World Tree MUSH

    In the center of the city, a most dreaded event is taking place. A battle that nonethless people must face with all their courage and strength. That battle is...

    The morning rush at the weekend market.

    Okay, so it's not quite as hefty an ordeal as some incidents that most cross-world adventurers have ended up facing, but that doesn't mean its an easy affair. Things like this are the same in every world, too; the rush to find the freshest produce, the search for the best deals, and the effort to maneuver through the crush of people who all ahd the exact same idea of getting to the outdoor market early in an effort to avoid the crowds that they inadvertently ended up creating collectively.

    "Uwah..."

    And Shirou Emiya, thus, finds himself staring at the crowd permeating the market square now filled with outdoor stalls as far as the eye can see. He had *thought* getting here at this hour would be perfectly reasonable in his quest to find some fresh ingredients for a dish he wanted to try making. It's not like he's not used to big city living! It's just...

    "It's even worse than in Fuyuki... What am I going to do..."

    Yes, these are the kind of casual problems one has to deal with in the perfectly normal, quiet everyday. And as far as Shirou is expecting, this day will definitely, absolutely, remain perfectly normal too.

    ...Right? Surely nothing will happen to ruin the normality in the near future?

    "Step one, figure out what you need. Step two, prioritize. Step three, get the most important stuff first, so you maximize your chance of getting it," a familiar voice replies, in an authoritative tone. "Don't hesitate, or you won't get anything."

    Yumi Tachibana had wanted to meet up and chat with Shirou after the last event - she wanted a bit more info. But it looks like there is a grocery gauntlet between her and the satisfaction of her curiosity; so the redhead is already adopting a serious, all-business expression as she falls into place beside the taller Hero of Justice. "Hey, by the way," she adds, swapping briefly to a warm smile.

 
 Yeah. 
 
 No. 
 
 See, what Shirou was missing here was a certain someone held grudges for absolutely ever. Cyber Frost never forgot, and she never forgives. What could be perceived as a just slight to someone was the greatest insult imaginable to her. Either way, Shirou was, perhaps, going to learn why you should never cross a ninja, and certainly not one as egocentric as Frost. 
 
 A shadow loomed behind Shirou, how on earth did a whole human sized shadow get behind Shirou with no noise whatsoever? It was even slightly taller than the boy, and oddly, had a spiked up crown upon it's head. Had the shadows returned so quickly!? 
 
 "Oh Shirou~" A sing song femeine voice would be heard-right before strong as steel arms wrapped around the boy's neck! "You thought I forgot about you kicking my head the other day!? I'm gonna pay you a hundred- no... A MILLION TIMES back for doing that to me!" This would be Cyber Frost appearing out of freaking nowhere to 'lightly' strangulate him. What's a little choking between friends right? At least it's quite clear she's only messing around otherwise she would have already snapped the boy's neck. 

    ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF EVERY DAY COOKING WITH EMIYA LEGASSE...

    It's a ~shopping~ episode.

    As Shirou stares are the wild crowd of the market, Anna Primrose, the runaway princess of Rosalia is just arriving. And she's about to greet Shirou when OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE Frost is suddenly behind the youth and strangling him for acts in the past.
    Anna halts in her tracks.
    A dark shadow shrouds over the girl's face as she draws a slow breath and approaches, face hidden by the shadow of her hair as she stands herself right behind the ninja cyborg.
    The sheer levels of fury that just waft and roil off the princess result in a wave of heat and rage just radiating from the young princess, hands clenched tightly into trembling fists.
    She's not tall enough to loom behind Frost per se... And yet the sher *AURA* of her rage seems to linger over her shoulders, levelling an unknowable amount of pure, unadulterated, MENACE levelled in Frost's direction.
    "... Please release Shirou this instant." Her voice is soft. Quiet. Far too calm and level.
    The girl is a powder keg waiting to explode any second.

    "That is the general idea, but it felt way easier back home," Shirou mutters after a couple seconds spent in reflecting on what Yumi said, without really even fully acknowledging yet that she had just arrived out of the blue there. "But then again, I was *used* to maneuvering the markets there, already knew who had the best produce brought out, what paths to take to get to them quickly even with crowds..." A low, rumbling sound of thoughtfulness emenates from within Shirou, thus, as he rubs at his chin. "So this is what they mean by 'home field advantage'..." He declares, in the most ridicilously serious tone for the subject matter... and *then* he actually looks to the other redhead. And blinks. "Oh. Hey, Tachibana. Fancy seeing you here."

    As might be expected from all that, he had absolutely zero chance of spotting Frost before it was too late, too. Though he does have the chance to ask of Yumi, "Hey, do you ever feel like you're being watched...?" *just* before he is attacked!

    "Ugaaaah?!" The height difference between Shirou and Frost is only a couple inches, really, and yet somehow the boy actually appears as though he's being hoisted off the ground by the sudden (playful) chokehold, with even his legs flailing in the air. "Can't breathe...?!" Well, he can, really, but it's the suddeness of it all, you know?

    But even Shirou's trashing just *stops* when the pure aura of menace of a certain Berzerker Princess permeates the air. It's surely great enough that even the shopping crowds nearby some notice it, and suddenly people are giving a *huge* berth to Shirou and the girls. For reasons.

    But of course because this is a comedy anime scene, no one thinks to try to break this up or call the cops or anything.

    "Hey, hey, comical retribution for previous slights later," Yumi chastizes, folding her arms and giving Frost a stern look. "We've gotta get his ingredients before they're all gone-" She stops suddenly, glancing between Shirou, Frost, and Anna, an idea lighting up her face. "Hey, why don't we break up the list? Give some of it to each of us, give us some cash, and we'll go find them for you so it's faster. If it's more than you gave us, we cover it out of pocket and you pay us back. We'll get reciepts, so it's all aboveboard."

 
 Naturally this was all fun and games. Cyber Frost didn't really -mean- to seriously strangle Shirou. Heck, if she wanted to deal some serious damage, she wouldn't have gone for the choke hold, she would have just shoved a couple of feet worth of ice through his chest and call it a day. For all the crap Frost gives Shirou? She kind of considers him a friend. 
 
 Which is a bad thing for Shirou, for sure! Frost has absolute 0 clue how to express her emotions other than with violence. So she figured 'a little' violence was the appropriate response to say 'hey, I appreciate you letting me hang out'. 
 
 Of course, the parting crowd certainly didn't perceive it that way as they gave them a very wide berth. Nor did little Miss Berserker Fury as Anna happened to slip behind Frost mid choking and hiss at her in what was obvious barely restrained rage despite how calm she sounded. Say something about Frost, she knew rage when she felt it. 
 
 "What the hell?" Frost's head turned 180 degrees to stare down at Anna and she frowned. "Oh! It's you again.. sheesh.. all you do is follow Shirou around!?" As if she was one to talk. 
 
 Well, for all of Frost's penchant for violence, she didn't want to start a brawl in the market. So, she released Shirou but not without ruffling his hair a bit. "You got lucky that yer girlified was here to save yer arse again, kiddo!" Scoffed the ninja. 
 
 Then to Yumi. Oh, it's this one again. Frost recognized the sun senshi well enough, but before she could even say anything Yumi was already suggesting stuff. Yeah... actually.. that didn't sound too bad. 
 
 "Yeah Shirou.. give us some of yer cash. That will totally work out great." 

    'Is all you do follow Shirou around!?' Frost asks.
    Anna looks like she's ready to start rolling her sleeves up and start up a bloodbath right here in the market. She opens her mouth to speak.
    'You got lucky that yer girlified was here to save yer arse again, kiddo!'
    Anna slowly closes her mouth.
    Anna proceeds to go completely red for another reason entirely and BACKS UP REALLY FAST, sputtering.
    Ahem hem... Hem...
    "Y-yes! The list! What is on the list?"
    She quickly leaps to the next topic of conversation as fast as possible.
    hank you, Yumi.

    "Scary..." Shirou mumbles from amidst Frost's chokehold. Yes, even he is more than a bit unnerved by the vision of Anna's barely-constrained rage.

    "Eh?!" But even with all that he snaps his head up to try and look back to Frost over her accusation at Anna. "Aren't *you* basically just stalking me at this point?!"

    A little cough comes out when he is actually released, along with a complaint of "Thought I was gonna die..." before he turns his attention momentarily on Anna, with a renewed widening of eyes. "W-whoa, are you okay, Anna? You didn't get hit by a sudden summer sickness or something, did you?!" Oh, Shirou, you absolutely dense idiot.

    He straightens up slowly, and looks to Yumi. "Ah." He looks back to Anna and Frost, then, considering this entire scenario unfolding before him. And somehow, instead of declaring that he definitely shouldn't trust Frost with his money, he simply says, "...I guess I am cooking for all of you, then?" Somehow things always seem to end up like this with him. Even outside of his own world, he ends up taking on a role like this. The redhead lets out a quiet sigh, rubbing at the back of his head for a moment. "Well. It'll definitely be faster that way, and it'd be the least to do in return to you all, right?" He's not even questioning why he suddenly has everyone volunteering for all this.

    He digs through an inner breast pocket of his jacket, thus, to bring out both his wallet and a torn notebook page with what one would assume to be a shopping list on it. "Okay, so--"

    He was going to show the list to everyone within the next five seconds.

    But within one second, a thunderous sound interrupts him.

    It's not an explosion or anything, but it may as well feel like one. It is the sheer force of someone else landing *right next to Shirou* at the end of a mighty, inhumanly fast leap from somewhere out of sight. It is almost too fast to notice, and if it was simply passing by, no one might even realize it had even been there first, save for the barest flicker of black leather and a flutter of long, purple hair.

    But what makes this event *signifcantly* more noticable, is that in that roughly two-second span that this entity passes by in, an arm strikes in a clothesline-like sweep right into Shirou's midsection with the kind of force that definitely not only drives the air out of the poor boy's lungs but probably threatens to have his breakfast make a return appearance -- and without pause, continuing the momentum from there and effectively swiping the poor boy away with him in another blindingly-fast leap that sees the young magus carried right out of the market and towards a rooftop of a nearby building.

    The shopping list and his wallet both, meanwhile, are left behind to fall down onto the ground in front of the three girls.

    So much for a filler shopping episode.

>> SUMMARY[Shirou Emiya] >> Shirou is kidnapped?!

 
 "Ahahaha!! Score!" Cyber Frost pumped her fists up in the air in triumph. Not only was she getting some MOOLA, she somehow convinced Shirou to cook for her. Sheesh, if she knew it was going to be -that- easy to have him do her bidding she would have started choking him a lot sooner! 
 
 "Put a sock on it, twerp. I was just following ya to pay you back for kicking me. Don't get any ideas." She said with evil glare whilst letting Anna deal with her sudden tomato face. No skin off her bones really, Frost was surprisingly cool and collected for a change. 
 
 Until- 
 
 "HEY!" As if Shirou's neck hadn't been abused enough. A blurring figure swept past them and clothslined the kid! Frost was about to act, except she froze and rubbed her chin. "Wow, that was a pretty good clothesline. Solid technique." Hey, game respected game. 
 
 Then she shook her head and realized that Shirou had been kidnapped. "Oh no you don't!!" 
 
 Said the cyber ninja as she engaged the thrusters of her feet and her jet pack and flew in the direction of the kidnapper. 
 
 "COME BACK HERE WITH MY DINNER!!" 

    Yumi doesn't miss the bit of embarrassment on Anna's part; she looks amused, more than anything, but opts to keep a lid on it. Even Frost is agreeing to the plan! That's good.

    She's just moving to grab her wallet when something very loud happens. Loud, and very fast - fast enough that most ordinary people would probably be stunned for seconds after, and be unable to follow even when they figured it out.

    Yumi's anything but ordinary. In a heartbeat, there's a flare of gold-white light around her, and in the next, she's in full armor and already leaping up into the air to follow after. "HEY!" She might not be as fast as a Rider or a Lancer, but she's at least in the general realm of Servants. She'll be able to keep up, if not close the distance.

    Anna CAN be scary when she's mad. Right now though the poor girl is floundering.
    "N-n-n-n-n-no I'm fine! Really!"
    It's not summer sickness.
    Shirou no baka!
    Anna is about to flounder some more when something snatches Shirou and his wallet and she shopping list hit the ground.
    "..."
    What the hell just happ-...
    "SHIROU!"
    Everything is forgotten as Anna lunges after him, crouching long enough to grab the youth's wallet in passing and stuff it away for later as she goes chasing after-- Frost has thrusters. Yumi is a superhuman magical girl... But Anna...
    Is very ANGRY.
    And apparently also very fast on her feet considering she seems to be able to keep up with those two at least.

    Shirou, meanwhile, is much slower on the uptake. But perhaps he can be forgiven this on account of the fact that he was the *target* of this sudden drive-by, and currently his mind is more or less preoccupied with things like 'everything hurts', 'oh god why' and 'that okonomiyaki was a mistake'.

    To his credit, he does manage to recover just enough within a few seconds to at least try to register *some* things around him. Everything still hurts, but at least his vision isn't just pure white anymore.

    First things first: He's in the air. Okay, that's less then ideal, considering he doesn't have any kind of flight-facilitating magic. THankfully, he's being supported in the air by a slender-yet-strong arm around him.

    That last part leads to the next issue: He is being forcefully hauled around by a tall, pale-skinned, voluptous woman with purple hair so long that it could surely reach her feet. He can't really make out any other details about this particular lady from his unfortunate vantage point, but she is also blindfolded -- not that this seems to hamper her ability to land onto a rooftop and continue leaping from there with a very clear sense of purpose.

    So definitely not an ideal situation all in all.

    Third point to note. This one's a bit more ideal, at least: his friends (wait, does Frost count as a friend?) are giving chase! It's hard to spot their speedy advance with the speed he's being dragged around with, too, but he eventually manages to figure it out. And he can figure out that they're not gaining significantly.

    "Ghhh--!" In a display of much quicker thinking than should be possible for most under circumstances like this, Shirou does think to try to interrupt his captor's advance some. Unfortunately, his only method right then is to smash his fist against her side -- and even if he hadn't just been clotheslined with the force of a speeding car, it probably still wouldn't do much. And indeed, the woman doesn't even seem to notice.

    "--Trace On." ...So it's time to get desperate, then.

    The last time he did this half his body was nearly paralyzed. And make no mistake, it *hurts like hell* now too, when a black, curved shortsword materializes in his hand. He swings his hand in with that, to stab the blade into--

    A sound of metal clashing against metal.

    The purple-haired woman had loosened her hold on Shirou in that instant, spinning around enough to strike a nail-like dagger with a long chain attached to the hilt into Shirou's sword. The hastily conjured sword shatters in that same instant -- but at least the mid-air spin into a parry did force his captor to at least momentarily let go of Shirou, and slow their retreat from Anna, Frost and Yumi.

    Hopefully it's just enough for them to catch up.

    Yumi is pushing herself to her limit; she can't afford to go any faster than this without risking overcharge, and after her most recent bout with the consequences of that, she's not eager to push past the redline unless Shirou's life is in immediate danger. She's patient enough to wait for an opportunity-

    And Shirou's quick thinking creates an opportunity.

    In a fraction of a second, Yumi is leaping high up into the air, Prominence taking shape in her grasp as she flies. The leap becomes a somersault, lending momentum to the weapon and turning her downward arc into a falling slash aimed straight at the blindfolded woman.

    In truth, Yumi doesn't expect such a telegraphed attack to land at all. But the main goal is to force the woman back, interpose herself between the attacker and Shirou - and to buy extra time for the others to fall in as well.

 
 Speedster or not, they weren't going to get away from Cyber Frost. Not when dinner was on the line! Oh and Shirou, of course, what was it with all these punks trying to kidnap him anyway? And why a lot of them were women? Bah, Frost would have to figure that out later, right now it did appear that it was Kombat Time. Which was highly fortunate. Nothing like a good ol' bloodbath to get the appetite going. 
 
 Frost increased the power of her thrusters to close the distance. Whoever this bitch was she was fast! While Frost was still fairly confident that she would have been able to catch up to the blindfolded woman, she was thankful that Shirou managed to wiggle out of her hold to slow her down some. 
 
 "Ayyo skank!!" Frost snarled as she summoned a two handed sword made of ice to her hands. Yumi had already do her the good favor of going for the opening attack to break Rider's guard, now all Frost needed to do was for the kill. 
 
 She raised her sword high and swung down, but unlike Yumi, she wasn't trying to slash at her chest, this downward arch was coming down hard on Rider's clavicle to slice her collarbone apart and split her ribcage in twain. "DIEEEEEEEEE!!!" 

    Why the hell is this Servant after Shirou?
    Anna would like to know. And she sure would like to stop it from harming Shirou in any fashion. But... She starts to flag. She can only keep up with Yumi and Frost for *so long* before she starts to fall behind, panting and starting to get breathless.
    Her base speed is 40 feet for every six seconds, after all. So when Frost and Yumi begin to outpace her, she gives up on keeping up.
    Skidding to a halt she stops at a street sign. It's a thin pole embedded in the cement with a sharp axe-like signplate on it... So she grasps the pole and...
    "RRRRRRRGGGGGGGGH!!!"
    Anna Primrose sees red as she rips the sign free of the asphalt.
    Yumi can reach Rider.
    Frost can reach Rider.
    Anna... Does not need to reach Rider. She just needs to SEE her.
    That's all she needs, in order to hurl the sign like a javelin right at the Servant.

    It's the kind of high speed motion where a multitude of things happens in the span of time it takes for Shirou, having been released from his captor's grip to fall down onto the rooftop.

    Yumi sweeps in with her sword before Rider herself has landed either -- but the dextrous Servant seems to have near-perfect mid-air control, too, and manages to spin around to intercept her sword with chain-linked nail-daggers in both her hands. The force of that does result in her landing on the solid ground much more quickly, though, and with the kind of impact that cracks cement underneath her feet.

    It's enough of an interception for Frost to come in -- but unfortunately, the purple-haired woman is still quick enough to jump back. So rather than cutting the trespasser in twain in the most violent of manners, the frost-blade instead knicks over her forehead. It does still draw blood--

    By cutting through one side of her blindfold.

    It's at this point that Shirou finally lands on his back on the ground, groaning out loudly in pain as he bounces off from his landing with the recoil.

    And as for Rider? Well, since her blindfold already got torn up, she simply pulls it off the rest of the way quickly to reveal her now wide-open golden eyes staring right at Frost and Yumi...

    Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.
    Those eyes seem to draw the gaze of whoever looks right on them. Time almost seems to stop-- or at the very least, the bodies of Yumi and Frost might very well seem like they're slowing, like their joints are locking into place.

    Like they're turning into stone?!

    CLANG.

    "?!"

    And a freakin' stop sign flies in out of nowhere and clocks Rider right in the side of the head, knocking her to the side with a high-pitch noise of pain and sheer *shock*. Who throws a sign?!

    The Servant does recover from that enough that she doesn't outright topple over, but it does shake her off enough that whatever spell her gaze was working is interrupted, too, and Yumi and Frost are thus *not* petrified.

    But what Rider does do amidst that motion is pull on the chain at the end of the nail-dagger in her left hand -- it almost seems *longer* now somehow? An invisible portion of it might well have just appeared again at that--

    "Argh?!" Oh, that's Shirou's voice.

    The boy is yanked up into the air by a chain wrapped around his leg. The woman has apparently had some kind of foresight during all this, too, because the chain was, at some point, already coiled around a sign attached high up on a building, and the boy is hung high enough that if he were to fall he will definitely be risking death.

    And with that additional threat poised there, Rider crouches low, poised in preparation to engage with Anna, Yumi and Frost. Sure, Anna might be some distance away still, but she might throw more streetsigns for all she knows!

    Yumi doesn't often have cause to trade blows with someone directly in her physical league. Not as strong, but noticeably faster, and with the combat skill and experience to make use of her attributes. The magical girl's expression is grim, Prominence coming around to a ready stance the instant she lands. Frost's followup is perfect, and she's ready to capitalize and lunge in to keep pressure on the purple-haired woman, when those eyes turn on her-

    -and Yumi's instincts scream that something is wrong.

    There's a grimace as she hauls Prominence around, trying to shelter behind the blade, but she's already feeling the effects. It's only Anna's throw that manages to break the spell, and the senshi glances down towards the berserker on the street with a grateful nod.

    That's all the time it takes for Shirou to get strung up. Yumi looks between him and Rider in a panic, and then another grimace sets in. "Frost! I'm going to get Shirou! Try not to look in her eyes!"

    And so saying, she does just that, turning and slinging her massive runeblade over one shoulder so that she can take a hard leap towards the dangling hero.

 
 Bah!! Off a few marks! Cyber Frost gave an annoyed grunt when she sliced only through cloth instead of the sweet, sweet sensation of bone crunching under her blade. "Hold still so I can merc ya!!" Came Frost's entirely not too unreasonable request. Kidnap Shirou and get killed! It was that simple! 
 
 "Aah.. what?" When the woman revealed her eyes to stare at them, Frost's sensors started going haywire as her joints began to lock in place. What was happening? Was she freezing somehow? That's not how this worked. 
 
 "Graagh!!" At the last moment, a stop sign hilariously knocked that Servant right on her dumb head and broke the spell, Frost's head actually spun in 360 degrees as she shook off the petrification spell and held her head with her hand to re-focus. 
 
 Shirou was in trouble, but as one might expect, he was not Frost's priority. 
 
 "Yeah, you go get him. I got this bitch." She said to Yumi as she went to do heroic stuff and save Shirou. Frost? She was here for Kombat. 
 
 "Think that was clever, huh?" She stabbed her sword on the ground the free up her hands and took a familiar stance that most would recognize as the Hadouken or the Kamehameha, Frost's was a little different though. 
 
 "This is how you freeze someone... ARTIC BLAST!!" The cyber ninja charged up freezing cold chi and fired it at Medusa in ray form to freeze her in place. 

    Who throws a Stop sigh?
    Anna.
    It's Anna.
    Anna does.
    Though Yumi's grateful nod is unfortunately met with a growl as the princess catches her breath enough to rejoin the group, her axe already held tightly in one hand.
    Only to stop short as Rider yanks Shirou back into the air by her chain.
    "Guh...!"
    On the one hand... Shirou is in grave mortal danger.
    On the other hand... Uh.
    Anna is *furious*.
    "... Put Shirou down now... And I'll make killing you quick." Pause. "Slowly. Because if you don't. This is going to end badly for you." She says.
    While Yumi goes to rescue Shirou.
    That's all well and good too, and Anna can appreciate that.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Primrose] >> I would like to roll Intimidation please.

    That's one troublesome fighter at least momentarily occupied with saving Shirou, then. Just as well for Rider, apparently, because at least for the time being, she doesn't give Yumi a second look. Only two people to focus on for a moment, in that case.

    The instant Frost assumes the Hadouken-stance, she moves too. Launching from the crouched posture to charge for Frost -- and then suddenly leaping to the side at the very last second when the blast of cold comes. So fast to the untrained eye it might very well look like she teleported -- with only the patches of ice mass gathered on her right arm and along her right side as the only evidence that she even was there in the line of the projectile a split second earlier.

    It comes with an annoyed hiss, too. It might not have been a head-on impact with the ray, but that would certainly still be enough to result in amputation-worthy frostbite on a normal human. That particular annoyance is channeled into a quick roundhouse-kick aimed for Frost's side before she bounces back again, and...

    She gives a response to Anna's demands. By locking her eyes straight with her.

    It's an unhesitant stare maintained while she's still moving-- sprinting along Frost's perimeter to ensure she doesn't remain an easy target even while her Mystic Eyes of Petrification are targeting the barbarian princess. Anyone who sees those eyes is surely doomed. That is such an universal fact Rider - Medusa - herself trusts on so much, too, that after a good, long few seconds of staring at the girl, she simply... turns away from her, and leaps for Frost again instead.

    And this time, the cyber-ninja will find a length of chain, looped along the ground during the Servant's earlier dash, suddenly rising up and tangling about her legs just as one nail-dagger is thrust out at her, with the one in her other hand prepared for a follow-up slash right after regardless of if it hits home or not.

    Meanwhile, Shirou practically *flails* at Yumi. "Don't worry about me!!" he yells at her, in true Shirou-fashion. "Go fight with them!!"

 
 Still too fast. No matter. That ice blast nicked this so called Medusa, and Cyber Frost just needed to pile on the ice before her opponent started to slow down. Frost had fought plenty of speedsters, she knew their agility was vexing, but all she needed was one good hit in and she'll cripple that speed for good. Again though, the problem was to catch Medusa, once she did that she was certain this would be over. 
 
 "Hmrr!" The ice kunoichi grumbled as Medusa dodged yet again. Frost herself was no slouch on the defense though. As Medusa came in for the roundhouse, Frost threw a kick of her own directly at Medusa's shin to push that attack out of the way before it connected. "Amateur!" The kunoichi cackled, though she was wary of how many tricks this Medusa could pull and readied herself for some underhanded attacks. 
 
 The chain to her feet was very unexpected though, and Frost actually found herself tangled up and flipped upside down. "Aw crap!!" That was unfortunate, and now Medusa was coming in to slash at her while she was wholly vulnerable! 
 
 Gritting her teeth, Frost figured that she was going to have to act quick to avoid getting slashed to pieces here. So she literally decided to use her head. 
 
 As Medusa came in for the charge, Frost leaned back first to gain some momentum and then leaned forward. Her head actually popped off her neck and went flying towards Medusa, actually aiming purposedly hit Medusa on her nail dagger. 
 
 This was actually.. not her head though, it was a bomb. If Medusa decided that thrusting at Frost's flying head was a good idea to finish off the cyborg once and for all, Frost's fake head would explode and freeze her on the spot. Hopefully that at least bought Frost some time to untangle herself. 

    Yumi's leap takes her up to the sign from which Shirou dangles. She doesn't trust this mystery woman to not cut him loose as soon as she realizes the magical girl is up there, so that means acting fast. It also means she only has one real rebuke to offer the imperiled Emiya.

    "You'd do the same thing for me, and you know it."

    Swiftly, the magical girl reaches down to grab the chain, adding a quick and businesslike warning of, "This'll be a little undignified." Then she just yanks upward on it, hauling Shirou up in such a way that he'll land more-or-less over her shoulder, his legs behind her back. Once she's got him in place, she uses her free hand to swing Prominence over, pushing some sunlight magic into it in order to break the chain holding Shirou entirely. No nasty surprises from Purple Eye Lady, no thank you.

    Assuming that all works out, she plans to leap back down and set Shirou down on his feet.

    Rider... Does not comply. Anna snarls and begins to charge.
    Worse, Anna meets eyes with the Servant.
    And for a moment. For a perilous, heart-stopping, moment; the young princess can feel her body beginning to freeze... She can feel her joints start to lock and her muscles begin to seize and clench. Her body is fighting against her every second longer that she remains with those deadly eyes turned upon her.
    Her teeth clench. Her fingers lock around the haft of her axe as... As...
    Anna's heart beats like a jackhammer in her breast, her blood pressure suddenly skyrocketing as she draws a ragged breath.
    Anna's charge... Does not falter. In fact, where others would lock up and keel over, her body suddenly springs back into motion, heedless of those accursed eyes.
    Rider makes a terrible mistake in looking away and forgetting about Anna Primrose of Rosalia, to focus on Frost. And as Frost's head-bomb explodes in a burst of cryogenic energy...
    "I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
    The princess' war cry is shrill and bellicose as she chokes the grip of her axe and lunges, literally too angry to be stopped by the magical compulsion of the eyes of Medusa herself.
    Continuing her single minded rush with murder in her eyes, she raises her axe high-- and brings it low in a single monstrous arc to try and simply cleave the Servant with a heavy handed blow.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Primrose] >> I am LITERALLY too angry to be stopped by Mystic Eyes of Petrification.

    It is a perfectly reasonable assumption to make that stabbing someone in the head would kill them. It's also a fairly reasonable assumption to make that stabbing a detached head is just basically rubbing salt in the wounds.

    It is in worlds without cyborgs, anyhow. And in the world and the time Rider Medusa comes from, people who can detach their heads and replace it with a fake exploding head are not *exactly* commonplace.

    So of course she lets the nail-dagger be driven straight through the head flying at her. And of course this results in an explosion of ice enveloping her arm whole all the way up to her shoulder. But just because she has one arm incapacitated doesn't mean she can't try to maintain her pressure on Frost regardless-- continuing her forward momentum to turn her other side at the cyber-ninja and drive her unfrozen dagger at her--

    "--What?"

    It's a single word that comes out in that moment, in response to the unexpected yell. Even she is shocked, when she turns to look and see--

    An unbelievably angry, and very much *not-petrified* princess swinging an axe down at her.

    She's on the side with the frozen arm, too. So in a fit of near-panic, Rider hastily redirects the momentum of her left arm away from Frost and--

    Yeah. She made the mistake of just assuming Anna was petrified and that she wasn't of any consequence anymore. And without her right arm, even she can't turn to block quick enough anymore.

    Her axe actually cleaves straight through the frozen arm, shattering it outright before slashing down through Rider's collar, sinking deep into her even before the physical force of the blow knocks her down onto one knee.

    The nail-dagger in her good hand falls down to the ground with an audible clatter. Her fingertips are already fading away.

    "But--" Shirou complains, in the meantime. Because *of course* he would complain about him being saved in this event, even if Yumi makes an *extremely good point*.

    The chain might be part of Rider's magical weapon, but it's clearly not entirely immune to being manipulated by other people, as evidenced by Yumi yanking the chain and sending Shirou almost-comically flipping over the sign with a surprised yelp. ...And for some reason *another* surprised sound when he ends up landed on Yumi's shoulder. He'd complain and try to wriggle away out of some mislead sense of propriety, but his body isn't exactly responding properly after the hasty Projection a minute earlier.

    Which, by the way, does also translate to him kind of just slumping ungracefully onto the ground when Yumi sets him down, just in time for the two of them witness Anna practicing wood-chopping on Rider.

 
 How was she possibly still going!? That bomb should have frozen her in place! Even without her head on she could tell that Medusa was still going for her, and without her head she was kind of a little vulnerable! Frost's headless body started to flail around as she tried to wiggle out of the chain grabbing her ankles, thought just as she thought she was about to be struck, Anna came to the rescue in the absolute nick of time to land a very satisfying axe blow to Medusa's collarbone. 
 
 *KRUNCH!* Hmm.. delicious~ Frost thought she'd -never- get tired of hearing collarbones crunch like that-- as long as it wasn't her one that is. Or someone she cared for.. like Suiren... 
 
 Anyway! Frost summoned her head back to her neck and cackled as she saw what happened. "HAHA! What an idiot.." She chopped the chain with her ice sword, spun in the air to land on her feet and casually approached the fallen Rider, she could almost be seen licking her blue lips. "Mind if I cut in?" It was a rhetorical question to Anna as the ninja got behind Rider, this Servant had really pissed her off and now she was going to pay. 
 
 Frost thrust her hand down and -into- Rider's back. She firmly grasped hold of her vertebrate and ripped the Servant's dorsal spine clean off her back. She wanted to Finish Her. 

    With Shirou brought back down to safety, Yumi decides she can focus on the fight. The mystery woman's displayed enough ranged capability that she'll still have to protect him, but at least they can-

    Yumi lowers Prominence a little, looking on in quiet shock as Anna takes advantage of the woman's surprise and Frost's ice to end things... very, very conclusively. "...hngh." It's a tolerable end, but not one she'd have chosen personally. And then Frost just makes it gruesome, and the senshi's expression darkens.

    She's not going to make a fight of it, but the girl with the cream-orange hair is not shy about making her displeasure known. "Was that really necessary?! She was already dying!" the magical girl yells, already walking towards the trio. Prominence disperses, followed by Yumi's entire transformation; with Medusa down, there's no more need for any of it. She can yell just fine in her base state, after all.

    Medusa is brought to her knees. Anna still has murder in her eyes and looks ready to continue.
    Until Frost steps in and finishes the job.
    Expression grim, the runaway barbarian princess simply pulls her axe from the disappearing body, and takes a step back. A slow breath to try and calm herself down.
    And there's Yumi storming in, yelling.
    "Wh-- but..." Anna's rage dissipates in a shocked fluster of shame, even if the senshi is more yelling at Frost than at her.
    "... But she tried to hurt Shirou..." The girl mumbles, wilting slightly where she stands.

    At the very least, Medusa's body does not persist much longer after Frost's followup sends her fully slumping down onto the ground, so there isn't much of any gruesome evidence left anymore. ANd yes, that includes the spine left in Frost's hand.

    But Shirou for his part looks just about ready to puke, complete with a hand covering his hand. Sure, the forceful way he was grabbed earlier, the haphazard magic he used and... basically everything else played part in his stomach rebelling, but the sight of Frost's Fatality is *not* helping *at all*.

    "... I don't think Rider was trying to kill me," he manages to mumble past that mouth-covering hand after a moment, though (while also apparently forgetting again that such a moniker probably doesn't mean much to people not familiar with the concept of the Holy Grail War). "I don't know what she was going to do after, but I don't... think she deserved that."

 
 "Haha! FATALITY! That's how you do it, baby!!" Even as Rider's body was disappearing, Cyber Frost was triumphantly raising the dismembered vertebrate up in the air as a trophy, right up until it disappeared along with Rider's body. 
 
 "Meh, whatever." She dusted her hands and made an annoyed face as Yumi got all up on her grill and started scolding her. Frost even went as far as rolling her eyes at the magical girl. "Yeah, Yumi! She was trying to hurt Shirou!" Frost merely repeated Anna's excuse as if she actually believed it and not because she was a total sadist that enjoyed butchering people like that. 
 
 What was really surprising though was that Shirou himself tried to defend Rider. "Hey! How about a thanks for saving you?? That'd be nice too!" Complained the ninja. "With things like this ya gotta be decisive anyway, now whoever these punks are will think twice before messing with Shirou." 
 
 Frost grew bored and annoyed of having to explain her actions. These guys.. they wouldn't get it unless they had been in her world, the most vicious of them was Anna and she was a pretty princess in pink for crying out loud. Frost simply decided to change the subject and stretched her arms, showing no remorse whatsoever. 
 
 "Anyway, are we still good for dinner? Mommy is hungry!" Killing people just worked her appetite apparently. 

    "No one deserves that," Yumi replies to Shirou, iron in her tone. She does, however, turn to Anna, her expression and tone softening. "Hey, I'm not mad at you. You did what you had to do. I don't like killing, but if it's the only option, I can deal with it." The eyes swing around to Frost. "Ripping out a piece of her spine wasn't protecting Shirou, it was brutalizing someone that was already dying. Needless brutality is not okay in my presence."

    Setting that aside, she turns to head back over to Shirou, already switching over into Concerned Friend Mode. "Hey, are you alright?"

    "I'm... okay," Shirou mutters, now pushing himself up to standing at least, as his hand wipes across his mouth. He didn't puke in the end, but god if he didn't feel like it for a second. "... She was from my world too. I don't... understand how or why though. Nothing makes sense..."

    Frost just gets a *glare* over her askance of dinner. There might be a chance in the cooking-related plans as far as he is concerned.