//------------------------------//
// To Protect a Butterfly - The Silent Protector 
// Story: Kamen Rider Alchemy 
// by Layton13 
//------------------------------//

This was so boring; his eyes were growing heavier with every passing second. Why did he have to patrol the city anyway, the MRG had their scanning system that would detect any magical activity in the city. This just felled pointless to him and all because Thunder thought having him hang around the restaurant would only distract them, as well as being a waste of time.

While he was glad that he was back to his normal self, he hadn’t looked forward to his usual pushy demeanor. Well, at least he wasn’t alone; Ocean had offered to take him along on her daily patrols. At least he wasn’t wasting his fuel by riding around the city aimlessly with his bike. The last few days had been relatively quiet, except for another murder. This time an artist that had been found in his apartment just this morning. Right now the two were driving towards the scene of the crime in one of the MRG’s cars.

“Remind me why I’m going to a crime scene again, I missed this part. I’m not trained for this, so why? I’m just going to ruin things,” he sighed in confusion. Thunder had woken him up especially early today and basically shoved him out the door to a waiting Ocean.

“I just wanted to see what you think about the whole affair. Besides, I’ll keep an eye on you so you don’t screw this up. So don’t worry, I’ll scream when you do something wrong,” she jokingly replied.

“Oh, that makes it so much better. Ahm, Ocean, just one question,” as he continued his voice grew more subdued. “The victim… is it still…”

Ocean gulped once and then answered with a stern look on her face: “Yes, it is still in the building. If you don’t want to see it, you can come in later when, you know, we got the body to the morgue. You don’t have to see this.”

Phoenix remained silent for over a minute, the atmosphere in the car couldn’t have been more awkward. Then he finally answered with a weak voice: “I… I think I should go in there. If I hide from every disturbing thing and refuse to face it I can quit right here. If I just turn away from the darker sides of this how can I protect the people from it? So I’m coming with you, for good or for ill,” he finished with a sober voice. During his answer he had pulled out the Alchemy Driver and now stared at it, phasing out the world around him.

He was only pulled back when he heard Ocean calling his name: “Phoenix! Are you there? Can you hear me?” A look of concern had formed on her face as she carefully squinted over at him.

“Wah… what? Did you say something? Sorry, I just phased out,” he hastily replied, stuffing the Driver back into his pocket.

She sighed in response and repeated herself: “I said, ok. If that is what you want, then we’ll do it, just to remind you, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. No one is going to look down on you because you didn’t want to do it, I assure you.” Phoenix just nodded and absentmindedly looked out of the window of the car. “So, how is the delivery service idea panning out for Thunder? I know he only got it running, but still.”

“Oh, good, good. Being known for good food sets you up for a good first outing. It should cover the expenses we are going to have to face during the repairs and all that without dirty money,” he had turned around again and smiled at his fellow Rider.

“Yeah, glad Thunder didn’t take the money from the guy. Still, I can somewhat respect that he offered it in the first place, well as much as you can respect an underworld kingpin anyway. Still, a shame that I wasn’t there to arrest him after he basically admitted that he was a criminal. And now I don’t know if we should hope that we meet him again or not. It’s tempting to remove that blight from the city, but at the same time, probably will cause a lot of problems before and after the arrest. What do you think?”

“Well, like you said, he is a criminal but doesn’t really fall under my jurisdiction. I’m a vigilante that fights monsters and as far as we know he ain’t one. Still, knowing about him just feels wrong. This city is so peaceful, well if you exclude the monster attacks that is, that something so despicable existing in it just doesn’t sit right with me. Looking away never was my strong suit. But right now I think focusing on the other Rider has priority, right?” His voice was shaking a bit as he reached the last part of his response.

“Yeah, probably the best thing we can do right now. Still, something bugs me about this whole thing. The number of magical energy readings in Canterlot City has skyrocketed in the last two weeks and we have no explanation for that. The fact that one of his underlings had an artifact might mean that others might have as well. Especially since further research on two of the last victims of our murdering Kamen Rider was part of his gang. Specialized as hitmen. The interesting part, we received two magical energy readings near the location the night of the murder and one at it. Assuming that the one belongs to our killer, the two others would probably respond to the victims. At least that is what I’m thinking,” Ocean replied, tipping on the steering wheel nervously.

“Knowing our rotten luck, probably. That would mean that this would become our problem as well, great. Not only are we dealing with murdering Kamen Rider, no, we have to deal with a potential criminal organization made out of Corrupted. Sounds wonderful. You know, I never expected my life to be this, you know, stressful. I could live with the occasional monster attack now and then, but this has begun to get excessive,” sighing while sinking back into the seat of the car. 

“You get used to it, eventually. Especially after a month in a remote region of the mountains, an ancient temple and magical traps that apparently like to screw with you. That was a mission,” a look of complete exhaustion had taken over her face as she kept looking at the street in front of them.

“You know, that actually sounds somewhat fun, at least if you compare it with the one week trip with gramps into the mountains. Worst week of my entire life.”

“Is your grandfather really that bad that you would take possibly deadly traps without your Driver over him?” She looked over to him with a somewhat unconvinced look on her face.

“Ok, maybe not that bad, but still, glad that I finally have a good distance between me and him. You wouldn’t believe how cranky the old geezer could get. But he has his good sides, just buried deep down, that’s all.”

“Huh, if you say so.” The care grows ever slower until it completely stopped. “By the way, we are there.” Without wasting any more time she left the car and slammed the door shut behind her again. Now alone in the car, after sighing again, he slowly stood up and opened the door on his side, stepped out and stretched himself. “So, just to be sure, you want to do this?” Her look was of genuine concern.

While he avoided her look, he still replied with. “Yes, I have to do that, for myself.” Ocean just nodded and led the way into the building. A rather modern house, apparently the artist was rather well of. They walked past four police officers that made sure no one entered the crime scene. Some of the officers looked at him rather confused, probably couldn’t really blame him. After a rather long climb up the staircase, both arrived at the highest floor and with it a door covered by police tape. 

Before they were allowed to enter both were handed white bodysuits. After they had managed to put on their respective new clothing they finally were allowed to enter the crime-scene, well would be if Ocean hadn’t stopped him right as he was about to. What followed was a rather lengthy explanation of what he could and couldn’t do. What it basically boiled down to was, don’t touch anything without my permission, don’t get your DNA anywhere, don’t take anything with you and leave everything as you found it. What he was allowed was to tell her when he saw something interesting and stay close to her. 

After they finally finished both entered the apartment. The first thing they noticed was a rather large room with a glass front giving a good look over the city. The room itself was a mixture of kitchen and living room, nothing too out of the ordinary. The state the room was in however was something else, chairs were laying around, the table was cut in half and scorch marks could be seen all over the stone floor. Other interior was thrown around the place like a tornado had ravaged through the house. All while a small army of police officers was searching every knock and cranny of the room, placing small paper signs with numbers down, taking pictures and trying not to step on each other's toes.

The first few moments in the apartment were spend just watching the officers do their job. In a way it was impressive, so many people working together for one single goal, making sure that the tragedy that had happened here would not repeat itself. He was only snapped out of it by Ocean, who wanted to head to another, room. The moment she mentioned ‘the body’, it felled like the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees. A cold shiver ran down Phoenix's back and his breath grew heavier.

Still, he trotted after her, his eyes frantically wandering through the room, looking onto whatever seemed interesting at the moment. First, a slashed open pillow with singed feathers that were scattered all over the floor, then a broken glass bottle and last one particular large scorch mark on the wall. As they entered a small hallway, that leads to the rest of the rooms, even more, scorch marks and broken furniture littered the way. The air reeked of smoke and burned wood and it felt almost as if there was still heat given of off them. Still, it couldn’t come up against the coldness that crept up on him.

With every step further into the corridor, his feet grew heavier, making each subsequent step even harder. His breath grew more infrequent as well, sweet was pouring down his forehead and back. Slowly Phoenix body started to shake and as they reached the door, after what felt like an eternity, he could not hide it anymore.

“Phoenix, are you ok?” She had stopped right before the door at the end of the hallway and now was looking at him with concern. “You really don’t have to do this, really. We can just leave and you can wait in a café nearby and I’ll tell you everything afterward.”

Phoenix breathes in once and then replied slowly: “No, I need to do this. I just need to.” And with this, he clenched his fist, took a deep breath and stepped into the room. 

The room was probably the worst of out of all of them. The scorch marks were everywhere and covered nearly every surface of the room. No part of the furniture was left whole, ever chared or cut to pieces. The windows had been shattered and a cold wind was blowing through the room. Then his eyes slowly focused on what was lying in the middle of the room. Even as he was trying to breathe slow and deep his breath grew ever more irregular and fast. His eyes seemed to refuse to wander to what was in the middle of the room. But slowly and steadily he convinced himself that he had to see it.

What lay there was a man, not older the thirty, unmoving. His skin was grey-blue while his hair was black. His clothing consisted of a brown shirt a paintbrush on it and black trousers, both completely torn up with wounds all over his body. Small blood splatters covered the floor around him. The worst was his eyes, staring at absolutely nothing and were completely glassy all while his face had a pained expression on it. And then there was the gaping hole in his chest like a pole had been rammed through it. His shirt was soaked in blood and the smell of it nearly made him puke right here and there, only quickly placing his hand over his mouth saved him from contaminating the crime scene.

He must have stared at the body for a while as he heard someone say something to him from behind. In a heartbeat he had spun around, now breathing heavily and stared at the person that had startled him so much, officer Shining Armor. “Everything ok? Do you need a moment?”

While wiping away sweat from his forehead he slowly replied: “No, no. I’m fine. Just ignore me.” During his reply he tried to avoid any eye contact with the officer, not wanting to give him any more ammunition to antagonize him.

“You are not fine, I can see that.” Phoenix looked even further away from the officer. “And there is no need to be ashamed about that. You just saw a dead body, not a picture or video, a real one. You think me or agent skies just took it when we saw our first one. No, I can’t speak for agent Skies but I couldn’t sleep properly for a whole week. Every time I close my eyes I saw her staring back at me with these glossy, dead eyes.”

Phoenix was quiet for a few moments, just staring at the officer. He had expected mockery or a comment over how unprofessional he was, but this, not in a lifetime. “I… I didn’t expect your sympathy. Thanks,” he replied, still not grasping what had actually happened right now.

“Really, you think that low of me? Well, I suppose. There is no shame in admitting that this is uncomfortable for you. It would actually concern me more if you hadn’t reacted this way. Shows you truly care. Means you are not a complete lost cause,” he chuckled, Phoenix after hesitating for a moment joining in.

“So, you can play nice,” both turned their heads and spotted Ocean smiling at both of them, apparently she had listened to the whole conversation. “And I thought you two will never get along.”

“Being nice to someone doesn’t mean you trust them.” And with that, he walked out of the room and left the two behind.

“Yeah, I think getting along might oversell it a bit, sorry,” he sighed and turned back to Ocean.

“You tried, but if I’m going, to be honest, I think he is slowly warming up to you, at least a bit. But regardless, we shouldn’t waste our time here and get back to business.”

He just nodded and followed her through the room to a man in the same white jumpsuit like they kneeling next to the body. “So, what can you tell me about our victim Doc?” She looked expectant at the man.

He in return stood up and opened a tablet he had previously wedged between his arm and body. “Well, our victim is the twenty-nine-year-old Paint Brush. A rather successful artist that has made a name for himself in the art world. He lived alone and has only a mother that also lives in the city. The most likely cause of death was probably the wound in his torso. Time of death was around three AM in the morning. We also found this next to his body,” he held up a paintbrush in a plastic bag, some blood plates were visible on it. “Probably the artifact or what once was the artifact.”

Ocean looked at the man with a rather confused look in her eyes. “So, you say the time of death was roughly around three AM? How did no one hear a thing at this early in the morning? The apartment looks like a major struggle had taken place here and without the shadow of a doubt caused a lot of noise, but no one heard anything? Strange, any idea Doc why this could be the case?”

The man just shook his head and replied: “Well, nothing more the ‘magic’ sadly. I don’t know to be honest.” He turned back to examine the body and didn’t pay them any attention anymore.

“Looks like the modus operandi of our serial killer. Scorch marks, a random object next to the victim and no witnesses. Did anything catch your eye?” He just shook his head and returned his gaze to the moving body before him.

“Dammit, oh well, nothing major anyway. I just wanted to see if you would see something that we wouldn’t,” she replied, but Phoenix wasn’t really listening. He just stared at the dead body in front of him. Slowly his disgust and uncomfortableness turned into sadness over the lost life and then into anger. His fist clenched together with growing intensity. Deep down his blood was starting to boil like never before. A low growl escaped his lungs and his face took on an angry expression.

“No,” he muttered under his own breath.

That was when Ocean noticed that he hadn’t answered her until now. “Phoenix?” 

He ignored her and simply continued to mutter to himself. “Not again!”

“Phoenix? Are you ok?” She reached over to him, laying her hand on his shoulder.

In an instant he had turned around he stared daggers in her direction, at least for a second until he shook his head and looked far more relaxed. “Is something Ocean?”

She looked at him with concern for a second longer then replied: “No, but I think you might need a bit of fresh air. Might get your mind a bit off of this. It seems to affect you quite a lot. So, why not take a little walk, eat something and let us work here. You did your part, so just take a short break.”

He was about to protest, but her stern looks mad him stoop right before he was about to object. “Ok, sure, why not. Even if I don’t think I need it. Should I get something for you too? Like, maybe a donut?”

Her expression softened a bit then she replied: “Why not, get me something as well.” 

He slowly turned around and walked towards the door only to turn around again and ask something: ”Hey Shining, do you want something as well?”

The officer just looked dumbfounded for a moment until he simply replied: “Sure, I’ll take two plain sugar donut.”

Phoenix weakly smiled back. “Good, got it. So, see ya!” Without waiting for an answer he walked down the hallway and towards the exit of the apartment. As soon as he was out of sight his expression turned into the angry grimace he had before Ocean had snapped him out of it.

“You think he is ok?” Shining asked Ocean, who in return eyed the officer somewhat surprised.

“I… I don’t know, but I’m sure if he isn't he can get through it. Just to be sure I’ll keep an eye on him. Do you think he is ok?” She asked in return in a subdued voice. 

“My honest opinion, no, not right now. But if he really has the quality that you see in him, he will get through it.” 

“I hope so,” she sighed and returned to her investigation as did Shining.


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


Shortly thereafter he was walking through the streets of Canterlot City, not entirely looking where he was going. His hands were stuffed into his pockets and his eyes stared aimlessly at the ground. A random can that lay in his way was swiftly kicked aside, rolling onto the street, every time it bounced clanking loudly. Some eyes moved their glances towards him, but right now he couldn’t care less. He wasn’t even sure where he was going, this part of the city was unfamiliar to him.

He wandered around aimlessly for about ten minutes, his anger still fresh and still hadn’t found a place to eat, and it was frustrating. Was this area too good for a common bakery or what? He was about just throw in the towel and look up the next bakery on his phone as he heard someone call out to him. He quickly lifted his head and looked around the area to figure out who had called out to him, but to his annoyance, he could not make out someone that looked familiar enough to call out for him.

Then he heard the voice again, this time actually able to figure out where it came from. Right behind him and after a bit of searching he managed to figure out who he was looking for, one of Thunders customers and someone he had to spend a bit of time with, Rarity. Next to her were two of her friends, a purple girl with glasses, as far as he remembered was her name Twilight, and a pale yellow girl with pink hair that was standing a bit behind her two friends, Fluttershy.

“Hey, Phoenix. Nice to see you here. How is Thunder doing, you know after this dreadful incident?” She waved at him with a bright smile, Twilight also joining in, as well as Fluttershy, who still didn’t step out from behind her friends.

“Hey girls. Well since he had a good standing with his customers, everything is working out just fine, even if he is somewhat annoyed over the, how did he phrase it, oh, right, ruckus that the workers are causing and fearing that he will go insane over it. So, the usual really,” he weakly giggled a bit, but ultimately it died down rather quickly.

“Darling is everything ok?” She sounded somewhat worried and the three girls stepped closer to him.

He just sighed in return and replied: “I’m fine, just a bit angry at the moment, but really nothing you girls should worry about. I’m fine.” The three girls didn’t look convinced in the slightest. He was just about to walk off as an idea struck his head. “You wouldn’t know where the next bakery is, would you?”

Before Rarity could say anything Twilight had pulled out her phone, tipped on it a few times and shout: “Ha, got something. Not five-hundred meters from here; even got five stars. I can tell…” She didn’t get any further since Rarity clamped her hand over Twilights mouth, rendering everything afterward into incomprehensible mumbling.

“Or we could lead you to it. I’m starving anyway and I haven’t properly thanked you for coming to the fashion show with me. So why don’t I pay for your meal, as a form of thank you? You don’t mind girls, do you?” Both her friends just shook their head. She smiled at him with the most innocent expression he had ever seen.

“Well, I’m getting something for two friends as well, so I’m not sure if it would be…” 

“I insist on it. If it’s only for two friends I can assure you I can pay. You seem to need a bit of cheering up anyway, so what do you say, dear?” 

Phoenix sighed in return but ultimately related: “Fine, why not. A bit of company won't hurt me. So where is that bakery now?” That was when his stomach started to growl, his anger had distracted him apparently enough that he hadn’t noticed how hungry he truly was. The girls just chuckled at this.


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


It hadn’t taken too much time to reach the bakery and within a few minutes, the four were sitting at one of the tables on the small plaza before the shop. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but the plaza with its fountain in the middle seemed somewhat familiar. Still, right now he was enjoying three chocolate muffins and a hot chocolate. Next to him stood two small paper bags, one with two plain sugar donuts and one with the weirdest thing he could find, mayoress-donuts. As strange as it sounded, Ocean would probably like it, he hoped. The three girls had settled for a cup of coffee each, two blubbery muffins for Twilight and Fluttershy and a piece of cake for Rarity. 

“So, now darling, what is it that made you so angry? It has to be something awful to get someone like you so riled up,” she asked him after having taken a sip of her coffee.

Phoenix was just about to bite into his second muffin as he was interrupted by Rarity's question. He slowly closed his mouth again placed the muffin back down. The anger he had felled before now returned, the fragile relaxation he had recovered just now shattered in an instant. “Really, Rarity, I appreciate this, but this is something I don’t want to bother you with it. I’m fine, just give me some time.”

This time it was Twilight who replied to him: “You know, not telling anyone about your problems only leads to more of them. Every time I see my brother lately, he is always stressed out and he refuses to tell me. Even when I asked his girlfriend, she couldn't give me any answers and it is eating him up, I can see it. I also had problems with fitting in and I wished I had friends as good as the ones now to talk to.  Baring it alone only creates more problems. I can assure you that.”

“It’s really sweet that you girls want to help me, but there are just things you have to deal with at your own pace. Still, I very much appreciate. On another note, you asked how everything for Thunder and me is going, how is it for you. Is school as boring as you would imagine it?” Phoenix jokingly replied. 

Fluttershy seemed to be about to speak as Twilight answered him quite enthusiastically: “Oh, great, how could school ever be boring? Especially with such good friends.” While she spoke she quickly glanced over to a purple neclair that hung around her neck, one that was rather similar to the ones her friends wore.

“Yeah, sure, as if sitting in a room half of the day an listening to someone blabber on about useless stuff seems so fun,” someone muttered, but still audible for Phoenix.

He looked confused around, this hadn’t been one of the voices of the girls, no, this one was more masculine. “Who was that? Twilight, who was that?”

Her expression suddenly shifted from her previous relaxed look to something more nervous. “What do you mean? I didn’t hear anything, did you girls?” She frantically looked to her friends, while making one of the most unconvincing expressions he had ever seen.

“Positively not,” Rarity immediately joined in, shifting nervously on her seat.

“I… I didn’t hear anything,” Fluttershy basically squeaked out.

While he eyed them rather unconvinced, he finally relented and sighed in defeat. “Ok, probably wasn’t anything.”

“Puh!” There it was again, he jumped up from his seat and frantically looked around for the origin of the voice. That draw some confused looks towards him, but right now he didn’t really care. In a short moment, while he was looking away from Twilight, she bumped her backpack slightly with her hand. The moment he looked back, it seemed like nothing had happened. 

“Seriously, what is that?” He was slowly sitting back down, taking a rather large bite out of his muffin, and chewing it rather forcefully. “You have to have heard it this time. Come on girls,” he pleadingly looked at them, awaiting a response.

To his dismay, they just shook their head. “Are you sure you are alright? You nearly seem as paranoid as Shining when something involves Alchemy,” she nervously chuckled, hoping that she could shift the conversation into another direction.

Phoenix just chuckled: “Someone named Shining that is skeptical of Alchemy, that… that sounds familiar. Wait, your brother is not coincidently named Shining Armor and works for the local police?” The chuckle quickly died down and was replaced with confusion and disbelief.

“Actually, all that is right. Wait, you know my brother?” Now it was Twilights turn to stare at him in disbelief.

“Well, that’s a long story but it basically boils down to, you know,” he stammered a bit, but it didn’t take long till he regained his composure and continued, even if it was still a bit fast: ”I know this woman that works for this MRG organization, that takes on the monsters with the Kamen Riders. And she asked me to hang out in her breaks with her. And just half an hour ago she texted me to get something to eat,” pointing at the two paper bags. “Not the first time, one of them is for Shining, the old grump. But that you are his sister just… just is surprising, you are so friendly and he is always so grumpy.”

She just chuckled a bit and replied: “Oh, he just is really concentrated on his work mostly, but if you actually get to know him he is really nice and someone you can depend on. He can just be somewhat hard to get to know, that is all. I’m sure if you spend enough time with him you two will become friends.”

“Hmh, maybe, he seemed to be a bit nicer in the last few days, who knows. Wouldn’t hurt at least trying.”

“So, who is that girl you were talking about? Perhaps your girlfriend?” Rarity asked with an innocent smile on her face.

The hot chocolate he had just sipped from was suddenly ejected from his mouth and onto the floor. What followed was a massive coughing fit until he finally recovered enough to answer: “What!? No. Ocean is just a friend, nothing more.” He still coughed through his answer but it seemed the majority of it was over.

“Are you ok?”Fluttershy asked concern in her voice.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine just need to breathe a bit,” he replied, still catching his breath. His head had taken a deeper shade of red, however, if it was because of embarrassment or his previous coughing fit was not really clear.

“Are you sure? You seem awfully defens…” Rarity's snarky comment was interrupted by someone running past them, grabbing Fluttershy backpack and nearly throwing her off the chair. 

Jumping up immediately he raced after the thief, who had dashed into an alleyway, Phoenix hot on his trail. As he reached the alley the thief that was clad in a dirty green jacket with hoodie and scarf were currently running over some trashcans to get over a metal fence that separated the small alley. Phoenix picked up his speed and hoped that he would make it over the small fence in time.

While he climbed he looked in the direction where the thief might have gone, spotting him just running around the corner of the alley. Cursing under his breath he finally managed to pull himself over the fence, that was when he heard a scream of utter terror, picking up his pace again he rushed around the corner and stopped right then and there. The backpack was hastily through to the side, it content scattered on the ground, but what had him caused to stop was neither of those things, it was what was standing right in front of him. 

A giant muscle packed beast stood before him, its skin made out of magma and charred rocks floating on it, somewhat resembling armor. Its hands, torso, and legs were all covered in the rather rough rocks that were slightly moving over the body. At this moment the beast turned around and you could see that the head of the beast was clad in some sort of rock helmet and reminded him in a way of a skull. Glowing red eyes stared at him out of empty sockets. But the strangest part was the ears; they were massive and hanging over his back like two capes. The whole beast reminded him somewhat of a rabbit, a rabbit born in an active volcano, but a rabbit nonetheless. 

An unearthly scream was unleashed by the monster, snapping him out of his little shock state. Without even a second thought he pulled out his Driver, put it on and placed one of his Magic Discs in it. At this moment he heard voices coming from the other end of the alley, he had to act quickly. And with that, he spun the Disc.

\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /

“Henshin!”

\ THUNDER DISC ACTIVATED! /

After the lightning that had surrounded him had subsided he was clad in his blue armor and ready to take this rabid, that looked like it came straight out of Tartarus, on. 

The moment he had entered his battle stance the Corrupted already charged straight at him. With his super speed, it was not really that hard to dodge the attempted bodyslam of his opponent. Still, the limited space he had to work with didn’t make it any easier. Right now Alchemy was hugging the wall as the colossus stumbled past him and right into the next wall. Shrill scream could be heard from around the corner.

Without a second thought, he raced back around to confirm his suspicions. And indeed they were correct, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy all had climbed over the fence and stared in shock at the monster. What was strange about this, however, was that all three wore different clothing. Rarity the same as she had worn at the time Carousal Boutique has been overrun by Remnants and the other two outfits that were rather similar.

Twilight had an outfit that was made out of blue and purple material, some crystals on her back that resembled wings and a purple goggle. Fluttershy, on the other hand, had an outfit consisting out of lush green, light blue, and pink, with no wings on it. As he took a closer look he spotted rather large ears and ponytails on all off the girls. But he was not the only one that had noticed the presence of the girls, the Corrupted had as well. After stepping away from the wall he had just run into he stared at the girls, tilting his head slightly and slowly started to walk towards them. The spot of the wall he had just touched melting behind him. 

“Oh, no you don’t” and charged straight at his opponent, during which he jumped of the ground kicked with his full force right onto one of his armor plates. The Corrupted did indeed stop his advance towards the girls, but just slowly turned around and stared with his burning eyes at him, a truly terrifying image. And just like expected the monster slammed his fist right there where the Rider had just stood mere moments ago, the concrete under his fist starting to melt.

“Hey Bunny, would you be so kind and step away from the ladies? Thanks!” The Corrupted again charged straight at them, Alchemy again evading the Colossus, even though he could feel the unbearable heat coming off of the beast. This time it crashed into some large trashcans that started to melt soon thereafter. “And now to you. I don’t know what this get-up is you are wearing, but you shouldn’t be here. Let me deal with this Corrupted, don’t worry I’ll make sure he doesn’t cause any damage,” as quick look over the already partially melted alley and added: “Well, any significant damage.”

He expected the girls to nod and leave the way they had come from, but to his dismay, that was not what happened: “Darling, please. As if we could leave you alone with this ruffian. Don’t worry we can take care of ourselves, right ladies?” Twilight nodded confidently while Fluttershy nodded way more subdued. 

At this moment the Corrupted shoot back up again, roared and started to walk towards them. He was about to rush towards him again as Rarity hold out her arms towards the monster and said: “Don’t worry, I got this.” Moments later a swarm of ethereal diamonds rained down upon the Corrupted. The behemoth covered his face with his hands and actually stumbled back a bit and back into the wall, which began to smoke again. “See, we can be helpful.”

He was about to reply as the Corrupted unleashed another deafening scream, Rarity, and the others clutching their ears. With the attack that held him against the wall gone the monster finally advanced again and this time it through a ball of lava straight ta him, ignoring the girls completely. Before he even attempted to evade the attack, the lump of lava stopped midair. A look of confusion had taken over his face and he tilted his head, trying to figure out what had just happened. 

“Good, job Twilight!” Rarity shouted out. As he turned his head to find out what she meant, he could see Twilight holding out her arms, quite similar to how Rarity had done it moments before. She was struggling to keep the magic up, sweat dripping down her face and her expression was rather tense. After seeing how much effort she put in stopping the attack he didn’t waste any time and removed the Thunder Disc from his Driver and hold it out in front of him.

\ Thunder Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Thunder Tonfa! /

Moments later he held his weapons in a firm grasp and charged straight at his opponent, slamming right into his stomach. This time he didn’t hit its armor and the weapon simply went through his body, before the tonfa could actually start to melt he quickly pulled it out again. The wasted time with this attack was quickly punished as the fist of the Corrupted slammed into his stomach, sending him flying towards the girls. Twilight quickly let go of the lump of lava and caught the Rider before he could land. 

Still, his stomach felled like it was being cooked and he had only been hit with the hot stone. After Twilight had let him down, he managed to reply while gritting his teeth in pain: “Thanks!” All three girls looked worried at the Rider, Fluttershy probably the most. The Corrupted was about to charge straight at him again as something blue shoot past him and straight for the Corrupted. 

It was Charge; she landed on the chest of the Corrupted with her feet and pushed herself back, landing right next to him. “We leave you alone for half an hour and you get into a fight. Why am I not surprised.”

“Good to see you too Charge. Can we hold this off till later, right now I’m kinda busy,” he replied while slowly standing back up. As they spoke he turned the Thunder Disc back into its original form.

“Sure. But who are these lovely ladies? You know that you should not bring someone to work do you?” She asked him somewhat unnerved. 

“Hey, we are here of our on fruition and can defend us just fine,” Rarity interrupted Alchemys answer.

“Right, we can help. Just ask Alchemy,” Twilight added. Meanwhile, Fluttershy weekly nodded.

Charge looked at her partner looking for an answer. He just shrugged and put a new Magic Disc in his Driver. Meanwhile, Charge had pulled her Charge Magnum out and fired six shots at the slowly approaching behemoth. While all shots found their target it didn’t seem to affect it in any way shape or form. “Dammit!”

\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /

\ EARTH DISC ACTIVATED! /

An orange whirlwind consumed the Rider, small rocks could be seen all around him. As everything had died down again, he stood there in a yellow-orange armor, the golden ornaments that decorated all his other forms were still quite visible. On his chest, the symbol had changed to one that represents earth. His shoulder pads looked similar to a rock, ruth, and uneven. The horns on the helmet now looked rather rocky as well, with unsymmetrical sharp edges. And his eyes had taken on a light blue color.

During his transformation Charge had rushed towards the Corrupted and had pulled out her Stun Batons. She evaded the lumps of lava the monster was throwing at her with ease and within a second she had crossed the gap between them. Moments later she was wailing on the Corrupted and slamming her weapons continuously down on him. The Corrupted was slowly getting pushed back against the wall, well until one of her attacks missed her opponent, to her utter shock. As she glanced over to her weapons she noticed that they had started to melt, the moment she looked back at her opponent she was greeted with a hot fist to the face. 

Like Alchemy before she was could hit the ground, just like Alchemy she was caught by Twilights magic. To his release, her helmet hadn’t started to melt but was rather charred. Then a new voice could be heard coming down the alley. “Charge? Are you here? I came as fast as I… Twilight?! What are you doing here?”

Suddenly Charge fell unceremoniously to the floor and Twilight stared in shock at her brother. “Shining, I can explain this,” she stammered, trying to find her composure again.

Meanwhile, the Corrupted gathered energy in his fist and was about to throw it at Alchemy. As the monster unleashed another one of its screams he immediately spun around and saw how the Corrupted was throwing a huge lump of lava in his direction. Reacting quickly he slammed his fist on the ground, jumped back and flicked his finger. Not a second too late a pillar made out of earth erupted from the ground, the moment it came into contact with the newly formed pillar the entire alley was covered in a thick dust, making it impossible to see what was going on.

Expecting an attack he readied himself, but to his surprise, nothing came. The dust had settled enough that he at least could see relatively clearly he noticed that his opponent was nowhere to be seen. Without wasting any more time Alchemy rushed around the corner only to find nothing besides the previously disregarded backpack. “Dammit, it got away!”

It didn't take long before someone caught up to him, to his surprise it was Fluttershy. She frantically reached for her backpack and looked inside. Then she relaxed in an instant and retrieved a small white bunny from the backpack and began to cuddle him. “Oh, thank goodness, you are ok Angle. I was so worried.” The rabbit meanwhile was gasping for air. “Oh, sorry.” She loosened her grip on him and apparently the rabbit was quite pleased with this.

“Now to you young girl. Do you know in how much danger you were?” he could here Shining Armors rather angry voice coming from around the corner. He sighed and walked back towards the rest of the group, Fluttershy following close behind after she had picked up her backpack again.

As he could see the others again he noticed that Ocean had transformed back. Her face had taken a bit of damage, small parts of the skin on her cheeks had been scraped off and her flesh had been exposed. Adding to that was the fact that her face had was covered in ash, all in all, she looked rather beat up. “Everything ok?” 

“Nothing major, it’ll heal in time,” she replied, wincing as she spoke.

“Ok, if you say so,” he replied, not entirely convinced.

“Just… just let me explain Shining,” Twilight desperately tried to calm her brother down.

“Oh, I would love to hear that one. And believe me, we have time,“ he replied rather annoyed. 

“I have the feeling this is going to be a long day,” he whispered to Ocean, she just sighed.

“And you!” The officer pointed at him. “We are going to have a talk, do you understand me!” Now it was his turn to gulp in dread.