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Note: For those of you not familiar with the character Kihara Gensei and the world in which he resides go to google and type in 'Toaru Majutsu no Index Wiki' or just copy and paste it from this chapter. It should be the first result that comes up with fandom in the URL address. With this website I hope you'll be able to get enough background information to better enjoy this story and possibly prompt you to either read the manga or watch the anime shows based on the manga.

One Week Later

The Office of Doctor Gensei Kihara

Gensei's POV

Hmmmm…it would seem that the time for watching and waiting has passed. He thought after putting down the latest report from the Board's network of informants.

Despite what he'd been assured were stronger security measures to keep unwanted trespassers out it looked as though over ten outsiders had managed to enter the city. Naturally efforts were underway to find them and deal with them but at the moment there was no sign of where they were or what they planned on doing. Sure he knew the broad strokes of what they likely had planned: find subject zero-zero-one-omega and destroy it. That was the way 'that side' of the Roman Catholic Church operated more often than not after all and the informants had at least proven competent enough to ascertain that.

Given the organization's disdain for all things not of their central point of worship he doubted that they would remain quiet for long or employ subtle measures to achieve their goal.

His hope that the Board's methods of dealing with intruders would resolve the matter quickly had apparently been in vain so the time had come to take matters in this own hands.

Reaching over to his phone he dialled the number for his facility's own personal security forces and thankfully it took only two rings before the call was answered.

"Yes sir?" The man, the commander he believed, asked clearly having seen on the caller ID that it was him calling and thus waited for instructions.

"Select a team of five and prepare for transportation of a subject to a location to be conveyed en route." He replied keeping things short out of pity for the minimal intelligence of the hired muscle, "Type 2 load out. Be quick about it."

"Acknowledged. Team will be ready in three and ready to receive subject in the garage in seven." The security commander said with boring professionalism before hanging up.

Hmmm…now where to drop him. He thought as he considered the possibilities, It's the middle of the night but that doesn't mean that there won't be civilians still up and about.

While he might not be willing to wait for the Board to get their act together that didn't mean he could operate with complete impunity. A measure of discretion and secrecy needed to be applied in order to keep the sheep in the dark about the true nature of Academy City. That meant it had to be someplace isolated and not often travelled but at the same time ideal for an ambush.

District Seventeen's cemetery would do the job nicely.

All those tombstones and mausoleums as well as various forms of vegetation spread throughout would make it difficult for even people from 'that side' to detect a threat in time to save themselves. That was assuming of course that the agents of the Roman Catholic Church didn't have certain 'assets' with them that would either protect them from an ambush or warn them of unseen threats. When he'd first learned that there was another side to the world with powers quite different from the espers that Academy City cultivated he'd been initially curious. It'd been simple to request the necessary files but after reading barely a fifth of them he'd stopped utterly disgusted with how the users of these powers were so enslaved to superstitious nonsense.

However he had read the files pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church's chief enforcers: God's Right Seat.

Each member of this group possessed an ability that literally made them anti-platoon level threats if not anti-division ones. Could one of them be leading the intrusion into Academy City? It wasn't impossible but if he recalled the contents of the files on them correctly all of them were fanatically devoted to their deity of choice with at least half of them ignorant of stealth. From their point of view what need did they have to be afraid of non-believers when they had some almighty omnipotent being on their side. It would be more in keeping with the contents of the files for most of them to boldly walk down the street as though everyone else were mere bugs to be stepped on.

In all honesty the only member he thought capable of adhering to the precepts of stealth would be the one named Acqua of the Black.

For a moment he debated the odds, tried to anticipate the enemy's strategy, but in the end their thought patterns were simply too different. All that could be said for certain was that if a member of God's Right Seat was here then putting them down would be beyond even his entire facility security staff regardless of whether they were heavily armed or not. Against weaker agents his hired muscle would prevail properly armed but not against the chief enforcers of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was then that a possibility occurred to him that caught his interest and fuelled his speculation.

What if he sent Project Fulgora to handle the intruders?

His granddaughter had already made significant strides with her scenarios and he'd seen a marked improvement in the prototype's combat capabilities. However despite the added pressure he saw no evidence of the desired shift from a level five to a level six. True if it came to a fight between Fulgora and the original there would be no doubt that his creation would emerge victorious but that was mostly because the original had little if any combat training. At most it could be said that Mikoto Misaka had received satisfactory instruction in hand-to-hand combat from civilian sources and had her ability to utilize her electro-master powers honed by her teachers but that was it.

Compared to the intense training regime the exercises Fulgora had been put through represented there was no doubt of how such a confrontation would end.

Perhaps what the prototype needs is a sentient opponent with power enough to push her beyond her limits. He thought as he considered that train of thought.

In point of fact there were only seven level five espers in Academy city with only five of them being suitable for combat. He knew without thinking that the Chairman of the Board would never permit him to use them as opponents for Project Fulgora and creating duplicates would likely suffer the same fate as the 'Sisters' copies. Even if he wished to create thousands and then merge them into one like he had with Fulgora that would take time that he was not inclined to spend just yet. However with these intruders he had disposable targets that theoretically could tip the scales in the manner he needed to produce a level six.

This could also prove to be an ideal time to test the prototype weaponry. He thought recalling that aspect of Project Fulgora.

While it had always been his goal to push the prototype with the intent of producing a level six he had not been entirely unfettered by the bureaucracy. They of course had been worried about all the money and resources that'd be wasted and hadn't been willing to simply wait for 'eventually' to occur. They'd insisted on getting some measure of return on their investment sooner rather than later and so had handed him a mildly interested proposal.

As part of a secret weapon development aspect of Academy city several bleeding edge prototype weapons had been designed and assembled but lacked a crucial factor that really should've been taken into consideration before the prototypes had been assembled. It appeared that for all the destructive capability of each of the prototypes the inventors had been unable to solve the problem of a power supply that didn't require a mobile platform for mobility. Then one of them had speculated that given the output exhibited by Mikoto Misaka aka Railgun it might be possible at the very least to perform a limited test of the prototypes using an esper of equal power for energy. The minor intellects had even thought to design an interface of sorts through which Project Fulgora could channel her power in order to use the prototype weapons in combat.

While the prototype had already proven itself combat capable in the various exercises he…reluctantly…had to admit to wanting to see if it was possible to use electro-master powers in this manner. If technology could indeed be used to augment the combat potential of an esper then perhaps the use of more invasive methods to augment his prototype without invalidating the primary purpose of the project could also prove useful. He already knew of a way in which such a thing could be achieved through subject zero-zero-one-omega whose interaction with Doctor Numajiri's creation had mysteriously stabilized. A substance that was at once both organic and yet possessed properties consistent with modern technology…adding that to Project Fulgora could prove to be quite interesting.

A minute later he was on the phone to the inventors of the weaponry and instructed them to transport samples of what they had to offer to District Seventeen's cemetery. Once there they would turn over the prototypes to his security team who would then deliver it to his prototype for use. Communication would likely be impossible once combat began so he hoped the fools would be wise enough to keep the controls on their weapons relatively simple. The exercises that his prototype had experienced thus far had not included weaponry as a factor and therefore something too complicated to operate would be pointless.

Fortunately they assured him that their weapons had been designed with simple minded fools in mind and would not be difficult at all to operate.

He'd believe that when he saw it.

Now all that remained was to relocate subject zero-zero-one-omega to the cemetery and outfit the prototype with suitable combat clothing. While it would be informative to find out if it could win without such body protection he wasn't prepared to risk its destruction before he had ascertained for certain that it would never shift into a level six. To that end in addition to protective garments he'd also installed in its subconscious a special control phrase that would force it to unleash an omni-directional discharge of electricity at maximum output. This would effectively neutralize every possible threat within a hundred feet of the epicentre allowing a retrieval team to move in and bring the prototype back. The control phrase could be issued audibly or visually so even if its com-gear was destroyed he would merely need to commander a nearby speaker or advertisement screen that was within its field of vision to activate the control phrase.

He would not dispatch the retrieval team immediately though but should he determine through monitoring the confrontation that it was necessary they could be there in as little as five minutes.

What could possibly happen in so short a period of time?

The District Seventeen Cemetery

Roughly an Hour and a Half Later

Fulgora Prototype's POV

"ADS cannon fully charged and ready for use." She said watching the data on the HUD visor she'd been given, "Particle Rifle charge at thirty-five percent and climbing. Sonic emitters on standby."

"Good. Good." Doctor Kihara said through her ear piece, "It would seem those fools aren't entirely incompetent. Now your orders are as follows: wait for the intruders to come within ten feet of subject zero-zero-one-omega before engaging. You will not have trouble identifying them. Upon engaging you are to eliminate all hostiles with maximum efficiency and effort. Upon successful termination of the hostiles you are to defend subject zero-zero-one-omega until the retrieval team arrives. Should it become conclusive that eliminating the targets is not an achievable objective you are to inflict as much damage upon them as possible before loss of functionality. Do you understand?"

"Yes Doctor Kihara." She replied committing the mission parameters to memory.

"I look forward to positive results." Doctor Kihara said before the connection was cut from his end.

She was positioned behind one of the larger mausoleums in the cemetery but still within acceptable distance of subject zero-zero-one-omega should she need to reposition herself. The stone structure would also serve to hide the light given off by the weapons she'd been given since that would entirely compromise any attempt at concealment. According to her initial briefing there was no information on the abilities of the hostiles so the element of surprise was essential in order to do maximum damage in the initial strike. Once that was over she would use various methods to provoke the hostiles into revealing their abilities in order to refine the very basic tactics currently applicable into something more effective and efficient. Should the hostiles prioritize subject zero-zero-one-omega over her she would lay down suppressive fire to discourage approach before repositioning herself to make forward advancement inadvisable.

Given her own abilities and the brief descriptions she'd been given of her armaments she anticipated either a swift retreat by the hostiles or their termination.

If they fled she would eliminate as many as she could before they broke her line of sight before clarifying whether or not she should pursue them.

Either way she did not anticipate a prolonged battle.

It was seven minutes and thirty seconds later that she heard sounds indicating that people were approaching. Ten sets of clanking patterns indicating metal and if she listened very hard the rustle of cloth mixed with conventional footwear. Peeking around the corner of the mausoleum she peered into the darkness of the area and quickly identified the source of the sounds in the form of ten humanoids clad in metal armour and a single man. Wild brown hair, blue shirt beneath a white over shirt that had two blue cross designs on it, blue jeans and sneakers.

The leader? Most likely.

She would have to defeat him first both because he likely represented the greatest threat and because his defeat would throw the rest into disarray. After that she could maintain that confusion even as she dispatched them one after another until all were terminated. If the leader proved to be too durable to be defeated with minimal expenditure she would switch to eliminating the weaker members of the group swiftly in order to focus on the leader immediately afterwards.

Once more verifying that she'd successfully charged her weapons she raised the particle beam rifle and took careful aim at the leader's head. While indeed a smaller target even should the target possess abilities beyond those of normal humans there was no way that he would be able to evade an attack travelling at the speed of light. At most he might perceive something a tenth of a second beforehand but there was no way that he would be able to move his body or his head in time. Carefully she brought her breathing under control and did what she could to maximize how steady her aim she waited until the leader came to a complete stop a short distance from where subject zero-zero-one-omega had been positioned.

In order to keep the involvement of Doctor Kihara and Academy City from being suspected the subject had been clad in standard civilian clothing, placed in a strategically located mausoleum and scattered evidence to make it look like the subject had been there a while. The intruders, if they got that far, would presume the subject was sleeping and that he'd come to the cemetery to hide or perhaps was financially unable to afford both food as well as housing. Naturally she didn't believe this subterfuge would be necessary but she didn't state it out loud.

And then the leader stopped.

She pulled the trigger…

ZHING!

…and in the blink of an eye the leader was no longer in the path of the particle beam leaving one of his team to take the hit instead burning away half of the armoured figure's head due to the differences in height and relative positioning.

Not bothering to try and reacquire a target that obviously was quicker than her she switched to her backup plan of cutting down the subordinates as swiftly as possible. To reduce the expected time even further she brought the ADS emitter up and began to fire it as well starting at the rear of the group of intruders and moving towards the front even as her rifle did the opposite. She managed to get four in total before the remaining six somehow manifested metal shields that against conventional knowledge of particle and ADS weaponry somehow managed to protect them. From where she stood it looked as though her particle beam might succeed in burning through a shield if she left it in one spot long enough.

Seeing a growing shadow appear on the ground before her she knew she didn't have that sort of time.

Pushing off of the ground away from the projected impact point she brought both the ADS emitter and the rifle to bear on a point just above where a person would be if they were about to land on the ground. Timing it as best she could she pulled the trigger on both when something entered that area in the hopes that it would eliminate the threat before they could change direction. Only instead of cutting a person in half all she managed to do was damage what appeared to be an absurdly large mace being wielded one handed by the leader of the intruder group. Unless she was suffering a serious decrease in visual acuity the mace was apparently even sturdier than the shields the armoured subordinates were using to protect themselves.

I have to get around that defence. She thought before letting go of her rifle to let its strap handle the weight.

Reaching up to a device strapped to her shoulders she pressed the activation button only lightly wincing as a high pitched whine enveloped the surrounding area. According to the people she'd received it from it was an omni-directional sonic emitter specifically designed with the intent of inducing severe vertigo and nausea to any living thing within its sphere of influence. That sphere of influence extended outwards in a thirty foot radius around the emission source with only a two foot radius around the emission source being moderately tolerable for humans. It was her hope that this would reduce the leader's evident high mobility to a level where she could get around him to an unprotected side and succeed in terminating him.

Seeing him once more not as a blur of motion but rather as a man she took this as proof that the sonic attack was doing its job…until out of nowhere he lunged towards her thrusting the head of the mace forward.

Instinctively she tapped into her electro-master abilities and pulled forth ever speck of iron sand within reach of her to form a thick shield between her and the oncoming mace. When the head seemed to pierce the shield with only minimal effort she brought both the emitter and the rifle up as additional protection but had she possessed time enough for conscious thought she'd see the pointlessness of it. If the mace was strong enough to pierce her iron sand shield then the metals that made up the weapons she'd been given might as well have not been there.

Impact.

Pain.

Impact.

More pain.

She experienced these things before coherent thought returned to her and she found herself a good forty feet from where she'd been with the leader of the intruders looking increasingly better. Glancing at her shoulders she could see that whether it'd been the impact of the mace on her body or the tumble she'd been sent on the sonic technology was trashed. Looking back the way she'd come she could see that the same could be said for the other weapons leaving her with only her electro-master powers.

This was not favourable for her.

The leader had already proven himself to have superior speed, strength and likely reflexes. Her best shot at bringing him down to her level had been the sonic attack but now that'd been taken out of the picture. With maintaining a visual lock on the leader unlikely and the devastating power behind his attacks the remainder of the fight would likely be measured in seconds rather than minutes or hours.

Fortunately for her the exercises she'd been put through had been very conducive to developing her resourcefulness as well as an ability to adapt. Once more calling up the iron sand from the ground but this time she formed a cage around herself roughly six feet in radius but then she added an additional feature.

She sharpened the edges of the 'bars' and then began to rotate the cage around her as quickly as she could without sacrificing the cutting potential of the bars or the overall shape of the cage. This by itself did not seem to overly worry the leader for a moment later he once more thrust forward with his weapon…only for it to be parried off to the side. It wasn't by much, just an inch or so to the left of the edge of her cage, but it was enough to save her from a direct hit.

Deciding to test something she selected one of the bars that was in the best tactical position and lashed out with it heightening its cutting potential as best she could. However just as she'd feared even with the momentary surprise generated by her successful parrying of his blow the leader proved skilled enough to evade the strike. Reasserting her cage formation and rotational speed she could feel the drain it was having on her energy reserves. Normally this configuration was quick to destroy weapons used against her should they come close enough and her own attack speed was usually enough to finish the fight.

Not this time though.

She needed something more so she decided to test something out to see if it proved to be a valid tactic. Reaching out with her powers she generated an electromagnetic field and plucked up two pieces of the rifle before bringing them within the cage. It wasn't an attempt to turn them into close range weapons but rather to use them as ammunition for what was her most destructive focused attack.

The Railgun.

According to the woman who had taken over the devising and overseeing of her exercises it was the signature technique of the person her DNA pattern came from. From using it in the exercises she knew that only specialized measures kept her use of this technique from seriously damaging the building. Her current best had her managing to fire ten shots per minute at a rough speed of twenty-three hundred miles per hour that she felt confident would nullify any defences the subordinates had.

As soon as the two pieces were in position she executed the technique twice but almost as quickly the leader caught onto her intent and repositioned himself. However since she had planned her attack with the two subordinates furthest away from each other in mind the man wielding the giant mace could only intercept one of the accelerated fragments. The other tore the subordinate in half obliterating a full third of his body and likely granting instant death less than a second after contact.

The fragment that was intercepted though still struck with enough force to displace a significant amount of air knocking the subordinates behind the leader off their feet. Sadly whatever metal the mace was made out of was strong enough that she could only just perceive the dent the accelerated fragment had done to it. She estimated that it would likely take another eight strikes to the exact same location to break the mace and she did not believe there would be that many opportunities in the next little while. Plus the leader had exhibited an ability to discern her tactics so he would likely ensure that any successive impacts would be done to other parts of the mace.

Troublesome.

"You intended to use my concern for my comrades to force me to take one of your attacks. Ruthless." The leader said with a hint of disapproval, "I take it you represent a faction of Academy City?"

"I am under no obligation to confirm or deny that allegation." She said even as she glanced in random directions to confuse what she was looking for.

What was she looking for? More ammunition and specifically ammunition with a higher density than the weapon fragments. Even if she used her railgun technique on the metal of the rifle fragments their structural integrity was already compromised and by design couldn't be too dense lest the rifle hinder its wielder more than help them. If a fragment propelled at twenty-three hundred miles per hour could produce a barely visible dent then if she used something denser and more durable she might be able to destroy the weapon with fewer shots.

Putting her gaze back on the leader she reviewed the various items that'd caught her attention: the rods that made up the nearby fence, the grating on two of the nearby mausoleums and the plates incorporated into some of the gravestones. All were within reach of her electromagnetism and would only take two to three seconds for her to take possession of before launching. However she was not sure that the leader would grant her that time since he had already made it clear he could see through her tactics. She needed privacy and that would require a significant expenditure of her power.

Can't be helped. She thought as she began to raise her electrical output, If I am to have any success I need to remove myself from his line of sight.

With a grunt of exertion she pulled the maximum amount of iron sand out of the ground that she could and used it to form a dome around herself as well as her intended ammunition. She didn't hesitate, she reached out and yanked six rods from the fence before lining them up for her shot. Just like before she'd aim not at the leader but at his subordinates intent on forcing the man to intercept them. If she was lucky she'd succeed in destroying the mace reducing the man to using his fists and feet to harm her and they would be decidedly less durable than the metal weapon. At the very least it'd compromise the structural integrity of the mace enough so that her next tactic would succeed where this one did not.

Dropping the grip she had on the iron sand she'd fashioned into a dome she looked in the direction of the subordinates…only to find them gone. There were bits and pieces of destroyed armour and blood from those she'd killed on the ground but nothing more than that. Only the leader had the movement capabilities to disappear from her field of view that quickly. Did he evacuate his subordinates while her vision was obscured? If so then she might have a few more seconds to work with before he reappeared to resume hostilities.

Then a mass of weak bio-electricity manifested itself behind her.

"Let us see how you fare without using my subordinates as bait." The voice of the leader said from behind her.

Pulling every piece of metal she could and placing it between herself and the leader she reiterated her earlier sentiment.

Troublesome.

An Unknown Amount of time later

Xander's POV

"AAAHHHH!"

The sound of a woman in pain and/or in distress.

In an instant he was awake and to be honest his body felt like someone had used one of those pipe snake things to scrub the insides of every vein on the left side of his body. It wasn't excruciating pain that'd leave him screaming his throat raw but rather something more akin to the time the retired SAS boot camp instructor had put him through a workout from hell. A part of him, a remnant of the slacker he'd been in high school, wanted nothing more than to rest until the pain went away but that idea was vetoed by the rest of him. Someone was in trouble, a woman, and if he was close enough to hear her cry then he was close enough to intervene.

Pushing himself up off the stone floor he did a quick survey of his situation.

He had normal civvie clothes on and while he didn't know how he'd gotten them he found them to be infinitely preferable to what the bastard scientists had thrown at him since he'd been captured. He was in a mausoleum that looked like it'd been made in the eighteenth century but was in fact a replica and BOY didn't that sound like he spent too much time in cemeteries if he was able to pick that out. Scattered about the floor were wrappers and plastic bags and empty bottles making him think that someone had been squatting here or just hanging out prior to him being dumped there. Whatever the case he didn't have time for more thinking when it was action that'd get him the results he desired.

Getting to his feet it didn't take him long before he reached the doorframe of the stone structure and then he received a good idea of what was going on.

On the one side he had a guy taller than the human male average clad in a mix of blues and whites with a definite religious theme if the cross shaped designs were anything to go by. On the other side was a young lady who looked to be in her mid-to-late teens clad in jeans, a white shirt and some combat gear that looked a lot like what the thugs in the secret lab wore. Both looked like they'd been fighting for awhile but the young lady definitely was on the losing side of things if the bruises and cuts were anything to go by.

What made everything worse though was the fact that neither of them were normal human beings.

The man was moving at superhuman speed and judging by what happened to the things he hit it was a safe bet that super strength was also present. With the speed of combat so quick he was a bit surprised that he was able to keep track of the man since even with his experience fighting alongside Slayers this level of physical speed should've been too much for him. It was only when he noticed that there was some kind of lock on crosshairs stuck to the guy that he realized that he wasn't just looking at the man with human eyes.

Something technological was in the mix.

Unit perceived desire to track hostile one. The mote's thought echoed in his head, Spread of techno-organic material sufficient to supply augmented vision options to host's left eye. Do you wish to discontinue?

No. Keep it going and do what you can to keep track of his movements. He thought back taking everything in stride, I'm going to need every second of advance warning I can get if I'm going to do something about this.

Acknowledged. Activating tracking subroutines. The mote thought back as more precise tracking data appeared in his vision.

It wasn't enough to impair his vision fortunately and that allowed him to properly evaluate the young lady who was doing her best to keep from getting killed and sometimes get a shot of her own in. Based on what he could see her abilities were entirely derived from electricity and she was capable of putting out quite a bit of it as well as using some of its lesser known properties to her advantage. However it looked like the superhuman prowess of her opponent was too far above her own abilities for her to stand much of a chance at winning. Short of timing an omni-directional blast of electricity to fry the man the young lady was only delaying her defeat rather than stonewalling it.

He needed to come up with a plan, a strategy, that would allow him to overcome her attacker but before he could even begin the man landed a potent blow to her stomach. In an instant time seemed to slow even as the electricity the young lady had been putting out began to die off and the wind chose that moment to push aside the brown hair that'd been obscuring her face up until then.

In an instant something in his mind 'clicked' and he KNEW, HE KNEW, that this was the young lady he had been dropped in this reality to rescue from a tragic and no doubt unnatural end.

Within the space between the ticks of a clock strategy became less important than action and his typical resolve he surged forward using his telekinesis to accelerate himself even further. As it was he barely managed to get into position to catch the young lady in order to prevent her from hitting the ground hard enough that it'd probably break bone or at least seriously bruise her back. Gently using his TK to slow them down and eventually stopping them he mentally asked the mote to do a scan of the young lady to see if she was seriously hurt. Slayers might have extra durable bodies that could handle getting hit like that but this girl wasn't a Slayer so until proven otherwise he'd presume that she was no more durable than any other human being.

Detecting numerous bruises and lacerations across subject's body. The mote thought at him even as each injury was highlighted in sequence, No bone fractures or cracks detected. However subject has suffered a moderate concussion. Consciousness still present but tentative. Subject will likely experience reduced mobility and mental coherency until self-repair systems and medical treatment take effect.

This told him two things.

First that the man he'd be clashing with in the next few seconds had pulled his punch to be just strong enough to take the young lady down but not so strong as to seriously injure her. That would suggest that whatever objective the man might have it did not involve her specifically indicating that she'd somehow thrown herself into the mix of her own free will. Given how fiercely the two of them had been going at it though it was clear that the young lady had zero intention of letting the man continue on with his mission and had been giving it her all to take him down. Whether she knew she was out of her league or not he didn't know.

The second thing being that while the man had some honour he needed a lot more because as far as he was concerned if he fought against someone who was a whole league below him in terms of prowess he wouldn't draw out the fight or go all out. He'd end it quickly, efficiently and with only the minimum amount of damage necessary to render the opponent unconscious.

This guy had crossed a line with him and considering the young lady was his ticket out of this dimension he wasn't about to let anything happen to her.

Keep a sensor lock on her and the area around her. He thought to the mote as he gently set her down on the ground, You detect any threat to her you let me know IMMEDIATELY. Understood?

Acknowledged. Establishing comprehensive sensor lock on designated subject. The mote thought before visual confirmation flashed briefly in his vision before disappearing.

Looking down at the young lady who indeed was still conscious but was obviously feeling a little loopy due to the concussion. He didn't know enough about this world to know how long it'd take her to bounce back from her injuries but he felt it was safe to say that she wouldn't be helping him out anytime soon.

Relax. You're safe now. He telepathically though to her mind with emotions of comfort and security, Everything will work out fine. I promise.

Rising to his feet he turned to see the man that'd knocked the girl he was in this reality to help silly just standing there with the overcompensating giant mace in his hand. It wasn't raised to defend or attack but he could tell right away that he couldn't make any careless movements with his foe. His years of working alongside Slayers and seeing their trainers in action had made it clear to him that 'looks like their guard is down' does not actually mean that the person's guard was down. He'd seen warriors go from looking completely relaxed to fully prepared to kick ass and take names in seconds.

Nevertheless he was not deterred in what he had chosen to do.

He would fight and he would win.

That was all there was to it.

"The girl's off limits from here on out." He stated to the man as though it was a law of the universe, "Understand?"

"She attacked us first. I suspect her intent was to use you as bait and then strike at the right moment." The man in blue replied revealing a little bit of info, "However since she is no longer capable of fighting I will refrain from targeting her. After I kill you though some retribution may be necessary since she did kill some of my subordinates."

"Hazard of the job. You step forward intending to take a life you better be prepared to have yours taken as well." He said voicing one of the hard realities of being a warrior.

Those that lived by the sword often died by the sword.

It was easy to get worked up and angry when a friend got killed in the line of duty but in the end you couldn't let that influence your decisions. It was a staple of anyone experienced in combat that letting your emotions get the better of you was a recipe for disaster. Anger and the grief it sprang from clouded your judgment, made you reckless, often infecting you with tunnel vision that blinded you to all else but your target and your revenge. When someone was motivated by anger it was all too easy to lead them around by the nose until they were in prime condition to be killed. Buffy and just about every other Slayer he'd ever met used this tactic to goad a vamp, demon or warlock into doing something stupid and giving them the opportunity for a kill shot.

That being said he and the other Scoobies were only human and couldn't be expected to remain composed through EVERYTHING so sometimes exceptions were made.

They just had to make sure the one about to lose their shit had backup that had a much easier time keeping their shit together.

"Am I to assume that you're prepared?" The man in blue asked apparently finding no fault with the statement.

"I've been ready since monsters turned my brother into one of them." He replied the memory of Jesse ghosting past his mind's eye, "If it takes my death to ensure that she lives free…I can think of worse things to die for."

"True enough." The man in blue said nodding in agreement with the sentiments, "I will make your death a swift one."

"I'll try to keep your death from being too painful." He said in return even as instincts and muscle memory of someone other than himself rose to the surface.

Using the memories of Soldier Boy and what he'd been taught by the combat instructors the New Council had hired from various militaries around the world he slid into an appropriate combat posture for facing someone with superior speed and strength. However just as he was about to settle an impulse inside of him caused him to adjust the positions of both his arms as well as his legs just a little from where he'd initially chosen to put them. It was odd but if he was right this was coming from whoever his mystery mental ally really was and that made him trust the impulse rather than struggle against it.

Another thing he felt was a sensation of power revving up both within him and just past the surface of his skin. While he'd like to dismiss it as just his telekinesis warming up he couldn't quite do it because it felt decidedly different from the times he'd used it before receiving his new 'tenant'. It felt…more disciplined…more refined…and that gave him confidence that he could actually hold his own in this fight. Would it be enough to grant him the victory he believed would be necessary for both him and the young electricity lady to walk way alive and relatively unharmed?

Only one way to find out. He thought before sending a telekinetic battering ram at his opponent.

It'd been the equivalent of a boxer throwing a test jab at a punching bag and much like he'd anticipated the man he sought to defeat was able to use his mace to block the attack. However the moment he'd felt the contact between the two opposing forces he'd surged forward pushing his legs to carry him as fast as they could towards his target. The second his foe noticed this he used his telekinesis to form six spikes of golden energy before shooting them at the man like arrows loosed from a bow. This proved to be enough to be enough to get the man to physically move but he wasn't fooled into thinking that he had gained the upper hand. He was pretty sure that both of them knew that they were still at the 'feeling each other out' stage of the fight and were trying to ascertain the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the other.

Both of them would have no trouble figuring out when things were getting serious.

At the moment the man was not exhibiting any of the superhuman speed he'd shown before when fighting the young lady but instead was bringing forth just enough to keep ahead of the telekinetic spikes that were pursuing him. Since they were travelling at roughly a hundred and fifty miles per hour his foe was probably going twenty to thirty miles per hour faster than that. That meant that this guy was officially faster than a Slayer at a full out sprint on a straight road and that meant he couldn't let the guy out of his sight for a moment or else this wouldn't be a fight at all.

It'd be a massacre.

HIS massacre.

This unit can maintain a lock on the hostile so long as movement speed does not exceed three times current velocity. The mote said even as it kept targeting crosshairs on the man.

It was a safe bet that if the man did reach those speeds the cemetery would be demolished and all it'd take would be one hit to attain victory. However if the fight earlier with the young lady was any hint the man wasn't the sort to push himself harder than he needed to in order to win a fight. The man had possessed a clear advantage over the concussed electricity manipulator at the end and would've won but it was unlikely that the man had been at the limit of how fast he could move. Therefore if he wanted to win the fight he'd need to quickly take the lead in the fight and finish it before the man could increase his performance level enough to retake a position of dominance.

That means I need to do something he's never experienced before and will give me my opening for a KO blow. He thought even as he mentally caused the telekinetic spikes to separate in an effort to come at the man from multiple different angles.

It wasn't a hard thing to do, that bastard Kihara had already had him manipulate multiple objects at the same time in his 'tests', but the man in blue had little trouble evading them or knocking them away with his oversized mace. Clearly the man had encountered a foe in the past who'd tried a similar tactic and therefore knew how to handle a multi-vector attack. Given the lack of strain on the man's face he felt it was safe to say that even if he doubled the number of spikes it still wouldn't be enough to completely seize the man's focus.

I need something MORE. Something that he won't be able to just blow off. He thought even as he added three more spikes to the mix just to buy himself more time.

Fortunately him and Jesse had spent some time when they were younger trying to figure out ways of beating the super villains in their favourite comic books. Naturally they made the powers of every hero they knew of the arsenal they had to work with since in their mind a normal human wouldn't be much more than roadkill to a real super villain. When the super villain of the day turned out to be a speedster Jesse had come up with an idea using a hero's powers that were quite similar to his telekinesis and telepathy.

Step one: use the energy power to create a cloud as far out as possible without inducing excess strain or energy wastage. Disguise it as a Dragonball Z style power up moment so no one's the wiser and make any visible side effects look temporary. In Jesse's mind the purpose was to create an energy cloud that the hero could use to keep track of the villain speedster even if his eyes couldn't keep up. Since the energy was generated by the hero his brother had reasoned that the hero would notice if anything solid came into contact with even a bit of it. With enough sensitivity a mental outline of the bad guy would be possible making surprise attacks severely unlikely.

Step two: when the enemy was within the cloud of energy and had sufficiently dismissed it as a possible threat POUNCE! According to Jesse if the hero could make her energy as ethereal as a cloud of vapour then it stood to reason that with a single thought it could be made as hard as a block of ice. Timed right the villain speedster would be frozen in place providing a perfect opportunity for a decisive blow. Speedsters after all could move very fast but that didn't mean that they were super strong even if all the moving they did kept body fat to a minimum and honed the muscles. In the grip of energy that was likely as strong as the hero's willpower they'd be helpless.

On the surface this sounded like a good idea but the problem that made him hesitate to use it was the fact that the man WAS super strong since no normal human could swing that giant mace around with such ease without super strength. If that was the case then at best he'd have two maybe three seconds before the man in blue powered himself out of the telekinetic body bind and he'd read enough comics to know that it'd likely knock him for a mental loop if not cause him serious pain. He might've come a long way with his telekinesis and he considered himself to be pretty stubborn but the question of 'would it be enough' was not one he felt he could answer decisively. Even with all his experience fighting things that were faster, stronger and more durable than him this was his first official super power battle.

Closing his eyes and shaking his head to rid himself of doubts he found much to his spike of anxiety that he'd committed his first serious mistake: he'd willingly closed his eyes in the presence of an enemy that could cover a LOT of ground in a literal blink of an eye. In fear of being blindsided he put his plan into action calling forth his telekinetic energy and throwing it out in all directions like a certain Saiyan warrior powering up. At the same time he made sure that his mind, his awareness of every speck of TK energy, was as sharp as he could possibly make it without further training. If anything solid touched the field of TK energy he'd know about it like someone tapping him on the shoulder and be able to get a lock on a location.

THERE! He thought before he tried to solidify the psionic energy around the object that'd entered his field of perception.

Unfortunately his haste in trying to establish a lock made him clumsy and the object managed to get away from him with little effort. He SERIOUSLY hoped that he hadn't just tipped off the man in blue to his plan or else he was going to have to come up with some other strategy. Jesse had debated several possibilities back in the day but most of them had been using powers he couldn't emulate with his TK or telepathy. If he was given a day or two he could probably throw together a passable strategy but Buffy had proven numerous times that 'by the seat of your pants' planning rarely paid off. Luck was the deciding factor in those cases and he felt fairly confident in his position that his luck ranged from 'crap' to 'oh fuck'.

When something aggressively entered his field on a direct course with his position he was both relieved and fearful but this time he readiness was much improved. In an instant his condensed all of the TK energy around the object stopping it cold and since he knew he probably couldn't keep the man in blue pinned in the air for long he turned to face him in preparation for deliver a KO blow. However when his field of vision turned to include what he had a telekinetic grip on he was surprised to see that it wasn't the man in blue but the giant mace instead.

SHIT!

"A clever strategy. Use the loud yelling and light show to make me think you were drawing deeply on your power then wait for me to attack only to fall into your net." The man in blue said from the right just outside of his field of vision.

Turning to face the man all he found was empty cemetery filled with gravestones and mausoleums.

"I imagine once you had me immobilized you would use your telekinesis to kill me before I could free myself." The man in blue said from behind him causing him to whirl around.

Still nothing.

Where is he? He thought to mote hoping that the mind inside his metal arm still had a lock.

Unable to provide reliable coordinates. Hostile is moving at a speed superior to this unit's tracking ability pausing only briefly to engage in psychological warfare tactics. The mote replied even as a block of data scrolled by at impressive speed in the upper right of his vision.

Had the man in blue somehow managed to figure out he had a means of tracking him technologically? Unlikely. The clothing he'd been stuffed in did a good job covering up most of his transformed flesh and even if it'd spread to his face he…he didn't feel like enough had changed to be overly visible. With most possibilities ruled out the only other thing that sounded feasible was that the man's intellect and ability to discern the truth from the smallest of facts was just that damn good.

NOT a good thing for him because despite having been in Willow's advanced classes in high school and despite all the things he'd learned as a Scooby he didn't think he could counter that advantage.

"Actually I'd planned on just knocking you out." He said honestly even as he flung the huge mental mace out of his TK field, "You didn't kill the girl and this city's pretty big. Plenty of places to hide and I doubt you have the time to look everywhere for me."

"Correct. Fortunately I will not have to. Look." The man in blue said ominously.

WARNING! Four hostiles closing on female cited for protection! The mote thought at him insistently causing him to ignore the man in blue in favour of the young lady he'd come to rescue.

Just as the mote had warned him four men clad in impressive looking knight armour were advancing towards the young lady who looked more coherent than the last time he'd seen her but still out of it for the most part. While she might be able to manage some defiance centred discharges of electricity he doubted it'd be enough to get past the armour and do some damage.

The swords the knights were wielding however would definitely do some significant and probably fatal damage to the young lady he'd come to this reality to rescue.

With as much care as he could manage with only a few seconds of focus he reached out with his telepathy intent on simply knocking the enemy knights out cold. Since they weren't displaying the same speed as their leader it was easier for him to target their minds therefore increasing the likelihood that he'd be successful. However just before he thought he'd make successful contact with their minds his telepathy encountered a wall of some sort that prevented him from taking that last metaphorical inch. Did their helmets offer them protection from his telepathy? Deciding to test that possibility he pushed harder with his mind to see if he could force his way past that protection and achieve the goal of knocking them out.

"AAAHHH!"

"AARRGGHH!"

"GGUUUHH!"

"NNNHHHH!"

Almost immediately he stopped as the four knights stopped in their tracks to press their hands to the side of their helmets as though trying to physically keep their heads from cracking open. He'd only wanted to test the strength of the protection the helmets gave them so he could force just enough of his strength past it to knock them out. Instead it looked like he'd set their brains on fire causing them to drop to their knees even as they still clutched their heads in some vain effort to fight the agony that threatened to tear their minds apart.

"Enough!" The man in blue bellowed in objection.

He only had half a second to sense the oncoming threat on an instinctive level and only half a second to put as much tangible telekinetic energy between him and that threat as he could.

It proved to be enough to keep him from being killed.

It had not been enough to save him from pain or injury.

The world exploded into a kaleidoscope of shapes and colours with his sense of time only barely managing to convey to him that a couple of seconds had passed by before his sense of motion told him he'd come to a stop.

WARNING! Host has suffered significant damage due to severe impact focused on head! The mote thought with urgency, Initiating emergency medical assistance subroutines!

He didn't need the mind in his metal arm to tell him that that one blow had put him in seriously poor shape with every thought he or the mote had causing an earthquake of pain to reverberate throughout his skull. Still he was no stranger to working through pain either due to Tony Harris getting a little overly enthusiastic on a school night or the Scoobies having a rough time taking down a group of demons. Opening his eyes he could immediately tell that his techno side was faring better than his fleshy side since aside from random flickers the status reports and other visual feeds were fine. His human side though was a mess with the vision in his organic eye flickering between kinda blurry and VERY blurry with no pattern he could figure out.

By luck or by chance he'd come to a stop in such a position that he could see back the way he'd come allowing him to see the man in blue approaching with strong purposeful steps.

"You are indeed the threat the church's seers proclaimed you to be. While not enough to defeat me now in time you could come to imperil the entire planet." The man in blue said coming to a stop just outside of arm's reach, "You will die here boy. Take some solace in the knowledge that once you have left this world I will see to it that the girl receives proper medical treatment."

While he appreciated the fact that his foe would ensure that the young lady he'd come to save wouldn't suffer through her body healing her wounds naturally he couldn't say the same about the rest. Though some might say that an ordinary human choosing a career of fighting things capable of turning him into a pretzel was proof enough of a death wish he didn't want to die at all. Every time he set foot onto the battlefield he'd done so with every intention of coming back alive and more or less in one piece. Sure if it came to it he'd gladly make the ultimate sacrifice if it meant all those he cared for would continue living happy lives but he wouldn't rush into death's embrace for nothing.

S-Sorry…beautiful…guess this is as far as someone…l-like me goes. He thought telepathically at the young lady he'd failed to save, S-still…when you're healed…fight…for what you want…for what you believe in…for the things that matter most to you…FIGHT!

Through his words he tried to pass on his regret over failing to save her but at the same time he tried to bestow upon her the strength of will to take back her freedom from those who'd stolen it. If he couldn't free her from the hell of her captors then all that was left was to light the fires of rebellion and liberation within the young lady herself. He'd seen her fight and knew that she had both power as well as skill. Even if she couldn't break free soon so long as she had the desire the opportunity would present itself in due time.

With a mind sharp enough to fight as well as the young lady had she'd have no trouble choosing the right moment to make her bid for freedom.

Of that he had no doubt.

Not even a little.

A Short Distance Away

The Fulgora Prototype's POV

She hurt.

Her mind seemed incapable of heeding her commands to focus for more than a few seconds before melting into a big mess again.

All in all she felt safe in saying that she was in no shape to continue fighting and would much prefer to simply lay on the ground to wait for the retrieval units. However she knew that Doctor Kihara was watching her through the various cameras that were within range of the battleground. If she simply remained at rest he would be disappointed in her and if he did not terminate her he would use every method at his disposal to 'make her better' regardless of how difficult it would be for her.

She'd never complained or voiced the pain she felt for as long as she could remember but that didn't mean she had been indifferent to the hardships. Though far from experienced enough to classify them all she could say with certainty that she wished to avoid going through more of the same if at all possible. Thus she opened her eyes and using the original's technique of controlling both nerves as well as muscles she forced herself up off the ground. Every jab of pain that came forth as a form of protest from her bruised and battered body tested her control but she pressed on in spite of the complaints. None of the scientists ever cared if she was hurting or suffering so she'd stopped hoping that someone someday would.

She wasn't like everyone else so why should she expect the same compassion and comfort that they would receive in her position.

S-Sorry…beautiful…guess this is as far as someone…l-like me goes. Echoed the voice of a man in her head, S-still…when you're healed…fight…for what you want…for what you believe in…for the things that matter most to you…FIGHT!

Amidst these words she felt something akin to a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach but at the same time there was a…a…feeling of empowerment similar to what she felt when she channelled her power through her own body but it felt much more potent. Looking around it didn't take her long to find the leader of the intruders but she also found something that didn't make sense to her: she found subject zero-zero-one-omega on the ground with visible signs of injury. How had he come to be there? He should've been unconscious in the mausoleum awaiting retrieval. Yet instead he was awake and had possibly moved under his own power out of the mausoleum and looked to have tried to fight the leader of the intruders but wound up failing miserably.

Looking at the formerly unconscious young man she felt memories of the past come unbidden to the forefront of her mind. Memories so out of focus that all she could recall was feelings of warmth, comfort ands security. Memories that were clearer were of someone she'd presumed was another creation of Doctor Kihara numbing the pain from the latest series of exercises while talking about things she didn't see the point of. Through it all she felt as though she had been given a reward that made the little things Doctor Kihara had told her were rewards for successfully completing an exercise seem non-existent by comparison.

Looking at the leader of the intruders the man's intent was clear: to kill subject zero-zero-one-omega in a very brutal manner.

Then, for the first time, a desire all her own blossomed in her mind instead of an order given to her by Doctor Kihara or the other members of the lab.

She didn't want subject zero-zero-one-omega to die.

For the first time a heat began to flow through her body imbued with the desire to rend the leader of the intruders asunder if he moved so much as an inch in an effort to kill his target.

Then…

…in defiance of precedent…

…in defiance of what had become commonplace…

…something 'shifted' and the world around her changed.

SHE changed.

Acqua of the Black's POV

Looking down at the young man, flesh merged with an unknown metal, he felt mild regret over what he had to do but he would not let that sway him.

When the seers sworn to the service of the Roman Catholic Church had received the vision of the chaos bringer not so long ago the reactions had been mostly dismissive. Vento laughed at the idea of there being anything to be concerned about believing that should something or someone show up on their doorstep she'd be able to handle it. Terra had been intrigued by the wording of the seers message but saw the 'traveller' as nothing more than another stone in the road that would lead him to heaven. As for Fiamma the arrogant man was completely calm and completely confident that if the 'traveller' tried anything it would be a simple matter for him to thwart it.

In short only he gave the matter any serious thought and unlike his fellow members of God's Right Seat he was not so certain of their victory if they allowed the 'traveller' to move about unopposed.

During his time allied with the Roman Catholic Church he had seen many things and become familiar with the various resources at their disposal. One of those resources was a division of seers who spent their time either trying to induce visions of the future by interacting with various recovered artifacts, attempting to decipher the written records of past visions experienced by their predecessors or experiencing visions themselves. While some of the visions were vague they were still recorded for later deciphering since it was a supported theory that the blurrier the vision the farther into the future the seer had seen. While he'd never seen anything to support it he'd overheard how several of these blurry visions, properly deciphered, had allowed the Roman Catholic Church to decisively defeat a few of its more challenging enemies. As for the ones that came through clear enough to be understood their reliability could not be doubted in any way.

When the seers had mentioned what the 'Traveller' would do he decided that the right course of action would be to seek out the threat and eliminate it before it could establish a strong foothold. With the Pope's permission and with no interference from the other members of God's Right Seat he'd assembled ten knights to assist him before leaving in search of the Traveller.

While his instincts had told him that his target would likely be found in Academy City he'd chosen to be thorough and investigated other locations around the world where cutting edge science was being carried out. Specifically he tried to determine if any of them dealt with technology involving dimensional breaches or reports of paranormal phenomena occurring close to their location. While the majority of the world were ignorant of the existence of magic and the supernatural that did not mean that they were completely oblivious to the strange or unusual. All it meant was that instead of blindly accepting the phenomena at face value the ignorant chose instead to use what they considered 'the truth' to downsize what they saw to something their minds could accept.

Eventually though there was no denying that the location where the Traveller could be found was Academy City and so he had set out with his knights to infiltrate the city. He knew that the city's ruler, Aleister Crowley, would not take kindly to this intrusion but would not intervene either. As dangerous as the man's ambitions might be he would not appreciate a wild card being dropped into his city sized laboratory and interfere with his plans. It had been earlier this evening when they had been able to magically track the traveller to this cemetery that in hindsight was a decent attempt at an ambush.

Sadly whoever had ordered the girl to perform the ambush had overestimated her abilities.

She had skill, he would not dismiss that fact, but he'd quickly determined that most of her training had been done under controlled conditions against programmed threats. While such training exercises weren't completely without value it did not compare to the experience one could gain in the field against opponents that could plan and strategize. Humanity had a long history and throughout that history warriors had honed the chess moves of war to a fine edge that only the wise could use effectively. Wisdom could not be obtained through books or through simulations but rather it could be earned through firsthand experience as well as a seasoned mentor.

A part of him hoped that her masters would understand this after they recovered her and see to it that she received the wisdom she needed in order to improve.

As for the Traveller…he was quick to discern that the young man was new to his abilities likely only having received a few months worth of practice with them. Nevertheless there was a resourceful and adaptive mind inside that head marred by technological infection. Against his knights the young man would likely have succeeded in defeating them but against him victory had been little more than a possibility.

Now all that was left to do was deliver the killing blow.

He would honour his promise though. The young lady the Traveller had sought to protect would receive the necessary medical care and would not be harmed by him or any under his command.

Raising his mace over his head he prepared to bring it down with enough force to crush a tank but that was as far as he got.

KRA-KOOM!

With all the violence of a lightning strike and a light show that was nowhere near as temporary as it should've been the level of ozone that could be smelt skyrocketed. Turning his gaze towards the source he was surprised to see that the young lady he had thought defeated was back on her feet but there was something decidedly different from how he'd last seen her.

Before she had been a powerful but not surprisingly so esper that had gained a respectable level of mastery.

Now? Now he could tell that she was something different or on the way to becoming something different.

Electricity more abundant and the wind it generated forced the hair that had before been in a ponytail to perpetually reach for the sky with sections fluttering like leaves on a tree branch. Even as the larger and more visible electricity formed a narrow dome shaped barrier around her he could see smaller arcs of the energy leaping off of her skin only to be drawn back into it. Her eyes though…her eyes had so much visible energy crackling across it that were it not for his sharp vision he might make the mistake of thinking her eyes had been replaced by energy.

What had him preparing himself for a serious fight however was the fact that seemingly at random and almost too quickly to be perceived by his eyes it almost looked like her body was changing into pure energy even if it was only for half a second or less. While he had seen various forms of magic in his life the practitioners capable of altering their own bodies without doing harm to themselves, even temporarily, were without a doubt among the more dangerous. Often it was because by doing this they could negate certain weaknesses in their defence or provide them with offensive capabilities far stronger than human flesh would normally allow. While it didn't look like the young lady had control over the shifts between energy and matter he was not so foolish so as to give her the time to change that.

Shifting his position and bringing his mace into position for a horizontal swing he leapt upwards as if to try to reach the moon itself but in fact he was merely laying the groundwork for something more.

" P, G, H!" He declared before beginning his descent towards the young lady.

While somewhat harsh to use Divine Mother's Mercy to allow him to attack at full strength he didn't believe it would be wise for him to hold back. Given that this change did not occur in his earlier struggle with the young lady and its apparent instability he felt safe in assuming this was an entirely new development for her. If so then it was imperative to kill her before she could gain the necessary level of competency to be dangerous.

With timing honed by hundreds of battles he brought his mace down with as much speed and strength as he could down on the young lady…only for her to vanish less than a second before contact should've been made. It was only when he felt a new maelstrom of wind and a new source of crackling light that he realized that she had somehow managed to get past him. He willed his body to turn to face her…

BAM! BOOM! BAM! BAM!

Out of nowhere four sources of pain blossomed across his body but unlike in the past when the pain reached a peak before gradually fading into the background this was different. With these four sources though there was no drop in pain at all and it almost felt like they would be going on forever. Forcing his body to act in spite of the pain he looked down at the parts of his body where the sources were located and discovered why the pain was not fading. At each point from which the the pain came from there was a swirling storm of electricity no bigger than your average baseball. For a moment he thought that perhaps they rested on the surface of his skin but when he willed one of his legs to move away from the conflux of energy it followed. Either the young lady retained control over them and was adjusting their position to maintain his pain level or it was attached to his leg somehow. Only when the mini-storms ran out of power or perhaps the young lady stopped providing them with power would he be free to recover.

Then, as if to answer his wishes, the mini-storm vanished along with the three others.

Despite his wish to the contrary he could not remain standing and was forced to accept dropping to one knee instead. Using his training to gain the measure of the damage he found that at the points of contact serious electrical burns now existed. Indeed if they had been any worse he was positive that his mobility would be affected by more than just the lingering pain he now felt. Forcing himself to stand he turned with careful steps to face the one who'd managed to strike him four times faster than he was capable of perceiving.

Her back was towards him but he didn't let that fool him into thinking that somehow she was vulnerable. The speed she'd exhibited to get behind him while at the same time strike him made that perfectly clear.

However that did not mean that he was defeated.

Tapping into the power of the Archangel Gabriel he sought out all of the water that was to be found within reach and unlike what some might think it was quite a bit. He pulled it from the moisture in the air, from the plants that could be found in the cemetery and even from the network of sewer tunnels that existed beneath his feet. By the time he was done he had under his command enough water to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool but he would not be using it in a direct assault.

No.

Even if the water moved with the speed of thought he didn't think he would be able to score a telling blow against the young lady. Instead he decided to take a page from his primary target's playbook in order to level the playing field somewhat.

With as much fine control as he was capable of he dispersed the accumulated water into a fog-like mist that blanketed the combat area entirely. He knew that he was taking a risk by using water since electricity could use it as a conductor but he was banking on the natural resistance of air to give him enough room to work with. At low voltage electricity didn't work very well with the droplets of water that made up fog and even with the higher voltage there was significant resistance to conductivity. More than that with the mental grip he had on every drop of water he'd get advance warning of any incoming attack allowing him to reorient the drops to carry the blast away from him. When added to the reduced visibility and he believed that so long as he didn't let her get close enough to perceive him he could still turn this around.

As an added bonus, much like his primary target had planned, the mist would allow him to keep a lock on her position and monitor her movements by how the electrical field she was putting out interacted with the fog.

Putting the bare minimum amount of water necessary beneath his feet he also used his magic to allow him to glide across the ground rather than run. With any luck this would increase his mobility while at the same time eliminating any sounds that the young lady might use to zero in on his location for an attack.

As for defeating her he had to admit that his options were limited.

She had already proven herself capable of evading a physical blow with less than a second to spare and letting her discover his location would only result in another combination of blows being sent his way. As for a projectile attack he had a feeling that anything that prioritized speed would just wind up evaporating on contact with the electrical field. If he tried to make a projectile big enough that at least its core stood a chance of getting through he'd likely compromise the majority of the fog making his location visible to the young lady.

It was then that he determined that there was one strategy that could feasibly work if he could maintain it long enough to achieve the desired effect. Regardless of how much power the young lady now possessed she still possessed the same undeniable need every human did: the need for air. Before he'd lost sight of her he'd been able to confirm that she was indeed breathing so it wasn't like her new strength somehow put her beyond the need for air. While the ideal method would be to completely submerge her in water until the air in her lungs was spent he knew she'd use her power over electricity to shatter any such coffin of water. For his plan to work he needed to cut off her air supply in such a way so as to make it impossible for her power to be a valid path to freedom.

There was one way but…the risk was considerable.

Sensing the young lady seemingly disappear from one location only to reappear in another though he realized that he had no real choice. Despite his status as a Saint and a member of God's Right Seat he did have limits while he could not be completely certain of where the young lady's limits rested. A prolonged battle was not in his favour and direct attacks had already been judged unlikely to succeed.

So be it then. He thought closing his eyes to heighten his focus and his sensitivity to extreme levels.

Without another thought he began to send streams of water at the young lady making it look as though he intended for blunt force to destroy her protective field and defeat her. Like he'd expected upon contact with the intense electrical field she was putting out the water turned into steam that didn't affect the young lady in the least. He did this twice more in order to deceive her into thinking she knew his plan before enacting his true strategy.

Namely manipulating the steam into flowing past the protective field and into the girl's mouth.

Water was water whether it was in liquid form, solid form or gaseous form and thanks to his connection to the Archangel Gabriel he could control it in all three forms. Naturally it was easier in either liquid or solid form but that didn't mean he hadn't trained to the utmost to push his ability to control it in gaseous form to its limit. As such with every attack turned into steam by the young lady's electrical field he was sending all the gaseous form he could right into her mouth aiming to get it into her lungs. His strategy was that if he could get enough into her lungs to compromise her ability to breath it'd affect her focus as her involuntary reaction to water in the lungs kicked in. It would also make getting rid of the water pointless since if she tried to vaporize it again she'd wind up scalding the inside of her lungs making the situation worse. If she somehow had a way of completely blocking any steam from getting into her body it'd also prevent any new oxygen from getting in at the same time.

Bottom line: one way or another breathing was going to be a problem for her soon enough and he would be there to capitalize on the opportunity.

He just hoped that he could continue to stay out of her line of sight long enough for the suffocation to take effect since with every vaporized stream of water he had less fog to conceal himself with. Sure thanks to the flowing nature of the water in the sewer system he wouldn't run out in the blink of an eye but those tunnels were small and odds were high that his breaches had been detected. That meant that it was possible that technological means of sealing off the pipes could exist or at least a system to reroute the water away from his location. He couldn't afford to become complacent enough to believe that he'd have an unending supply of water via that route. As far as the plants were concerned he'd sucked them dry of water reducing them to frail shadows of their former selves with the healthy ones beyond his scope of influence. Theoretically it was possible that if he moved to the edge of the field of fog he'd created he could get a little bit more but it'd be a one time thing rather than a source that could be tapped multiple times.

Minutes passed and it was just as the fog began to thin enough for him to worry that he heard the sounds of the young lady choking as the water in her lungs reached the right amount. Yet he didn't charge right in since the intense electrical field was still strong enough to do him harm once he got within range. He waited until he could sense it losing its stability and then he darted towards her intent on finishing this with one strike even if it meant taking some damage himself. By his estimate it'd be painful but not permanent and if he didn't want to get injured he never would've started down his current path in the first place.

Deciding to approach from behind the young lady he brought his right arm back intent on shattering the back of her skull and doing irreparable damage to her brain. While he would've preferred a cleaner kill he required an attack that would be swift and guaranteed to take out his foe instantly. Throughout it all the young lady showed no signs that she'd noticed him or was preparing to defend herself and so he believed that this time his blow would land as planned.

And then probability chose to spit in his face when the young lady once more shifted into an energy form like he'd seen before and vanished from his field of vision.

Before he could do anything else his entire body lit up with pain as he felt overwhelmed. He tried, tried with all his willpower, to tap into his own power whether it was human sorcery or the powers afforded by his status as a member of God's Right Seat but it was all smoke to him. No matter how hard he tried he could never get a hold of either much less order it to repel the source of his pain.

Thus in the end his body did the only thing it could.

It took away his awareness of the world and sent him into a sea of unconsciousness.

Note 1: Yes I realize that Railgun's newest sister is exhibiting signs of shifting to level 6 that are completely different from how Misaka Mikoto shifted in the manga and later on in the anime. In my defence when I wrote this scene the anime hadn't been aired showing what Railgun would look like on the verge of reaching level 6 and that show is my primary source of info. Thus all I can state is my opinion that the appearance and properties exhibited by a level 5 esper shifting into the theoretical level 6 depends on three things. First the mind of the level 5: their memories, personalities and emotions. Second their bodies: everything from their DNA all the way up to their various biological attributes such as level of fitness or personal body chemistry. Lastly the particulars of both HOW as well as WHY they began the shift from a level 5 to a level 6. It is these three things in my opinion that explain the differences between Misaka Mikoto and the prototype of Project Fulgora's shifts to the theoretical level 6.

Note 2: Yes I did partially base the prototype's emerging level 6 attributes on Ultra Instinct Goku from Dragonball Super. I was watching the last few episodes of the series at the time and when combined with how Railgun looks when she cranks up her esper power to maximum output you have to admit there are some similarities to the ki powers from the Dragonball universe. Honestly though I haven't decided whether or not to leave this as mere similarity/coincidence or take a page from what I did with Xander and have it so that Kihara somehow got ahold of something from the Dragonball Super universe and incorporated it into the prototype. What do you think?