levelshift | Open post

[This is the worst day ever.

The last thing Accelerator remembers is coming back home from England, barging into a secret meeting of the board of directors to announce his takeover and then, after leaving the building, some kind of gothic carriage in the streets. After that everything was a blur until he found himself stumbling out of a goddamn coffin, in some big room with an even bigger mirror, to the shock of some weirdo in a crow mask. It's just the two of them, and after some yelling and threats Accelerator calms down enough to listen. Crow Mask has no idea what's going on and seems sincere about it, and while he remains suspicious, decides to believe him for the moment.

This isn't Academy City, it's some magical school he's never heard of before on an island he's also never heard before, and it keeps on going until Accelerator quietly realizes the many-worlds interpretation must be true, or at least m-theory or the twin-world models. Something like that. He can dwell on the physics of it later, after he's back home. As cool as it is to learn other universes exist, he literally just took control of his own city. Disappearing right after doing so would allow the board, those slimy fuckers, to act, and while he knows people there who may be able to prevent anything bad from happening, he isn't sure how effective that Level 0 could be against people with administrative power.

He's in a precarious position, and he can't be in another damn universe.

Unfortunately, there isn't any science he knows of that allows movement through universes. Dimensions? Sure, but not universes, and according to Crow Mask (Crowley, he can't be serious with a name like that) there's no magic that can do it either. It can be looked into, but in the meantime....

In the meantime, the mirror assigns him a dorm. He's the right age for the school and he's already accomplished when it comes to using magic. Not many teenagers can say they've altered their world's cosmic law, let alone any adults, so school it is. It's far from Accelerator's first choice but it at least him offers food, shelter, and access to a library to do some investigation. It's his best option, and since the mirror is willing to assign him a dorm he grudgingly goes along with it. So, after getting a rundown of the school and being given a school uniform and map of the campus, he heads off to the hall of mirrors. It's still early in the school year so the headmage is confident he can be slotted in as a transfer student, and that the transition shouldn't be difficult.

It sucks, all of it sucks, and that feeling only increases when he heads to the Octavinelle dorms. He's never been a strong swimmer, even before the need for a crutch, and being under water makes his head feel fuzzy. He has to chalk that up to the water messing with the signal of his choker (how that's still working he isn't sure, but he's grateful the connection is being maintained), yet another irritation to deal with. He's grumbling under his breath as he makes his way down the hall to his assigned room, glaring at any students he passes by.]

((Continued from here.))

[It's been a long few weeks. Running an entire city during periods of stability is an enormous amount of work, doing so while trying to investigate corruption within an entirely separate company is like climbing Mount Everest. A regular person would likely just give up and focus on what's in front of them (especially so since there is still a sizable amount of shady practices that haven't been stamped out within Academy City), but Accelerator is only more motivated to mark this as a success. Maybe it's naive, maybe he's only being stubborn, but he refuses to give up. If this company is committing the same kind of inhumane experimentation that certain Academy City institutions then he can't just ignore it. As the #1, the Board Chairman, and someone with an absurd amount of power, he's obligated to use that power responsibly.

That's why those few weeks have been spent running investigations into Peil Technologies. Thanks to his city being focused on the research and development of various kind of science Accelerator has been able to make use of multiple avenues — electronic surveillance of Peil employees, forensic accounting of the company's financial records — but he's come to realize that the really shady stuff is locked down within the physical research facilities. There's only so much he can do from Earth. If he wants to expose Peil then going to the source is his best option.

That means a field trip into space is in order. Thankfully, Academy City has its own space program, so procuring a small shuttle and getting off the planet isn't difficult for him.

After a good amount of planning he settles on a Peil-owned facility that had very little presence in the records he was able to examine. It had stuck out to him as suspicious, so after a little (less than legal) acquisition of the place's schedule, Accelerator heads out when there should be a minimal employee presence. With him is a small flash drive containing a trojan virus that, if downloaded into their computer system, will open a network and start feeding data back to Earth. If he has enough time he'd like to do some hunting of his own on their systems, but at the bare minimum installing the virus and letting it work will be enough.

It's surprisingly smooth sailing. A little hacking to Peil's main scheduling systems by one of his own employees (a computer scientist who, prior to coming to the city, specialized in this kind of thing) and the shuttle is arranged as arriving to do some routine maintenance on the facility, so landing is surprisingly easy. And once he's off board it's even easier to knock the docking bay crew using his esper ability. They aren't dead, so it's fine. By the time they wake up he'll be back on Earth.

After downloading a map to his phone and ditching his space suit he heads in, crutch in one hand and a gun in the other. He doesn't want to use it if it isn't necessary, but his ability is on a time limit and he won't let this mission end in failure. Carefully, he heads down a hall that leads away from the docking bay, and when he hears footsteps approaching from around the corner he quickly ducks through a nearby door.]

Edited 2025-12-22 03:45 (UTC)

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For gundemn