[Locke]

Chapter Two - Emergence.

The heated seats behind Lily made her uncomfortable, she wanted to remove her hoody but she felt exposed and vulnerable without it, so she pulled her hood tighter around her face, the only reaction she knew.

The space around her didn’t make her feel any better, she hated this limousine, the way Boss would sit the opposite side from her. It made her nervous, the huge space between them, and this was one ridiculously long vehicle, she wasn’t even sure what her Boss even truly looked like, always seen on the horizon of the limousine.

“Do you know why I get you to crack their masks, Lily?” He asked between nibbles of a slice of pizza. Or maybe cheese on toast, who knows at this distance?
Admittedly she didn’t know why they cracked the masks, getting her mind on the topic at hand, so she shook her head, then immediately wondered if he could even see her shake it.
“Pizza?” He asked - ah so it was pizza. She shook her head and he shrugged and continued to eat, dropping the limousine in an awkward silence.
“Do you know what the Suna are, what they are really, I mean.” He continued, suddenly.
It startled her at first, but she quickly composed herself and shook her head in response.
“They are us.” He said, plainly, “Well, sort of. Our existence is like a knife, we don’t move through life, we slice right down the middle of it, leaving behind one long trail of destruction. Well, that was simplified, even I don't understand the Quantum Mechanics of it all.”
She didn’t really understand, but she nodded.
“They exist,” He continued, “Outside of our understanding. Far, far outside of our understanding."
That didn't really tell her anything.
"They call them Bridges." He continued.
"The masks?"
He nodded, "They anchor them in our reality, without them reality would kick them right out, like anti-bodies attacking a virus. Of course, once again, I'm simplifying it. Quantum Perception is even more complicated than Quantum Mechanics." He chuckled to himself but said nothing for a while, eating his pizza. Then suddenly as if he just realised where he was he continued, “They use the Contract Cards to safely slip between the two existences, allowing them to access pieces of their powers, even if they can’t access all of it.”
She knew all of this, she just didn’t understand it, but she nodded.
“But,” He continued, “What they truly need is an anchor that only exists in this world, that way they don't have to worry about tripping and pinging back to their world. Security, isn't that what we all dream of?”
“The Riders.” She said to which he nodded.
“So then, what does cracking their Bridges do, you are wondering, right?” He seemed to be asking that question to himself rather than her, “It’s like pulling the plug, their existence begins to drain out into ours.”
She wasn’t following at all so she simply asked, “And what effect does that have?” and attempted to sound engaged.
“Nothing. At least, not at first, but when enough of that collects together, something wonderful happens.” He said that with a point to the window. She followed his finger, placing her face to the glass to see the thunderstorm outside, people dashing in all directions from the pouring rain.
“That isn’t lightning.” He said, showing an emotion for the first time, a sick pleasured smile, “It’s Death, it is coming.”
“Then?” Lily asked.
“Then I will grant your Wish.”
That is all she needed.

*

“Jesus Ichijou, look at you!”
By the time Ichijou had returned home, it was almost ten o’clock at night, his face was now turning purple and had only become more swollen and inflamed, his stretched, torn, muddy clothes had been unified by the rain, meshing it into a huge, soaked, dark, mesh as he created a puddle in any spot he stood in too long.

He shuffled and winced himself through the door, Ichijou’s sister was pacing backwards and forwards by the door when he first entered, she first screamed when she saw him, followed by a teeth clattering slap and finally a hug and she cried softly against his shoulder while Ichijou merely muttered ‘sorry’.

She had made them both mugs of coffee, it was a family thing, to love coffee more akin to mud. While he sipped his bitter coffee Ichijou’s sister had cleaned up his face, he winced through the whole thing and had to battle back a scream when she started to properly disinfect the wounds.
“A hero doesn’t scream.” He chanted under his breath, with white knuckles, when it was all over she kissed the top of his head to which Ichijou blushed.
“My brave little superhero.” She grinned. Ichijou’s sister never had the same colour hair for long, right now it was black, with the tips tinged with pink, all spiked to one side. She was far from beautiful, but her face was permanently a soft, young, cuteness.
“Sorry.” Ichijou said, again.
“One day you’re gonna need stitches and then what will I do? I guess I need to join a sewing class...”
They both laughed, and like the thunderstorm outside clearing out the humidity, the whole apartment seemed to relax.
“Seriously though, Ichijou, I don’t want to do this every day.” his sister sighed, slumping next to him and sipping her own coffee.
“I wouldn’t be your superhero if I went and got in fights with bullies...”
His sister groaned, “I wouldn’t want you to be fighting regardless.” he knew that much, if he had told her he was a real life superhero, she’d probably kill him, “but why not tell a teacher or something?” she finished.
“When have you heard of a superhero running to a teacher?”
His sister sighed, “Please, Ichijou, I don’t know what would happen if I lost you, it’s just me and you now, kiddo and I love you.”
“And as your superhero I will always protect you.” Ichijou beamed.
His sister laughed, reactionary, but quickly her face went sad again, “Is coming home in the middle of the night looking like you’d just come out of a fight with Rocky really protecting me?”
If only she knew, all he could say was, “Sorry.”
She sighed, “I’m not mad, just tired.” she looked at her watch, “Shoot. Your dinner is in the fridge, should be ready after a few minutes in the microwave. But me well I have to be up in,” she looked at her watch and sighed, “Five hours...so I’m off to bed.”
“Sleep well sis.”
“Of course.” She smiled, “I have my superhero.”

As instructed Ichijou found a chicken and bacon dish in the fridge, he ate half of it cold when he realised just how hungry he was, while he impatiently waited for the rest of it to heat up. Once he’d wolfed that down and followed that with a bowl of cereal, he headed to bed himself, where Bison was waiting on the end of his bed.

“Yo.” He said, looking up from the comic he was leafing through.
“That issue is really good, huh?” Ichijou smiled.
“Not really.” Bison said, “I think all this hero stuff is stupid.”
Ichijou laughed but seemed to ignore him, “I loved how all he needed was his friends to trust him again, to win.”
“If only it worked like that in the real world...”
Ichijou snatched the comic from Bison and slumped on his bed behind him, he’d already read the newest issue enough to have it close to fall apart in his hands, and yet he was still so excited to read it again. First though, he lined up his sidekicks beneath his bedroom lamp and when he was satisfied, he began to read. When he eventually fell asleep, Bison removed the comic from his face and switched off the light, leaving the dark room to be illuminated by the flashes of lightning outside.
“Something is very, very wrong.” Bison said softly to himself.

*

What Ichijou’s comics didn’t explain was just how boring being a superhero ultimately was. The war was still brewing around them, and as such Ichijou’s becoming a Rider had a surprisingly small impact on his life. He still went to school, he still got bullied, he still got told off by his sister, he still held down a steady job at the corner shop to help his sister out with everything and just on odd occasions, he might combine with his masked friend named Bison and fight monsters...

It had been almost a month since the first thunderstorm, the storms had grown more and more regular and more and more intense, with each one Bison seemed more and more on edge, until Ichijou would find him looking up at the sky, shaking.

It was after one particularly loud clap of thunder that caused his bedroom window to rattle by his face and Bison to clench his fists with all his effort not to jump that Ichijou finally popped the question, “These storms, what do they mean?”
Bison didn’t look up when he spoke, he was silent for a long awkward while, Ichijou wondered if the man was asleep or just ignoring him, when he finally said “Death.”
“Pardon me?”
“From where I come from, they go by the name, roughly translated in your language ‘Reaper’.” He explained, “They are like us - me, my people, only wildly out of control, our masks and Contract Cards stop that happening in this reality.”
“Then how?” Ichijou asked, “How can it be here?”
“Remember how every creature we have fought has had a cracked mask?”
Ichijou hadn’t even really noticed that he had noticed, “Oh yeah, they did have, huh?”
“With our masks broken, our essence leaks out into this world, in itself it’s harmless but when enough of it has been localised it will take a shape. And in this world, this world of the physical, the material, I dread to think what deadly form the Reaper will take.”
Ichijou had nothing, Bison seemed to suddenly shrink before his eyes, “I’m guessing you’re speaking personally.” was all Ichijou said, immediately hating the response and saying, “Sorry.”
For a second Ichijou thought Bison was crying, the way he shook on the end of the bed but then suddenly he said, “This ain’t a fucking romcom!”
“Eh?”
“We’re superheroes right, we’ll win!”
“Hey that is my line...”
“I guess this superhero stuff ain’t so bad huh...”
Ichijou wasn’t convinced, Bison spoke that as if he didn’t believe a single letter of what he just said but Ichijou nodded with determination anyway.

*

When the Reaper finally arrived it was without warning, one moment another storm just like any other they’d had over the last month, then the lightning struck, right in the centre of the high street, suddenly everything was burning, but it didn’t stop there. It carried on through the ground, causing the ground to violently shake, windows exploded, buildings cracked, split, fell apart...fell. And yet, that wasn’t the worst part, the worst part was the human reaction, the utter chaos and panic that exploded. People’s own fear only blew up the magnitude of the situation and truly turned the situation into all out carnage. People screamed and scattered as the very ground broke apart and split beneath their feet, people dashed as buildings fell around them, everything burned, things began to explode....

And then it came from beneath the ground.

It had no flesh on it at all, it had organs, pulsing with life and fully exposed but it was just a skeleton, it had a jagged bill curving out from its eyeless skull, huge wing bones which defied logic by keep it afloat flapped by its side in slow, methodical beats of power and its tail grew out into one piece of bone as sharp as any blade, which dripped with some foul smelling substance. It let out a sound that came from another world entirely and took flight into the sky, leaving the people below to generate their own hell.

Watching from a rooftop just across from where the creature arrived, was a Green Rider - Kamen Rider Crack. He wasn’t nearly as heavily armoured as Kwan Dao, with only gauntlets for his forearms and lower legs, and shoulderpads like something an American Football player would wear, the exposed leather was hidden behind an intricately woven chainmail mesh and the gauntlets and shoulder pads were riddled with spikes. He held out on arm and cracked his whip.
“What will happen, if I kill that thing?” He asked.
“We are not yet-” a voice returned in his head.
“I’m not asking that, I’m asking what would happen.”
“You could absorb its power, channel it and wield it, you would be unstoppable.”
“Now that is what I wanted to hear!”