The first week of Nebula’s time at Canterlot High was what could be generously described as productive. If she was being more honest, she would be more likely to use the term distracting. History came to her as she thought things out, her sciences and maths were a breeze, and it wasn’t like there was much catch-up work someone could do for phys-ed. By the end of the weekend, all that stuff was done with.

English, on the other hand, challenged her. It wasn’t that she was bad with the English language; it came to her just as naturally as Neighponese, and she didn’t know which was her first tongue. No, it was the enforced overanalysis of every little thing. She couldn’t remember her past experiences in school, but as far as she was concerned, it was a colossal waste of her time. She had to read an entire book and provide a literary analysis for the blandest piece of literature ever.

More importantly, time spent with the catch-up work meant that she wasn’t able to examine the mysterious devices. It wasn’t just the mysterious transformation device and bottles that intrigued her; the phone that had been included in the lockbox was clearly a highly customised, top of the line smart-phone, but that wasn’t what was so odd about it. The strange slot on it seemed to match up with the bottles in the case. Something told her that checking that feature out indoors would probably be bad.

The phone clearly belonged to some sort of scientist, and although any personal data like SMS messages and photos had been thoroughly scrubbed, there were several encrypted documents stored on the phone’s memory. Whoever it was had been very thorough in protecting the data, and nothing short of finding the password for each file—likely different for each one—would reveal their contents.

That wasn’t to say it was hopeless; one of them was some kind of introduction that may very well have been intentionally written for her. Put plainly, Project Re:Build was initiated by one Dr. Daisuke Satonaka, a Neighponese-Amareican physicist who, up until that point, was part of a team studying what seemed to be an unstable tear in the fabric of reality itself. A transmission from within the tear, found to be written in Neighponese, revealed the existence of a curious energised gas that possessed near magical transformative abilities.

The gas, referred to in the documentation as ‘Nebula Gas’, could not be normally manufactured, as it possessed several compounds and elements not native to Earth. It was not explained how they managed to synthesise the Nebula Gas, and frankly, she almost worried about the ethical implications of that. You don’t just accidentally find that sort of thing out.

With the transformative and metaphysical properties of the gas, Dr. Satonaka began experimentation into matter compression and transmutation. His ultimate goal was to recreate tools found in the transmission that could help in disaster scenarios, such as a suit that amplified the capabilities of its wearer. Nebula—and she was quite aware how ironic that she now shared her name with this gas—was almost certain that this was the first step toward the suit that she’d worn and fought that Smash in, and that the gas in the bottles were some form of refined Nebula Gas.

She wasn’t able to glean much else from the document itself, but an addendum that was likely added well after the fact noted that Dr. Satonaka’s daughter inherited the project when he was killed in a lab accident; she went on to create several apps and sensors related to the detection, tracking, and analysis of the Nebula Gas, which were apparently installed on the phone itself. ‘Useful for your quest, little crow, isn’t it?’ It was that final line that indicated who had made that document open access.

That had of course led to a Sunday evening testing said apps out. Her theory about the bottles was pretty close to the mark, too. The bottle containing the gas extracted from the Smash gave off somewhat different readings than the other four bottles, and seemed to exist in a more unstable state, perhaps due to impurity. Detection was hit or miss, though. The lockbox in which she kept the belt and two of the pure bottles—it seemed prudent to keep two in easy reach when possible—was apparently able to mask the energy signatures.

Beyond what little she’d been able to glean research-wise, Nebula was managing to get by. It wasn’t an easy thing, however. Although people had made efforts to warn her away from Sunset on the day of her tour, the first actual day of classes was met with cool indifference from most of her new peers. Rarity, who shared her first-period history class, was kind enough to inform her that the rumour mill had run wild with an overheard snippet of the conversation she had with Sunset, which purported her to be an insufferable know-it-all with about as much empathy as her guide. That in turn was quickly followed up with a compliment to her new accoutrement.

Then she had two back-to-back periods with Sunset, in which she apologised profusely for what was now happening. It left her wondering what happened to her to make her like this. At least they were able to make quick work of some group-work in both classes. Those small interactions, and joining Sunset and her friends at lunch was all that got her through the surprisingly lonely fourth and fifth period classes.

Gym was probably the best part of her day, much to her bafflement. Maybe it was just because Applejack and Rainbow Dash were there to mitigate some of the hostility, but it drove her to push herself. See those two had something of a good natured rivalry, and when Iron Will decided to lead the students on a jog around the neighbourhood, the pair turned it into a footrace.

What was I supposed to do when Dash told me ‘See you at the finish line, nerd!’ Evidently, nobody had expected her to keep pace with the pair. There’d even been some staring and a slackened jaw from Rainbow. It was when she finally explained that even if she wanted to end up working in a lab, there was no reason not to keep herself fit. That seemed to raise Dash’s opinion of her by a few points at least.

Things played out roughly the same way over the next several days. After fighting the Smash on Monday, she was somewhat thankful for the normalcy. Every moment not spent fighting was another moment of peace. Somehow, she got the feeling that the peaceful days wouldn’t last.

October 21st, 2013

It was Monday. To be precise, it was lunch hour. For Sunset Shimmer, it was just another trial in patience and humility. In the weeks since her disastrous fall from grace, she’d been doing her level best to keep her head down and to not provoke anything, but it was hard; Mondays made it no easier.

Most students were seemingly content just to glare or whisper. A few of the rougher students, however, weren’t content leaving her be. When students like Gilda or Lightning Dust thought they could get away with it, they’d trip her up or push her. Similarly, she was getting threatening notes slipped through the gaps in her locker. Most of it, she let roll off her back; after all, there was only so much anybody could do to her without invoking the wrath of the administration. No, their goal was to provoke her into lashing out and getting in trouble herself.

It was something she could handle without much problem. After all, she’d faced similar treatment at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as a result of her being ‘gutter trash’ that was ‘making the princess waste her time’. Getting even had been especially cathartic back then, and that game of attack and counter-attack had prepared her well for her time at Canterlot High and her subsequent rise to the top.

Seeing the way the student body was reacting to Nebula Moonlight, however, wasn’t so easy. Her only ‘crime’ was having been guided around the school by the former unicorn, and then trying to cheer her up. Rather, Sunset didn’t think they were doing it to hurt the newcomer, but rather make her miserable enough to stay away. The other five were too popular among the students, but Nebula was an outsider who, at a cursory glance, could be written off as not fitting in.

As she left the line at the food counter with her vegetable soup and fresh bread, Sunset considered whether she or the others really needed to do anything. If it was ultimately hurting Nebula, she’d feel obliged to help her, and yet by all indications, she was apathetic towards her treatment. What was it that she’d said about them?

“They are but children still.” It also occurred to Sunset that the girl might not be entirely cognisant of the fact that she was being bullied. There were moments where Nebula seemed unsure of how to behave around others. It could have been a result of her memory loss, having to relearn certain cues and the like, but it reminded Sunset of her own time spent observing and adapting to living as a human.

It’d make a certain degree of sense, and some of the facts seemed to line up. On the night of the Fall Formal she appeared in this world as if from the Aether. Being older in Equestria might account for her more mature point of view, as well as the social awkwardness. Going from interacting with nothing but adults to being surrounded by middle schoolers when I arrived wasn’t easy.

While amnesia might be a cover, there were a few data points that conflicted with that theory. There would have been no way for some random civilian to come through the portal; it’d been in a rather well-guarded castle, and she didn’t think there’d have been time to call in a S.M.I.L.E. agent. There was also what Rarity had told her about how well Nebula was doing in history; it’d taken Sunset a lot of work to get her own historical knowledge up to snuff, whereas the newcomer was taking to it like a fish to water. Similarly, she was simply too steady on her feet.

Part of it’s probably just wanting another Equestrian around I can relate with, she thought as she approached the table that her friends—and wasn’t that still a weird thought—were gathered. Pinkie, AJ, Dash, and Fluttershy were all seated on one side, their backs facing her, while Nebula was seated beside Rarity.

While everyone else was eating something from the cafeteria, the subject of her concerns was idly chewing some chocolate biscuit sticks that probably came from the red box jutting out of her lab coat’s breast pocket. Although she seemed to be passively listening to the others talk about Halloween, it was clear that she was more interested in whatever she was reading on that strange phone of hers. Had she already eaten, or was she just having coffee and sweets in lieu of lunch?

“Hey, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the Equestrian took a seat next to Nebula. The athlete seemed to give the group’s unofficial new member a cautious look before seemingly nodding to herself. “You need to come by the music room after school! There’s something you’ve gotta see!”

Sunset fixed her colourful friend with a curious look. “Oh, are you guys participating in the musical showcase?” she asked, picking up her spoon and beginning her meal. “I think I’ve got time.” She glanced at her neighbour and prodded. “Will you be coming too?”

“Music isn’t my thing,” the girl next to her absently remarked around her biscuit stick, although she didn’t seem all that convincing wearing a tee depicting the logo for a local electronica artist. Her eyes never left the display on her phone, even as she took a sip of the steaming black coffee in front of her. “Don’t let me keep you though.”

The group fell into a quiet discussion as the others dug into their lunches. As she ate her soup, Sunset cast a sidelong glance at what Nebula seemed to be reading. It looked to be some sort of research document, but she nearly froze up when she saw a familiar waveform depicted on a chart. It was slightly off-looking, but that was definitely magic that was charted out. Has someone published a paper on it? Or did someone detect it on the twenty-seventh of September and turn to the net for info? None of the research data was legible to her, however; it was in a language Sunset had never taken the time to learn.

“Oh! Oh! Dashie!” Pinkie exclaimed, spraying cookie crumbs across Applejack, who sat between them both. “Did you hear about that Smash last week?”

To nobody’s great surprise, Fluttershy began to hide her face in her voluminous mane of pink hair. The pale girl was rather squeamish when it came to ‘scary’ topics, and little was scarier than monsters. Rainbow, on the other hand, perked up and leaned closer. Much to Sunset’s surprise, even Nebula was listening. “Depends on which one that was,” she replied in casual interest. “Was that the spiky one that rampaged downtown, or the square one that caused a fuss in that Zephyr Heights subdivision?”

Before Pinkie could answer, Nebula shook her head, causing her asymmetrical bob cut to block one of her eyes. “Different one,” she intoned dispassionately, not taking her eyes from her phone screen. Quickly pulling the remains of her biscuit snack into her mouth and chewing, she brushed her hair out of her face and then scratched the shaved side of her head. “Looked like a walking armoured meatball. Based on the video, it looked strong.”

Sunset watched as the girl seemed to have an epiphany, and then backed out of her document to some file browser that noted a lot of locked files, all in that same language. She navigated to another file, typed something into the password prompt, and then another research document appeared on screen.「Yes! I’m in!」 Nebula quietly muttered to herself. 「Thank you, Pink Demon!」

Without missing a beat, Pinkie Pie responded,「No problem, Nebby-chan,」which earned a visible facial twitch from Nebula and a chuckle from Dash. “Anyway, this was in the abandoned part of the old town. Someone in a playground caught some footage of it fighting.”

She does know that anybody can see what she’s reading, right? Her eyebrow rose as she scrolled, although her attention was definitely more on Pinkie’s discussion now. There was, for a moment, a sketch on screen depicted a spiked, armoured biped that had a face like a warship’s conning tower. Wait, wasn’t that one of those Smashes?

With a sip of her bottled water, Rarity threw in her two bits. “I for one am grateful for Canterlogic’s Guardians,” she said. “Even if it was in one of those dreadful, dilapidated parts of town, I’m glad those robots were able to stop it.” With a sigh, she glanced past Nebula to Sunset. “The destruction and casualties inflicted by the previous ones honestly made what Sunset’s... outburst did to the front of the school look like a child’s tantrum... No offence.”

Of all the things Rarity could have brought up right then, it was one of the worst—right next to her being from another reality. It was bad enough that the word demon was bandied around far too frequently for her own comfort. To have it brought up in front of the new girl, who had none of the context only made it worse.

Sunset braced herself and looked over to her neighbour. The girl between them both stopped her scrolling, and Sunset fully expected her to press. What she didn’t expect was her to put her phone away, and then look at each of them before settling on Sunset and shrugging. Oh, there was the expected glint of curiosity in her visible eye, but there was doubt that tempered it. When Nebula simply popped the chocolate-covered end of another of her snacks into her mouth and reclined her head on her hand, Sunset looked away. “None taken.”

“Anywhoozle, it wasn’t the guardians that stopped the monster!” Pinkie benevolently redirected the conversation. The girl then reached down the front of her shirt and took out her own phone and fiddled with it for a few moments before holding it out so most of the table could see it. “All the Guardians in the Greater Canterlot Area apparently all had errors at the time, so instead this mysterious stranger showed up.”

The first thing Sunset noted on Pinkie’s phone was that the figure standing by the bench, looking into some sort of equipment case, was intentionally obscured with white. It was definitely a frame-by-frame edit job, but while the person’s identity was obscured, the device they plucked from the case wasn’t. It was some sort of strange belt which they slotted two indistinct objects into and cranked a handle at the side.

Her mind could hardly keep up with what she was seeing. The transformation sequence that followed defied all that she understood of science. You couldn’t just manifest materials like that; even with magic, it was not an easy feat. All the same magic was the only thing that came to mind.

“It’s almost like magic,” she found herself saying. “Assuming it’s not just someone’s film project.”

Beside her, Nebula chuckled. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” she recited, turning just enough to give Sunset an appraising look. When Sunset grimaced at the adage, she quickly added on, “Although I suppose if I invoke Clarke’s Third Law, I should consider Niven’s converse, that any sufficiently advanced magic would be indistinguishable from technology.”

As the fight played out, Rainbow Dash seemed starry-eyed. Even if it all was ultimately just a hoax to them, it was impressive to see. In that case, the production value was amazing. “Whoa, that was kickass!” the athlete exclaimed a little too loudly as the video ended. “But that’s just someone’s home movie, isn’t it?”

Taking a bite of her namesake fruit, Applejack, considered this. “If’n it was real, wasn’t very good of’em to tear up the road like that,” she commented once she swallowed. “Mac an’ Ah was through there last week goin’ to the scrap-yard. That big hole sure as sugar wasn’t any o’ that fancy CGI.”

Sunset frowned, glancing from AJ, back to the phone, where the video had ended on a still of that armoured fighter in a superhero landing pose. Something was nagging at her, however. Mentally, she replayed what she’d seen from the start, including the moments leading up to the transformation. The parcel... The lack of assurance.

“Something about this doesn’t feel right,” she thought aloud. “It all seems too... convenient.” Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the corner of Nebula’s mouth twitch upward. “Even ignoring the fact that all the Guardians in Canterlot had simultaneous malfunctions, doesn’t it seem odd that this one struck in an abandoned slum, instead of a populated area? Then there’s the person who transformed...”

“They didn’t wanna be there,” Fluttershy said, speaking up for the first time since the topic arose. “It was almost like someone set that entire thing up, and up until the fight started, they were confused.”

Beside her, Nebula looked like she was getting ready to get up, but instead just turned on the bench. With her arms crossed in front of her, she leaned back against the table and shut her eyes. Something about her demeanour seemed strange. “Fluttershy-san is right. There is also the matter of the gaps in the audio; it is as though whoever was filming was talking to them, but didn’t want it heard in the video.” Swivelling her biscuit stick from one corner of her mouth to the other, she breathed out a sigh through her nose. “What I cannot wrap my head around is... why post it online at all?”

Initially, Nebula was intending to head straight home after gym class. Thanks to a convenient mention of the Smash from Pinkie at Lunch, she’d gotten into a new document from Project Re:Build. It had a lot of details on the Smash, but it also provided important details about the transformation device, which was apparently called the Build Driver Rev. A, or how the bottles were referred to as Fullbottles. She’d only been able to glimpse it before her fight last week came up, and she decided that anything more should be read somewhere private, and now she wanted nothing more than to just kick back and read it.

It wasn’t like she could really start testing anything to do with the Driver until she could find somewhere safe to do so. Ideally, an old warehouse or quarry would work best, as there wasn't likely to be anyone around to see. The interaction between her phone and the Fullbottles was another matter that still seemed like a bad idea to test in public. With that in mind, she decided she was gonna check out the industrial area for any condemned or ‘for sale’ warehouses.

That plan only got as far as the statue out in front of CHS. The detection app picked up low levels of Nebula Gas energies as she passed in front of the statue; they were so low, in fact, that the only reason the sensor even picked it up was due to her passing brushing up against the mirror on the plinth. Once it had her attention, she had an entirely new plan.

Using Ms. Satonaka’s NG-Analyse application, she examined the statue from every angle she could manage. It got more than a few strange or concerned looks from those nearby, but she ignored it in favour of collecting data. After all, if she was gonna understand this stuff, she needed to consider everything, like why those energies existed in low levels outside the school, and if it was affecting the student body at all.

The results were fascinating to say the least. Although the stone around the statue base contained trace emissions, it was primarily the mirror that was the source of it. I wish I had a geiger counter, though. I never even considered if this might be emitting ionising radiation. How the mirror contained it was beyond her, but it was definitely a source.

That being said, when compared to the Fullbottles she’d analysed, the energy waveform was different. It wasn’t enough to make her think this was some sort of false positive, however. Instead, it seemed to her that this waveform had some sort of tie to what granted the Nebula Gas its power.

Curious and curiouser, she mused, as she turned back to look at the school. Dr. Satonaka’s team received their information that led to the formation of Project Re:Build while studying some sort of unstable tear in reality. What are the odds that Nebula Gas has some sort of tie to that tear? If it did, would that mean that...

Whatever thought had been about to complete itself was interrupted as the phone’s detection app began emitting an alarm. “What the?” muttered Nebula as she switched back over. “A surge of that same waveform?” She pointed the phone at the mirror, but found it to be a separate source from what was setting the sensor off. “Oh, this is not good. Please don’t be a Smash.”

Changing over to the NG-Track app, she pulled up the waveform currently setting off her sensors and locked it in. Unlike NG-Detect, the tracker app was geared towards longer distances, and presented as an omnidirectional sensor rather than a geiger counter for Nebula Gas. She swung her phone around, and to her horror, it was strongest when pointed at the school, and if she was reading and judging the distance correctly, it was coming from the second floor’s west wing near the music rooms...

“Weren’t the others...?” She carefully reached into one of the interior pockets sewn into her lab coat and grabbed the Raven Fullbottle. When she was certain nobody was looking, she gave it a shake. A lightness not unlike when she was transformed washed over her body, and Nebula took off towards the front of the school.

Tearing through the halls, she had to take care not to push off from the ground too hard; she just knew that if she kicked off with too much force while she ran through the near empty halls, she’d end up bumping the ceiling. As she darted up the stairs and drew closer, a growing pit began to form in the bottom of her stomach. Please don’t be a Smash!

The power chords of the electric guitar reached her ears long before she reached the door that the app was leading her towards. She slid to a stop, but overshot and found herself having to backtrack. Before she pushed open the door, she checked to make sure it was indeed the right place. Changing back over to the detector, she pushed the door open just as the music and the signal reached a crescendo.

Nebula wasn’t sure what she was expecting... One of the girls or maybe a classmate being turned into a Smash was a high probability. Alternatively, maybe it had to do with her observer from the other day. She was fairly certain that, even if they hadn’t created the Smash, they’d engineered the situation and brought her there in the first place.

What she wasn’t expecting was to see Rainbow Dash start to lift off into the air. A white glow encompassed her body, and when it faded, several mutations had manifested. A pair of equine ears atop her head. There was now a foot or two of ponytail hanging behind her. Finally, a pair of large feathery blue wings had manifested cleanly through her shirt. And why does the pocket I had the Smash essence in feel hot?

Aside from Sunset, who seemed just as shocked, the others didn’t seem all that surprised by the sight. What did surprise them, however, was the sudden appearance of Nebula, who was looking from her phone to Rainbow Dash in confusion. 「What the hell?」 She glanced from Rainbow to Sunset, who was looking at Nebula in horror. 「What is going on here?」

“Um... eheh,” Rainbow stammered as she finally recognised why nobody seemed to be applauding. “There is a completely reasonable explanation for all this... and since you’ve been hanging out with us so much it was probably gonna come out eventually... so uh...”

Any chance for an explanation was dashed when her detector app started screeching again. This reading had nothing to do with the waveform that led her to the room, or the traces at the portal. In fact, it read more like her scan of the unpurified Fullbottle. The tracker app pointed out down the road from the school, but it seemed to be drawing closer.

“Damn it!” She ran to the window behind Pinkie Pie and then cast a glance at the now equally confused girls. “We can exchange deep dark secrets later. You might wanna—”

Principal Celestia’s voice erupted over the public address. “Attention all students and staff still present in the school! Please evacuate towards the back of the building.” The woman sounded terrified.“Do not exit from the front or either side of the building. A Smash has been spotted in the area and is headed towards the school. I repeat—”

“—yeah, you might wanna get out of here.” She pulled open the window, gave a shake of the Raven Fullbottle, and jumped down to the ground floor. There were several calls of alarm from the girls. Without looking back, she could imagine that they were likely staring out the window, trying to wrap their heads around what happened instead of following the evacuation order.

As she ran, she retrieved the Scythe Fullbottle from the other concealed pocket, and the Build Driver from the lockbox in her bag. Finally, she ditched her lab coat and bag, hanging them from a hedge that she had to cut through. The belt snapped around her waist just as it had last week, and she readied the Scythe and Raven Fullbottles.

Before she could twist the tops and insert the bottles into the Driver, a black helicopter flew overhead. Save for the tail markings and Canterlogic Securities’ logo on the side door, it was pretty nondescript. A second glance, however, there was a familiar—albeit barely discernible—marking across the chopper’s belly; it was just the same as the one on the breast pocket of her lab coat. This can’t be good...

Up ahead of her, she could just make out what looked to be a moving pillar of flame. The chopper was headed straight for it, and the moment it got overhead, she saw Guardians beginning to drop out of the side hatch, moving to surround the flame. Then the robots raised their guns and opened fire on the Smash that was surely to blame for the flames.

«Raven!»

«Scythe!»

«Best Match!»

«Are you ready?»

Nebula wasted no time slotting in the bottles and turning the crank. It seemed like the Guardians weren’t really having any sort of effect with their carbines. Even as the armour and its armature formed around her, she watched as a stream of flame shot out from the pillar, to completely scorch the combat droid’s upper chassis and overheat its circuitry. Were their rounds even getting through the flames?

“Henshin!”

«The Grim Harbinger! Yabei!»

The moment her armour snapped into place, she started moving toward the group. As she made her way forward, her mind was racing. This was such a stupid idea... I don’t even have a weapon. However, something she glimpsed in the document mentioned storage, and surely Dr. Satonaka or his daughter would have created something, if for no other reason than testing. What did it say? There’s a mental interface, so... Deploy weapon?

«Tempo Reaper!»

A pair of the same transparent tubes that aided in the transformation shot out the side of the Driver. Between the two endpoints, a long black shaft of metal formed, and at one end, a segmented curved blade emerged. In the centre where the blade met the shaft, there was a slot perfect for a Fullbottle, and a button that she imagined served to empower it with the bottle’s essence or the wielder’s own energy. It looks like it might even rotate. “Shall we play mad scientist?” she asked herself as she gave the scythe a twirl. Angling the blade downward, she tucked the shaft flat against her back and ran forward.

Three more of the Guardians fell before she drew close enough to the brawl for the pilot of the helicopter to notice. “Attention, unidentified armoured figure,” came a woman’s voice from a loudspeaker. “You are intruding upon Smash containment procedures. Draw any closer and you will be marked as hostile in Guardian systems. Retreat to a safe distance and let the Guardians do their jobs.”

She paused, looking up at the helicopter that was lazily circling the combat zone. Are they actually about to order their robots to open fire on me? With a sigh, she stepped back, slinging the Tempo Reaper’s shaft over her shoulder, and gave the pilot a two-finger salute. Fine. I’ll wait until all your toys break.

When there were just four of the Guardians left of the dozen dropped by the chopper, the pillar of flame shrouding the Smash vanished. Its head reminded her of those old mariners dive helmets, with two similarly shaped furnaces over each shoulder. The head, pauldrons and chest armour were all flame red. It possessed one normal looking arm, but its right arm looked more akin to a flamethrower. Just as with the Strong Smash last week, its lower half looked similar to that of the robots currently attacking it.

All four robots stopped to reload at the same time, and in that short moment, the Smash seemingly came to a decision. It lumbered toward one of the Guardians and thrust its flamethrower-like arm into the robot’s belly. Lifting the droid off the ground, the fire monster pointed it toward the helicopter. It’s going to...!

Ignoring the prior warning, she darted forward once more. The pilot seemed to have noticed what the Smash was doing, and was trying to get away, but the monster kept tracking. It completely ignored as the other three robots opened fire, and the lights in its two furnaces began to glow brightly. In a last ditch effort, the three Guardians rushed forward to try and tackle it. They were all shorn in half by a backhand for their efforts.

Nebula glanced at the chopper and extrapolated the pilot’s next move, and accounted for the path the Guardian stuck to the Smash’s arm cannon would take. She jumped the moment flames began to lick the bot’s belly to put herself between the chopper and its doom. As she soared, she swung the Tempo Reaper, which caused her to spin, but not lose her trajectory. She felt the blade impact something, and redirect it before cleaving through it.

When she touched down on the ground, she glanced back up at the chopper. “Sorry, but I can’t just sit back any more!” she yelled, not honestly expecting to be heard as she brandished the scythe at the smash. “I’m all for sitting back if you guys really want to watch your droids get all messed up, but the moment human life is endangered is where I draw the line. As a Kamen Rider, I have to protect life whenever possible, no matter how valuable the research data might be.”

Much to her surprise, however, there came a response. “Much obliged.” They must have had directional mics and other recording equipment on that bird. It was the only way they could’ve made it out over the chopper’s noise. “Since this is all going down in my after-action report, you got a name?”

That threw her for a loop. Was this really the time to have a conversation—in the middle of a fight? Well, that Raven Fullbottle was the first one I ever touched, and it feels right, so... “Karasu,” she called out as she lunged for the Smash. “Kamen Rider Karasu.”

It swung its flamethrower toward her and cut loose with a gout stream of fire. In response, she rapidly twirled her polearm in front of her. The action deflected most of the flames, although she could feel the heat in her hands and forearms. Her charge ended with her weapon forcing the literal firearm down.

The fire Smash’s response was to swing its fist at her face. Although it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the Strong Smash, the impact was enough to knock her backwards. As she tumbled across the ground, she couldn’t help but wince. I feel like I’m gonna have a headache later.

Nebula, or rather, Karasu dug the bladed weapon into the concrete to halt her tumble. She sank to one knee as she withdrew the blade from the ground and propped herself up with it. She watched as it sent another tongue of flame her way, but its attack fell short. “So... You’ve got an effective radius. One that puts me at a disadvantage in this form.”

Karasu stood, letting the Tempo Reaper fall to the ground. Her hands darted to the straps at her hips and grabbed the Pony and Magnum Fullbottles. It was somewhat awkward swapping them out, but she made due. How fitting that I will defend my school wearing their pride colours.

«Pony!»

«Magnum!»

«Best Match!»

«Are you ready?»

Spinning the Build Driver’s crank, she grit her teeth. The armour parts manifested around her. Finally, when she called out, “Cross change!” the pieces of armour slammed into place, replacing her Raven Scythe combo.

«The Equine Opus!»

The Smash charged toward her, firing its flamethrower. With her foot, Karasu kicked her war scythe into the air and caught the shaft with her right hand, swinging it to tuck the shaft against her back once more. As she did so, she cocked her left arm back, priming a shot with the canon on her forearm.

When she threw her punch, she was only partially surprised to find that the energy projectile that shot forth was the same blue as her armour. It flew true, and just as flames started to lick against her armour, the mark was hit—the nozzle for the flamethrower. Almost immediately, the flames cut out as the weapon began to spark.

Not quite finished with her attack, she tapped her heel against the button on the Tempo Reaper. There was a ping emitted from the weapon, and the blade began to glow with white flame. Finally, she heard the call-out she instinctively knew was coming.

«Smash Hit!»

Hmm, don’t mind if I do!

Thudding forward with surprising force behind her steps, Karasu closed the distance with the Smash. Her grip tightened as she brought it up in a diagonal slash. “Hi-yah!” A shower of sparks emitted from the monster’s body as the burning blade scored across the creature’s armoured shoulder and chest.

Kamen Rider Karasu spun on her right foot, and then lashed out with a kick from her yellow boot. Knocked backwards several metres by the sudden powerful kick, the Smash could do nothing but fall flat on its back. I know there’s a person inside that monster, but I can’t let up. If it loses interest in me, it’ll likely end up at the school, so I won’t give it the chance.

“I think it’s time I wrapped this up,” she said aloud as she retrieved the Scythe Fullbottle from the strap at her hip. Bringing the blade close to her face, she slotted the bottle in and turned it to lock it in. There was a mechanical click, and then the blade rotated ninety degrees. In this form it looked more like a naginata, although the cutting edge was backward. She tapped the button twice and smirked behind her mask as the blade was shrouded in a blinding white inferno. “Let’s fight fire with fire.”

«Million Slash!»

With a flourish, she lashed out horizontally toward the fiery Smash. Even as the fallen creature struggled to push itself to its feet, a stream of white fire slammed into it, creating a massive shower of sparks. When the flames dissipated, the monster’s arms gave out and it fell to its belly. Aside from some twitches, it didn’t try to get up again.

Even as she removed the Fullbottle from the Tempo Reaper, she mentally dismissed the weapon. The Scythe bottle was quickly traded for an empty one as she jogged up to the Smash. Before twisting the cap, she pushed the thing over with her foot. No sense in leaving someone face-down on the pavement.

Much like with the Strong Smash, the Nebula Gas eagerly surged into the Fullbottle when she pointed it at the monster. As police sirens entered her range of hearing, its monstrous form burned away. Unlike the previous time, however, the monster took the form of a teenage model that she’d seen missing posters for—a Crystal Prep student by the name of Fleur-de-Lis. She didn’t seem physically harmed either, although a sweat-soaked hospital gown clung to her drenched form.

So they’re not just transforming people who look like they belong in prison... Karasu shook her head and, after clipping the fiery bottle to one of her straps, gently lifted the girl. It still amazed her the amount of strength that her transformed state granted her. The pale-skinned girl was taller even than Sunset, and yet she had no difficulty, as though the strength boost mitigated the awkwardness of lifting her in a bridal carry.

Several police cars skidded to a stop not far from her, and she gingerly approached, stepping over the charred remains of several Guardians. It took some effort to look non-threatening; even then, she had seven service-automatics practically pointed at her face. Confident in her armour’s protection, she walked towards the one police officer she recognised.

He was tall and well-built, but had a naturally pale complexion. The face that watched Karasu with barely contained suspicion was one better suited to smiling. Between his handsome face and messy blue hair, she imagined that he probably ticked a lot of boxes for what qualified as attractive. Not that she’d ever considered it—Officer Shining Armour was the one who first found her, and he already had a fiance.

Sighing, she wished that her suit modulated her voice like that weird armoured pot-stirrer last week. “Officer Armour, this girl needs medical attention,” she said, startling herself when a heavily modulated voice reached her own ears. “I cannot imagine she was willingly transformed into a Smash, and although the mutagen has been purged from her system, I cannot speak to what side-effects this might have had.”

All around her, the police moved in. While several of them still had their firearms drawn, she could see one with her cuffs out. Clearly, they plan on trying to take me in. I suppose I am a vigilante, so I can hardly complain. If she’d kept the Raven bottle slotted in, she might have been able to just leap clear, but right now, her only real option was to barrel through the officers and hope she didn’t hurt any.

The moment the girl had passed from her arms, however, she found herself engulfed in smoke. There was the momentary feeling of someone grabbing her arm and tugging, and then, just as quick as they’d done so, they released her. “You’re welcome,” came that modulated voice she heard last week.

When the cloud finally dissipated, she found herself in the hedge where she’d ditched her stuff. Making sure she couldn’t be seen from the road, she slowly backed to where she left her bag. Letting out a tired sigh, she disengaged her transformation and turned around.

Apparently, the universe decided that it was time to mock her. Nebula came face-to-face with the six girls who had welcomed her into their friend group. Of course. All of them were staringing at Nebula with a variety of emotions.

Sunset’s face was completely unreadable, although it was clear she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking at in the first place. Fluttershy was simply hiding behind Rainbow Dash, who in turn looked at her with a mixture of jealousy and awe. Applejack and Rarity were both wary, although the former had a smidge of suspicion showing through. Pinkie Pie, of course, was vibrating with excitement.

Nebula dragged her hand down her face, and walked over to where her bag and coat still hung. She didn’t say a word to the girls until she’d put away her gear and slipped into her lab coat. To be fair, they didn’t exactly say anything either. It was just a quiet disbelief-fest, as far as she was concerned.

Turning back, she remarked, “You guys seem to be taking this surprisingly well.” She stuck her hands into the front pockets of her lab coat, and found her hand close around the bottle she’d used on the Strong Smash. It felt different from before. When did it change? “Perhaps we should go back to the music room and have a little chat.”

Author's Note

Rider Weapons:
Most Kamen Riders have one or more signature weapons. Kamen Rider Build's signature weapon was the Drill Crusher, but as much as Karasu is based on Build, I decided that their signature weapon was going to be built based on the design of the Beat Closer, which was Cross-Z's signature weapon. I've made no effort to hide the fact that Karasu's coloration and overall theme takes heavy cues from Qrow Branwen of RWBY. Hell, the Best Match announcement (the Grim Harbinger) practically spells it out. As such, I felt like basing Karasu's Tempo Reaper on Qrow's Harbinger was a natural extension of the gag. Unlike Harbinger, however, the Tempo Reaper is strictly a polearm that can shift between a scythe and a war scythe. No built-in guns or sword form.

Hmm, only thing missing is a red scarf... Maybe for her super form?

The next chapter (2.5) is comparatively short, serving as little more than an 'epilogue' to this one, where everyone sits down and reveals their secrets, and a new mystery is put on the table.

Those who paid attention likely noticed a hint toward what I'm getting at. As it stands, however, I pose a question for you all. What animal do you think the Fullbottle from the Strong Smash will become when purified. If so, what do you think the best match might be?