The Harbinger (My Hero Academia OC)

Chapter 7

Jack needed to get faster, he realized, as the frog girl dodged another blast. Or perhaps he needed to change tactics. He released a high lumen flash from one hand and a bolt of electricity from the other. Her goggles seemed to block most of the flash, and she leapt to a wooden telephone pole to avoid the electrical attack. She then bounced towards him feet first, but he jetted higher than she could reach. They were stalemated, and he was running out of time.

If I can't hit her, I need to try changing the environment to limit her options, Jack thought. His powers allowed him to transmute matter. He was actually converting the matter to energy and reconverting it back to the new state. The net energy cost was zero. He knew that he should be able to basically create anything out of air or dirt or whatever, but he had not practiced enough with the ability to get that complicated yet, except with his containment suit as it was so familiar. But he could turn solid matter into liquid or gas – or go the other way – without drastically changing the temperature. It had something to do with either absorbing or adding kinetic energy, in the form of heat, to the process. Jack was learning to do it at an instinctive level rather than mastering the physics.

As Asui arced down towards the pavement, Jack sent a white beam at the concrete. There was a flash just before the girl landed. Instead of hitting the hard surface and bouncing, she splashed into a pool of cool aggregate. The golden teen immediately followed with a second beam which hardened the pool into solid concrete again, effectively trapping the frog.

"What's this?" the girl asked. "I thought you had a laser quirk, or electricity."

"I've got lots of tricks," Jack replied lightly. "Don't try to use your tongue or I'll give it a shock." He cascaded electricity between his gloved fingers as he grabbed the capture tape with his other hand.

"Right," she acquiesced as he wrapped her hands. With a nod, Jack launched himself back into the air. The rules of the simulation meant the other 'guards' could not just untie her so she would be back in the game, but until someone freed her from the concrete she was not going anywhere.

Of the three exterior 'guards' remaining; Jack thought the shadow walker would be the hardest. But the golden teen had an idea he was willing to try. He flew until he spotted the boy then shot a high lumen light beam at him. If the kid was actual shadow, that might disperse him. Instead, the white-haired boy disappeared into the dark-painted undersurface of an overhead pipe, seemingly merging with the metal conduit.

Yes! Jack silently crowed then released an electrical charge into the pipe. The immaterial boy shrieked and flopped out of the pipe, landing hard on the cement below. Jack landed cautiously next to him. He wrapped him with capture tape, then checked for a pulse. It was strong. The boy moaned and started to stir. Jack took off again.

When he crested the roof, Jiro was waiting for him. Like two cowboys in a shootout the two energy-projectors fired almost simultaneously. The avalanche of sound knocked Jack spinning in the sky. His suit automatically cut out his external audio pickups when the sound reached a certain threshold, but not before the sonic energy screamed through his insubstantial form. He had not ben prepared to absorb or convert it, so the disruption hurt.

But electricity is faster than sound, and Jack shot first.

The electrical discharge danced over Jiro, lighting up the tips of her ear jacks and shorting out her speakers. Three seconds later, Jack regained control of himself and saw the girl lying on the roof, twitching. Slowly he approached, prepared for her to be playing possum. She wasn't. He bound her and put her in the recovery position against the lip of the roof.

His sensors detected a motion behind him. Shoji was charging. The massive multi-limbed boy managed to stretch out an arm fast enough to grab onto Jack's belt before he could fly away. The larger boy was much stronger than the golden teen, and quickly had him wrapped in a bear hug, face to face.