[guncannon109]

Episode 16: Aftershock

“Worthless!” Vainglory shouted throwing Derek to the ground, “You Fury, of all people, should know that I do not tolerate failure.”

“Yes, I am aware of that my lord,” Derek returned, “You must understand tha-”

“Do you think I am a fool Fury?” Vainglory said pulling out a remote control from his back pocket, “I am well aware of your plotting to usurp me.”

“Usurp you my dear commander? I would never do such a thing,” Derek proclaimed as a bead of sweat ran down his face, “I live to serve only you-”

“Do you now?” Vainglory asked before hitting a button on the remote causing a wall of monitors to switch on behind him with the image of Derek in Vainglory's main chamber.

“You're rather fond of me aren't you Cheshire?” asked the recording of Derek on screen, “Even more so than Spite or Vainglory?” Derek smirked, “I knew you were.” He stood up from Vainglory's throne, “and your loyalty will soon be rewarded,” he said as he waltzed with the cat around the room, “once we dethrone the current lord. Can't you see it Cheshire? First Inertia, then Vainglory and now... Lord Fury. The sky will soon be dyed a crimson red, in a storm of furious anger. It shall mark the end of Kamen Rider... and you shall bow before me my lord.”

Vainglory then switched off the monitor, “Anything else you'd like to add to that Fury?”

“My lord, I assure you I merely was planning a head in the chance of something happened to you,” Derek stated, “after all, someone would need to take over in your stead.”

“After you eliminated me yourself?” Vainglory snarled back as he grabbed hold of Derek and lifted him to his feet by his neck, “Not only did you fail me, but you allowed the birth of yet another one of those riders. I really should kill you you know.” he tightened his grip around Derek's throat, “Only now I'm torn. Should I feed you to Gorge... or should I just end your worthless existence now?”

“Please my lord,” Fury said gasping for air, “think about this for a moment... you can't just kill me.”

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn't,” Vainglory demanded.

“I am the one in charge of gaia memory manufacturing. You get rid of me, you get rid of your power,” Fury proclaimed, “besides, I'm the only one that has seen the riders faces... I can get rid of them if you want, just give me one more chance.”

Vainglory released Derek from his grasp letting him fall to the floor. “I shall give you one final chance,” Vainglory stated, “Bring me the rider's head... or I shall have yours.”

“Thank you my lord,” Fury said bowing to his commander, “you shall not regret this.”

{Insert Opening Theme - Extreme Dream}

Sarah lay across a hospital bed while Alex, Cole and Madison sat next to each other on the other side of the room. Alex held onto Madison's hand and rabidly tapped her foot against the floor while biting down on her lip. Tara paced around the room beginning to lose patience while Marcoh talked to someone on his cell phone.

“Alright, I'll tell them,” Marcoh said before hanging up the phone and walking over to Alex, Cole and Madison while Tara hovered around him. He took in a deep breath then spoke, “Sampson is overseeing the repairs on the station, so he won't be able to make it down here at the moment. But...” Marcoh turned to Sarah “he wishes you the best Ms Gardner and hopes you make a quick recovery.”

“Well tell him I said thanks Marcoh,” Sarah said with a grin, “Oh... and sorry for how I acted before.”

“There's no need for you to apologize,” Marcoh stated, “Your friends were in danger, it was only natural for you to be concerned. All that matters is that we all came out of it alright.” A small grin then appeared on Marcoh's face, “Now, all we need to do now is sit back and hope for your recovery.”

“Let's just hope that hope will be enough eh?” Tara said trying to force her usual smirk.

Sarah glared at Tara, “Shut up.”

At that moment a doctor in a long white coat walked through the door at the front of the room and approached Sarah, everyone remained silent.

The doctor sighed, “I don't know how to tell you this Ms Gardner but... I'm afraid that your injuries are more serious than we initially thought.”

“Okay...” Sarah returned, “How serious?”

The doctor took in a deep breath and then exhaled, “It appears that there has been a major fracture in your spinal column. It has left you mostly paralyzed from the waist down.”

“Oh...” Sarah said quietly.

“But, she'll get better... right?” Madison asked.

“I'm afraid that seems highly unlikely,” The doctor sighed, “For someone to recover completely from an injury like this would take nothing short of a miracle... I'm sorry.”

“I see...” Sarah said, “Well, thanks for being honest with me. It's good to know what exactly is going on... even the bad stuff.”

“Well then, I believe that's everything then,” the doctor said making his way to the door, “I'll leave you for the time being.”

“Okay,” Sarah said as the door closed behind the doctor.

“Um... Marcoh?” Sarah asked turning over to the officer, “Could I talk to Alex and Madison for a moment?”

“Alright,” Marcoh returned, “You two, come with me.”

“Aw, why do we have to go?” Tara whined.

“Just do it Tara,” Cole said pulling her towards the door. his way towards the door.

“Kay fine, but only because it's you you got that!” Tara exclaimed following Cole out the door.

“You just take it easy,” Cole said turning back for a moment, “alright Sarah?”

Sarah smiled, “Alright, thanks Cole.”

“Don't mention it,” Cole said as the two followed Marcoh out the door, “Would you just keep it down already!”

“Kay!” Tara shouted over the click of the door closing.

“What's her problem?” Sarah asked.

Madison shrugged, “She digs dirt?”

Sarah laughed a bit, “That's certainly one way to put it.”

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Alex asked getting right to the point.

“Oh yeah,” Sarah said, “I wanted to ask how you two were holding up.”

“We're fine,” Alex stated, “though I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little bit shaken from the whole Fury ordeal.”

“Oh come on,” Sarah sighed, “you know that's not what I mean.”

Alex and Madison tilted their heads to the side, “Huh?”

“I'm talking about emotionally,” Sarah explained, “You two still madly in love with one another?”

Madison's face turned a bright red, she then began to scratch the back of her neck, “Well... I'm not sure if madly would be how I would describe but... but uh, I mean what I mean is-”

“Is that really important right now?” Alex asked. “Fury is still out there somewhere and we have no way of knowing when he'll strike back. We were lucky to make it out of that prison alive.”

“Besides,” Madison cut in, “what about that competition you have coming up?”

“I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed,” Sarah said, “with the way my leg is currently, there's no way I could run in race like that.” A small grin then appeared on her face, “This is just a minor set back, there's always next year. You just wait. I'll be up and running in no time, then all those big city runners will wish they ran a different race!”

“It's good to see that your ego wasn't injured,” Alex said snarkingly.

“Well of course it wasn't,” Sarah returned, “If I let something as small as this get me down I don't think I'd ever be able to get back up again.” Sarah stretched her arms into the air, “But that's enough about that. Now then, I doubt you two want to spend such a lovely day stuck inside a dull hospital all day now do you?”

“Are you sure?” Madison asked.

“Of course,” Sarah said with a smile, “I need to get some rest anyway, so you two run along and enjoy yourselves okay.”

“Alright, if that's what you want,” Alex said turning to the door, “Madison, you coming?”

“Okay,” Madison returned, “You just try and get some rest, alright Sarah?”

Sarah nodded, “I will.”

“I'll come by to check up on you later,” Madison said as she and Alex walked out the door while Sarah waved them goodbye with a smile on her face.

As soon as the door closed behind Alex and Madison, Sarah slowly lowered her arm as the look on her face changed from that of a chipper grin to more sombre expression.

“I guess she's just fine on her own,” Sarah said as a single tear ran down her cheek. She raised her fist into the air and smacked it against the metal frame of her bed. She then grabbed her fist and held it with her other hand “Seems all I'm able to do is hurt myself... isn't it?”

“Yes it appears so,” A voice called out as the door to Sarah’s room opened, “Though of course that can be changed... if you want it to.”

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

Alex and Madison walked down the long hallway of the hospital. Alex held his head up high continuing forward while Madison moved along slowly looking towards the ground.

“You alright?” Alex asked.

“Huh?” Madison jumped a bit, “Oh... yeah. I'm just a little shaken up a bit, I guess.”

“Hey, don't worry okay,” Alex said wrapping his arm around Madison. “Everything is going to be alright. I'll make sure of that.”

Madison smiled a bit, “Thanks for that.” She then turned to face Alex, “Just out of curiousity, do you still have that replica set I gave you? The Homura one?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?” Alex returned, “It was a double that you had after all.”

“That's the thing though...” Madison said scratching the back of her neck, “it wasn't.”

“Oh...” Alex said, “Do you want it back?”

“No no no, that's not it at all,” Madison explained, “I gave it to you as a gift. I only said I had doubles to make it less... awkward.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “How was it awkward?”

“Well...” Madison said beginning to blush, “I uh, what I mean is-”

“MAN, THE ROMANTIC TENSION BETWEEN YOU TWO SUCKS!” Tara shouted popping out in front of them from seemingly no where. “Seriously, if this were a romance novel I'd throw it out, bury it in a landfill and then burn it to the ground.”

“How exactly do you burn a landfill to the ground?” Alex asked.

“That doesn't matter,” Tara returned, “I mean honestly, you two need to show a bit more of the vavavoo. Show a bit more passion, oh I know! You two need to make out, like right now!”

“We can't do that right now!” Madison shouted.

Tara blinked, “Oh, do you need me to show you how it's done again?”

Madison's face then turn a bright red, “NO WAY IN HELL!”

“What to mean by again?” Alex asked.

“Oh, that's simple,” Tara said, “You see when-”

Madison placed her left hand over Tara's mouth and held it closed, “NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!” Madison then felt something slimy slither across the palm of her left hand, “AH!” She said pulling her hand back which was now covered in Tara's saliva, “THAT'S JUST DISGUSTING!”

“Anyway, as we were saying,” Tara said holding Madison back, “Maddy Paddy was a little nervous about how eventually she was going to kiss you, so we gave her a few pointers of how to do correctly. Since she was able to confess her love to you after that we figured it did the trick.”

Madison's jaw dropped, “I-I... abadegeh.”

“We're actually surprised to see that she hasn't put any of what we taught her to use as of yet,” Tara stated, “It's kind of worrying us to be honest.”

Madison continued to blink uncontrollably as her jaw hung open, “... abadegeh.”

“Oh my,” Tara said looking over to Madison with her usual smirk on her face, “It appears we may have broken her again, didn't we?”

“What kind of 'pointers' did you give her anyway?” Alex asked.

“It was only a quick peck on the lips,” Tara said, “Besides we were within the three second rule, and you two weren't a thing yet so there wasn't any lines crossed.”

“Uh huh,” Alex said raising an eyebrow, “You really don't know anything about personal space, do you?”

Tara blinked, “Personal what now?”

“That's what I thought,” Alex returned, “We're going to have to work on that.”

“As my mother once said, 'Don't fix what's already broken',” Tara said with a smirk.

“I'm going to need to meet your mother,” Alex returned before walking over to Madison and grabbing her the arm and pulling her down the hall, “Come on Madison, let's go.”

Madison fell to her side as she was dragged along the hallway, “... abadegeh.”

“Oh, I'll go with you!” Tara shouted, “Cole wants us to help him with his new rider powers so we'll have to get there soon!”

“Wait…” Alex said coming to a halt, “What did you say?”

A few moments later Alex and Madison quickly found themselves on the roof of Tara's favorite building, the same one that she ran into Joel on. Cole stood in the center while Tara and Kree hovered around him.

“HEEENSHIN!” Cole shouted waving his arm around in the air before placing his Gaia Memory into his driver.

“No no no! You've got it all wrong!” Tara shouted back at him. She jumped up a struck a wide stance next to Cole, “You've got to do with emotion, your stance needs to be strong while your voice must be stronger.”

“Why are we here again?” Madison whispered to Alex.

“To keep on eye on them,” Alex whispered back, “Just on the off chance Tara tries to pull something.”

“Why do I need to do all this?” Cole asked letting out a big sigh.

“Because!” Tara said smacking him over the head, “Your presence in battle is all in the cry of 'henshin!' It's something that you must take one hundred percent seriously or else the enemy won't take you one hundred percent seriously.”

“You have to be kidding,” Cole said rolling his eyes, “What exactly does henshin even mean anyway?”

“TRANSFORM!” Tara shouted, “When you shout it in the midst of battle, it's like a declaration of being transformed and reborn under the name of the mask that you dawn whenever you enter a fight. It's a philosophy that all Kamen Riders hold close to their hearts. To not uphold by would be a complete disgrace to the legacy of the mask!”

“This coming from experience I take it?” Cole asked.

“Well...” Tara said looking off to one side, “Superstar, back me up here!”

“Heck if I know,” Alex shrugged, “I've only fought along side two veteran riders and neither one of them said anything about that.”

“But they didn't not say it did they?” Tara returned.

“Sorry, I was a bit too busy to ask at the time,” Alex said as his eye twitched a bit.

“See, so it must be true!” Tara shouted.

“I would really be interested in learning how that girl thinks,” Alex whispered to Madison.

“I think that's something we'd all like to know,” Madison whispered back. “Though I'd be a little terrified to find out to be honest.”

Alex laughed a bit, “Good point.”

“Great! That's perfect!” Tara shouted jumping up in the air, “Now once more from the top!”

“I thought this was going to be a fighting lesson.” Cole said.

Tara raised an eyebrow, “This is a fighting lesson.”

Cole sighed, “Yes, but I was expecting something that was a bit more active if you know what I mean.”

Tara blinked, “Oooh, I see what you mean.” She snapped her fingers as Kree flew over and wrapped around her wrist transforming into Tara's driver as a devilish smirk emerged on Tara's face, “If it's a sparing match you want, then it's a sparing match you'll get.”

She whipped out her Gale memory and slammed it into her driver switching it over to it's activation position, “Gale!” Tara's driver shouted as a tornado swarmed around her quickly becoming her armor.

“Alright, let's set a few ground rules,” Tara said cracking her knuckles, “no weapons and no maximum drives, you got that.”

Cole's jaw dropped, “You've gotta be kidding me.”

Tara turned to Alex and Madison, “This would be a good time for the none riders to go the bathroom... this could get ugly.”

“Tara!” Alex growled.

“No, it's alright,” Madison said with a grin picking up her bag, “I had to leave soon anyway.”

“You sure?” Alex asked.

“Yeah,” Madison nodded, “I have some work I need to finish for tomorrow plus I was thinking of picking something up for Sarah as a get well soon present.”

“Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then,” Alex said waving farewell to Madison as she walked towards the door leading to the stairs off of the room.

“Okay, see you later,” Madison said with a smile before closing the door behind her.

Alex turned back to see Tara glaring at him tapping her foot, “... What?”

“Not even a goodbye kiss? What kind of boyfriend are you?” Tara sighed.

“Why the hell do you care so much about what Madison and I do as a couple anyway?” Alex demanded.

“Well somebody has to,” Tara shrugged. She turned back to Cole, “Now then my young padawan, declare this sparing match... BEGUN!”

---

The next day, Alex sat on the bench of the boy's change room tying up the laces of his running shoes. After a quick tug on both of them he got up and proceeded out the door to see Madison waiting for him just outside. The two exchange a quick grin at the sight of one another before making their way to the track behind the school.

“So, you've chosen to continue this morning run thing?” Madison asked.

“Yeah,” Alex returned, “Don't want Sarah to think that her efforts went to waste while she's the hospital. Plus I find it hard to break routine.”

“That's good,” Madison said with a small grin, “I'm sure she'd be happy to hear that.”

Alex and Madison walked up the small hill to the track. As Alex looked over to the field he came to a halt as his eyes widened.

“Something wrong?” Madison asked.

Alex stood silent looking forward to the track as Madison looked over to where Alex froze his gaze. Madison dropped her bag to the ground, for there, stretching out her legs preparing for a sprint... was Sarah fully dressed in her track uniform.

“...I-Impossible,” Alex whispered.

Sarah turned her head up as Alex and Madison entered her line of sight, her expression then changed from that of preparation to that of horror and uneasiness, like one a person gets when they discover a dead rat behind their kitchen sink.

“Unbelievable!” Madison cried out as she dashed over to Sarah, “Sarah, you're alright!”

As Madison ran over to her, Sarah jumped to her feet and took off in the other direction running out the gates on the other side of the track.

“Hey wait!” Madison shouted before quickly running out of breath, “Where are you... going?” Alex walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, “What's up with her today?”

Alex looked over to the gate that Sarah just ran out of and took in a deep breath before exhaling, “We're going to find out.”

---

Sarah ran out the gate and turned a sharp corner before resting on the trunk of a tree in order to catch her breath.

“Well then,” A voice called out, “I see everything is working out smoothly.”

“What are you doing here...” Sarah asked turning around to see Derek standing behind her, “Fury?”

“I'm only checking in to see how that memory of yours is working out,” Derek proclaimed. He grabbed Sarah by her right arm and turned it over to reveal a small bar code imprinted on her wrist. “Ah, I see it's growing quite nicely... Tell me, have you experienced any side effects you've experienced as of late?”

“It's fine,” Sarah said as she ripped her arm out of Derek's grasp, “Now leave me alone.”

“Now now, there's no need for that kind of behavior,” Derek proclaimed, “I'm only doing this as a formality, once I do my standard check ins I'll be out of your hair for today. After all, it's common for a seller and a costumer to have a healthy relationship.”

“You held two of my friends captive and blew up half of a police station,” Sarah stated, “How exactly do you expect to have a healthy relationship with me?”

“Healthy only means stable,” Derek explained, “I never said anything about it being a good one.”

“Okay, then just do your check ups and go,” Sarah exclaimed.

“You serious?” Derek chuckled, “or have you forgotten our bargain?”

“No... I haven't,” Sarah returned.

“Good,” Derek smirked, “Now, all you have to do now is get that Kamen Rider boy to remove the lock on the driver... and deliver it along with Gale's and Rock's to me.”

“How do you expect me to do that?” Sarah demanded, “and what do you want with them anyway?”

“Why did you sell out your friends?” Derek retorted, “You have your reason... and I have mine.”

“I guess I should've expected much,” Sarah sighed.

“Indeed you should have,” Derek added, “Now then-” He reaching out and grabbed Sarah's chin forcing her to look him directly in the eye, “Simply give me what I seek and you can keep the usage of your legs... Understand?”

Sarah closed her eyes and nodded without saying a word.

“As I expected,” Derek smirked letting his arm drop down to his side. He then walked away from Sarah as she fell to the ground, “We'll be in touch kid.”

Sarah looked back to the School building as the pace of her breathing increased, “Madison... I'm sorry.”

To Be Continued

{Insert Ending Theme - Stand By Me}