Golden Drive Arc 4: Why Does Rainbow Dash Idolize Me?
Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off as a Phys-Ed teacher instead of a professor. I mean, yeah, lab coat doesn’t make for a good athletic outfit, but my experience as Gold Drive is only improving. Yeah, I’m learning a bit more about teaching weird science, but eventually that Bill Nye DVD is gonna fine a nice comfy home in the DVD player for the next week or two while I waste valuable time sitting in class.
Phys-Ed is more my turf. Hitting things, running, jumping. Heck, it’s encouraged that you’d throw in a game of dodgeball. Best. Job. Ever. Well, I say this now as I observed the track and field. Not that I had a choice. It was, unfortunately, one of those days where the Roidmudes decided to hunt me down.
“Alright, let’s take her out on a spin!” I said as I rolled out the SunDriver across the Canterlot High soccer field. Fortunately, I was able to have the upper hand thanks in part to the SunDriver. Though, that said, while it has Shift Car capabilities, it’s unable to hook up to the Ride Boosters, sidecars that would hook onto Drive’s own ride: The Tridoron.
This is possibly in part due to me not being able to find said Ride Boosters. A shame, as the Roidmude attacking me was a Bat-Type. Those guys are pretty flighty. I know this because it lacks an Advanced Form. Because of this, I can see his Core printed on his chest: 051.
Banno tagged out for me in trade for using the Zenrin Shooter, though even with that, I was unable to hit him and knock him down.
“Didn’t my son have some sort of Shift Car to use for this sort of situation?” Banno asked.
“Signal Bike, and yeah! Let me tag out.” I turned the ignition and swapped out for Banno as a green, dirt bike styled device rolled up to him. He took it and put it in to the Shift Brace. He fired at the Roidmude. As the gold bullets began to curve, it seemed like they’d clip his wings, at least, but the Roidmude did a barrel roll and dodged out of the way.
“Hmph. Smart one.” Banno continued to fire several gold bullets, but it seemed the Roidmude was unable to be hit. Banno switched out as another Signal Bike entered my hand, as well as a Shift Car. I noticed the clown-like design on it. Amazing Circus. However, it wasn’t summoned directly to me, but rather just went about its business, setting up a ramp for my ATV to ride up from planks of wood that it had on its back cargo. I prepared myself for launch as I loaded the next Signal Bike, a yellow sports bike with a pretty large STOP sign.
“THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE! STOP!”
I was launched into the air and with one swing of my arm, I fired a stream of lasers towards the Roidmude. I managed to score a direct hit on both of his wings as he spiraled down into the field. That’s when I saw that he was about to crash into a crowd of about five people practicing soccer by the other side of the field.
“CRAP!” I said.
“Hang on! I got it!” Someone said. I then heard someone kick a soccer ball right to the Roidmude. The soccer ball knocked the Roidmude out of the way and onto the ground. I sighed in relief as the Roidmude got up and stumbled in a dizzy fit.
“Alright, let’s finish this!” I switched controls to Banno as a blue Formula-1 Shift Car came to Banno’s hand. He placed the Shift Car into the Engine Dash.
“FORMULA! ENGINE EXTENSION!”
The SunDriver roared to life as it managed to pick up lots of speed. Soon, I could hear the wind whistle as my car managed to lift up a bit. I could almost see the wind get a blue hue to it. I speeded towards the Roidmude and rammed it with full force, destroying him and reducing his Core to nothing more than a smear on the SunDriver’s hood. Banno got off as the crowd of people cheered for him.
“Enjoy this will you can… For when I take back control of the Roidmudes, I’ll-”
“Zip it.” I said. “We’re already public enemy #1 for the Roidmudes, let’s not gloat and make us public enemy #1 for the humans as well.”
“You have a point.” Banno said. He turned on the ignition. “Here, talk with these peons.”
“Um…” That’s when the first pair of the crowd came up to me. I knew instantly that they were twins from the way they looked. Not only that, but the way they had their hair pretty much screamed every other anime that involves twins.
“That was totally awesome!” One twin would have the rough, spiky hair to express what a free, rebellious spirit she is.
“Y-yeah. Keep up the nice work.” And the other would have her hair be nice and even have a cute little bow on it to show how reserved she is.
“YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!!!” Then there’s the guy who is practically begging for a failed drug test.
“What did you say your name was again? Golden Drive?” A bla… Okay. I’m just gonna stop myself here and distinguish that his skin is a dark gray, so that I can say a dark gray person instead. A dark gray guy with a cyan Mohawk scratched his head.
“Gold Drive. It’s just Gold Drive.” I said.
“Hey! I was the one who knocked down the monster!” Someone from my class said. I could simply tell from her hair just who she is in my class. Yep. Her long rainbow hair confirms it.
“Yeah, we saw, Rainbow, but Gold Drive did most of the work.” The rough-haired twin said. “All you did was kick a ball.”
“S-seriously, Cloudchaser? That ball saved our lives!” She said. The Mohawk dude sighed.
“Rainbow Dash, you’re always a bragger… Save it for when you win us another shiny silver cup.” He said. As much as I would like to stick around and listen to the generic ‘you’ll never be as popular as so and so’, I knew my time as Gold Drive would run out and I ran off.
“You know, if you’re programmed to announce ‘The Finisher’ and ‘Full Throttle’, are you programed to give a post-battle one-liner?” It was the first question I asked when I got into the bathroom.
“… What?” Banno asked.
“You know, like… Nice Drive! Or Nice Work!” I tried my hardest to imitate both the Drive and Mach Drivers. Banno groaned as I got out of the Gold Drive suit.
“Bah! Mediocre!” Banno said.
“Seriously? That’s the best you got?” I asked. That’s when I heard a buzz. I whipped out my phone and noticed Applejack’s text.
'Meet with me in the classroom after school.'
“Well, time for our chat.” Banno said. I let out a sigh.
“Perhaps… I could gain something out of this.” I grin.
Sure enough, after school, Applejack was the only person sitting in my classroom. I sat on top of my desk and looked to her.
“Alright, Applejack. Have you heard of quid pro quo?” I asked.
“Is that something you eat?” Applejack asked.
“No. It means ‘something for something’ in Latin. Basically you scratch my back, I scratch yours. You give me information about this town and the residents, I tell you more about the Roidmudes. Truthfully.” I said.
“Why would you want to know more about this place?” Applejack asked.
“Applejack, I just got here about a week or two ago. Roidmudes are constantly threatening not just me but everyone I remotely know. Rarity, Ms. Cheerilee, and the other girls on that field trip a while back all took a sick day right afterwards because of the Roidmudes that attacked them.” I played out a theory in my head. Usually, after the metallic ringing reduces Voice’s victims to a state of insanity, they go comatose. However, with Sculpt’s power, they seemed to have a pretty reduced outcome, given how their bodies just got digitized into stone. “I obviously don’t know the lay of the land. You do. It’d be effective if you help me with fighting the Roidmudes by providing information about this place. How about it?” I asked.
“Hmm… Well, alrighty, but you gotta tell me all you know about those robots.” She said.
“So, what else do you wanna know?” I asked.
“How many of these Hemorrhoids are there?” Applejack asked.
“Roidmudes, and there’s about… one hundred and eight.” I said.
“T-that many?” Applejack reclined to her seat as I drew out the number.
“Yeah, a pretty nice symbolic number for Banno to stop on.” I said.
“No… I stopped at one hundred and eight because three of my Roidmudes up and killed me before I could make more!” Banno said.
“Wait, didn’t you let yourself be killed?” I asked.
“Well, that was the idea, but not until I made at least two hundred or more Roidmudes… They caught me by surprise and made me accelerate my plans a bit.” Banno said.
“… Wait, you made them… and you got killed by them?” Applejack asked.
“The Roidmudes and him have a… past.” Namely involving a cattle prod. “And that’s it for your questions. Now you owe me two answers.” I said.
“Fair enough.” Applejack shrugged.
“First off… What can you tell me about Rainbow Dash?” I asked her. She glared.
“Well, she’s self-centered, rude, brash, egotistical, and most certainly selfish. Not to mentio-”
“Alright, I get it, you don’t like her. But what’s her story? Some sort of jerk jock, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. Pretty much. She’s the captain of the soccer team, captain of the football team, captain of the track and field… You name it, she captains it.” Applejack said.
“Okay then. That’s all I need to know.” I walked off, though Applejack grabbed my hand before I got far.
“Hey, I don’t know why you’re so concerned with Rainbow, but watch out. She’s the most treacherous person you will ever meet.” Applejack said.
“… Meh, I’ve seen worse.” I patted Banno.
“H-Hey!” Banno said.
“Oh hush up and take it as a compliment.” I said as I left.
As I walked down the halls, Banno piped up. I took the effort to hide him under my labcoat.
“I do have to agree with her though… Why are you concerned with this girl?” Banno asked me.
“…” I didn’t want to say. To be truthful, I was going with a template most Kamen Riders I’ve seen go with. We focus on a random, one off character who has a problem that the Kamen Rider must solve. This can be someone was forced into an eating binge by a monster, a person who lost his passion playing piano, or a guy whose friend is possessed by a monster.
I fear that, following what happened with Rarity and the others, the next Roidmude encounter I face will have something to do with Rainbow Dash. However, I can’t just tell Banno that I’m following what the show would do. Instead, I simply did what Banno would advise me to do and spoke a half-truth.
“I have a gut feeling.”
Alarm bells rang as two men wearing ski masks ran out of the store in the middle of the night, a bag full of money in their hand.
“Thieves! Thieves!” An old man yelled from the store.
“Wow, I can’t believe that worked!” One of the robbers said.
“Yeah, now let’s get out of here before the cops show up!” The other robber said. Just then…
WHOOSH!
“W-what was that!?”
“Why can’t I run faster?!”
The two of them screamed as a masked figure swooped down. The figure had a feminine shape to her as her outfit was purple with a dark blue mask, cape, and tapings on her gloves and boots. She wore a matching fedora and had a golden bangle with a silver gear stuck in the middle.
“Alright, your days of robbin’ people are loooong gone!” The masked female said. She took the two robbers and bonked them together. The two fell down slowly as she took the money and handed it back to the old man.
“D-don’t hurt me!” He shielded himself with his arms.
“Relax, I’m only helping.” She dropped the bag of money on the desk and ran off. As she was gone, the effects of the Slowdown waned and everything was back to normal, albeit with two knocked out robbers and a confused old man.
Morning came. Over my nights at the library, I discovered that this world has an internet. While I couldn’t connect to my frequent sites without them being clones of very old sites (MySpace somehow became MyStable?), I was able to get onto some news sites. There, I could see if there’s any stories that might have something to do with the Roidmudes. From what I could gather, the Roidmudes were doing what they were doing before.
So I looked for similar activities. From buildings mysteriously collapsing to electrical fires spreading out to a mysterious stalker protecting an idol, I tried to recall the past Roidmudes’ activities and even those remotely close to it.
Part of me wanted Banno to be off my waist not because it’d be a load off my back, but so that he could help me in the research. It seems, however, that he was just stuck in my belt. Throughout my time with him, he hadn’t been able to do the crazy stuff he could have done, like use sharp tendrils to attack people or hijack vehicles.
But then I remember that he’s already a loose cannon, even when he’s trapped in Belt form, so I disregarded it. One of the articles I managed to get an interest in is a mysterious masked vigilante who had been appearing out of nowhere.
I was reminded of Judge, especially since I saw him a while back. This is definitely right up his alley. Masked vigilante who strikes out at criminals? I was tempted to search “Judge Time” to see if it was going to be related to Judge. As I looked for that, I also looked around MyStable to see that this has created a bit of an urban legend.
“Dude, I heard that whenever she appears, time slows down to a crawl!”
“Spin around three times and say Mare-Do-Well six times. Time will stop for nine seconds.”
“This is all true! I’ve seen her do it! She threw knives at a dude when time froze, and then she threw a road roller at him when time resumed!”
Sadly, it wasn’t exactly like with Judge. This woman had Slowdown written all over her. The original Judge, the one the Roidmude tried to hunt down and kill, never had anything to allow him to invoke Slowdowns. However, it did make me think that the vigilante is indeed a Roidmude. Before I closed off the site, my eye caught onto something. A group.
It was called the “Please Come Back, Silverbolt” Group. I sighed and remembered that I’m supposedly disguised as a denizen of this city. To them, I’m not Kelly Randall, but rather Jetstorm Silverbolt. I clicked on the group page and saw almost fifty people who have joined the group. I looked among the various people, but only two people stood out for me.
The first was the most recent person to join: Trenderhoof, who joined a week ago. About the same time when I fought Voice and Sculpt. Obviously, him seeing me in the flesh had him confused and has now joined the pseudo-petition to bring be back to Crystal Prep.
The second person that caught my eye only did so because of the ridiculous name than anything else. Please, don’t ruin my mood by making me think of those stupid vampires! I closed off the site. Though before I left, I figured to create a little leverage for my next round with Applejack. I opened up Notepad and began to write up some info.
As the bells rang, I spotted Applejack in the hall. She was getting ready for her homeroom class. I approached her with a folded piece of paper in hand.
“Applejack.” I said to her. She turned around.
“Yeah?” That’s when I handed her the paper.
“What can you tell me about Crystal Prep?” I asked. Applejack took the paper and inspected it.
“What the hay is this? It’s nothing but a string of numbers and some random words. What does zero-zero-one equals Freeze mean? And what does it have to do with memories or old men? And why would a Brain need a handkerchief?” She asked me.
“It’s a list of the higher-ups who run the Roidmudes. I was unable to get a photo of each of them, so I’m making due with descriptions of them and also a brief description of how their powers work. That’s my information for this exchange.” I said.
“Well, mighty kind of you.” She stowed the note away into her pocket. Doubt she’s gonna check that again soon.
“I already know that Crystal Prep isn’t that well-loved in here, and I think I have a base idea of why. What I want is your confirmation. Are they douchebags?” I asked.
“Yeah. Very much so. If you think Rainbow Dash is full of it, wait till you see Crystal Prep.” She pointed to Rainbow Dash talking with several different people. “Every so often, we hold an event called the Friendship Games. It’s a competition where Canterlot High and Crystal Prep see which school is better.” Applejack said. I wanted to point out the irony, but I was too distracted with Rainbow Dash. She kept on talking about ‘her’ and I couldn’t help but notice the bracelet…
It looked familiar.
“…And they keep winning every. Single. Year. It stops being the Friendship Games and more the ‘Look At Crystal Prep’ Games… Uh, you okay, Kel?” … Did she just ‘Kel’ me? Now I wanted her to call me sugar cube. I appreciated it, however. It’s nice for people to call me by my actual name rather than the fake one I got.
“Y-yeah. I’m fine. Thank you, AJ… Can I call you AJ?” I asked. She nodded. “Thank you.” I stood there for a moment before walking over to Rainbow Dash to get a better listen.
“You met Mare-Do-Well?!” One of the students asked.
“Yeah! I sure did! She handed me her super calling brace to prove it! In case I ever get in trouble, I just have to twist it and SWOOSH! She’ll arrive!” Rainbow Dash said while showing off the bracelet. Twist. That’s what got my memory jogging. I approached Rainbow Dash. Most of the students didn’t seem to mind me getting in on the conversation, and instead continued to chat.
“So… How did you meet this Mare-Do-Well?” I glared at the bracelet as Rainbow Dash began to stammer.
“Oh… Well… I.. You see…” Rainbow Dash stammered as I rolled my eyes. “It was in the middle of the night, yeah! And um… I… was… in an alleyway! Yeah! That’s it! A thief was about to rob me and she came out of the blue and-”
“That’s all. Thank you.” All I needed to find the real story was to look at her bracelet. Yep. Sure enough, I knew which Roidmude produced the bracelet. I walked off as I heard Rainbow Dash continue to fabricate her story. Let her. I already know what she’s talking about is rubbish. It was time for me to patrol the city.
Another night, another theft. Instead of store alarms, it was the blaring of a car alarm. The thief had no care whether or not the car was loud. She simply drove the car. She knew a shortcut where she could make a getaway…
WHOOSH!
She saw a few sparkly lights and suddenly, the car was acting sluggishly. She tried to move around, but noticed that she was also slow.
“What the…” She wondered why she stopped when suddenly a masked vigilante walked up to her and opened the unlocked car door. She had no other response but to scream as the vigilante, unaffected by the sudden slowness, grabbed her and tossed her out of the car. The car took a while to slow down to a complete halt, though the Mare-Do-Well had other things on her mind, like stringing up the prep to dry.
“Alright! Prepare to face justice from the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!” She took out some hemp rope and unraveled it to tie up the woman to a nearby lamppost, or even a trashcan. … Yeah, trashcans are more poetic for her.
“P-please! Stop!” The woman’s tears fell in slow-motion as the Mare-Do-Well was about to put the rope onto her hands when a red blob struck her. Time resumed, and as it did, the blob picked up speed and flew upwards towards a rooftop. The blob dropped the Mare-Do-Well off on the rooftop as it landed. Its red shell came apart, revealing it to be a long red cape attached to a hood.
The person wearing the hood, Ross, took out Crescent Rose as it unfurled into scythe mode.
“Alright, Roidmude, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this before, so I’ll sum up. Ya dun goofed and I see it as my duty to defeat you and let the higher ups reset you.” Ross said.
“W-what are you talking about?” Mare-Do-Well struggled to get up, though the force of the hit knocked the wind out of her.
“Oh come on. Every Roidmude knows about the Grim Reaper, right? The guy who stops Roidmudes from being too much of a threat to everyone else?” Ross walked towards her. She ripped off her mask, revealing her face to him. He stopped, only because it took him a while to register the long rainbow colored hair and her shrunken pupils of fear.
“P-please! Don’t hurt me… I was only trying to protect people…” Rainbow Dash said.
“… Protect people?” Ross sighed. He grabbed Rainbow Dash by the back of her costume and dragged her to the edge, within a bird’s eye view of the carjacker she tried to arrest. “You see that woman there?” Rainbow Dash could see her break down into tears as cop cars began to arrive. “She doesn’t feel safe. She doesn’t feel protected. I notice something whenever Slowdowns happen. People are scared. They feel powerless. Roidmudes like you may think of yourselves as heroes, but really, you’re nothing but bullies trying to assert your authority.” He could hear Rainbow Dash whimper.
“I… I wasn’t trying to do that… I… I just wanted to be cool!” With that, Rainbow Dash began to cry. Ross looked down and noticed the cops looking around for the source of the noise. Among them was Tachibana, who simply shot a glance up to Ross. Ross nodded and grabbed Rainbow Dash. With a quick sprint, they were already two rooftops away from the cops.
“Start talking.” Ross pointed his weapon at Rainbow Dash as it shifted into a rifle.
“A-alright! There’s this dude called Gold Drive who is super awesome! He fights these monsters on a daily basis and he’s just so awesome! B-but people found him to be better than I am! I… I wanted to be cool like him… So…” She lifted her wrist to show off the bracelet. “I got this and got a cool superpower from it. I just thought I could protect people with it… They’d probably think of me on the same level as Gold Drive.” Rainbow Dash frowned.
“… Wait, you said you got the Slowdown thing from a bracelet?” Ross leaned in. “Who gave you this?” He asked.
“I… I can show you, if you want. But… I don’t want you to tell anyone.” Rainbow Dash got a folded piece of paper and showed it to him. “A guy gave me this. It’s instructions of how to get a bracelet.” Ross read the instructions.
“Huh… Alright. I can do this. Listen, if you really want to be a hero, you’ll come with me. I’ll show you what a Grim Reaper… no… What a Huntsman can do.” Ross patted Rainbow Dash on the shoulder, who looked to him and smiled.
I sat inside an old, beaten up Camaro. The kind you see in a Shia Labeouf film. I sipped from the hot cup of coffee as I looked around by a local billiard bar known as The Rabbit Hole. It was a shady place from what I could gather, though I only knew of the place thanks to my informant.
“They really should call this place The Rat Nest.” Wind Rider said. After the incident with Voice and Sculpt, Wind Rider handed me his number in case anything were to happen. It was one of those cases where something did happen.
“So, you say drug dealers come by every so often?” I asked.
“Yeah. When the mood strikes them. And when they’re strapped for cash. This was where I took Soarin’ on his first day on the job. The low-life, dime-a-dozen thugs who prop up here are easy pickings for rookies.” Wind Rider said.
“Well, I have the gut feeling like we might take on something more than a simple thug.” I peered out of the window.
“You never did tell me about those Roidmudes. All I know about them is that they’re making a fuss.” Wind Rider said.
“They’re killer, time-stopping robots who disguise themselves as humans and plan secret revolutions and genocides.” Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just say that to my students rather than dance around the topics.
“Well, there has to be more to the story than that.” Wind Rider said. To be fair, he had a point. I had to bring up how they weren’t all psychopathic. Some of them genuinely wanted to help humanity and others viewed their species as their closest friends. I frown though. For every time I remember a Roidmude who was kind to humanity, I think of two more who had at least half a dozen causalities under their belt.
I had to address the elephant in the room, however.
“Not all of them are bad. I don’t know if they’re still around, but there are Roidmudes who don’t want to kill every human. You just have to find them. They’re… diamonds in the rough.” I said. That’s when I spotted someone. Two people in fact. A person in a red hood and…
A rainbow-haired girl.
“Show time.” I got out of the car.
“H-hey! Wait up!” Wind Rider said. I could see the hooded man hold up two flowers, one white and another red. Yes. This was it. A door leading to a shack just below the Rabbit Hole opened up. With quick running, I entered the door before it closed, though I wasn’t sure if Wind Rider made it in too.
As I got in, I noticed that Rainbow Dash and the mysterious red hood disappeared. I could see rose petals fluttering to the ground though.
“… Ross.” I remembered that edgy Little Red Riding Hood cosplayer. I stepped carefully and had my finger and thumb pressed against the Ignition. As I inched closer and closer to the center of the shack, I heard a conversation.
“What are you doing back here?” A young sounding man said. He definitely gave me that snake oil salesman idea.
“Sorry, my friend wanted to get a hold of your bracelets.” My heart pounded as I heard Rainbow Dash’s voice.
“Atatatatatatat! I can’t just give it to anyone. Besides, you haven’t paid off for your bracelet!” He said. I sighed in a vain attempt to calm myself. Yep. It’s 018.
“Is it true? You sell bracelets that allow a person to invoke a Slowdown?” I heard Ross speak next.
“Yes, I- Wait, how did you-” As soon as I heard the sound of mechanical whirring, I instantly realized what was going to happen. I ran forth.
“G-Grim Reaper! Oh please, spare me!” A man greased back red and white hair wearing a blue-striped shirt, jeans, and a simple barber-shop quartet hat tripped over and fell on his bottom. He squirmed as Ross held Crescent Rose on his back.
“Ross, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked. As he stepped forward, he had shivers be sent up his spine. The cock of the gun, while sounded distant, still had the same impact of stopping Ross as if the gun was held point blank to his head. Mainly because he heard that distinct cock before.
“Lower your weapon, Ross.” An African American cowboy came out from the shadows. He casually held a revolver pointed towards Ross.
“… Gunman. I presume this is your little brother?” Ross asked as he furled up the scythe into an inactive rectangle shape and put it behind his back where a pocket safely snugged it.
“Yes. I apologize for leaving you in the dark.” Gunman lowered his weapon. “But I can’t explain everything just yet. Because right now,” he pointed a gun towards Rainbow Dash, “it’s time for this lady to pay up.”
“I… I don’t have the money yet!” Rainbow Dash stepped back and shielded herself.
“Well, don’t worry. We have an idea of how you can pay us off.” Gunman tossed her a revolver. “In exchange for the bracelet, we want you to capture or even kill the Kamen Rider.”
“W-what?” Rainbow Dash grabbed the revolver, though she looked at it, unsure of what to do. Ross stepped forward.
“Gunman! You’re using a human to do your dirty work?!” Ross asked.
“Huh. Funny talk coming from you. Did you ever tell that girl that who you were working for?” Gunman smirked.
“I… What’s a Kamen Rider?” Rainbow Dash asked. Gunman continued his smirking as he aimed his gun towards Rainbow Dash.
“You’re about to find out.” And with that, he fired at her.
“Henshin!” I cried out as I leaped into the air to knock Rainbow Dash out of the way of the oncoming shot. Thankfully, the armor formed just before the bullet impacted me, though my body staggered back.
“Ow! Hey! Let me know when you transform next time!” Banno said.
“I just did! You know, me saying the word Henshin?”
“Whatever… This is your fight.” Banno turned the Ignition. The Golden Drive’s eyes changed to the natural white as the Door Gun materialized from the same digital miasma that formed the suit. I pointed at Gunman.
“Drop the gun.” I demanded. Gunman bent his knees low to the ground as he dropped the revolver gently. He got up with his hands raised.
“Very well. I won’t be the one who’ll shoot you anyways.” Gunman said.
“Hmm?”
“Come on, girl… It’s time to pay your debt.” Gunman pointed to Rainbow Dash, though I already knew that she purchased the bracelet… wait… Pay your debt?
“You… You want me to shoot Gold Drive!?” She asked. “No way!” She tried to throw the revolver onto the ground, but as she was about to, the bracelet began to spark. She retracted her arm in pain. “Gaaah!” She cried.
“And this is why you always read the fine print, dearie.” Gunman said. “So long as my brother’s bracelet is on your arm, don’t expect to take it off any time soon.” I ran over to pull the bracelet out, but it began to spark again. This time my hands were also shocked. “Don’t bother. My little brother’s been working on these bracelets for a while. These are top-of-the-line compared to the last ones he made. You can’t hope to take them off.”
My body went cold as I instinctively turned the Ignition. I hated myself for even considering this to be a solution… I didn’t have the heart to go through with it. I had no choice though. I switched out to Banno as he got the Steering Sword. It took Banno a few seconds before he began to cackle.
“Great minds think alike! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” He swung the Steering Sword upwards, then struck downwards onto Rainbow Dash’s arm. Either he could attempt breaking the bracelet with the sword or chop off Rainbow Dash’s arm. Knowing the psychopath, I closed my eyes and prepared for him to take the latter option.
CLANG!
However, I heard a clang instead of a scream. I opened my eyes and saw Ross blocking the sword with his scythe.
“Stop it.” Ross softly said. The bracelet began to spark up again as Rainbow Dash keeled over in pain. She clutched the bracelet, but no matter how hard she tried to squeeze it, she couldn’t crush it.
“What’s wrong? I thought the reason you wanted that bracelet was so that you could be like the Kamen Rider?” Gunman said. “This would have been right up your alley. Not only would you get to be a superhero, but also you’d be able to replace the very person you wanted so much to be.”
“I… know… but… I can’t just… betray my idol like this!” Rainbow Dash struggled to get up, but every time she did, the bracelet continued to spark and zap her wrist. “Even though he takes all the attention… I look up to him. When I became Mare-Do-Well… He was the reason I chose to protect people! I wanted to be just like him!” She said.
“So… you refuse to kill the Rider then?” Gunman said.
“Y-yeeaaaaaargh!” Rainbow Dash kept screaming. I was thankful that Banno was took control over my body, otherwise I’d just give up.
“Very well. It’ll be enjoyable to watch you die along with your little hero. Grim Reaper, go ahead and finis-” That’s when Banno shot Ross in the gut a dozen times.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I break your Grim Reaper?” Banno looked at Ross and noticed that there was no wound. “What the?”
“Did you truly think we’d let a mere human be our Grim Reaper?” Gunman said. Ross, while unharmed, still clutched onto where he was shot for a brief moment before he stood up again. “He’s able to take a beating, have no marks to show for it, and still be able to run circles around you. Coupled with his speed, and he’s become just as effective as our previous Grim Reaper.”
“Heh… You forgot something, though. All humans have a breaking point.” With that, Banno switched controls over to me as I got the Shift Technic and Zenrin Shooter, though the Shooter replaced the Sword. I loaded Technic into the Shift Brace as an HUD activated in my vision. I saw a strange red flame over Ross. I fired at Ross and noticed the flame began to shrink. “See? We just need to deplete whatever it is that’s protecting your new toy. We already took out half of it, it seems.” I began to spoke up.
“Aura. We’ll call it Aura.” I remembered the aura that the characters had when they powered up in Dragonball Z and figured it was a nice name for this… force.
“Heh… Well then. Let’s see who’s the fastest gun here. Draw.” With that, Gunman transformed into his Roidmude form, mirroring that of his human form, though more metallic than normal. He took out his gun as Ross transformed his scythe into a sniper rifle. I held up the two guns. Rainbow Dash’s pained groans kept the atmosphere from getting too quiet. My fingers hovered over the triggers. Any moment now, Ross or Gunman would open fire, and I’d have to fight for not just my life, but also Rainbow Dash’s. I couldn’t switch over to Banno without having to sacrifice one of my weapons or my free will. I just had to stand and wait.
I pointed one gun at Gunman and another on Ross. I looked into Ross’ eyes. I remembered how Ross fought me back at the museum and how he fired shot after shot at me. The metal casings that were discarded helped break me out of Voice’s control. However, I wasn’t sure if Ross was deliberately fired at me to snap me out of it or if he was really just incompetent. But one look from his eyes told me enough.
It confirmed my suspicions. I slowly pointed the Zenrin Shooter towards Gunman and fired both of them at the same time. As that happened, Ross fired, not at me or Gunman, but at 018. As he fell over, the shocks on Rainbow Dash’s arm stopped and she was given time to breathe.
“You…” Gunman growled as he fired at me. I fired back. Several bullets clashed at each other while I rolled to the corner and behind a crate to avoid the other bullets. I took this time to recharge the Door Gun, muffling the announcement as I did. I could hear more gunfire, so I poked my head out of the crate to notice that Ross and Gunman were firing at each other. Ross swung his scythe on the ground, using the curve of it to propel himself to a scaffolding where he landed. He transformed the scythe to what looked to be a sniper rifle and fired some more bullets at 018.
018 simply transformed into his Roidmude form. I was surprised that it wasn’t his modified Spider-Class form, but rather a fully-fledged Advanced Roidmude form similar to Gunman’s, save for the fact that his hat was more pointed and that instead of a gun, his hands held rings. He threw one of the rings, which caused it to explode in a flash of light. Suddenly, everything slowed down for a brief moment. However, it was that brief moment that allowed Gunman to rush out and fire at Ross.
Ross had no time to dodge them and although I knew that the aura could protect him from the bullets, I screamed out for him.
However, the next moment had those bullets cut up, though a few have hit a target that went in front of Ross. I saw the green and black kendo stick and recognized the Roidmude that saved Ross.
“Judge!” I shouted.
“Tachibana!” Ross said as Judge staggered.
“Ross… you fool…” Tachibana whispered out. I was able to catch that as I still had the Technic Shift Car in the Brace.
“I should have known having a human on our side was bad news… Kill him, Judge, then let’s kill the Kamen Rider together!” Gunman said. Judge simply stood there.
“Let the girl go first. If she is killed, there’d be no way I can cover this up.” Judge said.
“No one knows we exist. And if we kill these two… they will never find out.” Gunman pointed his gun to me as I ducked behind.
“You underestimate humanity and their determination.” Judge said.
“And how would you know?” Gunman said.
“Because I’ve synchronized with their twisted sense of justice: revenge. If you kill her, there’s no going back.” Judge said.
“Well… Guess I’m gonna have to call your bluff.” Gunman said as he pointed the gun back towards Rainbow Dash.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The sound of Gold Drive’s powering down rang in my ears. I had to switch out, though it was a good time as any. I turned the Ignition and Banno took control. The Shift Cars he got were partners. I figured it’d be sensible to send them out considering he’d be going akimbo. Dream Vegas inserted itself into the Door Gun while Dimension Cab plugged itself into the Zenrin Shooter. Predictably, he fired at both Judge and Gunman, Door Gun on Judge, Zenrin Shooter on Gunman. Judge continued to deflect the bullets fired at him while Gunman shot them out with his own gun. Eventually, Gunman shot the Door Gun out of Banno’s hand and Judge punched forward to fire taser-style prongs at Banno.
While I couldn’t feel my body, I can get a sense of how painful it is with the way the armor and the body jerked around from the shock. Of course, electricity wouldn’t fit well with a robotic suit. However, the additional electricity caused the suit to glitch up. I saw in the HUD how it began to break apart into bits of code for brief moments at a time.
I could feel my fingers twitching. Perhaps the electricity was short circuiting the Tridoron programming. I moved my wrist up to try and confirm it. I could feel some mechanical resistance, but it was an improvement compared to previous times when Banno took control. By the moment my hand reached the Ignition, I lost control of my hand and it automatically seized up, turning it in the process.
I was back in control. I immediately pull Shift Technic out of the Brace and placed Dimension Cab into it. The red circuit on my chest flared up as a golden portal opened next to me. I snickered and reached into the portal with one of my arms. As soon as I grabbed the Door Gun, I pulled my hand out of the portal and fired it towards Judge quickly and suddenly. The bullets fired turned into large coins. Judge tried to deflect them, but due to their size, he was quickly knocked off the scaffolding.
I turned my attention to Gunman, who fired at me. I rushed to hide behind another crate while he pursued. With one leap, I jumped out of hiding and fired off a few more giant gold coins at Gunman. He leaped back and shot them down. As I landed, I unplugged Dimension Cab from the Shift Brace and plugged it back onto the Zenrin Shooter.
“THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE! TAXI!”
I fired the Zenrin Shooter up into the air. As the bullets reached the top, a small portal opened up. Behind Gunman, the bullets flew out and struck his back. As I got up, I swing the Zenrin Shooter right at Gunman’s face.
“ZENRIN!”
And slashed his hat off. He staggered as his forehead smoked from the attack. I ran to continue my attack, though Judge ran in and blocked my Zenrin Shooter with his kendo stick.
“What are you doing here?” He whispered to me.
“I could ask the same for you lot…” I muttered.
“I had no knowledge of this operation taking place!” Judge tried to push the Zenrin Shooter off of me.
“Likely story!” I simply rolled the wheel off the stick.
“ZENRIN!”
And slashed across. While it didn’t break anything, it did knock the Roidmude into a pile of crates where it fell on top of him. I looked and saw 018 getting up. As he did, Rainbow Dash also got up. I could see tiny bolts of electricity zapping her wrist as she tried to pull away.
“I’m… Sorry…” Rainbow Dash said.
“… Me too.” I turned the ignition as Banno took over. Banno aimed and shot a bullet. I saw the bullet as it soared to Rainbow Dash… Only for the bullet to enter a small gold portal and hit 018 on the other side.
“Judge is correct. If she were to die here, there’d be an investigation. I might be cruel, but even I know there’s a time and a place for it.” Banno grabbed a Shift Car that had flown right for him. As 018 got up, Ross appeared behind him and slashed him with his scythe.
“I’ll keep this guy busy! Tachibana, get the girl out of here!” Ross said. Judge nodded and ran to get Rainbow Dash, but Gunman fired at him and shot him down.
“I’m not letting anyone here live. Roidmude, human, doesn’t matter.” Gunman reloaded and pointed his gun at Judge. “Our revolution against humanity is going to hit high noon soon. It’ll be a shame for you all to miss it.” That’s when Banno laughed.
“No… It’ll be a shame for you to miss my revolution!” With that, Banno opened and closed the Door Gun's door. He then loaded his Shift Car into the Door Gun, taking out Dream Vegas.
“THE FINISHER! AMAZING CIRCUS! FULL THROTTLE!” He fired a bullet at Gunman which exploded into fireworks. As Gunman was knocked to the ground, Banno fired the Zenrin Shooter onto the ground. Each bullet disappeared into their own portal and reappeared on the ground where Gunman was. The bullets shot into Gunman, essentially juggling him in place as Banno spun the wheel of the Zenrin Shooter a few times. He ran and leaped.
“ZENRIN!” And slashed downwards. While the resulting clash didn’t destroy the Roidmude, it caused a huge gash to appear over his back, complete with smoking. Banno looked up and saw Ross wrap himself in his hood while pushing 018 out of the way.
“B-brother!” Gunman shouted before Banno kicked him in the face.
“I’m going to enjoy making you suffer…” Banno said as he fired several point-blank blasts at Gunman, each one destroying a part of his face in the process. I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t close my eyes. I had no control over my view. I thought back to my chat with Wind Rider. About how the Roidmudes were genocidal… Seeing Banno essentially torture one just… It made my stomach churn.
Eventually, Banno kicked him in the gut so hard, he skidded right into some fallen crates. As Gunman got up, he reloaded his gun and rushed to Banno. Banno just laughed as he plugged Dream Vegas into the Shift Brace. He pressed the red button as his circuitry tire flashed. It turned into three diagonal slot machines. They rolled until Banno pressed the button again. One by one, the wheels stopped, landing on the number seven. The three sevens each glowed as Banno aimed his guns.
“THE FINISHER! VEGAS… CAB… CIRCUS!!! FULL… THROTTLE!” He shouted as Gunman reached him. He tried to shoot at Banno, though Banno simply pushed his arm away with his own, firing the Zenrin Shooter as he did. As Gunman attempted to pull away and point at him again, Banno simply blocked the gun with his other gun, and fired. After that, Banno and Gunman just simply did this over and over again, at a pace so fast I couldn’t keep up. Eventually, the gunfire stopped as Banno simply kicked Gunman in the gut. As it knocked him away, I noticed a large gold portal appearing behind him as several hundred bullets came flying out.
“W-WHAT!?” Were all that Gunman said before he collided with the barrage. All the bullets exploded at separate intervals, each creating a fabulous firework array. Eventually, all of them exploded in a huge ball of light and sparks, before fading out in a sparkly 017. It lasted a bit before the number faded away. I sighed. Though that’s when I heard the sparking of the bracelet again.
Rainbow Dash began to scream louder.
Ross pushed 018 out into a long narrow hallway as he unwrapped himself from the cape. He unfolded his scythe and rushed to him, cutting into the Roidmude’s arms several times in the matter of seconds before finishing things off with a sniper blast square in the chest. As 018 stumbled, he chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Ross asked. 018 held up a ring.
“So long as I’m standing, that girl will suffer a painful death.” He said.
“Then I guess I’ll have to stop you.” Ross readied the Crescent Rose. Before he ran though, 018 threw another ring, exploding in a shower of light as Ross’s legs faltered.
“You’re not going anywhere. You’re just going to stand there and listen as she dies.” 018 began to laugh as Ross grunted. Before long, 018’s laughter was cut short. “Hurk!” Ross could see a kendo stick emerging from 018’s stomach as electrical sparks emitted from both the wound and the stick. As the stick was pulled out, 018 fell limply to the floor, exploding a mere second after he fell completely. It took a while before his Core exploded as well.
Rainbow Dash soon stopped screaming as the bracelet finally popped off Rainbow Dash’s arm. Banno turned the ignition as Mad Doctor rolled by, the two guns and their Shift Cars fading out in blur of gold. I grabbed it and placed it into the Shift Brace. My hands glowed with golden energy as I grabbed her wrist.
“Hang in there, girl. You did a good job today.” I said. Suddenly, I heard a long, slow clap. I looked around and tried to find the source of the noise.
“I could say the same for you…” I heard an odd voice echo throughout the warehouse.
As the smoke cleared, Ross could see Judge for a brief moment before he shifted back into his human guise. Tachibana could only scowl as he held one side of his chest. A side where he was shot at the most.
“Tachibana!” Ross said.
“…” Tachibana shook his head and haggardly walked away.
“Wait! Tachibana!” Ross tried to follow him, only for Tachibana to speak up.
“Goddamn it, Ross! Don’t you realize what’s going on?” Tachibana asked.
“W-what are you talking about?” Ross asked.
“Why else did they give the bracelet to a girl from Canterlot High? It wasn’t to just lure Banno… But also to lure us. We’ve been set up!”
“What!?”
Eventually, the clapping man showed himself. At first, I didn’t recognize him. He just seemed like a regular old yakuza mob boss… That’s when I realized that a yakuza being in a mostly American-themed town didn’t mesh well.
Then he tipped his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose, to the point where his eyes were showing. At that point, both Banno and I knew who he was.
“006…” I said.
“Glad to know I don’t need to hide behind a phony human name… unlike our traitorous friend Judge.” He took off his glasses and shrugged as his human body dissolved in a miasma of gray and gold. As his Cobra-type Roidmude body appeared, the number 006 flashed outwards.
“Ah, it’s such a loving reunion to be had. You must be a little jealous of my new host…” Banno said.
“Sadly, I was too busy being dead to care about it.” He said.
“I would arrange it so we could be together again, but sadly, I can’t get off of my host.” Banno said.
“Oh don’t worry. We’ll be able to pry you off of her corpse… after we destroy you, of course.” The Roidmude stepped closer.
“W-we both know how this song and dance will end! You’re just a pushover compared to Heart!” Banno said.
“Heart? Oh… I guess you haven’t heard. After we were reborn, many of us recalled our memories. And needed to say, none of us were pleased that our leader’s last moments were spent making friends with the very enemy he vowed to rule over.” A part of me shivered as I remembered that tragic moment. Another part of me shivered as I began to piece together what must have happened to Heart. “Care to guess who managed to overthrow that traitor?” He gestured towards himself.
“No…” I muttered as 006 closed in on me.
“Yes. It was all me. I defeated Heart, and now, I’m the one calling the shots!” 006 said.
“Like hell you are! Kelly, get ready. This fight can be over in a flash if you don’t hold back.” Banno said.
“Yes, don’t hold back…” 006 stopped walking when he got very close to my face. “Because I won’t.” With that, his body began to shift again. I stepped back and propped up my fists. I didn’t need to be told that 006 was now going to reveal his Advanced form to me.
And much like when he tried to show it off before, he liked to gloat about it first.
“Behold! The power that surpassed Heart! My true form!” 006 said. I threw a punch towards him as it glowed with golden energy. That’s when 006 grabbed my fist and punched me square in the gut. Suddenly, all the joints in my body suddenly seized up as I fell over. My muscles cramped up and I couldn’t move. As I hit the ground, my armor disappeared and I was back to my labcoat.
“Kelly! What’s going on!?” Banno said. All I could do was look at 006’s Advanced body. His body was a dark blue with a series of thick, brass gold lines streaming down from the top of his chest to both his wrists and ankles. His face kept his cocky smile that he had in human form, though the top part of the head was obscured by two long brass gold tubes, with two large blue eyes mirroring that of his sunglasses.
“All this time, I have been holding back my power until the time felt right. As a result, I lost my life. Now with a second chance, I’m not gonna hesitate to show off. Banno, I would like for you to witness this for yourself. Your host’s body is going through a shock throughout their nervous system, rendering them unable to fight. As you might guess, my name from now on is Nerve.” He said. Suddenly, 006’s body began to glow a gold color.
“It can’t be!” Banno shouted. Golden energy was glowing on 006, or Nerve as he likes to be called now… Gold energy. The very energy that Banno and I shared. To Roidmudes, it’s a special power that only a select few have: those who have gone beyond merely Advanced Evolution and are able to transform into a more powerful version of it. I had every right to shout no as well, but my body was too busy being frozen to say anything.
“Heh… So you noticed… I had felt this power when I defeated Heart… but it wasn’t enough. The emotion that is giving me this power is an overwhelming sense of superiority. Killing Heart simply started the progress… And now you’re gonna finish it. It’s like I said before… You’re the stepping stone to my Ultimate Evolution! Goodbye, Banno!” Nerve said as he threw his fist towards me.
“So what do we do now?” Ross asked Tachibana.
“We? We do nothing. As far as I know, we’re compromised and I’m not in the right condition to continue this.” Judge said.
“I’m sorry!” Ross tried to keep up with him, but Tachibana simply held his hand out.
“Don’t… They forced my hand too. The best we can do now is lie low…” With that, he stumbled out to a door and open it. “Ross… don’t do anything stupid. Okay?” And he left. Ross simply slumped to his knees and sighed.
I closed my eyes and braced for impact, though to my surprise, someone stopped Nerve from hitting me. I opened and saw Rainbow Dash holding him back.
“Leave her alone!” She shouted.
“Idiot! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Banno shouted.
“I don’t care!” Rainbow Dash said. “Ever since I first saw Gold Drive, I thought of how awesome he is and how I wanted to be his closest friend! I’m not going to betray him… and I’m certainly not going to let him die!” With that, Rainbow Dash managed to pull Nerve away from me and grabbed me. “Come on, let’s go!” She said.
“No… You’re not going anywhere!” Nerve shouted as the gold energy surrounding him exploded. Time slowed to a crawl. I noticed the Mad Doctor Shift Car within my reach. The car rolled right into my hand, but before my fingers could touch it, Nerve kicked it away. “And no Shift Car will save you…” Nerve said. Just before he could move, though, I heard Rainbow Dash yell. Suddenly, there was a large flash of rainbow light as something grabbed me. Before I knew it, I was taken out of the room in the matter of seconds. I couldn’t notice though, as everything turned into a blur. It was only when the blurring stopped that I realized what happened.
Rainbow Dash somehow picked me up and ran out of the room at a speed comparable to a jet plane. I was in her arms as she panted heavily.
“Hey, Professor… How’s that for track and field?” She chuckled before she collapsed, dropping me with her. It was here that I managed to regain control of my body.
“What the hell happened?” I muttered.
“You can ask me the same thing… That girl managed to outrun Nerve’s Slowdown…” As Banno said that, I had a thought. I turned the ignition and transformed into Gold Drive. The Shift Technic car drove to my hand as I plugged it into the Shift Brace.
That’s when Banno and I saw a cyan colored flame surrounding Rainbow Dash, exactly in the same style as Ross’ flame.
“I knew it… She has Aura as well…” I recalled how Ross’ power… his ‘Semblance’, as he called it, was also able to outmaneuver the Slowdown. That’s when I heard sirens. Police cars began to drive up to the Rabbit Hole. I noticed Wind Rider standing by.
“Hmph… We’ll have to take our business elsewhere.” Banno edged his fingers towards the Ignition, but I spoke up.
“No… I’m not letting the Roidmudes fall upon deaf ears. They need to know.” I said.
“If you haven’t noticed, cops are piling in. We got off lucky last time, but we might not have that same luck again.” Banno said.
“Even so… I’m not letting another one of my students get hurt by these monsters. If I can help the police shed some light on this… If I can help them take care of the Roidmudes… then I don’t care what happens to me.” As I said that, my armor went away as I held up my hands.
“So… You’re the Golden Drive the rumors have told about?” Spitfire came out. I nodded.
“Gold Drive. And I have information that I’ll share with all of you.” No more secrets, no more half-truths. Applejack was right. It would be a lot better if I turned myself in. Now that they have more of an idea of what they’re dealing with, I could possibly get away with telling them more details. Especially if they let Wind Rider in on the details.
That’s when I saw Wind Rider and Soarin’. I always noticed Soarin’ was a happy guy when I spoke with him, so seeing him glaring at Wind Rider was… unnerving.
Especially with what he said.
“Wind Rider, you gotta stop this. While we appreciate the help, intervening in our cases is only going to worsen your reputation… I have faith in your pride as a former officer.” Soarin’ walked away from Wind Rider with a pat on the shoulder. For some reason, seeing this made my legs wobble. Spitfire had to shove me into the backseat of her car.
“Come on, you have a lot of explaining to do…” Spitfire said. As the car drove off, I swore that I saw Ross standing on the rooftop of the Rabbit Hole before he disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.
The door broke open as Tachibana stumbled into the room. A loud mixture of different animal noises muted Tachibana’s pained gasps as he fell onto the floor, his blood dripping onto the tile floor. He laid in the dark room for a moment before the lights turned on. He heard a door opposite to him open up.
“Hello?” A girl’s voice echoed. “Anyone he-” She stepped closer until she saw the cop on the ground. “Oh my!” She ran over to him and helped him up. “M-Mr. Tachibana! What happened?” She asked. Tachibana could only breathe as the girl with long pink hair and cyan eyes sat him down. As soon as she saw the wound, she frowned.
“I’ll go get my mom… wait here, okay?” With that, she ran off as Tachibana passed out.
Ross hopped across from rooftop to rooftop. He knew exactly what his next move was going to be:
The main stronghold where the Roidmudes resided…
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Ah, this is awesome. Very well done.
Is it wrong that I want one of my OC riders to be in this fic?
6964886
No, not really.
6965440 Is there any chance of that happening?
6965778
Not sure. The way I set the story up, there's probably not going to be room for a crossover. I might end up making time for a crossover to happen inbetween arcs, but for now, not sure.
6965936 Would you mind if I sent you a PM of the various riders and their powers?
6967734
I could set up a crossover that takes place in between the Golden Drive arc and the next arc, so fire away.