The World of EqG ᎮpƎ ʇo blɿoW ɘʜT
“Shall we go, Tsukasa?” asked Yusuke. He raised his hand for a high-five. “To the next world!”
Tsukasa turned away, then smiled and turned back. “Of course,” he said, reaching out and slapping Yusuke’s hand.
At the end of the room, a painted backdrop lowered overtop of another, the new one showing a large building with a life-sized stone horse statue in front of it, the canvas flashing with a brief glow.
* * *
In a city, someone stepped out of the front door of the Hikari Photo Studio. They walked a short way towards the street before pausing mid-step. They slowly spun around in place back to the building. The person stared at their reflection in the front window for a second. Their magenta camera still hung around their neck and they were in their normal black jacket and pants and a dark red shirt, but…
“You’re kidding me,” Tsukasa Kadoya said to himself, looking at his image in the window. “You’re kidding. You. Are. Kidding me.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m pink!”
And he was: every inch of Tsukasa’s skin was a pale shade of dark pink. In front of him, Natsumi Hikari and Yusuke Onodera also exited the Hikari Studio.
“And what’s wrong with pink?” Natsumi asked. “Aren’t you pink all the time already as Decade?”
“Decade isn’t pink,” Tsukasa countered, “he’s magenta!” He turned his head away, muttering, “It’s a totally different color.”
“Oh?” mused Natsumi.
Yusuke held up his hand. “Gah!” he let out. “It’s not just Tsukasa, we’re all different colors!”
Natsumi quickly looked down at her own hands. Her skin was a shade of dark blue, and Yusuke was pale red. Their hair and clothes were unchanged, though.
“What the heck’s up with this world?” Yusuke said in a panic. “Is this place diseased? Radioactive?” He looked around. “Anime?”
“Hold on,” Natsumi said, raising her arm at Yusuke, making him freeze. “Yusuke, say that again.”
“I said that we’re all different colors,” he repeated, puzzled but hardly calmer. “What?”
Tsukasa paused, having the same realization. “You just said that in English,” he said, looking back to them.
“Huh?” Yusuke said.
“We’re all speaking in English,” observed Tsukasa. “We’re speaking in perfect English and we aren’t even trying.”
“And we’re all different colors!” Yusuke repeated again, back to freaking out.
“Well,” Tsukasa said, turning away from them again with a tilt of his head, “I still look good anyway, no matter what I wear, or what color I am.” He flapped his jacket collar for emphasis.
“Oh, speaking of which,” Yusuke said in a suddenly calm tone, looking over Tsukasa’s shoulder, “you’re also not wearing a new silly outfit this time.”
“Ahh,” Natsumi joined in, looking over his other shoulder. “Maybe we’ve finally found a world that doesn’t know what to do with him.”
“Tsk,” replied Tsukasa.
Tsukasa stood on the sidewalk, looking around the block through his camera lens and snapping the occasional test shot. Natsumi and Yusuke had headed off to investigate this world, Tsukasa hanging back near the Studio. Like every other world thus far, he expected whatever problem was here to make itself apparent to him whether he went looking for it or not.
A teenage girl with pale pure white skin and striped dark and electric blue hair donning a pair of headphones and neon purple sunglasses was walking in from his right down the sidewalk across the street. Tsukasa had seen a few other random people, and had determined through observation alone that everyone in this world had skin of some bright color. Winding his camera, he centered in on the girl with the focus, but suddenly started hearing an odd whistling ring noise.
Tsukasa snapped the photo, but upon trying to line up the next shot, he noticed a window a short ways in front of the girl begin to ripple. He slowly looked up from the camera to see a spiky, dull metallic blue figure appear in the window’s reflection. It watched the girl as she obliviously passed by, and then stepped out behind her.
“Passing through windows,” Tsukasa muttered. “This seems like Ryuki’s World again.” Then it hit him that in spite of the monster that was now following her, the girl kept walking. “Why isn’t she…?” he started to ask before realizing the answer.
At a brisk pace, Tsukasa walked out diagonally across the middle of the street. Staying on the outer edge of the sidewalk, he passed by the girl, looking straight ahead as if he didn’t notice the monster. As he passed the monster, they were both lined up with an alley, and he lurched left and shouldered it in. The girl stopped and turned back to see what that sound had been, but the sidewalk was empty. After a second, she shrugged and turned to keep walking.
The dull blue monster, a Zenobiter, tumbled to the back of the alleyway, the long antenna on the back of its head flinging around. It got up and snarled and hissed at the person who stood before it.
“Not used to being seen, are you?” taunted Tsukasa. “I can help with that.” He held up in his left hand a white camera-like device with a clear circle at the center and a pair of silver handles on the sides, his transformation belt the Decadriver. “No one will see you again,” he said, slowly shaking his head. He slapped the buckle onto his waist and a belt sprung around from the left side, clicking onto the right; a thin white booklet case also appeared attached to the left side of the belt strap. First pulling the buckle’s silver handles out to spin the white center block a quarter turn clockwise, he flipped open the booklet and pulled out a card with a revving sound, gripping it low by the sides in his fingertips and holding it out towards the Zenobiter. Though he seemed to be speaking English, there was one thing he’d make sure to say properly. “{Henshin!}”
He spun the card around in his fingers, slotting it down into a slit on the white block of his belt, prompting the announcement—
Kamen Ride:
He pushed the silver handles in again, spinning the white block back into its original place.
Decade
Nine small circles bearing the symbols of past Riders appeared in an arc before him, expanding into a line of silhouettes before sliding around the arc left and right to overlap onto him, solidifying into a white, black and gray plastic-looking armor suit. At the same time, a line of seven transparent red rectangle cards flew forward out of his buckle, spun around, and flipped backwards at his face, sinking into his helmet and turning black, two of them with corners sticking up into points. With a flash, his large rounded triangular eye covers turned green and his face became ink magenta barred with the rectangles like a barcode, a digital wave of magenta coloring down over his shoulders and a thick bar down the sides of his body and legs. The insides of his arms and legs were white, with black covering the center of his body, outer arms, and strips down the middle of his legs; a white-bordered ‘X’ was draped over his chest. He was Kamen Rider Decade, warrior of the tenth year and traveler of the Rider Worlds.
Tsukasa brushed his palms together, then reached down and took the white booklet, the Ride Booker, and unfolded a black handle from the side, a black and silver sword blade flipping and extending out from inside; he rested the blade on his shoulder. Tsukasa rushed at the Zenobiter and slashed, but it jumped over him and ran for the alley entrance.
“Oh no you don’t,” Tsukasa breathed as he turned after it.
A block up the street, a figure in all black sat on a black motorcycle wearing a black helmet. The Zenobiter ran out of the alley and started across the street; the figure raised an indigo Advent Deck bearing the gold symbol of a horse head silhouette. Suddenly a second, pink figure ran out of the alley after the Mirror Monster.
“What the?” the first figure said, lowering the Deck. “Who’s that Rider?”
The Zenobiter jumped at the storefront window on the other side of the street, sinking right into it with a ripple and whooshing sound. The Rider jumped at the window too, but instead rammed right into it, stumbling back.
The figure chuckled softly. “Amateur.”
“Eh?” Tsukasa said, looking at Decade’s armor then back up at the window. “Looks like things are a bit different from Ryuki’s World after all.” He pulled the Decadriver open by its handles again. “No matter,” he said, flipping open the booklet at the center of his sword and pulling another card from behind the dark gray transparent inner cover before clicking it back closed, “this should fix things. Henshin.” He slotted the card in his belt and pushed it closed again.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three transparent silvery flat silhouettes spun in from around, overlapping onto him to change his armor to a bright red rubber suit with black shoulder, forearm, and shin pads, a silver chest plate, and a black helmet with a vent-slitted silver faceplate and a silver dragon face silhouette on the forehead; Kamen Rider Ryuki, a warrior who fought to end the fighting in a Rider battle royal.
The watching figure flipped up his motorcycle helmet’s visor in surprise. The Riders he knew didn’t suddenly change armor. The now-red Rider pumped his right fist and then jumped effortlessly into the glass. The figure flipped his visor back down and held up the Advent Deck again, indigo electricity reaching down from it to wrap around his waist and generate a silver belt.
“Kamen Rider,” said the figure, and he slid the Deck sideways into the open slot on the buckle. The top and bottom of the slot clamped down on the Deck and it slid backwards into a void, flipping up over backwards faster and faster with an indigo glow. He kicked the motorcycle off, turning and crossing the street, and driving through the window.
In an empty city, in a world within the reflections behind the mirrors, the Zenobiter jumped out of a window’s reflection into a courtyard. Jumping through to another mirror would surely put that Rider off its trail. It turned back to the window, but a red Rider flew out of the mirror aiming a kick at it, hitting and knocking it rolling away.
Tsukasa ran at the monster and swung his sword, but the Zenobiter jumped back up and pulled a large jagged boomerang weapon strapped to its back to block him. Instead of pulling back for another swing, Tsukasa pushed forward against their locked weapons, the Zenobiter shoving back. A revving noise came from behind them, and Tsukasa looked back to see the window warp and an indigo motorcycle speed out. He jumped to the left, letting the motorcycle’s rider slash the Zenobiter with his own sword as he passed, knocking the monster away with a spray of sparks.
The motorcycle skidded and spun around on its front wheel, sliding to a stop facing Tsukasa. The motorcycle had pennant-shaped indigo plates down its sides, a gold horseshoe tailfin, and a large pair of silver triangular shields surrounding the front wheel. Atop it was a Kamen Rider in a black suit with indigo chest armor and other pads with gold borders along each of the plates, flared shoulder pads, and a black armament bearing a gold horseshoe strapped to his left forearm; his helmet had a diamond-shaped silver eye cover with horizontal slits, all very reminiscent of the Riders from Ryuki’s World.
The two Riders stared at each other in silence.
“Who are you?” asked the new Rider.
Off to the side, the Zenobiter lifted itself to its feet again, grumbling. Tsukasa folded the Ride Booker’s handle at an angle, the sword’s blade retracting and flipping back closed, a small silver barrel extending from the corner instead.
“I could ask you the same question,” Tsukasa said casually, flipping open the case on the gun to pull out another card. “You’re not a Kamen Rider I recognize, and I usually just know who I’m seeing.” He slid the card into his open Driver; though his armor had changed to that of another Rider, his belt remained the same.
Attack Ride:
The Zenobiter hissed and threw its boomerang at Tsukasa, and he closed the Driver.
Blast
Without turning to look, Tsukasa held the Booker out to the right and fired a spray of pink energy shots, intercepting and destroying the boomerang before carrying past and hitting the Zenobiter, knocking it down again.
Watching this in silence, the Rider looked back to Tsukasa. “You may use cards,” he said, “but that belt’s nothing like the Decks the Advent Master gave us. Where did you get it?”
Tsukasa folded the handle back against the case and hooked it onto the side of his belt again. Flipping it open, he pulled out another card. “Let’s just say it was meant for me,” he said.
“And who is that?”
Tsukasa slotted the card.
Attack Ride: Strike Vent
A red dragon head gauntlet flew down from the sky with a flash, Tsukasa holding out his right arm and catching it on his hand. The Zenobiter struggled to its feet yet again, staggering.
“Just a passing-through Kamen Rider,” Tsukasa answered before turning to the monster. He stepped his right foot back and threw his right arm forward, a large beam of fire shooting from the dragon gauntlet’s mouth. The Zenobiter shrieked as the fire shot through it, and it exploded. The new Rider silently noted that no ball of energy floated up from the defeated monster; this guy’s attack had destroyed that, too. Tsukasa turned back to him, a red pixelation covering over Ryuki’s armor before fading, leaving Tsukasa as Decade again. He pointed to the other Rider, announcing, “Kamen Rider Decade.” The Rider only stared. “What’s the matter?” Tsukasa mildly taunted. “Haven’t you heard of me before?”
The Rider kept staring. “No.”
Tsukasa paused. Well this was new. “No one’s shown up recently,” he probed, “and tried warning you about ‘Decade, the Destroyer of Worlds’?”
“And why would they be doing that?” the Rider asked with suspicion.
Tsukasa tossed his arms out. “Beats me,” he said. “It’s just that that’s happened everywhere I’ve gone lately. How about you? What’s your story? I’ve seen card Riders like you before, but they were involved in some Battle Trial legal system, the winner gets to hand down the verdict.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Good for you, it seemed like a bad idea anyway.” Tsukasa pointed his left index finger at the Rider, adding, “Courtrooms should be for pointing fingers, not swords.”
“Why are you here, then?”
Tsukasa tilted his head. “Who’s interviewing who here?” No response. “I told you, I’m just passing through.”
“Then pass through, already.”
“No can do, not yet. I still have to find the problem of this world and solve it, first.”
The Rider paused to think a second. “Have it your way, then,” he replied. “Just watch your step, because I’ll be.” He revved his motorcycle and rode it past, Tsukasa having to step out of the way of the front wheel’s “cowcatcher”, before warping thought the window.
Tsukasa walked over to the window to leave too, but paused, suspicious. He held his hand out, but it stopped against the glass. Tsukasa sighed, taking out a card.
* * *
Tsukasa looked at his three remaining sealed Rider Cards. He had joined Natsumi and Yusuke at a table in Sugar Cube Corner, a popular local diner they’d found that the Hikari Studio had for once not replaced. He held up the card for Den-O.
“No,” he said, slapping the card down onto table. He held up Hibiki’s. “No.” Slapping that card down, he held up Kabuto’s. “Definitely no.” He slapped this card down too. “Well,” he said as he gathered up the cards again and took out the Ride Booker, flipping it open, “looks like that guy isn’t a Rider we need to find.” He slid the cards back away. “Good.” He was about to close the Booker, but paused. He slid out Den-O Ax’s Form Ride card, which was also sealed. “Although…,” he humored, noting the diamond-shaped eye cover.
“So,” spoke up Yusuke, “this place is like Ryuki’s World the same way Agito’s was like mine? Kinda the same but also kinda different? Hey Natsumi, try not to get arrested for murder again.”
Natsumi turned to him and raised her thumb. Yusuke slid his chair back a foot. Though time travel had erased those events from Ryuki’s World, Tsukasa had nonetheless wasted no time recounting the story to them and rubbing it in.
“H-how about the Kamen Riders?” Yusuke asked Tsukasa, desperately trying to change the subject. “Are they part of the court system again?”
“No,” Tsukasa answered. “It looks like they just fight monsters.”
“From the statue in the mural,” Yusuke continued, “I was wondering if this world’s Rider rode a horse instead of a motorcycle, but it doesn’t seem that way.”
“I asked around,” said Natsumi, “and the best I found was that the news has been talking about a suspected vigilante called the Armored Hero, but no one’s ever actually seen what he’s been fighting. Someone’s claimed they’re invisible.”
“That would explain why that girl didn’t know she was being followed,” said Tsukasa.
“But then how could you see it?” Yusuke asked.
“It’s probably just something this world gave me the ability to do,” Tsukasa observed. “Or maybe it’s because I was in Ryuki’s Mirror World before. Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing we went there first.” He thought back to his embarrassing ram into the window before switching to Ryuki’s form, a tale which he would certainly not be recounting. “But if that Armored Hero is the only Rider in this world, then why don’t any of my cards match him?”
“If he doesn’t match any of your cards,” Yusuke said, “then maybe he could match one of Kaito’s? Actually, if you’re saying this might not turn out to be an ordinary Rider’s World, do you think we’ll still find Kaito poking around for treasures here?”
A young man with light blue skin and jet black hair in a tan coat stood at the base of Canterlot High’s horse statue, holding the Diendriver gun in his right hand, and a duffle bag in his left. He gazed at the base of the statue and the portal contained within, the one true treasure of this world. Then he looked down at the duffle bag in his hand. Then back up at the statue. He sighed and shook his head.
“If he is here,” said Tsukasa, “then chances are he’ll be blue, so keep an eye out for someone like that.”
“Well, there’s someone blue right now,” Yusuke said, pointing over his shoulder at the counter. “Except she’s a girl.”
Tsukasa glanced over to see a light blue skinned girl with rainbow hair. Suddenly, he heard the whistling ring alarm in his head again, but also saw the girl look up and around. She pulled out her phone and started typing something as she turned and walked quickly to the door.
“Oh?” Tsukasa mumbled. Yusuke and Natsumi looked at him. “Good catch, Yusuke,” he said as he stood and followed her outside. He saw her ducking down the alley next to the diner and strolled over to peek around the corner.
Rainbow Dash stood facing a mirror propped against the side of the alley, holding out a light blue Advent Deck with a gold gryphon head silhouette on it and wearing silver belt.
“Kamen Rider!” she called, pulling the Deck back and pointing forward.
“Another Kamen Rider?” Tsukasa observed silently from the entrance. He shrugged. “Take two.” He walked into the alley.
Rainbow slid the Deck into its spot on the belt and it was clamped in, sliding back and flipping over faster and faster with a light blue glow. A light blue energy sphere and pair of horizontal rings shot out from the belt, the rings rotating up to vertical and continuing down horizontal again, printing armor onto her. The rings and sphere faded, leaving her in a dark teal suit with light blue armor plates, eagle talons on her shoulder pads, a light blue eagle talon strapped to her left forearm, and a slitted silver facemask with the outline of a large beak from nose to chin and two earlike prongs at the top; Kamen Rider Talon.
“How interesting,” Tsukasa said aloud as he stopped a few feet away, Rainbow turning in surprise. He could tell her eyes were drawn to the magenta camera hanging around his neck. “Don’t worry,” he said, tapping it, “the pictures this thing takes never turn out good.”
It took a few seconds before she could respond. The last thing they needed was random strangers getting involved. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
Tsukasa took out the Decadriver with a chuckle. “And why would I do that?” He strapped it on and held out a card. “Henshin.” He flipped the card around and slotted it.
Kamen Ride: Decade
Nine icons became nine silhouettes that slid onto him to become black and white armor, seven red squares sliding into his face to add magenta to his face, shoulders, and sides. Rainbow could only watch in surprise as Tsukasa transformed and brushed his palms together before taking out another card and tapping it with his finger.
“The last Rider I ran into wasn’t much of a talker,” he said, and slotted the card.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three silvery transparent flat silhouettes spun in and overlapped onto him, changing his armor to red with black and silver. He turned to the mirror, looking over to add, “Maybe you’ll be more help?” He leapt into the reflection.
After a few more seconds of shock, Rainbow shook her head. “H-hey, wait up!” She jumped through after him, arriving on the other side in a shaded cement courtyard between two rows of storefronts at the mall or someplace. Tsukasa was standing and looking around with no Mirror Monsters in sight.
“Eh,” Tsukasa sighed. “Did I scare them off just by showing up?”
Suddenly something leapt out of a nearby window and grabbed onto Tsukasa; a gunmetal gray humanoid monster with bee stingers draped on its shoulders, bronze on its feet and specked across its chest, and jagged blue eyes on its insectoid head: Buzzstinger Wasp.
“Let…go…,” Tsukasa said as he tried prying it off of him, but it wouldn’t budge, buzzing at him. Rainbow ran up and jumped into a kick, her foot slamming into it knocking it loose and sending it tumbling up the way.
“If we beat this guy, you’ll talk?” Rainbow asked.
“Only if you will,” replied Tsukasa.
“Deal.”
The Riders took a step forward, but a barrage of arrows pelted the ground in front of them, sparking up the ground. They looked up and saw two more similar monsters on the roofs above them, one on each side: on the left, Buzzstinger Bee, yellow with gunmetal feet and chest, red eyes, and holding a yellow bow; on the right, Buzzstinger Bloom, gold with faded red metal feet and chest with red eyes and another bow. Bee and Bloom leapt down to the ground to flank Wasp as it stood back up, two more monsters tumbling in from the sides: Buzzstinger Hornet from the left, bright red with brown feet and chest, yellow eyes, and wielding a pair of skinny daggers; and Buzzstinger Frost from the right, gleaming silver with blue feet and chest, yellow eyes, and another pair of daggers. The five Buzzstingers stood facing the Riders in a line, Wasp drawing a long sword. {Ride the Wind}
“Five on two,” Tsukasa said. “You’re smarter than the last guy.”
“Dibs on the left half,” Rainbow said, racing forward as she pulled back the talon armament on her arm.
“Oi!” Tsukasa called after her. “There is no half of five!” Rainbow pulled a card from her Advent Deck and set it in the armament, pushing the cover forward again.
Strike Vent
A large gryphon flew overhead, in a flash dropping a pair of light blue talon gauntlets at Rainbow, who caught them on her hands just in time to slash at the oncoming red Hornet, knocking it to the side as the yellow Bee swung its bow down at her. She caught it in the gauntlets’ claws, swiping her foot out to trip the gunmetal Wasp as it tried joining the gold Bloom and silver Frost in charging Tsukasa.
Tsukasa put his arms up to fight, but looked down at Ryuki’s armor.
“I’ve used this already,” he commented, pulling out a new card. “Henshin,” he said, slotting it.
Kamen Ride: Agito
A long revving sound started up and grew louder, a bright flash of light from his belt obscuring him briefly before fading, leaving him in a black suit with a gold chest plate and ankle straps, spiked silver shoulders, and a pair of gold crest horns in a curved ‘V’ shape resting above his round red eyes; Kamen Rider Agito, a warrior who fought to defend humanity’s potential to evolve from supernatural forces.
Tsukasa stood still as Frost and Bloom came at him. They switched sides and Frost leapt up to him, but he took a step to the right and let the monster miss, elbowing Frost in the back and knocking it over. Bloom swung its bow at him, but he caught it and pulled Bloom past him, letting it trip and fall.
He turned to face the monsters as Frost swung a dagger at him, but he deflected its wrist with his right forearm, spinning right and shoving Frost past him again with his left palm, in the same motion elbowing Bloom in the chest behind him. He reached back and grabbed Bloom around the back of the neck, shoving it forward as well.
The monsters sprang back up and jumped at him together, Frost on the left and Bloom on the right. Tsukasa bent his arms up to intercept them, but their sheer force pushed him down to a knee. He pulled his left arm free and quickly slotted another card.
Form Ride: Agito Storm
With another long revving sound, a blurry vortex spun from Tsukasa’s belt before fading. The blunt gold end of a staff weapon now in Tsukasa’s left hand rammed Bloom’s chest and launched it back. He rammed the staff’s identical other end into Frost to knock it away and stood tall, his chest and left arm now blue, with a gold band over his flared left shoulder pad. He spun the weapon around and held it out in front of him, the Storm Halberd’s blunt ends springing out and unfolding into a pair of gold blades.
Bloom recovered and raised its bow, aiming at Tsukasa, but he grabbed the Halberd’s shaft in his right hand and swung it wide over to the right, its far blade breaking Bloom’s bow in half with a spit of sparks. Tsukasa faced Bloom and began spinning the Halberd around with both hands, back and forth, kicking up a dust storm and sending a gale force wind blowing at Bloom, the monster stumbling as it was blown back.
“Hmm,” Tsukasa mused, “how to defeat you?”
In her own battle, Rainbow Dash rammed Hornet with her shoulder. It swung its dual daggers down at her, but she grabbed their handle guards in her talon gauntlets mid-swing. She pushed its arms back up and quickly slashed down with her right gauntlet, sending Hornet back with a spray of sparks just in time to kick her right foot back and hit Bee in the chest as it tried sneaking up behind her. Wasp ran up and swung its sword, but Rainbow caught the top part of its blade in her left gantlet, swiping her right gauntlet at the base of the blade and snapping it from the handle. With a double slash from the left, she sent it falling back with another spark spray.
Frost charged Tsukasa from behind, but he spun around to the left, hitting Frost in the side with the Halberd’s shaft, again pushing it past him, and launching it over to the ground by Bloom. Tsukasa continued to consider all of the monster-squashing options at his disposal.
Blast Vent
He glanced over at Rainbow’s fight as a spinning tunnel of wind blew Bee, Wasp, and Hornet through the air and deposited them rolling across the ground a distance away.
“All five of you,” he decided, tossing the Halberd aside. “Ah-ha.” Tsukasa opened his Driver and reverted to Decade with a blur of red pixelation.
Final Vent
He turned with interest to watch as the large gryphon appeared again and flew up to Rainbow from behind, grabbing her arms and pulling her into the sky, arcing over backwards. He pulled out another card and slotted it with, “Henshin.”
Kamen Ride: Faiz
With three beeps, two pairs of glowing red streaks shot up and down from his belt, the lower pair stretching down over the front of his legs to his ankles while the upper closed into an arc over his gut, from its sides branching another pair around his back; they branched again, and one pair came around his shoulders and down his arms as the other came around his neck and joined, one final streak going down and connecting this arc to the first. In a flash, his armor had changed to a black suit with a silver chest plate, the red streak pattern woven across them, and a black head with large yellow semicircle eyes forming a disk, a thin strip up the center springing into a pair of sharp red antenna at the top; Kamen Rider Faiz, a warrior who fought to protect the dreams of both people and the monsters who were forced into fighting against their will.
Tsukasa flicked his right wrist, looking over to see Bloom charging him again. He rolled his head back in annoyance, turning to the oncoming monster and hitting it with a forward sucker punch, sending it to the ground and flicking his wrist again.
He turned back to Rainbow’s attack, but as the gryphon’s flight arc swooped back around to ground level, Wasp got to its feet and beckoned its comrades. Wasp stood up straight with the bladeless hilt of its weapon in front of it, Bee and Hornet running over and standing back-to-back with it. The three started shuffling around the rim of the circle they stood in, and as the gryphon flew Rainbow closer, they began spinning at blurring speeds. The gryphon threw its claws forward to catapult Rainbow at the Buzzstingers in a flying kick, a rainbow-hued Mach cone forming around her foot, but upon hitting the spinning ring, she was immediately halted and then bounced back away. She crashed rolling across the ground, the Buzzstingers skidding to a halt and turning to her with fighting stances.
“Need some help?” Tsukasa called.
“Uhg. No thanks,” Rainbow said, getting back to her feet. “Just let me at ’em again and I can have these guys beat in ten seconds flat.”
“How specific,” Tsukasa commented. He pulled out another card and tapped its edge with a silver fingertip. “So can I.” He flicked the card down into the Driver and closed it.
Form Ride: Faiz Axel
The left and right halves of his silver chest plate lifted off the suit and rotated at the shoulders, spinning up into a pair of shoulder pads to expose the suit’s mechanical inside and orange bulb core, the red streaks across the suit fading silver and the yellow eyes flashing to red.
He unfolded the Ride Booker into a sword while turning to Bloom and Frost, stepping his right foot back as he lowered into a half-crouch. He held up his left arm to show a black and red digital watch strapped to his wrist, tapping the red button at the base of the watch.
Start Up
A pulsing sound echoed as the display flashed, the red number 9.9 appearing and beginning to rapidly count down. Bloom and Frost stood again as the others looked over in curiosity. Tsukasa dashed forward, vanishing into a blur.
Attack Ride: Slash
A burst of sparks flew from Bloom as a blurry shape faded briefly into view while passing it. Moving at the speed of sound with the world almost frozen around him, Tsukasa ran over to Frost, slashing the monster with his sword as it trailed multiple pink afterimages, each giving its own strike. He turned and ran towards the other three. Stuck at normal speed, however, all Rainbow saw was a burst of sparks from Frost, followed a second later by more sparks from Bee, then Wasp, and then Hornet. A dark shape skidded to a stop about ten feet past Hornet, blurring back into view as Tsukasa’s semi-crouched black and silver Faiz Axel Form armor.
Time Out
The Decadriver spun itself open and spit out Faiz Axel’s card, Tsukasa snatching it from midair in his left hand before pausing. Behind him, red “Ø” symbols appeared over the five staggering Buzzstingers, the monsters exploding in rapid succession a second later.
Faiz Axel’s armor reverted to Decade with a wave of red pixelation as Tsukasa stood up, putting the Booker away and brushing his palms together as he turned to a stunned Rainbow Dash. “So…”
* * *
Rainbow Dash and four other girls had gathered in the main front room of the Hikari Studio. Natsumi’s grandfather, Eijiro, whose skin had turned a pale white, was placing a platter of mugs of freshly-brewed coffee on the table for them.
Looking around, the pale tan girl in the cowboy hat muttered, “Didn’t this place used to be a pawn shop?”
“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said to the studio’s inhabitants after a cursory introduction from the two groups. “You’re from another world?”
Sitting across from them, Natsumi nodded. “I can understand if it may be hard to believe,” she said.
Rainbow looked up at the golf ball-sized white bat whose face covered her whole body, Kivaara, as she floated around overhead.
“Hard to believe?” Rainbow repeated. “Try ‘getting old by now’. We’re almost dealing with more worlds than we can count.”
Natsumi and Yusuke, sitting together, looked over with a surprised, “Ehh?”
“Well,” Rainbow explained casually, “before we even became Kamen Riders to combat the Mirror Monsters, we faced a few magical beings from a world of talking ponies that came through a portal on the statue in front of our school. That one, right there,” she pointed at the mural at the back of the room.
Natsumi and Yusuke both jumped up for a dual, “Ehh?!”
“And when the Mirror Monsters did show up in the world behind the mirrors,” Rainbow continued, “the Advent Master recruited us as Riders after coming here from yet another world that itself had a mirror version.”
Natsumi and Yusuke were about to give yet another exclamation, but Tsukasa pushed them aside and then sat back down in his chair. “I think I get the gist of it,” he said, folding his arms. “You guys fight back monsters that no one else can see when they try attacking people, chasing them into the Mirror World to defeat them safely.”
“Pretty much,” said Applejack.
“Now as for you guys,” Pinkie spoke up, “let me guess…you’re all on a quest to travel between nine worlds in this photo studio while finding and helping nine Kamen Riders, one in each world, so you can unlock and use their power in order to save the world you started your journey in from certain total destruction, thereby saving the multiverse.”
The studio was silent for a few seconds. Natsumi and Yusuke looked at each other, then turned back to Pinkie for another, “Ehhhh!?!”
Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Where in tarnation did you get all that from?”
“Lucky guess?” Pinkie suggested. Then she waved it off. “Nah, the talking bat told me,” she admitted, pointing over to Kivaara balanced atop a camera sitting in the corner.
“Kivaara-chan is so helpful,” the tiny white bat purred, “isn’t she?”
“So,” Natsumi said, looking back to the girls, “you’re all Kamen Riders?”
“Yep,” said Rainbow, leaning back to bask in her own glory. “Kamen Rider Talon.”
“Kamen Rider Vault,” said Applejack.
“Grace,” said Rarity.
“Dynamo,” Pinkie said, raising her arm.
They turned to Fluttershy. “Oh,” she said, “and uh, Monarch.”
“How cool!” Natsumi let out. “It’s just that in all the worlds we’ve been to, we haven’t come across any female Riders yet.”
Rarity put her fists on her hips. “Oh, well that doesn’t sound very fair.”
“I know, right?” said Natsumi.
“Eh-hem. So,” interrupted Rainbow, “are any of you all Kamen Riders other than camera guy?”
Natsumi shook her head. “Not me, but Yusuke is.”
“Mm-hm,” Yusuke nodded. “Kamen Rider Kuuga.”
“Cougar?” asked Pinkie. “So are you also called Panther or Mountain Lion?”
“Hmm?” Yusuke said before catching on to her mistake. “Oh, no, not Cougar, Kuuga. Shortened from kuwagata, the name of the beetle my armor resembles.” He pumped his fist and added, “I fight to protect everyone’s smiles!”
“Oh yeah, now that’s a cause I can get behind,” Pinkie said.
Tsukasa turned away from the again-sidetracking conversation and leaned over to Rainbow. “That other guy I ran into,” he said. “Kinda stubborn, not much of a talker.”
“Oh, that was Cavalier,” she responded. “He was the first Rider in this world recruited by the Advent Master, before the rest of us knew about all this. It took a while, but we finally found out he was—”
“Don’t care,” Tsukasa cut her off, getting up and walking out of the room, turning right down the hall outside towards the photo studio’s darkroom, where his photos from earlier were developing.
“Okay…,” Rainbow muttered, sitting back again. She looked around the room to see if anything else was of note. Natsumi had picked back up talking with Rarity, Fluttershy had walked over to Kivaara, and Pinkie was showing Yusuke a photo of their group.
“Whether it’s family or friends,” she heard Yusuke say, “I think having people who will be by your side is the most important thing.”
She looked over to Applejack, equally unoccupied, who only shrugged back. Then she looked at the untouched tray of coffee mugs. It was midafternoon, but what the heck.
After the conversations had run their course, the guests had begun aimlessly milling about. Pinkie was looking through the contents of a wooden bin labeled “Put Tsukasa’s Terrible Photos Here”, now with English lettering.
“Wow,” she said looking at one showing the same person twice in different positions, neither of which was posing for a photo, “and I thought Rainbow Dash was bad with cameras. It took days to clean up that cell phone video.”
“I’m right here, ya know,” came Rainbow’s voice from the table across the room.
The doors to the development room opened and Tsukasa and Eijiro walked out.
“The results are in,” Tsukasa announced as he entered the main room, holding up one of the pictures he’d taken of the white girl in headphones earlier. Even at a distance one could see it was a blurry multiple exposure with several faded copies of her walking down the sidewalk in a line, the entire image hued purple with a yellow zigzag running across it. “This isn’t my world either, thank goodness.”
He was about to toss it onto the table when Pinkie spoke up. “Actually, I know her, and I think she might like that photo as it is.”
“What do you know?” said Natsumi. “Satisfied customer number one. Ever.”
“If you want it,” Tsukasa said, handing the photo over to Pinkie. “Hey,” he said after she turned away. “Aren’t you gonna pay for that?”
Natsumi stepped in between them, facing Tsukasa. “It’s on the house for new friends.”
“Tsk.” Tsukasa paced away. “Not only that,” he continued, “something’s extra-off about this place. I’ve always just known important things after arriving in each new world, but not here.”
“That would explain a lot,” came a new voice.
“Oh?” Tsukasa said, swinging his arm around to point at a figure in black and carrying a motorcycle helmet leaning against the main room’s doorway. Natsumi and Yusuke turned in surprise at the silent arrival, but Eijiro only counted the spare coffee mugs on the table and left to get another one. “And let me guess who you would be,” Tsukasa continued, only now turning to look. “I don’t need to be told to figure it out.” The person probably looked unique and identifiable, but Tsukasa didn’t care to notice.
“I contacted the Advent Master,” the unarmored Kamen Rider Cavalier said. “He says he doesn’t know anything about a Kamen Rider named Decade or that Battle Trial system you mentioned.”
“As expected,” Tsukasa said, dropping into a chair. Natsumi and Yusuke started asking the other girls about the new figure as Tsukasa flipped open the Ride Booker. “So, you act like you’re the most informed of the bunch,” he said to Cavalier. He pulled out the three sealed Rider Cards and held them up at him. “You wouldn’t happen to see a Kamen Rider you do recognize here, would you?”
Cavalier stepped closer to look. “No.”
Tsukasa turns the cards to the others. “And the rest of the squad says?”
“Nope,” Rainbow said, “none of those are us.”
“Then we’re off,” Tsukasa said, getting up again and starting towards the end of the room.
Both the visitors and local crew paused a second before Pinkie asked, “Huh?”
“You said it yourself, remember?” Tsukasa explained. “We have to travel through the Nine Worlds to save another. These are for the Riders of the last three of those worlds. If none of them are here, then this isn’t a world we needed to stop at, so we’re leaving.” Eijiro had walked back in with another mug, and Tsukasa waved his finger in a circle at the mural of the school with the horse statue. “Let’s go, Ojiro-san, next painting.” {Pun: Eijiro meshed with “ojisan”, which can mean “old man”.} Tsukasa turned back to the room to add, “You guys might want to leave before you get dragged along with us.”
“But Tsukasa,” Yusuke said, jumping up, “we can’t just leave now, we should help them.”
“With what?” Tsukasa countered. Yusuke paused, realizing he had no immediate answer. “They seem to be doing a decent job here on their own,” continued Tsukasa, starting back over. “They’re not running from their responsibilities like Kiva was, they’re not fighting each other for petty reasons like Ryuki’s gang, they’re not being hunted like Faiz or Agito, they’re not simple pawn employees like Blade, they’re a united team against evil. In fact,” he looked over at the group, “they’re the best-off Riders we’ve encountered thus far.” His gaze returned to Yusuke. “And helping them with just whatever won’t get us a step closer to saving Natsumikan’s world.” {Tsukasa’s normal joke name for Natsumi. Pun: “natsumi” = “summer”, “Natsumikan” = “summer mandarin”.}
“I know, but…,” Yusuke trailed off. Tsukasa turned back to the mural, satisfied, and waited.
“Tsukasa-kun,” said a voice behind him.
“Eh?—aihihg—” Before Tsukasa could turn around, something jabbed the side of his neck, sending a sudden pulse rushing through his body. “Bha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Natsumi stood holding a fist with her thumb sticking out as the victim of her Hikari Family Secret Pressure Point stumbled over to the table, grabbing onto a chair for balance amidst a bout of convulsive laughter. The visitors simply sat and stared at the scene, not sure how to react.
“Even if that’s the case,” Natsumi said with a forceful glare at Tsukasa, “you don’t just dismiss them like that! Who knows, there could be something going on that we don’t know about and they need our help with that.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha,” Tsukasa continued, grunting to try and regain his composure, but failing to sound anything but amused. “Right, right, the Rider I need to find typically needs help finding themselves. But it doesn’t look like any of them need help with that. Ha-ha-ha-ha—hahh.”
“Um, actually…,” spoke up Fluttershy, “there is one of us who needs to be found.” The others looked between each other, nodding. “Just, not by themself.”
Tsukasa breathed deeply as the effects of the pressure point finally wore off, looking over at Fluttershy with Natsumi and Yusuke.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Natsumi.
“Um, well—,” Fluttershy started, but a chorus of pings and hums came from each of their pockets at once. The six guests took out their phones and gasped, glancing to each other for the look that told them the others had indeed received the same message.
“Is it really…?” someone whispered.
“Could it finally be…?”
Rainbow looked back down at her phone and clenched a fist. “Sunset…”
Next time, on “Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider: EqG & Decade”…
“She was our friend and another Rider,” said Applejack, “but she got captured.”
A line of white insect larva monsters stood across the edge of a rooftop overlooking a cement patio. “Hib-ib-hib-hib…”
A blue screen with a beetle image flew forward from Decade’s belt. “If I didn’t know better,” said Tsukasa, “I’d say that this was some kind of ambush.”
A swarm of mechanical blue monsters with dragonfly wings and tails on their heads flew to and fro overhead of the Riders. “Ib-ib-hib-bib-ib-hib…”
“How well do you know your friend, again?” Tsukasa asked.
A Kamen Rider in dark purple armor approached the group as a cloud of shadow engulfed the area.
Index of Refraction
Index of Refraction noiƚɔɒɿʇɘЯ ʇo xɘbnI
The afternoon sun shone overhead as Tsukasa caught up to the others, joining in to the line with Rainbow Dash, that other guy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy in front of a long window front. They held up their Advent Decks and colored electricity snaked down and generated silver belts as Tsukasa strapped on the Decadriver.
“Who’s this Sunset?” Yusuke asked. The visitors were already starting to head to the door.
“She was our friend and another Rider,” answered Applejack, “but she got captured.”
“A few days ago, me and her went after a monster alarm like any other,” Rainbow picked up. “We expected to find one, maybe two, but we got mobbed by a small army of gazelle monsters. One knocked her Advent Deck out of her belt and before I could get to her she got dragged off through a mirror.”
“We all arrived just in time to keep them from getting Rainbow, too,” Applejack resumed, holding the front door open for the others as they started to file out, “but they scattered and disappeared in seconds.”
Tsukasa held up his card as the others pulled their Decks back. Rainbow pointed forward, the other guy held his Deck out to the side, Applejack held hers in place, Pinkie spun around left, Rarity spun her Deck up with a flourish of her wrist, and Fluttershy simply lowered her Deck.
“Kamen Rider!” they called.
“Henshin!” Tsukasa said, flipping his card around.
The others slid their Decks into the belts, which clamped shut on them. Tsukasa slotted his card in his Driver and pushed it closed.
Kamen Ride: Decade
The Decks moved back into the belts and began rapidly flipping over.
“And just now?” asked Yusuke.
Last in line, Pinkie stopped at the door and held up her phone to them. “Sunset says she just now managed to escape where she was being held, but only just, and there are monsters hot on her tail. She gave us an address in the Mirror World to meet her and cut them off at.” Pinkie and Applejack slipped out, letting the door close.
Natsumi turned to Tsukasa with her thumb out again. “Tsukasa-kun…”
“Yes, boss,” Tsukasa said, quickly following after the group.
Colored energy rings shot out of the others’ belts, beginning to spin as an array of circles in front of Tsukasa grew into silhouettes, sliding around onto him to form a suit as the rings printed armor onto the others. Cards flew into his helmet and sent a wave down his suit turning it magenta as the rings faded out. The seven Kamen Riders stood: Decade, Talon, Cavalier, Vault, Dynamo, Grace, and Monarch.
Rainbow stepped forward. “Let’s get Sunset back.”
Natsumi had sat back down to wait for Tsukasa to sort everything out like he always did, but she noticed the intense look on Yusuke’s face. “Yusuke?”
He clenched his fist and stood up.
As the Riders prepared to depart, someone came running up from the right.
“Hold on!” called Yusuke. As he ran, he held his hands over his waist and a silver belt with a circular red stone at the center faded in with a hollow humming sound, pointing his right arm forward, up, and out with his left hand resting on the belt’s left side as he shouted, “Henshin!” He brought his right hand down onto his left, triggering a revving pulse from his belt, before spreading his arms wide, a suit growing onto his chest, limbs, then head: a base of black bearing a shiny red torso shell with round shoulder pads and a golden collar, red forearm sleeves, gold cuffs on his wrists and ankles, and a black helmet with a silver mouth cover, large red bug eyes, and a three-pronged gold forehead crown; Kamen Rider Kuuga, Mighty Form. As he reached the group, he said, “I want to help, too—”
Before Yusuke could finish, Tsukasa pulled out Ryuki’s card and pointed it into Yusuke’s face, Yusuke skidding to a stop an inch away from the card.
“Can you travel through mirrors?” Tsukasa asked simply.
“Um,” Yusuke muttered, “well…”
Without needing to elaborate, Tsukasa turned back to the window and slotted the card.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three shiny silhouettes spun in and overlapped over Tsukasa, changing his armor to Ryuki. “Ikuzo—er, let’s go,” he said to the other Riders, stepping forward through the window. Rainbow and Cavalier followed him, Applejack shrugging to Yusuke as she, Rarity, and Fluttershy trailed after. Yusuke sighed and looked down, but then a hand rested on his shoulder.
“Actually…,” Pinkie said. As Yusuke looked up, Pinkie shoved him at the window and jumped through with him. Yusuke watched the glass warp as he fell through, the reflection stretching and twisting around itself, ending up back right again as he landed in the Mirror World next to Pinkie, swaying to stay on his feet. Pinkie gave him a thumbs up, which he instinctively returned. As Pinkie walked up to the others, Yusuke looked at his hand, wondering why that action had come so naturally to him.
The Riders had arrived in the highest level of a mall’s outside terraced cement courtyard spotted with tables, and surrounded on two sides by buildings and on the other two by stairs leading down to a larger lower level. They’d yet to check the entire area, but it seemed up front to be empty besides them.
“So, you said this was the place, huh?” Tsukasa said, wandering to the edge of the square floor. “Doesn’t seem too much like…,” he started as he looked down one of the staircases, but trailed off when he saw them.
Ten white humanoid figures, Sheerghosts, were making their way up the stairs towards him, swaying as they walked and chanting a chorus of mumbles. “Hib-ib-hib-hib…” He turned to see lines of them suddenly standing on the roofs of the buildings surrounding the courtyard, the other Riders also taking notice. “Hib-bib-bib-ib-hib…”
“So that’s how it is,” Tsukasa muttered, unfolding the Ride Booker into sword mode.
“The call is on,” said Pinkie. “Their force is getting strong, but they’ll have to brave the weather. Kamen Riders, stand together!” {Ride the Wind}
“Does she always do that?” asked Tsukasa.
“Yep,” Applejack called back.
Tsukasa shrugged, then he turned and jumped into the crowd below him, sword raised.
More Sheerghosts had bled into the courtyard from the alleys and windows—“Hib-bib-hibib.”—their numbers easily exceeding several dozen, and the Riders quickly slotted cards to fight back.
Sword Vent
Strike Vent
Strike Vent
Flutter Vent
A swarm of pink butterflies appeared around Fluttershy, glowing and turning to metal, and she threw her hand up at the roof behind the group to send the butterflies shooting at the Sheerghosts. The barrage hit in a flurry of sparks and miniature explosions, destroying several monsters—“Eh-rher-rer!”—but the others leapt down and joined the flood rushing in at the Riders, their mumbled chants filling the air. “Bib-ibibhib-ib-hib…”
Applejack ran up and rammed a leading Sheerghost with her shoulder, knocking it back into the crowd. She grabbed two others and held them back, but the rest swarmed around her. “Did we land in the middle of a hive or somethin’?”
“I dunno,” said Pinkie as she spun, slashing two down with her clawed web-foot gauntlets shaped like paper fans, giving the sound of a motorized saw blade, “maybe it’s just a convention.”
Tsukasa grabbed a Sheerghost and threw it stumbling up the stairs. Running up after it, he knocked its legs out from under it with his sword before slashing down and hitting it in the gut. The Sheerghost fizzled and evaporated into smoke. Tsukasa turned to the rest on the stairs as he folded the Booker into gun mode and slotted a card—
Attack Ride: Blast
—sending a shower of large energy bolts down the stairs and pummeling the Sheerghosts. The monsters collapsed and evaporated into smoke.
Rarity paced backwards as she tried to fence against several Sheerghosts with a thick conical sword that was gold on the front side and silver on the back. Rainbow and a Sheerghost grabbed each other’s shoulders and ran off to the side, Rainbow ramming the Sheerghost into a table and flipping it over the other side.
Nearby, Yusuke hit the back of his fist into his palm. “I didn’t get to do anything to help in Ryuki’s Mirror World,” he said, staring down another group of Sheerghosts slowly approaching him. “I’ll make up for that right now!”
A surge of golden electricity shot from his belt’s red stone down his right leg to his foot, lighting its sole ablaze. He ran at the lead Sheerghost, jumping forward and kicking it square in the chest, launching it back into the middle of the pack with a flaming symbol on its chest. Yusuke landed as the Sheerghost blew up, the explosion destroying the rest of the group; smoke drifted from the sole of his foot.
“Yoshah!” Yusuke shouted, pumping his fist.
Arc Vent
Cavalier caught a pair of golden horseshoes as they fell from the sky, throwing them one-two at a Sheerghost approaching him. They slashed it in the shoulders as they passed one after the other, the Sheerghost swaying but keeping upright. It kept approaching him but he didn’t react, instead watching as the spinning horseshoes arced around and flew back at the Sheerghost from behind, cutting through its torso at once; it exploded before it could hit the ground. Cavalier caught the horseshoes and, on a suspicious instinct, turned around and threw one of them, hitting another Sheerghost trying to sneak up on him and embedding in its chest. He ran up and grabbed the horseshoe, pulling it out as he slashed the Sheerghost with the other one, the monster collapsing and evaporating into smoke.
Snare Vent
A Sheerghost swatted at Fluttershy, but she knocked its hand away with the end of a 4-foot butterfly net, notably featuring a mesh tied more like a tennis racket than any normal net. She rammed the middle of the net’s shaft into the Sheerghost’s face before stepping back and swinging the net by just short of it. The Sheerghost looked confused at the miss, as the mesh had instead expanded like a layer of liquid soap on a bubble wand, a “bubble of net” detaching and floating towards it. It reached out slowly and poked the bubble, which burst open into a net that threw itself onto the Sheerghost and wrapped tight, zapping it with electricity. Fluttershy ran up and kicked the Sheerghost over, and it evaporated inside the net.
Using her gryphon talon gauntlets, Rainbow was easily fighting a Sheerghost towards the edge of the courtyard with a series of quick jabs. She dashed up and slashed it upside the face, knocking it tumbling down the steps to the level below. It pushed itself up onto its knees and elbows, putting its head into its hands and breathing heavily, its back rising and falling with each breath. “Hibur… ibur… ibur…”
Rainbow walked down the steps towards it, raising her clawed gauntlet. “What are you crying for?” she taunted. “Did I hurt you?”
She took another step forward, but on the next breath its back cracked into segments, something inside starting to push through. Rainbow stopped.
The Sheerghost’s back split open as a blue metal figure with spiny legs stood up from within it, a dragonfly tail trailing from the back of its head. Standing in the empty shell of the Sheerghost, the new Raydragoon turned to Rainbow with its gray face covered in red spot eyes. “Ibur-gib-bibur.”
“Oh c—,” Rainbow let out, throwing up her gauntlets in defense as a pair of dragonfly wings sprouted from the sides of the Raydragoon’s head and it zipped forward, ramming her over as it flew back up the steps.
Tsukasa walked back up onto the upper level, casually shooting nearby Sheerghosts from behind as they tried fighting the other Riders. However numerous, these monsters were pushovers. He heard a buzzing sound quickly approaching, but as he turned the Raydragoon flew by, slashing him with one of its wrist blades and sending him careening back down the steps.
A wave of red reverted his Ryuki armor to Decade as he came to a stop on the level below, and he slammed his wrist onto the ground in frustration. Seeing the Raydragoon landing a short distance away, he spat, “Why, you…” He stood up and took a card from the Booker, switching it to a sword, and flicked the card down into his Driver.
Final Attack Ride: D-D-D-Decade
A row of ten large projections of the card, featuring a gold emblem of the lines on his face in the middle of a barcode, slid into place between them, startling the Raydragoon. Tsukasa charged into the face of the first card, disappearing but coming out the back of the second before disappearing into the third, a pattern continuing down the line. As the Raydragoon turned to the cards, the last one featured an image of a running Decade about to slash. Then Tsukasa leapt out of the card and slashed the Raydragoon as he passed, the monster wailing as it fell down behind him and exploded.
Satisfied by his act of petty vengeance, Tsukasa heard more buzzing, looking up to see a steadily growing swarm of Raydragoons molting from Sheerghosts as several of the other Riders were forced down the stairs by them and a new influx of Sheerghosts.
He slashed at a Raydragoon that flew overhead, turning to find a pair of Sheerghosts. Three more Sheerghosts and a pair of Raydragoons quickly joined them, and Tsukasa backed away, running into something. He spun around with his sword raised only to see Applejack with her orange Pound Vent sledgehammer raised at him. The two quickly spun back around to face the monsters forming a ring around them.
“If I didn’t know better,” Tsukasa said, “I’d say that this was some kind of ambush.” A Sheerghost stepped forward at him, and he slotted a card. “Henshin.”
Kamen Ride: Blade
A large blue screen with a beetle image flew spinning out of his Driver, knocking the Sheerghost away before stopping, sliding back, and passing over him, changing his armor to a navy blue suit with bulky silver chest, shoulder, and lower leg plates, a spade suit emblem in his chest armor, and a silver faceplate with red bug eyes and a tall spike up the front that curved over backwards; Kamen Rider Blade, a warrior who defended humanity from a battle raging between monsters who saw all people as opponents.
“How well do you know your friend, again?” he added.
“What!” said Applejack. As a Raydragoon flew at her, she swung her sledgehammer and slammed it out of the air with a burst of sparks; it rolled across the ground and exploded. “She did say she was bein’ chased, remember?” she said.
“Then where is she?” countered Tsukasa. Another Raydragoon made a beeline at him, and he slotted another card.
Attack Ride: Metal
A small blue square showing a trilobite popped out of his Driver and absorbed into his chest, and his Blade armor became covered in a shining silver coating. He simply stood still. The Raydragoon rammed into him but bounced off, rolling away.
“I don’t know!” Applejack shouted back. She pulled out and held over her shoulder a card showing shockwaves spreading out over a cracked ground. “Let’s clear the field so we can look.”
Tsukasa held up a card with a golden spade suit symbol in response, and the two slotted their cards, AJ putting hers in a vertical tray that had sprung up from a second orange belt atop her silver one and shoving it down closed.
Quake Vent
Final Attack Ride: B-B-B-Blade
Applejack stomped her left foot, sending several shockwaves pulsing out across the ground that knocked the Sheerghosts off their feet and made the Raydragoons take to the air. Tsukasa stood firm thanks to Metal and raised the Booker sword as its blade electrified. Then Applejack stomped her right foot down, sending a second, condensed round of shockwaves that hit and “popped” the downed Sheerghosts as an electrified energy projection expanded from Tsukasa’s sword. He swung it through several of the Raydragoons, lightning jumping from them to the rest of the group and destroying them all.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Pinkie spun and slashed back another Raydragoon with her clawed fan gauntlets, but though it staggered back, it remained standing, moaning. “Hibib… bribib…”
“Oh, what now?” Pinkie asked.
The Raydragoon grabbed at its chest and stomach before letting out a, “Hrrer-rer!” as its front burst open and a large blue dragonfly-shaped monster spilled out of it. The new Hydragoon had a red disk around its head to serve as its eyes, silver mandibles, and a pair of arms with double-sided claw harpoons held in more red disks. A single pair of thick blue wings opened to lift it into the air as its 10-foot tail snaked out of the Raydragoon, leaving it behind as another empty shell.
“I just had to ask, didn’t I?” moaned Pinkie as she watched the Hydragoon fly over to Tsukasa and Applejack. “Heads up, guys, air raid!”
Tsukasa and Applejack looked up as the Hydragoon shot the harpoons from its arms, hitting the ground between them, throwing up a cloud of cement chips and knocking them flying aside. A wave of red reverted Tsukasa’s Blade armor back to Decade as he landed. He looked up as the Hydragoon closed down on them, new harpoons generating.
Attack Vent
A loud eagle screech made the Hydragoon divert to the side, Rainbow’s large gunmetal and teal gryphon monster Aquileo flying after it a second later. As Aquileo chased the Hydragoon into the sky, two more Hydragoons rose up from elsewhere in the battlefield and closed in behind it. They fired harpoons at Aquileo, hitting his metal scale-feather wings, bouncing off but shaking him. He screeched back at them, but the three began circling him.
“Aquileo’s getting swarmed up there!” said Rainbow. “Rarity, get your Advent Beast in the air to help him!”
“I’m a little occupied at the moment!” Rarity shouted back, standing in the middle of several Sheerghosts. She jabbed her sword into one of their mouths, and as it tried biting the blade, she slashed down, cutting it open. It collapsed and evaporated into white smoke.
Rainbow looked around desperately, her eyes briefly landing on Fluttershy but quickly diverting to Tsukasa as he brushed himself off.
“New guy!” she called. “You wouldn’t happen to have any sort of flying monster that can help, would you?”
“Ah?” he replied. He thought for a second. “Hmm…Yusuke!”
Now in Kuuga’s blue Dragon Form, Yusuke leapt down from the upper level at a Raydragoon, thrusting forward with his blue and gold Dragon Rod, a polearm weapon he can transmute any rod-like object into. The Rod rammed into the Raydragoon’s chest and sent it flying back, exploding in midair as Yusuke landed. He turned to Tsukasa.
“We have something like that, don’t we?” Tsukasa asked, taking out a card.
“Huh?” replied Yusuke.
Tsukasa tossed the card into his Driver and started walking over.
Final Form Ride:
Yusuke immediately tried backing away. “N-n-n-no.”
Tsukasa spun the Driver closed.
Ku-Ku-Ku-Kuuga
“Come on,” he said.
Yusuke looked down in surprise as his armor was automatically shifted back into red Mighty Form, the Dragon Rod reverting to its original object in his hand. “D-don’t you have Ryuki’s dragon—?”
“{This may tickle a bit},” Tsukasa said as he reached Yusuke. He grabbed Yusuke’s head and pulled it down against his back, a pair of black and gold beetle wing casings sprouting from his back and covering it as he was flipped into the air. His arms and legs reshaped themselves into insect legs and pincers, another pair of legs wrapping around his belt as the casings expanded into a head. Hovering there now was the stag beetle-shaped Kuuga Gouram. It shot off like a jet up to the sky battle.
Rainbow looked up after it. “That’s…new…”
One of the Hydragoons broke off to intercept the new arrival, shooting its harpoons, but Kuuga Gouram flipped out of the way of the harpoons and sliced past the monster with a shower of sparks, the Hydragoon falling spiraling from the sky with one less wing.
Taking his chance, Aquileo lunged at the Hydragoon in front of him, grabbing it in his talons and beak and ripping it apart, its pieces falling and exploding. The final Hydragoon, however, sprung at Aquileo, biting into the back of his neck and latching the small metal legs on its body onto his shoulders. Aquileo cried out as the Hydragoon stabbed its pointed tail into his back.
“Aquileo!” Rainbow called. Tsukasa slotted another card.
Final Attack Ride: Ku-Ku-Ku-Kuuga
Kuuga Gouram’s wing casings sprang open to reveal red energy insect wings. He sped in and snared the Hydragoon in his large pincers, tearing it off of Aquileo and flying it back down towards the Riders. Tsukasa brushed his hands and ran up to meet them, leaping up at Kuuga Gouram as he flew past and kicking through the Hydragoon, destroying it in a fiery explosion.
Tsukasa landed and turned back to Rainbow as he brushed his hands again. “Problem solved.”
Nearby, a circle of five Sheerghosts jumped in at Rarity and spat silk strands to tie around her neck. As she tried shoving them away, she heard a humming sound and saw something flying towards them. She quickly ducked, and Kuuga Gouram streaked by at head level, knocking the Sheerghosts aside.
Rarity grabbed up all of the strands of the silk “scarf” still stretching back to the Sheerghosts’ mouths and sliced the bundle with her sword. After pulling the silk off her neck, she flipped open the white wing slotter on her left forearm and slotted a card.
Splash Vent
Tendrils of water rose and swirled around her. She threw her hand at the Sheerghosts as they got back to their feet, and the tendrils shot off and stabbed into them, inflating them until they burst apart, the remnant water raining down.
Kuuga Gouram circled back around before flipping over and aiming down, reverting to Kuuga. Yusuke staggered for a second as he rubbed his neck, pointing over at Tsukasa. “You shouldn’t just go and do that. It does a lot more than just tickle, y’know.”
“Baby,” Tsukasa brushed off. He looked around to see a number of Sheerghosts and Raydragoons still hanging around, Cavalier, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy still fighting them back. “Do you have something to finish them off, or should I?” he called, opening the Ride Booker to search for a card.
Suddenly something slammed into him, knocking the Booker out of his hands and squeezing him. A Hydragoon claw harpoon had grabbed him around the gut, and an invisible force started pulling it back, yanking him off his feet as he tried and failed to grab the Booker. He looked up and saw the fallen Hydragoon a distance away amidst the other monsters, dragging itself along as its remaining wing slapped the ground uselessly, and snapping its mandibles at him. It was somehow towing him over with the harpoon.
“Oi, don’t make it look like I need saving,” he said to the Hydragoon, clawing at the ground as he was pulled across it.
Attack Vent
A large shadow fell across the patio as a large butterfly monster with sail-sized wings moved overhead. With every flap of its transparent pink wings, a cloud of sparkling pink dust floated to the ground.
“Everyone back to the steps!” Fluttershy shouted. The other girls and Cavalier immediately disengaged the monsters and headed for higher ground. Yusuke hesitated in confusion before Pinkie grabbed his arm and pulled him along.
“What, am I some noble sacrifice now?” said Tsukasa. It was then that he noticed the pink dust cloud was beginning to build up, already reaching across the patio and rising above his head.
Wing Vent
Fluttershy, now with a pair of pink butterfly wings on her back, ran up beside him and swung her net, sending a net bubble at the Hydragoon, which popped and ensnared it, shocking it. The harpoon stopped pulling and let go of Tsukasa, dropping to the ground. Fluttershy pointed at the Hydragoon, and her butterfly monster Dustwinger flapped its wings hard at it, sending a large pink dust cloud its way.
“Hold on,” Fluttershy said as she grabbed Tsukasa and kicked off into the air, gliding away from the monsters as the dust cloud settled onto the Hydragoon.
“Are you forgetting something?” Tsukasa said. The net’s electricity began crackling.
“Picky, picky,” sighed Fluttershy. She dropped down and let Tsukasa snatch up the Ride Booker, rising with him again as a spark of electricity jumped from the net into the sparkling dust cloud and ignited it. Within a second, a fa-whoosh of flames cascaded across the entire patio, a wall of air pushing the two forward. The flash of fire had been replaced a second later by a cloud of smoke, getting stirred around by the rush of air back into the area.
Fluttershy landed them on the steps with the others, and when they looked back, only scorch marks on the cement were left of the monsters. Tsukasa stared at Fluttershy, then quickly looked away when she turned to him, opening the Ride Booker again and pretending to look through it.
The others walked back out into the courtyard’s lower level, looking around.
“Sunset?” Rainbow called.
“You think maybe they caught up to her before she got here?” asked Applejack.
“And still showed up to get creamed by every other Rider?” replied Rainbow. “They shouldn’t’ve known where we were meeting, they would’ve stopped and gone back if they found her. If they made it here, then that means she did, too.”
“I had this same discussion with the new guy,” Applejack said. “Where?”
A shop window at the far end of the courtyard began rippling and everyone turned to it, preparing for another wave of monsters. Instead, a single figure stepped out and slowly began approaching them. She was recognized instantly.
“Sunset!” Rainbow said, running over. “You’re all right!” The others started over as well. “What happened? Where were you, how’d you get out?”
Sunset stopped, not responding, and looked up at her. Rainbow slowed to a stop. There was something about the look in her eye. Something…off.
“Sunset?” she said, taking a cautious step forward.
“Don’t lie,” Sunset said with an edge. “I know you didn’t miss me.”
Sunset raised a deep purple Advent Deck bearing the gold silhouette of a top-down view of a raven with folded wings, beak at the bottom; purple lightning reached down from it and to her waist, generating a silver belt. Everyone stopped in their tracks with shocked gasps.
“Where the heck did you get that from?” Rainbow let out, stepping back.
“Sunset, you’re scaring us,” came Pinkie.
Sunset held the Deck over by her right shoulder, tilting its right end up slightly as she made a fist with her right hand. “Kamen Rider.” She pulled the Deck back and slid it into the belt. It slid back and spun, a pair of purple energy rings sweeping around her and giving her a suit of armor. She now wore a dark purple undersuit with slim and smooth deep purple armor plates with thin gold rims; on top of her dark purple helmet was a silver copy of the raven symbol, its beak sticking out between her eyes, merging into the silver faceplate below it bearing V-shaped slits with a pair of large red eyes glowing behind them; Kamen Rider Nightshade.
“How could you miss me?” she asked, sliding out a card. “I’ve barely been here.”
She reached over to her left wrist and a black attachment the shape of and bearing the gold raven symbol. Yusuke noticed that its eyes were glowing red and seemed to be faintly trailing green smoke. Sunset pulled up on the symbol’s beak and its head tilted to look up, springing its wings open and revealing a card tray. She slid in the card, a very dark purple and showing a pair of black bird wings wrapping around forward, and pushed the head back down, the wings snapping shut. A gleam passed over the gold symbol.
Shadow Vent
A dark haze began accumulating in the air around Sunset and spreading, the courtyard quickly dimming from afternoon to evening.
Tsukasa jumped into action, rushing at Sunset from across the courtyard as he slotted a card to use her own strategy against her.
Attack Ride: Invisible
Tsukasa’s armor was covered in a pixelated white glow before splitting apart into red, blue, and green copies that quickly faded away, rendering him invisible. As he ran, however, the courtyard darkened further to night and then past it into an unnatural total pitch-blackness. Unable to see right in front of himself, Tsukasa tripped over the square cement rim of the nearest tree planter. He rolled himself back up from the ground, pointing in the direction he thought he’d been going and charging again.
“So what if I disappeared again?” Sunset continued. “I made so little an impact, you wouldn’t realize I’d gone. I bet you didn’t even try saving me, did you?”
“What?” snapped Rainbow. She was lost in an empty sea of darkness, barely able to keep her balance and unable to even see her clawed gauntlets, but that didn’t matter right now. “Of course I did, but there were too many monsters.”
“That didn’t bother you this time,” replied Sunset’s voice from the darkness.
“But this time I wasn’t alone.”
“So, you were alone last time even though you were with me, is it? I knew I didn’t count.”
“Huh?” Rainbow stuttered. “N-no, that’s not…Sunset, what’s going on? What is this?” After several seconds of silence, the answer came.
Steal Vent
With a shrill whir, Rainbow’s clawed gauntlets disappeared from over her hands, throwing her off balance. Before she’d regained her footing and could question what had happened, something slashed across chest plate with a clang, probably spraying sparks had they been visible, and knocking her to the ground.
“This is me,” came Sunset’s voice, “exposing the truth.”
Rainbow pushed herself up to an elbow. “Ahrrg…what?”
“You know why you all came here?” Sunset continued, walking past Rainbow to the rest of the group. “Because you’re all gullible fools.”
“No,” Rarity said, “it’s because we care ab—”
Steal Vent
Rarity’s sword disappeared from her hand with a shrill whir. A second later, something jabbed her in the chest before slashing down on her shoulder, sending her down.
“You say you care?” said Sunset. “Forgive me if I find that insincere.”
“Of course we care,” Fluttershy said.
“If you don’t believe us, that’s your problem!” Rainbow shouted over from the ground. “It doesn’t change anything.” A kick to the gut shut her up again.
“Why are you doing this, Sunset,” pleaded Fluttershy, “we’re your friends!”
“You only say that,” Sunset hissed. “We all know I was just a pity vote! You only took me in because Twilight told you to.”
Steal Vent
The butterfly net vanished from Fluttershy’s hands. Though scared, she gripped them into fists. “It’s because we care that we’re not going to attack our friend,” she said with conviction.
“Too bad for you, then.”
A net grabbed and tightened around Fluttershy, shocking her as she fell over.
Tsukasa slowed to a jog, a wave of white pixels making him visible again, not that it mattered in this darkness. He’d expected Sunset to still be able to see, hence Invisible for a sneak attack, but after running for this long and coming across nothing at all, he figured that by now he may possibly be going the wrong way. Just a chance.
Then, he heard a disturbingly familiar shrill whoosh in front of him. Immediately he ran into something that grabbed him, giving a high-pitched cackle. Twisting this way and that, Tsukasa punched at the figure until he’d slipped its arms off of his and then kicked it back. He heard several entities fall to the ground, one of which let out a feline hiss.
Sunset continued pacing through the group. “And how about you, secret boy?” she asked. There was no response from Cavalier. “Hhmp. At least someone knows not to try convincing me.”
Steal Vent
With a whir, clang, and clatter, Cavalier was sent to the ground by his own sword.
“There’s no need to add injury to insult!” Pinkie called out.
Steal Vent
Pinkie’s webbed fan gauntlets disappeared.
“You can just shut up in general,” snapped Sunset.
Pinkie let out a yipe as her gauntlets slashed her down with a buzz. Yusuke took a step forward in the darkness, clenching a fist. He felt helpless to stop this, but then realized that he was still holding something.
“Shouldn’t you all be trying to friendship lesson me back into my old self?” Sunset taunted. “I know why you’re not. You don’t even know enough about me to do that, do you?”
“That’s not true!” called Applejack.
“Then I’m waiting.”
“Well…y-you…,” Applejack started. She tried to finish. But nothing came.
“Thought so,” said Sunset.
Steal Vent
Applejack’s sledgehammer disappeared from her hands. She tensed but it did no good, the solid blow to her back taking her to the ground.
Tsukasa swung the Booker sword back and forth in front of him to keep the unseen enemies back, with cackles, mrrows, and grunts voicing their frustration. He flipped open the holder, taking out a card. “Time to get a better view of things. Henshin.”
Form Ride: Kiva Dogga
Amidst a whooping whistle, ripples spread from his belt and turned his armor silver, which shattered away to reveal a new suit: muscular black with a silver torso shell that opened to show a blood red chest plate, chains draping from his shoulders and wrapped around a silver greave on his lower right leg, and tall pointed yellow eyes that formed the shape of a bat’s wings; Kamen Rider Kiva, a warrior who protected humanity from a vampiric race of monsters living hidden among them.
A red cloud emerged from his belt and formed the Dogga Hammer, a large purple mallet shaped like a clenched fist mounted on a 4-foot stick at the wrist. He grabbed its handle with both hands, chains coiling over his arms and chest and shattering away with a hollow metal clang as his eyes flashed to purple, revealing new bulky square purple plates with silver borders forming a blocky chest plate, flared shoulder pads, and long forearm sheaths.
Yusuke turned to the sound of Applejack going down. “They don’t need to know you to help you!” he called into the darkness.
“And you!” Sunset shouted back.
Yusuke heard something whizzing through the air before what felt like a wrecking ball slammed into his chest, knocking him to his back as what had to have been Applejack’s sledgehammer clattered to the ground beside him. He groaned in pain as he grabbed at the leaking crack running across his chest’s armor shell.
“Just—just, you!” came Sunset’s voice. “This fight isn’t even yours! {Just who are you, anyway?}”
Yusuke grabbed his belt. “Chou Henshin!” he shouted, a surge of energy washing over him, repairing and changing his armor’s color and form. He climbed back to his feet, standing still and breathing steadily to focus. “I…am a man…,” he said slowly, “…who fights for the sake…of everyone’s smiles…” He heard Sunset’s footsteps as she circled around him, probably looking for a better angle. “…whoever or wherever they may be…even when they don’t ask for it…” She cracked her knuckles. “…because usually…that’s when they need it the most.”
Tsukasa slammed the end of the hammer’s handle to the ground, pulling a panel on the back. The curled fingers of the purple fist lifted up to reveal a bloodshot eye that released a series of purple energy waves. As the waves rolled over the area in front of Tsukasa, three monsters appeared in flashes before freezing in place: a mottled blue-plated insect monster, a gray-furred cat monster with seven tails, and a gun-wielding white squid monster with golden suction cups across its body. A warping silvery screen behind them—a stray dimensional rift—told him they didn’t belong here.
He pulled out another card. “No uninvited guests.”
“It doesn’t matter how well you know someone,” Yusuke continued, “you can still reach out your hand and be their light of hope.” Sunset smirked. This display was actually a bit cute. Like a kitten swatting at a sleeping St. Bernard. “But if you won’t let them save you,” he continued, “then I will. I plan on seeing a smile on everyone’s face.” He turned his head to the right to stare directly at Sunset. “Even yours.”
Sunset stopped. Wait, was she seeing this right? But I have Shadow Vent active—I’m the only one who can see in this darkness. How could him making his suit green change that?
“Who am I?” Yusuke said, turning to her and bringing out a gun-like black and gold weapon from behind his back in his left hand. “Just a passing-through Kamen Rider!” He grabbed the gold ‘T’ handle at the back and pulled it as he raised the Pegasus Bowgun, the vertical gold crescent at the front folding back, aiming at the only thing he could see, a pair of faintly glowing red eyes. “Remember that.” He pulled the trigger. The crescent sprang back open as a glowing white bolt flew from the tip, streaking over at Sunset…’s wrist, hitting the Nightshade slotter with the glowing red eyes Yusuke had noticed earlier. Glowing cracks ran across it and it blasted apart with a cry from Sunset, pieces of it clattering to the ground. The surrounding darkness began dissipating.
“Oi, Yusuke!” Tsukasa called over. “That’s my line!” As the darkness began clearing around him, he slotted his card.
Final Attack Ride: Ki-Ki-Ki-Kiva
He raised the hammer high, a large purple energy fist appearing over it connected by purple electricity, and swung it down. The energy fist slammed into the paralyzed monsters, destroying them in a large explosion and shattering the dimensional rift.
“Wait your turn in your own worlds,” he said, “I’ll be there to destroy you soon enough.”
Sunset dropped to her knees, grabbing her head with a moan. What had she been doing? Why did she want to do any of that? She heard a fizzling next to her, looking to see that scattered among the debris of her slotter were shards of red crystal. One of the glowing eyes of the slotter’s raven symbol was still in the broken-off head part, green smoke evaporating from it as its glow faded. Siren gems. Figures.
The clouds in her mind beginning to clear up, she looked up to Yusuke, standing in Kuuga’s green Pegasus Form, with sensory perception 1,000 times that of a normal human. “Y-you…you saved me.”
Yusuke’s armor shifted back to Mighty Form. “No,” he said. The Pegasus Bowgun revered back to its original gun-shaped object, a rolled up and bent over piece of paper. He unfolded it and turned it to her. It was a photo of Sunset and the others, the one Pinkie had given him back in the studio. “Your friends did.”
Sunset sighed, chuckling, “Wow that’s sappy.”
Yusuke shrugged. “I guess that’s just what I’m like.”
“Well, thanks, mystery Rider number two.”
“Yusuke.”
The other Riders were beginning to recover, and Sunset went over to help them up. Pinkie gave Yusuke a thumbs up from the ground.
“So, are we good now?” Rainbow asked, reaching out as Sunset came over. “Are you a good guy again?”
Sunset pulled her to her feet. “Yeah, sorry about all that.”
“No need to apologize,” said Rarity, “we were sure all along it was some sort of corruptive influence.” She looked around to the others. “Weren’t we?” she pressed.
“Yep,” Rainbow said, “no doubt. None at all that you totally didn’t mean a word of it you said in any way.”
“Okay, okay,” Sunset said, walking back over to her broken slotter. “So maybe let’s just call it…my deepest, darkest opinions taking the front seat for a while.” She kicked at a gem shard. “Probably should’ve made sure we’d cleaned up all of these.”
“Did you find anything out when you were captured?” Cavalier asked.
“At least wait a full minute,” Applejack protested.
Sunset turned back to the group. “Yes. I don’t know his whole game, but I know who’s controlling the Mirror Monsters, and it absolutely has everything to do with the Portal—”
“Excuse me,” said a sinister voice, “but am I interrupting something?”
The Nightshade Deck was suddenly yanked out of Sunset’s belt by an invisible force, purple glows running across her armor’s outlines before a ring sprung out around her and split sideways, dragging and disintegrating the armor away. Everyone watched as the Deck flew off to the sidelines and into the waiting hand of a man. With grayed skin and smooth spiky black hair, he wore a brown suit with one sleeve tan and one yellow. His eyes were squinted and red.
“Guys, that’s him,” Sunset said. “That’s who’s behind all this.”
“Alright, buster, start talking,” Rainbow said. “Who are you?”
“At first I had no interest in you,” the man said. “I only wanted you all to stay out of my way. But now…if you insist…” The gold raven symbol on the Deck turned black and jagged, a wave spreading out from it and turning the Deck to a darker, sickly grayish purple. “Disappear,” he hissed.
He squeezed the Deck, dark purple electricity sparking across it. A cloud of oily shadow seeped out of it, reaching down his arm and encompassing him. The shadow cloud rose off the ground and expanded into an amorphous mass, growing two large wings, clawed feet, and several long tail feathers. A pair of strands shot from a forming head and arced over its back as a pointed beak emerged, a pair of glowing pink eyes flaring open. The phoenix form made from the flowing shadow glinted dusty blue, red, purple, and green, flaring its 30-foot-spanning wings and letting out a shrill call. Terrorsoarer had arrived.
Still standing separate from the group, Tsukasa looked up at Terrorsoarer, and the hammer’s handle clattered to the ground. His Driver opened and spit a card out, reverting his armor to Decade. He caught the card and returned it to the Booker on the side of his belt, but as he went to close it, a pair of cards ejected out of it.
“Whoa!” he let out as he snatched them from the air, the Booker snapping itself shut. This only happened when he’d unlocked another Rider’s cards, but no one here matched cards he had, so what was this about? As usual, the cards were blank, but images washed onto them a second later: a gold lion face silhouette on a Final Attack Ride and a pair of Riders across a diagonal split on a Final Form Ride, the one on the top left having red armor and gold shoulder pads on a black suit and the bottom right one having gold armor on a red suit. “What? These cards weren’t in there before.” He flipped the cards over to see the white symbol in the circle on the backs was that of a horseshoe with two arches like the top of a heart. “Were they?”
With Terrorsoarer looming above, the Riders crowded together.
“Did you know he could do that?” Pinkie asked.
“Nope,” Sunset squeaked. She cleared her throat. “But it doesn’t matter, we’re still gonna beat him. Just hand me my Advent Deck.” No one spoke. “Guys?”
“Well, y’see,” Rainbow said, “in addition to you, the gazelle guys also took your Deck.”
“What?” replied Sunset.
Terrorsoarer flapped its wings, sending a spray of shadow feathers down at them. One of the feathers hit the ground in front of them, sending out a 2-foot-wide disk of shadow from which shadow smoke began swirling, sending a geyser of shadow energy shooting to the sky. As they staggered back, the other feathers hit, shadow geysers erupting everywhere around them.
One feather flew down into the center of the group, but a puddle of liquid mirror welled up under Sunset and she sank in before it drained away again as the feather landed, the erupting shadow geyser knocked the Riders aside. The puddle reappeared a safe distance away, Sunset getting pushed out of it as a pink and silver platypus monster leapt up onto the edge after her. Pinkrhynch nodded at her before slipping back into the pool as it vanished.
All the feathers having landed, the others scrambled over to Sunset. Terrorsoarer screeched at them through the shadow geysers as they slowly weakened and fizzled out.
“Next time, Pinkie,” Rainbow said, “tell your Beast to grab all of us.”
“We’ll need everyone’s power to beat that thing,” said Sunset.
“You want in on the wallop,” said Rainbow, “we get it.”
“It’s not that,” Sunset said. “Well, of course it is, but it’s more. One short and we won’t cut it, and we’ll never be able to fight at full strength if I can’t become—”
“Leona,” Tsukasa said. Everyone turned to see him standing behind the group.
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “How did you…?”
Tsukasa looked down at his new cards and the name on them. “Figures.” He walked into the group with a card in each hand, slotting one.
Final Form Ride:
“This may tickle a bit,” he said, closing the Driver.
L-L-L-Leona
He walked up to Sunset, holding up his hand, but paused. Reconsidering his normal method of jabbing Riders in the back, he merely put his hand on her shoulder. {Enter the Next Stage.}
A burst of flames wrapped around Sunset’s waist, forming a gold Advent Belt with her red Leona Deck sitting in it, bearing a lion symbol. It slid back and began spinning, a red energy sphere and pair of flaming red rings expanding from the belt. The rings spun around her, whipping up cascades of swirling flames that forced everyone back. After their orbit, the rings burst out with a wave of heat and faded, leaving Sunset standing in a new fully bright red undersuit with all gold armor, a new gold and red lion head slotter on her left wrist with her hand sticking out through its mouth and a trans-red cover in the middle of its mane, and a gold-rimmed silver faceplate on a helmet bordered by a flared red and gold full lion mane: Kamen Rider Leona, Survive Mode.
“Whoa!” Rainbow and Pinkie said in unison as Sunset looked over her new armor.
“Aaaand how did you do that?” Sunset asked.
“Kamen Rider Decade, traveler of worlds and collector of Rider powers,” Tsukasa said. “It’s just one of the things I do.”
Terrorsoarer glared down at the new Rider, flapping its wings down hard and unleashing a storm of shadow feathers at the group before spreading its wings again and shooting down an array of purple energy streams from them. The feathers and streams hit the ground and spread into a raging shadow tsunami rushing at the group.
In a burst of flames, a pair of thick silver swords appeared in Sunset’s hands, each as tall as her with real fire in the wide gaps within their blades appeared in Sunset’s hands. On instinct, she flipped one upside down, slammed their edges together into a tall shield board, and spun it. A spinning fire dome erupted around the group, the shadows sweeping over it before she split the board apart and swung the swords down, the dome bursting outwards, vaporizing the shadows.
“Okay, that was wow,” Sunset said.
“It gets better,” said Tsukasa. He slotted his other card.
Final Attack Ride: L-L-L-Leona
The swords pulled themselves together again to form a surfboard shape, dropping from Sunset’s hands and hovering a foot off the ground on a layer of heat. With a silent “whoa”, she stepped onto it, a new pair of thin gold swords that had been latched onto her back flipping up from behind her shoulders.
“Guys,” she said, grabbing these new swords, “let’s do this.” The other Riders nodded, some pumped fists. With a burst of the silver swords’ flames, the board shot up to the sky.
Terrorsoarer flew higher and flapped its wings to send a tornado of shadow feathers at her, but she swung her golden swords to deflect them with waves of heat as she rose up to it. Finally leveling with Terrorsoarer, she slashed it, leaving golden streaks across its chest. After a second, the streaks faded, being swept over by more flowing shadow. It glared at her.
“The lost one has returned,” it said in a disembodied voice. “Escape if you wish. Run back to your home to savor it before I pass through, the destroyer of worlds. Feel love for your home the way I can feel only hate for mine, while it lasts to be felt for. Even with your new power, a stand here will be your last, you know you can’t defeat me.”
Sunset smirked. “Alone,” she added. She raised the swords and slashed down and across, leaving an X-pattern of streaks across Terrorsoarer’s torso. It let out a shrill caw as it prepared a response. “Even without my awesome new form,” Sunset continued, “we found the universal key to victory ages ago.”
A card with a gold horse head silhouette over an indigo starburst background was slid into the slot under a golden horseshoe’s bent arc before the arc was pushed back into place.
Final Vent
Sitting on his horse Advent Beast Caballkhan below, Cavalier flipped a banded indigo lance around in his hand and threw it like a javelin up at Terrorsoarer. An energy pulse ran up it, and as the lance impaled Terrorsoarer at the center of the X, the pulse reached the tip, an explosion knocking a stunned Terrorsoarer back and making it drop a bit. It shook its head in annoyance.
An eagle talon cover slid closed over a card with a gold gryphon symbol over a light blue starburst background.
Final Vent
Terrorsoarer looked up as Aquileo flew in, holding Rainbow’s arms in its talons before throwing her forward in a kick too fast to react to. The rainbow shockwave from the impact knocked Terrorsoarer farther back and down.
Holding a card with a gold kangaroo silhouette over an orange starburst, an orange tray was pushed down into a belt.
Final Vent
With Applejack thrown into the air wearing a set of orange metal boots, her kangaroo Beast Hyperboxer jumped up behind her and kicked her out, and she delivered a double flat-footed kick to Terrorsoarer to knock it even farther down and into a cloud of sparkling pink dust.
A card with a gold butterfly silhouette over a yellow starburst was slid into a holder, a transparent pink butterfly wing sliding back over it like a sheath.
Final Vent
Fluttershy floated on pink butterfly wings as Dustwinger flapped a stream of dust over her from behind, one final beat propelling her down at Terrorsoarer with a kick in a glowing streak of dust. On impact, the dust cloud burst into fire, dropping Terrorsoarer to the ground. It shrieked angrily, flaring its wings and looking for a target.
A card with a gold egret silhouette with arched spiky wings on a purple starburst was slid into the tray inside the outer half of a wing before it was spun back around to the inner half.
Final Vent
A large white egret Beast with purple streaks flew in behind Rarity, floating with her sword in a column of spiraling water tendrils. The Beast, Elegrence, skidded to a stop and flapped its wings, sending Rarity shooting forward, spinning sword first and surrounded by pointed spiraling water tendrils. Water and sword stabbed into Terrorsoarer, drilling through it and sending her out its back.
A card with a gold platypus head and webbed claws on a pink starburst was slid into a slot before a silver platypus bill was closed over it.
Final Vent
As Terrorsoarer was recovering from the previous hit, Pinkrhynch leapt at it from a mirror puddle and rammed it back into a spinning saw blade formed by Pinkie rapidly pirouetting like a spinning top with her clawed web gauntlets outstretched. The rapid slashes sprayed sparks before Terrorsoarer was knocked forward again, falling flat.
A hand held up a card with a gold face hidden in a barcode over a purple background of circular barcodes. A black foot with a gold ankle band twisted as a spurt of flame came from its sole.
Final Attack Ride: D-D-D-Decade
Terrorsoarer propped itself up to see a line of large cards leading to it as Tsukasa and Yusuke ran at it and leapt into a duel Rider Kick. Tsukasa phased into and out of every other card as Yusuke let out, “Oreeya!”
The kicks hit with a wave of pixels and a burst of flame, a pair of explosions sending Terrorsoarer back again, its flowing shadow form rippling all over. Tsukasa and Yusuke stood as Rainbow, Cavalier, Applejack, and Rarity grouped around them, Fluttershy floating down and Pinkie spinning over.
Terrorsoarer pushed itself back up again, panting heavily, the first X slash still glowing on its chest. As it glared up at them, the long feather strands trailing from its head beginning to rise, a gargled hiss of rage slowly rose in the air around the Riders, sounding like it was coming from everywhere. The edges of Terrorsoarer began to fray and blur, a pale silhouette of itself slowly expanding out from it. It stepped its clawed shadow feet out, rearing up and spreading its wings wide as its eyes flared open—
Sunset dropped down in front of it with a glowing slash from her golden swords, slicing down through the X to make it a 6-pointed star, a wave of energy bursting away Terrorsoarer’s extra silhouette. “Friendship is magic,” she said. “Remember that.”
Terrorsoarer stumbled back, its golden scars glowing brightly. An indigo beam of light shot out of the center, then a light blue beam from the first star point clockwise from the top. Circling around, orange, yellow, purple, and pink light beams shot from the other points, a red beam shooting from the top one. Terrorsoarer’s surface rippled with pink pixel waves and surges of flame as its swirling shadowy form began boiling. As a wave of rainbow energy swept over it, Terrorsoarer flared its wings and screeched to the sky. It burst apart into a spray of dark droplets and smoke, the corrupted Nightshade Deck flying out from the center. The spray evaporated in midair, and the Deck fell and shattered against the ground into an array of smoking fragments. Nothing else was left behind.
A silence fell over the group. Then a collective sigh of relief. Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy who broke the silence.
“We did it,” she said.
“Told ya,” Sunset replied.
“Yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Now that’s how you defeat a villain!”
The Riders left the Mirror World, Yusuke dragged out by Pinkie, and de-armored. Sunset reached into her pocket to find that her new Deck had stayed.
As Ryuki, Tsukasa pulled the Decadriver open, and his armor glowed and split apart left and right into a row of fading silhouettes. He paused, looking down at the Driver. That’s not what he’d expected to happen.
“Eh?” he said, holding the Driver upside down over his head, looking up into the slot and shaking it. “Where did those two new cards go?”
Sunset looked to her Deck and slid out a pair of Advent Cards. “I, uh, think these might be them,” she said, holding up the cards. One said ‘Survive’ and showed a gold lion paw with a red jewel on it reaching up from the bottom over a fire swirl background, and the other was a Final Vent card with her gold Lion symbol fanned by gold blades over a red starburst background and labeled with Attack 9000, both cards with gold rims and a row of red bars along the tops.
“Tsk,” Tsukasa sighed. “Keep ’em, they aren’t compatible with my Driver anymore.” He pushed the Driver closed again.
* * *
Shortly afterward, everyone had gathered back in the Hikari Studio.
“Well,” Yusuke explained, “since I knew you all were friends, when you refused to listen to anything they were saying I figured it had to be something external. That’s when I remembered how odd the glowing eyes on the card slotter had been.”
“Oh yeah,” said Rainbow, “I guess I did notice that. Wouldn’t’ve helped much in total darkness, though.”
“Not without that super hearing of yours,” Applejack added.
“Speaking of which,” Sunset said, “since you didn’t know about the Siren gems to recognize them, how did you know that they were the reason for me being evil?”
“I, uh…,” Yusuke hesitated, “honestly, it was a guess.”
Sunset crossed her arms. “Really?”
“So,” Rainbow said, “your logic was, ‘if it glows, it’s a weak point’? Makes sense, but bit of a risk, much?”
“Well, I didn’t have anything else to go on,” Yusuke countered. “I just did my dramatic speech and then hoped I didn’t make a fool of myself by breaking something that didn’t matter.”
“Lucky for you, it did,” Sunset said.
“Well,” Tsukasa said, getting up, “it’s actually time for us to leave now, unless anyone knows of another big problem Natsumikan’s gonna make me solve.” Natsumi punched his arm. “Now get lost, I’m serious about the getting dragged along with us part.”
“New group photo to replace the one that Yusuke folded and bent!” Pinkie shouted.
“Eh?” protested Yusuke.
“Well if it’s Yusuke’s fault, then alright,” Tsukasa said.
“Tsukasa,” Yusuke moaned.
The group of Riders gathered together around Yusuke as Tsukasa wound up his camera.
“Come on, new guy,” said Rainbow, “get in.”
“You’ve already got the hero of the day,” Tsukasa replied as he raised the camera. “Besides. There’s one person who’s never in a photograph.” He snapped the photo, then opened the back of the camera and tossed the roll of film to Sunset. “Develop it yourselves, we’re off.”
As the guests filed out, Pinkie turned back and exchanged a thumps up with Yusuke before leaving. Kivaara floated up next to him.
“Oo~ooh,” she cooed. Yusuke swatted her away. “Yipe!” She flew over and landed on a nearby post, softly giggling.
“It’s good to know that some Riders can get along without our help,” Natsumi said, looking after the others.
“It’s good to know that I can actually be a part of the solution sometimes,” Yusuke added.
“It’s good to know that side quests still don’t help us along, switch the painting already, gramps,” Tsukasa badgered.
Eijiro sighed. “It’s good to know that no matter the detour,” he said to himself, “you three will never change. Oh…or is that really a good thing?” He shrugged and pulled the chain.
With the sliding of chains and cranking of gears, a new painted backdrop slid down over the one with the horse statue. This one showed a desertscape under a blue and orange sky, with a white bullet train riding along a set of tracks, bearing a black roof and a pair of long orange eye-like front windows. The painting flashed with a hum.
Author's Note
Meanwhile, in the World of Den-O…
Narutaki looked around, then down at his pocket watch.
“Curse you, Decade,” he muttered, “you should’ve been here by now. What could possibly be holding you up after Agito?”
