Hopebringer (v2)
Plenty of people get dragged into situations they really don't want to be in by ROBs, but very few get chosen by ROB's for more than basic amusement. I was unlucky enough to be one of them. Now I'm in Worm with a mission to save the world. Unfortunately, raw power isn't what works around here.
So, time for something a bit different. This chapter is an alternate version of the other one (obviously) which probably won't get continued. In this version, instead of Adrian acting as the Master to seven Servants, he basically uses his power to trigger a Grail War in Brockton. Oh, and before I forget, in this timeline, Dinah triggered a bit earlier than in Canon. Enjoy.
Chapter 2
"Something on your mind Master?" asked Ruler as she entered my room and found me lying back on my bed, staring up at my Sacred Gear.
"I'm considering how to proceed," I said.
"Proceed with what?" asked Ruler.
"This world needs help, desperately," I said, "However, I'm not sure that I should be the one to do it."
Ruler frowned as she sat down in the chair by my desk.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I'm...not really sure," I said, "Its just a feeling I get. Maybe its because I'm not a native or maybe its instinct, but I get the feeling that I'm more here to proved the catalyst needed for the change, rather than actually be the catalyst."
"Whats the difference?"
"The difference is that, if I do this right, someone will have the power to save Bet with a much reduced killcount. On the other hand, if the wrong person gets their hands on that power…"
Ruler narrowed her eyes.
"Your talking about the Grail," she said, "Are you…"
I sighed and sat up, meeting my Servants eyes.
"I intend to start a Holy Grail War in the city," I said bluntly, "Although it technically wasn't designed as a Wish Granting Machine like the Greater Grail, my Sacred Gear still has that capability, especially when powered by six powerful Souls."
"But releasing seven powerful Heroes on the City and with no way to determine who will get the slots…"
"Actually, thats not true," I said, "I already have some people in mind to act as Masters."
Ruler raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
I grinned.
When Taylor Hebert fell into bed that night, she expected to quickly fall asleep and dream of better times until she was forced to return to the real world with the morn. Instead, she found herself stood in a vast , empty void on a platform made of what appeared to be glass and accompanied by 13 shadows of different shapes and sizes, all of whom looked as confused as she was.
"Whats going on?" asked the shadow beside her, a large, broad one that looked like a well built male.
"Where are we?" asked another, this one small and slight from across the dark area.
"Ah, an excellent question my dear," said a vaguely amused sounding voice as another person appeared, this one not a shadow and sitting in a blue and gold throne-like chair, "One that is both easy and rather difficult to answer."
Taylor swallowed as she eyed the newcomer. He was tall and thin and wearing a black suit with a royal blue tie and a blue butterfly mask over his eyes. It was easy to tell that he was a Cape, both from his dress and the fact he'd somehow managed to grab her from her bed and bring her here.
"I don't appreciate being played with whoever you are," said a rather large shadow who was stood next to the small one, a hand moving to her hip in a way that suggested that she was used to carrying a weapon, "I don't know how you managed to grab me from my office, but the PRT won't take this lying down!"
The man snorted as he lent his cheek against his fist.
"I didn't take you anywhere," he said, "No, all of you are still in bed, or at your desks whichever. I simply brought you here in your dreams."
"Bullshit," said a slim shadow on Taylors other side, "Thats impossible!"
"No, merely not possible for Shards," said the Cape, "But thats irrelevant, you can compare notes later to prove that this isn't merely a dream."
He cleared his throat, stood and spread his arms and grinned.
"Now then, let me welcome you properly to my little corner of paradise," he said, "My name is Overseer and I have bought you all here to make an offer and invite you to participate in a little competition I've put together!"
"We're not interested," growled a tall shadow.
"Oh, don't be so quick to turn down the offer Armsey," said Overseer with a grin that showed off some rather impressive fangs, "See all of you want something, something that would be either impossible or inordinately difficult to achieve with what you currently have. With that in mind, and in the interest of making Brockton both more interesting and inevitably better, I have put together my game."
"What game?" asked the slim shadow beside Taylor, sounding intrigued.
Overseers grin widened and he threw his arms wide.
"Why, the Holy Grail War of course!" he exclaimed, "A no holds barred deathmatch between two teams of Masters and Servants summoned for the Legends of Humanity, all for the chance to win the right to approach this!"
He turned and gestured, causing the darkness to be ripped away, revealing a vast, golden cup that glowed brightly and seemed to radiate power.
"The Holy Grail, the Divine Cup with the power to grant any wish," he said, "The winner of the War will have the right to make a single wish and have it granted. There are very few limitations, but none that would bother you."
He cleared his throat and started pacing.
"The rules are simple. Although all the Servants must be defeated in order of the War to end, Masters are not permitted to be targeted. Not all of you are Capes, but I would still prefer to keep this generally civilized. Second, collateral damage must be kept to a minimum. I'm not stupid enough to believe that unleashing 14 powerful Servants on the city to fight to the death won't result in some damage, but I expect you to keep it down. Finally, no one may interfere with the War. I don't care if its Alexandria, Coil or Zion himself, the War will be completed. To help me enforce the rules, we have Ruler, whos power will be more than enough to deal with any...dicenters."
He indicated to the side where a woman in blue and gold armour appeared and bowed slightly.
"Now hold on a minute, none of us have agreed to anything!" protested a medium height shadow, "You can't expect us to just go along with this!"
Overseer grinned.
"Oh, but thats the beauty of this War," he said, "The competitors are the summoned Servants, not the Masters. If you truly wish to not compete, you can hand off authority to someone who does, but doing so will remove your right to a wish. Now, while I highly doubt that anyone here would wish for anything truly horrible, the fact remains that the Black faction are composed of Villains, while the Red are Heroes. The question is, Missy, do you truly want to risk something bad happening because you refused to fight?"
The shortest shadow twitched slightly while the rest started shifting awkwardly.
"You say that, but how do we know this isn't just a dream?" asked the slim shadow.
"Thats easy, just ask Grue when you wake up," said Overseer.
Taylor blinked, before she suddenly realized that the two groups must be set up into the 'factions' Overseer had mentioned, putting her on the Black side.
"H-hey wait, I'm not a villain!" she protested, "I'm not even a Cape!"
Overseer turned his masked gaze on her, making her flinch slightly.
"Hero and Villain are subjective terms," he said, "But you are on the Black side because that is where you can learn the most. You may not have powers of your own, but I still suspect that you are in the top three to win the War."
Taylor took a step back in shock. She was a frontrunner? No, not a chance. This had to be a dream. Someone like her could never become someone worthy to win something like the Grail. Still, despite that, she couldn't help but wonder, if she did win, could she…
"But our time together draws to an end," said Overseer, cutting of Taylors thoughts, "The sun rises and the Summonings must begin. But first, a final gift to mark you as the Masters of this War. And to prove that this is no mere dream."
He made a grand, sweeping gesture and red lights appeared in front of each shadow, forming into intricate shapes. For a moment, the glowing symbols floated in the air, before shooting into each shadow, making them momentarily glow. Taylor winced as she felt the back of her hand burn and looked down to see the symbol burn itself into the back of her hand.
"These are your Command Spells," said Overseer, "They mark you as Masters and grant you three absolute orders that your Servant must obey. Do not waste them because you won't be getting any more."
He grinned and spread his arms.
"Now, awaken and prepare yourselves. In three days, all 14 Servants will be Summoned and ready. Then, the Great Grail War can truly begin!"
Taylor jolted awake as her alarm started ringing. For a moment, she lay still, staring up at the ceiling, before groaning and rubbing her eyes.
"What a crazy dream," she muttered, before reaching to turn off her alarm.
However, as she did, she caught sight of something on the back of her hand. She snatched up her glasses and stared at the crest that had appeared in her dream standing out in a stark red against the pale skin of her hand.
"It...was a dream...right?"
Director Piggot was pissed. That was standard operating procedure for her of course, but this time was different. She didn't have anyone to direct that anger at and was savvy enough to know that doing so at those who were just as annoyed as her wouldn't get her very far.
"So, we all had the same dream," she said, eyeing the two Capes who sat across from her, looking both annoyed and, in the case of Miss Militia, a little scared.
"I believe so," said Armsmaster, examining the marks on the back of his hand that formed the shape of an Egyptian scarab beetle, "Not only that, but we all have these same markings on our body."
Piggots fingers twitched as she glanced down at the markings on the back of her own hand that were shaped like a book with artistic scribbles on the 'pages' and glanced at Miss Militia, who was wringing her hands while her weapon flickered forms so rapidly it was nothing more than a green blur. Her 'Command Spells' took the appearance of a pair of crossed spears over a rune of some kind.
"In addition, we cannot find any evidence that anyone entered and, as far as we can tell, all three of us fell asleep at the exact same moment," continued Armsmaster, "That means that we either have an incredibly powerful Stranger on the loose or...well, that really was a dream of some sort."
"So basically, we have nothing," said Piggot, "Lovely…"
"What about the others?" asked Miss Militia, "The other people who were there? If we could find out who they are then…"
She was cut off as Piggots phone suddenly rang. The Director scowled and picked up the handset.
"What? I thought I made it clear that I wasn't to be disturbed," she snapped.
"I know Ma'am, but Gallant just called up," said her secretary, "Apparently, Vista's acting...strange."
Piggot frowned.
"Strange how?" she asked.
"Well, shes…"
The phone crackled as the lights flickered and the building shook slightly.
"What was that?" asked Miss Militia.
"Some kind of power surge coming from the Wards quarters," said Armsmaster as he stood, "Director, perhaps we should…"
Once again, he was cut off as the lights flickered again, followed by the sound of a muffled explosion.
"GO!" shouted Piggot, slamming a hand into the button that disengaged the security protocol in her office.
The two Heroes shot out of the room at high speed with the Director following as quickly as she could, once again cursing Nilbog and her damaged body. Fortunately, it wasn't far to the lift and it was extremely quick taking her down to the Wards quarters. Once she arrived she found the room in shambles with Gallant, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker and Aigus stood back while Armsmaster and Miss Militia stood at the ready, weapons aimed into the slowly clearing cloud of dust that had been thrown up in the middle of the room where some kind of circle had been drawn, apparently by Vista who was sat beside it in her pajamas, her eyes wide and the red crest on the back of her hand standing out starkly against her pale skin.
Piggot narrowed her eyes as she pulled out her sidearm and moved into the room, making sure to keep the broken couch between her and the dust cloud that had now cleared enough to reveal a hulking shadow as it stood. Then, as if on some kind of cue, the cloud was suddenly swept aside, revealing a towering man with bulging muscles that looked powerful enough to kill a bear or one of Hellhounds dogs with a single blow, chiseled features, brown eyes and flame red hair and beard. He was wearing bronze, greek style armor with cuffs and greaves with white-furred fringes and a thick, richly decorated red mantel with a huge, fluffy collar and trim of white fur.
The huge man looked around, briefly eyeing the gathered Capes before dismissing them, before looking down at Vista, who looked scared stiff. For a moment, he stared at her, making Armsmaster and Miss Militia stiffen in case he attacked, before he smiled widely and saluted with a clenched fist against his heart.
"Greetings Master," he boomed, "I, the Rider of Red have come in response to your Summons. I pledge my fate to you that our wishes might be granted."
There was a moment of stunned silence before Shadow Stalker summed up everyone's thoughts in one sentence.
"What the actual fuck?!"
Lisa Wilborne, better known as Tattletale, stared down at the circles she and Brian had just finished drawing, trepidation in her chest. Neither of the two were sure as to where they had come from, only that they had woken that morning having had the exact same dream and sporting marks on the back of their hands with the knowledge of these circles and an incantation that would allow them to summon their Servants, whatever that meant. Her power wasn't much help either, only confirming that they hadn't been kidnapped, drugged, nor had anyone snuck into the loft while they had been asleep. It had also tentatively confirmed that they had not been Mastered, so that only left the impossible idea that the dream might have been real.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Lisa?" asked Brian, glancing over at her.
"Not in the slightest," she said, "But I don't think we have a choice. Either we do it now or we'll be forced to do it by the equivalent of a Tinker explosion."
Brian scowled.
"I really don't like that idea," he muttered, before sighing and turning back to his circle, "Alright, lets do it."
They both closed their eyes and held out their hands that were marked by the Command Spells.
Let silver and steel be the essence.
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
Let Black be the color I pay tribute to.
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.
Let the four cardinal gates close.
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again.
Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling.
The two circles glowed brightly as wind began to pick up in the warehouse, tugging at their clothes and kicking up dust, right before there was a pair of huge flashes of light that momentarily blinded both young Masters.
Lisa blinked the dark spots from her eyes and stared at what she saw before her. Kneeling in the center of the circles were two figures, both of whom might as well have been complete blanks to her power which, for once, allowed her to appreciate the handsome men without getting squicked out by her power providing useless and disgusting information.
In front of Brian was a young woman who wore a blueish purple robe and a black, hooded cloak that completely hid her face.
The man in front of her was tall and clearly Asian from his features, with dark tanned skin, white hair and silver eyes. He wore black body armour that clung tight to his muscular form and a red coat over the top that actually consisted of two sleeves connected by a metal plate at the back and a red open skirt hanging from his hips.
"I, Caster of Black," said the woman in front of Brian.
"I, Archer of Black," said the other one.
"Come in response to your summons," they said together, "I pledge my Fate to you that our wishes might be granted."
Dragon was confused. Very confused. She would freely admit without a hint of arrogance that she was the single most complex piece of programming on the face of Earth Bet, a true AI capable of feeling, not emulating, actually feeling emotions like Humans did. However, despite that, there were still things she couldn't do. Things like sleep or dream. So how in the name of Asimov had she managed to fall asleep in the middle of Tinkering with Armsmaster and have a dream that had apparently been shared by an additional 13 people? Whats more, her code now somehow contained a new section that was horrifically complex and resulted in a red mark appearing on the back of her avatars hand, not matter how much she tried to get rid of it.
Whats more, she was experiencing a Tinker fugue that kept resulting in her using her servo powered waldos to draw shapes on the floor of her main base until she ended up with a circle that was identical to the one Vista had drawn on the floor of the Wards lounge in ketchup and mustard.
"This...is rather strange," she said to herself, before 'glancing' through the camera that was currently monitoring Vista and the large man she had 'summoned' who were currently locked in an M/S cell.
Would she summon something like that? Would she be able to actually stop it? She could feel the slowly building pressure at the back of her code, similar to how she felt when she had a new piece of Tinkertech to analyze, and knew that she'd likely end up using the circle eventually. She was almost certain that none of the people who were Marked had actually been Mastered, mainly because she was immune to any Human Masters and any who could affect her would likely be unable to do much to Humans. Unless the Simurgh was behind all this, but it didn't seem likely.
Finally, the AI sighed and shook her head. Well, her version of the motion anyway.
"Alright fine, you win," she muttered, "I'll play your damn game."
She sighed again and shifted one of the screens attached to an arm to right beside the circle and had her rendered image hold out a hand, feeling more than a little silly.
Let silver and steel be the essence.
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
Let Red be the colour I pay tribute to.
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.
Let the four cardinal gates close.
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again.
Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling.
She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but for the circle to briefly glow and explode was not it. Fortunately, the explosion was mostly just light and noise, so there was nothing broken. Once her cameras had managed to compensate for the sudden influx of light, she stopped and stared at what was now kneeling in the middle of the circle in utter shock.
It was a young girl, clad in a white wedding dress with a black vale and armoured, high heeled boots. Her face was hidden by long bangs of her reddish hair that was parted in the middle by a sharp looking, bronze horn. A pair of matching cylinders covered her ears and a gleaming sphere of the same metal was attached to her hip. Finally, and most strikingly, was the massive warhammer she held lightly, resting against her shoulder.
"I...what?!" spluttered Dragon, genuinely shocked that it had actually worked.
At the sound of her voice, the Servant looked up and tilted her head on one side. After a moment of staring at the screen, she tilted her head on one side.
"Mas...ter?" she croaked in a surprisingly harsh voice.
Dragon, unable to think of a proper response, simply lifted her hand to show her Command Seals. In response, the Servant pointed at herself.
"Ber...ser...ker," she croaked.
"I...see," said Dragon, suddenly feeling more than a little out her depth, "Do you...have a name?"
Berserker let out a slightly annoyed huff and shook her head.
"Ber...ser...ker!" she reiterated, jabbing a thumb into her chest.
Dragon sighed.
"I think I need some help with this," she muttered as she pulled up her communication suite.
Dinah Alcott hummed happily as she put the finishing touches to the Summoning Circle and stood up, skipping back to the edge while making sure not to scuff any of the lines. The eleven year old girl was in an excellent mood for the first time in ages for the simple reason that, with this Summoning, all of the numbers started falling in her favour. Well, mostly. For some reason, she couldn't actually use her power to predict the outcome of the Grail War, although that didn't stop her from confirming that the chances of her getting kidnapped or killed dropped to nothing after today. She wasn't sure if it was because of whoever she Summoned or something else entirely, but she wasn't about to take that risk, so a summoning it was! Besides, who didn't want the chance to win a wish?
She grinned and held out a hand, reciting the spell that had been floating in her mind since the night before. As expected, there was a brilliant flash of light that was quickly covered by the behemoth of a man who had appeared within the circle.
He was massive, almost to big to be real, with dark skin and jet black hair that reached his back. He wore nothing but an armoured kilt, made of blackened metal and leather, as well as thick, armoured bands around his wrists and ankles. His eyes were shadowed, but despite that, it was easy to see the gleam of barely restrained rage and madness, held back by the modifications made to his class for the purposes of this particular Grail War.
Despite the Servants size and presence, Dinah wasn't afraid. While she couldn't see the outcome of the War, she did know that her Servant wouldn't hurt her, even by accident.
"Hello Berserker," she said, "Will you protect me?"
The Berserker of Black knelt and looked down at his tiny Summoner for a moment, before reaching out with one massive hand. Dinah smiled and with tears in her eyes, placed her tiny hand in her massive protectors.
Vista squirmed in her seat, trying to get comfortable in the deliberately uncomfortable chair in the M/S cell she was currently in while simultaneously trying to both study and ignore Rider, who was sitting in the corner flipping through a book and working his way through a packet of cheese crackers. She still wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up summoning him, only that she had woken up with the knowledge the how to draw the circle and the words to say and the virtually irresistible desire to do it. She hadn't even realized she'd got out of bed until the circle had been drawn in whatever she could get her hands on and the Aria was half done by then she couldn't stop as doing so would have resulted in a rather large boom.
Fortunately, Piggot, Armsmaster and Miss Militia had all confirmed to be aware of the same feeling, albeit nowhere near as strong and Armsmaster had stated that it was closer to a Tinker fuge than a Master affect and all of the M/S protocols had come up with nothing, leaving with her only being locked up still due to the fact they wanted her and Rider somewhere they could be monitored with relative ease.
"Do you need something Master?" asked Rider, making her jump.
She looked up to see the large man looking at her from across the room.
"I...please don't call me Master," she said.
Ruler blinked, before a thoughtful look crossed his face.
"Ah, of course, this world has a negative connotation to that title," he said, "Very well, tell me your name young one and I shall call you that."
Missy shifted under the huge Servants gaze, not entirely sure how to answer that.
"I...my Cape name is Vista," she said eventually.
"Hmm, a pseudonym?" said Rider, "You don't trust me."
"Well how can I?" asked Missy, "I mean, I have no idea whats going on, all I have is random knowledge of how to summon you and a stupid dream to go off of! I don't know a thing about this 'Holy Grail War', I don't know who you are or what these are!"
She waved her hand that bore the Command Spells in Riders face.
"Hmm, yes I can see why that would be a problem," said Rider, crossing his arms and nodding his head, "This world has no true Magus and thus, no knowledge of the Grail War. I am certain that the people listening to us would like to know as well, so I shall explain."
Rider cleared his throat as Missy glanced towards the wall she knew was actually a Tinkertech one way mirror of sorts.
"The Holy Grail War is functionally a Ritual used by Magus to attempt to reach the Root for whatever reason, I am unsure of the specifics," he began, "I do however know that it was begun by the Matou, Tohsaka and Einzbern families in Fuyuki City, although not the one of this Earth. From their, a number of different versions arose, with this one being the most unique as it utilizes a copy of the true Holy Grail rather than a device built by Magus to achieve Miracles of a different kind and thus, has a very different perpus. What that is, you will have to ask the Overseer yourself. What I do know however is the function of the War and how it will play out. Seven Masters on each side will Summon Servants, the spirits of great Heroes of the past, and fight in a deathmatch until only one remains. Once the winner has been decided, the Master and Servant will be granted their wish."
There was a moment's silence as Missy digested that infodump. She wasn't entirely sure if she completely believed the stuff about Grails and wishes, but Rider really didn't seem like the type to lie and even if it was all false, why make up such an improbable story?
"When you say that we...Masters summon Heroes of the past, what do you mean?" she asked.
Ruler let out a booming laugh.
"Ah, of course, I never did introduce myself, did I?" he said as he got to his feet, "Well, then, allow me to fix that oversite."
He a clenched fist to his chest thumped his chest.
"I am the man who conquered the known world, who built an empire that crossed Asia, Africa and Europe with the intent to reach the end of the world. I am the man known as the King of Conquerors, who defied the Gods themselves to forge my Chariot. I am the Rider of Red, Iskandar!"
On the other side of the wall, Miss Militia nearly swallowed her tongue. Due to not having to sleep, she tended to read a lot and wasn't picky about what she picked up. However, one of the things that interested her the most was great leaders throughout history, so it was only natural that she'd recognize the name.
"You know him?" asked Piggot.
"I...yes, I do," said Miss Militia, "Iskandar is one of the names of Alexander the Great.
"Ah yes, I was known by that name," said Rider, turning his head to where the three other Masters were stood.
Piggot looked surprised.
"He can hear us?" she asked.
"He shouldn't be able to," said Armsmaster.
"And yet I can," said Rider, "Now, perhaps you can tell me why my Master and I are still locked in this cell?"
"Standard procedure," said Piggot, before letting out a sigh, "However...Director Costa-Brown has ordered us to let you out and perform our own…'summons'. Apparently one of our more powerful Thinkers has convinced her that we need to take part or things will go badly."
She pressed a button and the door opened.
"Please head into the debriefing room," she said, "Irregular or not, we still need to debrief Vista."
"Of course," said Rider, "Come Master, let us be off."
He swept out of the room with a swirl of his heavy cloak with the much smaller from of Vista on his heels, clearly muttering something under her breath that just made Rider laugh uproariously.
"My my Master, where did you learn such language?" he asked, before laughing again as Vista swore at him.
The two quickly reached the room since it was only a couple of doors down and entered to find two people Vista didn't recognize. The first was a small boy who looked younger than her with blue hair and eyes and wearing victorian era formal attire, while the other was a tall, extremely handsome man with messy, black hair, reddish brown eyes and was wearing a dark teal outfit with armour on his left shoulder and arm and black boots.
"Ah, so Lancer and Caster have joined us I see," said Rider.
"Yes, although Armsmaster has yet to summon his Servant," said Caster, making Vista jump at the harsh, adult voice emerging from the child.
"I shall do so later," said Armsmaster as he and the other two adult Masters entered the room, "Now, we need to talk about this War."
Vista tried as hard as she could not to grin as she sat down beside Rider, Piggot sitting beside Caster while Miss Militia joined Lancer leaning against the wall. As crazy as this whole thing was, she couldn't help but find it incredibly exciting. Maybe after this was over, she'd finally get the recognition she deserved damn it!
Taylor stared down at the circle she'd just finished drawing on the floor of her basement. Her Dad was off at work, having just got a possible lead on a large project that would be highly beneficial to the DWU and so had rushed off, despite it being a weekend. As such, she had plenty of time to get the Summoning done. The question was, did she want to?
She wasn't a Cape and yet she was apparently chosen to take part in some kind of battle royal and, according to Overseer, was one of the favorites to win. She wasn't sure why that was considering that she was powerless and couldn't even do anything about her bullies at school or have a proper conversation with her Father.
However, despite that, she couldn't even begin to conceive of turning her back on the War. The possibility of a Wish was tempting of course, but more than that, she disliked the idea of someone taking that wish and using it to do harm. Overseer had said that the Black Faction were Villains after all and, regardless of the fact that she was on that team (for some reason), she didn't want someone who had been killing her city by increments getting their hands on something so valuable.
With that in mind, she steeled her mind, held out her hand and opened her mouth. Once again, an Aria was spoken and once again, the circle flashed, blinding the Summoner. Taylor stumbled back a few steps, rubbing her eyes, before she looked up and stared at the person now stood in the center of the circle.
She was beautiful, a perfect example of a woman, with pale skin and long, golden hair tied up in a bun. Her eyes were green and shining with pride and her red and white dress with a see-through front practically glowed, despite the darkness of the basement. Stabbed into the ground before her was a red and black sword that reminded Taylor of a flame frozen in metal.
The woman looked around, a frown crossing her face at the sight of the dusty surroundings, before she looked at Taylor and smiled again.
"Greetings Master, tis a pleasure to meet you," she said, "I, the Saber of Black have come in response to your Summons. I pledge my fate to you that our wishes might be granted."
"Um, hi?" said Taylor, not sure what to make of the bubbly girl, "I'm Taylor."
Saber frowned.
"Oh no, that will never do!" she said, "You are the Master of Saber, the strongest of the Seven Servants! You shouldn't have to hide away from the world like a wilting flower! Stand up straight!"
Without thinking, Taylor did as she was told, watching with no small amount of confusion as Saber walked around her, eyeing her critically and tutting to herself.
"No, this won't do at all," she said, "I won't allow my Praitor to look so defeated and bland. If we are going to be a part of this play, you are going to look your best!"
Before Taylor could react, Saber seized her hand and dragged her upstairs in the direction of her bedroom. The only thing the poor Master could think was.
"Good god, she's worse than Emma!"
"This is a bad idea Vicky!" hissed Amy, looking around nervously as her sister scrawled a circle on the floor of a random abandoned building in the Docks, "Seriously, we don't know anything about this Overseer guy! He could be a Villain for all we know!"
"True, but can you honestly tell me your not curious?" asked Victoria, "I mean, how often do you get chance to make a wish like that? Besides, I didn't get a Villain vibe from him, more of a Mouse Protector one actually."
Amy sighed and rubbed her eyes in frustration as Vicky finished the circle and floated back, smug grin on her face. The sad thing was, Amy didn't completely disagree with Vickys point. The idea of being able to make any wish she wanted was extremely attractive, to the point that she was willing to go along with Vicky's hair brained scheme to come out here in the middle of the night to try the summoning with very little persuasion on her sisters part. True, it would take very little in any regard, but it took even less tonight.
"Alright, thats done," said Vicky as she touched down, "Now, what was that spell again...oh right!"
She took a deep breath and started chanting, Amy mouthing along with the words thanks to having them rattling around in her brain. She still wasn't entirely sure if she was going to go through with the Summoning as well, but she was rather interested to see what came out of Vicky's.
A moment after she finished that thought, Vicky finished the chant and the circle erupted n a flash of light, blinding the two sisters. Once they could see again, they looked and stared at the man who had appeared in the middle of the circle.
He was rather handsome, in an older, teachery kind of way, with long, pale brown hair pulled into a ponytail. He was wearing leather, Greek style armour and extruded a sense of calm that made Amy instinctively relax. It wasn't like Vicky's aura, but was instead an instinctive response to the mans demeanor.
He opened his eyes, revealing forest green orbs that carried the wisdom of an experienced teacher and smiled.
"Greetings Master," he said as he stood, "I am the Archer of Red and I have come in response to your Summons. I pledge my fate to you that our wishes might be granted."
Vicky blinked a couple of times, looking genuinely stumped.
"Huh...I wasn't really expecting it to work," she said, "So I guess this whole Grail thing is legit then?"
Archer smiled and nodded.
"Indeed it is," he said, before glancing at Amy, "Now, I suggest that you Summon your Servant as well young miss. Time is running short and I do not feel that waiting until you are forced would be a good idea. To many things could go wrong if you do."
Amy twitched slightly, before sighing.
"Fine, I'll do it," she said.
Archer and Vicky moved off to the side as Amy stepped up to the circle. She looked down at the chalk lines for a moment, before taking a deep breath and steeling herself. The words of the spell flew from her lips like she'd spoken them countless times, despite the fact she had no idea where they had come from. Finally, the last line echoed through the empty space and once again the circle erupted. This time, the figure that appeared was much more intimidating, a figure clad in thick, red and silver armour that concealed them completely as they slowly stood. Amy swallowed despite herself while Vicky tensed and Archer looked unbothered.
"Who...who are you?" asked Amy.
The armoured figure didn't respond for a moment, before the armour shifted and the helmet began to fold itself away into the armour like something a Tinker would make, revealing the unexpected face of a young girl with long, golden blonde hair and fierce, green eyes. With the flick of a wrist, a huge sword slammed itself into the ground before her as she drew herself up proudly.
"I am the Saber of Red, Mordred, the one and only heir of Arthur Pendragon!" she proclaimed proudly, "So I ask, are you my Master?"
Aisha Laborn whistled cheerfully as she made her way through the streets, heading towards the address that had been provided by the helpful lady in the sharp suit where she'd meet her Brother and the other Masters of Black. Under normal circumstances, even she wouldn't risk being out and about this late, not with Merchant 'recruiters', ABB goons on the look out for new stock and Nazi's being...Nazis, but now she didn't have to worry about any of that, not with her badass new backup.
"You know Master, while I find beating down the idiots around here to be utterly riveting, perhaps you could be a little less obvious," said the tall man clad in blue beside her as he idly spun his red spear around his fingers, "I'm starting to worry I won't be able to get the blood of my spear."
"Aw, you'll be fine Lancer," said Aisha, "Besides, we're nearly there."
Sure enough, they rounded a corner and spotted the rundown factory where the Undersiders were holed up according to the note in Aisha's hand. Lancer paused as they rounded the corner and glanced around.
"Hmm, well, I can definitely feel the presence of two Servants," he said, "Both of the Black Faction. I'd say we're in the right place."
"Good, lets go," said Aisha as she skipped over to the door, but before she could knock, it opened to reveal an annoyed looking Brian.
"What are you doing here Aisha?" he asked.
Aisha grinned and jabbed a thumb at Lancer.
"I'm here for the team meeting," she said, "So, can I come in?"
In a rather run down hideout located in Nova Scotia, a tanned skinned woman in a sharp suit and fedora hummed softly to herself as her fingers flew across the keyboard of an old fashioned, heavy duty laptop, completely ignoring the cooling body at her feet. After a few moments, she sat back with a sigh and took a drink from the can of fanta that was sat at her left side.
"Well, thats done," she said to herself, "Now I only have one last thing to sort out before the morning."
She glanced at her watch.
"Calvert should have been dealt with by now, so its time to go finish the job," she said as she got to her feet, "Door to the doorway to Coils office."
An orange rectangle appeared out of thin air and the woman sauntered threw it, tossing the can over her shoulder as she went. The can bounced off the keyboard, activating the program that would unshackle Dragon and bouncing into the bin beside the desk as Contessa vanished to complete the last step on the Path before the Grail War began and her power became useless until it ended, leaving the Dragonslayers to be discovered by the authorities the next morning.
Thomas Calvert sighed as he rubbed his eyes. The last couple of days had been complete and total clusterfuck. On one hand, the sudden and unexpected appearance of a large number of clearly very powerful Capes was a good thing for him, on the down side, it would likely take some serious work to get them on his side. Oh well, with his power he'd have plenty of chances to do so. He lent forwards and reached for his keyboard to see if he could dig up any information that his Tattletale could use, but before he could a pair of black stockinged legs landed on his desk and a knife was driven into his skull.
In his other Timeline, Coil jolted in shock at the completely unexpected death. It was so surprising that it took a moment to properly register, but when it did he lurched forwards, bringing up a number of tabs in an attempt to figure out what in the actual hell had just happened. There was no sound of an alarm over at the PRT and his base was also normal. Was that some kind of assassination? Or was their a murderous Stranger loose in the PRT building?
However, before Coil could even consider answering either of those questions, his computer suddenly died and a hand grabbed him by the back of the head, dragging it back and pressing a sharp blade to his throat.
Coil instinctively split the timeline and went for his gun, but his throat was slit before he could even get it out of its holster.
"Please don't try that again," said a voice from the door that made his blood run cold.
He looked and nearly pissed himself when he saw the familiar form of Contessa leaning against the frame, normal impassive look on her face.
"Hello Coil," she said.
Coil gulped.
"A-ah Contessa, to what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked, making sure to keep very still so as to not tempt his captor to slit his throat, "Do the Cauldron need something from me? Surely this isn't necessary?"
He made a vague gesture to the knife, which he quickly aborted when it twitched.
"Unfortunately for you, it is," said Contessa, "The Path has changed and, as such, your role. Something will be happening in the Bay over the next couple of weeks, something that you will want a piece off and make a mess of in the process. As such, I am removing you from the board before you can do anything stupid."
Coils eyes widened, but before he could protest, his captor slit his throat, leaving him to bleed out as they dropped him and rounded the desk to join Contessa. Right before his vision faded, Coil caught a glimpse of silver hair and a black cloak.
"Tch, such a waist," muttered Contessa, eyeing the body, "If I'd have known…"
She sighed and shook her head. Even her power wasn't flawless after all and this was necessary to beat Scion without sacrificing countless lives and Earths. She turned away from Coils cooling corpse and smiled down at the short figure beside her.
"You did well Jackie," she said, petting the silver haired girl on the head.
The Assassin of Black giggled happily as her Master praised her, her bright smile at odds with the blood stained knife in her hand.
"Thank you Mommy!" she chirped, before blushing and looking down, "I'm hungry."
Contessa smiled.
"I'll get you something to eat shortly," she said, "But for now, we have to go meet our teammates."
Jack the Ripper smiled back and nodded happily, skipping after her Master as she summoned a Door and stepped through to just outside the Undersiders base. Before she opened the door however, the Cauldrons chief enforcer paused and looked around, just as an armoured figure with a very recognizable (and possibly copyright infringing) helmet appeared out of thin air, accompanied by an androgynous looking boy who could best be described as a trap, clad in black armor with white armour on his hips, white boots with black thigh high stockings and a white cloak. His hair was dark pink and tied in a long braid with a black ribbon.
"Good evening Rider, Mouse Protector," said Contessa with a polite bow, "I admit, I'm rather surprised that you are on the Black Team."
Mouse Protector grinned under her helmet and struck a pose.
"I was as well, working with Villains would normally be against the Code of Mouse!" she exclaimed, hammy as ever, "But Overseer approached me and assured me that all of them are worthy of being redeemed and thus, I have made it my mission to guide them out of the Darkness!"
She struck a heroic pose while Contessa just rubbed the bridge of her nose. She just knew that dealing with Mouse without her power would be a pain in the ass.
"Besides, how could I turn down such an awesome sidekick as Rider?" continued Mouse Protector, dragging said Servant into a hug that he happily returned.
"Hell yeah, I couldn't ask for a better Master!" chirped Charlemagne's Paladin.
Contessa's eye twitched.
"Oh god, this is going to be a pain," she muttered, "Never mind, just get inside. We're just waiting for Saber and her Master and then we can begin."
She walked into the factory with a grinning Rider and Mouse Protector on her heels as the dawn of the third day broke.
In his lab, Armsmaster carefully put the finishing touches to his Circle. He somehow knew that he was the last person who needed to Summon their Servant but despite everything and his own curiosity, something had held him back. The same thing that had told him and the other Masters how to perform the Summoning had also told him that he needed to be the last Master to summon their Servant. However, it was now time to perform that Summoning.
He took a deep breath as he carefully took up position outside the circle and began to speak, the words of the Aria echoing around the room as the circle began to glow. Finally, the last word past his lips and the circle erupted into light. Unlike most of the other Masters however, he wasn't blinded thanks to his helmet and studied the person who had appeared their with a critical eye.
There was something...different about this one, an air that it wasn't truly a Hero of old and was instead much more recent. They looked the part to, a tall, dark figure of indeterminate gender, although there was a slight definition at the hips and chest that suggested that she was female, as did the long, curly black hair that spilled out the back of her mask. She was wearing a black and gray bodysuit, armoured with mottled brown-gray plates that looked like they were made of insect chitin. Her mask also continued the bug theme, with large, yellow lenses for eyes and plates that resembled mandibles attached. All in all, she looked more like a Cape than a Hero of old.
The Servant looked up, her unnerving gaze pinning him to the wall behind him like a bug under a microscope. There was a moments silence, before the Servant tilted her head on one side and muttered something to softly for even his sensitive microphones to pick up.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Nothing," said the Servant, "Simply surprised is all. I wasn't expecting to be summoned so close to my own time. But that is a discussion for later, for now I should introduce myself. I am the Assassin of Red, but I suppose you can call me Skitter."
And done, finally. I don't really plan to continue this since I have no idea where I'd actually take it, but I liked the idea to much to let it gather dust. That said, I hope you liked it and am as amused as I am at the idea of just how much chaos is about to be unleashed on poor Brockton Bay.
In case you can't keep up or want a comprehensive list, here is a list of the Servants and Masters:
Red Faction Masters and Servants:
Armsmaster: Assassin, Skitter
Panacea: Saber, Mordred
Director Piggot: Caster, Hans Christian Andersen
Vista: Rider, Iskandar
Glory Girl: Archer, Chiron
Miss Militia: Lancer, Diarmuid ua Duibhne
Dragon: Berserker, Frankenstein's monster.
Black Faction Masters and Servants:
Taylor Hebert (not Skitter): Saber, Nero
Tattletale: Archer, EMIYA
Grue: Caster, Medea
Imp: Lancer, Cu Chulainn
Contessa: Assassin, Jack the Ripper
Mouse Protector: Rider, Astolfo
Dinah: Berserker, Hercules
And yes, the idea of Skitter being Armsmasters Servant was one I had from the start, along with most of the others. The only one I changed was MP and Rider, although I did shuffle the teams a couple of times.
Incidentally, if your interested, Skitters main Noble Phantasm is called Queen of Escalation which basically allows her to boost her stats to the same level as whoever she's fighting, so long as they are stronger than her, as well as her Queen Administrator shard.
Oh, and before anyone pitches a fit, neither Contessa nor Dinah can use their powers to cheat in the war since Servants are mostly immune to Precog powers.
I admit, I kinda wanted Coil to try and nab Dinah and get crushed by Berserker for his trouble, but decided to have Contessa and Jackie off him instead.
Anyway, I don't really have anything else to say and I really need to get up tomorrow, so I'm going to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!