Boom!
She felt it reverberate through her bones more than she heard it. It was so loud…
Boom!
She twitched her fingers. She moved her toes. They ached so much. But it was proof. She was alive and it felt wonderful. She felt the liquid around her tremble.
Boom!
Her eyes began to creep open, slowly, eyelids so heavy that she considered just going back to sleep after all. The booms would end soo-
BOOM!
In an instant, she was fully alert. There, in the glass, was a crack. And beyond it, she saw dust fall from the ceiling, watched rebar collapse and machines begin to burn. The restraints began to fail.
She saw… freedom.
She saw…
KRA-BOOOOOOM!
Vengeance.
"No, no, no!" Indigo howled in rage as the spire began to buckle. He turned his gaze toward Mikoto and Kuroko, darting to the still form of the slave they'd deprived him of on the way.
"You… you!" Any more and he might be literally frothing, and Kuroko simply had no more fucks left to give for it.
"Yes, us. Glad to see you're catching on at last. Do you have any other tricks or can we end this farce?" Kuroko stepped forward next to Mikoto, primed to protect both her and the unconscious girl behind her. Mikoto and her together were unbeatable. She was prepared to deal with this monster.
"Tricks? In case you forgot..." A colossal arm of magma and steel sinew shrouded in the warped space of Indigo's power rose up to grasp a half-finished building, gaining definition as it absorbed the mass and rose to its full height. Its bright violet aura coalesced into blinding orbs forming a loose halo around the man perched on its "head".
"I STILL HAVE MELTDOW-" Like a shock front passing through fine china, the glowing globes and every bit of interweaved light within his construct blasted apart into countless motes that began to wink out. Indigo stood in silently slack disbelief as he looked up at the showering fragments. "...ner. That… She can't have…?"
His battle construct began to sag, as the energies keeping it coherent deserted under mysterious conditions, Indigo having only a beat to panic before he leaped off of it. The collapse only accelerated from there and the failing simulacrum shortly buried everything beneath it in a slurry of lava dripping from a skeleton of white-hot girders and beams.
Indigo himself landed atop one of the ruined buildings, rolling once before getting onto his feet, staring at his hands as he flexed them, visibly trying to pull back the power he'd lost.
"No… no, god damn it, no!" he yelled as everything crumbled around him as figuratively as it did literally. Perhaps it was gauche, but Kuroko had to admit: it was exceedingly satisfying to see all his evil schemes and plans come undone so rapidly.
"You were saying!?" she shouted toward him, smirking as he turned his hateful gaze upon her. She tensed as she prepared to engage him. She was ready to put an end to this, but experience had reinforced the old adage about cornered rats.
A firm hand landed on her shoulder.
She blinked and looked back in confusion. "Mikoto-?" She froze as she saw the horror etched on her face. Mikoto raised her head up to look at Indigo, who looked equally confused at her expression.
"What... have you done," she demanded in the eerie stillness. The answer came in the form of violent shaking, like a violent earthquake that made it hard to keep her balance. Kuroko reflexively pivoted to stabilize Mikoto and Mikoto grabbed right back at Kuroko while also having the presence of mind to pull the clone to her as she magnetized herself to the ground.
Their eyes were pulled to the tower as another round of more violent explosions blossomed up and down the structure, shaking it precariously before a massive one blasted apart everything around its base, sending stone flying through the air.
Then it continued exploding. Of course it exploded some more. Kuroko did her best to shield her eyes as she watched the spire rip itself apart from the bottom all the way to the top in a chain of detonations. With an earth-shattering blast, the uppermost sections of the tower blasted apart entirely, sending shrapnel across the district.
"What's the matter? What do you-" Kuroko froze as her gaze finally made it to the top of the mangled mast.
Atop the charred skeleton of the tower, having torn its way from the depths of the structure to alight at the highest point that hadn't fallen off, was a monster. Only vaguely humanoid in shape, a raging monster made of lightning, oversized clawed hands gripping at ruined pieces of metal, a face with circular black pits for eyes and a jagged series of spikes along the top and bottom of what was its mouth, complete with a floating and wild mane of crackling lightning. From its back, eight tendrils of plasma whipped around like furious serpents snapping at the air.
The creature threw its head back in a deafening roar that could only be described as the embodiment of rancor.
"KUROKO GET US OUT OF HERE NOW!" Mikoto shouted, jarring her from her astonishment. Vaguely registering the panic in Mikoto's eyes, she grabbed both her girlfriend and the clone and teleported far away, landing on a building in the next district over with only two jumps, the first only to get line of sight before landing with the second.
"What's wrong-?!" Kuroko began to ask once they were safe before she fell over from the shaking ground, her eyes falling to where they had been moments before and seeing it. A pillar of lightning. From the ground and stretching to the sky, the most enormous, catastrophic lightning strike in history, hundreds of yards in diameter. It held for only the briefest of moments, and she had averted her gaze as fast as possible but they were the most terrifying seconds Kuroko had ever felt- afterimages of something wrong burned into her retina, the power shaking the earth before vanishing, leaving nothing behind but plumes of smoke.
An oppressive silence gripped them as they stared at the glowing glassed aftermath of... Kuroko turned her head slowly to look at Mikoto who stared back.
"...What the hell was that?" Mikoto asked softly in horror. Somehow, the question coming from the Railgun made the lingering dread all the more palpable.
Indigo panted as he leaned against the wall of the abandoned factory he'd managed to land in, launching himself out of the range of that blast with all his effort and still only narrowly making it.
"This can't be happening. This can't be happening." He repeated to himself like a mantra as he turned to press his back against the wall nursing a singed arm and favoring one leg. He knew he got off light from an encounter with Railgun and... and... He stared up through the windows in the roof of the building, the towers of smoke billowing from where he'd been, where… where it'd escaped.
"No… no, no, no…" He shook his head slowly in disbelief. "What the hell do I do now? What the HELL do I do now?" Wiping his hand down his face, he closed his eyes and tried to wrestle down his mounting terror.
"This can't be fucking happening!"
"This can't be fucking happening!"
Teitoku slammed his fist into the ground as he pushed himself up from where he'd been thrown, panting as he used a wing to stab into the ground and push himself to his feet. He turned to stare at Accelerator who- who had the fucking audacity-
"WHAT, AM I BORING YOU?!" he yelled at the blank face of Accelerator.
Accelerator's expression twisted into an enormous, delighted grin. "Naw, you're pretty good for a fuckin' casual! In fact..." He giggled as he rapidly closed the distance between them, planting a hand on Teitoku's chest.
"YOU'RE THE ONLY FUN I'VE HAD SINCE RAILGUN!" He shouted as Teitoku felt himself thrown into the ground, sent grinding against the street before coming to a stop in the crater Accelerator had created.
"But shit, at least she had some fucking taste and class. You're more like that scrub kid everyone owns for a laugh. It must hella suck to be you, my dude," Accelerator sneered as he advanced on Dark Matter.
"FUCK YOU!" He still felt something like an adrenal response and quickly scrambled to his feet, launching six wings at the First Rank to cover himself. While he didn't expect a lot from it, he still couldn't help cursing when they were torn apart without seemingly any movement from Accelerator.
"Oh man, you don't even have any clue, do ya? How in the fuck did they ever rate you higher than her?" He realized at that moment Accelerator wasn't taking him seriously. Not even a little. "…nah, don't answer, I already know. Must suck to get played constantly, yeah? Maybe you should just log out and go live in a van down by the river if you're just gonna play puppet on someone else's strings." Teitoku's frantic search for a plan halted as the meaning behind that hit home. "I guess we should call you 'Third-String', huh? It's a bit better than 'two-bit loser', I guess." Accelerator bubbled mirth as he leisurely sauntered toward him.
"Fuck off!" He growled as he pulled more substance into reality to conjure his wings once more. "You dare compare me to Railgun?! I am Dark Matter and she is nothing compared to me-!" He blinked as a hand was suddenly on his face. His eyes went wide as he stared through Accelerator's fingers at the man himself, his expression now devoid of anything but strained disappointment.
"This is the problem with you dipshit bitches with no skill. Don't even know enough to know how dumb y'all are." Accelerator perked up a little, a vicious smirk and malicious eyes presenting a much more familiar adversary. "Anyway, GG I guess, but it's time to peace out. Sooooo... catch these hands!" Accelerators hand tensed as the ringing that accompanied his powers echoed through the air, his head violently jerked back as he was pushed off from the First Rankeds palm.
"Wait-"
The last thing Kakine Teitoku saw was Accelerator make one full spin and point a finger-gun at him.
"Bang."
Misaki looked away from where the battle was... ending, hugging Kazari's head to her chest as both flinched at the momentary scream from Dark Matter, blocking out the meaty sounds of ripping and tearing mingled with mad cackling in the distance.
"He's… truly a monster." Misaki whispered quietly as those around could only watch in horror as Accelerator had his... fun. She resolved to ignore it, reaching into her bag to fish out her remote. Her flower looked up at her questioningly.
"I don't think everyone here needs to remember the details of this…" she said softly, before pointing and clicking the remote.
A small mercy.
Kazari groaned as she looked at Misaki. Misaki sat next to her. They were in an ambulance. They were on the way to the hospital. Misaki should have been on a stretcher too. She was sure of it, but her soulmate was stubborn and insisted she was fine. Normally, Kazari would have argued and bullied her where the paramedics could not.
But she was concussed too. Badly. She was only awake because her lady had used her power to ensure it, and her thoughts were sluggish and... not... not handy.
"Mini-Misaka?" She managed softly. Close enough. Misaki smiled back at her.
"She's fine. She's in the next ambulance and I have eyes on her." She said, tapping her temple. Misaki wouldn't let Last Order out of her sight, even if she was using someone else's mind controlled eyes. That was good. Even injured, Misaki was her... something. Something good. And kind. And wonderful.
"And..." she began before Misaki raised her phone up. She winced a bit at how bright it was.
"Just got a text from them now." She smiled as she read, nodding after a moment.
"Kuroko and Mikoto are on the hospital roof right now with a… a casualty. They said their mission was a success and they'll give further details once we meet up." Misaki said to her, flicking away the message before making a call.
Good. That was good too. They'd all be together again soon.
"And the last pair…" She waited… and waited… and waited. Worrisome. She knew Misaki fretted a lot even about the angry ones. Better than a queen.
Misaki furrowed her brow at her phone, dialing the number again by hand. She stared at the phone, glancing briefly at her, then back to the phone. Silent moments passed as if the device would give up its secrets if she just pouted at it before she sighed in defeat.
"...Ruiko isn't picking up."
AN: Heya! Glad we got this out. I recently got Covid pretty bad, so shit has been kinda slow, but I am slowly on the road to recovery!
EN: Long time no see, right? Yeah, sorry. That's mostly my fault. Life has been... a whole damn thing and, well, I won't bore you with the details- you probably get it. Rest assured that we haven't forgotten this little... correction... to the Raildex universe.
And yes, the highlight of my week has been making "gamer trash talk" Accelerator's personality. :3