Kamen Rider Alchemy

by Layton13

Keep your Goals in Mind - A new Aliance

The rain had stopped and been replaced by a cloudy sky, still, at least it wasn’t raining like crazy anymore. Didn’t mean that standing at the train station wasn’t awkward. Around him stood at least fifty people, all chatting and having the time of their lives judging from their attitude and her he was, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive and completely unsure of what to do when she finally returned.

Maybe she would be happy to see him again? Maybe she would tell him how great her trip was and how it helped her to think about the events of that night? Would she even hug him because she was so happy to see him? Or even a kiss? He really hoped for the later, it had just felt so right.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the incoming train that was quickly approaching, only noticing the vehicle as it had already stopped in front of him. The doors swung open, and a wave of people stormed out, splitting apart in front of him and rushing towards the exits. He looked out for any familiar faces in the crowd, but nothing. Maybe she had already missed him? No, she would have noticed, he was sure of it. As the crowd had almost dried up, he finally spotted her, just stepping out of the train, her lugged in hand she stepped over towards him. She looked just as good as she had left, but her expression was not that pleasant. She seemed annoyed, and her muscles were tense. When she reached him, she shoved one of her bags in his hands and just continued towards the exit.

Phoenix just stood there for a moment and just stared after her before snapping out of it and hastily rushing after he. “Hey, Ocean, wait. Not even a simple hello?”

She looked over her shoulder and sighed and glared at him. “Sorry, I’m just in a hurry, so I don’t have any time to waste.”

“Yeah, I see that, but why?” He finally caught up to her, putting the bag on his back. “Did something happen in Manehattan? Was it the heads of the MRG?”

“No, not that,” she returned in a rather annoyed voice. “Sure, the questioned me, but ultimately said they would have done the same thing as I did. They said I showed great loyalty and so on, even offered to promote me when this all blows over,” she growled.

“Really? That did sound different from what I heard about onyx talking with them, did something happen? Oh, and did you accept the promotion?” He returned, sounding quite confused by her information.

“Well, apparently someone leaked some of the information on Monochrome to the press, and they went wild with it, proclaiming me a hero for saving them from her. The usual really, and that probably swayed their decision. They can’t just cut me down anymore, I have become too big of a figurehead as a Kamen Rider and the person that stopped Monochrome. They will probably try and use my good standing with the people to get them back on their side,” she returned coldly. “And I did not take the promotion,” Ocean added without any fanfare.

“Why? I know you like your job and all, but was the position they offered you that bad? Was it an office job or something else?”

“No, nothing really would have changed. I would still have been stationed here in the city and acted as one of its Kamen Riders, but I when this would have been over they probably would have given me a permanent team and send me all over the country,” she scoffed, shooting a venomous glare at the floor while also growling silently.

“And what is the difference?” He shrugged before continuing. “You are already leading a team here, or at least did before…” He stopped for a moment, searching for the right word. “Before the rest of the MRG arrived, so how would it be any different from what you do right now?” Phoenix looked over to her, expecting a chuckle or an annoyed groan, but not what followed.

“It’s not the same. Until now I had only controlled over the small police force that had been put under my orders, nothing more, nothing less. Ivory was… is my partner, he is an equal, not a subordinate. Sure, I gave orders to Shining and his colleges, but ultimately I was not the boss. I’m not ready for something like this by a long shot. Most agents don’t gain this position until they are in their mid-thirties, I’m in my mid-twenties, I don’t think to lead a team of older agents is going to fly that well. Besides that, I’m not ready for that anyway, I still got much to learn,” she returned rather grumpily, seemingly especially annoyed with their small talk today.

“I don’t really think you will have any problems with lacking respect, I know you. You can be quite scary when you want to, and I know that you have it in you to tell them who would be boss now,” he smirked, to no reaction of Ocean. “Or, you know, you could always pull the Rider card. I’m sure they will respect the opinion of a Rider. At least they won’t speak back to you in armor, especially not when these eyes stare right at you,” he returned with a chuckle that quickly died down as Ocean didn’t respond.

“That is not the point. I refused, and that is all. You didn't have to make me wanted the promotion, I’m just not interested. They can play their stupid game alone, I’m not taking part in it,” she replied with a huff.

“Ok, got it. It’s your decision after all. But on another note,” he stopped for a moment before continuing: “How was the funeral?” His tone sounded severely different, relatively somber and down.

“Good,” was all he received from her, leaving him rather stunned.

“What do you mean with, good? Like, how did it go? Did you meat old relatives you hadn’t seen in years, or something like that. Or your sister? Did you meat her?”

That was when Ocean stoped on the spot, letting Phoenix almost walk into her. She turned around with a glare in her eyes that let his blood freeze in his veins. “Like I said, it was good, so don’t ask anymore. Got it?” She barked back with anger in her voice that he had never heard before at any point in time. The glares almost felt like they could cut right through his skin and towards his hearth and the longer she continued, the more uncomfortable it got. Phoenix took a few moments to free himself from the paralysis he had fallen under until he could finally weakly nod. “Good, then hurry up, I don’t want to waste any more time here. We’ll bring my stuff to the apartment, and then we go back to work!” She continued in a voice that left him no other choice as to comply. “Good, then hurry up Phoenix!”

>-------<A>-------<

That could have really gone better, at least he had expected her to be far more happy and pleasant, but she apparently was in a really bad mood. The cold wind that had come up after they left the station had probably not helped him on that front. It was actually really distracting, by Tartarus, it was spring, it should get warmer, not colder. Thanks to the wind Ocean had only muttered about getting this done faster, but in all honesty, he suspected that this was really only an excuse. Something was just off about her, and he didn’t know how to react to it.

The two of them had just mounted their bikes and were currently heading for Oceans apartment, most of the luggage had been shoved onto Phoenix’s bike, great. Not that it couldn’t handle all of it, it made the little ride through the city all the worse. During the entire trip, Ocean did not once look up from her path, just determined to get to their goal as fast as humanly possible.

At the apartment someone else was already waiting for them, complete with MRG van and some of his colleagues, Shining Armor and a special guest, Pinecone. The two Riders came to a halt right in front of the building and the young officer. “Hey agent Skies, good to see you back again. I hope your trip was good.” Ocean had already dismounted her bike and walked towards him while Phoenix was frantically trying to gesture to him that he should drop the subject, well he tried at least.

“Good. What happened while I was gone? Did you pick up on any leads?” She returned coldly, grabbing a file one of the policemen had been holding and started to impatiently flip through it.

“Ah, of course,” he returned hastily. “Well, we caught four more of Monochromes accomplices, some of her bodyguards. We will send them to the headquarters soon, well after you could question them of course, if that is what you want.” The officer was getting really uncomfortable, some sweet already starting to form on his forehead. He shakingly continued as Ocean just nodded, not looking up from her own file for a second. “Oh, and Pinecone has claimed another Medal, apparently similar to yours and Alchemy's now form.” Ocean just nodded again, Shining not entirely sure if she was even listening. “But on Alkahest…,” he stopped, tightening his fist before continuing. “ We haven’t found anything, well besides a few rumors that supposedly saw him at the MRG building that night, on the higher floors apparently, but besides that, nothing.” He gritted his teeth in frustration.

“Bullshit!” She screamed back, letting her first slam against the side of the van, leaving a small dent behind. "What do you mean with you couldn’t find anything? He can’t just disappear. No reports of strange noises, suspicious fires in the night, anything?” She growled, getting more and more frustrated with every passing second. “How can someone as him disappear, he is wearing armor for crying out loud!”

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault that we haven’t had any really leads the entire time. I’m just not fit to do this without you,” Shining sighed, letting his head hang low.

“Don’t beat yourself up over something like this, the guy has evaded us for next to two months already, and we are not a step closer to find him. If Ocen couldn’t fin the guy in that time how could you find him in two days?” Phoenix joined in, sounding a bit more relaxed and giving Shining a good claps on the back. “So don’t worry, we’ll get him, and maybe your information will be the thing that does him in.”

Shining looked up and gave a warm smile towards him, Phoneix just smiled back. “Thanks, still, I should have at least come up with something.”

“We don’t have time for this. I don’t care how, but give me something, anything. We are running out of time,” Ocean interrupted them. Then she pointed at two of her underlings and then to her luggage. “You two, take that and to follow me, and you,” she now pointed at Phoenix. “You stay already start and try to find him. When you find anything, call me, immediately. Same goes for you Pinecone. I want this bastard found, better yesterday.” With that, she leads the way for the two men that were balancing all of Ocean’s luggage, would be a really unpleasant way up to her apartment.

After he was out of earshot Pinecone returned to his bike, jumped on it and drove off. You could say a lot about his attitude, but he always did what was needed of him, that much Phoenix had to accept about him. Both Phoenix and Shining looked after the speeding of the bike with a worried expression. “So, did anything happen to her while she was gone? That doesn’t seem like her, at all,” Shing said after a few moments. “I mean, sure she could sometimes get a bit angry, especially after you pulled that stunt with the sleep deprivation.”

“Oh, come on. That is behind me. I don’t do that anymore. I learned my lesson, you don’t need to drag that one back up,” Phoenix sighed in return, shaking his head in defeat.

“Yeah, I know, but come on, it’s a fun story. Well, after you got over it, that is.”

“Yeah, got over it… By the way, I don’t have the slightest idea why she is acting this way. Wasn’t anything I said or did, I think at least.” Shining just shook his head. “Hey, I mean it. She was that pissed off when she left the train. It’s not my fault, at least not this time. But I think there was something that happened in Manehattan…”

“Something with the heads maybe?” He threw a worried look over to Phoenix.

“Could be, but she said that they wanted to use her to restore the public image of the MRG or something. Apparently, someone leaked the whole story to the press, and now she is hailed as some kind of hero or something. Not that she isn’t, but it’s still weird. They even wanted to promote her, but she declined,” he encountered, somewhat lost in his own thoughts trying to figure out what it could be. “In all honesty, I think it was something about the funeral,” he added with a sober tone in his voice.

“What do you mean? Did she say anything?” Phoenix shook his head. “Then why do you think that exactly?”

“Well, when I brought it up she got really defensive about it. At thirst, I thought she was just not in the mood or something, but I’m starting to suspect that something happened there. And then there is the fact that I’m afraid that she might fall into the same mistakes I made when I was after Alkahest. She is getting more and pushier, I’m really getting worried. Say, don’t you have a girlfriend, how do you handle things like this?” He looked over the officer with an asking look on his face.

“Yeah, I have a girlfriend, Cadance. She is the dean… I mean, new headmaster of Crystal prep, a relatively famous highschool her in the city. Thing is, she is normal, well at least as normal as you could be in a city like this. She never had to deal with crazy stuff like this, and in all honesty, I’m glad about it. The only thing special about her, besides her personality, of course, is the fact that she comes from a rich family with a mansion of the outskirts of town. She once had to deal with an annoying uncle that wanted to have money from her and even stole from the house. That was the only time she really got close to how Ocean was acting right now. She sacrificed sleep for two days straight to find him,” he returned, sounding somewhat nervous about the whole thing.

“And, how did you bring her back to normal?”

“I didn’t. Well, I kinda did, but only by catching the thief. He wanted to sell an old relic or something to an anonymous buyer but could stop him before that happened. After the thing was back, she returned back to normal. So, maybe catch Alkahest?” He shrugged with a puzzled expression.

“Oh, yeah, I’ll get right on that, with all the clues we have right now,” he drily returned, Shining trying to suppress an evil grin while Phoenix gave him a deadpanned look.

“Sorry, I just thought I brighten up the mood a bit. With a day like this that can’t be bad, right?” He awkwardly returned, his smile the most uncomfortable thing he had seen in days and to top it all of, he was also laughing awkwardly.

Phoenix sighed in exasperation and shook his head. “Yeah, I guess so. Still, if I don’t figure something out soon, I don’t know how this is going to end. I don’t want her to make the same mistakes I made, even if she is smarter, the whole thing with Ivory really got to her.”

“Yeah, it certainly did. And losing someone you care for can always drive someone to do stupid things you usually wouldn’t do, that is for sure. But Ocean doing them, it just seems so unreal. She was always at the top of her game really. Never saw her lose it in any way, this is just wrong,” he sighed with audible worry in his voice.

“Yeah, she was always the one you could rely on to have a good plan and a cool head, kinda strange when that is not the case anymore. And I thought the trip would cool her head off, but apparently, it only made it worse. I’m kinda at a loss for words here. How am I supposed to get her back to her usual, snarky, responsible self? Well, besides doing the thing we have failed at for over a month yet. I feel so useless.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, but she is your girlfriend after all, still don’t get that part really,” he weakly chuckled, Phoenix smiling in return. “You have right now the best chance to get her out of it.” Phoenix nodded knowingly and sighed again.

“And I thought this would get easy. Should have known better than to think things will be easy, they never are. That is something I picked up while doing this. No matter what you do, it will always get worse, always.”

“Don’t jink it, man,” Shining added carefully.

“Ah, don’t worry, we have yet to find something that can stand up to the power of three Riders and the worst we have had yet are emotion. Those are the kind of problem you usually can’t Rider-kick away sadly,” he chuckled back, his entire posture deflation. “I’ll figure something out, trust me.”

“Good, but I probably would get going now, you don’t want her to see you still standing around her after all,” he nervously returned, giving the Rider a quick glance.

Phoenix remained silent for a moment before an expression of utter terror consumed her face, he pulled his helmet back on, jumped on his bike and was off faster than he could say Corrupted. Shining just shook his head as he looked after the Rider. “And that guy is the city’s hero? We are all so screwed,” he joked before gesturing with his hands to the rest of the team to get ready for leaving. This would be a long day, he could already feel it in his bones.

>-------<A>-------<

After sending the rest of her team on its way to find anything that even slightly looked suspicious. They followed orders like usual, but some of their looks seemed worried. Was it because they feared what Alkahest would do to them? No, that couldn’t be it, they had followed her orders all the time, especially when they went up against the Corrupted, or when they didn’t have a Kamen Rider of their own. It had to be something else, but she didn’t know what it could be. Maybe it was her? She had after all… No, that couldn’t be it, right? Right? She knew all to well that it had to be it. Who would lend their trust in the hands of someone like after what she did? No sane man, that was for sure.

As the cars passed her by she let out a desperate sigh. She really shouldn’t be surprised, but she was. She had thought more of them, but it turned out they were exactly like the rest. No, she couldn’t put the blame on someone else, it was her decision after all. She had to face the entirety of it on her own, she deserved it. And all the people that told her what a great decision she had made could fuck right off. They were the kind you just couldn’t trust. But Phoenix, he seemed like he was ok with her decision, did that also mean he would be… Oh, this was so complicated and frustrating.

She heard a loud noise as she came back to reality, a car now right in front of her. In a split second, she managed to change her direction far enough to narrowly avoid the other vehicle. She could see the expression of shock, fear, and anger on the drivers face as she raced past him. She shook her head and returned her gaze towards the street. How could she have missed that? She usually wasn’t so distracted. This just wasn’t normal. Her breathing had picked up a good amount after her little stunt, and it caused her helmet to mist over at öleast a little bit. “Fuck,” she cursed under her breath as she opened her visor to get rid of the mist. The cold spring air did help her get back on track, however, at least there was that.

After getting her mind back on track, she sighed in desperation as she remembered a little conversation she had after the meeting with the heads of the MRG.

She had just left the room after at least five hours of constant arguing and repeating of the same points ad costume. What a colossal waste of time. That was when she heard someone calling out for her. As Ocean turned around, she could see Onyx sprinting towards her, waving his arms so to tell her to stop.

“Ah, good, I got you. Hey Ocean, I’m sorry for all of this again,” Onyx sighed as he finally reached her.

“Ah, who cares. It’s over, and I can go back to Canterlot City now and deal with the stuff that is actually important,” she huffed back and was about to turn around before Onyx stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Tell me, why did you refuse the promotion? Is it because of your mother?” Onyx asked with a quiet and somber tone, completely unbefitting of him.

Ocean stared at him for a moment of complete shock before her expression hardened, and she turned away with an angry frown. “No, I’m just not ready for leading a real team of agents. I’m far too young for that.”

She tried to run off again, but Onyx stepped into her way. “Ok, listen, even if that would be true. You are a to an extent very well known in the MRG, and your escapades as a Kamen Rider just cement that more. They would never disrespect or not follow your orders. And you are capable enough to lead any team to victory. You have a keen eye for people and bring the best out of them, just look at Phoenix. The kid has grown so much over the short time as a hero, and it’s primarily thanks to you and your influence. So don’t sell yourself short.”

Ocean remained there, standing, look at the man she called one of her superiors in disbelief and Barthelemy. “No, I’m not. I make so many mistakes, I…” She started to stutter before Onyx cut her off.

“Maybe, but you tend to come up on top anyway. You learn from your mistakes, and it shows. And even when you fail, you see why. That is exactly the things you need to be a great leader. So don’t worry and just don’t give up. Like the kid tends to say, just keep on moving forward, or something like that. I’m sure you will manage,” he smiled at her, patted her on the shoulder a few times and waved a goodbye.

“Yeah… I will,” she quietly returned, looking after Onyx with a sad expression. “And thank you.”

All that didn’t matter right now in the slightest though. She hated how everyone seemed to be so uninterested in finding Ivory. He was their friend as well, dammit. Or, at least something like that. How could they all be so damn ignorant of the danger he was in? They had to find him soon, they just had to. She didn’t even want to think about what Alkahest could do to him or why he had kidnapped him in the first place?

She again cursed under her breath as she passed the next state, not even sure what she was looking for. From the information, shining had given her it seemed that Alkahest had almost disappeared from the face of the earth, no new murders or any sighting of him to speak of. Well, besides the fact that he apparently went to the MRG headquarters at one point, but that was really only a rumor. Still, she suspected it in some way, it just seemed right.

That was when she picked up a transmission on her police radio: “All units towards the MRG building, a person clad in black armor has been sighted in the lobby, attacking anyone that comes near him. I repeat: All units towards the MRG building, a person clad in black armor has been sighted in the lobby, attacking anyone that comes near him.” He blood froze as she heard this, that was just too perfect to be true. She hesitated a moment as this dawned on her, but not like she had much of a choice in the matter. With a loud roar of her engine, she raced off towards her destination.

>-------<A>-------<

At least twenty police cars had gathered around the headquarters of the MRG, and all the officer were pointing their guns towards the entrance. The large glass doors that had stood there beforehand had been shattered and thrown inside. The atmosphere was tense, no one dared to move a muscle, expecting that all Tartarus would break lose every moment.

Shining was coordination the rest of the police to the best of his abilities as he heard the loud roaring of an engine. With a sigh of relief, he could see Charge riding up to him. Before he could even great the Rider she was already giving out orders: “Shining, take half of the man and tell them to hold the line, don’t let anyone that is not a civilian leave this place. Take the rest and try to get people out of there, I’ll take care of our guest.” He nodded quickly. “Good, so what is he doing in there anyway?”

“Currently he is having a fight with the security, well, more the security is trying to distract him long enough for backup to arrive,” he added, sounding immensely worried. “So you basically. Alchemy should be here any minute and Monster as well.”

She nodded and dismounted her bike, picked up her Charge Magnum and walked towards the remains of the doors, weapon ready and Shining with half of his team following her. The moment she passed into the building the squad behind her darted of towards different directions, Shining trying to let everything run as smoothly as possible. Charge meanwhile had taken aim at Alkahest who was currently beating up a bunch of the security guards, they stood no chance as they were thrown around the room, unable to escape the speedy Rider. He seemed to be in the equivalent of Phoenix’s Thunder Form and complete with all the benefits of that.

That was when he stopped and looked in her direction. With a loud sigh, he let go of the poor man he had just grabbed and let out with an annoyed tone: “Oh, great. Now the Riders are here.”

“Freeze!” She shouted, weapon aiming at his head. “Tell me where Ivory is, now!” She hissed with such disgust and hatred that even Alkahest took a step back.

“What do you care? He is just your tech guy, get a new one, I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” he dismissively returned, eyeing his opponent carefully.

This was all Charge needed to engage the Dark Rider. Unloading her entire magazine on him she charged forward, Alkahest easily dodging the attacks with his own superspeed. He was running away from her as fast as he could, Charge however quickly caught up to him and tackled him to the ground, both Riders rolling into the reception desk, shattering it completely.

Charge was the first to get back up and aimed her weapon towards Alakhest head. She had already reloaded the gun during her sprint and without any hesitation pulled the trigger. To her utter shock, the bullet just disappeared when it was supposed to hit the Riders head. Alkahest let out a quiet chuckle, his hand extended beside him in a ‘don’t shoot’ style. Charge started to scream and pulled the trigger again, and again and again until she could only hear the clicking of the trigger.

Alkahest’s chuckle had grown into a full-blown laugh, the attacks have all just disappeared, leaving him completely unharmed. Charge was something and with a swift and powerful motion threw her Charge Magnum away, letting her fist come down on him and smack him across his face. That shut him up rather quickly and she followed up with a flurry of blows to his head, Alkahest taking them while struggling to get her off him.

Then all of a sudden her speedy arms returned to normal, was her time limited up? No, she still had at least two more seconds, so what was it? She had no time to ponder the question as Alkahest returned the punch to the face and threw her off her.

Charge quickly stood back up, glaring at the Rider, apparently so good that it could be conveyed through her bug-eyes. She removed her Charger and started to turn into another form.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FIRE CHARGE! /

\ FIRE DISC READY! /

Both Riders dashed at each other, Charge with her boosters, Alkahest just with his lance. But before they could clash Charge rocketed out of the way in the last second, letting Alkahest stab into the air. Meanwhile, she was busy with charging around him, and when she reached his back, she slammed her fist into his back, getting a loud scream of pain from the Rider that was thrown to the other side of the lobby, crashing through the wall.

Charge wasted no time to rocket after him, ready to let her fist come down on him again. However as she had passed the hole, the Rider had made she saw how he held his hand towards her and all of a sudden her equipment failed her again, her engines just shutting off completely. The realization quickly dawned on her, and she could only watch as she reached towards the next wall and crashed into it, right into the office Shining and two of his team were currently busy convincing a man to leave the building with them.

She didn’t take long to get back on her feet, but Alkahest had already jumped through the hole and was trying to wail on her. She managed to block the attacks of the Rider. Still, he was strong. With every attack, he pushed her further and further back, and worst of all, it blocked the exit for Shining and the rest. That was until Charge activated her boosters again and slammed her opponent right into the chest. She could hear how the air was pushed out of his lungs with a loud groan and the Rider staggering back. Preparing for the follow up she activated her booster again and aimed for his head to knock him out as they started to malfunction again.

With the force now missing in her punch, she missed spectacularly, and Alkahest used that chance to deliver a very well placed kick to her stomach. She could feel the boot connecting and press into her skin. The pain was awful, it felt like someone had just laid a stemming stone on her body. Still, as she crashed into the chair of a very worried MRG office worker, she didn’t have time to lay down and lick her wounds, she had to do this. Forcing herself back up she removed her current Charger and pulled out her ace.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

Alkahest took a step back but didn’t come that far as he felt a blast hit him, sending him straight into the wall. Charge stood there, pointing her Unity Blaster at him and without so much of a second thought unloaded a barrage of shots on him. The force of the attack was enough to force him back into the last room, clearing the was for Shining and his team.

“Get him out of her, I’ll be right behind you,” Shining shouted back and stormed after Charge that had already headed for the hole and was currently jumping through it.

In the room Alkahest had already gotten back up and was hugging the wall as best as he could seeing Charge jump past him and into the room, frantically looking for him. This was his chance, just slip past her and out of the room. And everything seemed to go smoothly until the heard a loud scream coming from the other side of the hole. “Hey, Charge, watch out! You almost hit us! Be careful, we are still trying to get the civilians out of here!”

Charge looked over her shoulder to respond, but as she did, she saw him, Alkahest. In a split second, she pulled the trigger and unloaded her weapon on him, the Rider being thrown back and crashing through several walls. What accompanied his creams was however another one, one quite familiar, she just couldn’t place it.

She rushed into the dust that had been blown up by her attack as she heard a pained groan next to her. She stopped for a moment to see where it was coming from. Her blood froze inside her veins as she looked down next to her. Shining was clutching his arm, blood flowing out from it. She looked back to where Alakhest had been throw too and saw that he was already getting back up again. If she went after him now, she could get him and with it Ivory…

She wanted to, she really wanted to, but her legs refused, and she returned her gaze towards Shining. She cursed under her breath and returned her attention towards her subordinate, grabbing him and heading for the exit. He had priority right now.

>-------<A>-------<

In a nearby alleyway, a man with grey skin and black hair had sunken down next to a dumpster. Small wounds covered his body, and he was clutching his arm with a pained expression. In the distance, he could hear police sirens coming ever closer.

“What are you doing you, idiot? Move!” The voice said, sounding angrier than ever. “You are worthless, we were so close, and you screwed it up!”

“Well, I wouldn’t really blame it on him. He was at a disadvantage against that Rider. She was responsible for closing off the access to one of my favorite associates,” came from the other end of the alley. Alkahest jumped up, only to wince in pain. He could see a man in a blue business suit with white orange skin and blue hair.

“Who are you,” he hissed with gritted teeth.

“I? Oh, you may call me Infinite Checkbook. I’m a spokesperson for a powerful organization that is interested in pretty much everything, and you have certainly managed to be quiet enticing for my superiors,” the man returned with an unbearable smugness in his voice.

“Yeah? If you want the Driver, you’ll have to claw it from my dead hands,” Alkahest hissed back.

“Oh, no, we don’t want the Driver. Well, at least not yours. We are actually more interested in a mutual partnership.” This got Alkahest to raise his eyebrow, scoffing at the idea.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Oh, I’m quite sincere. We have lost one of our best partners just a week ago and are currently seeking for someone to replace her, you and whoever is with you would certainly be of great use to us, as partners of course.”

“And what would be in it for me?” The voice spoke up again, much to Alkahest shook.

“Right now, I would say, escaping the police.” As he spoke the sirens again increased in intensity.

“Oh, and what else?”

“What?!” Alkahest spat out, quickly crying out in pain as he clenched his chest.

“Silence. I’m talking,” the voice hissed as Alkahest was panting on all four.

“Well, that can all be discussed later, Mr…” Checkbook said, looking at Alkahest expectingly.

“Shadow, Shadow Gold,” the voice returned.

“Ah, Shadow Gold. So, I assume this means we have a deal?” The smug smile only grew in size.

“If you can get us out of here and help us with something.” Shadow returned, sounding quite pleased.

“I don’t think…” Alkahest screamed out in pain again.

“Silence! You only talk when I say so!” He growled at the man.

“Oh, that can be arranged.” As he said that he pulled out a necklace from under his suit that quickly started to glow.