Wizards, and Aliens, and Faeries Oh My! [Dresden Files/Sekirei xover]

[Vanathor]

Updated with a link to the fic itself on fanfiction.net, this time with MAJOR improvements, now that I have finished with making the edits suggested from my primary beta.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7249283/1/

[ItsaRandomUsername]

MADNESS

[lethum]

No update? I'm sad...but glad to read this again.

[Vanathor]

Soon...soon I promise

[B.B. Rain]

Once again:

You monster.

Seriously, Harry and Matsu?

The walking EMP and the Technophile-path?

Still interested in more, even if I feel the base premise is terribly, terribly cruel.

Oh, yeah: I'm L. Ravensky on FF.net, it's why I'm saying 'again.'

[Vanathor]

Don't worry. He will have Karasuba to balance it out for good measure.

And thats not too much of a spoiler given it is directly in the next chapter.

[Vanathor]

Here is the first scene of the second chapter I just finished. At just over 3K words its a bit of a doozy so I hope it was worth the wait. Expect me to periodically post more of these up until I am done with the chapter itself.
-----------------------------

Somewhere along the line, I must have pissed off a being so obscenely powerful that it’d make even Mab pale in comparison.*There is no way that something as fickle as chance, karma, or destiny or a dozen of other things could be responsible for all of the bad situations I have gotten into over the past decade or so.

Situations just like the one I have found myself in right now.*

The three of us just stood there for a few seconds not moving, not breathing, not doing anything at all. Not wanting to things to get any more awkward then they already were, chose to break the silence. “I’m your ‘what’ now?” I asked, confused.

For some reason the translation spell was not providing me with an english equivalent of the word. Either Mab somehow flubbed the enchantment when she was putting it together (doubtful), or it had no counterpart that my mind could comprehend.

I was not sure how I felt about this; even with some of the slang terms I heard used in the background had translations. Terms that were not a part of any formal dictionary that Mab would have used to create the spell.

That meant it most likely operated on some metaphysical level of communication, rather then a dictionary in my head that it consulted. For something on that level to not be able to work sent a shiver down the back of neck. For it to not be able to function, meant that the term was wholly unknown to humanity to such a degree that my mind was incapable of fully processing it in whole.

The word was so alien, so foreign, so beyond my perspective that I felt an ancient terror from my youth start to creep up on me as I made the connection in a burst of insight. If my suspicions were correct, and I would put one of Mac’s brews on the line that I was dealing with... Something in my mind breathed the word Outsider. All the hairs on my body stood at attention at the implication of that one word.

Tentacled abominations from beyond the Outer Gates at best, lovecraftian horrors that live for nothing more then destruction of the universe. Beings of such immense power, whose nature is so antithetical to our plain of reality there mere presence has a tendency to cause it to warp reality perverting the natural order of the world. As bad news as you can get, given they are immune to just about anything humanity can throw at them.

Carefully I placed my empty hand in the pocket of my duster, feeling the reassuring cold handle of my revolver, while simultaneously drawing in as much Power as I could handle. The air around me began to feel ionized from the amount of energy I held ready to release with a word of quasi-latin. If these ‘girls’ were Outsiders or something similar then my gun would do little more then annoy them. But it would buy enough time to pull something a tad more potent together. It would be enough. It had to be.

“Ashikabi” Matsu repeated, shaking her head vigorously, her cheeks flushed cherry red to the point her hair almost to the point they matched.

Then out of nowhere she lurched forward tackle-hugging me to the ground, grinding her rather, ahem, pleasant assets into my palms and crotch nuzzling of all things her cheeks against mine not unlike a cat, the former sending my staff clattering to the ground along with me, and my hand loose from my pocket.

In wake of this rather unexpected turn of events I was a deer caught in headlights frozen and immobile. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bob looking in through Mister smug as I have ever seen him.

The bastard.

The power I had called up moments before fizzled out with my lapse in concentration and grounded out into the earth beneath us. While harry junior might be enjoying the treatment he did not get a say in anything.

Her pupils dilated, and her eyelids half-closed she leaned forward, placing her hands on my stomach letting her weight rest on my hips as she straddled me. Arching her back forward, she lightly traced circles on my chest rubbing up and down without a care. Her lips pursed, and her eyes shut she sought mine out.

Grabbing Matsu as securely as I could short of accidentally hurting her, I tried to hoist her to her feet and get her off me, but she struggled and fidgeted the entire time perfectly content with the situation puckering her perfectly formed lips trying to lay big one on me. For several seconds we wrestled, but even with my best efforts she was like an anaconda finding a new hold on my body every time I thought I had her.

Just as she was so close to kissing me that her mouth was centimeters away from mine, and I could feel her hot breath on my skin I saw Karasuba move. One second she was watching with interest that odd half-smile of hers on her face, not helping but not interfering with Matsu's onslaught, the next she was yanking her off me in a literal blink of the eye and back several yards away near the side of the mall hallway restraining her.

In my time I have seen things so fast that they could keep up with a speeding car with ease, but this gray haired lass was on a whole other level. She did not even leave an after-image or create a blur. Just there one second, here the next. Worse yet she was not breathing hard in the least, the action was so effortless she seemed like she could pull the same a thousand times over and still breeze through a marathon.

When I first saw her, Karasuba set off my danger sense for reasons I was unsure of at the time. Reason now found and acknowledged. While she was clearly Dangerous with a capital "D", she was not being hostile towards me, at least for the moment. Maybe their was a chance everyone could walk away without one of us maimed if I played my cards right.

Grabbing my staff from the floor I scrambled to get up now I was free from Matsu's amorous attention I carefully looked at the pair and extended my sixth sense towards them. While it was nowhere near as accurate as the Sight it did not come with the same side-effect of your sanity being ripped from your mind if looked at something nasty. Maybe if I could get a read on them it could give me a clue as to what they were and if I needed to get the hell out of dodge.

The first one, Matsu, was odd. Her aura was... orderly but somehow artificial. She read of straight lines, patterns, numbers, analysis, the same feeling I got the first time I watched the Matrix or read an issue of Popular Mechanics. It 'spoke' of the future, of progress, of dominion over the natural world by the power of innovation. If I was unsure whether these two were human or not, this wiped away any remaining doubts I had.

Karasuba... she reeked of blood, conflict, and of the battlefield. If death ever manifested itself physically beyond the stereotype of old-scythe-and-bones Karasuba would be a great candidate for the role. Her essence was overpoweringly sweet not quite the rotting of the dead but close, with a heavy metallic tint counterbalancing the sweet with rusting iron. She was a goddess of war and bloodshed reveling in the carnage every drop of crimson a sacrifice to her name.

Just tasting her aura, not even looking upon her with my Sight made me shudder and my hands start to shake. Reflexively I pulled back my sense and steeled myself forcing my involuntary reaction to Karasuba's aura down. Biting down the terror I closed my eyes for a second, took long even breaths and once I was sure I was not going to piss myself, I opened my eyes.

Matsu for the moment at least had gone slack in Karasuba's grip, no longer fighting against the gray haired killer. "If I let you go" Karasuba asked her "will you try and jump his bones again?"

The pony-tailed girl tilted her head, considering the question. "Mhm. Probably not Kara-tan. I just saw him and I...I lost control. I mean I knew reacting could be intense, MBI has done more then a small amount of research on the topic, but I was not expecting it to be like THAT. It won't happen again. I promise."

Turning to face me, having been released by her friend Matsu bowed her head lightly in apology her face blushing red once more, this time with embarrassment. "I'm sorry about earlier...."

"Harry" I said filling in the blank. "Harry Dresden." By all rights I should be running away given what I learned with just a cursory scan things were not dire quite yet. For one thing Mouse was so much as making a peep so it was unlikely I was going to get my head torn off this second, and even if Karasuba was scary as hell Matsu did not give off the same vibe.

That combined with them not putting off the same inherent wrongness I've felt from Outsiders in the past meant that at the very least my initial assumption was off base. Without knowing more my best bet was to play this out and see where it lead.

Pushing her glasses up in a gesture of habit she chuckled nervously. "Right Harry-san. Nice to meet you I'm Matsu, and I am really really sorry about.." She motioned awkwardly in a circle before reaching down to smooth away nonexistent wrinkles in her top.

"So what exactly was that about? I mean it's not that I object to being seduced by a beautiful woman but could you give me some warning next time please?" I asked dryly, only half-joking. Maybe I was being a tad bitter about my sex life, but honestly I could barely remember the last time I've been with a woman.

Matsu nodded, her expression dead serious. "Will do."

The hell.

"And," she continued "I can't really tell you, its classified."

I quirked an eyebrow and folded my arms. "Oh really, this is the first time I've heard that one."

"No really" she insisted earnestly "I cannot tell you, it's classified." She bit her lip in frustration, running her fingers through her auburn locks.

"Okay I'll bite. Why is the reason you deciding to dry hump me is classified?"

"She can't answer that either." Karasuba cut in before Matsu could reply. "All either she or I can say is that we work for a pharmaceutical company called MBI maybe you've heard of it, and the answer to that question is related to trade secrets we cannot release without authorization. But if you come with us to headquarters we can see if we can get one of the higher ups okay."

I have heard of MBI before, they are a huge technology conglomerate that has taken the business world by storm in the last few years, and calling them a simple pharmaceutical company is like calling the Titanic 'just' a boat. They had their fingers in every pie imaginable, you could not walk five paces in a Walmart without finding at least one product with the small silver MBI logo stamped on the bottom.

Supposedly they had been in the middle of a federal anti-trust law violation case last year, but the investigation got killed and nothing more was heard of it in the news since. To shut down something on the federal level took influence comparable to Marcone's organization and any legitimate company with that kind pull had to have its fair share of skeletons.

I did not like the implications of MBI being involved in something supernatural. One major mortal organization having connection to my side of things was enough. The last thing anyone needed was a second John Marcone.

I shook my head in a negative. I needed to find a place to set up shop, and make a call to Edinburgh ASAP so that stay of execution order on my head did not fall and Morgan or whoever they sent did not try and have their vorpal sword go snicker-snack.

Karasuba sighed. "I tried to do this the friendly way, who says I cannot be nice. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way; your choice. Regardless you are coming with us so lets not make this a pain in the ass for both of us okay?"

I felt my lip curl into a sneer and my chin jut out. "I'd like to see you try." Regardless of whatever she could do, I do not take bullies well.

"You're not going to hurt him Kara-tan. You might be my friend but he is my Ashikabi and I won't let you hurt him." Matsu said as firmly as I have ever heard anyone say anything.

Distantly like an echo of an echo I could hear Mouse begin to growl warning. I glanced to look at him for a second, and he was not growling at either Karasuba or Matsu. Instead he was facing out toward one of the mall exits. Whatever it was, he smelled trouble. As if this cluster-fuck was not enough deal with already.

Great.

The door to our right busted off its hinges and slammed into a glass display, and with a thundering bellow a swarm of eight feet tall red one-eyed monsters ( cyclopsi?) rushed in from there and a half dozen other places, each built like a tank and carrying some sort of giant wooden club the size of a refrigerator. A tetsubo my mind registered, courtesy of Mab's enchantment.

Around us the previously amiable pedestrians panicked running every which like chickens with there heads cut off in the chaos.

Snapping toward Karasuba and Matsu again I thumbed towards the monsters. "You know these losers?" I asked, as I reached for my gun and pulled it out, cocking the hammer aiming at the closest blue man group knock-off reject and squeezed the trigger.

Matsu's eyes widened as the creature fell down to its knees in raw agony from being blasted in its center of mass; whether that was from the gun in a country notorious for its strict firearm control laws, or the appearance of something out of a b-rate horror flick I could not say.

At the sight of the entry wound, it burst into a blue-green flame. Huh. It was weak to cold iron. I was here not five minutes and it looks like I had already found Mab's rebellious Wyld Fae. That was a nice start. At this rate I might not even need to get a hotel.

"Never seen them before." Karasuba said, her tone almost gleeful, a smile on her face as she gazed towards the wyld fae malevolently. "But I may have to let you off the hook Mr.Dresden."

"Why's that, you figure" I asked sarcastically, as I walked towards the wounded faery and executed it with a shot to the brain putting it out of its misery.

Karasuba ignored my jibe and reached towards her waist, grasping for something that was not present. "Well thats no good." She muttered, like someone rained all over her parade. "Of all the days to leave my sword at home."

At the mention of sword an idea flashed through my head and I immediately put it out of mind. I DID have a sword, a rather good one at that she could use. But she obviously was not the right sort of wielder for the Sword of Faith.

And yet this was a situation where its purpose could be fulfilled, and she was obviously in the know to some degree. She had to be, given that blatant supernatural speed she showed off earlier. I bit down, weighing the situation over in my mind.

With this many mooks, and only five more rounds in the gun, and all of these people danger I knew I would not be able to live with myself if I knew I could have made a difference but made a bad call. Then the words from Shiro's letter flashed before my eyes. 'I was the Custodian. I would know who to give the blade too'.

Well here were people in need and I could not stand by idle. I came to a decision. "I have a sword you can use, but I need a promise first. You will only use it to help people, and you will give it back to me when we're through this mess."

The silver haired swordswoman looked at me in renewed interest. "You have a sword I can use, and all I need to do is make a promise?"

I just looked at her expressionless, my face hard as stone. "It's an important one, one you need to keep. You break it and I'll be the least of problems." Chances were the Almighty did not look kindly at people who did not play nice with his toys.

"Fine. I promise to restrain myself to only helping people with your sword, and I'll give it back when I'm done with it."

Taking my duffle back off the floor to where it was knocked off, I hurriedly unzipped it and pulled Fidellachius out of the bag and tossed it to Karasuba, still in its sheath who caught with a lazy motion of the air.

"Ooh. Its even a katana, I'm surprised." Holding the sword's handle and sheath formally she withdrew the blade an inch taking a careful look at the quality of the steel. It shimmered with a white light that to any but those aware of the blade's true nature might think was a trick of the light. The fact she was not struck down where she stood the moment she touched the sword was a good sign.

I hoped it stayed that way.

The longer she studied the weapon the wider her smile became, to the point she reminded me of a kid in a candy store. "This sword. Its one of the finest I have ever seen. It's damn near perfect. In fact it IS perfect. I don't see a single flaw anywhere in the steel. When this is is all over Dresden-san we are going to have to sit down and discuss this sword. I'm interested in just how you got your hands on such a quality blade. It must have such a history to it, oh what tales it could tell were it able to speak..."

I kept myself from smiling. She did not know the half of it.

"I hate to break up your love affair with the sword, but we got people to save and monsters to stop." I snarked as I ran toward forward toward the direction the one-eyed gang headed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Karasuba nod, her face smoothing, becoming focused on the task at hand. In one smooth motion, she drew the sword of Faith from its scabbard and placed the sheathe in a belt loop to her side.

Karasuba turned towards Matsu, who had stayed oddly silent during the whole exchange looking at her with concern. "Stay close to me and Mr.Dresden. If you get separated from us we won't be able to protect you."

Matsu waved Karasuba off, dismissing her concern. "This isn't my first fight Kara-tan, I can hold my own. And don't worry, I won't let Harry-tan out of my sight. Now that I found him, I am definitely not letting go."

With that said, the three of us set off.

[lethum]

Very nice. I'll be waiting for the next part.

Also, you're missing a few words here and there. Check your dialogue.

[B.B. Rain]

Sooo...Missing Wyldfae, I assume?

And Karasuba with Fidelacchius....Yeah, I don't see this ending well. Even if she fails to compromise the sword, and hands it right back, that's still enough of a miss-match to be worrying.