Shattered bɘɿɘƚƚɒʜƧ
The Next Day, Sunday
Sunset was hanging around in the Riders’ base, with Twilight on her computer off to the side, as usual. Also as expected, she’d deflected any questions on Cavalier as “not her place” to answer. Sunset, however, was well within her place to reiterate to Twilight the conclusions she and her friends had come to that morning, something apparently no one else had felt the need to do.
“…and so it looks like the Starswirl of that Mirror Equestria banished their version of Discord through the portal instead of the Sirens like ours did.”
“Pff,” Twilight sighed. “Did he even think about what might happen to the world he dropped an immortal spirit of chaos into? Even if it wasn’t supposed to have magic, still.”
“If he was anything like the Starswirl I read about…,” Sunset said, pondering the varied, hopefully exaggerated tales of the wizard finding his hat.
“Is there anything you can do to protect the portal?” asked Twilight.
“Sad to say, but we can’t risk it,” Sunset replied. “Any activity around it could clue in Turmoil in a second since he’s probably watching us much more closely now. We’re only safe here because you said the Advent Master locked this room from mirror access without an Advent Deck. We’ll just have to hope he can’t recognize the portal if he sees it.”
“And you have how much time, again?”
Sunset sighed. “A day under three weeks before it’s open. If he can’t find it within the three days after that, we’re good for another month.”
“Given how long he’s been searching,” Twilight asked, “couldn’t you assume he still won’t find it?”
“Given how long he’s been searching,” Sunset said, “there can’t be many more places left.”
During the discussion, Sunset had been pacing around and taking in the details of the room for really the first time, such as a microscope on a cabinet with an old and peeling piece of masking tape along the base reading “tWilihgt” in faded marker. She smirked. Aww. As she scanned, she noticed a pale object sitting amongst some other trinkets on a shelf. Looking closer, it was a lavender Advent Deck with a silver 6-pointed star in each corner but no gold symbol at the center. “Hey…is this yours?” Sunset asked, holding it up.
Twilight looked over. “I suppose so,” she replied after a second.
“It’s blank,” Sunset commented. “Never contracted?”
“Nope.”
Sunset paused at the short response. She looked over at Twilight. “You…going to?”
“Probably not,” Twilight said.
“Oh.” Sunset turned aside awkwardly. “Then, why are you still keeping it?”
“Well,” Twilight said, “I guess I could just use it anyway if any Mirror Monsters ever somehow got in here, even if I don’t have a Contract Beast.”
Sunset slid one of the few cards out of the deck, a purple card with a golden circle symbol in the corner, the image of a straight blade on a green background, and a black bar running under the image with no yellow tabs whatsoever. “Yeah, ’cause this 300-Attack blank sword is gonna be real effective,” she teased. “What’s my Sword Vent say, 4000?”
As Sunset reached to fish out her own deck, Twilight turned back to her computer with a sigh. “At the very least, having it will let me go through the mirrors to escape. I’m not really the battling type. I’m far better on this side of things, in a supporting role.”
Sunset held both their Sword Vents next to each other. “Ooh, 3000, so close.” She looked over. “You know, it would never hurt to have another Rider out there. Heck, we even sometimes have Fluttershy helping us. Fluttershy. Do you even understand that? You’d never expect someone like her to have anything to do with this, and yet there she is, fighting right there alongside us, however timidly. You’ll never know how good you might be unless you try.”
Twilight pushed her glasses back into place. “And if I end up failing miserably?”
Sunset paused. “Well…then at least you’ll know that your self-doubts were…well-placed?” She looked at the Advent Decks side by side. “I mean, there’s gotta be some way to opt out of being a Rider if it doesn’t work out, right? At least you don’t have to worry about hearing the monster alarm. It would be tough to know whenever someone was in danger and have to keep ignoring it.”
Twilight had been forcing herself to stay silent and still as Sunset’s words continued to dig deeper. “Oh, I can still hear it,” she interjected. “Even though all I did was pick the Deck up, I can hear it. Every. Single. Time.”
A stunned Sunset stammered, “Wwww-wait, you what?”
“It’s a reminder of my decision.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy,” Sunset said, still surprised. “Why do that to yourself? It can’t be the Advent Master’s intention to just leave you stuck like that. Just because you aren’t a Rider, it doesn’t mean…”
“Let me have my reasons,” Twilight said grimly.
Sunset gently replaced the Advent Deck and took a step back. She knew about inner demons, and no one knew them better than you. She paced in awkward silence for a bit as Twilight returned to typing.
“Well, I’ve asked this before,” Sunset led, trying to restart the conversation. “If you aren’t a Rider, then what are you doing here all the time?”
“I’m not sure he’s let you in on that part yet,” Twilight replied without turning. She stopped typing.
“He?” Sunset scoffed jokingly. “You mean mister tall, dark, and mysterious? Come on, how’s he gonna know? Just give me a hint, at least.”
“He has some plan for things,” Twilight said, drumming on two keys back and forth for a second. “It’s not my place to interfere. It isn’t my fight.”
Something sparked in Sunset. “Not your fight?” she snapped. “Defending your own world isn’t your fight, is that what you’re saying?”
“Why should you care, it’s not your world, right?” Twilight snapped back. “You’re from that pony world, you can just slip back if something goes wrong here. With all of your magic, you should be able to stop Turmoil the moment he steps through. You told the other me already, right?”
“It’s true I’m from Equestria,” Sunset said with restraint. “But in Equestria, there’s a practice, something that followed me here to make its point known. It’s called friendship, and it involves reaching out to those in need, whoever they are. Whichever world they’re from.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of the expert on friendship, would I?” Twilight mocked without turning away from her computer. She held several keys at once and then hit enter.
“I’m no expert,” defended Sunset, “but I am a fast learner.”
“Good for you,” Twilight said. “So you think it’s better to just assume you know enough and risk causing collateral damage by failing.”
“That’s how it is, then?” Sunset said, crossing her arms. “Ah, I think I’ve figured it out. So, you’re someone who—”
Twilight slammed her desk loudly. “So I’m someone who’s using not having a Contract as an excuse to not fight to protect my own world. What of it?”
Sunset had taken a step back. “I…,” she hesitated, “was going to stop at ‘afraid to lose’.”
“Sure,” Twilight huffed, heart pounding in her ears. “You think you’re the first one to give me that sentiment? I tell myself that every day, and I’ve stopped being surprised that it isn’t convincing me to change. You don’t want me out there.”
Sunset couldn’t answer. And she probably shouldn’t.
Twilight sighed, intently not looking in Sunset’s direction. She tapped a key several times, then clicked twice. “And now the Force Quit menu’s stopped responding, too. Great.”
Sunset just stood there silently, wanting to disappear. Why did she have to be so forceful sometimes? The seconds drew on, when both of them heard the whistling ringing echo around.
Sunset tried to talk as delicately as she could. “Look, if I—”
“Just go,” Twilight said, not looking away from her rebooting screen.
A few seconds later, the mirror warped.
Sunset’s Advent Cycle glided through the Mirror Plane’s reflective tunnel.
Well that didn’t go well. What was she even trying to do with that? She sighed to herself. Some things are not yours to solve.
She’d think of a way to apologize for this. She’d just had that mini intervention for Rainbow about an apology, there was no way she’d let herself escape without giving one. But…would Twilight even want that? she asked herself. Forget settling matters, would touching the issue at all cause too much damage?
She shook her head and sped onward.
* * *
“But you didn’t have to come here if you were busy,” Rainbow was saying, “it’s the whole point of having a team!”
“It’s not until later this afternoon,” Applejack insisted, “I’ll be fine here for a while.”
“If you say so,” Rainbow relented.
Sunset’s Advent Cycle rolled up to the armored Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Cavalier standing around in an open, half covered mall area full of windows at the foot of a large and wide cement staircase. Not seeing a monster, she got out and jogged over. “What’ve we got?”
“Good question,” replied Applejack, “we haven’t found anythin’ yet.”
Rainbow walked up the wide stairs leading up to a raised walkway connecting nearby buildings. “Yeah,” she called to the area, “we all heard the alarm and it called us to here.” She reached the top and turned back to them, holding her arms out. “So where’s the Monster?”
Dropping from above, a metallic blue figure landed behind Rainbow and kicked her in the back, sending her tumbling down the staircase with a surprised yelp, clattering down step after step before clunking down in front of the others.
“Rainbow!” Sunset let out, running up.
“Uhg,” Rainbow moaned. “Found ’im.”
The spine-fringed monster with dust blue insect armor and a head shaped like a samurai helmet with large silver jaws and a pair of antennae trailing behind its head, Zenobiter, snarled down at the group. {Don’t let me down.}
Rainbow leapt back to her feet. “The first shot’s mine!” she announced, slotting a card.
Strike Vent
From the covering far above them, a pair of flashes dropped her gryphon gauntlets, and she held her arms up to catch them. “Ha!”
Spotting the weapons, Zenobiter unhooked a long jagged boomerang from its back and sent it sailing through the air, spinning into the gauntlets about ten feet above Rainbow and knocking them away with a clang and a spit of sparks. The gauntlets hit the wall of the building beside them and fell to the ground.
“What the?” said Rainbow. “Hey! No fair!”
The boomerang returned to Zenobiter.
“Don’t worry,” Sunset said, stepping up to Rainbow, “I’ve got just the card for this.”
Pack Vent
Zenobiter prepared to throw its boomerang again at the new weapon, looking around. Instead, the gauntlets lying on the ground glowed, splitting into copies that flew off, a pair attaching onto the arms of each of the four Riders present. “Sweet,” said Rainbow. Choking in surprise, Zenobiter made a frustrated snarl at Sunset.
With a nod to coordinate, Rainbow on left and Cavalier on right rushed up the stairs at Zenobiter. The monster slashed with its boomerang, Rainbow blocking it with her gauntlets to open for Cavalier to swipe its side, but it spun to its right and slid the boomerang off of Rainbow’s defense to swing around and hit Cavalier. Cavalier swayed to stay balanced, but Zenobiter elbowed Rainbow back against the railing as she tried to grapple it, then shoved Cavalier in the chest and sent him tumbling, catching himself halfway down the stairs. Applejack ran up to help.
Sunset took a step up to follow, but noticed a dark red figure with similar spiny armor to Zenobiter ducking around the left side of the staircase. She looked up to the others to ask for backup, but saw that they clearly had their hands full here. She paused a second. Not ideal, but, “There’s another one, I've got it!”
Sunset ran after the second monster, finding herself outside around the back of the building before spotting it. With silver pincer jaws and long antennae hanging down off its face, Terabiter was dragging an unconscious person in dull gray clothes along the pavement by the shoulders.
“Hey!” she shouted.
Terabiter looked up at her in surprise. With a grunt, it leapt over its victim and threw a long red boomerang at Sunset. She skidded to a stop and quickly put up her gauntlets, the boomerang ramming into them with a spark shower and knocking the right one off, shoving her back a step. Her hand now free, she slotted a card, Terabiter catching its boomerang and preparing to throw it again.
Burn Vent
Flames erupted from Sunset’s lionhead slotter’s mouth and surged up her arm and across her body. Terabiter swung its boomerang at the ground and hissed at her.
“I just seem to be too prepared for your tricks today,” she taunted. Raising her flaming fist, she ran at the monster.
Back at the stairs, Zenobiter slashed its boomerang at Applejack as she reached it. Applejack leaned into the swing, absorbing the impact with her shoulder to let her grab the weapon tightly. Zenobiter tried forcing her back down the fast way, but she shoved against it, trying to make it up to the top of the staircase to reach a level playing field. The monster suddenly pulled the boomerang past it, tugging Applejack up, ducking sideways and kneeing her in the gut. With Applejack briefly stunned, it put its finger on her forehead and nudged, sending her down the steps, too.
Frustrated, Cavalier tossed the gauntlets aside and slotted a card of his own.
Arc Vent
A golden horseshoe fell from a flash under the canopy, and he held up his hand to catch it. Zenobiter gleefully threw its weapon at it, but when the two boomerangs collided, their spins tangled them up and, with a spray of sparks and metallic scrape, they both flew away in opposite directions and clattered to the cement. Zenobiter looked at its empty hands, then glared at Cavalier and shrieked.
“Caught by your own trick,” Cavalier said, holding up a card. “What a shame.”
Sword Vent
Cavalier’s sword fell to him without interference and he raced up the stairs again.
Meanwhile, Sunset raked her flaming gryphon gauntlet across Terabiter’s torso with a cascade of fiery sparks, sending it rolling along the ground as Burn Vent wore off, steam drifting from her armor. The monster briefly incapacitated, Sunset slotted another card.
Sword Vent
Terabiter reached feebly for its boomerang too late as Sunset caught and ignited her katana. It pushed itself to its feet with its weapon and charged, but Sunset raised her sword and brought a downward slash against the boomerang the monster tried to block with at the last second, slicing the boomerang clean in half with a spray of sparks, the strike also sending Terabiter stumbling back again.
Sunset swung her katana back and forth to throw a zigzag line of flame at Terabiter, igniting the monster before she jumped in for the final swing, spinning left to slash across its chest with a shower of sparks. She came to a stop facing away from it, freezing. Behind her, Terabiter moaned and fell backwards, exploding as it hit the ground to frame the epic pose.
Lying just away from the action, the person dragged by Terabiter sat up. With a pin of a tornado on his collar, the young man raised a gray hand to cradle his head through his spiky black hair, looking through the fireball at Kamen Rider Leona. Terabiter’s energy ball flashed in, slowly drifting in his direction. Then his eyes turned yellow and red.
At the base of the stairs, AJ held her stomach as she sat herself back up. This monster was getting on her nerves, and it had decided to be a nuisance today of all days. She had somewhere important to be. Getting back up, she noticed the monster’s blue boomerang on the ground nearby. An idea began to form.
After losing its weapon, Zenobiter had been unable to stop Rainbow and Cavalier from pushing it back onto the overpass the staircase led to. Cavalier slashed with his sword, and Zenobiter did its best to deflect the blade with its spiny forearm plates, swiping with them for minimal scratches against his armor. As Cavalier stood there imposingly unfazed, Rainbow came up and slashed Zenobiter’s back with her gauntlets. However, as it shook its head in pain, its antennae flailed wildly, whipping against her armor, and she had to hold up her gauntlets to deflect them.
Spring Vent
“Make a hole!” came Applejack’s shout.
Cavalier and Rainbow turned to see Applejack sailing up over the stairs towards them with Zenobiter’s own boomerang pulled back for a swing. They quickly ducked to the sides, Zenobiter turning to growl in surprise.
Applejack landed right in front of Zenobiter, her spring boots absorbing the momentum and letting her transfer the full force of her leap into a point blank boomerang launch. The boomerang shredded past Zenobiter and carried it along amidst a shower of sparks. Zenobiter flew spinning and tumbled along the overpass, exploding into an array of charred debris. The ball of its energy flashed in and continued tumbling away in a corkscrew, Hyperboxer leaping out of a mirror surface appearing on the ground to catch it.
Meanwhile, Sunset sighed and lowered her sword. That didn’t go too bad. Unseen behind her, however, the person in gray stood up, his face and form melting away, replaced by another. Reaching out, the new figure caught Terabiter’s energy.
“There we go,” Sunset said, turning to the person she’d just rescued. “Now, are you oka—”
A thick yellow beam shot from the energy ball and through Sunset’s stomach with a massive shower of sparks. As the impact punched her back, the beam struck the ground behind her, blasting up cement shards as a loud metallic grinding noise echoed. Her weapons flew away as a fiery explosion erupted around her. As the flames fell away, Sunset hit the ground.
Silence. Stillness. Amidst an array of six others, a free-standing glass pane bearing Leona’s symbol of a lion’s face suddenly shattered, its shards collapsing to the floor and breaking further.
Rainbow Dash looked up after that sudden vision, turning in the direction Sunset had run off. She glanced to an equally distressed Applejack. There was no need to ask what had just happened. Some instinct told them exactly what it was. And they were already running.
The smoke was clearing from Sunset’s blurry vision, her heartbeat numbing most other sounds. She coughed, straining to tilt her head and glare at the silhouette standing over her, but her body was too in shock to let her lift it.
“I was king,” fumed Turmoil. Through grit teeth, he raged, “My throne will be mine again! And no mere plaything is going to stand in my way!”
Trying to slow his heart rate, he blew away the smoke drifting from his palm. He closed his eyes and clenched his fingers, taking a deep breath. After a sigh, he straightened his collar. Now his preferred composed self, he stepped towards Sunset, ignoring Pantheraleo silently pounding ripples across a window on the building from inside its reflection, unable to exit.
“Oh, this so feels like a cheat code,” he sighed.
The girl lying in scorched and smoking armor in a small crater of cracked cement tried to grunt, her fingers barely beginning to clench. Turmoil reached out for the Advent Deck sitting in her belt, but as he leaned down, he heard running footsteps approaching. He looked at his hand and grimaced, unable to replicate his stunt. Instead he turned and headed for the window on the left, walking through Pantheraleo’s noiseless roaring reflection and making it swirl and vanish.
As the window’s warping faded, Rainbow and Applejack ran around the corner into view, Cavalier following at a brisk walk. Despite somehow knowing what they would find, they weren’t ready.
Rainbow remembered finding Vinyl. This can’t be happening again. Not this soon. “Sunset!” she called, starting to jog over. “Are you okay?”
Slowly regaining the ability to move, Sunset rolled over, propping herself up against the wall of the crater. Everything hurt. Everything started to tingle. “I…,” she moaned, getting up to a kneeling position, feeling lightheaded and swaying, “I-I think…h-huh?” Her hand felt extremely wrong, but lifting it into view made her gasp. As she stared at her shaking hand, it began disintegrating into a rising cloud of dust, armor and all. “W-what? What’s going—?” In a panic, she reached out with her disintegrating arm, crying out, “Rainbow Dash! Applejack! Help!”
“Sunset!” they shouted, breaking into a run. Cavalier still stood back.
The feeling had spread across Sunset’s whole body, and then all feeling began leaving. She knew they wouldn’t make it. Her body was disappearing. As her voice faded too, she managed to say, “It was Turmoil…”
The last of her body broke apart into a cloud of dust that quickly vanished from sight. The Leona Advent Deck fell to the ground, clattering a bit on the pavement before coming to a rest.
Applejack came to a stop and Rainbow fell to her knees. Cavalier silently clenched his fist. The seconds passed.
Today, thought Applejack. Today of all days. That… “What…what happened?”
Rainbow mechanically rose to her feet again and slowly walked over to the Deck.
“She was vented,” Cavalier struggled to say. Why was he so stunned? This was supposed to be simple. “I-it’s a safety precaution for Kamen Riders. It pulls you out of the battle to prevent you from sustaining serious injury.”
“Oh,” Rainbow hissed, “there’s gonna be serious injury, all right.” When she reached the Deck, she could only stare at it. She reached for it.
“Look out!” Applejack’s voice suddenly rang.
Not a second later, a massive force slammed into Rainbow’s right side and sent her flying, a loud mechanical bellowing echoing after her. She crashed into the wall of the opposite building, dropping to the ground hard.
“Rainbow Dash!” called Applejack. She turned to the new arrival, an 8-foot blue minotaur Mirror Monster with muscle-shaped plating on its upper body, a thick pair of curved metal horns, and a gold nose ring: Ferrotaur. It stomped a hoof on its undersized legs and let out another metallic roar.
“Uhhhng,” Rainbow moaned pushing herself up. She opened her slotter and reached for her Deck. “So, you wanna play rough, huh?”
Attack Vent
A large window next to Rainbow warped and Aquileo flew out with a screech, talons open wide. As Ferrotaur charged to meet him, he tacked into it and tried to grapple, but the monster stepped one hoof back to solidify its footing, then grabbed Aquileo’s arms. It lifted a straining Aquileo’s talons away from it, then in a sudden motion thrusting him up and twisting and smashing him into the ground.
“No!” cried Rainbow, reaching out as she struggled to stand up.
The window behind Ferrotaur warped as two human-sized monsters sprang out, a purple and black one that flipped through the air before touching down, and a gold and gray one who leapt with its arms held out and its legs tucked up before landing in a crouch, standing up beside its partner. They had very little elaborate armor, instead being covered in tight-fitting, smooth plates and bearing gold or blue gazelle face emblems on their chests. Hoofed foreleg decorations arced back up their arms from their wrists, and they had two pairs of red eyes in a row and a pair of long horns on their heads, the purple one with straightened, corkscrew horns, Gigazelle, and gold with slightly curved, smooth horns, Megazelle. Megazelle’s eyes scanned the scene before dashing towards the crater.
Realizing their play, Cavalier quickly slotted a card as he called, “Get the Deck!”
Arc Vent
Megazelle picked up Sunset’s Advent Deck, looking when it heard something whipping through the air, a golden horseshoe hitting its wrist with a spit of sparks and launching the Deck up high.
Applejack snapped back into attention as she caught on. “I got it!” she said, slotting a card.
Spring Vent
Orange spring boots shot down and flashed onto her feet, and she sprang up at the Deck. Below, Megazelle jumped and began somersaulting, crashing into Applejack in midair and knocking her to the side. They both tumbled to the ground, Megazelle rolling and springing back up immediately as the Deck clattered down a distance away.
Gigazelle had crossed the battlefield and was approaching Rainbow as she swayed on her feet, staring down the monster. It swung a long staff with a pair of large spiral prongs from behind its back and ran up to jab it at her.
Strike Vent
Rainbow simply grabbed the prongs with her clawed gauntlets, sparks flying from the contact, her expressionless visor staring blankly at Gigazelle. She silently pulled the staff out of Gigazelle’s grasp and with one tug tore one of the prongs off in a spray of sparks, throwing the broken pieces aside.
She ran at the startled monster and scoured her claws across its face, sending it spinning to the ground amidst falling sparks. With a whimper it tried crawling away, but Rainbow walked up and grabbed its back with her gauntlets.
Applejack pushed herself up and ran for the Deck, but a gold streak sped by and rammed her aside left. She managed to stay up and went for it again, but a whooping chitter came from above as a foot hit her between the shoulders, knocking her down again as Megazelle flipped and landed a short ways away to the right. Frustrated, she slotted another card.
Pound Vent
Catching her sledgehammer, she ran at Megazelle and swung, but with barely a glance over its shoulder, it leapt up and the hammer hit the ground, dropping down again behind her. Applejack turned and swung the hammer around left, but Megazelle sprang up and over her again, ducking and rolling forward out of the way as she continued the swing in a full loop to try and catch it off guard. As it came to a stop, she was already swinging back the other way at it so it launched itself up again.
It must be the extra eyes, Applejack thought. “Stay still, would you!” She turned around to meet it again, but it didn’t come down. Instead, a sharp pain streaked down her back as it raked her with its horns while dropping down exactly where it had been.
Aquileo had clawed his way back up, scratching and biting at Ferrotaur to no real effect. The minotaur was holding up its left arm to block the gryphon, who had grasped and was attempting to snap around it, buffeting the monster with his wings. With a growl, Ferrotaur took a step away and drew back its right arm, putting its full force into an uppercut that struck Aquileo across the face, slinging his head up with a squeal and bending his lower beak sideways amidst a small shower of metal feathers. The gryphon let go, staggering back on its hind legs.
Looking to the scene again, Rainbow hoisted Gigazelle and threw it away. “You gonna let him win just like that?” she called over to Aquileo, slotting a card for him.
Drop Vent
Aquileo gave a mighty screech as a rush of energy flowed through him, surging forward and grabbing Ferrotaur again. With powerful wing flaps, he rose, beginning to lift Ferrotaur off the ground. The monster grabbed Aquileo back, slamming its feet back onto the ground and pulling down against him, giving a snort. As Aquileo flapped, Ferrotaur yanked him in, wings getting contorted by the lurch, and hurled him off into the wall behind Rainbow, who barely ducked in time. Aquileo fell out of the shallow crater and collapsed flat.
Having sidestepped the dueling monsters, Cavalier made his way through the battlefield towards Sunset’s Advent Deck until he came across Applejack and Megazelle, who was leaping and backflipping away from yet another hammer swing. Cavalier slotted a card.
Attack Vent
As Megazelle landed in a crouch and stood again, it found itself in a shadow, turning to see a rearing Caballkhan flail his hooves, smashing the startled monster in the chest with sprays of sparks and sending it tumbling away with a kick to the jaw.
During this, a new competitor had joined the fray: another slim Mirror Monster, brown with faded white strips wrapped around its arms and upper legs, red wrapping on its chest, and a large-eared, wrapped face with three glowing red eyes arranged in a triangle: Dedlimmer. Having jumped down out of the window, it meandered curiously over to the bright red Deck currently sitting unattended, its wide mouth chomping at the metal bar set in front of it. Dedlimmer crouched down to the Deck and stretched out its right hand, waving its hovering fingers as it tilted its head at the object. It grasped the Deck and slowly stood up with it.
Noticing the interloper, Cavalier opened his slotter as he ran over and reached to his Deck for a card, but Dedlimmer’s head shot around to him with a cackle, and it quickly reached to its back and unhooked a silver tail-like armament mounted there, swinging it out and firing a barrage of red lasers from the disguised gun. Cavalier was forced to a stop and held up his open slotter as some semblance of a shield, deflecting a laser shot or two as he was pelted with the rest.
Dedlimmer turned with a howling scream and leapt the distance back to and through the window in one bound, diving into the reflection.
Cavalier took a step after it but hesitated as Ferrotaur let out another roar, turning back to the others battling.
“You go on after that monkey,” Applejack called, hoisting her hammer, “we’ll take care a’ these guys.”
Cavalier nodded and slotted a card, jumping up onto Caballkhan.
Sword Vent
He caught his sword and rode through the window after Dedlimmer.
Back on the other side of the courtyard, Rainbow shambled towards Aquileo one step at a time.
“Come on,” she said in monotone, “get back up.” Aquileo strained but buckled, giving a soft screech. “Alright, then…,” she said, turning to Ferrotaur, pulling open her slotter.
Ferrotaur bellowed again as Applejack tried winding around it, taking a swing but getting her hammer caught in its grasp. After a brief tug of war, she let go and stumbled over to Rainbow as Ferrotaur threw the weapon over a nearby rooftop.
“Hey, whoa whoa,” she said, grabbing Rainbow’s shoulders, half to steady herself. “Easy, Rainbow, focus. How’s about we finish this big guy together?”
Inside her helmet, Rainbow blinked, her head pounding but her mind fading back to attention. She put a hand to her forehead. “Y-yeah, that…much better idea. Any plan?”
Ferrotaur stomped the ground and roared at them, kicking back as if preparing to charge.
“Well…,” Applejack considered uneasily, “bein’ fast about it sounds reasonable.”
Applejack popped up her slotter and pulled out a card, tipping it to reveal her Final Vent; Rainbow pulled out her own. She set it in her slotter and slid the cover shut.
Final Vent
Applejack pressed her card against the slotter tray and pushed it down.
Final Vent
Ferrotaur lowered its head and kicked off, barreling towards them.
Aquileo pushed itself shakily to its feet, spreading its wings and flapping over, grabbing Rainbow’s arms and lifting her straight up into the air. Hyperboxer sprung from a mirror surface that appeared behind Applejack, grabbing her arms and throwing her into the air before jumping up after her.
Ferrotaur stomped its front hoof solidly to bring it to a halt, looking up after the two Riders.
Aquileo arced over backwards and with a powerful flap shot at Ferrotaur just above ground level. Spring boots flashed onto Applejack’s feet as Hyperboxer rose up behind her and kicked her in the back, down at Ferrotaur in a flatfooted double-kick. Aquileo threw Rainbow forward into a glowing sliding kick right for it.
Ferrotaur looked between the two oncoming attacks, roaring to the sky and puffing out its chest, light and steam leaking from underneath its muscle armor plates as a force from inside threatened to dislodge them from its body. The Rider Kicks collided with its armor, Rainbow’s splitting through the gaps between the smaller ab plates to hit into its gut, and Applejack kicking out and smashing a pec plate deep into its chest. The monster exploded from its torso, charred debris scattering as Rainbow was thrown back and Applejack dropped directly down, neither the usual outcomes of their finishers. Rainbow landed on her back with a thump while Applejack managed to land feet-first, her spring boots absorbing the impact.
As Rainbow groaned and tried getting up, Applejack turned to a high chittering sound and saw Gigazelle and Megazelle running and leaping towards a window on the far side of the courtyard.
“Oh no you don’t,” she muttered, popping up her slotter.
The Zelles arrived at the window and were about to jump through when they noticed motion out of the corner of their outer pair of eyes: Applejack was sailing through the air at them, Pound Vent hammer drawn back to swing.
As Applejack started to bring the hammer around, Megazelle spun right and brought out a weapon resembling a sword with a pair of curved blades shaped like a pincer, slashing her across the gut as she passed in midair, sending a spray of sparks. Applejack skidded onto her back at Megazelle’s feet as the hammer clattered down next to her. Moaning, she tried grabbing its leg, but it kicked her grip off.
Gigazelle jumped and somersaulted into the reflection, Megazelle giving a taunting whoop to Applejack before springing through itself, feet tucked and arms out.
Rainbow stood aligning the Blast Vent card into her slotter as the Zelles left, her arm dropping after the window stopped rippling. Removing the card, she closed her empty slotter, starting over to Applejack as she slid the card back into her Deck. Aquileo hovered down for a landing behind her.
“You okay, AJ?” she asked in a drained voice. “Hey, sorry about back there, I just—”
A crash came from behind her, accompanied by a moaning squawk. Aquileo had collapsed to the ground, wings laying splayed open. Rainbow stopped, slowly turning back to him. More friends hurt around her. Her calmness was slipping away again.
Cavalier sat atop Caballkhan at the edge of a park-like courtyard with curving sidewalks winding through the grass. Dedlimmer was nowhere in sight, and he couldn’t hear any more monster alarms.
Dropping off Caballkhan, he stood in silence. Then he threw his sword to the ground, clattering away. He slotted a card.
Arc Vent
Cavalier stepped out into the courtyard and caught two golden horseshoes, throwing them forward overhand at once. Sent straight, they quickly flew off course, the left one banking down and hitting the sidewalk and the right one sailing off left and ramming into a building’s wall, both exploding and sending shards of cement and plaster flying.
He turned away and strode back through the window he’d arrived by, Caballkhan standing in place and staring after him.
Hyperboxer leaned back onto his tail and kicked his wide feet, pushing the air to make Ferrotaur’s energy drift over to Aquileo. The gryphon reached his beak up and absorbed the energy, a flash sweeping across his body. He sat up and managed to pull his wings in to fold properly.
As Cavalier stepped out of a window and walked over to the Riders, they turned to him. Rainbow crossed her arms.
“Well?” she said. “I don’t see a red Advent Deck.”
Cavalier did not answer. Rainbow continued to stare.
Cavalier started, “The Advent Void is designed to hold you in stasis until—”
A hissing of steam accompanied light blue glowing lines running across Rainbow’s armor, a vertical ring bursting out and splitting sideways, dragging and dissolving her armor off.
“Alright, that’s enough of this,” she snapped, storming over to his face. Cavalier looked away. “Safety mechanism or not, you never said anything about the chance of being disintegrated when we signed up for this. And if you’re gonna keep something like that from us, I—we don’t even know who you are! Why are we even trusting you in the first place if we can’t look you in the eye?”
“Normally I’d be tellin’ Rainbow to cool it down,” Applejack said, “but right now I’m not likin’ this any more than she is.”
Cavalier stood silently again. He turned slightly back to them. Then he sighed. “Tell your friends to meet you back at Base.”
He turned and walked away again, warping through a window.
Good men through the ages,
Tryin’ to find the sun.
And I wonder, still I wonder…
Who’ll stop the rain?
* * *
Dedlimmer walked partly crouched through a large, dark room. It came up behind a mysterious figure and bowed its head, holding out Leona’s Advent Deck.
Turmoil turned to his thief, taking the Deck from it. Looking hungrily at its every detail, he waved a hand over it. A web of crackling red electricity surged across its surface, barely managing to tingle the hand that was holding it. Seconds later, the electricity slowly faded away.
“Well then,” he said, a smile forming. “At least this will be interesting.”
Next time, on “Kamen Rider EqG”…
“The plan was to ease you all in one step at a time,” said Cavalier’s voiceover. “Looks like that’s out the window.” Glowing lines start running across the edges of his armor. “Time to go all in, then.”
Rainbow was on the ground as a slim monster leapt at her, before a fire burst flew in from the left and hit it. She turned to the direction of the attack.
“Sunset?”
A Rider silhouette was partially obscured by air wavering from rising heat. They were partly crouched with their left arm out to the side and their right arm extended forward.
Critical Angle
