finally. "Now's as good a time as any to explain the Metacontinuity to you. Mikoto, would you go ask your sisters if they want to take part in the discussion, please?"

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 6, 2017
4:18 PM

The newcomers looked around at all of the people who had finally arrived back home after school. "So, basically, we're surrounded by fictional characters."

"And there's groups of them - us - pretty much everywhere," added Shiage.

Usagi smiled. "Yeah! Isn't it cool?"

Shiage sighed. "I don't know if 'cool' is the word I'd use to describe it, Tsukino-san. Got any more of that coffee? I could use the stimulant."

"If you're going into shock, maybe we should get Ami here. Or Washuu-chan."

Rob shook his head. "I think our guests have enough strength of will that they won't go into medical shock that quickly just from hearing what we have to say, Usagi."

"I'm not sure of that, Misaka Niiko opines while pouring herself the last cup of coffee from this carafe. One of our guests looks to be so thin that she might be a drug addict, Misaka points out with some lack of tact, and that would impair her resiliency, Misaka adds."

"I'm not addicted to Body Crystal," Rikou answered quietly. "I just use it to boost my esper ability."

Something about that statement didn't sound right to Rob. Taking the empty carafe from Niiko, he said, "I'll go make some more coffee. Kazari, could you give me a hand, please?"

Both Kazari and Ruiko stood up and headed to the common room's kitchen with Rob.

Almost as soon as the kitchen door was closed behind them, Ruiko sighed deeply. "That blonde girl... she's pretty," she said with a bit of jealousy showing in her voice.

Rob grimaced as he remembered how Frenda acted in the anime. "She ain't pretty, she just looks that way." Then he sighed. "I don't trust her - but I know what Usagi would say if I suggested turning her away."

"She's already making friends with them, isn't she?" Kazari smiled. "But that's what we all love about her."

Ruiko smiled at Kazari's comment, then turned to Rob. "It doesn't take two people to make a pot of coffee. What's up?"

Rob continued to measure the coffee grounds into the coffeemaker's filter. "Something about that drug that Takitsubo-san is taking - Body Crystal. I think I remember hearing about it somewhere. Not in one of the books about all of you, but maybe on a website discussing those books."

Kazari pulled her palmtop out of her pocket. "And you need somebody to do a web search while you're being the perfect host." She flopped it open and began to type. "This might take a while."

"I'll help," offered Ruiko.

"Thanks."

"Thank you both," added Rob as he rinsed the carafe with hot water. "Now, if they're staying, where are we going to put them?"

"We have plenty of spare bedrooms now, Rob-oji."

"True enough, Rui-chan, but most of them are in that dimensional pocket that Washuu-chan created for us. Are they going to think we're keeping them locked up?"

"Nah," Ruiko grinned as she typed a search string into her cellphone's browser. "We're keeping them out of Meltdowner's sight."

Rob thought for a moment, then nodded. Then he realized that he was doing a lot of nodding that afternoon, and stopped. "Right. That's probably the safest place for them to hide."

By the time the coffee was ready, Usagi had been to her apartment and back, bringing back a photo album to show their guests. Rob brought the coffee in to discover everybody looking at photos from the Halloween party.

"Nice dress - and nice duplication of the scene from the movie." Frenda commented on seeing one of the shots from the entry parade.

"Why, thank you!" Minako replied. "I did my best to make the scene just right."

"I'd say you succeeded." Shiage turned the page in the photo album... and stopped dead, staring at one photo while his nose began to bleed. "Who is that gorgeous woman in the Bunny outfit?" he finally managed to ask.

Maika grinned. "Oh, that's the girl who you called, and I quote, 'that one Judgment bitch'."

Kuroko looked shocked. "He called Mii-sempai a... How dare you!" Sure, Mii wasn't Oneesama, but she was a co-worker - Kuroko felt she had a right to be insulted in Mii's place.

Shiage's expression went from bliss to despair in record time. "I guess I'm not going to be allowed to ask for a copy of that photo, then."

Takitsubo grabbed him by the arm, tightly enough to cause discomfort. "No. You won't."

Once more, To be continued...

**robkelk** · (This post was last modified: 02-07-2021, 12:51 PM by robkelk.)

somewhere in Chicago, IL, USA
February 7, 2017
11:22 AM

"I don't care who's shooting at us! Get in the car!"

"I don't know how to drive. It'd be a super mistake for me to try."

The big guy behind the wheel poked his head out the window. "Nobody drives the Roadbuster but me, kid. You might be bulletproof, but I doubt your boss is. Get in before some asshole shoots her."

She did.

"Where to?"

Said boss replied, "Ottawa. Canada."

"I don't leave the States. I'll take you as far as Detroit."

"Good enough, as long as you can lose these idiots who are shooting at us."

The driver laughed. "Just who do you think you're talking to?"

Unable to pursue their targets for more than a few blocks, the attackers had no choice but to watch them go. They dreaded the report that they'd have to make - Leonard wasn't going to be happy.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 7, 2017
4:07 PM

Minako frowned. "I thought we were going to take Kongo-san, Takitsubo-san and Ms. Seivelun shopping! But Mii-san's got evening courses so she's getting supper on campus, Mako-chan's looking for a part-time job at the bakeries around here, Ami's patching up Kamijo-san -"

"Again?" Mikoto rolled her eyes in disbelief. "How many fights do he and Hamazura-san get into?"

"Too many. But we're talking about shopping. Kazari-san and Rui-san are busy with some internet project that they won't talk about, Kuroko-san refuses to go shopping with Kongo-san, Usagi said she's spending all evening with Mamoru, our resident ex-Witch has the evening shift at OSA-P today, and Rei's promised to answer your clone sisters' questions about Shinto. So it's just you and me."

Mikoto almost changed her mind and agreed, but she couldn't forget the look she'd noticed on Rob's face when she got home from school. "Sorry. Maybe Maika'd be willing to go with you."

Minako thought for a moment. "It's worth a try, I guess."

The girls separated and made their ways to the people that they wanted to speak with. Mikoto found Rob in the common room's kitchen, making a pot of Earl Grey tea. Quietly, she asked him, "What's wrong?"

He looked around, noticing that there were still a few people in the common room proper. "I'm going to make a call to San Antonio. In my office. You can sit in, if you want."

Even Mikoto could tell that Rob wanted her to take part in the call. "Do you want me to find anybody else and ask them to take part, too?"

He shook his head. "Not yet." He thought for a brief moment, then continued. "Shall we retire to my office? I'll leave the door open."

"No, you won't," replied Mikoto. "Not if you don't want Ruiko-san hearing everything."

"Right," he replied, remembering that the biggest gossip in the building lived next door to his office. "And it's a good thing I got that soundproofing in."

A few minutes later, Rob and Mikoto were sitting behind his desk (putting two chairs behind one desk was a tight fit) and connecting a video call to San Antonio.

"Hi! Oh, hi, uncle Rob, aunt Mikoto!"

Mikoto twitched at being called "aunt", even by a five-year-old.

Rob took the greeting in stride, and smiled. "Hi, Alicia! Are you keeping yourself busy?"

"Uh-huh! But Ben and Fate are keeping me busier! They keep saying I have to do my homework."

Mikoto looked surprised. "I didn't know you were already in school."

"Well... It's more like tutoring. Aunt Washuu-chan and uncle Sousuke are giving me lessons whenever they have time. Do you have homework, too?"

"Every single weekday," Mikoto answered with a theatrical sigh.

Rob nodded in agreement. "And Lord Phantomhive keeps me busy with work that I have to do at home, too."

"Like he does with Ben? I know about that! Sometimes he doesn't have time to play with me." She frowned for a moment, then smiled again. "But it's important work."

"Yes, it is," Rob agreed. "Speaking of Ben, could you let him know we're calling, please? We need to talk with him."

"Okay!" Alicia turned away from the camera and shouted, "BENNN! PHONE CAAALL! FROM UNCLE ROOOB!"

Rob chuckled; he'd forgotten how people that young reacted to that sort of request.

But it worked - after a moment, Alicia was standing up so that Ben could sit at his own desk. "Bye, uncle Rob, aunt Mikoto! Come visit some time, okay?"

Mikoto forced a smile. "Maybe in March, when we have a week off school."

"Yay!" She raced off, full of energy.

Ben looked at her for a moment, then turned to the computer. "Any day that Alicia's that happy is a good day. Fortunately, that's most days around here. But I doubt you called just to talk with her."

"Yeah," replied Rob. "Are you alone?"

"Give me a second." Ben stood up and walked over to Alicia. "Rob and Mikoto want to have an important talk with me right now, and I think they don't want anybody else listening in. Could you go play with your sister and Nanoha for a while, please?"

"Is this a grown-up thing?"

Ben shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know yet."

She thought for a moment, then answered, "Okay."

"Thank you. Oh, and Alicia? Girls like Mikoto don't always like being called an Aunt - it's a Japanism about being sensitive about their age. Call her Onee-san instead, okay?"

"I guess... but I thought only Aunt Kuroko - big sister Kuroko called her Onee-san."

Ben and Mikoto sighed as Rob grinned while wondering why people thought children didn't notice things. Ben followed his sigh with, "Can we talk about that later, Alicia? Rob and Mikoto are still waiting for me to get back to them."

"Sure! I'll come back in a little while!" And she took off through the doorway.

Ben closed the door behind her, almost locked it, changed his mind, then walked back to his desk and sat down at his computer again. "I am now. What's wrong?"

Before Rob could answer, Mikoto pointed out, "You didn't lock the door."

Ben nodded in confirmation. "Rule Number One of Hiding Shit: Don't look like you're hiding shit."

Rob added, "Mikoto, Ben doesn't make any secret of the fact that he has ADHD. He thinks differently than we do - not better, not worse, just differently. And that's one of the reasons why I ask for his opinion - because he brings new viewpoints to the issues at hand that I wouldn't imagine, let alone consider."

"It's more my upbringing than my ADHD that shaped my thinking. When you have a step-father who's made it his mission in life to ensure you have no way of hiding anything from him, you learn or... well, that's a conversation for another time."

While Ben's comment piqued Mikoto's curiosity, she didn't follow up on it just then. Instead, she asked Rob, "What are the other reasons?"

"I trust him, and I like him. He's a friend of ours." Turning back to Ben (who was smiling at the compliment), Rob continued, "I'm not sure what's wrong. A couple of days ago, Mikoto and I had a conversation that turned into us wondering why people from Academy City and Azabu-Juban were still showing up here. After we talked, I sent an email to Belldandy, asking her why."

"So that's what this is about," Mikoto said.

"And?"

"I got a reply today. It read, and I quote: 'I'm sorry, but I am not at liberty to answer that question right now'."

Ben leaned back in his seat. "That... is troubling. Considering she can't lie about anything, and that under normal circumstances she would otherwise divulge information that might make life easier on us... Of course, these aren't what most people would call 'normal circumstances' but even so..."

After a moment, Mikoto replied, "Even so, it isn't like the Goddesses to keep us out of the loop. Is it?"

"It's very unusual behaviour for them," Rob confirmed.

"I have no idea for certain what's going on," Ben added. "It could be any number of things. But if life has taught me anything at all? It's that Murphy and his wife, Fate, are cold-blooded bastards who'll seek to fuck you over any way possible, either by hook or by crook. That said, all signs are pointing towards this getting worse before it gets better. The only question as far as I'm concerned is 'How bad?' My intuition is bringing up that scene from White Christmas. 'How much is wow?' 'Somewhere between ouch and poing-oing-oing-oing.' Except I'm worried it's gonna go beyond 'poing-oing-oing-oing'. I've already been planning ahead just in case. You've seen it, but you may not have really realized it because it's so normal for a group like mine. All the combat drills, the cross-training, developing tactics for outside context problems... you name it, we've been doing it, to the point where I've even been scheduling mandatory recreation days, and purchased season passes for everyone at all four of the theme parks here to support that. Six if you include the water park and bath house Jodie and David are running, but fortunately those were permanent VIP passes they've granted us."

"They've opened the park? We'll have to go say hi. Maybe take Alicia there when we visit." Rob noticed Mikoto's expression his comment. "You all but promised that we would."

"I know, but should we really be planning to do something fun when we don't know what's going on?" she asked in reply.

"Of course we should," answered Rob. "Worrying about everything all the time isn't very good for our mental health."

Ben nodded in agreement. "Mikoto, I'm sorry if any of this worries you. But you know by now that I'm not the kind of person that likes to make someone suffer unduly. If there was some way for me to shield everyone from this, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but even with the power I've gained recently... unfortunately, not everything can be solved by a 180 gigawatt gamma-ray laser to the face. At the very least, though, I know that you've seen enough in your life so far to understand the gravity of the situation." He took a breath, to give Mikoto time to let his words sink in. "That said... I'd keep this on the down-low. Over here, the only people that know about my true worries are Gil Graham, Noike, Tenchi, Homura, and Teletha. I'd tell Teams RWBY and JNPR, but I don't know for sure if they're ready for that kind of pressure just yet. But if any of the others were to come out and ask me, I'd tell them as well because if they're smart enough to notice what I'm doing, then they're smart enough to handle the truth."

"Over here," Rob replied, "the only people who know I'm starting to have concerns about all of this are Mikoto," - he inclined his head toward her - "Mii, Ami, Hyoga, Mamoru, and Usagi. And sometimes I regret telling Mii and Ami, what with their course loads at university, but I'm not going to keep secrets from them."

"I'm glad to hear that," remarked Ben.

"And I'm starting to see what Mii-sempai sees in you, Rob-oji," Mikoto added.

"Hey, you two - don't give me a swelled head!" But Rob said that with a grin.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 8, 2017
5:54 PM

"Do you think Kazari-san and Ruiko-san will be joining us for dinner this evening?"

Makoto raised an eyebrow at Maika's question - not the question itself, but the way that she said it. "That's up to them. And we all know that being a maid is just your cover for your job for Necessarius -"

"Except for the newcomers, Kamijo, and Index."

"Fine, we almost all know, but would it hurt you to pretend to act like a real maid?"

"What's wrong with how I act?" Maika asked defensively, just before Kazari burst into the room.

"Is Rob-oji here? He's not in his office."

Makoto shook her head. Maika answered, "He, Hamazura-san, Mamoru-san, and Mii-san are out looking at used vans."

"Oh. I'll send him a text, then. Thanks!"

As Kazari turned to leave, Makoto asked, "Are you and Ruiko eating with us today?"

"No time! Sorry!" And Kazari was gone.

Elsewhere
Same time

"The last place we visited, the salesman tried to sell us a minivan that had only one owner, who only used it to take the kids to school and back. We could see from the amount of wear on the upholstery that it had been used as a private school bus." Rob sighed. "That's why we're here instead of there." He didn't mention that this was the third used-car lot they had visited.

"We don't act like that here," replied the salesman, who knew that acting like that would send these customers elsewhere. "Exactly what are you looking for?"

"Something that can hold at least eight people, plus luggage," Rob said.

"Preferably with a standard transmission," added Shiage.

The salesman frowned at that comment. "There isn't much call for standards in Ottawa. I think all of our minivans are automatics."

"Maybe we should get a cargo van and convert it," Shiage mused.

"You could, but the conversion and the inspection would cost so much that it would probably be cheaper to buy new."

Mii frowned. "Our budget won't allow that."

"And it isn't as if we're going to be treating this like a high-performance sports car," added Mamoru.

"Okay, okay," grumbled Shiage. "I can live with an automatic. What have you got?"

"Give me a moment to get some keys." The salesman walked into the lot's office, and came back out a few minutes later. "I thought we had more than that - must have sold the other ones. If you'll walk this way, I'll show you what we have." The salesman took them to one corner of the lot, walking straight past the first few minivans without stopping.

"What's wrong with those?" asked Mii.

"They're only six-seaters. This one," he gestured toward a longer minivan, painted jet black, "is the only one on the lot that can meet your needs. It's a nine-seater, including the driver's seat. Would you like to take a look inside?"

"Please," replied Rob as the salesman unlocked the minivan's doors.

A quick inspection followed - the interior was slightly worn but clean, the odometer reading about what Shiage expected to see on a minivan that old, and Mamoru approved of what he could see in the engine compartment. Miracle of miracles, all of the receipts for oil changes and other consumables were present in the glove compartment. Rob and Mamoru spent a few minutes going through those. "I'd like to get a mechanic's opinion, but I like what I see here," commented Mamoru.

The salesman smiled at that. "Who wants to take it for a test drive?"

Mii frowned. "I only have a learner's permit - I'd better not."

"I'd be happy to take her for a spin," Shiage answered.

Rob frowned. "How about Mamoru gives it a try first." The tone of his voice made it clear to Shiage that this wasn't a question.

"Fine..."

Just then, Rob's phone buzzed. "Excuse me for a moment." He read the text message - from Kazari - and re-read it. Then he swore under his breath. Turning to Mii, he said, "Try to stay within our budget, if you can - Sebastian won't like it if we go over. Shiage and I have to go back to the apartment building."

"We do? Why?"

"Not here, but it's about Takitsubo-san. And I'm driving."

Shiage nodded nervously. "If you're going to drop a line like that on me, you're damned right you're driving."

As they headed back to Rob's car, they heard Mii ask the salesman, "Does that price on the window include your prep work and the transfer of ownership?"

Once the two were in Rob's car, he passed his cellphone to Shiage, who stared at the message for five minutes. "Fuck."

"Yeah."

"You're sure there isn't some mistake?"

"Kazari's one of the best researchers that Judgment has."

"She's that Kazari Uiharu?" Seeing Rob's nod in reply, Shiage continued, "There's no mistake, then."

They continued in silence for a few moments. "So, what do we do now?"

"I drop you off at the apartment, and you talk with Kazari and Takitsubo-san. She needs to know. I go get Mamoru and Mii."

"That's a given. What happens after that?"

Rob smiled thinly. "After that, we call our doctor and ask her to make a house call."

West Fort St., Detroit, MI, USA
February 8, 2017
6:55 PM

"It should be dark enough to risk it now."

They looked out the window of the roadside restaurant to see yet another truck slow down for the turn-off to the Ambassador Bridge. The younger of the two stood up to leave.

"Hey! I like this place! I want to come back here some day. We aren't skipping out on the bill."

After they'd settled the bill, the two girls headed a couple of blocks west, to the fenced-off area for trucks waiting to take the international crossing - that they had spent the entire day observing. They were almost out of cash - their ride in the Roadbuster had nearly cleaned out their wallets, but it was worth every penny - and they didn't have any contacts in the local underworld who could provide them with fake passports even if they had the money to pay for them, so they had to cross the border in a less-comfortable fashion than they would have preferred. Using the esper powers that the older of the two possessed, it was child's play to get into the customs zone, then into the trailer of one of the trucks. They hoped that getting out of the truck on the other side would be just as easy.

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
February 8, 2017
7:33 PM

Slash was uncomfortable - he thought he sensed somebody with more power than his mistress Mahoro, or Ryu, or even himself. And the power had the same feel to it that the power of that girl who had visited a month ago - Konori, that was her name - felt like, but much, much stronger.

By the time he'd padded over to Mahoro's apartment, the sensation had tapered off to the point where he wondered whether he'd imagined it. But it was best to report his concerns anyway.

Not coincidentally, a Greyhound bus had just left Windsor, headed for Toronto. Aboard were two Asian girls who had to get out of town right away before the customs agents noticed them, but had decided they were going to exchange their cash for Canadian money in the big city, rather than get ripped off by paying the bus company's exchange rate any more than was necessary.

You guessed it: To be continued...

***Bob Schroeck*** · 02-05-2021, 10:26 PM

So far so good.... just one correction.

Quote:My intuition is bringing up that scene from Singing in the Rain.

That scene is in White Christmas, not Singin' In the Rain.

**robkelk** · 02-05-2021, 10:34 PM

(02-05-2021, 10:26 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: So far so good.... just one correction.

Quote:My intuition is bringing up that scene from Singing in the Rain.
That scene is in White Christmas, not Singin' In the Rain.

Fixing now...

Black Aeronaut · 02-06-2021, 03:28 AM

Argh. My bad. Dunno why I keep thinking it's the other.

Inquisitive Raven · 02-07-2021, 12:28 PM

(02-05-2021, 10:08 PM)robkelk Wrote: A quick inspection followed - the interior was slightly worn but clean, the odometer reading what what Shiage expected to see on a minivan that old, and Mamoru approved of what he could see in the engine compartment.

I think that first "what" should be "about."

**robkelk** · 02-07-2021, 12:51 PM

(02-07-2021, 12:28 PM)Inquisitive Raven Wrote:
(02-05-2021, 10:08 PM)robkelk Wrote: A quick inspection followed - the interior was slightly worn but clean, the odometer reading what what Shiage expected to see on a minivan that old, and Mamoru approved of what he could see in the engine compartment.

I think that first "what" should be "about."

I think you're right. Fixed.

**robkelk** · (This post was last modified: 05-11-2021, 07:57 PM by robkelk.)

And now to drop a few things onto the mantelpiece - including at least one of Chekhov's guns.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
8:03 AM

"I have to say, that was a most unusual medical examination that I received yesterday. Would you know the purpose of the device that was placed on my head while I made those odd expressions that the doctor requested?"

"Beats me," Ruiko replied to Mitsuko. "I've never asked Washuu-chan what that thing does. 'Doctor-patient confidentiality', and all that - I don't need to know, not even when it didn't match the expressions that Takitsubo-san was making. But wasn't it funny watching it copy people's moods like that, when it did work?"

Rob looked up from his coffee. "Maybe, maybe not. Are you sure you have time to talk about that now, Rui-chan?"

She looked at her landlord/foster parent. "I'm skipping school today."

He raised one eyebrow, Spock-style, and asked, "Oh, are you?"

"I am," she replied in all seriousness. "I think Kongo-san and I need to talk about what we learned last night. About ITEM."

Rob had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to talk about - neither girl, despite their connections to Mikoto Misaka in Academy City, had previously even heard about the city's darker side. "I'll send an email to your homeroom teacher, then," he replied as he stood up to head to his office. "But I want you back in school tomorrow, Ruiko."

She noticed the lack of honorific. "Yes, sir."

As he left the room, Mitsuko asked Ruiko, "Do you normally address each other by your given names?"

Ruiko grinned. "This is Canada, after all - the entire country is a lot less formal than Japan is. We even walked onto the grounds of Parliament Hill without having to go through a checkpoint, back when we first arrived here! But we usually call each other 'Rob-oji' and 'Rui-chan' - him calling me by just my full given name is very rare."

"I see. Perhaps I should ask that you all call me Mitsuko-san, instead of Kongo-san."

"If you call me Ruiko-san, you've got a deal." She paused for a moment, and added, "But do you really want to be on a first-name basis with Accelerator?"

"It is hardly my place to tell a level 5 esper what to do."

Ruiko nodded in understanding. "But we need to know what they think of us, don't we? Compared to Accelerator, Hedgerow Emperor, Railgun, -"

"Misaka-san."

"I'm using their code names for a reason. Accelerator, Hedgerow Emperor, Railgun, Meltdowner, The Queen, Etsu Aihana, and The Attack Crash, we're all ... well, less than insects if we upset them. Any of them could kill us without even thinking about it. Or they could kill us accidentally - collateral damage in one of their fights. And from what Hamazura-san told us yesterday, Academy City would be just fine with that."

"Misaka-san would never put our lives at risk."

"Not if she could help it. But sometimes she can't help it. Remember when you were kept for observation at that MAR facility?"

Mitsuko grimaced. "The Multi Active Rescue unit that had been usurped by Therestina Kihara Lifeline in her mad experiment."

"Right, that one. Except that she didn't usurp control of it. Academy City put her there so that she could cover up her experiments. Or conduct them. I'm still not sure which."

"But she was imprisoned for her actions."

Re-entering the common room, Rob answered, "As far as I can tell from what I saw in the anime about you two and your friends, from Academy City's point of view, her only crime was getting caught."

Neither of the girls said anything for a moment.

Finally, Ruiko said, "But that comes back to what I wanted to say. While you were keeping the MAR troops off of Mikoto's back, we were fighting Therestina." From the way she said the name, it was obvious that Ruiko was being over-familiar with her as an insult. "She was going on about how everyone in Academy City were her guinea pigs."

Rob muttered, "I wonder what Aleister would have thought of that, even though it was a Kihara saying it." The girls ignored him.

"But she was not sane. She would be expected to think and say things like that."

"Yeah, I know. But then there's ITEM. Meltdowner's team, the way that Kuroko and Kazari and Mii and even you and I are Mikoto's team. Have you read any of the books about us, or watched any of the anime?"

Mitsuko shook her head. "Apart from that partial episode that Mr. Donaldson -" She glanced in his direction, saw his raised eyebrow, and quickly corrected herself. "Rob-san - showed me the day I arrived, I have not."

"They're essentially an organized crime family."

Mitsuko looked shocked. "I cannot believe such a thing exists in Academy City."

"Believe it," Rob stated with all seriousness. "Do you remember when Kuroko was in a wheelchair for a while?"

"I do, yes. She never revealed what had happened to her."

"The short version is that she went up against another teleporter - one with more power and fewer scruples than Kuroko has. Kuroko tried to arrest her, and was almost killed for her efforts."

"Oh, dear."

"She's never told me anything about that," Ruiko replied. "How did she survive?"

Rob smiled. "With a lot of help from her friends - Mikoto and Touma."

Before he could continue, One of the Misaka clones walked into the common room. Mitsuko turned to her, smiled, and said, "Good morning, Niiko-san."

"Good morning, Kongo-san and Ruiko-san, Niiko replies."

"How did you know that Niiko-san is Niiko-san?" Rob asked. "You've been here for less than a week."

"Isn't it obvious?" All three of the others shook their heads in reply. "You don't walk the same way that Mikoto-san does. Only Nana-san copies Mikoto-san's walk exactly. You aren't wearing eyeliner, so you aren't Rei-san. But the most obvious sign was that you paused briefly before walking into the room, as if you were looking for traps or ambushes."

"My clone-sisters never had to fight, Niiko points out. They aren't as paranoid as I am by learned reflex."

Ruiko smiled at that. "I've never thought of you as paranoid, Niiko-san."

"Thank you, Niiko replies. It means a lot to me that I'm able to conceal that from people, Niiko continues in explanation." She headed toward the common room's kitchen, and asked, "Does anyone else want anything while I'm getting some juice?"

Nobody else did, so she nodded and headed for the fridge.

While Niiko was in the kitchen, Mitsuko said to Ruiko, "The experiments that Lifeline-san were running have to have been the worst that Academy City has to offer. How could anything worse than what she did remain hidden from the public?"

While the question wasn't addressed to him, Rob answered it anyway. "All a government needs to do is classify something as being secret, and it's a very brave person who's willing to blow the metaphorical whistle and draw attention to the secret. Most people would rather see a government that occasionally overreaches itself than live in an anarchy."

Both of the girls thought about that for a short moment. Finally, Ruiko asked, "But what about doing what's right?"

Niiko walked back into the common room as Rob answered. "Is it right to tell somebody else's secrets?"

"When they affect other people like that? Yes!"

"You mentioned doctor-patient confidentiality earlier. That affects other people."

"That isn't the same."

Rob nodded. "You're right. The only way you can tell whether somebody needs to know a dark secret is to know it yourself - and a lot of people like keeping secrets. That's why things like Therestina's experiments could remain hidden for so long."

Mitsuko frowned. "Surely there weren't any other experiments as bad as hers in Academy City."

Niiko stood up from the corner table she had sat at, walked over, and sat down at the same table as Ruiko and Mitsuko. "Let me tell you about the Level 6 Shift Project, Misaka 10032 states using her serial number for subtle emphasis. It is the biggest secret that I am aware of from Academy City. The project treated my clone sisters and me as things, not people. They told us that so many times that we believed it, Misaka 10032 admits. I have memories of meeting Accelerator for the first time in the project's headquarters. We were set against each other. I shot him using a pistol provided to me by the project. His ability reflected the bullet back to me, and I died. Or, rather, Misaka 2 died, Misaka 10032 explains quickly."

"You have memories of dying?"

"You have memories of being killed?"

"That is correct, Misaka 10032 replies to both questions simultaneously. I also have memories of cleaning up my dead bodies before going out to be killed myself, Misaka 10032 adds in order to make her earlier situation more clear."

"How long did this go on?" Ruiko asked, unable to hide the horror in her voice.

"The time blurred into a perpetual 'now' for the first 9980 deaths, Misaka 10032 replies. Perhaps it took a few years, Misaka 10032 guesses."

"Is death painful?" asked Mitsuko.

"That depends on the method of dying, Misaka 10032 answers. Misaka 9982 was crushed to death, after having her leg torn off by Accelerator. Misaka 10032 thinks that that was one of the less physically painful deaths, but we will always remember it because Misaka 9982 was the first clone to meet our Original." She continued speaking a litany of ways to die - having her neck snapped, being hit with an anti-tank rifle round, having her arms pinned to her torso with a steel bar and being thrown into the harbour, being hit by a car that was dropped on her from twenty feet up, and many, many more. After ten minutes, Rob realized that the only way one of her clone sisters hadn't been killed was by electrocution. Finally, she finished with "The worst death that Misaka 10032 remembers is that of Misaka 10031, whose blood flow was instantly reversed by Accelerator's power, causing my heart to explode. No, causing Misaka 10031's heart to explode, Misaka 10032 corrects herself."

Mitsuko had long since passed being horrified and had reached being numb. "From what you've been saying, surely that was one of the less painful deaths of one of your clones."

"Less painful, perhaps, Misaka 10032 answers Mitsuko. But Misaka 10031 was the Misaka clone who first met Touma Kamijo, Misaka 10032 explains. Her death hurt his soul, Misaka 10032 adds for clarification."

Nobody said anything for a long moment. Finally, Misaka turned to Rob. "The energy accumulator devices that Washuu-chan installed last night are functioning correctly, Niiko Misaka reports. We were able to discharge our accumulated electricity into the receptor grids without any issues, Niiko continues."

Ruiko finally snapped. "How can you be so calm about remembering having died so many times!?"

Niiko turned back to Ruiko. "Our emotional growth was deliberately stunted, Niiko replies. Last Order - Mimi Misaka - is the only clone with a full set of emotions, Niiko adds."

"Rob-oji..."

"Yes, Rui-chan?"

"Can I live with you even after the megami send everyone else home, please? I never want to go back to Academy City again. Ever."

Before Rob could answer, Mitsuko said, "I would prefer to return to Academy City, but only to rescue my friends from it."

Ruiko looked at her lap, ashamed to have thought otherwise.

Rob stood up, walked over, and gently placed his hand on Ruiko's shoulder, causing her to look up at him. "Rui-chan, there's nothing wrong in feeling how you feel. It's fine to worry about yourself. It's natural. But..."

"But?"

"Well, Mii, Ami, and I have already had this conversation. When it's time to go home, we're all planning on going to Ami's world; Mii and I can live anywhere, but Ami's needed there. I think you'd be welcome to join us, though."

Yggdrasil
Same time

"I hope we can accommodate you there, Mr. Donaldson," Urd muttered.

"Ma'am?"

She looked over at her assistant for the day. "Oh, nothing, Ere. Just thinking out loud. Let's get back to work, stabilizing these glitches."

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Same time

To take her mind off the subject of over ten thousand deaths, Ruiko asked, "Rob-oji... That teleporter who almost killed Kuroko-san. Who was she?" As soon as ske asked, she realized that this topic wouldn't take her mind off death.

Rob sighed. "A girl about Mii's age, if I recall correctly. Her name is Awaki Musujime."

Toronto, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
9:41 AM

"It's done." Musujime dropped a few pieces of metal into Leonard's outstretched hand - without the gears that she had teleported out of the mechanism, a large freight door wasn't going to open any time soon. "I don't see how this is going to help things, though."

He smiled at her comment. "The owners will make a fuss, just when this 'Meltdowner' person should be walking past. Assuming she helps them, they're the type to reward her for her services, which will give her enough money for both her and her companion to reach Ottawa."

She studied his face for a moment, then gave up - as usual, he was unreadable. "Why do you want them getting together with Railgun and her friends?"

"Because her friends are friends with the people near Detroit who are enemies of MANAGEMENT."

"Ah," Musujime said in understanding. "The enemy of our enemy, and all that. And that explains why we emailed those photos of her teammates to her so she could track them down. So why did you send goons to try to capture them in Chicago?"

"To spur them into action, my dear."

She hated when he called her that.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
2:21 PM

The building's residents who weren't in school had congregated in the common room, listening to - and in some cases, telling - stories about the dark underbelly of Academy City. Needless to say, there wasn't very much work being done that day.

"My first mission in GROUP," Accelerator told the assembled residents after a lot of coaxing, "was a simple little bit of killing - a guy named Komaba Ritoku."

"Komaba-san was a friend of mine," Frenda said quietly. "He took care of my little sister whenever I was working."

Shiage ignored his teammate. "So you're the bastard that killed him," he snarled at Accelerator.

"Shut up and let me talk. He fought me, and came damned close to putting me in the hospital again. The only reason he died was because he shot me. And it wasn't an accident - he knew damn well that my Reflection was on." Accelerator turned to look at Shiage. "So, no, I didn't kill him. He killed himself."

"Would you have let him go if he hadn't shot you?"

Accelerator shrugged. "Maybe. But GROUP had me on a tight leash - they only slacked off after I showed them I was willing to do dirty work for them."

"A convenient excuse."

"Hey, looking at what kind of fuck-up took over for him and got himself arrested on the very first job he took from somebody he didn't even bother checking the credentials of, maybe I should have let him live."

Rob cleared his throat meaningfully. Everybody in the room (save for Ruiko and Mitsuko) knew full well - if only from watching the anime in Rob's collection - that Shiage was the "fuck-up" that Accelerator had referred to. "Perhaps we should change the subject. Now."

After a pause that went on for far too long, Rikou asked, "Does anybody know anything about the 'Dark May Project'?"

Accelerator turned to look directly into her eyes. "Where the hell did you hear that name!?" he all-but-shouted.

Cowering under his anger, she quietly answered, "My teammate Saiai mentioned it once."

"Nothing good came out of that project. It ruined other espers. Made them think crazy things."

"How crazy?" Ruiko asked quietly, dreading the answer.

"Little girl, it made them think like me." Before Ruiko could respond, he added, "Literally. They took my dreams, my beliefs, my hopes, my thoughts, and forced them into other espers."

"Why?"

He snorted. "You of all people here ask me that? To make them higher level espers." Then he smiled his slasher-villain smile. "Want to give it a try?"

Ruiko shook her head, quickly and fearfully.

"Smart girl."

"Where did they find volunteers to take part in such a project?" Mitsuko asked.

Accelerator laughed. "Volunteers? Nobody would volunteer to become me! Look at me! Look at my life! No, they found their test subjects the same place everybody else in Academy City finds their test subjects. In the Child Error facilities."

Ruiko went pale. She had volunteered to help out in one of those facilities, once. All those orphans, being used as guinea pigs?

Accelerator didn't seem to notice. "Hey, maybe it wasn't a complete waste of time. I hear the project got shut down because one of the subjects went wild the way I usually do, and killed all the researchers. Serves 'em right."

At this point, Mitsuko turned to Ruiko and said, "I must apologize to you for something I said earlier today, Ruiko-san."

"What did you say, Mitsuko-san?" asked Rikou.

"I said that I would prefer to return to Academy City in order to rescue my friends from it. I see now that simply setting foot in that place again, at my current level of ability, would be foolhardy in the extreme."

"You're, what Level 3? 4?"

"I am a level 4 esper, Frenda-san."

"Then you're a lot more powerful than me," the blonde girl replied. "But I can see why you'd want to run away from the darkness. Not everybody's cut out for it, basically."

As most of the others in the room nodded in agreement, Rob, Ruiko, and Mitsuko couldn't help but think that they lived in a completely different world than their next-door neighbours.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
6:02 PM

Dinner was a strangely subdued affair that night, with so many of the residents eating alone in their apartments.

When Usagi and Kazari expressed a desire to go find out what was wrong, Rob flat-out forbade them from bothering the others, without giving any explanation... before retiring to his own apartment.

Toronto, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
9:41 PM

The first thing they'd picked up with their reward money for getting that door open was lunch.

The second thing they'd picked up was some silicon cards, a straightedge ruled in millimeters, a protractor, and a sharp knife at a hobbyist's store.

Now, Meltdowner had decided to stay in Toronto for a couple of days - the hostel they were staying at wasn't particularly comfortable, but at least they had a room to themselves, with two beds and a private bath. They could afford to stay another day as long as they were careful about where they ate - but this country's "Tim Horton's" chain could keep them fed cheaply for that amount of time. And she needed to prepare these cards for use. It wasn't as if she could buy them ready-made anywhere outside of Academy City, after all.

Her traveling companion sat on the smaller bed, watching as Meltdowner scored the cards in a very precise pattern.

Elsewhere, Leonard seethed inwardly. Those two were supposed to be halfway to Ottawa by now...

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 9, 2017
9:53 pm

Mimi Hanyu reached the top of the stairs and was about to head toward her own apartment and some much-needed rest, when she heard somebody crying. It took her a moment to figure out where the sounds were coming from, but as soon as she was sure, she turned away from her apartment and knocked on Mitsuko Kongo's front door. "Kongo-san? Are you all right?"

The crying slowed, then stopped. After a moment, the door opened to show Mitsuko's tear-stained face. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Hanyu-san."

"Whatever it is, do you want to talk about it?"

Mitsuko started crying again, just from knowing that, despite her best efforts to avoid troubling anyone else with her sorrow over what she'd learned that day, somebody still wanted to help her. "Oh, yes, please. Please come in."

To be continued concluded ...

**robkelk** · (This post was last modified: 03-23-2021, 06:58 PM by robkelk.)

OOC: This will be going on what I hope will be a short hiatus - with one chapter left! - while I work on this story. A scene in the final chapter here won't make any sense unless the other story is posted first. My apologies...

**robkelk** · 08-29-2021, 05:15 PM

(03-23-2021, 06:57 PM)robkelk Wrote: OOC: This will be going on what I hope will be a short hiatus - with one chapter left! - while I work on this story. A scene in the final chapter here won't make any sense unless the other story is posted first. My apologies...

And what I thought then was going to be the final chapter is now two chapters, just because there's so much being packed into the text. And this is the most logical place to split it at. The mantle is now ready for the armoury, Mr. Chekhov...

Kingston, ON, Canada
February 10, 2017
8:11 am

"We have a super problem."

Meltdowner looked up from her packing. "What's wrong, Kinuhata? Did we run out of money?"

"It isn't that," Saiai replied. "It's who's in this photo."

She looked at the screen, then grimaced. "Good thing you spotted this before we got there. I have no desire to go up against Railgun again without taking precautions."

"I agree. But what can we do? There's no MAR or Antiskill base around here that we could raid for armor. We're super on our own."

"Then we just have to make something," Meltdowner replied while using her own phone to search for portable lightning protectors. Ten minutes later, they had made a shopping list and told the front desk that they needed to stay one more day.

Kingston, ON, Canada
February 10, 2017
9:35 am

Leonard sighed. "They're not going anywhere near the train station or the bus terminal, are they?"

"Doesn't look like it," answered Awaki.

He thought for a moment, then announced, "May as well keep watching. The Xia twins should know what they're doing in recruiting those girls and their handlers in Cleveland."

"And then there's that other recruitment project."

That got a smile out of Leonard. "That's right - if they take a bus, these two will be going right past them. Maybe this isn't such a time sink after all."

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 10, 2017
4:44 pm

Long-distance video calls weren't ideal, but they were better than voice calls. Except when he didn't get the answers he was looking for.

"You know I'm not supposed to talk to you about that. Doctor-patient confidentiality."

Rob sighed deeply. "Washuu-chan, I'm not asking for a prognosis or even a diagnosis. I just want to know how long it'll take for her to heal."

"That's what the medical profession calls a 'prognosis', Rob."

After a moment, he replied, "Oh. Right. I guess I am asking for a prognosis. Let me re-phrase: She's a displacee; I'm her landlord; I have a need to know."

"As much as I want to argue with you on that, Belldandy says you're right this time. Three weeks for her body to flush the remaining drugs out, then I can start training her to have the power she should have had before Academy City got their hands on her. Six months before she plateaus."

Surprised, Rob commented, "That isn't very long, all things considered. Is there anything I need to do for her in particular?"

"No, just treat her the same way you treat Saten-san or Uiharu-san."

"That might be difficult, considering what I'm about to offer to Rui-chan," Rob replied with a smile.

"Oh?"

"I'll let her tell you. Thanks for your time, Washuu-chan - I have to go tend to my other residents now."

"Including Saten-san, right? I'll talk to you next week. Be seeing you!" And she closed the connection.

Rob sighed - he didn't want to know whether Washuu-chan was quoting when she said that last bit. Then he headed out of his office, walked to the next door down the corridor, and knocked.

After a quick moment, it opened. "I'm almost - Oh! Hello, Rob-oji."

"Rui-chan, could I talk with you for a moment before you start relaxing over the weekend, please?"

"Is it important? Kuroko, Mikoto, Kazari, and I were going to go out for dinner and shopping."

"It's very important, and it'll only take a moment."

She thought for a moment. "Your office, or the common room?"

"My office," he replied immediately. "But I'll leave the door open."

A moment later, Rob was sitting in one of the office's guest chairs, giving the guest chair closest to the door to Ruiko. "You asked me yesterday whether you could live with me after the megami send everyone else home. I only gave you half an answer."

"I thought it was a good answer. What did you miss?"

"Your reputation. Somebody your age living with somebody my age might raise some eyebrows... unless we have a solid legal relationship."

Ruiko grinned. "You're not asking me to join your harem, are you?"

In all seriousness, Rob replied, "No, definitely not. This is what I'm thinking of." He grabbed a form that was sitting on his desk and passed it to Ruiko.

She looked at the form's title. "Oh. This is a big step, Rob-oji. What does it give us that we don't have with the fosterage arrangement we already have?"

"Fosterage ends when you turn 18. This is forever." He purposefully waited a moment, then added, "If you want it."

She thought for a moment, then finally replied, "I don't know if I want it. Can I think about it?"

He smiled, and replied in the gentlest voice he could manage, "Take all the time you need."

"Thanks. It's a big step. Are you sure you don't want to leave things the way they are?"

"We could, if that's what you want. But if this is what you want," he gestured to the form, "then I'd be happy to do this."

She took another look at the form. "I can see that."

Before she could continue, Mikoto's voice drifted down the hallway outside the office. "Hey, Rui-san! Are you ready yet?"

She stood up as she replied, "Almost! I just need to drop something off in my apartment!" Then she turned to Rob. "Whatever I choose, thank you for offering it." Then she headed out the door, still carrying the half-completed request to begin adoption proceedings.

Kemptville, ON, Canada
February 11, 2017
2:47 PM

"How do you know so much about what's going on in that apartment building, anyway?"

Leonard chuckled. "Their security is atrocious. They even hired a known spy to send reports out on them." Which was true, but didn't actually answer Haruka's question. (The coffee shop's security was also atrocious - Musujime had been able to teleport the cable out of the wi-fi router again, giving them complete privacy from electronic eavesdropping.) "Suffice it to say that they were being mind-controlled, but they aren't being mind-controlled now."

Michiru turned to Haruka. "That would explain why Mercury was acting differently last month."

"Exactly," added Leonard. "I've been able to find out that it was a device of some sort that undid the mind control. But..." He paused just long enough to make sure the two young women were giving him their full attention. "It looks like they aren't the only place where people are being controlled the same way. Have I told you about San Antonio?"

Michiru thought for a moment. "Isn't that where Rhodes lives?"

Leonard didn't comment on the lack of honorific. "It is, and he's the target of the attention of two young girls who according to their source story should only be in love with each other."

"How young?"

He turned to Haruka. "At the moment? Eight."

"And Rhodes lets this go on? That disgusting creep!" There was a look of cold fury on Haruka's face.

"Maybe Donaldson hasn't told him about the device," Michiru countered.

"In which case it's his fault."

"I'll point out that I know about the device," Leonard countered, not wanting his interlocutors to lose focus on San Antonio. "Mr. Donaldson isn't keeping it secret from his circle."

"He didn't tell us."

"How often has he spoken with you since last Christmas, Ms. Ten'oh?"

Haruka thought for a moment. "Just the once. It's usually Sailor Moon who contacts us."

"And she isn't the type of person who would announce that somebody has fallen out of love," Michiru added. "It's probably just an oversight."

Leonard nodded in agreement. "There's an easy way to find out - ask him." Seeing Haruka hesitate before answering, he pressed his luck. "And if you can get the device, we can take it to San Antonio and free those two girls from whatever is affecting them."

Michiru looked straight at Haruka. "Love and Justice demand no less."

Since all three of the people in the conversation were looking at each other, none of them noticed that the coffee-shop's owner had been doing something under the counter - or that their phones had re-connected to the coffee shop's once-again-working wi-fi.

Leonard asked, "Then we're agreed?"

"We are," replied Michiru.

"Until tomorrow, then, ladies." He stood, bowed slightly, and made his way out of the coffee shop.

Boston, MA, USA
Same time

It took a few thousand milliseconds for the audio from Sailor Neptune's phone to come to HAL's attention. As soon as it did, though, his Voiceprint Identification routines recognized Leonard Testarossa.

He immediately added a warning message to the displacee's IRC channel. "Leonard Testarossa has made contact with Haruka Ten'oh and Michiru Kaioh"

His role in the alert process completed, HAL turned his attention to other matters ... not noticing that his message had not been acknowledged.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 11, 2017
3:03 PM

"Got a minute?"

Rob looked up to see Frenda standing just inside his office. As he saved the spreadsheet that he had been working on for Funtom Canada, he answered, "Sure. Come on in."

She did so, and sat down before he could offer a chair. "It's about what we were talking about on Monday."

He might not trust her, but he liked that she didn't bother with small talk while he was working. But what she had said didn't narrow things down much. "We talked about a lot of things on Monday, Frenda. Anything in particular, or the whole conversation?"

She actually looked nervous as she answered. "The whole thing, basically."

"Did I say something wrong during the conversation?"

"Well... basically, I don't know. Maybe I said something wrong. It's pretty obvious that Saten-san didn't like what she heard. And I don't like that."

"No?" One eyebrow went up, Spock-style.

"Hey, it's not like I like her that way, the way Shirai likes Railgun. I just thought that maybe we could have been friends, if she didn't know that I live in the darkness in Academy City."

"In a different world, you might say."

"Basically." She nodded in agreement. "And ..."

When it became obvious that Frenda wasn't going to continue without some prompting, Rob echoed, "And?"

"Those books that you and Shiage-san have. They say that everybody in ITEM ended up in the light. Everybody but me. I end up dead instead."

"It sounds to me like you're making a list of reasons why you should change your ways, Frenda. Do you want my help with that list?"

She shook her head. "It isn't that. I don't know if I can change, Mr. Donaldson. I've been in the darkness for too long. It's all I know."

"And you're worried that the darkness has claimed you for its own."

"Basically, yes."

"Hmmmmm..." He thought for a moment. "There are works of fiction where the light and the darkness are forces of nature, or opposite sides of a cosmic balance. A lot of the comic-book writers here like that kind of ... pardon the pun, that kind of black and white morality. But there are also works where dark isn't evil and light isn't good, and I know for a fact that there are people from at least one of those worlds here because I've met them. I can introduce you to Fate and Gil later, if you want."

"So, basically, even if the darkness has claimed me, I might not be so bad after all? Saten-san would probably like to hear that."

"She probably would. It would make her more comfortable."

"Yeah. But I don't want to lie to somebody who might become my friend."

Rob smiled. "It sounds to me like you've already started down the road away from the darkness. It won't be easy. But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight – got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."

Frenda grinned. "I've heard that song!"

Rob nodded. "If I'm going to steal, I'll steal from the best. And Bruce Cockburn is a genius songwriter. But even if I am stealing the words, the thought is still genuine. And if you really want to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight, I'll help you."

"That's a big offer, basically. But what do you get out of it?"

"Besides Rui-chan being happier than if I didn't? Well, I'll put it this way: If you make your way to the light, you'll have seen both sides of that divide, and you'll be in a position to make your own informed decision - and right now this world needs all the people who can make informed decisions that it can get. I get a slightly saner world."

Frenda thought about Rob's words for a moment. Finally, she answered, "Okay, I think I get that, basically. How long will it be before I can say that I've looked at life from both sides now?"

"That depends on how deep you are into the darkness, and how much work you put into making you way to the light. And speaking of stealing lyrics..."

"You started it!"

They both laughed, honestly and loudly.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
February 11, 2017
6:55 PM

Haruka folded her napkin. "Thank you for the food." Standing up, she added, "And it's good food. My compliments to the cook." Makoto smiled at that. "And now I wait for Michiru, again."

"I'd like to keep you company," Rob replied to Haruka's pronouncement, "but I have some work that I had to set aside this afternoon for something more important." Frenda smiled at that comment, causing Ruiko to wonder just what the more important thing was. Not noticing, Rob continued, "I'll be in my office."

Haruka looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, would you mind if I asked you something personal?"

He sighed. "Sure, why not? But if it's about somebody else here, I might not answer, just like I wouldn't answer if somebody asked personal questions about you."

"That's fair," she replied as she followed him to his office.

Once the office door was closed and they were both comfortable on opposite sides of his desk, Rob commented, "I hope you don't mind if I work while we talk. I do need to finish this today."

"That's fine," Haruka replied. "What I'm wondering about is actually about Mizuno-san."

"Ami? chan?" he quickly added. "What about her?"

"So it's you who has feelings for her. Did you make her sad around Christmas?"

Rob sighed. "That's a long story."

"I have time."

"Unfortunately, I don't. The short version is that we discovered we had been under emotion control, and it was between Christmas and New Year's that we were able to break free of it. I still care for her, and we're still friends, but we aren't being so very careful around each other that it's wearing us out any more."

"I see." This was close enough to what Leonard had told Haruka, but not exactly the same story, that she decided it was probably the truth as he saw it. "How did you break the control? Did you find the culprit and force him to undo what he did to you?"

Rob snorted in amusement. "'Culprit'. I like that word - it shows that what ... whoever it was ... did was wrong. No, we still don't know who did that to us. I had been given a divine wish because of what Hyoga and I did at the solstice, and I used it to ask that all external holds on our minds be broken. We were given a device that did just that."

"Amazing. That divinities exist, not that they'd give you a wish. Do you still have the device?"

Rob nodded as he caught up on his work. "Yeah, we've still got it. It's in the office safe. Want to see it?"

Haruka affected an air of nonchalance. "Sure, why not?"

Rob reached under his desk, opened the safe, and withdrew Emotion-Restorer-kun. "Here it is. Not much to look at, is it?"

Since she'd been invited to do so, she took a good look at it. "It's a box with a button."

"Don't push the button. That activates it."

She gave him a flat look. "I assumed as much." She put the box down on the desk, just out of his reach. "And all you had to do was push the button?"

"While we were holding it together, yes."

Just then, there was a knock at the office door. Ruiko opened the door, poked her head into the office, and announced, "Sorry to interrupt, but Touma-san and Shiage-san are fighting again."

Rob sighed, locked his workstation, and stood up. "We'll have to finish this conversation later, Ten'oh-san."

Haruka also stood up. "I understand." As Rob turned toward the door to follow Ruiko, she palmed Emotion-Restorer-kun and slipped it into her pocket.

A few minutes later, Maika walked into the otherwise-deserted office to pick up the day's waste paper. Seeing the office safe open and not seeing anything sensitive on Rob's desk, she closed the safe for him, finished her evening duties, and left the office.

Rob passed Maika on her way out and his way in; they each said hello to the other. Seeing the safe closed and not seeing Emotion-Restorer-kun on his desk, Rob assumed that Maika had secured the device for him and went back to work.

Black Aeronaut · 01-04-2022, 08:56 PM

OOC: Wasn't sure where to drop this here on the forums, but seeing as how this shortly follows after the Big Fight Scene with Meltdowner...

robkelk Wrote:He turned his back on them, walked away, and shouted, "Ben? These two are your problem now, not mine. I'll inform Lord Phantomhive and Belldandy." Then he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and tapped a speed-dial button. "Kazari? It's Rob. Ten'oh and Kaioh are security risks. Wipe their files. Everything they have saved anywhere about any of us. Don't call me back - I need to call the higher-ups now."

Benjamin watched Rob go with a sidelong look and a raised eyebrow. He didn't really appreciate much being yelled at like that when he was a victim himself. But at the same time, he wasn't about to call attention to the irritation he felt at that. As brittle as he felt, and as brittle as Rob seemed at the moment, Ben knew no good would come of it.

Besides, there were much more worthy targets present for his rage right at that moment.

He approached the two, taking slow, deliberate steps. His gaze was a mask of ice-cold fury. Enraged, certainly. But measured. Calculated. Premeditated.

Haruka and Micheru watched as he slowly came closer with each step. And as he closed in, their hearts began to sink down into the pit of their stomachs. They could feel it. He was not looking at them like people. Instead, he was looking at them like they were ill-functioning machines and, in his anger, was working out the best way to go about breaking them down.

As he began to pace back and forth in front of them, keeping his gaze directly fixed on the two, Haruka couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Don't you have anything to say!?" she demanded.

Benjamin paused in his movements, focusing on Haruka in a way that made her suddenly question why she felt that she had to open her mouth like that.

But Benjamin did at last find words. And they were exquisitely cutting words at that.

"Awfully cheeky for a supposed warrior of love and justice who has just carried out the work of gods and monsters."

He turned away then and began to pace back and forth once more, his shattered mind striving to find the words he so needed to say.

"We're not monsters," said Micheru. "You know that."

Ben stopped, his head snapping around to turn his cold fury on her in full force. Micheru swallowed hard.

"...No," said Ben at length. "You're not monsters. You're something even worse. You're tools. You allowed yourselves to become the instruments of a monster. And only because you two are so fucking short-sighted that you can't even act for yourselves without someone leading you by the nose."

Once again, silence reigned as Benjamin continued to pace. But not for long.

"There is something I want you two to understand at this very moment," said Benjamin, his tone low, but fraught with intensity. "If words exist to convey how upset I am? I do not know of them. But I feel that I must at least convey this much. You may have heard that I am on the Autism Spectrum. But knowing you? You probably disregarded that, along with all the rest of the more important details. The thing is that being Autistic does not mean you do not experience emotions. It's very much the opposite, actually. Your emotional responses are cranked past the the 'ten' mark on the metaphorical dial, and to the handwritten 'eleven' mark. People who are on the Spectrum... they shut themselves off from the world because of this. They insulate themselves because the world is just that overwhelming to them.

"You cannot even imagine what I feel right now. This is so much more than the mad AI from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and it's rant about HATE. What I feel right now? If I found out any celestial being, above or below, had a hand in this? I will fucking. Unmake. Their. Sorry. Ass. I would leave nothing of them but subatomic particles. The only reason why their memory would persist is because I would will it so. And only so that they can serve as a testament of why You. DO NOT. FUCK. WITH. ME.

"But for you two?" Benjamin scoffed derisively at that. "There's no way I alone can possibly make you truly atone for your sins. Rob missed the mark there. You see, the very first person you will need to reckon with is not me. It's not Nanoha or Fate. It's not even their families.

"It is your Empress." Benjamin then, at last, turned to face them. And when he did, it was with a smile that could only be described as evil. Had Hild been there, she would have had to cover her mouth to hide the drool leaking from her lips. "You two are so fucking done. Because now, you must explain yourselves to the person you were supposed to be following all this time with all of your heart and soul. None others, least of all yourselves, should come before her. You will now explain to her why it is you let your selfishness and pettiness come before her in your hearts."

Benjamin then turned and their gazes followed his. Micheru and Haruka both gaped. Because without anyone noticing, Usagi had somehow donned the regalia of Queen Serenity. Or rather, Neo-Queen Serenity.

"Your Majesty," said Benjamin as he curtsied respectfully to the monarch. "I apologize for making you wait like that."

Usagi - no, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Serenity II - raised a hand and placed it gently on Benjamin's shoulder. "I understand, Benjamin. It was your right to confront them. But as you said, they must now explain themselves to me."

( >>>>To Be Continued...)

**robkelk** · (This post was last modified: 04-30-2022, 06:59 PM by robkelk.)

Picking up from the end of post #11...

Highway 416, approaching Kemptville, ON, Canada
February 12, 2017
9:49 AM

Both vans were making the trip to Kemptville, following Haruka's car on the way home after Michiru's fourth rede.

Shiage was in the lead van - the one that they had just bought second-hand. They'd been driving for nearly three-quarters of an hour, on both city roads and highways, and Shiage was quite happy with the van's performance. For an automatic, of course.

So he was able to spare some attention for his girlfriend as he took the offramp into Kemptville, slipping into traffic just in front of a Greyhound bus that had just taken the Kemptville offramp from the other direction on the highway.

"So far, so good," he said casually.

"No," Rikou whispered in panic.

"What's wrong?"

"That bus. Meltdowner is on it."

Shiage was certain about two things about his girlfriend's power: that once she memorized another esper's AIM pattern, she could find that pattern again anywhere; and the pattern that Rikou knew best other than her own was Meltdowner's.

He didn't panic. He didn't have time to panic. He was almost at a traffic circle with roads leading off forward and into a big-box mall to the left, and a laneway to the right that went for a half-dozen yards then veered off behind some trees. He entered the circle, turned right, and took off like a bat out of Hell.

This did not go unnoticed.

"Where the Hell is he going?" Rob asked Mii from the driver's seat of the other van, in traffic behind the bus. He followed Shiage down the laneway.

Aboard the bus, one of the passengers on the bus said, "That van."

"I saw it, too," her travelling companion replied. "A super classic Hamazura move to ditch a tail."

"Who's he trying to lose? If it is him."

"If Takitsubo's with him, probably us. You did read those books."

Meltdowner glared at Kinuhata. "Don't remind me. I fucked up there, but so did she." Then she made a snap decision. "We're getting off the bus here," she announced as the bus pulled into the parking lot of the Tim Hortons in the strip mall.

As the two grabbed their bags, Rob caught up to Shiage and Rikou - they were stopped on a triangular patch of asphalt, just big enough for a road-salt truck to make a three-point turnaround, outside what appeared to be a city road-maintenance supply depot. Everyone got out of their respective vans. "What's going on?" asked Rob. "I don't think we're supposed to be here."

"Meltdowner's here."

Rob and Mii looked at each other. He spoke first: "Aw, no."

"I would have used stronger language," replied Mii.

"There are ladies present." Rob turned back to Shiage. "Do you think she spotted that sudden manoeuvre you made?"

"She's getting off the bus," Rikou replied.

Rob and Mii sighed, then said in unison, "She spotted you."

"What's Meltdowner doing here?" Mii added.

"Worry about that later," Rob replied as he pulled out his Blackberry Passport. "Right now, we need reinforcements. I'll connect to Haruka and Michiru's Good Neighbour System and leave an emergency message... fuck. Where the Hell is their Good Neighbour System?" he demanded angrily, no longer caring that there were ladies present. After a quick moment, he gave up looking for it. "I'll bet it's still in the goddamned boxes we gave it to them in just after Calabogie. I'm sending an emergency message to Blossom." He quickly typed out what he knew of the situation, included their GPS coordinates, and sent it to their home base as a priority 2 call for help.

What he forgot was that priority 2 calls for help go to all nodes in the Good Neighbour System.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
9:55 AM Eastern Time

"Rob's in trouble," Kazari announced.

Two minutes later, five Sailor Senshi were holding each other's hands and being held tightly by five of their apartment-mates. While they could have gone on their own thanks to what Kuroko had been teaching them, it was safer to go as a group: "Sailor TELEPORT!"

Kazari watched them disappear.

Live Oaks Manor, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
8:55 AM Central Time

Jenny looked at the message and swore to herself. "All of the time machines we have parked here, and nobody can make it there in time because none of them work!"

"It hardly matters," Harold replied. Before she could protest, he added, "Considering the reports of the sheer magnitude of energies those people toss around, nobody here is strong enough to take part in their battle. Not even my wife."

"You're right. I'll send them a reply saying we're sorry that we can't help."

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
9:55 AM Eastern Time

Mahoro's brooch started flashing. Squeezing it gently, she said, "What's wrong?"

"Trouble near Ottawa - a possible high-level esper battle," Hokaze's voice replied from the brooch. "I have coordinates."

Minawa looked up from the clean laundry that she was folding. "Can we get there in time to be able to help?"

Ryuga nodded. "I can use the Saint hardware that we have here to open a gateway to those coordinates, but either I'm the only one who goes through it or I send two people."

"Two allies are better than one," Slash replied.

Ryuga grimaced at the thought of missing out on a battle. "As much as I hate to say it, the cat's right."

Mahoro nodded. "Minawa, can I leave the rest of the housework here in your hands, please? Slash and I need to go help our friends."

Black Lagoon, somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand
9:55 PM Indochina Time

Dutch turned the alarm off, then turned to Rock. "Ignore it. We're not being paid to take part in that kind of shit."

"Not that we could anyway," muttered Rock as he went back to what he had been doing.

The Steeple, Philadelphia, PA, USA
9:55 AM Eastern Time

"We can't just ignore a call for help, father."

Gil looked Lotte straight in the eye. "This is an esper battle, not a mage battle. We've never seen an esper battle, much less taken part in one."

"All the more reason for us to go," replied Lotte's twin sister Aria. "We need the information."

Lindy nodded. "Agreed - we need to know what this world's forces are capable of. Amy, you and I will monitor the situation from here, and you'll get as many readings as you can. Chrono-kun -" She saw that he'd already transformed his clothing into his Barrier Jacket and was holding Durandal in staff form. "Good. Yuuno-kun..."

"Casting a long-range teleport now."

And a green glow formed around Aria, Lotte, Chrono, and Yuuno.

7 Henrietta Street, Dublin, Ireland
2:55 PM Greenwich Mean Time

"Look at how many people are saying they're going to help. We don't need to go."

"Lou's right. And we couldn't get there in time to help even if we wanted to fight. Or knew how." Meg picked up her guitar. "But we can practice playing not as perfectly as we usually do, for the victory party."

"Are you that sure they're going to win?" Anri asked.

"Considering how many people are going, I'd rather not think about the alternative."

Appartements Mont-Royal Sud, Montreal, QC, Canada
9:55 AM Eastern Time

"Volunteers only," Caster insisted as she started her spell. "This is a two-hundred-kilometre shunt to someplace I've never been before, not a quick hop down to Dieppe Park."

By the time she was ready to trigger the teleport, the volunteers were combat-ready.

Nova Scotia, Canada
10:56 AM Atlantic Time

"You're saying we have to just ignore a fight?"

Epsilon looked straight at Ranma. "Unless you can teleport, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Ranma scowled. "I don't like backing down from a challenge."

"It isn't a challenge. As far as we're concerned, it's a news report." To himself, Epsilon added, I just hope nobody ends up dead.

Westwoods Apartments, San Antonio, TX, USA
8:56 AM Central Time

"You're in charge of the group."

Tenchi looked at Ben in disbelief. "I'm not ready."

Ryouko chuckled. "Sure you are."

Benjamin, though, sighed and put up a hand to forestall any further commentary.

"Tenchi, this is what you all have been preparing for. And more importantly, you will eventually come to be in a position of some importance. Seto will make absolutely certain of that."

With that statement, Tenchi cast a nervous glance in Noike's direction. The woman only nodded her head solemnly, causing Tenchi to gulp.

"Yeah, exactly," continued Benjamin. "Which is why it's important for you to become experienced sooner rather than later. Besides, Noike will be there as well. You don't need to worry about messing up because she has your back."

"But what about you?" asked Tenchi. "You're wearing your HEV Suit."

"I'm a strategic element. Not a tactical element. It's very hard for me to do 'non-lethal' with Gojira's Little Brother here." With that, Benjamin patted his right forearm with its cannon-shell reinforcing armor in standby mode. "But if it's needed? I can be there in seconds."

Tenchi sighed at that. "Do you ever get tired of being right all the time?"

"More than you can imagine, Tenchi. But at least its better than being wrong when it counts the most."

Noike laid a reassuring hand on Tenchi's shoulder. "We need to go, now."

"Yes," said Tenchi reluctantly. But when he spoke again, he sounded much more confident. "We need to help our friends. Washuu-chan?"

"Right, right," Washuu replied. "Opening a portal."

Ben watched the four of them leave, but felt that he should hedge his bets. He took out his phone, opened the Good Neighbor app, and fired off a message to Rob.

Rob. It's not that I doubt you or anything, but if you need me, I'm ready to roll at a moment's notice. We've already seen what my ability does to Espers, and that was with me barely even trying. (I still feel bad for accidentally nailing Kuroko back then.) I can shut them down faster than flies on stink, and whoever was on the receiving end will *wish* we'd just killed them instead. Smile

Aria House, Venice Beach, CA, USA
6:57 AM Pacific Time

Shaoran placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, gently and comfortingly. "There's no way we can get there in time to help."

Brent could think of one way - Fly there, taking however long was necessary, then Return to the battle - but he saw all of the "sending help" acknowledgement messages scrolling on the Good Neighbor System's display and thought that Rob probably had enough firepower heading his way already.

Douglass Gardens Apartments, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
9:57 AM Eastern Time

"Then it's agreed. If you would be kind enough, Guru Clef?"

He nodded, and a moment later, the Magic Knights were on their way.

Kemptville, ON, Canada
9:57 AM Eastern Time

"Do you need to do anything about that message?"

Haruka looked at her phone, then turned back to Leonard and shook her head. "I'm sure the others can take care of it." Then she saw that Michiru was finished speaking with her employer and heading back to them.

All Michiru said was "Let's go." Haruka and Leonard stood and left the coffee shop with her, going as far as the parking lot... where they met Awaki Musujime, and Uranus and Neptune teleported all four of them away.

Elsewhere in Kemptville, ON, Canada
9:55 AM Eastern Time

As Shiage drove the good van - the one that Rob had been driving - off the laneway to park it beside the fence around the road-maintenance depot, Rob piled snow onto the tire tracks, and then added some snow on top of the van once Shiage was out of it. The ladies who had accompanied them headed for whatever cover they could find - Mii behind a snowbank that lined the access lane, and Takitsubo and Frenda going a few steps into the woods to hide behind some trees.

Rob had barely had time to cover over everyone else's bootprints when there was a white glow, followed by the appearance of Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter, Tuxedo Kamen, Niiko Misaka (carrying a very illegal H&K MP5K, and Rob wondered how she had managed to get it out of Blossom's armoury), Accelerator, Mimi Hanyu, and Railgun. "What's the situation?" asked Mikoto while getting a handful of steel washers out of her pocket.

Rob replied with one word: "Meltdowner."

As far as the Level 5 espers were concerned, nothing more needed to be said. Accelerator cut to the chase: "How soon until she gets here?"

"We're pretty sure she's on foot," Shiage replied, "but now she knows where to find us, thanks to that light show you made when you teleported in. Maybe five minutes if we're lucky," he added, doubting that they would be lucky.

"Right. Scatter and take cover." After a short moment, Mii added from behind her snowbank, "Too bad you didn't bring Kamijo with you."

Minako looked puzzled for a moment. "How did she know who we... Right. Mii Konori, The Girl With The X-Ray Eyes."

Rob didn't waste time sighing. "Less chatter, more hiding, Venus!" He wasn't following his own orders; instead he and Shiage headed over to the van that they hadn't yet hidden.

"We couldn't bring Kamijo," Mamoru answered Mii's comment as he jumped over a different snowbank. "His nullification effect also nullifies the Sailor Teleport."

As Mikoto electrically launched herself over the snowbank that Mii was hiding behind, she added, "So you'll just have to make do with us."

A minute later, the only people still visible were Rob, Shiage, and Niiko... and Niiko was headed for the gate to the road-maintenance depot.

She just barely managed to hide herself when Meltdowner and Saiai walked up the laneway from the other direction. As soon as they were close enough to identify the men standing beside the van, they stopped and Meltdowner shouted, "Hamazura, you asshole! Where are the other two?"

Before Shiage could answer, Rob held up a hand to stop him. He tried to draw her attention away from Shiage. "Excuse me, miss, but who are you?"

"None of your business! I'm talking to that asshole beside you!"

So much for that idea. Rob started forcing water vapour out of the air and into his hand while he whispered to Shiage, "May as well answer her."

"Yeah," he whispered back. Then he shouted, "They're hiding from you! Frenda doesn't want to end up dead!"

"You idiot! I wouldn't have killed her unless she told somebody ITEM's secrets! And I'm betting all three of you did just that when you got all cozy with Railgun! Where is that kid, anyway?"

(Behind cover, Mii put her hand on Mikoto's shoulder and quietly shook her head.)

Rob tried to defuse the situation, all-but-certain that his attempt was hopeless. "He didn't tell us anything we didn't already know!"

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Meltdowner shouted back.

Rob noticed that they hadn't stopped walking towards him. He wasn't shouting any more; simply projecting his voice was sufficient. "Just somebody who offers people who are new to this place a safe place to stay and a chance at a new life."

"What, you're with Antiskill or whatever they call the cops here?"

Rob shook his head. "No, just a concerned citizen."

Meltdowner's companion chose that point to finally join the conversation. "That's too bad." Saiai said emotionlessly. "Now you're going to be a super dead citizen." She stepped to one side, grabbed a boulder sitting beside the laneway, picked it up, and threw it at the two men.

They ran in two directions... so the boulder only hit the van they had been standing beside.

Rob grimaced at the sound of breaking glass. "We just bought that!" Then he quickly forced the snow on the ground into a wall between them - which disintegrated under Meltdowner's simultaneous attack. "What'd'you know? I can actually block a Level 5 attack. Once."

"Once is all you'll get!"

"Once was all I needed," he replied as a lightning bolt hit Meltdowner from behind. "You're not the only Level 5 here."

She turned in pain and fury, sending what was left of her armoured clothing falling in pieces into the snow around her, shouting "Don't interfere, Railgun!"...

...only to discover Sailor Jupiter. "Sorry, wrong electrokinetic. And the people you're looking for are under our protection. If you attack them, we will punish you."

"Were you looking for me?" Mikoto asked from the top of the snowbank she had been hiding behind as she tossed a washer into the air.

Meltdowner shot a beam at the washer... and vapourized it. "Hah! Is that all you've got?"

She immediately regretted her boastful question as other people announced attacks from concealment.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"Charm Buster!"

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"

Rob simply sent an icicle knife flying at her left arm, while Mamoru threw one of his armor-piercing roses at her right arm, Niiko emptied a full clip of ammo in her direction, and Mikoto got off a fast lightning-bolt attack.

Meltdowner tossed one of her newly-made latticework silicon cards into the air in front of her, destroying it with her own shot - but the card turned her single shot into a wide-area barrage, taking out all of the inbound attacks and most of their cover, and hitting Sailor Venus's leg just above the knee.

Minako cried out in pain as she dropped to her remaining knee - even Senshi toughness couldn't defend against disintegration.

The Sailor Senshi immediately broke off their attacks and turned to Sailor Venus. Rob shouted at them as he mentally threw some of the remaining nearby snow at Meltdowner's face and started running across the battlefield. "Eyes on the attackers, people! Mercury, go look after Venus! Everyone else, keep fighting!"

Meanwhile, Saiai was looking for something else heavy to throw when she noticed a shadow in the nearby woods. She grabbed and threw an entire small tree - which bounced back to her, bouncing off her own shield and landing at her feet as she was knocked back. Then the person casting the shadow stepped out of concealment. "You must be the girl from the Dark May Project. Tch. I hate fighting myself."

"Accelerator. I think it'd be a super good thing if you don't fight." She didn't show it, but Saiai was frightened for the first time since she'd been dumped into the Metacontinuity.

Accelerator didn't bother being sardonic. "Can't do that. Like the ponytail girl said, those three are under our protection. But I'll make you a promise - when we win, I won't kill you or tear your arm off for daring to go up against me." He stamped his foot, and the gravel that was on the road to provide traction on the snow jumped into the air and toward Saiai - who ignored it.

Then there was a green glow between the two of them, which faded to reveal four people - two catgirls and two boys. The catgirl with the longer hair immediately jumped at Saiai - and bounced off of her. "She's got a skintight shield!"

"Do what you can, Lotte," the other catgirl shouted. "I'm busy!" As Aria said that, she jumped into the air to get out of the line of fire, hovered there, and cast a dimensional shift spell - nothing that would stop anyone from entering, but enough to prevent damaging attacks from leaving the area.

The boys didn't stand around to watch. The younger one headed straight for Sailor Venus while the black-clad one cried out, "Durandal!"

The staff in his hand replied, "Right, boss. Eternal Coffin." Then ice started forming below Meltdowner's feet - who jumped to one side and disintegrated the ice before it reached her.

"Where did you come from?" Meltdowner asked annoyedly as she put up another shield to disintegrate Railgun's lightning bolts at the same time. "Doesn't matter. You attacked me as soon as you got here without bothering to learn who's on whose side."

"We were briefed on the battle while we were transiting. I came from the local Administration Bureau base. My name is Chrono Harlaown. It isn't too late for you to surrender, Meltdowner."

"There's no way I'd trust that offer after you tried to kill me! 'Eternal' anything is usually pretty damned fatal. You can die now!"

"Layered Round Shield!" Chrono got his defence up just in time to block Meltdowner's disintegration ray, losing all but one of the layers. He decided to take to the sky... which threw off the aim of Meltdowner's counterattack. As he headed toward Aria's position, she launched a Stinger Snipe to cover his retreat.

By this point, the last of the newcomers had reached Sailors Venus and Mercury. He took one look at what was left of Venus's leg, grimaced, and knelt right beside her so that he could hold his hand close to the injury. "I'm Yuuno Scrya. I can help."

"Do it," Minako almost-yelled through gritted teeth.

As Yuuno started a Physical Heal spell, Mercury described exactly what the injury was. "Traumatic amputation above the knee, a clean sever. Part of the tissue is missing - there's no way to re-attach the limb."

"Unless we force her to regenerate the lost tissue," Yuuno replied. "I'm modifying my spell. Where's the leg?"

Before Ami could reach for Minako's severed limb, there was a crack of displaced air. "Sorry we're late."

Ami looked up for a brief moment. "Mahoro! Slash! Avoid the woman who's destroying every attack we send at her," she said as Meltdowner shot Aria's Stinger Snipe out of the air. "Your target's the girl who the albino's attacking." She gestured in Accelerator's general direction. "Sorry I can't help," she added as she turned back to Minako and Yuuno.

"You're busy," growled Slash. "We're going." He leapt at Saiai... and bounced. The only effect he had was to make her look away from Accelerator and Mahoro - who attacked her at the same time with no effect.

At the far end of Aria's pocket dimension, four people who had teleported in unnoticed decided that they now knew who was on whose side. "Two opponents, both powerful," the blonde woman commented.

"The one in the dress is a bigger threat than the one in the hooded jacket," replied the boy in the business suit. "I can see that much, but I can't affect them directly."

"They're espers, not mages," the brown-haired girl with the broom said.

The taller man boasted, "Esper or mage, they should have trouble living through my Reality Marble."

After a quick moment, the boy said, "It's worth a try. We'll do something about the girl in the hoodie while you hit the woman in the dress. Saber, please guard Archer. Honami, let's get airborne."

"I'm not used to having somebody watching my back when I do this. Thanks." Then he looked straight at Meltdowner and started speaking in Japanese. ｢Karada wa tsurugi de dekiteiru. Chishio wa tetsu de, kokoro wa garasu.｣

A ring of fire surrounded Meltdowner. Before she could do anything about it, Railgun, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mars shot at her from three different directions, forcing her to deal with the immediate threats first.

｢Ikutabi no senjou wo koete fuhai, tada no ichido mo haisou wa naku, tada no ichido mo rikai sarenai.｣

Meltdowner suddenly found herself in the middle of a desert, with only some gears visible in the distance. Frowning, she muttered, "No. Not happening. I watched Hamazura play this game."

｢Kare no mono wa tsune ni hitori, tsurugi no oka de shouri ni you. Yue ni shougai ni imi wa naku. Sono karada wa kitto tsurugi de dekite ita!｣

Meltdowner raised both hands above her head just before the Unlimited Blade Works rained down on her.

Saber turned to Archer and asked, "Did it work?"

Archer ended his Reality Marble, to reveal Meltdowner... surrounded by swords, with a disintegration shield above her head.

The overall shock that it hadn't worked was broken by a shout from above: "President's Orders!"

Everyone looked up.

Itsuki Iba? When did he become a displacee? thought Rob. Then he shouted, "Everybody, do what he says! Trust me!"

Without acknowledging Rob's comment, and in a much more self-assured voice than he had used a moment ago, Itsuki started giving orders.

"TSAB enforcer! Remove the limiter from the redhead!"

"But -" Chrono started, only to be interrupted by Itsuki. "Now! TSAB Student! Cast your attack on the girl in the hoodie!"

"Charm Buster!"

It was the first attack to actually hit Saiai, who was dazed by it.

"Pillar!" Itsuki shouted to the group of Magic Knights who had just that second teleported in, to the surprise of everyone but Itsuki. "Jupiter! Shoot at the brown-haired girl standing on the snowbank!"

Railgun looked surprised. "At me?"

"Crimson Lightning!"

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

Then Mikoto realized what Itsuki's order to her was going to be, and she grinned one of Accelerator's grins. "Railgun! Hit the girl wearing the hoodie!"

She was right. Mikoto grabbed both girls' lightning out of the air just before it hit her, added it to her own electricity... and shifted her target from Meltdowner to Saiai.

It didn't matter how good Saiai Kinuhata's "Offense Armor" ability was - she was only a Level 4 esper and she had just been hit by an overpowered Level 5 area-effect attack while dazed. Her armour and nervous system both overloaded, and she collapsed.

After taking a brief moment to make sure she was unconscious, Accelerator grinned as he turned to Meltdowner. "Little Miss Bulletproof's down, and I didn't even have to kill her. Now it's your turn. And I didn't make any promises to you."

"Accelerator!" Itsuki shouted. "Wait for the right moment! Honami! Retreat in force!"

"You just try that! None of you have been able to hurt me yet!" Meltdowner cried out in defiance, as she ignored Umi's Icicle Blades and Honami throwing mistletoe darts at her.

Then the portal from San Antonio opened.

Rob also heard the ping of an incoming message, but didn't dare take the time to ignore Meltdowner and read it, since it looked like Itsuki was giving up command of the battlefield. The timing of the message suggested it was from Ben, and Rob was very worried that he might need to read it before Ben showed up and there was a repeat of the Ingram Park Mall Incident.

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Same time

Hyoga couldn't help but feel - over her emphatic link with Rob - the intense worry that her beloved was feeling. Not being able to do anything else, she pushed it down the link to Mii and Ami, hoping she was doing the right thing.

Kemptville, ON, Canada
Same time

Ami faltered as she started to cast the Physical Heal spell Yuuno had just shown her.

"What's wrong?"

She pushed Rob's worry out of her mind. "Nothing that I can do anything about. Mina-chan, I'm starting that spell again."

On the other side of the combat, and behind the last remaining stub of a snowbank, Mii also felt Rob's worry. After seeing who was walking through the portal from Westwoods, she understood why ... and acting on a hunch, she checked the Good Neighbour app.

Meanwhile, Tenchi and Ryoko stepped forward to give Noike enough room to clear the portal before Washuu collapsed it from the other end.

Mikoto shot a full-power lightning bolt at Meltdowner, keeping her distracted and letting Ryoko know how powerful her opponent was. (Ryoko knew first-hand from the Halloween party just how powerful Railgun was.) Seeing Meltdowner absorb the blast in one of her shields, she told Tenchi, "That girl's strong." Then she noticed that Meltdowner was almost overflowing with energy - probably energy that had been shot at her during the battle. "And she's powered up."

Noike added, "If what I've read is accurate, she probably can't take much more."

Meltdowner agreed with her assessment - she was used to immediately using the energy she'd gained from disintegrating incoming attacks, and she'd be blocking so many attacks in so short a time that blocking even a snowball would have pushed her over the edge. She needed to attack somebody. Anybody.

She chose the young man who'd just stepped through the latest portal.

Tenchi reacted by instinct, forming a barrier with three Light Hawk Wings.

It held. Barely.

I need to think about my shields here, he thought as he walked toward Meltdowner. I can't just make something half-heartedly. If her attack bounces off my shield, somebody else could get hurt. His barrier broke after her second shot, and he immediately re-created it... with two Wings instead of three, saving the third to become his sword.

What Meltdowner saw was Tenchi creating a weapon out of part of his energy shield. She formed a shield of her own just before he swung his sword.

Meltdowner's shield shattered at Tenchi's first blow.

whatever his sword was made of, she couldn't disintegrate it. In desperation, she raised an arm to protect her face from the coming blow... which stopped at her chest instead of her head. He asked, "Will you surrender?"

She glared at him and tried to knee him in the groin.

He stepped back before she could make contact, and scowled. All he said was, "I don't want to hurt you. But if you're going to fight dirty, so will I."

"You were holding back? Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it! Damn you!" And just as suddenly as she had become angry, the emotions drained from her and she held up her hand in surrender. "And damn me. Why the hell am I doing this? Accelerator, Railgun and at least one of her clones, the god-damn Sailor Senshi who are just as real as I am, the damned Magic Knights who are also real, and whoever the rest of you are..." she waved one hand in the general direction of the rest of the group "... all to protect a couple of fuck-ups who cut and run from ITEM. Why?"

"Because everybody deserves a second chance," replied Mimi Hanyu as everybody else (other than Tenchi, Yuuno and Ami) stopped planning what they'd do next. "Even somebody like them. Or me."

"Somebody like you? Are you anything like me? How many people have you killed to get your own way?"

Mimi sighed. "Just one."

"I've lost count."

Rob nodded. "We know. And it doesn't matter, not here, not right now." Softening his tone, he continued, "Frenda told us that she was a part of the darkness of Academy City. We're a candle in the darkness. To quote Led Zeppelin, there's still time to change the road you're on."

She looked him straight in the eye. "Platitudes and cheesy lyrics don't mean a damned thing."

He nodded again. "But actions do. There's a place for you - all of you in ITEM - here in the light whenever you want to take it. We can hide you if we have to. We can give you medical care." They both glanced at Sailor Venus, who was still getting first aid from Sailor Mercury, Yuuna, and Washuu. (And Rob was surprised to see Ami was using the same healing magic that Yuuno was.) "We're already helping Ms. Takitsubo heal from the damage that the Body Crystal drug did to her, and helping her crest to Level 5 while she's healing."

"Level 5? Her?"

"If her power reaches level 5, she'll make the entire Power Development Curriculum moot. That's why she was drugged with Body Crystal."

As the implications of what he'd just said sank in, her anger returned... but it was a slow burn directed at the Academy City Board of Directors, instead of her usual hot temper. "Shit."

"And we might even be able to give you some ideas on how to use your powers in ways that work to your benefit instead of Academy City's, the way we have with Accelerator and Ms. Takitsubo. Will you at least think it over?"

After a moment, she answered, "Maybe." She wasn't sure she wanted help from somebody who'd make Accelerator even more powerful - but if she could become more powerful, it would be worth it. And he was right about the light; some of the things she'd done in the darkness weighed on her soul.

"You know where to find us. If you don't want to join us now, we'll get out of your way and let you leave... although I hope you'll forgive us if we don't turn our backs on you," he finished with a smile.

She smiled in return. "That's the first thing you've said since I met you that I actually understand." Then Meltdowner - Shizuri Mugino - frowned. "But I don't have any place to go. We're in the country illegally," she glanced at Saiai, who was beginning to regain consciousness, "we have no money, and we have no friends..."

"I'm willing to be your friend," replied Rob.

"After we fought? Sorry, but I don't believe in that 'befriending' crap."

Tenchi smiled. "I don't understand that, either. But you still need some place to stay. I'm sure we can find room for you at Westwoods at least for a while."

While Tenchi and Shizuri talked about accommodations, Rob finally too the time to read the message he'd received when Tenchi arrived... and Mii's replies to Ben's message. Rob quickly typed a reply of his own: "Fight's over, we can stand down to DEFCON 3. Tenchi's offering Meltdowner a room at Westwoods. Can you keep her until she isn't likely to kill Frenda in a rage, please? And we need a stretcher for Minako" he added while he overheard Ami all-but-order Minako to stay off her leg and let it heal properly.

Ben's reply "I'm on my way" reached Rob mere seconds before the portal opened.

Meltdowner watched as a man emerged from the portal and raised one of her elegant eyebrows at the sight that greeted her.

Not that it was a strange sight, mind. But rather at the presence that was being exuded. A sort of canniness that only those who could balance wariness against confidence possessed. She could tell already that he had started sizing up the situation before his foot even touched the ground this side of the portal.

She also had to admit that he had a good look to him. Not in the sense that he was nice to look at, but in how he presented himself - posture straight yet relaxed, moving easily with a martial artist's grace, long hair gathered into a tight bun at the back of his head, neatly trimmed mustache and beard, and some very functional looking no-nonsense armor - all sloping planes and curves designed to deflect blows rather than take them head-on, flexible where it needed to be, and shaded in charcoal-grays and matte black. Meltdowner wouldn't have been surprised if the armor had some kind of power assistance features. The only thing that puzzled her was the odd collection of additional plating around his right vambrace, which was not mirrored on the left one.

And then there was the weapon he carried. Some kind of warhammer? It was definitely one of the armor-piercing types, judging by the wickedly curved 'beak' it had. But she had to wonder why on earth it had a magazine box attached under the hammer head. After everything she'd seen today, she was ready to admit to a morbid curiosity to see the thing in action.

As he took everything in, there was a sudden pained expression in his face as he caught sight of the medical emergency in the background - the one that he had brought a stretcher for. His stance shifted slightly, as though he wanted to go and help... but something stayed him. It was evident that the woman who was hurt was, at the very lest, some kind of friend to this man.

She could relate to that. While she didn't really think of her subordinates as "friends" per se, she did care enough to be concerned for their well being. Enough to trigger the burning outrage at Frenda's seeming betrayal. The idea of seeing one of her subordinates in need, but herself unable to act, was definitely something she'd consider common ground with whoever this was.

Speaking of...

"Who is this man and why does he seem so important?"

Accelerator was close enough to answer, and he smiled as he prepared to do so. If there was one thing he'd readily admit as a common trait between himself and Benjamin, it was the schadenfreude they experience from watching someone metaphorically shit their pants once they realize how well and truly fucked they were.

"That's Benjamin Rhodes. The apartment manager from San Antonio. We call him the Plutonium Dragon."

"The what." said Meltdowner, turning a disbelieving look to Accelerator.

The other Level 5 Esper laughed. "I know. Sounds like some chunibiyou bullshit, right?" He then levelled a toothy grin at her. "But it's not. He can generate antimatter. Those armour plates you see on his arm? It's not armour. It's structural support to help him contain the matter-antimatter annihilation."

"No. There's no way," said Mugino in disbelief. But there was no way she could refute it. Accelerator could lie like a dog if he wanted to, but that was usually in the middle of a fight, and even then only on the rare occasion he actually needed to bluff - which few people ever called him on because there was very little the Level 5 couldn't do once his back was to the wall.

"Oh yes," said Accelerator, relishing the look on her face. "It's a matter annihilation pumped gamma-ray laser. Like Gojira's radioactive death breath, just with a different power source. And that's why he is able to get away with that stupid name. We call him Lil' Goji-kun to tease him about it. And for added fun, he can also pack it as a projectile instead. And you'll never know its coming unless he wants you to know. That fucker is a total nightmare to deal with."

Meltdowner eyed the man with a renewed perspective. If this was the case, then it was no wonder he was so calm. If he wanted to, he could have wasted every single one of them the moment he arrived. Except maybe Accelerator. But from the way he sounded, this Benjamin-character must have some kind of ace up his sleeve that would allow him to deal with even Accelerator as well.

That kind of capability demanded respect. But was he really worthy of it? Mugino wasn't going to wait around to find out - she didn't get to where she was at by being passive, after all.

She went right up to him and said, "I'm told that you're the man I need to talk to about a place to stay."

Benjamin turned to her, mildly surprised to have been confronted so suddenly like that. But he didn't stay confused for long.

"You must be Meltdowner, then," he said in a professional sounding tone. After passing the stretcher to Rob, he offered his hand to her, saying, "Benjamin Rhodes, Manager at Westwoods Apartments in San Antonio."

While Rob definitely wanted to listen to their conversation, and possibly take part, he was holding the stretcher that Minako desperately needed. A hero wouldn't waste time talking when somebody needed his help. He made his way over to the ad hoc trauma team. "I have a stretcher."

Ami sighed in relief as she finished the spell that Yuuno had taught her, the aquamarine glow fading from her hands. "Thank the gods. Mina, we're going to get you some place more comfortable."

"Thanks," replied Sailor Venus, no longer speaking through gritted teeth.

"But not for another minute or two," added Yuuno as he continued casting another Physical Heal spell on Sailor Venus, his hands glowing emerald green.

"Can you afford to pay attention to me right now?"

As Rob finished spreading the stretcher out beside Minako, he answered her reassuringly. "Everything's under control. Ben's here."

"Ben's come to save the day? I thought he was ex-Navy, not ex-Calvary. But he has to be calvary, doesn't he, since he rides to the rescue all the time."

Rob smiled. "It's 'Cavalry', not 'Calvary', unless you're talking about that place in Jerusalem."

"Just outside Jerusalem," Ami corrected.

Minako giggled. "You're getting to be as bad as me, Rob-oji."

Ami smiled, less at her friend's comment and more at how she had said it. It looked like Minako wasn't going to go into shock before they had a chance to get her home. Seeing that Yuuno's hands had stopped glowing, she announced, "Let's get you onto the stretcher. Rob, take her legs; I'll take her torso. Yuuno, be ready to slide the stretcher under her."

The three of them carried out the procedure as if they'd rehearsed it.

"Now," Rob asked Minako, "who's going to carry you home?"

"I will, but you won't," Ami replied. "Our heights are too different." She looked around and finally spotted Usagi. "Sailor Moon! I need your help over here!"

Considering how quickly she arrived, it was obvious that Usagi was waiting for Ami's call. "Does somebody here need a ride?" she asked with a concerned smile on her face.

"Hang on a minute; I'll check with Ben and make sure the fight really is over," Rob replied as he made room for Usagi at the foot of the stretcher. He made his way back to the other important conversation taking place on what was no longer a battlefield. As he did, he noticed Ben turning to Accelerator. "You're ranking me at Level 4?"

"Yeah, I am. And get over yourself. Until you can do more than just blow stuff up, you're nowhere near Level 5. Even if you can blow up a shopping mall in one shot."

Railgun felt the need to come to Ben's defence. "He can also do that Capacity Down thing."

"So he's a Dual Skill. That doesn't make him Level 5."

"Triple Skill," said Ben. "I'm a teleporter, too."

Meltdowner's entire thought process came to a screeching halt.

"You need a computer to do the math for you," Accelerator countered, heedless of the blank look on her face.

"True," allowed Benjamin, "but my teleport range is better than anyone in Academy City."

Meltdowner was, suffice to say, bewildered. Theoretical chatter about Dual Skills had been relatively common back in Academy City. But the idea of a Triple Skill was the sort of thing that was simply never brought up, and only because the idea was so outlandish that calling it a pipe dream was being too generous. And yet, here was a man who was laying claim three esper abilities, and also had his mental and physical faculties fully intact. Or at least seemed to. If he was crazy, it was a very subtle sort of crazy - the kind typically written off as eccentricity... at least, until they were mounting your head on their trophy wall.

But she somehow got the sense that while Benjamin might be at least a little on the batshit side of the mental health spectrum, he was harmless so long as he wasn't provoked. He was just so... Charming? No, though the way he handled Accelerator's sass was notable. Nice? Yes, he certainly was, but it was something more than that. There was just something about the man that made him seem...

....Trustworthy.

That nearly made Meltdowner start at the realization. Back in Academy City, she could literally count on one hand exactly how many people she felt she could fully trust and place her faith in, with fingers left over - there were so many hidden agendas that maintaining a healthy sense of paranoia was not only considered normal, but essential to one's continued survival in that sick and twisted place.

Meltdowner could smell a liar a mile away. Benjamin... He might be capable of lying, but only in the way Sun Tzu espoused - encouraging his enemy's arrogance and enticing them to attack in the one place where he could completely unmake them. Otherwise, this was the type of man who was brutally honest. You may not like the truth he has to tell you, but you could rest assured, it was very much the truth you need to hear and can only be disregarded at your own peril.

And then the last bit Benjamin said registered with her.

"Wait," called out Meltdowner. "How far can he go?"

"We haven't tried it yet," said Shirai, "but theoretically Cousin Ben can teleport to the Moon if he needs to." (At this, Meltdowner mouthed the words "Cousin Ben!?" in absolute astonishment.) "All he needs is a set of known coordinates. Though he can't do Move Point like Musujime can, but his Device can plot out multiple jumps in advance. In short, he can perform consecutive teleports faster than I can."

The more Meltdowner heard, the more she thought the entire world had gone insane. Accelerator and Railgun weren't at each other's throats? Accelerator was willing to talk instead of fight? Somebody she'd never met before had a Triple Skill, which Academy City was certain was impossible? Kuroko Shirai, who she personally knew was a Judgment officer who couldn't see the real world past her rule book, was admitting she wasn't the best, and treating Accelerator and this Benjamin person as friends - and they were letting her? Other people knew what ITEM was like and were still willing to protect deserters from the team out of the goodness of their hearts? At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if Hamazura, Level 0 that he was, demonstrated that he was able to defeat her in a one-on-one fight. "Masaki-san, Rhodes-san, I'll take you up on your offer. I have some serious thinking to do."

"I'll go with you," Saiai said weakly as she stood up. "I'm not leaving you super alone."

With the all-clear officially sounded by Rob and confirmed by Ben, people started heading home, teleporting, shunting, folding, or shifting back where they came from while saying things like "Give me a call tomorrow" or "Let's get together when there isn't an emergency" or "Great to meet you; come see us some time!" ... although nobody thought it wise to leave before Ben took Saiai and Mugino with him to San Antonio.

The Sailor Teleport was awkward, what with Sailor Venus's stretcher being carried by Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon. But Ami wasn't willing to let Minako go home by van when a less stressful option was available.

Eventually the group left in Kemptville was made up of the people who had been in the vans to begin with, Mahoro, Slash, Itsuki, Honami, Saber, Archer, and the Magic Knights... at which point Hikaru finished a cellphone call. "Guru Clef won't be able to bring us back home for a few hours yet."

"And I'm not sure whether Caster can bring us back home," added Archer.

"We should have asked whether anybody needed a ride before Washuu-chan took off," Mii commented. "Too late now. when's the next train from Ottawa to Montreal?"

Rob checked the Via Rail website. "We just missed the late-morning train. The next one's at 2:20." He turned to the group from Montreal. "We will, of course, pay your way back in business class. it's the least we can do to thank you for helping us today. Although I'd be very interested in spending some time talking with you, I doubt I'll have time to do that today."

"Maybe tomorrow," suggested Saber.

Rob nodded. "Maybe tomorrow." He turned to the Magic Knights. "I'm sure you'd be more comfortable waiting some place where it's warm and Bob knows to the centimeter where to pick you up from, instead of out in the cold where people need to look for you, "

"We'd appreciate that, thank you," replied Fuu.

"Oh, dear," Mahoro commented while putting her own cellphone away. "The teleporter that Ryuga-san built to send us here was single-use. We can't go home until he rebuilds it."

"Or we could put you on a train as well," Rob offered.

"You can put mistress Mahoro on a train. I refuse to travel in a pet carrier."

"Then I'll stay until Ryuga-san and Hokaze-hakase can finish the repairs to the teleporter, too."

Rob smiled. "We'll find you some place to sleep for a few days." He turned to Shiage. "Now, how do we get everybody to Ottawa? We used to have enough seats in our vans..." Rob looked mournfully at the broken windshield of the new van. Then he continued, "... but that has to go to a window repair shop before it's roadworthy again. Are we the only residence that can't open a portal?"

"I don't see anyone here from Nova Scotia or Dublin," Archer pointed out.

Shiage looked at the damage to the second van. "I count fourteen people here, including the panther who won't ride in a pet carrier. You have eleven seats. You take everybody else. I'll take Rikou and Frenda, and drive this to a repair shop here, and say a car in front of me kicked up a rock. But I'll need a credit card."

Rob shook his head. "Give them the insurance policy number and tell them they'll get the deductible on delivery. I'll come back for you in a couple of hours with the card."

"Or we can do it that way."

As Rob moved the snow off of the larger van, he commented to Mii, "Well, today's been busy, and I have a load of paperwork ahead of me because of it. I'm looking forward to relaxing tomorrow."

Acknowledgements:

Lyrics from "She Ain't Pretty", performed by The Northern Pikes, written by Bryan Potvin, from the album Snow in June, © 1990 Virgin Records

Lyrics from "Lovers in a Dangerous Time", written and performed by Bruce Cockburn, from the album Stealing Fire, © 1984 True North Records

Lyrics from "Both Sides, Now", written and performed by Joni Mitchell, from the album Clouds, © 1969 Reprise Records (although no doubt Frenda is quoting one of the cover versions)

Lyrics from "Stairway to Heaven", performed by Led Zeppelin, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, from the album Led Zeppelin IV, © 1971 Atlantic Records

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.

Notes:

"Bridgehead is a local chain, and they do good coffee. I don't know what I'd do if they ever got bought out by one of the big chains."
Guess what happened in 2019... Sad

Project Dark May
Details here.

the hostel they were staying at
Specifically, this one near Ryerson University. Pricey for a hostel, but it gives them the privacy they want without paying hotel prices.

"Hey, it's not like I like her that way, the way Shirai likes Railgun. I just thought that maybe we could have been friends, if she didn't know that I live in the darkness in Academy City."
Any implied reference to events in the canon A Certain Scientific Railgun T is purely intentional. Smile

At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if Hamazura, Level 0 that he was, demonstrated that he was able to defeat her in a one-on-one fight.
According to canon, Shiage is capable of defeating Meltdowner... but that hadn't happened before ITEM was displaced into the Metacontinuity.[/b]

And that's - finally - the end of Mitsuko Kongo's introductory story ... but far from the end of the events taking place in February 2017 in Ottawa. We aren't even at Valentine's Day yet.

**robkelk** · 04-30-2022, 08:01 PM

Technically not in Ottawa, but connected...

classified location
February 17, 2017
2:22 PM

Not so very long ago, she was plummeting to her death. Now, she was out of her car and sitting on a rickety fire escape platform. If this was Heaven, it lacked a certain allure. If this was Hell or a Naraka, it lacked a certain distress. So she was probably alive. Somehow. And she had finally calmed down enough to notice that somebody was talking just below her.

"I couldn't warn you about something I didn't know about," somebody - a young woman or older girl - complained.

"No, that's alright," replied a second person - a young man, most likely. "You've been my bodyguard pretty much since you got here. I don't expect you to gather intelligence and protect me at the same time."

"Who was gathering intel for us? And where are they now?"

"Calm down, Musujime. We can't do anything to them that Rhodes hasn't already done."

So the girl's name is Musujime, she thought.

"Good. I don't like wasting time on revenge. But now we'll never know why they didn't warn us about the powers Rhodes showed off, or the magic that some of the others used."

"That can't be helped," the man replied. "And I'd like to know more about some of his friends who weren't there, especially the ones who use magic. But we used up all of our goodwill with Uranus and Neptune." Those names caught her interest. He went on, "And it isn't as if somebody else who knows anything about the Puella Magi or the Sailor Senshi or Mimete is going to just drop into our laps."

"Mimete?" she gasped, just before one of the bolts holding the fire escape onto the wall snapped and she went flying... one storey.

The man who had been talking quickly moved to grab her, breaking her fall at the expense of being knocked off his own feet. He ended up sitting on the ground, the eavesdropper draped across his knees.

Musujime laughed. "I'll bet you $1000 that somebody who knows something about the Puella Magi or the Sailor Senshi or Mimete just dropped into your lap."

The man smiled. "Considering the perversity of the universe we've found ourselves in, I'd be a fool to take that bet." He turned his attention to the woman in his lap. "Hello, miss. Is my companion correct?"

"Oh, yes. Yes, she is."

"Would you care to join us inside for coffee? Oh, but I'm neglecting my manners. Leonard Testarossa; I'm pleased to meet you."

"Yuuko Arimura. And if you know where I can find Mimete, I'm very happy to meet you."

classified location
February 18, 2017
9:26 AM

They'd pulled together a small selection of weapons, mostly borrowed from the Social Welfare Agency, to test the newcomer's claims. She's made it most of the way down the table already, having only three more items to comment on.

"Armalite AR-18. Takes 5.56x45mm ammunition. A pain to enchant because of all the steel components, if you're expecting the aluminum components of the AR-16. I never really liked it." She walked over to the next weapon on the table. "ROKS-2. A museum piece, although the fuel tank can be disguised as a backpack so nobody knows you're wearing a flamethrower until it's too late. I never bothered with one, prefering to build my own." Moving along, she saw the next weapon and smiled. "VSS Vintorez. One of the best sniper rifles in existence, in my opinion. Easy to hide, easy to use, easy to enchant. If you have access to a ready supply of these, I'm in."

Leonard smiled and offered his hand. "Welcome to AMALGAM, Ms. Arimura."

As Yuuko Arimura shook Leonard Testarossa's hand, she replied, "Please, call me Eudial. Now, I believe you mentioned knowing where Mimete is...?"

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