Fate/Impetus II

[Flagmauth]

Ten Thousand Rads presents

a Mycrodeeth production

Fate/Impetus

---

Day 3: 4 A.M.

The story so far:

The Holy Grail War is not famous for simplicity and straightforwardness. Even by those standards, the Fifth War is going so badly as to be frankly terrifying.

Before the War even began, Master of Rider got himself killed fighting Master of Berserker, who then took Rider's contract for himself and has not been seen since. Rin Tohsaka, heir to one of the Founding Families of the ritual and Master of Saber, was nearly killed as well, only for Master of Archer to offer her an alliance instead of finishing her off. Finally, Assassin was forcibly summoned by the Grail for his Master, Vince Maldora - not being a mage, Vince had no idea how to summon the Servant himself and was quite shocked by the process ruining his dorm room carpet.

With the War officially being started by the Church Overseer, the next night various Servants went to battle. Caster, however, took a field trip to the nearby city of Kobe and burned it almost to the ground, killing millions and absorbing their souls for mana. The obvious breach of the War's rules caused the Overseer to call a temporary truce - all six of the other Servants were to fight Caster and stop him from causing any more damage. Though Assassin and Berserker did not help, the dragon Fafnir was brought down, and his Master, Aaron Gate, disqualified from the War.

That's how things are supposed to work, anyway. Unbeknownst to the others and in defiance of the Grail War's mechanics, a new Caster-class Servant was summoned to fight for him. She had no knowledge of the Grail War's obvious malfunction, leaving its reasons in the dark.

The second night began fairly typically. Master of Berserker, still holding his original Servant back from combat, assaulted the Matou mansion where Vince was hiding. Rider broke down the Bounded Field around the house and entered, only to be stopped from killing Vince and the Matou heir, Kirika, by Assassin's timely intervention. Shortly thereafter, Saber, Archer and Lancer arrived and the whole thing turned into a house-wrecking brawl.

Aaron had other plans, though. Using Caster's expertise to supercharge several dozen pounds of high explosive within a remotely-controlled car, he destroyed half of Matou mansion in a single blast, nearly killing Saber, Archer and Rider as well as the Masters of the first two. Saber was able to finish Rider off shortly thereafter, only for the class to be replaced, with Aaron's thirteen-year-old sister and magical prodigy Alice as the newest Master.

Gereon von Einzbern, living magical siege engine and Master of Lancer, took brief advantage of the chaos to attack Takeshi Uizarados (Master of Archer) and Rin while their Servants were otherwise occupied. Fortunately they escaped, though Gereon noticed that one of Saber's swords, lost fighting Fafnir, had reappeared. As this is normally impossible, Gereon concluded that Rin was tampering with the system. Enraged, he collected Vince and Kirika, as the Matou representatives, so as to launch an attack to stop the interference. Assassin, missing for reasons unknown, did not appear to stop him from doing so.

[Helsing]

Aaron finished watching the other servants through Caster's familiars. Alice was trying her best to get Gilgamesh what he asked for, the dragon gold around them being more then enough to get what ever expensive drink the King of Hero's wanted.

[Flagmauth]

Caster, still pondering the reasons for the Grail to summon an additional Caster and Rider-class Servant, had three familiars currently operating. She was capable of creating more, but after magically sweeping the area, she'd discovered something interesting. One of the other Masters or Servants had created a network of mana sensors encompassing almost the entire city, minus the Temple they were housed in now. Amazingly, it was actually fairly well constructed, though it would still be trivial for her to seize it for her own use. With that network under her control, she wouldn't need very many familiars if any at all.

Regardless, for the moment she had set one familiar to tail the homunculus, another to tail the Saber-Archer team, and the last one was roving near the riverside mana source they had detected earlier.

Rider had appropriated Fafnir's throne, evidently deeming it worthy, and was currently browsing a selection of wines in preparation for what seemed to be an evaluation of modern brewing techniques. His power was undeniable, everyone in the Temple could tell that, but he didn't seem like he could be bothered to actually use it. And if he were ordered to with a Command Seal - well, it would almost certainly take two of them. One to get him off his butt and fighting and another to make sure he didn't immediately butcher them all for their insolence.

[A Blind Guy]

"Well that was fun, so before we depart, what should our next move be?" Takeshi asks.

[Flagmauth]

Rin stifled a yawn before responding. "Probably make sure Lancer's dead. I lost the dog meat when that first explosion went off, so I'll have to replace that later."

[A Blind Guy]

"Ok then, see you later." Takeshi flips up his collar, and tips his hat to hide his face and decides to go get some breakfast.

[Draco Flame]

The two matou mages popped into and underground pocket.
"Yo." said The white haired red eyed teenager.
"How are you youngens doing? ready to go kidnap our enemy and confront the overseer, and fix the grail and get it back on track? But first Jewerly, and weapons. what do you have to defend yourselves with? Cuz i don't want you dying on papa ehxburn now."

[Helsing]

Aaron finished making some body armor that he was planing to give to Caster for extra protection when Alice walked over "How's Rider?"

"Take a guess." Alice said "Find anything?"

Aaron opened his laptop "Gilgamesh, fifth king of Uruk and according to churches database one of the most powerful servants that can ever be summoned. The only people that would theoretically come even close enough to touch him would be hero's on the lines of King Arthur, Hercules, or Karna."

Alice whistled "Incredible."

"Yes but we can't order him around or tell him to fight without blowing away two of your command seals. So, I'm working on other ways of convincing him."

[Flagmauth]

The color had drained from Kirika's face since being dragged underground, and she had edged toward Vince. She didn't seem scared of Gereon in particular, just generally unsettled, glancing nervously at the floor all around them. This whole thing reminded her a bit too much of her basement.

She did not respond to Gereon's question.

---

Caster, having waited for an opening in the conversation, spoke. "Master, I've tracked the Master of Archer to the riverside hotel where I detected his Bounded Field earlier. The homunculus, however, has disappeared - he sank into the ground. I can't track him further without risking exposure at the moment."

[Draco Flame]

Gereon then removed the bio stone from kirika having it float into is hand.
"well then out with it kiddies. Can you take care of yourselves or do you want present?"

[99luftballons]

"I don't see why we should help you" Vince said carefully.

[Flagmauth]

"What the hell was that for!?" Kirika demanded once the gag had been removed, fear causing her to lash out.

[Draco Flame]

Gereon looked at him like he was the stupidest toddler on the face of the earth.
so he stood there and just starred at him slack jawed slightly for a moment. Completely missing kirika's comment
...
Slow deep and heavy inhale.
...
"Because other wise there will be no grail, at the end of this war. Not now. Not ever again. Ok?"

[Flagmauth]

That got Kirika's attention. "What do you mean? If the Tohsaka magus is cheating, why don't we just go straight to the overseer?"

[Draco Flame]

hereon happy that someone finally stated something logical.
"Because the wichser treaty demands that that the accused be brought for judgement to the overseer."

[99luftballons]

"Which is why you want to catch Rin. And you have a master plan?"

[Flagmauth]

"He'd better. The Tohsaka Master has Saber, which is usually the strongest Servant class. Kind of a problem." Kirika said, getting snippy again.

[Draco Flame]

"Nope. right now I'm thinking of waiting until she falls asleep and then attacking and hopping i came up with some way to do that by then."

[Flagmauth]

"...you can not be serious..."

[99luftballons]

"Brilliant" Vince commented.

[Flagmauth]

"I'm starting to see why you asked for help." Kirika said waspishly.

[Draco Flame]

"Yes I'm quite brilliant aren't I. But as of now that is the plan. So if you have anything to add please chime in. and girl, have you ever played chess or poker?" hereon said that last bit sternly.

[Flagmauth]

Being called "girl" by a magus who was quite obviously younger than her didn't improve Kirika's mood much. She folded her arms. "Does it matter?"

[Draco Flame]

"We are mages." Gereon said as he mentioned around the room that then began to shake, and everyone then ahd the sensation like that of a moving vehicle.
"We are like a river. champions of all things around us. We plow the very earth, and bend it to our will. So i ask you, If saber is a threat. A giant mountain in our path. What will the river do? MMM? Does it stop dead in it's tracks? MMM? Tell me young mages. What does the river do?"

[Flagmauth]

"...it flows around it. What's with the 'young mages?' I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, kid." Kirika was scowling.

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