Interlude I
Start_Hostilities
The Battle of the Streets Begins Once Again
The Battle of the Streets Begins Once Again
[“Hell on Earth”, Near shopping Mall Phi, District 15]
The day was July 19th.
In mere moments most schools in Academy City would break for their summer recess. It would have hardly been fifteen minutes until classes were released.
The heat of the midsummer day was pounding upon the city, the temperature reaching easily 37 degrees Celsius outside, or around the high 90s of Fahrenheit. No one would wish to be caught outside in this heat; the comfort of the conditioned air of the schools or one’s apartment. Not only this, but the humidity in the air was almost unbearable, the moisture in the air sticking to one’s skin in a rather gross, unsightly fashion.
Even with those impossibly gross weather conditions two groups of people formed in the streets of Academy City’s commercial district.
Two groups, known only as SEED and REPORT, had recently skirmished in the region, often to the detriment of commerce and other such actions. While it was not unheard of for those who had fallen into the cracks of the dark side of academy city to often eliminate those who stood in the way of their success, it was unheard of to act during the broadness of day without the interference of Anti-Skill members.
Those within the dark side understood at a fundamental level that they were criminals and that their only recourse would be to act as a criminal does. To skulk in the shadows away from regular society.
While higher ranked Espers perhaps are able to handwave this more easily, considered something “more important” than the riff-raff, they were not immune to the ire of Academy City and those who enforced its rules. Even a level 5, the most important of ranked Espers, might eventually find themselves against the entirety of the city. After all, if the city was able to produce Espers, surely there would be a means to contain them in the event they became rowdy.
These men, however, were not level 5s. They came from various drops of life, though consistent within their composition was the lack-there-of higher ranking Espers. Perhaps there was a level 2 or 3 in the crowd, but the majority, if only due to the way they were combatting one another, appeared to be level 0. At least, given the way they were fighting with things one might find on the street rather than any application of their abilities, from two-by-fours to pipes and everything in between.
Appearing as soon as they could arrive to stop this madness was the police force and personal army of Academy City, those known as Anti-Skill, and the Disciplinary Force known as Judgement. There was a zero percent chance that this brawl amounted to anything more than the quick dissolution of hostilities and the arrest of the persons involved. Regardless of the reasoning for the start of this fight, there was no reason to continue it once it reached a certain point. All that remained was the disciplinary action that would precede from the armed-to-the-teeth police force that seemed too well-armed to deal with simple rioters.
… But as soon as the Anti-Skill members began to close in on the position of the battle, something happened.
“Scatter!” One of the delinquent students shouted at the top of his lungs, smashing a glass bottle against the ground as everyone began to run away from the encroaching Anti-Skill officers.
Normally, this would not interfere with the policing actions of Anti-Skill, however, from within the bottle, there appeared a plume of smoke that engulfed the entire area in a white haze before dissipating shortly after it appeared, allowing for the escape of the entire sizable group, or at last the vast majority of them.
.Just as soon as it began it had stopped. Anti-skill, in their efforts to contain the conflict as much as possible, seemed to have failed in taking down a vast majority of the thugs in question. Perhaps it was simply an inefficiency in their line, but it seemed that the large group of quarreling Espers were able to slip through the cracks of the Anti Skill line, only the remaining stragglers were captured and processed, awaiting their judgment at the hand of Academy City.
And it was as if by some sort of intentional design, the last bell of ”spring” had rung, and summer vacation had begun. Not with a whimper, but with a bang that would ring around the world.
