Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor

I touched down in an alley about a block away from the Medhall building. From Opal's instructions, I'd landed right at the opening of the mirror world. I looked to the exit and entrance of the alley. It was a nicer neighborhood with more heavily traveled streets. Even late at night, there was a bigger risk of being seen.

After a moment where the only disturbance was the sound of a motorcycle, I took a deep breath and held out Opal. "Okay, do your thing, Opal."

"Adding imaginary axis to the fifth instrumental variable," Opal began and the now familiar dark pit and colored lights opened below me. I just let her do as she was designed to do and let my mind wander, for just a moment, before I'd have to really focus… and I noticed that the motorcycle noises were getting louder.

Just as Opal and I began to shift worlds, a man in blue powered armor riding a high-tech motorcycle tore around the corner and stopped just short of Opal's magic circle. I could make out the man calling for me to "stop" before I found myself in the mirror world.

"Opal," I said, "we have to head back up."

"Why?"

"Because that was Armsmaster!" Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, had driven right up to me and told me to stop. "It could be something really, really important."

"Well, if it's that important then the master of arms will be there when we get back," Opal replied nonchalantly, "and if not then it's not our concern."

"Opal, that-"

"Besides," Opal interrupted, "we've got a bigger problem to deal with."

I turned to the mouth of the alley and my eyes widened. Standing there was another knight. Like Rider had been, the knight was clad in dark armor, but this one was much more intimidating than she had been. The armor was dark purple and banded, with large imposing pauldrons and a spiked collar, and a helmet that concealed their entire face. The helmet was that of a stereotypical knight, round, with a visor and long ceremonial plumage, and from the visor came a bright, malevolent red glow. At the knight's hand was a large and ornate sword forged from black metal. The knight had been holding the sword by the pommel with the tip of the blade to the ground, but they grabbed the hilt and pointed the blade directly at me.

"I think Saber is challenging us, Princess." Saber, Knight of the Sword and Heroic Spirit of swordsmanship. Considered to be the strongest class of servant, Saber's often have absurdly high levels of magic resistance, ridiculous amounts of raw skill and power, and powerful magic swords. Saber was one of the four cards left, and unless the knight started throwing around spells or pulled a glaive out of his ass, Saber seemed as good a fit as any.

As a side note, I was regretting having Opal explain the classes to me.

I raised Opal so that she was across my left shoulder and focused on something I'd been thinking of ever since Opal popped out that drill to intimidate that one asshole. The Knight, it seemed, was graciously offering me the first move, so why not try it out now? Once there was a concentrated ball of prana roughly the size of a bowling ball floating just beyond Opal's head, I swung her out and shouted "prana-drill!"

The ball of prana erupted into an oscillating blast of magical energy the soared like a comet into Saber and pushed them back into the street…

…And did no apparent damage. Well, at least it didn't blow up in my face, that had to count for something. As the Knight took his great sword into a two handed grip and prepared to charge, I took to the skies. I just barely managed to clear Saber's range.

"He's a lot faster than you'd think he'd be," I said to Opal, "in heavy looking Armor like that."

"He's a Heroic Spirit for a reason, Princess."

I flew over the buildings and streets, to try and get a good idea of how wide an area this mirror world occupied. I was distracted from this mission by Saber running out into the street and picking up a car that had been parked there. Glowing red lines ran through the vehicle and with a mighty twist Saber threw the damn thing at me. I blasted the damned thing down, but it was still surprising.

"This is going to be another hard fight, isn't it Opal?"

"Yes, it is," my wand replied.

"And the way these things work, the next three are going to be even harder, aren't they?"

"Most likely."

I watched the Knight charge towards me and flew higher just in case he could jump as high as Berserker had been able to.

I looked back to the street to find Saber, only to find that he wasn't there. In a panic, I twisted and turned to find where he had gone only to find that he'd somehow gotten on top of a tall building to my left.

"Arondight!" the knight enunciated in a deep, echoing and masculine voice, his sword glowing the same malevolent red as his visor. Then he jumped at me at high speeds. I raised Opel and invoked "physical protection" just in time to block a swing from Saber's blade. "Overload!" Saber shouted and in a flash of red my whole world became pain.

*F/KLPT*

I came to face down in a pile of rubble and most of my body ached. "Opal," I called out, "are you there?"

"I'm here Princess," Opal's voice came from somewhere. "Are you alright?"

"I can't feel my legs."

"Don't worry Princess," Opal said in a reassuring tone, "I'm working on that."

"How long was I out for?"

"A few minutes at the most."

"I think we might be screwed, Opal."

"Why do you say that?" my Wand replied.

"Arondight," I answered. "When Saber used his Noble Phantasm, he called out 'Arondight.' That's the magic sword that Sir Lancelot wielded in Arthurian Mythology." I took a sharp breath. "Lancelot was the greatest of The Knights of the Round Table—the best swordsman, the best jouster, the best soldier… I don't think we can beat him."

"Princess, there is no such thing as an invincible being-"

"Alexandria," I interrupted.

"Who?"

"Alexandria is a member of the Triumvirate," I explained. "One of the most powerful heroes on the planet. She's super strong, can fly around the world in minutes, and is completely invincible. Anybody with flight and a brute power is called an Alexandria Package after her."

"Princess," Opal said, "I'm absolutely certain that there is at least one way to hurt this Alexandria. Likewise, there is at least one way to beat Saber. You're a magical girl," she said with absolute certainty, "you can do anything that you can imagine."

That was a nice thought. I'd have smiled to Opal if could see her. The feeling had come back to my legs and I reached into my card holster. "I think I have an idea, Opal." I grabbed a card and, as soon as I had the strength I climbed from the rubble. I let the card I'd grabbed drop to the floor and stepped on it. "Install: Berserker."

"Princess, I don't think that's a good-" I didn't catch the rest of Opal's objection due to the absolute fucking rush that came over me as Berserker's power began coursing through my veins.

"Opal," I said as the transformation finished, "being Berserker feels fucking amazing."

"Language Princess," Opal's voice sounded from the big heavy club-mace-electrical-conduit-thingy I was now carrying. "Be careful, the Berserker class's signature skill degrades your mind. I'm afraid that-"

"Wow," I interrupted. While Opal had been talking I climbed out of the damaged building I'd been blasted into and caught my reflection in the window of another building. "I was worried about fighting in a wedding dress, but I look awesome in it." I struck a pose and admired myself some more. "I mean, I could deal without the horn or the neck spikes-" bronze or brass spikes were coming out of my forehead and from either side of my neck. They kind of tingled and it was a very weird sensation. "Wait a second," I continued, "neck spikes, neck bolts, I'm Frankenstein's Monster. Holy shit, I'm Frankenstein's Monster and I'm about to fight an Evil Sir Lancelot. It sounds like the plot of one of those shitty low budget movies on a sci-fi/horror cabal channel."

"Princess," Opal said, "I would politely request that you calm down and try to think about this rationally and-"

"There he is!" I shouted as I caught sight of Saber. He caught sight of me and charged and I charged him back while twirling Berserker's Bridal Chest like a giant baton… I wondered how I knew what it was called, but as I ran towards Sir Lancelot I decided that it wasn't important.

"Princess!" Opal screamed through a voice distorted by the crackle of lightning, "I'm getting dizzy! This is most unregaahh!" Opal screamed because I met Lancelot head on, as he swung Arondight down at me I dodged to the left in just such a way that the twirling Bridal Chest/Opal landed right at the Dark Knight's crotch heavy-smashy-shocky end first with a hell of a lot of momentum behind it. The shock and/or impact sent the knight flying—and his magic sword flying from his hand.

As Sir Lancelot hit the ground, I began focusing on Berserker's Noble Phantasm. I knew, almost on instinct that using it at full power would almost certainly kill me, but I didn't need it at full power, did I? I took off running towards Saber again, the Bridal Chest carried like a flag and building up a charge. Once I'd cleared half the distance between Saber and my starting point, I leaped high into the air and twisted Opal so as to bring the smashy end down on the prone Knight with a shout of "Blasted Tree!"

After the explosion of lightning which hurt like hell, I fell to my knees. It was going to take some getting used to, that Phantasm. Saber was still twitching on the ground, so after a moment I pulled myself up and just started smacking and beating on him with my wand-turned-club.

"Princess," Opal said between strikes, "this is most-" Smack! "Most undignified. I think he's dead now." Oh hey, she was right. The knight was fading away and… the magic that made up his body was kind of going into the Bridal Chest and making my horn and neck spikes tingle more and the pain from blasting the knight's tree went away a little bit. I kneeled down to pick up the card.

"This was fun," I said. "I just beat the shit out of the greatest of King Arthur's knights. I feel invincible."

"Okay Princess," Opal said like she was talking to a five-year-old, "I think Berserker time is over now. Do you think that?"

I sighed. "Okay Opal," I let the card uninstall and grabbed it as it fell from my chest. Then I slipped Berserker and Saber into my card holster. "That was amazing Opal," I said. "Berserker's power was such a rush, and… I was confident. I was happy, it was… it was like when I flew for the first time. I felt the way I'd felt before, well you know."

"I get it, Princess," she answered, "but you know that deliberately inflicting yourself with mental illness is not a very healthy way for a dignified young lady to deal with her confidence issues, right?"

I sighed again. "I know…Can I at least indulge every once in awhile?"

"We'll see Princess," Opal answered in a soothing tone, "but now I think we should get you home and in bed."

"Okay." As Opal did her thing to bring us out of the mirror world, I thought of how certain I was that nothing could spoil my mood and I kept that thought up until we emerged into the alley and I saw that we were surrounded by Armsmaster and five PRT agents.

*F/KLPT*

Five minutes later, I was sitting in the open back of a PRT armored van, my legs dangling off the ledge. "Am I in trouble?" I asked Armsmaster.

"That depends on you," the blue-clad hero replied. This did not fill me with confidence. "Since the beginning of January, we've been getting reports and sightings of a new cape in the city. A new cape 'rescuing' a young girl who was assaulted." I remembered Dad mentioning that Miss Militia had come to the hospital to bring up the possibility that I'd triggered—whatever that means—So… Did he know who I was? "Shortly after, a ship at the Graveyard was obliterated by a cape who was not found at the scene. Since then there have been sightings of a mysterious cape in a white dress flying in the sky and firing white and prismatic beams into the sky, as well as sightings of the same landing upon the ground and odd light shows happening in response-" he gestured back to the alley. "Here, the beach, Winslow High, and a seemingly random vacant lot. Last Friday, Glory Girl surrenders a member of the Azn Bad Boyz with knowledge of the abduction of young girls to the authorities and mentions a Cape in a white dress with a piece of apparently sapient tinker-tech going by the name 'Princess' helped with the capture, shortly after one of the aforementioned incidents. Taking it all together, it formed a pattern that was easy to decipher."

"And that's very clever of you," Opal said, "but why, exactly, do you want to talk to my master?"

Armsmaster frowned at Opal's interruption. "Princess, are you aware that you shot down a disused Russian spy satellite?"

"What!?"

"The remains landed in a tree, which fell over into the home of a judge, who is now hospitalized."

Oh God. "Now, you're not being charged for this but-"

"Why not?" Opal asked.

Armsmaster was silent for a moment, then continued. "Something a paramedic found in the judge's home led to an investigation, the judge in question is as crooked as they come. As the man is himself a criminal, is likely to make a full recovery, and considering the accidental nature of the crime, it's been decided that we not to press charges, however-"

"See Princess," Opal interrupted again, "the man was scum. You're the hero here."

"You're not helping Opal."

"However," Armsmaster continued, "this reckless behavior cannot continue."

"It won't." Oh god, I put a man in the hospital, oh…

"Now," the Hero continued, "what are you even doing here?"

"My master was retrieving a Class Card," Opal answered for me.

"A What?"

"A Class Card," Opal repeated. "A card serving as a vessel for a copy of a legendary soul that allows one to access the spirit's mystical abilities."

"Okay," Armsmaster replied, "That's… Interesting." He, he didn't believe Opal.

"I'm not crazy," I said. "I-I can prove it. You can come with when we get the next one!"

"Princess, that's not a good-"

The Blue-Clad hero chuckled. "Alright, I accept," Armsmaster interrupted. "If the pattern of your previous behavior holds up, there should be one of these 'class cards' on the Rig. Show up there and I'll come along."

"Princess," Opal asked me, "is the Rig a large structure far out into the Bay?"

"Yes."

"We are far more predictable than I'd like," Opal replied

I nodded in agreement. It was hard to tell Armsmaster's expression from just his mouth but I get the feeling that he wasn't expecting that to actually be the case. "Okay then. There was more to talk about, but if we're doing this then we can finish then, you're dismissed." With that, the Hero turned and walked to his bike, climbed aboard, and tore off into the night.

He'd said I was dismissed, so I got up and walked away. None of the agents stopped me, and after I'd walked about a block I took to the air.

"We're going to have a hell of a time explaining this to Dad, aren't we?" I asked.

"Probably," Opal said in reply.