Alina watched him walk over to the van and encounter the student from their school. The two were able to recognize each other almost b immediately but said nothing. Instead, Ken ignored him and turned his gaze to the man in the van.
"Whaddya need, kid?" The man asked Ken before pointing a thumb at the other student. "A dose of Accelerant like him?"
"No," Ken answered with a shake of his head. "What I need is a weapon. A gun."
The man whistled and stared at Ken closely, observing the micro-movements of his body language; he wanted to check if this student was serious and not a cop helper and, finally, he whistled when he realized that Ken wasn't joking.
Despite that, the man shook his head. "Sorry. We don't sell guns here. Especially not to kids."
"And selling drugs is?" Ken asked incredulously. "What's the difference?"
"The difference is that you can't go on a school shooting spree with a syringe," the man explained impatiently when he realized how naive and green Ken was. "The only person you could kill is yourself, and that's only if you're stupid enough to OD. Sorry, but the heat is not worth it."
"I'm only intending on killing one person," Ken said slowly but the man shook his head again.
"Beat it, kid."
After supplying the other student with a syringe of Accelerant, the man moved to close the door.
"I'll pay you triple, no four times the amount!" A rather desperate Ken clung to the van's door and the man paused.
After a few moments, the man eventually made up his mind and turned to glare at the other student. "You got what you wanted. Scram!"
Alright, that's enough, Alina thought as she prepared to fight. I need to take them all out and figure out why Ken wants a gun of all things.
Alina picked up a pivot grapple from the briefcase and attached it to the edge of the roof. Since she didn't have A.V.A's support, she had to divert a fraction of her powers to manually control the grapple with her electromagnetism and aimed it at Ken. Then, she made a final check over herself to see if she missed anything before jumping off the rooftop. Alina landed on the roof of the van, which caved from the impact and surprised everyone.
"What the -?" The dealer who was handling Ken spun around and stared at Alina with a loss. He gazed at her hoodie before moving his eyes to gaze at her guarded joints and then her masked face.
Is it Comicon today? He asked himself.
Before he could think about it any further, Alina jumped and kneed him in the face. Her knee broke his nose and his mouth caved in as almost all of his front teeth were knocked out. The force of the blow sent him reeling and he could barely get up as he had unintentionally swallowed and choked on a few of his teeth, gobs of blood spilling from his gaping mouth.
Before she landed, Alina activated the pivot grapple which launched towards Ken. The reinforced graphene cable wrapped itself around Ken before going taut and pulling him back and upwards while he shouted in surprise. He slammed into the wall of the building and had the air knocked out of his lungs as his legs dangled helplessly; the grapple had also pulled him upwards so he was now off the ground and about three stories high. Even if he found a way to escape from the cable, he would risk falling and injuring himself.
Meanwhile, Alina didn't pause for a second. She spun around and kicked the side of the van with so much force that it slid a few meters away and slammed into one of the armed gangsters. The armed gangster couldn't avoid the van and was sent flying until he crashed into garbage cans, completely knocked out.
The third and final gangster aimed his gun at Alina and fired while the driver regained his wits and decided to run away.
"Dammit," Alina muttered, her voice electronically scrambled by the mask. She saw the van driving off but had to create an electromagnetic field to stop the bullets that were fired at her. In a few seconds, the gangster had emptied his entire clip and Alina's eyes sparkled.
Chance! She thought.
She coalesced the spread-out field of frozen bullets into a tight formation shaped like a fist. The bullets flew around her once before slamming into the gangster with tremendous speed and knocking him out. She had applied enough force into the condensed bullet fist so that he would be knocked unconscious but not severely injured. Spinning around, Alina saw the van getting further away and quickly created a whip of electricity. She swung the whip which flew out and went under the van before tightening itself around the vehicle's axle. Alina dug her heels into the ground as the momentum of the vehicle tried dragging her away and yanked hard on the whip. The vehicle was unable to handle the force and flipped over.
With a yell, Alina yanked again and with a tug, the van was dragged back to her, unlike how a child drags a sled. She stopped the sliding van with a leg, and a dazed and bruised punk came out of the driver's seat. But before he could do anything, Alina kicked him unconscious. Alina then turned to the student who hadn't left yet, and the latter's legs failed and he fell down.
"The drug," Alina stretched out a hand and told the student quietly, her voice electronically scrambled.
With a frantic nod, the student threw the syringe of Accelerant to Alina before picking himself up and running away. Alina dropped the syringe and crushed it underneath her foot before turning to Ken.
After a moment of hesitation, she used her holo-lenses to program the grapple to slowly lower Ken to the ground before releasing him. Aina grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the wall.
She was angry at him, and herself, but most importantly, she needed to find out why he was attempting to purchase a gun.
Before she could open her mouth though, she felt a sense of danger and quickly released him and moved backwards. Mere millimetres from her face was the cold glint of metal as a blade passed by.
She turned to look at Ken with surprise as he repositioned himself into a fighting stance while firmly clasping a scalpel in his hand. His hazel eyes held no warmth and gazed at her with zero emotions.
Damnit, his eyes, Alina thought with a shudder. Hate it when he does that.
Ken's Esper ability allowed him to redirect certain parts of his brain computing. His best application was to divert his emotions and calm himself while enhancing his observational skills and reflexes, hence why he aimed for her head; he accurately deduced that the upper part of her face was unprotected and aimed for it. His special ability is what allowed him to survive longer than other students when he sparred with Jason; surprisingly, Ken was able to predict Jason's movement.
Unfortunately, his body couldn't keep up with his accelerated thought process and he'd eventually end up like everyone else: on the ground battered and bruised while groaning in pain. Nonetheless, his ability had impressed Jason who stated that Ken would've made an excellent mercenary, especially if he was a sharpshooter. Luckily, Ken was more interested in being a doctor. With his ability to focus, he could keep his hands steady for hours while remaining calm and collected.
Alright then. Let's spar, Alina thought as she recollected herself and moved into a fighting pose.
Ken didn't move forward despite being prepared. Instead, he remained in place in a passive stance that was more defensive than offensive. Alina nodded her head appreciatively as this proved that Ken was still soft-hearted, but she was baffled as she recalled the fact that he was looking for a gun. Deciding to take the first move, Alina used one step to slide close to Ken and released a punch at him. In Ken's vision, Alina's fist slowed down as the synapses in his brain lit up and went into overdrive. He could see where her punch would land and tilted his head ever so slightly. The punch grazed his face but missed, and Ken used this opportunity to send an upward slash at Alina, who moved her body backwards while keeping her feet planted firmly in the ground. Ken switched the scalpel he was holding up high into a reverse grip position with a flick of his wrist before bringing it down on Alina. The latter slapped his forearm, changing the directory of his stab while sidestepping closer to him and pushing his shoulder forward and down. This forced Ken to bend down and Alina kneed him on the forehead, disorienting him. Alina then wrapped her legs around his waist and flipped, rotating his body a full 180° and sending him barreling to the ground where he lay stunned.
With a groan, Ken slowly picked himself up but froze when he turned back to Alina. During the fight, her hood came off and now he could see the features that were partially hidden and, instantly, he knew who she was.
" . . . Alina . . .?" An astonished Ken asked the stupefied Alina, who froze once her name was uttered before swearing.
"Oh, shit."