It was pitch black and everything just felt fussy like he was floating. At first, he had no idea what had happened and where he was without any way to actually focus on anything. His mind was constantly stumbling over itself and he lost repeatedly track of his thoughts. He didn’t know how long he spent in this state; time seemed to simply fly by, but at the same slow done to a crawl. After what felt like an eternity something caught his attention. He thought he had heard something, something familiar. A voice? Who was it? It was distant but it grew clearer by the second.
“I thi… wa… up!”
Still, he could not quite make out what was being said. Some simple words could be made out, but nothing substantial. But one thing was clear, it wasn’t just one voice, there were multiple. As the voices got clearer his other senses started to return as well. He felt that he was lying on something soft and comfortable. The first thing he tasted was something vaguely similar to iron, but not quite. A sweet smell sneaked up on his nose, the scent of food, tomatoes, cheese and many other. It was distant, but definitely there.
After a while, light slowly started to enter his vision. First only for short burst, like a heartbeat, but over time it turned into a blurry image before him. Something blue was right above him, but he just couldn’t figure out what it was. A new scent had reached his nose, it was sweet and fresh, like a summer breeze. As he finally managed to open his eyes further he looked into a beautiful face, small cute nose, a smile that could melt the coldest heart, flowing long blue hair with light blue strands and dark purple eyes that looked like amethyst.
“Well, you certainly are a man of his word Phoenix,” she said, he still not entirely sure what he saw and simply groaned confused in return. She just chuckled and replied: “Well, you said you can manage to get back home and well you did and even managed to get about there steps inside the building until you collapsed and fell unconscious. You are stubborn, you know that?”
“Thank goodness you are ok. I really was getting worried about you,” another feminine voice spoke to him.
“Oh, you are ok. Thanks, thanks, thanks. I’m so glad. Do you know how worried I was, do you? Never do this again!” A male voice cried out next to him, just out of sight, it sounded more like the person was weeping with a mix of happiness and sadness.
Then it hit him in an instant. Ocean, Charge, the Corrupted, his beatdown and who was leaning over him. Phoenix shoots up in an instant, nearly hitting Ocean with his head, but thankfully she managed to get out of reach before that happened. But before he could say anything a sudden burst of pain shoot through him, starting from his stomach. He clenched the aching part of his body and slumped back onto the couch he was currently lying on.
“Wow, take it easy. You did take quite the beating back there. You should be glad that it only amounted to a few bruises, in the end, thanks to the armor and the disc. It’s a miracle you don’t have any internal bleeding. You should just stay put for now and we can talk a bit. If you feel up to it that is,” she had put her hand on his shoulder to keep him down and was sounding rather worried. That was when he noticed that he was shirtless and was covered in bandages. As he looked around he spotted a worried looking Summer and Thunder, who was currently boiling his eyes out while also sporting the brightest grin he had ever seen.
Phoenix sighed in response and ceased his attempts to sit up again. “Fine, fine. Just talking, sounds rather nice about now anyway. So, let’s start with the most important thing. How? How did you know I was Kamen Rider Alchemy?” He started at her with a stern look.
“Oh, that. Well, I think I have to explain a few things before we can come to that. Let’s start with something simple. You remember our first meet and I said something along the lines that we found magical energy readings in the area?”
“Now that you mention it, yes you did. Didn’t really think about it that much since I had other things to worry about. Let me guess, you have a way of scanning for magical energy and somehow found me?” he asked somewhat absentminded, while he could finally think somewhat clearly again this was still a bit much for him.
“Exactly! We have basically a radar that can scan the entire country for magical activity, specifically magical wavelengths. Additionally we have one of those devices build for a smaller radius, in other words for the city and surrounding area. And there was one place we constantly detected a specific wavelength from. I’m sure you can guess what I’m talking about,” Ocean continued all while keeping a perfectly relaxed face.
“It was the ‘Magnum Opus’, wasn’t it? Dammit, I should have thought about that,” He sighed, kicking himself mentally for not thinking about this possibility.
“Now, now. You couldn’t know. It’s always the unexpected stuff that derails a plan. So after we had the location marked as a place with a frequent magic user I already had a suspicion. So we used a few of the drones you saw during our monitoring of Pixel to cover the area and gather evidence and look what they found,” she smirked and waved a stack of pictures in front of Phoenixes face. Like expected it were pictures of him turning into Alchemy, Phoenix grimaced in a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance.
“Remember me to smack Ivory upside the head when I next see him,” he gritted through his teeth. Ocean just smiled at him with a short snicker. “So, you know I’m Alchemy… Does that mean anything regarding our agreement changes? Am I now under observation? Have to follow your lead? Or something where you exploit me in any new ways?”
“Well, the agreement is going to change slightly, but in your favor actually. Since we now know who you are we can actually communicate with you, which is going to make both our lives so much easier. So, what is next on your long list of questions?”
He let his eyes wander while trying to sort out his next question. “Hmm, next question, next question. Oh, yes. How did you become a Kamen Rider? That one sparks my interest right now,” he replied while eying her skeptical.
“Well of course. Well, where to start, ah yes. The first time you meet Ivory he explained the process of gathering data from you and on the Corrupted if I’m not mistaken. We primarily use the gathered data to advance our techs, like weapons, tracking devices and much more. However, a few years back we managed to recover something from an ancient ruin,” as she spoke she pushed a button on a rather bulky belt buckle he only now spotted. After a bright glow, the belt buckle had transformed into the belt Phoenix had seen her wearing as Charge.
Ocean then pointed at the red-gem-stone embedded into the belt: “This is the Charge Stone and the belt around it is the Charge Driver. We found the stone in a tomb that was sealed about three thousand years ago. We also found inscriptions on the wall of the tomb that told of a great hero that thought in a gruesome war. It also told us that this warrior used elemental magic to achieve his strength. Together with our knowledge of magic and the information from the tomb we managed to develop the Driver. Sadly, that wasn’t all we needed to get it working.”
“Wait, wait, you found something this magically potent in this world?” Thunder interrupted them, to both Phoenix and Oceans annoyance.
“What do you mean with ‘this world’?” Apparently, he had awakened her curiosity with his statement.
“Ahmm, what I mean… Well I… You know,” Thunder was stuttering and trying to come up with a coherent answer.
To Oceans surprise Phoenix just started to laugh, well until he had to holds his side in anguish. “Ouch, still worth it. And you said I would let something slip. I the end it was you.” Thunder just glared at him with an intensity that was downright scary. “Hey, all in good fun. Come on, admit that it is funny.” Thunder just grumbled something unintelligible and looked away, meanwhile, Summer snickered a bit at the frustration of her boss.
“I don’t want to interrupt anything, but what are you talking about?”
“Oh, yeah. Ever heard of the multiverse theory?” Alchemy asked her. She nodded, with a curious look on her face. “Well, it’s not just a theory, it’s reality. And our ancestors come from another world. And you have to believe me on this, a world populated by talking horses.”
Ocean just stared at Phoenix like he was out of his mind. Well, you couldn’t really blame her, the story did sound nonsensical. “Ok.”
“What do you mean with, ok? I expected a bit more bafflement on your part, your reaction is actually a bit of a letdown.”
“Yeah, when you work long enough in the MRG, stuff like this just get normal. If you saw a man polymorph into dozens of animals every minute, something like this just loses its shock value. Sorry.” Ocean just shrugged with a nonchalant expression on her face.
“Ok, then. That was the short version if you want more detail just ask Thunder, I’m sure he is willing to tell you more. Are you Thunder?” He just nodded while wiping away some sweet with a handkerchief.
“Thank you, Thunder, so where were we again? Oh right, the Charge Driver. The missing parts to get the Driver working. We were missing the elemental magic to get the Driver in working condition, until then it basically was just a nice belt. And that was when you appeared. You were the perfect test subject. Alchemy powers work on elemental magic, just like that of Charge. By gathering data from your battles with the Corrupted we could finally manage to get the Charge system working.”
While Ocean spoke she pulled something from her pocket. A small metallic object with electric blue marks on it, it was one of the small batteries like objects he had seen in the lab of the MRG. “This is the first Charger we managed to finish, the Thunder Charger. And all thanks to you Phoenix.”
“Oh, now I’m flattered, “ he retorted while grinning.
“And now that you know the details, I’m sure you are going to let us gather the data by showing it off to us.” Ocean looked at him with expecting eyes.
“Sorry, no. I might trust you, but not the MRG. I'm keeping that as a kind of insurance so you don’t remove me from the board.” She stared at him completely disappointed.
“Oh, ok. I understand. It’s unnecessary but, if you think so, I’m ok with it. If you change your mind, just tell me. Oh, that reminds me, here.” She was holding something in her hand close enough that he could reach it. Phoenix grabbed the note and took a good look at it. There were numbers written on the note, he just didn’t know what to make of it right now. “That is my number, call me if you need to.”
Phoenix was speechless and started to blush a bit. “Wow, thanks. You serious about the whole working together thing. I appreciate it.” Meanwhile, Summer and Thunder snickered as silent as possible at the two. Ocean seemed to ignore it while Phoenix just glared at the two who just smiled back as innocent as possible.
“No problem, so any other questions left?”
There were still some questions left he wanted to ask but he started to feel that his energy was starting to leave him again, the conversation had been taxing, to say the least. “Well, yes, but I think they can wait. I just feel a bit drained right about now. Can we continue this another day?”
“Oh, oh, sure. You still aren’t in top condition. I think it was enough for today, just lay down and heal. And when you feel comfortable with it just call me,” as Ocean spoke she stood up and smiled down at the tiered Phoenix.
“Thanks. By the way, thanks for saving me again.” Ocean just nodded and smiled back. “So, see ya!”
“See, ya!” With that, she walked towards the stairs. As she reached them she looked back one last time and smiled at the three, waved with her hand a goodbye and walked down towards the kitchen and ultimately the exit.
After they heard the back door close again Summer teasingly said to Phoenix: “Phoenix, you Casanova, you managed to get her number. When is the first date?” Thunder just burst out int laughter shortly followed by Summer.
“Haha, funny,” Phoenix just sighed. He was too tired for this.
After a while, Thunder had managed to calm down enough that he could ask Phoenix something: “So, she knows that you are a Kamen Rider. What do you think of it?”
His brother stayed silent for a few moments, his expression visibly tensed. “I’m not entirely sure myself, but right now I think I can trust her. She seems like a good person, but how much that actually means, I don’t know.”
“If you trust her I think it’s ok. So if she asks about our past again, should I tell her everything or keep some parts to myself?” Thunder seemed rather unsure about the whole situation.
“Mhh. I think it will only cause more problems then it would solve. You know just tell her.” Thunder just nodded. “I think I’m going to sleep a little, if you two would be so kind and leave me for a while, that would be great.” He smiled at them with an exhausted expression.
“Ok, just rest a bit and recover we are going down,” Summer immediately returned.
Thunder, however, remained right where he was standing and looked rather serious towards his brother. “Promise me one thing, don’t die. I don’t want to lose you to this. Just make sure you are safe.”
Phoenix chuckled a little at the remark of his brother. “As safe as you can be as a Kamen Ride.”
Thunder smirked back at his brother and followed Summer down the stairs. “Sleep tight.” It didn’t take long until sleep took hold of Phoenix and he drifted into a dreamless sleep.
>-------<A>-------<
The time just seemed to fly by, four days had already passed since the fight with the two Corrupted and the first appearance of Kamen Rider Charge. Phoenix had spent most of his time sleeping and healing. Ocean in the meantime had snatched Thunder for a more in-depth talk about their family history. She was especially interested in the origin of the Driver and what happened to the stolen Magic Discs. But she didn’t just come for the information, she still visited daily for her pizza and to ask how Phoenix was doing.
Just like today, she had finished her meal and had entered the kitchen, something Thunder had allowed her begrudgingly. Both of them were having a rather enthusiastic discussion about toppings on pizza when they came back to Phoenix. “And I tell you, strawberry and squid just works perfectly together if you want a second opinion on the matter just ask Phoenix.”
“Ok, ok, fine. You win, I’ll try it. Speaking of Phoenix, he is doing quite well, that was what you wanted to ask, am I right?”
Ocean looked rather perplexed for a moment, but then just chuckled: “Mhm, I’m becoming predictable. But yes, how is he? I assume well.”
“Yeah, pretty much. He should be top fit in a few days, but he can already walk again without it causing pain. That, however, means that he can annoy us down here. I’m somewhat tempted to let him work again, but I don’t think that is such a good idea. Right now he should be sleeping upstairs. Pretty much all he does, sleep and annoying us down here. But hey, I’m glad he is feeling better.”
“That sounds good,” Ocean replied while leaning against to wall with a grin on her face.
Thunder lowered his voice a bit: “So, do you have any new leads regarding the two Corrupted that attacked the CIT?” He sounded somewhat worried.
“Until now, no. Corrupted number eleven and twelve have kept a low profile. No new reports and we didn’t pick up any magical wavelengths. It’s like they dropped off the face of the earth,” she replied somewhat frustrated.
“Well, I’m actually glad about this, so Phoenix doesn’t get any stupid ideas,” he sighed while looking up the stairs.
Ocean was just about to reply as she heard her earplug be. “Wait, I have to take a call.” Thunder just nodded. “Hey Ivory, what is it? Hmh, hmh. What!? They are where? Ok, I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Thunder looked to her in worry. “Eleven and Twelve are at it again and this time they are attacking the ‘Fancy Bank’.”
“Well, then what are we waiting for?” A voice came down the stairs and seconds later an orange man with red hair and red T-shirt stepped down, much to the frustration of Thunder and Ocean.
“Phoenix! Why are you here, you should be sleeping!” Thunder asked his brother in an irritated tone.
“Well, it’s quite hard to sleep with so much noise when you two discuss pizza toppings down here. Not important anyway, because thanks to that I actually caught that, by the way, squid and strawberry are just delicious,” he lightheartedly replied and proceeded to walk towards the back door.
“No Phoenix, you are not going out there like this. You are still hurt,” Thunder vehemently protested, much to Phoenixes annoyance.
“Look, I’m fine and I’m not just sitting around here and let Ocean fight these two alone. Believe me, with the Magic Discs I’ll be fine,” he sighed while looking pleadingly at Ocean.
“He is right, you are still hurt. And I hold my own against them quite well last time. I’ll be fine, but you, you still need to recover.”
“You did, but never get too confident of your powers, believe me,” while he was talking he placed his hand on his shoulder. “And I’m not staying here and no amount of arguing is going to convince me.”
Thunder was about to reply as Ocean sighed and retorted: “Fine, I have no time for this. You can come along, just make sure you won’t get hurt. I don’t want to hear a tirade from Thunder.” Thunder was speechless, how could he be ignored like this, but before he could protest the two had left the kitchen already, leaving him there. Oh, he was going to have a talk with the two later.
Outside Phoenix and Ocean were sprinting towards their bikes and stopped right in front of them. Phoenix pulled out the Alchemy Driver and let it loop around his waist. Meanwhile, Ocean pushed the button on her belt buckle and let the Charge Driver appear. Phoenix took out the Thunder Disc and placed it in the Driver. Ocean took out her Thunder Charger an put it into the cylinder of the belt.
\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /
\ SCANNING CHARGE! /
While Phoenix spun his Magic Disc Ocean spun the cylinder of her belt and both yelled in unison:
“Henshin!”
\ THUNDER DISC ACTIVATED! /
\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /
Around Alchemy a whirlwind and out of lightning appeared while his armor was formed. Ocean, on the other hand, was enveloped by a blue sphere that sometimes released short bursts of electricity. After both the sphere and the whirlwind had disappeared both Riders stood in their electric blue armors and were ready to move out.
“So, you also yell ‘Henshin’ when you transform. Where did that come from?” asked Phoenix somewhat perplexed. He had expected something different or nothing at all.
“I might have asked Ivory to program ‘Henshin’ as the voice command for activating the Driver after I heard you use it, all thanks to the drone,” she sheepishly replied.
“Aw, I’m flattered,” he smugly returned.
“You can be flattered later, we have a job to do,” Ocean replied rather matter of factly.
“Ah, good point. Then let's finish this, shall we?” Ocean just nodded and leaped onto her bike while Phoenix did the same. Her bike hadn’t changed that much, it still was blue and had the MRG logo printed on it, but now it had a similar tube on both of its sides as Charge had on her legs. And just like the ones on her legs it glowed electric blue. But he had time to admirer Oceans bike later, right now they had two Corrupted to beat and no time to waste. And with that, they raced out of the alleyway and towards their destination.
>-------<A>-------<
The police had gathered around a big marble building in the center of Canterlot City. Large pillars decorated the exterior and gave the building a certain feel, like you just were insignificant in comparison to it. This building was the ‘Fancy Bank’, the biggest bank in Canterlot City and one of the oldest building this city had to offer. But right now, no one was admiring the architecture of the building or withdrawing money. No, the atmosphere in and around the bank was tense. Policemen pointed their guns at the exit and no one dared to even speak.
Two monsters had suddenly appeared in the bank and forced everyone that was in the lobby to run for their lives. Those unlucky few that hadn’t been able to escape were scattered throughout the building, completely terrified. Surprising the police, apparently, the two Corrupted hadn’t taken any hostages and instead decided to move towards the safe as soon as possible.
Outside officer Shining Armor was walking up and down between the police cars that secured the bank and muttering to himself: “Where is she? She should have been here minutes ago, what is taking her so long?” The wrinkles on his forehead were a good indicator that he was not in a particularly good mood and his colleges noticed. As he reached for the earpiece to contact Ocean again he heard something approach, the sound of engines. That had to be her.
He orders the other policemen to make room for the approaching motorcycle and as soon as they had managed to open the barrier a little bit, two motorbikes came through and stopped right behind the barricade. Two figures in blue armor dismounted and looked directly at him, Alchemy and Charge respectively.
“So officer Armor, how is the situation right now?” Charge asked him with a voice that made it clear she didn’t want to waste any time right now.
“They are in there. As far as we know they didn’t take any hostages, but some civilians are still trapped inside. Apparently, they managed to crack the vault, they should be on their way out!”
“Good, we’ll take care of that then. Be ready if they manage to get outside and to extract any civilians if possible. Otherwise, stay guard.” And with that, she turned away from him and gestured the other Kamen Rider to follow her.
As they moved up the stairs outside the building Charge made sure Alchemy understood how this would go: “Make sure to not injure any civilians and try not to cause too much collateral. Understood?”
“Not my first day on the job and fine I’ll do my best not to bring the building down on top of us.” Ocean just sighed somewhat amused and both stormed inside the building, Phoenix with his Thunder Tonfa and she with her drawn Charge Magnum. As they looked around the main hall of the bank it was empty. Large pillars decorated the room and the huge hall felt somewhat unsettling thanks to the lack of people in it. They advanced slowly and carefully making sure that they didn’t fall into any traps the Corrupted. As they had reached the center of the hall, something could be heard from the opposite side of the room, laughter.
Alchemy and Charge sprinted as quick as they could behind the next pillars and waited for the arrival of the voices. The spider and the bat Corrupted walked out from a hallway that presumably leat towards the vault, both caring duffel backs with them, probably filled to the brim with money.
“Ha, that was easy. Should have done that from the start and we didn’t even have to deal with these bastard Kamen Riders. It couldn’t have gone any better, the only thing left are the cops outside, but that should be easy,“ the red one boasted.
“Yeah, easy. Still, I would have loved to teach that new Kamen Rider bitch a lesson. Shooting at me, who does she think she is?” The bat growled rather enraged.
At this moment Charge stepped out and fired at the two surprised Corrupted, equally distributing the six shots between them. Both tumbled backward from the impact and before they even realized that they had been ambushed Alchemy charged towards them, knocked them both of their feet with a well-aimed kick to their shins and within a second stood beside Charge.
“Hey Bats, hey Spidy. Well, I don’t know you very well, but I know Charge and she an infinitely better person than you, on basically every level.” She just chuckled while she reloaded her gun. “So, you know the drill, give up, make it easier for us all. And will even get off relatively easy. Doesn’t that sound good?”
The red Corrupted just galed at him and growled while he stood back up, throwing the remaining duffel back of him that he hadn’t already lost. His partner however just glared at the two Riders with absolute contempt until he broke the silence: “You insulant little bastards! You are going to regret mocking me. I’ll go to ripe you limb from limb!”
“Oh, try it. Maybe you could actually be a threat if you wouldn’t be such a coward and actually take part in the fight,” he mocked the Corrupted. The reaction to his comment came quick, the Corrupted screeched and released a devastating shockwave that would have hit them if they didn’t have super speed.
After they had taken cover behind a pillar Ocean sighed: ”Great, you needed to make him angry, didn’t you?”
“Hey, I prefer to fight raging idiots, they tend to be quite predictable.”
“Fine, but let's concentrate on the grounded one, Twelve can wait.” Phoenix nodded in agreement and both leaped from out from behind the pillar simultaneously, not a second too late as they saw how Eleven had thrown two fireballs towards the pillar, demolishing it behind them. But that didn’t stop them for even a second. Charge was the first to strick the monster with her baton, letting a trail of sparks erupt as she hit it. As Charge lowered her body with the swing Alchemy immediately delivered a flying kick right into the Corrupted chest and right above Charge, missing her by a few centimeters. After the Corrupted staggered back and he had landed close to it he performed a backflip, during it kicking the Corrupted into the lower part of his head, letting it stagger back even more.
This was her opportunity, Charge unloaded her entire magazine into the chest of the Corrupted. Alchemy, who had landed again after his little trick didn’t waste any time and used his chance to charged towards his opponent to punch him right into the stomach with his tonfa, at least that was the plan. Meters before he could deliver the devastating punch he noticed something in the corner of his eye, shockwaves. Alchemy just barely able to evade the insidious attack of the other Corrupted, rolling around the floor for three seconds before screeching to a hold in a kneeling position.
“Dammit! Hey Bats, l thought you didn’t like being called a coward? Well, you are really bad at convincing me of the opposite,” he shouted up towards the Corrupted that was currently flying over him. Moments after he had finished his taunt his opponent had unleashed another one of his soundwaves towards him. But thanks to the fact that he currently was focused on him, Phoenix could evade the attack quite easily.
Meanwhile, Charge had reloaded her revolver and currently was aiming at Twelve. With one last time breathing in, to steady her aim she shoots at her target. Sadly the Corrupted had managed to dodge the shot thanks to his frantic style of flying. Not letting herself be distracted she followed up with two more shots in rapid succession, both missing its target just barely.
While she was distracted and Phoenix was continuing to taunt number Twelve, Eleven had recovered from his earlier beatdown and pointed his right arm at Charge, who right now was concentrated on his partner. The Corrupted chuckled quietly and released his fireball that headed right for her. To his dismay, she actually had managed to dodge the attack and had unleashed the last three bullets in her revolver at him.
Alchemy had heard the commotion the Corrupted and Charge had caused and immediately realized that this was a perfect opportunity to attack. Using his super speed he dashed towards Eleven, Charge followed suit, both reading their weapons for an attack. But like before, Twelve interrupted their attempted of an attack with one of his soundwaves.
After evading the attack Alchemy and Charge rushed behind the next best pillar. “This is not working,” she hissed frustrated. “Every time we have the upper hand, the other one stops us from capitalizing from it.”
“Yeah, noticed. So what is your plan?”
“Divide and conquer. You distract Eleven while I make sure Twelve is as far away as possible, then we see how we proceed.”
“Sounds good,” he noded. “Anything more specific on my part or…”
Charge interrupted him: “Nope, you work better with improvising anyway. I’ll tell you how we proceed after we got them separated.”
“Good! I think we should move!”
Both ducked out from behind the pillar, which just like the last one had been crumbled thanks to Elevens attack. While Charge was drawing the attention of Twelve on her by firing at it continuously, Alchemy had used this opportunity to slam one of his Thunder Tonfa into the chest of his opponent, sending him staggering back. He used this short moment of disorientation to charge to two pillars that the Corrupted was standing between and hit them both with his tonfa, leaving behind one of his seals.
After the Corrupted had recovered from the previous attack he noticed that Alchemy was just standing roughly five meters before him, not doing anything. He was just about to unleash an inferno upon him as in an instant he slammed his two weapons together and before he realized what had happened lightning surged through his entire body, stunning him quite effectively. The two seals Alchemy had laid down now were connected by an arc of lightning. And the Rider didn’t waste any time and rushed towards his target and unleashed a fury of attacks culminating in one extra strong punch that sent the Corrupted sailing halfway across the room.
Meanwhile, Ocean was getting frustrated with her opponent. Twelve was just too agile and managed to evade every single shoot she had fired up until now. And to make matters worse, he had picked up on her magazine size and used her downtime to retaliate. This approach just wouldn’t work, she needed to try something different. An awful smile crept onto her lips underneath her helmet. She had an idea.
Her first course of action was to reloaded and continue her barrage on the Corrupted, getting him into a position more suitable for what she had planned. It took quite a few shots until the Corrupted had been pushed back against one of the pillars that decorated the main hall of the bank. During her previous attempts of hitting the slippery monster, it had taken quite a bit of structural damage on its upper portion, basically perfect for her plan.
Twelve was expecting the next round of shots to be fired at him any second now, but what actually happened took him by surprise. Charge had sprinted towards the pillar, removed one of her batons from her belt and obliterated the lower portion of it. Letting it fall in the direction of the monster, leaving it temporarily stunned. That was all the time she needed. In a split-second, she had reloaded her gun and unloaded the six rounds right into the chest of her opponent, all before he even had a chance to react.
Like last time he had been hit, he crashed down towards the floor after he had been hit. Charge seizing the opportunity she stashed her gun and run towards the other end of the hall and immediately came back, using her momentum to punch the Corrupted right into the face, sending him flying right through the doors of the bank.
Right now Alchemy was about to strike against his own opponent again as he heard someone screams out for him from behind: “Alchemy! Switch!” He looked over his shoulder to see Charge walking towards him while pulling out her revolver. It didn’t take long till he saw the doors of the bank, or what once was the doors of the bank that now were missing. He didn’t need to ask where Bats had gone, it was quite obvious.
“Gotcha!” No more words needed to be said, he knew what was to do. Ignoring his own opponent he rushed towards the exit of the bank. Eleven apparently didn’t like that he had been disregarded so easily and readied himself to send the Rider a nice fireball as a parting gift, but Charge stoped this rather quickly after reloading her gun with three well-placed shots.
In the meantime, Alchemy had reached the burst open door and was standing atop the stairs of the building, looking down upon the Corrupted and several police officers that had pointed their guns at him. Twelve was slowly starting to get back up and glared daggers in the direction of the bank. “This bitch! I’m going to tear her apart!” he shouted, letting several of the officers step back in shock.
“My, my, language. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Alchemy chuckled while he removed the Thunder Disc from his Driver and replaced it with the Wind Disc. “You know, now that you are alone and in the open, you actually have to fight yourself for once. Let’s see how you hold up in an actual fight, but I don’t like your chances.”
\WIND DISC ACTIVATED! /
With that, he spun his Wind Disc and he was enveloped by an emerald whirlwind. After the wind had subsided he was clad in his emerald and gold armor with the white scarf. Without hesitation, he removed the Disc again and hold it out in front of him.
\Wind Disc Attack Mode!/
\Hurrican Bow!/
After the glowing of the Disc had ended he hold the Hurrican Bow in his hand again. While the transformation and summoning of the weapon had taken place the Corrupted had swung himself up into the air and was trying to flee the scene. But Alchemy wouldn’t let his opponent escape that easily, not if he could prevent it. As he meticulously pulled the bowstring an emerald energy arrow was formed and precisely aimed at the back of the monster, lingering on it to get the shot just right. Then he released the bowstring, letting the arrow find its target, letting him plummet back down towards earth. “Gotcha!”
Twelve lay around two hundred meters away from the bank, right in the middle of the road, just inside the restricted area around the crime scene. His back hurt horribly, still, he wasn’t done just yet, he still had to pay the Riders back for ruining two of his planes and he would make them pay, slow and painfully. That was when he spotted something green rocketing towards him, only to realize moments later that it was Alchemy who was aiming his bow at him. Without proper time to reacted the Rider had fired another arrow towards him, hitting the Corrupted in his shoulder, sparks flying while Alchemy landed behind him. Twelve was crying out in agony but still forced himself to turnaround to face his opponent.
“You… You bastard, I’m going to rip you apart limb from limb!”
“Huh, it’s like you are on a record or something Bats. Can’t you say something new, this is getting old,” he dismissively replied while using the time to spin his Wind Disc again. His opponent just growled at him in ever increasing rage. “Arrow Storm!” And so he pulled the string of his bows tight, like before an arrow formed from thin air, aimed directly above him released the devastating projectile. It flew quite a while until it disappeared into a magical seal, moments later it was replaced with dozens other, smaller, seals that rained down arrows on him from above.
The Corrupted hadn’t just stood there and let Alchemy just do as he pleased, no he was about to try to escape again. Spreading his wings he was about to fly out of the danger zone as he heard a quiet snip. At this moment he could feel an immensely powerful wind forming right on his back where the first arrow had hit him. Within seconds his wings had been, quite painfully, twisted together, making any attempt of flying completely impossible. “Arrrgh! What… How!?”
Alchemy just cocked his head in amusement as he witnessed the barrage of arrows rain down on his opponent, leaving him in a groaning bundle of agony on the street. In the meantime, he removed the Wind Disc from the weapon and placed it back into the Driver. “Bats, you used your powers to steal, endanger and insult people. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!”
After he had finished his little speech he started to spin the Disc again.
\Wind Disc Maximum Power! /
Emerald energy gathered in his foot and after it was fully charged he flew up into the air with immense speed. After he had reached a hight in which he was only recognizable as a green blur on the horizon he shot down in a spinning emerald tornado, increasing in speed as he descended. The moment his foot made contact with the Corrupted a powerful wave of emerald energy was released and blew everything in the neared vicinity that was not fixed to the ground away. Behind him lay a skinny looking man with grey skin, black hair, and rather fancy looking sunglasses. Next, to him lay something that looked like an old flip phone, just with the two parts of it looking like wings.
He walked over to the strange phone, removed the Wind Disc from his Driver and pointed it at the strange thing. It didn’t take long until the Disc started to glow and absorb the magical energy of the phone until it turned back to normal.
Alchemy was about to leave as he heard something from behind. “I’m… going to… kill… you!” Bats apparently had managed to stay conscious and wasted his last seconds to threaten him.
“You know what, just give it up. Makes life so much easier for the both of us.” And with that, he flew back towards the bank, passing six police officers that rushed to arrest the former Corrupted. The last thought Twelve had before unconsciousness claimed him was his revenge against the person that had humiliated him so thoroughly, Kamen Rider Alchemy.
>-------<A>-------<
While Alchemy had dealt with Twelve Charge had been dealing with her own opponent. After she had shot him to cover Alchemys escape she had continued to dodge his attacks and reload to be ready to retaliate. The tubes on her leg had stopped glowing after her last use of her super speed, which meant right now she couldn’t speed towards him and give him one with her Stun Batons.
There fight until her speed was recharged boiled down to Charge dodging his attacks and retaliating with her revolver. In a few instances, he had gotten rather close to hitting her, but thankfully she managed to evade every last attack. Then she heard a quiet ‘ping’ and smiled underneath her helmet. Grabbing one of her batons she rushed towards her opponent, jumping over a stream of fire he had unleashed and unloading three bullets into his face, temporarily blinding him. As she came into swinging distance her baton smacked down upon his head with enough ferocity to pull him off his legs. Before he even had any idea what was going on Charge followed up with a kick to his stomach that sends him flying into the next pillar, letting it collapse on top of him.
As he struggled to stand back up again and his eyes started to recover the first thing he saw was the end of Charges revolver barrel. The only thing he could do at this moment was to give an annoyed groan and moments later the last three bullets of the magazine blinded him again. He didn’t even have enough time to properly cry out in pain when he was grabbed and thrown into the next best wall, parts of it crumbling down upon him.
Eleven probably would have just given up at this point in time if he hadn’t been so damn angry. Under immense pain, he managed to get back onto his feet, still somewhat wobbly and shaky. To his surprise Charge hadn’t attacked him again, she had holstered her weapons and just stood there in fighting position like she was waiting for him to make a move. Regardless he started to gather his remaining magic in his right arm and charged towards the Rider. Still, no reaction, nothing, she just stood there, eying her opponent closely. As the Corrupted was two meters away from her and was moving his arm back so he could hit her with even more force, she finally reacted by spinning the cylinder on the belt.
\ Maximum Charge! /
In an instant time slowed to a crawl, everything moved like it was submerged in pudding. However, she had already experienced this phenomenon and knew what would come next. Charge grabbed the shoulders of her opponent and lifted herself off the ground. Moments later her right foot slammed into his chest, immediately followed up by her left, then by her right again. She continued this pattern for what felled like an eternity, slamming her feet countless times into his chest. She finished her attack with one final kick that sends her flying backward while making a backflip and landing a few meters away from her opponent.
After this time resumed at a normal pace. The Corrupted was send flying from the enormous amount of kicks he had received, right through a wall and landing in an empty office, turning back shortly thereafter. Now a bulky man with bluish-grey skin, orange hair and bore played unconscious the carpet. Next, to him lay a keyring in shape of a spider which gave off an ominous vibe. She walked over and grabbed the strange artifact.
At this moment she heard someone clap. In a second she had turned around, picked up her gun and pointed it at the somewhat shocked Alchemy.
“Relax! I’m just impressed by your performance, that’s all. Don’t shot people that compliment you, it's generally considered quite rude.” She just sighed and lowered her weapon. “That’s better. Good job. By the way, what was that about not causing too much collateral?” Alchemy smirked while looking around the wreaked main hall of the bank with its collapsed pillars and broken walls.
“Well, I did say it to you, so technically I didn’t do anything wrong. Practically, I’m going to get chewed out by mother,” Ocean sighed in a mixture of shame and annoyance.
“Just ask her what is worse, a robbed bank or a bit collateral.”
“I appreciate your tips, but I don’t think this is going to work. Oh, by the way,” she throws the strange keychain at Alchemy who managed to catch it, even if it was somewhat frantic. “Eleven had this, take care of it.”
“Thanks!” Without wasting any more time he pulled out the Flame Disc and absorbed the magic from the artifact until it returned back to its original form.
“Oh, by the way, there is something I wanted to discuss with you when you were fit again. Can you come to my office the tomorrow? It’s important,” Oceans careless attitude that she had just displayed had vanished and the focused officer had returned.
“Sure, but why not now?”
“Still got stuff to do here and I think you deserve a bit of rest.”
“Fair enough, so tomorrow your office, anytime or sometimes specific?”
“No specific time, when you are comfortable with it. Just say to the receptionist that you have an appointment with me, you don’t even have to come as Alchemy. Sounds good?”
“Sure, sounds perfect.”
“So,” she stretched out her hand for a handshake “on many more victories battles!”
“Ditto!” Alchemy replied enthusiastically and followed suit both now holding their hands in a tight and comfortable handshake. After a few seconds, they released each other's hands again and he was the first to speak: “So, see ya!”
He had already walked towards the exit as Ocean finally replied: “See ya!” Under her helmet she smiled, while the partnership with Alchemy still was lacking in certain areas, ultimately she thought she could get him to share. She didn’t even realize that she was holding her hand when she was snapped out of her thoughts by her colleagues that asked her how to proceed with the crime scene. Ultimately the whole thing devolved into a standard clean up after a battle, well besides the recurring of the lat civilians that were still stuck in the building. But Alchemy didn’t witness any of this, he was already back on his motorbike and was driving home, wondering what Ocean wanted to talk with him about.