Letting out a pained yelp Phoenix almost jumped up from the chair he was currently sitting on, much to the annoyance of the nurse who was struggling to get the bandages on him, something Phoenix seemed determined to prevent.
“For the love of… Would you hold still already? This is like bathing a cat, you know that? And I thought superheroes were supposed to be though and not such big crybaby’s,” she hissed, wrapping the bandage extra tight, much to Phoenix displeasure.
“Yeah, Phoenix is by far not the first time you have been injured. One would assume you would get used to it after a while,” Shining added, shaking his head from the side of the room.
“Oh, how about you let yourself get beat up on a weekly basis? I’m sure you would love- Ouch!” He snapped back before another tug from the nurse shut him up again. “You know, only because I wear armor doesn’t mean this doesn’t hurt. I don’t even wanna know what would have happened without the armor,” he added, his voice shuddering a bit.
“Probably would have been dead, no, let me scratch that, definitely dead,” the officer returned snakily.
“You really are wonderful in cheering someone up, you know that,” he said through his gritted teeth. “I really got the best friends one could ever imagine.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. You are fine, or you wouldn’t be joking like that. Just trying to keep you distracted really. If you wouldn’t be acting this way, that is when I would be worried. But right now, you are golden. No sleep deprivation, no being beaten into unconsciousness and no stupid plans, at least right now. You should be fine. You are fine, right?”
Phoenix just rolled his eyes and returned: “Yeah, guess I’m fine. Right now I’m far more worried about Ocean. These axes seemed to dig in quite deep… You know anything? I just can’t stop thinking about it?” This time Phoenix looked over to his friend he looked far more worried and unsure.
“She should be fine. At least that was what Light Bulb told me, something about healing factor of the armor and life support systems. I didn’t really get everything, just that she thinks she will be fine and the fact that we haven't heard anything else seems to be a good sign, at least I hope it is. But if you want to hear my opinion, she survived going out with you she will survive this,” he chuckled, not completely masking his worries.
“You know you are the worst, do you? And if I’m so bad, I wonder how much your girlfriend can stand. Maybe she is even tougher than Ocean?” A weak chuckle escaped his lips before the nurse tugged one last time on his bandages, accompanied by another yelp from Phoenix.
“There, that should be everything. Nothing more than a few cuts and bruises. A few days of rest and everything should be fine,” she said, Phoenix just nodding absentmindedly.
“Yeah, yeah, I have my own ways of getting back into shape. Shouldn’t be a problem,” he returned, not even looking at her properly and jumping from the stretcher, much to the annoyance of the nurse. “I’ll just turn into Alchemy, and everything should be fine.”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, the nurse shook her head again and walked out of the room, leaving Phoenix and Shining behind in the infirmary. “Well, I think I did kind of upset her.”
“You think?” Shining returned with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, but to be fair, she doesn’t really know how this works beyond hearing about it, right?”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t work here and don’t know what she knows,” he just shrugged.
“Yeah, figured. So, what are we gonna do now? Wait for Ocean or should we do something on our own? Anything?” He looked over to his friend with a rather clueless expression.
“You think that would be a good idea? She is the one that holds most of the information, we could ask Light Bulb if she knows anything, but I’m not entirely sure what to do really. I’m just a lowly police officer and, not to sound insulting, well, you are you. I’m not entirely sure if you can handle all of this on your own,” he sheepishly returned. “ I would say we should just stay put.”
“I know what you mean, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing, that is just not how I roll. No matter how insignificant, I want to do something, anything. Even if it is just driving through the city and looking for our friends out there,” he sighed back, slamming his fist on the stretcher he was sitting on, letting out a silent hiss.
“But what would that even achieve. I get what you mean, I hate sitting around just as much, and I don’t have any fancy superpowers or armors. I feel that urge to help every time you two fight, but I can’t do anything besides sit around the battlefield and help civilians. I wish I could do more, but at times there are just other people that can do the job better than you, and no amount of unique things about you is gonna change that, not even being a Rider. Some tasks are just better suited for someone else, it’s the hard truth sadly,” Shining said, a frustrated undertone in every word he spoke.
Phoenix looked back at the officer, who was clenching his fist right now and simply said. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just stay put. Because one thing Ocean told me was that I have to be my own man. I haven’t fought this long only following orders, I make my own decisions. Often that decision is to listen to her, but if she can’t I can’t just expect someone else to take over, I have to be able to fight on my own. I might not be the best or have the most efficient plan, but I have to do something. Because if I let others decide my every move, I will never be someone who can stand on my own. A strong team is important and helps you to achieve things you alone never could, but there are times you have to act on your own because too much stands on the line.”
Shining just stared at him for a moment before opening his mouth to respond only to be interrupted by a familiar booming voice: “Ha! I knew the kid has it in him! You really found a good partner there!” The voice was loud, powerful, and surprisingly in an extremely good mood only strengthened by the loud laughter after his sentence.
“You heard that?” Phoenix asked, a confused expression on his face.
Shining looked just as dumbfounded as Phoenix and was just about to voice this confusion as the doorknob started to ratel, and within moments the entire door was pushed open. What stood before them was indeed a sight to behold, one that would surely stay in their memories for a while. Next to Ocean who was wearing a tank top, the bandages clearly visible under it stood Light Bulb, wearing her usual labcoat and strangely enough with the widest grin they had ever seen her with. But the really baffling part was the third ‘person’, Onyx. But instead of the mountain of a man, there was just a monitor, mounted on top of what seemed to be a broomstick that was vigorously tapped and bolted on top of a Roomba.
“I have so many questions,” was all he could say, staring in disbelief at the contraption that had just rolled in front of him.
“You like it? I call him Mr. Cally! Isn’t he cute?” Light Bulb chirped in, grinning at them like a madwoman, something he wasn’t sure wasn’t the truth after all.
“I… I… I have even more now…” He stammered, his eyes jumping back and forth between Mr. Cally and Light Bulb. “Why? Just why?”
“Well, it was just the logical conclusion really. You would have done the same thing in my situation,” she returned in a surprisingly chipper tone.
“Logical? That? How in the name of everything that is holy is that the logical conclusion? I mean, really? Why stick a pole and a monitored on a Roomba? How? I just want to know.” He once again said, even more exasperated.
Light Bulb just frowned at him. “Hey, you figure out a way to carry around a monitor like this on short notice. I think I did well. Don’t you agree, sir?” She huffed and looked expectingly over to Onyx who had enjoyed the strange performance that was transpiring in front of him. He laughed so loud that Phoenix was worried that ‘Mr. Cally’, or whatever Light Bulb had called the thing, would fall over.
“I have to applaud her for her ingenuity. Without her effort, this would have never worked like this. And in all honesty, it does put a smile on my face,” he returned in his usual chipper tone.
“Gee, couldn’t have guessed,” he returned with a sigh.
“Well, I told you now, so don’t you don’t have to be left in the dark,” he once again returned with a loud chuckle.
Phoenix just shook his head and returned with an exasperated sigh: “Sure, whatever. What is the reason for… this.” He pointed at the small group, just as confused, if not more so than when they had first entered the room.
“Well-“ Onyx was about to say when Ocean interrupted them.
“Finally a good question,” she returned with an annoyed undertone that let Phoenix and Onyx fall silent immediately. “so, care to explain why Light Bulb here needed to cobble together this, sir?” She continued with a knowing undertone.
“Didn’t I say… Eh, forget it,” he grumbled, knowing fully well what she was playing. “Yeah, I guess we should get to the point, shouldn’t we?” Onyx continued with a far lighter tone. Still, there was a serious undertone to it.
“Yes, yes we should,” Ocean said in a mixture of satisfaction and annoyance. “You know why Alkahest and his entourage attacked the MRG building?”
“Uhm, no, not really. But really, at this point there could be a bunch of reasons so often the thing gets attacked after al-“ he returned only to be interrupted by Ocean’s glare, one that told him in no uncertain terms that she had no patience for any stupid jokes right now. “on second thought, do tell me what it was,” he awkwardly chuckled back.
“Thank you,” she calmly replied, smiling back at him. “Alkahest knew precisely what he wanted and ignored everything else, probably thanks to Checkbook. They ignored everything else and went straight for my office, or in other words, the office that has access to a good amount of MRG files. Be it information about current missions in the area, the records of everyone here that works with us and a databank for every artifact we have ever contained, or at least every single one that isn’t kept secret. You know what that means, right?” Ocean was nervous that he could tell. She was near panic if he was honest with himself.
“Nothing good. Nothing good at all,” he simply whispered.
“Oh, it’s far worse. They somehow managed to gain access to our database and look through every item we ever collected. Every single one of them, what they do, and where we keep them! This is the worst thing you could imagine. There are some harmless ones, sure, but then there are the ones that can cause serious harm, especially if used to create a Corrupted. He could build up an army and crush us with numerical superiority. Or worst case scenario he could take one of the world ending artifacts, and goodness knows what he would do with them,” she finished with what was almost a whisper.
Most of the color had drained from Phoenix’s face. The thought alone what Platinum could do with all that power was frightening. “Fuck. Any idea what he is after or where he wants to go? If he is really out to build himself an army, he needs to attack one of these warehouses or is he looking for something specific. There has to be something.” Sweat was already starting to drip down his face, and an unnerving feeling was crawling down his spine with every word he said.
“Thankfully, there is. They looked through our files and stopped at a specific artifact, R155. It’s nothing special really and has been in possession of the MRG for a few decades, so I have no idea why they would stop looking for anything else after it, but one thing is for sure it can’t be anything good.”
He looked back at her and asked: “But what does it do? It has to do something, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have taken it, right?”
“Yeah, it does something, but nothing that really would help him, or at least that is my opinion. It makes things disappear, and that is about it. We send drones and recording devices into it, but never got any of them back. And the field of effect is so minuscule that anything bigger than a book won’t fit through it. I have no idea what he is trying to do with it,” Light Bulb interrupted them. “I once experimented on it, swallowed everything I gave it and never got anything in return. It’s almost like a baby, just not cute. The idea once was to use it to get rid of our waste that humanity produces but with it small radius that never got of the ground, not forgetting that we don’t know where exactly everything goes. And before we start a war by dumping our waste on an alien planet, we decided to can the research until we figure out a way to deal with these problems.”
“Starting war with an alien civilization? Isn’t that a bit far, fetched?” Phoenix chuckled weakly.
“Says the magical Kamen Rider who fights monsters,” she snarkily replied, a smug grin on her lips.
“Point taken. We live in a weird, weird world. Aliens wouldn’t be too much out there really,” he returned, shaking his head in quiet amusement before his expression darkened once again. “So, we know where he is, then?”
“Depends. If he is indeed after R155, we know where he went, Warehouse 13 in Southe Marekota. Far away from any form of civilized life. One of the safest places on the planet, but I think it won’t bare the frontal assault of a Rider and his army of monsters. So, even though we have the chance of being wrong, we can’t ignore this. You two will go there immediately. Let’s hope we aren’t too late or else…” Onyx finished in an unusual stern voice.
“Got it,” Phoenix nodded before glancing over to Ocean. “Are you sure you can-“
“Yes! I’m one hundred percent sure. He won’t take me off guard again,” she returned with a grim expression on her face.
“Well then, after this is clear, time to move out for you two. I’m sure you’ll pull it off,” Onyx said, a weak smirk on his lips.
Before they left the room, Ocean whispered something to Light Bulb: “Prepare everything we have, even your small little projects.” The scientist nodded and watched the two of them more or less storm out of the room.
>-------<A>-------<
This was the first time Phoenix had really seen the true reach and power of the MRG. Not even ten minutes later, they were already on their way towards Warehouse 13 and all its deadly artifacts. But no, not on their bikes or any vehicle, no that would have been to slow and wouldn’t have let the MRG flex their muscles. No, they were on a plane, a fucking plane. And not just any fucking plane, it was one that didn’t even need a runway, oh no, this one just shot into the air. And it kind of looked like a brick with wings that had a large hatch on the back. How they had managed to land that thing on the top of the MRG so fast was beyond him, but it was definitely a feat. What impressed him even more though was that they had managed to get their bikes into the small plane and all that in record time.
Seeing the city behind them get smaller and smaller was somewhat frightening, especially how fast everything was happening. One minute and the city was already only a tiny speck on the horizon. Sure, he had flown a bit in his armor, but never something like this. This was an entirely different beast. He felt like he was traveling inside a bullet, a bullet that had just been shot at something.
“Relax, nothing is gonna happen to you. It’s just a small little flight. You are a Rider, you could definitely save us all,” Ocean said calmly, having gabled ahold of his hand and was gently holding onto it. “So, don’t worry.”
Phoenix looked over to Ocean, her relaxed expression was precisely what he needed right now, and with every second, he felt her hand around his and her face in front of him his anxiety shrank and shrank. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Why did I have to worry, anyway? Isn’t really hero worthy, am I right?” He awkwardly laughed.
“Oh, Phoenix, there is nothing wrong with being afraid of flying. You would be surprised at how many are. But you are still here, so really, I think that is even more heroic than never being afraid. That is what I like about you, you know your weaknesses, your shortcomings, and failure, but you don’t give up. You keep pressing on and fighting. That is what I love about you. A true hero, at least in my book, and that is really all that matters to me,” she said before leaning in for a kiss. Her soft lips were the last bit of calming influence he needed to suppress the urge to force the pilot to land right now.
“Thanks,” was all he could say in return.
“Don't sweat it.”
For a moment, everything seemed perfect, the situation they had found themselves in was forgotten, and the world was not in any danger at all, just them with no worries what so ever. But like everything beautiful in the world, even that moment had to end, the thoughts flooding back into his head and one in particular.
The moment everything flooded back, he sighed and pulled his hand back from hers, much to her surprise and displeasure. “Phoenix?”
“Hey, ahm, I hadn’t had the chance yet, but are you ok?” He returned awkwardly, worry in his eyes.
“Wha… What do you mean? I’m afraid of flying, so don’t worry about it,” she returned, taken aback by his sudden question, though there was a hint of nervousness in her voice.
“Not that and you know that I didn’t mean that. How do you feel? And no excuses, you know exactly what I’m talking about,” he continued, finding more and more confidence with every word he spoke.
“You… I… I’m fine. If this is about the fight before, I’m ok,” she returned defensively.
“He ramed two axes into your shoulders, the least I could do was ask,” Phoenix simply said. “If you are fine, that is good, but I’m still sore from before, so I just wanted to check up on you, not that I would push you too far.”
She angrily looked at him for a moment before she just sighed, and her expression mellowed out. “Thanks. But I’m fine. I used one of the Chargers to get back into fighting form. A bit sore still, but shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t have time for stuff like relaxing anyway. Platinum is planning something I can tell that it won’t be anything good, so excuse me for being a bit reckless, not like we have any other options.”
“Says the one that laid into me for skipping sleep and abusing my Magic Discs,” he returned with a raised eyebrow.
“That was different! You just caused more problems than solve them and put your psyche at risk. I’m just going into battle a bit sore, that is all. Nothing comparable to what you pulled. And as if you wouldn’t do the same thing? I know you, and you can be far more stubborn than me! Or do I need to remind you of the time you went after Cerberus after you were already beaten into the hospital?” She said, getting a bit louder.
“Hey, that time saved your life! So no complains, ok!”
“And there we have it, why can’t this be the same case? We could save so many lives, especially if Platinum has something big planned. I’m not sitting around in a damn hospital bed and let you deal with all of this alone. What good of a Kamen Rider, would I be if I did that?”
Phoenix just shook his head before a chuckle escaped his lips: “And that is why I love you. Stubborn as Tartarus, but damn if you aren’t right. Fine. So we are doing this together. Till the end, then!”
“Till the end,” she nodded in return. “But you should relax a bit, we need you when we jump out.”
Phoenix laughed only for Ocean to not join him and just look back in confusion. “Uhm, why aren’t you laughing? Jumping out is a funny way to say walk out of this thing. Why aren’t you saying anything and just grinning at me? Oh… Oh, no…”
>-------<A>-------<
“Just for the record, I think this is an absolutely terrible idea!” He screamed over at Ocean, both having suited up and were sitting on their bikes pointed directly at the hatch of the plane.
“Noted!” She simply returned before signaling one of the other agents on the plane something. Seconds later, the hatch at the end of the machine opened slowly, wind storming into the cargo bay, much to Phoenix dismay.
“Do we really need t-“ that was as far as he got when Ocean pulled back the gas on her bike, pretty much rocketing out of the cargo bay. “I hate you all!”
Following Ocean’s example, he also let the roar of his bike echo through the cargo bay, even if it was somewhat drowned out by the wind blowing over everything. He could see his life flash by him as he saw the walls of the plane disappearing, stranding him above the clouds. Within moments everything was overtaken by pure white, the clouds obstructing every bit of sight he had left. And still, in the blink of an eye, they were gonna, above him hovering in the air like nothing had ever happened. It would have been amazing, the wind rushing past him, the gorgeous view across the empty desert and the night sky that stretched across the horizon, well if it weren’t for the fact that he was rocketing towards his doom.
“Phoenix! Would you stop being scared for one second and save us!” Did it scream into his ear, something that did indeed knock him out of this little stupor. With death coming ever and ever closer it was increasingly hard to remember what precisely the plan was, but with Ocean’s… calm voice shouting… encouragements his way, this did get easier.
Against all better judgment, he pulled his hand from the gas and instead pointed it towards Ocean, or at least where she was under him. With what felt like someone yanking him up, the bikes slowed down significantly. Still, they were far to fast, and the ground was coming closer and closer and with it something that looked like a field of lights, it had to be the Warehouse, it just had to be. But what was concerning was the fact that small lights ran around what looked like a runway and the small sporadically placed spots of light.
But all this was just secondary for Phoenix as he concentrated harder and harder, the magic surging through him was starting to really strain him, his muscles were tightening and slowly pain was spreading all through his body, but they were getting slower and slower. Just a little bit more, only a tiny while longer and they would-
With a loud crash both bikes landed on the ground, the machines shaking like it was an open threat to them that they would break and getting back control of them after they had landed was indeed quite hard it still went all relatively smoothly all things considered. Still, Phoenix did need a little moment to catch his breath.
That was, however, when they could truly take in their surroundings. What they saw before them was absolute pandemonium, fire everywhere, burning vehicles, smashed supply boxes, and even the remains of an aircraft were littered across the runway. The asphalt had been partially ripped from the ground and thrown at buildings that stood around the track and small spires littered the large open area. And then there was the large hole inside the most prominent building. This was a battlefield! Soldiers were trying valiantly to fight against something, firing at someone ahead, but right now it just looked as if they were shooting at random. A single tank was still standing and unloading his rath onto its victim. Well, it had until a large boulder smashed into the war machine, rushing the front of the tank and sending him flying back.
Whatever they had gotten themselves into one thing was clear, Platinum was already here. Let’s hope they could still stop him from whatever his plan was. But to do that they had to bring the situation on the runway under control, something that was far easier said than done. Whoever was causing this chaos, he would definitely be a handful.
And right on cue that someone made itself know to them, in the form of a massive rock barreling their way. While still taxed from this little maneuver, evading the thing proved to be simple enough, the heavy projectile landing a bit behind them and tearing through concrete like butter.
That was when they first saw their opponent. Before them stood a man clad in orange armor that looked like it had been worn for at least a decade. Scratches and marks were left on the otherworldy metal. The armor let him look like he was a mountain of muscle-clad in metal. His helmet was formed in the shape of the skull of a bull with two massive horns. Two glowing golden eyes looked from where the eye sockets should be and in its arms were two large stone hammers.
“You! You two ruined my life! Now it’s time to pay the price for that! Slowly and painfully!” The Corrupted bellowed towards them before smashing his foot on the ground. Out of nowhere two spikes crashed through the concrete followed by multiple similar ones, all appearing in front of the last one and were heading directly their way.
In a split-second decision, both Alchemy and Charge steered their bikes away from the wave of spikes that was heading their way, or at least that had been the plan, but instead of just circling around them the peaks followed. They had only barely passed them and already felled themselves save when the shock hit them. One look in their mirrors and they saw it, the spikes had changed direction and were close on their tale and worst of all, quickly catching up to them.
The oud roaring of their engines almost drowned out the chaos around them, almost. Still, they had to stop this as fast as possible and especially now with these things on their tale. The last few meters were gut-wrenching, the spikes were almost on them, threatening to tear into their bikes until…
A loud groan could be heard from the Corrupted as he flew through the air, a significant dent in his stomach as both Alchemy and Charge had passed him and delivered a devastating double kick to the gut. The armor rattled and dented even more as he rolled around the ground. The two Riders meanwhile had stopped their bikes and dismounted them, standing in front of the Corrupted.
“I’m really not remembering you, all that armor really does not help with that,” Alchemy said, sounding somewhat out of breath. “Wanna help with that?”
“You! How dare you forget me! You ruined my life! And all of that because of a damn pizzeria! Of a damn shop that no one cared for!” He growled, grabbing his hammers tightly and slamming them on the ground, forming a wall in front of him.
“Oh, it’s you! I still have a few punches right for you! Whoever hurts my friends, destroy their stuff or even kidnaps them is gonna have a problem with me!” Phoenix hissed, the exhaustion in his voice having disappeared seemingly in an instant.
Just as he was about to dash forward two large pieces of the wall broke off it and rocketed directly towards them. Instead of avoiding them, however, they did instead just jump straight towards them. The entire battlefield around them was quickly covered in dust after both of them had shattered the boulder into thousands of pieces, leaving the Corrupted for all intents and purposes blind.
The Corrupted stumbled around, his hammers at the ready if anything would jump his eyes. Then he heard it, the sound of a footstep and just a moment later one of the two Riders jumped out towards him. Out of pure instinct, he brought the hammer down on the Rider. The loud sound of the weapon crashing against the armor echoed through the entire battlefield.
But instead of the agonizing screams, he had expected the Rider just stood there, her arms crossed over her head perfectly catching his hammer all while an orange glow emitted from the orb on her chest.
\ Philosopher Stone Maximum Power! /
It echoed from behind him. In utter shock, he turned around, completely ignoring Charge behind him. As he turned around, he could see the glowing foot of Alchemy heading his way. About to dash out of the way he suddenly felt something from behind, the other Rider! She had wrapped her arms around him and was holding them closed behind his neck, completely immobilizing him. That was when it dawned on him, that was it!
And just moments later Alchemy’s finisher connected, drilling through the armor and letting him exploded in a fiery ball.
As the dust had finally settled he was simply hanging in Ocean’s arms, an Earth Magic Disc falling to the ground beside him. The female Rider let him sink to the floor before nodding to Phoenix and dashed back to their bikes and by extension into the depths of the Warehouse.