Ch. 21 Is a Friend Indeed

Auira and Toritsuka stood, panting heavily in the gym doorway. How they had managed to arrive so quickly was unknown, and honestly unimportant. Though they looked really rundown, and they were still in their clothes from however many hours or days had passed since Saiki had been knocked unconscious. But it didn't matter, he had much bigger fish to fry at the moment. Saiki turned away, readying another attack, "Wait, Saiki please! Turn on your x-ray vision, Kaido is in there you're going to kill him!"

What? Saiki glanced back at Auira, but his distraction was enough for the mech to hit him across the face. Metal bits where the hand had once been sliced into his cheek, and smashed his glasses as the blow sent Saiki flying into the basketball net at the other side of the gymnasium.

"Woooo! Two points!" A buzzer blared through the gym as Kusuke cheered on screen.

Saiki gritted his teeth in annoyance and touched his broken glasses, reversing time on them to send the glass flying back into place, and keep his ally's safe from turning into stone. Then he flipped the switch, allowing his x-ray vision to putter back into existence. To his horror, the fortune teller was telling the truth. In a cavity built specifically to hold a human body, his friend Shun Kaido was sleeping. Or more likely drugged, and unconscious. The ray of energy had just barely missed taking out his entire right arm, though it had caused some metal to slice into the boy's tricep, and blood was now sliding down his wrist, out of the hole where the mechanical hand had been, and onto the floor.

The mech swung at Saiki again, but he was able to dodge this by sliding through the basket ball net, and landing a meter or so away. But the machine swung again, and with the added ammunition of not wanting to hurt his friend, Saiki took this hit, right to his gut and got launched once more across the gym. Slamming first into the high wall before sliding down ungracefully into a rack of basketballs.

"Well great, your gypsy has spoiled my fun," Kusuke sighed, though he still looked pretty cheerful as he snickered to himself about his brother's landing, "And I went through such great lengths to hide this part from her."

"Yeah well it was kinda hard not to notice my friends missing from the plane you jackass," Auira hissed through her teeth.

Friends plural?

"I never should have helped you from the beginning! You're insane!"

Friends plural? Saiki dodged another rough hit from mechanical Kaido, levitating up where he assumed was a safe distance and quickly scanned the others. Nendou, Aren and Chyio were all stuffed inside cavities of their own. Good Grief, what a pain.

Toritsuka began to flap his arms around wildly, "Um guys... I really think we got trouble here." He was motioning towards the mechanical Nendou, just in time for it to break free from its chains and begin to rush towards Saiki. If matters weren't bad enough, the mechanical Kaido was now charging what looked like a light beam from its uninjured hand, making the ceiling part of the war zone as well, as it blasted past Saiki's shoulder and sent broken parts of the infrastructure crumbling down below. "Auira what are we gonna do? He can't take on all four of those things!"

Suddenly, Saiki appeared in front of them, grabbing both of their wrists there was a flash of blue and then they were all standing in Class 3. Saiki, panting heavily, glowered at the two of them, mustering up as much intimidation and seriousness he could. The two of you are going to have to distract them.

"What!" Toritsuka was already trembling at the thought, "Saiki, I can't take out one of those nutty things your brother made are you insane!"

"He doesn't want us to take them out, just keep them distracted enough so he can fight them one on one," Auira clicked her tongue impatiently, though she too was sceptical of her ability. "We can do that." They had to. She had to.

You better, Saiki choked down his anger at her, still burning under the surface for starting all of this. She was trying to redeem herself, he could see that, and hear it in her thoughts. Which meant she had removed the ring Kusuke had given her that he only just now realized was a thing. It suddenly felt like it had been so long since he had sensed her thoughts... he allowed some of his anger towards her to flutter away. We don't have a lot of time, Teruhashi is in danger.

Auira nodded, ignoring Toritsuka who was still shaking his head no, "We won't let you down. What do you want us to do?"

Saiki glanced at the clock, we have roughly two minutes to come up with a plan and then I am going to teleport back to the gymnasium. Mechanical Nendou is wreaking havoc there still. The other two are searching for me through the school.

"So we just need to keep them away from you until you, what, dismantle them?" Toritsuka grimaced, "What about our friends inside?"

Don't worry, I'll get them out.

"We know you will," Auira hesitated, before smiling widely, "What do you need? Five, ten minutes?"

Per machine.

"So... one of us will be distracting those things longer?" Toritsuka trembled, "What if they hit us? We don't have super strong bodies like you do."

They won't hit you. Saiki glanced at the clock again, Time's up. Then he was gone, nodding to his ally's solemnly like a soldier going to war. Toritsuka and Auira looked at each other.

"I guess this is what we were training for," He whispered to his blond bombshell friend. "Didn't think it would be this soon."

"Oh..." Auira smiled sadly at him, "Shut up. We can do this." "I will not let Saiki down again."

I know.

"Hey! Fatso, over here!" Auira waved dramatically at the mechanical Aren she had found wandering around the cafeteria searching for Saiki, "Yoo Hoo!" The beast raised its head to look at her, and then turned away disinterested. She huffed, and stomped her foot. "Oh come on, don't you at least want to try and get rid of me? Or hurt me enough that Saiki will come in and save me?" The beast raised its head again, "That's right you brat," Grinning she picked up a lunch tray and threw it like a frisbee so it thunked against the metal head entrapping her friend. "COME AND GET ME!"

It lurched, but Auira was quicker. Using every last bit of fortune telling she had under her belt she dived, ducked, dipped and dodged every attack at the last second, allowing it to smash tables, chairs and walls in its wake, as long as it wasn't her body.

"Ok," She panted to herself, sliding around the corner of the hallway as she ran from the cafeteria, "If I can just keep this thing after me for five minutes." She started running towards the stairwell, barely escaping the beast as it punched through the wall to her left. " Oh fuck... hurry guys."

Meanwhile back in a different part of the school, near the entrance, Toritsuka was nervous. He turned to the ghost at his right, a fit young man in his late twenties with a gold medal hanging from his neck. "You sure you can help me outrun this thing?"

The ghost nodded, "I got the gold medal in every track event my country ever had. I've got you kid."

Toritsuka took a deep breath, "Ok... Ok let's get ready to do this then. Are you guys ready?" A small crowd of about 12 other ghosts all nodded eagerly, all similarly dressed in running clothes and ready to replace the gold medalist in their medium friend if, god forbid, the need arose. "Ok... Let's do this!"

The ghosts took off watching from a safe distance as their purple haired leader began throwing forgotten umbrellas at the head of the mechanical Chyio.

"Oi! Oi! Come and get me you bucket of bolts!"

One of the umbrellas knocked off the ridiculous looking cowboy hat atop the machine's head. It caught it before it could reach the floor, and placed it back where it belonged slowly, focusing its gaze on Torisuka. He swallowed hard, "Ok now!" The gold winner possessed Toritsuka's body, changing his face dramatically as his whole personality shifted. "I guess the race track is the best place for me, keep up guys," the medium called to his ghost comrades and then darted out of the entrance, leading the mechanical Chiyo out to the running tracks.

Saiki had to be quick. He had already managed to rip out the power source in Mechanical Kaido before the P.K Psychic trio even had their little meeting in class three, (not that the other two had noticed his quick skills). But mechanical Nendou was proving to be much more of a challenge. Was it because the machine was built bigger so it could hold Nendou's massive frame? Was it worry for who could realistically be considered the first person who had ever called Saiki a friend?

No it's none of that, Saiki panted lightly, rubbing at the fresh cut mechanical Nendou had managed to scrape against his cheek and healing it before any blood could drip. I'm just trying to buy the others time. He crossed his eyes, making sure they had fulfilled their promise. Auira risked being cornered by Mechanical Aren in the women's bathroom on the third floor, but she had gotten it far out of the way of the gymnasium and Toritsuka who was running in circles around his mechanical Chiyo outside at the running track outside. I think we're good here.

Dodging the next attack before the human eye could even see movement, Saiki flew up behind the Mechanical Nendou and punched through the metal and wires, pulling out what appeared to be the most important of the bunch. The machine whirred to a stop and fell over with a crash, but Saiki didn't have the time to cheer. He ripped the mechanical Nendou and the mechanical Kaido to pieces until he had both of his friends, safe and unharmed away from any metal. He healed the cut, still oozing blood from Kaido's arm and then he teleported to the roof of the school, leaning them against one another at the doorway. He gave himself a second to think, and to breathe before going into to tackle the other two.

He glanced down at the racing track, a blur of purple and a blur of silver all you could see, just going round and round the track. Well... since he's right here. He jumped.

Toritsuka wasn't actually sure what just happened. One second he was running for his life, or rather the gold medalist ghost was running, for Toritsuka's life. Then the next second the mechanical Chyio was on the ground, in pieces. Saiki stood over the huge chunk of scrap metal, and damn if he didn't look worse for wear. It was actually really frightening to see an all powerful psychic look this beaten up. There was even still bits of dried blood from his face where he hadn't been able to heal his injuries fast enough.

Saiki raised an eyebrow at him, Is my appearance really that concerning to you?

"Yes," Toritsuka breathed out heavily, "You look like you're going to pass out."

So do you, do you even realize how many miles you just ran?

The thought hadn't actually occurred to him. Toritsuka suddenly keeled over, wheezing pathetically as his entire body suddenly felt like he had been hit by an eighteen wheeler. "S-saiki... go on without me..." He tried to reach up his arm weakly, but began to cough as his lungs burned for air. Saiki rolled his eyes, carefully removing Chiyo out of the rubble, before he scooped up Toritsuka as well and jumped back up to the roof.

Now I have four friends passed out on top of each other on the roof of the school, Saiki cracked his neck, he was really starting to feel weak. Keeping his powers in check, without his real antenna, as well as using his powers over and over and over and over again... He felt a little faint.

But he couldn't focus on that right now. Somewhere in the world a beautiful angel awaited him to rescue her, and even closer a good friend needed his help. It had been three minutes, but he was getting really sick of teleporting so Saiki just walked over to the corner of the roof and punched down. Breaking a hole through the ceiling so he could drop through the woman's bathroom below.

"Saiki!" Auira breathed out a sigh of relief, "You're just in time," She squeaked, jumping just in time to dodge what would have been a blow to the knees, "Help!"

There was a cut on her leg that was bleeding pretty badly, but didn't look serious, and the sink to her right had been destroyed, along with the door. Water was spurting everywhere, soaking the fortune teller and her attacker. Mechanical Aren reached out a hand and tried to swipe at Auira, but Saiki was faster. He ducked below one arm of the beast and then rounded on its back, punching through the now familiar place that held the source of the things power. One quick rip and mechanical Aren was whirring to a stop, finally getting the punk to stop fighting. The machine teetered on its feet and then fell backwards.

Crap, well that's new, But Saiki was too tired to dodge. The heavy metal crashed through the wall of the bathroom, trapping Saiki underneath it with wall and floor behind him, and junk on top. The wind whooshed from his gut, and left the psychic teen coughing up blood. "Saiki! Are you ok?" Auira called from around the corner, trying to peer past the dust and debris in the air. "Are you hurt?"

Yes, but I'm fine, Saiki gritted his teeth and pushed against the machine above him, lifting it just enough that he could slide out from underneath it. Are you hurt?

"Um... maybe." Auira coughed and chuckled weakly, "I didn't think it was that serious though." She was breathing hard now, staring down at the cut on her leg and the pool of blood beneath her. She was feeling dizzy, and was that bone?

Saiki raced around the corner and stopped in front of her, also breathing very hard. They stared at each other for several long seconds and then he fell to the ground on his knees before her and hauled her into his arms, holding her tight. Auira's eyes went wide. "My vision..."

What?

Her fingers dug into the back of his shirt, and she hugged him back just as tightly, tears began to well up in her eyes, "Nothing. I'm sorry Saiki. I'm so so sorry."

He held onto her a little tighter, I know.

After another second or two Saiki pulled away and placed his hands on her wound, reversing time wasn't going to be of much help here as she would just wind up suddenly bleeding walking down the street the next day, but he wanted to at least give her body all its blood back before he did anything. So he reversed time anyway.

You'll have to go to the hospital tomorrow before it gets this bad and get it bandaged, He glanced up at her as the blood slunk back into her wound, I can't heal something this bad.

She nodded, "Ok. Come on, let's get Aren out of there and go find your girlfriend."

Saiki smiled, O-

"Ack!" Auira screamed as Saiki suddenly feel face first into her stomach. "Saiki?" She shook his shoulder, before rolling him off of her and onto his back. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, and his mouth was hanging open with drool slowly seeping down his chin. Sweat dropped down Auira's forehead, "Oh... he passed out."