Networked (A Certain Scientific Railgun SI) #02.6

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Ten, twenty, thirty minutes… I don't know, I'd dozed off at some point and I couldn't say for certain. Not that it mattered, while I'd been out the landscape of the city had changed, and as I woke up we were at the end of a transition from tall, multi-level glass-faced office buildings, to lower and more squat buildings mostly made up of concrete and metal. The beauty of the city was still there, trees lined the and vibrant planters ran on either side of the road and we passed the occasional cleaning robot keeping the area litter free, but there were fewer pedestrians about and more trucks or cargo vehicles rather than passenger types.

As we drove along I caught the names of the buildings, most— if not all —having one descriptor or another on the signs atop their buildings or on the fences and walls around their properties; names like Yamaguchi Pharmaceuticals, Kongou Aeronautical Research, and Katsuchi Manufacturing.

An industrial area. Suppose it makes sense that the Sisters would set up shop in a place like this.

There were both ups and downs of course. It was away from the urban area proper, which meant they would have privacy, but conversely, if someone were to go after them there would be plenty of privacy for the attackers as well. Plenty of room to do what they want though, and with how many of them there were being out in the 'burbs was likely better than them clumping up in the city proper.

Soon enough, we were slowing and the steady clack-clack-clack of the turn signal filled the cab as the Sister turned off the main thoroughfare and into a small parking lot previously hidden from view by a tall hedge wall. And ahead, at the end of the road cutting through the parking lot, loomed a series of tallish buildings reminiscent of warehouses with a strange logo of straight lines and curves emblazoned on the corner of one directly ahead. While still a fair ways away though, I could almost make out lettering in it, however, motion at the end of the road drew my eye to a pair of green mechs positioned in front of a gate at the end of the road.

I blinked and one hand went to the seat elevation level as I leaned forward to get a better look at the ungainly things. I'd seen them while researching and in the show, but not yet in person despite them supposedly being heavily used in the ever ongoing construction going on in the city.

They were offensive in almost every sense of the word. Despite being mecha, or powered suits or whatever the proper term was, they were just… ugly. They were like Gundam. They were like someone had taken one of those abominations of engineering and stuck a black tube where the head was supposed to go.

Of course, terrible taste of aesthetics aside, that didn't mean they weren't effective in their intended purpose, whatever that may be at the time. And judging by the spiked club thing the two were wielding, while these weren't pulling construction duty they were no doubt plenty effective. The mech's weapons prickled at something familiar, though, I just couldn't quite grasp what it was.

"Um. Are you sure this is the right place?"

"'Yes,' Misaka answers succinctly." And she kept driving toward them without slowing or accelerating. Then when we getting close they parted and stepped away from the gate and I got a good look at a copy of the logo on the building before the gate rolled away, proudly— or perhaps arrogantly —proclaiming it as belonging to the STUDY Cooperation... This place belonged to them and the suits were just letting us pass... I blinked. Oh. Oooh.

Because of course, why not go after the low-hanging fruit.

"You know, I know I shouldn't be surprised that you went after these chucklefucks, but I am." So aside from a foundation what did this give them? What did they get access to? Although, maybe more than that, was who they could get access to. So…" I rolled my head to the sister as she made slowed. "You were going after Nunotaba I take it?"

The Sister simply nodded while she pulled around to a multi-bay loading dock, drove up a ramp, and passed under a rolling security gate with what had to be a hairs margin… and all without slowing down. Sister choreography op, plz nerf.

Then the van slowed to a stop and we were… somewhere. In the building, obviously, but a walled off portion of the building and looking through the front window I stared at a somewhat hodgepodge amalgamation of workshop and garage space with boiler-suited Sisters scattered about.

The Sister getting out spurred me on and, unbuckling the seatbelt and grabbed my backpack from the footwell, got out into the cool, climate controlled space of the building. I was immediately hit by the lingering stench of exhaust and ozone as I stepped around the van to get a better look at things.

Banks of toolboxes with computer workstations demarcated a rough square with several large humming and blinking machines interspaced among them, work tables littered with books or mechanical components with one taken up by an incomplete something made up of welded tube steel. And at the center of it all, suspended by a small gantry crane, what looked like it might be the cockpit from a mech. Maybe. If I squinted. At any rate, it had a seat buried beneath a tangle of wiring and control boards.

They were working on something, but… I looked around again, identifying from among the machines what l was pretty sure was an auto lathe, laser cutter, and industrial scale 3-D printer. And that was just three of the things... what the hell were they doing here?

Well, whatever it was, asking one of them was right out as before I could even ask they flocked almost en-masse towards the van and I had to flee lest I be run over. The Sister, Misaka… although they were all Misaka's and... fuck it, Misaki, was now at the opened side door, waving about a tire iron to keep back the tide and I realized there was a mass of paper and plastic bags in the back of the van. "'Please, everyone wait your turn,' Misaki calmly requests. 'There is enough for everyone.'"

Those… those hadn't been there when we left, had they? I didn't think they were, but could I really not have noticed them... How long had I been asleep?

One of the boiler-suited Sisters suddenly juked past Misaki to grab a bag, then spun to flee with her prize. She sped past with her hand digging into the plastic bag and I caught the scent of chinese takeout as she ran around the work area and through a pair of doors set into the wall; going deeper into the building presumably.

Lips turning up, I looked back to Misaki and watched her hold off the growing hoard for a few moments more before being overrun and brought down by the other Sisters. Bags were seized and the Sisters scattered, the tantalizing scent of various types of food lingering in the air.

But really? Food?

Shaking my head, I turned on my heel and made for the door the first sister had fled through. Rather than going the long way around though, I cut through the work area to get a look at whatever the— Pain and numbness shot down my right leg, practically radiating out from where I'd slammed my bare thigh into the corner of a tool cart.

I sucked air in through grit teeth and kneaded at the already bruising spot. But despite the pain, I hobbled toward the doors. Snooping could come later, first things first: Find somewhere to change out of this ridiculous skirt.

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A/N: Decided to I need to start pushing myself a little in the update speed to get back on track, next portion will be up tomorrow. Speculate away.