ManyThings

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

Outside Fixeon Municipal Recycling Plant, Brookside

---

While some of the heroes seemed to be bothered that the situation was slipping out of their control, or that they didn't have the rapport to execute seamless teamwork, Ardent was doing better than ever. Unexpected changes mid-battle, and having to play things by ear... it was more his style than making a plan and sticking to it from start to finish. Since they didn't know each other that well, that meant they all knew themselves better than anyone else here, so he was content to just assume that his fellow heroes were finding roles in the fight that suited them. Building walls, melting things with acid, or whatever.

The original handful of Terrazards that had tried to outflank the heroes on the left had been dealt with, sliced up and smashed by Ardent's makeshift polearm. However, as he hovered and waited for another group of lizards to come towards his edge of the perimeter, he observed just how many more were on the way. With those sorts of numbers, the Terrazards were more than just a half-assed security system. Someone had clearly put real work into gathering up an absolutely massive crowd of the creepy things.

He imagined some smug bastard sitting inside, thinking they could dump all their problems onto their lizard army and call it a day. It awakened an itch in his head that had been dormant since the encounter with the Five. Someone in the recycling plant needed to get hit, badly.

Ardent broke from his original position and rocketed towards Freakshow before she had even finished calling out to the team. With a thunderous crack, he shattered two Terrazards with a midair golf-swing from his parking sign before landing alongside her and setting to work. Here, he was able to take out the things much more efficiently. It wasn't because he was ramping up his power at all, but rather because they were approaching the hole from which the dense mass of enemies was emerging. When they didn't have time to spread out, he was able to clear two or three with each swing, even as the metal sign grew battered and the concrete base began to chip.

"Morons inside have lost their minds, and splitting up for interceptin' these things won't do squat to help unless we stop the source of em' comin' out from the inside!"

"You're right, but--" He thrust the signpost into another lizard's chest as he spoke, repelling enemies from Freakshow's left flank while she spearheaded the charge, "--We can't just leave the lizards out here, either. Rushing to the heart of the plant all together is the strongest play, but it's not the right play."

Looking at the bone-spurred scorpion-centaur form Freakshow had taken, he was starting to understand her hero name. To his eye, it was a goddamn badass transformation. However, he couldn't agree with what she was saying. He appreciated her prime experience as a leftover hunter, but he was beginning to feel that her extreme caution around these leftovers, making her deeply resistant to the idea of splitting up, was going to put them in a bad position. With this many lizards going berserk, they couldn't just pierce through their formation and leave the remaining beasts alone on the plant's front lawn. Not when they didn't know how the creatures would behave afterwards.

He looked to Luna, his face lightly splattered with scales and reptile blood. He grinned.

"You're worried about what these things can do. Fine. But it's time to show some trust. These things are dangerous, but so are we!"

With himself, Freakshow, and Terraformer mowing down Terrazards in a bee-line for the breach, it wouldn't take long before they could reach it. But when they charged forwards like this, it meant they couldn't really prevent enemies from passing alongside them and getting at the rest of the group. He looked over his shoulder.

"We're going in, but a few should stay here!" He called out to the team, "We can't let them run wild behind us, and we definitely can't let them spill out into Brookside!"

Ardent didn't have any particular training in regards to protecting civilians, but he had plenty of rough experience with it. Enough to know that leaving monsters unattended outdoors was bad. Which heroes were best at eliminating large numbers of lizards? He didn't really have a precise plan of who should go inside and who should take on the 'zard mob, but there was one person here who he knew would do their best work in the yard with the mass of creatures.

"Mire! If that was so easy for you, then do it again! But bigger! Wipe out everything that gets past us! If I can breathe through my nose without choking on the smell, you haven't melted enough!"

Moving quickly and tearing apart any lizard in their way, the charging group of heroes wouldn't have to wait long before they were through the hole in the wall. It was up to the remaining heroes outside to choose whether they would join the charge or focus on culling the horde.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

Outside Fixeon Municipal Recycling Plant, Brookside

---

David was going to have to put some trust in the new hero transferred from ICOSA, it seemed. As long as she didn't start writing up critiques of their battle performance, he could live with that. Probably.

He was ready for action, but Freakshow had a pretty long-winded battle plan for the group, first. As a former solo vigilante, David found himself growing disinterested with the details of the plan. Too complicated. Too rigid in its structure. He preferred to improvise. Not to mention, it seemed excessive. Based on the reading he had done on these creatures and the report of how quickly Jellyfish and Albino had folded to the fresh recruits, David was pretty sure that just Mire and Ting Feng working together would be enough to clear out the two-dozen-odd Terrazards running towards them, leaving the rest of the heroes free to rush inside the plant before the Skulls had time to prepare.

Still, listening to Luna's tone, he got the sense she wasn't speaking just from some desire to boss the group around, but because these Leftovers had left a serious impression on her from previous encounters. He didn't want to be a dick and run off on his own after she had just asked for backup and support to watch the group's flanks. The plan wasn't David's style, but that didn't mean it was a bad idea, necessarily. He took issue with one bit, however.

"Don't follow them? Are you serious? If they stop coming to us, we're gonna have to go to them. The mission is to clear out the whole place, which means we're gonna have to go in there and get our feet wet a little. If you don't feel safe doing that, you can wait outside. I'm gonna-"

The rumbling of reptilian footfalls alerted him moments before the gunshot. They were coming.

"Hah! At least we can forget about the bait!"

Hearing Freakshow go on and on about the dangers of Terrazards and the strategy for killing them had begun to irritateDavid and stress him out a little, but that stress was gone now that he could just focus on taking action. He flew low, rocketing forwards alongside Freakshow towards the mob of Leftovers. "That was a lot of yapping just to say 'let's watch each other's backs while we fight some lizards'! Better hope it works!"

As he flew, Ardent snatched up a metal sign in one hand. He twirled it experimentally, getting a sense of its heft. Almost automatically without thinking, he had improvised a weapon. The 'EMPLOYEE PARKING ONLY' sign on the top end would make a fine axe, and the hefty concrete weight that served as the sign's base was a solid hammer. Satisfied, he gave a confident grin as he watched Freakshow lunge for the spearhead of the formation, darting off to the left at the same time.

Luna had seemed pretty surprised by the formation of the enemy, but as far as Ardent could tell things were going exactly as she had guessed. A bunch of 'zards were running at the group while a few tried to outflank them on each side. He flew low towards the pincer group of lizards that were aiming to wrap around the HERO team's left side. With his speed, he could reach them while they were still basically in front of the group, not yet wrapped around their position. At the last second, he flew higher, and then came crashing down into the reptiles' frontline, sending up a spray of dirt and dust.

Based on the Leftover data for Terrazards, what Freakshow had just told everyone about them, and the fact that one had just died to a sniper rifle, it seemed like they were tough enough to survive small firepower, but nothing beyond that. Since he didn't have to worry about their lives like he would with a human enemy, Ardent had plenty of freedom to use the strength required. With 20-25 Leftovers in the whole formation and the bulk of them charging in the centre, there must have been under ten of the creatures on the flank he was attacking. Light work.

His first attack carried his landing momentum forwards to skewer the foremost Terrazard on the sign-blade. Immediately, he pulled it out and set to work. At the speed he was swinging the sign, 'EMPLOYEE PARKING ONLY' was no longer readable to spectators, it was a complete blur. With the length of the weapon, Ardent could keep the lizards beyond arm's reach as they fought. He slashed one's throat with the sign, then spun it around to splatter the next one with a crushing blow from the concrete base. With his power and his expertise in using random crap as weaponry, he was a whirlwind, deadly and impassable.

However, he didn't advance into the enemy flank, even as he cleaved through the foremost of them. He maintained his position and awaited their approach. As much as he had gotten tired of listening to Freakshow, it seemed he had grasped the basics of her plan after all. With wide-area attacks from the likes of Mire and Terraformer, the core group of heroes surely had the ability to wipe out the numerous monsters charging their way, and the only thing that could really disrupt their rhythm would be a surprise attack from the side or behind. Ardent's eyes darted to the edges of the Leftover formation, making sure none got past him as he fought. As long as someone could do the same thing on the right flank and someone kept an eye on their backsides, the group would only have to worry about the enemy's frontal assault.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

Outside Fixeon Municipal Recycling Plant, Brookside

---

David flew low through Brookside, following along with the HERO transport vehicles. He was once again outfitted in his costume, with the green jacket tied around his waist, and any minor damage to the fabric from his combat with Doc Holliday since mended. On that matter, the damage to his arm had also healed up nicely, mainly thanks to Alpha's power. He was ready for action.

When David was assigned to this mission instead of being sent for ICOSA evaluation, he had been thanking his lucky stars. No doubt the nosey bastards were interested in a psychological profile of him because of his background and probationary status, but apparently there were some even more concerning heroes on the local roster, and he was safe for now. It was also possible, David considered, that Powers had given him this mission in order to put off what would very likely be a disaster of an evaluation. In truth, David had no idea how he was going to sit down and chat with the ICOSA representatives without giving them a piece of his mind. He had gone legit precisely to avoid having these sorts of people breathing down his neck. Back then, it had been the Boston HERO team on his ass until he joined them. But as the saying went, there was always a bigger fish. A fucking annoying fish. A magical British one.

For sure, Ardent was much better off out here, on a simple errand. Flying beside the truck meant he could keep Crane company during the journey, keeping pace with her platform. Still, he wasn't sure the two of them would have much to talk about. Did he really have anything in common with someone who couldn't step inside any building smaller than an aircraft hangar?

If anything, they at least had a common problem in the oversight of the mission. Randolph's minion was apparently gonna be watching the whole mission, and the new addition to the team was apparently also from ICOSA. "Don't like this. I don't trust them." David spoke to Crane as they passed through town and under the imposing shadows of the Brookside prisons.

Although David was very happy not to be getting psychologically evaluated, he wasn't exactly in love with the mission he was on. As a vigilante, he had mainly gone after criminals and villains rather than Leftovers, and he didn't have much experience with exterminating them. He wasn't even sure he wanted to.

"...And on top of that, the whole mission feels like some sort of sick test. If taking out these things is actually important, the ICOSA crony should be fighting, too. She's going to be there, anyway. But no, she's just going to watch us."

As he travelled with Crane, Ardent's face and tone told a story of someone who was unhappily resigned to doing stupid, useless work.

Soon enough, they had arrived. Ardent saw Perez on the tower nearby, and followed her sightline to spot the bulk of the Terrazard group. He landed near the truck, boots touching down on dead grass. He eyed the large hole in the wall, then glanced at some of the broken windows. He wasn't really a big pre-planner, but the watchful eye of ICOSA made him slightly conscious of the need for strategy. If they made some dumb misplay with Perez watching, they'd probably never hear the end of it.

"Before we start." He glared at Lab Rat, who had emerged from Crane's truck. "I wanna know. Are you actually with us?"

He tilted his head up towards the tower.

"Or with her?"

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

5th Avenue, New Athens, Castleburg

---

Through the blood splattered on Holliday, Ardent felt the cowboy pre-aim his shot at the float. He knew he was coming, but since Ardent also knew the angle and direction of the prepared counterattack, he still had a shot at landing a hit without having to take one in return. He burst through the float a bit higher than the Doc had guessed, forcing him to adjust his aim at the last moment. Much like the opening move of the fight, it would come down to a contest of speed and endurance. A gamble, without knowing what kind of bullet was coming next. Ardent locked eyes with Holliday as he prepared to kick him.

Then, he saw movement over the villain's shoulder. He smirked. He didn't need to do anything.

Instead of spinning into a kick, Ardent aborted his assault and twisted his body and hurled himself downwards, letting the enemy's final shots whistle over his head. He landed in a crouch, only inches from the hole he had broken in the float. It would've been a terribly vulnerable position, if Doc Holliday hadn't just been shoulder-slammed into next week by a certain super-fast hero.

Amid the small cloud of debris, Ardent rose to his feet. This was immediately followed by a resounding SLAM as the parade float, which he had tipped nearly vertical, fell back the way it had come and landed right-side-up once again, albeit no longer in drivable condition.

"Thought maybe you were catching a nap over there." Ardent stopped flying, putting his weight on the ground. He stepped away from the float, picking up Holliday's first gun from the road. "But you actually did something. Solid."

He flicked out the cylinder of the revolver and removed the remaining plasma bullets. As he did, flecks of blood continued to hover around him and drift towards the wound on his arm, which was being squeezed shut into a thin line by his power.

Blast had Holliday pretty firmly under control. It sounded like Wiseman and the kid heroes had turned the tables on Lady Blade's ambush. That only left the drones to take care of, but as Ardent prepared to fly and looked down the street, he saw them all dropping like flies. Wireframe, who had looked like she might have been struggling to hold off the army of robots, was being carried in the float's direction by someone very pink. The brightly-coloured leftover immediately rang a bell in Ardent's head, and he looked sharply back towards the man in civilian clothes by the bench.

"Wait, it's you..!" Ardent's eyebrows went up. The name took him a second. "Alpha?"

The glowing had looked familiar. Ardent vaguely remembered running into this strange pair not far outside of Boston during his vigilante days, although he recalled this guy having some type of super-strength, not healing powers. He definitely hadn't been expecting to see the two of them again after switching careers. "Why are you..? No, nevermind. It's good to have you here." He cut himself off, not wanting to ask anything that would put the duo in an uncomfortable position with HERO.

He only hoped that Alpha was just trying to blend in, and hadn't actually become a Blast fan.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ardent could see frightened civilians emerging from behind cover and peeking out the windows of the buildings overhead. Some held phones, and were very obviously taking videos. Good. A Blast-Ardent teamup with a tipping parade float was going to make some waves online, no doubt.

"There's still a lotta shit to do. We gotta make sure the trainees at Hero One are safe, and I wanna know where that fucker who made the robots is hiding out." Ardent looked to the other heroes there, then at Alpha in particular. He held up his arm, which had been badly grazed by a bullet of superheated plasma. In his sleeveless costume, the damage was pretty evident. "But can you use your power on me, first? This hurts like hell."

There was nothing in his body language that suggested he was hurt or hampered by the minor injury, but something in the back of his voice suggested he was definitely feeling it, now that the adrenaline was settling down.

Fate/Dark Heritage

First Night

Near the Abandoned Lot

@GOATPlumber@Letter Bee

---

Caster's motivations were more or less what Assassin had been expecting. An alliance of convenience? It was weak a foundation for trust, but the choice wasn't theirs to make. Nor was it their Master's, really. They were technically part of this alliance by association, but had no interest in directly fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Servants here if they could help it.

The announcement rang out, being heard by Servant and Master alike. The Assassin's whiskers twitched.

Well, Master, They spoke through the psychic link, If you want to to keep spying on this little meeting, you'll have to use your magecraft, or ask your new ally what his Rider is up to.

They were already on the move, hopping away from the abandoned lot in spirit form. This new threat, whoever precisely they were, was something that nearly every participant of the war would be going up against. So, if their Master's promised husband was going to be putting his life on the line, Puss wanted to stay one step ahead of him.

If the Ghost Liners were as powerful as all that, it wouldn't be too difficult to detect their presences with a bit of scouting. And with Presence Concealment, it ought to be possible to get a good look at them without too much danger, and see what they were made of.

With that in mind, Puss set off, searching for the corruption that threatened his Master's wish.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

5th Avenue, New Athens, Castleburg

---

Ardent had originally chosen his angle of attack to draw Holliday's sight away from Blast. Now, from what he could see from his high position, the situation at the Bench was looking a little different. Someone in plainclothes had seemingly healed Blast's wound, and now they had Bastion covering them from stray hits.

Maybe it was time for Ardent to try some of the "teamwork" stuff that organized heroes were always raving about. Or maybe he just felt like giving the other heroes a wakeup call to get them off the defensive. Either way...

By the time Holliday had cleared Ardent's blood from his vision, the flying hero was nowhere in sight. No matter where those superpowered eyes looked--ahead, up, left, right, behind--there was no sign of him. Because he was below. While Holliday still stood on the remains of his Western-themed parade float, Ardent was flying prone, his chest hardly an inch off the ground as the ledge of the float blocked line of sight between the two of them. He was a loud guy, no doubt, but his flight was absolutely silent. At least, it was silent until the impact.

Since the parade floats had stopped moving, standing on the float must have felt basically the same as standing on solid ground for Holliday, but that was about to change. As Ardent made impact and lifted the side of the float with one hand, he tipped it over. The entire surface very rapidly tilted nearly ninety degrees, and the cowboy's footing went from a completely flat platform to a completely smooth cliff. Metal and wood snapped and creaked as barrels, tumbleweeds, and likely the Doc himself were scattered off of the float and deposited unkindly on the curb.

Since Ardent had been approaching Holliday from the side of the road opposite to Blast, tipping the float sent the villain roughly towards the trio who had now gathered at the bench. It was no coincidence.

The structure of the float groaned under the strain as it slowed for a moment before beginning to tip back the way it had come. Ardent hadn't quite gotten it fully vertical. The lifted end would crash down onto the road at any moment, but in the meantime it acted as a broad wall that stood between him and everyone else.

"For a guy who can outrun a Bugatti, you sure like to take your time!" Ardent was speaking to Blast, but his voice came through both the speedster's and Bastion's watches. His tone wasn't accusing in the least. In fact, he sounded like he was in better spirits than he had been during the backstage meeting. "Ready to make a fuckin' move?!"

The plasma wound on Ardent's arm still hurt like hell. He probably wouldn't have been able to move the limb much normally, but his power let him stop any more blood from flowing out and maintain his full strength. He had called on the others for support, but that didn't mean he was going to wait for them to get it together.

Before a moment had passed, before the overturned float had even crashed back down, he was launching his next attack. The flimsy and damaged floorboards of the float snapped and shattered as the green-haired hero burst through the "wall", aiming to surprise Holliday with his assault before the Five's leader had regained his footing. Since Holliday should have been dumped right next to the float, Ardent would have cover from his view until the moment he broke through that cover and appeared in close range. One shoulder was down, and that left one to go. Lunging through the barrier, he immediately spun into a sweeping kick that came for Holliday's offhand-side, fast and forceful enough to turn the man into a wreck that would never pull another trigger in his life.

It was a risky move that involved breaking line of sight to launch a surprise attack. Or at least it would have been. Except that for Ardent, there was no uncertainty about exactly where Holliday had landed. Whether he had tumbled, or landed on his feet, or leapt some distance off the float, or even managed to hang onto the platform when it was turned nearly-vertical, Ardent was going to come directly for him. Without looking, he knew where the villain was, and even which way he was looking and aiming his gun. It was because the blood he had splashed at the cowboy a moment ago, which was now wiped on the villain's face and hand, was still subject to Ardent's power. Like any part of his body, he could psychokinetically move it at will. And as a side effect of that, he could feel its position and movement, which meant that even without being able to see Holliday through the flooring of the float, he could track him down and disarm him for good.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

5th Avenue, New Athens, Castleburg

---

Minutes later, Ardent was in the air.

While he hovered over the parade and waved at the people down below, he cast his gaze over the buildings, looking up and down 5th Avenue and the immediately connecting streets. It was crowded. He could pick out Wireframe from among the pedestrians, and he presumed Bastion was somewhere among them, too, although he didn't know his face. Having opted not to perch on a building, there was no way for Ardent to rely on the support of the part-time hero's shield. It was better to have that protection near the crowd, anyway.

It was a good vantage point, but the villains probably wouldn't be approaching on foot. A car? Ardent descended a little, until he had a view of the sidestreets that let him see the faces of drivers through their windshields.

He heard the gunshot.

Instantly, Ardent whirled around and braced for a hit, his power coursing through his body. There was no impact. He had been hoping to draw some attention in the air and lure out the enemy's first attack. Apparently, someone else had that misfortune instead.

"This is Blast. Don't know if you heard, but they're here and they don't seem to be in the mood to negotiate. Cowboy Bebop is in a particularly feisty mood. I'll try to re-engage him when I get the chance- AGH, SHIT! FUCK!"

Blast. There were worse options for people who could've been shot. At least Holliday hadn't opened the fight by killing a civilian.

The scene of the battle wasn't hard to spot. There was a Wild West themed parade float (In a hero-themed parade?) that was suddenly unleashing a small army of robots, and a certain speedster was zipping around near it, scrambling for cover. Ardent took off, hurtling through the sky over 5th Avenue. He could see his target.

"Hey, Birdboy, could use that weather report at some point. I'm target practice out here."

"Careful," Ardent answered through his own watch, "Might make me rethink who I'm gonna punch when I get there."

As Ardent flew, the situation started to clarify. Lady Blade was inside, somehow. She had gotten past them, to the kid heroes and Wiseman. He felt a twinge of frustration. On the upside, they were holding their own, and Oracle's power had given them another huge advantage in intelligence. Out front, a wave of robots began making for the entrance. Thankfully, the parade crowd seemed to have the good sense to run away at the sight of the things. Ardent still didn't know Wireframe's power, but he trusted her and Bastion to be able to handle that side of the situation. He passed overhead, a blur to the naked eye, weaving between the aerial robots. Even if they fired at him in passing, they posed no threat to him. He wasn't interested.

Ardent was keeping his eyes on the prize. Holliday was standing on the remains of the deconstructed float, preparing another six shots.

The former vigilante banked in midair, curving his approach to come from the direction opposite to Blast, putting the villain between the two heroes. The damage that had clearly been done to Blast, and to the mailbox, wasn't lost on Ardent. He remained keenly aware that some of Holliday's specialized bullets might be packing deadly surprises.

"It's high noon, you old-timey fuck!!"

...But that didn't mean he was going to take a cautious approach.

Holliday had sharp eyes, and presumably drones watching his back for a surprise attack. Given the choice, Ardent preferred to have the sharpshooter look his way, to give Blast and the stranger with him a reprieve. He rocketed through the air at a downward angle, descending faster than any bullet towards Holliday.

Of all the heroes present on New Athens, Blast and Ardent were probably the only two capable of changing direction quickly enough to avoid a bullet after it had been fired. In that sense, Holliday had an unlucky matchup, but they couldn't rely on dodging alone to beat an enemy whose entire schtick was hitting impossible shots.

In Ardent's experience, when it came to long-ranged fighters, whether they used eye lasers, tossed globs of lava, telekinetically hurled cars, or shot plain-old bullets, the core idea was that the best defence was a good offence. This seemed to be applicable for Holliday. His power didn't give him any protection from attacks, so he needed to rely on the fact that either his enemy would get shot and die, or they'd be too busy avoiding his bullets to launch a proper counterattack. It had clearly worked on Blast, who was stuck running for cover instead of closing the distance to take the bastard down. If he waffled about how to avoid taking a little damage, he would never get close enough to strike. Ardent had a different approach.

Even with the warning of a battlecry, Holliday would only have a scant moment to react. Enough time to fire a shot? Possibly. Ardent was ready for that.

A fist flashed out, quick as thunder, driving furiously towards the villain's upper body as Ardent lunged down from above. It was an instinctual, practiced motion that gave no sign of the angle of attack until the moment he entered striking distance. He aimed for the shoulder on the side where Holliday was holding his gun. Even reducing his power to avoid a bloodbath, Ardent's punch carried more than enough force to obliterate bone. Forcing this cowboy to drop his weapon was the first step in crushing him.

Fate/Dark Heritage

First Night

Near the Abandoned Lot

@Letter Bee@Digmata

---

M-Master! Through the mental link, Puss' voice was mirthful, but not mocking. No, the matter was deadly serious. When you said you recognized that man, I never in a thousand years imagined that!

Assassin was still concealed, perched on the convenience store rooftop that overlooked the unfolding situation. There was a lot to consider, and they finally had a sense of which Servants had which goals, but everything else in their mind was currently taking a backseat to the latest news from Oleg-Marie.

Well, you have it on my honour as the Master Cat. Your stars will cross!

As nice as that was, there was still the matter of the Grail War. Puss had some clarity on who was who, and technically they were part of the growing alliance, but it was messy. Their own Master had an alliance with Rider's Master, but the two Servants had yet to meet one another. On the other hand, Rider had made an alliance of his own with both Shielder and, tentatively, Saber. On top of all that, here was this latest woman. At this point, it seemed like Servants were lining up to lend a hand in the quest to bring down the tainted Grail.

Assassin's vantage point had put them opposite to Caster's position, with a good view of Rider's face. Now, they began circling around, still hidden, getting nearer to the pink-haired woman who had finally made a proper appearance.

Well, well. Everyone wants a sardine from the tin, now. Does she want to get rid of the Holy Grail, too? Or is she just trying to avoid being on the receiving end of this alliance's power?

Although Assassin and Saber weren't exactly friends (they had never even properly met!), they had a lot of faith in her sharp eyes and intuition. This latest Servant didn't exactly have the honest and upright vibe of the other three who had gathered in the lot. In fact, Puss had been pretty certain that she had been moving with aggressive intent when they first detected her presence.

I'm getting in position to make a move against her... We'll have to see if she can sell a good case for herself to the others. They told their Master, slinking invisibly up the side of the building that Caster had landed atop.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

「 ARDENT 」

Johnstone Convention Center, New Athens, Castleburg

---

It brought David a tiny bit of joy to see the Director looking so out-of-place and uncomfortable in his tight little suit. He had only met the man earlier that week, so his sense of his personality was limited to a few very irritating interactions, tainted by the regret and humiliation of his career change from vigilante to proper hero. As much as David hadn't been enjoying his time at the festival, it was nice to see that it wasn't all sunshine and roses for Powers, either.

Seems like nobody's immune to the burdens of publicity.

If David's mood had been worse, he might have said that out loud, but the matter of the metal spider had his attention. Finally, it looked like he was going to have something real to do. He was glad he had come, instead of wasting his day floating around town just to spite the Director. If somebody was going to cause trouble here, he was going to thrash them. That was a proper introduction to the city, not showing up just to look pretty at some festival.

There was a whole world full of awesome powers out there, but David had always found super-intelligence to be especially impressive. It was the sort of power that made problems simple just by existing. If a hero was able to take a glance at a busted-up robot and instantly recognize the identity of the inventor and of all the inventor's teammates, that was a hero David could respect.

Hearing Wiseman's advice for how to deal with the situation, David was a little less enthused. It was slightly overcomplicated, in his eyes. Micromanaging, even. He gave a skeptical squint as a copy of the data on the Fiendish Five was transferred to him.

"Their team lineup sucks for this," The former vigilante observed, flicking through holographic images of each of the Five, accompanied by various lines of text about their abilities and known tactics.

"There's no way jelly-boy or pasty-face are getting anywhere near this place without getting clocked as villains, and they're fucked here since there's no water and the crowd's sightlines are everywhere. Their other two fighters are stuck using conventional weapons to attack, so they don't have anything that could destroy the building or wipe out the crowd beyond popping people one-by-one, plus they can't do any real damage to Powers, who they know is gonna be here." His tone wasn't casual. He had to acknowledge how deadly these villains were, but he also couldn't ignore how weird the situation was. "So I guess they're relying on their egghead. He's the wildcard."

Again, intelligence was a super powerful thing. Whether you got it from the Hero Gene or not, David considered it a superpower, and he considered brainy bastards the worst sort of villains by far. He tried to imagine how Gholem could send the whole situation from bad to worse. Drones could drop little smoke bombs everywhere to give Albino some cover. Maybe a big hose-robot could start flooding the convention centre with water for Jellyfish to splash around in. It sounded stupid even in David's head, but who was he to say what this guy could or couldn't invent? Worst and most obvious, the Professor could have just given his teammates a bomb.

David glanced between Wiseman and Oracle. They both seemed to have pretty incredible abilities to gather information, but he wasn't sure who was going to end up being more effective in this situation. "If you figure out where The Nutty Professor is hiding, tell me right away. He spoke to both of them, with a certain edge to his voice that suggested he was very motivated to find that particular villain. "I wanna go shove that laptop somewhere painful."

Regarding the heroes' own team lineup, it seemed that he had been sorted into the 'outdoor mobility' category, along with Blast and the other woman. Wireframe? That sounded pretty familiar, but he had no idea what she could actually do. For his part, Jake seemed plenty eager to come up with some sort of game plan together, asking for David's input.

"Run around really fast." David told him dismissively, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then, he caught himself. He was supposed to be part of a team, now. It was something new. "I mean, don't bother going up high. I can handle that. You're better off going far. Run right around the building, see if the fire escapes are shut properly. Make some wild guesses about where they could be coming from. If you guess wrong, you can just come back here in like, two seconds."

Then, he looked at Wireframe and shrugged. He didn't know her power. "...You blend in really well." He observed. Maybe it was a lucky thing she had come in casual clothes.

With that advice offered, David turned his attention to himself. There was one bit of Wiseman's battle plan from a moment ago that was still on his mind.

"...Doc Holiday can and surely will shoot Ardent out of the sky to make space for Albino to attack on the ground..."

David gave the armoured hero a wry smile. "I'm new in town, so you don't put too much stock in me. I can't blame you." For a moment, his smile widened. Not the fake smile for the crowds, but something with heart and fire behind it. There was some remnant of the brazen Ardent who had taken Boston, and Twitter, by storm. "I'm not dying to gun-guy, or pasty-face, or sword-girl, or any of them. Don't sweat it."

Ardent set his gaze towards the exit from the backstage space."It'd be suspicious if we all started getting real tense and vigilant, huh?" He appeared to be ready, even eager, to head out to search for robots and villains.

"So I'm gonna go say hi to the crowds out front, do some laps around the neighbourhood, and get up nice and high. Good chance I'll see them coming from blocks away. If not, if Billy the Kid really wants to shoot me that badly, he can go ahead and try it. It'll be nice and easy to find him once he takes a shot."

Fate/Dark Heritage

Elsewhere...

---

Although Kyoto was a large city with a population of over a million people, its subway system was quite simple. There were only two lines, Tozai and Karasuma, which crossed one another North of the city's centre. As basic as it was, it was convenient enough to connect through the subway to buses and overland trains, and nearly 400 thousand citizens travelled through the Kyoto underground every weekday.

Squeezing in tight during rush hour, one subway train could hold well over 1000 people at a time. So late in the evening, the train that was running South along the Karasuma line held far fewer. Just then, as it was approaching Kuinabashi station, it was carrying just slightly over 300 people--

--Which was a small mercy.

Because not a single one survived.

The very front of the fiery crash was just barely visible to everyone waiting on the platform at Kuinabashi, as bits of twisted metal slid just shy of the mouth of the tunnel there. Emergency response was immediate. Medical and fire teams were called to the scene. The surrounding stations were evacuated due to risk of smoke inhalation as flames still flickered deep within the tunnel, where the wreckage lay.

While subway trains in Tokyo had begun to see the installation of security cameras, Kyoto was behind in this regard. The stations naturally had CCTV, but the trains themselves were a blind spot. Although people in the city scrambled to learn if their friends and family had been on board the train, it appeared that no-one had managed to get out any final text or video on their phones before their lives had been stolen away.

Because of that, no-one knew the truth. Of the more than 300 mangled bodies that lay in the crashed subway train, not a single one had been alive at the time of the crash. They had been massacred, one by one, in a matter of moments. The driver had been the last to go.

There was no real logic to it, no intention of secrecy. The people who tried to take their phones out had been prioritized, simply because they were trying to brandish something. Even crashing the train hadn't been a true plan. It was an afterthought. Instinct.

After all, the one who had slaughtered those people was--

---

First Night

Kyoto Subway Maintenance Tunnels

---

--A completely mad warrior.

Servants were inherently spiritual beings. Devouring souls was in this Berserker's nature. He knew that he needed magical energy to survive, and to have the strength to kill all the other Servants in the city. He knew he had no Master, no proper source of mana.

And so, he had come to these strange tunnels, found people trapped in a little tube, and fallen upon them like a demon wrapped in iron and shadow. He had cut them down in droves, crushed them with his hands, squeezed the life out of them. By the time he had devoured the souls of the two cars in the back, the rest had known something was wrong. Knowing hadn't changed anything.

His meal finished, he descended deeper. While the emergency operation was being carried out, Rogue Berserker was lurking in the disused and neglected maintenance tunnels of the subway system, far from prying eyes. There was no ley-line or fountain of spiritual energy for him to squat on down here, but the darkness and seclusion let him rest, and await his next move.

Having devoured a subway train full of souls, the Rogue Berserker had sufficient mana to survive for a handful of days. He had sufficient mana to unleash his true power in a few battles. But it wasn't sufficient to satisfy him. Not when he didn't know how many enemies he would have to kill.

For the rest of the month, the Southern end of the Karasuma line would need to be shut down, ending a few stations early while removal of the wreck took place, repairs were made, and blame was assigned. The crash would shake the city in some small way, and subway ridership would surely see a decline for some time.

Yet, people would still come. There were people who needed to ride the subway to reach work. There were people who would work in the tunnels, moving fragments of the destroyed train and cleaning the tunnel. There were people who would try to discover what had truly happened, down in the dark. Inevitably, more souls would come.

I'm waiting.