[guncannon109]

Episode 22: Ash and Snow

“So that’s the guy you’ve been looking for?” Alex asked to Shiore, she nodded once. “Alright then, let’s take him out and end this once and for all,” Alex said taking a step forward only to have Shiore raise her arm out in front him preventing him from going any further.

“No,” Shiore said without so much as giving Alex a second glance, “this is my fight.”

“Are you crazy!” Tara shouted, “He’ll smoke you!... Or melt you in this case… I think.”

“Tara’s right,” Cole said, calmly walking up to Shiore, “Whoever that guy is, after what he just did to Fury I doubt he would be hard pressed to do it again.”

“Please Shiore,” Alex said placing his hand on her shoulder, “Let us help-”

Before Alex could finish speaking, Shiore smacked Alex’s hand off her shoulder before a giant wall of ice shot up from the ground between her and the other three riders surrounding them completely from all sides.

“Baka…” Shiore whispered to herself. She clenched her hands tightly around her sword and stared down Carter who stood mere feet away from her, “You’ll only get in the way, and that’s something I’m not going to allow… ever again.”

“What exactly just happened?” Carter asked.

“That’s none of your business,” Shiore raised her sword to Carter, “Because you see, Ryu-O,” she widened her stance and pulled back her sword so that the tip of the blade was aligned her line of sight, “Your rampage… ends here.”

“Does it now?” Carter sighed as he rested his sword against his shoulder, “Then why not back up that statement with your own blade?”

Shiore moved her right foot back a few inches and tightened her grip on her katana, “I intend to.”

{Insert Opening Theme - Extreme Dream}

“God I hate that girl!” Tara grunted, smacking her fist against the wall of ice that Shiore had erected. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, “What’s her deal anyway? She hasn’t even been here for an entire day yet and she’s walking around like she owns this town! Well there’s only room for one big shot rider in this city and that rider is Gale!” She looked up to the ceiling of the cage made of ice, “Doesn’t help that she sealed off the roof so we can’t just fly ourselves out of here.”
“Tara, you’re not helping” Alex sighed, “No matter how much you complain it’s not going to change our situation, so could we just focus on what’s going on right now please?”

“Excuse me?” Tara scoffed as she raised an eyebrow, “Who died and made you leader?”

“I only suggested that we think of a plan to break out of here,” Alex grunted, “I never said anything about becoming the leader of anything!”

“WILL YOU TWO JUST BE QUIET FOR A MOMENT!” Cole shouted, grabbing the attention of his fellow riders. “Now look, I get that everyone is a little bit stressed out right now, but if we turn on each other we’re screwed. Even if we may argue from time to time, but we’re still friends aren’t we? Actually, with all that’s happened I’d say we’re closer to being family.” Cole extended his arm out to Alex and Tara, “So… what say you two?”

Alex stood still for a moment, then placed his hand overtop of Cole’s, “Yeah,” he nodded, “No matter what changes or what may come our way, the three of us are in this together… whether we like it or not.”

Alex and Cole looked over to Tara who stared back at them blankly for a second.

“GAH! Alright fine!” Tara grunted slamming her hand down overtop of Alex’s, “We see your point… A little too sappy for our tastes, but I see the point.”

Cole laughed a bit, “A little sappiness never hurt anyone, did it?”

“Bleh!” Tara stuck her tongue out, “Objection, so much objection!”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “Um… agree to disagree?”

“Yeah sure,” Tara sighed, “let’s go with that.”

“Alright then,” Cole said with a smirk as the three pulled their hands away from each other’s, “Then it’s decided, the three of us are in this together until the bitter end.” Cole looked up to the ceiling, “Now then… how exactly do we break out of here?”

Tara closed her eyes and crossed her arms and proceeded to tap her right index finger against her left arm. After a few seconds of thinking, she snapped her fingers as her eyes shot open.

Tara’s usual smirk appeared on her face, “I've got it!”

---

On the other side of the wall, a heated battle between Carter and Shiore was well underway. The two rider’s held their blades in a clash with neither one willing to let up. After holding his guard up for a few moments, Carter used the weight of his Ryu-O Buster to force Shiore’s blade back breaking their clash. Once broken from the clash, Carter elbowed Shiore in her gut forcing her to her knees and let go of her katana.

“Is this all the great Yuki can muster?” Carter asked as raised his sword up and rested it on his shoulder, “I had hoped you’d be more of a challenge… shame you turned out to be nothing more than a mere child.”

“Piss off!” Shiore coughed violently. She grabbed her katana and propped herself up on one foot, “In the name of the Shirayuki clan,” she coughed again, “I’ll have your head!”

Carter slammed his foot onto the blade of Shiore’s sword preventing it from leaving the ground. He stared at her through the fiery red eyes of his mask, “If you want it, then claim it.” He then delivered a quick jab to Shiore’s face knocking her to the ground undoing her transformation.

Carter took his foot off of Shiore’s sword and walked over to where she lay on the ground. He then proceeded to grab hold of the girl’s neck and force her to her feet.

Shiore glared at Carter, gritting her teeth while panting rapidly.

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Carter asked tightening his grip around Shiore’s neck.

Shiore spat on Carter’s mask, “What difference does it make if I’m not?”

“Ardent City is under META’s jurisdiction, and the rider’s are street rats of this already troubled excuse for a community,” Carter proclaimed, “Since you are not connected to either what purpose do you have in being here?”

A small smirk appeared on Shiore’s face, “Isn’t that obvious?... I came here to kill you.” She grabbed hold of Carter’s arm with her right arm and swung her left out to the side, “and I’m not leaving until I do just that.”

Carter looked over to Shiore’s left arm as it began to morph into that of a wolf’s claw. He looked back to Shiore’s face and saw the angry yellow eyes of a white wolf glaring back at him. The wolf swung it’s silver claws at Carter and kicked at him profusely. Carter punched the wolf away knocking it back a few feet, but that didn’t hold it back for long as it quickly readied itself to charge itself at Carter.

Carter grabbed his blade and swung it in front of the beast’s path as the wolf bit down on the blade of his sword.
“So that’s how you fight is it?” Carter gritted his teeth as he held the beast back, “Well then, looks like I won’t need to hold myself back.”

In one quick motion Carter kicked the wolf back and chopped off it’s head with his Ryu-O Buster. With a flick of his wrist he shot out a fire blast from the palm of his hand at the body of the wolf causing it to melt into a small puddle before his feet.

“A duplicate…” He surveyed the area in search of Shiore, “which means the real one is…”

“Right here,” A voice called out as Carter felt the edge of a blade press against his neck.

Carter balled his hand into a fist, “Tell me Yuki… do you know what happens to ice when it meets fire?” Shiore raised an eyebrow. Carter then turned on his heel and blasted Shiore with a single ball of fire from the canon in his gauntlet sending her flying backwards a few feet. “If you didn’t before,” Carter said as he removed his gaia memory from his driver and placed it into the hilt of his sword, “you’re about to find out.”

“Ryu-O! Maximum Drive!”

Shiore’s eyes widened, “Is this guy insane?”

“Burn…” Carter called out as a whirlwind of fire constricted it’s around the blade of his sword, “Ryu-O Inferno!”

Carter raised his sword skyward with both hands and prepared to swing it. As he readied his strike however, a shock ruptured from the blade and ran along his arm all the way down to his driver causing him to collapse, hurling the wave of fire at Shiore in the process.

Shiore raised her arms in front of her, bracing herself for the impact. However, after a few moments she had realized that the fire hadn’t even touched her. She lowered her arms and, to her surprised, found not a blazing inferno but Alex in his Blast Diver form fending off the flames.

Once all the fires were out, Alex lowered his blaster and turned to Shiore, “You alright?”

Shiore blinked for a moment, “You’re… helping me?”

“Of course I am,” Alex returned, “I promised that I would didn’t I?”

“But why?” Shiore asked.

“Oh geez, you’ll never learn will you?” Tara proclaimed as she appeared behind Shiore, “When Alex makes a promise he keeps it.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “What if that promise leads him to do something stupid?”

“Then we’ll be there to back him up,” Cole said placing his hand on Shiore’s shoulder, “a fight for one of us is a fight for all.”

“Do you understand now Shiore?” Alex asked, “that’s how we fight, as one. So… you think it would be easier for you, to be a part of that one?”

Shiore didn’t know what to say, the three people who she had just left frozen in ice only moments ago were now right along her side with no sign of anger towards her. Shiore then noticed a bit of movement over Alex’s shoulder as Carter began to climb back onto his feet.

“If we’re going to fight as one…” Shiore turned back Alex, “then let’s end this as one.”

Alex grinned under his mask, “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

“Kamen Rider Ryu-O!” Alex called out as the four riders turned to face Carter. Alex then removed his Blast memory from his driver and placed it into the slot on the top of his blaster Cole, Tara and Shiore did the same with theirs and placing them into their respective weapons.

“Blast! Maximum Drive! Gale! Maximum Drive! Rock! Maximum Drive! Yuki! Maximum Drive!”

“Your rampage… ends here!” Alex shouted as he pulled back on the trigger of his blaster as a high powered blast of water shot out the barrel, the other three riders doing their respective finishers, “Tetra Maximum! Xtreme Memory Storm!”

As the wave of finishers hurled themselves at Carter, the red rider grabbed the Ryu-O memory from the hilt of his sword and chucked it out the line of fire before taking on the full force of the combined attack, a giant explosion engulfing him upon impact.

As the smoke cleared, the Alex, Cole, Tara and Shiore removed their memories from their drivers and reverted back to their civilian forms.

The four of them slowly walked over to where Carter lay facedown on the ground, Shiore in front with the others close behind her. Shiore kicked Carter onto his back and glared at him, watching for any sign of movement.

Tara gulped, “Is he… you know?”

Shiore shook her head, “Still breathing.” She pulled out a kunai knife from her sleeve and made her way over to Carter, “But not for much longer.”

“Hold on a second!” Tara shouted jumping in front of Shiore, extending her arms out to the side blocking Shiore’s path, “Can’t we just think about this for a moment?”

“I’ve had more than enough time to think about this,” Shiore returned raising her knife up to Tara, “The crimes that man has committed are punishable by death, and then some… Now stand aside Ms Tatsumaki.”

Tara shook her head rapidly, “No, if I let you kill him I’m no better than a killer myself! I get that you suspect him for killing a friend of yours, but what if it’s just some sort of misunderstanding?”

“Tara does have a point,” Cole interrupted, “after all you confused Alex for being the person you were after, it’s possible that things aren’t exactly as black and white as they appear to be.”

“At the very least he should be brought in very questioning,” Alex pleaded, “If he is indeed the person you’ve been looking for for all this time then you can do with him what you wish. However, until then I think it would be best if we assume the best and not jump to conclusions,” he walked up to Shiore and extended his hand out to her, “Do we have a deal?”

Shiore took in a deep breath then exhaled before putting her knife away in the folds of her sweater, “Fine… but afterwards, I shall inflict the same torment he inflicted onto that of the Shirayuki,” She looked over to Tara, “got it?”

Tara sighed in relief, “Thanks Sayuri.”

Shiore’s brow twitched, “and for the last time, it’s pronounced ‘Shiore’ she or ray!”

Tara shrugged, “Eh, same thing.”

Shiore growled a bit, “I really don’t like you, you know that?”

“Yeah yeah, get in line sister,” Tara chuckled, “and believe me, it’s a pretty long one.”

---

“My lord…” Spite said hanging her head down, “it appears that Carter has been… defeated.”

Vainglory sighed, “and so it does.”

“My lord I beg you,” Spite pleaded, “please, allow me to retrieve him. I’ll bring him back now matter what I must do!”

“That will not be necessary,” Vainglory proclaimed, “besides, in the state you’re in you would only make the situation worse if you were to go in alone.” He knelt down before Spite and lifted her head up with his right hand, “You needn’t worry about Ryu-O, he’ll be returned to you soon enough… I promise you that.”

“My lord…” Spite said softly, “how are so certain of that?”

“I have allowed more then enough failures in my time. If the gate to the new world is to be opened, we must gather the four keys and place them into the lock ourselves. To guarantee that, the final key must not be allowed to fall into enemy hands,” Vainglory proclaimed as he released his hold on Spite and rose back to his feet, “and I shall see to its return myself.”

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

At the police station Alex, Cole, and Tara sat along the wall of a hall just outside a single door. Shiore leaned against the wall just in front of it looking in through a small window near the top, her arms crossed as she tapped her foot repeatedly against the floor. After a few moments, Marcoh and Sampson walked out from the door and closed it behind them.

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “Well?”

Sampson sighed, “It’s as we feared.”

“What’s as you feared?” Tara asked, jumping to her feet.

“That boy,” Marcoh said, clearing his throat, “ is Carter Damon, son of Rylee Damon.”

“Wait, you mean the head of research that resigned a couple months ago?” Cole asked.

“The very same,” Marcoh returned, “and by the way he spoke about her it’s safe to assume that she’s fully aware of what he’s been up to as of late. As a matter of fact that would explain her resignation as well.”

Alex gulped, “Are you suggesting that Ms Damon was…”

“Unfortunately… yes,” Sampson nodded, “Rylee was in someway connected to the dopants.”

“That’s completely irrelevant!” Shiore shouted, all eyes turning on her, “Were you able to make him confess to his crimes?”

“Other than his name, he has told us nothing,” Sampson explained.

“His silence is evidence of his guilt,” Shiore proclaimed. She pushed herself off the wall and stepped over to the door, “I’ll make it quick.”

“Hold on a minute!” Tara shouted, stepping in front of Shiore blocking her path, “Let me talk to him, maybe I can get more out of him.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “How exactly?”

“I have my ways,” Tara said with a smirk, “You may not know this but I can be very persuasive.”

Shiore nodded a bit, “Yeah… keep telling yourself that.”

“Ehem,” Marcoh coughed, “Care to get started now, Ms Archer?” he asked opening the door for the short statured rider.

“Of course, right behind you Johnny Boy,” Tara returned with a small curtsy before stepping through the door, Marcoh rolling his eyes before following her through and closing it behind him.

“Is she always that intoxicating?” Shiore asked.

“Eh, you get used to it,” Cole shrugged, “She’s better than Mr Merde that’s for sure.”

“Merde?” Shiore raised an eyebrow, “That guy must stink.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Alex said laughing a bit, “That reminds me,” he turned to Shiore, “Back during the fight, any idea what caused Ryu-O to collapse like that?”

“It’s because he attempted a second maximum drive,” Shiore stated, “Which is something that should never be done.”

“A second… maximum drive?” Alex whispered.

“You really don’t know much about this stuff,” Shiore turned to Alex, “do you?”

“Uh, no… not really,” Alex said bluntly blushing a bit, “Maybe you could explain a bit?”

Shiore sighed, “Do you remember the first time you ever activated a gaia memory’s maximum drive? How exactly did you figure out how to it?”

“Yeah, it was back when I became a rider. I was fighting a dopant and…” Alex scratched his head, “It just sort of happened, I guess. Kind of like instinct or something.”

“Exactly,” Shiore stated, “You saw that your enemy was weak so your body acted to finish what you had started.”

“But I had never seen gaia memories before,” Alex explained, “How could I ha-”

“Has a newborn baby ever experienced walking on two legs before?” Shiore asked back, “His mind doesn’t know anything about it, yet his body does. It’s much the same for riders and their maximum drive.”

“Shiore,” Cole interrupted, “I’m sorry, but if you wouldn’t mind me asking, what exactly is maximum drive? I mean, I know what it is, but what exactly is it?”

Shiore looked up to the ceiling, then back to Cole, “Think of it like a miniature atomic blast that’s contained within a highly focused strike. Anything hit with that amount of raw power, well I believe you know the rest.”

“Wait a minute, so how does this relate to Ryu-O collapsing exactly?” Alex demanded.

“Well you see, with that much built up energy naturally a memory’s maximum drive puts an incredible amount of strain on the user’s body,” Shiore explained, “That’s why a single memory can only pull off a successful maximum drive once… or it could destroy you from the inside out.”

On the other side of the door, Tara sat in front of Carter with a white table between the two of them. Marcoh leaned against the door paying close attention to the two.

“I’ve seen you somewhere before, so tell me…Who exactly are you?” Tara said as she placed her hands down on the table, “You can tell, none of the others will ever know.”

Carter raised his right hand and tapped the black collar that was strapped around his neck.

“What? Can’t you talk?” Tara asked raising an eyebrow. Carter continued to tap his collar, Tara quickly taking notice of it, “That collar… is it hurting you or something?”

Carter nodded.

Tara noticed a lock on the collar. She looked to the door behind her, then back to Carter, “Alright, give me a second.”

Tara jumped up from her seat and removed one of the clips in her hair.

Marcoh took a step forward, “Archer, what ar-”

“Just be quiet!” Tara shouted back, “Let me do this… we won’t be able to get anything useful out of him otherwise.”

She then walked over to Carter on the other side of the table and grabbed the collar with on hand and slid her hairclip into the lock with the other.

“You can pick locks now?” Carter asked.

“Now?” Tara returned as she fiddled with the lock, “I’ve always been able to.”

Carter raised an eyebrow, “You sure about that?”

Tara grunted, “Look will you just-”

The lock clicked open and the collar unhinged itself from Carter’s neck.

Tara blinked, “Well… how about that,” she grabbed the collar and placed it on the table. “Now then,” she said as she sat back down on the other side of Carter, “I’ll ask you one more time… who the hell are you?”

Carter took a deep breath then looked Tara in the eye, “So you really don’t remember anything… do you Thea?”

Tara’s eyes widened, “... what was that?”

Carter glared at Tara, “That is your name, isn’t it?”

“YOU’RE WRONG!” Tara shouted, slamming her hands down on the table, “Thea doesn’t exist, I’m Tara got it! Tara!”

“Archer!” Marcoh placed his hand on Tara’s shoulder, “Calm yourself.”

Tara looked back to Marcoh, “But-”

“Stand aside,” Marcoh instructed.

Tara sighed and backed away from the table, “fine.”

“Thank you,” Marcoh said, taking Tara’s place at the table. He leaned in closer to Carter, casting a large shadow against the wall behind him. “Now then, who is that you work for young man? Tell me or I’ll be required to use force.”

Carter’s eyes shifted over to the shadow behind Marcoh, the shadow beginning to change from the silhouette of Marcoh to that of a knight in heavy armor with a long dark cloak and six large spikes jutting out of his shoulders. The shadow raised his arm as a single blade formed in his hand, his eyes becoming a deep crimson red.

Back in the hall, Alex, Cole, Sampson and Shiore waited patiently for Marcoh and Tara to finish with Carter.

“AAAHHH!” The four heared cry out of no where.

They jumped to their feet and slammed open the door to the sight of Tara being thrown across the room and into a wall by a black knight standing at the back of the room with Carter at his side, the four of them struck speechless.

“Bastard,” Sampson exclaimed, pulling out his gun and aiming it at the knight.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The knight proclaimed. He pointed over to the side of the door.

Sampson looked over to beside the door and to his horror found Marcoh bleeding against the wall. “Marcoh!” He shouted as he ran over to the side of subordinate.

“What the hell are you?!” Alex demanded, stepping in front of the two officers.

“You riders ask too many questions,” the knight proclaimed, “but very well, if you must know, my name is Vainglory. If I’m not mistaken, you must be that Kamen Rider I’ve been hearing so much about correct?”

Alex gritted his teeth, “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

“Well that’s simple, it’s everything to me,” Vainglory proclaimed, “For you see young rider, you and your gang of miscreants have been causing quite a bit of trouble for me and my organization. More recently you’ve been the target of one of my ex-commanders. Though to be fair Fury was always a hand full.”

Alex’s eyes widened, “Fury? You’re a friend of Fury!”

Vainglory chuckled, “Not sure if ‘friend’ is the word I would use, but I knew he existed… once.”

“Then I’ll kill you!” Alex shouted, pulling out his Star and Runner memories as his driver materialized around his driver materialized around his waist.

Vainglory raised his arm and swiped it through the air in front of him, causing the entire room to rumble in such a way that all but he and Carter were knocked to the ground.

“There is a time and place for everything little one,” Vainglory proclaimed, “but now is not that time.” He raised his hand to the ceiling, “We’ll be in touch… Kamen Rider.”

“Like hell we will!” Alex shouted clawing his way to his feet, “Get back here!”

Alex charged after Vainglory, but before Alex came anywhere close to him Vainglory snapped his fingers causing himself and Carter vanish before Alex’s very eyes, resulting in the young rider falling flat on his face against the wall on the other side of the room.

“Damn it!” Alex shouted, punching the wall in front of him, “Not again! Why do I always let them get away!”

“Chief?” Marcoh said gasping for air.

“Marcoh!” Sampson cried out, “are you alright?”

“I’ll live,” Marcoh said with a grin, “But... I think it’s time.”

“You’re right...” Sampson nodded looking over to Alex, “He’s ready.”

---

Vainglory warped back into his chamber, Carter still by his side.

“Carter!” Rylee cried out as she ran up and wrapped her arms around her child, “Thank god you’re alright.”

“It wasn’t much trouble,” Vainglory proclaimed, “Those riders are nothing, not sure why Fury had such a hard time with them.”

“It’s because he was a spineless coward,” A voice called out.

Rylee and Vainglory turned to the source of the voice to find a man with silver hair standing before them by the door.

“Joel…” Rylee said softly, “what are you doing here?”

“I was just about to ask you the same question,” Joel proclaimed taking a few steps towards Rylee, “Only now I see that you’ve gone and gotten Carter involved in all this. You’ve certainly reached a new low haven’t you?”

“You’re one to talk, “Rylee shouted back, “What kind of father endangers the life of their own daughter by forcing her to fight!”

In one quick motion, Joel raised his hand a struck Rylee across her cheek, “Last I checked... she was your daughter too wasn’t she?”

“Enough with this meaningless strife,” Vainglory demanded. Joel and Rylee turned to face Vainglory, “You went off the grid for almost an entire decade Inertia… So why is it that now you choose to return to the fold?”

“You want to know why?” Joel asked, “... because the dream must end.”

To be continued

{Insert Ending Theme - I’ll Believe}