A/N: I have sad news for you guys. As you may already be aware November is also known in certain circles as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. During this month individuals of all shapes and sizes come together to write stories. There are only a few rules in this event, among them are that the works need to be original fiction (but it's only like a half-rule and there is even a section on the official forum for the event where people writing fanfics ect. are encouraged to discuss their works) and that the authors need to write 50000 words worth of the stories in a month. November, to be precise

The reason for that long-winded explanation is that I plan on participating this November; which means I'll need to write ~667 words a day to make the goal. I love writing. It's an absolute joy for me. However, I am also a student and I don't have as much time as I would like. I will try my absolute best to juggle school, NaNoWriMo, and this fanfic to continue bringing you a chapter each week but I ask that you cut me some slack if that should prove impossible.

With that out of the way I now present you the next chapter! (Huzzah!)

Misaka stared at the bear mere centimeters in front of her. She had spent the majority of the night replaying the previous evening in her mind over and over again. She analyzed what she had said, what Kuroko had said, how Kuroko had acted, and most importantly, why Misaka had reacted so strangely when she saw Kuroko in the park.

She was just wearing nice clothes for once. Misaka thought; and not for the first time since she had seen the teleporter in the park. Kuroko had appeared as something fragile yet commanding, like a queen who didn't realize she commanded whole armies. No matter how hard she tried Misaka couldn't think of that Kuroko as the one who always groped her in the showers and wore her panties as some sort of hat.

Misaka was both saddened and relieved that Kuroko did not always behave elegantly, though she would never admit it. It was far easier for her to be frustrated with the teleporter than to deal with the string of emotions battling for her attention. Misaka felt different than when she was around Touma. The butterflies making tours around her lower abdomen were the same, but there were subtle differences in how she felt. Most critically she had not felt the strong urge to incinerate Kuroko with lightning, though in retrospect Misaka did recall unconsciously zapping a number of nearby poles and the like as the two had walked to the collection.

Her pondering came to an end as the sun made its presence known.

The time has come, Misaka thought sullenly to herself. A greater threat than that of a Kuroko who knew her secrets occupied her mind at that moment, however.

Kuroko was still in her bed, presumably asleep. That much Misaka could have told by feeling the electronic beat of her heart. However Misaka had been awake throughout the moonlit hours and knew for fact that Kuroko had not set any cameras in position or programmed any robots to move them. She was still hesitant. Kuroko would certainly take the day prior as an invitation to violate some part of Misaka's privacy and it was her job to figure out which part.

As if peeking in on her thoughts, Kuroko began to stir.

"Cameras?" Misaka intoned, the question not needing further elaboration.

"Onee-Sama, to think you would doubt my moral integrity. As a member of Judgement I am ashamed." Kuroko replied in her usual manner.

"I don't doubt your moral integrity at all. That would be as much as admitting you had any moral integrity to begin with." Misaka flipped around toward the center of the room, head still hidden under her invaluably protective covers.

"If I see any cameras-" Misaka began.

"I assure you there are no cameras. After all, you would sense them wouldn't you?" Kuroko replied, her voice almost mocking. A shiver went down Misaka's spine.

"Unless you put them in Faraday cages again." Misaka replied. "Need I remind you what happened the last time you tried that?" Through the covers she could see Kuroko sitting up in her bed. The girl turned away and a visible shudder ran over her.

"F-Faraday cages?" Kuroko's first successful picture of her elusive Onee-sama had been using a camera in a cage. She soon learned that it was one thing to get a few pictures of Misaka, it was quite another to keep her from destroying them after the fact.

"Don't play dumb with me." Misaka's voice was low and threatening.

"I assure you I have not attempted to mask the electrical signals of any device in this room." Kuroko replied matter-of-factly. Misaka sat silent for a time. Kuroko would often deceive Misaka, but she rarely ever outright lied to the girl.

Misaka threw off her covers and began the arduous process of making herself presentable while Kuroko struggled on the verge of lecherous abandon as she attempted to appear nonchalant in her morning routine. Misaka took a look around the room carefully probing every inch for the tell-tale sign of an electronic device. However, with nothing to be seen visually or electrically Misaka reassured herself that Kuroko was merely jubilant over their 'day out' the previous evening.

"Onee-Sama, what are your plans today?" Kuroko asked with a voice that could only be described as 'ecstatic.'

"We're meeting up with Uiharu and Saten today. Did you forget the plans you made? I planned on going to the arcade today but you insisted that we focus our efforts on the wire-suit problem." Kuroko stared dumbfoundedly at her for a while before comprehension spread across her face.

"Of course! I simply wanted to make sure my beloved Onee-Sama had remembered such an important event." Kuroko exclaimed. Misaka didn't bother with a retort and instead held the door open for the younger girl as the two made their way into Academy City.

Four girls sat around the metal-grate table in front of a roadside pastry shop, enjoying the afternoon sun. Two wore the tan-colored uniforms of the prestigious Tokiwadai Academy while the other two wore the more conventional uniforms of Sakugawa Middle School.

The waitress, most certainly also a student, came by with a tray loaded down with cakes, parfaits, and all manner of sugary delights. There was no collection of girls as happy as these four when those desserts arrived at the table. Among them none were as happy as the flower girl who quite nearly fainted at the sight of so many confections in one location.

At first the group merely ate, only the occasional snippet of small-talk interrupting them. Soon they ate their fill, however, and conversation became their only viable source of entertainment.

"So why did you call us out here?" Saten asked as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"I finally found something about the wire-suit case." Uiharu replied, her face adorned with a look of longing for her remaining dessert. Sadly she could not eat food and talk in the company of Ladies.

"The what?" Saten's reply was understandable. She hadn't been told a thing.

"A number of strange wire-suits have shown up on criminals around this District and they're all manufactured by the same company, based on what we've found." Uiharu replied. "Kuroko went to investigate the warehouse we traced them to and found it to be in use by an unidentified Level 4 electromaster and a number of others who we couldn't identify."

"So that's where you were." Misaka said, pointing her spoon at Kuroko.

"Guilty as charged." Kuroko admitted, holding her napkin in place as a Northerly breeze swept through the street. It was refreshingly warm after the recent cold-front's freezing winds.

"Why wire-suits?" Saten asked, absently clicking her long-handled spoon against the side of her empty glass.

"Most Espers in Academy City are electromasters," Uiharu began. "Most of the electromasters are Level 3 or lower, so wearing wire-suits can make the user immune to a large fraction of Espers in the city."

"That doesn't seem very revolutionary. I mean, I could wrap myself in tinfoil and get the same effect." Saten replied.

"Doing that would get you burned." Misaka interjected. "All the crumples in the tinfoil would be hotspots for electric heating. These wire suits are carefully built and insulated to keep electric heating to a minimum and skin contact with the wires non-existent." Saten nodded in her usual way, absorbing the knowledge and storing it away. "I have another thing to add," Misaka continued. "The other day I was attacked while out shopping by a woman and two men. The men were wearing wire-suits but they also had railguns." Surprise swept over the four.

"They were Level 5?" Kuroko nearly shouted, standing up as she did so. A number of pedestrians turned to look and Kuroko sheepishly apologized before returning to her seat.

"No you idiot," Misaka whispered forcefully. "They had weapons that were railguns. You know, the things I was named after?"

"Of course," Kuroko managed a laugh, staring off to the side as she did so.

"Anyway, the woman actually did use the Railgun like I do-"

"She was a level 5?" Kuroko was once again up on her feet.

"Shut up! Idiot! Let me finish, she had metal rods inside her arm that likely made it easier for her to use her powers to fire a railgun. She couldn't have been more than a low Level 4." Misaka shook her head as Kuroko slowly dropped once more into her seat.

The others digested that information while Misaka briefly considered telling them about her Sisters. One quick look at Kuroko's eternally lecherous gaze was all Misaka needed to reinforce her decision to keep that bit of information a secret.

"That would explain the location I've tracked the suits and the firebombs to." Uiharu stated, pulling out her laptop and turning it around so everyone could see the screen. "Everything seems to originate at this laboratory complex owned by Shinki Synthetics, a prosthesis research and development company." Saten put her hands on the table.

"Why would that be important?" She asked.

"Because a prosthesis company would have access to the engineers needed to design a railgun as well as the doctors needed to surgically insert it into a person." Uiharu replied, opening up a number of dossiers on the numerous engineers, doctors, and other professionals employed by the company. "They could conceal a few surgeries and some prototyping without getting Anti Skill's attention."

"So we go in, blow up the lab, and go home." Misaka stated, "Doesn't sound too hard." Kuroko's hand found its way to her forehead while Saten and Uiharu made similar gestures.

"I don't think this company is the source of the problem. They aren't large enough to make enough suits under the radar while still turning a profit with the criminals they've been dealing with. Not to mention that surgical railgun. They don't employ anyone who has working knowledge of Esper powers meaning someone else designed the concept behind the railgun." Uiharu replied, shooting down Misaka's suggestion. "We need to figure out who is making Shinki produce these things."

"Can't you hack in and get the information?" Misaka replied exasperatedly, almost ready to try her own hand at the hacking if it meant getting closer to finding the culprit behind the crimes.

"I tried, but they might have the information on servers not connected to the internet." Uiharu replied, shaking her head. "Even if you could get the data using your power and if you could somehow store it on a device without missing anything and-"

"I get it, I get it!" Misaka interrupted, holding up her hands to fend off the barrage of wild assumptions. "How about we all head over, break in, get what we need, and then blow the place up."

"I don't think we need to blow it up." Kuroko mentioned. "It makes valuable prosthetic limbs for handicapped people you know." Misaka flinched.

"Fine, but we're blowing up the server and that's non-negotiable." Misaka insisted.

"Why do you want to blow something up so badly?" Saten asked, leaning in a bit as she did so. Misaka fidgeted under her gaze.

"I just want to make sure th-"

"She's probably so frustrated that the pace of our relationship is so slow. Even after yesterday's breakthrough we're still making slow progress. She even thought I had placed cameras in Faraday cages to take pictures of her!" Kuroko exclaimed. Uiharu's sudden guilty retreat put Misaka on high-alert. She quickly went through her memories of the morning but could not remember seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"Yesterday's breakthrough?" Saten asked. If she had been curious before, she was enthralled after that little tid-bit.

"Indeed, we shared a number of secrets about-"

"I was the only one who shared anything, and you shouldn't talk about it!" Misaka's face was colored red by her mixed anger and embarrassment. Saten made a devilish grin and turned to her schoolmate.

"Do you think-"

"Nothing happened!" None of the nearby patrons or pedestrians paid the commotion any heed. Most likely as they recognized the Railgun for being the crazy, borderline psychotic she was occasionally made out to be.

"Fine, fine," Saten relented at last. "Let's go take a look at this building."

xxBakaAkki: I really like learning the sciences so I spend a lot of time trying to fit them in where they probably don't belong. Lucky for me this is one universe where science actually plays a small roll. Yay!

There you have it! Again, no idea when the next chapter will be up so I won't give you any false hope. I can promise that it'll release on a Sunday at the usual time so you don't need to check back all the time, just on Sundays!