Cross Effects- The RP

[Elf]

Forest cursed at that and then stood on his back before flipping forward, into his path.  Before he could smash into the next wall, she ducked down and rammed him in his center. 

"I was more of a Cap fan," she replied.

[lantzblades]

Satoshi would admit that the blonde woman knew her stuff when it came to fighting but sadly her attacks were ineffectual because the armour was far larger than Satoshi so he never felt anything from the attack, so he simply continued forward monstrously "Cap beat the hulk, unstoppable beats incredible one hundred percent, that said I like superman myself  and flash but not Bart, Barry and Wally tie." he laughed crushing more of the landscape

[Elf]

Please just stop this!  Bloody hell, what can I do to get you to stop?  You're going to hurt people, and not even the Hulk hurts innocent people, Forest shouted with her telepathy.

[lantzblades]

Satoshi stopped just long enough to bound upward through the building into the nights sky hoping she had finally been knocked off of him. "some people just don't know when to quit" he muttered.

[Elf]

Forest clung on to him, wrapping her legs around the armor as they became airborne.  She chuckled and said, "I'm ungodly stubborn."

She noted that they had gone several stories up.

[lantzblades]

"Seriously get off or I will burn you alive" Satoshi snapped as they sailed through the air

[Elf]

"I'm dead, you idiot," Forest said, but she kicked herself off of him, flying through the air.

[lantzblades]

Satoshi having finally been rid of the vampire stopped in mid air, he was cursed certainly but he was ever the dragon so flight was a given but for the theatrical value he channeled fire into his soles and took off like ironman. "later living dead girl" he shouted as he disappeared into the city skyline.

[Elf]

Forest felt the ground rushing up to meet her, and she nimbly twisted to land.  She landed on her feet and rose to her full height, watching him fly away.

She ran a hand through her hair and said, "Well, damn it."

[Alice]

Hakuno groggily looked over at the hotel. The sudden commotion had woken her up, and it took her a bit to get adjusted to her surroundings. She could feel the tenseness in Archer's arms- something was wrong.

"Archer? What's going on?"

Archer looked down at the half awake girl. She still seemed a bit exhausted in spite of the rest, and he knew full well it wasn't because she'd just woken up. With her prana as drained as it was, she was going to be a bit sluggish even with rest. As such, he didn't really want to tell her what was going on, knowing what she'd say, but he also knew she'd needle it out of him one way or another.

"The hotel was being attacked. Forest just pursued what may well be the main cause, while Rider went inside to rescue Kiyoshi. I would have gone after one or the other by now, but to be perfectly honest, I didn't know what I wanted to risk given your condition."

"We can't just stay here though! We need to help them!"

Archer sighed. "I knew you'd say that. You're not going to cooperate until I help either Rider or Forest, are you?"

Hakuno shook her head firmly.

Archer quietly contemplated their situation. Even as tired as she was, Hakuno would likely try something drastic in order to try and get him to help. But her safety was still his top priority. ...Perhaps then.... desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Master, I want you to listen carefully. Back when you were in the alleyway, I could feel your prana draining. From what I could tell, you lost a fair bit of it."

"Prana's my magical energy right? I cast a shield back there to try and protect myself, so that's why it's gone."

Archer was a bit startled. He hadn't expected Hakuno to be able to use magecraft, at least not already. Still, since there were a fair few parallels between Code Casting and magecraft, it made some sense. It explained why it'd drained her so much as well. She likely didn't know how to control how much prana she expended just yet.

A genuine smile crossed his face. "You continue to be full of surprises. And you had the sense to finally think of protecting yourself over someone else this time. That's good. Your own safety should be your top priority, so keep it up."

I did it to try and keep other people from getting hurt for my sake, but I'll let him think what he wants, Hakuno thought to herself. Plus it's rare for him to give me genuine compliments like this. I'd rather just soak in the moment than burst his bubble.

With that, Archer resumed his previous line of conversation. "In any case, when you lose that much prana, it tends to leave you feeling drained. Lose enough prana, and it can practically make you ill. What you're feeling right now is the side effects of the prana deficit."

Hakuno lowered her eyes. "So in a way, I caused us more trouble in the end."

Archer shook his head. "No, you did the right thing. You just can't really control your magic yet. And aside from that..." Archer looked Hakuno straight in the eyes. "I can restore some of your prana. It won't be enough for you to start spellcasting just yet, at least safely, but it should hopefully be enough to have you moving around like normal again."

"Really? What is it?"

Archer gently placed Hakuno down on the ground. He materialized a small knife. To Hakuno's surprise, she saw him prick his own finger, deep enough that a nice solid drop of blood was already beading up on the surface of his skin. The knife's purpose served, it was cast into the ether.

The Servant carefully lowered his hand to Hakuno's level, taking care to keep the droplet intact. "Drink my blood. Keep on doing it until I take my finger away. I'm going to try and give you just enough to get you properly mobile again, so I want you to promise me you won't cast any magic until we get you back to full."

Hakuno frowned. "What about your finger?"

Archer chuckled. "I'm a Servant remember? This should heal quickly enough. Now drink before the wound starts to close up."

Hakuno looked at the bleeding finger warily before gently taking his hand up towards her mouth with both her hands. She gently began to suck on his finger. Hakuno winced a bit at the bitter, metallic taste, but continued to do as she'd been told to. As she did so, she could feel a strange sensation flowing through her, and she found herself becoming more and more energized.

Looking down at her, Archer's ears turned just a bit red at the tips. He found the feeling of Hakuno sucking on his finger to be oddly pleasant, to his own embarrassment. But he patiently let her continue, desperately trying to bury down certain... stirrings that had arisen. Once he felt he was satisfied with the amount of prana that his Master had received, he gently took his finger away from her. To his satisfaction, as soon as he took away the finger, he found it was already beginning to heal. Still, he projected a piece of cloth to serve as a bandage and tied it around the bleeding finger.

"While I still don't like taking you straight into the lion's den, that should hopefully make this a bit more manageable. So then... do you have any preference on who we go after?"

Hakuno thought about it for a bit, but quickly came to a decision. "I think we should help Forest. If we can keep the main bad guy away from Rider, that'll give her more time to rescue Kiyoshi and anyone else in the hotel she's able to save."

Archer sighed again. "You had to choose the more dangerous option, didn't you? But your logic is valid. Just stay close to me. I'll probably be attacking at a distance, but I want to be able to get you to safety as quickly as possible should things turn sour."

Hakuno nodded. "Shall we go then?"

Archer nodded himself and scooped Hakuno into his arms. As fast as he could go, he tore off after Forest.

***

It seemed that it was already too late by the time Archer and Hakuno arrived at Forest's location. The heavily armored creature was in the air, already getting away. Forest was looking up at the thing, not seeming too happy about the situation. Even so, she seemed to be unharmed, which was good. Archer rushed to her side. He placed Hakuno down on the ground beside him.

Hakuno turned to look up at the flying armor. It was pretty far up already, but possibly...

"Archer, do you think you could hit him?"

Archer frowned. "Aren't you being a bit unreasonable? Even for me, that's quite the distance, and for all we know, it could actually make things worse. Plus the additional collateral damage it's going to cause..."

Hakuno gestured at the wreckage strewn around her. "But if we let him get away, he could do even worse damage. Please, we have to stop him!" Hakuno looked into her Servant's eyes, her own features pleading, like a mewling kitten begging for attention.

Archer sighed, exasperated. But in the end, he couldn't resist that face. "Fine, I'll do it, even if it's against my better judgement. I hope you know what you're doing..."

Archer's projected his bow and the sword Caladbolg, which he quickly changed into it's arrow form. The armor seemed pretty tough, even from this distance, so even Caladbolg wouldn't be likely to kill whoever was inside, but it could shoot the armor down and maybe even cause quite a bit of damage to it.

Quickly, he notched the sword arrow to his bow, quickly sighting his target and taking into account everything from distance to the wind conditions. It was going to be a tricky shot, but he'd been doing this for awhile now. Still, he didn't like this. The chances of collateral damage, the chance it could actually make this thing stronger... there was just so much that could go wrong. 

"Caladbolg!" With that, the deadly missile flew with blinding speed towards its target, the last desperate hope of keep the blackened knight from escaping flying with it.   

[OPOI]

This night just couldn't end could it?

Though he had been heading for the site of the explosion, it would have been impossible for him to not hear the explosions and screaming in the distance, nor the squawked reports from the police radio he had acquired earlier in an attempt to stay on top of certain situations.

Once again perched in a nearby building, Shirou observed a black armoured figure struggling with a blond woman quickly identified as Forest; before the man started leaping away. He also did not miss the bright light arcing towards the airborne figure, undoubtedly Archer firing Caladbolg in an attempt to help. However, the figure was too fast, and was outpacing the speeding projectile. At this rate, he would escape.

"Like hell," he whispered through gritted teeth, as he placed the long sniper rifle down once more. Stretching his left hand out, he focused on projecting his bow, the flashing outline indicating success. In his right, he Traced Hrunting, the sword coming out much much more easily than the bow, despite being a Noble Phantasm. Having a Reality Marble sure did have its perks.

Shirou shifted the sword's shape into an arrow, before aiming at the figure, his mind emptying as he detached his sense of self from his weapon, as a true kyuudo practitioner did. He had always been great at it, and thus had excelled at archery, only ever missing once.

He would need that accuracy now. He wouldn't let that figure escape.

A corona of energy surrounded Shirou as he charged the weapon with his prana. He fired.

Hrunting soared true towards the armored man. Though it wouldn't deal as much damage as Caladbolg, Hrunting would chase its target to the ends of the Earth if it had to, and would delay long enough for Archer's Caladbolg to hit, or at least bring him back down to Earth where Forest could engage.

Shirou traced out Caladbolg just in case, and waited

[Cherry Lover]

As she ran towards the hotel at top speed, Rider saw a black-clad figure flying out of one of the windows. Immediately, she felt a sinking feeling.

That's our room!

"KIYOSHI!" she screamed, before leaping up towards the rapidly-approaching window, entering through the hole that the figure had left and landing safely on the carpetted floor of their room..

Oh no.

Rider looked around the room, horrified. It was a complete mess, shards of destroyed furniture everywhere. And, Kiyoshi was nowhere to be found.

Worst of all, she could sense a very familiar curse lingering. Rider knew the curse well. Her master had once been controlled by it, and even to this day her magic was somewhat tainted by the same curse.

Angra Mainyu.

Satoshi had said something about him showing up, and it seemed like he had been right.

Angra Mainyu was here.

Angra Mainyu was here, and Kiyoshi is missing.

Rider feared the worst. She knew how dangerous Angra Mainyu could be, and she doubted Kiyoshi would have had much warning. He had probably died, just like all the people that the Shadow had eaten.

Kiyoshi is dead, and it's all my fault.

Tears started to come to Rider's eyes for a moment. But, then, she shook them off resolutely.

No. There's no body, no sign that he's dead. And, the black knight flying out of the window wasn't him.

He must have escaped, she thought, mostly in an attempt to reassure herself.

Still, even if him escaping was wishful thinking, she couldn't afford to let herself become despondant. Not whilst he might still need her.

Rider thought for a moment.

Hmm, where would he have gone?

Rider considered the options. Aside from leaving the hotel entirely, which she would have seen, the most likely places for him to go were the lobby and the owner's room, both of which were on the ground floor. Launching into another run, Rider left the room heading for the stairs, shouting as she went.

"Kiyoshi? Kiyoshi? Where are you?"


Kiyoshi realised now that he should have already known the enemy they were facing. He had felt the oppressive curse that Angra Mainyu produced wash over him only a matter of seconds ago.

But, instead of being disturbed, he actually found it somewhat reassuring. After all, it was a curse that was a fundamental part of his mother and, in particular, her magic. Whilst she had made great efforts to remove her dependance on Angra Mainyu, particularly with regards to her shadow dimension, even now there was a faint sense of Angra Mainyu's presence surrounding you when you were inside, and most of her magical spells also carried that same presence.

Due to the time he'd spent around his mother and her magic, he had grown accustomed to ignoring such low-level curses. To him, they usually implied not malicious intent but, rather, the unconditional love of a mother who would do anything to protect him. As a result, he hadn't consciously picked up on what it meant in this scenario, instead just feeling a vague sense of well-being that was very much at odds with the true nature and intent of the curse.

Now that he realised, though, he was extremely worried. He knew all-too-well the dangers that Angra Mainyu posed. If it could turn even his own mother into a monster, as it apparently had, then it could corrupt anyone. Further, without an obvious host, he wasn't sure if it would be possible to kill it.

He turned to Taiga and spoke.

"Hmm, yeah, I felt it's presence just now. But, my mother's magic is connected to Angra Mainyu, so I'm used to it. Indeed, if anything I found it a little comforting.

Angra Mainyu is very dangerous. He can even corrupt my mother. We need to get away as soon as possible. Even Rider isn't safe against the corruption."

Then, suddenly, he heard a faint shout from a few floors above.

"Kiyoshi? Kiyoshi? Where are you?"

Rider?

[lantzblades]

Taiga looked at Kiyoshi and replied  " she's clearly worried about you, go tell her you're ok" she stated quietly.

Satoshi smiled as the weapons struck his iron prison, the suit was after all actually meant to lock him up so those two heroes just sped up the black knight's plans immeasurably. He noted that he'd kill archer if he tried it again and tear out Shirou's magic circuits if they attacked again.

he was the prince of knights and king of heroes and unbalanced as he was he demanded the respect that came with those titles. Rising from the wreckage Satoshi slowly walked out of the crater which was soaked in grail mud and projected a biohazard barrier as his wounds closed. The pain was dull, barely noteworthy if not for the fact that he was shirtless and his looks combined with the massive dragon tattoo on his back was drawing a lot of attention from people especially women who probably thought he was a bad boy. He was but not in the way they thought, Satoshi smiled doing the best impersonation of himself he could manage  "sorry about this ladies, I'll send some guys to clean it up, promise" he remarked jogging off to get lost into the city before those lunatics attacked him again.

[Alice]

Mille was a bit surprised at the friendly reception Lancer gave her as he bowed his head to her. "I'm sure Fore can find a place for you.  You just have to earn your keep.  She doesn't like freeloaders." He waggled his finger at her as he said it, a smile on his face, those crimson eyes dancing like the eager sparks jumping from embers given fresh wood to burn.

Mille couldn't help but smile a bit herself. Maybe this would be what her brother would be like if he weren't so irritating. But before Mille could respond, she was intercepted by the other man's smooth baritone.

"Yet she keeps you." The sound of his voice caused Mille to turn back to look at him. His arms were folded across his chest, much like Mille's had been moments before.

"Hey, I earn my keep.  I help protect this city from all sorts of nasty beasts."

"So you project your bloodlust in a positive manner for once." The man said this with a smirk, which made him seem a bit smug in Mille's eyes. He then turned to look at her.

Those eyes of hardened steel... something about them and the strange red lines that creeped along his flesh made chills run down Mille's spine, and not in a good way. As handsome as he was, it was something she found she couldn't get herself past. "Are you sure she can keep up with you, Rin?" the man asked. And with that question, Mille decided that she wasn't exactly inclined to like this man one bit. Everything about that question rubbed her the wrong way, from the way it was said to the content of the question itself.

"From what I read from her file, she has a decent number of high quality magic circuits, and she's shown a bit of promise," Rin replied. "So I think she could do it. She'll probably need some additional training and some help from me, but I think she'll do fine."

Mille frowned a bit at that. "I may not be you, Tohsaka, but I can hold my own just fine. I can keep up with you even without your help, trust me." Despite the harshness of Mille's response, she wasn't as angry as she thought she'd be. Tohsaka had stuck up for her a bit in light of the man's comment, which surprised her. The last bit still rubbed her the wrong way, but... was it possible she was misjudging Tohsaka somewhat? No, it couldn't be. But only time would tell.

Jeez, what did I do to you to make you have such a grudge against me? Rin thought to herself. Rin had hardly even seen this girl on the Clock Tower's campus, let alone talked to her enough for the girl to regard her with such ire. They hadn't even spoken to each other before tonight. Maybe jealousy? No, this seemed to be a bit too deep even for that. Why did Milletia feel this way towards her?

"Archer is a giant cunt and you should ignore every word that falls from his fucking mouth," Lancer said, catching Mille's attention once more and interrupting Rin's thoughts.

Mille turned back to Lancer, her expression softening. "It's alright. It just means I have to show him that he's wrong." She gave the Irishman a small smile. "As for the whole earning your keep thing, I'm fine with that. I don't think I'd be comfortable just freeloading here anyway. Besides, if it helps me become a better fighter and magus, then I even consider it a perk."

Mille didn't betray it on her face, but she had come to a realization. Archer, Lancer- that, combined with the large amount of prana she could feel from them both... They must be Servants. You'd think that'd mean there's a Holy Grail War happening here, but it doesn't seem like it for sure. So why are there Servants here? Mille pushed the question to the back of her mind for now, figuring she'd figure out the answers soon enough. For now, there was the matter of getting a room set up to attend to.

***

Finn quietly watched the group from a distance, glad that he hadn't been spotted yet from his own hiding place. The car he had left behind once he was confident that this was the mystery girl's destination, not feeling comfortable driving the stolen car for much longer.

While he missed most of what had occurred previously, based on her behavior and appearance, the mystery girl really did seem to be his little sister. Well, there was still a chance that wasn't the case- after all, fate could be a cruel mistress. But things seemed pretty optimistic on that front, and Finn liked looking at the bright side of things, so he dismissed his doubts.

The young mercenary was a bit hesitant to approach the crowd just yet, however. Even with Mille there to confirm his identity, with the rifle across his shoulder, he could still come across as a threat. If they spotted him before he came over himself though, he could be seen as even more of a threat. He could just leave the rifle there temporarily and come back for it, but he didn't want to risk someone else getting their hands on it.

For now, he just quietly observed what he could from where he was, trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation.

[Cherry Lover]

Kiyoshi could hear the distress and fear in Rider's voice as she searched desperately for him, hoping for a miracle, that he had somehow escaped. Every instinct in him said to run to her, to find and comfort his Aunt and protector, but he also knew that staying put was probably the best option. If he went after her, there was a chance he could miss her.

So, he stayed put, until he heard Taiga speak up beside him.

"she's clearly worried about you, go tell her you're ok"

Then, he thought of something.

If she comes down here, Taiga can tell her where I've gone.

He turned to the girl and spoke.

"Taiga, if Rider comes looking for me, could you please tell her I've gone looking for her? I don't want her to miss me."

Free of the worry that going looking for her might make things worse, Kiyoshi started to move towards the stairs. But, then, he thought of something.

Wait, if she came in through the room and doesn't know I'm here, then what happened to Satoshi?

He abruptly stopped, and looked sadly back at the wheelchair-bound girl.

Oh.

Kiyoshi waited for a moment, looking at the girl, thinking how best to comfort her. But, he couldn't think of anything to say.

Then, he heard Rider shout again.

"Kiyoshi!"

With that, he finally set off, running as fast as he could. He briefly considered taking the lift, but he knew that Rider would almost certainly take the stairs due to her speed, and he decided it was best to do so as well, to maximise the chance of them meeting in the middle if she was heading in his direction. So, instead, he headed at top speed towards the stairwell.