FSE

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The first full chapter of my Arknights fanfic; would love to hear any constructive criticism on it. Enjoy!

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*DING!*

Elysia gathered herself and her belongings as the elevator doors opened onto the eighth floor, looking around for the Rhodes Island rep that was supposed to meet her before her visit with the Oripathy stricken girl. The hallway she stepped out into seemed to be strictly patient rooms, though looking at the names of the patients on the door didn’t show any of them contained Mari. She did find a sign pointing her toward the lobby down the hall and began to make her way down there, getting more than a few strange looks as she walked along. Considering how The Infected were probably used to getting that treatment most of the time themselves, Elysia was alright with getting a couple of odd looks at her stylized hair.

Speaking of treatment, Elysia noted that the Infected here seemed(at least at a casual glance) to be being treated well here despite a decent portion of the population treating them more like second class citizens at best. Having to pay insane premiums to get access to medications, being denied jobs or worse because of their infection, and even facing outright violence were all things she’d heard about happening largely due to ignorance and misunderstanding about Oripathy itself. She’d hardly call herself an expert on the subject, but Elysia felt well informed enough to sort fact from fiction.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for… oh!” Elysia started to speak to the person behind the nurse’s station on the floor, pausing when she noticed someone in a black jacket sitting on a nearby chair. The open jacket had blue lining down the inside of it, and stenciled in white letters were, “Rhodes Island”. Elysia approached the Lupo man, who raised his head from the magazine he was reading at her approach. “Are you SwiftShot?”

The brown haired Lupo shook his head as he stood up, coming about a head taller than Elysia’s 5’7” height. His blue eyes scanned her over briefly as she did the same, noting the white t-shirt under the jacket and black pants and shoes. Her eyes did linger for a moment on the small cluster of crystals on the right side of his neck before going back to his face. He clearly wasn’t hiding his Infected status, but it still wouldn’t be polite to stare. Something else around his neck did catch her attention as well; a small silver chain from which a small locket hung from.

“No, sorry. Something came up at the last minute and she couldn’t make it; I was asked to take her place.” He smiled gently and extend his hand as Elysia’s attention went back to his face. “Operator Rampart, at your service. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Thorne.”

“Thank you, Rampart.” A regular citizen might feel a little weird about it, but Elysia came from the world of professional acting where unusual names were almost the norm. Hell, the fact that FEater’s name had the first two letters capitalized in her name barely even registered to her anymore, so somebody naming themselves after an object or an action barely made her bat an eye as she shook his hand. What did make her raise an eye was how firm his handshake was; Rampart was clearly no slouch. “Wow; you’ve got a strong grip!”

“It comes with the job.” At a pharmaceutical company? She glanced down at the company name tag on his jacket to get a better idea of what exactly that job was, though it only showed his name, a picture of him and what looked like a shield in front of a pair of swords. Come to think of it, she didn’t know exactly what FEater did at Rhodes Island either, but before she could think about that too much Rampart reached down under the chair where he had been sitting, coming up with something wrapped in a blanket.

“Before I forget, this is a gift from a fellow operator. They wished to remain anonymous, but they’re a huge fan of Summoned Beast and wanted to thank you. They weren’t quite sure how to wrap it; sorry about that…”

“It’s alright, I-oh…” Elysia tone flattened a little seeing an all too familiar sight; a Summon Shield. In the fiction of Summoned Beast, this is what allowed people to summon said beasts and cast spells. In reality, it was just a three by three grid that represented one player’s board during a game. A prop based on the show she was getting sick of being on; great…

Her initial disappointment faded a bit as she set her gift for Mari down on her wheeled trunk and looked it over more closely. It may have been a prop that could’ve been on the show, though she had to admit the quality might have been even better than the one she usually wore, and that thing was no cheap plastic replica like you’d find at the toy shop either. The typical shield had an undeployed and a deployed mode; when undeployed, it sat on the wrist and felt like wearing a slightly clunky watch. When deployed, it would fan out and have slight depressions where cards could be played and held as well as slots where other cards could be slid and be used as payment to play cards later.

“It really is very nice; the craftsmanship is solid for sure. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the shield I use on the show isn’t just for playing cards; it’s also an Arts unit. That’s how I do a lot of special effects on the show.” Elysia tentatively strapped the shield to her wrist and pressed the button on the wrist to deploy it. The shield unfolded smoothly in an instant, revealing the gold rimmed silver shield dotted with gems. One green gem near the top of the shield caught her attention in particular. “Is this?...”

“An Arts unit as well?” Rampart nodded. Elysia pressed her index and ring fingers together on her right hand(the non-shielded one) and started to twirl them in a small circle. After a few circles, she held open her hand and watched as a small tornado twirled in her palm briefly before dissipating. “Your specialty is wind Arts?”

“I play Saraissa the Swift, after all. This Arts unit seems even better than my own. Please pass along my thanks to the fan, whoever they are.” The mention of fans suddenly reminded Eliza why she was here. “Oh shoot; Mari! She’s in her room now, right?”

“She just came back from tests. No one told her anything to preserve the surprise.” Rampart glanced at the case Eliza had been pulling along. “Do you need to change first?”

“Yes; obviously all this…” Eliza motioned toward her hair for a brief moment before continuing, “…I needed my personal stylist to help set, but otherwise I didn’t want to walk around in full costume all day. Is there a bathroom I could use or?...”

Rampart had apparently anticipated this and directed her toward an empty patient room where she could change in private. Eliza rolled her trunk into the room and began to change both her clothes and her mindset into Saraissa, maybe for the last time.

---

“Excuse me, is this Mari Lista’s room?”

The small Ursus girl that had been looking forlornly out the window turned at the sound of the visitor that stepped into the room that had entered after a brief knock. Considering how most of the people she saw lately were either in white lab coats or hospital gowns like she was now, the stunningly dressed woman that had entered certainly should have stood out a bit. Elysia’s outfit had certainly gotten the attention of the few people who saw her in it after changing in the spare room, so the young bear girl’s almost indifferent look in her brown eyes as she surveyed Elysia caught her a little off guard. Still, Elysia put on her warmest smile and hoped Mari’s lack of reaction was simply from the shock of seeing the heroine of her favorite show suddenly walking into her hospital room.

The outfits she’d worn over the years on Summoned Beast ranged from ridiculous to truly beautiful, and while her current outfit wasn’t the most extravagant she’d ever had, it was one of Elysia’s personal favorites. A soft green suit jacket worn over a white blouse with a golden thread trim all along the edges went along with pants of the same color. White gloves paired with white heeled shoes, and instead of a tie she wore a white cravat around her neck. The whole ensemble was accessorized with a small box containing her personal deck of cards strapped just below her left shoulder and the Summon Shield she’d just been gifted on her left wrist in its undeployed state.

For a few moments that seemed to stretch into an eternity Mari continued to show no reaction to her presence, and Elysia started to worry this was going to be a really awkward visit if Mari was going to be like this the whole time. A wave of relief washed over Elysia as Mari’s eyes went from disinterested to enchanted as she suddenly seemed to recognize who’d just entered her room.

“Saraissa! Wow!” The young girl sat up in her bed excitedly. Elysia left her trunk near the door and approached the side of the bed with the gift basket in hand, setting it down on a nearby table as Mari continued. “What are you doing here?!”

“Well, I heard a tale on the wind about a young girl who’d heard of my many adventures. When I heard of how pure of heart she was and how brave she was going through a really hard time in her life, I just knew I had to meet her.”

Just because she was getting a little sick of the role didn’t mean Elysia didn’t know how to play a kind, noble hero for the audience. It had been a while since she’d interacted directly with fans in character, though from past experiences she had developed a few rules for interacting directly with kids. The biggest one was to let the kids be the one to break the illusion that Saraissa wasn’t a real person, and to act in character until then. Mari was ten; probably old enough to know the truth, but… well, it was awkward enough the one time Elysia had burst the bubble of a young fan, and she did not want to relive THAT experience again.

“Really?” Mari blushed as she gently pushed back a stray black hair from her eyes. “I-I’m not that special, really…”

“Yes you are, Mari…” Elysia’s eyes were drawn to the hand that Mari was using, noticing the black Oripathy crystals that sat on her middle and ring finger just below the knuckles on her hand. At a casual glance it might have looked as though she was just wearing a set of matching rings on her hand; it wasn’t until you looked a bit closer and realized that there wasn’t any metal bands on her finger and that there were small black cracks in her skin around the base of the crystals. Mari caught Elysia’s gaze on her fingers and quickly covered them with her other hand.

“I’m sorry. My Oripathy scares my friends. The doctors and nurses are nice, and so are the Rhodes Island people, but everyone else doesn’t want to get close to me.” Mari sighed dejectedly as she looked at her crystal adorned hand. “I tried to tell them it was O.K., but they don’t believe me…”

“Aw, Mari…” After a moment, Elysia removed her gloves and gently took Mari’s hands in hers. While Oripathy is contagious, the misunderstanding/ignorance of exactly how contagious It was led to a lot of underserved hate toward its sufferers. It couldn’t pass from person to person through anything short of Oripathy infected blood getting through an open wound or something similar of a non-infected person. She gently took Mari’s hands in her own and squeezed them gently, safe in the knowledge that simply touching the crystals posed no threat to her.

“We don’t have Oripathy in my world, but I know how hard It can be when you really need a friend and it seems like nobody’s there for you. It’s O.K to be sad about that now, as long as you remember there are people out there who will understand. They’ll see have brave and good you are, and they’ll be ever so glad that they met you as much as you’ll be glad to have them in your life.”

“Saraissa…” Mari’s eyes started to water before she suddenly threw her arms around Elysia’s neck and hugged her tight, sobbing intently. The reaction caught her a little off guard, but after a moment she gently hugged Mari back and let her emotions flow.

Not unlike what she would do for a professional acting role, Elysia had done a bit of research in the weeks between first talking to FEater about the visit and now about how to treat a kid in Mari’s position. Between what she’d learned and what she’d been told about how Mari had be handling her treatment so far, it sounded like Mari had been trying to put on a brave face for the adults treating her. Meanwhile, her friends couldn’t or wouldn’t visit as she spent most of her time surrounded by other sick people. Elysia guessed(seemingly correctly) that her hero telling her things would get better while also acknowledging that her situation sucked and it was alright to be upset about would hopefully cheer her up once she’d had a chance to let those emotions out.

Those emotions and tears continued for a few minutes before Mari slowly pulled away, smiling weakly as Elysia handed her some tissues to blow her nose and dry her eyes.

“Thank you, Saraissa.” Mari said after she’d had a few moments to collect herself. “Sorry if I got your outfit al-*Gasp* That’s what you wore during the Kingdom Clash tournament! You look so beautiful in it!”

“Aw, thank you!” Elysia smiled. Mari’s eyes were eventually drawn toward the new Summon Shield, which Elysia deployed to show off its full glory. “Apparently somebody in Rhodes Island is a really big fan, too.”

“Wow!” Mari marveled at Saraissa’s shield for a bit before her face darkened. “Some of my friends have them, but I don’t even have my own deck. My parent’s say money’s too tight…”

This kid was breaking Elysia’s heart! Trading card games can certainly be a money sink, but her parents couldn’t even swing a starter deck for their kid? Elysia looked toward the gift basket for a moment, but after thinking for a moment she excused herself for a moment and went to the trunk. She’d bought the Summon Shield she used on the show to complete the costume, but receiving the new one made it redundant. Giving away an Arts unit to a kid probably wouldn’t go over well with management, but what the hell; she already had a replacement anyway.

“Well, next time you do see your friends, you will have your very own Summon Shield. And you can tell them you got it from Saraissa herself.” Mari looked like she was on the verge of tears again, though at least they were tears of joy this time as she hugged Elysia tight and thanked her profusely for the gift, promising to take good care of it. O.K., Elysia had to admit to herself, maybe playing Saraissa wasn’t ALL bad…

After about another minute of hugs and thank you, Elysia suggested they make some decks with the cards in the gift basket and play a couple of battles, to which Mari happily agreed. Pulling over a table, they began to build some decks…

---

“Oh no! You just hit me for ten points of damage!”

Mari giggled at Elysia’s exaggerated distress, watching as she dumped cards from her Life Deck to the discard pile. After building their decks, they had ultimately decided to play normally on the table. Mari was a little disappointed, but Elysia managed to convince her that it was a hospital, and having a big, noisy clash wouldn’t be very nice to the other patients. Mari ultimately accepted that, thrilled just to have someone to play with.

“Alright, now its my turn. Let me draw my hand back up, and let me think about how I’m going to fight back…” Elysia thought silently for a moment as she reviewed the cards in her hand. She had been playing kind of carelessly this match, and while she wasn’t out to win necessarily, she wanted to at least be a good opponent for Mari. She really needed to think this move over…

…which would’ve been a lot easier if it weren’t for all the noise suddenly coming from outside the room. It sounded like shouting, and people fighting. Did someone just scream?!

“Mari! Elysia! Look out!”

“Huh?” Hearing Rampart calling her real name caught Elysia off guard almost as much as when the door to the room suddenly burst open. The person who entered… Elysia was pretty sure she’d seen that costume before, but after ten years and dozens of villains both major and minor it would take her a little bit to remember this black robed flunky’s particular origins. The muzzle of the canine mask they work was painted to look like it was mid-cackle, showing off sharp teeth that, paired with the wide yellow eyes, gave a slightly wild and deranged look to the whole affair.

“Ah; there you are, Child.” The man made a motion with his hand as if to beckon Elysia and Mari to him as he spoke in a calm voice that carried undertones of malice. “Come along quietly, and we promise we’ll let your companions live.”

“What?! What are you…oh; I get it.” Elysia smiled as she slowly rose, putting on her best hero voice as she slowly stepped toward the center of the room. “I’m sorry, but I can not allow that!”

Wow; talk about bringing back a classic! This was an old stunt that Elysia would do back in the day when she younger and occasionally did live shows to promote Summoned Beast. Elysia would talk a bit with the audience and tell them of her adventures when a villain would come out on stage and threaten someone in the audience. Of course she would intervene, and the villain would throw a, “fireball” at her, which she would then deflect with her Arts and send the villain running away. It was cheesy even for Summoned Beast, but she remembered how fascinated all the kids were by the simple Arts display.

“Oh, you won’t, will you?” Oh yeah; that had to be it. This guy was basically quoting that old routine word for word. Elysia kind of wished someone at the agency had TOLD her they were going to do this, though. Maybe they wanted it to be a surprise? “No matter; our orders were only to bring The Child back alive. If we must subdue you with force, we shall!”

Elysia gave the flunky a defiant look as she reached into her deck box, though she realized a problem even as she did. The spell card she would use in those old displays, Wind Shield, got phased out of her deck ages ago! Not to mention that because they surprised her with this, there was no way she could’ve set the deck to make sure that was on top anyway. It wasn’t like this was on set where should call for a retake; the flunky looked like he was already preparing the, “fireball” in between his outstretched hands. Well, she’d just have to roll with it.

Elysia and Mari both deployed their shields almost in unison, though whereas Elysia started feeding cards into a slot on her shield, Mari merely held hers out in front of herself while peeking cautiously over it. Not that it was really necessary; the “fireball” was just going to be a basic fire Art that they use all the time that was all flash and almost no heat. Elysia was still a bit concerned about using any fire Art in a hospital room, but surely this guy knew what he was doing….right?...

“I summon Blitzkrieg, The Stalwart Wolf! Shield me, my faithful companion!” Elysia placed the only shield carrying character she’d drawn and placed it on her shield before closing her eyes to concentrate on summoning a wind shield. She’d have to think up excuses later to Mari about why Blitzkrieg hadn’t appeared. Either she’d have to gaslight the poor kid(He must’ve come so fast you didn’t see him!) or finally drop the act. Gah; this was turning into a mess!

“Wow! It’s really Blitzkrieg! He looks so cool!” Elysia smiled a little at Mari’s excited response. To imagine that he was really in the room with them; is there nothing a child’s imagination won’t do?

“Yes, he’s here Mari…” Confident she had a solid wind shield going, Elysia opened her eyes… to see Blitzkrieg standing a few feet in front of her, the brown furred wolf with his golden armor and diamond shield clutched in his muzzle in front of her. “…He’s here?!”

Had Elysia’s brain had time to process it, she would’ve realized her shield art and Blitzkrieg’s shield essentially overlapped each other. She might have also have noticed several of what she thought were decorative jewels on the shield were a combination of various projectors, simply reading the card she’d played and projecting the image around her Art in a way that made sense. She would eventually realize all of this, if she survived what was coming next.

The flunky threw his fireball, which hit the swirling wind shield. Even from a few feet away Elysia could tell this wasn’t a prop fireball but a real one from the sheer amount of heat pouring off it. Flames splashed everywhere, causing Mari to cry out in surprise a smaller ball of fire headed straight for her. Elysia called out Mari’s name as the flame struck the little bear’s shield head on, feeling her heart grow cold as she imagined the worst.

“I-I’m O.K, Saraissa!” Elysia heart slowly started again as Mari shakily poked her head up from behind the shield. It may have been a prop and not really made of the unbreakable Raretaniumite from the show’s lore, but it was still sturdy enough to block the splash damage from the fireball. Mari’s instinct to duck behind the shield had also saved her from getting hit herself, though she did have a few small patches of fire now on the bed with her. While she grabbed the nearby water pitcher to douse the flames, Elysia’s relief quickly shifted to anger at the flunky.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Elysia anger was burning hotter than the flames as she unloaded on their very unwelcome guest, any attempts at preserving character forgotten. “There’s a kid here, and I’m basically a walking fire hazard with all this product in my hair, and you’re throwing real fire around?! You could’ve blown us all to bits!”

“So you blocked my attack. No matter, I shall simp-urk!” Elysia didn’t give him time to finish his bit as she smashed her still active shield directly into the flunky, which looked as though Blitzkrieg charged and slammed directly into him. He hit hard against the wall before crumpling to the ground, moaning in pain.

“Saraissa! The fire’s spreading!” Mari said as she emptied the last of her water pitcher. Elysia couldn’t see any fire extinguishers in the room, and the flames were getting dangerously close to a canister in a corner of the room. The labeling noted it was pure oxygen, along with several other stickers warning how flammable it was… wait; oxygen! That might just work!

“Mari! Take a deep breath and hold it as long as you can!” Fire needs oxygen to burn, and if they can’t bring in enough water to douse the flames, taking the oxygen out of the air and away from the fire should in theory work just as well. Not that she’d ever tried doing something like this before, but there was no time like the present. And there wouldn’t be much of a present left for anybody if that canister exploded.

Placing herself midway between Mari and the canisters, Elysia outstretched both of her arms and concentrated. The air around her hands almost felt solid before she pulled both her hands back toward her body, essentially making an airless trench between Mari, herself and the canister. The air felt almost alive in her hands, squirming and writhing as Elysia was preventing it from doing what it naturally wanted to do. Maintaining a pair of vacuum-less spaces was no small feat, and after only a few seconds Elysia felt herself beginning to sweat as she strained to hold onto the air. When she finally let go after about 15 seconds of it, she wobbled and had to catch herself from falling over with the effort.

Her efforts weren’t in vain as she glanced over at both the canisters and Mari to see only scorch marks remaining of the previous flames. Mari let out a gasp of relief as the oxygen-less void around her dispersed while Elysia repeated the process on a smaller scale with the few pockets of fire still left dotted around the room. After about a minute all the fires were out, leaving the room looking rather singed but its occupants otherwise unharmed. Well, save for the guy still moaning in pain on the floor, but neither Mari or Elysia felt too concerned about his well being at the moment.

“What happened, Saraissa? That man looked like he really wanted to hurt us.” Mari asked as she looked cautiously at the downed figure.

“I-I don’t know, Mari…” Elysia was trembling a little, partially from the Arts usage but also from shock as it was dawning on her how dangerous that whole scenario had been. Her shock shifted toward anger at Rampart; didn’t he at least ask who this weirdo was before letting him in the room?! She stormed toward the door and practically threw it open as she prepared to tear him a new one for his carelessness.

“Rampart! What th-ah!” Elysia barely made it two steps out of the room before she nearly tripped on something lying on the ground outside. That something was another similar dressed and similarly downed flunky, and looking around she spotted three more scattered throughout the hallway, along with some knives that looked too real to be props. They were joined by a fifth a moment later as Rampart’s fist connected with its jaw, the Rhodes Islander leaning against a nearby wall for a moment to catch his breath.

“Sorry. I tried to get them all, but that one slipped by me.” He certainly looked like he’d been in a hell of a fight; Elysia noticed various cuts along his arms and a nasty bruise forming on his cheek. A few terrified onlookers peeked out from behind doors and furniture at the scene as Rampart continued. “I thought no one else was supposed to be coming, and when I tried to stop them, well… you can see the results.”

“But where did they come from, and why? I thought they were with the studio or my talent agency at first, but they weren’t acting.” Elysia knelt down and picked up one of the knives lying on the floor, confirming it was real and not a prop. As she did she noticed something shiny partially hidden underneath the flunky and grabbed it as well. It looked like a locket hanging from a silver chain that was currently broken. Glancing back up at Rampart, she noticed the locket he was wearing earlier was no longer around his neck. “Is this yours?”

Rampart felt around his neck for a moment, apparently not having not noticed it missing earlier as the locket spun gently in Elysia’s hand. The locket had opened and she could see two pictures inside. One was what looked like Rampart, if maybe a few years younger than he was now. The other was of a beautiful looking blond haired Lupo woman, both of the lockets occupants smiling warmly.

“Thank you.” Elysia rose to her feet and placed the locket into Rampart’s outstretched hand. Seeing the chain broken, he stored it in an inner pocket of his coat. “We should probably call the police and let them sor-“

“There! Get The Child!”

The elevator doors opened to reveal several more robed figures emerging. Rampart squared up for round two, until they heard more shouting coming from the other end of the hall and saw even more of them heading that way. Before Elysia realized it Rampart picked her up almost effortlessly and retreated with her back into Mari’s room, pausing only for a moment to clock the flunky in the room who was starting to rise up and knock him out cold before closing the door and holding up the downward pulling handle of the hospital room door.

“Find something to jam the handle!” After shaking off the surprise, Elysia grabbed the nearby table and shoved it up against the door as the mob on the other side tried to force the door open. When that still left enough of a gap for the handle to turn, she placed her trunk on top of the table as well. That kept the handle from turning, though being a non-locking door she didn’t have much hope for their barricade to last long.

“What the hell is going on?! Who are these guys?!” Elysia asked as she joined Rampart in putting his weight against the door. “Why do they want Mari?!”

“They’re servants of the Mad Wolf God. You banished all of them to the Null Void after they drove the Good King Roderick mad and made him destroyed the lives of the people in his Kingdom.” Elysia blinked at Rampart’s statement, realizing he was indeed right and that he was referencing material from way back in season 2 of the show.

“Yes, but…” Elysia looked back at Mari for a moment before leaning in to whisper to Rampart. “It’s a TV show. It’s not real!”

KATHUNK!

Elysia’s face froze as a massive blade pierced clean through the door and, for a few horrible seconds in Rampart’s eyes, her skull as well. It was only when she slowly, shakily began to turn and look back at the blade did he realize it had pierced where her head HAD been a moment earlier, right before she leaned in to whisper to Rampart. The blade only claimed a chunk of her hair that fell to the floor as she yelped and stumbled backward from the door. her attempt to save character in front of Mari unintendedly also saving her life.

“Careful, you fool!” One of the cultists on the other side of the door scolded his companion as Rampart moved to help a stunned Elysia to her feet. “The rest are expendable, but the master will have your head if anything happens to The Child!”

“It isn’t real, but it seems quite real to them.” The door and the barrier shook as if to emphasize Rampart’s point. “And I don’t think we’ll have much luck convincing them otherwise.”