[IC] TotMV:G^2: Clash of Fate: The Mad Dog of Ulster

[Powder Miner]

"Right! Well, here it goes then, I suppose! I haven't used this one in a while..." Navin straightens his fingers, forming knife-hands, and takes a brief moment to move his joints and get ready for quick movement before he pounces at Cu Chulainn. With a shout, Navin brings his arm whirling around in a vertical circle, focusing his power to his fingertips and releasing it as his jab hit the Servant, as a tightly concentrated, armor-piercing blast.

Piercing Strike (Deals 1.25*[2d6+STR+SYN]) damage, ignoring RES.

[Navin stats: 2 CON, 1 RES, 3 DEX, 2 INT, 8 STR, 8 SYN] Navin also has a 9% chance to block melee attacks.

[UrbanSamurai]

Magnum Rams Cu with the BOOMTOWN EXPRESS.

 

Spoiler

HP: 45/50, 10/10
Constitution: 1
Resistance: 1
Dexterity: 0
Intelligence: 10
Strength: 2
Synergy: 8

 

[UrbanSamurai]

As radiance and kinetic energy smite and rebound across the battlefield, Magnum shovels handfuls of Cracker Jack into his gullet. "I never get tired of this stuff you know," he says wiping molasses coated caramel off of the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. "They say it was the first junk food ever invented, and could've been the last! Perfect for every event: football game, parade, 4th of July, coronation, or just going out to the movies. Hey bus, do we got any more of this stuff?" Magnum enthusiastically rattles the nearly empty bag.

 

"Darlin'...I'd redirect your attention to the wrasslin'." Magnum turns his gaze back to the external battle.

 

Edmond fires a searing band of molten metal into Cú Chulainn's center, the steaming metal warping around his ribcage and embedding itself into his flesh. 

 

Almost simultaneously a barrage of glowing bullets splashes the Dog's chest, popping off like firecrackers and uniting into one conflagration across his breasts.

 

As Cú is lit alight, tremendous texts rain down from the sky above to pelt him like stone. Copies of Venmarasu and Min Kamp impact his figure along with tales of unknown tongue. 

 

Navin darts through the open space and extends his fingers, swirling with intense tangible energy, until they come into direct contact with this perversion of Irish lore. The result is an explosion that sends him back several feet through a cloud of smoke.

 

Silef bursts through the smoke blade-first, impaling Cú straight through the chest with a follow-through of a solid wall of blinding light that encases him and propels him further backwards, off of his feet. Cú hits the ground with his spear lying several yards away, blood streaming from the cavities in his torso, the iconic malevolent armor coming apart at the scenes. Yet, he is able to stand once more, beleaguered but alive.  

 

"Cú Chulainn has suffered tremendous but non-lethal trauma. Given enough time he could recuperate, or unfurl an all-out desperation maneuver. Your allies have expended themselves for the moment and are temporarily vulnerable."

 

"So what you're telling me is that I need to stop all the hooping and hollering and get in there with some proactive tactics? Get back in on the action? Hah, you know how to beat around the bush. Reminds me of my wife."

 

"It's only my protocol, I can only advise after all."

 

Magnum chucks the empty snack bag to the ground. "Let's get it done with then. Release top gear."

 

"Affirmative."

 

"Remove safety parameters."

 

"Parameters offline."

 

"Fightin' music."

 

"Yee-haw."

 

 

 

 

Boomtown slams his foot down on the accelerator, sending the BOOMTOWN EXPRESS whirling by at speeds unprecedented by anything Recreational Vehicles had seen previously; sonic clouds form on its exterior as all 8 wheels crack the earth like rotating jackhammers. The impact catches Cú dead center with the engine, culminating with a sound like thunder.

 

And yet he stands.

 

The legend presses his head against the front of the bus, resisting it with a forehead teeming with a deep open cut. His feet grind into the ground until his heels dig craters. His fingers claw into the EXPRESS's cab corners, puncturing the metallic exterior of the bus like nails into flesh, establishing a grip, creating sumo match of brawn against industry.

 

The interior of the bus rattles. "You're a tough one, kid!" Magnum explains as he pushes the acceleration pedal to the floor, one hand jammed on the steering wheel as his other palm strains the gear stick to its limitations, nearly ripping it out of place. Cú and the bus both groan in exhausted agony, two rams locking horns in a final dance. 

 

The lights inside the bus begin to flicker. "Systems failing. Blowout imminent."

 

"Damnit!" Sweat pours from Magnum's brow as he pushes his automobile past its edge. "Now you've made me do it you Scottish bastard! No one breaks my bus!!!" 

 

Magnum opens up a hidden panel right above the radio containing three knobs and a single button. 

 

"So what, you're all the legends of the big bad Coo-Koo Lane come to life? What's that make you think, you're a half-God? Savior of Ulster?" He presses the first knob. The headlights begin to flash erratically.

 

"And that gives you some sort of right to do what you want, because you're the big kid on the playground? You're nothing but a phony, a big fat phony. You can't be born or created as a God. Godhood is earned."  Second knob. A pair of metal wings spring from convert openings on the bus's side. 

 

"I've coached plenty of guys who had talents from the Gods and nothing else, and you know how many of their names I remember? Not a damn one. The Raiders are built from sweat and tears. So is my country." Third knob. The exhaust spews long streams of bright blue fire that sear the air like a metal dragon.

 

"This move right here? It's Pittsburgh Steel and Green Bay Nitrus combined with Seattle Aerodynamics and San Diego Physics. This right here..." Magnum slams the button.

 

"Liftoff achieved."

 

"...this is America."

 

The bus begins to orientate itself vertically with Chulainn still attached to the hood. The cone of blue flame from the exhaust expands, throwing dirt and debris into a spreading cloud of smoke. The bus shoots upwards into the sky, rattling the surrounding area like an earthquake as it blasts off at hundreds of miles an hour. It climbs through the atmosphere until it is only visible as a speck of flame in the sky. 

 

Then an explosion, a concoction of bright firework colors that paints the twilight. 

 

 Chulainn's seared, limp body hits the ground a minute later. He clings to life, barely.

 

Promptly, the BOOMTOWN EXPRESS falls out of the sky, its rear tires landing directly on the Scottish Dog's legs. Outside of some obvious burns, it looks no worse for wear.

 

A bruised, soot-faced Boomtown Magnum stumbles out of the bus. He coughs. "The academics call that a 'Coop De Grass'."

[Chevaleresse]

Cu Chulainn shoves the bus forward off of himself, nearly clipping Magnum with the door as it rolls forward and the beast of a man stands. He stares the coach straight in the eye, raising his spear in a flash. His arm drives forward. . .

 

. . . and rams the weapon into the ground. "You've won. Congratulations." He slumps against the spear, bracing himself against it but still on his feet. Violet, red, and black flecks, glowing with a light similar to the effect of Nobunaga fading in or out of spirit form, start rising from his body; slowly, at first, but faster and faster until the man himself is invisible behind the thick cloud of black magic sparks. ". . . Damn it. No, I'm not gonna just go out like that." Cu Chulainn's voice sounds from within the cloud, but different; it sounds like the man actually feels something, for one. As the cloud dissipates, it reveals a changed man beneath; blue with traces of white replacing the blacks and red that had made up his clothing - though his eyes remained red. His hands and feet, though, held a faint golden shimmer, and if one looked closely, they were turning transparent, and this was advancing ever so slowly as he stood.

 

"Figures that I ended up on the wrong side of all the women again. . ." He gestured at Magnum. "Get your team gathered over here, this is important. I can probably help you take down the bastard behind all this." 

 

 

[Strider]

Though it wouldn't really be obvious to anyone as his face was almost entirely covered, Edmond had just been sort of gaping at Magnum's choice of maneuver. However, as soon as Cu threw down his spear, Edmond made a quick selections on the HUD menu, and sent out a broadcast to LOTUS. <"Cu has been defeated. No casualties, and he seems willing to offer information.">

Having sent of this transmission, Edmond approached to stand next to Magnum, and flipped of his faceplate, waiting for the Servant to speak.

[Powder Miner]

Navin had seen several things during the course of his superhero career, and some of the creatures he'd fought and the encounters he'd lived through had been truly bizarre ones indeed. But this... well, it was really on a whole different level. Honestly, Navin had a little bit of trouble processing exactly what had just happened. The bus-- the sky-- Cu Chulainn-- yeah... the Indian superhero just stood and stared gaping for a moment, before hesitantly stepping forward with the rest of the group to listen to the words of the dying Berserker.

 

There was no hesitation in the reply to Edmond over the radio, however. <"Excellent. Ask him about the identities of Saber and Lancer.">

[Yours Truly]

Solomon honestly couldn't think of anything to do or say in response to something so damn awesome other than to float up to bus driver and try to excitedly shake his hand while saying "THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME".

[LucidRain]

Wyvis shook off all the dust from the Boom Town Express's jubilant finishing blow, and considered the options. Though it was true that this god-like being had very clearly shown malicious intent towards them, Wyvis suspected that he was not in good consciousness to make those specific decisions, as per indicated by this strange transformation he had just undertaken. It would be unwise to give this new Cu his entire trust, but it would also be a waste not to use this opportunity. He asked, though with a little reserved voice,

"Say, do you have information on the other members of your cohort? This 'bastard' would be commanding quite the army."

[Strider]

"As was just mentioned, we would appreciate the identities of Saber and Lancer, though if you have any more information than just two, that would be appreciated." Edmond scratched his head, looking around to see what everyone else would ask, since for once, he had few questions of his own. His mind was mainly focused on looking over the structural integrity of the bus. It was, of course, their main method back to the castle. . . As he glanced over the bus, eyes jumping from tears in the fuel line to the slashed chassis, a question did occur to him. "Cu. You either chose not to tell us anything during the battle, or were forced to. I would guess the latter. How did you escape that control, and is there a way to allow other Servants to escape?"

[Chevaleresse]

"Saber's Jeanne d'Arc. Or was. Crazy bitch now, she wants to set everyone on fire. Expect lots of it." Cu coughs up a bit of blood, wiping at his mouth with a rueful grin. "Lancer is the legendary King of Knights, Arthur. That spear is  divine, or cursed, it's hard to tell which. I've seen a man explode when that thing connected. And Caster. . . well, you're in for some fun. It's Gilgamesh, King of Heroes. I don't know how you're gonna handle that bastard. I'm pretty sure he's got something to do with this mud shit that's corrupted all of the other Servants." He shakes his head, and slumps a bit further down on his spear; the transparency's reached his knees by this point. "As far as how I got out, it's something you did. I should thank you for that, at least I can die as myself again." He looked down at himself. "Damnit. . . I don't want to get used to this." He sounds less angry and more. . . resigned. "If you've got anything else to ask, do it before I kick it."

[Strider]

This was a surprise to Edmond, seeing the man they had been fighting not a minute before give up this information. The control was gone, he guessed. Maybe whoever it was ended the control when it seemed like the servant was within an inch of death?

"Thank you, Cu. Two things: Do you know where these servants are?" It seemed a prudent thing to ask, as the scryers were said to do better with more information. Perhaps if they already had the location, the scryers could listen in on conversations or get a clear picture of how many soldiers were with each. "And finally, is there anything you'd like us to do?" Edmond asked this cautiously; he was still on edge from the battle, but there had been no casualties, so it seemed right to at least consider the enemy's final request.

[Powder Miner]

Navin had listened patiently as Edmond got the information that they required from Cu; he was hardly about to interrupt the receiving of information that was vital to what they needed to do, of course. But Navin did have something he wanted to ask, something that was simultaneously as vital as and less vital than the identities of their next enemies. "Ah, yes, I actually do have a question. Is there any way to save the others, the other Servants that have been corrupted? If it just turns out that there isn't any way around things like this, I am... prepared to deal with that. But I have to at least try to see a way around death, if I can, since this battle is now over."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon decided to try and pry some more valuable information from the choo choo train when he approached the man and loudly asked "Do you know who the Assassin is? And what do you remember about the event that caused all of this to happen". He stopped to think about what he should try and do next for a moment before he continued with "And why are all of you working together? Weren't you supposed to fight to the death or something?".

[ElfCollaborator]

Sachi looked around as the battle ended, leaning on her massive shield, her eyes fixed on the dying Berserker.

 

This was different from fighting the Vertex. Much different.

 

The Vertex weren't people. They were monsters, hell-bent on destroying the last dregs of humanity. There was no negotiating with them, no way of pleading for mercy from them. Six hundred years of war between mankind and the Vertex had established this reality. It wasn't a war, it was self-defense, not like many of the wars Sachi had read about in history books; it was the very end of the human race being fought against, and an inscrutable foe bringing it to them. Sachi hated fighting; it was always Mio who would fight her battles for her, who would face up to the bullies who hounded her. Even when she was a happier child, she preferred to avoid fighting. 

 

But the Vertex, at least, she felt less guilty about fighting.

 

This was different. She wasn't fighting monsters who knew no mercy, who could not understand compassion, who sought only to end mankind. She was fighting people. Other human beings.  People with their own feelings, who could understand others, who could be reasoned with. And yet she had to fight them too.

 

She tried to speak up briefly to the group around Cu. Her voice was soft, cracking from the pressure she was feeling on her mind.

"C-can't we....can't we just....."

She sighed, exhaling deeply.

"C-can't we.....save him?"

[Chevaleresse]

"Saber's set up in a burnt village not all that far from the fortress. Lancer's more or less camped in an open field in the same direction as the mines Caster set up on top of." He took a ragged breath; his entire body was starting to glow slightly, and if you looked hard enough you could see the rest of the area behind him. "I don't know what you did to get that shit out of my spirit, or how you'd do it again. Something with divine magic, I think. That damn cup isn't what was promised, that's for sure - I'm pretty sure that's what turned us all into what you've been fighting. I remember mud spewing from it, and then some kind of flash, and we were here, and I wasn't in full control of myself any more." His voice sounded. . . resigned, at that last. 

 

"A couple words of advice, though. One, you have to remember that Servants aren't human. I'm not the same thing as you. We're just copies of Heroic Spirits. And two. . . Don't ever trust that golden bastard of a Caster. He was rotten before this whole incident. 'King of Heroes' my ass." The blue shimmering around him started to turn to gold. "Looks like my time's up. Good luck offing the other Servants. And you, little miss, you're stronger than you think. Killing people isn't easy, but sometimes you have to. Just remember that you've got a reason to." And with that, the man dissolved into nothingness, leaving naught but fading golden motes behind. 

[Strider]

"Well. I guess we're done here then?" Edmond shrugged at the group, and he gave a small, slightly sad smile. "Well done. No major casualties, we took down an enemy, and we got the intel we wanted. So. . .hmm. Should we bury the humans? We should probably also collect weapons for the castle defenders. . ." Edmond stepped over to one of the corpses, grimacing as he grabbed its weapon, and then began rifling through its armor.

[Powder Miner]

Navin let out a long sigh after Cu dissolved, and stood back up from where he'd been down on one knee. "...now that the battle is over, and now that the danger has passed, I must apologize to those whose lives I took." First, Navin located the large splatter of gore and body parts that the officer he had slain had been reduced to by his hands. Seeing the horrible violence that he had inflicted made Navin grimace, clenching his teeth, and he kneeled down (without dipping his knee in the assorted officer stains) gently, before speaking quietly. "If we cross again in some other life, I can only pray that you will not bear a grudge. Taking your life... it... is not something I take lightly, a casualty of war, and I will not be likely to forget the thing I have done here. I am sorry."

 

He then stood up, moved over to the broken corpse of the other soldier that he had killed, and spoke the same, taking a moment to kneel somberly over the second man that he had killed. The deeply devout Hindu man would take life when it was just, and when it was absolutely necessary, or part of the war. But he was cognizant that he was snuffing out the life of a being every time he killed someone, and he made efforts to never allow himself to forget just what deed that was, and never to make a light affair out of killing. He'd seen too much of it, had dealt too much of it, had seen too many people revel in murder to ever allow such a failing.

 

Then he walked over to Edmond. "I do not know, but... how long should we be staying here? We could likely be of great use if we made our way over to our allies in the other battles."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon quietly sat back down on his floating throne of books before he slowly started to form a bulldozer made out of an eclectic array of books that mostly seemed to revolve around the subject of proper burial rights and the proper way to strip a fresh corpse from all of its useless worldly belongings. He then waved excitedly at Edmond before practically crashing into a nearby dead body in full force. Presumably causing it to flop around a little as he methodically arranged the nearby dead bodies into one unglamorous looking pile while he hummed a jaunty little tune about keeping a loved one's hand as a souvenir.

Rather fortunately he made damn sure to not bother anyone else with his unsubtle actions up until he almost crashed into the squad's leader while he continued to wave excitedly at them. "So when are we going to go and check on the hikkimori's or the larpers? I feel that making damn sure that the people tasked with defending the castles areeeee you know...not dead should be a priority". He had slowly taken his bulldozer apart piece by piece as he said those words, and he was now standing on the ground like any other person would.

[Strider]

As Edmond made his way across the battlefield, he picked up swords tossing them towards the bus in a direction where he would be certain not to hit anyone. When he had collected a pile of five swords and some various plate armor, he decided that would be enough. In response to the queries from Navin and Solomon, he said, "Don't worry, we're going. Magnum, is your bus in good enough condition for everyone to ride in? I'm thinking we should head back to Silef's castle, and drop these off. If they're fine, we can go check on our castle. Sound good?"

 

So long as Magnum is fine with it, Edmond would begin loading the weapons and armor onto the bus, preparing to leave.