Takeru sensed something behind him. He felt a breath. They were very close. He would give them a few more seconds, just to see.
"Dodge this."
Ah, it was goo-brain again. With a gun, of course. Idiot. The gun fired. Takeru turned around and took a step back. The bullet had left the barrel and had almost crossed the distance between it and his head. It hung in the air, frozen in place. Mizuno's face was frozen in a vengeful smile. Idiot.
Takeru grasped the bullet with his thumb and finger and began to pull it back towards the gun. It was stuck in place. He had never tried this with something that had so much momentum. This was going to take some effort. He kept pulling, occasionally switching sides to push instead when his fingers were tired.
Eventually, after what felt like 20 minutes, the bullet gave slightly. He snatched it out of the air, flipped it around, and aimed it towards Mizuno. He stuck it back in the air and pushed as hard as he could. It stayed stuck in place. Excellent. He was really getting the hang of this stuff. He pushed as hard as he could for close to an hour. He stood back in place, and let the world continue around him. He heard a little squeak from behind him, then a thud. He turned around. Mizuno had been shot in the head. It had worked. He was very proud of himself.
"I have to admit, that was scary." Accelerator was staring with what basically passed for fear on his face.
"He really was an idiot." Takeru nudged the corpse with his foot. Well, that had killed two birds with one stone. Goo-brain out of the picture, Accelerator too scared of him to try fighting (he hoped). Good. In any case, he now knew that Accelerator's reflection was time-dependent. Good information to have.
Takeru smiled and walked away. The day was going well. And then his legs stuck. That was… odd.
He looked down. He had stepped into something like wet cement, except stickier. That was strange. Suddenly there was a piercing sound, all around him. He couldn't concentrate. He couldn't stop anything around him. Oh god, the sound was like knives inside his skull. The man with the offer was walking towards him. "That sound cancels out Abilities. No effect on level zeroes, though." He smiled. "We're going on a field trip."
Takeru was in the back seat of a car. The cement around his feet had dried, and they had carved him out of it, with his feet locked together. He had a bad feeling about where this was going. He had seen a few gangster movies. The car stereo was blaring the sound continuously. The pain was ridiculous.
The arrived at a pier. Called it. Two men dragged him out of the car, and dumped him in the water. The cement was so heavy. He dropped like a rock. After about 10 feet, he couldn't hear the sound anymore. He could think again.
So, what now? Stopping time wouldn't help him much now- he would just keep sinking. He had taken a breath before he fell, but it was running out fast. And then he had a thought.
Well, it couldn't hurt to try.
He froze himself. Or rather, he sped up everything else. The sky above the water flashed like a strobe light. How far was he going? He pulled his legs against the cement. The flashing above sped up more. The cement was covered in algae. He could see it growing so quickly. It was growing on him, too. He kept straining his legs. He sank. The flashing was so fast it was now just a greyish haze above him. He pulled against the cement, and suddenly they separated. The cement almost disintegrated, pretty much immediately.
The sky paused, with the sun roughly overhead. He swam upwards. Hitting the surface, he took a few big, gulping breaths. He dragged himself out of the water and onto the dock.