Chapter Text
“Your back has become reserved seating, Kannon?” Edgeshot remarked while we were walking back to the train station. Just like yesterday evening, Febrie had fallen asleep right around the time that it was getting dark. Her face turned towards the warm orange light of the setting sun. Misaka had joined us for our little walk, as she had to get on the same train as us.
“Sadly, that might be over in a few days.” I looked back at Febrie. “I’m not really sure I’d be able to convince my parents to adopt her in the case we don’t find her parents either. And that after we’ve become such good friends, too” I looked at the artificial river we were walking past, a single rock on the bottom of the stream.
“Well, hopefully it’s not like we’ll never see her again.” I smiled.
“We could always stay in contact with her family” Misaka stroked the little girl on her back.
“Gekota…” Febrie mumbled while clutching her finger puppet tighter. Looking over my shoulder, she was still fast asleep. Lollipop stuck in her mouth like it had been ever since she woke up this morning.
“When Febrie is back with her family we should visit her with Kazari. And maybe Shirai-san would be willing to come along as well?”
“Maybe” Misaka shrugged before she put her hands behind her head. “I’ve never really seen her interact with children before, but I do think that she’d be willing to come. But this time I’ll make sure my Gekota won’t be stolen” she looked away, embarrassed.
“Oh, come on, Misaka! We all have stuff we enjoy, no need to be shy about it.” I laughed, before an idea struck me.
“Hey Misaka?” I faced her again as I reached into my pocket. “Could you take a picture of me’n Febrie?” I handed her my phone.
“Uh, sure” She took my phone and took the picture, before handing it back.
[Cam_0314432]
Look at this little cutie we found.
You, 20:13
“Aaand, sent” I cheered while Misaka gave me a curious look.
“I sent it to Togeike and Kaneko, as well as Kazari of course,” I answered the unasked question as my phone buzzed, signaling someone had already answered.
Wdym found?
Togeike, 20:14
Found as in, she was asleep in a field of flowers yesterday and we haven’t been able to track her parents yet.
You, 20:16
Her name’s Febrie
You, 20:16
“Huh? We can’t cross here?” I looked up. Konori and Edgeshot were standing in front of a sign stating that the road was closed, as well as the shortest reroute. And Man, texting with one hand while balancing a 4 year old on your back was more difficult than I’d hoped it to be.
Oh, that’s not nice. Good luck with your search.
Togeike, 20:17
Good luck with Yamada-sensei’s classes.
You, 20:18
Screw you.
Togeike, 20:18
We spent a whole lesson on their, there and they’re today
Togeike, 20:19
(ﾟヮﾟ)
You, sending…
“Why does the detour send us to an abandoned warehouse?” I heard Edgeshot say up ahead. Looking up from my phone again, we had indeed arrived at a warehouse at the end of a corridor between buildings. It was made almost completely from rusted corrugated sheets, with large green doors. All kinds of garbage and building materials were sewn around the building.
“We cannot… detour through here” Konori stated the obvious.
“You walked exactly where the detour said to, right?” I asked.
“I thought we did,” Misaka said, scanning her surroundings.
“I’ll check on my GPS” Edgeshot said as he started walking back out of the corridor. But just after he had rounded a corner, a large metal door slammed closed right between him and the rest of our group. Immediately afterwards, a loud bang sounded from the garage door of the warehouse. It now had a large dent in it right where the two doors connected. Showing us a glimpse into the darkness that lay behind.
“What was that?” I asked as I felt Febrie start to stir. No doubt that the loud noises had woken her. Two large metal hands appeared from the crack between the doors, pushing both open. But because of the dent that whatever was behind them had made in the door, they didn’t slide open anymore. Instead they bent and bent until the hinges broke, the doors falling to the floor with a loud bang.
“Wha–?”
There, in the warehouse, was standing a large green robot. No where near the size of U.A.’s robots that they had used during the entrance exams, but still bigger than a person. It had hands and legs like a human, with a large cylinder as its head. Two large jet engines were strapped to its back and it was holding some kind of gigantic hammer in its hand. Only instead of a blunt weight, a sharp blade had been attached parallel to the tip of the shaft, like a pick.
“Get back!” Konori shouted, right as it began to charge. She and Misaka dodged left, while I ran right. Febrie was clutching me tight, but had lost her lollipop in all the commotion. I’d get her a new one later.
“It’s empty!” Konori shouted as the robot chased after her and Misaka. “You have my permission to destroy it!” With permission, the brunette immediately turned around to face the charging machine. I had just managed to hide Febrie behind some drum barrels when the robot reached her.
“I don’t know who made you,” Misaka said, the ground shaking from the swing she had just avoided. “But sadly for you something like this doesn’t work against me!” She shouted as she stepped on the pick that was stuck in the ground, before unleashing a large amount of electricity directly into the robot. She smirked, thinking she had won by frying the internal electronics.
Instead, the robot lifted the pick, unbalancing Misaka and exposing her for the next swing. I saw the pick raised high, ready to strike. Throwing all caution to the wind, I ran to the brunette and pushed her out of the way of the next swing. The excess momentum dropped me to the ground, and I lost my gun in the process. The pick struck not half a meter from me. I grabbed my gun from its spot on the floor, aimed, and fired a bullet right into the black glass of the head. It cracked but didn’t break. The robot reeled back, giving me the opportunity to escape. The robot tried to rebalance itself, its jet engines flailing, before it charged again. The robot adjusted its grip. And, recognizing the hold, I ducked under its horizontal swing.
We needed to get away, and fast. But the door in the corridor was still closed, and Edgeshot hadn’t managed to get around it. From my still crouched position, I tried to fire at its head again, but it blocked the path with its empty hand. Ricocheting my bullet into the ground near its feet. Realizing I was in a dangerous position, I quickly backtracked to where Misaka and Konori were standing. The problem now being that we were next to the warehouse, not anywhere near the exit or Febrie.
The machine charged at us again, but this time Misaka had had enough. She started sparking, grabbed a large metal beam with her quirk, and threw it at the bot. It tipped over and rolled, but was able to right itself. Its glass ‘head’ was now completely broken off confirming that no one had been inside.
It looked around as if dazed, the hit had probably damaged some of the internal components. It spun around, trying to find us, before it locked onto a bunch of rusted old drum barrels. Barrels I had hidden Febrie behind. Dread filled me as I grabbed my gun and fired, fired, fired until the magazine was empty, but the bot didn’t react in the slightest. Its metal plating too thick for my non-lethal bullets to damage. The bot swung.
“FEBRIE!!”
“Ah, but that is interesting.” He said from behind his laptop. “So she has enough control over her electricity to create magnetic fields.”
She had been forced to come along on the trip. Most likely because the chemicalloid would come to her the easiest in case they decided to retrieve her. The insides of the van hadn’t been blackened and darkened like their main facility, but they also didn’t have a light turned on. How these ‘scientists’ -because face it, the reality was that they were villains- didn’t suffer from eye strain was a wonder to her. Her ‘colleagues’ had succeeded in what they wanted to achieve with the experiment. Their bots could indeed not be disabled by a large charge of electricity running through them. As for the fact that they could be destroyed by a large enough impact, these were simply the ‘grunt’ bots. The real heavy hitters would be busy with defeating their bigger bots.
And to think that this was simply a little side project to their benefactors. Having the funds of one of the largest companies in Japan backing you, they didn’t really need to worry about expenses. Thus they could also do tests like these.
How the bot had reacted to the chemicalliod though, that had thrown the scientists for a loop. She had her own theories on the matter, but she wasn’t going to give them up that easily.
I stared blankly at the robot. When it swung for Febrie, I hadn’t been able to move. Misaka still tried to hit it with a bolt, but that hadn’t done anything. However, just before the pike could hit Febrie, it had suddenly stopped, as if it had simply shut down.
Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I ran towards Febrie. My heart was still hammering, and my breath was slightly labored. No doubt I was covered in sweat, but I didn’t care as I grabbed Febrie from behind the drums. As soon as she was in my arms, she started crying into my shoulder. No doubt the experience had taken a toll on the little girl. Even though the fight hadn’t taken more than two minutes, we were all mentally exhausted. I sank to my knees as I cuddled the little girl. Trying to give her all the comfort I could. Edgeshot managed to jump the wall a few minutes later, alongside Air jet and Kongou.
“Kongou-san?” her confusion was clear on Misaka’s face, “What are you dining here?”
“Wherever Kongou’s friends are, that is where she shall be!” That didn’t really clear things up.
“But never mind that, what is going on here?” She pointed at the destroyed bot with her opened fan.
“Yeah” Misaka looked over to the remains “Just who would pull something like this?”
Looking down, Febrie had fallen asleep again. I smiled at the little girl as I went to pet her head. But she was breathing really hard and uncontrolled. Sweat, alongside a small blush, covered her face. She wasn’t clinging to me like she usually did in her sleep either, but was simply laying limp in my lap.
“Febrie! What’s the matter?! wake up!” I prodded the girl. She stirred a bit but didn’t wake. Placing my hand on her forehead, it was searing hot.
“Febrie!” Misaka called out in distress after seeing the state of the girl in my lap.
“She’s running a high fever.” Konori said as she checked the girl's temperature too. “We should get her to a hospital.”
“Then please hurry up and call an ambulance!” I screamed at her, desperate to get help for the girl. I regretted it not a second later as Konori winced, before doing exactly that. “I will, but we’ll first need to get over this door. There is no signal here because of the metal buildings.”
“I can help with that,” Misaka said as she lifted a few more beams with her quirk. “Get on, then I’ll lift you over.” Konori and I followed her instructions and sat down on the hovering beam. I held Febrie in a princess carry as we were lifted over the door, before Misaka slowly lowered the beam until we could jump off. Konori ran towards the open street immediately to call the ambulance. I followed a bit slower, the little girl weighing me down a little.
It would be the second time in 3 weeks that I’d be in an ambulance.