Counter-Hero

[ACMI: Omen]

The figure atop the roof was wearing a full body suit that appeared to be a glossy black. Their whole body was hidden, and all GV could guess from their height was that they were probably an adult. That meant probably not an esper too.

Misaka's reaction to seeing them was quick, raising her hand and letting sparks jump around her fingers.

"Who are you?"

The figure looked over from the laptop they had apparently been using. When they spoke, it was with a clearly modulated voice that GV couldn't determine the gender of.

"I am with ANTIHERO."

…Another dark side organisation? GV had never heard of it. Neither had the others apparently. Even so, they had revealed themselves blatantly which meant they were likely part of this.

"Are you the group that kidnapped Joule?" GV demanded.

The figure tilted their head, but didn't give any answer. Mitsuari went for her phone and the figure reacted instantly. Their hand swung up and the phone in her hand suddenly ruptured. Mitsuari screamed as there was a flash of light that threw her to the side.

As GV charged forward, Misaka didn't hesitate as she threw a bolt of lightning at the armoured figure. The lightning hit them square in the chest but it diffused along their suit and crackled into the ground.

GV's attempt was much the same. He threw a punch at the figure and the figure caught it and flung GV back over their shoulder. Using some magnetic force, GV pivoted back to his feet before he landed and came at the armoured figure from behind.

Whoever this person was though, they were good! They outmatched GV in martial arts at least. GV tried to throw some lightning into his moves but other than attempts to speed himself up, it seemed fairly useless. The lightning would just diffuse through the armour.

"It's a Faraday cage!" Misaka called out. GV nodded, putting the pieces together at about the same time. The suit just forced the lightning to take the path of least resistance, dodging any electronics inside along with the wearer. Granted, this had to be a very strong cage to block all this electricity.

GV was also paying attention to something else. Their enemy's stance. It was very solid, they were staying still while fighting and letting GV and Misaka come to them. Both feet squarely on the ground. It was likely to ground their suit, meaning-

GV slammed into the armoured ANTIHERO. It was his weight against an adult's but he was also adding to the force using a magnetic field dash. The impact made the armoured figure stagger. Misaka was ready in the next instant, a handful of her arcade tokens ready to use.

She wasn't using them like a railgun, more like a shotgun. Of course this would be much weaker, but she didn't want to kill the guy. She wanted answers.

"Go!" She yelled, flinging the coins forward. They slammed into the armoured figure and bowled them over and knocked them into the air. GV followed up with an electrical bolt covering the short distance from his fist to the armoured figure.

The ungrounded suit arced with electricity but the wearer still seemed mostly unharmed as the charge leaped from their suit to the building until they landed.

"You two are- hold a moment." The figure looked past them and made a flicking movement again. Mitsuari had been pulling out a spare phone as she began to recover and that phone detonated too at the figures flick.

Okay, probably an esper ability of some sort. They hadn't used it on either GV or Misaka. Maybe it was limited to hardware?

Additionally, their armour didn't need grounding. It could still help with the amount the armour could deal with but hitting them with a strong enough charge to break through would be problematic even if they were airborne.

Okay, step one would be to deal with the armour then. It was likely held together by something non-electronic and likely locked on so an opponent can't just rip it off.

As GV brawled with the armoured enemy, he took note of the suit's gloves. They were designed to be dextrous, but that likely made them a weak point for the faraday cage.

GV backed off then dashed back in, darting forward faster than he'd moved in this fight to try and throw the enemy off. He grabbed for the figure's arm and hand. His enemy immediately tried to flip him again but GV held on and dung his fingers around the figure's wrist as the figure dropped down to try and slam him into the roof.

GV hit the roof with a thump but found what he was looking for- A piece of mesh fabric. It wasn't totally part of the surrounding cage as its capacity would be far lower, so if he ramped up the voltage in this spot-

The figure slammed GV down again just as GV unleashed a powerful shock through his fingers. With a scream, the figure lurched back and staggered to the edge of the roof. Their head turned slightly and GV noticed the laptop, which likely had some sort of useful information on it. The figure began to move but GV was faster, dashing across the roof and aiming for-

He didn't see the figure flick their hands as he wasn't looking. The Laptop exploded and threw GV back towards where Misaka had been checking on Mitsuari. While GV recovered, the figure ran past them, down the stairs and into the building itself.

And, just at that moment, there was the sound of a loudspeaker.

"This is Anti-Skill! Please evacuate the building!"

Anti-skill trucks had parked in front of the building and they were getting out. Twenty, maybe thirty officers. GV also felt as an AIM jammer was activated, it felt like a weight on his mind. This was the portable kind so its effects wouldn't be quite as bad as the prison's nor as long ranged, but it still made the problem even worse.

"Anti-Skill?" Misaka looked hopeful "They can help capture the armoured figure."

GV swallowed "I think they're here for us, actually."

What better way to stop heroes then by sending innocent police officers their way? It was much more morally problematic to fight them after all.

The armoured figure, and anti-skill while under a jammer, and they still needed to get to that fax machine to hack information from it.

…Actually. If anti-skill had been called in, it would have probably been done officially.

"Misaka, think Uiharu could tell us who tipped off Anti-skill?"

Misaka gave a nod "Yeah, we just need to get out first."

End of chapter.

Sadly we won't be going to Joule after this. We need to catch up to her chronologically which might take a while.

Things just seem to be piling up, yet they have still yet to learn anything. Keikaku-Doori.