ZKC - Colliding Universes

Babel

As the two fragments got close, an electrical current appeared betwene the two that began to grow with intensity. "Ummm...." Kaoru worried pointed at the two fragments when she noticed the current.

Babel

Minamoto barely registered what was happening, before Aoi teleported the dangerous objects out of Minamoto's hands, and outside...where they would fall together and touch a fair distance in the air, well outside the window.

As the fragments fell and began to knock against one another, a strange thing happened. Space around the shards began to expand outward causing a micro-explosion that ripped off some of the siding of the building.

Next came the expansion reversing itself into what one could only think was a blackhole, one that was short lived and ended itself with an explosion that rocked the general area and blew a good sized hole in Bable HQ's siding.

Fire alarms went off as building security reported a fire on the tenth floor, eastern storage bay.

Babel


Minamoto's eyes widened, then he shielded them. When the smoke cleared, a Psychokinetic shield was between the group and the windows.

"I don't think Live Metal is supposed to do that, thanks Kaoru--" He noticed that it wasn't Kaoru with the shield...

"...wait, not Kaoru?"

Toshiro sighed, the red glow in his hand fading in time with the barrier. Sakaki and Minamoto were a bit surprised, but Shiho seemed more suspicious than surprised.

"...So Toshiro-kun has Teleportation, Psychometry...and now Psychokinesis?"

Sakaki pondered what this all meant, and why did this kid have more than a single ability; although it had been thoerized in the community that it was possible there wasn't any hard evidence that a person could master more than one ability without there being some limit to it.

"So, how do you have those abilities?" Kaoru asked, curious herself given it had been strange to begin with.

Outside the cracked window, rain began to fall on the city, which helped a little bit in fighting the fire that had extended itself only to the outside.

Precog

In the precog room, another futuristic image appeared showing Sakura but this was - like the others - was brief except that its chance percentage was higher than the rest.

The supervisor leaned toward the monitor and rubbed his chin. "Interesting, since The Children inserted this data we've been getting quite a few hits..."

"Start running a pattern on the foretelling, see if we can figure out where most seem to be situated at."

"There are two locations," one of the watchers responded, turning in her chair and looking at the supervisor. "One is right here at HQs, while another is on the other side of Tokyo on the outskirts, but we can't lock down the actual location. The precog could either be revealing the actual location or could be a glitch in the system due to inaccurate data."

"See if you can fix it then...."

"Yes sir."

BABEL


Minamoto was surprised as well, but immediately suspected that the head injury had made him similar to Hyobu somehow, or that the girls' triple effort at healing him had made some sort of change. He was contradicted, however, when...

"...My basic ability...has a loophole I figured out. That's why BABEL hurt me last time..." Toshiro said, though he was unsure if he should elaborate further.

Minamoto knew that some abilities overlapped, but to narrow down a fundamental ability from which others sprang had been an ongoing effort. The idea that BABEL hurt Toshiro for his power was unlikely....though it was probably how he'd interpreted it in his young mind.

Babel

"How'd Babel hurt you?" asked Kaoru, who looked at her two friends whom looked curious as well, Shiho was close to Minamoto, curious what about the man might be thinking.

Babel

Toshiro hesitated, sifting through memories. He hesitated, before responding in a very simplistic way.

"They took me here...they stuck me in a room with a machine...there was an explosion....and I got hit in the head. Then I ran away. My head hurt ever since."

Minamoto was wondering just what sort of details were going to come to light. Were they testing something on the young Esper they shouldn't have been?

Babel

To the girls the simple explaination didn't really make any sense, given that they'd never really witnessed Babel do anything it shouldn't have; even their previous handler despite her cruel ways of dealing with them.

The girls truly didn't know what more to say as they weren't sure how to approuch this.

Babel

Minamoto narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked to Sakaki.

"...Sakaki, I'm going to investigate this. The reason for his running away was never stated...if he was hurt and took brain damage as a result of something Babel did, I want to know about it. I need to go talk to Oboro-san..."

Toshiro watched the man rise, and walk away, leaving the room...he seemed nice, though the boy still clearly didn't trust them much.

Four hours later, Evening hours

Tokyo, Babel

There hadn't been much to do after the initial conversation with Toshiro, being on standby was pretty much a bore for the girls as all they could do was either rest, read a book or play video games while waiting for an alert to come.

Thus it was no surprise that after four hours they were asleep, resting their eyes for the next alert. Minamoto had returned from doing some research into Toshiro, but hadn't spoken of it as the boy was also asleep right now.

His phone would then go off, he flipped it open and listened to the person on the other end. "Girls, time to get up," he shouted when he ws adone with the call.

Elsewhere...

Sakura was stirred awake with a electric jolt, sitting straight up and glaring at a guardsmen who was armed with an assault rifle and what looked like a cattle prodding tool. The guard motioned to her to get out of the cell, which she did without hesitation.

Everyone else had been woken up at well, or had been rudely interruped from whatever they'd been doing.

"Where we headed?" one of the ESPers there asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"You'll find out, no move..." the guard electrified the prod to make his point clear, causing the group to move toward a door that lead out to an underground dock.

With a wince, as if pain, the young boy awoke and sat up in bed, cradling his arm briefly...only to find it undamaged. That felt like a shock... His mind was clearer, though not completely, as he looked to the man rallying his troops. Aoi was adjusting her beret and hair, trying not to let Minamoto see her bedhead, as Shiho yawned.

Shiho looked to Minamoto, waking up at her own pace much like a cat roused from its slumber.

"What is it, Minamoto-san? Is there a prediction?"

Babel HQ

"It is, we've got a report that there is a high chance that an off-shore cruise liner is going to have an explosion occur. The current percentage," Minamoto stopped briefly as he looked it up, "its at ninety six right now..." he voice trailed as he noticed the number go up by one... and it was still at least an hour before this was predicted to happen.

"How far out is it?" Kaoru asked while putting her shoes on and currecting her coat.

"A good forty minute flight out, the port authority is being contacted right now to assist," he then turned toward the door for a moment, then looked over at Toshiro. "The center said that your sister appeared within the prediction, do you want ot join us?" he asked him.

BABEL


"...Yes." Toshiro said, getting out of bed, and still in Pajamas. "But no Limiters...my ECCM armband is gone too..." He said, memories bleeding together. He remembered now...Sakura was kidnapped...was everything he remembered a lie? No...he could feel the powers in himself. Stronger and more diverse than they should have been.

Minamoto wasn't sure how he got an ECCM, but that was not something they could worry about right now. "...I can get one hidden in each of our shoes. The Childrens' shoes have a hidden space for them. We've got a BABEL uniform ready for you."

An extra outfit was brought in, a male version of the Childrens' outfit with a green bowtie and baret. The arm was labeled C-04... There was a limiter, but Minamoto knew that trust building was important at this stage, and put it in the suit pocket.

"...If you feel yourself having a headache or other problems, put it on. Your body isn't really able to handle a Level 7's power for an extended time yet."

Babel

The girls smiled at one another and finished up their preparations before they started to make their way out of the room and toward the chopper bay where a chopper was currently waiting for them to board.

The pilot glanced through his side window, watching the kids as they boarded and noticing a new addition to the team. He shrugged his shoulders and brought down his boom mic, and flipped a few switches to spin up the rotors. "Buckle in," he called back to his passengers.

Helicopter "BABEL 1"


Toshiro, who was hesitant, complied and buckled himself in. He was still sorting through memories as he found himself seated next to Kaoru, and in front of Shiho and Aoi. Minamoto had been careful not to force concessions from him like the Limiter...what he had learned about Blues completely justified his fears.

Unbeknownst to the group, a small crystalline mass had affixed itself to the helicopter's hull.

Within 40 minutes, they were approaching the target, and Minamoto held the phone in his hand. "The Children, RELEASE!"

Helicopter "BABEL 1"

When the Children's limiters were released, minus Toshiro, Kaoru took him by the hand mostly out of a kind gesture to show that it was going to be alright.

They deployed from the helo as it hovered just a few feet from a landing pad located on the cruise liners rear deck. There were soldiers and members of the countries coast guard already on the ship but it was obvious that things weren't going to well right now.

As the girls headed towards the bridge, they could hear a lot of shouting between two people. One was the coast guard commander while another was the ships captain.

The captain was obviously untrusting of ESPers, given how he refused to hand control of his ship over to Babel; Shiho had her hand against the bulkhead and could hear the captain saying some rather unsavory things about ESPers.

The commander, on the other hand, seemed to be ignoring these words as he was trying to tell the captain that there was a risk to the ships passengers although the Captain would merely state that ESPers 'are' a risk to the ships passengers, nevermind that there were ESPers onboard whom were passengers that the captain was probably unaware of.

With a heavy sigh, Shiho looked at her companions. "The captain is rather uncooperative.."

Tokyo, Abandoned drydocks

Sakura didn't like being blindfolded, she also didn't like how she had been placed in some kind of box that negated her powers and made it so she couldn't 'see' where they were going.

The only way that she knew they'd arrived was when the boat had come to an abrupt stop and, through the blindfold, noticed light pour into the box. She felt a rough hand grip her shoulder, yanking her out of the box and harshly tossing her to the deck.

Her blindfold was removed and for a split second she couldn't see due to the bright lights that filled the docks; when her eye-sight recovered she noticed that the others she had been with in the cells were also there, most didn't seem to be blindedfolded anymore.

She felt another jolt in her back and got up, moving toward a large metallic mesh that could be seen out in the open. She looked atop several shipping containers that had armed guards atop, most armed with weaponry she'd never seen before.

Although she wondered what those weapons did, the answer came when one of their group tried to make a run for it, heading toward the water. A guard turned and fired, the man went down easily with a thud as their body began to dissentigrate*sp*. This frightened Sakura, and she choose not to try her little escape attempt right now and would just follow whatever they wanted.

The group was herded into the large ring, the young girl looked around at the stands and noticed several people in clean business suits; that was also something she hadn't seen before, the suits looked 'new'. Where am I? she asked herself.

The Brute, the one who she had fought before, was there as well; he had chains around his arms and legs as he was taken into cage, to isolate him from the rest.

In the distance, a guard motioned toward a police chopper. "Give it no mind," his companion said. "Unless they get really close to this dock, they aren't going to notice a thing," his companion smiled and turned toward a contraption that sat beside him.

Sakura couldn't see it, but she 'could' feel it, there was a strange field that was around this area - she could see the gravitic ripples in the air. She pondered whether it was what she thought it was, a piece of tech that her city used to hide themselves from their enemies.

Cruise Ship


Toshiro was comforted a bit by the outgoing Kaoru's gesture, and moved with the trio and Minamoto. He felt a sharp tinge of pain again, in his back, but tried not to reveal it. They might make him put the limiter on. These girls were indeed the ones he knew, albeit younger. Things were starting to make more sense, as the memories mixed together. He could remember two sets of lives...one in which he was nine, and another in which he was 18. The latter wasn't fading like a dream would, though the former was becoming more clear. The proof that the older version existed was the fact that he held abilities he otherwise shouldn't, a library which included various powers gained as he struggled to survive.

He could remember now that he'd made up the identity of Blues to hide himself from BABEL after he suffered brain damage...the identity wasn't compromised, at least. If he wanted to flee, he could just cut his hair back to normal and don sunglasses again. He also remembered that Sakura was kidnapped. How or when was elusive, but it had happened. While the others listened to the Captain, he touched the ship for a different reason...to locate Sakura if possible, as well as the source of the explosion. Was the fuel in danger of igniting? Was there a bomb? Were there other problems? Psychometry was a diverse and advanced skill which his elder self had often used.

What no one noticed was the crystalline cluster which removed itself from the helicopter, and floated to the deck. It started to use psychometry as well, toward unknown ends.

"Shiho, can you determine what is going to cause the explosion?" Minamoto asked, hoping to get a better idea of what was going to happen. 97% was an extremely high probability.


Drydocks


"BORIS WANT MORE FIGHTING AND MAIMING! WHY THE QUIET AND THE PANSY? BORIS WANTS REMATCH WITH PUNCHING BAG GIRL IN RING!"

Evidently, Boris was one that didn't really mind this lifestyle, simply enjoying the fight. At least it made it a little easier on the handlers...except for the rare occasion that they didn't want him to fight the others. His volume was universally excessive and grating except when in the ring, however.

Cruise Liner

"Everything appears to be ok," Shiho said in response. "I'm not seeing anything wrong with the fuel lines, engines working properly and the fuel tanks were replaced before this ship left America."

She continued to hunt around looking for something that could trigger the explosion.

Drydock

"Put those two in first then if he wants a match," said the owner of this arena, who pointed toward Sakura and then Boris. "Also, slap another limiter on that girl."

"That'll put her at a serious disadvantage then..."

"And?" The man looked at the guard who had spoken. "We lost money when she won against him earlier, I'm not about ready to lose money again."

Sakura was rubbing the back of her neck when she felt the cold prongs of the prod against her back; she jumped forward just in time to avoid the electrical shock that came seconds later and glared at the guard who motioned for her to move toward the center of the ring.

With a grumble, she did as she was instructed. As she walked, her eyes fell upon several metallic shards that were poking through the ground; she felt she had seen them before but for some reason she couldn't picture just 'where' exactly.

With a shrug of the shoulders, she stood there and watched as Boris was released from his 'cage'. The mans BO was already flooding the area, causing a number of people in the stands to put on gas-masks.

Drydock


Boris looked at Sakura, glaring daggers at the girl. He wouldn't forgive her for making him all sandy. He still itched, even after getting the water hose from their mutual captors. He rushed toward Sakura, and rather than delivering a punch, he cruelly gave her a strong kick to the stomach. As hard as he could.

"BORIS WILL BURY PUNY PUNCHING BAG!"


Cruise Liner


Minamoto felt they had little choice but to wait, as Shiho's Psychometry found nothing. He checked the data coming through on his phone...the prediction was holding steady. It was strange, the fact that there were no signs and yet the percentage was still so high. Generally, such a high percentage rate indicated the involvement of a high level esper.

Toshiro gave a restrained groan and a heavy wince and twitch, feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of him. He'd swear he'd just had his guts hammered in, but no such thing physically happened to him. Minamoto noticed that the probability went up two more points to 99% at the exact same moment...