Night had set in while Phoenix had recited the events of the day to his brother, both resting on their couches. Thunder listening carefully so he would not miss something important, only nodding and asking for specifics when needed. Since it was off day at the restaurant Summer had decided that she would spend her free time on her own was not present right now. Thunder already knowing full well that he would have to explain today's events to her tomorrow.
“And then I said goodbye and left. Yeah, that should cover it. Any questions left?”
“Well, a few. First, what is your plan? Following him in civil isn’t really a good option since he probably has bodyguards, or if he didn’t have some until now after the monster attack for sure. You would probably be spotted immediately since you are not stealthy, in the slightest. So that is out of the picture and not even you are insane enough to walk up to Change Industries and just ask to see him.” As Phoenix didn’t reply to him Thunder already knew the answer, still, a glimmer of hope remaining and so he asked: “Right?”
“Well, you see, I really have no better idea and it seems to get around convoluted setups by being blunt and cutting straight to the target. They know the police at least accept me and after today I’m sure he would want me at his side. But if you have a better idea I’m willing to listen.” He wasn’t completely convinced by his own idea and if Thunder could come up with something different he would be quite happy, knowing fully well that his plan had some serious holes in it.
“I got nothing, maybe you could have worked out something with agent Skies but we still don’t know if we can trust her. So ultimately I wouldn’t suggest that option either, so yeah your plan it is. Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.” No one was happy about their situation, they really had no connections, no skills that would help them in their current predicament and were totally inexperienced. Until now they had gotten lucky, news reports or just stumbling over the monster. But they needed to think off some way to find the Corrupted that was consistent.
“Damn and I hoped you would have something. This is going to be awkward. Really not looking forward to this. Your second question?”
“Yeah, second question. How was the first field test of the Thunder Disc? You already told me the abridged version, but I want more detail on it.” Thunder was relatively down to earth, which really worried Phoenix. Usually when he acted that way the situation warranted it, seeing him now so reserved really didn’t help him wind down after the day.
“Well, for the most part, rather well. Like I said, I managed to hold her down and change my direction relatively often. So all in all, ok. But at a certain point, I just couldn’t keep it up, like always. If this continues like this I will never be in complete control of Thunder Mode. However, I might try something that agent Skies suggested. Use it more as a way to attack and switch it off again. Maybe that will work till I have the speed fully under control. By the way sorry that I used a power I hadn’t fully mastered.” He expected another one of Thunders verbal smackdowns but what followed took him by surprise.
“You tried to do it without Thunder Mode and I personally prefer it if you survive thanks to unperfected skills then you always doing what I want. I have to trust you here, I don’t know how the situation was. I’m sure you made the right call.” A smile had sneaked onto his face making it possible for Phoenix to relax a bit.
“Thanks.” This single word carried his entire gratitude and happiness over the trust his brother apparently had in him.
“No problem, but you really should go to sleep now. You need every bit of energy you can get for tomorrow.” While he was still talking he had stood up and walked towards his bedroom. “Night.”
“Sure, night.” Phoenix still wasn’t entirely sure about the plan. “I really hope this will not feel so dumb when I actually am there.” He hoped, still having his doubts about that and went to bed.
>-------<A>-------<
“This is the worst plan I ever had.” Standing before the Change Industries building in his Alchemy armor he really felled out of place. Not helping much were the pedestrians that walked by eying him rather confused and he really couldn’t blame them. A hero standing fully armored in the streets looking up at a skyscraper was something rather strange and he would probably react the same way if he saw something as bizarre as this.
“Well, here goes nothing.” After one last breath, focusing his resolve, he entered the skyscraper. The interior was pleasant enough. The glass front of the lobby made it possible to see the pedestrians outside walking by. The floor was covered with a venomous green carpet and the walls were painted in a cold blue. A small seating area, consisting out of three blue couches, was occupying the left corner of the room. On the right side of the lobby a reception desk, made out of a dark brown wood, was located. The receptionist was a woman with light blue skin and green hair, that was bound into a ponytail.
All eyes in the room had shifted towards the rider the moment he had set foot inside. If standing outside was uncomfortable, he couldn’t even begin to describe how he felled now. Their looks were like daggers tearing through the armor and right into his flesh, staring at him with confusion, shook and even some in fear. The receptionist meanwhile just stared in utter confusion at the new guest.
After standing around for a few moments, unsure of what to do next, he started to walk towards the reception. The atmosphere was tense, no one comfortable with the situation, Phoenix avoiding eye contact with anyone, even if his helmet covered his face and subsequently his eyes. The way towards his goal being some of the most awkward in his entire life.
As he finally reached the reception desk, after what felled like an eternity, he was about to ask for Thorax, but apparently, the receptionist had found the courage to speak first. “Wel… Welcome to Change Industries, how… how may I help you?” Her awkward question didn’t help in the slightest to ease him into this entire situation.
“Well, my name is Kamen Rider Alchemy and this is going to sound weird, but I need to speak with Thorax Change, head of public relations. It has to do with the attack on his life yesterday.” He really was surprised that he had managed to reply something so well structured. The moment he had spoken his first word everything else just seemed to fall into place.
“Uhm… I’m not… I don’t… Give a moment.” She was totally overwhelmed by the situation. It was just too weird. Picking up the phone from the reception she died in some numbers, presumably those of Thorax's office and put the receiver near her ear, waiting that someone would respond. “Hello, here is Urtica, the receptionist. Here is someone that likes to speak to mister Thorax. No, as far as I’m aware he has no appointment with mister Thorax. Well, I’m not sure if that is possible, you that person is, well, Kamen Rider Alchemy. He says he has something to discuss with mister Thorax about the attack on his life yesterday. Aha, yes, as you wish.”
While she was speaking with whoever was on the other end of the phone Phoenix uncomfortably looked around the room, but thanks to the helmet it seemed like he never let his look from her. After she had hung up the phone she stared at the rider until she spoke: “Mister Thorax is willing to meet you. His office is on floor fifty-one.” After having said that she shifted her look towards a woman with cyan skin and hair with a slightly darker shade of blue. “Delilah, would you be so kind and guide our guest towards his destination?”
The woman in her orange business suit nodded and signaled him to follow her. But before he did this he still needed to do one thing. “Thank you very much.” And with this done he hastily followed his guide towards the elevators at the end of the room.
Delilah had already opened the door to the elevator and was waiting patiently for the Kamen Rider to catch up. She seemed to handle the situation more professionally then Urtica had, not even batting an eye because of him. She gestured him to enter, which he quite happily obliged, leaving the lobby and all its staring inhabitants behind as the doors closed again.
Sadly the relive of leaving the unpleasant looks behind him only lasted for a short while until he realized that he still wasn’t alone. Granted it was better since now only one person was standing right next to him, silent, yes defiantly uncomfortable.
The elevator was climbing the building, slowly, floor for floor, and still, no one dared to speak a word, it really mad this whole situation awkward. A woman in a business suit standing next to someone completely clad in electric blue armor, not saying a single word, he couldn’t stand it, he had to do something or he would go crazy before they even reached the halfway point.
“So, your name is Delilah?” He tried to break the ice and this was the first thing that came to mind.
“Hmm?” she looked over towards him, seeming somewhat perplexed. “Yes, my name is Delilah.” She apparently didn’t quite understand what Phoenix was trying to do.
“Well, it is a pleasure meeting you.”
She tilted her head in confusion, still not sure what he was attempting. “Thanks, the honor is mine.” She really wasn’t the talkative type, he had to try something different.
“You are Thoraxes personal assistant, or …?” Phoenix tried again to spark a conversation with Delilah, hoping this time it would actually work.
“No, I’m, you could call it a tourist guide? I lead visitors towards their destination. Of course, I’m not the only one that does that, there are two more since people come and go on a regular basis and one alone couldn’t guide every visitor.”
“Hm, certainly interesting. Thanks for your answer.” He only was glad that he could at least spend a small part of the trip upwards, not just staying silent.
“Ding!”
“Oh well, our short trip ends here, if you may follow me.” She stepped out of the elevator leading him towards his destination. They passed another receptionist sitting at her desk waiting for visitors. What was somewhat strange was that this floor only had three doors, two relatively near to the elevator after the small reception room and one at the end of the hallway. She led him towards one of the doors positioned on the side of the hallway and knocked once.
“You can come in Delilah!” Someone with a gentle voice replied from inside the room.
She just nodded and opened the door and made it clear that Phoenix should enter first. Nervously he stepped inside the office of Thorax. The room had a glass front behind Thoraxes desk, giving a magnificent look upon the city. Like the rest of the building, the walls were colored in a cold blue and the carpet still was the same venoms green. Bookshelves covered the walls and flowerpots made the entire office a lot livelier. Between two bookshelves on the right side of the office was a door, probably leading towards another room, probably for company meetings. In the middle of the room stood a desk with three chairs standing around it, sitting in one was Thorax, smiling at the newcomer.
“Ah, Kamen Rider Alchemy, it is a pleasure meeting you.” While he spoke he stood up and walked towards his guest. ”Well, meeting you and not being attacked out of the blue. I have to thank you for saving me.” He had bridged the gap between them and now hold his hand out, Alchemy somewhat unsure doing the same, ending in a handshake.
“Well, you hold out pretty well yourself, I was really impressed that you didn’t even get scratched. By the way sorry that I burst in unannounced.”
For a moment he thought he had seen Thorax face shift towards something more uncomfortable, but moments later he chuckled and rubbed his head with his hand, seeming somewhat embraced. “Oh, that. I was just lucky if you hadn’t saved me I would have been, well, let's not think about that now. And for you coming unannounced, not really, agent Ocean Skies already warned me that you might visit me today. And apparently, she was right. So what brings you here today? I’m sure it is not because you wanted to hear me thank you.”
“Well, no it’s not, but it’s indeed a nice bonus.” Thorax chuckled a little as he heard the response of the rider. “But, I’m actually here to discuss the attack from yesterday with you.” His voice shifted from his usual goofy tone towards something more serious.
“Figured as much. So what do you want to know, if I know the girl? Why did we decide to build at this spot? Or something else? For number one, no I never saw he before and if I can’t remember. Second, the park was one of the cheapest lands we could buy and since it had fallen into disrepair with only a handful of people actually caring for it, we saw it as a service for the community to build something useful there.”
Phoenix was somewhat overwhelmed with his eagerness to help, he had expected that this would involve far more convincing and sweet-talking, but he wouldn’t complain if thing, at least for once, went his way. “Well, this might sound somewhat strange, but I wanted to ask if it would be possible to follow you around for the day. She might target you again and I can’t let you get hurt only because I was to slow to arrive.”
“So you want to use me as bait, I see.” He replied, seeming relatively nonchalant about it.
“N… No! I would never do something like that. I just want to protect you, that is all.” He had been caught and Phoenix really wasn’t comfortable with the situation.
“Please, you don’t have to lie. You can’t let this thing just walk or fly around and harm people. And I’m your best bet to catching it. All I want is for you, to be honest with me.”
Now Phoenix really felt awful, he had taken this all with a level of calmness that was unnerving and he had lied to him, granted he had thought this would probably yield the best results but still now it just felled wrong. “Ok, you are right. I wanted to use you as bait, but I never intended to let harm get to you. I’m sorry that I lied to you. I think I will leave now and won’t waste your time anymore.” Head hanging he was ready to leave the room as Thorax started to laugh. Confused he just stared at the young man.
“Oh, that is good. Nono, it’s fine. I wanted to hold another press conference in the park anyway to try to reason with her and you tagging along will help if things go south. So, what do you say?”
This had taken Phoenix by surprise, he wanted to be used as bait. That was, interesting, but he wouldn’t let this golden opportunity just get to waste. “If you insist, I would be happy to play the bodyguard.”
“Then we have a deal!” He replied.
“Deal!”
“Still, one question. What would you have done if I had refused to help you?” Thorax asked curiously.
“Probably just followed you without permission.” He sheepishly replied.
“I will pretend I never heard that part.” He said, shaking his head in defeat.
“Probably for the better.” Alchemy replied chuckling sheepishly.
>-------<A>-------<
To Phoenixes surprise he wasn’t the only one that would accompany Thorax, as they left the building together, he was greeted with a full squad of police officers and a smugly grinning Ocean Skies.
“Well, well, who do we have here? Kamen Rider Alchemy. Do you want to talk a little bit or run off again? You could have made this so much easier for me and simply stayed a little longer, I could have arranged everything, but no, of course not, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it.” She greeted the rider.
“Well, maybe, but look worked out didn’t it?” He tried to be his usual cocky self, hopefully, she wouldn’t realize that in reality, he was rather embarrassed about the whole situation. He was thankful she couldn’t look past his red bug eyes.
She just chuckled and shook her head. “Well, fine, let's move. We have a VIP to protect.” With that, she signaled everyone to make themselves ready. “You will be right next to me with your bike, we will form the rearguard, so we can react quickly if something goes array. Any objections?” Skies had gone into full-on business mode and he knew better than to speak out against her, especially when he had no problem with her approach.
“Works with me, just don’t get in my way when she comes back.” He replied, already moving towards his bike, that he had held in its transformed state thanks to a seal he had placed on it.
Like his armor, the bike had changed into an electric blue form when he touched it in Thunder Mode. As he mounted his bike and got in position behind the limousine of Thorax Ocean pulled up next to him on a white and blue bike, complete with MRG logo on the side.
As the convoy started to move he followed foot, not wanting to lose them, but he really didn’t need to worry about this problem with the ludicrous speeds his bike could achieve. The four police cars and two bikes surrounded the limousin, keeping an eye open for any sign of a Corrupted or other complications, but everything looked save, at least for now.
They had driven for at least ten minutes, still nothing. Phoenix was getting antsy, expecting Rose to appear any moment now. Ocean, on the other hand, started to suspect that Corrupted number eight would wait til, they had reached the park again, just to make a statement. Still the quietness, besides the engines of the vehicles, was unnerving, like something would happen any second now.
A sudden crashing sound interrupted their thoughts, moments later the two armored police cars that formed the head of the formation passed them, badly damaged, tires wreaked, windshield cracked and rose petals covering them both.
Knowing fully well what that meant Ocean was the first to act. “Cover the VIP, but be careful, you are no use to me if you get yourself killed. Thorax, try to get somewhere where she doesn’t have the air superiority. I and Alchemy will try taking her down!” She gave orders over her communicator to her underlings and Thoraxes driver.
The limousine took a sharp turn right, heading for an underground carpark, all while evading storms of rose petals. Phoenix managed to make out where the attack had come from, right in front of them Rose, in her monster form, hovered several meters over the ground, unreachable for him at the moment. At least as long as he was on his bike. But before he could stop and gather momentum to reach her Ocean pulled out her high-tech gun and took on a shoot at the Corrupted, all while still riding her motorbike.
Rose didn’t even bother to dodge, expecting that the weapon wouldn’t even harm her. To her utter shook Ocean did indeed manage to hurt her, sparks flying off from the impact point, stunning her for several seconds. They used this precious time to increase the distance between them and her. But the shook didn’t last long and she already had started to attack them with the petals again, Phoenix and Ocean narrowly avoiding them.
Thankfully the next underground carpark was only one hundred meters away, funny enough that one was built not three months ago by Change Industries, sometimes fate seemed to be gentle.
While the rider and the agent dodged the attacks of the monster officers from each car opened their windows and took aim at their target, firing at it. Most of them missed but two actually hit their goal, but this only enraged Rose more, retaliating with her signature attack. The two last cars were hit, one crashing into the glass front of a restaurant, hopefully, no one was hurt during this, while the other driver lost control and the car started to overturn sailing right past them. They only had thirty meters till they reached their destination.
To the dismay of Phoenix and Ocean Rose now had shifted her priorities, now aiming directly at Thorax car with her attacks. One of her attacks actually hitting the rear window, shattering it in the process, with only fifteen meters to go Thorax driver started to turn during full speed and he actually managed relatively well, avoiding attacks from Rose, managing to almost reaching their destination more or less unharmed, almost. During the last moments of the daring maneuver, she managed to hit the car dead center on its side, sending it spinning out of control before they lost line of sight with the limousine as it crashed into the underground carpark.
Meanwhile, the car completely lost control and started to lose ground, spinning wildly in the air until it came to a stop, laying upturned in the middle of the parking area. Miraculously Thorax didn’t seem to be hurt that much, so was his driver, both unbuckling themselves and starting to crawl out of the wreak. At this moment Rose swooped into the carpark, looking for survivors. Right behind her, the two bikes also reached their destination.
“Hey Rosy, big mistake following him here, because now you are going to get grounded.” She spun around noticing both of them standing between her and the exit.
“Oh the lapdogs of stagnation arrive, but ultimately your efforts are futile. I’m the fertilizer that will nurture this flower of change.” Rose retorted, letting nothing getting in the way of her “nurturer of change” stig.
“Ocean, I hope you brought enough weed killer because it’s time for a little gardening.” Before she could answer, he had already charged straight towards the Corrupted, fists glowing with magical energy. Phoenix started with a swift smack to the face with his right fist, followed up by a left hook before delivering a devastating kick to her stomach, using the force of the impact to push himself further away from her.
The sudden attack and speed of it had left Rose somewhat disoriented and so she had no time to react before he again rushed at her with superhuman speed, this time from the right, kicking her in the side and retreating again. The pain was irritating but she had to concentrate or he would simply continue to pummel her into the ground. He dashed forward again, the moment he regained footing, but this time she was prepared and unleashed a storm of rose petals around her, trying to shield herself from any further attacks.
In the last moments before he would have run head first into the vortex of flower petals, managed to change his direction slightly so he missed the razor-sharp whirlwind, but only just barely. Still, his change in directions had made him stumble, just barely managing not to land face first on the pavement. He came to a screeching hold a few meters from the next wall. “Damn, that was close, I have to be more careful because if not I’m just going to run into one of her traps.” He muttered under his own breath.
Meanwhile, Thorax and his driver had managed to reach a door that would lead them to the next floor and so to safety, all thanks to Oceans help, who had rushed over to them while Rose was distracted. While both of them left through the door she stayed to record the date for Ivory, even if she would have liked to stay with them, her duties came first. She had crouched behind one of the concrete pillars that stabilized the place as she ordered a few of her man to pick up Thorax with her communicator as an explosion pulled her back into what was going on around her.
On the other side of the carpark a car just exploded, apparently Rose had tried to kill him with one of her petal-gusts, but thanks to his speed Alchemy had dodged the attack.
“Missed, me. But really, are you that bad when you are out of your element, I expected at least a little bit more from you. Or do you have a bad case of aphids, would certainly explain that lackluster performance up until now?”
The rider was really starting to get on her nerves if only he would not be so fast. She had to think of something before this situation became unsalvageable. What had he said about “out of her element”? That might just be the solution she was looking for.
Unleashing another gust of wind towards her opponent she hoped this would keep him down long enough so she could leave this place and have air superiority again. To her dismay, this hope was shattered nearly instantly, as she raced towards the exit Rose was tackled and through to the side. Apparently, Alchemy had hit her with his shoulder and stopped her from gaining the advantage again.
Phoenix didn't waste any time and charged towards her, delivering one kick towards her face, she frowned in pain. Faster then she could even realize it happening he had changed positions and kicked her again, this time in the stomach. This continued for a while, she had lost track after the fourth hit she had to endure. With one last kick to her back, she was through further away from her goal.
“One last chance Rosy, surrender now and everything will be fine.”
She had managed to stand up again, even if she still was shaking and just looked in his direction until she replied: “Screw you, I’m not finished yet. I will crush you and use your rotting body as humus for the bright future of this town.” She was panting heavily, but her rage kept her going, she couldn’t lose, not until she was done with him. But she noticed one thing, there was something strange on her stomach, a weird symbol, she didn’t know what it did but she was sure it belonged to Alchemy and that meant it was bad news.
“Well, I kinda hoped you would say that. Because that means I can test one of my new toys on you.” He chuckled and removed the Thunder Disc from the driver and hold it in front of him.
\ Thunder Disc Attack Mode! /
\ Thunder Tonfa! /
The disc began to glow brightly, a second light appearing at his other hand. As the light faded the Thunder Disc had doubled itself and transformed. Alchemy now was holding two tonfa with electric blue as its base color and golden decorations all over it. The weapon was made out of two sticks, a larger one and a shorter one that was fixed relatively at the front of the weapon, but not so that the end of the larger stick would be behind his fists. The Thunder Disc was enabled right over the handle.
“Resistance is futile!” Before Rose could react with an annoyed groan at the horrible pun she was hit right in the face with one of his weapons, electricity surging through her body. The next strike followed right after the first, as well surging with electricity, disorienting her further. The strikes that came afterward were just blurred, but she felt every single one of them. Alchemy struck all over her body, legs, arms, stomach, back and head. He spared no part of her. As he retreated the world just seemed to spin and blur before her eyes, it was a wonder she still could stand, but she had to endure, she had to stand up for the small people, she had to win!
He arranged his arms so he would be able to spin both Thunder Discs, that were placed on his weapons. The next thing he did was channel his magic into the Thunder Tonfa and as they were fully charged he spun the discs. “Electrical Discharge!”The front of the tonfa disappeared, revealing that the weapons were hollow inside. Next, he holed out his arms in front of him, the magical energy gathering inside the hollow part of the tonfa. “Clear!” He unleashed a fury of punches, every single one releasing a lightning bolt. Strangely not a single one hit the Corrupted.
“You missed.” She jokingly said.
Phoenix just ignored her and turned his weapons back into their disc-form.
“Rose, you have used the power you were given to hurt and endangered others as well as force your will onto them. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!”
While he spoke he placed the Thunder Disc back into the Alchemy Driver. After he had finished he spun the disc, just like he had done with the Fire Disc.
\ Thunder Disc Maximum Power! /
The seals all over her body started to glow, to Roses shook. She didn’t know what was happening, but she was sure it couldn’t be anything good. At the same time seals all over the underground carpark began to glow, the lightning bolts that had “missed” her. He had done it deliberately, she now realized this.
Alchemy started to charge towards her, as he had covered the half of the way towards her, he also started to glow and moments later he had transformed into a lightning bolt that headed straight for her.
She could only watch in horror as the bolt of lightning hit her and past right through her body and headed straight for another seal on the wall of the room. As he hit that one as well he again changed his direction, again towards her. He hit her again and aimed for her again, just with more speed than before. It was at this moment she noticed that the seal he had already hit and from which he bounced back at her was gone, but she had no time to dwell on this as she was again struck by the magical bolt of lightning.
With every time the bolt bounced off of a seal its speed increased, returning to deal even more damage to Rose and with every hit sparks flew off of her. At that moment the bolt passed again through her body this time heading straight forward towards the exit of the parking lot, only to hit a seal right in front of her and right back at her. For a moment she swore she could see a ghostly image of Alchemy heading straight for her with his right leg stretched out, but before she could see more the bolt struck her one last time, unleashing unimaginable pain all throughout her body.
Phoenix came to a screeching halt right behind her as a massive explosion consumed the room, thankfully sparing Ocean. After the explosion had died down only Rose was left behind, courses, but still unharmed. He stepped closer towards her, remembering the strange rose she had in her hair he pointed one of the unfinished Magic Disc at it. A green glow erupted from it, flowing into the disk which also started to glow the same way.
After the light had subsided he no longer did hold a blank disc, but a green one in form of a spinning whirlwind. The Wind Disc. But at the same time, two balls of light emerged from the rose and hovered for a few seconds before him, one dark blue, the other orange. Before Phoenix could react both of them shoot off towards the exit and disappeared.
“Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Agreed, but we shouldn’t worry about it now, let’s finish this first,” Ocean replied while handcuffing Rose.
“Yeah, you are right. By the way great idea with the whole underground parking lot. You made this significantly easier. Thanks.”
“No problem, I just did my job.” She replied.
“And thanks for arranging the meeting with Thorax, you really helped me there too.”
“Again, no problem. If you wouldn’t have run off like you did this would have been even easier. Next time just talk to me, makes it easier for the both of us.” Ocean encountered, hoping to strengthen the relationship between the rider and the MRG.
“Maybe, I still can’t trust you, but I will keep it in mind.” He replied, still dought present in his voice.
“Fine, by the way, Thorax said he was on his way towards the press conference and asked you to be there.”
“Sure, why not, I have nothing better to do anyways and that seems like a good way to wrap this up. Tell him I will be there.”
“Sure.” She replied while reaching towards her communicator.
“Thanks, so see ya!”
“See ya.”
With that, he had mounted his bike and rode off towards the park to see Thoraxes press conference.
>-------<A>-------<
The press conference had already started and Thorax was just about to come to a conclusion as he saw Alchemy in the distance with his bike.
“And before I come to an end I have to thank one person in particular,” Phoenix just came to a halt as he heard what Thorax was about to say: “Kamen Rider Alchemy, he made it possible for me to even be here. He and the police protected me from our guest that interrupted my speech yesterday. He not only saved me from her he also saved her from herself.” He pointed at the rider, who in turn just stared at the head of public relations of Change Industries.
Thankfully no one could see behind his helmet, because if that would be possible they would notice that he had taken a crimson red shade out of sheer embarrassment. While he appreciated the fact that Thorax thanked him did he really need to do this in public? For a moment he considered just riding off again but managed to stand his ground, no matter how awkward this was. He then raised his hand and waved back at Thorax, hoping it didn’t look too forced.
“But moving on, I hereby declare that we will stop any attempts to turn this park into something else.” A loud gasp went through the advance, they hadn’t expected that someone that was attacked by a crazy girl actually would listen to her, even after she was dealt with. “We have grossly miscalculated the importance this park holds for all of you. We thought to replace it with something that would help the community, but we were wrong and I will personally make sure that a situation like this will not repeat itself. If I fail, I apologize in advance.” The stunned silence of the audience quickly shifted towards booming applause.
Thorax had just managed to wrap every single person here around his finger. Change Industries would probably profit much from this boost in public support thanks to his actions. In a sense this was somewhat scary Phoenix had to admit.
“And we will not abandon our original plans completely, I already have three different locations we can shift the construction too. Not without speaking with the locals first of course. Thank you for your attention.” Thorax left the podium that had been arranged at the park and headed towards the rider.
“Thank you for your help, I couldn’t have asked for a better bodyguard.”Both shook hands when a blinding light flashed went off, a reporter had taken a picture at the right moment. “And I hope we see us again one day.”
“Thanks, but I’m not sure if this would be a good thing, I usually only appear when a monster attacks and I won’t wish that upon you.” Thorax just chuckled. “So, bye."
And with that Alchemy mounted his bike again and drove off before the reporters could bombard him with their questions.
>-------<A>-------<
It was the early afternoon as Phoenix returned to the “Magnum Opus”, on his way he had turned back into his civilian form. Parking in the hallway connected to the restaurant he headed straight for the backdoor.
Thunder and Summer were working in the kitchen, preparing food for the customers as Phoenix entered, arms hanging limply from his side.
“Oh, hey Phoenix and how did it go? Did you win?” Summer asked him in her usual cheery demeanor.
Phoenix just grunted in approval and continued his trot towards the stairs.
“Anything else?” Thunder ask, not expecting much of a conversation from his brother.
He just held out the Wind Disc and grunted: ”More, tomorrow. Tiered, will sleep now.” And without giving them any chance to reply he already dragged himself up the stairs.
“Wow, I have never seen him that tired. Is that something that is common for him?” A bit of concern in her voice.
“Only if he actually is really spent. The entire day in armor probably was a bit too much. Let him sleep. I’m sure he will be back to normal tomorrow.” He assured her.
“Good, but he shouldn’t expect any special treatment only because he overdid it today.” She chuckled.
“You know, sometimes you are evil.”
Summer just chuckled: “Oh, I know.” A mischievous grin forming on her lips. After a short moment of silence, Thunder and Summer started to laugh wholeheartedly.