Fate/Heroes - Chapter 68

A few days went and passed and no movement from the other Faction of Servants occurred in New York or any major city on the east coast. Gray and Caster had created dozens of bounded fields in every city, and any trace of a Servant would’ve been detected by the pair.

The Team had also visited most cities for any trace of those with Command Seals, although Rin was hidden from them by Gray. Zatanna and Dr Fate were both practitioners of magic, so both were sėnsɨtɨvė to any foreign magical powers leaving and entering the city.

The Lord of Order returned to Mount Justice, where he was expecting the Team to give him an update on their trip to Chicago yesterday, any leads or information on Masters or Servants were supposed to be delivered to him, as well as the rest of the League.

Nabu, through the eyes of Giovanni scanned the former base of the Justice League, only to find absolutely no life signs in the entire place. Only a single note left in front of the zeta tube with the image of a little Zatanna with a peace sign could be seen in the corner.

“…. To anyone this may concern, the Team is currently spending some time at Mareena’s house. For an emergency, just call Robin or Kaldur…..”.

Giovanni smiled behind the mask before Nabu took control over his body once more and he zeta tubed back to the Watchtower. No matter where they were in the world, so long as the Team was all together, they would be able to do anything…..

At least, that’s what he’d like to say….

“How boring. Is this all that the mages of today can achieve? I can say with absolute certainty, I’m disappointed”.

The Team all looked with with a cringe as Zatanna’s body hit the ground once more as a beautiful purple haired woman waved her wand around healing all the injuries that she dealt to the now fifteen year old girl. It was Zatanna’s birthday a few days ago, the first one without her father….

The girl gritted her teeth and stood up once more. Her spell-casting speed was much slower than her father’s, given how he had over twenty more years experience on her.

She didn’t think that Caster had much on her considering that the Servant did noting but lounge around all day eating ice cream and sitting in front of the air conditioner or by the poolside. It irked her to no end to see Gray waiting on her every command.

When she saw Gray call her his “goddess”, that was when things got out of hand.

“I don’t give a damn if your a goddess or just a demon, I’ll still beat you”.

The eleven members of the Team as well as Caster were all standing in Gray’s basement. A large room underneath his building, that was created with shikigami and reinforced with Bounded Fields and talismans. Caster even contributed to its making, reassuring to her Master that it was absolutely impossible for anyone to sneak in, puffing out her ċhėst with her hands on her hɨps as she did so.

Zatanna received several worried glances from M’gann and Wally. While most of the others looked on without any form of disapproving or approving gaze, respecting her wishes for more training.

The fifteen year old looked up at the glass box above her, noting Gray standing in the corner with a similar emotionless look on his face. She noted Caster turn and look towards Gray for a moment, before Caster rolled her eyes.

“It was not me who started this affair. It was the girl who dėsɨrėd to fight me”.

Zatanna saw Gray’s brows furrow before Dick spoke towards the Pseudo-Servant in front of him, the magic user in the arena below was unable to hear her teammates words, due to the Bounded Fields Gray placed on the glass box.

“…. You want Caster to keep going? I didn’t pick you for a sadist Dick”.

The first iteration of Robin rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and looked towards Caster waving her wand and creating dozens of runes where the trail passed through. Each rune, although heavily suppressed, had about the power of a hand grenade behind them.

Kaldur next to the protégé of Batman nodded and spoke up,

“We need practice fighting against Servants. If Caster is willing to help us, than we can train with her to at least anticipate how they will react…. and….”.

“And what?”, said Gray.

All eyes of the Team glanced towards Zatanna who was still catching her breath. Despite not being injured, all manners of dust and grime covered her body. Her clothing had been torn and ripped in several places as well.

“She needs this. Not just as a magic user but also as a woman”.

Mareena spoke from across the room. She was sitting next to Cassie and Kara as per usual, one hand clasped around Kara’s as she gave her Atalantean friend a small smile.

Kara looked towards Gray and gave the man a nod, causing the Pseudo-Servant to sigh before shrugging his shoulders.

“If Caster agrees than I can’t stop her. I don’t really want to waste a Command Seal either on forcing her to stop….. just…. don’t make a mess”.

The smiles on the faces of the Team were all the response Gray needed to get as they all exited the glass box and headed down towards the arena where Zatanna was currently standing. Caster raised an eyebrow at her Master before mouthing the word “ice cream” towards him.

Gray smiled a little and nodded at his Servant’s childish actions, although the Queen of Ice and Snow couldn’t bear to deal with the summer heat, opting to spend most of her time avoiding anything above 10 degrees Celsius.

The twenty year old left the basement and by extension the building, to go to the nearest store to buy Scathach-Skadi some ice cream, only to sense something behind him which caused him to frown.

He sent a message to Caster, but told her not to come towards him, as he led his shadow towards a nearby alley. The moment he entered the shadowy part of the city his natural Presence Concealment activated, and he vanished into the environment around him.

A small gasp escaped someone’s lips, and a pair of shoes hitting the ground came towards the Pseudo-Servant as a figure came down from the sky, garbed in a alien looking white and gold armor, with black pauldrons on her shoulders.

Her beautiful orange hair waved down her back as her pretty blue eyes darted around the alleyway. The beautiful woman showed a puzzled expression as she placed the black sword in her hand in the ground, causing it to crack as the tip pierced through the concrete.

“…. Where did he go? Did he spot me? But how could he when I was flying….”.

The beautiful ginger looked around the alleyway, before a gust of wind brushed over her, and the feeling of cold steel pressed up against her throat.

She saw Gray’s hair and eyes turn as white as snow itself, yet the massive black sword contrasted his looks heavily. Much like her own sword and armor.

“Who are you? Why are you following me?”.

The girl didn’t show any fear as Gray pressed Rengoku into her throat even further, as she raised up her hand to reveal a faint red smudge on the back of her hand. A similar smudge was seen on Rin’s hand yesterday, when he “coincidentally” saw her again as she was coming back to her hotel.

Gray, not dropping his guard removed the sword from the redhead’s neck, and watched her take off her helmet as she spoke.

“My name is Bekka, and just over a week ago this mark appeared on my hand. I saw you in Metropolis and followed you back here. I was hoping you could help me get rid of this….”.