[guncannon109]

Previously on Kamen Rider Xtreme:
Shiore and Carter were sucked into a pocket dimension by the dopant named Cyber and begin a quest by the old Lord Takasei to break free from it. Alex and Tara meanwhile get separated from Cole as both parties are met by a swarm of Cyber’s copies. Now it’s a race against time as the search for Cyber continues.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sorry this took so long. I had stuff to take care of. ^^;

Episode 6: An Ice Cold Fire

Carter and Shiore ascended a long dark circle staircase, swords drawn and batting down the claws of beastly bat like soldiers that dared to come near them. With a spine rattling crack, one twisted up from the floor and bit the very blade of Shiore’s katana. The samurai girl gritted her teeth and forced her blade through the abominations throat.

“What in all that is good are these things?” she held herself as she spotted the glimmer of a silver wedding band on the monsters now mangled finger.

“Doesn’t matter,” Carter coldly cut down three before grabbing the girl, hoisting her up while cutting down the creature that held her blade within its slobber filled jaws, “we need to move.”

Shiore stumbled for a moment, staring with a dead stare as the creature cried out in agony before falling to the ground. Regaining her composure, she took in a big gulp as she tightened her hold on her blade before continuing her way up the stairs as even more beasts descended from the void they trekked on deeper into.

As they progressed, Cyber spied upon them through the pale glow of a dull blue orb.

“Cut down as many as you wish,” he said coldly, “the broken souls you cut down will only add scars to your own.”

---
Across down, Cole smashed his hammer into one of Cyber’s sickly yellow clones, it’s head shattering on the broken pavement. He panted as the once bustling street now lay abandoned as even more clones began to swarm in.

The green rider gripped his heavy hammer that was only now beginning to show it’s weight, “Geez, you guys don’t know when to quit do ya?” he panted with a grin, “You’re lucky,” he threw his hammer over his shoulder and took a wide legged stance, “cause I don’t either.”

Without so much of a second thought, he charged towards them and began hammering away at them. With each clone he took down, another took its place. However this did nothing to discourage him. He merely kept his feet sturdy and held his ground as another wave prepped for an attack.

As this went on, the long black hair of Kat peeked out from the void of a dark alley. Her sharp green eyes watched Cole as she sucked her teeth, removing her candy from her mouth as she hissed, “I’m not letting you ignore me so easily,” she said under her breath with a smirk, “you slimy rock.”

{Insert Opening Theme - “Period” by Chemistry}

Alex trudged down the street, holding a blood stained rag to his nose as Tara skipped gleefully behind him. The sun was beginning to set and it was almost nightfall. The young male rider looked out to the horizon and gulped, stopping as Tara blindly bumped into him.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” She blinked, reaching up to place her hand on his forehead, “you sick or something?”

“No…” Alex sighed, “I just…” he gulped and turned to look down the road, pulling down the rag once he was sure the bleeding had stopped, “I’m just worried is all… what if we never find this crazy guy?”

“That’s a pretty hefty what if, don’t ya think?” Tara tilted her head to the side before patting him on the back. “Don’t you worry, your big sis Tara is here!” she grinned, “She’s gonna make the whole thing a okay so don’t worry little brother.”

Alex glared at her, “Haven’t I told you to quit with the whole brother thing?”

“Oh, right,” Tara quickly covered her mouth, smiling awkwardly with a slight blush, “sorry about that Superstar.”

“It’s alright, we have a more important issue right now” Alex let out a sigh and turned on his heel before continuing down the road, “now come on.”

“Right oh!” Tara saluted before following behind Alex.

---

Back in the void of Cyber’s nightmare world, Carter and Shiore finally reach the top of the stares and cut down the last of the demonic soldiers. They both panted heavily as they sheathed their swords before pushing through a pair of heavy doors. Inside was an empty circular room similar to the first floor, only this time it had no one in it. The only thing inside was a solid gold statue of a large lizard like creature with twenty eyes on it’s head and six rows of razor sharp fangs inside it’s gaping mouth. The two riders blinked.

“Some sort of guard dog?” Carter scoffed.

“It’s a statue,” Shiore closed her eyes as she proceeded to the other end and pushed open another set of doors which led to yet another set of spiral stairs, “ignore it.”

Shiore held the hilt of her katana, dashing up the stairs without so much as a second glance. Carter examined the statue with his eyes, looking it up and down before shaking his head and following Shiore up to the next floor.
The doors to the room closed as soon as the two left, the sound shaking the walls slightly causing one of the eyes on the golden beast to open. It scanned the room, cracking it’s joints as it hunch over before turning to the recently closed door with a heavy snarl.

“No Glenda,” a blue orb spoke behind the beast, “pay them no mind.”

The beast turned to the orb and raised an eyebrow, tilting it’s head before muttering some incoherent slur of groans and grumbles.

“Ruby will see to their way out,” Cyber spoke as he looked at the beast from within his own blue orb. He ran his hand over the orb, changing the image it displayed to Cole who was currently taking the remaining clones out of commision, “I have something far more suited to your… skills, in mind. Don’t worry my pet.”

---

Cole stood amidst the rubble and mangled bodies of all the clones. “Well,” he breathed heavily as he placed his hammer down onto the ground, “I think that’s all of ‘em.” In a flash, the clones dispersed into pixels and gathered into a cluster just above the skyline. Cole narrowed his gaze and blinked, “... what?”

With a blindly flash and an ear shattering boom, a distorted portal opened up from the pixels and Glenda came crashing down to the ground just feet away from Cole sending the pavement and the green rider flying backwards.

Using the blade from the back of his Axe, Cole anchored himself to the ground and gritted his teeth, “Guess this would be the boss.” He swung his hammer over his shoulder and pulled his gaia memory from his driver, “I’m down.”

Before he could move a muscle however, a slender cat like figure with a long bushy ponytail and sharp metal claws lept off one of the wrecked buildings and dashed downwards onto Glenda. It dug its claws into the beast and held on for a moment before being swung off by sheer force.

The cat like creature lander her foot onto the ground and flipped into the air before landing gracefully beside Cole who eyed her carefully.

“I don’t know who you are,” he took in a deep breath as he held his hammer with both hands, “but would you mind helping me out?” The cat looked to him and nodded, readying her claws. Cole smirked, “Perfect.”

Glenda roared before beating her fists together, digging it’s feet further into the ground as the cat and Cole braced themselves.

“Try not to die,” the cat cackled in an overly raspy voice.

Cole smirked under his mask, “I don’t plan to.”

---

Carter and Shiore climbed the stairs to an empty circular room lined from wall to wall with Mirrors. They looked from side to side before spotting an open door on the other end of the room. Wordlessly and without a second thought, they walked towards it with a quickening pace. The moment they reached the center of the room however, both doors shut and locked themselves with iron bars to prevent them from being forced open again.

A light cackle fill the air as the two looked up to see a witch with short black hair and a cropped kimono of the same color as her hair with a vibrant purple lining. “Did you do honestly think it would be that easy?” she giggled as she flipped around the banister and descended down, “Oh no, I’m afraid you won’t be leaving here without me having a bit of fun first.”

Shiore sucked her teeth and drew her sword, dashing over to the witch in a blink and striking her across the chest. Within an even quicker blink of an eye however, the witch vanish from in front of Shiore and reappeared behind her with a pat to the back.

“Oh geez, you really are just a ditzy airhead aren’t you?” she laughed at her, blowing a kiss to Shiore as Carter launched a fireball at her. The witch twirled around, blinking away before the ball of fire made contact with her and reappeared by one of the many mirror. “Let the games begin little kittens.” she winked at them before skipping into the mirror and fading into its reflection.

Shiore let out a frustrated huff, listening carefully for where she was. Almost as quickly as the witch had disappeared, she reappeared in a mirror behind Shiore and leapt out of it. As the witch spun her hand around to create and barrage of black spikes, Shiore hurled her own barrage of kunai knives that only stuck to the ceiling as the witch retreated back into another mirror.

The moment the witch was inside the mirror, Carter lobbed a fire blast at the mirror she was in and the one she had most recently came out of shattering them both in an instant.

Shiore sucked her teeth, throwing a knife aimless into another of the mirror as the witch reappeared in that same mirror waving her finger, “Surely you can do better than that little kitten.” She faded away once again as Carter lobbed another fireball.

Shiore balled her hand into a fist as her eyes burned with an ice cold fire, “Burn that witch alive.”

Carter nodded, smacking another mirror the witch appeared in with a fireball along with the one on the opposite end, “Easier said than done.”

While the witch taunted the riders, Cyber watched the whole event transpire safe from his orb on his perch. “If you think you can defeat Ruby, that mistake will be your last.” He said with a slight smirk. He raised his finger and switched the view on the orb back to Cole, “Now, let’s see how Glenda is fairing.” His eyes widened in shock as Cole and the cat like figure were currently having the upper hand, backing the now red monster into a corner. He slammed his fist down onto a steel gerdur, “Damn you Desire! Why must you and your pet always interfere?!”

He gripped his gunmetal grey gaia memory marked with a B with drill bits making up the back of it, “I was planning to use this on myself, but so be it.” He touched the connecter of the gaia memory to the orb, the orb dissolving the memory into it.

On the ground with Cole and the cat like creature, Cole drove his hammer into the gut of the beast as it let out a droaning cry. The cat like dopant ran up Glenda’s arm and struck it across the face with sharp kick to the jaw. The two leapt back, ready for one final blow as the sky opened up once again.

Cole groaned and rolled his eyes, “Great! What now?”

The tear in the sky spat out Cyber’s gun metal gaia memory and drove it into the beast’s neck, activating it upon contact.

“!!!BITER!!!”

Sparks ran up the beasts body as rough jagged armor formed around it. A pair of heavy gatling guns formed on its left wrist while rockets became mounted to the right. It’s hands became augmented with a pair of heavy duty drills as a set of huge rocket powered wings shot up from the beast’s back.

Once fully powered up, the beast let out a loud mechanical roar as it revved up it’s gatling guns. The moment they were primed, Glenda aimed the guns upon Cole and the cat dopant and unloaded a hailstorm of armor piercing bullets.

Cole ducked for cover as the dopant merely danced around them as she evaded her way back over through the rubble to where the beast stood in the ground. She leapt up and readied her claws, only to be batted away by Glenda’s heavy arm which smacked her back down to the ground.

“HEY!” Cole screamed as he chucked a huge chunk of rubble over to the beast, “OVER HERE YOU UGLY PIECE OF SCRAP METAL!”

Glenda rose it’s arm and released the cat dopant from its grasp before starting up its thrusters and charging head first towards Cole. Cole planted his feet hard into the ground, readying his hammer to swing as he braced for the inevitable impact. However, instead of attacking him Glenda open it’s huge hands and snatched Cole right where he had rooted himself on the ground before taking off into the skies.

The cat dopant sucked her teeth and fired off the razor sharp claws that made up her left hand at Glenda, swiping her fist down in frustration once they ultimately missed due to the range. Glenda was already several miles above the ground.

The cat dopant reached for her neck as a gold shimmer of the Gorge Memory rematerialized from it, revealing the cat dopant to have been Kat. She smacked a signpost and spat on the ground.

“Annoying bastard, always cutting me out of the fun,” her ears perked up as the cry of police sirens filled the air. “Crap, clean up duty.” She grunted under breath as she dashed into a nearby alleyway, “Guess I’m back to standby mode for now.”

On the other side of town, Alex and Tara made their way down the street aimlessly hoping to find some form of clue as to what Cyber’s location was. They were just about to call it quits when suddenly they both heard a drowning cry come from above.

Tara blinked as she looked upwards, “Hey, the heck is that thing?”

“Whatever is,” Alex balled his hand into a fist as he spotted it as well, “it has to be going where Cyber is.” He instantly darted down the road in the direction it was headed, pulling out his cellphone and calling for the X Cyclone in the process, hoping onto and revving up the engine without a moment of hesitation.

“HEY!” Tara yelled, having Kree change into his glider mode allowing her to catch up quickly to Alex once she was latched in, “How do-” she breathed in, “KNOW that thing is connected to Cyber?!”

“I don’t,” Alex narrowed his eyes onto the road as he kept Glenda in the corner of his eye in the sky, “but that’s just how these things work it seems!”

“Guess you’ve got a point there,” Tara smirked as she looked back up to the beast, squinting her eyes a little. “Hold the marzipan,” she pulled down a vizor in the shape of an eagle mask, the vizor zooming in allowing her to show Cole caught in Glenda’s arms. Tara gasped slightly, “That thing has Cole!”

Alex’s eyes widened for a moment only to shift back even sharper than before, revving up the engine once again, “Then we’ll meet him there.” His driver materialized around his waist as he pulled out his Star and Runner memories from his pocket with his right hand. He placed them into the slots on his belt and split them apart.

“STAR! RUNNER!”

{End of Part A}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{Start of Part B}

Ruby flipped once again into a mirror just as Carter blasted it away, the witch giggled as she faded away. Shiore dug her sword into the ground and gritted her teeth.

“She is really beginning to get on my nerves,” Shiore grunted as she stood back to back with Carter, Ruby circling around them through the remaining mirrors.

“That’s just what she wants,” Carter whispered back to her, “but we have her on the ropes and she doesn’t even realize it.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “How do you mean?”

“Take a look around,” Carter muttered back, Shiore doing as he requested and spotted how few mirrors were left, “she’s only focused on us… that will end up costing her.” He nudged her slightly, “Just follow my lead.”

Shiore looked up to him and nodded before gripping her sword once again and charging head first towards the mirror that Ruby was currently occupying. “DIE ALREADY!” she screamed as she thrusted her sword into the mirror.

Ruby simply flipped onto the tip of the blade and giggled in her usual fashion, “Silly girl, you never learn.” She flipped over Shiore and skipped out of the mirror and danced upwards to seek out another one. Her eyes turned to one just on the other side of the room.

“Correction,” Shiore muttered under her breath as she pulled her sword from the mirror, “you don’t.”

“What?!” Ruby glared at her as Carter hurled a pair of fireballs out from the palms of his hands, one hitting the mirror the witch came from and the other hitting the one she was heading towards. Ruby’s eyes shot open, frantically scanning the room for another but to her horror discovered that all of them were shattered.

“You were too busy taunting us that you became blind to your surroundings,” Carter said simply, “simply put…”

“Game over,” Shiore added coldly, leaping into the air and slicing Ruby across her chest and cutting her in two with a single stroke.

The witch’s mangled halves fell to the ground, her eyes widened open as she gulped. “Master… forgive me…” she shook a little as her eyes dulled.

Now lifeless, she withered away into a pile of black rose petals which eroded the floor away some as a tall glass vial with a gold cap rose from the mark it left. Shiore’s ears twitched slightly at the witch’s final words, sheathing her sword as she lowered her head. The moment she did this, a faint clap of applause filled the still air of the room.

“Well done children, well done,” announced the familiar rustic voice of the old and feeble Lord Takasei. “I’m surprised, I honestly didn’t expect you two to make it this far.” he looked at them with an off putting smirk.

“Alright, Carter glared at him as he took the vial, holding it up for the lord to see, “this is what we came for isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is,” the old lord extended his hand, “now please. Would you be so kind as to hand it over?”

Shiore looked up at the lord as Carter began to walk over to the lord. “Wait,” she spoke suddenly and quickly hurled a kunai knife over to the vial, shattering it instantly as the shards fell to the ground.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Carter snapped at her, balling his fist around the base that remained, “We were just about finished!”

“Correction,” Shiore shot a sharp glare at the lord, redrawing her sword, “he was.”

“What do you…” Carter turned back to the lord who was slowly backing away.

“Think about it Hono, this is that freak Cyber’s nightmare world. You think he would just let us leave so easily?” Shiore narrowed her gaze, “More importantly, you think an old man like this could make it out here on his own?”

The lord cackled like a madman and stared Shiore down, “Impressive little girl, most impressive!” He hunched over as he hid his arms within his robe, “But calling me out will get you nowhere. Lest you forget, you’re in my world now!”

“Figured,” Shiore raised an eyebrow, “and this Inubis you warned us about. Yet another fear tactic?”

“The author always inserts himself into his own work,” Lord Takasei chuckled as a pair of demonic blue wings sprouted from his back, “Inubis, Takasei? No, the only one here...” he looked up at Shiore, his eyes now a soul devouring red, “is Cyber!”

---

High above the cloud layer, Cole still hung in the clutches of the colossal beast named Glenda. He held on for dear life as he wiggled his way out from her grasp. Flipping onto her wrist, the beast somehow didn’t noticed as he swung via his hammer over to her back.

With a wince, he gripped a cable that hung from her jetback, “Don’t see an off switch,” he said looking around before spotting a bright red glare at the back of Glenda’s neck, “Wait a sec…”

He smirked, folding his hammer back up and reattaching it to it’s place on his shoulder armor before scaling his way up the cable. Just when he was beginning to feel victory in his grasp, one of his feet missed it’s mark and slid onto Glenda’s bare skin. With a groan and look back, the beast spotted him moving around.

Cole gulped, “Oh great…”

With a howling roar and barrel role, Glenda spun into a rapidly declining nose dive. Cole was unsure of what the beast was thinking, but one thing was clear. She planned to kill him.

Tightly gripping the stray cable, the green rider kicked himself off of the beast's back and swung himself downward. Using Glenda’s built up momentum against her to lighten his descent to her neck, allowing him to flip around and land safely on his feet.

“Alright,” he grunted, ripping his hammer out once again along with his Rock Gaia Memory, “time to put this puppy down.”

Without missing a beat, Cole slammed his gaia memory into the head of his hammer allowing for the axe blade to swing forward and take it’s place up front. A few stray panels folded away to give clearance to it.

“ROCK! Maximum Drive!”

“ROCK BREAKER!” The male shouted with a sharp pull back on the trigger by the head. Swinging his now fully charged axe down hard on the beast’s neck, he smashed through the thick armor and broke through to a pulsing patch of skin directly beneath it.

The wind whipped around Cole as the orange sky above faded into a deep cold blue, “Hey Al… Tara...” he thought to himself as he sharpened his gaze, just now starting to cut through the skin on the back of the beast’s neck, “I really fucked up.”

---

Cyber sucked his teeth, breaking the orb in his hand as he threw the pieces away. “Damn brats,” he thought aloud to himself as the fragments flew back onto his wings, “they’ve angered me for the last damn time!”

“Hey now, don’t cut us out just yet senior pissy pants!” Tara laughed as she touched down in her rider form, placing his hands on her hips in an overly sassy manor.

Cyber snarled, “You!” He flexed his wings up and fired a barrage of sharp blue metal feathers at the yellow rider.

With a flash of red and black, Alex appeared beside Tara in his Star Runner combo holding each of the feathers Cyber had fired.

“Excuse me,I believe these belong to you?” Alex asked rhetorically as he tossed them to the ground. He took one step forward, pulling the slots of his driver together, “Now I’ll ask you once more,” he pulled out his Blast memory along with his Kicker memory.

“BLAST! KICKER!” A wave of blue data and green tree leaves surrounded Alex as he stepped forward in his Blue and Green Blast Kicker form.

“Release my friends,” the boy demanded, aiming his Corona Blaster at the dopant, “Both of them!”

Tara smirked and smacked Alex on the shoulder, pulling her flail off from the back of her belt, “Yeah, you tell ‘em Aly!”

Cyber glared intensely at the two riders, “Fine,” he grunted as he held up his hand to form yet another blue orb, “As you wish.”

Deep within the orb was an image of Carter and Shiore fighting a more monstrous version of the dopant that stood before. This depiction of Cyber had deep blue eagle wings and bore a closer resemblance to a blue devil than the mechanical mess that was the dopant’s real life counterpart. The demon in the orb reach out a pair of long arms from within it’s back and forced Carter and Shiore into the floor.

“Your so called ‘friends’ have been run through hell in my world while you have done nothing but annoy me in this one!” Cyber snarled as he gripped the orb, “as payment, I shall gladly release them from their torment! Then you shall take their place!”

Inside the orb, both Shiore and Carter were thrown into the wall by the large blue demon that was once Lord Takasei. His razor sharp wings blocked the only exit as he fired off several large steel feathers at the pair who could only just barely block the onslaught of attacks.

“Just how the hell are we supposed to beat this guy?!” Carter grunted, gritting his teeth as he hid behind the blade of his sword.

Shiore ducked under a kicked open set of mats holding her arm which had been cut open a while ago. She peeked her head out from her cover and examined her foe, “Your guess is-” a small glare hit her eye, following it back to the glow of a yellow orb in the center of the demon’s chest, “Mine…” She gripped her sword and kept her eyes fixed on her new target.

Carter raised an eyebrow at the white rider’s odd behavior, looking over to the demon and catching the same sight. “Oh… I see now.”

“I’ll run decoy,” Shiore gripped her sword as she rose to one knee, “you get close while his back his turned.”

“That’s reckless,” Carter scolded her, “You could-”

“I will not take lectures from my enemy,” she shot back as she held her arm, “besides, sometimes you need to be reckless.”

The male let out a huff, ducking down to his knee to make himself a smaller target, “Alright then… I’ll give you the lead.”

The barrage stopped for a moment as Inubis looked over to rubble with a smirk, “Are the two of you still alive out there?” he spoke in Cyber’s voice, taking a step forward, “or did I already break you beyond repair?”

In the corner of his eye, Shiore darted out from cover and lept onto the wall before kicking off it and launching herself forward at the demon kunai in hand and driving it directly for his neck.

“Foolish girl,” Inubis smirked, pulling a small dagger from his side and using it to block the ice rider’s strike, “surely you didn’t expect that to work?” He batted her away with a flick of his wrist then fired his entire left wing of feathers at her, each one driving deep into her body and pinning her to the wall. “Admirable… such a pity you had to die this way. Oh well, this place should make a lovely tomb.”

“Of course it will…” Shiore muttered to him in as her skin and flesh began to chip away as several large chunks of ice, “for you.”

Inubis’ eyes widened as the girl in front of her began to melt away before him, crumbling to bits as nothing but melted water and cracked ice remained of her.

“UP HERE FEATHER BRAIN!” Carter roared from above the blue demon.

Inubis quickly looked up to the sight of Carter clinging to the ceiling of the room with Shiore in his arms. He sucked his teeth at them before firing off the remaining wing of sharp metal feathers at them, only to have Shiore form a shield of ice around them. Blocking the blades, Carter kicked off the ceiling drawn and battle ready.

Being put on the spot, Inubis had only one option. He crossed his arms and moved his wings to cover his face as he called all of his blades back to their place on his wings. Before any of them could reach him however, Carter drew all his remaining Ki into the palm of his hand before slamming it directly on the demon’s metal wings melting them instantly upon contact.

The demon stood there, stunned and motionless as each move he made was seeming to have been effortlessly countered. He snarled violently then grabbed one of the few feathers that had returned to him from the ground.

“You… META Spawn!” he roared as he gripped the blade, taking two steps towards Carter before feeling a sudden and sharp jab in the center of his chest.

He looked down, dropping his blade to see Shiore’s own blade rammed into the yellow orb in his chest. Carter had irritated him for a fraction of a second, but that small amount of time was more than enough to Shiore to deliver the final blow.

He stared back at the girl with a smirk who glared back at him with a steady unwavering glare, “Well done…” he chuckled as his being began to fade away, becoming a blue mist which enveloped the two riders, “Shirayuki.”

Back in the real world, Alex looked at Cyber and smirked, “Is that so?” he pointed to one of the dopant’s orbs and smirked slightly, “then what exactly is happening there?”

Faster than the dopant could so much as blink, the orb on his left wing shattered to bits as Carter and Shiore leapt out of it in their normal civilian forms with their drivers and everything. They touched down on the ground then flipped over backwards to form a line with Alex and Tara.

The dopant groaned, “Great, what else can go wrong?”

Somehow, as if on cue, a massive meteor like object came crashing down where he stood. Gritting his teeth, the dopant flexed his wings and kicked off into the air to dodge the meteor as it struck the ground resulting in a massive cloud of smoke and dust. The riders coughed, fanning the air until the debris cleared to show Cole, still in rider form, clinging to the edge of the bridge and gripping his chest.

“COLE!” Tara cried out with joy as she darted towards him, throwing her arms around her the moment he was back on his feet. “Way to make an entrance!”

“You know me,” he looked at her and patted her head, “a boulder like me always makes the biggest splash.”

Shiore and Carter looked to one another and nodded, pulling out the gaia memories and slotting them into place on their drivers. “YUKI! RYU-O!” Cried both of their memories as Carter was bathed in fire and Shiore encased in ice, emerging in the rider forms once their respective elements cleared away.

“You useless children,” Cyber snarled as he descended down to the bridge, several air mounted turrets materializing around him and aiming themselves at the riders, “now I’ll end you!”

Cyber unleashed the full firepower of each of his turrets and hurled a barrage of lasers directly at the fire riders. However, with a simple flick of their wrists Shiore formed a thick shield of ice around the riders while Carter conjured a massive ball of piping hot fire and chucked it at Cyber, burning up all of the dopant’s weapons from the mere heat of the blaze alone.

“You call us children,” Alex proclaimed as he stepped out from the steam that once was Shiore’s shield as the Xtreme memory flew down from the sky and latched onto his driver as all five riders stood united as one, “but from the looks of things, it’s you who’s at the end.”

The young rider flipped his hands down and split the device apart, “XTREME!!!” it cried out as Alex dawned his ultimate form.

“Alex,” Shiore called to him, pulling her Yuki memory from her belt and handing it over to him, “I have a bone to pick with this one. Let’s end him.”

Alex turned to her, raising an eyebrow under his mask, “Are you sure?”

Shiore turned to him and pulled out a device that resembled the frozen skull of a saber toothed wolf and sharpened her gaze at him, “Head.”

Alex stared at her for a moment then took the memory and nodded, slamming it into his maximum drive slot as Shiore placed her newly revealed memory into her own driver. With one quick motion, the both switched on their new gear. “XTREME! SHIRA! YUKI! MEMORY CHARGE!” Alex and Shiore's drivers shouted as a wave of wind and ice rushed over the two from the ground.

Shiore broke out of the ice in armor similar to her standard Yuki form only now adorn with white spikes on her helmet and chest armor. The blue kimono with a white trim she wore under her armor had its colors reversed and the kimono itself extended to resemble more of a long coat with a jagged look to it at the front. Her sword was now primarily white with two blades on the end of its guard instead of only one and a chain with three kunai knives hanging off the other end. A triforce with a waning crescent moon adorned the center of her chest armor.

Alex on the other hand had a very minor change, the silver gap running down the middle of his armor turning a pale icy blue while the wolf in the center of his chest switched to a bright silver. A pair of wolf like claws flipped out from his wrists.

“Go!” Shiore muttered softly, as if her voice was a quick gust of wind as she she darted forward.

She swung her one sword around on it’s chain for a fraction of a second to gain momentum before throwing it like a dart at Cyber’s legs. The chain coil around the dopant’s calves as the blade dug itself into the ground to act as an anchor.

Shiore narrowed her gaze, hovering her free hand over her driver, “Game over,” she declared as she smacked her driver downward, the wolf’s head emitting a small crunching noise. Alex in turn pulled the two halves of his Xtreme memory together before splitting them apart once again.

“XTREME! SHIRA! YUKI!” the three memories called out together as a whirlwind of crystalised ice swarmed around Alex’s claws while Shiore took a heavy hitting stance, “MAXIMUM DRIVE!”

With a flurry of wind snow and ice, the two riders leapt forward and struck the dopant in unison turning his monstrous form to dust upon contact. The two riders stood shoulder to shoulder as Ren, now reverted back to his civilian for, lay cold and lifeless on the ground. With a quick pull from both of their drivers, they reverted back to their civilian forms as did Cole Tara and Carter.

Alex stared down at Ren, taking one step forward before a laser shot struck the ground inches away from where he stood.

“One more step, and it will be your last,” a voice called out as the riders looked around to see they were surrounded.

On the edge of the bridge stood several blue soldiers whose armor bore a striking likeness to Alex’s Blast Diver form, only theirs’ were different somehow. They appeared far more refined they Alex’s old suit, stronger, dare one would say even better.

A squad of eight green soldiers carrying swords clearly based on Alex’s own Bla-Jalibur descended from above along side a single red soldier who carried no weapons at all but was just about a one for one improvement on Alex’s Star Runner form. The red soldier starred the lot down as Kat in her dopant form scaled the top scaffolding of the bridge, looking down with a heavy pant as if she was trying to mask her presence.

“Stupid Ren,” she smirked, gripping the yellow memory that Ms Seraphina had given her not to long along, “some birds just aren’t meant to crack their shell I guess.”

“Thank for the help Mr Damon,” the red trooper spoke, nodding to Carter as the green Blade soldiers picked up what was left of Cyber and carried him off. The Blast troopers kept their guns locked on the riders. Carter barred his teeth at them, unwittingly stepping between Tara and the firing squad.

“HEY!” Tara spat as she rose to her feet, “Just who the hell do you think you are!” she took one stepped forward, Kat from above narrowed her gaze onto her then chucked the memory she held downward towards the girl.

With a sharp pinch, it burrowed its way into the wind rider’s neck. Her eyes shot open for a moment as her vision blurred then fell backwards to the ground.

“TARA!” Cole shouted as he inched forward, only to the Blast troopers cock their guns at him.

Carter, being mere feet away from the girl was able to catch her. He checked her pulse then raised his hand over her mouth, “It’s alright…” he said calmly, “she’s still breathing.”

All eyes turned to the red Star trooper who starred them all down. “Thank you for all the help,” the clear red commander spoke, turning his sights towards Carter, “Mr Damon, by order of META’s officials we here by relieve you from duty,” the fire rider’s eyes shot open in shock, as the green Blade troopers took Cyber’s remains away, “under acts of betrayal and unwarranted communication with the enemy.” The Blast troopers made their leave, disappearing almost as quickly as they left while the red Star trooper turned to leave as well, “You are dismissed.”

Alex and Cole turned their shaken eyes to Carter who starred back at them before turning his attention down to the sleeping Tara in his arms.

High above them, Kat remained perched with a smirk, “Well, that was more fun than expected,” she cackled under her breath, “I’m really going to enjoy myself.”

---

In the shade of Greed’s bar, Ms Seraphina sat with a smirk on her face as she guided her slender finger along the rim of a wine glass, and with that final word, the genie wished him luck and the two parted ways. The old crow tightly clenched the ring in his hand and nodded, whispering softly, 'I will'." She looked over and eyed a pale blue gaia memory with a D in the shape of a cracked heart with an arrow run through it, “This genie’s name,” she muttered to herself as she placed her hand over the memory, “was Desire.”

{Insert Ending Theme: “Reason” by Yuzu}

Next time on Kamen Rider Ultimate Xtreme:
Up becomes down, left becomes right and a dopant with the power to switch things to their opposites come around. But what about Tara? Is she alright? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see when Kamen Rider Ultimate Xtreme continues with...
Episode 7: Inversion, A Brand New Alex
Xtreme, why do you look like that?