Mikoto and Shirai teleported their way across the city. On the way, Mikoto readied a text informing Shokuhou of the location of the intruders so that she could start evacuating people. She then asked Shirai to stop teleporting for a moment whilst the text was sent. After she confirmed that, Shirai started teleporting again.
Unknown to Mikoto, Shokuhou had already sent her clique out before Mikoto had originally called her and were already evacuating people.
Shortly after she sent the text, District 3 came into view. There appeared to be a lot of movement and gunfire at a large intersection that had large skyscrapers on each corner. In the middle of the intersection was a humanoid figure that was being shot at relentlessly by Anti-skill. Mikoto didn't get to see much of it, but she recognised it from what little she saw. A powered suit with a modified shotgun that was now out of date but still extremely dangerous and not available to anyone outside of Academy City, even governments. The Anti-skill officers firing at the powered suit seemed to be backing away slowly, not even their more up to date weaponry seemed to be doing much, meaning the powered suit must have been modified further after the woman controlling it stole it.
However, they couldn't back away too quickly as there were students behind them still trying to escape as well as a few girls with Tokiwadai Middle School and Nagatenjouki Academy uniforms guiding them. District 3 may have been the district that housed the accommodation for outsiders, but there was still a lot of students who liked to venture out there, especially these days with the increased freedoms that they enjoyed and the more outside brands that were sold here all thanks to the new Board of Directors so there was no shortage of people running away.
"Kuroko, drop me behind the Anti-skill officers, I'll deal with this. She's not alone, find the rest and make sure to keep them away from the students. I don't even want to think about what they might do if they got hold of them." Mikoto gave her orders clearly to her friend.
"Understood, Big Sister. Be careful, though, she was the woman who invented the capacity down system, the last thing we need is for them to take you." replied Shirai.
"I will, you be careful too. We don't know what her allies are capable of."
"Roger that."
As they reached the commotion, Shirai dropped Mikoto behind the Anti-skill officers and quickly teleported away again.
Mikoto used her magnetism on the surroundings buildings to slow down her descent and landed softly behind the Anti-skill officers.
One of the Anti-skill officers at the back noticed her touch down, recognised who it was and broke off to speak with her.
"What's the situation?" Mikoto asked as the officer approached her.
"We don't seem to be able to damage the subject at all. Our powered suits are having trouble getting through the evacuating students so we can only slow her down to give the students time to escape right now, but we don't think we'll be able to last much longer, we're running out of ammunition." the officer reported, falling into step with Mikoto.
"Okay, tell everyone to break off and focus on protecting the students. I'll deal with this one."
Normally, the Anti-skill officers would have objected to a student giving them demands, but with Mikoto's position and her abilities as a level 5, it was a better idea to let her have this fight.
The Anti-skill officer relayed her orders to the rest and soon they all started to retreat behind Mikoto, who stared down her opponent for the first time in two years.
"Well, well. If it isn't the third-ranked lab rat." came the cackling voice of a woman Mikoto wished she never had to see again.
Mikoto didn't bother to dignify her with a response, instead summoning iron sand from the small cylindrical container she attached to her back earlier and formed a sword with it. Sword in hand, she shot towards the woman in the powered suit, aiming to take one of the suits arms out before the battle really began.
Therestina used the suit's mobility to leap out of the way before aiming her modified shotgun at Mikoto. She didn't hesitate to fire, but by the time she did, Mikoto was already out of her line of fire.
Mikoto took more iron sand from her container and using her magnetism, formed a dozen iron sand spears that floated above her head. She fired them towards Therestina, however, they only made it halfway before a high-pitched sound came from the powered suit.
It was capacity down.
Mikoto looked at Therestina, but her face held nothing but disappointment.
"Really? Aren't you meant to be a Kihara? You guys are meant to be smart, geniuses, even. Smart enough to come up with new methods of beating espers. And smart enough to realise your old methods will quickly become obsolete."
Therestina sneered at the insult but stopped as she realised what she said.
"Uiharu?"
As Mikoto called out her friend's name, a noise started coming from the buildings around them. The noise had the same amplitude and wavelength of capacity down, but the phase had been inverted. The phase had to be adjusted slightly for each speaker in order to achieve the desired effect, but that was fairly straight forward for the technological might that was Academy City.
"If you haven't guessed already that sound is cancelling out capacity down, and it's coming from every speaker around us, even all the ones inside the buildings. If you want to take it down, you'll have to destroy every last one of them. Do you wish to surrender yet?" Mikoto asked.
"Tch, don't get cocky, brat. You're just a lab rat." Therestina then started grinning. "You know what? I don't think a bunch of normal students will be enough. I think we could do with a level 5 lab rat; you'll do nicely."
Mikoto froze at those words. 'I don't think a bunch of normal students will be enough.' She gritted her teeth in anger and blue sparks started coming off her body.
"You're going after the students?" She had guessed she was here to free the Kiharas, but it appeared that wasn't her objective, or at least not her only objective. "Well, I won't let you! I'm gonna stop you and throw you back into that prison with all the other Kiharas! You lot will never see the light of day again! Not after everything you've done!"
"'Everything we've done'? Hahaha! I told you, didn't I?! Everyone in this city falls into two categories! Lab rats and those experimenting on the lab rats! I'm just taking a few lab rats for my own so we can do some proper experiments! Hahahahahaha!"
"Didn't you hear me?! I said I won't let you! This is your last warning! Surrender now, or I'm gonna rip you out of the powered suit and I'm gonna beat the living hell out of you!"
Therestina's response was to aim the shotgun at Mikoto and fire.
"Their technology might not be as good as Academy City's, but after seeing the facilities they have, I don't think a few missing limbs will be a problem!"
Mikoto dived to the right as soon as she raised the shotgun, evading the shot she fired soon after. She then activated her version of rampage dress and started circling around Therestina, avoiding the shots she was firing at her.
Using her magnetism and iron sand, Mikoto attempted to attack Therestina from every angle she could. Whether that was from in front, behind or above. However, Therestina was easily able to dodge each one of them using her suits high mobility.
Mikoto darted inwards heading straight towards Therestina having created an opening for herself after forcing Therestina to dodge her iron sand attacks. She reached the powered suit and went to jump on top, hoping to mess with the electronics of the powered suit, but at the last second, she noticed a series of upside-down done-like parts with explosives in each one. I they went off; the blast would go upwards rather than out. It was a countermeasure for what Mikoto was trying to do, they may damage the powered suit, but it would definitely kill any human dumb enough to try jumping on top.
Seeing these, Mikoto used her magnetism to pull herself back towards one of the skyscrapers at the corners of the intersection. As soon as she started travelling backwards, she cut off her magnetism. She didn't want to crash into the wall and injure herself. That would put her at a disadvantage that she couldn't afford. Once she cut off her magnetism and started falling to the ground, she started preparing to roll and use her momentum to spring back into a run.
Once she managed that successfully, she started to fire lightning spears at Therestina, but as she expected, the attack did nothing.
Then the powered suit did something Mikoto hadn't expected. It transformed its right arm. It sprang long, matal claws and the end of the arm slid away, revealing it to be a hollow tube. Mikoto had seen something similar to this before and it was the woman in front of her who had used it that time as well. The only difference was the tube in the middle seemed to be a lot larger this time. The woman inside the powered suit grinned like a maniac, a description that suited her quite well, Mikoto thought.
"Tch. Really? Haven't you got any new attacks? Or are you just planning on recycling the moves you made last time? You remember you lost that one, right?" asked Mikoto, taunting her opponent and taking out an arcade coin from her pocket.
However, Therestina didn't aim the arm at Mikoto, she aimed it down towards the ground and fired immediately. The weapon had been designed to remind Mikoto of the railgun weapon she had used last time in order to lower her guard and Mikoto had fallen for it. It was a stupid mistake and Mikoto would hold her hands up and admit that, but she didn't have time to dwell on it now. Whatever was loaded into that arm was fired straight into the ground and she couldn't see what happened to it.
Wary of whatever it was Therestina had fired, Mikoto used her magnetism to put some distance between her and Therestina by pulling herself towards the nearby building. If it was a shell designed to explode underground, she didn't want to be right on top of it. Just as she pulled herself away, a large explosive shell shot out from the ground where she had been standing a second ago. Once the shell was about a meter off the ground, it exploded with an incredibly bright light, a flash grenade. Mikoto tried to cover her eyes, but she was far too late. The light took her vision away from her for the time being.
Mikoto immediately switched to defensive mode, using her ability to map out the area around her including Therestina's powered suit, who, she realised, was now aiming her shotgun at her. Mikoto used her rampage dress that was still active to shoot off the side of the building and onto the one on her left and the onto the one on the left of that. She then took out a number of arcade coins that she kept in her pocket and used her namesake ability on each of them, a railgun. Each coin shot towards Therestina at three times the speed of sound, most of them striking the powered suit over and over again, causing it to rock violently from side to side with so much force, Therestina thought she might be sick. The shots that didn't hit the target, instead hit the ground around it, kicking up a lot of dust and debris.
Therestina checked the systems of the powered suit. None of the critical components had been damaged, so she didn't need to escape, but none of the cameras or sensors were working. They all showed grey static. Therestina looked at the display in disbelief. The railguns had been powerful and accurate enough to destroy all of her cameras and sensors that the powered suit operator used when visibility was low or the target was in view from where she sat.
Such as now.
The dust and debris caused from the railgun shots that missed the powered suit now acted as a smoke screen, blocking Therestina from getting any clear view of Mikoto.
Mikoto was the third ranked level 5. It was often forgotten, especially when comparing her to the first and second ranked, but she was a genius and a monster in her own right. This was on full display here as she was able to use her ability to not only map out the area, but also map out Therestina's suit to find all of her sensors and cameras that gave her a complete 360-degree view of her surroundings and destroy them.
With all methods to track Mikoto destroyed, and with the dust restricting her view, Therestina attempted to get clear so she could locate the level 5 again.
However, the controls didn't respond to her input. She tried to move forward and back, but instead the cockpit for the suit opened.
"You can either surrender and come quietly, or I can knock you out and drag you away." came a voice from beside her.
Therestina grinned.
"A pity, I would have so liked to have you as my little lab rat once again. Maybe I could have gotten that teleporter friend of yours as well. And those level 1 and 0 girls that you hang out with would have been fun too. Oh, the experiments I could do with the four of you. And how about that Imagine Breaker boy as well. Wouldn't that be fu- ghghghghghghg."
The woman was interrupted by the sudden shock therapy that Mikoto gave her. The woman fell from the powered suit and landed hard on the ground.
"You don't seem to be very good at listening, do you? I said, 'I won't let you' and that goes for my friends and Touma, so stay the hell away from them." warned Mikoto in a voice that promised a lot of pain if she didn't heed that warning.
"Ha ha…. Oh well… We weren't… after them… anyway. That man… is a lot more… valuable." she said before losing consciousness, leaving Mikoto confused as to who she was referring to.
A/N Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good week. This chapter was the first of a few fights this arc and I started with Mikoto. In the end, it wasn't too difficult for her, as she's up against someone she's already beaten, but I hope I at least made it entertaining. I wanted to give Mikoto centre stage and let her shine a bit. She doesn't get that in the LNs much, so I hope I did her justice in this chapter.
Now for the comments,
Blanklow: Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this first fight.
Stryper88: I'm glad you liked it.
And there we have it. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and I'll have another chapter up next week. Have a good week everyone.