//------------------------------// // Of Wizards, Travelers and Alchemists - I've got the Gist of It // Story: Kamen Rider Alchemy // by Layton13 //------------------------------// He hadn’t expected his day to turn out like this, not in a thousand years, especially so soon after the last interdimensional accident just a few weeks back, but here he was, sitting around one of the bigger tables inside the Magnum Opus and talking about dimensions, Phantoms, and magicians. Save to say, this meant a lot of new information he had to make sense of, and he actually managed quite well, as far fetched as it might have sounded, maybe it was the fact that he had come to accept that his life was a cornucopia of weirdness. Ocean was listening carefully, all while Haruto and Nitoh were telling them about their adventures as Kamen Riders. Shining was listening carefully as well but seemed to be a bit more confused by the whole ordeal. A completely different approach to the whole thing, however, was taken by Summer, she was hanging on every single one of their words, asking question nearly every three minutes. And of course, Pinecone who was sitting at the table next to them and listened as well. “So, let me get this straight, you are from a different world that is inhabitant by countless monster-factions and you wone against one of them. So much so bizarre, but not the first time I hear something like this, but now it gets strange. You say that Pure Blood, or Heinrich whatshisname, stole your ring which is also your dead friend out of your ‘Underworld’ and disappeared into this world… Did I get everything right?” Phoenix stared at Haruto who just nodded nonchalantly like this was no big deal. “Wow, and I thought my life was weird… this is something different.” He just shook his head in defeat. “Let’s hope my life doesn’t turn out like this… Ah, who am I kidding, it will.” Ocean was about to say something else as she was interrupted by Thunder who placed down six pizzas in front of them, amazingly he had actually managed to balance them all at the same time. “Here you, have something to eat, the whole monster fighting probably tired you out quite a bit, right?” He smiled at Haruto and Nitoh, the later quickly grabbing his pizza, a simple pizza with ham and pineapple. “Well, seems I was right-“ Then he suddenly stopped, his eyes shooting open in shock and a bit disgust. Nitoh was pouring mayonnaise on his pizza! He had grown accustomed to Ocean’s… an acquired taste, but this? This was just… no! And he was not alone, everyone besides Haruto and maybe Pinecone stared at him with an expression of utter confusion. “What in the name of Tartarus are you doing?” He had just applied the last bit of the paste on the pizza as he looked back up, right into Thunders dumbstruck face and smiled. “Oh, you want something as well, I could-“ This was it! “No! No, I don’t want anything like this! This… This is… How can you…” He was at a loss for words. No, this was barberry, nothing less. “Uhm, Nitoh would you mind if I could have something of the mayo?” In an instant, everyone on the table spun around and stared at the one who had asked this question, and of course, it was Ocean, who else really could have. “Ok, Ocean, I love you and your taste, but mayonnaise? Really, you really think this will work?” Phoenix asked with an expression that told everyone that even he thought that she had completely lost her mind. “Oh, sure, here let me just put this here and…” And so Nitoh leaned over the entire table and poured his mayonnaise on top of Ocean’s pizza that had now been turned into a tuna-ham-pineapple-apple-sweetcorn-mayonnaise-pizza. “So, now hope you like it! Anyone else?” Silence, that was all he received. Instead, everyone was staring at Ocean as she picked up the first slice, slowly guiding it towards her mouth, it closing around it and… “Mhm… This is great,” she managed to mumble out through the entirety of her food, her expression one of utter bliss. She didn’t even notice the looks of utter incomprehension and disgust she received, only Nitoh was to busy eating his own food to notice and Phoenix who looked like he was struggling with something. After a good minute of silence, he finally relented. “Ok, fine, I’ll take a bit of mayonnaise as well.” His voice was low and uneasy, one could hear it tremble a bit, all while his face had taken on a far paler tone. Thunder stared at him with a glare that pretty much said: ‘How could you betray me like this?’ He looked in dread as Nitoh happily poured the mayonnaise all over his pizza, secretly wishing he hadn’t said anything. After the bottle was pulled away, he could do nothing else than to star at it, that was until he felled a warm hand on his shoulder, ocean. She smiled at him as well as nodded. He knew what she meant, he had asked for it after all. Taking in a deep breath, he picked up the slice and slowly moved it to his mouth, his hand shaking violently, the scent of the different ingredients creeping their way towards his nose and… it smelled good. His uneasiness had taken a hit, now or nether. He took the bite, his teeth clenching close around the slice. Seconds went by without any form of reaction from Phoenix, all eyes on him, until… “Hmh, this is good. How could I ever doubt you Ocean?” he almost screamed out. Everyone almost fell off their chairs, they couldn't believe it, he actually liked it? “You two are made for each other, you know that?” Shining deadpanned, he looked dead inside. “Really, no one else would ever even attempt something like this. Thank goodness you two are together, otherwise there would be two really poor people that would have to put up with your food choices,” he sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “Hey, if you want to complain, try it first,” both of them bellowed back in unison, each holding one of the slices in their hands. Shining looked at them with a stunned expression, until the entire table burst out into laughter, even Pinecone escaped a chuckle, this was just too priceless. “You know, on second thought, I think I’ll pass. Enjoy your meal, I’ll stick to the boring stuff,” he quickly returned, shaking his head vigorously, much to the amusement of everyone else. Well, all but Thunder, but he knew when he was beat, and that was one of these moments. “Aww, and I thought we might have finally cracked him Ocean. But don’t worry, we’ll succeed someday, trust me. He will break,” Phoenix continued, a vicious smile forming on his lips. And Ocean joined in with her own. “Oh, you are right. And I’m pretty sure it won’t take that long. I have broken far more stubborn guys.” Both of them now sported a grin that could have belonged to an ax-murder, much to shinings dread. He looked at both of them and gulped, he suddenly didn’t feel comfortable anymore. Then they started to laugh again. “Oh, come on Shining, as if we would force you. That will only happen when you really piss us off, and until yet that hasn’t happened, so don’t worry.” “Noted,” he weakly returned, still looking carefully at them and their pizzas. “Anyway, we should probably get back to business. We don’t want our guests to be held here any longer than necessary,” she smiled over to Haruto and Nitoh. “So, any idea why he stole your Philosopher Stone?” The last few words she spoke out a bit more worried. “Well, apparently he created it, so maybe he just wanted it back? If I made something and lost it, I would want it back as well,” Nitoh muttered, all while gulping down the next slice of pizza. “I don’t know, all that to simply get back something? Sure, it’s powerful, but traveling between different worlds and killing someone just for that? I don’t know, but there is more to this, I just know. My gut is telling me that there is,” Ocean returned, her forehead covered in wrinkles as she wrote down everything they knew on a small tablet. “And why was he here in the first place? If he really was from your world why was he here? On a similar note, why were his rings in Neighpone, that all makes no sense,” she sighed. “Kamen Rider stuff is so confusing.” While ocean was trying to piece anything logical together, Haruto put down his own slice of pizza and returned: “Well, there was this one mage that was imprisoned inside of a magic stone, Amadum. He was banished there because of the other mages of his time, maybe they did something similar with Heinrich? It would make sense?” He returned, sounding rather unsure of it himself. “Yeah, that actually makes some sense. Still, I would like to know for sure, but until then, we will just assume that. But what does he want back here? He tried so hard to leave this world, so why come back? The only reason I could think of is that he still needs something from this world, but what?” Ocean was really starting to get annoyed, this was getting her nowhere. She had already heard the story two times, and still, all this made no sense to here. They were missing something, but what? “Hey ocean, I think there is nothing we can do besides guessing right now. So don’t worry, we’ll figure it out some way. I have a feeling that Phantom wasn’t the last one we have seen from the guy. If he really wanted to kill Haruto and Nitoh he will try again, I’m sure of it. We just have to wait…” Phoenix tried to calm her down, only for his upbeat tone to die down a bit at the end. “Yeah, exactly, wait and see. Like we always do. Every time we try to do something before our opponents do, we are too late, We are always reacting, not acting, no matter how hard we try. It would be a nice change of pace if we actually could go on the offensive for once,” she returned, her voice relatively low. “Oh, don’t be like that! Every pinch is a chance, after all, you just have to grab it by the tail and rille it in, that is all. If the bad guy doesn’t want to be found, you just have to try harder. We pretty much always were the ones looking out for the monsters, we would have lost a lot of the Gates if we weren’t actively looking for Phantoms, right Haruto?” Nitoh said, all while slapping his “rival” on the back. Haruto threw a quick look at his friend, but ultimately just silently sighed and added: “Yep. Even if it seemed like a drop on the hot stone, it saved lives.” “Hmh, you are right, so we just have to be persistent, just keep doing what we have been doing before. And not just regarding this,” she silently added, but not so silently that Phoenix couldn’t hear it. He carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, she returning a pained smile. >--------------< Meanwhile in an empty villa in one of Canterlot’s high society areas six people had gathered in a rather dusty dining room. The table that had stood in the room beforehand had been carelessly thrown into another room, and a large gold painted chair had been dragged in. Candles had been placed all over and illuminated everything in an eerie light. The white wall was already showing signs of decay and root, but this was all they had managed to find in the short amount of time. The villa had been left abandoned for over a year now, or at least that was what people said. It really didn’t interest them who had lived here before, only that they weren’t anymore. With the chair placed at the far end of the room, one man had taken residence in it, a man with purple skin and black hair, Heinrich! The five other figures were still veiled in darkness, kneeling around the room, all looking towards their master. “So Garuda failed me?” His voice echoed through the more or less empty room, his servants all avoiding his glares, but even then, they knew, he was angry. “Yes, master. He underestimated the power of-“ The man closest to him tried to say, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice. “Enough! I asked you if he failed me, not for excuses! He is dead, there is nothing to excuse there! And you better hope that you don’t do the same!” Heinrich’s voice spat out, the wine glass he had been holding in his hand was quickly thrown to the side as he stood up from his “throne”. “Garuda underestimated a magician, he should have known better. It’s his own fault that he failed me, remember that. Now, that we are one servant short, what is your idea? What should we do next?” He asked the man in front of him, the one who had tried to calm him down with weak excuses, grabbing him by the cheeks he lifted his head upwards, their eyes meeting. He could see the fear in his eyes as he continued staring. “Tell, what should we do now?” “Uhm, my master, I would say we should take care of the interlopers, they might be a three-“ That was when a loud slap echoed through the halls of the abandoned building followed by the dull sound of the man hitting the floor beneath him. “You dare to insinuate that he could be a threat to me? Me, one of the greatest mages to ever walk this earth? Laughable. For you, maybe, but only if you are is pathetic as Garuda, and you are not right Kraken?” Heinrich’s voice was low, almost sweet, but there was this poised, malicious undertone to it as he stepped away from his beaten servant. “I only have a limited number of you and making new servants in this world would be quite the hassle, and would only delay and endanger my inevitable victory. No, we have to prepare everything for the ritual so you will take care of that and no failures, did I make myself clear?” “Yes, my lord,” Kraken returned, trying to hold back his coughing. “What is your command?” “Better, now since you are so eager to follow, why don’t we sent you out there? We need eight positions all around the city, take this,” he threw a small purple gem with golden engravings on it towards him. “Now, get going! Place this exactly where we need it to be and don’t screw it up, or you will regret it! Oh, and if you can get your hands on the tressure of this world, I would be greatly pleased.” “Yes, my lord, as you command!” With a bow he stormed out of the room, leaving the other five behind. “My lord, do you think he will survive?” A female voice asked a woman blue skin, and grey hair stepped out of the shadows. “Oh, Unicorn. I’m sure he will at least be to some use to me if he at least manages to activate one of them and if he gets the tressure, I would be even more delighted. But who knows if he could ever pull that off. Not that it matters, in the end, I was born to rule over everyone and I will, that is the will of God!” He chuckled, returning to his “throne”. “oh, and Unicorn? Can you bring me another glass of wine, I must have misplaced my old one!” “Of course, master,” she quickly returned, leaving the room with a good amount of haste. “So, how is this going to go? How long till you all bow before me, like you should?” >--------------< Loud screams could be heard through the whole neighborhood, until now the threat of monsters had always stayed in the city and hadn’t really affected the outer suburbs of Canterlot City, well until today. A hulking yellow beast had suddenly appeared, turning from a human with yellow skin and silver hair into this abomination. Its body was primarily yellow. However, there were silver bits scattered all over it in seemingly no logical pattern, just dots of silver. Instead of two arms, it had long tentacles and not just two, it had six, all seemingly reaching out for something different. Over its chest lines of silver were drawn that formed into something like armor, just with large missing chunks. And its head, oh, its face consisted of a mass of tentacles that kinda reminded one of a beard as well as two massive horns. The eyes were encased in the same kind of silver lines the body was, creating a sort of mask for the Phantom. It had just suddenly started to attack people, everyone running like crazy before putting a purple gem in front of it, one that quickly started to glow as well as to form purple cracks on the ground beneath it. While it scared of everyone that was too close to it, it didn’t really seem to be after anyone in particular, just walking around the glowing gem. This had been going on for a few moments already as the sound of two loud engines could be heard in the distance. The Phantom could just turn its head towards the origin of the sound as two shots rang out, hitting the monster square in the face and knocking it back a few meters. With a loud screech, Alchemy’s and Wizard’s bikes came to a halt in front of the Phantom who just growled at the two Riders. “Hey, Squidy seems we really just had to look for more of you. And you make it so damn easy, really appreciate it!” Alchemy chuckled as he jumped off his bike, removing his Magic Disc from his Driver. \ Flame Disc Attack Mode! / \ Flame Saber! / Wizard meanwhile had nonchalantly stepped off his bike as it was still slowing down, slowly walking towards the Phantom, his gun pointed at the monster while adding a simple: “It’s Showtime!” Alchemy could not other than to watch in awe as the other Rider stepped forward, and unloaded bullet after bullet at the Phantom, like this was the most normal thing in the world. The monster couldn’t really do anything against this either, it just had to tank the damage as best as he could. Still, the damage was substantial, he was slowly pushed further and further back. That was until he apparently had enough of this pointless attack. With a loud roar, the monster let it’s tentacles shoot out toward Wizard who easily jumped over them and land stylishly behind the Phantom, quickly shifting the mode of his weapon to dash forward into the following five ‘arms’ managing to counter every single one of them with seeming ease. Every tentacle that came as much as close to him was just slashed away, letting the Phantom roar out in pain at every opportunity it had. With the Rider managing to slice through the onslaught of attacks, he came closer and closer to Kraken, who was starting to panic, or at least that was how it seemed in the moment. However, like as if someone had switched on a lightbulb the Phantom sprung into action the moment Haruto had managed to get within swinging distance of the monster. His arms shot back at the Rider from the back, grabbing each of his limbs and halting Wizards attempt to put his ring over the hand of the sword. While the Rider was struggling to break free from the monster Alchemy jumped to action, he had been somewhat awestruck by the efficientness of the senior Rider, but now it was his time to shine. With the Phantom having tied Haruto down with four arms it had limited itself quite a bit and just as it was about to slam the other two at Wizards hat Alchemy stormed towards the monster, weapon in hand and screaming at the top of his lungs: “Hey, Squidy, didn’t you forget someone?” Kraken just growled and lowered the two remaining tentacles and just thrust them at Alchemy, who trying to imitate the mage, let his sword swing lose at them, just to not feel an impact. Instead of hitting the appendages the Phantom and let them evade Alchemy’s attacks, and now they were already circling him, preparing to grab ahold of him just like with Wizard. With one last thrust, the tentacles shoot towards the Rider, who let ölose a small chuckle, one no one besides himself could hear, but it was the thought that counted after all. Within the last moment, he finally jumped into the air, and over the incoming appendages, and spun the disc on his sword guard three times. “Flaming Barrage!” What followed were three waves of burning energy rocketing towards the Phantom who did not even know what had hit him, taking the full force of the attack, in the process dropping Wizard who wasted no time in doing what he had wanted to do for so long. The Phantom had no time to even notice what the mage had planned for it as it was struck by the attack of Wizard that burned away at his body like hellfire. The force of the attack was enough to knock him back over the river and into the next building, right into the living room of a family that thankfully had already decided to evacuate their house. Kraken could feel the burns all over his body, the Rider’s had really managed to get into quite a bind, but he couldn’t just leave, the pillar wasn’t fully manifested yet and if they managed to stop that he would… No, nothing they could do to him could surpass what his master would do if he found out he had one of the pillars get destroyed before it had manifested. He picked himself up from the rubble and staggered towards the hole in the wall before bellowing out with a loud groan: “Rider’s, that was all? I’m disappointed, I heard rumors about you and your strength, but it seems that was exactly what it was, rumors, nothing more than people overexaggerating.” With that Kraken rushed forward with a loud scream and unleashed several projectiles of water at the Riders. The Riders meanwhile had noticed the purple gem and the earth that was cracking around it. “I don’t know what this is, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing good, in the slightest. How about we let it shatter into a thousand pieces?” Alchemy chuckled while playing with his sword a little. Haruto just shook his head and shifted his weapon back into its gu form, took aim and… spun around shooting at several orbs of water that had been hading their way, shattering a few of them in the process while the others rushed past them and let the ground around them erupt into a thick dust cloud. “Ok, change of plans, we deal with Squidy first, then we are dealing with that strange thing.” Moments later they were again attacked by the orbs of water, the Riders only able to see them at the last moment. Alchemy could feel the impact as they hit him, it felt like someone had thrown a bowling ball at him, both of them were thrown backward and dashed towards the next bit of cover. As the dust had settled, the Phantom was nowhere to be seen. “Dammit, it got away,” Alchemy muttered, walking out from behind the wall he had taken shelter behind. That turned out to be a big mistake, unbeknownst to him the monster had just dipped into the river and was hiding out there. A Rider just walking out of cover was just the moment he had been waiting for. It didn’t take the Phantom long to let another one of the watery projectiles lose at Alchemy, the Rider completely oblivious to the whole ordeal. While Alchemy might have been none the wiser, Wizard, however, saw the incoming attack and dashed forward with a loud: “Watch out!” The mage tackled the other Rider to the ground, the projectile just barely missing them and crashing into a nearby building, taking with it huge parts of the wall. It took a few moments for Alchemy to regain his composure. “Thanks, without you I might have had a really bad case of a headache,” he muttered, still trying to sort his thoughts in his head. “So, the guy is in the water? Thinks he can outswim us? I’ll show him, time for a bit of fishing,” he growled, standing back up and switching his Disc with a blue one. Haruto just chuckled silently and switched his ring to a blue one and flipped the hand on the Driver. \ WATER DISC ACTIVATED! / Both Alchemy and Wizard were consumed by energy and now sported a new armored look, Alchemy his blue and gold Water Form while Wizard had changed his red gems into blue ones and the gem on his helmet had shifted to a different form as well. Wizard quickly switched the position of the hand again and let a blue ring hover over it while Alchemy activated his weapon again. \ Water Disc Attack Mode! / \ Wave Trident! / Now with the trident in hand Alchemy rushed towards the water, the projectiles heading straight for him, all while Wizard simply turned into a floating mass of water and floated towards the river. “Hey, that’s not fair!” He called out while slashing through one of the incoming balls of water with his weapon, Haruto either just ignoring him couldn’t answer, in all honesty, it didn’t really matter since he outpaced Alchemy by quite a bit, the younger Rider just desperately continuing his sprint towards the water while avoiding the incoming attacks. While Alchemy was still struggling through the onslaught of attacks that were coming to his way Wizard had already rushed past all of that and reached the water, submerging right next to the Phantom, the Rider washing past his opponent and materializing behind the monster, taking grabbing ahold of his limbs and starting to stretch him. That however quickly proved fruitless, not only because of the extremely flexible body of the Phantom, no but also because of his four additional arms that tried to grab at Wizard in return, the mage quickly turning back into liquid and evading the attack. Not that this helped him get into any kind of saver spot, the tentacles of the monster quickly trying to reach for him again, but just kept passing through him with every new attempt, the speel still in effect. If this held up, he wouldn’t be able to counterattack and eventually even his supply of mana would eventually dry up. That was the moment something dived into the river, taking both Wizard and Kraken by surprise. Alchemy had finally managed to get to the water, all thanks to Haruto who had been distracting the monster. And he was no one who would waste such an opportunity, letting his trident slash across the chest of the Phantom who let out a loud screech, only amplified by the water. “Squidy, keep it down, that hurts like Tartarus,” Alchemy shouted back, hoping in some way the message arrived at by the Corrupted. Wizard meanwhile just let his weapon speak for him, with silver bullets and they did leave a statement, several in fact. The bullets had hit the Phantom, pushing it back even further. But now that the monster was in his natural habitat this didn’t really face it that much, letting another round of his projectiles rocket towards them, but instead of water, it seemed like they were simple shockwaves underwater, not that either of them had any problem dodging them with their new forms. With impressive speed both Riders dashed forward, swimming through everything the Phantom could throw at them like it was child play until they reached their opponent and let their weapons come down on them Haruto his WizarSwordGun and Phoenix his Wave Trident. Both of their attacks quickly blocked by the tentacles of the monster which quickly followed this up with its four other arms striking at the two Riders. While both were able to block the incoming attack, they were quickly pushed back by the force of the swings the Phantom had deployed. Before either of them could attack again everything happened all at once, the ground under them cracked and purple energy shined through it before quickly retreating back. Whatever the Phantom had tried to do, it seemed to be done since the monster turned around at once and was about to swim away as out of nowhere the entire river just exploded. Water spilled over the edges of the river, covering the nearby houses in a good amount of water as well as depositing the Riders somewhere in the area. When everything was settled down again, there was no Phantom to be seen. “Dammit! He escaped. What in the name of Tartarus even was that?” Alchemy cursed, slowly standing back up again. “Don’t know, but it packed quite a punch,” Haruto returned, dusting off a bit of the water from his coat. “Yeah, that is one way of saying that,” Alchemy muttered back. Meanwhile on the roof of a building a kilometer away an armored figure looked into the direction the fight had taken place. In its hand, it held a golden and black gun that he slowly lowered. His armor was green and black as well as small gold accents like the horns. On its waist, it had a small white box that somewhat looked like a belt buckle. >--------------< “Dammit,” Kraken groaned as he limped himself along the wall of a nearby building, holding his shoulder in the process. He could feel the hole in it with every passing step, but he had to get away if he didn’t that was it for him. Whatever had hit him was strong, it had clearly shot through his shoulder, and subsequently, unleashed that explosion of water upon all of them, he was lucky to even have survived this long. That was when his strength finally left him, his legs giving in right from under him and the man fell into a bunch of trashcans that quickly scattered their contents all around them. “No…” he weakly cried out, trying to continue on simply crawling further, but even his arms betrayed him. “No… I can’t die here,” he muttered in defiance to no one in particular, he just knew he couldn’t accept this. Still, he could feel his body slowly starting to break apart, the energy just passed out of him, his eyes grew heavy. Everything was just growing hazier and hazier by the second. This was it apparently, at least he had managed to finish the task of his master. “No. No!” His eyes darted back open, filled with sheer determination. Screw dying, he still had things to do after all. At this moment something blue shot from the sky and crashed into a small broken ring in front of him that had been thrown into the trash, transforming it into a blue gemstone ring in the form of a Kraken. Not even thinking for a moment he pulled together the last of his strength and grabbed ahold of the ring, a bright blue light enveloping him, his injuries just melting away as the newfound energy ran through his body. Kraken took a deep breath as he pulled himself out of the trash, accompanied by the sound of clapping. His head spun around staring at her. “Unicorn, you were here the whole time?” He growled at the woman who casually jumped from the roof she had just been sitting on. “Why didn’t you help me?” “Help you?” She chuckled. “Please, where is the fun in that? And if you can’t even fight off a simple mage and one of these world’s Kamen Riders, there is no reason I should risk my life for you. The master doesn’t appreciate failure. Still, you managed to at least succeed in erecting the first pillar, so you only failed partially. So I guess, giving you this is not a complete waste,” she dismissively added before throwing him another one of the purple gems. “You goal is on the other end of the city, an amphitheater on the outskirts of town, even you can’t miss that.” With that she started to walk off, only to stop after a few meters and turn around one last time. “Oh, and ty not to get yourself killed. I’m sure the master is interested in what happened to you, even if I already have an assumption. See ya,” she chuckled before turning around again and disappearing in blue light. Kraken looked after her, and let out a low growl: “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll survive, and after I’m done with the Riders you are next.” He spat out the last words before going on his way, he had a job to do and intended to fulfill it to his master's satisfaction. >--------------< Ocean and heard about Phoenix’s and Haruto’s encounter with another Phantom but hadn’t managed to get to them in time. But the fact that another one of them had already appeared was worrying, it showed that their opponent was not playing around and knew exactly what he was doing, something that worried her quite considerably. The last time their enemies were just as confused and unprepared as they were and that did make it easier, but this time they were in the disadvantaged, and that was not a good thing in the slightest. And then there was the fact that the Phantom had done something, what exactly she didn’t know, but it was bad news for sure. With the sun already setting over the city she would probably call it quits soon, but not without someone to monitor the city. Only a few more blocks and she was done for the day, as long as no Phantom or Corrupted decided to act up. She almost thought this would be the end for today as her communicator on the bike started to go off. “Here agent Ocean Skies, what is it?” “Hey, Ocean, I’ve got another sitting of the Corrupted that escaped Phoenix and Haruto. It’s just a few streets away from you in a park with an amphitheater,” Shining Armor said from the other end of the line. With a silent sigh she returned: “Good, I’m on my way. How long till anyone else is there?” “About ten to fifteen minutes, they are all in completely different portions of the city, so you have to do this alone for the time being. But I’m sure you will manage sir,” he returned. “Good, I'll be right there,” she returned, ending the call. With that, she let her engines roar and raced off towards the familiar park with the theater. The people that were running in her direction were a good indicator that she was indeed on the right track, letting her bike stop right at the entrance of the theater. Inside the Phantom had stepped onto the stage, several props still standing right there and had placed a purple gemstone down right in the middle of it. The stage was already covered in purple cracks that emerged from the point where the gem had been placed, all while the Phantom was just keeping an eye out for anything and anyone that could get in his way. “So, you are the one that got away from Alchemy and Wizard before. But you are out of luck this time, no water for you to dip into, so be ready for your end,” Charge bellowed over the empty rows of seats, immediately getting the attention of the monster. To her surprise it looked somewhat different from how Phoenix and Haruto had described it, it was now clad in a silver armor that covered its entire body, minus the head and arms. Embedded into the armor were large sapphires that shined in the sunset. The Phantom glared at her before letting several orbs of water shit towards her, the speedy Rider easily dodging the incoming attacks by sidestepping them. This, however, did not deter the monster in the slightest, simply continuing its barrage of orbs, following Charge as she tried to race through the rows of seats that were quickly turned into debris. While she was running for her life, she fired at the Phantom with her Charge Magnum. But instead of actually achieving anything the blasts seemingly just bounced off the armor of the Monster. What was worse was the fact that the Phantom showed no signs of slowing down in any way shape or form, all while her five seconds were quickly drawing to a close. With a last ditch effort, she jumped in between the rows and started to hug the wall. This proved only mildly successful, as her cover was quickly turned to rubble by the unrelenting assault of the monster. She could feel every projectile that impacted with her armor as she was thrown back against the wall of the theater. “Ok, outrunning him won’t work, how about this,” she hissed between her pained grunts and quickly switched out her current Charger against another one. “Charge up!” \ 50, 80, 100! FIRE CHARGE! / With the energy barrier blocking the incoming attacks, she had just enough time to activate the boosters all over her suit and rocket away from the incoming attack. The Phantom was taken by surprise as she jetted through the sky and directly towards him, unloading her weapon on him again, this time the blasts actually at least inconveniencing him as they hit him. This success, however, was rather short-lived, the monster quickly regaining his composure and gathered several of the orbs in front of him only to unleash them all at once, knocking Charge out of the sky and crashing into the rows. Climbing out of the rubble she stared at the Phantom who just threw her a look of utter smugness. She was really starting to get tired of all of this. She was just about to shoot again as she heard it. The sound of something clicking, the Phantom had heard it as well, both staring around the are trying to figure out where the sound had come from. That question was answered rather quickly as they spotted a man with purple skin and brown hair dressed in a black suit and holding an old fashion camera. He had just snapped a picture… in the middle of a battlefield. “Who do you think you are? Are you trying to mock me?” The Phantom bellowed at him, but the man just remained as calm as before, not even faced by the monster screaming at him. “I? I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider,” he returned while standing up and pulling out a strange white box that he put at his waist, it quickly looping around it. With that he pulled out another white and black box and picked a strange card out of it, pulling on the outer parts of the belt at the same time. “Remember that!” With that, he pushed the card into the strange belt and slammed the two ends together again all while calmly saying: “Henshin!” |KAMEN RIDE| |DECADE| Around the man, a silhouette appeared out of nowhere, Charge unable to make out exactly how they looked from that far away that quickly overlayed on top of the new Rider to form a grey suit. That one, however, was quickly collared in after several magenta cards smalled into his visor, the suit taking on a primarily magenta color as well as a bit white and black. The head, however, was the strangest part, several black stripes running through the green eyes of the Rider. “So, I assume you could use the help of a professional?” He smugly asked Charge who just sighed and begrudgingly nodded, she was not dumb enough to throw help away when someone offered it, as arrogant as he might seem. “Figured as much,” he added while slotting another card into the strange Driver. |ATTACK RIDE| |BLAST| He picked up the other box that was hanging at the belt, and after a few quick moves the strange booklet had formed into a handgun, the Rider quickly firing a few shots at the Phantom, knocking it squarely back. At this moment the entire area was engulfed in a bright purple light that quickly subsided again. This was just like Phoenix had told about, they were too slow again. “Tsk, oh well, no reason to prolong this anymore. Hey, newbie!” He shouted toward Charge. “Kick it up a notch, I would like to finish this quickly.” She stared at the strange Rider, before grumbling something to herself that the man should better never hear and switched her Charger again. He just put in another card. “Charge up!” \ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! / |Form Ride| |Den-O Gun| While Charge had changed into Friendship Charge, strange small tubes had appeared around the Rider, changing his entire suit into a black one, several silver parts attaching themselves to the suit rather quickly. In place of his magenta suit now stood a black one with silver armor that had purple highlights as well as a purple visor. The shoulders even extended beyond the armor and ended in two yellow orbs, in his hand he held a small little gun. Without much more fanfare he just slotted in another card while Ocean just spun her cylinder again. |FINAL ATTACK RIDE| |D-D-D-DEN-O| \ Maximum Charge! / The new Rider held his pistol in front of himself, electricity sparking from the weapon and the two orbs on his shoulder, forming into a big purple orb right in front of him. Charge meanwhile gathered all of her energy into her rifle, both Riders unleashed their attacks at the same time, heading straight for the Phantom who just now managed to get back up again only to be greeted by the attacks. With a large explosion the life of the Phantom ended, the only thing left of him was a small sapphire ring in the form of a Kraken that Charge quickly caught. She took one look at the strange ring and sighed: “Oh, come on, really? Corrupted Phantoms? And a new Rider as well? This is gonna be another long day.” “Well, at least you have someone with experience here now,” the Rider said to her from behind. “Oh, the joy,” she just sighed again, this was gonna be a really, really long day.