Even if he had been here once already, this felt especially awkward and uncomfortable. Until now he always had his mask and armor to protect him, now he stood in front of the police building in his normal leather jacket and a red T-shirt. Additionally, no one would recognize him if that was something positive or negative he was not sure yet. On the one hand, he wouldn’t have to endure awkward looks from everyone, on the other hand, however, he had to do everything the normal, tedious way. Well, he couldn’t really turn into Alchemy right in front of the police station, now could he?
One last breath steading his resolve and he stepped towards the building, not a single person even looked at him, just a normal citizen going to the police, at least that was what it looked to them. As he stepped through the door he looked around the room, but sadly it didn’t seem like someone was waiting for him. He had called Ocean over the phone beforehand and told her that he would like to talk with her in an hour, all while Summer and Thunder had giggled like little schoolgirls. But to his dismay, she had told him to ask at the reception for her. And so the thirty-minute wait began, on three separate occasions he thought of leaving and simply coming back as Alchemy, but ultimately decided against it.
Finally, it was his time to talk to the receptionist. “Hello and welcome at the Canterlot City Police Station, how may we help you?” She asked, looking quite bored and disinterested.
“Ahm, hello, my name is Phoenix Feather and I have an appointment with agent Ocean Skies,” he replied, still somewhat uncomfortable in this whole situation.
“Mhm, let me see,” she taps away at her laptop for a few moments until she looked back at him. “Yes, I’ll let her know that you are here sir.” She then picked up the phone that was standing next to her and spoke: “Yes, someone named Phoenix Feather is here to see you. Mhm, yes, understood.” She put the receiver back down and returned her look towards him: “She said she is sending someone, you are welcome to take a seat while you wait.” While she spoke she pointed at a few chairs that were placed along the wall.
He nodded, thanked the woman and sat down. A few minutes passed until a familiar face came towards him, officer Shining Armor. He came directly towards him; apparently, he had been shown a picture of him. “So, you are Phoenix Feather. Nice to meet you. I’ll bring you to agent Skies,” he coldly greeted him.
He sighed mentally; apparently, the officer was just consistently grumpy, great. “It’s a pleasure meeting you…”
“Oh, please, you can stop this charade. I know who you are, you don’t have to hide it,” he sighed in annoyance. That was a little shock for Phoenix. He hadn’t thought about it until now, but it seemed so logical now. Of course, she wouldn’t be the only one knowing who he was.
While he stood up and followed Shining Armor, who was quickly leading him towards Oceans office, he asked the question that was burning on his mind right now. “So, you know. Ok, but a question, who else does? The entire police force?” Phoenix eyed the officer curiously, wondering if he would try to hide something from him.
“No, only a select few. All MRG agents that have a high enough clearance level, so, for example, agent Skies and doctor Diamond. Additionally, eight officer’s agent Skies selected personnel to work together with her, myself included.”
Phoenix nodded, still, his body had tensed during the whole conversation: “Thanks. I don’t want to be rude, but are they trustworthy? I don’t want anyone I know to get wrapped up in this whole thing.”
Shining Armor snapped around with disgruntle look on his face, well until he came to the second part, after that his expression softened a bit. “You trust agent Skies, don’t you?” Phoenix nodded and looked over at him. “Then what is the problem. If you still have doubts I can assure you, they are the best of the best.”
Phoenix relaxed a bit and replied: “Thank you.”
He just shrugged “What is so special about this? I just gave you the information you asked for?”
Phoenix just shook his head and returned: “No, you said what I needed to hear and I appreciate that.” He smiled back at the officer.
“If you think so. By the way, called it.” Phoenix just looked at him confused, trying to figure out what he meant. “I mean that you have no real training, you are just a normal civilian.”
He sighed, the hopes that officer Armor would actually warm up to him shattered in an instance. “Yeah, more or less. No cop-training, that is true, but would switch it in a heartbeat.”
Shining scoffed dismissively: “As if you would get through police training. From what I’ve heard you are a lazy sloth that doesn’t take anything seriously at all, you would be thrown out during the first week.”
“Maybe, maybe not, who knows, but it probably beast Gramps training by a huge margin.” Shining just looked at him skeptically, but remained silent. Their conversation had to end anyway; they had arrived at Oceans office.
The officer knocked on the door and a female voice called out: “Come in!”
Before Phoenix could open the door, Shining said one last thing with a deadly serious expression: “So, before you leave. Make sure that you are careful. If you overstep you bounders I’ll personally bring you in!”
Phoenix just looked back at him with an unwavering expression “Understood, but in all fairness, your boss was the one that caused the most collateral in the last fight.” A smug grin had appeared on his face. Shining just grunted dismissively and left him standing in front of the door.
Not wanting to let Ocean wait any longer he opened the door and was immediately greeted by her: “Ah, good to see you Phoenix. I hope officer Armor was not too unfriendly to you. On the bright side, I think he is slowly warming up to you.”
Stoping fully into the room he sighed: “Well if he is, that is going to take a while. But nice to see you too Ocean.” He closed the door behind him and sat down on one of the seats at her desk. “So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
Ocean expression darkened all of a sudden, like a switch, had been pulled. “You remember when we talked about the serial killer that currently is terrorizing the city?” Phoenix nodded, now quite interested in what she had to say. “And the fact that we discussed that our culprit might be another Kamen Rider?” Her voice grew ever more tense as she continued.
“Yes,” he replied, this was not going in a direction he liked.
“Well, just see for yourself,” she handed him a stack of pictures. When he got his first glimpse of what was on them his heart nearly stopped and his orange skin color turned into something closer to a peach. There was a person on the pictures and to his dismay, he knew the outlines of this person oh so well. What looked at him from the picture was a perfect mirror of Alchemy, well almost perfect. Instead of a colorful armor with golden ornaments, this figure was clad in all black expect similar ornaments like Alchemy, just these were a dark blue instead of his golden ones. Two red bug-eyes stared at him. He had never realized how intimidating a Rider could look like, especially in the dark. Then his eyes caught something that shook him to his very core, slowly his entire body started to tremble, his mind desperately wanting to find any excuse to dismiss what he saw, but no, it was real and he knew what this meant. A Magic Disc had been placed on his Driver, that could only mean one thing.
“Fuck!” Ocean looked over to him, somewhat taken aback by Phoenix's rather crude language. “Oh, no. Why? Why? They shouldn’t even be here. This can’t be real, this just can’t be. But here it is. Why can’t this stupid family stuff not leave me alone?” Phoenix slammed his fist on the table, letting the whole thing shake.
“Do you need a minute? Something to drink, so you can calm done?” She asked with genuine concern.
He looked over to her in silence, not sure how to respond. “I… I… I think I’m ok. That whole thing just came out of nowhere. Still, don’t know what to think right now. How about you continue, for now, maybe a bit more information helps me organize my mind a bit.” After he had finished speaking he looked back at the pictures in his hands, staring at them, looking for something that would tell him what to do next.
“Well, if you say so,” she still looked at him with concern. “So, our suspect broke into the Horse Clinic, the survivor of his last rampage was there at the moment. He was physically and mentally in very bad shape, but the doctors assumed it wouldn’t take long until he recovered from his shook. Sadly our new Kamen Rider here decided he didn’t want any witnesses around. He entered the building through the window, apparently, he knew where his victim was stationed, severely hurt the officers that were protecting him and finished what he started.” After she had spoken the last word, she lowered her head, partially in guilt, partially in sadness.
Phoenix just looked at her with shock, he hadn’t expected something like this. “When did this happen? Did you try to stop it?”
“No, I did not, neither of us did. We were to busy with Eleven and Twelve trying to rob a CIT. He used this night to silence his witnesses forever. And we couldn’t do anything against it!” This time it was Ocean that had slammed her fist on her table, sighing in frustration.
“Wait, you knew about this since…”
“Night from Friday to Saturday. I didn’t want to bother you with any of it though. You would just have worried for nothing and I didn’t want to complicate your short recovery phase,” she sighed, trying to avoid eye contact with the other Rider. “And don’t tell me you wouldn’t have worried about it. I might not know you for too long, but I know you enough that this would have hindered your recovery.”
Phoenix grimaced, she was right but still, she had withheld information from him. This was all so much for him right now, evil Riders, Shadow Golds family and now the trust issues regarding the MRG reared their ugly heads. But ultimately she probably was in right, even if he didn’t want to admit it. “Yeah, probably the right thing to do. But next time just tell me, please.”
“Sure, I’ll keep it in mind. So, what do you say about all of this? Probably nothing good.”
“Understatement. I really don’t know what to say. All my life I have been told horror stories of the family of Shadow Gold, but seeing one of them in the flesh, even if it is only a picture just makes me uncomfortable. Who would have thought that coming here would uplift my life to such a degree? But one thing is for certain, I can’t let this Rider just roam around the city like he owns it. As much as I don’t want to, I’ll have to face him if I really want to protect this city and its people. And I’m not letting you deal with this alone. Oh boy, in what did I get myself into?” he sighed, not entirely sure if he really was ready for this.
“Well, that is the life of the protector, nothing ever goes your way, but you still have to make it work. I’m sure you can pull it off and it’s not like you are alone, you have me and your friends, that will help you during and outside of a battle. If you ever need to talk about something, just ask,” Ocean smiled at him with a smile that could calm down a rampaging bull. He couldn’t other than smile back.
“So, what are we doing now?”
“Well, we already set our team on looking for consistent magical frequencies in the city, comparing them with old ones outside of the city and look for witnesses that might have seen the Rider. Furthermore, we will place some of Ivory’s drones through the city so if we pick up the possible signature of the Rider we might actually get some more pictures. But this will take a while and might not be successful. I’ll also advise the night patrols to report any suspicious activity directly to my team. We will find him, one way or another.” The sheer determination that Ocean was radiating, really managed to get him pumped up.
“Can I help in any way shape or form?” Phoenix asked anxiously, wanting to help solve this problem.
“The best way you can help is to take your smartphone with you and tell me if you find something suspicious. Oh, and of course make sure that the city is safe, that is the most important thing of all,” she chuckled, while Phoenix somewhat deflated, still he kept his newfound smile.
“Ok, I can do that. So is there anything else?”
“No, that was all. I still have a lot of paperwork to do, and I’m sure you don’t want to watch me during that.” Phoenix just chuckled and shook his head. “Good, so, just make sure you are safe. See ya.”
“I’ll be careful. See ya!” he replied and left her office. While he was standing in the more or less empty corridors of the police station he wondered how Thunder would react to the whole thing. Probably he would start with a simple, but annoying ‘told you so’, or a variation of that. He sighed and started to leave the police station, this would be a long day.
>-------<A>-------<
After leaving the police station he still wasn’t sure how he should react to the whole situation. He really didn’t want to be roped into the family business more then he already was, but he couldn’t simply ignore this if all that he had learned was indeed true and from the looks of it, it indeed was. He had spent the last three hours just driving around Canterlot City and the surrounding area. It helped him to finally calm down a bit. Canterlot City really was beautiful, a shame that it wasn’t really peaceful.
The constant monster attacks had left the city in a somewhat tense state. While many trusted in the Kamen Riders to keep them safe, the general amount of people on the streets had decreased, many only leafing the house when it was really necessary. It kinda was depressing, a city that seemed so peaceful and lively, being so empty. As relaxing as this little excursion was, he had to head back and tell Thunder what he had learned. Even if he didn’t want to.
As he walked through the back door of the ‘Magnum Opus’ Thunder immediately jumped him and was bombarding him with questions about his little trip to Ocean, why it had taken so long, what she wanted and so much more. After a very exhausting progress, Thunder was finally finished with his endless questions. Before the chef got any new ideas Phoenix asked in return: “So, when are you going to say it?”
“Going to say what?”Thunder looked at him quite perplexed.
“I know that you want to.”
“I have not the slightest idea what you are talking about.”
“Just say it, say ‘told you so’ I know you are just waiting for the right moment. Let’s just get it over with,” he sighed, lowering his head, awaiting the dreaded words. To his surprise, Thunder just started to laugh.
“Oh, this is good. No, while it is tempting, I don’t think it is warranted. You were not wrong in believing that there might be a more logical explanation out there, even if you were wrong. We still only know that he uses Magic Discs, it still might just be the equivalent from this world, even if I don’t believe it. But if you really want to, told you so.” Phoenix just chuckled and sighed, sometimes he just couldn’t predict what his brother would do.
“And you said it anyway… You just wanted to mess with me, didn’t you.”
“A bit, still, I meant what I said. But on another note, are we going to tell gramps about this? I know you generally keep it short and don’t really want him involved, but this. I don’t know, I think he should know, keeping him in the dark just feels wrong,” he was nervously eying his brother while he spoke, trying not to upset him with his opinion.
“You know what will happen when he finds out that there is someone else using Magic Discs to become a Kamen Rider, probably someone from Shadow Golds family.” Thunder avoided eye contact with his brother. “So, you do know. He is going to come here and boss us around. We don’t need him here, and I don’t want him here either. I enjoy it here, I don’t want him to ruin it. I don’t want to play by his rules again, he is so set bend on his old traditions that he probably will only make everything harder in the long run. I think we really shouldn’t tell him. Everything is working out here, so, please don’t involve him, please,” he was basically bagging with his best puppy eye look.
“What is when we need his knowledge. Are still going to refuse his help?”
“No, if there really is no other way, then fine, I’m going to bite the bullet and ask for help. But until then, I think we can manage on our own.”
“Ok, if you that is what you want, fine. But the moment we need him, no complaining, no moaning, we call him. Did I make myself clear?” Thunder stared at his brother with an intensity that leads Phoenix to step back a bit.
“Crystal clear.”
“Good, but there is still one thing that bugs me. How do expect that this will not reach him some other way? Until now I’m glad he didn’t ask questions about the Charge and the possibility of a murdering Kamen Rider. But if this new enemy shows himself on TV gramps is going to know. This is just going to buy us time, not get rid of him forever, you know that.”
Phoenix smiled weakly and replied: “Yeah, I know, but still, even if we can only stall it for a month, it’s going to be worth it. Or do you want to hear his ramblings about responsibility and family tradition again?”
“I think I pass. To be honest, I’m quite glad I don’t have to listen to him anymore, it can stay that way for a while longer. So we deal with that problem when it comes up. Ok, fine with me.”
“Oh, thank goodness and I thought for a moment you wanted to tell him. That means we can relax for a while longer and I’m all for that.”
“Good, so that this is finished, I think I’ll go for a walk, do you want to accompany me?”
Phoenix eyed his brother for a moment then simply replied: “Nah, I’ll pass. I think I’ll ride around with my bike a little bit, do you want to come?”
“Sorry, no. I promised Summer to meet her at the park, so maybe another time.”
Phoenix snickered at his response: “Oh, of course, don’t want to bother you two, just tell me everything afterward.”
Thunder suddenly turned several shades of red and stuttered back: “N… no, not like this. No… not that she isn’t attractive. I mean… I think I’ll be going now. Later.” And with that, he stormed off downstairs, his head still as red as a tomato.
His brother just burst out into laughter. “Oh, come on that was just a little bit payback. Thunder?” His answer came in the form of a door that was slammed shut. “Shes, talking about taking things too seriously. Oh well, he’ll calm down. So where did I put the helmet again?”
>-------<A>-------<
The rest of the day had gone on without anything noteworthy. And so the next one approached and it shaped up to be just as normal a day as the last one. Ocean had come to the ‘Magnum Opus’ for her daily pizza and Phoenix was currently taking her order. “So, just to be sure, you want a salam-ham-pineapple-chili-olive-pizza. Did I miss anything?” He eyed her curiously, not because of the strange order, no he had long since gotten used to her peculiar, but strangely infallible, sense of taste, no just to not screw up her order, something that did not get easier as time went on.
“Exactly. You’re getting better at remembering my orders. Maybe one day you won’t even need that block.”
Phoenix rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and replied: ”Ah, too much effort. I think I’ll stick with what works for now. Opposed to you, I think the whole time you have eaten here you never ordered the same pizza twice? I thought you like them, why not order something you found especially tasty again?”
“Oh, well, if you don’t mix things up everything becomes so damn predictable, even if you deal with magical monsters nearly on a daily basis. When you are off work you just have to spice things up and always eating the same just lets me feel stuck.” After she had finished she visibly deflated and let her head rest on the table. “Isn’t it the same for you?”
“Not really, I personally stick to what works. There is something calming in the familiar. On the other hand, since I came to Canterlot City nearly every day holds a new experience. This city is crazy and strangely that is whats charming about it.” His eyes wandered off towards to windows that gave a good view on the street and the pedestrians walking by.
“Yeah, Canterlot sure is strange and unusual. But I agree, that is what makes the city charming. It never gets boring here, every day something new that turns your world upside down. Even if it ain’t a Corrupted. Oh, by the way, with Charge finally active, our new player on the board and the highest reported number of magical incidents since the founding of our organization, my mother has decided that Canterlot will get it’s own MRG branch, with separate office and lab. Ivory is completely giddy about the news, apparently happy that he gets to work in a real lab again,” she chuckled.
“Good for him, just one question…”
Before he could finish whatever he wanted to say Ocean interrupted him: “And yes, you still have to work with officer Armor together. Only because we move to another building doesn’t mean we stop working with the local police force. I’ll even take the officers on my team with me. So, you still have to get along with him or pretend to. I’m sure you’ll manage that,” she slyly added.
“Ah, what you are willing to put up with,” he smirked, then added. ”Could be worse. At least he’s just concerned, kinda understandable really.”
“While I don’t agree with his position on the Kamen Riders, he does his job pretty much flawlessly. Sometimes life can have a twisted sense of humor. But enough of that, while I like chatting with you, I’m sure Thunder might be growing a bit impatient right now. I think you should go back to the kitchen, or you have an angry Thunder on your hands and I’m sure you don’t want this right now.” She smiled at him, Phoenix just chuckled nervously, put the block back into the pocket of his apron and was about to walk back into the kitchen as someone called out for him from the side.
“Hey waiter, get your lazy ass over here!” The rough voice originated from a man with a grey-brown skin, an unkempt stubble and brown hair. An old black hat with a white band around it was placed firmly on his head. The man furthermore wore a black worn out suit with a red scarf. His expression was that of general unpleasantness and annoyance.
Ocean and Phoenix looked over to the man in confusion for a moment, until he snapped out of it and walked over to the rather unfriendly man. “Is there a problem sir?” He asked while keeping his annoyance with the customer hidden. He had a half-eaten ham-pizza on his plate, his cutlery had been thrown on his plate without care and all over the table, some parts of his meal had been splattered all over the table.
“Damn well there is! But I won’t waste my time with your sorry, unimportant butt. Get me your boss, or you are going to regret it.” With the last word, he slammed his fist on the table, his glass falling over and the beer in it flow out, covering a good part of the table in it and subsequently dripping down to the floor. “And now look what you’ve done!”As the man raised his voice the heads in the restaurant began to turn towards the two. Ocean was about to stand up and tell the man to knock it off, but as Phoenix just shook his head, she begrudgingly relaxed.
“Now, where is your boss?! Get him here or I’ll search him myself!” He growled at the waiter while tipping impatiently on the table.
“Maybe I could…” He tried his best not to sound annoyed to the unpleasant man but was interrupted before he came any further.
“You listen to me you little shit, you get your boss out here in ten seconds flat or…” Like Phoenix before him, he also was interrupted mid-sentence. But to his surprise not from Ocean, but the kitchen door slamming open.
“What is this for a hullabaloo out here?” Thunder had left the kitchen and looked around the room until he spotted his brother and an angry looking man. “Phoenix what did you do? I leave you alone for five minutes and you cause a tumult in my restaurant.”
Phoenix couldn’t even get one more word out before Ocean had stopped Thunder right then and there: “Phoenix did nothing wrong, that guy is just an unpleasant douche.”
The man looked at her with a look of total destain and added: “Let the grownups talk missy and wait for you abomination of a pizza. So where were we?”
Ocean was furious and ready to arrest this unbearable person but Thunder signaled for her to relax and let him handle the situation. “What seems to be the problem here sir?”
“Look, waiter, oh and you too missy, this is how you talk to a customer.” Both just rolled there eyes and swallowed their anger. “So, this is a nice restaurant you have here.”
“Did you just want to talk with me about my restaurant? I’m rather busy, so if that was all, I would love to go back to cooking, if you wouldn’t mind sir.” He was about to turn around when the man spoke again.
“Would be a shame if something happened to it.” Thunders smile he had worn during his conversation with the man vanished in an instance. Ocean jumped up from her seat and Phoenix just stared at the man in shock. Every conversation in the restaurant died down in an instance, the silence just made the whole situation tenser.
“What?”
The man chuckled and continued: “Oh, you know, it would be truly dreadful if someone would destroy it. But, don’t worry, I can protect you, for a little few of course.” A devilish smile had sneaked up on his lips as he was staring at Thunder.
“I would like you to leave my establishment, sir!” Thunder still was calm, but man was he making sure his message would come across. “Right, now!”
“I would listen to the man, or I’ll be forced to arrest you,” Ocean added while staring daggers at the man.
“And I thought we could handle this like civilized folk.”
“Pah, you and civilized, laughable,” Phoenix mocked the man that upon hearing what he had said began to stand up.
“I see, someone volunteered to be the example.” The man pulled something from his suit, a golden brass-knuckle with engravings of a birds head on it. Within a split second, he had charged over to Phoenix, slipped on the weapon and punched him right into the stomach. As the brass-knuckle made contact with Phoenix it started to glow and the next moment he found himself in the kitchen, around him splinters of the door. Then he felled the pain, not as bad as the first time he fought Elven and Twelve, but still quite painful. His back and stomach arched and as he started to stand up again.
Outside Ocean immediately draw her gun and screamed at the man: “Hands in the air and drop all weapons, you are under arrest for racketeering and assault. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you.” Everyone in the restaurant had jumped up from their chairs and stares at what was transpiring right next to them.
The man just laughed, letting Ocean the grip on her gun even more: “ Oh, you think you can bring me in? Oh, how cute missy. You are not dealing with your average criminal, oh no, you are dealing with someone beyond human. And I’ll show you.” The moment he finished speaking the brace-knuckle started to glow again, enveloping him in its light. Ocean immediately opens fire, knowing full well what this meant.
But all her efforts were in vain and just were blocked by the magic surrounding the man. As the light subsided the man had changed into a Corrupted. His skin had taken on a yellow-orange color. His stature was muscles and imposing, adding to this, his body now was covered in grey, stonelike armor. The hands of the Corrupted had transformed into vicious grey claws, the hand with the brace-knuckle still wearing it. But the most distinct thing about him was his head, instead of the human-shaped he had mere moments ago, it had changed into an elongated face with a beak. It resembled very much a bird with poison-green eyes.
The normal patrons of the restaurant started to scream in terror and run towards the exit. The Corrupted just cackled as he watched the civilians storming towards a safer place. Thunder and Ocean stared at him in shock. “So missy, see what I mean. What you gonna do now? Run like the rest?”
Oceans eyes narrowed, letting her weapon fall towards the floor and growled at the Corrupted. “Well, there is only one thing I can do.” And with this, she pushed a button oh her belt buckle which turned it into her Charge Driver. The Corrupted eyed her curiously. Thunder used this opportunity to run into the kitchen and towards his brother. Meanwhile, Ocean had pulled the Thunder Charger from her pocket and inserted into the Driver.
\ SCANNING CHARGE! /
“Henshin!”
\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /
After the blue ball of energy had subsided she stood there in her electric-blue armor, taking a battle stance and eying Corrupted number Thirteen carefully.
“No way, you are that new Kamen Rider? You messed up Rogue and Withers quite well, but you won't get me,” he cackled and rushed towards her.
His first swing was quite slow, so easy to dodge for her, well it would be if the ‘Magnum Opus’ wouldn’t be so cramped. So, it was quite a bit harder to evade his attack, still, she managed by ducking under it. In the corner of her eye she could see that his claws left green shimmering energy behind, whatever it was, she didn’t want to get in contact with it. Before her opponent could attack again she retaliated with a swift punch to the stomach, sadly while he was pushed back, the armor protected him from any further damage.
The Corrupted simply shrugged it off and tried to slam against her with his shoulder, to his surprise Charge disappeared right before his eyes, letting him stumble and fall on his face a few meters away from the exit. Charge in the meantime was breathing heavily in relive, still somewhat surprised that using superspeed had actually worked. She had managed to dodge the attack by just a few centimeters and still managed to not hit the next wall, table or chair. Still, it was dangerously close.
>-------<A>-------<
“Phoenix what happened?” Summer screamed near his ear. She had couched down next to Phoenix looking concerned at him.
“Why am I in the kitchen?” He wondered with a look of utter confusion on his face. With a pained grimace on his face, he managed to bring himself into a sitting position. Moments later the room outside was consumed by a blinding orange light. Then it came all back to him in an instance. He jumped up despite his pain and pulled out the Alchemy Driver. He was about to put it on as Thunder stormed into the kitchen.
“Oh, thank goodness you are ok. Are you hurt?” he asked him in a rushed tone. As he spoke the room was again enveloped in light, just this time it was blue.
“No, no, I’m fine, but what is going on out there?”
“That unfriendly customer turned out to be a Corrupted and now Ocean is fighting him. That is basically what it came down to.” Thunder replied, still eying his brother carefully.
“Well, ok, that explains the free flight into the kitchen. You don’t mind if I do this here?” he pointed at the Alchemy Driver. “If you don’t want to, I think I could…”
“Right now I couldn’t care less. Just get this monster out of my restaurant. Please!” Thunder had interrupted him and pressed the Driver on Phoenix waist which subsequently looped around him.
“Ok, as good as done boss! Just take few steps back, I don’t think we want flambe here,” and with that, he put the Flame Disc into the Driver. Summer and Thunder rushed towards the other end of the room.
\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /
“Henshin!”
\ FLAME DISC ACTIVATED! /
After the flames had died down Alchemy ran out of the kitchen to help Ocean. Meanwhile, Thunder and Summer looked around the kitchen, especially the burned spot where mere moments ago Phoenix had stood. He simply sighed in defeat.
“You know, it could have been worse,” Summer tried to cheer him up. Thunder simply nodded in return.
In the main room of the restaurant, Charge was struggling with the Corrupted as Alchemy arrived. She just had used her super speed to evade the Corrupted and was breathing heavily. “Oh, there you are. And I thought you managed to injure yourself again.”
Alchemy just shrugged and replied: “Nah, but the whole ordeal was quite disorientating. So, how is it going?”
“Could be better, it’s a bit too cramped in here. Can you get him outside, by any chance?”
“Ah, I’ll figure something out,” Phoenix casually replied and redid himself for the next attack of the Corrupted
“Good,” she chuckled and also entered a battle stance. While they were talking their opponent had managed to stand back up and eyed the two Riders carefully. Then his claws started to glow and without hesitating charged towards them.
The moment Charge saw what was happening she reached for her Charge Magnum and unloaded three chambers on him. To her dismay the Corrupted had managed to block her attack with his glowing claws, he had swung them around and managed to slash the shots in midair. This would have been impressive if he wouldn’t be charging right at the two.
As Thirteen came into swinging-distance he clawed seemingly at random at the Riders, but both managed to escape the onslaught of his attacks. While dodging Charge fired the last three shots in her revolver at the Corrupted, this time actually hitting him. To her dismay, while her attack had struck his armor, it didn’t seem to do much. The electricity surged through him but didn’t seem to affect him in any meaningful way. Quite the contrary, it just made him angrier.
“You bitch! Stop that and let me crush your head like the little bug you are!” He charged at her, claws glowing. Charge grabbed hold of one of her batons and was about to strike as Alchemy dropkicked the Corrupted into a nearby table, crushing it in the process. Charge used this opportunity, reloaded her revolver and shoot Thirteen six times, with the same effect as before.
The next thing she did was holster her weapon and instead switch to her other baton. Right as she had taken her other weapon the Corrupted had begun to stand up again. Alchemy was the first to strike again, punching him into the beak and right after into the stomach. While the monster seemed to feel the pain from the first hit, the second only resulted in Alchemy shaking his hand in pain and the Corrupted laughing.
A Stun Baton to the face shut him up, followed up by another one. Charge wailed on her opponent, not relating, pummeling him with her strikes time and time again. Still, he remained standing, not letting her get the better of him. While she hit him with her batons in the face, his claws started to glow again with the green energy. Suddenly his claws shoot towards Charges arm that was swinging down on him, grabbing hold of it while she flinched thanks to the green energy reaching her.
As she was about to slam the other baton in his face, he punched her with his free hand right into the stomach, sending her flying into the wall on the other side of the wall. From the place where she had been hit a green smoke rose up.
While distracted by what happened to Charge Alchemy failed to notice Thirteen rushing towards him. In the last moments before the Corrupted smashed his fist into his stomach Alchemy caught him in the corner of his eyes, sadly he was not able to react in time and was sent flying like his partner and crashed into a table that had been abandoned during the attack. He landed in a position where he could see that his opponent turned his attention back to Charge, who was still on her knees catching her breath.
He tried to stand up again, but he would be to slow and ultimately wouldn’t reach her in time. She had noticed the Corrupted walking towards her and had drawn her revolver, reloading it as fast as she could and fired at Thirteen. Like before the shots simply seemed to be ineffective against the Corrupted, not stopping him in his track, only slowing him down. Alchemy was unsure of what to do, he wouldn’t reach her in time if he tried to simply attack him again and using the Flame Sabres Maximum-Power-attack would also take to long. Then an idea struck him as he looked frantically around.
“Well, well missy. Should have really stayed silent and not gotten on my bad side. Well, now it’s too late for that,” he chuckled with a disturbing undertone as he stepped closer and closer to the kneeing Kamen Rider.
“Hey, Birdy! Catch!” came from his side. As he looked where the voice came from a metal serving plate came sailing towards him. The Corrupted easily caught it and turned his attention to the other Rider.
“Pah, you thought this piece of junk would hurt me? Pathetic!” Thirteen started to laugh at the apparent stupidity of the Rider.
Alchemy joined in with a chuckle. “Yeah, that would be pretty stupid. Thankfully this is not what I had in mind!” And with that, he flicked with his fingers. The plate started to glow on the side pointing away from the Corrupted and as he turned it around he saw for a split second a red seal before it consumed the room in a massive explosion.
As the dust settled you could make out the destruction that had been created thanks to Alchemy’s actions. The rest of the tables and chairs had collapsed and slight burn marks could be seen. The floor was pitch black, the windows had shattered and now lay on the street. Charge, however, seemed to be fine, just a bit black thanks to the thrown up ash. Thirteen was nowhere to be seen, but judging from the sizeable impact crater outside the restaurant he probably was catapulted outside and simply left.
“You’re ok?” he asked Ocean who had managed to regain her footing.
“Yeah, thanks to you. But dammit, he got away,” she replied, still heavily breathing.
“That’s, not that big of a deal. We’ll find him again. What I’m more worried about now is how am I going to explain this to Thunder. He is going to have my head on a platter,” Phoenix sighed.
“No, no! What happened here? I heard something loud and came back to see what was going on, but… what… Phoenix! Explain!” Thunder had barged in and after seeing what happened to his precious restaurant had sunken to his knees.
“Ahm… well… you know… We were in a precarious situation and, well… the only option left was to use a seal and… well, you see what happen. Please don’t be angry!”The further Phoenix got the more hectic he became and in the end, he shielded himself with his arms, fearing how Thunder would react.
Thunder looked shocked at his brother the simply slumped down and buried his head in his hands. “Ok.”
“Please, I had no… wait, ok?” Phoenix now sounded completely confused. He had expected a verbal smackdown or unbridled anger, but not an ‘Ok’.
“If you say you needed to do this I trust you… just… just let me grief. Why!”After that, he broke out into tears.
Seeing his younger brother boiling his eyes out in the ruins of his restaurant, that minutes early had still been brimming with life unsettled Phoenix. He slowly stood up and walked towards his brother, crouched down next to him and let his hand rest on his shoulder. “I’ll make sure we catch him, and then you can tell him exactly what you feel, ok Thunder.” Thunder just nodded and continued sobbing. “Good, just let it out. Everything is going to be fine.”