ZKC - Colliding Universes

Tokyo

Kaoru got out, followed by Shiho and Aoi, as they followed Minamoto into the hospital. Normally the hospital wouldn't be so crowded, but that had changed over the months; there were a lot of doctors and nurses running around tending to patients harmed by the recent influx of criminal ESPers.

"Horrible..." remarked Shiho as they walked over to an elevator.

Elsewhere

Sakura was indeed in a daze, although not the type to stop her from defending herself as she side-stepped the mans attack and moved off to the side, where she staggered a bit and ran up against the fence. She couldn't understand why she felt so off-balace now.. but she had little time to think on it as she readied her ability,

She felt the power swirl into her hands, forming a sort of purplish spear that caused the air around her to waver. Take this.. she then tossed the spear toward the man.

Tokyo

Minamoto held Shiho's hand and, hearing her, spoke in response. Shiho could tell with her psychometry that the words were heartfelt and honest. "This is what happens when people with Esper powers don't learn to use them properly, and aren't raised with good morals. Part of why B.A.B.E.L. exists is to help resist this. Hopefully, it's not too late to help the one we're here to see..."

They went to a special area which had both a single hospital room and an anteroom where the doctors could talk and review things. Sleeping in the hospital bed and next to a complex suite of equipment was a male the same age as The Children, with hair which had been long even before the three month coma. He wore a limiter, but this could only reduce his power to Level 4.

A panel of light was present on the wall of the anteroom, with head X-rays, which immediately showed several foreign objects. A doctor turned toward Minamoto and the Children as they entered.

"So you're the group from Babel, then. I am Dr. Tachizawa." He gave a light bow to Minamoto, and offered the girls three small lollipops, which were red, blue, and purple in color.

"I'm Minamoto, and these are the special Esper Group, 'The Children'. How is he doing?" Minamoto asked the doctor, whose expression turned solemn.

He's still unconscious for now, but brain activity has been increasing lately. Sadly, it's hard to get exact details...as you can see from the X-rays, there are a...large number of foreign bodies inside the brain itself. The fact he is alive is a surprise, honestly. We're having trouble interpreting the readings." Minamoto looked to one of the spots on the map, thinking he'd seen the shape before. He took out the fragment of live metal, and held it up at an angle next to the silhouette...an exact match.


Elsewhere


The man smiled as the construct vanished inches in front of him, and he delivered a punch to the girl's chest that could crack the ribs of a grown man. The crowd cheered, clearly desensitized to the violence against the girl.

"PUNY GIRL NOT HURT BORIS!"

Tokyo

Kaoru peered through the window and into the room that the patient was in; she curiously watched him, seeing if he would stir at all. There was a sudden spike in the boys heart rate and blood pressure.

Elsewhere...

Sakura felt that punch, and it hurt. Her power had only dampened it by a small amount, but not enough to prevent a rib or two from cracking. She was thrown like a ping-pong ball as her body bounced off one side of the fence and then smashed into the ground, dust was thrown up into the air as the girl coughed several times, blood splattering on the floor as she shakingly got back up onto her feet. Damn... I should've known that wouldn't work... she said wiping her mouth away as more people began to crowd around the cage.

Small attacks won't work... so if that won't.. hmm... she stood there pondering what to do and shifted her stance a bit to dodge the next attack.

Tokyo

The three children had the lollipops in their mouths readily, Aoi most visibly pleased of the three by the treat, when the change in heart rate and blood pressure came along. The doctor sighed and walked over to the boy.

"This has been happening on and off for a while, without any specific regularity. It shows signs of a pain response, though the signals of the brain are hard to narrow down. There seems to be some sort of Esper-based element involved as well. The limiter hasn't really helped though..."

Aoi spoke, her Osaka accent and the fact she had a lollipop in her mouth giving her speech an endearing distortion. "What would happen if I just teleported the debris out of his head?"

The doctor shook his head. "That wouldn't work well, the areas would just fill with fluid at best, or collapse inwards and cause him an extreme shock or a stroke at worst. Areas of tissue have formed to encapsulate and isolate the debris, and they'd also need to be carefully dealt with, being neuro-pathways themselves. One would need to be able to carefully prune and reconnect the neuro pathways, and determine how best to guide such efforts. Such a surgery has never been attempted."


Elsewhere

Sakura managed to narrowly dodge the smelly man's assault, the hulking behemoth refusing to shut up as he assaulted her with sound and smell as well as with his body. A few blows connected, though Sakura was doing better at least.

"BRUNO CRUSH CHILD LIKE PUNY GRAPE BETWEEN BRUNO'S MAJESTIC ROVIET MUSCLES!"

Many were cheering for Bruno, while a few were cheering for the longshot kid. Sakura would realize not only that she could track the man with her ability, but also by the smell of body odor and vodka.

Tokyo

Kaoru looked at her friends, and then at the doctor. "We can do that!"

"We have the abilities afterall, so why not see if they help him?" Kaoru asked.

Elsewhere..

Sakura was glad she couldn't hear the man, although she could strangely rip his lips rather well and thus knew what was he was actually saying.

It was the smell that was getting to her though; she could never get used to it, so much booze that it made her wonder sometimes just how this man was still standing.

Small attacks aren't goign to cut it, so.... she balled her fist and placed her free hand opened palm on the ground and began to focus her gravity ability into the sand. She could tell that while there was sand on the surface, there was a metallic foundation that was comprised of several materials including one she could use. I'll need to dodge this brutes attacks a few more times to get this material focused onto one area... she looked up at the brute and backed off a bit, this was going to hurt for awhile but she would have to endure it.

Tokyo


Minamoto looked to Kaoru, surprised, as Shiho touched the young man's forehead, and read...a jumble of pain, panic, and a bright light. He was slowly deteriorating, and she was having trouble reading how he got this way. Something was keeping his memories in flux.

"...He's got...maybe ten years before he has a critical stroke. He can count on a life of pain until then." Shiho stood, and calmly walked to join Kaoru.

"All the more reason to get him to Dr. Sakaki as soon as possible." Minamoto said, before Shiho argued.

"We don't have enough time. He's scared and confused in there, and he'll wake up very shortly!" Aoi looked worried, looking between the doctor and Minamoto. Finally, she joined her friends...and with her fingers taking the form of the maloik, the phone with the limiting device was teleported away from Minamoto into her hand, much to his surprise.

"Sorry, Minamoto-han. If he's one of us, we've got to help, right?" Aoi said, with a wink. The doctor was stunned.

"Are...are these girls about to preform surgery? Just like that? They'll risk his life!" Minamoto heard the doctor...this was bad, the girls weren't willing to have him wake up in this condition or wait for support.

Minamoto was extremely worried about this...they'd helped with surgery before, but they shouldn't resort to it so quickly on their own. "Please, wait, don't make that decision by yourselves!"

Shiho placed one of her hands on Toshiro's forehead, her other placed in the middle of the group. "I'll touch him and guide your psychokinesis and teleportation by sending data directly into your minds, coordinating this. We can't afford error..."


Elsewhere


"BRUNO CRUSH PUNY CHILD!"

*WHAM*

"BRUNO SEND FLOWERS TO CHILD'S GRAVE!"

*MISS*

"BRUNO HIRE DECORATOR TO MATCH COLOR OF COFFIN TO FLOWERS!"

*BIFF*

It seemed Bruno couldn't use pronouns. The man was landing blows not every time, but often enough to be a concern. Hopefully Sakura was almost done...

Tokyo

The doctor looked noticably worried; as did the nurses in the room, but they couldn't really stop The Children once they got an idea in their head.

"Really, this is to dangerous, you are just kids!" the doctor complained while Kaoru and Aoi took up their own positions around the boy to follow Shiho's instructions.

Elsewhere

Her whole body hurt; she had managed to avoid getting anymore broken bones but at the cost of her body just screaming at her. Luckily, the time she had bought was enough; she could feel it in the air, now she could get to work.

The sand around her began to swirl around. Just need him to try and punch me, then the moment I grab him... her thoughts trailed off as she got ready.

Tokyo


Shiho sent instructions to the two girls, engaging in three way communication and precision work...Minamoto could only watch as the trio of Level 7 espers got to work on brain surgery, Shiho directing.

"Aoi, teleport the fragments out. Kaoru, use psychokinesis to keep the voids made from collapsing...we'll ease them back into place very gently, using my psychometry to monitor...then we'll break down the excess neural tissue and use it to piece together the original neuro-pathways...we'll teleport out excess tissue as needed..."


Elsewhere


Bruno launched yet another punch, trying to knock the girl out.

"BRUNO WILL CHISEL CHILD'S HEADSTONE WITH BRUNO'S BARE FINGER! HEADSTONE WILL READ "HERE BE LAYING BRUNO'S PUNCHING BAG!"

Tokyo

"Got it!" Kaoru said as she waited for Aoi to get to work, which she did as she began to teleport the fragments one by one into a small metallic pan while Kaoru used her ability to prevent the voids from collasping in on themselves.

Elsewhere...

Sakura grinned as she stepped out of the way; the brutes large arms - nearly twice the size of her head - moved past her. The moment she 'touched' his arm everything seemed to stop, the sand in the ground moved upward into the brutes arms and then seemed to 'melt' into it.

See if you can move down brute.. smiled Sakura as she stepped away from him, almost dancing like, and watched as the sand just continued to move up over the mans legs and seep into his skin.

Tokyo

"...Get surgical supplies in here! If these three fail, we'll need to jump right in!" The doctor said, clearly worried as Minamoto watched the trio work. Very fine work was done, Aoi relocating neurons and Kaoru adjusting and re-orienting the connections, both making bypasses then fully-formed connections under Shiho's guidance. They pruned and re-sculpted the boy's damaged brain. The process of combined psychokinesis, psychometry, and teleportation had interesting effects, though these were not yet evident. Some excess brain matter was left in the bin as well, unneeded, once they were finally done.

Shiho smiled gently, gently rubbing the boy's forehead. "He'll be alright...his brain's defragmenting now."

Minamoto and the doctor both gave a collective sigh...


Elsewhere


"GAAAH! BRUNO CAN'T MOVE! BRUNO'S SKIN BURNS LIKE SOAP AND WATER! RELEASE BRUNO!" Bruno said, struggling against the sand but unable to get out of this new trick. The sand encased the Roviet giant, who was unable to escape, and soon stood in the ring, a statue with only his face free.

"BRUNO WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE BRUNO CRUSH BULLETS WITH TEETH! LIKE BRUNO'S HEAD CRUSH WOOD PLANKS! LIKE BRUNO'S EX-WIFE CRUSH BRUNO'S BANK ACCOUNT!"

Tokyo

With the work done, the nurses began to go about their business checking the boy to ensure that the girls had done a good idea; the doctor as well begn to check the boy over.

Things seemed to settle down; Kaoru and Aoi walked over to a window to stared outside at the bright sunny day. Shiho stayed by the the boys bed, just to make sure nothing else hpapened.

Elsewhere

Sakura shook her head as she watched the man and his inability to move; he wasn't going to die, the sand would eventually settle and he'd be able to move again but not for the next few hours.. which would probably makes things quite uncomfortable for him but to Sakura that mattered littled.

As she let out a sigh of relief, she heard a door opened and turned to see two men wearing black suits walk in. One of them held a rifle, while the other had a syringe, right away Sakura got scared and attempted to run from them but didn't get far before she felt a heavy setted hand on her shoulder followed by the syringe being plunged into her shoulder. Seconds later, all she could see was darkness.

Tokyo

"We've got the pain response, doctor, but other than that all things seem to be repaired. We won't know for sure until he awakens..." A nurse said, before the Doctor looked to the girls.

"...So this is what Special Espers can do...rather reckless, but if it works, it's something we couldn't have done." The Doctor was clearly conflicted, and Minamoto...was half-angry. He walked over to Aoi and held out his hand...the girl giving back the limiting device.

"I understand why you did it...but...you're responsible for making sure he's calm and avoids using his powers on the way to HQ." Minamoto said, looking to the three girls. After a slight nod from Aoi of understanding, B.A.B.E.L. forces came in wheeling a gurney, and transplanted the young man onto it after removing the assorted medical equipment.

Minamoto then walked out along with the Children, following the youth.

Several hours later - Tokyo, Bable HQ

It was the evening hours and Bable was still quite active, with people running around. After the Children had returned they had mostly been allowed to do their own thing up until the afternoon hours came when they were put on standby.

Several hours later - somewhere in Japan

Her head throbbed as Sakura opened her eyes and stared up at a rather dirty looking ceiling; she sat up slowly, knowing that she'd been drugged.

She stared out toward a set of large bars that ran from the floor to the ceiling, she was in a cell and she could hear others in that very same room. Some people were grunting in pain, others seemed to be doing something... exercising maybe? She didn't know, so instead she got up off the old-run down bed and walked over to the bars.

The entire room looked like something out of an old world war two underground base that the Japanese had built on some of their islands, the place had a damp smell to it and she could see water trinkling down from an open window above, she could smell rain as well.

As she turned around to go back to her bed she looked over at the wall and noticed a mirror and, at first, didn't think anything of it until she did a classic double take. There, in the mirror, was her reflection but it wasn't that of a fifteen or sixteen year old teenager.. but rather that of a young child perhaps no more than seven or eight years.

She was genuingly shocked and placed a hand on her forehead, the reflection mirrored what she had done. What the hell... she backed up against the wall, in confusion and perhaps even fright...

When the young man opened his eyes, he was first aware that he was looking at something pink. Second, his head hurt badly. Was this what a handover felt like? It was hard to tell. He sat up in bed with some effort, and found himself in a room definitely designed for children with many toys and a plasma screen TV. The lack of his ever-present sunglasses were a source of concern as he felt his face...and it felt strange to him somehow.

"Hey, he's awake!" He heard a familiar voice, turning toward a trio of girls he knew...but in a form he hadn't seen in years. His face showed immediate confusion. Aoi had been the one to speak, pointing him out to the others.

Bable HQ

Kaoru looked over and smiled, jumping up off the couch and looking curiously at the boy. "You think he knows where he is?" she asked her friends.

BABEL HQ


The boy looked between the faces of the trio of uniformed girls...he was still confused and alarmed. He knew them, but...could someone have cloned them or something? He was vaguely aware of something on his arm that shouldn't have been, and upon seeing the limiter, he gained a look of horror on his face. He grabbed the device and started to try removing it from himself.

Aoi noticed and gently gripped his arm, trying to stop him. "Hey, calm down, Toshiro-han!"

The use of his birth name only made him more frightened, and caused him to move the fingers on his hand into the standard maloik that Aoi used...and in a flash, the bed was vacant save for the left behind limiter. Fortunately, a Level 4 teleport with his condition didn't let him go far, and he hadn't been focusing on removing Aoi, so they appeared perhaps four meters away. Toshiro landed unceremoniously on his back on the carpeted floor of the room, while Aoi remained standing. Thankfully, he was wearing pajamas rather than a hospital gown.


Elsewhere


"What's up with the deaf-mute?" One of the conscious people asked, looking to the girl and raising an eyebrow.

"Heh, who knows what goes on in her head. Any sane person would be scared of this place though, especially a kid." Someone else chimed in.

From down the hall in another cell, a loud cry erupted. "BORIS IS FREE OF SANDY PRISON! BORIS WILL HAVE REVENGE ON PUNCHING BAG GIRL!"

"SOMEONE SHUT THAT FREAK UP!" Came a collective cry from across the area.

Bable HQ

The short ranged teleport got the attention of Kaoru and Shiho, along with a few indivisuals whom were outside when they heard the 'thud' of Toshiro landing on the ground.

"You shouldn't be using your powers," remarked Kaoru worriedly as she walked over to the boy to help him up.

Elsewhere..

Sakura was sitting down, trying to wrap her head around what was going on. She was a child again, and not just any child, she looked the same way she had when she was young again. How was this possible?

There were fluctations in the gravity waves again, causing her to look up to see that people were conversing amongst one another; although the loudest mouth that she could 'feel' was that Boris guy down the hall. It made her gravity waves crackle violently everytime he spoke.

BABEL HQ


Toshiro sat up, rubbing his head with the arm Aoi wasn't holding, as a few BABEL personnel entered to verify the situation. One spoke into a microphone, and the youth could see that they had guns, and BABEL uniforms.

He looked to Kaoru, and past her, to a window...he struggled, getting up, and running to the window clumsily, looking outside in wide-eyed confusion at the Tokyo skyline. Shiho looked puzzled, and Aoi looked worried...

"...This...how?" He was confused and frightened.


ELSEWHERE


Bruno was finally sedated, if one could call giving him enough vodka to pass out and mumble and fart in his sleep to be proper sedation. He was interesting for the showmanship, but his eccentricities were excessive. People finally quieted down, discussing assorted thing among themselves or resting up. A few were impressed with Sakura's fight, however.

Tokyo, Babel HQ

"Something wrong?" Kaoru asked, looking at the boy for a moment before glancing out the window, as if trying to see what the boy had seen.

Elsewhere...

Sakura was glad that the brute had stopped moving around; the constant movement of gravity waves was giving her a headache that she didn't really need right now.

She laid down on the bed, it felt rather rough. Her mind was ablaze with questions, why did she look like a child again? And where was she? She knew she had to find those answers somehow and quickly sat up and looked toward the above window, she could get their easily thanks to her powers - or rather she would've - had she not realize that there was something around her wrist.

It was an odd looking device that had a counter on it and a word that said 'secured', she didn't know what that meant or why it was on her wrist, and when she attempted to remove it, received a jolt so powerful that she let out a howl before she collapse onto the floor, passed out.

BABEL

"GAAH!" He cried out, falling onto his rear end, gripping his wrist...he didn't understand why, but he felt a lot of pain...he looked to Kaoru through the pain.

"...What kind of joke is this...Where's Sakura, why do you look like a younger Kaoru...and what kind of trick is this, showing me a rebuilt Tokyo!" He asked, crying out this last part.