[guncannon109]

Part 2: Elemental Burst

The riders sat in Sampson’s office at the police station, Tara however paced impatiently from one side of the room to the other. Marcoh stood by the window looking over a report.

“So there were two riders that confronted you?” Sampson asked, “one based off water and the other of thunder. That right?”

Alex nodded, “They ambushed us, though I’m just glad that they were only after us and no one else got caught up in it.”

“They might be true,” Marcoh called out closing the report, “but those two are still out there,” he looked over to Alex and the other’s, “besides, there’s still the fact that we have no idea who they are where they came from or what their motives are.” he placed the report down on Sampson’s desk, “We aren’t even sure if there acting on their own or if they’re connected to a much larger group, taking them out could be considered an act of war for all we know.”

“They attacked us first,” Shiore spoke up, “as far as I’m concerned they already consider us their enemy. I’d say the war has already begun.”

“As true as that might be, we just aren’t willing to take that risk,” Sampson sighed, “We’ll open up an investigation but keep it on the down low. We don’t want to draw any more attention than we already have.”

“Oh come on Sammy! Have you forgotten who you’re talkin to?” Tara called out. She looked Sampson in the eye and smirked, “We’re riders, we’ll face whatever comes our way head-on. Besides, we can’t let these guys run around freely and tarnish our rep now can we?”

Cole smiled, “Nothing ever dampens your spirits, does it Tara?”

Tara grinned like an idiot, “You know it!”

“That’s all well and good,” Marcoh spoke out drawing the attention of everyone in the room, “But what exactly are we going to do with that woman you ran into? What happened to her?”

“I don’t know,” Alex returned, “She ran off shortly after Laurentia and Gamma-Ray did… I’m not sure where she is.”

“Then I’d say it’s about time we start looking for her,” Sampson suggested, “She might have an idea of what’s going on, and if she was willing to help you out like you said then she may prove to be a valuable ally.”

“Then what are we doing sitting around here for?” Tara spoke out grabbing Cole and Shiore and forcing them to their feet, “Let’s get going!” she shouted as she rushed out the door pulling Cole and Shiore along with her.

“Where does that girl get all of that energy?” Marcoh asked.

“Hell if I know,” Alex returned, “Oh that reminds me,” he turned back to Sampson, “That favor I asked you to do for me… how did it go?”

Sampson sighed, “We got the results back earlier this week and as much as I wish it wouldn’t true… Ms Archer is indeed Ms Damon’s daughter.”

Alex looked down to the ground, “I was afraid of that.”

“Hey, don’t let something like this get you down. ” Sampson got up from his desk and placed both his hands on Alex’s shoulders, “Ms Archer is still Ms Archer, it doesn’t matter who she’s related to because it doesn’t change who she is at her core.”

“I guess you’re right,” Alex said softly before letting out a sigh, “Tara is Tara and nothing will ever change that.”

“Exactly,” Sampson returned with a grin patting Alex on the shoulder and stepping back a few feet giving Alex some space, “Now then, you should get going. You don’t want to keep your fellow riders waiting now do you?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Alex nodded as he jumped to his feet and ran to the door. “Oh,” He stopped at the doorway and turned back to Sampson, “thanks Sampson, for everything you’ve done… it means a lot.”

Sampson smiled, “You’re most certainly welcome. Now get a move on.”

“Right, thanks again!” he shouted as he ran out the door and closing it behind him.

As soon as Alex closed the door, Sampson collapsed onto his desk and began coughing violently.

“Chief!” Marcoh shouted reaching for a drawer on Sampson’s desk and pulling out a small bottle of pills and cracking it open, pouring a few into his hand before leaning Samson's head back and forcing them down his throat.

Sampson swallowed the pills and took in a deep breath before exhaling, “Thank you Marcoh,” he said as he grabbed a glass of water that was on his desk and talking a small sip of it before placing it down once again, “I’m getting far too old for this crap.”

“You shouldn’t push yourself so hard,” Marcoh proclaimed, “You’ve had a good run, maybe you should consider retiring.”

Sampson shook his head, “If I did then Alex and the other’s would be lost. I owe it to Alice to guide him until the end, so long as I do that I don’t care what happens to me.”

“Gordon,” Marcoh spoke out looking Sampson in the eye, “I telling you this not as lieutenant but as your friend. Please consider the repercussions if you continue to push yourself beyond what your body will allow.”

Sampson gulped, “Alright, I will… thanks John, it means a lot.”

Marcoh smiled, “That’s what friends are for.”

---

In a marketplace on the far side of the city, Carter walked down a large isle of food venders with a list written down on a small slip of paper and a couple hefty plastic bags packed with fresh goods in the other.

“Let’s see…” he said to himself looking at the list for a second and pulling out a small pencil, “Got the chicken, I believe we have olive oil at home, I know for a fact that we have lemons,” he said aloud checking each item off the list, “Now all that leaves is the garlic and...” he raised an eyebrow, “what the hell are thymes?” he sighed and folded up the list, “that’s what I get for asking mother for a couple of recipes for lunch.”

“You’re looking for thyme?” a female voice asked.

Carter turned around to see a young woman with rugged short black hair that had a single silver highlight in her bang. She wore tight fitting denim jeans along with tall black boots with heels that made her come off as taller than she actually was and loose tucked in grey shirt that made her waist look thinner and her chest more prominent.

“Yes,” Carter returned simply, “would you know where I can find some?”

“My, you really don’t feed around the bush do you? The woman laughed a little, “My husband and I have a small stall a little ways from here, we should have some left,” she smiled, “you want me to take you there?”

Carter nodded, “Yes, thank you.”

“Alright, follow me then,” the woman instructed as she turned on her heel and made her way down the market place in the opposite direction, Carter following close behind her, “it’s not too far from here.”

The two walked along the marketplace for a few blocks until they arrived at a vendor’s stall aligned with several different types of herbs and spices. A young man with the same color of black hair only this time with a gold highlight in his bangs stood in the back cutting up a batch of herbs with a rather large knife, a pair of thick framed glasses bordered his sharp yellow eyes.

“Isaac dear!” the woman shouted out to him grabbing his attention, “We have a customer!”

“Oh,” he looked up to the pair and noticed Carter keeping his eye fixed on him, “thank you Maria,” he said as he stabbed the knife deeply into the cutting board and walked over to the front of the stall giving the woman a small kiss on the lips, “Well then young sir, what can I help you with today then?”

“He’s looking for thyme,” Maria put simply, “do we still have some?”

Isaac thought for a moment, “I think so… give a moment,” he went over to a shelf that was fully stocked with herbs at the back a shuffled through them, “Ah, here we are,” he said picking up a large glass jar along with a second smaller one. Opened up both of them, took some from the large putting it into the small and then closed up the two and put the large one on the shelf and handed the smaller bottle to Carter, “here you go son.”

“Thanks,” Carter bowed taking the bottle from him.

Maria eyed the bag in Carter’s hand, “That’s a lot of stuff you’ve got there, you planning something special? Perhaps a small dinner for two?”

“Just lunch, figured I’d get a jump on it before the next semester starts,” Carter said simply slipping the bottle into his bag and pulling out simple black wallet from his pocket, “So how much would that be then?”

“For you son no charge,” Isaac returned.

“You sure?” Carter asked.

“The sight of someone your age being so proactive nowadays is payment enough,” Isaac proclaimed with a smile, “Though I must ask, what would your name be? You seem… familiar.”

“It’s Carter, Carter Damon.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow, “Damon huh?” he glanced over to Maria with sharpened eyes, Maria nodding back stepping back a few, “Hold on, I’ve got something else for you.”

Isaac turned his back to Carter and walked back over to the shelf behind him. At that moment, Maria reached into her right boot and pulled out a closed butterfly knife from it. Carter looked over his shoulder as maria flipped the knife open with a flick of her wrist and proceeded to swing it at Carter. In a fraction of a second, Carter grabbed Maria’s wrist and swiped the knife out of her hand before twisting her arm around her back and bringing her to her knees.

“You don’t feed around the bush either I see,” Carter said tightening his hold on her, taking a second look at the knife in his hand, “This wouldn’t be that other thing you had for me would it?”

“No,” Isaac called out pulling out a pair of drivers similar to the ones Gamma-Ray and Laurentia had a long with two gaia memories one being brown and the other a deep gunmetal grey from a box on the ground, “these are.”

Maria smirked before kicking Carter in the gut, grabbing his arm and throwing him over her shoulder onto the ground. She flipped herself over the counter and hopped over to Isaac, the two exchanging a quick kiss before Isaac handed her one of the drivers and the gunmetal grey gaia memory.

“Let’s make this quick my love,” Maria said as the two slapped the drivers onto their waists, “we don’t want to keep Anton waiting.”

Isaac nodded, “agreed.”

The two held their gaia memories up to Carter and hit the buttons below their respective labels, Isaac's marked with a C and Maria’s with an S.

“CORRODERON! SLICER!”

“Tell Spite and Inertia we send our regards,” Maria said with a smirk as she and Isaac linked their hands together with one another, “Henshin!”

---

Alex stepped out of the police station, the other riders following shortly behind him.

“Thanks for waiting,” he said to the woman calling herself Fata, “sorry for making you stay outside, things are rather hectic at the moment and I didn’t want to complicate them any further.”

“Oh it’s quite alright,” Fata returned with a smile, “I’m not much a talker anyway so any discussion I can sit out on is more than welcome.” She rose to her feet, Shiore paying close attention to her as she did so, “So then, what’s the game plan with you guys?”

“We’re going to see if we can track down those riders we encountered at the waterpark,” Alex stated, “and knowing our luck for finding trouble it shouldn’t be that difficult.”

Tara cracked her knuckles, “Yeah! and once we do find them we’re gonna give that creep Luarentia a lesson in pain and another in torment!”

“Tara Tara Tara,” Cole chuckled and shook his head, “You are incorrigible.”

“Thanks!” She smirked back at him, “It’s what we do!”

At that moment a small beeping, sound erupted from Shiore’s pocket. She reached into it and pulled out her GMR scanner switching it on and shifting her eyes through it.

“You find them?” Alex asked.

“Not sure,” Shiore returned, “I have three listed but two are unlisted, and the one that is is…” she tightened her grip on her scanner and gritted her teeth, “Ryu-O.”

Alex placed his hand on Shiore’s shoulder, “I understand how you feel about him, but we have more important matters at the moment. You think you can put aside your grudge for the time being at focus on the current threat?”

Shiore looked at Alex, she said nothing and simply nodded.

“Thank you,” Alex smiled, “Now then, where exactly are they?”

Shiore looked at the scanner, “two kilometres, around Fleet Street.”

“There’s a market place there,” Cole stated, “We should hurry to prevent too many people from getting hurt as a result of the aftermath.”

“Right,” Alex nodded as he and Cole pulled out the remotes for their bikes and hit the red button at the top to call them, “let’s get going asap.”

“I’ll fly over there to check the damage,” Tara said as Kree flew off of her shoulder and transformed into her glider, “don’t be long ladies!” she shouted before kicking off and launching herself into the sky.

Cole’s Rock Prowler spun around the corner within a second with no sign of the X-Cyclone.

“Hey, where’s mine?” Alex asked.

“Maybe there’s a delay or something,” Cole said hopping onto his bike, “I’m sure it’s coming, just give it a sec. Me at Fata will go on ahead, you guys just hang in there for a second. Come on Fata, hop on.”

“Of course,” Fata said doing as instructed.

“Okay, that’s fair I guess,” Alex nodded, “If you beat them all before we get there I’ll kill you.”

“Hey, you’re the one who gets to spend some alone time with your girlfriend,” Cole snarked.

Alex’s face turned a bright red, “She’s not my girlfriend!”

“True, but she could be,” Cole returned with a smirk, “Think about that for a moment, it might do you some good. Later!” he said before revving up the engine to his bike and kicking off the curb before driving off down the road with Fata.

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME!!!” Alex shouted after Cole. He turned back to the other end of the road, “Where is this stupid bike already!”

Just then, as if on cue, the X-Cyclone roared around the corner and parked itself in front of Alex. Strangely enough though, there seemed to be something, or rather, someone stuck to the front of it. A young man of seemingly Japanese descent. He wore a black long coat along with chains crossing his chest and wrapping around his arms as well as a pair of black boots. His slicked back hair being the most eye catching of his features to Shiore.

“Ow…” The young man whimpered as he slid of the front of the bike and rolled onto the ground before making direct eye contact with Alex, ".........Yo.”

"Uh, hi…” Alex blinked for a moment, “you alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry,” the slicked haired man said jumping to his feet, “this happens more often than you think."

"Okay… just thought I’d check," Alex returned as he climbed onto his bike, "Shiore, let's go."

"Ah! Hold on!” the young man cried out from complete nowhere, “Aren't you high schoolers? Do you even have your licenses!?"

"Um... I'm sixteen, soon to be seventeen,” Alex said looking back over his shoulder, “Besides, it's far more dangerous where we're going."

"As a teacher, I can not let you ride this bike!" the man pleaded.

A voice echoed from an unknown source, *Geki, you teach elementary school students.*

"Shut up Itachi!" the man shouted back at the voice.

Alex looked to shiore "...Who's he talking to?"

Shiore shrugged, “No clue.”

“Thought so,” Alex returned, “regardless, it’s starting to freak me out.”

Without saying a word, Shiore walked over to the young man and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket.

“Watashitachiha iyagarase no tame ni tōkyoku ni anata ni hōkoku suru mae ni, imasugu ni sotte jikkō shite kudasai.” she said looking him in the eye with a fiery flare of rage within her own, “Jibun no sensei o shori suru shikaku o koete imasu.”

"Ah! Nihongo!” the man returned with a grin, “Eh, wait, don't I know you-"

*Geki, the Yokai!* the voice called out once again.

The man said slapping himself in the face."Aaaah! I forgot!!!"

Alex asked, "About that 'Yokai' or... whatever?"

"No! I have to grade papers!" within an instant he ran off down the road back the way he came, “STAY SAFE KIDS! DON’T GET INTO ANY FIGHTS OR NOTHING!”

Alex sat on his bike with his wide open at a loss for words, “What… in the world… was that?”

“A man who’s about to fired by the looks of things,” Shiore put bluntly. She climbed onto the back of Alex’s bike and wrapped her arms around his waist, Alex’s body beginning to warm up as she did so, “Let’s just get a move on already before something weirder happens.”

Alex nodded, “Right, got it,” he said as he kicked off from the curb and drove off down the road. As soon as they had made a decent ways down, Alex spoke up again. “Hey, Shiore?”

“What is it?” the navy blue haired girl returned.

“You know the run in with Decade we had a while back?”

Shiore sighed, “Are you still going on about that?”

“I know I know, it’s just that… well you see I uh…” Alex thought for a moment, “the thing is that I’m still unsure of whether or not what I saw back then was real or not.”

“I get that you’re confused but we’ve got bigger problems at the moment,” Shiore put bluntly, “Besides, since you seem to be the only person that remembers that alternate world you claim to have seen it’s impossible to prove if it was real or just something your imagination cooked up.”

Alex sighed, “I wish I could agree with you on that…”

“Don’t be so glum,” Shiore said smacking Alex on the top of his head, “We have a job to do, don’t lose sight of it until it’s finished. Otherwise... you’ll be killed before you can do anything.”

Alex smiled a bit, “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Good… then hurry up and get a move on.”

“Alright alright,” Alex chuckled a bit as he revved the engine of his bike speeding it up and driving faster down the road ahead, “hold your horses, I’m on it.”

---

Back at the marketplace, Carter was thrown into a line of stall smashing them to bits upon impact. At this point the crowd had scattered leaving only a few people left who were stuck behind vendor stalls or those who were simply curious to see what was going to happen.

“My my, must you be so fragile?” Maria cackled now in the form of a gun metal grey rider with a red visor framing a mask that spread out upward like a flower made of metal, a giant blade serrated blade adorning each of her forearms, “I honestly expected more of a fight from the pride of META. Is this the best that Spite could muster?”

“How in hell do you know anything about Spite?” Carter demanded as he forced himself to his knees, “More importantly, who the hell are you guys?”

“We are Experiments MRX006-S and MRX005-C, but you can refer to us as Slicer and Corroderon.” Maria, now called Slicer returned, “As for how we know about META… let’s just say we go along ways back. Isn’t that right dear?”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Isaac, now called Corroderon, nodded as he stepped forward to his lover’s side now clad in heavy deep green armor with a samurai esc helmet adorned with a bright yellow visor and the japanese character for ‘forest’ emblazoned in silver on his chest. He held a large curved sword in one hand and a massive shield marked with a pattern similar to that of the tree of life. He raised his sword to Carter, “Sorry kid, nothing personal.”

Carter gritted his teeth and rose to his feet, “If that’s the case, then I won’t need to hold anything back,” he said pulling out his Ryu-O memory as his driver formed around his waist, hitting the button on the front of his memory.

“Ryu-O!”

He gritted his teeth and looked his the two riders before him in the eye, “Hen… SHIN!”

He went to slam his memory into his driver when, out of nowhere a loud voice cried from above, “LOOK OUT BELOW!!!”

Carter looked up to the sky as Tara dove down from the air and landed a few feet in front of him standing directly between him and the other two riders.

“Thea?” Carter asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Rider business,” Tara panted, she glanced over to Carter, “and how many times must we tell you, there is no Thea only Tara.”

Corroderon raised an eyebrow under his helmet, “So Gale and Ryu-O know each other? Should have figured as much.”

Tara noticed the two riders that stood before her and raised an eyebrow, “So there are more than just two riders,” her usual smirk appeared on her face, “this should be fun.” Kree unfolded from his glider form and wrapped around Tara’s wrist becoming her driver, her gaia memory popping out from his mouth and into her hand. “Listen flame boy, you don’t like me and I sure as hell don’t like you. But how do you feel about teaming up for teach these two posers a lesson in complete and total mutilation?”

Carter nodded, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Aw, how cute,” Slicer laughed sharpening her blades against one another, “but unfortunately this is where your ride ends.” Just then, the roar of two motorcycle engines filled the air. Slicer sighed, “What is it now?”

She and Corroderon looked over to one side to see Cole and Fata heading towards them with Alex and Shiore not far behind.

“Right on schedule,” Corroderon whispered lowering his sword.

Alex and Cole rode their bikes up to where Tara and Carter stood, Shiore gritting her teeth at the sight of the flame rider.

“Hey guys, it’s about time you showed up!” Tara exclaimed.

“Sorry, we were a little held up by traffic, not like you’d know anything about that” Alex retorted hopping off his bike and stepping over to the two riders who stood before him. He looked over to Slicer and Corroderon, “So who are these guys? Friends of the two we met at the waterpark I take it?”

“Looks like it,” Tara returned.

Alex smirked, “Perfect. Cole, Shiore, Fata, let’s make sure we deal with these guys quickly.” he instructed, the three riders forming up behind him. Shiore keeping a fair distance from Carter. “Alright, let’s go!”

They all took a stepped forward and pulled out their gaia memories, Alex pulling out his Star and Runner memories, “HENSHIN!” the group cried out, sans Fata, as they all slammed their memories into their drivers.

“Star! Runner! Gale! Rock! Yuki! Ryu-O!” A blinding light formed around Alex while Tara, Cole, Shiore and Carter were encased in their elements. The storm subsided revealing all five of them in their respective rider forms.

“and now it’s my turn,” Fata said with a smirk, “Henshin!”

She slammed her memory into her driver and forced it open, “FATA!” he driver cried out as a large blue butterfly of light shot out of it and into the sky before soaring down onto her face becoming her mask. A swarm of smaller butterflies erupted from her mask and covered her body becoming the rest of her armor.

Corroderon and Slicer smirked under their masks, “perfect,” the two said in complete unison.

They each raised one hand and snapped their fingers together resulting in four electrified whips to shoot down from above Alex and company targeting Tara, Cole, Carter and Shiore. Shiore and Carter dodged the whips as Tara and Cole were caught up in their grasp, instantly being brought to their knees.

“Bastards!” Alex shouted, charging at Slicer and Corroderon swapping up his memories with Blade and Kicker.

“Blade! Kicker!” His driver shouted as he switched into the green armor of his sword and kicking based combination, his Bla-Jalibur forming in his hand.

Shiore leapt up onto a roof to get a better look at the battle, she waited patiently in order to assess the situation and plot her next move. However, before she could have a moment of silence, the sound of sparking whips dragging across stone erupted from behind her. She turned around to see the same yellow thunder rider from before standing behind her.

“Hello again,” Gamma-Ray said joyfully swinging one of his whips around his wrist, sending a few shocks up his arm as he did so, “long time no see my little snow bunny.”

Back on the ground Carter continued dodging wave after wave of whips that were hurled at him, slicing away the ones that got too close him. Upon jumping one last time, he felt the prick of a rapier’s point jab into into his back.

“That’s far enough… Kamen Rider Ryu-O,” Laurentia stated holding appearing from practically out of nowhere.

“Like hell it is,” Carter growled gritting his teeth.

“Oh?” Laurentia raised an eyebrow, “Tell me boy, are you aware of what happens to fire when it meets water?” he asked digging the point of his blade further into Carter’s back, “If you don’t want to find out, I suggest that you surrender.”

Alex swung his sword at Slicer, Corroderon blocking him with his massive shield. “Let them go right now!”

“Sorry kid, but that can’t be done,” Corroderon put bluntly as he pushed Alex back a decent few feet with little effort, “Nothing personal, we’re just following orders.”

“I DON’T GIVE A DAMN!” Alex shouted as he charged back in swinging his sword once again, “I’m not just going to stand by and watch you harm my friends!”

“But look around X,” Slicer chuckled, “You have already lost.”

Alex turned around to the sight of all five of his allies pinned to the ground, the boy being left speechless at the sight of it. He closed his eyes for a moment as he heard the mechanical caw of a bird just above his head.

“No…” Alex whispered to himself, “I haven’t yet…”

He stuck his hand out in the air as the Xtreme memory flew down from the sky. At the moment, Fata broke free from Gamma-Ray’s hold on her and ran over to Alex. Before the memory could reach Alex, Fata kicked it away from him sending it flying off onto a nearby roof. A dark violet wormhole opened up in front of it as a dark steel clawed hand reached out from the hole and grabbed the memory.

“Even after all you have been through, you’re still only a child,” a booming voice called out from within the wormhole. The owner of the voice stepped out from the wormhole revealing himself as a black rider with a similar suit of armor to Alex’s Star Runner form with a mask and shoulder armor that resembled that of Fata, only with bright amber eyes and a row of fangs surrounding where his mouth would be, a large spear with two memory slots on it’s blade rested similar in form to Alex’s driver in his left hand. “Such a shame too, you were most certainly shaping up to be a worthy candidate.”

Alex gritted his teeth, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

At that second Fata punched Alex in the gut with enough force to knock the wind out of him and then some knocking him down to the ground, breaking his transformation in the process.

“You haven’t exactly been working out my pet, so you’re being recalled,” she said with a smirk under her mask, “Nothing personal son, it’s just business.”

“Wait!... Just!... a second!” Alex panted holding his chest. He looked up to Fata trying to make out her eyes from the lenses of her mask, “Tell me… who are you?”

Fata looked over to the rider on the roof and gave him a single nod, the black rider nodding back to her. He pulled his gaia memory from his driver and placed it into the slot closest to him and pulled out another before placing into the other slot. In one quick motion he split the two slots apart.

“Valpurgeist! Oblivion! MEMORY CHARGE!”

At that instant all five of the hostile riders on the ground leapt away from Alex and the others as a massive surge of energy erupted from Valpurgeist’s spear. Before any of them could react, the ground beneath the riders began to collapse in on itself dragging Alex, Cole, Tara, Shiore and Carter down below the surface.

Valpurgeist chuckled, “It appears they were less of a challenge than I originally thought,” he looked to his subordinates, “Corroderon, Slicer, Gamma-Ray, descend below the surface and seal up the hole behind you.”

“As you wish your grace, “Gamma-Ray bowed as he and the steel and forest riders did as they were told and jumped down the hole, Corroderon making a patch of trees form over the hole so no one could go in or out.

“Fata, Luarentia, you come with me,” Valpurgeist instructed the two remaining riders, “it’s time to set phase two of our plan into motion.”

Without saying a word, Laurentia nodded as he and Fata walked over to Valpurgeist. The black rider removed the Oblivion memory from it’s slot on his spear and replaced it with another one marked with a W and split the slots apart once again.

“Valpurgeist! Wormhole! MEMORY CHARGE!” the memories shouted as a portal opened up and engulfed the trio, whisking them away just as quickly as they had appeared.

As soon as they were gone, a pale skinned woman with long auburn hair clad in a long plain white dress stepped out from behind a wall and took a good long look at the destruction, “So this is the path you’ve chosen to take?” She said aloud to herself, “I’m not going to question your motives dear sister, but I hope that you know what you’re doing...” she smirked, “and that you’ll be willing to pay the price should you fail.”

---

Down below the surface, Alex slowly came to in a pile of rubble. The echo of a blade scraping against metal filled the air around him, he looked to one side to see Shiore sitting with her back turned to him still in her rider form only with her helmet taken off. She had been using one of her kunai knives to sharpen the blade of her katana.

Alex began to move around knocking a few rocks over. Shiore’s ear twitched and she instantly stood up and turned around with a firm grip on both her sword and the kunai she had been using to sharpen it, holding the knife in her backhand.

“Oh…” she said letting her guard down a little, “You’re awake… good.” she sat back down and resumed work on sharpening her blade, “I was beginning to think I’d just have to leave you here.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “Why would you think that?”

“You’ve been out for the past three hours,” Shiore put bluntly, “or so I think, it’s a little hard to tell from down here. All I know is, those riders will be making one hell of a mess up there if you guys don’t do anything about it.”

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘you guys’?” Alex asked, picking himself up from out of the rubble, “You’re going to help aren’t you? We’re a team after all right?”

“I only care about Ryu-O,” Shiore returned without looking up at Alex keeping her eyes fixed on her blade, “and now that I have him close by, I can finally run my blade through his chest and put an end to the Hono clan once and for all.”

“CAN YOU SET ASIDE THIS STUPID VENDETTA FOR ONE BLASTID SECOND!” Alex shouted at the top of his lungs, Shiore’s eyes shot open, “I know that you blame Ryu-O for killing a friend of yours, but that doesn’t change the fact that right now we might need his help to take care of the threat that’s right in front of us!” he clenched his fists tightly together, “what he did was wrong, but killing him won’t bring your friend back to life now will it?”

Shiore stood up and looked Alex straight in the eye, she gritted her teeth and punched him square in the face, “BAKA!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“OW!” Alex shouted back rubbing his face where Shiore had hit him, “What was that for?”

“URASAI! URASAI! URASAI!” Shiore yelled back at him hurling several kunai knives at him in a way that came close to Alex but not actually hitting him instead just striking the ground behind him, “Just shut your mouth alright! You don’t know anything you moron!”

Alex looked at Shiore with pity in his eyes, “I know one thing, I know that there are people who are in need of help,” he said as he climbed back onto his feet, “and they aren’t going to wait forever for help to arrive.”

“Then what do you suppose we do?” Shiore asked placing her hands on her hips, “Play the role of the hero and save the world?”

“That’s pretty much the idea,” Alex chuckled. “So how about,” he extended his right hand to her, “you think you can put aside your revenge and help make sure no one else has to?”

Shiore sighed, “fine,” she pointed her finger at Alex and glared at him, “but I’m going to kill Ryu-O once this whole thing is over, you got that?”

"By all means, kill him dead.”

“Alright, deal,” Shiore grabbed Alex’s hand, “So… what’s the plan?”

“Well, first things first we have to find Cole and Tara,” Alex explained, “With any luck Carter should be with them.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “and after that?”

“We head back to the surface and take down those other riders,” Alex said with a great fire in his eyes, “once and for all.”

End of Part 2