The World of EqG
The World of EqG ᎮpƎ ʇo blɿoW ɘʜT
“Shall we go, Tsukasa?” asked Yusuke. He raised his hand for a high-five. “To the next world!”
Tsukasa turned away, then smiled and turned back. “Of course,” he said, reaching out and slapping Yusuke’s hand.
At the end of the room, a painted backdrop lowered overtop of another, the new one showing a large building with a life-sized stone horse statue in front of it, the canvas flashing with a brief glow.
* * *
In a city, someone stepped out of the front door of the Hikari Photo Studio. They walked a short way towards the street before pausing mid-step. They slowly spun around in place back to the building. The person stared at their reflection in the front window for a second. Their magenta camera still hung around their neck and they were in their normal black jacket and pants and a dark red shirt, but…
“You’re kidding me,” Tsukasa Kadoya said to himself, looking at his image in the window. “You’re kidding. You. Are. Kidding me.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m pink!”
And he was: every inch of Tsukasa’s skin was a pale shade of dark pink. In front of him, Natsumi Hikari and Yusuke Onodera also exited the Hikari Studio.
“And what’s wrong with pink?” Natsumi asked. “Aren’t you pink all the time already as Decade?”
“Decade isn’t pink,” Tsukasa countered, “he’s magenta!” He turned his head away, muttering, “It’s a totally different color.”
“Oh?” mused Natsumi.
Yusuke held up his hand. “Gah!” he let out. “It’s not just Tsukasa, we’re all different colors!”
Natsumi quickly looked down at her own hands. Her skin was a shade of dark blue, and Yusuke was pale red. Their hair and clothes were unchanged, though.
“What the heck’s up with this world?” Yusuke said in a panic. “Is this place diseased? Radioactive?” He looked around. “Anime?”
“Hold on,” Natsumi said, raising her arm at Yusuke, making him freeze. “Yusuke, say that again.”
“I said that we’re all different colors,” he repeated, puzzled but hardly calmer. “What?”
Tsukasa paused, having the same realization. “You just said that in English,” he said, looking back to them.
“Huh?” Yusuke said.
“We’re all speaking in English,” observed Tsukasa. “We’re speaking in perfect English and we aren’t even trying.”
“And we’re all different colors!” Yusuke repeated again, back to freaking out.
“Well,” Tsukasa said, turning away from them again with a tilt of his head, “I still look good anyway, no matter what I wear, or what color I am.” He flapped his jacket collar for emphasis.
“Oh, speaking of which,” Yusuke said in a suddenly calm tone, looking over Tsukasa’s shoulder, “you’re also not wearing a new silly outfit this time.”
“Ahh,” Natsumi joined in, looking over his other shoulder. “Maybe we’ve finally found a world that doesn’t know what to do with him.”
“Tsk,” replied Tsukasa.
Tsukasa stood on the sidewalk, looking around the block through his camera lens and snapping the occasional test shot. Natsumi and Yusuke had headed off to investigate this world, Tsukasa hanging back near the Studio. Like every other world thus far, he expected whatever problem was here to make itself apparent to him whether he went looking for it or not.
A teenage girl with pale pure white skin and striped dark and electric blue hair donning a pair of headphones and neon purple sunglasses was walking in from his right down the sidewalk across the street. Tsukasa had seen a few other random people, and had determined through observation alone that everyone in this world had skin of some bright color. Winding his camera, he centered in on the girl with the focus, but suddenly started hearing an odd whistling ring noise.
Tsukasa snapped the photo, but upon trying to line up the next shot, he noticed a window a short ways in front of the girl begin to ripple. He slowly looked up from the camera to see a spiky, dull metallic blue figure appear in the window’s reflection. It watched the girl as she obliviously passed by, and then stepped out behind her.
“Passing through windows,” Tsukasa muttered. “This seems like Ryuki’s World again.” Then it hit him that in spite of the monster that was now following her, the girl kept walking. “Why isn’t she…?” he started to ask before realizing the answer.
At a brisk pace, Tsukasa walked out diagonally across the middle of the street. Staying on the outer edge of the sidewalk, he passed by the girl, looking straight ahead as if he didn’t notice the monster. As he passed the monster, they were both lined up with an alley, and he lurched left and shouldered it in. The girl stopped and turned back to see what that sound had been, but the sidewalk was empty. After a second, she shrugged and turned to keep walking.
The dull blue monster, a Zenobiter, tumbled to the back of the alleyway, the long antenna on the back of its head flinging around. It got up and snarled and hissed at the person who stood before it.
“Not used to being seen, are you?” taunted Tsukasa. “I can help with that.” He held up in his left hand a white camera-like device with a clear circle at the center and a pair of silver handles on the sides, his transformation belt the Decadriver. “No one will see you again,” he said, slowly shaking his head. He slapped the buckle onto his waist and a belt sprung around from the left side, clicking onto the right; a thin white booklet case also appeared attached to the left side of the belt strap. First pulling the buckle’s silver handles out to spin the white center block a quarter turn clockwise, he flipped open the booklet and pulled out a card with a revving sound, gripping it low by the sides in his fingertips and holding it out towards the Zenobiter. Though he seemed to be speaking English, there was one thing he’d make sure to say properly. “{Henshin!}”
He spun the card around in his fingers, slotting it down into a slit on the white block of his belt, prompting the announcement—
Kamen Ride:
He pushed the silver handles in again, spinning the white block back into its original place.
Decade
Nine small circles bearing the symbols of past Riders appeared in an arc before him, expanding into a line of silhouettes before sliding around the arc left and right to overlap onto him, solidifying into a white, black and gray plastic-looking armor suit. At the same time, a line of seven transparent red rectangle cards flew forward out of his buckle, spun around, and flipped backwards at his face, sinking into his helmet and turning black, two of them with corners sticking up into points. With a flash, his large rounded triangular eye covers turned green and his face became ink magenta barred with the rectangles like a barcode, a digital wave of magenta coloring down over his shoulders and a thick bar down the sides of his body and legs. The insides of his arms and legs were white, with black covering the center of his body, outer arms, and strips down the middle of his legs; a white-bordered ‘X’ was draped over his chest. He was Kamen Rider Decade, warrior of the tenth year and traveler of the Rider Worlds.
Tsukasa brushed his palms together, then reached down and took the white booklet, the Ride Booker, and unfolded a black handle from the side, a black and silver sword blade flipping and extending out from inside; he rested the blade on his shoulder. Tsukasa rushed at the Zenobiter and slashed, but it jumped over him and ran for the alley entrance.
“Oh no you don’t,” Tsukasa breathed as he turned after it.
A block up the street, a figure in all black sat on a black motorcycle wearing a black helmet. The Zenobiter ran out of the alley and started across the street; the figure raised an indigo Advent Deck bearing the gold symbol of a horse head silhouette. Suddenly a second, pink figure ran out of the alley after the Mirror Monster.
“What the?” the first figure said, lowering the Deck. “Who’s that Rider?”
The Zenobiter jumped at the storefront window on the other side of the street, sinking right into it with a ripple and whooshing sound. The Rider jumped at the window too, but instead rammed right into it, stumbling back.
The figure chuckled softly. “Amateur.”
“Eh?” Tsukasa said, looking at Decade’s armor then back up at the window. “Looks like things are a bit different from Ryuki’s World after all.” He pulled the Decadriver open by its handles again. “No matter,” he said, flipping open the booklet at the center of his sword and pulling another card from behind the dark gray transparent inner cover before clicking it back closed, “this should fix things. Henshin.” He slotted the card in his belt and pushed it closed again.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three transparent silvery flat silhouettes spun in from around, overlapping onto him to change his armor to a bright red rubber suit with black shoulder, forearm, and shin pads, a silver chest plate, and a black helmet with a vent-slitted silver faceplate and a silver dragon face silhouette on the forehead; Kamen Rider Ryuki, a warrior who fought to end the fighting in a Rider battle royal.
The watching figure flipped up his motorcycle helmet’s visor in surprise. The Riders he knew didn’t suddenly change armor. The now-red Rider pumped his right fist and then jumped effortlessly into the glass. The figure flipped his visor back down and held up the Advent Deck again, indigo electricity reaching down from it to wrap around his waist and generate a silver belt.
“Kamen Rider,” said the figure, and he slid the Deck sideways into the open slot on the buckle. The top and bottom of the slot clamped down on the Deck and it slid backwards into a void, flipping up over backwards faster and faster with an indigo glow. He kicked the motorcycle off, turning and crossing the street, and driving through the window.
In an empty city, in a world within the reflections behind the mirrors, the Zenobiter jumped out of a window’s reflection into a courtyard. Jumping through to another mirror would surely put that Rider off its trail. It turned back to the window, but a red Rider flew out of the mirror aiming a kick at it, hitting and knocking it rolling away.
Tsukasa ran at the monster and swung his sword, but the Zenobiter jumped back up and pulled a large jagged boomerang weapon strapped to its back to block him. Instead of pulling back for another swing, Tsukasa pushed forward against their locked weapons, the Zenobiter shoving back. A revving noise came from behind them, and Tsukasa looked back to see the window warp and an indigo motorcycle speed out. He jumped to the left, letting the motorcycle’s rider slash the Zenobiter with his own sword as he passed, knocking the monster away with a spray of sparks.
The motorcycle skidded and spun around on its front wheel, sliding to a stop facing Tsukasa. The motorcycle had pennant-shaped indigo plates down its sides, a gold horseshoe tailfin, and a large pair of silver triangular shields surrounding the front wheel. Atop it was a Kamen Rider in a black suit with indigo chest armor and other pads with gold borders along each of the plates, flared shoulder pads, and a black armament bearing a gold horseshoe strapped to his left forearm; his helmet had a diamond-shaped silver eye cover with horizontal slits, all very reminiscent of the Riders from Ryuki’s World.
The two Riders stared at each other in silence.
“Who are you?” asked the new Rider.
Off to the side, the Zenobiter lifted itself to its feet again, grumbling. Tsukasa folded the Ride Booker’s handle at an angle, the sword’s blade retracting and flipping back closed, a small silver barrel extending from the corner instead.
“I could ask you the same question,” Tsukasa said casually, flipping open the case on the gun to pull out another card. “You’re not a Kamen Rider I recognize, and I usually just know who I’m seeing.” He slid the card into his open Driver; though his armor had changed to that of another Rider, his belt remained the same.
Attack Ride:
The Zenobiter hissed and threw its boomerang at Tsukasa, and he closed the Driver.
Blast
Without turning to look, Tsukasa held the Booker out to the right and fired a spray of pink energy shots, intercepting and destroying the boomerang before carrying past and hitting the Zenobiter, knocking it down again.
Watching this in silence, the Rider looked back to Tsukasa. “You may use cards,” he said, “but that belt’s nothing like the Decks the Advent Master gave us. Where did you get it?”
Tsukasa folded the handle back against the case and hooked it onto the side of his belt again. Flipping it open, he pulled out another card. “Let’s just say it was meant for me,” he said.
“And who is that?”
Tsukasa slotted the card.
Attack Ride: Strike Vent
A red dragon head gauntlet flew down from the sky with a flash, Tsukasa holding out his right arm and catching it on his hand. The Zenobiter struggled to its feet yet again, staggering.
“Just a passing-through Kamen Rider,” Tsukasa answered before turning to the monster. He stepped his right foot back and threw his right arm forward, a large beam of fire shooting from the dragon gauntlet’s mouth. The Zenobiter shrieked as the fire shot through it, and it exploded. The new Rider silently noted that no ball of energy floated up from the defeated monster; this guy’s attack had destroyed that, too. Tsukasa turned back to him, a red pixelation covering over Ryuki’s armor before fading, leaving Tsukasa as Decade again. He pointed to the other Rider, announcing, “Kamen Rider Decade.” The Rider only stared. “What’s the matter?” Tsukasa mildly taunted. “Haven’t you heard of me before?”
The Rider kept staring. “No.”
Tsukasa paused. Well this was new. “No one’s shown up recently,” he probed, “and tried warning you about ‘Decade, the Destroyer of Worlds’?”
“And why would they be doing that?” the Rider asked with suspicion.
Tsukasa tossed his arms out. “Beats me,” he said. “It’s just that that’s happened everywhere I’ve gone lately. How about you? What’s your story? I’ve seen card Riders like you before, but they were involved in some Battle Trial legal system, the winner gets to hand down the verdict.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Good for you, it seemed like a bad idea anyway.” Tsukasa pointed his left index finger at the Rider, adding, “Courtrooms should be for pointing fingers, not swords.”
“Why are you here, then?”
Tsukasa tilted his head. “Who’s interviewing who here?” No response. “I told you, I’m just passing through.”
“Then pass through, already.”
“No can do, not yet. I still have to find the problem of this world and solve it, first.”
The Rider paused to think a second. “Have it your way, then,” he replied. “Just watch your step, because I’ll be.” He revved his motorcycle and rode it past, Tsukasa having to step out of the way of the front wheel’s “cowcatcher”, before warping thought the window.
Tsukasa walked over to the window to leave too, but paused, suspicious. He held his hand out, but it stopped against the glass. Tsukasa sighed, taking out a card.
* * *
Tsukasa looked at his three remaining sealed Rider Cards. He had joined Natsumi and Yusuke at a table in Sugar Cube Corner, a popular local diner they’d found that the Hikari Studio had for once not replaced. He held up the card for Den-O.
“No,” he said, slapping the card down onto table. He held up Hibiki’s. “No.” Slapping that card down, he held up Kabuto’s. “Definitely no.” He slapped this card down too. “Well,” he said as he gathered up the cards again and took out the Ride Booker, flipping it open, “looks like that guy isn’t a Rider we need to find.” He slid the cards back away. “Good.” He was about to close the Booker, but paused. He slid out Den-O Ax’s Form Ride card, which was also sealed. “Although…,” he humored, noting the diamond-shaped eye cover.
“So,” spoke up Yusuke, “this place is like Ryuki’s World the same way Agito’s was like mine? Kinda the same but also kinda different? Hey Natsumi, try not to get arrested for murder again.”
Natsumi turned to him and raised her thumb. Yusuke slid his chair back a foot. Though time travel had erased those events from Ryuki’s World, Tsukasa had nonetheless wasted no time recounting the story to them and rubbing it in.
“H-how about the Kamen Riders?” Yusuke asked Tsukasa, desperately trying to change the subject. “Are they part of the court system again?”
“No,” Tsukasa answered. “It looks like they just fight monsters.”
“From the statue in the mural,” Yusuke continued, “I was wondering if this world’s Rider rode a horse instead of a motorcycle, but it doesn’t seem that way.”
“I asked around,” said Natsumi, “and the best I found was that the news has been talking about a suspected vigilante called the Armored Hero, but no one’s ever actually seen what he’s been fighting. Someone’s claimed they’re invisible.”
“That would explain why that girl didn’t know she was being followed,” said Tsukasa.
“But then how could you see it?” Yusuke asked.
“It’s probably just something this world gave me the ability to do,” Tsukasa observed. “Or maybe it’s because I was in Ryuki’s Mirror World before. Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing we went there first.” He thought back to his embarrassing ram into the window before switching to Ryuki’s form, a tale which he would certainly not be recounting. “But if that Armored Hero is the only Rider in this world, then why don’t any of my cards match him?”
“If he doesn’t match any of your cards,” Yusuke said, “then maybe he could match one of Kaito’s? Actually, if you’re saying this might not turn out to be an ordinary Rider’s World, do you think we’ll still find Kaito poking around for treasures here?”
A young man with light blue skin and jet black hair in a tan coat stood at the base of Canterlot High’s horse statue, holding the Diendriver gun in his right hand, and a duffle bag in his left. He gazed at the base of the statue and the portal contained within, the one true treasure of this world. Then he looked down at the duffle bag in his hand. Then back up at the statue. He sighed and shook his head.
“If he is here,” said Tsukasa, “then chances are he’ll be blue, so keep an eye out for someone like that.”
“Well, there’s someone blue right now,” Yusuke said, pointing over his shoulder at the counter. “Except she’s a girl.”
Tsukasa glanced over to see a light blue skinned girl with rainbow hair. Suddenly, he heard the whistling ring alarm in his head again, but also saw the girl look up and around. She pulled out her phone and started typing something as she turned and walked quickly to the door.
“Oh?” Tsukasa mumbled. Yusuke and Natsumi looked at him. “Good catch, Yusuke,” he said as he stood and followed her outside. He saw her ducking down the alley next to the diner and strolled over to peek around the corner.
Rainbow Dash stood facing a mirror propped against the side of the alley, holding out a light blue Advent Deck with a gold gryphon head silhouette on it and wearing silver belt.
“Kamen Rider!” she called, pulling the Deck back and pointing forward.
“Another Kamen Rider?” Tsukasa observed silently from the entrance. He shrugged. “Take two.” He walked into the alley.
Rainbow slid the Deck into its spot on the belt and it was clamped in, sliding back and flipping over faster and faster with a light blue glow. A light blue energy sphere and pair of horizontal rings shot out from the belt, the rings rotating up to vertical and continuing down horizontal again, printing armor onto her. The rings and sphere faded, leaving her in a dark teal suit with light blue armor plates, eagle talons on her shoulder pads, a light blue eagle talon strapped to her left forearm, and a slitted silver facemask with the outline of a large beak from nose to chin and two earlike prongs at the top; Kamen Rider Talon.
“How interesting,” Tsukasa said aloud as he stopped a few feet away, Rainbow turning in surprise. He could tell her eyes were drawn to the magenta camera hanging around his neck. “Don’t worry,” he said, tapping it, “the pictures this thing takes never turn out good.”
It took a few seconds before she could respond. The last thing they needed was random strangers getting involved. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
Tsukasa took out the Decadriver with a chuckle. “And why would I do that?” He strapped it on and held out a card. “Henshin.” He flipped the card around and slotted it.
Kamen Ride: Decade
Nine icons became nine silhouettes that slid onto him to become black and white armor, seven red squares sliding into his face to add magenta to his face, shoulders, and sides. Rainbow could only watch in surprise as Tsukasa transformed and brushed his palms together before taking out another card and tapping it with his finger.
“The last Rider I ran into wasn’t much of a talker,” he said, and slotted the card.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three silvery transparent flat silhouettes spun in and overlapped onto him, changing his armor to red with black and silver. He turned to the mirror, looking over to add, “Maybe you’ll be more help?” He leapt into the reflection.
After a few more seconds of shock, Rainbow shook her head. “H-hey, wait up!” She jumped through after him, arriving on the other side in a shaded cement courtyard between two rows of storefronts at the mall or someplace. Tsukasa was standing and looking around with no Mirror Monsters in sight.
“Eh,” Tsukasa sighed. “Did I scare them off just by showing up?”
Suddenly something leapt out of a nearby window and grabbed onto Tsukasa; a gunmetal gray humanoid monster with bee stingers draped on its shoulders, bronze on its feet and specked across its chest, and jagged blue eyes on its insectoid head: Buzzstinger Wasp.
“Let…go…,” Tsukasa said as he tried prying it off of him, but it wouldn’t budge, buzzing at him. Rainbow ran up and jumped into a kick, her foot slamming into it knocking it loose and sending it tumbling up the way.
“If we beat this guy, you’ll talk?” Rainbow asked.
“Only if you will,” replied Tsukasa.
“Deal.”
The Riders took a step forward, but a barrage of arrows pelted the ground in front of them, sparking up the ground. They looked up and saw two more similar monsters on the roofs above them, one on each side: on the left, Buzzstinger Bee, yellow with gunmetal feet and chest, red eyes, and holding a yellow bow; on the right, Buzzstinger Bloom, gold with faded red metal feet and chest with red eyes and another bow. Bee and Bloom leapt down to the ground to flank Wasp as it stood back up, two more monsters tumbling in from the sides: Buzzstinger Hornet from the left, bright red with brown feet and chest, yellow eyes, and wielding a pair of skinny daggers; and Buzzstinger Frost from the right, gleaming silver with blue feet and chest, yellow eyes, and another pair of daggers. The five Buzzstingers stood facing the Riders in a line, Wasp drawing a long sword. {Ride the Wind}
“Five on two,” Tsukasa said. “You’re smarter than the last guy.”
“Dibs on the left half,” Rainbow said, racing forward as she pulled back the talon armament on her arm.
“Oi!” Tsukasa called after her. “There is no half of five!” Rainbow pulled a card from her Advent Deck and set it in the armament, pushing the cover forward again.
Strike Vent
A large gryphon flew overhead, in a flash dropping a pair of light blue talon gauntlets at Rainbow, who caught them on her hands just in time to slash at the oncoming red Hornet, knocking it to the side as the yellow Bee swung its bow down at her. She caught it in the gauntlets’ claws, swiping her foot out to trip the gunmetal Wasp as it tried joining the gold Bloom and silver Frost in charging Tsukasa.
Tsukasa put his arms up to fight, but looked down at Ryuki’s armor.
“I’ve used this already,” he commented, pulling out a new card. “Henshin,” he said, slotting it.
Kamen Ride: Agito
A long revving sound started up and grew louder, a bright flash of light from his belt obscuring him briefly before fading, leaving him in a black suit with a gold chest plate and ankle straps, spiked silver shoulders, and a pair of gold crest horns in a curved ‘V’ shape resting above his round red eyes; Kamen Rider Agito, a warrior who fought to defend humanity’s potential to evolve from supernatural forces.
Tsukasa stood still as Frost and Bloom came at him. They switched sides and Frost leapt up to him, but he took a step to the right and let the monster miss, elbowing Frost in the back and knocking it over. Bloom swung its bow at him, but he caught it and pulled Bloom past him, letting it trip and fall.
He turned to face the monsters as Frost swung a dagger at him, but he deflected its wrist with his right forearm, spinning right and shoving Frost past him again with his left palm, in the same motion elbowing Bloom in the chest behind him. He reached back and grabbed Bloom around the back of the neck, shoving it forward as well.
The monsters sprang back up and jumped at him together, Frost on the left and Bloom on the right. Tsukasa bent his arms up to intercept them, but their sheer force pushed him down to a knee. He pulled his left arm free and quickly slotted another card.
Form Ride: Agito Storm
With another long revving sound, a blurry vortex spun from Tsukasa’s belt before fading. The blunt gold end of a staff weapon now in Tsukasa’s left hand rammed Bloom’s chest and launched it back. He rammed the staff’s identical other end into Frost to knock it away and stood tall, his chest and left arm now blue, with a gold band over his flared left shoulder pad. He spun the weapon around and held it out in front of him, the Storm Halberd’s blunt ends springing out and unfolding into a pair of gold blades.
Bloom recovered and raised its bow, aiming at Tsukasa, but he grabbed the Halberd’s shaft in his right hand and swung it wide over to the right, its far blade breaking Bloom’s bow in half with a spit of sparks. Tsukasa faced Bloom and began spinning the Halberd around with both hands, back and forth, kicking up a dust storm and sending a gale force wind blowing at Bloom, the monster stumbling as it was blown back.
“Hmm,” Tsukasa mused, “how to defeat you?”
In her own battle, Rainbow Dash rammed Hornet with her shoulder. It swung its dual daggers down at her, but she grabbed their handle guards in her talon gauntlets mid-swing. She pushed its arms back up and quickly slashed down with her right gauntlet, sending Hornet back with a spray of sparks just in time to kick her right foot back and hit Bee in the chest as it tried sneaking up behind her. Wasp ran up and swung its sword, but Rainbow caught the top part of its blade in her left gantlet, swiping her right gauntlet at the base of the blade and snapping it from the handle. With a double slash from the left, she sent it falling back with another spark spray.
Frost charged Tsukasa from behind, but he spun around to the left, hitting Frost in the side with the Halberd’s shaft, again pushing it past him, and launching it over to the ground by Bloom. Tsukasa continued to consider all of the monster-squashing options at his disposal.
Blast Vent
He glanced over at Rainbow’s fight as a spinning tunnel of wind blew Bee, Wasp, and Hornet through the air and deposited them rolling across the ground a distance away.
“All five of you,” he decided, tossing the Halberd aside. “Ah-ha.” Tsukasa opened his Driver and reverted to Decade with a blur of red pixelation.
Final Vent
He turned with interest to watch as the large gryphon appeared again and flew up to Rainbow from behind, grabbing her arms and pulling her into the sky, arcing over backwards. He pulled out another card and slotted it with, “Henshin.”
Kamen Ride: Faiz
With three beeps, two pairs of glowing red streaks shot up and down from his belt, the lower pair stretching down over the front of his legs to his ankles while the upper closed into an arc over his gut, from its sides branching another pair around his back; they branched again, and one pair came around his shoulders and down his arms as the other came around his neck and joined, one final streak going down and connecting this arc to the first. In a flash, his armor had changed to a black suit with a silver chest plate, the red streak pattern woven across them, and a black head with large yellow semicircle eyes forming a disk, a thin strip up the center springing into a pair of sharp red antenna at the top; Kamen Rider Faiz, a warrior who fought to protect the dreams of both people and the monsters who were forced into fighting against their will.
Tsukasa flicked his right wrist, looking over to see Bloom charging him again. He rolled his head back in annoyance, turning to the oncoming monster and hitting it with a forward sucker punch, sending it to the ground and flicking his wrist again.
He turned back to Rainbow’s attack, but as the gryphon’s flight arc swooped back around to ground level, Wasp got to its feet and beckoned its comrades. Wasp stood up straight with the bladeless hilt of its weapon in front of it, Bee and Hornet running over and standing back-to-back with it. The three started shuffling around the rim of the circle they stood in, and as the gryphon flew Rainbow closer, they began spinning at blurring speeds. The gryphon threw its claws forward to catapult Rainbow at the Buzzstingers in a flying kick, a rainbow-hued Mach cone forming around her foot, but upon hitting the spinning ring, she was immediately halted and then bounced back away. She crashed rolling across the ground, the Buzzstingers skidding to a halt and turning to her with fighting stances.
“Need some help?” Tsukasa called.
“Uhg. No thanks,” Rainbow said, getting back to her feet. “Just let me at ’em again and I can have these guys beat in ten seconds flat.”
“How specific,” Tsukasa commented. He pulled out another card and tapped its edge with a silver fingertip. “So can I.” He flicked the card down into the Driver and closed it.
Form Ride: Faiz Axel
The left and right halves of his silver chest plate lifted off the suit and rotated at the shoulders, spinning up into a pair of shoulder pads to expose the suit’s mechanical inside and orange bulb core, the red streaks across the suit fading silver and the yellow eyes flashing to red.
He unfolded the Ride Booker into a sword while turning to Bloom and Frost, stepping his right foot back as he lowered into a half-crouch. He held up his left arm to show a black and red digital watch strapped to his wrist, tapping the red button at the base of the watch.
Start Up
A pulsing sound echoed as the display flashed, the red number 9.9 appearing and beginning to rapidly count down. Bloom and Frost stood again as the others looked over in curiosity. Tsukasa dashed forward, vanishing into a blur.
Attack Ride: Slash
A burst of sparks flew from Bloom as a blurry shape faded briefly into view while passing it. Moving at the speed of sound with the world almost frozen around him, Tsukasa ran over to Frost, slashing the monster with his sword as it trailed multiple pink afterimages, each giving its own strike. He turned and ran towards the other three. Stuck at normal speed, however, all Rainbow saw was a burst of sparks from Frost, followed a second later by more sparks from Bee, then Wasp, and then Hornet. A dark shape skidded to a stop about ten feet past Hornet, blurring back into view as Tsukasa’s semi-crouched black and silver Faiz Axel Form armor.
Time Out
The Decadriver spun itself open and spit out Faiz Axel’s card, Tsukasa snatching it from midair in his left hand before pausing. Behind him, red “Ø” symbols appeared over the five staggering Buzzstingers, the monsters exploding in rapid succession a second later.
Faiz Axel’s armor reverted to Decade with a wave of red pixelation as Tsukasa stood up, putting the Booker away and brushing his palms together as he turned to a stunned Rainbow Dash. “So…”
* * *
Rainbow Dash and four other girls had gathered in the main front room of the Hikari Studio. Natsumi’s grandfather, Eijiro, whose skin had turned a pale white, was placing a platter of mugs of freshly-brewed coffee on the table for them.
Looking around, the pale tan girl in the cowboy hat muttered, “Didn’t this place used to be a pawn shop?”
“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said to the studio’s inhabitants after a cursory introduction from the two groups. “You’re from another world?”
Sitting across from them, Natsumi nodded. “I can understand if it may be hard to believe,” she said.
Rainbow looked up at the golf ball-sized white bat whose face covered her whole body, Kivaara, as she floated around overhead.
“Hard to believe?” Rainbow repeated. “Try ‘getting old by now’. We’re almost dealing with more worlds than we can count.”
Natsumi and Yusuke, sitting together, looked over with a surprised, “Ehh?”
“Well,” Rainbow explained casually, “before we even became Kamen Riders to combat the Mirror Monsters, we faced a few magical beings from a world of talking ponies that came through a portal on the statue in front of our school. That one, right there,” she pointed at the mural at the back of the room.
Natsumi and Yusuke both jumped up for a dual, “Ehh?!”
“And when the Mirror Monsters did show up in the world behind the mirrors,” Rainbow continued, “the Advent Master recruited us as Riders after coming here from yet another world that itself had a mirror version.”
Natsumi and Yusuke were about to give yet another exclamation, but Tsukasa pushed them aside and then sat back down in his chair. “I think I get the gist of it,” he said, folding his arms. “You guys fight back monsters that no one else can see when they try attacking people, chasing them into the Mirror World to defeat them safely.”
“Pretty much,” said Applejack.
“Now as for you guys,” Pinkie spoke up, “let me guess…you’re all on a quest to travel between nine worlds in this photo studio while finding and helping nine Kamen Riders, one in each world, so you can unlock and use their power in order to save the world you started your journey in from certain total destruction, thereby saving the multiverse.”
The studio was silent for a few seconds. Natsumi and Yusuke looked at each other, then turned back to Pinkie for another, “Ehhhh!?!”
Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Where in tarnation did you get all that from?”
“Lucky guess?” Pinkie suggested. Then she waved it off. “Nah, the talking bat told me,” she admitted, pointing over to Kivaara balanced atop a camera sitting in the corner.
“Kivaara-chan is so helpful,” the tiny white bat purred, “isn’t she?”
“So,” Natsumi said, looking back to the girls, “you’re all Kamen Riders?”
“Yep,” said Rainbow, leaning back to bask in her own glory. “Kamen Rider Talon.”
“Kamen Rider Vault,” said Applejack.
“Grace,” said Rarity.
“Dynamo,” Pinkie said, raising her arm.
They turned to Fluttershy. “Oh,” she said, “and uh, Monarch.”
“How cool!” Natsumi let out. “It’s just that in all the worlds we’ve been to, we haven’t come across any female Riders yet.”
Rarity put her fists on her hips. “Oh, well that doesn’t sound very fair.”
“I know, right?” said Natsumi.
“Eh-hem. So,” interrupted Rainbow, “are any of you all Kamen Riders other than camera guy?”
Natsumi shook her head. “Not me, but Yusuke is.”
“Mm-hm,” Yusuke nodded. “Kamen Rider Kuuga.”
“Cougar?” asked Pinkie. “So are you also called Panther or Mountain Lion?”
“Hmm?” Yusuke said before catching on to her mistake. “Oh, no, not Cougar, Kuuga. Shortened from kuwagata, the name of the beetle my armor resembles.” He pumped his fist and added, “I fight to protect everyone’s smiles!”
“Oh yeah, now that’s a cause I can get behind,” Pinkie said.
Tsukasa turned away from the again-sidetracking conversation and leaned over to Rainbow. “That other guy I ran into,” he said. “Kinda stubborn, not much of a talker.”
“Oh, that was Cavalier,” she responded. “He was the first Rider in this world recruited by the Advent Master, before the rest of us knew about all this. It took a while, but we finally found out he was—”
“Don’t care,” Tsukasa cut her off, getting up and walking out of the room, turning right down the hall outside towards the photo studio’s darkroom, where his photos from earlier were developing.
“Okay…,” Rainbow muttered, sitting back again. She looked around the room to see if anything else was of note. Natsumi had picked back up talking with Rarity, Fluttershy had walked over to Kivaara, and Pinkie was showing Yusuke a photo of their group.
“Whether it’s family or friends,” she heard Yusuke say, “I think having people who will be by your side is the most important thing.”
She looked over to Applejack, equally unoccupied, who only shrugged back. Then she looked at the untouched tray of coffee mugs. It was midafternoon, but what the heck.
After the conversations had run their course, the guests had begun aimlessly milling about. Pinkie was looking through the contents of a wooden bin labeled “Put Tsukasa’s Terrible Photos Here”, now with English lettering.
“Wow,” she said looking at one showing the same person twice in different positions, neither of which was posing for a photo, “and I thought Rainbow Dash was bad with cameras. It took days to clean up that cell phone video.”
“I’m right here, ya know,” came Rainbow’s voice from the table across the room.
The doors to the development room opened and Tsukasa and Eijiro walked out.
“The results are in,” Tsukasa announced as he entered the main room, holding up one of the pictures he’d taken of the white girl in headphones earlier. Even at a distance one could see it was a blurry multiple exposure with several faded copies of her walking down the sidewalk in a line, the entire image hued purple with a yellow zigzag running across it. “This isn’t my world either, thank goodness.”
He was about to toss it onto the table when Pinkie spoke up. “Actually, I know her, and I think she might like that photo as it is.”
“What do you know?” said Natsumi. “Satisfied customer number one. Ever.”
“If you want it,” Tsukasa said, handing the photo over to Pinkie. “Hey,” he said after she turned away. “Aren’t you gonna pay for that?”
Natsumi stepped in between them, facing Tsukasa. “It’s on the house for new friends.”
“Tsk.” Tsukasa paced away. “Not only that,” he continued, “something’s extra-off about this place. I’ve always just known important things after arriving in each new world, but not here.”
“That would explain a lot,” came a new voice.
“Oh?” Tsukasa said, swinging his arm around to point at a figure in black and carrying a motorcycle helmet leaning against the main room’s doorway. Natsumi and Yusuke turned in surprise at the silent arrival, but Eijiro only counted the spare coffee mugs on the table and left to get another one. “And let me guess who you would be,” Tsukasa continued, only now turning to look. “I don’t need to be told to figure it out.” The person probably looked unique and identifiable, but Tsukasa didn’t care to notice.
“I contacted the Advent Master,” the unarmored Kamen Rider Cavalier said. “He says he doesn’t know anything about a Kamen Rider named Decade or that Battle Trial system you mentioned.”
“As expected,” Tsukasa said, dropping into a chair. Natsumi and Yusuke started asking the other girls about the new figure as Tsukasa flipped open the Ride Booker. “So, you act like you’re the most informed of the bunch,” he said to Cavalier. He pulled out the three sealed Rider Cards and held them up at him. “You wouldn’t happen to see a Kamen Rider you do recognize here, would you?”
Cavalier stepped closer to look. “No.”
Tsukasa turns the cards to the others. “And the rest of the squad says?”
“Nope,” Rainbow said, “none of those are us.”
“Then we’re off,” Tsukasa said, getting up again and starting towards the end of the room.
Both the visitors and local crew paused a second before Pinkie asked, “Huh?”
“You said it yourself, remember?” Tsukasa explained. “We have to travel through the Nine Worlds to save another. These are for the Riders of the last three of those worlds. If none of them are here, then this isn’t a world we needed to stop at, so we’re leaving.” Eijiro had walked back in with another mug, and Tsukasa waved his finger in a circle at the mural of the school with the horse statue. “Let’s go, Ojiro-san, next painting.” {Pun: Eijiro meshed with “ojisan”, which can mean “old man”.} Tsukasa turned back to the room to add, “You guys might want to leave before you get dragged along with us.”
“But Tsukasa,” Yusuke said, jumping up, “we can’t just leave now, we should help them.”
“With what?” Tsukasa countered. Yusuke paused, realizing he had no immediate answer. “They seem to be doing a decent job here on their own,” continued Tsukasa, starting back over. “They’re not running from their responsibilities like Kiva was, they’re not fighting each other for petty reasons like Ryuki’s gang, they’re not being hunted like Faiz or Agito, they’re not simple pawn employees like Blade, they’re a united team against evil. In fact,” he looked over at the group, “they’re the best-off Riders we’ve encountered thus far.” His gaze returned to Yusuke. “And helping them with just whatever won’t get us a step closer to saving Natsumikan’s world.” {Tsukasa’s normal joke name for Natsumi. Pun: “natsumi” = “summer”, “Natsumikan” = “summer mandarin”.}
“I know, but…,” Yusuke trailed off. Tsukasa turned back to the mural, satisfied, and waited.
“Tsukasa-kun,” said a voice behind him.
“Eh?—aihihg—” Before Tsukasa could turn around, something jabbed the side of his neck, sending a sudden pulse rushing through his body. “Bha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Natsumi stood holding a fist with her thumb sticking out as the victim of her Hikari Family Secret Pressure Point stumbled over to the table, grabbing onto a chair for balance amidst a bout of convulsive laughter. The visitors simply sat and stared at the scene, not sure how to react.
“Even if that’s the case,” Natsumi said with a forceful glare at Tsukasa, “you don’t just dismiss them like that! Who knows, there could be something going on that we don’t know about and they need our help with that.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha,” Tsukasa continued, grunting to try and regain his composure, but failing to sound anything but amused. “Right, right, the Rider I need to find typically needs help finding themselves. But it doesn’t look like any of them need help with that. Ha-ha-ha-ha—hahh.”
“Um, actually…,” spoke up Fluttershy, “there is one of us who needs to be found.” The others looked between each other, nodding. “Just, not by themself.”
Tsukasa breathed deeply as the effects of the pressure point finally wore off, looking over at Fluttershy with Natsumi and Yusuke.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Natsumi.
“Um, well—,” Fluttershy started, but a chorus of pings and hums came from each of their pockets at once. The six guests took out their phones and gasped, glancing to each other for the look that told them the others had indeed received the same message.
“Is it really…?” someone whispered.
“Could it finally be…?”
Rainbow looked back down at her phone and clenched a fist. “Sunset…”
Next time, on “Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider: EqG & Decade”…
“She was our friend and another Rider,” said Applejack, “but she got captured.”
A line of white insect larva monsters stood across the edge of a rooftop overlooking a cement patio. “Hib-ib-hib-hib…”
A blue screen with a beetle image flew forward from Decade’s belt. “If I didn’t know better,” said Tsukasa, “I’d say that this was some kind of ambush.”
A swarm of mechanical blue monsters with dragonfly wings and tails on their heads flew to and fro overhead of the Riders. “Ib-ib-hib-bib-ib-hib…”
“How well do you know your friend, again?” Tsukasa asked.
A Kamen Rider in dark purple armor approached the group as a cloud of shadow engulfed the area.
Index of Refraction
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I'm enjoying this a lot more than I enjoyed watching Decade. I'm not sure why. The crossover aspect moves quickly, so that's nice. I'm not sure why this is side story, but I suppose that I could have simply missed something from the main one.
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The past few main chapters have been giving a series of trailers for this. As with (almost) all Decade encounters, the universe he's landed in here isn't the main one, but an "almost the same" parallel one. I designed it that way so that events here won't affect the main story in case someone missed this or didn't want to bother with Decade. On that note, things here are about as parallel to the main story as Decade-visited worlds or early summer movies were to their original seasons (some things the same, some things the same but in different ways, some things just outright different) so those who did read it could get a hint at upcoming spoiler events, but mixed in with non-upcoming events so they won't know which details are the spoilers. I'll say that I've already given some right and wrong hints in this chapter.
OOH! BURN! XD
This could have used a more noticeable scene transition from Tsukasa's PoV to Cavalier's.
Eh, that last bit. "Because I'll be". Honestly, it'd have had more of an impact if it was "Because I will". That'd have sounded a bit more threatening, considering that Cavalier is supposed to have some of Knight's personality. A simple change in wording can make all the difference.
Okay, that's clever. XP
YOOOOOOO IT'S YA SNEK BOI!
In all? I liked this. A few errors here and there. Explaining puns in the middle of dialogue is a bit messy. But other than that, great job!
8668425
Thanks.
I thought it was sufficient.
Maybe there's a hidden reason for that word choice…?
Not exactly…