Summary: A simple encounter leads to dramatic changes in the Fifth Holy Grail War. Instead of Shirou summon Saber, a certain Al Hazard mage does instead. What will happen when the most powerful mage in TSAB history participates in the Heaven's Feel? And what consequences will this have for both TSAB, and Clock Tower?
Eeyo! UFJ123 – Beta 27 here, with something I came up with while getting inspiration for my next chapter of Magical Device Gungnir. I've read a lot of MGLNxF/sn crossovers, but I've never seen one where one of the Master's is replaced by someone from Nanohaverse. This is my attempt at adding that to the list. In this case, it's Shirou being replaced by moi from Magical Device Gungnir, albeit, five years on, and now one of the more powerful mages of TSAB. This story takes place between Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and StrikerS with some changes. In this AU, the A's ended differently, with the Tome being lost to Dimensional Space, to end up who knows where, but Signum, Vita, Shamal, Zafira and Reinforce being separated from the Book by... well... me, the last of the Al Hazard, through careful application of the nine Jewel Seeds and three Control Crystals (essentially Jewel Seeds that stabilize the power of the other 21 Jewel Seeds, leading to no dimensional detonations from the Jewel Seeds use). Still, I won't spoil MDG any further than that.
Anyway, on with the show.
Pairing will end up as a threesome (sometimes foursome) between my OC, Fate, Saber, and occasionally Nanoha, who just joins in for s**ts and giggles, embarrassing the crap out of both myself and Fate.
V*V*V*V
Chapter 1
A Missed Chance and A Strange Summoning
V*V*V*V
Pain.
That was the first thing that ripped through Shirou's mind as the barbed, red spear pass through his chest over his heart, emerging from his back in an explosion of red.
"Sorry 'bout that," his blue-clad killer said, pulling the spear from his chest. "No hard feelings, but, you saw something you shouldn't have."
With that, the spearman left, and Shirou slumped to the ground, the edges of his vision growing dark.
Now, normally, a red-clad brunette would've come along and healed him a minute later, but this isn't that story. In this one, someone else came along less than five seconds later.
"Fuck," was all he heard.
I can't die like this! Shirou screamed in his mind. I haven't become a hero yet!
The sound of feet on the ground alerted him to the presence of someone else in the corridor with him.
"This is Captain Kieren Gallagher! I'm in need of immediate evac! I have a medical emergency down here!"
Shirou blinked. His hearing was getting fuzzy, his vision dark. But even through that, he felt a large amount of magic building up, and a yellow light along with a warm feeling and a strange hum filled his being.
Before he fell unconscious however, he saw the plaster and concrete wall of the school replaced by metal bulkheads and doors. With that his eyes closed, even as people dressed in strange clothes rushed to help him.
And with that, Shirou Emiya was no longer viable for participation in the Holy Grail War. Instead, the person who saved his life, joined, and unknowingly became the seventh Master.
V*V*V*V
"How's our guest?" Capt. Kieren Gallagher, CO of the L-class dimensional cruiser, Arthra, mage in the employ of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and last of the Al Hazard asked Healer Tracy Whitcomb.
"Holding up. He took a lot of damage before you got to him. Had you not gotten to him when you did, I doubt he would still be alive," she answered.
Kieren nodded in response. "And the damage?"
"His heart had a massive hole in it, as did his chest and back. A large concentration of magic was keeping it from healing, but we managed to siphon that off and repair both his heart and the area around it," Tracy answered. "He'll live, but he won't be very active for at least three weeks."
That caused Kieren to raise an eyebrow.
"Three weeks?"
"His Linker Core, a very active one at that, very different from most Earth mages, is helping with the healing process, channeling magic to the affected areas. But there's something else. Something powerful."
"Is it affecting him in any way?"
"Apart from accelerating his healing to what yours was when you joined, and making him the healthiest person I've ever seen or worked on? No, it isn't. In fact, it's thanks to that object that he survived in the first place, even with your assistance."
"That's a relief. He's just a kid."
"So are most people in TSAB."
"You have a point. He doesn't look much older than I am."
"Probably because he's not. You are the oldest out of the Earth mages we've discovered so far."
"What about Admiral Graham?" Kieren asked. The admiral in question was none other than British born Gil Graham, who was in his forties and the instigator of the Book of Darkness incident a year before Kieren and Nanoha even discovered magic existed.
"He doesn't count. He came to us, not the other way round."
Kieren nodded in acceptance. That was partially true. Graham had suddenly appeared out the front of TSAB Headquarters on Mid-Childa after an accident almost took his life. When he was examined, they discovered he had a larger than average Linker Core, putting out about a million units of magic. And he was twelve when he was found. Nanoha had 1.26 million units, Fate 1.47 million. And then there was Kieren, the walking contradiction and magic battery. Even before he started using magic, he had a massive 102.5 million units of magic, and some of that was leaking off of him constantly, around 1500 units of magic, the same amount that the boy they were currently standing over had in his entire body, so in reality, Kieren only had 102.485 million units of magic available for use, and that was before acquiring his Magical Device, Gungnir, which was currently in its gauntlet like stand by form on his right arm. Now though, five years later, he had almost 200 million units of magic ready to be called upon, allowing him to pretty much spam S-ranked spells like they were going out of fashion. However, he could only use his own recently developed – and quite literally forbidden to use – Solar Storm SSS-ranked spell once before he ran out of steam. Considering said spell had the power of a small nuclear bomb, that was understandable. He'd only ever used it one, and his girlfriend, Fate T. Harlaown, had beaten him quite thoroughly for using it and making her worried for his life.
Afterwards, Kieren swore to never use Solar Storm unless in the most extreme of circumstances. No-one on board the Arthra knew that the War that their captain had unknowingly volunteered for would fall under those 'extreme circumstances' more than once. Kieren started to feel exhausted when his magic reserves reached around about 25,000 units, and fell unconscious at around 9500 units. And with each S-ranked spell he used consuming on average 5000 units of magic, he only had four good shots in him left by the time he felt exhausted. Solar Storm, consumed 150 million units, a good eighty-five percent of his reserves.
"Keep me informed of his condition, I'm heading back down to scout the area, and see if I can't find out what caused that wound."
"Yes sir."
With that, Kieren left the medical bay, heading for the teleportation room to head back Fuyuki City.
V*V*V*V
In a flash of light, Kieren appeared in an alley way not far from the residence of one Shirou Emiya. Looking around to see if anyone was coming to investigate, he slowly raised his arm to his mouth.
"Gungnir?" he whispered.
The Device let out a small tone, before there was another brief flare of light, and a staff appeared in his hands. His clothes had also changed from the standard TSAB captains uniform into something that would look more appropriate if it was massive and a robot. Considering he'd based his Assault Mode Barrier Jacket off of the ∞ Justice GUNDAM, it wasn't surprising in the least, but at least he was less Gundam-like than Nanoha. His Air Assault Mode Barrier Jacket took it a bit further towards the ∞ Justice by adding wings which could be deployed like the Dragoon System, but still looked the same as his current one.
He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to get distracted, he had a job to do. Walking up to the front gates to the spacious traditional Japanese pavilion, he opened the and walked in.
[Domine. Campum circa compositum reagens ad presentiam nostram.]
Sir. A field around the compound is reacting to our presence.
"I felt it, Gungnir."
It was kind of hard not to. The air was saturated with magic.
"Gungnir, initiate a Wide Area Search."
[Domine.]
Several orange-red spheres appeared in the air around Kieren, before shooting off in every direction. Kieren closed his eyes, and suddenly he could 'see' the entire compound. Wide Area Search was a spell that Nanoha developed with assistance from Kieren and their devices Raising Heart and Gungnir to find the Jewel Seeds, or, if you called them by their proper name, Antaria Crystals.
He could feel a large concentration of magic not far from his position so he opened his eyes and walked over to it. Opening the garage door, he saw something that surprised him.
"This looks more like a mechanics than magical workshop," he muttered.
[Potissimum items intus, firmant, cum magica, domine.] Gungnir announced.
Most of the items inside are strengthened by magic, sir.
Kieren nodded, picking up a crow bar in his left hand, letting his right hand continue to hold Gungnir's Sealing Mode loosely.
[Domine! Videte et!]
Sir! Watch out!
Kieren jumped, dropping the crowbar, just as a blood red spear passed through where he was less than a second ago.
"Gungnir!"
[Domine! Halberd formam.]
Gungnir glowed with a red-orange light, before the head of the staff shifted and morphed into a leaf-like blade about three feet long and half a foot wide at the base. The glow vanished, revealing the sharpened wings that formed the blades of Gungnir's Halberd Form. With another quick thought, the wings of Kieren's Air Assault Mode Barrier Jacket appeared hover slightly behind his back, increasing his speed almost a hundred times. While he could still fly by using the Flier Fin spell, using his Air Assault Mode Barrier Jacket allowed him to move faster than sound. His max speed had been clocked at just over Mach 13, which, due in part to the relatively low mass of a human compared to the power of the engines built into the wings, was more than capable of getting him over 300 kilometers from the Earth's surface. Currently, the wings were folded and the engines were offline. A slight twitch was all that was needed for four small objects that looked like small blades to separate from the wings and take up a loose formation around him as he landed lightly on the roof of the workshop.
Standing on the ground twenty meters away, a negligible distance to him in this state, was a blue-clad, blue haired man with golden earings and a blood-red spear gripped loosely in his hands.
"Yo," the man greeted casually, as if he hadn't just tried to stab Kieren through the heart, a grin spreading across his face. "You're pretty fast for a human."
"I thank you," Kieren said dryly. "May I ask you why you're here? You're interfering with an ongoing investigation."
"Oh ho!" the man laughed, unconcerned that he could potentially die in less than thirty seconds. Even while they were chatting, and the man's seemingly uncaring attitude, Kieren could tell the man was experienced with the spear in his hand. He was in a stance that could go from relaxed to attacking before a normal person could blink. A slight wind picked up as Kieren started to charge a spell, a more powerful version of Nanoha's Mid-Childan Axel Shooter. This one was reprogrammed to the Al Hazard style magic, and was significantly stronger than the D-ranked Axel Shooter, having the power of a low power A-ranked Mid-Childan spell. It was still a D-ranked in power compared to other Al Hazard spells, all of which only Kieren or Nanoha could use to their fullest potential, due in part to Raising Heart being an Al Hazard Magical Device and Kieren being the last living Al Hazard mage.
"No hard feelings, but I'm obligated to kill you," the blue man said, getting into a stance, his spear pointed right at Kieren's heart.
"And I'm obligated not to let you," was the TSAB captains response, getting into a similar stance, but with the halberd in his hands pointed backwards.
V*V*V*V
Lancer studied the oddly dressed boy in front of him. The odd stance was strange, but the familiarity the boy had with in told Lancer that he was more than capable of turning that bladed staff around quicker than normal humans could react. The strange pack on his back, which wasn't their before he moved from his previous spot was interesting as well. In fact, the boys entire outfit seemed to be made out of condensed magic.
Really. Condensed. Magic.
Unfortunately for the boy, Lancer wasn't an average human. He was a Heroic Spirit, brought back from the Throne of Heroes to take part in the Holy Grail War. And as fast as the kid was, Lancer was faster. Much faster.
A smirk spread across his face. His grip on Gáe Bolg tightened just the tiniest bit, but Lancer's smirk widened when he noticed the boy tense, obviously prepared for anything. Unlike with swords, you had to keep one eye on your opponent and one eye on the spear, as the tip could come out of nowhere and catch you unawares if you didn't. The length of the spear also counted. The longer the spear, the faster the tip could move, the shorter, the quicker the wielder could react, and the more control they had over its direction.
It was only his status as a Servant that saved him from the literal hail of orange-red bolts of energy that exploded towards him from all around the boy, at the same time, the boy almost vanished from even Lancer's sight. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he had to deflect an incredibly fast and strong swipe from behind.
Lancer's eyes widened. Even with his strength and speed, he was going to be hard pressed to keep up with this kid if he didn't take this fight seriously.
How is this kid that fast?! Lancer thought, deflecting another blow coming from the complete opposite direction. The kid had changed direction the instant their weapons had made contact. And strong?! He continued with a grunt.
Several more blows were exchanged in rapid succession, Lancer deflecting each one with some effort, due to not having time to recover from his shock at a human moving at the speed and with the strength of a Servant. Heck, if he weren't the Lancer of this war, he'd almost fool himself into thinking that this kid was.
The two separated, landing a good forty meters apart.
"Keh... You're good kid. I might have to take this fight seriously," Lancer said.
"It's in my opinion to always take your fights seriously," the boy answered with a slight smirk. "Less chance of underestimating your opponent."
"If it weren't for my Master telling me to gather info during the first fight, than go all out in the second encounter, you'd be dead by now."
"Your Master?" the kid asked curiously.
"Yep. He's kind of a coward, so no hard feelings."
"None taken. You are quite skilled with that spear."
"Same to you," Lancer responded. "I just realized, we haven't introduced ourselves."
"..."
The kid remained silent for a few seconds, adjusting his grip on his halberd.
"... My name is Kieren."
"Kieren, huh? Interesting name. Isn't that Irish?"
"I am sixth generation Irish yes."
Lancer smirked. He was fighting a fellow kinsman, albeit, with diluted blood, but a kinsman all the same.
"Which family?"
The kid took on a thoughtful look for a second.
"O'Gallchobhair."
Lancer's eyes widened. This kid's descended from Royalty?!
"Though we go by Gallagher these days."
Lancer nodded.
"Well, since you introduced yourself." Lancer flourished his spear and bowed. "You may call me Servant Lancer."
"I have a feeling that isn't your real name."
"Nope."
"I see."
There was another pause, before both the O'Gallchobhair and Lancer leapt at each other once again. The sound of clashing metal filled the air once again, the two spears tracing red and gold arcs through the air, showering the two combatants in sparks as they clashed again and again. Now that Lancer was taking it seriously, he was having an easier time at keeping up with the kid, but it was still a stalemate due to his inability to go all out.
Honestly, Lancer was still slightly surprised the kid could keep up with him. While he was by no means the strongest Servant, he was one of the fastest, and this kid was moving like he keep up with his current pace on a bad day, probably keep up with him going all out. Only one other Servant was faster than he was, and that was Rider.
The red and blue blurs that they now were to anyone other than another Servant separated again, before leaping back into the fray.
Dammit. If this doesn't end soon I'll have to pull out my Noble Phantasm, Lancer thought.
On the next break, the two touched down, and Lancer immediately got into a strange stance, holding his spear to the side with the tip aimed at the O'Gallchobhair's feet. The kid tensed, feeling something deep within him that told him if he didn't move, he would die then and there.
"Can't believe I'm pulling this out on a human," Lancer said, the spear starting to glow. An aura of blood lust filled the air, and a nervous sweatdrop appeared on Kieren's brow.
The glow grew brighter, and Kieren tensed even more.
"Sorry about this."
Lancer tensed, before he started to move, the now brilliant glow red spear seeming to warp space.
"Gáe..."
Everything in Kieren's being screamed at him to dodge. With a slight thought, the wings on his back snapped open, the engines whining as they powered up. The wind grew stronger and stronger as he crouched. A blue-white glow came from the two engines. The whine faded to a dull roar that shook the very air with its deep, rumbling bass, the air vibrating and shaking. Lancer could feel it in his bones, but continued to swing.
"BOLG!"
Space screamed as the spear literally leapt from Lancer's hands and flew straight at the ground, before bending up at an impossible angle to strike Kieren's heart.
It was at this moment that said teen jumped forwards, the engines powering him through the air. A cone of mist formed around him as he brushed the sound barrier, before a ring of condensation shot out as the barrier shattered, the teen mage accelerating to almost Mach 10 in an instant. Time slowed as spear and supersonic boy approached each other. Just as they were about to collide, Kieren tilted, the spear tried to follow, but racing at over 12,000 kilometers an hour in the opposite direction, the most damage it could do was slice through his right bicep, Barrier Jacket and all.
V*V*V*V
Kieren grit his teeth, before pulling a turn that would normally rip a person to shreds and liquify their internal organs. His feet dug into the ground sending up dirt and rocks as he raced backwards towards the garage. He passed through the doors and hit the ground, sliding across the smoothed concrete until the wing pack hit he wall, disturbing the dust that had gathered their, and revealing something on the ground. With a grunt, he lifted his free hand to the slice, hissing slightly in pain. Pulling his hand away, he saw his fingers covered in blood.
"Dammit," he cursed.
Putting his hand down, he unknowingly put his fingers, covered in magic saturated blood, onto the symbol on the floor. A few drops of blood stayed behind as he stood, and gripped Gungnir.
[Dirigentes Modus: Standby.] Gungnir intoned
Shooting Mode: Standby.
The blades of his Halberd Form separated from the core, rotated ninety degrees and moved closed together, even as the core split and moved back. He aimed straight at the blue-clad spearman in front of him, who was still looking stunned at the fact that he'd dodged the undodgable.
A small ball of energy formed at the tip of Gungnir's Shooting Mode. It glowed as it charged more energy. With a loud tone, a glowing square with to counter-rotating circles of runes, with four mathematical symbols in circles in the corners, sprung into being beneath Kieren's feet, giving off a bright orange-red light that overpowered the faint red glow coming from the circle that was forming behind him. Lancer tensed, not knowing what was happening, but knowing that it was bad news for him.
As Kieren channeled more power from his Linker Core into the spell, he began to notice a slight drain on his reserves. A drain that growing as something sucked more and more energy from him to fuel itself. He hesitated slightly. The drain was preventing him from charging his favored long-range spell at a reasonable speed, but it was only slight.
A brief flare of red light, followed closely by a white glow came from behind him, and Lancer's jaw dropped.
"What?!"
A blue blur shot past him, slamming into Lancer with the force of a freight train and forcing him away. Kieren hurriedly canceled the Apollo's Spear he was charging, his jaw slack.
There, standing regally in front of him, holding something wrapped in a sheath of winds, was a beautiful blonde woman, with eyes the color of emeralds, which glowed with inner strength.
A delicate pink lips parted, and, with a surprisingly strong and firm voice which belied the girls petite frame, she spoke.
"By your summons I have appeared. I am Servant Saber, and I ask this of you: are you my Master?"
V*V*V*V
Holy CRAP! That was hard work. Hope everyone's satisfied with my first MGLNxF/sn x-over. I hope it catches the attention of Beasts Lair.
Off topic. This will follow the Fate route with smatterings of Heaven's Feel of Fate/stay night. I'm doing this to give my OC an actual challenge, considering he's way OP. But hey! He's an Al Hazard mage! You've got to expect him to be. And that little conversation between myself and Lancer is true, I am part of ancient Irish royalty, but it was during the early centuries A.D. We Gallagher's have a habit of shortening things, which is what lead to our family name changing to Gallagher from O'Gallagher from O'Gallchobhair. Long story. Look it up to get a better picture.
Beta 27 signing off!