A Certain Sapient Virus

by Anti-Atom

Academy City has seen a lot; everything from espers to magicians, but nothing could have prepared it for what had come to reside within the city, much like nothing could have prepared New York for the virus. Beware, espers and magicians alike, for the realm of science has one final creature that tops all humanity; BLACKLIGHT. Beware Academy City, for BLACKLIGHT has come.

37. Chapter 37

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE SERIES/COVER ART INVOLVED IN THIS STORY.

GUEST: Oh, the nickname! Ok, I know what you're talking about; I had forgotten the nickname and assumed you were talking about a literal disease. Anyway, your suggestion is unique, but it would be awkward to write. I mean, come on; Clara is a grown woman and Touma is 16.

Chapter 37

Desperate Attempt

Rika glanced around, checking for any signs of betrayal as the three walked in through the front doors of the building. Mikoto and Kuroko had come along, both girls mirroring Rika's actions and looking around.

"What's with Aleister and picking creepy, abandoned buildings for his meetings?" asked Mikoto. "I mean, what's wrong with giving us the gloves and boots in a hotel?"

"Oh, you know his kind," Kuroko muttered. "Ominous and prone to act mysterious and weird."

"Hey, guys," Rika interrupted. "I've got eyes on Aleister's little squad." Sure enough, there were four people waiting for them at the far end of the building. Two crouched beside a metal box, and all were aiming their weapons at the three girls.

"Hey," Mikoto began. "These look like the same guys who delivered that thing Siren merged with."

"Huh, you're right," Rika answered while reaching up to her earpiece. "Aleister, you sent these guys, didn't you? These aren't imposters?"

"These were the men I sent, yes," Aleister replied. "Take the gear and hurry back; we've got to keep hitting the Evolved while we can, so the sooner you've got more weapons for your team, the sooner we can bring down the Evolved."

Rika nodded, waving a hand and beckoning the other two girls over. One of the men flicked a pair of goggles over his head and studies the girls. Once satisfied, he held his hand up to his ear. "These the ones?" he asked.

A moment of silence went by as he received his reply. "The man had called me," Aleister began, talking in each of the girls' earpieces. "He was just making sure there are no misunderstandings."

"Gotchya," said Mikoto.

The two men stood up, carrying the box forward. "Not take forever like Mercer punk," said the man who had looked them over. Kuroko rolled her eyes as the trio stepped forward while the two men opened the box. While they went through the process of unlocking it, Kuroko placed her hands on the backs of her comrades. It was a little difficult, seeing as her right hand was broken, but she had made contact, and in case things went south, she'd have an extra second or two to teleport them all away since she already had physical contact.

Finally, the box opened, revealing a pair of grey, metal gloves and boots, along with another device that was attached to a pair of straps of sorts. Rika bent forward, grabbing the gloves and boots and looking them over while Mikoto grabbed the device.

"The device is worn, Mikoto—put it on like a backpack under your clothing, but make sure the device is resting on the front of your body," Aleister explained. "It'll be easier to prevent it from being hit by an attack since you'll see it coming."

"Uh huh," replied Mikoto, staring at the device as she held it in her hands. It was rectangular in shape and green in color. It wasn't that large—it was a little larger than her hand, and about as flat—and it wasn't very heavy. "And this thing can seriously remotely charge those gloves?" she asked.

"It can," Aleister confirmed. "It simply needs a power source—that being you, of course. Just allow your electricity to flow into it, and it'll power up the gloves and boots. Go on, try it."

"Wait," Rika interrupted. "Let me put the things on first." Less than thirty seconds later, the gloves and boots were firmly in place. Rika pulled her sleeves over the gloves and her pants over the boots and was jogging in place and throwing punches, testing the weight and feel of the new additions to her wardrobe.

"Alright, I'm ready," she muttered. "Go for it, Mikoto." Mikoto nodded, lighting sparking around the hand that held the device. She channeled the electricity into the device, and watched with fascination as the gloves began sparking with the same blue electricity.

Tiny lights that had been built into the gloves burst into life with blue light, and the palms of the gloves gave off their own blue glow, even though it was faint. "Hey, it works!" Rika exclaimed. "This is so cool!" She grinned, pounding her fists together, only to yelp in surprise when a small electrical field formed around the gloves as the lighting was discharged. Immediately, the blue glow faded from the gloves, leaving Rika to figure out what had happened.

"Careful," Aleister began. "They're set to discharge the energy within them upon hit, so make those hits count. The gloves will only discharge so much lighting at once, so depending on how much energy Mikoto puts into them, you'll need refills.

Mikoto only smirked, channeling more power into the device and watching as the gloves sparked to life again and the boots began glowing brighter. "The boots follow the same rule. They'll discharge a fixed amount of power, so they'll need to be recharged, but the boots are less sensitive to avoid discharging while you're walking—you'll have to kick pretty hard for them to actually register. The device Mikoto is using sends an even amount of power to both the gloves and the boots, unless they're both full. In that case, the device will assume that you're trying to blast lighting from the gloves, so it'll send power to the gloves to overload them. Try it now; overload the gloves."

Rika pointed her hand at the wall and waited while Mikoto quickly charged up the gloves. At one point, the gloves gave out a small beep, and Rika frowned. "That means that the gloves are being overloaded," Aleister interrupted, causing Mikoto to pause. Kuroko—who had long since stepped back—was watching the demonstration with great interest. "The optimal time to use the gloves for blasting is anytime after the gloves have notified you that they're being overloaded, but don't wait too long; the gloves can only handle so much power. There's a button on the top of the glove along the armguard. Push it."

Rika did so, gasping as a bolt of lightning shot from her outstretched hand. She, as well as Mikoto and Kuroko, stared with grins on their faces as they looked at the new weapon. "This…is going to be awesome," said Mikoto.

*Page Break*

Siren and Mikoro watched the screen with narrowed eyes. The screen depicted their enemies—the Evolved—traveling in tight formation. Ever since the others left to retrieve Aleister's weapon, Siren and Mikoro had been watching the Evolved and their movements.

"I don't think they plan on splitting up any time soon," Mikoro muttered. "You guys shook them up quite a bit; they're far more cautious now."

"And we're far beyond the point of trying to trick them by using Luke's face," Siren growled. "They'll no it's me the moment I make contact, so that plan's a waste."

"I think Aleister may have something up his sleeve," Mikoro commented. "If we've got his weapon with us, we stand a better chance of winning. Maybe with it, we'll be able to take more than one of them head on."

"Possibly, but all of them at once?" Siren shook his head. "Now way; they'd destroy us if we went up against them like that. You can't forget, they've got the Infected with them. Individually, an Infected isn't that much of a problem, but they won't come at us individually."

Mikoro frowned, only to jump in surprise as several shadows suddenly appeared on the wall in front of her. Siren had whirled around, but relaxed when he saw Mikoto, Kuroko, and Rika standing behind them. Rika grinned and waved, giving Siren and Mikoro a good look at her new gloves. "Well, do they work?" asked Siren.

Mikoto rolled her eyes. "If they didn't, you'd be able to tell by our facial expressions. They work fine, and so does the charging-device-thingy."

Mikoro raised an eyebrow—an action Siren mirrored—and the two looked on at the device in Mikoto's hand. "That's the thing used to charge the gloves and boots?"

Mikoto nodded and turned around. "Give me a minute; I need to put the thing on and I don't want you guys to watch me dress." Kuroko grinned, covering her mouth with her hand as a knowing look crept onto her face. "Oh, and someone keep Kuroko busy," Mikoto said in a tired tone.

Kuroko's grin vanished and her head hung low. "Onee-sama," she whined. "What if you need help?"

Mikoto's own palm slapped her in the face as she sighed in annoyance. "I think I can handle myself in such a situation."

"I suggest you hurry up," Aleister interrupted, his voice bursting in their ears. "Every second we spent talking gives the Evolved more time to prepare and gather their forces."

Rika narrowed her eyes. "What could they be doing? What do they have to prepare?"

"I don't know, but do you really want to find out?" asked Aleister.

"Fair enough," Rika muttered.

"Moving on," Siren interrupted. "What's our next plan of attack? A trap like the last one probably won't work again, so we've got to try something new. The question is what?"

Silence hung over them for a second before Aleister spoke. "If we can't trick them into splitting up, we have to force them to split up. If we can destroy their ability to communicate, and then separate them, we can try picking them off one by one. The only problem is that we'd be on a time limit; separating the Evolved will buy us time, yes, but then they'll start looking for each other in order to regroup...unless there's something stopping them from doing that."

"Alright," said Mikoro. "So how are we supposed to get them to split up?"

"As far as I can tell, we need something powerful enough to challenge Ares long enough for us to begin working on the others," began Aleister. "Siren isn't ready; Ares is currently furious with him, and facing him head on at the moment is too big a risk. No, we need something bigger and more intimidating than Siren."

Kuroko's eyes widened as something came to mind. "The Leader Hydra?"

"Yes," Aleister replied. "We need to draw it out. Finding the one controlling it would take too long, so we need to find a way to draw it out. Luckily, I've noticed a pattern in its movements and attacks. I've been keeping an eye on that creature for some time. It has a tendency to attack the Infected, so if we can grab its attention, we may be able to use it to cause a distraction large enough for us to engage."

"Say we somehow get the Leader Hydra to show up during our fight with the Evolved," began Rika. "What then?"

"The Leader Hydra will probably target something that it finds to be powerful. Luckily, Ares will be traveling with his Evolved, so you'll need to point the Leader Hydra towards Ares. Once it has him occupied, the rest of you can move in. With Ares busy and Luke dead, the only Evolved left are Clara, Grevin, and Laren. Mikoto and Kuroko can take on Laren, Siren can attack Grevin, and—"

"I get Clara," said Rika, a vicious grin spreading across her face. "I'm liking this plan already."

"Just don't kill her yet," Siren muttered. "We may still need her."

Rika grunted in annoyance. "She'll live. She may not be as recognizable when I'm done, but I won't kill her…yet."

Aleister cleared his throat, catching their attention. "Once you're all engaged in battle, you need to lead your opponent away from Ares. We need to drive them apart, destroy their communications, and keep them all busy until Siren can consume them. However, I fear that Ares will end up killing the Leader Hydra if it doesn't retreat. Once that happens, you'll be out of time, and we may very well be doomed."

"I'm sorry, what?" Mikoto asked as she came back from dressing. "Doomed? How?"

"We've frightened the Evolved," began Aleister. "They're now traveling in tight formation to avoid being picked off, and if we manage to kill off any more of them, I fear Ares will call in reinforcements. If we fail to kill all the Evolved this time, they'll just go into hiding, call for backup, and wait until their numbers are enough to overwhelm us. In order to avoid this, we need to kill all of the Evolved and then track down Ares, and we have to succeed this time. There will be no second chances after this."

"Wait, we're supposed to finish them off now? We're not ready!" protested Siren. "Ares can still—"

"If you consume the remaining Evolved and still can't beat Ares," Aleister interrupted. "Then we'd be done for anyway. The others will be there too, but this entire plan revolves around you becoming as powerful as possible by consuming the Evolved. If all of you together still can't beat Ares, even after Siren has consumed the Evolved, then…"

"That's it. They'll win," breathed Mikoto. "The literal fate of the world rests on our shoulders right now. The only way to save it is to stop the Evolved right here, right now."

"Failure is not an option," Aleister finished. "If you survive, but fail to kill the Evolved and Ares, they'll just have to wait us out. This is it. The balance between our factions was far more even than you thought. The Evolved are not in complete control. They're not invincible. You can defeat them, you can do this."

"So the primary objective here is to destroy their communications, drive them apart, and prevent them from regrouping? All while the Leader Hydra, who we have no way of luring in, is the only thing standing between Ares and us? Sounds a bit…'iffy'," said Siren.

"Do you have a better suggestion?" asked Aleister.

Siren hesitated, pondering the question. Did he have something better to offer? The answer was simple; "No."

"I understand that most of you aren't prepared to run into this; I assume you expected to have more time to prepare and maybe kill off another Evolved or two, but sadly, that isn't the case. You've pushed the Evolved, you've shown them that their hold on Academy City isn't unbreakable. You're coming for them, and they know it. And now, they're desperate and on edge. Another attack will push them over that edge, so the only option is to finish them off before they can fall over that edge."

Mikoto gulped. "So…this is it. We're really going to attack all of them at once."

Siren sighed. "It's been nice knowing you guys. Oh, and someone should tell Touma and Index about this."

Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I thought you'd be against that. Why the sudden change of heart? You hate giving out information."

Siren narrowed his eyes at the esper. "Our chances of survival are not that high. We might as well tell Touma and Index that we're taking such a risk. That way, someone will know that we died fighting for Academy City if we don't come back."

Silence hung over them for a second before Kuroko sighed. "It's been fun guys," she said with a small smile. "Let's do this."

*Page Break*

Mikoto cracked her knuckles as she stared out over the city. Next to her, Siren and Rika were glancing about, using their heightened senses to look for immediate signs of danger. Kuroko had walked up behind Mikoto, placing her good hand on Mikoto's shoulder. "Alright, Onee-sama," she began. "This is it; we're going to launch a large-scale attack on all the Evolved at once."

Mikoto smirked. "It's time to take back our city. These monsters are going to know what it means to mess with an esper."

"How are the two of you always so optimistic?" Siren interrupted. "Some of us might die today."

Mikoto rolled her eyes. "Stop thinking like that. You'll be more likely to give up, and we can't have you doing that, not when we're only a few battles from destroying the Evolved."

"For all we know, we may be a hundred battles away from finishing this. And technically, we're not destroying the Evolved—we're only killing a few of them. The rest are scattered around the world," Siren muttered. "Like I said earlier; if we save Academy City, we've still only won one battle. This may very well result in a war. A war where it's humans against the Infected."

"Siren," Kuroko snapped. "This is no time for your depressing talk; we've got Evolved to beat."

"Alright," began Aleister. "Once you attack the Evolved, the high concentration of battling Infected is sure to lure in the Leader Hydra. When it makes an appearance, just make sure it sees Ares; it'll attack him."

"I get Clara," Rika began. "Siren gets Grevin, and Kuroko and Mikoto get Laren. Sounds good."

"Remember," Siren called. "Don't kill Clara yet. It looks like we'll need her for consumption so that our chance of beating Ares is maximized."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. By the way, if I don't get to kill Clara, you'll owe me, buddy. That bitch is rightfully mine."

Siren just stared at her. "There's something seriously wrong with you." The comment was met with a collective laugh from the three girls in front of him. "Oh, like you're one to talk," Mikoto said while chuckling. "Mr. I-Eat-People thinks we've got problems."

"Oh shut up," Siren growled. "Anyway, the Evolved should be close by. Let's get this show on the road." With that, Siren grabbed Mikoto while Rika took hold of Kuroko. The two jumped into the air, their companions in their arms as they soared over buildings.

"Guys," said Mikoro through their earpieces. "The cameras show that the Evolved and Ares are moving in a group a couple hundred meters to your right. There is a ton of Infected moving around them right now, so that's going to help draw out the Leader Hydra."

Wonder why the Leader Hydra hasn't attacked if there are so many Infected there now…

"Alright, Mikoro," Siren replied. "Thanks."

"Look alive, ladies," Rika called with a grin. "We're about to kill us some Evolved!"

They continued on, knowing that very soon, they'd see their enemies. Seconds passed like hours as they moved. A few stray sparks danced across Mikoto's hands as she clenched and unclenched her fists in anticipation.

Eventually, they saw them; the Evolved. They were standing together, Infected crawling around on their rooftop and countless more shuffling around on the streets below them. Ares was barking out orders to the Evolved, and Siren and Rika took the opportunity to set Mikoto and Kuroko down on a rooftop. The moment they let go, Kuroko grabbed Mikoto's hand, and the two of them disappeared as Kuroko teleported them into a more favorable, better hidden position.

Meanwhile, Siren and Rika split up. While the girl moved quickly and quietly, Siren walked forward, crouching on the rooftop to avoid being seen and began waiting for Mikoto and Rika to initiate the attack.

"Alright, I'm in a good position. Everybody else ready?" asked Rika.

Siren's hand came up to his earpiece. "Good on my end. Mikoto? Kuroko?"

"We're all set," responded Mikoto. "Fire in five seconds. Four seconds. Three seconds. Two seconds. One second."

"Surprise motherfuckers!" shouted Rika. The moment she said that, two blasts of lightning, each from opposite directions, suddenly came flying out of nowhere, straight for the Evolved. Said Evolved only barely managed to notice the attack, just before it hit them.

They were sent scattering, each shouting curses and looking for the source of the attack. Siren moved instantly, quickly jumping across rooftops and trying to avoid being seen. His target was Grevin, but since the explosion, he had yet to actually locate the Evolved.

Siren looked over, eyes narrowing when he saw Laren nearby. The Evolved hadn't yet noticed him, but that was quickly changed. Laren's head swiveled and he made eye contact with Siren. The Evolved's eyes widened as he pointed an accusing finger at Siren, his mouth opening to alert the other Evolved. Unfortunately for him, he was interrupted as a Mikoto's signature attack—the Railgun—hit him dead in the back. The Evolved gasped as the coin shot through his body, sending him flying.

Siren knew Kuroko would teleport herself and Mikoto to the Evolved, so he paid Laren no mind. By now, the Evolved had figured out who was behind the attack, and were searching for him. The smoke and debris kicked up by both Mikoto's shot and the shot from Rika's gloves had provided decent cover, hiding the group from sight. Siren activated his Infected Vision, and his eyes quickly locked onto a humanoid form landing on a rooftop not far from him.

Making a mad dash for it, he was relieved to find Grevin standing there, frantically searching around for any sign of whoever attacked them. It wasn't long before he made eye contact with Siren, who had deactivated his visual power. Grevin's fists clenched and he immediately alerted his comrades.

"Mercer's here!" roared the Evolved, all while jumping forward to meet Siren midair. Siren only grinned, pulling back his right fist and activating his Musclemass power. Grevin's arms transformed into Whipfists and he swung both weapons at Siren, who caught one in each hand.

With the strength of the WHITELIGHT and the increase in power he got from consuming Luke, Siren twisted in the air, swinging Grevin around and throwing him away from where he assumed the others were. Grevin recovered quickly, spreading out his limbs and gliding to halt his movement. By the time he was in complete control of his movements, Siren was already in front of him, one leg cocked back and ready to deliver a crushing kick.

With a growl, Siren kicked Grevin with all his might, watching as the Evolved was sent flying.

*Page Break*

From the corner of her eye, Rika noticed Grevin fly out of the column of smoke and dust that was rising from the battlefield. Siren came charging out after him, focusing entirely on his task. Rika pointed her hand at the battlefield, not really aiming at anything, and pushed the button, firing a blast of electricity.

Raising her free hand, she repeated the action, shooting another blast into the smoke. Mikoto's shooting had stopped a little while ago, so that meant either something went wrong, or she had found her target. "Mikoto," began Rika. "Are you and Kuroko fighting La—"

"No time to talk!" shouted Mikoto through Rika's earpiece. "In the middle of—crap! Kuroko, watch out for the Hunters!" Rika only nodded, killing off her communication with the electric esper to avoid distracting her. Looking down, she saw that the lights on her gloves and boots were still glowing, showing that she still had electricity, and judging by the strength of the lights, she had enough for at least one more, full-power shot.

Pointing her hand at the ground, she sent a blast of lighting, smirking as she heard some of the weaker Infected being torn apart by the electricity. Now, with her gloves a little lower on energy, she decided to save whatever power remained for the actual punching and kicking.

She stepped over the ledge of the rooftop, her hand shooting up to her earpiece. "Mikoro, Aleister, do either of you have eyes on Clara or Ares?"

A moment passed before both the onlooker replied with a 'no'. Rika gulped. If the Leader Hydra didn't show up, their plan would fall to pieces because there'd be no one to hold off Ares.

As if on cue, a figure leapt out of the smoke, spinning like a madman and planting a vicious kick in Rika's side. The girl's eyes widened as time seemed to slow, and she got a good look at Ares. The man's face displayed a cold fury—not the red-hot anger she was used to seeing in some of the thugs she had fought, but a menacing stare that was filled with hatred. He wasn't snarling at her or baring his teeth, but his eyes were wide with an anger that she didn't understand.

Time seemed to fall back into place as Ares' kick sent Rika flying. She coughed as the air was forced from her lungs. She barely had time to get in control of her own movement, narrowly avoiding a large building. Her eyes snapped up and she noticed Ares' Whipfist already flying at her.

She dodged out of the way with a yelp, still wondering what had happened to the furious Prototype.

Something's wrong. Ares doesn't seem like the type to go ballistic over the loss of one underling, so what's pissing him off so much?

Her question went unanswered as Ares activated his Tendrils power and sent dozens of tendrils at her. Rika growled and dove forward, rather than retreating. Using the smoke and dust as cover, she jumped about on the street below, listening as Ares' tendrils slammed into the street.

Where the heck is Clara?!

Rika was pulled from her thoughts as someone slammed into her from behind. She barely managed to catch a glimpse of Ares before he vanished into the smoke. Rika's eyes widened when she noticed that Ares' eyes were glowing yellow.

Crap! Infected Vision—he can see me in the smoke!

She had walked into a death trap. Ares could see her, but she couldn't see him. Ares proved her right once more as Rika felt a pair of Claws dig into her back. Her body went to work repairing itself, and Rika turned around, throwing a punch at Ares. With his Claws still in her back, Ares didn't have the time to dodge, and took Rika's attack head on.

Lighting flashed around Rika's hand as her punch impacted with Ares' face. The Prototype grunted in surprise, shuffling back and yanking his Claws out of Rika. The girl frowned in annoyance when she realized Ares wasn't as hurt as she would have like him to be.

The Prototype growled and stared back at her. Suddenly, his eyes widened considerably and he looked down at the ground. Before Rika could react, the earth began shaking and the ground began to rise. She grinned as she realized what was happening.

The Leader Hydra was here.

*Page Break*

Mikoto spun around, planting her foot in the chest of a weak Infected that just so happened to come too close. Turning back around, she grabbed the outstretched hand of Kuroko, all while firing a blast of electricity at an approaching Laren.

The Evolved spun out of the way of the blast, only to stop and begin frantically looking around as Kuroko teleported herself and Mikoto to a nearby rooftop for a height advantage. Now that they were above him, Mikoto charged up lighting in both her hands before firing down at Laren, grinning as she caught the Evolved off guard.

"Mikoto!" shouted Rika through her earpiece. "I need electricity!" Mikoto responded by pumping electricity into the device for a few seconds before Rika spoke again.

"Enough!" shouted Rika. Mikoto cut the flow of electricity and focused back on Laren, who was jumping up the side of the building with frightening speed. Mikoto grabbed on to Kuroko, fired another blast of lighting, and the two teleported away.

When they arrived at another rooftop, Mikoto leaned forward, focusing on Laren.

Alright, as long as we keep our distance, this guy should be easy to stall. He doesn't have any ranged attacks like Grevin or Ares, so if all goes well, we should be fine, and one of my earlier attacks destroyed his earpiece, so we shouldn't have to worry about reinforcements from the other Evolved.

Even without the earpiece, that still left the Infected around them, and Laren knew it. The Evolved was raising his arms in the air, a strained expression on his face as red mist gathered around him. Mikoto's eyes widened and she sent a stream of lighting at Laren. Shortly before he could call any more Hunters, the blast hit him dead in the chest, flinging him backwards.

He recovered quickly, but instead of charging at Mikoto and Kuroko, he jumped away, taking cover around the corner of a building. Kuroko was already grabbing Mikoto, preparing to teleport them into a position from which they could attack Laren and prevent him from summoning Hunters.

The two girls teleported to a rooftop overlooking Laren's position, only to pause in surprise when the Evolved was nowhere to be seen. A moment later, they heard Laren's thundering roar and watched as a cloud of red mist erupted from an alleyway not far from where they were looking.

Mikoto cursed under her breath; Laren had called Infected to his position. She and Kuroko spared a second to look around, searching for the approaching Infected. "There!" shouted Kuroko, pointing to a Hunter that was leaping across rooftops to get to them.

"We've got another one coming from our right," Mikoto called while glancing between the Hunter she spotted and the alleyway. "Crap," she hissed. "Kuroko! I can't see Laren! Get us to a safer—"

She was cut off as Laren jumped from behind the building they were on, whirling around and swinging his duel Blades. Mikoto shoved Kuroko away without thinking, all while jumping back to avoid being cut in half. Laren's Blades slammed against the roof, cracks forming and reaching out from the point of impact.

Mikoto was forced to jump back further as Laren spun around, reaching out with his Blades and preventing both girls around him from counterattacking. Without physical contact from Kuroko, Mikoto had no choice but to fight back and try to get Laren away from them so that she and Kuroko could teleport away.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though Laren had realized this as well, because he was already charging at Mikoto. The esper yelped as she narrowly dodged a stab at her head, before responding by firing a small blast of lighting at Laren. The Evolved spun out of the way, only to shout in surprise as two needles landed in his eyes.

Mikoto turned to Kuroko, who was smirking. "That was for my hand!" she shouted at the Evolved. Mikoto smirked as well and dashed at Kuroko. Her friend reached out, preparing to grab her, only to recoil in surprise as one of the earlier Hunters landed on the roof, shrieking its head off.

The two girls turned to the new threat almost on instinct, and that was all it took for their opportunity to fall to pieces. Before she knew it, Mikoto's legs were swept out from under her by Laren's leg. She risked a glance at him as she fell and noticed that the needles were still in his eyes.

Did he hit me by sheer luck?!

Mikoto crawled away as Laren lashed out, blindly swinging his Blades. Mikoto then noticed that Kuroko wasn't on the same rooftop, but the Hunter was looking around curiously.

She must have teleported away.

Half a second after that thought crossed her mind, Kuroko had teleported right next to her, grabbing her arm and the two teleported her to anther rooftop. The moment they did that, Rika's voice came through on Mikoto's earpiece. "Electricity! Need it n—shit! Now!"

Again, Mikoto pumped lighting into the device, waiting until Rika told her to stop. When the command to stop finally came, Mikoto ceased the action, watching as Laren began pulling the needles form his eyes. The two girls took a moment to breathe while the Evolved was busy and his Hunters were either approaching or just watching.

"Why aren't the Hunters coming for us?" Kuroko asked suspiciously. Suddenly, Laren turned to them, one eye still bloody and pierced by the needle, the other wide open and staring at them. A small grin had formed on his face as he watched them.

Mikoto stepped back, preparing for whatever Laren had in store for them. "I don't like that look on his face. We should—"

Mikoto was interrupted by the sound of something very big and very heavy landing on their rooftop, as well as the sound of Kuroko screaming. She whirled around, panic written on her face, only for her eyes to widen in horror as she saw Kuroko, whose once-good arm was now shredded and awkwardly bent, get flung away by the massive clawed paw of a Hunter that had made its way onto their rooftop.

Kuroko landed on a separate rooftop, eyes wide and arm bent and twisted. Blood poured freely from her arm and her body shook from the shock of the attack. Mikoto just stood there, jaw hanging open as she watched her friend.

She was forced to turn around again as she heard Laren leaping from his rooftop with a roar. "I know how to beat you now!" he shouted as he approached her, his duel Blades fanned out and ready for combat.

Explanations/Clarifications

Desperate Attempt: To clarify why this chapter exists/why the story is taking this turn; I'm trying to emphasize the fact that the protagonists don't have the luxury to sit around and plan, all while slowly picking off the Evolved. Their actions have created a situation in which they can't afford to try and pick off the Evolved over time, so they're forced to stand and fight, even though they don't think they're ready. Also, I have to end this story sometime, and I didn't want to drag out the fight with each and every Evolved (I'm ok with a long story, but if I read a story on fanfiction that's extremely long, I sometimes find myself losing interest, so I want to avoid doing that to you guys).

Rika vs. Ares: I thought I'd explain my own thought process behind Rika getting a punch in on Ares when everyone else was failing. The logic here was that Ares was furious for reasons yet unknown, and his mind was clouded with emotions. Because of that, Rika managed to get a hit in on him by herself while he was momentarily stuck.