//------------------------------//
// Wings of Freedom - Take Off! 
// Story: Kamen Rider Alchemy 
// by Layton13 
//------------------------------//

Well, here he was again, standing in front of the police station, just this time in his Thunder Mode. If it came to battle with the Corrupted again he could gap the distance between them quite easily without wasting time changing forms.

This time he ignored the suspicious looks of the police officers to the best of his abilities and headed straight for the entrance. Energetically he swung open the door and as expected everyone immediately stared at him with a mix of shock and confusion. Standing in the doorframe for a second he was starting to question if his approach was actually that good, but well it was somewhat late for that. So his only option was to just swallow up his nervousness and go through with it.

And so he did, as he set his first step inside the station his nervousness started to weaken and with every step further into the room his confidence grew. “Ahm, excuse me, but I have a meeting with agent Skies in about five minutes and I would be extremely grateful if you might let me through, it will only take a minute.” He proceeded to simply ask everyone in the room and only got even more confused looks back.

Expecting that this had all gone horribly wrong he was about to expand on his request as a familiar voice prevented him from doing this, even if he wasn’t entirely happy to hear it. “That won't be necessary, I will take care of our … guest.”

After he had spun around, looking for the origin of the voice, his eyes centered on the person that had spoken up. Officer Shining Armor, the oh so friendly police officer that had a relatively, interesting opinion on the rider, sat on one of the chairs in the room, looking straight at him. “Officer, Armor, it is nice to meet you. Though I hadn't expected you to be my guide.”

“It wasn’t my decision, but I will do my job. That is what I’m trained for, even if I might not like it. If you would be so kind and follow me, so we don’t waste any more time than necessary.” He replied, politely but still, he didn’t seem happy with the situation, while he stood up and walked towards Alchemy.

Shining Armor leat the way towards Oceans office, out of the entrance hall of the police station. As they had left the room Phoenix asked the officer a question: ”So, if you already were in the room when I entered, why didn’t you say something? Could have spared me that embarrassing question.”

“Oh, that. I wanted to see how you would react in such a situation. If you would simply run past them, or actually ask. Well, at least you got manners.” He replied, not even looking back at him.

“I’m sensing a pattern here. First Monochrome, then you. If you keep this up I might get the impression that you don’t trust me.” He replied jokingly.

“Well, you are a vigilante we don’t have much about. We don’t know your goals, morals, origins of your powers or who you are and if you have any form of combat training. And we supposed to trust you with the protection of our city and its civilians. Allow us to be at least somewhat skeptical, especially with all the collateral you cause.” He encountered.

“I can’t find much wrong with that approach; still would a little bit more friendliness hurt so much. And for the collateral part, rather a little then what the Corrupted might do if we wouldn’t stop them.”

“True, still what happens when you don’t realize that there are more things that get destroyed then simple buildings because you didn’t look. You are not trained for this at least that is what I think. You don’t act like a police officer. You don’t take this seriously; you joke around, don’t observe your surroundings and ultimately just endanger more people. I think we should have taken you ‘thing’ a long time ago and placed into more capable hands. While I can respect the fact that you put your life on the line for people you don’t know, I think someone with more experience would do even more good with.”

“I…” Phoenix was about to reply as he was interrupted by a voice he was quite happy to hear. Shining was not as happy.

“Very well thought out point’s officer Armor, still, I think you should not simply dismiss his way of handling things quite as fast as you might think. You might actually learn something new.” Agent Ocean Skies replied, smiling at both of them. She had apparently left her office for some reason he wasn’t too interested in right now.

“With all due respect, I don’t see what I might learn from him. He rushes in without observing the area and just stumbles around the battlefield until he manages to pull through. He’s not qualified.” Shining encountered, looking completely convinced by his opinion.

“Well, sometimes unconventional means are just what you need. Ever heard something along the lines of: ’The best swordsman doesn’t fear the second best swordsman, but the worst, because he can’t predict what he is going to do.’? Alchemy acts in the spur of the moment, quick, on instinct and so you can never truly predict what he might do. He throws his opponents of, in more ways than one. That is how he fights. Still, this can backfire, just remember his fight with Corrupted number seven. He went in without any plan and just tried to win, to catastrophic effects. I think he would work best with someone at his side that can give him the outline of a plan and he can fill in the gaps.”

“If you think so. I will think about it, but now I think I should get back to my computer. I still have a lot of paperwork to do. If you would excuse me.” And with that, he left the two and returned to his workplace.

“Thank you, for standing up for me,” Alchemy said to Ocean while rubbing the back of his head.

“No problem. Still, he has some points that you should work on. I had a rather hard time explaining the collateral damage you caused yesterday to my mother.”She replied while they walked the last meters towards her office.

“Oh, I’m sorry. That was not planned, I should better watch out next time.”

Maybe, on the other hand, there were too many unknown factors that your actions were excusable. Still, this time it was collateral, but what if next time it is not and instead civilians. You just have to have a better grasp on your surroundings.” She spoke to him while entering her office.

“Yeah, you are right. So what have you found out?” He replied, closing the door behind him so no one would listen in on their conversation.

“Well, more than last time. She stole two rings, a necklace and a pair of earrings. In total worth four thousand dollars.” As she mentioned the four thousand dollars Phoenix just whistled one short time, apparently impressed by the value of the accessories. “And the good part is we have a way smaller circle of suspects. Still, we could only narrow it down to eight, but still, better than nothing.” Ocean seemed generally happy that things were going as well as they currently were.

“Hmm, I didn’t expect that so many people were interested in the same things. But well makes sense that people share similar tastes in fashion. Even if I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, while that is interesting, I think we should discuss our actions in the near future. First and foremost, what are we going to do now?”

“Well, I was hoping you would come up with that since you know, your plans are better than mine. And you already said, I work better at the moment and with a little bit of guiding, didn’t you?” He asked rather cocky.

She chuckled a little until she responded: “Clever, clever. Using my own words against me. But I will play your game. Our plan, for now, is to wait. We have not enough evidence to get a search warrant, at least not as fast as we would really need it, and that would be today. If the pattern of Corrupted number nine is going to be consistent she will attack another shop today. So, our best course of action would be to simply wait it out. I would offer you a cup of coffee but I think I already know your answer.” She answered Alchemys question.

“Yeah, not a big deal. I’m not the coffee guy anyways. So waiting it out it is. I can work with that; let's hope it doesn’t take too…”

Before he could finish his sentence Ocean had already silenced him with holding out one of her fingers, signaling him to be quiet, while the other one was pressed against the communicator in her ear. “Hmmm, yes, I understand. We will be right there.”

“Let me guess, she is at it again?”

“Yes, this time at ‘Carousel Boutique’. Just this time the clothing store, not the shoe store.”

“She is starting to get predictable. Anyways let’s go then.” With that, both made their way towards the crime scene.


>-------<A>-------<


They arrived at the boutique without any problems, besides some angry drivers that were annoyed because they needed to make room for the both of them. The building had a purple-blue exterior and two glass windows; well it had two glass windows. Now they lay shattered in front of the building. A sign that someone had paid this shop a visit. And this someone just casually walked out of the exit of the shop.

“Oh, come on. Why do I always have the worst timing?” She frowned a plastic bag in her right hand.

“Well, you know. Maybe because karma is a cruel mistress.” Phoenix spoke while dismounting his bike.

“You don’t think we could talk this out? You let me go, no one gets hurt. I think you like talking, don’t you?” She desperately tried to avoid a confrontation.

“Hey Goldy, how about, you give up, bring this back, give me your artifact and everyone is happy. Sounds good? That is the only offer I’m going to make. So, yes or no?” He was not going to discuss this any further, especially with what she pulled yesterday. He could live without another fight against some Remnants.

“Well, that is a no. I think a tactical retreat is in order.” And with that, she shot a barrage of lightning in the direction of Ocean and Alchemy. Realizing that Ocean wouldn’t probably be fast enough to dodge the attack and would be severely hurt, he builds himself up in front of her and took the full force of the attack.

To surprising himself, it didn’t really hurt all that bad. Sure it was unpleasant and stung quite a bit, he had expected much worse. “Huh? Was that a weak attack or something? That didn’t really hurt.”

“Thanks and so on and it is great that you are not hurt, but you seem to forget something. She is getting away!” She had covered her face with her arms during the attack but now saw what happened around them.

“What? Oh, shoot, I’ll be right on that!” Using his super speed he rushed over her and delivering a kick to her side, right below her armor.

She groaned in pain but strangely she didn’t fly a few meters away, which confused both her and Alchemy who had taken a battle stance, both arms near his head and ready to strike.

“What, this usually works. Ok, just try again.”He charged at her again, striking her from the front, then turning around and attacking her from behind, continuing to constantly shift his attack-angel. After a few seconds, he came to a stop in front of the Corrupted.

While she looked like she had taken some damage, it just seemed like he had only lightly bruised her. "That is all? I expected a bit more, especially after yesterday. Maybe I have just grown so much stronger. Yes, that has to be it. Now, I’m unbeatable, not even you can do something against me!” She screamed and pointed her hands in his direction.

Phoenix was pretty sure she was not stronger than the last time they fought; still, he would not let an opportunity like this go by without capitalizing on it. The moment she unleashed her furry of lightning he had already started circling her, aiming for the back of the Corrupted and hoping that this time the damage would be more substantial.

But as he was about to attack something hit him in the side, sending him flying for several meters. As he rose his head to see what had indeed hit him Phoenix felled the weirdest sense of Dej-Vu. In the place, he had stood mere moments before now hovered a familiar orb made out of dark blue energy. The other orb that had escaped after Roses defeat, and if his last encounter with one of those was any indicator this would be relatively annoying.

And indeed it would be. The orb split into eight smaller ones, just like yesterday, which in turn slammed into the ground and gave off a blinding light. After a few seconds, eight monsters stood before him, just like the ones he fought before, complete with armor on their upper bodies, forearms, and lower legs, as well as the helmet with only one eye, just this time glowing in a dark blue light. The other thing that had changed about them was that their skin now was, just like the light from the eyelike hole, a dark shade of blue.

To his dismay, the Corrupted was nowhere to be seen. Probably had used the light to escape into one of the alleyways, without anyone noticing. Didn’t matter right now anyway, he couldn’t let these Remnants run around like that or they would undoubtedly cause harm to someone. They could simply get the footage from surveillance cameras again and maybe catch the culprit this way. But right now the only thing that was important was to destroy these monsters.

“Ok, you wanna dance, fine. Just make it quick. Right now I don’t have the patience for this.” And with that, he removed the Thunder Disc from its place on the driver and hold it out towards his opponents.

\ Thunder Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Thunder Tonfa! /

A familiar light enveloped his arms, subsiding again after a few seconds, just like always. He now did hold the Thunder Tonfa in his hands, small surges of lightning erupting from them.

The Remnants had, however, not just stood idly by while he summoned his weapon, rather the moment they had seen an opening they had unleashed a fountain of water from there glowing eye sockets, and the moment Alchemy could see again the water was already too close to dodge, so hitting him with its full force.

Pressing him against the wall of the buildings on the other side of the street, unable to move, thanks to the overwhelming force of the water the Remnants had unleashed on him. To his relief, his helmet prevented him from drowning outright, still, he was sure the air would at one point just run out; he had to think of something quick. Thankfully he had held his grip on the Thunder Tonfa the entire time, and with that realization, an idea began to form.

“You know, I never was that good in physics but one thing I learned was that water conducts electricity, and oh look I have an electric weapon and you attack me with water. I hope this revelation shocks you to the core.” With that he focused his magical energy into his weapons and the moment the first bolts of lightning erupted from them they raced through the water towards his opponents, who were to slow to react, getting shocked and dropping onto their knees.

“Grrrr!” They growled in pain, trying desperately to get onto their feet again.

Phoenix wouldn’t let them, well at least without some smack onto their heads first. So he charged towards the first one he could reach, poor thing didn’t know what hit him and sent it flying several meters forward. But he wasn’t done with it, charging further he only stopped right at the point where the Remnant would land. The moment his opponent came into reach he delivered a devastating kick towards the monster, its body bending in an unnatural way, almost at a ninety-degree angle. The force from the first punch and the following kick was enough to let the Remnant fall to the ground completely motionless, and after a few moments, it exploded into nothingness.

“So, who is next?”

The Remnants stepped back, unsure what they should do next after seeing what had happened to their comrade. Well, all but one who charged straight for the Kamen Rider. That was all to welcome for Phoenix since now he hadn’t to choose who he would attack next. As the monster saw that he was charging towards him it swung its right fist in the rough direction he would be. Alchemy, of course, saw this and ducked under his swing and retaliating with an uppercut with his right tonfa, sending the monster several meters into the air. Electricity was surging throughout the body of the monster and a trail of sparks was trailing off from where he had struck it. As it reached the highest point of his ark it simply exploded.

“That was easier than expected. Last time they took more punishment before they decided to explode, strange. Doesn’t matter right now, just roll with it.” He muttered to himself and charged towards his next target.

That was simply the closest opponent to him and he wasted no time and swept it from its feet, but before it could even land on the ground he slammed one of his tonfa into its stomach, nailing him into the pavement. Like the rest, his electrical energy was surging through its body and after a few seconds, it explodes, just like his brethren.

Wasting no time he pinned the opponent closest to him against the next best wall, holding him there for a moment. “Hope this is enlightening.” After this horrible pun, he unleashed lightning from his tonfa, letting the Remnant scream in agonizing pain.

Alchemy released the monster, that in turn just slide down the wall. As he came closer to his next target the Remnant he had left behind exploded, but right now he was more occupied with his current opponent. That one had anticipated that it would be next and had unleashed another fountain of water, this time just on a much larger scale. The best way for him to evade this attack was to just circle the enemy and attack from behind.

It was not too hard to circle his opponent since he was just so much faster than him, still, he had to be careful, maybe the Remnant would just be lucky, he could not risk this, especially because he was starting to fear he might not have given himself enough time to get a grasp on his surroundings again after this prolonged use of his super speed. He evaded the fountain of water just barely and now had managed to get behind it. Using his momentum he slammed his weapon right into his helmet. To his surprise, the helmet shattered on impact revealing that there was nothing under it. The monster collapsed, like the rest electricity surging through his body and exploded.

“Hah, really? That was pathetic, your buddies from yesterday put up much more of a fight. I’m actually a bit disappointed. Wait, where is the rest?” He wondered the last three were nowhere to be seen. Had they escaped?

The moment he had finished his sentence a gut-wrenching scream could be heard from the boutique. Wasting no time he raced towards the origin of the scream.

As he reached the entrance to the shop he could see that the last three Remnants had surrounded a girl with white skin and purple hair. She was dressed rather fancy, maybe she worked here. The strange part, however, was that there was a wall of ethereal diamonds separating her from the Remnants that pressed against it with their entire body. The girl, on the other hand, seemed to struggle to try to prevent them from pushing the diamonds in her direction.

Not wasting another second he dashed towards the three monsters, knocking the first one out with an uppercut towards his face, the second received a roundhouse kick right into his stomach, sending him flying into the wall opposite to the girl and the last one was hit straight into the face with his weapons, shattering its helmet. All three exploding mere moments after one and another.

But before Phoenix could ravel in his victory he was pushed by something from his left. Before he even had any idea what was happening he had been pinned to the wall by the ethereal diamonds. The girl that had mere moments ago pushed against the barrier now had suddenly no force pushing back at her and had stumbled a few feet forward and with that apparently had the barrier, much Phoenixes dismay.

As she looked up and towards Alchemy she pressed her hands over her mouth and screamed: “Oh, my goodness! I’m sorry, are you fine?” She seemed genuinely worried about him. And before he know it, she had let the barrier disappear and he fell face first onto the ground.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just hope you like the shape of a hero stamped into your wall.” He jokingly replied while standing up and stretching some of his muscles to loosen up again. “Far more important, are you ok. You seemed to have quite the problem with them, glad that I could help.”

“And I’m really grateful for that, mister Alchemy wasn’t it, right? Rainbow and Sunset told me about you and how you helped them.” As she spoke he noticed a purple necklace around her neck, quite similar to the one Rainbow had worn when she saved him. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Two girls that knew each other apparently had superpowers and both had a similar necklace.

“Oh, yes, the girls from the park. How are they? I hope they haven't run into any more trouble. By the way, what were these strange diamonds just about now?”

Her relaxed expression suddenly shifted into panicked. “Oh, that, that is… is … well…”

“Ok, I see, you don’t want to talk about it, let me guess. A magical artifact that turns you into a Corrupted. Am I right?”

“What? No! That would be laughable. This is a magical geode I found in Camp Everfree and no it does not turn me into one of these repulsive monsters. It just gives me superpowers. We would never use it for something like that, quite the opposite we use it to stop them, just ask anyone from our school, they will surely vow for us.” She seemed rather hectic, seemingly not sure what to say in a situation like this.

Before he could respond Ocean came in through the entrance, seemingly not pleased with how the situation had developed. “Sorry, lost her. So what happened in here?”

Now he had a decision to make, would he trust the girl, she seemed nice enough and it seemed like she was speaking the truth, but could he really let her keep a magical artifact like this? “The three Remnants had gone back in here and attacked this lady here. I saved her before something bad would have happened.” He had just hidden something very important from agent Skies, he really hoped that this would not bite him in the butt later.

“Hmm, good work Alchemy. But one thing, Remnants?”

“Oh, you know, they are remnants from other Corrupted and you already named the Corrupted. The least I could do is name the new ones if this is alright of course.”

“Hmm, ok, fine. I will let Ivory know this; by the way, I actually like the name. Certainly better then Corrupted. Still, we should get back to business. Young lady, who are you by the way?”She asked calmly, not trying to frighten her.

“My name is Rarity; I work here when I’m not at school. I know this place like one of my purses.” She replied, still seeming somewhat antsy.

“Wait, you work here. I don’t want to put too much pressure on you, but what was stolen?”

“Oh, of course, that was a black dress with parts of it being pink and…”

Before she could continue she was interrupted by Ocean: “I think we get the picture, thank you. Then I have another question for you.” She pulled out eight pictures and showed them to the girl. “Did any of these were here the last week and, or tried the dress on?”

She thought for a few moments until she started to smile. “Oh, yes. Pixel Pizzaz, the girl on the third picture, she goes with us to CHS. She was here yesterday and tried it on. And she said something about having a photoshoot with Photo Finish tomorrow after school and about looking good for it. Wait you don’t mean that she was that ‘Corrupted’ that robbed the store, no she would never do something like that.” She had pressed her hands over her mouth in shock after coming to the realization.

“Yeah, we think so. But don’t tell anyone about this, we don’t want her to catch on. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do, still if I could help in any way possible…”

Again she was interrupted by Ocean. “No, you are not qualified for this situation; you have no skills that would help you combat a Corrupted.”

Chuckling nervously she replied: “Yeah, I don’t, fine I will stand out of it, but if you need help you know where to find me.”

“We will sure keep that in mind; just stay here for a bit longer some officers will ask you some questions regarding the whole thing that happened here.” Rarity just nodded. “Alchemy, would you come with me for a moment, I have something to talk to you about.” He nodded in return, hoping his little lie would not be discovered.

She leat him to the other end of the room and started talking: ”We need to talk about how we proceed from here. I would say we should follow here and if we are in a more secluded place then the school we can confront her.” Phoenix relaxed; she had not noticed that he had withheld important information from her. “However if we have to act fast we have to through caution to the wind and step in. Who knows if she has something bad planned for this Photo Finish?”

“Agreed, so when and where do we meet again tomorrow?”

“I would say twelve a clock at CHS, we still have time to discuss the plan and we are prepared for unforeseeable things happening. What do you think?”

Phoenix thought about it for a few moments but the simply nodded.

“Good, then till tomorrow. I’m still letting the footage from the surveillance cameras be looked through, just to make sure.” She replied, seemingly happy to have the control of the situation back.

Alchemynodded and walked out the front door towards his bike. Ocean just sighed in relieve, finally, it seemed things began to fall into place. But the thing she was the happiest about was the fact that Alchemy actually worked well with the police and the MRG if they caught the Corrupted soon she would have a better leg to stand on when her mother asked about the trustworthiness of Alchemy. She just hoped that tomorrow would go well, without too many complications.


>-------<A>-------<


Like planed they had met up around twelve o'clock and now were observing the front entrance of the school from a small van parked severe streets away. Small drones, courtesy of Ivory, not bigger than a fist, had been deployed all around the school and covered every possible exit. If Pixel Pizzaz, Photo Finish left the building they would know. There was a joke in this situation somewhere, a few adults spying on two teenagers, but he was sure Ocean was not in the mood for it right now.

“So, how is it going for you?” Phoenix asked Ocean for a moment looked perplexed towards him.

“What do you mean?”

“You know, with the police and all. If everything is going fine or do you have any problems?” He was fishing for a good conversation topic, so this wouldn’t be so awkward.

“Ah, that. Yeah, pretty much business as usual. The police still are somewhat iffy on the MRG, feeling we are stealing their job, still, the new guns made it a bit easier. Ivory is even more eccentric the usual, but that usually means he is onto something big, looking forward to that actually. But besides that nothing noteworthy. And how is your life right now?”

“Good, good, everything fine. Like you, business as usual. Nothing noteworthy. So on what is Ivory working on right now?” That had sparked his interest.

“Well, I can’t really tell you, top secret, sorry.” She seemed to be uncomfortable with the subject; still, he was too interested right now to just let it go.

“Oh, come on, I would love to hear what it is.”

She was about to answer him as they heard a high-pitched alarm sound. “Oh, look there they are, let’s continue this conversation never.” She had rushed over to one of the monitors inside the van and had taken up one of the headphones. “They are leaving the building, be ready to follow, but stay as inconspicuous as possible.” She had shifted into her work mentality, determined to finish this here and now.

“As inconspicuous as you can be with a big black van, that is.” He jokingly added. As his reward, he received a look from Ocean that basically said, “Not now”.

The van started to move; always stopping when they would come to close and if they started to get too far away from the signal of the drones to be picked up they started to move again. That went on for roughly forty minutes and thankfully no one seemed to notice them, at least not their targets. While they were waiting for them to get to their destination, hopefully, a relatively secluded one, he had taken a look at one of the monitors and the two girls.

The first was a light blue girl with white hair and purple sunglasses. She wore a black dress with white stripes at certain places and pink accents. Besides her school bag she carried a photo-case around, she was probably Photo Finish. The other girl had a yellow complexion with purple-blue hair that lost intensity the longer it got that she had bound into two pigtails. She wore the dress that had been stolen just the other day, as well as the stolen jewelry and shoes from the other robberies. The only thing on her that probably wasn’t stolen were two bows in her hair with a weird eye in the middle and a strange ribbon over her chest, if he had to bet that was probably the artifact that turned her into a Corrupted.

The van finally came to a halt as they reached a park with an amphitheater. They had to leave the van behind to follow the two girls.

As they crouched through the park, and hide in the bushes he muttered: “You know, this is just ridiculous.”

“Would you shut it, you can complain later.” While she had to agree that someone in bright crimson armor sneaking through a park was absolutely ridiculous, but what other options did they have.

Alchemy just mumbled something incomprehensible to himself, but stop shortly after and just followed Ocean as inconspicuous as possible.

They finally reached the amphitheater. Ocean had pulled out a small tablet and was watching their targets from afar. They had gone up the stage and Photo was taking pictures of Pixel, they seemed to enjoy themselves. “I don’t think we are getting a better change any time soon. I think it’s time for you to take center stage.” She spoke to the rider while grinning a bit.

“Sounds good to me.” He replied and left their hiding spot, coming into view of the two girls. Photo Finish didn’t even realize he had entered until Pixels expression had turned into one of utter terror.

“Hey, Goldy, nice seeing you. Oh, you have gone under the models, I’m sure your mug shots will be equally as good.” He replied jokingly while walking towards the stage.

“Photo Finish demands to know wat is happening here!” The other girl asked Pixel, who in return started to sweet.

“I… I don’t know… he probably has the wrong girl.” She replied, with every second that went by she became more anxious.

“Well, no. I’m sure I got the right one. The one that robbed a shoe store, jewelry and a boutique. And surprise, surprise, all the items that were reported stole are right worn by misses Pixel here. Anything to say to for yourself, Goldy?” He asked, knowing fully well that he had just cracked her lie wide open.

“Wat?! You stole all of zis, Photo Finish can’t belive it!” She was clearly in shock and stepped a few steps back closer to the edge of the stage.

“No, I can fix this, just let me get rid of him and we can talk it out.” She tried to calm her down. “And now for you.” The strange ribbon on her chest started to glow and erupt sparks. Again a blinding light engulfed her and after a few second vanished leaving only the Corrupted number nine in her place. The force of the transformation was too much for Photo Finish, pushing her over the edge of the stage and knocking her out cold.

“Now you are going to pay!” She growled and unleashed a surge of lightning towards Alchemy. He dodged the attack thanks to the long way it had to travel, wasting no time he charged towards the stage.

Pixel apparently had gotten used to her powers tried to redirect her attack so it would hit the rider, but he observed the movements of her hands and managed to evade every course correction before it hit him. That continued until he came to the edge of the stage and Pixel was unable to aim at him from her angel.

She stopped her attack and stepped closer to the side of the stage, she could nearly see him, but at this moment Alchemy leaped over the edge and delivered a devastating punch towards her face, sending her tumbling back. “Missed me?” He joked.

“You, you. I will kill you; you have ruined my chances with her. I’m going to make you pay for this.” She hissed unleashing another barrage of lightning. Like before he dodged the attack and moved closer towards her, just this time she interrupted her attack and blocked his attack.

“So, Goldy, you only did this for love. Now I feel kinda sorry for you, kinda.” Right as he finished his last word he continued to hit her with a punch to the side of her head. To his surprise she did not block but retaliated instead, punching him right into the stomach, electricity surging through his body.

Staggering back she didn’t stop and hit him two times, both electrical charge as well, right into his face. Putting all his resolve into one punch he tried to counter-attack, but thanks to the pain he felled all throughout his body he missed and stumbled a few steps forward. She used this golden opportunity and kicked him right in the back sending him flying and he landed near the edge of the stage.

Ignoring the pain in his body to the best of his abilities he stood up again, facing his opponent. She just growled and charged directly at him. He managed to hit her in the face and it seemed to be quietly effective, but she hit her mark as well, his stomach. As the electricity surged through his body, sparks flying off from the impact point, she increased the force behind her attack again and Alchemy was sent flying over the small wall separating the amphitheater and the rest of the park.

“Was that all?” She mocked him.

Thankfully his fall had been cushioned by a bush; still, his entire body was numb. “Ok, that didn’t work. I can’t get close to her and Thunder mode dose nearly nothing. Ok, fine how about something new.” He muttered to himself, grinning under his helmet.

He stood up and removed the Flame Disc from the Alchemy Driver, pulling the Wind Disc from its place on the belt he placed it into the Driver and spun the Disc.

\WIND DISC ACTIVATED!/

An emerald wind enveloped the rider and after a few seconds released him again. In the place of the crimson armor now was an emerald green one with golden accents. The fire symbol on the chest now was replaced with one that represented wind. His horns now were stylised like whirlwinds and his eyes were bright red. Around his neck, a white scarf flowed in the wind.

Still somewhat numb from the previous shocks wind began to gather around him and after a second he started to hover over the ground. Then he shot back towards the battlefield and a confused Pixel. “What? This is impossible.” She exclaimed and was hit by the rider as he flows by and landed on one of the last lines of seats in the theater.

“Oh, quite the contrary. It just happened. I’m here to blow you away.” He replied pointing his finger towards her.

He removed the Disc from its socket again and hold it in front of him.

\Wind Disc Attack Mode!/

\Hurrican Bow!/

Like always a bright light enveloped the Disc and subsided quickly after it had appeared. This time he holds an emerald green bow with golden markings on it in his right hand. The bow was curved and its front was equipped with a sharp blade, undoubtedly for close quarters combat. Small golden swirls that looked like flowing wind decorated the weapon. The Wind Disc was mounted over the grip.

“Say cheese.” He joked as he pulled the bowstring. An emerald energy arrow appeared out of nothing and he took aim. As he released the arrow it shot straight towards Pixel, who had no time to react and hit her in the shoulder, sparks erupting from its impact point.

She screamed in pain but kept a clear enough mind to retaliate, unleashing her lightning attack. Alchemy had no problem evading it now, thanks to his ability to fly. And it didn’t stop him from unleashing more arrows on her. At a consistent rate, he rained magical arrows down upon her, all while she was unable to do anything against it. She could not escape, she could not hit him and she could not defend herself against his attacks. Even her constant barrage of lightning did nothing to stop him since he easily dodged it.

Landing at the entrance of the amphitheater he spoke: “Let's finish this!” While he spoke emerald energy was channeled into his weapon. He had reached towards the Wind Disc and started spinning it. “Arrow Storm!” He pulled the string of the bow again and an arrow formed, like the times before. He aimed into the air above them and released it. As the arrow shot into the air, it did not change its path but stayed in a straight line towards the sky. That was before it suddenly disappeared into a magical seal, moments later a few dozen of smaller seals appeared above their heads and unleashed a barrage of an arrow heading straight for Pixel.

“No, this… this can’t be. No … I just wanted that she liked me. Why does life hate me so much.” She stammered until she was hit by the storm of arrows, every hit letting sparks erupt from her body. As the attack was over she just kneed their, painting and unable to even move.

He wasted no time and removed the Wind Disc from his weapon and it back into the disc form.

“Pixel Pizzaz you used the power you were given to steal and destroy. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!”

He placed the Wind Disc back into the driver and started spinning it.

\Wind Disc Maximum Power! /

The emerald energy gathered in his right foot and as it reached its limit he charged up into the sky. It became increasingly hard to see him as he ascended. Then he suddenly stopped and aimed directly at the Corrupted and shoot straight down, only increasing in speed as he came closer to his target. While he charged for his goal he started to spin, a tornado forming around him. As he finally reached Pixel he struck her right in the chest, at the moment of impact an extremely strong wind waved past everyone, nearly blowing Ocean away. As the wind subsided Alchemy stood behind the girl that had lost her monster form and now lay on her back.

He stepped closer and held out his Thunder Disc and absorbed the magic from her ribbon.

“Please, tell… tell her that I’m sorry. I through ower friendship away just because I wanted to… wanted to be together with her.” Pixel weakly said, to Phoenixes utter surprise. Usually, the Corrupted would be out cold after one of his finishing moves.

“She doesn't have to tell her. Photo Finish already knows.” A voice came from the edge of the stage. “Please, don’t take her to jail. It was za magicks, that made her do it!” She begged him.

“Listen, kid, I have no way of helping you here, that is all on agent Ocean Skies. But I’m sure she will see that she was manipulated by the artifact.” He assured her.

“Well, I see you can decide to form me apparently,” Ocean said from behind. “But you are right, I think I can get her punishment down to something like community service, but she has to be punished some way.”

“Thank you. And after you are done with that, why don’t we go eat something together?” Photo Finish asked her friend. Pixels response was to hyperventilate and simply faint, probably a mix of excitement and battle fatigue.

“I think that was a yes. Anyways, I think you have this handled here Ocean. I will leave the rest to you if that is ok.”

“Yeah it’s fine, see you.” She waved to the rider and began to move to Pixel to handcuff and prepare her for the transport.

“See ya!” He replied and flew off towards a quiet place to turn back.


>-------<A>-------<


Two days had past and Phoenix had returned to his waiter job at the “Magnum Opus”. Like usual, the restaurant was filled to the brim with customers. Right now he delivered a bunch of pizzas to a group of eight people. Four of them he had already meet, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity and surprisingly Lightning Dust.

Most of their orders were relatively mundane, paprika, apples, some with pineapples, besides one with candy corn, it was nearly as weird as Oceans pizzas, but only nearly. He placed the last order down in front of the girls and said: ”Here is the rest. I hope you have a good meal. By the way, I’m impressed that you let Lightning eat with you since you know…” He rubbed the backside of his head, knowing fully well that he shouldn't have started this conversation. He was just so interested how these girls came to their decision.

“Well you know, we think everyone deserves a second chance and we would be really hypocritical if we wouldn’t do that.” The purple girl replied, apparently her name was Twilight Sparkle.

“Yeah, Sunset if I remember correctly.” He replied.

“Yeah, something like that.” The girl in question answered.

“Thank you girls, I’m so glad you gave this chance to me.” Lightning replied seeming really happy.

“By the way, would you be so friendly and ask Thunder if he could come over her for a second darling?” Rarity asked him.

“Sure thing, let me just… Ahhh!” As he turned around his brother stood right in front of him. “When did you… how did you… what?” He stammered as he desperately tried to regain his composure while everyone started to giggle at his reaction.

“I just heard that Rarity asked for me and here I am. So whit what can I help you, mademoiselle?” He asked her in his usually showy way.

“There is this fashion show next Wednesday and I wanted to ask you if you would come with me. I will take part in it and you would be perfect for pointing out last minute changes. What do you say, darling?” She asked him in her sweetest voice.

“What I say? Fantastic, I would love to, seeing all these beautiful clothes will bring me new ideas for my own creations. I will be there.” He proclaimed.

“Oh no, now there are two of them,” Phoenix exclaimed in utter shock. Everyone else just laughed. Well, he had to look on the bright side, a day all to himself, at least if everything went according to plan.