Part Six: The Final Q
The Shard:
Daring and Philip rushed Blueblood, but he swiftly stepped out of the way as if he were a toreador in a bullfight, then swiftly delivered kicks to their backs, launching them back into the corridor they had entered through.
“Geez, for a rich trust fund kid, sure packs a punch…” Daring muttered, rubbing her jaw. Under her helmet, she suspected she’d lost a tooth or two.
Philip went for his Trigger Gaia memory and activated it, while Blueblood pulled out his own magnum, and the two fired. The shots landed on his suit, but merely bounced off and landed pathetically by his feet as it was revealed he wore body armor underneath the suit.
“You know full well that Kamen Riders can’t be defeated. And I am now a Kamen Rider. So this battle might as well be ceaseless.” Blueblood stepped forward, charging his own Gaia Memory as he drew a dagger out from the pocket by his side.
“Aw, escalating things so quickly?” Daring remarked in a flirtatious tone. “Didn’t think you’d climax out on us so soon!”
Blueblood let out a growl, and pulled out his yellow-toned F memory. Blueblood moved his finger slightly, and Philip’s eyes widened briefly as he saw the letter on Blueblood’s memory was not an F as he previously thought, but an E.
With a flash of blue blazing flames, Blueblood transformed as he slammed the memory into his Driver, causing a grand explosion to form around him as his suit changed into a white battle suit with a black harness around the chest--No, a bandolier full of slots for Gaia Memories Daring corrected herself. He now donned a black cape and blue gauntlets, and his helmet now had a sharp E shape poking out of the top and forehead making it resemble the head of an Eagle Owl. The golden eyes only sharpened the comparison. Daring noted it was a frightening mirror image of Philip’s own armor.
“However, let’s just say that, unlike you, I don’t have any rules to tie me down!” He threw a small spherical device at them, causing it to detonate once it was in close proximity to them. The resulting explosion sent both Daring and Phillip flying.
Daring and Philip both regained their footing, and drew their weapons. Daring, her signature whip and Philip his baton. But they had mere seconds to get comfortable with them, as Blueblood--moving at speeds far beyond that of a normal human--- ran back to them and started to barrage them with accelerated roundhouse kicks and hooks.
“Come on, then! Is that all?” Philip asked as his baton met every single one of Blueblood’s strikes and repelled them with little effort. He then proceeded to vault over Blueblood and swiftly swing his baton into the unicorn’s back. When he landed, he was simply grabbed by the throat and thrown towards Daring. Both of them landed in a heap.
“For Kamen Riders, you’re not very good at this, are you?” Blueblood asked, standing on Daring’s back. “Don’t worry. With proper training and discipline, you can be just as good as me someday.”
“Says the harlequin dressed as the hero,” Philip groaned and tried to stand back up, only for more and more pressure to be applied to Daring’s body, which was on top of his own.
“You’re a good detective Finder, but a terrible excuse for a Kamen Rider. Your predecessors, they’d be disappointed in you.” Blueblood smirked.
“Pot calls kettle black,” Phillip replied. “Look, I get it, a Dopant scarred your wife beyond recognition, possibly drove her mad. But to go to all of this? There are better ways to help people and earn some wealth than fooling about with what are basically drug dealers, and a mysterious organization you know nothing about. Surely you’ve noticed haven’t you? The men in white lab coats? Did you ever wonder where they came from?”
Blueblood was struck silent, and released the pressure. Truth be told, he was curious. They’d just shown up out of nowhere one day, and paid a frightening resemblance to the men he and Saffron had run into back into his wife’s home country. Could it be possible that…?
“Yeah, I thought so, you’re just as curious as I am. Where’s she getting the funds? How is she creating these new Gaia Memories, the ones that are meant for nothing but battle? I looked into your wife Blueblood,” Philip continued. “What you two did together. Create medicine to heal the world? Strange isn’t it, how she’s suddenly turned to weapons manufacturing?”
“My wife would never do something malicious without a good reason. Why, she tells me practically everything under the sun; even some of her more… frivolous and unsafe for the working environment details,” Blueblood gazed down upon the two, not entirely believing his own words. Truth be told, he was lying through his teeth. Saffron never told him much about her activities nowadays. “So then why would she not tell me about this sort of thing? What was her motive?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. Scarring like that? Could drive a mare mad.” Philip remarked, before the sounds of a police chopper were audible, and a bright spotlight shined in through a window. Blueblood whirled around to face the light, shielding his eyes and releasing Philip.
“Halt! This is Officer Tempest with the Manehatten Task Force!” a male middle-aged voice shouted over a megaphone. “Drop your weapon, and disengage your Driver or we will be forced to fire!” Tempest shouted, and a door on the chopper opened to reveal a SWAT officer holding an assault rifle.
Blueblood, needless to say, did not comply and went for his magnum. Philip’s eyes widened even as Blueblood fired the Bomb Gaia memory-loaded magnum. But he didn’t shoot the SWAT officer, he only shot his rifle blowing it to pieces. Philip’s eyes widened even as the chopper flew off, maybe there was some good still left in Blueblood, and he hadn’t been driven to the brink of madness.
“Do not confuse the issue, officers. These are all my fellow Kamen Riders. We are simply hunting a Dopant that was sighted in this area,” he said, pulling his helmet off briefly. “We were just having a bit of a… disagreement. But rest assured that it has been rectified and we shall resume the search immediately.” Back on went the helmet. Right in time for Daring to punch him in the face, and then score a slash across the chest revealing the circuitry inside Blueblood’s armor.
“Yeah, like they’ll believe that brand of bullshit after you shot at one of their own.” she deadpanned, grabbing Blueblood by the arm with her whip, and pulling him forwards. She headbutted him, making him stagger.
Blueblood let more explosive pellets drop around him, but rather than cause an incendiary explosion, they simply blanketed the area with smoke, clouding up everyone else’s view of the sight. In the confusion, he broke free of Daring and Philip’s hold and threw concealed strikes hiding the blows with the folds of his cape, knocking Daring and Philip through the window. They were barely holding onto the edge of the frame, and once they tried to pull themselves up, Blueblood’s hooves stood dominantly on their hands.
Daring then summoned her arm fang once more, and struck Blueblood across the leg, making him stagger backwards, before she and Philip flipped upwards and rushed forwards. Philip drew his baton once more, and it clashed with Blueblood’s knife sparking flying off the metal surfaces of the weapon. Philip was blindsided by Blueblood’s cape, before he was punched in the gut.
Philip coughed up blood inside his helmet even as Blueblood smirked. The white Rider then slammed another Gaia Memory into his hip holster.
\ Zone! /
A blue grid of sorts appeared below the threesome, almost as if it were a chess-grid, or a tile format in a video game. He somersaulted back onto the grid and gave Daring and Philip a come-hither gesture, the fog still obscuring most of their vision. By this point, the soldiers on the chopper had switched to their thermal rifles just to see what was going on inside.
“Now then. Shall we cease this silly nonsense and get back to our mission, Kamen Riders?” Blueblood asked as Philip and Daring were forcibly pushed onto different tiles on the grid, Blueblood then teleported in front of them to punch or slash at them before teleporting away before they could land a blow. “Think about it, we’re allies now. Against a common foe, the Dopants plaguing this city!”
“And…” Philip coughed out even as Blueblood punched him again before teleporting away to a different tile. “Did… did it ever occur to you that your wife is the cause of the plague? Patient Zero? She’s supplying the dealers with unrefined Gaia Memories, in exchange for cash to make more. It’s a cycle.”
“I refuse to believe such nonsense accusations!” Blueblood kicked Philip in the back, then teleported in front of him to kick his head back up. The whiplash was enough to paralyse him for that moment, and he tumbled limply to the floor. Daring avenged him by grabbing an office chair, swinging it at Blueblood, only for him to warp away. “My wife is a goddess amongst mares, and she would never unleash Dopants onto the world!”
“Funny, have you ever asked her why she had Masquerade Dopants guarding this tower?” Daring asked smirking under her helmet as she did so, and Blueblood faltered, only to be punched backwards into a desk.
“Those were not Masquerade Dopants!” Blueblood shouted, desperation in his voice, struggling to believe his own words. He’d seen them for himself, on the building’s cameras. The way they slammed the Gaia Memories into their arms like syringes. “You are simply trying to stop me from being a Kamen Rider! K-Keep me from joining the legends and carve my name into eternity! Y-You’re just only trying to confuse me! That’s your little game, isn’t it?!” he shouted, trying to reconcile his own beliefs with reality.
He slammed another Gaia Memory into his hip holster, placing the Zone memory into his bandoliers, and the ‘chessboard’ vanished.
\ Clone! /
Multiple variants of Blueblood appeared in blue and green streams of data, laughing and mocking the twosome.
“Now, can you find the real me?” One of the Bluebloods asked. “You're a good detective Finder, surely you can find the real me amongst this crowd of fakes and lookalikes!”
“...Oh, I don’t have time for games.” Philip muttered, shaking his head and slamming his own Gaia Memory into his hip holster.
\ Nazca, Maximum Drive! /
“Rider Punch.” he stated simply. Next, he threw a punch with a fist clad in gold flame -Gold wings of light extending from his suit’s back- into the floor, sending out a pulse that hit all of the clones at once, causing them into vanish. So had the real Blueblood apparently, somewhere into the darkness until a voice came out of it.
\ Violence! /
Swords, daggers, kunais, battleaxes, you name it came flying out of the darkened hallway right at Philip and Daring.
“What the…?” Daring exclaimed as the barrage of weapons came towards them, with Daring grabbing the Trigger Memory and activating it. “How many Gaia Memories does he have?”
She fired, a regular revolver in her other hand shooting the weapons out of the air as fast as possible, but still they came. Daring had a reason for preferring the revolver over the machine pistol that was the Trigger Magnum. And it was this. “I’ve had too many semi-automatics jam on me right when I needed them. A revolver will never let you down if you keep it oiled.” She always said. But still, a hurricane of weapons, endless and unwavering.
Finally, Tempest nodded to his fellow pilot asking him to take the controls before pulling out an assault rifle of his own as the chopper came back around. He readied himself, and began shooting the last of the weapons out of the air, the gun vibrating in his hands.
“You two, go on ahead!” Tempest shouted as they all heard the sound of footsteps coming up a stairwell. Bodyguards, most likely. Possibly armed with powerful Gaia Memories of their own. “Take care of Blueblood. Aircover and I? We’ll handle things here!”
Philip nodded, and gave his old friend a salute before he and Daring kicked a door down. The most likely possible route Blueblood could have taken, and yet when they entered they only found it occupied by metal barrels and storage crates.
“How the…?” Daring murmured to herself, as her eyes whipped around from left to right. “Where’d he go?”
Then, an old memory came to the surface, and both Philip and Daring looked at each other.
“The Royale…” they said in unison, before searching for some sort of switch or plate to activate a hidden door. Finally, with a click, a wall moved aside revealing a dank dark passageway with bronze pipes and cobwebs cluttering it.
“After you…” Philip said with a gesture of his hands.
“Gee, thanks…” Daring muttered as she started down the passageway. “Make me feel like some sort of modern tomb raider or something. And they say chivalry is dead.”
Manehatten Police Headquarters:
Flash Sentry was an antsy pony by nature, anyone could tell you that much about the young pegasus. Eager as he was to prove himself, like his friend Bee, he wasn’t exactly the most confident stallion in the world. Oh, he had his good points like a love for law and order and he was handsome for his age, both of which were probably good selling points and why Twilight was attracted to him, but he wasn’t exactly the most confident stallion on the White Mother’s good Earth. Even now, he quivered.
Why he came to Manehatten, that was a subject of speculation amongst quite a few members on the force. Maybe he had this hidden adventurous side waiting to come forth? A few of the female cops certainly hoped so for obvious reasons. It was always the quiet ones after all. Maybe he had family here, that’d be an obvious draw. Maybe it was the luxury and romance of the big city, as it was said Flash did come from this small town out in rural midwestern Equestria.
Whatever the case was, here he was now walking down the corridors towards the interrogation room with his fellow pony and beat cop, Arc Light. Arc Light was a curious one, the force’s resident lothario -Or lech, depending on who you asked- he was often seen flirting with any one of the mares on the force. It was said of him by Phil: “Your mind, Light, runs the gamut from 'X' to triple 'X'.” Everyone was fair game to him. Excluding Twilight. Or Daring. Nobody flirted with them, and lived to tell the tale after Phil was done with you. Mind you, Arc did seem to have this soft spot for Bee, although if that was if he saw Bee as a little brother or Arc swung both ways nobody could really honestly tell.
Arc Light, he was mostly a dark blue stallion, a bit thin but that only added to his boyish charm. He bore a sun-kissed mane, bright as the solar fields of a star. His Cutie Mark? A prism, sorta like that one on Dark Side of the Moon’s cover, complete with a rainbow of light coming out one side.
“Buck up Sentry, that guy we’ve got in the room?” Arc remarked to Flash. “He’s one of those men Tempest arrested at the Shard downtown, and sent packing to us. Thank you teleportation magic,” he murmured. If it was sarcasm or not in his tone -Probably was, given Arc’s dry wit- it was impossible to tell at the moment. “Stripped of any Gaia Memories we found on him, and they’ve been burned. Now, our job? Find out who he works for, and what connection he has relating to all this shit we’ve found ourselves dug into.”
Flash looked through the small window in the door and swallowed nervously. The stallion, still in his white suit looked eerily calm. As if being in Manehatten’s police central and in an interrogation room caught red-handed with Gaia Memories didn’t bother him in the slightest. This one… he was going to be hard to crack.
“So, what’s the plan?” Flash asked.
“To be honest…” Arc murmured… “I don’t honestly have a damn clue. Throw him off guard maybe? Get him to accidentally say something he shouldn’t have? Any sort of clue would do nicely.”
With that, they entered the room, pulling up chairs and Flash steeled his courage even as the white-suited stallion looked him in the eye. It was scary really, like he was staring into your soul.
“So? Glass of water mate?” Arc remarked. “Swear, we don’t poison ponies. At least, not on purpose. Mind you, there was this one time some serial killer put mitoxantrone and cyclophosphamide into the water of someone we were interrogating, but that was a one-off, we swear. Honest to God.”
Flash shuddered at the memory, watching that old buck writhe on the floor like that… Not pretty, not something he’d want to ever see again.
“I’m fine, thank you.” the stallion replied.
“Least you could do is give us your name man,” Flash sighed. “Only polite.”
“Hey Flashy,” Arc said when the still unknown stallion said nothing. “Six letter word for a reason to commit a crime? C'mon, don't tense up... Starts with 'M'.”
“What are you getting at?” the white-suited stallion asked. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“...Ah, see, that’s where you’re wrong,” Flash stated, finding some courage. “Week ago, we got a stallion with an uncanny resemblance to you killing some guy -Known Gaia Memory dealer- in a parking lot.”
“Just doing a public service,” the stallion answered back. “Gaia Memory dealers are scum, are they not?”
“Yes, but murder’s murder. And funny thing, when we cleansed you, we found handprints all over your briefcase. Handprints that belong to that Gaia Memory dealer. Funny that…” Arc trailed off.
“What, you're insinuating I wanted to steal a few Gaia Memories for myself?” the stallion asked.
“I try so hard not to insinuate, don't I, Flashy?” Arc replied with a small sneer.
“You rarely insinuate, Arc,” Flash commented.
“I was planning on taking that thing to the dump, burning it. Still had that taint of those Gaia Memories on it!”
“~Weak~!” Arc singsonged. “You know, crime scene when we processed it, reminds me of that one holiday back a few years ago. Minus my sisters. There was a fair amount of blood though. Granted, in that case, it was only because dear old dad was a klutz and chopped off his finger. Ooh, nasty.”
Flash knew what Arc was doing, throwing this stallion off guard with made up or possibly at least exaggerated stories to make him think he had no idea what he was doing. However, Flash had a feeling this guy had seen every trick in the book so the book would have to be thrown out.
Flash leaned over to Arc. “Permission to leave the room?” he whispered.
“Why?” Arc hissed back. “I’m just getting to the good part! I was about to tell the story about my mom, the court case, and the spoon! Don’t tell me you’re wimping out on me Flashy!”
Flash said nothing and left the room leaving Arc calling after him.
“Coward!” he shouted, before turning his gaze back to the stallion. He noticed an ID card on his suit. “Now, where were we…? Foundation X huh? That’s who you’re working for?”
The stallion stayed silent. Outside the room, Flash went for his radio.
“Hey Chief, can we fake a quarantine lockdown? Just this once? Got a guy here in room 3, and I don’t think any of our usual tactics are going to get him to crack.”
“Alright… But you know my boss is going to be pissed… Plus, so is Twilight when either A, she founds out I broke a few rules or B, you were in a supposedly contaminated facility.”
Suddenly, all the lights in the precinct building dimmed before an alarm began to blare, and red lights began to flash. Flash grabbed a nearby rag, and pulled it over his mouth, before running back into the room.
“Arc, you need to get out of here, now! Airborne pathogen, it’s been released into the atmosphere just an hour ago. The city’s under evacuation, we need to move now! Take him as well, we’ll interrogate him later!”
Arc looked confused, before his eyes widened slightly in recognition and he smirked. “Flashy, you genius! I could just about kiss you right now!” he thought.
Clamping a wing over his mouth and nostrils, he grabbed the Foundation X member by the arm. The other arm of the stallion was clamped over his own mouth, though it was obvious to anyone blessed with the gift of sight he was terrified for his life judging by all the quivering he was doing.
Running down the hallways, lights above them still flashing red and alarm blaring as loud as Hell itself, the Foundation X stallion suddenly left out a scream.
“What are you doing man?” Flash asked. “Didn’t you hear me? The air, it’s toxic! We gotta get out of here!”
“We’re all dead anyways, so I might as well tell you everything! I’m more scared of dying by an airborne pathogen probably released by the Virus Gaia Memory my commander was planning on testing anyways than Madam Neon Usland herself anyways!”
“Oh, do tell…” Arc thought venomously.
“L-Look, I’m going to die anyways right?” the stallion stammered out. “So, might as well tell you the location of Foundation X’s headquarters. Maybe your branch over in Las Pegasus can storm it or something! It’s in Taishū, that’s where. You can’t miss it, it’s the place they call “Dove’s Child! Here, have the address! Avenge me!”
“Wow, panic really does things to a guy…” Flash thought as the stallion began to have a nosebleed from the sheer anxiety attack he was undergoing. What Flash had basically done was use some simple neuro-linguistic programming, sell this guy fear in a way. For those not educated, Neurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms and pathways in the pony/minotaur/griffon/zebra/(insert intelligent species of your choice here) brain that happened to control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of various types of language. Body or otherwise. “Wow, think I might just be shitting myself from how scary this would be if it were real. Thank the White Mother this guy’s really stupid, and really gullible.” Flash continued to think to himself.
The stallion began rapidly jotting down an address -All in Neighponiese Katakana of course- on a piece of handkerchief he’d pulled from his suit pocket.
“H-Here, take it! Avenge me!” the stallion stated, grabbing Flash by his shirt with his hands. “Show that bastard that I don’t take being betrayed lightly!”
“Wow, overdramatic much?” Arc thought to himself in a deadpan tone. “And I thought that Rarity mare who works at Celestia’s Secret down on Seventh Street was something else what with her fainting couch and all. But this guy has her beat, give him a gold medal!”
Flash suddenly smirked, and pulled off his facial mask.
“What… What are you doing? Do you want to die?” the Foundation X member panicked. “Are you that suicidal?”
Flash pulled out his radio, and spoke into it. “Okay chief, shut it down. I think this guy’s had enough of the show. He’s spilling everything we need.”
A look of complete shock, and then horror of a different type crossed the Foundation X stallion’s muzzle when he realized he’d been had. He then collapsed in a dead faint.
“Okay, not the information we wanted, but I’m sure we can do something with it as these Foundation X guys are probably connected to Philip’s current case,” Arc mused before laying a hand on Flash’s shoulder. “Good work man, good work. Never knew you had it in you.”
“G-Guess I just did, and it took something like this to bring it out…” Flash stammered out, blushing furiously.
“You’ll make a fine detective one day, that I’m sure of.” Arc said as everything returned to normal and he cuffed the Foundation X stallion. Foundation X, he’d heard of it. Had their fingers in so many pies, it was scary. First the Necro-Overs he’d heard about on the news when Fuuto was attacked by this terrorist, and then a few years later when a few members tried to make off with a briefcase from Genm Corp before being shot by security guards. There was quite a court case surrounding Foundation X, and Genm Corp but ultimately the X organization was let off by one very high-priced lawyer.
Later that week, when mulling over on what best to do with the information, a Neighponiese stallion in a red leather jacket had taken the address saying he had friends who could help. When he was asked his name, he simply responded with a: “Don't ask me questions!”
But what happened next, well that was another story entirely for another day.
The Shard:
Philip and Daring emerged in a medical laboratory of some sort, computer banks streaming data to each other and cases full of Gaia Memories lining the walls. The room had been darkened, and for the most part looked abandoned with even the computer banks gone silent. But Philip and Daring knew better, Blueblood was around here somewhere. His wife probably wasn’t far behind.
Philip and Daring pulled out flashlights, and began to scour the room, their other hands on their whip or baton respectively just in case Blueblood/Kamen Rider Eternal jumped them from somewhere out of the shadows.
“Bit pretentious, innit?” Daring asked, as she shined her flashlight in-between two shelves. “I mean, just calling yourself Kamen Rider Eternal, like that? I mean, really…”
“It’s Blueblood,” Philip stated gruffly. “Are you that surprised?”
“No, not really I suppose…” Daring murmured to herself. “A wise buck once said: There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.”
“Didn’t know you were so well-read, Dares,” Philip replied.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me partner,” Daring replied with a small wink, and then sighed. There was still a lot she had to tell Phil, about some of her old connections. In time, that would come. But for now, she had to focus on the present and not the past. Her hand went to her Lost Driver briefly, in memory. She’d been the first to transform, the first in the city to become a Masked Rider, or a Kamen Rider as Blueblood had put it. Why had she so eagerly used technology she’d been given by a woman she now knew to be a devil in pony form? Maybe she wanted to be a hero, make up for some of her past sins. Who’s to say, really?
“Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success,” Philip remarked. “Sadly, I don’t think Blueblood’s ever heard that expression.”
“Oh, I have,” Blueblood remarked, his lamp-like eyes shining out of the darkness as he approached them knife in hand. “But there’s another famous saying, isn’t there? Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction - in short, between an old today and a new tomorrow. I uphold to my convictions, find a new way to save the city from it’s Dopant infestation. You could join me, you two would make a fine addition. You held me off, that’s worthy of praise alone. Think of it, three Kamen Riders defending Manehatten!”
“Nice thought, but I think I’ll pass,” Philip replied, throwing a kick at Blueblood, which he caught with his hand. Blueblood tossed Philip behind him, but the stallion engaged his Nazca wings and gently floated to the ground. “If you were a different man, maybe… Just maybe I’d take you up on your offer. Sadly, you’re too blinded by your own stupidity and your own blind loyalty to your wife to make a good hero.”
“You surely jest,” Blueblood stated, as he blindsided Philip with his cape before scoring a few slashes across the chest with his knife and then punching Philip in the stomach. “I’m already beating you, the hero of the city. The great Philip Finder, felled!” Blueblood shouted, grabbing Philip by the shoulder and then slamming him into the ground.
Then, before Blueblood could slam his hoof into Philip’s driver and destroy it, a series of shots from Daring using the Trigger memory forced him to back off.
\ Zone! / Blueblood’s Driver called, as he slammed the memory into it, and once more that blue checkerboard appeared below them.
“Oh no, we’re not having any more of that!” Philip stated as he engaged the Heat Memory, and before Blueblood could teleport away, Philip assaulted him with a barrage of flaming punches knocking him to the floor and canceling out Blueblood’s transformation.
Blueblood slid backwards, pulling out his knife and ran towards Philip with a face of severe and barely contained rage cast upon his muzzle but before the blow could connect, Daring intercepted it with one of her arm fangs.
Metal met metal, sparks flying off the two weapons as they met again and again.
“Open up your eyes!” Daring shouted. “Your wife, she’s just using you! She just wants to continue Gaia Memory production, each memory more powerful than the last! She doesn’t give a damn about you, she only wants money and power now, that’s it!”
“SHUT UP!” Blueblood shouted, slamming a fist into Daring’s jaw and cracking her helmet slightly. “You don’t have the right to-”
“What, talk smack about a woman who’s so obviously playing everyone off of each other like chess pieces?” Daring asked, as she intercepted the next punch and then headbutted Blueblood, making him stagger backwards. “Honestly, if there’s a Queen Gaia Memory out there, she’d be soooo perfect for it!” she drawled out sarcastically. “Are you that blind? Come on, all three of us here know you’ve got your own doubts,” Daring said as she met Blueblood’s knife -The Eternal Edge, as it was called- with her arm fang once more, the blows connecting. “In our last fight, I heard the stutter. Philip and I both did, you trying to deny it no matter how much it’s staring you in the damn face!” she exclaimed. “You’re obviously well-read, maybe you’ve heard of this quote. “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” That’s how it goes, right? Seems to me you’ve shut both your eyes to your wife’s doings!” Daring shouted, knocking the Eternal Edge out of Blueblood’s hands with a well-placed kick.
Then, out of nowhere, a bright red lightning bolt shot towards Daring, and before it could reach her, Philip shoved her out of the way. Stepping out of the shadows was Shroud, AKA Maria Saffron ‘Cranberry’ Masala holding up a ribcage themed memory with a W on it.
“He’s right you know, you’re just that stupid. Seriously, all this time,” Saffron asked as she tossed aside her coat to reveal so many connectors for Gaia Memories all over her arms it wasn’t even funny. Standing on either side of her was a Foundation X member, each holding up a Gaia Memory of their own. One, a Violence memory and the other a memory labeled with a ‘J’. “You never even suspected? I love you Blueblood, but honestly… Time’s come to part with this business venture of ours. You and the dynamic duo over there made a good test bed, but takes a bit more than Kamen Riders only channeling the powers of Gaia Memories to impress these boys of mine from Foundation X.”
“S-Saffron? W-Why?” Blueblood whispered.
“Philip and Daring, they had it right from the very beginning. It was just for the money. After the accident, I saw what Gaia Memories could really do if we’d just pushed ourselves that little bit harder. You never had the courage. I did.”
With that, she slammed her Gaia Memory into her arm. Her two business partners followed suite.
\ Weather! /
\ Violence! /
\ Jewel! /
Each transformed into a different monster of sorts, a different Dopant as an explosion of lightning destroyed the top half of the Shard, leaving it open to the now pouring rain. Thunderclouds gathered overhead rumbling ominously. The Jewel Dopant, it was fairly basic. Just a monster covered in different types of jewels in various places, with a hard diamond in his chest. The Violence Dopant, he was a brutish being, covered in muscle and had a wrecking ball as a right hand.
Finally, Saffron or now more accurately the Weather Dopant was a pure white being resembling an eastern samurai in some ways, complete with top-notch ponytail. It didn’t even look like Saffron anymore, but then again the old Saffron had died long ago when that Heat Dopant had scarred her.
“Philip…” Blueblood stated slowly as he transformed back into Eternal. “Our rivalry as the city’s Kamen Rider? Consider it a thing of the past. Will… Will you help me do this one last thing for my wife? Lay her to rest?”
“It would be my pleasure.” Philip stated, and Blueblood tossed Daring his knife as all three ponies readied themselves for one final battle to determine the fate of Manehatten.
It struck quickly, like a lightning bolt. The whole area in front of Philip and company was covered in a ball of intense sunlight, forcing them to shield their eyes from the furious intensity. Then, next thing they knew all three were struck by lightning bolt after lightning bolt as the sun faded before the Violence Dopant came charging at Philip and swung his wrecking ball arm right into Philip’s face sending him flying and shattering his helmet.
Blueblood used his own Violence Memory and sent a flurry of blades at the Dopant, along with the Jewel one as well, but neither was really staggered in their onslaught and both punched Blueblood and Daring. They quickly recovered, and leapt backwards to avoid a downwards swing from the Violence Dopant but Saffron sent bolts of lightning their way from her palm, and to avoid being struck Blueblood actually sacrificed his Violence and Zone memories letting them get fried.
“Can’t… Can’t even lay a blow on either of them!” Daring shouted, as Blueblood threw up his cape to avoid a harsh cold biting wind sent towards them from Saffron. “Hell, we can’t even get close!”
Suddenly, the sounds of a chopper were heard, and a blinding spotlight shone in the Jewel and Violence’s Dopants faces. The door to the chopper was thrown open, and inside it was Tempest signature sniper rifle in hand. After adjusting for the wind speed and taking the cold from the sea breeze into effect, he took a deep breath, steadying his heart rate. After five beats of his slowed heart, he pulled the trigger.
BANG!
A sharp gunshot cut through the air like a knife. The Jewel Dopant’s armor shattered with a single shot, and Blueblood smirked even as he performed a Rider Punch on the Dopant knocking him to the floor and shattering his memory. Just like a real diamond, it had a shatterpoint, and it seems Tempest knew exactly where to shoot.
Seizing the upper hand, Daring took her oppertunity and slammed her Fang Memory into a slot on Eternal Edge
\ Fang, Maximum Drive! Eternal Requiem! / it called out before Daring slashed upwards with the knife and sent a spinning wheel of white energy towards the Violence Dopant knocking him out of his mutated form and shattering the memory.
Suddenly, before the two could strike down Saffron, she sent two more bolts of lightning at them knocking them to the floor as Tempest beat a hasty retreating knowing perfectly well one strike from that Dopant would take him and his pilot along with the chopper out.
“Now… I do apologize, my dear husband, till death do us part and all that but I’m sorry… you’re too much of an interference.”
She raised her hand and sent another storm of clouds to surround Blueblood and Daring, but before that could happen a familiar call was heard.
\ Trial! / Philip’s Driver called out, and using his allotted ten seconds, he managed to grab both Daring and Blueblood and pull them out of harm’s way.
“You alright?” he asked Daring.
“Now who’s saving who?” Daring joked. “You’re still pulling stupid shit though.”
“Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t,” Philip joked before his voice turned into a growl. “Now, I say we finish this…” he snarled, before holding up a gold-colored memory with a P marked on it. “Never knew what exactly this memory did, but I say it’s time we find out.”
“Bit crazy to give it a test-run in this sorta situation, but lucky for you… I like crazy.” Daring smirked as she watched Philip slam the memory into his driver.
“Henshin!”
\ Pony! / the memory called out, before Philip glowed with a golden light, as his suit’s colors practically inverted themselves. Black became gold, and vice versa as his fists, hooves and eyes glowed with a purple flaming light. The now fully unfurled Nazca Wings shared this same characteristic.
Philip ran towards Saffron, and leaped into the air launching a flying side kick even as Daring and Blueblood mimicked his movements.
\ Pony, Maximum Drive! /
\ Fang, Maximum Drive! /
\ Eternal, Maximum Drive! /
To her credit, Saffron tried to throw up a howling tornado to protect her, but all three riders smashed through its winds and landed powerful kicks to her stomach. Next thing any of them knew, was the distinctive sound of a memory shattering…
When Philip awoke, he found himself back to normal, and Blueblood looking up at the destroyed remains of the Shard. Daring was sitting beside him atop a police car’s hood. All three were covered in orange shock blankets.
Nearby, Saffron and her two Foundation X cohorts were being arrested, and read their rights by Tempest and Bee.
“So…” Daring started off slowly. “What now?” she asked Blueblood.
“Honestly… Honestly, I don’t know. I… I might need to get away from the city for a while. Find myself. I have a farm outside in the country, should be peaceful enough I think.”
“You know, there’s always a place open for you at the agency,” Daring offered. “That three Kamen Rider offer? Sounds oftly tempting. We wouldn’t have defeated your wife without your help.”
“Exactly, my wife. By the White Mother… I never knew…” he whispered, fighting back tears before he began to walk off.
“Bluebl-” Daring started, raising her hand in protest before Philip forced it back down.
“Let him go,” Philip stated, leaving no room for argument.
“But-”
“Let him go.”
“You think we’ll ever see him again?”
“Honestly?” Philip replied. “Honestly, I don’t know…”
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
1,028 users online
2,113,689 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sure, whatever you say, thank god there weren't a shit ton of Kamen Riders that were defea... Oh, wait.
"Now count up your references: 1!" Ok, I don't have watched Den-O until now, but I think something similar was Momotaros catchphrase.
"Now count up your references: 2!"
Oh yeah, sure that will help them. I think letting Daring and Philip handle this would be the better solution.
"Now count up your references: 3!"
Loves sometimes makes good people blind, it's a shame
"Now count up your references: 4!" But wouldn't this fit the "Arms" memory better?
Yeah, tell that the suspect, brilliant idea
"Now count up your references: 5!" And nice, "Virus", love that memorie
"Now count up your references: 6!"
What a... lovely woman.
"Now count up your references: 7!"
"Now count up your references: 8!"
Oh and of course: "Now count up your references: 9!"
Oh and here a little thing I made for fun:
“Armor Time!”
"Nazca!”
“Nazca!”
Time for the Finisher!
“Maximum Time Break!”
And last, but by far not least:
"Hādoboirudo! Manehattan o mamotte iru raidā wa... Nazca!" (Hard Boiled! The Rider who protects Manehattan is... Nazca!)
9257138
It's Blueblood, he has an ego. It's to be expected.
Yeaaaaahhh, neither have I, so if that was a reference it wasn't intentional. It was just Daring being... Daring, and taunting him.
This one's a... ahem, 'double' whammy, as it actually links to the theme of Shadow Moon from Black, which was a major inspiration for Double in the first place.
Take note, Philip and Daring were getting their asses handed to them, so I'd say all the help they could get was needed.
Okay, this one I admit I fudged. With Eternal, activating the Zone memory actually summons all 26 T2 Gaia Memories to him but as obviously that wasn't feasible for multiple reasons and this was a different type of T2 memory I figured I had some leeway. Plus, the checkboard teleport spam was such a fun ability to play around with.
Okay, I admit it, I sorta forgot about that particular Memory.
Yeah, here's the thing? Arc Light's original creator, Eagle-Paladin of Shadows? He based Arc partially off of Tony Dinozzo from NCIS, who in the interrogation room always acted like a clown to throw the suspect off guard. So, I had to keep to that.
Yeah, that was one of Double's better earlier arcs. I remembered what the Virus memory was originally supposed to do, and played into that. Also, fun tidbit? Neon Usland? That is the Foundation X woman with the stopwatch's real name. I checked.
Poor girl, honestly. This, and love making you blind, does sorta make Blueblood a tragic villain if you can even call him a villain at all. An Anti-Hero at worst. He honestly believed what he was doing was right, he honestly wanted to help the city in his own way. He just didn't realize or didn't want to believe what his wife was doing behind his back.
There was no better memory suited for a woman who wanted to use Gaia Memories to their fullest possible potential than Isaka's memory.
Yeah, in my hastiness, I did forget to mention Tempest analyzed the Jewel Dopant mid-battle and saw that little yellow spot on his belt/waist/whatever and calculated that had to be the shatterpoint.
Noice.
9257484
He certainly does.
I am, from the start (to the finish), at a climax! So yeah, it kinda was in a way
Still, the times shooting a rider with a normal weapon works are very rare, I think that only happened in the Showa era if at all
A bit of creative liberty is nothing bad.
That explains a lot.
Oh yeah I remember her. Still sad that Foundation X doesn't seem to be the big bad for ZI-O
I'm surprised I actually like him here, especially after having seen on how despicable levels he sank in other fics.
That makes more sense.
Happy to oblige.
9257500
I don't count it if it was unintentional.
Points for trying though.
Nope, not at all. The Maria S. Cranberry here is evidence alone of that.
You never know, show's still airing. They could show up some time or the other.
I don't actually despise the stallion like so many do. I have this headcanon about Blueblood. During the Grand Galloping Gala, he was pretty much acting like that to ward off Gold-Diggers, which was basically what Rarity was being. Not her best showing.
Also, a fun little factoid for you relating to Blueblood, originally the song for the final showdown was going to be either Excite or Justice from Ex-Aid, but given the somber tone of the fight itself and the noire theme of the story, I figured that John Mellencamp piece would work better.