Part Two: The C that Exchanges Hands
It was a good thing Daring broke into Grape Vine’s house later that night because little did she know it but Philip’s earlier theory was about to come true. The serial freezing incidents had started, and with great vigor. It seemed every other day a new report about one of Cherry’s former lovers being frozen solid and then shattered came in. Philip and Daring had been personal witnesses to several bodies -Or what was left of them anyways- being bagged and tagged.
It had been a Saturday of all days when the first of many bodies had turned up. Science Teacher at a local high school, one Star Hunter. Dark blue furred pegasus, with the constellation of the hunter Orion on his arm. It was about one of the only ways to identify him. That was his Cutie Mark, like Phil’s was a magnifying glass and Daring’s a Compass Rose. Quite sadly, both Daring and Phil had been walking home after a date at the local bar when they saw the police cars outside the house. A young man was sobbing. It was Star Hunter’s son, a teenager named Star Tracker. And then they saw what little remained, just icy chunks of various body parts of Star Hunter being bagged and tagged.
“Please…” Star Tracker had pleaded, clutching onto Philip’s vest like a lifeline. “Please tell me you’ll find who did this to my dad! I’ve read your marefriend’s blog and everything! You’re a masterful detective! I know you can do it!”
Philip had simply laid a hand on his shoulder and said: “Trust me, kid, I will. Trust me. I knew your father, good friend of mine. Helped me solve the cases of the Constellation Killer and the Hillside Strangler. Rest assured, his death will not go unavenged.”
It would only be the first of many bodies to turn up. In the week that followed, several other stallions met this grisly fate including Tempest Wind’s brother one Black Gale. This was when the case became deeply personal to Tempest, who swore he’d shoot the killer in the head. He’d had to be taken off the case.
Of course, Daring had no time to think about all of this going on right now, as she had what she hoped would be solid proof to unmasking the Dopant behind these incidents in her hands…
It was later that very same day when Daring and Philip had met up with Grape Vine for the first time. Descending slowly on a small line through the skylight and dressed in a dark navy blue turtleneck sweater. Daring slowly dropped to the floor, being very careful not to make much noise as she did so. The sweater itself, it wasn’t particularly flattering, but it did the job. Shadows themselves were actually not black as commonly thought and would actually have had Daring’s silhouette show up in the moonlight, so therefore dark blue was the color of choice.
Daring crept across the floor being careful to mind her steps and walk softly by slowly shifting her weight onto each hoof with every step, before quickly taking cover behind a couch when she saw a security camera sweeping its gaze across the room.
“Cute, really cute…” Daring muttered, thanking Celestia that she’d swallowed a little gem that disguised and distorted her voice for an hour or so, so this way even if she was caught on camera nobody could prove it was her via voice alone. Of course, she had a way of dealing with that damned camera as well. Namely, setting up one of her own.
Placing a small camera on the coffee table and aiming it at the loft’s camera this would freeze the image shown in the little security crystal inside the camera.
“Okay, easy enough. Now, time to find that closet.” Daring told herself, heading for the bedroom. Blushing slightly when she saw Fleetfoot, the mare from before curled up under the sheets clothing tossed on the floor she slowly opened the closet door hoping and praying it wouldn’t make any creaking noises. Inside, was a collection of suits and ties along with a safe.
A thought struck her. If Fleetfoot was here, where was her presumed lover AKA Grape Vine? Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She then heard a toilet flushing and her eyes widened. She didn’t have much time. Screw the safe for now, and just grab any random tie and get out!
Quickly grabbing a tie, she took a chance and made a break for it, pressing a button on her wristwatch making it turn into a small spider that silently grappled up to the skylight and pulled her upwards with a small zipping sound. Daring wiped beads of sweat off her face as she closed the skylight door after pulling the previous line up. That was too close for comfort for her liking.
Now, at the labs of the NYPD, Daring and Philip went to find an old friend in one Twilight Sparkle, probably the best forensic scientist you’d ever come across. She claimed she could kill you, do away with the evidence and nobody would ever catch her. Philip wasn’t entirely inclined to believe her of course, given there was no such thing as the hypothesized Perfect Crime but she’d done good work in the past.
As ever, Twilight’s lab was a mess with beakers and microscopes being scattered across the tables befitting the state of the poor mare, almost being constantly turned to for the crimes and solving them forensically. She honestly needed a lab assistant, but really the mare was rather stubborn and always declined.
Her dark purple mane was a frazzled mess and her glasses slightly askew, and her lab coat was immaculately clean with it actually being the only part of her that actually looked nice. Philip swore that if the young mare actually took some time out to clean herself up a little, she might be able to score a date with that young Flash Sentry patrol officer she’d been eying. She, of course, denied this but everyone knew better when they saw her eyes wander.
“Philip, Daring, nice to see you again,” Twilight said, her eyes briefly wandering to a framed piece of newspaper about a young officer -No surprises as to his name- taking down a cocaine dealer and noting about talks of a possible promotion. Soft classical music played on violins and the like played through speakers in the background. Twilight often liked to listen to music while she worked. “I assume you’re here about the uh… odd substance found at Cherry’s homicide scene?”
“...God, that poor mare.” Twilight murmured to herself as Philip nodded. Twilight walked over to the mass spectrometer that sat in the far side of the room. Her pride and joy, her baby as she called it. “Well, Major Mass-Spec here, he’s been-”
“Major Mass-Spec?” Daring whispered. “So what, she’s naming her toys now?”
“Let her have her fun, okay?” Philip whispered back as Twilight continued unimpeded. If she’d heard anything from either of them, she ignored it.
“-You know, doing what he does and been analyzing the blood sample and the DNA off that tie you brought in,” Twilight said. “Even if I don’t know where and probably don’t want to know where you got it,” she mumbled, this last part to herself. In simplest terms, Mass spectrometry measures the masses and chemicals within a given sample, used to determine the elemental or isotopic signature within said sample and to elucidate the chemical structures of chemical compounds.
“So, what’s the news?” Daring asked impatiently, arms crossed and hoof tapping slightly on the floor. She had no time for this science crap right now, she needed answers and she needed them now. The sooner Twilight determined the identity of the Dopant, the better and the sooner she and Philip could put him in cuffs. She had no doubt in her mind as to who it was, she just needed proof Grape was him. While she didn’t know if her coltfriend shared the same thoughts, she suspected knowing him that he in fact did. It was in his nature, after all, as soon as he got a case he would follow it to the end and chase down every lead.
Truth be told, Daring had often been worried about this quality of Phil’s, often worrying from time to time that it’d lead him to do something reckless and wind up getting himself killed. Honestly, Daring hated to sound like one of those housemares who’d grown weak and doted upon their husband’s every living need and resigned themselves to things like knitting and crap, but she honestly didn’t know what she’d do without Phil by this point. They were two of a kind, partners from back to front. She would work with no one else and that was that.
“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. Actually, maybe they’re both good news depending on your perspective. Found your serial killer,” she chirped up merrily before grumbling: “Good news for us, and Manehatten but bad news for him and his carpet if you take your usual approach and shoot him in the head.” she muttered. “Try not to do that this time, okay? The cleanup crew is getting really rather piss-sorry, peeved about all of this okay?”
“It’s okay, you can say pissed off, nobody would blame you,” Daring remarked.
“Not going to, don’t curse remember?” Twilight reminded.
“Right, one of those die-hard Celestia’s Witnesses,” Daring muttered in disgust. “Anyways, out with it. Who is it? Don’t have time to waste here, there’s a mass murdering Dopant with a grudge on the loose,”
“Okay, the blood and the DNA on the tie? Exact same, they match up right down to the letter. Traces of iron and ice in both of them, and there’s enough DNA for me to square down a match with Major Mass Spec. Guy’s been on the criminal records database before, arrested for stalking Cherry Dopant -No surprise there- so I give you…” Twilight said, using her fingers to imitate a dramatic drumroll. “Mr. Grape Vine! Not sure how he did it though, but got away and left a trace of blood. Dopant armor, hard to break and I doubt a window would do it.”
Philip’s eyes narrowed. “I knew it, I knew it was him. He was too nice, talked way too much about Dopants and Gaia Memories for it not to be off in some way. Lied right to our faces about Gaia Memories being scum, the bloody hypocritical dingo,” he nickered in disgust before posing a theory. “Now here’s what I believe happened…”
Cherry Popped had pulled up outside the apartment, and slowly made her way to her former lover, one Night-in-the-Gale. Odd name yes, but Philip had heard weirder really. Now, there was no hiding the fact. Night-in-the-Gale was a pimp as if you couldn’t already tell from his flashy gold jewelry and his straw hat with the pink band. But drugs or anything else of the like wasn’t what had attracted Cherry to him. He was just that handsome and had this charisma. Plus, it helped he treated his girls with respect, and that he’d saved Cherry’s life back in the day when some gangster -Another former lover of hers perhaps unsurprisingly- tried to take a drive-by shooting at her with a Tommy gun.
He’d shoved her to the ground, ended up with a few glass shards from a shattered window in the back for his trouble but by some miracle he’d lived. Philip knew all of this course because he was a simple officer on the force when this happened an odd decade ago. He was the one who made the arrest of said shooter after Night-in-the-Gale had identified him via a photo.
Now, Philip could only speculate from here on in what happened, but he guessed this much. Cherry and her former lover were talking, with Cherry explaining she was getting married to Tidal Fury. Now, there had been signs of a struggle in the apartment itself, chairs and tables knocked over so perhaps the two had a bit of a spat or maybe Night-in-the-Gale had fought back against the attacker. Philip could only guess. Windows had been shuttered, so nobody could really tell what went on within.
Either way, the unknown assailant was soon to arrive, judging by the timing of when local neighbors told the police they’d seen Cherry arrive and when they heard the sound of glass breaking and a dreadlocked creature jumping out the side window. Dreadlocks fit both the description of Tidal Fury and Grape Vine’s manestyles so it could have been either of them if Philip didn’t know better.
Now, Philip obviously had no knowledge of the Dopant’s powers aside from the fact that he could freeze his victims to the point of Absolute Zero. So again, he could only guess what happened next. Grape Vine entered the building, in through the roof as nobody saw the creature entering the building through a door. It would have been a very noticeable sight to be sure. Maybe he entered through a rear entrance instead, not the roof and made his way up through the apartment hallways. If this happened, people were too scared to talk about it.
Now, what happened next, Grape froze the two poor souls solid, and Philip didn’t quite know how he managed it but he managed to crash through the side window back in his normal pony form. Maybe by sheer force of will, and maybe all Dopants could eject their Gaia Memories. Not like enough alive ones had been brought in to know.
In any case, Grape had gotten away almost clean. Almost. He couldn’t help himself and carved ‘Slut” into the room’s wall somehow and when he smashed through the window he’d left behind a blood trace. Now, Philip surmised he’d been using the Gaia Memory for so long, it’s properties had mixed into Grape’s blood giving it this icy blood appearance.
Next, Philip threw open the lab doors and shouted to the chief of police. “Get me every cop you can spare, and get them watching every possible lover of Cherry’s that’s still alive! Me and Daring, we’ll be watching one ourselves, Mr. Tidal Fury as I imagine Grape isn’t too pleased with learning he was set to marry Cherry!”
With that, he grabbed his trilby and his coat and rushed out the door with Daring following close behind.
And so, not even an hour and a half later Daring and Philip found themselves sitting outside Tidal’s house in the suburbs just watching and waiting. Philip was sitting atop his bike -the Typhoon- with a pair of binoculars in hand, and Daring rested behind some trash bins out of sight. Eventually, even sooner than expected they heard the sound of an engine rumbling and saw an old Bugatti Type 50 pulling up. Pure white in color, which was frightening, strikingly fitting for the driver, the car was a work of art. It was a sleek and shiny design, a nice wheel cover stretching up and over the wheels in a curved manner The trunk of the car was relatively small compared to the rest of it, sticking out like a jagged lump on its back with two spare tires hanging off of it. The roof curved over the seats smoothly comfortably seating one person. One person who was now making his way up the steps to the door of Tidal’s house.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Daring shouted, leaping over the top of the trash bins and pulling out a pistol, the distinct cocking of the weapon being quite audible on the otherwise quiet streets.
“Really?” Grape asked in distaste. “Pointing a pistol at me, when I’m just visiting a friend to give him some support in his time of need?”
“Funny that,” Philip remarked. “You arrested for stalking Cherry back in the day, and you calling yourself one of Tidal’s friends even if you only spent less than an hour in his presence and he made his distaste for you quite clear.”
“He’s grieving. Lashing out, pushing others away. Surprised he hasn’t done it to you yet really. Now, drop the gun Daring, and maybe we can talk like civilized ponies eh?’
“Yeah, I’d hardly think a guy with a Gaia Memory with an intent to use it to kill, and ice in his veins quite literally in this case would be called civilized.” Philip retorted. “Believe me, we checked. Now, while we never found the Gaia Memory, you’d be surprised what the art of Mass Spectrometry can do. Face it, you dingo, you got sloppy. You got amateurish.”
Grape’s face contorted into on of rage. “Damn you, damn you and you not staying out of this like I warned you! Oh well, both you two and Tidal, going to have to pay the consequences…” he sighed, holding up a Gaia Memory with the letter I on it, and injecting it into his forearm.
\ Ice Age! /
“Reason you never found my memory?” Grape asked, now having turned into a pure white monster wearing a inca style headdress. “Not stupid enough to keep it laying around. Now, why don’t you just… chill out?”
With that, he fired a blast of pure ice from his fingertips, as Daring and Phil rolled out of the way with the blast of cold air freezing the plants behind them solid.
“Oh, really think we were stupid enough to let you have Tidal once we knew you were after him? Alerted him early, man’s on his way to a police safe house right now. So, that means it’s just you VS us.” Daring smirked, before pulling out a very familiar belt as she ran to avoid a barrage of icy spikes sent her way.
Philip’s eyes widened. “Daring, that’s-”
“Shroud’s little device? Yeah, held onto it. She might have a point here, if the only way to stop this monster is to use his own powers against him, so be it.” Daring stated, and held up the refined Gaia Memory she’d taken, a white one with a F on it and pressed down on it.
\ Fang! /
Drawing on her deeply hidden love for Japanese television dramas, and her even deeper hidden love for superheroes, she called out a singular, yet simple phrase as she slammed the Gaia Memory into its slot on her belt.
“Henshin!”
As the memory was slammed into the Driver, a small roar like a dinosaur echoed from it and Daring suddenly found herself clad in an almost pure white costume. Sharp detailing, blood red eyes and a white chevron as the head crest with a black line shaped like a W reaching across from shoulder pad to shoulder pad, Daring was completely transformed, her famous whip holstered on her left hip and golden wings folded on her back.
“Now… Count up your Crimes!” Daring shouted, pointing a finger at the Ice Age Dopant.
“So, the little pegasus can ride her bike after all, and actually be more than just this piece of eye candy…” Grape Vine growled out, fully embracing his role as the Ice Age Dopant. “Very well then, let’s dance!”
White mist crackled around Grape Vine as he curled his fingers into fists. Throwing them to his side, two gauntlets formed on them, before growing all the way up into sleeves. Once they hit his shoulders, they morphed his chest and legs into a bulky white armor with black marks on it. Whipping his head back, a vicious torrent of snow burst out of his neck and froze around his head as he thrashed it back down and stared at Daring; a helmet with two black eye marks replacing it.
“One thing I have to question,” Daring asked, as she went for her whip and grabbed Grape by the wrist pulling him forwards before slashing him across the chest with a summoned wrist mounted fang. “Why? Why did you do it? Why did you kill all of those men and Cherry?”
“Because she was a slut, and they deserved it!” Grape hissed out, his voice having gone as cold as the winter frost. People had started to gather, coming out of their apartments and grabbed their camera phones. Daring grimaced, the stupid idiots were only going to get themselves killed. Meanwhile Grape continued ranting on and on. “You know something, I loved her. Followed Cherry everywhere, and did she even give a hoot in Hell about me? No! So she deserved exactly what she got!”
“Now you’re just complaining to give yourself a reason to fight. That’s not love, that’s just obsession!” Daring shook her head and readied her blade. “What a loser you are.”
“I. Am. Not. A. LOSER!” Grape smashed his foot against the ground, and in split seconds, an icy arena made of spikes formed around him and Daring. “And I’ll prove it right here and now, by taking your Gaia Memory and its power for myself!”
“Yeah, sorry,” Daring remarked throwing her wrist fang like a boomerang, cutting into Grape’s armor before it reattached itself to her wrist. “You’re just a druggie who doesn’t know when to quit, looking for his next fix. Consider this me giving you a reason.”
“Can a druggie do this?!” He threw his hands to Daring, and a blizzard of icy knives were hurled towards her.
Shots rang out, and Daring turned to see Philip holding a smoking Glock pistol.
“You want to tussle with my marefriend, you dingo? You have to deal with me as well.” He blew out the smoke and ran over to the ring only to be knocked aside by a blast of icy winds from Grape.
“Philip!” Daring shouted in fear, noticing the Earth Pony’s bleeding head, small droplets of blood oozing out onto the pavement.
Grape could only laugh. “Look at you, you don’t even have powers, or if you do you’re too scared to use them!” He cracked his neck as he drew a pair of daggers from his suit. “Meanwhile, I can do anything I could ever want. Life without limits is so good, isn’t it?” To demonstrate, he thrust his hands up, causing an icy pillar to sprout from Daring’s feet and knock her sky high. She unfurled her wings, and used her whip to grab onto a nearby gargoyle head and swing over the Ice Age Dopant before summoning yet another fang blade, this time on her shoulder. As she landed behind Grape, she detached it and held it out like a sword. She managed to get a few strikes in but was kicked backwards.
Grape rolled back into Daring and grabbed onto her legs, channeling his ice powers through his hands. It coated both of her legs, and even the lower half of her torso in ice. Smirking, he flipped away and held out his daggers at her.
“Both a loser, and a coward.” Daring cut through the ice with a single swing of her sword. “Why don’t you just hit me with those things, instead of just relying on your element powers for everything?”
“That’s just it, though. Life without powers is weakness! Using nothing but a blade to do your work is weakness! Weakness needs to be purged!” Grape roared, his Dopant side taking him over further and further. He lunged forward and swung his blades in scissor-like fashions, clashing against Daring’s own sword. Each and every hit was followed by contrails of ice, which acted as a pair of additional daggers for when they couldn’t hit her physically. “This? This is power. Why don’t you use yours like I do? Cut loose a bit? Be a TRUE Gaia Memory user.”
He raised his blade for the final strike, only for it to be shot out of his hands. Philip was back up again, holding his smoking pistol.
“Because she’s a Masked Rider, that’s what she is. Not a monster like you. Actually, no. Hey partner?” Philip asked, mentally telling himself to screw fear and break the chains of fate, fear, and hesitation. “Shouldn’t it be we? Not just you?” he asked.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Daring answered. “Guess you finally stopped being afraid of Shroud right?”
“And her remarks. Looks like she wasn’t lying about one thing. Whatever this sort of power is, it is needed to stop the Dopants. Stop monsters like him.” Philip declared, pointing a finger at Grape before holding up a T2 Gaia Memory marked with the letter N.
“You too?” Grape almost stumbled backward at the sight of the Gaia Memory. “Well, the more the merrier, I say. Come on! Show me no mercy… Just like a true Gaia Memory user would.”
“No, not a Gaia Memory User,” Philip corrected and pressed down on his Gaia Memory. “A Masked Rider.”
\ Nazca! /
“Henshin!” Philip stated, slamming the Memory into his belt. He was covered in a pure black bodysuit, that soon found itself covered in orange Tron lines as an eagle owl themed helmet formed around his head, with two glowing yellow lamp-like eyes functioning as the visor.
The crowd, which had been eagerly snapping photos and taking videos with their camera phones began shouting and cheering: “Masked Rider!” over and over as two orange condor-like wings of light manifested from Philip’s back.
“No weapons?” Grape tilted his head. “Looks like you’re a dud. Meanwhile, I have the upper hand.” Clicking his fingers, a series of ice golems appeared all around him. “Wear them down!”
“Yeah, hate to break it to you mate but they’re just ice. Easy enough to smash,” Philip remarked, feeling a new strength filling him with his new powers, and slamming a fist into his palm. “Alright then you little stalker, time to get your arse kicked.”
“Oh really?” Grape smashed his hands together and sent the golems running. “Hope you’re strong enough to punch through Absolute Zero!”
“Time to see what other Gaia Memories Shroud offered us, and what they can do.” Philip thought to himself. “Well, bring it on Ice Man!” he shouted, slamming another Gaia Memory into the little slot on the right side of his waist.
\ Heat! /
Philip’s hands became encased in red-hot flame as his whole suit changed to a bright crimson shade. Philip took a few sharp short breaths out of fear of the flame with old memories being brought to the surface before that fear faded remembering there was a far greater threat to worry about. Plus, unlike normal fire, this felt warm and comforting instead of rendering all to ash. He easily began punching his way through the ice clones and then smashing bits of Grape’s ice armor, before kicking him down the street into a car.
“Now, you said all of this crap about you hating Gaia Memory users and the chaos they bring to your streets, and yet here you are throwing away your principles!” Philip shouted, as he caught a kick from Grape. “Or was that a lie as well?”
He created a flaming orb in his hands and tossed it at the Dopant making him stagger back as Daring slashed him across the chest with another wrist blade.
“Yeah… I admit I hate Dopants, and anyone who uses them damned Gaia Memories…” Grape grimaced.
“Then why are you even using one in the bloody first place, you hypocrite?”
“Because… Because like I said, Cherry spurned my affections, went off to open her legs with some other man! She deserved everything she got, and then some!”
“Not much of a reason, all that says is it’s all about you,” Philip replied, punching the monster in the face with another flaming fist. “Besides, can’t say I blame her for not being into you. You’re hardly handsome, and you groping her like that? Real turn-off for a woman.”
With that, he punched Grape again making him stagger, as the crowd’s cheering continued to grow ever louder.
“You know, I don’t really believe in Gods, or the Holy Mother, considering if they existed why would they let crap like you flounder I have to ask. But I will say this. She raises up your enemies, namely us, with her right hand, and she smites you with her left which is what we’re about to do to your Gaia Memory given powers.” Philip stated, striding forwards.
“Nngh!” Grape howled out in fury. He tried to stand, but clutched one of his legs in pain.
“Normally, I really don’t like to hit a man when he’s down, but you’re not a man anymore. Just a monster.” Philip remarked, tossing the Heat Memory aside and placing the Nazca memory in its place adorning his fist in a golden light. Daring did the same with her Fang Memory, and a fang blade formed on her left leg.
\ Nazca! Maximum Drive! /
\ Fang! Maximum Drive! /
“Not sure I have a name for this attack, so I’ll just call it Fang Streiser!” Daring shouted as she took to the skies before coming down with a roundhouse kick to Grape’s face shattering his headdress as Philip just socked Grape in the gut.
Grape flew backwards, landing on the ground. He tried to reach for his own Gaia Memory, but it only shattered before his very eyes.
“Huh, just like Tidal’s dreams of marrying the mare you killed. Shattered before your very eyes.” Philip remarked as he and Daring disengaged their transformed state with a sound and an effect like glass shattering as their costumes fell away. Philip smirked as he heard the sound of police sirens in the background. Helping Grape to his hooves, he kicked the stallion into Makura’s arms.
“There, believe that’s the man you’re looking for. Do with this scum as you wish.” Philip said, before getting on his bike and revving the engine by pressing down on the handlebars. Daring wrapped her arms around his waist. “Now if you excuse me, I believe Daring’s got to write up this case on her blog,” he stated, putting on his helmet and saluting them.
“Trust me,” Daring said with a seductive grin. “That’s not all I’ve got planned tonight…”
Philip shuddered in anxious wait before he drove off into the night. Unbeknownst to them, Shroud watched from the shadows, and smiled as she turned her head away and vanished into an alleyway. “Phase one complete.” she thought to herself.
Philip couldn’t sleep a wink that night, and it wasn’t for the reasons you would have thought. It was 5:00 AM precisely, and Philip was lying awake in bed, a nude Daring by his side cuddling him like a pillow.
Philip’s eyes drifted towards the nightstand, where all six T2 Gaia Memories rested. Heat, Nazca, Fang, and three others sat there. Two marked with the letter T, and one marked with a P.
He grimaced to himself, something was wrong here and he knew it. Why would Shroud just give these sort of powers and those Lost Drivers as she called them to him and Daring out of the goodness of her heart? Nobody did that, at least nobody without some sort of agenda in his world. No, there was something else at play here and he knew it. It was all in the wording Shroud used.
“My real name is irrelevant, you may call me Shroud,” the woman answered. “I am here to offer you a proposition, Philip Finder, and Daring Do.”
“Shroud, noun. A: a length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial. B: a thing that envelops or obscures something.” Philip thought to himself. “Both equally fitting.”
“So, what is your… proposition?” Philip asked.
“And I think I should have a say in this, that’s my car and besides Philip’s helping me with a case that-”
“Involves your late wife-to-be and a Dopant. I’m quite well aware of the details,” Shroud replied with a dismissive wave. “And this factors into that. Look into the case.”
She opened up the briefcase with a distinctive clicking sound, and inside the case was this section of five different USB flash drives each marked with a different letter of the alphabet and two other items. Both were the exact same in nature and design. They were each small belts with a big, red buckle with a device on it. A slot for something sat at the right side with the left end having more buckle holders, for if the user had a smaller waistline or something.
“Okay, so you’ve got some fancy devices that wouldn’t look out of place on some sci-fi themed fashion line and some USB flash drives. Why should we care?” Daring asked. Shroud somehow managed a glare even without visible eyes.
“Nngh…” Daring moaned out, slowly waking up for whatever reason. “Come on Phil, you’re still awake?”
“I’m sorry, but Daring… I just feel as if there’s something more here. Like we’re being played like a violin by Shroud and only she knows all the notes.”
“You’re paranoid, Phil. That’s what it is,” Daring said, wrapping the bedsheets around herself and walking towards the bathroom feeling nature’s call.
As she shut the door, Philip sighed.
“Maybe, but when you’ve been in this job as long as I have… Well, it’s strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then,” Philip remarked. “Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness, really. You can’t blame me can you?”
“No, I suppose not.” Daring said from behind the bathroom door.
“I mean, what does Shroud have to gain from all of this?” Philip had to ask. “Altruism? Yeah, I don’t think so. Altruism, Noun: the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.” he said, still continuing to think on Shroud’s little conversation with them.
“Because, this is what will allow you two to defeat the Dopants ravaging this city,” Shroud replied and held up one of the flash drives. “Now this, this is a Gaia Memory.”
“Okay, stop right there. Not interested in sticking a drug in my arm and turning into the very same monsters I swore to fight.” Philip snarled. Shroud ignored him and continued on.
“I do not care what you think,” she said. “I work for an organization who wishes to stay anonymous, which has been able to refine the Gaia Memories and use them in conjunction with these belts. Their power has been weakened, yes, but these T2 Gaia Memories as we call them will not turn you into a monster of any sort.” Shroud continued, tossing a light blue Memory marked with the letter N into Philip’s hand.
“A drug is still a drug,” Philip refuted. “I’d want more and more of that power, and I have no guarantee you’re not lying and that these do the opposite of what you say and just turn me into a monster anyways. One that the police would not be able to stop. The devices, just plastic accessories to sell your lie.”
“Believe what you will, but sooner or later there will come a time you and Daring will see I’m right.”
“I know what it means, thank you very much,” Daring stated. “I did take basic grammar school you know.” she deadpanned.
“I’m just saying, she seemed all too eager for us to use those Gaia Memories, and while I’m not grateful for the power they gave us to help stop Grape Vine and put him behind bars where he belongs I can’t help but wonder where this is all leading up to,” Philip said as the sound of a toilet flushing was heard in the background and Daring returned wrapping the bedsheets around herself once more. “No, I don’t think this case is over yet.”
“Oh come on Phil,” Daring said, sitting beside him. “Grape Vine’s locked up!”
“Yes, but what about Shroud? I have this feeling that we’re like lab rats to her, and what’s this group she’s talking about? How do we know she doesn’t have some ulterior agenda? And what about Tidal, what will he do now? Daring, I have to ask. Are you willing to ride with the Devil?”
“Thought you stopped believing in the Holy Mother and Gods years ago, you said it yourself in the battle with Grape.”
“Yes, but the Devil? Well, he’s an entirely different matter. And I firmly believe he is clad in Shroud’s clothing. She is using us, and we both know it. She wanted us to use the Lost Drivers, and the Gaia Memories. Us, and nobody else. Maybe a less paranoid buck would say it’s just because of our personalities, our good natures at heart, but…”
“Yeah, I get what you mean. We’re stubborn, determined to get what we want. We wouldn’t stop at anything once we set our minds to something. Perfect qualities for test subjects for whatever she’s planning,” Daring mused. “Yeah, you’re absolutely right Phil. Something’s hinky here, and I don’t like it. But right now, best we get some rest. We’ve got that visit to pay to Tidal in the afternoon, see how he’s doing now that his wife’s killer has been dealt with.”
Philip, still mulling over the thoughts of Shroud and her mysterious agenda finally let his weariness catch up with him and he fell to sleep not even a half an hour later.
Very much later that same afternoon, like at around 3:00 or so Philip met up with Tidal Fury at a bar in the Upper East Side.
“Bit early for drinking, innit?” Philip inquired, eating a bagel he’d grabbed from a shop across the street. While he was returning from there, he’d noted some kids playing a video game called “Space Defender” in some arcade. Philip personally never had a passing interest in video games but he’d overheard the basic premise from some teenager. It had the same basic one as most of the games of it’s type: i.e, that there were hostile forces in the universe and that they were out to get you. They’d leap out at any moment and if you were good enough you could survive for a while. Sooner or later though, one of them was bound to do you in. Philip admittedly, well he couldn’t argue with that.
“I think I deserve a drink, or a smoke or whatever after what I’ve been through. Hell, might even take up some Hash just to soothe the pain,” Tidal remarked, fingering his neck chain. Philip felt some sorrow go out to the poor man, didn’t deserve any of this even with what he did. Philip, he’d managed to wrangle the cops into keeping him from getting locked up by getting Tidal to confess to all of the names of the other Memory dealers in town. Even now, they were being rounded up and arrested as the two spoke. “Still have the Beast Memory? Still holding onto it?”
“Yeah, I am,” Philip answered.
Tidal took another swig of his beer. “Good.”
“Now, none of that talk. No need to turn to drugs, or anything. You’ll find another woman, someday.”
“I’m… I’m honestly not sure I will really,” Tidal confessed, and took a deep hesitant sigh. “Y’know, thought about calling up a prostitute the other day. Hell, even thought about watching some old crappy porn flick and jacking off to it, but I couldn’t y’know? Felt disloyal to my wife’s memory.”
“That’s only natural. I confess, if I’d lost Daring I’m not sure what I’d do. Go on a rampage against who took her from me and the… Well, honestly I don’t quite know. Kill myself? Perhaps. When you lose someone that close to you like I did with my mother a few weeks back you’re in this sort of state where you don’t know if up is down and the like. Daring was my rock, helped me through all of that. Now, I’m going to be yours. Going to get you through all of this shit.”
“Thank you,” Tidal smiled at him. “No, seriously man. Thank you. So heard you and Daring brought in my wife’s killer. They’re calling you Masked Riders now. Masked Riders Fang and Nazca. Bit pretentious, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I’m not too fond of the names myself. Daring is a little, but me?”
Tidal just chuckled. “Just… Just thank you. Thanks for bringing my wife’s killer to justice. Streets are a lot safer thanks to you, and now there’s a way to analyze Gaia Memories now that you didn’t kill Grape as you had so many other users before. Maybe the police can finally figure out how they work, render them all useless with some big-ass magic spell or something.”
Philip shrugged. “Maybe, who’s to say really? Come on, I’ll buy you another drink. On me.”
Across town, rising high above any other building in Manehatten was this massive steel structure called the Shard, jutting out from the city skyline like a jagged piece of glass, thousands upon thousands of windows. Nobody knew what went on inside, but suspicions and rumors mongered as they tended to do. Things like mad science experiments, to just simple things like the great and the good hanging out for parties after making good deals on stock. Nobody ever really knew.
Well, almost nobody.
Deep inside, near the top floor was this lab. Wall to wall T2 modeled Gaia Memories stored in cases, and computer banks gathering data from them and feeding that very same data to various sources.
In the middle of the room was Shroud, and another man. Handsome, almost ludicrously so with a pure white coat and long flowing golden locks.
“So, am I correct in hearing that we know these new Gaia Memories work as intended?” the man asked, and Shroud nodded. The man smirked and handed over a wad of huge cash to Shroud via a briefcase held by a dark-suited man. In return, he was handed a red-tinted T2 Memory of his own marked with an F and a Lost Driver.
“Thank you Shroud, or should I say Maria S. Cranberry?” Blueblood asked.
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Ok, I'm tempted to count this up, but already did that in the first one and I don't count things double.
Now, count up your references: 1
Sorry, I only count up Kamen Rider references, but cute.
I have the feeling that is a nodded to another Philip, but not sure. Ah, screw it: Now, count up your references: 2
Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow
Now, count up your references: 3
Now, count up your references: 4
Huh, ok translated. Fine with me. And no, I don't count this as a reference because I don't want to give this piece of crap any validation in any way shape or form.
Now, count up your references: 5
Now, count up your references: 6
\ Cobra! Cobra! Evol Cobra! /
"Phase one complete! Huhauhahaha!"
I think she already did
Oh and don't we forget: Now, count up your references: 7
X-tremly interesting
Now, count up your references: 8
By the way, love how you used that plot point from the movie
Lol, well that is interesting. Closet masochist it seems.
Ah, who cares. Makes sense. I personally prefer Kamen Rider, but hey, really not important.
Fair enough. Could have also gone with something completely original when you already change the name. something like: "Let's ride!" but this works too.
9122098
You forgot a reference:
Constellation Killer = Zodiac Killer
9122142
Like I said, I only count up Kamen Rider references.
Funny thing is if he had actually called him the Zodiac Killer I might have counted that one up.
9122098
I swear that one was completely unintentional. I was just thinking of Blueblood's fur coat color, not Jun's attire.
Yeah, I liked how they completely fooled us for a time into thinking Maria was Philip's mother, aka Shroud before pulling the wool out from under us. I honestly liked both Maria and Shroud's storylines in Double, so I thought why not sorta make them one and in the same in a sense in this story?
Nah, as I said to Ponyjosiah and I requote: I have this rule, okay? Whenever I use my ponysona, make him the butt monkey of everything. So far in my stories I've put him through psychological hell, had him get killed via a fist through the chest and now he gets to be a serial killer.
Way I see it, if you're going to put your Ponysona in a story, make them hurt, or make them so dislikeable.
Fair, right?
And there's one reference you forgot to count up. Remember the underlined lines of dialogue when Daring slapped on her Lost Driver? Well, they linked to this.
(Okay, actually a Soundcloud version of the song, but still the same recording.)
9122142
9122150
Completely unintentional I swear, I'd completely forgotten about the Zodiac Killer at the time of writing. I just thought Constellation Killer was a good name, and would make sense for a guy who works in astronomy to help Philip out with.
9122173
I think that is a sign that you are watching too much Kamen Rider. Ah, who am I kidding, there is no thing such as too much Kamen Rider.
9122173
Well, I wouldn't really count that as a reference, more a song that is in the story. Or I'm missing the part where you used lyrics from the song in the story.
9121002
There's actually another reason why FangNazca isn't a thing here. Remember how Philip (The Double one, not the Aussie) went beserk first time he used the memory? Can you imagine what would happen if the Fang Memory was combined with a memory like Nazca or Trigger in this story? Philip and Daring would become just as powerful and dangerous as the monsters they fight.