Chapter 05: Maxima
"I do not think that is the best idea." Medea stated at her Master's 'plan' for Berserker's Master. "Approaching those two for the sake of an alliance is rather reckless."
"Neither of us had much success against them in a straight battle. And I cannot think of a solution that we would be able to implement immediately." Angelica replied as she stepped out from the luxurious bathtub, wrapping herself in a towel that was barely enough to keep her generous bust from spilling out. "At the very least, a ceasefire between us would be just as satisfactory."
"But that would require approaching him at either his home or his school, which are both terrible options." Caster pointed out, Angelica allowing her to dress her hair for the morning. Ah, she was such a statuesque vision~ "The former may be the worse of the two options, but as my familiars are somehow completely unable to enter it, he wouldn't be any less invulnerable at his school either. And worst of all, even if we ignore his already existing alliance with his cousin and Saber, what can we offer him that would spark an interest in an alliance between us?"
Angelica lowered her head in thought. "I have... a probable bad idea."
And that just worsened Medea's worries.
"So, Saber, huh?"
Illya smirked as both her brother and her Servant flinched in unison, the latter lowkey glaring at the former while Berserker watched it all like the prime entertainment it was. "You know, I almost can't say I blame you, considering her beauty."
"Illya, we both know that nothing happened. If anything did happen, she'd have eviscerated me." Shirou insisted, Saber giving an agreeing nod while chewing. "What we need to do know is figure out the other Masters. The remaining Servants unaccounted for now are Archer, Rider and Assassin. I really want that last one dealt with so that we can cross off the Servant specifically made for sneak attacks."
"I agree." Berserker raised her cup to gesture for more tea, Leysritt moving to refill it. "Assassin's Presence Concealment could potentially elude even our super senses, and that's not a risk I'd like to leave unaddressed."
"But you shouldn't disregard Caster." Saber turned towards Berserker, her tone rather authoratative. "Leaving Caster and her Master unbothered, especially after alerting them to their disadvantage in upfront battles against us, will only give them more time to prepare themselves against us."
Saber's fist clenched as her eyes narrowed, probably remembering something from her past. "And there are few things as dangerous as a Caster with plenty of preparation."
"...so, our objectives are what? Go finish off Caster while hunting down the others?" Berserker scoffed. "We could probably find out Ainsworth and Caster if we strain our ears well enough, but that'll still take time of us to pinpoint."
"We should probably also keep away from school after today." Shirou added. "On the off chance we get attacked there, I'd rather my classmates don't become collateral damage."
"Agreed." Illya conceded as she'd rather Sakura stay unhurt, making notes to invite her over. She was a fellow magus, albeit mostly untrained so she could just use their house as shelter. It was much better defended than anything the Church itself could probably offer, thanks to the combined designs of Einzbern magecraft and Kryptonian knowledge. "Is it fine if I invite Sakura over?"
"...sure, go ahead." Shirou agreed after a bite, finally emptying his plates and allowing Leysritt to take them away. "I almost wish I had a best friend I could be totally honest with."
"What about Shinji?" Illya wondered, only to chuckle at her cousin's incredulously raised brow. "Alright, then. How about... Kane, right?"
"Ah, well, she's more of an acquaintance with very good guessing luck." Shirou muttered as he crossed his arms. "But you've got a point. I should warn her not to stay out late for a while."
Just as he finished speaking, the housephone rang, prompting Sella to answer it. "Good morning, this is the Emiya-Einzbern residence... I see. Shirou-sama, it's Taiga Fujimura and she's asking for you."
"I'll take it." Getting up and taking the phone from her, Shirou leaned back against the wall. "What's wrong, Fuji-nee? ...seriously?"
The phone chose that moment to cut, causing Shirou to regard the beeping machine in annoyance. "Apparently, Fuji-nee wants me to bring her lunch to the archery dojo at school. I'll make it, so do you mind dropping it off while you meet Sakura there?"
"Sure, why not?" Well, it looked like they had quite a day to get over with.
"Berserker, I've been speaking in English for a while now, but how's your Japanese?"
"Good enough." Berserker replied in perfect Japanese, now dressed differently than her white leotard. Having demanded that she be taken shopping first for new clothes, Berserker's new outfit featured a long white tailcoat with chrome inner lining and a sleeveless black crop top that showed off her toned midriff. Additionally, she wore a white belt over black skintight leather pants along with black low-heeled boots. "Fuyuki is quite less... noisy than I'm used to."
"I think the word you're looking for is peaceful." Shirou replied as they continued their impromptu tour of the city. Back then, Berserker had insisted on it so that she could familiarize herself with the layout, but Shirou quickly learned that she really just wanted to go on a city-wide tour.
"Hey, what's going on over there?" Berserker pointed towards where a few people had gathered to watch one of the displayed televison monitors for sale at a nearby stall, which Shirou could see was tuned to the News.
"Let's find out." Approaching a television with the least amount of people blocking his way, Shirou looked on the screen to find the newscaster interviewing a woman in... Wait, that looked like Almerac wear. "What's one of their warriors doing here?"
"You know, you've just broken the hopeful hearts of so many teenage girls in this city." The newscaster spoke eagerly as she leaned forward on her table. "But seriously, as the Red-Blue Blur's wife-"
"Not his wife. His 'betrothed'." The Almerac woman corrected. "His destined mate. If he proves himself worthy."
"Really?" The newscaster wondered. "And how's he supposed to do that?"
"Why, in battle of course." The Almerac woman suddenly stood up from her seat, startling the newscaster as she loomed over the latter. "So where is he?!"
The newscaster quickly scooted back when the Almerac woman's fist broke the large table in half, before flinging one broken half at the camera.
"...so, Red-Blue Blur?" Berserker smirked. "I'm assuming you didn't choose the name."
"Well, it's not like I had one at the time to give them. Return home. I'll handle this." Shirou muttered as he turned away and headed towards the nearest alleyway, scanning for any possible eavesdroppers before reaching for the bracer hidden beneath his sleeve. A quick usage of it's dimensional storage function later, and the Red-Blue Blur rocketed skyward.
"I want him, and I want him now!"
Maxima demanded as she grabbed one of the Earthlings' apparatus that had been displaying her image, prepared to finally aim at the useless creatures if it would take the actual death of one of his pets for the Red-Blue Blur to arrive. "I'm waiting- Huh?!"
Maxima stumbled when the apparatus was ripped away from her grip, her target finally having arrived as he set it down afar. "Red-Blue Blur..."
Maxima cast an appreciative lookover at his muscular physique, especially pleased when he even close to her age compared to the older men she was used to. "Yow!"
"And you are?" The Red-Blue Blur requested.
"I am the Lady Maxima, warrior queen, head of the royal house, leader of all Almerac." Pleased with her efforts being well rewarded, Maxima flung her arms around his shoulders. "Almerac awaits us. You need only prove yourself and-"
"Yeah, no." The Red-Blue Blur grabbed Maxima's arms and pulled her off, keeping her at bay. "Listen, you seem to have assuming something very unlikely. Not only do I live here on Earth without any intentions to leave, but I also cant return your feelings."
Maxima's eyes widened before they narrowed coyly. Was this the 'playing hard to get' thing? Pity that he was so ignorant. "Are you refusing the royal house of Almerac? Are you refusing... me?"
"Well... yes, Maxima."
Maxima repaid that insolence with a fist that would've bruised his cheek. At least, that was what she had intended, only for the Red-Blue Blur to catch her punch effortlessly. Even as the shockwave from her punch cracked the nearby wall and knocked back some of the nearby Earthlings, Maxima marveled at how her fist had still been stopped dead.
"So, it's gonna be like that, huh..." The Red-Blue Blur suddenly disappeared from her view, and suddenly Maxima felt herself get yanked up by her cape as she was carried out through the ceiling and up into the skies. "Like the Tiger says, when dealing with creeps who can't take a no, don't be reluctant to break their bones!"
With that, the Red-Blue Blur flung her away to fly several miles until she crashed into a hillside. It took four seconds for Maxima to properly recover. The first to comprehend that this utterly wonderful specimen of a male was truly stronger than her, the second to marvel how well he would devote all that power into her bedroom and the third to determine the best way to make it so.
By the time the fourth second came with the Red-Blue Blur's arrival, Maxima smoothly diverted his incoming punch and twisted herself into delivering a knee kick that smashed into his face and gouged him into the landscape.
Shakily getting back up, the Red-Blue Blur staggered when he brought up his hand to his nose and recoiled at the sight of red liquid on it. Ah, he was shocked at his own blood. The perils of living alone as a deity amongst mortals.
They were truly fit for each other~! "No one has ever lasted this long with me. No one. You're truly my... my equal."
Maxima threw herself against him, wrapping her arms as tightly as she could around him and relishing how he didn't give even the tiniest grunt of pain. "This is the happiest day of my life!"
"I'm... glad?" The Red-Blue Blur awkwardly patted her back.
"Of course, now you'll have to marry me!" Maxima perked up, already envisioning their lives together. The worlds they could conquer together. The legacies and children that their union would spawn. Oh, she could hardly wait!
"That's still a no, I'm afraid." The Red-Blue casually shattered Maxima's expectations. "I have zero reasons or interest in following your demands."
"Why not?" Maxima pouted. "On my planet, I do it all the time!"
"Well, this isn't Almerac." The Red-Blue Blur reminded her. "Demanding that your spouse marry you won't really result in marriage at all. That's just marital slavery, I think."
"If this 'marital slavery' is still a marriage where you unfailingly obey my commands, I see no distinctions in what I want." Maxima raised her hands up to his uncovered jaw and used her tactile telekinesis to inflame his nervous system, gripping his throat so that his admittedly troublesome struggles didn't permit him to escape. Still, he held up for an impressive two minutes until he fainted from the pain. "Sooner or later, I knew you'd fall for me."
A second later, a blonde woman slammed down, scoffing at her fallen man. "So this is you 'handling it', huh?"
"And you are?" Maxima demanded.
"...his servant, of sorts." The blonde woman shrugged, which drew Maxima's attention to her bosom. Briefly comparing their sizes, Maxima smirked as she found herself as the obvious victor. "I'm Galatea. Wherever he's going, I'm supposed to follow Kal-El."
"Hm, I suppose that someone as great as him must have his own personal aide." Maxima acquiesced while mentally preening at learning his name, opening a portal back home and dragging Kal-El along towards it. "Let us go."
Stepping through, Maxima briefly observed that they seemed to be celebrating something. Obviously, they'd learnt of their queen's errand and had already begun rejoicing for her guaranteed success.
Strangely enough, they seemed surprised to see her back amongst them. Had she been too early?
"Congratulate me!" Maxima declared as she walked past one of the citizens, the man having rightfully bowed as she approached him with Kal-El and Galatea in tow. "I'm getting married."
"Congratulations...?" The citizen replied in confusion, staring at Kal-El's groaning form as he was dragged along and Galatea as she waved at him while following them.
"Sazu! Call in the Minister of Rituals! My betrothed and I are ready to..." Stepping into her throneroom, Maxima kept a wary boot over Kal-El's chest and looked around for her own aide, only to trail off at the sight of her throne being... being defiled by De'Cine's posterior, with even Sazu at his side! "What... is this?!"
"My Lady?" Sazu spoke in obvious shock.
"My throne!" Maxima shot back in obvious affront, her voice resounding throughout the entire castle and attracting several of its guards. "Arrest them at once!"
To her befuddlement, none of them moved to apprehend either Sazu or De'Cine, all of them turning their spears towards her instead.
"No, Maxima. I think not." De'Cine got off her throne, the man smirking victoriously. "Guards, arrest the former queen of Almerac."
"'Former' queen?" Kal-El muttered as he stood back up, the guards pointing their spears at him as well. "It's bad news for a ruler to be disliked by their citizens to this extent."
"No, not him." De'Cine commanded, looking over Kal-El's roughened apperance. "Judging by your state, it's quite easy to imagine how exactly Maxima 'convinced' you to accept her hand in marriage. You're quite right in your assessment, in how it is bad news for a ruler to be hated by their citizens."
"How dare you?!" Maxima took a menacing step forward, the ground cracking beneath her only for a collar to clasp around her neck. Maxima shuddered as her tactile telekinesis no longer perpetually enshrouded her, leaving her physical muscles barely able to pick up the slack of supporting her own weight. "Wh-What did you just do?! When my people here of your treachery-"
"Do you think that we hadn't planned on this for long? That this was just a spontaenous act of rebellion?" Sazu chided as she walked over to De'Cine's side, the man wrapping his arm around her waist. "Your people were only too glad for this 'treachery'. They were the ones calling it 'Liberation'. You lived a full life of enjoyment at the constant expense of your people, tormented countless innocents and risked war against other worlds all for your selfish whims! What an utter disappointment you turned out to be, Maxima!"
"You- Gurk?!" Maxima choked as something shoved itself into her back and out her chest, letting copious amount of her blood spill out as a feminine hand clutched her still beating heart.
Galatea ignored the shocked cries from them all, keeping close notice of how Kal winced but didn't rebuke her. So her Superman didn't shy at a bit of death, huh? Good.
Pulling her arm free, Galatea ripped off Maxima's arm before throwing the rest of the queen aside.
"Hey." Galatea gestured with the arm at Sazu and the 'new king', smiling at how they all stepped back from her. "This lady over here used a device on her arm to bring us here. Open the portal for us back home, and we wont bother with you anymore than we have to."
"Berserker..." Kal warned.
"For the record, my boss over there is stronger than your dear queen, so much so that Maxima had to cheat a win to get him here." Galatea gestured at Kal, grinning wider when they looked back to regard Maxima's own battered state and regarded Kal with much more awe. "But we have no quarrel with anybody aside from her. So if you just open a portal for us back to Earth..."
"Maxima's latest victim gets to return home. Of course." Sazu reached for the limb and unclasped the necessary cuff, using it to open that familar portal for them. "This will take you directly to the last place she last opened a portal on your world."
"Convinient." Galatea paused as Kal stopped to regard Maxima as she kept bleeding out, rolling her eyes as she kicked him through. "Don't waste your compassion on her!"
Following after her, Galatea stretched as she regarded the afternoon sun well on its way to setting. "What a lovely day."
Kal however was still clearly upset. "I understand why Maxima had to die... but why did you have to be the one to do it? The execution of a tyrant should've been undertaken by her liberated subjects."
"Do you think I care about them, Kal?" Galatea scoffed, jabbing into his chest with a finger. Her other hand was still bloody, after all. "My only concern was getting us home as quickly as possible. No matter how bloody or cruel I have to be, I used to be the closest thing to a slave despite being able to rival gods. Then ironically, I get reborn as a literal Servant, but exist freer than ever, because you are too much of a good guy to cross those lines. Kryptonians don't have to choose. We take."
"When did you ever get the idea we're capable of rivaling gods?" Kal replied in disbleif.
"You're a Superman, even if one in the making." Galatea raised her hands and placed them behind her head as she began walking off with no care of how the blood began to stain more of her, astralizing in a mist of crimson particles so that all of the 'dirt' would vanish when next she materialized. "You'll be fighting gods sooner or later. Or those similar enough, whichever of them comes first."
Shirou stared at the spot where Berserker disappeared, before looking down at his dirtied hands. For a moment, he could almost imagine the dirt for Maxima's blood. "This Superman... would've been stronger than her... Her Superman... would've stopped Berserker..."
How... How could she think that he could be Superman?
"I've got no business calling myself a hero like Superman."
"I've got no business calling myself a hero like Superman."
Staying still and astralized in the branches of the tree above his younger self, EMIYA kept silent as the most recent event he just witnessed added to the oddities he'd observed so far.
The more things changed, the more they apparently stayed the same. To EMIYA's utter disbelief, this timeline had apparently gone completely out of whack from what he knew.
First off, Illya identified as a fucking Emiya. (But still, he was lowkey happy to see what she looked like after properly growing up.)
Second off, Kotomine, Gilgamesh and Zouken were all already dead! This was especially puzzling, because what in the everliving fuck had killed the trifecta of Holy Grail threats that had been present back then?! (At least Sakura seemed happier, being Illya's closest friend. Fuck whatever Shinji was doing at the moment.)
And now, his own younger self was apparently a fucking alien, or whatever the fuck a 'Kryptonian' was!
And he still wanted to become a Hero! Why?!
Even as he did his absolute best to stay quiet until Shirou Emiya left, EMIYA had never felt the urge to cry as strongly as he currently did.
In the nightly din of Fuyuki city, the sole Kryptonian that could've heard Mitsuzuri's brief cry for help was unfortunately too occupied to act as the Red-Blue Blur at the moment.
Of course, Shinji neither knew nor cared about that as he wrapped his arms tightly around Mitsuzuri to hold her close against him, ensuring that the biomass connecting his right arm to her neck stayed steady while she was slowly drained of her lifeforce.
Within a minute, Shinji felt her go limp and quiet in his arms. "Incredible. The absorption rate is growing exponentially!"
Staying silent, Assassin naturally said nothing of his actions as she benefited from the pseudo magic circuits that was providing her with prana.
Noting that Mitsuzuri was at least still breathing, but not much else as her veins faintly lit up purple, Shinji instead focused more on the energy that his biomass was now infusing him with, making him feel like he'd freshly awoken with just that peckish desire for... more.
KingVessel: Oh, poor Archer... It's gonna get WORSE. And hello, Shinji. Additionally, I need ideas for potential FATE x DC crossovers. These are the ones I've gotten so far, so please lend me your thoughts.
Superman(Shirou Emiya)
Green Lantern(Kariya Matou)
Shazam(Rin Tohsaka)
Raven(Sakura Matou)
Static(Illya)
Blue Beetle(?)
Batman(Shinji Matou)
Beast Boy(Sieg)
Wonder Woman(Taiga Fujimura)
Aquaman(Waver Velvet)
The Flash(Ayako Mitsuzuri)
Birds of Prey(Kane Himuro/Oracle, Kaede Makidera/Black Canary, Yukika Saegusa/Huntress)
Martian Manhunter(Issei Ryuudou)
Hawkman: ?
Dr. Fate: ?