Cross Effects 3.0 - April 13, 2015—June 23, 2016

[MissingMandible]

Lone Wanderer:

She actually tried to kickk him in the groin. Nothing short of laser, plasma, or an anti-tank missile could actually hurt him, but the point was intent. And now she's calling him a jerk while beating on his breast plate.

"Look, I'm sorry I set that trap off, Tenma. It was my fault, I acknowledge that. And I'm sorry that your machine was damag-" Jeremy got a good look at the broken piece of the quipment, "That ain't explosion damage."

Shaking his head, focusing, he asked once more: "Where's Shinobu? I coulda sworn you covered her, too. There's not even a body here!"

[Emperor's Hammer]

Brunhilde Furst

In my six months here in this place called Nexus City, I had not seen something as strange as what was happening now, which was quite a feat. Given that this place apparently was several centuries ahead of my time, it had many wonders of technology, as well as many peoples, languages, and customs I had never dreamed of. Luckily, there were still blonde women, so I could still feed, but it had taken be quite a long time to get used to the sight of those metal carriages, cars I believe they were called, moving about the roads of this place.

However, that was all topped by the five suns that seemingly gave off an aura different than that of sunlight, which itched a tiny bit at my skin, though I assume it would be far worse for someone without my resistance to the banes that vampires like myself are harmed by. I decided to head out, and left my apartment in the vampire district, which I decided to reside in for the sake of comfort in being around my own kind, though I could easily pass myself off as a mortal. Many vampires were unaware of my vampiric nature until they felt the strike of my blade. I made sure to fully arm and armor myself before heading out, however, just in case I needed to be out after dawn or I got into combat.

As I headed out, I decided I would not head directly for the nearest sun, as it would be wise to see if I could gather information before heading towards one of them, as they could very easily either be natural but rarely occurring, or they could be something dangerous that is enemy territory. Gathering a bit of information about them would allow me to determine which was the truth, and I could gather more information if it was something hostile, after all intelligence is key in warfare.

As I walked the streets, I came across a scene I could not ignore. It seemed there was a scuffle of some kind, and a girl was being yelled at and grabbed by the collar by another girl, and she seemed to be in distress, while another girl stood by doing nothing. As my code of honor demanded, I made my way over to where the commotion was occurring and without showing any hostile intent, after all I could simply be misunderstanding, I politely begun to speak, "I am unsure of what this girl has done to offend you, miss, but I do believe that what you are doing is wrong," I said before noticing that the girl she was holding seemed to be rather inebriated, "I would also add that this girl also appears to be heavily intoxicated, and shouting and threatening her is unlikely to do any good."

After that, I simply maintained my calm and assessed the situation, waiting to see how they would respond to my intrusion.

[MissingMandible]

Elyssa

Those lights...Those hideous lights....

The Warmonger didn't walk, she staggered, often falling to the ground and dragging herself back up. Mana was fluctuating to the various runes, causing them to activate at the most inopportune times and deactivating quickly. One moment, she'd turn invisible, the next Elyssa would fall forward unprepared of the sudden increase of weight to her arms and legs. This is on top of being barely able to move her limbs and the searing pain in her brain preventing her from seeing straight.

Shelter was all she could think about, to get away from the suns' glare. However, the Bradford Engine on her back was allowing whatever malicious energy entry into her body. Shelter...Shelter...

[Emperor's Hammer]

Azrael

As I slumbered, one of the things I had gotten used to in my years as a human, I tossed and turned, as my mind for some reason had gone to the Age of Wrath as I slept. It was not always a boon to remember my life as an Angel so vividly, as I was often tormented by dreams like this. I was once again Azrael, a commander of some of the Rebel Host, fighting against the tyranny of the heavens. It was bloody, as we angels had learned murder from the first sin of man. Many angels who I had known for millennia were wounded by others that I had known and loved for just as long. Why was this happening? Why did we have to fight? All we the rebels wanted to do was to save humanity from itself, to let it reach the potential we know it had, but had not reached, and we had been barred from helping them reach it by God. So, out of our love, we rebelled. We appeared before mankind and taught them their true potential, giving them knowledge and the ability to be more than just another animal.

Where did it go so terribly wrong? We had naught but the best intentions, and it led to so much destruction, so much hate, so much torment. In the end, I regret that we rebelled for that reason alone. Perhaps we could have tried harder without breaking our word to God? Perhaps we could have convinced him? Or perhaps we could have waited, or that Ahriman could have been wrong. However, I could never know. Such was the province of God, and to ask him, I would have to first somehow redeem myself. And to that end, I strived, and would continue to strive to until it happened.

Suddenly, with a start, I woke up as a large robotic seeming figure, approximated 8 feet tall, came crashing into the room I had awoken in, which was definitely not my own. It was a run down chapel, which was even more run down now that robot, who seemed to be in great pain, had knocked down the door to come in, and wrecked a few pews on its way. The way it had crashed in seemed...almost panicked, as if it was actually alive. This seemed rather strange to me, and revealing my true form, I stood up and walked over to the robot, and began to speak, "Do you understand me, young one? What makes you so frightened?" I said, my angelic voice ringing melodically through the church as I laid my hand on its slumped figure, trying to calm it, if it was even sentient.

As I waited I simply tried to give off as calming of an influence as I could on the humanoid robot, in an attempt to ease its fear, if that's truly what caused it to barge in here like that.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Hyoudo Tenma

"Why you..." Tenma growled as she punched his armoured body harder and harder. Then,, she whimpered for a bit and looked at her throbbing foot. This was just too much, too too much. She couldn't take it, she just wanted to go home and fix her thing. Sobbing, she hugged her tentacles tightly and tried to wipe tiny marbles of saltwater off her face. It didn't work much.

"Shinobu is just over there." She said with a flat, shaky voice while pointing at her shadow. Then, she sat and held her knees with her arms and buried her face on her legs.

"Dammit! It was my favourite too. This is going to be a bitch to fix." She moaned, sniffling on her coat pathetically. Then she started sobbing again, her bitter defeat at the hands of whatever far too heavy for her fragile heart.

[Kaze]

EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou sprinted down the street, a destination already selected out of the available elevated positions. It was almost an afterthought when he concentrated what little mana he had left into his legs to allow him to scale the walls of his target building. He was so focused that he didn’t notice someone else coming up behind him.

Someone grabbed onto his arm and pulled. He didn’t know who. It didn’t matter who, or why. They were stopping him from doing what needed to be done.

Acting on reflex, the freelancer managed to keep himself from tumbling at the sudden pull in the opposite direction. He shifted in his grip to face this new enemy, and allowed himself to be pulled - right into grabbing range. Shirou wrapped both arms around him and lifted him into the air with all his considerable strength while bending over backwards. The other man slammed into the concrete face first and tumbled. It was a move that Luvia had taught him the hard way several times.

Shirou was already sprinting away again by the time it registered that the person he had just suplexed was the same one who had saved him from Shendu’s flames moments ago, but it was too late to be concerned about that. Taking a running leap, the Emiya magus scaled the apartment complex in a few hops, his lightly reinforced legs managing to give him an unnaturally great launching power. He turned to where Mia and Shendu were, preparing to gamble on the risks to his body and prepare a projection when he realized that nobody was there anymore.

Shirou blinked and panted from the exertion it took to get him here. His mind didn’t want to process this. Mia and the dragon were gone without a trace, only the scorch marks from the intensely hot flames marking the frantic and very one-sided battle that had taken place. Had Shendu taken her? Was she vaporized? He could still hear Mia’s screams in his head as he ran, and he didn’t want to imagine what fate had befallen her.

She was probably dead, and he had ran. Shirou collapsed on the roof, exhausted, and trying to choke down the feeling of nausea and failure.


KOTOMINE KIREI

He may have struck like a viper, but he hit like a hammer. The attack failed to break through the hardened scales, but the force behind the blow was enough to numb Riku’s arms with pain. For his part Kotomine’s fierce scowl deepened when his hand failed to pierce through the girl’s suddenly very tough skin. Had he really lost so much in the previous battle?

Quickly swapping his style, the tentacles retreated back into the ground and grabbed the redhead’s arm with the hand he had just attacked her with, denying her ability to defend from that side, and pulled back his left leg and delivered a devastating kick to her right flank.

Or he would have, if a blast of supernatural energy didn’t slam into him at the worst possible time. Whatever it was, it burned into the joint where his left leg connected to the hip, and very nearly caused the priest to lose his balance. He wobbled almost comically as he fought to avoid falling backward, reflexively holding tight onto Riku’s arm, before firmly planting both feet back on the ground. The scorched flesh seemed to just slough away, replaced just as quickly by healthy skin and muscle. Even his robes had somehow returned to perfect condition.

Of course, as soon as he had recovered more ranged energy attacks blasted at him, this time from the other direction. These wounds too healed as quickly as they were dealt, but Kotomine had had quite enough of this. As the two latecomers approached, the muscles in his arms tightened and bulged, large enough for definition to be seen even through his blue robes.

Gripping the redhead girl’s arm like an over tightened vice, the priest pulled her past and behind him, as though he were preparing to pitch a baseball, and with just as much ease.

Then, one handed, he swung her in a half circle around him. Riku’s entire body stretched out straight from the centrifugal force, threatening to pop her arm from its socket. It was an impossibly wide arc, logic dictated that Kotomine’s arm was almost ten meters too short to hit Michael and Valerie with Riku’s body, yet she came flying at them both all the same.

At the completion of the swing, he released the girl’s arm, allowing her momentum to send her flying back into the massive pile of rubble he had emerged from only moments ago. If luck was on his side, that one move would have bought him all the time he needed to sustain himself. Of course, with the way things had been going the past few hours, he had no reason to believe that fortune would favor him.

[Panda]

Adjutor

Just when he thought they were in the clear, things had to go wrong once more. To the teen's surprise, the man he was trying to save at the cost of the girl turned around and somehow sent him momentarily airborne before he crashed back down on his face. Reinforced as he was, this was stunning at most, leaving the teen a little bit dazed as the stranger leaped up and away.

...Did I...just get suplexed?

Shaking off the question and the impact, Adjutor made his way wearily to his feet, looking up at the apartment complex the man had leaped up to. Calling back Laivatain, the teen looked upon the site of the battle to find...nothing. Just the blasted traces of the battle, no traces of blood or gore or charred flesh.

So...unless that thing managed to vaporize that girl completely and vanish within the past few seconds...

So it might have taken her. If it did, then...alive or dead? Laivatain?

They just vanished.

Could be either way then. Dammit, I...

Adjutor shook his head, dismissing that thought. Self-loathing wouldn't help him ensure that the man he'd sacrificed that girl for would be safe. It wouldn't make certain that this wouldn't be in vain. With that in mind, the teen braced himself for a moment before leaping up with Reinforced legs, landing briefly on someone's balcony before leaping up again, landing neatly on the roof. The sight before him was a disheartening one, if expected. Uncertain of how to offer the man his condolences, Adjutor simply approached him, remaining at a safe distance in case the man tried to suplex him again.

...It'll probably be best if we hold off on our theory. We need to get out of here now.

"Come on," Adjutor called, cautiously moving closer, watching carefully for any further attack, "We need to get out of here."

[Kat]

KOTOMINE KIREI

He may have struck like a viper, but he hit like a hammer. The attack failed to break through the hardened scales, but the force behind the blow was enough to numb Riku’s arms with pain. For his part Kotomine’s fierce scowl deepened when his hand failed to pierce through the girl’s suddenly very tough skin. Had he really lost so much in the previous battle?

Quickly swapping his style, the tentacles retreated back into the ground and grabbed the redhead’s arm with the hand he had just attacked her with, denying her ability to defend from that side, and pulled back his left leg and delivered a devastating kick to her right flank.

Or he would have, if a blast of supernatural energy didn’t slam into him at the worst possible time. Whatever it was, it burned into the joint where his left leg connected to the hip, and very nearly caused the priest to lose his balance. He wobbled almost comically as he fought to avoid falling backward, reflexively holding tight onto Riku’s arm, before firmly planting both feet back on the ground. The scorched flesh seemed to just slough away, replaced just as quickly by healthy skin and muscle. Even his robes had somehow returned to perfect condition.

Of course, as soon as he had recovered more ranged energy attacks blasted at him, this time from the other direction. These wounds too healed as quickly as they were dealt, but Kotomine had had quite enough of this. As the two latecomers approached, the muscles in his arms tightened and bulged, large enough for definition to be seen even through his blue robes.

Gripping the redhead girl’s arm like an over tightened vice, the priest pulled her past and behind him, as though he were preparing to pitch a baseball, and with just as much ease.

Then, one handed, he swung her in a half circle around him. Riku’s entire body stretched out straight from the centrifugal force, threatening to pop her arm from its socket. It was an impossibly wide arc, logic dictated that Kotomine’s arm was almost ten meters too short to hit Michael and Valerie with Riku’s body, yet she came flying at them both all the same.

At the completion of the swing, he released the girl’s arm, allowing her momentum to send her flying back into the massive pile of rubble he had emerged from only moments ago. If luck was on his side, that one move would have bought him all the time he needed to sustain himself. Of course, with the way things had been going the past few hours, he had no reason to believe that fortune would favor him.

Rikuyo

Her anger at the priest mixed with exhilaration. That shitty priest cornered her and sent her flying with such ease, the superior skill evident in each of his moves. The joy and adrenaline she felt eclipsed the pain she should have been. Crashing into the rubble, her wounds already started to regenerate. Standing up, she grinned viciously, her serpent like eyes, scales covering her body and reptile like tail marking her as a monster. Pity though he had to piss her off, killing him would be a waste, but what she could do? She would rip off his guts with her talons and feast on them. That would teach him to not commit such sacrilege anymore.

[Emperor's Hammer]

KOTOMINE KIREI

He may have struck like a viper, but he hit like a hammer. The attack failed to break through the hardened scales, but the force behind the blow was enough to numb Riku’s arms with pain. For his part Kotomine’s fierce scowl deepened when his hand failed to pierce through the girl’s suddenly very tough skin. Had he really lost so much in the previous battle?

Quickly swapping his style, the tentacles retreated back into the ground and grabbed the redhead’s arm with the hand he had just attacked her with, denying her ability to defend from that side, and pulled back his left leg and delivered a devastating kick to her right flank.

Or he would have, if a blast of supernatural energy didn’t slam into him at the worst possible time. Whatever it was, it burned into the joint where his left leg connected to the hip, and very nearly caused the priest to lose his balance. He wobbled almost comically as he fought to avoid falling backward, reflexively holding tight onto Riku’s arm, before firmly planting both feet back on the ground. The scorched flesh seemed to just slough away, replaced just as quickly by healthy skin and muscle. Even his robes had somehow returned to perfect condition.

Of course, as soon as he had recovered more ranged energy attacks blasted at him, this time from the other direction. These wounds too healed as quickly as they were dealt, but Kotomine had had quite enough of this. As the two latecomers approached, the muscles in his arms tightened and bulged, large enough for definition to be seen even through his blue robes.

Gripping the redhead girl’s arm like an over tightened vice, the priest pulled her past and behind him, as though he were preparing to pitch a baseball, and with just as much ease.

Then, one handed, he swung her in a half circle around him. Riku’s entire body stretched out straight from the centrifugal force, threatening to pop her arm from its socket. It was an impossibly wide arc, logic dictated that Kotomine’s arm was almost ten meters too short to hit Michael and Valerie with Riku’s body, yet she came flying at them both all the same.

At the completion of the swing, he released the girl’s arm, allowing her momentum to send her flying back into the massive pile of rubble he had emerged from only moments ago. If luck was on his side, that one move would have bought him all the time he needed to sustain himself. Of course, with the way things had been going the past few hours, he had no reason to believe that fortune would favor him.

Valerie Arkwright

As I made my way closer to them, I saw my quintessence bore into the priest, interrupting him when he tried to kick the girl. I had thought that given the location, that might have decided the battle, but somehow the priest had been able to regenerate from even that. Perhaps he was a werewolf or something similar? Either way, that demonstrated that he was not an enemy to be underestimated. To be able to regenerate the damage that pure quintessence could do to a being meant one of two things, either your body had some sort of spiritual regeneration, or you had high level healing of some sort, whether it be the healing of the night folk, or the power of the Life sphere. Either way, it meant that I had to change my strategy a little bit.

However, one other thing that I noticed about what happened was that I did not feel any paradox beginning to build up in me despite the multiple vulgar spells that I had just used. Perhaps the consensus either didnt exist where I was, or perhaps it was jsut weaker? Either way, that opened up many options that I had not considered to start with. Taking this opportunity to change my approach, I hesitated in my approach, and quickly increased the modifications I currently had made to my body, causing more spikes to push through my skin and be energized with prime energy, this time along my shins and forearms, now covering every possible striking surface with them.

After taking that very brief pause, I renewed my assault on the priest, who had thrown the girl into the rubble behind him while I was performing my magic, and had seemed to modify his body to be stronger, the muscles bulging against his outfit. He had also shrugged off magic coming from someone else who I couldn't see, but it seemed it definitely was not a fluke, so I had to make sure I went for the most lethality I could. This man was not human, in most senses of the word. Pushing my body to the limits, I launched myself at him, attempting to hit him with a flying knee to the side with my left knee and an elbow to his opposite shoulder, in a sort of pincer attack on him.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Sakagami Kenzo

"Okay! Let's go!" Kenzo grinned before dragging Forest along, running quickly to get there first before anyone else! After all, if he didn't hurry, the lines would get longer. So he ran, taking her along the ride when suddenly he lost balance. Without noticing, he was running on a still wet just washed floor. Now, the running red ball was gaining speed, slipping along the slippery ground until he and his golden hostage crashed behind a purplehead yokai. At the same time, an armored man (?) held his hand out to catch her.

[Panda]

Michael

Michael barely had time for his eyes to widen before instincts honed through millennia of survival screamed at him to dodge as Rikuyo came hurtling their way, despite the priest being a good distance from them even accounting for the added range from wielding Rikuyo. Slipping under the arc of the priest's swing, Michael registered the approach of another from beside him just before they launched themselves at the priest, bone spikes ripping out from their body as they closed with the priest-

Wait, bone spikes? ...Damn, been a while since I last saw those.

Deciding to make the most of this opportunity, Michael easily redirected his approach, slipping around him to bring the staff down with all the force he could muster on the priest, another of those waves launching from the staff at almost point-blank range, ensuring that he was attacking from the opposite side the bone-spike-lady was attacking from, trying to catch the priest in a sort of pincer attack.

[LFR Tsar]

Sibyl

Blackness. There was lots of it that clouded, or rather obscured Sibyl’s sight as she stared onwards with an irritated twitch quivering from her brows. Her impeccably white suit sullied with dirt as she considered perhaps waylaying an odd passer-by or two with some thaumaturgy, for better appropriation of wearable attire. Yet that made her feel cheesy, as she felt no inclinations to terminate anyone in that sense. Still, it was a travesty that the more she would struggle to come out of what smelt like refuse, pitted into a confines of stinking trash, that she would recount how she actually got HERE of all places.

A shudder of imagery coalesced into her thoughts as the details were blurry, fast and vague. The facsimile of an opal shaped doorway into realms unknown laughed at her face, as she stepped into what would be most routine. Normally nothing to scoff at, but something screamed at her that hour when she felt there was a few details odd, yet she persisted thinking them a common problem, which in some ways, were, just not in the magnitude she had imagined. It was then a cadence of kaleidoscopic colours swirled within a rounded tunnel, spinning as she found herself within vertigo, that before long, she would sprout into a new reality, spat out, and consumed with darkness. It would only be recent that said darkness remained, but consciousness followed, and the stench that would normally make her stomach recoil in disgust, were it still something she would have akin to mortals, assaulted her nostrils with a putrid vileness that otherwise she steers clear from.

Well, at least now she knew that this MAY have to be her fault, probably, not that she felt it so, to have made the gateway rather faulty in itself. It was not something she counted herself as unskilled in, neither amateurish, but she was familiar with its making that sabotage mostly nagged at the back of her mind in the problems that have arisen. Actually, were those even correct thoughts? Some matters are jumbled up… but no matter! She has a job to do before solving this mystery, and that was to get out of what apparently was a dumpster.

Sibyl struggled and writhed in her position of humiliation before finally ridding the huge bags containing mankind’s trash out of the way, and dug her way out of the dumpster, climbing out of it as she sets foot on the concrete ground by the dumpster. Spots of grime pocked at her otherwise pristine clothes, as she had finally emerged into a cityscape that was unfamiliar to her, to an alleyway that was unintended and a destination impertinent. A mistake she felt that she needed to rectify, once she finds out where her Master is after some due preparations...

Thinking on that, she pulled out her briefcase from the dumpster, and swatted a rotten banana from its shell, as she sets it down by her side on its wheels.

[Kat]

Gintoki

Gintoki ran at a steady pace. Towards the light of those artificial suns, to find out who dared to spoil the nighttime with such things. Passing by an alleyway, he glimpsed a flash of light. Surely, he had better things to do, but his curiosity made him turn back, to investigate that. Before he even made there, his nostrils were assaulted by a stench as if someone pried open a dumpster or another storage place where the refuse ended up.

When he made there, he saw a pale redheaded woman who clearly needed a bath. He didn't know why she would dive in a dumpster, and didn't want to. "What's the matter, miss? Do you need help?" He maybe could help the poor woman. He was spared a fate of becoming a card box god thanks to kindness of other people, after all.

[LFR Tsar]

Sibyl

She was parting any leftover bits of garbage on her garments, ruminating on her thoughts, planning out an ideal location to stage rituals from, that sort of stuff. Hardly would it be ever ideal to have a ritual out in the open, especially when the Masquerade was serious business, yet… her lacking of the appropriate reagents puts her back in her plans to muster the powers of the dark and the arcane for her bidding. Right, get on top of that afterwards, probably after a change of attire before she can even consider presenting herself to her venerable and most astute mistress.

The sound of something grating with a foreign edge beckoned for the vampiress’s attention, as she turned to look to the newcomer that approached, whose tongue spoke with some no comprehension for the woman’s circumstances. Well, that sort of stuff didn’t matter, Sibyl just saw opportunity in the form of an Asian Sarmaritan, go figure. Certainly he didn’t feel like any Kuei Jin as no aura read so, when empowering her sights with Auspex, letting her concentration slack as she ceases her visual scrutinizing of the Japanese looking gent. It was a safe bet that this very man, was in fact quite human, an albino but a human all the same.

“Perm...” Dumbly she remarked. Right, this wasn’t off to a good start. Instead of some long pontification, arduous and fulfilling in its imperiousness, the first thing that came to mind is that silly hairdo from the sixties, which she had verbalized out in her grasp of the obvious. Clearing her throat for a second go at this, she decided to play along with the Albino’s line of questioning, before some sinister intentions for appropriating assets moves up her priorities. “Why certainly. Would you mind telling me what city I am in? I was supposed to go to a conference, you see, and this is certainly not a locality I recognize. In short, I believe I am lost.”

[Kat]

Gintoki

"Man, it's not my fault I was born with such hair." he grumbled. Clearly the woman had to remark about something he was touchy about. How much he wished to have a normal straight hair like other guys.

"Yeah, you are lost, like everyone else. It's a Nexus City, not Kansas. Some weird inter-dimensional thing, only makes my head hurt more from the hangover..." All he did was some gambling, why the heck he had to end up with all those weird and dangerous guys in one city. There is no justice. "Well then, you probably have money if you planned to go to some conference. I can show you where a hotel is." And she needed a bath. Badly.