18 The Storm.

Accelerator looked at the newcomer in confusion. He had been getting interrupted quite a bit these past few days.

First it was that woman...the thought of fighting her made his blood boil. Then there was that mysterious attack that happened a few moments ago, and now there was this idiot in front of him.

He started mentally comparing this newcomer to the girl had had met previously, and his expression started to sink.

He became annoyed which quickly turned to anger.

This idiot infront of him...…was weak.

It's a natural instinct for the strong to recognize the strong. When a predator meets another predator they know it immediately as with that mysterious woman.

But this kid infront of him...he barely even registered a blip on his radar. He could swat him like a fly, yet he was standing infront of his prey so resolutely.

He felt something was wrong, like the man was hiding something.

Maybe he had a way to hide his power to lull him into a false sense of security?

If it was a few nights ago he may have fallen for it, but after that first encounter…..he was more on guard.

That wasn't to say his ego had deflated at all, no he was still the number one of the city, the invincible Accelerator. He was just anticipating a potential fight.

So he watched the newcomer. He didn't care that those clones scurried off almost immediately, they were inconsequential.

It was silent. He would usually be mouthing off, spouting something arrogant but he was focused more than usual.

His eye's narrowed when the newcomer walked towards him. It was neither slow nor fast and he showed no fear.

An intimidation tactic? Did he have something up his sleeve to allow him to fight against his Vector control?

The thought was interesting.

His vector control was invincible, he wanted to see what gave this idiot the courage to stand up to it...and then crush it as the hope drained away from his being.

HE was the strongest, he would become lvl 6 so that no one would ever dare challenge him again. So he allowed this provocation to go unabated.

He would show this fool his power after crushing his confidence and then finally ending him.

So he watched on as the fool approached him.

He watched, hands still but almost twitching in excitement.

As the boy squared up against him, Accelerator's eyes widened in surprise.

The boy clenched his fist and swung it at his face.

More emotions swept through his being until he finally settled on disappointment.

Maybe he was the fool for thinking that maybe someone could possible put up a fight against him, if only in futility.

He of course wouldn't show mercy to this person who interfered, but that didn't mean he had to lose his temper at every mosquito who bit him.

You merely step on any bugs that cross your path, you don't get mad at them for being bugs.

He let out a sigh as his eyes closed, his hopes had gotten up and quickly dashed. His passive field would take care of this idiot and he would quickly be screaming on the ground as his hand would be missing.

The thought of that made him feel a tad better, a smile returning to his face.

Any idiot who dared challenge him would suffer the same fate.

His thoughts were quickly broken off by something odd happening.

His body had jerked at an angle his wasn't familiar with, and his brain started to rattle. He couldn't think straight as he collapsed to the ground.

A fist had connected square with his jaw.

He felt something again a few more times, something impacting him. It was an unfamiliar feeling and his brain was taking a moment to recover from the impact.

It took him longer than expected to realize what was going on.

He slammed his hand on the ground and blew back everything within a dozen yards of him.

Touma had been sent flying back as well.

Accelerator inspected himself, blood dripping from his mouth and his face starting to swell in a few places.

His brain was going into overdrive, trying to process what had happened.

After running through hundreds of scenarios, he came to a few conclusions, the newcomer could somehow negate his abilities on touch. He didn't know the limitations, but it was enough to work with.

"You mother fucker..." Accelerator finally spoke.

"Never been punched before?" Touma said with a laugh as he pulled himself back up, he wasn't really hurt minus some scrapes.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Touma took off into a sprint towards the angry Accelerator.

His fist was reeled back and ready to hit him again, until suddenly a bag of cement collided with him and sent him flying back.

He was skidding across the ground until his body finally came to a stop.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood as he tried to push himself up.

Accelerator started to laugh uncontrollably.

"YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD CHALLENGE ME WITH SUCH WEAK ABILITY?"

"I'M THE STRONGEST AND ILL PROVE IT TO EVERYONE WHEN I REACH LVL 6" He roared

At his proclamation, hundreds of nearby pipes began to float in the air behind him.

It was clear what he was going to do next, Touma had face something similar on many occasions.

Before Accelerator could give the mental command for the projectiles to fire away he heard a voice echo out in the distance.

"Railgun." A female voice called out.

A beam of orange light fired off into his direction.

The objects in the air fell to the ground as Accelerator braced himself.

It was the girl's signature attack, its where her name game from. Using her electromagnetism to fire off a coin like a miniature railgun.

The air crackled with electricity as it made its way towards the strongest Esper in the city.

Accelerator put both hands up as the propelled coin was halted with great effort.

The energy not yet dissipating as it was pushing against his own defenses.

With a roar he waived his hands to the side and with great difficulty, the railgun diverted to the side and collided with a building being constructed.

The building's foundations had been obliterated as the projectile continued on into the distance.

The building began to teeter back and forth as it would fall at any moment.

Accelerator was breathing raggedly. He wasn't strained, nor tired...…he was recovering from a slight panic attack.

That attack had taken him completely off guard. It was capable of overcoming his passive defenses and he had to manually take control and divert it. It would have been easier if he was ready for it, but he didn't know there was anyone else lurking about.

It was clear right away who it was and what was going on.

The origin of the clones he slaughtered had finally made her appearance.

He was searching his surroundings for her, an actual threat that had to be taken care of.

As his eyes were darting all over the shadows and looking for any signs of movement and expanding his senses outwards a familiar figure came back at him swinging.

The idiot who he downed earlier had come back and started swinging at him.

Accelerator was dodging, he could control the vectors around his body to increase his speed significantly, though he was using the barest minimum as he was still trying to focus on his surroundings.

He was weaving his body back and forth still waiting for another Railgun to fire at him.

This continued for several moments until he finally got annoyed and slammed his foot into the ground.

He caused the ground to explode around him, akin to a mini-earth quake, the area began to rumble.

Touma knocked back again and fell to the ground, he was having trouble standing after the previous hit.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR FLAILING, DIE LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE." Accelerator roared as his arm reached for Touma's head.

It was easy to figure out the extent of his powers, he had only swung with his right hand which indicated that only his right arm could negate his powers.

Right on que, aother beam of orange erupted from the distance and another shot maid its way towards him.

Accelerator smiled as he swung his arm to deflect the shot, he had made the calculations based on the last shot and could deal with them easier now.

"IS that it? If that's all the power another supposed lvl 5 has I may as well kill this insect and be done with it." Accelerator taunted.

Several more orange beams were fired off as Accelerator casual bat them to the sides.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM" A female voice roared as lighting began to coalescence

Using her powers of electromagnetism, she started to collect all the iron in the nearby dirt and formed them into sword shapes.

She threw them all at Accelerator.

Accelerator laughed as he ignored Touma on the ground and met her attack.

Mikoto began to rage as she added in arcs of lighting.

She started to bombard him at the same time.

The entire area was lighting up at the sheer volume of blasts that started to strike his location.

Touma took this chance to gain some distance as the area of bombardment was increasing.

The lightning began to dance in the air and build upon itself as it culminated in large clouds overhead.

"TAKE THIS YOU BASTARD" She yelled as the clouds parted and a giant bolt of lighting struck down from the heavens.

The entire city flickered as the lights shot off for a moment.

The surrounding constructions began to collapse overhead as debris began to fall.

Mikoto was breathing heavily as sweat dripped down her face. She had never had to pull that much power out so quickly before.

She had been straining her body with the continued use of her powers in such a quick manner.

The dust began to settled as a laugh echoed out.

Mikoto's eye's widened at the sound.

Accelerator was standing there.

The ground he was standing on was untouched as everywhere around him had been obliterated.

Electrical discharges still going off in the clouds overhead as Mikoto began to feel a sense of foreboding.

"Have you heard of dust explosions?" He said with a cocky grin.

She began to tremble slightly in fear as she noticed the dust that had been kicked up around them.

She quickly tried to cover herself as Accelerator snapped his fingers.

It wasn't hard to create with his powers, and he could barrow the lighting that was still dancing in the vicinity to act as the combustion.

An explosion was set off in between them as everything in the vicinity as blown back.

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Misaka Mikoto opened her eyes, something heavy pressing down on her. She was trying to remember what happened moments ago, he mind still dizzy.

She went through it step by step, she was fighting Accelerator...he set off an explosion and next she knew someone grabbed her and threw her on the ground as they jumped ontop of her.

She quickly regained her wits as she realized the events that had transpired.

The person that shielded her and was currently unconscious ontop of her.

"Touma....." She said quietly as tears began to fall.

She wrapped her arms around him as she tried to shift him up, she felt something wet as she grabbed him. She knew what it was immediately, he was bleeding profusely.

The movment managed to wake him as his eyes opened.

"biri biri...." He said with a smile as blood dripped from his mouth.

He stumbled a bit as he stood up with her support, his legs almost buckling under the pressure.

"You survived..." Accelerator finally spoke.

He was a bit surprised. He thought for sure that blast would have killed her, he didn't expect for that trash from earlier to shield her.

He didn't understand why, he would sacrifice himself for someone else.....?

It was irrational, it was stupid, it went against all of his ideals and principals. You look out for yourself, you get stronger so no one else can stand against you.

It made him irrationally angry as he stared at them.

He was angrier than he had been the entire fight. He hated them, he hated that they were standing in defiance of him, he hated that they were willing to risk their lives for each other.

No one ever did that for him....

He felt something odd click inside of him as he began to compress the air in the area.

It was something he never tried before and he only did it in a spit of anger.

He compressed it more and more until it began to form into an orb of plasma and began to grow in size.

He didn't speak, he would usually taunt and spout off some arrogant retort…..but he oddly wasn't in the mood. He surprisingly had a lot of thoughts on his mind after this entire fight.

Those two still stood in defiance of him, they could barely stand at all yet they were still willing to fight it out.

Mikoto let go of Touma as she began to gather her power again.

She saw what was floating above him, she knew what it was. It was a giant ball of plasma.

She had no idea how to combat that, she could only desperately put of any resistance she could.

"Touma run...." She said quietly.

She didn't want him to die.

She was the one who brought him into this mess, she didn't know if they could win this battle anymore.

Accelerator would focus on her as the immediate threat and she would buy as much time as possible for him.

"I'm weak...."

"I'm a lvl 0 without any strong powers."

"But....i will never abandon those I care about." He declared resolutely.

"Idiot….." She replied, a small smile forming on her face.

She took a deep breath as she called upon her powers again, she had already overdrawn them and was pushing herself even further.

She pulled out another coin and lined it up like before, the motions were basically muscle memory at this point.

"Railgun" She said as the coin fired off like a laser.

She expected a familiar scene of him batting it away....yet something unexpected happened.

He suddenly clutched his head and screamed in pain, the coin collided with a preoccupied Accelerator, it ripped through his lower abdomen and fire off into the distance.

Touma and Mikoto knew what was happening, she had finally made her move.

It was their trump card, something that would only work once.

Misaki was attacking his mind from a distance. He had a similar shield like Mikoto but she was trying her best to push through.

Misaki was standing on a nearby building with a clear view of the fight.

She was concentrating as best as she could to force herself through his defenses.

She clenched her teeth as blood began to seep from her nose eyes and ears. She was pushing herself further than she ever had before.

It hurt, her head was pounding as she tried to continue this mental battle with the strongest esper in the city.

Touma had gotten so hurt, compared to what he had gone through already.....compared to how much her heart hurt at seeing him in pain, this was nothing.

She continued to push.

Besides, she couldn't be upstaged by Mikoto.

The two didn't miss this chance either.

Mikoto was trying her best to condense more lighting to fire, she was having trouble as her body was going numb and her eyes were getting heavy.

She tried her best to put forth another bombardment as she shot off the lightning-like spears, only about a third of which she could even aim on target.

Accelerator continued to scream in pain as his mental defenses were being penetrated forcefully.

He saw the lightning coming as he tried to shift some of his attention towards those oncoming projectiles, flailing a hand around to knock them aside, every so often one hitting him and causing him to falter.

Each one had varying degrees of power behind them, Mikoto was having trouble controlling her powers right now, it was a miracle she could even perform another volley.

She finally collapsed as the last round was fired off.

Touma saw this and knew it was the last opportunity they would have.

He took a deep breath as he took a wobbled step forward.

And another.

And another, firmer step.

He got faster as he broke out into a sprint. His bones were creaking and pain was running through his body. He had no idea how many broken bones he had, how many lacerations on his body.

He could barely even see at this point, he probably had a concussion as the ringing in his ears never stopped.

It didn't matter though, he continued to charge his foe.

Accelerator had just fended off the last of the lightning as he was still clutching his head, he couldn't even see the fist that suddenly connect with his face.

His mind was focused solely on repelling the invader form a distance. He was trying to force the intrusion back, find the source and destroy it.

It was working, he was starting to trace it back and found the general direction. The attack was getting weaker and weaker, he could tell that his opponent was running out of steam...that was until he suddenly felt his body get lifted off the ground as a force collided with his face.

The mental attack had ceased but it was already too late.

Another fist landed.

And another.

And another.

He tried his best to stand back up, until the final hit came.

An upper cut to his jaw caused his eyes to roll back and for him to finally lose consciousness.

As Accelerator fell back, Touma too fell forward losing consciousness along side him. His body had long passed its limited and he was shutting down.

As Accelerator fell back, he lost control of his powers that were still in effect.

The Plasma ball began to grow unstable as it warped out in random directions in the air.

IT shot forth as it tried to dissipate, taking anything nearby with it. That included the structure's support beams that was nearby.

As the orb had finally disappeared, the building began to creak and started to tip over as its support had been removed.

Steel beams began to fall as the entire structure started to rain down from the sky.

"That was a good fight." Alex said as he approached battlefield.

All three of them were down for the count, Misaki had even passed out from over use of her powers.

He quickly grabbed Touma and Mikoto to avoid the falling debris as he also moved towards where Misaki was.

He would take them to his place so they could heal and sleep. They deserved a long rest after that performance.