[guncannon109]

Part 4: X and Y

The streets of Ardent City lay barren with the wreckage of cars and other vehicles, glass scattered across the pavement from several broken windows. Alex and Shiore, who had by this point reverted back into their civilian forms, walked up to the surface from a subway stairwell that had since had its roof blow wide open.

Alex stood in awe of the destruction, “No way…” his eyes quickly caught the attention of a grown woman huddled over the body of a small child, both limp and lifeless on the ground. Alex felt his heart sink from the sheer sight of it.

Shiore glanced over to him then placed his hand on his shoulder, “There’s nothing you can do for them… we should keep going.” Alex gulped then nodded.

The two proceeded down the road until they reached the base of Ardent Tower. Alex looked up at the top to see a black vortex swirling around it.

“So we’re back here again,” Alex sighed, “Seems rather fitting, considering…”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “Considering what?”

Alex shook his head, “Never mind, not important.” He took in a deep breath then exhaled, “Vulpurgeist is at the top of that thing, that’s all that matters.”

Shiore nodded in agreement, not saying a word. She looked to the entrance of the tower, her eyes shooting open and becoming filled with anger at the sight of Carter walking out unharmed. She went for her Yuki gaia memory but was stopped by Alex who grabbed her arm and looked her in the eye shaking his head a little.

“You two are still alive?” Carter asked slowly approaching the two, “Guess I should be relieved,” he added looking at Shiore who gritted her teeth back at him. He glanced at her for a second then turned back to Alex, “You wouldn’t happen to know if Thea is alright would you?”

“Sadly no,” Alex shook his head, “but, with any luck, Cole should be with her. Besides, that girl is far too stubborn to die.”

“True,” Carter said softly looking away from Alex and Shiore for a moment.

“Carter… if you don’t mind me asking… why are you so concerned about her?” Alex asked be careful not to ask anything too personal.

“I almost lost her once, I’m not going to lose her again,” Carter put simply looking back at Alex, “She’s my sister… what kind of a brother would I be if I simply let her die?”

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

Shiore’s eyes softened a bit, loosening her grip on her gaia memory. “Come on Alex, we have work to do,” she said coldly walking passed Carter, “I’ll deal with you later.”

Alex and Shiore proceeded towards to the entrance of the tower.

“Wait,” Carter called out, Shiore and Alex turning around to face him, “take this,” he tossed his Ryu-O memory over Alex who caught it with both his hands, “Just be sure to land a punch on Mavrick for me alright?”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “Mavrick?”

“That rider calling himself Vulpurgeist, he’s Fury’s adopted older brother,” Carter put simply, “That alone should give you reason enough to kill him.”

Alex gripped the Ryu-O memory in his hand, “At this point, who he’s related to is irrelevant.” Carter and Shiore both raised an eyebrow, “being related to a killer doesn’t make one a killer themselves, a person should be judged on the actions they’ve carried out on their own. Vulpurgeist has done far enough on his own to warrant me stopping him, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Carter nodded, “Alright then, I wish you two the best of luck.”

“You aren’t coming?” Shiore asked.

“Thea is my top priority,” Carter returned, “besides, I’m sure you two can handle things from here. So get going, before I change my mind.” He said before turning his back to them and walking away from the tower.

“Hono!” Shiore called out taking one step forward, Carter stopping and looking over his shoulder to her, “We’ll talk once this is over… and I want answers this time, understood?”

Carter said nothing and simply nodded in agreement.

“Come on,” Alex called out to Shiore placing his hand on her shoulder, “we should get going.”

Without another word from Shiore, she and Alex made their way inside the tower leaving Carter behind at the bottom.

At that instant, a squad of four cop cars drove up to the tower and parked in front of it. Carter turned around as a pair of police officers got out and raised their guns to him, “Stand down!” they barked at him.

Carter raised his hands above his head, “I’m not with them.”

“Bullshit!” barked one of the officers, “Just get down on the ground and shut yo-”

“He’s telling the truth you idiot,” a familiar voice called out. Carter looked over to the sight of Marcoh climbing out from one of the other cars, “He’s the son of a friend of mine… leave him be.”

Carter raised an eyebrow, “Marcoh? What are you doing here?”

“A little bird told me that you might need some back up,” Marcoh returned as Kree flew down and perched on his shoulder.

“Kree? Wait then that means,” he looked back over to the cop car to see Cole and Tara climbing out from the back seat.

“Tara sent Kree over to the station as soon as she and Cole were finished with Slicer and Corroderon,” Marcoh explained, “We rushed over here and picked them up on the way.” He looked up to the dark shroud swarming around the top of the tower, “we came to help, but sadly I don’t think we have the power to do so. it’s all up to Alex and Shiore now.”

“You honestly think they can win?” Carter asked.

“As long as I’ve known him, Alex has never been one to give up easily,” Cole butted in,

“Besides, he’s got Sayuri with him,” Tara added cracking her knuckles, “her and Superstar are one deadly combination. They’ll have that ol pear guy crying like a baby by the time they’re down with him.”

“You have so many people counting on you Xtreme,” Carter thought to himself looking back up to the tower. “Be sure none of them are misplaced,” He balled his hand into a fist, “It’s your fight now.”

At the top of the tower, Vulpurgeist stood watch at the crowd that was gathering at the bottom.

He tightened his grip around his spear, “Why must they continue to get in my way?” he growled. With one quick motion he jabbed his spear into the swarm of darkness that surrounded him as it once again began to constrict around him and eat away at his body.

---
On a backed up street across town, a grown man with black hair and green eyes sat honking his horn at the heavy traffic. He wore a casual outfit made up of blue uncreased jeans and a green polo shirt. Next to him sat a woman with the same color of hair in a plain white shirt and black pants, behind him a son who lay asleep and to the right of the child sat Madison who stared blankly out her window.

“Oh come on!” the man roared, “Move already!”

The woman in the seat beside him sighed, “Honking isn’t going to make them go any faster Richard.”

The man looked over to the woman, “Did I ask you Nicole?”

Madison sighed then looked to her hand which had been closed into a fist, she opened it up revealing a Ninja Storm Red Ranger key that she had bought earlier that day.

“I’m just saying maybe you could be a little bit more patient!” Nicole shouted.

At that instant, a giant strike of lightning lit up the sky shrouding it entirely in Vulpurgeist’s toxic black aura. Soon after, the face of the black rider emerged throughout the clouds. Civilians, Madison and her family including, stood in both awe and horror at what was happening. The entire city stood still, frozen in place as Vulpurgeist spoke to all.

“People of Ardent City, heed this warning!” he called out in a booming voice, “As we speak my goal is within my grasp.” Images of Xtreme and the other riders excluding Ryu-O flashed over in the clouds, “These are you so called protectors, they tried to stop me and now they are no more, their minds were broken and bodies torn to pieces. Any who interfere shall be destroyed just as brutally as they were. Consider yourselves warned… do not do anything stupid.” After those final words, Vulpurgeist’s image in the cloud layer faded away just as quickly as it had appeared.

Madison looked back to the ranger key in her hand and then to the door. She closed her hand tight around the ranger key then unlocked her door and dashed out of the car.

“Madison!” Nicole called out rolling down the window, “What do you think you’re doing!”

“SOMETHING STUPID!” the red haired girl shouted back.

Nicole slammed her hands down on the car door, “YOU COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT YOUNG LADY!” but by that point Madison was already out of ear range. She sat back down and crossed her arms, “Will that girl ever listen?”

Richard laughed a little, “you weren’t much better when you were her age if I recall correctly.”

Nicole glared at him, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s just like you,” he returned with a smile, “I had almost forgotten that with how long we were separated.”

“Oh yeah…” Nicole thought for a moment, “It was for her that we decided to give it a second chance wasn’t it?” she leaned into him and nuzzled him a bit, “We’ll just give her a five second head start… then we’ll go after her.”

---
Alex and Shiore made their way up to the top of Ardent Tower, once there they found Vulpurgeist standing with his back turned to them overlooking the city.

“So… you’re still alive…” the dark rider called out directionally before turning to face the two that stood before him, “soon you’ll know that that was a big mistake.” He slammed his spear down on the ground, “FATA!”

As he called her out, Fata jumped down from above Alex and Shiore taking place in between them and Vulpurgeist. Alex narrowed his eyes at her then turned his attention back to the black rider.

“You really are a coward you know that!” Alex shouted at him, “Hiding behind others and watching them die, what kind of sick bastard does that?” he took a step forward and pulled out his Star and Runner memories as his driver materialized around his waist, Shiore doing the same with her Yuki memory, “Vulpurgeist! The name of Kamen Rider is a precious one, and I shall not allow you to tarnish it by your actions any longer!” He slammed his memories into his driver, “HENSHIN!” he and Shiore shouted, Alex splitting the slots of his drive apart and Shiore going through her standard driver activation.

“Star! Runner! Yuki!” their memories shouted as they donned their respective rider forms.

“And how exactly do you two intend to stop me?” Vulpurgeist cackled, he held his spear up to them with the Xtreme memory fixed firmly upon it, “I have power, and YOU have nothing!”

Fata smirked under her mask, “Not exactly,” she kicked Vulpugeist in the gut and grabbed the Xtreme memory off of his spear, “You’re aren’t really working out, so you’re being recalled,” she said before turning to Alex and throwing the memory back to him, “Here kid, it’s all yours!”

Alex caught the memory in his hand then looked back to Fata, “Wait a minute! Who in the hell are you!”

Fata smirked, “There will be time for that later, see ya around kiddo.” she said with a wave before vanishing from sight.

Sparks began to fly off from Vulpurgeist the second the Xtreme memory was removed from his spear resulting in him collapsing to the ground.

“DAMN YOU FATA!!!” he cried out in agony. He struggled to get back on his feet and aimed his spear at Alex and Shiore “I don’t have much time left, I’ll need to make this quick!”

Alex raised his fists and Shiore her sword in preparation for what the shadow might do, however before anyone could do anything a bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of Alex and Shiore knocking them back a few feet breaking their guard.

“Complete the mister master!” Gamma-Ray insisted jumping in between Vulpurgeist and the two riders that challenged him, “I’ll handle these two!”

Shiore sighed, “Will you ever die?”

Vulpurgeist nodded and flexed out his wings, “Just don’t fail me Gamma-Ray.” he said before taking off into the air aiming for the very tip of the tower.

Gamma-Ray swung his whips around Alex and Shiore wrapping them tightly within his grasp before jumping over to the roof of a tall building and throwing them onto the ground.

“You little brats have caused more than your fair share of trouble,” Gamma-Ray proclaimed as he increased the electricity flowing through his whips, “Now I’m going to put an end to it once and for all!”

He took one step towards the two, but before he could get very far a bright flash of light came out from nowhere blinding him where he stood.

“WHAT IS IT THIS TIME!” he cried out as the light faded, he look in front of him to see a figure clad in a jade green hooded long coat with a pair of bright yellow eyes staring back at him through the shadow cast by their hood, a pair of twin curved swords in their hands. “What the… who the hell are you?”

“Who is this guy?” Alex said aloud to himself.

Gamma-Ray growled, “Another Kamen Rider?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!”

“Kamen Rider?” the hooded figure asked looking behind them to Alex and Shiore then back to Gamma-Ray, “That is rather fitting I guess. Fine then, you can call me ‘Jayd’,” the figure proclaimed aiming one of their swords to Gamma-Ray, “Kamen Rider, Jayd.”

“Jayd you say?” Gamma-Ray asked chuckling a little bit, “Wait, hang on.” he point to Alex, “He’s black, and your green… how does Black switch over to Green?”

“There’s a very simple explanation to that,” Jayd returned swinging her swords around before dashing over to Gamma-Ray and lashing him across the chest knocking him back into a wall. Jayd looked back to Alex and Shiore, “I’ll handle this guy, you two get a move on.”

Alex and Shiore nodded climbing back onto their feet, the two jumped back over to the tower and continued their pursuit of Vulpurgeist.

Gamma-Ray jumped onto the ledge of a higher building to get out from Jayd’s reach, “HA! YOUR SWORDS CAN’T GET ME UP HERE!”

“Oh no, what a nightmare,” Jayd sighed before pressing a button on her belt popping out a green die before replacing it with an orange one and spinning it with a dial on her buckle.

“CLASS ROLL!” her belt shouted as the die spun around, “Hunter! Burning Arrow Ignite!” Jayd’s coat changed from green to orange as the swords were switched out for a crossbow.

Gamma-Ray’s eyes shot open, “Oh crap.”

Jayd smirked, “Well this has been rather fun wouldn’t you say,” Jayd proclaimed replacing the orange die with a blood red one, “however, now I’m finishing this.”

“FINAL ROLL!” Jayd’s belt shouted as the red die spun around before landing on a five, “FIVE! CRITICAL STRIKE!” Jayd pulled back on the trigger firing off fire burning arrows at Gamma-Ray engulfing him in the inferno.

As the flames clear, Gamma-Ray’s gaia memory flew down on the ground at Jayd’s feet before cracking and turning to dust. Jayd then looked over to Ardent Tower.

“Shall we get going Syd?” a voice called out.

Jayd nodded, “We have work of our own to attend to… I hope we can meet again soon, Kamen Rider Xtreme.”

Back on the tower, Alex and Shiore made their way to a ladder that lead to the tip of the structure. Vulpurgeist starred down to them tightening his grip on his spear.

“Must I do everything by myself!” he growled as he picked up his spear in one hand and jabbed it into the tower cracking it down to the base, “JUST DIE ALREADY!”

The crack lead down to were both Alex and Shiore stood breaking off at their feet resulting in the two falling off of the tower and plummeting to ground below.

Cole and Tara gasped, Tara grabbing Cole’s hand out of reflex. Carter tightened his fists as he looked up at the two as Marcoh pulled out a megaphone and turned to the crowd of officers behind him.

He switched it on and shouted into it, “Stay calm! All units, resort to emergency pla-” before he could finish speaking a head of long red hair flashed by his eyes before the megaphone was snatched out his hands.

As he was falling, Alex looked over to Shiore, “Well… I guess this is the end isn’t it?” Shiore said nothing, “Any… regrets?”

Shiore sighed, “Just one…”

As the two continued to fall, a familiar voice cried out over the roar of the wind, “KAMEN RIDER!”

Alex looked down to the crowd to see a red haired girl standing with a megaphone in her hands and tears in her eyes, “M-Madison?… what’s she doing her?”

“DON’T GIVE UP!” Madison continued to shout into the megaphone, “I BELIEVE IN YOU! BOTH OF YOU! YOU CAN DO IT YUKI! DON’T LOSE XTREME!”

The crowd below then began to shout the same words that Madison had as it quickly began to rush over the entire city.

“That girl believes in you,” Shiore said simply, “they all do… are you willing to let that belief be misplaced?”

Alex shook his head, “I’m done letting people down.”

“Then let’s finish this,” Shiore proclaimed reaching out and grabbing Alex’s hand with her’s, “Once and for all.”

A small spark ignited from the Xtreme, Ryu-O and Yuki memories as the began to glow. That same glow then began to come off from Cole and Tara’s Rock and Gale memories before they shot up to Alex’s hand.

Alex nodded, “Yes… Let’s do this!”

The lights from each memory shot out and connected to the others engulfing Alex and Shiore in a ball of light as the finally touched down on the ground, the crowd below falling silent. As the light faded, Alex and Shiore were gone and had instead been replaced by a single white rider with one black and red arm with a red blade attached to it and one white and blue arm with a wolf head shaped cannon in place of it’s hand. A pair of bright orange wings sprouted off of the rider’s back.

Madison blinked with her jaw hung open, “They… they combined?”

“Part Kamen Rider Yuki…” Cole said in awe looking at the black arm.

“Part Kamen Rider Xtreme…” Tara added with her eye on the white.

Carter’s eyes narrowed, “They transformed together to become…”

“ZOLTAN!” The white rider shouted as he jumped to his feet in a voice that was neither Alex nor Shiore’s but a combination of the two.

Zoltan kicked off the ground hurling himself up towards Vulpurgeist slashing his wings apart with one slash of his sword.

“GAH!” Vulpurgeist cried out in agony, “No matter what I do I can never get rid of you riders! Why won’t you let me reach my paradise in peace!”

“ANTON MAVRICK!” Zoltan shouted at him silencing the black rider, “The crimes you have committed are unforgivable! We, representing all you have wronged and killed, hereby sentence you to death!”

Zoltan raised his wolfhead cannon to Vulpurgeist as the five elemental memories swarmed around it and inserted themselves into five slots around the strap of the white rider’s belt, “Star! Gale! Rock! Yuki! Ryu-O!” Zoltan then quickly shut and opened the Xtreme memory with his black hand, “XTREME! MAXIMUM DRIVE!”

A giant cannon blast began to form at the barrel of the cannon, “HEXAGON MAXIMUM! YUGGOTH OBLITERATOR!” Zoltan shouted before firing one final shot at Vulpurgeist which consumed him almost instantly.

“DAMN YOU!... DARWIN!!!” the shadow rider cried out in agony as all three of his gaia memories cracked as his body turned to dust leaving nothing left of him except for a trail of his destruction.

A small chunk of the tower broke off and fell to the ground where Madison was standing, in less time than it took to blink Carter rushed over to her and pushed her out of the way before it smashed into the ground with more than enough force to kill her.

Madison’s heart began to race, “Oh my god…” she panted looking over to Carter, “thank you…” she looked back to her hands noticing the Ninja Storm Red key she had been holding was missing, “Oh crap! Where is it!” she patted all over her body and began to panic.

Carter looked over to the ground to find the key lying just a few inches from where the chunk of the tower had hit. He picked it up and handed it back to her, “Here… this what you’re looking for?”

The red haired girl sighed with relief, “oh thank god,” she said as she snatched it away from Carter, “Thank you…” she giggled a bit, “again.”

Carter shrugged, “don’t mention it, not that big a deal.”

Carter turned his back to Madison and began to walk away, as he did so Madison saw the ghostly figure of a red chinese dragon hovering above Carter’s shoulder.

She blinked, “what the… was that just?” she laughed a bit, “nah!”

Carter walked by Cole and Tara giving them a stern look as he passed by, Tara and Cole looking back at him with equally stern expressions.

Tara and Cole looked over to one another a laughed a little bit. Tara then smiled and grabbed hold of Cole’s hand with her’s, “I’m glad this is finally over.” she said nuzzling him a bit.

Cole smiled at her and patted her on the head, “Yeah… so am I.”

Alex and Shiore stood at the top of what was left of Ardent Tower back in their civilian forms.

“Man, what a mess,” Alex sighed kicking over a pile of rubble, “I do not envy the guy who’s going to have to clean all this up.”

“Enjoy this down time while it lasts,” Shiore said aloud, “because it’s not going to stay forever.”

Alex looked over to her and nodded, “There’s still a lot left undone,” he proclaimed looking out to the horizon as Vulpurgeist black clouds began to dissipate allowing the orange hue of the sun’s rays to shine through. He balled his hand into a fist, “So long as truth remains, I’ll never stop moving forward.”

{Insert Ending Theme: “To Sides of the Same Coin” by Yuzu}
Fata stood on the outskirts of the city flipping her Gaia Memory repeatedly into the air and catching it, “things left undone you say?” she asked to herself tossing her memory up one last time as it change from the silver fata rider memory to a deep raven blue dopant memory with a violet heart shaped D on the label.

A pair of demonic wings sprouted from her back as she cast away the armor of Fata and donned the appearance of a pale blue succubus with blue horns clade in a deep blue dress long gloves and thigh high stockings with high heels, “I must commend you, for you couldn’t be more accurate.”

A small chime echoed from an amber ring on her right hand.

“Ah, so the wanderer has awakened has she?” she smirked, “Yes, things are certainly going to become far more… interesting.”

The End

Look forward to Kamen Rider Jayd and Kamen Rider Xtreme Act 4: Bonds coming soon.