Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor

I whirled in a panic and saw that a blood-soaked woman had driven a spear into Glory Girl's chest. As she pulled the spear back, Glory Girl hit the ground. Then the savage figure turned to me. As I got a clearer look, I noticed that she was nude or close to it, her modesty preserved by thick coatings of fresh blood and some kind of blue warpaint. Despite the terror that I was feeling I couldn't help but notice that her figure was more than enough to leave even a model feeling inadequate, and her long hair was a wild mess matted with blood. She looked at me with mad eyes-red, with black sclera-and I had to look away.

Glory Girl! She was supposed to be invincible, right? So, of course she's okay, Lancer must have just knocked the wind out of her, that's all? I looked at the blond girl on the ground and… that was a lot of blood. It was seeping through her costume and-there, her chest was rising, albeit unsteadily, and she'd moved her hand over the wound. She was alive, for now, so if I could just beat Lancer in time then… Opal says I can do anything, so I could heal Glory Girl and everything would be fine and-

"Princess," Opal interrupted my train of thought, "we have to get out of here-now!"

"Why?" I asked. "We can't just leave Glory Girl here to die!"

"Princess, look at that spear." I obliged. The spear was long and solid red-made of some material I couldn't make out-and the sharp head glistened with Glory Girl's blood. "That spear is Gae Bolg, a demonic spear capable of being thrown so that it pierces most defenses and with enough power to destroy an army, or else it can be thrust in such a way as to always pierce the heart. It's a miracle," Opal continued, "that this Glory Girl isn't already dead. It may sound cold of me, but our best bet is to leave and come back later with reinforcements."

Lancer continued to stare me down. "Opal, I can't just-" Lancer suddenly burst at me and I had to fly away. "Who is this? How do you know what that spear is?"

"My older sisters were sent on a mission to retrieve class cards, just as we are doing now," Opal explained, "and the Lancer card of that set was Cu Chulainn, the owner of that spear. This, this is not Cu Chulainn, so it has to be Scathach, Cu Chulainn's mentor in combat and magecraft and creator of the demonic spear," Opal finished.

It was then that I crashed face first into some kind of invisible barrier right in the middle of the sky. After backing up just a bit and shaking the stars from my vision, I saw that the sky had been filled with runes.

"Opal?"

"We're stuck here," Opal answered. "The Servant drew runes on the sky-an apparent mix of traditions-and now the only way out is if we kill her."

I nodded and turned back to see that Lancer had made some kind of barrier around Glory Girl. "Is that bitch holding her hostage!?"

"It seems like it," Opal answered. She didn't comment on my language.

Lancer started carving runes in the ground with her spear. Four of them in what I think were the four cardinal directions. She then looked up to me, and some word written in runes appeared before her and then there was a sudden blast of fire that I had to block with physical protection.

I couldn't blast Lancer from up here, not while she was next to Glory Girl, but… I landed as far from Lancer as I could and fired a small beam in her general direction and-damn she was fast. Lancer danced around the beam and was on nearly on me, charging with such speed that I had to take to the air once more and quickly strafe to the right. Still, that tactic had done what I'd meant it to do, Lancer was away from Glory Girl and I could blast the crap out of the bitch. A quick spin of Opal and a swing sent six powerful beams of prana at Lancer. I followed that up with a "scatter shot!"

There was a lot of smoke after that, but my hopes were dashed when Lancer erupted from the cloud and into the sky. As the warrior woman began to descend, six more spears appeared around her and flew at me.

On near instinct, I summoned more shields, a small one for each spear. The long implements of pointy death managed to shatter the barriers, but they were knocked off course. I had to leap back to avoid a spear thrust from Lancer as she landed. I wasn't sure if it was a heart-piercing one or not, but I was still alive so I'm betting "no."

Lancer was fast, had powerful ranged attacks and magic, and was deadly in melee range. I'd need speed and precision at long range to beat her-something I didn't have enough of as a magical girl. I still had some range between her and I, so I grabbed through my card holster until I found Archer. I flew further back to give myself more space before holding the card out and transforming with a declaration of "Install!"

When the magic circles and eruptions of mana had faded, I was once more decked out in the garb of Billy the Kid. A quick dodge roll allowed me to avoid a thrust from Lancer's spear. I quickly backtracked away from her while firing shots from Billy's revolver in her general direction. I would have said at her, but she'd managed to dodge or block all six shots as she pursued me. I reloaded and prepared to unleash the might of Billy's Noble Phantasm, but in the time I'd managed to say "Thund" she'd caught up to me and sent me flying through the air with a blow from the shaft of her spear. I landed in a sprawl, and the Archer Card was ejected from my body. By the time I'd grabbed it and sat up, Lancer had summoned more runes drawn upon the air, and there were a lot of them. Electricity began to crack between them and I could smell ozone. In a rush, I grabbed through my card holster until I'd grabbed Berserker and installed. This time my transformation ended just in time for me to raise the Bridal Chest and absorb a massive blast of lightning.

"Oh fuck yes!" I shouted as every last watt and volt of the sweet magical lightning coursed through my veins. Within seconds every bit of pain from Lancer's attack and the exhaustion I hadn't even realized was there had vanished. Then I screamed-the same primal wail that Berserker had used against me-and then charged into the warrior woman with a shout and a swing of my oversized electrical mace. I'd managed to knock Lancer down, so I brought the Bridal Chest down for a harsh smash. But when I tried to crush her again, Lancer flipped from the ground and kicked her heel into my belly. As the wind was knocked from me, Lancer grabbed my arm and threw me over her back into the sky-barrier she'd created. I bounced from the runic ceiling straight into the ground.

Berserker popped out of me as I groaned from the impact. Okay, melee combat didn't work and guns didn't work. I dug through my card holster once more until I found Caster and installed. Lancer was staring me down when the transformation was complete. It seemed to me that she was biding her time.

"Opal," I asked my wand turned mirror, "what happened to the servants in the mirror world being mindless? Lancer here is fighting pretty smart."

"Scathach was an immortal warrior and magus who achieved near divine status and was known for slaying deities," Opal answered, "it's not only possible but probable that her combat instincts are far greater than any of the other servants we've faced."

I nodded. It might be due to a potential concussion, but that made perfect sense. I looked over to the barrier where Glory Girl was being kept, but I couldn't make anything out past the glowing runes that surrounded her.

Lancer seemed to be waiting for me to make the next move. If she was just going to stand there, then… I moved away from Lancer, just in case. I wouldn't make the same mistake Caster did.

I summoned caster's talismans, many of them, and sent them out to do their work. "Gods in Izumo," I said with a careful eye on Lancer, "this is the sign of freedom and purification." This was different from what Caster has said in the Rig mirror world, but it felt right as I said it. "The sacred treasure, the Mirror of Uka." The area around us was beginning to change into the field surrounded by shrine gates that Caster had summoned. "Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heaven..." There, Lancer was charging at me. Opal as the mirror was floating above me-I jumped and grabbed her at the last minutes to avoid Lancer's strike, "Just kidding!" I don't know why that was the last line of the incantation, but the second I grabbed Opal there was an explosion of light and I could feel the power of Caster's Noble Phantasm flow through me.

I landed with a flip a few yards from Lancer. Caster's mega-spell was a no, Glory Girl would be in the area. I wasn't sure if it would penetrate the barrier she was in or if would even hurt her, but she was already wounded and that's not supposed to happen. But, I could still work Caster's other spells.

I tossed a talisman at Lancer, who was once more charging towards me, and it connected and exploded in a blast of fire. Which Lancer just ran through. I'd thought that was too easy.

I summoned six more talismans and worked a bit of magic so that when I threw them they'd form a circle around Lancer, and with a spell, they exploded into cold and created a shell of Ice that well should have trapped Lancer if she hadn't jumped out of the spell's area. Once more she summoned a storm of spears while in mid-air and launched them at me, but she was much closer this time. I didn't have time to move or block them and I soon found myself pinned to the ground by six demonic spears piercing my kimono.

The rush of power I'd gotten from Caster's Noble Phantasm faded and the card was ejected from my body-which, thankfully, freed me from the spears holding me to the ground. I grabbed for Opal, and as Lancer slowly approached I pulled my remaining three cards. Rider? No, a surfboard isn't that useful on land. Saber? I'd tried melee combat, it'd ended poorly. That left Assassin. I didn't know what Assassin could do, but I knew that the Assassin class had powers of magical stealth. Lancer was closing in for the killing blow, but she was taking her sweet time doing it. If I timed things just right, I could get an opening to escape and use Assassin's power to buy myself some time.

Lancer was just a few feet away from me and was pulling back her spear for the killing blow when I swung Opal towards her and blasted her with everything I had. I didn't wait for any sign of Lancer, as soon as the blast was fired I flew as fast and as far as I could, landed at the edge of the Mirror World and immediately Installed Assassin. I don't know if it helped or not, but I tried to will the transformation to end as quickly as possible and once I'd fully transformed I immediately tried to reach for Assassin's skills in the hopes of drawing on his Presence Concealment. When I was sure I'd gotten it I turned back to look at Lancer.

Lancer was scanning the area. Twice she looked right at me only to look away seconds later. She then walked away to search for me in other parts of the Mirror World. I let out a sigh of relief and set to figuring out just what the hell Assassin could do. Okay, Assassin's outfit was some kind of black leather armor-though I'm certain that his belly wasn't as exposed as mine was. He was a modern Hero, that much was certain, by the guns, knives, and bullets strapped to my waist and hidden elsewhere on my person. My hair felt compressed all of a sudden, and a quick check revealed that I was wearing a hood. There was some kind of shroud at my shoulders and another at my hips, for some reason, and I was wearing knee-high metal boots. The last thing I noticed was some kind of crest on my left glove. Two guns, one was some kind of high caliber automatic pistol, powerful but otherwise nothing special except in the hands of a Servant. The same was the case with the holster full of knives, but the other gun... It wasn't a Noble Phantasm but it'd certainly pack a punch, especially if I used the other ammunition, but Assassin wasn't as good with a pistol as Archer was and Lancer had already demonstrated that she could avoid bullets. The combat knife… Yeah, that'd work. I just had to sneak up on Lancer stab her with the Phantasm and...Oh shit.

Lancer was standing right next to the barrier she'd trapped Glory Girl in and was holding her spear pointed towards the trapped heroine. The threat was clear, she'd finish Glory Girl off if I didn't show myself. I wasn't sure what… Wait. I could tell now that Assassin was a Magus. That crest on my glove was some kind of spell library. I'd have to look into that later, but one of them, one looked like just what I-never mind. Assassin had two Noble Phantasms, and the second was the steroid abusing older brother of that spell I'd just found.

So I dashed out into the open and dropped presence concealment completely. "Hey, bitch!" I shouted to the warrior woman, "if you want me, well here I am!"

Lancer turned to face me, and with a look of determination she shifted the grip on her spear and pulled it back for a toss.

"Princess," Opal-now one of the guns on my person-called in a panic, "what are you doing."

"Trust me," I said as I eyed the conical, piercing red aura that was forming over the demonic spear in Lancer's hand. "Can't you tell what Assassin's Noble Phantasms are?"

I could hear Lancer make some kind of long grunt or low moan as power built up. She finally made to throw the damn spear. "Gae Bolg Al-"

"Chronos Rose!" I shouted, and the world distorted as time ceased to move forward. I ran forward until I was right next to Lancer and then I dragged the knife that was Assassin's other Phantasm across her throat. I grabbed Assassin's gun, the heavy duty one, and loaded it with one of the normal bullets-the special ones would be overkill, and then I started alternatively stabbing or slashing the warrior woman or else pistol whipping her in her arms, chest, and torso. Over and over and over again I struck the corrupted servant as hard and as fast as I could until my time stop ran out.

Time started moving again. Lancer let out a loud but raspy gasp as all of her new injuries caught up to her in an instant. Her spear fell to the ground, it's aura gone, and she collapsed to her knees. I placed the barrel of the Thompson Contender to her forehead. "Lights out," I said as I pulled the trigger. A loud shot and Lancer fell to the ground and faded away. It was only then that I realized that if she hadn't have faded so fast, I'd probably have had to deal with the brain splatter and I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that.

The runes in the sky faded with Lancer, but the barrier around Glory Girl didn't. A quick slash with "Phantasm Punishment" severed the spell and gave me access to the injured heroine. I ejected the Assassin Card, placed all seven cards back in my holster, and leaned in to check on her.

She was still alive, by the way that she was clutching her chest wound, but she'd lost a lot of blood-I could even see some at her mouth, which I think meant her lung had gotten pierced.

"Glory Girl," I asked, "are you with me? Can you hear me? Nod if you can."

"I can talk," she rasped, "hurts like hell though."

"Then don't say anything!" God damn, I said to nod for a reason. "Okay, I think I can like, share my healing factor with you so just sit back and try not to die on me. Opal?"

"On it Princess." With her confirmation, I held her out of Glory Girl and tried to imagine the injury vanishing and Glory Girl being healthy and whole and-

"That's not good."

"Opal," I asked, "what does that mean?"

"Glory Girl here seems to have an abnormally high magic resistance," Opal explained, "high enough that I can't heal her-at least, not before the Mirror World collapses."

"So..."

"I think I can stop the bleeding," Opal said, "and get her stable enough to make the jump back to the Real World, but she's going to need immediate medical attention from either a healer more powerful than I or a preternaturally skilled surgeon as soon as possible or she will die. As is it's a miracle that her punctured heart isn't splattered on the ground, being hit with Gae Bolg like that."

"Get me home," Glory said. She was starting to sound not all there. Like she was about to pass out or lose touch with reality. "Ames can fix me."

Ames? Amy Dallon, or Panacea. Glory Girl's sister and one of the most powerful healers in the country as far as I knew. "Opal, just get her in the best shape you can so we can get out of here."

Opal did her thing, and I thought about Glory Girl's bleeding at least stopping. Opal declared that she was stable just as the Mirror World started falling apart. We got out in just the nick of time and I sort of carried Glory Girl as I flew back into the city proper.

F/KLPT

By the time we'd actually gotten back into city limits, I'd realized that I didn't actually know where the Dallons lived and had to prompt Glory Girl... several times, in order to get a street address.

I landed just in front of their door, the lights were out. How late was it? I'd lost track of time. I gently sat Glory Girl down and started pounding on the door. I'll admit I was a bit panicked, Glory Girl was slumping where I'd sat her down. I noticed lights flickering on and heard someone coming towards the door so I stopped knocking.

The door swung open and an irate older woman who bared a resemblance to Glory Girl was glaring at me. "Do you have any idea what time..." Then the woman, Brandish, noticed her daughter slumped on the porch in a bloodstained costume and immediately pushed me aside to grab her daughter and pull her into the house. "Mark! Amy! Get down here, family emergency!" After shouting that she turned back to me. "You have five minutes to get in here and explain what happened to my child."

I stepped in just in time to see a brown haired girl about my age come running down the stairs. "What's going o-Vicky!" The girl, Panacea, rushed over to her sister and placed a hand on her. "There's a hole in your chest! How is there a hole in your chest!?"

"I got stabbed with a gay bulge," Glory Girl said in a delirious tone as a grown man-Mark Dallon aka Flashbang-finally joined the rest of us. Brandish gave me the strangest look.

"Okay," Panacea said in a panic, "just sit still and I'll have you all fixed up in no time."

"Leave a scar," the injured heroine said, "it'll be... It'll be wicked." I couldn't tell from here whether the healer obliged her sister's request, but after a moment the brunette hugged the blonde and started muttering about how she was going to be okay.

"Okay," Brandish said to me, "explain how you came to my doorstep with my invincible daughter bleeding out from a chest wound?"

"There are these things," I said, "called Class Cards. The gist of it is that they're hidden in places, and they've got power. If they stay in a hidden place long enough, then they'll manifest a projection. I know how to get to them, and you really don't want to leave them laying around in case a bad person finds them, or in case the projection gets out."

"And I saw her flying out to get one," Glory Girl said, sounding better, "and she explained all of that and I asked if I could help because it sounded fun."

"And I'd already been joined by Armsmaster once, so I figured it would be okay." I pulled out the cards and selected Assassin and Lancer. "But when we got there, there were two of them."

"Princess blew one of them up, then some naked chick covered in blood showed up out of nowhere and stabbed me with a gay bulge."

"The term is 'Gae Bolg,' " Opal interrupted, "it's Gaelic. It means 'spear of mortal pain.' Or perhaps mortal death. " Opal's interruption drew a look from Brandish.

"Thanks," Glory Girl continued, "the wand says it should have ripped out my heart instantly, so that was nowhere near as bad as it could have been."

"I'm sorry," I said after a moment, "I'm so sorry, this is-"

"Princess, this is not your fault," Opal interrupted, "there was no way of knowing that there would be two Class Cards at that Mirror World, nor that Lancer would be so much and older and more powerful than most of the other spirits. Furthermore," she continued, "it's not like you invited Glory Girl to join us, she insisted on it." Opal hummed, "I was against it, but on the other hand if she hadn't been there then Lancer probably would have killed you." Opal twisted to look at Glory Girl. "So thank you for being an adequate meat shield."

"Opal!" I shouted just as Brandish glared at the Wand.

"Um, you're welcome?" Glory Girl said unsurely.

"Okay, Since you mentioned Armsmaster I'll assume you're telling the truth," Brandish said in a tone that made it abundantly clear that she'd be following up on that. "Why is a teenaged girl the only one who knows about these 'cards?' Why not go to the Protectorate and leave it to more experienced and trained heroes? Why go for them alone or with one other hero? And if these cards are so powerful and dangerous," she finished, "why should you be trusted with them?"

"If I may?" Opal answered for me. "My Master and I, prior to our first encounter with the Master of Arms, were the only ones who knew about the locations of the Cards because only I know how to detect them. My master goes after them on her own or with minimal help because only I can open the entrances to the Mirror Worlds where they reside and because I have complete faith in my Master's abilities." Opal bent into a shape that gave a vibe of smugness. "And I trust my Master with the Class Cards, so whether or not you do is utterly irrelevant and if you so much as think of trying to take them from her-"

"Opal," I interrupted, "be nice. We're all heroes here," I said while trying to keep my voice even. "There's no need to be at each other's throats."

"Princess," Opal answered me, "I will not sit here and just let some woman without a single magic circuit in her body question my Master's worthiness."

"You're being rude," I said in reply, "she's got every right to be a bit upset right now, I mean-"

"No, she doesn't," Opal interrupted, "not with you. You are not responsible for Glory Girl's injury. If anything she should be thanking you for bringing her child back to her so that she could be healed."

"Opal kind of has a point," Glory Girl added, "It's not like Princess made me go in there with her. You're being really harsh, Mom, Princess is a good guy. She and Opal are the ones who helped make that thug talk about where the kidnapped girls were, after all."

Brandish was silent for a moment. "Princess," she said, "it's late and I have to have a talk with my daughter about going out in the middle of the night without telling anyone. If you would prefer, we can table this discussion until a more appropriate hour." I nodded in agreement. "Victoria," she said, "escort your friend out and then come see me upstairs." Without another word, she left the room, her oddly silent husband following her shortly after.

"Look, Glory Girl, again I'm sorry-"

"No, none of that," she said as she approached me, "and call me Vicky, we're friends, right?"

I couldn't help but smile, just a little bit. "Y-yeah." I extended a hand to her. "Taylor." She took my hand and smiled. From the corner of my eye, I could see Panacea-Amy? I could see her giving me this odd look. "Well, anyway, I should probably be getting home," I said while trying to ignore Vicky's sister's strange stare. "I'll see you?"

"If I'm not grounded," Vicky replied.

I left the house and flew home. Normally I'd have told Dad about how the card retrieval mission had gone right away, but I was too tired, so I just went straight to bed and crashed. I dreamt I was flying.