Three days had passed since the most recent monster attack, time that had not been wasted. While Phoenix had suffered through Ocean’s brutal training, leaving him quite exhausted Ivory had been working on something she had put him up too. Now that he apparently finished his work he had called the two Riders in. To Phoenix'ssurprise, he had actually waited for them at the door, with a mixture of excitement and worry. This behavior continued as they followed the scientist towards his personal laboratory, a room filled to the brim with strange machines and lab equipment Phoenix could not identify for the life of him, Ivory being extraordinarily hasty and nervous the entire way there.
After they had finally reached he basically shoved them inside, looked around for one last time and slammed the door shut behind him. Something Phoenix was not too pleased with. “You know we have ears and legs? And shocker, we are actually capable of using them,” he groaned back at the stressed out scientist.
Ivory shoots him a glare that would have shut up anyone and directly countered: “I have no time for this right now. So please, just shut up and listen.” Every word he spoke was filled to the brim with annoyance, and his look rounded it up perfectly. He had never seen the man in such a foul mode. As he was about to speak up again, Ocean subtlety nudged him in the side and just shook her head, letting him sigh in defeat.
“So, since we are done with this pointless conversation can we please get back to what we came here for in the first place?” Not even waiting for any kind of answer he hastily walked over to one of the tables in the lab and picked up a small orange rock on a chain, something Phoenix recognized quite fast. “This is A-5T31N, an artifact we found one year ago in an old mine in the Midwest. It can let the user enlarge the chain and stone and swing them around like nothing. It also allows the user to control the earth around the impact point, a class four artifact.”
“Wait, wait, what do you mean with found in a mine? We got that thing from a Corrupted, so how does that work?” He asked slightly confused while rubbing the back of his head.
With a heavy sigh, Ivory continued: “I was getting to that. If you would let me finish, I could tell you. And this should also look familiar to you,” he pointed at two pictures he had pinned on a whiteboard. The first one was a picture of a blue claw necklace, the same one that had been destroyed days prior and the second one was another necklace, this time one in the dark blue and in the form of a seashell.
“This- how is this possible? Both of them were destroyed, how are there pictures of them,” his confusion was only growing bigger with every passing second he stared at the pictures that shouldn’t exist.
“Phoenix, I told you that the seashell was once in the hands of the MRG. Did you forget that?” Ocean asked him in a mix of annoyance and worried, quite the odd combo if he thought so himself.
“Ah, probably,” Phoenix sheepishly grinned back, trying his best to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room.
Ivory quietly muttered “Stupid insomniac,” under his breath and quickly continued with his findings. “Since some of us apparently are not up to speed when it comes to the artifacts I think I’ll explain it again. These two are the artifacts A-CR4L3 and A-54LL3; both of them class four artifacts as well.”
His streak of confusion just continued, and he gained two somewhat miffed looks from the two as he asked: “Class four? What’s that?”
“Right, of course, you don’t know. I’ll make this short. We separate magical artifacts into five different classes. Class five artifacts are in general rather weak and unrefined. Most of the time they are just chunks of magical energy in a common object. Most of the powers gained from them are quite basic.”
“So, the ones on normal Corrupted?” He slowly replied, his brain trying its hardest to understand what Ivory was explaining to him.
He just nodded. “Class four artifacts are ones that were created with a bit more finesse and actually planning. The art of creating something like this has long been lost to history, so all of them are from the past. Until now those only appeared on the members of Tartarus, or just lost in all manner of places.”
“And these were Fifteen, Seventeen and Eighteen. All of them had class four artifacts,” Ocean added, her forehead covered in wrinkles as she looked over to the pictures.
“Exactly, but back to the topic at hand, class three are relics that were crafted with extremely high skill. Your Magic Discs and the Charge Stone fall under this category.” Ivory added, his voice had slowly calmed down again, and he had returned to his usual smug tone as he explained Phoenix everything he wanted to know.
“Wait, so I could turn into a Corrupted if I use them?” He asked somewhat taken aback by the statement and looked rather shocked at Ivory.
“Sure, if you use just the Disc, but with the Driver, you just bypass that. So, don’t worry. Now back to class two artifacts. More powerful and, so powerful and rare that we have not seen more than a handful of them in all of the years the MRG was active. And lastly the class one artifacts. We only have one recorded incident of one, and we weren’t even present when it was active, but it was in this town around autumn last year. You heard of the incident at CHS at that time?” Phoenix nodding in return.
“Good, then we can return to what we actually wanted to talk about. All there of these relics were once in possession of the MRG and after a bit of investigating I can safely say they are not anymore. They went missing, and we have no idea who took them,” his voice grew tenser with every word he spoke, shortly glazing over to a less than pleased Ocean who was gritting her teeth.
“Ok, you don’t know who took them? Shouldn’t there be something like a list of who took what, when?” He interrupted Ivory again, much to the annoyance of the scientist.
He was about to reply as he was interrupted again by a new voice, rough and raspy, but still in a strange way comforting and warm. “Well, there actually is. Sadly, our thief didn’t think it was necessary to write down his name. Add to that that all footage of the time of the theft is mysteriously missing and we don’t have many leads.” Everyone in the room suddenly spun their heads around to see the new arrival. A man was towering over them right at the door. His frame was enormous and muscular and all that crammed into a suit that looked slightly too small for him, nearly bursting under his muscles. His skin had a dark greyish tone to it, and his short military cut hair had a black tint.
“I- I- I'm glad to see you Mr. Onyx Gleam, but what are you doing here? We didn’t do anything wrong did we?” Ocean was the first to break the silence, her voice shifting from surprise to delight to fear in the span of seconds, something that just earned her a genuine laugh from the man.
“Oh, Ocean, how many times do I need to tell to just call me Onyx? I’m not your mother, it just sounds wired otherwise. And far from it, you are doing remarkably well, trust me. No, the one that did something wrong was the thief. Stealing from the MRG never works out. Still, that someone could steal something right under our noses and no one even notices it does make me nervous,” his voice boomed through the room, letting everyone just stare at him not knowing how to react to him.
“Excuse me, but who is that?” Phoenix asked, his face covered in a confused expression.
Ocean hissed at him a quietly as possible: “Phoenix! Watch your manners. That is Onyx Gleam, the head of internal affairs in the MRG. I don’t want another situation like with the director, so behave yourself, capiche?” The look she shoots him was terrifying.
In return Onyx just laughed again. “Oh, Ocean. Don’t be so hard on the kid. You have to be Kamen Rider Alchemy if I’m not mistaken.” While he spoke, he slowly walked closer to Phoenix, something he was not entirely comfortable with. As he stood next to him a quick on his shoulder, let the Rider nearly tumble towards the floor as Onyx continued: “By the way, good job kid. Wished I had powers like yours.”
Phoenix was meanwhile rubbing his shoulder and just replied a slightly unsure: “Thanks?”
What followed was another ear-bursting laugh from Onyx. “I like you kid! Hey Ocean, I think that one would make a good boyfriend for you, don’t you think?” Both of them immediately turned crimson and stared at the man in complete embarrassment.
“Would you stop that?” Ocean managed to force out of her ever brighter turning lips.
In response, Onyx simply continued to laugh: “Ah, I see it’s as easy to get you flustered as always. I like that about you. You are not as cold as a rock like your mother, you are still vulnerable. Makes you way more fun to be around.”
“Sir, please!” She hissed back at him, her cheeks still as red as a burning building.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’ll stop. So, what were we talking about again?”
Phoenix gave a quick glance over to Ocean and quietly asked: “Yeah, how is this guy so high up in the MRG?”
She slyly replied with a devilish smirk on her lips: “And how did you become a Kamen Rider?”
“Wow, that cut deep. But not wrong.”
“Well, you can believe what you want, but this man here was once one that went out there and dealt with the worst kind of stuff. That one time I was fighting against some crazy old lady that had found an old ring that turned everything she looked at into chickens. Took me two weeks to finally get the drop on her. And I had no handy-dandy armor like you kids. No, we did it old school. Not that anything you two do is in any way lesser.” He had stepped right behind them and had apparently heard every word the two had said. As he laid his hands on both of their shoulders, they immediately froze in place, hoping he wouldn’t be mad at them. “But, I can see where you are coming from. I’m not really what you expect from someone in my position, I give you that.” And like always he ended his sentence with a loud laugh, as unexpected as it might be. “Oh, right, now I remember! Our little thief in the MRG.”
This was enough to break Ocean out of her embarrassment and stare at him in shock. “What do you mean with a thief in the MRG? That is ridiculous. No one that could pull off something like that would even think about that!”
A weak smile appeared on Onyx lips for a moment but was quickly replaced by a more somber expression. “Believe me, kid, it means a lot to me that you believe that, but not everyone is as loyal to the MRG as you are. Money and power are some things only a few can withstand the temptation of. If everyone were like you kid, my department wouldn’t even exist. But, sadly that is not the case. And I already have a few suspects that I’m investigating. After I found out that you stumbled across some of the missing relics I just had to come here. This could be the breakthrough I was looking for.”
“And who might these suspects be that you have in mind? If I may ask?” To nearly everyone surprise it was Phoenix to ask this question, gaining shocked looks from Ocean and Ivory. Onyx on the other hand just smiled back at him.
“Sure, you can’t really help me if you don’t know who I’m suspecting. Well, the answer is rather cut and dry. Only five people could have pulled off a stunt like this. Myself, the three local heads of the MRG, the head of the Manehattan, Seaddle, and Whinneapolis department and of course our director.”
He couldn’t even really finish his last sentence as he was interrupted by an enraged Ocean: “What!? Not a single one of them would ever do that. I don’t believe it for even a second. Phoenix!” With that, she grabbed the surprised man and yanked him out of the room, right behind the angry agent. “There was something I wanted to investigate anyway,” she grumbled, not even slowing down for a second.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Onyx said quite puzzled.
“Don’t worry, she’ll come around eventually. Let her blow off some steam, and she’ll listen to you. She is not stupid enough to ignore this even if she doesn't want to think about it,” Ivory casually replied, sitting down on his desk and starting to tip something on the computer.
“Probably. Hey, I still have some questions for you, so if that wouldn’t be a problem-“
“Sure, I’m all yours. Just ask away,” he replied somewhat distractedly.
“Great, so then, let’s start.”
>-------<A>-------<
While these two were discussing essential details, Phoenix had been shoved out of the building and right into Oceans car, who had promptly slammed the door shut behind him. It didn’t take long before they had started moving. “Seriously Ocean, you could have just asked. I would have just followed you, no need to get so pushy.” She simply remained with her eyes on the road and didn’t even give the slightest hint of a response. “Wow, so bad? I know you believe allot in the MRG, but this is even beyond my wildest dreams.”
This was enough to finally get her attention. “Stupid Onyx and his stupid arguments. These four people have sacrificed so much for the MRG, it is ridiculous that one of them could have even thought about betraying us. It is just- just so wrong.” The entire time she was angry raving on about all that had just transpired her driving style grew more and more reckless.
“Ocean, I get that you don’t believe it, but can you give me any other explanation how someone could pull of a heist like this?” The moment he finished an angry glare struck him.
“Magic, it has to be magic. There is no other way!” She simply huffed back.
“Aha, magic. Inside a vault for magical artifacts for an organization that is extremely experienced with dealing with magical artifacts. Sure.”
This left Ocean speechless for a moment, gasping desperately for words where there weren’t any. “I- You know- It has to be- Magic!” The last word was basically spat out at him and contained pure desperation and bitterness.
“I take this as an ‘I don’t know’ then. But to get to something hopefully more pleasant. Why did you drag me into your car anyway?”
As he spoke Ocean visibly relaxed and her grip on the steering wheel lessened immensely. “Thanks. Well, we received magical energy readings from a small shopping district of the city. Nothing major, we just assumed it was background notice the first one to three times it appeared, wouldn’t be the first time that this would have happened in this city. But after the readings became more frequent, we couldn’t really say that anymore. The readings are still not strong enough to be anything other than a relic being used normally, so, for now, no sign of any Corrupted. This might actually be a relaxing job for you.” Oceans tone noticeably shifted the longer she talked, from anger and frustration she slowly transitioned to her usually calculating and confident demeanor.
“Knowing our luck we will get jumped by an army of Remnants and at least two Corrupted. By the way, shouldn’t there be some of those flying around after our fight with Blady? We haven’t seen those. You think they got scared and are hiding from us,” he jokingly asked his partner.
“Well, knowing our luck, no. They are just waiting to strike at the best moment.”
“Probably. Why can’t anything be just easy for once? Oh well, we can only hope, right? By the way, you do know where exactly the energy thing is coming from, do you?” He asked while raising one eyebrow.
“I know the that it is in a radius of five hundred meters, roughly,” she casually replied. “Actually a tiny radius and in the city no less. Most of the time we have a twenty-kilometer radius in uncharted land, more or less uncharted. That takes forever.”
Phoenix quietly sighed in return and let his head sink into his hands as they continued to drive towards their destination.
>-------<A>-------<
The sun was starting to lower over the horizon and slowly creeping towards the rove of the skyscrapers in the distance as the two were still walking through the streets and from shop to shop. Phoenix felt exhausted, his legs had grown tired, and his thought had practically dried out. He was slowly dragging his body along, right after Ocean, who to his surprise also showed signs of fatigue, sweat was running down her forehead, and a lot of her usual energy was gone, replaced by slower, more sluggish movements.
“Seriously Ocean, we have been searching for hours and still haven’t found anything. This plan is stupid,” he sighed in annoyance.
“Oh, then give me a better one. I’m willing to listen.” And just as expected Phoenix stayed as silent as the last ten times, he had complained. “See, and come on, we only have this street to go throw until we can call it a day. Four shops that is all. So quit complaining and get moving,” she jokingly continued, her partner just groaning in return.
The next stop on their trip was a shop with an orange exterior and a large blue and gold shield above the entrance that read: “The Flim Flam Brothers Everything Under The Sun Emporium.” Looking through the windows, one could see a collection of random junk and collectibles and judge from that it was some sort of pawnshop. But what catches Phoenix attention way more than another stupid shop in which they undoubtedly woulöd waste their time were two people that seemed to be heading towards the shop.
He knew them, the first one was Sunset, and the other one with a small carton under her arm was Applejack if his memory was right. They were chatting and seemingly didn’t notice him and Ocean as they continued to make their way towards the entrance.
“I still don’t think that is such a good idea AJ, especially after what these two tried to pull last time we were here,” he heard Sunset speak, in a somewhat unsure tone.
“Ah, don’t worry, Ah don’t want to sell anything, just want to know the price. And if they are not telling us the truth, ya just have to touch them once, and we know what they truly think,” AJ casually replied, her friend not looking so convinced, however.
“Hopefully you don’t mean with your geode, because I’m quite sure this would mean abusing its power,” Ocean sarcastically interrupted their conversation. Something that let the two girls snap out of their discussion looking in shook at Ocean who in return just chuckled a little and smiled back at them only to relax again after they had seen who was talking to them.
“Oh, it’s only you Ocean,” Sunset quickly replied in a mixture of calm and still partly shocked voice.
“That still doesn’t answer my question, however. What do you want to use that thing for? I hope it is not something illegal.”
“Does reading the minds of two well-known con artist to find out what something is really worth and not just the lousy prices they would offer you count as illegal.”
“Ah, oh well, I think that scratches the line but does not cross it, barely. But I’ll keep an eye on you. So, why do you think they are going to scam you? Just a hunch or something happened between you two?”
“Well, tha tried to rip us off after Grany Smith accidentally sold them ma bass for two dollars and we could prove that that was ma bass they wanted to sell it back for one thousand dollars. Ah only got the thing back because Ah could prove that Ah could play it and even after that Ah had to work as a banana mascot for them. That was embarrassing,” she sighed as her cheeks turned a slight shade of red while Sunset silently chuckled as inconspicuous as possible.
“So, if you know that they are going to scam you, why even go here? Aren’t there more pawn shops in the city?” This time it was Phoenix who asked the two, stepping out from behind Ocean and casually waving at the two.
“Oh, hey Phoenix, Ah didn’t see you there. What are you doing here?” AJ asked him, slightly surprised.
“Just tagging along on her shopping trip for a while, a long while,” that comment let the two girls looked at each other with a look that was quite unnerving for him. Shortly after that, they started to giggle a bit. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” Sunset quickly added, a bright smile still on her lips. “But didn’t you want to know why we went here? Well, AJ wanted to buy her brother a present, and since he is going to be on a trip for a week, she tried to hold a garage sale and use the money from that to buy the present. And for that, she wants to get the opinion of someone who knows what these are worth to sell them for a reasonable price. And these two are in her opinion the best for this since she doesn’t want to sell them to them, but to people that could use the things.”
“Ah, ok. If you say so. Makes sense, I guess. We’ll be careful if you say that the two who run this shop are really that big scam artist like you say. Let’s hope that Ocean is bright enough to not fall for them.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that, you, on the other hand, should just leave the talking to me, just to be sure,” she slyly replied, looking at him with a look that said everything he needed to know.
“Yeah, yeah, I got the message, you don’t need to rub it in,” he deadpanned back at her. Meanwhile, the two girls had started to chuckle again. “Yeah, yeah, very funny, I get it.”
“Oh, come on Phoenix, I’m sure she doesn’t really mean it that way,” Sunset tried to comfort him, Ocean just waggly shock her hand in response, something that let him smirk a bit.
“Ah, it really doesn’t matter now does it, why don’t we go inside and not waste any more time here?” He casually continued and was the first to grab hold of the door handle and swung it open with an expected ringing from a bell. The inside of the shop was filled with all sorts of random assessments, some would probably call it junk, but everything could be useful in some way, at least that was what he thought, but this was really scratching it. From tubas to old child's toys to some stuff he couldn’t even correctly define nearly everything one could imagine landing in a pawn shop was here.
Seemingly out of nowhere two-man appeared right in front of them in some rather strange clothing. They both wore striped blue and white shirts with also white trousers. Both had a black bow tie, and an apple pin, at least these were different from one another. Their skin was yellow, and their hair was a mixture of white and red. The only other difference one could make out between the two was that one had a mustache. They both nearly yelled at the four customers in unison: “Welcome to the ‘Flim Flam Brothers Everything Under The Sun Emporium’.”
“How can we,” the one without the mustache begun.
“be of any help to you?” As they spoke they stretched out their arms with an enthusiasm that was just uncanny.
But as they opened their eyes and saw two of their supposed customers their bright and cheerful expression disappeared in a heartbeat. “Oh, it’s you. What do you want? We didn’t buy anything from your Grany Smith this time,”
“so what do you want? Want your job as mascot back or what?” Both looked at each other and started to giggle. Meanwhile, AJ looked at them with a look that perfectly encapsulated what she was thinking, and it wasn’t anything to positive. “Ok, that isn’t, so what do you want girl?”
“Ah wanted to know how much this stuff is worth,” and with that, she pulled out the carton she had been caring under her arms for the entire time and set it down on the counter of the shop, the two brothers immediately walking over to it and opened the decently sized box. Their first reaction was one of intense wonder and suspicion only to turn around and to the four of them.
“Well, we can’t really say how much we are willing to pay for this right now.”
“But if you would follow me to the back room we can discuss this more furrowly,” finished the other brother, the one with the mustache.
AJ glanced over to Sunset for a moment who just nodded in return, and the three walked towards the door at the end of the room, disappearing from sight and leaving Phoenix and Ocean behind with the other brother.
“So, since Flam is busy with our other customers, how can I help you so you can help me?” Before any of them could even answer, he had already zoomed off towards one of the piles of “treasures” they were selling here. “Want something to dazzle your girlfriend here?” He grabbed one of the guitars laying around and held it out to Phoenix, he and Ocean in return just shook with their heads, all while their checks turned a bright shade of red.
“Ok, no problem. How about a lovely painting to spice up your living room?” He pointed at a painting of what looked like the coast of Canterlot City, and if he would be honest, it was indeed quite the stunning painting.
“Ahm, no, but you could-“ Ocean tried to say only to be interrupted by the man again.
“Not the slightest of problems. How about a stunning necklace, it would look breathtaking on you young lady and-“ that was as far as he got as he was interrupted by a loud scream of Ocean, who had gotten slightly annoyed with the man.
“Enough! We are only here to look around, nothing more, nothing less, so could you please let us look around in peace?” She looked at the merchant like she was about to strangle him at any moment, something that apparently worked quite well on him since he backed off visibly as he noticed the looks that were thrown at him.
“Fine, fine. No need to get so aggressive all of a sudden. A simple no would have been enough. But if you need anything just-“ One further look from her was enough for him to quickly change subjects. “Oh, I remember, I still have to do something over at the cash register, oh how forgetful I’m sometimes. I’ll leave you to your own devices then.”
“Thank you very much,” she replied with the most innocent of voices, making Phoenix fell even more unnerved after this.
“You know you can be really scary sometimes?” he asked her in an intimate tone.
With a light chuckle, she jokingly replied “All thanks to years of training.” He just nodded, not wanting to pursue this conversation any further.
After a good five minutes, both of them were interrupted in their search for anything of magical origin by a loud crashing sound and subsequent cry from the shopkeeper. “Oh no, why? How could this happen?” As they turned around they saw what had happened, a vase had fallen from one of the shelves and now laid broken on the floor, the shopkeeper screaming bloody murder over the broken piece and how valuable it was.
It didn’t take long until Sunset and Applejack returned from the backroom to investigate where the screams were coming from. They both looked at the screaming man and slowly walked over to him, trying to calm him down. As they were halfway there, Sunset noticed that Flam hadn’t followed them, something that didn’t really felt right and she quickly turned around and walked back through the door. Moments later aloud: “What the hay?!” could be heard followed by a pained grunt only for a shape to run through the open door and storm towards the exit.
It resembled a jester in red, blue and with clothing. His entire stature was rather slim and lanky, almost like he was made entirely out of sticks. His head was covered in a jester hat with bells on it as well as a white mask that had a face painted on it with red paint. It only took seconds till it had stormed out of the door and was running across the street. Ocean was the first one to be snapped out of her state of shock and screamed to the rest. “Applejack, look how Sunset is doing. I’ll take care of our friend here!” With that she stormed off towards the exit of the store, all while pressing the button on her belt, inserting the Charger and spinning the cylinder.
\ SCANNING CHARGE! /
“Henshin!”
\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /
After her transformation had finished, she speeded after the Corrupted, leaving the rest to their own devices. AJ immediately stormed off towards the backroom while Phoenix didn’t waste any further time and ran right after her, only to quickly dive into a nearby alleyway to put on his own Driver and transform.
\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /
“Henshin!”
\ THUNDER DISC ACTIVATED! /
Seconds later he had joined the fight, or what nowadays passed for a fight. The Corrupted was trying his hardest to escape the two Riders, only to fail miserably. Every time it tried to run away one of the two managed to get in front of it and send the monster flying back where it had come from.
“Hey, Joker, why don’t you just give up and we can end this the peaceful way for once? You of all people should know that fighting is no laughing matter,” Alchemy jokingly asked the monster.
“That was awful! You should be ashamed of yourself,” he retorted, still staggering from the last attack.
“Aw, come on, it wasn’t that bad, now was it Charge?” She just ignored him. “Really? So bad.” A small nod was all he needed to know.
While both of them had been talking the Corrupted had secretly been gathering magical energy in his hands and now snapped once with his fingers, something that quickly returned their attention back to it only for them to turn their heads around a second time as the Corrupted suddenly stood behind them making the exact same motion. A small ball of red and blue energy emerged from its fingers and hovered right above the two Riders only to suddenly split apart and crash into the ground around them, emitting a thick fog around the two of them that covered the entire street.
“Alchemy, get over here!”
The two Riders were now leaning against each other back, trying to find any movement in the mist. They remained there for a few moments, the waiting was agonizing, every bit of movement in the fog seemingly a monster that was out to get them, only to reveal itself as nothing more than fog. Then it happened all in an instant, four identical Corrupted charged directly at them.
The first one tried to slam his fist right into Alchemy’s face, who in return quickly circled around him and kicked him in the back, the beast disappearing on impact into more mist. Charge had meanwhile dodged the two attacks that had been directed against her and taken out her Stun Batons, charging at the enemy and smacking her first baton right into the face of the Corrupted, evaporating into smoke like the first one, quickly following it up with tossing her other baton right through the eye of the monster, destroying it.
Alchemy was meanwhile busy with finishing up his last opponent. With a swift strike to the punch, he just punched through the beast, letting it evaporate like the rest. It didn’t take long for the mist around them to subside and revealing to them that their actual opponent had disappeared.
“Well, shot, that didn’t work out, but on the bright side we found our shop, didn’t we?” Alchemy casually said.
Charge sighed in return and added: “Well, it seems we have our work cut out for us. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”