[IC] Fate/Reborn 2.0 First War

[Strider]

[Archer & Kevin]

Darien sat slightly scrunched up on the couch, looking around the room. "Decent place you got here. Hmph, anyway, name's--" He paused. A servant's name was a precious thing to give out. But, Kevin seemed to want him to tell his powers, so his name was probably not that important anyway. He continued. "Darien Polk. Was a rigger for the 47th Street Angels back in life. Pretty good gang, though some of my. . . compatriots were utter scum. For fighting, let's see. I'm not gonna be much help in hand to hand. Archer class an all that." He paused, and looked down at himself. "Won't be terrible though, trolls kinda have a natural gift that way. Best though would be if you could get me some firearms. I've got one, H&K SMG, but the more the merrier, right?" He gave a slightly deranged grin. "As you can probably see, I've got these drones here. They're equipped with some pretty nice firepower, and they can self destruct. Preeetty fun to fly." He leaned back on the couch, then quickly forward with a small thud, as he felt it begin to tilt. He turned towards Kevin, curious whether he thought there was something else to explain.

 

[Alexander/Ciri]

"I see. I'm going to give it a rest for a minute or two. I wouldn't be surprised if some servant or master to be on the lookout in order to determing which creature was a familiar simply by how restless it was at this time of night, of by how frightened it acted in situations." Alexander kept up the link somewhat, watching the old-fashioned ship every so often, but also working on the trap he was setting up. "Ciri, is it possible to change the shape of the door to the saferoom? I want to make certain that intruders have their heads in a specific place."

[Noir]

Orin and Debronee

 

Obeying as he were told, he felt the putrid stench waver from within the sewers as he shut the door behind him, jumping off and landing safely. Attempting to peer into his surroundings amidst the darkness, he discovered that the sewers possessed a path leading somewhere -- an underground tunnel-esque structure as if may, the best form of mobility that could afford thus far. His injured arm wouldn't bother his speed overall, but given his Master's impediment, and the complaint he had gave earlier in that he couldn't walk that far, how plausible would the idea be?

 

"Can you not manage even a little movement?" He asked, rather bluntly. "Staying here won't progress. If you allow me to rest for a bit, I can carry you with my other arm and move through this...area, whatever it is you would call it."

 

Eleonore and the Twins

 

"What's wrong?" She asked the pair of Berserkers, finding it surprising that a trail of irritation had been made obvious in her tone, "I realize it's a threat, but obviously if a cannon went off they're already in the middle of a fight. Unless someone decided to incompetent enough to fall first," She pondered, "...Or if you're saying you're quite confident you're not match for what we're going to be up against." Eleonore had presumed the Berserkers to be at least amongst the stronger of the Servants in the war -- she would settle for that, but to think they would chicken out of a threat of such a scale...what manner of adversary would they be up against? Not wanting to doubt their instinct, she decided to cut them some slack. 

 

"Fine, then, however. If you have any better suggestions apart from that conspicuous place of clues," She surmised, "I'm all ears. We could always check that place out tommorrow morning, though I doubt we'll know as much as we will now, provided you provide a better place for us to search." 

[ElfCollaborator]

Sophie - [Lancer and Sophie]

"Alright? Did you find anything? Anyone nearby?"

Sophie asks when Lancer reappears. She'd been making notes about the whole thing. They'd be useful, later, for whatever she wrote down. Assuming, of course, the mages didn't kill her, burn her notes and erase all traces of her from existence so that it was like she never existed.

 

They could probably do that. It was magic, after all, and Sophie hardly knew the limits of it. For all she knew, magic made everything real, Santa Claus existed and she could head into her bathroom door right now to summon Bloody Mary with that stupid mirror thing children used to talk about. So, she had to keep her eyes and mind open.

 

Nick and Jack Sloane - [Berserkers and Eleonore]

Nick and Jack keep their eyes peeled on the road onwards.

"Luv, if they 'ave a cannon, Nick and I think they'll 'ave a lot of 'em. On a big ship or summat. Probably one of 'em nautical Servant guys."

"So of course, we're thinkin' that if we're goin' up against a guy with that, we ought to be a little careful."

"So we were gon' find us a safe, hidden place to 'ave a look, see what we're dealin' with. You know, test the waters, yeah? If we're right, we're goin' to 'ave to think of a plan to deal with them."

"Could be wrong and it might be just some guy with like, one cannon, but don't want to risk it in these Grail Wars, like."

Nick and Jack say as they continue heading forwards, trying to find somewhere high, somewhere they could blend in, somewhere on the border of the district. If they were right, and their suspicions were completely founded, staying unseen as long as possible and hidden as long as could be would be the best idea. They were street brawlers and toughs at best; taking on an entire ship was beyond them, unless they could get onboard.

 

[Shamitako]

Kevin

 

Kevin shrugged. He couldn't think of much more for Archer to say. "Like I said, I want to try to join up with another servant to augment our combat ability." He said.

"I see..." Shiori seemed to be thinking something, "I could hunt for other servants that may or may not team up with us. But wouldn't it be easier if I just served that role directly?"

"Oh no, absolutely not." Kevin said.

Shiori pouted. "But why not, Nii?" She asked in a cute voice.

Kevin rolled his eyes. He was more than wise to Shiori's facade. "I can think of plenty of reasons. But we'll leave it at the fact that you couldn't even hope to take out a servant."

A blast of wind sent Archer's drones careening across the room. Shiori moved with blinding speed, her hand coming up to Archer's throat. Though nothing was visibly there, he felt the distinct pressure of a knife against his neck. "I can assume you're rather durable." Shiori cooed, "But surely a gash in your neck would still cause significant harm?" The pressure dissipated from Archer's neck and Shiori raised her hands in surrender. Her point had been made.

[Chevaleresse]

Archer & James

 

"If we can't establish a clear advantage right away, we retreat. First we go directly away from where I've set up my lab, and then we circle back around. We'll use the data we collect on our enemy's capabilites and prepare a trap specifically for them, at a location of our choosing." He drew another sigil, and then stopped for a moment. "We've got to be getting close, right? Could you scout ahead so I know what I'm going to have to be guarding against?"

[Shamitako]

Merlin

 

Merlin decided it wasn't worth arguing with her master over the matter, so she simply accepted his plan and moved on. "Sure, I can do that." She said, Although I'm terrible at sneaking so if I start yelling for you to run you should probably assume we're being attacked." She immediately went off into the night, dramatically checking every corner and moving in a nonsensical pattern like she was in a television show. Despite this absurd performance, she managed to cover ground rather quickly. She kept her eyes peeled, making sure to look up the the buildings around her in case her opponent was watching from above. She also checked the sky occasionally, since the sound had reminded her of thunder. It was while checking the sky that she spotted what she assumed had to be the foe they were concerned about. Up in the sky was a large ship, she was pretty sure that ships didn't usually fly, so it was quite likely magic was involved. And seeing as there didn't appear to be any parades or parties, she had to assume it was another servant. She made her way back to James, this time much less concerned about being spotted from the ground as she was being seen from the sky.

 

Merlin returned to her master winded. "There's a flying ship." She told him urgently, "Somebody has a flying ship." While she was clearly concerned about becoming this ship's target, she also sounded rather excited. And indeed she was, the idea of fighting atop a flying ship sounded totally awesome. She changed her mind about not wanting to fight yet. If she was taken out while fighting on that ship, she didn't care, because it would be so super cool to have an epic fight on it.

[Strider]

[Archer & Kevin]

"Ha! That ain't half bad! Two problems though. First of all, it wouldn't kill me. It would damn well hurt, but I wouldn't be dead, and after you slashed me, you'd probably be dead pretty quick. You could get lucky, if you could keep that speed up, but I think my drones could probably take you out, and if somebody else kills you, well then we don't have an ally. Second problem. I'm probably not the best Servant. Specially not in close range. Saber, Lancer, and Assassin will probably all be faster, and will be able to take a pummeling. So you being able to get in close enough to hurt me doesn't mean a thing." Darien, his drones now hovering stably in the corners of the room, glanced over at Kevin, waiting to see what thoughts he had on the subject.

[Shamitako]

Kevin

 

"Well, there is all that." Kevin agreed, "My  main objection is that you're not going to last in an extended fight. You can pull of a sneak attack fine, but what we really need is a meatshield. Even Assassin would likely last longer than you."

Shiori pouted a little but agreed. "Fine. But I don't want to be left out."

"You won't be." Kevin reassured her, "You'll be aiming to take out the enemy master. It fits your skillset much better."

In truth, Kevin would rather not employ Shiori in battle at all. But since he couldn't pay her anything, he needed some way to keep her distracted.

[Twinwolf]

[Alexander/Ciri]

Ciri nods. "Shouldn't be difficult." Once told how he wanted the doorway, it would begin to morph into the desired shape. "These traps won't do much to the Servants, I'm pretty sure. They're for the Masters then?"

 

 

[Strider]

[Archer & Kevin]

"You're definitely a valuable ally. Master, you said something about Shiori helping us to find the other servants? At least, you said this was our first step I think when I asked about doing that. So what type of powers. . ." Darien rethought his question. "How's that going to be done?"

 

[Alexander/Ciri]

"Yes, that's correct. In terms of offensive magic, I am lacking, to say the least. Thus, a fair bit of this may have to be done with non-magical weapons, if an enemy somehow makes it to the saferoom. In the doorway, I've basically created a sort of illusion that will reflect the image of the room along a north south axis, like a mirror. Thus if we are to their left, they will see us on the right. It will hopefully give use a split second longer to act, and a chance to hit their blind spot. If this happens, I'll probably want you to try your best to occupy the servant by swarming them from behind with your plant things. I have a few other things to set up, but this one is perhaps the most crucial."

[Bfroger6]

Orin

 

Orin needed some time to get down to the sewers, what with his foot not providing a proper enough support for him as he climbed down. He did eventually climb down, however, but also slumped down to the ground as well the moment his good foot touched the surface.

The stench was something, but also quite bearable. He himself sometimes smelled bad too, so one got used to that after what seemed to be a lifetime of it. He nodded to Debronee. "I can move slowly. If you suggest we start moving immediately, we can do that. After a while, you'll carry me. We'll move south-east and get as far away as we can from the ship. They won't destroy the city only to get rid of us, I hope. At least not yet." The man sighed and pushed himself back up, starting to move in the aforementioned direction.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

 

Lancer

 

Klaren reappeared by Sophie's side with a flicker of his robes. He stood like he was the most important person in the world, his chest puffed out and tall. "Luckily I haven't found anyone nearby, Master! The news is just lovely, it means we won't be dying tonight already, so we can go shopping first tomorrow!" The childish man clapped his hands together as a gleeful, carefree smile crept on his face. "We might run into some of our enemies as well during shopping. Then I'll just pike them or something and voila, we'll win~ Doesn't that sound great, Master~? Doesn't it!"

[Chevaleresse]

Archer & James 

 

"A flying ship. . . ? So that has to be Rider, then. A Caster couldn't have set something like that up this quickly. . ." He looked around; there were a few taller buildings around, but climbing up to get a better vantage point would be just as helpful to their foe as it would be to them. "What kind of armaments did it have? Cannons? Archers? I need to know so I can start preparing my barriers."

[Shamitako]

Merlin

 

"I was pretty much right underneath it." Merlin told her master, "It's pretty well obscured by all the buildings when you get further away. Looked kinda like a pirate ship though so I'm guessing cannons. I don't think we can fight it though, at least not without it bringing half the city down on us." Merlin could try to fly up and face the servant on board, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't get shot from the sky well before she got there.

 

Kevin

 

"That's a secret." Shiori said with a wink.

Kevin rolled his eyes, "She can use the air to find people. Just sends it off searching."

"Something like that." Shiori shrugged, "It will be a while before it finds anything, so I'm going to take a nap. I suggest you two do so as well, I'll wake you if I learn anything."

 

A few hours later, Shiori woke up with news. "Guys! Guys! I found something!" She yelled as she ran through the house. Her destination was unclear and she seemed to just be running back and forth in an excited frenzy. "I found another servant!" Her patented disinterest was quite lacking as she flew about like a child.

[Strider]

[Archer & Kevin]

Darien deferred to his Master on this. "So, what do you say, Kevin? Time to go find an ally or prey? Or do we want to get a bit more info first? Scout em out a bit, maybe see if we need bigger guns?" In all honesty, Darien didn't mean this. He was quite confident that even with what he had now, he'd be pretty much fine against what most Servants could throw at him. He was an Archer class after all.

[ElfCollaborator]

Sophie - [Lancer and Sophie]

"Let's not pike them too early. I believe we should probably know our enemy before we fight 'em. Let's stay under the radar, keep low and keep out of the way until we know what we're facing, Lancer."

[Twinwolf]

[Alexander/Ciri]

The plant-girl stretches - they'd been here for hours already. "It's around a fifth of the way done - you can probably go out as long as you stay away from the edge if you want to see how it's progressing or put out some more seeds." 

[Chevaleresse]

Archer & James

 

James pursed his lips as he thought for a few moments, falling quiet. "We don't particularly have a way to engage it, do we. . ." A flying ship was rather problematic. An idea struck him, though, after a few moments. "Well, you said it was hard to see anything going on with the ship from below it, right? That means they'll probably have a hard time seeing anything we do below it, either. I could try to set some sort of trap beneath it, but there's no way of guaranteeing they'll sit in one place long enough for a circle strong enough to dent it to actually charge up. . ." That grated a bit; if he had stronger circuits, he could pump more energy into the damned things himself. "You could just attack from underneath. Do you think you can move faster than it can? Basically force whatever Servant is there to get out of it in order to attack you, or else the bottom will just get blown apart. Any thoughts?"

 

Saber

 

Masaru had ranged forward a bit, and was currently, as best as he could tell without dropping out of spirit form, standing atop a rooftop belonging to some ethnic grocery populated with a number of traditional European foods and ingredients. Nadia, he'd left a bit further behind; he wasn't certain exactly what she was doing at the moment, but it's not as if he could just follow the link back to her. We've got to be getting close, right? I swear, the back of my neck's starting to itch. Nevermind that he didn't technically have a neck to scratch at the moment. 

[Shamitako]

Merlin

 

Merlin mulled over James's plan. It seemed fun enough. "Sure, I can do that." she agreed, "Just one question, what if the servant inside the ship is stronger than I am? I doubt we'll be able to run away once they climb down to fight." Not that she cared much now, fighting a flying pirate ship was easily enough fun to satisfy her.

 

Kevin

 

Kevin yawned as Shiori woke him from his nap. "What, which servant?"
"I don't know." Shiori answered.

"Okay, we can figure it out when we meet them. How about where they're at?"

"I'm not totally sure."

"You don't know? but you said-"

"No, I know where they are, but after I found them they kind of, went invisible? I don't know exactly, their presence became really faint. If I hadn't already known where they were when they did it I don't think I could have found them at all in that state. As it is I only have a very general idea of where they've gone."

Kevin seemed to think for a bit. "Well, it's better than nothing, I suppose we should get going before you lose them entirely. Archer, you ready?"

[Chevaleresse]

Archer & James

 

"I can block their attacks with my barriers. If they come down out of the ship then they're giving up their main advantage. If you get pressed, you can just move backward and bombard them, right? I doubt whoever that is actually has a range advantage over you." Truth be told, he didn't really have a plan. Still, he was confident that utilizing his strengths in combination with his Archer's could lead them to victory - or a draw that he could analyze and turn into a victory. 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Nadia

"One of us has to be, unless all our foes are just hiding. l'd be surprised if a Berserker had that capacity. Regardless, we should've found someone by now, this is a war it can't just be us being proactive." Nadia was starting to get that old feeling. Like something wasn't right. She knew mages weren't exactly the most forward at times but she figured most servants would constitute a lot of false confidence in most mages. She'd not be surprised if Caster and their master were hiding, lt was the only chance they stood. But... the others? Who would even be able to control a berserker that well?

She felt an unease in her stomach that threatened... quite unpleasant results. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "l don't like this Masaru. l'm coming to you. Something feels...wrong about all of this."

[Rider and Erica]

 

"Ol!!! CAP'N!!!" a much more piratey yell came from a new skeleton crew member. lgnacio just put his head in him palm with a great sigh as the skeletal man stood saluting at him. "Would you just spit it out already? What ye 'ere for?"

"We've caught wind of another lass we believin' is one of them fancy servants ye told us about Cap'n. Some big knockered lass with barely a scarp of clothes on 'er. Oh, and she got a big ol' hat too. We'd have told yesooner but the lad that saw her took his sweet time he did."

 

lgnacio heaved his arm straight forward, poppin' the skeleton's head right off his shoulders. "You boys need to learn some manners. Don'cha be gawkin' at a lass without her permission ye goons! Besides, we got a war to be fightin' or ye forget ye maggot ridden idjit? Wasting valuable time staring at a lady.You ain't got no organs brother... don't know what you think's gonna happen. So... why haven't we fired everything we got at 'em yet? WELL?!"

[Strider]

[Archer & Kevin]

"Course I'm ready.  You saying I might not be?!" He chuckled though, obviously not annoyed at all. He stood up, the small hovering drone swarm rising up around him, a new one starting to take form. "Which way're we going, generally? Might do to think about some strategies while we drive over, if we know what part of the city they'll be in."

 

[Alexander/Ciri]

"Oh? Excellent." Alexander stretched, and turned to leave out through the main door, making certain to deactivate the illusion. It was all done with an easy wave of the hand. He turned to the Servant before passing over the threshold. "Do you have more? Of the seeds? And can they be planted on ceilings? Humans have a tendency to not look upwards as much; even if someone did notice them, I may be able to hide them from sight."

[Twinwolf]

[Alexander/Ciri]

 

Ciri nods. "I have more, and the Canvas is specifically designed to work with my powers. You won't have an issue placing them wherever you wish." she said, handing him another batch after a moment. 

 

As he steps out of the center, the first striking thing is how white the place is - like the center, but unlike there it's not broken up by furniture and things that were saved from the transformation. White halls, bending out of site and probably numerous times. Ciri was not kidding when she said it would be a labyrinth. If he were to walk a bit, he'd find the edge, the White slowly spreading and consuming as it continues to run towards the completion of the canvas. He would also quite quickly run into... things. Inky black, evil-looking things, staggering around in highly disconcerting ways. Just looking at the feels... wrong. "Don't worry about the Shamblers. They don't care about you. They're charming once you get used to them, really. And after killing a lot of them. Oh, and feel free to put some things in those too. They don't care."

 

[Rider and Erica]

 

"Mmm, must be a different pair than last time. Either that, or they're really stupid..." Erica said, trying to figure out where the servant was - and not stupidly stand near that edge. 

[Shamitako]

Kevin

 

"It's just back in the cultural district." Shiori said with more than a hint of impatience, "Come on, let's get going already!"

"Yes, we should hurry before they move again and we lose sight of them." Kevin agreed.

 

~~~

 

A short while later, Archer and Kevin found themselves in the parking lot of a store selling European food products. They had already split from Shiori, who was to keep hidden and only reveal herself should a fight break out. Apparently the enemy servant was atop the roof, though Shiori wasn't entirely certain due to their cloaked presence. They also knew nothing of the opposing master's whereabouts, leaving them as a wildcard. By now it would be obvious to the other servant who Kevin was, hopefully the fact that they hadn't attempted to attack yet would give them some good faith. And seeing as they'd come this far, Kevin saw nothing to lose in calling out, "We know you're up there. Come out so we can talk and/or fight to the death." Talk was preferable, but Kevin figured if he only offered to talk it would be suspicious. Or maybe he was just being foolish by showing his hand right off the bat, probably the latter.

 

Merlin

 

"Alright then, let's go!" Merlin announced happily. She wasn't exactly confident that they could win, but at this point she was through with caring. She hopped onto her broom and took to the skies, holding her hat in place as she flew up to meet the flying ship. She didn't bother waiting to see what it would do, instead choosing to unleash a storm of fireballs at it as she approached. Considering it was clearly not a normal ship, she doubted it would just catch fire and burn up, but maybe she'd get lucky and could at least damage it enough to get her Aether ready.

[Chevaleresse]

What do you think, Nadia? Should I make an appearance? Masaru was eager to fight, but not so much that he would just charge forth. Or do you have another plan? He was fairly confident in his ability to take anybody in a direct fight, bar some Riders and Berserkers. This didn't seem to be a Caster's den and the enemy Servant wasn't riding any big magical monster around or frothing at the mouth, so the quarter-dragon wasn't particularly concerned.