Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor

I slashed through a chunk of stone with a summoned Gae Bolg. "You know, Rune, these kinds of meetings are a bit repetitive."

Empire Eighty-eight had taken Lung's capture as an opportunity to expand out and take territory that used to belong to the ABB. I'd mostly left it to the PRT and police, since an organized response was what was needed to combat gang warfare and I was more of a "smack down the villains" type hero, at least on my own, but I couldn't exactly look away when I was on patrol and happened to find my arch-nemesis and a couple of her fellow Hitler Youth rejects in the act of vandalizing businesses in the predominantly Asian part of town. Oddly, Saito repairs hadn't been touched… I should check on Mister Saito at some point. He was kinda-sorta a friend and I'd hate it he someone went after him to get to me.

Anyway, Rune. "Shut up, race-traitor," she said while tagging a stop sign with her powers. "Shouldn't you be fucking your buck instead of stopping upstanding citizens from cleaning up the trash?"

"Upstanding… Nazis," I said incredulously. "Your group identifies as Nazis. Your name is even code for 'Heil Hitler.' " I wrote a few runes of my own in the air, which formed a magical barrier that kicked in just in time to block Rune's stop sign. "You don't get to call yourselves upstanding citizens when you identify as the one bad guy that's universally agreed on to be okay to kill in droves in a fictional work."

The response was a barrage of gravel that clicked as they bounced off of my runic shield.

I quickly looked around. It seemed that the three or four young Empire Grunts that Rune had brought with her had fled at some point, which I had mixed feelings about: It made things easier on me but it meant that I couldn't capture them and turn them in, so they were free to keep hurting people.

It was then that I heard people behind me. I turned just in time to see the four Empire-bangers who'd been with Rune. One had a gun but the other three were holding Molotov cocktails.

It was lucky for me that Lancer was so fast as I was able to spin my spear to deflect Gunner's bullet spray but three frightened gangers with flaming bottles of booze were a bit harder. I couldn't just carelessly dodge them, less a building catch fire…

One of the gangers chucked his right at me. I had a split second to react and ended up batting it into the street, where it shattered and started a small fire.

This, in turn, scared the hell out of the other two molly holders, causing them to drop their lit booze.

Now instead of four armed Gangers, I had four screaming teenagers with flaming legs. That was bad. Really bad.

Then the gunner dropped his gun… It didn't land in the fire but it was awfully close to it and I wasn't sure if that myth about bullets going off when they were on fire was true or not.

I wasn't sure just what I was doing but I started conjuring runes in the air as I ran in the street. At least a dozen and moments later when I completed a circle in the air the runes flashed a cool gold and strong, freezing winds began to flow outward, blowing out and cooling the fires… I really hope I hadn't just frozen these kids' legs too bad.

Now they were all on the ground, moaning. One of them was crying… This, this was why you had to be careful fighting normals. It hadn't been me this time, but it would have been ridiculously easy for me to have splattered these guys… These were just kids, not much older than I was...

I sighed and looked around. No sign of Rune. she must have run off while I was dealing with the normals… I guess the Empire doesn't value loyalty.

I uninstalled Lancer and went from 'Celtic Ninja' to 'Fairy Princess' in an instant. I sheathed the Lancer card and looked down at Opal. "You said that you could contact emergency services? You think you can patch into the phone lines."

Opal switched into pocket-sized-mode and started buzzing. She stopped and started speaking. "Hello, Emergency Services? Requesting special line on behalf of Independent Heroine Princess… I'm more than willing to hold but the cretins we have badly burned themselves with improperly handled makeshift incendiaries so I'm not so sure they'd be so willing to oblige… four unpowered criminals that were accompanying the villain Rune in what appeared to be an attempt to vandalize and commit arson against several small businesses…" Opal hummed. "Thank you very much."

She clicked and turned back into a Wand.

"So?"

"They're sending four ambulances with an officer to meet them at the hospital," Opal replied. "They're also sending a police officer to take your statement as the arresting Hero so… We've got to stay here for a bit."

"That's fine," I said. Honestly, I'd have felt bad leaving these guys here, anyway.

About a minute later, Glory Girl landed next to me.

"Hey, Princess..." She said, "I-What happened here?"

"Some Empire Kids accidentally set themselves on fire," I said.

"...You want me to call Panacea?" She asked.

"There's ambulances on the way. What was it you wanted?" I asked back.

"Oh uh, I got the stuff your friend wanted for the investigation," she explained, "I tried to call you at home, but your dad said you were on patrol."

"Okay," I said, "I'll call Li-her up and get her to come over so we can pick up soon."

The police arrived at the same time as the ambulances did.

F/KLPT

"No," Lisa said. She was comparing photos and lists of details about people that Vicky knew. "It's not Jamie Watson, either…"

"You sure?" Vicky asked.

"Yeah," Lisa explained. "Like… there are a couple of people that are close, but none of them close enough to fit Panpan69's profile."

"...Are you sure," Vicky began, "that you've got all the details right?"

Lisa looked at Vicky with an icy stare that I'd so far only seen on supervillains. "I'm not stupid, Miss Dallon. I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't sure."

"Geez, sorry," Vicky said. "Don't bite my head off, I'm just..."

"Look," Lisa said while rubbing her temples. "I'm gonna check Panacea's bedroom."

"...Why?" Both I and Vicky asked at the same time. Opal, from her resting spot in my hair, chuckled.

"Because, my dears," Lisa said with a hint of snark, "I'd like to know for sure that the improbable is, in fact, impossible so we can eliminate it and thus find the truth."

I saw Vicky blink. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Sorry," Lisa said. "I was up late last night and I'm starting to get a headache. Anyway, check Panacea's room, just to 100% rule her out. If nothing else it'd be a change of tracks to clear my mind."

"Oh.. Okay, I guess," Vicky said. "If it'll help. Just, just be quick about it."

We left Vicky's room and went down the hall, to Panacea's. Lisa just looked around, examining Amy's bed, the keyboard of her computer, the books and such she kept.

And then the door opened, with Panacea walking in and pausing when she saw us all in here.

"What are you all doing in my room?" She asked.

"Engaging in very poor timing," Lisa deadpanned.

"We're trying to figure something out," I said.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Lisa asked all of a sudden.

"...Excuse me?" Amy replied.

"I apologize for being so blunt, but well, there's a problem we've been trying to figure out and I needed a change of scenery and well… I can tell by the way you keep your room that you're not into dudes."

"There is no way in Hell that you can tell that from how I keep my room!"

"So wait..." Vicky said, "Amy, are you really-?"

"Yes," Panacea cut off, "I'm gay. No, I don't have a girlfriend. How is this anybody's business?" She asked with a glare.

Opal wiggled out of my hair. "Oh, it's not like anyone here is judging you, in fact, my s-"

I grabbed Opal. "I think we've overstayed our welcome here," I said. "Crossed a few boundaries. Lisa, we're gonna have to figure out who the stalker is some other time."

Panacea's tone and stance changed in an instant. "Stalker?"

"Yeah," Vicky said awkwardly, "you know Taylor and… Oh, you haven't met Lisa, she's a friend of Taylor's," she said with a gesture to my best civie friend. "Uh… Look, this is really awkward to say, but… Uh… Someone's stalking me and Taylor."

Panacea blinked. "Seriously?"

"They're uh… writing stories about me, and your sister..." I began awkwardly, " about us doing things that neither of us is particularly interested in doing. At least with each other… Not that there's anything wrong with that," I added hastily, considering what I'd just learned about her.

I was just beginning to notice the blush behind Panacea… Amy's freckles.

"And this perv knows way too much about us to just be some rando," Vicky finished, "so we're trying to figure out who Panpan69 really is."

It seemed that Amy was speechless.

"...Oh God," Lisa said, palming her face.

Vicky turned back to her. "...What?"

"I've got good news and bad news," Lisa said. "The good news is that I know who Panpan69 is. The bad news is that your sister wants you sexually."

This prompted Vicky to start laughing. "Okay, but seriously, what's wrong?"

Amy was looking down and had the complexion of a mud-splattered tomato.

"Oh..." Vicky said, realizing what happened. "Amy… Ames. You are my sister and I love you, but seriously, what the fuck!?"

"Nobody was supposed to… You were never… I feel bad enough about… This already… Just, just..."

"Clearly," Lisa began, "what happened is that Amelia, being only your adopted sister, doesn't have whatever biological or psychological drives that keep people from recognizing their siblings as viable mates. She very clearly has a type, strong-willed, stacked blondes, that you, her beloved older sister and best friend, happen to-"

She was cut off by loud banging and thumping. Sirens went off in the distance. Then a phone rang.

"Well, alright then," Opal said, "Lisa, as you were saying?"

"Opal, no," I said. "I think that maybe whatever just happened is more important."

"But Princess, this is the whole reason that we're here," Opal countered, "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm particularly interested in how this turns out. Incestuous lesbianism is more Ruby's interest, the pervert, but-"

"Not the time, Opal," I said.

"Taylor?" Lisa said as she stood to leave. "Your wand needs to learn some tact."

I rolled my eyes. After what she'd just unleashed… Whatever, I just wanted to avoid the awkward right now.

Cautiously, we went downstairs to find Mrs. Dallon… Brandish, on the phone. The TV was on, an emergency alert beginning to play.

Brandish hung up. "Vicky, take your civilian friend back upstairs, she's not going home till we know it's safe. I'll talk to your father about keeping an eye on her, then you and Amy need to suit up. That was the PRT emergency line calling in all affiliated heroes: Someone just set off bombs all over the city."

I tranced and flew for the door. I didn't know if Brandish had anything to say to me, but I didn't care. Dad was at work today. The wards on the house wouldn't keep him safe if he wasn't there and I needed to make sure he was okay.