The captain and his squad skated down Interstate 85 towards downtown. A loud siren rang throughout the entire city, informing citizens to evacuate. People rushed out of their homes and apartments to escape. Some carried suitcases and other belongings. They looked like a massive horde of ants as they filled the streets. Steam wagons blocked traffic on every road. Many abandoned their wagons and started to run on foot.
"People always wait until the last minute to evacuate." Fang sighed. "These sirens have been going for nearly an hour, but they're only leaving now. Idiots."
"Why do they do that?" Ed questioned.
"People want to hang onto a sense of normalcy. That everything is still fine, and it will all be okay. It isn't until shit hits the fan that they realize the severity of the situation. Even then you have idiots who try to bring tons of luggage with them. Well, all we can do is wish them the best. We'll be too busy saving trapped and injured people. We can't bother with those that can still move on their own."
As they got closer to downtown, the streets became more and more crowded with people. "This is as far as our skates will take us. We're going by building the rest of the way." The captain ordered.
The men each rappelled to the top of a nearby skyscraper. Ed's eyes widened in shock as the men lined up, shot a grapple to the next building, and swung across. They shattered the glass as they slammed straight into the building feet first. He copied them and swung to the next building. He broke through the glass and rolled across the ground. He stood up and looked around. It seemed to be an office building.
"Back to the top floor. We'll keep doing this until the crowds in the streets thin out." The men repeatedly climbed to the top of buildings and swung several floors down to the next building in line. Soon, they reached the downtown area.
"Fuck!" One of the men yelled in surprise. They could see the center of downtown. A huge crater over a kilometer in size appeared where there were previously banks, businesses, and other buildings. A silver liquid filled the crater. Loud crackling sounds could be heard from it as occasional streaks of lightning appeared on the surface of the liquid.
"It's plasma." The captain said. "Every time the nightmare shoots one of those orbs, a similar crater is made. Past cities it attacked are still filled with the stuff, making them completely inhospitable to life. Touch it and you're a dead man."
As they were now much closer to the center of the city, they could hear the battle starting in the north. "Wow! Look at that esper!" A soldier yelled excitedly. In the distance, a 10-meter-tall fire giant could be seen blasting fireballs towards the nightmare.
"Jake?!" Ed accidentally exclaimed aloud.
"Hmm?" The captain frowned. "You know that esper?"
"Mm." He nodded. "He bullied me in school. He also gave me the scar on my face you saw."
"Is that so? Well, leave him be for now. Good chance the nightmare will kill him anyways." Fang turned towards his men. "Split up. We'll just be a large target sticking together here. The mana-radios will probably get a lot of interference from the lightning. We'll meet up at the heliport after we're all finished. Remember, protect yourselves first and the citizens second. You can only save others by staying alive!"
"Yes Captain!" The men saluted and began to descend from the building in different directions. Not all of them had faced the Lightning Nightmare before, but they all had experience in these types of situations.
'Hmm. That plasma looks interesting. I kind of want to study it… Might just get me killed though. Perhaps another day.' He climbed down from the building and began to search the streets. 'Do people even need rescuing? It's not like the Flame Nightmare where the whole damn city was on fire…'
He searched for a bit without finding anyone in need of help. Those near the lightning blast had already been killed. The buildings outside the blast radius were completely unharmed. Some citizens could still be seen leaving their homes slowly, but they didn't really require assistance.
He got bored and climbed back up a building. He watched as the espers fought. A huge yinyang symbol appeared in the skies. It had to be over 15 meters in circumference. The symbol was made of black and white snow. It slammed into the nightmare, delaying it for at most a second. The symbol quickly fell apart and lightning snaked out in all directions from the nightmare.
"Eh?" Ed's eyes widened in surprise. 'Was that Yuki? I wonder if that lightning killed her? Is the whole class fighting here or something? Maybe just Jake and Yuki? It makes sense. Jake is nightmare obsessed and Yuki's father is a crazy man.'
A brilliant white light began to shine near the nightmare. 'Oh, speak of the devil.' Mr. Sai appeared from the light and flew forward. He slammed into the nightmare, knocking it back several meters. The nightmare released a frenzied roar in anger. It sounded like thunder as it blasted through the entire city. The windows of nearly every building in downtown shattered instantly. Loud screams rang out as citizens knelt to the ground while covering their bleeding ears. Some passed out as a result.
The nightmare swung its fist at OP Baldy, who easily dodged out of the way. The fist slammed into the ground, creating a lightning plasma lake beneath it. A small earthquake shook through the city as a result. Some weaker buildings began to collapse from the force.
Mr. Sai continuously weaved and dodged as he flew around the nightmare. He landed repeated blows to try forcing it back out of the city. Ed couldn't help but chuckle to himself, 'Heh, it's like watching a mosquito fight a bug zapper.'
Screams of pain and agony began to echo through the streets. The recent attacks had made the relatively peaceful situation turn much worse. 'Guess I'll get started then,' Ed climbed down from the building and searched for survivors. He quickly found a man with a broken leg trapped under a steel beam.
"Please help me!" The man begged with tears in his eyes.
"Sure." He bent down and easily lifted the steel beam up. The man crawled out and struggled to stand on his good leg. "Thank you!" The man said with tears still in his eyes.
'Should I fix his leg? No, I might get caught by captain crazy.' He looked the man in the eyes and spoke, "I've got others to save. You can still move on your own. Head south and you might live. Try to reach the heliport if possible. We'll have Sinless members stationed there later."
"Wait!" The man screamed. "My leg is broken! Can't you help get me there?! Please!"
"I'm too busy. Good luck!" Ed waved as he walked away. He found others in similar situations throughout the city. Some were completely deaf from the thunder. He did what he could for them and pointed them to go south. 'Man. I must have saved at least 100 lives by now. I wonder if karma really exists? If it does then can I experiment on 100 people for balance? Haha.'
The Lightning Nightmare continuously made progress into the city. It hurled orbs of lightning in all directions. The entire city was getting covered by plasma lakes. 'Hmm. Doesn't seem to be headed for downtown. Guess I'll keep rescuing people. Maybe I can recruit some newly awakened espers if I'm lucky. I partnered with Phantom, but I'd much rather have my own secret forces instead.'
Suddenly, he heard many different roars. He looked down and saw that a horde of mutants was rushing into downtown. 'A mutant flood? They must have entered through the parts of the city the nightmare destroyed. Almost all of them are lightning-resistant as well, just like the fire-resistant mutants when Reef city was attacked.'
A 5-meter-tall fox with three tails ran towards Ed. It had silver fur and purple eyes. Lightning sparked between the tails. 'Another fox? Do I have a weird ass affinity with them or something? What did I do to piss off their ancestors so much that they keep coming after me like this?!' He aimed at a nearby skyscraper and shot his grapple. He quickly rappelled to the top.
'No point wasting my time on a dumb fight with a mutant.' Suddenly, the fox ran straight at the building. It jumped onto the wall and kicked off it towards the wall of the next-door building. It kicked back and forth rapidly to climb to the top of the skyscraper where Ed was.
'Are you fucking kidding me? I'll roast it!' He aimed with both arms and shot compact streams of fire towards it. The fox easily dodged and growled angrily. A bolt of lightning fired from its tails!
'I won't be hit that easily.' As Ed dodged to the side, the lightning bolt curved to follow him and slammed into his arm. "AGHH!!! FUCK!" He screamed in pain. Smoke floated from his left arm. The armor was scorched black. Cracks covered the armor and black gel slowly oozed out.
His eyes widened in fear. 'How powerful is this damn mutant?! The lightning must have followed the metal in my arm. My left arm's muscles won't move anymore. I have to use my mana to move it.' He controlled both arms and began firing more streams of fire as quickly as he could. He tried burst firing and releasing a continuous stream, but the fox easily dodged it all.
'It's preparing more lightning!' He shot his right arm's grapple at the nearby building and jumped. He landed a few floors down on the next building. However, the fox still followed behind him! 'Damnit! I won't get away like this. It'll be too strong for my powers to melt the fox directly just like the flame fox I faced previously.'
He looked behind him and grit his teeth. 'Baby birds learn to fly by jumping from the nest. I've been practicing in my spare time. It's now or never…' He made a run for the shattered windows of the building. As he ran he stumbled a bit to take off the boots of the exo suit. He jumped through the window and released large blasts of fire from his arms and legs.
The fire boosted him forward towards the next building. He crashed to the floor, stood up, and started running again. He jumped from the window and blasted fire once more. He repeatedly traveled between buildings as the fox followed behind him. He occasionally dodged to the side as lightning blasted past him. Some of it would curve towards him and zap his exo suit, causing him to groan in pain.
Soon, he ran out of nearby buildings to jump to. He hesitated for a brief moment before jumping anyways. He quickly flew forward, but also began losing altitude. He tried holding his arms and legs out correctly for balance but failed and started to fall rapidly. The fox jumped after him and crashed into the ground. It stood on the ground and stared upwards as it waited for him to fall.
'I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!' He poured as much mana as he could into the mana-batteries within his limbs. The flames grew larger and hotter. The flesh and metal near his palms and feet began to melt. The extra power allowed him to find the correct balance and stay in the air. He slowly began to decrease the power to a more ordinary output. It was harder to control with less power, as it put more demand on his fine motor skills for balance.
"HAHA!!!" He laughed excitedly. "I succeeded! What now shitty fox?!" He carefully aimed his right arm at the fox and released a large blast of fire towards it. The counterforce pushed him back through the air, but he quickly caught his balance. 'Hmm. It's too far away for fire to be effective at this height. I'll have to address that later. This is pretty nice. It's kind of like riding a bike once you get the hang of it.'
He happily turned around to check his surroundings. "Now, where am I? FUCK!!!" The Lightning Nightmare was like a giant wall in front of him. Some nearby espers were holding it off, and OP Baldy was still pressing his attacks.
Suddenly, a large silver orb began to form in front of the nightmare. It was aimed in Ed's direction. His eyes widened in fear as he quickly aimed his arms in front of him. He chose to hold nothing back. He used his mana to remove the mana-batteries from his arms. They floated in front of him. It made it much harder to stay afloat since he had to rely only on his legs now.
He removed the fire and wind mana-powder from the mana-batteries. The battery casings originally acted as a limiter and controller for the power. Using the raw powder would release a far more devastating force. 'This is going to fucking hurt!' He melted the metal from his arms to form a shield in front on him. Then he poured all of his mana into the powder. It unleashed a huge explosion of green wind and red fire! The two forces fused together into a large wave of green fire that spread in all directions. All of this occurred in less than a second. The huge blast of flames slammed into the metal shield and sent him flying through the skies like a missile.
The metal shield he created quickly melted from the heat. The remaining flames slammed into his exo suit as he shot forward. Gel from the suit bubbled and exploded as it came in contact with the flames.
"UGH!" He groaned in pain as he coughed up blood. Flames still blasted from his legs to shoot him forward even faster. He had very little control of where he was going. He could see a skyscraper in front of him as he shot forward. He melted the mutant flesh from his arms to form a cushion in front of him. He slammed directly onto the top floor of the building. The flesh cushion exploded into pieces.
"Huff! Huff!" He stood up while his entire body trembled in pain. The exo suit felt like it was on fire, so he used his powers to directly melt it off his body. He stood atop the roof with both his arms completely gone. All he was wearing now was his black boxer briefs. He laughed to himself, 'Haha! Looks like I got away mostly uninjured. I didn't even suffer any burns. I've got to get me another exo suit in the future!'
He lifted his head up while smiling. Then his eyes widened in fear. 'God, why?' The large lightning orb was heading in his direction.
"LOOK OUT!' A high-pitched voice screamed. An Asian girl with long half-white and half-black hair stood in front of him. A large yinyang pattern made from snow formed in front of her.
"Yuki?!" He questioned in shock.
"Huh?" She turned around and her mouth widened in surprise. "Ed?"
The lightning orb slammed into the edge of the building in front of them. Lightning and plasma exploded in all directions and slammed into the yinyang snow symbol. The symbol quickly blew apart. Both Ed and Yuki were blasted off the roof of the building.