Flashes of blue and green

[ACMI2: Approaching Shadow]

GV ran ahead in the direction that the others had gone as he heard explosions behind him. Frenda was a level 0 but she didn't let that hamper her fighting ability at all.

As he ran though, he saw a green light ahead and heard Esther cry out in surprise. Luckily it didn't sound like she was hurt. A gun went off, two shots pinging off walls as GV held his own weapon in a two-handed grip.

He didn't know what trouble the others had encountered but he-

An explosion from ahead of him, the ripping and breaking of one of the corridor's walls. As GV managed to reach the source of the sound, he found Esther's undead dog with massive holes in it that appeared to have been burned with some sort of massive laser.

Beside the dog was a hole in the wall that led out into another corridor. The hole looked to have been made by the same sort of weapon or ability that had been used against the dog. The hole was edged with partially melted material, but the hole hadn't been melted through the wall. The wall had been blasted away and the melted areas were from the edge of the effect. It was similar to damage inflicted by Misaka's Railgun.

Through the hole, GV saw the green light diffused over one of the two directions of the neighbouring tunnel. That was likely whoever had destroyed the wall and they were likely following Hamazura's group.

With a sigh, GV chased after them. Turning a corner he saw the source of the light, though she didn't see him. It was a young woman, but she was missing an arm. In the arm's place was a facsimile made of green light.

As she ran down the tunnel yelling out Hamazura's name, GV's first thought was "Mage." An arm like that wasn't natural, and you'd have to be an incredibly powerful esper to make something like "solid energy."

But of course, he quickly put two and two together. He'd seen this woman before, if in very different situations.

"Meltdowner!" GV called out, the woman was surprised and glanced back.

They had encountered each other briefly during the encounter with STUDY and Joule had told him about how she'd gone after Frenda a while ago too.

"I've no time for whoever you are." The woman muttered and three beams of her ability fired GV's way as she continued chasing after Hamazura's group.

GV had heard about Meltdowner's ability from Misaka, so he had a way to block it. He generated his flashfield, cycling the electrons round him to generate a powerful electric field that deflected the fifth ranked level 5s blasts. Even so, the blasts' energy pushed him back slightly and meant he needed to dash to keep up.

He dropped the flashfield between attacks but this was one of the rare occasions where Prevasion would have been useless. Those blasts of hers would scatter his electron form and could hurt him through Prevasion. So even though flashfield prevented Prevasion's use- it was still a net positive in this case.

He just needed to keep an eye on his power, if he ran low he'd need to pause to recharge.

There was another problem though- the flashfield made it too dangerous to use his borrowed gun while it was in use. The electric field could accidentally detonate any bullets he loaded while they were in the magazine. That meant he needed to drop his defences to shoot- a process that would give the woman a chance to fire at him while he was defenceless.

All of that together, it meant he needed to get to close range. With his magnetic dashes he was faster than her but her blasts stopped him from building up any speed due to the "weight" they seemed to carry when they hit his shield.

He needed to take a risk. He pulled a loose hair free as he ran and wrapped it around his gun to tag it, then he threw it forward. As long as it hit Meltdowner, the conductive metal should stun her long enough for him to reach her.

As it flew through the air though, a blast of her power suddenly appeared and shot the gun, badly damaging it and knocking it away. Her reflexes with her power were excellent.

Before GV could try to push forward though, Meltdowner noticed a door had been opened on the side of the hallway. She darted in and GV followed her.

Beyond the door was a staircase and GV chased the level 5 into what looked like a warehouse. At the far side of the building, Hamazura's group could be seen fiddling with the building's lock on what could have been an emergency exit.

"HAMAZURA!" The madwoman seemed laser focused on the sole level 0 in the group and GV tried to make a plan.

He was disarmed, but Hamazura might have a gun he could borrow. He almost certainly had one actually, no might about it. Esther had lost her zombie dog and she didn't seem to have any other bodies with her so her magic couldn't be used to aid the fight and Takitsubo looked to be passed out, Esther currently being the one to carry her.

It didn't look good but they had a chance.

At Meltdowner's cry, Hamazura looked up in a panic and left the door alone, running for his life one way as Esther ran the other, still hauling the unconscious level 4 with her.

Despite her madness, it seemed that Meltdowner hadn't entirely lost it. She quickly glanced around, revealing a glowing eye as she looked in GV's direction. Just as he had planned, she quickly came to a decision and ran towards Esther and Takitsubo instead of following straight after the target of her rage.

Now GV could make a choice, help protect Esther or go and get a new gun.

It didn't seem that he had any way to get close enough to stop her without a weapon as her range far surpassed his. In fact she was throwing more shots in his direction as he tried to decide where he was needed.

That said- leaving the likely defenceless girls alone right now wasn't something he liked the idea of doing.

GV made his choice and began running after Meltdowner.

End of chapter:

I think I said most of what I needed to in the chapter itself. GV really needs a new version of Dart Leader as his greatest problem in "normal" fighting is the range issue.