Mikoto was glad she'd stolen those codeine from a nearby pharmacy. She had to use her powers to occasionally jolt herself to wakefulness, but she didn't feel a damn thing. Hopefully, that would not be a problem.
"Alright… I've been at this for three days. I've taken out 90% of their assets, the project must be at a stand-still by now…" She muttered as she slid down an empty hallway into an industrial area of the facility.
"This ends tonight. I just hope everything goes according to plan..." She growled as she ran out of the hall into the twisting labyrinth of pipes and metal walkways. As she exited her hiding spot, she heard a brief loud hissing sound followed by metal grinding against metal, her electromagnetic senses noticing a barrage of debris falling from above her. As the metal collided into the ground, it found its way around her without touching her.
"But I guess that was wishful thinking." She said with a scowl, her hand emitting brief electric shocks around her as she readied for resistance. She leaned forward and moved into a run as she dashed into the facility, that same hissing sound reaching her ears as she felt something approaching, instinctively leaping out of the way of it. She spun in place, seeing what looked like some kind of line on the floor bursting into rapid moving bright flame, rapidly approaching a… doll? Some kind of stuffed rag doll. The flame hit it and with a bright flash exploded into metal shrapnel that she quickly sent flying around her with a magnetic field.
"Who puts a bomb in a DOLL!?" She yelled, sliding to a stop and looking around, spotting many more similar dolls of various animals and rag dolls, all of which seemed to have lines of tape stretching to them in a convoluted network of fuses. Well, shit. Reaching toward the pile of metal debris that they'd attempted to crush her with, she pulled two large metal slabs of metal to her side, using them as a shield as more of the bombs were set off by her unknown assailant.
"Those fuses are so obvious, why would they-" She paused as she heard a clicking sound, her head twisting fast toward the sound where she saw another doll wedged into the framework of the metal slab she'd been using as a shield. With a slightly panicked movement, she sent it flying away from her, the explosion blasting out of each end of the framework.
Hearing more unpleasant sizzling sounds of fuses being lit, she quickly looked around, seeing the lit fuses flying toward more doll-bombs. Acting fast, she flung her own magnetic field away from the explosions, flying bodily into a wall with a very painful slam. Sliding down it, she got to her feet, growling from the pain.
"That… hurt." She hissed, panting as she stood up. Her eyes fell onto the fuses. They had to be lit somehow, by someone, so if she just followed them…
As Mikoto began to race through the facility once more, her eyes spotted a figure on a metal staircase leading to one of the upper levels. The girl paused in her ascent to turn her head and meet Mikoto's eyes with one of her own, giving her an arrogant smirk. That was her target. She flung an electric bolt at her, which narrowly hit a metal beam instead of her target as the girl continued to run up. As she sprinted around a corner, running low to the ground, her eyes focused on her target, she heard a pop next to her as she crossed a threshold of another corner, her senses detecting something non-metallic flying at her quickly. Not breaking her line of sight on her target, she gave it a quick zap and continued on her way, feeling it break up from the shock.
Her heart began to pound in increasing anger as she got to the stairs. "I will kill anyone who helps these fucking experiments." She growled with an emotional hate that weighed like a rock in her gut. The girl twirled at the top of the stairs, putting a hand up to her mouth in a faux-terrified expression.
"Such a scary expression! She'll DEFINITELY tear me apart if she catches me!" She said in a too-sweet voice that made Mikoto's stomach turn. "Just kidding~!" Mikoto heard more of that shearing sizzling sound as more fuses around her went off, feeling like the floor beneath had suddenly given way. Because it had, practically disassembling itself as gravity started to seize control of her and all the metal surrounding her.
"HAH! Got… you?" She heard the girl begin to say, pausing in her celebration. "...Huh?"
Mikoto stood upon her own makeshift staircase of metal debris, all magnetized to obey her instructions. "You know, if you really wanted something like that to work, maybe rebuild this whole place. And not use metal. At all. Idiot."
"You can't be serious! Cheater!" She heard the girl cry out as she ducked a few more electric shocks from Mikoto with a cry of surprise, tearing off out of sight. Mikoto ran up the debris and after her, spotting her turn the corner into another room.
Sliding to a halt in front of the large archway, she saw the girl having come to a stop in what appeared to be an enormous boiler room of some kind- and a dead end.
"Dead end, huh… So, was this a mistake or do you have something else up your sleeve?" Mikoto asked as she walked in, adjusting her hat slightly to raise it up, her eyes most definitely showing the dark bags she had under them as she stared at the girl, who she now finally had a decent view of. She was a blonde girl in a beret, long sleeved black blouse and white skirt, a little handkerchief wrapped around her shoulders.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect to wind up pushed back here, that's for sure…" The girl replied with a light nervous chuckle, a bead of sweat sliding down her face.
Mikoto took a few more steps into the room, glancing around for a second before bringing her eyes back onto the girl. "So, I guess I should ask. You work for the company? Or are you just some mercenary? You seem a bit atypical." She asked, adjusting her hat again. "You might want to take a moment and consider your options. If you get in my way, I'll leave you as nothing but charcoal. This place is psychotic and evil, you'd be better not to be part of it." Mikoto threatened with a level of seriousness that seemed to amuse the girl.
"Meh. Whatever." The girl said, waving off Mikoto's words with a casualness that irked Mikoto. "Our clients do what they do, and they hire us to kill or hurt who they want. We wouldn't exactly be very good mercenaries if we got caught up in the little things." She giggled, her face obscured a bit as she leaned forward, nothing short of an evil smile on her face.
"I mean, really…" The girl grinned wider as a loud pop of an explosion went off, and an enormous slam was heard behind her, Mikoto feeling some kind of giant metal gateway having blocked off her retreat. "Boom!" The girl yelled, Mikoto looking up to see dozens of those dolls pouring down at her, her eyes widening a bit. "No escape! No shield! TIME TO DIE!" The girl yelled in victory as she threw what looked like pointed needles at the ground, lighting an array of fuses that raced toward Mikoto.
"Yeah… guess I kind of asked for this one." She sighed, rubbing the side of her head with one hand, raising her other hand in a casual movement. The entire floor in front of her lifted up with a loud groaning crashing sound, cutting the fuses that were flying toward her. She saw the expression just over the edge of the now angled floor of the crazy bomber girl, which was twisted into shock and a tinge of fear.
Mikoto leaped forward over the top of the broken floor, her eyes leaving the girl for just a second. As she began to race toward her, she noticed the girl pulling her hat down to cover her face, and something dropping toward the ground. With a sudden flash and bang, she was hit by, appropriately, a flashbang grenade, rendered blind and deaf suddenly, nearly tripping over her own feet as she was robbed of her senses.
She cursed as she tried to get her bearings, falling back on her electromagnetic sense, since nothing else was working to help her. Her heart began to pound as she noticed that her senses were… pulsating. She'd been relying on them for incidental things, but the thought occurred to her rather suddenly that she hadn't sensed that bullet when it hit her. She was too panicked at the time to consider it.
Unfortunately, she did not have long to contemplate on this realization as she sensed her opponent moving quickly, pulling something vaguely angular from under her skirt. Three fast moving objects went barreling straight for her, and the dolls that had littered the battlefield before, striking down with an impressive explosion.
"I WIN!" Frenda leaped up and down as the smoke filled the room, laughing and jumping around with immense pleasure. "Ohhh, half that pay out is miiine!" She sung out to the room, overjoyed she could blast that obnoxiously arrogant Esper to pieces.
"Oh, what to buy, what to buy~?!" She sung as she spun around, sliding to a stop as she looked over at the scorch mark where the body… should… be. She blinked as she stared at the scorched and damaged ground where the body, or pieces of, should have been lying, but all she saw was… scorched ground. And nothing else.
Then… that means….
"You've really done your homework."
Oh no.
Mikoto walked up from behind the girl, her hand raised and eyes closed as she stepped forward. Running along the walls and ceiling to circle around had been mildly fun, she had to admit.
"But you've never faced someone who can both sense electromagnetic waves of motion and can stick to just about anything. Ah ah! No sudden moves!" She said, her hand sparking as the girl had begun to move again. Mikoto slowly opened one eye as she began to regain her vision.
The girl turned in place, giving her doe eyes and tears, none of which Mikoto even slightly bought. She'd just tried to blow her up.
"Alright, now you're-" Mikoto began, cut off as the girl turned and began to cry out words that she just plain did not understand. It wasn't Japanese, or French, or anything like that. It threw her off guard as she blinked in surprise. The girl then grinned wildly.
"Like it! I just made it up!" She yelled before throwing something at her. A vial. Mikoto reacted on reflex, blasting it with a quick jolt of electricity, which caused an explosion to momentarily obscure her vision. Really, ANOTHER bomb?
She stumbled back and righted herself, her vision and hearing fully back now, but the strain of everything was getting to her. She still couldn't feel much of anything due to the codeine, but mental fatigue of keeping her body moving was settling in. She knew her body was getting slower. She blinked and looked around the room, noticing some kind of smoke had filled the space.
"Like it? Academy City's very own explosive: Ignis." She grinned madly at Mikoto. "One spark and this whole room will go up in flames." She stepped forward, crouching down before leaping forward and throwing a kick at Mikoto, who threw up her arms quickly in defense, wincing as her arms were hit with a shock, causing her to stumble. This… This was bad. Without using her powers to shock herself and give herself slight muscle adjustments, the exhaustion and drugs were starting to hit her and she was struggling to keep her eyes from closing.
She couldn't use her abilities, she was barely conscious, this was very, very bad! She ducked out of the way of another swipe from the girl's hand, her hat going flying off of her head, something she did not have long to contemplate as she felt fingers suddenly grab her hair. She let out a loud scream as she was bodily flung a good distance by her hair, the pain excruciating and more than a few locks coming out. Mikoto scrambled to her feet, looking around rapidly and spotting the girl above her coming down for a smashing kick, diving out of the way while panting, the gas starting to get to her.
What the hell is wrong with her? She's going to set off the gas herself like this, does she have a death wish?!
"Stupid little girl." Her opponent snickered at her, holding her fighting stance. "I've been at this for quite some time. You think I'm scared to die like YOU are?" She giggled before rushing in again, beating and pounding away at Mikoto. Not even attempting to be lethal, seeming to just being intent on taking advantage of Mikoto's weakness.
Within a few minutes, Mikoto was panting and bleeding from the barrage of attacks, having more than once collapsed and nearly lost consciousness. Nothing really hurt, thank you codeine, but that same thing that stopped the pain was making her sluggish and drowsy.
"Such a trooper, you are." Her opponent giggled, hopping from one foot to the next. "But I suppose I should stop playing and finish you off before Mugino and the others get here." She grinned as she tapped her toe on the ground, a small knife unsheathing from the back of her shoe.
"You know… there's something so… invigorating about that final kill, you know? I'm sure you do. I've seen the death counts on those labs." Mikoto's eyes widened at the words. "Oh my! Had you not even considered what you're doing could KILL people?" She broke into giggling laughter. "You really are a dumb little girl!"
Mikoto had thought about it, but made a point of not looking. Maybe trying to deny the possibility to herself, or assure herself she hadn't by not looking. It was hypocrisy and she knew it.
"As I pluck away a life… in the end… it was like this loser was born here just to die by my hand." She grinned, throwing her hair to the side before rushing in again and swinging her leg in a backwards roundhouse at Mikoto. "Time for your exit! GIVE ME A GOOD SCREAM!" She yelled, smashing her leg into Mikoto.
Mikoto growled as she found her adrenaline spiking for a moment, holding on to the girl's leg, even as the knife floated just centimeters away from stabbing her. "Born to die…?"
"I guess some are… but to accept it… to let it happen…? SCREW! YOU!" She yelled, smashing her knee into the girl's leg and sending her flying back, the girl crying out in pain as she stumbled backward.
As the girl spun around to charge again, determined to outlast Mikoto, she paused, looking up. Mikoto had heard it too. Some kind of… beeping sound. They both looked around, and began to notice… security cameras? They had been off previously, so Mikoto hadn't noticed them, but one by one, they turned on, little red lights signaling power. There had to easily be two dozen… far more than should have been in a boiler room.
"The hell?" The girl muttered. Mikoto had a similar sentiment, but was distracted as she was hit by a cough. She blinked as her electromagnetic senses seemed to kick on automatically, despite her attempts to not use any of her powers at all for risk of setting off the explosive. As they seemed to disobey her, she sensed… something in the air. The air was surprisingly conductive, more so than it should have been, and her cough was getting worse. The girl had turned to look at Mikoto as she coughed, and all Mikoto could wonder was why she was coughing and her opponent was not. Her opponent seemed divided, like she wasn't sure whether to rush her to take advantage or not, the bizarre situation creating some hesitation.
Rather suddenly, Mikoto felt a rush of power go up her spine, and she quickly grabbed at it with her mind, trying to restrain it as electricity escaped from her body against her wishes, lashing out and seeming to be lured to every electronic device in the room- with the exception of the cameras.
"Are you insane?" The girl asked, seeming floored that she would risk setting off the gas- which wasn't exploding, Mikoto noted- but Mikoto was too absorbed in the strange rampant power of hers to care. As tendrils of electricity arced through the gas, which was acting as a conductor, tearing into the industrial equipment… and then suddenly reversing.
"W-what, no!" Mikoto yelled, fear filling her heart as her most valuable ability seemed to betray her, and electricity was drained from the power grid, rushing into her. The smoke obscured her vision as she appeared to be electrocuted, the mercenary girl only staring in slack-jawed surprise as Mikoto screamed out, her skeleton periodically visible as she was filled with immense amounts of electricity.
It was too much. Millions of watts a second were rushing into her body, and she didn't know how to stop it. And then… she didn't want to. She began to gasp as she felt more alert, more awake, and for a moment the pain that the drug had been suppressing returned, but quickly faded. She felt like she'd slept for days, felt a rush of health imbuing into her. The cuts and bruises she'd gotten from the girl's beating closed and vanished. There was a loud shuddering sound as almost everything went dark, the power grid finally giving up and causing a blackout for who knows how many blocks.
Mikoto tasted the air as she panted on her hands and knees after collapsing. Copper-y. It tasted like copper. Her mind leaped to the security cameras, trying to find who was looking through them, and found only one thing as every camera shut off instantly. A small word document wedged into a hard drive buried several buildings away.
"No peeking~"
She couldn't dwell on it. She didn't know how long she had before that girl killed her. As she stood up, she threw up an arm and caught a kick that was aimed right for her, feeling a boot knife that was centimeters from piercing her side.
"The same trick again, huh?" Mikoto hummed, feeling stronger than ever before. She pushed at the girl's leg, this time finding it far easier, much to the shock of the woman.
"Something seems to have not gone quite how you meant it." Mikoto said with a smile that clearly unnerved the girl. She broke into a nervous smile and laugh.
"Uh… oopsie?" She said cutely, tapping her head with one wrap of her knuckles, even as she balanced on a single leg, her other firmly in Mikoto's grasp.
"Oopsie." Mikoto agreed, before shocking her and throwing her across the room, which gave her one of the most cathartic feelings of her entire life.