//------------------------------// // To Catch a Star - Siblings // Story: Kamen Rider Alchemy // by Layton13 //------------------------------// “What were you thinking? Oh, monsters, let's stay right there where they could easily get me, or how about a stray shot? What is danger? I live on the edge!” Ocean was fuming, Phoenix sitting behind her and just trying to not let his head retreat into his body like a turtle. “Oh, come on sis, turned out fine, didn’t it? How could I miss a Rider in action? But of course, miss ‘by-the-book’ has to play fun police and get on my case. Can’t a girl just watch a man beat the everloving shit out of monsters? What is wrong with that?” Star Catcher groaned in return, sounding just as annoyed as Phoenix would be on a really bad day and a squabble with his grandfather. Ocean just stared at her in absolute bafflement for a moment before letting her head sink into her hand and started to shake it with a loud groan. “You know how bad you could have been hurt? These things are no pushovers-“ “Seemed like they were,” Star returned with a cheeky smile on her lips. “Don’t try to be smart with me. For a Rider? Maybe, but a human? They could rip you in half if they wanted to, be glad that Phoenix watched out for you during the entire thing. Goodness, how stupid can you be?” She continued, shutting down her sister at every opportunity. “I’m sorry, but I have to side with her. You really fucked up with this. This is not a game, this is real, as unreal as it might seem. You can’t just waltz onto a battlefield and expect everything to just ignore you, that is not how this works. And you just make our job harder if we have to protect you, so please, just don’t do this anymore,” Phoenix added, sounding far more relaxed than his girlfriend. “Ah, you two are such sticks in the mud. Come on, no one got hurt, so who cares. I could see you beat up some of these freaks and it let me relax a bit before the race starts, so good for everyone right?” Star continued, sounding just as relaxed and carefree as ever. “You’ll stay, right?” Ocean looked at her like she had just said the worst thing he could imagine, she was furious. “Staying? Are you kidding me? After what you just pulled? Maybe with an apology and a promise to never do something like this ever again, but like this? Oh, no! I have a friend to save, and my best lead is currently sitting on the other side of the city. I thought I would be nice and meet you, talk things out, even if it meant risking the life of Ivory, but now? No, just no!” Ocean had started to go off on a tirade, her screaming echoing through the halls of the stadium, several other athletes looking towards them in confusion. Star looked back at her with a look of disappointment, one that was quickly washed away by anger and bitterness. “Yeah, what else. Work takes priority. Playing the good little protector of the people, just like mom always hammered into your head. Just so they can complain about you when things get tough. And now you turn more and more into mom. Your way, or the highway. What doesn’t fit into your worldview has to be destroyed. It doesn’t matter who asks something of you, you will always decide in favor of the idiots that don’t value your work. Tell me, how does it feel to follow in the footsteps of the person you killed with your own hands?” Star Catcher glared at her, the words cutting into oceans hearth like daggers, but were quickly drawn out by anger. “You know what? Fine, if you want to risk your life, fine, but do it without endangering other people in the process! You might actually understand that if you wouldn’t have started to be such a troublemaker. You never got why dad did what he did. And if you can’t get it, then there is just one thing I have to say to you, goodbye.” With that ocean just turned around and left. No more screaming, just a silent walk out of the hallway and with it out of sight. “Well, that could have gone better,” Phoenix sighed, before looking over to a very angry and annoyed Star Catcher, still staring after her sister with a look that probably could kill if that would be possible. “This little… Just like mom and her self-righteous bullshit. ‘Oh, I’m always right! Oh, you have to do exactly what I tell you to! Oh, why can’t you be more like your sister?’ I’m sick of it. Bossing me around like they have any right to do that.” With a loud scream of frustration, she shoved Phoenix to the side stormed into her room and slam the door shut behind her. “A lot better,” he sighed before picking himself up from the ground, dusting himself off. With a worried look over to the now closed door, he groaned as he pulled out his phone and dilled in the number and readied himself for round two of this argument. “Hey, Oc-“ That was all he managed to get out before he was interrupted by his livered girlfriend. “The nerve of her!” She apparently was already shouting into the phone, forcing Phoenix to hold the device a good few centimeters away from his ear, a few of the passing by people throwing confused looks at him. “Can you believe that? I sure can’t! Does she even realize what could have happened? And to think I was worried about meeting her.” Phoenix looked at his phone with a pained expression, debating if he really should say this right now, but a certain voice of reason just wouldn’t shut up about it if he wouldn’t. “Yeah, that was really stupid, but I can somewhat see where she was coming from,” he hesitantly returned and received the expected answer. “What?!” It was loud, and even though he had heled the phone away from his ear, it still hurt. “Are you serious?” “Yeah, I’m, somewhat. It was a dumb decision, sure, but it’s not every day you got to see a Rider in action. And since she seems to be somewhat perplexed with why we do the things we do I can see her trying to figure that out. Doesn’t mean that she should have done that from a safe distance,” he quickly returned, trying his best to calm his girlfriend down. “But is this really enough to get into such an argument with her?” “What do you mean? When she is so insistent on not listening to me and putting others in danger I have nothing to say to her,” she huffed, much to Phoenix dismay. “Ok, listen. I’m pretty sure you like your sister,” he could hear her huffing from the other side of the line. “You always spoke of her so highly, and when you told me that she pretty much ignored you at the funeral, you were heartbroken. And if you wouldn’t care you wouldn’t have sent me here in the first place. So, you love your sister, so why even think about breaking of that relationship for a reason like this? I would never do that, I love my brother too much for that. Sure we argue, and we scream at each other, but we always get along in the end. So, please, just give her a bit time and try it again, she isn’t here for too long, and you’ll probably regret it when she is gone again. Please,” he finished with almost a whisper, the other end of the line remaining silent for a few moments. “I… You… what do you know about our relationship? I… We talk about this later,” and with that she ended the call, leaving Phoenix standing in the hallway letting out a long, pained sigh. “Stupid concise, why do you betray me?” He muttered to himself, letting his back slumped against the wall and slowly let his body slide to the ground. “I have the feeling I will not hear the end of that for a while. Let’s hope she isn’t too angry for too long.” >--------------< A few hallways away a figure was having a discussion on her phone, just like Phoenix. “So, you failed?” Came it from her phone. Furie, cringed as she heard this. “No, I didn’t. I decided that the best chance to achieve our goal was to wait and strike at a better moment,” she gritted through her teeth, not believing the words coming out of her mouth herself. “Oh, really? And I heard that you were the hothead of your group? Did something happened to change that?” Shadow Gold returned with a despicable glee in his voice, letting Furies face twist into a grimace of anger and hatred. “Since Cerberus isn’t here anymore, I can’t just continue like nothing happened,” and under her breath, a good distance from her hone she added: “At least until we find a way to get rid of you.” “Oh, really? I’m impressed. From what checkbook told me, I thought that you would be far more emotional and would try something stupid. But I’m pleasantly surprised, it seems Tartarus does indeed hold up to their name, in certain regards,” he continued, much to Furies growing annoyance. “But be warned, if you fail again, you know what will happen. We wouldn’t want you to cause the same catastrophy Cerberus did, so better put in you’re A-game. Ciao!” The call ended abruptly, leaving her standing in the hallway, staring at the phone in equal amount of disgust, horror, and unbridled rage. She was tempted to just throw the phone at the ground but ultimately stopped herself mere moments before she actually would have gone through with it. The phone had been a birthday present from Cerberus, and she was not so angry to throw that away. “Boss?” Came a voice from behind, in an instant she turned around, putting her hands into a fighting position and stared at the person behind her. A woman with pale white skin and short platinum gold hair. “Are you ok?” The woman looked surprised and very worried. Her body relaxed again as she realized who had startled her. “Oh, Gold Feather, it’s just you. What do you want?” Her suspicious tone quickly was replaced by one of curiosity and annoyance. “Boss, that fucker Shadow Gold, that was him, right?” Feather asked with a look of concern on her face. “Yeah, it was the prick. Thinks he can just command me around.” Furie let out a loud sigh followed by her fist hitting the wall next to her with a loud thud. “And worst of all, he kinda does. That bastard thinks he can just toy with the lives of our men like he wants to, but I gonna show him. He will regret ever messing with Cerberus and with us. I will send him to Tartarus so he can rip him apart himself!” Furie was fuming, her anger growing only more and more the longer she thought about him. “Yeah, the fucker can die for all I care. Those who mess with us will get to reap the consequences, so why not hunt him down and murder the fuck out of that slimy bastard?” Feather returned with glee and an amazing mad grin that would have taken fear into the hearts of most people. “Because the bastard is smarter than he looks,” she growled back, slowly stepping closer to her subordinate. “He managed to get a deal with ‘The Circle’ and now if we don’t follow his orders they are threatening to kill our men. And it’s not like we could just kill him and be done with it, he has plans for his Driver that our business-partners want, so either we can get them ourself, or we follow orders. Cerberus tried this already, and it didn’t end well for him.” This left Feather quite speechless, staring at her boss in shock for a few moments before returning with a confident glare in her eyes: “Ok, boss, I’m in. What do you need me to do?” This took Furie by surprise. She looked at feather with an uncertain look before starting to laugh. “I always liked you, but don’t think this will be easy. We are hunting one of the family members of the Riders, so expect them to show up and cause trouble. By Tartarus, they already did that when I sent a few Remnants after them and tried to sneakily take the girl. I hope you know what that could mean?” Feather just chuckled with a cocky grin on her lips before blowing Furie of. “Oh, I’m not afraid of the Riders, they are just some costumed freaks. The ones that lost to them were just not good enough. I’ll crush them like nothing.” She had expected another jab from her boss, but not what followed. In the blink of an eye, Furie grabbed her by the throat, lifted her off the ground and pressed her against the wall. In her eyes was a glare that might have killed her if she ha that ability. She was desperately trying to get the hand off her as Furie quietly whispered into her ear: “You say this again, and I will make sure that you will regret every remaining second of your life. Your comrades did their best, you should not spit on their legacy. You would have been crushed, exactly like them. If Cerberus couldn’t win how do you think you could?” With the last word said she released Feather who crashed to the ground, desperately coughing and gasping for air. “But if you really think you can go up against them, I have a job just for you,” she finished, turning her back to the still coughing Feather, taking a look down the slowly filling stadium. >--------------< Star Catcher was still fuming with anger. After having slammed the door shut behind her, she had been on edge the entire time. She was just like her mother, and she had thought she knew her. She just wanted to punch something to relieve some of the stress and anger she was feeling, but beating one of the lookers would just get her into trouble, and she really didn’t need that right now. So instead she started to do some pushups, she just needed something to get her mind off. That was when she heard the knock on the door. With a loud sigh, she let herself fall to the floor before shouting an anyone: “What?” The knocking immediately stopped, and she heard a rather nervous voice, one she really was not too thrilled to hear. “Uhm, Star Catcher, can I come in?” She looked at the door with exhaustion, but ultimately just let her head hang low and shouted back. “Fine, but don’t take to long.” “Thanks,” came it back, the door slowly opening just moments later to reveal a nervous looking Phoenix that let his head slip into the room and looked around before stepping inside. “What do you want?” Came it back, Star looking at him with a glare that made the Rider rather uncomfortable. “I just wanted to talk to you, about, you know…” “Oh, go on, tell me how wrong I am and how much better my sister is. That I should apologize and all the other crap. You are her boyfriend after all,” she huffed back, snapping her look away from Phoenix who just silently sighed. “No, I’m not gonna do that. Sure, what you did was stupid and reckless, I won’t deny that. And you know that yourself, right?” As he looked at her, she let her head sink just a little bit, and he thought he could see a small frown on her face. “But that doesn’t mean Ocean is right either. I might be her boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with her all the way. She is currently quite on edge, ever since the night she…” He stopped for a moment, mentally searching for the right word. “The day she killed mom,” Star bluntly finished his sentence. “You don’ have to tippytoe around it, I have seen the corps. I was there when they buried her, the lifeless body,” she continued, a hint of sadness in her voice. “It was her own fault anyway that she ended up this way.” “Yeah, that. But that doesn’t mean Ocean doesn’t feel guilty over it. And to add to that, she didn’t even have time to properly grieve. The same day one of her longest friends was kidnapped by a murderer that has haunted this city for months. She poured every second she had into finding him, and we still weren’t any closer to that then the first day, in all honesty, things are looking worse with every passing day. She hated the thought of leaving the city to go to Manehatten, simply because she was afraid for her friend. She ultimately went along with it, but only because there was no other way, and I hoped that she would start to process this there, but then the funeral happened, and you know how that turned out,” he somberly continued. Star let her head sink even further as she quietly returned: “She was shunned by the entire family, including myself, I get it. But that still doesn’t excuse her bitchinese to me,” she hissed back, a look of defiance in her eyes. “Sure, but you didn’t even see her at her worst. When she came back she gave, even more, she worked harder, and she pretty much lost sight of other things, the only thing that mattered was finding Ivory. And it backfired. One of her underlings managed to get caught up in a fight between Riders and Ocean shot him in the arm. The wound wasn’t deep or life-threatening, but she still felt awful. Since then she has toned it down a lot, but she still wants to find him and doesn’t want to give up hope. She is jutted on edge, and the fact that she made room for you anyway shows you just how much she cares about you, and when you disappointed her, she just let it out. I still have to have a talk with her later about that, but please, don’t take it too hard, she is your sister after all, and I know how siblings can be. Annoying and you sometimes just don't want to see them, but they will always be at your side, someone you can trust. At least that is how my brother is,” he finished, smiling in her direction. “You know, you two fit quite well together. Both of you have this way of speaking to people, she is still better though. And there is another thing, you remind me of dad. Someone who cares about others and that is willing to put his life on the line. I still think it’s stupid, but I have to say, it’s strangely calming to know that there are other people that rea just like him. I think he would be happy how Ocean turned out and that she is following in his footsteps.” She seemingly wanted to say something else, but her smile quickly vanished as she opened her mouth again, only to let it close aging without saying a single word. “I’m sure he would be happy with how you decided to live your life. If he knew that you didn’t want to follow in his footsteps, he would accept it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to rise to wonderful people like you and your sister,” Phoenix smiled back, which got him a chuckle form Star Catcher. “What’s so funny?” “Oh, I’m just a bit envious of Ocean. The way you try to charm people is just so funny, but at the same time so cute. She really made a good catch.” This got Phoenix to blush furiously, much to Stars delight. “And then this, it’s perfect.” “Don’t you have something to do?” He muttered with a frown, desperately trying to suppress his own smile. That was when she suddenly stopped laughing, looked at the clock in the room and in a split second jumped up from the bench and rushed out the door, but not without screaming back at Phoenix: “We’ll talk about this later!” And with that, the door slammed shut, and he could hear the loud footsteps of star echoing through the hallway. “Well, siblings,” he chuckled to himself before leaving the room as well. >--------------< The competition was already in progress as Phoenix finally walked out of the underbelly of the stadium and onto the stand. He could see the runners giving it their all, and the noise was impressive. The sound of over thousands of voice crying out at once, and their voices being replaced by the walls of the stadium was just something you didn’t see every day. While he was no sports fan, he could appreciate the atmosphere. He stared down at the field for a few minutes until he noticed something rather interesting, something he just couldn’t believe. Summer and Thunder, just sitting their and cheering. Sure, he knew they would be here today, but he hadn't expected to just stumble upon them by just going onto the stand. His first thought was to just walk up to them and say hi, that was until a devious little idea came up in his head. What if he just allowed himself a little bit of fun? It wouldn’t really hurt anyone, right? So, he slowly walked over to where his two friends were sitting and enjoying the race, trying his hardest to act as sneakily as possible, something that got him a few confused looks from other visitors, some of them apparently noticing who he was and quickly shut up again. Apparently, they just assumed he was on Kamen Rider duty, something he was completely fine with. For one moment he thought they might have seen him as Thunder just turned around for a moment, but he didn’t see him, so that was a relive. Sneaking up right behind the two he had to try as hard as he could just to suppress his giggling, something that didn’t work entirely, but thanks to the noise in the stadium they didn’t pick up on it. “Hey! How is it going?” That was what he said as he placed his hands on both of their shoulders, both of the unsuspecting victims jumping up from their seats and screaming bloody murder so loud that they could be heard ten rows in front of them. Nearly everyone around them turned their heads towards them, som confused, some angry, and some just scared. It took a few seconds before both of them calmed down again, all to the laugh of Phoenix. “You asshole!” Was the first thing he heard from both of them unanimously. Summer even went so far and slapped him for good measure, something that didn’t really stop him from giggling. “So worth it,” he finally managed to get out, letting Summer react predictably, readying herself to slap him again, only for Thunder to stop her. “Don’t, you are just making things worse. How in the name of Tartarus are you even here? You were supposed to be on patrol with ocean or something? Or did you just take the day off just to annoy us?” Thunder asked his brother, giving him a very annoyed look. “Nope, I was supposed to meet Ocean’s sister before the competition and tell her that Ocean would be a bit late after that Remnants attacked and now I’m trapped in a family quarrel. So yeah, eventful day. And then I found you two, and you know, I couldn’t let a golden opportunity like this just go by, now could I?” He finished with a big smile on his lips, bot Summer and Thunder just shook their heads when they heard that. “So, how is it going? Enjoying the sport?” He added, sounding as innocent as a little lamb. Thunder looked at him for a few seconds with an ‘Are-you-kidding-me-look’ in his eyes before saying: “Yeah, it’s going fine, well besides the fact that some jackass decided to make a really stupid joke and is annoying us right now.” All of that was delivered with a bright smile, and the sweetest voice Thunder could muster. “Ah, see. So, I’ll probably just leave now, just wanted to say hi before I’m thrust back into the madness that is this family. Have a nice day you two, hope it goes as well as my first date,” he devilishly added, waving them goodbye. The two victims of his little joke quickly turned bright red and returned their gaze back towards the competition on the filed blow them. Phoenix returned to where he had exited the building and just started to lean against the wall, staring down at the competition. It might be at least a little bit of fun. On the other side of the stadium, Furie and Feather were meanwhile carefully watching the competition, both having a twisted smile on their faces. >--------------< It had been several hours since they had started and they were starting to get frustrated. Ivory was a very distrustful man that even extended to the MRG. Since he was a very capable and renowned sanitized even in the organization, he had a few of his own little pers he had gathered. One of them was that he was allowed to have his personal computer protected by his own systems. This had generally worked out without any kind of problem since he always provided his research to the higher ups, but now, now it was a massive pain in the butt. No one could enter his computer, simply because no one knew the password. Ivory had always been rather protective of it and just dismissed her with the same line everytime she asked: “I’m not gonna tell you, that would just stink.” After the fifth time, she had just given up, bare the rare case where she just wanted to hear the weird line. But now she wished she had it forced out of him just so they could get the data on his computer. While others could probably finish what he had started, many things would take months for them to comprehend, at least without his notes and well, these were on the computer. “How about Charge_Rider_Driver? I’m sure this will work.” Light Bulb said again with an upbeat voice that was slowly but surely losing the will to live. After the tapping sound coming from the keyboard, only a loud *beep* could be heard, much to the two woman's frustration. “Oh, my goodness. Why couldn’t that idiot just write his password down like any normal person? We tried hacking, we tried guessing, we tried brute force, but this just won’t work. I’m getting annoyed with this piece of shit technology,” Light Bulb shouted out, letting her fist crash down on the table. She remained in that position for a while longer, taking deep breathes while staring daggers at the monitor. Ocean was just sitting next to her and sighed in defeat. “Ivory, I know you valued your privacy, but this is just ridiculous. So, any other ideas?” “Not really, I’m gonna try to further brute force it but what else is there what I can do? “ She looked over to ocean who just looked as puzzled as her. “Yeah, I have nothing. I’ll get us something to drink, coffee?” She looked over to Light, putting on an exhausted smile. “Oh, that would be wonderful. I would like-“ Light Bulb never came any further since a loud alarm went through the entire laboratory. On one of the new monitor, a map of the city appeared and with it a large red dot right on top of the stadium that was quickly leaving the area and heading for the other side of town. The strange part was that one other red dot remained in the stadium. “What on earth-“ And just like her subordinate she was also interrupted, but this time by her own phone. “Yes, what?” Was all she shouted back at the poor soul on the other end of the line. “Hey Ocean, it’s me. Something happened at the stadium, a Corrupt-“ “Yeah, yeah, we see it. One is leaving the stadium one remained. I’ll be right there,” she quickly returned, but before she could end the call, she was screamed at by Phoenix. “Stop! The Corrupted that got away took your sister,” he returned, his voice sounding extremely worried and at the same time filled with anger. “What!?” Was all Ocean managed to return, her body going limp as she just stared at the monitor in front of her. “Yes, the Corrupted took your sister and now the other one is taking havoc here. You get your sister and by goodness sake, talk it out, I’ll take care of everything here. Good luck,” he finished and immediately ended the call. Ocean stared at the map for another moment before storming towards the door ready to save her sister only to be interrupted again. “Wait! Are you insane?” “What do you mean? I’m going to save my sister, what else am I supposed to do?” ocean barked back, a look of utter rage in her eyes as she stared back at Light Bulb who took a few steps back, now being pressed against the wall. “Didn’t you look at the data? The Corrupted is in the same power level as the one Phoenix thought last week. You have no way of beating it. You can’t go,” she replied, her expression one of absolute terror and fear. “And what am I supposed to do? Wait here until Phoenix finishes up the other Corrupted? Just let him do all the hard work? Forget it! I lost one person to them, I not losing another one. Now, if you excuse me,” she returned quite angrily. “I’m not suggesting that you just wait for Phoenix. I’m suggesting that we give this three more shots and if we crack it you might have something to fight this thing. Because if you don’t, I hope that Phoenix comes soon,” Light Bulb returned. “You have balls girl, especially since you don’t know me for that long,” ocean muttered, giving the woman an approving nod. “Ok, fine, three tries, but after that, I’m out.” “Thanks,” she returned happily, Ocean taking the seat next to her again. “So, anything that could be the password we are looking for? Anything that Ivory ever truly cared for?” “Hmm, maybe… No, that couldn’t be… Pickles?” She weakly returned, her forehead covered in wrinkles of confusion. “Pickles?” Light Bulb just looked at her with a confused look. “Yeah, his favorite food, so maybe?” She just shrugged with her elbows. Light just shook her head and tipped in the letters only to get a loud alarm in return. “Apparently not,” she sighed in defeat. “Anything else?” Light looked over to her, sounding extremely unsure of they would crack the password before her tries were up. She was sweating bullets here, she knew pretty well what would probably happen if Ocean went after the Corrupted right now. “Nothing, really. Maybe the name of his cat? She died a year ago, and he apparently loved that beast very much, so maybe that?” She returned, sounding just as helpless as Light Bulb. “Try it, can’t be worse than what we managed until now,” she just sighed in return. “Saphira, her name was Saphira.” Light Bulb quickly dilled in the letters and hit the enter button, the wait was agonizing, a second went by, then another one and then and- the alarm rang again, wrong. “Dammit! Why can’t anything in this damned city be easy for one fucking time!?” With a loud slam on the table Ocean just let out all of her frustration. She just couldn’t take it anymore, her sister was in danger, and she was playing a guessing game with a stupid computer for the chance of a better fight. What a load of bull. “Fuck it, this has no point! I’m going.” At this moment Light grabbed her hand and gave her a look of utter desperation and pain. “Please, one last try. Something, you have to know something, please!” She just couldn’t say no to these eyes, and so she let herself sink down on the chair one last time and just sighed: “Ok, fine, one last time. But I really don’t know anything, like I said he just said that it would totally stink if… This fucking bastard, he didn’t!” Ocean went completely silent for a moment before starting to curse angrily. “What? Do you know something?” A glimmer of hope sparked up in Light’s eyes as she saw Ocean’s reaction. “Try 5T1NKT13R,” Light just looked at her confused. “Just do it!” She quickly shouted again, this got through to the woman who hammered in the password. With her shaking hand, she pushed the enter button, the wait again agonizing. One second, two seconds and then… A loud *bing*, a different tone than they had heard the whole time and in that second the monitor turned green with the words ‘Access granted’ on it. “this little bastard! He will regret this when we get him back,” ocean growled, but just couldn’t hide her delight over their small victory. “One question, why exactly that word?” “It’s actually quite simple. It’s the name of the artifact we recovered on the mission that gotten me my promotion. It was also a mission we remember to this day since we reeked like the worst thing imaginable for over a month. Hey, don’t laugh, just get the thing done, I have a Corrupted to catch!” ocean finished with a smirk, staring directly at the soon to be a ready item on the table. >--------------< It was absolute chaos, people had stormed towards the exits only to block each other way, making their getaway even slower thanks to that. The participants had stormed off as well after one of their own had been grabbed by a Corrupted that quickly flew away. He would have followed her as quickly as possible, but there was just one problem. The white Corrupted with the golden armor in front of him that was currently wreaking havoc onto the field and stadium in general. The monster wore golden armor over its white feather covered body. Her arms had the shape of wings, and she had massive sharp talons. Her face looked exactly like that of a raven, just in white. The Corrupted had blocked his way the moment he had tried to pursue the other one and was currently very persistent in making his life as hard as humanly possible. Not only did the beast let gusts of wind rain down onto the stand, something some of the guests didn’t take that well and just screamed louder, but it also consistently let metallic feathers rain down of Alchemy, who was currently in his Friendship Mode, who was trying his hardest to get the Corrupted back onto the ground. “Hey, Feather Brain, how about you stop this bullshit and fight me like you are supposed to? I have no problem with getting up there. Just give up and end this right now, I have something to do!” He really did not have time for this. As fun as it would be to decimate this Corrupted right now, he couldn’t let Star Catcher fall into the hands of Tartarus, or that was at least who he assumed had kidnaped her. “Pah, as if I would lose to you loser!” Was the answer he received, much to his annoyance. “Ok, fine Feather Brain, you asked for it!” With that, he throws his shield at the Corrupted, but to his annoyance it was blocked by the armor on the hands of the Corrupted, letting Alchemy sigh in annoyance as he caught the shield again. “Ok, I’m coming up there if you really want to.” >--------------< The world rushed past her, almost impossible to comprehend. The sound of loud beeping almost constantly in her ears as she circled around the traffic in her way. She could have heard a few loud complaints and insults, well if she had slowed down that is. Right now she only heard the roaring of the engine and the passing by the wind. Her bike was rushing at max speed through the crowded streets of the city, she just could not afford to lose any more time at this point. And it seemed that her somewhat reckless driving was bearing fruits. In the sky, she could see something, and her radar told her that this something was exactly what she was looking for. Still, the Corrupted disappeared between the large skyscrapers from time to time, giving Charge a very hard time to keep up with her. This continued for a while, Charge slowly getting closer and closer to the monster with every block they crossed. She finally reached the Corrupted when it flew over the industrial part of the city. This was the best chance she was going to get, now it was all or nothing. While still riding her bike with the highest speed she could manage she pulled out her Charge Magnum, took aim, and… bang! A loud shriek could be heard echoing over the city, a direct hit. The Corrupted quickly lost on hight, sailing down towards an abandoned warehouse where it landed on the roof, catching his wing, Star Catcher unconscious in her hands. Charge’s bike came to a screeching hold right in front of the warehouse, she quickly jumped from it and up the building, landing in front of the Corrupted. In front of her stood a white humanoid figure, completely covered in feathers, well expect the face, that looked more or less like that of a human, just more leathery. The Corrupted was clad in golden armor that reminded her of ancient armor from Fleece. She had a helmet like the ones gladiators wore in ancient Roam. He hands ended in long sharp claws while her feet had been replaced by deadly talons, both reinforced with the golden metal. On her back, two massive, majestical wings extended from her back. Two angry, but at the same time excited, light blue glowing eyes stared back at her, the frown on her face turning into a mad smirk. Before Charge and even the chance to demand her sister back, the Corrupted had already thrown her to the side, her limp body landing rather roughly on the ground and rushed with her claws stretched out at the Rider. Charge only managed to get two shots out of her gun before she was tackled by the monster, straight of the building. The entire way down the Corrupted clawed at her, letting sparks fly from her armor, all while she desperately tried to shot at the Corrupted, however, the shots just bounced back of her armor, every single one. With a loud crash, both combatants landed in some old crates, flattening them in the process. The first one to rise from the wreckage was Furie, towering over Charge and staring down at her. To Furie's surprise Charge quickly reacted, pulling her weapon and pointing it straight at the monster and within a split second she pulled the trigger… only for her to hear a silent clicking. For a moment she was stunned, the magazine was empty, and that was all the time Furie needed to grab her by the throat and lift her off the ground. The realization what was happening rushed back to her, and she desperately tried to struggle out of the grip of her opponent, to no avail. After looking at her claws with mad glee, she returned her gaze back to Charge and not even a second later she had already slashed across Charge’s stomach. It hurt awfully, the pain surged through her body, and her stomach felt like it was on fire. Charge was so occupied with screaming her lungs out that she didn’t notice the second attack that was coming her way. With a loud scream of agony, Charge was thrown to the side, crashing into the next wall and right through it. She screeched across the ground and only came to a halt when she crashed against the next wall. She felt treated like someone had driven a chainsaw through her stomach. Still, she couldn’t stop now. As easy as it was to just not stay up again, she couldn’t let history repeat itself. So she pushed with all her might, leaning against the wall she slowly rose back up to her feet, the entire time she felt like she was being ripped apart by a bear. “That was all? I’ll show you what I can do,” she returned while gritting her teeth, the taste of blood in her mouth. “Charge up!” \ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! / Furie could only see the purple bubble enveloping the Rider as she dashed inside, gleefully looking forward to kicking the shit out of Charge. However as the energy filed around the Rider disappeared she was treated to a rather unpleasant sight, the end of a gun barrel. Within a few seconds, Charge had started to unload her gun at Furie who just stared in shock at the weapon before her, and so had no time to correct her curse and flew right into the first salve of shots directed at her. The Corrupted crashing through the wall next to Charge, however, wasn’t done just yet, ramming her talons into the ground she managed to stop her acceleration and come to a screeching halt a few meters behind the Rider. While the projectile had hurt like a bitch, she was far from done and so just dashed forward again. “You will regret messing with my family you little bitch!” Charge screamed as she unloaded the second round of attacks on the Corrupted but unlike before she quickly changed directions and dashed away from the storm of attacks and with her inhuman speed Furie had no problem to catch up to Charge and let her claws come down on the Rider. A loud clang could be heard as the claws of the Corrupted meet with the weapon of Charge, who had managed to get her rifle in between her and the Corrupted just in time. Still, this was no position the Rider could hold for long, already she was pushed back more and more by the sheer strength of the monster. What Furie did next catch her completely of guard. Like a lightning strike, she lifted her foot and slammed her talons right into Charge’s stomach, sending the Rider flying, right through the same wall she had already been smashed once, her weapon falling to the wayside, far out of her reach. Tumbling to the ground she landed on her back, panting heavily as she watched the Corrupted climb through the newly created hole in the wall and slowly walk up to her. “Oh, and I thought you had more bite in you, it’s about your sister after all. You know, Cerberus spoke highly of you, well, until the incident with Sable. You know, the sweet old lady you murder in cold blood?” Furie started to say, spitting the last few words out like they were poison. “Sweet old lady? She was a criminal and assassin that decided to fight me on her own. Do you really think I wanted that to happen?” Charge returned, holding her side as she weakly returned to her feet, staggering towards her opponent. “You murdered her, and now you try to shift the blame? You are pathetic, you know that. She was the sweetest woman I have ever meet. She was like a mother to me, she taught me everything she ever knew, and you ended her life. It doesn’t matter if you wanted it to happen or not, you killed her. That blood is on your hands,” she lunged forward, slashing Charge across the chest, letting her feel the pain of her stomach getting ripped apart once again. “But what can you expect from a family like yours. You only destroy, like your mother. She was a murder, a cold-blooded murder. Just like you. She would accept every sacrifice as necessary if it would further her goal and it seems you took right after her. If someone is a problem, just get rid of them, am I right?” Furie continued, her voice growing louder and louder with every word she spoke. “I would never-“ that was as far as she got, Furie suddenly lifting her off the ground, cutting her return remarkably short. The pain in her chest and the sudden chokehold was just too much for her, and she resorted to frantic struggling and kicking, hoping desperately to catch her tormentor with at least one of them. “Save it, you will need that voice to scream and beg for mercy,” she returned with a glee that just drove her further into panic. Without even so much as a warning she suddenly felt the sharp talons in her stomach again, and within moments he had sailed through the entire street and landed right into the next wall, crashing down behind it. That was when she could feel it, her armor breaking away, revealing her wounded and beat up from beneath it. Her closest had been torn apart right where the Corrupted had hit her, blood slowly pouring out of the wounds. Her entire body felt sore, and it felt like she had been hit by a truck. With a pained expression, she tried to rise once more, but her body just couldn’t manage it. Furie just casually walked in through the new entrance to the warehouse, a satisfied smirk on her face. “See, whoever decides to mess with us will get to feel my talons, oh and I’m not done yet, not by a longshot.” She almost seemed to hop her way over to the bloody and beaten Rider, keeping a careful eye on her. “And after I’m done with you, I will make sure that the next one to feel my wrath will be your little boyfriend and sister. Oh, the screams will be delightful. You hurt us, we will hurt you back, honor be damned.” With that, she grabbed ahold of her throat once again, lifting her up in the air, all while tilting her head as she eyed the Rider. “Ocean? Ocean!” That was when the scream permeated the air, getting the attention of Furie, who looked back over her shoulder and towards the hole in the wall. That was all the time Ocean needed, she shakingly raised her hand and pulled out the device Ivory had been working on all this time. She weekly pulled the thing towards her Driver. “Remember, this is only a last resort. It seems to be finished, but I didn’t have any time to test it. For all we know it could just kill you, so be careful!” The words echoed through her mind, as she finally pushed the Charger into its rightful place. The Device went into the usual slot, but instead of just disappearing in the Driver, it was far too big, now just extending the Driver to the side. On the new Charger was also a cylinder, like on the Charge Driver. The Corrupted suddenly turned back to her, the glowing eyes staring right at her the moment she heard the voice of the device. \ SCANNING CHARGE! / “Henshin!” \ 100, 150, 200! OVER CHARGE! / With a loud yelp, the Corrupted let go of her, jumping back a few meters, clutching her chared hand in the process. Ocean was quickly enveloped by a bright white orb, illuminating the entire warehouse and lending the Corrupted. When the light had died down again Furie could see Charge again, but this time in white armor with silver plating and black lines. All over her body were the engines of Flame Charge plastered, a red orb was embedded into her chest and the tubes of Thunder Charge. Two red glowing bug-eyes stared back at Furie who took another step back after taking a look at her opponent. “You know, I might have listened to you a few days ago. I feel guilty over what happened to Sable, I feel guilty for what happened to Cerberus, and I feel guilty for what happened to my mom. But I have friends that showed me that there is nothing to be gained by living in the past. I have accepted what happened, and I will use it to improve myself and keep moving forward. I fuck up, quite a lot, but I have to accept that and just carry on. And I also know what my mother did and what mistakes she made. I will also carry those for her and make right what she did wrong. I will right the countless wrongs she has committed because that is what it means to be a Kamen Rider, at least for me. And I will start to the right those wrongs right here. I will put a stop to you, and I will save my sister,” she returned with new vigor rushing to the Corrupted. Out of reflex, the Corrupted let her hand slash at Charge, who just jumped over it, grabbed ahold of the outstretched arm and with a pull through the Corrupted right through the wall, the monster landing outside and rolling on the ground for a few meters. Within the blink of an eye Charge had already caught up to her, and kicking her while she was down, sending her flying again, this time into the next crates that were laying around. The Corrupted slowly rose from the wreckage, staring at Charge while letting out a low growl. “Ocean! You are ok!” Star shouted towards her, Charge just raised her hand in thumbs up and dashed over towards the Corrupted, activating her boosters rocketing forward and straight towards her. Swinging her wings the Corrupted let out an immensely strong gust of wind, but Charge wasn’t even slowed down by that and just rocketed through it, much to the utter horror of Furie. Before the monster could even attempüt anything else, Charge had already reached her, and squarely punched her in the face, cementing her face in the ground. Not letting that opportunity pass she repeated that again, this time punching her so hard into the ground that a small crater formed around her. “Giving up yet?” Charge asked the stunned Corrupted, then, within the fragment of a second the Corrupted let her wings swing,s Charge jumping back a few feet and quickly rose into the air. If she couldn’t beat her now, she just had to strike when she had a better chance. Screw all the honor Cerberus had preached about, she would just murder her in her sleep. That was, however, something Charge was not very keen on. Out of nowhere, a new weapon materialized in front of her, one show quickly grabbed ahold of. The new weapon was made out of white material and looked like the rifle she had before, just with two barrels instead of one. The Corrupted was quickly gaining hight as she aimed at it and started to spin the Charge Prism. \ Maximum Charge! / A beam of pure white light was unleashed from the barrel of the weapon, rocketing towards the Corrupted and consuming her in one foul Swope. With a loud explosion, Furie fell down from the sky, completely knocked out only for Charge to catcher her mid-fall, together with the artifact, her propellers from Wind Charge having materialized on her back. She sat down the woman next to Star Catcher who immediately rushed towards her and gave her a huge, one that undoubtedly would have hurt if not for the armor. “Oh, I’m so glad you are ok. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She started, speaking as fast as a machine gun. “Wow, wow, slowly there. How are you? Are you ok?” She returned, grabbing her as well and returning both her captive and sister back to the ground before deactivating the armor. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she returned, only to let her head hang low. “I’m sorry.” “What?” Ocean looked at her quite confused. “I’m sorry, you were right. I should have just run away, and not keep staring at the fight. That and what I said to you. You sometimes are like mom and like dad, but only the good parts. You would never do what she did, and I’m sorry that I said anything close to that,” she continued, tears starting to form in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” “Hey, hey, it’s nothing. I know that. Not that I was that great either. I shouldn’t have been so angry at you. It’s just…” She was about to say as Star interrupted her. “You don’t need to say, Phoenix told me everything. You really have a good boyfriend. And I’m sorry about the funeral. I just didn’t know what to think. As much as I hated mum, hearing that you killed her, I just didn't know what to think. I… I just needed time for myself, but I never thought about how you might feel. I’m so sorry,” her sobbing only grew louder, and she hugged her sister harder. “I know, I know. Now come here you dumb athlete and let me hug you back. I know that I can always count on you,” with that she hugged her sister in return, tears flowing down her face. >--------------< Feather let out a loud scream and tried to punch the Rider, but as her hand reached the spot, Alchemy had been standing mere moments before he had already vanished, now standing right behind her. With a firm kick to her back the Corrupted was thrown on the ground, the pain in her back feeling like she had been shot. “You battered, stop mocking me!” She growled, jumping up and swiping at the Rider, who just sidestepped her and with a swift flick of his wrist slammed her into the ground. “Ok, as fun as this is, I think we should wrap this up, so you can join your friend in jail, how does that sound? You simply prevent the people here from moving forward towards a bright future, and I’ll make sure they can do exactly that.” He didn’t get any answer besides an angry growl from the Corrupted. “Feather Brain, you used the powers that were bestowed upon you to attack others and help someone in a kidnapping. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!” \ Philosopher Stone Maximum Power! / The energy was gathering in his leg, and with immense force, he jumped up in the air only to stop in mid-air. From his back extended the six golden wings and with incredible speed, he rocketed towards the Corrupted. Around his leg, the golden lines began to form again, creating the whirlwind of light. The Corrupted being consumed in a massive explosion the moment Alchemy made contact with her, leaving behind the woman, completely knocked out in the grass, a feather made out of silver laying next to her. “Hope Ocean is ok. Ah, I’m sure she is fine, she is a though cocky, especially since she is my girlfriend, she pretty much has to be,” he muttered to himself as he picked up the artifact. >--------------< “Ok, that is goodbye then I assume,” Star soberly said, looking back at her sister as well as Phoenix and their friends, all standing on the station smiling at her. A golden medal was hanging from her neck and a suitcase standing next to her. The train that would get her out of the city slowly coming closer. “It’s not a goodbye, it’s a till next time. We have so much to catch up on. And you know we can always talk when you need it,” Ocean returned with a bright smile before hugging her sister again. “Exactly,” added Phoenix. “Thanks, I will remember that. Oh, and don’t let yourself get killed.” Ocean just chuckled at that remark and watched as Star lifted up her suitcase and casually walked into the train, only to turn around one last time. “Oh, and I think dad would be proud of you. Bye!” Before she could say anything in return the doors of the train shut close in front of her sister, leaving ocean just standing there. “You know, I like your sister,” Phoenix snarked, managing to get Ocean out of her stupor. “Yeah, I get why,” she returned. “Now come, we still have work to do.” With that, she started to walk back towards the exit of the station, Phoenix and the rest of her friends close behind her. “You never take it easy, do you?” He jokingly returned, expecting another witty comeback form her but instead got nothing. As he looked up, he could see her standing frozen in place, staring in shock down the stairs of the station. His eyes followed hers, the moment he saw what she saw his blood froze in his veins. In front of them stood a man with grey skin and black hair, a man they had only seen once, but whos face had edged itself into their minds for all eternity. In front of them stood Platinum and… “Ivory!?”