Release 3.17
"You're an idiot."
Emma winced, biting her tongue as she shot a glance at Dinah. The younger girl was laying on a pile of newspapers on the other side of the dim room they were squating in, illuminated by the streetlights outside the window. She was asleep, her back to Emma as she curled up underneath a ratty towel.
The redhead had offered to take the girl home, or to just let her leave. When Emma had grabbed her on the way out it had been a spur of the moment kind of thing. A moment of panic.
She was the one that had been cut up and stitched back together with pieces of her friend, not Dinah. Emma was the one that was a stitched together Frankenstein monstrosity.
Then again, she hadn't quite known all that at the time. At the time she had thought Dinah was like her, but it seemed that that clown hadn't repeated himself. Then again, he had mentioned 'stages' to his so called research. She had been too distracted being taken apart to understand it then, but she had a better idea of what he meant now.
He was trying to force people to get powers. Well, no, there was no 'try' about it. He succeeded. There were a lot of theories that went around about where powers came from, but one that came up again and again was that they came from high stress situations. She supposed her class was the physical stress group (sample? She vaguely recalled the term from statistics) and Dinah's was the psychological stress group.
And based on what he did after that…
Madison was on the table, screaming she was cut open and filled with pieces of Greg. A heart, a brain...strips of flesh dripping with blood sewed inside of her. She convulsed as, for a moment, her body seemed to expand. Small hair like fibers burst from her skin and whipped at the air. She screamed. It must have hurt.
One of the students, contained in glass tubes around the room, was struck as one of the fibers pierced through their container, the thin thing lobotomizing him. Madison screamed. She just kept screaming as the hairs tore her body apart. The clown smiled, unharmed, as he jotted down some notes. He pressed a button and the table beneath Madison opened up, her body, what shreds were left of it, dropping down a chute to who knows where.
"Ah, shame. Another failure." He turned to one container, eyes curved into upside down 'u' shapes by the size of his grin. Inside the container a classmate, a girl whose name she never bothered to learn, cried, her tears floating in the air around her rotating as though satellites in orbit of her head. "Who here wants telekinesis?"
No one said anything. They all just cried and screamed.
"Oh, no need to be shy. I won't bite. Hey, how about this. I'll get to disassembling her first and then we can decide who gets this wonderful opportunity!"
Right. Giving people the powers of other people. As far as she knew she was the only success. Well, she thought that maybe Dinah was one too but she apparently triggered on her own.
"Hey, you really just going to sit there like a little bitch all night?"
Emma flinched. "Not right now, Sophia. She's sleeping."
"So? I don't give a fuck about your little pet."
"It's not like tha-"
"Emma, shut up."
She did.
"Fuck. Are you seriously going to be this much of a fucking weak coward right now? You have
power now, and not that fake shit you waved around at school."
"What do you expect me to do?" Emma wished her voice didn't waver as she spoke. She wished her eyes didn't burn with unshed tears.
"
Use it. Go kill some crack heads, go stop a mugging, go find the piece of shit that did this to you and
thank him before feeding him his own ass. I don't care! Just stop being such a pussy about it."
"I can't...I can't just leave her alone."
"Don't be such a baby
now, Emma. It isn't like leaving dead weight behind is anything new for you."
Emma flinched again. "That's not the same."
"Sure it is. Fuck, this is easier!"
"Sophia…"
"Did he really
break you this badly? Are you really that
weak?"
Emma held her hands over her ears, slowly rocking her body back and forward as tears streamed down her face. "I'm not weak...I'm not weak, Sophia...I'm not weak…"
Dinah bit her lip as she listened to Emma talk to herself. She slowly got up and walked over to the redhead, sitting next to her and pulling her into a hug. Emma didn't seem to notice, simply continuing her chant.
"...I'm not weak, Sophia...I'm not weak…"
The Grail stood up and stepped away from Labyrinth, eyeing the girl with a degree of suspicion as the final Master's Servant appeared in the summoning circle.
The Servant at first appeared to be kneeling, but as she materialized it became clear that the position was something much different. The Servant was on her hands and knees, her head down as her grey hair covered her features. Clawed hands dug into the floor (much to Accord's chagrin) while her feet pressed against the wood as though preparing to pounce. Indeed, with her cat ears and tail, all straight and alert, she appeared like an animal ready to leap upon and consume her pray.
The she rose her head, eyes locked on that of her Master's. She seemed to relax, if only a bit. He fell back on her haunches, her black skirt covering her stocking covered legs from her position squatting on the ground. She growled in the back of her throat.
"My power...overflowing...Master, I will devour all...our enemies…"
Labyrinth stood up and, leaning down a bit, she rested a hand on Berserker's head.
She gently stroked her Servant's hair, scratching behind her ears. "Good kitty."
Everyone seemed to freeze for a moment. Accord opened his mouth as if to make a comment, seemed to think better on it, and instead opted to sit back and watch. He idly reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small palm sized notebook and began sketching a new outfit.
Berserker leaned into her Master's hand for a moment, as though caught in a spell. Then her eyes opened and she leapt back onto the altar (Accord groaned when he saw her claws dig into the wood).
"D-Don't do that again! If you do I'll bite you!"
Labyrinth blinked. "Ah...really?" She looked down slightly. "Sorry."
Berserker moved back as though stricken, her hand raised to cover her chest as her mouth fell open, a choking sound coming out of her throat. "Too radiant…too intense…" She covered her eyes with one arm. "W-Was I summoned by a child of Apollo? It is like looking into the sun!"
Faultline looked at the cat girl then looked at the Grail. "I think our 'hero' is defective. Can we get another one?"
"Nope."
"Right…" She turned back to the dramatic cat. "What is your name?"
"Berserker! I'll eat you! Don't come near!"
She sighed. "Labyrinth." Silence. "Labyrinth!"
Labyrinth perked up. "Hm?"
"Her name."
"Kitty."
"That's not my name!"
Faultline felt her eye twitch. "No, I meant ask her her name."
"Oh, okay." Labyrinth looked up at the Servant. "What is your name?"
The Servant stood up to her full height, though still seeming uncomfortable and unsure of how to act around everyone. "I am Atalanta, and I am summoned as a Berserker."
Gregor scratched his chin. "Atalanta...of the Argonauts? From Greek myth?"
She nodded, then paused as her eyes fell on Gregor. "Eh? A child of Leuce?"
"No, I am just a Case 53. My name is Gregor the Snail."
"...a child of Nerites?"
"...while yes there is indeed a family of snails named after that deity, Nerites the god doesn't actually have anything to do with snails." Atalanta narrowed her eyes at him. "...you don't believe me do you?" He sighed.
Accord looked around. "Well, it seems like things are finished here. If you need anything We'll be here. Go bond with your new Servant, prepare for the war...oh, and I almost forgot, as she is now a Master you should let me make Labyrinth a new cos-"
"No." Faultline glared at him.
The Grail blinked. Was Accord pouting? "I bet I could make her a way better mask…"
...their overseer was weird.
"Master! Say 'ahh'..."
Alec twitched. "I can eat by myself."
"Oh! But we are Master and Servant, non? I saw on my novella that this is the perfect way to bond and grow closer!"
"...I don't even know what you are eating."
Marie smiled as she held up a spoon full of some sort of brown meat stuffed with some wrinkled sort of different brown meat. "It is andouillette!"
"...that doesn't help me at all."
"It is sausage!"
"That doesn't look like sausage."
"Eat it!"
"No."
"Eat it!"
Lisa walked in the room, grabbed the spoon, and put it in her mouth. She paused. "God damnit, Endbringer-lite! Stop that!"
"You ate my Master's food!"
"You did that voice thing again!"
Marie opened her mouth to say something but stopped as she heard a soft exhale of air. She turned to her Master, her eyes wide with wonder. "Did Master just laugh?"
Alec schooled his features. "No."
"You did!"
"No I didn't!" Before the argument could continue there was a loud knocking on the door. Alec leapt to his feet (using his power to make Lisa trip so she wouldn't get there before him) as he used this as an escape.
Only for him to find Marie's hand already on the doorknob when he reached out to open it.
Rider swung the door open with a wide smile on her face. "Bonjour! Welcome to...oh no! Master get back!"
Chiron sighed as Rider jumped back...behind her Master who was currently stuck blinking at the odd sight before him. BB smiled, an unconscious Vista slung over her shoulder. "Hello! I am Ruler, but please, call me BB. It seems my healing ability has a bit of a limit on how far back the things it heals are. Could you help us out?"
Lancer looked at his Master curiously. "What is that thing in your mouth?"
Theo swallowed. "Andouillette." Lancer did not seem any less confused. "A type of sausage."
"That does not look like sausage."
"It is made with pork, intestines, onions, wine and other seasonings. It is quite good. Want to try some?"
"I need not be fed."
"But should Rome not indulge in the finest of cuisine?"
Romulus paused. "...I concede your point, and accept your offering."
After the mercenaries left (Atalanta seeming to be unable to decide if she wanted to be as far away from her Master as possible or as close to her Master as possible at the moment) the Grail was faced with a new dilemma.
"Ugh! When is the fighting going to start!?"
Accord rolled his eyes. "You just got your last Master. I am certain it will take some time before the War starts. People need to be given time to plan and get things in order."
"That's lame though! Ugh, and where's Ruler? She needs to be spreading the word that the War can start now!"
"You sent her off to heal Archer's Master, didn't you?"
Angra Mainyu groaned. "I didn't think it would take this long!"
Angra Mainyu is restless. They could call Ruler and order her to drop what she is doing (literally if need be) and go spread the word that the last Master had summoned their Servant. She probably wasn't in the middle of anything important.
Or they could just sit and wait. Maybe play with their pus-
"no, the one known as Angra Mainyu is not allowed to describe this course of action in this way"-cat until BB was done then get things started?
Or they could go out and spread the word themselves? Accord could probably get them a scooter and a megaphone for them to use...
OPTIONS:
[] "BB! Drop what you're doing! Sempai is bored!"
[] "We shall await the return of Ruler patiently and with grace."
[] "Overseer, we require a scooter and a megaphone."
