Inverted Trap
[ACMI: Time Limit]
Touma stood up straight and looked at his foe. The magician who wanted to ruin everyone's hard work. Before him were the lines that he took to be the work of that spell she cast, "Blade Crater." She likely chose it knowing about Imagine breaker so it would have to be a spell that she expected him to be unable to block.
He took a step forward. Then another. He walked towards her slowly, eyes locked on her. In his head was the patern, he knew how many steps there were until he hit the first line. He took the last safe step then charged towards her, hand low.
"Get back you fool!" She yelled as she took a step away herself as the ground began to erupt up in lines. He had seen this kind of cutting effect before but that time it hadn't even been magic, just physical cables. This time though it was magic and therefore:
He reached out just as an invisible blade shot up from the floor in front of him, the plane of force shattered and he broke right through.
"Is it that powerful?" Oriana muttered as she used her teeth to rip another slip of paper out from her tiny pad.
In her hand a purple storm appeared as she called out "Drop rest!" Touma swung his hand forward and the air broke apart before hitting him. He was close now, close enough to go in for a strike.
She swung her package at him and he dodged to the side and let his fist swing into her face. She gave a yell as she fell back, the package flying from her hands. The sound it made was a wooden clattering.
Touma checked and the mage didn't seem to be getting up so he checked on the sword. He pulled open the cloth that was wrapping it.
"What? What's this?"
Inside was not a sword, but a sign for an ice cream shop.
He pulled out his phone, it was broken.
"Just my luck." He muttered just as he heard running and turned to see GV running up to him.
"What's going on?" GV asked as he saw Touma with the sign and Oriana on the ground.
Touma looked down at the board "This isn't the sword. It was a decoy!"
Just as he spoke, Oriana quickly got to her feet while going through her pad.
"Well done." She congratulated "All I need to do is escape you and I can finish my job with the real one later."
"Where did you put it?" Touma yelled. Oriana raised an eyebrow "Do you honestly think I would tell you? Oh, then let's try this; I left it underground."
It was entirely possible she was lying. GV glared at her "We could just get it out of you."
"Torture?" She spoke in mock horror "Oh how dreadful. It doesn't matter though, I still wouldn't give it up. If you want it, you'll just have to keep chasing me for the rest of the day."
...Why was it important that she make the trade today? She'd mentioned 'Later' and 'the rest of the day' so it was clear that the deal was today but why was it so important.
GV went for his phone. At the sudden movement, Oriana ripped out the slip and a windstorm gathered around her which she used to jump to a nearby bridge.
"Got to run, I'll leave that board with you. Maybe you can even get it back to the store I stole it from?" She let out a laugh and turned to go.
GV tossed his phone to Touma "Call it in, tell them what happened, I'm going to stay on her."
He jumped and used the metal in the ground to propel him after her.
[ACMI2: Fanatic]
Touma looked down at the phone and dialed the number that was being used for their communications.
"Hello? Stiyl?"
"He's outside." The voice of one of Misaka's friends came over the line, the one with the flowers "He said he needed to take a call from his boss."
Touma filled her in on the decoy.
"A fake?" She asked "Then where's the real one?"
"She hinted it was underground. I think that might just be a wild goose chase though."
"Probably." She agreed "Can you keep a look out for her?"
Touma agreed and set off.
GV lost her after a bit so he went back to Touma to reclaim his phone, since Touma had lost his they stuck together to share information.
After about fifteen minutes, they got another call.
"This is Stiyl, there's bad news. I can't talk about it over the phone though. Can all of you meet us here in the office. Quickly?" They agreed and ran over. They were the last there.
Everyone was sitting around on the sofas in the Judgement office, Stiyl and Tsuchimikado having taken the seats at the head of the table.
"We aren't dealing with the stab sword." Stiyl began "No, it's something worse."
"Worse than a weapon made to kill saints?" GV asked.
"Much." Tsuchimikado answered before noting "It's the difference between a tactical weapon and a strategic weapon. We're dealing with the Croce di Pietro."
Misaka shrugged "What's that?"
"A powerful magical artifact." Stiyl explained "It's a cross that basically establishes wherever it's planted at as 'belonging to the Catholic Church'."
"What does that actually mean?" Joule asked.
"No matter where it's placed is theres, even if it's somewhere like Academy City, comes under their exclusive control."
Kuroko's eyes went wide "How? What would happen?"
"Everything would play out in a way that serves the Catholic Church and everyone will happily go along because they won't sense that anything is out of place." Tsuchimikado explained "Something like mass mind control."
"That's horrible!" Misaka slammed her hands on the table "How do we stop it?"
Tsuchimikado stood up at looked out a window "We need to know it's trigger conditions. There are people in the british library looking but they haven't found it yet. Until it's found we can't do much. Try to find Oriana Thomson if you can and capture her."
Uiharu nodded "I'll find her again, just..." She looked at everyone else "Can everyone leave any events they've got on for the rest of today?"
"The cavalry battle!" Saten realised "Damn, that's in less than an hour."
"It's fine." Joule noted "GV and I aren't in it, we can keep looking."
"If you're sure?" Uiharu sounded unsure.
Tsuchimikado just smirked "Try and enjoy the festival, we can handle this."
"No." Misaka refused "You've told us the risk. I'm not going to let it happen."
Tsuchimikado sighed and shook his head "I'll make a call."
End of chapter.