“YOSHA, LUCKY!” a teenage male yelled to the heavens like a certain hot-blooded, pompadour-sporting, space nut. “It's here, it's here, it’s here!” For those wondering what the prancing idiot is excited about, he's dancing about the Convention in town. It's the first and probably last time they'll come to his hometown because of how remote it is. “Months of working on my costume and my Collection have finally paid off! Time for the world at large to meet the greatest, the ultimate! Ride! Player! D!”
The costume was perfect. It resembled an actual Ride-Player suit from the show in almost every way, obviously that meant a few areas were different. The belt, for example, was gold like Para-DX Level 50, and had a brown Gamer Driver and Kimewaza Slot Holder on his left with a Gashat Gear Holder on the right. The eyes were like Para-DX Level 99, but both colored sky blue to match his own eyes, and the lines on the bodysuit had been added on with gold paint. The metal ‘goggles’ had also been done in gold to further differentiate his suit from the foot soldier type.
“Now, let's see.” the teen said as he brought out a clipboard to check off his list for the Comic-con, “Gashats Levels One and Two, Three, and Five. Yep, all eleven are here.” he said as he checked those off. “Level Four, JuJu Burger, Night of Safari, Bang Bang Tank, my custom Bakusou Treasure, and my custom Buttobase Bots, all check. Legend Rider Gashats, Ichigou to Build, check. Legend Gamer Gashats, Pac-man to Galaxian, check. Level X Gashats, Dangerous Zombie, TokiMeki Crisis, and Mighty Novel X, check.” He said before he brought up a black and green Gashat. “And Kamen Rider Chronicle is a definite check!” he said happily, before he turned towards the Gashacon Weapons,
“Okay, Gashacon Breaker, Sword, Magnum, Bugvisor, Sparrow, and my custom Bugvisor Survive.” The last item was a recolored Bugvisor Zwei made to match Kamen Rider Cronus's colors. “That's a check. Customised belt, it's on my costume so that's a check." The teen finishes his checklists with a big smirk before doing the Gentaro Pose.
“Yosha, LUCKY! Everything's gonna be great!”
The poor, poor bastard. May Murphy be merciful.
Placing the backpack of items on his back, the cosplayer jumped up in joy. The cosplaying rider then rushed over to a covered object and pulled the cover off. Underneath was a customized BMX in the same colors as his suit in its cartoonish video game fashion. D just dusted off his hands in glee,
“Took me a while to find the same model bike used for Shakariki Sports Gamer, but it was worth it!” He then got on the bike and put up the bar keeping it upright. “Let’s Go!” he shouted as he immediately took off. Riding along the sidewalk, he did not notice as a customized red Honda NSX modeled after another certain Rider’s main vehicle was also speeding past from the street nearby.
Beepbeepbeeeep!
A flash of white overcame the Ride-Player’s vision as he blanked out. Slowly, he opened his eyes before covering them quickly from the sudden burst of light. As he adjusted to the lighting, he placed his arms on the grass underneath him and tried to stand up.
“Wait, grass?” he said looking around. He was underneath a tree inside of some sort of park from the amount of children and pets playing around. “How did I get here, where is my bike?!”, but as D looked around his precious bike was nowhere to be found. “My bike.” he started to mourn before he realized something was off about his situation.
One, he was nowhere near the convention, or even his hometown. Two, the people had multiple skin tones ranging from white to stormy grey and beyond. Three, he was pretty sure he was hit by the Tridoron look-alike. Four, finally four, he was out of costume and his Ex-Aid Collection had vanished.
“My merchandise!” he wailed.
THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT?! YOU IDIOT!
D could only sit back down next to a small puddle of water and stare at his reflection, he was a handsome young man with piercing sky blue eyes. His shirt read ‘Mighty Action X’ with Ex-Aid underneath breaking a block for an Energy Item. He wore regular pants and some converse sneakers. None of this caught his eye because it was what he had worn before the Ride Player suit, what did catch his eye was the Doctor’s coat and stethoscope around his neck.
“That’s new.” he said as he tugged and inspected the coat and stethoscope, “If I didn't know any better, then I would say this looks like the same thing the Ex-Aid Riders used to check for Bugsters. What is the name again?” he pondered to himself. Pondered? Now he's sounding like Brain from Animaniacs. “Well, no use wondering about the name, let's see exactly where I am, and why everyone is so colorful.” The teen convinced himself as he walked off.
Meanwhile in a secluded part of the same park, Scootaloo, the self-proclaimed ‘Number One Fan’ of Rainbow Dash, was just sitting on a swing set doing nothing except looking sad. Sighing to herself, she slowly began to swing back and forth glumly.
“Why do I even bother? I'll never be as fast or as cool as Rainbow Dash, so why do I keep trying?” she said as the sun glinted off of a piece of metal just a centimeter above her boots.
Unknown to her, or anyone else, a white clawed hand reached out of the shadows holding a Gashacon Bugvisor. Aiming the two red blaster pieces of the weapon towards the gloomy girl, it released a cloud of black smog with traces of an orange viral strain. The smog slowly made its way behind the purple haired girl as she stopped swinging. It then seemed to jump and swarm the girl as pain filled her chest. The cloud dispersed as it finished its job while the white hand withdrew into the darkness. Scootaloo fell off the swingset and clutched her chest painfully as several thoughts started to course through her mind. “What’s going on?” she said to herself panting heavily from the excruciating pain coursing through her.
“Soon, a new comrade will be born.”
One of the nearby adults noticed Scootaloo in pain and quickly called for an ambulance. Another one went to help her until the ambulance arrived on scene.
“Don’t worry, someone has called an ambulance to take you to the hospital” they said as they attempted to help her however they could. Scootaloo, however, didn't hear them as she had lost consciousness as soon as the caller opened their phone. Try as they might, they had no idea on what to do until sirens could be heard in the distance.
“Is something happening over there?” D said to himself as he saw some paramedics lifting someone into their ambulance. He then walked over to the crowd of people as the ambulance took off for the hospital. “What happened here?” he asked one of the bystanders.
“Apparently some girl had some sort of attack and collapsed at the swingset.” they said as the crowd slowly dispersed to do their own things. Watching everyone walking away, he quickly went around to ask if they had seen his bike. Many of the responses he was given were “nope” or “haven’t seen it” which led him back to where he started.
“At least I learned that I’m in some city called Canterlot.” he said as he sat on a bench to think over everything he learned. “Apparently any color can be a skin type around here.” Getting up, he decided to at least explore more of the city with the excuse of being a visitor.
At the hospital, several doctors and nurses were buzzing about helping their patients while the doors burst open.
“Incoming patient with unknown illness.” the doctor said as they began to move Scootaloo to the ER for examination.
“Patient's name and symptoms, Nurse Redheart?” the doctor asked his accompanying coworker.
“Her name is Scootaloo Dash, she attends Canterlot High school in Ninth Grade. So far the worst symptoms she’s shown are drowsiness, accompanied by bouts of pain. There are a number of illnesses that have them, but this is the first I've seen that have just those two symptoms, and so severely at that.” The doctor then began to inspect which places hurt the most on the girl's body as well as checking for any signs of injury.
“Give me a syringe. I'll need to take a sample of her blood.”
After filling a small vial with Scootaloo’s blood for testing, he passed the sample over to another specialist to search for any traces of viral strains.
“Place her in her own room until we can diagnose the illness afflicting her.” the doctor said as he left to await the results. Nurse Redheart nodded as she took Scootaloo to change her into a hospital gown. Hours had passed in a blink and now Scootaloo’s room was devoid of anyone except her. The cameras in the room began to malfunction as orange pixels danced across the girl's body before merging together to form a glitching monster. It resembled an anthropomorphic slug, with its left hand looking like a slug’s head, wearing a cape and a top hat. The creature turned around to look at its host.
“Not enough yet. I’ll need more before I can fully emerge.” the thing said before its face seemed to contort in anger. “But I'm feeling salty about having to take a child's life!” it said as it faded back into her body.
Scootaloo then awoke with a jolt as she breathed heavily. She looked around, finding herself in a hospital gown and inside an empty hospital room.
“What? Why am I here” she asked as she started to panic slightly. She tried to think over what had happened to end up in the hospital. All she remembered was she was on the swingset before falling off feeling bouts of pain in her chest. As she started panicking to remember what had caused the pain, Nurse Redheart entered the room.
“Good Morning Scootaloo” she said as she entered before noticing her panicked form. “Scootaloo!” she said as she quickly went to the girl to help calm her down. Outside the room, the doctor was looking over the blood results.
“I don’t understand, there seems to be nothing in her blood that indicates any sort of viral infection.” he said as he flipped through the pages. “There must be some type of infection or possible cancerous cells in her body that is causing the pain.” he said as he began thinking of which process should be used. He then entered the room seeing Scootaloo awake with Nurse Redheart. “Good Morning Miss, we are going to perform a CT Scan to see whether you have anything wrong within your body.” he said as he put down the clipboard. The two then led Scootaloo towards a room with a large machine.
“We are going to need you to lay on this machine so we can scan your body.” the Radiologist in the room said as Scootaloo laid down on the bed part of the machine. The bed part then lifted up as it moved within the circular scanner. Several lasers scanned her body as imaging appeared on the computer screens showing her organs to the doctors. After a couple minutes, some photos were taken of her inner organs and body.
“Hold on, I see something moving about her lungs.” the radiologist said as they all moved closer to the screen. As they looked closer, they saw what looked like cooked turkeys attached to double helixes. Nurse Redheart was the first to look away from the screen.
“The patient’s gone.” she said in disbelief. Everyone looked up from the screen towards the now empty machine. Quickly, the doctor entered the room only to find the machine still running yet it was devoid of the patient.
“Find her,” he said as he turned to the nurse, “We need her so we can examine this mysterious viral strain.” The Nurse nodded as she left the room to search for Scootaloo.
What they didn’t know was that Scootaloo had already gotten dressed in her original clothes and had left the hospital. She started wandering around the city after leaving the hospital behind.
“I really hate hospitals.” she said as she kicked a stone along the sidewalk. As she moped along, the sounds of cheering could be heard from the building nearby as well as the sounds of gaming. Looking at the building, she saw it was called Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade. Entering the arcade, she found a crowd of people around a game machine called Sugar Rush. Several people were talking about the player’s achievements so far.
“Do you see this guy? He's driving backwards but he's still in first place!”
“Yeah, and his lead is huge.”
Scootaloo gently weaved around the peanut gallery until she saw who was playing the game. He was wearing a shirt that read Mighty Action X with some kind of warrior underneath breaking a chocolate block, was wearing jeans and converse shoes, and had a doctor’s lab coat on with a stethoscope around his neck.
“C’mon, Vanellope! Final lap!” the teen said as his racer, Vanellope Von Schweetz, passed the other racers again, while still driving backwards. Everyone marveled at his skills at the game as Scootaloo watched him very easily out racing the other player and the computers.
“Put it in Neutral, and spin!” Vanellope’s player said as he did just that, and made her 360 over the finish line. The victory song played as it showed his character getting the gold cup and holding her fist out. The Player fist bumped the screen as he cheered for his victory.
“You must have cheated somehow!” the other player said as he stood up angry at getting fifth place.
“I warned you, buddy. You can't beat, Greatest Player D!” he stood from his seat and turned to look at the crowd with a flourish of his coat. “Which of those assembled here thinks they can beat me? You? You? You?” he said pointing at different people before Scootaloo stepped forwards.
“I’ll take you on!” She said, pulling out a quarter. The player smirked as they both sat down and chose their characters. D chose Vanellope again, and Scootaloo chose the rival character for Vanellope,Taffyta Muttonfudge. D turned towards Scootaloo with a smirk on his face.
“So, what's the name of my next opponent?” Scootaloo just smirked back and gave one reply.
“Greatest Player S.”
Outside the arcade, Nurse Redheart was going about asking people whether they had seen Scootaloo. Seeing various people entering the arcade, she decided to see whether Scootaloo was part of the crowd.
“Put it in neutral, and spin!” two voices came from the game’s controller area.
“Excuse me, coming through, sorry.” she said as she tried to move about the crowd while searching for Scootaloo. As she reached the edge of the crowd she saw the two racing characters spinning 360s in opposite directions as they crossed the finish line together. The player on the left was a teenager wearing odd clothing which included a doctor’s coat, and the player on the right was,
“Scootaloo!”
The Nurse moved towards the two as she went to confront the escaped patient. Scootaloo turned to see the nurse coming towards her as D began wondering what was going on.
“You’re in big trouble missy.” she said as she grabbed onto her arm, “You can’t just leave the hospital during an examination.” The nurse tried to bring the girl out of the arcade shop as the crowd split. As they left the arcade, Scootaloo broke free from the nurse’s grip.
“I won’t go back to that horrible place!” she said as she turned to run. Just as she was about to run, she felt a bout of pain which caused her to fall to her knees. Flashes of glitching particles started to appear on her body. D noticed this and became shocked.
“No way. It can't be.” he said as he ran towards Scootaloo lying on the ground and equipped the stethoscope, making it activate bringing to life a virtual screen that showed a small star floating around her head.
“A star?” Nurse Redheart stated, confounded by the scene before her.
“A Bugster. Watch out!” D said knocking them away as the Virus broke out and created a Golem-like Bugster Union, absorbing Scootaloo.
The Union screeched as it started to trash the street. The left arm of the Union shrank as the Viruses in that arm transferred to the right arm which started swinging like a mace.
“W-what is that? What happened to Scootaloo?” Nurse Redheart asked horrified.
“That is a new disease, it started as a digital virus until it managed to evolve the capability to infect organic beings. It’s named the Bugster Virus, and stress is what causes Outbreaks like this. If you were a true medical woman, you would know that stress is a big deal when it comes to your patients.” D stated as he saw the Union continued its rampage, Nurse Redheart just stared at it in despair.
“I caused this?” D just patted her on the shoulder making her look up to him.
“Don't worry,” he said as he pulled out the Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat and equipped his ‘Player Driver’, “you're about to see the full extent of my gaming prowess.” he said pressing the button on the cartridge.
KAMEN RIDER CHRONICLE!
A small holographic rectangle appeared behind him with the words Kamen Rider Chronicle and several silhouettes of different people in the image and a wave of pixels spread out over the city from his spot. Several different objects, chocolate blocks, treasure chests, barrels, and trophies, ejected themselves from the screen. The Bugster Union turned towards the scene only to get hit in the head by one of each object. D just gave a smirk, and did a little dance, before holding the object in front of his face.
“Henshin!” he said, inserting the Gashat into the first slot.
GASHATTO! ENTER THE GAME! RI-RIDING THE END!
A character select wheel appeared around him and held several pictures of other Kamen Riders before he selected the Question Mark symbol revealing a new Rider. The overall color was Goomba Brown, with gold, circuit-like designs from his torso down. The top of his helmet was completely smooth, like someone that wore their hat too much. The facial area had gold ‘goggles’ surrounding sky blue ‘eyes’, his chest armor was covered by a shutter of some kind blocking the underneath from view, around his waist was a belt with a blank, golden buckle, and at the left side of the belt was a brown holder with a gold button on it, and a black holder on the right.
“Ride-Player D! I'll clear this Chronicle!”
The Ride Player then started to run towards the rampaging Bugster Union as innocent bystanders ran for their lives. Jumping into the air, the Ride Player kicked the golem attracting its attention.
“Come and get me.” he said, taunting the large orange creature. The Bugster slammed its mace shaped arm at the ride player as he dodged away from it. The sidewalk crumbled under the attack as Nurse Redheart moved away from the battlefield. As he dodged, he saw he was heading for a chocolate block and instinctively summoned the Gashacon Bugvisor Survive in chainsaw mode, smashing the block, releasing the Energy Item inside.
Kōsoku-ka (Speed Up)
The yellow coin like object was absorbed into the Ride-Player’s body as he glowed with a yellow hue. Standing up, he started to run around the Bugster and began to slice at its legs trying to force it to collapse under itself. The Union Bugster slowly started to fall as its leg mass was torn apart. Seeing it about to fall, he moved out of the path as it fell onto the streets. The Ride-Player laughed as he turned to watch it only to see his missing bike, or one that just looks like his, crushed under its weight.
“MY BIKE!”
He kneeled to mourn in despair for his precious bike but had to dodge from the orange mace-shaped arm extending towards him. It smashed into a light pole causing it to bend under the pressure. It started to fall backwards heading towards Nurse Redheart as she stared at the metal pole, too scared to move. Just before it could hit her, Ride-Player D moved underneath it and held it up with the Gashacon Weapon.
“Please move, this thing is heavy” he said holding it up as the Nurse quickly nodded and ran. Activating the chainsaw, the metal pole was quickly sliced through and tossed away. Stopping to catch his breath, he turned to find the orange arm of the Bugster heading towards him at a fast pace. “Oh-”.
He never finished his sentence as he was sent flying into the air and crashed into another chocolate block, breaking it open.
Kōtetsu-ka (Iron Body)
As he fell, he found himself covered in a silver coating as the ground cracked under his weight.
“Yosha, LUCKY!” he said as he stood up. The Bugster slammed its spiked mace hand onto his body only for the spikes to break and collapse into small double helixes which hopped back towards the main body to survive. Grabbing the arm, he climbed up onto it and ran towards the two helix connectors holding the arm to the main body and activated the chainsaw. Jumping towards it, he quickly sliced through the two thin strands from the center causing the arm to fall to the ground. It quickly dispersed into smaller helices as they spread around the ground. Pressing the B button on the Gashacon Bugvisor Survive increased the power of the saw mode’s spin. Ride-Player D jumped into the air above the Bugster Union and fell into it!
“No!” Redheart said in shock before a power saw could be heard inside the Bugster. The Union only had time to screech before it exploded, letting D and Scootaloo fall onto a grassy area of the street. “Scootaloo!” she said as she ran to help the girl. As she reached, she went to pick her up only for her arms to go through her body causing it to glitch.
“The Bugster isn’t defeated,” the Ride Player said as a small mass of the Virus swarmed into one location, forming several Human-sized Viruses, and the main Bugster, “the game has yet to be cleared.”
“Puny, little Player. Do you really think you can take on me?” the Bugster said to him as it petted its slug hand. D just looks him up and down.
“So, the boss this time is Salty, huh? Guess I'll clear this with no continues!”
Holding his arm with the Gashacon Weapon in Beam Mode. He then charged towards the Bugsters which had on chef clothing. As one of the Bugsters got close, he pressed the A button and shot the creature making a ‘Hit!’ icon appear. He then continued to do so as he made his way towards Salty.
“Defend your Count!” he yelled as the rest of the Viruses rushed towards D. In his other hand, he pulled out his Ride Weapon and slowed down. As the first Bugster reached him, he used the blade to hold back its ladle and shot it with the Bugvisor. He then went faster as he sliced across another Bugster’s chest causing another ‘Hit!’ to appear in the air. As he went to strike another on the head, it put a whisk to cover its head. He waited for the Bugster to fix its mistake as it realized its mistake and switched with the pan. He then hit the Bugster causing it to fall over stunned. Seeing a group lining up ahead of him, he quickly twisted the Bugvisor to its chainsaw mode. Pressing the B button, he then ran through the two lines of Bugsters slashing them with both bladed weapons.
“One, two, three, nine, ten, twenty!” he said as he counted the total Viruses he fought.
“Defend yourself!” The Salty Bugster said as it leapt down from a higher point towards the Ride-Player. Looking upwards, the Ride-Player used both weapons to block his gauntlet only for electricity to course through it. Recoiling from the electrical shocks, D moved backwards from Salty. Salty laughed as he aimed his gauntlet towards the Ride-Player sending small bursts of electricity to spark wildly towards him. The electrical arcs smacked into his hand causing the Ride Weapon to be thrown from his grip. Seeing a chance, Salty moved closer and punched the Ride-Player with his large gauntlet.
“Take this!” Ride-Player D responded, twisting the Bugvisor back into its shooter mode. He fired his weapon at the Salty Bugster as he avoided an electrical strike. The energy fired from the weapon caused Salty to backpedal. Moving close, the Ride-Player hit salty with his fist and shot point blank at Salty’s chest. Salty backed up wounded, before he looked up at the Ride-Player.
“Don't think I'm done yet. Once I make her stress skyrocket, I will at last be complete!” the Salty Bugster said as he raised his arms and shook them at the sky.
“Why do this?” D asked the Bugster, making it stop shaking and look directly at him.
“Huh? Why do what? Try to become perfect?” It questioned him scratching the area beside Its top hat.
“No, anyone can try and become perfect. I mean ‘why try and take the bodies of your hosts’?”
“As much as I hate it, we Bugsters can't exist unless we take them. It's who we are! It’s in our coding! It is how our world works.” Salty said as if it were a universal fact. D just looked at the Bugster who was starting to glitch, then to Redheart and Scootaloo, who had gotten more of her body back. He looked between the two and bowed his head.
“ore wa kawarimasu, sekai no unmei.”
“Huh? Speak up! I can't hear you!”
“Ore wa kawarimasu, sekai no unmei!!” he all but yelled, startling the Bugster and the Nurse. “The fate of both Bugsters and Humans, that is what these hands will change!” he said, holding his arms up in a pose similar to Hiiro Kagami.
“Nani? Do you really think someone like you can change the fate of the Bugster!” it said, in an almost hope filled voice, before it seemed to disregard that hope and sneered at the Player. “I told you, we Bugsters are a race born of deleted humans!”
“I don't care! The fate of this world will be changed by me! I WILL make it so the Bugsters don't have to steal bodies! And to prove it…” D said as he removed the Chronicle Gashat, “I'll start with you.” D said as he blew into the Gashat before placing it into the Kimewaza Slot Holder and holding down the button, releasing it after ten seconds,
URAWAZA!
‘Please, let this give me the power...of reprogramming!’ D thought desperately as energy began to surround him, flowing mainly towards his feet. Salty looked at the Ride Player, horrified by the possible outcome and began begging for mercy. D steeled himself as he pressed down on his Slot Holder a second time,
RIDER CRITICAL STRIKE!
The eyes of the suit flashed in a rainbow of color and D leapt into the air praying to whatever God was listening, that Salty wasn't given a Game Over when he was hit. When he reached the peak of his jump D repositioned himself so that he started descending towards Salty.
“SEIYA!”
First Salty got kicked, with a stylized Hit! symbol appearing, then D spun sideways hitting Salty again with more Hit! symbols appearing, followed by a single Great! symbol. D then began doing a Sonic impersonation and spun like a buzzsaw drawing forth six ‘Hit!’s and two ‘Great!’s, and hammering the finisher home was a side kick with a PERFECT! ending the chain as he flipped around and landed with his back towards his opponent as a circle of pictures appeared and cycled through until it landed on Mighty Action X.
“I just got a…” he said smugly.
GAME CLEAR!
D just smiled under his helmet before he realized what had happened, “Wait, ‘Game Clear’? Masaka, Salty!” D said turning around towards the Bugster who was…
…
…
…lying on his back completely fine.
“Hai?” he asked as he sat up and adjusted his hat. D just stared at Salty before he bent down and popped back up with his limbs making an ‘X’ as he hollered.
“YOSHA, LUCKY! Ah, Scootaloo!” D said as he rushed over to the two females, canceling his transformation. As he did this the world around him reformed back to how it was before any damage had occurred. Bringing out the stethoscope device, D had it scan Scootaloo but this time the screen showed, not a star, but a small picture of an angelic Salty hovering over her. Confused, D decided to turn the device towards Salty who had followed D. The screen popped up again showing Salty, with an Angel chibi of the girl he had infected fluttering about on the screen.
“Oh! Tenshi da!” Count Salty said, pointing to the Chibi. D just shook his head trying to find an answer until a thought occurred to him.
“From what I can tell, Mister Salty,” D said
“Count Salty.” the Bugster corrected.
“Right, Count Salty. From what I can tell, you're still infecting her,” D trailed off as he continued to think, “but her Virus is gone. Do you know what that means?”
“Yes? No, I don't.”
“Apparently, that last attack, that… Urawaza… I did, it changed your coding. So congratulations are in order! It would appear you are now the world's first Bugster Vaccine!”
Salty looked both confused and surprised as he wondered how this was possible.
“Is Scootaloo going to be ok?” Nurse Redheart asked as she found she could now pick up the girl.
“She will be fine, I think.” D said as he put the stethoscope around his neck. “With the Virus no longer killing her and with Salty being complete without his host disappearing, everything will be alright.”
“So, what about this thing?” Nurse Redheart said motioning to Salty.
“My name is Count Salty.” Salty said, moving closer to them causing the nurse to back away with Scootaloo in her arms.
“Calm down everyone and it is disrespectful to call someone a thing Nurse.” D said standing between them. “Salty, I know you might not like this but could you go back into Miss Scootaloo here for now.”
“Why should I do that?” he said, crossing his arms, accidentally shocking himself.
“She might be attacked by whoever planted you inside her to silence her.” D replied. “Who knows, your lives might be interconnected now or something similar to that so you would want to keep her safe. At least do it for me? You do owe me.” D said to Count Salty, who kept switching between D, and the still unconscious Scootaloo. He stopped, and sighed.
“Ah, mou! Alright, I'll do it. But only because you helped me become complete.” Salty said as he dispersed into small mint green blobs that entered Scootaloo’s body.
As this was happening, D turned to Nurse Redheart. “Could you please keep quiet about what happened here? If the public got wind of this information, mass hysteria could occur.” he told her, as she picked up where he left off.
“Leading to anyone that may have the Virus to experience large amounts of stress. Leading to more Outbreaks.” She remembered the destruction that had been caused by a single Bugster Virus, “I think, I can do that.”
As Salty finished assimilating himself into his host’s body, Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes.
“What happened?” she asked as she looked around seeing both D and Nurse Redheart above her. The nurse hugged her closely as Scootaloo wondered what exactly happened. “I remember tying in a race on Sugar Rush, but nothing after.” she said as she looked towards D, expecting him to give her an answer.
“You came down with a really bad virus.” he said as he squatted down to meet face to face with her. “You had collapsed but we managed to help stabilize you.” D said, patting her head. “From what you said before you passed out, you must not like hospitals.”
Scootaloo turned her head away in embarrassment as she moved his hand off her head. She looked unwilling to talk about whatever happened.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” he said as he stood up. “Now, if you'll excuse me I need to find my bike. CHARI, MY FRIEND! WHERE ARE YOU!” he said as he ran off to find his bike.
Meanwhile from a short ways away a man was standing with his shades over his eyes, his attire was made mostly of different shades of white, with a gryphon motif to go along with it, he appeared to be of European and Asian descent, with his hair being a shade of light blue. Behind his sunglasses was a harsh glare.
“So he can ‘hack’ the Bugster’s coding, can he?” he said as he removed his Aviator shades. Then his eyes, from the cornea to the iris, glowed a deep, disturbing red. He continued to stare before he ‘glitched’ out of the scene.
Author's Note
Hello, and welcome to the first chapter of Chronicles of Ride Player D! This is being written with the assistance of a friend of mine from Fanfiction, Daozang, mostly because he wrote a similar story idea called Ride Player of/in/on Remnant, can't remember the actual title but it was one of those. Anyway, review if you've got the stones enough to, and before you get to making assumptions I did post this over on Fanfiction as well. Now, Daozang, would you like to say anything?
Well, this was fun to help out with though I didn't really do much except write some fight scenes and check how to spell the names of the Energy Items. Otherwise I found it a fun collaboration to distract me from school which also helped start my creative juices to finish writing a chapter. That is all I guess.
Thanks for that Daozang.
All is quiet in the city of Canterlot, the streets are empty, most of the businesses are closed, and two people are racing through the streets at dangerously fast speeds. ...Wait, what?
The bikes sped past some fallen leaves making them float away. The two racers were wearing all black clothing, with black helmets covering their heads. Normally this would be a good thing if you didn't want to get caught, but now take in their motorcycles. One was a light turquoise with a lightning bolt design on the side along with three gold stars. The other bike was indigo in color with yellow lightning bolts on the front. Both stood out in the dark night lit up by the various street lights in their own ways as they sped past the various buildings. The two racers were both speeding through the streets at high speed, neither getting the upper hand on the other.
The racer on the indigo motorcycle just looked over to their opponent, who was doing the same to them. Both opponents turned back around to face the road, and turned down the left highway, the indigo racer began falling behind while the light turquoise racer gained a huge lead. The indigo bike rider got angry and revved the engine full throttle, bringing them back up to their adversary and tried to get ahead of them, but the other would have none of it and rammed their bikes together making the indigo cycle swerve until the one riding slowed down the bike.
Unknown to either racer, the same Bugster that had infected Scootaloo was waiting for them at their designated finish line, atop the roof of Litwak’s Arcade. As he stared down the street he saw both racers coming back, lifting the Gashacon Bugvisor up, two words glitched across the orange screen. When the two racers reached their finish line, it was the light turquoise bike that stopped first, the indigo one stopping seconds afterwards.
The racers shut off their modes of transportation, dismounted, and took off their helmets. They both were girls by their appearance but both were vastly different. The one on the turquoise bike had the turquoise skin and smooth golden hair. Her eyes were a light shade of amber and she had a competitive smirk across her face. The other had an amberish grey skin color and dark blue hair with arctic blue and cerulean streaks which ended in eight points. Her eyes were gamboge yellow and had lightning earrings.
“That was pretty good Indigo, you've gotten a lot better at this.” said the rider of the turquoise bike.
“Thanks Lightning Dust. These races are really fun!” Indigo said back to her friend, “Although I'd appreciate it if you quit trying to trash my bike!” Indigo said pointing to the numerous dents, dings, and scratches the vehicle has suffered from just that race.
“Lighten up, I'm just having fun, no-one got hurt did they?” Lightning Dust said as she put her helmet back on and got back on her ride. “Anyway, I gotta get home now, or my foster family will flip their lids. Later!” she said as she did two donuts before finishing off with a wheelie. Indigo Zap just looked down the road before losing what was left of her smile.
“You always have to win, don’t you!” she growled to herself, gaining the interest of the white Bugster. “Every race, every time I challenge you at anything, you always win! Not anymore, I'm not going to lose to a reckless, laidback,” she continued to ramble as she got ready to leave.
“Looks like I found a good host after all.”
As Indigo Zap restarted her bike, the Bugster on the roof dispersed the viral cloud downwards towards her feet, when Indigo revved her bike the Bugster strain flew all around her, unknowingly becoming a Bugster Infectee, only time will tell what Bugster will be born.
Game Start!
Morning had come once again for Canterlot, and our protagonist is currently-
“zzzzzz”
...sleeping.
He laid on a bed with the sheets strewn about from twisting around. Nearby on a desk was an alarm clock as it slowly ticked away towards the inevitable. The alarm blared out, awakening the man from his deep slumber. He flailed about, managing to wrap himself up in his blanket before shutting off the alarm. Sighing, he slowly thought about going back to bed only to force himself out and get dressed for the day. He once again wore the same outfit he had on when he first came here.
“Hey, Daisuke, you up yet? It's almost time to open the place.” said the owner of the Arcade, Mr. Litwak.
“Yeah, I'm up.” Daisuke Gentaro, better known by his stage name Greatest Player D, had been offered a job plus room and board by Mr. Litwak after the two had a little chat about Daisuke’s housing arrangements, which Daisuke had none of at the time.
“Well then get out here, I'll need your help with moving a new game.”
“I'll be out in two seconds flat.” Daisuke said as he ran from the rooms at the back of the building, to the actual arcade portion of his new home. He slipped to a stop just in front of his boss/landlord, who was holding an antique pocket watch.
“Five seconds, you were off by three.” he said with a playful smile as he closed the watch and put it back in his pocket.
“Can’t win them all?”
“This coming from the teenager who has the highest score on every game in here? The world must be ending. Now, the machine I'm putting in is over here.” he said walking towards an older arcade machine. “I thought it was about time I brought it out of storage, this used to be a big hit before some of the other games came in.”
“What game is it?”
“Technically, it’s not an actual game, more of a beta test. The name is Wrecking Crew. If this had been as successful elsewhere as it was here, this game would have been Wreck-It Ralph’s debut.” he said as he and Daisuke moved it over to a new spot, right beside Fix-It Felix Jr. Talk about irony.
“So what was the game about?” he asked as they finished setting it up.
“Wreck-It Ralph, in this game, was going to be called Wrecker Ralph, it's a game about demolishing buildings, if it needed taking down, his crew would have it down fast.”
“So Ralph was meant to be a protagonist?”
“Yeah, but that never happened. Kind of sad when you think about it. Now to turn it on and hope it still works.” Mr. Litwak said as he plugged it in, making the screen lit up and plays an annoyingly catchy tune, before it just died. Their faces fell in despair, and Litwak rested his hand on his head. “This was the only one left in working condition. Great, just great.” he said as he took out his pocket watch again. “And it's two minutes till I have to open.”
“Calm down, I'll take it out of here before anyone comes to those doors.” Daisuke said as he undid the wire and got it back on the trolley in record time. “I’ll take this to the back rooms.” Mr. Litwak just watched him go, acting like the big, clunky, machine didn't weigh an ounce.
“I still have to learn how he does that.”
In a small room of cabinets, a woman was rapidly searching through several folders. The lightbulb was slowly going dimmer and relighting as she checked throughout the medical records of various patients.
“Come on, there has to be another one somewhere” Red Heart said as she closed the current cabinet she was searching though and started on another. After she had searched every record, she knew that this wasn't an old virus, mutated into a new type, it was completely new.
“No records of anything similar in the past, guess I'll have to keep an eye out for incoming patients. I'll need to get a hold of Daisuke.”
Speaking of said Player, let's see how he's getting along with his job shall we?
“Alrightalrightalrightalright! What's the problem here?” Daisuke said to two of the younger patrons.
“She said it was her turn on Fix-it Felix Jr when I just started playing.”
“No I didn't! She's a liar!”
“Okay! Calm down you two, I have an idea that'll solve your problem. We’ll flip a quarter.” he said as he took out one of his own. “Because it has two sides, and both are different, you both have an equal chance of getting to play. Okay?”
“Okay.” the girls said shaking their heads up and down.
“Alright, you'll be heads,” he said pointing to the girl on his left, “and you'll be tails. Ready?” he asked before he flipped the coin into the air, just barely touching the ceiling, before it came back down and into his hand.
“And it’s tails.” he said like a game show host.
“Yay!” the second girl said as she clapped her hands in front of her face and went over to the Arcade's game.
“aw.” said the first girl before Daisuke gently lifted her hand and placed his quarter in it.
“Consolation prize for the runner up.” he told her as a smile bloomed on her face.
“Thank you.” she told him before going over to the game too. Daisuke just looked at them and smiled, it feels good being good sometimes. Daisuke walked off before his Game Scope went off.
“Mister Litwak, I'm taking a quick break, I have a call.” he said as he entered the back rooms. Activating the call function, a big screen appeared with a sound wave line moving in the center.
“Hello, Daisuke speaking”
“Hello? Oh it went through finally” the voice of Nurse Red Heart said through the screen. “Well, there hasn’t been any past occurrences of anything similar to the Game Disease, so it’s not a mutated strain of an older virus like you thought.”
“If that's the case then something brought it here, or someone recreated it. Has there been any new patients showing symptoms of the Bugster Virus?” he asked curious whether or not more infected patients have appeared.
“Not yet though we are still monitoring Scootaloo’s health for any side effects, even though the Vaccine doesn't show up on any of our equipment. The doctor was trying to isolate a sample of the virus earlier but failed all of his attempts to date.” she said as Daisuke started to think in his mind about something the show once had before.
“Stop him before he can isolate it." Daisuke suddenly said as he heard a confused noise from the other side. “When the virus is isolated from a human host, there is a high chance it’ll become airborne and spread, rapidly infecting, or killing anyone in the vicinity of direct contact.” he told her causing her to gasp in horror, “But on the plus side, whatever Bugster that's infecting the patient is no longer a threat due to it gaining its own form.”
“I’ll try.”
“That's all I ask, now I have to go, my day job is calling.” he said ending the call before he draped the Game Scope over his shoulders. “Here's to hoping another fight didn't break out while I was gone.” he said as he went back to the Arcade portion.
