2: Elevator Problems

Both Shirou and March are currently walking towards the elevator that is supposed to take them to the master control zone. On the way, they talked a little and encountered 2 or 3 Voidrangers to which they were able to deal with efficiently.

Stopping in front of the elevator, March approaches the orange panel and tries to open the lift doors. Shirou watches in slight amusement from seeing her pout as she struggles. After a few more clicks and taps on the screen, her arm falls to her sides and looks up, groaning in displeasure.

"I'm guessing it's not working huh?" Shirou asks with a smile.

"Yeah it's not... But it wasn't me! The Antimatter Legion must've broken it!" March says abruptly, trying to defend herself.

There wasn't a need for her to say that as Shirou knows she didn't break it. But judging by her reactions, a lot of things must have gone wrong because of the girl.

Chuckling, Shirou speaks: "I didn't say it was you March. Here let me take a look at it."

Shirou walks over to the panel and places his hand over it. His hands started to light up as green circuits appeared on his skin causing March to gasp slightly as she watches.

She wondered if he was an android or something...

"Nah~" March says to herself.

Shirou closes his eyes, focusing as he starts to gather information on the circuitry and if there internal issues. That all came to a halt as Shirou's eyes began to twitch and sweat was forming on his forehead. Removing his hand with the circuits dissipating, he gives a sad smile as he turns to March.

"Sorry, the technology here is next level for me. And when I tried to get an understanding of the problem, I got lead back to ship's entire infrastructure."

"Oh, that's okay. At least you tried." March's spirits that were raised by Shirou's attempt had now deflated. "Back to square one I guess."

"Things were much easier when I used to fix heaters." Shirou says as he reminisces the days his friend Issei.

Shirou's body suddenly freezes as he looks to see March scratching her head in thought as she isn't sure what to do now. Seeing her not pay attention to his words, Shirou sighed in relief as she didn't notice his blunder.

"What should we do? *sigh* Things would be so much easier if Dan Heng was here. He's like a walking encyclopedia... He knows a ton of complicated stuff - maybe even elevator repair." March said in dismay as she was lost in thought and didn't notice Dan Heng was approaching them.

"Is that so?" Shirou smile to Dan Heng who nods back and announces himself to March;

"I don't know that one."

"Whoa?! Why are you here?!" March exclaims in surprise. "...And how did you get here before us?"

"I took another route to the upper level, and I saw you guys from up there." Dan Heng answers.

"So did you find Arlan?" Shirou asks, noticing Dan Heng was alone.

"I did, he's in the control room."

Dan Heng briefly looks towards the floor above them, specifically looking towards a room. Shirou presumes Arlan is up there as he could make out a figure sitting inside.

"Why do I sense a but?" March says with her eyes narrowed.

"He's been injured, both his arm and leg." Dan Heng informs them.

"How bad is it?" Shirou asks in concern.

"Fortunately, it's not fatal." Dan Heng says to which Shirou nods.

"Do you think he'd know what to do about this elevator?" March asks pointing behind her.

"I suppose as the head of the Security Department, he should know."

"Then let's go talk to him!" March says with a smile as she begins to walk away and towards the control room with a little skip in her step.

Shirou chuckles at her attitude and at the restless sigh Dan Heng gave. The two males also started walking, making sure to keep up with March. As they walked up some force field kind of slope (Shirou didn't know what to make of it), they ran into three members of the Antimatter Legion.

"What are those three?" Shirou asks as he traces Kanshou & Bakuya.

"Those are Baryons, their fast in general movement but slow with their attacks." Dan Heng answers as he rushes at one of them and stabs it three times in a row, killing it in an instant.

March then creates an arrow and shoots it into the air above the other two Baryon. Once it reaches above the targets, it breaks into multiple arrows and rains down on the Baryons, encasing them in ice.

(GIF)

Shirou takes the opportunity and slashes one in half and stabs the other, effectively killing them.

Nodding in approval, March says: "You know, the three of us make a good team. We need to come up with a nickname... something like the Express's Trio~!"

"But Shirou isn't even with the Astral Express." Dan Heng shakes his head, immediately disapproving of the idea in being called the 'Express's Trio.'

"Ah. Well, I was kind of hoping to join you guys - I mean if you guys don't mind." Shirou says, nervous of how they'd react to a stranger joining them.

He had been thinking of this for a while now ever since he met them and March mentioned they're a group of heroes. While his path is to become one himself, that doesn't mean he has to do it alone. Not the same way his future self did by abandoning his loved ones. Especially in a world with no kind of support for him, being apart of the Astral Express can prove beneficial for him to start his journey.

"Of course not! The more the merrier~" March smiles at Shirou, glad to be making another friend.

"While it's not my decision, I have no problem. Plus, with you joining, it might relieve me some of my burden." Dan Heng says, referring to the energetic girl.

"Hm? What burden?" March tilts her head in confusion as she isn't sure what could trouble him.

To the girl, their job is fairly easy: travel to new places, meet exciting people and save everyone! Simple as that!

"No comment." Dan Heng says as he turns around and continues walking.

"No comment... Can you even say that?" March asks Shirou who just shrugs with a smile.

Suddenly, that same smile disappeared in an instant as if it was never there, before jumping in front of March, catching the girl by surprise by his sudden action. Holding his twin swords in reverse, he blocks a beam of energy that was originally aimed at the quirky girl.

(GIF)

Once the attacked stopped, he lowers his blades, watching as Dan Heng takes over and charges at the monster with his spear, doing 10 consecutive stabs and strikes.

"Phew~ That was close." March says, letting out a breath she was holding the moment Shirou jumped in front of her.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings March. You let yourself get distracted." Dan Heng says as he walks to the two after killing the Voidranger: Distorter.

"Don't worry, I had that all under control. I just made myself look like I was open..." March clearly lies as she  chuckles nervously. Ignoring Dan Heng's sigh, she turns to Shirou. "Anyway, thanks for the save~"

"It wasn't a big deal." Shirou smile as his swords dissipates.

The three continued their walk to the control room and once they entered, their attention is focused on a male sitting down. He has white hair with black tips, and a scar just between his eyes that is hidden by his hair. Seeing the trio enter, he sits up enduring the pain as he looks to them.

"Hey... you're all together?" Arlan addresses them.

"Yeah, we're from the Astral Express~" March introduces themselves.

"Hey, you must be Arlan, right? I'm Shirou. How you holding up?" Shirou walks forward and holds out his hand.

"I'll manage for now." Arlan shakes Shirou's outstretched hand. "Did Madam Herta perhaps send you all to help?"

"Truth be told, we're only her by coincidence. We came to deliver the rare relic Herta trusted us to find... We didn't expect to arrive during an invasion. If we had, we would've been more prepared." Dan Heng answers Arlan.

"Why is the Antimatter Legion targeting you guys? It seems they just ignored the surface of the planet and came straight to the space station." March questions, tilting her head in thought.

"Is there perhaps some sort of artifact, relic or anything specific that could have caught the attention of the Antimatter Legion?" Shirou also questions.

The auburn haired teen begins to think of the many reasons for the cause of this invasion. If it was simply to steal something, one wouldn't have arranged an entire invasion but instead sent a professional to attain it for them. Meaning whatever this Herta has on the ship isn't just some weapon but one that will either cause chaos or defy the laws of nature. Or perhaps the Antimatter Legion may not be after an object, but a person they want to kidnap or kill. If this Herta owns this entire space station, she must be a renowned figure, making her a possible target.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. The Antimatter Legion's timing was impeccable - Arriving almost right after the security system suddenly failed."

"Meaning this whole situation had been planned out." Dan Heng concludes from Arlan's words.

"Lady... Lead Researcher Asta immediately began to organize the evacuation. I was supposed to cover everyone as they evacuated, but... I didn't expect to end up failing in this task." Arlan says with a frown on his face as he looks down, feeling disappointed and weak.

"You're wrong." Shirou says straight away, dismissing Arlan's words, causing said boy to look up. "From what I was able to gather, you stayed back and sacrificed yourself for the safety of others. You almost lost a limb and yet you still want to do more and help however you can. Whether it be for the selfish intent to make yourself look good or the selfless intent in wanting to help those in need, you're a hero Arlan. You've done the best you could, and everyone is safe thanks to you. You should take pride in that."

Arlan's mouth was agape as he processed Shirou's words. March, once again, couldn't help but stare at the magus in pure awe as she listened to his words of encouragement, noting how soft, gentle and kind they were. While Dan Heng nodded his head in approval once Shirou was done. The black haired male couldn't help but feel a new found respect for his new acquaintance. He knew from the beginning that this Shirou Emiya was a good man.

Arlan felt nothing but happiness to hear someone say that and a new feeling, one he's never felt before, appeared within him. It was the feeling of being acknowledged for his courageous and selfless deed.

"Shirou is right, there isn't a need to be too hard on yourself. Your leg and dominant hand were injured. it was a wise decision to hide here and avoid a head-on encounter with the Legion." Dang Heng adds on.

"Yeah! Most of the staff have been evacuated safely thanks to you. You've done more than what any ordinary person could." March smile at him.

Arlan smile gratefully as he takes in their words: "Thank you..."

But what Arlan didn't know was that even though Shirou Emiya said those words. and while the teen meant it, he was still being his usual, hypocritical self.

"Arlan, we wanted to know if you had a way to get the elevator to work?" Shirou asks as he breaks the five second silence.

"The both of us were trying to get the elevator to work as our main priority is to return to the master control zone and plan a counterattack!" March says.

"I see... Well, after the evacuation was complete, the elevators were all shut down to keep the Legion away from the master control zone. However, we should be able to turn it on with the encryption key that you should have received from Lady Asta, seeing as she sent you to look for me - That is assuming she gave it to you?" Arlan asks, looking to the three for confirmation.

"Oh, right, she did give me some sort of card..." March says as she thinks to herself while placing her hand on her chin.

"...March..." Dan Heng says as he look to her.

"But where did I put it..." March mutters, to which everyone present was able to hear, and she immediately begins to look through her pockets frantically.

"You didn't happen to have lost it March, did you?" Shirou asks.

"No no, it's somewh - Ah! Here it is!" March exclaims as she hold out the card, causing the three males to sigh in relief.

"Next time, one of us should hold onto the important necessities." Dan Heng says as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Teehee~" March knocks her head and sticks her tongue out with one eye closed.

Taking the card from March, Arlan still sitting on the chair, rolls to a console to use the encryption key. Once he activated the elevator, he turns to the three behind him, mentioning that he only activated it on the highest floor.

"I mustn't give the Legion any chance to reach the master control zone by the elevator. I must ensure

the safety of the station's staff."

"That's more than enough." Dan Heng nods.

"Sorry that I'm troubling you all to take a detour."

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" March asks with a confused and worried expression.

"My leg is injured. I'd only slow you down. I'll stay here and shut down the elevator once you've made it to the master control zone."

"You won't slow us down. And you should be able to shut down the elevators from the master control zone right?" Dan Heng says, shooting down Arlan's choice to stay back.

"Agreed. Shirou and I made it here safely, and now we've also got Dan Heng. We're more than enough to protect you~" March says, convincing Arlan to come with them.

"They're right. It's not too much trouble, nor will you slow us down." Shirou agrees with March and Dan Heng as he bends down with his back to Arlan. "Hop on, it'll be easier for you to come with us if I carry you."

"Are you sure?" Arlan asks, hesitant to go with them, with the worry of holding them back.

"We wouldn't be saying this if we weren't sure, now would we?" Shirou says as he looks over his shoulder to Arlan with a smile.

"Aren't you a nice kid!" March teases Shirou while Arlan gets on him.

"Aren't we like the same age?" Shirou asks in confusion, to which March giggles.

"...Thank you." Arlan thanks the three as Shirou stands up.

"Now all you two have to do is follow us and keep yourself alive, while me and Dan Heng deal with the Antimatter Legion~" March says as the four leave the control room.

Moving forward, they all made their way upstairs to the highest floor to reach the elevator. On the way, they had encountered a few members of the Antimatter Legion to which both March and Dan Heng were able to deal with. Shirou noticed they were experienced in combat, and had their own specific abilities.

As he watched the two fight, Shirou analysed their fighting pattern and their capabilities. He was most certainly impressed due their attacks being on the level of Noble Phantasms.

Dan Heng seems to use a wind element when attacking with his spear. More specifically, the spear user's entire fighting style revolves around his mastery of wind manipulation. With a single fluid motion, he can channel gusts of wind through his spear, creating a whirlwind of lethal strikes. Dan Heng's attacks are lightning-fast, guided by the unpredictable currents that he controls. Shirou watches as the black haired male effortlessly maneuvers around the Voidrangers, striking with precision and leaving them disoriented. With each hit, the power and precision of his attacks increase.

Turning his head to March, he watches as she stays back and provides support from behind. Shirou can tell she has remarkable accuracy that allows her to hit her targets with precision. Watching the pink haired female draw back her bowstring, an arrow made of ice appears. Or crystal, as March insists it's not ice. Once released, the arrow soars through the air, and upon impact with a Baryon, the ice attribute contained within it bursts forth, enveloping the enemy in a cocoon of ice. Their movements instantly come to a freezing halt, rendering them immobilized and vulnerable, to which Dan Heng takes advantage of.

Continuing their run to the elevator, the four reached the top floor with no troubles except for the few goons they dealt with on the way. Seeing the elevator not even 15 feet away from them, they slow down and catch their breath. They're so close to the master control zone...

"Is that it? We've reached the elevator already? That wasn't too many monsters~" That is until March jinxed the group. "Oops, I probably shouldn't have said that... Might bring bad luck."

"You've grown March." Dan Heng says as he sighs for the fifth time.

"Wouldn't be surprised with my E-rank luck." Shirou says as everyone looks at him in wonder.

Dan Heng immediately jumped in front of everyone as he brings out his spear and blocks a spiralling arrow in blue and red coming towards them. Deflecting the arrow, which wizzes past Shirou's head, Dan Heng blocks a... hoof coming down on him with his arm. Jumping back, the male grits his teeth as everyone looks at the attacker.

It was a Voidranger: Trampler and a couple of Reavers standing behind it.

"I'll take on the Trampler." Dan Heng says

Nodding her head, March immediately starts shooting arrows at the Reavers, supporting Dan Heng by splitting them up from the Trampler. Setting down Arlan, Shirou turns to him.

"Will you be okay if I help them out?" Shirou asks.

"You don't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself." Arlan says, encouraging Shirou to go help out the other two.

Nodding his head, Shirou runs forward to join the two. Seeing a Reaver approaching him at a fast pace and spinning in 360, Shirou immediately activates his magic circuits as they hum to life.

"𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗢𝗡!"

(GIF)

The Magus and Reaver clash with one another, before Shirou sends him flying back by the force of his attack. Getting into Archer's stance, he watches as the Reaver gets back up and runs at the human once again. They exchange blows as Shirou directs the goons' attack to the ground and remembering what his servant once did, he reinforces his leg and stomps down onto the Reaver's arm, embedding it into the ground. This caused the Reaver to fall to its knees as it struggles to get its arm out of the ground. Shirou used this chance cleave off the monster's head with Bakuya.

Looking back at the others to see how they're doing, he watches as March rolls out of the way from a Reaver and kicks it's feet, causing it to fall over. Standing over it, she winks and waves bye, before holding out her bow and shoots an arrow on the Reaver's face.

Looking to see how Dan Heng is faring with the Trampler, he watches as the tall male jumps out of the way from an attack the Trampler made appear above him.

(GIF)

Dodging to the left, Shirou avoids an attack from another Reaver. He begins attacking it, this time going more on the offensive as he slams down his swords onto the Reaver, causing it to block over its head. Using that to his advantage, Shirou jumps over the Reaver and spins in the air to gather momentum into his attack, slashing the Reaver in half with all his strength.

(GIF)

Feeling the sense of a massive build up of energy, he turns to see the Trampler preparing an arrow that is aimed towards Dan Heng. Noticing the black haired male is distracted by 2 Reavers, and March is dealing with another, he realises that they're trying to buy time for the Trampler to prepare its attack.

Throwing his pair of swords at the Reaver that March was dealing with, it's arm was cut off as it jumped away. Catching the twin swords as they spun back to him like a boomerang, he runs to March, who's stares at him in confusion.

"March, you need to freeze that thing before it launches its attack. I'll deal with this one." Noticing what Shirou was talking about, she nods as she runs to the Trampler.

"𝗚𝗢𝗧𝗧𝗔 𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗦."

March stands with her left side facing the Trampler, her bow starts to glow with a bright blue and pink outline as a mixture of pink, blue and purple aura starts to swirl around the female with pink and blue petals. The atmosphere around her starts to get cold as she bends her knees, jumping up and backflipping into the air.

"𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞 𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗪𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘!"

(GIF)

Mid jump, March creates an arrow, but this specific one was different from the others. It was consistently glowing with a mixture of the three colours, the same as the aura that was surrounding her. Drawing back the string and holding it tight, she aims before releasing it, creating a mild shockwave in the air. As the arrow sparkles while dashing through the air, it breaks into multiple ice figurines and numerous arrows that resembles glow sticks, following behind in different colours.

"𝗛𝗬𝗔!"

(GIF)

Watching it all rain down on the Trampler, it couldn't retaliate or even block as it was preoccupied with charging its attack, which was unfinished. Once March's attack stop and the dust from it clears, all that's left is the Trampler covered in ice and frozen. While it's unable to move, and it won't hold for long, Shirou decides to take advantage of this.

Throwing Kanshou and Bakuya at the frozen Trampler, the swords simply bounced off of it. However, that doesn't stop Shirou as he creates another pair and does the same thing again.

"Uhhhh..." March said as she, Dan Heng and Arlan watched from the sideline.

Once the second pair had bounced off, it joined the first two in the air. All for blades spinning next to each other in the shape of a square due to their magnetic properties. These four swords start to spin even faster, resembling the speed of a helicopter's rotor blades.

(GIF)

The moment it touches the Trampler, it explodes on impact. A smoke cloud appears from the explosion as everyone covers their mouth.

"So that's what he meant to do~" March says in realisation.

"Tch." Hearing Shirou click his tongue in disappointment as he returns next to them, they all see the Trampler on its knees barely able to stand up. It was covered in burnt marks everywhere from Shirou's attack.

As Shirou was about to go and finish it off, a hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. Looking at Dan Heng, Shirou immediately understood that the spear user wanted to be the one to finish off the Trampler. Nodding his head, Shirou stands back with March and Arlan as they all watch.

"𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛..."

Dan Heng holds his spear horizontally and closes his eyes, focusing on gathering his power. The yinyang ball in his spear shines slightly as wind starts to gather around it. If one looks closely, they can see a ring of yellow energy forming around it as well.

"...𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧."

The wind starts to pick up as it becomes visible around the male. Dark green energy swirled around him as he jumps into the air. Shirou and Arlan watch Dan Heng with anticipation to see what he's about to pull, except for March as she smiles in excitement, indicating she's seen this more than once.

"𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗬..."

Diving down towards the trampler while it's disoriented, a yellow aura begins to form around the spear. However, that yellow aura wasn't wild or frantic, instead it gave a calm and peaceful feeling as it flowed around the weapon. Stable and even soothing. As Dan Heng approaches the Trampler, he became faster and the spear became sharper.

"...𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗔 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡!"

Stabbing his opponent, a bright flash appeared as everyone looked to see a gaping hole on the side of the Trampler. Jumping back, Dan Heng looks to see the monster stumble on its feet. Falling to its knees, it lets out a screech, crying out in anguish before falling down to the ground, dead.

As everyone sighed in relief that they were able to deal with the Trampler, unfortunately things weren't that easy for them. In that moment, around 10 Distorters appeared, flying around the group of three, holding out their hands and charging up their attacks.

"Damn it." Shirou curses.

4223 Words.

A/N:

Second chapter is here. Put a lot of thought in how to make the fighting scene. Changed up some of the speech a bit and am gonna make scenes more realistic.

For example, in the game Arlan wasn't sitting on a chair, but I made it so he is as he was injured.

I also added gifs to basically make sense of the scene. But it might not be consistent.

Don't worry, in the future Shirou will have more screen time with his abilities in the future.

I also tried to make Dan Heng and March's ultimates sound cool instead of writing something like: "jump and stab" or "jump and shoot little ice figurines."

I hope you guys are liking it so far.