Quote:I was thinking more along the lines of 'Bastard!!' really.
Introduce her to Slayers magic
The image of her being called out to a duel and using Exodus to win it, as well as dealing with the predictable after effects of that particular spell *snrk* is firmly embedded in my mind.
damnit. I had a tight little segment written up when the power zorched for a second ... seeing as I'm working on a laptop that, for one reason or another, doesn't have a functioning battery at the moment, this can be considered a bad thing.
Okay, here we go again.
One: Zero no Tenshi/Pissed-off angel's karaoke.
To loosely quote John McClane: How can the same shit happen to the same guy, _twice_?
Apparently, very easily.
One moment I was getting ready to get on my way, and hoping the Trouble Twins hadn't demolished too much landscape when it turned out I hadn't been there after the Crossing that I'd been snatched out of, the next I was standing in the middle of a crater with a cloud of dust slowly dissipating around me, and a sense of deja vu.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Two weeks ago, more or less, had passed since the end of the most recent and hopefully last - if Nathan, Medea and Tohsaka were to be believed - Heaven's Feel.
The world was still there, which I suppose counted as a good thing. The city as well ... mostly. Which ... was a marked imrpovement over the last time I'd gotten into a scrap of this size.
Though that place had already been more or less devastated when we got there, so maybe that doesn't exactly count.
The two Casters hadn't been opposed to helping me in my attempt to return to the path I'd been on when an Association member with more ambition than he had talent had decided to take part in the ritual. The process, now that the Grail and the rituals karmic interference were no longer a factor, proved to be easier than anticipated. Didn't even have to spring for a virgin sacrifice or anything.
So, there I was, the crumbling Servant contract lending the start-up power to the mandala the shinobi and the sorceress had come up with while I said my goodbyes.
Not that I had many to say, really.
Fraga, whom I'd mostly annoyed - I have that effect on a lot of people, it seems - had shown up ... alright, so maybe annoyed is too strong a word. She was a good comrade, and one I'd trust having my back to any day.
The two present Servant spellcasters ... Medea had proven to be surprising in many ways, and Nathan ... he was easy to relate to in such a manner that led me to believe this wasn't the last time we'd cross paths.
Or maybe it was, and I simply had an overactive imagination.
The Tohsaka sisters were present, and Ilya, my former 'Master', had just gotten done with breaking my contract a few moments before. The three were mostly around because Emiya was around. Likewise, his Servant.
Poor Shiro. He'd either die of heartbreak, or exhaustion. I had a thousand yen going on the latter, mostly becuase I figured there was already enough heartbreak in the world.
I was in the middle of contemplating a receeding Rider - I think she was going to get refreshments or something like that - or more specifically, a certain leather encased part of her anatomy, when it happened.
The mandala flared, much to the surprise of the two Casters, I felt both drained dry _and_ better than I had during my entire stay in this reality as the contract finally crumbled, and the constrictions I'd had to deal with when using my Field went away ...
Though I had only a moment for elation, followed by an instant of vertigo, before the world flashed azure and ...
... I ...
... was ...
... gone ...
... the last thing I saw being both Casters' faces, looking on in consternation and not a little confusion.
The sensations that came with this Crossing were not wholly unfamiliar, I realized as I hurtled through the shifting in-between, and much akin to being pulled through turbulent waters by the rope you're holding onto. Only I couldn't let go.
Not dissimilar to the last time I'd gotten diverted in transit, which was one of the reasons I came _out_ of there with a bit of an attitude.
I didn't know what to expect. Part of me was hoping either Fujino or Kuga had managed to find some mystical or scientific mumbo-jumbo that latched onto me as soon as I was available, and I'd see the both of them and whoever thet'd coerced, threatened, blackmailed or simply convinced to help.
The more cynical (and larger) rest was getting ready to end up staring into the barrel of some sort of esoteric weapon.
Which was what caused me to end up in a crater half as deep as I was tall.
Okay, there and then that wasn't saying much, but there you go.
What I hadn't been expecting was to end up in the middle of a spatious, grassy courtyard of some sort of castle-looking structure, surrounded by a group of roughly my apparent age every member of which was in the process of picking him or herself up from the ground.
Apparently, I'd arrived with a bit of 'oomph'.
Then I noticed the uniforms, black cloaks, the prevalence of ... well, I'd call them animals, but that sort of description doesn't quite do justice to some of the creatures present.
The whole thing had an ambience that I can only describe as a mixture of *shudder*Harry Potter and *double shudder*Pokemon, and I suddenly felt the need to smell some exhaust fumes and cordite, feel concrete underneath my feet, and blow Genom Tower to bits.
You know it's bad when you get homesick for images of that, instead of Sylvie and Anri ... err. Right. Nothing. Nothing at all. Feel free to ignore that statement.
"Owowowowow," someone moaned, extracting themselves from where another of the ... 'students?' had landed on top of them and planted an elbow in their spleen. "Looks like Zero did it aga ..."
Which was when the person, a tanned redhead who'd be considered voluptous for any age, took notice of the source of the blast.
Namely yours truly.
The big, and I do mean _big_, red lizard behind her reared in my direction, flames curling up from its nostrils.
I suppose I had only myself to blame, since it was only then that I realized that my Field was manifesting. Likely due to the surprise and the fact that I had full access to it once again, rather than having to work with a limited pool of power.
Meaning my wings were 'out', and I had a minor AT effect going, which I had to wrestle back under wraps. Something that did not go without difficulties ...
... the wild fluctuations of Absolute Terror were enough to make some of those collecting themselves go back down and scramble to get the hell _away_.
The whip of flame that seared its way in my direction from somewhere off to the side, as well as the sudden burst of same from the red lizard and a few more minor signatures made me discard that course of action and shift the Field to Absolute Territory, leaving the attacks to splash against amber hexagons.
Not exactly conductive to peaceful negotiations. Neither was my wanting to blow something apart very badly at the moment.
For purely stress relief reasons, you understand.
So I decided that, for the time being, discretion should be the better part of valor. Whereupon I let the energies of my wings' Field do their job, lift me into the air, and shot forward after making a complete about-face.
I left behind a courtyard of befuddled people, some of whom needed a change of underwear, and a big hole in the outer wall of the place.
I could have gone over it, but ... well, stress relief. It worked, too. By the time I'd hunkered down to evaluate my situation, I was back to being more or less level headed.
What?
Well, they should be glad I didn't take the Loki and Bartleby method to heart.
Huh. That actually turned out better than what I'd lost. Who'd have thought?
-Griever
ETA: for some minor tweaks
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm