Okay, to be honest after the whole Foundation X business Adagio planned on kicking her feet up, taking it easy for as long as she could. She felt she deserved it.
What she did not feel she deserved was listening to what could be called an offense against the ears.
Sadly, her siblings seemed to differ.
“Oh please, don’t tell me you actually listen to that rot,” Adagio said peering over before blinking. “...wait, what are you listening to?”
Adagio almost immediately regretted the question as soon as she asked it.
“Oh, this is Carina!” Sonata began to babble. “New up and coming idol singer, you can’t even find her normally! See see, every 12:00 exactly you have to type in her name on Google and only then will a video of her singing come up!”
“Uh-huh?” Adagio asked, wondering why she should care. “And where’d you hear about…?”
“Aria told me!” Sonata chirped. “And Aria learned it from Fluttershy who… well, I don’t know where she learned it from but it’s cool! They say Carina is a devil borne from hell who has come to bewitch and beguile us with her succubus powers!”
“Meh, everyone’s got a gimmick,” Adagio shrugged in possible disgust. “I still can’t believe you actually went out of your way to search for someone who probably doesn’t even know your name.”
“Oh what, like you wouldn’t roll over and faint if Tom Jones kissed your hand?” Aria drawled. “Because don’t lie to me sis, I know you would. I’ve seen your shrine of shame, scary as it is.”
“I thought we agreed never to speak of that,” Adagio hissed out, Sonata watching with wide eyes. Adagio felt a little of herself die inside as soon as she saw that, because yep here comes the blackmail.
“I’ll never understand you humans,” came a voice from Adagio’s left. “Honestly, I never will. You’re all too easily embarrassed.”
“Right, of course…” Adagio said. “Greeed have no sense of shame.”
Yeah, right, this was all fairly weird really. Having to put up with him again for any length of time. Personally, Adagio was both surprised and… well, okay just surprised that she hadn’t killed the guy yet. It was certainly tempting after about half of the stuff he’d pulled. Then again, even if she did do anything to him, it really wouldn’t stick so… That probably had something to do with it.
“Why should we?” Ankh said. “We’re better than you in a lot of regards, so having that particular emotion would probably be a hindrance to us.”
“Or humility,” Adagio quickly added her tone that of a sarcastic drawl. It was a tone she reserved specially for the Bird Greeed. “Is it just me or has your ego gotten a hell of a lot bigger?”
Sonata quickly spritzed him. “I’m sorry sis, I’ve been trying to housebreak him. He doesn’t learn as well as I’d like.”
“Yes, well, given as old as I am, you really expect lessons to stick that easily?” Ankh noted. “I’d be amazed if you managed to change my personality for even a few days.”
“Hey, a few days is better than nothing, and if you can stop being a self-centered jerk for all of five minutes…” Sonata trailed off. “Just saying, being nice? It’s not all that hard and who knows maybe we’d take to liking you a lot quicker.”
“Yes, well, I’m not in this job to be liked,” Ankh said sourly. “I’m only in this to help you get rid of my fellow Greeed and that’s that. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“And yet we’re still no closer to doing that,” Aria said. “We’re pretty much at the exact same place we started. We grab some cores, Adagio gains a new form, they take the cores back and Adagio loses a form. We grab, new form. They take, she loses a form. It’s not a complicated concept. So why don’t you divulge some of your secrets eh? Show us how to permanently kill one of you bastards.”
“I… can’t.” Ankh said hesitantly. Aria raised an eyebrow.
“Can’t or you just won’t?” she asked.
“Like, I literally can’t,” Ankh said. “Even I don’t know what could take us out. Because trust me, if I knew I would have taken out my fellow greeed years ago! Don’t you think? Hell, I wouldn’t even need you!”
Adagio conceded his point. Ankh was too dangerous to just be left to his own devices. God knows what he’d actually do if he was let free. He was chaos given form, and only restrained by the loosest of devices. He was… frightening, and yet he at times felt very… human.
Adagio cursed her traitorous thoughts. No, she couldn’t think like that. Not anymore. She’d been burned one too many times by the King of the Birds. Like Icarus, she’d flown too close to the sun and had gotten burned.
She wondered if she’d ever really learn her lesson. What was it about her that made her go after the completely untouchable men? Was she that desperate? Or maybe she wanted a man in her life that was extraordinary because she couldn’t stand anyone overtly boring. She wanted to laugh. She cherished the normal parts of her life nowadays, and yet when it came down to something like romance, a normal man was never even -not even once- considered.
This was her life now. The new normal.
“Of course,” Ankh went on. “It seems you don’t even need me now right? After all, there was that Takeru guy right? Little Firefly?”
Adagio’s eyes widened before she glared sharply at Ankh.
“Shut up…” She hissed at once and Ankh knew he had touched a nerve by the smirk on his face. Damn her, was she really that easy?
“Well, this keeps on getting more and more interesting doesn’t it?” Ankh chuckled. “You never cease to amuse me…”
The woman sighed. Adagio hated him at times, she really did.
48 Hours Earlier…
Takeru was in a bit of a pickle. He knew he couldn’t stay for much longer, though breaking it to Adagio could be the tough part. It was impossible to mistake that look in her eyes. Love, yes love.
It… ah, yeah, this was something new to him as well. He didn’t want to end it, but he knew he had to. He had responsibilities of his own back in Japan, and he doubted either of them could make a long distance relationship work for long.
Could they? He wasn’t sure. This was the first real relationship he’d had. It was probably the first real relationship either of them had, Takeru suspected. Granted, he may have been wrong and Adagio could have had some sort of romantic relationship before him, but he honestly doubted it.
Takeru sighed. Being a Rider and fending off the paranormal did nothing to prepare you for the real world did it?
Did Makoto Nii-san or Alain Nii-san ever have this sort of problem? He really had to wonder.
Takeru found himself smacked into a wall. Right, of course. Back to reality
“Remind me,” Takeru said as he landed a solid fist to the locust yummy’s face, before drawing his warhammer to strike at the insectoid’s skin. “Do we even know what this one was sent here to do?”
“Knock over a bank? Blow something up?” Adagio said lighting up the ground with the kuwagata medal’s powers. “I lost track honestly.”
“Sai, Gorilla, Ookamiuo!” her driver yelled out and Adagio delivered several powerful punches to the creature making it spill out cells with every hit. The coins jingled with every drop, and they just kept on coming.
“Maybe it was just sent out to make sure we’re still breathing,” Takeru suggested switching from Toucon Benkei Damashii to Toucon Musashi Damashii. “...Honestly, as Yummies go, this one seems to be…”
“Piddlingly weak?” Adagio remarked switching combos yet again.
“Same, Kamakiri, Tako!” Adagio’s belt sang out before her legs turned into tendrils pulling the yummy closer. This was just for her arm blades cto slash at the monster in a scissor maneuver. As the yummy staggered back, she switched again. “Sai, Unagi, Ookamiuo!”
Sending it upwards with a wall of water, she pulled it back down with the unagi whips before impaling it in the chest with the sai horn. Once again, she switched.
“Sai, Gorilla, Ookamiuo!”
Going back to this combo, Adagio once again delivered several powerful punches. Takeru once again switched souls.
“Kaigan! Bee~tho~ven! Symphony! Destiny! DA-DA-DA-DUN!” the driver called out, and Takeru -pressing the keys on his outfit- manipulated musical notes in such a way to bind the yummy in a seal of magic. He switched souls once again. “Kaigan! Robin Hood! Hello Arrow! Into the Woods we go!”
Drawing back his bow, he fired a powerful arrow finishing the monster. Cells rained down covering the street. Whatever the monster had been sent out to do, it had apparently done it well enough.
“Oh look,” Adagio remarked in a cheery tone. “You made it rain. So what, you going to take a girl out to dinner with all of this spare change?”
“Well, I, uh…” Takeru stammered out.
“You’re way too easy to tease, you know that right?” Adagio chirped, ruffling Takeru’s hair as he canceled out his transformation, removing his eyecon from his driver. “But wow, we’re like an unbeatable team by this point.”
“An unbeatable team making little to no headway,” Takeru pointed out. “It’s been months since the Greeed appeared in this city, and they still haven’t been stopped.”
“I thought it was like a little thing between us, honestly,” Adagio drawled, canceling out her own transformation as well. “We do this little dance day and night, they stay to their side of the fence and I stay to mine. It’s pretty much our ‘thing’ you know?”
“So what does that make our ‘thing’?” Takeru asked not sure if he really wanted to know.
“Oh, you’re the dashing sidekick who comes to save the day, and look cute.” Adagio said, patting him on the head.
“R-Really?” Takeru asked, wondering if he should be offended. “That’s all I amount to?”
“Well, that and you’re the great boyfriend who reminds me what I’m fighting for,” Adagio murmured. “As I said, you’re way too easy to tease.”
“I ought to dump you…” Takeru flushed.
“And then you probably wouldn’t find another woman in the world who’d take you in,” Adagio remarked, booping him on the nose. Eiji coughed and both Riders turned.
“As fun as your flirtation is, you do realize some of us here are trying to work?” Eiji flushed. “It’s kind of hard to pay attention when you two are… being, well, you.”
“What do you plan to do with all of those cells anyways?” Takeru had to ask. “You’ve been showing up a lot, you and your little collection team. You saving them for a rainy day?”
“Something like that, yeah,” Eiji admitted. “Rest assured, I do have a reason for my little hobby. It’s not just for a rainy day fund type of thing.”
“Oh, well, you don’t have to lie about it,” Adagio teased and for a brief jealous moment -wow, he could get jealous, huh who knew?- Takeru wondered if there was a flicker of something between them. Maybe there had been at one point. He hoped there had been. Adagio deserved someone who was less of a flake. Adagio continues with: “I mean, we all know your Rider form uses Cells so…”
“Actually, it’s not my Rider form anymore,” Eiji corrected. “There’s going to be a new Birth. A… uh, rebirth if you will.”
“...wait, you’re actually calling him that? Kamen Rider ReBirth?” Adagio said in a flat tone.
“Well, no!” Eiji said through the tone he took didn’t exactly make Adagio believe him. “You should be seeing him shortly. I need to help run the company, I can’t be out in the field.”
“So no Kamen Rider Iron Man, got it. You’re just going to use the bodyguard excuse then? Well, don’t blame me when some comics nerd calls you out on it…” Adagio continued to tease.
“Iron Man?” Eiji mouthed and Takeru wanted to laugh. Surely Eiji wasn’t this behind on pop culture? Even he knew what Iron Man was, and he was a monk!
“...actually, I was hoping I’d be compared to Bruce Wayne,” Eiji muttered and Takeru let out a small ‘oh’. “Batman’s cooler.”
“...so what, you think you’re Batman?” Takeru asked. “Sure, you’re probably rich enough but you’re more Iron Man than Batman. You’ve even got the high-tech suit.”
“So you’re saying I’m self-destructive then?”
“Well, I wasn’t saying that,” Takeru muttered his face flushed. “Though... though Batman’s pretty self-destructive too…”
“Batman’s all edge,” Adagio pretended to gag. “Oh please! We get it Bruce, your parents are dead. No need to recite it every five comics.”
“It’s not that bad!” Eiji retorts a little too quickly to be even remotely believable.
“Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that,” Adagio said, picking up a Cell Medal and as she fiddled with it out of boredom, an idea came to her. “...hey, you don’t think we can’t just pull all of the medals out of a Greeed? Like, just invent some vacuum attachment for Birth and have it suck out all but one Core?”
“Where are you going with this?” Eiji inquired curiously.
“Like, just suck out all of the medals but one core and then just bury that core on some faraway island somewhere, or in the arctic circle and leave it to be forgotten?” Adagio pondered.
“That feels a bit too much like we’re passing off our problems to the next generation, seems to me,” Eiji replied as he gestured for Adagio to sit down next to him. Hesitantly, she did. “We have a right and a responsibility to deal with these monsters in the here and now. If we just pass them off for someone else, we’re basically saying it was never our problem. All we’ve done would have been for nothing. And if we destroy all information…”
“Hey, I didn’t say we should destroy all informat-” Adagio started before Eiji continued.
“You seemed to be implying it,” Eiji put in.
“Alright, fine, we’ll leave an instruction manual for anyone who finds the cores. Tell them what we know,” Adagio said, sounding so very tired at that moment. This was understandable, Takeru reasoned, given with how much she’d been fighting them day in and day out. Fighting them day in and day out without making really any headway. She deserved her rest. Maybe a spa date.
“And what if someone digs them up?” Eiji pointed out. “Someone who’s nowhere near as benevolent as us. Shocker dug the Cores up once, and hell they’re the reason why the Greeed have returned as is. Someone like them could easily dig the Cores up, and unleash the Greeed on the world once again.”
Ah, yes. Takeru swallowed hard, he hadn’t even thought about that. Damn.
Adagio sighed. “It’s just…” she murmured. “Well, it’s just that… God, I’m so so tired. Day in, day out, I’ve been fighting the Greeed and day in and day out not once inch of ground has been gained. I’d happily take this pass them off to the future scenario just so it wouldn’t have to be my fight anymore. It’s not like I can just give up the belt either. It’s genetically locked to me now.”
“Say you do pass this problem off to the future,” Eiji reasoned. “Could you live with yourself in the days afterwards? You’d probably be alright for the first few days, yes, but I know you Adagio Dazzle. You’ve got a good heart. You wouldn’t want anyone else to have to suffer this.”
“Well, maybe what if I do?” Adagio snapped and Eiji and Takeru both flinched from the sheer venom in her tone. Surprising ever herself, Adagio went on with a: “Maybe it should be someone else’s problem. I’ve been fighting this long, and maybe I deserve a rest. It’s like everyone puts all of this on my shoulders, and every day it seems to get a little bit worse. Hell, there’s another Rider out there now in Starlight and you’re stockpiling cell medals for your own greedy gains!”
“It’s not…” Eiji stammered out. “I’ve got a plan in place to use these Cells for the betterment of mankind!’
“Yeah, well these Cells have caused nothing but trouble!” Adagio replied waspishly. “Everyone’s after them, and you’ve just made yourself a big target for both Foundation X and the Greeed alike! Count the medals 1, 2, and 3 right? Because oh trust me Kougami, they’ll be doing plenty of that as soon as they realize just what you’ve got in your possession!”
Eiji wanted to tell her otherwise, that the Kougami Foundation had a plan for all of these Cells. They’d known the Greeed would one day return, so they’d been grabbing as many Cells as they could to help fight the Greeed. Not for just Kamen Rider Birth, but for the endgame scenario involving OOOs. They knew, somehow, the OOOs driver would find its way to the right person. Bit of a lot to place on faith, but the power always managed to find its way to the right person.
“I… I…” Adagio choked back a sob. “I just want it to end…”
Takeru rubbed her shoulders comfortingly. “It will Adagio, I know it,” he said softly. “You’ve just got to tough it out a little while longer.”
“I’m not sure I want to…” Adagio whispered. “Some days I just want to say fuck the world and toss this driver off a bridge. But Eiji’s right, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I… God, I’m such a mess.”
“Then we’ll be messes together, right?” Takeru asks and his heart aches because he knows he has to leave this wonderful woman soon.
“R-Righ… Yeah, guess we will.” Adagio murmured.
Sunset still doesn’t know what to make of Adagio Dazzle, she really doesn’t. On the one hand, she knows this isn’t the same Adagio who gave her so much hell in her high school years. On the other hand, it's hard to trust someone who wears the same face of the person who gave her so much hell in her high school years.
Plus, there was that whole personality carryover thing. Her Twilight shared enough personality traits with Equestria’s Twilight that there was reason enough to believe both Adagios had some personality overlap.
Maybe she is just being far too paranoid for her own good. Years of dealing with magical threats before she hit twenty had left a bit of a mark on her, Sunset supposed.
“Wonder what it would have been like for me if I just stayed in Equestria like a good little pony?” Sunset said as she sipped her drink. She hadn’t thought of the place as home in years, really. But at times, she did have to wonder… “Of course, I’d probably get dragged into heroism anyways. I mean, hell, I’d probably have ended up doing Twilight’s job for her. Might have ended up being the Princess of Friendship like I always wanted at the time. Yay. No more peace and quiet for me really. How does Twilight do it? Pony Twilight, not…”
Was it too much to ask just to be normal? To live a normal life with a normal family, maybe a couple of kids? Fillies, preferably. Foals were always way too much work. Sunset probably knew she was kidding herself, since when had she ever been normal? She’d been Princess Celestia’s student for crying out loud! Normal had never simply been in the cards for her.
Sometimes she really hated that.
So, for whatever reason, Sunset finds herself wandering back through the portal and back into Equestria. Hasn’t really changed much over the years really. Yeah, sure the Princesses retired for reasons Sunset couldn’t fathom and Twilight took their place but it’s still Equestria. Ponies still partied, pranced under the sunlight, baked cakes and… some other things she was sure. Okay, okay, it hadn’t been her home for a few decades now, cut her some slack alright?
Twilight, of course it was Twilight who got to be Celestia and Luna’s successor. It always had been. She even had the Element of Magic practically tattooed on her butt for Celestia’s sake! This was fine. Sunset had long outgrown any traitorous jealous feelings she may have had. Being a Princess of the Realm was really way too much fucking work for her anyhow.
Okay, yeah, being a megahit star touring the world wasn’t exactly kick your feet up on the dash relaxing but at least she wasn’t running a whole country! Boy, oh boy, she really had been kidding herself back then thinking she was in any way ready for that sort of responsibility.
She must have been high or delusional or something.
Huh, the castle seemed less… lonesome than the last time she’d been here, less empty. Now while Canterlot Castle was never exactly empty so to speak, there was definitely something different about it right now. Okay, yeah, Celestia and Luna not being there may have had something to do with the different feeling, but… that didn’t seem like the only explanation.
Oh, that explained it, Sunset realized as she saw the framed painting on the wall. Twilight was married. Married. When had this happened again? ...why was she always the last to know these things?
“Tried to send an invite you know,” came a somewhat masculine tone, and Sunset whirled on her hooves in fright. Collecting herself, Sunset took several deep breaths. “Not sure they do deliveries between dimensions.”
Fizzlepop, of course it was always Fizzlepop. Twilight had babbled to no end about her after the whole Storm King incident. Mentioned that she wanted her in her guard. Well, Sunset supposed if you were freely able to kick the Princess of Friendship and Element of Magic’s ass then I suppose being hired to captain her guard was a smart move. “...does the Royal Guard even allow fraternization with the mare you’re, uh, guarding?”
“Well, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence are a thing so…” Fizzlepop rumbled. “Yes, I know. Royal Guard marries her Princess. Sounds like something out of a bad bodice ripper. Guess truth is stranger than fiction.
“Tell me about it,” Sunset agreed. “Former villain gets a second chance at life in a whole ‘nother dimension. What part of that doesn’t sound like something from a bad sci-fi plot? Or a cartoon?’
“When did…” Sunset trailed off before deciding against it. No, this was stupid. Then again, who better to answer her question? “...when did Twilight decide to start trusting you? Come on, from one former villain to the next?”
“I think probably from the moment we met, probably suicidal of her. But she…”
“Saw something you’d been trying to deny?” Sunset said knowingly. “A part of yourself that even you had wanted to forget about? A good pony?”
“Yes,” Fizzlepop answered. “That. Now what’s this about? I know you’ve got your own life Sunset Shimmer. You wouldn’t just drop everything and come here again unless it’s rather important. Is it Adagio Dazzle?”
“How did…?” Sunset trailed off before she sighed. “Twilight told you, of course.”
“She may have mentioned it, it came up once or twice,” Fizzlepop admitted. “She seemed mostly content to leave you to it, from all accounts. Said you were a smart enough mare, that you could probably figure it out.”
“She said that did she?” Sunset said.
“Now, do you want to prove her wrong Sunset Shimmer? Do you want me to tell Twilight that her faith in you is misplaced?” Fizzlepop asked and in spite of herself, Sunset swallowed. Yeah, just because Fizzlepop was no longer a villain, didn’t mean she wasn’t still scary.
“No, I got this I think…” Sunset smiled, sending Fizzlepop a grateful look as she vanished back through the portal.
“That you do, Sunset Shimmer,” Fizzlepop said as Twilight walked up. When she was asked who that was, Fizzlepop could only reply. “Nobody. Just a mare who needed setting straight, that’s all.”
“Equalize, Scienticize! Energize, Solarize!”
“Kaigan: Kondō, Hijikata, Okita! Kimi to kata kumi! Shinsengumi!”
Bit suspicious really, to find Starlight out in the open like this. Takeru knew this was a trap, she wanted him out in the open for some reason. Common sense told him not to go. His conscience told him to save the people. Guess which one won out in the end?
Problem was, well, Starlight seemed even more powerful than before. Takeru could easily guess why. The Hyper Muteki Ridewatch had been destroyed, but slamming it into her Driver had given Starlight the ability to reach even higher power levels than before.
Any blow he dealt out to her, she just absorbed and re-directed.
What’s worse, her time limit seemed to have expired long ago.
Joy.
“So you’ve experienced being dead before, right?” Starlight remarked, Takeru fairly certain she’d gotten even crazier. That was a bit of a feat, really. “Tell me, can the afterlife be studied? The soul utilized?”
“I think you already know,” Takeru said, surprising even himself with the iciness in his tone. Hmm, had being around Adagio improved his self-confidence any? “After what you did to Elias…”
“Oh, him. A failed experiment,” Starlight said, her Rider form changing into energy and smashing Takeru through several walls. Takeru’s anger surged even as he grabbed her, and slammed Starlight bodily into the ground. That’s all he was to her? An experiment? “Yes, well, not all of Foundation X’s ventures can be so successful, can they?”
She was on top of him again, and Takeru found himself floored by a wave of energy. As he struggled to stand, more shockwaves hit him. Starlight waved her hands, redirecting the kinetic energy stored in her suit like a sinister orchestra. She grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into a wall.
Takeru slammed the level on his driver. “Dai Kaigan: Omega Drive: Shinsengumi!”
Starlight was kicked backwards, allowing Takeru some breathing room. He switched forms yet again, Starlight seemingly gasping for breath.
“Kaigan: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu! Hatasu no wa itsu! Tenkatōitsu!”
Summoning both the Sunglasseslasher and the Deep Slasher Takeru slashed into Starlight’s armor with a spinning maneuver. He leaped upwards and slashed downwards with both weapons, Starlight staggering back. He changed both to blaster form and riddled her with energy shots.
“Dai Kaigan: Omega Drive Tenkatōitsu!” the driver called out before Takeru ran forwards, changing both weapons back to blade form. Striking with both, he then side-kicked Starlight through a wall.
The sun beat down, Starlight slamming a fist into the earth to stop herself. “You… Do you think this is the end? Ask yourself, Takeru Tenkuji. You think you can be there for Adagio all of the time? While I’m sure she appreciates having her own personal knight in shining spandex for her, you’ve got responsibilities you know,” Starlight lectured slamming a fist into Takeru’s faceplate. “You’ve got a life of your own, and yet for the last few days you’ve let it be defined by Adagio. Tell me, what are you scared of? Giving up the rest of your life for a woman who, for all you know, may not work out?”
A swift uppercut and Takeru was floored. He recovered only for Starlight to land a well-placed roundhouse punch to the gut. Once again, he was on the ground. “Sad, but true am I right?”
“Do you ever shut up?” came a familiar voice as Eilas walked up, placing one of his spare eyecons into his own driver. “Wow, Eiji really didn’t do you justice. You really are a talker. It’s the supervillain thing, am I right?”
“And so the failed experiment comes crawling back,” Starlight said, blocking a punch from the Rider, and a kick as well. “Come to pledge your allegiance? Sorry, you forfeited it. But don’t worry, you’ll always carry the memories. I'm your pain when you can't feel, sad but true. You will remember me. Just when you think you’re going to dispense justice -because that’s what types like you always end up doing, you’re so predictable- you’ll remember who gave you these powers.”
“Funny, Takeru contributed as well,” Elias said leaping over her, and knocking Starlight to the ground with a leg sweep. As soon as Starlight got up, Takeru slashed her with his sword. “I remember that as well. I think it ends up evening out in the end.”
“I’m still inside, just open your eyes. I’m you, or what made you, you,” Starlight said dodging a swing from the Deep Slasher, now in Eilas’ hands. He changed it to blaster mode and shot her, Takeru following up with the Sunglasseslasher also in gun mode. “Waxing lyrical aside, you know I’m right. I’ll always be there, the little devil in your soul.”
Takeru and Elias shared a nod, changing weapons back to their sword forms. They, in unison, slashed Starlight across the chest. “Pretty sure the devil on my shoulder usually ends up being ignored. Got a little angel as well.”
“Who, Adagio?” Starlight laughed. “Between you, Eiji, Takeru, and Ankh, she’s a regular dude magnet isn’t she?”
“Ocean actually. She woke me up,” Elias said slamming a fist in her helmet. “I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
“Aren’t you sweet,” Starlight said, throwing her hand out and nearly flooring the two riders with a wave of energy. “You really know how to charm a girl.”
“From anyone else, I’d almost believe that,” Elias said, switching to Jack the Ripper Damashii. Mist clouded the battlefield, and Starlight’s vision became a blur before she felt several strikes across her form. She let out a scream of pain before she heard the distinctive calls of:
“Kaigan: Omega Drive Jack the Ripper!”/“Dai Kaigan: Omega Drive Tenkatōitsu!”
Takeru landed a kick to the stomach, while Elias came from above with a powerful Rider Punch. Starlight knew when to cut her losses, another blow and she’d be out of her armor. And then she was gone as Adagio pulled up on her bike, rapidly pulling out her medals.
“Awwwwww, and I missed out on all of the fun,” Adagio nearly whined. “Seems like you two got to kick her ass three ways from Sunday and I missed it!”
Elias stared as the two Riders canceled out their transformations. “You’ve got issues, you know that right?” Elias deadpanned.
“More like problems I’d like to vent my frustrations towards,” Adagio admitted with a low grumble before she turned to Elias. “Hey, you alright? Facing Starlight, I know that can’t have been easy for you.”
“So you do have a heart. Here I thought you were all business.” Elias smiled weakly. Truth be told, a lot of what Starlight said had gotten to him. She was right in a few respects, he did owe his powers to her. Without sounding too angsty about the subject -god knew the world had enough soap operas as is- he really didn't know what to think of that at times. It… was a lot to unpack, knowing you’d been turned into a madwoman’s personal blunt instrument, and only just barely snapped out of it.
Okay, so he was angsting about it a little. It wasn’t like there were therapists for this sort of thing, were there? ...were there? He didn’t honestly know. It wasn’t exactly something, Elias suspected, that most psychiatrists were trained for.
“I do have a heart!” Adagio refuted before she stared Elias directly in the face. “You sure you’re alright?”
“Okay, truth be told? I’m not,” Elias admitted. “I’ve still got a fair bit on my plate regarding… well, you know. Starlight made me, and I’m still working out how to handle that. I think… I think I need a vacation. One of those little ‘find myself’ type things. You know?’
“Y-Yeah, I do,” Adagio said. “I’m going to miss having you around, you know? We probably could have been good friends.”
“In my mind?” Elias answered. “We already are.”
After he’d left, Takeru turned to Adagio. He had to break this to her. Yeah, this was going to be hard. Kami, he felt like such a jerk. And… and, looking into Adagio’s expectant face he was already was starting to second guess his decision. Yeah, no, he couldn’t go through with this.
He simply couldn’t. He could already hear a little voice sounding like Akari-Chan inside his mind lecturing him for dumping her like this.
It was… just wrong. “Adagio, you do realize I’m going to have to go back to Japan someday, right?”
“I… I figured,” Adagio admitted sounding as if she was holding back tears. “I sorta figured from the outset this wasn’t going to last. That’s alright, go on out with it. I’m a grown woman, I can take it. Wouldn’t be the first time I got dumped actually, pretty sure it won’t be the last either.”
Kami, if he wasn’t already feeling like such a jerk…
“I… I, yeah, no, I’m not dumping you,” Takeru replied, deciding against telling her he originally did plan on it. He doubted that would help his case. “I… no, we’ll find out a way to make this work. It’ll be difficult, but I think we can figure out a way to make it work.”
“What about… what about that kid from the future you mentioned?” Adagio asked. Ooof, yah, he did mention that didn’t he? “I mean, shouldn’t you find out his true mother and marry her?”
“The future’s not set in stone, remember? It’s always changing. For all I know, that future is no longer possible. The one I saw when I first met Emu and his doppleganger, I mean,” Takeru replied. “And for all I know, you may be his mother.”
“Me, a mom…” Adagio tried to process the fact that Ex-Aid’s real name was Emu. Now there was an odd name that probably beat them all. And she knew people named Star Hunter and the like. “Not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I’m always so caught up in work. God, for all I know, I’d be barely there for the kid. I’d probably pass him off to nannies and my sisters and yeah. I’d be one of those mothers. Akari and Onari -dear god- would probably end up raising him more than me. See, self-doubt already!”
“I doubt that,” Takeru laughed and when Adagio gave him a mildly offended look -yikes, now that was a glare!- he explained. “Knowing you, you’d figure out a way to balance both business and pleasure.”
“You think so?” Adagio asked before Takeru gently kissed her.
“I know so.”
Meanwhile, deep in the cell medal storage facilities, a form rose up from the mountains kept deep underneath the building. This had been today’s plan, Uva would send in a yummy with one of his cores embedded deep within and it’d get sweeped up with the rest of them. Nobody would notice in all of the collecting, and within the hour he’d be inside the building. His yummy getting defeated was all part of the plan, and it was working wonderfully.
Oh, the damage he could do from inside the Kougami Foundation. But it wasn’t a good idea to get too greedy. He had to grab the cells and get out. Nobody would notice until it was far too late. He even knew how to create the perfect distraction! Once again, the Rocky Mountain Locust Yummy came into play, this time joined by another Yummy, based off the Milkweed grasshopper. Formed from his own desires, they would be powerhouses for certain.
Uva laughed, he’d love to see how Kamen Rider OOOs would handle these two! Now, he smirked, it was time to get to work. And Kazari thought him an idiot!