Archer / Launcher
Emiya Kiritsugu stared at the heroic spirit he had just summoned. Even with Avalon as a catalyst, he didn't summon legendary king Arthur – the servant in front of him most definitely wasn't the most famous ruler of England.
For one, it was a girl in her late teens with light-gray hair and cold blood-red eyes. Her clothes consisted of gray jacket with a hood and black lists on the collar and along the bottom; almost indecently-short black shorts; dark-purple stockings and black combat boots. Attached to the girl's right thigh there was a couple of military bayonet knives in holsters... Finally, behind the girl's back there was a strange and somehow menacing device that appeared to be directly connected to her body with three rather thick cables.
Kiritsugu looked at the summoned heroic spirit's feet once again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Alas, he wasn't and this girl was indeed levitating herself several inches above the floor.
"Servant Archer reporting in, commander." She introduced herself in a rather cold and unfriendly, slightly hissing voice. Actually, coupled with the scowl etched on her face and the almost visible dark aura of power, this made her appear threatening enough for her master and everyone else in the chamber to shiver unconsciously... At least she was powerful, there were no doubts about it.
Irisviel and Archer were sitting on the balcony of the Einzbern castle, having some tea... Well, Iri was having some tea while the other whitehead just sat there, her eyes trained on Kiritsugu playing with little Ilya down in the castle's yard. Maybe a day after her summoning, Archer had requested... well, demanded for that machine to be detached from her body.
Apparently, it was doing more to limit her psychic powers than anything else. That, and it made truly impossible for the white-haired heroic spirit to pass herself as a normal human – since she hadn't really died, she couldn't dematerialize into a spirit form, and thus had to remain visible to everyone all the time... Not to mention that Iri couldn't imagine how one could even try to rest with that monstrosity hanging attached to their back. Maybe it was one of the reasons for Archers bad moods?
Yes, the heroic spirit that Kiritsugu managed to summon was moody, aloof and violent. True, Archer had mellowed out a bit over the last couple of weeks, but she still tended to use excessive amounts force all the time. She had almost killed Jubstacheit when the head of the Einzbern family said something bad in her address when she within earshot. Only timely intervention of both the magus killer and Irisviel herself had saved the man from becoming a target for various knives Archer was about to launch at him with her psychokinesis... And if this was normal for her, one could only imagine what monster the white-haired servant would turn into while on her PMS...
Another peculiar detail about Archer was that strange, invisible aura that seemed to surround her at all times. Any normal human, even as in control of oneself as Kiritsugu, who spent more that a couple of hours in her presence began getting impatient, irritable and snappish. Homunculi, however, appeared to be immune to these effects, and this was another, unspoken, reason for why Irisviel was to be Archer's minder for the duration of the war.
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Tokiomi Tohsaka watched as the smoke clouds parted, revealing the servant he had just summoned. And much like he had planned, this servant was the one and only King of Heroes, otherwise known as Gilgamesh, the king of Mesopotamia and the entire ancient world. He was a tall and handsome man with blond hair, red eyes and seemingly-permanent arrogant smile on his face.
"Are you the one to have summon me, Rider, into this world?" The golden servant inquired, even if the answer was rather obvious. "Answer to the King when he ask you a question!" Gilgamesh pressed when Tokiomi remained silent for longer than the golden-clad heroic spirit deemed tolerable.
"Y-Yes, I am, your highness." The head of the Tohsaka family replied, while trying to understand, why the King of Heroes was summoned as Rider instead of Archer... In the end, he decided that it was not really important: someone as great and powerful as his servant could fit into this container as well without any penalties. That, and as a Rider the Gilgamesh had a lesser level of Independent action and thus would be a bit easier to control...
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Waver Velvet was actually thrown backwards a bit when his ritual circle successfully summoned a heroic spirit from ages past to fight on his behalf in the Fourth Grail War. The said heroic spirit was a huge man with large muscles. He had sternly chiseled features, sharp eyes and burning-red hair and beard. Most of his body was covered by an ornate reddish mantle, with some bronze armor worn underneath it.
"I'm servant Saber, and I'm going to conquer this world!" The summoned heroic spirit bellowed out, much to Waver's chagrin – with how loud he was, the young magus was quite sure that the entire Fuyuki city had heard him.
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They had arrived to the Fuyuki city three days ago, just right on time to witness the first – and very anticlimactic – battle of the Fourth Grail War. According to the surveillance set up by Kiritsugu all around the city, Assassin fell under Rider's attacks while trying to sneak into Toshaka's manor... Archer, though, had her doubts about the death of Assassin: according to her, this was a mere deception. After all, the servant of shadow would have a much easier time in the war if his enemies thought him to be dead. Unfortunately for those who wanted to believe that one of the servants was already out, Archer did have a point here...
Even with the threat of Assassin lurking in the shadow, as well as five other servants still being alive, Irisviel still decided that she wanted some fun in the city. And since the Grail War was a secret from those unaware of magic, no battles ever happened in the broad daylight. Thus, Iri was sure she'd be alright, especially since she was dragging Archer along with herself.
After the whole day of exploring the wonders of Fuyuki, they ended up on a wild beach near the edge of the city. Having never been out of the Einzbern castle, the homunculus lady was mesmerized by the sea and she just couldn't resist walking through the gentle waves, feeling the sand under her bare feet.
Archer was standing firmly on the shore maybe twenty feet away from her 'minder'. With her mindset being created the way it way, the psi-agent, even after being corrupted by normal and peaceful life for over half a month, had no desires to join her mistress in her fun. That, and she was actually feeling very tired and sore – for someone who was used to move around with levitation, walking on her two feet was not easy... Suddenly a frown appeared on Archer's face.
"Mistress, a hostile unit detected. Most possibly, it is an enemy heroic spirit." She spoke, her red eyes still fixed on Iri. "Around thousand meters at ten o'clock. Your orders? Engage?" Looking in that direction, Irisviel could see silhouettes of cranes and masses of crates. According to the plans her husband had shown her, those were the abandoned docks of the harbor. A prefect place for the battle between servants... Then, she felt a strong flare of prana that could only be created by a heroic spirit, coming from the docks: someone had chosen his battlefield and was now inviting others to fight him.
"Yes." The Einzbern homunculus replied. "I'll contact Kiritsugu. He should have... Eep!" She was really surprised when she suddenly felt Archer lift her into the air with psychokinesis. The white-haired servant waited for a couple of seconds to let her mistress relax – she used this time to bring Iri's boots to her – before she began levitating towards the docks, pulling her 'minder' along.
Diarmuid ua Duibhe, the Lancer of the Fourth war, was standing on the edge of a large empty area in the dock, waiting for other servants to answer his 'invitation'. He needn't have waited for long as just a minute after he had flared his prana he got the first two 'guests'. The both were females with white hair and red eyes and actually looked a little bit alike, but he had no troubles in identifying which one of the two was an enemy servant. No, the question was, which class that girl in gray jacket belonged to. He'd say that she was a Caster, but that levitation she was using actually didn't appear to be magical in origin.
"It troubles me that to one I'm facing in combat, I can't identify myself. I hate this rule..." Diarmuid spoke, as he walked into the center of what was about to become a battlefield in a few moments. "I'm Lancer of this war." He introduced himself.
"Archer." The white-haired heroic spirit returned the favor, while a transparent bubble of energy surrounded her suspended in the air form... Once again, it didn't feel like what she was doing was magic. How curious. Back when he was still alive, Diarmuid remembered hearing stories about shamans who could move small stones with nothing but exertion of their will. Was Archer someone with similar – but much more powerful – ability? If so, this was going to be a tough fight. Interesting one, though.
"Be careful." Archer's master said as she stepped back. "I shall support you with my healing magic but..." She was interrupted by her servant.
"No, my shield is not intent-based..." Diarmuid immediately filed this little piece of info into his memory. It might prove to be useful later on. "And I will not lower it until the end of the fight." After a brief pause, Archer added: "Don't worry, mistress, I shall be alright." With a barely noticeable movement of her finger, the white-haired servant raised several crates around her into the air.
'Damn.' Lancer swore in his mind. As a melee fighter, he knew he will have troubles when facing someone who could attack him form a distance. And when that someone could lift several tons into the air with barely any effort... But he was going to win this war, and that was not something he could achieve by running away at the first sign of any difficulty. After all, only those who defied fate in order to achieve victory became heroic spirits in the first place.
Archer didn't waste any time and 'threw' the crates at Lancer, however he didn't even try dodging, cutting them all apart with his spears instead. Only to find out a moment later that his opponent could still control those crates – or what was left of them. Now, he simply had to dodge as no one could block no less than fifteen attacks coming from all directions. The worst part – if he tried cutting that scrap apart, he'll only create more projectiles for Archer to attack him with. Damn. That thought was also shared by lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, Lancer's master, and it was what gave him away.
"You can't hide from me." Archer muttered under her breath as he withdrew a strange object from somewhere on her jacket. Even with the knowledge of the modern world provided by the Grail, Lancer could not identify precisely what it was. But one thing was clear: it was a weapon... Now, where this one was going to strike? His eyes widened when the 'dart' was banished towards the roof of the warehouse where his master was hiding.
'How did she notice him there?' The servant of spear wondered, while rushing to protect his master. He barely managed to throw the man behind the ridge of the roof, before this 'dart' exploded violently. Thankfully, it wasn't a noble phantasm or, otherwise, Lancer was sure even his armor wouldn't have protected him from the blast. The next moment he got a dozen pieces of sharp but rusty metal form the crates he had destroyed earlier hitting him in his back. Not a nice feeling, even if it was nothing that a knight-class heroic spirit couldn't survive.
Without stopping her assault on Lancer – his master was of a no threat – Archer produced another dart, this time banishing it towards a large crane not far away from the current battlefield. Just before the projectile exploded, Diarmuid saw someone flicker away from that crane. Well, at least they wouldn't be spied upon anymore. Though he still wondered how Archer could notice anyone here – he sure as hell saw nothing until the strange girl had drawn his attention there with her attack. Who the hell she was? Psychokinesis and some ridiculously-powerful sensing abilities... She was a very worthy foe.
Suddenly, Archer's assault ceased, giving Lancer a much needed breather. Since so far the white-haired servant proved to be capable of controlling a great number of objects with her psychokinesis, only something major could have made her switch away from her target... And Diarmuid saw what it was a moment later: a large bull-driven chariot that was spitting lightnings in all directions was charging towards the battlefield, aiming to trample Archer over.
The girl, though, proved to be more than capable of dealing with such threat even without resorting to dodging – she levitated several crates into the chariot's way to slow it down, before somehow establishing her control over the bulls and sending them heads-first into the ground, causing the chariot itself to topple over and send its passengers flying out of it. A very large red-haired man in red mantle – obviously a servant – effortlessly caught a boy that was with him midair, before landing safely not that far away from Irisviel.
"Hohoho!" The newly-arrived servant let out a thunderous, booming laughter. "That is some magnificent power you have there, Archer." The whitehead did not show any reaction to this compliment, but she did keep an eye on him in case he decided to attack her mistress. "Anyway!" The man continued. "My name is Iskandar, the King of Conquers! I'm of Saber class in this Holy Grail War!" This introduction was followed by his master arguing that the whole point of this war was for one's identity to be kept a secret, but Saber didn't appear to be even listening to him. "Fate has brought us together to battle for the Grail, but first..." And the servant of sword made a ridiculous proposition that basically asked others to grant him the grail and become his subordinates as he conquered the world. Needless to say, it was declined.
"I'm afraid, I must decline." Was Lancer's reply. "I may give the Grail to but one man: my new avowed lord. Not to you, Saber." Archer was a bit more... violent with her response. Which consisted of her banishing one of her bayonet knives at Saber. He deflected it with his sword, of course, but it still got the message across: the white-haired girl had no intentions of joining him either.
This was followed by Lancer's master temporarily forgetting about being nearly killed by Archer mere minute ago and making some threat against Saber's own master – apparently named Waver Velvet. The boy was scared to tears until his servant calmed him down somewhat by claiming that he'd rather have him than a coward who was hiding.
"...Anyway." Saber continued. "Since my negotiations have apparently failed, I shall conquer you all by force! And those other, as well skulking in the darkness, gather here and now! Those too craven to show themselves shall draw the scorn of Iskandar, King of Conquerors!" A couple of moments passed, before another servant materialized from golden spark not far away from them, standing arrogantly on a lamppost. Archer's reflexive reaction to his appearance was to send her knife – the very one she had attacked Saber not too long ago – at him. Once again, it was deflected, this time by a magical golden armor of the newly-arrived servant.
"A lesser being claims to be king, even in my presence? And another one dares to attack me?" The new servant spoke arrogantly, while air behind him shimmered into multiple ripples with various weaponry sticking out of those ripples. "Your punishment shall be death." Having chosen Archer to die first as a worse offender, the King of Heroes released the weapons from his treasury.
The white-haired servant, though, merely raised her hand, making the deadly projectiles stop in the midair. Cocking her head to the side slightly, she turned the weapons back at their original owner. Then she banished them towards Gilgamesh, who protected himself by returning the assortment of swords, maces, spears and halberds back to his treasury.
"Interesting one you are, mongrel. You amuse the King, yet your fate remains the same: you shall die!" The Gate of Babylon was opened even further this time, but once again Archer managed to stop all of the weapons fired before they could hurt her... Seeing as she was currently occupied, Lancer decided that it was his chance and so he attacked – they weren't in a proper duel after all.
"Archer!" Irisviel shouted. Her warning was an unneeded one though: the whitehead knew she was about to be attacked the very moment Lancer thought about it. And she simply blew him away with a powerful shock-wave as soon as he got close enough. That was followed by the arsenal she kept suspended in midair being launched at recovering servant of spear, forcing him to expend his strength on evading the multiple projectiles.
Suddenly another servant appeared on the battlefield. Berserker. The knight in black armor was surrounded by a black mist. Letting out a sound that eerily similar to that of a metal under high strain, he charged at Gilgamesh, who tried to screw him from almost point blank by firing multiple weapons from his noble phantasm. Somehow, despite being obviously under the mad enhancement, Berserker managed to dodge, catch or deflect all of them with a precision unexpected from someone of his class.
The King of Heroes was about to attack again – this time he was really serious as the Gate of Babylon now seemingly spread across half of the sky – but he suddenly stopped, before muttering several not very nice words about his master. Then he canceled his noble phantasm and walked away, dissipating into a myriad of golden sparks.
For a moment nothing moved on the battlefield. Then Berserker attacked, charging madly at Archer. Apparently, he could see that the white-haired girl was the biggest threat out there. What he failed to understand that he alone didn't really have any chances at winning against her... Lancer's master, though, decided that this was a perfect opportunity to remove this overpowered Archer from the war. Thus, he ordered his servant to help Berserker.
Diarmuid too jumped into the battle, but almost immediately he found himself caught by Archer's psychokinesis. Then he was roughly thrown at Berserker, who was ready to catch him on a make-shift pike. Somehow, Lancer managed to avoid being impaled, only to see two crates speeding at them from different sides. He barely managed to escape unharmed. The black knight, being a bit more slow in his mind, didn't. Not that it was enough to finish him off.
Archer could sense that too, and as soon as the mad servant started pushing his way out of the remains of two crates, she dropped another one on him. Then one more. And yet another one... Lancer tried to attack her again, coming from what he thought was her blind spot. Only to get blown away again by that shock-wave. How in seven hells he was supposed to fight someone he couldn't come close? He briefly considered trying to throw her spears at her, but after Archer's display of power against that golden-clad servant, Diarmuid knew that the most he'd achieve this way would be losing his weapons.
Meanwhile, Berserker proved to be a durable bastard and was pushing his way out of the destroyed crates. Archer reacted by banishing more rubble towards the mad servant, followed by a couple of her explosive darts. Unfortunately for her, the black knight completely ignored the debris and managed to knock the darts out of the air before they could blow up in his face.
It was then Saber decided to join the fight, once again riding his chariot. But since it had the subtlety of a thunder on a good day, Archer didn't even need her special detection abilities to 'see' it coming. Though, she still had to – finally – move away from the spot she was as she dodged this charge, she had one of her darts hit the barely protected back of Saber – the man had been too busy with holding the reins to properly protect himself in time.
The black knight came charging at her, his makeshift weapon raised above his head, ready for strike. Archer tried to blow him away with yet another shock-wave, but he stuck the piece of armature he held in his hands into the ground and remained where he was, before attacking her again. Having to recovered her energy for a new shock-wave yet, and not being able to capture him with her psychokinesis, the white-haired servant had to hope that Berserker's attack would be stopped by her shield.
It was, though the barrier was also destroyed. But it still gave Archer that brief moment she needed to build up the energy for another shock-wave. And this time she did manage to blow the mad servant away. Another moment later, and she recreated her bubble-like shield around herself.
"Alright. Enough of this games." She hissed. A moment later pretty much everything in the docks that wasn't screwed to the ground was lifted into the air. Even the remains of an old fishing trawler that must have weight a couple thousands tons. Lancer and Saber looked at each other. This was not good, not good at all...
Archer / Launcher
True identity: codename Libra, Psi-Corps division field commando
Series: "Mental Omega 3.0" mod for "Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge" RTS
Age: unknown, appears to be 17-19
Sex: Female
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (according to Yuri's forces) / Lawful Evil (according to enemy troops)
Strength: D
Endurance: C
Agility: B+
Mana: C+
Luck: D
Independent action: C
Magic resistance: E+ (*) - see the list of Libra's psychic powers.
Clairvoyance: D+ - Libra is an enhanced human and has improved sense of sight.
Battle Continuation: B+
Eye of the Mind (false): A++ (*) - see the list of Libra's psychic powers.
Riding: C - Libra has implanted knowledge needed to operate all modern vehicles that need as little as one driver, however, she has no real-life experience. She is also unable to operate vehicles with non-standard controls, nor she is able to ride animals.
Noble Phantasms:
Psi-agent: power of one's mind: As a genetically-engineered and artificially-enhanced human, Libra is one of the strongest psychics in the world, possibly even stronger than her creator and her master Yuri. However, due to her personality issues, Libra is incapable of controlling others' minds and has to rely on her other psychic powers instead (*):
* Partial empathy: C++, support, permanently active. Libra can detect any ill will directed at herself in a wide range. This ability works only on biological organisms, and thus, golems, robotic or remotely-controlled drones are 'invisible' to her. Libra also can't sense any positive emotions and feelings, which might be a reason for her unstable, violent and cruel personality. This detection ability supersedes Presence concealment skill of up to and including A rank.
* Psychic oppression: D, anti-army, permanently active. Actually, a side effect of Libra's powers. Those who spend a lot of time in her presence get snappish, impatient and start finding it difficult to think with rational thoughts. Homunculi appear to be immune to these effects.
* Mind mastery: A, support, permanently active. Libra is immune to all forms of 'conventional' mind control. She may even reject a single order from the command seal if she doesn't agree with it. Repeated order, however, will take the effect. She also can suppress her emotions at will, allowing this to count as Bravery skill of equal rank.
* Levitation: C, support. Libra can raise herself and anything in touch with her body into the air. As long as she's conscious, she can sustain this ability indefinitely. Because she uses it to move around all the time, her leg muscles are partially atrophied, making it very tiring for her to walk.
* Psi-shield: B+, defensive. Libra can manifest a protective bubble in the form of an energy-absorb shield around herself. This shield works equally well against physical and magical attacks and can completely stop a 12.7mm rifle bullet or two-verses direct attack spell fired from point blank. More powerful attack will break this shield, though.
* Psychic Shock Wave: C, anti-person, anti-platoon. Libra can release an omnidirectional shock wave that can blow lighter objects away from her.
* Psychokinesis I: B+, support, defensive, anti-person, anti-army. Libra can move multiple object around with just her will. She doesn't need to maintain constant visual contact with the objects she uses this ability on. There also is virtually no limit to the number of objects she can control simultaneously, but the bigger and heavier the objects are, the lesser is the maximal speed she can move them with. The Grail imposed a limit of one force application vector per living target to prevent Libra from tearing her opponents apart with this ability. Additionally, the Grail made this count as an A-rank magical attack, meaning that those with high resistance can shrug Libra's psychokinesis off themselves easily.
* Psychokinesis II: Ex, anti-army, anti-fortress. Essentially, this is the same with the one above, but on a scale where it can as well be considered a form of gravity manipulation: Libra can raise entire dreadnoughts into the air before letting them fall down towards their destruction. However, using her abilities on such a scale damages Libra's body and it is suppressed by CAS under normal conditions.
Cerebral Amplifier / Suppressor or CAS: C, item, support, anti-person (self). A device directly attached to Libra's spine. It suppresses the more powerful versions of her psychic powers while amplifying her lesser ones. CAS also serves as a container for explosive darts Libra often uses as her projectiles.
Yes, I know Libra turned out to be a bit over-powered for the Fourth Grail War, but... She's quite powerful in-game too, and has all of the mentioned above powers, save for the shock-wave. And, well, I did substitute her in-game detector ability with Empathetical sensing. Plus, while in the Fourth war the only one who can win against her in a one on one is Gilgamesh with Ea, in Fifth Grail War, Libra will lose to everyone but assassin (Sasaki) - pretty much all servants have skills or abilities that will let them one-shot Libra even though her shield.