Fate/Heroes - Chapter 15

Over the next several days Gray spend all his time stealing from the various crime families and criminal gangs within Gotham City. There was more than his own fair share of blood money circulating throughout Gotham City, and for the right price, anyone would tell anyone anything.

“Thanks, here’s the money I owe you”.

Gray slipped a yellow paper bag towards a homeless fellow who nodded and returned under the cover of his makeshift tent.

The number of homeless people within Gotham City was by no means a small one, and more than once has the criminal activity within Gotham City been witness by these forgotten people.

Luckily, that lack of existence, was of benefit to someone like Gray.

The homeless man, a man in his late thirties was name was Skinny U. He was a broker for information regarding the various underground activities in Gotham City, and constantly moved from location to location to avoid getting himself mixed in with the wrong people.

“I got some more info if you want it Rider. Someone asked me if I could get the details on an armored convoy passing through Gotham tonight. It’s not making a stop in the City, but its close enough that one could hit it with enough time to get clear of the State Police, as well as GCPD”.

Gray, who had only given the alias of Rider to Skinny U, rubbed his chin before asking,

“Whose thinking of targeting it?”.

Skinny U smiled and held out his hand, much to the ire of Gray. He gave the homeless man another hundred dollar bill and the latter smiled before answering.

“Apparently it’s the Penguin’s men. He left Gotham for a brief amount of time and I’ve heard rumors that he’s back in town. But if even I’ve got this information than “he” must already be aware of this”.

Skinny U’s face turned solemn at the mention of “he”.

Within Gotham City, only one man’s name would be outlawed amongst the criminal underbelly that was Gotham’s underworld.

Gray frowned for a moment before shaking his head while standing up.

“I’m not one to underestimate my opponents Skinny U. The Batman has on more than one occasion proved himself to be able to fight against Gods and win. I would be stupid to walk into a fight without knowing my enemies capabilities”.

The twenty year old waved goodbye to his homeless looking informant before putting on his hood and vanishing in a streak of faint green lightning.

After the fight with the Team at the airport outside of Gotham, Rider’s actions had been a lot more covert and efficient when it came to stealing money from his enemies. He utilized Achilles Noble Phantasm [Dromeus Komētēs: Comet Form], on every heist, and gotten in out and out of the criminals faction territories before even a single guard could wake up from the superficial injuries Gray had given them.

Even if he couldn’t run so fast that the kinetic energy generated could open a hole in the space/time continuum, it was still more than fast enough to knock out some guys without them noticing.

His degree of integration with Achilles had grown so strong that he could summon [Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē: Spear-tip of the Star Traversing Skies] without having to use the Class Card, and his physical strength, agility and endurance had increased to superhuman levels.

Although he couldn’t block bullets with his skin like the real Achilles could, Gray wasn’t too far of reaching such a degree of physical resistance.

He stood silently over Gotham City, wearing nothing but black to help him blend in with his surroundings.

Black dress pants which are flexible despite their high class appearance. A white shirt hidden by a black hooded jumper, only the collar and the ends of his shirt were visible to other people. A black overcoat which reached down to his knees, and a single long black scarf to hide his face, the parts the his hood couldn’t.

Needless to say the price tags on all of these pieces of clothing were undoubtedly more than what the previous Gray could ever even hope to afford. And yet he had several copies of the same piece of clothing, and the number of the young cashier that served him in the clothing store, a bonus for some of his “status”.

She was undoubtedly a pretty girl, but wasn’t someone that Gray was looking for.

Through the eyes of his thirteen Servants, he had seen more beautiful women in Archers memories than all the women the original Gray had seen in his first life. Archer’s unofficial Thirteenth Labor was to sleep with over fifty of the daughters of Thespius, King of Thespiae, in a single night.

Even Archer broke his normal silence to tell Gray of his “adventures”.

“I wonder what Archer would think if he saw that Hippolyta was still alive and on Themiscyra today….”, thought Gray with a cheeky expression on his face.

He had never once considered even the notion of trying to return to his former world. Despite the fact that he couldn’t even remember most of it, he was having more fun in this world in the past few weeks than he had in all the memories he could remember.

Someone on the street told him that they would give their liver to be able gain the powers of Wonder Woman or Superman. Gray lost more than half of “himself” for the powers that he had currently. And he hasn’t even used most of the Noble Phantasms belonging to the various Heroic Spirits in his Class Cards.

“Lancer. Did you want to come out an play? I know that Gods still exist in this world. Maybe you can kill some just for old times sake?”.

An expressionless “no” resounded throughout the twenty year olds mind.

He sighed.

Other than Achilles, or Rider rather, none of the other Heroic Spirits ever wanted to “let loose” so to speak, other than Avenger and Berserker but Gray wasn’t that stupid to let either of the two out of their “cages”.

One was a creation of the Gods, meant to restrict the Divine and the other a Demon King.

What could go wrong?

When he tried to test out Saber, the supposed strongest Class, famed for their swordsmanship and peak abilities, the Saber within the Card vehemently refused Gray’s call stating that “unless humanity was in danger of being destroyed, he wouldn’t allow Gray to use him in battle”.

Saber’s Noble Phantasm was “the embodiment of human nature”. I cut apart the blood red sky of the Western Continent and revealed the formerly blue sky hidden behind it. It was a sword that “consumed planets”, and could even cut the Ultimate Ones in half.

Gray didn’t know much about the history of Saber, mainly because it hadn’t happened yet, however the dream cycle that came after he installed the Servant for the first time, shook the Master to his very core.

A formerly azure sky turned crimson with the blood of Type Pluto. The majority of the human race either evolved or adapted, losing their humanity in the process. A-Rays and Ether Liners were the two dominant species on the planet. The latter evolving, taking in other races DNA to allow their own to survive in such an inhospitable environment, while the latter used machines and technology to ensure their survival.

Saber was an Ether Liner. The strongest Ether Liner.

Memories him him clashing with the Ultimate Ones were images straight out of comic books and manga, yet were completely clear within Gray’s mind.

Thunder gathered over the tallest tower in Gotham City. Streaks of arcing blue light illuminated the dark stormy skies above Gray, and the twenty year old only moved his scarf to block the water from reaching where the hood didn’t.

He took a single step of the tower and fell straight off the building, images of Saber soaring through the skies waving his massive kilometer tall sword at the alien monstrosities known as “Aristoteles” flowed into him, and memories of a single scruffy looking human wielding a strange black gun came to mind as well.

Saber smiled through Gray’s mouth.

He supposed it was time to show the world the power of the Ether Liners.

Over the sound of crackling thunder, a single voice echoed throughout Gotham City.

“Install Saber!”.