First round, Dragons and Lightning
[ACMI: Alchemy]
As Kimi held Saten tightly she chuckled "Really, you both tried far too hard for this and went through more pain than you had to." She was speaking to Joule and Saten mostly but then she turned to Uiharu "And you, this was a bit silly wasn't it? Even with these two to help you, you never could have made it out before I noticed. You made a good attempt, but it's done now."
Finally she spoke to all of them.
"Now then, be good girls and wait patiently for my guards to show up."
She moved her grip on Saten from the neck to across her upper torso. That would probably make it less painful for her at least.
When Joule looked at Saten though, she saw something in her friend's eyes. She'd had an idea.
"The funny thing." Saten managed to cough out "I mean, the really funny thing, are the two mistakes you made."
"Oh?" Kimi asked casually "Please, enlighten me. You have my curiosity at least. Where did I make a mistake?"
"Let's start-" Saten coughed again "With what you did earlier. You disabled the AIM jammers."
"And?" Kimi prompted "Your friend Uiharu's power might be surprisingly applicable from what she showed earlier, but it's not easy to weaponize. Four-eyes' power is limited to illusions or so it seems and I know that even if she changes something, I've still got you in my arms. Lastly, if you were to try anything, I would be able to knock you out before you could fight back."
"Which leads to your second mistake." Saten smiled
Which was when the perimeter wall's door exploded off its mounting.
[ACSRT: Why Is Misaka Mikoto Here!?]
Misaka had phenomenal timing. Lightning crackled as she moved instantly from the door to Kimi's side.
"Mikasa Mik-"
Before Kimi had the chance to pull Saten around as a shield, Misaka flung a kick at her head.
Kimi was forced to move back to dodge the kick and Saten took that chance while she was off balance. Her hands had been pressed behind her for the last minute or so, granting her plenty of time to prepare for a burst.
Because she'd still been practising her ability. A blast of air separated her from Kimi's grip and Misaka instantly spun, drawing a coin in a flash and pointing it straight at Kimi's head.
Not a second later, a railgun shot out at point-blank range. It enveloped the spot where Kimi had just been.
Now this miracle wasn't just a hope and prayer, though it was kind of lucky. As they'd travelled over from the roof, they'd suspected that Kimi might disable the AIM jammers to stop them herself and that could leave an opening for Misaka if she was already on her way. A mad gamble but one they'd been ready to make if the worst happened.
As the light of the railgun cleared, it revealed that Kimi's dragon had shielded her with its wings. She was unhurt by what could be seen as Misaka's strongest attack.
"Easy on that trigger finger." Kimi joked as the wings retracted slightly "Did you see how close that came to your friend?"
"As if you wouldn't throw her in front of it anyway." Misaka noted, anger in her voice "You're not exactly the type to play fair either."
Lightning flashed, running along the ground in every direction. Joule felt a slight buzz as it passed, but it didn't do anything to hurt her.
"I've made it so the jammers can't be restarted." Misaka noted
Kimi was smirking as she took stock of the battlefield. Saten had retreated to stand by Joule and Uiharu with Misaka still standing in front. If they tried to leave though, Kimi would prioritise stopping their escape and she'd fully accepted going for killing blows at this point.
…At least that was the aura she seemed to be putting out.
If Misaka didn't give this her best, she couldn't create an opening for her friends to retreat.
"Hmm… You're hurt."
Kimi was right, Misaka did look a little scratched up.
"Was it Raifu?"
"I never learned her name." Misaka admitted "But you mean the gravity manipulator?"
"Yeah." Kimi nodded "Makes sense, Saryou would have either left you unharmed or dead. But… do you think you can beat me while injured?"
"Unfortunately for you, all it did was fire me up!" Misaka yelled as she charged. Joule focused.
The world distorted. Fractured and reformed.
Joule created two more illusory copies of Misaka that broke from her straight path. Kimi didn't let them distract her at first, just keeping her eyes on the Misaka in the center.
From her back, angelic wings sprouted and sprayed feathers, as they shot into the doubles, they blew apart into crystal-like shards. Meanwhile the real Misaka blasted them with chain lightning, jumping between feathers to clear the path to Kimi herself.
Before the lightning struck Kimi though, she raised her hand and black lightning shot out, disrupting Misaka's attack.
"What on earth-"
"Not on earth at all." Kimi countered as the dragon's head emerged from her back "I'm getting more of a grip on it, the longer we fight."
Light blasted out of the dragon and the spectators needed to cover their eyes as the dragon surged towards Misaka.
This was it, the attack that turned whatever was in its path to salt.
The world distorted. Fractured and reformed.
Joule couldn't see what was going on properly but now she saw the world in a different way. Like she was looking at the world as a 2d plane upon a wall. Like she was looking at it from a higher dimension. She was stunned for a moment though and just watched as Misaka quickly pulled the broken door from early in front of her to block the dragon. The door turned to hard packed salt but it left Misaka unharmed.
As Joule looked at the world from this higher angle, she felt her real arm being pulled. She saw in the image that Saten had taken her hand to guide her away. The distraction seemed to be working so Joule just projected the image of their little group still standing back and watching.
The salt that made up the door began to crack and in that moment, Misaka began her counter attack, calling iron sand from the ground into multiple tornados to shoot towards Kimi. Joule quickly magnified the attack, copying it to look like there were at least twenty or thirty different angles of attack.
Kimi struggled to tell which of them were real but as she raised her wings wide she was able to stop all of them. In that moment Misaka rushed in, bringing the fight into close range as she flung iron sand feathers at Kimi, mimicking the dragon-user's earlier attack.
"What a copycat." Kimi chuckled as Misaka rushed in.
"Do you really think that move is unique enough to claim ownership of it?"
Misaka had dashed within the range of Kimi's wings, making it harder for Kimi to parry with them. As Misaka threw a quick punch though, Kimi caught it. Misaka took advantage of her opponent's confidence in close range though, stepping onto her foot and slamming her body weight onto Kimi to knock her down.
As Kimi fell, she quickly righted herself though.
"Does a Tokiwadai student really fight that dirty?" She commented with a grumble.
"Quit imagining we're something we're not!" Misaka objected, pulling one of the broken robots from before with her power.
As she propelled it towards Kimi she yelled "In another's words- I'll crush that delusion!" Kimi smiled though.
"Oh, don't take offence, I quite like the fact you're willing to fight this dirty-" Kimi looked up with a start and black lightning crackled again and she slammed her arm into the robot flying towards her "It makes this more fun."
The lightning hit the robot and it blasted away- a copy of Misaka's railgun fired towards the prison walls above the broken doorway that led out. Joule (Who saw it from the better angle) pulled back sharply, her movement pulling Uiharu and Saten back before the wall splattered out that quick-drying cement over the door- sealing it closed.
In that moment, Joule's illusion was disrupted
Kimi laughed at them "It seemed there was a delusion that needed to be broken, besides-" She looked at her hand and smiled "Do you really think that move is unique enough to claim ownership of it?"
Joule paled, but she was resolute. It wouldn't be long until the guards got here. Kimi might think that was her victory but she'd missed something else. One more mistake that Saten hadn't pointed out.
Kimi seemed to believe that only Joule and Saten had broken in, she was ignorant of GV.
End of chapter!
I was going to write even more but if I'm at about 1.4k words and hit a chapter break in the manga, then I should probably chapter break here too before I get over 2k or 3k words. I do need to pace this out after all.