Encounter
Before:
Touma is met with a surprise visit from his cousin, Otohime, and then from Misaka 10032.
Mikoto had a nightmare involving Touma and has been looking for him.
Stiyl arrives to inform and recruit Index regarding a possible forbidden time magic, and the possible connection to several incidents involving men in masks
Kuroko is finishing up work and looks for her Sissy. She finds her, that man and a young girl knocked out by a man in a black mask.
XXX
Mikoto hears an alarm from the distance, a very familiar sounding alarm. (It's that vending machine isn't it? He's probably there.)
XXX
Kuroko warps in between the three knocked out bodies and the stranger in robes wearing a black mask, she's holding her metal spikes. "Hold it! I'm from Judgement!" She takes out her spikes, "And right now you better give me a damn good explanation for what you did here!" Behind her lay her precious Sissy, knocked unconscious by the man in robes. It's taking all of her will power to stay under control and not go completely berserk.
"I don't have time to play," says the figure in a distorted voice. With a swing of a hand, Kuroko's spikes fly away.
"How did you-?" With little time to react the stranger controls a bench to send flying at her, the same bench that knocked out the three people next to the vending machine.
Kuroko teleported behind the man and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him down. Standing on top of him, she reaches for more spikes only to find none at all. "Where'd they g- AH!" Kuroko was blasted from behind by an unseen enemy. It wasn't a powerful one, just enough to push her off of the black masked stranger.
Turning around Kuroko sees another man in robes, but this one is wearing a yellow mask. The black masked one gets up as well, Kuroko readies for a fight.
"Stop," the black masked one tells her. "Unless you want to see them get hurt."
The girl turns to see her spikes floating just in front of the three unconscious bodies. (Magnetism? How come Sissy didn't sense him?) The two figures walked over to the three bodies, the girl couldn't do anything. The yellow masked stranger knelt down to all three of them.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Kuroko yells.
"We can either take her with us, as a hostage, or we can kill her here and now."
Kuroko internally screams but kept her composure, though shaking.
"Ready?" the black mask asks the yellow mask.
"Yes," the yellow mask plants his hands so that he's touching both girl's bodies. "But what about this boy?"
"I will take him," the black mask answers as he summons the bench again. The boy is put onto it and the man in the black mask sits down on it. With a swing of his hand he sends the floating spikes flying into the sky, the bench floated up and flew into the distance while the yellow mask disappeared with the two girls.
"SISSY!"
Meanwhile, Mikoto hid in the distance, she saw and heard the last bits of what had happened. The boy, her sister, and a young girl were taken by a mysterious group of robed men. She doesn't know what's going on, all she does know is that she needs to stay with Kuroko to get any kind of lead to save them.
XXX
"We weren't expecting you so soon, Index Librorum Prohibitorum," the blue masked stranger speaks to them.
"Who are you?" Stiyl demands an answer.
"Does it matter?" the masked man taunts.
"Wait Stiyl," Index pulls on his cloak. "Something's off about him."
"Off?"
"He doesn't feel human," Index tells him. "I'm sensing some kind of doppelganger magic, but I can't tell which one."
"Red hair, barcode…" the masked man observes. "You must be the fire guy from Necessarius."
"The name's Stiyl, now give me yours."
"Unfortunately, we… doppelgangers, don't have names. We're just copies after all. But if you like, you can call me Blue." The man points to his mask.
"You mean there's more?" Index shouts.
"Five, to be exact. Our original doesn't want to risk any more, our personalities are unstable enough as it is."
"Soul Split," Index mutters.
"Soul Split?" Stiyl turns to Index.
"It's an ancient technique that allows the user to split up into multiple bodies," Index begins explaining. "Bodies are made to house the caster's spirits in the same shape and form as the caster. But there are great dangers to this spell. The copies cannot use the same spells at the same time, doing so will cancel the Soul Split completely. Also, the more splits there are, the more unstable the copies become. The highest safe zone in record is about twelve."
"Our original can only split up to five, because our originator knows how to use six different kinds of magic. One for each mask. Guess what mine is." A burst of water gushes up from the ground and is twisted to fly into Index.
Stiyl picks up Index again and jumps out of the way. Blue summons up another water pillar behind him and launches it at the two.
Index mutters something and the pillar is redirected at the caster. Blue calls another pillar to block. At the end of the clash a blast of fire hit the masked man dead on. He stumbles back a bit but lands on his feet, a piece of paper drops from him but he doesn't notice it.
"Damn, that hurt more than I thought."
"You aren't burned," Stiyl points out. "Those robes must be a kind of defensive Walking Church. Judging by the damage you took I'd wager it only above average."
"And that Spell Intercept, guess I bit off more than I could chew."
"Stiyl, you should aim for his mask," Index tells him. "The Soul Split requires a common item between all copies. Those masks are the best candidates. If we break those masks, we can defeat the copies. Once they're all defeated, we can finish off the original caster."
"Ha! As if you can defeat all of us," Blue taunts.
"What are you doing?" a voice from above interrupts them. There was a flying bench floating down, on it sat another man in similar robes but a black mask. Right next to him was Touma, knocked out.
"Touma!" Index cries, but there was no response. Sityl stops her from moving forward.
"Heh," Blue smirks. "Looks like all our preparations are complete. We just have to wait until midnight. It took a while to set up the spell, and now it looks like your only way of stopping us is in our hands now. Who knows, he might even be useful to us after we're done with the city." Blue makes his way to Black's bench.
"Hold it!" Stiyl sends a blast of fire in their direction, but water and a dumpster suddenly blocks it.
Blue sits down right next to Black. "Bye!" Blue waves with two fingers as the bench floats upwards and away.
"Tch!" Stiyl calls off his flames. "Now what?"
"Hey," Index runs to where Blue was standing. "What's this?"
Stiyl follows as Index examines the paper.
"It's a map," Index sets it down on the ground for Stiyl to see. "There's a lot of marks on it, some of them were even crossed out and another mark is made right next to it."
"It's a magic circle!" Stiyl realizes. "One week's worth of set up and it looks like they're finished."
"There's a mark in the center, that might be where their base is!"
"I'm going to stop them, stay here."
"No way, I'm coming! We don't know what kind of magic they're trying to use yet, but it's something big and you're going to need me!"
Stiyl's phone rings suddenly. He quickly looks at the number calling and picks it up. "Hello?"
[Yo! Stiyl, I've got some useful information. Someone at Judgment discovered where the masked men might be hiding and are probably on the way over there right now.]
"We've already figured out where their base is. What is Judgment?"
[Volunteer Espers that patrol the city like a small police force. If you're going to go over there you better put on a disguise. There's a costume shop on the way you can stop by.]
"A costume shop? What do you want me to do there?"
[We can't have the Espers see you as you are. You should cover your face with something at least.]
"Alright, we'll take a look." Stiyl hangs up and turns to Index. "It seems that there are Espers on the way there as well. I might cause trouble if they see me so we're going to stop by costume shop and hope we can find something useful in there."
"Oh! Oh! Let me pick!"
"I'm going to regret this," Stiyl mumbles under his breath.
XXX
"Uiharu," Kuroko talks onto the cell phone. "Can you bring up all the information on the masked assaults again?" She grabs a rock and draws out a big circle on the ground.
"Yes," Kuroko hears Uiharu typing some keys as well as making a few mouse clicks. "What do you need to know?"
"Tell me where all the attacks took place."
Uiharu tells Kuroko the location of every incident in the past week involving the masked men. With each location Kuroko made a mark in the circle.
"Umm, Shirai?" Uiharu senses something wrong. "Did you find out anything?"
"All those attacks had no pattern in time or date and the locations appeared to be at random."
"Of course, that's why it's difficult to catch the ones behind all this."
"Even if we connect the dots, they make no real shape, but if I make a circle using the two farthest points for reference. Then what's at the center of the circle, just might be their base. Are you following me?"
"I am but," Uiharu starts to worry. "The chances of that being true-"
"Can you tell me what's at the center of that circle?" Kuroko interrupts forcibly.
"It's a block with four tall office buildings about 25 floors on average, one is under construction, two are in use and the last one is abandoned."
"Tell me where it is."
Uiharu relays the address, out of fear and concern. Kuroko repeats out loud for confirmation and teleports away.
Mikoto, who was hiding within hearing range the whole time, rushes out of her hiding spot towards the destination.
XXX
"…ther Touma…"
Touma can feel himself being shook and wakes up in an empty room. "Otohime?"
"Are you alright, Brother Touma?"
"What happened?"
"It seems we were knocked unconscious. Misaka reports based on the evidence."
"Misaka? You're here too? Huh?" Touma just now realized that his left hand and her right hand were handcuffed together, and the chain is unnaturally long enough to wrap around a small pipe in the wall. "What is this?"
"Misaka does not know. It appears to be a heavy insulator that is also very heat resistant, but the material is completely unknown. Misaka declares her observation."
"You've already tried breaking free?" Touma scratches his head. "What about the pipe?"
"It appears to be just an ordinary pipe, but rusted and weak. Misaka responds."
"If we pull hard enough, do you think it might break?"
"Misaka does not have the monstrous strength of Sister. Misaka tells the boy, a bit disappointed in the admission."
"Ah heh heh," Touma laughs nervously.
"I can help!" Otohime suddenly cries out. "I've wrestled Touma before!"
"You wrestled me while I was asleep!" Touma sighs. "But it's worth trying out at least. Misaka, can you use your power to weaken the pipe?"
Without responding, Misaka gathers electricity in her hand and fires a concentrated beam at where two pipes are connected. She fires another concentrated beam at the other end for a few seconds.
Touma, Misaka and Otohime grab hold of the pipe. "Three, two, one!" All three of them pull with their might. Touma puts a foot on the wall to increase his power. The sound of metal being bent and stretched can be heard but it didn't break as the three stopped to catch their breaths.
"I think it's working," Otohime encourages the group.
"It is," Touma sounds a bit tired. "Misaka can you weaken the pipe again?"
The three hostages repeated the routine a second time and broke the pipe off for sure.
"Haa haa phew," Touma wiped some sweat off of his head.
Misaka and Otohime slide the handcuff's chain off of the pipe, revealing it to be a quarter meter long.
"That's a lot of chain, what kind of handcuffs are these?"
"We need to get out of here Touma!" Otohime urges.
"Right," Touma gets up and they head out the door.
They find themselves near the top of an office building.
"Where the hell are we?"
"Where?" a voice echoes through the halls, a man in robes wearing a green mask approaches them. "Right in the palms of our hands."
XXX
Kuroko warps into the abandoned building. Surely enough, there's nothing worth noting in here. She warps a floor upwards, and again, and again, until she's almost halfway up the building. Where she encounters the man in a yellow mask. Stunned for a second, Kuroko teleports upwards hastily, only find him in front of her again, and again.
"Looks like I can't save Sissy unless I deal with you first."
"Looks like."
Kuroko warp kicks her opponent from behind. He turns around and his finger glows, Kuroko sees this and teleports before Yellow could fire the beam. The laser hits a wall and explodes.
Kuroko appears below Yellow and sweep kicks him off the ground, then appearing above him while in the air and heel kicks him downwards. Yellow hits the floor hard.
Smiling at her victory, Kuroko teleports a floor upwards again, only to find the yellow masked man suddenly standing straight up and in front of her.
"Wow, you're angry," Yellow states as he points a finger at her. "Perhaps I should enlighten you."
XXX
Stiyl and Index arrive at their destination. Index was carrying a strangely fat plastic bag.
"This is it!" Index yells out loud. "This is the building marked on the map."
"Alright, stay here." Sityl grabs the bag.
"What? I already told you I'm coming."
"This is as far as you go. With any luck we'll be able to stop them before they activate whatever spell it is they've set up. But we'll need you in top health in case they do manage to cast it."
"Alright but you better promise to rescue Touma!"
Stiyl jerks at this condition. On one hand he doesn't like Touma, on the other he likes Index. "That boy will surely come out of this in one piece." Stiyl heads into the building.
"That wasn't a promise!" Index yells at him. "Wait, he said 'we'. He really is going to save Touma!"
Not too far away, a certain someone overheard them, someone deeply indebted to Touma. It was time to repay that debt.
XXX
Just in front of the building Sityl takes out the thing they bought at the costume shop and put it on his head. While doing so he remembers the conversation they had in the store.
"What? That?"
"Yeah, it's big enough to cover your whole head. No one will recognize you if you put this on."
"There's a lot of other masks that do that! Why pick that one?"
"This is the only one that fits your fire powers perfectly!" Index smiles.
"Ugh, what am I going to say if someone sees me wearing that?" Stiyl sighs and facepalms.
"Just call yourself Jack O'Lantern!"
"The things I do for that girl." Sityl begins to run up the building wearing the pumpkin head.
XXX
On a building half as tall across the street, the lone hero stands on the rooftop and surveys the robed men's base.
With his green face mask, blue and white hero outfit and long red scarf blowing in the breeze, Gekota-man is ready to save the day!
(This is so embarrassing!) Mikoto cries inside the costume that she bought in the costume shop on the way here. (But I can't risk Kuroko seeing me while we're in there.)
Repelling the magnetic forces, Gekota-man jumps across the street and into about a third of the way up the robed men's building. Evil beware, justice has arrived!
XXX
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Author: Jumping straight into the action!
Kuroko encounters Yellow, with the power of light. Touma and Misaka 10032 face Green.
Stiyl and Mikoto have also entered the building, wearing disguises. Who will their opponents be?
Notes and stuff:
The Gekota-man disguise is mostly based off of SNK's May Lee, just with the added Gekota mask on her face. Sityl's is just a pumpkin head.
The bit about the unstable personalities of the doppelganers is just an excuse just in case they come off a bit weird in future chapters.
I've seen a lot of places that heavily exaggerate Kuroko, I myself don't like her that much but I thought I'd try showing her as more calm and collected. Besides, I wanted to try writing teleportation fighting, sounds like fun.
Changes from original plans:
This is where the biggest changes come into effect. The original idea proved to be waaay too convoluted, complicated and messy, so it's been simplified, a LOT!
The masked men were originally going to be calling themselves PHANTOM. They'd be more of a terrorist group, demanding a lot of money for the return of "Mikoto Misaka" and the building that they take over has a giant screen to show them off. They also manage to bring a fully loaded shipping boat above the city and threaten to drop it into the building.
It's because of this publicity that gives Stiyl and Mikoto a better reason to wear disguises. PHANTOM were also going to kidnap Saten and Aogami as commentators for the publicly televised battles between them and the rescuers, just to give a bit of humour. And it's through this that Last Order finds out that a Sister had been kidnapped and begs/annoys Accelerator to save her.