Cross Effects 3.0 - November 16, 2014—April 13, 2015

[Umbra of Chaos]

Acaia

If there was anything the Elites could pride themselves in it was the ability to react quickly. It didn't matter who this stranger was but he was neither an Elite she recognized or an officer, and even if he was one she could handle being reprimanded for not taking chances.

Hauke leaped into her hands as Sarlic rolled over onto the ground as she rose and flooded her body with mana before rushing at her enemy and making a swipe at his head.

[Panda]

Seeing the girl get up with a sword in hand was all the warning Adjutor needed. Taking a moment to Reinforce as he rose, he called Tyrfing and Rahab to him, the blades settling into his hands as he laid eyes on the man.

No magic. Nothing.

And he got the drop on both of us.

Adjutor quickly evaluates his mana stocks, and decides that he's going to have to choose between the Armor and a fairly powerful Shield. With a snap decision, Xarrest goes about preparing the Shield while Adjutor readies himself, letting Acacia rush in while he focuses on the man, watching him carefully.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Kizumi almost dropped a sweat as the lady quickly rose and brought her sword, dashing towards him like a ferocious beast to bring her blade to his head. Sure, the girl was fast without a doubt, he had seen very few move with such swiftness…

But this was just so painfully slow; the ninja would’ve yawned internally had he not yawned but an instant ago.

Well, that was rich.

Nonchalantly, the man slipped like water as he moved forward with indiscernible speed. On the surface, it didn’t look like he moved at all, but it was but a ruse, and all the blade hit was the fleeting wind.

“Hey, cut it out woman. You shouldn’t wave dangerous toys like that, you could get hurt…”, Ito jovially spoke behind the lady as his back faced her own.

“Is this how you greet people in these parts? How barbaric.”, he joked before lightly tapping the nape of her neck, as if to tease her.

[Panda]

Fast. Doesn't make any noise while moving.

She's still slower than us by a fair margin, but her swords can move on their own.

The hand holding Rahab relaxes just a bit, letting the tip of the rapier tap against the concrete, a nigh-invisible layer of black ice surrounding the ninja in foot-an-a-half radius around him. With that accomplished, Adjutor raises Rahab above him and fires off a volley of ice spears, spreading the shots out to cover a wider area. Meanwhile, the Shield Concept remains at the ready, just waiting for Adjutor to designate an area and actualize it.

Impaled or flat on your ass, your choice.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Acacia

She was in a rather precarious position now but considering all things the recruit would free her up a bit to start a counterattack or call for Murk. The latter option was always displeasing but-

Her thoughts were cut off by the wild song of Sarlic. There was no need to commune with mere voices when the connection between them was so much more. So her child dutifully informed her of the sleek layer of ice it was uncomfortably sitting on and the volley of spears moving down to mow the man down or force him to move.

Clever. She could appreciate that. Adding her own aid to that wouldn't hurt either. A few comforting notes of her own song and Sarlic reluctantly accepted to mount its own offensive if the man tried dodging. He was close enough to Sarlic for a nice slice at the legs and unlike his mother the spiritual weapon was not restrained by mere flesh and bone. The blow that it would make would surpass the speed of Acacia by quite a bit.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Ito winced as he felt a sudden cold sensation. Before he knew it, his foot slipped as if sliding over ice. Simulantaneously, a rain of frozen spears came crashing down, each lunging towards him with the intention of tearing him.

Shit.

Already losing momentum, the ninja instinctively arched back, his arms reaching to the woman’s shoulders as he moved in a blur. Using her body as support, he flipped and now stood above her, his hands still holding onto her shoulders weightless as a leaf.
Of course, it hadn’t been been so simple, despite dodging the hail of ice just barely, the woman’s odd blade had seemed to move on it’s own.

It all happened in an instant. Despite his speed, Ito was touched by the blade, the cold metal scratching his leg and drawing a slight trickle of blood. Yes, he definitely felt the sword piercing his skin, but it was strange…

No pain?

Penetrating his shoulder like a hot knife cutting trough butter, yet another blade came lunging at him before he could dodge once more. With a short yelp, he instantly leapt back from the woman, turning to face the two as he landed atop the fence.

Don't mess with me...

 “If you aren’t going to use your head, maybe you don’t need one after all.”, he spoke without a trace of his previous humored tone, glaring at the two before taking hold of his own sword’s handle.

“We can still talk things trough, so please stop this idiocy before it becomes any more painful.”

[Arch-Magos Winter]

Abigail

Abigail frowned and asked, "How do you shoot swords at someone?  Like throwing them is stupid because they're not made to be aerodynamic or anything like that."

She looked at Forest and the vampire shrugged and said, "Magic."

Abigail sighed and then put her hand on Law's shoulder.  "He really needs to get inside and warmed up.  The potion I gave him so he wouldn't go hypothermic on the broom ride here."  She let go of the broom to let it hover.  She stared at Archer defiantly and said, "I ride a magic broomstick."

Forest

Forest raised her eyebrows at the Fae girl's antics and disposition.   With the hair and eyes, she had to be Seelie Court and probably raised with humans so the weird Fae culture wouldn't warp her.  So the redhead was adorably cheerful, the sort of cheer that made Forest want to dote on her like she doted on Gabriel.

Then she saw the slim, pretty man lurking in the background, but before she called back to Archer and said, "It was a magic sword mounted on a magic bow to explode.  Hurt like hell when it hit too."

"And what about you, Mate.  What brings you here?  I don't recall meeting you," she called out to the lurking man.

Richard's eyes widened in surprise at the discussion he overheard. This talk about brooms and exploding swords and the like was not something a man hears every day, even a man like Richard.

"Well, that's because you didn't, silly!", Richard humored before smiling, rows of white teeth gleaming as he held his hand towards the blonde woman.

 "Name's Richard, Richard Maxwell. It is a pleasure, really.", he said with a polite smile.

"As for why I am here... to put it bluntly, let's say there is important buisness to be dealt with, and all the traces lead to this very compound ."

"Wait, why do you - oh." Law felt the heat in his body starting to fade away, the sudden drop in tempurature causing him to shiver for a few seconds before he squeezed his way past Forest and Archer, chiming into Abigail's statement with "She's a crazy driver. Or sweeper. Or whatever you call someone who flies a broomstick."

Archer stayed behind in the doorway, slowly taking in just what Forest was saying as Law managed to squeeze by him inside, the idle chitchat Abigail offered somewhat ignored. Magic sword, magical bow. Exploding arrows. That wasn't Gilgamesh. That was...

Himself.

Archer immediately reevaluated his priorities. What mana he had in the tank might not be enough to kill whatever version of himself had been unfortunate enough to end up here. Killing that version would hopefully create the sort of paradox he needed to escape the throne. He'd considered this plan before after he had been summoned; fortunately for his past self Saber had crippled him and it simply had never been convenient to try to force the paradox. But now? The Saber here wouldn't stop him. He was sure of that. She probably didn't even know of this other version of himself running around. Archer let the gears fall into place.

He needed energy, and he needed a lot of it. And the scruffy looking man had somehow reduced the amount of energy he was using even manifesting to a near negligible amount. Not to mention there was something... else inside of him. Archer smiled a little bit. Now if he could somehow set up a contract... his new 'master' wouldn't have any reason to prevent him from going after this other version of himself. This just, just might work.

Still smiling, he eyed the newcomer. "What sort of business?"

[Panda]

Hmm...It wouldn't be a good idea to let him leave, would it?

Not after breaking in like this.

...Seems to be growing hostile.

We haven't exactly helped, but there's not much we can do about it now.

Best bet is to...

Hmm, he seems annoyed.

If the opponent is of choleric temper...

"You offer to talk things through," Adjutor says after taking a moment to plan his next words out carefully, shooting the girl a quick glance to try to communicate that he had an idea, "But there you are, ready to run away. And you offer to talk things through after surprising us? Honestly, for all your apparent speed, you really are quite slow, aren't you?"

[Elf]

Abigail

"If you make a crack about crazy women flyers I am so kicking your shins," Abby said as she noticed Law starting to shiver.

She started to push him into the compound and said, "You need to get in, get something to eat then warm up.  Maybe get some real pants too.  I'm being blinded by the whiteness."

However, she didn't like the calculating look those fathomless steel gray eyes gave Law as she ushered him in the building.  Whoever this absurdly tall bondage prone Asian was didn't have pure intentions towards Law.  The redhead frowned at him but didn't say anything, because in a contest of magic, even as low on power as he was, he would crush her.  That Abigail was certain.

Forest

Oh bugger, I just majorly cocked things up didn't I?  If he knows an Emiya Shirou is out and about here he might go all Terminator mode and try to practice some James Cameron inspired suicide pact, Forest thought as she saw Archer's reaction to what she said to the corner of her eye.

However she looked at the Newcomer's hand, raised her eyebrow, but took his.  She knew that her hand would feel cool, especially compared to normal flesh and blood.  "Mate, someone always wants business with me.  So what calamity is on its way now?"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Richard's eyes widened for a second as his hand touched her own. This cold was not something a regular human would emit, even if chilled by the winter. Altough strange, it was not completely unheard to have vampire kin be able to survive under the warm beat of the day.
 
There was one way to make sure, focusing on the touched hand, Richard tried to regulate the woman's blood flow, to see just how much rippled in her body.
The quantity was small, far too small to be one of any human. The man's face turned livid for a split second, realizing just what that meant.

Still, he couldn't do it now, not in front of all these bystanders. Perhaps he should investigate further, to find out more on the woman's identity and make sure she was it.

"Hah, straight to the point. I like that. Well, to put it bluntly, it is not something I can talk about freely in here. It is better to talk inside, where we cannot be overheard. Would that be troublesome?"

A little white lie, but it was necessary, and he didn't have the luxury of time.

[Kat]

Deep inside his quantum forge of a heart, Tar the Demon blinked, leaving Henry the detective without a proper reaction. He wasn't expecting that response. Not to his admittedly rather gruff mannerisms. He watched her go, and Henry grumbled from his throat to himself, scratching the back of his head.

"Hey," he called out, before she left out the door. And talking something out of his pocket, he walked up to her and shook it in her direction. A cigarette poked out of the Marlboro packet in his hand. "Here. For the wait."

Mordred

Mordred didn't expect such an act of generosity from the police officer, as she thought he would go back immediately to his duties. She already bothered him enough yet he was being so considerate. Refusing though would be rude of her Reaching for the cigarette, she blushed slightly as she felt a little guilty about taking more of his time. "T-thanks. You really didn't need to do that." 

[YOLF]

Mordred didn't expect such an act of generosity from the police officer, as she thought he would go back immediately to his duties. She already bothered him enough yet he was being so considerate. Refusing though would be rude of her Reaching for the cigarette, she blushed slightly as she felt a little guilty about taking more of his time. "T-thanks. You really didn't need to do that."

Tar

"Think nothing of it," Henry said with a dry chuckle. "Stay safe."

Stuffing his cigarettes back in his pocket, he gave the girl a lazy wave as he turned back inside. Passing the reception, Henry shot McGruffins a look of acnowledgement before carrying on back on to his office.

He still had paperwork to go over, after all.

[Kat]

Mordred

She left the building of police station rather quickly, not lingering around any longer. I don't even know what's his name. Damn, I bet someone who saw me is gossiping behind my back about us she thought One completely normal guy in this asylum and I'm already behaving weird... Probably because she was not normal herself she appreciated company of mundanes. Rare commodity in this ever bizarre city.

Wow, it's been a while since I smoked such good stuff Sitting on a bench, Mordred puffed at the cigarette she got from the police officer. I know I'm displeased about rumors surrounding that Saber person, but I gotta keep my head cool. I guess seeing someone identical to her will be awkward to her as well. The weather today was good so she cherished every moment of peace, waiting calmly in front of the building.

[Knick]

Suiren

Suiren stared blackly at the man who continued to chant. Then she shook her head and turned back to the one with purple hair. She seemed to be examining her closely, Suiren’s eyes were no longer the relaxed or excited ones  that were present earlier.

Instead they were eyes worth of a Great Demon, eyes which bored into another’s soul and seemed to pick it apart with but a gaze. “I am not telling you anything. I will only speak to that girl about it; you have not earned the right for me to share anything with you.”

It is not like she needed to talk to that girl to confirm Hamara was here, she could do that just by asking around town. Besides, she did not like this thing in front of her. She could tell simply from combat, the style of the one attack, the type of weapon, and her lack of action.

When someone fights their true self comes out after all.

She was straightforward, as shown by her attack, but at the same time she thought too much and failed to do the right things, shown by the type of weapon, the simple attack, and the lack of actions.

And because of that Suiren did not like her.

She walked over to the armored man, “Well, guess we can’t have round two huh. Ain’t it a shame?” She said slightly depressed.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Vanguard looked at the white haired man, dumbfounded by his ramblings and mad chanting. In a way, he felt insulted; after all, to be interrupted in such a manner by a complete stranger was not something to his liking.

The metal behemoth couldn't help but be disappointed by this turn of events, it seemed the girl was right: he would not be able to resume the duel to his fullest. The warrior now faced a dilemma, to keep his word and carry on fighting despite his state or to postpone the clash to another time.

"Mph, as for you... cease this foolishness. I will not tolerate this insulting farce any longer.", said Vanguard as he turned his back on the buffoon.

Grunting in annoyance, he held his hand out to the warrior in respect.

"It is regrettable, but I fear you have a point. We may settle this another time, perhaps..."

To fight under anything other than to his fullest would be but an insult to the warrior he was to face. He truly wanted to fight her, to challenge this mighty foe and vanquish her by surpassing himself in a true combat.

"Empress, we fight here", he spoke warmly.  “Ready yourself with haste.”