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

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?”