Cross Effects 3.0 - October 21, 2015—June 23, 2016

[Panda]

Annabeth

From her perch on top of Ron, the only warning Annabeth had was the slight shift in Ron's aura, which proved more of a distraction than a warning. Yelping in surprise as she was yanked off of him, the Hunter slapped out to break her fall as a matter of course, only to find herself on the receiving end this time. Without a moment's hesitation, the Hunter quickly made to wrap her legs around Ron, intending to trap him.

"Not bad," Annabeth mused from under him, waiting for his attack.

[Aiden]

Ron

The scrapes on the werewolf's knees and palms closed before he could register the stinging from them. He couldn't resist the grin that overtook his face as he finally got what looked like the upper hand. Then Annabeth caught him with her legs, and he moved to grab her arms so she couldn't take further advantage of the trap she'd improvised for him here.

"Y-Yeah, this ah, this looks familiar," Ron said in reply as he struggled for control of the grapple.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter was pleasantly surprised as he moved to grab hold of her arms to keep her from further capitalizing on the situation. Even if she was keeping herself from going all out by summoning her Nen, this was actually proving to be quite fun. Then his remark registered, and a tiny frown made itself known on Annabeth's face for all of a moment before a wide grin overtook it.

"Indeed, let's change things up a bit," she shot back before suddenly removing one leg from the lock she had on his waist and using it to push off the ground, intending to turn them over.

[Kotomine_Rin]

GAROU XIII

"Fine, whatever. I don't have any cash on me though." He said with a nonchalant shrug.

[Aiden]

Ron

Ron tried to let go of one of her arms to stop her leg from doing whatever it was about to do, but that just left him open to being grabbed there. It made everything easier for Annabeth, clearly, because the next thing the werewolf knew he on his back. Experience had won out, and not in his favor.

At least I made her hat fall off.

He did the only thing he could in this situation - he attempted to headbutt her before she could pull far enough away from him that he couldn't reach her that way.

[Kaze]

EMIYA SHIROU

“Anywhere you like, as long as it’s not expensive,” he said in reply. He wasn’t familiar with most restaurant chains, having never had much interest in eating out, even when he was young.


BRIGIDA DOENCA

“Oh, I’m fine, dear,” the language instructor said, waving her hand in front of her in dismissal of the other woman’s question. “A bit bruised, but nothing permanent.”

It was as close to confirmed as it was going to get: this woman was what she had been looking for. Judging by the power that deer had displayed earlier, violence was to be avoided if possible. It was lucky that Brigida had a relatively friendly personality.

“My name is Brigida,” she said, sounding out her name slowly like she always did when she wasn’t back home in Portugal. “I was actually out here looking for you. Well, not you exactly, but whatever was doing what you’re doing with those plants. See, my colleagues and I have been looking for a way back home from the Nexus, and we have reason to believe you can help. I’d appreciate it very much if you came with me to where we’re operating.”

Unspoken was the fact that she had no intention of giving the woman in red a choice in the matter.

[Panda]

Annabeth

As the Hunter managed to regain the top, she decided to attack the only way she could think to at the moment to try to stun Ron for a bit. With a headbutt. Unfortunately for her, it seemed that Ron had had the same idea, resulting in their heads meeting at multiple times the velocity she'd been expecting. The resulting impact left Annabeth's ears ringing a bit as her head throbbed for a few moments. The Hunter tried to work through the pain, leaning back on Ron and trying to straddle Ron, deciding to hold off on pinning his arms until the world came back into clarity.

[Aiden]

Ron

The werewolf saw white as his brain rattled about in his skull on impact. He did the first thing that came to mind in that disoriented state, and that was bracing himself so the back of his head didn't smash into the concrete floor of the warehouse. By avoiding that second strike to the head via terrain, Ron was able to recover from the mutual headbutting first.

Adrenaline pounding in his veins, heart drumming in his ears, scent of sweat and soap heavy on his prey-

Never got over a butt this fast before, he thought to himself as he brought his arms around to trap Annabeth in a bear hug from below. He tried to pull her down on top of him enough that she couldn't get momentum for a shot to his crotch to do much. If that worked he would try to transition from that into a sleeper hold, but their current position wasn't very good for that.

[Thedoctor]

Sakura Matou

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "Good idea, Senpai!" She pulled out her phone from her pocket quickly and unlocked it, pulling up her web browser, typing in "golden rule movie theater showings" in the search box, and, after finding what she wanted, she began intently looking through them, holding herself steady with one hand around Shirou's head.

"Hmmm…" She mulled over the choices. "Jeanne, you've never seen a movie, right?" She looked down at her new friend, so far below her right now. "What do you think about this one? Just tap the triangle button to play it." She said, handing the phone down.

Jeanne

The blonde saint looked on curiously as Sakura pulled out one of those cellphones from her pocket, She then procedeed to fiddle with it for some time before showing it to Jeanne and saying she should press the red triangle. So the blonde did with her fingers slightly trembling. The trailer then started playing, in the beginning it was a logo for some production company that she didn't know what it was. Then the trailer started proper, showing her what looked like a swamp with the text 'every generation has a legend' rolling over it, not that she could read it. After that followed images of a desert and then some flying machines over a city and finally a palace, all accompanied by text she couldn't read.

Sudenly the tone of the trailer changed, the slow music that had been playing was replaced by a rousing score with much fanfare. The screen became black for an instant before being replaced by a myriad of scenes in quick succession, filled with more shots of said desert, people fighting each other and strange creatures everywhere. The music score grew more intense as it reached crescendo. Then the music died down and the pace of what was being shown slowed down.

"You refer to the prophecy of the one..." Jeanne blinked as there was finally dialogue in it, The things the people were saying were phrases with no real connection to each other though, making her believe that they did it that way on purpose, it did make it more dramatic she had to admit. The dialogue was focused around a boy, so the movie was probably about him. Their names did sound pretty strange to her though and even made her giggle at one point. "..Hate leads to suffering." Jeanne nodded at the advice given by the green one. After that followed some more fighting before the screen went black and then replaced by text again. This time the text appeared to be more important as it was yellow and had a number in it, a Roman numeral at that.

"That...That was." The saint was quite frankly lost for words at the moment, something like that hadn't existed back in her time, It made her excited for some reason. Maybe it was the music or maybe something else, she couldn't quite put her fingers on it.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

It seemed as if it was time for introductions to begin. There was the possibility that refusing to speak would make her even more suspicious than saying nothing. "I am the Spirit Vessel. Emily, I have a question. How do you determine the genuinity of someone who wishes to earn your affections if all beings naturally find themselves physically attracted to you? I ask because the physical and personal attraction were one and the same to me until just now."

[Panda]

Annabeth

As the Hunter recovered from the headbutt, she realized she was a few seconds too late in doing so. Ron's arms wrapped around her, hugging the cowgirl tight to the werewolf's body. She could feel him shuffling under her as if trying to get to a better position, but it simply wasn't happening in the current position. Thus, they found themselves in something of a stalemate.

Deciding she didn't want to stick around until he figured out how to get to whatever position it was that he wanted, the Hunter managed to slide her hands in between their bodies. Grabbing onto one arm with the other hand, Annabeth pushed with all the force she could muster, pressing her arms against Ron's chest while pushing herself against the weakest link in the bearhug, where his hands were locked together.

[Aiden]

Ron

He found himself having to tighten his grip on his own arms now, digging his nails in to keep Annabeth from breaking his hold so easily. It should not have been difficult for her given their differences, but that surge of strength from before didn't fade like an ordinary adrenaline rush. He still had enough strength to match her there, and considering how fast he could heal he was willing to dig into his own skin like that to avoid losing the hold.

"Y-You, are just, ah, stubborn!" Ron managed to get out as she squirmed and pushed, and ah crap now she had an angle to hit somewhere very sensitive from all the thrashing. He did the only thing he could think of to distract her from that.

If this were someone else, I'd probably just bite their nose or ear off.

So he grabbed her lips with his.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter found herself surprised when Ron's grip proved surprisingly strong. As it was though, she remained persistent even as Ron complained, pondering taking a moment to reply when suddenly Ron's lips captured hers.

Letting out a surprised sound, Annabeth’s eyes widened as he kissed her, her efforts to escape redoubling as she tried to pull away.

[Aiden]

Ron

He stopped in surprise himself, and found himself loosening his grip enough that Annabeth couldn't help but break free of his grip at that point. Okay, maybe that was going too far as strategies went, even if they had done things already earlier?

"Sorry! Too much?" he managed to get out with a wince before she could do anything in retaliation. He ignored the feeling of his arms healing from the abuse he just put them through.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter stared down at Ron, frowning as she found herself caught between indignation and a begrudgingly admittance that she was the one who'd said that they could do anything they wanted to. Furthermore, this did serve as evidence of his ability to think on his feet.

Or possibly an extraordinarily indecisive libido.

Keeping up the frown for a bit longer, Annabeth finally relented.

"No, but I think we've learned enough," the Hunter noted, getting up, "You're quite fit, reasonable in your hand-to-hand technique, and capable of thinking on your feet."

With that she held a hand out to him to help him back up.

"However," she continued, "Of greater interest was how your aura shifted when you threw me off. What were you feeling then?"