Ride Saga: Kamen Rider Charge x Kamen Rider Diend: Hunt for Ω

Chapters

Pulling Back the Curtain
Old Wounds
Ashes to Ashes
The Robbed Thiefe
The Dead Live Longer

Pulling Back the Curtain

Both Ocean and Scorched dragged themself into the front door. No reason to sneak in at this point. Everyone in the town had to have heard the commotion outside. Whatever was in here was expecting them already, so why not take the direct way. Not like Ocean could take any other entrance in her current state anyway.

The glass double door pulled open on ist own, still working even after such a long time. It let a light shiver run down his spin as they passed it and entered the entrance hall. It was a more or less big hall, a few registres standing on its other end, right in front of an army of lockers. On their right, stone stairs lead up to what looked like some type of restaurant with a large glass window, probably down at the pool below. Images of tropical strands lined the wall, next to clear mountain lakes.

All of this, however, had been consumed by layers upon layers of pipes and wires. Like a giant spider net, they covered the walls, making everything beneath it almost unrecognizable. The cold, synthetic light of the lamps above gave it that last, eerie feel it needed.

“I don’t like this one bit…“ Scorched muttered, his eyes darting across the room, trying to look for any sign of movement. Be it one of these… Monsters or something else. While he was still supporting Ocean with his one arm, his other was tightly gripped around his Charge Magnum.

“Relax…” Ocean sighed, making him stop dead in his tracks and almost pull the gun up. “If things get hairy, I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

“With all due respect, ma- Ocean. I’m a capable agent of my own. I’m not a complete rocky; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. And second, you are in no position to fight right now. You can’t even stand up straight, let alone throw a punch,” he returned, looking at her with a mixture of fear and conviction.

“While I appreciate your concerns, I’m not out cold yet. As long as I have some Charger’s left, I can still fight,” she huffed back, pushing herself forward a bit, pulling the other agent with her.

“And how is that gonna help you if you can’t stand up straight?”

“I’ve been through worse. The Chargers reenergize you, heal wounds, and other similar things. Well, as long as they had time to recharge, so to speak. Until now, I have used two. If I were to use them now, it wouldn’t heal me. I’d still be able to use the suit, but no patching up. I still have five left. But that doesn’t mean I want to use them now. I doubt I have time for them to recharge here. But if I have to, I’m more than willing to use them,” Ocean simply stated. “Don’t expect me to be unprepared for this, Agent Scorched Earth. I’m going to get us through this. Even if I think we aren’t done here by a long shot…”

“If you say so,” he simply returned with an unmistakable, doubtful undertone in it.

The two continued onward, past the gate that separates the entrance hall and the area for paying customers. One of them had simply been ripped out of the ground and thrown haphazardly to the side. It was freakish; only something with inhuman levels of strength could do that. And Scorched was pretty confident he knew what it was.

“These damn monsters,” he snarled, almost as if he was gaging.

“It’s unsettling, isn’t it?” Ocean simply responded, giving him a slightly forced comforting look before letting out a slight groan as she and a wrong step.

“Yeah… Stuff like this shouldn’t exist… It’s not normal. These monsters just destroy and leave nothing behind other than ruins,” he returned, an angry grimace on his face as they moved deeper and deeper into the inerts of the strange place.

“I understand. This is probably the worst you’ve seen until now. It’s never easy, but it’s our reality, isn’t it?”

“I… I actually have seen slightly worse. I was part of the cleanup crew that moved into Canterlot City after the battle with Alkahest. It was… Not a pretty sight. Seeing a city partially raised to the ground by monsters isn’t something you want to experience. But you know that, right?” Scorched sighed, looking over to his superior again.

Ocean simply nodded. “Yeah… It’s not better if you are in the middle of that happening, either… Not a pleasant experience… But you just gotta push through regardless… As hard as it may seem. Just as we have to do here, right?”

This time her expression seemed a lot more genuine than before. It at least made setting foot in front of the other a bit easier. “Yeah… Still… I just want to end this already. Monsters that are willing to do this to an innocent, peaceful city like this shouldn’t exist! Periode!” With a slight huff, he pulled Ocean up a bit, making it a bit easier for them to move forward, through the abandoned cabins of the pool.

“Yeah… It’s disgusting… There seems to be no end to people who let their own desires take control of their life. And when it’s all done, you end up with places like this. Sometimes I wonder if… No!” She shakes her head with a firm look on her face. “The only thing we can do is stop them whenever they try to show their ugly faces! Stand up and say no to it.”

“Yeah… No to monsters like this,” he sighed in confirmation, pushing open the last door that leads out from the cabins into the large hall with the pool. Slowly, but surely the door creaked open, revealing the vast, empty pool with the rows upon rows of canisters. It was the center of the web of cables and pipes. Everything lead hear.

Ocean had leaned herself against the nearest wall, her Charge Magnum in one hand while a red Charger was in the other, just in case. Scorched, also with his weapon already drawn, slipped past the crack and into the large room. Sounds of dripping water echoed from the walls and roof with an ominous ring to them. Still, that were the only sounds for a few seconds before an unnatural screech cut through the air. It was distant and dimmed, but it was definitely there.

“Something is here…” he muttered, tightening his grip on his gun and pushed forward, but not without taking a good look back and forth from the little alcove the door created.

“Indeed. Someone’s here,” Ocean added, having followed him as well, still leaning against the wall, her eyes darting around the room. “Through… Possibly somewhere else…”

Scorched simply nodded before pushing forward once again. As he stepped closer into the room, he noticed the control room high above them, and with it, light coming from there. That’s where they had to go…

“Seems that’s where we need to go…” It came from behind him as Ocean pushed herself off the wall, stumbling a bit before catching herself once again. A pained expression was painted on her face as she pushed past him.

“Are you sur-“

“Yes. Yes, I am! That’s what I’m best at. I’m not a Rider for nothing,” she interrupted him before continuing onward. Still, it was definitely noticeable that she still wasn’t in good condition, stumbling every couple of steps a tiny bit.

“There are so many of them… What could they be for?” Scorched asked after a few moments, eyeing the rows upon rows of them carefully.

“I don’t know, but, given the state this town is in… I assume they want to spread it across it… Why, however, is beyond me, but it can’t be good,” Ocean returned, startling the young agent a bit, not expecting an answer to his thoughts.

“I… Yes, probably…” He muttered sheepishly. The closer they got to the stairs that lead them up to the control room, they could hear tipping.

“You stay down here. Weapon ready. If anything happens, I need you to tell me. Whoever is up there owes us a few answers! Stay safe down here,” and with that, she started to climb the stairs; as painful as it might be, she wasn’t done here. Just one step in front of the other. Every second she spends on the stairs was unbearable. Every step dared to make the sounds of boots hitting the plates below just a bit too loud. Every breath was on the verge of forcing her to groan in pain, but she kept going until she finally reached the top.

The room she was standing in front of was filled with monitors, keyboards, and blinking tech. Light Bulb would have had a field day figuring out what everything did. She, however, she was more fixated on the tipping, or more precisely, the person responsible for it. The strange Rider! He was standing in front of the largest monitor, seemingly looking for something in the see of files he had opened, his gun next to him.

Raising her gun, she was about to step inside the room when his voice shattered the silence: “Why do Riders never listen? You offer them a simple out, and they still remain as stubborn as ever,” Daiki sighed, shaking his head.

“To be fair…” she took another breath, tightening the grip on her Charger even more. “You haven’t really given me enough information to make it a real option. Not to speak of the fact that an entire town disappeared off the map. And these monsters here don’t make just leaving any easier. How about you give me some answers, and I’ll think about it?”

Kaito simply continued like nothing had happened, his eyes glued to the screen like they were his firstborn. With a simple smirk, he encountered: “And what would these questions be? Who knows, maybe I’ll think about answering some of them?”

Ocean narrowed her eyes. The man reminded her of someone… But she couldn’t point a finger on it right now, just one thing, she didn’t like it. “Ok… First question… Who are you?”

“My name isn’t important to anyone in this world. I’ll be gone in a flash anyway, so what difference does it make if you know it or not?” He simply returned with a light chuckle, continuing his work.

“If it makes no difference, why hide it?”

For just a moment, Daiki stopped his search, looking over his shoulder. The woman was definitely in bad shape, but that he had already know thanks to the cameras all over the place. Yet, she still stood defiantly, just like most Riders. Through, the quick wit wasn’t something as universal. This might become a bit more amusing than initially expected. “Not entirely wrong. Fine, the name is Daiki.”

“Daiki… The name’s not from this world… Where are you from, and what do you want here?” She continued, taking a careful step forward and into the room.

“Oh, that is not important. I’m just a traveler in search of my treasure.”

“Treasure?” She sounded slightly confused as she stepped closer and closer ever so slowly.

“Yes, my treasure. I followed its trail to this world. I’m here to retrieve it. Simple as that. And for that, I’d like to operate as undisturbed as possible. That includes you and your little assistant down there. You won’t even notice I was ever here. You don’t cause me any grief, and neither will I cause you any. I’ll be just passing through,” he continued, his eyes darting to a specific point on the monitor.

“I… While I’d love to give you the benefit of the doubt among Riders… I can’t just leave here. Not when I don’t know how you tie into these monsters that have attacked this town. We can work together, but I won’t let an outsider to this world just move on their own without supervision. I’m sorry; I hope that is understandable?” She offered. In the corner of his eye, he noticed her slightly lightening the grip on her gun. That was precisely the opportunity he needed.

“Riders are always so difficult,” he muttered before turning around in an instant; having grabbed his gun, he shot in her direction. Ocean pushed herself forward, in what could only be described as a failed lunge forward. The bolt of energy impacted right behind her as she landed on the ground with a loud groan. She scrambled forward behind one of the pieces of tech, cursing silently at Daiki.

“Ocean!? Are you alright?” It echoed up from below. “I’m coming up!”

“You stay down there! This is too big for you!” She bellowed back, the pain clearly audible in her voice. While she was doing that, she was clutching her side, face twisted into a grimace.

Daiki, however, simply didn’t give her any time to actually take a deep breath, and the next shoot already impacted in the piece of tech she was hiding behind. With a new wave of sparks raining down on her, she was debating if she could manage to push her body over to the next piece of equipment without collapsing like a lump on the floor.

Ocean dared to take a quick glance over her cover only to immediately pull back again as a bolt of blue energy zoomed past her and into the wall behind her. If she had remained there, she would have been done for, for sure. The sudden piercing feeling in her side quickly brought her back to reality as well, and definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, showed her that she wasn’t going anywhere right now. “Damn it…” Ocean hissed through her teeth, trying to ignore the pain as best as she could.

“Last chance. I know you are injured. I’m not interested in depriving this world of a Rider. Simply go home and let me work in peace. This is far beyond your paygrade. It would make my work here so much easier. I’m even going to tell you when I’m done here so you can do whatever you wanna do. How does that sound?” He once again asked in that smug oozing voice. His face was one of exasperation and annoyance, which only grew as he got his answer.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FIRE CHARGE! /

The voice of the transformation device cried out, and from behind her cover, the red and silver Rider form with all its jets burst out, straight towards the place next best thing to hide behind. Diend could only lower his gun again as she had already aimed at him and unloaded three charges at him. The thief managed to expertly hit two of the shoots in the air before the last one hit his own gun, knocking it straight out of his hand, clattering to the ground.

Almost like the sound of a gun during a sprint, Ocean burst up from her newfound cover and straight towards Daiki. He meanwhile had almost immediately lunged after his weapon as well. Charge used this opportunity to unload two more shots at the now seemingly defenseless Rider, one he managed to dodge while the other one hit him right in the shoulder. Regardless, he had managed to grab ahold of his Driver once again, even if his landing was less graceful than he had anticipated.

With a loud groan, he landed with his injured shoulder on the ground only to slide right into one of the terminals. Like a well-trained animal on the hunt, Ocean quickly caught up as well, coming to a stop mere meters away from him, gun aimed directly at him. “Freeze!” That was all she shouted, finger on the trigger, her other hand tightening around the grip of her baton.

Daiki just looked at her with a very miffed expression on his face and pushed himself towards the side, using his motion to flip open the Driver and shoot.

|Kamen Ride|

“Henshin!”

|DIEND|

Once again, the afterimages appeared and formed into his blue Rider suit. With a gleeful smile, hidden beneath the helmet, he suddenly dashed forward with inhuman speed, ready to deliver a good left hook to the other Rider. This, however, was not destined to come to pass as his fist was blocked by the baton, the fist sliding off to the side and harmlessly past her.

“You’re good,” he returned, just as smug as before, but this time with something else underlying it, vitriol. Ocean was just about to return something when she felt the barrel of Diend’s gun on her stomach. “But not good enough,” he chuckled and pressed the trigger.

What he had not expected was the sound of a second gunshot, followed by something hitting him in the head with one hell of an impact. Charge had managed to use the jets on her arm to push her gun up at an inhuman speed and fired just in the right moment to score a headshot. Both Riders staggered back, holding the scorched areas of their suit. Kaito’s head was ringing while Ocean once again felt a stinging in her stomach area.

Still, neither of the two was done, Diend making the first move. With his own super-speed, he dashed forward, straight towards the barrel of the gun she had just moved up at him, seemingly without a care in the world. Just before he crashed into her, she jumped backward, aided by the engines, and tightened the grip on her baton.

“I knew it, your gun is empty. Otherwise, you would have already shot at me. You wanted to make your last shot count, isn’t it?” Not even waiting for an answer, he pulled his gun up and took aim. But she didn’t need to answer; her body had already done it for her. The little bit of shock traveling through her body was all he had needed to confirm his suspicion. She was in the motion of spinning the cylinder again as one of Diends projectiles impacted in her shoulder, letting her stagger back a tiny bit. Once again, Diend was not relenting as he dashed forward, slotting in a card as he did so.

|Attack Ride|

|BLAST|

He was in the motion of pulling the trigger, just shy of one meter away from her as Charge activated her jets again. Propelled by the push of the jet-engines on her back, she dashed towards him, and it didn’t seem like she was going to stop. With a loud thud, she crashed into him, the gun he had aimed at her sliding across her stomach. As he pulled the trigger entirely, it was already way too late, the barrel had scraped past her and unleashed its barrage of projectiles to the side of her.

But he had no time to be angry about that. The Rider continued her push, sweeping him off his legs and right towards the big window overseeing the hall bellow. The sound of glass shattering was unmistakable, and within moments the two Riders were plummeting towards the empty pool below. About halfway there, the room they had been fighting in went up in flames. Undoubtedly the work of his Attack Ride, having tried to course-correct and instead crashed into the terminals.

Diend’s thoughts, however, were cut short as he felt the ground suddenly slam into his body, and with a pained grunt, the two were thrown off each other. Charge was thrown into one of the many tanks, leaving a sizable dent in it, a bit of green gas escaping its confinement. Dined, meanwhile, had only rolled a bit from his impact point. Several cracks could be seen where had come down.

“I- I wasn’t done yet!” He hissed out, trying to catch his breath again. “Why must you Riders always make my work so difficult?”

“Says the one who blew it up,” Ocean returned, a slight chuckle in her voice, but even that couldn’t hide her own exhaustion. “And really, you are just as much making it difficult as I am,” she added with an even slyer grin. Both Riders began to push themselves back to their feet; this wasn’t over just yet.

Meanwhile, Scorched had taken a few steps back, staring in a mixture of disbelieve and shock at what was transpiring in front of him. He was equal parts amazed and frightened how easily they had destroyed the observatory above, and they weren’t even done yet.

Diend huffed dismissively at her as he pulled out two more Rider Cards before sotting them into his Driver and aiming at Charge. The Rider dodged to the side expectingly, but was surprised to not be bombarded by another barrage of energy bolts, but instead by something she never had expected.

|Kamen Ride|

|G3|

|Kamen Ride|

|Scissors|

The gun shouted out, and two Riders materialized out of thin air, one in a remarkably similar suit to Charge herself, especially in its silver and blue color scheme and holding a small pistole. The other, however, shared absolutely nothing with her, with his carb-like gold armor with black undersuit and the strange claw-like weapon in his hand.

“Would you two be so nice and take care of this meddling Rider? She has caused quite the stir in my plans and attracted a lot of attention to this place,” not even waiting for an answer from the two new Riders, Diend fired another shot straight at Ocean. At the same time, the two Riders jumped to life, charging straight at her.

Charge just barely managed to avoid a direct headshot with the use of her jets as the bolt impacted the already dented tank behind her. Thankfully, there was no big explosion, just a sudden rush of more of the green gas bursting forth and filling the area around her. Warnings flashed up in front of her eyes as the suit warned her of the unknown substance. While her suit protected her from it actually reaching her lungs, it did nothing for her sight. Everything was slowly getting greener and greener as suddenly a gold claw came down on her from the mist.

The tiles beneath its arc cracked, quickly followed by another lunge towards her; she just barely managed to block with her baton. Still struggling to remain steady at the unrelenting push of her opponent, the sound of a bullet being fired quickly coincided with a sudden burst of pain in her gut. Sparks flew as the shot impacted, followed by the sudden feeling of the sharp claw scraping across her armor, forcing a pained grunt out of her.

She just had pulled up her own gun again, pushing through the pain as the crab Rider once again attacked. Just like before, using her jets, she forced herself to the side, managing to unload three of her own rounds at the silver and blue Rider, two shots hitting, followed by sparks while the last one only caused another tank to burst.

The strike of the gold Rider meanwhile had cut into another one of the tanks, the gas making it harder and harder to see. This, however, didn’t seem to be a problem for her opponents. The crab Rider looked over to her, his claw still sticking in the tank as he began running towards her, dragging his claw with a disgusting screech out of the tank and directly at her.

She could only jump backward and unload the last three rounds of her magazine into the Rider, only slightly making him stager as he continued his advance towards her. Even worse, her dash backward was interrupted as she slammed into the outer edges of the pool. “Damn it!” She hissed, her breaths heavy and exhausted. Looking back at the advancing Rider, she frowned while the other one stepped out of the gas as well. If things wouldn’t start to turn to her favor soon, she might have to play her trump card early…

While this was all taking place, Scorched stepped back more and more as the gas crept up more and more towards him. A cold sweat ran down his spine as it threatened to push over the edges of the pool. While at first, he had more or less carefully tried to gain some higher ground and aimed his own gun downward, silently hoping his presence would remain unimportant to the Riders. This, however, quickly evolved into a quick sprint as more and more gas erupted from the canisters, completely covering the battlefield bellow him.

His goal was towards another big hall inside the indoor pool, more precise, a giant steel gate that had to have been set up when things had gotten south here. It was thick and most likely also gas-proof, or at least he hoped so. They had to have some kind of safety mechanism here, right?

No time to think about it, though. He had to get to the other side and find some way to close it behind him and get agent Skies out of there as well, which might even be the more challenging part.

Scorched was just mapping out a potential plan when his thoughts were shattered by the powerful impact of something just below him. Charge! She had been pushed against the wall of the pool just below him. A moment later, the golden crab Rider dashed out of the gas, weapon ready to strike.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! WATER CHARGE! /

Within a split-second, the enemy Rider had reached her, brought down his weapon, and expected another scream from the exhausted Rider. What had actually happened was that Charge had switched forms again, a dark blue energy orb building up around her just in time for the attacker to bounce off on, followed by a swift kick to his stomach that sent him flying back into the green mist. “Scorched? I need your gun!”

He looked a bit dumbfounded by the order as he looked down at the dark blue form of Charge, jets covering her body similarly to Fire Charge. “Scorched!” She bellowed pout again, this time louder. That was enough to knock him out of his little stuper, and he threw the gun down towards her. She effortlessly caught it in her free hand before the gun started to talk.

\ RIDER DETECTED! DISENGAGING SAFETY PROTOCOLS! PLEASE RELOAD! /

Without as much as a word, she placed both revolvers on her shoulders and pulled them down her arms in one fluid motion. Sparks erupted as she did this, which only ended when the guns gave of a satisfied hum. Smirking under her helmet, she dashed forward, the jets on her body erupting with a white mist as she unloaded at something inside the green cloud, only to also disappear into it.

Scorched could only stare at her in awe before the next rupturing tank brought him back to his senses. Now only armed with his dinky handgun, he picked up speed, racing towards the door and towards a small console he had spotted on its other side. His concept was starting to form into an actual plan.

In the meantime, Charge was dodging another volley of the blue Rider, another set of tanks bursting behind her. While their intensity had not diminished one bit, at least now she could actually see them again. How they were able to without heat vision was, however, beyond her. It was almost as if they weren’t human.

Her thoughts, however, were once again interrupted by a red heat mass approaching to her right. A swift motion with her newly acquired Charge Magnum, she had placed the end of the gun at the crab Riders' stomach and unloaded an entire clip into him. With sufficient amounts of sparks, he stumbled back only to be hit with another volley. This one, however, had come from the blue Rider who had tried to hit her again, only to hit his comrade thanks to Charge’s agility.

If this continued like this, she wouldn’t get to finish off either of the two. Each time she managed to at least make some progress, the other one demanded her attention with some sort of attack. And even when she now had a solid idea of what they were capable of, and she could see them, the longer this went on, the more she would have to endure. Eventually, they would outlast her, especially with their freakish stamina. She had to do something before she got too hurt to make it work.

With an annoyed grunt, she dashed forward, firing some potshots with her still loaded gun to keep the blue Rider at bay. Besides two bullets that slammed into her, forcing her to let out some pained grunts, she managed to cross the distance more or less without problem before slamming her shoulder into the Rider with the gun. In the short time it took the Rider to stager back, she had already pulled out her Charger and replaced it with another one.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

The purple armor once again covered her body, but unlike last time, she still felt just as sore as before. It just hadn’t been enough time for it to recharge, and that by a longshot. Her injures had remained, but at least she was still able to continue the fight. She just had to hope her magic missiles would find their target even if she could not.

With her vision once again turned into a green haze, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. They wouldn’t help her much right now anyway. She had to concentrate on listening where her targets were if she wanted to have any chance of winning this. And as if on cue, she heard the first sound - the sound of footsteps on the tiles coming from her right. Without hesitation, she spun around and pointed her large rifle that had formed in her hands directly at the sound of the steps. With one last deep breath, she pulled the trigger and…

The sound of sparks erupting was all she needed to know that her attack had hit the target, now there was ju-

Before these thoughts could reach a conclusion, she already felt the pain of the blue Riders bullets again. That, however, meant she had also heard the gunshot, which in turn meant…

Another shot rang through the hall as the second volley of her target seeking missiles hit its mark that had mere moments ago shot at her. Things were finally turning around for her when suddenly…

The sound of something big, metallic starting to move, echoed throughout the hall, followed by a loud scream: “Age- Ocean! You got to get here! The gas is almost here! I have to close the door!”

Things had just gotten dicy again. She had to finish this immediately. She just had to hope her attack was strong enough and that she could find the door in time. “Here goes nothing,” she quietly muttered before spinning the cylinder of her Driver once more and pointing the rifle into the air.

\ Maximum Charge! /

Just like before the pool, a volley of purple projectiles shoot out into the air, up through the hole in the ceiling the previous explosion had ripped into it before circling around it a few times, shining over the empty city like fireflies. The spectacle only lasted a few seconds before they once again aimed downwards and back into the hall. Charge had meanwhile already started running like a madwoman. There was no time to waste!

It took her just a few seconds to reach the edge of the pool, but the time to get there was still far too long, the several bullets impacting her armor not helping matters in the slightest. She had barely managed to stop when she reached the edge, and just as she pulled herself up onto higher ground, Scorched shouted once again: “Faster! It’s almost closed!”

Ocean let out a silent curse. No matter how she sliced it, she wouldn’t be fast enough, not even if she gave it her all, unless…

She once again spun the cylinder on her Driver, hoping this plan that would Phoenix proud by how absurd it actually was would work out. She turned around, facing the opposite way from where the sounds of the door were coming from and with one deep breath, jumped into the air and pulled the trigger…

\ Maximum Charge! /

As if she was nothing more than a ballon, she was hit by the recoil of her gun as the bursts of magic crashed into the ground and walls around her. For a few moments, the world was nothing more than the green haze around her, no floor or ceiling before her short flight came to a rather abrupt and somewhat painful end. With the full force she had been traveling with, she crashed into a concrete pillar, landing on the other side of it with a pained groan.

After the rubble around her had settled down and the dust was starting to clear, she let out an annoyed sigh and opened her eyes. She silently thanked whoever had granted her this lucky shot that she could see the ceiling. Pushing herself out of the rubble, she could just see the giant steel door close behind her and at its foot, Scorched Earth, who was quickly running up to her. All followed by the sounds of defining explosions on the other side.

“You’re alright!?” He shouted at her as she deactivated her transformation, and the armor around her disappeared.

“I’m fine… Pretty lucky, though…” She added with a quiet chuckle as she looked at the demolished pillar she had used as a makeshift airbag.

“Yeah… A few meters left or right, and you’d had crashed into the door…” Scorched returned with a warry frown.

“Yeah… Pretty much… But everything turned out fine in the end…” Ocean returned before letting out a long and exasperated sigh. “Damn… That Daiki… He really caused a lot of problems for us, didn’t he?”

“Daiki?” Scorched returned with a slightly confused expression. “Is that the name of this Rider?”

“Yeah… Says he is looking for some sort of treasure… He is… Definitely dangerous,” she muttered as she pushed herself off from the ground, followed by carefully dusting herself off. “But still…”

“I’m sure he’s working with these monsters together in some way,” he returned with a look of disgust on his face.

“I’m… Not sure about that, honestly… He attacked them as well. And he was rummaging through their computers. He is not one of them. They might have this ‘treasure’ of his… But that also means they have the power to traverse the barriers between worlds, so that means-“ She was just about to finish when Scorched interrupted her.

“They could be from another world? Is that what you’re suggesting? These… Things don’t even come from here?”

“Yeah… Most likely, or at least, it’s a possibility. They don’t seem to be magic, but something else. But right now, we won’t know till we find a bit more information,” she returned while stretching herself a bit. “And for that, we must look for another terminal. Let’s hope they don’t just had the one, or else we might have a problem.” As she spoke, she handed him his Charge Magnum back.

Scorched eyes widened immediately as he remembered his weapon, quickly grabbing the gun and holstering it, almost letting it fall out of his hand so fast he was. “Careful. It should still hold six shots charged by the Charged System. That means you got a far more dangerous weapon right now. They can only be recharged by my Rider System. Don’t waste them! They can save your life. And be careful, they were designed for a Rider, so the recoil will be immense,” Ocean said with unnerving seriousness.

“Y-Yes…” He stuttered back before nodding and looking carefully at the gun. He almost would have missed how Ocean pulled out her Charge Magnum again and started to slowly move towards what seemed like an employee-only door. Shaking his head, he quickly followed her, but not without looking back one last time at the giant door behind them. This place was just unnerving.

Whatever he had thought about this place before, this was infinitely worse. They were tracking through old, dingy lit hallways underneath the main pool area. One could hear some water drops falling every few seconds, almost like clockwork. The leaking pipes really only added to the uneasiness Scorched felt about this place.

Still, Ocean seemed not in the slightest bothered by it; she simply pushed forward, hoping to find at least something down here. The door just had screamed to her on a fundamental level. She couldn’t really give a concrete explanation, but her gut instinct had told her to follow it wherever it leat. Phoenix would probably be proud of her for that one, she thought with a weak smile on her lips.

The two were rudely snapped out of their thoughts as they heard something slam against what sounded like iron. In an instant, both agents pressed themselves to the wall and heled their breath in expectation. As seconds went by without anything further happening, Ocean started to relax slightly. She signaled Scorched the guard here rear before slowly advancing towards the next corner. Taking a deep breath, she sneaked a looked past the corner.

On the first look, the only thing she saw was an empty hallway, but upon closer inspection, there definitely was something off about it. Instead of typical walls, iron bars had been set up on either side of what must have been a bigger room, almost like… “Cages…” She muttered as she slowly stepped around the corner, after signaling Scorched to hold position.

She carefully advanced, her weapon tightly gripped in her arms. Every muscle in her body was on edge as she continued further and further into it. She could feel her stomach physically cramping as she reached the first cage. It was filled entirely with the Plankton monsters she had fought outside. Thee had to be about twenty inside the cage… And the moment they had seen her let out a loud screech and stormed towards the cage walls. It echoed loudly through the hallways as they slammed into it. For a moment, it almost looked like the bars wouldn’t be able to hold them, but in the end, they remained sturdy.

Still, it was enough to let Ocean take a step back and be greeted by another one of the screeches as another set of hands reached out towards her from the cage behind her. In an instant, she had turned around and pointed her revolver at the second group of Plankton Orphenochs. As she looked back down the corridor, she could see cages upon cages filled with them…

“Goodness… This can’t be good…” She quietly muttered as she looked at the collection of monsters.

“Oh… Really?” It suddenly croaked from one of the cages just a bit further down the hallway, one without any visible Planktons inside it. “What tipped you off?”

After a few moments of shock, she shook her head and quickly moved over to where she had heard the voice, stopping in front of an empty cage. Or at least, one that appeared to be at first glance. In reality, it was inhabited by one sole… person.

Lit in the sterile and weak glow of one of the lamps sat a man, if one could call him that. He mostly had a dark blue complexion and black hair, but about half his body had been… mutated for the lack of a better word. Out of nowhere, his average body started to grow in size and slowly but surely take on a pale, ashen grey color. Scales had formed on the grey skin and were beginning to appear at the border of blue and white. One of his eyes had started to glaze over in a shimmery white.

“What? Never seen a failed experiment?” The man chuckled weakly before grimacing and holding his side. “Yeah, yeah, stare at the freak show like the rest. What do you want, you Orphenoch scum?”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m neither an Orphenoch nor am I here to gloat over you… condition,” she returned, swallowing a bit before finishing her sentence. “I was sent by the MRG, a government organization tasked with dealing with any sort of magical incidents and artifacts. And nowadays, monster related activities. I’m here to help!”

“Help?” It came back instantly, followed by loud laughter before he fell over, it turning into pained wheezes. “A bit… Late for help… Isn’t it?”

“I… I’m sorry… I’m sorry we didn’t notice sooner…” she returned with a somber frown. She desperately wanted to look away, either because of shame or because the man horrified her, but that would be too cruel.

“You better be,” he stared, coughing. “They came here… In the middle of the night… And took us all before…” His aggressive tone grew quieter once more: “And turned us into this…”

“They…” Ocean was only able to respond before taking a look back down the corridor with all its cages.

“Yeah… The fuckers did… This to me… And the rest as well…”

Ocean took a deep breath before continuing: “I… I’m sorry that you had to endure all of this… And can’t promise you anything, but I’ll… I’ll try my best to help you.”

“Here you are again with… With the helping. What exactly are you gonna do? Turn me back?” Once again, the hallway was filled with the sickly laughter. “Don’t be ridicules.”

“I… I don’t know… But I can get you out of here for a start. Everything else… We have scientists for that, maybe they can find a way,” she returned, slowly gaining more conviction in her voice again. “You have my word as a Kamen Rider!”

“Kamen Rider? What’s a Kamen Rider?” He looked at her, confused.

“Kamen Riders are warriors who fight for those who cry out for help. And you look like you can use a lot of help right about now,” she returned with a warm smile.

“Tsk,” he smirked back. “Seems like I gotta believe you, not much of a choice really…”

“Thank you… Through, I gotta ask, are there others still here who need help?”

“Probably… They shouldn’t have gotten to test everyone yet… Said they need a few for the ‘Big test’ or something… Some were turned into them, some into these weirdos there,” he pointed at the Plankton. “And some ended up like me…”

“Ok… New plan… Scorched!” She shouted back, the young agent quickly following her, staring in a mixture of disgust and terror at the cages. His skin promptly became pale as he saw the man as well. “Things have changed. There are civilians in the danger zone. We need to find a way to turn off the jamming. We need a humanitarian team down here. And for that, we need to find out how we can turn that thing off!”

“Understood!” He nodded in return but kept an eye on the half Orphenoch.

“Oh, and one last thing,” Ocena was already about to leave when she stopped again and turned around with a smile. “What’s your name?”

“M- My name?” She nodded. “Uhh… Sure… Winter Horizon,” Winter said, still a bit perplexed.

“Thank you, Winter. What a nice name,” and with that, she started to move forward, her steps sure and filled with determination.

“Are you sure we can help him? He looks like he is already too much… Monster,” Scorched asked her under his breath.

“We have to at least try. And if we can’t… We cross that bridge when we get to it. But for now, we are trying everything in our might to save him! Understood?”

“Understood!” Scorched returned, still, there was a bit of uncertainty in his voice.

After a while of searching the underbelly of the pool, they finally had reached what looked like another control room. Like the one above, the place was filled with terminals and monitors, but it seemed mostly concerned with more fundamental systems compared to the one above.

Ocean had quickly sat down at one of the monitors and started to go through everything she could get her hands on. After a few minutes, she yelled out: “Got it!”

“Got it?” Scorched encountered, looking up from his own monitor.

“Found where they keep the jammer. In the old power plant. It seems to consume a lot of electricity, so they had to set it up somewhere where that is in abundance. If I shut it down, we can call for reinforcements and then-“ She was about to say when Scorched interrupted her, a worried undertone in his voice.

“We might have company,” he said, pointing at a monitor above them.

Ocean stood up and took a step closer before her expression suddenly changed to one made out of a mixture of shock and fear. Several of the Planktons, as well as the Riotroopers, had taken position in front of the building. But that wasn’t the one thing Ocean was fixated on; no, it was the woman dressed in a dark business suit, medium-long black hair, and dull grey skin. She seemed to command the troops outside.

Scorched was about to ask who she was when Ocean stuttered out, in complete disbelieve: “Mom?”

Old Wounds

In front of the pool, the first rays of the morning sun were starting to dance over the debris riddled piazza. The intruders had really left a dent in it, now filled with craters, small boulders, and other battle damage. That wasn’t even all of it. The damage to the roof she had heard about was would most certainly make the entire building almost unusable, especially for their purposes. They already had a tight time frame. How were they supposed to keep that one if they had to relocate their outer lab to somewhere else. And since neither Hamasaki nor Mizushima has answered any calls, we most likely have a very sizeable loss in our workforce.

She let out a loud sigh. This entire job was worse than taking care of an entire government agency, she thought. For as all-encompassing that work had been, she had worked mostly with the best of the best. People who could actually manage the most straightforward tasks she gave out. Working here had been surviving one disaster after the other. And right now, the biggest one was just arriving, Riders—two of them.

“Make sure that you surround the building on all sides! Cover every exit, every window, and every other way someone could gain entry, like the pipes over us—station one Riotrooper with every platoon of Planktons. The Riders of this world are powerful enough to take on a large group of our troops. The target is extremely dangerous and deadly. Any sighting of Kamen Rider Charge needs to be contacted to me immediately!” The woman firmly spoke into her earpiece.

Monochrome was about to order the ground troops into position as a familiar voice cut through the air of the plaza. “Well then, Agent Ocean Skies is reporting for duty, Director Monochrome, or should I say, mom?” The doors to the pool slid open on their own, several of the Riotroopers already were about to unload at the door when Monochrome interrupted them.

“Stop! Let her out!” She bellowed decisively into her earpiece, and the weapons lowered a bit. “Still, keep an eye on her,” she added quietly. “Come out!”

Out of the doors stepped Ocean, arms crossed in front of her, and a look in her eyes that would have usually made her proud, were it not directed at her. “What are you doing here?” It bellowed down from the entrance of the pool. “You should be dead!”

“Am I now? I seem to be quite alive, Agent Skies,” Monochrome drily returned.

“Quit it!” Ocean returned, taking a step forward. “I saw you die! I saw you fall! I saw your lifeless body! I buried you! How can you be here!? Tell me! And stop treating me like one of your underlings!”

“Oh, you would know all about this, wouldn’t you? You were the one who killed me, after all. Threw me down at the street below—your own mother—your superior,” it came back in that oh so familiar, monotone voice she remembered vividly. “It was quite the experience to be betrayed by your own flesh and blood again.”

“Th- Then how are you back!? You… You should never come back… And why are you here?” Ocean asked again, her angry expression slowly, but surely starting to crumble. Severe wrinkles were beginning to form on her forehead, and her breaths were getting more uneven. “You owe me that much after all of this!”

Monochrome once again sighed and shook her head. “You’re getting too emotional again. Didn’t I tell you that being emotional in a tense situation will just make you an easy target?”

“Yes… You told me that, and I’m very much still aware in what kind of situation I am right now! I’m also aware that me burying my emotions will only lead to more problems. It’ll also make my heart as cold as yours,” she added with a disgusted hiss.

“Seems this Phoenix really got to you, filled your head with all this nonsense. Don’t you see? The world is drifting closer and closer to the edge, day by day. He is just a dreamer! He has yet to realize the world doesn’t work like that,” she encountered.

“Don’t you dare talk about him like this! At least his dream isn’t one as bleak as yours,” Ocean said, letting out a disappointed sigh. “You know, I always thought about what I would tell you if you had ended up arrested or in prison. A lot, actually. All these clever counters to your worldview, but right now, I just don’t care. I’m only disappointed… But probably not as much as dad, though.”

“Don’t bring him into this!” Monochrome snapped back. “If I don’t get to criticize your boyfriend, you will leave your hands off my husband as well!”

Ocean glared at her for a few moments before expression softened again, replaced with disgust. “Fine. Then tell me, how are you here? I want to know.”

“Ok. You aren’t stopping before you get that answer, I see. Like I taught you to. A few of the remaining loyalists in the MRG managed to exchange my body with a lookalike between my death and my funeral. They then kept my body frozen, to minimize the damage until they made contact with the Orphnochs operation out of this town, through a previous ally of mine. They managed to revive me as one of theirs. Their plans, while not as good as mine, will stabilize this world. No magical armageddon will consume it. They will save this world, so I accepted to help as the representative of the Circle as well as gratitude for saving my life,” she finished matter of factly.

“You’re one of them?” Ocean returned, just staring at her.

“Yes, I am. And since I answered your question, how about you answer one of mine. Where is your underling?” Monochrome asked, taking a step closer to her daughter.

Ocean’s expression slowly started to morph into a similar one as her mother before replying with a smile: “First, he isn't my underling, he is my partner. And second, he got better things to do than deal with you. That is all you need to know.”

Monochrome simply shook her head before adding: “You’ve really become cocky. This is not how I taught you at all. Showing emotions only will provide your opponent with new targets to hit. You just rev-“ A loud roar of some sort of machine cut through her words, however, followed by a loud shout from Ocean.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /

Charge dashed forward, quickly followed by the fire of guns, before she jumped ahead. Before she landed right in front of her, however, a bike burst through her troops, entirely without any sort of rider, knocking several of them over and coming to a stop right below its owner. With perfect accuracy, Charge landed on the bike, revved the engine, and said: “You also taught me the best way to distract any opponent is to get them talking.”

With that, she let the engine roar and burst through the crowd of her troops.

“Not bad. But this isn’t over,” she coldly returned. “Get me my bike!”

Scorched really hated this idea. No, scratch that, he absolutely despised it. What was Ocean even thinking? She couldn’t really expect him to do this, right? He let out a loud sigh before shaking his head. Of course, she was. Why else would she have given him this order? He looked down at the… man he was supposed to guard. He was already stiff from pulling himself between the pipe and the ceiling he had forced himself between. And Ocean expected him to wait here for goodness how long.

“Make sure that they don’t take the civilians somewhere else without our knowledge. We can’t let them get their hands on them again. I’ll inform you once I have taken down the jammer. Best, you hide somewhere close to Winter. I think a bit companionship might be good for him, or at least a bit of proof we are serious about this,” Ocean order to him, already checking her equipment thoroughly and already on the way to the door.

“But, wouldn’t I be of more use to you somewhere else? Maybe I could distr-“ he tried to argue, but was quickly cut short.

“No! These civilians are of your highest priority now. As much as I want to help them myself, I’m the only one who can deal with my mother and the jammer. And I will hear no buts anymore! Time is of the essence. If I’m correct about the plan of my mother, then she will storm the building sooner rather than later. If I don’t distract her fast, they will look through this building thoroughly, and they will find us!” And without even waiting for an answer, she started to sprint out the door.

He let out another sigh as he was knocked out of his own thoughts by a sudden voice: “Can you… Brood quieter?” It muttered from below him. “You… Are annoying!” It croaked up.

Scorched was about to throw something back at the man, but his words simply refused to leave his mouth. The only thing he managed to croak out was some awkward stutters.

“What? Lizard got your tongue?” Winter returned with a pained chuckle before starting to cough again. Scorched continued to stare down at the man, unable to pull his gaze off him. “Come on… You’re afraid or something?”

“H-How could I not?” He finally managed to press out, tightening the grip on his gun. “You’re one of them…”

“Ugh… Yeah, sure… Because being locked up… And discarded like this really makes me one of them… Right?” Winter asked with a disgruntled look on his face before his coughing fit started to flare up again.

“Look… I’ve just met you… I don’t trust you, that’s all…” Scorched encountered, trying to sound as convincing as possible, almost entirely drowned out by the coughing of the man.

“Bull- Bullshit! You’re afraid of me! Be… Be bloody honest!” It coughed back, and as he looked down, he could see Winter slowly crawling closer towards the bars, his face turned into a painful grimace.

“Y-You’re ok?” He asked, taking a closer look at the man. His fingers were clawing at the concrete floor. His mutated hand scrapping up the floor, leaving rills where it had been, while the only thing his other hand left behind were several bloody claw marks. A few growls escaped his throat in between the constant coughing. “W-Winter?”

This was meat with a loud growl instead and his head snapping upwards, his glossy eye staring at him, letting a cold sweat run down his spine. His grip on his revolver tightened again, and he was just about to pull it out of its holster as something else echoed through the hallway. Footsteps! He took a deep breath, pulled the gun from its holster, and held it tightly to him before holding his breath.

The footsteps quickly drew closer before coming to a halt in front of them; Winter continued to growl at them and even smashed himself against the bars of his cage. “Shut it reject! We don’t have time to deal with you right now,” a voice said before a pained whimper came from Winter. Scorched could only see how the man was knocked back into the cage before laying there, wincing in pain, coughs slowly starting to overtake the growling again.

“Don’t waste your time with him; we got an interloper to find!” Another voice returned before both started to move again. He could barely make out two of the Riotroopers running around the next corner, followed by a silent sigh of relief.

Scorched almost feel out of his little hiding place as Winter spoke up again: “Uhh… What the?” He was interrupted by another coughing fit. “My head… Did something happen?” He muttered, rubbing his head. Scorched, however, just stared at the man and didn’t answer, instead, tightening his hand around his gun even more.

After having burst through the first group of enemies, she had quickly taken a sharp left turn. She really had to thank Light Bulb for this beauty of a bike. The remote control option really had saved her skin right now, and hopefully, Scorched’s as well. If she caused enough chaos on the streets, they had to take a sizable amount of their forces off the pool. And if that worked, he had a better chance to stay hidden. She just hoped this gamble turned out well.

As if on cue, she heard something behind her getting closer. As she dared to let the autopilot take over, she sneaked in a look over her shoulder, spotting eight dirt bikes, mounted by Riotroopers and four humvees, most likely filled with the Planktons inside. Her plan had worked, now she just had to figure out a way to get rid of them all…

Before she could form any further plans, a bolt of energy shot past her and turned one of the parked cars to her left into a flaming ball of fire. She definitely had to come up with that plan fast!

Taking one last look at the large building that once was the old power plant, she gave her machine fire, raising it on its rear-wheel before racing off towards it, all while dodging the incoming fire. She dared to look back once again as the sounds behind her grew quieter. Two of the Humvees, as well as four bikes, had somehow disappeared. Probably to catch her somewhere else.

The other remaining half, however, increased their speed. She probably could have managed to get away from them, but it was only a matter of time until the other group caught up to her. She had to deal with them right now! Falling back a bit, she grabbed her Charge Magnum and readied herself for the incoming fight.

The first one to catch up to her was one of the Riotroopers on his bike, swinging his sword at her. Turning the bike sideways, she managed to barely avoid another gust of sparks coming from her armor before pushing her feet off her motorcycle and delivering a double-kick with her legs. Both feet hit the trooper square in the jaw, letting his helmet crack a bit as he was knocked off his bike and right into another parked car.

He groaned in pain and was just about to pull himself out of the wreckage as his belt started to spark and took both the car and him with it.

Meanwhile, two other bikes had caught up to Charge but were wisely staying out of kicking range. Instead, they started to pester her with energy bolts. She had managed to avoid any direct hits until now, but they were getting closer. To make matters worse, one of the Riotroopers in the Humvee had maned the Gatling-gun on its roof and was revving up for a burst of bullets.

“Fuck!” She hissed, once again, just barely avoiding of the many projectiles coming her way when she heard it. The first burst of bullets came her way, carving a line of destruction through the concrete straight towards her. With a silent growl, she once again turned her handlebar sideways, her bike taking a sharp turn, not without turning her maneuver into some rather dangerous drifting. That, however, wasn’t all she did, though. To the surprise of her pursuers, the middle part of the bike started to twist and turn, moving seemingly independent of the two wheels, allowing her to remain upright on the bike, while her rims where only centimeters away from the ground.

The sudden left turn also had another little side-effect. The gunner of the Humvee realized far too late that his new target had become the Riotrooper that Ocean had driven past, turning him into a blue and red ball of flame.

With this one take care of Charge quickly changed direction again, the wheels of her bike once again turning, while her seat remained as steady as ever. In an impressive one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees turn, she barely managed to zoom past the second bike that had followed her and raced into a small alleyway. The poor bike that had followed her tried to turn as well, but only managed to crash into the brick wall of the alley before being brushed aside by the Humvee that somehow managed to follow her.

She managed to look back once more, looking at the Humvee that was scraping past the walls of the alley, leaving trails of spark and burn marks behind. She also saw the gunner once again preparing for his assault. Turning back, she hit the gas hard, the roars of her engine echoing from the alley as she gained more and more speed. Still, the bullets came, all the same, first shooting through the walls before slowly but surely zeroing in on her.

She barely had time to dodge the assortment of trash cans, crates, and other junk that had piled up before it was torn to shreds by the Gatling-gun. Ocean was starting to get nervous when she saw something at the end of the alley. With a cautiously confident smirk, she jumped onto the seat of her bike. Balancing on top of her motorcycle, it was even harder to avoid the cascade of bullets raining down on her, but just a little more.

Mere moments before the Riotrooper could turn her wheels into scrap metal, she had reached her destination. She pulled the bike back, raising it onto one wheel, and hit the brakes. Her front wheel landed on the wall that had waited for her on the other end of the alley. The bike drove up the wall a little bit, but before she could fall over, it stopped, and with a quick motion, she pushed herself off the wall and turned the bike around. She landed just in time to see the Humvee crash into the two small pillars that signaled the small little backyard.

With a satisfying, metal bending, crash the gunner slammed headfirst into the Gatling-gun and broke his helmet before collapsing. What followed was the sound of desperate wheels screeching on concreate before coming to a halt. The second Humvee seemed to have avoided the fate of the first.

Not that it mattered as she once again revved up her engine to continue her ride. Over the roaring of her machine, she almost would have missed the sound of metal bending and then ripping. Whatever it was, she had no time to think about it. She only had one shot at this…

Through, the question answered itself as one of the Riotroopers stepped onto the totaled first Humvee, carrying his Humvees Gatling-gun under his arm.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She shouted back before turning the gas handle with all her might, just as the first bullets were starting to hit the concrete. With a loud scream, she let go of her breaks, and the bike shot forward like a rocket, just mere millimeters away from the gunfire directed at her. In the last second, she pulled the handle up again, forcing the bike up into the air. The Riotrooper instinctively stepped back, and felon his as Charge sailed over him, pointing her gun down at him and pulling the trigger two times.

Within a split-second, both the Humvee and the fourth bike went up in flames before Charge even landed again and drove back down the alley.

Ocean let out a silent sigh. This had been far too close for her liking far too many times; still, she had managed. But there was still about half of them standing, and they now had time to prepare for her. While the little diversion had worked flawlessly at getting the pursuers off her back, it had also taken its sweet time. Time she definitely didn’t have.

The next two minutes back, the alley and towards the coal power plant were relatively peaceful, a small calm before the storm that was undoubtedly building up right now.

And, just like she had expected, when she turned around the next corner, she could see it. The two Humvees and the four bikes and build up some sort of barricade, and without any other form of road leading away from the street, they were expecting her to go through here or turn around and look for another way. Well, one of these was right; she definitely wasn’t wasting any more time than needed on them.

The Riotroopers raised their guns when they saw her coming, and so did Charge. If they wanted a gunfight, she would definitely deliver! Her bike raced forward once more, straight towards the barricade. It didn’t take long till both the gunfire of the Riotroopers, as well as the Humvees rained down on her. Her bike, however, didn’t slow down one single bit, even as the asphalt was torn to shreds.

Having managed to pass the first half of the way to the barricade, she readied her first shot and, with a perfectly aimed bolt, hit the gas tank of the first bike. The explosion did little to distract the remaining Riotroopers, however, who continued their assault on her.

Swaying her bike right, she took aim once again, sniping through the helmet of yet another one of the enemies, letting him collapse in a burning, blue lump. Through, while she defiantly felt the slowdown of bullets coming her way, she was far from in the clear yet. Just as that thought had crossed her mind, a stray round managed to clip her in the shoulder. Letting out a pained yelp, she clutched her shoulder, almost letting the bike lose control and crash. Thankfully she managed to catch herself in the very last second and unloaded two shots at the one she assumed had shot her.

While the first shot had missed and only hit the Humvee, the second one once again hit the gas tank, letting the Rider die in a fiery explosion, debris raining down on the last remaining one. That one seemed to have finally lost his nerves and let his machine roar its engine. Racing forward, the Riotrooper let out a loud scream as he unloaded on Charge. She managed to dodge most of the attacks, but some struck their target, letting her grit her teeth, but ultimately pushed through. The two gunners of the Humvees meanwhile were screaming curses at the one on the bike for ruining their clean shoot.

Both were heading for a straight-up collision course, and neither of the two made any attempt to avoid the inevitable crash. In the very last second, the Riotrooper ultimately lost his nerves and tries to turn the bike around, but only managed to make himself crash. Charge meanwhile used her changing bike to slide down directly under him as he was thrown off his motorcycle and unloaded one round straight into his head before knocking his vehicle aside.

Both gunners scrambled to their Gatling-gun once more, but it was already far too late as they once again managed to lock onto their target. Ocean was already far too close for them to actually get their guns low enough and simply slid under one of the Humvees. With a smirk, just as she came up from behind the car, she unloaded her last round into the underside of the Humvee.

One last explosion rocked the now utterly demolished street, totaling the car next to it as well before letting a cascade of debris rain down. A satisfied sigh later, she pulled herself back into a normal position. Looking up towards the sky, she could see the coal power plant straight ahead, and with it, a massive satellite tower. This must have been the jammer! She just had to take down this one and-

In the middle of her thought, a bolt of dark blue energy zoomed past her head and shoot into the building she was heading towards herself. In an instant, her head had turned around, and she saw, bursting over the wreckage of the two Humvees, another Rider, clad in a black undersuit, dark blue armor plates and silver lines separating the two, together with two red glowing eyes. Kamen Rider Hyper Charge!

Her mom was riding one of the same bikes as the Riotroopers, but she doubted that she could deal with it as quickly. If she knew one thing, it was that her mother was far too smart to be taken out like that. And before she could formulate even any sort of plan, the Rider already shoot again, Charge just avoiding a hit last second. She couldn’t slow down now anymore, or else she would have to fight her. And if things still heald as true as before, Hyper Charge was merely stronger than her.

Raising her front wheel once more, she smashed open the front door, knocking it off its hinges as she drove into the lobby. She had to react as quickly as she could, or else her opponent would catch up to her. She had to find the main engine room and probably blow it to smithereens because for anything else, she just had no time at all!

Spotting a sign in big, bold letters saying ‘Main Floor’ was all she needed and burst through the next door into the extremely slim corridor filled with stuff like flower pots and some banks she managed. To her utter dismay, the next few bolts of energy followed quickly after that, Hyper Charge quick on her heals again. Both machines echoed through the halls as they raced past them as if this was a game of chase.

Ocean silently cursed as she noticed the next sign, pointing up some stairs. With a silent grumble, she hit the breaks, pulled her bike to the side, and speed up once again after she had drifted to a halt. All while several bolts just zoomed centimeters past her face. Once again, she pulled the gas handle and sped up the stairs, accompanied by some extremely uncomfortable bumps.

And once again, her way came to an end when the stairs wound to the sides again. She would never make the turn on this small room, not without Monochrome catching up to her. That was when she noticed one little detail, one that would give her an out. A window! She just hoped this would lead to where she expected it to. Pulling back her gas handle, even more, she sped up, the bumps in the stairs growing into nothing more than distant annoyances as she burst through the window, and thank goodness, into the main hall.

Sailing through the air Ocean readied herself for the impact. Sadly, her luck seemed to have somewhat out since she was headings straight for one of the big machines in the hall. Bracing herself for the collision, her bike crashes into the solid metal before being thrown off and tumbling downwards, her bike landing somewhere else.

As she looked up, she could see Monochrome, who had stooped right at the new hole in the wall, jump off her bike, and down towards her. Seemed like there was no escaping it this time; she had to fight. But just in case, she ordered her bike to enter autopilot and stay in range.

“Seems this is the end of the line for you,” Monochrome said, spinning her own Charge Magnum once more. “You know your Rider System is statistically inferior to mine. So, just give up. This will save us all so much time. Maybe you finally will realize that I was right all along.”

“Maybe your gear is better than mine, maybe, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna give up. That’d be an insult to the title Kamen Rider and all the people who have carried that name before me. And especially Phoenix! Because if you give up without a fight, you already lost. Just like you! You’ve given up on this world! But I have not! And that is why I will stop you again! Someway! Somehow!” Ocean returned, eyeing her gun that had been thrown a few meters away during her crash.

“My, you sound like some hero on one of these awful Saturday morning TV shows. How much this Phoenix has dragged you down,” the other Rider returned, shaking her head. “He might have been successful for now, but it’s only a matter of time till he runs out of luck, and this world will eat him alive. And with him, the term ‘Kamen Rider’ will be revealed to be the mockery it always was,” she scoffed back before activating the engines all over her body, starting to fill the room with mist.

Charge had only waited for that moment and had dashed forward towards her gun. In a roll forward, she grabbed the firearm, just barely avoiding the first shoot Monochrome unloaded on her, screeching to a halt the moment she came back into an upright position. She was in the middle of jumping back when she felt another one of the energy bolts hit her square in the chest, combining with her own momentum and smashing her into one of the giant machines, leaving another sizable dent in it.

She could feel the pain surging through her, both her back and her chest, one burning and stinging while the other one was more like a really nasty bruise. Still, with gritted teeth, Ocean pushed herself back up, balancing herself by using the boiler behind her. She could hear the metal straining behind her with a foreboding.

The wait was horrendous and nerve-wracking. Every second felt like an eternity as she awaited the inevitable attack and where it might come from. But after what must have been half a minute, nothing had happened. No offense, no shoot, not even something being thrown at her. Something was wrong; even the mist started to slightly dissipate. Then it hit her! Of course! How could she have missed that?

With a silent smirk, she exchanged her Charger once more.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! WIND CHARGE! /

Her suit changed once more, switching to a green variant with two massive propellers encased in metal rings on her back. Within moments of the transformation, the two started spinning, pushing away the mist, slowly but steadily.

“The term Kamen Rider being revealed as a mockery? Do you really believe that? Or did you just not know what happens in the world outside? Phoenix is proving you wrong with every day he is out there, saving people! He already inspired three others to change the world! Three Riders who only started fighting this fight because he has fought day in and day out! And then there are these kids in Canterlot! The Power Rangers! They do the same thing! They are precisely what you could never see in the world! Hope! That people will be able to handle it! And I’m sure of it, there will be more, mom!” Ocean shouted into the slowly subsiding mist a smug satisfaction in her voice.

\ 50, 80, 100! HYPER FIRE CHARGE! /

Out of seemingly nowhere, her mother rocketed towards her from the side, fist ready for a sucker-punch. Ocean, however, had already pulled out the next Charger and swapped it in an instant.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! EARTH CHARGE! /

With her suit now replaced with an orange variant with a red orb on its chest, she readied herself for the already approaching Hyper Charge. The Rider slammed into her with all her power, but instead of any sort of pain, or the like, she felt nothing besides a slight push. With the orb on her chest glowing and a massive grin on her face, she had caught Monochrome’s fist and was pushing with all her might against her. The moment she felt the slightest bit of give, however, she let go of the fist, before garbing her mother's wrist and with one smooth motion swung her one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees around and right into a whole part of the boiler.

Monochrome slammed hard into the machine, it groaning once more as the soreness spread through her body as if a cannonball had hit her. As she looked up, she could barely see the foot of her daughter smashing right into her helmet and sending her flying into a steel support beam of the hall.

“You forgot one part, mom! I’ve been doing this far longer than you! I’ve fought, learned, and grown into these powers! You? You just have better gear! Right now, you’re the newbie, and I’m the experienced agent!” Ocean returned, before spinning the cylinder on her Driver.

\ Maximum Charge! /

Ocean charged towards her mother, who was slowly standing back up. Monochrome attempted to knock her back with a desperate punch but only bounced off her armor before Ocena grabbed her by her kneck and lifted her up into the air, legs desperately struggling in the air. Pulling back her fist, she readied herself for the deciding attack, before letting her fist rocket forward, straight towards her-

\ 100, 150, 200! HYPER OVER CHARGE! /

In the span of a moment, a black energy orb build up around Hyper Charge, throwing Ocean backward. Out of the energy field, a Rider emerged, clad in a black suit, covered in the engines of Flame Charge, the orb of Earth Charge, the tubes of Thunder Charge, with white armor plates and silver lines. All finished off by two piercing red eyes.

“H- Ho- How!?” Was all she managed to stammer out.

“You thought I wouldn’t expand my arsenal when I knew you had become stronger? You think I wouldn’t have gotten my hands on your newest tech? You really have lost your touch with reality Ocean. I expected better from you,” she returned while shaking her head, a large futuristic rifle materializing in her hands.

Ocean pushed herself back to her feet while grabbing for her own Prism-Charger. “But… But Onyx went through the entire MRG! He weeded out your loyalist wherever he could find them? There shouldn’t be any left!”

“Oh, and here is where you are wrong. I am the MRG. When all preparations are done, I will walk right into the headquarters back in Manehatten, and the agency will fall back into my hands. Without any major complications. And no one can stop me from this,” she said, so matter of factly that it was unnerving.

“Bullshit! Neither Phoenix nor any of the other Riders would let you! And they won’t have to either! Because I’m putting a stop to this right now! Charge up!”

\ 100, 150, 200! OVER CHARGE! /

Without skipping a beat, Ocean dashed forward, now clad in her version of Hyper Charge with white undersuit. Monochrome meanwhile activated the tubes all over her body and ran towards the side, and started shooting guided energy orbs at her, each one either crashing just shy of her into the ground or slamming into her and doing no damage thanks to the glowing orb on her chest. Charge pushed forward one last time, her jet-engines firing on all cylinders, ready to slam her fist right into her mother's helmet when, in the last possible moment, her fist was caught by Hyper Charge.

A shockwave ran through the hall as the fist and the palm of Monochrome’s hand collided, the gem on her suit glowing brightly. Throwing her rifle to the side, she spun the cylinder on her Driver and jumped up to slam both her feet into her daughter's stomach.

\ Maximum Charge! /

The glowing feet crashed into Ocean, who was still far too shocked to react. She was thrown back through the wall before coming to a stop at another one, almost breaking through again. Her stomach hurt like Tartarus as if someone had strapped a boxing glove to a rocket if she was honest. Warning lights and signals were blinking all over her visor as her vision slowly started to fade back in. As she looked ahead, she could see her mother walking towards her.

“Give up. This is over!”

“Fuck! You!” Ocean croaked out as she pushed herself back upwards, past all the pain that was flooding from her stomach all through their body.

“As you wish,” Hyper Charge returned, dashing towards her. Ocean meanwhile manifested her own gun in her arms and spun her Driver once more.

\ Maximum Charge! /

Pulling the trigger, a burst of energy erupted from the gun, almost knocking it out of her hands, Monochrome easily sidestepping it before coming to a stop right in front of Charge.

“You missed!”

“Nope… Hit the bullseye,” she weakly returned before her knees gave out under her.

Monochrome looked confused for a moment when the realization hit her. She spun around just in time for the already damaged boiler to go boom and with it all the ones next to it. The explosion sent a shockwave through the entire building, followed by a wall of flame, one that engulfed both Riders and threw them backward.

Her ears were ringing like crazy as she finally felt her body coming to a stop. Everything was fuzzy, grey, bright, and just…

That was when she felt the pain surge through her body. Bruises over bruises had accumulated throughout the explosion. Letting out a pained groan, she tried to stand back up, only to collapse again. It took way too long till the fuzziness in her vision faded.

The entire power plant was in flames, rubble was everywhere, and in front of her was-

“Diend!?” She shouted out at the blue Rider in front of her. He turned around, tilting his head, and hefted something under his arm.

“Hmh. Seems you are awake. You got one hell of a daughter, I must say. Not sure if brave or just stupid, though,” he chuckled, tightening his grip on… Ocean! She had been knocked out of her transformation and was hanging limply in his arms. “But a shame she got such a rotten mother like you.”

“Drop her!” She hissed, standing back up, her gun materializing in her hands

“I’d love to play with you right now, but this building is kinda collapsing, and I got to save an idiot. Maybe you should leave as well. Alas, adieu!” He returned before using his Driver once more.

|Attack Ride|

|INVISABLE|

And with that, the meddling Rider disappeared, leaving her behind. And as if on cue, a piece of the ceiling fell down next to her. This place was doomed! She had to get out of here and worry about everything else later!

Everything was black… No… Not everything, only mostly… There was something bright… Some form of light above her… But she could just not make out what it was. The more she concentrated on it, the more her mind was starting to rattle. Her body was beginning to feel something soft… Something very soft under her… And… Above her as well? Where…

In an instant, she shoots up straight, knocking the blanket off her as her eyes darted around what looked like a room. She must have been in one of the abandoned places somewhere in town, but how did she get her and-

“Oh. Seems like you’ve woken up,” a playful voice suddenly said. When she turned around, she could see Diend, no, Kaito, sitting on a table, legs crossed and sipping a cup of what looked like coffee. “Took you long enough to wake up,” he added with a sweet smile, a far too sweet smile. Ocean narrowed her eyes and instinctively went for her Driver and Charges only to-

“Looking for these?” He smugly held up her belt buckle with the gem and sat it down next to his cup, where her Chargers already waited for her.

“Give those back!” She returned firmly before trying to jump up and leaping for her gear when her body simply refused. Pain once again surged through her before letting her fall back to the mattress.

“In due time. But for now, they are insurance you listen,” he continued, seemingly not bothered by her outburst. “I’m offering an alliance.”

“Why now? Why not form the start instead of attacking me?” Ocean asked, narrowing her eyes at the Rider. “I smell something more.”

“Well, you’ve proven to be more trouble getting rid of than worth. We have the same goal, take care of this remnant of Smart Brain and Dai-Shocker.”

“Smart Brain? Dai-Shocker?” Ocean returned, a questioning look in her eyes.

“Remnants of a group of lunatics who tried to take over the multiverse and a faction under them. I took them down with a comrade of mine,” he added with a smile on his lips.

“Wait… I heard that name somewhere… It was… Do you know Tsukasa? Kamen Rider Decade?” She muttered before shouting out.

“Oh, you’ve met my dear Tsukasa? What a coincidence. I haven't seen him for a while. How is he?” Kaito asked, far more energetic than she had anticipated.

“He’s probably fine… Meat him a few months ago. Helped us deal with a dimension traveling mage. Then you… You are the thief Rider he talked about… Oh, damn you, Tsukasa…” She sighed and shook his head. “Seems all your comrades are as difficult as you are.” She shook her head before adding. “Wait… That also means you’re the one who’s brother…”

“Tsk. It seems I got to talk with Tsukasa about a few things regarding talking about the personal lives of others,” Kaito cut her off with an annoyed undertone.

“Is… Is that why you’re helping me? My mom? I faintly remember you saying something about how… How wroten she was when you… You saved me. Thanks for that,” she sheepishly added.

The thief looked away for a moment before merely stating. “Even if, what would it matter to you. I have my reasons; that should be enough for you. Now, are you willing to work with me on this heist?”

“What do you want?”

“Only the Orga-Driver. That is all. It is my property, and I want it back! That is why I’m here and nothing more.”

“That’s all?” He nodded. “Fine. You can have it, as long as you leave again,” she sighed, defeated. “But if we work together, I need to know what you do. What are they doing here? You were on the terminal before… everything devolved.”

“Yes, before you interrupted me,” he added with a smug smirk.

“Yes, yes, whatever. Did you find out anything?” Ocean muttered back.

“Fine. They plan to turn this world into an Orphenoch world. They are developing a gas that will turn every human who breathes it in into one of them. Either a lesser Orphonoch, like those identical ones, or a real one like the one with the human form you faced. They call themselves Neo Orphenochs. Some kind of bioengineered branch of them, but that doesn’t mean much to you. They are using this town as a testing ground for their big plan. They used the citizens a lab rads to know if their gas plan would work,” Kaito said, before taking another sip from his coffee. “Mhhh, lovely. I got this specific recipe from a former alien host. Want some?”

She shot him a quick glare. “Pass. So that’s what they are planning…”

“Exactly. Their research is spearheaded by a certain Doctor Maeda. He is also the one who stole my Orga-Driver. And I want it back. He’ll be another problem besides the army of Plankton Orphenochs and your mother. But he is most likely inside their central lab situated in the old mine. And that is currently closed off by a large steel gate. I currently lack a way to get in there with force. And until now, finding another way in has sadly been a failure,” he said with an annoyed huff.

“Oh? A steel gate? Maybe I have something for this… If you give me my phone back.”

“Oh? Some form of tech I haven’t seen yet? You make me curious… What was your name again, girl?” He smirked playfully before emptying his coffee and standing back up, her phone in his hand.

“Ocean. Ocean Skies, or, if you prefer it that way, Kamen Rider Charge,” she returned with her own smirk. “But introductions can wait for a little while longer, I’ve got a call to make!”

Ashes to Ashes

The first rays of sunlight were just shining down onto the secluded mountain town. Birds cheaped, and a refreshing, cold breeze ran through every street. On the first look, everything would have looked very idyllic and perfect for a vacation. But once one saw both the web of wires and pipes stretching over the city as well as the lifeless street, this peaceful atmosphere quickly turned into a foreboding one.

This atmosphere quickly grew as both Ocean and Kaito stepped out of their hiding place, a modest house like so many others. Ocean had been covered in a good amount of bandages and plasters but was standing again. Kaito, meanwhile, looked just as fresh as ever, resting his Driver on his shoulder. Both looked down the main street on which end the previously mentioned metal gate to the mines stood.

“So? Ready for a wild ride, Newbie?” He returned with a smirk.

“I should have never let that one slip, should I?” She mumbled in absolute annoyance while pulling out her Charge-Phone and pushed a few buttons on it.

“Probably,” it came back with this insufferable smugness in his voice. This man definitely had to be Tsukasa’s friend; these two were practically made for each other. “But that’s why you are a Newbie, right?”

“Sure, whatever. Let’s get this over with, so I got you out of my world sooner,” she threw back with a huff, much to Kaito’s delight. “I also can’t let Scorched stay in that pool forever. I sent him a text that as soon he hears explosions, he should start getting the civilians out of there. I don’t want them caught in the crossfire when everything goes crazy around here. They should convene with the reinforcements I ordered soon enough,” she finished with a nod.

“Good for you. I don’t particularly care as long as you can focus one-hundred percent of the task ahead. So, ready newbie?” Almost as if to answer his question, her bike drove up right next to her. “Impressive. I wish I had a Card for this little one. It seems to be quite useful.”

“Yeah, what a shame, right?” She drily returned. “Speaking of which, where is your bike anyway? You aren’t going to assault the lab to foot, right?”

Once again, he smirked at her, and once again, she could feel the satisfaction flowing from him. This man was just… “Oh, I don’t have my own bike. Well, I had one for a bit, but that is a bit of a complicated story anyway and not important right now. But regardless, I don’t need one. Observe,” he finished before pulling out one of his many cards and slit it into his weapon before walking up to some random bike at the side of the road.

|Attack Ride|

|Side Basher|

The moment the bike was shot, it morphed into a black and silver one with golden highlights as well as a sidecar. “Voila! A bike ready to storm a fortress,” he said while turning around, grinning from ear to ear at her.

“Aha… Sure… I take your word for it,” she simply returned, shaking her head. “So, let’s do this then!” While she spoke, she activated her Driver and pulled out her Thunder Charger.

“Let’s get my treasure back,” he added, spinning his gun before pulling out yet another card and inserting it into the now open Driver.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

|Kamen Ride|

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /

|DIEND|

Both fo their armorers formed around them, shining bright blue in the early morning sun. Each Rider swung themselves onto their respective Rider Machines and let the engines road echo through the entire town before racing towards the mine and its giant gate.

It didn’t take long until the gate came clearer into view, and with it, an army of Planktons and Riotroopers. Probably the remains of their forces. They seemed to have anticipated the attack and were throwing everything they had at the two Riders.

“Cover my back, I’m getting the gate op-“ She was about to shout over to Diend when a loud scream interrupted them. As both of them looked back, they didn’t see anything. That was until another screech echoed through the mountains again. This time Ocean could pinpoint where it was coming from. From above!

Looking upwards, she saw something… A white point in the sky that was getting closer and closer with every passing second, and it was racing straight towards them! “Incoming!” She shouted out and swung her bike to the side; the other Rider quickly followed her lead.

Not a second too late, one might add, as a giant white claw tore up the street, they had mere moments before still been driving on. As they looked back, they could see the monster for the first time. It was some sort of gigantic, grey bird. One that glared viciously at them. “What is that!?”

“Probably a genetically modified Orphenoch!” It came back from Diend, sound more annoyed than surprised. “We ain’t getting this gate open with this thing around! You got the big toys, so deal with it!” He added before accelerating faster and racing towards the other opponents.

Silently cursing the thief Rider, she pulled out her phone again, just as the Orphenoch turned around for another attack. She quickly tipped in a code, all while she heard the screeching of the bird come closer and close with every second. Looking back, she could see the claws only a few dozen meters away from her. Not much longer, and they would get ahold of her, and she did not like her chances at all.

Screeching loudly, the bird readied itself for its final push, its claws spreading out ready to grab her when out of nowhere, something crashed into the head of the monster. Screeching loudly, it was thrown sideways, crashing into several buildings, completely totaling them and leaving nothing more than ruins. Meanwhile, the strange object turned around and flew right in front of her.

The building-sized mech was hovering a few meters above the street. It had been modeled after a very bulky human, made entirely out of metal. It was a mixture of a mostly silver body with light blue patches scattered across the robot. Glowing, blue tubes ran across the entire machine. On its chest, a strange contraption had been placed, resembling the cylinder of an old revolver. Each compartment glowed in a different color. Lastly, its head was seemingly modeled after Charge herself.

As she came closer and closer towards the robot, it’s chest opened up, revealing a cockpit of sorts inside it. Kicking her bike into gear once more, she raced towards one of the parked cars and used its front hood as a sort of ramp, shooting herself up towards it. In the last few meters, she pushed herself off her bike and landed perfectly in the cockpit. Her bike meanwhile shifted into autopilot and drove off. In between the crack of the closing cockpit, Charge could see the Kaiju standing back up again for round two.

\ 50, 80, 100! CALAIDO-CRUSHER! /

It echoed through the streets as every monitor inside the mech sprung to life, and not one second too late as the fast approaching claws of the Orphenoch appeared right in front of her. Taking one last deep breath, she grabbed for the two control handles to her side and began to push them forward, while also pushing a button atop them.

The jet engines bellow the mech’s feet erupted in an even bigger flame, and the Calaido-Crusher dove towards the opponent, avoiding to hit it by mere meters. As she did that, the cylinder on her chest spun until the green compartment was ontop, all tubes lighting up in the same color. Pulling back its metallic fist, the mech slammed it down as the giant monster was about halfway past her.

As the fist impacted on the monster, a strong gust of wind suddenly picked up, growing quicker and quicker in strength until it pressed the creature downward. Crashing into the concrete of the street below and sliding across it for a few dozen meters as well. Once it had come to a stop, Charge rocketed forward once again, the green compartment falling dark as she did so.

Meanwhile, just about a hundred meters down the road, Diend had managed to ride up towards the small army that had been assembled before the door, and they were unloading everything they had at him. Laser fire was pouring down on him, and the Riotroopers were trying their best to stop him from getting closer. But Diend had been in too many firefights to fall for their simplistic approach and dodged all of the incoming attacks, either through skillful steering or by using cars as cover. “Amateurs. You make this almost too easy,” he chuckled.

All of a sudden, the bike stopped before starting to shift, parts moving and combing anew. The motorcycle with its sidecar stood up, taking on the form of a bipedal walker with a claw arm and what looked like six repurposed exhaust-port-rocket-launchers. With a satisfied chuckled, Kaito pushed the tempting button in front of him and freed six rockets from their launchers. The Troopers were already about to mount a retreat as the missiles split apart, revealing an absolutely absurd amount rockest that were racing straight towards them.

Charge almost didn’t hear the ensuing explosion through the angry screeches of the Orphenoch, several large rock bits sticking out of its skin. As she pulled back once again, the orange compartment on her chest went dark. The glassy, grey eyes of the beast were focused on her and burning with absolute hatred. If looks could kill, she would have been dead three times over.

Luckily, her new mech had stopped that particular outcome from happening yet. Still, one wrong move and the thing could cut through her defenses in a heartbeat. An as if this had been its cue, the monster lunged forward once again, its claws pretty much screaming for her head.

Pulling on the control handles, she steered the robot to the side. The sound of deafening screeching over metal followed by an earthquake-like shaking, however, showed her that she hadn’t been fast enough. Warning signs popped up on several of the screens around her. Hull damage, not critical, but it would impede her maneuverability.

Kicking the handlebars into overdrive, the metallic elbow of the machine slamming right into the beak of the still onto her clamoring bird. She could feel the vibrations run through the giant monster. This must have stung like Tartarus, but even though its screech was deafening, its claws remained as secure as before. “Damn it!” She cursed, as more and more warning messages kept popping up.

With a groan of the metal, she pulled back the mechs elbow once again and swung once more. This time, however, the red compartment on her chest glowing a fiery. Out of the palm of her robots had a giant flame shoot out, kicking the elbows speed into overdrive. With a bone-shattering crunch, it slammed into the bird this time, finally loosening its grasp.

Charge spun as fast as she could with the damaged mech and could barely see the end of the Orphenochs awkward tumble before it fell face first on what remained of the road. “Well, time to see if flight really is weak against electricity,” Charge chuckled as she pointed her open mecha palms at the beast. With a smirk under her helmet, the giant cylinder turned once more, landing on bright blue.

Bolts of electricity sparked up her arms moments before a storm of thunder and lightning erupted from the Calido-Crusher’s fingertips. Screeches of anger were soon replaced by ones of pain and anguish as the attack hit its target, surging across his body. She held this up for several seconds before once again, the chamber went dark, the giant bird collapsing once more.

Still, it wasn’t dead yet. Already, it was clawing against the ground to stand back up. She needed to finish soon! But first…

Spinning the dark blue compartment upwards, she unleashed a mist wall, covering the entire, few dozens meter area they were standing into a fog bank. As the Orphenoch came back onto its legs, everything had already been filled in the thick mist. It turned its head in confusion, looking for any sign of the Rider as its eyes locked onto a bright purple light. And moments later, another one and two more until its entire vision was filled in these glowing dots. Spreading its wings, the beast ready to pounce on its target when suddenly-

Burning pain erupted all over its body, all more or less simultaneously as the magical missiles crashed into it. With another ear bursting screech, it tumbled backward once more, the searing pain all over its body morphing into one, as if its entire body had been light ablaze.

Ocean, together with her mech, stepped out of the parting mist, staring directly at the almost beaten foe. With a satisfied sigh, she pushed both buttons atop the handles simultaneously and pushed them forward.

\ Maximum Calaido Charge! /

The revolver cylinder on her chest started to spin, first slowly and then faster and faster with every turn. Each camber lighting up one after the other, quickly mixing into a rainbow of colors before ultimately turning to white. In one, stunningly bright burst, a bream of stellar white energy burst from her chest, pushing her back several meters as she scraped across the floor. The Orphenoch could only stare forward before the beam cut right through him and continued onward, soaring just above Diends head. The beam continued on until it collided with the gate, quickly starting to melt the ultra-thick metal exterior.

“About damn time,” Diend chuckled before unloading one more volley of rockets

Once the light had faded, only the outer edges of the metal gate remained, smoldering and glowing a bright orange, a bit of metal dripping downward. Both Riders quickly regrouped in front of the now open gate— Ocean jumping out of her mech, turning on its autopilot to keep any stragglers at bay.

“Ready to enter the lion's den, Newbie?” Diend chuckled.

“Yes!” Ocean simply returned, before both Riders jumped into the gaping hole and whatever dangers lay beyond.

Huffing, with the mixture of relive, as well as frustration, he finally pushed himself out of his hiding place. He almost fell face-first on the floor as his asleep leg refused to work properly at first. Through, in the last second, he managed to catch himself regardless. As he looked around, raising his Charge Magnum, nothing besides the Orphenoch inside their cages was to be seen or heard.

Just as expected, as the first few explosions had shaken the building, the remaining guards had rushed through the halls and left him all alone with the civilians, the Planktons… And him. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at Winter before starting to move down the hallway towards where the rest of the remaining humans were being kept.

“Hey!” It croaked up from the cell behind him. “Where are you going? I’m here!” Winter was as unpleasant as ever.

Scorched didn’t even look back as he returned: “I’m taking care of the bigger group first. The need of the many the needs of the few.”

He was just about to continue when Winter spoke up again: “Wait, what? As if letting me out would be-“ his tirade was once again interrupted by his coughing. “Be such a time sink! It’s a matter of a minute!”

“And I got no minute to spare. The Riders are up there, raising Tartarus, and at any point in time, the fight could spill over here. I need to go now!” Scorched replied, tightening his grip on his gun.

“Bullshit!” Winter coughed out. “I knew it! The way- The way you looked at me! I knew it! You hate me! You hate what I am!” He growled, glaring directly at the young agent.

“I don’t hate you…” he weakly returned, his breath taking on a slightly more irregular pattern.

“Bullshit! I saw the hate in your eyes! You are-“ Before he could continue, his coughing started up once more, letting him slide down the bars of his prison.

“This is not an easy choice for me! I’m here to save as many people as I can! But you… You are a liability! If you freak out like before, you could kill someone! You are staying here! I’m making this call, for your and everyone else's safety!” Scorched bellowed back, his expression twisted into a pained grimace.

“Don’t give me this crap! And what do you mean, freak out!?” He hissed back, pulling himself back up by the bars. “I’ve been nothing but fucking pleasant to you piece of shit! I only cough like I’m on my deathbed! If you hate me, say it straight to my face!” As Scorched dared to look back for a moment, a combination of desperation, anger, and fear stared back directly at him.

“You’ve lost control. You turned into a raging monster…” He encountered with a slightly shaking voice. “You’re too far gone to take with us. I can’t… I can’t take you. You are a danger to every human still alive in this town. You are too far gone already! I have to try and save as many people as possible!”

“You ain’t trying shit! You’re leaving me here! What about your friend!? What is she gonna think? She promised me! Promised me!” Winter screamed at him, shaking first weakly, but then ever stronger on the bars.

“And I’ll explain to her why I did this! If you are still here when the dust has settled, I’m sending a team for you. But for now… I’m sorry, but I have to save as many people as possible!” With that, he dashed down the hallway, leaving Winter alone in his cell.

“You… You bastard!” Winter screamed after him before letting out a growl of pure hatred and vitriol.

Another door was turned to scrap metal as the two Riders continued their unrelenting assault. Several of the Plankton Orphenoch, as well as Riotroopers, were thrown through the remains of the door at the same time, only to fall into dust soon after that. Charge and Diend had cut through the mining base like butter. No matter how many of their remaining troops the Orphenochs had thrown at them, they had been able to push forward. A lot of that thanks to Diends Rider summons. They had proven to be an immeasurable help once they were on one's side that was.

Both of them burst through the door frame, guns drawn and ready to unload on everything that moved. However, they seemed to be alone, at least on a first glance. After having fought themselves through metallic room, after metallic room, the two had seemingly reached the inner part of the base. In front of them, blow the catwalk they were standing on, a giant cavern opened itself up. And right in the middle, what looked like a massive tower had been build, right below what looked like a hatch, just big enough for it to fit through.

“Well, well, well! Who do we have here?” It suddenly echoed through the cavern, both Riders instinctively crouching down behind the small metal plate of the catwalk and listening carefully where the voice was coming from. “Two absolute pests that have ruined every plan I have made. What a pleasure,” it continued, sounding like it was coming from… everywhere?

“I actually came to this world to work in peace and away from you, Riders. And everything seemed to work out just fine, well, until this world suddenly decided it needed Riders! And that wasn’t enough already, no! Diend chooses to show up after so long and alerts you to me! All in the last stages of my research! I just can’t believe it! But alas, not everything is lost. I just have to move the launch of everything forward. The testing phase was a waste of time anyway. My calculations are flawless! So really, I should thank you for this,” it continued, sounding extremely robotic as if… That was it! The voice came through loudspeakers throughout the entire cavern.

“Does he mean?” Ocean hushed over to Diend.

“Take a guess,” he simply returned.

“Damn it!” She hissed back.

“Oh, no need to hide from me. It won’t do you any good regardless. Just come down already. I’m waiting,” it chuckled once more through the speakers before he added. “And so is someone who really wanted to see you, Agent Skies.”

“Willing to step this low, eh?” Diend muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Charge to hear him. And with a playful motion, the Rider jumped over the railing, landing down bellow with a loud thud, the stone beneath his feet slightly cracking. Ocean was tempted to shout something after him, but ultimately swallowed her words and followed him soon after, landing next to him.

“Ocean,” it came from not too far away, as her mother, in her usual black suit, came walking towards her, next to a person with pale white skin, brown hair, and seemingly Neighpone decent. He was dressed in a similar, expensive business suit and around his waist, a black and gold Driver. The Orga Driver!

“Daiki Kaito, Kamen Rider Diend and Ocean Skies, Kamen Rider Charge. I’m Doctore Maeda, the greatest mind under the Orphenochs and creator of the Neo Orphenoch species. Welcome, to the end of humanity in this world. As expected from Riders, you have gotten this far,” he chuckled before pulling out a black and gold flip-phone.

“You are the rat that stole my property! Give it back right now or else,” Diend raised his gun at the doctor, who remained extremely relaxed.

“Your property? Please. You are the thief who originally stole it. The Orga Driver is and always will be the property of the Orphenochs, and now, it will be the property of their successors. And really, as threatening and dangerous as you two are, you didn’t think we didn’t come prepared?”

“Would you stop playing with our intruders and start taking this situation seriously? There is no need for this. You are just giving them time,” Monochrome added, with a cleary displeased undertone, accompanied by an annoyed glare.

Maeda chuckled and pushed the call button on his phone. “Oh, but where is the fun in that? These two have first seats for the end of humanity. Let them enjoy their last show.”

The moment he did that, the tower behind him began to creak, shift and ultimately move, all while the giant hatch on the ceiling of the cavern started to open. The tower began to rise, higher and higher towards the now incoming light.

[Standing by!]

“Henshine!” That was what snapped Diend out of his little shock and pointed his gun at Maeda, but to his dismay, he was just a nanosecond too slow. The doctor had already punched in three zero’s into the phone and slammed it into the Driver.

[Complete!]

The shot just bounced off the newly forming black armor with its golden lines as the new Rider spread out his arms. “Well then, it seems the exchange of pleasantries is over. It’s time to marvel at my creations! Oh, and Monochrome? I think it’s time to join the battle as well.”

He chuckled, but as he looked over to her, she was already in the process of inserting the Charge into the slot on the Driver.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! HYPER WATER CHARGE! /

The second Rider did not waste any time with useless posing, instead of dashing straight towards Charge, who quickly pulled up her arms to block the income attack. With each punch she managed to catch or block, she could feel the power put into them. Catching one more punch, the engines over Hyper Charge’s body sprung to life, quickly filling the surrounding area with mist. With her mother disappearing silently into the fog, she wasn’t able to notice then next hit that smacked her right across the jaw, leaving a painful sting behind.

Meanwhile, Diend was also trading blows with his own opponent, who was using a big sword, slightly looking like a tuning fork at its end. With another leap forward, Diend slid to the side and fired another bolt at him, only to be blocked by the sword once more. This was really starting to get on his nerves.

Before Orga could strike once more, Diend dashed forward, putting his gun right in the way of the blade, letting it slide past it, accompanied by sparks and quickly continue his dash past him. Coming to a screeching halt a good amount away from the Rider, he promptly inserted two cards into his Driver like so many times before.

|Kamen Ride|

|ALTERNATIVE ZERO|

|Kamen Ride|

|G4|

It echoed through the cave as a black Rider, incredibly similar to G3, and another black one, with golden markings all over him, appeared. Both immediately started to move the moment they had formed. The second black one, called Alternative Zero, pulled out a sword with multipile sharp stingers and crossed blades with Orga, all while Diend laid down supportive fire from the background.

The first one, G4, meanwhile headed straight into the fog and towards Hyper Charge. At first, she didn’t spare him much attention, far too focused on her daughter. That, however, quickly changed as the Rider pulled a gigantic quadruple rocket launcher out of thin air, or more precise, materialized it in his hands and pointed it straight at Monochrome, seemingly unimpeded by the mist.

In complete disbelieve, she stared back at him and his massive weapon. With a simple pull of the trigger, four rockets shot straight at her, exploding all around and on her with terrifying accuracy and throwing her back several meters. Landing with a loud groan, she felt the bruises all over her body.

While the fog started to clear again, G4 stepped next to Charge, discarding the empty rocket launcher and entering a combat stance. “Well, big one. I appreciate the help here. You guys really are helpful on your side. I’m almost envious. Almost,” she chuckled as she readied herself for the next round. “Wait for my sign, ok?” She really hopped this construct understood what she said.

Taking a deep breath, Ocean dashed forward as a blue blur, straight past her mother, who was pushing herself back up. The screeching echoed through the cavern as she came to a stop, in the perfect position to rush forward mere moments after. Her mother didn’t even have time to turn around as Charge’s fist slammed into her back and threw her once again through the cave, straight towards G4.

The silent Rider merely readied his fist and rocketed it forward the moment she came into punching range. A rain of sparks erupted from Monochrome, the moment she felt the titanium hard fist in her back. She could feel her armor bending inwards, pressing firmly into her body, squishing her body together between the two sides of her suit. What followed was a not any less painful tumble over the floor until she came to a stop. Her entire helmet was blinking in warning lights, like a billboard.

Still, she refused to go down like this. With a mixture of anger and sheer determination, she pushed herself back up, ignoring the restricting bent her armor had been forced into, and stood up. Through her cracked visor, she saw the two opponents on opposite sides of her, both reading themself for their next attack. In the blink of an eye, she had switched her Chargers and changed forms.

\ 50, 80, 100! HYPER FIRE CHARGE! /

While the bubble of energy surrounded her, the two other Riders both dashed forward, Ocean with her speed, and pulled their fists back. The moment the barrier dissipated, both fists shot forward, almost like bullets, a powerful shockwave rocking the cavern. However, instead of planting the fists straight in her face, both fists had been caught in the palms of Hyper Charge. Two sets of yet engines were running at max power just to keep the two fists from pushing any further.

Charge was the first to react, activating her superspeed again and trying to kick her mother in the stomach, but she was just a little bit too slow, her mother pushing herself backward with the power of her engines. With her kick hitting nothing but air, G4 moved forward, wasting neither time nor anything else as he followed up with yet another perfectly aimed punch to her helmet.

Monochrome raised bother her hands up in a defensive position before the fist could hit her. But G4 wasn’t just gonna be satisfied with a blocked hit; he kept pushing, the servos in his armor working overtime, forcing her to activate the engines once again to even push back against the inhumane force the Rider was exerting. Slowly, but surely she pushed back against him. That was until Charge came rushing in once more, delivering a swift kick to her stomach, finally forcing Monochrome backward.

Her boots scraped over the floor, desperately trying to come to a stop, but even with the engines all over her, it took a few meters until she did. The air was still smoldering when she turned them off and took on a more proper fighting stance. “Not bad, but this won’t be enough!” She returned.

“Well, I ain’t done just yet!” Ocean shouted after her and continued her dash towards her, before quickly switching Chargers as well. “Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FIRE CHARGE! /

Bursting out of her own energy orb, she immediately pushed all her engines to the max, crashing into her mother with another earthshattering shockwave. Fist slammed against fist as both Riders fired on all cylinders, Monochrome slowly pushing back against her assailant. “You forgot one thing! I’m stronger!”

“And you also forgot one thing! Your time’s up!” Ocean returned with a very smug undertone, and as if on cue, all of Hyper Charge’s jets fell silent. All of a sudden, Charge’s fist was propel forward, sending her mother flying once more, crashing into one of the support beams for the catwalks above.

Her suit sparking and all-around failing all around her Monochrome narrowed her eyes and, with gritted teeth, switched to another Charger. “Time to finish this up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! HYPER FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

Ocean quickly followed: “Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

Both Riders changed into their purple forms and stared at each other, weapons aimed at the other, and ready to pull the trigger. Hyper Charge was the first to act, spinning her cylinder of the Driver once more, not even bothering with anything else. Charge quickly followed, and both gathered energy in their own rifles until pulling the trigger simultaneously.

\ Maximum Charge! /

An absolute avalanche of projectiles erupted from their weapons, zooming around the cavern and avoiding to hit anything, but instead rocketing towards their respective targets. Time and time again, the balls of energy crashed into each other, knocking each other out. And in the midst of all of this were Charge and Hyper Charge, shooting widely at the incoming targets. Explosion after explosion went off, thanks to the two markswomen.

Meanwhile, G4 had summoned his rocket launcher once more, the whiplike missiles swarming all around him. He took aim, almost like he wasn’t in a deadly swarm of projectiles, and pulled the trigger. The four rockets burst out and separated, all shooting in vastly different directions. Mere moments later, four massive explosions went up all around them, taking several of the projectiles with it. G4, however, wasn’t done just yet. Throwing the Gigant into another missile, he dashed forward, straight at Hyper Charge.

She noticed the Rider in the corner of her eye and mentally directed several of the magical orbs at him. The summoned Rider made no attempts at blocking or even evading them, instead just tanking them and keep on running, getting closer and closer, all while his armor took more and more damage. When he was only about ten more meters away from her, she finally pulled her rifle down and took aim.

The shots echoed through the cavern as she unloaded on the Rider, at first only slightly slowing him down before more and more until he came to a stop. And with one last well-aimed shot, she shattered his helmet, the Rider fading away. Monochrome pulled the gun up once more, to resume her work on Charge’s projectiles when she noticed it. The small moment she had been distracted, the missiles had advanced on her, rapidly.

The first one, however, did not hit her body, like expected, instead of shooting right through her rifle and knocking the now useless piece of junk right out of her hand. As Monochrome still looked after the weapon, the other bullets raced towards her, slamming into her one after the other in rapid succession. With a pained grunt, her mother was knocked off her feet and slammed into the still rising tower.

“Why… Why do you keep missing the obvious! You must see it as well! And don't lie to me,” Monochrome hist as she pulled herself back up.

“Because I see what could be as well! And I see what your approach would bring! And I’ll not gonna let that happen! By my name as a Kamen Rider!” Ocean shouted back.

“Fine! Then I’ll show you a threat you can’t beat!” Her mother encountered, pulling out her Prism Charger.

“We’ll see,” Ocean simply returned, pulling out her own.

\ 100, 150, 200! HYPER OVER CHARGE! /

“Charge up!”

\ 100, 150, 200! OVER CHARGE! /

Meanwhile, the fight between Diend, Alternative Zero, and Orga was still in full force. Dined’s summon had just locked blades with Orga once more, all while Diend pulled around him and slotted his card int the Driver.

|Attack Ride|

|BLAST|

The burst of energy bolts surged out of the gun once more and straight for the Dark Rider. Orga turned his head and, with one swing of his sword, and in the last second, managed to knock the energy out of the air. Moments later, the ground around him exploded, as he returned to his opponent and almost hit Alternativ’s weapon out of his hand.

“You are a more formidable opponent than I had anticipated,” Diend muttered, a hint of annoyance in his voice, all while nonchalantly walking around Orga, weapon raised.

“What? You thought only because I’m a scientist at heart that I’m not also a capable fighter? Please. How many scientists have caused you Riders so much grief? Only because our sharpest weapon is our mind doesn’t mean we are useless in a fight! I’m the genius that created a new strain of Orphenochs! And I will be the one who will give them a home! And I won’t let a third rate thief like you interfere with that!” Maeda chuckled, kicking the summoned Alternative Zero straight in the chest.

That was the moment Diend dashed forward with inhumane speed and tried to give him a solid left hook. However, out of nowhere, his opponent swung his sword downward, cutting through the rocky ground and pulling it back up, just in time to clip Diend. Sparks flew, and the Rider was thrown backward.

“I’m quite familiar with this piece of technology. More than you ever were, no matter how many of me you have faced through your journey. This is like a second skin to me. Skill will always be invaluable when it comes to a fight. And you have been carried by your little summons for far too long now. The multiverse will thank me when I end your little thief tour here and now!” Orga returned, cocking his head in satisfaction at him.

But he wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t lived through worse. Forcing himself back up, he eyes the Rider. Or, more precisely, what was behind him. Alternative Zero hadn't been beaten just yet. Using his swords as a makeshift crutch, he pushed himself back onto his feet. Without any form of hesitation, the summon dashed forward, Diend following immediately as well.

Orga just chuckled and pulled the sword backward. The moment Alternative Zero came close to him, he pulled through, slicing through the summon with ease. But to Orga’s surprise, the Rider never had aimed to actually hit him. No. Instead, he had thrown his sword like a javelin towards Diend, who caught it with ease. Jamming the new weapon into the rock below him, he pushed himself off the ground and in a half circle directly at Maeda. His boots made a satisfying clunk the moment they slammed into Orga’s visor, knocking the Rider off his feet and onto the ground of the caver.

“You won’t believe how many have told me this exact phrase. I might start counting them. Sounds like a fun hobby,” Kiato smirked, throwing the disintegrating weapon to the side, it disappearing entirely before it even hit the floor.

It didn’t take very long till Orga was back on his feet, glaring at Diend under his helmet. “Fine. You wanna play like this. Then have it!” He shouted back, inserting something into his sword, which was soon followed by:

[Ready!]

Pressing a button on the phone in his Driver, a golden glowing line ran through his belt to his arm into his blade, he held ready to strike.

[Exceed Charge!]

A gold hologram started to form around the blade, shaped like a gigantic tuning fork at its end. Gripping the hilt in both of his hands, he pulled back and swung the energy blade directly at Diend.

He meanwhile had slid in one more card into his Driver and activated its mechanism.

|Final Attack Ride|

|DIEND|

While the blade had formed around Orga’s weapon, a blue circle made out of cards had appeared in front of Diend and pointed straight at his opponent. Just as the Rider began to swing, Diend pulled his won trigger, unleashing a blue beam of destructive energy at Maeda.

Both finishers clashed, mere meters away from Orga, blue and orange burst of energy occasionally surging from their collision point. Each one of them craved a path of destruction through the rock of the cavern, up to the catwalks, cutting them like butter. One even cut right between Ocean and Monochromes fight, both barely able to avoid it. More and more energy was gathering until…

With a bright and loud explosion, the connection exploded, knocking both of them off their feet and letting beams of energy shoot everywhere. The catwalk quickly began to collapse, pieces falling all around them. Soon after, the roof of the cavern followed. Gigantic boulders were crashing towards the ground, making the entire cave shake even more. The cave-in would most definitely bury them alive if they didn’t do something!

“Damn you! Why couldn’t you just lay down and die? Or give up? You Riders always make a mess out of the best-laid plans!” Orga barked at him as he stood back up, dusting off his coat as he did so.

Snapping his fingers, a small little drone, carrying what looked like a suitcase, dove through the falling rocks, stoping just above him. Raising his hand, the drone let go of its cargo, which Maeda caught. “How about I show you my newest toy?” Pulling out the Orga Phone from the Driver, he quickly inserted it into a slot on the top of the briefcase.

[Awakening!]

Diend immediately realized what was going on and raised his weapon at the man. However, his shot missed its mark as Orga simply sidestepped it, tipping in a code into a bunch of numbers near the handle of the metallic briefcase. 0, 0, 0!

[Standing by!]

The golden lines that covered Orga’s suit suddenly began to glow, quickly becoming too bright to even look at. Moments later, the entire suit changed colors. The dark black of the original form, replaced by a shiny gold, while the lines had become a muted black instead. As a finishing touch, the underside of the suitcase flipped open, revealing a golden, glowing blade. “Impressed? I adapted Faiz Blaster’s technology for the Orga system. I call it, Orga Saber!”

“But alas. It seems like this place won’t last long enough for a real fight. And I have to make my exit, Diend,” he finished, turning his back to the Rider, revealing some strange sort of device on his back. It had two slits in the armor, covered up by some kind of vents. Gripping the sword harder, the area under the vents began to glow in the same gold as the armor.

Diend, however, didn’t pay him any attention, not even as the vents burst out a sort of golden energy, and Orga flew up into the air, straight towards one of the incoming boulders. With a swift swing of his sword, he cut the incoming obstacles in half, continuing onward on his way upward.

In the meantime, Diend had pulled out the one single card he needed. Slotting it into the Driver, avoiding the falling debris while he did so.

|Kamen Ride|

|PSYGA|

A white Rider with purple lines all over his body, as well as a jetpack, appeared before him. Without another word, Diend grabbed onto the Rider’s shoulders, and both rocketed after Maeda. Both Riders arrived on top of the tower, just when it came to a stop, now sticking out the side of the mountain. Below them, one could see the town and surrounding area.

“Oh? You came as well then. Just in time,” he chuckled, pressing a button on his sword. Loud alarm sirens started blaring, and warning lamps spun all around them, followed by green gas being released from the sides of the tower “Just in time for our new world to begin!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. I’ve heard this exact speech a couple of times now. And you wanna know something? It never ends well for you guys. In the end, some Rider always kicks your great machinations into the dirt. And today, that seems to be me,” he returned. “Let me show you my treasure!” Pulling out a strange, tablet-like device, he began tipping in a combination of buttons.

|G4 RYUGA ORGA GLAIVE KABUKI CAUCASUS ARC SKULL|

|FINAL KAMEN RIDE|

Orga, in the meantime, wasn’t gonna let his opponent transform as well. Activating the thrusters on his back, he dashed forward at Diend, ready to bring his blade down, when Kaito quickly attached the device to his belt. The glowing weapon crashed against a suddenly appearing holographic card with Diend on it, before knocking Orga back a bit.

Behind the hologram, Diend’s suit started to change, a strange plate appearing on his chest, separated into eight different rectangles. The card shrunk, ultimately attaching to his forehead and turning into a physical one, all while eight others appeared on his chest. The entire suite had turned mostly grey as well. “It’s time for complete defeat!”

A deafening roar echoed through the narrow hallways of the underbelly of the pool, followed by the sounds of frantic footsteps and something loud crashing into a wall. Quickly after that, another pair of footsteps could be heard as well, and it was getting closer and closer to the first pair. “Stay back!” it came through the hallway, followed by a strange gunshot, followed by another angry roar.

Out of nowhere, a ripped off metal pipe flew into the control room, impaling one of the giant monitors in the wall, leaving it only displaying weird colors. Just moments later, Scorched dashed through the door and quickly ducked to the side, another, similar pipe zooming past him and into the same monitor. Scorched was breathing heavily, sweat was dropping off his forehead, and he was covered in dust. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” He muttered to himself, tightening his grip on his Charge Magnum.

The low growl from outside meanwhile came ever closer until he could hear it right outside the door. Taking a deep breath, he held it, a shiver running down his spine. The grey, scaly claw of Winter was the first thing that reached into the room, curling around the frame of the door, crushing the concrete underneath. Next followed his head. The scales had spread a bit further, and both his eyes now had taken on the milky, aimless white.

His head moved stiffly, like, something was just off about it. He slowly turned his head from one side of the room to the other, staring directly into the open end of his revolver when he turned around completely. In the blink of an eye, he pulled the trigger, the gun pulling backward and hitting him in the shoulder, all while the bolt of energy zoomed past Winter. The hybrid in question dashed forward, slamming his fist down at Scorched.

Scorched’s vision cleared just in time for him to see the incoming fist and roll out of the way, the concrete where he had just laid cracked under the immense pressure. If he’d get caught, he was done for. Finishing his side role, he pulled up the gun once more, aimed, and shot. This time he could hear a loud screeching.

Clutching his white shoulder, Winter growled out in pain before his glossy eyes locked onto Scorched once more. Without any further warning, he jumped forward, straight at him. His eyes widening, he pulled the trigger once more, hitting him square in the chest. But this time, the Orphenoch didn’t stop and just charged further ahead, jumping ontop him.

Staring up at the wild expression of Winter made him sweat even more. Worse, the gun had been knocked out of his hand and was just out of reach. “Let- Let me go, you monster!” He barked at him, but the only answer he received was a low growl before raising his claws. The sharp fangs shot downward, only barely missing his face for the most part as he swung it to the side. Still, three deep claw marks had been carved into his cheek, making scream out in pain as his blood poured from the wound.

Winter was about to strike down once more, bloody claw and all, as he suddenly stopped, his claw shaking in the air as he did so. For a moment, Scorched was stunned, unable to react, but that quickly faded. Pushing through his pain, he slammed his knee into the ass of Winter, knocking him forward and forcing him to catch himself with his arms. That was precisely what he wanted. In the blink of an eye, he had wrapped one of his arms around one fo Winters. With a quick pull, the arm gave in, bending backward, just long enough to flip Winter over and change positions.

Without even looking at it, he grabbed the gun next to him, aimed it at the man’s head, still growling and snapping at him, one of his claws digging deep into his leg. “I’m sorry…” Scorched quietly said, taking a deep breath and pulling the trigger two times. The tight grip on his leg softened, before the hand fell down, lifeless.

The moment that happened, Scorched pushed himself off the motionless… Man. Slumping against one of the nearby monitors, the corpse started to be engulfed in blue flames, his Orphenoch half quickly dissolving into ash.

Scorched couldn’t take his eyes of the body, as it slowly turned what was left of him into a charred corpse. “Fuck,” he quietly muttered, all the pain just now really hitting him. He’d love to just lay back for a while and take a breath, but he knew his work wasn’t done just yet. With a pained grimace, he pushed himself back up and dragged himself out of the room. He had people to save!

An enormous shockwave rocked through the cavern, knocking several of the boulders into each other as Monochrome and her daughter collided, fist on fist. But before either of them could overpower the other, both Riders pushed themself backward, avoiding another one of the rocks. Both landed once more on another pair of collapsing boulders before dashing forward, more or less bouncing off others, slowly gaining in height.

For anyone watching from below, this was really nothing more than two blurs of black and white zooming from rock to rock, only to occasionally crash into each other before separating once more. The cave was collapsing faster and faster with every passing second. Its ground had already been covered in rock and debris, some as large as a big house. When this would be done, there would definitely be nothing left of the mine, and the mountain would have a new hole in it.

“Why won’t you get it!?” Monochrome shouted through the sounds of falling rocks and breaking stone as they once again clashed. “You can see it! This world is doomed!”

“Maybe! Maybe it’s doomed, but I’m not the one to decide that! All I can do is fight against it! Again and again!” Ocean returned, roundhouse kicking a rock at her mother.

Hyper Charge in response, simply charged forward, the gem on her chest glowing brightly and burst through it without much of a problem. What she had, however, not expected was what awaited her behind the stone. Charge! Propelled by her jet-engines, she rocketed towards her, fist pulled back. The sound of the punch was defining, ringing in her ears like a gunshot, and while she didn’t feel any form of pain, she was still thrown back into another boulder.

“Why won’t you understand? It’s not a maybe! It’s a certainty! I’m trying to save this world from an apocalypse of unprecedented proportions! This is all I ever wanted! All I ever strived for! I just can’t do it with the methods of this idiot! The world is a dark and scary place! If you want to survive in it, you have to become cold, as much as it hurts! I’m trying to save the world!” She shouted back, crawling out of the indent her body had left and jumped back upwards.

“No! You won’t get it! I won’t let your dystopia replace the one we are potentially facing! No matter how much you feel assured in your opinion, you have no right to force it onto others! To take away their freedom, just because you think it’s an acceptable sacrifice! This is the path of the Rider I have chosen to follow, together with Phoenix! He is the type of man that stands up for his ideals! He believes in them from the bottom of his heart! So much so that I can’t other than belief in them too! I might not be one-hundred percent sure his way will work, but you know what I can be one-hundred percent sure of? That yours is wrong! And that it’s my responsibility as a Rider to stop it! Again!”

With the last word, she spun around on her own axis and, right before her mother could reach her with her pulled back fist, swung her leg downward, her heal crashing against Monochrome’s fist. Both Riders used their engine to push back against each other, and for a few moments, it looked like hyper Charge would gain the upper hand. All over Ocean’s visor, warnings were appearing, saying she was at max power output, but she kept pushing further.

Slowly, but surely, Monochrome was losing steam, and soon was even slightly pushed backward, accompanied by error messages and signs of over one-hundred percent power output. With one last scream, she pulled her leg downward all the way, catapulting her mother into the collapsing mine down bellow. Together with a loud crash and an eruption of debris and dust, Hyper Charge landed.

“Wha- What was that?” She muttered to herself as the values returned to normal. However, her thought was quickly cut short as something shot up from the dust cloud bellow. This wasn’t over just yet. Shaking her head, she activated her jet-engines once more and tried to outpace her mother towards the top.

|RYUGA|

| KAMEN RIDE|

Diend had taken the K-Touch in his hand and pushed both the Rider symbol as well as the ‘F’ on it in rapid succession before returning it. A black Rider, clad in dragon inspired armor, appeared next to him, all cards on his chest turning into cards of Ryuga. Quickly slotting in the card into his Driver, he pulled his weapon back like a fist, the other Rider mirroring his movements, while a giant, black, eastern dragons build itself up behind them.

|FINAL KAMEN RIDE|

|RYUGA|

Orga once more activated the thrusters on his back and dashed over towards the two, his blade glowing in an ominous gold.

Thrusting their fists forward, two balls of dark flames shot from both the dragon and Diend’s Driver, straight at Orga. The Dark Rider, however, instead of dodging, brought down his blade, a black explosion following immediately after.

Stumbling backward, out of the smoke of the explosion, Orga growled: “You think that old piece of junk will save you? It is way outdated at this point! You can’t win against my new, superior technology!”

“Mhm,” he simply muttered back, firing another volley of bolts at the Rider, letting him stumble once more before catching himself. With a growl, he planted his feet on the ground, tightened his grip on his blade, and pushed in another button.

[Exceed Charge!]

Diend, in the meantime, had already activated another finisher.

|ORGA|

| KAMEN RIDE|

The previous version of Orga appeared next to him, as well as on the cards on his chest. Both Riders tightened the grip on their weapons, Diend Holding his pistole in the way you usually would hold a sword.

|FINAL KAMEN RIDE|

|ORGA|

Like once before, the weird holographic sword of Orga appeared around the original blade, and a blue version of it around Diend’s gun. They quickly swung the sword downward at Orga. His sword, meanwhile, had taken on a similar, holographic blade, and with one solid slice of the weapon, cut through both of their finishers, shattering the hologram. With a pained grunt and a lot of sparks, Diend was knocked off the top of the tower and plummeted downward until he reached a lower level.

Orga wasted no time and jumped after him, landing perfectly in front of him. “See? No chance against my tech. So just give up and save yourself all that pain.” One could almost taste the smugness that came off his voice.

“Yeah, pass. I’m not losing to a third rate scientist like you,” he hissed back, pushing himself off the ground and with his shoulder into Orga’s stomach, quickly unloading another burst of shots into him. Letting out a pained scream, he stumbled backward as Diend activated the next finisher.

|SKULL|

| KAMEN RIDE|

A black and silver Rider with the head of a skull and of all things, a fedora appeared next to him. Orga wasn’t gonna just stand there though, ready to activated his Exceed Charge once more.

|FINAL KAMEN RIDE|

|SKULL|

Diend and Skull jumped into the air, just as Orga was about to activate the button when suddenly, Charge slammed into him, foot first. Knocking the Rider to the ground, Diend and his summoned Rider got into position and kicking a giant, ethereal skull in front of them like a football.

“About time, Newbie,” Diend chuckled as he landed next to the other Rider.

“Oh, bit me!” Ocean returned with a dismissive shrug.

“Why aren’t you done with her yet?” Orga growled at, the next to him landing, Monochrome.

“Could ask you the same thing,” she encountered to the standing up Rider.

Orga just scoffed at her and quickly went for his weapon again, while Hyper Charge summoned her rifle.

With a loud scream, he burst towards Diend, ready to slice into him when Ocean jumped in the way, the gem on her chest glowing brightly, tanking the hit and grabbing onto his blade so he couldn’t pull back. While Orga was angrily trying to pull the blade lose, Diend took the opportunity and aimed several shots straight to his head, knocking him away from his weapon, that Charge quickly threw to the side.

The moment the gem stopped glowing, she felt something hit her in the stomach, followed up by another one, knocking her off her feet. It was a burning feeling, mixed as if she had just been punched. As she looked up, she could see her mother aiming at her, just about to shoot once more when Diend unloaded into her, sniping the gun out of her hands.

Giving her a hand, pulling her back up, he said: “Let’s end this Newbie.” She nodded and quickly spun the cylinder on the Driver one last time, all while Diend slotted in his final card. Now it was all or nothing!

\ Maximum Charge! /

|Attack Ride|

|GEKIJOUBAN|

Eight Riders appeared besides Diend, including G4, Ryuga, Orga, Glaive as well as Skull. Furthermore, a spikey, red, and green Rider, a golden, Caucasus beetle themed one as well as a giant, devil-like Rider. Without wasting any more time, he slotted in one more card.

|Final Attack Ride|

|DIEND|

The golden circles of cards once more appeared in front of him, while four of his summons jumped into the air for a Rider Kick, and the other four readied an attack while standing. Once meanwhile joined the Riders with their kicks, rocketing forward, propelled by her jet-engines.

While all of Diend’s Riders shot towards Orga, who desperately threw his arms in front of him to block the incoming attacks, Charge was gunning for her mother, who tried to defend herself similarly. A shockwave went through the air as she hit her, knocking her back a bit before she managed to push back.

“I’m… I’m sorry, mom! But I have to do this! I have to stop you! And I will protect this world in your stead! I promise!” She continued, pushing more and more against her mother, the visor once more telling her she was at her limit. But she didn’t give up, her armor starting to spark and smoke, but then, the numbers rose, error messages popped up. Once more, she was exceeding the limits of the suit, first slowly, then faster and faster, until-

With a loud scream, she broke through, kicking her mom directly in the chest, just in time for Orga to fail as well. Both Dark Riders exploded at once, knocked back into the tower. With a clang, bot the Orga Driver and the Hyper Charge Driver landed in front of the damaged hole.

When the dust cleared, one could just see how both Maeda and Monochrome started burning and beginning to fall apart into ash. Maeda was frantic, clawing at the ground before ultimately succumbing. Monochrome, however, just stared at Ocean and weakly nodded before following suit.

Ocean couldn’t other than stare at where her mother had just moments before been, her throat tightening once more when she was shocked out of it by a massive explosion. The tower was shaking to its core. Pulling out her phone, she dilled in something, while looking around frantically. As she spotted Diend, he was casually picking up the Orga Phone and Driver, as well as Monochrome’s Driver.

She ultimately remained quiet for now. This could wait for later.

While she was thinking, more and more explosions rocked the tower. At this rate, it would fall apart any second now. Where was the damn thing already? With every passing moment, they came close and closer until-

“Finally!” She shouted out, as the Calaido-Crusher appeared. Both Riders started to sprint towards the edge, as it opened its landing bay. Diend and Charge, reaching the edge, didn’t hesitate one moment and just jumped, mere moments away from an explosion covering the top of the tower. The few seconds, sailing over the nothing was unbearable until both managed to land safely in the robot, it quickly flying away from the collapsing tower.

When the Calaido-Crusher sat down once more, nothing but a smoldering ruin of the giant tower remained. The entire mountain had seemingly collapsed inward, leaving an unsettling piece of it missing. Stepping out of the mech, both jumped down at the deserted plaza in front of the pool, disengaging their transformation.

“That… Was way too close for my liking,” Ocean sighed, shaking her head while sitting down on a bit of debris.

“Then, you chose the wrong profession. Riders never get it easy,” Kaito returned, leaning against another piece of rubble himself.

“I know. Thanks for the help. Wouldn’t have been able to finish this one on my own,” she sighed, looking back up towards the remains of the mountain. “No one could have expected what was lurking here.”

“Yes, you wouldn’t have. You’d probably been down, the moment your mother showed up. You should be glad that I showed up to save your skin,” he encountered, with that oh so familiar, smug undertone.

With an annoyed groan: “Figures this was coming. Wouldn’t be Tsukasa’s friend without being a pompous ass, wouldn’t you? Regardless, yeah, you’re right. Seems I still got ways to go as a Rider.”

“Well, not every one of Tsukasa’s friends. I’m sure you’d get along with Yusuke. He’d be the right kind of idiot for you. And yes, a Newbie is a Newbie. But, ultimately, you did sufficiently. I’m sure you’re gonna be fine. But like all good things, they must come to an end eventually. Bye,” he finished, pushing himself off his bit of rubble, began walking off and raising his hand.

“Wait just one moment, Mr. Thief,” Ocean interrupted him, pulling out her Charge Magnum as she did so.

“Oh? Why that? Something the matter?” It came back with that shit-eating grin.

“You know exactly what’s wrong. You didn’t just grab your ‘property’, you also snagged my mother’s Driver!” She said, matter of factly.

“Tsk, more perceptive than I’d hoped. So? What? You gonna start fighting me for this? I’d say it’s a nice little treasure for this world. A sort of reward for saving your life. What do you say? Or more interested in getting another beating?” Kaito answered, spinning his Driver for good measure as well.

“No, not particularly. I actually wanted to say, keep it. I know I’m not getting it back. And even if I’m not interested in seeing you hunt for it forever. I’ve seen to what lengths you are willing to go for your tressure, and I got no time to deal with that. You can have it! Well, as long as you promise me two things.”

“Oh? That is new,” he chuckled in return, leaning his head slightly to the side. “So, what exactly?”

“First, you don’t do anything stupid with it, ok?”

“Oh, sure. Nothing easier than that. Treasures are to be admired, not played with, after all.” Kaito encountered a somewhat serious expression on his face.

“Good. And second. Make sure you keep it safe. I don’t want to regret this decision, ok? Promise me that! I want my mother's legacy to be finally laid to rest,” she finished, with a somber voice.

“I promise. I will never let go of my treasure. No matter what comes. And I’ll make sure this is the end of Kamen Rider Hyper Charge. Well then. Thank you very much for your gift,” he returned, and she wasn’t entirely sure, but it sounded sincere. “Family might hurt you, but there is always a new one you can find.” Ocean simply nodded.

“Well then, I’ve been busy with this for far too long. New treasures await. And on, in particular, that is practically made for me,” he chuckled before beginning to walk again, disappearing into a dimensional curtain.

“Wh- Was that Diend?” It came from behind her. Turning around, she could see Scorched Earth being supported by a big crowd of dirty, ragged looking people. His cheek was bloody beyond belive and had stained his clothes as well.

“Scorched! Are you ok?” She shouted back, quickly rushing over to them and taking him from the civilians.

“Yeah… Just a bit… Bloody…” He chuckled weakly.”But I got the people.”

She nodded and wanted to say something else when she noticed. Looking around for a moment, she quietly asked: “Where is Winter? I don’t see him.”

“He didn’t make it. He was too far gone. He was the one who did this to me. I had to…” He began, before stopping midway through. “I’m sorry you couldn’t keep your promise.”

“I… I see…” Ocean muttered in return, lowering her head.

Before she could say anything more, the sound of engines interrupted her. Turning her head around, she could see a group of large VTOL’s descending towards them. All of them having the MRG logo on their side. This was finally over. For almost everyone…

One week later, in the labs of the MRG in Canterlot City, a young, small woman with white skin and long blond hair, tipping furiously away on a computer. She didn’t even notice as Ocean entered and walked up to her, far too fixated on the monitor.

“Hey, Light Bulb,” Ocean greeted her, with laying her hand on her shoulder. The small woman jumped a bit, turning around before letting out a relaxed sigh.

“Don’t scare me like this when I’m working! You know I hate that! I might lose my thoughts!” She grumbled back.

“Sorry,” she added weakly. “I tend to forget how much you can sink into your work. So, how has life treated you since we are gone?”

“Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! So much, yes! The Power Rangers are fascinating! Same with the Changelings. It’s just a shame we only been able to study them from afar,” she added with a slight pout. “I’ve learned so much more about magic from them. You wouldn’t believe it! I’d just wish I could… research them from closer,” she added with an unnerving smile in her eyes.

“Seems you haven't really changed much,” Ocean smirked back.

“Neither have you. By the way, I looked into what you asked me to. The data is very fascinating. You somehow managed to pull more power from the Charge Stone than scientifically possible. Well, at least from our current understanding of magic, which is… Still rather basic. It’s unbelievable! Thank you sooooo, soooooo much for sending me this! I owe you something for this! Looking out for your favorite scientist!” She encountered, with one of the brightest smiles she had ever seen.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just looking out for a friend. But… You got any idea why I did this? I’ll take a shot in the dark even.”

“Oh, I have a pretty solid hypothesis. Your emotions,” she simply said.

“My… emotions?”

“Yep! Emotions seem to be closely tied to magic. The first Corrupted in the city were people who had strong desires and emotions and attracted magic to them, creating artifacts. I think that was similar in a way. The magic reacted to your feelings and allowed you to push further, almost like when a Corrupted enters their second stage. They refuse to give up, and these feelings of determination resonate with their artifact, turning them from a Kaijin into a Kaiju. This must be similar. Through… I’d advise limiting the usage of it for now. At least until some adjustments can be made for your suit. You almost burned it out back there. Must have been really strong emotions to do that. At least, I assume that’s what it is,” she finished her little lecture.

“I… I see. I’ll do that. I think you are right with your assessment,” she nodded, at first, a bit dumbfounded, but quickly managed to turn that into a smile. That smile, however, disappeared as soon as she added: “So… What about the other thing? You know…”

“You know, this is really not my area of expertise. I can manage with magical biology, mostly thanks to my knowledge of magic in general and my team, but this… I’m sorry, I’m just not experienced enough in that field. These… Orphenochs… There is nothing magical about them. They are entirely free of any sort of supernatural element, either from this world or any other. They are pure biology. Just like any human… They seem so… Normal, and yet not at all. Honestly, something gives me a cold shiver every time I think about them. But I managed to talk a bit with the current head of the Orphenoch-Research-Divison, one Crypto Helix. She is an incredible mind, I tell you,” Light Bulb nervously returned.

“What did she say?” Ocean asked after a few moments of silence.

“There doesn’t seem to be a way to turn them back. Their DNA has been irreversibly changed. And the Plankton’s brains have been damaged. They are only capable of basic thoughts at this point. It doesn’t look like that could ever be fixed… It seems they are stuck like this… But she also said that they aren’t gonna stop trying,” she returned somberly returned.

“I… I see…” she nodded slowly. “Thanks for the effort, though.”

“She also gave an answer regarding that gas. There seemed to be about six hours worth of the gas in the tower. In the end, you managed to limit that to one hour's worth of the substance that escaped into the atmosphere. It shouldn’t be enough to force humans to become Orphenochs. She isn’t so sure about people who have an affinity for the gas, though. It'll spread across the country before dissipating enough to be entirely harmless. But it’s possible we will see Orphenochs popping up soon. It probably will be manageable. You saved the world most likely.”

Light Bulb looked at Ocean for a few seconds, shoulders hanging low and a frown on her face before awkwardly asking: “So… That partner of yours. What was his name again? How is he doing?”

“Scorched Earth. He’s doing mostly okay. Still in the hospital, though. That wound he received will definitely leave a scar. And it seemed to have gotten infected and knocked him out with a bad case of the cold. But as things are going right now, he’ll be up and running again next week. And if that what you said is true, he’ll probably ask for a transfer to the Orphenoch division. Seems he doesn’t want to have anyone repeat this experience again. Commendable, I’d say. I’m gonna talk to Onyx about it,” she returned, a smile returning to her lips.

“That’s good to hear. I’m sure everything is gonna turn out fine,” Light Bulb added with a smile.

“Yeah… You’re right. Thanks for all of this. And I’m gonna leave you to your work for now. I know how much you love it after all,” Ocean added.

“Yeah, thank you. Oh! And greet Phoenix from me!” She shouted after her, already tipping again.

“Will do!” She returned before leaving the room and taking one deep breath.

Night had set over Quartzquary. The aftermath of the battle still clearly visible all over town. The MRG had set up a restricted area around the city and keeping a strict watch over everything going on inside.

Under all this surveillance, one man dressed in a trench coat and hat had managed to sneak past all of them and into the crater. Around him, boulders and scrap metal covered the area. Moving through, it had been tedious, needing to make detours around exceptionally large stones in his way, all while following the map his phone gave him.

Right in front of another, just as unremarkable boulder at the edge of the crater, he stopped, eyeing the piece of stone carefully. Stepping closer, he jammed his fingers into the rock before pushing it to the side, revealing a sturdy metal door behind it. It was dented beyond belief, but it had stood firm, well, until he began to pull on one of the two-door sides. Accompanied by the sound of metal bending and groaning, he forced it open, disappearing inside it.

He melded perfectly into the pitch-black hallway behind it, slowly delving deeper into the facility until he came to a stop at another door. However, this time, he simply used a card on the terminal next to it to open the door.

The room inside was just as pitch-black, except for four wats of green liquid, in each, floating some sort of large ring-like stones, illuminating the room. Their light was just enough to make the smile on the grey man's face visible.

Ten minutes later, a loud explosion echoed through the quiet mountains. As the agents of the MRG arrived, they could see that a previously buried part of the lab had apparently exploded, destroying everything within it. While they were wondering what had caused this, the man in the trenchcoat was already on his way away from the town, with four suitcases in hand.

As things would soon be apparent, the fight between humanity and the Orphenochs had only just begun.

Author's Note

And with this, I finished this little side story. Really happy with how it turned out in the end.

I'll also be working on a story following up the cliffhanger of this one, though it's more a side-project, so that might take a bit. But I'll pick this thread back up in Ride Saga: Kamen Rider Gamma.

Meanwhile, there is a crossover between Bricklayer's story Kamen Rider: What's Your Desire?, RuinQueenofOblivion's story Kamen Rider Scarab and Alchemy in "What's Your Desire?", called "Fanfic Generations: Crossing Worlds" that canonically takes place after this story. It was also a lot of fun to work on.

And lastly, and most importantly, thank you all so much for reading this story.

The Robbed Thiefe

< Cyclone! > < Joker! >

It echoed over the windy roof of a large tower, a wind turbine glowing in a bright green above it. A man in all white armor with blue highlights and yellow eyes was fighting a man clad in half purple and half green armor with red eyes. He had been knocked oh is back, his opponent standing strong.

”We’ll fight using Extreme!“ The half and half Rider said, his right eye glowing as he did so. While this was happening, a strange bird shaped device flew up the building, screeched a mechanical cry, and shot a green beam at another man lying a bit below them, completely knocked out.

As the white Rider stood back up, the device flew over to the other Rider before attaching itself to his Driver. All on its own, the strange device flipped open, revealing a circle with an X inside it.

The double Rider’s midsection started to glow, both halves of him grabbing the edges of the shining light and pulling them further away until he apparently pulled through, and the stream of light and symbols overtake him, changing his armor. It still was colored the same way besides a wide crystal-like line in the middle of the suit. He now sported larger shoulder pads and an X over his face. The next thing that happened was that a sword stashed into a shield burst out from the crystal-like line right into his hand.

That was the sound that could be heard as he pushed a button on a strange USB-like device, a Gaia Memorie, and inserted it into a slot of the weapon, pulling the sword out from the shield. “Come on!”

”That ain’t happening!” The white Rider growled, pressing a button on a grey Gaia Memorie with a Z on it.

Just as he was about to put the memory into a slot on the side of his belt, a shot rang through the air as the memories landed on the ground beside him, the white Rider holding his smoking hand and glaring to where the shot had come from. A man wearing a white jacket with light brown hair casually stood there, a strange blue, yellow and black gun in his hand that was pointed at the Rider. “Ah, I can’t let you do that. Would be a waste of a treasure,” he smugly returned.

“Why is this place so popular?” The purple half of the Rider asked, apparently not sure what to make of this new arrival.

“Ah, W. I knew I was just in time. Just leave this to me,” the man returned, spinning his gun around and pulling out a strange card.

“Oh, another one to join our party here. The more, the merrier!” The white Rider chuckled. “You also will enjoy your hell!”

“Pass,” the man returned before pushing the card into a slot of the weapon and pulled out a small compartment that made the gun longer.

|Kamen Ride|

He then held the weapon above him, pulled the trigger, and shouted: “Henshin!”

|DIEND|

Three transparent shapes appeared in front of him, one red, one blue, and one green before starting to zoom around him until all converging on him and forming into a grey armor just before several blue cards like rectangles flew down and attached themselves to his helmet. Before the two Riders now stood another one, clad in black, silver, and blue armor with a bizarre helmet, the cards forming a sort of vizor. “Now, Eternal, how about you hand over that Driver?” He asked before quickly slotting in another card.

|Attack Ride|

|BLAST|

Out of the end of the gun, several blasts of strange energy erupted, but against all logic, they flew up and down seemingly randomly before homing in on their target, letting sparks burst from his chest as he was hit. “Shotaro, I think we have met him before. He is one of Decade’s comrades,” the green half of W said.

“Well, that is one way of putting it,” Came it back from Diend, who had dashed forward with surprising speed, before kicking Eternal right in the stomach.

“Whoever he is, he is helping us,” the purple half of W returned, starting to run towards the white Rider, weapon drawn.

Before the two in one Rider could, however, reach Eternal, he pulled out a small knife and swung at Diend. The blue Rider didn’t even flinch as the blade came down on him, quite the opposite, just swinging his gun like a knife himself, blocking the attack. Eternal, however, was not one to give up that easily and, after staggering back, dashed forward once again, only for Diend to dodge the attack and plant the end of his gun right against Eternals' stomach. With an explosion of sparks, Eternal was thrown back. Diend casually dropped two more cards into the Driver and shoot, all while Eternal was pulling himself back up again.

|Kamen Ride|

|CHALICE|

|Kamen Ride|

|GLAIVE|

When he pulled the trigger, two more Kamen Riders appeared before him, one in a black and silver suit in the image of a mantis as well as red and gold accents and another Rider with a black and silver suit with a massive golden A on the front. Both of them wasted no time and immediately dashed towards Eternal.

However, before any of the two Rider could reach him, W had already bridged the distance, slashing across Eternal’s chest. While the Rider did try to counterattack with his dagger, the attack was quickly blocked by W shield and rewarded with another strike of his sword.

That was also the time Glaive reached the Dark Rider, using his Glaive Rouzer, a sword-like weapon to follow up W attack, stabbing right through Eternals armor. But instead of him curling over in pain, he just stood there and looked at Glaive with his yellow eyes. “You see, a Shinigami doesn’t die from a simple stab wound!” He chuckled back and, with a loud scream, slashed his dagger across Glaive’s chest, knocking the Rider back.

That moment of triumph was, however, relatively short-lived; just as he was about to continue his assault on Glaive, Chalice dashed between the Rider and Eternal, blocking his swing with his own weapon. Chalice wielded a strange bladed weapon that was shaped like a bow and that he brought down on Eternal, letting the Rider stager backward.

Both Chalice and Glaive attempted to follow up with another strike at the Rider, but their summoner had other plans. While they had kept the Dark Rider busy, Diend had pulled out a new card once again and was in the midst of slotting it into the gun.

|Final Attack Ride|

|DIEND|

After the weapon had rung its announcements, several light blue rings made out of holographic cards appeared in front of Diend. Both Chalice and Glaive suddenly stoped, their movement starting to get erratic before both were sucked back into their card from and joined the other cards in the rings. W had just enough time to duck out of the way before Diend unleashed a bright blue energy beam with a cone-shaped end that hit Eternal square in the chest. The loud screams of the Rider finally ended when a massive explosion consumed the roof of the tower, knocking W back several meters and almost of the edge.

“Can’t you watch out where you aim?” Shotaro shouted, glaring at Diend, who had already deactivated his Driver and was walking over to where Eternal lay, or more precise, a man in a black leather jacket with brown hair, Katsumi Daido. His Driver lay next to him while his body was starting to break down.

“Seems I’m… Going back to death,” he chuckled as Diend picked up the Lost Driver, a strange L shaped device together with the Eternal Memory, right before Katsumi faded into nothingness. He simply ignored him and put the Driver on his waist and activated the Memorie.

“Henshin!”

Diend flipped the part where he had inserted the Memorie into the Driver, and he was consumed by pieces of the armor that formed around him, a long black cape flowing over his shoulder.

“Hey, what do you think you are doing there?” Shotaro shouted over to him, pushing himself off the ground and dashed forward, his sword ready to strike down the new Eternal.

“I’m just obtaining the treasure of this world,” he nonchalantly returned before activating the Memorie he had shot out of Eternal’s hand before.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, an entire swarm of Gaia Memories rocketed towards Diend, hovering around him before each slotting themselves into one of the pockets all over his harness. W speed up his charge, ready to strike down the strange Rider. Just as W had caught up to him and brought down his sword, a weird silvery curtain appeared, swallowing Diend whole and leaving him swinging at air. “Where did he go?” Shotaro asked. “Very peculiar,” Philip muttered.

The Dimension Curtain appeared in a large room, seemingly one of the side rooms of an old, abandoned mansion. But for all it was worth, everything was at least dust-free, and several display cases lined the room, each with its own treasure. A pink gemstone encased in a silver ring, a miniature red plane, as well as a small car, with a black and white gun next to it, a vile of peeper, a golden gun decorated with gemstones, and a purple game cartridge.

While walking past his previous spoils, he was already thinking about where he would display all twenty-six Gaia Memories. They would definitely occupy a special place in his collection. The only thing he needed was a briefcase to display them in. Maybe he should have stolen one as well, letting out a semi loud chuckle as he walked through the room, looking down at the Memories all over his body.

That was the moment a loud rattling echoed through the halls of the abandoned mansion like someone had walked into one of his display cases. Diend’s calm and satisfied demeanor changed in an instant. His casual walk immediately changed to a mad dash. No one would lay a hand on his treasures, not after painstakingly collecting all of them for a damn decade.

Bursting through the door to the next room, a surprised yelp could be heard as a person Diend had never seen before took a step back, bumping into a display case that held a strange red, crystalline lock with a fruit in front of it. The man was of Asian descent, wearing a business suit and had brown hair. In his hand, he held one of Diend’s oldest possessions, a black and golden belt.

“The Orga Driver! Now!” Was all he said, his voice ice cold. No one messed with his treasure.

Without even waiting for an answer, Diend stepped forward, holding his hand out in expectation of the belt. Things, however, did not go as planned; the thief instead decided to slap the belt on his wrist, open the Orga Phone, dilled in the code, and held the Phone high.

[Standing by!]

With a loud: “Henshine!” The man slammed the Phone into the Driver before Diend had any chance to ever could get to him.

[Complete!]

Golden lines flowed over his entire body, forming a grid before the actual armor materialized around it. The new Kamen Rider Orga was clad in a primary black armor with golden lines, a knee-long cape hung from his waist. His chest was decorated with a red orb, and his helmet resembled an omega. The new Rider wasted no time and immediately pulled his Phone from the Driver, flipped it open, and dilled in a new code.

[Burst Mode!]

The device gave off, and as expected, the Rider raised the weapon, but what Diend had however not expected was the fact he didn’t aim at him, no, he aimed directly at one of the display cases. Without even thinking about it, Diend jumped between the blasts and his treasure, sparks flew off his armor, and he sunk to his knees.

Orga smirked underneath his helmet, and with a swift wave of his hand, a new dimension curtain appeared and taking him with it, leaving Diend behind. The beaten Rider just growled. No one steals from a thief! He would get back his treasure, no matter the cost.

9 months later

A woman with light blue skin, long flowing dark blue hair with neon blue stripes in it, clad in a black jacket, and a large red belt-buckle was currently sitting in front of a sturdy wooden door, several other chairs lining the wall.

She was alone, but that didn’t really bother her, instead taking a look at the city below. Cars drove past the small view of the city, and people were crowding the sidewalks, all so little from up here. And still, all of this peace could be snuffed out in an instant. She had seen it all before, entire cities cast in chaos and fear. And she was right in the midst of it, trying to keep at least the tiniest spark of order alive. A fight that hadn’t particularly gotten easier in the past few months.

With the destruction of Alkahest’s artifact that had nearly ripped a hole in reality, Canterlot City had become far saver, at least on the Corrupted front, Changelings notwithstanding. But in exchange, the entire country had become a powder cake. The magic that had been concentrated around Canterlot City had been disbursed across the continent and was rapidly reacting with what was undoubtedly the dormant magic of this world. If predictions were to be believed, this process would repeat itself until the whole world was coated in it, and that just in a few years.

That also meant that Corrupted were popping up all across the country and presumably sooner rather than later all across the world. In other words, both she and Phoenix were busy as one could be and with no end in sight.

She let out a silent sigh. “And I thought it would get easier after the primary threat was gone; Haruto was wrong, it seems,” she added with a chuckle before stretching herself.

“This is! Unbelievable! Why am I being pulled off the New World Project? I have nothing but successes to show! So, why am I removed from the project? I lobbied for the idea! I got us the funding! That was all me! So tell me, why am I removed from my lifework?” A voice shouted from beyond the door, followed by a loud slam on what she could only assume was a table.

“This… This is ludicrous! I have been nothing but not loyal to the MRG! There is no evidence I’m in any way connected to her past family wise! This is profiling!” It continued only for the door to be slammed open, and a man in his fifty's stormed out. He had a similar light blue skin tone to her and short grey hair. He wore a costly looking business suit and appeared to be exceptionally livered. The moment he saw her, his eyes narrowed even more, and with a huff, he stormed off.

A loud sigh diverted her attention back to the door. In the sizeable double doorway stood an extremely muscular man crammed into a grey business suit. His skin was of dark grey color, and his short military-like hair was grey. He looked exhausted, one hand leaning on the top of the doorframe. “You know, I kinda envy you. You get to go out there every day and do all the fun stuff while I’m cooped up in here and have to deal with these snotnosed brats that never learned to grow up. Not to forget, pamper up to these politicians.”

“Well, that is the burden of being the director, director,” she returned with a smirk.

“What did I tell you?” He returned with a played frown.

“I know, I know. And trust me, Onyx, I would love to have a far more quiet job right now. A bit of peace and silence would be very welcome right about now,” she sighed in return, both of them stepping into the office, the double door falling close behind them.

The office had anything one could ask for, a side room for meetings, a small archive of the most essential records in the rooms to either side, an army of bookshelves, and most notably, a large and massive black marble table right in front of a large window overlooking Manehatten.

“Take a seat,” he said, pointing at one of the dark wooden chairs.

“So, what is so important that you pulled me off a mission in Fillydelphia for this and replaced me with Gaia? And if it’s so important, why isn’t Phoenix hear as well?” She asked, a hint of worry in her eyes.

“Phoenix is currently investigating claims of a pirate Corrupted in the vicinity of Freetown. He is currently exploring an ancient temple in the jungle of the main island and not in our range. Trust me, if I could pull him off right now, I would, but this is important right now, and second, that pirate Corrupted seems to be out to cause a tsunami in the region. I can’t risk pulling him out now,” he returned with a grim expression on his face. “But don’t worry, you and the kid got this, I’m sure of it,” he added with a chuckle, one lacking the usual energy he put into it. “And after you are done I’m sure you tow can spend a bit of priv-“

“Let’s stay on subject, can we,” Ocean interrupted Onyx, her head glowing red. That got a loud laugh out of the man, one far more in line with how he acted usually. “Glad you didn’t lose your sense of humor Onyx.”

He let out one last chuckle before his serious expression returned. “One of the most important things you can have in this job. But yes, let’s get back to why you are here.” He pushed a button on his computer as a large flatscreen came down from the ceiling right behind him, covering the entire window. Another push of a button let it light up with a map of the country. On it, one could see something that looked like a weather map right on top of Canterlot City.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“This is the crossover event regarding Kamen Rider Justice,” he returned before pushing another button, shifting the map to another similar one. “This is the crossover event regarding Wizard and Decade.” Ocean just looked at it in confusion before the image changed once again. The map shifted to a large dark red mass over Canterlot. “The Battle for Canterlot.” And one last time, the picture changed, this time not only did the form of the area change, its location did as well, roughly atop a mountain range in the southwest of the country. “And this is from a day ago. We might have another visitor,” he finished with a grim undertone.

“Any information on what happened there? Any reports of Riders or something like that?” Ocean asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Nothing, that’s just it. The area has been remarkably quiet. The only town in the area, Quartzquary, is a relatively secluded place by the best of times, but when we checked, nothing has come out of there for eight months. No one would notice if the crossover event didn’t happen there. Something’s fishy about this town, I have that in my bones, I tell you.”

“Understood, I’ll be careful. Is that all?” She asked with the faintest glimmers of hopefulness in her eyes.

“A few things, first, the signature we picked up is remarkably similar to the one Kamen Rider Decade gave off, but there are still some differences in it. Either he came from a similar world as Decade, or he is somehow connected to him,” Onyx nodded, letting the screen-roll back into the ceiling and took a look down at the city beneath him. “Second, I don’t want you to go in alone there. Agent Scorched Earth will accompany you; he will catch up to him on the outskirts of Quartzquarry. He is still a rather young agent, but his devotion to the job is almost unmatched if not a bid hotblooded, but I’m sure a bit of time with you will fix that in no time. And lastly, Light Bulb send you a present she has been working on for a while now. I’m sure you are gonna enjoy it,” he finished with a knowing smirk on his lips.

“Oh, I’ll enjoy it? Now you spark my interest Onyx. Anyway, good luck here, I’ll be on my way then,” she said with a smile on her lips.

“Good luck yourself,” Onyx encountered before letting out a loud sigh after the door fell close once again. “Why do I have such a bad feeling about this…”

Onyx wasn’t lying when he said she would enjoy it; she hadn’t had so much fun in weeks. The forests and mountains just passed her by as she climbed up the road more and more on Light Bulbs little present. If she was honest with herself, she had been somewhat jealous of Phoenix's own bike for a while now, state of the art technology, and everything while hers was already a modified two-year-old model designed for a human, not a Rider.

Her new bike, the 6U4RD Charger, was far sleeker than her previous one, more in line with Phoenix’s A2018R in the way that it was designed to assess more mountainous terrain. It also had several other features like a communicator, weaponry based on her Charge Magnum, and a few more little nicknacks she was dying to try out. The new frame was light blue in color, with silver lines all over it and the MRG logo on the sides. But most peculiar was the fact that the bike seemed to have two clean cuts through It, just where she was sitting right now.

Still, it was weird to ride around on this new bike, as good as it was. After all, her old one was something made by Ivory; she couldn’t just throw it away. She had to beg Onyx to let her keep it, and he actually agreed, saying it was her reward for saving Canterlot. As good as it felt to have the thing still by her side, if she so chooses, it still wasn’t the same. She had to admit it, she still missed him and his eccentric ways.

Letting out a silent sigh, she looked up at the road ahead when out from the forest, the first roofs of the little town appeared. It wasn’t a big place, just around fifteen thousand citizens living here and all more or less centered around a mine not too far off. The town had sprung up around eighty years ago, and ever since, the biggest news that had reached the outside world was the yearly Quartzfestival, and even that was only mentioned in a tabloid of all places. The next town was fifty kilometers away as well. All in all, one of the quietest towns imaginable, not like she hadn’t dealt with this before.

Still, something struck her as off as she came closer to the town as it loomed over her, the buildings looking quite old, but at the same time, pipes and wires were scattered across the exteriors, like someone had tried to upgrade the town into the new millennium. Her engine started to slow down as she approached the welcoming shield. She could barely make out ‘Welcome to Quartzquarry’ written on a decade-old billboard that had already fallen victim to moss and other plants long ago.

But what she didn’t see was her partner, Scorched Earth. He was initially supposed to already be here the day before and should wait for her at the shield, but no sign of anything living could be seen. The only thing she noticed was the bike someone had hidden beneath some twigs and moss. Anyone who would just drive by would easily miss it, but those who would stop would undoubtedly stumble upon it.

Putting her bike next to the shield, she took a short stroll across the nearby area without any anything to show for her trouble. “Ok, that’s strange,” she muttered before activating her communicator build into the earpiece she was wearing. “Hello? Hello! Agent Skies calling Agent Scorched Earth! Hello!” To her surprise, the device didn’t even send the message, instead only giving of static.

“Ok, now it’s official, somethings going on here. The communicator is satellite-based; there is no way I have no connection here. Something is blocking any sort of communication going in the town,” she muttered, leaning against the shield, taking a look up at the town. “Should I report this?” She continued, looking down at the endless forest beneath her and the road winding itself through it like a snake. “Probably not, I don’t even know where the jamming signal stops. And I still haven’t made contact with Scorched Earth…”

With a resigned sigh, she pushed herself off the sign and proceeded to cover her bike the same way he had done. “Ok then, let’s take a look up there. Maybe I find him somewhere there. Let’s hope he just disrespected orders instead of getting himself in any sort of situation,” she muttered as she started to track up the remaining way to the town on foot.

As she ultimately crossed the last bit of road, she could finally take a look at the town. Like what she had seen before, the entire town was covered in wires and pipes that stretched across the roves and even over streets, all above what any human could typically reach. It was almost like a giant spider had covered the city in its web.

What, however, was far more unnerving was the fact that not a single person could be seen on the streets. Sure, it was a small mining town on the edge of civilization, but still, at least someone was always doing something. The cars lined the streets as if parked for only a few minutes, but no light shined in any of the buildings.

“No signs of anyone, at least on the streets…” she muttered as she carefully took another step forward, the wind blowing early through the now-empty town.

This whole thing let a shiver run down her spine the further she went. She dared to take a look into some of the cars on the side of the road, a few of their windows smashed inward. Besides the considerable amount of dust that had formed inside them, there was nothing too strange about them besides that. No people inside them, only a few purses were all that was left behind.

The buildings were no different as well, cold and empty like the inhabitants had just abandoned them on a whim and left for the woods. The only thing she found were bits of ash inside some of them as well as more broken windows. Whatever had happened here, it wasn’t peaceful in the slightest, and judging by the dust in the cars and everywhere else, it had happened a long time ago…

“What happened here? It went silent eight months ago, so could it be Corrupted? Doubtful, there was no reading of magical energy in the area, and they couldn’t have masked that, right? They are capable enough to intercept our communication, so maybe?” She continued, her expression growing more and more worried. “By Tartarus, I wish Phoenix would be here, being alone in this empty town gives me the creeps.”

That was when the sound of something metallic caught her ears. In an instant, she spun around, putting her and on the holster of her Charge Magnum. At first glance, the street behind her appeared empty, no sign of anyone around, just like before, but she could hear the sound of something made out of metal rolling across the concrete. It took her a few seconds, but eventually, she spotted an old soda can moving away from an alleyway. “There you are,” she muttered to herself before slowly advancing towards the alley. Her heartbeat started to pick up a bit as she advanced, not entirely sure what kind of creature would await her that could cause something like this, or if it was something else entirely…

With a dash forward, she pulled her gun out of the holster and aimed it straight at where she assumed to noise had come from. She was greeted with something she hadn’t expected in the slightest, an identical barrel pointing her way. “Weapon down!” She said in a commanding tone, her muscles ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

The person on the other end of that gun was about to pull the trigger himself when he looked at her a bit closer, his eyes widening in shock as he quickly lowered the gun. With both hands held high, he let the red Charge Magnum fall to the ground and stood back up. Now, she got a better look at the man in front of her. His skin had a red-brown tone to it, and his hair was a short grey. He wore a black shirt with similar colored pants.

“I’m so sorry, you’re Agent Skies, right?” The man blurted out before bowing his head.

“Uhm, yes,” Ocean returned, somewhat taken aback by the reaction. “So, I assume you are Agent Scorched Earth, right?”

“Yes, mam, Agent Scorched Earth to your service!” He returned, saluting the confused Rider, adding only to her bafflement as she lowered her gun.

“Yeah…” she muttered to herself before just shaking her head. “So, we’ll be working together then, right?”

“Yes, mam, I will try my hardest to be useful to you,” he returned with a vigorous nod.

“Good… If you don’t mind, I would prefer it if you would just call me Ocean, this mam is making me a bit uncomfortable to be quite honest…” she returned with a bit of unease in her voice. “Doesn’t help that we are in this ghost town here.”

“Yeah, unsettling, isn’t it? Has been this way the whole time I have been here,” he added, but not without taking a look around them. “If you don’t mind. I scouted out an open house just around the corner here. Nothing in there. And if we want to discuss some things, doing it out here in the open just doesn’t bode well with me.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea. I have a few questions to ask you anyway,” she said in return before both of them walked down the alley and entering the abandoned house Scorched had spoken of. Like the rest, it was utterly empty, minus a single pile of ash that lay next to the door. As they opened the door, a gust of wind scattered it across the hallway a bit.

“So this is it?” She asked, sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, still not entirely convinced that this was any less creepy than outside.

“Yeah, pretty much. I was here since yesterday. This morning I decided to scout ahead a bit; maybe I would find something. I just get restless quite easily, to be honest,” he returned, tapping on the table as he did so.

“I see, but weren’t you supposed to stay back until I arrived? What if this town wasn’t all that empty after all? If you had disappeared on me, that could have jeopardized the whole mission,” Ocean encountered with a stern look in her eyes. “While I don’t mind creatively interpreting orders at times if it means one is more adaptable to unforeseen incidents, it’s pretty much how I work with Phoenix, but this is stretching it a bit. Next time listen to what a superior says. One shouldn’t carelessly disregard an order, only in the direst of circumstances.” She emphasized the last one with a solemn undertone and a hint of regret in her eyes.

“Uhm, yes, mam,” he said, only to stop himself and continue with: “Yes, Ocean, I will keep it in mind and fully understand your concerns. Still, what is done, is done, right?” Ocean just looked at him with an uncertain look in her eyes.

“I guess so; still, I would appreciate it if you learned from this little encounter.”

“I will. If you are interested, I could tell you about what little I managed to find out,” he continued.

“Go ahead, would be a waste if we couldn’t salvage anything from it, I guess,” Ocean said, still somewhat unsure of what to make of his answer.

“Understandable. From what I could gather, there is no one in this town right now, but that doesn’t mean that no one has been here in the last few months. All of the cables and pipes have been placed far more recently, and they are all slowly leading towards a single spot, an old pool. All the pipes and everything leads there, or to be more precise, they lead away from there. It seems there is a continuous flow of air away from there, at least at the ones that are completed. I also found several ones that are still in the process of being build, and most intriguingly, there seems to be a wall that is currently being constructed all around the town. Whatever is happening here, it isn’t done just yet,” he finished with a grim expression on his face.

“That doesn’t sound good in the slightest…”

“Permission to speak freely?” He added with a nervous undertone.

“What is it?”

“In my opinion, this place is far too dangerous to leave be. If someone has the power to wipe out an entire town without anyone noticing and build this in its place that someone has to be stopped by any means necessary or at least delayed. We don’t know what they are planning here, and we can’t just leave it be, or waste any time. My best suggestion would be to blow this place to kingdom come and cover up our involvement. It’s by far the most secure method because if we tried to dig deeper, we might just let them escape somewhere else, and goodness knows if we ever find them again,” he returned, an unnerving conviction in his voice.

Ocean just looked at him with a mortified expression. “I… I understand what you want to tell me, but… This far too early to make such a serious decision. We still have no idea about what any of this is, who is behind it, and, most importantly, what happened to the inhabitance of this town. It’s our job to protect the world from supernatural dangers, and that includes the people of this town. I’m not going to sacrifice them if we haven’t exhausted all our options, you understand that?”

Ocean glared at him, Scorched first rising from his seat and returning: “Bu…” Only to quiet down soon after and finish with a resigned: “Understood.”

Before Ocean could encounter anything, something caught both their attention, steps. They were fast and were getting closer and closer before raced past them. Ocean and Scorched shared one look before they were about to dash out the door and follow behind them when more steps came closer, this time far more than before, following right after the first pair.

“We have company! You’ll guard my back, I'll go ahead,” Ocean stated, leaving no room for any objections before dashing out the door and into the alley. As she turned her head around, she saw a group of grey bodys mixed in with something black rushing along the street. Pulling the gun once again out of its holster, she sprinted after them, trying her best to keep a distance to them.

The group of strange figures came to a stop just on the outside of the alley and where it went over into a bigger road. She spotted a fire ladder on one of the buildings, dashed up it as quietly as possible, and dared to sneak a look at what was going on bellow her, as good as the web of cables and pipes would allow it at least.

The first thing she spotted was the man in the white jacket, the light brown hair and pale blue skin standing in the middle of the street, three groups of figures blocking his way, two at each side of him on the road and the last one was the group she had been following.

What was most striking about them on a closer look was the fact that they weren’t actual people; instead, the white ones were a group of identical monsters. Their skin was covered in a thick white shell with several small feet on their upper body. Two tails extended from their back from under a thick shell, almost like a shrimp. Their heads were compressed of two eyes that just barely poked out from the shell and two antennas. They kind of reminded her of a picture of a species of plankton she had once seen in a book, just turned into a humanoid monster. The other notable thing was the three men clad in black armor, one in each of the groups. Their body was covered in bronze armor plates and a single round visor on their heads. Were they Riders?

“Surrender now, and you might live,” one of them barked out, taking a step towards the blue man.

The man in question just chuckled and pulled forth a black and blue pistole with a stylish twirl to boot. “I might live? Honestly, I like my chances fighting far more,” he smirked back before pushing a card into the now open slot on the front of the weapon.

|Kamen Ride|

“Henshin!”

|DIEND|

At once, the process atop Futo Tower repeated itself, the Rider now once again clad in his sky blue armor.

The group of monsters and the three Riders stared at him for a moment before they charged forward at the Rider, who didn’t appear worried in the slightest. Instead, he casually pulled out another card and slotted it into the gun like it was a nice and sunny evening with nothing spectacular going on at all.

|Attack Ride|

|BLAST|

Once again, the shoots of the weapon zoomed around the battlefield like they had not a single care in the world before hitting a few of the Plankton monsters, letting them explode in blue flames and leaving nothing behind than grey ash.

That was also roughly the time at which Scorched Earth managed to stumble into this fight, and as luck would have it, one of the monsters that hadn’t been dusted, but instead only thrown back, landed right in front of him, letting out a loud growl. That attracted the attention of the group that had closed off the alley. “Oh, another snooping rat. Where might you come from,” the man clad in armor chuckled before pointing his finger at Scorched, and the group under his command stormed towards him.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /

Right before the monsters could reach Scorched, a lightning blue ball of energy landed before them, knocking the few that had managed to get close enough back as well. As the light faded, Charge stared at the group of monsters with her two red eyes in all her glory.

“I’m sorry, but he is with me,” she returned coldly while pulling up her Charge magnum and her Stun Baton.

“What, another Rider? It seems you pests just keep showing up,” he growled before pulling out a sword with a copper blade and large handguard.

While Ocean was busy fending off her own group, Diend had already dispatched several more of the footsoldiers, leaving the overall number of the two groups halved. He just backhanded one of the storming Planktons, and in doing so had pushed open the card-slot, after he had inserted two more cards in the device.

|Kamen Ride|

|FAIZ|

|Kamen Ride|

|KAIXA|

Two other Riders appeared, one in a silver and black suit with red lines running through it as well as two large yellow eyes, the other one clad in silver and black armor with yellow stripes and purple eyes. With a single wave of Diends hand, the two dashed forward, the red one flicking his wrist before moving, and tackled the Plankton’s away from him. “Well, now that this will be taken care of, I can greet you two. I must say, you are a useful bunch, I tell you, though I wonder how useful you are against this,” he chuckled before pushing forward, his weapon in hand, the two Riotroopers doing the same with their respective swords in hand.

The first one that reached him tried immediately to slam down his blade on him only for it to clash against the upper part of the gun, and before the Riotrooper could react was the gun already aimed straight at him, several shots hitting him square in the chest as he tumbled backward. Diend was, however, not satisfied yet, threw a card in there, and flipping the slot open once again, all while bridging the gap between them.

|Attack Ride|

|BLAST|

The moment he put the barrel of the gun at the chest of his opponent, all the shoots went straight through his body, leaving gaping holes behind, at least before the entire trooper exploded and left nothing but dust in his place. “And it seems that this world’s Riders aren’t so shabby as well.”

He had looked over to Ocean, who was just slamming the Stun Baton at one of the Planktons, letting him fall to the ground and start to violently convulse before she absentmindedly put one of her rounds in his head, the Orphenoch falling apart like the rest. This, however, did not deter the four other ones that immediately rushed forward to where their comrade had fallen. Charge took a single look at them before the lines on her feet started to glow, and in the blink of an eye, a blue blur was shooting forward, four shoots rang through the street, and the Orphenochs feel the moment she passed. “Now, that only leaves you,” she said to the Riotrooper in front of her. “How about you surrender, and we can solve this peacefully.”

She received her answer by a bolt of light to the face, or at least where her face used to be; instead, the attack only hit the wall behind her as Charge had already dashed forward and slammed her open palm into the stomach of the Trooper. He landed with a low grunt on his back, slowly pushing himself back up before glaring at the Rider. With a loud scream, he pulled up his gun that had turned back into the sword and swung it down at her. Metal meat metal, and within a heartbeat, the trooper started convulsing, the Stun Baton doing precisely as advertised.

With a swift roundhouse kick, she knocked the weapon out of the trooper's hand and spun the cylinder of her Driver once again. Meanwhile, Diend pushed in another card.

\ Maximum Charge! /

|Final Attack Ride|

|DIEND|

While Charge jumped at the trooper and grabbed ahold of his shoulders, the two Riders who had just dealt with the last Plankton were pulled into the card circle of Diend. The Rider pulled the trigger, a blue beam of light eviscerating the Riotrooper quickly. At the same time, Charge started to slam her feet into the chest of her opponent with ever greater speed before pushing herself off of him and landing next to Scorched Earth.

The Trooper was knocked out of his transformation, leaving behind a man in a black suit with a black hat. “So, now we can tal-“ She was about to say when electricity sparked through his body, the man convulsing on the ground and bursting into blue flames. Ocean took a step back, the horror on her face only masked by her helmet as she stared at the man collapse into ash.

Before she could even stammer anything, the other Rider spoke up in a very smug voice: “Thank you very much for the help, but this is where I have to leave. I prefer to work alone.” As he spoke, he pushed up his Driver once again, a card already in his hand. “Oh, and I would like it for you to stay out of my way.”

|Attack Ride|

|INVISABLE|

The moment he had pushed the card into the Driver, his image flickered, and in the blink of an eye, he had disappeared. “Wait!” She burst out far too late and could only stretch out her hand towards the nothing that now filled the street. With a defeated sigh, she deactivated her Driver and said: “Seems we are on the right track,” all while the wind slowly started to blow away the ash.

Author's Note

Well. It has been a while since I wrote something. But I finally finished this, more or less, V-Cinema for Charge. I hope you all have fun with this story.

The Dead Live Longer

Ocean let herself slump down on an old bar-stool that hadn’t been cleaned in ages with a loud sigh. “That could have gone a lot better. Certainly not how I expected this to go. You?” She looked over to Scorched Earth, who shook his head in return.

“Not at all, this was well beyond my wildest imaginations. These things are scary, I tell you. Those eyes, nothing but hatred in them,” he returned with a shudder. “And the fact that they become ash when defeated makes it only worse. I tell you, these things sure as Tartarus ain’t human.” He almost spat the last part of that.

“Disagree, at least partially. That… Rider was human, and he became dust as well. Probably same type of creature if you ask me. Oh, I wish Iv… Light Bulb was here; she would be all over this and could possibly give us some answers to what these things are. But thanks to the jammer, we can’t get in contact with her. It seems we have to either finish this without intel or get that one through another way. And then there is this Kamen Rider. He reminds me of Decade, a lot actually. Wouldn’t be surprised if he knew Tsukasa. Might actually be worth it asking him about that. Let’s hope they are on friendly terms. But as it stands now, we can’t be sure of his help, especially after what he said,” she sighed, opening a bottle of water and instead of pouring it into a glass just drunk from the bottle.

“If he isn’t on our side, he’s probably an enemy. I don’t believe in the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. At best, they are a tool to be used. It’s rare to find allies that way; most of the time, they just wait for you to turn their backs towards you and stab you themselves,” Scorched returned. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be too sure of his help. Right now, we know next to nothing, he could be far worse than those… things.” He said the last bit with a cold shiver running down his spine.

“Yeah, he could be, but I somehow have the feeling that he could be an ally. I don’t know what it is, but he really gives me a similar vibe to Tsukasa. Dick on the outside, but not so bad after all on the inside, but that’s nothing but speculation as of now. Right now, we have to figure out how to act, and we shouldn’t stay here for too long. They now know that we are here, and I’m sure they don’t take kindly to intruders. We need a battle strategy. Rushing in there in hopes of finding anything probably won’t work out,” she finished before taking another sip from her bottle.

“Well, our best lead right now is what happened to the town. All these pipes and cables have to have some sort of reason for being there…” He muttered back, picking up a bottle of water as well.

“Yeah, there has to be. And they aren’t done yet how it looks. They must have been busy since this town went dark. I have a feeling that all of this could end really badly if we hadn’t picked up that dimensional signal,” Ocean returned before finishing the last of the water and putting the bottle back on the counter. “You know, all of this probably costs a lot of money. Like, a large amount of money. Who do you think could even pay for something like this?”

“Well, most likely, the ‘Circle’ if I’m honest. They got their grabby hands in everything it feels. And by the looks of things here, I would definitely bet that they are connected to this as well. It could also be the mining company. They would have noticed if one of their mines went dark for a few months, but nothing of the sorts. Maybe they just wanted to push it under the rug or something to that extent, but I don’t believe that.”

“I agree. I actually got the updated files with me right now,” she nodded in agreement before pulling out her new phone. Right out of Light Bulb’s forge, so to say. It was far more comparable to an old flip phone and well deserved the nickname of brick. She probably could have knocked someone out with the thing and still be able to call someone later. It was mainly black with light-blue strips on its back. With a few presses on the weirdly laid out number pad, the files in question opened.

“A bit big, but the new Charge-Phone still does its job. Probably won’t be long till this becomes standard gear for operatives. Shame the signal is jammed, or I might be able to get more than the files I downloaded before leaving. Probably means I won’t get to use my new toy either… Well, unless we somehow find a way to stop the jamming,” she sighed as she looked up towards the ceiling with a frown.

“Well, doubt we need something as destructive as that anyway. Or at least I hope so.” Ocean suddenly stopped and smirked: “Ah, here it is! Rockson Mining Corporation. All in all looks like a completely normal company, nothing shady going on, until, well, February 15th, 2018. That was when the whole company was suddenly bought out of the blue by a company called Smart Rock. Just appeared on the scene. It’s CEO was the son of a large businessman, his name is Blooming Rock. Until then, he had managed to bankrupt three companies in the span of three years, but it looks Smart Rock is doing good. Thing is, he didn’t get the money from his dad apparently, or least that is what they say in the high-society. And it’s just around the time this town went silent, isn’t that interesting?” Ocean smirked before closing the phone again.

“So, you’re saying that he somehow got all of this running on his own, probably with help from Circle money?” Scorched raised his eyebrow a bit.

“Partially. I’m not suggesting he is the mastermind here. His reputation is… questionable, to say the least. And I don’t think someone who managed to sink three companies in three years would make a great mastermind at all. And I doubt that if this is really connected to them, and not just a colossal coincidence that they would hide their tracks better. The moment someone starts asking questions, they would be done for. No, I think our rich kid here is just another tool to be discarded when things get heated. This is bigger, and he just stumbled into it,” she finished with a sigh. “I had really not expected this. I knew it could get weird, but all of these reaks of multiverse trouble. Maybe this is a test side for an invasion from another world?”

“Whatever it is, this entire thing is meticulously planned through; otherwise, they would have blown their cover way earlier. But I’m sure they won’t stand against a Kamen Rider, right?” He chuckled, giving Ocean a hopeful look.

She smiled back at him before returning: “Oh, a Rider fan? Fair enough. I have no intention of letting them get away with all of this in any way, shape, or form. Still, we shouldn’t get cocky. They have monsters and seemingly Riders on their side as well. Until now, they all have been very weak, but we shouldn’t underestimate them. But that are all problems for tomorrow; right now, we should get a bit of shuteye, at least in my opinion. I was the entire day riding my bike, and after that little fight, I think we should be on our a game for this.”

“But… But we can’t let them recover. We can’t stay here for too long. They know we are here, they certainly will start looking for us,” Scorched encountered, looking at her in confusion.

“Calm down. I’m aware, but while this town is small, it’s still big enough that it will take them a bit till they search it all. I made sure that we chose a building they wouldn’t immediately realize someone broke in. The door is locked again, and I don’t plan on sleeping here in the middle of the bar. I already scouted out a good supply closet on the upper floor. It should be enough for one at a time. They won’t have enough time to look thoroughly, so if we do this clever, we can pull this off. I’ll take the first shift, and after five hours, you are gonna wake me up so we can switch. I want to get up in the night, so we still have a bit of the darkness clouding us when we start investigating, gives us a bit of an idea of how their security works when things are a bit easier. Any complaints?” She stated, in a tone that let every word he wanted to say just shrivel up in his mouth and die.

When he finally shook his head, she smiled back at him. “Well, then, I hope you sleep well. Tomorrow will be a crucial day for both of us. We’re gonna get to the bottom of all of this.”

The cold night air silently blew through the town, letting a shiver run down Scorched Earth’s back as he quietly followed after Ocean, who was sneaking through alleyway after alleyway, her Charge Magnum in her hand. His shift had been mostly uneventful, well, minus the sounds of a group of these creatures walking past the bar on the ground. Thankfully they hadn’t decided to pay them a visit, instead just continuing with their patrol. Even from the window, they looked wrong like they wouldn’t belong in this world. He had seen monsters on TV and mission reports, but never so closer and so many of them. Things like these really shouldn’t exist…

“Scorched? Are you coming?” Ocean hissed back to him from behind a large dumpster that stunk to the heavens. Apparently, the Monsters hadn’t bothered cleaning the trash; that was something he had noticed in the bar as well. Thankfully it hadn’t been too bad.

Shaking his head, he nodded, and with a quick look to either side of him, he quietly dashed over to her, pressing himself against the disgusting container. “You need to be concentrated, Scorched. We are in enemy territory; we can’t take any slip-ups right now. If we get spotted, this could be the end, you got that?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be more careful,” he returned, giving the area another look around. What he, however, didn’t notice was the small camera, partially hidden behind some of the pipes and wires above them. With a quiet mechanical noise, it zoomed in on the two.

“This can’t be happening, right?” A man with pale blue skin and light grey hair stood in front of several monitors before slamming his fist on the ground. “First, Diend showed up and decided to mess with us, and now these two.”

“Haruki, what is it this time?” another man groaned, walking into the large open room, his shoes creating echoing sounds that bounced off the walls of the big room. The entire thing was tiled with old, dark green tiles. The ceiling was about twenty meters above them and shielded the giant, now empty pool in the middle of the room. Well, devoid of water at least, instead, it had been filled with rows upon rows of canisters of what could only be assumed to be some sort of gas, all linked up by tubes and cables. The lights hanging from the ceiling drenched the old pool in artificial and sterile light.

Up above in what was once a small room for the lifeguards overseeing the entire pool Haruki Hamasaki, dressed in his best lab coat, was cursing to the high heavens, but primarily at the monitor. Another figure stepped into the room. His skin was a far darker blue with grey hair and compared to his more slim looking compatriot, he was far more muscular, two cups of coffee in his hand, still steaming hot. Placing down one of them next to Haruki, he sighed: “I was just about to go on my break, man, you can’t do this to me.”

“Taichi, I have no time for you’re damn laziness right now! We have guests,” Haruki growled at Taichi Mizushima, who just shook his head in annoyance.

“And who is it? I know Diend showed up earlier, but we already increased security around the pool. He won’t get through. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. I know they tell ghost stories about him and that Decade, but not even he will get through here,” Taichi returned with a relaxed smile on his lips before pouring one of the coffee down his throat.

“Oh, of course. One of the Riders responsible for taking down Dai-Shocker is nothing to worry about then? That has almost been ten years, and he is still out there stealing whatever he can get his hands on. You really expect him to be stoped by a few Plankton Orphenochs and Riotroopers? I know you are lazy, but this is taking it to a new extreme. When Diend sets his sights on something, he usually gets it, or no one does. I would like to survive this day. And that isn’t even factoring in the other two. No idea who they are, but they seem-“ Haruki hissed back before he was interrupted by one of the monitors suddenly springing to live.

“Her name is Ocean Skies. Kamen Rider Charge, one of the four active Riders of this world. The other one just a rooky agent of the MRG, Scorched Earth. It seems the citizens of this earth have caught onto the fact that we are operating here,” the man with pale white skin and brown hair, dressed in an expensive business suit said, adjusting his tie as he did so.

“Do… Doctor Maeda!” Taichi stammered out, almost dropping the half-empty mug of coffee he had in his hand. “What… What brings us the honor? Everything is going exactly like scheduled, we-“

“I know, I know Mizushima. Well, besides your little Rider problem. How could this happen? We made sure that no one would suspect a thing, we even used some Changelings to fool the most persistent idiots, so why are they here?” Maeda returned, his cold glare square on Taichi.

“We don’t know. It might be connected to Diend showing up here. He might have drawn their attention and made them look into our area here. Whatever it is, right now, we only have these two here. We still can salvage this somehow, we just need time,” Haruki returned, the sweat already rolling down his forehead.

“Oh, really, Hamasaki? Good to hear because if you don’t, I hope the Riders take care of you because disappointing our benefactors or me is really not something you would like. We are still in dire need of test subjects to test the formula. If you would volunteer, I’m sure we could skip several steps in the process. You would die a hero for the cause of the Orphenochs, but right now, that would be a massive waste since you deliver quality work down there. So don’t make me regret anything, got it?” The doctor returned with a chilling undertone.

“Of course, Doctor Maeda. We’ll take care of this, don’t worry. We’ll be right on tha-“

Once again, the skinny scientist was interrupted. “No, you will not. Nothing drastic for now; just bunker yourself in there. Minimize patroles to the lowest they can be without losing track of them and pull everyone back to the pool. I’ll send her down there. I will not chance this, not with Riders. Especially not with one like Diend. He wants his treasure back, but I’m not willing to give up one of the most integral parts of my research just yet. If things change, call me again. Until then, keep everything under control.”

With that, the connection broke up, leaving both Haruki and Taichi standing in the room with shocked expressions on their faces. “So, she is coming, isn’t she? How long do you think she will take?” Taichi was the first to find his voice again, emptying the last of his coffee just to get back a feeling to his face.

“Probably a few hours. She most likely won’t be coming alone; she’s smarter than that. Judging by everything, she will probably come with the next convoy, which means roughly around morning. We just need to keep the two Riders distracted until then, and everything should work itself out. At least in theory. We need to keep Diend from interacting with that Charge girl. If they decide to work together, we will be at a disadvantage,” he sighed, letting himself sink into his seat. “You know, I had hoped we had still two more months to finish this up in peace, but now, it seems like we are getting into the hot phase. I’m not even sure if we can do the field test at this point any more… All of these ginny pigs are going to waste if we can’t.”

“Yeah, that stinks. But the Doctor would be happy, at least. He never liked this in the first place, his invention being already perfect and whatnot. It doesn’t need any testing and all that crap.”

“Yeah, as much as I admire his intellect, you always test inventions before using them. That is just common sense, but the only ones who can argue with the Doctor are the people with the money. So thank god for that,” he chuckled before picking up his own mug and downing the entire content in one swop. “Ahhh, exactly what I needed right now. Hey, if it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle for you, could you get me another one of those? I have the feeling this is gonna be a very long night…”

“Sure, I need another one as well,” Taichi chuckled in return, taking the two mugs and walking back towards the door. “You think we can handle it?”

“We have to, simple as that!” He returned with a somber tone in his voice.

Atop the town, amidst the pipes and cables, a slim figure rushed through the night. It almost seemed like every obstacle was just an inconvenience for him as he parkoured over them with ease, his gun tightly clenched in his hand. All of a sudden, he came to a screeching halt, letting himself sink to the ground and laying between two of the larger pipes on a smaller one.

Not even five seconds later, a patrol of the ten Planktons and two Riotropers passed by under him. But what definitely caught his eyes was the fact that they weren’t so much searching the area; no, if that had been the case, they would have stayed longer; they were on their way to somewhere. It didn’t even take them ten seconds to pass him by and disappear around another corner.

With a sigh, he pushed himself off the pipe and back on his feet, brushing through his hair. “What could have them so rilled up? I would have expected this to be at least a bit harder, but they make it almost too easy,” Daiki chuckled. “Maybe the other Rider managed to get herself spotted again? Or was it her little friend? Either way, not like it’s my problem. As long as they can soak up some bullets for me, it’s all fine.”

He was just about to continue his sprint when he spotted something on the street below him. Two figures emerged from the shadows behind a dumpster not long after the patrol had moved on. Raising an eyebrow, he watched as the figures sneaked forward, clinging to the sides of the building like glue, staying perfectly in the shadows. Raising an eyebrow, he followed their movement down the streets, seemingly following the pipes and wires just like him. He had to admit, the two were persistent, not particularly smart; after all, they were still here, but persistent.

As they were out of sight again, he once again pushed himself up, leaning against the pipe with an amused grin on his lips. “Riders, always the same. So damn stubborn. But if they weren’t the cause for our little Orphenoch friends to run around like scared chicken, what else could it be? Mhm, might they be a bit scared? Two Riders are nothing to scoff at, even with this level of security. I have to be careful; I’m getting the feeling that it won’t be as easy as sneak in and leave. Oh well, nothing stands between a thief and his treasure,” he chuckled before continuing his sprint across the pipes and roofs of the town.

Every time he reached a higher vantage point, it was easy for him to figure out where to go next. All lead to one point, a big building somewhat in the middle of town. It stood out like a sore thumb in between the other buildings. It just was far too large to blend in, like a massive concrete box with just way too many windows one couldn’t even properly look into. The old pool looked like it would have needed a proper renovation in the last twenty years, but from what he had managed to gather, the town wasn’t really in any position to do that. And so it had slowly withered and rotted away until it was just an empty building, no longer fit for public use.

It had become a place for the teenagers of the town to hang out at, and now, it looked like someone else had set up shop. Dozens upon dozens of pipes and hundreds of wires ran towards the building, flowed together, merged, and created a mess of metal and rubber that gradually disappeared in the building. Several of the pipes seemed to lead nowhere, but he could see some parts of unused material right below where they ended—all of this capped off by a large antenna sitting right atop of it. But at the same time, it seemed like the work wasn’t entirely done.

The closer he got to the abomination that once was a public pool, the more he noticed the growing amount of Orphenoch and Riotropers below. What at first was a Trooper or two to three of the Plankton Orphenochs quickly grew until it took a minute for him to move forward in between patrols passing by under him. And worst of all, at times, there seemed to be more coming as well.

When he finally reached one of the closest buildings to the pool, he could see a massive amount of Riotropers and Orphenoch lining the street. At first glance, there were at least over ten dozen of the planktons around the building, with about twenty Riotropers split evenly between them. And that didn’t even factor in the other fifty Orphenochs and ten Riotropers that were scouting the area where he had come from. There was an ungodly amount of them here, and if this were any indicator, he wouldn’t be able to fight himself through that hoard without a lot of effort, but more importantly, time. He definitely didn’t have time to get distracted by the army of goons down there. With his cards, there was definitely no chance of losing against them if he did play them right. The Orphenochs were surprisingly weak for their species, and the Riotropers were just weaker versions of Faiz. Staying in the shadows and letting his summons deal with most of them wouldn’t be too difficult all things considered, but he had a better idea.

He wasn’t a thief for nothing, and he would get good use out of these pipes as well. He simply had to sneak past them, just above their noses. The whole plan didn’t prove to be too complicated, only slow and tedious. He couldn’t just run, or the would either hear or see him, so he had to more or less crawl along the largets pipes, all while occasionally slowing down when he assumed he could have been spotted. The entire process took him over fifteen minutes, but at least he had managed to slip through undetected.

The last thing was lockpicking the window to an old restaurant above the entrance and slipping inside. Thankfully that only took a few seconds, and he finally was in. Now he only had to sneak past the guards inside, locate the main computer and slip out undetec-

That was the moment the sound of an explosion rippled through the air from outside. With a sigh, Daiki pushed deeper into the building, far quicker than he actually would have preferred, accompanied by more and more explosions from outside. It seems like the Riders of this world were determined to make things harder for him.

A few minutes earlier, both Ocean and Scorched Earth had reached the pool as well, just barely avoiding running right into one of the returning patrols that were swarming the place. Behind one of the corners inside an alley, the two were carefully examining the situation. “Damn it… We aren’t getting in there like this… Well, not without a fight, at least,” Ocean sighed as she leaned back around the corner.

“We could try sneaking across the pipes. Maybe they won’t see us that way…” Scorched returned, looking up at the net of them all leading towards the building.

“Sure, and we could fall to our deaths just as easily. We had to find a way up there without getting noticed and get over there without falling down or getting any attention. Possible, just very unlikely, or do you have experience in that?” She returned with a somewhat annoyed tone.

“Not really…”

“See. Only an expert could do that, and we are more likely to just make their jobs easier. No, we need another way in, just how…” Ocean sighed again, shaking her head with a frustrated look in her eyes.

After a good minute of silence, Scorched simply asked: “You think you could take them?”

“Maybe, well, as long as they are comparable to the ones we faced before. They are just as weak as Remnants, well the monsters at least. The Riders are a bit weaker than Thunder Charge. Still, they have a huge number advantage, and we still don’t know if they have something more powerful in their arsenal. Maybe with Friendship Charge, I could have a chance, but I would prefer it if we found another way. I don’t want to risk it, but I just can’t think of a better way then using the pipes, and that is pretty much suicide if they spot us…” she hissed, the thought of storming the castle, so to speak, getting more and more tempting with every second.

“I mean, if we wait, they just get more and more, and eventually they are gonna spot us if we stay here. And we still don’t know what they are planing. We have to do something, and if it is going in guns blazing! A Kamen Rider doesn’t fear the danger, right? And especially not against monsters like those? We can’t let them continue! They already know we are here, so we can’t use the element of surprise anyway, so why not try it at least?” Scorched returned, a determined look in his eyes.

“Look, I get that, but storming directly at them should be a last resort. I don’t want to expose us to a potentially far stronger foe after I dealt with the group out here. We are the only ones here, no one to fall back on, so we can’t just play the big hero and pretend like this is an action movie. Tactics like these are only viable if one has all the information, or it is a last resort, not any time else! You got that Agent Scorched Earth?” She asked sternly, her eyes staring directly into his eyes.

But before he could answer, they heard a loud screech. As he turned around, the Plankton Orphnoch was already rushing towards him; out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Ocean dashing forward and past him, slamming her fist in the creature's gut. While it seemingly went down, several more screeches were heard, only for more and more to join the chorus.

“Crap! Seems like storming the castle it is... “ She sighed as she activated her Driver once more, the Orphnoch next to her slowly starting to rise again. “You get somewhere safe! This won’t be clean, and I can’t afford to lose you in the collateral!” She barked back while pulling out a purple Charger from her pocket and spun it in her Driver.

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

The orb of surging energy around her appeared again, this time in a bright purple, knocking the Plankton next to her away as the armor formed. The bright blue undersuit had been replaced with a bright purple one, through the silver plating with it black edges had remained. The Rider now held a futuristic rifle in her hands, and without even looking down, she pulled the trigger, letting a ball of energy shoot straight through the Orphnoch she had just knocked back. She didn’t even watch it turn to ash, already spinning around and unleashing a barrage of shots towards the crowd that had gathered in front of the pool.

With a loud explosion, the orbs slammed into the ground, taking several of the monsters with them, the Rider dashing out of the alley and to the side. Scorched could just watch in awe as she continued to unleash Tartarus on the monsters. He didn’t even notice that none of the monsters seemed to show any interest in him, far too enamored with the display of what a Rider could do.

After the fourth round of projectiles had taken out another chunk of the numerous guards in front of her, they had finally managed to cross the distance, the first thing jumping at her was one of the Planktons. Like a wild animal, it threw itself on her, only to be greeted by the barrel of her rifle right into its eye. Without any sort of hesitation, she pulled the trigger, three balls of purple energy flying out of the back of its head as it fell apart. The three orbs zoomed around over the crowed before crashing into three unsuspecting Orphnoch, dooming them to a similar fate as the one that had attacked her.

Not that this display did anything to deter the bunch of them from trying it as well. The process repeated itself about two times again until the first Riotrooper reached her. Kicking down one of the Plankton in front of him, he aimed his gun at Charge and pulled the trigger. In the last second, she managed to dodge the attack and dashed forward right into the crowd. This did, however, nothing to slow him down as he pulled the trigger, again and again, every time missing the Rider. Instead, he only managed to hit his own subordinates.

It didn’t take long for him to lose track of the Rider only to suddenly feel a kick in his back that sent him flying into a group of Orphnoch. As he managed to look back up, she had her weapon already pressed against his chest and pulled the trigger. All of them were consumed in a massive explosion, several of the orbs flying out and hitting some of the Planktons as they zoomed around.

The Plankton themself didn’t seem too impressed though, jumping into the dust around Charge. At first, only the shoots of Charge’s rifle could be heard, followed by screeches of Orphenochs that had been hit in the crossfire. But eventually, that stopped, and as the dust had settled, one could see the Rider wrestling with a group of Planktons that had managed to pile up on her, some even already clawing at her armor.

“Damn it!” She grunted as she tried to push the monsters of her, but they just proved too damn stubborn, refusing to let off of her for even a second. Not soon after, one could hear her screams as the Orphonchs started to pull once again on her armor, sparks flying from it. What they didn’t notice was Ocean, through all the pain of being ripped apart alive, pushing down to the cylinder on her Driver and spun it again.

\ Maximum Charge! /

Within moments the barrel of her gun started to glow a bright purple, with every second glowing ever brighter. Still, every one of these seconds felt like an eternity, an eternity where the monster could just claw and pull away on her armor like it belonged to them, accompanied by the feeling of pain that surged through her the entire time. Then she could finally pull the trigger.

A barrage of orbs burst out of the weapon, dozens upon dozens of them. Several flew back towards her, letting the Planktons end in a fiery explosion and leaving nothing but their ash on the Rider. The rest of her energy balls flew around the area before striking a target, all pretty much detonating at the same time. A massive series of explosions rocked the battlefield, coating about half of it in them. This must have taken at least half of the remaining combatants out of the fight, Charge thought as she pushed herself off the ground with a low grunt. Only about forty or so left if she wasn’t too optimistic, at least.

Almost daring to challenge that notion, five Riotroopers dashed out of the smoke and dust straight towards her, their sprint kicking of the ash that now covered the place. Three of them quickly went down on their knees before transforming their swords into their gun forms. LIke on command, all three fired at once, Charge just barely managing to dash out of the way of their attack, the shots landing behind her on the next best wall.

As she was about to stand back up from her dodge roll, she was greeted by a sword to her face. Only in the last second, she managed to get the long part of her gun between herself and the incoming blade, stopping it dead in its tracks. That, however, didn’t stop the second blade that sliced clean across her stomach, accompanied by a loud scream and sparks flying.

What followed was a swift kick to her stomach as she stumbled backward. With a pained grunt, she landed on her back, the two Riotroopers dashing quickly after her. One of them tried to stab his blade at her, only for the Rider to roll to her side and back up again. In one flowing motion, she threw her gun to her side and dashed towards the attacking Trooper, keeping an eye on the other one who was about to stab her once again. With a calculated strike, she knocked the weapon out of his hand and, with another swift motion, grabbed his hand.

The next few actions of her happened within moments, she twisted his arm around and pulled him right in front of her, just in time to let him get stabbed through the gut by his companion instead of her. Another kick pushed the dying Riotrooper on top of his attacker, knocking them both to the ground. Without even a second to think, she already leaped backward, the other Riotroopers resuming fire.

Letting out a few grunts as a couple shots hit, letting sparks fly off her, she powered through it, picking up her gun once again, and as she landed, she had already turned back towards the two Troopers she had knocked down. One trigger pull later, and they had thoroughly been reduced to ash.

Still, victory wasn’t at hand just yet. She picked herself off her knees just in time to escape the next barrage of shots from the remaining Riotroopers. She raced across the battlefield like a train on its way to the next station, unstoppable. Every single shot the enemy did hit was only returned with a pained grunt and even more retaliation on her end.

It didn’t take long for her shots to hit their targets, one of the Trooper losing his weapon thanks to a particularly well-aimed shot that was quickly followed up by a focus of shoots on him. After he had been turned to ash, Charge had already cleared about more than half of the way to them. One of the two was quick to falter and tried to retreat, trying to take a few steps back. But that had precisely been the thing Charge had waited for.

When he showed the first signs of standing up again, she focused her entire fire on him, his armor sparking under the sudden in succession following strikes as he stumbled backward until one last shot shattered his helmet. He fell to his knees, the Trooper inside falling apart to ash as the suit exploded. His comrade dared to take a look over to him. That, however, turned out to be a mistake as Charge slammed the butt of her rifle right into his stomach. As he fell down, he had just enough time to pull his head back up to see Charge’s red eyes as she pulled the trigger on her gun again. Several shots hit him point-blank, and within moments his armor had been shattered, and his stomach turned to dust. He didn’t even feel the explosion anymore as it went off.

Charge meanwhile was breathing heavily, her armor was scorched on so many points that it looked like she had just run through a burning building. Still, as she turned back around, there were still a good number of opponents left, but nothing a simple Maximum Charge couldn’t take care of. She was about to spin the cylinder again as she heard loud clapping.

“Impressive, but that’s what you expect from Riders after all. Always messing with our plans,” a deep voice said. Out of the crowd of Orphnochs stepped a muscular man with dark blue skin and grey hair clad in an open lab coat.

“What do you want? Either you step out of the way, or I’ll take you with them,” she huffed back, trying to hide her own exhaustion from the man.

“You wouldn’t. Isn’t the Rider way most of the time. And given how much control you have with these things, I’m sure you’d manage to avoid me regardless. But, it’s not like you have to worry about that anyway. I’ll make this easy for you,” he chuckled as his face started to morph, shifting into something monstrous. What followed was his whole body quickly changing into one large grey one. His chest was covered in spikes, just like his shoulders, elbows, and the back of his hands. Generally, everywhere where spikes could be, that didn't hinder his ability to move, one could find them. One large eye stood out amidst his almost afro-like spiked head.

Swinging his hands forward, he screamed: “Get her!” With loud screams, the remaining Plankton and Riotroopers dashed forward and past him, much to Ocean’s dismay.

The lamps inside the building once again shook, but this time far more than before as a series of explosions shook it to its very core. The Rider outside was definitely making quite a ruckus. Diend just shook his head and continued down the corridor.

“I had a feeling you would use all of this to your advantage, Diend,” an annoyed voice suddenly cut through the silence of the hallway, and before Kaito could even screech to a hold, Taichi stepped out from a corner.

“Oh, it seems you have already been informed of my arrival then? Nothing slips by you then it seems,” Kaito chuckled, spinning his gun around a bit before pointing it at the scientist.

Taichi, however, didn’t seem all that phased by the man and simply continued: “My name is Taichi Mizushima, a scientist here.”

“Sorry, but I’m not that interested in meeting new people here, I’m here for my property,” he returned, still with his signature smile, but far more forceful, pulling out a card.

“Heh, the thief complains about being robbed. Very funny. But I’m sorry, the Orga Driver is property of the Orphenochs, no matter the universe it originates from! And because of that, I can’t let you continue!” Taichi said with a low tone, his face shifting, just like his coworker before, and within a few moments, he had transformed into a pale grey monster. He looked like he was wearing an old diver suit with two large shoulder pats that reached to the tip of his eel-like head with one eye and something akin to a respirator.

Diend didn’t even wait for him to do anything as the first shoot already hit him, quickly followed by his own card inserted into the Driver.

|KAMEN RIDE|

“Henshin!”

|DIEND|

Once again, the light blue and black armor formed over his body, the Rider quickly dashing forward to his newfound target. The gun let loose several shots that went straight for the Orphnoch, but to his surprise, the monster seemed to easily dodge them by stretching his body. And without even wasting a second, he threw a punch at the furrowy out or reach Diend. Or at least that would have been if the Eel-Orphonoch’s arm didn’t suddenly extend and slam right into Diend’s chest, knocking him back a few steps.

“You’re the infamous thief Rider Diend? I had expected more from you. Seems like the doctor overestimated your abilities. But regardless, let’s finish it!” The Orphnoch chuckled before dashing forward.

“Your overconfidence is amusing,” the Rider returned with a mocking tone as he pulled out two cards and inserted them into the Driver quickly after.

|KAMEN RIDE|

|TIGER|

|KAMEN RIDE|

|GILLS|

With a simple pull of the trigger, two Riders appeared in front of him, one, clad in a black undersuit with a silver and blue armor over it distinctly designed after a Tiger with two massive claws on his arms, Kamen Rider Tiger. The other was a black and dark green Kamen Rider with golden accents and red glowing eyes. He almost seemed feral, especially with how his mouth opened as he growled, Kamen Rider Gills.

Both Riders quickly dashed forward, Tiger blocking the incoming attack of the stretchy arm with the backside of his claws while Gills rushed past him, ripped open his mouth, and bit down on the limb. An agonizing scream filled the halls as the Orphnoch pulled his arm back, but not without a pice of it being ripped off by Gills, ash falling down from the open wound.

“You damn thief with your damn puppets!” He growled as he held his arms tightly. “You are not going to survive this one! The question is if you are going to fall by my hands or by someone else!”

Both Tiger and Gills didn’t seem to care for his little speech and just pushed forward, but Taichi wasn’t blind and quickly extended his arm towards the attackers. Like a snake, it coiled around Tiger’s leg and pull hard on it. With that, he was dragged across the tiled floor, his claws cutting through it like butter, but to no avail. Ultimately he ended up right in front of the Orphenoch, who was ready to crush him into smithereens only for Gills to rush past him with a loud screech crashed right into the monster, pushing him back a bit.

Taichi hissed as the feral Rider grabbed ahold of his other arm and started to pull on it. He was about to use his other arm to free himself when he suddenly felt a similar pull on that one. As he looked back, he could see how Tiger had managed to get back up and was just grabbing his arm and pulling it in the other direction. Both Riders began to pull the Orphenoch apart, his arms being drawn to the two opposite sides of the room.

He had enough! He wouldn’t be beaten by a common thief like this. If these Riders thought plump tactics like these would win them this fight, then they were dumber than they looked. With a low chuckled he extended his arms, letting both Riders stumble and quickly pulled his arms back, ready to slam the two victims against each oth-

|Final Attack Ride|

|DIEND|

Both Riders suddenly disappeared, leaving Taichi’s arms empty as they slammed together. His eyes followed the two beams that flew back into a ring of cards right in front of Diend and his gun. With one last cocky smirk, he pulled the trigger, the blue energy beam rocketing towards him and consuming the Orphnoch as well as the corridor.

As the light haded faded once again, Diend simply twirled his gun and deactivated his transformation. “As I said, I’m here for my property. And I don’t appreciate people standing between me and what belongs to me,” he said in that smug, superior tone before continuing to walk through the chared and battle-damaged corridor.

While Diend was busy with his own opponent, Charge was having a hard time of her own. Every time she attempted to get a good hit on the spikey, Orphnoch managed to either slip between her and one of his men or bridge the distance and slam his fist right into her. Each time she could feel the armor bending and groan under the power of his strikes, sometimes even feeling the sudden surge of pain when the plating gave in a little bit, and he reached her skin.

“Coward!” She hissed, stumbling back after another strike had hit her square in the chest, leaving a few puncture wounds.

“Do I look like I care?” It came back as the Sea-Urchin Orphnoch stepped out from a few of the Planktons. He moved without a care in the world, the few hits she had managed to land until now not seeming to be that detrimental to him at all. “These little ones only follow orders. That’s pretty much all they are good for. If you can’t become a proper Orphnoch, then you can at least serve us. Isn’t that right?” He chuckled as he punched the Plankton next to him straight at Ocean.

She only realized that when it was already too late, the in pain wailing monster stumbling right into her, and within moments the Orphonoch appeared and punched right through his underling. Even though the beast had taken the brunt of the attack, she could still feel the spikes dig into her as she fell down, the ash of the Plankton falling atop of her.

“Well, that looks like it was it, wasn’t it? You managed relatively well against the rest of my guards, really. I wouldn’t have guessed that someone would decimate them like this. But seems you finally ran out of steam, didn’t you?” Taichi gloated, standing over the seemingly defeated Rider. “You did very well. What one expects of a Rider after all. But this is where I’m gonna have to end it. And don’t worry, your little friend over there will make a good little lab rat. Now, any last words?”

Ocean grunted as she glared up at the Orphnoch, his fist ready to slam down on her as she pressed out: “Yeah, thanks for standing still!” The sound of a single trigger being pulled was all that the monster could hear before a bolt of purple energy shot out of the weapon she had grabbed in an instant. What followed was the sudden burning pain in his stomach as he stumbled backward.

The Rider, with seemingly newfound strength, pushed further, forcing herself off the ground and slamming her shoulder into his body, accompanied by a blood-curdling scream filled with pain. Still, he couldn’t other than stumble back, and as he looked back towards the woman, a low growl in his voice, he stared straight into the barrel of her gun and then, nothing…

The agonizing screeches of Taichi could be heard across the entire street as he was holding his eye. He stumbled around like a cave-dweller that had just been shown a bolt of lightning for the first time. Charge was panting heavily, a few drops of blood running down the holes in the shoulder of the armor, but she held the weapon steady with one hand while spinning the Driver again. “End of the line!”

\ Maximum Charge! /

“No!” Was all Taichi could scream before the burst of projectiles burst out from the barrel of her rifle and within seconds shot through him like paper. Beyond the burning pain, the only thing he could make out was the sound of something crashing into the ground behind him, then it all faded.

Charge stood in front of the remains of the battlefield, debris, and ash, looking at all of it with an exhausted look from behind her helmet before sinking down to her knees, her transformation breaking away. “Not a second too late…”

“Agent Skies? Are you ok?” It echoed over the now-empty street as a panicking Scorched Earth ran up to Ocean. She looked awful; her jacket was a good number of holes in them, a good number of them at least partially soaked with blood. To that came the bruises and burns as well as ash all over her body. “We should probably get you out of here. Let you take a rest and take care of your wounds!” He continued frantically.

“No…” She huffed back before pushing herself off the ground, letting out a low grunt as she did so. “We can’t… They are going to come to check on this place soon… There could be even more… And the city will be turned upside down… We have to strike now!”

Scorched looked at her in a mixture of amazement and shock before stammering: “And how… How are you gonna do that? What if there are more?”

She shot him a determined look before managing to push herself back up. “Don’t… Don’t worry… I still got enough Charges to get me through this before I need to take a break,” as she said that she pulled out a few multicolored battery-like devices. “As long as I still have some, I can go on… We can’t retreat in enemy territory… But for the time being… I need your help.”

Scorched looked at her for a few seconds before he quickly nodded and rushed over, grabbing her arm and supporting her as they both dragged themself to the pool. “I have the feeling we’ll find our answers in there…”