To Build the Winning Formula

by Snow Fire

Chapter 11: Wake Up Burning!

Days had passed since the fiasco that was the overnight trip to the Research Center. After the Faust attack and takeover, the trip had been promptly cancelled.

Dealing with the aftermath had been a strenuous ordeal for those directly involved. Director Night Light, Head Researcher Twilight Velvet, Principals Celestia and Cadence, and Vice Principal Luna had simply been swamped by the media concerning the takeover of the Research Center and the resulting harm of two students.

Sol Burner had gotten off lightly with only minor injuries. All he really needed was a quick patch up by the paramedics present. Flash Sentry, however, wasn’t so lucky. With a mild concussion, sprained wrist and ankle, numerous severe bruises and cuts, he had to be hospitalized for proper care.

It certainly didn’t help that his mother was still in the hospital at the time. When she learned of his condition, she all but pulled herself out of her bed and hobbled over to his room, despite the nurses’ protests. She had demanded to know what happen as an extremely concerned mother. Thankfully, the doctor had been present to explain the circumstances. Misty was relieved that her son was alright and grateful that the Masked Rider had shown up when he did. But it failed to ease her worries, as she became concerned over her son’s well-being more than ever.

As a result, she kept a closer eye on Flash than ever before, at least until he was fully healed. It made contacting his Team about what he learned difficult, as his Mother went as far as keeping him in the same room as her until she was released. Granted, it made Scootaloo visiting them easier. They had to thank Rainbow Dash properly for looking after the orange skinned girl while they were admitted.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to stay for long. After the third day of Flash’s admission, both he and Misty were clear to leave. Given the disaster at the Research Center, school had been cancelled for a few days to give the students time to cope with the traumatic incident.

He was free from the hospital, having made a remarkable recovery due to his now unique physiology. But he was instructed to take it easy. He had bandages wrapped around his head, some plaster to cover his wounds, and had to wear a brace for his wrist and ankle. He also needed to use crutches for a week to alleviate the strain on his ankle…something he did not like one bit.

It all befuddled him. Before, he would be healed from injuries like this in a couple of days. While he was certainly healing faster than normal people, the fact he was stuck in a brace and crutches still vexed him.

After easing the concerns of his mother that he was heading out for the day, he met up the rest of the team at the lab at Micro’s behest. Now that he was free, he could properly explain what happened.

On the main monitor screen is a news report showing the face of Gizmo Poindexter wearing a confused expression while the news anchor spoke.

“In other news, police have taken the missing, renowned physicist and murder suspect Gizmo Poindexter into custody. Authorities have detained the prime suspect and questioned him regarding the night of October 15. However, Gizmo has yet to provide coherent answers, instead inquiring about his own identity and what was going on. Lie detector tests and MRI scans led investigators to believe that he has a severe case of amnesia. The suspect will be detained until further notice and will undergo trial in the coming months…”

As the story continued, Flash, Sol, Micro, and Sandalwood stared at the screen intently. The bespectacled teen shut off the screen while the fighter ranted.

“I still can’t believe it’s not him…”

“I know. Even now, I still can’t believe it.” Flash admitted.

“So Blood Stalk really can change a person’s face just by touching them? As well as erase their memories?” Micro inquired of Flash.

The blue haired musician nodded. “That’s what he said. Granted, I’ve learned to take what that guy says with a grain of salt, but I saw what he did first hand. He grabbed that guy’s face, used a blast of Nebula Gas, and changed his face into Gizmo’s.”

He sighed before he continued. “…I’ve been thinking about it over the past few days…”

“Thinking what?” Sandalwood asked.

“Stalk said back then about appearances being deceiving. Wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, but I think I do now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… what if we were wrong the whole time?” His question was responded by questioning stares. “Was the Knuckle Blaze Sol saw back at the apartment really Knuckle Blaze? What if that body was actually Gizmo’s, and the Gizmo he saw walk by was actually his father with a changed face?”

The hypothesis was absolutely mind boggling. His friends were silent as they processed it. Was Gizmo Poindexter actually the one that was dead, and Knuckle Blaze was actually alive? And the latter was running around as a member of Faust and capturing and experimenting on people to unknown ends?

The martial artist had been the first to snap out of it. And he wasn’t happy.

“Wait a minute….are you saying that my Dad is Blood Stalk?!” Sol spoke angrily, jumping out of his seat and marching over to the injured teen.

“Sol, just hear me out!” Flash tried to reason. But the martial artist refused.

“There’s no way in hell my dad could ever be the monster! In case you forgot, he’s dead! I was at his funeral!” He grabbed the musician by the shoulders and hoisted him into the air, momentarily forgetting his injuries.

“Sol, just listen!” Micro and Sandalwood moved to try and pry the fighter off their friend. Suffice to say, they couldn’t even budge him.

“No! You listen! My dad can’t be Stalk! He’s not even alive! He’s been buried six feet under for months! I was there! I saw his body! I saw the autopsy reports! It really was my dad!” He yelled out in his face.

“But what if you’re wrong?!” Micro shouted at him. Sol eased his grip on Flash and turned to the shorter teen.

“…What?”

“Sol….just listen….I don’t like this as much as you do…” Micro began. He really didn’t, as it implied that his brother was dead. But he continued. “…but you got to stop and think. Yes, you saw the autopsy reports, but they still weren’t conclusive, were they? You said it yourself that they found some foreign substance in his body, right?”

“Well….yeah, but…”

“What if it really was Nebula Gas? What if Stalk really did change the guy’s face and left him for dead?”

“But….but there was a DNA test and everything…the DNA matched…”

“And yet we don’t know the full extent of Stalk’s power.” Micro countered. “Sure he can change faces and alter memories, but what if it was more than that? What if while changing faces, he also changed the DNA of his victims to match the new face? If it did, then it could even fool DNA testing.”

The more he listened, the more Sol grew uncertain, his grip on Flash released as he stood in contemplation.

“I’m sorry. Like I said, I don’t like this as much as you. Because if that is the case, then my brother is the one that’s dead. And while your dad might be the one running around causing havoc, we don’t know for sure. Maybe there was a reason why these things happened, I don’t know. Just don’t start jumping to conclusions until we learn more. That is all we can ask…” Micro reasoned as calmly as possible.

Sol stared at him for several seconds. The others awaited for his response. Finally, he exhaled. “…okay. He then craned his head over to his blue haired friend.

“I’m….I’m sorry….for snapping at you…”

“It’s okay.” Flash reassured. Fortunately, none of his injuries were aggravated, so no harm done.

“I just….I just can’t accept my dad being that monster….” Sol admitted.

“Believe me, I don’t want to as much as you do. But based on what we know, it’s only one possibility.”

“I’m glad we could all calm down, dudes…” Sandalwood smiled before it became a frown. “But we still got bigger fish to fry. I mean, we’re missing most of our Fullbottles, right?”

The others grimaced at the reminder. After their fight against the Faust members, all they had left were two Fullbottles. They even lost the Smash Bottles they obtained from the Smash Flash and Sol fought.

They only had the Dragon and Lock bottles in possession. While KeyDragon proved to be a powerful Best Match, it wasn’t exactly viable to use at the moment, given the backlash it gave Flash after using it. “Speaking of, did you guys figure out why the Driver got all crazy?” It was a topic he told Micro before he reached the hospital, as it never happened before then.

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Micro went over and pulled up a series of files on the computer. “While you were recovering, I went through my brother’s research notes again. I found one that read ‘Medical Data’ and checked it out. Apparently, while he was constructing the Driver and fabricating the Fullbottles, he conducted a series of experiments to determine their practicality in the medical field.”

“He tried to make Nebula Gas into medicine? But it turns people into Smash!” Sol argued.

“That’s right. But that only happens if the subject’s Hazard Level was low enough. Which was why he made the scanner. During one of his tests, he tried to use the gas to heal the injuries of a woman who got into a brutal car accident. However, instead of healing her, it made her into a Smash called the Burn Smash.”

He pulled up an image of the Smash. Its upper torso was clad in orange armor with a large sphere as its head and two more on its shoulders. Its right arm was reminiscent to a flame thrower.

“The Smash had been dealt with, but the subject had fallen into a coma from the resulting damage. Apparently, trauma of the accident, coupled with her injuries lowered her hazard level below the safety line, borderline lethal levels with a value of 1.0, which caused her comatose state after reversion. The Smash Essence was then purified into the Dragon Fullbottle.”

Sol Burner stared at the image as he ran the story through his mind. Car accident. Coma? That pattern sounded too familiar. “…did the files say who the woman was?” He asked with concealed dread.

“No, it did not.” Micro shook his head. “He kept the woman’s identity a secret for confidentiality.”

“Oh….wait, hold up, so my Dragon Bottle was a result of that failed experiment?” Sol asked as he picked up the item.

“That’s right.” Micro pushed up his glasses. “It was because of this incident that my brother realized that handling the gas was too dangerous for medical purposes and ceased any further experiments.”

“That’s all well and good, but what does that have to do with why the Driver glitched out?” Flash asked.

“I was getting to that.” He pulled up a series of notes. “Based on what I found, it seems like the reason why organic and inorganic bottles are paired up is because one balances out the power output from the other. A synchronizer of sorts. In this case, however, the Dragon Fullbottle was just too powerful for the Lock Fullbottle to moderate its power for some reason. But that’s only part of the reason.”

“What’s the other reason?”

“While he studied the essence within the Fullbottles, he learned that they are able to be affected by DNA.”

“DNA? How?” Sandalwood scratched his head.

“Well, you all noticed how the Smash are unique in their forms one way or another, right?” Looking back on prior fights, the three nodded. “Well, it’s similar to the resulting Fullbottles purified from those essences. The reason why each of the Fullbottles are so unique has something to do with the DNA of the person the Smash essence was extracted from.”

“But my Mom was like the Strong Smash from over a month ago. How could it have made the Lock Bottle instead of another Gorilla?” Flash held up the golden item.

“Well, while some of the Smash are similar, the key difference is the DNA of the host. The DNA of your mom was what produced a completely different Bottle.”

“I see. But while it’s good to understand that, it still doesn’t explain anything about the Driver.”

“Well, when I read deeper into his notes, he formed a hypothesis from this discovery. If the Fullbottles are influenced by DNA, then what if they are also capable of attuning to another person?”

“Attuning?”

“Yes. Like how the DNA affects the form the Fullbottle takes, what if they are capable of adjusting and synchronizing to a user’s DNA from prolonged use? Sol Burner, you said you’ve been using the Dragon Fullbottle for at least a month before you met us, correct?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Then what if during that time, prolonged usage had synced the Dragon Fullbottle with your DNA? If that is the case, then maybe the other reason why the Driver glitched out is because the Dragon Fullbottle was more attuned to Sol than Flash? Sol became more used to the unusually powerful Bottle while Flash didn’t since it was his first time using it and started to reject him?”

“Is that even possible though?”

“Well, admittedly, my brother has no conclusive evidence on the matter. This is purely my own hypothesis based on whatever data he has left.” Micro Chips scratched the back of his head.

“So because the Dragon Bottle tuned with Sol, I can’t use KeyDragon for prolonged periods of time?” All eyes craned over to Sol Burner, who laughed sheepishly.

“Ehehe….sorry?”

“It’s alright, dude. None of us even knew till now.” Sandalwood assured him before his face twisted in worry. “Still…what are we gonna do? Our only transformation option’s a temporary fix now.”

“You know…I think I have an idea.” Flash announced after a bit of thought. All eyes shifted to his direction. “Back on the roof, while Sol and I dealt with Stalk and Night Rogue, I overhead Stalk say something.” He turned to Sol. “He said your Hazard level rose to 3.0, didn’t he?”

Sol focused as he remembered what happened back then.

---

Sol cocked his fist back to deliver a right hook. But Stalk had caught his hand before it even reached his face. “Bravo~ Young Sol Burner! You did it! A 3.0 hazard level!” He was so caught up in his revelation that he failed to react to the fighter striking him in the face with a jumping axe kick.

---

The fighter’s eyes widened in realization. “Yeah…Yeah, he did say that! Wait, does that mean I can transform, too?!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Micro grounded his excitement as he picked up the scanner. “We should check first to see if it’s true.”

He pressed the button as the device focused on Sol Burner and the result blipped on the screen. The moment he read it, Micro’s eyes widened. “It really did rise!” He held it out for the others to see. On the screen in bright, green letters read: Hazard Level: 3.0.

“Is this really happening?!” Sol asked with rising excitement. “Am I really gonna become Build?!”

“No.” Flash immediately said, quickly deflating the fighter’s behavior as he looked inquisitively at the musician. But Flash gave a small smile as he continued. “You’re gonna become something even more. But before that, you’re gonna have to properly synchronize with him.” As he finished his statement, he pointed a finger over to Crozz, who was sleeping in his little cot that Sol made.

“Connect with Crozz? What do you mean? I thought we’re already friends. I mean, you said he was made to be my pet and babysitter, right?”

"He's more than just a pet," Flash turned to Sol. "We realized with your increasing Hazard Level, you'd eventually reach this point. So we built Crozz in case we didn't find the dragon bottle's match before it happened. He’s an adapter that allows you to transform using only one Fullbottle."

Micro nodded, and then pulled up the Transteam gun schematics. "We built him using this as a base. It works by doubling the power of the bottle, but that prevents the growth of the user. But with Crozz, combined with the Build Driver, you'll be able to transform without being held back."

“So with Crozz and the Build Driver, my Hazard level will keep rising?”

“That’s right.” The bespectacled teen nodded once more. “That’s not even the best part. By my calculations, the form you’ll take after transforming will be twice as powerful as KeyDragon would be.”

“For real?!” The martial artist yelled awestruck. “That’s awesome! Let’s see what I got!” He went over to pick up the Build Driver only to be stopped by his friends.

“Easy there, dude!” Sandalwood said. “Why not wait until we get an actual Smash attack to test it out?”

“But this is just a test run!”

“If you transform here, you might break something….again…” Micro reminded of his first failed transformation and pointed to the indent in the wall he caused.

“Couldn’t we do it outside though? I wanna see my armor!”

“You want us to potentially give up the element of surprise?” Flash asked rhetorically. “As far as we know, Faust doesn’t know about your transformation. If we keep it that way and have to fight Stalk or Night Rogue later, we can catch them off guard and get our Bottles and the Box back.”

“…fine…” Sol relented. The guys gave a mental sigh of relief. They had yet to tell Sol about one other crucial point of Crozz’s transformation sequence and didn’t know how to properly tell him at the moment.

“Oh, that’s right. You guys are still going to my match, right?” The fighter reminded them. While Flash was in the hospital, he received a text from Sol regarding what happened a day after the field trip. Sol Burner was approached by his dad’s former manager and friend, Filthy Rich. He had been a friend of Knuckle Blaze growing up, and acted as his manager during his time in the professional circuit. When Knuckle finally retired, Filthy even helped invest in his succeeding vocation in creating what would later become the Canterlot City Fitness Center.

After Knuckle Blaze’s death, Filthy did what he could to help his friend’s son out, especially since Spirit Healer was in a coma, leaving the poor boy alone. While he was a cunning businessman, he was also a father like Knuckle. He took up paying Spirit Healer’s hospital bills to help alleviate his financial situation as Knuckle’s life insurance and savings wouldn’t last forever under the burden of medical fees.

The boy had to leave Canterlot City and stay with his aunt and uncle as he was still a minor. But he got special permission to return to town to continue his schooling and be closer with his mother months later. Seeing at he was living alone, Filthy helped the boy get a job at the Fitness Center to earn money for himself and learn self-reliance.

The man recently noticed how much better Sol had been faring after Knuckle Blaze’s funeral and came to check up on him. After talking, the Filthy realized the martial artist was finally ready to pick up where he left off beforehand:

Making it into the Professional Fighting scene.

Like that, he made a series of calls and organized a match on May the 14^th. It had been a momentous occasion for everyone and congratulated Sol in his big break. The fighter even managed to reserve some seats for his friends to see him in the ring. Filthy even gave him two extra tickets for two important guests for Sol.

“Of course we are.” Flash answered. It wasn’t everyday your friend is going to debut in the pro leagues…especially when he’s only a teenager. “Did you happen to invite anyone else?”

“Yep. I decided to invite the Rainbooms. Well, it’s more like Rainbow had been begging me to reserve a seat for her. I gave the others tickets too because I felt bad if they were left out.”

---

Meanwhile…

“I’M SO EXCITED!!!!” Pinkie squealed as she held up her ticket in the air.

"Me too!" Rainbow did the same, “I can’t believe we’re gonna see Sol Burner’s fight to premiere in the pro MMA fighting league! This is so awesome!!!”

“We know, ya two. We know! We got ya the first ten times already!” Applejack deadpanned. Ever since Sol burner had told them the news and gave them tickets, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash would not stop talking about it.

The Rainbooms were currently in Sugar Cube Corner hanging out. They were discussing events that had taken place during the week. It started with the aftermath of the field trip where Applejack disclosed her suspicions of Flash and Sol’s story back at the field trip. The girls had been suspicious, but ultimately let go of the matter as they had no idea why they would mix truth and lies like that. Not to mention they were indirectly speaking ilk of their injured friends.

Even if some of the story seemed fabricated, their injuries were all too real to be faked. They truly were hurt and deserved a break from their investigations.

The girls had some things to look forward to, however. The first was Sol Burner’s debut match, which would take place in about a week. And a week after that, they had a day trip planned that also left Rainbow Dash ecstatic.

“I can’t help it! It’s going to be so awesome! Watching an actually MMA fight in person!”

“I know you’re excited Rainbow. Heck, we all are. But maybe you can turn it down a little? You’re kinda causing a scene…” Sunset pointed out. Rainbow Dash’s outburst caused the eyes of all patrons to turn to them.

“Oh, right…hehe…” The athlete blushed in embarrassment.

“I’m surprised he was able to reserve seats for us.” Twilight pointed out. “Tickets like these usually cost a lot and are hard to get. Yet he reserved seven seats for us? He must be pretty close to the organizer to make that happen.”

“Oh, I just hope it won’t be too violent.” Fluttershy said in concern. She really didn’t have interest in watching people fight, but Sol had been so happy to invite him that she just couldn’t refuse. It would’ve been rude to turn down such an offer. “I hope he’ll be okay.”

“Don’t worry, darling.” Rarity assured her. “Sol Burner is a trained fighter that has experienced many fights. I’m sure he’ll be alright.”

“Yeah! It’s not like he’s going to be fighting for his life or anything like that.” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “Besides, I checked out his opponent. He’s good, but not someone that’s gonna kill him in the ring or anything like that…”

Yet the timid girl whimpered in fear at the thought her friend placed into her head.

“Pinkie!” Sunset admonished.

“What? It’s true!” The party planner said, not seeing the issue.

“This fight is gonna be awesome! And it’s just gonna be the first part of an awesome last month of school!”

“You’re talking about the movie studio we got invited to, right?”

“Heck yeah! We’re going to be on the set of the movie adaptation of the greatest book series in the world: Daring Do!”

“Is that right?” Silver Speech questioned as he carried in their orders. “Sounds like you girls have a fun month planned.”

“Oh, hey Silver!” Pinkie Pie waved excitedly. After their initial meeting, Pinkie Pie took the time to talk with Silver Speech whenever she dropped by Sugar Cube Corner. They would talk about how he’s been doing at work and how much he’s been learning. She even gave him baking tips for cake and all sorts of pastries. Although, his coffee brewing skills had much left to be desired. As much as she hated to admit it, even canned or instant coffee was better than his.

Nevertheless, the party planner could say with confidence that she successfully made a new friend. She even had a party planned for him, but with everything that’s happened lately, between Faust attacks, homework, work, upcoming events, and final exams; she’s been too busy to initiate it.

She resolved to throw the party the day summer vacation starts.

“So you girls really got invited to the Daring Do movie set?” Silver asked as he set down their orders. “How did that even happen?”

“Well, the director, Mr. Zoom, was actually a Camp Everfree alumnus like us. He heard about how we raised the money to save the Camp, and invited us to visit the set as a way to thank us.” Sunset explained.

“Wow! That’s quite an amazing opportunity. We live in such a small world where people can do things like that, huh?” Silver mused.

“Of course!” Pinkie Pie sprang up next to him. “Well, I can’t speak for the whole world for obvious reasons, but it’s things like this that just remind us that we’re such a close knit town that practically everyone is friends with each other! Isn’t that great?!”

“It’s quite amazing.” Silver agreed with a nod, not at all perturbed by the pink party planner’s random behavior. “Still, you girls are so lucky. Daring Do is my favorite book series! I wish I could’ve gone with you.”

“Sorry, Silver. But the offer was extended to the seven of us.” Twilight apologized.

“Don’t worry though, we’ll tell you all about it after!” Rainbow Dash assured her fellow Daring Do fan.

“That’d be great. Well, gotta get back to work. See you girls.” With a wave, Silver went back to the kitchen with a smile on his face.

“What a nice guy!” Pinkie Pie smiled. “Isn’t it amazing to have such great friends?!”

---

Meanwhile…

Back in the Canterlot Research and Development Center, Director Night Light was locked in a video conference with Chrysalis and Sombra. In the corner of the room stood Shining Armor with a tense expression on his face. He had come to visit his father to update him on the situation…but it seemed he caught him at a bad time.

“It must be pretty vexing for you, Night Light.” Chrysalis said through the video screen. “For you to have lost Pandora’s Box like that to Faust. Guess your security wasn’t as top notch as you first thought.”

“What did you expect?” Sombra smirked. “He would never have expected one of his own scientists to be a spy for Faust. Not to mention that he’s made absolutely no progress in uncovering this little organization, or anything more about the Masked Rider and his companion. It’s almost as if you’re just letting them and the Smash run around freely like this.”

“Letting them run free to spread panic amongst our citizens? How cruel of you, Mr. Light.” The CEO of Changemaker mocked.

“And to think that most of these little occurrences happen near the CRDC. He’s even painting himself the victim to dissuade suspicion. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone managed to appropriate them for military use.” Sombra accused.

“Those are just asinine accusations.” Night Light glared. Shining Armor could not take these people speaking poorly of his father like that.

“Well, if that’s the stance you’re taking, perhaps we should take matters into our own hands…” Chrysalis responded. “After all, given how one of these freaks appeared near one of my labs, I believe I have a right to enact retribution.”

“As a member of the CCPD…” Shining Armor announced as he walked into view. “We will deal with these creatures for you immediately.”

“Ah, the prodigal son appears…” Sombra laughed. “Looks like your boy is being more proactive than you, Night Light. Maybe he should be the one leading the investigation instead.”

“My father is handling matters just fine, sir.” The lieutenant replied with an even expression, hiding his clenched fists from view. His gaze shifted over to Chrysalis. “…I won’t let you use this as an excuse to crush the CRDC.”

The ChangeMaker CEO stared at him blankly. Then she burst into a fit of giggles. “What are you talking about? I have no intention of-!” But she was cut off as Shining Armor disconnected both video chats.

“Shining Armor…!” Night Light admonished his son. “Why would you do that?!”

“I’m sorry, dad.” The officer apologized. “But I couldn’t just stand and watch them accuse you like that. What happened was not your fault. None of it was! They have every intention of taking over the CRDC, and are just looking for the right excuse to discredit and blame you! Losing Pandora’s Box wasn’t your fault!”

“But even so, that was out of line!” Night Light argued. “You’re a lieutenant of our city! You’re supposed to be neutral in such matters! I could’ve handled it fine!”

“Is it so wrong for a son to defend his father?” He countered. “Dad, I know we’re not getting any closer to finding the truth about Gizmo, Faust, and the system after what Build had done, and I’m sorry. But you need to be prepared. For all we know, Chrysalis and Sombra could be amassing their own forces as we speak!”

“This again? Son, this is getting out of hand.” The Director sighed in exhaustion. “You’re making it sound like those two are preparing for some sort of war. That is absolutely ridiculous!”

“Now that the Box is in Faust’s hands, anything’s possible! If we had taken the time for tighter security and precaution, we could’ve stopped the robbery entirely!”

“There’s no use thinking about ‘what-ifs’, son.’ Night Light admonished. “What’s done is done. All we can do is accept them and move on. I’ll handle things on our end, Shining Armor…Just focus on investigating Faust, maintain the peace, and find the Box.” He then turned away from his son and stepped out of the office for some air.

The police officer was left alone in his room. His face was set in an unreadable expression while his hands balled into tight fists. “…yes, dad…”

---

Later…

Back at the lab, the guys continued to discuss the upcoming Fight Sol Burner had next week. But their conversations came to a halt when the Smash detector blared out.

“Alright! Time for some action!” Sol cheered, excited by the prospect of finally transforming.

“Where is it?” Flash asked as Micro accessed the city map.

“At the abandoned factory across town!”

“Then that’s where we’re heading.” The musician said as he removed his braces and set aside his crutches.

“Whoa, dude! What are you doing?!” Sandalwood demanded as he tried to stop Flash. “You’re still healing!”

“I’m doing much better now!” He argued, unwrapping the bandages around his head. As he removed them, his previous cuts and scrapes were shown to be scabbed over. He placed weight on his left ankle without showing any form of discomfort, and moved his left wrist freely. “After all, our Hazard Levels enhance our body, somehow, right?” He asked Micro. “I’m healing faster than most. I can still fight.”

“…Alright.” The intellectual replied. “But don’t strain yourself! End the fight quickly and get out of there!”

“No problem, Micro.” Sol said as he donned his disguise. “With me there, Flash won’t even have to transform now that I can. Crozz and I will handle it.”

---

The two rode the Machine Builder to the designated spot. While they expected to find a ruined building and a rampaging creature, they found a perfectly intact abandoned factory and a quiet atmosphere.

“Is there really a Smash here?” Sol asked as he got off the bike and Crozz hovered above him. “Seems a bit quiet.”

“It is quiet….too quiet….” Flash agreed as he approached the building. “This is definitely suspicious.” The two entered the factory with befuddled expressions. It was certainly as abandoned as its namesake, with nothing but dusty junk strewn about and a lack of noise, people, and activity.

“…What the heck? Where’s the Smash?” Sol questioned aloud.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Flash said. “The detector said there was one here, but not a soul in sight.” Then his eyes widened in realization. “Wait a minute…don’t tell me this is a-!”

“I’ll be taking those bottles as well.” Night Rogue announced as he and a group of Guardians climbed down the stairs.

“…trap.”

“So that’s how it is…well, doesn’t matter.” Sol shrugged as he faced the enemy. “This is what I’ve been waiting for!” He pulled out the Dragon Fullbottle and tossed it in his hand. “Here’s my chance to transform!”

“No it isn’t.” Flash said as he snatched the bottle out of the air and stepped forward.

“Wait, what?!” The fighter questioned.

“You can’t handle it right now!”

“Why not?!” Flash didn’t answer as he put on the Build Driver. “And are you gonna be alright?!” The musician shook the Dragon and Lock Fullbottles as math equations appeared around him, prompting Sol to back up.

“DRAGON!”

“LOCK!”

“BEST MATCH!”

“ARE YOU READY?!” With a turn of the crank, blue and gold armor segments formed on the runners.

Shifting into a fighting stance, Flash yelled out, “Henshin!”

“THE SECURITY FANTASY!”

“KEYDRAGON!”

“YEAH!”

The moment his transformation finished, the Guardians attacked the Masked Rider. The nearest one swung its bladed rifle down on him. Flash sidestepped it and punched it aside before he advanced toward the rest of the group. He grabbed a Guardian by the wrist when it tried to punch him and flung it aside before he spun on his heel and struck another closing in on him with his dragon arm.

At that point, Night Rogue decided to join the fight as he moved in for a reverse roundhouse kick. Flash ducked beneath it and countered with his Lock arm.

Off to the side, Sol Burner stared at the ensuing battle and then jumped into the fray. “Alright!” One of the Guardians took notice of him and tried to swing at him with the blade on its rifle. Sol grabbed it, forced it aside, and slammed his fist right into the robot’s core, knocking it down. Another Guardian tried to strike him with its rifle as well. The fighter ducked beneath the swing and rammed his elbow into its face as he moved past.

He jumped away from another swinging rifle by another Guardian and moved to climb up the stairs to get the high ground.

While Sol fought, Flash and Night Rogue were locked in their own battle.

Although it was more like Night Rogue and Guardian tag teamed against the Masked Rider. The musician dodged another rifle swing before he grabbed the robot and threw it at the Bat man. Night Rogue caught it and pushed the stumbling Guardian back at the Rider. Using its body to conceal himself from sight, Night Rogue followed up with another reverse roundhouse. Flash had pushed the Guardian aside, but failed to react quick enough as the foot slammed into his abdomen.

Sol climbed the stairs up backwards, doing his best to avoid getting stabbed. One Guardian thrust its bayoneted rifle at him. He sidestepped and held it in place as he backhanded the robot and cracked its visor. He then kicked it off the stairs and held onto the rifle.

Down below, Night Rogue kicked at Flash who managed to block the attack with both hands. He threw the foot down and swung at the Bat who quickly side stepped the attack. Night Rogue spun around for a reverse hook kick that caught Flash in the side.

Sol Burner had climbed the stairs onto the loft above, fending off the remaining Guardians who chased after him. Using the rifle he stole from one of the robots, he smashed it against the closest Guardian’s head, wrestled its rifle from its grip, and knocked it down with both. He shifted the gun in hand to shoot at the remaining ones, only to be greeted with soft clicks when he pulled the triggers.

“No ammo?! Wait, guess that explains why they didn’t just shoot me.” He mused before he threw one of the rifles like a javelin and speared through one approaching Guardian through the chest. The ones behind it shoved their broken brethren to the side as they climbed up the steps to engage the fighter. Both sides swung their rifles like bats to try and land the decisive blow.

It was only then Sol Burner realized something. “Wait a minute…I have a better weapon!” He knocked the rifle out of the Guardian’s hands and stabbed his into the downed robot next to him. He pressed a button on his watch and summoned the Beat Cross-Zer. Sword in hand he bisected the Guardian diagonally.

Build and Night Rogue continued their bout as they grappled one another to get the other to submit. Each attempt failed as blows were exchanged. They slammed each other into the random piles of junk that littered the compound. Eventually, Night Rogue had lost his footing as Build shoved him down. Before the Rider could land another punch, his armor started to crackled electricity. Immediately after, his body burst into blue fire.

Flash screamed as his body burned and the Driver glitched. He backed away from Night Rogue in a panic. “Wh-what the…?!” He experienced the Dragon Bottle rejecting him before, but this backlash was worse than the last! “My body’s…burning up!”

He collapsed on his knees as the transformation undid itself. Dragon and Lock fell from the Driver onto the ground. The disguised musician panted as his body became wracked with pain. Not only did his prior injuries flare up with a vengeance, he had new ones to boot. His clothing was partially burnt as if he was caught on fire. His body received more cuts that were hidden beneath the tattered remains of his jacket. A drop of blood trailed down from his lips as he tasted iron. He collapsed face first to the ground.

Above on the loft, Sol had sliced through the last Guardian and watched its remains fall over the railing. As he did, he caught sight of his downed friend. “Build!” Without hesitation, Sol Burner jumped off the second story and landed on his feet, rushing to Flash’s side. “Are you okay?!”

“Hand over those bottles now.” Night Rogue ordered as he approached the two. “And I will spare your lives.”

“Grabbing the bottles without a word to me?” A new, familiar voice joined the conversation. Blood Stalk came in through the side entrance. “Such a busy Bat.”

“Stalk…”

“Stalk!” Sol growled upon seeing the snake. He grabbed the Dragon Bottle in his hand, but Flash grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“You can’t!”

“Get off! He’s right there! He could be my dad or Gizmo, man!”

“Kinda slow to catch on, aren’t you?” Stalk pointed at him mockingly as he walked between them and Night Rogue. “I came to help you boys out.”

Both teenagers’ heads snapped over to him. “Wait, what?” Flash questioned. After everything the snake did to them, he’s going to help them out?!

“Screw that!” Sol snapped, rage fueling his actions and thought process. “I don’t know who you really are, but you put my friends and me through so much crap!” He wrestled his arm free from Flash as he stabbed the Beat Cross-Zer to the ground and stood up. “But I’m gonna kick your ass and get the truth from you! Time to see what’s under that helmet!”

He raised his arm to the air and called out. “Come! Crozz!” The mechanical Dragon roared as it tucked its legs in while folding its neck and tail up to its body. It landed in Sol’s hand as he shook the bottle and twisted the cap.

…And was promptly electrocuted the moment he tried to insert the Dragon Fullbottle in its slot.

“Gyaaaaugh!” The fighter screamed as electricity surged through his hands. As a result, his grip on Crozz released at it flew up. He looked to his mechanical partner in confusion. Why didn’t it work? He was supposed to have transformed. “What was that, Crozz?” He tried to reach out, but the Dragon flew out of his reach with an apologetic expression.

All three pairs of eyes could only stare at the scene. Flash and Rogue stared blankly while Blood Stalk shook his head in disappointment. “Well, this is terrible.” The Rider commented.

“Just get him out of here.” Stalk waved him off.

Flash shot a glare at the red armor man. As much as he wanted to kick the man’s face in for what he did, he knew when to cut his losses. “I swear, I’m gonna pay you back for that cheap shot at the lab!” Just remembering the crotch shot brought phantom pains.

“Yeah, yeah…” Stalk replied half-heartedly.

Growling, Flash scooped up the Lock Bottle and pulled himself up. He then grabbed the confused Sol Burner to escape. “Let’s go!”

“Hey, wait a minute!” The fighter tried to argue as Flash pulled him out of the Building. Night Rogue refused to let them escape. He aimed the Transteam Gun to shoot them.

“Whoa there!” Blood Stalk called out as he flung a folding chair between the Bat and the retreating teens. The action threw Rogue off as the two made it out the door.

“What is the meaning of this, Stalk?!” Night Rogue scowled beneath his helmet.

“Hmph.” Stalk didn’t answer. He simply spun on his heel and ran to the building’s side entrance. He jumped up and used the iron grate above him as a bar that he used to swing himself outside.

Night Rogue, annoyed by the Cobra’s antics, rushed out the door to see that the Riders had already fled.

---

“Why did Stalk help us like that?”

“I don’t know. But I’m just as concerned as how they managed to fake a Smash sighting like that…”

Flash Sentry and Sol Burner made it back to the lab. The former was getting his new injuries treated by Sandalwood while Micro ran a diagnostic scan on the Smash Detector. While the rejection process was quite agonizing, thankfully, Flash’s resulting wounds were manageable and did not need another hospital trip. Didn’t make things hurt any less though.

“Forget that!” Sol snapped in annoyance. “Why couldn’t I use the Bottle?! When I tried to transform, it was like Crozz wouldn’t let me!”

Crozz whined morosely from its perch. It couldn’t help itself. It didn’t want to stop its master, but it was built to do so depending on the circumstance.

“Crozz is tuned to your limbic system.” Micro answered as he spun around to face Sol. “It won’t synchronize with you unless an emotional response clears the designated threshold I programmed into it.”

“….I have no idea what you just said.” The fighter deadpanned. He then turned to Flash. “In English, please?”

“Basically…” Flash winced as Sandalwood applied rubbing alcohol on his fresh cuts. “You need to truly feel like you want to help someone.”

“What? But I did want to help! I was gonna help fight off Night Rogue and Stalk then get Flash out of there!”

“No.” Micro shook his head. “That was what you were going to do. Not the reason why you wanted to transform. Sandalwood and I saw everything through Crozz. Your motive to transforming was to beat up Stalk and get the truth about October 15^th.

“So what if I was? That’s what we were going to do anyway, wasn’t it?” Sol argued.

“While that’s true, it’s not our priority.” Flash reasoned. “Remember back then? When I said I would prioritize helping people over seeking the truth? That is why I fight.”

“But what does it matter if it’s all gonna be the same in the end, anyway?!” Sol turned away and rushed up to Crozz who flew above reach. “C’mon, Crozz! Just take the Bottle!”

“Burrah!” The dragon cried out in refusal. Sol fell on his back in disappointment.

“It’s not gonna work, Sol.” Micro stood over him. “If your emotional response, or reason, doesn’t satisfy the requirements, Crozz won’t let you transform.”

“Only because you put that thing in him in the first place!” Sol shot up on his feet and glared at the bespectacled teen. “Take it out of him!”

“I can’t. It’s hard wired into his system and programming. If I were to remove it, Crozz won’t be Crozz anymore and may cease to function entirely.”

“Now that’s playing dirty! I thought we were friends! I thought you trusted me! And this is what happens?!”

“We may be friends, and even though you made it up to us after that stunt you pulled with Brawly, we had no idea how you’d turn out.” Micro glared back. “You were irresponsible, rash, and put an innocent person in danger just to get answers! That’s why we put in the safety feature to prevent you from doing something like that again!”

“But I learned my lesson! I know better!”

“Have you really?! Because based on Crozz’s reaction, it didn’t seem like you learned after all!”

“Well, I’ll just use KeyDragon, then! I mean, if I can’t use Crozz, I’ll just use two Bottles then!”

“You can try…” Flash interjected as he hobbled over using a crutch as support. “But that power would be nothing compared to the form if you synced with Crozz. Sol, it wasn’t only Micro who put in the emotional response restriction, Sandalwood and I also supported it.”

“Wh-what…?” The fighter questioned. “But…I thought you said I could transform and help out!”

“You can…but only if you have the right reason.” The musician reasoned. “Sol…you’re a good guy. But you’re letting your emotions get the better of you, especially your anger over October 15^th. We put in the safety feature in Crozz for one reason only: To keep you on the right path.”

“The…right path? But I’m fighting to help people like you now.”

“You are, yes. But being a Rider is different than helping people as you are. Why do you want to be a Rider? Is it to help people because it’s the right thing to do? Or to expose Stalk and exact your revenge on him and Faust and get answers to your father’s murder? ” Flash asked him in a dead serious expression.

The martial artist fell silent as his mind processed the questions. Of course he wanted to help people. But he also wanted to make Stalk and Faust pay for what they did. Most of all…he wanted the truth. He wanted to know what really happened that night and how it all ties together.

How were none of those good reasons to transform and fight as a Masked Rider?! The more Sol thought about it, the more it fueled his ire.

With his mind in a whirlwind of emotions, unable to think coherently, he stormed off. “I’m outta here!” The fighter marched up the stairs and did not look back.

---

Meanwhile…

“What was that back there, Stalk?” Night Rogue glowered at the Cobra that sat in his chair. “If you hadn’t interfered, we would’ve obtained the remaining bottles to complete the Panel!”

“Don’t get your knickers all bunched up.” Stalk waved him off as he fiddled with a small device in hand. It was a transmitter that produced a bio signature similar to that of a Smash, effectively falsifying a Smash attack. “We’ll get the bottles in due time. I’m playing the long game you see. Don’t you trust me?”

“As of now, I’m starting to have my doubts about trusting you.”

“Oh come on! We’ve been pals in this little three-legged race of ours for a while now.” He raised his head as he tapped a finger on his folded hands. “It’d just make things too boring if there were no opposition. Besides…I’m curious by how far those two will actually grow.”

“Even if they put our plans in jeopardy?” Night Rogue glared.

“Who knows? Like I said, I’m playing things long game while you only look at things short term…” Stalk rose from his seat and patted the Bat on the shoulder. “As long as those two fight, the more they will purify Fullbottles for us to pilfer later. That in turn will bring us much closer to unlocking the Box’s full power. Understand?”

Night Rogue stood still, staring off into space before he responded. “…Very well. But do not forget that I am the leader of Faust. If I should trust you, you must follow my orders and prove your loyalty.”

“Fine, fine.” The Cobra shrugged as he walked out of the room. Once he was out of earshot, he grinned beneath his helmet. “Although, last I checked, Faust doesn’t belong to you.”

---

The Next Day…

Micro Chips and Sandalwood were in the lab. On the whiteboard off to the side was a list of ideas pertaining to a critical goal. After Faust had raided the CRDC, Flash lost most of their Fullbottles, even the Smash Bottles that they acquired at the time. While KeyDragon was powerful to keep up and possibly overwhelm Night Rogue, maybe even Blood Stalk, it was just too volatile for Flash to use safely.

They were trying to find a way to track down where Faust was hiding in order to get back their Bottles, Pandora’s Box, and possibly Faust’s Panel.

Currently, quite a few ideas had already been crossed off. They were mostly outlandish ones as a part of the brainstorming process. One idea was to scan the entire city using the drone and Crozz simultaneously. It was crossed off because it would be impossible to cover the entire city in a short time. Not to mention they would eventually draw attention to themselves.

Another was to bug the policemen part of the investigation team, like Shining Armor, to gather intel. That one was crossed off because it was too dangerous. One wrong step, and they would be the ones tracked down by the police and get in trouble with the law.

“What if the next time Night Rogue or Stalk show up, we place a tracker on them so they would lead us to their base’s location?” Sandalwood suggested.

“I don’t know.” Micro shook his head. “While it sounds good on paper, it would only be a matter of time before one of them notices it and either break it, or use it against us. We can’t exactly risk anymore bottles. Unless Sol can properly synchronize with Crozz, Flash is locked to using KeyDragon, which still hurts him.”

“But what else can we do?” The eco-teen wondered. “We don’t have any way to track them down! At this rate, they’re gonna come after us and take what we have left!”

“I don’t know…” Micro regretted not having a solid answer. But he had no idea how to track Faust down without them catching wind of their plans.

The two fell silent as they mentally debated what possible plan would work. That is…until Sandalwood’s stomach growled. “…all this thinking is making me hungry. I’m gonna grab lunch, you want anything?”

“A sandwich would be good.”

“Got it. Be right back.” Grabbing his keys off the table, Sandalwood went upstairs to hop into his truck. Micro waited until the door closed. Once he was sure that his friend had left, he moved over to the computer and pulled up the Project Sclash file. He had broken through 80% of the file’s decryption. He determinedly worked to break the remainder.

“If I can finish and construct this…” Micro mumbled to himself. “Then Flash should be able to fight and beat Stalk and Rogue without any risk.”

---

Meanwhile…

Sol Burner trudged through the streets of Canterlot on foot. He was still annoyed about what happen last night at the lab, and hoped the walk would clear his head before he reached his destination.

Unfortunately for him, it didn’t. He continued to dwell on his friends words, questioning his own reasoning. He was so upset that he left Crozz back at the lab instead of bringing him home. He needed time away from his little buddy, as everything was centered around him as well.

It was times like these that he found solace by talking things out with his mother, which was why he was heading to the city hospital to drop in for a visit.

As he was halfway there, a friendly, albeit loud, voice broke him from his musings.

“HEY! SOL BURNER!” Bulk Biceps yelled loudly. The extremely muscular teen waved at his friend as he caught up to him.

“Hey Bulk.” Sol returned half-heartedly, not quite in the mood to talk. Yet Bulk had yet to notice as he continued to speak excitedly.

“Dude, guess what?!” He whipped out a small piece of paper in his hands. It was a ticket to his upcoming MMA fight. “I got a ticket for your fight! It was one of the last ones on sale, too! I’ll be there rooting for you, buddy! Yeah!”

“Yeah, sure. Okay.” Again, Sol replied unenthusiastically. This time, Bulk did notice.

“Uh…is everything okay, Sol? You seem kinda…upset.”

The fighter sighed as he turned to face his friend. “Sorry Bulk, but I’m really not in the mood to talk. I gotta go somewhere. See ya…” Without waiting for a response, Sol quickened his pace, leaving the fellow boxing club member behind.

“Uh…okay…yeah!” Bulk returned, really confused and worried about his friend.

“Well, that was just cold.” A voice cut in from behind Bulk. “And I thought you two were friends.” The muscular teen turned around, only to be greeted by a man in red armor and teal visor.

Surprised and terrified by his intimidating, cobra-like visage….Bulk let out a high pitched scream.

“Wh-who are you?!”

“No one of consequence.” Stalk said evenly as he held up the Steam Blade, turned its dial, and swung.

“DEVIL STEAM!”

---

“Hi mom. I’m back…” Sol spoke to the comatose form of his mother. “I…I kinda got into an argument with my friends again. It was about finding the truth about Dad’s death. Long story short, I finally have the power to help find out the truth. But…my friends won’t let me help because I don’t have the right reason to.

“Am I wrong? I want to use the power I have to find the truth about Dad. Is that not a good enough reason? It’s been eating away at me. I don’t know what to do or how to move on. And now my friend keeps getting hurt fighting and I’m stuck on the sidelines. Our enemies are getting stronger, and we can’t keep up without me. But I can’t do anything. I just want to help….so why can’t they accept my reason to fight?”

He stared at his prone mother’s body. Like before, the only indications that she was alive was the constant blip of her heart monitor and her even breathing. He sighed. Deep down, he hoped that by some miracle, his mother would wake up and give him advice like she used to. He stared at his hands, deep in contemplation.

Looks like he was going to have to figure this out on his own. Seeing as there was nothing else he could do, Sol got up to leave. But as he put his hands in his pockets, he remembered something. “Oh, that’s right! Filthy Rich organized a match for me. It will be my debut on the professional MMA scene. I’m sorry it was short notice, but he arranged things pretty quickly. Here.”

He pulled out a front row seat ticket to his match, reserved specifically for her. He set it down on the counter, using the flower vase as a weight. “I know you can’t watch me in person….but I hope you’ll be there, watching me in spirit. I’ll give Dad his ticket later. I’m sorry if I’m worrying you, but this is my chance to be a pro fighter like dad. I’ll be careful….and I’ll win. I promise you that.”

He kissed his mother again before he exited the room.

Soon after, her lips moved as faint words came out of her mouth. “….good luck…”

---

As Sol exited the room, his mind fell deep in thought. Even when she was unconscious, he really didn’t like to omit the truth from his mother like this. Part of it was to prevent potential information leaks, which Micro had drilled into his head. The rest was to prevent his mother from worrying about him. If she knew that he gets into life or death situations frequently, as well as surviving hits and blows that would’ve crippled or killed a normal person, he was afraid she’d have a heart attack in her sleep.

As he contemplated, he did not pay much attention to where he was going and promptly ran into another person around the corner.

“S-sorry!” Sol snapped out of his musings as both individuals stumbled back, the woman dropping a set of papers.

“No no, it’s alright.” The woman, Misty Veil, assured him. She was visiting the hospital for a follow up check up in regards to her memory, as well as pick up a prescription for Flash for pain medication. Given that he tripped down some stairs yesterday while he was out, she was sure he’d need it. Thankfully, his friends were able to apply proper first aid to treat them.

“Here, let me help…” Sol gathered the dropped papers and handed them back to her. It was then he got a good look at the woman’s face, recognizing her. “Wait…you’re Misty Veil…Flash’s mom, right?”

“Yes I am. Do I know you?”

“No, but Flash told me a lot about you. I sorta recognized you from what he told me.”

“You know my son?” She asked in surprise. She hadn’t known that her son made new friends lately. But as she looked at the boy’s face, she couldn’t help but notice his troubled expression.

“Yeah, we’re good friends. Ran into each other over a month ago, but we hang out a lot.” Despite his words, she clearly noticed something was eating at him.

“I see. Well, I’m sorry for running into you like that. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.

“No problem. I…I wasn’t either.” He began to walk away, but as he did, Misty couldn't help but notice something was up. She had a sixth sense about these things and could tell when someone had something big on their minds.

"Sol," he stopped and turned back to her, "If everything okay?" Sol didn't reply, but the look on his face gave her the answer. "If something's up, I bet talking about it might help." She stepped up to him, patting his shoulder. "Come on, I'll treat you to a drink and we can talk about it."

---

"So, what seems to be the problem?" Misty inquired. The two were seated at a café located near the hospital. Misty ordered an iced tea while Sol ordered iced coffee.

"Well," Sol wasn't sure how to say this without blowing their secret. "It's just I have this issue. It's...complicated to explain. But basically I need to do something and I wanna do it, but I can't because I don't want to do it for the right reasons. But why should the reason I'm doing it care as long as I'm doing it? Does that make sense?"

"Kind of," Misty took a sip of her drink. "I can't really give you any real advice unless I know more about it, but I'm guessing you can't really tell me." Sol nodded. "Well...I guess you should try and think about if your reasons for doing whatever it is could affect those around you?"

"Those around me?" Sol looked confused by this.

"If the thing you needed to do was...learning to ride a motorbike or something, then what's your reason for learning to ride it? Are you just wanting to learn because you think it'll be fun, or is it for something important like...delivering an organ to a transplant patient?"

Sol was a little grossed out by this, but got where she was coming from. "Can't I do both?"

"Well sure, but one reason needs to take priority over the other. Would you be willing to put your fun aside just to deliver that organ, or would the delivery have to wait until after you had your fun. Which is more important to you?"

Sol knew the answer. He wanted to find out the truth about what happened to his dad. And if that truth came out by stopping Faust, then what's the problem. "There my skills, so shouldn't I get to decide how I use them."

Misty thought about this for a moment, "Not...necessarily. Just because you're the one using your skills, doesn't mean you can always decide how to use them."

Sol rolled his eyes, "You're starting to sound like Flash."

Misty chuckled, "Probably. He gets that from his father."

"Really?" Sol asked.

Misty nodded as she seemed to suddenly become lost in his thought. "His father had a philosophy that he held to pretty strongly, and it's one that served him very very well. He believed that if there were things in this world that you had to offer, things that you did well...better than anyone else. Things that you could do that helped people or made people feel better. Well...he believed it wasn't just a good idea to do those things. He believed it was your responsibility to do those things."

"Responsibility?" Sol asked, to which Misty nodded.

"He was an amazing pilot and could have spent his life working for an airline after serving his tour in the air force. But instead, he decided to use his skills as a test pilot. He became one because he knew he was the best man for the job. So no one else had to risk themselves."

"But he...you know." He saw Misty grimace at this, but that frown quickly vanished.

"I know. But I also know that if he couldn't stop whatever happened, then no one could." She smiled. "He believed that a life isn't worth living unless you're trying to be the best person you could be. And even though he's not here anymore, he's still making the world a better place. After all, Flash inherited his sense of responsibility and is constantly helping others."

"Yeah," Sol realized, "He is." He suddenly remembered what Flash had told him when they infiltrated Faust.

"As long as the Smash exist, innocent people are gonna get hurt. And I’m the only one who can fight them off. So if it’s a choice between finding the truth or saving people….I will always choose to save people."

When Sol tried to transform, all he cared about what having the power to get the answers he wanted. Meanwhile, Flash was willing to put himself in harm’s way and even use the Dragon bottle whilst knowing what it would do to him. All because he wanted to help those in need. And he'd gotten that from his father.

"He must have been some guy."

"He was." Misty nodded in agreement. Sol wanted to inquire more, but his cell phone went off. The screen read that it was Micro calling him.

“Oh, sorry. I gotta take this.” He pressed the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Sol! There’s another Smash attack, for real this time!”

“Wait, what?!” His exclamation startled Misty, who looked in befuddlement. He quieted down and whispered back. “Where?”

“At the mall! I hacked into the feed to verify. It’s a new type of Smash and the Rainbooms are in danger…again! Flash went ahead to stop it!”

“What? But he’s injured!” Now Misty was even more worried.

“That’s why we need you to back him up! I’ll send Crozz over as well!”

“…Got it.” Sol nodded. He just hoped he really could help and not flop like yesterday. He hung up and turned to Misty. “Sorry, but I gotta go.”

“Is everything alright? And what’s this about someone injured?”

“Ah, well…” He should’ve just kept his mouth shut. “Well, a friend of mine thought it was a good idea to work out as a means of physical therapy, even when he’s injured.” Sol lied, hopefully convincingly.

“Oh dear.” She gasped. “Why would he do that?”

“Eh, he’s stubborn like that. Anyway, I gotta go and help out.” He got out of his seat and chugged down the rest of his drink. “Thank you for the drink, Mrs. Veil. And thanks for the advice.” He then rushed out of the café and down the street.

“What a nice boy…strange, but nice. Flash definitely made some good friends.” She mused.

---

Several Minutes Earlier…

It was supposed to have been a simple day out shopping with her friends. Sometimes, Sunset wondered if Equestria had as many problems as she and the others had recently. While she knew that her world had a fair share of monster attacks, she’s actually been caught up in many of them first hand since arriving in this world.

Today was no different.

It started out as a normal day at the mall…until another Smash had decided to attack the populace. Said creature was busy flipping over and smashing tables at the newly repaired food court.

If Sunset were to describe it, its body was like a tank. It was heavily armored in dark green plating. Some of the plates resembled sea shells for some reason. Its left arm was a spiral shell while its head looked like a conch shell with a respirator mask attached. It also had what seemed to be coral growing from its shoulders and back.

“Seriously?! It’s like these things just pop out of the woodwork!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she and the others hid behind a row of upturned tables.

“Yeah! It’s like some higher power puts us in these situations just so we can watch Build and Cross-Z show up and save the day, knowing our magic doesn’t work on them!” Pinkie Pie glared at the adjacent wall for some odd reason.

“Forget that!” Applejack exclaimed. She and the other girls flinched as the Smash shot off several spiral shells at the tables, breaking on impact. “How do we git outta this mess?!”

“I don’t know!” Rarity replied. “You don’t suppose we can distract it long enough for the Riders to show up?”

“They should’ve been here by now!” Twilight retorted. The Mall had been under attack for several minutes. Everyone else managed to get away, as there had been a lack of evil Guardians in the area to capture more people for some odd reason. Yet when the Smash saw the Rainbooms, it immediately shifted its focus on them for some reason.

Good news was that the civilians were able to evacuate. Bad news was that they were stuck between a rock and a hard place being boxed in with a Smash out to get them.

“Well, we gotta do something!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Sunset kept quiet as she scanned their surroundings. Her brain went into overdrive to devise a strategic plan of attack that would allow them to keep the Smash preoccupied and themselves out of danger. Finally, she turned to her fluffy haired friend. “Pinkie, you got any jawbreakers and sticky candy?”

“You know it!” The party planner reached into her hair and pulled out two, fist sized spherical hard candy and pieces of taffy.

“Okay…so here’s the plan.” The rest of the Rainbooms huddled as Sunset explained. “Rainbow, I want you to run decoy and get the Smash’s attention. Rarity, you’re on guard duty: keep Rainbow safe from those shells.”

“Got it.” Both the fashionista and the athlete complied, the latter picking up a broken table leg as a makeshift weapon.

“Applejack, Pinkie, and Twilight? You three are on offense. Applejack, I want you to use your strength to throw anything you can find at the Smash as hard as you can. Pinkie, you’ll light it up with sugar explosions. Twilight, you use your magic to accelerate the thrown objects as much as you can to dish out even more damage. If need be, alter their trajectory mid air to disorient it. Okay?”

“Right.”

“You got it.

“Okie dokie loki!”

“Fluttershy, since your magic and mine aren’t going to be much help, we’re going to stay back with Rarity.”

“Okay.” The animal lover nodded, relieved that she wasn’t going to be part of the fight herself, yet worried greatly for her friends.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Rainbow exclaimed as she moved first. Using her magic, she dashed out and all over the place. The Smash’s attention became focused on the speeding, rainbow-colored blur. Rainbow drew close to slam her weapon into the Smash’s armor a few times as she ran past. It didn’t hurt the Smash but it did irritate it. It raised its arm and shot off a series of spiral shells at the girl.

Before they could hit her, however, diamond shields manifested to protect Rainbow. While the Shell Smash was focused on the athlete, it did not notice the table thrown at him at great speeds. The piece of furniture impacted its body hard, even causing it to stumble. It spun around to find and attack the culprit, but was greeted with a mass of taffy that stuck itself onto its face.

The gooey confection glowed before it detonated in a small explosion. The Smash roared in pain and backpedaled. But as it moved, it failed to notice the pair of jawbreakers sail and curve through the air before impacting the creature from behind. Another explosion, only slightly stronger than the first, pushed the Smash down.

The girls remained wary. While they knew Pinkie Pie’s sugar explosions could be quite large, depending on her mood, they noticed that the blasts made were only minuscule compared to what she was capable of. They knew that the Smash somehow cancelled their magic, but they have yet to understand the full extent of it.

They had no time to ponder as the Smash got back up, even angrier than before. With a resounding roar, before their very eyes, its body started to change. Its body mass seemed to increase as it bulked up. Furthermore, extra layers of armor and shells grew over its pre-existing ones, further increasing its defenses. It slammed its arms to the ground, shaking the earth and creating cracks on the concrete. It then turned its attention to the girls, who collectively gulped.

“…okay, show of hands…who thinks we’re in trouble now?” Pinkie Pie asked. Every hand was raised.

The Shell Smash raised its spiral arm and fired another twisted shell, this one even bigger and faster than before. Rarity hastily erected a shield to protect them from the attack. The projectile impacted and shattered, the resulting force threw the girls off their feet.

The scrambled up in a daze as it lumbered toward them. But before it could shoot another shell, its body was pelted by a volley of laser blasts.

The roar of a motorcycle engine filled their ears as relief swelled in their chests. Build rode in the area with the Drill Crusher in hand. He stopped between the girls and the Smash and got off. Rarity, always having the keen eye for detail, noticed something off about Build. His movements were stiff and seemed to cringe when making certain movements.

---

Flash Sentry’s body ached with every movement.

Ever since using KeyDragon again yesterday, on top of getting new wounds from the backlash, a good amount of his old ones re-opened. The moment his mother saw his newly injured state, he worried that she’d have a panic attack. She really hounded on him to be careful and rest.

Micro and Sandalwood had been adamant about it as well, but he had no choice. KeyDragon was their only Bottle Combination, and he was the only one among the team that could transform at the moment. Even if it ultimately resulted in a painful backlash every time he used it.

So the moment he learned about the Smash attack at the mall, he ripped off his braces, hopped on the Machine Builder, and sped off.

While he assured his friends that he was alright, in reality, every movement agitated his sore muscles and fresh stitches. Yet he hid it well, as he was the only one that could fight the Smash. The moment he saw the Rainbooms in danger, he sped up the bike and shot the Smash with laser blasts.

He resolved himself that he would stop the Smash and save people, no matter the cost to himself. With great pain, he donned the Build Driver and shook the Dragon and Lock Fullbottles.

“DRAGON!”

“LOCK!”

“BEST MATCH!”

“ARE YOU READY?!” With a turn of the crank, the armor half-bodies formed.

Shifting into a fighting stance, Flash yelled out, “Henshin!”

“THE SECURITY FANTASY!”

“KEYDRAGON!”

“YEAH!”

Now clad in the blue and gold armor, Flash charged at the Shell Smash, his armor numbing the pain and allowing freer movement. The Smash tried to stab him with its spiral arm. Flash deflected the limb with his left arm and pounded the Smash in the chest with his right. A blue, fiery explosion appeared the moment his fist made contact. The resulting force sent the Smash stumbling back, as its added armor took the brunt of the hit.

“So powerful…” Fluttershy gazed in awe.

“My, what an unusual design.” Rarity, ever the fashionista, critiqued the armor.

“Yay Build!” Pinkie Pie jumped up and down in a cheer. “Go get ‘em!”

Flash continued his assault. He ducked under another swing and side stepped a wide spread punch. He immediately countered by grabbing the outstretched limb and elbowed it in the face. He then spun on his heel and slammed the heel of his extended leg into its face.

It stumbled from the strike to the face, but refused to fall. It tried to stab Build with its spiral arm. But he grabbed it and wrestled it away from everyone. As he did, he yelled to the girls. “What are you doing?! Get out of here!”

“No way!” Rainbow Dash yelled back. “We can help?!”

”What can you do?!” Build retorted as he kneed the Smash in the gut before. During this exchange, no one noticed Night Rogue peer out from around the corner. “You magic doesn’t work!” He let go of the Smash, spun on his heel, and rammed his foot into the Smash’s chest, creating a blue explosion that sent it back.

“But-!”

“Just go!” But as Build returned to the fight, his armor started to spark as pain returned to his senses. The girls saw this and were shocked by what was happening.

“That doesn’t look good.” Pinkie Pie frowned.

Even though he experienced the backlash, Flash continued to fight. He charged in and punched the Smash again. It backed away and fired a spiral shell. Flash batted it aside with the key on his left arm and used it to slash through the smash before delivering another flaming punch.

But as he did, his whole body ignited in blue fire.

“And it got even worse!” The party planner screeched. The girls were equally perturbed. Never before had they seen something like this with Build. Just what was going on?! And if he was hurting from this armor, why doesn’t he just change to a different set?!

The Smash rushed back at its opponent as Build willed his body to move. His entire body was burning….literally. But he could not stop fighting. Not until the Smash was defeated. But his movements were sluggish as he tried to fight back through the pain.

The Shell Smash delivered one final blow by slashing his front with its spiral arm. Build yelled as he was flung back and tumbled to the ground, his transformation canceling out. The Fullbottles clattered out of the Driver as the disguised Flash glared at the Smash. He felt his wounds reopen as blood dripped down his face, hidden by his mask and hood.

Watching the Rider’s defeat, Night Rogue couldn’t help but chuckle. He walked out of the alley and made his presence known. The Shell Smash advanced to finish off the Rider, but the Bat commanded it. “Stop.”

It immediately backed off.

Seeing that Night Rogue had appeared, Flash grabbed the bottles to keep them safe. The girls grew vigilant as the one who kidnapped Misty Veil showed up.

“You’re in no condition to keep fighting.” He told the Rider as he towered over him. He knelt down and grabbed him by the base of his hood. “Stop resisting and hand me those bottles. While you’re at it, tell me where the Panel is.” Flash gasped as his wounds became agitated, but he refused to submit.

But before Night Rogue could further torture him, a cupcake splattered on the back of his head. An explosion then occurred that sent him stumbling forward. “Let go of him you crazy Bat!” Pinkie Pie yelled. Next to her, Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity stood forward, their magic primed and ready to use. Off to the side were Sunset, Twilight, and Fluttershy. The Bespectacled girl discreetly moved Build using her magic, taking care not to aggravate his injuries. But before she could get him away from the Bat, his arm shot out and grabbed the Rider by the scruff of his neck. The sudden contact with his armor made Twilight’s magic unstable until it ultimately cancelled itself out.

“Oh?” Night Rogue mused as he glared at the girls from before. “And just what will you four do? You magic proved to be ineffective against me. To resist is futile.”

“Let me put this in a way that even fools like you can understand.” He pulled out his Transteam Gun and pressed it to the side of Build’s disguised head. “Stand down, or he dies.”

“You coward!” Sunset yelled with a glare.

“I know all about you girls.” He continued without missing a beat. “Girls imbued with the scientific impossibility known as magic. The epicenter for all the strange occurrences that took place at your high school and Camp Everfree. And yet, for all the power you have, it is useless against the likes of me and the Smash. Furthermore, you seven are simply too compassionate. Willing to help or feel worried for others despite the danger.”

He shifted his aim and pulled the trigger. And energy bullet grazed Flash’s leg, eliciting an agonized yelp. The girls were horrified by the display and further cemented their hatred for the man. “That was merely a warning shot. Be glad I missed try to cripple him. It’s only a flesh wound.”

“Bastard…” Rainbow seethed. The rest were equally angry, but Night Rogue had them in check mate.

“Good…now stand down, or the next one goes through his head.” Reluctantly, their dropped their arms in surrender. While Night Rogue was focused on the girls, Flash materialized the Drill Crusher from his Driver in a backhanded grip and hid it under the flaps of his coat.

Satisfied, Night Rogue turned his attention back to his hostage. “Now, hand over the bottles and the Panel.”

Instead of answering, Flash thrust his arm backwards to stab the Bat with his weapon. Night Rogue jumped back to avoid the surprise attack, allowing Flash to scramble back up, only to wince when he applied weight on his wounded leg.

“Tenacious to the end, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been told I’m pretty stubborn.” The Rider quipped. Growling, Night Rogue pulled out the Steam Blade and slashed at the injured Rider. Flash fought back as their weapons clashed. But having the upper hand due to his uninjured state, the Bat smacked the Rider in the face with the butt of his gun, causing him to stumble. With one final push, he knocked Flash down and immediately seized the Driver from his waist. He kicked the Drill Crusher out of his hands for good measure.

“I gave you the option to surrender.” Night Rogue told him condescendingly. “Now you have no choice unless you wish to die. I won’t repeat myself. Hand over the bottles and the Panel.”

“How about you get the hell away from him!”

The Bat turned to the source of the voice only to be slashed by the Beat Cross-Zer’s blade. Night Rogue was sent flying back, yet managed to keep a grip on the Driver. He got back on his feet and glared at the interference.

A disguised Sol Burner stood with the Beat Cross-Zer’s blade on his shoulder. “You doing okay, Build?”

“Debatable…” Flash replied as he got up to kneel. “Cutting it close on the arrival.”

“Sorry. Traffic.”

The girls were relieved that Build’s partner showed up when he did. But where was he in the first place?

“Night Rogue had enough of their banter, and ordered the Shell Smash to attack. It charged at Cross-Z, who met its charge with his sword raised. He tried to cut the Smash, but its armor was too thick to slice through. It parried the blade and punched Sol back. The teen was sent flying from the force of the blow and crashed through an upturned table. Surprisingly, he got up without much issue and charged again. He swung his sword repeatedly, but the Smash would either parry the blade or withstand the strikes without flinching. He tried to use a Smash hit, but before he could, a spiral shell knocked the sword out of his hands. When he tried to reach for it, another shell flung it away until it rested by the Rainboom’s feet.

“Restrain him.” Night Rogue ordered. The Shell Smash complied and pinned Sol to the ground. The Bat ripped the Dragon and Lock Bottles from his hand and with the same hand, grabbed Build by the hood of his jacket and yanked him up. “You are trying my patience. Tell me where the Panel is, or I will kill the girls. Starting with the Pink one!”

Flash growled while the girls stood warily. They were unable to do much to help. Their magic was simply ineffective against the Smash and Night Rogue. Even if they could do something, they have both vigilantes pinned and powerless. They were at their mercy. Pinkie Pie gulped as the threat did not pass over her head.

As the exchange went on, Sol could only watch the scene before him. He couldn’t do anything while a heavy Smash kept him pinned to the ground. He felt so…helpless. His friends were about to be hurt/killed, and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. As that thought ran through his mind, his eyes widened in realization.

His mind raced back to the words Misty Veil told him earlier:

"His father had a philosophy that he held to pretty strongly, and it's one that served him very very well. He believed that if there were things in this world that you had to offer, things that you did well...better than anyone else. Things that you could do that helped people or made people feel better. Well...he believed it wasn't just a good idea to do those things. He believed it was your responsibility to do those things."

Sol never realized this until now. Before, he used his strength to fight and find the truth. He didn’t care about helping people, as long as he could learn what really happened that fateful night.

But now he knew better. He was strong. He could fight. He had the ability to protect his friends from getting hurt. So why wasn’t he living up to that responsibility?! Well, it was time to change. It was time to protect!

The fighter roared as he forced his body up. Bit by bit, he lifted the heavy Smash off of his body, his hands bursting into blue flames. With a mighty shout and heave, he flung the Shell Smash off of him. In a rapid rush of punches, he struck the Smash over and over before knocking it down with a corkscrew punch. He took off in a sprint past Night Rogue and ripped the Build Driver and Fullbottles from his hands.

Without hesitation, he placed the Driver on his waist and the belt wrapped around him. Flash and the girls stared at Sol, anticipating what he would do next. The girls thought he would use KeyDragon, as it seemed to be the only pair of bottles they had on hand. Flash, however, thought differently. Could he finally…?

Sol stared at the Dragon Bottle. Images of his mom and dad flashed through his head. One scene in particular stuck in his mind. His first fighting match, where his dad, Knuckle Blaze, told him that by his determination, there was no way he could lose. He won. “Dad…give me strength.” He said under his breath.

Crozz roared as it flew above Sol, electric samba blasting through the air. His Dragon partner folded itself into its adapter form and Sol caught it.

Determined not to fail this time, Sol shook the Dragon Bottle, twisted the cap, and inserted it into the slot with ease.

“WAKE UP!” The image of a Dragon appeared on Crozz. He inserted Crozz into the Driver

“CROSS-Z DRAGON!”

He turned the crank as the Driver light flashed a myriad of colors. The armor panels manifested, one in front and one at the back. But another materialized to the left of his body, creating what resembled a dragon with wings.

“ARE YOU READY?!”

Falling into a fighting stance, Sol glared in determination. “Henshin!” He stood at attention as the armor pieces converged onto him.

“WAKE UP BURNING!”

The armor halves were donned onto his body while the winged dragon attached itself to his back. Its wings wrapped around his shoulders and its head rested on his helmet, completing his armor.

“GET CROSS-Z DRAGON!”

“YEAH!”

Unlike Build’s armor, Cross-Z was suited in a black body suit with dark blue armor on its legs, arms, and torso. It had orange, flame-like patterns on its right leg and left arm. Both arms and his back had white spine armor pieces. He had an armored vest with orange flames as well. His shoulder guards were two pairs of white claws. His helmet was black with a white mouth piece, two side profiled, blue Dragon heads as eyepieces, and an orange dragon head in between them to act as the head piece. The eye pieces flashed blue as the transformation finished.

Flash and the girls could only watch in awe. After all this time, they saw Cross-Z transform into an awesome suit of armor.

“Heh…that guy…” Build mumbled in relief.

“…huh. Smells like a new car in here.” The new Rider mused.

Night Rogue silently stared at the new Rider with intrigue, idly assembling his weapons into the Steam Rifle. The Shell Smash, however, saw a new target and charged. It tried to slam its spiral shell arm into the Rider. Sol swiftly retaliated with a punch to the chest. An explosion of blue flames burst forth, sending the heavy, armored Smash flying and crashed on its back.

“In one shot?!” Twilight exclaimed, unable to believe her eyes.

“So powerful…” Sunset said in awe.

“So awesome!”

Cross-Z turned the handle on the Build Driver, which lighted up in a brilliant azure. The Shell Smash got back up and charged angrily. Out from nowhere, an energy construct in the form of a blue, eastern dragon covered in orange fire flew around Sol until it stopped behind him.

“What the-?! Where in the hay did THAT come from?!” Applejack wondered.

Sol crouched down, legs and arms spread apart. The dragon behind him roared, its body growing brighter as power surged through his body, his right foot gathering blue flames.

“READY? GO!”

“DRAGONIC FINISH!”

He jumped up to execute a roundhouse kick. As his foot pulled back, the Dragon shot a blast of blue fire at the armored fighter. Instead of burning him, the flames propelled him forward with great speed. Like a blade, his foot swung and slashed through the Shell Smash’s durable armor. Its body caught on blue fire as Sol landed on his feet. The Smash exploded in a burst of green energy and collapsed on the ground motionless.

Cross-Z turned and faced Night Rogue. Flash and the girls were awestruck by what just happened. The former smiled, seeing how powerful the form truly is. And Sol did not suffer from any drawback whatsoever. He truly synchronized with Crozz.

The girls were absolutely speechless. Even Build had a tough time fighting against the Shell Smash. Yet Cross-Z took it out with one shot?!

“With one attack…?” Night Rogue mumbled in shock. He did not expect this new rider to be this powerful. After the Bat spoke, Rainbow Dash snapped out of her stupor. She then noticed the discarded Beat Cross-Zer by their feet. Realizing that Cross-Z may have the power to beat Night Rogue and make him pay for what he did before, he needed all the help he could get.

Before any of the girls stopped her, she used her magic to dash forward and pick up the Beat Cross-Zer. She just didn’t expect how heavy it was. “Holy cow! How do you even carry this?!” Shaking her head, Rainbow realized she couldn’t hand it to Cross-Z, so she decided the next best thing.

“Hey Cross-Z!” She yelled out, grabbing the Rider’s attention. “Catch!”

Using her experience from track and field, she spun around to gain the momentum needed to throw the heavy weapon back to its owner. With one final spin, it flew through the air, and Cross-Z caught it deftly with a single hand. “Thanks!” He called out in gratitude. Rainbow preened from the praise.

Now, with weapon in hand, Sol charged forth. Night Rogue retaliated by shooting red lasers from the Steam Rifle. But Sol weaved through the blasts with ease. Once he got close, he slammed the pommel into the firearm to stun his opponent. He then forced the rifle aside for a follow up swing. Night Rogue nimbly sidestepped to avoid the blow. But Sol deftly rolled his wrist and caught him in a backhanded swing.

Bat countered attacked by stabbing the blade of his rifle into Cross-Z’s unguarded chest plate. However, the attack didn’t even faze Sol as he dashed forward and slammed the Beat Cross-Zer into Night Rogue’s chest plate, blade ignited in blue flames. With a swift swing, the blade ran along his body, delivering a damaging blow that left his black and silver armor sparking. By the time he recovered it was already too late as Sol pulled the sword’s pommel.

“HIT PARADE!”

“SMASH HIT!”

He spun around and delivered a diagonal slash in an uppercut swing. The blazing blade injured the Bat as he was sent flying into a tumble. Night Rogue propped himself up on a knee, glaring at the Rider beneath his helmet. “What…is this power?!”

“HIT PARADE!”

“HIT PARADE!”

Sol pulled the pommel twice. He dashed in for an overhead swing. Night Rogue tried to block the attack with his armored arms, but failed. The moment the blade made contact with his armor, it was engulfed in a spectrum of red, yellow, and green that fluctuated like a sound reading in a crescent form.

The Bat growled as he felt a burning sensation through his suit.

“Pretty hot, right?” Sol asked as he continued the attack. “It’s not just my power, after all.” He tore the blade through Night Rogue, completing the attack.

“MILLION HIT!”

The Faust warrior was forced back as the fluctuating, sound bar blade of energy continuously attacked him with numerous slashes.

Sol stood tall as he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, Beat Cross-Zer held in his right. “Right now…” He took out the Lock Bottle and shook it before installing it in the Beat Cross-Zer.

“SPECIAL TUNE!”

The meter along the flat of the blade lit up. He pulled the pommel twice.

“HIT PARADE!”

“HIT PARADE!”

Sol held the sword like one would wield a baseball bat. Blue flames had gathered along the blade as the air seemed to distort from the heat it produced. The sword seemed to sing; upbeat music seemed to play as it charged up.

“…I get the feeling I can’t lose!” He swung the sword with all his might, launching a stream of dark blue fire at the enemy.

“MILLION SLASH!”

Night Rogue no choice but to withstand the attack. The force of the finishing move sent him skidding backward. The heat from the flames was intense. It felt as if he was being cooked alive in his armor. Putting as much strength into his arms as he could, he forced the attack away and into the air, allowing it to eventually dissipate.

But the attack had done its job. His body sparked as small sections of the suit exploded. He fell to his knees in pain and aggravation. He snapped his head up to glare at the new Masked Rider. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this…!” Angered by this failure, he had no choice but to retreat. Steam exuded from the pipes on his armor and enveloped him; he vanished once it dissipated.

“That. Was. AWESOME!!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with pure awe on her face. “That was like, 20% cooler than what Build normally does!” The girls were equally amazed. Cross-Z seemed to be even more powerful than Build.

After seeing the enemy flees, Sol removed Crozz from the Driver, undoing his transformation. He pulled the Dragon Bottle out of his mechanical companion and stared at it. His mind flashed back to his father. He smiled beneath his mask. “…thanks, dad.”

Flash smiled from where he sat. “You did it…” Sol Burner walked over and extended a hand to help him out. Flash grabbed it and was pulled back onto his feet. He stumbled a bit due to the pain from his leg, but Sol supported him. “Thanks…”

“I should be thanking you.” Sol’s gaze then craned over to the downed, sparking Shell Smash that seemed to be in agony. “…we should probably take care of that, first.”

Flash followed his line of sight and nodded. He pulled out an Empty Bottle and opened it. The essence was absorbed into the container as the creature returned to normal, revealing…

“Huh?! Bulk Biceps?!” The Rainbooms exclaimed as they rushed over to the downed teen. Flash and Sol were surprised by this revelation as well. The latter was angered that Faust used his friend like this, and guilty for blowing him off earlier when he was upset.

“But…how could this be?!” Rarity wondered as she and Fluttershy inspected the muscular teen for further injuries.

“I don’t know…has Faust started to target other students?!” Sunset wondered aloud.

“Are we even safe anymore…?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“What the hay is going on here?!” Applejack demanded as she dialed 911 for an ambulance.

“This is getting even more cray-cray than usual!” Pinkie exclaimed in her usual manner.

“Well, at least Build and Cross-Z are still here. Maybe they can help explain things…” Twilight reasoned.

“Uh…about that….” Rainbow Dash pointed to the direction where Build’s motorcycle was parked.

…Or rather the spot that used to have Build’s motorcycle. In Pinkie’s eyes, all that was left was the outline of the vehicle. The two riders were missing as well.

“…Oh, come on! Where did they go?!”

---

“Well, that was close…” Flash grunted as he shifted in his seat.

“Yeah, no kidding…” Sol agreed. “…man…I can’t believe they used Bulk like that.”

“Neither can I…Faust is getting bolder with each day. With the amount of Bottles we have now, even if you can transform, we don’t stand a chance against them. We need to get our Fullbottles back.”

“But how?”

“….Here’s to hoping the guys have that answered.” The musician hoped. “Still…congrats on your first, successful transformation. Looks like you finally have your answer, huh?”

“Yeah…I do. I really gotta thank your mom for that.”

“Yeah….wait, what?”

---

Unbeknownst to either teen, they were being watched. Blood Stalk walked out of an alley way, having observed the entire fight of Sol Burner taking out the Shell Smash and nearly defeating Night Rogue.

“…Bravo, little Dragon. You finally awakened.” Blood Stalk mused. From around the corner, a pair of patrolling police officers saw Blood Stalk and immediately grew suspicious based of his armor, which matched the descriptions of the Faust members they had to watch out for.

“Hey! You there!” The two rushed over to Blood Stalk, who ignored their presence. “Hey!” The first one grabbed him by the arm to try and restrain him. Stalk ripped his arm away and slammed it into the police officer. The man disintegrated into black particles upon impact.

“You bastard!” The now deceased officer’s partner yelled as he grabbed the man. Stalk raised his other arm as a black tendril snaked from his gauntlet and stabbed into the policeman, injecting him with poison and disintegrating him as well.

The Cobra yawned as he stretched. “Well…should probably head back now…” With a pull of the trigger of his Transteam gun, he vanished from sight.

---

“So you guys still haven’t found a way to track Faust down?” Flash asked as Sandalwood tended to his new and reopened wounds.

“Unfortunately, no.” Micro shook his head. “Sandalwood and I have been debating about it earlier, but we weren’t able to come up with anything definite.”

“We even made an entire list.” The eco-teen gestured to the list of ideas on the white board, every one of them crossed out.

“So we can’t track down their hide out?” Sol asked as he played with Crozz.

“No. If we plant a tracker on either Stalk or Rogue, they would likely find it and use it against us by tracking us down instead. We can’t let them take the Fullbottles and the Panel. If they get their hands on it, who knows what would happen?” The bespectacled teen answered. But as he did, his brow furrowed in thought.

“Then what can we do? It’s not like we can make a Pandora’s Box detector or something, right?” Sol wondered aloud.

Like a hammer, Sol’s statement hit the nail on the head in Micro’s mind. An idea began to form. “Sol…that’s it! You know, I never thought I’d say this but…that’s genius!”

“It is?” The fighter asked. “….what did I say?” Micro picked up the Panel on the table and carried it over to the supercomputer.

“It was so simple! I can’t believe it never occurred to us!” He ranted as he typed in a series of commands. “Pandora’s Box radiates some sort of unknown energy, correct? And the Panels come from the Box, right?”

“Uh…yeah? Why?” Flash wondered where he was going with this.

“If the Panels originate from the Box, then they are made from the same material, and share the same energy signature! The same energy that Pandora’s Box produces! That means using our own Panel as a reference, we can use it to track down Faust’s Panel and the Box and find their location!”

“Really? That’s awesome!” Sandalwood cheered.

“One quick catch though…”

“Aw, I knew there’s always something.” Sol grumbled.

“Doing so will take time. First I’d need to work on recording the Panel’s energy signature into the database, and connect said database to the drone and send it out to scan the city. We need to do this discretely, so that means a limited number of trips at a time to prevent detection.”

“So…how long do you think this will take?”

“I honestly don’t know. But I’ll work on it as fast as I can.”

“Well, at least it’ll give me time to heal…” Flash sighed. “Because when we find them, we’re definitely getting our stuff back.”

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

Here was the moment all you Kamen Rider Fans were waiting for! The debut of Kamen Rider Cross-Z! And wow, I honestly did not expect this chapter to turn out as long as it did. It's the longest one yet! Hopefully I don't make this a habit, but it was worth it since this was Cross-Z's debut, which I hope you all enjoyed.

And for those who noticed, yes. I gave Filthy Rich another role in this story, being something akin to an uncle to Sol Burner. Thought it'd be a way of expanding on certain characters instead of just the perspective they're portrayed on in the movies/show. These new elements will all pop up later down the line.

Bottles Possessed:

Organic:

Dragon

Inorganic:

Lock

Comments

[ArcanaMaverick7]

An excellent debut for Cross-Z! Awesome fight and Smash enemy! I love how AJ questions the energy dragon in the Dragonic Finish appearing out of nowhere. Now let's see how the next chapter goes for searching for everything, Sol's fight, and character interactions in that.

BTW, the mention of the Daring Do move has an error. The director's name is "Zoom". Canter Zoom, I believe.

[Godslittleprincess]

Misty nodded as she seemed to suddenly become lost in his thought. "His father had a philosophy that he held to pretty strongly, and it's one that served him very very well. He believed that if there were things in this world that you had to offer, things that you did well...better than anyone else. Things that you could do that helped people or made people feel better. Well...he believed it wasn't just a good idea to do those things. He believed it was your responsibility to do those things."

Either you borrowed this from Spider-Man or Spider-Man has become so ubiquitous in the hero game that even people who have never heard of him are able to reference him unironically.

[Chaos Blitz]

“…huh. Smells like a new car in here.” The new Rider mused.

"Mister Stark it smells like a new car in here!"

[Godslittleprincess]

9793540
Oh my gosh! How did I miss that?

[Shadow-Storm]

That was awesome. Loved how it all came together. Given that ending, I'm guessing we hope pop right into finding the box like the actual show. That means we're getting an original chapter, right? Also, loved the new smash. Guess this means we're not getting the Octopus Bottle. The only canon bottles I can think that it could become are either the UFO or Turtle bottles.

[Unshackled_Unbroken]

When are the Rainbooms gonna realize who Build and Cross-Z really are?

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Nice first battle for Cross-Z! I liked those Spider-Man references that you put in, especially Misty Veil's speech about responsibility. I could tell that was taken directly from the Ultimate Marvel comics.

Cross-Z is powerful but the guys need to get some new bottles or get back the old ones soon so Flash can help properly again.

[Chaos Blitz]

9794842
Especially the "New Car" reference from Infinity War ;)

[Kamen Rider Heart]

Now that was a hell of a way to burn things up.
I can hardly wait for Grease's debut now!

[Snow Fire]

9796127
Unfortunately, it may take a while as we have a few chapters and a special story arc before we reach his appearance.

[Haseo55]

The Dragon awakens!!!

Waiting for this for a while. Also wow it seems there are even more connections between the family member of team build..well except Sandalwood. I really like how the mistery is set even if I have already seen Kamen Rider Build.

[Snow Fire]

9801987
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. As Stalk said: Looks can be deceiving.

[Snow Fire]

9792943
Thank you. And I put that in there because she has a point. Where does the Dragon even come from? Like, it just came in off screen from nowhere.

And thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't entirely sure when I heard it in Movie Magic. It's been fixed.

[ArcanaMaverick7]

9806205
If they did it right, it could actually appear from the Fullbottle when the Driver is being cranked. But I don't think they did that in the show.

[KingJoltik]

I sat down and read this...its really good! I like the stuff I see here, though I will say its a bit on the slow side. Otherwise, its a lot of fun!

[Snow Fire]

9825366
Thank you. We tried out best.

[KingJoltik]

9825487
You've done a good job. I can definitely see Banshee's influences in here, and this is a fun story.

[Snow Fire]

9825522
Thank you. And if you’d like, I can let you in on what we have planned via PM.

[Hopelight]

Okay, now I'm torn between Night Light and Shining Armor being Night Rogue.

[Hazard System Max]

9847047
Pretty sure it's Shining Armor.

[Chaos Blitz]

Mhmm.

I'm about to grab a pitchfork and torches.

You better watch out

[Snow Fire]

9879990
Umm....any particular reason why?

[Chaos Blitz]

9880086
Lets ask you this question.

When was the last time you updated?

[Snow Fire]

9880524
Sorry. It’s my senior year of college and I’ve been swamped with work. And admittedly, it’s drastically draining my drive.

[Chaos Blitz]

9880562
Ah.

Okay that is acceptable.

[Layton13]

9887712

Thank you very much for your comments and criticisms. Admittedly, I didn't have much solid idea what to do since this is my first EQG fic on the site and was a little rusty. I hope I did it well. And don't worry, things will definitely be different later on. Banshee and I have some crazy ideas in store.

I'm definitely intrigued where this is going, but be warned of two things, I was relatively meh on Build and second, I'm a massive snarker so expect massive comments from me, it's kinda my stick.

And in all honesty, I left the comment about hoping it diverges enough from the original partially because of Banshee. I read is Power Rangers fic and it stayed to close to the material it was obviously based on and in my opinion to its own detriment, but I'm sure you two got this.

[Snow Fire]

9887728
It's fine. Thanks for the heads up. And I appreciate larger comments.

[Layton13]

9889417
Hmh, the movies... Oh, now that is interesting. Wonder how you gonna do the multiverse stuff, but I look forward to. And, in regards to continuity, it's just another world in the multiverse, makes it far more interesting to put it like this, not like it changes anything.

And I also enjoyed writing out Stalk. He's just so interesting.

challengerscomics.com/images/kr/build/stalkswing.gif

I think this sums it up perfectly, he is just a delight.

[FangDriver8]

Is this fanfic cancelled?

[Snow Fire]

9931944
It is not cancelled. I’m just busy with college right now. I’m still working on the next chapter. It’s just going at a slow pace.

[FangDriver8]

9932032
Alright. I get it. College can be busy and difficult.

[Banshee531]

9792943 9806205 You know, I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but Cross-Z Rider kicks is probably meant to be an omarge to Ryuki.

[ArcanaMaverick7]

9952314
I believe you mean "Homage"

[Banshee531]

9952325 Yeah. And you know I'm right.

[Layton13]

Days had passed since the fiasco that was the overnight trip to the Research Center. After the Faust attack and takeover, the trip had been promptly cancelled.

Good call.

It certainly didn’t help that his mother was still in the hospital at the time. When she learned of his condition, she all but pulled herself out of her bed and hobbled over to his room, despite the nurses’ protests.

Ok, that's just cute,

“I mean… what if we were wrong the whole time?” His question was responded by questioning stares. “Was the Knuckle Blaze Sol saw back at the apartment really Knuckle Blaze? What if that body was actually Gizmo’s, and the Gizmo he saw walk by was actually his father with a changed face?”

Uh, they start to see the possibilities.

“The Smash had been dealt with, but the subject had fallen into a coma from the resulting damage. Apparently, trauma of the accident, coupled with her injuries lowered her hazard level below the safety line, borderline lethal levels with a value of 1.0, which caused her comatose state after reversion. The Smash Essence was then purified into the Dragon Fullbottle.”

Interesting. And yep, we know who that was.

“Easy there, dude!” Sandalwood said. “Why not wait until we get an actual Smash attack to test it out?”

“But this is just a test run!”

“If you transform here, you might break something….again…” Micro reminded of his first failed transformation and pointed to the indent in the wall he caused.

I'm with Sol here. Knowing what you can do is vital!

She even gave him baking tips for cake and all sorts of pastries. Although, his coffee brewing skills had much left to be desired.

I so hope you are a herring.

“What did you expect?” Sombra smirked. “He would never have expected one of his own scientists to be a spy for Faust. Not to mention that he’s made absolutely no progress in uncovering this little organization, or anything more about the Masked Rider and his companion. It’s almost as if you’re just letting them and the Smash run around freely like this.”

Knowing that at least one of you shmucks are working with them, I'd find it hillarious if you all do work with them and just don't know the others aren't.

He collapsed on his knees as the transformation undid itself. Dragon and Lock fell from the Driver onto the ground. The disguised musician panted as his body became wracked with pain. Not only did his prior injuries flare up with a vengeance, he had new ones to boot. His clothing was partially burnt as if he was caught on fire. His body received more cuts that were hidden beneath the tattered remains of his jacket. A drop of blood trailed down from his lips as he tasted iron. He collapsed face first to the ground.

KO! KNOCK OUT!

“No.” Micro shook his head. “That was what you were going to do. Not the reason why you wanted to transform. Sandalwood and I saw everything through Crozz. Your motive to transforming was to beat up Stalk and get the truth about October 15^th.

So that's how we bring this in, I see.

“As of now, I’m starting to have my doubts about trusting you.”

Good.

“Well, that was just cold.” A voice cut in from behind Bulk. “And I thought you two were friends.” The muscular teen turned around, only to be greeted by a man in red armor and teal visor.

Well, hello shitbag.

"As long as the Smash exist, innocent people are gonna get hurt. And I’m the only one who can fight them off. So if it’s a choice between finding the truth or saving people….I will always choose to save people."

Good kid.

The Smash rushed back at its opponent as Build willed his body to move. His entire body was burning….literally. But he could not stop fighting. Not until the Smash was defeated. But his movements were sluggish as he tried to fight back through the pain.

Like the scene, really gives a good insight into Flash and how far he is willing to go.

“WAKE UP BURNING!”

The armor halves were donned onto his body while the winged dragon attached itself to his back. Its wings wrapped around his shoulders and its head rested on his helmet, completing his armor.

“GET CROSS-Z DRAGON!”

“YEAH!”

Ah, musclehead is finaly joining the fight properly.

That was like, 20% cooler than what Build normally does!

I see what you did there.

Quite enjoyed this chaptr. Sol is shapping up to be a good replacement for the Prince of Protein.